DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou: “Trump’s Forever War”

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou dissects the Trump administration's dramatic, legally unfounded escalation against drug cartels, declaring a formal armed conflict in order to unlock powers for indefinite detentions and lethal strikes—challenging international law amid last month's Caribbean boat attacks that claimed 17 Venezuelans. Trump's War on Cartels: The administration notifies Congress that it is formally designating cartels as “terrorist nonstate armed groups,” framing boat strikes as lawful warfare under international law. This determination allows the president to kill enemy fighters. Retired judge advocate Geoffrey S. Corn condemns this as an abuse of the law, arguing that drug smuggling are not armed attacks.Government Shutdown and Cuts: Trump meets budget director Russell Vought to slash "Democrat Agencies" amid the shutdown, freezing funds for Democratic-leaning states and accelerating 300,000 federal worker layoffs by year's end. Inspired by Project 2025, this inflicts partisan pain, with unions suing but courts allowing firings to proceed. Senator Patty Murray blasts treating workers as pawns, warning it deepens the $1.7 trillion funding freeze halting research and data reports.Tennessee Executions: The Supreme Court schedules dates for four inmates, including Christa Pike, the state's sole woman on death row for her 1995 torture slaying of fellow student Colleen Slemmer. Pike's team appeals for commutation citing her abusive childhood, undiagnosed bipolar and PTSD at age 18. This follows a lethal injection scandal revealing untested drugs in prior executions.Madagascar Protests: President Andry Rajoelina fires his cabinet to try to quell youth-led street protests in Antananarivo over crippling water cuts and power outages hindering studies and meals, yet demands for his resignation surge. Gen Z Madagascar mobilizes strikes using global youth symbols, amid clashes killing at least 22 per U.N. reports, exacerbated by poverty and Trump's new tariffs. Hamas Eyes Gaza Deal: Hamas prepares its demands for revisions to Trump's 20-point plan. Facing a three-to-four-day deadline or "pay in hell" threats, leaders in Istanbul, Doha, and Gaza navigate divisions. Analysts frame it as choosing between bad and worse.

And thank you for tuning in to D-Program with Ted Rawl and John Kariaku. I'm Ted Rall. That's John Kriakou. It's Friday, October 3, 2025. Morning, John, and, man, what of you? That's the trees, the sun coming up over the Pacific Ocean. Amazing. Yes, indeed.

Yeah. We, first, let me say, this acting, acting is way harder work than I thought it was going to be. it's it's beautiful behind me yes it is very beautiful um but man they've got mosquitoes like i have never experienced before in my entire life oh man yesterday we were filming in the desert and um and i saw rattlesnake first rattlesnake i've ever seen in my life i saw a tarantula and um and a roadrunner i like roadrunners i've seen those before but i've never seen a rattlesnake in a torrentice and a tarantula. How big was the snake?

Oh, not terribly long. Two feet, maybe a little bit more than two feet. And the tarantula, you know, when I first saw it, I thought it was giant, but then in retrospect, it was probably just a normal-sized tarantula. Tarantulas are, by definition, giant. As someone who suffers from arachnophobia, it's like, ah! My father-in-law had, and mother-in-law had, they had, infestation of rattlesnakes in their garage in Sacramento and they like pull down some boxes

from the shelf and the rattlers fell out they had babies and everything it's like whoa uh he was Taiwanese so he uh he caught the big one and ate it of course he did oh my god Taiwanese people eat everything um they're like crazy okay so let's what are we talking about well so um george w bush had his forever wars the global war on terror. And it looks like Donald Trump's determined to have his against the cartels that frankly, I don't know about you, John. I think Donald Trump is the only American who was really giving a lot of thought to the cartels until like a week or two ago. But suddenly this is our new thing. And then, so we'll talk about that, obviously. The government shutdown continues. Donald Trump says he wants to target what he calls Democrat agencies. You know, I thought

we had American government agencies. I didn't know we had Democrat and Republican agencies. I don't know which ones are which, although I bet I can guess. Tennessee, the Supreme Court, has decided to go ahead and schedule executions for three prisoners, including a woman. And this is one of those cases where the person appears to be totally reformed. And so it's controversial. Even in Tennessee, She killed someone, a fellow student, 30 years ago. So we'll get into the politics of that. And Madagascar, the Gen Z protests are spreading across some strange places, right? Morocco, normally a place that's very calm is as seen riots in Casablanca.

And now Madagascar is no stranger to political instability at all. No, no, that's right. But Gen Z is up in arms. That's just a fancy demographic way of saying the kids, you know, basically high school kids, college kids and kids right out of college or that age. Let's put it that way. And then interestingly, Hamas, I want to find out, we've got to figure out what they're up to. They say they're willing to consider Trump's quote-unquote take it or leave at peace plan.

But with some modifications, I guess they're kind of at the end of the three to four-day deadline at this point. You know, the Israelis always like to attack on a Friday night. That's their thing. So if we see any action there, I think we're going to see it in a matter of hours. So what should we do first? Well, I'm biased because I love these political issues. Let's talk about the government shutdown. And the reason I want to talk about the government shutdown is, you know, we're a couple of days into it already.

We've said from the beginning that this is going to be a long, process. It looks like it's going to be a long process. There was a vote in the Senate over whether to just accept the House's version of the Trump budget. It was rejected 55 to 45. But interestingly, two Democrats voted with Republicans. One was Senator, is it Masto-Cortez or Cortez Masto? I can never remember from Nevada. I don't know that damn John Fetterman from Pennsylvania. I don't know what Fetterman's issue is. And one of the two independents, this was Senator Angus King from Maine, who usually votes with the Republicans and he certainly, I mean with the Democrats rather, and he sits with the Democratic caucus. The three of them joined the Republicans. Rand Paul, the Libertarian Republican from

Kentucky joined with Democrats to vote no. So you need 60 votes to break cloture. The Republicans had 55 votes. No more votes are scheduled. And even if they were, it wouldn't matter because the House went into recess. The House isn't even in Washington for the rest of the long weekend. We haven't really felt a government shutdown yet. It doesn't really matter yet to the average Republican.

average Republicans, the average American, but in a week, the government's going to run out of money for food stamps and aid to families with dependent children. So that's going to start to bite. That'll be the first. I don't think Trump cares. I don't think the Republicans care. I think that they see this as a longer battle. And I'm going to reiterate our position, which I think is still correct, that this is going to be a long shutdown, maybe the longest. Agreed. Yeah, no, I don't think there's any reason to believe that's changed. One, you know, so I took note of the fact that the Republican talking point right now on this issue is that Democrats are shutting down the government because they want to finance health care for

illegal aliens. That's their talking point. And it's just simply not true. Well, the main thing is that Republicans don't want to fund health care for anyone, including citizens. Exactly. And it's certainly true that you can get some Democrats on the record to say that, like, they think everyone, including undocumented people, should be covered by health care. I happen to agree, we just went through a pandemic that kind of showed why that's a good idea to cover everyone.

You know, it's health care. it's not just a human right for the people being covered, but it's also a human right for their neighbors who are American citizens who don't want to catch whatever the undocumented people have. Yeah, that's right. I mean, we are all in it together in a world of infectious diseases. So, you know, I think the question as always is,

is who's going to have the better messaging? John, you and I talked yesterday about this, and we said, you know, our feeling was that Republicans are probably going to get beaten up on the shutdown more than Democrats. And some polling came out yesterday to confirm that. It looks like right now more Americans blame the Republicans simply because the Republicans have made so clear they're not willing to negotiate with the Democrats,

not just on this point, but really on any point. So because they've made that so clear, that's sort of baked in. And I think intransigence is generally blamed on the GOP now. Ted, one of our viewers, John Smith 161, makes a point about the U.S. Department of the Treasury's website. And he's correct. The Department of the Treasury's website at the very top has a banner that says, The Radical Left has chosen to shut down the United States government in the name of reckless spending and obstructionism. As a result, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's websites will only be sporadically updated until this shutdown concludes.

please refer to Treasury's contingency plans for more information. So it's all the fault of the radical left. The mysterious radical left. You know, I don't know how, I don't know if that's meant to appeal just to the Republican base or if that's something they actually believe is true or if it's going to land. I mean, you and I both know there is no radical left of the United States. And, you know, you and I both know the Democratic Party is not the radical left. No, sir.

It should be, I think at some point it would be great. I don't see this happening, but it would be great if it was illegal to use an official government site to make political points like this. Also, interesting, worth noting, an effect of the government shutdown that Trump might like, which is that a lot of the reporting coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and such is going to be delayed. Yes, but he wants it to be delayed. Yeah, there's some, there's some, it's not by any means we're not, I don't think we're heading into a recession just yet, but there's some warning signs. I mean, those jobs numbers from a month ago were terrifying. And who knows what we got now. There was a, there was an article yesterday in that hyperlocal Arlington now.com that I told you about. It's a, it's a very, very local news site that I get an update from every, every day. And it said that this week, Arlington's unemployment rate went from 4.8% to 38%. Because everybody works for the federal government.

That's crazy. It sure is. Someone gave us a donation. The scroll is running so fast, so fast. I want to thank them, $5 donation. Oh, there it is. Chrismatic. And a question.

Thank you. What are our thoughts on the Saudi Comedy Festival? Oh, I'm glad you're asking about this in Saudi Arabia that's happening now and all these huge comedians taking Saudi money to go yet complain about free speech. I'm glad I'm glad you asked about this. This is a good question. And as a cartoonist, I mean, you know, look, it's really, it's hard to make money as a comedian. It's hard to, although the people who went there don't have any trouble making money. But, you know, I thought about this, like, what would I do if I were offered this money?

And I just can't, maybe I'm just a wuss, I just can't get over as a journalist, the idea of a journalist being lured into a consulate and then garroted and chopped up into pieces and dissolved in acid and dumped into the sewer system. You're right. I can't get over that. And so, like, just for that reason alone, I wouldn't go. But it's a lot of money and it's hard to say no to a lot of money. Interestingly, who was it? was it Kevin Hart who went, who said that one of these big names who went, and if it's not Kevin Hart, I apologize.

But they said, oh, you know, we're, you know, it's easier to speak here in Riyadh freely without being canceled than in the United States. And, but then other comedians here said, who saw the contract that these people had to sign. Yeah. They said that there were, I mean, as you can imagine, I'm sure no jokes about Islam allowed it, allowed and stuff. No jokes. Well,

some of the, some of the comedians. Yeah. Even some of the comedians who, who agreed to go, agreed to swallow their principles and take Saudi money. Once they got there,

were asked to leave because word got out that they had intended to make a couple of very harmless, mild jokes about Muhammad bin Salman, the crown prince. And so, yeah, you know, they did the same thing with golf,

Ted. Yes. With this LXI, whatever it's called. LIV, I think it is. LIV, yeah, L-I-V. L-X-I is my VESPA model. L-I-V tour, tournament, or whatever it's called. And they just pay everybody 10 times they would make anywhere else.

And just hope that they can win hearts and minds by just spending lots and lots of money. Speaking of money, I should see, okay, yeah, it looks like we have an ad, so we should probably go ahead and do that right now. Okay, here we go. Please bear with me. This is unfortunately no Robbie today, so it's not going to be as smooth. Looking for a comfortable but unique option for your gaming setup, check out Technosport, USA with a wide range of ergonomic chairs in an array of colors. You will definitely bring your setup to the next level. Always comfy, never boring.

technosport use code rumble for 10% off your entire order and while we're talking about money we do have a brand new PayPal account which we set up to receive donations I know this is kind of tacky but YouTube basically has temporarily disabled our ability to get donations through the live chat that's being worked on I think it's going to be another three weeks though so if you're so moved there's the PayPal address it's D program podcast at gmail.com that is john and i join our joint PayPal account for this show um so you'd be donating to john and i and you know slash the show and thank you very much for considering that did we know why that happened do we did we ever get it's my fault it's my fault so google so youtube

is google google has makes you uh connect your account to something called ads google adsense and apparently it's some point when we first set up this show, I set up an AdSense account, but I couldn't access it. And it's very, their interface is very confusing for an ancient 62 year old such as myself. So I clicked on the, on a button that basically made it think that like I was, you know, trying to open a different AdSense. And so it just blocks you for 34 days. You know, the usual 34 days. Yeah, that's a very, uh, very standard. Yeah. Yeah. So it's very strange. So anyway, Basically, there's no customer service, so Robbie's been trying to get in touch, but we just have to basically chill for 34 days.

Oh, no worries. I thought we were being punished for some reason. No, not at all. Said something or... No, it's just because I push the wrong button and it's some stupid security thing. You know, it's very, it is, it's very frustrating for sure, though. Yeah, so I don't know. I mean, so look, this is a, here's a question.

People are still going to Saudi a race. Arabia. Will they go to Israel? I think people are more likely now to go to Saudi Arabia and take their money than to go to Israel in the future. I would agree with that. That says a lot. You know, it's funny to me, too, that in the beginning of the conflict in Israel, if you expressed any support for Palestinian human rights, you were pro Hamas. I had people ask me directly to my face. Are you pro Hamas? And I would say, are you a fucking retard? I did.

I said that at the some Republican thing. That's a good question. But your question is the good question. But now, not only a clear majority of Democrats, but we're coming up on 50-50 Republicans. Say the Israelis have gone too far. This thing has to end. You know, why aren't we doing? something about it. So I think if the Israelis were looking for hearts and minds, they've lost.

They've lost this conflict. They can kill as many people as they want to kill. That's what they do. But in terms of hearts and minds, no, not anymore. Right. And like, people might say that doesn't matter. But like, you know, I would point people to my column that just, it's officially posting tomorrow, but it's on my website, raw.com right now called Israel is finished. And basically it's just exactly what you just said, John. I mean, I'm arguing that no country on earth is more dependent on, you know, international goodwill and hearts and minds than Israel. It was created by the UN. It's, the U.S. runs interference for it. Obviously, the U.S., as long as the U.S. continues to support them, they'll be somewhat okay. But I don't think that's a guarantee anymore that that's going to go

on forever. I mean, the 2028 election could elect a president who distances himself or herself from Israel. could see that. I mean, let's let's put this into perspective. I mean, right now here in New York, Zoran Mamdani, who is a strident critic of Israel, is about to be elected mayor of the city in the second largest Jewish population on earth outside of Israel. Crazy. He, and Jewish voters here support him overwhelmingly. Yes, they do. Jewish voters, which nobody wants to talk about on the right. No, no. And so, yeah, I mean, well, let's face it, like Jewish voice for piece, this one is not just, you know, one of the most active groups that supports the Palestinians. But, I mean, it's a big group.

It's they're numerous. They, when they have a rally, they, thousands of people show up. It ain't small. So, I mean, this is not like, oh, you know, like there's three weird Jews. Right. No, no, this is a large group. It's powerful and it's active. Yeah.

So it's, you know, so it's super interesting. I think the, I mean, basically nobody's going to want to do business with them. And, you know, look, Bibi himself, we talked about this yesterday. It makes me giggle every time I think, it's like, oh, we're going to have to go to autarky. Yeah, you know, you should be thinking about going into exile is what you should be thinking. Once you start to think about that, like, it's over, dude. Like, I mean, Israel's finished. It's only, you know, I don't, I mean, the Palestinians are going to have a state within 10 years, if not sooner.

I'm not sure Israel. About a long time ago. It should have happened. Yeah, absolutely should have happened a long time ago. And, you know, I love the whole idea that the, you know, so the Palestinians are there minding their business. Then a hundred years ago, these other people show up and say, well, you should share. Yeah.

It's like, but it's not yours. It's ours. It's like, you don't be such pigs. Share your thing. It's like a home invasion. And then, like, you know, the home invaders go into your four bedroom house. And they're like, well, we want two bedrooms. And they want the two best ones, too.

Yeah. Then they end up taking the whole house anyway. Yeah, well, yeah, that's right, and beating you up the entire time. Yeah, where would he go? Jayrock wants to know, hey, he could go to Saudi Arabia. That's where Edia Amin went, right? Yeah, I told you, I saw him in the vegetable market. In Jeddah. I was like, that can't possibly be Edia mean, one of the most notorious dictators in the world.

And sure it was, picking through the tomatoes. This is fine. Life in exile. Millie, yes, her, says, I worked with Jewish voice for peace to help organize the encampments at VCU in Richmond, Virginia. They kind of hated me for being a communist, L.O.L. Yeah, I could see that. So, anyway, sorry. So it's like, if you see any comments that we've got to put up, let me know because I'm trying to run the feed and all this.

Okay, so I think we're kind of done there. Well, there's something different. Let's talk about Madagascar. How many opportunities have we had to talk about Madagascar? I've never been there. I've always wanted to go there. But they've got a real honest to God youth movement that's in the streets, and they're in the streets all the time protesting for more liberalization of government,

higher participation in government. freedom of speech, all the, all the good stuff that, that we don't protest for anymore. And it's gotten to the point where the president, and his name escapes me, is now going to do a nationally televised address on Facebook. I think it's Rajolina. Rajolina. He's going to do this address on Facebook, on Facebook, because that's what everybody's using. That's how the protests are being mounted is through Facebook, which I think is very cool. So that address is going to happen today, to the best of my knowledge.

What do you think about what's going on there? Yeah, no, it'll be interesting. I mean, they have off and on civil wars there all the time. It's also a huge place. And like I'm super interested in it because of its ecological diversity. It's like Australia. They have all sorts of animals and birds and stuff that don't live anywhere else. And I was hoping to go there right before the pandemic,

there was, when was it, the plane crash, the Malaysia crash that was mysteriously missing? So the French government had invited me to go to a comics festival on Reunion Island, right, Isle de Reunion, which is in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, also weirdly diverse, weird ecological diversity, volcanic islands. I was so excited to go to this because when the French send you somewhere, it's first class all the way, literally on the plane at the hotel, but you know the mayor takes you out for dinner it's fantastic and and then they can't the they a lot of the wreckage from the Malaysia flight washed up on Ilde reunion and the locals were depressed

about it and I have to admit I was kind of like grow up it's not you're not even these are Malaysians what do you care but whatever so but it upset them and the whole thing got canceled and they never rescheduled it and I never got to go I'd been planning to go to Madagascar either on my way or on my way back. But there's, but yeah, I mean, I guess that's just going to be like one of those days. Someday I'm just going to be like, this is it, going to go into Madagascar. Yeah. Yeah. Man, I would love to do that. Madagascar also has a funny, you know this. Like this was, so Madagascar was part of the French empire. And, and so it fell to Vich, it was part of Vichy at the beginning of 1940. And the Germans

Originally, their plan for the final solution was not death camps. Their plan was to send all the Jews of Europe to Madagascar. And just like, you guys are all going there. And that the final solution, as we know it, sort of popped up later. And because there was a naval blockade and it was impractical to do it. So whenever I hear about Madagascar, I'm like, that could have been like a huge weird Jewish colony. Yeah, I did not know that.

It was a strange, yeah, a little episode before the Wantsi conference. So what do you think this, how do you think this ends? Do you think Madagascar ends up being this forward-looking, forward-thinking, you know, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly state that the rest of Africa can, you know, look toward for leadership? Or is this one of these things that it's a blip, they're going to crack some heads, and it's going to be all over? You know, I think it's hard to say. I mean, I don't think it's likely that they're going to come in and crack some heads and have it go away. Because in the past, the Madagascar, the people in Madagascar, whatever they're called, Madagascaris, but there's a word, Magalaises, I think they are. They are, they traditionally have more of a compromising approach. It's more like when there's civil unrest in Thailand, in Thailand, and then they're, the king ultimately calls everyone in and makes them like get down on their hands and knees and

say apologize to the nation for, you know, breaking Bangkok and says, cut the shit. And that's more of the way that Madagascar goes. They don't, it's not like one side just decides to dominate and crush the other side. It's more like there will be violence, but it won't go so far as to try to think that they can crush the other side, usually. So I think they'll come to some kind of power sharing agreement. I think the young people will have to be accommodated in some way. It's weird because the developing world, the global south,

is coming to these more reasonable compromises to resolve conflicts, while countries like France, that used to be the civilized world, are, you know, they're cracking heads right now, even as we speak. They have their national police, you know, trying to put down strikes and demonstrations in French cities. and that's ugly It sure is ugly You know honestly

If anybody's going to do it peacefully I think it's going to be the I think they are called Malagasies I don't know I think they're going to be okay with this There's no there's no like national desire To go out there and start clubbing people It's just not in their nature

Yeah Yeah I think they view each other as like we are fellow citizens yeah we disagree but we don't hate each other that's exactly right imagine yes hey and uh and what's going on uh in tennessee it's going to be like texas where they're just going to execute everybody yeah that that does look like that um you know i mean i i can't help but see the uh the donald trump influence here So Krista Pike is the star inmate here. Yes.

And this has happened before. Yeah. Go ahead. By all means, go right ahead. She killed somebody 30 years ago. Over the last 30 years, she found Jesus. She's been a model prisoner. Even the people who are supportive of the death penalty say that she really has been reformed.

but she's been sentenced to death. And so she got to die. Yeah. I mean, it's such a fucking horrible thing. You know, it's, I mean, obviously, it's a total waste of her life. Yes. It's a waste of government resources. You and I both know that if the governor pardoned her and she got to go home to her family,

she'd never hurt anyone again. People do stupid crazy shit when they're on drugs. She had undiagnosed bipolar and PTSD at the age of 18. And by the way, she's facing lethal injection. And because states are having trouble getting the proper lethal injection protocols, there's been a whole, you know, a bunch of these failed executions where there's one guy. They had to take three stabs at him in order to kill him. And they can't, and they don't have the right.

shit to kill people with anymore. I mean, maybe they should bring back the guillotine. But it's so, and, you know, what's also super interesting is it's traumatic for the executors, for the executioners, for the prison, for the, for the, for the, for the corrections officers, because they get to know these people. And, and they like, they like them. They live with them. And then they murder them.

And then they murder them. I mean, this is fucked up. I mean, my whole view on capital punishment is as follows. follows. The state is supposed to set the highest possible standard of conduct. That's why they have the ability to punish people for misconduct. And murder is literally the worst thing that a human being can do to another one. So the state should not be in the business of murdering other people. If someone's too dangerous to be, you know, walking around, incarcerate them, limit their movements, do something. But, you know, it's like even someone like Charles Manson, it's like we shouldn't kill him.

Um, you know, it's like, I'm fine with what happened to him. I don't think he should, I wouldn't want to see him on the subway anytime soon. Right. But, you know, it's, yeah. Um, we've got, uh, Jones Jameson. Thank you for the $5. Jones Jameson makes, makes, um, some good points too. He, he spent a little bit of time in jail, um, uh, because of a bar fight. And he was appalled by conditions in this jail. You are absolutely right. Oh, I bet. Conditions are, in many cases. They're just positively subhuman. And the response that you get from pretty much everybody in charge is, yeah, what are you going to do about it? Well, then you shouldn't have broken the law. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's everybody's fault but their own. We should be ashamed of the conditions of our prisons and jails across this country at every level.

Local, state, federal, all of it's bad. All of it is in need of people. And, John, look, you. You've had your teeth, the teeth of the system firmly ensconced in your ass. Indeed. And like, so you know, you don't come out of that thinking, you know, God, I'm so lucky to live in the United States. And I feel so badly that I've wronged the powers that be, you know, I feel guilty.

No, you come out of there with contempt, right, and disgust. And also, like gratitude for having survived it. Yeah. Uh-huh. That's it. And that's what happens to everybody who goes through this system. I mean, you know, there's a book called Prisoners of Liberation, which is written by two, a couple who basically were arrested and jailed for over 10 years for espionage in the very early

years of the communist Chinese government, like 1949, 1950. They were Americans. And basically, they talked about their penal system at the time. And it was kind of based on guilt, like breaking people down so that they finally understood that what they had done was wrong and had hurt other people, had hurt the state, was immoral, so that they would feel badly. We don't do that here. I mean, you know, I mean, you come out of jail or prison, you're like, it's fucked up in there.

You know, these people, they're ripping you off, you know, at the commissary. They're ripping you off at the, you know, to overcharge you for phone calls. They're insulting you, belittling you, giving you shitty conditions that are beneath what any human being should live. And, you know, I mean, it's, it's, of course you're not going to come out of there feeling badly, if assuming you were guilty. You're not going to. Ray C. 2020 says, John, they're trying out the Scandinavian model in two prisons in Chester, Pennsylvania and one in California.

That's the best news that I've heard in a long time. The Scandinavian model is not to put people in cages like we do. It's all about rehabilitation. so so they're placed usually four at a time in apartments working kitchens you know bathrooms bedrooms and and they're taught life skills and a job skill so that by the time their sentences up they leave their apartment and they are equipped to go out into society and and start fresh that's the way it should be yeah no that's totally right it's like a dorm system. And a lot of them, they can come and go. They can go work during the day and they just

sleep there at night. It's still a punishment. It's still no fun. I mean, I wouldn't want to have to do it. More would I? People who are like, oh, like, I hate it when I hear people say, oh, that guy only got 10 years, a slap on the wrist. Like, really? Let's see you do 10 days. Let's see that. Exactly right. I mean, ridiculous. Here's a question for me. Nicholas Franco is asking, Ted, whenever I type your name on GPT, the system crashes. Yeah, that's true. Oh, boy. So the reason for that is very simple.

I wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal a few years ago that's called, that says the title, which I did not write, was ChatGPT libeled me, should I sue? And I talked about how they, how it, you know, this is now a well-established thing with Chat-GPT hallucinates and makes things up about people that are not true. And in many cases, including mine, not flattering. So I interviewed some legal experts and about whether, you know, it's possible maybe just to, for theoretically, I, for the record, I have no interest in suing open AI, although who knows, maybe someday, but the point is that chat GPT, after that article appeared, they blocked me. They blocked my account. They, and they blocked my name. So if you put Ted Roll into chat GPT, it literally goes, ends up like, you know, like in late, originally. Star Trek series where robots would be like, does not compute, does not compute, does not come, like Max Headroom. Yes. That's what happens.

You'll see. So I tried to take it up with OpenAI. The guy, the Jeff Dornick, who's the CEO of Pickax, has been crusading about this on the end on X, and I appreciate that a lot. But they, you know, I mean, Sam Altman is a shit. And by the way, I'm not the only person he's done this to. Anybody who's written anything critical about opening eye gets blocked. Wow.

Congressman Will Hurd the former Republican or the Republican former congressman from Texas, who I mentioned, I mentored at the CIA. He's a great guy, left Congress to join the board of directors of OpenAI. Maybe we should say something to him. We're Facebook friends. Send him a note. By the way, some breaking news. CBS News is going to name Barry Weiss.

It's top editor. Really? Yep. And Reuters is reporting that Apple has, you know how there's ice tracking apps to allow people to report when they see ice gooms in their neighborhood. Right. Yeah. Under pressure from the Trump administration, Apple is removing them from the Apple. store.

Cowards. Yeah. Wow. How do you like that? What cowards. Totally. The Rebellious Rainbow Unicorn is asking about

the Samud Flotilla. Word is they were sent to prison. I hadn't heard that, but that doesn't surprise me. You know, I saw the video, well, we talked about it yesterday. I saw the video where the Israelis were boarding the vessels

and they put everybody, they had to keep their hands up the whole time, they put everybody on their own boats to take them to shore, but I didn't see that they were taken to prisons. That would be rough. Yeah, that would not be good. They should, I mean, I don't even know what basis there would be. I mean, you know, they didn't do anything that breaks Israeli law.

Well, they weren't in Israel. No, they were still in international waters. Yeah. Father Clint Power has a question for us. With the recent movement of military aircraft to Europe from the U.S. and the aircraft carrier group, Harry Truman, entering the Mediterranean, do we see for the strike on Iran? You know, I'm so glad that you brought that up.

It's something that I've wanted to talk about, and we haven't really had the time for it. That's exactly what the fear is. Because otherwise, other than normal maneuvers, why do you need an entire aircraft carrier battle group off the coast of Israel unless it's there to support an Israeli strike on Iran? Yeah, I mean, it does seem like

another strike on Iran is imminent as one of BB's like distraction, his usual distraction MO, right? Yes. While we're on it, let's talk about Hamas, right? So basically there's this 20 or 21 point, depending on how you count it, quote unquote peace deal. It's all the Palestinians weren't consulted or considered. This was just basically a take it or leave it.

It's a fig leaf for the administration to be able to say like, hey, look, you know, We came up with a quote-unquote peace deal. It's basically just pro-Israel. It's an Israeli deal. No Palestinian statehood at all. No sovereignty, no military or ability to defend themselves. The Israelis can come and go as they please. They don't address the West Bank and the settlements.

There's no peace deal. But anyway, so Hamas, they gave Hamas three to four days to consider it. They said, take it or leave it. No revisions possible, right? so now we're at the three to four day mark and Hamas they've kind of just been saying okay they're kind of like dragging their feet which is what I would have done I would have too and they're just saying okay well we're

taking a look and so they're taking a look and but you know come on there's nothing there's nothing here to work with John no nothing nothing they get nothing out of this nothing there's no reason why should they take it now and they could have taken it you know two years ago take nothing then or take nothing now I don't get it

I don't get it at all all right so what do you think is going to happen there I mean do you think the Israelis are I mean look these Israelis are busy flattening Gaza City right did you see this statement that Netanyahu made yesterday in Hebrew where he said don't worry he was telling Israelis

don't worry we don't care whether they take it or they don't take it we're still going to crush them so and they know they have Trump who's willing to do their bidding this is a good question actually it's really a basic but you know basic questions are some of the best questions Matthew Blair Raines 6032

is asking why isn't Gaza, given, I'm going to say back to Egypt, and the West Bank back to Jordan. Yeah. That's a good question. It's a good question. Well, Gaza was actually supposed to go back to Egypt, and they didn't want it. They didn't want it because they said it was nothing but trouble, and so they declined it. Jordan, yeah, that's a good question.

You know, my guess is the Jordans weren't offered the West Bank back. the Israelis had their notion of greater Israel from the beginning anyway, and they weren't going to give it back. So I don't think that conversation ever took place. One of the questions that someone asked in here, and this has come up before, I'm also glad this came up, was, were Palestinians a thing a hundred years ago? Yeah. Yeah, they were. I mean, certainly people used to, and still do, alternatingly, you just call them the Arabs. But But Palestine is a term that goes back to ancient Rome. And that area was always, those people, they had an identity.

I mean, of course, you know, the modern nation state with clearly defined borders is a relatively new construction, right, from like 200 years ago. And in most of the world, I mean, think about, and in much of the world, it's still new. like newer than that, right? In Central Asia, I mean, even now, like the border between China and Kyrgyzstan is porous and nomads are allowed to go back and forth, Kyrgyz. And they're not, there's no passport control. They just, you know, just they take their camels and goats and sheeps across and back and forth. And, you know, no bigs, it doesn't matter.

And the Chinese are pretty uptight about borders. Yeah, they are. Sure. But, you know, there's, so there's, so that's one of those places. But, I mean, and it's, I think. it's gross the way the Israelis always try to say there's no such thing as Palestinians there is no Palestine and it's kind of like it's just not it's just a historical but the Hasbara approach is always just to say the same thing over and over again and eventually people who don't check it out just start to believe it's true because

they've heard it 55 times that is exactly right yeah you know what another thing that bothers me this is a little bit extraneous but I'm gonna add it I'm gonna add it anyway Um, and I'll, I'll do it as a, as a story. I used to volunteer for weekend duty at the CIA every weekend because I was saving for a house and I needed the overtime. So we got this like, it's called a flash cable where you have to drop everything that you're doing because this cable is so important. It has to be addressed immediately. And what the cable was was that, uh, had been a bus bombing in Jerusalem, and something like two Israelis had been killed. So I wrote it up. I called in the analyst. He came into the office. He wrote something for the president. And then

I said in my notes for the weekend, this bus bombing took place. And I called in the analyst and he wrote something for the president. Well, that Monday, the Sri Lanka analyst came up to me and said, so bus bombing in uh in israel huh and i said yeah it was kind of a big deal and he said yeah do you know 35 sri lankans were killed in sectarian fighting this weekend and nobody gives a shit he says and that really put things into perspective for me like why are the israelis better than everybody else why do we have to drop everything to help the israelis you know why did the israelis get top billing every time we mention something there's a there's a whole world out there and we're ignoring the rest of the world so that we can take care of the Israelis.

Yeah, no, I don't, to tell you the truth, I really don't understand it. We don't get much out of this. I mean, even before 2023, I mean, what exactly do we get from this relationship with Israel that is worth over $4 billion a year in U.S. taxpayer money? I don't get it. They don't have natural resources that we care about. about the things that they sell like ways you know yeah right France gets ways and they don't have to pay for Israel you know it's like yes you can have a relate you can have a trading

relationship with the country without having you know without having to support them I mean at this point it's like they're a welfare state it's like fly free little birds you know you they're the biggest recipient of foreign aid in the history in total and annually um although in the last couple of years, Ukraine technically got more, right? But overall, they've gotten more money out of us than any other country on Earth. And they're little. They've got like less fewer than 10 million people. So, I mean, 20, if you count the Palestinians, they don't.

Right. They don't. So why should we? I don't know. We should talk about the forever war thing, this cartel thing. It's worrisome. Yeah. this is a declaration of war against mexico we were talking about here in mexico uh yesterday it's it's truly

nothing short of a declaration of war trump is now trump now says that he can um legally uh designate any member of any cartel without any proof that they're actually they are actually members of anything uh an enemy combatant just as we did to al qaeda during the George W. Bush administration. And then that gives Donald Trump the right to, well, frankly, to kill anybody that he wants to kill just by saying that, oh, they're cartel members. It's as simple as that. Now, what I don't understand is this is all being sold to us as, you know, a war on meth, right?

Right. Well, the Venezuelans, they don't send us any. of that. They send us cocaine, which, you know, I'm not saying it's good for you. It's not like a green smoothie. But it's not, it's, that's not what's got has, that's not what's gutting flyover country like where you and I grew up. That's right. That, you know, it's, it's meth. And that's made here domestically. Very little of it is crossing the southern border anymore. That's right. You know, the, the breaking bad days are over. That's right.

So this is, you know, and the Venezuela thing is gobsmackingly mysterious, right? It's like that's just purely symbolism, right? Like, oh, it's, we're declaring these people, these random people in boats to be Trende Aragua. I mean, they're probably drug runners to the, to the southern Caribbean from Venezuela, probably in their fast. Probably. Probably. But you can't just kill people based on probably. And even, and the thing that they're probably.

accused of is not a death sentence. It's not a war. There's no legal basis for killing them, even if they're exactly what the administration says they are. And now they're looking to expand this. And John, you know, this is, I think, another lesson in what happens when unorthodox, illegal terms become mainstream. George W. Bush invented the term enemy combatant. It's not, doesn't appear in the law, U.S. law or international. law. It's like a fake thing. And you're an enemy combatant, and we can send you to Guantanamo and torture you. And then even if you're going to do about it.

And even if some guy rats out the CIA about doing that, well, we're going to jail. So the, but now we have this new term called either terrorist non-state armed groups or what Trump is calling them non-lawful or non-lawful combatants, which is the same thing, basically. It's an, I mean, all these terms are, I mean, it reminds me of like the torture memo signed by, issued by John Yu, who's now apparently an eminence agrees on CNN because he's a little more critical of Trump. He should be in prison.

Yes, he should. But they basically are, they come up, these lawyers come up with these convoluted descriptions and then people just buy it. Why doesn't everyone just say? bullshit that doesn't exist it's not real i don't know you know i was absolutely not the only person at the cia who was opposed to the torture program and to the the the you bybiby memos uh there were a lot of people and a lot of people way more important and powerful than i ever was and they they thought that this was a torture program and then they said nothing they did nothing and they

were in a position to stop it and they just elected to save themselves john if you and i wrote an article for an op-ed page at a middle in newspaper yeah they would be really hard on us in terms of the fact-checking and the vocabulary um but like the u.s government can file a brief um you know in a court that is literally full of terms that don't exist yes and the judge will let it fly the judge will Instead of just saying, this is bullshit, you used terms that don't exist, denied you lose. Yeah, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. I don't know.

We live in this twilight zone period now. I just don't understand it. It's, yeah. And no one will be held accountable, of course. Yeah, as usual. Yeah, totally. Speaking of which, you know, I've been very, very interested in this, in this. Comey and John Brennan possible prosecution.

Oh, yeah. But Trump seems to have screwed things up by asking Tulsi Gabbard to fire all these Russia analysts. And these were all the people who would have testified against Brennan. And they're gone. So do you think that, first of all, do you think this is just for show? and second, do you think there will be any justice for these guys? I think, I don't think really, I think the big fish rarely pay, and they're big enough fish to be big fish.

You know, the other problem is that Donald Trump doesn't have any follow-through. I feel like that's what goes through. That's what's happening to your pardon. It's what's happening to everything. Nothing gets, I mean, he's like a kid on a sugar rush, right? It's like, oh, wait, there's the cartoon. tells and then there's there's Antifa and then there's this and there's that and like there's you know and it's like basically there's never like any sort of methodical you know like I had a

managing editor and I didn't like her but I admired her organization she would have a she had a checklist on her Blackberry where everything was like did this get done where is it at and then she'd be like Ted did you ever do that thing okay all right get back to me on that there's no I feel like there's no, I mean, Trump's, I don't know, Chief of Staff or someone's supposed to be doing this for him. Yeah. But maybe nobody can. Maybe he's just too undisciplined. Good question, man.

Which then is another kind of problem because if you can't trust the President of the United States to make rational policy decisions, then what the heck do you do? I hate to say it. That is an impeachable offense. actually is an impeachable offense. Yes. Because, I mean, this is like basically like the first Supreme Court justice who got impeached, right? He was drunk. It was like he was an asshole and a drunk.

He didn't do anything immoral. He just couldn't do the job. He was a fuck up. He would sleep fall. He would collapse on the bench. So they try. So they're like, oh, but let's impeach this guy. Yeah.

Millsy 145 is asking, if we think this is the beginning of the end for the U.S. has the global superpower? Who do you think takes over and how would this affect the average country? Well, I think we know the answer to that question. I think we do. Yeah, I do believe this is the beginning of the end. I think that we are an empire in decline and all empires eventually decline. I think the Chinese have played this far better than we ever did or ever could have. And I think over the long term, well, over the near term, we're going to have a multipolar world, which is probably safer. I like it better.

I do too. And then in the long term, I'd say China is the up-and-coming country, but China does not have a history of empire. No. They don't invade and occupy other countries. No, that's not going to be their model. They like to rent.

They don't like to own. Exactly. That's exactly right. And it's smarter. And I think the Chinese will have no problem with, say, Brazil being the natural superpower in Latin America or Iran, naturally being the superpower in the Middle East and so on, the regional super.

I agree. I don't think they care. They just want to do business. Yes, they want to do business. I mean, after all, that's what, you know, China was always, it's where the Silk Road began, right? I mean, it's like, how come I can't have a high speed? Oh, Bellius Rainbow Unicorn is asking about Tibet. I'm going to say something very controversial here, maybe. But Tibet is not, does not have a strong claim towards independence. You know, the, Tibet has always been a vassal state of China. Whenever the empire has been strong, it's all the Chinese empire.

Tibet's always been in Tibet. I mean, it's always been in China. Tibet's always been in China. And, you know, they've rarely had all of the trappings of an independent country the way that we understand it. They have a distinct culture. But, you know, and it's certainly, they're not Chinese. They're not Han Chinese. obviously they're different but I don't know I don't feel like look if the Tibetans want to be

independent and overthrow the Chinese yoke they can they can try but I mean I don't think they I don't really think it's fair to say that China really invaded Tibet in it's kind of like saying I mean I guess it's like sort of saying that the United States it's like if the United States lost Alaska and then because it was weak and then it went back to get it later is that really an invasion? It is that it isn't, right? Interesting. Yeah, that's, I honestly don't know anything about Tibet other than it was very, very briefly

independent. And then in 1950 or 53, I guess it was, the Chinese took control of it. Yeah, I mean, that's of course during the Chinese civil war, right, of the 20s and 30s and 40s. You know, they also lost, the Chinese lost Taiwan. Well, they lost that before. So, you know, it's an empire that has contracted and expanded sort of like a heart, like, you know, over time.

And now it's pretty static, it seems like. Yeah, it's static. Every once in a while, they'll have a border skirmish with the Indians or the Vietnamese. But that's about it. Nicholas Franco's. Do we think Trump, part two, is just the starters and the J.D. Vance is going to be the main course? I don't think, no. I agree with you.

I don't think it's going to be J.D. Vance. I think J.D. Vance is seen in those high circles, those senior circles of government as a kid. And I think that it's going to be Rubio. Rubio is the future of the current Republican Party, the current iteration of the Republican Party. Lovely. Yeah. A fine human being. All right.

As you know, I have TMI show coming up in four minutes. So we're going to try to make this really, really close. Well, we're going to hit it out. We're going to head out to the TMI show with me and Manila Chan. John, you're going to go act. Let's see if, but I do want to talk a little bit about, let's see, it's true here. Philip Blair 9511 says Tibet has always been autonomous within the Chinese empire. That's pretty true.

But, you know, that doesn't mean that, I mean, there kind of. kind of like Ukraine. Ukraine is a vassal state of Russia, always has been. And so, you know, it's kind of like, you're independent-ish, you know. Ish, yeah. Esk. It's complicated. Yeah, no, we should talk about J.D. Vance a little bit before we head out. I mean, I don't think J.D. Vance has the Riz, and I don't think that the, for whatever reason, he doesn't have, to use a Chinese expression, I don't think he has the mandate of MAGA heaven. I don't think the mega world fell in love with him the way they fell in it with Trump. I think they like him just fine.

But you're right. He's not Donald Trump. He's not the young Donald Trump. I just don't see him as the Arab parent. No, not at all. So. Did you see this asinine comment that Ted Cruz made yesterday about, can we just stop criticizing pedophiles? And it's like, what?

Wait, what? Yeah. Ted Cruz said that? Yeah, somebody sent it to me yesterday. I'm sure it was taken out of context. It has to be. Because he's not a dumb dude, although he's not as sharp as he used to be. He says some stupid things, though.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, anyway, fun to watch. Well, it's fun to watch the, let me rephrase. It will be fun to watch Ted Cruz being humiliated by at least two other Republicans in the 2028 Republican presidential primary. that's true um i think ted cruz is too bearded and too heavy set to be the republican nominee to be honest a mistake it just does not have it at all uh see let's see peruse taja says tim marshall's book on geopolitics made the point that Tibet is the water tower of china given the big rivers start there oh that's cool that's interesting yeah you know in in this day in this uh in this day in this uh in this day

in age, you really do need it. Oh, by the way, we're getting more, a lot of people are liking the new morning time. Feel free to email us and let us know. Yeah, because nothing's written in stone. You know, if everybody decides morning is the way to go, we'll certainly consider it. I mean, morning's more convenient for us. Definitely. So, like, you know, we might, I don't know, I could see doing 11 o'clock in the morning instead, Eastern time. So we don't have to get up quite as early, especially if one of us is on the West Coast or something. But whatever, we'll figure this all out. There's, like you said, John, there's no pleasing everybody.

All right, so we will be back again, 9 a.m. Monday through Friday, next week, Monday at 9 a.m., Eastern Time. John, have a good time out there in Paradise. Stay away from the mosquitoes. Please like, follow, share the show. If you are interested in donating, we do appreciate it, especially because we've been kind of starving on the YouTube. for the last two weeks.

The PayPal account is D-programmed podcast at Gmail. Thanks, everyone, and we will see you later. Bye, everybody. Thank you.