DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: “It’s Trump’s Economy Now”

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Fresh off taking control of 10% of Intel, Donald Trump is expanding his takeover of the economy by going after the Fed. On the “DeProgram show with political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou,” we’ll deprogram you from the day’s news coverage and tell you the truth about the top stories.Trump Fires Federal Governor: The President fires Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over unproven mortgage fraud allegations by FHFA Director Bill Pulte. The move intensifies pressure on the Fed to lower interest rates. Cook denies wrongdoing, as the Justice Department investigates. Australia Accuses Iran of Arson Attacks: Australia accuses Iran of directing arson attacks on a Jewish business and synagogue, leading to severed diplomatic ties. Prime Minister Albanese calls these acts attempts to sow discord. Intelligence links the attacks to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, now designated a terrorist group.France’s Political Crisis and Antisemitism: Prime Minister Francois Bayrou gambles on a confidence vote for his debt-cutting plan, likely leading to his government’s collapse and potential snap elections, as opposition parties vow to vote against it. Markets tumble with the CAC 40 index down nearly 2%, reflecting fears of destabilization and higher bond yields. Rising antisemitism, including vandalism and assaults on Jewish sites, draws criticism from U.S. Ambassador Charles Kushner, who accuses Macron's government of insufficient action, escalating diplomatic tensions.DNC Covers Harris: The Democratic National Committee covers $20.5 million in outstanding bills from Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign through a handshake deal, using funds from donor solicitations. Harris's operation raised money earmarked for these debts without full disclosure to small donors, who received nearly 100 emails promoting contributions for future elections. The arrangement, legal but opaque, helps obscure the campaign's financial shortfall while bolstering DNC infrastructure, though party cash reserves dwindle compared to Republicans.Man Arrested for Flag Burnin

I'm Ted Raul. John Kyriaku is here, which means if it's Ted Raul and John Kyriaku, it means it's time for deep program 5 p.m. Eastern, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thanks for putting up with the long weekend. Thanks for putting up with the technical difficulties, which are 100% my fault. I tried to arrange it all on the road today from a Burger King in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Oh, not Groves. I clicked the wrong thing. Just north of business. Yeah, those are your stomping grounds. Did you at least go to the outlet mall? I stayed directly across the street at a something sweet, a sweets plus or something like that, right across the street from the factory outlet.

I was tempted to pop over to see if Banana Republic had any black underwear, which are my favorite. But I just was too tired and I decided to go for a swim instead. Thank you. It's good to be back. All right, John, we've got lots to talk about. But I guess right before, I know that you're very excited about the news that Travis Kelsey finally is putting a ring on Taylor Swift and making her an honest woman. You know what, Ted, when I saw it in the Washington Post, I read the article and I was compelled to comment.

I said, I'm a 61-year-old straight white man. And this article makes me very happy. Oh, it does? I just for reasons I can't even articulate I like them both oh good I saw her once I was in a restaurant in West Hollywood years ago 2015 or 2016 she was having dinner with her sorry she was having lunch with her parents who were divorced and you would never have known it and with what looked like a set of grandparents the people treated her so respectfully nobody interrupted her nobody you know asked for an autograph or a picture and they had a nice time together. It was kind of nice. Yeah, I liked her. I cannot name a single one of her songs. Not a single one. Not to save my life. Not to save the world, not to bring peace to Ukraine, not to save the Gazans. Can't name a single one of her songs. I don't think I could name a single lyric. Nor can I. That says something about the state of how incredibly atomized the music and cultural scenes are for sure.

You know, my favorite celebrity couple of that type was Tom Green when he was married to Drew Barrymore. I saw them at Odeon in Lower Manhattan, and they were so cute. I really wanted them to work out. They were like a downscale version of Arthur Miller marrying Marilyn Monroe. But, you know, it was not meant to be. That's a sad whole story.

We could do a whole show on that. Well, I could do a whole show on that. You would leave. Okay, so also, I wanted to get your, get your, I want to know how seriously you take Israel's explanation for why they killed those 20 people at the hospital with a double tap strike, including five journalists. Their excuse is that they were attacking a, a vicious, cruel Hamas camera. Oh, my God. At least it wasn't an iPod. 20 people.

They killed 20 people, including five journalists, one of whom was with the Associated Press. And they know that they can do this because nobody's going to ever complain. The White House isn't going to tell them to stop. The United Nations might say something. They just ignore the United Nations. So they can do anything they want, murder anybody they want, kill as many journalists or children or elderly or women or civilians or whatever. They don't care. Nobody's going to stop them.

it makes me sick to my stomach the thing is john you know israel the food's not really that good the democracy is definitely not that good the politics are very very bad but you know i could always count on the Israelis to be good at lying and it seems like i was telling robbie before we came on they're not even trying anymore i mean we were going after a camera i mean a camera with a double tap strike right a double tap A camera. I mean, maybe you could have just sent a guy with a screwdriver. I know, I know a guy.

Yeah. My stupor could take care of that. I tip him every, every, every, every Christmas. It's fine. Oh, my God. Just so lame. All right. So what do we want to talk?

I guess we should really, I am very interested in this Lisa Cook situation. I am too. The Federal Reserve Bank has a board of composed of 12 members of whom, seven are regional governors, one of whom is Lisa Cook appointed by Joe Biden. Donald Trump has had a hard-on for the Fed not cutting interest rates quickly enough. I happen to, by the way, be sympathetic to the president on this point. I do think that interest rate, the Fed is generally too slow to cut interest, to cut trade. Very, very conservative. And it's like, and they tend to allow unemployment to get out of control. They're more worried about

inflation and unemployment, which in my view is the wrong priority. I think the president is right about wanting lower interest rates, not just because it would juice the economy, but because it really would be the right balance. But that said, he doesn't really have the ability to fire Lisa Cook as he's just done without cause. But the problem is that what constitutes cause is really nebulous. It's never been defined in the law. Right. And so the question is, is it cause like just cause for firing someone who works at Wendy's, is it just cause, sort of like what you wouldn't, you John Kariaku and Ted Raul would say is justice cause? No one knows. And the accusation here is, and this is rich coming from Donald Trump, that she committed mortgage fraud by basically

saying that she had two or maybe three primary residents all at the same time in order to get maybe shave an eighth or a quarter of a point off of her mortgage. It's not proven. That's just an allegation. And she denies it outright. She does, and she's suing now to try to keep her job. She hired Abby Lull, who interestingly enough, in addition to being an A-list criminal defense attorney, is Jared Kushner's attorney. That's interesting. And she's, and the thing is about it is that, look, here's the thing. I mean, this is literally you're talking about the underpinnings. We could argue about whether this should be true, but the fact is that the Federal Reserve Bank is the underpinning of the economy.

I mean, they control the money supply. They control short and medium and long-term interest rates. They control the reserve bank status of the U.S. dollar around the world. You know, I mean, if they are viewed as tainted in any way, you know, that could have dramatic implications on global financial markets. I mean, this could be the most dangerous thing Donald Trump can do. it could be and let's look at some of the details too these these appointments to the fed board are 14 year terms okay and they're staggered so they're supposed to be apolitical she is the first black woman who has ever been named to the fed board and her credentials that's why she's got to be

fired right her credentials are very impressive because white guys have never fucked up the right no no and or never did anything unethical um she got she got she got a bachelor's degree in economics from Spellman then she went to it was either cambridge or oxford i think it was oxford on a marshal scholarship then came back and got a phd at uh you kelp berkeley she taught first at michigan state and then at harvard joined the council of economic advisors in the obama administration back to harvard and then biden appointed her to the fed um she You're right about this, about the law. The law says a Fed governor can be fired for cause,

but cause has never been, has never been delineated in the law. But there's case law. There's case law, but the case law's from the 1930s. And it didn't involve the Fed. It involved a similarly appointed commission, federal commission. So she just says, outright you know he says that she she claimed two residences in the same year one in

Atlanta one in I think Manhattan and she just says no I didn't she didn't say well wait a minute now let me explain you know there was this situation she didn't say any of that she said no didn't do it didn't do it and he can't fire me so today she went to work like a normal day and and is challenging him to push forward she's speaking through Abby Loll now, which is really the wise thing to do. And we'll just see how it, how it plays out. This is all about him wanting the Fed to cut interest rates. You remember, he took four of the Fed building. I don't know when the last time you were in Washington was, Ted, if it was in the last, yeah, it was in the last year. We went out to Hamilton. Yeah.

But not to play, the bar, Hamill. So, uh, are more important. Yes. And excellent sushi. You'd never know it. It's not. Anyway, so if you've been past the Fed, it's down to the bare concrete facade, or it has been. They're rebuilding it literally from scratch. They're just keeping the facade. So Donald Trump, over the last couple of months, was making noise about firing Jerome Powell, which you also cannot do unless it's for cause. and so Trump

Although it's odd because the president appoints the members of the Fed So it's strange that you can hire but you can't fire Can't fire and they do that to try to make it So that they're not subject to political pressure To raise their lower interest rates Right so it's kind of like the Supreme Court Kind of like the Supreme Court, yes So anyway Trump took a tour

of the partially rebuilt Fed building with the idea being I'm going to criticize the way this building is being rebuilt I'm going to say that money's being wasted I'm going to say that it's Powell's fault so I can fire him and they gave him the tour

and it's like actually this looks pretty good and so he backed off well not to mention also Powell called him out Like he said, oh, it costs more. And Powell's like, no, you're looking at the stuff that was done years ago. And you're adding that to what we're doing now. Those numbers are apples and oranges.

Trump didn't admit it. Of course, he never admits being wrong. But he knew he was wrong. He was sent out there with the wrong information, which is why Jerome Powell survives. So this is obviously, it makes less of a splash to get. rid of her one member than it does to get rid of the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, which could have, seriously, could have really spooked some markets globally. This is a, I don't know, I think it's super interesting.

I mean, you know, there's the whole, the Fed is a controversial institution, you know, and it's not like it's in the Constitution. One of the listeners, you know, said, oh, you know, is this in the Constitution? Like, no, you know, the Federal Reserve came into being. well after the create, yeah, 1913 under Woodrow Wilson. That's right. Under Wilson, that's right. And it was just basically meant to, and it became, that kind of became like a standard thing. But for a long time, I mean, cities and states and private banks issued their own currency and, you know, kind of like. You're very collectible now. It kind of, yeah, that's true.

I like the fractional currency. It kind of like worked out, right? It's like, it kind of worked out except when there was a panic and everyone went crazy and printed tons of money. But yeah, this is exactly what I was going to say. USC Arrow 21 says, Trump being upset about a mortgage fraud is like OJ being upset about murder. Happy birthday, have a beer on me. Thank you. I will. Much appreciated.

And thanks for the generous happy birthday contribution. Yeah, no, I mean, that's right. Donald Trump just got rid of his $450 million, you know, dunning. but we know he committed mortgage fraud, well, or lending fraud anyway. Lending fraud, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's the same exact thing. He lied about, he lied about, he signed loan applications that were full of lies,

which, by the way, as a former banker, I will say, is routine. Sure it is. A lot of people do it. And this is, this is Trump's thing right now. He's also accused Adam Schiff of mortgage fraud and Letitia James of mortgage fraud. So we'll see if he gets any mileage out of it. Yeah, that's just, I mean, it's just hilarious. I mean, it's like, I know, I know I am, but what are you?

Right? It's that it's just hilarious. Wow. A quarter of a percent in one day, that is huge. That is a big deal. Yeah. So I guess the question now is, yeah, that's right. What nonsense says, $4.50 million plus the compound interest, right?

Like every day, it was something insane, like $12,000 or something. I mean, I can't even imagine. But, well, I can't imagine because I have a judgment like that piling up against me and get over at the L.A. Times. Come and get me, fuckers. I'm right here. But anyway. Oh, my God.

So let's, okay, so do we want to talk about, and do we have anything more to say about that? I mean, I'm, I mean, I think what, I mean, she's going to sue. Yeah. This is a Mexican standoff, right? I mean, yes. Is she currently a Fed governor in your opinion? Yes. In my opinion, yes. There's been no court to order her out for cause. There's been no finding that she's committed any crime or violated any regulation. And the president just can't fire people. I can't even talk. Cannot fire people arbitrarily from the Fed. I mean, also, I kind of tell you, I mean, I know this is like the most obvious thing in the world, but I'm kind of good at that sometimes.

I mean, this is just a presidency, a presidency by executive order. That's all it is. I mean, does he ever sign bills anymore? No. Does he ever propose bills? Why don't we just, why don't we send Congress home? And you know, what's funny to me about that, Ted, is Republicans used to lose their minds when Barack Obama would sign an executive order.

I remember night after night, after night, Fox News, just screaming about all these executive orders. Well, Trump has dwarfed the number of executive orders that Obama ever signed. And listen, I hate Barack Obama more than anybody else I've ever encountered in life. So this is not a defense of Barack Obama. You have your reasons. I have my personal reasons. It's right. So it's not a defense of Barack Obama. It's an observation that Congress is impotent and Donald Trump rules by decree, which is just, just the way he likes it. It's just, it's just bizarre.

And I guess no end in sight, right? That's all, I mean, this must have been basically, I have to admit, I didn't read Project 2025. I'm beginning to wish I had. I probably should. I remember thinking it was a Democratic fever dream. And they were completely paranoid. Because after all, they were so full of shit about so much,

like Russia Gate, who could listen to anything they had to say. It all turned out a lot, but this turned out. to be true. That's the problem. They're totally the voice of pride. Well, we want to talk about Australia? Yeah, let's talk about Australia. Big moves down there. Yeah, so the, I mean, so I don't even understand. The Aussies are accusing Iran of basically directing arson attacks against a Jewish, against a synagogue and a Jewish business. The Aussies say they're so sure that they are, that they are, they recalled their ambassador from Australia, from Tehran, and they are expelling the Iranian ambassador from, what is it, Canberra?

Their capital. Yeah, Canberra. And so Prime Minister Albanese is saying that basically this is an attempt to disrupt Australian society, and they are blaming the Revolutionary Guards part of the Iranian government, which are Australia and the U.S. designated terrorist organization. That's a little rich, but what do you make of all this? Is this paranoia or do you think there's anything here? It's not paranoia.

My friend is going to be very angry with me for saying this because she happens to be Iranian, but the Iranians do stuff like this. And the problem is, and I actually answered this on a Q&A the other day on my other podcast, somebody asked me, is the Iranian intelligence service any good? And I said, no, it's not. They do stupid, illegal shit, and they get caught all the time.

You look about it. Exactly. Well, that's the Arabic name for it. But yeah, it's the same thing. The Ministry of Intelligence and Security, M.O.I.S. They're just bad at it. And they'll get these orders to go, you know, go do something and blame the Jews. or go kill this group of Americans or whatever,

and they do it, and then they get caught all the time. I heard today an Iranian official ministry spokesperson saying, well, you know, anti-Semitism, that's a Western thing. We don't do that in Iran. We don't know what you're talking about. They all say that. Yeah. And listen, it's true that in Iran there are very healthy, robust Christian communities, Jewish communities, synagogues that have been practicing, you know, in the same place every week for the last 300 years.

That's all true. We're not talking about Iranian Jews and Iranian Christians, right? We're talking about Iranian intelligence activities in Western countries. For example, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence Research, a year, let's say a year and a half, maybe two years ago, hired a couple of Czech organized crime morons to go to Canada and to Brooklyn and to shoot a couple of Iranian journalists, right? an Iranian American, an Iranian Canadian, or two, I don't remember the details anymore. But these idiots got caught. And as soon as they got caught, they said, oh, yeah, we don't have any beef with these people.

The Iranians hired us to do it. And here's the name of the guy that hired us. And here's the money that they gave us. They confessed everything. And they've been prosecuted. I got such incredible pushback from my Iranian friends saying, oh, you're falling right into the U.S. plot, the U.S. trap to convince you that the Iranians are bad? No, no. As Dana Albrecht just pointed out, all governments do this kind of stupid criminal stuff. All of them.

And we can't just stand here and say, oh, the U.S. government had a torture program and a private prison, secret prison program and rendition program. Like nobody else's government's ever done anything. Well, the Iranian government does the same kind of things. and they get caught. And that's what they is. How do you think they got caught? Terrible tradecraft, number one. It used to be an ongoing joke at the CIA.

They all use their own cell phones like, I'm going to go carry out the terrorist plot tomorrow at 12 o'clock. It's like, what are you doing, you idiot? And then NSA calls and says, listen, we need to warn such and such a country. So anyway, they're just really, really bad. at their trade craft people ask me all the time all the time i get the question what are the best intelligence services in the middle east you say well of course the mosad for all intents of

itself usually the jordanians are incredible the egyptians are incredible right we could take lessons from those services the iranians are not a part of that conversation they're awful and it's not like they have close enough relations with the Russians or the Chinese that those services would train them. They just wing it. So yeah, when I saw this report in the Times last night, I thought to myself, yeah, sure, I can see it. It passes the smell test. Oh, yeah, sure. All right, let's talk about France. So the government there is really is teetering on the verge of collapse. So Prime Minister Francois Bayru

has decided to call for a confidence vote on September 8th, just in a couple of weeks. Very dangerous. According to all the analysts, there's roughly a 70% chance that his government will fall apart. Basically, this all comes down to a new budget for 2026 that has what the French love

more than anything else. lots of budget cuts to social programs. They are, as you can, you know, this is a place where if, I remember one time they tried to increase college tuition by $200 a year and like a city burned. So, you know, I don't know what they're thinking when they try this, but they always do. And so anyway, the left is going absolutely crazy. The socialist leader, although the socialist party is a fragile, tiny, you know, sliver of its former self. Rivier-Faure said it's completely unthinkable to support the existing government.

The Greens, the Communists, and La France Insomis, which is like France Unbound, is Jean-Luc Melanchon, which is basically like Bernie Sanders on acid, they're furious, and there's no way they're going to go along. The far right, which, you know, they have 123 seats in the parliament. This is Le Pen's party. and she's feeling pretty spicy ever since the court said that she can't run for president, even though she would be most likely to win the presidency at this point. She and Giorda, her protege, say it's the end that they will not save them at all.

There's a new block everything movement. Got to love that. Block on two. Anyway, basically you can see that things, there's going to be major protests, it may be riots. Stock markets down between one and a half and two point, two percentage points today. Bonds are down. Basically, everyone can sort of see the crisis coming. John, what did he call for a confidence vote? I mean, I guess that's sort of the purpose. When you're on the ropes, it's kind of like, I need, you know, either get rid of me or save me, right? That's what this is for.

Yes, seriously. I think he did. did it? And you're more of an expert than I am, Ted, but I think he did it because he's unable to govern otherwise. Francis had this long line now of very weak, in some cases, coalition governments. They don't have operating major major legislations. They can't get major legislation passed. He's stuck. And this might be an opportunity to blame others for his inability to govern. I was going to ask you, if you don't mind, what you think the real story is behind this. I mean, it's far deeper than what they're telling the media. Why is it that France is so divided right now that it just can't put together a government that can function?

Well, it's a perfect storm, in my opinion, John. So it kind of in the same way, if you think of one of the analogies of the reason that the Democrats are in trouble, one of the major reasons is that they've sidelined their progressive base. I mean, 70 or 60% of their voters are progressives. And basically, they're giving them the cold shoulder except to say, send us money and vote for us. But fuck you, we won't do anything for you and we'll just insult you. And you can't have your candidate ever win, even if they get the most votes, aka Bernie, not once but twice. Well, that's what, that's what Macron is doing.

Macron ran as a man without a party. He was his own party. He created basically the Macron party. for himself. And, you know, that's the weird thing. Like in the post-war era, there used to be like the sort of reliable, the French Communist Party, the French Socialist Party, the rally for the Republic, which was the Gaulist party. But they were kind of like, they basically, you could sort of predict what things were going to be. Now every election has a whole new set of brand newfangled parties. Yes. And basically Macron, it's like,

let's say moi. He's basically, it's Macronism, but what does it mean? And basically it's corporatist, it's dynamic, but it's corporatist and it's a dead end. So it's politics without ideology, which is driving the French left, middle and center and right, insane. Because French politics has always been about ideology. I mean, France invented Western ideology. The left and the right is from the French parliament during the revolution. that's where they sat right so this whole thing has been toxic from the very beginning I always knew it would end in tears but I didn't know how and now we're seeing it and so you know I mean Macron's coming up to the end of his presidency he's going to be termed out

and anyway he could never win re-election anyway the person who's most likely to replace him out of rage would have been Le Pen and but she the courts have said she's not allowed to run again which is making the right absolutely fucking insane And may cause just enough French voters to rally around the right, not necessarily around the right-wing candidate, but around the right-wing party. It's called, what, the National Front or something like that? Yeah, it used to be the National Front.

Now it's the rally for the Republic. That's right, rally for the Republic. That I could see them actually being able to govern. Maybe. Well, they can govern her. It just won't be her, but it'll be her protege. It's kind of like an Iron Rand kind of vibe with him. Right.

You know what I mean? Right. And so, but I don't know if anything's going on like that. But she's probably too smart for that. But I got to say, so what really, in the last election, you know, Macron stole the election from the left. All the leftist parties got together and formed something called the new popular front, hearkening back to 1936 and the Leon Blonde.

government, which was the first Jewish, first socialist president of France. And basically, let's get together. They won, okay? So they won the parliamentary election, but basically Macron refused to allow them to form a government and invited Byru, who's this sort of like, who the fuck are you from like the center, well, the center right, right, I think as well how I would put it, the right center right, to come in and form a government. well basically he's as if Hillary Clinton had become president and so everyone's just pissed off the left the right I mean basically the far left is the French hat France has polarized politics like we do the far left is frozen out the far right is frozen out by the courts everyone's been cheated yeah the center doesn't have anything to offer except austerity yeah gee I wonder why people are pissed that's right oh my God

Yeah, France is in trouble. They are. It really is. And it's like everyone could see it coming. Also, go ahead. I'm sorry to interrupt you. Ted, do ethnic Arabs who have become French citizens vote? And if so, do they vote as a block?

And for whom? They do vote, not as a block. Not as a block. No, they do not. Ethnic voting isn't really a thing in France. You know, it's sort of like the Latino vote here. it can go anyway. Yeah, right.

And there's a lot of ethnic Arabs. But the thing is, there's also a lot of second, third, fourth generation illegal immigrants because they don't have birthright citizenship. So, you know, if you came over here from like West Africa, sorry, over here, to France, I'm already out of here. It's like if that, if they, you know, like three, you know, like if they came over 30, 60 years ago, you might, you know, your parents might have lived and died illegal. And you're born, you live and die illegal.

Your kids, same thing. It's really, the only thing worse than birthright citizenship is no birthright citizenship. So also in France, the French government is at odds with U.S. ambassador Charles Kushner. Oh, boy, are they? Over the accusation. He stepped in it, though. He told the French, you could. guys aren't doing enough about anti-semitism. And then the French drag got some law where basically

it's basically like Les Majeste, you're insulting the glory of the French state. You can't accuse us of that. You're actually breaking French law. He is. He is, in addition to breaking diplomatic protocol, you may not comment on an internal political issue. Domestic issues. Yeah. It's, it's, um, it's bad form. Oh, yeah. It's like prohibited in international diplomacy. It's interfering in the internal affairs of a foreign country is what it's called. And the French, again, I think would argue, having invented not just Western ideology, they invented modern diplomacy as we know it, too.

So they take it very seriously. Yeah, they do. You can't do that. If they wanted to, and they don't want to pick a fight with Trump right now, they have too much on their plate. But if they wanted to, they could expel him. What nonsense says. Cushner breaking laws. The shock.

So great. It is right. Maybe Charles Cushner will hire a prostitute for them to try to black people. Because that's what he did. He hired a prostitute to try to blackmail his ex-brother-in-law and he got caught. Well, they have very cute prostitutes in France. So when I was 10, my mom and I were very poor. poor my mom took me to france uh we stayed in paris my mom hadn't made any hotel reservations so we end

up in this hotel in pigal and um so we soon like discovered that ladies of the night frequented this hotel free and my mom was completely outraged and oh and she freaked out and she was kind of like can't you get them to leave to the front desk and it was like um madame that's the whole business here. I later told my mom. I bet it was, I bet honestly, the ladies of the night are some of the cleanest people, really. They do, they do like to keep a clean house, but it was just so great. All right. Well, so funny. Okay. Let's see. What do we got to go? Oh, the DNC. I love this story. So the Democratic National Committee, My favorite Bette Noir, I hate them so much.

Anyway, they apparently made a secret handshake deal with Kamala Harris. They said, oh, if you have any bill, any debts at the end of your campaign, don't worry, we will pick up the tab. So they picked up over $20 million in outstanding bills. Now, here's the thing. That's fine. But they lied to their donors. They told the small donors, hey, send in donations so we can fight Donald Trump.

Fight the GOP fascist machine. Send your donation. So people who were sending in like my mom would have been doing if she were still alive, sending in 20, 50,000 bucks. All that money wasn't going to fight Donald Trump. It was actually going to pay off Kamala's debts. And so basically, just to make her, or look good. And meanwhile, at the same time, that money that they were giving to Kamala,

they don't really have because they're broke compared to the republic because they've got no money. So they're not set at all for 2026, much less 2028. So, I mean, basically their corruption is helping to cost them elections. Did you see the reports from Friday? And that's a good question. What nonsense? How did you blow a billion dollars in a window of time, you know, this long? Um, did you read, did you see the, uh, the story from Friday that, uh, that democratic registrations are down 20% in the last six years, 20% including in all seven battleground states. And the, the, the, it was either the times or the journal said on Saturday that the Democrats just can't win. If you look at the electoral college and the number of, people that are running away from the Democratic Party, the Democrats cannot win in 2008. They're just hamridging money and members and supporters, and they have no idea what to do about it. That is, I mean, it's catastrophic. It is. Well, I guess I should ask

producer, Robbie, do we have it, if you have an ad, if we have an ad in the Rumble studio, let me, let me know, and I'll read that. In the meantime, time. Let me play a very quick ad for a gaming platform and then we'll be right back. We'll just get right to that. Here we go. Ten seconds.

Putin bot gaming there. Hey, Robbie. I like it. There's Robbie. All right, Rob, there goes Robbie. Okay, so we have some questions over on the Rumble feed, which Robbie's been running here. Oh, here's the ad.

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Real videos, real voices, pardon me, deserve a real home. Okay, so some questions over on the, that we should get to over the Rumble Feet. P. Doggy, Dog 92, wants to know, would they let Candace Owen run against him? I guess that would be Bayru. Do C.I. and then deprogram show fan. Do CIA guys ever move between the CIA and the State Department? Well, I like that question.

That's a good question. Legitimately? Yeah, occasionally. Illegitimately, of course, constantly, because most people are going to have State Department cover and they're going to work out of U.S. embassies. I made a legitimate transfer to the State Department. It did it twice.

I was the economic officer at the American Embassy in Manamba Bahrain for two years, so I was transferred over to the State Department, was a State Department officer, had nothing to do with the CIA for those two years. And then later on, I was asked to fill in for six months as the Iraq desk officer and proud to say that I was a co-author of United Nations Security Council Resolution 986. But yeah, that happens with frequency. Most of the time, it's fake. But the thing is that there's an internal rule at the CIA

that in order to be promoted to the senior intelligence service, you have to do a rotation into a policy organization like state, NSC, or DOD, and you have to do a rotation in one of the other, one of the CIA's other directorates. And so everybody gets those two assignments done, and they're eligible for a promotion. There's a question in the chat. For me, are you familiar with the GUD?

Some former members are now in the French government. If that's true, that's absolutely horrid. So the GUD is a far-right student organization going back to the 1960s. They have ties to soccer hooliganism, neo-Nazis. They're basically just like the worst possible people. It stands for a group, I guess a union, union defensive group would be the best way to translate it. Group Union defense, GUD.

And it's basically goes back to the 60s. And they kind of got relaunched about three, four years ago at sort of some of the elite schools like the Ecole Normale. And they have a Greek connection. They're really into Golden Dawn and people like that. Oh, yeah, that's bad. And so they have like slogans like Europe, youth revolution. And anyway, these are like basically anti-communist, neo-fascist, you know, highly nationalistic in a very sort of 1940, 1939 kind of way.

You know, it's beyond peytonist, I would say. You know, these are really the scum of the scum. Right. And it's like, frankly, I think it should be disqualifying for, any member to become a member of government at all, unless, I mean, I guess maybe unless you did a full-fledged public renouncement, you know, where you're just like, I'm not, you know, I hate them now and here's why. I think everyone's, I think everyone's redeemable. But like, you can't just be a member of that and then migrate into government like nothing has happened, I would say.

you know in greece they have they had this party called golden don chrisiavji it's called and um it started off just as an anti-immigrant party and not just anti-immigrant but but like you know advocating killing the immigrants that kind of thing and it morphed into a neo-nazi party to the point where they even adopted a stylized swastika on their flat and the greek government you know, being very sensitive to right-wing extremism, having lived under Nazi occupation for four years, where they literally wiped out the Jewish population. And then seven years, they call it the seven-year nightmare, is what it translates into. That was the military dictatorship. It was a right-wing dictatorship supported by the United States and the UK.

So they're very sensitive. Americans don't know about that, like, Greece and Portugal had like military dictatorships. Roodle dictatorships. And Brazil. Fairly recently. Yeah, fairly recently. Brazil, Spain.

So what they did in the 50s, they passed this law criminalizing hate speech, right? Well, what more, what bigger hater is there than a Nazi, you know, that wiped out half the population of the country and carried out these, these mass murders were, for example, if a bridge was blown up by the rebels during the Second World War, they would just, the Nazis would go to the nearest village and just kill everybody, everybody in the village. And so Greece commemorates these massacres each year. So anyway, they had this law criminalizing hate speech. So Golden Dawn elects six members to the parliament. The spokesman is particularly odious and hate-filled, takes a swing at one of the socialist MPs on the floor, the government shuts the party down, arrests all of its elected members,

tries them for hate speech, and sentences them to 20 years in prison. You get less time for murder in Greece than these guys got for being neo-Nazis. And here we are. And here we are. Eight, nine, ten years later, they're all still in prison. So Golden Dawn no longer exists. There's a new nascent, right-wing party, extreme right-wing party, that sort of tries to cover itself by calling itself a fundamentalist Orthodox party. And then the church is like, we want nothing to do with these people. We don't know you at all.

That's right. I have rules. Wow. We have a question from us. Thank you for. the generous $20 donation there, Sodin 23-24. Hey, John and Ted, do you think Maduro is on his last leg

with so many U.S. Navy ships at Venezuela's doorsteps? And do you think Guyana, with its newfound oil, will be a staging area? Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. I like that second part. That's a very sophisticated question.

It is. You want to take a first stab at it? I have some thoughts, but go ready. Well, I mean, first of all, I'll just say in terms of the first part, no, I don't think. One thing is, by the way, Dux-Wy says, I think Venezuela is geopolitically irrelevant, though Maduro will shake it off. I agree with that.

I agree with that. Except it's still, you know, I mean, the biggest energy producer in the northern hemisphere. And you know who buys all their oil. We always forget about that. It's a member of OPEC. You know who buys all their oil. We do. Yes, yes, we do.

That's why we have specialized refineries in Texas because it's state Venezuelan oil. Venezuela oil is so dirty. It has such a high sulfur content that you have to have a specialized refinery to clean the sulfur out of it. And those refineries until recently were only in Texas. Now the Chinese have built one in the Caribbean, but we buy all that oil. So Gianna's got, now, John, you can flesh this out for me. But Giannas had a longstanding border dispute with Venezuela. And that's heated up in the last year or two.

And the oil is on the border. Well, that's why it's really important, right? Yeah. So, you know, you could easily, this would be like a time-honored American, I hate to say, your former employer's kind of shindig, which is to say, hey, you know, hey, Guyanese, we'll support you against your Venezuelan enemies, but we might need a port.

Or we might need it. We might need some favors. And the Guineas are... Like that? It's kind of like the Godfather. This day may never come. That's right. Like that.

The Guineas are solidly pro-American. Maduro is a thorn in Trump's side or in Bidens or Obamas or Bushes or whomever. Same difference. What gives me pause, though, is I think that Donald Trump really, believes that he has a chance at the Nobel Peace Prize. And sending ships a couple of months ago in the direction of Venezuela is one thing. Actually attacking Venezuela and overthrowing the government is another thing. But I think that what Duxweye is alluding to, and what you're saying is the more likely scenario. And that is that we sent ships, maybe even troops, to

Guyana. We help them secure the border. They're sitting on this ocean of oil that they only discovered in the last five or six years. And then we help them, you know, develop their economy. We buy their oil. We put the stranglehold even tighter on Venezuela and just hope that somebody puts a bullet in Maduro's head. Yeah. Because it'll be like, hey, Gianna, we think you're really, really cute right now. Very cute. Adorable. Well, as, as, as, as, Mania says, Venezuela is actually known for its beautiful women. They wouldn't miss universe all the time. Yeah, I had an editor friend who was a complete dog, and he used to go, like, whenever his wife

was out of town, he'd go to Venezuela for like two weeks to go whoring. And he was like, you should come with me, Dad. They're like the best. He's like, you almost never get an STI. Oh, no. So tempting. So tempting. He was El Puerco.

So, anyway, okay, so we have a question over from the Rumble Feed from D-Program show Fan. Do you all see Trump's executive order to ban burning the flag? Yes, yes, we did. In fact, we came prepared to talk about it, John. Oh, yes, we did. So the Supreme Court said in 1989, you could burn the flag. It's constitutionally protected free speech. period. Done. Done. In fact, that was, embarrassingly, one of George H.W. Bush's major campaign

issues against Michael Dukakis in 1988. That and the Pledge of Allegiance, the two burning issues of the era, right? Pun intended. Well, because, you know, I mean, by the way, having been to more than my fair share of left-leaning political rallies and demonstrations, I've never seen an American flag burned. Never. Ever. I mean, I'm not saying it's never happened. We know it's happened.

But it's not like, there's an epidemic. It's not like it's contributing to haze over Los Angeles. I mean, so basically Trump passed this thing. Everyone who does this will get one year in jail. I mean, the president of the United States

cannot single-handedly impose any kind of criminal sentence, right? No. no Congress has to pass a law and they can't because the Constitution has said I mean the Supreme Court has said they can't now that said federal authorities have already arrested someone for this so a 20 year old combat vet set a flag on fire in Lafayette Square right across the street from the White House which is where all the demonstrations take place to protest this obviously to test it he said that he did

it because to protest in a legal fascist president what's going to to happen to him. I mean, he's going to walk, right? I mean, the Republicans say that they can justify this by saying it goes towards inciting violence, and that's against the law. So you can sort of retrofit this executive order. I don't see how that works. No, no. But this is Vintage Trump. This is what he does. He knows that he can't do it. He does it anyway. And it's going to get hung up in the courts for God knows how long. And then in the meantime, he makes a couple of political points. You know, he scores a couple of political points. Speaking of which, let's talk about Kilmar-Albraio Garcia. Oh, this poor guy again. Yeah. So the guy turned,

so he's ordered released. He's released for a couple of days, gets to go home, see his family. He's got an electronic ankle bracelet attached. So certainly everybody, so the government knows where he is. As part of the release, he agrees to go for a mandatory check-in with ICE. We all know where this is going. ICE tells him either consent to be deported to Costa Rica after you plead guilty and serve time here in prison for human trafficking, then we'll send you to Costa Rica.

The Costa Ricans promised not to hurt you. Why would they hurt him anyway? They don't have anything against him. And Costa Rica, unlike El Salvador, doesn't have a fascist in charge. But either that or we'll send you to Uganda. He says, no, thanks. I have a wife and kids here in the United States. So they say, fine.

Off to Uganda. He goes to his ice check-in. They're currently threatening to send him to Uganda. A judge has put it temporarily on hold until Friday. Is he going to be sent to Uganda? Oh, he very well could be. Just like the seven undocumented aliens we have in custody in Djibouti, who have zero ties to South Sudan and are going to be expelled to South Sudan, literally the poorest and worst place on Earth. So, yeah, part of the policy is to encourage what the White House is calling self-deportations, right?

Just give up, get on a plane, and go back to wherever it was you came from. And if you don't do that, you'll be arrested. And we won't deport you to where you came from. We're going to make it particularly horrible. And we'll deport you to a place where you've never been, where you have no ties, where you don't speak the language. I love the New York Times. They literally helpfully said, Uganda, where Spanish is not widely spoken.

Really? Thank you, New York Times. paper of record I never would have known that I would assume it's spoken by every superintendent I've ever had here in New York I bet I bet

but like no so yeah that's the thing I mean it's legal for them to do this it should be illegal Congress should say you can't deport someone to a country to which they have no connection that's right I mean that's extraordinary rendition That's exactly what it is. That's not deportation.

Yes. That's exactly what it is. It's extraordinary rendition. Zero ties to these countries. No rights. No money, no passport, no nothing. So even if you want... I mean, you're basically just throwing people away.

I mean, you might as well just kill him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with Dina. It's pretty nice. It feels like we're living evil idiocracy. Yeah. Totally true.

Crazy. Here we have a question for you, John, from the Rumble Feed. John, this is, Oi-Midi, how you doing? John, do you think the CIA was involved in removing Gough Whitlam in the 1970s? I do. I do. I do want to tell us about this story. Oh, sure.

I will admit that when I was at the agency, I didn't ever look it up. I didn't have access to whatever files may or may not have existed. It's just my own gut. You know, the Australians were getting a little too independent for the CIA's liking in the 1970s. And the CIA was always far more comfortable with conservative politicians in Australia than with progressive ones. And so, you know, when it looked like there was going to be a problem, in my view, the CIA was a nice way to say it, Ted. They overthrew the Australian government and installed their preferred candidate. That's really what it came down to.

They decided to coo them out. Yeah, they pretty much did. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. I mean, it's actually kind of crazy how little blowback there's been for that kind of activity when you really think about it. Because it's so extreme. Yeah, it is. It's nuts.

Let's see here. Okay. Okay, so it's, oh yeah, what nonsense. It's where Mandani was born. Hakeem Jeffries mocked him about running to Africa while he was working for the people. What a tool. I hate Hakeem Jeffries.

I do too, but I will say I'm a little bit, John, aren't you a little bit disappointed that Zoran Mamdani was not able to bench press 135? I didn't see that. I mean, I can. I can too. I mean, and I don't consider myself a stud. You've seen me.

I'm not. Nor am I, but I can do $1.35. Yeah, really no problem at all. It's like, what's up with that guy? I don't understand. And also, he missed a great joke opportunity when that happened, right? He should have said, well, Mayor Adams had a lot of practice picking up all the bribe money. Oh, yeah, that would have been great.

that would have been great he did miss all right here we go oh this i like this question a lot um do we think the CIA was involved in destabilizing de gall de Gaul was a pain in the ass for this he thought so yeah yeah he was a pain in the ass to the u.s right yeah he threw nato out of paris yes he did and they didn't rejoin i mean they the political uh aspect remained unchanged but they didn't rejoin the military part of the alliance until 1979. Yeah. It looked like they were gone, Daddy, Gun. Yeah. I don't know. What do you think about that?

I mean, I always thought maybe, but I thought DeGal did such a good job of destabilizing himself. Himself. Maybe they didn't need. I bet the CIA might have just sat back and just eating popcorn and watched. Let him just destroy himself. Yeah. I mean, he was so out of touch

by the late, by the mid-1960s. And when he returned to power, and, you know, he was just literally the worst possible person to be the president of France by May. When there was the uprising at the Sorbonne in May, 1968, he was, and he was the perfect foil for the students and for the unions. They all hated him. And he just, you know, there's a great story I read, though,

about how when this was all going on, I think many Americans don't really know just how close to communist revolution France was in June major. Yeah. And so, I mean, the whole country was on strike. There were barricades in the streets of Paris. The students were basically declaring a commune like it was 1870 all over again. And so at one point, I think was it Adnauer, who was the prime minister of Germany,

at the West Germany at the time? At one point, at one point, DeGal was on the roof of some government ministry, watching a crowd of students make their way at night through the streets. And he thought they were going to come towards Elisei Palace. And he was on the phone with Adnauer basically arranging to go into exile. And the students sort of hesitated and went and made a turn instead of coming toward the Elizier. And he said, ah, it's okay, they're not coming. And that turned out to be the pivotal moment.

Like if the students had just gone straight, they would have. overthrown the government of France. Wow. According to DeGal himself. Incredible. I mean, he was hanging by just, I mean, can you imagine the repercussions if France had gone communist in 1968? And it would have. Incredible. So, let's see. Do we, let's see, do we, let's see, do we, I guess we're probably at the end of our

Yeah. We go. We should just say, I do want to say this. Mamdani has the typical Indian skinny fat physique. I love skinny fat. I first heard that in that show, Weeds. Yeah. Skinny fat.

I never heard it. You know exactly. I love any new term that as soon as you hear it the first time, you know what it means. Yep. To me, that's the test. All right. We'll ask this. We'll answer this.

one last question, and then we'll leave the rest for tomorrow. At what point does Russia, China, Iran say enough is enough? It just crashes out. I guess I don't understand this question. I'm not exactly sure what crashes out means, but I think that Russia, China, Iran, et cetera, being half the BRICS countries right off the bat, are headed toward an international realignment. As soon as they come up with a universal.

universally accepted currency. The U.S. Empire's done. I really believe it. Oh, I think that's true. I mean, it's on the ropes in a big way. Cats nice looking. Cats don't like me very much. Dogs love me.

My sister's dogs get so happy, so excited when they see me that they piss themselves. Really? Oh, my God. Maybe they're just incontinent. A cockapoo and a shih Tzu. No, it's the only time. They just go completely. completely nuts when I walk in.

You know, I used to be, like, the opposite. Like, all cats loved me. Like, cats that would hiss at their own owners loved me. But dogs really didn't like me. But in my old age, dogs have started to like me. That's funny. I don't know. I like dogs.

Anyway, yeah. That's Clovis. I can't take credit. My son named him after the first king of France, who brought Christianity to France. Anyway. All right. So we should pronounce ourselves. programmed for today. We'll be back tomorrow, Wednesday, 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Thanks

everyone for joining us. Please like, follow, and share the show. And let's see, I think I, oh yeah, yeah, I think I excitedly prepared a little outro video here. Oh, okay. See if it's ready to go here. There we go. Okay, there it is. Okay. All right. That was a not a smooth introduction but who cares that's part of the charm thanks everyone for listening appreciate you thanks for the donations you guys are awesome bye