DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Death Valley | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• In the Strait of Hormuz, the Trump administration is trapped between the specter of a global economic recession and a naval catastrophe. Energy arteries are constricting to a point of “nonlinearity,” where every day the Strait of Hormuz remains closed multiplies the economic pain exponentially. Iran will bomb Liquefied Natural Gas tankers first—vessels that could “explode like the Beirut bomb”—followed by oil tankers to maximize environmental and economic chaos. But there’s also a huge risk in sending US naval assets as escorts into a war zone. White House analysts call the Strait their “Death Valley.”• Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy chokepoint that carries about one-fifth of all crude oil, according to CNN. Despite US claims of having destroyed 14 Iranian minelayers, Iran still retains upward of 80% to 90% of its small boats and mine layers, so its forces could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway.• Iran attacked commercial ships across the Persian Gulf. Two Iranian drones hit near Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest. Iran’s joint military command announced it would start targeting banks and financial institutions in the Middle East.• San Francisco’s iconic mass transit system, BART, has entered a death spiral. Ridership cratered during the pandemic and remains less than half of what it was. The very future of the familiar white and blue trains, which have zipped around the Bay Area since 1972, is in doubt. BART says that only Bay Area residents can rescue the system by passing a new sales tax in November to cover its $400 million annual loss. Absent that, the board recently warned that it would take eye-popping actions out of desperation in 2027: Fewer trains. Higher fares and parking fees. Ending service at 9 p.m. instead of midnight. Laying off a quarter of its work force. And shrinking the system almost back to its original footprint by shuttering 15 stations. All of which will further reduce ridership. Meanwhile, the Iraq War costs $2 billion a day.MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Good morning. It's Wednesday, March 11th. Thank you for tuning in to D-Program with Ted Roll and John Kirooku. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ted. So, by the way, my voice was accused of being squeaky by one of the commenters yesterday. And so I apologize. I was doing a covert action video once, the CIA. And I almost walked out when the big boss came in and said that my eyes were too squinty. Is that a racist comment? Yeah, seriously, why I ought to. Well, I mean, I don't know. Maybe my voice is squeaky.

I don't know. We'll let the people decide. So just as we went on the air, the news is coming out of the street, feeding into our main story this morning. Strait of Hormuz is the main focus of the war now. Iran just hits three vessels. We don't know what kind.

We don't know who they belong. We do now. Two bulk tankers and a cargo ship. Do we know who they're flagged to? Not yet, but one was hit in Omani waters and two in Emirati waters. And also the other big breaking news is the new inflation numbers are out. No big deal. I don't think we're going to see the effect of the war yet because the war hadn't begun.

This is for the month of February. Inflation for February, which obviously was before the war, is steady at about 2.4%. Not usually a very bad number, but gas prices were already rising. By the way, I checked the markets right before we went on the air, John. Oil futures are bouncing back up early today and also looks like it's going to be a down day, not a crash on the stock exchanges. We'll see. So basically, it looks like the insiders in the administration, the smart ones, are calling the Strait of Ormuz, their death valley,

thus the name of today's episode. They're saying it's basically a no-win situation where basically all the ships, are either stuck or, as Trump suggests, they grow some balls and try to run the straight. Why would they do that? Their bosses won't let them. Or the U.S. Navy has to go in there and risk its own assets. It's a no-win situation. The CNN, although this is not a very reliable report, claims that Iran has already begun

laying mines in the street of Ormuz. The U.S. says it's destroyed a bunch, about a dozen or more mine layers. but the Iranians still have a lot of ability with small boats and mine layers. So it could feasibly lay hundreds of mines. And basically it's an economic war now, John. Drones are hitting Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest international airport. The Joint Military Command in Iran now says it's going to start targeting banks and financial institutions in the Middle East.

We're also going to talk about a domestic story later in the show. Bart, which is the iconic mass transit system for San Francisco, looks like it's entered a death spiral. It may actually be forced to close, which is... How nuts is that? It's nuts. San Francisco is, yeah, it's like one of the wealthiest cities. Yeah, exactly.

One of the wealthiest cities in America. $2 billion a day for war, but we don't have $400 million a year for Bart. It's insane. This is nuts. Straight of Hormuz, shall we? Yeah. Okay.

Well, so... You can't say you're shocked because the Iranians have been warning everybody for weeks now. Stop fucking with us or we're going to close the Strait of Hormuz and just paralyze the global economy. And yet, it does look like some people were surprised and they're the planners inside the administration. I mean, the New York Times and the Washington Post are reporting today that, you know, they're kind of surprised that the Iranians are, are being so spicy this time. John, if you, you know, you've been in, you know, at the agency, isn't it like normal

to look at your adversary, you know, at conflicts from your adversary's point of view? And like from the Iranian's point of view, right? I mean, they've already, they know that this will keep happening, right? Like, especially with the Israelis involved, John, tell me if I'm wrong and then I'll just throw it to you. No, no, you're 100% right. In fact, the job of the analyst is to ask what. if and then come up with with the analysis that's your job your job is supposed to always always

have a paper ready to go what if iran closes and straight-of-form moves iran blows up another american embassy you know something that that can just be pulled right off the shelf i mean it looks to be like so with the iranians on board right we're kind of sure they're you know whenever you have a partner you always risk making their mistakes that you wouldn't have made yourself Yeah. The Israeli approach to Gaza for years has been this horrible term like mowing the lawn, right? Like go in every few years and bomb the crap out of stuff to degrade Hamas and their ability to function properly effectively. I think that's kind of what they had in mind for Iran.

And they did that, you know, already twice, you know, with the assassination of Soleimani and now. And then last year with the 12 war. And I think they were just thinking, we'll go in every now and then and do this. But the Iranians are like, we can't have that. We can't live that way. We're not going to allow that. Killed our supreme leader. We are domestically, our politics won't tolerate it.

This is existential for them. Why didn't that's obvious to me. Why wouldn't it be obvious? Crystal clear, Ted. I don't get it either. Well, you know what? I retract that. I get it.

I'm sure that the analysis is still being done, whether it's at CIA or DIA or the Pentagon or wherever, I think that the White House is just ignoring it. They made a policy decision. It was not based on the analysis or the intelligence. As usual. And they're just going with their policy decision. And so basically what we're reading now is that in terms of the economic war,

oil prices are, you know, they're expecting a bounce, but they think that as long as things start to settle down within a month, that basically they'll be okay and they'll be able to ride things through to the midterm elections, which, by the way, are already not looking good for them. Is that, I mean, I don't know how realistic that is. And also, don't Iranians read newspapers too? Yeah, exactly. Can't they just be like, oh, well, we just have to hold on.

To give you an idea of the political situation for Republicans right now, too, we didn't have a chance yesterday to talk about this, but a Republican congressman from California quit the Republican Party yesterday. He said he'll continue to carcass with Republicans for the rest of the year, but he is now a registered independent. He is no longer a Republican member of Congress. That is a huge deal. Now, every once in a while, a Democrat will do that. They'll switch to the Republicans.

It's highly unusual for a Republican to quit the Republican Party. That's true. And what, I mean, do you make that like, I mean, he blamed redistricting. Do you think that's right or do you think it's just like this guy knows how to read polls? In part and in part I think that he's thinking what is happening at the White House? Why are they not listening to anybody who has to face re-election? And I'm just seeing that that we just bombed the Armenian corridor, sorry, a quarter in Tehran. Why in the world would we do that?

Well, the reports have been like, you know, I'm glad you brought that up, John, because, you know, the reports of civilian damage in infrastructure in Tehran are coming in a scattered way because the internet's down, right? And it's, the Iranians, I've been there somewhere in my photos. I have like a screenshot of like, you know, being in Iran when it was like, you can't access this website, right? And it's like in Farsi. So they do that in times like this because they don't want to be hacked.

They don't want another Stuxnet virus or anything like that. But also they're sort of putting the kibash on the Israeli space. who are there and, you know, basically, but also, you know, it may have been bombed. Some of the infrastructure may have just been bombed. But it sounds like a lot of the reports, even in the New York Times, which are not normally very flowery, say that Tehran is really being very screwed up and that the people are living in a state of total terror. You know, I heard yesterday that much of the bombing in Tehran is in residential areas,

which the Israelis do all the time. all you have to do is look at Beirut and the southern Beirut suburbs. The only purpose to bombing civilian areas is to kill people. That's it. There's no military reason why you would bomb civilian targets other than to kill as many human beings as possible. But they're not going to kill 92 million Iranians, right? No.

So like they, I mean... You can frighten 92 million Iranians. Yeah, but isn't that just basically, isn't that kind of era, total war approach, just going to push Iranians closer to their government, you know, which, by the way, wasn't that popular going into all this. No, but people rally around their governments, even when they're unpopular, when they feel attacked as a whole. Look at 9-11. And George W. Bush's 90% approval rating after 9-11, people rally to their leaders. Eight months after, sorry, nine months after Bush v. Gore, you know, I remember the polls showed that

like 48% of Americans didn't even think Bush was the legitimate president of the United States in early 2001. That's right. 91% approval just like that. And that's, you know, and frankly, 9-11 was nothing compared to, you know, the kind of attack that Tehran is suffering right now, you know, night after night after night, day after day. Yeah. With, yeah, with two heavily armed military forces after them.

Why did the Iranians want to kill civilians? I mean, what's their thinking there? The Iranians or the Israelis? Sorry, sorry, the Israelis. Yeah, the Israelis. I, you know, I think that it's, this is something I'll tell myself in my head. I've never vocalized before. I think that the Israelis so hate Muslims that they just want to kill as many as possible.

You know, I say all the time, the reason we saw dancing Israelis in the streets of New York after 9-11 is because they knew what this attack on the World Trade Center meant. They knew that it meant that the United States would go to war. and would kill as many Muslims as possible. And then over the next 25 years, we killed 2 million Muslims. And so I think that they do the same thing. I mean, it's, if true, it's, I don't really, I just don't see how that serves Israeli national interests. I agree.

I agree. I think it's counter to Israeli interests. Let's producer Robbie West has some housekeeping to, conduct. So, Robbie, take it away. Yep. This would be real quick. I was going to schedule some streams for John over on his Rumble channel yesterday. Things happened. I was not able to do it. I will instead be doubling up today. So you're going to get triple amounts of John karaoke if you're following him on his official Rumble channel. Also, the great Ted Rol fitting, sitting quite your popularity to my far left, will be getting more animated cartoons

up on his X account today. So if you enjoy that stuff, keep an eye out and that's all I got. Thank you, Robbie, for the awesome animations. Robbie, do we have an ad? Sure. I can throw it up for you. Yeah, thank you. Okay, so John, we have a question that came in overnight, and this one is for you.

It's from Anas Gupta. Did John ever have correspondence with Christopher Hitchens? Was he aware of his Vanity Fairpiece, where he experienced waterboarding firsthand to try to see if it really was as cruel and inhumane as it was portrayed? I'd love to know your thought, John. John's thoughts on Chris, as he and John, are two people I admire and respect a lot. Thank you for that question. Nobody's ever asked me that before.

Yeah, I was in touch with Christopher Hitchens. We talked about waterboarding and what it felt like. He thought that I was exaggerating, and so he did it, and I wasn't exaggerating. It was as bad as I told him it was going to be. I had great admiration for Chris Hitchens. brilliant writer, dedicated analyst, deep thinker, renowned atheist. And I think that his premature death was bad for journalism.

Yeah. I saw the video. It's probably kicking around on YouTube or something. I heard that he was PTSD'd. He never really got over the fake waterboarding. Crazy. I was pissed off at Christopher Hitchens because he supported the invasion of Iraq. Yeah, he did.

He later said that he felt that he had been duped. I think maybe duped by the bottom of a whiskey bottle, but that's just me. He also made sure that everybody knew that, you know, if moments before his death, he suddenly decided that God was real and, you know, he was. wanted to be baptized or something, that it was just the chemical dump in his brain talking and he didn't really mean it. I hear he didn't do that. Yeah, that's what I heard too. So, well, good on him for that. You know, I hate the last minute. My in-laws, who were lifelong, not people of faith, decided at the last moment to convert. And, you know, I was just like, that's kind of cheating.

But, you know, all right. You probably noticed Rumble is growing fast and it's not slowing down. They're building a real alternative to big tech that puts creators first and actually protects free speech. And now there's Rumble Premium, an easy way to upgrade your experience. With premium, you get ad-free viewing across the platform. No pre-rolls, no interruptions, just the content you came for. Plus, premium members unlock exclusive content like bonus videos, behind-the-scenes, drops, and more from your favorite creators. Right now, Rumble is offering 10 bucks off on annual subscription.

Just go to Rumble.com slash premium and use the promo code studio at checkout. that's rumble.com slash premium promo code studio. No ads, more freedom and content you actually care about. That's the deal. So, John, the administration is basically look, it looks like they're looking for an off ramp. And it looks like they kind of like want to be like, well, we're going to declare victory and just say we're done.

But the Iranians get a vote here, right? I mean, if you're the Iranians, don't you just keep going? absolutely like we said what a week ago ted maybe now it's a little bit more than a week ago the for the americans and the Israelis to win there has to be utter complete regime change and not just regime change but a new pro-american and probably pro-Israeli regime needs to be installed all the iranians need to do to win is to survive that's it and they oh by the way, there's a report that Ayatollah Kamani Jr. He was injured in the attack that killed his father. Ooh. His legs were hurt, but he's generally okay. Wow. Right. So, yeah, I mean, all the signs I see

are of defiance. By the way, have you seen any of the propaganda videos coming out from Iran? I wish I'd run some of them tomorrow. They're kind of amazing. So, a lot of them are generated by AI, but there's a version of, there's one video that's reportedly released by the Revolutionary Guards that has, it's basically set to the tune of these boots are meant for walking by Nancy Sinatra, and it shows like Iranian missiles, you know, streaming towards Israel and Netanyahu running. There's a weird Lego video where basically it shows the bombing of the school and like a Hood's force or some, like, dude, like really angry and then like the revenge rains down on Israel.

It's, I mean, the, the cyber war is also a really interesting aspect of this. I mean, you know, do you think this is something that, like, the CIA would have been interested in, well, is interested in now? Yes. Yes, definitely. Yeah, propaganda. You know, when I first started at the CIA, I entered on duty, eOD with, um, with a guy he asked me what i was going to work on and i said oh i'm going to leadership analysis

how about you he said i'm going to uh propaganda and covert action i said that sounds kind of cool totally and he's yeah and he said he said yeah i mean there was still a soviet union see i'm dating myself there was still the soviet union when i got hired so he was doing uh anti-soviet propaganda so it's not like not like it's something new i mean they've had groups at the CIA doing this and not just against the Soviets for decades. So yeah, definitely it would be part of the what's called Persia House. I hate that term. Why is he called that? Oh, they thought it would be cute. Back when I was still there, they created Russia House, then Iraq House, now Persia House. I don't know. It's silliness.

Okay. Okay. So let's, shall we do some ads? Sounds good. Okay. First one we can dispose of right away. Aaron Baca, John needs a shirt that says, pardon me. I have one, actually. We have such a shirt. Yeah, Trent sent it to me.

And you can buy one on the, right, can't you? I think so. Yeah. Here on the website. There it is. I'll put it up. Deprogram. Live.

I'm pretty sure. If not, if I'm mistaken, because I'm on the air, I can't really look at it. Is it there? Yep. Okay, cool. I'll leave that up there. Okay, Nard's 26. Does John believe his Australian visa was denied for political reasons?

Yes. I don't want to believe that, but yes, because I had already been to Australia, right? And I just applied for another visa two years after my first trip there. And they said, no, intending immigrant. So as soon as I said that publicly that I had been denied, several Australian immigration attorneys reached out to me and said, happy to help, won't charge you anything. And I said, I appreciate it. But my little window that I had to actually go to Australia had closed. But I'll get back there sooner or later.

Thanks for the two bucks from Hogg. I quoted John in my federal lawsuit. Hogs Candyland. Hey, great. Deep program. Thanks for the five bucks also from Hogs. There are rules for everything. Oh, here's the quote.

There are rules for everything that no one pays attention to. Nothing works the way it's supposed to. John Kirooku. Biala Kat, welcome to the show also on YouTube. Thanks for the 2999 Australian bucks from Zizik, not the Slovenian philosopher. Ezra, thanks for the five bucks. Super chat ignored yesterday.

We are sorry, sorry, sorry. Trying again. We'll do better this. We'll do it. We'll try to get it right this time. Belief growing that Iran might false flag al-Aqsa, Arab states, been feckless so far. What would the consequences be?

False flagged them in what kind of attack? I don't know. I think, do you mean the mosque? Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Okay. So Iran would do that to make it look like Israel did it? I mean, I hate having to, guys, be, you know, more details, because it helps because we are in real time here.

Don't make us guess where you're trying to. trying to say i think that's what they're saying though right um i mean you can see that stuff coming in from hundreds of miles away oh good point yeah that wouldn't happen it wouldn't be a very good false flag yeah not to mention i mean i think it would be it's just the idea of it would make the iranian sick right they just were like we can't do we can't do that um yeah no Niku Pricotchi, they just wouldn't, I just don't think they would. It's such a holy site. You don't want to destroy your own holy sites, even if you think it might be a successful false flag.

Yeah, Niku Pricotchi, thanks for the five bucks. Hello, everyone, quick question out of topic. John, how do you survive without your stomach? I always thought it was essential. Pardon, John. Oh, it's harder than I thought it was going to be. To tell you the truth, I throw up a lot, which is not good. And the doctor is like, you should have come back here as soon as you started throwing up.

I said, I thought it was normal. So I've had two surgeries to clean out scar tissue. But listen, the bottom line is I would rather be skinny and nauseous than fat and sated. And my diabetes is totally under control now. So it worked. I just can't enjoy food anymore. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people. have made that trade-off.

Matthew, hey, I'm from Brazil, and thanks for the 10 Brazilian reales. With Congress claiming we host secret Chinese bases and Trump labeling our criminal groups as terrorists, could Brazil be a target for intervention? We have elections this year. You know, I'm going to say no because, for a couple of reasons. Number one, Brazil's an ally. Number two, it's gigantic. It's too big.

with a lot, a lot of people. And, I mean, we can't fight in good weather. It's the same size as the continental United States. It is. And we can't fight on, you know, in good weather on flat land, let alone in the Amazon. With 40 foot. With 40 foot.

Anacondas and shanhas and sheds. Yeah. And anacondas and panthers and, yes, piranhas. Yeah. We're not going to do it. No, it's impossible. Yeah, yeah. Super Telfa. 1999. Thank you so much.

John, given your knowledge on Saddam, could you share any info about the Telfa Talfa tribe in Iraq? I'm a Jordanian-American Tel-Fan. I want to learn about where my tribe comes from. Wow. Wow. That's cool. Well, the Tulfa tribe was extremely important in Saddam Hussein's time. His father was Herala Tulfa. they were based in well specifically in the in the village of al-aujah in in to crete northern ira not in north central iraq fierce fighters a proud large tribe that's that's something so listen saddam and his wacky family aside that is a very proud uh tribe to be to be a part of congratulations you know i love

this kind of thing. Nobody knew these tribes like I did. And one time I gave a briefing to the Deputy Secretary of Commerce. He wanted this briefing on tribes. And I went out there with a map of Iran, Iraq. Well, actually, it was just like Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. And I was there for hours just talking about tribes. And before I could even get back to the building, the deputy secretary he called the deputy director of the CIA for intelligence to say that I had given him the most detailed briefing he had ever had in his life. And he said, now that's an expert. I love that stuff because I love studying my own family, you know?

So congratulations on being a member of the Tulsa tribe. That's wonderful. Maria Vigand, thanks for the $3. That's just the three. Thank you for the $3. $1,000. Thank you. Soden, thanks for another generous

1999 contribution. Thank you, thank you, so. Good morning, gents. The fraud is in Minnesota. It was terrible, and Fox News played it over and over. But another podcaster found fraud in Lakewood, New Jersey, with the Hasidic Jews doing the same thing, and it's been crickets on the other side.

Oh, I'm shocked. Shocked, I say. You know, the thing about the Orthodox Jews as a community, is they have this institutionalized policy of cheating welfare. You'll find people with 8, 10, 12 kids, they're all on welfare. And that's why they have so many kids. Because why would they work when they can just study the Torah all day long and make you and me pay for their...

That's what they do in Israel, right? That's how they do in Israel, which we sense it up. They don't work. They don't join the armed forces. No. No. Although not joining the armed forces when you're in Israeli is a point of honor as far as I'm concerned. True. There you go. Keith Feller's, is, is BB still couch surfing? I think so. He was in Germany a week ago. I heard day before yesterday he was in Cyprus. He's been silent. So he's hiding out somewhere and I don't think it's in Israel.

Ants 4100. What happens when the world stops trading in the U.S. dollar? Yeah, the economy goes into a tailspin. In all seriousness, this is something that I think is a long-term, like a big long-term fear of every presidential administration. As soon as countries start buying and selling oil in a currency other than the dollar on a regular basis, we're in deep trouble. John, how was being, Ray wants to know. How was being on Scotty's new show? It was fun. It was short.

It was also, it wasn't just Scotty Nell Hughes. It was her daughter and it was Ben Swan's son. They're both journalism students. And it was kind of a cute premise. It was, it was, why did I finally blow up in fame among Gen Z when I'm in my 60s? That's that's a good. I'm glad someone did that. That's fun. That's worth doing. DC, and this brings us to our, maybe we should talk about Bart, DC 8828. San Francisco also has the worst homeless crisis per capita in the nation. And that's not new at all. John, let's talk about Bart if you're if you're. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I lived, I used to commute on Bart. I lived there for in San Francisco. I lived in Berkeley and I used to commute into the city of San Francisco. go every morning. And this was in the mid-90s. And Bart is an iconic mass transit system that

dates. It was they started in 1972. At the time, there was basically mass transit was a disaster in the United States and nobody was building new systems at all. Bart was along with the DC Metro was like the two big systems that were like, we're going to start, we're going to get serious about mass transit. We're going to do it again, right? The energy crisis really, drove it. And anyway, it's spread throughout. And it's, so now basically it's kind of like, for people who aren't familiar with San Francisco, I kind of want to explain. So in the city, you have the Muni system, right, which is basically street cars. Right. And that go underground sometimes and that are out on the street at other times, not to be confused with the classic sort

of tourist streetcars. And then there's a bus trolley system. That's sort of, and then, Bart is more like regional transit. So in New York, that would be something like the Long Island Railroad, the Metro North. It's more like the system they have Marta in Atlanta, where it goes out into the suburbs, or D.C., D.C. Metro goes out into the suburbs. Anyway, the point is it is a kind of a sketchy system. I mean, it's like there's not a lot of security. It feels like, you know, people smoke crack on the trains and stuff. it's also very expensive.

Like if you wanted to take a BART from SFO to like say the northern San Francisco Bay Area, it could easily be 14, 15 bucks one way. And so, you know, as opposed to like here in New York City. That's insane. Where it's a flat fare, which is an effort to, you know, basically make the system equitable for people who are poor and live out in the sticks. You can take the train from the Bronx to far rockaway queens for, you know, a flat subway fare, which is like, I don't know, three bucks these days. Yeah, three,

I think it's three bucks. Yep. So anyway, I don't, I take it, but I don't know how much it is because I'm paying with my phone, right? So anyway, it's sort of, so I guess here, basically what's their, the BART administrators never recovered from the pandemic. They basically, a ridership is less than 50% of what it was in 2020. It's never coming back because of work at home, especially in a tech city where big tech is. So basically they're going to start, they have a $400 million a year annual loss. They're asking for a new sales tax to be approved by the Bay Area residents, but it doesn't look likely to pass because the San Franciscoans seem to not really believe

the supervisors of Bart. So they're thinking of cutting back the trains, charging more for the fair, parking, more for parking, no more trains after 9 p.m. instead of 12 midnight, laying off a quarter of all Bart workers, closing 15 stations, all of which, of course, will reduce ridership even more. That's a doom loop, right? Yeah, it is. It's a doom loop. It's sort of like what we've seen in newspapering, right?

You charge more and more for less and less, and, you know, people leave faster and faster. it's literally possible that by the end of 2027, you might be looking at the shutdown of a major mass transit system due to billions of dollars, by the way, a lot of federal dollars were invested into. What does this say about the state of the nation? You know, we were talking yesterday, Ted, about defense spending. And here it is. This is exactly the problem, excuse me, the problem.

with spending a trillion dollars a year on defense. When the mass transit systems of the greatest country in the world are circling the drain, why is it so difficult to get from one side of Los Angeles to the other? Why does it take hours and hours to go from one side of Los Angeles to the other? It shouldn't. And there's a little tiny subway system. It goes about that far. It's full of homeless people sleeping on it.

Yep. Why? You can see the potential because it, you know, insofar as it goes, if you ever find it convenient. I have taken it. And it's like, wow, this is really fast. If this went all over, this would be great, you know. Yeah. But it doesn't.

Yeah. And at least, at least they're building there. So, I mean, what's going to happen here? I mean, do you think it would wake Americans up if like Bart were to shut down or just people who don't live in San Francisco or work in San Francisco just wouldn't care? I think that nobody outside of San Francisco would care because Republicans for so long have used San Francisco as a punching bag that remember, there's even an app that the Republicans put out where, where, it had a map of San Francisco and it would show you where human feces were on the street. Yeah. Do you remember that?

I do remember that. Look, they're not, they weren't wrong. I was last time the cartoonist convention was in San Fran, which is only a few years ago, I was on the Muni. And some guy pulled his pants down and took a shit on the bus, on a moving bus. I'm a New Yorker, okay? I don't gross out easy. It's like, and people were.

was just like, whoa, whatever. You know, nobody got off. You know, people barely even moved out of the way to the other side of the car. This might just degenerate. No, I think people won't care, but it is, but it is shameful. And I don't know, I mean, to me, San Francisco also has a structural problem in its governance, which is that so much of the tax base is now down the peninsula. You know, in Mountain View, like, these big companies like.

And they're not sharing the wealth. Right. So Palo Alto and Menlo Park and those municipalities get the money. I mean, it would probably be wise if there was some kind of tax sharing thing because basically it's very strange. I mean, in the old days, when you and I were kids, people lived in the suburbs and commuted downtown to work. Here in San Francisco, the kids, the millennials, they live in San Francisco because it's fun and cool and Palo Alto is boring. And then they commute out. to Palo Alto or whatever. Then they go back. It's totally opposite, but that means they're paying their, you know, the companies they work at are down the peninsula. Yes. It's right. It's backwards. It's very weird. And you know, and then later urban planning called for, called for like nodes to be built. So you build an office building in the middle of nowhere, but then you build housing and shopping around it. New urbanism. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. That is, I mean, I've seen it work in some places. I like San Francisco a lot. I really do. And I could live there if it didn't have these, the problem of homelessness and people shitting everywhere and, you know, stuff like that. It's an amazing city. It is.

I really blame the people, though. They don't stand up for themselves. They don't. Two quick stories. One time I'm walking down the street, I see someone like throw their litter down on the ground, like, just like five feet away from a trash can. And I'm like, hey, dude, the trash can tell me to piss off. This other guy who's not even involved goes, shoves me.

He goes, hey, man, he has his reasons. And I'm like, fuck off. And that's like, that's sort of like the San Francisco way. Like if someone's fucking around in traffic, like the light turns green, they don't go. And you give them a little boop, a little beep. Other people will get mad at you for honking. There's no self-policing in the city of San Francisco. The culture is everybody leave, everybody.

alone, everybody's cool. And then, so, you know, and I was talking one time on a stuck Bart. I was like, does this happen all the time? The guys said, yeah, every day. I go, you guys don't raise hell? You guys don't go down to the transit authority and scream at them. Oh, what can you do? I'm like, go down to the transit authority and scream at them.

New Yorkers do. I remember moving to New York in 2003. And our first night. there, my wife and I went for a walk. And just at the end of the walk, she stepped in a pile of shit. And she said, oh, no, I stepped in dog shit. And I said,

You hope. True. Benjamin Griffin 7. Oh, uh, well, okay, I am having such a hard time keeping track of all this. Okay. Um, okay, here we go.

Um, Zizi. Thank you very much for the 20. $2,99 Australian dollars. Much appreciated. Okay. Benjamin, love the show. Iran has over 800 pounds of 60% enriched uranium, which is well beyond needed for nuclear power.

Is this for negotiation leverage? How did the former Ayatollah spill about nukes? Thanks. Well, there was a formal fatwa that Ayatollah Khamanai had issued, what, 20-something years ago, forbidding Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. And two, that's never reported in American. Never reported.

Ever. Two national intelligence estimates concluding that the Iranians did not have a nuclear weapons program and were not seeking nuclear weapons. Nor long range intercontinental ballistic missiles. The missiles that the Iranians have are barely able to reach like the eastern most Greek Islands. That's it. That's as far as they go. What, Mikhail, what aspect do you guys think plays a more important role in shaping personality, race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation?

Such an interesting question. I'd have to go with religious affiliation for personality. I think probably, yeah. I mean, all of them in a way, but yeah, I think I would have to agree with you. religious affiliation. Nate Moulton has a question for you, John. Are you still planning to speak at the University of Pittsburgh this week? Pretty sure you said it would be today, but it looks like you're at home. Tomorrow, I'm going to do it by Zoom

because, listen, I'm happy to do a speech for 500 bucks for a friend, right? But I signed a little. last week with a creative artist agency, CAA. And they said, from now on, you speak for 25,000 plus business class expenses. Good for them. Everybody else, the answer is no. I said, yeah, but a buddy of mine at Pitt. And he said, they said, okay, do it for your buddy, but it's 25,000 now. It's not 500. And so they've already booked me a bunch of speeches at 25,000. So I told my friend, Listen, I'm not going to block off an entire day and drive all the way to Pittsburgh for $500. So I'm going to do it on Zoom.

Okay. Fair. T.S. Wolf, thanks for the dollar. I saw yesterday that Hezbollah has sent the Rodwan fighters into southern Lebanon. Yeah. John, would you mind telling people about the Rodwan fighters because I know at least I had no idea how lethal they are? The Rodwan fighters were created in 2006, and they are, of course, a part of Hezboan fighters. a part of Hezbollah's military wing, but they are specifically trained to cross the border

and infiltrate Israeli settlements in northern Israel to kill people. So, you know, Hasbala is lethal. It's always been lethal. These guys are like extra lethal. They're very well trained. They're well armed. They are perfectly happy to do suicide attacks just so long. as they can take out settlers. And now they've been activated. I was surprised, frankly, that they hadn't been activated earlier. Donors, thanks for the 499. Question for both of us. Would you support John Stewart for president? No. No. John, do you want to say why? No, no, no. Yeah, he's a Zionist and he's very DNC, mainstream Democrat. I would compare him very much to Rachel Maddow, to whom I wouldn't give the time of the day.

So, no, not interesting. Agreed with that. Not to mention, you know, John never has once had a real leftist when he had his show as a guest ever, ever, ever, ever. Never. So, yeah. Ezra, PR, thanks for the five bucks. My mistake, I meant Israel doing a false flag on Al-Axah and then blame Iran. Coffee hadn't hit yet.

I think we figured that out. Yeah, no, I can't imagine them blowing up the third holiest site in Islam just to point the finger at the Israelis. Because the Israelis are probably planning to blow it up anyway. Oh, yeah, no, for sure. You know, they're talking about constructing the third temple. You got to blow up a lot of said to do it. Yep, that's right. Brady Okerlund, thanks for the 1999.

Hey, guys, if U.S. naval escorts are too escalatory. But I wouldn't say they're escalatory. I just say that they become big, fat, juicy targets for the Iranians. Agreed. But leaving Ormuz closed risks recession, what specific alternative? would you use to reopen it without rewarding Iran's mining and threats. Good luck with the pardon. I don't think there's anything on God's green earth the U.S. can do about it.

I mean, it's their neighborhood. They've got, they can button it up tight, you know, like a, like a, I don't know, something. But there's nothing we can do. No, what Reagan did was he sent minesweepers and escort ships. And so it was kind of a, you know, a face-off. And then it passed. But, Ted, you're right. If they want to shut it down, there's practically nothing that we can do.

Yeah. And people might say, well, what's the difference, right? Well, the difference was in Reagan's time, Iran wasn't looking for a war with the United States. But we're already at war. You know, this is the second time in a year. The Iranians think that we're out to destroy them and turn them into a vassal state, which they have good reason to think, because, that's what the president of the United States is telling them repeatedly every hour on social media.

So, like, of course, you know, there's, it's a different scenario. I mean, the U.S. can try to, I mean, I don't even know how many vessels would even accept the escort, right? I mean, just think about the value, you know, which can exceed $500 million worth of oil can be on an oil tanker, right? Yes. And so just think, you know, one thing turns that into a bomb, one little drone. And I mean, you know, if you own that oil, if you're that company or if you're like MERSC with, you know, some giant shipping container, you know, shipping container ship, you're not, you're not going to, you know, you're not going to risk that. Like, oh, well, don't worry, Donald Trump's got your back. Oh, yeah, that makes me feel good.

You're going to sit tight until things are okay. Things are not okay. No, things are not okay. Agreed. John Templar wants to know, thanks for the 499, is Iran's missile capability showing signs of failure or slowing down? I don't think it is yet, but that's probably coming. I'll tell you, so long as regional countries are living in fear of these missiles, they're serving their purpose. I'm in touch daily with a friend of mine in Cyprus.

She's a kind of a prominent podcaster. and she gives me these daily updates. And Cypriots are panicked, right? So there have been three launches, two drones, two suicide drones and a missile. They've all three been intercepted. They were probably headed for the British bases, but Cypriots are terrified. We're going to get to a point where they will have used most or all of their missiles. And then either the Russians and Chinese are going to have to resupply them or they're going to have to just kind of give up.

But so far. The Russians can resupply directly, right? Directly. That's right. So, yeah. How would the Chinese do it, though? The Chinese would have to go through Central Asia? Yeah, they'd probably have to go through Central Asia.

And I'm not sure that they could get permission to do it. Well, the Turkmen have a, Turkmen have a, Turkmen, has an official policy of neutrality. So I can't imagine them allowing weapons to transit across their country. The Uzbeks are corrupt enough that they might let it go. You know, you'd only have to go China to Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan to Iran. You'd only have to get it through. I don't know, the Kazakhs would be the hard part, I think,

because they're trying to run a tight ship. Some hilarious breaking news. I mean, duh. Iran said it will not be able to put. participate in the World Cup due to the current hostilities. Shocking. 20 Markso, thanks for the 1999. Hey guys, love the show.

When will it ever be enough for Israel? Do they want to occupy the Middle East? What happens with this 50 to 100 years from now? Oh, John, do you remember the David Bowie ad for MTV? Too much is never enough. Yeah, I do. That's too much is never enough for the Israel. There's no limit for the Israelis.

None. 50 to 100 years from now, I honestly don't have a clue. I mean, care to guess? It's got to be indefinite. I mean, they won't stop. And they won't listen to reason. And we're not balsy enough to tell them to stop. So no, I can't imagine anything being enough for the Israelis.

Gone to Lives Matter. Thanks for the 99. As a legal immigrant, I was very sad with your statements yesterday. I followed all the rules because it's the law. And today I'm being seen as the same because of problems caused by illegal immigration. It hurts us all. I think we agree with that, right? Yeah. What did we say that was? I think basically just sort of the sense that immigration, you know, takes away American jobs. And, you know, we should. I mean, look, if you followed the rules, no one has any right to criticize you. None. Zero. Adams, thanks for the Emirati, the 10 Emirati dirhams. Any chance that Beebe could take it out by Iran? I think so.

You know, it's possible. I'm not if he's hiding in Germany, but it's possible. we saw in the 12-day war back in October or whenever it was we saw more than a half a dozen drones get through the iron dome if if iran is able to flood Israeli airspace with drones there aren't enough missiles in the iron dome to protect everything, everywhere all the time to, you know, make a pun. So, yeah, it's possible. Not likely, but possible. Shah and our Series C-99, John, in your Q&A, you said that your partner is Persian, love that.

What's it like dating a Persian at this time? And what are your three favorite Persian dishes? Don't tell anybody, but I don't really like Persian food. In all seriousness, she cries a lot. And it's because her life every day is reports of death and destruction. And she tries to talk to her friends and her family in Iran and around the world. And their stories are stories of death and destruction every day. She usually goes to Iran once or twice a year.

She can't do that. People are stuck there. people she cares about or stuck there. And, you know, there's always a risk of the Israelis bombing an apartment building, which they're doing in her neighborhood. Her condo that she owns and where her cousin lives has not been hit, but the neighborhood has been hit. And yeah, there's, there's no good that's going to come out of this at all, none, just death. I mean, let me push back on that a little bit. I mean, could if Iran were to really bloody the Israelis and or the Americans noses to the point

where we fucked off for a while and left them alone, wouldn't that be a good outcome? That would be a good outcome. And it would allow the Iranians to reassess and re-evaluate their own policy. Listen, if you are an Iranian leader and you survive this, you would be a fool to not initiate a nuclear weapons program. You would have to make a nuclear bomb to protect yourself from the next time the Americans and the Israelis decide to bomb you

and invade you. At SCORP, John, I was wondering if you, thanks for the 99, I was wondering if you'd seen the video of George Galloway talking about how Israel looks like Gaza now and how the media is lying about the death count of Americans. hoping you get that pardon. The death count of the Americans is something that clearly the administration is not being straight with us about. The way that the reports are trickling out in like very, like, unnot, like first we get numbers,

we don't even know where these incidents happen. Suddenly the numbers spike from six to seven to 140, not deaths, but, you know, injuries. Yeah, I mean, we're clearly not being, they're not playing it straight with us. They're not playing it straight with us. And I will say, too, that I was offended that when Donald Trump met the returning bodies of the servicemen who have died, he never took off his baseball cap. That's his formal baseball cap for formal occasions. The Republicans would have lost their shit if Joe Biden or Barack Obama or Bill Clinton had done something similar. True.

The Republicans lost their shit once because Barack Obama wore a brown suit. Did you see what Fox? Did you see what Fox News did? Fox News aired old footage from another ceremony where he had a bearhead and no hat to illustrate to pretend that that's, you know, basically they presented it. Like here he is at the, at the dignified transfer. and it's like and then they got caught out and they had to admit but of course they admitted on like fox and friends at like you know six in the morning on a Saturday when you know nobody's watching pretty sad um thanks very much for the 100 Saudi Rials uh shia shia Muslims in Persia don't believe that al-Axia is in Palestine they think al-Axa is located above in the sky yeah they do so a false flag operas is possible on both sides for the Israelis and the Iranians.

Yeah, that's true, actually. That's a good point. So, okay. Thanks for the 99 from 20 Marco, Moscow. I'm asked about 50 to 100 years from now because I'm a young man. All I want is for my children to prosper. How do they do so when officials say they elect I can't figure out that word.

It's a misspelled. I don't know. Servants or something, no beneficial purpose. Honestly, John, I think that like the biggest problem that people are going to have 50 years from now is going to be environmental. It's, you know, there's already predictions that human civilization is going to start to collapse

by the year 2050. I think the environmental situation is what people should be focused on. Ted, may I jump in real quick? Please. Young courthouse, thank you for the $5. This is so wonderful. Young courthouse says, hey, John, congrats on the Shia Batty. Also, John McLaughlin is a professor at my school.

Anything cheeky, I should say to him. John McLaughlin is the former deputy director of the CIA under George Tenet, and he was one of the godfathers of the torture program. Yeah. John McLaughlin is an accomplishment. magician. It's a hobby that he's had since his childhood, and he's just great at sleight of hand. Maybe you can ask him if he can do some kind of magic trick to make his co-creation of the torture program disappear. Funny. John, we have a few questions we really have to get to before we

close out. Tandgam, thanks for the 20. If Iran did take out BB, what do you think the Israeli in the United States would do, who is second command after him. Wow, that's a good question. Nobody that anyone knows of. There would be a dozen guys scrapping it out to take over, you know, control of the good. But he's not a lecood member. And the coup is the largest part of the block.

Wouldn't they have to have a snap election? I think they probably would have to. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, life goes on. I don't think it's just a BB thing at this point. It's an Israel thing. Also, thanks for the buck from Sir Bikeslat.

If you want to interview any new urbanist or transit expert, I recommend Jared Walker, author of Human Transit and Trolls Mahon of Strong Towns. Thanks for that. Sir Bikeslott. Also, thanks for the two bucks. The best transit system that I've ever ridden is the VIA in San Antonio. Second best is UTA in Salt Lake. I like the UTA.

If you're not driving your car, then you're not. burning gasoline and Chevron isn't making dollars off you. Yeah, I mean, I'm trying best transit system in the country. I'm going to have to say it's New York City because it's the only city that you can truly live a high-quality life and not own a car. Not own a car. I would agree with that. Washington's pretty clean, modern, and sophisticated. It doesn't go everywhere, everywhere. but it goes to Dulles Airport now, which saves me 75 bucks every time I need to do it. Dulles Airport is like a good hour drive west of D.C. I mean, I can't believe how far it was the first time I flew in there.

Crazy. Yeah, it's just nuts. So let's see. I guess we do have a little time for a few more. Let's see. Is Russia, Metina, now Russia's taking advantage of the war and expanding to the Balkans? I haven't heard that. I hadn't heard that either.

From an intelligence perspective, John, oh, I don't know if we have time for this. We have 30 seconds. How would the CIA and the Pentagon react if the UK gave U.S. forces 24 hours to leave its bases? If Germany did the same, would Washington see it as a crisis of NATO? It would never happen. But if it were to happen, yeah, it would be the end of NATO. Sure. Someone's taking issue with my idea that John never had.

Real leftists on his show is bullshit. Really? Name one. Email me. Rawl.com slash contact. Okay. Thanks, everyone for joining us. You've been watching Deep Program with Ted Rawl and John Kiriaku.

We'll be back tomorrow, Thursday, March 12th at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Thanks. Please like, follow and share the show. John, see you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. Everybody else. I'm going to, please stick around

for the TMI show with myself and Manila Chin. Except Robi. Banilla is out today. Robbie will be filling it. See all.