DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Or-Ban Ukraine | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Angry due to alleged Ukrainian disruption to the Druzhba pipeline, which delivers Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia via Ukraine, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban blocked the EU’s big cash package to Ukraine and new sanctions against Russia.• SOTU: With his approval at 37%, Trump did what presidents shouldn’t do when the public is pissed off at them—he took a victory lap and told them everything is awesome. Blowing off the opportunity for a reset, Trump hammed the State of the Union Address like a gameshow host, cheering the olympic hockey team, pinned medals and ribbons on heroes, trolled Democrats, insulted the Supreme Court and presided over a Jerry Springer-like Venezuelan family reunion. • Trump also claimed Iran are developing ICBMs “that will soon reach the U.S.” MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

My name's Mackenzie, and I started to GoFund Me for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child. The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And we raised about $10,000 within a go-fundme. just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed, we had some really generous donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with.

GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform trusted by over 200 million people. Start your Gofund me today at gofundme.com. That's gofund me.com. Gofund me.com. This podcast is supported by Gofund me. Good morning. It's Wednesday, February 25th. You're watching The Program with Ted Rall and John Kirooku. Good morning, John. Morning, Ted. Good to see you. Good to see you, too. Okay, so let's get to it. Obviously, I don't know if you stayed up and I did. I endured the state of the union last night. It's as exhausting as the administration and the state of America itself. And he proudly said beforehand, this was going to be the longest state of the union in American history. And it was. And it was. In fact, New York Times sent out a push notification toward the end saying he's just passed the record.

It's the longest day of the union. Like, that's supposed to mean something. I know. It's like, that's not necessarily a good thing. That's not Hank Aaron hitting number 714. That's right. So we'll talk about the state of the union. Victor Orban is our main story today, or at least we were thinking it would be.

He put the Kaibosh on the EU's latest cash infusion to the Ukrainians, as well as more anti-Russian sanctions. We'll talk about the veto power that he has there in Hungary. And finally, also yesterday, and I think we have to talk about this with the developments in Iran, Trump made a claim, not quite up to the WFD's in Iraq claim, but he claimed that ICBM's intercontinental ballistic missiles could soon reach the United States from Iran. And that's not what the intelligence community says. Yeah. That is simply not true.

So we, so anyway, and of course, as always, please like, follow and share the show. Robbie West, producer is out today taking care of his wife who is in post-op and is recovering. Things went about as well as could be expected, I think. But we're all praying for her. And so, you know, we also, if you feel like throwing some, a cash infusion their way. That would not be a bad thing. I'll go ahead and put the URL up there for Robbie's GoFund me. He'll be mad that I did that.

Sorry, Robbie. I don't care. Okay, now let's see. What other housekeeping do we have to do? Okay, so we have some questions, and we can get into those, or we can skip right into the state of the union. What do you want to do? Yeah, let's jump into the state of the union.

Okay. Let me ask you, Ted, were you as frustrated with, Democrats as I was. I mean, we knew what to expect from Donald Trump. We knew that he was going to be angry and ugly and mean-spirited. We knew because it's his nature and he did it on purpose. He gets a kick out of it. But the Democrats walked right into his trap, right into it. Yeah. Well, there were several traps. The traps kept getting laid, you know, the most notable one where he obviously had coordinated this with the Republican leadership. Yes. Where he said, please, you know, but you know it's trouble where it's like, you know, I'm going to ask a question. And if you agree with it,

stand up. And if you don't stay sitting down. And it's like, do you care, do you think that the priorities of, you know, of elected officials should be to prioritize the U.S. citizens over illegal immigrants? And, and so that's a trap. And he just let it lie there. And of course, fucking John Federman jumps right up. Right. The only dead of that. Right. Right. Now, the thing is, I happen to agree with the answer to that question. It's a trap, of course. It is a trap. But of course, obviously, the priority of American elected official should be U.S. citizens.

It goes without saying. But Democrats don't know what to do in a situation like that. They should be prepared to act as one. You know, maybe I'll get up and walk out at that moment. But there should have been, instead of just sitting there, like, basically screwed, John, I thought the Democrats, you know, one of my Republican friends exed me this morning and said, oh, you know, Donald Trump kicked ass. I don't think Donald Trump kicked ass at all. But he said, but he said, oh, the Democrats looked terrible. That's true, too. The Democrats did look terrible. They just didn't know what to do, John. I mean, they didn't even in years past, they had their lame little, like, microsigns that they used to hand a sign up. But they were wearing the tags, release the Epstein files. Right, like, minutia.

How come you didn't wear those when Biden was president? Right, good question. And also, why are they like two inches across? Yeah. You know, you're on national television. You know, the only spiciness came from Al Green. That was it. Just Al Green.

And like, you know, and I thought, you know, the Democrats just didn't seem to know what to do. They weren't willing to be, there was no civil disobedience here. I mean, you desperately needed at some points when he was in. insulting them, questioning their patriotism and their sanity, calling them crazy. At some point, you need a fuck you. And it's like, where is it? What are they so worried about that the sergeant at arms is going to kick them out? Whoop they watch it on TV later.

What a joke. I mean, yeah. Yeah. First of all, Al Green. Al Green did not impress me last night with this big sign. The Democratic leadership said, no. signs. You're going to get thrown out. He pulls out this giant sign. Black people are not apes. Okay, great. And then you get thrown out. And so what have you accomplished?

But also, if you get thrown out, get thrown out spicily, struggle, fight back. And he didn't. He just walked out. Now he just got up and went out. I mean, it's also performative. And the American people know that. Both sides. Both sides. I hated it. And I'll tell you what, when I was in college, Reagan was president, the country was divided. Democrats on one side, Republicans on the other. I enjoyed those speeches. I enjoyed them. They were substantive on both sides.

You could agree to disagree. You could stand up for what you believed in, but there was still decorum. And there's no decorum on either side. It's a clown show. It is. And I mean, like, it literally was a, you know, the, I thought it was like the announcement. I mean, I never thought I would say that I would see a congressional medal of honor, which is the highest award

that a member of the military can receive from the civilian branch of government. You know, it's basically like the Quad de Gaille or the Le Géjean d'Anneur in France. Like, it was degraded by this spectacle. It wasn't the Congressional Medal of Honor, was it? Yeah, it was. It was the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

No, no, no, no. It's the Congressional Medal of Honor. I looked it up. It's with the blue ribbon. And like, Melania. Blue ribbon. Melania. gave the Congressional Medal of Honor to that World War II Korea.

I think my brain didn't allow me to realize that that was the Congressional Medal of Honor. It was, and it was like, I expected Montel Williams to step out any moment or Jerry Springer. There's like, but wait, there's more. The hockey team, I'm like, okay, whatever. I thought that the- You're right. You're right. Oh, my God.

The Congressional Medal of Honor. Right. That's debased. That is an august, like, Every soldier dreams maybe of being considered for that. It's like then the, I mean, and you know, 99.999% will never see one, much less have one. I mean, it's, it was debased. It was depraved.

The, the reuniting of the Venezuelan political dissident who had been recently freed the father with his daughter. It's like, but wait, guess what's behind door number two? I mean, it wasn't, Donald Trump is a consummate. But it really felt like the WWE more than ever before. It was, but I thought, John, to me, this moment was particularly repugnant and made me ashamed to be American was when he, you saw the look on John Roberts' face when he first came in. And you knew this was like, he's a smart man. He knows what's coming.

He knows he's going to be insulted and humiliated on national television. And yet he's there, right? It's horrible. It's like the kind of shit Saddam Hussein used to do. And then it happens. He insults the Supreme Court, questions their decisions, which he's already ignored, says that he's going to continue to ignore the Supreme Court. Four of their four or five members are right there.

Barrett, Justice Barrett, like, looked, the look on her face. He appointed her. The look on her face was priceless. She had this look of like, oh my fucking God. You know, interestingly, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Interestingly, the Trump appointees to the Supreme Court have been pretty good. That's true. They've been surprisingly good.

It's these dinosaurs like Alito and Thomas appointed by the moderate presidents. that are just disasters. No, that's been, that is interesting, John. Thank you for that observation. But I thought, I mean, do you think it's as important as I do? I mean, because I've never seen, in my opinion, they should have gotten up and left. They should have. We've never had a president that has vocalized the words.

I'm going to ignore the Supreme Court. No. Never. And especially not in such a high profile. setting. Yeah. It's a direct constitutional challenge. It is a direct constitutional challenge and I thought it was appalling. And I thought that there was just no resistance at all worth

noting. You know what? Matina. Matina makes a good point here. It could have been worse. Boring in lies is better than we're going to war. And there was talk about that beforehand. Like was he actually you said it, Ted, as well. was he going to use the speech to announce that we were in the midst of an attack on Iran? I'm sure the Iranians were expecting that. And we'll talk about Iran, obviously. John, I got to say, I also think politically domestically, Donald Trump really squandered an opportunity yesterday. I mean, the Republicans are up against, are really on the ropes going into the midterms.

And he didn't lay out any plan for them. No plan. He didn't help them at all. you're, if you're, you know, if you're an incumbent Republican, you're, you're very worried this morning. And, you know, his polls are in the toilet. I mean, at 37 percent, a president might credibly be thinking about resigning, not delivering a state of the union address. And that number seems to have not found its floor yet. We may, it may continue to drop. Who knows, it might stay steady or even go up, but right now. But he committed the Joe Biden mistake. Don't, don't, don't, don't believe your lying bank account, the economy is roaring.

Yeah. Roaring. Yes, he did. People don't like that. Yeah, they don't. And so I think it's like, it's not specifically really about this particular speech that's going to change minds. But if that, but that is the messaging of the administration and the Republican Party.

And people are going to hear that day after day. And what that introduces is hopelessness. Yes. I mean, literally. everything that he announced was stuff that, you know, basically look at what we did. Well, we all know about health care. We know that the health care Trump RX thing is lame. We know that the Trump savings accounts are lame. You know, the American people don't think that help is on the way. If you're suffering, you need to either know that help is on the way or help might be on the way.

They don't feel like that now. I think you're right. Yeah, I think you're right. But I want to reiterate something that we just said. there was no plan. And this was essentially the only nationally televised opportunity between now and November to lay out a plan that the Republicans can run on as a party. And watching Mike Johnson sit behind Trump and just smile and nod his head and clap. It's like, buddy, this is on you. you should be leading your caucus and you're not you're just sitting there praying that that Jesus

delivers the best ideas to you how's that working out you should I mean if I were Mike Johnson I'd have Newt Ginkridge living on my couch and I'd be asking him every morning, noon and night how he pulled off 1994 by nationalizing the midterms you know that's what the Republicans should be doing. And they should have a real plan for the workplace, a real plan for AI, a real plan for healthcare. Lord knows, they've had 10 years to come up with one on health care. And they just, I don't know if they can. I don't know if their donors won't allow them to. I don't really, you know, I don't know if they're too disorganized. I don't know if this president's too scattered. All of the above, probably some other stuff I'm not thinking of but it was I mean you know we knew it was going to be

like that that's why I didn't bother to make the state of the union you know when I who came up with the headline for today the main story because I knew it wouldn't be the main story yeah but it's still I mean it's still even though you know it's coming it's still depressing still still I want to crack on the Democrats because they are utterly devoid of any ideas that's true are terrible. And if anything came out of last night, it is the absolute necessity, the immediate necessity for viable third parties. Right. But that's not going to happen, at least not on the national stage. No, it's not. It's got to be, you know, really truly, I think the model is like the farmer labor party or all these early 20th century parties, right? Like the, like a socialist party and

so on. You've got to develop regional strength. You've got to get some. I mean, look at Bernie Sanders, right? He's the closest thing to a resistance that we have. And he was an independent candidate for mayor of Burlington, Vermont. That's where he started. And it took a long time for him. It took decades before he percolated up to the national stage, but he did. That's what you have to do. That's the hard work. The left in this country doesn't want to do the hard work. They want to have a rally, you know, on a beautiful Sunday every four months. That's it. They don't want to stand out in the rain every day, you know, and they don't want to build a third party from the grassroots. They don't want to organize the working class. They want to have a national strike just like that,

you know, you buy it through Facebook groups. And again, vote for me because I'm not the other guy is not a strategy. No. Although it can be. It can be. It works sometimes, but then like, but this is the problem. You know, you look at the likes of Chuck Schumer looked like he was not just already dead, but dead and halfway rotten. Yeah, he was, he looked like a scarecrow. Like he was, he was going to like, he was hanging like this, like. Yeah, exactly.

So, so sure, let's say Trump is unpopular. The Republican, at least the Republican House is unpopular. And so the Democrats win 15. 20, 25, whatever seats. And then what? They've got no ideas. How in the world do they intend to govern? Well, they'll impeach.

And I'll tell you another thing. If the Democrats do win a majority in the House and then they immediately move to impeach Trump again, they should never win another race. That's what they will do. As punishment. They should never win another race. No, they're utterly worthless. You know, they're just, they're not, they're completely incapable of rising to the

vacation. And like even the fact that like the boycott like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer told their there, you know, their caucuses, don't, you know, hey, you can boycott or not. Look, you got to all be on the same page as a party. Either you all show up. Yes. And you all do the same thing. Or you all don't show up. Yes. Which would have been very powerful too. That's right. I mean, they would have filled the seats anyway. But yes. They would have. You know, it's funny, CNN was talking beforehand about the seats. And I didn't realize, of course, there are way fewer seats than what they need. And so I didn't realize that people go there six hours in advance to stake out a seat. And they'll bring like lunch and dinner with

them and just hold their food on their lap. And the Democrats, like, a hundred and 12 Democrats didn't show up yesterday between House members and senators. And that's what they were able to fill all those seats with the Supreme Court, the cabinet, visitors, even the sub-cabinet, all kinds of stuff. It's just not the way it used to be. Elliot Covert has a question for you, John, pertinent to all this. Did you notice that that disgusting slob John Federman actually wore a suit last night, like a normal human being?

First thought in my mind. Like, I can't believe that idiot finally put on a suit. Finally. Because if he feels so strongly about his, about his cheap ass hoodie and stuff, wear the hoodie. Right. Yeah, exactly. But he didn't, this was the big one, right?

So, John, I heard you say that NECO wafers weren't around in Lincoln's time, but on the NECO wafer package, it says 1847. 1847. I read that it was 1878. And, yeah, somebody else corrected me on that. Yeah. Maybe it had to do with the recipe of the NICO wafer. There was something about it being a Neko wafer.

No, a guy speaking, John, did not forward your essay about immigration. John, please do that. Okay. Say it again? You're supposed to forward me a guy speaking's essay about immigration? Or if you did, I didn't see it. Oh, oh, oh, yes. Yes, I have it.

I'll send it to you. Yes. All right. Ted, Pink lady wants to know. Please ask my question from the past two days. John, thank you for asking it again. John, do you still consider yourself to have sociopathic traits? You seem so empathetic and kind today. By the way, I hope I get my stud muffin photo in the mail. You know, what that sociopathic tendency was was a willingness to break the law or to work, in moral, legal, and ethical gray areas. So I'd have to say yes.

If I were still in the CIA and I was instructed to break into a house and plant a listening device, yeah, sure. Of course that would. A normal person wouldn't do that. Yeah, by the way, being a sociopath doesn't mean that you're not kind. Well, and I'm not a sociopath.

Right. We're talking about sociopathic tendencies. Right. And I'm also saying, but also it's like, I think it's a misnomer people think sociopaths are necessarily mean. They're rude or whatever. That's not the profile at all. Frazmataz, Leith Marouf said on Nima's show that Unified Command for Centcom was moved to the big base on Crete.

As Mossad H.Q allegedly got hit in Tel Aviv last time. He was out of target. Interesting. We have a gigantic naval president. in Crete, gigantic. So that would actually make sense. I didn't see that. And that did not appear in the Greek press, by the way.

You know what? I'm going to call it, call it up right now. Maybe I missed it. No? Keenan Bailey, do we have the chance to think about the implications on NATO if Israel and Turkey were to engage in a kinetic conflict? I think this was a question from last week. Well, we actually did come back to it.

But yeah, and we said that, yeah, it could be the end of NATO. Yeah, that's worth writing about. It is. Yeah. I think that is just such a great question. That's a curiosity curiosity curiosity. It is. You should do it.

I think I'm going to jump on that. Yeah, you do that. I already have my topic for this week, which is, you know, what are the chances of the Republicans canceling the midterms? Elliot, I went to bed before Spanberger gave the response. She's so generic and boring. a real DNCIA Democrat. So one of my problems with the Democratic response, which I did not watch, John, is they write it in advance, right?

It's a speech. Before she's seen the president's speech, she's already written it and she just reads it. That's right. That's not a response. No, it's not a response. That's just a, I don't know. It's a campaign speech.

Yeah, it's stupid. I mean, really, truly, the response should be someone, taking notes throughout the speech and then saying, okay, when Trump said this, actually that, right? They don't do that. That's why I didn't watch. No. She's terrible.

You know, she's a moderate Democrat, which in my mind, and all my friends from my hometown that I'm on Facebook with, they're all going to just flip out that I'm saying this, but to me, she's a conservative Democrat. Oh, for sure. She's very much a

DNC, like a down the line DNC, center the road, you know, don't want to offend the right kind of person. And I think she's, look, in Virginia, our governors are only allowed to serve one term. And so the minute they take the oath of office, they're lame ducks. That's it. It's the end of it. So she'll govern as much as a governor can govern Virginia. The state essentially runs itself. And she's already running for vice president. That's what this is all about. That's why they made her the Democratic responder last night. I agree with that.

She's begun her campaign for vice president. Yeah. I mean, in a way, though, I'm glad that they didn't make a progressive go and deliver the response because they're not in charge of the Democratic policy anyway. So why should they have to go in our-examination? That's exactly right. Nick Riviera, Ph.D. Best part was when he spoke about Somali pirates and the camera pans to Ilhano.

Mar. Maybe the best. I don't know. All right, Dr. Nick. Yeah. First of all. It was very funny. But yeah.

See, this was another thing that bothered me. Like, did he really need to attack the squad? That was just gratuitous and unnecessary. But then when the Republicans started chanting USA, USA. God, which they always do. Ilhan Omar and what's her name, the, um, the, um, the, uh, Palestinian one. Anyway.

Rashid. Yeah, thank you. You should not have started to chant KKK, KKK. The country is not like the KKK. No, it's not. And that was offensive. See, this is what I mean. Like decorum has just collapsed on Capitol Hill.

We thought things were bad in the 80s or in the 90s even with Bill Clinton on the one side and Newt Gingrich. on the other. It's worse now. Like, everybody's just classless. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, by the way, it's true. What ugly, stupid loser says, there were two medals of honor. Yeah, the old man got one. And the kid got one from Venezuela to congressional medals of honor. Just absolutely astounding to me. I mean, there were guys who, you know, gave up their lives in Afghanistan while mowing down a dozen Taliban. and saving everybody in their platoon,

and they got the Silver Star. So I don't understand how these. Well, look, and I don't understand. I mean, I guess it's like I understand how the words Alex Pruddy and Renee Good didn't get uttered. But it was also, I think, a squandered opportunity. You know, I mean, look, the thing is, even moderate analysts this morning are saying that Trump basically set out to

solidify his base and that's what was important. And he got that done. I'm not sure I agree with that. I don't agree. And Jake Tapper talked about this last night. He said that eight months ago, Trump was polling 90% among Republicans and 46% among independents. Now he's 82% among Republicans and 26% among independents.

So if you're trying to win back that 8% of Republicans and shore up your base, all you're going to do is alienate more independence. Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, I think. I think that I'm a big proponent generally of a base strategy, but I think at this point, Trump is underwater, even with his base, on the issues that they liked him about, immigration and the economy. And that's not, you know, I mean, he doesn't have those anymore.

He lost credibility because of the way that the deportations have been implemented. No question he sealed the border. Although, frankly, to be fair, Joe Biden, outgoing Joe Biden sealed the border. a couple of weeks before he dropped out of the race, right, trying to save himself. And then it stayed sealed and Trump just kept it sealed. You know, I mean, Trump definitely just gets that credit, but still. I have a good friend who is an investigative journalist. And she went down to Eagle Pass, Texas.

She called me from Eagle Pass. She was standing on a hill overlooking the border. And she said, never in my life have I actually seen a border that's open. she said people were just streaming across it and the the ice guys or border patrol border protection whatever they called themselves today they were just standing there overwhelmed the border was just open and people were coming across yeah streaming in i mean i i will say i have seen that in you know central asia and places oh i i saw that in somalia i saw that between New South Afghanistan or Kazakhstan. Not in Texas? No. Well, look, it was left open. I mean,

and that's insane. Desert Fox 41 question for both of us. What do we make of the track to war with Iran by all reports it was supposed to start this past weekend? I'm not so sure about that. I think they're still trying to, Trump thinks he's still negotiating, sort of. And, you know, it's, I mean, I think the thing is, from the U.S. military perspective, the longer they wait the better because they'll have more assets in place. It makes it easier. Ted, I apologize about changing the subject. Be my guest.

But is it rational says, can we talk about Texas representative Tony Gonzalez? Oh, yeah. He talked to staff member, a married staff member into having an affair, into sending nudes. She became so distraught, so depressed that she set herself on fire. Right. Right. and died. And he refuses to resign.

Now, finally, there are Republicans calling for him to resign. The primary is, I think, Saturday. And he's got very strong opposition from the right within the primary. But this son of a bitch refuses to resign. And he denied and denied and denied. And then the staffer's husband released the text messages. And he's like, okay, well, all right. Yeah, I guess I did it.

What do you think of this clown? He should be prosecuted for manslaughter or depraved indifference. And I get that depraved indifference is a misdemeanor. I get it. But you can still get a year in prison. Well, is that a law in Texas is the question. That's a good question. I don't know.

Yeah. It seems like depraved indifference is part of Texas's state culture. Yeah. I mean, I got to say cynically, if I were advising him, I would say, stay put in this news environment. Everyone's going to forget all about you. The headlines are going to move on. Don't feed the fire. You can hang on and everyone's going to forget all about it.

Just don't say anything about it. I mean, I'm being cynical, but I think honestly, he can ride this out. God, I can't even believe it. I mean, I'm not saying he should. I'm just saying, you know, he can. You know, to tell you the truth, if I were the husband, I would stomp him until his brain was putting. I really would. Well, you might also be pissed at your wife, though.

I mean, you know. Oh, my God. I mean, she had, she had free will, right? Yeah, she had free will. See, what this is an adult. This is my, this is my nature. And I've taken shit over this over the years. but for whatever reason, I always blame the guy, the other guy.

Yeah, I don't. It's been my experience that, yeah. No, I mean, that's like, this guy came in and ruined my family and it's like, no, no, no, no. That's not exactly right. Yeah, well, obviously, I'm on the team who would disagree, would give you shit for that, John. Yeah.

I disagree with that. I mean, you know it's wrong. But there's the emotional response, and then there's the logical response. That's right. Yeah, I always feel like it's the opposite. Like, you know, if you, like the person who made, like, you know, she made the oath to her husband. Not that got, not the congressman, right?

Right, right. So, you know, he didn't owe her anything. He didn't owe him anything. Anyway, only one hand. Question for both of us. Do we happen to enjoy any sports? What's your favorite to watch live? John, you better answer this because my question is short.

The answer is no. I do. I love baseball and football. I watch both regularly. And then football is like such a big deal to me that even if the game's on here at home, I'll walk to a Steelers bar in Clarendon, Arlington, Virginia here. And just so I can be surrounded by 500 screaming Pittsburgh Steelers fans. I'm jealous of people who have that kind of passion. I was a baseball fan as a kid. If Bushkashi were available to watch here, I would go every day. That's my favorite sport. But unfortunately, you have to go to Afghanistan or Central Asia to see that. You do. And it's weird.

It's fucking amazing, though. It's so cool. I love this question. John Marjorie. Good morning, guys. Question, if you could replace Trump with another world leader, who would you choose? Oh, that's an easy one for me. Constantine Mitzotagis.

This guy has proven to be such a terrific leader for Greece. I will admit that I did not vote for him the first time, but I have been very pleasantly surprised. And when he came to the United States during Trump's first term to meet with Trump, the Washington Post commented that his English was better than Trump's. Yeah, he's got a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Harvard and a PhD from Oxford. And he's been a terrific prime minister. I don't have one because I would have to pull from the past.

To be honest, I would have gone for Hugo Schia. or yeah someone like that i mean i love the fact that like hugo shavez nationalized all the golf courses and turned them into into public parks um he the way he trolled the rich and uh nationalized uh you know public assets for the benefit of the public someone like that i mean i think we need like a radical lefty who's going to like mix up because we've never had one we've had radical right wingers we've got one right now. But, you know, it's like, I don't know as a permanent choice, but sort of someone like that. I know that's a crazy choice. But, yeah, John, Kavanaugh is a menace, this is from Malarkey, and overrode treaties with indigenous people and is allowing for

them. Oh, I'm not saying, I'm not saying that I would want to, the guy to be my, you know, housemate or anything. I'm just saying he's not Clarence Thomas or Sam Alito. Kevin Cronin says, John, I'm straight, but I've got to say you look marvelous without glasses. Thank you. I wish I could see, but I'm blind, just blind without glasses. Let's see. NPR says the hockey, oh, yeah, the hockey player! That's right. The hockey player got the Presidential Medal of Freedom. They gave it the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the hockey player.

The goalie. Who, by the way, was chewing his cud the entire time. I don't know if he was chewing tobacco or gum or his cut or whatever the fuck it was. But he's there like an old man with chump sucking on his dentures. Did you notice that? I did. He was on national television. It's like, you know, I remember one.

A rotten pig, are you? When I was a little kid, when I was a little kid, right after the Beatles broke up, John Lennon was on the Tonight Show. and I was up for some reason. I was sitting on my mom's lap and John Lennon was chewing gum while he was giving his interview to Johnny Carson and my mom says,

who does he think he is chewing gum like a cow chews its cud? Shame on him. He goes on national TV and chews gum. I don't remember that. Yeah. New American says, Rawls fuck you,

recommendation is painfully ridiculous, childish and unhelpful. Yeah, probably. But I don't know if it's unhelpful. I mean, look, I wanted the Democrats to show some sign of life. And, you know, when you're being degraded and humiliated and, you know, treated disrespectfully, not just disagreed with vehemently, you know, it calls for some sort of violent response, you know? God forbid. You know, I mean, if someone were talking to me like that in a bar, I'd punch him in the face.

Yeah, seriously. Yeah. What's left about the Democratic Party? Trouble wants to know. Literally nothing. Agreed. Mary Madelson got a Medal of Freedom. That's true. That's true.

She actually purchased one with her hundreds of millions of dollars to the Trump campaign and the RNC. Logger Jogger. Any thoughts on anthropic snubbing the Department of Defense, not allowing them to use their AI tech to make super-intelligent bombs? If the war machine wants it, won't they just take it? And that's exactly what Pete Hegsat said yesterday. If you don't give it to us, we're just going to take it. How can they do that?

I don't think that they can. I suppose, you know, maybe you could make an argument in wartime. Right. Take a company's IP and just say that we want. Nah. Totally, totally. Yeah. Desert Fox, what do you make of the Knights of Columbus being in Ukraine?

I got an email. I had no idea they had a role there. First I've heard of it. Yeah, that's the first I've heard of it. But I think it doesn't really surprise me. Ukraine is pretty much half Orthodox and half Catholic. And the Knights of Columbus, I guess, think that they have a role. I wouldn't be surprised.

John, redacted wants to know. What are the details on your University of Pittsburgh, speech in March. I live nearby and would like to attend. Oh, thank you. You know, it is tentatively on March 11th. I'm going to, I'm going to ping the professor today. Actually, maybe I have it here in front of me. No, I don't have it. It's tentatively the 11th of March, but I'll say something in advance. Thanks for asking. Batina, did you hear the sailors are putting their clothes in the toilets to back them up so they can leave as they wait for war with Iran. There was a piece on Fox, I think it was, day before yesterday about the USS Gerald Ford having

such a significant plumbing problem where there's human shit like up to your ankles, literally, that the only thing they can do to take care of it is to turn around and go back to Norfolk. And I wondered when this came out two days ago if it was sabotage. It sounds like it. It sure seems like it. Yeah, it sure sounds like it. Junimarin, John Ted, do you support Kurdish independence? If you were advising, what would Kurds do to achieve it?

I 100% support Kurdish independence. 100%. They are a distinct nationality. They've earned it. They're a distinct culture. They were promised it in 1919. and the great powers ignored them during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. So what should they do to get it?

Well, I hate to say it. You have to declare independence and, you know, you have to be willing to fight for it. But the Kurds are good at that. So, you know, I mean, you're going to lose lives is the problem. Yeah, that's right. What do you think, John? Would you advise them to do that? You know, I think that at least in Iraq, the situation that they have now,

is acceptable to them in that they have autonomy and they have some control over the northern oil fields but i i still i still support i've always supported kurdish independence and it should be an inclusive Kurdish independence and when i say inclusive i mean including the syrian kurds the turkish kurds the iranian kurds uh tammie wants to know my fellow detonian what does Federman stand for Israel Israel that's it that's all

I mean he was supposed to stand for organized labor I'm still waiting for that to show itself by the way I do think that the Democrats should have had signs with Renee Goods and Alex Pruddy's faces on them

yeah yeah that would have been more powerful let's see is it practical to have a war when the shitters are full. I know, right? No. No.

Logistics are important. You know, and some of those ships, I've been on a bunch of them over the years. They're so overcrowded. You have to hot bunk. Like in submarines, for example, you have hot bunk. So you have three times as many people as there are beds. And everybody gets eight hours in the bed. and you share the bed with two other guys,

you share the pillow with two other guys, it's gross. Yeah. But there's just no space. You know, and you have thousands of cans of canned food that you walk on, and you just eat the canned food as you need it. So you're,

you know, several inches higher than you normally would be because you're walking on canned food everywhere you go. And the only reason, especially with nuclear subs, The only reason they come up out of the water is to keep people from going insane. They can stay underwater for six months, but people can lose their minds. It's crazy.

Yeah. Yeah, it takes a certain psychology. Brasmataz says he wouldn't really blame the wife at the text. It seems like she was coerced. He also used a position of power as an elected official. You know, that's fair. You know, that reminds me of this whole episode reminded me of a story my mother told me. So my mother worked at NATO headquarters in Paris in the late 50s, early 60s.

And she used to take night shift subbing in for her friend who was like switchboard Susan, you know, night shift like connecting calls on one of those old-fashioned boards. My mom did that. And she was bored. And like she'd listened to the calls. It was the middle of the night. She had nothing to do. You weren't allowed to read or anything.

So she'd listen to the calls. and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was staying at NATO headquarters in one of the guest suites. And she heard him call a secretary and basically coerce her to come fuck him. And she was like, he was like basically like threatening her. And, you know, from what my mom gathered, she ultimately, you know, caved in and had to go do it. So it does happen. Scandalous. Yeah. What a shame.

I mean, it's not surprising, though, right? I mean, like not LBJ. I will say, though, you know, at the back end of all that, it's good to know the true character of the person you're married to. And so... That's true. You know, better off now than then. Well, that's true.

Hey, this is from Herman. Do we think Ukraine will lose their entire country or is just parts? I think many of us have been unimpressed with what Russia has managed. I don't think they'll lose their entire country. No, there's, no. I think they're going to lose roughly 20%. I totally agree with that number. Yeah.

It's going to be what we said it was going to be five years ago. Frasmataz, how about Fidel, Ted? That would be interesting. Yes, I like, I liked Fidel. Although, God, talk about long-winded. Six-hour speeches. God, he never stopped talking. that guy. John, did you know that your image is being used as clickbait on YouTube? I saw something

this morning. Yes, indeed. I'm going to have a major announcement coming in the next few days. And I'm not going to be alone in confronting some of these. And you know what? I'm not going to say anything. I'm going to have a big, very positive announcement coming in the next few days. Positive is good. Oh, and by the way, thanks for the two bucks, DJ. Much. Hey, we're not hawking any coffee today, huh? Oh, you know what?

That is like not true. That can't be true. And in fact, here we go. Let's do that. Thank you for the reminder. I'm just not as good without Robbie. So, still haven't tried, 17. 75 coffee, now's your shot. The 1775 starter kit just dropped. Only 1,000 units. You're getting the

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Okay. Very good. Thank you. I will say inside joke there. I'm not a fan of this mushroom coffee, but my partner drinks it and she loves it. I love mushrooms, but I don't like mushroom coffee. I just love coffee.

I love the taste that I love just. You know, one of the things about about, Starbucks. And I got this from the book Starbucks, which is a, it's, it was a number one bestseller from 20 years ago. I read that. I read that. I love the book. But Starbucks roast its coffee to within five seconds of it turning to ash. And I freaking love the taste. I just love it. I mean, every morning I, I make a quadruple, you know, a quadruple mocha. 22 Mike Mike John as you have a speaking engagement in Vietnam coming up would you like to shed some light on it also any thoughts about former CIA officer frank snap who wrote a decent interval yeah Frank snap

frank snap was a giant he was one of the one of the great analysts of his generation he was practically the first one to call Vietnam the way it really was and and that we were losing there and that we were committing atrocities. He paid for it with his career. Brilliant author. He had to fight the CIA's publications review board practically to the end of his life. Deep respect for Franksnet. The speech in Vietnam is going to be on the morning of the 10th of August.

I'm represented right now by a Speakers Bureau in New York called Gotham Artists. And they booked this speech for me to give to 300 Australian investment. bankers at their annual convention. And my brother-in-law is so excited that he's going to go with me. We're going to meet in Washington. We're going to fly to Vietnam through South Korea and take a couple of extra days for ourselves. I've never been to Vietnam.

I've always wanted to go. And I think this is going to be a blast. Do you have anything on your list? Like, are you going to, Hanoi Hilton? Yeah. The tunnels. Yes and yes. Yes to both.

I only regret that I don't have more than, you know, five days because otherwise I'd have a bunch of suits custom made, too. You can get them custom made for a hundred bucks a piece. And, uh. Oh, like in Hong Kong. Yeah, just like in Hong Kong. Yeah. Yeah. Although I don't find my, you, you're in more need of suits these days than I am.

Yeah. I think so. I think I mean. Yeah. Or you could be, or you could just. you know, put on your hoodie. Daddy of triplets, thoughts from both as, as, are we as a country so far to the left and right that a John Kasich type of candidate, remember him, has no chance.

I'm stuck in the middle with what seems like no representation. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I think, yeah. I mean, I'm not going to get into, you know, my personal feelings about, you know, where things ought to be. But yeah, yeah, no, I don't think there's any place.

in the current political environment for that kind of, you know, one from column A, one from column B type candidate anymore. Yes, agreed. But the thing is, I kind of would take issue with left versus right. It's Democrat versus Republican is what we have going on. And it's about teams. You know, what's our favorite sport? It's politics. And people follow, they love their team. It's not about, it's really not about anything else. Yeah. somebody just called John Federman Fadetitman Frasmatized it

I love that I wish I had thought of that Train 9517 Ted I'd be interested in hearing about a time in your career when you face significant challenges or found yourself in a difficult situation how did that experience shape your worldview

well we don't have a lot of time here you know at some point I would recommend that you go listen to I think we have it on YouTube also the Ted Raul Alife. You could, you know, one of the whole hours is about my lawsuit with the LA Times. That was such a moment. And there have been others professionally.

I was sued by Blockbuster Video in the in the 90s for doing a cartoon that accused their CEO of being a right-wing Christian nutcase, which was fair because he was a right-wing Christian nutcase. But it was very stressful. I was very poor. I was just starting out as a syndicated cartoonist. I was making like $400 a month for San Francisco Chronicle Features. And, you know, the next thing you know, I've been slapped with a $10 million lawsuit in New York court.

And I had to, it was horrible. And I have like, you know, TV vans parked in front of my shitty little walk-up apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Oh, Ted, this is terrible. It was rough. But, I mean, you know, and so basically it was kind of like, I have. I was working at the time I had a day job working, you know, as a file clerk at Columbia University. And I like was running to the subway with reporters chasing me. And it was just like the disjoint between the fact that I was a cartoonist who appeared in the New York Times and the fact

that I was still working full time and not making any money. And so basically all of the stress of being a big time cartoonist without any of the protection or any of the money, that was really rough and basically you just have to center yourself and just you know how it is you just you can't go on you must go on you know i mean tell me about it there's no choice i had every i had every network in america and their giant vans with their spotlights parked in front of my house yeah that it was rough hellacious yeah it's hellacious um yeah they were buzzing at all hours of the night too um I never, let's see, I never heard about blockbuster censoring until Ted.

I missed that. I was too young to know. Yeah. Well, I wish I'd forgotten. But I guess that'll happen someday. Pittsburgh says, I shouldn't even say that Kasich is socially moderate. I should say that he's tonally moderate compared to someone as rabid as Trump. I think that's well said.

Kasich was considered a right-wing nut when he was in Congress. Which is funny. He actually was. considered a right-wing nut when he was in Congress. Yeah, it was a tonal thing. It's like how John McCain was a rabid right-winger, but he had a calm voice. Yeah. John McCain, I disagree with John McCain on 95% of the issues, but, man, nobody,

nobody on Capitol Hill was a bigger supporter of mine than John McCain. That's amazing. RACL wants to know if we have any updates on Jermal Thomas. I'm afraid not last I'd heard was. he was recovering. You know, it's a process. Let me see if I have his cell phone. I must.

I have it. Okay, good. Yeah, if you don't have it, I'll send it to you. All right, John, we have a few minutes left. I have it. So, Victor Orban, PM of Hungary, vetoed. Any European country's leader can veto any EU decision to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The EU was going to lend a bunch of money more to Ukraine. I mean, you know, it's like not really that generous, but lend it to them. And also impose new sanctions against Russia. I don't know what new sanctions they found hiding between the sofa cushions. But they, but Victor Orban is pissed because the Ukrainians are accused in his mind of disrupting this oil pipeline from Russia that goes via Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia. And he's like, you're cutting off our oil. Yet another.

I'm not spending the UK's any more money. Yeah. Yet another winter. Right. Yeah. Yet another winter. I'm inclined to believe the Ukrainians are guilty of what they're accused of here. Agreed.

What do you think? Yeah. I'm no fan of Orban's, but I think he's right. And, you know, and so he's being accused of, I mean, The other thing is, do you really, at this point, want to throw good money after bad? I mean, that's a good question. I don't. Like, as an American taxpayer, I don't.

I mean, whatever you think of the cause, I mean, the Ukrainians are not going to win this. And also, it was very funny to me. Zelensky recently said, you know, pointed out, well, Russia hasn't achieved all their goals. And then Russia's like, we have not achieved all our goals. That's why it's still going on. It was pretty funny. That's a really characteristically Russian response. Yeah, it is.

And, you know, this is the thing, too. It comes back to the question, like, why won't the Russians settle this? Because they're winning. There's no reason to settle this. They're winning. Hey, this is a good suggestion. Flandrina, have you guys considered setting up a way we can submit questions before the show? Oh, that's a good question.

Well, there is a way. Is there? Yeah, I mean, we have an email address. We could just say, I didn't even know we had an email address. We do. So let me see a confect. But let me talk to Robbie and find out what the best way to do this is. Maybe, because we need a way for them to be handleable and sort of arrangeable in a way for Robbie to be able to put them up. Because currently Robbie filters them through and posts them and then we watch them in real time. But he sorts through so we don't have to read all the non-questioning. comments. Right. And so, but if when Robbie's not available, like as today, there's no way to do that. But that's a great idea. We could, I mean, we could just set up a question inbox. And I mean,

the thing is, I don't want to open zillions of emails. So I'm wondering what the best logistical way to do that is. I don't know. I guess maybe you could just put the question in the subject line, right? Then you could just see it, you see it all as a list. that's probably the way. Or we could set up a, we could set up a, well, yeah, a WhatsApp or something like that. Ted, we only have about a minute or a minute and a half left. I've got to ask you, as a New Yorker, what do we make of this giant snowball fight yesterday? Oh, good. I'm glad you brought that up.

So Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village is, you know, basically has always, been kind of like the center of counterculture fun in New York. It's where the Halloween parade ends up in a big party. It's in the summer. It's kind of raucous. You're always able to buy drugs there. And there's always like street performances and stuff. So anyway, a spontaneous snowball fight broke up, broke out between young people, mostly boys in the park. Someone dropped a dime on the snowball fight and called 911. Because that's what you do when somebody is going to throw snow. Right.

These are obviously, well, this reminds me of the time in the early 80s when I had first moved to New York and there were police helicopters over my apartment. Literally there was a raccoon in the street and the NYPD had been dispatched to do something about it. I'm like, there's nothing to do. It is a raccoon, but just ignore it. But anyway, yeah, so they called the cops. The cops came, and then the kids started throwing snowballs at the cops.

The cops are acting like it was a 9-11 terrorist act, and the police unions are winging, and they're pressuring the mayor. The mayor had a pretty good response. This is right-wing bullshit. You know, the cops shouldn't have responded at all. To the extent that I have any sympathy here for the police, it was very wet, snow and it was like probably not a lot of fun to catch a big wet icy snowball in the back of the head and I think a couple of cops claimed to have been mildly injured so that kind of sucks the cops

shouldn't have been there in the first place though is my take what's yours yeah the cop shouldn't have been there in the first place but the new york post should be ashamed of itself for making it this mom dani versus the cops you know riot ridiculous that's not what it was it was and I like what Muldani said. He said, you know, leave the cops alone. If you want to throw a snowball, someone throw it at me. There you go. All right. Thanks, John. We will see you back. We're here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Which means we'll be back tomorrow Thursday at 9 a.m. Eastern time. Thanks for watching. Please stay tuned for a TMI show with me and Milliken coming up right now. Bye.

Bye, everybody.