DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Band of Pigs | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Crisis in Cuba: Cuba’s oil reserves have run dry, which will plunge the country into even more frequent, bigger and longer nationwide blackouts. Venezuelan fuel stopped flowing in January, after the US kidnapped Venezuela’s president and stole Venezuela’s oil industry. Later, Trump imposed a blockade barring oil from reaching Cuba, which had also received shipments from Mexico.• The US is moving to indict former Cuban president Raúl Castro. The charges are related to the Cuban government shooting down two planes operated by a right-wing group in 1996.• CIA Director John Ratcliffe leads a delegation to Havana to deliver a message from Trump to Cuban officials and Raúl "Raulito" Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the elder Castro's grandson. Last week, the U.S. State Department ⁠said it had privately offered the $100 million in aid to Cuba, in addition to "free ​and fast satellite internet" on the condition that it agree to “meaningful reforms.”• The Justice Department accuses Yale School of Medicine of discriminating based on race, by favoring Black and Hispanic applicants over White and Asian ones. The DOJ looked at median grade-point averages and standardized test scores broken down by race, and concluded that “Yale’s use of race resulted in a Black applicant being as much as 29 times higher odds of getting an interview for admission than an equally strong Asian applicant with similar academic credentials.” The investigation did not address other factors, such as essays, transcripts, letters of recommendation and interviews. The median entrance exam score for admitted Black students last year was 518 and for 517 for Hispanic students. The median score was 524 for both White and Asian students. The highest possible score is 528. The median grade point average for Black students was 3.88 and 3.91 for Hispanic students. For White students, it was 3.97 and for Asians 3.98.MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JamarlThomasLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504

Morning. It is Friday, May 15th, 2026. You're watching D-Program with Ted Rall and Jamaral Thomas. Good morning, Jamar. What's going on, my man? How are you doing this morning? I'm doing better than the people of Cuba who plugs their stuff into the wall and nothing happens. Cuba's the main story today. Definitely got to talk about that. A lot going on. And also this DOJ case against Yale Medical School. bizarre. We can talk about, I didn't put it into the rundown again, but we can talk about Trump and China. We can do whatever the hell we want. What do you want to talk about first, J.T? Trump at China. We should definitely talk about Trump. All right, let's do it. Take it away. I know yesterday you pointed out that you didn't think anything was going to become of it, which is true, kind of. But there's a meta narrative that's happening with the whole Trump and

China thing that is fascinating. If you remember, when Trump first took office, you have just China virus, there's that. You had Trump passing sanctions on China, Trump trying to decouple from China. You had the Biden administration and the Trump administration, even going back to the Obama administration, that wanted to isolate China. If you remember, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, you had Trump doing all of these mechanisms like going after shipping, all of this stuff. And there's even the thought that the attempt of America to basically try to corral and control energy markets in and of itself is an attempt to correct. China, meaning all of the stuff was done with the idea of we need to corral China. Trump goes to China and effectively is groveling to Xi Jinping for unclear wants. And on top of that, Xi Jinping is dealing

with Trump purely as a statesman. He's not hugging him. He's not meeting at the airport. He's not giving all of these flowery praises. He is talking pure statecraft where Trump seems to be talking about personal relationships. Oh, the kids are so important, et cetera. et cetera, and they were so nice. They remind me of the children that we bomb when we first bomb Iran and murdered all of those kids in Iran. They were so adorable as they were raven the flags. That is a radical departure.

I mean, he even brings corporatists like Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and a who's who of crony capitalists oligarchs with them into China. So what started off as this policy of decoupling and trying to economically intimidate and dominate China turns into you're such a great man, you're such a great leader, your cologne smells fantastic.

You know, could I- You're so cute, I love you. You're so adorable. I just want to unzip your fly, but the butt the presses around. Like it's so over the top, right, in comparison to what it was when Trump first got in. And it's not that what he's saying matters.

in a policy sense. It's not that. It's more so this idea of an American president groveling to a communist leader that he initially tried to ostracize and that the US is trying to ostracize for the last 30, 40 years. It's not that the US policy has changed, by the way.

Meaning by hook or by crook, we're gonna try to stop China, right? Regardless of what you're saying in this moment. But it is wild to be of that radical disparity in tone. I mean, and don't take that word for it, compared to Kier Starrmer coming to the White House.

Compare it to Zelensky coming to the White House. Compared to any European leader coming to the White House where he's humiliating. He's caustic. He's, you know, making jokes at their expense.

This is different. It's fascinating. Give me a take. I mean, Trump, I mean, Trump respects Xi, right? Look, I think what's funny here is this is a classic example of the ingenue, right?

Like an outsider president of a country that by Chinese standpoint is new, even though we're celebrating, look, we're celebrating our 250th, and the Chinese are like, whatever. And, you know, a thousand years, bro.

You got the children. Yeah, you're like a kitten. And so they're like, and basically, look, there's the optics of the fact that in the middle of a war, several wars, really, if you count Venezuela and now Cuba, you know, he's leaving the United States, leaving the situation room, going all the way to the other side of the planet to kiss the ring.

He's worried about China. He has to be worried about China. He's noticed what he doesn't say, right? China is assisting Iran, but Trump doesn't issue any warnings about that, stop doing that at all. the warnings are coming the other way around. I'm agreeing with your take, Jamarold. I mean, he, Trump, I mean, Xi's basically like, listen, we don't have a lot to talk about. I'll show you the Great Wall, whatever,

but, you know, here's the hall of the people. But, you know, listen, I'm going to tell you what I told all your predecessors, and I will tell your predecessor after, your successor after you're gone, don't fuck with us over Taiwan. Just don't. Like, that's it.

That's our only method. message. Otherwise, thanks for coming. Bye. You know, I don't think it's contempt to us. I mean, I think I doubt that in, you know, secretly in, you know, in the halls of power in the Politburo that Trump or the United States is, you know, treated with anything other than contempt because we're annoying. And, you know, we're we are fucking up the global order. So, and that China needs and they want stability in order to do business. So yeah, I mean, it's a, it, I think it's an interesting optic. It's interesting because it's not interesting, if that makes sense. Yes. Yeah. Well, yeah. And the tone difference between the two, like one is talking in a

statesman point of view, meaning when Xi Jinping is dealing with Trump, he's dealing with him purely from a standpoint of one statesman dealing with another statesman. It's not, this flattery language in everything that Trump is using. And to be fair, some of this stuff is different is in American context. Right. Like our presidents, I mean, even going back to FDR, you know this, when FDR would joke, um, with Stalin at Winston Churchill's expense, believe in that personality was enough to kind of bring Stalin on to, to, um, not on team personally, because they were already on team fighting the Nazis. But the interpersonal relationship between the three was fascinating.

Read if anybody looks into it. Like Mr. Churchill missed off. And he used to think Roosevelt is getting Stalin wrong, that this idea that you can just kind of engage him personality-wise, it's nonsense because that's not the way Stalin thinks. I guess my point is Donald Trump seems to believe something very similar, like I could be affable to these guys. He's like, oh, yeah, I know Vladimir.

You mean President Putin? It's very, look, it's very, it's very, very American, right? Yes. I mean, and it's also, it goes to the way that the U.S. is dealing with Iran, right? It's like all these much older, more sophisticated civilizations, you know, who are basically, you know, dealing with us. And it's kind of like, look, cut the bullshit, cut the smarm, we cut the Hollywood Rasmataz,

and just tell us what the fuck you want and tell us what you're willing to offer us. And let's see if we can make an arrangement. That's it. Does it work or does it not work? And, you know, I mean, that's what, I mean, look, we see, we see that in the negotiations between the U.S. and Russia. They're not willing, they just can't see, like, I always say this. When you're negotiating with someone, let's say you're getting divorced and you're negotiating with, like, your ex-spout, you're soon to be ex-spouse. You've got to be thinking, all right, what does she need?

What does she have to have? Right. Then there's, what does she want to have? What would she like to have? And then there's like, what do you have to have? and what would you like to have? And basically, you've got to make sure, if at all possible, that your adversary gets what they have to have

and a little bit of what they'd like to have. Otherwise, you're not going to come to a deal. That's what the Iranians are waiting for. It's like, listen, there's some things we have to have. Like, you have to agree in an armistice to never do this again. You can't attack us gratuitously for fun anymore. Like, you've got to leave us alone. It's like, but Trump's kind of like,

but we want to be able to come and go as we please because that's what Bibi does. It's like, yeah. But so that's, I mean, with China, we're seeing exactly the same sort of thing here. It's like, look, what does China have to have? They have to have stability. They have to have, you know, a free hand to deal with Taiwan the way that they feel that they, that they deem necessary. Call off your Japanese dog, your new Japanese dog. They have to have those things.

There's other things they'd like to have, probably a warmer relationship. They'd like to resolve the tariffs issue. They don't have to have that. But Trump doesn't understand that shit at all. Anything else? By the way, just a reminder to everyone, please, if you have questions or comments, please put them in the live chat on Rumble or YouTube. If you're watching the 9 a.m. Eastern hour,

and we will get to them, and producer Robbie West will put them up. and we'll comment and answer your questions, and we appreciate the support for the show. I think I do, I'm chopping at the bit to talk about Cuba. So anything else you want to say about China? Yeah, real quick, and I make a pass. Trump doesn't care. The U.S. doesn't care. And it's not like there's a judge in the case or a police officer.

The only judge, or let's say the only Leviathan in this particular situation is your ability to fight and win. that's it or at the very least create a stalemate condition where you have to have a deal there is no judge to impose anything war is the imposition or at the very least this idea of um of where does power reside that's it meaning when you're dealing with china okay i don't want to go to war with china so i'm going to deal with them as equals even though i'm looking for any opportunity they put a knife in them when you're dealing with iran it's i don't believe you're an equal and so i don't need to make a deal with you but as you point out, inevitably, it will get to the point where it's a recognition of we can't win. So a deal needs to be made. But until you get to that point, there's no deal.

And the thing is, we can't win in Iran. Can't win it. Now, China is an equal. China is at least an equal. But, but like, and Iran, look, and here's the thing too, right? We live in a world now of regional superpowers. Okay. And the United States views itself as the global hegemon. And it was, but it is not the, it is not the British Empire anymore. It is starting to retreat. China is the regional superpower of the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Rim. Brazil is the regional superpower of Latin America. India in South Asia, Iran, in the Middle East. And, and, and the, and, and, and so on, right?

That's the world that we live in. So when it comes to Iran, it's like, you know, is Iran an equal when it has something's going down in the Gulf of Alaska? Fuck no. But in the Middle East, they are now. So, and you have to deal with them accordingly. It's like this is, this is, it's sort of like when, you know, I moved to New York in 1981 and there were still gangs and like dangerous ruffians all over the place.

And I remember taking the subway to Brooklyn. I get out of the subway to, of course, chasing a girl. And there's like, I get out of the subway. And there's all these guys like with, you know, wife beater t-shirts, like lined up on both sides of the subway exit like this smoking, checking everybody out as they walk out. And I knew, you know, it's kind of like I had to come correct. Otherwise, I was getting my ass kicked. And like, and that's like, if you're in the Middle East, you've got to come correct. Iran is one of those dudes on the side of the subway entrance.

They're in charge now. And they don't run everything, but they run the Middle East. They run the Strait of Armoos. And the fact that they just never, you know, they always did. They were just nice about it. Now they're not going to be nice about it. That's all. So, no.

Yeah. That's all I had to say. I just wanted to get it out for sure. No, no, good. Good. But that. All right. On that.

Cuba, main issues here. So the Cuban government has officially. stated that it is completely out of oil. It has no oil whatsoever. Its reserves are gone. They are currently dealing with 22 to 23 hour a day blackouts in Havana. In the countryside, it's 24 hours a day. The economy has frozen up. The U.S. naval blockade is preventing not only Venezuelan, but also Mexican oil and Russian oil from reaching Cuba. So the crisis is in full, you know, full effect. CIA director John Ratcliffe

has been meeting in Havana with Cuban officials and Castro's grandson, Raul Rolito. We don't know what they're talking about. The State Department claims that it privately offered despite all this

$100 million in aid to Cuba, which they wouldn't need, if not for what the U.S. was doing through it, because basically and they would also offer free and fast satellite internet, hello Elon Musk, to on the condition that Cuba reforms, aka obviously gets rid of socialism and agrees to become a vassal state. And last but not least, the DOJ is moving to indict former Cuban president Raul Castro, who is 94 years old for his role in the shoot town in 1996.

of these two planes that were brothers to the rescue, this Miami anti-Castro right-wing Cuban exile group that was like dropping propaganda leaflets on the island. I got to tell you, if Iran were sent planes to the United to New York and was dropping propaganda leaflets and lower Manhattan, I wouldn't give them 10 seconds before they were blown out of the sky. But anyway, it's very very, very clear that Cuba is being subjected even more harshly to the Venezuela playbook. And,

you know, at the helm of this policy is, of course, anti-Cuban fanatic Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. This is, I mean, having been to Cuba and met the Cuban people, I know a lot of Cuban cartoonists, this is disgusting. I mean, it's so foul on so many levels. I mean, it's like But this country once, Cuba wanted nothing more than to be left alone and would have loved to have had friendly diplomatic relations with the United States going back to the anti-Batista revolution in the late 50s. And all we've done the entire time is fucked with these people who've never, ever harmed us. There's never even been an allegation by the U.S.

That like, you know, when did you ever hear about like a Cuban terrorist group that would targeted the United States? That like never happened, right? So the point is, this is just, it's just, I don't know. And it's like I don't understand why if Trump just thinks this is a fight he can win, he wants to vassalize Cuba and turn it into a colony like it was under Batista. It'll all become, you know, Trump Hotel Havana. Is that, that might just be all it's about, but it's gross.

This is U.S. policy. Is that about Trump? I agree with you. It goes way back, yeah. Yeah, it goes way back. They're psychopaths. I've said this before. I don't mean this. I mean literally when I say these people are psychopaths. Just put this in perspective. You pointed out about there hasn't been a Cuban that is attacked America. You know, they used to be a CIA plot with the idea of being either intention. I think the words were something to affect them.

and paraphrasing, pretend as if or create the perception that Cuba has bombed the U.S. and has killed Americans, either real or magic, meaning they were considered... Like Operation Northwoods kind of thing. That's it. Thank you. Operation. You wouldn't know it. And so this was something that we had been trying to do for a while in order to create pretext to go into Cuba.

Fast forward. And again, this kind of makes my point about how. Times have changed where beforehand it was like, oh, the U.S. wouldn't do stuff like this, even though we were doing it behind the scenes, to doing this stuff in overt and in the open. Okay, now it's in the open. And it's clear as day that the intent is to destroy the Cuban government and to turn it into a vassal, basically to Venezuela. And to popperize the people. Yeah. That's effectively the objective of it. I mean, that's what we did to Venezuela, if you remember, when we were passing sanctions from Venezuela and food and supplies and everything else. short supply because of the sanctions and the U.S. is like, hey, we'll offer you supplies and aid despite the fact that we are destroying your country economically, basically make the economy scream. That's what they're doing. They don't care about the people who are done because they can't get treatment. Let's say dialysis, for example. They don't care that people can't get cancer

treatment. They don't care that people can't get like production. There's no light on in the hospital. They can't, they're operating without anesthesia. Yeah. These people are psychopaths. No ventilators. What makes me think of? The United Nations is pointless. As I keep saying, there is such things international law. I mean, look, for me, this affirms my idea of the world, which is unfortunate. China and Russia, you think to yourself, okay, well, wait a minute.

You guys, I feel like, I don't know if you've ever watched Deep Space Nine. There's a scene in Deep Space Nine. I love Deep Space Nine. I've seen the whole series multiple times. Same here. The scene where Benjamin. where the dominion is about to come through the wormhole. And Cisco goes into the wormhole.

And he's talking to the wormhole aliens. And he's like, if you want to be gods, it be gods. Meaning, if you're going to play that road, play that row. It's not this shit from happening, right? And it's not that I expect China and Russia to come through the rescue of every particular country. But Trump has just dragged himself to Cuba while the U.S. is strangling Cuba. I'm sorry, dragged this up to China as the U.S. is Asian. strangling Cuba to death.

Just put Maduro in a gulag. And his wife. And his wife. Is that war against Iran another BRICS member? And is at war with Russia, another BRICS member? This doesn't come up. Well, look, look,

in an ideal world, like, I know you're all about accountability. And look, I agree with you in an ideal world. Look, it would be awesome. If the UN or Russia, or China or some other Deiase X Machina stepped in wormhole aliens and said, we are, you know, fuck you're wrong. You know, you got to stop this. We're coming to Cuba's rescue and we're going to have World War III and Washington's going to be new.

I don't expect that. If you don't fucking straighten up. But that's not going to. Okay, go ahead. No, I'm just saying I don't expect that. But go ahead. Well, I'm looking at it from Putin's point of view, right? I mean, Philip Short wrote a great biography of Putin, and he's by no means.

He's not a fan of Putin. But you come away from it respecting his cold-blooded, real politic intelligence, right? I mean, he's just making a harsh assessment like Medernick would make, what's best for Russia in the short-term, medium-term, and long-term. And he has assessed that Russia, can't overextend itself. Therefore, it's like, yeah, it can, you know, it can have a role in the Sahel, as long as things don't get too hot and spicy, but it can't come to the rescue of Iran.

It can help. It can provide targeting information, but it's not going to send boots on the ground. It's not going to fire at Americans. Similarly, Cuba's on the other side of the planet. We don't need another Cuban missile crisis. We can't be seen as that we already, we have our, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're We're busy with Ukraine. That's job one.

We've got to finish that first. And even that, we're going to go about in a more moderate, you know, methodical way than, say, you or maybe me or certainly Mark Sloboda would like. I think that's just sort of the way it is, right? I mean, it's not the decision necessarily I would make. I would say that Russia has long-standing historic ties to Cuba that date back to 1959 or 1960, and therefore there's a moral responsibility and that Russia appears weak by not flexing its muscle in this situation. But I can definitely make the counter argument.

Look, I agree with you. Again, I'm cynical on the way countries engage. Like, I think they'd look out for their own interests, first and foremost. I guess my thing is, a vision is articulated among BRICS countries. But it's not a NATO-style alliance, right? It's a loose association, right? It's like at this point. That's all it is.

It's not even a monetary union yet. TIT, I'm not discriminatory. Again, I'm cynical in the way countries act. I think countries work in their best interests, period. There is no leeway around that. Powerful bricks would be a game changer, but we're not there yet. Right. I don't think these are ideological entities, is my point.

So I don't disagree with you. Putin is not going to Russia and China are not countries that project power. I never called for a nuclear war. And nowhere did I recall for China to intervene militarily. I think it makes Russia look weak, though. I do think it makes Russia look bad. It's like these are your close brothers. Cuba, they're getting their asses kicked gratuitously by shitheads and just for fun.

And so at a certain point, someone's got to stand up and say, fuck, no. So, and like, you know, but I, yeah, but I understand Putin's point of view, too. Yeah. Well, I get that point of view. Like I said, I believe the countries look out for their own interests, first and foremost. And if, let's say a situation is not in their interest. even if they have some kind of allegiance or something like that. I mean, look at the U.S.

The U.S. is a religious example. The Gulf states work with the U.S. for, God knows how many years, on the petrodilophane, basically oil for protection. The U.S. has all of these military bases that were in the Gulf. All of these military bases get smashed, and the U.S.'s main priority is protecting Israel. The allegiance and alliances basically went up and smoke the moment that the bullets started fire.

So I get it. Again, cynical. in a way I look at it, or real it's in a way I look at this stuff. But man, it, for international organizations that stand by as the U.S. does stuff like this, then you can't tell me that these organizations exist or that these organizations. I mean, look, I used to, 40 years ago I would have argued with you. How could I argue now? I mean, there's no way. It's like the UN is useless.

These organizations are useless. I mean, about the closest we've gotten to any balls has been the ICJ and the ICC somewhat, you know, wrapping Israel across the knuckles. Nice to see. You know, it has some symbolic resonance because symbolism is more important. It affects Israel more than it affects other countries. We have a comment from Manchild and also a donation. Thank you so much for that.

Good morning, Brochatoz, with Little Marco and the CIA spit-roasting Cuba over an antiquated grudge. Will the Catholic Church be an effective lubricant, or will the Pope throw some sand in the K-Y? No. What's the expectation? Look, I don't care about words. Like, to me, I don't care about words. I don't care if the Pope comes out and is like, hey, it's unfortunate that you're starving people in Cuba or that you're getting people killed in Cuba. Okay, to what end?

To what effect? Like, it's not like, are the Catholics in the U.S. going to rise up and burn down the White House as a result of what the U.S. is doing in Cuba? No, I don't think so. It's just weird. It would so, you know what, I'd go back to church. I promise, God, I'm coming. I'm coming back.

Okay, let's, I do want to put in this comment because it's important. Daniel says, I talk to friends and family. Cuba almost every day. It's so disgusting what the U.S. is doing. Basically, Gaza without the 2,000-pound bombs. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

I have a friend of mine that's in Cuba right now. In fact, I'm good. I had accidentally come on a show. And he was like, I'm in Cuba. And the gravity of what was taking place in Cuba didn't entirely hit me. He wouldn't be able to do a show. Either way, I don't even know how he charges his cell phone, frankly. Yeah, no, that, that, that is, yeah.

No. For future reference, I have hints about how to charge your phone because when I was in Afghanistan, you bring a solar charger. That's the way in a situation where there's no electricity at all. Okay, so let's talk about the specifics here of what's going on. So why would the state, by the way, the Cuban government is denying that the State Department made this $100 million offer. But why would the U.S. offer money to the same country that it's fucking up economically? Why is it offering it free and fast satellite internet when they don't even have electricity? So it doesn't matter how fucking, you know, fast your internet speed is if your phone's not charged, as you point out. Like, what's this all about?

I mean, is, I mean, are they just trying to basically do, it's the Venezuelan model, right? they're going to basically bend the government to its will, corrupt the government to its and to do what they want so that basically whenever Little Marco calls and says, hey, we need this and that, they just say, yes, sir, how high shall I jump, sir? That's basically it. I think part of it, so I think there are two full things. If you remember back doing it, I believe during Obama administration, the U.S. government, basically CIA created a Twitter type, a Twitter type software application to send the Cuba to foment, resent. Basically, they think of that. Yeah, Twitter-esque type device. And then messages about fulming resentment

with the government and everything will be dumped into the device in order to create the pretext for a made-on-style revolution in Cuba, kind of like what you were seeing in Iran. And it comes out that the Israelis have been working on creating and fomining protests and everything else in Iran. Meaning, it's not that all countries have issues that people fight over. It's when you started bootstrapping those issues to something else in order to create a Maidan-style type overthrow of a government, kind of like what you saw in Georgia, kind of what you saw in Iran, kind of what they were trying to do in Cuba. I think part of it is the U.S. doesn't want to come across grotesque as even though what is doing is grotesque. Like, for example, if you notice when Russia is fighting or when

Iran is fighting, they know that they can't get a deal out of America, that America is deal adverse. China knows that America is deal adverse, but they still talk because talking makes it look as if we are reasonable. We are, you know, trying to come to a resolution of this issue, as opposed to just showing this kind of naked aggression that is being shown in the way that they're operating. That money is not free. I guarantee you that money is not free. there are strings attached to that way, whether stated or otherwise. And from the internet coverage, I wouldn't trust the internet coverage at all. I mean, the reality of it is, if you remember when they were given internet coverage to Iran saying,

Elon Musk is allowing internet coverage in Iran, it was entirely to allow protests, meaning it was to get around any kind of censorship that was taking place from the standpoint of the Iranian government in order to allow elements that were in Iran, either Israeli elements. Oh, totally. That's clear. Yeah, why would the Cuban government? government be okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, but no, thanks for your Trojan horse. Yeah. No, thank you. Perfect analogy. Trojan horse. And, okay, so, and then what do you,

and what about this indictment? So the way I read the indict, the move to indict Raul Castro, who I will remind everyone is 94 fucking years old, right, and not long for this world. He, it's like, okay, so over this incident that basically anti-Castro exiles in Miami have had a hard-on over ever since 1996, even though, frankly, the Cuban government did what any other government would have done under the same exact circumstance. I mean, you know, for U.S. planes invaded their airspace. They refused to leave. They were shot down. At the end, sorry, it sucks to be them. Are they really going to indict Raul Castro? I mean, they could. I mean, you know, look at what, look at what's going on with, with Maduro. Look at what's, look what they

did to Noriega. I mean, look what they did to Saddam. They could. I did it. I did add a video God, man, I think it was like a year ago. And I said something like South America better brace for impact. And the guests on the show was kind of pointing this up. That look then they just snatched Maduro, right? Brazenly smashed the leader of a foreign country. And apparently it's going to indict him on something. Who the hell knows, right? Because apparently according to the United States, our laws extend beyond the territory. range of America, which in end of itself is rather breathtaking. The notion that you're standing in one country, it will be like a state.

It would be like California saying, hey, we're going to tax people who leave California. It's like, well, how are you doing that? How are you taxing me? And I'm not even in a state. You can't. You can't, right? And yet, this is what the U.S. is effectively doing. Our laws applies to people beyond that.

I'm so glad you brought this up, J.T, because this is always, this constant. that conceit has always driven me insane. I mean, at that rate, right? Like, I mean, I could be, you know, like, I could be arrested for violating the laws of Bolivia. You know, like, whatever. And then I can be dragged, kidnapped by the Bolivian government and dragged off. I mean, it's not without precedent, but it doesn't make any sense. It's sort of like when, you know, Israel abducted Adolf Eichmann, not saying he was a nice fellow,

or that he didn't, he got what he had coming, clearly. But the legality of it, it's like you have no legal basis. You should have filed for, you should have made an extradition request. You should have followed procedure. Instead, you sent goons and you bundled the dude up in the back of a van and stole him from and spirited him out of the country. In other words, you didn't, you might have done the right thing, but you didn't do it right. Or, I mean, but these are countries.

like, meaning I don't need to acknowledge your laws in my country because it's not about laws. Laws don't exist. I'm not a believer that laws exist. I am a believer that leverage exists and that we can come to terms as human beings in order to figure out how we live our lives. That works in the context of a country where you have some kind of regulatory authority and everything else. From the standpoint of countries dealing with each other, at the very least, the way we engage now, this is the law of the jungle. and countries need to kind of acknowledge. In fact, that's where we are.

Meaning, I'm all for a overarching legal structure to engage, to figure out how we engage with each other in a way that's not savages. That's not where we are. And the moment that a country breaches those laws and does it flagrantly, it makes it clear that that's what they're doing, that this notion of international, all this stuff goes up in the air. How can you have any kind of international body

or international regulatory body without a really? No, I mean, it's true. Remember Johnny Walker Lind, the American Taliban? Yes, yes. So this kid, he's from California, before 9-11, about a year earlier, he goes to Afghanistan and joins the Afghan National Army, the Taliban Army. Bear in mind at this point the U.S. is not at war with Afghanistan. There are no hostilities whatsoever.

In fact, at that point, we're kind of getting along pretty well. The U.S. government is paying with salaries of the Taliban as a bribe in order to combat opium cultivation. So 9-11 happens. He's still there. Of course, the war starts. It's not like he can up and leave. He is captured and arrested and sent off to and dragged to the United States where I love this.

They sent him to prison for 19 and a half years. And what are the charges? The charge, there was one charge. Possession of an AK-47. In Afghanistan, where it's almost against, in Afghanistan, it's almost against the law not to have one. You know, it's like there's nothing. That was the charge. That's what they would have been in.

Uh-huh. That's right. See, I thought it would have been treason. No. Mm-mm. They couldn't get him on treason because he didn't, he didn't, he never, first of all, the U.S. and the Taliban never had a formal state of war. And he signed, he enlisted with the Taliban at a time. when there weren't even hostilities.

So they couldn't get him on treason. So the point is they had nothing on him. And nobody thought this was a problem, right? It's like, you know, well, he was a really dumb kid. He shouldn't have done that. Yeah, stipulated. I've done a lot of really fucking stupid things I shouldn't have done. I don't think I deserve 19 and a half years in prison for those things.

Exactly. You know, so I mean, but literally nobody cared. So, you know, you're right. Basically countries do whatever the fuck they want if they can. leverages everything. This Ravel Castro thing is more of that. But it's like, I think it's always worth noting because these nation states want to exert their power against you and me.

Yes. Right. But then they don't follow their own fucking rules that they themselves came up with. And it's, and for that reason, they're not legitimate. Yes. And by the way, we should highlight the fact that this is illegal. And as people pointed out to me, their own standards. By their own standards. Yes. I mean, keep in mind, the U.S. was literally at the U.N.

screaming about, it's outrageous that Iran is blockading the strait. What gives Iran the right to blockade the street? Why is Iran being able to do this? The world community needs to get involved in something like this. As the U.S. strangle Cuba to death. I'm trying to point out. Where the fuck is our moral standing, right? There's a moral standard. that shit if we ever had it that shit is gone I mean yeah there are people and there are countries

that have some moral standing and we're not one of them no okay so I got to talk we got to talk about John Radcliffe so what the fuck is the director of the CIA doing in Havana

what is this about why is he meeting Raul why is he meeting Fidel Castro's grandson why is he maybe offering or maybe not offering money why and why is the

Why is the CIA conducting not for the first time diplomacy? The CIA doesn't conduct diplomacy. So what is this? What is this about? I mean, apparently he's been tasked with carrying some sort of message from the president to Cuba, to the Cubans. So he's obviously making them a offer they can't refuse, right? But what is that offer? Do you want your people to die?

or accept whatever demands we're making to you. Meaning the CIA is not negotiating. That's my point. The CIA is going into effect an agenda. Those are different things. Meaning negotiating is, hey, I will give you this in order to get this. Now, I may get the better of the deal, but it's negotiation. I'm not going to shoot you if you don't accept my terms, if that makes sense.

This is not that. I don't think the CIA goes to negotiate. I think they go to affect an agenda, if that makes sense. It's like the Beatles tax man. Let me tell you how this things will be. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. That's the way I say it.

I mean, it's the CIA. It's not the State Department. I think the Cubans are going to roll, and I think it's like Wiccalf is going, right? Like, in Hickoff. I mean, temperamentally and politically and economically, I don't think the Cubans are in any position to resist. This is not 1964. Che Guevara is dead. You know, this is third, fourth generation of the real revolution.

These are basically, you know, it's a dynasty at this point. It's a, you know, it's a, it's got the veneer of, it's got socialistic characteristics, but it's not a true socialist country. I mean, let's not forget, by the way, the Europeans, they all do business there, right? They don't have sanctions. If you go to Cuba, you can go to, you know, resorts that are owned by French companies, Belgian companies, Dutch companies, German companies. They're all over Cuba.

They're right off our shore. We're the only ones who are stupid enough to not want to make any money there. Also, the Soviet Union no longer exists. There's no longer an ideological actor in the context of this kind of communism, socialism thing. Right. The government and the way that they did before. So now, you're right. This is a different reality.

This is a different reality. We just want it. We just want it because it's there and we can get it. Well, that's why there were Soviet missiles in Cuba. You know what it to protect Cuba, right? Right. There is no Soviet Union. Yeah, and I do agree with President Putin that it's one of the great,

the collapse of the Soviet Union is one of the great tragedies of the 20th century. For us, because it, you know, it balanced us and kept us from going off the rails the way we are doing now. Let's see some comments. F-E-so, thanks for the dollar. How evil is America, we are the baddies. Oh, there's not enough time in any one hour to enumerate how evil America is. But yeah, we're the great Satan, man. We are.

We're really fucking foul. Do you think it's just by virtue of being a hegemon? Like, there are certain, quote, unquote, responsibilities. And I'm putting that term in quotes. that empires just so happen fall into by virtue of being an empire that is very hard to escape. I mean, there is no such thing as a benign empire. There is no such thing as a benign hegemon. Just like by virtue of the position you behave in a particular way.

Is that what it is? Meaning, Proxamericana. If we were a normal country, maybe we wouldn't behave this way. Is it that? Like power corrupts absolutely, that type of thing. Look into the void and the void looks back. I think that's a big part.

I think that's a big part of it. And you're right. It's like, look, it's like I've always said, like, if I woke up one morning and there were Canadian troops marching in front of my house and they said, we come as liberators, we'll bring you national health care and Molson, I would say, fuck you, where's my gun? I'm coming to shoot every last of you, Canuck bastards, right? Why? Because invaders never come to help.

They are there to oppress and to exploit and to subjugate. I mean, people are going to say, okay, well, what about when the Americans liberated, you know, Western Europe in World War II? Or the Russians liberated Eastern Europe in World War II. It's like there was some liberation happened, but that wasn't the main point. It was a happy side effect of a general effort to indicate the first case to open Western European markets to American goods, right? That was the purpose of the Europe of Operation Overlord. I think, yeah, I mean, I think that that's right. But I also think there's something about the American character

and our Anglo-Saxon culture that is especially aggressive, especially, you know, when you're a hammer or everything looks like a nail. I mean, Lord knows the British Empire was brutal, and they suppressed a rebellion. But there was a little more effort on the part of the Brits to understand the places that they were, you know, like when they went to India, they brought their families. They, you know, they lived there. They kind of like, you know, sometimes went native, as they used to call it, right? We, the, you know, the French Empire, also they thought they

had a civilizing mission. It's bullshit, right? Colonialism is its own thing. But that said, America doesn't even bullshit itself, right? Like, we don't even say or really believe half-heartedly that we're here to help the people of Cuba or the people of Venezuela. The president doesn't even need to make that. He doesn't even feel motivated, moved to say, well, you know, we're here to help. Like, not at all. It's like literally like, we want their, you know, Venezuela, we want the oil.

We'll get a good deal. We do, now we do what they do us with what we say. that's exactly the same rhetoric that we're going to see out coming out of Cuba now. And it's not about, like, there's no pretense, right? I mean, that's uniquely American, the fact that, like, no lube, we just stick it in. Uh-uh. That's uniquely American now. Okay.

That wasn't uniquely American before. Meaning, we were, when we were paying kill squites in South America, we didn't talk about it like that. Like, we talked, we didn't even bring it up. Right. Well, that was COVID. because we were a fucking, we were fucking ashamed of it, though, right? That's my point. That's my point. That's precisely my point. And that's what I mean when I say a degradation. Like, meaning you go from, okay, this is shameful and we don't want people to know, but we're going to do it.

Meaning we're going to knock over government system. Yeah, like when Iran Contra was exposed, it was like, oh shit. Exactly. Now he's bragging about it. And the Gipper had to effectively say, hey, I know this isn't, you know, I didn't know anything about this. But the buck stops with me. But my bad. Sorry about that. Meaning, they were ashamed. They didn't want people to know that America was knocking over governments and paying kill squads and all of the stuff. But that's what we're doing.

I'm saying that is a quantitative. Like the church committee. Like, oh shit. We killed Ayende. Oh, shit. Right. All that stuff. Yeah.

Whereas now. Oh, shit. We overthrew Mossadegh. Like, you know, we hid that from the American people. Whereas now in Syria, there was no hiding. Here. there is no hiding it. Going after Iran, there is no hiding it.

The pretext has gone. I guess I'm saying, I agree with you. But it wasn't uniquely American before. It's uniquely American now, which means that something has changed in the way that America is looking at itself in the world. It is far less confident. It's far more desperate.

Maybe part of the collapse is in a weird way. Americans are, you know, look, the whole shining city on a hill thing, American exceptionalism, it's the ultimate in bullshit that a country can say, right? Maybe we're kind of getting to be done with bullshit and this is part of it.

Like now, it's like, we're an empire and we do whatever the fuck we want and that's it. Like you would say it. I think it's the opposite of that. I think it's the fact that the empire is recognizing, it's declining. It's desperate. Have you ever watched Boss, Kelsey Grimer? I have not. Okay. The show is fantastic.

by the way, if he gets the opportunity. Well, he's great. But he is, that is Kelsey at his best. I've never seen him better in that. Like, the get across how good he is an actor is mind-bloody in that show. It's that good. He's playing a politician in Chicago that has a degenerative mental disease. But he doesn't want anybody to know, and he doesn't want to lose power.

And he is becoming erratic in order to maintain power, which everything is on the table. Right? Like, it's Kelsey losing his mind while simultaneously still controlling the political destinies of various people in Illinois and still controlling the political space where he is locally. It is a fantastic show. My point is, when he is losing power, he is that much more dangerous to everybody around him, including just the people in general. But he is trying to hold on the power. And I guess I'm trying to put out. The Nazis killed more Jews per day in the last months of the war than they ever did.

Yeah, they were erratic. They were getting erratic. And I guess that's what I'm saying. At a time when they really needed those trains for troops, right? They were still killing Jews. Right, they were still killing Jews. They'd rather kill Jews than save themselves. Yeah.

I think the reason why this stuff is becoming naked is because it realizes it's in a desperate gamble. Like, then it gets, it's, it understands. its own decline, whether it can acknowledge it or not. Meaning even if it's seeing the meta, it's still looking at this stuff as we have competitors, whether it's China, whether it's Russia, whether it's bricks, whether it's hell, Yemen, holding us off to Answera Allah. These things are challenges that we as a country are dealing with as a hegemon. Meaning, if we weren't a hegemon, this wouldn't be an issue.

But we are. Yeah, we're like the tie down by the Lilliputians. and the Gulliver's travels, that is what's happening to us. Not a metaphor there at all for the British Empire. Okay, so we have a few more comments. I definitely want to leave time. We have 10 minutes left to talk about this DOJ allegation against affirmative action thing, basically at Yale.

But let's go through the comments and we'll do that. Okay, if you say, when will the world rise up and regime change the U.S. and install a peaceful government, is it possible? Yes. I mean, but it's not, it just collapses. I don't think it's, I think it's a mechanical process. I don't think it to be a world war.

I mean, when Xi Jinping is saying, look, we don't have to go through the, I think they might do it if we launched nuclear missiles at more than one target. Let's say we, we nuked Tehran and Pyongyang. I think then the EU and the world, have to rise up and seriously consider putting us out of business. If they launch Pyongyang, the world is over because China is going to unleash.

So, yeah. Russia help, maybe even unleash. Like at that point, we're fucked. I guess I'm saying, if the U.S. collapses economically, that is a collapse. And the empire goes with it, meaning you may not need a war. In fact, what's happening right now in regards to this traitor for Moose? That's an economic attack. That's not a military attack on the U.S.

That's true. No, it's not at all, not even close. Daniel, thanks for the comment. I've been visiting Cuba for over 20 years. It's a shell of itself today compared to even a decade ago, and no one is willing to help them. Mabe Bluth Funk, thanks for the $2. I want to echo Ted,

I feel like the British were better able to at least documenting and understanding these cultures. Have you read any Toynbee? His analysis is interesting. I have, yeah. Also, same donor. Thank you so much. Also Orwell's England, your England essay categorizes different cultures in a clinical way.

True. Orwell, it's amazing on colonialism and the toxic effect it has on the colonialist. Let's get into the Yale story because we only have eight minutes left. So the Justice Department has filed suit against Yale Medical School. They claim race discrimination. This is based, basically, this U.S. Supreme Court abolished affirmative action a few years ago. And it is certainly true that a lot of these colleges have made very clear that they want to continue to have racial diversity in their entering classes and that they would try to achieve it through like class diversity. And that usually, I mean, those things do tend to be pretty close stand-ins for one another, not perfectly.

Anyway, they did this analysis. As a former admissions person at Columbia, I found this of great interest. So they claimed, quote, Yale's use of race resulted in a black applicant being as much as 29 as much as is always like Weasel Language, 29 times higher odds of getting an interview for admission. Big deal. I get an interview. It doesn't mean you're in than an equally strong Asian applicant with similar academic credentials. So what did they look at? They did not, they only looked at the numbers, right? They probably did this through AI. I'm not even kidding. They looked at the average GPAs of people from their bachelor's degree applying to medical school. And they looked at their test scores, their entrance exams. And they did not look at any other factor. And as you know, everybody knows when you apply to an academic institution, you look at essays, transcripts, letters of recommendation, and the interview. They didn't look at any of that.

They just looked at the numbers. They said that the median entrance exam for black kids last year was 518, 517 for Hispanics. The median score for white and Asian students was 524. I don't see a significant, that is a rounding error, okay? The highest possible score is 528, okay? So either 517.5 versus 524 out of 528. The median GPA for black students was 3.88, 3.91 for Hispanic students. So let's just say rough average here, you know, 3.8, 9, 3.8 or something.

Yeah, 4.0 is an 8. Yeah, basically. And for white kids, it was 3.97 for Asians, 3.98. So basically they're saying that like blacks and Hispanics were about roughly nine-tenths of a point, or not eight to nine-tenths of a percent. Oh, sorry, eight to nine points behind these white and Asian kids. I'm like, man, I don't see a smoking gun. It's petty. It's just petty. It's like going after the African-American museum. It's just weird.

It's like all the powers of the Justice Department. This is what you decide to put your stinking. It's where you're spending your time. Yeah. It's like hey, there's a 0.8 GPA difference between black, Asian, and white students and his own. If that was a big difference,

I'd be the first to say, like, that's a problem. But that's so insignificant. It's so, like, it's the scale of the difference. is so minor that you would almost need other things to make a determination. Yes. That's not a holistic analysis.

Yes, correct. Like meaning I may take an essay, let's say I may see somebody with the GPA of, let's say, 3.85. Right. They may have a score of, I don't know, 428, 520, whatever the thing is. And they may have an essay where I'm like, I want this kid to get a, into school. But maybe the essay does make a determination because everything else is so similar. Like if you're dealing- That's exactly right. Yeah. That is basically, look, when I was at Columbia, and I'm sure things are very different because it was a long time ago. But even so, I mean,

it makes sense. What was the first cut-offs? There were certain things like, okay, if you're below a certain GPA, we're not even going to look at your application, right? Then there's certain people, you're over a certain GPA, you're in. So then there's people who fall into the gray zone. And the gray zones, when you start reading the letters of recommendation, you don't even read them if you're in one of the first two categories. But these are gray zone differentials, right? Yeah, no, I just thought, and this is not like, you know, the early days of so-called reverse discrimination, right? Which is like the Bakke decision, the University of Michigan, where really truly the plaintiffs, like at the University of California, some of these differences. were really significant.

That's just not the case here. I don't, I mean, I imagine, you know, Yale will, this is about tying, this is about harassing Yale, tying them up in court, making them look bad, making them waste money on lawyers. I mean, they're going to end, but in the meantime, they're going to come out of it bruised and battered. Yeah, that's all it is. I mean, it's law fair. You realize how absurd this is. if you are a school and you're dealing with, I don't know, a million applicants.

And let's say you get 100,000 of them. Well, let's cut the numbers out. Let's say you get a thousand that are very close. And within the context of them being close, you may have some that have higher GPAs. But it's only like by point two for the GPA or like maybe three points for the standpoint of a test. Those things are equal. Then like I know, like, I guess what I'm trying to get at is, it's so equal that you require an X factor in order to make a determination on who you get.

Yeah. That's not wrong. That's not discrimination. That's not anything. That's just good sense. You don't want to apply to school with people who deserve to be in a school. And that could be across racial distinctions. And so you may want people, it may be in your interests to have people who are 0.2 and a GPA difference or two points and a score difference.

but they're telling you something in regards to their life experience that matters to you as an institution. That's not discrimination. That's not anything. That's just good stuff. And like especially it occurred to me like you're talking about medical school. And like, look, more so

than in a lot of other categories, racial diversity is really fucking important. It matters. I mean, a black doctor is going to have far more awareness of sickle cell than a white doctor is going to. Because sickle cell is a problem. Because sickle cell is a problem in the black community, right?

It's a problem in the black community, but it's also an issue of, look, all things being equal, I go to black doctors. I go to black doctors because I've experienced being in the hospital for a week without pain medication because the doctor thought that I was seeking pain medication after certain. Like, meaning, I'm pointing out that there are differences in the context of race that matters that go beyond just as a male urologist, right? Same thing. Yeah, yes, yeah. I mean, that's not a negative. That's something that should be worked towards in regards to medical schools, making sure that the distribution is available for the people who want that distribution. The racial thing matters. That's not. It does. All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Always appreciate you. Liking, following and sharing the show. Don't forget sharing, as we talked about yesterday on the Q&A show on Wednesday. Very important. We are here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time. Monday, we will also. be doing our supplemental 12 noon Eastern time Q&A show. JT. have a great weekend. Everybody else have an awesome weekend. Please stay tuned for the TMI show. That's coming up right now on YouTube and Rumble.

Bye.