DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Dead As a Dog? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • Is Kristi Noem’s career as doomed as the puppy she shot? 3/4 of House Democrats would impeach her after CBP concluded Alex Pretti never “brandished” a gun, despite Noem’s claims. Democrats who voted to confirm her are joining right-wing Democrats like John Fetterman and some Republicans to call for her to step down in the aftermath of her repeated lies defending ICE killers in Minneapolis. Tim Kaine worries aloud that Stephen Miller would replace her. • Ilhan Omar attacked by a man who sprayed her with an unknown liquid. And state legislators are proposing legislation to rein in ICE. • Brunch Democrats schedule “No Kings 3” marches for March 28 because, when fascism is on the march, what’s the rush? • Trump’s insults and military threats to Europe prompt his right-wing European ideological travelers to distance themselves from him for fear of vassalization.JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLE!https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowFOLLOW TED:https://rall.com/https://x.com/tedrallFOLLOW JOHN:https://www.instagram.com/realjohnkiriakouhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLISTEN 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. It's Wednesday, January 28th. Thank you for joining us here on D-Program with Ted Rall and John Kirooku. I'm Ted Rall. That's John Kirooku. Good morning, John. Morning. Morning, Ted. Morning, everybody. How's your head, Ted? My head has seen better days. It's not the first time I've abused my head. So I probably won't be the last. At least I'm not a, you know, I'm not protesting ice and getting bashed into the, bashed in the face and shot your head. At least there's that. Okay. So we'll be talking about the situation in Minneapolis and around the country concerning ICE. Christy Nome is on the ropes. We don't know if she can survive. Elon Omar, who you talked to just a few days ago. A few nights ago, yeah. Was attacked by a man who sprayed her with an unknown liquid. My personal favorite story, even though it's not the most important, is with fascism on the march, the brunch Democrats. have decided to sound the alert by calling for another no-kings rally. But when fascism is coming, there's no rush. So we're not going to do this in the cold. It is cold. There's minutes of winter weather. So we're going to wait until March 28th. And it's conveniently scheduled for a weekend. So it's convenient for everybody. And no government workers will be inconvenienced on their commute

to work. And so, you know, March 28th, March, you know, make sure you have your momosas, all ready to go. And, you know, that'll be it hilarious. You know, when you said that earlier, when you wrote that the Democrats had scheduled this thing for March 28th, I thought you were kidding. So I Googled it. Yet another reason why I'm not a Democrat. I never, yeah, in the description, I always play it straight. I really do. Yeah, no joking, even though I'm a cartoonist. You know, some people would say, ever joke even in my cartoons, but that's hopefully not true.

Unbelievable. It is unbelievable. I might steal that and put it on Facebook. Maybe. We just do. Take it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Republic, meanwhile. And then finally, you know, Trump had all sorts of right-wing allies in Europe, including

Marine Le Pen. That all seems to be in deep trouble. So, and of course, obviously, we're always interested in answering and reacting to your comments and questions in the live feed, if you're watching on Rumble or YouTube, and in the 9 o'clock hour Eastern time. We're here Monday through Friday, 9 o'clock Eastern. So if you have those questions, please pipe them on. Also, I want to do a big thank you to all the followers of the show.

We have now hit another important benchmark in the building of the show. We're now at 15,000 regular subscribers on YouTube. So that's a big deal. That's a big show. Thanks for that. It's getting bigger. And you guys are awesome. And we love you.

And thank you so much. So Robbie let us, oh, Robbie says we have an ad. So Robbie, I promise I won't flake on the ad. Go ahead and put it up and I'll read it. John, should we do some questions or should we maybe talk about the Christy Noem or what should we do? Yeah, let's get Christy Noem and Ilhan Omar out of the way. All right. You know, you definitely want to get Christy Gnome out of the way.

Yeah, I would love to get Christy Gnome out of the way. I'd be afraid that you should shoot me in the head first. Before the ad times out. All right. Think about your Christy Gnome. is. All right, here we go. Still haven't tried 1775 coffee. Now's your shot. The 1775 starter kit just dropped, only a thousand units.

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and a morning routine that stands for something, just like mumble does. I think soon I'll be able to do that without reading it. Definitely. Ted, somebody, one of our viewers is on to you and has outed the fact that it was Brigitte Macron

that he's in the head. It's true. I've been, you know, I do have a thing for older women. So, yeah, you know, of course, you know, it's a price to be paid and, you know, and there it is. You're wearing it. Yeah, that's right. So, Christy Noem.

Christy Noem came to Washington, I guess, forgetting the maximum that the buck has to stop somewhere. And in Washington, if you want a friend, get a dog. As Harry Truman famously said, Republicans, the Democrats can, jump up and down all they want. Donald Trump doesn't care. Republicans, though, are now jumping up and down about the situation in Minneapolis. This has spiraled out of control. This clown bovino, the acting, you know, commander of ice and ice troops, ice forces in Minneapolis is on his way out. Tom Homan is on his way in to clean up this mess. But somebody's got to take the blame. And when you have the likes of Tom Till, the former head of the intelligence, the Senate Intelligence Committee, yelling that

Donald Trump's got to do something to end this, well, you got to do something. Same with Senator John Kennedy, the Republican, the very strongly pro-Trump Republican senator from Louisiana. You got to do something. And perhaps that's something as you fire Kristine Ome. Yeah. Well, I would think she's the most logical scalp to give up. I mean, John Federman, I mean, do we care about him? He's basically a Republican. Yeah, John Federman announced yesterday. It was carried in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia papers.

He announced yesterday that he would vote in favor of ICE funding. Oh, okay. He would not join Democrats in shutting down the government. But he did say he did call for Nome to step down. He did. Yeah. So he had a moment of clarity. Now, the thing about Trump is he's not going to want to let her go because that will,

be perceived as weakness. I watched his interview on the Will Kane show yesterday on Fox. I was surprised that he couldn't summon any words of sympathy for the families of these two dead American citizens. He couldn't bring himself to do it. I mean, he couldn't even, and also I'm surprised that even privately, it seems like a workaround would be to call or try to call the families and express private condolences one-on-one. Didn't do that either. No, nothing. nothing this is truly an us versus them situation in his mind yeah yeah yeah and i mean and you know that's look that's a that's a that's a feature if you have a complete base strategy which of course he does in both meanings of that word um but he also has uh but but you know the problem here is

the knives are all under the togas and when you have half the country hates your guts and knows that you hate their guts all you're gonna fuck up at some point and they're to shiv you. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah, well, so we'll see what, I mean, I don't think she's long for this world. I mean, look, she could be impeached, really, truly, if she doesn't step down. Well, that seems to be what's, what's going to happen. You know, the House is so narrowly divided. The Democrats only need three Republicans to flip with Thomas Massey being an easy one. The Democrats have said that they're going to push for impeachment. They probably can't. until after the midterm elections,

everybody concedes that the Democrats are going to win the House. And so, yeah, she'll, if she can survive until next January, yes, she'll be impeached. Isn't this, I mean, look, isn't this unfair to America's most famous puppy killer? I mean, she was only carrying out the president's policies. Yeah, but like I said, the buck has to stop somewhere and it's not going to stop in the Oval Office. I mean, it reminds me a little bit of like, you know, after the killing of Khashoggi, how the Saudis prosecuted some of the people that they ordered to kill him. Yes.

And found them guilty. Right. But then they did a very Saudi thing. And they offered the Khashokchi family blood money, which they accepted. It's the Saudi way. Yep. Yeah, no, it's very strange the whole thing. Did the, did the fiancé get money, get any of that money, considering she wasn't family yet?

His sons. His sons got it. They accepted it. But they live in Saudi Arabia, so they had to accept it. They did have to. It's true. Wow. So the question is, if Christy Noam is gone, Daddy gone, which I suspect, you know,

if she makes it to Sunday, if she makes it to like spending the night in a Vincent Price movie to get the million dollars, if she makes it to Monday morning intact, then she probably survives at least until January of next year when the Democrats take over the house. But if she doesn't, who's going to be in line to replace her? I mean, speculation. Tim Cain is worried aloud. I mean, we don't know how seriously to take Tim Cain, that Stephen Miller could be the new Christy Noem. I mean, you know, I always say, you know, like in Russia, they know that any bad situation can get worse.

So, you know, Democrats might find themselves missing Christy Noem. You know, just the idea gives me chill. But to respond, yeah, it could be Stephen Miller. That would be my advice to Trump. Oh, I agree. You know what I mean? And show strength and like show that you're like, oh, you didn't like her? Totally agree.

I'll give it to you twice as hard. Totally agree. Yes. Not that I want to see him in the power. Over the years, I've been surprised, actually, that Stephen Miller hasn't wanted more of a, of a public-facing position. He's always been counselor to the president, deputy chief of staff,

political advisor to the president. These are more or less unofficial White House administrative positions. He's smart. Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm the same way. I would much rather if I were recruited by a presidential administration

to serve in the background in sort of a Dick Morris-like capacity. That's right. You know, minister without portfolio. I don't want to have a target on my back. Once you're standing up in front of a podium with all the network cameras pointing at you, you know, they're coming for you. And none of the positions that Stephen Miller has had have required Senate confirmation.

This one would. That's why I don't think he's the man. This one most definitely would. Maybe Bovino would be the. Or even Holman. I mean, Bovino, yeah, Hohman. Yeah. I mean, it's so hilarious.

You know, Holman only his, the fact that he's, that he's like able to step forward here is simply not that he had anything nice to say about Alex Preddy or, or Ms. Good, right? Literally, it's just that he didn't say anything bad about them. Yes. He just didn't cover himself with lies. But then, and then that leads to the next question. It's something that you raised yesterday that we never really got to. And that is, where does ICE go next? Right. So legally, federal courts have said they can't go to Chicago. They can't go to Portland, which are the two places where he really, really wanted to send them. It could be Memphis. He's talked about Memphis. It could be New Orleans. So why isn't it where- Or New York City?

Or that would talk up his bromance with Zoron. Yeah, it would. So why hasn't the president sent these ICE people to where the undocumented migrants are? like Texas or Florida. Yeah, well, that's, I mean, he doesn't seem that interested in catching illegal immigrants, right? He seems to be more interested in terrorizing the streets of American cities. I think mixing it up with protesters is the point here. I mean, you know, you can't, I mean, look, this was, this used to be, these deportations used to be an administrative act.

The vast majority of deportations could occur simply the old-fashioned way. just simply by reject, you know, they show up for a hearing. You inform them like, hey, listen, you know, your time's up. You got to leave. Give people like three months to six months to pack up and go. Most of them would just figure, okay. And that would be it. I mean, it's not, it's really not that.

There's not many people who can really go on the lamb as illegal immigrants. I mean, in a country full of like license plate scanners and facial recognition software and everything's tracked all the time. Although the Chinese have it down to a science. You know, I read something the other day that just left me flabbergasted. There are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than there are McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger Kings combined, number one. Wow.

Yeah, number one. Number two, almost everybody who works in these Chinese restaurants is illegal. Of course. And there's this nationwide network, this like human smuggling network where these people are constantly being transferred from one Chinese restaurant to the other just to stay one step ahead of ice. And so, you know, they live 20 people to an apartment. They sleep in shifts. And then you work six months and then you get on a bus and you go to the next place. Hmm.

I mean, yeah, I don't know how effective that is. I mean, it's like whack-a-mole. I mean, it's not going to work. I can't imagine how that works with these ice guys. Because these ice guys aren't looking for any. They keep saying it's a targeted operation, but it's not. It's not. We're not looking for specific people.

No, not at a target. You know what a target is. No, they're just walking into bodegas and grabbing people. Yeah, sometimes, and oftentimes they're American citizens. Oftentimes they're born here. It's like, oh, you're a little brown. You're a little tan. Yeah.

You've got to go. With us. That's right. Come with us. We'll figure it out later. Let's talk about Ilhan Omar. Yeah. So Ilhan Omar, some guy approached her at a town hall meeting.

Got right up to her. Took us, basically bum rushed her and took a syringe like a turkey baster. Yes. And shot some kind of unknown liquid at her. I've been trying to figure out online. All they said was that it was strong smelling. It smelled like vinegar is like what one, at least one witness said. She was unhurt, apparently.

And she just went ahead and. Teddy Roosevelt style. She went up to him like this. She moved after he sprayed her. She went toward him like this. Good. Good for her. Her security guy tackled the guy. Kicking ass and taking names.

I would have liked to have seen that. Kind of like Teddy Roosevelt after he was shot. She continued her appearance. Continued the appearance. I have deep respect for that. Yeah. Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest and insisted on finishing his speech before he allowed his security people to take him to the hospital.

It takes more than that to bring down a bull moose. That's right. That's what he said at the time. And the crowd went wild. One of my favorite presidents. Oh, mine too. So what do we, that could be a Rumble premium. We could like do a favorite presidents thing.

We should do that. That's a great idea. Let's do that one. Okay. Or least favorite. Okay, so what do we think? Obviously, she wasn't sprayed with an acid or an acid. anything like that. What do you think it was? Do you think it was just like salad oil? I mean,

you know, my first thought was that it was urine. It wasn't it wasn't bleach. It wasn't ammonia. It wasn't an acid, as you said. It probably was something like vinegar just to make a political point. But you know, this is, there's a bigger issue here. It's something that she touched on a couple of weeks ago in an interview. We all know how controversial she is, whether it's deserved or not. When Nancy Pelosi was speaker, she assigned security to Ilhani Omar and other members of the squad because they were the subject of ongoing threats. Sure.

As soon as the Republicans took the House, Mike Johnson took that security away. And so the security that she has, she pays for out of her own pocket. And when you're making 200 grand a year, you know, it's a little tough to do. So when we went to this dinner the other night, I wondered why she didn't have security. Now, granted, it was in a private home and it was a dinner. But when I walked outside to take a call, I saw her security guys there in an armored SUV. So she has security. They just weren't standing right next to her.

Got it. I mean, look, I mean, in your view, is politicization of security for public figures a new phenomenon? Because, I mean, we've seen that happen now in recent years. You know, in fairness. Biden wouldn't give security to Bobby Kennedy. Exactly. I was just going to say that. Hey, it's not like a Kennedy's ever been hurt before.

Right. And Donald Trump also had his security curtailed by the Biden administration. I think it's unforgivable. I really do. new thing, right? This didn't used to happen. You know, it didn't used to happen. I don't know who started it, but it's disgusting. You know, even Ronald Reagan in 1984 immediately gave Secret Service protection to Jesse Jackson

when he announced his candidacy. Yeah, well, that's obviously you can see, I mean, what do you want? You want like this black history, history making black presidential candidate. Yeah, that's right. On your watch. Yeah. You can't, yeah, you just can't let that happen. I mean, politics has become blood sport in this country.

It's literally. Okay, so let's do some, let's do some questions here. Okay, yes, Jessica, we will talk about the Ilhan Omar battery. We will, and we just did. John, what's your thought about the Hazara people in Afghanistan? They're being slaughtered in the past 100 years, although they're very peaceful and hardworking people. I have thoughts about that, too. You know, when I went to Afghanistan in 2007, I went to rescue the kids that were actors in the kite runner.

And they're Hazara. And so I met with the leader, the leader of the Hazaras and many of the people around them. And one of the things that struck me, when I went into this Hazara leader's home, he had me over for tea. and I noticed he had this huge shadow box hanging on the wall, and it had all of his jujitsu belts from white to fourth degree black and everything in between. And I commented, I said, wow, that's really something to be proud of. And he turned around and he looked at it and he said, you know why we're all black

belts in jujitsu? Because we're the only people in Afghanistan. that are prohibited by law from owning a gun. We're the only ones who can't protect ourselves. The Hazaras are Shia Muslims. The Taliban, of course, are not only Sunni, but they're virulently anti-Shiya. And so, yeah, the Hazaras are discriminated against to the point where it cost them their lives frequently. Yeah, they're massacred all the time. All the time. And yeah, and they, I mean, and so for people who don't know, right, the Hazaras, I mean, all Afghans can tell which tribe, you know, like an Uzbek can say, like,

oh, that, that's a tachy, even though kind of ethnically, there's not really a lot of difference. But Hazaras look very, I think, more different than all other Afghans. You know, they have lighter eyes. They have very different facial features. They stand out like a sore thumb. And there's also these weird myths about them being like a lost tribe of Israel or that they're the descendants of Alexander the Great's army. Yes.

Blue eyes. Yeah. Yes. But that's probably not true. Right. But like, yeah, it's now currently believed that they're actually closer to the Uyghurs. Yes. In terms of their ethnicities.

But yeah, I mean, it's like, and it's hard to really, I think basically it just comes down to the Sunni Shia thing. Yeah. No, I mean, it would be nice to see the Taliban fucking back off for sure. It's not really their way. Yeah. Let's see. Okay. Oh, there's a couple of things here. Thanks for the five euros.

Rod and Goo 9864 on YouTube. How do we grade Mamdani's job performance so far? Oh, you're way more qualified than I am to answer that. I'll give Mamdami, Mandani, I'll give him an A for communication style. For substance, I'll give him about a C. There has been some executive orders and whatever. But on the big ticket issues, I don't see much progress on things like reducing the rent or making housing more affordable. You know, he seems to, but definitely, he's like the Obama of like the New York mayoralty.

Like charming, you're happy to see him on the electronic kiosks and you see his smiley face. He's funny. definitely a great communicator, but, you know, it's kind of like New York City's got serious problems. And again, it's too early to say anything. That's where I would put things there. Also, $999 from Sweets T20. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for keeping us informed on current events.

Great content and much appreciated. And your donation and support is also much appreciated. Sneaker Dad, thanks for the $10. bucks. Everyone screams about their rights. Nobody mentions their responsibilities. That is true. That's true. Philip Vecchio, five bucks. I'm surprised you like Roosevelt. He started the American Empire. Yes, that's true. But he also gave us the National Park System. And I think every American should be forever indebted to him for that. Yeah, it's not, it's definitely not a perfect, no, perfect record. No, no. No American president can have a perfect record.

I mean, it's a foul country in so many ways. Yeah. I mean, you know, they're not going to let anyone really truly benevolent be in charge of it. There are two presidents in our history that I idolize, truly. Abraham Lincoln, and I'm a Lincoln collector, I've told you, and Franklin Roosevelt. Bobby's favorite. Yeah. And FDR?

Yeah. FDR, I mean, you know, obviously, you know, the pluses are like well known. Yeah. I will say he definitely fucked up big time when he came to France. He supported Vichy over DeGal. Yeah, he did. Not cool. I think because he thought he could control Vichy.

Right, right. And he was wrong about stacking the Supreme Court. He was definitely wrong about that. But on the other hand, you could really see why he was frustrated. Yeah. But still. DeGall was kind of an asshole. Yeah, but DeGall was kind of like, but FDR would have been the same exact asshole if he

was in de Gauls position. Yeah. De Gaul's trying to save his country when it was in a hell of a situation. I mean, I hate De Gaul's politics, but I got to say, you know, in terms of his style, I probably would have been very imperious as well. Michael Agiloh, like to know your thoughts, John, on the case of Murat Kurnaz. His capture would have been around the same time as when John was in Pakistan. Thank you.

Yeah, it was. Do you want to say, explain who that is? You know, I don't, I don't remember. I remember his capture being lauded. Let me refresh my memory. There he is. Oh, I remember him. The German guy, yes, yes, yes.

We grabbed him. And the Germans jumped up and down. They were so angry. We kept him in Kandahar. He went to Guantanamo. Yeah, we ended up, we ended up letting him go. But the Germans wouldn't take him back. I remember that.

Let's see, when did we capture him? He was young. He went to Pakistan from Germany in October of 2001, going from mosque to mosque, got on a bus to go back to Germany. That's right. And the Pakistanis grabbed him trying to cross the border. border and turned him over to the Americans. We tortured him. Yeah, I remember that. I don't know where he is now. Let's see. He was declared an enemy combatant. An American law professor represented him,

habeas corpus, and released in 2006. So we held him for four years. Yeah, he finally went back to Germany. I forgot all about that guy. Yeah, and he's written a memoir. So good for him. Okay, let's keep going here with the questions here. Have you met John? Have you met former CIA officer Jason Hanson? He was on Shark Tank and got money to create a spy ranch in Utah.

My understanding is that he was never in operations and was an SPO. Yeah, a SPO. special protective officer. So that's the CIA's internal police force. Yeah, you know, he was never an operations officer, but he's got a mind for business. And I actually saw him on Shark Tank, not as it was broadcast,

but I watched it on YouTube because somebody else had asked me about him. He came a little bit after my time, but he's done well for himself, cashing in on his agency days. He's done well. I tell you, he does. He does what Andrew Bustamante does, but he does it from a position of experience. And Andrew Bustamante is just winging it.

Gotcha. I'm in New York City, says Nick Bratia, and I'm seeing posts about raids on Canal Street where hundreds of West Africans politely hawk fake luxury goods in my neighborhood, the heights, which is largely Dominican. I'm assuming he means Washington rather than Morningside Heights, my neighborhood. So, yeah, but that's been going on for quite some time. That predates Mamdani.

It's been going on for months, the raids. I have to say that New Yorkers have reacted with great anger at ice raids on Canal Street, ordinary U.S. citizen New Yorkers. And I don't think it'll be a good thing if ice comes to New York, not for ice, not for New Yorkers. It could be Minneapolis. Teflon Money. Don.

Hey, guys, have either of you ever considered running for a governmental position? I think about it all the time. You know, I think I've mentioned once before. In 2007, I told my wife that I was thinking of running for Congress in Pennsylvania's fourth district. I thought I could win it in its former configuration. And she said, you know, all the years we've been married, I've never said no to any idea you've had. But I'm putting my foot down on this.

You are not running for Congress. Not allowed. Not. If you ever want to see this pussy again. That's right. Well, now I answered to no one but myself. And so maybe one of these days. My congressman here in Northern Virginia is actually really good, Don Beyer, former lieutenant

Governor Virginia, former ambassador to Luxembourg, he's actually a good congressman. He gets primaried by like a DSA person every two years and he wins like 95%. And then half the time he doesn't even have any opposition in the general election. But he's also got to be in his late 70s. So I don't know, maybe I think about it. I thought about it. Would you think about it? Yeah, no, I thought about it on a couple of occasions.

Each time I've thought about Congress, my friend Scott Stantis says at this point, like if you're starting out with the Trump president, you might as well go straight for the Senate. You just, why not? Because it costs not that much more than to run for the house. Which is true these days. But, you know, and obviously the Senate's a better gig for a lot of reasons. So I thought about running in my, on the, from Manhattan, the Upper West Side. that district basically is a skinny little district that goes basically it's all of Manhattan Western Broadway and the jumps over New York Harbor inexplicably to part of Brooklyn.

And anyway, I kept thinking this was Gerald Nadler's district. And at the time I was thinking about this was about 15 years ago. And it occurred to me that he really wasn't doing a good job representing the district. He was just this luscious, fat Democrat who we never heard from. And so I thought, like, if you just went door to door and you became that person like, like, Mamdani, like you just meet every fucking New Yorker in that district, you might have a chance at winning this. You'd have to spend two, three years of your life doing nothing but this. And then he, Gerald Nadler ended up not only becoming more influential, but also becoming more responsive to his district. He's actually become a better congressman. And I think he would be harder to beat because, but then, In the interim, I ended up living on Long Island, and I talked at the time years ago to then Governor Spitzer about the possibility of running for Congress from the horrible King district. And again, and I think, I don't know.

I think, again, if you went, Long Islanders are very responsive to the personal connection. And if you went and tried to meet all of them and went door to door, you might have a pretty good shot. King is such a, but the thing is, King is such a prick. Yeah, he is. And but I think, you know, Long Islanders are kind of pricks, many of them. So I just wonder if culturally he might be a better fit for them than I would have. Well, what about, what about now with the court upholding the Democrats plan to do away with Nicole Malia Tecass's district, which is Staten Island and a sliver of Brooklyn across the Verrazano Bridge, that's going to be a Democratic district now. Would you consider that?

Yeah, no, that's true. But, you know, it's like Staten Island. You'd have to live there. Well, yeah. Staten Islanders want a Staten Islander representing them. Yeah, yeah. And I think you'd need like long Staten Island roots there. I think for Staten Island, the sweet spot is to be like a former or a present NYPD officer or at least a firefighter.

like that. Those are the, that's those people. I mean, I think if I ever had a shot, it would have been Upper West Side of Manhattan. I mean, like, you know, I fit in culturally. And culture really matters a lot. You know, I guess the point is I would still consider it. John, if you run, I'll design your campaign material for free. Hey, thank you. I appreciate it. By the way, I still owe you that picture. We have to talk to you about that too. Yeah. We have to do that. Wonderful. Yeah, yeah, we have to do that. Okay. Kurt Boss, 20 years in Afghanistan and the Taliban won. The whole war was about the drugs and the money for the same oligarchs, all war. Yes, yes, yes.

100% correct. Peruse, hi, John, Ted, and Robbie. Question for John from Finland. Did you ever work with any Finns during your career? No. Funny, too, because I worked with everybody else, the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Danes, I mean, everybody in that region.

But the Finns kind of always kept to themselves. It was only after I left in 2004 that the Finns really turned. to the West. Now, of course, they're in NATO. Now, of course, the Russians are worried about them. But no, funny as it sounds, I never had occasion to work with the Finns. John, when will we find out what happened to JFK? Yeah, never. Yeah, I agree with that. Seriously, we'll never, we'll never find out. John from Finland also wants to know, have you had any interactions or joint ops with Nigerian

intelligence officers? Never. Any thoughts, John, on reporting of U.S. Sleeper agents left behind in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and being used extensively in Ukraine in the past couple of years? You know, that was something, sleepers were something that the United States has always been very bad at. We just don't have a long-term view where we're going to put somebody in a position and they're going to be there for 20 years or 30 years. The Russians are very good at it. We lose that. Yeah, we're not long-term. you people.

We're not. That's a cultural thing. We've got this non-official cover program, but it's not akin to a sleeper thing. So instead of, you know, 30 years, you might be in a position for six years. Peripherly related. There's a fascinating story that I wanted to write a book about, but it's way too late. There were apparently about 2,400 US GIs left behind the Iron Curtain at the end of World War II. Yes.

And then they basically were stuck. there, a lot of them, they were young men. So they ended up getting jobs in the USSR. They, they married Russian women or Kazakh women or whatever. And then after the fall in 1991, the Pentagon liaised with the Russians and found out where as many of them lived as possible. And there were still a couple of hundreds still around. And they offered them like, hey, you know, you're welcome, you're welcome to come home now. And not a one agreed to come home. They all said, like, this is where I live. I have grandkids now.

Some of them had forgotten how to speak English. They were completely russified. And I remember just thinking, this would be a fucking great oral history book. You know what? There was a book that came out about 12 years ago about advertisements that the Stalin government placed in American newspapers saying, hey, we've got this socialist utopia over here and we really, really need minors. So if you're a minor and you want to live in perfect socialism,

come to the Soviet Union. This was the early 1930s. And hundreds of American minors moved to the Soviet Union. Oh, well, it was during the Depression, yeah. Yeah. None of them survived it. Oh, God. Literally every single one of them was eventually arrested

and either executed or died in a Gulag somewhere. Jesus Christ. Because as Stalin became more and more and more paranoid, he saw them as potential spies for the United States, even though he was the one whose policy it was to invite them to move to the Soviet Union. It was a terrific book. I don't remember the name of it. I tried to pitch the book, the oral, I pitched the oral history book to as many publishers as I could about the GIs who were left behind and nobody was interested. I think it would be a fascinating book. May I blow my own horn for a minute?

Please. So my publisher is Simon and Schuster, and I like them very much. They emailed me last night and said that there has been such a wave of requests for doing time like a spy, how the CIA taught me to survive and thrive in prison, that it's going to a second printing. Congrats. The first edition was a white cover. with a black artist's rendering of me, like on the $50 bill. And now it's going to be a black cover with me rendered in white. Yeah, I'm glad they're changing the cover.

I always tell authors that new, you know, revised editions should have different covers. Agreed. They don't always do that. They're always like, just do it again. The European edition, which came out a year ago, the European second edition was orange. and the paperback edition. And then the American paperback edition was green.

So they're in four different colors now. That's cool. Collect them all. I like it. I love it when I get a foreign edition of my own book. I do too. That would be, yeah, yeah. John, did you ever see Letter to Brezhneff, the movie?

It's kind of based on a true story about this. No. It's a great new wave movie from the 80s, but basically it's about this true story about this, this British girl who met a a Russian sailor who was had arrived who was basically in port for the day

for the weekend in like Manchester anyway they partied they fell in love she wrote to she wrote to Brezhnev and said I'm in love with your citizen could you please find and Brezhnev got the letter oh my gosh and he had his people contact the sailor and said you know

How do you feel about this girl? And he's like, I adore her. And so he invited her to come live in Russia. And she said, yes. And it was a huge scandal in England because it's like, who would want to leave the capitalist paradise and go live in the communist hell? So it's just like, God, it's like these stories, like they go, you can really find any story to fit your narrative about whether the USSR is great, was great or horrible. Isn't that the truth? I mean, because it was both, really.

Yeah, it was. It was great. since sin can sand thanks for the Canadian 1399 hey guys wondering what the biggest negative outcome of the panama papers were and did they actually have a real impact on the world we're living in now that's a great that is a terrific question I didn't see that question the Panama papers started out as perhaps the greatest act of whistleblowing in modern history and almost nothing came of it. It did result in the collapse of the Maltese government and the assassination. Thank God for that. Yeah, and the assassination by car bomb

of the reporter who broke the story. But there was no, yeah, I mean, I don't even remember there being any congressional hearings. There were certainly no legislative or regulatory reforms to the banking system. If anything, all I think this did was make the, make corrupt bankers more aware than

corrupt their tracks. Yeah. Yeah. John, are you concerned at all? Tatum Hedrick asks about a future indictment. If not, when are you going to announce your 2028 run? You're qualified and have integrity. Very rare, but demanded in today's climate.

I don't know. I think integrity could get in your way. Thank you. No, I'm not worried about indictment. No. They took their best shot, came out way stronger on the other end. No, I'm not worried about indictment. You know, I made a joke to...

What if the Democrats come back into power? I'll fight them. I'll go head to head. I really will. I'm not backing down to anybody. Kurt Boss, is Iran about to get hit guys? Probably. I think probably, yes.

Not 100%, but probably. Long-time listener, it's a bunch of BS to say that the founding fathers were non-interventionists. They were as interventionist as they could materially be in order to increase their fortune based their empire on Rome. I mean, look, the brand new United States of America was poor as shit. It had no money at all, right? So their expansionism basically took early on was at the expensive Native Americans. I mean, you know, yes, we had a border skirmish with Canada. but I mean it took a while I don't think we were interventionist in the in the way that we are now until TR you know yeah yeah it's true also but we did invent we did invade Mexico more times than anyone can count oh my God and you know I was just telling a friend of mine yesterday going all the way back to to to the war of 1812 um it's not called the war of 1812 in Canada oh what do they call it they call it the war of American aggression

Ha, that's just like the, it's like what Robbie's people call the Civil War. Right. Yeah. She murders, a hat. How did you guys both meet? Also, how did you meet Robbie? Love the work from Oakland. Here, Robbie will pop you in for this one.

So Robbie was, Robbie wrote to Manila over on TMI show and then got to connected there. And then that's how I got to know him. and then, you know, we stole him and borrowed him over here. That's basically the short version. Well, I messager on X after RT America got shut down. He has a big fan. He just saw what happened. We started talking to each other.

Next thing you know, we became friends. So it's just, it's a God thing. It's a God thing. Thanks. And I met Robbie through Ted. So, yes, it's like a virus. It spreads the Robbie virus. It spreads the Robbie virus.

Thanks for the two bucks from Epsilon, enjoying your podcast. Thank you. Hey, Ted, Pakistani here, Ba'Ige 86. Degree in archaeology, have traveler Alexander's route across Pakistan? They could very well be Greeks as he set up outposts and settled a bunch of his people all over here. Well, also, there's that Greco-Hellenic civilization that was found in the Taclamakalek. desert and the Gobi Desert in Western China, that's related. Those people are the same, right? But the question is, are the Hazaras Alexander's army? Maybe. I mean, it is not impossible,

but it's also far from proven. Samal Shari, John Kiraku Salatations. My dad knows you from the time you were in, from the time you were in Saudi Arabia, used to speak in Lebanese accent and your great inspiration for me working in, I assume that you've got to look at that, see you wrote something in Arabic. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Where do you see that? I don't see that. Oh, it's in Robbie's chat in the telegram. Oh, okay.

That's where I look. John, Gumbaram, you say the CIA looks for sociopathic tendencies. Yes. Do you think it's more accurate that their shrinks are actually looking for high Machiavellianism and low psychopathy, dark triad concepts? Yes. That makes perfect sense to me. Mm-hmm.

John, when are you coming to Saudi Arabia again? My dad was this personal secretary to Devon during your stay. Oh. I'll see you as an ambassador to KSA. Oh, I'll take it. I expect to be in Saudi Arabia in April. I'm working with a Kuwaiti event company right now to schedule a speaking tour in Kuwait, Manama, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat, and Jeddah.

So hoping to do that over the month. of April. Ramadan ends on the 26th of March, and I want to be out there a week later. I should warn Ted right now, too. I've got a speech in Mexico City that last week of March, so I might be out of pocket for a few days. But believe it or not, I've been asked to address the FBI's annual offsite on May the 10th. What? Yeah, on May the 10th in San Diego. And I gleefully accepted. Yeah, as well you should. Question for me from Ann Wilcox, do I support Jack Sossberg running for Nadler's seat? He is a- Good question.

The answer is no, because he was a Biden person. And as far as I'm concerned, if you're in the Democratic Party and you were one of those corporate Democrats with Team Biden, and you didn't say, you didn't have shit to say about the fact that the president was senile. I don't know. I feel like you're discredited, you know. And I'm a winner of the RFK Journalism Award twice. I know. That's incredible.

But, uh, Desert Fox, thanks. Um, have you guys heard of Scott Ritter's reporting about war crimes against Iran? No, I don't know. No. I'll tell you, Scott Ritter, Scott is, I guess, formally still under investigation. for failure to register as a foreign agent, something like that. The Biden people really went after him. I haven't heard anything at all since Trump came back into office.

But Scott has shown that he is not afraid of these guys. So John McIntyre, 10 bucks, no questions this morning, just thanks for the show. Thank you, John. Just sniper, five bucks, thanks. Ice range will not work in New York. Population density is too high. ice will be surrounded by 100 plus people in less than five minutes. Yeah, not to mention New Yorkers are spicy.

Long time listener, Ted should design a cartoon logo of him and John for the show. Could put on a T-shirt? Yes, I should. Yes. And yes, I will. What a great idea. John D. Cockerfeller. Question for you, John.

Thoughts on when and if a Russia, Ukraine ceasefire comes will be coming out of winter and into mud season in a month or two. That's a good point. I really have the appetite for continued fighting. That's a good point. And you know, you get you get different answers from different people. The Ukrainians will say yes. They can see a ceasefire on the horizon. The Russians say, no, why should we?

We're winning. We want to destroy them. So I think this is where Donald Trump really underestimated Russian resolve. He thought that he could push both sides enough that they would go to the negotiating table because it wasn't worth the continued, you know, the continued loss of life. And the Russians are like, no, we're going to win. Russians won. And it's like, and there's been no sign of anything else.

I mean, it's really weird the way the Ukrainians act. It's as if like, well, we have to split the, cut the baby and you have here. You don't have any baby. No. It's all lost. The Russians have the baby. Like, you know, at this point, you don't really have a lot to negotiate. with. Yes. But Daddy of triplets, thanks for the tenor. Thoughts on the on ICE agent attempting to

enter the Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis. You know, I I struggle with the question, can grown-ass adults be that stupid? Apparently, yes. Apparently, they're either that stupid or they're that arrogant. And maybe it's a combination of the two. That is sovereign foreign territory. You cannot breach a consulate or an embassy. But there's a lot of reporting about how all the most recent ICE recruits are dumb as a bag of hammers. It's like the Bureau of Prisons. Yeah. They're just fucking stupid. A bunch of hillbillies and not in a good way. There are smart hillbillies. These not be them. Let's talk about the brunch Democrats. and no Kings three.

Oh, my God. If it's only worth a minute. I'm so embarrassed for the Democrats. It's so gay, right? I mean, it's sort of like, oh, like, oh, you know, we're ready. So literally, they've now had three or four, depending on how you count them. They will have had in a course of 15 months, they will have had three or four rallies against Trump who, I think credibly, they've made the credible argument is a danger to

the American system as we're used to. it. And there's no sense of urgency. They only want to do it on weekends. It's always going to be like this performative, boring. People are going to say, Ted, what would you suggest instead? And what I would suggest instead is something that looks more like France, where you shut everything down. You turn yourself into a giant pain in the ass. You are, you know, basically it's not going to be business as usual. I mean, maybe we just don't have the organizing strength, or maybe the people who would be organized just don't have the appetite for it. But the truth is there's just no, but I'll tell you, my real take here is because the left has been completely destroyed and

and pushed out of the Democratic Party and they're not under the big tent, you've got no militants. And the militants, the would be militants who would organize the people into a powerful counterforce are like me sitting on their hands because we know we're not wanted by these people. So we're just out. Right. Right. Agreed. To me, this, this just screams another reason for wanting alternative political parties. You know, this is just, it's performative, really, to me. It's totally performative. I mean, everyone feels good about themselves. Yeah. What did you do during the war rally? Yeah. I marched. I was in the streets against Trump and every three months.

You're a useless limousine liberal. You didn't do anything. Yeah. I mean, it would almost be, I mean, what's annoying about it is it's a pressure release valve because it's like for people who are angry, it's like, oh, let's all pour our energies. Can you imagine, John, if the money, the donations and the energy that goes into these fucking rallies into this corporate bullshit, if it went into a militant left-wing organization, what it could do, or a militant left-wing media outlet or anything, right?

What a fucking waste. Total waste. Total complete waste. Greg Pattis wants to know when your book, John, is going to be for sale. And Ray wants to know where can you get signed copies. Oh, thanks. Sorry, while we're out of Preventor, wants an audible version. Yeah, I want an audible version.

I want to do the audible version. I hate when they hire other people to do the audible versions of my books because they mispronounce everything. Oh, especially if there's foreign names. Oh, forget it. I hate that. You know what? If the publisher doesn't offer autographed versions, just ping me. I'll sign it.

Okay. How would people find you through your website? Sure. The website or the chat here, you know, Robbie's got an eagle eye. He'll forward it to me if I miss it. sure one of my sons told me dad you know your your autograph is worthless because there are thousands of them out there i sign everything and um and sure enough when the cemetery book first was was listed on the on the publishers website the um the autographed version was only five dollars more than the

not autographed version you're you're an autograph horror yeah i always the way i used to be a blurb I used to blurb like anyone. You know, I saw Pete Rose one time at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Pete Rose, the great baseball player and famous cheat. Not cheat, gambler. He didn't cheat. So remember, he always bet on his own team. He was, that's right.

He was signing baseballs. So I had heard that he was signing, I'm sorry, I bet on baseball, Pete Rose. So I asked him, I said, Pete, do you mind signing? one for me, I'm sorry I bet on baseball. So he wrote on the ball and he handed it to me and it says, I'm sorry I shot JFK. He rose. Did he know who you were? No. And I said, this is even more awesome than I could have imagined. Oh my God. Thank you, Johnny Hustle. Fuad Nassiri. What about the Kurds? It just blows my mind to the U.S. teamed up with

Al-Qaeda and gave him a free hand to attack the Kurds and release ISIS prisoners in Al-Haw. I don't know about that. I don't know. Okay. Let's see. I'm trying to get to as many of these questions as possible. Thanks for the donation, Young Courthouse. Jackson, how do you feel about the Venezuelan government saying they won't take any orders from the U.S.

anymore opportunity for China and Russia? I haven't heard that. I'm not surprised we hadn't got in China. Well, actually, I did. I did hear that. And that was in response to the report that the CIA was. was building a ginormous station in Caracas. I was on, I was on, what's his name show last night?

I'm a little bit embarrassed to say. Matt Gates' show. And he asked me the same question. And I said, the U.S. and Venezuela have had traditionally excellent relations since 1853. Before socialism in Venezuela, the CIA had a gigantic presence there. And the only reason it didn't until a week ago, was because we had closed our embassy. So it doesn't surprise me at all that there's going to be a huge CIA presence.

And Dulce Rodriguez has to respond to the fact that the CIA is essentially going to take over her country. And what else is she going to say? But, you know, she's against it. Let me, okay. So, John, just getting worried that the TMI show is canceled this today because Manila is out. No pressure. but if you're available, I think we can go over a little bit if you want. I am sorry to tell you that I have yet another oral surgery.

Oh, Jesus. Hair. Well, I'm glad you're getting it done. Thank God for health insurance. Yeah, no doubt. All right, no big deal. We'll just, all right, we'll keep going. What do we think about Israeli extremists?

It's on the Al-Aqsa mosque doing even worth stuff. Oh, this is a very dangerous development, man. There are Israelis on the extreme right now talking about the third. temple. If they were to go up there and to try to blow up Al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam, that's going to be the start of World War III. And I think we have time for maybe two more, just barely. First, quickly, thoughts on Ilana Homarra's mysterious wealth in five years, and thanks for the donation from Afroqbar. I have to admit, I know about these allegations. Yeah. And I don't, and I don't know if it's true, and I don't know if, if so, where the money came from.

You know, I have not looked at the Secretary of the Senate's website to look to see the difference over five years. I will say that what people were saying about Marjorie Taylor Green was not true. That didn't make sense, right? No, that, oh, she came in with nothing. Now she has 25 million. No, she came in with 25 million. She's rich and her family's rich and her ex-husband's rich. Ilhan Omar, I will look into it.

I've heard it, but I've not looked. Let's you and I both do that. And we'll try to report back. I'm a boom, 3R. Explain to me why there's no room for a third party of reason in the middle of American politics. I know, right? If it's not possible now, it never will be possible. You're right.

Explain so that even a European can understand. Okay, quickly, first of all, there's the presidential level, which basically the, the, the, the, oh my God, what's it called? The electoral college makes it impossible for a third party to break even. And let's say you had an election and like a third party candidate got 50% of the vote and the other two, you know, assholes, the Democrats and Republicans got 25 each. The Democratic House or the Republican House, whoever was in power, would elect their person nevertheless and that person would not become president, right? But everybody, but the so the, so what's the work around? Start from the local level, right?

Like county commission, you know, school board, build up from the bottom. That's the way. And we've seen, like the Socialist Party did that in the 19th, teens and 20s, but they never really took off. It requires so much follow-through. I don't know if temperamentally Americans are capable of it. No, I hate to say. And that's why the Green and Libertarian parties have failed.

Everyone's focused on the big presidential race. The White House, yeah. It's too sexy. You have to start at the local water board, you know, and the state legislatures. And the thing is, I'll say, John, and then I'll let you go. The big opportunity here, as far as I'm concerned, is the two out of three local races in the United States that are unopposed, where a Democrat or Republican runs against nobody,

and they get fat and lazy, and they forget about their constituents, and you have an opportunity to come in there, and if you fight for it, you can get it, you know, maybe. That's right. But it's all about turnout in those lower races. All about turnout. And sometimes a very small difference can get you there. But yeah, I think that's why it's, I mean, not saying it can never happen, but that's why it hasn't happened so far.

Yeah. All right. With that, we will be back tomorrow Thursday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Thank you so much for your support and for tuning in. Thank you for watching if you're watching later on in this stream, where we're available 24-7 on YouTube and Rumble. And thank you for getting us to 15,000 subscribers. No TMI show today.

Hopefully, Manila and I. will be back tomorrow. DMZ America podcast will be back tomorrow 11 a.m. With special guest, Dwayne Booth, aka Mr. Fish. Awesome. If you know who that is, look him up. Awesome. Bye.

Bye, everybody.