DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Israel Under Fire | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Iran launches ballistic missiles at Israel late last night after an Israeli attack in Lebanon against Hezbollah. It said its acceptance of a cease-fire had been conditioned on a halt in the fighting on all fronts. Hours later, the Israeli military struck Iran. Explosions were heard in Tehran, and the cities of Tabriz and Isfahan. The Israeli military said it had detected more missiles launched toward Israel from Iran.• Six people are injured in a mass stabbing by an apparently disturbed homeless man at New York’s Penn Station.• Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's ruling party wins parliamentary elections, preliminary results show. Pashinyan's push to forge closer ties with the West and move Armenia out of the orbit of Russia has drawn rebukes from President Vladimir Putin. Pashinyan had the backing of Europe and the United States.MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JamarlThomasLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504

Good morning. You are watching Deep Program. Sorry about that. You're watching Deep Program with Ted Raul and Jamaral Thomas for Monday, June 8th, 2026. Thank you so much for joining us. The Deep Program show is here every Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time through 10 a.m. Eastern Time. Today is Monday, which means there's going to be a special Q&A show coming up at 12 noon Eastern Time. That's three hours from now so that you can adjust regardless of where you live on this planet or on the International Space Station where we know we have a lot of fans. Thanks for everything and for your support. If you have a question or a comment or an insult, direct those insults toward me, not toward J.T.

Those go on the live chat in Rumble Rants or Super Chats or just regular comments and producer Robbie West. that's producer Robbie West right there. He will put them in and we will get to them. Good morning, J.T. Hope you had a good weekend. What's going on, man? Well, the weekend wasn't bad. No issue.

How about you? Pretty good. Pretty good weekend, too. No complaints, as you would say. All right. Oh, I should ask, Robbie, good weekend. Yeah, it was good. My mother-in-law is here visiting.

You all know, I mean, she's had her own health struggles this year. She's here with my sister-in-law. We got to watch my daughter graduate on Saturday. So that was exciting. That is exciting. Yeah. So all in all, it's been a good weekend. All right.

Congratulations on the graduation. Thank you. Okay. So let's get to it. A lot of news out of the Middle East. Basically, I'm going to go through this as succinctly as possible. Iran's been saying to Israel, quit fucking around with Hezbollah in Lebanon. We told you that this is about that the ceasefire covers it all.

Israel has ignored them. Iran launched as a JT, I think you probably approve of this. Iran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel in order to get them to stop. Israel retaliated against Iran with ballistic missile attacks against Iran to Iran and other cities. Then Iran retaliated again and Iran is now saying that they're done for now. Trump apparently has been burning up the phone lines to both sides and asking everybody to calm the fuck down. Iran seems to be taking the high ground at this stage. Also, there's been a mass stabbing attack in Penn Station in New York City.

That happened yesterday. It looks like it was like a mentally ill homeless person of whom New York City has more than its fair share. And then the story out of Armenia, there were parliamentary elections, the ruling prime ministers party who is aligned with the United States and the West and the EU, as opposed to Armenia's historic ally, Russia, one pretty, pretty, pretty handily. We have about a two to one margin. And, you know, there's other stuff to talk about as well. And we'll talk about that at your request or just randomly. JT, where would you like to begin? Let's start with the strikes, the back and forth. again, I am not in mind that Israel is doing this stuff on its own.

Like, I give an example. When Donald Trump is pretending as if he's doing some kind of peace deal with Moscow, and he is simultaneously conducting the war while pretending as if this is purely a European issue in regards to conducting the war, okay, is Trump being straight? Is Ukraine doing this stuff on its own? Is Ukraine a world actor? Or is Ukraine waging attacks on energy grid? at the very leaves last year with Trump's full knowledge of it.

It was obviously what Trump's full knowledge of it. It was war by other means. I'm making the argument that Israel is doing the same. Israel asked the U.S. whether it was okay to bomb or the Baybrook. The U.S. was okay with it up until the point where Iran said, if you do it, we will destroy northern Israel. And so, you know, you can make a case to me that the U.S. was riding a horse and a horse has a mind of its own.

Fair enough. But it is the U.S. riding that horse. this is not separate and distinct from U.S. interests and U.S. behavior. And don't take my word for it. When Donald Trump was asked straightforwardly about this saying, hey, are you and Netanyahu on the same page? He says, yes, we are on the same page. Nanjahou may want to bomb Lebanon to the Stone Age. But for all intents purposes, we're on the same page. I think he's being straight when he's saying that. I don't think this is a difference between. I don't think there's a distinction in U.S. policy, nor do I believe that Israel could launch those attacks against Iran without the

US help and assistance. What do you think? I'm 85% on board with that. I mean, I think that there's divergences and interests between Israel and the United States and between Trump and Netanyahu, as reflected by that call where he, you know, he asked, he told he was screaming at BB and saying, you know, are you fucking crazy? You know, I mean, there's, I mean, this could just, be, you know, good buddies fighting and beefing and then, like, you know, like they, they have makeup sex afterwards. It could be like that. I mean, mostly I agree, but I also think, I mean, so my take is just to put a fine point on it. I agree with you that Israel's not doing shit without a U.S. approval. And so, or at least tacit consent. And so the Iranians, the Iranians have

stopped apparently at Trump's request or maybe just it was it was on their own time table who knows but now Trump's asking the Israelis to stop and the Israelis will stop because because of no no that's a that is a that is a rabbi no that Israel has they're bombing so the bombing Lebanon right now Israel's not going to stop they're going to stop they're not going to stop dude they own the American government, they're not going to stop. Listen, I don't know what is that you're smoking over the weekend. Whatever it is, please share, they're not going to stop.

I don't think they're going to stop either. But I don't think it's, they're not stopping because the U.S. is not telling them to stop. They're not stopping because it is what the U.S. concerned. Look, the entire point of this is to destroy Iran. This is not about getting a deal. The entire point is Iran breathes air and they need to

not exist. I agree. that happens or until it makes it extraordinarily clear that Iran can defend its sovereignty, this ain't stopping. Listen, I completely agree. And the thing is, the thing about what I'm about to say here is, it's insane. Netanyahu is the moderate in Israeli politics. Yes, he is.

He's the moderate. Yes, he is. So even if he, even if he pulls back, you know, yesterday, while we were having lunch with my mother-in-law, I have no checking a checking Twitter and they have all of these Israeli accounts talking about you know Israel is a sovereign nation

they can do whatever at once it needs to finish the job to which I say go with God if you think just if you're going to put your big boy pants go ahead get your licks don't don't expect to hide behind the American military anymore and go be sovereign

we would I'm I'm on team Zionist when it comes to that you got But the point that I'm trying to make is that Israel is not going to stop. They want, they want, they want Lebanon. That's part of, that's part of their strategic goal. Yes. They do not, they don't invest hundreds of millions of dollars into American politics

into buying Congress, congressmen and senators and renting a president, or in this case, owning one because of his, his, his Epstein connections. Just to, just, just, just, just, just, just, just. to real things back. Israel is not going to stop. And as someone who is ardently anti-war, I hope, and I know that this show is watched in Iran. Yeah, it is. To my dear Iranian friends, as your fundamentalist Christian friend, turn Israel into a parking lot because it is what they deserve.

It is a racist. It is an apostate. it is a disgusting blight on this planet. It is a pimple that needs to be popped. Go with God. Turn the shit to glass. Yes. I can't possibly sign off on like attacking civilians, though.

Military targets are an entirely different matter. By all means, destroy the Israeli military. Fine. Where are you draw the line? Where did you draw the line, Ted? No, whenever you know, whenever you have civilians, you're storing a prison to free rapists who are sexually abused. using prisoners.

Yeah. Where did you draw the line? Look, the Israeli politics is incredibly toxic. The Israeli media is censored. The Israeli people have descended into a level of corruption. But that was true in Nazi Germany in 1945, and you still don't fucking destroy, you know, you don't carpet bomb Dresden. You just don't.

I agree, but that's what we did. Right, but we shouldn't have. No, I agree with you. But no, you don't have to delete Tel Aviv to destroy the state of Israel. Listen, the whole reason of the Israelis closed the airports the last time the war started is because so many Israelis were running away with the country because they want to fight for because they're all, what's the word? What's the word? Oh, yeah, dual citizens.

So they hit the escape hatch and go somewhere else. Just make it slightly uncomfortable for them. They'll leave on their own. I don't need them to leave. I just want the state of Israel in its current iteration as a nation state to go away. I don't need the people who are there to go away. I just need, you know what I mean? It's like post-abard.

You should just go away. Like, have a democracy. I guess I got to be on more hardcore on this. You get like 90% of the population agreeing with the genocide. Many and most of the people who are in Israel are military. They function in the military. They serve in the military. All of that stuff.

And they firmly and fully agree with the behavior that Israeli military is taken in Lebanon. And they firmly agree with the military. this idea of genocide. Why would I give a shit about what happens to them? I know you should cry. I'm just saying that like, you know, I mean, it's, look, it is like Nazi Germany. I mean, think about the how deeply involved, you know, what is a totalitarian state? A lot of people watching this don't know the definition, right? A totalitarian state is a, is a nation state government that insinuates itself into your, the daily life that's of its citizens. It's not merely authoritarian. It's literally like, you know, your kid is in Hitler youth.

Your teachers, your kids' teachers have like are seeing, having them sing the horse to Beasel song. You know, your adult kid is drafted. Your daughter is, you know, working in a factory for the war with pictures of Hitler where it's everything in your life. So that's how they were until the defeat in 1945. But, you know, I mean, obviously, as we saw afterwards, the whole edifice came crumbling down. and they're not the same people anymore.

I mean, I think that would happen also in a post, you know, Jewish state, ethno state scenario too. No, see, I disagree. I think they're not the same people because of what happened to them. Meaning, it's not like, I don't think people look at their behavior and think to themselves without consequence. Oh, well, this was a bad idea. It's like, guys, you were committing a genocide.

You guys got 50 million people. That is different. A lot of Germans did not know what was going on in the East. They could kind of convince themselves, right? Like, well, they're working. They're at work camps in the East. They've been resettled. Yeah, but the reality, but they knew.

I mean, you can look at Streber books on what was taking place in Nazi Germany. There's a book, The German Way of War. There's another book where he's taught, like, basically embedded in German society as it takes place. It was kind of this open secret. They were in denial. Yeah, yeah. But they, of course, they knew. But they knew, but they didn't, you know, there's knowing.

And then there's drop shadow, gothic letter, you know, bullshit. No, you can't avoid it. They didn't really, they didn't have that. Listen, and someone in the comments said to Rob, it's a disgusting comment about turning people to glass. First, I did not say that. That was not my, that. That was not me. I think that the nation, the nation state of Israel has zero.

legitimacy. It has no right to exist. I think that it is a terrorist state. And JT. I really want to get your opinion on this. Here's in terms of... Real quick, by the way, I didn't say turn people into glass. I said turn to state and basically turn that territory in the glass. Iran gave evacuation orders. So it wasn't like. And let's mean, I mean, and it feels some kind of way about this idea that the Israeli state would blow up hospitals, would destroy cancer clinics, will make people's lives as miserable as possible. for millions of people and even argue that starvation is okay. But people that take an issue would be saying, turn that place to glass. Are you serious? The majority of the population is okay

with policy. And as Robbie pointed out, Nanyahu is the moderate. Right. And when the Israeli left protests, it's not to protest. I mean, there's some exceptions, but for the most part, they're protesting the fact that the hostages weren't, you know, the treatment of the hostages. And that Nanyahu's not doing enough to get them back, and they want to end up the war so they can get their hostages back. But it's about them. It's not about the Palestinians. Yeah.

And look, I'm not, you will never find me making an argument that you should kill civilians. That would never be the argument. Right. Will I care? I'm sorry. I don't have to do it be to care. The state has lost all legitimacy. And the people, it's not like you get 40% of the people that is like, for example,

the Ukraine war is a really good example. A, it's a war, meaning you have two militaries that are going at each other. B, this is not a situation where I find any kind of joy in this. When I look at this, I think it is as a catastrophe. The majority of the population didn't want a war. The majority of the population voted against the war by putting in Zelensky, who immediately took them to war. This is a very different animal as opposed to Israel that is just murdering women and children as a rule and as the majority.

Well, you know, collective guilt, though, makes me very, very nervous. True. That's what I'm saying. You would never find me saying, go murder of civilians. And the counterfactual is the speech that Colonel von Stauffenberg, who was the head of the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler in 1944, he said he wasn't sure whether it was going to work or not. But finally his last speech he gave to his co-conspirators, right? Which was like, we have to proceed whether we succeed or fail just so that people knew there was a German resistance. just so that there can be legitimacy for a Germany after all that's after Hitler.

And, I mean, that's the problem that Israel faces now is that there doesn't appear, at least from the outside, to be a substantial resistance. Yeah. Rob, I'm sorry. No, you're good. Because you've both been to Israel. I never have. My biggest weaknesses is that I'm nowhere near as traveled as y'all are.

I'm just some smuck-in-mill nowhere in Montana. My question for all is, is this. If it looks like Israel is going to be overrun, does the Samson option mean that they're going to attack their Muslim neighbors, or will they attack the European states that do not assist them? Like, for example, would they nuke Rome? Would they nuke Paris? Would they nuke Berlin?

Overrun by whom? Who are they going to be overrun by? Exactly if we pulled the plug, and the Turks would be the most obvious of major power in the area. No, they're the only ones that really have a military at this point. Jordan, they're just kind of just there. What are they going to do? Lebanon is a basket case. It's a failed state. I mean, they're not going to, they wouldn't attack Europe. I mean, for the simple reason or would they use it as blackmail? If you don't help us, we're going to, we're going to take everybody down with us. By the way, it's believed that that already happened. It's believed that in a

12-day war, part of the reason that Trump got involved was it was it were suspected. It's like, look, we will nuke them if you don't get involved in have attacks. But nuking Iran is one thing, but would they threaten Europe? No, I don't think so. You don't think so? I mean, but how crazy are they? Well, if you're going to die, what purpose? Reasoning goes out of the window.

It's already in a reasonable state to begin with. Okay, so they're not, they're not Hitler crazy. Like, Hitler wasn't crazy, really wasn't crazy until the last year, right? But he, but Hitler crazy at the end, they're not like that. They're, these are, I mean, they're, I mean, they're, I mean, they're, they're, I mean, they're motivations are crystal clear. They're really greedy. They want all of this area that doesn't belong to them around them. And that's it. It's like the glory of greater Israel. And so personal self-preservation, it's power, it's genocide in order to serve those things. I mean, they're rational. I mean, you know what they want. It's like, my cat likes to eat mice. I know what he wants. You know, he really likes to eat mice. it's no more than that. I mean, I don't think they want, they don't want,

in the end, they would get on, they would get on, they would get on, they would get on, on U.S. planes with, bundles of euro, of hundreds of millions of euros in double bags and scooch is what they would do. You don't think they would launch missiles. I think, I think Bibi and those guys, Ben-Gavir, they'd all fucking go into exile.

They just buy their way into exile in, like, Bahrain or someplace. Oh, CETA. I think they would launch news. I mean, I don't, I don't put it. Toward terror. I think they're rational actors in the context of that this is not a religious issue, that this is, we want land. We'll stop. The religious stuff is nice. We want land.

It's not land for sure. Yeah. Well, Iran can't stop them from getting land. But Iran can't project power outside of its borders. All they have are drones and missiles. Really, the only country that is it. The only nation. in the entire area that could step up and stop them would be Turkey.

Which they have worked together to make in Syria. Turkey is not an ally of Iran. They're not going to go to it. But no, but they're an enemy of Israel. They're not a hardcore enemy. They just don't like them. Yeah, that's an issue. I mean, they had no issue working with Iran.

They used to be a bunch of Syria. Is, I guess for the Turks, especially, since they're going full Islamish, they're trying to Hagia Sofia back into a mosque and all this other crap. They're not full of Islam. And that's who Ergo one is playing to is, is that Islamic, that fundamentalist base.

So my question is, is how is how important is Lebanon to Turkey? Like, would they let Israel take it? If the answer is no, if they step in to stock, they already have, no much off. Lebanon's not important. Lebanon is a buffer state. It was created as one, and it is one.

The Turks don't. But if Israel conquers Lebanon, it's no longer a buffer state by definition. It becomes Israeli. It's not going to go. The Israelis don't, they know that, and they're not going to go all the way to the border, to the northern border. Not to mention, they don't want to have to occupy Beirut. Who wants to occupy? Occupying a huge country, a huge city, a capital city is difficult and expensive.

No, no military ever wants to do it if they can. avoid it. Well, not now. Well, it would be their military doing it. They would get their, their Western backers, I, yeah, America's sons and daughters do it for them. It wouldn't be them. I don't think they would do it now. I mean, like, if, I don't think they'll do it ever. Israel is a country of 8 million people. Let's put it in context. It is a tiny, tiny, tiny entity. This idea of being in, let's take it out of a different context, the Russians. Russia is a country of what, 150 million people. They couldn't occupy, you. Ukraine. Anyway, near with that number. It would take millions to occupy something like Ukraine.

And I'm pointing out, Israel is a tiny, tiny, tiny country trying to occupy Beirut. They had a hard time occupying the south of Lebanon. They seem to be picking their way through it, not this one. It's an upper zone. I think they definitely see Lebanon south of the Latani River as bears for the foreseeable future. And they reserve the right to come and go north of there. They don't want Beirut. No, I don't know, Tim. I don't think they won't Beirut now. They can't have, they don't, it's not good. If I were in the, if I were a Israeli military planner, I would say, why the fuck would we want to occupy Beirut?

We're going to be tied down there. Those people are going to be attacking us all the time. The resistance is going to be like 24-7 is all we're going to be doing for the rest of our lives. Agreed. But if that's the case, then the greater Israel project is nonsense. Well, they can do South Lebanon's been partitioned before. It will just be partitioned again. Well, no, I'm not disagreeing with you. I guess I'm pointing out that what you're seeing are expansions and lulls, expansions and lulls. Meaning, they're trying to inch their way into greater Israel, which means that by definition, Beirut and Lebanon has to be included in that, meaning either the greater Israel project is not south.

Southern Lebanon. Or they're trying to go for the greater Israel project as one of the other people. not the whole thing. Okay, but the Great Natural Project also contains parts of Egypt. Yeah, we want the Sinai back, right? Well, they want all the way to the eastern shore of the Nile. That's my point. Right.

Like, it's very low. It's sparsely populated. I mean, that's not... Along the Nile River? It's the most, most densely populated places on the planet. Well, they don't want to go all the way to Cairo, though. I mean, you know what I mean? It's on their map.

Yeah, but I guess I'm putting out. But these, it's kind of like the Kurds, where they're trying to create Kurdistan. And you have to have parts of Turkey in order to do it, which is a no-no from the standpoint of Istanbul. And I'm saying the greater Israel project includes all of these territories. Either it's a thing that they're trying to accomplish, or it's not a thing. But you know, you guys know how it is in a list of priorities, right? There's like what we feel like we have to have. That's Lebanon, south of the Latani River.

there's what we like to have. And then there's like the reach. Like everything goes swimmingly. So all I'm arguing is that the Nile, Beirut, those are options C. It's not like it's not realistic. So then here's a question for you all. To address this issue,

if Israel's biggest problem is manpower and they have a low birth rate, what would their government do to address our problem? Would they outlaw abortion? Would they start incentivizing families? to have as many children as possible. Like, what would they do? Because you're only going to get so many people coming through Aaliyah, especially people are willing to go and pick up a rifle and then go help you go

comfort over other places. Especially now. So how will they grow their population? Because you can't kill your babies and expect your population to keep going up. They won't. It's not, look, look, I mean, think about it. You're talking about, like, a state religion that's exceedingly difficult to join, even if you want to, right?

So they don't prophylize. It's like if you try to sign up and become Jewish, it's hard. And if you're not the right kind of Jew, you don't count as a full Jew to the Israelis, right? Well, it's an ethler state, not a religion, right? So you can't convert to a different race. But you can convert to a religion. All I'm saying is this is a culturally, the Israelis don't care about growing their population. They might see it as a problem, but they're not going to do anything about it.

Really? You don't think so. I don't see how they can. Why they war with all their neighbors? Because, I mean, you can't have one without the other. You don't need living space if you don't have kids. I don't know. In a modern high-tech war with drones and everything, I mean, you know, I mean,

the Israelis have been doing a pretty good job being a giant, you know, projecting power way outside of their, you know, way above their weight class. True. I guess my thing is, though, it's not the argument for Israel was peace. that basically jews can come here and they can live here it's not the country on earth for jews by far you are far less likely to be hurt or killed anywhere in the world than as a jew or as a human than in israel it's not a safe space whatever you think of it.

Yeah. And I shared some fake news. I must apologize. John D. Calkafiller informed me he converted to black for tax purposes. So I guess you can change your ethnic standard.

I stand corrected. John, I do apologize for misracing. Transracial. Yeah. All right. Let's do some comments here. Okay.

Unless Israel, this is Costas, unless Israel is brought under control, the war will never end, regardless of how much Trump admonishes Netanyahu privately and publicly. True. True. You're getting some compliment here, Robbie. Zoya, he's old enough to have a daughter who graduated?

Wow. I am. I'm 49 years old. You're a year older than I am, Robbie. F you so. Will this IDF merger with the U.S. military government go both ways? Do we get access to Israel's mysterious nukes now? And thanks for the $5 donation.

So, okay, this is not, well, yes, I guess it will go both ways. At the very least, that's the argument that the Congress members are making. I watched the hearing for them to take out 224. And to a man, with exception, maybe two people, the argument was, Israel is murdering a lot of women and children, and we get to see how the weapons work on the population. And so that's information that we want to get our hands on. And so it is a merger that is benefiting the United States. That was an argument that each and every last one of them made, meaning everybody that voted for the men. It's not new, right? That was one of the big reasons that the U.S.

nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki wanted to observe and study the effects. Yeah. Yep. And the That's the reason we bought into Nazi scientists. NASA being one of the proponents or the beneficiaries of Von Braun when he was bought over an operation paperclip. No. I mean, in fact, an argument can be made that part of the reason we were so against the Soviet Union was because we were using Nazi scientists to give us information, or let's say Nazis, intelligence officers, to give us information on the Soviet Union, which obviously, if you're

using Nazis to get you information on. Soviet Union and it's going to be a particular way. It's that stuff is wild. The stuff that we were doing at fall of Nazi germany was just wild. Yeah, no, it's true. Yeah, it is that would be the right word. I have a question further to the Gulf before we go further. And this is, I was studying about this over the weekend.

You know, Nagasaki was the largest Christian city in Japan and they dropped the bomb on the largest church in the city if my if my memory is correct yeah that was you think that was deliberate that they've deliberately picked why nagasaki but predominantly christian city why would you nuke it what was what was the point what was the goal i've heard a lot about it and it look i don't know anything i've never come across anything that indicated that that was part of the calculus for why Nagasaki was chosen. You know, so, I mean, I'm not saying it didn't play a role. I don't know, but I've never heard anything like that.

I didn't even know that they dropped it on. I didn't even know Nagasaki was the largest Christian. Yeah. Since the days of the Portuguese, it was during the open door, Nagasaki was where the Portuguese traders were allowed to go in. That's what, no, it was a very large Christian population. To me, it's just weird because if you're trying to strike against the emperor, Kyoto would have been a more logical target than the largest Christian city in the nation.

But Kyoto is a world heritage site and believe there's no such thing as a world heritage site in 1945. True, but in 1945, it was against U.S. military law to deliberately attack any kind of historically important infrastructure buildings. And they were supposed to try to preserve those as much as they could. We deleted Tokyo. Come on, man. Well, what's historically significant and architecturally significant is highly subjective, but Tokyo was not as architecturally significant as Kyoto. And it was a capital, which makes a point, right?

I don't know. I've never heard that about Nagasaki. Tokyo was largely destroyed by the fire, by the, by the, by the fire. That's the other part, right? The fires, believe it or not, the fireball. bombing had more damage, like civilian damage. I mean, you were basically dropping fire on wooden houses. Yeah, and paper. Paper walls. Paper walls. Such a disgrace to what we did.

LeMay. I think I'll tell you, I don't think they bombed Tokyo because they knew they were going to end up as the military, allied military government of occupied territories of Japan. And they needed the administrative infrastructure of Tokyo. They didn't want to nuke it. And then be like, how the fuck are we running the this country. When you occupy, you want to just be able to take over and call the guy who runs the sewage system and be like, come in here and tell us how this goes. You know what I mean? Yeah. It was civil affairs that handled all that. Like it was called like Section G5. And those were the guys who came in from the U.S. Army and would run these areas after they were, you know, see occupied, liberated, whatnot. Let's see. Trent, our, are, our, are, our, our, are, our, our other producer is asking, Israel has mandatory conscription and active reserves. So who is civilian versus a military target, which we kind of...

Exactly that point. That was exactly the point. That was exactly the point. That was all of these guys like rotate through the military. All of these people are military. What about us? I mean, we have draft registration and now it's automatic. So we're all registered for the draft, which is kind of like, is there really a difference

between, you know, you can be called up at a moment's notice as opposed to you will be called up no matter what. I mean... I think there is, but people can argue on what's true in that case. So, any country with conscription, the whole civilian population is a legitimate military target? Depends on the country, I suppose.

I mean, I think there's a difference between these guys serving and having basically draft where all of these, the majority of the population is serving in the military, But fair enough, right? Again, I'm not going to make the argument that's a thing you should be hit.

I would never make that right. Because I think you lose legitimacy when you start behaving in that way. Meaning, when they are bombing Iranian hospitals and Iranian school kids and they think that this is just the normal way of operation, how is the country to respond to that? Iran, to its credit, refuse to engage in the same behavior. But you can imagine the bloodless. that we would have as Americans in that situation.

So, you know, it's like forgive me for being an American on some of this stuff. When I'm looking at the world, I look through a certain lens. And I find that maybe it would be utterly atrocious. I mean, the idea that the majority of the population thinks is okay to bomb cancer clinics. It's fucking outrageous. Well, that's the issue, right? I mean, I think we shouldn't conflate, right? So conscription is one thing.

And then popular opinion is another. And I'm like you more disgusted by Israeli public opinion than I am about, then I think that, you know, I mean, you could easily imagine a scenario where a country had conscription, but the nation's policies and politics were wildly unpopular, but people were dragged off to do it anyway. And, you know, so here's, yeah, that's, so it's really about the fact that, like, the Israelis like this. I mean, that's the problem. True. Okay. True. True. That's where it is. It's not the conscription part. It's, it's, it's, a, it's, is an argument masquerading the reality of it is that the majority of the population seems to be okay with the murder of women and children. Yeah. Where the conscription, you know, it's easy to conflate because, because the, you know, Netanyahu and those assholes are popular, people are, like, happy to go off to, to war, you know, when they're conscripted. They're not bitching about it. They're not protesting the draft, right, except for the Haredi. So it's kind of like, so that's why we're like thinking, well, they're happily going to war. They're sending, you know, TikToks of themselves, like looting, you know, Arab homes. Yeah, they're having a good old time.

But the issue isn't the conscription. The issue is public opinion. True. Okay. No, I agree. That's when I have, I guess, if there's bloodless, they mean, if there's bloodless, they're from. Pluripal, it pains me to say. to say it, but I'm coming more and more to Robbie's way of thinking when you look at the polling.

F you so, should Israel be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. No, because that's the civilian population. Golden Talon, low birth rate means that country's extinction. I mean, you can have a low birth rate for decades and decades and decades and not go extinct. Look at France. Yeah, but Israel is only 9 million people. Right. No, I mean, it's a problem.

I think it's sort of like climate change is a, you know, the Atlantic current is breaking down. There's going to be an ice age in Northern Europe. It's a problem. They just don't care, you know, but it is a problem. It's too far. Yes, too big. Yeah. I think, and I think with the Israelis, they know it's a, you know, smart Israelis know it's an issue.

They just don't care. They're not going to do anything about it. Let's see. Annie Ana, Israel will make the U.S. military fight their battles. with Lebanon. I don't think that's doing it now. They're doing it now. They're doing it now. Not with boots on the ground, right? Not with boots on the ground, no. Jay Ramrod, Israel being perpetually at war with his neighbors in spite of every single reason they

shouldn't be. Only makes sense when you understand and accept that the U.S. controls them and calls all the shots. Yes, also the blank check. Yes, they picked Nagasaki, says Anamo Rake. NATO also bombed Serbia, broke a big chunk of Serbia and created a Muslim enclave in the middle of Europe. True. Yes. Catholics sacked Constantinople. Both, yeah, during the Crusades.

Both Britain and Germany would side with the Ottomans instead of their fellow white Europeans. Anyway. Yeah. What are you arranged bed fellows? Well, yeah. And look, the crusaders. in fairness to their dumb medieval asses. They literally saw dudes wearing funny hats

and thought they were foreigners. No. That's really it. No. No. That's incorrect. Nope. Nope.

No, sir. No. That is not true. No, it was a deposed emperor who enlisted the help of the Fourth Crusaders to help him regain the throne. I can't remember the dude's name. right now, but he was deposed.

They took the city. He wasn't able to pay, so they sacked it, and then they put a, they put a whore on the patriarch's throne. I mean, they, it was, it was a power struggle that went rogue. They said they put a war on the they did. They got a prostitute

and they put her on the patriarch's throne in the Hagia Sophia. Yeah, the fourth crusaders, I mean, they, I mean, they sacked the church of the Holy Apostles, they broke it open the tombs of all the Roman emperors. They looted the city. One of the greatest, talk about cultural atrocities.

No. There were statues and things in Constantinople that went back to the days of ancient Greece. They melted them down for the bronze. They sacked the city. I mean, they looted it. Then they set up what they called the Latin kingdom. They partitioned the western portions of the Eastern Roman Empire, kind of divvied it all up. I mean, they broke the back of Christian defense against Islamic expansion.

And even after the Romans recovered Constantinople in later on in the 1300s, they never recovered. Correct me from wrong on this, though. The Christian, the crusaders were fucking idiots. Like, at one point, they were like, well, we're going to march because God is going to empower us to win, meaning military tactics that all this other stuff took secondary place to this kind of religious belief of their superiority in and a victory. You know both people are more about this than I do. This is background memories, I mean.

Well, I mean, it depended. I mean, the Child's Crusade was one of the dumbest things ever conceived of in the minds of human beings in a long list of very stupid things to do. It just really just basically the Crusades, and this is something you should probably actually do an episode on one day, especially the first crusade was a response to Islamic attacks and conquests in Sicily, southern Italy. Like a lot of people don't realize this. The Roman Emperor Alexios is begging for help because Anatolia was being overrun.

Less than 100 years before, the Muslims sacked Rome. Like they got away to the to the, to the Arrelian walls. So the first crusade was always getting sacked. Yeah. So the first crusade was a response. no no to Islamic aggression. That's a popular thing to say, but that is historically true. The Fallen Crusade was all about just trying to colonize and carve up and create this kingdom of heaven,

which frankly, they didn't have the manpower for nor the money or the logistical support for. And so it was a way for violent people under the teachings of the Catholic Church to get exolved from their sins by going, killing people who had nothing to do with what happened before. one of my ancestors from France. And he made it back. Kind of amazing. They didn't know. But yeah, but still, I'm not, but there were. But the Fourth Crusade, though, was a power struggle.

It wasn't because they were Orthodox. But there wasn't. There was one of the sackings of constant, one of the attacks on Constantinople, where they massacred Armenian Christians. They really didn't know they were Christians. Well, that's, well, that was one of the pretext that the Venetians used is because there was a Venetian quarter of a set up and they got special tax benefits that the other Roman citizens in the city had to pay for. And so then there were riots. And so that wasn't a military action. That was the indigenous population. Kind of what's going on here with H-1B visas. Say, no, why are you getting

all these special perks? You're exempt from the tariffs. Meanwhile, we're getting taxed out the gills. We're willing to run you out into the sea, which is exactly what they did. And that was one of the excuses that the Doge of Venice used as a justification for the sack. So that was an official national policy okay and with that we will we will I'm sure we'll get back to the we'll be getting back to the crusades first just a reminder some housekeeping so you for you YouTubers it's five dollars a month to subscribe to the show $20 a month to be thanked in the closing credits $50 a month to have your own private like hangout with me and Jamar so in terms of that $50

hang out, we're going to set it so it's the same day. We're going to substitute out one of the Q&A shows once a month. We're going to choose which one it is so that therefore just on a regular schedule, you guys can plan ahead for it, and you can come and hang out. So it's just want to let you know we're working on that. And just a reminder, if you're on Rumble and you want to be part of that, you can. Just go to PayPal, subscribe to us for either $20 or $50 a month. and if you're doing the 50, let Robbie know over at West Glacier Gaming at Gmail,

and he will set you up, put you on the list to make sure you're part of that. Okay, thanks very much for that. Okay, I'm trying to look and see if there's any ads. No, there's not. Okay, let's talk about this. I don't know how much we have to do about it, but let's talk about the stabbing. There's been a couple of acts, violent acts over the weekend. There was a mass shooting in Toledo, Ohio, in my home state, northwestern part of the state,

along Lake Erie. And there was also this mass stabbing attack in New York City, Penn Station, where a random person basically just a deranged homeless person, apparently, I think it's safe to say, who was carrying out, shadow rocking and screaming. He walked, he walked, he ran up to people and stabbed six people. It looks like they're all going to make it, thank God. But this is the kind of thing where I think all eyes are going to turn to Mayor Mamdani because, you know, New York City is a city that's always teetering, no matter in the best of times, on the edge of disorder at all times. When you ride the subway the first time, it's shocking, kind of like how many homeless people there are, how many deranged, you know,

schizophrenic people there are talking to themselves. I mean, it's like you literally, it's your visit to a rolling madhouse. and I just wonder, you know, if Mayor Mimdani is going to view this as an opportunity to sort of like, I would say, you know, mainstream media would say a pivot to the right, but it doesn't have to be a pivot to the right, but to address this and do something about it. You should. I mean, especially, but I don't mean pivot to the right on it, but use it as an excuse to do whatever policy he wants to implement. Like meaning anytime you have something big that happens, you can use it to your advantage in a political space. And if Mandani wanted to say, okay, we need to do something for the homeless population. Okay, then the catch becomes, okay, well, what do you do? What do you do?

How do we get these people houses? How do we get these people off the streets? And is there a way to do it that doesn't necessarily use, let's say, the police force to do so? To me, that's the interesting part of it. If he just sticks to the right, that's pretty much like any other random. mayor if he usually uses it and tries to come up with a solution to it dealing with we're going to get these people homes we're going to get these people help we're going to get these people off the subways because hashtag keep everybody safer yeah yeah basically yes i guess the catch comes what does

he do and that's where this whole interesting thing of okay well this guy calls himself socialist how does he deal with real world phenomena um like this that's going to be the interesting part to me in all of this that's assuming he uses this as an opportunity But this is the opportunity for Zeran Mundani to show the difference between a leftist and a liberal. A liberal just lets it go. And you're like, well, yeah, hope you don't get stabbed. Have a nice ride to work. It sucks to be you.

Hey, I've got mine. I live in Gracie Mansion. But if you're a leftist, you despise disorder. And you want to keep and keeping people safe is every bit as important. is keeping them employed and having affordable rents and all that. So he has this opportunity. I mean, look, there's solutions. All these solutions involve money.

Sure, a closer relationship to the NYPD is good. He did keep the former police commissioner on. That's viewed as like a sign toward continuity and probably a wise move. She's kind of widely respected, Commissioner Tish. So he's got to coordinate with her. But honestly, this is a financial issue. These people have housing first. Get them off the streets.

I have a whole theory about how there's different levels of homelessness. There's people who kind of like there's not much you can do for them other than just warehouse them and keep them safe. There's other people, though, a lot of people who if they had the opportunity, if they had home, if they had training, if they had help, they could get on their feet and get a job and work. And I've seen it, I've personally seen it happen. So, and those people I really would like to see put into sort of dormitory style apartment buildings where on site, there's medical, psychological counseling, career counseling, you know, and even just like having an address where they could receive government checks and stuff. Most homeless people can do. All that is really useful. And there's a lot of empty, a lot of empty office buildings in this city.

those people need to be, you know, taking care of that way. It's expensive, which is why getting money into city coffers is really necessary. My big idea is stock transaction tax, you know, charge a flat fee or a percentage fee on every transaction on the New York and the American stock exchanges, and the money will roll in. But that requires serious political will And he'll have to have the support of, you know, very recalcitrant corporate just governor, Kathy Hokel. But, you know, it's a challenge.

It's not an enviable job. But he's got, he can't afford to let this pass. I totally agree with you. To be clear, he can't do that as mayor. It's stopped trading tax has to be something that's done on a governmental, on a state level that can be done on a city level. Yeah. No, well, it can be, yeah, because he needs, the thing is that the governor controls the first strings, right?

That's the rub. That's, yeah, it's the rub. New York City is no way that he can get money or does, see, from my point of view, power is taken. I mean, granted, you're constrained as a mayor, you're limited in your capabilities, but there's no way for him to increase tax revenue for him to do something like that. Because from my point of view, this is an opportunity. The catch becomes, what do you do with the opportunity? and can you exploit it? And I know that sounds very bad,

but we're talking about this in a political sense, not the fact that people were stabbed. It's the issue of we have a problem. How do we solve the problem? Okay, the problem is homelessness on the subways. This is something that's a big-ticket item for New Yorkers who ride at the subway. All right, we can solve that problem.

We look fantastic as the government because it came across as if we found a problem and we solved the issue. The issue is, does he have the power to do it, which is the interesting part. Not by himself. No. No. I mean, the thing is like, yeah, the mayor of city of New York can't increase. For example, there's a city income tax. He can't touch that without the approval of the state assembly. Now, that's a New York issue. It's a New York constitutional issue. It's not true in every state. I don't know, for example, if the mayor of Houston needs to go to the Texas legislature. I see. I don't know. But it's a New York thing. My impression is that it's kind of like a very, it's not all states. And it's, It has always hobbled New York mayors. That relationship with, you know, you're like,

I'm the mayor of the city, of the biggest city in the country. Why don't I have more power? Because you just don't. You know, so. Yeah. Yeah. So truth be told,

he may not be able to do anything about this one way to the other, sort of jawbone. Yeah, I'm skeptical. Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's hard. But, you know, he could definitely use the bully pulpit. You know, he can, he can,

he could jawbone this a lot and put the heat on Hockel to the point where she felt compelled to do something. Probably where I would start is like, okay, let's give ourselves some political cover. Let's do a blue ribbon panel of experts. And let's let them come up with a report in three months. And then we'll consider the report. And that, like that way, if it's really expensive and people complain about the taxes, at least we'll have some cover. Like, well, this was what we have to do. you know yeah and put that on this on the name of the governor totally yeah totally totally

um that well just be clear that does mean starting a fight with the governor because she knows what you're doing she knows exactly what you're doing um yeah no not at all yeah uh so Anna Anna Annie Anna what part of New York are you talking about um well we're talking about you know Midtown mainly um And also, you know, but there are, that's happened elsewhere. But it seems to be more of a Midtown Manhattan thing than anywhere else. But there's been some crazy incidents in Brooklyn a few years ago. There was a mass shooting there. The homeless people stabbing people and committing crimes aren't the ones who are looking for jobs or stability.

Well, define committing crimes. I mean, if you're stealing shoplifting, you might be, you might be able to be, you know, to have a soft landing. The people who are stabbing people randomly and talking to themselves, yet those people are mentally ill. They're schizophrenic. They need to be treated with meds. I mean, that's just the truth. Yeah. I mean, it's crime, but it's a crime of people who are not in their right one.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's a crime that a sane jury would not find you guilty of because you're not of sound mind and body. You want to talk about Armenia? Well, that's not a crime. And I'll go away real quick. If you're out of your mind, if you have no agency, those you're doing, but you can't commit a crime. A crime is something you choose to do.

If you're mentally broken or deficient, that's why you don't execute no people who are retarded. You simply can't. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. We shouldn't do. That's supposed to. Yeah.

I'll go away. Armenia is fascinating. Oh, that is fascinating. Okay, hold that thought. We have an ad. Let me read that out. Okay. Okay, we hear a lot about crypto, but here's the part most people miss.

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Okay, sorry. Armenia. Yeah, they just had elections. Yes. Obviously, Armenia has been floating closer to Europe. This is one of the old Soviet republic, so this is frowned upon by Russia. They made it clear that they frowned upon it, even though they've been put it in scound friendly language.

Understand. Nevertheless, they've been getting close and close to Europe. Now, Paschian, the president, took issue with the fact that Azerbaijan beat the living crap out of it in the war in regards to Nagarnakarba. In fact, it was Turkey, Israel, and Azerbaijan, almost like working in tandem in regards to military equipment and everything else. But Armenia was obviously the loser in that to the point where you had members of the public sacking the parliament and nearly beating the speaker to death when it became clear that they

were losing it. 100,000 ethnic Armenians had to flee Nagarovac. Yeah. Yeah. So obviously they lost the war in essence. This created additional tensions with Russia, because from their point of view, Russia should have came and helped them. But again, our media was getting closer and closer to the West. Both of these places were old Soviet republics, Russia was not going to get involved. Long story short, they had an election. The president's ruling party has won that election, even though they got less than 50%. And obviously, they're going to

continue their movement closer to the West, despite the consequences that will be, let's say, affected on Armenia for doing so. And the West is not going to come to their aid in whether they came to Ukraine's aid in a conflict. What do you make of this? I understand Passihan's reasons. I don't think they're good reasons, but it's not for me to make that choice. Give me your take on this. what were his reasons to pivot just in general with this whole election and this move westward that these guys are trying to that he's trying to affect well you know there's i mean i smell that there's something going on behind behind the scenes right i mean doesn't it feel a little bit like 2014 in ukraine um you know like the west clearly the europeans and the and or the americans i'm guessing more of the europeans are whispering are whispering spring sweet nothing's in his ear and saying like come and hang with us cool kids over in our table you know those that you're those those guys that you know Vlad's not so cool he's not so nice and you know you when you need it when you when you call them he wasn't there for you he was

friends with the Azeris like you know so I think it's all that it's obviously the promise of economic integration. You know, it's, you know, it's got to be, look for the Benjamin's baby. I mean, basically. You know, I mean, I definitely smell that. I mean, it's got to be, yeah, maybe Bluth Funk says, uh, Jamarle, the reason is dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar, it's that simple. Yes.

I think I agree with her, yeah. I agree, but there are economic damages associated with this move and the switch in the way that they're trying to affect. And also, as you point out, the Ukraine thing kind of looms over this. Basically, are you going to allow your country to be used as a platform? Now, Georgia went through that, but Georgia had enough sense to say, hell no, we're not doing that. Georgia has far more natural resources.

There's a far wealthier country than Armenia. Agreed. But I'm just making the point of Georgia saying we're not going to use as a platform to open up a second front against the Russians. We're not going to get wrecked. And if you notice, they tried everything in their power, including bribery and going to this idea of the French spy who called herself a president of Georgia doing everything in the power to overturn the Georgian government in order for it to be used as a platform. There's a feel of that here with Armenian. It's just that sense of trying to pull a country away.

Yeah, it's kind of like we've seen this before. It didn't work out great for the Ukrainians, I would say, although it worked out. worked out great for Zelensky. I mean, you know, he's doing better than, he's doing better than the old acting actor paycheck. So, you know, I think for the people who are running the show, yeah, you know, they're lining their pockets. It's good for them.

And the rest of the citizenry is just along for the ride. Agreed. Agreed. Very sad. Anyway, we will continue to watch that and everything else. Thanks everyone for tuning in. D-Program. is here Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern time to 10 a.m. Eastern time.

In just two hours on YouTube and Rumble live, you can watch the Q&A show right here. We will be here from 12 noon Eastern until 1 o'clock Eastern time. Answer your questions, particularly, definitely if you're feeling generous, that's when it's most appreciated. The Rumble Ransom, the Super Chats are where it's at. But we do answer other questions as well. So please come over for that. TMI show with Manil Chian and myself coming right up.

See you guys later. Bye.