DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Deprogram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: Trump Talking to the Taliban

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Live 5 pm Eastern and Streaming 24-7:On Thursday’s episode of DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou, where political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou dissect the news, the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the No Political Enemies Act, U.S. efforts to reclaim Bagram Air Base from the Taliban, hundreds of thousands strike in France.Jimmy Kimmel: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr states that Kimmel misled the public by linking Charlie Kirk's killer to MAGA, prompting ABC—with a merger pending before the Administration—to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely. Carr warns of ongoing shifts in the media ecosystem post-Trump's election. House Democrats are accusing him of abusing power to coerce ABC and Disney, as Trump calls for more media cancellations.Shield Act for Critics?: Democrats unveil their No Political Enemies Act, creating legal defenses for those targeted for political speech and allowing attorney fee recovery from government harassment. Sponsors like Senators Murphy and Schumer decry the Trump administration's exploitation of Kirk's assassination to silence critics, labeling it a path to autocracy and the worst free speech crisis since McCarthyism. Bagram Air Base Back? Trump announces that the U.S. is working to regain Bagram Air Base from the Taliban, describing it as one of the world's largest bases and strategically located an hour from China's nuclear facilities. Trump pushes national security officials for months to negotiate its return, leveraging Taliban needs amid their push for sanctions relief and recognition. Will we normalize relations?French Strikes and Protests: Hundreds of thousands join strikes against budget cuts, with unions estimating one million participants while officials report 500,000, deploying 80,000 police amid clashes in Paris, Lyon, and Nantes. Disruptions halt metro lines, block roads, and close 98% of pharmacies, as teachers and students protest reduced public services under new Prime Minister Lecornu. Over 140 arrests occur after protesters damage businesses.

Hey there, John Curiakou. You know, I'm Ted Rall. You're watching D-Program with Ted Rall and John Kirooku. And we are here Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. Eastern Time. It's 5 p.m. Eastern Time right now, which is why we're here. It's Thursday, September 18th, 2025. John, always good to see you. Good to see you, Ted. So we're both from our secret undisclosed locations. If we revealed it, we might be treated like a Venezuelan boat, and so I'm not into that at all. Or it might be treated like Jimmy Kimmel. I'm so mad about that. We'll talk about that today. We will talk about that. So what should we get into? Well, I'll sort of go through the main things we've got going on. But as always,

you know, if you're in the Rumble or in the YouTube chat, always love your questions. We're always amazed at how they just keep getting better and better, and they're always been great. questions, yes. I mean, seriously, best place I've ever been for questions. All right, so Jimmy Kimmel, we all know what happens there. We'll be talking about that. The Democrats have proposed legislation, which would be like a Shield Act for people like Jimmy Kimmel, but obviously it's not going to go anywhere with the current configuration of Congress. I'm super interested in the story out of Afghanistan, John. Bagram Air Base is north of Kabul. It goes back to the Soviet at times. Donald Trump was very, very sad to lose that base when the U.S. withdrew in 2021.

And now apparently he's been negotiating with the Taliban government of Afghanistan to try to get it back. I really want to try to figure out what exactly this means. Could we see something as significant as normalization of relations or is it more likely something in between? But then also France is in chaos. It had been predicted. Unlike us who, you know, we don't like to take the day off from work for our protests. They do it right on hump day. So all day yesterday and going into today, mass arrests, all the pharmacies are closed. All the trains aren't running.

The airports are shut down. Nothing's moving. No one's going anywhere. France is closed. So, but I guess they'll get back to work tomorrow, maybe, in time for the weekend. Anyway, what do you want to do first? You know, let's, I know it's not the top story, but it feels like it is for me. Let's talk about Jimmy Kimmel.

Okay. I used to be a loyal, faithful, every night viewer of Johnny Carson. And my loyalty remained through Jay Leno. I don't so much like, what's his name from Saturday Night Live. But I love Jimmy Kimmel. I think he's hilarious. I think that it's sophisticated comedy, it's smart comedy, but it's comedy. It's just a joke.

And to have Donald Trump sort of under his breath threaten ABC's broadcasting license because Jimmy Kimmel jokes about him is fascism. I mean, there's no other word to describe it, but fascism. So they just said he's suspended indefinitely. They didn't say that the show is canceled. It very well may be canceled. But it just goes to show you how afraid these big corporations are of Donald Trump, whether they're afraid of being sued for defamation or they're afraid of these regulatory moves.

I'm very disturbed by this. It bothers me very, very much. Yeah, no, it does for me too. I mean, look, we know that money was involved here. This is the second time we've seen the second time. you've seen something like this. Stephen Colbert's employer Steve has a pending

merger in front of the Trump administration, and he's made it very clear that it would be really sad to see their big merger go to hell unless something would happen to Colbert. And then they're basically, you know,

he got a one-year reprieve. He got a one-year notice, but he's gone. And then there's Kimmel's situation, which is also very disturbing as well. You know, he was, same thing. They have a merger pending in front of the administration. The administrations made very clear. I mean, what was really disturbing to me was how specific the FCC was in its threat. The FCC chairman issued a statement basically saying, what we really want here is for the distribution companies to stop, Sinclair Media, to stop receiving Kimmel.

And then the parent company will, you know, ABC will do what's obvious. And they'll fire him, you know. And it's kind of like, that's exactly how it went down. It's really chilling. Then you have the president of the United States issuing a statement that says, you know, I really hope this was all me. He knows it was 99% all him. And Kimmel's, and the thing is, Kimmel's comment, you know, which we've said,

you know, it's not very long. He basically, it's kind of a convoluted statement, but basically he's saying that the Trump White House and Mago World was trying to make political hay out of the Charlie Kirk assassination. Well, that's undeniably true. Yeah, of course. And it's really, it's a, it's a bad look. But also, he said, well, you know, they want to make sure that, you know, that everyone knows that the shooter was not one of theirs. So, okay. I mean, the implication is that the shooter was one of theirs, and to be clear, there's zero zip evidence that that's the case. But it's not really the same thing as saying linguistically it was one of theirs, right? Jimmy Kimmel's accusing Maga World of just sort of bending over backwards to say he's not one of ours.

So he didn't say anything inaccurate, and he said something clumsy and maybe a little bit unclear, convoluting. But even if, honestly, even if he had said something that was completely just mistaken, so what? It's late night comedy television. I don't care about Jimmy Kimmel. I never watched these shows. I don't like the format. I don't really like much stand-up comedy. I don't care.

But, I mean, that's so it's not like a personal thing for me. But also what I don't like is these two companies who, they look to me like, they wanted to end these shows anyway. because the ratings aren't so great people don't stay up as late as they used to before covid and the rating and and you know they're and they're just sort of looking for an excuse and it's like oh we can curry favor with the president and his people and get rid of this expensive contract that we were like upset about still having to uh to pay out on so it's it's really corporate slees for me the the companies involved are disgusting yep i'm glad you said it because if that's the case and it very well may be the case that they're just tired of

paying jimmy kimmel his gigantic salary just be honest just say look you know the ratings aren't there we don't think he's very funny he doesn't stand up in terms of the numbers to the other late night comedians we're going to move on and do something else but i think you're right that what they're actually doing is trying to curry favor with Donald Trump. Hey, and as an aside, one of our viewers and a friend of mine, Nick Garron, sent me some pictures of golden statues

that have appeared around the Capitol today, golden statues of Donald Trump. I thought it was... Oh, that's awesome. I asked him if it was from the onion. He said, no, they're actually there on the Capitol grounds. Are they... So, are these...

I wonder if this is related to... You know how there's those weird brush-steel monoliths that appear in the middle, I guess in the desert in places like Nevada and Utah? And nobody was also, I remember years ago, someone in a Brooklyn park put up a statue of Edward Snowden as a free speech person. I thought they should have left it there. I mean, you know, my only beef is that I would prefer it in Central Park. where I could see it when I go biking, and put some flowers there.

But, I mean, I love this. I wonder, you know, it'd be great if the statues were super, super heavy so that it's really hard for them to move them and get rid of them. Right. That would be funny. Or glue them or somehow affix them, concrete them, or put them in some really awkward place, like a freeway, like underneath a freeway overpass where it's like, oh, my God, how are we going to get this?

down yeah i agree you know trump might like him though you know he might say leave him yeah i think he would very much like him you know he does weird stuff like that have you ever been have you ever seen the trump golf course out in leesburg virginia it's about 25 miles west of of washington uh it's it's it's on a bluff overlooking the potomac river and um and there's a flag that's flying there and there's the a historical marker at the base of the flag. And it talks about this being the site of the Battle of the Potomac, which was one of the most important battles of the Civil War.

It's what turned the course of the war away from the South and in favor of the North. There's no such thing as the Battle of the Potomac. Really? It's completely made up. There was no battle there where the Trump Gulf course was. the historical marker was not written by historians and it was not approved by the state of Virginia's state historian it's just made up and it was privately made Trump had somebody make it and place it there but it's completely and totally false that's so bizarre but it's very much

in keeping with his personality don't you think oh it totally is I mean he I guess he just wanted some mythology, right? I mean, that's what this is about. He likes the, you know, it's like, well, we're in Virginia. Virginia's historical. There could have been a battle here. There have been battles in Virginia. Half of all the Civil Wars battles were fought in Virginia. So why not? You know, I find bullets all the time. I must have a hundred of them, maybe more than a hundred Civil War bullets. Yeah, you find them all over the place. The big, the big white ones? They're about the size of of the last part of your index figure. Oh, okay.

Yeah, the ones I've seen were a little bigger than that, like from Gettysburg. Three grooves around or like from the union and two grooves are from the south. Oh, really? Yeah. You could, apparently some people said you could see them coming. Oh, my goodness.

Well, they were big and fat and they didn't go that fast. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't think you could get out of the way, but, you know, it's just sort of like, you can do. Like, and you're saying, oh, crap, this one's, oh god can you imagine getting i'd much rather take a 22 anywhere in my body to then catch one of those fucking little micro cannonballs oh although just as an inside i was in prison for about a year when whitey bulger was caught

and when word started making the rounds that whitey bulger had been caught i happened to be sitting with um well with the boss of the boston family the Patriarcha family. And, well, I'll say his name. His name was Carmine Danizio. And I said, hey, Carmine. I said, Whitey Bollger got caught. Now, mind you, they were both from Boston.

Carmine's the head of the Italian family. Whitey Bollger had been the head of the Irish family. And he said, I'd like to put a bullet in his fucking head right now. And I said, yeah, put your nine against his temple and just pull the trigger. And he looks at me and he says, my nine, I'd use a 22. I said, a 22, that's a lady's gun. Yeah. He said, ah, but the 22, because it's such a light gun,

rather than going through your head, it just bounces around in there and turns everything to jello. I took his word for it. He's thought it through. Oh, he's probably practiced it a number of times. That's hilarious. By the way, ERF 1954. Thank you so much for becoming a monthly supporter of Deep.

program. Let's see. A few other comments. How does this play out with YouTube having 10 times more subscribers than Rumble? I think that's a Robbie question. That is a Robbie question. Robbie, put on your pants and here we go. Okay, so how does it pay out with Rumble versus YouTube? One, for some reason, YouTube has suspended our super chats and they have since yesterday.

I've got a ticket submitted No reply, no idea why So that's one thing YouTube plays games and Rubble doesn't Number two YouTube has censored both John and Ted in the past

Rumble never has So for those of you talking about How right wing Rumble is It's a right wing that you have lefties Like the two gentlemen here To my left Which is convenient Because they are to my left

And Jimmy Dore and other people like that Who are able to speak freely Without being censored so that's another feather that rumble has lastly youtube pays based off of ads and ad clicks and so if you let an ad run all the way through they'll get paid maybe 30 to 70 cents per ad rumble on the flip side though pays them based off of their watch hours so it's just like tv and radio so the more that you watch them the more that they get paid the more that they get paid the more deep programmed you get to get So if you want an hour and a half show, watch them on Rumble, and it makes financial sense for them to do that.

So to answer you a question, that's pretty much it. And the cat. Well, that wasn't this question, right? Oh, hello kitty. Meow, meow. But as far as the, as far as why Rumble is doing this, it's because the, the question is how does this play out with YouTube having 10 time more subscribers than Rumble? Yeah.

Yeah, well, that's what I was getting at, because people go. to people go to platforms because they want to see content creators rumbled realizes that to get content creators that people want to watch they got to pay them they're like they have to they try harder yeah 100 percent and so what they do is uh they incentivize creators to come over to the platform and they use carrots like you got to get a paycheck and also be able to speak freely to bring those content creators over and eventually build the audience yeah the money the money from Sorry to interrupt Robbie, but the money from on YouTube is, I mean, before I ever got into podcasting, I looked into this. And it was like, it's hilariously, like, ridiculous.

Remember Gangnam style by Si? That guy had two billion, probably more than that, but two billion views at the time that I looked at this. And he, I think he made like $100,000 or something. Two billion views. Could you imagine having 200 spins? on terrestrial radio in say 1980 i mean you know you're you would have had to keep your money in its own state um yeah it's crazy but i mean but i mean to i mean to just to directly answer that question it's because rumble is incentivizing creators to come over to rumble and to vote

hopefully i'm sure eventually the idea is sort of to stream exclusively on rumble but in order to make that happen though you got to make it worth their time and so the more and so the more time that people spend on the platform that then let's rumble pitch to to investors hey this is how many people are here this is what the metrics look like this is how long people are on and that then will attract more investment and so that is that's that's the market that that's the strategy is to capture views and once you're on rumble to keep you there and as a content creator of a self-year-o rumble on the put and buy gaming channel um i tell you that's what it is it's a rumble as politics. It's got music. It's got gaming. It's got it all. And it is a true competitor to YouTube. And if you value free speech, it's really the best game in town. Thank you, Robbie. Okay. Let's get into, okay. So Ryan Jude says, Kimmel doesn't deserve to be canceled for his comments on Charlie Kirk. He deserves to be canceled because he's not funny. Matter of opinion. Ashty F-G-H-Y says, how does Kimmel fight back? Can he,

take it to the Supreme Court. That is an excellent question. I mean, what this does appear to be a First Amendment case. First Amendment cases are few and far between because usually when you get censored, it's by a corporation. Here, okay, now, actually, I have advice for Jimmy, and he should call me, and I can put him in touch with my legal team, because when I sued the LA Times, our theory of the case was very similar. I was fired by a private entity, Tronk slash Tribune publishing, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, but it was, this was considered a First Amendment case by proxy, because it was the Los Angeles Police Department purchased controlling interest in tribute publishing, and the police chief then who, you know, from that same department,

walked over to the publisher at the time, at the LA Times, and asked him to fire me, actually ordered him to fire me. So it's First Amendment by proxy. I think that would be, you know, know, Kimmel would have to pursue that theory of the case. It's a novel theory. And there's no guarantee that it would work. But I think it's the only, because otherwise, they can fire anyone they want. And they're going to claim, they're going to claim they have a First Amendment right, not to air him. That's right. It's a tough case, no matter how you look at it. However, he has deep pockets. You know, if I'm him, I take him and Colbert and I try to to do something new somewhere else and make a big splash by doing some project like well you know

basically bring your like the way that uh what's his name um mar did after he got fired at abc yeah he got fired at abc went straight to hbo he's made millions upon millions of dollars ever since his fans followed him yeah for sure um you know so i i think that's the way there um another question big boss big boss bob ross how long till we get kim jung ill level of lies things like actually trump was the chicago bull's first big but he was too busy soon they went to their backup michael jordan instead that could happen we're not far we're really not far from that we're not we're not we're not far and it scares the daylights out of me it really does you know what scares me john isn't the uh isn't the bullshit coming out of the White House or its allies.

It's the total absence of resistance. The Democratic Party is useless. Well, look what they did. They wrote this new bill, right? The no political enemies act. The Nope bill. Yeah, the Noep, which is going to be shelved in subcommittee and will never be heard from again.

So it's the equivalent of saying, well, I'm going to write a very, strongly worded letter. Do you remember in Team America World Police where it's like Hans Blix is that character. I will write a very stern letter to the United Nations and then they'll see.

Exactly. And there's no left and there's no and there's just no one's pissed you know. Yeah. Study France, they do it better than we do. They're not perfect, but they definitely do it better. U.S. Triple X A-Rod 21. The Kimmel threats from the administration seem so incredibly short-sighted. Fox News should be shaking in their boots for the next Democratic presidency.

You'd think. But, you know, they don't, the Democrats have never really been very good at doing retribution. Yeah. No. No, they're not. Oh, and you know what? We missed something very, very important. too oh shit the day before yesterday john thune the majority leader of the senate the republican senator from south dakota um initiated the nuclear option right so now trump's nominees for any federal office need only 51 votes instead of the 60 to break cloture um the democrats had had used the nuclear option when Harry Reid was the majority leader, but just on federal judges to get Obama's judges approved. And everybody said, this is a terrible idea because the Republicans are going to do the same thing to you.

And then you're going to be screwed. So Trump's judges are all. I remember, John, I'm going to tee it right, low and fat over her own plate. You remember what the Democrat said. Don't worry because we. we will be in power forever. The Republicans will never be in power ever again. They did say that.

Because the demographics are on our side. Because Hispanics are automatically Democrats, right? I mean, that's what the Democrats said back in 2009, and that Texas was turning purple. And I remember quite literally, quite literally, the Democrats saying that there would never, be another Republican president ever and that the Republican party was split and morph into something else. That they, the Republicans are going to go the way of the wigs. Never to be seen again.

That's exactly right. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, it's just so insanely. Shortside is exactly the right word here. Yeah, of course, idiots. Road beef says pretty soon we'll have AI everywhere of Trump partaking an historical event, Trump at Iwo Jima, Trump with Tanya Harding, Trump is General Shorke. Yeah. Well, I did kind of create the, I did kind of do that for the segment about the Taliban, where I have Trump, you know, drinking two guys who don't drink the Taliban. Well, the Taliban guy might drink when he goes to Doha or when he goes to, or Dubai. You know, King Fah. Those guys do drink, and they horror when they go to Dubai.

Oh, yeah. King Fahad, when he came to the White House, he and George H.W. Bush, or no, maybe it was Reagan, toasted each other with wine. And the picture, when the picture was released, it spread like wildfire around Saudi Arabia. And people were genuinely worried that there would be a move against the royal family because here's a picture, released internationally, of the king drinking alcohol, the custodian of the two holy mosques, drinking alcohol and then he released a statement saying that it was not wine it was grape juice which of course it was not it was wine yeah and nobody drinks grape juice voluntarily ever i remember we we had an alcohol shipment come in in saudi arabia when i was stationed there and this the saudi ministry of i guess it was transportation that covered the airport called

the embassy and said that we had to send somebody quickly because our shipment of office furniture was leaking. I thought you were going to say that it all leaked over into the royal palace. You know, people always used to say that they were going to go to the library, right? Oh, I'm going to go to the library. Oh, after work, I have to stop by the library. Finally, I was like, what's this library? I haven't seen any library, but I'd love to go, see what they have.

Like, no, that's what they call the liquor store that's hidden behind. behind the the embassy store where you can buy you know t-shirts and my deodorant and whatever like no no there's a little

liquor store hidden in the back they can't help themselves they're ridiculous hey so thank you to sell a mom for the $10 John do you still feel a certain way about Jose Rodriguez

now especially since he sent that tweet about you going to prison yeah I do feel a certain way about Jose Rodriguez What twos that? And actually, Jose Rodriguez. Who is Jose Rodriguez? He was the, he was the, he was the, he was the director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center when I was there.

A long time station chief who was constantly getting himself in trouble. He's very handsy in the office. He had to be pulled out of several large stations because of his handsiness. But he was such a bloodthirsty killer that he just kept getting promoted over and over. up being deputy director of the CIA for operations and the reason i feel a certain way in addition to you know working for a bloodthirsty sociopath the night before i went to prison he tweeted at me and he said don't drop the soap asshole and i i was very angry and i gave myself a few hours to cool down and then i tweeted back in him and i said jose i am on the right side of history and you are

not and he's not now he's just a mean old man who has the blood of thousands and thousands of people on his hands he lives next door to a man i don't even want to i don't even want to say his name a man who was the head of the special activities division um who who Vanity Fair magazine says had been a hitman for the Cali cartel before joining the CIA at Jose's insistence. They live next door to each other in St. Augustine, Florida. So, yeah, I feel even more strongly about Jose Rodriguez now than I did 10 years ago. That totally makes sense. Okay, also we have, why does the CIA keep, this is from Selimam $20, thanks again. Why does the CIA keep mum on old-timers like James Angleton.

He's a very interesting character. What stories have you heard about him while you were there? Oh, I got a James Angleton story for you. My first boss. And who was he? Oh, yes, James Angleton was the deputy director of the CIA for counterintelligence. He was the mole hunter. And of course, he believed everybody was a mole.

So he ruined countless lives of faithful CIA officers while he was there. The reason why he was so paranoid is because his best friend in the world was Kim Filby, who was the head of MI6 and who defected to the Soviet Union and turned out to have been a mole for his entire adult life. He was recruited by the KGB when he was in college at Oxford or Cambridge, at Cambridge. So Angleton saw a mole behind every corner. my my first boss at the CIA who's a great friend of mine told me that his first job at the CIA was as a grad fellow it was kind of a graduate school internship program and once you finish school they offer you a full-time staff job so his internship was in angleton's office and when he when he first got there on his very first day the secretary showed him around and said you see this wall of files and he said he said It was an entire wall of just Manila folders. She said, don't ever look in those files.

You're not cleared for those files. He said, well, of course, the first time everybody's out to a lunch party or whatever, he runs to the files. He said every single one of those files was on an American. On an American. How many felonies is that? You have a thousand files? a thousand felonies. The CIA's not allowed to spy on Americans. Period. It's written in stone.

And every one of those files was on an American. He told me he wished he had never seen them. Yeah. I mean, it's not surprising, right? Absolute power corrupts, blah, blah, blah. When I first got to the CIA, I said to, and the reason he told me that story was, you know, I was so just enthralled by the whole idea. We had these blue badges back then, and you had to wear them all the time. And then there were checkpoints in the building because I had what was called an H compartment so I could go anywhere. But a lot of people didn't. And so you had to show your badge at each checkpoint. There were just these retirees just sitting there badge, badge, badge, badge, badge.

And I said to him, it's so cool that we have these checkpoints. And I just feel like I'm so important. And I wasn't, of course. I was 24, 25 years old. And I said, hey, you were here, you were here in the bad old days when Angleton was running the place, weren't you? And he said, oh, yeah, yeah, it was. He said, we were afraid of Angleton.

If we saw Angleton walking down the hall, we would cut down a different hall. You just don't want to come to Angleton's attention. Yeah. Sounds like it. God, what I fucked up, dude. It's a bad dude, truly. One for me, from American sweetheart. Thanks for the five bucks.

My daughter is doing a project on the French Revolution, and I wondered if you have any reading recommendations or documentary recommendations for her. Not documentaries, per se, but if you're looking for something contemporaneous, you can't really go wrong with Edmund Burke's book from 1790 or something like that, reflections on the revolution in France. I would say also, you're kind of like the French Revolution of History by Thomas Carlyle is amazing. It's from the 1830s. But if you want to just read one thing, I think it's still the standard right now, is a book that came out of the 80s called Citizens by Simon Schema. And it's extremely detailed. It's very personal. And I don't know, John, any French Revolution thoughts?

You know, I really, I haven't read about the French Revolution since I was in 100. high school but i know american sweetheart's daughter and she's very smart so she okay she can handle whatever book about the french revolution start with citizens all right and let's see okay we have a few more god they're piling up here which is so great um does everyone does anyone else think free and fair elections are officially dead and gone also as a civics and economics exam too much to ask for every each of every voter amen amen you know that's one of my put downs i just told somebody this yesterday um ted you you have to be very near my hometown and there's a local chain called el canelo it was a group of undocumented mexicans who came to town back in the 90s they opened this restaurant it was so wildly

popular the food is so good that they end up ended up opening like five all around the area one where you are. I should go check it out. I love Mexican food. And this is very high quality, very cheap, inexpensive, Mexican food. Say it again, El Canelo? El Canelo. C-A-N-E-L-O.

So I still read the hometown paper, the Newcastle News. And in the chat, well, something, oh, it was a chat about a new, an article about a new Mexican restaurant that's opening in town. And somebody said, oh, I've been going to El Canelo for years. The food is so great. But one of the servers told me that the servers don't get to keep the tips. The tips go to the owner. And so somebody wrote, that's socialism for you. That's not socialism.

That's fucking brutalism is what it is. I said, actually, that's capitalism. Socialism would be if the workers owned the restaurant. Correct. And split it all. I would seriously recommend a sixth grade civics class for you. And then people jumped on me being in asking. Well, I mean, so yeah, I mean, obviously we have the, unfortunately, we have the history of the poll tax where, like, black voters were, you know, asked to list all the constitutional amendments to every state.

constitution in reverse alphabetical order. And, you know, obviously, no, they were asked questions that they couldn't possibly answer. So that's the problem in a way with these with these kind of test. But I got to say, I don't think, honestly, I don't think you should be able to vote if, for example, you don't know what your state capital is. Totally. Most people don't. You know, if you're stupid, you shouldn't be allowed to vote. Sorry. I mean, it's like, look, I don't know anything about sports, right? Should I be able to? to vote for who gets the Heisman trophy, fuck no, right? Should I, I mean, should I judge, you know, musical theater in the, you know,

when the Tonys are being given out? No, because I don't ever go see it. I don't know anything about it, right? So, similarly, why should some, only in politics is everyone entitled to their opinion, even if they're a fucking moron and don't know why. It's true. It's true. I have a cousin, and I love her.

dearly. I really do. But we were talking about politics and she didn't know what the heck she was talking about. And I said, let me ask you, do you know who your congressman is? She goes, yes, I know who my congressman is. I said, who's your congressman? She goes, booty judge. I said, no, it's not fucking booty judge. This is what I'm talking about. Oh, I hate it when people don't know the very basics of the government that people don't. Most people don't know who the vice president is at any given time. By the way, are free and fair elections for dead and gone. I would argue that like we don't really, I would rather get a democracy more than free and fair elections. I mean, two-party system isn't a democracy. When you have 330 million people, the country's too diverse

for two parties, even if they were both great parties and they ain't. I just would rather see that reform person. John, I got to say, this is really thrilling over on the Rumble feed. we are on the splash page, on page one. We're right next to O-A-N and Fox News. Oh, you guys. Thank you so much. You're kidding me. No, we're right, like, we're like at the very top.

So thank you, Rumble. Thank you everyone for supporting us. I mean, so, yeah, huge shout out to the Rumble crew. Thank you so, so much. Jacob Bruckin wants to know. What are your thoughts on the murder of Charlie Kirk potentially setting a precedent of normalizing the killing of those who say things we don't like? Social effects beyond mere polarization. Well, obviously, that's what everyone's afraid of.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think it's going to happen that way. I mean, first of all, it has happened before, obviously. People have been killed over their opinions many, many times. But, you know, I've got to tell you, John, what I'm more worried about is that, the, you know, The next time I get an invitation to speak in public, I'm going to be scared to say yes. Yeah, I agree.

And I think there's going to be a lot of people who might just say either I can't do it at all or maybe I'll do it in a limited way only with security. The days of being able to walk into a college green, like where Kirk was killed and just walk up there, hey, what's going on? Oh, there's this right wing guy talking. and, oh, let's find out what's up. I mean, that's what I'm worried is going away. I don't think we're all going to start dropping.

Pundits are going to start dropping like flies. No, I agree with you. People aren't going to speak. I'm here. I'm in Chicago to speak tonight. And it's a totally like vanilla thing. It's a bunch of people are getting independent journalism awards, and I'm going to introduce the big winner of the night, Robert Schu.

And we all got an email yesterday. saying, don't worry, they have security in place. They have metal detectors at the entrances. And I was like, in a private club, this is in the University Club of Chicago. That sucks. Oh, I've been there. That's a great place. Yeah, it's a good place.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, I want to say something, too. The Senate, just moments ago, because the Republicans launched the nuclear option, the Senate moments ago confirmed 48. of Donald Trump's nominees in a single vote. It was a party line vote, 51 to 47. Can they do that?

Yes, sir, they can. They don't have to a la carte them? Nope. That's why they did the nuclear option, because the Senate rules say that they have to alacart them if they can't get 60 votes. So there's no debate? No, no debate.

The advice and consent function is completely out the window. done and the the right it's a rubber stamp you might as well just have the enabling act like hitler did in 1934 might as well the the 48 include um Kimberly gilfoyle as ambassador to greece former representative brandon williams as under secretary of energy for nuclear security about which he knows literally nothing fox news uh no i already did that and calista gingrich the um concubine And the third wife of Newt Gingrich, now ambassador to both Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Concupine. Yeah, she's just like, is she the daughter?

Is she the wife? Maybe both. And the nerds, you know what she was? Last time Trump was president? She was ambassador to the Vatican because they're so Catholic. That's obscene, actually. Yeah, it is. It's offensive.

And the Vatican, you know, doesn't, doesn't, another country have the right to reject our ambassador? Absolutely, yes. So they should have. The Vatican should have been like, yeah, no. Astro says, what about Trump deeming Antifa as a domestic terror organization? Are we to see the military bombing speedboats in the U.S. now? Has that happened?

He hasn't done it yet, right? He was supposed to do it today. The reason I say I love it is because it is such a stupid thing to do, so foolish, because Antifa doesn't exist. There is no Antifa. It's an idea. You can't ban an idea. It's retarded.

Although, and the danger of, you know, obviously, it's so ephemeral. I mean, seriously, he could say, well, you know, Ted's. And also think about what Antifa stands for. So you're banning anti-fascism. Right. I'm so. Tell that to the guys. day. Yeah, exactly. I mean, they were Antifa all the way. The people who liberated the camps,

Antifa. That's right. So, I mean, if you're anti-Antifa, you're fa. Right? That's right. By definition. This is for you. Did you work with Larry Johnson? It's not for me. I didn't work with Larry Johnson. I worked with Larry Johnson. I actually like Larry. He's a good guy. I don't agree with his analysis all the time. He's like crazy pro-Russian. I like to think that I'm a middle-the-road guy. It's funny to me, too, because with my other podcast, deep focus, I take shit in the same chat from people who say that I'm too pro-Russian and people who say that I'm too pro-Ukrainian. Well, I mean, I guess there are people who would view that as a positive thing, although I don't know. I don't know, whatever. You think we're...

think. Yeah, I told my best friend the other day, I said, you know, just between you and me, I told him, I really don't give a shit about Ukraine. I really don't. My whole life was spent either in the Middle East or working on the Middle East or studying the Middle East or I care about the Middle East. I said, Ukraine, I remember when Brian Becker and I had our show on Sputnik, any time we interviewed anybody about Ukraine, Brian did the interview because I didn't know the,

first thing about Ukraine, nor did I have any desire to learn. So I care a little more than you do, maybe, but I got to tell you, here's my thing. You and I both grew up during the Cold War, and I will freely admit I'm a creature of spheres of influence. I still believe in spheres of influence. And as far as I'm concerned, Ukraine is in Russia's sphere of influence, fair and square, whether anyone likes it, least of all the Ukrainians, or not. It just is. I mean, it's reality. Mexico is in the U.S. sphere of influence.

They're not allowed to go rogue and become like a Chinese ally. Like, we're not going to let that happen. Democrat, Republican, President Kyriaku, President Rao, no one's going to let that happen. And so I think with the Russians, it's the same thing. It's like, Ukrainians, you thought you were like all completely independent. You could make friends with anyone you want? No, you can't.

You were in the Soviet Union. Like, no. So I think the Ukrainians are retards. And so that's kind of my general take. And like, they're retards. And then they fucked around and found out. That said, they shouldn't have had to find out. And the Russians shouldn't have done it. But on the other hand, you can't be surprised. And that's kind of like where I am. Yeah. That's exactly right. Hey, we've got a, we've got a question on Rumble from Mania. Or not a question, a comment that I think is important. The solution is to remove the revolving door between corporations and the government, so there is no conflict of interest. You know, when I was working at Deloitte and Touche, Ted, I had

occasion to go meet with this partner in the federal practice. And he had all these very impressive formal certificates framed and hanging around his office. And they were all just the same certificate. And what it was was him being appointed by three different presidents, to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And then what did he do at the end of each administration? He went back to Deloitte, where he was the partner in charge of winning business at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I hate this.

I hate this time. Yep. Now, it seems to me that we might actually arrive at a, there may, I can foresee a political configuration in Congress that might be able to get. get something through that might put a dent into this revolving door. I mean, because there's a lot of members of Congress who serve for a long time. And there's a lot of members of the Senate who serve for a long time. Yeah.

I mean, if you, and so they don't, they're not really personally vested in going to, you know, to cash in on their knowledge that they got in government. And we need regulations here. I mean, I think if you, you know, if you, if you worked in certain, like, let's say you worked at the EPA, you shouldn't be able to go work for, for Monsanto, like right away. Maybe, you know, you have to wait five years, 10 years. And that way, you can't go to there and say, oh, by the way, you know, they're looking to regulate this and that.

And like, this is how they're planning to fuck you. Yep. Their knowledge should be out of date and therefore not as valuable. I could see it. I mean, this is a, it's a pale merry pass, but I could see. maybe Congress doing something about it in the future. Chrismatic, thanks for the $10. Max Blumenthal's sources inside the White House say that Trump

feared Netanyahu and Israel, even before his two assassination attempts. Do we think the president fears for his life? From Netanyahu, I guess. I will tell you that when I last saw Tucker Carlson, he told me that he had just come back from a meeting with the president, He said that the president was actively, vocally fearful that somebody was going to kill him. Yeah.

I mean, look, given the fact that we've had four presidents assassinated in our history and, you know, numerous attempts, right? This president has suffered several very close calls, one really close call, right here where I am in Butler, Pennsylvania. Yes. You know, it's like, it's very, yeah, I mean, you have to be scared. I just don't know. God, I mean, it would be such an act of war if the Israelis ever tried to take out a president of the United States. I mean, I can't even imagine. What's the solution Adam Fighter wants to know to people being scared to speak at events now?

There's no solution. I mean, there is no solution. I mean, how can you not be scared? I mean, security helps. You do feel better if, you know, everybody's gotten screened and there seems to be competent security. But the truth is, if someone wants to kill you at an event, they can't. Yeah.

Yeah. I agree. Let's see what else we got here. John, have you seen the mutual defense pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? Well, we talked about that yesterday. That's an insider. Middle East question. someone say it said this is from Paris S that Beirut Harbor is a nest of smuggling

ancient agents gangs etc like from a spy movie is this correct it used to be yeah it used to be that began to change in the 1980s and now nobody really cares about Beirut anymore Beirut used to be you know with this gigantic American embassy and gigantic Soviet embassy and then the Israelis, you know, having fully infiltrated the Lebanese government from top to bottom, it was a tough gig. And remember that for much of the 1970s into the beginning of the Reagan administration, that's where the PLO was headquartered until the Israelis attacked and forced them all literally onto a boat to save themselves. It was, what was his name?

He was Reagan's Middle East Peace envoy. Philip Habin. Philip. Oh, yeah. There's a name from the blast from the past. Yeah. Negotiated free passage for the PLO and all of their dependents onto this boat, and the boat went to Tunis.

And so the PLO is based in Tunis for years, actually until Oslo. They were allowed to go to the West Bank after Oslo. So yeah, Beiru used to be kind of like Vienna in the respect that it was like the Wild West, anything goes. and now it's a poor, half-destroyed afterthought. That's sort of like, and this is a good segue to Afghanistan. I remember reading about, I had to cross from Afghanistan into Iran via Zerange. And I remember reading up on it.

And someone had said, Zerang is like the old five points section of New York City, the gangs of New York area. And they used to say, like, if you fired shots in every direction, you'd never hit an honest man. And Sarange was like that. Everyone's a fucking smuggler, drugs, you know, money, who do guns, you name it. And it's like everything from nails to nukes.

And it is true. It was like it was like the bar scene in Star Wars, you know, just a bunch of like. Yeah. But we should talk about Bagram. So, John, have you ever been to Bagam? Yeah, many times. In fact, the last time I was there, it was with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. flew into uh flew into Kabul and then there was a helicopter waiting that took me to bagram

it's so we should we should talk about so bagram air base was built by the soviet union during the 1980s soviet occupation and and war against the muja haddin um it might might predate that right it the british were the ones that started it the oh really the soviets expanded it it's gigantic it's like a city yeah it's it's It's sort of like stands out in the middle of nowhere. It's not like in a city. It's like you have to drive out from Kabul to get there. Yeah, it's in the middle of the desert.

And at night, you can see hundreds of desert foxes. You can see their eyes glowing in the distance. That's cool. Yeah, hundreds of them. They come out of their burrows as soon as the sun goes down. By the way, John, your hobby of, you know, astronomical photography in Afghanistan would be amazing. that would be really great. Yeah, and clear too, not many clouds. That's right. Or so right. Yeah. That's something we should consider a trip. So speaking of which going to Afghanistan might

become a lot easier. So Bagram Air Base was the main HQ for the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan during the 20-year U.S. occupation from 01 to 21. Every province had its base, and every NATO ally was assigned, one. The U.S. was, of course, the big swinging dick in the NATO coalition, so they got Bagram. So I remember there was a town, Chogsheran in Gore province. That went to Lithuania, you know, kind of like the ugly red-headed stepchild of the NATO alliance. So I think the Brits got Mazzari Sharif, if memory serves, which was like the second best city in Afghanistan. It's a pretty great place.

And so, like, basically, so now I guess we have this news that Trump's been conducting secret negotiations with the Taliban. Basically, he's vague about it, but he's like, we want it back. We want it back. It's so close to Chinese nuclear facilities. Yeah. I'm like, okay, but that has nothing to be. whatever anything yeah and um i'm not sure really if it's as strategic as he says but all right but the point is let's take him on his so let's go through that why would he want it back why does he care

so much and what would the what would the what would the Taliban be able to extract from him to get it back obviously they want full normalization but he's not going to give them no um and he wants it back because he wants to rub joe biden's face in it right he he still is talking about the u.s with from Afghanistan, that it was a humiliation. It was all Joe Biden's fault. People died. Our troops died unnecessarily. It was like, what, 13 guys died and something like that.

People were falling from the wheel of the plane as they were trying to hold onto the plane while it was taken off. Bad, bad scene akin to Saigon 1975. So that's one of the reasons why he wants it to just rub Joe Biden's face in it. Number two, it is one of the largest air bases in the world. And not only did we update it and make it nice, we built two state-of-the-art prisons there. Now, I don't know what he's going to do with those,

but there are two state-of-the-art prisons there. I've toured them. And then the Chinese thing, I think, is kind of silly because we have bases in Pakistan in Balochistan. Jason Leopold, the journalist... Which is closer. It's closer. Jason Leopold, the journalist from Bloomberg,

was the one that broke the story that our South Asian drone base, which is supposed to be so top secret, is in Balochistan. And the way he did that was he filed Freedom of Information Act requests for all documents pertaining to fuel sales. And it was a certain kind of fuel that's only used in drones. And so we got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages showing drone fuel delivery to Baluchistan to this, this base that nobody knew existed. So he broke that story. But yeah, I think the deep down, I think I think Donald Trump is an imperialist, just like every American president is, whether they're Democrats or Republicans.

And it's embarrassing not to have any presence, and he wants the base back. Now, in exchange, I think that he would probably agree to a Charger de Fair, not an ambassador, something at a lower diplomatic level, maybe a little bit of food aid. And then very quietly today, it was barely reported in the media, we agreed to exchange prisoners with the Taliban. I didn't know. We still had prisoners in Afghanistan. But there's this prisoner exchange going on. So, yeah, I mean, that must have been really fun for the Americans who are stuck there. Can you imagine good times in Afghanistan? John, I don't think much is going to come of this deal because, I mean, for the Taliban to, I mean, can you imagine the domestic politics for the Talibs to have to say, okay, the American dogs, the former occupiers, who were constantly, you know, celebrating their departure every August, you know,

We're going to let them back in to their main HQ. And we didn't even get much out of it. I mean, they would need a lot. I think they would need massive food aid. They would need to be completely brought back into the international fold. The U.S. cannot and will not give that to them. So I think the deal is going to fall apart. I think you are exactly right.

Yeah. They are going to want the moon and the stars from Trump. And they kind of need it. And they need it for domestic consumption. Yeah, that's right. Still a mom, 10 bucks. Thanks so much. How do we feel about Eric Adams meeting with BB?

And Mondani is saying he's going to arrest him if and when he, BB comes to New York as mayor. Well, I love me, my mom, Donnie right now. He's right. I mean, there's a warrant for him. He should be arrested and turned over to the authorities. And he should face accountability in the Hague. That's where he belongs, in the docket.

Just like Slubed on Milosevic. That's where he belongs. So Eric Adams is a meeting with BB Netanyahu. Just another pathetic, clown-like move by just a worm with 9% approval rating, hated and reviled by all New Yorkers. Yeah. That's my take. You're exactly right. Question for you from Mr. Athenian.

Okay. Could you please make a quick comment about the French Secret Service? Are they as good as the rumors say? Are they hostile to the U.S.? Are they frenemies or are they a real ally? Oh, those are great questions. I can tell you a couple of funny stories about the French. Well, first of all, it's not funny,

but the French are very, very happy to just go out and kill people. They make no bones about it. And they hate Greenpeace more than they hate any national player, state player. They're perfectly happy just to go out. Yeah, they attached Greenpeace. They bombed Greenpeace.

his ship in New Zealand, right? It did, and they mean business. I was once ordered to work with the French on a case. It was so funny. It didn't work out at all because I, well, I called the French intelligence officer. I was overseas, of course, and I said, hey, I've been assigned to work with you on this joint case. He's like, okay, let's meet. I said, okay, great.

I said, there's a terrific restaurant, you know, downtown. No, no, no, meet me at the corner of, you know, Maple and Elm. And I'm thinking, what? There's no restaurant there. So I'm standing there like an idiot. He comes around this corner, screeches to a halt, motions for me to jump into his car, which is spycraft, right? So I very leisurely opened the door and I said, you are not recruiting me and I am not working for you.

Let's go to a restaurant. I'm not going to fucking do this like we're in a jam. James Bond movie. He was so mad, but I wouldn't even talk to him until we went to a restaurant. It's like, no, no, no, no. You're not going to do your tradecraft on me. And then it all just fell apart. Anyway, they're good. It's a good service. It really is. They tend to get bogged down in Africa. And yeah. You can see why. Yeah. But they're good. They're not trusting. It's not in their nature to be trusting. And so they don't have the kind of relationship with other countries that we have with the Five Eyes, for example. I went to Djibouti. I was with the Senate Foreign

Relations Committee, and I was meeting with people to foreign ministry. And then I got a, I got a message that the head of the Djibuishan intelligence service wanted to see me. So I went to the Djibouti Intelligence Service, which, you know, it was like above a grocery store. And it wasn't a grocery store. It was above a bar. I was above a bar. I was embarrassed for them. And I only wanted to talk about was how much he hated the French. Like, I got nothing out of it. I thought, oh, it's the head of the service. I'm going to be able to say in my report, you know, this, that, and terrorism.

And no, I just wanted to bitch about the French for an hour. And then I just, you know, said nice to meet. There's one thing that a French officer told me once that was really, really impressive. And I apologize about going a little too long. They were surveilling an Iranian nuclear scientist one time who had gone to Paris for a seminar. And this scientist had been trained in counter surveillance. And so he kept looking around, like pretending to stretch, just looking behind him to see if anybody's following him. He would go up to store windows and pretend to be window shopping, but really looking at the reflection to see if there's anybody behind.

him following him. But the French said they were totally ready for that. And so they put 70 officers on him. And every one of the 70 was walking toward him. So the whole time he's like this, never noticed a single one of the 70 officers walking toward him and then breaking off, going around the block, and then walking toward him again. And they were able to arrest the guy that he was there to meet clandestinely. Well, progressive. The French thing kind of the box. Hey, we've got an ad ready to level up your game.

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how many features you add. Use code rumble at checkout and lock it in. This is your sign. Go to aimcontrollers.com and build the last controller you'll ever need. a big question that we could probably spend, like, years answering. Danny, Dianeite wants to know. Could there ever truly be peace in the Middle East? Like if someone snapped their fingers and Israel disappeared and everyone forgot about it, could there ever truly be peace in the Middle East? Only without an Israel.

I think so, too. I mean, I guess would the Sunni-Shi-Shi-Shi-Divide then become the dominant issue? Yeah, but that has eased vastly over the last couple of decades. You know, I remember when I was still at the CIA, for the very first time, we started getting intelligence that the Iranians were supporting Hamas. And universally, every one of us said, can't be true. Can't possibly be true. Iran is Shia. Hamas is Sunnis. They hate each other so much that is not possible for the Iranians to support them. And we were wrong.

We were wrong. Yeah. So the Sunnis she has split, I mean, for hundreds and hundreds of years, it was, you know, a thing, an important thing. It's just not anymore. Yeah, I don't, you know, yeah, I mean, I do think that, like, we could get, I think you never get world peace, right? World peace is just not a thing because human beings are mean and violent and greedy and voracious. but I think you can get to you can certainly get greatly reduced

violence, right? Yeah. Israel is by far the biggest destabilizing force in the Middle East. 100%. Man, they're a rabid fucking dog. Yeah, it's not... And I keep wondering how long it's going to take Donald Trump to wise up. I don't know if he ever will.

Probably won't. But I feel like he might. It's possible. I sure as heck hope so. I sure is heck hopes. I will say that, you know, just when you think Donald Trump is finally going to stand up he doesn't he doesn't stand up you know he just buckles and then the excuse that you hear from from you know inside the White House is like well you know the reason why we bombed Iran was because um Netanyahu was going to use

nooks so it's only because we bombed Iran that Netanyahu didn't use nuclear weapons. Okay, well, maybe that's true. Maybe that's a bluff, which is something that Netanyahu has always been very good at. John, we've got a little bit of breaking news, and then we should probably pronounce ourselves deprogrammed for the day. First of all, there has been a massive earthquake off the coast of Russia. 7.8 magnitude hits Russia, probably in the same spot. We now have a major tsunami event. advisory in effect for the Northern Pacific entirely, as well as Alaska, in general. But obviously, not that many people live in Alaska, but still, you know, these are Americans.

We're concerned about them. And the New York Times is reporting that 11 Democratic officials have been arrested after they went to an ICE detention facility asking to conduct oversight and to get in and see it. They were denied entry. This is, I think this is, I'm getting, this is loading up really slow on my hotel Wi-Fi, but I'm guessing this happened in New York. But, you know, anyway, yes. So, I mean, this is like, this is not the first time this has happened.

And there was, they went to Newark and tried to do the same thing. And, I mean, they're elected representatives. is they want to see a federal facility and they should be able to get in there right and they are the government overseers they should have access they have every right yeah you know when i was on the senate foreign relations committee we were the overseers for the state department and all i had to do was pick up the phone and say i want to come over and talk to so and so i want to go over and see this thing i want to go to afghanistan and see what's going on at bagram And they huffed and puffed, but they always gave in because we were the overseers.

So, yeah, this is just a... Yeah, it was New York City. It was at the main office downtown at Federal Plaza by the police main headquarters. There's been some really disturbing reports that have come out of there, including some deaths in custody of detainees, who apparently one lady collapsed. She was foaming at the mouth because the ice people didn't give her any water at all. She was completely dehydrated. Oh, my God. So, yes, it's pretty disgusting.

And I think we probably need to go, unfortunately. Yeah. But we'll be back tomorrow. So we are here Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. for D-Program with Tedroll and me. Tedrell and I'm Teddral and John Kiryaku. Anyway, please like, follow, and share the show. Thank you to producer Robbie West, as always. Go check out Putin bot gaming.

That is his gaming channel. He's good at it. If you're into gaming, go check it out. If you're not into gaming, go and check it out. And thanks, everyone, and we will see you guys manana. And I'm going to go check out some Pennsylvania Mexican food. Hey, hey, you know.