DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: “Trump Threatens to Invade Nigeria”

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou explain why Wednesday's landmark hearing before the Supreme Court about President Trump's tariffs may be the most important constitutional case of our lives, how AI spending surges toward $400 billion this year on infrastructure may be a warning sign of a corporate bubble about to burst, how New York City’s big mayoral election tomorrow will widen the schism within the Democratic Party and handicaps the seriousness of Trump’s threats of "guns-a-blazing" military action against Nigeria over alleged Christian persecution.Supreme Court Tariff Showdown: The Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday on Trump's IEEPA tariffs, deciding if the 1970s law authorizes import taxes amid global trade reshaping. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that Trump raised alarms on a trade crisis tipping point, justifying emergency leverage like a theoretical pre-2008 housing warning. A loss risks chaotic refunds, revenue dips brightening fiscal outlooks, and undermined deals, curbing the Oval Office's quick "tariff switch."AI Bubble Warnings: Tech firms project $400 billion in AI infrastructure spending this year, outpacing Apollo's moon mission costs every 10 months, yet U.S. consumers spend only $12 billion annually on services. Startup “Thinking Machines” secures $2 billion at $10 billion valuation without products, with Mira Murati dodging investor questions in absurd pitches. Hyperscalers use Special Purpose Vehicles and accounting gimmicks to hide high costs and low revenues, driving momentum in stocks detached from fundamentals as usage declines in enterprises.NYC Mayoral Frenzy: Candidates crisscross New York’s five boroughs, as early voting surges past 735,000 ballots under sunny skies with 50-minute waits. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani mobilizes 100,000 volunteers for 200,000 door knocks, eyeing record-breaking get-out-the-vote amid barbs accusing Andrew Cuomo of being Trump’s puppet. As Mamdani prepares for victory, the progressives-vs-corporatists schism in the Democratic Party will once again explode.Trump Thereatens to Invade Nigeria: Trump orders Pentagon planning for potential "guns-a-blazing" intervention in Nigeria, citing Christian persecution and halting aid. Spokesman Daniel Bwala counters that unilateral action is impossible in sovereign Nigeria, blaming misleading outdated Boko Haram reports. Violence impacts Christians and Muslims via insurgents and gangs; Tinubu rejects designation, vowing faith community protections.

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This is a commercial message brought to you by GoFundMe. Hey, everybody. Good morning. Good morning, John. Hey, Ted. This is you. Sorry, I had my camera off there. Welcome to D-Program with Ted Roll and John Curiakou. It is Monday, November 3rd, 2025. We appreciate you joining us.

Please, some housekeeping more than usual. Please like, follow, and share the show. We are here Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern time. That's the new and permanent time. for the foreseeable future. Those of you who are regular listeners know that we've had some problems with production because our producer, Robbie West,

got doxed by some asshole who didn't like his political opinions. And Robbie decided to both take a stand for his personal integrity and also to show that, to really reflecting his belief in this show, he's just sent in his resignation letter to his day job. So you can't docks him.

He'll docks himself. He's out. So Robbie is going to be here with us full time, starting two weeks from now because he had to give two weeks notice, of course. And that said, we are going to make this work. And the only way it can work financially for Robbie is if we get some money into his pocket as much as possible. So of course, obviously, we appreciate your donations here. We are fully monetized back on YouTube again, and you're always welcome to do that. And obviously, John and I

can always need the support as well. But for this express purpose, we're sort of going to do a Robbie Aid thing, like sort of until we get to our magic number of $1,000 a month for Robbie. So every, and then we'll stop as soon as we do that. So if people step, up, this show will be able to keep going. And it'll have proper production values. And, you know, I'll be able to, for example, not run the board and pay attention to the scroll and feed your questions out more efficiently. Just be generally more responsive. And so if you're interested in participating in helping Robbie and therefore helping us, here is what we're going to ask you to do. Please donate to Robbie's Patreon. His Patreon is

West Glacier Gaming at Gmail.com. The money goes directly to Robbie that way there's no sort of fussy, annoying stuff. It's like Ted gets the money and then Donald Trump's a little bit of off to the side.

Like, no, it goes straight to Robbie. So again, it's West Glacier Gaming at gmail.com. We're trying to just get up to $1,000 a month. I promise I'm not going to keep talking about this throughout the entire show like it's NPR pledge week. and we're not promising you any fucking tote bags

because we have no tote bags to give and if we were going to make swag, it wouldn't be a tote bag. So, although I like the idea of doing swag, we have a good logo and... You know, I, the only reason I put this red sweater on is because I'm so cold in my house, but I've got a... I can't even pull it out.

It's my Ivy Cyber swag. Swag because I'm going to teach a surveillance course, at 10 o'clock for IV Cyber. But yeah, we should come up with some swag, right? Yeah, people should chime in about what kind of swag they would want. I mean, I'm always a fan of mugs. Mugs are good? Mugs are good.

T-shirt. I feel like people don't really wear t-shirts. T-shirts just gather dust in your drawer. Yeah. And the hats, I've never been much of a hat-wearer. You know, I think if I were bald, I would be a hat-wearer, just to protect my dome from, like, skin cancer. Yeah, that's right.

That's right. Yeah. And buttons, I collect them, but nobody wears them. No, nobody wears them. So, no, it's true. Nobody wears them. All right, so that's the housekeeping. I'm going to leave that West Glacier Gaming. Good stuff.

At Gmail for Patreon up for a little while while we talk about what we're going to talk about today. So among other things, and please do put in your questions, comments, et cetera, into the live feed if you're watching live. on Rumble or on YouTube. We appreciate you, no matter where you are. And if you're not watching live, thank you for watching. Anyway, most of, most viewers here are not live. So I want to acknowledge you guys.

And thank you for streaming us all day long. All right. So John, obviously, big, big case before the U.S. Supreme Court coming up on Wednesday. Ted, how did it take this long? It's a good question. The Constitution is very clear that. that tariffs can only be implemented by Congress. No president can just say I'm putting tariff on this country and I'm putting tariffs on that

country. It doesn't work that way. It's never worked that way for 250 years. So now finally the Supreme Court is going to address this issue of whether Donald Trump can institute tariffs on foreign countries. Newsflash, the answer is no. He can't do it. watch and see unless the supreme court has been so so taken over by maga that you know we're

in the twilight zone i don't know there's always that possibility but but the answer is no the constitution specifically says that it's up to congress to impose tariffs hey i wanted i wanted to say something else ted before we get too far into the show um phrasmataz said 20 20 minutes before we started in the in the chat that um we should talk a little bit about stephen miller marco rubio christie gnome and pete hig Seth all moving out of their homes in arlington virginia where i live and moving into generals houses this is general officers quarters at fort mire maybe they're scared of you john they're trying to get away What they're scared of is people have found their addresses, which are publicly available with, you know, five minutes of Googling.

And they have been writing slogans of one kind or another on the sidewalk in front of the houses. And so they've all sold their homes and they've bumped generals out of their houses on Fort Myers, which is now called Joint Base Meyer. Henderson Hall. Nobody says that. They just say Fort Meyer. What do you make of this? First of all, is this legal? I don't know. I'm not an attorney. But it just seems that if you're not in the military, you don't have the right to live in general officers' quarters on a military base. Yeah, well, I'm not ex-military, but I know lots of people who are. And my understanding is that this is legal. and it's not unprecedented. You know, political figures have lived on base before.

But what's notable is that it's such a high number of people all of the same base. Oh, yeah. And what's pissing off the military is like, let's face it. You know, a military job is like an academic job. It doesn't really pay very well, but you get some cool benefits sometimes. And so like, you know, shopping at the PX or whatever. And so this is a cool benefit for officers is that they get to live. some really cool historic houses.

Yeah, they do. And so this takes these houses out of the rotation that could go to proper military officers, and it's bumping them out. It's bumping some down. And then the lower officers who are like, oh, I'm finally going to get one of these houses is kicked out. So that's the problem.

It's a bad form. You know, for me, John, what strikes me is just how, like, these guys play big, swaggering, swinging dicks on TV. me right like look at christie gnome like yeah

we're gonna find she's got a gun yeah we're gonna deport you yeah we're gonna fuck you up Stephen Miller with his like

sort of Nazi you know gerbil swagger same thing right they're such they're so ballsy on TV yeah

but in their real life they're little pussies yeah it's really a shock you know one time I had to brief Colin Powell

when he was I think he was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the time under George H.W. Bush. So he was four stars, and I had to brief him at his house over at Fort Meyer. So you pull in, and back then it was pre-9-11, so you just show a government ID, they wave you right through. Not anymore, but that's how it was then. And we drove like past all the best. barracks in the training buildings, in the horse stalls for the, you know, the honor guard and the place where the guys that guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier live. And you come to this

street and it's it's a street of increasingly beautiful yellow brick buildings. So there's like a nice yellow brick house, like kind of like the one I grew up and it was red brick, but it was the same design, sort of a turn of the 20th century arts and crafts. four square and and then the next one is a little bit nicer and the next one's a little bit nicer and they have little signs in front brigadier general so-and-so major general so-and-so lieutenant general so-and-so and as you add a star to each of these guys' shoulders the houses get bigger and more magnificent and then you came to Colin Powell's house he was four stars at the time and it is a bona fide

mansion and it's on a hill so it overlooks literally everything you would want it to overlook the iwojima memorial the lincoln memorial the washington monument the capital building you turn your head just a little bit this way and it's the pentagon and the air force memorial you turn your head this way and it's the kennedy center in georgetown university no better view exists anywhere in the Washington, D.C. area. Well, it's those houses that these cabinet members and sub-cabinet members

are now moving into, apparently because they're afraid of people writing anti-Trump graffiti in chalk on the sidewalks. I mean, look, I mean, I think that just, in fairness to these little pussies, it is kind of like disconcerting

if someone writes, you know, anything on the sidewalk that points out that you live there and you're someone who is politically controversial or notable, right? I mean, I would find it disconcerting. But, you know, that comes with the territory when you're in official Washington. Everyone knows where everyone lives. They know where each Supreme Court justice lives. They know all that stuff. And so, you know, I mean, it's kind of like grow a pair for God's sake, but it is in the name of security to answer one of the questioners on the on the rumble feet john question for you uh from triple j xyz have you given up on getting a pardon no i have great trouble keeping my big mouth shut

but i have not given up on on trying to get a pardon i listen i'm trying i'm trying to be as open-minded on on all issues as i possibly can but i have core beliefs and i can't i just can't manage to squelch those core beliefs and so i'm still trying to get a pardon I've got some powerful, important people in my corner. Apparently, I'm not as well liked as George Santos, because of all that George Santos brings to the table, of course, but I'm still trying. And, you know, there's another question.

It's not just today from rebellious rainbow unicorn, but rebellious rainbow unicorn also asked it last week, and we didn't answer it. John, how many times have you had sex on a CIA conference room table? Okay, truth, once. But, but I married her. Oh, okay. Yeah, I married her.

Before or after? I married her after. But I'm not, I'm not saying any more about that. Angela Fala-la-la-l-la-la says she can't find Putin bot on Patreon. It's Putin-Bot gaming. Oh, yeah. And anyways, just look for the West Glacier Gaming at gmail.com. Adam Blader is asking, have we seen the news about the conflict in the Sahara Desert between Algeria and Morocco?

Big news from the weekend. Did you happen to follow this, Ted? No, this one I missed. I was following other. Africa is blowing up, though. Africa's blowing up. Plus, Trump said on Friday that he's thinking of invading Nigeria, which is a whole other conversation. we're going to have today.

But since approximately 1960, Morocco and Algeria have been at odds over the Western Sahara. Western Sahara was kind of sort of a little bit of an independent country. And it wasn't an independent country. It was a Spanish colony. Morocco invaded it when the Spanish pulled out and they took it. And they've had it ever since. and the Spanish Saharan's you know I actually met the Spanish Sahara ambassador to Cuba when I was there last year for the I didn't know it was a country that was recognized by anybody and it turns out yeah it's only recognized by by Cuba and Algeria at least a year ago that that was the case so anyway all these people want these Tuaregs all they want is is freedom they don't want to be Moroccan And the Algerians, because the Algerians have this revolutionary spirit and revolutionary history, the Algerians have supported the Western Saharan's.

And so the Moroccans pulled a fast one four years ago when the Trump administration approached Morocco and asked them to recognize it. Want to make a difference in your community, but not sure how? Go to gofundme.com right now and start a go fund me. Seriously. Your next fundraiser doesn't have to start in a school parking lot or a church basement. You can start a GoFundMe today in just minutes. Fundraise for yourself, a friend, or family member, or an organization. All that matters is that you care about them. GoFundMe is the trusted place to fundraise for what you care about. With no pressure to hit your fundraising goal, but tons of tools to help you reach it, you can confidently start fundraising right now. Whether it's creative, local, or critical, your cause matters. And there's a reason why GoFundMe is backed my millions and chosen by fundraisers everywhere. It works and it matters. GoFundMe helps you make a real difference. Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com.

That's gofundme.com. G-O-F-U-N-D-M-E.com. This is a commercial message brought to you by GoFundMe. Recognize Israel and to open an embassy in Israel. And the Moroccans said, this is King Mahan. Ahmed the sixth, I think he is, he said, sure, we'll recognize Israel and we'll open an embassy there. If you recognize that Western Sahara exists only as a part of Morocco, and Trump said yes. That was a change in American policy that had been set in concrete since 1960.

So now the Algerians and the Moroccans are talking for the very first time. about at least autonomy for the Western Saharan's. Now, the truth is, there's nothing in the Western Sahara except sand and nomads and a couple of camels. That's it. But by God, these people want to be independent. And if they want to be independent, they should have the right of self-determination. And so now those conversations are going to take place for the very first time. It's a big deal.

And one of the side effects will be an improvement of history. historically and traditionally bad relations between Algeria and Morocco. I'm kind of excited about it being, you know, a Middle East guy. I'm excited about it, if that sounds boring, I apologize. Not to me. I geek out over, you know, I love disputed. I'm kind of obsessed with disputed, with land disputes. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. Like I'm interested in Kurdistan, Nagorno Karabakh, all that kind of stuff. It's always the Transnistria. Yes, yes, yes. It's interesting as shit because it's about like no man's land, right? It's like it's sort of like there's still parts of the world where not everyone agrees Ohio is in the United States. Right.

You know, but like there's still places that are fought over. It feels a little. Well, we have, we have, we have territorial disputes with Haiti, with the Dominican Republic, these little uninhabited islands down there. We claim them and other countries claim them. But they're not important enough to fight over, and we would crush anybody who wanted to fight over it anyway. So we just pretend that the dispute doesn't exist. John, we have a question that probably could use up an entire month of this show. So let's try not to do that.

But from Jones Jameson's asking, and also thank you for the five bucks, when was the last time the U.S. fought a justifiable war? It seems that every war has been a joke and a tragedy. When was the last war that made even a shred of sense? It's a big, big question. I think a lot of people are going to disagree with me, but I'm going to, I'm going to couch this response a little bit. The first three months of the Afghanistan war were justifiable because in the first three months we focused solely on al-Qaeda. We had been attacked. Three thousand Americans had been murdered. Our job was to destroy al-Qaeda.

And for three months until December of 2001, we actually tried to try to do that. And then we went nuts and started killing everybody, and it just went to shit. And I will also say- And we imposed a puppet regime. And we imposed that, that's right. We imposed a puppet regime. I would also say, and I'm biased, and I admit that I'm biased, but I would say that the 1990-91 Gulf War was justified.

Because same thing. The Kuwaitis were being raped, pillaged, murdered. You can't believe the atrocities that took place. There was a torture chamber. I went in with the Marines into Kuwait City on Liberation Day. And one of the things we found, there were six of them, but we found one of the Iraqi armies torture chambers. And they had just taken chairs and the guts of toasters.

They took the seat off the chair. put the coils the heating coils of the toaster across and would tie people to the chair and then just burn them of you know tying them to the chair and having the coils heat up and just just eat cook right through their skin the number of women that were raped some of them raped so severely that they died during the attack it was unfathomable um so i really believed that that that was a justified and justifiable war. But then, before that, I mean, I don't know, Korea, World War II? I don't know.

I think, I mean, I think World War II, the outcome was obviously beneficial to the world. Yeah. I don't think we fought it because we were trying to save Jews or defeat fascism. I think we were trying to open up European markets for American export. and letting Hitler lock it all up for himself was just not going to, you know, something that the West was going to allow. But, yeah, I mean, I guess from a northern point of view, you could say the Civil War because you're trying to keep the country together, but legally, the Confederacy had every

right to go legally. I would agree. So, you know, I think if you know, wait, wait, wait, maybe I'm misunderstood. You have to go to the War of 1812 for me. Did I misunderstand? Are you saying that the Confederacy had the right to withdraw from the union? Yeah. Ooh, I disagree strongly.

You don't think? I mean, under the, under the, I mean, it's, was it a one-way ticket? Like, once you join, it's like the Hotel California, once you, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like NATO. There are all kinds of rules about how to join, but there are no rules about throwing a country out of NATO. It's never been done and nobody foresaw that it would ever have to be done. So there's just nothing that's written. Well, I guess Texas had the right to leave for sure. Yeah.

Well, Texas was different, though. It had been an independent republic. But I don't know, to me, Robbie and I duke this out one time. Secession was about slavery, period. The word slavery is mentioned 88 times in the South Carolina article. of secession and then and then taking up arms against the uh the federal government is literally the constitutional definition of treason i feel pretty strongly about it i mean i kind of feel like though you shouldn't be able to you know join a nation you know if you're you shouldn't be able to join

something that you can't quit it doesn't stand to reason you know yeah it's sort of like like what is it like, you know, Muslim marriage where it's like the woman can't get divorced? I mean, they can. Yeah, but that would be like, that would be like Utah saying, you know what? We made a mistake when we outlawed polygamy. We only outlawed polygamy so that Washington would let us in the union. We've changed our mind. So we're going to either bring back polygamy or we're going to withdraw.

I think they have every right to do that. You can't do that. No, I disagree. F.U. F.U. Thanks for the buck. Did you see Finkelstein on Candice? I did see Finkelstein on Candice.

And how about the story he told about your friend and mine, Alan Dershowitz? Man, Alan Dershowitz is a dark figure in contemporary America. Dershowitz recommended Finkelstein for a professorship. And as soon as Finkelstein became anti-Zionist, Dershowitz literally ruined him, ruined his career, ruined his life to the point, Ted, where he couldn't get a job as a substitute teacher in the local school district. Horrible. Terrible. Absolutely awful.

And I've talked to him a bunch of times for this, that, and the other interview. He's accessible. He's always good for a quote. Yeah, he's always good for a quote. Although I told you what happened. I'm going to speak a little bit out of school here. It was Alan Dershowitz that wrote the letter to the president asking him to pardon me. So what he did was he wrote this letter.

He called me and said, are you going to apply for pardon? I said, yes. And he said, well, I'd like to be involved. Those were his words. I'd like to be involved. I said, I appreciate it. We were thinking of writing a letter and circulating it. He said, I'll write the letter.

I said, great. So he writes the letter. It's absolutely beautiful. It's very to the point. Three bullet points. That's it. Not even a full page. So I send it to Tucker Carlson.

he signs it. I send it to Judge Napolitano. He signs it. Bruce Fine signs it. Brett Holman, the former Trump U.S. attorney for Utah, signs it. Dr. Phil signs it. And Sid Miller, the Agriculture Commissioner of Texas, who's closed to Trump. He signs it. So I sent it back to Dershowitz. And I said, Professor, everybody else has signed it. We're just awaiting your signature. And we're going to send it to the president. And then he calls it. me. And he says, I can't sign this. And I said, I said, you wrote it. And he says, but I don't, I don't really know you very well. I said, I said, professor, you called me. Right. You offered to write this letter for me. I didn't ask you to write it. And he said, well, I can't be associated with this letter.

And I said, fine. So we sent it to Trump without his signature on it. that's truly bizarre yeah he's he's he's 87 years old 86 years old so i don't know and then what's he afraid of i don't know i know seven years old i hope to never be afraid of anything well i think it's because i've i've come out so strongly in support of palestinian human rights because we went on um pierce morgan and he was at my throat for 30 minutes and i gave it back to him just as hard as he gave it to me so i guess i'm i'm assuming now we're not friends. I don't know. Maybe not. Maybe it's something

personal. John, question from Hemsafsilla, 8973. What's your prediction for North Africa right now, particularly Libya? You know, there's no reason to be optimistic about Libya. Which is awful

because it's all our fault. United States and NATO. I'll tell you, Immediately upon the fall of Gaddafi, I went to New York. I got hired by a mutual fund company called Newberger and Berman, and they wanted an hour briefing on North Africa and an hour Q&A. So I went and I talked about Libya, Libya, Libya. And I said at the time that I was optimistic about Libya.

This is in 2011. I was optimistic about Libya because I had, Gone to see some friends of mine at Booz Allen, Booz Allen Hamilton, the big lobbying firm, law firm. They had been hired by the interim, excuse me, the interim Libyan government to write a constitution. And they gave me a copy of this proposed Libyan constitution. And I briefed these guys and I said, this constitution is better than ours. it promises equal rights for for women minorities religious minorities LGBTQ i mean everything you could think of they threw into this uh into this uh constitution except there was no equivalent

to the u.s second amendment i was like this is incredible it's amazing yeah we don't need that no and the libyans i guess didn't need it and then and then the two sides were like screw your Constitution and they've been fighting ever since. So I'm not optimistic. And I don't think there's any reason to feel hopeful. No, I would agree with that. No, totally. Well, should we talk about here? Should we get into the Supreme Court on tariffs? This really interesting story of whether an AI bubble is about to happen. Tomorrow's New York mayoral election and New Jersey governor's election or Trump threatening to invade Nigeria. Well, the tariff thing we can dispense within a minute.

Okay. Trump does not have the constitutional authority to levy tariffs, period. That is solely the responsibility of Congress. Now, you have Congress that is led by pussies on both sides and in both chambers who are perfectly happy to just walk away from their constitutionally mandated authorities. But it's up to the Supreme Court to say, no, you guys are all wrong, literally all of you. And so Congress is going to have to impose tariffs because the president can't do it. That's what I believe. Scott Besson, who's the Secretary of the Treasury, his argument is that this is like all Trump arguments lately, are that he's responding to a national emergency.

Basically, in the same way that a, you know, if it would be important to cut corners if it was 2006 or 2007 and years ago, hey all those too big to fail banks are about to fail we need to do some stuff that's unorthodox similarly we are in some kind of trade crisis that is undefinable i don't even understand john the concept of a trade deficit when i first learned i first learned about it like we all did you know i don't know that was 12 right but okay i know what it is i just don't know why it matters you know, why does it matter if one country sells more than it, you know, buys more than it sells from another country? How is that like, how does that harm that? Yeah, how's that a bad thing.

I don't understand how that makes it. I don't either. And to tell you the truth, I think that much of our trade deficit with the Chinese could be dispensed with. Like, for example, all this cheap shit that you can buy at the dollar store, it's all made in China. So just don't buy it. Well, asking Americans not to indulge their consumerism is not an easy ask. Well, I'll give you a reason that I say that, too. I had a shed in my backyard and want to make a difference in your community, but not sure how.

GoFundMe.com right now and start a GoFundMe. Seriously, your next fundraiser doesn't have to start in a school parking lot or a church basement. You can start a GoFundMe today. in just minutes. Fundraise for yourself, a friend, or family member, or an organization. All that matters is that you care about them. GoFundMe is the trusted place to fundraise for what you care about. With no pressure to hit your fundraising goal, but tons of tools to help you reach it, you can confidently start fundraising right now, whether it's creative, local, or critical. Your cause matters. And there's a reason why GoFundMe is backed my millions and chosen by fundraisers everywhere.

It works and it matters. GoFundMe helps you make a real difference. Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com. That's gofundme.com, G-O-F-U-N-D-M-E.com. This is a commercial message brought to you by GoFundMe. My lawnmower was in it. And I had a lock on the shed with a, with a, you needed the numbers, the combination, right? It wasn't a key lock.

I forgot. Over the course of the winter, I forgot the combination. I just forgot it. So I had to me more times than I can count. What can you do? So I went to Home Depot and I bought a bolt cutter, right? So I can come and just pop it.

I've always wanted to own a bolt cutter. You know, it's a good thing to have. It's like there's certain tools where you wait a long time. Like rubber mallet. Everyone should have a rubber mallet. It's really useful. I bought one two weeks ago. I have no use for it at all.

But everybody should have a rubber mallet. just in case. So I bought one, 10 bucks. So anyway, I go to Home Depot and I buy this bolt cutter. So I go back home and I go like, you know, with a bolt cutter. And the bolt cutter the head just sort of explodes. Oh shit. In pieces. So I pick up the pieces. Like, dude, you're the cutter. I know. Right. Defeated. So I take my receipt. I go back to Home Depot and the guy's like, oh, you, you must have gotten a bad one. It had to be defective. Go ahead. Yeah. go ahead and get another one. So I get, I get another one. I go back home. I do this.

Boom, it explodes again. I's like, you have got to be kidding me. So I went back and I go, I don't want this cheap Chinese junk. It's weak. It's poorly made. Just give me my money back. So he gives me my whatever it was, 25 bucks back. I go to this little mom and pop hardware store just up the road for me, Cherrydale Hardware. And I said, I need a bulk cutter. And I want something made in the U.S. of A, I don't want this cheap Chinese shit that they sold me twice now at the Home Depot. He says, no problem. He gives me an American one. I come home. I blip. Things pops right off. I get my lawnmower. I do the lawn. And then I went and bought a new lock that uses a key instead of a combination. Good for you. So those Chinese can keep their crap that they make

in the scent here because I don't want it. And I'm proud to say this. I mean this quite literally. I have never been inside a dollar store. Never. Not a single time. I can't say that, but I can't say that I've bought much. Well, I've read stories about,

you know, people buy toothpaste there, some off-brand toothpaste. It's got, you know, poison in it, or they buy their dog food and then the dog dies. And like,

why are we doing this to ourselves? Why? Well, this is like, you know, it reminds me, I don't know if this, I mean, I don't know if it's true or not,

but the story was that when the television was being developed in the Soviet version of it that Stalin personally tested each prototype out. And he would say, And he'd say, this one is not worthy of the workers of the Soviet Union. Get it the fuck out of here. Go back and do better. Because the object wasn't to sell TVs.

The object was to put a TV in every Soviet home. And I kind of wish we had that kind of, you know, like United, like, what is it, United Laboratories, right? Yeah. Like, those people, like, you need, there should be some kind of body. It could be consumer reports or something where they test. Underwriters, underwriters. Yeah.

And if it's a piece of shit, you should be like, this is not worthy of the workers of the United States. That's right. That bolt cutter is a piece of shit. Yeah. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It should be banned. It doesn't cut any bolts.

Right. Exactly. The lock cuts the bolt. This is not how that's supposed to work. The bolt cutter. Yeah. So dumb. Unbelievable.

We have a question. Go ahead. We have a question, too, Ted, about why do we think that China has such a passive foreign policy? I think that's an easy one. I think they're just waiting patiently while we destroy ourselves. You know? Yeah. Well, you know, they play the long game.

Yeah. They're playing the long game. Exactly right. They get far more out of investing in. other countries than they do invading them. So they let us do that when we destroy ourselves. I mean, yeah, I think it's also their historical knowledge. I mean, the thing about it's impossible to overstate the importance of history in Chinese culture, right? They know everything. I agree. And I think it's like, you know, they basically stopped being expansionist in any serious way,

like after the warring states period. Yes. And it was so brutal and so bloody that it was kind of like, okay well we did this now China's a unified empire and and that's it we don't do that anymore it's kind of like we did everything we wanted to do we got that we got the team together yep and now that's it you know I mean why would you need you're China you know you're the size of the United States if Alaska was attached to the contiguous the lower 48 the same size why the fuck do you need more it's like it's like it's like Russia oh Putin wants land Putin of all the the things Putin wants, land is not one of them. That's the last thing.

He doesn't need land. He doesn't need land. Hey, I wanted to ask you, too, Trump was on 60 minutes last night, and he was saying, well, he said, most importantly, I will not be extorted by the Democrats. That means that in about 30, 38 and a half hours, this will be the longest shutdown in American history, okay? With no end in sight, there aren't even any talk scheduled by the two sides. It's been a little bumpy the last month. It's going to get grisly as people legitimately go hungry, right? So at the same time, more and more states this weekend, Ohio became one of them,

are redistricting to make it easier, in their view, for Republicans to win additional seats. But I say not so fast. What they're doing is they're drawing districts the way they were drawn in the 80s, where instead of being very safe for Republicans and very safe for Democrats, they're diluted. So in a wave election year, the Republicans are going to win a show. shitload of seats or conversely the Democrats are going to win a shitload of seats so it becomes more of a winner take all it becomes more of a winner take all that's exactly the way to say it I wish I had thought to say it but yeah that's the way it was in the 70s and the 80s so like for example in

1974 the Democrats won like 62 house seats in in 1994 the Republicans won 60 house seats or whatever it was. So when we have these wave elections, there are huge political movements in the House of Representatives. Well, if this lockdown, or shutdown, rather, goes as long as people are thinking it's going to go, we might be in for a wave election in 2026 where Republicans are going to be punished. If you look at all the latest polls, we talked about this on Friday, there was another poll that came out over the weekend. Most Americans blame the Republicans for the shutdown. Speaker Johnson, Mike Johnson, won't even bring the House representatives back into session. They've been out of session for a month. They're not even in Washington.

So, I mean, do you, can you see this backfiring? And this is not to say the Democrats are any better. they're not. But I consider myself to be kind of a typical American. And my health insurance, which I get through the marketplace, it's Obamacare, I pay 932 a month. Next month, it goes to $1,900. Thanks to Donald Trump. Will you pay it? I can't. I can't. So like I was bragging about earlier, I got SAG membership. So I'm going to, I'm going to get the Screen Actors Guild insurance. That's, yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah.

I mean, and congratulations on that, John. Thank you. I think, I'm going to come at a better time. Just a reminder before we answer this question, if you're just joining us, please consider joining, donating to Robbie Aid, as we're calling it. We're trying to bring back our producer, Robbie West, who was sanctioned at work and has been moved to resign due to being documented. unfortunately by some apparently liberal listener who this is shames me to say yeah i'm infuriated about it

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It's a joke, I promise. He's not really a Putin bot. Okay, so let me read an ad, and we do have some, and here we go. Sorry, again, that's the kind of thing that's more seamless when you have a producer. The battle for truth has never been more intense. The world's elites are tightening their grip on what you can say, think, and believe, but that's exactly why the GK publishing exists. They're giving a voice to bold truth tellers who refuse to bow to the system. They've published powerful books like Church and State with Pastor Greg Lach and Denise McAllister,

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First of all, you've got this. The economy is way overdue for a recession. We're going to be talking about this possible probable AI bubble that flow up between now and then. NVIDIA announced on Thursday that it is the world's first $5 trillion company. Ridiculous. By the way, John, here's a number that should make anyone shudder. Three-fourths of all stock gains in the last year in the U.S. are due to AI. Oh, my God. I didn't know that.

That is not good. That is shocking. That is not good. It's like being a one-industry town. It's sort of like, can you imagine how the San Francisco Bay Area will go down? Oh, my God. When there's a recession, are you kidding? One industry town.

It's all they've got. You know, there was a piece in the journal today saying that Warren Buffett. You know, Warren Buffett is, he's very conservative in his investments, which is why he's one of the richest men in the world. His philosophy has been buy and hold forever. But he distrusts AI. He thinks that it's in a bubble, which it likely is, because no company should be worth $5 trillion, especially a company that nobody ever heard of 10 years ago. But he's sitting on $316 billion in cash, which is the most ever because he simply cannot find

any companies that he thinks are worth buying. Well, that's the smart move. Sit tight. And it should be a warning for all of us. Doing nothing is always an option. Americans forget that, I think. That's right. Temperamentally.

And just to finish up, I mean, I do think, look, the Republicans have a perfect storm. They're going to have people like you who are going to resent them for the health care subsidies going away. And people like me who also rely on those subsidies, they're also going to have, you know, the after effect of the one eighth of people who are currently staring down the barrel of no food stamps. month the snap benefits expiring and just that you know the factlessness it's not it's less the fact that that they fucked up this way than the fact that they did it on purpose and they don't give a rat's ass and they're letting everyone know it you know it's kind of like if you're poor there's no escaping the message that Democrats barely care the Republicans really don't care if you die yes and and that's you know that's that and the thing is it's not just the

those people who are voting. It's the people who care about those people and the people who know those people. That's right. It's not one out of eight. I mean, it's like, you know, it's a lot of people. So I think Republicans could get beaten up if Democrats can figure out a way to nationalize the midterms, which they never have. But this is the problem for the Democrats is they have their heads up their asses. Always. And the Republicans, you know, I'm watching this Virginia gubernatorial race closely. Abby Spanberger is running against, uh, or whatever the hell her name is, the woman with the M4 in her campaign ads,

holding an M4 like this. Abby's going to win big. That's not necessarily a great thing. I knew Abby. We worked in the CIA's Counterterrorism Center together. She's perfectly smart, but governor of Virginia, anyway, she's the Democratic nominee. She's what the Democrats like to call a moderate,

which means she's a conservative Democrat. that. And she's going to win tomorrow. That's supposed to be a bellwether. It's really not a bellwether. I mean, it can be some years. But I think the bigger bellwether is in New Jersey. New Jersey has a Democratic congresswoman as the Democratic nominee for governor. And the Republican, who was the Republican nominee for governor four years ago, it is neck and neck. And if we want to really see an indication of whether or not people respect the Democratic Party as a national party. It's going to be in that New Jersey gubernatorial race. But let me ask you, Ted, what about Zeran Mamdani tomorrow? How big is this win going to be? My sources inside the campaign tell me they're

expecting 52% of the vote tomorrow. Are you kidding me? And so that seems to be a general upward trajectory. Basically, the surprise here will be a surge by Curtis Sliwa. So I think you're going to look at a, they're expecting something that looks basically like a tie for second between Slewa and Cuomo. So around 22 to 24% for each of them and 52% for the... 52% in a three-way race. In a four-way race. in a four-way race. Because Adam's name is still on the ballot. He withdrew too late for the name to be taken off the ballot.

And there are, you know, there are shut-ins who may not know. Yeah. He's no longer. Or cast a protest vote. Yeah. So figure he's going to get one or two percent that otherwise, you know, would have gone to either Sliwa or to Cuomo. Yeah, that's right.

So it's going to be a landslide victory, which then, you know, know, look, what that does is it sets the stage for, you know, for what happens next in the Democratic Party. I mean, the Democratic Party is going to have one of their old-fashioned Bernie Sanders versus Hillary Clinton, kind of like, what's the direction of the party? Are we a progressive party or are we a corporatist party? Yeah. That's the direction they're going to go. And I got to say, in a way, it's a dumb debate, right? Because the truth is, the Democratic Party should understand that big, you know, certainly liberal areas, liberal states, New York City. Of course, obviously, they're left-wing progressive, right? But yeah, I also am a big boy and

understand that you're not going to, you know, elect a Democratic socialist to be mayor of Oklahoma city, no matter how great he or she is. So, but they're going to have this big, like, oh, can we like nationalize this? They're also going to be point looking at the New Jersey results, right? Now, I think the press is trying to make this into a bigger race than it is. You know, the Democratic sitting governor who's kind of sucks has underperformed. And, you know, this right-wing businessman who's on the Republican who's catching up is closer than he ought to be. But look, I could be burned by this prediction. But I think she's going to win.

I think she's going to win too. And it's not going to be by like one point either. No. So in Virginia, watch for Abby Spanberger. You know, in Virginia, our governors are only allowed to serve one term. One four-year term, you're gone. Who, I like it. Yeah, it's good.

Watch for Abby Spanberger to either run for president or to promote herself as a vice presidential nominee. That number two one, I totally, I totally agree with that. A conservative, Democratic woman from the South, yeah, sure. So, I mean, yeah, so with Zoran, you know, he's going to obviously issue a unifying victory message, but he's going to mean it. And, you know, I think there's no reason for anyone to be nervous. You know, radical change is, sadly, not afoot. And, you know, but yeah, it's this is, I'm, you know, it's going to be very, it's going to be great. I mean, this is going to be, let's put this in a perspective.

This will be the biggest, highest profile, you know, Democratic Socialist win by an American political candidate since, you know, since 100 years ago, since Robert Lafellette. Robert Lafellette, I was going to say the same thing. Yeah, that's right. I mean, people will say what about AOC? Sorry, this is the mayor of the city of New York. Way more important than AOC. OEC represents a weird gerrymandered district, you know, that shares, that's partly in the Bronx, partly in Queens. Like, what the hell?

So we'll see what happens there. We should talk about the AI bubble. Yeah. So there's some important news coverage about this where basically they sort of break down why it's clear that it's likely that we're in a bubble situation, though. But current AI capital expenditures in this country, are supposed to go over half a trillion dollars next year and the following year.

That is literally more money than like we spent in inflation-adjusted dollars to plan the Apollo space missions. It's higher, it's basically the average GDP of Singapore. Oh, my God. I mean, the. Oh, my God. And then this is great. Thinking machines, which is a startup.

by a former guy from OpenAI just raised the biggest seed round in the history of the world. Two billion dollars in funding at a $10 billion valuation. The talk about Shark Tank, right? There's no product, and they won't tell their investors what they're even trying to build. Here's a quote from one investor who met with Muradi, who's the CEO. It was like the most absurd pitch meeting. she was like sorry she's a she so we're doing an AI company with the best AI people but we can't answer any questions they gave her two billion dollars and so anyway the other thing they're doing

is they're using all sorts of accounting gimmicks to cover up the fact that there's no profits and no revenue there's no and that they have massive expenses and to and to basically from an accounting perspective make it look like they're not even you know they're not even expenses aren't expenses their investments i mean so it's got this has all the hallmarks of pre-2007 madness my in-laws during that period they moved to portland neither of them had a job they bought a house no job no job no income zero donut hole not even washing cars not Nothing. They bought a house that was, I think, close to $280,000. Bank mortgage bank is like, no problem, no must, no fuss. Fortunately, they had, they pulled it together. They had a little bit of savings. They got jobs. They're still in the house today. It's worth $800,000. Good for them, right? But it's like, that shouldn't have happened. No. Okay. No, no. And so, like, this is like, so now you're in the same, you know, now, and meanwhile, after Dodd-Frank, they went, you know, they over-corrected.

I couldn't even like, I tried to refinance my mortgage. Yeah. And a refine is considered a new mortgage. So literally when my mortgage was going to go from, you know, I think it was going to go from 3,500 to 2,500 as a result of the refi, they said, oh, you can't afford that, you can't afford this loan. And I'm like, but I'll be paying less. So I'll be able to afford it more. No, no, Dodd-Frank says you're in, you know, your income to asset ratio is blah, blah, blah, blah. So you're so, so stupid.

I mean, it's so American to overcorrect like that. John, AI bubble, yay or nay? I say yay. Oh, I say yay. Definitely. Definitely. So that, if that fucker blows, that fucks the republicans next year. Yeah, it does.

The problem is they own everything. And that's kind of the problem. I always think you don't want to control every branch of government because. You know, then you have plausible deniability. That's right. Well, it's the fault of the House. That's right. You spread the blame a little bit.

That's what's going on with the shutdown. All the voters are saying they literally, their analysis is Republicans control all the branches of government. Therefore, everything is their fault. That's right. Yeah. But this is exactly what they wanted. They wanted to control all the branches of government. So here it is.

You're responsible for the for the executive. You're responsible for the judiciary. you're responsible for the legislative? Let's see where it goes. Quick question from Frasmataz for you, and we do. What's the story between the transfer of CIA Regional Command from Greece to Turkey in the 1960s or so? My dad always talks about this.

Oh, it was because of the coup in Athens. We downgraded the state of our relations after the Greek military seized power in Athens, which is funny, you know, because everybody blames the CIA for that. It wasn't the CIA. It was the White House. The National Security Council was the one that instigated the coup.

And then, you know, when things didn't work out the way we wanted them to work out, we said, oh, we've got to, we've got to move everything over to Turkey. The Greeks for years until the early 1990s, the Greeks tried to get us to close all of our military bases, which we never did. And now they want us to expand them. So it's kind of a cyclical thing. Somebody else also said, oh, 20 minutes ago, that I never talk about the Balkan war, despite the fact that, you know, Greece is a Balkan country.

And I was living in Greece at the time of the war. I actually have spoken about it. I gave an interview just as recently as a week ago about that war. Talk about unjustifiable wars. I mean, to me, that's one of the big ones. There was literally no reason to invade Yugoslavia and break it up and then just kind of dole it out to pretend countries like Kosovo and so-called North Macedonia fake country. But here we are. Terrible, terrible, grisly mistake by the Clinton administration.

Speaking of grisly mistakes, is Trump going to invade Nigeria? No. No, Trump's not going to invade Nigeria. Trump couldn't find Nigeria on a map. But his heart was in the right place because he was responding to the al-Qaeda and Boko Haram attacks against Christians in Nigeria. So what he should have said is we will work with the government and people of Nigeria to provide whatever resources they need in order to protect the sanctity of their borders and to protect Christians who are being slaughtered en masse. by Muslim extremists. That's what he should have said instead of

I'm thinking of invading, you know, Nigeria. I love the Nigerian's response. They were like, but you can't invade us. You're not allowed. Saddam should have thought of that. You can't do that. We have to work with us. We're a sovereign.

Hello? We're a sovereign state. You can't just invade us. I mean, literally it's like, but no it's like it reminds me at one time a guy pulled a pulled a knife on me on the subway and i just pretended to not speak english and uh you know i speak french so i said gobbly gook french i was hoping he didn't speak french and he just gave up on me figuring i was an idiot and like and i was like i came home and i told my girlfriend at the time i can't like you know no one can

oppress you without your consent you know it's like as long as you're in here like no you You can't invade me. You know, like, sorry. I've only been mugged once in my life. It was senior year in college, and it was the last really warm evening of the fall. And I asked everybody on my floor in the dorm if they wanted to go for a walk. And nobody wanted to go for a walk because there was a big keg party over at the SAA house. So I went by myself.

And I went straight down 21st Street to Constitution Avenue, past the State Department. And I remember looking in the guard booth and seeing a guard. guard in the booth thinking I make a mental note there's if I you know God forbid something happens there's a guard in the booth but I went two more blocks from C Street down to Constitution Avenue and this guy with a Russian accent walks up to me it's about 10 or 1030 at night he's he's holding a big tube like a plastic tube like a mailing tube but big maybe three feet long and he says do you have the time I said yeah it's 10 whatever 10 20 And he goes, he holds it up like, he's going to hit me with it like a bat.

He's like, give me your money and your watch. And I put up my hands like this. And then I thought, I bet that tube's empty. It's just a mailing tube. I clock him right in the face, knocked him flat on his ass and that I ran. Good. John, I want to hear the rest of that story. That's the story. It's 10 o'clock.

Time for TMI show with me and Manila Chan. Thanks everyone for tuning it. Please contribute to Robbie Aide. We will see you guys. tomorrow like follow and share the show and see you at nine o'clock in the morning by john bye bye bye