DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Career Over for Hegseth? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • Admiral Mitch Bradley tries to explain himself to Congress today. As Trump claims each boat bombing saves 25,000 American lives, the man Hegseth blames for the double-tap strike is on the hot seat. Meanwhile, Signalgate is blowing up. Will this weekend mark the end of the former Fox News Weekend host? • Israel is opening the Rafah border crossing to Egypt. Egypt says it doesn’t know anything about it. It will help sick and injured Gaza’s get medical care. But is this the beginning of Israel’s plot to ethnically cleanse and annex Gaza? • Vladimir Putin to visit Narenda Modi in India to boost trade.

Ging D program with Ted Rall and John Kiriaku. It's Thursday, December 4th, 2025. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ted. How are you doing? I'm doing good. It's going to be cold as hell. Yeah.

It's tonight. Yeah, we're expecting snow tomorrow, which is earlier than I thought it was going to happen. It's going to hit a cold. It's going to hit zero Fahrenheit tonight. So that'll be brisk. Oh, that's cold. But you're upstate a little bit. That's right.

Even here in Arlington, I'm only three miles from the White House. It's going to be 25. Yeah, that's cold for D.C., for sure. And with a high of 29 tomorrow. Well, yeah, that's cold. New York City is going to be like a high of 32 or something. So, yeah, it's going to be cold here in the Northeast. Thanks for joining us.

Please, like, follow, and share the show. Give you a quick update on Robbie Aid, which is your generous effort. for it to help us keep our producer, Robbie West. We ask every month, the beginning of the month, to get $1,000 from you guys. John and I each pitch in $250. And then we, as Robbie lives in cheap, cheap Montana. I know he's gritting his teeth right now because it's not so cheap. And also it's cold.

Really nice, though. He's able to get past his post-docs job and stay here with us and help us grow the show, which we really honestly couldn't do without him and therefore we couldn't do without you. In all seriousness, Ted and I, Ted meant that quite literally. We could not possibly have gotten to where we are without Robbie because we don't know what the hell we're doing. It's true.

Robbie understands these algorithmic, you know, equations and situations and stuff. And I don't know what the heck he's talking about. I just have trust in him. And sure enough, everything he said has worked. That's true. And so we are, we're getting there. We're not there, but we are getting there.

And so things are moving in the right direction for sure on a number of levels. And so thank you, Robbie. And thank you guys. So there is a URL I'm going to put up here. It's a GoFundMe to help us get to $1,000. Thanks to your generosity. It's only December 4th. And we're already at $935.

We're seeking $1,000 for the month of December. So if we can get there today, then we won't have to talk about this tomorrow. You won't hear about this again until the beginning of January. So if you guys could generously go over to gofundme.com slash F slash Dprogram Robbie, that would be awesome. And we've been talking behind the scenes about maybe, you know, setting up some rewards for people who kick in at a certain level. Maybe John and I can you guys some books and shirts and stuff like that.

Yeah, we're also talking about swag from behind. the scenes. We know you guys are interested. Some of you are interested in that. So that'll be good. We have an ad coming up soon. So, Robbie, whenever you're ready to post that, in the meantime, there's a little bit of breaking news this morning. Again, that URL is gofundme.com slash f inexplicably slash deprogram Robbie. If you forget that, just go to GoFundMe and search for deprogram Robbie one word. Again, we're at 935 out of 1,000. So thank you for that. We're here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time. A little bit of housekeeping Scott Stantis, editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune. We'll be filling in for John tomorrow morning.

John's back on Friday. Got a funeral to go to, but a cousin who was in my dad's generation, so no big deal. Well, I shouldn't say that. That makes it sound awful. She was a big deal for that. She was a lovely, lovely person. And starting about five years ago, every time I'd see her, she'd be like, you look so familiar. And I'm telling her, Irene, come on, man. That sucks. Yeah, I hope that doesn't happen to me.

But again, it's in my jeans. I think it's in the mail maybe. But who knows? And so anyway, and also Scott Stantis will be joining me at 11 o'clock Eastern Time today for the DMZ America podcast. So let's get through that ad and we'll talk about the breaking news. Still haven't tried 1775 coffee. Now is your shop.

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you know he's almost in the Pacific Northwest sort of and almost they're very particular they're very into coffee up there Ted, I did my first ad yesterday on deep focus. And it was fun on the one hand, and it was a little embarrassing on the other. At least you don't have to finish the ad with, go to www.johnlovesgold.com. That's www.johnlovesgold.com. Yeah, it's a little close for comfort there. Yeah, yeah.

Also, talking about yourself in the third person, as always. awkward. Yeah. You know, I mean, some people are used to it. Kings, certain presidents. Yeah, it's funny. But, okay, so some breaking news. Speaking of the president, there's been an arrest by the FBI related to January 6th about the pipe bombs that were left in front of the Democratic National Committee headquarters. I was up from two to five with insomnia. I read every paper in America, it seems, and I did not see that. Where in the world did you see that? It just broke.

Oh, it's just like literally like a few. Yeah, it didn't happen. Your insomnia did not let you down. It was, it was, it was, unless you were clairvoyant, you would not have known. Who did they arrest? They're not saying anything other than it's a man. It's a man. So it's not the police woman from the Capitol Police.

Correct. Oh. Unless it's a trans man. I better, I better delete my accusatory. Facebook post. Probably a good idea. So, by the way, Luigi Mangione is in court again today.

Today is the, it's worth noting, the anniversary of the assassination of the president of, the CEO of United Health Care. Yeah, on a Midtown Street in Manhattan, early in the morning on December 4th. And the assailant, escaped by bicycle. There's still controversy about what the bicycle was.

Originally, it was thought to be a bike-share bike, and then it's like, no, it wasn't a bike-share-bike. He's like, where'd the bike go? We don't really know. There's still stuff that's foggy about this. And he's in court trying to get his yapping to the cops, alleged yapping to the cops, thrown out of court.

That probably won't work. And also the diary that he, that he inexplicably was caught with in his backpack. I got an email from a retired deputy sheriff in Oregon. I have not responded to him yet, but I'm going to him. I'm going to invite him on to deep focus. But he says that even as a former law enforcement officer, he loves when I keep repeating,

don't talk to the cops. Yes. He said so many of his colleagues were crooked. And so the only way to protect yourself is don't talk to the car. And the thing is, it's, it's really hard, right? Because the cops are trained to get you to talk. Yes. You know, like pull you over.

Well, where are you going? Yeah. And it's not in your business. And it's like, you know, you're probably going someplace innocuous, most of us are. So you feel like, ah, why not talk about that? And you know, and you're like, you know, don't be antagonistic. Right. I mean, I violated my own rule.

Once, I was pulled over for a stupid speeding ticket, and due to a series of unfortunate events like the children's books, I ended up in the clinch for about an hour and a half. And in there, they asked me among all this crap about me, including my religion. And literally while, and I answered them a few of these questions. And then I was like, after I did, I'm like, why did I talk to that guy? Why? I should have just respectfully declined. None of this is their business. You know, you have, you have the right not to, not to self-incriminate, not to say anything. And I just didn't avail myself. And I was like, if someone who's, you know, as political as I am is going to fall for that, it's really easy for anyone. So that's right. You know, John, you can't possibly say it enough. You know, I'm going to, I want to repeat for people who didn't know me from the show that I had on Sputnik with Michelle. But back in 2019, I left my house on my Vespa.

I get around mostly by Vespa because I hope you're wearing a helmet. Yeah, yeah, after getting hit by a metro bus in 2017 and breaking practically every bone in my body, including my back. I wear a helmet. Vespa is a little Italian scooter. So I love it. So anyway, I had a court hearing at 12 o'clock noon on custody. I was in this brutal custody fight. I get two blocks from the house and a cop lights me up.

And I thought, oh, that's funny. There was only one stop sign. And I came to a complete stop because I always make sure that both my feet touch the ground when I get to a stop sign. In the five seconds it took me to turn the motorcycle off, put the kickstand up, take off my helmet. Ten cops in five cruisers all had their guns drawn on me. so they were like hands up hands up i put my hands up slowly i said what's up guys like that

and one of them grabbed me by the back of my jacket and threw me onto the hood of the car and i thought to myself it's a setup which it was taken identity no no it was a setup um the person this person that i was fighting over custody with thought that that she would get a leg up if I had to miss the custody hearing because I was under arrest. Jesus Christ. And so they stuffed three search warrants in my jacket pocket. I was wearing a suit, a search warrant for my person, my vehicles, and my home. And it took me a second to get my bearings, but the cop says, where are you going?

And I said, I don't talk to cops. You have anything in your pockets that might stick me? And I said, I don't talk to cops. He says, I'm just asking for my own safety. And I said, I don't give two shits about your safety. And he says, give me the keys to your house or I'm going to break down the door. And I still have my hands up. As he starts cuffing me.

And then he says, are you going to give me your keys? And I said, are you fucking deaf? I don't talk to cops. Well, they went into my house. They seized everything of import. All my electronics, my desktop, my laptop, my phone, my backup phone, my thumb drives, my iPad, my iPod, everything that you can plug in. They seized it. And then they never charged me with a crime.

And so what was what did the what did the warrant say was did the warrant say any cause for suspicion? They were looking for revenge. Oh, God. Yeah. I said, I don't, I don't have anything like that. Well, our information is that you do. Well, your information is fucking incorrect. So I was able to file a federal lawsuit against them.

Yeah. So don't talk to the cops. Literally nothing good. No, it only, yeah, it's, that's it just leads to other, to, it just leads to more questions that it's just everything you do, just like it digs you further into a hole. I always think of the Central Park Five, right? Yes. Where they just blabbered. They were innocent. But, you know, by the time it was all over,

you know, off to prison, they went for years. If they hadn't talked to the cops and they had gotten like Ron Kuby to show up, you know, that wouldn't have happened. They would have had a miserable night. That's true. For sure. But, you know, whatever. Yeah. And then all the other thing you should never believe is if you just tell us what we want to know we'll let you go yeah exactly they don't have any any notion of letting you go no it's not going to go it ain't going to happen um you know i tell you one funny thing at the end of this when when we were going to court for my suit against them i said to my attorney you know what i said we never received we never received discovery he said what discovery i said

whatever discovery they were collecting like when they arrested me and he said would did you tell the cops when they arrested you? I said, I told him, go fuck themselves. And he said, exactly. Thus, there is no discovery. I said, ah, right. That was my point in the beginning. Yes.

Yeah, that's the proper response. Okay. John, we've got three questions for you. And then we'll lurch into the news. By the way, the news we're going to talk about. If you haven't read the description, Admiral Mitch Bradley, who looks like the fall man in the double tap killing in the southern Caribbean is going to be behind closed-door session in Congress today.

We'll be talking about, I think HECSAT's in deep shit. I think he might be gone tomorrow night. The Rafa border crossing into Egypt's crossing, is that sinister? Putin is meeting with Modi in India tomorrow to talk about boosting trade. So I think that's interesting, some geopolitical crap. Okay, so, John, three questions. Has anyone ever assumed you were Japanese? based on your last...

You know what? That happens all the time. That happened. The first time that ever happened, I was a senior in college. I was taking a class called... It was a blow-off class because I had already finished all my core classes. So it was called Chinese culture through films. And it was taught by this professor, Dr. Scher.

And she said on the first day that her name... She was very hard to understand. Her English was terrible. But she said her name is Dr. Scher, because that means like, whatever, door. It's not Dr. Sure. That means plant. It's not Dr. Sure, because that means like, you know, egg or whatever. So every time we had to say her name, we'd say, Dr. Sure, like that.

And everybody would crack up. But anyway, the first day of class, we were going through the role. And she says, Kiriaku. And then she looks at me. I'm sitting in the front row. And she says, you are Japanese? And I said, do I look Japanese? It's like, no, I'm not Japanese.

But that was the first time anybody had ever asked me that. Oh, yeah, that would work. It would work. It could be Japanese. But I've gotten it, yeah, routinely over the years. Yeah, routinely. That's pretty funny. Another one.

How do you learn a new country? This question came up a couple. of days ago and we try i tried to answer it um for example how would you go about deeply learning south korea or vietnam ah yeah well there are a couple of different ways i think uh one is if you're going to live there right the other is if you're studying read everything you can possibly get your hands on and it's that's far easier now than it was when we were in school for example ted and i but um but now read absolutely everything you can get your hands on, read the books about the country's history,

read about the politics, read their English language newspapers if you don't know the language, and you'll get up to speed. That's how a CIA analyst begins to really learn an account. But anyway, if you're living there, one of the things that I did

was from the day that I arrived in a new country, I'd work my workday, and then I'd get in the car and I would just drive around. for four hours every single day I remember once in Athens I had only been to Athens I've been Athens a hundred times of course but only as a tourist and then only in the tourist areas when I lived there and I was expected to operate their clandestinely I mean I had to really learn Athens and I remember one time somebody

said something about not my words the gypsy encampment in northern Greece in northern Athens and I said I said no you can't can't go on the main road through the gypsy encampment, you have to enter from the west. And everybody looked at me. They're like, how the heck do you know that? And I said, because I've been up there about a hundred times so that I really know Athens. So that's the key is you've got to just get on the ground and explore. I like it. John, have you heard of the TV series Lioness? The CIA has depicted a lot there, especially ground branch. They even show water. boarding in an episode.

It seems like they like to show torture on TV. I am proud to say that you were looking at the new script consultant for Lioness. Oh, good. I begin just after the new year. Excellent. After a conversation with the showrunner last week, we decided that my expertise was necessary to make a good show great. And we're going to make it truly true to life.

Next. John, and M.W. Knox 186 wants to know if you ever, did you win that lawsuit against the cops? It was dismissed in the federal district court. I won in the court of appeals. It was sent back. It was dismissed a second time. I went back to the court of appeals. And listen, I'm the only person I've ever known in my life anywhere in America that has won twice in the federal court of appeals. It went back to the district court for the third time. And he threw it. it out the third time. And my attorney's like, look, we're running up bills of hundreds of thousands dollars. And I never paid him a cent. He did it pro bono. He's like, I got to make a living. So we let it go. It's hard. Well, it's suing the government. It's hard to sue the cops. Yeah. So Village Idiot is chastising me for making Asian music noises. For the record, I was thinking of turning Japanese by the awesome English band The Vapers from 1980. And by the way, that's sort of like that fake sort of ching chintech do do do do do it um it's npr had a fascinating deep dive into

the origins of it apparently there is no Asian origin to that at all it goes back to some tin pan alley like play from the 19th century uh that was meant it was meant to evoke not japanese but chinese culture but there's nothing in chinese opera or anything that that a alludes to that. And they played it for people on the streets in Beijing and even old guys. And they're like, nah, that's not, that's nothing. We don't know what that is. We don't know what that is. That's all from a Bugs Bunny cartoon anyway. Well, the Bugs Bunny thing is from the roots of it go back to that weird Tin Pan Alley thing. So, all right. So should we talk about poor Mitch Bradley or what? Sure. We can talk about Mitch Bradley or Pete Hegseth. Yeah, sure. Yeah. It's all together. It's all together. Okay.

So, I mean, so look, I think Pete Hanks at, the big news for him really is that now the Inspector General's report has come out nailing him for Signalgate. You know, that was the episode in which instead of paying attention to the cabinet meeting, he was, well, he was signaling. That happened. That was the second incident, right? The first incident was there was a signal group chat before an airstrike against the Houthis in Yemen. and he basically accidentally added the editor of the Atlantic magazine onto the group chat

with a bunch of national security people. So basically he plays fast and loose with Signal or did anyway. And so I'm kind of surprised, A, that there's still an IG and B for the Pentagon, and B that they came down so hard on him. You know, I can't help but seeing kind of like dark, you know, sort of foreboding things for Hegsteth here. Looks to me like the administration wants to grease the skids for him to exit and that this is a way to make that happen. What do you think? I mentioned to you, I'm going to say probably six or eight months ago, that a friend of mine in the White House and not the guy sweeping the floors.

This is like a well-placed guy, told me that Trump loves Heg-Seth personally, but realizes that Heg-Seth is in over his head and is just not doing a good job as Secretary of Defense. And as we said yesterday, we're talking about the biggest company in the world with three million employees and a trillion-dollar budget. So he's not able to manage this thing. and that they were they were thinking that hegseth would be pushed out after a year well we're very quickly coming up on a year yep um the the inside scoop at the time was that uh Tulsi gabbert would be named secretary of defense I think that's changed I think people have turned a little bit maybe on on Tulsi whether that's fair or unfair but I honest to God Ted I I just don't see, I don't see how Hegseth lasts to the end of this term.

He's so reckless. I mean, and also, I mean, look, the thing is, I wish we had this audio. But this audio of Hegseth talking about the fog of war is priceless. So he says, well, you know, we couldn't see what was going on. We didn't know there were two guys that still hanging on to the wreckage in the water when we would hit the second time. It's the fog of war, dude. Okay, well, so the thing is, though, but according to the rules of engagement, if you can't see what's going on and you don't know what's going on, you can't fire. And so, like, you're admitting that you fired without knowing what the fuck was going on.

I mean, it's pretty bad. He's just, he's just, he's just like not the smartest guy. Yeah. So I think, you know, look, tomorrow is, tomorrow night is the traditional news blackout. media dump time. Yes. It starts around 3 p.m. is when these things usually happen,

like any time after 3 p.m. tomorrow. So I'd say if Hexeth survives the weekend, he survives to see another month or two or three or four. If he doesn't, I mean, otherwise he's gone. And I don't know who replaces him. What do you think about, I mean, look, you're much more familiar with chain of command stuff

and like bosses falling on their swords for their underlings. is Pete Hankseth expected to take responsibility for what happened here rather than saying, well, dude, I left the room. I wasn't there. I don't know anything about it. It was Admiral Bradley, but that's on him. That's a good question. In any other administration, that answer is an easy yes.

Absolutely, yes, that's just the way it is. The buck has to stop somewhere, as Harry Truman said. In this administration, that is far, far less clear. you know immediately the knives come out and the fingers start pointing and and and this is why we read about it yesterday in the Washington Post because now what happens is somebody in charge in this case Hegeseth finds a fall guy in this case the admiral and then the admiral to protect himself runs to the Washington Post and leaks the whole story yep very very dangerous practice man. Yeah, it's nasty business. It's a bad, I mean, what about, what does that do to morale, though, in the military chain of command to know that, you know, basically your, the top ranking official in the Department of Defense is a weasel?

Well, there, like you said a moment ago, you were a little surprised to see that there was an inspector general at the Pentagon. Yeah. Normally, I'm surprised, too. I thought they got rid of the inspectors general. Yeah. But normally that's exactly what you would do. You would make a protected report. And I say protected, meaning you would be exempt from prosecution or blowback if you made a report to the inspector general. And then you let the inspector general do his thing.

He'll do an investigation. He'll point the right fingers. Then somebody gets disciplined or fired or prosecuted or whatever. Today, it's impossible to say. I'll tell you what I would do. If I were in a position that senior in government, I would make sure that I have an A-list criminal defense attorney a phone call away, just in case.

Oh, for sure. Okay, some financial stuff to get through. Soten, thanks so much for the 20 bucks. What do we think about the Pope's statement about Palestine and his recent trip to Turkey in Lebanon? Any word on deprogrammed merch? I asked previously, but I have been having connection issues. Happy holidays. Happy holidays do you do?

Merchandise, we literally are scheduled to talk about merchandise this afternoon sometime, John, if you're around. Yeah, I'm around. Okay, so that we are working on. We have someone new helping us out who's going to, who's on top of that. I don't know if we're free to reveal their name yet, so we'll talk to them about that. The Pope's statement about Palestine, I thought, I don't know that I thought it was that remarkable. This seemed like the kind of thing to me that Pope Francis certainly would have said Pope Francis was furious. Pope Francis would have whacked him around the face and head. Pope Francis was furious about what the Israelis did to the Christian community in Gaza. Absolutely

enraged. And you know, when the Israelis began bombing churches in Gaza, Orthodox churches, and Catholic churches, the Orthodox and Catholic priests from the area all ran to the churches being bombed to remain inside those churches, as if daring the Israelis keep bombing. Like a human shields, like basically it's human shields. As human shields, yeah. And these are, a lot of these were not, we're also not just, you know, holy places, but they're also historic. Yeah, exactly.

You know, we're talking about churches, 1,500-year-old churches. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the two bucks from Morrow. John saw you on with Dave Smith. Great episode. Oh, thank you. He was fun. I enjoyed that show.

I had never done Dave Smith before, but I'll do him again. Toby Jay, thanks for the five Australian dollars. John, have you thought about teaching a course on strategy, which can relate to thinking more strategically, which relates to business? As a matter of fact, because I am forced to be entrepreneurial, I am working with Miami University of Ohio right now to come up with a exactly such a course, and we are going to launch it in Athens in August so that I can deduct my vacation. I like it. Okay. Archangel, $1.99, amazing. Thanks very much. Amazing stream.

Thank you for the good work. Suden, thanks for the $4.99 and the retracted message, but feel free to chime in again. Let's see. U.S. C.S. triple X-A-Rod, thanks for the two bucks. Based on the damage Trump and Hanksath have done to the DOD, how long do you think it'll take for the department to recover and go back to normal? Oh, I think that I think DOD is so huge and so, um, so deeply entwined with everything in our country that it can easily just kind of sluff off

bad leadership. I don't think, I don't think, I don't think DOD as an entity, as an organization. is going to have any problem surviving Pete Hegseth. Yeah, I would... It runs itself, basically. It's a monster. Yeah.

Philip Blair, a question for you, John. Do you have a famous favorite old-time radio spy show from World War II from the Cold War whenever? You know, I listen to... I have... I've had a serious XM radio subscription since they created Sirius XM radio. Actually, my account number is 0-000. zero, zero, whatever, 71. That's how early I got in

because I was driving to Ohio every other weekend to see my kids. But I listened to all of them, frankly. And to tell you the truth, I like Dragnet better. I still listen to the old, to the Dragnet from 1949 to 1954. And then I watch Dragnet on TV every day

from 1966 to 1971. A question for both of us and Robbie from Elliott, do we think it's possible to persuade conservatives to take international law seriously if it's called the laws of war or rules of engagement instead? I'm going to say, I don't think the conservatives or Republicans are ever interested in international law. I don't think they believe in it. I don't think it's a real thing for them. I agree. Until somebody grabs Hegseth, you know, in an airport transit lounge somewhere and sends them to the Hague. Yeah. Then they'll Which isn't going to happen.

No. Then they'll believe it. But yeah, I agree. I don't, I don't think they, but, you know, the Democratic Party doesn't care about international law either. Oh, for sure. They barely even pay lip service to it anymore. I said this yesterday to a friend of mine. When, when former presidents and vice presidents not only attend Dick Cheney's funeral, but are the eulogists

for Dick Cheney and talk in Washington's greatest cathedral about what a great American he was and the party's lost and where his disgusting right-wing fascist daughter is a lead endorser and co-campainer with the Democratic presidential nominee as she was as Janey was these you know a few months ago that's right it's disgusting

Well, a year ago. It's hard to believe it's been here. Absolutely awful. Patrick, Crabtree, John, are you prepared to be all over the news when the pardon comes? I got to say, I saw a pardon thing break for someone else yesterday, and I'm like, is it John? And it's like, incoming media shootstorm. I think that's why I had so much trouble sleeping last night. Henry Quayar and his wife were pardoned.

And you know what? I got to say, my attorney called me as soon as the news. news broke. And he said, did you see Henry Quayor was pardoned? And I said, yeah, kind of makes me sick. He said, that's not the important thing. The important thing is to read Trump's statement. I read it. Trump is far smarter and far more calculating on these pardons than people are giving him credit for being. They look like they're completely random. And for the most part, they're not completely random. Henry Quayor, that's right. And Henry Quayor was the only only Democrat during the Biden administration to criticize the Biden administration's border

policies. And the Democrats were preparing to primary him. And then lo and behold, he's all of a sudden accused of corruption and he and his wife are going on trial thanks to the Biden Justice Department. So, you know, in many of these cases, I think Trump is out there writing some wrongs and I hope I get included in that we'll see um more information is starting to get out about well the story about the FBI arrest in the J6 case is is is exploding but we still don't have a name yet we'll bring that to you as soon as we get it right uh lots of questions for you John um let's see are you oh yeah okay so that so that one yeah and there's the thing is John you've been in the middle of a media shitstorm I think once you've done it it's not

really shocking after that no no the first time it happened i lost 10 pounds in two weeks from stress i couldn't sleep i couldn't eat i it's well you're paralyzed it was rough i mean and it was rough yeah i mean like i remember the first time it really happened to me and like the crazy thing is it's in days of voicemail and somehow people had my number and i'm getting calls from all these media outlets and literally it's like you have 92 messages so then you're like listening and you're like delete delete delete listening and deleting and then it's like while you're there it's like literally like you you know you have 72 new messages and you're like I can just keep doing this all day long they're just adding up and it's like and it's just it's terrifying actually yeah it's awful

I got the best advice though from the late Steve Benson editorial for the Arizona Republic when that was all going on. He was like, never talk to local news ever. He goes, he's like, make sure you get anything that comes in from the AP, you tell them, send me your questions in writing, and then you reply in writing, and you write every sentence so that if that one sentence appeared by itself, it does not make you look bad. Great advice.

Because the AP goes everywhere. It goes to hundreds of media outlets, right? He's like, if you do nothing else, do that AP thing. Don't, you know, don't, and so he had just all sorts of stuff like that. And he was like, don't do any Daniel in the Lion's Den stuff. Like, if you're a liberal, don't go on Fox. If you're a conservative, don't go on MSNBC. Like, basically he was just like, he had the whole thing down

because he had gone through so many media cluster Fox. Yeah. Wow. John, have you seen the recent video of the new Republican movement, three armed men in front of the Irish flag? Do you think that the troubles will kick off again? Ireland is a powder keg currently. Why is Ireland a powder keg currently?

I don't know. And I was just in Ireland and things seem to be okay. You know what? I can't intelligently answer that question. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, no, I don't. I mean, yeah.

I mean, I never understood why the I, R.A. and Sinn Féin ever stood down in the first place, they didn't get anything. They shouldn't, you know, they didn't get the British out of Northern Ireland. There were no meaningful concessions on the part of the Brits. No. I felt like at that. The only thing they did. The only thing they did is they evacuated one British little garrison that they had there in Northern Ireland.

That was it. Yeah. And I think they got some seats in the, in the, They did. They did. Big whoop. They got they sold out. So Israel is opening that the southern border of Gaza. It's called the Rafah crossing to Egypt. John, you and I've been talking about this since day one back in our old shows and stuff. So the Egyptians have long anticipated the possibility that the Israelis would throw open that gate. I predicted this in writing years ago that they would do this. and basically say, fly free little guzz and birds into the safe arms of your co-religionists in Egypt. The Egyptians anticipating this and not wanting this to happen and not wanting to aid in abet ethnic cleansing, not to mention not being able to deal with the influx probably politically and financially, have built this berm in the middle of the sort of like a safety, like a mile and a half away from the main border.

the Egyptians say they don't know anything about this. There's tens of thousands of wounded Gazans waiting to leave and get medical care. I would imagine the Egyptians will let them go. But, you know, is this a sinister plan on the part of Beavini Netanyahu? Absolutely, yes. Yeah. Yeah, there's no other answer. Yes, this is a continuation of Israel's plan, program, policy to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

The Egyptians have been adamant that they will not open Ruffa. They will not open it because they know there's going to be a stream of Palestinians out of Gaza to save themselves and to feed their families. Yeah. But they will never be allowed back in. And in fact, when the Israelis announced the crossing opening last night, they said it is to leave only not to enter. No one will be allowed. Exactly. So no.

We know how the Israelis are with their right. no right of return thing. Y'all, they're serious about it, man. That goes back to 1949. So, well, okay, so let's see. Another question here. This is more of a comment. Patrick Crabtree, being of the left,

I just pray there's not a bunch of Democrats talking shit about John when the pardon comes just because it's coming from Trump. Oh, they will. Oh, sure they will. And I'm going to tell them they're going to, they're going to portray you as a, you know, as a right-wing lackey, a stooge.

Yeah, sure. Maga. Maga. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I'll look him in the eye and say, yeah, you're going to fund my pension? You're going to put my kids through college?

Yeah, I didn't think so. So, I mean, I'm not apologizing to anybody if it happens. Hey, if Donald Trump decided to launch an investigation into Austin Butener and what happened at the L.A. Time, something that, by the way, former former governor, Jerry Brown has. said at the time that he was interested in doing, but in the IG of California was interested in doing, you know, I would take it. I would absolutely take it, you know. Absolutely. I mean, just, you know, just so the right thing gets done. I don't care how it gets done. And, you know, like I say all the time, too, what do I care about Democrats and the Democratic Party? It's the

Democrats who did this to me. Right. Why in the world would I want to express the word for them? You could have died. They would have not care. That's exactly right. They didn't care if your family, like, starved to death. That's it. That's it. Fluidic Polly. John, why is Russia more involved in geopolitical fights against the U.S.?

Compared to China, which does nothing, basically? Oh, I love this question. I want to answer it too, but go ahead. My own view is for a couple of reasons. First of all, the Russians are easier to pick on than the Chinese are. The Russians don't have any money. They have a much, much smaller population. they don't have the international reach that the Chinese do.

The Chinese are just too big and too powerful and too rich for us to pick a fight with. The Russians, we can pick and pick and pick and push them around. That's what I believe. I think there's also a historical legacy, like in the same way that we can pick on Iran because of the hostage crisis and all that. And we keep going on that. Americans remember the Cold War. I mean, my cartoonist colleagues still draw the,

the Russian government as like the Soviet bear. They draw hammers and sickles as if as if Russia was still a communist country. Oh my God. I mean it's so I mean I think they're coasting a lot on the historical legacy. Yes. Yes. And also I want to just sort of address you know fluidics point here which are the assumption you know the uh China does nothing basically Russia does. The implication is that Russia does do something basically. Russia doesn't do anything to the US. It doesn't It doesn't look for any fights with the U.S. I mean, Vladimir Putin was mayor of St. Petersburg. He wanted, he loved the U.S.

He changed all the signs in St. Petersburg to be English and Russian because he was trying to encourage Americans to come and visit. He wanted to join NATO. He literally asked, hey, can we join NATO? And the U.S. is like, no. No, actually, not only are you not admitted, like, NATO's here to kill you. Right? You can't join NATO. Like, you know, like it's, I mean, come on. They're not doing

anything. Thanks, guys, for listening and putting us on the splash page on Rumble. Hey, thanks. Great. Appreciate that. Roby Bang Bang. John for President, 28. Ted for VP. Robbie can be a special envoy or something. We need a viable third party. This is ridiculous. And you know what? I wouldn't make Robbie a diplomat, but I would definitely hire him. You know, I think, too, that there is something to be said. for the for the MAGA left you know old old school progressives like us yeah that just we're homeless yeah we're homeless there's nowhere to go we we want a strong and viable party that does not want

overseas entanglements we yeah i mean when i hear america first i believe in that i do too i mean and you know when robbie who is totally right wing says like you know the first job of the united States presidents is to protect the people of the United States. I agree with them. I mean, the leader of every country, whether they're a king or an emir or whatever, their duty is to their own citizens, first and foremost. Absolutely right. That is it right there. I can't believe that's even complicated. No, my God. Hamza. John, if you get your pardon, what's the first thing you're going to do with your pension? I'm going to go to Disneyland. Now, you know what? I actually qualify for the pension beginning on July 1st.

Regardless. Regardless. I mean, that's when I would be able to start drawing on it. So I would have all my paperwork in order, ready to draw that first check. I guess that would be effective. You're not going on a wild spending spree. You have a lot of debts. I have incredible an incredible amount of debt.

Yeah. Yeah. Sickening. It'll make your hair stand up. Yeah. No, the LA Times ever came after me. Oh, forget it. Nothing. But, you know, if they did, I would love that because I live in New, so my lawyers are really interesting. They would love that because I live in New York now. And that would mean the case could be reopened in New York. Without the influence of the LAPD or the L.A. Times, it would be an entirely different matter.

Hey, Ted. Johnny Jackson, can I buy you guys a picture of beer and some tacos and we go shoot billiards somewhere near Tampa? Absolutely yes. Sure. but we're not near Tampa unfortunately I'm in Virginia and Ted's You gotta get us invited down to speak in Tampa Then we'll come You know That's what it is guys

I mean seriously we will come Either or both of us We'll come we need an honorarium We need a flight We need a hotel I will add I will add that I have been Very very fortunate in that

A German billionaire Who has seen my videos and read my books and followed the case has invested in a speaking tour for me. So we're going to get that started in late January or early February. It's going to be nationwide. We were going to start on the West Coast. We decided instead to start in Texas. And I'm going to be going all across America an evening with John Kyriaku,

that kind of thing. So we'll be able to meet everybody in in person for a while. I think that'd be fun. And then I won't be in debt anymore. Longtime listener says we should interview Haas Aldin about Maga Communism. Robbie, you hear the man. Let's go find him. Okay, cool.

Let's talk. Okay, we have a 13 minutes left. Just a reminder, TMI show coming up at the, top of the hour, DMC America with Scott Stantis, who's co-hosting tomorrow here, coming up at 11 a.m. Eastern. Okay, so Putin's going to India. He's hanging out with Prime Minister Modi. They're basically, I mean, I think it's pretty obvious what this is about.

This is about tightening talks. Job, you know, geopolitically, what strikes me is that India used to be like sort of a southern Asian polarity. And now it seems like geopolitically it feels more like almost a state that's like sort of like Belgium or South Korea that's between spheres of influence. It's no longer really a sphere of influence itself. It's sort of like a lot of countries that are sort of like Afghanistan, not that I'm comparing India to Afghanistan, but Afghanistan traditionally has always, you know, we want to get along with the Iranians, you want to get along with the Russians, we don't want to get along with the Brits. play them off against each other because we're in between all these guys. Indian was never in between anyone, and now it feels like it's in between. I agree with that, and Joe Biden did that.

You know, Bill Clinton devoted an incredible amount of time and energy improving relations with India, which were always on the poor side. The U.S. threw its lot in with Pakistan in the early 1980s because of the Afghanistan situation, and we just told the Indians, look, you're on your own. We're with the Pakistanis. And then Bill Clinton said, that was a mistake. We need to start improving relations with India. And he did.

He invited the Prime Minister of India to come to the United States. It was this big triumphant visit. And then even Donald Trump in his first term hosted Prime Minister Modi. They actually did a joint appearance at a stadium in Texas. And relations were great until he. Joe Biden became president and said, nah, we don't like the fact that you buy Russian gas. So we're going to have to downgrade the level of our relations.

And the Indians said, okay, so long. See you. Yeah. No skin off their noses. So we're the ones that came out on the short end of the stick on that stupid policy or from that stupid policy. So I agree with you. We tried to pull the Indians into our or,

by force, and then they said, what are you crazy? That doesn't benefit us in any way. Yeah, I mean, obviously, they know what side of the, they know which hemisphere they live in. I mean, it's important for them to get along with the Chinese in particular, but also the Russians. It's not, they are not bad friends to have. Here we go.

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Okay. Thank you for that, Robbie. Let's see. Okay, so a couple more questions. Which cities in Texas about your tour? Sean Whitman wants to know. John, you better let me know when you hit Houston, Phil Chad says. Yeah, we're going to do, initially we were going to do only San Antonio and Austin.

but we're adding Houston and Dallas as well. We're also going to go to Branson, Missouri, Charleston, South Carolina, and Santa Fe, New Mexico in the first. We're going to try to do six or seven events at a time, then take a break for a couple of weeks and then do another six or seven events. So, yeah, those are going to be the first. We'll start in Santa Fe, then do San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Dallas, then Branson, then Charleston, South Carolina. Okay. And so anyway, so Moody. Yeah. Yeah, so getting back to that, what, I mean, is there any way that the U.S. can fix this relationship? You know, I think that there is, but it's not going to be in a way that the United States is willing to do, thanks to the Biden policy that has, you know, bled into the Trump administration. And that is just continue to squeeze the, Russians and you squeeze the Russians by pressuring countries like India to cut off trade relations.

The Indians can't cut off trade relations, nor would they want to because those trade relations with Russia are beneficial to India. So, I mean, listen, countries don't make policy changes as a favor to some other country. That's just not real life. there's a famous adage that in international relations there's no such thing as a permanent friend only permanent interests and it's not in india's interest to walk away from cheap russian gas it also strikes me that like india uh you know is obviously at the absolute center of the a i explosion uh with tech and they need uh you know an i be gobbling up those uh you know

BTUs, and they need as much energy as they can get, as much cheap energy as they can get. I don't think they can say no here, right, unless the U.S. could provide. The other thing is, the U.S. just doesn't seem reliable to me. I mean, if you're an international partner, you know that we're, you know, from party to party, president to present, even within the course of a single administration, our policies are fickle. Yes. People don't know if they can count on us. And they can change every four years, which has to be immensely frustrating overseas.

When I was serving in Saudi Arabia, one of the Saudi foreign ministry guys that I used to deal with said that that's always the biggest fear of the Saudi government is that every time a new president comes in, policy is going to change. For the most part, the U.S. policy towards Saudi Arabia didn't change, but there's always the risk that it will. And other countries are genuinely fearful of that. Well, and they should be. I mean, it's sort of like in business, the thing you always want is predictability. You want to know what interest rates are likely to be. You want to know where the Dow Jones is likely to be. And when you don't know those things, those make you nervous.

It makes you not want to invest in similar. There it is. It's highly analogous. A comment. And thanks you for the five British pounds from Alexander. John, I'm eternally grateful for what you've done, bringing attention to the deep state from within it. Please do a tour in the UK sometimes.

I did in the beginning of the year. I did. Well, I started off in Belfast. I went to Cork and Dublin, but then I went to Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Newcastle, Sheffield. And I'm forgetting one. I forget.

but doggone it I'm going to try to come back I promise I promise I really will and village idiot wants to know what's the correlation between interest in politics

and erectile dysfunction I'll tell you what there was a I know the connection but there was a political figure with whom I worked again in Saudi Arabia when these blue pills

first came out and his son I was friendlier with his son than I was with him. But the son told me, you know, when these blue pills were invented, his dad was like, oh my God, he had four wives. He took a pill. He could go all night. So he decided to take like 10 pills. Oh, no. And he had a stroke. And he died. Oh, fuck. So yeah. I thought it was that thing like the, you know, the preopsis ad, you know, warning. Like if you have an erection,

last you more than four hours. Call your girlfriend. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously. Because otherwise at the emergency room, they're going to lance it. And they're going to drain the blood. That's That's what they do. What? I worked for a guy, station chief, who told me that when they first came out, he took one. And he said, it just went straight like that. And like 12 hours later, yeah, he's like 12 hours later, it's painful. And he's like, oh, my God, what am I going to do?

And he called the doctor. And the doctor said, go to the emergency room. He goes to the emergency room. Holy shit. He said he's in so much pain. It's throbbing. They took out this big needle. And he goes, it just goes like this.

It goes, just like that. Oh, just by seeing the needle? They should have just shown him a picture of Janet Reno. I know, right? Just from the fear. He said, just looking at that giant needle, it did it. And he said, he'll never take one again, never again. Oh, I don't blame him.

Too many, I know too many people that just were like, oh, this was, this was a big mistake that I don't have. any interest. I don't have many. But that connection is obviously the audience for the audience for political talk tends to be older and male. That's the connection, right? I mean, oh yeah. Hey, a long time listener. Didn't Henry Kissinger say that power is the ultimate libido? That is why there are so many beautiful women in Washington on the arms of so many gargoyles because they are committee chairman on Capitol Hill or, you know, undersecretaries of some stupid department, yes, power is the greatest effigestion. Remember how Kissinger famously gave a press conference during which he admitted that

you see, he was a swinger? And he had been to the, to the grotto at the Playboy mentioned. I do remember that. And he's like, yes. And he was like, that's right. I'm a secret swinger baby that's literally what he said he's the secretary of state yeah can you imagine that's unbelievable i mean it's hilarious the 70s were an amazing time craziness Thomas uh we're we're we're on the way out here uh thank you saw your thanks for the 499 pounds they uh saw your new lady bible video it was cool was wondering where or if ronan with deniro ranks in your list of spy movie favorite i i freaking love i love ron i i have it on my I bought it years ago

and I've watched it a hundred times I can tell you how many times I've seen it fantastic fantastic yeah and one of De Niro's best performances which is saying a lot that says a lot and De Niro De Niro could not have played a CIA officer

any better than he did he was always the understated one always the level headed one you know you got some criminals involved and maybe a double agent and he just he hit it on the head I agree with you. That might be its best performance ever. Guys, thanks so much for listening.

The show will be back tomorrow at 9 o'clock a.m. Eastern time. John will be back Monday. Scott Stantis is sitting in for John tomorrow. Please stay tuned. We'll have a good show for you as usual, but we'll miss you, John. And have a great weekend. And good luck with the funeral and all that. Thank you, sir.

Please stay tuned for the TMI show with me, Ted Roll, and Scott Stantis. Manila Chan coming up at 10 a.m. And then Scott Stantis and I on DMZ America will be talking about the midterm elections next year handicapping that. That's at 11 a.m. Okay, bye, guys. Bye, everybody.

Bye, John. Thank you.