DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Is Trump Bidening Out? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: January 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: • Democrats covered up Biden’s physical and mental decline. As Trump gets caught sleeping through a cabinet meeting and rambling incoherently, some are asking: are Republicans covering up for their own octogenarian president? • Will the world’s richest man let The Washington Post die? Fewer reporters are being sent to the Olympics and the Super Bowl. Foreign correspondents are holding off on trips to conflict zones. And editors are being encouraged to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Big layoffs are coming to the newsroom and the business sides of the paper, with sports, local and international taking most the pain. Video journalists, as well as politics and national security are expected to become more central. • Democrats and the White House agreed to fund ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks while they negotiate restrictions on an immigration crackdown. Demands: banning ICE goons from masks and requiring them to wear body cameras and ID, an end to random immigration sweeps, judicial warrants for stop and searches and the same use-of-force standards as real cops. How much will Dems cave? Will Lindsey Graham hold things up? Did you hear about the “National Shutdown” today?JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLE!https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowFOLLOW TED:https://rall.com/https://x.com/tedrallFOLLOW JOHN:https://www.instagram.com/realjohnkiriakouhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLISTEN ON SPOTIFY:https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuLISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall

Good morning and happy Friday. You're watching Deep Program with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ted. Good to see you. Good to see you, too. Little housekeeping. First of all, I just like to note that it is still insanely cold here in New York.

I woke up to negative digits, and I guess it's going to be like that all weekend, too, even worse tomorrow. We are, please like, follow, and share the show. Just a reminder that starting Monday, we will be resuming Robbie Aid. You know the deal. that on Monday. Lots to talk about today. We started a couple minutes late, so I just want to get to it quickly. So we're going to be talking about, among other things, obviously your questions and comments. Please post them live in the YouTube and the Rumble chat. They've already started and we have quite a pile of them. But we always aim quickly to get through all of them. And there's some really good ones this

morning. I mean, there always are. But I'm always impressed by you guys. Thank you so much. And just a reminder, thank you so much for helping us get to 15,000 subscribers on YouTube. This show is not even a year old. And so that's really great. And we'll bring in Robbie to try to migrate some of you guys to rumble. We are Democrats are criticizing President Trump for taking a nap through a meeting that he said, characterized as boring. Shocking that a meeting in Washington, D.C. could be dull. You know what I found to be particularly funny about that?

count. Yeah. Whether whether, whether he fell asleep in the meeting, listen, I've fallen to sleep. I've fallen to sleep. So what are he going to do? Third or a quarter of his age, yeah. But, but what was the funniest thing about that article was that Howard Lesnick, the Secretary of Commerce, when, when the president said, yeah, the meeting was boring. He laughed loudly. And it said that Lesnick has been known to laugh more loudly than any other cabinet member when the president makes a joke. Oh, really? You know, My father was criticized for laughing very, very loudly whenever anyone important made a joke. And having been in the room with presidents, more than one president, my father, definitely, I'm sure, like, laughed loudly when the president told a joke.

But, oh, my God. So, yeah, so that's a funny story. We'll get into that. I got to say, I think of all the classes I slept through at Columbia University as a 19-year-old. Oh, my God. Oh, listen, one time in class, I actually jerked. awake because I was dreaming that a bird landed on my shoulder. I used to have the class at teachers college, which somehow had like the warmest,

goziest classrooms. And it was just like basically I almost started skipping the class because it was impossible to stay awake, even though I enjoyed the subject. Anyway, in all seriousness, that could be a sign of sleep apnea, just saying. Okay. Well, you know, and I have, I have been told by, you know, girls that I've slept with that I might have sleep apnea. But who knows? I've, I've, I've, I've never been tested. We're going to ask whether the world's richest man or at least a guy who is one of the three world's richest men is going to let the Washington Post die. It looks like it's possible, which is insane.

Democrats in the White House have apparently, at least tentatively, at least in the House, have agreed to fund ICE in the Department of Homeland Security for a couple of weeks while they try to figure out some restrictions, limitations on ICE's activities. Um, one holdup is Lindsay Graham, uh, in the Senate. Um, so Lindsay, apparently is, is trying to shake down the government for some money. Um, and that's what this is about. Very strange. That's Lindsay Graham. Shameless. Utterly shameless. And apparently if you're a good lefty, you're supposed to be, uh, not buying or shopping or doing any banking today. I only heard about

this yesterday. I guess I'm not a good lefty. Because here we are talking. Yeah. Um, John, a couple of, uh, breaking news developments, uh, before we get into. all of that and your questions. Don Lemon had got arrested yesterday by federal authorities. This was over his attendance at that Minnesota church protest slash disruption, depending on your point of view. Don Lemon's the former CNN anchor. Now he's an independent journalist.

And I guess the thing is it's certainly not unprecedented for reporters to be arrested at protests. No. That's happened many times. It should never happen, especially if they have. credentials. But in this particular case, it is, it does seem unusual to come after the guy, you know, a week later and, and, and, like, and handcuff him and stuff. Yeah, a week later after the Justice Department had gone to a magistrate judge in the federal district court for the Southern District of California and asked for an arrest warrant.

And the judge said no, that he was protected by the first. Amendment. Right. This isn't going to stand up. This was this was to humiliate him to give him a slap. He spent a night in jail. I don't think anything else is going to come of it. That's the best thing that ever happened to his late career. I mean, I'm jealous of him. I was on that podcast and usually my friends will say, hey, I saw you on such and such a podcast. Nobody ever said they saw me on the Don Lemon podcast. I've been on Don Lemon. I was on Don Lemon on CNN. And I couldn't when he was on CNN. And I was on CNN. And I I got to just say, you know, first of all, I want to be very clear.

He should not have been arrested. No, no, no, no, of course not. He was guilty of journalism. And if you're like, if there's any doubt, then, you know, if there's any doubt, that's in the favor of the journalist or alleged journalist, always. That said, I just want to say he was one of the dumbest interviewers I've ever encountered. He's so darnarily arrogant. And, you know, I'll tell you, what finally made me turn on Donlin, I would, I would tolerate

Don Lemon. because I wanted to watch the news in the evening. He was, he was on in the evening, so I would just turn it on sometimes. But I'll tell you what turned it for me. When CNN was, was advertising this, this Marvin Gaye documentary. I was like, oh, I love Marvin Gaye. Yeah. It's a, it's a tragic story. The guy was an incredible musician, incredible talent. So I'm going to watch it. It was Don Lemon, talking to some professional. professor I never heard of about Marvin Gay. And then every couple of minutes,

Don Lemon would break into song. And what? Yeah, and sing some, it was unwatchable. And that did it. I was done with Don Lemon. Oh my God. Yeah, yeah.

I was on talking about my Wall Street Journal article, talking about how, like it wasn't illegal, but how I basically got one more shot of COVID than I, you know, kind of technically ought to have because I was super nervous about my rest of, health at the time. By the way, I regret that decision now. But anyway, the point is,

and he said, well, it's illegal. And then, and I said, no, it's not. And it's not illegal at all. You can get as many, you get 55 COVID shots if you want them, if you're stupid enough. And he, and any, but I couldn't believe he said that on the air. Like, he just didn't even know. He just, like, farted that out. Like, Why would it? I mean, a journalist might say, like, might ask, like, wait, is that illegal? But instead you say, but that's illegal. You broke the law. I was just like, whoa, this is not, CNN. You expect better. John, this weekend is coming. We've been following the Saran story now for weeks. It seems very clear from the president's warnings to the Iranian government that something's going to probably happen and happen quick. And soon and maybe this weekend or within the next week or whatever, but quick and soon, a violent attack as the president characterized it.

How's that looking to you? Do you think we're looking at this weekend? If so, what? You know what, Ted? I don't. And I'll tell you, I've just in the last three or four weeks, I've developed some friendships in three Middle Eastern royal families. thanks to podcasts. But anyway, I've been in close touch with these princes.

And they're well-placed princes. They're not just, you know, playboy princes living in Beverly Hills and driving Lamborghinis. These are serious people. And I learned yesterday that the Saudis, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, and the Emirates all went to the president by phone and said, please don't attack Iran. The Egyptians went so far as to say

that it would lead almost immediately to a region-wide war, which is the last thing that anybody wants. I agree with that analysis. I think so too. More importantly, and the proxies will be triggered. Oh, yeah.

The Israelis went to the president yesterday and said, don't attack Iran, not out of the goodness of their hearts that they've had some kind of change of position, but because they have not been able to replace all of the Iron Dome missiles that they used in the last go-round with Iran. I remember that story. Like, I mean, it seems, it's weird.

It's been over a year. You would think that I guess these things take time. I guess. So, you know, the president said that he's sending an armada off the coast of Iran. I follow Iran news very, very closely. It's not. It's one carrier battle group. It's definitely not an armada.

It was tough talk, but that's very much, that's very much the way Donald Trump does these things. For sure. Now, with that said, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Donald Trump shocked all of us in the first term when he talked tough, talk tough, talk tough, and then met with Kim Jong-un. and totally defuse that whole. And it now might be the time for something like that to happen. If the Middle Eastern countries are unanimous in their opposition to American intervention, and we're on the brink of something, which we are, maybe now's the time to use the Omanis, for example,

to go to the Iranians and to say, let's have serious talks. Now, that's been done in the past. President Trump wants a real Nobel Prize, not one that's going to be gifted. That was going to be my final point. That's the one. That's the one. I mean, the U.S. has been effectively

at a cold or hot war with Iran for decades. For most of President Trump's life, it would be great. I mean, look, everybody, including those of us on the left and MAGA world, we would have to support it. I mean, we would, Yes, I mean, we'd have to.

And it would be a big win. It really would. I mean, a president can't really change the economy overnight. The president can't, there's a lot of things he's working on that he can't really fix very quickly. Yeah. This one he can do within a couple of weeks. He could. Elliot Covert has a good question here.

John, what is the reputation of Iran's foreign intelligence and spy agencies? Absolutely terrible. One of the worst. Is that the Likarat? or that's on the on the iraqi side okay it's the the m oys the ministry of intelligence and security and the irgc the iran revolutionary guard corps absolutely terrible intelligence services everybody should be fired knowing the iranians they'll probably execute them but they should all be fired well thank you elliott so yeah i mean look obviously um you know reading between the lines

with the president's statement. I got the impression Trump doesn't want to attack. I don't think he does. He gets nothing out of it. He would prefer to get a deal. I think so too. I think I might write about this today. All right.

And let me say something completely unconnected to this. My camera is particularly blurry today for some reason. I bought a new computer yesterday. Oh, God. I'm going to hook it up this weekend. And I don't be blurring. Oh, good. Thanks.

On mine, it looks just. awful. So I don't know if that, I don't know, maybe if people in the chat can say, does John look blurry? All right, here we go. All right, let's do, ready for some questions? Ready. All right. Good morning for San Diego. Can you talk about John Lennon being arrested? I want to be really clear. Those charges should be dropped immediately. Yeah. I think they will be. It's not a good luck for the United States. No. Kevin Cronin, just made coffee before he'd be programmed. Has it had a guy over to clear

and nearly two feet from snow, okay, from the roof, Boston Strong. John, can I be on the lesson that Jackson McGrath wants to be on the next episode of Deep Focus and talk about what Asia should fix if I become the Australian Prime Minister? I'm skipping that one. Do we think, good morning, gents. Do we think peace is reached if Ukraine joins NATO in exchange for the U.S. withdrawal from NATO? Well, I don't think that deal is on the table.

But I don't know. I think, I don't know, I think this, this, I think the Russians have the upper hand here and everyone knows it. I think so too. All right. I think so too. Yeah. Tennessee Deadhead, John and Ted thoughts on Iran, Russia and China announcement on live fire exercises in the closing of the Straits of Hormuz next week. Yeah.

They won't close the Straits of Hormuz next week. This is a very clear message to the Americans that the Iranians can close the Straits of Hormuz in a few hours. if they want to. And they will disrupt the entire global oil supply system. And they've done it before. They did it during the Reagan administration and it was successful. So this is a message to the Americans that, look, Armada or not, you don't want to do this. It's going to be way bigger than just the U.S., Iran, and Israel. Elliot Kover, just got gifted a membership by Ray. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. Triple J. Ted, do you have any thoughts on the people who froze to death in New York City? Did Mamdani mess up here? Or is this a sad, normal reality with the cold weather? Awful.

say I'm going to surprise people. I voted for Mayor Memdani. I support him. I wish him all the best. And I think he's like, you know, I think it's very exciting to have a Democratic socialist mayor in New York. And I'm looking forward to seeing what he did. That said, this was a major fuck up. You know, 10 people are dead for no reason whatsoever. This is where being, you know, sensitive and giving people the freedom to do what they want is insane. It is right now, as we speak in New York City, I think, it's 11 degrees. It is two human beings can't people human beings die of of of the cold when it's 40 degrees outside. That's right. You know, 10 people died over this latest cold snap. I'm actually surprised it wasn't more. The truth is, you know, I saw mayor, I saw former mayor Giuliani's tweet this morning and, you know, I thought, you know, this is a guy I never agree with, but he's totally right. He said like, Mandani changed the rule. His rule was under a certain temperature. I think it was 20. but the NYPD had the ability to just scoop people off the street and take them whether they like it or not. And I'm in favor of that.

I think under a certain, you know, you're not going to let people, you should not let people have the freedom to sleep outside and die when it's bitter cold. It's common sense. It's not a civil rights issue. Couldn't agree more. Okay. Couldn't agree more. I'm still feeling sorry for this poor kid at the university. of Michigan.

You know, this is, when there's weather like this, we got to look out for one another. Yeah. This kid went to, and I don't know why people, you know, this young generation, they don't wear coats in the wintertime and they wear shorts. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was guilty of that too. See, I never did that.

My kids do it. I don't understand it at all. In New York City, I would run barefoot in my shorts, in a t-shirt, barefoot in the snow to get my newspaper at the corner of Broadway. Oh, my God. People were like Ted fucking roll is insane. But, you know, we run hot. You run hot when you're cold.

Yeah, I guess so. But this poor kid went to a fraternity party and had a little bit too much to drink. He wasn't drunk, but he had, he had been drinking, didn't wear a coat, left the party. And they found him Tuesday frozen solid. Like Jack Nicholson in the last scene of the shining. Like Jack Nicholson in the last scene of the shining. That's horrible. Yeah.

Let's see. Oh, John, have you ever, this is C. Morris. Have you ever seen a documentary series called Hunting Isis? They follow American mercenaries with the Kurds participating in the fight against ISIS in Syria. A very interesting watch. I had a very good friend, James Morris. James got out of prison after doing 17 years of a 20-year sentence for a stupid crime that he committed at the age of 16, got 20 years, at the age of 16, did the 17 years, got out, you can't get a job if you have a violent felony conviction. So he made his way to Turkey and then crossed the border into Syria, completely on his own and spent two years with the Kurds fighting ISIS. Yeah, I was fascinated by that documentary. I thought it was well done.

And it shows you there are a lot of desperate people out there. There are a lot of bored people who are proficient with, you know, heavier weaponry. And they're looking for a cause, something to give their lives meaning. For sure. Or to give their lives. Well, James ended up committing suicide, unfortunately. Oh, shit. Yeah.

Tommy Doc wants to ask, any thoughts on Afghanistan evacuee is still stranded at a basin cutter and denied immigration this long after the fall of the U.S. regime there in 2021. I mean, it's really, the thing is, there are so many people trapped in diplomatic limbo like this all over the world. Say that again. You just mentioned ISIS. There's some of these encampments in Syria that are still, you know, hold all these like ISIS brides and these people who've been there for years. That's longer even. I'm really of two minds about the Afghans. On the one hand, I think if you're stupid enough to work for an occupation government, and then that government loses that you're going to probably end up in not in a good place.

On the other hand, I think the United States government should look out for the people who work, who work for them and with them, and we owe them or, you know, we owe them a debt. It's like the Roman Empire. We owe them something. We shouldn't leave them hanging. Yes, I agree. And you know, this is going to sound, I don't want this to sound callous, because I don't mean for it to sound callous. But if you're a refugee or if you're an intending refugee, you've served the American government,

you've been promised resettlement or you believe you've been promised resettlement, then and you're stuck in Qatar at Aludade Air Base, you're still okay. Don't worry about it. You may have to sit there for three. Yeah, you may have to sit there for three more years. but don't lose hope. Yeah, you're just sort of stuck. McKenna 308, thanks for the 499.

Yesterday, you all said that we'll never really know what happened to JFK. What are your theories as to what actually happened? Robbie, too. You know, I spoke with someone who spoke, I have to be careful how I say this because I don't want to out him. Anyway, not all the Kennedy documents were released. there are 10 or 15,000 left. They will never be released. And I am told that they point the finger directly at the Israeli government.

Wow. Wow. Why would the Israelis have wanted to kill Kennedy? Because Kennedy would not give them nuclear technology. And also Trump was openly hot, not Trump, Kennedy was openly hostile to Israel's nuclear program there than Negev. So there's that. too. Yep. He he absolutely did not want the Israelis to develop a nuclear bomb.

Well, Robbie, since this one's for you, I'll let you just stay on, just filming really. And after this, I'll do an ad. Since Robbie has no sympathy for illegal immigrants, if they need real help or not, I have to support them. So I can't donate to Robbie. Shame. Shame, Ravi. Well, it's your private. Tisk, Tisk. Well, I mean, have you just about those people? who froze their death in New York. This is how I try to qualify this. I always try to look at things is what is best for the American people first.

That's what being America first means. How many homeless people are sleeping outside, meanwhile, illegal migrants are given hotel rooms? Why can we give hotel rooms to homeless Americans? You know I agree with that. And especially homeless Americans who are out of their minds because they're mentally ill, they're on drugs, they're drunk, and our solution to them is you just stay outside and freeze to death. We don't care about you. Meanwhile, you can betray your country, assist an occupation force, and then you expect to get resettled here at the taxpayer's expense. Sorry, no, that's not how that works.

You take care of your own people first. And if you're a trader of your country, sorry, I don't have any sympathy for you. Suck an egg. I hope it's clear. Okay. Well, thank you, Robbie. And please let's have that ad when you're ready. Okay. Did we see Dr. Oz, John, did you see Dr. Oz doing a segment on Armenian hospices in Los Angeles committing fraud? Yeah, I want to punch him in the face for that too. Of course, Dr. Oz, who is a veteran of the Turkish special forces. Of course, he's going to zero in on Armenians in California. I freaking hate that guy. And Tulsi in Fulton County, each appointee must have their own racial scandal. I mean, you know, I have had any further thoughts, by the way, before we talk about some of our main stories today about the voting records controversy. I heard interview with the Fulton County official in Georgia this morning where he was saying, you know, he doesn't know why the federal government, why the federal government,

scooped up these voting records, what they're going to, you know, what this means. They say they'll still do an election. Yeah. He's posited that the administration might be interested in trying to literally make the case that actually Trump won Georgia and the 2020 election. Okay. So, you know, as I love like what if is in history, right? Like what if the Germans won?

You know, what if this, what of that? what if what let's just say for the sake of argument right what if trump was right what if it turns out that like they seize all these records there's no skull digree on the administration's part they find out that fanny willis and her gang of thieves stole the 2020 election away from Donald Trump that causes all sorts of problems doesn't it does it doesn't it mean that this that this term shouldn't have happened under the constitution and doesn't it mean that retro or is it just like we just do a makeover i mean there's no constitutional remedy for such a thing there's no constitutional remedy um you could you could begin a criminal investigation of you know the entire biden campaign but um but but well which could be fun what do you do i mean you can't although bide wouldn't remember he doesn't even remember being president in the first place. I just going to say. Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah. Well, speaking of which, that's a good segue, right? So what do you make of this story? Like, you know, the president took a nap through a cabinet meeting. Look, my father was in some cabinet meetings, quite a few. And he said that Reagan loved to sleep through cabinet meetings, like all the time. Yeah, Reagan was famous for that. And meetings are boring.

It is true. Like I thought, I did laugh when Trump said, well, you know, we would all do respect it was boring. It was like two and a half hours. But I'm also like thinking you're the president. You could make the meeting shorter. Yeah. But anyway, you know, do the American, I mean, you know, look, I think the deal here, first of all, Democrats have no, no standing whatsoever to ever assert anything about like the acuity mental or physical of any president going forward. No way. After what they just did for four years. No way. And they pulled a, They pulled a fast one on the American people.

Shame on them for even raising this issue. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's like, it's ridiculous. They should probably do their own accounting first. Yeah, okay. So, I mean, that's kind of like where I am on that. Let's talk about the Washington Post, John. So the Washington Post, you know, was purchased by Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon. World's first, second or third richest man, depending on how you countess.

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Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post. He said, you know, don't worry. I'm here with my billions to protect American journalism. Now and forever, I'll be here. This is not, he's not, you know in this. Previously, Warren Buffett bought a couple of newspapers, including the Buffalo News, and then cut it loose when he said that basically there's no future for print journalism. Dr. Pat Sun-Shiong bought the LA Times, full disclosure, I hate him and wishes he was dead.

You know, but he also kind of, so the model seems to be, oh, and oh, we should probably talk about P. P.R. O.M.D.R., who started First Look Media, which is now the intercept. All these, all these, the common thread here is that all these billionaires throw money and they say, I'm here because I'm rich as shit and I'm going to make journalism thrive. And then what they mean by journalism thriving is they really want to handle it like an incubator. They want to throw some money, but they want the bird to fly out of the nest on its own. But what if the bird has broken wings and kind of is always going to need help, which seems to be at least for the first seal? future, you know, the situation for print journalism.

That's print journalism today. That's just a fact of life. It is. You're not going to turn the paper around and all of a sudden it's going to be the 80s again and everybody's making money. So vultures be circling overhead the Washington Post. A week ago, they announced that they were not going to cover the Winter Olympics. Then they got eaten alive in social media.

They said, okay, we'll send a skeleton crew to the Winter Olympics. Then, I mean, you know better than me, what their reputation is. is for sports coverage. Here in New York, the New York Post is the sports paper. In fact, that's one of the reasons why the Washington Times became a thing. It's owned by the Unification Church, the Reverend Sun Myung Moonies. They bought the paper back in the 80s, the early 80s or late 70s, whatever it was. But it was the D.C. sports paper because the Washington Post sports coverage was a joke.

By the way, the Washington Times is totally subsidized by the Moonies. They've never looked for it to make money. No, no, no, no. They just like owning it. It's their mouthpiece, yeah. And then now it looks like they're sending a skeleton crew to the Super Bowl, but, hey, who watches that? And now foreign bureaus, war correspondents, conflict reporters are being told to cancel their trips. There's going to be big layoffs to the newsroom and the business side of the paper.

Sports local and international are going to get beaten up. So basically, it looks like their strategy is. is to focus on politics and national security. Yeah. And which I'm like, okay, I can see that, although I think it's a mistake to abandon local. Because local is where you, you know, no one else can do local, but you in the local place.

Right. Right. And D.C. local politics are super interesting, and they are federal politics. But, John, we're seeing this at the New York Times, too. I mean, you know, we're both subscribers to the New York Times and the Washington Post. And when you scroll through, sometimes you see these articles,

especially on your phone, and you click on it, it's like, oh, it's not an article. It's a video only content, right? I hate that. I do too. And I was wondering if that's just, I don't know. This is like what the post and the time seem to be banking on. They want to do what we're doing. Yeah.

They just want to do, basically they're doing podcast formatted things. Two or three guys talking about, you know, current events or whatever. And they're doing the analysis. But it's like, I don't need to. to pay a subscription every month for that. If that's their future, I think, frankly, people like us and Joe Rogan do a better job than they. I agree.

So, I agree. Why would people not just a la carte it? If I could wave a magic wand, I would want a Washington Post that covered foreign policy, intelligence, politics, had an investigative division, and had like two young hungry journalists, one in Northern Virginia, one in Maryland, and maybe a third covering D.C.

just to do local stuff. I don't care about the sports. I can get better sports coverage 100 different other places, right? Just give me that. I mean, that's not just the hometown paper, but also the national look at issues that are important to the whole country.

And they're not willing. But I'll tell you what makes me one account. cancel my subscription to the post the most is what in the world has become of the editorial board. They're going to get calluses on their knees from the position that they've taken in front of the great and mighty Jeff Bezos. And I just can't, I can't stand it. It just makes me sick. It's bad. I mean, the thing is, it's also like clumsy propaganda. Like if you're going to do propaganda, don't let everyone know what you're propaganda, you know? And they, you read it. You can't take anything that they say seriously, because it's so lickspiddle. Yes. Yeah, I, I tried to comment. I think I mentioned this the other day.

I tried to comment on, um, on an editorial, this, this like obsequious, disgusting pro-billionaire editorial. And all I said is like, shame on the Washington Post, you really are the paper of the 1%. And it rejected my comment as violating community standards. Yeah, that's not. That was it. I don't know what community standards is supposed to. No. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, just because I criticize the almighty Jeff Bezos. It's a bot. Yeah, they have those keywords in there. Yeah. Question for John from Linda Bruce. If you're successful in getting a pardon, what would you get as a result? My pension. That's not a small thing.

That's the whole thing. I had 20 years of proud government. service, I need it to live in my old age. Could you vote? I have to have it. I already can vote. Governor Terry McCullough was so kind and generous to me. Followed my case.

Oh, yeah, because elections are state things. Yeah, and he pardoned me without my even applying for a pardon. So the funny thing is I have my state gun rights back, but I don't have my federal gun rights back. So does that mean you could carry in Virginia? Yes and no. Yes, I can carry legally in Virginia in that I'm not violating a state law, but I'm still violating federal law. So this would be that nebulous stance that like, for example, the cannabis dealers have. Exactly. They're legal locally or statewide, but not federal.

It's exactly the same thing. And you know, the funny thing is, Bruce Fine and I have talked about this ad nauseum. Congress passed a law in the 1990s when Bill Clinton was president saying that felons can apply to the ATF to have their gun rights reinstated if they were not convicted of a violent felony, violent or drug-related felony. But then in the same law, they said that no money, no federal money shall be expended by ATF to investigate any of the people who apply. So that's awesome. So no one has ever had their gun rights reinstated. I mean, yeah, that's like the, that's like, I love Catch 22s. It's like the Guantanamo detainees who were cleared for release, but no country would take them.

Or there was no, the Congress defunded the ability to pay for their airfare. It's ridiculous. It's like I always thought they should do it, go fund me for the airfare. And then at the same time, Congress passed a law in 2009 when Obama was president, that none of them are permitted on U.S. soil. So even if they're found guilty of a crime, which they won't be because everything they said was because of torture, nothing can be used against them. But even if they were to be convicted of a crime, they couldn't be sent to a U.S. prison

because they're not allowed on U.S. territory. Which is ridiculous also. So ridiculous. We kidnapped them. And then it's like, well, we can't let them here. Like, we stole them from their own country. John Hart, huge reach. but if Trump actually follows through,

could this actually unite the Middle East and everyone put their differences aside to take us on? I think this question is about a possible attack against Iran. Maybe a full-fledged, let's just say a full-fledged Iraq-style invasion? Yeah. Would that do it, maybe? Yeah, that would do it. But nobody likes Iran among the Arab states,

except maybe Iraq or part of Iraq does. Not Bahrain. No, they're actively fearful of the Iranians. Okay. Katarach. John, I had no idea Greece had a violent communist insurrection. Did they ever have a real shot at rule or have popular support? Where was that?

Greece. Oh, Greece. No. I mean, the Civil War was bad. It still scars families from 1946 to 1949. It was absolutely just bloody. But a series of Greek government supported by both the U.S. and the UK really cracked down on communism. And the Communist Party of Greece was actually legally banned until 1980 when Andreas Papandreo was elected and he legalized it.

The truth is, there are not very many communists left in Greece. The Communist Party of Greece gets between three and five percent. in each election. It's just enough to be represented in parliament. But they're not a factor. Now, there are left-wing parties. There are two socialist parties. One's a little bit more purely socialist than the other.

But they're much more democratic socialist parties than anything else. Cizza and Pasok. And if you're going to call them communist, guess you can call them Euro-communist. But as for pure communism, like Soviet-style communism, that time has come and gone. Oh, I should add, I got a nasty. Did you see the nasty note that I sent you that I got from one of our listeners in Greece? Yeah.

Did you see my response to it? I did. Yeah. Don't fucking send me nasty hate mail because you're going to get it right back. Okay. One of my approaches, by the way, and I post this on my website, is if you send me anything hateful or threatening, I will post it. I reserve the right to post it online. There you go. So, you know, you should have done that. You will be doxed.

Vieterus, and my fans are mean. So thanks for the Fiverr. John, heard in your podcast that you'd like to retire in the Middle East because you love it very much, but I didn't hear why I'm going to Qatar and liked it a lot. I'd actually like to retire in Greece. I'm hoping. I haven't said anything publicly. Things are going really well right now and I've got these speaking engagements coming up. I'm really hoping I can buy a place in Athens before the end of the year. Not to retire there right away. It's a place that I'd like to have and rent out in the near term, but I'd like to go for a month or two months at a time, bang out a book. Greece is seven hours ahead so I can do this in the middle of the afternoon and still sleep in and still have to.

That's great. That's what I'd like to do. Although I have to admit, there's something to be said for this is done, you know, by morning. And then it's like I have a whole day clear. That's true. That's true. Hey, listen, real quickly, we've got to thank a couple of people. Sure. So Don and Mike especially. Thank you. Thank you, guys. It's incredible. Thank you for your support. Mike from Nottingham. God bless him. He sent us $100. Wow. And so Don, $50. Thank you very much. And so Don says, John and Ted, the world has officially gone to shit, shaking my head.

Cash Patel is directing his agency to monitor signal chats of the Minnesota protesters. What happens when the pendulum swings the other way? It's going to happen. You know, I just... We've been saying that. We were just talking about that yesterday. And, well, first of all, do you believe that the pendulum is going to swing? Or do you believe...

Well, that's an interesting question. That the Democrats are going to hold them, their tempers. Well, I mean, look, let's talk about this guy. government shutdown as an example, right? So Democrats have agreed to fund ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for two more weeks, right? In exchange for, they're like, we want ICE to be reined in. And their demands are, like, say things like, oh, we want them to wear body cameras. I thought they were required to wear body cameras. So did I. I guess I was mistaken about that. No more masks. they have to have ID like a normal cop.

And by the way, you know, it's not completely unprecedented what ICE has done. Like in New York, the cops sometimes when they like get wanted to beat up protesters or whatever would like during Occupy would cover their shields with a black piece of elastic so that you couldn't see their number. But anyway, an end to random immigration sweeps. In other words, only targeted like we know we're coming for, you know, or whatever, you know, Bob Jones. We are, and then basically the same use of force standards as real police. I think the Democrats are going to cave on this. The reason I'm segueing from this question is the Democrats are going to roll, right?

They're going to be rolled. They're going to settle for much less than their supporters would want. And that's part of the reason why I think Democrats still have problems. I mean, the president is going to probably suffer the usual midterm losses, which, you know, all but two in the modern era have suffered. You know, people, but that doesn't mean that, you know, people love Democrats. And so that's going to be, that's what we're going to see. I think the pendulum, we know historically, yes, Democrats are probably going to win again in the future. And when they do, they're going to do the same shit.

or worse to the Republicans that the Republicans are doing to the left, right? And it just goes back and forth and the retribution never ends. You know, I don't know what to say. I just think that's true. But it doesn't mean that, but Democrats might not get back into power in 2020. I think it's far from certain. Oh, I think the Democrats are the underdogs in, in 2020, because they have no new ideas. Yeah.

This is another thing, too. my Republican and conservative friends out too we're really only a year out because the primary intent and purposes year that's right that's okay Pete Buttigieg is going to save the country right well he has a beard I saw that don't get me started on Pete Buttigieg so my Republican and conservative friends always surprised me in that they expressed this this grudging respect for the Democrats because the Democrats are always so unified that's not at all how I see the Democratic Party. I see the Democratic Party as a party of weaklings with no new ideas.

No leadership. Who almost instantly cave to the political right. No leadership whatsoever. Hakeem Jeffrey should be ashamed of himself. Chuck Schumer's awful. And Chuck Schumer's worse. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I agree with that. I mean, look, anybody, look, it's quantifiable what you just said, John. I mean, look, they weren't able to hold the line for a government shutdown over the ACA subsidies, right? Yeah. They couldn't keep their own caucus, you know, lined up. So therefore, what you said is, you know, just without a doubt, true. Swizzy, I'm sorry you're joining us late.

Any thoughts on Don Lemon being arrested? We did talk about it earlier. So I would encourage you to hit that rewind button to the beginning of the show. MT-16, Mike and Nottingham. What's your favorite Simpsons joke and episode? John, thank you. and God bless you. I mean, that's a very open-ended question.

I can tell you what the funniest episode was that I ever saw was when Homer goes to clown college. The Simpsons isn't, the Simpsons hasn't been funny for 15 years. I watch it. I've watched every episode ever made. And it's just not really been funny, like laugh out loud. funny. But when he went to clown college and was on the little tiny bike in the mafia social club and his pants got caught in the in the, um, the chain, the bicycle chain and it pulled his pants

down and his naked butt is riding on the bike and he has to go through the loop to loop. Oh my God. I still laugh when I think about it. For me, for me, it's no doubt. And Robbie might hate this. it's the date that, it's the date that, that Homer decides to blow off church. And yes, he stays home. He lays on the couch. He sits on the sofa and everything goes amazingly. And, and then he, and then, you know, he tells, he tells Marge what happened. And then she's like, Homer, have you lost your faith?

And he's like, no. No. No. Well, yes. Yes. I'm proud to say that Harry Shearer, who does a dozen voices, follows me on Twitter. Oh, that's awesome. Isn't that great? I think I'm not mistaken. I think Nancy Cartwright went to my high school.

Oh, that's so cool. A couple of years earlier than me. I think that's right. She gets in trouble every once in a while because she does a lot of stuff for the Church of Scientology, including robocalls, but in Bart's voice. And they were like, oh, no, you don't. You don't own the rights to that voice. We do. Cut it out.

Yeah, that's so true. The Archangel, five bucks, thanks very much. Is there a possibility, question for both of us, that all of the Minnesota news could be a ploy to distract us from the looming turbo inflation, great pod? I don't think so. I mean, look, I think, look, here's the thing. immigration is a big issue for this president.

It's like still, I mean, most Americans still favor deportations. This has been a, you know, I don't think, look, he wants to deliver on this, and that's what ICE is about. And, you know, obviously we have problems with the execution. But the, but certainly, I don't think this is like sort of some ploy to distract from something else like Epstein or whatever. Yeah. I mean, I think they're serious about this. Yeah, I agree. Hey, there was a new Fed chairman announced today. He's a former Fed governor. I never heard of him. But apparently it's going to be a lot less controversial than everybody seemed to think it would be. Yeah, but Jerome Powell hasn't really agreed to leave, has he? Well, his term is up in like five months. Oh, okay. So it would be for that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So charging him with a crime. I mean, that, When he only had six months left in his term, and then you make a criminal referral to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, it's like, for what? I mean, for mismanaging the renovation of the building. It's like, come on, man. Just let him just go quietly. Yeah, he's an old dude. Nicholas Francoz, did you hear about the president of Turkey saying that in case of Iran attack,

the Turkish army will establish a safe zone inside Iran? They would love that. They would love nothing more. to grab Iranian territory like they grabbed Iraqi territory and they grabbed Cypriot territory and they grabbed Syrian territory. Pan-Turkism gone wild. The neo-Ottoman government in Turkey is what it is. Yeah, pan-Turkism is a topic we should get into at some point because people, many people

aren't aware of it, although a lot of people who watch this show certainly are. Frasmetas, since we brought up Omediar, I had a question about Barrett Brown. His info seems good. He's off heroin. and why so blackballed. You know what he is off. He is off. He is good.

I just talked to Barrett day before yesterday. Barrett Brown is one of the most intelligent and best writers and analysts I've ever encountered in my life. He has longstanding mental health problems. And he has a two decade long heroin addiction. He's been off heroin for at least a year. He's relive. He was expelled from the UK. He's relocated to Mexico,

took a good, hearty beating from the Mexican police a few weeks ago. But he told me the day before yesterday, he loves it. He intends to stay. And I said, man, I hope you're writing again because you're the most brilliant writer I know. The guy is so smart and so analytic. And he's very serious about his sourcing. I would encourage everybody to look him up. John KDOT wants to ask, what is asking,

who is the highest profile person you saw? fall asleep at a meeting? Who's the highest profile person I ever saw fall asleep at a meeting? George H.W. Bush. Yeah. That's my profile. Yeah. I saw him fall asleep.

Presidents fall asleep at meetings all the time. The demands on your time are so incredible that there just aren't enough hours in the day. Except, I mean, you know, Donald Trump has made it kind of a nine to five job. Ronald Reagan had it. They called it the nine to five. presidency. And it was, that was like scandalous at the time that the president was only going to be president from nine to five. And then that was going to be the end of the day. But it, it worked just fine. If you surround yourself with people who are going to, you know, do what you hire them to do,

whether or not we agree, then you can have a nine to five presidency. Christian Siddello, thoughts on Anne Coulter. I think she's... Oh, I've got an Ann Coulter story. So Anne Coulter used to date a really great friend of mine from college. And I went out to L.A. one time, like 2016. They no longer date. But anyway, I was there seeing another friend of mine from college and he said, hey, we should call Merrill. I said, yeah, I haven't seen Maryland ages. Let's call him.

So we called Maryland and we said, hey, we're going to have dinner, meet us in Koreatown. He says, great. He shows up with Ann Coulter. and I said to my other friend, I said, is that Ann Coulter? And he said, didn't you know that Merrill was seeing Ann Coulter? I'm glad that she was eating because there's not much evidence. She does that very much. No, she's very thin.

Listen, she could not have been any lovelier that night. She was interesting. She was well informed. All that, you know, hatred that she spews against everybody, it's all an act. Yeah. She's a phone. And she has seriously cashed in on that act? Yeah.

But that's not her at all. Yeah, no, it's, I mean, like, I think the politics are fake, too, to be honest. The politics are fake. And I said to my first friend, I said, when they finally left at the end of the dinner, I said, that is not at all what I expected when I saw her walk in. He said, oh, yeah, that, that's all an act. That's how she makes her living. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I mean, I find it disgusting.

I don't care where your politics are. Like to put on, to come on so strong and to have your politics just like, like Rush Limbaugh, be all bullshit. And then like meanwhile, you're using, you're moving the political needle in a way that actually changes people's real lives. I hate that. It's like, believe what you really believe, you know, and then fight for it, you know, tooth and nail. Disgusting. You know, my Ann Coulter story is that I wanted to, she and I were both distributed by the same syndicate. And she and I were both all over TV.

constantly back in like the early in the you know 20 years ago 15 years ago and we were both at the same party actually a Bill Maher party and I approached her and asked her to you know I wanted to just say pitch this hey should we do far left versus far right like yellow must story thing

she I never got the chance to talk to her she saw me coming she knew who I was she left the party I think she thought I was going to assault her now granted she's a small small little thing. I probably wait. She's surprisingly tiny. I weigh like three of her. But still, I mean, I'm a nice man. I wasn't going to hit her. I wanted to make money with her. So, you know, it's just like, but I was just like, God, what a little scaredy cat. And she comes off as like this, you know, crazy right wing warrior. It's just bullshit. It's just fake as shit. She pumps out

these books, too, that there's not, there's not much to them intellectually. They're just just they just sort of they take their strength from popular hatred and yeah and she makes millions somebody just asked who's the who's the most famous person i've ever been disappointed in when i met them you've heard my story alec baldwin and i fucking hate each other will always hate each other and then when he got arrested when he shot that woman a mutual friend said hey listen and it looks like Alex's going to go to college, going to go to prison. College would be, he probably should be sentenced to go to college.

Yeah. He said, you should call him. I said, fuck him. I hope he rots in prison. I'm not going to call him and make him feel better. Forget it. The only thing that could make him feel better is, it's so funny.

It's like a friend of mine who knew him, said like, oh, he's, you know, his wife, Hilaria, like, made him go. with her fake accent. Go vegan. Yeah. She was like, well, you know, gin is a, gin is vegetarian. Hey, Delta Fish, thank you for the $20. Why don't you guys come to the Libertarian National Convention?

Done. Invite us. Invite us. I'm there. Yeah, me too. Love it. Midgled your show from there. How much fun would that be?

Oh, my God. Flandarina, John and Ted, do you think the new social media sites like Rumble and Upsrolled are likely to gain enough popularity to make the current staples obsolete? And are they truly less tracked? I have no idea if they're less tracked. That's a good question. But I think there's a chance, yeah. I think there's a chance.

I think a lot of people are tired of YouTube controlling, you know, what we get to see and what we get to say. I think people are looking for alternatives. That's why we're doing so well on Rumble. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And we are very grateful for that. I've gotten some trolling online for being on Rumble like, oh, you know, it's owned by conservatives. No shit. By the way, having, you know, worked for a conservative, I've had, I got, I got censored a lot less on Forbes and Fortune and a Fortune magazine than I ever did by the nation and Mother Jones, who were brutal to me.

Crazy. Yeah, the censorship is, well, you know, your own side tends to censor you more. Yeah. Like if, like if, the Wall Street Journal has me come on, they know I'm a lefty. They're not, they're not going to like try to squish me and turn me into a conservative. But if I'm in the nation, they're like, okay, you're a lefty. but you're not the right kind of lefty and we have to massage you and make you

you're you've got to be a DNC lefty exactly exactly so that's how that is guys thank you so much for joining us please have a great weekend have a great weekend john talk to dead tune and uh anyway please stay tuned for the tmi show with manila chan and i we're going to try to reschedule that DMZ america podcast that didn't happen yesterday we'll keep you posted

in the social media feed please like follow and share this So thank you, producer Robbie West. Thank you, everyone, for watching. See you later. Bye-bye. Coming up, bye.