DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Deprogram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: “Seabed Wars”

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou tell you about Argentina’s midterm elections, where President Javier Milei’s party secures a landslide victory, the US-China trade deal framework forged at the ASEAN summit, arrests in the audacious $102 million Louvre crown jewel heist, and the US-China race for Pacific seabed minerals in the Cook Islands. Plus, we answer your questions about any topic you want while we’re live!Argentina’s Midterm Elections: Javier Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party dominates Argentina’s midterm elections, scoring 41% of the vote, 13 Senate seats, and 64 lower-house seats. His radical right-wing austerity cuts and deregulatory agenda gain traction, though critics highlight job losses and strained public services as the economy tanks. President Trump’s $40 billion bailout underscores Milei’s MAGA ties, raising worries about American imperialism.US-China Trade Deal Framework: The US and China agree on a trade deal framework at the ASEAN summit, pausing 100% tariff threats for now and addressing TikTok’s US sale. China delays export controls on critical minerals for a year, while both sides aim to boost US soya bean exports. This truce eases global trade war fears ahead of Trump and Xi’s Thursday meeting. Can these tensions be resolved?Louvre Jewel Heist: French authorities arrest suspects linked to the $102 million Louvre jewel theft, with one caught at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The heist, executed in under eight minutes, targeted historic treasures like Empress Eugénie’s diadem. Investigators work to recover stolen items, as the museum reels from national humiliation and cultural loss.US-China Seabed Mineral Race: The US and China intensify exploration of polymetallic nodules in the Cook Islands’ Pacific seabed, rich in cobalt and nickel. Environmental concerns clash with geopolitical ambitions, with 38 countries urging a mining moratorium. The Cook Islands balances scientific research with potential commercial development, navigating global pressures.

Look at us with our fancy new intro. Thank you so much to Trent Tazian for providing that. And you'll see the nifty outro as well. You're watching The Program with Ted Roll and John Priyaku. It's Monday, October 27, 2025. Good morning, John. There we go. can you i hear you perfectly oh john has for there we go sorry sorry everybody i'm in a hotel

in oh i'm in a hotel in salamanca spain for this week so i apologize if my connectivity is is not up to par i mean i have four bars but i suspect i'm going to have a lot of trouble today and tomorrow and this is what happens when you uh when you co-host a show with an international man of mystery You know, oh, I'm in Salamanca, you know, duh. Anyway, that's how it goes. All right, lots to talk about today. We are going to be talking about Argentina, where inexplicably the Argentine voters have seen fit

to give a sweeping landslide victory to a president who seems to be sliding their country into becoming a vassal state of Donald Trump while destroying the entire economy even worse than it was before. But we'll get into that. Trump and China are having a meeting, President Xi, and he are meeting this Thursday. Of course, the ongoing trade tensions are still going on. It looks like they're kicking the can down the road again. There's been some arrests in that jewel heist from the Louvre. John, did you know that they didn't? The Louvre didn't ensure

those the stolen items i mean they didn't i don't know anybody would ever have the guts to try to seal them they were not insured and i'll tell you what the the only english language news station that i get here in salamanca is the french news john you're a little frozen right now um you are frozen more than and a little frozen. I'm going to go ahead and pop Robbie on while we're, because I have someone to talk to. Maybe you might have to hit refresh on that.

That helps sometimes. Hey, Robbie. Hello again. That happens sometimes. Yeah, it does. You got to wonder, what's going to be better, Afghan internet, Mexican internet, or Spanish internet? It looks like it's going to be Afghan for the win.

You know, I was amazed at how good the Afghan internet connection was and you know that was a while ago right the last time it looks like john's uh john's uh still frozen here here he goes all right let's bring him back in hey john he's there's two johns i'm getting rid of old john spinning he's spinning we're all spinning i spin you spin you there john there you are you were frozen before sorry guys sorry everybody so i was saying. I was watching the French news. And it's just as interesting for what's not being said is what's being said. So they caught one guy at Charles de Gaul airport on his way to Algeria. And he has both French and Algerian passports. They found another guy. They're still looking

for two. But they haven't told us yet if they've recovered any of the loot. They haven't said a word about it, which makes me think it's gone. it makes me think that too not to mention they don't have all of the people who were involved i read a lot of interviews i'm sure you did too john by convicted jewel thieves and they were saying the first thing you do after a heist like this is you you offload you fence the goods you do it you have the fence ready to go before you before you can you do the heist and so you wouldn't likely have the goods on you in case you get arrested, right? I mean, so it seems like, I guess the question here is, is this a Saudi sheik who basically wanted these for his personal

vault? Or is this just a attempt to, are these, are these gems all going to be cut down? Right. You know, one of my best friends in prison was a, was, Okay, John, frozen again. If you can hear me, please refresh. Refresh. There you go. Yeah. John, I don't hear you.

Individual diamonds. No, you can't hear me? Very little. You're breaking up really bad. Yeah, it's in and out. Um, why don't we, John, why don't we try it on my phone. Okay. Oh, great. But, okay. So Robbie and I'll keep talking about the jewel thief while you do that. All right. Yeah, try it on the phone. I'm going to take, take John out here. Okay. So, yeah, excuse me. Oh, here we go. Here's John. Dun, dun, dun, dun, don't, don't, don't. Hopefully we'll have all these kinks worked out at the beginning of, not yet.

there you are okay yeah i'm gonna okay i'm gonna i'm gonna try it on my phone there we go is that i hope that's better so i was saying that art rachel uh one of the most noted jewel thieves of the second half of the 20th century was was a good friend of mine in prison so shout out to art he and three accomplices stole the star of marlborough the biggest single diamond ever stolen and they unloaded it immediately, went straight to Heathrow Airport, and fled. But somebody saw them getting out of their disguises and reported their car, their rental car to the police. The cops were waiting for him in Chicago when he landed at O'Hare, and he was extradited to the U.K., where he spent the next 10 years in prison, but they never recovered the diamond.

And I said to him, Art, I said, come on, man. all these years have passed what'd you do with it and he smiled at me and he said all i'm going to say is i lived a lot of good years on that rock so my guess is my guess is that those stones have already been cut down or in the process of being cut down nobody's ever going to see the crown jewels of france ever again that's i mean so the french people are understandably rip shit about all this. I mean, it's a huge insult to national pride. You know, it's a statement of competence. We had kind of talked about this the first day this news broke about the political implications. I mean, you know, President Macron is already not

very popular to say the least. And so this just sort of brings home the sense that the French government doesn't really know what they're doing, although the Louvre speech. strictly speaking, isn't the French government. But still, it kind of is, it ish. And, you know, so, I mean, can you imagine that? I mean, literally, you didn't insure them. Why would you even display them if you can't afford to insure them? Why not just keep them in a vault?

It's true, man. It's ridiculous. It's like if the Smithsonian didn't insure the Hope Diamond, it doesn't make any kind of sense at all. It's so dumb. And John, just so you know, we cannot see you right now. There you are. Okay, now we do.

Yeah, all right. So we're going to continue to watch this. Obviously, they're looking for additional suspects. I wonder, you know, the takeaway for me is that these guys, John, you don't see you now. These guys were, you know, they didn't wear masks, right? so facial recognition probably DNA the French government already said these guys left DNA all over the place they didn't even wear gloves so I mean this is one of the okay I feel myself flashing back to Luigi Mangione right at first we think this guy's a master criminal right he he did everything

right and he's not going to get caught but then he did he pulls a couple of really boneheaded It was really like three or four, right? He drops his mask to show his face to the person, to the lady at the youth hostel on the upper west side of Manhattan. He goes to Pennsylvania and basically hangs out at Mickey D's on his laptop, and he leaves a bag of stuff in Central Park, none of which he had to do, right? He could have easily not done that.

so it's kind of like genius or idiot and then here i mean these guys got like mad credit for the execution of the robbery but you know leaving DNA leaving tools dropping one of the key jewels and leaving it behind like several jewels thieves were like what are you talking about it who would do that and you know and then no face masks right i mean so i guess you know you know you got to know some criminals you talked about knowing a jewel thief in in prison so is that kind of just like the human condition like we're all capable of great genius and idiocy and these guys are just no different than that yes the easy answer is yes in addition you have to be you have to be sociopathic in order to be calm enough as you're carrying out the the act the robbery to make sure

not to panic and then to cover all your bases. For example, a sociopath wouldn't allow the adrenaline to cloud his judgment. The sociopath would stop and pick up the jewel that he dropped. The sociopath would have planned this out better, would have been wearing a mask and gloves and a hairnet so as not to leave DNA. You know, there's a famous story of what's his name from, from the first moon landing, Neil Armstrong, you know, Buzz Aldrin was landing the craft on the moon, and he was starting to panic. And he said, I don't think I can do it. I don't think I can do it.

So, so Neil Armstrong took over for the last 10 seconds. And NASA said later that his heart rate actually went down as he was landing the craft, because he has sociopathy, you know? So is it possible that the fight or flight thing is disengaged? But is it possible that Neil Armstrong's heart rate went down because when he took control, he was less scared than he was like, oh, well, I can do this. Buzz is about to crash us on the moon. I guess anything's possible.

You know, that's really interesting. You know, I think we're all really too influenced by like Hollywood movies, right? Where, you know, you get like Oceans 11 or, you know, the born identity and like, you know, these guys, they do, they're superhuman and they do everything perfectly. And in fairness to the born identity, he's

written to be a superhuman, right? He's genetically modified to be a superhuman. But like, you know, we don't really see that. We just sort of, you know, we're so used to, like in the 70s in the horror movie where like the girl would turn around and trip while being chased.

We'd be like, why are you turning around? Don't make, but people make mistakes. That's just how we are. Yeah, yeah. People make mistakes. It's human nature. We have a donation from FUSO. Thank you very much.

Is there still gold in Fort Knox is the question? My understanding is yes. I've always heard yes. Yeah, it's the national repository. I also, you know, so, you know, I knew someone who worked at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City. And she said it was really fascinating. They have gold that's assigned to certain banks. And basically there's like a grid on the floor and basically like on tape.

And the gold is moved like on, at least this is how it used to be. They may not do this anymore. But they used to move it physically. Like it like let's say Bank of America ends up, you know, getting money from Wells Fargo, gold transfer or whatever or to the Republic of, you know, Rwanda. they have a tape on the floor and they move it on like a skid over to their physically

and they literally and I have seen one time on I used to work at Bear Stearns in the mid-80s and I watched gold being unloaded from the back of like a armored truck and these were they were on skids and the ingots were massive

it took two or three big dudes to carry one. It looked like I couldn't say but I'd say at least 100 or maybe 200 pounds And I was kind of like thinking, wow, they're just doing this right on the street while I'm going to lunch. Like I'm walking right by like 10 feet away, no armed guards. But I'm like, its weight is its own protection, right? How far are you getting carrying that thing?

If I grab it, I'm not going anywhere. I mean, it weighs hundreds of pounds. Yeah, right, right. How far are you going to go with gold? That's why paper money is invented. You're better off stealing Bitcoin. That's why Jenghis Khan invented paper money. That's right.

If you so, it says, in a movie about yourselves, who would you want to play you? How about Will Ferrell as John Bren? Yeah. I always said I would want Bet Midler to play me. I want Keanu Reeves, so I look better in the movies than I look in real life. I'll tell you the truth. My agent was at a dinner a couple of weeks ago. and she ran into Jake Gyllenhaal.

And she said, Jake, haven't seen you in a while. What are you working on? And he said, ah, I took a year off. It's kind of stretching into two years. But I'm thinking of doing something different. He said, I've never done anything in the espionage area. And she said, oh, I've got a guy. You're going to want to meet.

And so she mentioned me. And he said, oh, I know that guy. I've seen him on YouTube. And so next time I go out, we're going to all have. lunch maybe he watches this show if so hi jake love your stuff yeah same here question for uh this is from a h 89 on youtube for you have you seen the diplomat on netflix if so does it show a realistic realistic depiction of day-to-day in a foreign embassy yes it's it's an outstanding show i have to say i've been pleasantly surprised and but it specifically shows the day-to-day life in a

large embassy, like a large strategically located embassy. So we're not talking about the American embassy in Bahrain here, but we are talking about the American embassy in, you know, Cairo, London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing. Yes, it's an outstanding show. However, how realistic I have to ask you this, because when I saw, I had trouble with this, how realistic is the plot line that, you know, she's a badass former, like, you know, globe-trotting, you know, war zone chick and that she ends up in that position, you know, ambassador to the court of St. James?

No. Yeah. Not going to ever happen. No. No. More likely is that the person appointed ambassador to the court of St. James is a golfing buddy of the president. That's kind of, that was my take as well. well. I was just like, I'd like to live in a world where either the government has so much, such cool people. But I'm like, and oh, if you so, will you ever see Macron's crown jewels? I think it's Mrs. Macron's crown jewels that are in question, right? And they've been recently

inspected from what I understand. She submitted to a physical examination in her lawsuit against, was that Laura Lumer? Who was it that she, she's suing? No, no, it's the African-American woman. Oh, right. She's newly Catholic. I forget her name. Yeah, and they sued her in Delaware, which I didn't understand at all why they would sue her in Delaware. Huh.

But anyway, yeah. I wonder if there's like a... Cannesette? That's it. Yeah, thank you. Submit to a physical exam. And I'm just not seeing what Candidstone's defense is going to be. Yeah, it's going to be pretty tough.

Yeah. I mean, I think she can try, I mean, if Delaware has an anti-SLAPP statute, that's probably her best bet, you know, to derail a legitimate law. That's basically used to derail legitimate lawsuits more than anyone cares to admit. Godna says, didn't Trump say he was personally going to go see the gold in Fort Knox? whatever came to that I don't think he went yeah no he says lots of things but I don't I don't think yeah I don't think he went yeah hex an assy is asking you John have you reacted to Tucker's 9-11 episode 5 where you feature prominently uh yes I'll react now I was absolutely

brilliant in that uh that fifth episode no kidding um I I was surprised that he used me as much as he did. I didn't say anything new, but it's kind of nice to have everything all in one place. He did a beautiful job on that documentary. You know, frankly, he asks a lot of the questions that the rest of us would like to have answers to, but we don't want to be accused of being subscribers to conspiracy theories. He's done a great job of laying it all out there. to the point where Senator Ron Johnson, the Republican from Wisconsin, is talking about reestablishing

the 9-11 commission, but doing it right this time. So we'll see. By the way, all that stuff is available on Rumble, Robbie is saying, so for those who want to check it out. You know, it's funny, yeah, it's, you know, I think it's always great

to have everything in one place. I always said that about, like, Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. It's like, if you're well-educated, you already know about, you know, America's, you know, genocide against the Native Americans, and you know about American imperialism and all that stuff. But the service that's provided here is that it puts everything in one place. So, and that is no small thing.

Can you hear me, Ted? Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Oh, good. Good. I feel like I cut out there for a minute. You did for a second. All right, so what do you want to talk about? I agree with you. I'm glad that people like Tucker are taking this. seriously. So shall we talk about Argentina, the China trade war, or this story, this weird story from the Cook Islands?

John? Do you hear me? I'm sorry. You cut out. And yeah, you're talking about the China, the U.S. China. Do you want to talk about, yeah, do you want to talk about this weird story from the Cook Islands? Argentina. or U.S. and China? You know, because nobody ever speaks about the Cook Islands, let's talk about the Cook Islands. I actually have some familiarity because until recently,

I was associated with a company named Panquake. And Panquake is registered in the Cook Islands for a bunch of reasons. But I've come to the personal belief, the personal belief, this company is not legit. But it's almost impossible to sue because it's in the Cook Islands. With that said, the Cook Islands is an offshore banking center.

And they are increasingly, closely working with the Australians, the New Zealanders, the Americans, and the British to cancel the accounts of companies that they believe are not completely on the up and up. No, kudos to the groups. So let's talk about the Cook Islands. So right off the, in their international waters of the Cook Islands, in their waters, I should say, their domestic waters. This is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Hawaii. There are these polymetallic nodules, which are these round balls that basically contain critical minerals like cobalt, manganese, nickel, which are, ironically. which are ironically, you'll see why I'm going to say ironically, are necessary for clean energy and AI,

particularly clean energy and also defense. So anyway, the U.S. and China are kind of sparring over who gets to do deep sea mining in these waters. Basically, there's sort of a bribe taking place. the U.S. is paying a very small fee, a quarter of a million dollars to the Cook Islands for, quote, unquote, technical assistance. That's just basically a tiny, like, users fee. And anyway, the thing is, it's controversial because, and here's the ironic part, because as Doug McCauley, who's a UC Ocean Science professor, says,

quote, the mining that's being proposed would happen in some of the most fragile or least resilient ecosystems on the planet, saying that he's really worried about wastewater plumes that would be discharged into the sea during, following the extraction of the minerals. So the irony here is that to have to achieve clean energy, we're going to go crap up the bottom of the deep sea. And especially vulnerable part of the deep sea. So this is a, so this is, I. I mean, I guess, but the Cook Islands has much closer relations to the U.S. than China, right? Yeah, yeah, much closer.

But the Chinese do 90-something percent of the world's rare earth mining. They've got it down to a science. And the thing is, is mining for rare earth metals above water is insanely expensive. It's a major money loser, but these ores are so important to everything from missile systems, guided missile systems to auto parts and radio transistors and everything in between that the Chinese see it as an investment to have a monopoly on it, even if it loses money because it keeps the U.S. at bay. So the U.S., believe it or not, buys most of its rare earth metals from China for our guided missile systems and drones and stuff like that. It's just crazy. So, I mean, the Cook Islands, basically, their history is mainly, their recent history is that they were a British colony. And New Zealand, of course, which is part of the Commonwealth also.

owned them for a while. The French had them briefly, but it's Western, right? I mean, so how does China flex its muscle in this particular arena? I mean, they can claim, like, we have the arena. I mean, we have the experience, and they definitely need it more. They need it and want it more than we do, right? Is that enough? I mean, or are they just going to do what they do with the Belt and Road initiative

and sort of rent the Cook Islands, like, say, no, you guys look like you really need a lot of great infrastructure. You know, how would you like a completely up-to-date cell phone grid? How would you like new schools? Is that basically how that's going to go? Absolutely. Mr. Outstreet says China has soft power mastered. Amen.

They really know how to do it right. Talk about a velvet glove. They're happy to spend money all over the planet. They're good at it. And I think that's what it's going to end up being, Ted. They're going to rent the Cook Islands for a little while, and they'll pay them more money than they've ever had before, and they'll be able to further develop the islands and really economy for themselves. And what does the U.S. promise? What support for democracy, or maybe, knowing Donald Trump, maybe some idle threats, or not so idle threats.

I mean, we're not even, this isn't even a main topic today, but let's talk about what's going on in the Southern. Caribbean, right? So Frasmataz says he watched DD geopolitics. They played a speech of the presidents of Colombia saying that Venezuela and Colombia are now under one Bolivarian revolution together. They're both left-wing socialist, you know, sort of leaders. And, you know, they're both being targeted by Trump. They're both having boats carrying their nationals blown up by American drones. and I don't know if they've just used anything beyond drones to pull these off. Maybe they've used fighter jets as well. But there's no end in sight.

I mean, and there's more and more troops on their way, right? This is beginning to really look. It's either the biggest bluff in the world, or it's really starting to look like, you know, the staging point of a possible invasion of Venezuela. Yeah, I know we talked about this a little bit last week, but I'd like to reiterate what I said and maybe go a little bit deeper.

I believe we're going to attack Venezuela. I don't believe that we'll use enough troops that people will be able to say that it's a full-scale ground invasion. But I don't think you need a ground invasion. I think you need, like we said last week, to control the major intersections, to control the radio and television stations,

and to secure the presidential palace. it would it would behoove Donald Trump, I think, if he has already made a decision to do this to allow Nicholas Maduro to leave.

I think arresting him, killing him, charging him with something I think would be a big mistake but I think a decision has been made to overthrow that government. I hate to say it.

And I guess the question is and I kind of, I mean, you know, I'm not 100% sure but I feel like I'm definitely 51% in agreement with you or more, right? Like probably more likely than not, I guess. A preponderance of the evidence suggests yet, yes.

But Trump also likes to create crises and then negotiate from that position of strength, right? So that's also a strong possibility as well. Absolutely, yes. He likes to be taken seriously. Like, we're not, you know, like we've got troops right on your border. What would, I mean, you know, what would an invasion, it's not going to be a coup. If the U.S. attacks Venezuela, it's going to probably be an air campaign. And that's probably not going to be enough.

Historically, air campaigns have rarely been enough to topple a government. I mean, the government of Serbia might be a rare exception. Yeah, rare. You know, I mean, we bomb. Rock into the Stone Age? Well, I mean, we bombed Iraq a lot and they still had a lot of fight left in them. Well, don't forget, yeah. And of course, us, you well know, John, Bill Clinton bombed Iraq all throughout his two terms in office. And nobody was paying attention to that. And it got to the point where American pilots were coming home with their bombs still attached, still in the bay, because

they were running out of targets. I mean, and that's before George W. Bush ever took the oath of office. And it just didn't work. I mean, you know, I think what happens is when a foreign country is bombing your country, you know, it's your government's firefighters who come to put out the blaze. It's your government's police who come and restore order. It's your government that provides any kind of aid. and this other government is just bombing you.

You're not likely to ever, it's very unusual for anyone to sort of have a different point of view. I mean, the only story I've ever heard like that was my mother told me her family was living in San Jose in Brittany at the end of World War II. And there was a German U-boat base there. and the Allies, the RAF and the U.S. Army Air Force, were bombing the shit out of San Jose. San Jose has almost no historic buildings predating World War II because the Allies pretty much leveled it to try to get that submarine base, right, to get the Germans out of there. She said that her family and all of their neighbors would go out into the streets and blow kisses at the Allied pilots and cheer them. them and thank them as as their own homes were burning because they knew that like this is going to be how we get rid of the crouts right like this is it like this is great we don't like fuck our

homes like we just need we only care about having our having the Germans out of here um that almost you know I think the fantasy for you know people who work at the air force the generals there is always like we can replicate that like we'll create that kind of politics on the ground. But it's 99% of the time. That's not true. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. It's not true. That's why when, you know, you're sitting in meetings and you hear people say, as soon as we cross that border into Iraq, they're going to throw flowers at us. Or, oh, the Iranian people are going to throw flowers at us when we liberate them from these Ayatollahs. It's like, ayah, do you people know nothing about history? Nothing.

think it's D-Day, like where cute French girls are going to climb on top of their tanks. Exactly. It's not like that. Nope, not going to happen. MT-16 and 7. Thank you very much for the very generous donation of $20. What do we think about the Chagos Islands deal? I'm worried about potential growing Chinese influence there.

Also, John, are you still on Mnacht? Oh, yeah. I'm still in a minute. Actually, I'm ranked number one this month, the second time in three months that I'm that I'm a list. Answer all the next. I have like eight of them waiting for me to answer, which is funny because it's the, it's, I'm going to say 50% of the questions are essentially the same question. How do I get into the CIA? And then, Meneck, it's funny, it gives you the opportunity to post your response as a public response. It's like, why would I do that?

That's half my income right there. Yeah, but people all ask the same questions. How can I get into the CIA? That is funny. So, are you familiar with these? Islands, too, though. Do tell. Yeah, I am.

See, this is, this is one of the reasons why the Australians and the Filipinos us are so worried about the Chinese because the Chinese, the Chinese expansionists, right? We've talked about this before. Tibet aside, you know, there was a border skirmish in the 70s with the Vietnamese. There have been a couple of border skirmishes. As recently is about six months ago with the Indians. They have one, count them, one military base.

That's one they share with us, interestingly enough. in Djibouti so they're not really expansionist until they are expansionist in which case they seem to be wanting to expand but doing it with a smiling face and an outstretched hand full of cash trying to make friends where the united states has made enemies and so this is i'm genuinely worried about this Robbie made a point in in our chat that uh he says Is this the U.S. trying to starve China of oil since they buy so much from Venezuela, referring to Chinese activity in Venezuela and the, yeah. And the Chinese also built a refinery in the Caribbean in like Trinidad and Tobago

or Turks and Kekos or something down there for the very same reason. So it's, they have found that the U.S. policy of using an iron fist does not work over the long term. but if you essentially rent a country's infrastructure and smile and make sure the payment comes on time, everybody's going to run to China. Well, so let's talk about the Chagos Islands, right? So the Chagos Islands are right in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Yes. From an American, you know, sort of playing a game of risk from an American policy perspective,

your all eyes go to the U.S. naval base at Diego, Garcia, which is, you know, I mean, sure, it's not right next door because nothing's right next door to anything out there. But basically, this very strange kind of thing that basically the Chagos Islands recently, the U.N. body basically, the U.N. basically ruled recently, but this belongs to Mauritius, right? And so the thinking is that Mauritius is a stalking horse for a child. and that they're basically doing China's bidding.

The Mauritans completely deny this. And they say, we don't know what the fuck you're talking about. The Chagos Islanders say there's nothing to this. You guys are a bunch of fucking paranoid freaks. You know, what's the story? I mean, what do you think is actually going on here? Who do you believe? I think the Chinese probably are trying to at least probe to see if there's an opportunity for them.

They've long been bothered by the U.S. presence in Diego Garcia. You know, for many, many years, Diego Garcia was just a backwater. It was known for this, you know, unusual tribe, this Arab tribe that didn't have much contact with the outside world. They had some, but not much. There was a British military base there for a long time. They have very unusual flora and fauna, so, you know, national geographic would take groups there. And then immediately post-9-11, the U.S. said to the Brits, we want Diego Garcia. and we want the whole thing.

And so not only did we rent Diego Garcia from the British, but we opened an enormous airfield there. And that's supposed to be our primary, one of our two or three primary bases in South Asia, southwest Asia. The Chigos Islands are well positioned for the Chinese because they're relatively close to India. And the Indians and the Chinese have not gotten along

in many, many decades. And so I think this is something the Chinese probably want very much, not necessarily so out loud in public, but I think that it's very strategic for them. It would be a very important acquisition if they could somehow get a toehold there. Yeah, like New Caledonia or reunion for France, the only reason to hold on to those. If memory serves parenthetically, am I remembering correctly that Diego Garcia was a black site during the war on terror? Yeah, it was. In fact, the first time a reporter asked me about the black side of Diego Garcia, I said,

there's no black side of Diego Garcia. Like, even I was unaware of that. And she said, oh, yeah, there is. And it was years later that I don't even think the CIA ever, ever, admitted it, but years later, the consensus in the media was that, yeah, there was a black side of Diego, Russia, sure. Thank you, F. U.S.O. for your comment and your donation. Our new Nobel Prize laureate wants the U.S. to bomb and invade Venezuela. That's going to be rough here. I don't see how you can,

I mean, here's the question, right? I mean, like, obviously Venezuela in politics is hardly monolithically behind its current president. But still, I don't see, you know, I don't see a coup just going like and like making him blow away. No. Do you? No. Like we said a week or two ago, Ted, a lot of Venezuelans who otherwise would oppose

Nicholas Maduro are in the United States. Right. Or they've left the country. They're like anti-Castro. Cubans. Yeah, exactly. The anti-Castro-Cubans have left. They're all in Miami. It's the same situation with the Venezuelans. If I were... They're always the military planner. Forget it. I wouldn't count on anything. The exiles are always... The exiles are always over the top, right? The exiles are always militants, you know,

and they're always willing to fight with other people's lives. That's how it was... That's how my father-in-law, who was a big Taiwan independence activist, of course, living in California, right? Exactly. He doesn't, he's like, you know, he doesn't have the Chinese, like up his ass, right, right across with Taiwan straight. That's always how they are. Absolutely right.

100%. So, yeah. You know, I know that I have a question, but I'm unable to see what the question is. Let me read it to you. Frasmataz is asking you. My last few messages about the doomsday continuity of government planes being flown to Qatar and a second to Japan, maybe Trump and Rubio are using them for support, for transport? It's possible.

For transport, it's possible. For continuity of government, no, those sites are all domestic. The nearest one is Mount Weather, West Virginia. It's right on the Virginia-West Virginia border. And I think we talked about that once. And there's the big one in Colorado, right? Big, big one in Colorado. There are rumors of one up in the Idaho Panhandle.

So, yeah, there are several all around. It's mostly the president, the vice president, their families, the cabinet, their families, the congressional leadership and their families. By the way, I'm singularly, after 9-11, I'm single. after 9-11, I'm singularly unimpressed with continuity of government schemes. I mean, with the benefit of hindsight, like, really truly, like, look, the U.S. was 99.999% intact, right? Bush disappears for an entire day. We have no, we don't even have like an Al Haig assuring us that he's in charge

and telling us that someone's running the government all day long, right? Yeah. Minor little thing, right? Like basically, you know, you lost four planes and like a few buildings. And that is going to like put the U.S. government on its heels like that. Yeah, continuity of government is a Cold War fantasy, like hunkering down in the steam tunnels with your, you know, dehydrated water biscuits using your converted toilet seat on top of the old water barrel. Give me a break.

It's not going to happen. The whole thing is just going to fall apart. going to fall apart. It's like the escape tunnels under the White House. Have you heard about those? Nixon had these tunnels built. And they haven't been used since Nixon. And he did it not for continuity of government. He did it to escape anti-Vietnam war protesters. Right. It's like Chirchescu, right? Like the Romanians had all those tunnels all underneath Bucharest, right? And it's like, oh, we'll make our getaway. Didn't go so well. How long did the trial last two hours?

Yep. Yep. Exactly. I told you about that. Things fall apart fast there. All right. So let's, we should obviously talk about either Argentina and US China. I don't know. Before we do, I think you need to do an ad. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's a good point. Thanks for that. Robbie, please put up the ad and I will read that. But okay, so let's talk about Argentina. So, John, please explain this to me. I mean, Havgay Malay has inherited granted. Oh, here's the ad. I'll read this. Okay. Still haven't tried 1775 coffee. Now is your shot.

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black 1775 tumbler, $170 worth of coffee in years, years for 99 bucks. This is for the ones who've been watching 1775 blow up on Rumble, wondering if it's actually worth it. Spoiler, it is. Go to 1775 coffee.com slash studio and grab your starter kit before they're gone, bold beans, clean fuel, and a morning routine that stands for something just like Rumble does. Okay. Argentina, right? So, you know, usually I feel like I understand news stories. This one I do not get. So I understand that the Argentinians have been dealing with hyperinflation for years. A triple digit is not unusual. Like 120% annual inflation rate for them is like no bigs. So obviously that's been causing all sorts of hardship. So they turn hard right. They turn to the, guy Malay. He imposes harsh austerity measures. It appears by all accounts that he's making things even worse, right? The economy is a disaster. There's mass unemployment. He came begging to Donald Trump for first $20 billion of your and my tax dollars. And now it's

double to $40 billion. And you know they're coming back for more. So we're being, bailing out the government of Argentina, while our people are sleeping outside. Okay, so, and there's no cops on the subway in New York. But, okay, the point is, nevertheless, there's midterm elections. Malay's party, La Libertad Avanza, scores a landslide. 41% of the vote, you know, it's a plurality, multiple party system. And he gets 13 Senate seats, 64 lower house seats. why is he how why are the argentin are argentines turning why are they supporting him or is it just that

the opposition sucked so mad oh i think yeah it's a combination of the two he has that odd populist support that trump has it's sometimes inexplicable um i think the argentines were very taken by trump's promise of a 40 billion dollar bailout or a 20 billion billion dollar bailout. We've heard both numbers. But the opposition is awful. Even the liberal opposition ends up being fascist. They're all corrupt down there. It's been one corrupt administration after another. Half the prime ministers end up in prison. So yeah, I think that this is a reaction against the status quo. And they're willing to give the guy enough rope to hang himself or to or to save the country and let me let me add one thing uh let's see who was it it was it

tammy yes tammy landrigam landringham seen caffeine and seen azucar caffeine free and sugar-free the thing is is it's too my question to you john is what's the point of coke without caffeine and sugar. I just miss soda so much. I haven't had any in like three years, so I decided now I'm going to treat myself and go slowly, but it has to be room temperature because my

mini fridge is truly a mini fridge. That is funny. Can I add something, Ted? Robbie is saying, I'm convinced this is Trump trying to lock out the Chinese from Argentine beef and soy experts. Amen. I think it

is the the chinese have had great success in south america uh just like they have in the caribbean and in central america and argentina is one place where donald trump can actually do something to keep the chinese out so basically he's doing micro he's doing the micro trump version of belt and road yeah i think that's what it is he's buying he's renting argentina yeah i think that's exactly what we're seeing i like it that's a good that's good analysis that's That is good. I like it. But I mean, all right. So, I mean, what happens next here, right?

I mean, I would think that, you know, they're going to turn against him. Well, things are going to get spicy. It's like Macron, right? Look at where he is now. But, I mean, you know, he was winning and winning and winning. He had the whole, he had all of French politics all to himself. And then it's kind of like, well, now you break it, you own it. You own it completely.

And now it's like the anger is going to be that much, that much harsher if he fucks up. And it seems like, I mean, I don't know how he's not going to fuck up. I don't see how a bailout solves the structural problems of the Argentine economy. Oh, my God. You're exactly right. It doesn't. It's a temporary fix. I don't know if you've ever been to Argentina, Ted.

Never. But I was very fortunate to go. It's been a while now. It's been 22 years. 22 years ago, I went. And that country has everything. It has mountains. It has access to the ocean.

It has fantastic farmland, the Pampas, where they raised all this wonderful cattle, the highest quality best-tasting beef in the world besides, you know, Kobe beef or Wagyu beef, whatever. It's fantastic. The country has everything to make a go independently of any other relationship. And it's just in a situation of constant failure. Constant failure. And it's because of corrupt leadership. They just interact together.

Yeah, corruption's not the problem in France. But France is the same way, right? It's got everything. It's got everything. It's, you know, great geographical positioning, great land, great variety. You know, it's got, you know, it's got that whole like Jared Diamond argument about like why certain countries succeed. You want north-south rivers.

You don't want east-west rivers and all that. You know, this is why the U.S. is one of the reasons. I mean, U.S. has amazing geographical positioning. And it's like same thing. I mean, they can't seem to get it together these days. Yeah, it's true. It's true. And Peru Sata is making a point.

Didn't Trump say that the support is dependent on if Mulei wins? Yes. he basically blackmailed the voters yes but the voters that couldn't be blackmailed in Canada and and Ireland I might add but do the voters listen I mean does that work that way I mean do you think Argentine voters are like well I don't really like this guy I don't like Javier but I'm going to vote for him anyway because then we'll get the American support do you think they're that strategic I mean our voters are not our voters would never no nor would Canada's nor would most European countries

or all European countries. But I think that happened in Argentina. 40 million or 40 billion, rather, in free money. Nothing else worked. And if anything, you know, Millet is different. He's that economic populist. So I read it an op-ed the other day, yesterday the day before, comparing Millet with Huey Long, of all people.

The kingfish. The kingfish, exactly. comparing him to the kingfish with the conclusion being that it's just good old-fashioned conservatism coupled with a little bit of racism, anti-Chinese racism in this case, and then money-changing hands. That's really what it comes down to. I don't know. I think, you know, Huey Long, I think it's not fair to call him that far right, though.

you know, his populism was a little bit more of a blend. Yeah, he really did have the best interests of the working poor at heart. Yeah, he did. That's why he had to be sure. He was a ferocious racist, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was. Well, how else are going to become governor of Louisiana? Of Louisiana.

They all, back then. I mean, they almost elected David Duke. Yeah, they did. They came close. More than once? Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, we got time for one more story, so let's get to it.

So this is kind of a, I mean, you know, we have to talk about it. So President Xi and President Trump are going to meet on Thursday ahead of the ASEAN summit. And basically, Trump had been threatening, as Trump does. He threatening is his thing. He was threatening 100% tariffs on Chinese imports. so basically what we seem how is like you know Trump likes maybe like he doesn't really like deals he likes frameworks for a deal I have a concept for a deal on health care so he has a concept or he has a framework basic deal points where we're

going to pause these tariffs he didn't say for how many months but you know it's a matter of maybe six months or three months and and that while further discussions happen he keeps doing this and TikTok I can't I lost track I of how many times that deadline has been extended. I mean, he's like... Seriously, right? He's like my old pothead roommate who was always going to our professors for an extension.

And so it's like, so TikTok will eventually, so is also going to be supposedly part of this deal where some American companies or investors buy TikTok and, you know, conform to the bill that Congress inexplicably passed in a bipartisan batch. and never bothering to explain to the American people. Obviously, America and China are at inherent loggerheads here, right? Is there a world where there can be a grand bargain between China and the U.S.,

where they literally are like, let's sit down and hammer out something that could last 20 years where it's like, we're going to have Yalta here, we're going to carve up the world, we're going to like into economic spheres of influence and we're going to stop fucking with each other so we can all make more money or is that just ridiculous Ted Rawls high on Monday morning kind of thing I don't think it's possible on anything other than trade specifically so if they're talking only about trade they're not talking about the military they're not talking about about you know weapons deals or whatever yeah it's possible on trade sure it would it would behoove both sides to come to some sort of an agreement.

Of course, then it would free us up to deal with our real enemies like Canada. You know, we've got a, we've got a brand new additional 10% tariff on Canada starting yesterday just because they pissed off Trump with a, with an ad in which they quoted Ronald Reagan. Accurately, by the way,

they quoted Ronald Reagan. I mean, of course, they didn't just quote him. They ran the video. the speech. Yeah. Yeah, they did. They ran the video. But yeah, I suppose a trade agreement is possible with the Chinese. It would be incredibly complicated. But with two and a half minutes to go, we should also not overlook Trump's statement this morning that he would be willing to remain in Asia for an extra day or two to meet Kim Jong-un. And what would be the purpose of that meeting? I mean, you know, I kind of say one of the problems with Donald Trump is he never stick

around man he shows up like a fly and then buzzes off to the next thing yeah and it's like so there's no follow through there's no follow through he is not the detail guy he wants his underlings to be the detail guys he wants to get the photo op and be the first president to step in north korean territory which he was um and to shake the hands and you know make the big promises but you're right there's no follow through and so what would be the purpose of meeting with kim jong un it would be the photo op. We're not engaged in talks right now with the North Koreans. There's no deal to sign. It would just be the photo op. No, I mean, North Korea, their relationship with Russia has never been stronger. I mean, to me, I mean, Donald Trump is a lot of loose ends. And right now, Russia, Ukraine is the

big one. Big one. Totally agree. Followed closely by Gaza. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there are no, no details there. Just fix this and then he flies off somewhere else. Yeah. By the way, just parenthetically before we go, I'm noticing like a repeat, you know, when things were getting ugly for Nixon under Watergate, he really dedicated himself to foreign affairs. We see this with presidents do it all the time. It's more satisfying. They get more praise. They get to eat nice meals. They get photo ops. Domestic politics kind of just sucks, and it's a no-win situation. We're very early in the Trump administration for that to happen, but he seems to have given up on the U.S. Yeah, seems to have. Yeah. In the meantime, the government's still

shut down and everybody's suffering. And we'll be talking about that and a million other things tomorrow. Thanks, everyone for tuning in. Please like, follow, share, subscribe to the show. Just a reminder, we are re-monitized on YouTube. We are here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time. We'll be back tomorrow at 9 a.m. Eastern. Sorry, no show on Wednesday, just to mark that on your calendars, but we'll be, have some sort of rerun thing. And you guys, certainly the comments section will be open for that.

So for those of you who like to get in and talk about stuff, that will be here Wednesday morning, and we'll be back on Thursday. John, always a pleasure. Have a great time in... Thank you. In Spain. And, yeah, let's do the phone again tomorrow, like first thing. Okay, yeah, yeah, we'll do the phone.

Okay, please stay tuned. TMI show with me and Manila Chan coming right up here on Rumble. Stay tuned. Thank you.