DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Deportation Industrial Complex | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.Special TWO-HOUR SHOW! Starting 10 AM EST, we're taking your voice calls.... Tune in early for a full explanation for how to talk to Ted and John LIVE.Today we discuss:• The Trump Administration plans to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time. Migrants would be booked into processing sites for a few weeks before being funneled into one of 7 warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each, where they would be staged for deportation.• The U.S. bombed an ISIS camp in northwest Nigeria to protect Nigerian Christians.• Zelensky and Trump about to meet. Also, Zelensky wishes for Putin to perish.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
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Starting point is 00:09:44 It's Friday, December 26th, 2025, and you're watching D-Program with Ted Raul and John Kiroakou. Or maybe you're listening and you're in for a treat, as are we this morning, John, you and I are going to be doing a two-hour show, no TMI show at 10 o'clock Eastern. So we're taking up the extra hour with. your calls. So we will have producer Robbie West come on and explain for those of you who missed the last time we do this. And he is going to explain how you can call in using the Discord link, which he is going to provide. And you are going to be able to call John and I directly and we'll
Starting point is 00:10:26 be able to have a little chit chat and we'll explain all the ground rules there. And of course, we have a lot of news to talk about today. Before we do that, John, I want to ask you, if you were that guy who bought the $1.8 billion powerball ticket at a gas station in Arkansas, what would you do with that money? What would you do? In all seriousness, the first thing I do is get the hell out of Arkansas, number one. Number two, yeah, I mean, what do you do? I would immediately start gobbling up luxury real estate all around the Western world. That's what I do. That's excellent.
Starting point is 00:11:08 I was thinking you might be able to, you know, pay for, like, all the attorneys you need to get that pardon. Right. You know, you could buy a few, like, white shoe law firms. Like, you could probably buy Sullivan and Cromwell for that. I probably could for that kind of money. Yeah, no, I would definitely start a media empire. That would be my main thing I'd want to do, reboot the media that is in such trouble. All right.
Starting point is 00:11:35 So we've got stuff to talk about here. We've got the Trump administration's plan to hold over 80,000 immigrant detainees at one time. The plan is, and this is very serious, it's not just sort of like on the, you know, sort of one of those like, well, they're thinking about doing it. Congress has appropriated the money and requests for proposal are out to contractors to build seven ginormous matrix-like warehouses that would each hold five to ten. thousand migrants at a time where they would be staged for several weeks, whatever that means, for deportation. So it's basically the deportation industrial complex. Also, the main story probably that most mainstream media outlets are talking about this morning
Starting point is 00:12:22 is the U.S. bombing of an alleged ISIS camp in northwestern Nigeria, ostensibly to protect Nigerian Christians who have been, who have been subject to attacks. in recent months. And some progress on the Ukraine front, at least the negotiations between Trump and Zelensky, although there's a bit of a wrinkle because Zelensky, for his New Year's wishes that the new year not involved Vladimir Putin. He wishes for him to perish. And there was breaking news just as we were coming on that Zelensky is flying on Sunday
Starting point is 00:12:58 to Mara Lago to meet with Trump. I'm sure that's not going to be a friendly meeting. Today? He's going to go on Sunday. Oh, on Sunday. Okay. Wow. Okay. So, all right. So, and of course, as always, please like, follow and share the show.
Starting point is 00:13:17 The format is going to look a little different today because today John and I are doing this, are doing this call-in show. So the 9 o'clock hour, which began six minutes ago, is going to be dedicated as usual to news and analysis. and we'd love to have your questions in text format in YouTube and as well as in Rumble. So pipe in those comments and donations and all that stuff. And we'll look at those and read them and get to them as you know as quickly as possible. We always try to get to all of them. We do a pretty good job there, I think. And then patting ourselves on the back.
Starting point is 00:13:52 And then at 10 o'clock Eastern time, we're going to do the call-ins. And we had so much fun last time. And we're going to be doing that again today. Okay, so before we get to our news, we have one question from FUSO, and thanks for the donation. Do you have any crazy CIA Christmas stories? Well, I don't, but I bet John might. I have kind of a fun CIA Christmas story. When I was stationed in Athens, of course, my primary job was to infiltrate and destroy or disrupt or whatever revolutionary organization 17 November, the most, by far the most dangerous terror.
Starting point is 00:14:33 group ever to appear in Greece and I worked very hard over the course of a year to make a recruitment who was a direct penetration of the organization but here's federal bureaucracy for you because this guy was such a bad man I could not get the office of Near Eastern I'm sorry the Office of European Operations to agree to the recruitment and they had to issue something called an exceptional, I won't say what it's called. They had to issue this special permission
Starting point is 00:15:12 allowing me to go forward with the recruitment. Well, if my job is to disrupt the organization and one division of the agency won't allow me to make a recruitment to disrupt the organization, we have a serious problem here. And so on Christmas Eve, there is a CIA-wide Christmas part,
Starting point is 00:15:33 party. And the director goes down into the lobby of the old headquarters building, which is the one that people have seen on TV with a great seal in the floor in the lobby and the wall of honor with the gold stars of everybody who's been killed in the line of duty and the flags and the portraits of all of our former directors. Two of my colleagues walked up to the director. It was George Tennant at the time and he says, Merry Christmas, fellas. And they said, Merry Christmas, Mr. Director. We're not here, though, just to wish you a Merry Christmas for having a problem that we were hoping you could help with. And his chief of staff was standing next to him, and he says, guys, come on.
Starting point is 00:16:14 It's Christmas Eve. And then one of them, an awesome guy that I work with, said, I think he's going to want to hear this. He said, Mr. Director, we're from the 17 November Task Force, and we are trying to end terrorism in Greece. But the Office of European Operations won't allow us. He said, John Kyriaku is in the process of recruiting a direct penetration of 17 November, and European operations won't allow him to do it. And then turned to his chief of staff, they told me later, and said, make it happen. And I mean, minutes later, I got a cable saying, do it.
Starting point is 00:16:55 And so I did it. And I'm proud to say, two years later, 17 November was disrupted. it was destroyed, in part because of an accident, in part because of what our source told us they were planning to do. So it's not a crazy story, but it was, it would make a fun scene in a movie. Yeah, you know, John, happenstance always terrifies me.
Starting point is 00:17:21 You know, like when you hear about, like, oh, like a brilliant film director, and he says, oh, I would have never gotten a chance to make a movie, if not for this one time, I ran into this guy at a bar and he happened and it's like, and I hate that. I'm like, it's like, we need a better system. And that's life. That's real life.
Starting point is 00:17:39 That is, that's true. That's how I got syndicated. It was like that. Just sort of a happenstance thing. It would have never, I mean, I would have no career. I wouldn't be talking to you now just for some weird accident. All right. So let's see.
Starting point is 00:17:51 We have some, we have a few more questions here. Robert Scher, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you as well. would love your guys' opinions on the state of the current state of the conflict between Iran and Israel. That's a great question. Yeah. I mean, it seems like right now it's a little bit, I guess, I don't know, I wouldn't say exactly backburnered, but maybe sort of sideburnered. You know, I think the word is coming from the White House to Israel that they would prefer that at this stage, nothing more happened.
Starting point is 00:18:27 that there's certainly not be any more what they call kinetic strikes, right, against Iran. I think it's kind of like the president feels like he has his handsful, and he doesn't need any sassiness from BB. That's my take right now. It's like I don't think there's any progress, but I don't think things are getting any worse. Greed. There's no progress.
Starting point is 00:18:49 But the desire from war is not coming from the Iranians. No, well, it never has. No. No. I mean, Iran-Iraq war, that wasn't Iran's fault either. No. Okay, so Nicholas Franco's, John, what's the point to have a CIA museum if you can't visit it? I know, right? So.
Starting point is 00:19:11 Although there's that private one that's in D.C. that you can visit. That's, yeah, the spy museum, which is very expensive. And I'll tell you what, Ted, I'm not partial to interactive museums. I don't want to do a day in the life of a spy. I want to see cool shit that has been used in operation. So I am, John. I'm glad you said that. I mean, I was really disappointed with the new African-American Museum in Washington.
Starting point is 00:19:38 The building is astonishing. The building, the architecture is cool. Go to see the building. The architecture is amazing. But don't need to go inside. But inside, I mean, I hate to say this, but like, you know, I want to see cool shit. And Lord knows, it's not like African-American history doesn't have cool artifacts. to show, right?
Starting point is 00:19:55 I mean, show me like a Duke Ellington original acetate. Show me a slave color. I saw a slave collar in Goldberg's apartment. I didn't see one there. It's all like, it's just pictures and displays, videos. I'm like, I can have the same exact experience on YouTube. I don't need to be here.
Starting point is 00:20:15 I don't need to stand here. You know, and find parking and all that. But I mean, I guess that's just sort of the way it's done now. Thanks for the $25 bucks from Brian Good Dick. Keep up the good work. Much appreciate it. We will try. We will try.
Starting point is 00:20:33 And we will continue in the coming year. Hey, John, we do have, before we do our hour of power, calls coming up in 47 minutes. I guess let's go ahead. Yeah, perfect. Robbie's reading my mind, as he often does. Robbie, come on in and please explain how the 10 o'clock call-ins are going to work. all right so the call-ins will be pretty straightforward if you want to participate click on the link for the discord server up towards the top of the server you're going to see a link that says call-in waiting room just park in there
Starting point is 00:21:09 wait i will keep track of who comes in there first my request where's that link where's that link where can people find that link it's in the chat i got pinned in the chat on both rumble and on YouTube and I will share it again multiple times. So, but it's right there at the top on the pen comment. On the Discord server, you're going to see, you're going to see a voice room that says Lobby. Click on there, chill out, and wait. I will then drag you over and drop you into the room that me, John, and Tedder in. And you can ask your questions.
Starting point is 00:21:39 We don't want to hear about your stories. We don't want to hear about hacking back in the 90s. We don't care about any of that. We want questions because we'll have an hour for the, the actual talk. And lots of other people are waiting. They are. They are.
Starting point is 00:21:54 People are waiting. I want to get as many calls as we possibly can. And just be professional. I mean, this is a talk radio show. Treat it as treated accordingly. Basically what that means in Redneck, don't be a dick. Come in, ask your question, and go away. And we will continue onward from there.
Starting point is 00:22:14 And if you are a dick, there will be consequences. namely you will be I mean well you will be banned in perpetuity let's put it that way I will 100% ban you you'll never be allowed
Starting point is 00:22:27 on the Discord server you'll never get a chance to ask these two guys of questions again so buyer beware if you're a dick there will be a price to pay I am the god
Starting point is 00:22:37 it's standard talk radio you know rules apply yes I am the god of this Discord server so tread carefully you make you may curse about as much as John and I. No more.
Starting point is 00:22:48 Yeah. Okay. You know, when I was doing that show with Lee Stranahan, people would call and we'd have to ban them for swearing and stuff because it was terrestrial radio. But they just couldn't understand like, look, it's my show. You can't call in and swear at me. It's my show.
Starting point is 00:23:09 You're going to get banned. Right. Well, that's, I mean, yeah, it's like people would do that on like my Facebook page. Yeah. They'd say shit. They'd insult me. And then I'd block them. And they'd be like, you're like, you're censoring me.
Starting point is 00:23:22 I'm like, yes, I'm censoring you. You are, you are, you have come into my home and you decided to whip out your dick and flail it around and piss on my sofa. You're lucky I don't kill you. It's like, so, yeah. I blocked six people on Facebook yesterday. Christmas Day, I had to block six people because somebody I never heard of who goes by Billy Bob and has a picture of Stalin as his, as his, as his, his icon, what do you call it, said something like,
Starting point is 00:23:52 I can't believe that scumbag, John Kiriaku went on Pierce Morgan and defended attacking Venezuela. No, I didn't. I'm against attacking Venezuela. Yes, that is 100%. Yeah, 100% not true, yeah. Not true.
Starting point is 00:24:07 And then I blocked one guy. People just say shit. Yeah, they just say shit. So I had to block one guy because he says, the one thing that I hate the most once CIA always CIA
Starting point is 00:24:19 and I wrote you came up with that all on your own Professor Einstein I'll be glad to tell Ed Snowden and Ray McGovern and the sons of Philip Agee that you think they're all still in the CIA
Starting point is 00:24:32 you fucking moron and then I blocked him and I blocked everybody who supported him yeah yeah well and rightly so how intellectually lazy is that Well, I saw in a movie one time that once CIA, always CIA, you retard. Well, I mean, I literally have people say, well, you've never, you know, you never made fun of a Democratic, of a Democratic president.
Starting point is 00:24:59 I'm like, really? Yeah, and then the Democrat is in power. They say you've never made fun of a Republican president. I'm like, really, I mean, you're just saying that. That is not true, to say the least. No, it is simply not true. Yeah. It's objectively not true. All right. So let's see. If you so, also thanks for the money. Have you messed around with VR, VR games, VR animation movies, VR travel, etc. I have. So I did, so actually I started out many years ago. I went to, I was speaking in Springfield, Illinois, and I was invited to a high-tech lab at the University of Illinois at Springfield. and, sorry, at Champaign Urbana, not Springfield.
Starting point is 00:25:47 And they had this VR lab, and it was so cool. So you wear the glasses and the gloves. This was a long time ago. This was like 15 years ago. And so, like, you're basically in this virtual VR landscape that is drawn by children. Basically, it's like a children's drawing of buildings, children's drawing of butterflies. So visually, you know it's not. real, right? And yet, at one point, you're walking, you're standing on a roof, and you get the
Starting point is 00:26:18 sense that you're going to fall off the roof if you go too far. You see a butterfly go by you, and the butterfly, like, you feel like it's going to hit you, and you're like, and you duck out of the way. That was my first time. My son is an avid gamer, and he has, he has a VR thing. He was so into it, Visor, all that stuff, and he was so into it that he got so excited that he ended up breaking our television, smacked into it. With these flat screens, if you bang them to them, like basically, first you get like one pixel and then they start, starts to spread like your windshield when a pebble hits it on the freeway. Right. It's sort of just, and then eventually you just can't really watch the TV. So, yeah, no, I mean, it's, I have. How about you, John?
Starting point is 00:27:08 you know i didn't do anything at all with it until um uh meta came out with with its your thing uh at the very very start of covid and i'll tell you what i went out and bought one because my brother-in-law showed me his and you put it on and you just tell it where you want it to take you so i would say take me to the national cathedral of athens Greece and boom you're there and then you can walk down the streets because it's done like Google Earth the same kind of thing you walk down the streets you look up you see the parthenon it was very effective in battling depression during COVID you just put that thing on and you're in Honolulu or you're in Miami or wherever it is you want to be it worked
Starting point is 00:28:03 it was incredible yeah the travel ones are cool it's kind of like viewmaster on steroids, if you remember those. Yeah, that's a great way to put it. It's a, I mean, so I think, I mean, I will say also I played some of my son's very violent VR games. And to be honest, John, I found it really upsetting. And I have seen some really violent, horrible shit in, you know, in doing conflict reporting and other things while traveling.
Starting point is 00:28:32 And even so, I found, like, you know, I don't really want to, you know, feel like something's trying to stab me or that I have to cut off its head and have blood all over the place. I'm like, you know, if I'm doing that, I want hazardous duty pay from like the LA Times. Right. Yes, indeed. But I wonder about that level of desensitization. It's like, it didn't seem to bother my son at all. But he's like, oh, it's fun.
Starting point is 00:28:58 I'm like, but maybe I'm just a puss. I might just be a puss. This is a good question, and I'd like to answer too, even though it's directed to you, John. Hidden 69, as you may have heard, Syria is introducing a currency swap on January 1st. So what that basically means is every Syrians are being encouraged to bring in their current old banknotes and they'll exchange them for new ones on January 1st. And I guess sooner rather than later, the old ones will be declared invalid. Do you believe that this will assist in unifying Syria or contribute to the further fragmentation of Syria?
Starting point is 00:29:36 I don't think it's going to have much of an effect to tell you the truth. And we should say that there has been a very longstanding scam in the Middle East that it's being called the currency reset, right? So you invest $10,000 in Iraqi, old Iraqi currency, there's going to be this currency reset. You're going to make a million dollars. Well-known scam. It's been around for 20 years now. There is no currency reset. the currency swap is different.
Starting point is 00:30:08 All the money in Syria has Bashar al-Assad's face on it. And so they're going to reintroduce a new Syrian dinar, or not reintroduced. They're going to introduce a new Syrian dinar. And the Syrian dinar is going to have, you know, a bird on it or whatever, a scene from Damascus just to get just to get Bashar al-Assad behind them. If that said, there are a lot of people who support Bashar al-Assad. There are a lot of people who oppose Jolani or Shara, whatever he's going by today. So I'm not sure it's going to have much of an effect on anything. Well, aside from the symbolism, which is real, I think also there's some practical issues here too.
Starting point is 00:30:57 I mean, this is really a clever way to find people who earned a lot of money under us. Assad. They're between rocking a hard place now. Basically, if you were, you know, in with the regime, either licitly or illicitly, they now, you're stuck with all this money that's about to become a bunch of bricks. And you can either expose yourself. I mean, the whole, what's the whole point of hoarding cash? The point of hoarding cash is anonymity. And you lose that anonymity when you show up at the bank with a big, you know, gunny sack full of old Assad bills. And you have to turn them in. And you know, they're asking, it's not like you can't submit, you're not allowed, you have to show ID, you have to show your name. So this is a way to try to ferret out enemies of the new government, no doubt about that, right?
Starting point is 00:31:47 Yeah. So it's a, so it's definitely, you know, it's very clever. You know, also I smell IMF all over that. Yeah, seriously. I mean, you know, I have to agree. So definitely, you know, they're going to. Syria is going to end up as one of those client states that's heavily indebted to the IMF. No question about it.
Starting point is 00:32:08 You know, the vultures be circling overhead. Okay, so what are we going to talk about first? Should we talk about these, the migrant warehouses? Maybe you should talk about Nigeria first, or what should we do? Well, Nigeria is more breaking news, I guess. We should probably talk about Nigeria. All right, let's do Nigeria then. All right, so basically the U.S. claims to, you, I like the, the way.
Starting point is 00:32:32 way you put it the other day, John, you said, you know, these bombings always involved like hitting some fucking hut in the middle of nowhere and hitting people who may or may not be affiliated with the terrorist group that you're trying to get. So, ISIS, and I'm just going to say, is this really ISIS or is this really Boko Haram in northwest Nigeria? It's not ISIS. It's Boko Haram, which is loosely affiliated with ISIS or Al-Qaeda or whatever you want it to be affiliated with.
Starting point is 00:32:59 They all cooperate when they need to cooperate. So, yeah, it's not ISIS. Isis is just saying ISIS is just a way of making it understandable to people, I think. So these Boko Haram slash ISIS dudes allegedly in a tent, in tents, in a camp in northwest Nigeria, they just caught like over a dozen cruise missiles. I just think about the cost, right? Each one of them costs millions of dollars. That's just for the production.
Starting point is 00:33:28 That's not even like the cost of firing them. Anyway, so they killed these people. John, what is the point politically of this from the standpoint of the Trump administration? I mean, Trump went, I assume he's just playing to his Christian nationalist base, like, I'm protecting Nigerian Christians. But for the American public writ large, especially and for America firsters, why are we supposed to care about the beleaguered Nigerian Christians? and if so, why? You know, I was thinking about this last night. Like, should we care?
Starting point is 00:34:06 Well, yeah, we should care. And if the Nigerians asked us for equipment or weapons or whatever for the purpose of fighting back Boca Haram, of course, we should help them do that. If the Nigerians came to us and said, you've got a serious situation in the north with Boko Haram, please, you know, bomb them for us. We would probably say yes.
Starting point is 00:34:30 If we just decided on Christmas give a present to the, you know, Nigerians by bombing Boko Haram and they didn't ask us to, that is a very serious act of war and violation of international law. But we don't know what happened. Trump hasn't told us what happened. So on the one hand, sure, you know, it could be a good thing. On the other hand, it could be a terrible extension of what is already an ill-advised war with no real goal having been delineated. I wonder also, I mean, to me, I can't help but think that this is sort of a mixed, you know, a mixed message to the Christian nationalist base, right?
Starting point is 00:35:20 Okay, so I will defend Christians. So I understand, like, I'm defending Afrikaners, Afrikaner farmers. in South Africa, we're being attacked by, we won't say who, but black people. And then it's like in this case in Nigeria, we're going to defend Christians, but these are black Christians. I mean, okay, I'm just going to say the quiet part out loud. Do American Christians care about Nigerian black Christians as much as they care about other Christians? I don't know to tell you the truth. I would hope so. And is it really America's job to, to, to.
Starting point is 00:35:56 to, you know, sort of crusade, you know, to defend the faith all around the world. Let me answer that by telling you a story. A couple of years ago, during COVID, Bruce Fine and I made two international trips together for work. Bruce represents a very important Nigerian political figure who has been under arrest for three or four years now. with no charge. And a guy's actually a British citizen. He's a dual British Nigerian national. And he also happens to be Jewish.
Starting point is 00:36:36 So we flew to London. We met with several members of parliament. And we said, listen, you know, the guy's being held by the Nigerians. And it's bad because he's British. He's being held without charge. And it's a crime against humanity and all this stuff. And they came right out and said to us, Well, but he's not really British.
Starting point is 00:36:59 And we said, what do you mean? Well, he's Jewish. And if he were really British, he'd be Christian. So they wouldn't help us at all. He flew then from London to Tel Aviv, and we met with the Minister for National Security. This is several years ago under Netanyahu. I met with the Minister for National Security.
Starting point is 00:37:23 And we met at the Kness. it was a big deal. I even saved my Knesset visitors badge as a souvenir. And the guy heard us out and, you know, how terrible this is. And then he says, he isn't really Jewish, you know? And we're like, no, we don't know. He's Jewish. Either you're Jewish or you're not Jewish. Nobody's, well, you know. And Bruce said, just say it. He's black. Just say it. Yeah. He's like, well, ha, ha, ha. So nobody would help this guy. So I, I don't know. Do Christians consider black African Christians to be real Christians? Do Jews consider black African Jews to be Jews? I think there's some racism involved there. I mean, a lot of, yeah. More than just a little bit. A lot of Orthodox Jews, Israeli Jews don't consider reform Jews to be real Jews. Yeah. I consider them to be apostates. That's right. That's right. So I don't know. I mean, I guess the thing is, I mean, like, look, I'm uncomfortable with. Whenever I'm told, like, oh, there's people being discriminated against overseas. And I think, well, there's people being discriminated against here in the United States.
Starting point is 00:38:37 You know, I mean, I guess it's like, I don't know, why is this our role to go and have anything to do with this, even though that's awful? Yeah, listen, you're either going to be a neo-con, neoliberal who loves using military force, even when you're not asked to use it. Or you're not. One or the other. Yes. I mean, someone asked here in the chat, oh, John Hart, should we go back to isolationism like we did in pre-World War II? I mean, I say yes.
Starting point is 00:39:11 You know, and I would say not necessarily. There's something to be said. This is where I totally, totally agree with the MAGA base. War is bad, right? We should do literally everything we can do. And a waste of money and time. And we should do literally everything possible to avoid war. But that's said, sometimes it can't be avoided.
Starting point is 00:39:36 And isolationist, I think a real isolationist would oppose war under any circumstances. And I wouldn't. I think that there is such a thing as a righteous war. John, you're muted. I don't know what happened there. Oh, there you are. You're back. not okay oh you just broke out you just disappeared oh yeah i think there is such a thing as a righteous
Starting point is 00:40:00 war is what i was saying there aren't a lot of them they're few and far they're few and far between yeah i agree with you though um i don't know if this is one of them though uh at least for for the record that nigeria at least officially the nigerian government uh says that it is cooperating and very happy about america's assistance here so but did they ask for it though is that yeah that's they're not saying that no Um, I doubt it. Uh, Brian, you imagine waking up one morning and say, oh, United States bomb dust during the night. Well, that's good. That just seems, yeah, it does seem terrifying. Yeah, nothing, not much good comes out of that. Brian, uh, thanks for the $25. Uh, and happy boxing day to you. Uh, John, hope you're enjoying your state in New Hampshire. I live in New Hampshire.
Starting point is 00:40:48 New Hampshire is the best day to live in, live free or die. Oh, my God. How many times have we said that this past, week live free or die man it means something here it really means something here i'm we were just talking last night about about taxes you know there are there are so few taxes here people come up from massachusetts and shop they come down from um from um from uh main and shop it's it's fantastic and you know what else they're doing away with here on january the first is car inspections No more car inspections. Oh, you know, car inspections are a racket, and they're so out of date, right? I mean, it was this whole thing, like, I mean, if you have a car that's like, say, post-2010, 2004, you probably, I mean, you know, you don't really need one.
Starting point is 00:41:42 Yeah. M. 80, thanks for the five bucks, a 10-episode limited series on Netflix about John's Life called Whistleblower. That's what I would do with my billion plus live out of me. New Jersey. Jacob Decker, thanks for the 10 bucks. Do you think Christmas was especially chosen to limit backlash from the airstrikes since the victims are Christians and everyone is distracted? Well, the victims of the bombings are not Christians. They're Muslim. But I think it was chosen because no one really cares, right? I mean, basically it's sort of like a side project. You know, if Trump wanted to make hay out of this, he wouldn't bury it in the middle of the holiday. Yeah, I agree. And I think that Trump probably likes that there's something symbolic about, you know, protecting Christians on Christmas.
Starting point is 00:42:36 Totally. It's cheesy. I hate stuff like that. Like, I hated the fact that Joe Biden had originally scheduled the withdrawal from Afghanistan to be exactly on September 11th, 2021. And it was like, which we, you know, like so many other things, he was unable to do, he was unable to pull off successfully. But it was just, it was just sort of like so dumb.
Starting point is 00:43:02 Yeah, that's just dumb. Really? So, okay, so, all right, so I guess not, the, this is basically all part of the Shadow Wars, right? This will continue. What's the real reasoning here? Is it just cheap politics or is it also an opportunity to test weapon systems? Is this, is there any,
Starting point is 00:43:24 any U.S. Nigerian political, you know, sort of machinations that we're not focused on here. I mean, is there anything else behind it? I mean, the reason given just seems so flimsy. I keep thinking maybe there's more to it, but maybe there isn't. No, I think all of the above, all of the above. And symbolically, I mean, what a great thing to bomb Muslims on Christmas Day. because they're killing Christians. Right, right.
Starting point is 00:43:59 I've been in crusader mode because of that book I've been reading Power and Thrones. It does seem like it's part of the crusader impulse. Okay, so we talk about the Trump administration is, I was terrified when I read about this. So the Washington Post has this info. RFPs, requests for proposals are out from Homeland Security.
Starting point is 00:44:21 basically ICE is a wash in money as they prepare to become the biggest militarized force on the planet this year, this coming year. So they feel like they're not able to process enough people at once. So obviously they still have big plans for 2026 and they want to be able to keep 80,000 or more immigrant detainees at once in these giant warehouses is holding five to 10,000 people each.
Starting point is 00:44:53 I can't help but thinking of either coma or The Matrix or, here, I'll say it, a death camp. This is industrialization of the processing of human beings, and I can't think that anything good is going to come from this. The only, if I were going to think of anything positive, it might be that people won't languish in custody as long before they are ultimately deported. I mean, I'm really casting about here. flailing, looking for, you know, a silver lining. But I can't, I don't know, I mean, it just seems to me like this is a recipe for mistreatment and abuse. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:34 I have to agree. I can't even see logistically how in the world it can be implemented. You can't have a prison with 80,000 people in it. That's a, that's a serious-sized city. So it's going to be, what, escape from New York? Remember that movie? Escape from New York? Escape from New York, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:55 Kurt Russell. I mean, Kurt Russell, I think that's what we're talking about here. It just doesn't make any sense to me. It's nuts. And the courts haven't even gotten involved yet. So just wait until the courts get involved. It's just not going to be, I can't imagine it happening. Well, I mean, so, I mean, what would be?
Starting point is 00:46:21 the, I mean, obviously the thing is the government does have a legal and constitutional right to deport illegal immigrants. That it does. So the question, so what would be the, what would be the legal, the basis of a legal challenge here? Just, oh, cruel and unusual punishment, maybe? Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:41 Is the scale of a facility itself prima facie evidence of cruel and unusual punishment? I don't know the answer to that. Good question. I don't know to tell you the truth. I'm not sure what to expect. But, yeah, that would have to be the basis of it, though. You're thinking about it for a second. That would have to be the basis of it.
Starting point is 00:47:03 That the prisons in Latin America are already notoriously bad, right? We know that with 100% certainty. So then crowding people into these hellholes for, 80,000 at a time. It's basically like, I mean, Seacot in El Salvador is much smaller than that, right? And the whole, the brief for that was that it was huge. And don't they have another facility in El Salvador that holds 30,000?
Starting point is 00:47:36 I think that's the case in El Salvador. Yeah, I just wonder, yeah, in most Latin American countries that have these giant sprawling city prisons, they become, they get run by the gangs and by the prisoners themselves. because they cannot and will not hire enough prison, you know, guards to watch to supervise them, right? I don't know. This whole thing, it just made me, it made my stomach queasy. It's just to think about it.
Starting point is 00:48:05 I was just like, like, what kind of country are we becoming? What the fuck is wrong with us? Man, I don't know. I don't get it. I have to agree with you. I mean, do you think, okay, I'm going to go full, I'm going to go total paranoia mode here. do you think this is a prequel to, you know, I mean, what's going to happen to this facility when all the illegal immigrants have been deported?
Starting point is 00:48:27 I mean, are they just going to shut it down? Like, okay, well, we had that. We closed it. Or is it going to, you know, will the system necessarily, you know, want to self-perpetuate in the same way that, like, the Cancer Society doesn't really, you know, yeah, they want to get rid of cancer, but they'll go out of business if they get rid of cancer. You know, government entities always think of something new to do. do so they can keep their jobs and their mission and their budgets.
Starting point is 00:48:52 What's going to happen to those facilities? Do you remember all the rumors at the end of the Obama administration? Oh, the Republicans just loved these where like all of the country's buses were being chartered and sent to Texas and there were these secret camps opening up and Obama was going to declare a state emergency and round up all the conservatives and send them to these camps on the chartered buses. Remember that? We're getting the same thing now.
Starting point is 00:49:24 Projection much? Exactly. Now I think we're going to get the same thing with Trump. What's he doing? Oh my God. They're going to start rounding everybody up. And then they're going to put us in the camps if we don't stand up and oppose them now.
Starting point is 00:49:38 Well, I mean, so yeah, I don't, yeah. I mean, I just keep thinking, though, that, I mean, they are turning their attention now to deporting. you know, people who have, who are naturalized citizens, that makes me incredibly nervous. I mean, they're basically dragging up people with green cards, green card holders and naturalized citizens who've been here in most cases for years. And they're looking for technicalities to nail you on, right? Like, you know, I don't know, you, you, you, how did you
Starting point is 00:50:09 know, you know, won the Battle of New Orleans or whatever on your citizenship test? You know, it's sort of the it just sort of uh i mean you can always find something on most people right i mean you know i bet you could you could take away most people's college degrees if you found you dug up their high school their college applications there's something from their high school transcript that's not quite right or whatever you know some someone was friends with their teacher who they asked for a recommendation i mean this there's no end to this and in a certain point like a free society lets things go and we're not letting things go.
Starting point is 00:50:47 Yeah. I agree with you. And it just gets worse and worse and worse. Yes. So, all right, do we want to obviously we'll watch that. But I mean, what we're seeing is just
Starting point is 00:51:00 ISIS is growing bigger and bigger and bigger. Welcome, welcome to the deprogrammed channel. Stacey Taylor, much appreciated. Okay. F. You so wants to know if we're going to go see the Melania Trump movie. $40 million?
Starting point is 00:51:20 I just can't do it. No. You know, I wouldn't see the Michelle Obama movie or the Jill Biden movie or the Barbara Bush movie either because I just don't care. Yeah, I'm not interested. No. I don't think, yeah, I always think it's one of those things
Starting point is 00:51:39 like, you know, why did people pay Bill and Hillary Clinton those giant speaking fees? they have nothing to say that you haven't already heard, right? And I feel that way about, like, people like the First Lady, there's no, like, now it can be told kind of vibe to this, right? Like, there's nothing, you already know everything about Melania Trump that you're likely to learn. It's not going to be like, well, you know, secretly,
Starting point is 00:52:02 she's a terrific agent or, you know, like, who knows? No, there's nothing, there's nothing new. I'm not interested. Catalog model, that's all, you know, whatever. Paul McMurray, 5777. Question for you, John. Do you think ICE is being set up to be a Praetorian Guard to enforce a third term? Or like, I guess you could say, an SA or an SS, a force loyal to the personally loyal to the president. I don't think so. I think ICE is, as a body, is loyal to the president, yes. But a Praetorian Guard, I think that ICE would have to worry about. actually going into battle against the military in such a situation.
Starting point is 00:52:47 I really do. Well, I agree with that. And that, of course, prompts an obvious question, John. If that were to happen, would, I mean, would, how, well, forget about how. Let's play that out. Yeah, let's play that out. How would that happen? And also, how does the military feel about ice?
Starting point is 00:53:09 Yeah. Or how are they going to feel about ice? So it's not 1933 again, right? There's no Smetley Butler out there that we know of, that we know of. And so a lot of the people who may have, you know, stepped up to prevent something like that from happening, have been either fired or have retired. So I'm wondering then, would it be a National Guard that would go out there in battle? ICE, would Democratic governors call out the National Guard?
Starting point is 00:53:44 You know, I think Robbie would agree that if that were the case, we might be looking at this national divorce that people are beginning to whisper about. We'd become fucking Sudan is what we'd be. Yeah. I mean, because ICE is, I mean, I guess the thing is, though, very clearly this would fall under the Insurrection Act. The Supreme Court would agree overnight, no question. Yes.
Starting point is 00:54:10 So then the question is, who represents the American government? Is it the President of the United States, or is it the U.S. military, which in my opinion, and probably yours, would be defending the Constitution? Right. And then who would win? Well, obviously, the U.S. military would win. You know, my position, you and I have talked about this a hundred times, my position is that the Constitution is. is crystal clear. You cannot run for a third term, period.
Starting point is 00:54:43 And I think that Donald Trump is teasing this just because it's fun. It's fun for him. He loves to see people squirm, and he loves to see what they have to say. And, you know, that's why they leaked the story that he had spoken with Dershowitz, and Dershowitz laid out different ways that he could run for a third term. He can't run for a third term. And I don't care if Dershowitz says he can. Dershowitz, you know, I have my own.
Starting point is 00:55:09 problems with Dershowitz. But I think that Trump is doing it. Yeah, I do. I think Trump is doing it just because it's fun. He's enjoying people squirm. He's trolling. I also think there's a practical reason, John. I think he's, you know, effectively his biggest enemy politically in terms of power
Starting point is 00:55:30 is being perceived as a lame duck. And so this mitigates the effect, the lame duck aspect of his term. You know, if people know, if people, Really were one million percent sure he was leaving in three years. By the way, can you believe it's only been 11 months into this four-year term? I mean, it feels like it's been an eternity. Yeah, it's slow going for a lot of people, yeah, I agree. I mean, even if you really like everything he's doing, just the breathtaking speed.
Starting point is 00:56:04 And by the way, as a former Democrat and as a leftist, I'm really jealous. I mean, if you like what Trump is doing, man, he's doing a lot of it. You know, Democrats don't get that. You know, like, just think about the Biden years. I mean, you'd go months without anything of any significance happening. Yes. Yes, indeed. You never heard from the president.
Starting point is 00:56:26 And many times you were kind of like wondering, is he, has he, has it weekend at Bernie? Has he been dead for weeks? Right. Right. I mean, it must be nice to have someone who's, you know, Your guy who's doing lots of stuff. I mean, I guess Democrats had that under FDR. You have to go back quite a ways.
Starting point is 00:56:44 Yeah. Right. You do. You have to go back quite a ways. So I think, by the way, Robbie, if you can come on and just explain the rules again, that would be great. And we're going to, and I'll explain it. So basically, in 11 minutes, we're going to start taking calls on the air.
Starting point is 00:57:01 We're doing a two-hour show today. We're going straight till 11 o'clock a.m. 10 to 11 is going to 11 is going to be. be your Collins. And Robbie, you're going to explain how this all works. And by the way, before I forget to ask, do we have any ads or anything? We do. What I can do is I can go through. I can do my part. Then I can just cue it up and I can read it or I can share it with you. And then you can read it. The Southern Drawl just gets on your nerves that much. Yeah, no Southern Drawl today. Let's pipe it over. All right, go ahead and explain the
Starting point is 00:57:32 I don't mind the Southern Drawl, but actually I just want to do it quickly, the ad quickly. All right. So it sounds good. All right. So at the top of the hour, we will start bringing the callers over. Please, if you are watching the stream, mute your tab that you're on so that way you'll get your kind of feedback. That would just sounds nice and clear.
Starting point is 00:57:55 Also, we're looking for questions. If you have a question for John and Ted, please ask your question. Just make a pithy. We have quite a few people in line. If I make sure they'll get to them all. This is not the time to tell your life story. this is not the time to explain your political ideation. We don't care about that.
Starting point is 00:58:11 We want to hear questions. Be short, be pithy, and we will get through your questions, and thank y'all for tuning in. Thank you, Robbie. And now we'll drop that ad for you. Please go ahead and put up that ad. Seriously, I think, I've always thought southern accents were charming, but that's just me. Also, I grew up in Southern Ohio, which is like basically Ohio Tucky. You know, I had, I had neighbors who had like their cars up on blocks,
Starting point is 00:58:36 in the front and it'll be people who say like they're from Kentucky. My next door neighbor was from Kentucky and he had all these folksy expressions that I'd never that I found fascinating like like for hen fruit for egg and it was like hen fruit hen fruit like yeah
Starting point is 00:58:52 I went to buy I went buy some hen fruit I'm like some what so oh my God here's an ad you've 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
Starting point is 00:59:05 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, like me and John. Right now, Rumble is offering $10 off an annual subscription.
Starting point is 00:59:29 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. And so it's $10 to get all the premium content on Rubble, $5 a month to just get one show, like, for example, D-Program with Sadrall and Sean Kirooku. Okay, so eight minutes left here before we start taking calls. Not that we can't talk about anything we want in the next hour, but so John Zelensky is meeting with Trump on Sunday at Maralako.
Starting point is 01:00:05 and so that they're indicating that there's been progress but the Russian side of things is not so clear first of all Zelensky managed to really kind of tee off the Russians at a at a sensitive time by delivering a year-end holiday message where he basically said that most Ukrainians wished for President Putin to perish and by the way the Russians acting like all upset about that, it's kind of like, well, when a guy invades your country and bombs it and kills people, you know, they may want you to die. I mean, that's not really an unreasonable response. I think I would feel the same way if I were Ukrainian. But on the other hand, it is true that it's probably not something that the president of Ukraine ought to be saying in a public
Starting point is 01:00:56 venue, you know, like during sensitive negotiations. It is kind of childish, but, you know, and petulant. But anyway, I guess the thing is, where are we with all this? I mean, the U.S. and Ukraine have now agreed to terms, but where does Russia, you know, Russia is the key factor here. John, I don't hear you. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, Russia is the key factor. And listen, the bottom line is, at the end of the day, Zelensky is going to agree to anything Donald Trump tells him to agree to. That's the truth.
Starting point is 01:01:38 Zelensky's weak. Trump is strong. He's going to do what he's told. Russians don't seem to want to play ball. For example, this idea that came out a couple of days before Christmas of a demilitarized zone, and Zelensky agreed to it. It's an American idea. It's a terrific idea.
Starting point is 01:01:59 And it gets us to the point where, the two sides can begin to back off, right? And get out of each other's territory and out of each other's business. Who's the Russians that refused this on Christmas Eve? Not the Ukrainians. So I think that Zelensky is not the problem. I think Putin's the problem. Let's talk about that DMC idea, John, right?
Starting point is 01:02:23 I mean, so the idea was that the originally kind of vague, and then when it became, you know, was publicly stated what the specifics were, What the Ukrainians had in mind was that they would withdraw from the current battle lines a certain distance and that the Russians would do the same thing on their side in the territory that they control. And the Russians are saying, oh, no, no, no, you can withdraw from, like, from the, but we're not withdrawing. I kind of see the Russians' point, though, John. I mean, it's kind of like, it's like they're, they've got to be thinking, well, okay, so that's, we're in Ukraine, right? we've got to control that all the way up to the border of whatever,
Starting point is 01:03:05 Donetsk, Leonezsk, whatever. If we withdraw effectively, like, if hostilities continue again, then we're opening up our allies in Donetska and Luhansk to, like, being overrun. You know, we could be getting played. It's entirely possible. But I think it's, I think the background is simpler than that, Ted. I think the Russians don't want to agree to ceasefire, a DMZ, or whatever, because they're winning. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:37 Yeah, like the Rolling Stone song goes, time is on their side. Yeah, exactly. The tragic part is that both sides seem to think, well, the U.S. seems to think that, and will the Europeans, specifically, really think the time is on their side, they want to keep this going. They figure the war is not lost as long as Ukraine is still fighting. Russia figures, we're advancing, we like the, we like the looks of things. We like the hand that we're holding. So therefore, this goes on for a while. You know, Manja, the cat is making a good point here.
Starting point is 01:04:20 She says, I think he has the same mindset as John before he took the plea deal. He thinks this is about justice. That's a good point. Sometimes you're just looking at it from the wrong angle, and that very well could be it. Yeah, there's not going to be justice at the end of a war. That's right. War is a breakdown in any kind of discussion like that. Nicholas Franco's, Ted and John, why do you think that Obama decided to go against Israel and went through with the Iran deal?
Starting point is 01:04:52 Wasn't he also influenced by the Israel lobby? Well, he certainly was influenced by... Yeah, he definitely was, but he, yeah, but he stood up. I think, man, I hate having to compliment Barack Obama. I really, really do. But, yeah, there it is. All right, along the same lines, Paul McMurray, John, do you think the Epstein Mossad suspected extortion ring is the secret sauce of Zionist influence?
Starting point is 01:05:27 Are there similar projects still live? If so, I guess I added the if so. I would bet everything that I have and say yes. I think it's alive and well. It's happening all over America. I maintain that, and again, this isn't John saying it. This is the CIA's chief of security saying it. There are Israeli government spies all over America,
Starting point is 01:05:53 and they are infiltrating our defense contractors to steal the small handful of secrets that we don't already give to the Israelis. So, yeah, it, I think that the Epstein debacle is a major part of that. Yes, 100%. Two minutes till we start taking your calls, guys. If you're watching live in Rumble or YouTube,
Starting point is 01:06:19 look at the pinned link. It's a Discord server. You're going to click that link if you want to talk to John and I. you are going to click that link and then Robbie is going to drag you over in the Discord waiting room over to the call-in waiting room
Starting point is 01:06:36 and just a reminder basically talk radio rules apply mute your tab so that you don't hear yourself back in the delay and if you say or do anything untoward you'll be gone daddy gone just like in the violent femme song Houdini thanks for the five bucks
Starting point is 01:06:54 what are our thoughts on Matt Gates and his claims about Israel? You know what? I saw that the other day. And my first inclination was Matt Gates is nuts. After I thought about it for a minute, I thought, no. Everything he's saying is absolutely plausible. What Matt Gates is saying is that it was the Israeli
Starting point is 01:07:19 government who tried to spread a rumor that Gates had had sex with a minor. remember the whole thing where Gates went on the Tucker Carlson show to defend himself and said remember Tucker we all went to dinner you and your wife and this this young woman and me and Tucker's like no we didn't I don't know what you're talking about we never went to dinner I think that was Gates you know trying to his best to save himself but he's blaming the Israelis for spreading the rumor there was never any evidence as it turned out that the girl was was underage and there was a different girl that was underage but there was no
Starting point is 01:07:55 evidence that Gates had ever done anything with her. So I'm not saying yes or no. I'm saying certainly plausible, sure. And may I add one thing before we jumped into the next hour? The Nigerian foreign minister just said that President Trump did call the leader of Nigeria before the bombing and the Nigerians cleared it. Okay, so this was an American idea. And it wasn't the Nigerian saying, please help us out. We don't know how to deal with these people. No. American idea that the Nigerian supported.
Starting point is 01:08:37 Okay, got it. Okay. And I guess one more, well, okay, I think we're going to have to move into our call-ins because we did promise that. Just one comment from Fasmataz. After Minsk, do you really blame Russia for not trusting? I don't. plus if I'm the Russians I historically don't trust the Ukrainians or of course if I'm the Ukrainians I historically don't trust the Russians
Starting point is 01:09:03 so that goes both ways all right guys we are now on to it is now 10.01 a.m. Eastern time it's Friday December 26th, 2025 do a quick reset you're watching the program with Ted Raul and John Kyriaku we've ended the normal quote unquote part of the show not to say that you guys are going to make it abnormal, but we are now going to open up the phones on the Discord server and take your calls.
Starting point is 01:09:32 Producer Robbie West is going to explain exactly how it works for those of you who are just joining us. If you're watching us later on streaming, this is something that we will be doing again next week, Monday, December 29th, also a two-hour show and will be taking calls in the second hour. so you have not missed your chance. All right, Robbie, go ahead.
Starting point is 01:09:55 All right, so we are going to begin to start here in just a moment. So just again, talk radio show, show rules apply. Don't come on and tell us your life story. We don't care. We're just all about asking questions to John and Ted. And just be respectful. That's really all we have to say. And I am bringing Tammy over.
Starting point is 01:10:17 Tammy, you are live. And we're eagerly of wait your questions. questions. Just to unmute yourself. Tammy, you are muted. From one Ohio and to another. That's never good. Tammy,
Starting point is 01:10:35 demute. There you go. Okay. And did I mute the other thing? Yep, you're good. No feedback. Okay. I watched the interview with John and Ted yesterday.
Starting point is 01:10:49 and something really struck me when you were talking about the number of incarcerated PDF offenders. I was wondering, did you know that, John, before you went in and did it shock you? It was completely shocking to me. Honest to God, I had never given it five seconds of thought.
Starting point is 01:11:14 When I got there, it's like every third person that I run into, is a pedophile and in some cases violent pedophiles you know not just enticing children to have sex with them
Starting point is 01:11:29 but like raping and harming you know physically harming children it was shocking to me that very first day I mean I was shocked into silence by it I really was
Starting point is 01:11:43 I almost got that energy listening to you Have you ever asked yourself why do I not know this and why don't people talk about this? You know what? That's a great question. And that is one of the reasons why I've written so much about it. Because people don't know it. They don't know that these people, they don't stay in prison forever for the most part.
Starting point is 01:12:08 They get out and they live among us. I remember saying to my now ex-wife when I got out, I can spot a pedophile now just by looking at it. at him you can tell just by looking at them and they read and their eyes the the eyeing smell there are all kinds of crap yeah where can i find the stuff you've written about it john because i didn't know you had oh sure at most of it's at reader supported news and at consortium news and and i wrote about it a lot uh in my second book doing time like a spy okay well that's where i'll start then well i'm very grateful that you are and um i'm really focused on the fact that nobody wants to talk about it because there's so much blowback toxicity in our culture
Starting point is 01:13:03 because we don't talk about it we don't we don't talk about it but too bad because some of us have had to live with it for 58 years yeah there you go did you did you happen to watch the show uh the wire, or if anybody happened to watch the show, The Wire. Do you remember Ziggy, the kid whose dad was the union leader? He committed suicide a few days ago in Los Angeles. And it turns out that he was brutally raped by a family friend at the age of 12 and only just recently started to talk about it and to write about it. But psychologically, he was never able to get over it. And his wife said that that was the reason for his suicide was 42 years old this happened 30 years ago you you get tired of living with it and everybody will tell you that you're crazy or gas like this that and the
Starting point is 01:14:00 other and you just get to the point where you quit you're fed up yeah absolutely true if they're listening to this what i'm saying to you in personal experience is stop listening to everybody go out nature and listen to yourself and you can't heal. Yeah, that's right. Don't listen to people, I beg you. You know, there was something else too that I didn't say. I worked in the chapel for most of my time in prison, and there was another guy working in the chapel,
Starting point is 01:14:35 an older guy in his 70s, and his last name was Cook. We just called him Cook. I don't know what his first name was. But he had crossed state borders to molest. a child decades ago and got five years and then as soon as he got out he did it again and he got 20 years and I met him at the very end of his 20 I remember sitting in the we had a weekly staff meeting on Tuesday mornings um and uh it was cook's last Tuesday and so he left six
Starting point is 01:15:11 months later it's my turn to finally go home and a couple of days before I leave I run into cook in the hall and I said cook what are you doing here he says well I got a problem he says I said oh my god you molested another freaking child how much did you get this time he said 60 years he was he was in his 70s 60 years well you know what he can't be cured so maybe we should have given him the 60 years the first time and he wouldn't have wrecked God knows how many other children's lives. And that's just what I got them. They get less time than violent criminals without the sex.
Starting point is 01:15:53 Murderers. Absolutely right. Absolutely right. They say, well, we have mandatory minimum sentencing for child molestation. Yeah, five years. Five. Yeah, why? You get more than five years cheating on your, on your mortgage application.
Starting point is 01:16:10 I hate to say, but those judges are not interested in changing those lines in case it's the legislatures too it's the legislatures too it's the legislatures that have fallen down on this issue both at the state and federal levels they need to really really make these sentences tough and keep these monsters off the street because there is no cure and since there's no cure there's no protection for children what's the right what's i mean i i mean so the scale of this i mean when i looked into it in preparation for writing about it a few years ago i was shocked john i've told john this. I couldn't, you know, I was like, yeah, I know it happens, but I didn't know, I didn't understand like how, like you described. I mean, it's, it's so prevalent. So many kids are at
Starting point is 01:16:55 risk. I mean, what's the right solution? I mean, I guess the thing is, is there something unique about the United States? Do we have more of them than other countries? Is there something about, is there something about our, is there something that we could be doing to minimize people becoming pedophiles? Is there something we could be, what's the best way to keep kids safe now from them? What's the best way to treat pedophiles? I mean, these are huge undiscussed questions, I guess is my point. You know, I think it begins at home where we have to, we have to teach our children from a very young age. I'll tell you kind of a funny story. When my third son was three years old. I took him to the doctor for whatever immunizations he needed and, you know, his three-year-old
Starting point is 01:17:44 checkup. And so he was standing in the exam room and the doctor undid his pants and pulled his pants down and pulled his underwear down. And he goes like that. He goes, I'm telling an adult. And I laughed and I said, no, buddy, it's okay. It's okay for the doctor. The doctor and mom and dad, but that's it. He knew at three years old, this was wrong. And he needed to tell an adult. And so it begins at home, in my view. And kids should know, you can tell your parents anything.
Starting point is 01:18:22 Nothing should be a secret. You can tell them anything. That's how we teach our children to protect themselves. Except I got to tell you, someone tried to, a guy tried to rape me when I was, when I was 12 years old, custodian in my junior high school. And I didn't tell my mom because I knew she wouldn't believe me.
Starting point is 01:18:46 I told my mom, I don't know, in my 40s, she didn't believe me. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. She did not believe me. It's horrible. She didn't believe you. I can't imagine not believing my child.
Starting point is 01:18:59 She said it was a guy I was, you know, I was helping him as his assistant and I was working. it was a job and she was like you were just lazy you didn't want to work so oh my god you're saying like you i do agree with you people should be able to tell their parents anything but in reality sometimes parents aren't are not great see and that's why we're in the situation right yeah it's happening at home because i told sure it is happening at home yeah that's a more common problem there's no who have boundaries don you mentioned that you were around somebody and they didn't pick on you they didn't pick on you because credit to your parents parents were incredible people incredible people
Starting point is 01:19:43 because of medals we're raping kids they're right amen amen absolutely thank you so much for that thank you thank you okay next up will be i think i'm going to butcher this name i apologize it is hecal however it is it should say that pardon the southern jaw please unmute yourself and ask your question thank you you're on the air he call you're on the air hello hello hello we've got to we need a better way yeah he call are you're on the air go ahead please ask your question can you guys hear me now yep we hear you yes yes all right perfect so i just wanted to tell you guys good morning a big shout out to you guys
Starting point is 01:20:42 i've been watching you guys for a couple of weeks now i'm all the way from egypt and i have a couple of questions for you john do you have any sort of interactions with the masad or egyptian intelligence that you can maybe share with us today John, did you hear that? Not a word. Oh, okay, so do you want to repeat that? I mean, I can't hear him at all. I can't hear anything to say.
Starting point is 01:21:16 Okay, so we're having a glitch. So, okay, so I'll pass that on to you, John. The question was, he's calling in from Egypt, and he likes the show. He wanted to know if you have had any interactions with the Mossad or Egyptian intelligence that you'd care to talk about. I'm very proud and happy to say that the only experience I had with the Mossad is that kind of funny story that I tell that it was my first liaison briefing and the guy asked me if I was Jewish to try to recruit me. That was it. That was the extent of my interaction with Mossad. I worked very closely and over a long period of time with the Aegis, the Egyptian General Intelligence Service.
Starting point is 01:21:58 and I found them to be just about one of the most professional intelligence services I ever had occasion to work with. I enjoyed my time with the Egyptians. They treated me very, very well, and I have only warm memories of my time working with Aegis. They're very good. Thank you so much, sir. I just had one more question regarding to how would you rank the Middle Eastern
Starting point is 01:22:31 intelligence services? One more question and then we'll move on after this. How would you rank the Middle Eastern intelligence services? Well, I'm sorry to say that the Israelis are the best. There's no question about that. I would say that
Starting point is 01:22:50 the Egyptians and the Saudis are probably second best. and most others are a distant third. The Emirates are pretty good. I trained, I did extensive training for the Emirates on counterterrorism operations, and they didn't need to be trained. They knew exactly what they were doing. Everybody else, you know, Moroccans are better than the Tunisians.
Starting point is 01:23:15 The Algerians are better than the Libyans. And the Libyans, well, they don't really have one anymore. The Lebanese aren't very good. The Jordanians, you know what, I should have said that I'm catching myself now. The Jordanians are at least as good as the Egyptians, and they're better than the Saudis. So say Israel first, Egypt, Jordan, second, Saudis a close third, everybody else is distant. Someone Ali is like, Yemen, number one. Whatever's left of it.
Starting point is 01:23:49 All right, let's move on. Let me add something, if I may, about Yemen. The first time I went to Yemen, I flew down from Jeddah, and I was serving in Riyadh at the time. I was in Jeddah for the weekend, visiting some friends, and I had some friends working in Sanan. They cabled me in Jeddah and said, hey, why don't you come down for the long weekend? It was the Prophet's birthday, so everything was closed. So why don't you come down and we'll show you Sanan, we'll go into the countryside, et cetera, et cetera. So I had never been to Yemen before.
Starting point is 01:24:19 I said, great. So I was getting ready to fly down. of the guys in the embassy said, hey, do you mind taking a diplomatic pouch with you? I said, no, no problem. So when you fly with a diplomatic pouch, you get a business class seat and the pouch gets a business class seat because it can't leave your custody. So it had a lead seal on it. It said diplomatic pouch. It's in an orange bag, which means it's classified versus a canvas bag, which means it's unclassified. So mostly what was in there was just mail. right people's mail that needed to be delivered and one of the communicators at the at the consulate
Starting point is 01:24:58 stuck in a set of walkie-talkies it was really unclassified i don't know why they put it in a classified pouch i think just so i could fly business class so i fly down to sanna and um they tell me i have to put the pouch through the x-ray machine i said no no no it's a diplomatic pouch i have all the paperwork here and it's a classified pouch they said we don't care what it is you put it through the x-ray and I said absolutely not so we have this standoff so the guy yanks it out of my hands and I said hey another guy pulls his pistol on me well I'm 26 years old at the time so I just kind of put up my hands the guy takes out his jambia that curved dagger and he hacks at the at the lead seal and breaks the seal off and I was like oh you guys are in for it now right so they open it up they
Starting point is 01:25:49 pull out the walkie talkies this is before i spoke arabic the guy says jesus which is like one of the very few words that i understood at the time it meant spy i was like oh shit and then they grab me they cuffed me behind my back and they put me in a cell they have these holding cells in the in the lobby and i'm making a stink i'm using the filthiest language i can think of and just screaming my head off i mean The ambassador comes to the airport and tells them, you've violated international law. We're going to make a complaint against you in Washington and at the United Nations.
Starting point is 01:26:29 Let my man go. So they let me go. I was in there for four hours with some Filipino nurse, a male nurse who just had some visa irregularity. I went to Yemen four times after that, never had any problems. But that first time, how many intelligence they don't give a shit what kind of paperwork you have or what color your passport is or who you think you are they don't care because the rules mean nothing to them wow all right thank thank you very much for that let's let's move on to another caller right mania the cat you are alive please unmute yourself and ask your question
Starting point is 01:27:11 Yeah, Mania, you're on the air Okay, so I wanted to ask John If he could tell us about the Anything he knows about the Vietnamese intelligence agency Or if he doesn't have too much to say about it The Chinese intelligence agency Sure Because I've been on a journey to deprogram myself
Starting point is 01:27:38 From like my country's propaganda especially against the Chinese since I watched the show but I can't really find anything about my own country's intelligence agency because our state media is like heavily controlled
Starting point is 01:27:57 so yeah well thank you mania I regret to say that because East Asia wasn't my bailiwick I never had any experience with or encounter with Vietnamese intelligence it was always my my impression, my understanding from others that they were a very professional service and very
Starting point is 01:28:16 good at what they did. But I don't have any first-hand experience. With that said, we all end up with some experience with the Chinese. The Chinese are very, very good, very good. Unlike us, they're focused almost entirely on technology, especially defense technology. And so we go through training on how to protect ourselves from the Chinese. I will say that I will tell you that one of the weaknesses that Chinese intelligence officers have is because pornography is banned in China. They are very susceptible to recruitment using porn. it's not the money they don't care about the money it's porn that they want especially when they are
Starting point is 01:29:16 forced to return to china they want to have a source of pornography while they're in china but um i never worked with the vietnamese no exposure to them chinese are at least as good as we are they're less less good on human intelligence just because of the language and cultural differences but they're very, very good on the collection of technology. Thank you very much for that call. So, by the way, just a reminder to people, this is no obligation, but if you'd like to have your picture on the air, you can turn on your camera.
Starting point is 01:29:55 You don't have to. No requirement here at all. But if you're open to that, you can do that. That option is available. Also, someone's going to basically just a reminder to every one. want to make sure that you are, that your mic is on, but that your tab is muted. So those are the two important things. And someone's going to maybe pop in as you're waiting in the waiting room to remind you to do that. Anyway, Robbie, take it away. And just a reminder, you are watching
Starting point is 01:30:27 D-Program with Ted Raul and John Kiriakou, hour two on Friday, December 26th. John Jackson, you are live. Please unmute yourself. and ask your question. John? Hello. You're on the air. I had a question for John. And I just kind of wanted to hear if you could recall a time in your life that,
Starting point is 01:30:58 I mean, I heard the time you were in Greece, you didn't have toilets, the time that you were in the hospital with Abu Zabeda, and you were getting shot at. but not just danger aside what was the most uncomfortable place that you had to spend like even just a night or two yeah could you do you hear that a word uh the question was what's the most uncomfortable place you've ever physically uncomfortable place you've ever had to spend the night
Starting point is 01:31:28 peshauer pakistan that's an easy one you know in many in many places where i'm I was in Pakistan, bed was just a euphemism. We would just, you know, sleep on the floor. You just ball up your jacket and use that as a pillow. But Peshawar was the only place where I was physically uncomfortable and personally frightened. That's the only, that's the farthest I ever felt from home. It was in Peshawar, Pakistan. There was just gunfire all night long. And And I've stayed in other places where there was gunfire. I was in Guatemala for a couple of weeks and would go to bed to the sound of gunfire all night long
Starting point is 01:32:16 right outside the walls of the facility where I was, but it was, you know, there were 20-foot concrete block walls, so you're okay. But in Peshawar, man, if they knew... Like blast walls. Oh, yeah, like blast walls. If they knew in Peshawar that we were, you know, not really able to protect ourselves after the first five minutes,
Starting point is 01:32:37 come in and eat you. Yeah. Yeah. No question. Yeah, that was, you know, in most places that I've been in my career, I'd say, oh, I'd go back there just to check it out, see what it's like now. And that's not one of them. I was having been there. I'll second. I'll second that thought. You know, John, I've told you this before. I mean, in my opinion, Pakistan is more dangerous than Afghanistan for an American. And, you know, I've had very uncomfortable night. in Afghanistan. And there's something really eerie about that whole, like you're trying to sleep on once in your bed,
Starting point is 01:33:14 on one side of a wall. It's cold, usually. There's no heat at all. But you hear terrible sounds coming from the street. I remember hearing people screaming, being killed, being raped on the other side of the wall. And you're just like that, so you're just like,
Starting point is 01:33:34 hell is literally on the other side. of some adobe mud wall. Yes. And it can come for you anytime. I have a question for you all at the risk of being called, you know, every kind of bad name in the book. The places you're describing sound absolutely horrible.
Starting point is 01:33:54 Why would we ever allow immigration from those places? Why would we import that culture here? There are good, you know, innocent people who want to get out. They want to make a life for their families. families. You can't just assume that everybody is, you know, out there to kill and maim and rape and pillage. But how do you know? Yeah. I mean, that's the question, right? That's what that's what vetting's all about. You never, nothing's 100% ever. But I mean, I will say also most of the, it's important to understand that immigrants don't really necessarily 100% represent the culture of the
Starting point is 01:34:30 country they're leaving. The fact that they want to leave is indicative of the fact that they, in many cases, don't like the culture where they are. And, and, and they're, so like, Afghans are trying to get away from the violence. They're, you know, if they liked the violence, if they were, if they were the perpetrators, they would stay where they could continue to have fun and rape and rob people. They don't. They want to leave. You got ready for the next color?
Starting point is 01:34:58 Yeah. All right. So next up is D. Nice Gamer. Please unmute yourself and ask your question. Sure. Thank you guys for having you all fixed off. I'm just helping you here. I know you're helping John with this audio.
Starting point is 01:35:18 It's not too much to ask you to let him know, California. And my question is, coming 2026, what do you guys think will be, like, the big thing that people should keep an eye out, whether it's politically, technologically, like AI or something like that, you know. I myself am most concerned about, you know, creeping authoritarianism as, you know, as we're seeing domestically in the United States from agencies like the National Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that used to be not play a big role in our domestic politics and now are being deployed all over the United States. John, did you hear that question?
Starting point is 01:36:06 No, I didn't. The question is what to look out for in 2026, whether it's AI or something else. What's the big trend? And for me, I think it's the militarization of American cities and streets and just sort of how will that affect, I don't want to say like, you know, this means we're going fascist, but there's small F-fascist kind of fascistic tendencies that have been around, by the way, that long predated Donald Trump and that presidents of both parties have wallowed in for years.
Starting point is 01:36:38 But it just seems like we're hitting some sort of tipping point that I would watch out for to see if we cross over into a point of no return for the foreseeable future where we lose control of our government. Very good. John, what do you think? Yeah, I'll tell you what. this is just me, but I'm afraid of AI. I'm afraid of AI because it's moving so quickly. It is
Starting point is 01:37:11 utterly unregulated, at least so far. And we don't know what the end game is. I'm afraid that we may be conceding, you know, our very lives to AI. Already it's making university professors irrelevant, which bothers me very much. And I'm afraid that it's going to, it's going to move to the point where it's out of control and it's going to be too late to rein it back in. Everything you said, and I totally agree with it. And I also want to add to that, John, like, it's what AI is, it's a snake eating its tail, right? Because it scrapes all this content from websites all over the place. And then, but then why would anybody, you know, go to the original, I don't know, Akronbeacon News.com website when they just, that's just
Starting point is 01:38:04 part of the big morass that you can get from GPT or whatever. And it's, and what's going to happen. But those, those websites won't get the traffic that they need to stay in business. So they'll go under. And then there won't be any real content. I mean, I always use this, the statistic, because it's so profound in tradition up until recently 90 plus percent of all original news was and is reported by a print newspaper and that is picked up by the local radio and tv station and and there's no original reporting there and then the and then the internet right just basically repurposes that well if the print newspapers go away then there's no source material similarly if the underlying website go under that feed into a
Starting point is 01:38:53 AI, even if you think AI is a beautiful thing, there's no source material. Who's, what I want, what no one can answer me is who the fuck is going to find out what the truth is and report it? I don't know. Absolutely true. Okay. I agree 100%. All right.
Starting point is 01:39:13 So next up will be guerrilla. Gorilla, you are live. Please unmute yourself. We await your question. Gorilla, you're on here. Hey, this is Joseph, Gorilla. This is a question about Agent Orange and voting rights. My dad was a Portrait Recongering Raider in 68 in Vietnam and came back.
Starting point is 01:39:42 I became voting rights activist. My mom, they won a case in the 80s. And we actually got a lawsuit against the VA to get more benefits, benefits because it took him to the PACT Act to get benefits for my mother, started in terms of a widow's benefit. And since John is fighting for his retirement, you know, I want to see y'all's views in terms of the way that veterans, because I see the medals behind John there also. I have my dad's medals also in a shadow box in terms of the horrible situation of people
Starting point is 01:40:14 that do service with the country, come back and continue to do service, just like John is doing and y'all are all doing. And my parents did in the ADA implementing the Boting Rights Act. We're called timidists for actually wanting voting rights. I'm a professor at a university, and I write about a whole host of issues. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:40:35 Is there a question? Sorry. Yeah, about service, about, you know, VA benefits, about doing service for your country and being treated like shit the way John has been treated, the way all of you all been treated. Do you hear any of this?
Starting point is 01:40:50 Leave the last couple of sentences. Please repeat that. My dad was a forced to recomb rate or Vietnam, 68. Yeah, not the whole thing, just the last few sentences. Sorry. No, no, I got the last few sentences. I didn't hear any of the background. His dad was served in Vietnam in 1968 and came and I wasn't, I was affected by Agent Orange.
Starting point is 01:41:17 Is that accurate? Yeah, he died in 85 from leukemia. They finally admitted to in 2022. Okay. So basically talk about, you know, comment on, you know, our veterans being treated like shit. Oh, yeah. Listen, I come from a very heavily military family.
Starting point is 01:41:39 I have four cousins that served in Vietnam all in combat, every last one of them in combat. that. And I agree. On the one hand, we overdo it, for example, the friggin the giant flag at the football games, the flyovers that American taxpayers pay for at every football game. It's all bullshit nonsense. Where it comes to really doing something for the veterans, that's where we drop the ball. You know, veteran commits suicide. You're not satisfied by the $1,776 warrior's check? You see what I mean? And by the way, 1776 does not go to members of the National Guard, even if they've been serving in combat positions. I just learned that day before yesterday
Starting point is 01:42:34 from a relative who's in the National Guard here. So veterans commit suicide literally. every day in the parking lots of VA hospitals. Agent Orange, people who were exposed to Agent Orange have died of cancer. For decades, we've known that this was the case, for decades, and we did nothing to help them. So, you know, talk is cheap, and I think most veterans would agree that they'd be willing to forego the flyovers at the NFL playoff games in exchange for real health care, real, you know, psychological care,
Starting point is 01:43:15 something to pay them back for what they've given up. You know, my dad was a Korean War veteran, and he was a raving alcoholic because of it, just of all the stuff that he saw. And it was, our government does a great job of breaking its warriors and they're not giving a crap about them after the first. fact. It's terrible. Next up will be Johnny Uchilla
Starting point is 01:43:43 2. Sir, you are live. Please unmute yourself. And mute your tab. Because otherwise you're going to hear yourself back. You're going to hear yourself back. Go ahead. Is this all good? Yep, we hear you good.
Starting point is 01:44:01 Awesome. Yeah, so a big fan the show. And just really quick questions on the whole Russia. Ukraine situation. I'm Gen Z. And call me a Russian sympathizer, but I feel like during the Cold War, like, we didn't do a good job of, like, embracing them, like, when the wall fell. My question is, where would we be if we actually took Russia and NATO, I think, in the
Starting point is 01:44:28 90s? And do you think we still have people in the system who are still scared of, like, the Red Scare and Russia, even though they're not even communist anymore. So, John, the question is about the collapse of the Soviet Union and how the United States handled it. Where would we be today if we had admitted Russia to NATO and are we still in a protracted Red Scare, you know, Cold Warrior vibe? I think without a doubt, you know, that's the world I wanted to live in. I wanted to, you know, as soon, I wanted to live in a world where George H.W. Bush reached out to Russia and the other Soviet
Starting point is 01:45:12 republics and said, listen, we're here to help. We want to help you make a soft landing. We'll help you transition to capitalism. We'll provide you with subsidies, you know, to avoid no shock economics. Of course you can join NATO. We're all friends now. The Cold War is over. That's not the direction that they went in, as we all know. And it led us to where we are now. And it's tragic and foolish. I mean, it was about money. It was about the military industrial complex. I wish we'd gotten the peace dividend. I really do. But we didn't. And it's a, you know, I think it's a tragedy. And I think that's the part where, and I do think there's a lot of people in the elites who never stopped thinking of Russia as an enemy after 1991. But what do you think,
Starting point is 01:46:03 John. I couldn't agree more. George W. Bush for all of his, George H.W. Bush, for all of his apparent alleged expertise in foreign affairs, blew it in a very big way. We should have been there for the Russians at the very beginning as they transitioned into democracy. We shouldn't have propped up a corrupt drunk that, whose tenure led to, in part to the situation. that we're in now. And when the Russians asked to join NATO, not once but twice, we should have welcomed them into NATO or we should have just dispensed with NATO. We didn't need it anymore.
Starting point is 01:46:46 We don't need it anymore. So, yeah, we blew it in a big way. That's why I reject all these, you know, evil empire kind of silly positions that the Democrats take. I just don't believe it at all. I just don't believe it. It's garbage. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:47:04 I've said before, I'm going to repeat myself. I was invited to lunch by the Russian ambassador several years ago, along with a bunch of other people, Peter Kuznick and Barbara Coppell and journalists, independent journalists. And the ambassador asked me specifically because of a piece I had written, in what areas could Russia and the United States cooperate even during a time of war? And I said, even in a time of war, we can cooperate on three things easily. counterterrorism, because we're both victims, counterproliferation, and counter narcotics. But we don't. And I don't know that from the CIA. I know that from the Russians.
Starting point is 01:47:43 Climate change also. Yeah, right. Climate change also. And international health. But the ambassador said that the CIA cut us off completely, and there is no liaison relationship, even on these issues of mutual interest. So yet another mistake that, that the United States has made. I mean, of course, yeah, it would have been a big fucking bummer for Northrop Gumman and for Boeing and for... Exactly.
Starting point is 01:48:14 I mean, honestly, I mean, it sounds facile, but I really think it's that simple. I mean, there was two, there were trillions of dollars at stake. You know, they couldn't, they couldn't allow the danger of a horrific peace breaking out. Yeah. exactly all right guys
Starting point is 01:48:34 so keep the calls coming just a reminder please mute your tab but unmute your self-talking and you can show your picture or you don't have to we have about 19 minutes to go before we're out at 11 o'clock
Starting point is 01:48:51 Eastern we're taking your calls and we are also looking at you in your comments in the YouTube and in the Rumble chat so the only thing to say there we will probably notice it at some point anyway go ahead Robbie what do we have next next up is Leibon Leibon you are live excellent thank you guys I love the show I never miss a day and can you guys hear me yes perfectly go ahead Leibon okay so John I wanted to ask you you told us plenty of stories when you work for the CIA
Starting point is 01:49:29 Are there some stories that you can never share with anybody for your job back in the day? Were you able to hear them, John? John, did you hear that? The question is for you back in, are there any stories that you cannot share from your work at the CIA? I would imagine many. Yeah, many, many, many. In fact, the first draft of my first book, the CIA took, well, they redacted the entire book at first, but at the end
Starting point is 01:50:01 of it, it took me nine months to write it, 22 months to get it cleared, and they ended up taking out 90 pages. Uh-oh. Where's John? Sorry, John, we lost it for a second there.
Starting point is 01:50:29 So his, John's internet connection is poor today. Bobby, can you hear me? I hear you. Yep. I hear you now. You drop for a moment. You're talking about how you booked in the last 90 pages. Let me see here.
Starting point is 01:50:56 Ted, you're muted. okay well here i am anyway for what it's worth um so yeah we're about to get hit by a huge storm here in the northeastern united states new york city is expecting between five and nine inches of snow some people are saying six to ten inches of snow and i imagine new hampshire will be hit by that much or more for obvious reasons um so we'll see what happens there um we're trying to get john back we'll see what happens there um i think i i see there's john here's back there it's here you i the last thing i i said was that they took out 90 pages and then i lost everything yeah well pick up pick it up there please and now i can't hear ted yes oh god are you serious
Starting point is 01:51:50 uh can you test test test test john do you hear robbie either oh man It's like... Let me get out. I'll get out and I'll come back in. Okay. Yeah, so anyway, that big storm's hitting this evening, and it's supposed to be a whiteout. It's actually very exciting.
Starting point is 01:52:13 New York has not had actual snow accumulation now in years, Robbie. And so this will be the first time that there's going to... It used to be routine that it snowed in New York, but, you know, the climate has changed, and so this is kind of... a throwback yeah it's weird it's been in the 40s here all week this is the first time that's very hot for montana oh yeah yeah it's flooding because no we we got a nice old dose of freezing and then it just uh now it's warm back up it's no usually it's zero this time of the
Starting point is 01:52:47 year and it's just nothing uh join me go ahead and bring in another caller or okay yeah see if we get a caller who wants to you know who until we get john back a uh something something that i can talk about. Okay. And we got John back. Let's see if he is populating in, maybe, hopefully. Y'all, this is live TV. I mean, there's no fixing this.
Starting point is 01:53:10 If something goes squarely, it happens. Sorry, guys, I can't hear you at all. I went all the way out and came back in. I still can't hear you. Okay, hold. I'm going to type something to John. Would it help if John were to be audio only? I don't think it's going to make a difference.
Starting point is 01:53:27 Okay. I don't know what to say. Yeah. Do you think he's got us muted? Possibly. Because if he's running us on a browser, he could have his tab muted. Hmm.
Starting point is 01:53:46 Oh, right, right, right. Yeah, I mean. If you can hear me, yep, we hear you. The chat won't allow me in either. It says messages failed to load. Try again. I hit it three times, four times, five times.
Starting point is 01:53:59 It's not working. Weird. Don't like this Discord. We will look for another solution then. I don't have you muted. Where would that even be, Bobby? On the tab. I might assume he's using the web browser.
Starting point is 01:54:21 Yeah, that's what I'm doing. I didn't even know there's something else you could do. I mean, there's an app. Yeah, there's an app that you could use on his phone. yeah i think he's on a desktop nothing looks like it's muted yeah the tab the tab is always the giveaway for me
Starting point is 01:54:45 sometimes i accidentally do you want to go ahead and bring in a collar yeah i'll go ahead and bring in a caller we'll bring in schmobbs you are live i don't know if john'd be able to hear you not so you might just be stuck with Ted yeah poor Ted been that small you are muted so you've got to mute yourself everyone's muted everybody be muted oh wait mute myself or not mute myself no no no no do your tab not yourself okay um get my tab okay yeah yeah you sound
Starting point is 01:55:23 good you there's no feedback so you're you're rocking awesome go ahead um I probably can't hear you, so I hope you are satisfied with me and Robbie. Oh, of course. You guys are great. I really appreciate the show. You guys are amazing. Seriously. Of course. You guys have amazing insights. I'll ask my question. So I asked earlier about Israel and Iran specifically and the whole kind of stalemate. But I guess a follow-up question would be, I saw that there were reports of Netanyahu. He had this Christmas greeting after this incident in Haifa, do you think, and especially after the context of, I think, the Ayatollah visited a Christian family and, I guess, kind of like the propaganda war, do you think that that has any
Starting point is 01:56:12 bearing of, like, the sway over the Christian populations in the West or other non-aligned states? You know, I mean, that is becoming an increasing factor in domestic, you know, U.S. media coverage, and I think it is starting to play, right? it's very strange because the idea that, for example, there even was such a thing as a Palestinian Christian was an afterthought, something that most Americans had no idea about. They just assumed there were none. But now they're actually getting coverage. Just yesterday, I was listening to NPR, and they had an extensive feature about worshippers at a Palestinian church that had been destroyed in Gaza and how they were holding services for the first time in two or three years. And
Starting point is 01:56:55 that was a, you know, that's the kind of piece that you just wouldn't have gotten covered. You wouldn't have heard, right? I mean, it's sort of like, it's barely, the greatest extent to which that's understood is like when there's coverage of Bethlehem, which is in the occupied West Bank, then you sort of get like, oh, yeah, that's right. But I think it, I wouldn't say it's a dominating thing, but I think it is, you know, it fits in with the narrative of what just happened with Trump. and the airstrike against in Nigeria, supposedly to protect Christians.
Starting point is 01:57:31 Trump is sort of setting himself up as a defender of Christendom around the world. I mean, Robbie, I think that's fair to say. What do you think? I think what it is is that the Zionists have done a great job with their propaganda. You know, earlier how you and John are talking about, you know, racism in the Christian church versus the way the Jews kind of look at people. I think that kind of boils down to two things. Is that the Zionists, they try and play it as if Jew is both an ethnicity and a religion.
Starting point is 01:58:05 Whereas Christianity, there's no ethnic bond involved in it. I mean, there is no lineage. You know, we're actually told our lineage doesn't matter. And one of the things that discuss me as a fundamentalist Christian is how poorly American Christians treat Arab Christians. if they even think of them at all. It's a betrayal. It's disgusting.
Starting point is 01:58:30 And it's a cancer in the church. The John Hagee types need to be called up for what they are, which is heretics and thrown out. Okay. I agree. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you again. Of course.
Starting point is 01:58:43 Thanks for the question. All right. Hopefully, John, do you hear him hear me at all? Okay. We are working on John trying to get reconnected. here. By the way, this would be a, well, thanks for the brown shoe tuxedo $10 question. When we get John back, we'll ask him about why the Taliban is willing to cozy up to China, despite the PRC carrying out mass repression against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. I mean, I think, first of all, the Taliban
Starting point is 01:59:15 are probably in a position of wanting to make as many friends as they possibly can. And China has a small border with Afghanistan, and it's definitely, you know, they can use the support. And I think the Taliban, you know, they respect the fact that they appreciate the Chinese investments and the fact that they're willing to engage with them diplomatically in a way that the rest of the world is not, right? So, you know, basically the Taliban, you know, they can't be choosers at this point when it comes to diplomatic relations. so and they'd be foolish to turn the PRC away I think but anyway any more questions do we have any more
Starting point is 01:59:57 questions we do we've got uh we've got a couple more we may be able to get two four round of time so this is Trent Trent uh go ahead and unmute yourself and ask your question please sir oh I was just screening calls oh right fair enough I'll punch you back good to know So Rats and Rope is, I'm sorry, not Rats and Rope, Mustang is next. Mustang, you are live on the air. And unfortunately, I have to warn you that John still can't hear us, so only Robbie and I can hear you. Hello, hello. Mustang, are you there?
Starting point is 02:00:45 Yes, I am here. Good morning. everybody and thank you for the great information you're sharing my question is for john in the film can't hear you so yeah yeah he's have a technical problems all right well maybe i'll call in next week then all right sounds good we will be back here monday we're here monday through friday nine o'clock eastern we'll be doing a two-hour show on monday uh with the second hour being a call-in and hopefully we will have worked out some of the technical kinks at least these ones until we get new ones but john thanks for calling in though appreciate it no what i want
Starting point is 02:01:26 to do is i'm gonna work with john on using the uh the app as opposed to the browser it's probably the problem with this computer acting crazy so just to guess i'm using the i'm using the browser and i'm fine yep but but his computer's sick yeah that's true yeah i mean no no even if only there was an international organization whose job was to hack people's computers who were not perhaps that popular with the government, we might be able to get some kind of suspicion, some kind of bead on who might be guilty and responsible for this, or maybe it's just a sick computer. All right. And there's no more calls. No, so there are no more calls. So we are, you are stuck with me, sir.
Starting point is 02:02:12 Okay, that's totally fine. All right. Robby, I'm going to ask you, one of the questions that was asked earlier that I thought was a huge, great, open-ended question. You know, what are you looking towards in the new year in terms of like, you know, either with dread or with, you know, something you're looking forward to, it could be anything, cultural, religious, political, current events, whatever. Well, I am a natural-born pessimist, so that way I'm never disappointed by, good news so personally i think the things are just going to get worse i think that the economy is going to is going to continue to deteriorate i think that uh socially the country is just going to keep on
Starting point is 02:02:56 coming apart but there is one bright light and that is how many young people are starting to are starting to really turn to christianity and they're not turning to the they're not turning to zionism like they're they're not embracing christian zionism like they are actually getting into real, honest to God, Christianity? That is happening. Is it, two questions. Do you think it's performative Christianity? Like, you know, you go in, you attend church, but then you say, fuck you to someone who's pulling out of the parking lot at the same time as you, or is it the real thing? And what do you attribute it to? Do you think, I mean, is it people aren't finding answers in other institutions? I mean, what do you
Starting point is 02:03:40 think is going on? Well, as a fundamentalist Christian, I'm not opposed to saying, fuck you, to somebody who pulls out in front of me because that is that is something that I am working on. Just because I'm saved does not mean I'm perfect. But no, I think what it is is just people need stability. And as society just becomes more and more unstable, you know, from a economic standpoint, from a cultural standpoint, to even just a meaning a life standpoint, people need to have something that they can cling to that has some kind of an order, something that's bigger than them and something that's bigger than the state that they write rightly see has betrayed them and that something is the church and so I think that's really what
Starting point is 02:04:19 it is is they want to have something that has that has stood the test of time they don't have something that is bigger than themselves and something has clearly defined rules you know the 10 commandments are pretty clear don't do this and you're good to go whereas if you know our modern day society we can't agree with what a woman is so people just want some kind of order I think it's a big part of it. And also it feels old, right? Like it feels like it predates modernity and the Internet and industrialization and all that. It feels like it goes back to, you know, a more, a more, okay, so let's see.
Starting point is 02:05:02 Yeah, so, yeah, our colleague who shall remain nameless also agrees that John will be better off if he downloads the app. So we should tell him to do that. I got a couple of minutes left if we got, if there's a last minute caller who wants to talk to me and or Robbie, we could, we can take that. But in the meantime, just a reminder, we are pleased to like, follow, and share the show. We're trying to get, you know, we're trying to get this up and running financially. Some money's trickling in, and so we appreciate that. It's not, we will be resuming Robbie Aid, by the way, after January 1st, we're going to try to figure out the way to make this show run as smoothly as possible with the call-ins.
Starting point is 02:05:49 We will just full transparency next week. We are here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, not Thursday, which is New Year's Day, January 1st, 2026, but we're back on Friday, January 2nd. So basically, we're here all week, we're not here Thursday. And we will be doing two-hour shows the entire time next week, where it's the same exact format. The first hour will be news and analysis. The second hour will be Collins, if we can make this work. And we think that we have a technical solution here.
Starting point is 02:06:25 Anyway, thanks for all that. Robby, do we have any last minute? No, just a little bit of housekeeping stuff. So one thing I'll be doing this weekend is I'm going to work on just trying to smooth this out, just make it look cleaner, just make it look more professional. I'm using OBS. I'm going to try and build that, make a work. And I think that if John uses the app as opposed to his computer, that will solve the problem.
Starting point is 02:06:50 And when he gets back home, provided he doesn't get blizzarded in, I'm going to see if I can help him fix his computer from 2,000 miles away. Okay. All right, with that, everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. We really appreciate you. Have a great weekend if you are in northwestern Nigeria. maybe you know find a nice cave to hide in for the next few days and that'll be good otherwise um thanks everyone see you on monday 10 a.m. Eastern time and sorry 9 a.m. Eastern
Starting point is 02:07:23 time 9 to 11 so see you then thank you very much Robbie sorry for the technical problems but hopefully we'll have that all resolved soon well one thing we're going to start working on and this is something that's going to help me out a little bit on the back end on the Discord server y'all are going to see a little tab there what's called debate we are actually going to have have real debates on the Discord server and I may even stream those
Starting point is 02:07:48 on my Rumble channel and so if you all want to get in and have civil conversations of people who you don't agree with check it out think you'll like it hi Robbie bye John bye bye y'all
Starting point is 02:08:02 let me switch us over and we are going away Thank you.

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