DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Blockade! | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • Declaring the Venezuelan government a terrorist organization, Trump imposes a naval blockade of sanctioned oil tankers. • D.C. is talking about Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ candid assessments of her White House colleagues, including the president, in Vanity Fair. • WarSec Pete Hegseth is refusing to release that controversial double-tap killing by the US military of boat-bombing survivors. What’s he hiding? • Citizens of 35 countries are now restricted from travel to the U.S. 5 are banned entirely. Will they retaliate? • Who shot a prominent nuclear physics professor at MIT and why?

Hey there. You're watching the program with Ted Roll and John Kyriaku. It's Wednesday, December 17th, 2025. Good morning, John. Good morning. How are you, Ted? I'm good. Staying warm and enjoying it. So we got a lot going on. And by the way, just like, please like follow and share the show a little bit of housekeeping we're here monday through friday 9 a m eastern time um you can stream us any time of course on youtube or rumble um and if you're interested in donating just got a question in the youtube chat about that uh if you're in the youtube chat you hit that dollar sign and uh that allows you to do a super chat which allows you to donate and uh make a comment at the same time if you're so moved um you can also donate through paypal um i'll put that up right now.

It's the PayPal email address is deprogrampodcast at gmail.com. D-programpodcast at gmail.com. That was a, so just response to that question. And thanks for your generosity. We will be back to Robbie Aid at the beginning of the year, January 1st. But thanks, again, for raising that $1,000 that we need every month to keep Robbie on board as our producer. We are, John and I, we have our, we're going to be doing. doing more call-ins because you guys seemed to enjoy that last Friday. So we're going to do

later in the month, I'm not sure about the exact dates, but TMI show is going to go on vacation. But we're going to step into the breach here on D-Program and extend the show. We're going to go basically do the regular hour and then do the second hour, which would have been the TMI show in the 10 o'clock Eastern time for the Collins through the Discord server. And producer Robbie will come in and talk about the new and improved discord in a little bit, maybe like right around the time when we do the ad, so stay tuned for that. Okay, John, it's like never a dull moment ever. Okay, so now Trump is declaring that the Venezuelan government, not the fake Cartel de Las Solis,

is a terrorist organization. He's imposing a naval blockade of sanctioned oil tankers. Which in and of itself is an internationally recognized act of war. Amazing. Yeah, that's going to be good times when, like, you know, a Chinese oil tanker shows up there to pick up some crude. Yeah, it's as though, like, nobody understands it, including Trump, that by announcing a naval blockade, you have declared war on Venezuela. I always wonder if there's anyone in the room who sets them straight. And speaking of which, we would be absolutely committing.

journalistic malpractice if we don't talk about Susie Wiles interview for Vanity Fair. Hague Seth, not surprisingly, is deciding to cover up that video of the double-tab boat strike. You know, what's he hiding? And now citizens of 35 nations are now officially restricted. In other words, they are either not able to travel to the United States at all, or they have to jump through a bunch of hoops that they didn't previously have to hope, jump through. Five nationalities are banned entirely now. And I'm very curious. Maybe there's nothing here, but a prominent Portuguese-American nuclear physics professor and scientist

was shot to death at his home in the otherwise nice, calm neighborhood of Brookline outside of Boston, bordering Boston, Massachusetts. He's an MIT professor. So what's going on there um so let's uh let's get to it what do you what do you want to do first we really should start with venezuela this is this is far more serious than i think more people recognize this it's an act of war a naval blockade um it legally allows the venezuelans to respond were they so inclined or able or or able uh i don't think they have a navy is that what it is there's no Navy and no, there's no Navy, there's no Air Force to speak of. They do have an army. Yeah. But it's mostly on the border with Columbia. So they're not really going to be.

They kind of have a Fed-A-Yen type situation. Yeah. Yeah, they do. But remember, this country is the size of France, Germany, and Austria combined. And it's heavily jungle. That's worth remembering. Because we, Because it looks smaller on the Mercator projection. Yes, it does. It's big. It's big. And so, you know, I don't think it's going to be a walk in the park like apparently the White House does. I think this is very, very dangerous.

And let me add one thing. I don't understand the point of it. Venezuela, I mean, we can say, oh, Venezuela, drugs, Venezuela, terrorism. Just because you say it doesn't make it so. Venezuela is not a threat to us. Venezuela is not a major drug, you know, middle point. No. The United States.

MC 23 June is correct that Venezuela is backed by China. So what do we, what are we doing here? Have we engaged the Chinese on this? I mean, normally that's what we would do, where we were we to go to war with a country. I just don't see what the point. is. And then declaring Venezuela a terrorist country kind of is a mockery of the whole terrorism designation process. Right. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is not. Exactly. But so, so, I mean, the thing is my first, I mean, there's a lot to, you're right, there's a lot to

unpack here. I mean, for me, the first thing I went to, you and I have both been to Cuba. And I, and so correct me if I'm wrong. But my impression was that what they call El Bloch, is the number one thing keeping the Cuban government afloat and getting political support in Cuba, right? I mean, like literally, the U.S. has had these sanctions, which they kind of call the blockade. Yes. And going on since the 60s, obviously they're completely ineffectual, but the government uses them in the state media and everything to rally the people against the U.S. as the outside enemy. Meanwhile, you know, it's not working. All the Europeans are investing heavily in Cuba.

You know, you can stay in French-owned beach resorts. And, I mean, it's, you know, it's not at all like they're cut off from the world. They're just cut off from the nearest country that should have a good relationship with them. Yeah, exactly. And so, but I think about Venezuela, they have close political and ideological and historic ties to Cuba. Yes. And so the, so when, when they hear blockado in a Venezuelan media report, they think of their Cuban brothers, right? And, and they think, you know, what do they think? They think this, it's a big fuck you to Venezuela.

It never, the whole idea of sanctions is, right? We impose sanctions. We make you miserable and then you overthrow your government and then we're friends. Okay. But that, that's not how it goes. What really happens is, you're miserable. Who's making me miserable? Not my government. you are. You are making me miserable. So it doesn't work. And then also the other thing I think of is the Venezuelan people look at the Cubans and they're like, well, it hasn't slowed the Cubans down any. I mean, they've resisted successfully for years. Or the Iranians. Right. The Iranian economy is robust. As I've said before, they lack for nothing. Right. So sanctioned. Having been to Iran, I did not find, yeah, there was no, no one's going hungry, you know. Um, So the whole thing is like, I mean, it's a fiasco, right?

So obviously, my take here is that Trump covets the oil and he thinks he can get the oil. He can turn Venezuela into a colony and basically get free oil for the U.S. economy. I think it's basically that. And, you know, the last time I heard of a leader doing something, a grab for oil like that, was Hitler making a dash for the oil fields of Baku. Azerbaijan, you know, in World War II. And that's why he invaded the Soviet Union. And it didn't go well. No. So I'm just, you know, I mean, I just, it seems like utter madness to me. And I just wonder if there's anyone in the room who's speaking up about it. This is, this is genuinely

frightening for me. For a long time, I just thought this was, you know, talk in order to so frightened Maduro that he would just run away. This is different today. Declaring them a terrorist country is one thing. It's just kind of, you know, not smart. But the other thing, an entirely different thing, is a naval blockade. So what happens then? What happens if the Chinese send a ship? We're going to attack the Chinese? Well, the Chinese probably won't send a ship, right? Because they're not looking for a military confrontation with the left. They're not. But what if the Venezuelans? ask them. What if the Venezuelans ask them publicly? That would be an issue. Or what if the Russians send a ship? Or if the Russians send a ship?

More of a concern. Yeah. Because, I mean, they're not going to want to be seen as weak or backing down. Yeah. I mean, you know, also I think of World War II, right? I mean, Pearl Harbor is always sold to American school children as a completely unprovoked act of aggression. But the truth is the Japanese viewed it as they thought they were defending themselves from an allied naval blockade, a U.S.-led naval blockade that was depriving them from oil, which they needed for their industries. They thought that they could basically swat us on the nose like a dog with a newspaper and that we would like fuck off. They didn't think we'd care that much about Pearl Harbor. It was a cultural misunderstanding because from their point of view, Pearl Harbor was in Hawaii. Hawaii was a colony. It wasn't a state. And, you know, we basically didn't care that we wouldn't care that much. It was so far away from the mainland. I mean, they misunderstood, right? And to say the least. And you know, Romero Oscar, which I assume is Oscar Romero. Oscar, thanks for pointing this out. He says, John, you don't understand people. You wouldn't believe how people around here feel. They will never look any of this stuff up. They believe everything he says. That's America. He's right. That's America. America. This is an ongoing problem. It's always been a problem. Yeah. It's huge. It's a huge problem.

Some questions here, not related to this necessarily, but quadruple J, XYC. Have you guys read Stephen Kotkin's biography on Stalin, wondering if it's worth diving into? I have. I have not, but several different people independently of one another have recommended it to me. It's not like, so we live in a gold. an age of a historical biography. They're so well written now. That used to not be an expectation when we were kids, right? Yes. You just had to have the facts down there, and that was good enough.

So I'm going to say, Kotkin's book is not like, it's not a beautiful read like Carrow, but it's good enough. And, you know, it's a subject that never really gets a fair treatment. My only complaint is there still isn't. there's um god who wrote the you know Stalin the court of the red czar um that one there's the problem is that nobody really just sort of does a biography of Stalin without editorializing and it bugs me you know it's like oh he was a bad man blah blah blah blah stop just tell me about Stalin yeah exactly um thanks for the 20 bucks waterways thank you waterways thank you for the thank you very much um okay

so yeah yeah we'll see um okay question nicholas franco john during your time at the cia did you ever have have to work with turkish intelligence or come across them that's a good question and if yes what did you think of them one time in 1993 i had to fly to ankara which is an absolutely awful place and i went in the winter time so everybody's burning cold the smog just chokes you so i went one time to talk to them about iraq in the winter of 93 um and and i'm saying this not because i'm a greek american or because i'm a greek citizen i'm just saying it as a as a as a cia former cia officer with access to them um they were not a good service they were not they're they're a good regional service especially as it relates to a

Iraq and Syria, they're obsessed with. They know the neighborhood. Yeah, they're obsessed with Greece and they spend a great deal of time, effort, and money spying on Greece, a NATO ally. What a waste of time. Yeah, waste, complete waste. But yeah, I was not at all impressed with. Do you think it'll ever be possible to establish detente between Greece and Turkey? I think that if the Greeks could make that decision it would be done tomorrow so it's it's a it the greeks are the are the ones who are holding the grudge no no no what i mean was if if if the greeks decided we want peace with turkey and they could they could you know effect it they would do that right away oh it's the turks that don't want they don't want detente with greece the turks are the turks are expansionist

they're still angry over you know these various early 20th century treaties that set the borders where they are. They want the Aegean islands. They want part of the Greek continental land mass. They want all of Cyprus, or at the very least, they want their occupied part of Cyprus to be an independent, internationally recognized country. They just can't live within the community of nations.

And yet Turkey's vast. Vast. Yeah. Yeah, it's strange. Vanya, thanks for the compliment. I'm a simple man. ICD program show. I press like. Thank you. That's what we like. Fluidic Polly, do we think the Soviet Union was the good guy in the Cold War for supporting anti-apartheid and Palestine and fighting

radical Islamists in Afghanistan? Well, for those things, yes. 100%. I mean, who can say that Afghanistan wasn't better off under Soviet influence when, you know, Afghan women were wearing miniskirts and everyone was listening to music and drinking sweet wine. I mean, who can say that with women in the government, in the cabinet? I mean, who can say that the apartheid struggle and anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa would have been nearly as effective without Soviet support. You know, when Mandela was inaugurated, he had Soviet flags in the background. And Westerners were shocked by that. It's like, well, the U.S. was anti-Mandela, right? We don't like to talk about that now strongly anti mandela yeah and and and you know and and the apartheid regime's

best friend was our best friend the israelis that's right um and they supplied you know the radioactive material to so i mean i think yeah and certainly for you know the soviet union was on the side of the angels in palatine but overall was the soviet union on the side of the angels i mean that's a far more complicated yeah it's it's not an easy question to answer um pro we could do it until we could do an hour on that the legacy of the soviet union i mean i have to say i think the collapse of i agree with putin but not for the reason that he says that like the the collapse of the soviet union was the biggest disaster of the 20th century it fucked us because the USSR's existence kept the u.s honest like in the international marketplace of ideas we were we had we had

something to that basically made us kept us honest like oh look there's an entire other ideology and way of thinking that is our opponent and that might be more appealing than what we have to offer. And then, poof, 1991, Francis Fukuyama, end of history. And suddenly it's like, oh, we won. Obviously, we were right about everything. We don't have to change that thing. We don't have to do any better. I mean, you know what I mean?

Yep. I sure do. I sure do. It should be so easy. Francoz, again, pro-Russian leaders that have oil are going to go down there. Is that a pattern for? Syria and now Venezuela. It's a pattern.

Yeah, I think it is a pattern. If you said, thanks for the money. Does this mean that there will be new Rambo propaganda movie set in Venezuela? Probably. Sly's still alive and looking good. He looks better than any 70-year-old man I've ever seen. It's like my favorite. I don't remember if it was Rambo First Blood or Rambo.

Or Rambo, sorry, Rambo 1 or Rainbow 2. But there's one scene in one of the Rambo movies that, never even thinking about it makes me crack up laughing where he's hiding in like he's covered himself with mud and he's hiding like in a mud pile and suddenly his eyes open in the mud the mud the mud and there's and there's still those eyes i don't know why it's so droll but let's see uh f you seal also thanks for more money in america a person can be smart but people are stupid Okay. Polar plunger, Turkish exclusive economic zone claims are maximalists to say the lead. Can you explain what that is? What are Turkish exclusive economic zone claims? I don't know. These doggone Turks, listen, oh my God, this drives me crazy. This is an important issue. These Turks will claim, well, the international exclusive economic zone is something like 20 miles off your coast, right?

so if if you've got let's say oil within 20 miles of your coast it's your oil okay well the turks claim 200 miles which includes like all of the gean islands which are all greek and they've also got this deal that as of yesterday looks like it might be starting to fall apart this deal with the libyans where the Libyan claim and the Turkish claim meet, but it includes almost all of Greek waters. So the Libyans, the Turks have talked the Libyans into making a similar claim. It can't hold up in an international court. But the Turks just essentially want to steal everybody's natural resources.

Now, this is especially important in Cyprus because Cyprus over the last, what, eight years, seven years, they have found this ocean of natural gas that stretches all the way to Gaza and to Lebanon and halfway to Egypt. And so the Cypriots, the Greeks, the Egyptians and the Israelis are working now to lift the oil, but the Turks sent battleships off the coast of Cyprus to stop all of them from doing it because the Turks want that gas or they want part of it. Well, then the French, the French are no friends of the Turks, the French Senate battleship saying, screw you guys, leave these little countries alone.

This is their gas and they're going to lift it. So now there's a Turkish battleship, there's a French battleship, and there are all these Greek, Israeli, Egyptian, and Cypriot exploration ships. And they're in a showdown. Yeah, it's terrible. Yeah, well, you know, this is by the way, just, parenthetically why peak oil is bullshit and I never want to hear anyone talk about peak

oil again. They are constantly finding new sources of oil and gas. Especially now with climate change, we have access to the poles that under the polar ice cap that we didn't use to. They can drill much deeper than they used to be able to. So, I mean,

unfortunately, you know, the whole like oh, we on the left don't have to do anything. The whole system will collapse because of peak oil. Like, no, lefties be having to do some grassroots organizing if you want to overthrow the system. It's not going to fall apart by itself. John, I've got to ask you, this nuclear physicist at MIT. Yeah, what the heck. So he's a Portuguese guy. He's 47 years old. He's in his house in Brookline, which is just,

it borders Boston. Very nice. It's a very pretty area. Lots of, I mean, it's definitely safe, no question. Even though it's definitely attached, you know, by. mass transit to Boston, to the B. The Kennedys live there. Mike Dukakis lives there. All of Boston's wealthiest business people live there. It's really a great place. Yeah, it's nice. And yeah, I mean, I would definitely want to live there if I lived in Boston. So anyway, he's killed in his own home. My first thought was nuclear physicist being whacked. I think of, you know, one of the stories you've told here on the show about similar things happening that involved espion Is it possible that this is something, you know, I mean, sure, it could be anything, right?

I mean, it could just be a street crime. Sure. It could be, you know, a romantic thing. Who knows, right? But when I hear nuclear physicist, MIT, and where my ears perked up was the fact that he used to work for the Brits. Yeah. So is it possible that some kind of intelligence agency is involved in this? Absolutely, yes.

Wow. That was the first thing that came to my mind was, look, we know who goes around the world murdering nuclear scientists. The Israelis do it all the time. I'm not saying the Israelis did this. I have no idea who did this, but I'm saying that there is a pattern of behavior that we have seen over the last 40 years where Israeli intelligence officers go around the world and they murder nuclear scientists who are working for countries. that the Israelis don't want to have a nuclear weapon, or these are scientists who won't work with the Israelis? I'm thinking more part two.

Yeah. Just refuse, you know, like, we're going to make you an offer you can't refuse. Oh, you refused it. Sorry, bye. Done. So, I mean, especially, I guess, I mean, would the thinking for the Israelis theoretically be, if they attempt to recruit a scientist and he says no,

would the concern be like well if he said no he might blab to the press or someone else better to shoot him so he shuts the fuck up sure sure sure absolutely so it's just it's a silence just nothing just a silence guarantee yeah and whoever the shooter was the shooter meant business he shot him at least three times apparently to the head and it says that this this professor was working on something called magnetized plasma dynamics he was an award award-winning researcher in this area. Magnetized plasma dynamics is the study of the state of matter in which the motion of charged particles is influenced by the presence of an external magnetic field. Yeah, so what this is, yeah, what this is like post-quantum mechanics, right? Yes, exactly. That's exactly what it is. And it's basically your, this is really key to, you know, the big, the new, the next level of

energy and AI type stuff. I mean, it's really, it's what they call, like, spooky physics, right? Yeah, spooky physics. That's a good way to say. It's really cool. And obviously, cutting-edge shit, and any country would love to have a guy like that working for them. Yeah. Yeah, it's just sick.

So he's Portuguese. He's Portuguese. What do you make of that? I mean, is Portugal a major player in espionage? No. No, it's not. It never has been. the Portuguese get along with everybody.

Yeah. So I think that that it's not, I think this is not directly related to, to the fact that he was Portuguese so much as it was related to the fact that he was doing advanced nuclear-related science. Yeah, unless it turns out to be something personal, right? It could be, yeah, it could be, you know,

it could be a, you know, love triangle or a robbery guy. wrong or it doesn't it doesn't sound like a robbery nothing was stolen right and yeah and the kind of guy who's got who gets away clean after you know three shots to the head and doesn't take anything yeah yeah it's right and that just wanted him dead i agree i agree and um uh Alexander the great drummer i will actually admit that an english breakfast is better than an american breakfast yes although it's it's better it's just better really you're gonna have to you're gonna have to you're you're gonna have to put up on that one first of all beans for breakfast no oh yeah beans and toast absolutely the only thing I won't eat is the is the black pudding I'm just I tried it once I hated

it I'm it's not for me specific I mean in terms of meat breakfast meats nothing beats a southern American you know bacon sausage sausage patty sorry nothing beats that nothing beats a vermont strip bacon well that that actually is very good and nothing beats in my opinion like a really good holla french toast soaked deep like lots of powdered sugar the brits can't compare the to me british breakfast is just like the least bad of the three meals of the day in the uk oh i like it a lot and you know what's funny in the greek islands in the summertime, every single restaurant has a board outside advertising their English breakfast. Everyone.

Because the Greeks will have a little bit of yogurt, some coffee, some bread, maybe some olives, tomatoes, and feta cheese, and maybe cucumber. It's a clean breakfast, but it's not filling, really. No, it's not filling. Matina went to Samos this summer, and they're pushing, I guess the Turks, are pushing the borders so our fishermen can't fish in their waters. That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

And, you know, again, here's John spouting off, but that's an act of war. You can't constantly enter another country's waters and then say, what are you going to do about it? No, of course, it's like a, it's the most basic act of war, right? Yeah. Like saying, your land is my land or your waters are my water. Exactly.

MT-16, thanks for the 20 bucks. Hi from Mike in Nottingham. John, my sister loved Rhodes so much. She's going back. Yay. She's staying in Simi. Oh, wonderful. And have you been clubbing in Falaraki?

You know what? Funnaki. Apparently, it's amazing. Oh, my gosh, there's so much to say. First of all, Simi's awesome. My cousin, Kay, is from Simi. Simi is just, it's a little teeny tiny island right off the coast of roads. It's got one village on it, but it's glorious.

It's known for its beautiful cathedral that's there. You could fit practically the entire population of the island inside the cathedral. But it's just beautiful, wonderful place. Faliraki is on the east coast of roads. It used to be a sleepy little fishing village, and now it is like nightlife central with, you know, all night long and tens of thousands of Brits getting drunk and beating the hell out of each other. Just kill me.

I do not. I hate that shit. It's not my scene. But I used to go there before it was a British destination, and it was glorious. I will say, though, that every few years there's a murder in Greece. I'm sorry, in roads. It's rare, but every three, four years, there's a murder. And it's always a Brit beating another Brit to death in one of the clubs in Faddi Daki.

Robbie has a question. Yeah. It's a good one. if the U.S. does this in South America, couldn't Russia then start fighting a real war in Ukraine to apply pressure to the U.S. and NATO? That's exactly what I would expect to happen, yes. That would be. Yeah.

Yeah. It's very escalative. I mean, that's the thing, right? The whole, the U.S. has done this thing where we want to overthrow the government of Venezuela. Unfortunately, we've boxed Maduro into a corner. He can't leave because of the thing you brought up a couple times, John, that, you know, that now Maduro is aware of the fact that we can't be trusted and we wouldn't really cut a deal that we would to let him go. And so now he's not going anywhere and we keep escalating.

But, you know, our escalation's not going to make any difference. Our escalation is not going to change his calculus here. No, no. I mean, it can't. It's just escalation. And then, you know, the thing about escalation is you have to make good at a certain point. See, and that's the thing. It's a natural normal thing.

for superpowers to act when they see that the other superpower is distracted. So if I were the Russians, I would be, I would be all for, oh, yeah, yeah, this is good. It's good to be Russian right now. And the Chinese, who know, not something military. They care less. Yeah. But if the Chinese wanted to put a little pressure, if I were the Chinese, I'd be like, this would be a good time to slap the Japanese around a little bit to put them back in their place. yeah um so uh let's talk about travel restrictions susy wiles yeah what do you want to talk about

susy wiles um you know susy wiles is known around washington for keeping her cards close to her vest she she generally doesn't give interviews she's very quiet Donald trump called her one of the most powerful women in the world, which she is. Most Americans have never heard of her, but of course she's the White House Chief of Staff. Vanity Fair is kind of one of those gold standards of interview outlets, right? Sure. And I will add, I just gave an interview to Vanity Fair.

It's going to come out soon. It's about Rudy Giuliani coming out soon. And my God, they're thorough. They talked to three of my attorneys, four of my attorneys. Anyway, what would possess Susie Wiles to compare Donald Trump to an alcoholic, knowing that his brother died of alcoholism and that he is an absolute teetotaler? I don't know what was going through the woman's head. Well, the term dry drunk is what I thought of, right? I mean, that's an old-fashioned term.

Yeah. But basically the idea was that, you know, I mean, you know what it's just someone who. who they don't drink, but they would drink and they have that kind of compulsive personality. I mean, Trump's been very open about that for and about the huge tragedy of the death of his brother and how it's like just absolutely terrified him into not, you know, basically he's just like,

I'm never gonna drink because I saw what happened to my brother. And by all accounts, that's true. And Trump also has kind of fessed up to having a compulsive personality. John, to me, the thing that, I mean, you don't diss the boss, of course, all, ever. But I guess the other thing is, John, there were 11 interviews here. She met with the reporter 11 times. This wasn't an accidental offhanded comment.

No, it's not like someone ran into her at a bar and just started chatting her up. And then the, I mean, this was so, I mean, there's so many questions, right? Did she get permission from the White House to meet with Vanity Fair? Well, that's the thing is she's the one that gives the permission for other people. So who would it be that would give her permission? Did she have to go to the president? Exactly. And then, of course, then, like, if so, did she ask for guidance about, like, oh, how should I handle this interview?

And then, like, what would be benefit? And then, but there was, she talked shit about a lot of staffers and stuff. The one that stood out for me was JD. So she basically said J.D. Vance is an opportunist and, you know, can't be trusted. His politics or basically, you know, he's just. flipped just because it was like convenient for him, doesn't believe in anything, and that he's a conspiracy theorist. Now, this is the sitting vice president, the leading contender for Republican nomination for president in 2028. He could be president next week if the president

drops dead. And therefore, he would be her boss. I mean, JD can't be pleased. I wouldn't be if I were J.D. Vance. So, but, okay, so then what was, so, okay, so who gave her permission? What was she thinking? And how come all of MagaWorld has circled the wagons around her? And they've all said, like, oh, it's fake news. She was quoted out of context. She said all of it.

It's all recorded. If she didn't say it, she could sue for defamation. And it would be a monster lawsuit. Like Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the, BBC. For example, right? You know, I mean, as I know, it's like when I was, you know, I didn't want to sue the LA Times. I knew that I was going to get my ass kicked by their deep pocketed lawyers. But, you know, I remember talking to a bunch of people. I talked to Greg Pallist. And he goes, dude, you have to sue. It's like that way you prove to everyone that you're telling the

truth because you're exposing yourself to, you know, cross-examination and discovery and all that. And I'm like, well, I am telling the truth. And he's like, so you got a fight. And it's like, and he, you know, I knew he was right. Yeah. That's how this is. If it's not true, Susie's got to sue. And it's not like, not like her boss would have a problem with it.

It's true. She said it all. I mean, and sure, she could be quoted out, you know, it's, they leave stuff out, sure. But she said those things. They didn't make that up. No, she said it. So how come, why are they, is she such a good chief? Is she such a good chief of staff that Trump just won't let her go?

And that's why they're keeping her. Or is she so, I mean, she has got a good reputation. Or is it just because Trump never wants to fire anyone lest he look weak? Oh, no. I think he fires lots and lots of people. But he likes to fire them because of his reasons, not because of external pressure. Oh, sure. No, I think that she's safe.

And I think she's safe because he came out. yesterday and said she's wonderful she's the best she's powerful she's loyal she's this she's that she's not going anywhere i think that this is going to be one of those little you know one day stories and it's going to go away because if if he were bothered by these revelations he would have tweeted something yesterday oh traitor something yeah right something and he didn't he just expressed support and so i think she's i think she's okay and i do think And if you read the comment in context, it makes perfect sense. Yeah.

She probably could have used better terminology than to call him, you know, alcoholic-like. But I understood what she meant when I read it in context. Me too. I mean, she just doesn't seem, I mean, like, here's the thing. Like, a chief of staff is a behind-the-scenes gatekeeper to the point. president right and you get to decide who goes in now it's like necessary they tend to be the effective ones tend to be assholes yeah um like david gurgen that's right rama manual people like that um so what makes you a good chief of staff might not make you a good someone who should be

interviewed by uh you know top tier magazine like vanity fair that's right so why did she agree why did she give these 11 interviews what what would be the advantage to her or to the administration. I honestly have no idea. It's not like she's going to resign and run for public office. So why would she give such an interview? Knowing that Vanity Farris has long been hostile to Donald Trump. Of course.

It was psychotically. They have TBS like crazy. It was Graydon Carter. And Graydon Carter is not the editor-in-chief anymore. But it was Graydon Carter that started the whole, you know, tiny hands thing in the in the 2016 primaries yeah and with great under gradin carter there was kind of a droll you know Manhattan snobbery aspect to the trump bashing uh post gradin carter it's literally it's it's like hysterical trump bashing like you know he's the worst most satanic

diabolical fiendish hitler like yeah you know and so yeah again like it's not a friendly it's not a friendly interview you got to know that no not a friendly interview no way you're right i mean i don't get it it's godsmacking yeah okay um yes ravi we would love to have that ad please um all right so let's post let's see um some more uh let's do some comments matina fuck the turks um Oh, yeah. So Roguebot, MD, wasn't the, weren't the UK and the Soviet Union killing each other's radar scientists? Oh, gee, I don't know that. I had not heard that.

In the Second World War, after the Second World War? I guess. I don't know. I guess after they were allies during the war. All right, let's read this ad. Still haven't tried 1775 coffee. Now is your shot. The 1775 starter kit just dropped.

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Oh, my God, I'm up to my eyeballs in books. So I mentioned to you, I've mentioned many, many times. I've got the one coming out on the 26th of March, 24th of March, remains of the day, a definitive guide to Washington, D.C.'s historic cemeteries. Then I've already sent in whispers in the dirt, a definitive guide to New York City's mafia graves. And I just came up with the title for my next one. I only have two pages. You got to start somewhere.

I'm going to call you for titles, John, because I'm always rough. I always have trouble with titles. Go ahead. I came up with Beneath the Quiet Earth, a Guide to the Graves of America's Serial Killers. Beneath the Quiet. That's very poetic. Thank you. When you were recruited at the CIA, did they say, we're going to need, we're looking for an officer who has,

who's poetic and you know what i got i got an award once with no money it was an internal office award um for best title uh i did i did a i did a long term study this thing was like a hundred pages long but i did a long term study on um the iraqi diplomatic corps and it was called iraq's ambassador corps uh diplomats assassins and spies which is what they all were they were like five who were actual diplomats and the rest were all hit men for saddam's to greedy clan and and the others were were iraqi intelligence officers who if they got you know too good at their job he would make them ambassador to the philippines or something just so that they weren't close enough to kill him that's that's i love i love paranoid guys

like that um all right so all right well so oh Well, we probably should talk about Hague, Seth. So it comes as no surprise that he's, you know, look, he claims that he was considering releasing it. And then, of course, he says, of course, we're not going to release a top secret video. Well, you posted the top part of the top secret video to the internet to brag about it, right? I mean, you've been doing this over and over and over. So I don't think intelligence is really, you know, you tell me, is there any possible, you know, giving Hegseth credit for possibly telling the truth, something I don't like to do to government officials? But is it possible that there's a legitimate intelligence reason, intelligence reason, not to, a security reason, not to release that video?

No. No, we know what the video is already. We know that it's the initial strike and then the double tap. we know it yeah so it's not like he's protecting sources and methods he's already bragged about the sources and methods right so if you are so proud of your handiwork just release it so you know i mean my take on this is this is like the upstein files maybe not as much but people you know covering it up is making is going to make it worse it's a it's a zip that's going to keep growing until it blows up right in the middle of your hot date that's right i mean it's not going to be good that is right so i mean

people i mean and it makes you imagine like oh maybe it's even worse than i can imagine right i mean your your mind runs wild better to release it i would say friday afternoon media dump exactly holiday weekend christmas eve yes exactly man exactly i don't understand i mean what do you think the thinking here is just it's reflexive it makes us look bad better not to do it. I think he giddily released part of it when he was so proud of what he had done. And then people close to him said, dude, that's, that's a war crime. You've committed a war crime. And, you know, you are bragging that you're a murderer. And then he says, oh, on second thought, shoot, yeah, you're right. I murdered these guys in cold blood. And so I probably shouldn't brag about it.

So now it's all about sources and methods and protecting them. So, yeah, that's what I think is. But, John, they were all, they're all murders, right? I mean, I mean, these are, they're not identified. Right there, they're not identified. We don't know who they are, what they're doing, right? We don't even know what, we don't even know what nationalities, all these guys are. Right.

So, so basically, we see a boat, if it's some sort of profile, signature strike, blow them up. These are all, I mean, what is, I mean, there's something really, bizarre it's like it's sort of like what it's not sporting to blow it's okay to just kill you like when you're you know fishing but like if you but if you survive it's not sporting to finish you off right before a shark gets you i mean and the law the law is the law sorry go ahead the law is the law right either we're going to either we're going to follow the law or we're not but you can't like force everybody else to follow it you just do whatever you want you can't have it both ways it's just that this is so obvious right it's just like there's no

denying that it's murder because it's just that's right two helpless slumps in the middle of a giant ocean hanging on to that's right wood that's right so it's it can't do that it's like it violates the queens queensberry rules it isn't it it isn't nice yeah matina says why aren't they just saying it's CIA and it's top secret because they bragged already that it wasn't CIA that it was them it was it was seal team six so the cats out of the bag oh so we have some oh so so i apologize a little bit we have some super chats that we didn't get to here uh over on the youtube eric f you know no wars but class war thanks for the two bucks uh Alexander the great uh okay you already answered that one about the breakfast, totally disagree.

Most disagreement will ever have. Morrow, thanks for the ten bucks. Zionists on X, such as Laura Lumer, are claiming that Nuno was a Jewish scientist. That's how you know it's an Israeli op. I'm Portuguese, so as soon as I saw his name, I knew he was Portuguese. I knew he was Portuguese because he had four names.

That very well could be it. I wouldn't put anything again past the Israelis. I wouldn't. By the way, anything that they want. Morrow says that on YouTube, there's some sort of censorship. Morrow tried to put in an American, an Israeli flag in the chat? No, she tried to write Israel and it wouldn't allow the comment. Oh, so Morrow did the flag instead.

Okay. Wow, that's crazy. It is crazy. well thanks for the thanks for the for the for the 499 um okay so clear plopas if but if trump's in venezuela for free oil which by the way we would never get no by the way if you want free oil it's also moved to venezuela because oil's basic gas is basically free yes free where does this pit u.s frackers versus this cheap stuff ooh that's a good question that is a good question because you know gas or oil has to be at least 68

dollars a barrel for fracking to be cost effective that's why the frackers all shut down when the price of oil you're from fracking central pennsylvania central what my best friend from high school called me in this state of excitement one time that a fracking company rang his doorbell and offered him five grand to put a an oil derrick thing in his backyard he had two acres and he did it i was like gary five thousand dollars they're going to make a million dollars taking your not to mention your house you're going to feel like you're on top of the San Andreas fault

and there's going to be flames shooting out of your water faucet that actually happened I remember even my dad saying to me one time we may be sitting on a gold mine here and I said dad don't you dare let them drill for oil

in our yard and he didn't the tin mine is more like it it's a plastic mine yeah five no five thousand dollars I mean, look, everything's got a price, but $5,000 is not the price.

Let's talk. Should we talk about the travel restrictions? I thought this was interesting. So yesterday, Trump added 20 more countries to the list of travel restrictions. So currently, five countries are blocked completely from having their nationals enter the United States. So no one from Syria, which, by the way, I thought was our new buddy, South Sudan, Niger, Mali, or Burkina Faso, obviously the last three, all being countries that recently were kicked out the French troops, and also for anybody with a Palestinian authority passport. So basically kind of like five and a half countries. and so basically now I also don't understand why we also blocked we have partial travel bans on Afghanistan like including for people who have Afghan special immigrant visas these are people who worked for

the United States during the U.S. occupation so I mean you're literally blocking the people who like worked for us and so other countries with partial restrictions are Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Ivory Coast, or Cote d'Intyre, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In some of those countries, you're like, what? Why? Tonga? Yeah. What does they do? We do not have a problem with Tonga. We don't. And, you know, I would appreciate it, Ted, if you would ask Manila, Laos, after the way we've screwed those. people over the years? Yeah, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's,

and bomb, undisputed ordinance are still killing lay oceans. Yes. I, I, I, I just don't understand some of these countries. Now, Mauritania, Mali, okay, you know, yeah, they have Islamism issues. They have a problem. Nigeria, sure, there are a lot of scammers from Nigeria, but Nigerians make up, you know, a good part of the hardest workers of our biggest cities. I mean look as someone you and I like to travel yeah I'm like really worried about about you know

since visas visas are bilateral yes they can do it to us so if I and they will journalists who want to go to niche air or something they are they're like okay well you know now you're the one who's going to have to yeah end over and squat I mean exactly it's it's not good and tell me something why do you think why do you think why do you think there are so many African countries on this list that are not a problem for us. I see it as a racist dog whistle to the far right. That's what I was going to say. And you know, I don't go, I don't go to the woke place.

Like, that's not my first go-to. But I can't think of another explanation. Why isn't Kyrgyzstan on the list? Right. Yeah, those both have radical Islamist issues. You bet they do. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, what used to be called the IMU is still an issue. That's right. yeah no that's that's true there's a lot of stuff like that it's like yeah i think they you know it appears in the press and maga world goes good they're keeping the darkies out i really do think that's it um tiffer 1989 this one's for me but john obviously chime in what are your thoughts on pacifist countries are they freeloaders who exploit their allies to keep them safe or do they hold the moral high ground by not sending their citizens into wars um kind of nizabeth Neither.

Yeah. I agree. Neither. I think there's just people, I think there are people who just think that it's, that militarism is a waste of money. Yeah. And they think that there's better priorities. You know, they're not, it's not like they're thinking like,

ah, we're pulling one over the, on the Americans or NATO. They'll watch our back. It's not like that. No. And it's also not like, look at us. We're so much better. We refuse to get dirty our hands with bloodshed. I think they just literally think, let's get real.

No one's going to invade us. Like, we're fine. And if that changes, we can revisit. But let's spend our money on schools and shit. I think that's what they really are thinking. I agree with you. I don't think it's the either or that's been presented in the question. If you look at a country like Costa Rica, let's say, that doesn't have a military, it's

because it doesn't have any natural enemies. It doesn't need a military. It has a national police force. Yeah. But there's no military. military. Look at Iceland. Iceland has no enemies. Right. It technically joined the political structure of NATO and it allows, you know, American, there used to be an American base there that no longer exists. So NATO planes are free to come and go or to, to stay or whatever they

want. But there's, there's no military. They don't need a military. Right. So I think it's just, I think it's the luck of geography in some cases. And it's, the luck of just having neighbors that you don't have a serious problem with. You know, John, we have similar geography ourselves. We do, actually. We do.

I mean, we consider, we're literally like, I mean, two vast oceans, two, our two main borders with friendly allied countries. Yeah. You know, we could, we could really almost do without a military. Yep.

I mean, we could, we could do with one, with five percent of our military. Yes, we'd be fine. Yes, we could. You know, do you know, John, I looked this up for my last book, What's Left. Brazil only spends $20 billion a year on its military. And its borders are about the same size as ours, but they have, they border a lot more countries, and they have border disputes with some of them. They don't get along with all of them.

And they're fine. No one's invading Brazil. Yeah, that's right. This is, this is a choice that we've made. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a business. It's a business. It's like it's, I mean, you know, I really do like him. He's one of my favorite presidents, but this is Teddy Roosevelt's fault. It is. He's like, there's a new book out. I just, I came across the other day. I don't know if it's any good, but it's apparently about, you know, Teddy Roosevelt. It's about the Spanish-American War, which is something that most Americans have forgotten about. And, you know, like most American school children, they learn to remember the main. Right. And they don't know that, like, nothing happened. No, it was all fake.

It's bullshit. Or a hoax, as Donald Trump says. It's a hoax. It was a hoax. Yeah. Yeah. The Spanish didn't blow up the main. There's a historical marker in Havana Harbor. It's like right there for everybody to see.

I took a picture of it when I was there. Like, this is where it happened. This is where it happened or where it didn't happen. I love those kind of markers. I haven't been, but like, there's the, apparently there's a video in, in, um, I guess it's in, is it in Saigon or in, sorry, in Ho Chi Minh City or in Hanoi, but where the monk set himself on fire. And there's a, and there's a continuing video loop on the monument depicting that act like at this intersection. Wow.

Very cool. Very weird. But, all right. Well, that does bring us to the end of today's program. So thank you, John, as always. We will be here again, 9 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow. We're here Monday through Friday at 9 o'clock Eastern. Please like, follow, and share the show. Thanks for your generous donations and for your support. Thank you.

TMI show with me and Manila Chan coming right up. If you're on Rumble, you don't have to do anything, you'll roll right into it. If on YouTube you have to go make a little bit of an effort and do a search, just do TMI and Ted Roll. You'll find me. Anyway, thanks, everyone. Thanks, John. Thanks, Ted. See you tomorrow.

Bye.