DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Ecocide in Iran | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• As oil prices rose 50% to $110/barrel and U.S. gas rose more than $1/gallon in a week, U.S. and Israel blew up four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran, deliberately triggering an ecological disaster in a capital city of 9 million people. Thick black smoke rose, soot covered streets and cars, balconies filled with black gunk, and toxic air filled lungs. Toxic chemicals lead to acid rain and hurt the skin and lungs, contaminate food and water reservoirs. Next: a spike in asthma, pulmonary and heart disease, and cancers.• A report by the National Intelligence Council completed before the Iran War assessed that even a large-scale U.S. military assault on the country would be unlikely to topple the Iranian government. Mojtaba Khamenei, has been named to ‌replace his assassinated father as supreme ⁠leader.• Trump is trying to negotiate a deal that would turn Cuba into an U.S. vassal state, as it was before the communist revolution. Americans could travel to Havana, President Miguel Díaz-Canel would resign, the Castro family would remain on the island and ports, energy and tourism would be exploited by the U.S. MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Good morning. It's Monday, March 9th. Thank you for tuning in to D-Program with Ted Raul and John Kyriaku. John Kyriaku either looks very different or he's being substituted by Robbie West. I'm not sure which it is. Robbie West is our producer. John is traveling this morning and we were originally told that John would be joining it for about half the show. And then Robbie would probably have to fill in for the last half while John ran from one flight to the next. kind of wanted to see him running through the terminal and, you know, with all jostling while he did the show. But we don't know where he is. We texted him this morning and he went straight to text. The text went undelivered and the voicemail goes straight to his phone. So straight, you know, straight no ring. So obviously he's still on the first flight and hasn't gotten off.

It hasn't deplained, as they say, in the awkward terminology of aviation. So, thanks for joining us. If John does pop in and grace us with his presence, we'll just put him on. So this is like, this may be a D-programmed with Ted Roll and John Kiracu. It may not be. It may be partly John. I don't know. Is that a fulsome enough explanation, Robbie? Well, it's kind of like American foreign policy. You never quite know what you're going to get. I mean, or what the reasons are. No, reasons for suckers. You don't need to. reasons. Just need to just bow your head bow vinely and say, absolutely, my dear sweet orange

Jesus, whatever it is that you think is best. I fully consent to whatever it is that you want to do. And that's kind of like how our show is when it comes to John's travel schedule. Because, well, he is an international man of mystery. He's always going. There's nothing going on the world causing chaos. And so everything is. running along as it should be. Indeed, and as all for the best in this best of all possible world, as they said in Candide. So, Robbie, before we get to, obviously that we're going to be talking about the economy, we're going to be talking about Iran, we're going to be talking about the ecological disaster that's unfolding in Tehran that probably will have consequences for years to come.

But I wanted to ask you, and I know, I don't think we've talked about this much, but I talked a little bit about it with my DMZ co-host Scott Stantis last week. The more I game it out, right? The way my mind works is it's kind of like a, I look like trying to solve a Rubik's cube, right? Like I turn it around, look at one side, then I look at the other side. And it takes me a while to kind of like game things out from the, when I don't understand what's going on.

I think we can all say, you know, Trump does not want us to understand what's going on or why he's doing things. But the more I think about it, the more I think he's going to cancel this election, as well as the presidential one. And the reason I think that is if he doesn't cancel, if he leaves the presidency, he becomes vulnerable to, you know, all the felony charges that are pending against him in the federal courts will resume on January 20th, 2029, and law fair will go back and he could very well be facing prison again. He or me or you, any of us would do anything to avoid that, anything. And I'm thinking, well, so he has to avoid it. The only way he can avoid it is by having, is coming up with some excuse to cancel these elections. And, you know,

you'd start with the midterm because people won't care that much about the midterm. And then they're kind of used to not having an election by 2028. So maybe they won't really freak out. And by that time, we'll have more authoritarianism. I know it's a lot of ifs, right? But the basically bottom line is no 2028 election, working backwards. Let's start with 2026, no election. And therefore, Trump can stay in office. And therefore, everything else makes sense, if you think about it that way. Because if he doesn't need, if he doesn't care about popular will, well, a war is always a good excuse for a national emergency, right? Incoming attack, whatever.

And you don't really care about getting, you know, buy-in from the public because, after all, you're not really running again. And your party's not really running again. Well, you got to remember, I mean, at the end of the day, all we're doing is adopting the Ukrainian style of democracy. It's very streamlined. It's not sloppy. There's no corruption.

You don't have to worry about no campaign finance. I have to worry about those pesky election laws. You don't have to worry about. Do annoying debates? Yeah. I mean, it's a very streamlined system. You get to vote for the party and man of your choice that is offered, which is conveniently won.

And it just makes things really efficient. I don't have a problem with this. You think? I mean, you can just say, Ted, you're paranoid of shit. Shut up. I mean, what do you think? Oh, I agree with you. And I mean six months ago, I would have thought that she had TDS.

Three months ago, I would have thought that she had TDS. And I never had TDS, as you know. No, I mean, you're a very fair-minded person. You're much more fair-minded than I am. I'm just trying to think like what I would do if I were him. You'd do whatever you want. I mean, seriously, who's going to stop you? Who's going to stop him?

I was talking to Stantis yesterday. And he's like, well, would the American people put up with that? I said, you tell me how it looks. Do you think this is like a real country like Pakistan where two million people would head out into the streets and ready to have a revolution? No, we would have 200 sad people in Union Square Park in New York City. You'd have 150 in Lafayette Park across from the White House.

Nothing would happen. The Democratic Party's not going to do anything. The media's not going to do anything. Who's going to stop them? Well, the thing is, even, okay, serious question for you. You're the lefty here on the show. I'm the far right extremist. Can you explain to me, seriously, on a postcard, what are the differences between the

Republican and the Democratic parties? What are the policy differences? Where do they differ? It's mainly about style at this point. Well, I guess you could say, I mean, you could say the immigration policy is different, right? Like the Democrat, but mass deportations were bigger under Obama than they are under Trump. And they were definitely, you know, maybe not as, you know, open in the streets of, you know,

of major cities. But it was basically the same policy. I mean, major policies are about this, are the same for both parties. They're both capitalist parties. They don't care about working classing people at all. No, I mean, I take your point. But I mean, I guess obviously the Democrats would rather be feeding at the trough, but they can fundraise out of power just as easily as being in power in some ways more easily. Well, I mean, that's true. And here's the here's the thing. Here's where I push back all you a little bit about Obama is that he counted people who were turned away at

the border's deportation. So he's kind of inflated his numbers. So that's true. So there's that. Also, I think it's fair to say, honestly, that this is government by donor, i.e. government by oligarch. If we if the United States government system

was any other was any other country, we would call that country an oligarchy. And rightly so, because it is. So why can't we just be honest about what is a we are? We are oligarchy. The government does not fear the people. And if the government does not have a healthy fear of the government,

how can you possibly have a representative government? You can't. By definition, you can't. And like I said, nothing is going to happen if these elections are suspended. I mean, there will be, you know, some very highly peaceful and therefore useless protests. but that's about it. Okay, well, we're going to obviously follow that line of inquiry, but we do have to talk about Iran first and foremost today.

So as we, it's now nine minutes past the hour of nine o'clock here in New York City. Stock market opens up in 21 minutes. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down 1,000 point. That's after a major sell-off all last week. And we're looking at oil prices. This is shocking. Just a few weeks ago, oil was trading at $60 a barrel. Right now, we're at 102.64. So that is a 67 or more percent increase in crude oil prices over the course of less than a month. That is an oil shock that can only really be compared to OPEC. I mean, you know, in the oil crisis in the mid- 70s that I grew up with. I mean, it's major. I mean, this is going to have a ripple effect through the economy. It's another reason that I don't think, you know, President Trump or the

Republicans are going to dare face the electorate this fall because they're going to get destroyed. I mean, people are going to just vote against the incumbency, which is what you do in a two-party system where you hate both parties. And the, they're really, I mean, the politics of this are super, super ugly. I mean, these prices are not going to go down. anytime soon. Trump says it's temporary. I'm like, sure, I mean, in the long run, everything's temporary, but we'll all be dead, too, to quote Milton Friedman. I mean, temporary compared to what? I mean, this is going to be massive. I mean, it already is massive. I mean, you know, you've got, the straight of Ormuz is effectively closed. You know, container ships, oil tankers are stuck.

You know, nobody with half a brain is going to try to run that straight except for Iranian flagged vessels. So, you know, I mean, you're just this. And the stock market is nervous to shit. Robbie, why is Donald Trump not scared of the economic impact here? Because he doesn't care. I mean, listen, at the end of the date, and Ted, you know this better than anybody. You're a freaking communist of all people. The case I was trying to make with Achilles Lurier last week was that rising prices impacts

workers and the poor and the middle class more than it does the rich. That is a statement of fact. If you're insulated from that, if you don't go and shop for your own groceries or go fill up your own gas tank, or if you're making no, $20,000 a month or more. Speaking of gas prices, quick interjection, right? Gas prices have now gone up over a full dollar a gallon in a week. In a week. Yeah.

Anyway, go ahead. I mean, that's just what I'm saying, though. I mean, no, Trump doesn't care. It's not a crisis for him if the cost of transportation goes up, if the cost of oil goes up, if the cost of food goes up. That's an investment opportunity. That's the point I was trying to make last week is that, yeah, I mean, you're over here talking about bankers and investors. I get it. You're wealth management guy.

I understand. That's your business model. For you, this is good. But for people who are trying to root hog or die. You're talking about Achilles, Lurieria. Yeah. But if you're trying to root hog or die, this is a crisis. And the absolute last thing that you want to do is have a pissed off elector to go vote.

Here's the question. And I mean this sincerely, again, because you're a man of the left. What is the difference between the Democrat and the Republican? One's going to drop a bomb with an American flag, the other one with a rainbow flag? What is the policy difference? Would the Democrats end this war? Would they put B.B. Netanyahu in his place? Would they tell the Israel lobby to go screw themselves?

would they declare independence from the cabal that's running Washington, D.C. To answer all those questions, and we both know this, is no. So what's the difference? Why would you go vote? Why would you care? Why would you waste your precious gas to go vote in a meaningless election that will change absolutely nothing? Well, I mean, well, that's right. I mean, who's going to fucking die over an election?

Adam Tube over on YouTube says, Ted, why can't the people dissolve Congress and House? and reset with tougher vetting. Well, first of all, only a certain percentage of House seats. Well, no, that's not even true. That's the Senate. But the people can't just dissolve the House every, you know, whenever they want. We don't have a parliamentary system. So it doesn't work that way. We have to wait for the election. It's every two years. And a lot of congressmen effectively run unopposed. In some cases, actually run unopposed. You know, it always shocks me, but two of three elected offices in this country, like a lot of state house, state senate seats, have literally one party rule where the candidate runs. There's one party and there's no opposing

party on the other. And that happens even in big cities like here in New York. There's tons of positions like judge ships where the Democrats run unopposed. I mean, the closest thing, honestly, that the American system had, well, we used to have to know. of qualifying federal law was called notification conveniently enough. And there are times in U.S. history that has been used. That's the whole argument between states' rights versus federal supremacy. That argument was settled on April 9th, 1865. I believe it was settled wrongly.

But, no, there we are. I mean, the mechanism for these states to check the federal government is baked into the Constitution in the 9th and 10 amendments. You can, the states themselves can refuse to follow federal law. They can do this. That is a power that they have. The problem is, is that all of our governors and all of our legislatures are so cut and so brainwashed that they simply will not do it.

No, they just won't do it. Is it rational is saying that the Dow is at 50,000? Just, I beg to differ. The Dow is actually at 47,500. And it is going to drop another thousand points as soon as the opening bell goes off. Let's thank you very much Brady Okerlin for the 1999 donation on YouTube. Hey, Ted, quick question. If regime change and escalation don't work, what actually stops Iran and its proxies from getting bolder? It feels like years of restraint and limited consequences haven't really changed their

behavior. You know, I think it's, you know, I think that's maybe one way to look at it from the Western point of view. Another way to look at it is from their point of view, right? Where The Iranians feel that they've had measured responses to U.S. and Israeli provocations like the assassination of General Soleimani six years ago, the attacks against the nuclear program in the, and I do mean not nuclear weapons. I mean nuclear energy program in Iran. And they sort of had like some performative drone attacks where they sort of notified in advance. Here come drones. Oh, here they come. But I think for the Iranians, they know there, as John said last week several times, they're in an existential battle for their lives.

And I guess to me, this is, you know, well, what stops Iran from, in his proxies from getting Boulder? Well, you know, what they say, like the song says from the 70s, freedom is another word for nothing left to lose, right? I mean, they don't, they've had to deal with U.S. sanctions for 47 years. they had as soon as their revolution happened, they had to deal with our Iraqi proxies attacking them. You know, they've put up with a lot of shit from us over the years. And yes, they've struck back. But I mean, you know, it's war mongering 101, right? What you do is you one side, you attack the other side over and over.

And if they respond, then you just claim that the war began on that date. And you pretend that you're just responding to that. That's all that you're dealing with here. And parenthetically, I just want to say that I hate daylight savings time. Yes. Anyway, so let's see. Okay, we have a few more questions. And then we'll talk about the ecosidal maniacs who are destroying Tehran.

So is it rational? Says breaking news. US urges all Americans out of southern Turkey, non-essential consulate staff in Adana. I mean, we've seen that kind of thing all over the Middle East where consular and ambassadorial representation is being shut down. So, I mean, you know, that that region is spinning out of control. Pittsburgh, dude, the illusion of our elections is that by having them, it cancels any change. No matter who we vote for, we get John McCain. I like that.

Yeah, I wish I could say is wrong. He's not. And also, is it rational? one thing I was point out about the Dowell at 50,000, that was straight up a jab at Pam Bondi. But no, when she was testifying before Congress, I guess you'd call it testifying. I don't know what you would say in the real world. When she has kept saying, oh, the Dow is over 50,000. Performing.

Yeah. I mean, now the only thing she had going forward now no longer exists because of a war. Her boss started and her boss is not Trump. It's BB Netanyahu. Trump's middle management. Let's just be honest. By the way, if you're just joining us, John Kariaku is trying to join the show between flights, and we just haven't heard hide nor hair of him. So we'll see if he shows up.

If he does, we'll pop him on right away, of course, obviously. So let's you both part. Oh, thanks for the dollar from Unsung Pat. The difference is where they deposit their donations. Don't blame the politicians. They're doing exactly what a politician does as defined. one who is actively involved or skilled in politics. Fair, but they're also corrupt.

Unsung Pat also said a republic, if we can keep it, your B-F, Robbie. Can you remind me where the power lies in a republic and which branch of government derives that power? My guess is dollar-sign, dollar-sign, dollar-sign, C-R-E-A-M. Well, it depends on what power is that you're talking about, at least what's supposed to be. you know when the United States was first founded there were actually four branches of government you have the executive you have the legislature you had the judicial and then you have the states themselves those are the four pillars now we have three of those three the second one the legislative has completely seated its authority to the executive so I don't really know what powers any other branch of government has I mean sure you have the Supreme Court that can come out and say oh in our opinion this is right or this is wrong but something the executive to enforce those decisions. So I don't know. I mean, the system doesn't work anymore. I mean, or is it working exactly the way that it was intended to? No, I mean, that's obviously not true because the founding fathers were incredibly suspicious of exactly what is that we have now.

They wanted a diluted power system where you had separation of powers. And but the majority of powers reserved to the states and to the people. I mean, I guess, well, they didn't they, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong,

Robbie, but I mean, my understanding was that they expected that all the branches of government would be jealously guarding their prerogatives and would fight for to protect them, right? And that, I guess what they never counted on was systemic corruption,

where people would be willing to be bought off and would be sold at a relatively low price and be, you know, like, imagine being a member of Congress under, under Speaker Mike Johnson, where you're just a rubber stamp. I mean, it must be very boring. You don't really, you know, they're not really part of the conversation. Or, you know, be in the court system where, you know, you issue an order and it just gets ignored and brushed off.

I mean, what, you know, I mean, it's got to be so dispiriting. Like, what's the point? Well, that's the question I have. What's the point of having a Congress? What, serious question, what do they do? Can someone explain to me? does Congress do? Like, they can't even kill daylight savings time. I know. Well, you know, it's so funny is the pending, there is a law that's been pending to get rid of the time change.

But, Robbie, this is so funny, right? So the average American would get 17 minutes of sleep per night additional, according to studies, if we had standard time year round. Now, 17 minutes might not sound like a lot. But imagine if you, you know, if you have an extra hour every four days, right? So roughly 90, you know, full hours of sleep a year, that's going to impact our national health, right, in a favorable way. So what's Congress, every expert says we just need to get rid of daylight savings time and just have standard time. So the law that's bending before Congress does the exact opposite and keeps this on daylight savings time forever. and gets rid of standard time.

And it's because we're children, because we like getting out of work at 5 o'clock at night and having a little bit of light to drive home with. But meanwhile, our kids would be having to go to school and pitch dark in the morning. Well, there's that, but also, you remember what my previous job was before I started working for you full-time, right? I do.

So one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty, the number of heart attacks and stroke go up by about 7% for the first three months after time change. That is a statistical fact. People, I mean, I know right now I feel like a little bit like I was thrown, like I was out partying last night. You know, I mean, I feel like shit this morning. I'm a little jet lagged and it's only an hour.

It's not like I just flew to Baku. Yeah, it sucks. Sneaker Dad, thank you so much for the general. generous donation of $100. Do you think the Don might get his regime change only not the ones he wanted, i.e. Qatar, UAE. You know, that is a good question and one that I also want to ask John when he shows up. I'm sure we'll have John back tomorrow at least.

But yeah, I think there's a chance of that, right? I mean, look, the Iranian government could fall. It could. But I just think that's not likely. I mean, by the way, they've appointed obviously Ali Khomeini's son. Um, Moshtaba is now, uh, the new supreme leader. Israel's, of course, threatening to kill him. Uh, you know, he's Shia. He doesn't care. Um, like, but he's probably also like,

you killed my dad, uh, you know, uh, I know what's in the mail here. But I could see the, I could see a lot of the, I could see the Emirates and, um, you know, their street is restive and does not agree with their government's, you know, tacit support for Israel against a fellow Muslim. some country, even if they're Shia. Well, it's just crazy because that, for those of you who do not follow Ted on, on X, I highly

recommend that y'all do it because one of the things I've started doing is I've started animating his cartoons because I don't have enough to do. So I am now animating his cartoons. And one of the cartoons that animated is this guy watching the TV

pointing at it, said, look at those Chinese and those Iranians, protesting for their rights. And then as wife speaks up and said, honey, that's in Minneapolis. And it just, it breaks the guy's brain. And here we are. Trump is calling for mass protests while by the way, engage in collective punishment, waging war against the people in Tehran, not the government of Tehran, the people of Tehran, which is a war crime, calling for them to protest. Meanwhile, if you try to protest here in the United States, at best you just don't get a permit, which is why you need a permit,

protest breaks my brain. You shouldn't need a protest to permit. I mean, like, if we have a first amendment, why do you need a, why do you need a parade permit to protest? You don't. That's dumb. It's just like happening to get a license to get a gun. You don't need to do that. I mean, Right. No, I mean, I agree. If you have a second amendment, then why do you need that? Yeah. So the fact that the Trump administration cracks down on protests here in this country, whenever Americans can rouse themselves and get enough vigor to actually go out on a sunny day and chant for an hour on the side of a road. And that's considered uncouth.

Meanwhile, he wants to go and encourage the people of Iran to protest at the same time while he tries to squelch it here. Peak hypocrisy. Not a Evan M. Not a Wu-Tang guy, Ted. You know, I'm a punk and new wave. guy. That's just this is what I was just listening to before the show.

Anyway, all right. So, and the fact that it's a CD tells you how old I am. Although I heard from my local CD store owner, but CDs are coming back. All things older coming back.

My son, he has a record player. And he's been, now he's been buying Marty Robbins. Vinyl has been back for decades, though. I mean, I mean, vinyl represents a significant percentage of music sales in the United States, and it just keeps going up. It's really weird. Okay, so let's see.

I'm trying to work through the questions here. Skin Inche, what do we think? Do we think Benjamin Netanyahu knows Trump is in the Epstein files, maybe because they sold the info or he was there, and that's why Trump is so easily bombing Iran? I mean, certainly there's been a lot of discussion. about this war being a distraction from the Epstein files. I think it's a contributing factor. I don't think it's the main thing. What do you think?

No, I mean, it's, Ted, I mean, you're mentioned in the Epstein files. True. Everybody is mentioned in the Epstein files. Clovis. This is about money and influence peddling. The United States government is the cheapest horse government that any, any lobby can buy. And the Zionist lobby has got more money. than just about anybody else.

And so they used that money to buy Congress, like a bunch of cheap whores. And that's how they get what they want. Don't forget, 20 years ago, I want to say it was 20 years ago, it could just been 15. Beepie was caught on Mike, talk about how he owns Congress, that he owns Congress. Is he wrong? No, he's not wrong. Look what we are. Does Congress care about what the American people want?

Or does Congress care about what Israel wants? I mean, we've been told, I mean, basically, you and I, I mean, we've been buying the line that, you know, we're doing this war for Israel. But it's actually worse than that because we're literally holding hands with them. They're not even like behind the scenes. It's literally the entire world sees the U.S. and Israel together launching a war of choice just for fun. I mean, where's the contrary to with that? Was the American population consulted before this war got started where we, has,

Trump even come on TV and explain to us why we have to put up with this economic pain. Has he come in and made the case for this war that he started, not Congress. Congress has declared this war. He started this war on behalf of a foreign nation for a foreign lobby. And our president, the American president, does not have these stones to even come on and lie to us. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. He doesn't even think, you know, we are even, you know, we're not even worth.

Like it's kind of like someone who's like, you know, cheats on their wife and their wife. And they don't even think they owe their wife a lie about like where they were last night. It's just like, where were you last night? Shut up. Make my fucking do my laundry, bitch. That's literally what it's like. Adam 2. Ted, who audits and holds if all heads of branches of government are implicated in the Epstein scandal?

Chief Justice Roberts in a picture cuddling with Maxwell. bottom top to bottom who prosecutes this. I mean, it's actually a miracle, Robbie, that even we've gotten to see any files at all and that there's even been like a law that like has ordered the release of the documents even though it hasn't been complied with. I mean, it's a miracle that the pressure got anywhere at all. But obviously the broader point is, yeah, the system is corrupt from top to bottom and Epstein's only part of it. Well, even Hitler cared about public opinion polls. So, I mean, there is that.

No king, stays king for very long if he doesn't at least pretend to listen to the people some of the time. This is a great question, Robbie. Edward Clark, sorry to step on you there. Sometimes people, you know, when we're doing this through the stream yard link, you know, there's like a slight, there's like a half second delay. And so that ends up like, you know, John will be saying something and I'll step on him saying something. And it's because I don't know he's still talking. and it's a little bit. So that's kind of like why that happens.

Anyway, Adam Tube, sorry that we already had that one. Edward Clark was just joining in. Thoughts on boots on the ground in Iran. And did you see Carolyn Levitt talking about drafting soldiers? You know, a week ago, I would have said there's no chance we're going to have boots on the ground. I'm not so sure now, Robbie.

I mean, I think it's entirely possible. I mean, they're greasing the skids for it by saying that there's not going to be any other way to secure the uranium stockpiles that may still be buried under that collapsed nuclear facility? I mean, at this point, it wouldn't surprise me. And that's one of the things that I kind of got into a debate with my pastor at a church. I'm like most Christian evangelicals. He's a Zionist.

I am not. And he was talking about how it is our duty under the Abrahamic covenant. to support Israel. And so my pushback to that was, okay, well, let's just pretend for a moment that we don't live in a theocracy. Instead, we supposedly live under a republic. Do you think Congress should be required to declare war? You call yourself a conservative.

He couldn't give me an answer. And so to answer your question, nothing would surprise me at this point. If Trump decided, if Trump said tomorrow that the Iranian people have failed, they're not fighting for themselves as being oppressed or whatever. And if he says that we need 200,000 troops to go into Iran, I could see it happening. And I don't see any pushback from either political party. I don't think there will be a draft, though. You know, I don't think there's going to be like a massive, I mean, we do have a pretty

large standing army. And they don't, I think a draft is where you would get resistance, right? I mean, during the Vietnam War, it's the last time we had an active military draft. it's because like, you know, middle class and working class and rich white people, not so much the last group, but still some of them had to see, watch their sons go off to war and sometimes come back in bags and, you know, flag-draped coffins. And that's what really drove the opposition to the war.

But here's the difference, though. Back in the 60s, we actually had this thing called an economy. We don't have that anymore. There's a lot of people now who are unemployed. who are underemployed, who are barely scraping by. And if Uncle Sam's, hey, if you, if you join today or if you get drafted, we'll pay you $80,000 a year for this because you can combat pay and everything else, how many people would sign up for that?

A lot. Robbie, we're having, where the stock market's now been open for three minutes, we're in the middle of a major sell-off. The stock market is the New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has plunged 552 points. That's over 1% of overall market value in just a few minutes. S&P 500 is down 1%. NASDAQ down 0.88. The New York Stock Exchange Compositivex down 1.19.

We haven't found the floor yet. It's still falling. We're at 46,974. We'll keep you up to date on that. So if I'm, I mean, if I'm a Republican congressman, I'm like, we better not have these elections. Well, I mean, well, if I was the, if I was in Congress and had a Democratic challenger, I would just strip ask him, where would you differ with my policies?

Where would you vote against me? What, what is it that I am doing that you would do differently? Would you vote for a war with powers resolution? Would you vote for a balanced budget amendment? Would you, Mr. Democrat? vote for any of the things that people care about. Would you vote for universal health care? If the answer is no, why should they vote for you?

Good question. So thank you again for tuning into Deep Program with Ted Roll and John Kiriaku. If you're just joining us, Robbie West is filling in for John Kyriaku, who was traveling this morning and was hoping to join us for at least part of the show. And I'm assuming he's probably not going to make it at this point, but anything's possible if he does, we'll pop him right in. Robbie, do we have any ads by any chance? I will check and see.

We got some piling up here on the back-end chat. So I'll look at that, see if there's anything that grabs your sweet little brain. As let's see, Nixon Pro 4339. Thanks for the $2.79 Canadian. As a Canadian, what do you guys think of Carney? I think he's a clown. I do think he's like, I do think he's, you know, he gave a good, speech that time. That's about it.

That's about all I can say. Sneaker Dad's asking, Ted, does Clovis watch the YouTube Cat TV channel? So I did show that to him one time and he will never be allowed to watch it again because he almost broke my

computer. He was going back and forth from the front and then to the back to see where the birds and small animals were and he wouldn't stop meowing, and it was just driving me absolutely insane. I'm like, no, no more. All right.

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Go to MyChicagostake.com slash rumble code BPSIR free. That's BPSIR free. The link is in the description. Okay. Still no John Curiaku and my messages to him are still not marked delivered. So I'm assuming we're not going to hear from him. Let's talk about the ecocide aspect of all this. So over the weekend, the United States and Israel blew up four oil depots.

and a petroleum logistics site in and outside of the city of Tehran, deliberately triggering an ecological disaster in a city of over 9 million people. There's thick black smoke covering the city, soot-covered streets and cars, balconies filled with black gunk and toxic air-filled lungs. And, of course, these toxic chemicals have now led already to acid rain, people who have been hit, are being told to stay inside. I don't know how they're supposed to have their revolution and overthrow the government if they're going to be inside and have like basically acid oil rain burning their skin.

But, you know, Donald Trump didn't think that through. Food supplies, water reservoirs are being contaminated. The sewers are all going to have to be completely cleaned out. Desalination plant in a country with a horrific drought problem is out of commission. So you can, as someone who suffers from asthma, I can only imagine how horrific this is for people who have respiratory disease and how much more pulmonary and heart disease is going to spread, how much cancer. I mean, this is a war crime by definition. You're not supposed to do this. There's a word for it. It's called Ecoside, the deliberately, deliberate targeting of a facility with the knowledge that you will precipitate an ecological disaster. this is i mean obviously we have no u.n worth of shit there's no international authority that's

going to hold anyone to account u.n security council won't do dick um and and we live in a world where might meet might makes right has never been truer i have a question for you ted during the the uh the ukraine war there's this thing it's it's still happening actually if the russians did this to the yukies what would the reaction be from the the international community? Outrage. Because they could. The Russians could 100% do to the Ukrainians what the United States and Israel are doing to Iran right now. So can you explain to me why this double standard exists? Well, the UK's kind of tried to do it to the Russians, right? Because the Russians occupy Chernobyl, right? And Zaporosia, where they have the nuclear plant. And the Ukrainians

targeted and have hit those facilities, there was actually the International Atomic Energy Commission was concerned that they might create a meltdown. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. I guess nobody cared because it was the Ukrainians and the Russians would have been, Russian-held Ukraine would have been the area that would have been affected.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, it's total hypocrisy. This is the kind of thing, I mean, even Lindsey Graham, warned cautioned that this was going too far. Well, he doesn't care about the people. He cares about the PR blowback. He doesn't want the Israelis to look any worse in international media than what they already do.

I don't know how it's possible. Well, I don't know either. I mean, you go out and you commit a genocide, then you drag the world superpower in to go fight a war on your behalf. And I mean, none of that matters. I think he's worried about nothing because honestly, nobody cares. The Gulf states don't care. Yeah. As far as I can tell, I could 100% be wrong on this. The Islamic Uma doesn't care. If they do, why aren't they calling for jihad against Israel?

I don't see a call for jihad. I don't see, I don't see the Muslim world rising up of one voice saying we're going to put it into this. And there's a billion Muslims. They could do it. Where are they? I don't see anyone. As you pointed out, I'm a kami. And man, if we ever needed a revolution. or 10 of them or 100 of them. It's now. Tim, a question for you, Robbie, from Tatum Hedrick. What are the best levers for the people to pull back the fourth branch, the states? Local elections and vote people in to state office who actually understand the concept of states' rights and who are not bought off by lobbies.

That's the only hope that we have. Start with your county sheriff because he's a supreme law enforcement and your, and your in your county and then go from there. Elect state legislatures that care. Your school board elections matter more than probably any other election in the country, honestly. People are used to hearing that. We always focus on national elections.

Your local elections are so much more important because they directly impact you and how you live and where you live. And that's how you do it. You have to tear this thing down brick by brick. The question is, do we have the time to do it? It's very, very late in the day. And I don't know. Bismama is asking, do we think that the Middle East region wants U.S. basis to leave?

I think it depends on the country and it depends on, you know, it's a complicated story. People don't speak as one. I think, you know, some countries are more pro-U.S. than others. There's always a split between governments and their people, but that splits different. You know, it's different in Bahrain than it is in Qatar than it is in Jordan than it is in the UAE, you know. Well, I think that the problem with the Islamic countries, is the same problem that Europe has. They don't like the ugly American, but they love the security blanket that the ugly

that the ugly American provides. And if the U.S. pulled out, do you have to defend yourself. And who wants to do that when you can live off the tit of the United States and outsource your security to a foreign power? If you so, militaries are expensive. Well, militaries are expensive. True, but also a U.S. military base also makes your country a target, as we're seeing

right now. Yeah, to an extent. I mean, sure, I mean, you might get a hotel blown up, but who's going to invade you. The answer's nobody. F. You so, thanks for the two bucks. Just got a ticket for the sex pistols playing San Diego in October. Original members except for John Leiden. Yeah, but saying original members except for John Leiden when you're talking about the sex pistols is like saying like founding father does not include Thomas Jefferson. I don't know. You kind of have to have John

Leiden. But I saw the Sex Pistols reunion show. I guess this was in 96, I want to say. It was fantastic, but it did have John Leiden. They started about 20 minutes late at Roseland in New York City, and people were getting spicy. And at one point before the concert, Johnny Rotten slash Leiden came out. And he's like, you've already waited 20 fucking years for this. You can wait a few more fucking minutes. I have a question for you, Ted.

This is something I've been thinking about over the weekend. Iran is a BRICS member. do you see that actually factoring into the equation? Well, Iran's, I guess you can call them allies, I don't really know at this point. Could they meaningfully help Iran? Is there anything they could do economically to assist them besides write an externally written letter to the UN which nobody's going to read? Well, I mean, in the long run, if the government, in the short run, probably not.

But in the long run, yeah, if the Iranian government survives, for sure. I mean, they can prop up the Iranian currency. They can provide low interest or zero interest loans. You know, they can, the Chinese can build stuff. The Chinese engineers could go in and help with the cleanup operation. There's a lot of stuff that, like, you know, allied countries could do for sure. You know, I mean, and I could see, I really could see Russia and China stepping forward in a post-war scenario if the U.S. gets the fuck. out. I mean, they don't want to risk, neither President Putin nor Xi want to risk World War

3 with Donald Trump. But as long as we're there involved in combat operations, they're not going to come. But if things settle down, yeah, I think so. What do you think? Well, after the fact, sure. But I mean, that's just like me, help. That's like me coming to your house with a fire hose after your house is burned out. Oh, I'm here to help. Well, I mean, you know, I might need a place to stay. I might need your help to cart stuff away. It's not like there's nothing to do after a situation like that, but I take your point. Mark and roll, 95, 50, 44, only atheists should hold high offices.

Religious fanatics are disqualified. I laugh at you in Stalin and Malayton. Question, guys, from Desert Fox. What do you think about the chances of a false flag on U.S. soil? I mean, if you're going to suspend your elections, you'd got to do it for national security reasons. And we already had that, that dude in Texas, you know, running around, shooting people and causing all kinds of trouble and havoc. Why can't you do that more?

Whether it's a false flag or actual people who just for whatever reason become radicalized and want to go out and just start causing, no, mayhem. Maybe you have yourself a nice attack on independence day or something. Who can, who knows? I just thought it was worth noting. I don't know if there's much commentary to be made, but, Robbie, this report from the National Intelligence Council was commissioned before the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran. And they were asked to say, what do you think is likely to happen from this war? And their assessment was, it's highly unlikely that the Iranian government will be overthrown, even if you kill the Ayatollah. And I mean, so, you know, they knew their own government totally.

them, you're probably not going to get regime change. So is it reasonable to conclude that the Trump administration isn't really that interested in the regime change? I mean, look at Venezuela. They weren't really interested in regime change. They were just interested in presidential and first lady kidnapping. People always forget, by the way, we kidnapped Maduro's wife, too. We still have her. I mean, when it comes to Iran, honestly, I don't think the United States is interested in regime change. I think that we want two things. One, to appease the Israel lobby, we want Iran to stop doing a sovereign nation. We want them to give up any, any semblance of a military.

And second, we want them to open up their borders and allow us to send our oil companies in. This is about us taking the oil. It's just like one of the ones in Venezuela. Trump, he actually had a moment of honesty. We said, we went in there to take the oil. This is about taking the oil because the United States dollar is pegged to the dollar. By the way, I think John's delay in joining us might be tied into one of the news events. And all over X, I know you've seen this too, Robbie.

Right-wingers have been Republicans, I should say, have been complaining about the closure of the Department of Homeland Security. There's massive lines at a lot of airports. There was a five-hour line at some airports over the weekend at TSA because a lot of TSA officers are involved in a sickout or a slowdown because they're not getting paid. and it's all due to this showdown between the Democrats who've imposed a partial government shutdown over requesting some reforms to ICE that Republicans don't want to grant. So I wouldn't be surprised if John is like stuck in TSA hell right now. Now, I want you out to think about this real quick. Seriously, I want you out to think about what Ted just said.

The Democrats are having a tantrum doing a partial government shutdown, not over the fact that a imperial president has taken their power and has led us into an undeclared war in violation of the Constitution, but instead of a butt hurt over enforcement of immigration law. Think about what I just said. They do not care about the economic hardship and pain being inflected on the American people. They do not care about losing their power to the executive. they do not care about anything except for their pet topics. That is unsustainable. And that's why you cannot explain to me why I should vote for either party.

Well, as you know, Robbie, I'm well. I think ICE is really out of control. And even you've agreed about that, that their tactics suck. Because they are. But like, but I take your broader point here, which is that, you know, this is a, look, as heinous as ICE has been, this issue with Iran is a lot bigger and it has much bigger repercussions in terms of murdering innocent people in Iran and not just school girls. I count everybody.

I mean, you know, one of the things I don't like is like, well, look, it's just children and women and children are getting injured. Look, even when we blow up like a member of the Revolutionary Guards, that dude is just doing his fucking job and means no harm to us at all. And we have no business killing him, right? But you're right about the economics. Speaking of which, it looks like the stock falloff has pretty much leveled off for today, but it's not pretty. Dow Jones Industrial average currently at 46,794 with a 1.5% drop.

There's a 700 point fall. Just bear in mind we were at 50,000. Now we're well under 47,000. And so the Dow, the Dow is going to, just one thing after another, you know, oil is over, well over $100 a barrel. It peaked out at 120 a barrel at one point in futures trading. So, I mean, we're going to have to bring Achilles back and have to explain to people a little bit about, like, you know, Achilles' job is, you know, is to help people manage, who have money, manage their money. you know he's not here to discredit capitalism that's my job anyway let's um more and more is my job

right right yeah apparently um matina question for me is this about making the dollar stronger the war well i mean i don't think i mean i don't think it will i mean there's a scenario in in the old days was with the petro dollar that you know the idea was was the higher oil prices propped up the dollar. But, you know, we don't have that. We don't live in that world anymore. So, and also, I don't think the United States wants a strong dollar because that discourages, you know, people, the trade with other countries.

A strong dollar makes U.S. goods more expensive. And we're like, you know, this president is obsessed with the trade imbalances. Well, I mean, stronger dollar is not going to help with that. What do you think? What goods do we make? I mean, serious question. What do we make here? Do we make shoes in this country?

Do we make electronics? Do we make cell phones? Do we make TVs? Do we actually build 100% of our cars here? What do we build? We still make things, but far fewer than we used to, obviously. Trump's biggest betrayal, Trump's biggest lie was that when he was when he first ran for 2016, in 2016, when I supported him, I was one of Trump's biggest, supporters. He said, I am going to bring all of these jobs back and I am going to be laser

focused on the American people. He won me in 2016, on that Valentine's Day debate where he called George W. Bush a war criminal to Jeb's face. And I'm like, yes, that's the man for me. Now, here we are almost 10 years later. And Trump has completely betrayed his country. he's betrayed his base. He has betrayed his oath. And for what? Our economy is weaker. No jobs have come back.

We are now fighting other countries' wars again. We are still supporting Europe's defense again. We're in a proxy war with Russia that Trump has not ended after saying he would end it in a day, which, by the way, he could by cutting off the UKis. He won't do it. And now we're fighting a war for his buddy, BB. I mean, no. Look, I have nothing to add to that because I agree with you.

The dollar's screwed. What supports it? It's a lead-based standard. We don't have an oil-based standard anymore. It's a lead-based standard. Do you do what we say or we delete you? That's true. So Vilmar Air, what's the off-ramp for Trump at this point?

Cancelling the elections. Thanks for thoughts on potential Samson option. Yeah, well, that would be like where the Israelis decide to like basically go full use their nuclear weapons. I think it's entirely possible, right? I mean, although I don't think we're there yet. It's not likely. Possible and likely are not the same thing. We got to talk about Cuba in the five minutes we have left, Robbie.

And you have all the stuff you need for the raid, I assume? Yep, I'm getting it. I'll put together as we speak. Okay, cool. All right. So, yeah. Yes, Robbie. Thanks for the dollar from unsung.

Pat. I told you it would happen and you heard it, read it, but you can call me anti-Semitic. It was anti-Semitic. Regret it? Nope, said it. Yep, we have to tear this motherfucker up. Ice tube, I think you mean.

Trent is, of course, our other producer. Robbie, what do you think about reports that U.S. commanders are openly invoking Armageddon as an event, And since you're an evangelical, of course, you know this whole statement. I think it's irresponsible. I think it's stupid. And people who are saying this have no idea what the Bible says. Sorry, go ahead.

Well, it's first of all, there was a battle of Armageddon during World War I. And that did not bring about the end of the world. Armageddon happens after the millennial reign of Christ. Armageddon does not happen before that. So trying to force it is not going to make it. happen and Jesus does not need your help, by the way, to come back. He will do it on his time table when he's ready to because he is God. Oh, there is that, right? There is that. Okay, so let's talk about Cuba. So there's reporting. I mean, of course, this is sort of like one of those

reports that might come and go and, like, you know, there'll never be any follow up and we'll never hear anything about. But according to USA Today, they're reporting that their Trump administration is leaking information about negotiations between President Miguel Diaz Canal, where he would basically agree to resign. The Castro family would be allowed to remain on Cuba if they would like to, and that basically Cuba would turn into a vassal state. All of its ports, energy, and tourism would basically become U.S. property to be looted and exploited. It would essentially return to the state that it was on in under Batista in the 1950s and before the communist revolution in the late 1950s. It's gross. I believe the reporting, how likely do you think this is to happen?

I mean, it depends on how distracted the United States gets fighting Israel's wars for it. I mean, if the United States could focus, Cuba would no longer be an independent state by now. It's already been collapsed. It would have already be over. The one thing that the Cubans have going for them is that the American foreign policy apparatus is effectively autistic. We cannot stick to one coherent policy for more than 20 minutes. We're all over the world playing whack-a-mole, fighting, fighting invisible enemies only they can see

for special interests that pay them. And so if there's one thing that the Cubans have going for them, it's not their geography, It's not their natural resources. They don't have any. It's the ineptitude of the American foreign policy blob. Well, we shall see what happens there. Thanks, everyone for watching the program with Ted Raul and John Kirooku. I'm assuming John will be back in, I'm sure he'll be back tomorrow.

He's stuck between planes. Never heard back from him from my text and phone calls. Everything's marked undelivered. So he's obviously stuck on a plane somewhere or in a TSA checkpoint from health. I hope there's no strip searching going on. Anyway, please stay tuned to the TMI show with Manila Chan and myself. And producer Robbie West will be there too. If you are on YouTube and you want to become a tier two donor member,

you click that membership tab, choose tier two. You will be in the closing credits as a thank you. I'm about to apply to those credits right now. So you'll see exactly what you'd be getting. Thanks, Robbie. Yep.