DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: “Police Officer Trump”

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

When the going gets strange, the “DeProgram” Show is there to help. President Trump is hitting the streets tonight, joining D.C. police and National Guardsmen on a ride-along following his federal takeover of the city’s police force. This odd, unprecedented stunt raises alarms about overreach and its chilling impact on minority communities. Meanwhile, a disturbing trend emerges: delivery drivers, many from Central and South America, are getting detained by ICE agents during routine moped stops.Plus:• Menendez Brothers’ Parole Hearings: The Menendez brothers face their first parole hearings this week—Erik on Thursday and Lyle on Friday—following a reduction of their life sentences without parole. Their case highlights debates about second chances, with legal teams arguing for a new trial based on new evidence of past abuse. The hearings occur as California reconsiders sentencing for long-term inmates, amplifying public interest.• Raphaël Graven’s Livestream Death: Internet personality Raphaël Graven, known as Jean Pormanove, dies during a livestream on the Kick platform, sparking investigations into online harassment. French authorities note bruises but attribute his death to possible medical or toxicological causes, interviewing those present at the scene. The incident reignites calls for stricter regulation of livestreaming platforms amid reports of viewer-encouraged abuse.• Michael Boulos’ Business Deals: Michael Boulos, engaged to Tiffany Trump, secures financial benefits through a yacht sale to Jared Kushner and a payment from a Saudi businessman linked to Trump family access. His cousin’s brokerage allegedly overcharged Kushner by $2.5 million, while plans to leverage the Boulos-Trump wedding for Saudi influence falter. These dealings raise questions about the intersection of family ties and business opportunities.• Trump’s New York Fraud Case Ruling: A New York appeals court overturns a half-billion-dollar judgment against Trump, easing a financial burden while upholding the fraud case finding. The ruling, marked by judicial discord, allows Trump to appeal to the state’s highest court, challenging his liability. This decision represents a partial victory amid ongoing legal battles with Attorney General Letitia James.

Hey there. It's Thursday, August 21st, 2025. You're watching deprogram, where we deprogram you from, you know, all the stuff you need to be deprogrammed from. I'm Ted Rawl editorial cartoonist. John Kariaku is my co-host, as he's the CIA whistleblower. And John, just as we came on, I imagine you saw at least one. of these breaking news alerts, I think we should just get into, perhaps not that important, but worth noting the Supreme Trump and other victory. They're allowing Trump to proceed with cuts to the NIH. That's the National Institutes of Health, grants for research on racial minorities and LGBT people. So basically, this is part of his DEI stuff. The justices ruled basically that the president does have that authority, in the usual six to three way.

More interesting to me, John, is this thing in New Jersey. Yeah, it's actually kind of fun to watch, isn't it? Are you talking about Alina Haba? Yep. Trump's one of Trump's many personal attorneys and his choice, his desire to be U.S. attorney for New Jersey, the courts are saying, uh-uh, she is serving illegally and now has to be withdrawn from all cases, although the federal judge in New Jersey decided to put a stay on his

own decision to allow the Justice Department to appeal it. That happens a lot, right? You've noticed, I mean, yeah. I mean, I always wonder, is that meant to, I mean, judges seem to bend over backwards to let the government fix their mistakes, basically. Yeah. Yeah, they do. It's actually surprising to me.

But it's as though the courts are conceding, look, the president is litigious. We're going to let him sue us and appeal and just let somebody else deal with it. So this is very funny, right? So Alina Haba was Trump's personal attorney, right? She was appointed to be U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. the judge, Matthew Brand, the U.S. District Judge, said this is no good

that she's not lawfully performing the duties and functions of the Office of U.S. attorney because she's not qualified in any way, shape, or form. Why is she not qualified? That part wasn't clear to be. I didn't get that, and I actually looked for it.

They're not saying why she's not qualified unless she's just not licensed to practice law in that district. And that, it might be as simple as that. You know, I remember when I was, when I was in court, it's one of the nightmares that I, that I play over in my head. As I'm waiting to be sentenced in my own case, I had to sit there while dozens and dozens of brand new law school graduates are taken before the judge and the judge swears them in

and allows them to practice law in the Eastern District of Virginia. And I'm wondering if that's the case. with her. She's not from New Jersey. Maybe she's from New York or from Florida, for all I know. I don't know where she's from. But I suspect she's just not licensed to practice law there. Yeah, she were a New Yorker. She almost certainly would be because almost all lawyers in New York make sure that they pass the New Jersey bar as well. So this doesn't really have any practical effect, but basically the courts in New Jersey have kind of, a lot of cases have been thrown into turmoil, put on hold. And they're still digging out of the COVID backup. So we'll watch that. But it's kind of like, you know, it's one more

popcorn thing. Yeah. You're going to go on ride-along with Donald Trump tonight. Donald Trump is playing cop. Donald Trump is playing cop. He is going out into the dangerous streets of D.C. tonight in a ride-along. And just to make it even more exciting, ICE is going out with DC cops on ride-alongs, two to a car, and other federal law enforcement are using VESPA scooters to drive around town and harass people tonight. Somebody in the chat, even before we got started, compared this to Stephen Segal? Yeah, that's a good comparison. Steven Segal, who has no business acting in the films that he's acted in, everybody knows

the joke behind Stephen Seagall's career. But, yeah, what's, what's Trump going to do? I mean, it was like, it was like this commercial that I saw for Dr. Phil. He went out on a ride along with Thomas Holman, the head of immigration and customs enforcement. And they grabbed some undocumented aliens in Chicago. And one of them turns and says, are you Dr. Phil? And Dr. Phil says, yeah. And the guy said, what are you doing here?

he's like yeah so what are they going to they're going to grab somebody for drinking under the age of 21 tonight and have the kids say are you Donald trump what are you doing here like you don't have anything better to do like run the country you're on ride along in dc i mean it's what this is the kind of stunt that i mean look it reminds me of when he uh worked the mcdonald's drive-in uh during yeah i forgot about that during the campaign um yeah i mean other countries must really be wondering what's up with us. I will say, though, you know, the other day we talked about Central Asia and a lot of, we got a lot of positive feedback about that.

And one, so as you know, John, Central Asian republics have had a lot of problems with corruption, particularly in the 90s and the odds. They have all these cops, the militia, which are basically military police, but they're not really military police, they're just cops. And they stopped people and shook them down for bribes all the time. And it was a real problem because it was keeping, you know, investment, inhibiting freedom of movement and messing up business and foreigners didn't want to invest there because it was just gross, you know, you fly in and you get shaken down by cops every like three kilometers.

You're like, I'm not going to invest here. So, Kazakh President Nersoltan Nazarbayev famously decided to pull a Trump before Trump. And he got into a car in Almaty, which was then the capital, and decided. to drive across the country on the main highway, the 37 highway, and just basically showed up at every checkpoint and fired every cop who shook them down for a ride. And it had a huge impact. You know, I mean, it's like, holy shit. It's like that scene in Three Kings where they fake Saddam coming up to, it's like, Saddam is coming for you. He's pissed at you. guards run away

I remember that I'm wondering you know I was I don't unfortunately Trump's there to you know scare the locals not to scare the cops but you think he's going to go to the worst part of Southeast D.C. tonight Not a chance not a chance

a friend of mine posted something on Facebook she went to the trouble of going to the Justice Department's website and and drawing up a list of cities that have the highest rates of violent crime And D.C. ranks like 37th, I think. Interestingly enough, eight of the ten cities with the highest crime in America are in states run by Republicans. I wouldn't want to go to Jackson, Mississippi, for example, where you're more likely to be murdered than any other place in America or Baltimore, for that matter.

You want to clean up a city that's turned to trash? Go to Baltimore. my kids even ask me dad please don't take us to baltimore anymore baltimore has some cool stuff but they just hate the place because it's a wreck it is um but dc is not the place no i think i mentioned to you yesterday how about that try camden new jersey i think i mentioned to you the other day that um i was visiting with the parents of a friend of mine and um and they're people who just sit and watch newsmax

you know, all day long, every day, all day. And the mother made a comment that it must be nice to get out of that hellhole called Washington for a day. And I said, what do you mean? And she said, well, with the crime, I said, no, there really isn't crime. Listen, I've been in Washington now. It's 43 years this month with a couple of small breaks. But crime's not a problem in Washington.

in those pockets where it is a problem, people like you and I aren't going to go. Well, that's true. It's the locals who are getting beaten up there, as it always is. And also, I've been reading, you're better situated than I am to tell us what's going on there in D.C., that's for sure. But what I hear is that the National Guardsmen are basically hanging out at the Washington Mall. They're hanging out near the White House. at Capitol Hill, all the tourist spots and having selfies taken with the tourists.

In fact, that's exactly what I saw. Yep, when I came out of Union Station the other day coming back from New York, where I saw you, there were two armored personnel carriers pointed at the train station, by the way, not protecting the train station. And a couple of cheap... You never know if I come out of that train station.

I know, right? Someone like the likes of you. Yeah, exactly. And it was just National Guardsmen taken selfies with people who, like, had, you know, never seen an armored personnel carrier before. Well, yeah, no. Crazy. I mean, I guess it's good now and then to see. It's the only reason I was in favor of the military parade.

So I see where our taxes go. It's certainly not going to building new schools. No, you got that right. I took the liberty of just while we were talking, looking up the cities in this country that have the highest crime rates per capita, which is what matters, because that's your personal odds of being victim of a crime. violence crime rate. Baltimore is the fifth worst city in the country. Working our way up the list from five to one, Little Rock, Detroit, not surprising there,

that's been a perennial, St. Louis, not surprising when you think about it, Memphis. Memphis, it's a mess. When I was at the Association of America of Alternative Newsweeklies, which is the Altweekly's convention, it's a shadow of what it used to be, but I used to go to that convention. every year to flog my cartoons and my columns to editors. I was staying at this very nice hotel. I forget what it's called, but it's a historic hotel. You might know what I'm talking about.

They have the walk of the ducks to the fountain. Oh, sure. Yeah, that is a famous place. Yeah, every day, they show that, yeah, they do the duck thing. Anyway, right out in front of that fancy four-star hotel, one of our editors got kidnapped. He was kidnapped, thrown into the trunk of his own car and carjacked and taken out to the outskirts of the city and beaten within an inch of his life.

Just another day in Memphis. Oh, that's terrible. That's absolutely terrible. Yeah, I have a dim view of Memphis. I don't know if Elvis would want to live there now if he were still here. Yeah, I imagine not. I've only been there a couple of times. And, you know, there's the strip with all the music and the blues clubs

and the jazz clubs. Beale Street, and it's fantastic. And then otherwise, no thank you. No, it's not so great. Even the Lorraine Motel, I went to see the Lorraine Motel because it's so historic. And even that, you're only a couple of blocks really off Beal Street, and it's the hood. It's bleak, yeah, for sure. John, speaking of D.C.

And, well, I guess, okay, so what do we make of this stunt? I mean, well, that's the word, Ted. Do we care? It's a stunt. No, nobody cares. Fox is going to make a big deal out of it for a day. Nobody else is going to pay any attention and nothing's going to change.

What a Trump stops crime, personally. He's going to have to go to Capitol Hill first and maybe the Justice Department. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. And then also in D.C., there's this story about ICE. So it turns out that ICE is hanging out, as you pointed out, with the D.C. cops. and what they've been doing is basically really screwing up Washingtonians when they're ordering dinner

because those dinners are delivered, as anyone who lives in a city knows, by guys on scooters and mopeds. And those guys are being ethnically, they're being ethnically profiled and stopped by ice and harassed. And it's gotten really serious to the point where, you know, it's actually disrupting the nightlife and restaurant business in D.C. As people get picked up and detained for no reason. Most of these people are, by the way, completely licensed and legal here in the U.S. They are U.S. citizens or they have green cards. I've got a great friend here in Washington who many people probably know.

Andy Shalal, he owns a chain of cafes, combination cafes and bookstores called Bus Boys and Poets. and is a mainstay in the progressive movement here in Washington. And even he has been complaining that customers have been telling him that they just are not going to restaurants right now. First of all, you're going to get harassed by the cops if you're going in one of the main areas like 14th Street or the U Street corridor or 8th Street or whatever.

And secondly, a lot of kitchen workers are afraid, Even the ones who are legal, they're afraid of the authorities. They're afraid of being harassed. And so they're just not showing up for work. And as a result, the restaurants can't get the orders filled. There's nobody to deliver the food if it's for delivery anyway. And so the post is saying that restaurant business has dropped 50% in the last two weeks in Washington. 50%.

It's like COVID. You can't stay in business like that. No, because restaurants have very narrow margins. Very narrow margins. If a restaurant has a 5% profit margin, it's doing great. Yeah, that's right. It can't sustain a 50% decline for more than a few weeks or maybe a month or two. No.

That's it. That's right. I love busboys and poets, too. What a great meeting place. And, you know, you go in. I've spoken there. It's great. Me too.

And I went in just recently with a friend. We were watching Norman Finkelstein. And then, like, Ilhan, Omar walks in and sits down and orders dinner and AOC comes in every once in a while. You'd be surprised. They're just... And the food's good. And the food's good. Try the fried catfish.

The beers are really good. Excellent. So I'm getting hungry. Just thinking thirsty. Just thinking about this. All right. I'll try to channel my inner gauzen and pretend that there's no meals forthcoming for the next few months. Okay.

So, all right, what do we want to talk about? We've got the strange case in France. We've got Tiffany Trump's husband. I love this story. I figure you might have a few things to say. I know, I know. Let's talk about Trump. So Trump, as you'll recall, basically got nailed by Letitia James and had to pay

about four, was ordered to pay nearly half a billion dollars. For the strangest case, Donald Trump basically lied about the size of his assets. Probably not the first time he's ever done that, queuing Stormy Daniels. And he said, you know, my apartment is so huge. It has so many square feet. It's got the best square feet. And it turned out it didn't have so many square feet.

And so basically he used that information to borrow money from banks. And it was all, you know, so it's a fraudulent loan, right? It's basically you lie about your income and your assets and your collateral. And that's, you know, as a former banker, I recognize that's against the law. Trump knew it was against the law. On the other hand, everybody does it. Okay, so it's like whatever. Anyway, the AG threw the book at him.

The judge hated Trump. This was at the peak of the lawfare, $450 million. So now in New York, the way it starts is you start, it's very confusing. The trial court, the lowest court, is New York Supreme Court, inexplicably. Then you go to the appellate division of New York Supreme Court, which is where the following ruling came down. Then the judge basically said, listen, he's still guilty, but he shouldn't have been punished to that extent. So the penalty's gone. He doesn't owe the 455.

If A.G. James decides to appeal this, then it goes to the final arbiter, which, you know, which is confusing also, which is the New York Court of Appeals. So I don't know what A.G. James is going to do here. But, John, my understanding is the biggest penalty here, though, for Trump still remains, which is that the Trump organization is no longer licensed to do business in New York. And that doesn't go away due to this, does it? Yeah, that's the only thing that stands. And it's funny that the media have focused on the fine.

I agree with you. The fine's not the big deal. He had the money to pay the fine anyway, so it's not like it's going to hurt. Especially now. Especially now. The big deal is that the Trump organization was found correctly, as it turned out, to be a corrupt organization. And it is not permitted to do business in New York State. Right.

And the reason that doesn't go away is because that's not the judge's call. That's right. That's the secretary of state, right? That's right. It's the secretary of state. who is the state authority that registers businesses. Now, do you think the Secretary of State might take notice of this in this overwhelmingly democratic state and think, you know, it's not really fair

now that the penalty's gone? I mean, look, I think Donald Trump deserved a slap on the wrist. And I think removing his business license from, you know, from where he started business and where his father started business, that's beyond a slap on the wrist. Yeah, it is. It is. Well, look at it this way. If it's a very democratic state, the Secretary of State is a Democrat in New York.

Does the Secretary of State have the guts to stand up or does the Secretary of the State calculate, the Secretary of State calculate, I don't want to get sued, I don't need this kind of trouble in my life. The judge already made a decision easy to just reinstate the Trump organization. I'm going to guess that the latter is what's going to happen. Agreed. By the way, I like this question from the Rumble Feed, Rebellious Rainbow Unicorn. Why would a billionaire need a bank loan? That's a legit question. I can answer that question. Oh, yeah. I can too. No, go ahead. Well, so the answer is that billionaires don't really have money. Billionaires have credit. They have access to money. Now, Donald Trump, don't get me wrong. I mean, if he died tomorrow and his estate was settled, he's definitely a net billionaire. But that wasn't true until he became president.

And I know this personally because I'm one of the few people that has actually seen, at least it was a long time ago, back in the 80s, I saw Donald Trump's personal tax returns because he applied for a loan from the Industrial Bank of Japan. And I remember coming home to my then girlfriend before we went out, and I said, you know, we were poor. We lived in a fourth floor walk up. And I was like, you know, the good news here is, we have more money than Donald Trump

because, you know, your assets minus your liabilities, we were in the black, except for a few student loans. So he was, so he, so this is, but now, yeah, billionaires always, they don't want to use their own money. They always want to use other people's money. That way if they lose it, like if they bought, let's say you are a billionaire, you borrow a, you know, $100 million to build a casino.

You want to borrow it from a bank. then you assign the loan to the casino entity. And if the casino goes tits up, you don't lose your money. You're good to go. That's right. That's why. That's it. Yeah. They never use their own money.

There's some comment about our shirt colors. Ah, yes. I thought there would be. Yeah, Pamela, Pamela noticed. Wasn't planned. It wasn't. But then we decided not to change because we, I doubted that anybody would notice. And of course, Pamela noticed immediately.

I mean, obviously it's gay, but it would be gay. to go change that's right uh all right so that's right hey before we move on to other news do you think a james before we yeah james do you think she'll appeal or or she'll let it go if she's smart she'll let it go i was just going to say if i were letisha james just declare defeat and walk walk away you've already clear victory he's still or declare victory you're right he's still he's still he's still, you know, de-licensed. I hope she walks away. There's nothing to gain.

It wasn't, honestly, it wasn't right and it wasn't fair. It was an extremely unjust verdict. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Hey, I wanted to say something, too. This is an issue that I try to follow as closely as I'm able to, and I've written about it a number of times, but Saudi Arabia executed a guy today.

He was beheaded for participating in a pro-democracy demonstration. when he was 15 years old they arrested him 15 years ago at the age of 15 he's now 30 he's been in in a dank Saudi prison all this time he complained to his attorneys that he had been repeatedly electrocuted tortured beaten sleep deprived and today they chopped his head off Jesus Christ. They beheaded his brother in 2019, and his other brother is going to be beheaded later this year, all for participating in a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration in Katif. It's an oasis in the eastern province nearby rain.

Now, to make matters worse, this marks the 260. beheading this year in Saudi Arabia, this year. And nobody seems to care one way or the other. The UN doesn't care. The international community says, oh, it's an internal issue. Now, the Saudi government is actually in violation of Saudi law, which says that you're not allowed to execute anybody who committed a crime before turning 18 years old. They didn't care.

They beheaded him anyway. well it's a completely lawless regime i mean i think i mean honestly if i could john if you could blink your eyes and wish away one government yeah that would be on my short list for sure that that would be in my top three yes yeah yeah i'm no fan of erdogan either but but the saudis are very much up there in my top three and the thing and i mean i think and the Saudis export their shit, too. Yeah, they do. They really do.

All over Central Asia, North Africa, Middle East, of course. That's exactly right. I mean, you know, let's face it, 9-11, that's them. You know, and the Washington Post makes a point to say that this is the first child defendant to be executed since 2021. Like, oh, well, you know, they made it this long. They went four years since they executed a, you know, a child convict. well they brooch i mean yeah you're just not allowed there's there's no room at all for dissonance

and i mean i have to admit i mean part of me wonders why would anyone take that chance there i mean it's such a repressive society you know and it goes to show you though ted just how repressive it is that people know what the penalty is and still go out there to agitate yeah they just don't give a shit no it's better to be dead than to live under that yoke yeah that's that's the uh tradition of sophy shoal uh from the white rose in uh that is a hundred percent right also beheaded also beheaded people should study sophy shoal and and we don't and her and her brothers and her brothers yeah that's exactly right i mean she's absolutely a colossus and she stood tall um okay well let's talk about

the Menendez brothers. Yeah. Menendez brothers, as you know, as pretty much I think everybody watching us knows, basically benefited from this mini-series about their case. Just a little funny aside, my best-selling book was a book called Revenge of the Lachke kids, but the original title was supposed to be called

Kill Your Parents Before They Kill You. It was a Gen X manifesto in the mid-90s, very much of its time. And the original cover, which is highly collectible, if you find a copy of it, has the Menendez brothers shooting their parents while they're watching TV. It turns out, I think, quite credibly, that their father was a monster who raped them. Yes. And the mother, basically, it was an enabler who let it happen and didn't do her job as a mother and didn't protect them. They kind of lost their minds, as one would have.

expect and you know obviously we don't know for sure what happened here but that's what it looks like and they and they killed their parents it didn't help their case that they sort of decided to have a little me time with their parents credit cards after and celebrated and partied and stuff you know but i mean i have to say i can imagine doing that like sort of like the you know the pressure is blown off. They're kids. Kids are going to act like kids. And especially if you're traumatized, you're kind of infantilized. You're kept at that early, mentally, psychologically, you're stuck at that early age where the abuse started. And so, you know, really, this was the behavior of like a 10-year-old. So anyway, the point is they've been rotting in prison for years

and for decades. And today and tomorrow, Eric and Lyle Hernandez are going to be considered for parole, I'm pretty sure Governor Gavin Newsom is inclined to grant them release based on time served so far. Yeah. And it looks, however, there's also the consideration of maybe having a second trial and then just basically convicting them for a sentence less than they've already served. Yeah, second degree instead of first degree. Why not just release them?

Yeah, just release them. I think it's a face-saving measure. Let me interrupt both of us. AP is saying there's an active shooter at Villanova University right now. The school's in lockdown, and a second text has gone out telling students to stay indoors, lock their doors, and stay away from the law school. My best friend from college just took his daughter to drop her off at Villanova today. Where's that? Where is it?

It's in eastern Pennsylvania. Yeah, Villanova, Pennsylvania, it's along the main line, just north and west of Philadelphia, Radner Township. Yeah, and they're even telling people in Radnor Township to lock their doors and stay indoors, but that's all they're saying. Okay, so we'll keep an eye on that. I mean, it's just, you know, it happens all the time. Yeah, yeah, it's a shame. But anyway, getting back to the Menendez brothers, like you and like many Americans, I've followed this case, you know, since it started it's fascinating fascinating the father was a what wasn't he an entertainment

major record uh executive and and and it's come out now that he also molested or sexually assaulted uh boys in that that band manudo right right right yeah remember and so in the beginning i think um because of the way the brothers acted you know buying cars and rolexes and taking tennis lessons and acting like they hit the lotto after their parents were killed. I think it sort of muddied the waters. If they had been honest from the beginning, they might have even had a defense, a self-defense, and they blew that. Now, they were kids, essentially, but we're talking about, what is it now, Ted, 35 years

have passed, 36 years? Yeah, it was a completely different. time. It was a completely different time. And there actually are new facts. You know, there was this letter that was unearthed about a year and a half ago where one of the brothers was writing to a cousin and saying he's still doing it to me and my mom won't help, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. It's worth pointing out that the surviving relatives of the two victims have all testified that they want these two boys release. Well, they're not boys. They were boys. These two men released. Also, they've acquitted themselves very well behind bars.

Yes. They've been, you know, they've been pillars of their community in prison. They've been very helpful to their fellow inmates, so they should get out. I mean, also, I mean, let's face it, the chances of them reoffending are vanishingly minute. So for that reason alone, I mean, they've been, they, I don't think they ever should have been sentenced at all. I agree with you. You know, there's a guy on California death row who calls me all the time, like almost every day.

And I have to keep telling him, buddy, you got to back off. But the reason why I'm in touch with him is we have a mutual friend. And this mutual friend said, hey, you should you should talk to this guy. He's on death row for a double murder in California. And he's innocent. And I said, okay, so I checked it out. He's not innocent. But anyway, I thought, okay, it'll make for an interesting op-ed.

Or at least I could write something about. conditions on death row. And he told me that he was only convicted because he happened to be arrested in Riverside County and it's a racist county and it was an all white jury. And I said, but James, I said, James, when you were arrested, your shirt was soaked in the victim's blood and you had the murder weapon in your pocket. Right? He stabbed them both to death. And he said, my cousin gave me that knife and told me to hold it for him. And I said, what did he tell you to wear his shirt, too? Come on, man.

Well, look at you and me, John. Yeah, true. So there are some people who, you know, I'm opposed to the death penalty, but there are some people who need to be locked up. And there are some people who don't. And the Menendez brothers should not be locked up. Even taking into consideration that they did what they did. and they acknowledge now

they have acknowledged for many years that they did what they did even if they didn't have a defense they've served what in any other country in the world civilized country in the world would be a life sentence well that's true

I mean that what country was it where that that crazy right winger in Scandinavia went to the island and killed like a hundred and that was Norway people. Yeah, Norway. He received the maximum sentence. He killed 150 plus people, right? I think. Yeah, something like that. And he only, maximum sentence is about 20 years. He will be released in 20 years.

Yeah. In Greece, when you, when you are sentenced to life in prison, that means 20 years. The terrorists that were members of Revolutionary Organization 17 November that killed the CIA station chief, two defense at Deshays, the minister of this, the minister of that. They got like 1,765 years, which means 20. And the only reason they didn't get out three years ago when it was 20 was because the American embassy said, you better not let them go. Meaning we'll have to figure out what to do with them ourselves

if you let them go. Some of the YouTubers are reminding us that there were actually two trials already in the Menendez case. That's a good point. Do we really need a third one? Really? That's a very good point. Yes.

We don't need a third one. They did their 36 years. They should be released. One of the, Adam on YouTube, is asking, you know, have we ever talked about gun control on this show? No. No, actually. That's a good, that's a good topic. I don't know if we want to.

What do you think, John? Do you want to talk about it? I have rather libertarian views on gun control. I miss my guns very much. I want my guns back very much. But at the same time, I believe that there are a lot of people who are not responsible enough

to own guns and should not own guns. I have zero problem with registration. I have zero problem with mandatory safety classes, all that stuff. You know, I make fun a lot of this law in Virginia that became controversial for a little while. We have a law in Virginia that you can buy as many guns as you want. If you have enough money to walk into a gun shop and buy a thousand guns,

and you can carry them out to your car, you can have your thousand guns. So a problem was that a lot of these guns end up on the streets of New York or Baltimore, where it's tougher to get a gun. And so there was pressure on the government of Virginia to restrict gun purchases to one gun a day. And people went crazy about what an affront this was to their civil liberties. That if I want to buy five guns or ten guns or a thousand guns a day, I should be able to buy as many guns as I want.

And so the state legislature... The same people probably didn't freak out during COVID when they could only buy one roll of toilet paper at a time. Right. Or they just take their gun and, you know, go steal a roll. the toilet paper. But yeah, now the law is the original law. You can buy as many guns as you want. Now we have open carry that you can just walk down the street with a holster and a gun and nobody can do anything to you. John, I would rather someone do that than have it concealed,

wouldn't you? Yeah. I'd rather know. I'd rather see them. I'd rather know too. I went through the, when I left the agency, I wanted to keep my gun skills current. So, I joined a range and I'd go out there in practice. I taught my kids how to shoot safely. I joined Gun Owners of America. I'm still a member of Gun Owners of America, even though I'm not, which is sort of the anti, what do you call it, NRA, the anti-NRA.

They're all corrupt at the NRA. But I went through the whole process where even though I had had all that CIA gun training, I took some stupid class. on gun safety and I got fingerprinted and I got licensed by the state for my concealed carry permit. I never ever concealed carried ever a single time. But I had it in case I wanted to, you know, or I wanted to drive out to the range and not put the thing in my trunk or whatever. I just did it to have it. And now that I'm not allowed to own a gun, it just sticks in my craw. Even though, you know what, Ted, I'll be honest with you.

If losing your gun rights were not a part of a felony conviction, I probably wouldn't even think about earning a gun right now. I wouldn't even care when or the other. It's that thing. It's sort of like how a lot of people don't vote, but they wouldn't want the right taken away from them. Yeah. I mean, I largely agree with you.

I mean, I guess the caveat for me is I don't think that, first of all, I agree with you. It's like, I think it should be kind of like driving a car. You should have to learn about it. You need to get some training. I'm not sure you should be able to buy a thousand guns, you know, at the same time. I don't think that's a great idea. No.

Who needs it, right? What's the societal benefit? I don't see any. If we were a new country and we had a new constitution, I sincerely doubt that gun rights would have been enshrined in the Constitution. It's not relevant to most Americans' lives anymore. It's not. We're not that kind of society.

But we do have the history that we have. We do have the culture that we have. And you can't just sweep it away and pretend like it never happened. And you can't ignore the whatever 10 guns for every man, woman, and child that are already out there. Otherwise, it's kind of like in 1933 when the government was out trying to scare everyone into turning over their $20 gold pieces to the fed, to the feds. Yeah.

What are they going to kick everyone's door down? It's just not practical. So, you know, I think that given where things are, the Second Amendment says what the Second Amendment says, I will never understand, though, who decides really what's a military gun and what's a non-military gun. And there's this whole, like, is an AR, you know, is that a, is that a military gun? I mean, yes, it is. But, hey, so is a pistol. I mean, I'm sorry to interrupt. May I answer a couple of these very excellent questions over here by Ray.

AC 2020 by Tarek by Tusk PC. Excellent questions. I'll put them up. So yeah, the governor of Virginia actually did reinstate my gun rights, which was an incredibly generous thing to do. I had applied to have my voting rights reinstated. And I thought I told the story the other day. Maybe I told it on some other podcast. But I went online to the Virginia Secretary of State's website. And I said that I was recently released after being convicted of a felony. I wanted to apply for my voting rights. And so I did the form electronically, and I sent it in. And it said, you know, it takes about two weeks. Well, I waited three weeks. I hadn't heard anything back. So I called the Secretary of State's office. I said, listen, I've got this number for my case. I just wanted to

ask if there was anything that you could tell me. And the guy looks up my case and he says, oh, like oh like you're the guy he said yes you're going to hear from us very shortly but don't worry everything's on track and i said okay great thank you about a week later my doorbell rings at seven o'clock in the morning i was up getting the kids ready for school so i went to the door and it's a courier and he's got this big like 11 by 14 envelope and he hands it to me inside the envelope is a decree from Governor Terry McCullough, pardoning me. Yeah, exactly. He's pardoning me. So not only did he give me my voter rights, he gave me my gun rights back, but my gun rights were seized by the feds, not by the states. It was symbolic. So even though it's legal, according to state law, for me to own a gun, I risk a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, felon with a gun.

if I get caught by a federal law enforcement officer. Okay, so with that said, something exciting is happening right now at the Justice Department. This was only in the paper for a minute, about a week ago, but it said that, well, let me give you background. Congress passed a law in the 1990s saying people who have felony convictions that did not entail drugs or violence can apply to have their gun rights reinstated, but the same law refused to appropriate money for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to actually do the background investigations. So it's not worth the paper it's written on. They say, sure,

you can apply, but nobody's going to look at the application is what they're saying. So last week, Donald Trump ordered the function of... of reinstatement transferred from ATF to the office of the Attorney General. And the Attorney General said that she is going to start accepting applications for nonviolent felons to get their gun rights back. So my true has your guns. My ex-father-in-law gave them back to him. He gave them to me as a Christmas present one year.

And now he's my ex-father-in-law. Did you have to officially state to any law enforcement to like your parole officer? I sure did. So I had to do a statement that had to be notarized saying that I turned the guns over to him. And then he had to do a statement that was notarized, seeing that he had taken receipt of the guns. Got it. Yeah. So my lawyer called me and said, hey, you're the poster child for this new policy.

Yeah. They haven't even drawn up the application yet. But as soon as they do, I'm going to apply. And then I'm going to file a suit against ATF demanding. that they act on my application. I like it. Yeah. All right.

And then so, okay, so is there any other question there you wanted to answer? Let's see. This answers them, I think, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Thank you, John Doe. Thank you for correcting my statement. And I never, ever concealed carry in the U.S. Yeah.

Yeah, I concealed carried like in 70 other countries. I have to admit. I pulled it out twice. I'm with Dana. You know, I have fired and enjoyed firing an AR-15, but I don't know, although I will say, when I was on an ISIS, notified that I was on an ISIS death threat list, I really wanted to get AR-15, because that's what they come with. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. Two of those two guys with AR-15s showed up at that right-wing cartoonist festival in Garland, Texas, a few years ago. And, you know, me and another cartoonist, good friend of mine, we were both like number of, one and two on that list after that. And I was thinking, you know, I lived in the middle of nowhere, big gun, big gun better than small gun. Yeah, that's right. Somebody asked also, I think it was on the, it was on the YouTube feed, what CIA gun

training consists of. It's actually pretty straightforward. You're trained in what they call certified in the use of three different weapons because you're going to be carrying them all the time. So it's a, first it was a browning nine millimeter. Then they changed to the Glock 9mm, which is much easier to use and has less of a kick. And the Smith & Wesson six-shot snub-nosed revolver. And then we all got for our homes, we got a Remington pump action 12 gauge.

So you train, train, train on those. And then you do a week where you do rocket propelled grenades. You do 50 cows. You just test all these different military and pseudo-military. military weapons just to get a feel for what they're like fun RPG is awesome that that that makes a big noise you know your eye can't even keep up with it it goes so fast it's crazy and the eye is the fastest moving muscle in the human body as I learned from Jeopardy um I didn't know that oh sorry from who wants to be a millionaire um all right I like those kind of game shows um although okay

Anyway, so a few other things. So here's crossing our fingers for the Menendez brothers, although it's been a long tortured journey. So this is a really weird case in France. There's this guy, Rafael Gravon, who he was known as Gene Pormoneove. And he was on kick, and he died on live stream on kick. turns out that he had a where basically

it was like Fight Club. He had himself beaten up and abused physically and people would watch and he'd get clicks and so you know the thing is it might have been like he might have been on something he might have been high

but like the the authorities are first of all wondering if this kind of behavior should be legal. No and obviously no It's like bum fights. Remember bum fights back in the 90s? Yeah. Or dwarf tossing in Australia. Yeah.

But it's really, I mean, it's, I don't know, what's worth France being in the news with all this depraved news lately? It used to be the land of, you know, wine, women, and song. And now it's like, you know, it's like guys who like invite people to rape their unconscious wives. wives, and then beat each other up, you know, have themselves beaten on live television. I mean, what the fuck is going on? Yeah. Yeah, this is nuts. You know, there's a lot of nutty stuff, too, that comes out of, we laugh here about, you know,

you Google Florida man and just see what pops up. The same can be said of, you know, half the countries of Europe. That's true. We just don't get that news because it's, our news is so concentric. American-focused. And you see that, like, when you, like, tune into the BBC. I mean, it's obviously flawed in many ways. But I love the fact that, like, you know, very often the main story can be a story that, you know, Americans will never hear about. And they'll just be like, we're continuing the ongoing floods in Angola, you know, and we have full team coverage with 20 guys in

different parts of the country. You're like, good for you, you know. It's a true. international it's it's a it's more useful michelle and i used to do news of the weird as a segment every friday i always wanted to do it like for a full 15 minutes and she always wanted to keep it to five minutes but it was so much fun and it was the only time that we could talk about news like crazy stupid stuff that that nobody ever talks about you know it's our show now we can do whatever the we want we want to do that we can do that i like did you see this uh this principle uh in uh The story is a little old. It's from the spring, but they just figured it out.

There was a, there's a school in New Jersey, a high school in New Jersey, where people just keep dropping a deuce on the high school football field. And it's clearly not an animal. It's a human being. And so finally, after this happened three or four times, the cops set up cameras to see who's going out there in the middle of the night to take a dump. And it was the school's principal.

yeah and they arrested him they charged him with a decent exposure but he said that he felt disrespected by the by the football team and by the parents that were the boosters of the football team that there's more to the school than just football so he went out there and and took a dump on the field like four times I know right I love how primal it is I will show you Oh, my God. John, I have a story. I know you'll like this. Back to Central Asia.

I'm on a bus from Xinjiang in Western China to Kyrgyzstan. How long did that take? Oh, four days. Oh, my God. And it was brutal. It was on an old Soviet or Chinese bus, you know, a piece of shit with no floorboards and all the fumes coming up, like a gas van, right? Anyway, we keep stopping at weird places,

and half the bus, everybody has diarrhea. So we're getting off all the time. And at one point, we're way up in the mountains. These are the Tian Shan Mountains, which are part of the Himalayas. And it's high, right? So anyway, there's like this chalet-type house. We stop in front of there instead of like the normal, like, weird toilet shed. And the doors open.

And we walk into, the guy was with, he's now a reporter at the New York Times, Alan Foyer, we walk into the house. And it's a furnished, fairly nicely furnished house. You'd be happy to have this house. So would I. I mean, it's up in the mountains with a great view, a frame, you know, very pleasant, surrounded by pine trees. And all over the house and outside are various aged poos. And crumpled pink, you know, that pink toilet paper that they use out there. Yeah. Like all over. Some of it very old.

Some of it relatively new. And so I talked to the bus driver and I'm like, WTF. What's going on? He's like, he explained to me, the guy who owns this house, he's fucking my wife. So I have all my passengers stop here to take a shit all over inside his house. That is awesome That's awesome Respect for that guy

Wow Why just lay in bed Feeling sorry for yourself When you can actually do something There were hundreds Hundreds on the stairs In the living room On the coffee table

Everywhere oh my god i forgot that is i'll tell you that is not where i thought it was going when i was in peshauer i saw two women following a camel right like way too closely behind the camel and the camel lifted up its little tail and a giant turd came out and one of the women took off this sun hat that she had on this like straw hat and she caught the turd and i was like Whoa! What's that all about? And the ISI guy said, no, no, no, they dry it out. They stick it to the side of the house. They dry it out and they use it as fuel to cook their meals. It's like buffalo chips. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Don't put it back on, though. Don't forget and put that back on your head. Wow. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's earthy. Um, yeah. Okay. Let's talk about Michael Boulos. So Tiffany Trump was always kind of like. the, um, let's just say the, uh, unlucky stepchild, although she's not a stepchild. And people, people used to say that Donald Trump would not know Tiffany Trump if she walked up to him on

the street and introduced herself. But that's not really true. He does keep everyone close. Um, you know, I mean, look, the thing is, whatever you think about Donald Trump, you know, he can't be all bad, because he gets along with like his ex-wives and he gets along with his, uh, first, you know, his, the kids he had with those ex-wives. I mean, that's not a small thing. Most guys can't say that. No. So, you know, Michael Boulos,

Greek guy, I assume? Greek-Lebanese, yeah. Okay. Anyway, he's Greek Orthodox, but he's Lebanese. So he, apparently he hit it big when he got engaged to Tiffany, who actually does seem like a lovely girl. Yeah, and she graduated with honors

from, like, Georgetown Law School or some great credential. She's apparently very, very bright. And she seems really nice, too. But anyway, so yeah, I mean, Trump does have good kids. That always speaks highly of you, I think. Anyway, but he's been cashing in big on, like, Trump land.

So he sold a yacht to Jared Kushner. He got, he's doing business with the Saudis. His cousin's brokerage apparently overcharged Jared by two and a half million bucks um and uh so basically you know it's just it's just like everybody's in the grift even even the the the the be listers and the c listers how come we can't get a piece of that we're not bad guys no no no i mean i guess we're too old for tiffany oh yeah and she's not my type anyway but say we have to say thanks also to rod and goo and he has a question Does the CIA still run operations in Africa, or do they outsource to the French and the Brits?

Without revealing too much, they most definitely continue to run operations in Africa, too. Yeah. Yeah. The French have their own thing, but they're shrinking in size. The Brits still have their colonial thing going. I mean, John, as the French retreat get kicked out of the Sahel, are they going to do you think step up their intel operations, especially? electronic because they don't no longer have the you know in-person humment footprint oh i i would think so yes yes in fact that was something that was something that was something that was something

that was something that john carrie used to ask me about every once in a while like what if we pull our people off the border well if what if we shut down Kabul what if we shut down kandahar you know can't we do it electronically and i'd say sure we could do it electronically there's no reason to have giant armies of people all over the place or these gigantic diplomatic, pseudo-diplomatic presences? Sure. Is it the same though? I mean, you know, after 9-11, there was a lot of editorializing about that. That's right. There's a big difference between human and Elant, right? Human intelligence and electronic intelligence. Sure, you can intercept communications until the cows come home. But what you really need is a human being inside the media,

to tell you what's happening. Oftentimes, actually probably a majority of the time, human intelligence is wrong, but then that one time out of 10, you're going to learn about some 9-11 type of attack that's coming and you can disrupt it. All right. I think there's no more breaking news as far as I know.

And we've got to save something for tomorrow. Maybe we can do some news of the weird. Yes, why not? Let's try to track down some of those stories. John. That's right. I'll do it. All right. So I think we will pronounce ourselves sufficiently deprogrammed for today. Thank you. As always, please, please, please, like, follow, and share the show. Please watch us if you're not already over on Rumble because we make a lot more money. Thank you all, and we will see you guys tomorrow. We're here. Remember, this is the new schedule.

Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Deep program. Thanks.