DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Kyiv Calling | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: June 5, 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:• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposes a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a full ceasefire in a rare open letter. The Kremlin said Putin had not yet seen the letter but welcomed a potential meeting in Moscow. • More than a dozen GOP lawmakers defy their own leadership — and Trump — by voting with Democrats to approve a major bill to deliver billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine while imposing steep sanctions on Russia. Speaker Mike Johnson had urged his members to oppose the measure, arguing that they should give Trump space to negotiate with Russia.• Democrats are at each other’s throats about Graham Platner after his latest scandal, after the New York Times released a report with disturbing accounts from several of Platner’s ex-girlfriends, just days before he is set to win the Democratic nomination to face GOP Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, a critical Senate battleground. One woman described Platner grabbing her in ways that left marks and once locking her in a room. She also claimed he knew that his tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol when he got it.• Italy calls for the creation of a new European defense alliance amid a rising reluctance by the United States to guarantee Europe’s security. The proposal, made by Italy’s defense minister, Guido Crosetto, calls on the EU’s 27 members to form an alliance with 13 other like-minded European nations that are not part of the bloc, including Britain, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine.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

You're watching Deep program with Chad Roll and Jamaril Thomas. It is Friday, June 5th, 2026. Thanks you for tuning in. What's so funny? I'm laughing at one of the comments. I think this may even be a chat. It says when the aliens start coming to Earth en masse, how will it affect our immigration policies?

Robbie, do we need to build a space wall? Space wall. Space wall is the only... Build the wall. That needs to be a T-shirt. Build the wall in space. Space. Yeah, we have Space Force.

Now we can have space wall. Finally, they'll have something to do. Anyway, all right. Well, thanks everyone for joining us. Please like, follow and share. Please put your questions if you're watching live, and we appreciate you even if you're not. But if you have our watching live in the 9 a.m.

Eastern time zone, please go ahead and put in your questions and comments into the live chat. in Rumble and YouTube. Rumble Rense and Super Chats on YouTube are much appreciated, but all your questions are appreciated. We try to get to all of them. Q&A show is next week, not today, Monday through Monday and Wednesday only.

TMI coming up at 10 a.m. with Manila. Okay, so big stories today. Zelensky has sent an open letter to Putin saying, hey, we can have a chat. Putin says, hey, mikasa says to Kasa, come over anytime. Slonski's like, I'm not sure I want to go over there. That's where things are right now. Then also, meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, where Republicans are rebelling against the president,

or at least some of them are, they are, it's just voted with Democrats to increase aid to Ukraine because, you know, at this point, the Ukrainians are about to win any second and increase the sanctions on Russia because, you know, those have done a lot of good so far. So we need more of those. Speaker Mike Johnson is against it because he says that the president needs more space to negotiate with Russia. Meanwhile, the Grand Platiner thing has totally blown up. The exes are talking to the New York Times. And they basically say, like, they called bullshit on the idea that he didn't know he had a Nazi tattoo.

I kind of probably believe that. One woman also said that he was violent with her, that he locked her into a room, which, you know, that you can be charged with kidnapping for doing that. It's really serious. And that he left marks on her by grabbing her. And so it's not pretty up there in Maine. And last, but I know not least for you, J.T. Orpumee, is going to be Italy's call for a new European Defense Alliance that would either replace or something. supplement NATO. So where shall we start? The Defense Alliance. Okay. You know, I'm a sucker for foreign policy. I know. I always thought it was very bizarre that Trump would attack NATO. Now, the reason I thought it was bizarre is because I thought that the Trump administration, regardless of what they said, regardless of what they said, understood that NATO was a power projection device for the the United States into Europe, meaning if the U.S. was locked out of NATO or if the U.S. had to, let's say, negotiate with NATO or, let's say, with Europe on equal terms, the U.S.

may not get what it wants. Meaning, if you had to deal with Europe or Europe was looking out for its own interests, Nord Stream pipeline may not have been blown up. The war with Russia may not have started. They might not have been okay, knock on with Ukraine government. Meaning all of these things were done with this idea of the U.S. working in coordination with Europe functioning and pushing U.S. policy in Europe, the pipeline and destroying that pipeline being one of the main policy objectives for the U.S. Anthony Blinken, when you wrote the book, Pipeline Wars, where he's talking about going after allies because those allies are effectively

doing things that we don't like. The things that we don't like was the coordination and association between Germany and Russia, and basically Europe getting energy from Russia, be it the Siberian pipelines, Nord Stream, or anything else. If Europe does this, then they will not be as much of a pushover as they are now, which is why I did not believe that the U.S. will be okay with Europe doing something like this with the European Defense Force. And correct me from wrong. It was Macron in France who was talking about, you know, NATO being brain dead and Europe needing its own ability to defend itself without using and relying upon the U.S.

Correct me from wrong on that. It is, Macron, and several, there was some other guy who brought this up recently, too. I forget who it was, but it's not a unique thought, right? I mean, like, you could see why the Europeans would say, you know, hey, if they're forcing us to go alone, maybe we should go alone. I mean, hell, even in Israel, there are domestic voices speaking out in favor of letting the U.S. cut them off and trying to be independent from the U.S. see why they would want that. Uh-uh.

Section 2. So that was the whole rub, right? Netanyahu and Israel sends a letter to U.S. Congress and members of U.S. Congress. As Tucker Cruz, I'm sorry, as Tucker Carlson, when he was having an interview, I think he was talking to Thomas Massey, or it was either Thomas Massey who outed this, that Israel has minors to various members of Congress. Like every member of Congress has an Israeli minder over those members of Congress because Congress because the overwhelming majority of them take massive amounts of money from Israel, or let's say, people who should be under fair contracts at this point.

Basically, they're taking money for it. I'll stay with that. The reason why I bring that up is because that Section 224 that they're sneaking into the National Defense Authorization Act that makes the U.S. closer and fusing the U.S. military closer with the Israeli military, especially on issues. of technology, tech trees and all this other stuff. Part of the reason for that is so that money is not disclosed. So basically think of it as, okay, people feel some kind of way about giving money to a genocidal state. And so how can we give money resources and work with this particular state without anybody knowing the amount of money and technology that we're exchanging with the state?

Oh, I know. Let's just bury it. So Israel can come on and say, we're not taking money from the U.S. We don't need your help. When the reality of it is, the U.S. military, and there's like a minder that is in charge of ensuring

that Israel gets their hands on the equipment, the military, the manpower, the money, etc., and maybe not manpower, but the money, the technology, etc. It's, they're saying it. They don't mean it in the real sense of the term. It's also a money laundry, J.T.,

right? I mean, like, the U.S. taxpayer pays Israel, Israel buys U.S. defense contractor products at inflated prices. And it's a money laundry rather than just, yeah, the U.S. But the argument they made last night, I don't know if you saw the hearing that they did on this, because Rokana put in an amendment to try to give rid of Section 224 from the National Defense Authorization Act. And what their argument effectively was, hey, man, we feel some kind of way, we are uncomfortable with Nanyahu's genocide. We're uncomfortable that he's murdering

women and children and that, you know, that they've now been added to the rape list. We don't like any of those things. However, we are learning so much from using these weapon systems on women and children. I mean, for God's sake, where else can you get 100,000 women and children murdered? And because we're learning so much, why on earth will we give that up? So sure, we want the partnership with Israel because we want to be able to learn what they learn by using their weapons on civilians. This is effectively the argument that man after man after man and that you have Congress and Congress made. Why on earth will we ever give up the partnership? We are learning so much from their use of weapons on the civilian population. That is it. I mean, I know this, it lest anybody

think that you're exaggerating or thinking. I'm not exaggerating. I played the entire. I know you're not. Like, you know, for example, between 1991 and 2000. There was only, the U.S. was only engaged in one major conflict, right, which was the Bosnia War. And defense contractors complained that technology was improving dramatically by leaps and bounds, but they didn't have a war to test things out on. One of the big reasons they attacked Afghanistan was because they knew they were going to war in Iraq and they wanted to test out all of their toys on, you know, in an active war zone. And they couldn't do it, obviously, without a, you know, you needed a war.

You know, Afghanistan was a pretext. I mean, 9-11 had nothing to do with Afghanistan. Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9-11. But the, you know, that was definitely a, you know, part of the reason they need that. I mean, it's interesting. My father was explaining to me about nuclear weapons. Like the, like it's like, for example, they don't know when Armageddon comes and, you know, the presidents turned, you know, the guys turned the keys in the silo. they don't know how many of the missiles will launch at all.

They don't know how many of them will hit their targets. They don't know how many of them will be duds because they can't test them. It's sort of like building a car. You know how to build a car. You can build a car in your driveway. But if you never can start it, you can never take it anywhere. You don't really know how it works. It is fascinating.

That's the rocket ship thing, right? It's like, all right, we're putting, you see how many blue origins blow up or how many of, on us ships blow up. As you point out, they don't know until it's lunch. I mean, sure, you can do all the testing in the world. You can try, but you don't know. And in their case, they're like, we have

a steady population. They even use that, by the way. It was like, well, the U.S. is not really in that many wars, quote unquote, where we would be able to find this stuff out. So why would we ever give up the opportunity to test our equipment on a civilian population? And you know

what sucks about this? You know, when you put this in in different contexts of Germany. And it's like, yeah, I mean, obviously, Mangala is doing all of these experiments on Jews. And yeah, it's, you know, we don't particularly like it. We frown upon the experimentation that the Nazis are doing on the Jews. By the same token, why would we ever give up the medication that we're getting from it? It's that argument.

Right. Or like Unit 731, right? Like, you know, in Japan, like, you know, well, okay, it really, it sucks. that, you know, they took, you know, meant they took Chinese people and they froze them to death and they stacked them like cordwood. But man, that knowledge is there whether, you know, we didn't have anything to do with it. And who are we not to hire these old scientists and give them immunity so that we find out how to save American pilots if they go down in the snow? Yeah. Yeah, it's gross. It's just gross. It is. It's such a protest argument.

Like on the normal circumstances, people who work with the Nazis were looked at as monsters because they were monsters. They were. Same thing. All of these people are lunatics. All of these people are monsters. They may go home and kiss their kids and everything else. They're going to burn in hell. They're monsters.

And the arguments that they're effectively making is, you know, that's a group. That argument would never be accepted coming out of a Nazi. And yet these U.S. Congress members are making the. exactly same. Yeah, and when this whole charade called the United States is over, historians will look back and just, you know, debate each other. What was wrong with those people? How was it that they didn't see it? Why didn't they, you know, why did good Americans not object, blah, blah, blah, it'll be the same thing. We have a lot of comments coming in and we should get to those. But before we do that, let me just main points, two main points here. First of all, do you think,

I think, I guess the region, there's a bunch of points. Do you think that this European Defense Alliance idea is going to go anywhere in some form? And then, isn't it kind of funny that it's Italy that brought it up? It's a little weird. Right. That is, I mean, Maloney, um, Maloney can break up anything. She has me. She must have full divided. We don't know if she, if the defense minister who made this comment, you know, had her approval or not. It was Guido Crosetto. I mean, like I said, Europe has been bringing this up a lot. And, you know, this notion of strategic sequencing by the U.S., where they're handing off responsibility to various things,

and the strategic sequencing never happened, ultimately, because for all of its purposes, the U.S. is doing all of this stuff all at once. But this idea of sharing responsibility and moving the burden onto Europe, moving the burden on to Israel, moving, you know, where we tickle in China. That seems to be a real thing. And whether, even though they're not saying that entirely openly, I mean, HECF did point out that Europe needs to start carrying its own burden. Europe needs to deal with the Russians, et cetera. And so you can imagine the European Defense Force idea falls in line with that context. But I don't, Europe is a bankrupt basket case of a continent.

it. Maybe they'll do it. I mean, they're certainly trying to burn through as many Ukrainians as possible to give them enough time to come up with something. But we'll see. I'm skeptical, but we'll see. Yeah, I'm skeptical too. I just think it's funny because, you know, Italy's not exactly renowned for its fighting prowess. No, they're not. I mean, they used to make a joke about the Italians, right? Like, talking about their military. Speaking of the Nazis, man, you know, Hitler really admired Mussolini because Mussolini was OG for him, right? And but he was like, you know, the Italians, when it comes time for a fight, they're not there for you. You know, and in the end, he had to like save what was left of Italy, you know, in the final analysis. Anyway, crazy. All right.

Let's get to some of the paid comments first, and we'll get to the others. F you so, so is Jamar al-Abris. Brigitte Macron penis denier BPD like Ted. What? You believe the conspiracy theory that Brigitte Macron is a man, baby. I've joked about it because I think it's funny to me. I think Macron is a battered old husband. Oh, 100%.

I think he's a battered husband. Yeah. She should be a dude. He's a guy. Come on. I think we don't kiss Macron's ass. And man, that strap on is probably huge. I think that's right.

Syphilitic Royals, thanks very much for the $20. The most real mofos love you guys. And I really appreciate it. We love you too. Crown Heights Brainiac, thanks for the $20 also. Yo Jumarl, there was a black congressman who was pushing 2-24 on the hearing you did yesterday. He cleared over 3 million from APAC. The majority of the people in that hearing were on APAC Finder. That's what I pointed out yesterday. Bring us up the date on the 224 thing

for people who do. Oh, so 224 is the provision that people have used the term fuse. Fuse is strong. But what it basically boils down to is increasing the association between the U.S. military and Israeli military, especially around the issue of technology. So whether it's tech transfers, tech research, tech investigation, all of these things. Basically, you're joining the U.S. military with the Israeli military. Now, Rokana's point was, why are we doing this? Would this be analogous to the relationship between Belarus and Russia? I don't know if it's that close.

I mean, like, for my understanding, they're putting a guy who's supposed to be in charge of this kind of tech communication. And Congress is making the argument. Well, there's more oversight because we're nominating the guy. We're putting a guy in charge of this. Okay, but the guy that you put in charge of this, like consider the Biden administration, consider the Trump administration, is there anybody that you honestly believe that either of these administrations were put into being responsible for the technology Israel gets from the United States

that will be, let's say, accountable? That would it feel some kind of way about the genocide? Or do you think it would be some rando Zionists that they basically put in charge, that's an Israeli fester, that is now in charge of technology transfers between the United States and Israel? It's grotesque. And putting a spanner in the works, what's the point? No, they're trying to bury the money that is effectively being funneled to Israel from a standpoint of weapons and technology. I just as a last gasp of a dying alliance, though. you know, it's the beginning of the end.

It's an act of desperation. I mean, if they were really, why would not this not have come up, you know, back in the 80s when the U.S. Israeli relationship was far more popular with the public. You know, the reason they're doing it now is because the relationship is tanking and the popularity of Israel is falling through the floor like the dead corpse going through the bathtub and breaking bad, right? So it's like, it's over. And so this is like one of those like, you know, we're going to, we're going to try to, you know, make sure that we're going to hook these people together so that, you know, they have no choice.

It's, I, I smell desperation. So do I. I mean, the entire point is that the overwomened majority of the American public hates that genocidal regime. Yeah. And they know that they're hated. And in the context of knowing that they're hated, they're trying to find. Right? Because it's like it's not just that they hate the policy, right? I mean, nobody talks about what I'm about to say. But it's like also we don't like their attitude, right? It's kind of like, I mean, the way that the Israelis act cocky and like, you know, basically we're going to do whatever the fuck we want and there's nothing you can do about it and you're picking up the tab. That that pisses people off. I mean, who the fuck are these people? Right. And it's a colony of squatters. It's nine million people. Richmond is bigger than,

than Israel. And it's like, you don't exist without us. Nobody paid a turn. Don't exist. A lot of Americans until 20 years ago probably thought really truly, there weren't that many people there in 1948 when the, you know, when the state was, when the Jewish state was created. But now when you see all that rubble, all those buildings that were turned into rubble, you know, it's not even something you have to say consciously. It's like, oh, clearly there was a civilization there. Clearly, there were hundreds of thousands, millions of people there. So clearly this was stolen land.

By the way, my ex-wife, when her and I went to Israel once, we got really enough loss, or I got lost when I was trying to get back home. I had ran into an issue where I needed to get medication. And I needed to, I went to a location. It was in the middle of nowhere, found a doctor. It was a weed doctor of all things. He was like, he says, hey man, these are some powerful drugs. It was true, Frommino.

These are some powerful drugs. Have you ever thought about weed? I was a, dude, if weed would solve my issue, I would be like super healthy. The week of you is. 100 years old. Yeah, right. Right, right. I'd be like a Superman at that point.

What I need from you is the medication that I'm asking you for. I think I was nice enough to give me the meds and everything else. We did the description and got lost on the way back. We missed our flight. Long search, short. We were in Israel for several days. And I remember we went to the Holocaust Museum. My ex-wife is looking at everything.

I'm slightly annoyed by the whole thing because I don't want to be there. And when we leave, she says there's, So she, not terms, but she says openly, she says, I wonder who was here before they got here. I was like, yeah, right? I wonder who was here before they got here. Meaning it's not like they moved into land that was just vacant. Right.

There was actually a situation. A land without a land is what was the line, right? If they've gone to Antarctica, that could have worked. No issue. No problem. Apparently, there was even thought to send them to Uganda or some shit like that in Africa. That's right. That's right. But, yeah, but they...

I mean, although people live in Uganda. Yeah, Hitler wanted to send them to Madagascar. Wow, I didn't know that. That was the original plan, right? Because Madagascar was part of the French Empire. So when they conquered... The Germany defeated France in 1940, they inherited the entire French Empire with it. So it all became Vichy, technically.

So they were like, oh, Vichy. So Madagascar now belongs to us. We'll ship all these people off to Madagascar. And what killed the plan, besides the fact, obviously, it was really far, was the Allied naval blockade of occupied Europe. There was no way. And the Nazis said, oh, do you mind if we export all our Jews? And it's like, you know, we ain't letting nothing in or out. So that was the end of that plan.

That's amazing. It's not landish. So, so bizarre. Okay. So let's do some more here. Thanks so much, Crown Heights, Brainiac, for another. another $20 donation. Hi, Ted, hi, Robbie. Thank you for deprogramming today. It is our pleasure and thank you for joining us. F.U. So, shall we play, thanks for the dollar. Shall we play a game

of global thermonuclear war? War games, Matthew Broderick, right? Yeah, that's beyond a lot of people's. In 1980s, making me feel very cold. $20 donation from Sam Paul Massino. Thank you so much. What's the most significant historical event in human history? The world's significant? Yes, significant. I have an opinion about this. Personally, I think the Punic War has drastically shaped the world today,

leading to romantic languages and cultures spreading instead of Carthaginian. Thanks. I mean, for a long time, I believed it was World War II. Because of the massive redrawings of maps, the creation of the modern, era, the Cold War, the clash between capitalism and communism, and just that, and obviously just the fact that it had massive effects on demographics and population and all that. And it shaped the world that we have today. Then I started thinking it was the, it was 1492, right?

The collision between the, you know, not for the first time, but the first wholesale collision between the new world and the old world. And now I'm wondering if maybe. it's not World War I, but there's obviously a lot of possible answers to that question. If I had to guess, I'll say the Great War, the First World War. I mean, granted, I mean, this is just kind of... I've got to bring in our other resident historian here. Robbie, what do you think?

I think it's going to be a toss-up between three different battles that happened relatively close together. The Battle of Tour, where the Islamic advance into Europe was stopped in the West. and then the first and second and then the first and second sieges of Constantinople were when the Romans defeated Islamic expansion in Europe from the east. Because if either one of those had been reversed, then I mean, the Caliphate would have killed Christendom and its crib. Don't they kind of cancel each other out, though? Yeah. Well, in what way?

Well, I mean, you know, one to defeat for Islamic expansionism, one is a victory. Basically, it sort of was like, well, okay, you guys don't get to come this much further west, but you guys do get, or the battle of Kosovo, right? You guys don't get to go this much further west. Well, I'm not talking about the further east, right? Yeah, I'm not talking about the fall of Constantinople. I'm talking about the first and second sieges like in 680 and then again in 720 or 730 when the Umyad Caliphate tried to conquer Constantinople and failed.

Because of those three defeats stopped Islamic expansion into Europe. No, from the Western perspective, we're all about the Battle of Tour. But we forget that for a thousand years, the only thing keeping the Muslims out of Eastern and Central Europe were the Romans. You're forgetting the important side effect of the Battle of Tourists. We have the croissant as a result. That's why it's banned in Los Angeles. a lot of you're in a lot of Muslim countries. Yep. Because they're mocking the moon.

And that's literally the worst thing about Islam. Any, no religion should ban the croissant. It's just too tasty. Wait, wait. Are you serious? Yeah, for sure. I don't remember having a croissant in a Muslim country. I didn't know it was banned. Yeah, they're banned.

It's because it mocks. No, because the crescent moon is a symbol of Islam. Well, when the Franks, when they defeated the Muslims to To celebrate, they started making the croissant. So it is a direct mocking of Muhammad and his religion. I did not know that. But a very taste of talking. Oh, it's a magnificent treat.

I have a croissants whenever I can. I love my cross. Especially with bacon. Because I'm just that kind of infidel. I am incredibly insensitive. Bacon cheese on a croissant melted. Nothing better. Yeah, it's almost enough to give up your religion.

Yeah. I know, I know, right? All right. A lot of pastries were basically commemoratives of this and that, right? Like it was like to commemorate an event or whatever. Yeah, but just to be clear, I'm talking about the first and second sieges of Constantinople, not the fall because... I don't think there's like, I don't think there's any possible like win here where we can say, well, that's it. That's the event.

I don't know. But like, I think all of the ones we... brought up and there's probably others we haven't thought of all right let's keep going here um uh thanks so much crown heights brainiac for the nine ninety nine did you guys see that ivanka discovered an island off albania that she intends to develop uh yeah did you see the video i watched the video so there's ivanka um you know basically it's kind of like if you met someone who from a foreign country or for or from another planet who said what is this what is privilege when you got to us talk about privilege What is that?

I'd point them to that video. So she was, there she is, looking all Mooney. She talks about how she was on, I don't know, her daddy's boat or someone's, you know, yacht off. And she saw this, they saw this island. She and her, she and Jared, they jumped off the boat, swam to the island. I guess trespassing isn't a thing when you're in Trump. And then, you know, could you imagine?

Today in the news, the president's daughter was shot by local officials. But Albanian border guards, you know, it would be hilarious. But anyway, they found this island. She said, oh, we walked around barefoot. And we decided we just had to develop it. And, you know, this is my favorite line. Because it's so beautiful, we decided that we don't want to, like, do too much overdevelopment to mess it up. And I'm thinking, who the fuck are you to decide what is beautiful and what is not beautiful and what should be changed or what should be left the fuck alone, especially when it's not even in your country?

Look, I am of mind that it is will decides. It's just will. Like, meeting is just human will that makes the decision on it. Because you can make that argument about anything, right? Who is a person to decide X or who is a person? to decide why who is this individuated unit of consciousness or why is that um adequate to make a choice about x-o-i it's just it will being called out by adam tube says that we're lying sacks of shit he said you guys are putting out the wrong deceptive untrue comments it's never abandoned

the middle east that's not true um the question uh when i went to syria the um the the croissant was i was told that you couldn't get a quassan in syria despite the fact that it is you know has a French colonial influence. And also, I know ISIS banned the croissant. You can Google that and find that. And ISIS once controlled half of Syria and half of Iraq. So, I mean, I don't think you can get them in Saudi Arabia either. I could be wrong about it. That's what I mean. I never, it never occurred to me one way to other. I know. I've had them in Turkey, for sure. They weren't awesome, but they were they still were quals, you know. Yeah. Poussong. It's so good. So good. Jack Phil, thanks so much for the $20.

Broke college student who just took the LSAT yesterday. Good luck. I hope you do better than I did. But I'd be even more broke if this show went off the air. You three are the best. Oh, my God. Thank you. Thanks, man.

You guys are seriously awesome. And there's a bunch of unpaid comments we need to get to. Oh, but here's a paid one. F you so. We missed this one at the beginning of the show, and I apologize. When the aliens started coming to Earth en masse, How little effect our immigrate? Oh, we did that.

We did this. Yes. Okay, I apologize. I'm like, I need the coffee. Oh, by the way, David Bresh, if I'm not mistaken, he is doing his announcement today calling for UFO disclosure. Again, he's, people need to be very careful what they ask for. It's not that I'm against it.

It's just. Be careful what you wish for. Be careful what you wish for. Because you don't open that box. Oh, I'm all about opening those boxes. It's our taxpayer-funded box and I want it to fucking open. I agree. No, no, no.

Look, I am a space brother person. I used to be. So I wanted the box open. But I don't know. It's trump the vessel to do that. Oh, of course. You know, look, at various times I've criticized this and that in print. And people are like, you know, Ted Rawls not the right person to bring up this issue,

whatever the fuck it is. And I'm like, I agree. And I wish someone, you know, better looking, better educated, more articulate than me, had brought it up. But I did. But someone had to take out the trash. And that's Gen X's job in our entire life. That's all we do is take out the trash.

And it's like, so I take out the trash. And it's like, yeah, I spill some shit on the ground sometimes. But, you know, yeah. But it needs to be taken out. So it's got to happen. We got to talk about, we don't have to spend all. lot of time on him, but Graham Platner. It's a major story. So, Graham Platner is, of course, the sort of rough around the edges, a Democratic nominee

for Senate from the state of Maine going up against Susan Collins. I'm skeptical that he could beat Susan Collins, even if he didn't have these troubles. Really skeptical. I mean, she's a long-term incumbent. I think she's sort of like the, she hits, It's the sweet spot for Mainers, I think. But, you know, if any Mainers are out there, chime in with it, if I'm wrong. But, okay, but basically, you know, he's a vet. He had PTSD. He obviously, he's a lobster man.

He drinks a lot or drank a lot. I don't know if he still does. Apparently, he has a tat that has, like, the Totenkov, which is the sort of the SS, the head part of the SS, but not the, I don't think the bones part. I don't know. I haven't seen the tattoo. He claimed he didn't know what it was, that he was just like on a wild rage on the town,

had no idea. I'm like, we all know what that is, right? You've seen it in glorious bastards. You know what that is. But he also, but basically, you know, he said a bunch of intemperate shit, hell, so have I. You know, he, but basically the Democrats are in a pickle. Do they stick with their under assault,

probably Me Too problematic, possibly not at one point Nazi symbolism adjacent but populist making waves in Maine candidate or do they throw them under the guft, under the bus Thomas Eagleston in 1972 style and try to see if they can salvage this and just run someone knowing that they're certainly going to lose. I know what I would do, but what's your thought here?

This guy is a Democrat, right? Yeah. Yeah, he is. They can't run a Nazi. Republicans would not care. The Republicans would care, but they can't put it out. They'd be like, yeah. You can't run a guy who watches and glorious bastards

and is like, I can't believe they're killing these Nazis. Like, you can't do that, right? Like, he's watching it for the wrong reason. You can't run that. The guy who sympathizes with the Jew hunter? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No, no, that guy is talking sense. It's like, this is the moment he's going to drink the milk. This is such a great. He's saying it for the wrong reasons, right? He's like, why she's going to get those Jews who's hiding under the thing. Oh, this is such a great scene. You can't run that guy. No, no.

You can't run that guy. Maybe if it was Europe and maybe if it was, you know, for, like, Kajakalas, when she thinks about her grandparents. She's like, oh, they're such honorable, brave fighters. They were Nazis, right? But you can't run that guy. You can't run that guy. guy. At least that's my

take. You can't run it. I have a, okay, so I think this is like, you laid down in bed, you caught fleas, it's fucking June, you're stuck. I think you, you know, like Molly Ivan's I quote her all the time,

you know, dance with them that brung you. Okay, listen, Grant Platner's your fucking nominee. And there's, you're stuck with his I mean, personally, Democrats right now, they have a boner over, like, getting vets. Okay, I'm going to say something that's a little intemperate here.

They're like, oh, like, that's the model, right? Like, like, in the 70s and 80s, they're like, we need conservative Southern Democratic governors to run for president, right? That's our thing. Okay, well, it kind of worked, sort of, not really, but sort of. Here, they're like, okay, you know, that's the key. This is what we're doing in New Jersey. That's what we're doing all over the country. We're going to get, like, these, you know, combat vets.

and those guys are going to be like thing i mean look some combat that's sure but like you can't just automatically be like because a dude you know shot at brown people that like they're going to be a good candidate for you so in this case they didn't vet him okay obviously and they they didn't the tattoo should have come up and also um oh the sexting right it did come up and it didn't matter They didn't, nobody paid attention, right? He's like, oh, well, we'll deal with that. You know, it's his Anthony Wiener moment, whatever. So they're stupid.

They fucked up. This is the decision they have. They're painted into a corner. I double triple down, go full on Trump style and just like run more ads and just basically say like here would be my spin as a political consultant. Like the Republicans want you to think about his tattoo, his girl problems. Why? Because he's here to.

fight for you, for Mainers. It's like they're scared of their running scared. Don't run scared. Fight for Maine. Grand Platner for Senate. That's what they need to do. I mean, I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying like, it's the smart move.

I guess it's too late to get another candidate. Fair enough. It's too late. That's, I mean, I'm curious, have Republicans brought up the Nazi tattoo at all. They can't claim, oh, Like, we're pure.

Like, the Democratic Party brand is like, you know, it's like the Vatican. Oh, wait, not so much. But, like, you know, it's kind of like our party, all of, you know, you can't run in our party. We would rather lose, you know, than to have someone who's not, like, ethically perfect. Like, we don't, we're, the Democratic Party is way past ethically perfect. As a fucking Nazi. Ethically perfect.

I'm trying to put out. There's a wide golf between, let's say, cheat on your wife, sex thing, and a Nazi for my point of view. Yeah, I agree. I mean, look, here's the thing, right? And I don't think he's punk rock. I don't think this is like how, you know, Sid Vicious wore a swastika just like to take the piss in the punk race, right? He wasn't a Nazi at all. Real Nazis were beating him up in the street.

This is not that, right? Yeah. I guess you're right. They're stuck with them. They're going to have to run them. It wouldn't shock me if Republicans bring it up. I mean, look, I've watched Mr. McConnell with a straight face, make the argument. Yeah, Obamacare doesn't even cover everybody.

As if it did, he would support it. Like, yeah, no issue making the argument. It's like, it doesn't even support everybody. Like, why would we support this thing? It's like, oh, so if you have Medicare for all you support it? No. And why are you bringing up that it doesn't support everybody? I'm pointing out that hypocrisy is not an issue.

Oh, yeah. I have a question for you, J.T. What's more repugnant? No, the Democrats, they can't run a Nazi. Is he a Nazi? Don't know, don't know the guy. But they're also covering for the Epstein clients in Congress. They're stonewalling.

They could join with the Massey and force the release of the Epstein files. They're not. So who are they to be cast in stones? Because what's worse? Being a Nazi or being a pedophile at the highest reaches of American government and commerce? Which was more repugnant? We're, you know, sailing to the sun

either way you look at it. Yeah, exactly. I agree with you that both are repugnant. I mean, before you start throwing those rocks, maybe you got out of that glass house that you're in. That's my advice to them. repugnant. I accept both of repugnant, right? Here's the thing, though.

And I agree with you with the Democrats. They didn't bring up the Epstein thing under Biden when they could have, if they cared that much about it. Yeah. They didn't give a shit about it. And let's be very clear, their people are also indicted in it, which is probably part in the reason that they didn't bring it up under Joe Biden. Right.

Right. So this is like the same reason the Democrats didn't impeach Trump for emoluments in his first term because they were like, well, you know, we do emoluments too. Yes. And why they didn't go after George Bush after Iraq. Hey, we may want to do some killing too, you know, like a neural bomb, for example. No, I, Robbie, I get it. That's separate. Kind of. And because it's not that I'm saying the guy's pure. That's not my argument. My argument is, you know, there's something grotesque about this. But I agree with you. There's stuff with the guy. Oh, it's grotesque. Yeah, no, I mean, for sure. Okay, so listen, croissant gate is in full effect here on the program. Adam Tube says, Robbie never left his trailer.

I can tell you he does not live in a trailer. He lives in a proper apartment. He is a, yet he's a pundit on lack of croissants in Muslim countries. We make more of them than all of Europe. Do some research before you move your mouth. Go, oh, blind. Okay. And dinner with Franklin says, a quick browser search shows croissons available in the UAE, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar. I never said they were banned all over the Middle East, and I would not say that because I know that not to be true. All I'm saying is they're not, they are banned in some places in the Middle East. I will stick to that. Or there's just, okay. And more quassantery.

Thanks for the $4 from Fouad Iraqs, from Fuad, Azak. Just because Syrian rebels banned something doesn't mean it's banned in a Muslim country. Cuisance is halal, not banned. Ted gets too many things wrong. I'm sure I get many things wrong, and whenever we get them wrong, we point them out here on the T program. So I thank you, seriously. But however, I'm going to disagree with that.

if ISIS banned something over the course of, and they rule territory over the course of years, then it's banned in the Middle East, okay? I'm sorry. I mean, it's a rebel group. Who cares it's a rebel group? I mean, like Taiwan is rebel renegade province. If I said, you know, you can get pot stickers in Taipei,

and it's like, or in East Asia, it's like, well, and it's only sold in Taipei. I mean, that's still there, right? I mean, the Middle East is a geographical area. Whether a government has international legitimacy or not is not the point here. Okay. That's arguable, I suppose. Okay. I don't know.

I was sitting here thinking like, okay, is that right? Is that true? Yeah, it's arguable. Yeah, I don't have to mix it about it. Sorry. And I do leave my trailer whenever I go hunting or go to the grocery store. So there are times where I do leave my trailer. You don't watch Pulp Fiction.

You haven't seen Pulp Fiction, but I was going to make a joke about being like Zed in your trunk. But no. So I do get out. But I mean, no, correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, don't have both been to the Middle East. I haven't. Basically, ISIS, they're kind of like the Islamic version of Robbie, except I'm not his head choppy. Like, they actually believe what the Hadith and the Quran say.

I mean, that's, so that's one place where we agree. And so if Piss Christ is offensive to me because it is, then obviously the croissant would be offensive to these people because you're mocking Allah and you're mocking Muhammad. Do they count? I'd say they count. Of course they count. I mean, if you rule territory, if you have a government, if you collect taxes, I mean, you, you own it. Yeah, they had coinage.

I mean, you know. I mean, it's a real country. It was a thing for a little while until the Russians is. destroyed it. I mean, these guys were fucking headchoppers. They were terrorists. They sure they invaded. And let's not forget anyone who remembers Khashoggi. What kind of government Saudi Arabia is? Yes, agree. Same thing. Headchoppers. Look, the Wahhabis were trained somewhere, right? Yeah. It's not like they were trained or taprikes or whatever you want to call them. they got their training and their education from somewhere.

Saudi Arabia was exporting that shit all throughout the Middle East. If you remember in Hillary Clinton and the leaks that came off for weekly leaks, Clinton was pointing out that Saudi Arabia had been exported that shit all over the place. And it didn't stop Clinton from taking money from Saudi Arabia. Let's put the shit in context. Argument can be made that a terrorist group that has been able to take territory, it's not the same thing as the government. No, it's not the same.

They never created their California. is my point. Well, they were trying to create a caliphate. They were trying to. But the point is they held territory for a considerable amount of time with a considerable amount of, you know, they made a big splash. I mean, I think they captured the imagination of a lot of jihadis who traveled from all over the world to be part of it, including from Europe, right?

And so, I mean, is it fair to say that croissons have never been banned anywhere in the Middle East? Fuck no, it's not fair to say that. Okay. And, okay, by the way, so Graham Platner, according to P.W. Walker, got the tattoo in Croatia. You can't get any other kind of tattooed other than a Nazi one in Croatia. They can't do anything other than Nazi tattoos. I can't speak to that, having never been to Croatia or gotten a tattoo. But, you know, I don't know. I've been to Croatia. Croatia is a beautiful country. I know it has, I mean, obviously it had a, it's kind of like Ukraine, though, right? I mean, it's kind of like they have a, I mean, it's kind of like they have a, fond remembrance of their Nazi past? It's very complicated. Oh, it's very complicated. Ustashi.

Because when I went, I went to this historical thing that they had. And I sat there and I listened to them give this kind of this explanation from the Croatian point of view about Yugoslabi, which is fascinating. Oh, it's fascinating. It's fascinating. Yeah, it's complicated. Yeah, that checkerboard flag, though, right? Isn't that like from the Ustashi in World War II, the, uh, nukeschi? Nazi-aligned movement.

I'm pretty sure, but I'm not an expert in that area. Okay, so we should move on. We have to talk about a development in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Zelensky has, for the first time, and I think, an open letter, maybe not the first time. He's written a letter to Putin and said, dude, bro, hey, listen, let's hang. Let's talk shit out.

and then Putin's like, you are welcome to come to Kravlin. We will have many vodka together. And he said, and then, you know, Zelensky is like, yeah, it's not going to be in Russia. Obviously, you know, that where you have the meeting, the optics of that are, you know, it's all about control and, you know, all that. obviously this would be in a third country in some neutral place. Why now what's going on? I mean, let me read some comments that are related to this. Manchild says Putin's getting his ass handed to him.

The sanctions are working now that Russian infrastructure is getting hammered and Russia can't find replacement parts easily. And certainly there have been a lot of very brutal attacks by Ukraine in Russia, especially against, you know, oil refrable. refineries and stuff like that. So the war is kind of coming home for the Russians. At the same time, you know, Russia, you know, Russia hasn't really lost any territory in Ukraine. The lines are pretty much where they are. As Putin's not wrong when he says that they're moving forward, they're advancing on all points of contact. So it's a mixed bag, right? I mean, basically it's just

it's a quagmire at this point for both sides. I think it's fair to say. But why is Olenski reaching out now? Does he think he has the advantage? Does he think he's that he's weak or does just think it's time? So Zelensky has done the shtick before. I don't know if he wrote this long-ass letter like he did this time around, but he has done the schick where after working with the Europeans, he'll come on and say, hey, I'm willing to negotiate. He's never willing to negotiate because Zinlinski is not a sovereign actor, meaning he's not an independent actor. He is purely a tool for the West in order to stick it to the Russians. It is true that they've been able to get these pinprick strikes to hit energy resources. Again, this is being powered by the U.S. I need to make

this clear. This idea that the Trump administration is disengaged, it's nonsense. They've had a concerted effort of going after Russian energy. By the same token, this has had a boomerang effect in increasing the cost of energy. So Russia, effectively, really gets more money. for the energy despite the fact that they're losing some of let's say the refinery capability but even with that that's put an asterisk they're fixing and repairing a lot of the stuff within the course of days if not the same day so take it with a grain of salt by the same token there's a question of whether or not the increase in oil covers the loss of oil if that makes sense and you've had ukrain ukrainian drones all over the place so it's true that the drones that europe is

making and handing to the Ukrainians the symbol seems to have some effect. So put it in context, whatever that effect is. It is also true that Russia is kicking ass on the battlefield and that Ukraine has started to use drones because they've been getting crushed in regards to manpower and the movement of Russia on the battlefield, breakthroughs that have been taking place in Zaporosia and the closer they get to primators. The reality of it is, Ukraine is going to have one main strong hole in Dombas, which is Slaubianz Kramatur's conurbation, and Russia is closely enclosing on that, and that will be taken by the end of the year. Now, the catch becomes, from the Putin standpoint, we're not changing the map. That's the way Russia is looking at. Now, I would tell

you, there are a lot of Russian analysts who hates this. And this goes back to the, be careful what you wish for. If the context of the battlefield changes, then Russia will change its tactics and what started off as a special military operation were turned into an actual war, which would look a lot like the way we do Iraq and the way we do our wars. So again, be careful what people wish for. So Lenzky is putting this out because he wants to seem reasonable and he's aware of the changes that are taking place on the battlefield. You don't think so. You don't think he's trying to seem reasonable? That's not you give me your thoughts.

Yeah, no, look, I'm not going to, yeah, I'm not going to fault any of that. I think that, look, Zelensky also knows that, you know, Trump is really eager to bring a lot of these conflicts in for some sort of landing. True. And this is like a way, like you said, he needs to come off as reasonable. Let's not forget, right? Wait, just for a quick, reasonable for Trump is the point. For Trump, yeah, and for the year. Europeans, right? But Zelensky is now well into his third year as an unelected leader of Ukraine,

right? I mean, he canceled the parliamentary elections. He canceled. And, you know, it's sophistry to say, well, he doesn't have a right to call an election because there's a state of martial law. It's true. You can't have an election under the Ukrainian constitution under martial law. But he's the guy who declared the martial law. So he can undeclare martial law and allow elections. It's his decision unilaterally. He doesn't need any approval from anyone. So he's decided he canceled the elections. You know, he censored all the media. Opposition parties are banned. Opposition politicians are under house arrest or in prison being tortured. You know, I mean, it's a dictatorship, right? I mean, it's a, or let's put it this way. It is an authoritarian state at bare minimum, right? It is not a democracy.

to the extent that it ever was, it certainly hasn't been in the last few years. So Zelensky knows that his international legitimacy is waning. He knows that Western interest in supporting this war is waning. So, you know, he can't come off as like the Netanyahu style hard ass. He's got to look like, okay, okay, like I'll talk to Putin. This does go further than he's gone previously. This is a more like fulsome like let's meet face to face. The danger for Zelensky is that Putin said yes.

And so now what does he do? I mean, you know, you always, it's always that danger of being the dog that catches the car. And that's where he's at now. By the way, he has no legitimacy. Like Russia doesn't consider him legitimate. And by Zelensky's, it is illegal to have peace talks because Zelenskyy passed a law of making it legal to have peace talks. This is, by the way, we have a comment.

Tegdir B. Namarag. It wasn't a fucking swastika. Lots of military gets skulls or Viking or whatever tattoos. He might be dumb, but he isn't a fucking Nazi. Thanks for the dollar donation from the same person. Oops, my only comment with F-bombs got put on screen. Yikes. That's okay. I don't know.

Yeah. Look, lots of people in the military do have this. that kind of imagery, but a lot of people in the military are also have very far-right politics, too. Yeah, sure. No response to it. Yeah. I mean, fair enough? So, okay, so this, our timing is finally working out well for once.

A bunch of GOP lawmakers are voting with the Democrats to impose even more sanctions against Russia, send more money to, I mean, it basically Trump is getting boxed in by his allies, right? Like, Republicans in Congress are trying to force him to, are trying to scuttle his, whatever negotiations are happening behind the scenes with Putin. And Israelis are trying to scuttle the negotiations that, you know, he's trying to have with Iran. I mean, it's, I mean, he's an incompetent peace. and they're not, no one's making it easy for him. Trump is incompetent.

He should have walked. Like when he first got in office on day one, if Trump would have said, I'm out, I'm not participating in this Ukraine war. I'm out. This is Joe Biden's war. Then he could have walked. True. And he'd have done so with a clear conscience as opposed to now where he is stuck.

This is his war. He's been running this war for the last. No one would hold it against him now. No one would be talking about it now. It would be over. It'll be over with you'd be done. You'll be out. Totally.

You can focus on, you know, murdering people in Iran or murdering people in gossip. Have fun with that. Yeah. Yeah. Send money to those settlers. All right. Well, thank you so much to everyone for joining us. You've been watching Deep Program with Ted Rollins and Marl Thomas.

We're done for the weekend. Maybe Sunday or Monday. We're going to be doing that bonus round for the $50 a month supporters on YouTube and on Rumble. Much appreciate you guys for that. we will be back Monday morning 9 a.m. Eastern Time as we are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern Time Q&A show at 12 noon Monday and Wednesday. TMI show coming up right now. JT, great to see you and I will see you soon. Good-bye.

Have a good one, guys. You too.