DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Plan 39 From Outer Space | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: June 12, 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:• Is Donald Trump living in his personal fantasy world? For the 39th time in two months, he announces that a peace agreement is at hand in his and Netanyahu’s attack on Iran, only to have Iran deny his market-manipulating claims. Iran, he says, would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and disavow nuclear weapons—i.e., a return to the status quo ante bellum.• U.S. Park Police, the D.C. fire department and members of the National Guard respond to large-scale etchings of the numerals “86 47” on the ‌grounds of the National ‌Mall. A spokesperson for the U.S. Interior Department described the markings as “deranged vandalism” and promised to “hold those responsible accountable.” Multiple emergency vehicles could be seen encircling the grass. A team of officers stood over brown patches in the grass, wearing gloves, and collected samples for testing from the grass with materials from a yellow case. Pedestrians were not permitted to walk on the grass, and a Park Service helicopter circled overhead.• An man facing death by nitrogen gas is spared as the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to set aside a lower-court ruling that found the method is unconstitutionally cruel, issuing a brief order that came well after the hour Alabama originally planned to initiate Jeffery Lee’s execution, which violated the jury’s verdict.MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JamarlThomasLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504

Good morning. You are watching D. Program with Ted Roll and Jamarle Thomas. It is Friday, June 12th, 2026. Thank you so much for joining us. It's 9 a.m. on the East Coast. We are here until 10 a.m. TMI at 10 a.m. to 11, 11 to 12 will be the DMZ America podcast, rescheduled from yesterday. Sorry for the inconvenience for those of you who were coming, who came to look for that yesterday. Jamaral, good morning. How are you? What's going on, man? You're doing okay? I'm probably doing better than our president, who seems to be living in a bizarre world of his own design. I know you're the sci-fi fan here. Although I love sci-fi, but just not as much as you. I love sci-fi.

But the, yeah, I think you're at 11. I'm in like a 9.5. But the other way, do you know the sci-fi writer-writer, John Scalzi? I know. Oh, he's a friend of mine. I was just one where you do like it? Yeah.

He said, it's war? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And Reggie. Yeah. Yeah. He was, so it's a funny story. So John Scalzi, he now a very brilliant, very successful Hugo Award-winning sci-fi novelist.

He, the way I met him was in the mid-1990s when I was, you know, I was just getting going as a cartoonist. And so you remember AOL when you came on the screen, it would go, you've got mail. And there was the logo, right? And so he had this idea. He worked at AOL. He lived in Virginia where AOL was HQed at the time. And he was an editor there.

And they gave him like a ridiculous amount of money to do fun, weird shit. So he created an Easter egg for the people who accidentally clicked. the big logo, even though you're not supposed to click the big logo, but people did. And so they were like, oh, let's give them something fun if they happened to click the logo. So I was one of the cartoonists who, like, they hired me to have a cartoon like once a week that would, like they had a stable cartoonists. And I was one of the cartoonists that's in the rotation that would like, if you accidentally hit the logo, you would get a Ted Rawl cartoon. But this is the really funny part. So This is not John's fault. John's a very tech savvy dude. But I was like, okay, so where do I email my cartoons?

He's like, oh, we can't get them by email. I'm like, what? Here, the nation's biggest email come. You know, the internet company. And he's like, yeah, you have to mail it to us. Like our old school. And I was like, you know, okay, granted, it was like 1995 or 1996. It's AOL. But it was like, yeah, it was AOL. And already people were sending file attachments. We were still on dial-up. And it would take, like, you know, now you hit it and it's gone.

It goes in 30 seconds or 10 seconds. But like, you know, at the time, it would take like 10 minutes. And you'd seen the little thermometer going on. But it was just so, but like they couldn't even do that. And he goes, yeah, I know. It's very weird. I've talked to them about it. They don't get it.

Anyway, so then, yeah, we know each other for years. And, you know, he lives. near my hometown of Dayton, Ohio now. And yeah, he's great. And anyway, I was just curious, you know, the sci-fi thing. It's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing. I just, in fact, I just saw a recommendation of his book yesterday.

Like, you know, channels that says something like, these are my top 10 sci-fi books or whatever the people do. And one of them was one of his books, Old Man War. Yeah, he's, I mean, he's just so good. You know, and when you meet him, you're just like, yeah, it's not surprising. And he's a nice guy, too, really nice guy. You know what's funny about that, speaking about that. So speaking of Dala, back during the Obama era, but it was a little bit before the Obama era,

a British guy, I don't know if you heard about the story. British guy was probing, let's say hacking various things. And I'm saying hacking, but I'm putting hacking in quotes. Because really hacking is not really the word for it. He was looking into NASA files. and NASA apparently only had the password name password and he broke into the fouls

and he was like bruised the fouls. There's a lot of that. It's insane. That's like that's how the hacking scandal that the British tabloids happened that like they were basically trying people's phone mail, the royals. They all had passwords like 1, 3, 4, 5 and stuff.

NASA apparently had a password named password. He goes in and start probing the fouls And eventually he says after going in several times, I'm not going to talk about the UFO stuff that he found or that the weird stuff that's in the NASA files. But the people when they asked them, hey, why didn't you download it? He said because we were on download up and would have taken forever to download anything. And it even took forever through the files that even show up, let alone download. He gets an indicator of somebody saying, who are you?

In which case, he closes it. Run away. Right. Right away. the cops come to his house Obama was trying to get him deported to be prosecuted and put in the cage. Oh, Jesus.

And it was, was it Kirstormer? Not Kirstomer. The one that became after, the one that came before Corbyn, Cameron, David Cameron. David Cameron effectively told Obama, no. And wouldn't have him as deported. His mama was on TV.

He's like, please don't take my son. please don't put my son in these disgusting American prisons, etc., etc. Cameron, doing something good, prevented the guy from being deported. Well, you know, some countries care about their nationals. I mean, you know, I always think about that. If you're a U.S. citizen and you get in trouble overseas, you're lucky if you get a consular visit while you're rotting in jail. But, you know, I mean, in, you know, like if you're a citizen of many other countries,

the UK included or France, whatever. They care. I mean, you know, not everyone's getting out. Not everyone's getting the special treatment. Oh, by the way, he was in Britain. He was in the UK. Yeah, he was still in the UK. It wasn't like he was in America.

Right. He was in the UK. And the cop still came to his house, meaning there was some communication from the U.S. to the UK to reach out, to put him in a cage. Right. But it's one thing to go and like have, you know, the little constables go and knock on the door and say,

hey, what's going on, cut the shit. It's another thing to bundle you up with duct tape and extraordinarily rendition you to, you know, a lawless shithole like the United States. So, all right, well, anyway, so my sci-fi reference, which I derailed myself from, today's show is called Plan 39 from Outer Space because, and by the way,

I wrote that headline yesterday right after Trump had announced for the 39th time that he had achieved a peace deal with Iran, that a signing ceremony was going to be set up, and all that, like, you know, it sounds like if it was anyone else on the planet talking, like, hey, this is really genuinely happening. But I was like, I don't know, I'm not stupid enough to think that after 38 times, the 39th time is the charm. So, you know, in a reference to Ed Wood, we decided to plan 39 from outer space,

because, you know, Donald Trump is living on Planet Claire. He's in his own private Idaho. You two's the pop culture metaphor. And Iran, once again, overnight, said, yeah, we don't know what he's talking about. And by the way, the other thing that was funny is that Trump said, like, you know, the big takeaway is that they've agreed not to have nuclear weapons. It's like you're forcing them to say that their capital is to Iran. They don't want nuclear weapons. They said that.

I mean, you know, they have a fatwa. It's literally against Iranian law to try to develop nuclear weapons. It had nothing to do with us. It's like, I mean, if Trump were telling the truth, which he's not, the deal he's going to get is the status quo antebellum, right? Which is basically no nuclear weapons and the state of Hormuzis is reopened. That's a loss. When you started a war, destroyed your alliance with, destroyed Israel. Israel already was on the way out.

But then that's it, right, in terms of popular support in the U.S., you know, taking us to war against Iran. I mean, even for people who didn't care about Gaza, that did it. And so, I mean, you know, it's a loss. I don't know. I mean, I'm just like, what is wrong with this guy? Why does he keep? And what's wrong with the stock market that they believed him and the Dow went up 900 points in futures trading overnight? What is wrong with the oil futures traders that anyone takes him seriously?

39 times he's done this in two months. I don't have an answer for that. Like, I don't know why anybody takes him seriously. I legit don't. I mean, you know, time one, maybe, time three, maybe, time eight. Less so, right? 39 times. He's obviously manipulating the oil markets.

It's like if you caught your spouse cheating on you 39 times, I mean, there's going to be a trust issue, right? I mean, well, and they keep saying, well, I haven't cheated on you. Right. And they do it 39 times. It's like the Bill Cosby thing, right? It's like, okay, Bill Cosby say he didn't do it. But then it's like you have 39 women saying you did.

Okay, maybe you didn't do it seven times, but 38, 39. Like, it gives me doubts, right? I don't know. It gives God, it does cause, it does, right? give rise to some doubts, yeah. Yes, I give rise to some doubts. I don't know why they trust or believe anything Trump says. And the bag of people, what is wrong with them?

I mean, look, guys, to be clear, I don't hate you guys. I just don't understand you guys. Like, you know, like, why the fuck, you know, like in the yesterday morning when Trump was like, I'm going to bomb this shit out of Iran tonight. They were like, yeah, he's finally, you know, Trump is going to give them what they deserve. Yeah, I'm winning. again. Then immediately he issues that statement like, oh, no, I'm not

bombing. Peace deal at hand. And they're like, yeah, big win. Like, peace with Iran, no bombing. And then, like, this morning, they don't have anything to say. And this is every day for them. I mean, I mean, I don't know. It's weird.

Yeah. Aren't you embarrassed to put your name? How do they not know this is a failure? Like, the U.S. starts a war of aggression. Okay. Many of them are psychopaths. So fair enough, the Trumpers and, but many Democrats are psychopaths too. So I'm not casting expersions that is not visited upon all of these houses.

So they don't care. Good. Trump is going to murder a lot of people for unclear reasons. They don't, they're okay with it, right? No. But the problem that you have with that is, A, they're controlling straight of Ramoos, something that wasn't true before. B, the objective of destroying the state didn't happen.

C, Iran is going to have tolls. And if they do come to some kind of agreement, Iran is making dictations of terms, which if you destroy the military, destroyed the air force, destroyed the government, you're winning all over. Then they don't get to dictate anything, but they are dictating term. Meaning, they're saying, in order for us to stop this, you need to give us billions of dollars back. And B, we don't trust you so that my,

money needs to be forwarded first. See, all war stopped. Meaning, that's not coming out of the side that believe they're losing. That is coming out of the side that is dictating terms with the U.S. president effectively all over the place trying to hide the fact that he failed miserably at what he was trying to accomplish. Like, I don't know how they are viewing this in a different way. I mean, you know, it's interesting. We talked about the Epstein files yesterday, our two days ago.

But, I mean, Vance basically argued at the time, like, you know, let's tear the, just rip the, release them, rip the, you know, they're all going to come out anyway. The drip, drip, drip is worse than just a full scale release. You know, I'm, he's right. That's just from a crisis management point of view. That's always the way to go. I'm, you know, same thing here, right? I mean, it's the same exact thing. This is a reveal. It's a reveal that, like, I Donald Trump admit that I started. this war and I lost. And it's like, okay, denying it 39 times is only making you look like a fool in addition to being a loser. You know, it's like just take the loss and move on. I mean, you know, you win some, you lose some. I don't understand the personality that just decides to go this way. I don't understand. I mean, if I'm an ally, and by the way, I want to just add something to what you just said, Qatar is having secret negotiations with Iran.

I saw that. Well, they were happening apparently at the beginning of the war. Effectively, hey, man, don't destroy our oil infrastructure. And we just won't. We're all production. Like, don't blow our shit up. Yeah. Which is amazing.

A, it's a recognition. You got to have the big of capability blowing that shit up. And you know there's more of these. You know that there were other back-channel. communications between other Gulf states and Iran. There had to have been. These are just the ones we're learning about. Well, the UAE had Israeli forces on the ground. I would imagine Saudi Arabia, they seem to be okay with the war in the very beginning up until the point where they realize, oh, my God, these U.S. bases aren't protecting us. These things aren't assets. And I got to be

honest, that's another thing that I don't think people realize the gravity of what is fully taking place here because the U.S. media is not really reporting the gravity of what is effectively taking place. Some in the media space are reporting that Iran won, Trump lost. Fair enough. But they're not talking about this as an unprovoked, unmitigated war of aggression with the U.S. intentionally murdered human beings starting off with murdering a bunch of kids at a school. They should talk about it from that context. True. And talk about it from that context. Trump is effectively going to have to, A, walk back.

B, leaving Iran with control of the strait. C, dealing with Iran demands, one of which we want our money back, which is something that the Republicans berated Obama for doing, which is Trump is ultimately going to have to do. They are not going to get anything better than the JCPOA. You were not able to accomplish your objectives. And more interesting is that this deal puts attacks on Israel and the surrounding regions, effectively saying Israel, your dog also has to stop. That's new.

That's not a norm. That is, that's new. I mean, do you think Israel is going to abide by U.S. dictates on the issue of stopping your wars? Because that's one of the things that effectively is coming out of this, meaning Iran is not accepting a deal without Lebanon being included in the deal. Talk about dictating terms, right? Talk about dictating terms, right? They're really effectively dictating terms to both adversaries, right? Yes.

I'm going to quote my friend Jamerl Thomas. You know, this is where it's the U.S. The U.S. is driving the bus here, right? I mean, it's like Israel, a lot of people on the left and the right think that Israel's in charge of the United States. I think what they mean by that is true that Israel has an ungodly amount of influence on Congress. That's, you know, undeniable. But I've also said for years, the reality is, I mean, Israel's a welfare state completely dependent on us. So there, I mean, that's going to be there.

Can you answer your question? Yeah, of course. Israel's going to have to do. If Iran tells the U.S., call off your dog, and the U.S. does that, the dog will have to stay and stay put and not even wag its tail. It will have to. And, I mean, yeah, Israel is, I mean, which is, by the way, why you see some people in the Knesset and Israeli and Zionist commentators, you know, saying, oh, it's time for the U.S. for Israel to go it alone without U.S. help. Good luck. Please.

No, really, please. That'd be great. That'd be great. You know, bye, buy, buy little bird. Buy little, just little bird. Right. Yeah. I mean, they have nukes, which is like, why on earth would you leave a bunch of psychopaths with news?

And yet, they have nukes. Which probably should be brought up in negotiations. By the way, if I were Iran, I would bring that up in negotiations. I'd say to agree to dismantle its nuclear stockpile. Yes, they're a threat to the region. They are. It's the same argument, right? It's like you're a bitching about us and nukes.

Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah, can any Zionist, can any Zionist credibly say, no matter how much they love Israel, can they credibly say that there's no world in which Israel would launch a first strike, first nuclear strike against another country in the Middle East? No fucking way. It's not possible. I mean, it's not credible. It's like, of course there's a possibility. I mean, that possibility is significantly higher than zero. for that reason alone, right? I mean, whereas Iran never really even started a nuclear weapons program.

So, like, what do you guys even talking about? I mean, if I were Iran, I would definitely make that an important condition. Yeah, live in their world. I mean, because as you pointed out in the very beginning, Iran wasn't trying to get a nuke. People like me was screaming, you should already have one. Right. But they weren't trying to get one. And so, I mean, God, man, this is.

is the argument. Saddam and Muammar Gaddafi, you know, are like, you should have, I was stupid, don't do it. The North Korean model. The North Korean model. You either have the model for Libya or you have the model for North Korea. The North Korea, the North Korea model. But more to the point, what's interesting in this is the W&D argument for the U.S. is out. It's kind of like the Russia argument, right? Where Trump, they said, well, Trump, what did you get out of the? negotiations with Putin. Well, Putin is not going to take over all of Europe. That's what I got out of it. And it's like, where he wasn't trying to do that anyway. You accomplished something that was never postulated. But if you think about it, it's something you can live in. I've created a fake reality. And within the context of this fake reality, I can now use the fact that it's a fake reality

to find my exit out of it by claiming an accomplishment that was never even on the table and was only postulated in the fake reality. So Trump could say, or Iran is not going to get WMDs. I'm out. Okay, well, they were never trying to. But Iran could also point out. Okay, fair enough. If you don't want us to get nukes,

then Israel needs to give up their nukes also. I like it. No, I mean, we're on the same page here. Guys, as always, if you have any comments or questions, please put them in the live chat. If you're watching live in the 9 a.m. hour on the East Coast, Rumble Rants and Super Chats get priority, but we look at them all. Producer Robbie West puts them up.

We have some comments all piled up. Let's go through them. No, I am not familiar with the French metal band Gojira, so I can't say whether I'd be a fan. But metal's not really my thing. More punk rock and stuff related to it. Let's see. Luke, love listening to the podcast at work, wanted to watch live to let you know. With the three of you, it shows healthy debate about.

about politics can be done without someone getting punched in the face. True. If you said, we need to see Ted's punk rock shirt collection. Okay, we do that on a rumble premium. I'd have to get him, a lot of them get, I'd have to get them back from my kid. I gave a lot of those away to my kid when he turned 18 and he was starting to develop a fashion sense

before he went to college. Kay Greg, will we see war ending again today? let's have the war end every hour, you know, just to be fun. Man child, I'm with Robbie. I usually put six to eight down a day. I assume we're talking about coffees here. Sometimes I get a to-go coffee with four shots of espresso and brood's coffee. I'm a feed.

That's a lot of coffee. And I love coffee, but that's a lot of coffee. Yeah. Let's see. Where the gopher tortoise roam, there's a big difference. with having supported campaign trail Trump and supporting actual President Trump. What's the difference?

Well, the campaign trail Trump was peace Trump. Yeah, but just because somebody says something doesn't mean they need it. Yeah, that's true. That is true. Although the thing is, first term Trump was definitely less worried than second term Trump.

Yeah, but he was hemmed in. Even though he had John Bolton there bugging him. He was hemmed in? I think he was hemmed in. I mean, if you think about it, the whole Russia gate stuff put a constraint on the behavior of Trump in the first term. At least I think so. Tell me your votes.

No, I think that's true. And I think also there's the whole second term like, yeah, you're a lame duck, but you're on your way out. You got nothing to lose. And, you know, I mean, I also think, like, weirdly, Bibi was whispering in his ear that he would have a certain kind of immortality in Israel by being, by doing some things like taking out Iran, right? Like, you know, you're going to, all these, you know, all these previous presidents wanted to do it. They never did it.

But you could be the one who finally accomplishes this. You know, the domestic policy is hard, but, you know, I mean, it's true. The president is constrained domestically in a million different ways. But in terms of foreign policy, the U.S. president's almost an emperor. So, I mean, and look, look how he just blew through the War Powers Act. can care. Like, it doesn't matter. So, I mean, if it doesn't pull your chain, then the president is effectively a god emperor.

But let's be clear, if they could pull its chain, they just don't. Like Congress has advocated issues of war to the executive branch. And executive branch has not looked back. It's just that. True. Man child, well, campaign trail Trump was all about showing crowds how he can jerk off to two dudes at the same time, to YMCA. President Trump is all about showing crowds

how he can fuck everyone at the same time. Annie Anna, did you see Trump's comment on Iran's uranium? Apparently Trump is now okay with Iran diluting the uranium in their country. You could see that one coming. Because they were never going to get rid of it. Like every time he said that, they're not going to dilute it either.

They're just going to keep what they've got. Yeah, I kept thinking about it, never going to happen. No. Like you could say this all you want that never like that's the dumb part right. It's like Why on earth am I got why on earth am I going to put something up as an ante that I don't have the power to do anything about and to say it over and over and over and over again and Iran if you're Iran, what are your thoughts? You're not getting shit from us. Meaning I mean I don't care. There are times where I have to play chess where I'm like I don't give a shit. What happens? in this game, I'm holding the square.

Like, I don't care what happens. And I would imagine Iran feels the same way. I don't care. What happens? We are holding on to this. Yeah, I mean, the United States overplayed its hand repeatedly. I mean, this was a long overdue. I mean, you know, the Iranians, the comeuppance here was long overdue. So who you tell them?

I mean, these giant mutant chickens are home to roost. C-Man 2420. The problem is the NDDA, Section 224 and Senate 62, merging our military in intel with Israel. Yes. This is a treaty obligation, which by the Constitution requires two-thirds state approval. Congress and Senate are so corrupt. That's not a treaty obligation. The National Defense Authorization Act is purely internal. The issue, that's not a treaty being made with Israel, if that makes sense. that is very cooperation agreement yeah right it's just a cooperation agreement it's like a an administrative issue in the way that they're trying to make like we have we're appointing

someone who is the person who's engaging with the israeli military and feeding them u.s secrets and u.s information and technology etc that's the mechanism there it's almost like i have i'm hiring a job in order to deal with military management between israel and the u. It's like anything I need to know, I go to Bob. But the catch is, hey, is Bob going to be a Zionist? Yes. Bob's going to be a Zionist. Bob's going to have dual loyalties.

And it's not even dual loyalties. His loyalties is going to be very specific. Yeah. Like so I, and it's the other thing of information sharing, like secrets sharing, that even the president will have difficulty putting the kai-shund. I mean, granted, you can make an argument that the president says, well, we'll share some secrets been at all. Whatever.

It shouldn't be there in the first. place. It's treasonous. You're working with a genocidal maniac state. Man child, thanks for the dollar. Iran's foreign ministry says the main part of the text was almost finalized, but the Americans were being greedy and raising new requests, which we've heard throughout this process has been a thing. Like I keep bringing up the waiter, right? Like, you know, hey, can I get some, you know, I need another glass of water. Oh, sure. Everyone good? Yeah. Oh, and also mustard. And also, oh, can I have more bread?

And butter. I need butter with the bread, not, you know, not oil. And it's just like, they just keep, and at a certain point, the waiter's going to be like, I think we're done here. I think you need to just go. Yeah. Well, as I kept saying, Iran was going to be tested. There was no situation where a hegemon was going to deal with a regional power and accept the regional power effectively telling it, get the fuck off. Meaning they were going to get teams to be tested.

Does this include Lebanon, yeah or nay? How willingness are they the fight for Lebanon? Are they willing to strike Israel in defense of Lebanon in the way that they said? Are they willing to accept X or Y? Like meaning there was no situation that the U.S. was ever going to stop pressing them in the context of some kind of deal or agreement. Yeah. I mean, keep it on. The entire point of what they can't stop.

They just can't help themselves. Well, the entire point of what the U.S. wanted to do was the jury. destroy the Iranian state. The weapons of master structure was always just a fig leaf and a tiny one at that in order to try to accomplish that objective. The rub is that also allows you an out. Okay, we got them to say they don't want a WMDs. We've accomplished objectives.

It's there out. It was always there out. You know, it's either we smashed the state or we could leave without tail between our legs claiming that we got them to do something that they never wanted to do in the first place. This is obviously absurd. Ridiculous. More comments. Kay Gregg, thanks for the $5.

Thanks for not punching anyone in the face today. Okay, you're welcome. Frank Field, thanks for the $5 also. How do you get GenX off your asses, off their asses? I always rack my brain this question. Frank, I got to ask what you mean by that. Off their asses in what way? You want them to work harder?

you want them to protest. What do you want them to do? I don't know. He wants them to get engaged, I think. Frank used to be on my audience. I think he wants them to get engaged. I think he wants them to, it's the sense. Like, we know for a fact that younger voters tend to be flaky. So politicians who has a huge young audience, oftentimes people want an older audience because they actually go out and vote. If the young audience gets engaged, then they can change. change electoral patterns. I think what it boils down to is, though, if you're talking about the youth in Iran, if you're talking about the youth in Russia, if you talk about the youth in the U.S., the youth, et cetera, they may have ideas, but oftentimes it doesn't necessarily seem like they're politically engaged in the way that changes the context of a nation. That's what I take it as. You know, it's like, okay, your country is attacking other countries. What are you doing? Nothing. I mean, Gen X, though, I mean, look, Barack Obama is as old as you can be. He's a Gen Xer, officially. He's 64. I'm 62. I wrote a Gen X manifesto, Revenge of the Latin. Wait, wait. When we're saying Gen X, what's the age range for Gen X? Because maybe I'm getting this wrong. I thought this was a young. Z maybe. So Gen X is basically people born from 1961 to 1974, roughly. So technically, I'm not in Gen X.

So you're old millennial, maybe? I'm 48. Yeah, I guess I'm an old millennial. Yeah. So, yeah, you're probably- Wait, wait, so what's millennial? Millennial comes after genetics. It's right.

Yeah, that's right. Okay, so millennial, technically, an old millennial, at that. Yeah, I think you're on the cusp. You can kind of choose. You're in between. But as am I, I could have technically chosen to be a boomer, but so could have Obama.

But I've spent a lot of time. time, I have bookshelves groaning with books about Generation X and all that stuff. I mean, you know, doing research for Revenge of the Latchkeek Kids and so on. And I got to say, like, and I love demographics that, you know, I'm a devotee of Howard Strauss who wrote the book Generations and 13th Gen. Gen X, the answer to the question is, Gen X is not going to get off their houses. Gen X was basically told their entire lives, starting in childhood, We don't care about you. We don't care about people your age.

Whatever age of Gen X there is is a bad time to be that age. Look at now. They're getting rid of Social Security the very year that I'm planning to start collecting it. Right. So that's kind of like how that rolls. I mean, Gen X is disengaged. We are rye. We're cheering on Gen Z.

We love you guys. We do. Whenever we talk about you guys, we're like, Man, we respect them. We love them. The future, you know, if there's hope, you know, if there's hope, like Winston, you know, Winston Smith said it's with the trolls, with the proles. If there's, if there's hope, it lies with Gen Z.

But we're too old now. I mean, you guys marginal, you know, the boomers marginalized us. We were, you know, pushed out of the way all, every step. So I'm sorry, but we're of the lost. Generation 2.0 and yeah, we're not going to get off our asses. Okay, so 60. Oh, it's on Gen Z. They have the energy for it.

Okay, so 46 to 61. So both of us are, I guess, part of Gen X. And I guess I'm at the very tail end of it at 77. I was born in 77. I mean, I don't know what's wrong with Gen X. I mean, like, you know, the old generation was the greatest. generation, as they call themselves, the greatest generation. Imagine calling yourself that.

I know why they call themselves that because of the wars. But still, it's a hell of a thing to call yourself that. Yeah, I don't know what happened to Gen X. I don't know if it was just the time period. I mean, we're talking effectively about the 80s, like the 70s. Think about it. Like, you know, when I was a little kid, it was the, there was still, like, it was the end of the Vietnam War movement.

The hippies were cutting their hair and getting jobs at bank. the suburbs were expanding even more. And so, you know, basically you got the sense like wildness, radicalism, you know, liberalism even, caring even about the poor or the downtrodden. All that was falling out of fashion. You know, Reagan became president when I turned 18. You know, it's like basically the party's over. And it's, you know, basically you look out for a numeral one. Even if you're out protesting in the street, you're going to be out of the street.

you're going to be out there by yourself, you know, and so what's the point? So I think that's, you know, that's why Gen X is the way it is. It's not like they're bad people. It's not like they're lazy. It's just that like there's no point wasting, you know, spinning your wheels trying to, you know, start a movement that doesn't exist. And we got NAFTA. We got all the outsourcing. We got all this other crap. We got the hollowing out of the American middle class. We got the hollowing out of the industrial base of the entire country. So it's just kind of just like, it's a nice future that you had for yourself and your kids.

Us boomers are going to mortgage it. Piss off. But I think the point that Frank was trying to make was that shit happened on our watch. But it didn't. It happened. It really was the boomers who did it. I mean, Douglas Copeland, who wrote the book Generation X, which named that generation,

in the book, he talks about, having seen someone driving a boomer driving a camper with the bumper sticker on the back that said, we're spending our kids' inheritance and making the case that that sentiment was like the attitude of the baby boomer generation. Like, you know, we got ours. Fuck you. And, you know, look, I used to believe in that. I've come to believe that in many ways it was unfair to the boomers. you know, they tried to have a revolution.

They tried to liberate women. They tried to liberate gays. They tried some things, right? They blew some shit. They blew up some draft boards. They did some shit. But it's like, but overall, demographically, they did go in through

like a, like a herd of, like a, like a, I don't know, a field. What is it? A flock of locusts? A gaggle of locusts. Anyway, they came through and they fucking ate everything up and didn't leave much behind. True, but did they do those things? I mean, that's the first generation X doing them.

I mean, if you talk about races, sexes, bigoted, etc. Well, the rights movement is boomers. It was like boomers. I mean, the civil rights movement, true, that did take place, I guess you can say in the 60s. And the feminist movement, Gloria Steinem, that's boomers. True. Stonewall, boomers. Yeah, but the homosexuality thing.

was Generation X. Well, we were the first generation that internal, that seriously internalized those sent up, those liberal boomer sentiments, where it wasn't really an issue for us. Like, we're not spending a lot, most of us aren't spending a lot of time, like, being

upset about who people are fucking, you know, we don't care. You know. Yeah, they did go through like a herd of locusts. I mean, all of those policies were effectively made by the elderly, which ideally the boomers. I mean, those are the same people that in Congress now fucking over the rest of the country. Yeah.

Yeah. True. So let's see. F. you so, thanks for the dollar. Trump got a Star Trek, wrath of B-beat brainworm. Manchild, thanks for the dollar. We already have that one. Peter Ive, thanks for the $2.

The U.S. refuses to allow the Iran soccer team to sleep in the U.S. So they have to fly up from Tijuana for each game in L.A. I hope the opposing teams forfeit in solidarity. But they don't. But they don't. Like, I agreed. I'm sorry. I don't mean to get hyped up on us.

Agreed. I found it to be a humiliation. I found it to be absolutely outrageous. It's just that the rest of the teams don't say, we're out. We're out. We're not playing this game. It's not sports. Yeah, I mean, literally when you realize,

it's an unfair advantage that you have fighting a team that has, has to, you know, travel, you know, a substantial distance across a very, by the way, a terrible international border. Have you ever driven? Have you ever done that border crossing from T.J. into San Diego? Unfortunately, no. I took a flight. It blows. I mean, it's like that weight, four hours is standard, like, you know, sucking up exhaust fumes. It, it sucks. It's really bad. So, I mean, it's not good for the team. I mean, these are actually. athletes, they shouldn't even be there. It's not good for anybody.

And the fact that the other teams are perfectly fine, taking advantage of the advantage that the U.S. gave to those other teams. It's outrageous. I find, like, there's something to be said about solidarity. And it is something to be said when it is clear that that is not part of the process. You would think that this would matter more than the game itself. But apparently to these fools, the game soccer. which is one of the most boring games on the planet,

that that matters more to them than anything else, including how people are being screwed over in their own sport. Like, it's outrageous. These, they actually, like, let me put it. I mean, just to echo and to build upon, if you're, you know, whatever, the Tunisian team, and you decide to forfeit the game to Iran out of solidarity, that is far more memorable.

than just beating them two to one, right? I mean, Jean-Paul Sartre is far more remembered for rejecting the Nobel Prize than many of the winners who accepted it. He didn't like the fact that it had been financed by war. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it's like you are defined by the things you refuse to do in many ways more than the things you agree to do. I guess to me, I wasn't even thinking about it and to remember it since.

I was just thinking about it in the right sense. Like, it's like, if I go to a chess tournament, for example, and the chess tournament just so happens to be in another country, and I find out that I'm representing A, the U.S. And let's say the country decides, okay, well, we don't want to have XYZ players. And let's say it's not a good reason. It's just we don't like the fact that they're Russians. We don't like the fact that they're Russians. Iranians. We don't like the fact that they're Chinese. I'm not playing in that tournament.

Right? Like, it's the principle. It's this idea that you're squaring over people who I on some level identify with in a competitive sense. And it's the competition to me that's important. It's not about whether I want to lose. Yes, obviously I want to win, but it's not really a win if indeed I'm not playing the people who are who's supposed to be there. And by the way, who may be the best people to play. Like, it's the. It's the. principle of it to me, and especially for something like this was World Cup on the World stage. You know, they actually asked the FIFA president of this. I think it was the BBC and was like, hey, you don't take issue with the fact that the U.S. is behaving this way, and they started

listing and enumerating. Well, you didn't let this, I'm from the guy from Somalia, the referee. You didn't allow the people from so-and-so-in. Iran wasn't able to get tickets. Iran's game team is not able to play in Mexico. Why are you a couple? with this as FIFA president. And he gives some glib comment like, how do I control who is allowed into a particular country? Or when it's told them Europe or the UK

are an eye or whoever is the chief going to be allowed to dictate who is allowed into the country. What a stupid fucking response? What a stupid response? If you want to say as FIFA chief, hey,

we are not going to be, we are not allowing this game. to go to any country that is not going to allow XYZ, period. That's what you should say. 100%. Oh, but there's money involved. We wouldn't make as much money.

Oh, no, not that. Russian. They were able to make the money. Fucking stupid. Okay. John D. Cockfeller, thanks so much for the $5. apparently Trump has ended the war in Iran eight times, opened it the straight 12 times, and made peace between Israel and Iran four times,

according to himself, Nobel Peace Prize, confirmed. Where the gopher tortoise Rome, I'm 47 and refused to be called a millennial. Keg, Ted, every few years I read that Social Security is broke. I will start Social Security in two years. Hope it isn't broke by then. Well, it's just going to start running out of money by 2032 and require about a 22% percent cut in benefits. I'm going to have to spreadsheet out and game out. I was planning to hold out until I was 67 to get the higher monthly payout. But now I'm not so sure because I mean,

that's like, you know, if they're going to be slashing it anyway, you can get, you can start, you know, at least get what you can get for a couple of years that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. And nobody knows how long they're going to live. So I don't know. This is bullshit to me. Social Security is not broke. And what works about it, they keep. taking money from Social Security and then putting IOUs and then not fulfilling the IOUs. They're doing shit like that. Look, the reality of it is your country can make a decision to pay for, whatever it needs to pay for. Just like you in your life can make the decision to pay for whatever you need to pay for.

If you have a weed habit, the weed habit is not giving you anything back, but you decide that the weed habit is a priority. Right, it's a priority, right? Right. Or if you have the alcohol habit, if you have a habit for ho-hoes and ding-dongs, if you have a habit for Krispy Kreme. These things are not benefiting you, but same token, you can decide that those are valuable, hence you pay for them. Social Security is a radical benefit. We as a society can make the determination that this is perfectly fine within that context to pay for. There's a lot of easy fixes, right?

Like, you know, like for it currently, it's the most, it literally is the most retrograde tax on the books, right? It's like a sale, it's, that it's an income tax that's capped at somewhere, like, if you make, I forget what the cap is, but, you know, $1,000 a year or something like that. Whatever that number is, they stop. Basically, all money above that amount is not subject to social security. So basically, only poor and working class and lower middle class people pay that social security tax. Everybody else hardly pays it all. you know, Elon Musk basically doesn't pay social security tax.

Where he doesn't have to pay anymore. When he pays, it just stops at a certain amount. Right. But it's like the point is like, but as a percentage of his income, it's nothing. It's like nothing. Yeah. So, I mean, so the point is they could just raise that cap. Get rid of the cap, right?

Right. But also, look, it's what you said. It's a fiction to be like, oh, the government has different pots of money. We can't take it out of this. pot of money. Like, you know, we can't take the money out of the Israel pot and give it to the old people. It's like, sure you can. Of course you can. And like, you know, it's just like when a company, I mean, when a company's, well, it's in that part of the budget, there's nothing we can do. Yeah, you can, I mean, you know, it's not, it's not Moses coming down with the tablets.

Right. My God. I mean, yeah, of course you can change it, right? Right. Yeah, it's not the Ten Commandments. It's not set in stone. Your government makes the determination, meaning a public, governments are not coming from the Bible, right? They're not to contend commands. Your society chooses what it wants, what it doesn't want, what it defines as important, what it doesn't define as important. It makes those choices. And, you know, the budget is the determining factor in that.

If we believe that Social Security is a social good, then we pay for the social good. It's just that. And speaking of social goods, let's talk about nitrogen asphyxion. but in a first disorders it's Lee NYC double X is calling you out Jamarle. Did Jamar just disparage my sport? The dude who plays chess, LOL. Chess is miraculous games. It's a miraculous sport.

It's a game, right. It's a sport. I mean, no, it's not a sport. Chess isn't a sport. What do you mean? It's not a sport. It's not a sport. It's important.

It's not a sport. What do you define as a sport? What do you define as a sport? What's the difference? I mean, like golf is barely, I don't even think, a sport. It requires physical exertion. Do you know the amount of brain power that is used in the amount of... Sure, but that's not physical exertion. And you have to sit at the board, you have to move the piece,

especially if you're playing blitz. Okay, that's not physical exertion. Yeah, I mean, it's true. There's guys who play in like Washington Square Park. Holy shit. But, blah, blah, blah, blah. but yeah i love jess one of my favorite things um but yeah i just i didn't know he played

i i do i used to be pretty good oh we're gonna have to chess that com we're we're gonna have to all right we'll do it all right here we go horses are people too the best thing about the world cup is watching all the europeans marvel at our two kilo bottles of ketchup oh my god all right so um again And please like follow and share, blah, blah, blah. Okay. So the America, which purports to tell other countries how to live their lives,

has a state in the Deep South called Alabama, where my DMZ co-host, Scott Stantis, lives, inexplicably, voluntarily. He doesn't even have to. He used to have a job there, and he stayed there after he quit the job. But anyway, they have already executed eight people, by using nitrogen gas, right? So, basically, the way this worked is they choke you to death.

I mean, it's literally no different than if you just simply put a pillow over the dude's face and just asphyxiate him. They put a mask over his face. They turn off the air and they put in pure nitrogen. Air is 78% nitrogen. But, you know, you got to have the argon and the oxygen to live too. And they cut that off. off and then you choke to death. They've done this to eight people already, who were sentenced to death in Alabama.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the Federal Appeals Court that it's cruel and unusual under the U.S. Constitution, and so therefore they're not going to be able to do that. That means of execution is out. For the record, the gentleman who, Jeffrey Lee, who was scheduled to be executed last night when this decision, came down at the very last minute, basically said, he had said, I'm willing to be executed by firing squad, like Gary Gilmore. But the state of Alabama is like, no, we don't want to do that. I'm not sure what the reason they did is that they didn't want to do that. But they just... It looks bad. Oh, yeah, as opposed to suffocating a guy. It does. Because from suffocating, it looks medical, right? It's like there's a doctor nearby,

and they're putting the thing on in a person's blood. opposed to the brutal, true reality of it is you're killing somebody. Hence, put them on a fire line, let the guns go off, let's see the person gets shot, that's see the person fall over, that's real. Yeah. Well, apparently the nitrogen asphyxations were a shit show in Alabama, according to the journalists and family members who witnessed them. You know, people went on for minutes that people were like kicking, you know,

jumping around and struggling and apparently was horrific. So we don't even know under traditional lethal injection cocktails, which are no longer possible, because the drugs are made in Europe and the Europeans won't export them to the United States for this use, right? So, but we don't even know how much suffering those people endured. The death penalty just shouldn't be allowed. I mean, the state of, I mean, the thing is the state should set the highest possible standard. And murdering people is the lowest possible behavior that a human being is capable of.

So, I mean, for that simple reason, we shouldn't be doing it. I'm not saying that, like, you know, this guy, Jeffrey Lee or anyone else on death row doesn't deserve to be executed. I'm just saying that they shouldn't be executed. Like, we're not in a position to do that. Like, as a state is like, we're not God. The state is not God. It's not our place. It's like, not to mention, if one innocent person has ever been executed and they have,

then the whole thing, to me, just fails. It's like an epic fail. Does the state have a position on God? Many do they believe and disbelief as a legal entity? I mean, in reality, yes, but it shouldn't. If the state shouldn't have a perspective on God, then the state is the highest authority. Right. But we don't, but the state, I guess the point is, there is no authority high enough to make this determination that we're in a position to kill people.

Power is taken. It's not given. If the state takes the power to do so, then it takes the power to do so. True. Well, I guess, look, this isn't that me making an argument that's funny name. I guess it sounds like I am. I guess I'm also making this argument that powers taken. If the public or the state takes a particular power, then it takes that power.

There is nothing above the state in regards as an entity or as a Leviathan to tell the state to do X or Y. It defines its own reality about what's right or wrong. Now, yes, there's a moral case to be made, but we're just talking about legal and state in the way that states operate. I don't know about the death of the day. I am conflicted. If anything happened to anybody in my family or something like that, I would want the person did. It's just being new. But I also have this kind of like you that the state fuck stuff up.

And that if it's between killing a person versus keeping a person living for God knows how long in a jail cell, the jail is probably even worse. but I don't want to state to be able to not correct its mistakes, but you can make an argument that it can't correct a mistake if it puts a person in prison for 30 years. And the person is innocent. You've taken my life. My life can't be given back to me in either case, whether it's the 30 years or whether it's my life in general.

There's no way to mend that gap. But I get your point. There's no tax, right? Like what takes these eight people that the U.S. Supreme Court has now finally waddled in and said, should not have been executed this way. Oh, well, sucks to be them, right? I mean, yeah. Okay, so we have a comment that we should. Yeah, I'm conflicted on this one. I'm always conflicted on the death penalty as an issue. We should also, and then there's this 86-47 story. So just filming really said, so this is the one thing I disagree with you.

You just said the government can choose to pay for this and that. Why should a rich person have to pay more? If you go to school, study hard and get rich, why should you have to pay? Why should you have to for the class clown. I don't agree rich people should have to contribute more. What's the point in working hard if I have to pay for people who don't work hard? I mean, that sort of assumes that people are rich because they work harder than people who are poor who don't work hard, which is a ridiculous assumption. But more to the point, let's just assume that is true. If you're Elon Musk or Bill Gates, you know, think it's like basically you're in the box seats at the stadium, right? You have the best view. You have the best food. You have the hot chicks.

You know, everything's good for you. You should pay the highest ticket. And like if the country is kind of like an arena, you're getting the best view if you're rich. You have the most, you know, if you're rich, you can call up the president of the United States and he'll take your call. That's not true about, you know, us. So the people who get the most services from the government should pay the most to the government. It's just like attending a sporting event, in my opinion. And this fake perspective that they did it by themselves. If you were living in, you know, Timbuk 2 in a mud hut,

you wouldn't have those opportunities. No. You wouldn't be rich. I hope you get my point. Like, you are living in a particular society that has allowed you certain benefits and certain bonuses. You have clean air, clean water, within reason.

Long water, within reason. Yeah, you have all of these opportunities. And if you're talking about like an Elon Musk or something like that, there is a huge amount of money coming from us, the taxpayers, the government, going to you to do whatever business enterprise you're doing, the public, the educated public, to effectively be able to work with you in whatever enterprise you are effectively doing. The government rolled the dice on you. You benefited.

Congratulations. You're going to have a very rich and a very productive life. You win. Let me last and definitely least, members of the D.C. Fire Department, the U.S. Park Police, and the National Guard have responded to etchings of 8647 on the grass at the National Mall. The Interior Department describes the markings as deranged vandalism and promised to hold those responsible accountable. Emergency vehicles were circling the grass. Cops were standing over. brown patches in the grass, wearing gloves like samples for testing from the grass. With materials in a pillowcase, pedestrians were not permitted to walk on the grass,

and a park service helicopter hovered and circled overhead. Now, what does 86-40-oh, oh, kill the president. Is that what that means? Well, 86 means get rid of, right? So, to 86. What about 86 was a police? This is like, yeah, this is like, what's his name, James Comey? was prosecuted for a sea shell photo that said 8647 that he posted to his Instagram. And so literally, that's a thing now. The other day I saw a sign by one of my neighbors that says 8647.

I thought about photowing and putting it on my socials. And then I thought, oh, I could get it. I could actually be prosecuted. I think 86 means to kill. It does not. Okay, it does. It just means get rid of it. Okay.

No, that's like deep six might mean to kill. 86 is, it's a waiter, it's a restaurant code. It used to mean like get rid of this customer, like make a move. Oh, I see, I see. Okay. Like they would write that on a check or something like 86. That's where it comes. Why are they responding this way?

They're responding like somebody's talking about killing. I guess it could mean kill, but it's not really, that's not a, like put this way, it's in dispute, right? Let's just say that. Okay. Okay. But either way, it means to get rid of. this person. That webinar interpret, give it up.

Where the gopher says, and we've got to go, 86 meant off the menu in the restaurant, the restaurant industry. So like, in other words, like say, like, you know, the tofu burger, 86, that, like it's gone. Okay. All right. All right. Got to go. Thanks everyone for joining us, JT. I will see you Monday at 9 a.m. We'll see the rest of you at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Please stay tuned for TMI coming up right now. podcast with Scott Stanton myself. We'll be focusing on the graphic novel industry in an hour from now. So you might want to check that out, YouTube and Rumble, and we will talk to you later. See ya. Bye.