DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Bye Bye Blondi | DeProgram with Ted Rall and…

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall, and today producer Robby West, deprograms you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Sinking in the polls, Trump fired AG Pam Bondi, frustrated over her handling of the Epstein files and her failed efforts to prosecute his political enemies. Trump is also unhappy with Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.• Trump attacks civilian infrastructure. A U.S. attack caused at least a partial collapse of a major highway bridge in Tehran, killing at least 8 people.• Sri Lanka and Myanmar are rationing fuel. The Philippines has instituted 4-day workweeks. Bangladesh briefly closed universities. In India, families and restaurants are cooking over wood fires. Airlines are canceling flights. This week, the final deliveries of oil and liquefied natural gas to Asia that passed through the Strait of Hormuz are expected to arrive. The last tanker shipments to Europe should land by mid-April. The price of oil could soar as high as $200 a barrel. This is worse than the 1970s.• As thousands of Oracle employees were laid off this week, the tech company filed for roughly 3,126 petitions to employ H-1B workers in 2025-26. Amazon, which axed 16,000 corporate employees, filed for 2,675 H-1Bs after firing 14,000 corporate workers last fall.JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLEhttps://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowFOLLOW TED:https://rall.com/https://x.com/tedrallLISTEN ON SPOTIFY:https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuLISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall

Good morning. You're watching D. Program. It is Friday, April 3, 2026. I'm Ted Rall, and sitting with me in the chair that used to be occupied by John Kiroaku is producer Robbie West. Good morning, Robbie. Morning. Howdy. Howdy, howdy. So it's been a day since yesterday, early yesterday morning. Co-host John Kirooku called to tell us that he is no longer able to do this. this show. He signed on to a talent agency that basically told him that with the stuff that they've got brewing for him, he has, they're not, they don't want him to do that. They don't think he'll have the time to do it. He's dropping all of his podcast appearances, including deep focus. Yeah, they're all gone. program, everything, no more.

So he disappears kind of from that world, and he's going on to bigger and better things. And so this show has had to figure out in the last 24 hours what we're going to do. And we've decided to carry on for people who kind of care about the kind of analysis that we do every morning, Monday through Friday, 9 o'clock Eastern time, for the analysis of, you know, the analysis of international and foreign news that you've come to expect from myself and John. We'll continue. We're going to be looking for a co-host for this show. We already have a few people that we're talking to. We're going to be trying them out starting next week. And hopefully we'll settle on that person pretty quickly. We have some names. I know that a lot of people who are fans of the show already know.

And I think we'll be pleasantly surprised by, wouldn't you say, Robbie? Oh, no, I completely agree. And I think that the dynamic is going to be awesome. And this is something me and Ted talked about before. If you were, if you tune into a show because of one particular person, you're there because of that person. You're not necessarily there because of the analysis or the quality of the content that person has or that person brings. You're there because of that person. So the people who are here because they value opinions.

Sometimes opinions that disagree with each other and opinions by the way that disagree with you. And analysis, this show is still 100% going to be for you. Because analysis cannot exist inside of an echo chamber. No. I mean, that's how you get confirmation bias. That's how become Mark Levin. So let's not become Mark Levin. Let's all not be Mark Levine.

I can promise that that will not happen here. No. And so, okay, so anyway, please like, follow and share the show. We really, at this time, more than ever, really appreciate your support. Because as you can probably imagine, you know, I think Robbie less than me, but I'm really nervous and still kind of shaken by John's sort of last second departure from the world of the Internet. So we literally had a 30 minute notice. Well, maybe an hour. It was about an hour.

Yeah, yesterday morning, about an hour before. the show and it was like, you know, I get this call from John. And first of all, we'd had this crazy experience on Monday where I get a call from John, but it wasn't from John. It was from this crazy Iranian monarchist who was spoofing John. So I'm like, wait, is it the crazy Iranian monarchist? But I actually wish it had been the crazy Iranian monarchist because he wouldn't be quitting the show. So speaking of which crazy Iranian monarchist, I talked to the FBI yesterday. And yeah, I thought were you, I'd be like leaving the country, but that's just me. Okay, so let me reply to this real quick.

So, Atrama, no, this is not going to be the Ted and Robbie show. We are actively working on getting ourselves a new host. We have got several people that we've already reached out to that we'll be talking to. We're going to be doing interviews. I mean, this show is a big deal. This isn't a hobby. This is the, the, that's, be honest, this is a part of our business. John's a cartoonist. I do whatever hill it is that I'm doing.

And so it's important that we get the right person that's going to be in at the right slot. And so we need to have someone that's that's smart, someone who's able to talk geopolitics, is able to talk domestic politics, who's able to mix it up and who's not an ideologue. We want someone who's able to think and not just repeat something that he reads or sees on his favorite TV network or hers. John's leaving big shoes to fill for sure. And I think we're going to get there. So if you guys bear with us, I think it's going to take about a week or so for us to settle in to the new normal.

And so if you stick with us, I promise it'll probably, it'll be worth it. I hope. And I really, seriously, I'm very, very grateful for all of you guys and always have been. Okay, so with that said, and we will continue to update people on this situation throughout the show for people who are just joining. But we're here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. live. We'll continue to do that next week, inshallah. Okay, so major breaking news right before we went on the air. Iran is reporting that at least one U.S. Air Force pilot ejected out of the F-15 over. Iran. So presumably that person will hopefully have survived, but unfortunately is likely to become

a prisoner of war of the Iranians. Robbie, you mentioned that the Iranians had a similar claim last week, but the U.S. military hasn't had anything to say about that. The latest jobs report came out. We apparently a little bit, the U.S. economy created 178,000 jobs last month. That's a major improvement over February in January, where it basically job creation was like non-existent. So that's good news for the president and his administration at a time when he desperately needs it. Today we're going to be talking about Attorney General Pam Bondi, or Blondie, as I always call her. She's out. We'll talk about what the implications are there. And apparently, Trump is looking to purge his cabinet. He's looking to get rid of the Commerce

Secretary, Howard Lutnik, as well as the Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez de Riemer. Trump also, the U.S. military also blew up a bridge in Tehran, which is a war crime. It's a civilian infrastructure, even though right-wing Republicans say, you know, well, if one military vehicle across is a bridge one time, it's a legitimate military target. Not under international law. It's not. Also, I'm super interested in this fuel rationing situation. So this week is the week when the last deliveries of oil and LNG that passed through the Strait of Ormuz will arrive. The very last tanker shipments to Europe will arrive by the middle of this month in just a couple of weeks.

So after that, there's no more. So right now there's literally stuff still in the tanker, not in the pipeline. prediction is that price of oil could soar as high as $200 a barrel. By way of comparison, it was under $60 a barrel before the conflict began a month ago. Most analysts say this is worse than the fuel crisis of the gas crisis of the 1970s, which I remember as a little kid. Finally, a sort of a Robbie story. Oracle and Amazon are both firing thousands of tech workers

at the very same time that they're hiring thousands of H-1B workers from overseas, mostly from India. We'll be getting into that. And then finally, I should say, I know I said finally already, there's an even crazier story involving this Israeli-American Merck, alleged Merck, who is being accused in a very well-sourced, well-documented lawsuit of basically having, signed a contract with the UAE to murder opposition figures politically, particularly in Yemen,

to the tune of $1.5 million a kill. So there's a lot to talk about. As usual, we love your questions. So please put those in the live chat in Rumble and YouTube, and we will get to all of them if we can, as many as possible. We inaugurated earlier this week, Q&A. shows. John only got to one on Wednesday before his new agency ordered him to quit the show. But Robbie and I have talked about it, and so we're going to continue to do that. So this show is Monday through Friday 9 a.m., but also the Q&A exclusives are 12 noon Monday and Wednesday. So as usual, super chats are prioritized, but we try to get to all questions. And I think That's about all the housekeeping.

If we have an ad, Robbie, please let me know. If we have any questions that we definitely need to get to, let me know about those. And so let me, so we do a few super chats and then get to, Yes, go do some super chats and now I'll queue up the ad. Okay, you do that. All right. Jackson McGrath, thanks for the two bucks Australian. Can I be a possible host as the future prime minister of Australia?

if you become Prime Minister of Australia, we will definitely have you as a co-host, at least from time to time. Zola Lorosa, thanks for the $2. I tune in for Ted, for sure. Have a great weekend. Thank you so much. Really appreciate that.

And, you know, we're not going to be slagging John here just because he quit. I mean, we really appreciate and miss him here. He is our friend. He is our friend. And we told him that too, like off the air. Like, hey, you know, we're call anytime. Like, we're in touch.

We're still there. for you. And he will come on as a guest from time to time too. That's true. I mean, this is not a divorce. Yeah. It's a, it's more like, you know what it is, Robbie, it's more like he got a, it's a, well, it's a, it's a separation, but he kind of found a hotter chick. What's be serious? Well, it's like I said yesterday. No, John asked us to cut the last 10 minutes of the show out. That's why, that's why it's missing. And what I said there at the end was that he outgrew us, which is true.

And that adds up now. Thanks, Robbie. Okay. Oh, you have to cut and paste it into the chat so that I can. I did. Sorry, I'm looking at the wrong one. Okay. And this is, by the way, why this is really a three-person, well, it's really a four-person operation.

There's Robbie, there's Trent, and there's me. And we do need a co-host because it's hard to keep everything running at the same time without it. Anyway, here we go. They can freeze your account, shut off your cards, lock you out of your own money overnight. Banks don't protect you. They control you. That's why real financial freedom starts with ownership. Introducing Rumble Wallet, a non-custodial wallet built for people who refuse to give up control.

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Okay. So with that, Rami, let's get into the Pam Bondi story. So Donald Trump appears to be sort of relying on a playbook that we've seen other informer presidencies. His first term had a lot of churn. Second term, he seemed determined to keep people on even if they annoyed the public or if they annoyed him because it seemed like he felt like it made him look weak and stupid to be firing people whom he hired.

You know, he always says, this person is fantastic. And then when you fire someone that you tell the whole world was fantastic, you know, that reflects poorly upon you. But Trump's administration, I think it's fair to say, is in trouble. His approval rating is now at a record low for him, 35%. we are now approaching sort of resignation slash impeachment numbers. We're not there yet, but we're getting there. And we're well on our way.

And so the reporting is that this was largely over the fact that she failed to prosecute, you know, enough of these former prosecutors that went after Trump. And also that she mishandled the Epstein files. I think there's no doubt about that. And he's like now apparently drawn a bead on Lori Chavez de Riemer and Howard Lutnik. How much of this, Robbie, is just the president, you know, lashing out at people blaming them for his own mistakes? Like 90% of it because Trump is incapable of admitting that he made a mistake. I mean, I mean, he's famously on the record saying that he's never asked God to forgive him for any.

anything because he doesn't make mistakes. So if you don't make mistakes, if you can't even tell that to God, then how can you look in the mirror and say, hey, maybe I got screwed over. Maybe I got duped. Maybe I'm not the smartest guy in the room. And so whenever he's in trouble, he just starts flipping tables because that's all it is how to do. Just throw a temperate tantrum. That's what this is. I mean, if Trump wanted the Epstein files released, he could release them. Pam Bondi's mistake was that those files are on my desk and they were on her desk. And then she lied and said that she didn't. Her problem is that she is a worst liar though Trump was, which is incredible because he's a terrible liar. Yeah, for sure. Hey, listen, so there's a comment in the chat

that I was just a little bit distracted by. And I think it's worth addressing Ted from Adam Tube. Ted and Robbie, consider interviewing different interesting people versus a permanent co-host. You don't need another permanent co-host. Prepare topics based on the unique guest, also brainstorm with us. So I'm really going to take the last part of that very seriously in terms of brainstorming with you guys. Look, you guys have been here and you've been here for the better part of a year, helping John and I and Robbie grow this show.

And we really, you know, you guys are observing, you know, you're as much as the, There's no show without you guys as much as there's no show without us. So if you have ideas for a possible co-host or a different format like Adam suggests or anything, feel free to email them to, you can go to me, go to raw.com slash contact. You can email them directly to me, or you can put them in the live chat and Robbie will pluck them out. And we will discuss them later. So seriously. And if you have someone that you think would be interested in this,

I mean, they would be joining a large, very successful, fast-growing show. So it's already monetized. So all that is, you know, totally great. So, you know, thank you for that suggestion. Yeah. Seriously, thank you. And seriously, I mean, you all know my email address. It's West Glacier Gaming at gmail.com.

I mean, one of the reasons why this show is so big is because all four people who are engaged with this show are accessible. That's not changing. No. I'm still accessible. Ted's still accessible. If and when we get a new co-host, which I think probably will be the direction we go, because it is just easier, frankly, to do formatically, it's better, it's easier to have a co-host because let's say someone's out. You know, it's easier in one person has to hold down the fort by themselves. They can. Also, it's just, it's just sort of easier to have someone to bounce ideas off of and get that rapport and that repartee. No, for sure. And I think another thing we should probably do.

I mean, right now, I mean, the entire show is open. Maybe do another call-in show like what we did a couple, what, a month and a half ago. That was fun. Yeah, we know, we seriously are, we are totally game for reinventing this. You know, the thing is, you know, crisis is another word for opportunity, as they say. So this is an opportunity for a reset, for anything that we can improve. crew. So seriously, I throw. All right. So why is the labor secretary in Trump's crosshairs? Is this because of the jobs, the bleak jobs picture? Well, yeah. I mean, you know, it's always about the economy.

And Trump, I mean, Trump can look in the camera and he can tell the American people, don't believe you're lying eyes. You're perfectly fine. You're not feeling any pain from this. You're not hurting. It's all in your head. But he also knows how to read polls. And so if you're getting bad news and if you think that you are a God emperor who can, who is infallible, who can make no mistakes, then that's clearly someone else's fault. I mean, just because you blow up the global oil market doesn't mean it's your fault. It's the fault of your labor secretary because it massaged the numbers enough. Yeah, even though the labor secretary is traditionally like one of the lowest, you know, profile members of the.

cabinet. That's where Robert Reich was the labor secretary under Bill Clinton, short little dude. He wrote a really a great book called Locked in the Cabinet. And it's a great little book because it really sort of shows what it's like to try to improve things from within the system. You know, not easy. So there was this phenomenon with Bill Clinton. And I think, you know, it's reportedly the same thing with Donald Trump. And Robert Reich said that he soon figured out that the last person to have Bill Clinton's ear before he actually had to decide and pull the trigger on some kind of policy decision was usually the person who got their way. So people kind of juggled to be the last person in the room right before the deadline and trying to figure out when the deadline was from

the chief of staff. And, you know, bottom line was Robert Reich was the token progressive in that cabinet and he never really got his way in large part because you know that he he was often in early and he just remembered it the absurdity of it is is great but basically also it's a reminder that labor is not a very important cabinet position um you robie you mentioned the uh the the oil crisis we should just skip to that right um so Sri Lanka and Myanmar i'll have already imposed uh fuel rationing. The Philippines has now reduced their work week from five days a week to four days a week due to lack of energy. Bangladesh is closing its universities off and on and may close them permanently because they're not able to keep the lights on next door in India. Families and

restaurants have been reduced to all over the country to cooking over wood fires like it's the 1900s again. Airlines are canceling flights. And like I mentioned, The Strait of Ormuse tankers that go to Asia are arriving in places, and the last ones will arrive in Europe by mid-month around tax time, April 15th. So this is, I think, very clearly, the president and his advisors are focused on this. They're going to see energy prices start to, we're going to see shortages. In the UK, there's already a lot of gas stations that have been pumped completely dry by people who are hoarding gas.

Robbie, when I go to the gas station, it's more full than ever. And I know myself, my own mentality is if I drive by the gas station and I'm only a third empty, I stop because I know the price is going to go up and I'm like, I'm going to get, you know, I'm going to fill that third rather than wait, you know, till next week or when or a few days. That's, you know, you and I have talked about inflation in the past, right? That's the logic of inflation. That's why inflation encourages spending because you know that the same product is going to cost more later.

And that's why, you know, capitalist economists like inflation as long as it's not stagflation, as long as it's controlled, as long as it's not hyperinflation like they have in places like Turkey or like they had in Argentina before Malay. So, you know, we're, I think that for the Trump administration, they're terrified of what's coming down the pike in three, four, five weeks. And I think the Iranians are looking at it like, all we really have to do is hang tight for say five, six, seven weeks and the Americans are going to come crawling. Well, we don't have a choice. I mean, that's at the end of the day. Iran has us by the throat. I mean, think about this for a second. We're both students of history.

we both understand wars are always fun about money. They always are. The fact that Trump, who's supposed to be a successful businessman, did not think for a moment that maybe the Iranians will leverage their economic pressure to do significant harm to me is completely utterly insane. Why wouldn't they use the most? devastating weapon that they have. I would. I mean, if you're in a fight, if you're in a fight to the death against someone who absolutely hate you and wants to see you destroyed, and that been

trying to destroy you for 40 freaking years or longer, well, I guess it's closer to have the 50s, but now, 1979's what? 47. So then in that situation, why wouldn't you just wage total unrestricted economic war? If you can't defeat your enemy, you could know, militarily. then you hit them where you can. You hit them in the pocketbook because wars are all about money. And wars are always about money. And people will point to like World War II and they'll say it wasn't about money. A World War II was all about money.

Japan attacked the United States because the United is because of the embargo. The Japanese Yamamoto said, we can run havoc for six months, maybe a year after that, all bets are off. he was he was totally against that war because the united states was an industrial power an industrial powerhouse and he understood the the character of the american people he went to harvard he was american educated and he explained to the japanese in the high command you'll have to negotiate peace terms in the white house he knew that that could not happen yeah he knew that Yeah, he knew that when the American industrial sleeping giant geared up, that it would be a colossus that was unstoppable.

But Hitler didn't know that, right? Like he had never been to the United States, and people, Germans around him who had been told him, like, dude, yeah, they're a sleeping giant. But when the Americans focus on something, you just don't understand that industrial production. There's just no way. You're not going to be able to resist it. And that's Trump's biggest flaw right now. You ask me about the Labor Secretary.

Trump in his mind still thinks the United States is an industrial power. We're not, we're a banking of real estate power. We no longer have that industrial base. We exported it. So if you even Hollywood is like a disaster, right? I mean, I was just reading last night, Robbie, that like, I mean, that's the one thing I've always said, like, well, we still make good movies, right? And they might be good, although they're not as good as they were pre-pen. pandemic. But, you know, L.A. has like 30% unemployment rate in like the in the entertainment sector.

I just read that J.J. Abrams is moving his company, Bad Robot, the entire company from L.A. to New York. The, you know, Governor Gavin Newsom is worried sick that California is losing its status as the, as the headquarters of America's entertainment business. I mean, if we don't even have that, I mean, what's next? We lose tech, too. Well, well, I'm, I'm. Well, of course we will. I mean, we already have. I mean, Taiwan owns the semiconductors. If you own the microchips, by definition, you own tech. Who cares where the coder is?

You own it. No, you own the hardware. And they'll just sell them to the Chinese. Yeah, of course. And the whole reason why the Japanese attacked the way that they did, when a great power or a major power feels threatened with existential survival, they don't act rationally. They're acting out of survival.

That's why they struck because the Japanese. is understood that if they waited to the embargo worked, they would have no ability whatsoever to roll the dice and have a chance. It was a no-win situation. Same thing with Hitler, right? I mean, you know, it's often viewed that the invasion of the Soviet Union was the catastrophe that brought down Nazi Germany. And that's true. Yeah. But he kind of had no choice because of the oil and energy embargo on Nazi-occupied Europe. And so he was like, okay, this isn't about overthrowing communism or getting rid of Stalin. This is about getting those oil fields in Azerbaijan off the coast of Baku

so that we can start build a pipeline and supply the Reich with oil. And his biggest mistake was that he started a month late, right? Well, you know why he started a month late? He had the Balkans. Yeah, he had, because the Italians had one job, which was to defeat the Greeks, and then they started advancing in reverse, because they were going to lose Albania. So, I mean, that's what happened.

All roads lead to the Balkans. Those troops who are supposed to go to reinforce Rommel, and Rommel would have taken Suez if he had had them, were diverted to Greece instead. It's like, yeah, no, it's crazy. Like, he should have just been like, yeah. But, you know, it's so funny, too, right? It's like a classic Oedipole thing.

You know, Hitler was kind of viewed Mussolini Ilducci, as like the father of fascism. Like, you know, he's OG. He's the guy who invented this whole shtick. I love him. But, you know, Miscellini was unreliable and flaky. And Italian troops didn't fight hard. And were a great disappointment to their German allies.

I mean, they're Italians. What more did you say? I know. I know. Look, I love Italy. I love Italians. But, yeah, they're not the most organized people. Well, I mean, no, if, you know, if,

the ancient Romans could look forward in time and see what their descendants were, they were said, we made a mistake. Well, I mean, ethically, they're not exactly the same people, are they? Right. I mean, those. Well, no, I mean, well, Italy's been occupied by Germans, by Arabs. I mean, it's, it's just, I mean, but I mean, you hear what I'm saying. I do.

It's the direct successor. And it's just like, no, I kind of get into it with people. sometimes. A lot of people say, well, Latin is a dead language. I disagree. Latin is modern or Italian is modern-day Latin. The reason why Latin is considered dead is because it's split off in five different branches. Yeah, it evolved or devolved depending on how you look at it. Yeah. I mean, you can say that English is a dead language because the language you speak now is not the language of the Saxons. Sure. I mean, I took four years of Latin and I have found it extraordinarily useful. I would recommend it to anyone. Oh yeah, no, for sure. And we've got some

chats rolling in. We still getting some love, Ted. All right. That's good. Thank you guys. Seriously, thank you. Mustafa, thanks for the $1.99. Much appreciated. Yeah, this is a monkey mind matters. Take your time. Find a co-host where there's chemistry. Totally. Oh, here's one for you. I don't remember Trafficant. This is from Elliot Covert. Do you guys members, Congressman Trafican. From Ohio. It seems like he was a forerunner to Trump in some ways. At least Trump's rhetoric and style.

It was over on Rumble. And then Manchild over on Rumble. Thank you for the donation. Hexeth is gutting military leadership in the middle of a war. And Trump is dismantling his cabinet. We have an inept Congress and can't do anything. How

fucked are we? Very. I think we're very fucked. I mean, look, there certainly have been, historically, cabinet shakeups come with the territory. Whenever the polls are bad, whenever the American people are grumbling, and whenever there's a midterm or a presidential election in the works, you can count on a cabinet shakeup, right?

So that's not, it's sort of a way for a president to signal without saying so. Like, I hear you, I know you're unhappy. I'm going to change, I'm going to switch up my people. I don't think that what Hengseth is doing is part of that, right? I mean, this is more about, like, vengeance for the perception that, like, you know, not the entire military hierarchy has fallen in line with his whole Department of War schick. And, you know, hyper-masculine, like, let's just bomb the shit out of everyone and declare it victory.

That's different. How fucked we are, I think, is a third issue entirely. I think we're really fucked, Robbie, because not only do we have a president who is incapable and unwilling of addressing the basic concerns of the American people. But on top of that, there's no opposition party that's in a position to make a credible case against him. And so that even when they win, we're still going to be in the same exact situation. Make no mistake. I'm still convinced that if there's a midterm election, the Democrats are. going to win. No question. They'll win the House. They may even win the Senate. But, you know,

yeah, I will end up with gridlock because obviously, you know, we'll have split power between the presidency and the, between the White House and the Congress. But we're also going to have a, you know, a situation where let's just say for some reason, Democrats are completely in charge, they also don't care about the problems of the American people. And I'm not even sure they can identify them. That's why we're well and truly fucked. When you read the problems of collapsing societies like the Weimar Republic before the Nazi takeover in Germany in 1933, that was the perception. The German people never missed Weimar. Even people who hated Hitler were like, yeah, Weimar sucked. That's the problem. We all know the current system sucks. That's the problem.

The problem is what do you get in replacement of it? And big shout out to Scott over there on Rumble, the $50 donation that came here for John, but I've stayed for Ted. Looking forward to the future guys. Thanks, Ted and Robbie. Love John and hoping for his success. Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

Really, that's incredibly. I mean, I don't want to. Don't make me cry, you guys. That's not nice. And kind of say something real quick. There's a lot of people in the chat talking about no, John left for money and all this other stuff. Listen, at the end of the day, that is correct. But, I mean, let's put this into some perspective, okay?

John is my friend, John is Ted's friend. John went to prison and had his life destroyed by the government that he exposed was breaking the law. Financially, the man was completely ruined. Yeah. I understand why he did. it does does the situation suck yeah it does i mean the show is taking off it is growing and listen i'm not going to lie i mean you all see it in the comments oh there's no john here then i'm not going to be here fine peace out don't let the door hit you yeah seriously go away but i mean

there's a lot of people who are like that and it is going to be a hit it is going to be a hit to the show that being said that john leaving with a very short notice was not a decision that he made he didn't have a choice and so put yourself put yourself in his position before you want to go before you go put this man on a cross he has been wrecked financially he has his health has been wrecked he has been fighting the last 16 years trying to put something of a life back together i do not begrudge him at all And if anyone should be pissed off, it's me and Ted, because this is our livelihood. It is.

So I understand where this is you coming from, but don't think that John is being a dick or that he is being a traitor or that he's screwing us over. He's not. He's doing what's best for him and his kids. And I, for one, am not mad at him. Okay. And with that, okay, so Zoylo Rosa, thanks for the $5 donation. Ted reach out to Jarmal Thomas to co-host. Is he okay?

I'll start with the second question last, which I often like to do. He is okay. I reached out to him yesterday and I talked to him. And I don't want it without giving too much away, we had an extremely productive conversation. So hopefully I will have more to report on that. Very, very soon, maybe as soon as Monday. Thank you for that. Mustafa, oh, yeah, I already mentioned you.

Kurtz-Metz-U-Soe says, Kurtzmetsker has a different co-host every show. He brings a co-host from another show he's interested in. Bring on a different host from the plethora of shows online you like. That's an idea. I mean, of course, the thing is, God, that must be so much work, though, Robbie, right? Like, mechanically, you have to,

each time you bring in a new co-host, you're setting up, you have to like, you know, tell them all the infrastructure, explain the format. It's kind of a cool idea, but it's a lot of work. Yeah, no, it is. I mean, if you have a rotating schedule or something, you can make it work. I just don't know because here's the whole, here's the whole thing. It's easy to get people who are able to talk, who are able to go in and talk the talking points. It's really hard to get someone who's able to come in and have an able actually to analyze a topic.

Right. That's the hard part. Talking is easy if you're doing off of a script. Which people do all the time in this format. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, I also think this is super important. Context of understanding who you're talking about really matters, right? So, you know, like if, like, okay, so.

For example, I'm an editorial cartoonist, and I've had clients that ran my cartoon in the same space every single day, others who just ran me once in a blue moon. And what I've noticed is that when there's controversies about my cartoons, they're usually in papers that only run me once in a blue moon because the readers don't really know who Ted Rawl is. So if you just think about like your buddy who says something sarcastic or droll or dry, like you can understand it in the context because you know them really well. But let's just say it's some guy, some random person that you just hear, you might think they

were being serious, right? Like, for example, if we say, that's gay, that might come off as like a homophobic comment from someone else, but if you know the person's actually in favor of gay rights and they're just saying it in this sort of dry high school sarcastic way, the context is totally different. And I think, so I think when you're looking at, in a podcast, at a political analyst. I mean, you know, like when Tucker Carlson says things are a certain, you know, says something,

I have this in context of like, I have a pretty good sense of his whole arc of his political development. And that contextualizes what he has to say. You don't get that if you have repeated guest co-hosts. No. No, and I really just want to have rapport. Like, for example, I'm some smuck in Montana. I've never my shadow my shadow has never graced the door of a college no when Trump talks about

how he loved the uneducated people he's talking about me okay let's just be honest here that said it was really fun mixing it up with John about the war northern aggression I'm right he's wrong and that and that would have been a great sure to have maybe we maybe we still can't maybe we still can yeah it'd be fun as hell but that's what we're looking for I hope I hope I hope I hope John's new management team allows him some freedom to talk. Because I mean, it's weird to see this internet phenom disappear from the internet. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, and speaking about that, I'm still doing all of John social media stuff.

So I'm still doing his official Rumble channel. I'm still, I'm doing his TikTok now. So I'm still doing all of his stuff. And so I'm still able to kind of cross pollinate and stuff and build to push things through. I just don't know what kind of freedom of access he's going to have now that he's in the CAA orbit. I just, I don't know. But what I can tell you is that for whatever it's worth, I'm available to y'all. And Ted, who is an actual professional, is available to y'all.

And whatever co-host it is that we bring in, one of the requirements for that person is that he has to be available to. you. A hundred percent. And if someone's just like, no, I just want to be on for an hour and I'm pieced out. No. You don't be a fit for the show. No, that's true. Totally.

No, there will be no deep focus. John has pulled the plug on all of his YouTube shows. He cannot do podcasts. He is done. Yeah. I don't think he can guest on podcasts except for maybe on occasion. He can go on them still, but he can't post. Right.

Aryan Gordy, thanks for the 999. I think that the dynamic between Ted and Robbie makes sense for the show and would work great as the main hosts. Love the contrasting perspectives on some topics. It makes for a great show for both sides. I mean, I'm not ruling that out, Robbie. We'll see how that goes. But, you know.

Ted, I'm not articulate enough. Listen, one of the things I'm really good at is introspection. I'm not an articulate person. And sometimes, frankly, I'm too blunt. you need to have someone who's going to be a co-host who's able to sell to tell someone to go to hell in a way that makes them look look forward to the trip that's not me well it's funny that you should say that because there's been other contexts in you know i'm not in podcasting where i liked it to be behind the scenes and there's a power to that too where i preferred to be behind the scenes like uh you know i have advised politicians and stuff i never wanted to be in politics but i don't mind Talk giving them advice. Zorla Rosa, thanks for the two bucks. Did you see that Italy might sanction Israel?

I have not heard that. I want to look into that. Mustafa, thanks for the 499. Ted and Robbie, if the Iranians will back their government, I will back you guys. Thank you, you are both beautiful, strong, creative people. Aw, thank you. And, yeah, by the way, that is an interesting point.

The Iranian people do seem to be pulling together or at least more tolerant of their government, which I want to be really clear. I mean, I've been to Iran. It's very clear that the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people do not like their government. But these days, it's the only game in town. And you have the, you know, now the size of pro-government protests has gone from like the people who get the call from the government, like you have to go out and protest to organically, it's growing as people in Tehran and other cities. get angry about things like the attack on this bridge, which connects Tehran to one of its suburbs,

killing at least eight people. The Iranians know that we're not there to liberate them and we're there to break them. There's no more talk coming out of the White House or out of BDB Netanyahu's office saying, like, that the Iranians need to rise up and liberate themselves and that will be there for them. There's not even that pretense. It's just bombing because that's, all we have to offer. And I do think the Iranian people are going to be, I don't know, supporting, I mean, I guess, yeah, they're more supporting their government than they used to is the right way

to put it. Well, I would. I mean, seriously, my great, great grandfather, my granddaddy's granddaddy served in the Confederate Army. And we've, we've got his diary still. I've inherited his sword. My brother, GP, has the diary. And in that diary is a story. My, my, uh, He was a dirt farmer. He didn't own any slaves. Just some guy, just a farmer. And he was trading with this Yankee on the Rappahannock River there in Virginia. And this Yankee asked, they said, Noah, so Johnny, why are you fighting?

And the response that he gave according to the diaries, because you're down here. Well, it's the same with the Iranians. Why are you fighting? It's because you're here. I didn't go to you. I didn't put my country by your. military bases. You get that to me. So that's why they're fighting. Robbie, when I was in, so you know, I covered the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October,

November, December of 2001. And I was, I spent most of that time in northern Afghanistan around Kunduz and Talakhan. There was one moment where I went out that the U.S. bombings happened only between 6.30 and 9.30 p.m. local time. It was the only time. We don't know why, but that's when it would happen. I guess they were on a schedule. They had a coffee break or something. Anyway, at one point, you know, where I'm out taking pictures, a cameraman are, you know, doing videotape, B-roll of all the carnage, the buildings burning. And we hear this, this dinging coming down the dirt road. And Robbie, you would have loved it. It was a, you know, horse-drawn fire engine right out of the British Raj.

It was like, you know, in all countries, their firefighters have a tradition of keeping their fire trucks in beautiful, sparkling, clean condition. It was a museum piece. And it comes down and there's a hand crank and it was the Taliban fire patrol. And they're literally like cranking it up and, you know, putting out their fire.

And then like right behind them come the Taliban anti-aircraft. guns on the back of pickup trucks, and they start firing at the U.S. planes. Amazingly, even though it was a Northern Alliance neighborhood, which was allied with the United States, they, the locals and a lot of Western reporters, including some Americans, started applauding as the people on the ground were shooting at the American planes. And I talked to some people, I'm like, yeah, but those are Americans they're shooting at, And they said there aren't Americans and Afghans.

There are people on the ground and there are people in the air. And the air people are at war with the ground people. So I'm on team ground. And I never forgot that. Yeah. Well, it's true. I mean, listen, you can hate your government and love your country. I do.

I do. And if someone invaded my country, as much as I despise my government, I would fight the invader. Me too. 100%. Couldn't agree more. perfectly said. Peter, thanks for the five bucks. Scott Britain, Amen, but I came with Ted, after Sputnik got canned. I don't know what the Amen is referring to, but yep. Handsome libertarian, thanks for the five bucks, as a riff towards Israel and war grows on the

right, do you think it opens the door for a non-A-PAC candidate on the right to run in 2008, like a Massey, well, assuming there's a presidential election, or have I been listening to too much Ron Paul? I do think APEC is now back on their heels, right? I think the Israel lobby is, you know, they're not coming back from this. The popular, the approval rating for the Palestinians is higher than it is for the Israelis. And it's not going to get better. It's only going to get worse from Tel Aviv's point of view. So, but I just, the question is, If you asked me, oh, by 2050, sure, 100 million percent, assuming this country still exists. APEC will be no more.

No one will care about Israel at all. I just don't know how quickly that unfolds. You know, I mean, these kind of changes, these kind of shifts, especially with all the donor money, it takes a while to, you know, to put that much, to erase that much power. Well, they're just going to rebrand. I mean, they're going to like what Al-Qaeda does. I mean, you know, you lose one charter house. What you do? You rebrand.

You just name yourself something else. That's what they're going to do. As far as can a insurgent win? I think if Tucker Carlson wins or runs, he'd win. Because I think that he would pull. Well, could he get the nomination first? It's a two-part question, right? Well, yeah, the same way that Trump did.

I think he could maybe get the nomination. I don't think he can win in a general election. reason is because he's been branded over the years in the minds of so many liberals, so many Democrats as like he's the bow tie guy who used to be on Fox, the right winger. And that's going to keep being, that narrative will continue to be promoted. But here's the,

but here's the biggest difference. Tucker Carlson does something that I can't think of one other public official that ever does. He shows contrition. He will look you in the eye. and say, I was wrong. So maybe what he'd have to do is start out with an apology tour, kind of like how when Hillary Clinton ran for Senate in New York, and she was not doing well against Rick Lazio,

who was the Republican congressman from Long Island, and she had to go do a listening tour of New York to show that she was humble. Maybe he, I mean, Tucker really is humble. I think he would have to sort of say, hey, listen, I'm not who you think I am. you know, I'm just, I've had a journey. Let me tell you about my journey. That could work. Well, it's also, well, it's that. And also, you know, Winston Churchill is not one of my favorite

people, but you did have a great one-liner is that you can know the quality of a person by their enemies. Oh, yeah. Tucker has the right enemies. No, I concur with that. Manchild, thanks for the dollar. Ted, I binged your life story interviews on YouTube last night to learn more about you. I recommend everyone do the same. You've had quite a journey. and I respect your values. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Dejic, thanks for the $1.99.

Any foreigners, thoughts on foreigners calling whites the devil? Yeah, it's the only kind of racism. It's still acceptable in this country. Well, I mean, yeah, but can you blame them? I mean, it's like white people, you know, have been responsible for an inordinate amount of mayhem in, you know, darker, skinned majority places around the world.

I have a question for you, Ted. Which ethnic group was more brutal longer? The Arabs or the Europeans? Which one had the more brutal slave trade? Which one castrated black men and before they sent them into the Middle East? Which one embraced slavery for over a thousand years? Which one actually forced the Europeans to start building these things called castles? because of all the raids that were going in.

We, listen, white people, Europeans, we get a bad rep like 300 years of history. But less, but people then, but what of 300 years they were.

Yeah, they were. But also, though, one thing I want to point out here. And this is not defensive racism. So seriously, if you're going to accuse me of being a racist,

please just, just shove that up your ass. I'm not a racist. And I don't support slavery. However, I am a fact-based person. The British Empire ended slavery. The last Arab country that outlawed slavery did it in the 1970s. So let's kind of put slavery back in Libya. Of course it is. That's the point that I'm making.

Anti-white racism is the only acceptable form of racism that is allowed. If you go, if you go to Canada, my northern neighbors and yours too there in New York, they have programs where the government say, oh, if you're depressed, you can commit suicide. and sell your organs. That targets the white domestic population, not the foreigners, not the immigrants. We are telling white people, hey, you're saying,

are you telling me that like if an Inuit, like from Nunavut says, I'm depressed, I want to kill myself in Canada. They won't let them. They'll let them, but look at the ads. Look at the marketing. Look at the mercy project.

Well, Canada is a white majority country. Is it still with all the immigration? I don't think so. I don't know. I have to check into that. But I mean, last time I was in Canada, it sure looked that way. But for the topic of this conversation, is it okay to call white people the devil? No, that's racism.

Just like it would be wrong for me to call Asians the devil or be wrong for me to call someone else, some kind of a slur. Listen, God created all of us in the way that we are. We have immutable, we have immutable characteristics. We cannot change. I cannot change the country I was born in. I cannot change the skin that I'm in. and I cannot change the kind of plumbing that I've got between my legs.

You to judge someone by any of those three things. You might be able to change that last one. To change any of those three things or to hate someone because any of those things makes you a bigot. Speaking of which, I just want to be clear here, you know, in terms of having had a day yesterday, not only did John quit on us an hour before the show, I had to have a prostate exam yesterday. So it was a real day, you know. So you got your luck changed. I had everything up my ass yesterday.

Awesome. Hey, Lisa. What, you know, I would have done it for free. I'll tick on your prostate for you. No, no. Hey, hey, hey, we're not that intimate. Para illegal. Thanks for the $100.

Amazing. Thank you so much. Can I get an opinion on the SSA and their programs now or just a shout out again? the Social Security Act, I assume, is what the SSA is? I think, right? I mean, look, Social Security Administration. If that's not what it is, you know, please chime in again.

Look, I'm, I think Social Security, I'm 62. I'm very, I'm very pro Social Security. I hope it lasts long enough for me to start collecting when I turn 67. That's seriously. I think, you know, retirement insurance is a very important part of a social safety net in any country. And, you know, ours isn't the best in other countries. They'll have like home attendance, come and stay at your house and take care of you. That's what happened to my French grandparents.

It was beautiful. But, you know, let me know if I got that wrong. Raidman 777. Thank you so much for the $1.99. Ted, I'm going to give you this money instead of John. Thank you. Rust Belt, thanks for the $1.99. so you're telling me I'm stuck with Ted.

Yeah, and Robbie for now. Good morning, Ted and Robbie from Susan Lindsay. Thank you for continuing on. I still look forward to the show in the morning. A calm way to keep up with the news. Like I'm sitting with you at the breakfast table. That's funny. I don't think of...

Do we have a calm mean, Robbie? I don't know about that. But thank you. We disagree with that yelling at each other. So this is not the Pierce Morgan show. yelling is, yelling isn't arguing. Arguing is great.

Fighting is bad. Ari and Gordy, thanks for the 499. Robbie, that's what we all love about you. We follow you up front. Fuck the haters. Agreed.

Okay. Let's, oh, God, I can't believe we didn't get to talk about this. Okay, we're not going to, Robbie, can you try to get a lawyer

for the plaintiff in this case to come on the show next week? this crazy UA-E, you know, Merck case? Yeah, I was sure that I could find. All right, if they don't do it, whatever, but please reach out. Okay, so before we close out the show, and thank you, we're really gratified for your support. Thousands of employees were laid off from Oracle on Tuesday. At the same time that the Oracle workers, because they are tech guys, they're smart,

They found out that Oracle applied for 3,126 petitions to hire H-1B visa holders. Amazon has just fired a total of 30,000 people. They're applying for 2,675 H-1Bs. What I hate to say is one of the things I agreed with Donald Trump about was increasing that fee to $100,000. Robbie, does this mean that Oracle would rather fire an American and hire a fine? foreigner, even if they have to pay a $100,000 Trump fee for that each H-1B worker, or are they going to get waived somehow because it's corrupt? They'll get waived.

Of course, they'll get waived. We have a government by donor. They're not going to pay a price for this. The American worker will. The company isn't. I mean, it's, this is the hollowing out of America. And I'm telling you, that if we could get if we could get someone to just step in and show up and just push and fight

for the for the American people that person will win and so you got to have you got to have someone that's able to admit that they're wrong and you got to have someone that's able to have a platform and someone that has money Tucker Carlson has those days as those three things if he runs, I am confident he'll win. So, but, but, so, but you have to get some, you know, this is a 50, 50 country. I mean, you have to get Democrats. How are you going to get Democrats to vote for them? Democrats eat two.

Democrats can't buy houses. Democrats get screwed by gas prices. Democrats weren't asked if they wanted to support a genocide in Gaza. Democrats weren't asked if they wanted to support a war in Iran. Democrats weren't asked how much taxes that they want to, that they want to shell out. Democrats aren't asking you of that stuff. What if Tucker Carlson ran as a Democrat? Well, then the problem is superdelegates.

He would never get anywhere. You would get buried. Yeah. I mean, that is the problem. But the Republican brand is going to be as tarnished now as it was after Nixon's resignation in 1974. It's easier to hijack a plane than it is to build one. You and I are, you and I both have a, we have another assignment. We have to go do the TMI.

show with myself and Manila Chan. That's coming up right now. Thanks everyone for joining us. The D-D program with Ted Raul and someone new. We'll be back on Monday. We're Monday through Friday, 9 o'clock, a.m. Eastern time. Appreciate you guys so much. It really can't even begin to articulate. Thank you. Thank you. Seriously.