DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: “Gaza Genocide 2.0”

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou explore topics shaking the world stage. Trump-Putin Talks on Hold: The White House now says there are no immediate plans for President Trump to meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin, despite Trump’s earlier suggestion of a Budapest summit to end the Ukraine war. After a “productive call” between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia’s Sergey Lavrov, Trump’s pattern of pivoting from sanctions or aid to diplomacy raises eyebrows. Experts warn of a familiar cycle with little progress. Shutdown Gets Real: Democrats are about to get the fight they want on November 1, when ACA subscribers see their premiums skyrocket. Premiums nationwide are set to rise by 18 percent on average. Nationally, the average marketplace consumer will pay $1,904 in annual premiums next year, up from $888 in 2025. The situation is particularly acute in Georgia, which recorded the second-highest enrollment of any state-run marketplace this year and and where 96 percent of marketplace enrollees in Georgia received subsidies this year. Georgians browsing the state website are seeing estimated monthly costs double or even triple, depending on their incomes, as lower subsidy thresholds resume. Will Republicans blink?America’s Covert War Against Venezuela: The U.S. military’s secretive Southern Caribbean campaign escalates, with seven airstrikes killing 32 off Venezuela’s coast, targeting alleged “narco-terrorists.” Trump confirms CIA covert operations, while the abrupt exit of SouthCom Commander Adm. Alvin Holsey sparks questions about the strikes’ legality. Critics, including Sen. Rand Paul,

Good morning. It's Wednesday, October 22nd, and you're watching D-Program with Ted Raul and John Kiriaku back stateside where he belongs. Finally. Thank you so much for joining us. Please like, follow and share the show. John, it's really good to see you again. Good to see you, Ted. Glad to be back. Robbie held down the fort while you were gone.

I appreciate it very much, Robbie. And so, yeah, let's, by the way, Robbie has some housekeeping to take care of So let's go ahead and pop him in. Rahi, Robbie. Yeah. So I'm back in my appropriate place in the background where I belong, so I can't break people's brains anymore with real right-wing populism. So just a quick thing about YouTube for those of you who are over there,

super chats and memberships have been restored. So if y'all want to support the work that John and Ted are doing, you are able to do that now on YouTube in addition to the PayPal and in addition to the Rumble and it's really all I've got okay uh thanks Robin see you later let me know about ads okay okay so uh we are here Monday through Friday 9 a.m. Eastern time that's the regular time uh John do you want to how did you survive the tarantulas and the and the cancel lights and the mosquitoes and the heat and the no air conditioning Who moves into the southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula and builds a resort with no air conditioning?

No, that's insane. It's insane. And why would you build a resort in a place? Well, it's very beautiful. It truly is. It's very beautiful. Palm trees everywhere. There's big saguaro cactus with the arms, you know, they're everywhere.

And that's where Jacques Cousteau did most of his. diving he called it the world's aquarium which everybody's very proud of down there but i saw wildlife there ted half the time i didn't know what the heck i was looking at the other half of the time i didn't want to see it snakes i can count on one hand the number of snakes that i saw in the first 60 and a half years of my life growing up in Pennsylvania. And they were garter snakes and black snakes. Sure. No big deal. These were friggin rattlesnakes and they're everywhere. I saw, I had to Google it and see what the heck I was looking at. It was called the California rat snake. Oh yeah. Things are big too. The rat snakes aren't going to do anything to you.

but then the scorpions we were warned in an email before we went down there not to ever go barefoot okay you're at the beach for god's sake that's crazy never go bare for it well i never did and thank god i did and i have this habit like most people my age i would suspect where i get up in the middle of the night i want to get a drink of water or something my little mini fridge was outside oh yeah so I'd have to like shake out my shoes to make sure there are no scorpions or tarantulas in there and then put the shoes on and then go outside but I had to have a flashlight with me to make sure that the scorpions and tarantulas aren't on my mini fridge which the tarantula was on my mini fridge one night at 3 a.m. Oh it's you don't get used to it you just get angry

were spin webs or not that i not that i ever saw yeah they they'll attack and and sting something or bite it if they consume it yeah yeah but even to eat they'll eat that i'll tell you i saw a deer who's the biggest friggin deer i ever saw in my life but it was completely gray huh yeah there's a lot of variety in deers right like those um like the key like the key deer in the He deer is very tiny. There's the outer banks deer in North Carolina, very tiny. This thing was the size of a of a mule deer. You know, mule deer out west?

Yeah, yeah. Big giant, but completely gray. Roadrunners everywhere. Those are cool. Never saw one flying, just running down the road, sometimes with as many as a dozen pals of his running down the road. But it was the scorpions and the tarantulas that really got to me. Because they're everywhere.

Yeah, like I've seen those images like where they use fluorescent lights in the desert. Right. Let's see where the scorpions are. And it's like they're everywhere. Like everywhere. Everywhere. It's awful. You know what's like that and nobody thinks about this is Bali.

Bali has a lot of things that bite and sting and hurt you. I don't get the appeal. I don't understand the appeal. Another thing, too, was the road. And I'm going to put, Eric, quick, the road. So, Afghanistan. Jeff Fahey is the star of the movie that I was in, and is an easily recognizable face if you just Google Jeff Fahey.

He and Tyrell Ventura, Jesse's son, drove me to the airport early one morning to go to do the Joe Rogan show. so hurricane um i forget who uh hurricane uh hurricane uh loretta or whatever the heck it was i i don't remember tarantula had come through and it washed out the road and so they were like you know buddy you may not make it we're not sure we could make it we didn't go 100 feet and the road just didn't exist it had just washed away And we had to drive up this dune over cactuses and animals are just jumping out of the way. And it took us, to go to 35 miles took us almost two hours.

And then those poor guys had to drive back. Jesus. Yeah. I know about those roads. Jeff said to me, he said, I was just in Afghanistan six weeks ago and the roads aren't this bad in Afghanistan. I said, I know. I've been a million times in Afghanistan. They used to be.

before 2005 they were but this was bad anyway the important thing is I got to be in a real Hollywood movie Ted like a real honest to God Hollywood movie is it going to be in theaters or is it like a straight to streaming kind of thing

they're in talks with Netflix to sell it to Netflix the editing is going to be done by April then they're going to lay over the soundtrack and it should be ready to ready to watch by July or August. Fantastic. And that was really fun.

Great group of people. Obviously, it's impossible to tell. I used to be friends with a film director. And he told me, like, you don't really know what you have until you get in there. I asked the same question. I asked Jeff. He's been in like 280 movies and TV series. And I said, Jeff, do you know when what you're working on is good?

And he said, no, you don't. He said, what we tell ourselves. Sometimes you know you've got lightning in a bottle, but not usually. You know, and if Scorsese is directing it and Pacino's in it or whatever, sure. It should be okay. Yeah, he said, what we tell ourselves is just to be proud. If you're proud of the job that you did, then that's good enough because it's really not possible to know if it was good. And sometimes your best moments end up on the cutting room floor.

Yeah, it's interesting. Thank you for the donation, U.S. Triple X, A Rod. What are the long-term ramifications of Marco Rubio agreeing to send U.S. informants to El Salvador, essentially going back on agreements made with the informants? Great question. Man, when I read that, I was absolutely appalled. What that is, essentially, is a death sentence. so he offered to rat out all of our informants in exchange for the El Salvadorians

allowing us to lock people up in their in their gulag. That's really what it came down to. Seacott. Absolutely chilling. So, yeah. I mean, the thing is, there's always going to be another sucker who's willing to work with the U.S. But you would think that over time, people might become more, more skilled. skeptical. So also, Declos, a message for Robbie. I agree with this argument. This is from

yesterday. The immigration laws should be followed, but this Trump initiative has almost nothing to do with immigration. It's about shutting down dissent on behalf, on his behalf. I would agree with that. Yeah. Nicolas Franco is asking you, John, was Afghanistan more comfortable? Sounds like it. I mean, I've been to Afghanistan a bunch of times. I mean, the last few times, were, you know, bite-free. I didn't, there were no, well, first of all, there are no tarantulas and after those, too. I never saw a snake there either. I saw a snake, but I saw hundreds of foxes.

Desert foxes, they come out of their dens when the sun goes down. You can see their eyes shining off in the distance. They're not dangerous. Marmits, there's lots of marmots. And they had marmots down there in Baja as well. Saw dozens of them. That's a good question. You know, the first couple of times I went to Afghanistan, I just slept in a tent with everybody else.

I mean, there was once where I actually had my own tent, so I was, you know, living high on the hog. And then once we got a serious foothold there, I'd stay in the officer's quarters at Bagraub. And then when I went as a private citizen to get those little kids out who had starred in the kite runner, I stayed at one of the big Afghan hotels and it was like any, you know, three-star hotel that I stayed in anywhere else. This resort in Baja, it was built by a group of hippies as a commune.

Oh, that explains a lot. That explains the OAC. The leader, the leader. John, we've got an ad to read. Okay. Oh, you want to, yeah. Let me pop that out. Yeah, yeah, that's.

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thomas hart benton the the famous author 20th or i'm sorry artist the from the early to mid 20th century um you know we were joking with them four of the them were still there when we first arrived and then they left. So the whole place was ours. But they built it in the in the 60s, starting in the 60s. And the guy said, you know, we weren't a cult. People accused us of being a cult. We're just a bunch of like-minded, left-wing, long-haired, freaky people, you know, from Los Angeles. But they were also very skilled. One of them was an architect. One of them was a builder. And so Tom's hard to. Betton's daughter had plenty of money.

They built this gorgeous resort. It's got about a dozen different buildings. And they just ended up living in it most of the time and renting out rooms to scuba divers otherwise. The thing is, is that there's literally nothing to do there unless you're a scuba diver. And then even if you are a scuba diver, there are signs around, like, beware of rockfish. They will sting you through your flippers. And you're not even safe in the water. My understanding, you know, as you know, John, I'm a scuba diver.

Yeah. My understanding about Baja is that it's kind of like a completely binary thing. You're either going to, it's deep water. You don't really see much. If you do see something, it's a whale shark, which is something all divers like want to see. And that's what most people go down there to see are the whale sharks. Yeah. But you might not see shit.

You might. You'll see either nothing at all. You know, you won't even see an angel fish or you'll see a whale shark. Right. So it's like that's, you know, that's what it's all about. Chad, we've got a lot of news to talk about. We sure do, Ted. Ukraine and Russia, the shutdown, believe it or not, there is really, things are getting real there.

Venezuela and Israel, what do you want to do first? Yeah, let's do Venezuela first because I think that that's, you know, there's some immediacy there that we legitimately should be, should be, um, work. worried about. By all accounts, Ted, it looks like Donald Trump is planning some sort of imminent military action in Venezuela. It definitely looks like it. It really does. We don't have ground troops in the area, although Venezuela is so close that it wouldn't be hard to get ground troops there once something were to take place. But wouldn't it take a while, though? Because it's like, yeah, there's no infrastructure for them. I mean, it's, yeah, I mean, basically it would be an amphibious

invasion like D-Day, right? Wouldn't it be? I mean, Which is what they've tried, which is what they've tried twice in Venezuela already. You remember these, these bozos who got wrapped up, you know, as they were coming ashore? Yeah, just like the Bay of Biggs 2.0. One of them actually emailed me a couple of weeks ago saying, hey, I really want to be on your show. I want to blow the whistle on communism in Venezuela. I'm like, yeah, you're not a whistleblower. You're not coming on my show.

So I think that what you wrote, half an hour ago is correct. I think we're looking at some sort of amphibious assault. I think that we're looking at an air war. And you know, it's funny, Ted.

The idea behind all this is apparently what the idea was behind George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. That you bomb the shit out of a country. And then, of course,

in your logic, the people will rise up against their leader because that's what we'll make the Americans start bombing. And then they overthrow him and then they throw flowers at us when we cross the border and everybody lives happily around. And we have a free trade agreement for hundreds. And then we have a free trade agreement. And that never, ever, ever happens. I mean, how popular do you think Nicolas Maduro is? I mean, I don't think that really matters much, but I'm just curious, you know. Yeah, I don't think it matters much either. I, I, I, I, think he's less popular than my

friends on the left believe he is. He's not Hugo Chavez. He's not Hugo Chavez. No, he's not. Who was really popular. Yeah. You know, when I was working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff back in 2009, I...

Bay of Piglets, hilarious. That's really what it would be. I wish I had thought of that. Maduro was credibly accused of looking the other way as drugs were transiting Venezuela bound for Africa. We've talked about this before.

And then they're picked up in Gidde Bissau, and then from Giddi Bissau, they're put on camels and just walked up this ancient Tuareg smuggling route to Morocco. Canvassarious. Right, and then transferred to Europe. So they're not even American drugs. They're not even drugs that end up in the United States. Fentanyl is what's

Fentanyl Fentanyl We should be Talking to the Mexicans We should be Which we are Which we are But this Venezuela thing

That just brings up the I mean you know Robbie facetiously I hope facetiously suggested That we invade Mexico I'm like we already took half their country But like

You know But I mean Like we have cooperation Why aren't Considering that we do have Good cooperation Between Mexican and American law enforcement and intelligence, very good cooperation.

Why aren't we making more progress in stemming the flow across the border? Because even the Mexican government, the Federales, who by all accounts are, you know, great, gung-ho, working for the right reasons. Incorruptible. Incorruptible. That's why they're successful. But even the Federales have, you know, two hands tied behind their backs. which is why

just because the cartels are too strong so basically there's just like it's an it's an internal military force yes yeah so basically the government just just doesn't control certain parts of Mexico where they are you know Ted I know you've been to Mexico many times I've been to Mexico many times I've been all over Mexico

I love it too the only place I haven't been is Chappas and I'd love to see either. But the thing is, is, you know, we should have been helping the Mexicans develop their economy for the last hundred years. True. And we haven't. We've punished them.

We've tried to keep them out, force them out. We've supported, and we've supported the most retrograde factions in their, in their political scheme. Without a doubt. I mean, basically, we allowed four. families to run the and own the entire economy. Exactly. So exactly.

Yeah. It's just like Haiti. We lament like, oh, poor Haiti. Oh, we wish we could help Haiti. And these are hardworking, very intelligent people who would do great if we just left them the fuck alone. Yeah. John, good question from Real Real.

Anne, thanks for the two bucks. John, last week, Trump authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela. I've been dying to talk to you about this for three days. What are some examples and of like what would that look like? Yeah, that's a great question. And what timeline would you expect to see results in? And don't freak out. I'm going to hit refresh on my stream yard because I see that my signal is a little weak.

Okay, go for it. So first of all, it's highly unusual to the point of being unprecedented for a president to publicly announce that he has authorized CIA covert action, right? that is something when I was when I was being called to testify in the scooter liby case I was told that I wasn't even allowed to say the words covert action wasn't even allowed to say the words let alone to talk about a program here the president of the United States is talking about like publicly announcing a covert action program I never saw anything like it my life so that can mean a lot of different things it can be something as innocuous as giving a hundred thousand

to opposition newspapers to do investigative reporting. Okay, no big deal. But it could also be, you know, training paramilitary forces in the United States to parachute in and overthrow the government. It can be training assassins to take out Nicholas Maduro. It could be a plan to seize major intersections in Caracas and hold them for the likes of Juan Guaido

or this woman who apparently won the election. It can meet a lot of different things. In this case, I think the goal was twofold. The goal was to actually set in motion the overthrow of the Venezuelan government. But the second goal was to so frighten Maduro that he at least make contingency plans to run off somewhere to Cuba, most likely. They're trying to spook him. Yeah, they're trying to frighten him. This is a dude who's been targeted for years now by the United States, and not to mention his predecessor.

Hugo Chavez was actually overthrown for the weekend by the U.S. Yes, he was. And with the cooperation of the New York Times, not one of their finest moments. But like basically, he knows what's in the mail. He knows what he faces. He's not spookable, right? I mean, he knows. No.

He's not going to run scared. Number one, he will not run scared. Number two. And the Valenzuelans are very nationalistic people, right? They are. They'll support an unpopular president that they don't like over an invasion force. 100%. As would most countries.

Yes. I would support Donald Trump. Me too. Over, you know, some Russian-invading Canadian army. Yeah. Invading Canadian army. Absolutely. Fuck off Canadians.

Yeah. So number two, a lot of the people who would be naturally opposed to Maduro politically are not in Venezuela. They're mostly in the United States working. And so I just don't see that this is going to be a big problem internally from Maduro. The big problem is the prospect of an American invasion. Well, let's talk about that because that was definitely something I've been dying to talk to you about, like I said. You know, in terms of, you know, what's very interesting and disturbing about this, I mean, you know, war powers are assigned exclusively to the U.S. Congress with very under the Constitution.

but they've been whittled away for really for 200 plus years. And now Trump has brought this to a new level where basically he's not even consulting with Congress anymore about the deployment of 10,000 U.S. troops and the murders of over 30 Venezuelan nationals, of whom at least one appears to have just been a fisherman, certainly the guy from Colombia, almost certainly. certainly was a stranded fisherman. And, you know, so basically he wants to do this without any accountability to the American people, right? JFK went on national television and revealed the existence of spy plane technology to show that Cuba had Soviet missiles and basically was like, look, I'm bringing you to the brink of World War II, World War III, but here's why and here's what's going on.

This president is not telling us he's either lying to us, these are Trend de Aragua. None of them are Tranda Aaragua. No, none of them. None of them. It's like, and, you know, they're bad, they're narco-terrorists. There's no such thing. They're bringing drugs to America. No, they're not.

Basically, he's asserting the right to just sort of kill people without identifying them or providing any evidence about who they were or why they mean the U.S. harm or why it's legal to do so. And he's not even consulting with the gang of eight in the capital. He's not even calling a few representative members of Congress and saying, like, hey, so here's what I'm up to. There was apparently a briefing that happened, I guess, a week and a half ago, where someone who came out of it and had seen all of Trump's information said, this isn't at all about, you know, drugs. We don't care about drugs. This is about overthrowing Nicolas Maduro.

It's about regime change. So, I mean, what about, will Congress, if they ever get there, you know, get back into session, are they going to assert their right to oversee military action? Absolutely not. Absolutely positively not. Now, that's dangerous. It's very dangerous. You know, Congress, of course, has the constitutional responsibility to declare war. Congress has not declared any war since December the 8th, 1941.

that's right even even only five times right yeah in history and even before the the first golf war they didn't vote to declare war on iraq they voted to authorize the use of force and then the and then like there's that post-9-11 authorization to use military force that basically every president subsequently has been using to do whatever the fuck he wants yeah yeah our our our country is in shambles right now policy-wise. It really is. And you know, I don't blame Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the stressor. I blame all the institutions that are supposed to serve as checks and balances, the so-called opposition party, the Democrats, the, you know, the executive, the legislative branch, which is basically not doing anything. And even a lot of the judiciary, which I was,

for years I've said, was the last best hope. They're rolling now. Just as an example, did you see this kid i say kid because he just turned 30 that donald trump had named to be the head of the office of special counsel did you see this and he and he withdrew yesterday after he wasn't available right he withdrew yesterday because um because of uh text messages he had sent friends of his that just were made public in which he admitted to having a nazi streak A Nazi Us one can Who has it

Who among us can truly say We haven't had our Nazi period Plus man if you've been If you've been out of school For six years You have no business Heading up an office At the Department of Justice

Well John We weren't going to talk about this But since you brought up the DOJ What about the fact that this Donald Trump always going for the new low two things first of all I'm just going to mention the ballroom I didn't really care about the ballroom at first I didn't either today the Washington Post published a a graphic of how big it's going to be it's bigger than the White House yes yes it's like off balance much it's more like we're going to have to call it

like you know like Gilligan's Island and the rest it'll be like the ballroom and the rest. Yes, exactly. It's crazy. I mean, it's, and then also the DOJ. He's shaking down his own DOJ for a quarter of a billion dollars. Yes. Because he's like, you assholes sued me and fucked with me back during the charge me back during the Biden years. And I want my fucking money back. I want you to make me whole. It's like basically, he's gangstering his own company. It's like, hey, nice government I got there. Be ashamed of something. I will say.

But it's your government. When I saw that he was asking to be reimbursed $230 million, I called Bruce Fine, our friend and former deputy attorney general, Bruce Fine. And Bruce said, oh, yeah, he can do that. Oh, yeah. There's this obscure federal law that goes back to the 19. century that says that if you're the victim of a of a vindictive prosecution you can sue the Justice Department and they have to reimburse you but he's the president not to mention

Donald at some point when is enough enough I mean you've grifted so much already right I mean like you've made billions of dollars you never were a billionaire before you became president. And now you are. Now he's a real billionaire. Yeah. But getting back to this ballroom, Ted, it's so, I would encourage people to go to the Washington Post website today and just look at the graphic. It's going to make you furious. If I didn't care up because up until that point, I was like, well, you know, the White House has been rebuilt more often than people think. Truman Balcony and so on. Well, the irony here is that he he tore down the East Wing of the White House. Do you know what the East Wing is? It's the first.

It's the first lady's office. Yeah. Sorry, Melania. It no longer exists. It's sitting in rubble on the White House grounds now. Rubble. And by the way, shockingly, he lied and said that there would not need to be any demolition whatsoever. I mean, when you see the size of that thing, this guy, look, Donald Trump, if he knows anything, it's about construction and development.

He knew there was going to have to be a lot of destruction. And he said last week, I actually laughed when I read it. He said, we're not going to tear down the east wing. I love the east wing. It's my favorite part of the White House. I look at it and I say, I love this East Wing. It's fantastic. And then literally the next day, they tore it down.

Oh, my God. Yeah, it's, it's bizarre. I mean, and it's kind of like, you know, I mean, look, presidents have put in bowling alleys, you know, swimming pools, movie theaters, all sorts of shit. Yeah. But, I mean, and that's okay, right? I don't have a problem.

just the size of it, right? It's just sort of like, with so many things with Trump, it's not about the idea. It's about the execution. That's it. Yeah. So I wonder, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. And I realize it's not important in the greater scheme of things.

But I wonder if the next president, if it happens to be a Democrat, is going to tear the thing down. Nope. Nope. Not a fucking chance. They're going to say, look at this monstrosity. Trump did this. and then they're going to enjoy the great benefits of a giant ballroom.

Yesterday, John, I was getting the runaround at the post office. It's too boring to get into why. The point is it was, and then I was like, oh, that's right. It's Trump, they're very short-staffed. And it's because of Trump's shitty postmaster general, who he appointed during his first term. And wait for it, Biden kept. Yeah, Biden kept. And now we're stuck with him.

Or, I mean, Biden kept all sorts of shit, right? like Trump got rid of the homeowner deduction for property taxes over 10,000 in order to fuck the people who live in the blue states. Biden kept that when he came in. I mean, no, Democrats will keep everything. They will keep ice. They'll keep up the ice raids. They'll keep it all going.

Nothing will change. That's exactly right. I mean, no, no way are they tearing down that ballroom. I mean, first of all, they'll want the ballroom. And besides which, they'll just sort of say, like, oh, if we did, if we did. tore it down, they would accuse us of wasting taxpayer money and like, you know, this thing that's already been billed. Yep. I mean, because we've seen this, John, over and over. Democrats constantly keep Republican policies and actions. You know, Republicans don't do that.

They come in. They're like, oh, Affordable Care Act. We're getting rid of that. Oh, yeah. Right. Hey, real quickly, and I apologize, it's already 934, but I wanted to, I wanted to mentioned, yesterday afternoon, I started feeling a little bit better. So I walked over to the courthouse, which is very close to my house here in Arlington, Virginia. And I voted. I did early voting. Thanks for the reminder. I have to do that, too, for Mamdani. So the only race of any import here is the race for governor. So it's Abigail Spanberger. And I worked with Abby at the CIA. She's perfectly nice person, but she would, in the 1970s and 80s, she would be kind of a middle-of-the-road Republican. And then the current lieutenant governor of Virginia, winsome Earl Sears, is a nut.

She's just a nut. Her campaign pictures when she was running for lieutenant governor four years ago, she's just smiling, standing, and holding a machine gun. like this a machine gun well that's like Marjorie Taylor green with her early campaign ads shooting up the pictures of the Democrats yeah so so there was a debate a couple of nights ago between the two and and winsome Earl Sears never shot her flapping gums through the entire debate she had to be repeatedly slapped down because Spanberger couldn't get a word out so Spanberger in my view is very conservative she's she's from the conservative wing of the Democratic Party.

And her big thing was that, was that Earl Sears supports discrimination. And her, she said, for example, when some Earl Sears doesn't want to allow gay people to get married. And Earl Sears jumps in. She goes, that's not discrimination. That's God's will. And she just kept repeating this.

And by the way, I would love to be debating someone like that because I'd be like, do you talk to God? Are you on psychotropic or psychotropic medications? Because people who claim to talk to God are. Oh, and somebody's got a great question for us. Maybe it's just Robbie. But John, what's your opinion on the Virginia Attorney General's race with the Democrat talking about killing his opponent and his family? That's become the biggest issue in the Virginia, the statewide. Virginia races.

So the candidate, the Democratic candidate for Attorney General was joking in a text exchange with a friend of his. And he said something about like target practice against Republicans or some stupid thing like that. I thought he said get rid of. Yeah. It was several. It wasn't just one.

He said several, several different things. You know, my knee-jerk reaction is shame on him. He's advocating violence, even if he's. doing it doing it in what he says to be a joking manner and in a private conversation and it's in a private conversation i mean come on we all talk shit privately and i've gotten to the point where my position is we all talk shit privately the republicans pull this shit all the time i don't yeah look at the young republicans uh text email text scandal from last week yeah exactly exactly so you know the abby is beating winsome ril sears bicycle

percentage points right now. This Muslim woman that the Democrats have nominated for a debt for, sorry, lieutenant governor is winning by the same six points. And the Jason Miaris, I forget the other guy's name for attorney general, is a dead heat. I don't think, you know, when Jason Miaris, the Republican, he's Cuban, American, born in Cuba, when he first was elected Attorney General four years ago, I thought, oh, my God, there we go. He's a right-wing extremist.

It's going to be terrible. No, he's been a perfectly fine attorney general. Never in the news. Enforcing the laws. There's some pearl clutching in the New Jersey race too. Which is closer than the Virginia race. Right. And it's closer only because the Democratic nominee is lame.

Just isn't a very good candidate. No, she really, I mean, today the New York Times ran an op-ed by some female writer that was, it's really depressing. She basically was arguing that Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and the New Jersey lady, they're all victims of sexism. Mikey something. Oh, please. Give me a brief. And I'm like, these are terrible candidates. Terrible.

I mean, look, here's the thing, like I posted online in response to that. Look, you know, Donald Trump, when he campaigned, was able to say, credibly, I understand why you're pissed. You're pissed because of high prices. You're pissed because all the buildings in your downtown area. All your factories are closed and boarded up and no one cares. And that sucks. Now, he doesn't have any solutions to those problems.

No. But he's able to say that. But he tapped a vein. Which is one step more than these Democratic candidates have been able to do. They're not able to even say, I see you and I understand your problems. They don't even get to that point. They're literally talking about, you know, stupid shit. Yeah.

Yeah. And this is another thing to you. The Democrats have not learned their lesson. And I don't mean their lesson from 24. I mean, their lesson from 24, 22, 20, 18, 16. They haven't learned any lessons. No. The Democrats are in disarray.

They're in shambles. And they still think that they're the smartest people in the room. They know better than you do or better than I do. And they're just going to head to defeat after defeat. Robbie's telling us that we have another ad. All right, Robbie, please put it up. Thank you very much. We do have a lot of ground to cover.

So let's talk a little bit since we're on domestic politics. You know, you and I talked about how, you know, there's, first of all, the Affordable Care Act, you know, it's, well, let's read this ad first. If you haven't already, please make sure you download the Rumble app. It's free, simple to use, and the best way to stay connected to the content you want. Once you've got it, search for our channel. and hit follow. That way, you'll get a notification every time we go live.

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and smart TVs. Just search for Rumble, follow the channel, and become part of the action. So, John, we talked about this. On November 1st is a big day. It's just eight days from now, or sorry, nine days from now, The people, tens of millions of people who subscribe to health care through their state and federal marketplaces are going to see their premiums skyrocket because the federal subsidies are going to have not been renewed.

I got the letter. That's what the subject of the meltdown is. Does it tell you about the increase in your premiums? Yeah, it does. And it says, listen, don't throw this away. It says at the top, your coverage may be disrupted. if you don't read this notice and take immediate action, it says, at the very top. Terrifying.

And the letter is four pages long. And the bottom line is, you're screwed. So try to save yourself as best you can, but you're screwed. Premiums nationally are going to raise, are going to go up by 18% on average, if you're a member of the ACA. The nationally, the average marketplace consumer will, marketplace consumer, will pay $1,904 in annual premiums next year, up from 888, although I know people who pay that per month. I mean, I pay more than 88 per month.

The situation is particularly acute in Georgia, which recorded the second highest enrollment of any state-run marketplace this year. 96% of everyone in Georgia marketplace receives federal subsidies. Georgians are seeing estimated costs double or even triple. People are being forced to choose between their mortgages and their health care. This is going to be, this is what Democrats have been waiting for in the shutdown. And the pressure is going to build on the Republicans. I think the Republicans are going to have to cave.

The only question is, how much do they cave by? Do they renew for one year or do they renew for two years? Democrats want them to renew for two years and wait for the midterms. Republicans, obviously, I think they already know in their heart of heart. that they're going to have to renew for a year. The Republican negotiating point here has been absurd. They said, agree to reopen the government and then we'll negotiate. It's like, no, the Democrats have the Republicans by the balls on this issue.

That's not how it works. Yeah, finally, it's right. Yeah, finally. Yesterday, this became the second longest shutdown in American history. it will become the longest shutdown like in a couple of days I think yeah yeah just a couple of days and I think it could go on but I mean yeah definitely if I'm the if I'm you know Schumer and Jeffries I'm just like everything is just fine yeah because Congress is still getting paid you know they exempt themselves from these of course other other laws and of course and of course

Trump is finding, is shaking down the sofa cushions to look for money for the military. Yeah. Does the CIA get paid under this? No. No. And the thing about the CIA, too, nobody at the CIA gets paid, but everybody at the CIA is considered a necessary employee. So you're forced to work? Literally everybody at the CIA.

When I was in Bahrain in 95, it was this what is until the other day was the second longest shutdown ever and the ambassador declared everybody in the embassy an essential employee except the nurse the nurse was the only one that didn't have to come in that's i've got a comment on something that tammy said nobody comments on my political stuff on facebook let me just say um facebook throttles all political content yeah You know, whenever I post my political cartoons or columns on Facebook, they go crazy on X, but on Facebook, nobody sees them. I get like three likes. I put a picture of Clovis up there, thousands of likes.

I mean, granted, Clovis is more appealing than my politics, but still, I mean, and they've said that. They said that they throttle all political content. So it's not like a conspiracy or anything. So government shutdown, we're going to say, can Democrats snatches? defeat from the jobs of victory here? I don't think so. I don't trust the Democrats. I think that Hakeem Jeffries is a clown and Chuck Schumer is corrupt.

And I don't think there is any leadership in the Democratic Party. What do you think? Well, no, I mean, what I was trying to say is like, can they fuck this up? I mean, Democrats are sitting pretty. Could they fuck this up and undernegotiate and under leverage this? Absolutely. They could, yeah. Absolutely. It could really blow it. But I mean, you know, right now that the Republicans are starting to finally feel the heat on something.

You know, I mean, Donald Trump is eight years overdue. But he, in 2016, he promised to come up with a plan to repeal and replace the ACA. Ain't nothing yet. And I mean, I think the bottom line is, I don't know what the answer to this is. Either the Republican Party is split on this issue because like MTG says we've got to do something about it. or Republicans in general just don't care about health care. And I'm leaning. I lean more toward the latter. But what do you think? Yeah, I think the Democrats probably consider themselves fortunate that they have ACA as an issue.

Otherwise, there is no issue. Right. And that's the only thing that's going to save them as this thing. And it is a shitty, it's a shitty plan. It's just that it's better than no plan. Yeah, without a doubt. C. Morris, thanks for the. dollar? Did we, did you all see where a former J6 pardonee was arrested for threatening to kill

Hakeem Jeffries? Yes. I did see that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so many of these people that Trump pardoned have gotten in trouble since their, since their pardons and their release from prison. One was shot and killed in a shootout with a cop in Indiana. Ages ago. Of course there were, it could that be, could that just be simply that there were thousands of them? And if you randomly select 3,000 people, you know, eight of them are going to get it to trouble with the law. Yes, I think that's it. I think that's it. I mean, it does remind me a little bit about the four assholes that Bernard gets the subway

vigilante shot in the mid-1980s here in New York City in the subway. Yes. And then one of them was later, you know, there were liberals who were like, they were just underprivileged youths. And one of them got caught raping his 85-year-old native. on the roof of his housing project. Lovely fellow. Oh, Lord.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah, there's a special place in hell for people like that. For sure. And it's kind of like, after all that, I was kind of like, I'm on team, Burney God's. Besides which I always thought. I always thought that the most interesting moment there was that, like, when the cops showed up, they said, which way did he go?

And everyone who was on the car, nobody who knew him. They all said he went that way when it was the other way. Yeah. So they saw what happened, and they all sided here. So, okay, let's get into the, I'm super interested in this genocide thing. Genocide 2.0, as I put it in the thumbnail. So Israel, I mean, it's unbelievable. I guess it's not unbelievable.

But Israel is blocking aid into the Gaza Strip again. Now, the whole point of the, well, a big point of the 20-point plan was the aid was going to be completely restored. And it was going to flow in and flood the zone, which, by the way, would put a major crimp into those criminal gangs who have been stealing aid. So basically, the border crossings, two out of seven of them are open. Five out of seven are closed. Aid trucks are stranded. Unra was supposed to be allowed back in. They're not being allowed back in. a bunch of NGOs that are that have long experience very reputable are not being allowed back in so basically there's a ceasefire I don't get this so John explain this to me Israel signs a signs a ceasefire

but they're still shooting and killing and blowing well you you called this you called this weeks ago you said that the Israelis always always always violate the ceasefire every time violate it quickly. And they did it within hours of the creation. Over and over. With airstrikes, shootings, you name it, right? Then also, they said they're going to allow AIDN. They don't allow the aid in. I mean, it's kind of like, what is this? What is this fucking agreement? Well, we're moving on to phase two.

Y'all haven't done phase one. No, no. In fact, J.D. Vance is in Israel, right? now and I just got a push notification 15 minutes ago or so that Marco Rubio has arrived in Israel as well presumably to tell the Israelis to get with the program. He even said like, oh, I'm not here to babysit the ceasefire. I'm like, I think you are. Yeah, I think that's exactly why you're there. Yes. By the way, I'm all for it. Yeah, yeah. That's right. That's right. So, yeah, so let's Well, may I add something to, you know, Tucker Carlson has been more and more outspoken about Israel, and he's making a lot of enemies, especially on the pro-Zionist right. And lately he's been talking about both the notion of greater Israel, as well as this Zionist extremist plan to blow up the dome of the rock.

the third holiest site in Islam and to build what would be the third temple, right? The first temple on the, on the, those people are crazy. They're crazy, but it's, it's entered the mainstream of Israeli politics. Just Sharon visiting the dome of the rock was enough to trigger the second intifada. Yep, that's right. To blow it up. And he said the other day, and I agree with him wholeheartedly, to, to, to do. Destroy the Dome of the Rock would be the event that starts World War III.

Yes. Easy is that. And by the way, I think it would probably be the end, the beginning of the end of the Israeli government and all of its support. I think what would happen to them, in a way, I hope they do it, because it'll be just like what happened to the Taliban after they blow up the Bamian statues. And the whole world, up until that point, people forget, you know, yeah, they were, you know, obviously. obviously a very isolated regime. Sure. But they were,

the world was starting to warm to them, right? Like the Clinton administration was actually paying Taliban official salaries. They were, we were funding, you know, opium eradication in Afghanistan. We were flirting with this trans-Afghanistan pipeline project. Right. We were, you know, we were, we, we, we, we, we flew Taliban emissaries to Houston to meet

with, the Bushies, yep, early on. So things were starting to maybe warm up, and then they pulled that. And then that was, from that point on, they were dead to us. Yes, exactly. Yes. It's interesting, right? I mean, because it's fascinating.

Mullah Omar said, like, well, you guys care about these, you know, old rocks more than you care about the people who are affected by sanctions, point taken, but he's also right. We do care about old rocks a lot. Yeah, we do. In this case, and we care about old religious buildings, too. It's right. It's just the way it is. Sorry if that's offensive, but that's just a fact of life.

Yeah. Human psychology is what it is. Yep. Do we want to talk about, well, we should. I mean, it's perfect timing, Russia and Ukraine. Yeah, we have to. So it looks like, obviously, so I'm a little bit of a loss here. I mean, you know, we are definitely reduced as Americans.

to Kremlinology, like reading between the lines of Izvestia every day, to find out what's really true, right? Yes. So Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister of Russia under Putin, called Marco Rubio and basically said, look, our position hasn't really changed, and Trump is miscategorizing our ability. Trump just wants to freeze the conflict at its current lines and just say, okay, that's it. These are the new borders. later on you can do some land swaps but for now this is it line of control just like cashmere

and that's how we're doing it um and then trump was like no no no no i want this to be that's it this is the war it's over russia said our position hasn't changed so they had this call they there had been plans for Putin to go meet trump and then trump was going to get to say look i solved my ninth war or 10th war whatever he's going to say um yeah and um and and that that's now on hold. Is Trump now pissed at Putin? Or is this just sort of like, is this a big deal? Or is this just sort of like a delay and these things happen? You know, Trump wants a deal because it's going to make him look good. And he thinks it's going to get him the Nobel Peace Prize. Of course, a deal would be good for the two sides. But Zelensky, despite being, you know, regularly

beaten about the face and head by Trump and Vance, said, we're not giving up territory. Now, we've all been saying from the beginning that that's likely the only way there's going to be peace on this issue is they're going to have to give up territory. Of course. But I think, I think Trump accepted that in this last meeting with Zelensky. And that's why the summit in Budapest has been indefinitely delayed. So what next? Well, the counterproposal was a ceasefire with an armistice line.

So the Russians presumably could de facto control what they've got on the Ukrainian side of the border now, even though that territory would not formally become Russia. That's going to have to include Crimea, of course, which is a real sticking point for the Ukrainians. But the bottom line is, I was talking to Peter Kuzn, about this the other day. Peter is the history professor at American University chairman of the nuclear studies program. He's one of the country's leading experts on Russia. And he says that the Ukrainians are losing, right? They just can't keep this up. There aren't enough people to fight. They're snatching old men off the street, literally snatching them off the street and just sending them to the front lines when they can. And the young people are fleeing when they can. And the young

people are fleeing they just can't keep this up there's going to have to be some kind of negotiated settlement and whatever the settlement happens to be at the end the Ukrainians are going to come out on the on the short side of it and Trump doesn't want to and Trump does not want to give uh these cruise missiles to uh that would so worsen the situation to give the Ukrainians tomahawk cruise missiles that it would risk it would risk involving NATO it would risk you know a tactical nuclear strike on Ukrainian positions it's a it's a very bad idea want to thank very generous donation from Kevin Cronin 70 20 bucks over on you too thank you thank you so much he said you are amazing I don't know who you are almost like the plural you I hope oh I appreciate

that question for John for Prasmataz John you said that you were going to talk more about foxes you mentioned it then mentioned something else first just wondering what species maybe hard to tell at a distance no i mean they come they're they run right in front of your cars they're trying to cross this dirt track they had huge ears which i'd never seen before and i saw rabbits with these gigantic ears that are standing right up they're like desert rabbits or the desert hair or whatever you say i think those are hairs yeah uh but yeah they're they were different from the foxes you know there there's this the cook at the resort told us not to worry about not finishing dinner because there was a fox that lived on the grounds and the fox

would just eat our scraps. Well, the fox would always poop right where I'd come out to go to my mini fridge every freaking night. And so these poor ladies had to clean up the poop. It was a desert fox like you see in Sinai or in Afghanistan. They're very small. They're gray. And they only come out at night.

Prasmataz says it sounds like a phenic fox. Oh, that's cool. I'm not a fox connoisseur, so. There it is. Let me see. Well. Yeah, that's it. That's it.

Okay. Yeah, very cool. Confirmed. All right, cool. Well, guys, here we go. American Sweetheart asks, how do we make it on small donations? Do you have any larger donors? You have to?

No, we don't. We're currently only making it on. small donations and of course what rumble is is paying us from uh you know the views and the ads so basically the you know it's it's really truly up to you guys and we're moving in the right direction but we are definitely this is not a living yet um and so but it is moving in the right direction so that's thanks to you guys and thanks everybody question um thanks everyone and that's a perfectly good time and good place to end the show. We're here tomorrow.

We will be here at Thursday, 9 a.m. As we are, Monday through Friday. Please watch us on Rumble. Please like, follow, share, subscribe to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. John, so good to have you back. Robbie West. Good to see you, Ted.

Thank you so much for producing as always. And stick around for the TMI show with me and Manila Chan coming right up if you're on Rumble. But you can pop over from YouTube too. Thank you.