DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Going to Ground | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Middle East War: The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, U.S. officials said, as thousands of American soldiers and Marines arrive in the Middle East for what could become a dangerous new phase of the war. Trump says he might attack Kharg Island and claims the U.S. might steal Iran’s oil. Yemen’s Houthis threaten Bab-el-Mandeb, an alternative shipping route to the Strait of Hormuz via the Red Sea.• Cuban Crisis: The U.S. allows a Russian tanker to deliver oil to Cuba. The Castros step back into the breach. The U.S. blockade of medical supplies is killing Cuban medical patients.• Pope Leo says that God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and have “hands full of blood,” and called the Middle East conflict “atrocious” and said Jesus cannot be ⁠used to justify any wars. The proselytizing Christian campaign of Pete Hegseth violates norms, risks unconstitutionality, and undermines the bonds of mutual respect between troops that are essential, especially in wartime.• Pickax CEO Jeff Dornik joins to discuss free speech online.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

Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help when you need it so your dollar goes a long way. Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, potential savings. savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. Good morning. It is Monday, March 30th, 2026. You're watching Deep Program with Ted Rall and

John Kirooku. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ted. Busy, busy show this morning. We're going to do news. We have something weird and disturbing to talk to you about after the news. We have guest Pickack CEO, Jeff Dornick, coming on to talk about free speech. That'll be kind of an appropriate segue to what we'll be talking about right after the news. It's just a little bit of housekeeping. TMI show, no TMI show today. Manila's out sick. Hopefully she's getting better and she'll be back tomorrow.

We'll be starting our exclusive Q&A. All Q&A shows Monday and Wednesday, this coming Wednesday, not today. Wednesday at 12 noon. We're here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time. Robbie, I've got to ask you for a little bit of tech. assistance here. Those audios that I want to play on StreamYard doesn't let me play them. They let me add video. They don't let me add audio. So if you can sort of figure out how we can play them here, that would be great. Do you know what I mean? Yep, I do probably have to go through OBS and not

that. So if we can't make it play today, I'll play them tomorrow. Okay, that's unfortunate. Okay, I tried to try. Oh, actually, I'll let you do video. They'll let you do video. So if you can convert them to video files. It says it needs a video track is what stream yard saying. Hold on. I've got you. I'm your Huckleberry. All right. So you've got 15, 20 minutes to work on it. So good. How many of these do you want? Just a couple of them? There's three. Well, yeah, just just choose like, you know, choose like three. I'm just grabbing much all. I'm just grabbing what you all. I'm just grabbing all job here. All right. Thank you, Robbie. Appreciate that. All right. So let's get to it. In the Middle East, John, we'll just get to it right away, right?

Yeah. Okay, so obviously the much anticipated ground war looks like it's about to happen. Thousands of American troops are now in the Middle East, and Trump says he definitely seems to be leaning towards attacking Kark Island. He says he wants to take Iran's oil. You know, that's not an idle threat after what happened. No, no, that's a big deal. It's also such a war crime.

It's off the charts. And then I think the big story really truly is Yemen, the Houthis getting involved. Bob El Mandib, I'm sure I'm butchering the pronunciation. No, that's right, the Bob El Mandib. So that's the, basically, that's the straight that goes to the Red Sea. It's the equivalent of the Strait of Hormuz. Correct. And it's so narrow.

It's like nine miles across. Much narrower than the Strait of Hormuz. Yeah, much narrower. So that's, so that little straight separates Yemen from Djibouti. and Eritrea. And it's kind of like... You see how wide it is. It's just north of where the Gulf of Aden,

where those Somali pirates always notoriously operate like Captain Phillips and all that kind of stuff. So anyway, the Houthis have been discounted in all this. John, let's just start with the Houthis. How serious... How serious of a factor are the Houthis here?

Well, the reason... Excuse me. The reason why we thought the Houthis would not be a factor is because they came to an agreement with the United States to stop attacking U.S. ships and U.S. warships. And so we just, as a country, we just collectively kind of forgot about them.

But they launched a missile strike on Israel that connected. And so long as the Houthis have a supply of missiles, even though they're not guided missiles, they can sort of point them in the general right direction and at least frighten people. they might, you know, hit a neighborhood or something. So this is kind of a big deal, not because it's necessarily going to do some damage, so much as it's going to frighten people and distract the Israelis. So now the Israelis don't just have to worry about the Iranians

and their incoming drones and missiles. Now they have to worry about the Houthis as well. And the Lebanese. I was just going to say the Iranians have a multi-front war going on, right? I mean, they're still engaged in ethnic, cleansing in West Bank in Gaza. They're genociding in Gaza. They're invading southern Lebanon. The AP has officially designated it an invasion. I mean, I think an invasion is technically whenever you go into a country you don't belong in. And then there's a, you know, and now Yemen and Iran. I mean, that's a lot for a

little tiny, you know, highly belligerent country to chew. It is. And while the Israelis, cross the Lebanese border with ease every time they want to do it and slaughter as many people as they want to slaughter, it's never a long-term strategy. You just can't maintain it. It's an untenable policy. And so it looks this time as if the Israelis are seeking a buffer zone. This is something that you raised a couple of weeks ago, Ted. You said rhetorically, are the Israelis looking for a buffer zone? I think that's exactly what they're doing. Basically south of the Latani River is the Latani River, it looks like, is going to be the dividing line. But the thing is you can't, well, you can internally displace hundreds of thousands of people. There are 900,000 civilians that are internally displaced right now in Lebanon.

This is a humanitarian catastrophe. And of course, the Israelis don't care. But the issue of invading up to the Latani River and then permanently holding the territory south of the Latani this is new. And the Israelis, they seem to in that area south of the Latani, they've already begun kind of Gaza like demolition operations where they're raising everything. John, what's that about? What is the, I mean, what is the, what is the, what is the, what is the, why is that a tactic? Like, what is an occupying army gain from that? This is all about Hezbollah rocket attacks on Jewish settlements in northern Israel. There are settlements within like two or three kilometers of the Lebanese border.

Why in the world you would want to set up a settlement right there within like literally a hand grenades distance, you know, from the Lebanese border is a mystery to me. But the Israelis have. And so one of the things that these settlements have to deal with all the time is in common. coming Hezbollah rockets, usually shoulder-fired rockets. Sometimes they connect. They destroy houses. Every once in a while, they'll kill somebody. They hit a school playground, I don't know, a year or two years ago and killed a couple

of adults who happened to be there at the playground, just kind of standing around. So this is all part of the, I'm going to use the term the greater Israel, not that giant swath that includes Saudi Arabia and all of Jordan and all this stuff, but greater Israel. meaning a chunk of Syria, a chunk of Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza that the Israelis want for the protection of settlers. So flattening Lebanese homes and turning, basically turning southern Lebanon into,

like what they did in Gaza, turning it into a gravel parking lot. Yeah. Is that about trying to deny those who would be firing weapons into Israel a place to hot? and set up those launchers? Is that what it's about? Yes.

But all that's going to happen is they're going to move. The technology is going to improve. They're going to get more distance out of their rockets. And then the Israelis are going to have to cross the Latani River and go on to the north side of the Latani River. It's just going to get worse and worse and worse. And God forbid anybody should either start treating people like human beings or engage in some sort of peace talks even indirectly.

God forbid. it's easier just to, you know, commit crimes against humanity. Totally. So, yeah, no, I agree. Look, I think the hootis are a big deal, too. You know, that's, you know, you were asking, by the way, I just want to answer, like, you know, why would the Israelis have settlements three miles from the border?

I don't know, why would you have a music festival three kilometers away from the border of the fence with Gaza, right? That's exactly right. It's bizarre. Or a kibbutz, right? It's Samarigans, man. It is. So I guess they're like, well, it's all ours.

So we get to, we're going to control every little bit of it. So before we move on from the, from the Houthis, I mean, the threat is huge, right? Like I, you know, I used to work in banking and business, I mean, shipping, they're not going, if there's a 1% chance that, like, your tanker is going to, is going to take a Houthi missile, you're not sending that tanker through there. You're just hot. Look at it this way, too. The Persian Gulf accounts for 65% of the world's fertilizer. So 65% of the world's fertilizer has to go through the Strait of Hormuz. And as if that isn't bad enough, it then splits.

Half of it goes east to Asia. Half of it goes west to the Babo Mandeb to then go through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. And if the Houthis are armed and blowing up ships again, this is going to be bad. Ted, I've lost your audio. I don't know if it's you or me. I'm going to hit refresh on mine. How's that?

You're good. How am I? I can hear you now. Okay, great. That was very strange. I wonder if my computer's just getting old or, well, we're having some security breaches. Let's say that. Indeed.

All right. Let's do some questions from leftover. from Friday. So just a reminder, the new schedule, right, Q&A, Wednesday and Wednesday, starting this Wednesday, April 1st at 12 noon. So as usual, we love your questions. We'll take them during this show. This show is going to be really packed, but we're going to, any questions we don't get to today, the super chats will be kicked over into the next show, Wednesday, and then all of those, anything that's left over will end up in the, in the Q&A only show on Wednesday at noon.

Let's do these leftovers. All right, UK fan man, thanks for the five bucks. Why is Hebrew the only language considered when using the term anti-Semitic? Is this not disrespectful to all the other Semitic languages? Every Arabino makes exactly the same argument. And of course, of course the writer is absolutely correct. Semitism does not mean Jewishness. No.

It means people from the Semitic tribes. and that includes the Arabs. So yeah, that's exactly right. Let's see. Desert Fox 41. Thanks for the dollar. What do you guys make of the Epstein Rothschild connection? He brags about it in his emails with Peter Thiel. Also, thoughts on the French Guard and Italian,

the French avant-garde guard and Italian. I'm watching some De Pardieu and Fellini this Friday. You won't talk about De Pardieu's sexual proclivities, but great actor. I love the, yeah. I'm not a huge Felini fan, John. You know, Ted, I've got to agree. And I've tried.

And I thought, maybe it's me. Maybe I'm just an idiot and I don't understand it. I think. I'm dumb. But yeah, I just. I tried. I mean, you know, I went to a very pretentious college. They showed all those movies and, you know, at the student union.

And it was just like, I don't care about eight and a half. for any of that. No. And I wanted to. Yeah. I wanted to be one of those like, oh, Felini. It's like Paul Thomas Anderson. The genius of Felini.

Paul Thomas Anderson. I just can't, you know, not really. I've come around. I'm sorry, West Anderson. West Anderson. Sorry. Oh, no, West Anderson. No, I'm not a fan.

It's too tweet. Just like, oh, what's his name? Lockstock and two smoking barrels. He was married to Madonna. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who told this? guy he should be a director like he's never made any he's never made a single decent movie another one uh what's his face that did the great gatsby and elvis hey ted i assume that you're

not calling me right now is that correct that is correct i am not calling you right now yeah yeah god what a dick here i want to show you all right here we go dead raw's calling uh-huh yep yep Yeah, that's a little teaser. Let's see. Let me put this. Amateurs. Yeah, yeah. We'll get to that in a minute or two.

All right, we'll do a few more questions. I will get straight to that. What's going on with John and I, who are being harassed? Okay. Palestinians lived and lived under brutal apartheid and have gone through unspeakable horrors. What can they do to win as a people? I'm in contact with a few. Well, that's a big, big, huge question.

I went to a fundraiser Friday night for a guy named Abdul Asayyad. It's actually Abdur Rahman Asayyad. He's a medical doctor running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. Slime ball mother. Okay. Sorry. He graduated from the University of Michigan, went to medical school at Columbia University, became a road scholar.

And then when he got back from the UK, became an epidemiologist. And he's running for U.S. Senate from Michigan. He is a proud Palestinian. And somewhat to my surprise at the fundraiser, his talk was about health care, health care, health care, health care. And then at the very end, a little bit about Palestine, but you can tell he's very passionate about Palestine as well.

But it was all about health care. And I thought to myself, man, we should have 100 senators like this guy. I very proudly wrote that check at the end of the night. That's one way of doing it. And I'll add, in the 1990s, there was a real debate in the Muslim community in Michigan about whether it was acceptable for Muslims to participate in American elections. And I don't know what just happened. Ted fell out, but that's okay.

It was about whether or not Muslims should participate in American elections. And imams weighed in, and imams said that, yes, of course Muslims should participate. It's the only way to affect change. But it took 20 years. John. Yeah. There you go. John's not calling Ted.

No, and I'm not calling John because we have a radio show. We're live on the air. Morons. So it's only now that Muslims are really coming around to participating fully in the American political process. And that's a good thing. And, you know, change is incremental. And it's very slow. And it could take a century.

But you got to start with that first step. And the first step is participating fully in the political process. Wow. Okay, so let's do it. And I also, I'm going to say for the Palestinians, honestly, this is going to be sound weird. I think they are winning. I mean, basically, you know, we talk about how the Iranians are winning by surviving. And the Palestinians are surviving. And global public opinion, particularly in among the American people who are the, you know, Israel's closest allies, the U.S., is shrinking. And it's never coming. back, especially because young people really don't support Israel, and they're going to get older and more powerful and more influential, and old people who support Israel are going to die. You know, Palestinians be playing the long game, and they're going to win. They are going to win.

I agree with that wholeheartedly. I want to live long enough to see it, but I think it's going to happen. Okay. Zilu, thanks for the 99. What are the likely political consequences of the war with Iran? it's going to be the destruction of the Donald Trump administration, I think. I agree. It's the end of the MAGA movement.

And I agree with that as well. This is a very serious split within the Republican Party. So many Republican voters really believed in the end-to-foreign wars message of the Trump campaign. and Marco Rubio is running the show and Marco Rubio is a John McCain-style neocon. Yes, yes, he is. With even less, but with less charisma. Good morning, gents.

Retard is really fucking us. Orange retard is really fucking us. This morning, Spain closed its airspace to the U.S. Any idea of any other EU countries will join this idea. also say, John, that there's gas rationing around the corner in the UK. Thoughts on Ukraine, signing with Gulf, I mean, like next week, signing with Gulf states in the defense agreement. Thanks, men, hashtag, pardon, John. Thanks, Aryan for the 1999. Ted, you just called me a second, third, fourth, and fifth time. I'm a busy boy. I can call you multiple times while I participate.

Now your sixth call is trying to come through. I think it's time to talk about this, John. Do you please go ahead? So a couple of weeks ago, I started getting calls from some fucking moron using a Google voice number based in New York, a 9-17 number. And he's this cowardly anonymous moron hiding behind anonymous phone numbers. He's calling me now for the seventh time. And it started off with, he says, you stupid piece of shit. Stop talking about Reza Pahlavi.

Well, let me tell you about Reza Pahlavi. First of all, Reza Pallavi is the coward son of the former Shah of Iran. He fucked his brother's wife. His brother then committed suicide. Reza Pallavi is afraid of his own fucking shadow. and I said in multiple venues that if he were to return to Iran, which is exactly what the Israelis want because he's a Mossad stooge, that he wouldn't survive the walk from the plane to the terminal.

I stand by that. I agree with that. I agreed with it then. I agree with it now. Yeah. And also he's dumb as us. And he's dumb. And that's even maybe worse than being a coward.

He's just dumb. So this coward hiding behind anonymity started calling, calling me a piece of shit, fucking asshole, fucking piece of shit. He's going to fuck me up the ass and all this stuff. And then I would block the number. He'd get another Google voice number. I'd block that when he got a third. I blocked that.

And then the death threats began. And my response to death threats is usually a pretty standard. bring it on tough guy bring it on because as ted pointed out before the show started real assassins don't fucking talk about it especially through anonymous google voice numbers right just do it in silence and this fucking guy he just called me now the eighth time um he's all talk this this tough guy with his vaguely iranian hebrew accent shall we play yeah let's play

all right let's put this up so this is one Robbie thank you for converting this I'm gonna put Robbie up here too so here we go we're gonna we're gonna make this I know I got it to work before alright here we go

you slime ball motherfucker you don't talk about Rosavavi again you fucking hear me fuck you ass liquor Stephen Morrison answer the phone, motherfucker. Yep.

It's a lot of repetition. A lot of repetition. He's not terribly bright. He doesn't have very much in his quiver. But yeah, that's pretty much it. And the funny thing is, you know, with the new iOS download,

and I'm sure you have the same situation, if a number isn't saved in my in my phone, it just goes directly to voicemail.

Yeah, that's how I have it set up now. So this guy is not bothering me in any way. And that's fine. And Ted and I

text each other constantly. So Ted calling me eight consecutive times, especially while we're here on the show. He's like, buddy,

are you fucking brain damaged? He's calling again right now. Are you fucking brain damaged? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

There's something, obviously he's out of his fucking mind. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, you know, I mean, I've read a lot about these kind of creepy stalker fuckers. Yeah. And, you know, obviously, look, he's going to get what he deserves because, you know, we're just like Rayza Palavi's going to get what he deserves. He's going to get a fist up his ass. And he certainly never. And then he's going to say, thank you, sir.

May I have another? He's never going to be the leader of Iran. No. Never. No. Like his degenerate, torturing father. Yeah, his degenerate father who died like a whimpering coward. So this guy's, yeah, and he's like, you know, basically it's like this fucking monarchist idiot.

Like it's 2026. You're a monarchist? What the fuck is wrong with you? Seriously. You know, the only the only monarchists among Iranians are living in Beverly Hills and being, you know, supported by in the pay of the Israeli Mossad. So, you know, you people are not impressive. No, no, they're making fools of themselves on social media. Well, he's also not as smart as he thinks he is. Let's just put that out there too.

He will be caught. And, you know, let's talk about that. Let's talk about that, yeah. Robbie, you're a tech guy. What can you tell us? Well, what's pretty cool is that whenever you make a voice over IP call, so long as you have a date, a time, and a phone number, if you know what you're doing,

which, for sure, I know what I'm doing, you're able to trace it back. Now, I can't get your phone number without a warrant, but I know where you are. And here's the best part.

I have successfully given you a digital colonoscopy, and you're too stupid to even realize it. I'm tickling your tonsils as we speak. Yeah, we know exactly. I have got six reports with your IP address and everything. I know that you're using Google. I've got the reports I'm looking at them right here.

Similar to John and Ted. Fortunately, John, he has a lot of friends in the FBI. And what you're doing is a felony. And so this is going to talk our word this morning. Don't take on the call his friends at the FBI. So, yeah, so going ahead. I mean, you're harassing my friends. Now, first I'm offended that you think is so little of me that you can't.

harass me. Are the people on the show, let's be honest, I'm the one usually against the most hate and vitrial. Racist, white nationalist, Nazi. No one can bother me. It's like, no, I can't be bothered with this. I'm just going to just, I'm, I'm harassed the two lefties who are, who are the moderates.

I'm left out. I'm personally offended. The next time, next time I'm going to do this. Honestly, you're going to scare John Kyriaku? Oh, please. Go fuck yourself. Really? Like he's afraid of you.

I mean, I mean, you know, he knows he's had real reasons to be afraid. And you're not one of them. You know, that's right. Really, truly. Yeah. We got you, pussy. We got you. And the FBI is going to get you next.

So, and by the way. Bring it on, baby. It would not be sad if someone were to recognize his voice. And, yeah. Trump, you know, let us know. If you know him. Ted, are you able to? Are you able to display one of the reports that I sent you so that way he knows I'm not bluffing?

I don't know if you can shout it in Stream Yard. Yes, I think I can. Let's see. Listen, I'll talk slow. My family had got too many forks, but I'm not as retarded as an Iranian monarchist. Seriously. It's like, God, people, get with the program. Your Shah and Shah is not coming back.

So let me, let me, sorry, I got to do a couple steps. to make this happen here. Robbie, do we have any more questions while we're dealing with? Not the outstanding ones, but I've not been watching the chat this morning from converting those audios over into video and stuff. So we'll get in there and get some of those. I can't show it, but here's what I have. So unfortunately, because it would violate YouTube's terms of service,

I can't give you all the phone number for this Dixon. head. However, what I can tell you is that the time that he called, so it was 32826 at 1500 as a voice over IP came in through it came in through Google and let's just keep on going here. Shall we be going? Let me pull up the latest report. John, go ahead and send me the oh I have it now ready to go. Oh, I'm great. Here's the report. Image file. I just cut and pasted it. I hope that's okay. That's fine. Yeah, because I've got a bunch. I got a bunch of them i got these for days that's true you do oh shit why is it not coming up um

it doesn't like you yeah i know i'm having here we go invalid file type really okay shoot it's robbie um okay let me i can do this i know i can do this yeah so but but here's one right right here uh so just kind of give you all an idea about what y'all's favorite redneck is able to do here it's kind of fun this is kind of work i i enjoy doing it's kind of work i i enjoy doing it more than producing. I enjoy screwing people. So the carrier is Google Grand Central. I see that you're using an SBR protocol, which is really kind of lame. You should really up your game.

Maybe you should start spending some more money on a better system. Seriously, dope. No, if you can't do that, at least go stick your dick in a hole in a fence or something. If you can't get laid, that's all right. If he could even find his little micro dick. Yeah, like him and Mark Levin. So the lookup response, I see that the phone number is based out of New York City. and I see like I said he's using an SVR wrapper with a 910 area code

but the mobile country code is 311 so what's nice is that if some dumb uneducated hick like me who's never been to college can get all this information johnsman's of the FBI will just so much better with the metadata that I'm sitting so please keep doing it yeah and I hope that you're an immigrant so you're asking it's deported yeah that would be curious that's a deportation that Ted Raul could get fully behind yeah I'm for that. Off to Seacot. Bye. Okay. Thank you, Robbie. All right. Well, I'll keep Robbie on stage here. Joining us for our next section is Jeff Dornick. He's the CEO of Pickax. Pickax.com. I'm active on pickax as is Robbie. I know. John, I don't know if you're on there or not, but if you're not, you should be.

I apologize. So Pickax is a free speech-oriented platform. They all say they all. But as far as I can tell, Pickax really is. So, Jeff, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me on. I've been looking forward to chat with all you guys. So, Robbie, you want to tee this one up? Yeah, so Jeff Dornick is a friend of mine. He is the CEO of Pickax.

I was one of the first people that went on to Pickax. It's pretty cool. Over there's Putin-Bot gaming of all the appropriate monikers for the MAGA. And just an awesome guy. He's a free speech absolutist. He has made it his mission to fight big tech and the censorship that they do. And we have talked more than once about this big split

this happened on the right, specifically with Trump's full embrace of neoconism, the abandonment of his base, and frankly the self-destruction of his movement. And I just really just want to just bring you on, Jeff, and see what is it that you're hearing from people that you, that you run with about how Trump has just gone full John McCain, but frankly,

an illegal unconstitutional war of aggression against a sovereign nation without congressional approval. What are you hearing on your end? Well, it's, it's interesting because it's like, when you look at the Republican base, it's been extremely, it's been extremely splinter.

I think that's obvious to anybody kind of looking at it. But it's like, historically, it used to be, you'd have the traditional Republicans versus the magas. Republicans and now you've got MAGA kind of being splintered off into all these different factions and all that. And to where I think, I think that the thing that we're seeing is that you've got Trump is kind of redefining America First, redefining MAGA. And to where really the only people that are really supporting a lot of these actions by the Trump administration are the neocons and the Trump sycophants is really what it comes down to.

Because a lot of the people that actually bought into his America First agenda and bought into, to his campaign promises of no foreign interventionist wars, no regime changes, which, by the way, we've had, what are we two going on three regime changes now within the first year of his presidency? You know, like a lot of people that I'm talking to, they're like, this is not what we voted for. And then if you start questioning it,

then all the sycophants start coming after you and trying to destroy you. And that's why, I think it was last night or the night before, you know, one of my good friends, Brandon Strach, who the founder of Walk Away, he spoke at CPAC. And he basically just kind of called everybody, out where he's like guys can we can we knock off all all of the the personal smears and trying to

destroy people just because they have legitimate questions about our own government or a foreign government he's like last I checked that's kind of what patriotism is supposed to be you're supposed to challenge the status quo you're supposed to challenge what the government is doing ask questions and don't just go along so it's we're in a very weird place right now I think especially on on the right which historically I've been and I've kind of been trending a little bit away from from the Republican Party as of late, but it's, it's been interesting to kind of see the developments happening, especially under this Trump 2.0. Jeff, I mean, just before you came on, John and I both kind of agreed that the major political implication of the Iran war is going to be the destruction of the Trump

administration and of the MAGA movement. Do you think that's, that's putting too extreme a point on it? or is, I mean, is the threat really of a schism that existential as John and I think? Yeah, well, I think that there's lots of things that are contributing to it. And I think, I think the Iran War specifically, I think really, I think made it a point of no return for a lot of people of like, okay, so we were promised the Epstein files. We were promised the 9-11 files. We were promised transparency. We were promised that, you know, like I've had Cash Patel on my show. We were promised cash is going to get in there and drain the swamp and in the deep state control within the agencies and all that kind of stuff.

Has anything happened? Where's the arrests? Where are we dealing with the corruption? Where are we actually dealing with all of this? But I think everybody was still kind of holding on of, okay, at least we're not at war. At least we're not, you know, like, you know, getting, you know, going back to, you know, we're being the world's police and all of that. And then all of a sudden, here we are. And we had Venezuela where, you know, Trump took out, you know,

had basically had a regime change now we're dealing with iran and i think from a lot of people that i've talked to this close to the trump administration i think that my guess and again i can only based upon certain conversations i think that trump kind of thought that okay we we were in and out in venezuela we got the regime change we wanted great let's go do that in iran and i think he bought into the narrative that they could do that and it's like now he's in there and now it's like okay we're not getting out of this really quick uh how is this going to be i think i forget i think was jd bans it was just, you know, basically projecting we could be there another year or two. I think the goalpost keeps getting pushed off down the road.

It's, it's like at what, at what point is the Trump administration going to learn their lesson, that they're listening to the wrong people, they're listening to the very people that they said that they were going to drain out of the swamp and then turning their back on his base that actually bought into his agenda when he first started running for president. Yeah, I have a pleasure for you, Jeff. This is weird. This doesn't make any sense to me. I'm a right winger.

I voted for Trump in 2016 because I wanted something different. He was saying all the right things. He won me when he called W a war criminal on Valentine's Day in the debate and crucified Jeb with the explanation point on national TV. I was like, this is my guy. And Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro were blasting Trump. Now they are America first and I'm not. They're the ones that Trump is going to listen to, the people who are never Trumpers. And so he's just going to just completely abandon the people who got him to the dance, not once but twice, for the same people who were his enemies in the first place.

And what world is this saying? Yeah. Well, I feel like, I feel like everything is upside down backwards. And it just feels, it just feels bonkers to me. Because none of, none of this makes any, any sense. Because none of this is the agenda that Trump laid out. None of this is what he pitched to his base and his base voted for. I mean, I mean, a big reason why Trump won.

this last election was because of, you know, you bring in the RFK juniors and the Tulsi Gabbards and, and the, you know, the center, the center, the center, center left kind of coalition because of we're getting, we're not going to be the police of the world. We're not going to be a part of the forever wars. We're not going to be a part of the regime changes. And I think, and I think that then he gets in there and then who, and then who is he listening to? He's listening to Lindsey Graham, who by the way, is down in Disney World last I checked based on a TMZ report. And you're just sitting here and you're like, is this like everything is backwards. Like, and then his base, and this is one of my biggest frustrations, his base then will be the

sycophants that they are and then try to defend and justify every single thing that he does, defend the fact that he'll, you know, say that Lindsay Graham is MAGA and Thomas Massey is a traitor. And you're like, everything, everything is backwards. It's just none of this makes any sense except for the fact that the, that the neocons are running the show within the Trump White House. I don't see any other justification. Do you see the sort of the anti-neocon faction as what it has been reported to be? That would be J.D. Vance and Tulsi Gabbard and maybe the chairman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, although that may be apocryphal. do you see that being the case and if so is Tulsi Gabbard short for this administration?

Yeah, I think that for, and I think even Trump acknowledged, I think it was yesterday the day before, basically over the weekend that Tulsi doesn't necessarily see eye to eye with him on Iran and she's not as, in his words, not as strong, you know, on this as he is. But he made it seem like that that's okay and we take different perspectives and different positions within the administration. I don't necessarily know if Tulsi would, and people like her would be pushed out by Trump himself. I could see it happening from some, you know,

people within his administration, you know, like the Susie Wiles type of type of people. But I think that what we're really seeing is, I think it's going to come to a head at a certain point. Because if you're Tulsi Gabbard, who doesn't believe in a lot of these foreign interventionist wars, has been very opposed to Iran, I think from what I understand as well, like she, she disagrees with the intelligence that Trump is basing the justification on going to war with Iran.

You know, at a certain point, it's going to come to ahead. And then is she going to be, is she going to be forced into either doing things that she believes is morally wrong or is she going to be forced into either getting fired or pulling a Joe Kent? I think at a certain point, there, it's going to come to a head. And I don't necessarily think that the anti-neocon crowd within the Trump administration will be able to continually stand by when, you know, we're, you know, already dealing with Iran. We're going to be stuck there in the Middle East for who knows how long. And then what are we going to do? We're going to go into Cuba next. What's after that?

Like, at what point is enough enough? Yeah. Jeff, why do you think, I mean, we all agree that, you know, this is not what Trump promised. And he appointed people, you know, personnel is policy, right? He appointed the wrong personnel. Now we've got the wrong policy. Why did he appoint the wrong personnel? I mean, how did that happen?

I mean, you know, why did he choose people like Marco Rubio? Why didn't he bring in people who were more skeptical of the Forever Wars? Honestly, you know, this is what we were told throughout this last campaign, was that Trump 1.0, he made a lot of mistakes in hiring. Trump 2.0, it's going to be different. We're going to get the right people in there. I think a lot of people thought that it would be when you had him bring in people like Tulsi and RFK Jr. And you bring on, you know, for, you know, as crappy as Doge was,

you bring on Elon Musk and, you know, the quote unquote, the best of the best, right? But at the same time, you're looking at this. You're like, it's kind of a repeat, if not worse than Trump 1.0 with a lot of the internal hirings that are the closest to him. And from everything that I've seen, it feels very much like he's, he's trusting the very people that he campaigned against in his first administration when he was really taken on the Republican establishment, taken on the neocons.

And then what does he do? He surrounds himself with the neocons and the establishment Republicans and then calls them MAGA and then attacks his actual MAGA base and says that they're that they're rhinos, that they're, you know, anti-Trump, anti-America, anti-patriot, their traitors, the whole deal, and sticks Laura Lumer on everybody. And you're just, you're just like, I don't, I don't know.

I don't know what is going through his head unless it's just the fact that he's got somebody like Susie Wiles, who I've been warning again since the campaign. It was in, honestly, when I saw that he hired Susie Wiles, that was one of the contributing factors of me actually walking away from Trump and backing RFK Jr. is I'm like, if you're going to hire Susie Wiles, who has deep ties with all the industrial complexes, who has deep ties with everything that Donald Trump has campaigned against,

and she's going to be the gatekeeper, she's going to be the one running the show. It's not going to be good for the America First agenda that Trump pitched to everybody. And I think we're seeing the actual results of that. One thing I want to point out real quick, Y'all, and this is, Jeff, this is going to tie right in to pickax. over on YouTube there is a bunch of there's another word for it there's a bunch of fuckery going on over 1,200 people were just dropped from the stream they are having to come back manually

and we know that Barry Weiss is on the record saying that it's incumbent on big tech of these companies to control SEO and search and moderate what it is that people are able to see she said that people are able to say what they want but they don't have a freedom of reach. So I think that's why I rumble is so important.

And increasingly that's why pickax is so important. What is pickax? Yeah, so what, basically the way that we lay it out is we're a constitution protected free speech social media platform. So like you're, you know, if it's legal,

uh, you're allowed to say it. Uh, the one exception is we do ban pornography and, you know, for the free speech absolutist that, that give me a lot of crap for that. I always say,

like you can't go down to your actual town square, take up your clothes and have sex in the middle of the town square and not get arrested. So I'm not going to allow you to do that on, in my digital town square. So outside of that, you're, you're basically allowed to say, you know, what you want. And I think, and I, and I, in, I think the other component like what you mentioned is that if you look on all these platforms that are now claiming to be free speech, they're always saying, okay, freedom of speech, but it's, you have freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.

And so basically, you can say what you want, but that doesn't mean that they have to let anybody actually see it. And so for me, you know, this has wider implications than even just politics. This is, this is impacting, you know, influencers and a whole host, different industries because now what they're doing is they're having to base everything on algorithms everything is about the algorithm and so what ends up happening is when you think about it if everything is based on the algorithm how do you actually build community you can't you physically cannot do it if you're always chasing the algorithm so you know Elon musky put out his his source code for you know what content shows up on your news feed it has very little to no bearing

about the number of followers you you have who follows you who you follow that has almost no bearing on who actually sees your content. It has everything to do with the algorithm and the AI will take a look at your content. It'll decide. It'll do a little test market, you know, and show your content to a handful of people, see what kind of engagement gets, see which kind of people actually engage with the content. And then it'll decide should we or should we not show this to more people. But they may follow you. They may not. It does it doesn't matter whether they follow you. It's just you're chasing an algorithm. So what does that do to the content? Now what ends up happening is you get people, like, you know, the cat turds and the Gunther Eaglemans and the Laura Loomers and all that kind of stuff. What do they do? They're posting content that the algorithm will pick up. So they're basing their content and they're writing the content for a computer, not for people. And I think that what we're seeing and the result of that is just a massive just destruction of all semblance of conversation on X into where it's just gaslighting. If he's fighting each other and just firebombing and whatever it is. And so what we're actually doing with Pickax is just this idea.

of if you follow somebody, they can actually see your content. And we've been having a lot of testimonials from a lot of people. Like one guy actually just posted you. He's like, I've got 45,000 followers on X and 45 followers on Pickax. And I'm getting more engagement and more conversations on Pickax than I am on X. It's because we don't have algorithms and we're actually setting it up to where our quote-unquote algorithms are based on humans. So the humans are actually deciding what gets seen, not computer.

So I think we're seeing the very positive result of that right now. Jeff, how do you break through the market dominance of your competitors? You know, I mean, it's so, I mean, there's, you know, as you know, I'm a Marxist, capitalism has a tendency toward monopolization and aggregation of power and wealth. And, you know, these are companies that these other media, social media companies, got to the table before you. So how do you, you know, how do you get heard and how do you spread the message? about pickax.

Yeah, honestly, like, we're doing a lot of marketing, a lot of promotion, you know, obviously I'm going on shows and doing all that kind of stuff to promote, but we're also going to be focusing a lot on like in-person events where we can actually make human-to-human connections, because I think that that's really where, that's really where our bread and butter is going to be, is how do we connect human beings to human beings and make, and there's something different and something unique when you actually meet somebody face-to-face as opposed to digitally. There's some kind of like connection that happens and you can't even really explain it, but you have a you have a much more long-term connection with somebody if you see them face to face or see them in person than you do digitally.

And so we're going to be we're going to be doing that. But the more that we can get people to buy into this idea and kind of retrain people's minds and, you know, hopefully, you know, get them past their withdrawals of dopamine hits that they get on the other platforms and realize that like, no, you can actually build community. Like I would rather have a smaller audience that actually sees all my content where we're actually building community. We can actually talk and go back and forth. and you build, you know, as much of a relationship as you can and friendship on online, then this digital chaos that's happening on the, on these other platforms. And also on the other side is that I've set up our business model as well to where

I'm not like all the rest of the tech startups in Silicon Valley, where they're always going for the grand slam. Like I can't tell you how many people that advised me, quote unquote, on how to build pick action. Like, you get to burn through a lot of money. You've got to do these different rounds of fundraising. And, you know, you just, basically the goal is to burn as much money as you can.

So then that way you can raise more money. So that way you can burn it so you can raise more money. And that's basically the thing. And then the goal is to ultimately just turn around and sell. Well, that's not what I want to do. Like for me, I would rather do this for the rest of my life. So I got to set up a sustainable business model without an insane burn rate.

And I don't need millions and millions of users in order to be profitable. So I have a much lower threshold for building it. So I can actually continue to build and grow and I'm building for the long term, not necessarily for the Quick Kit Grand Slam, which I think will actually make it a lot more sustainable and then a lot better for the users and the creators in the platform. Jeff, that's great. Very smart.

Thank you so much for coming on. That's Jeff Dornick. He's the CEO of Pickax. Strongly encourage you to come over and join the conversation over at pickax.com. And there's an app on iOS and on the Android store, on the Google store. So thank you very much, Jeff. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Anytime. Okay, so it appears, guys, that we're continuing to get attacked throughout the show here in mysterious ways. So this doesn't appear to be like a, you know, random, just a random, you know, asshole. Although there's a random asshole involved, but we're, you know, my mic got turned on and off several times. That's never happened ever in my life on this computer, which I've had for years. We've had 50s. 100 watchers on YouTube be kicked off. And I guess hopefully, Robbie, are they migrating back or what's going on? Let me see. On YouTube, we've got some of them back. 45 out of just under 2,000 people have returned to the channel. Well. To watch the live stream.

Okay. Well, if you're watching on the repeat stream later, we apologize to you who got dropped out. It was not our fault. We didn't want to lose you. Well, one thing I want to say, because there's a lot of people who are on the YouTube chat right now who are talking about, you know, why are we having Jeff on and why is she running an ad? First, he's not running an ad.

The man started a business based around the premise of being able to speak freely, which supposedly that's something everyone can agree on, and not have to cater to an algorithm in order to be seen. That's the point. He's also smart about politics, too. Oh, he's incredibly smart about politics. Yeah. So, I mean, listen, if you're, if you're so trapped on the plantation where you think the only way that you can speak is by playing the games of Barry Weiss and Adel Adelson and their backers, then frankly, you're part of the problem.

Open your mind just a little bit. Now, I'm always attacked on this show from being a closed-minded religious nut and a fundamentalist. At least I have an open mind. I'm able to talk to people and think and see. and look at other perspectives. Hey, John, you're calling me again. Jeez, Ted, you've only called me 29 times in the last 45 minutes. It's like I don't love you.

I know, right? I should pay more attention to you. Is it the same phone number? It's Ted's spoofed number. Yeah, gotcha. Yeah, so the problem is you can't block it because then you're blocking me. Yeah. And I can't block fake John.

Right. I am thinking, I don't know, maybe changing the phone, changing my, it might be. time to change my phone number although i hate doing that because i do too it's like you have the last time i changed my phone number was in 2010 the nigerian media got in touch got a hold of my phone number and oh my god 24-7 calls from nigeria i had to switch the number and it was all those numbers too all those princes calling you yeah exactly no what i would do if i was y'all honestly uh mute that number and then if y'all have to actually call each other best you do it over telegram yeah good Oh, that's not a bad idea.

However, he's also got another phone number of someone who's near and dear to me, who I can't do that with. So, yeah, no, it's, it's disgusting. Well, the question we're going to catch him. Well, the question that I have, and I mean this sincerely, is how did he get a holding you all's contacts? I don't know. That's the part that that's, that to me tells me as, listen, I'm not the sharpest knife

in the drawer. I'm the first one. I'll tell you that. But just a normal. person is not able to get a hold of your contact list. No, that's true. So there's something else going on. I wonder if I wonder if this person has a very small hat on the back of his very small head. Comptitating for his very small micropetus. I suspect so. Yeah. Well, impotence is definitely part of it, right? I mean, you know, if someone who does this, the typical MO is that it's someone who

feels powerless and impotent and, you know, not able to really, uh, to feel like they're Powerless. They listen to John and I and Robbie. We're talking. We have a... And he is powerless because we don't bow down to the Zionist point of view. Yeah. No, exactly. That's all. Simple is that. Not to mention, I mean, if you knew anything about John and I, it's like the more you fuck with us, the more oppositional will be. You know, it's like... Exactly. Hey, try it the old-fashioned way. At least send a million dollar bribe that we would consider.

Anyway, all right. But threats, threats are not going to work. Not at all. No. All right. So we should, let's do some questions, right? Shall we? Sounds good.

I see some superchats in what's left of the Google, of the YouTube. It's really sad. We lost a lot of these. If we, if you're, by the way, if your super chat got lost, please contact Robbie at West Glacier Gaming at Gmail with your super chat question. We will do it on Wednesday. If not Wednesday morning, we'll certainly do it Wednesday at, you know, at 12 noon during the new Q&A show starting Monday and Wednesday at 12 noon from now on. So we're going from five hours a week to seven hours a week.

Okay. Thanks for the $2. Breaking. Voter learns politicians live for election. Hilarious. And let's see. Thanks for the five Australian dollars. Random question for the day from Curl Cola.

Do any of you play any strategy PC games? I'm a huge fan of Heart of Iron 4. I do not play video games. To tell you the truth, the only video game I play is Angry Birds. I've been obsessed with it for more than a decade. Oh, gee. Oh, man. I'm like one of the original users.

In fact, I've got a streak going. I've gone 2,288 consecutive days. It keeps a tally on the screen. Wow. That's a long time. Yeah. That's me. I'm the gamer. John, you're into history.

You should, seriously, you should look in the Rome Total War. It was an old game. What's it called? Rome Total War. Rome Total War. It's awesome. I mean, it's an app or is it a program? It's a program.

It's on your computer. Rome Total War. Well, it has an app now. It's an old game. I bet you it's on iOS. Guys, we have a topic to get to. So let's do this other question. Arian, thanks for $4.99.

Sorry to interrupt. But John, I want to thank you for trying to combat censorship in our media. It's been such a big issue that many people overlooked. Genuinely, thank you, sirs. Vapor fever, $1.99. John, are these the sign of the times. I don't know what that refers to, but probably the hacking. Okay, so, John, you have a, your good, dear, beautiful friend, Laura Lumer has taken an interest in you.

Yeah, I woke up yesterday to a vicious attack from Laura Lumer. the unhinged former mental patient who has attached herself to Donald Trump's hip. She called me a communist, which is kind of funny. Yeah, that's me, Laura. That's not John. Yeah. You know, I responded to her very, very evenly. And I had a wonderful response, wonderful response.

from other people just saying she's an unhinged lunatic, so just ignore her. And then I decided just to drop it. So, you know, she has a very empty life. And she's been complaining around Washington to any right winger who will listen to her that she's furious that Donald Trump hasn't appointed her to some governmental position. But this is a woman who's banned for life from Uber, from Lyft, from Target, from Costco, because she will not stop with the anti-Muslim hate speech.

And she's just not, in my view, sane enough to have any government job at any level. It's just not workable. So, yeah, I decided to just ignore her. Does she have, does she have, how much influence does she have with the president? president in your estimation. Ted, I blocked your number and somebody just remotely unblocked it and started calling me again. Wow. Well, I very much look forward to the FBI syncing their teeth into this one.

This is going to be easy, easy because this fucking retard, excuse my language, made threats in his own voice. True. using phones that can easily be traced with a, with a warrant. Repeatedly. Repeatedly. I mean, there are multiple felonies we're talking about here. So this is going to be, we're going to get the last laugh here. And it's for sure across state, and it's for sure across state lines.

Because John and I are not in the same state. That's right. Which makes it federal, which means you're fucked. Yeah. Well, you know, maybe, you know, John can give you some tips on how to handle life as a, as a, you buy one of John's books. Yeah, buy one of my books. To doing time like a spy.

Yeah, you'll be good for you. You can sit at the pedophile table and live happily ever after with your federal conviction. I wonder if he is a pedophile. Very well could be. I would surprise me at this point. Yeah. No person. There was a Jewish.

Maybe they took a fence. They took offense because we always did pedophiles here. So there was a Jewish group in the chapel when I was working there. And literally every single one of them was a pedophile. a convicted pedophile. So he'll fit right in. It's, yeah, what a, what a creature. I'm offended.

I have not, I've still yet to be harassed. Don't worry, Robbie. Your time is coming. Gosh. I mean, if he's really in our contacts, you know. I wonder if he's southern phobic. Is that a word? Southphobic.

I don't know. Like gritphobic. We need a term. Hey, grits are good. I love grotes. It's lots. The more cheese, the better. Guys, oh, my God, what a morning.

Okay, so seriously, we will be back, you know, all hacking aside. And, man, our YouTube audience, like, dropped like a rock. Yeah, no. But people will be watching later, I'm sure, because we'll restream the show within, like, an hour or so. But anyway, thanks everyone for tuning in. We are here Monday through Friday, Eastern time, 9 a.m., starting on Wednesday, day after tomorrow will also be doing Monday and Wednesday at 12 noon.

Q&A show only during that period. And again, if you're in the Michigas today, your question got lost, we apologize on behalf of the little small penis, impotent little Zionist piece of shit who's been

fucking with us. And with that... Yeah, seriously, y'all email me with your mischats and send me a screenshot. If you send me an attachment, I'm not going to open it. just send me a screenshot and we'll get it in there guys thanks everyone and we will see you later talk to you john bye bye ravi later you later