DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Reaction to McConnell’s “Proof of Life” Photo Reflects Public Distrust | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET. Today we discuss:• Senator Mitch McConnell’s office released a photo Sunday night to answer weeks of questions about his health. In it, the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican smiles beside his wife, Elaine Chao, while holding what appears to be that day’s Washington Post Sports section. But the image did not end the speculation. Instead, it prompted more theories and even accusations that the image was fake, the latest reflection of public distrust in the age of artificial intelligence.• Trump’s proposed 20% levy on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz could further reduce traffic through the vital waterway, which has already ground to a halt again in recent days, according to the Baltic and International Maritime Council, the world’s largest shipping association.• The ICE shot that killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, last week in Houston was fired into the front passenger side window, according to a local congresswoman and a lawyer who spoke with witnesses who were in the vehicle. Meanwhile, another ICE agent shot and killed a Maine motorist, marking at least the ninth death since the start of Trump’s mass deportations campaign.LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowhttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JamarlThomas#tedrall #jamarlthomas #news #politics

One second, but I gotta go. Good morning, you're watching D-Program with Ted Rollin, Jamarral Thomas. It is Tuesday, July 14th, 2026. Happy Bastille Day to all my French watchers. You guys are awesome. I don't know what your country is doing with the Ukrainians, but hey, whatever.

Good morning, J.T. How are you? Long time, No, C. It was fun being on your show this morning. Haven't seen you forever, man. How you doing? You doing okay. Not too much chaos. And thank you for joining me on the show today. Oh, anytime.

Seriously. So, all right, so thanks everyone for joining us. We're here Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern time. And we do a Q&A show Mondays and Wednesdays at 12 noon. So that's basically it. TMI coming up at 10. New time for DMZ, 10 a.m. Sorry, 11 a.m. on Fridays.

Today, mainly, well, not mainly, but anyway, we're going to be talking about the Mitch McConnell photo, proof of life photo, and sort of, What does the reaction to it kind of tell us about the state of the union? Trump's 20% proposed tariff on the Strait of Ormuse. Another pair of ice killings, right? So there's one in Houston. More details emerging, shockingly, ice does not appear to have been totally truthful in that.

And then, of course, another motorist killed in Maine. that's the ninth death since the beginning of Trump's mass deportation program, at least the ninth. We don't know about deaths in custody as well. So chaos abounds. Please like, follow and share the show. We appreciate your donations. If you're watching during the live show, feel free to put in your chat, your questions,

your comments. Producer Robbie West will put them up into the chat, and we will get to them all. Super chats, very appreciated on YouTube. Rants really appreciated on Rumble. All right. I think we should just get into Mitch McConnell. What do you think?

Yeah. Okay. So Mitch McConnell on Sunday night. So basically, for about a month, Mitch McConnell has been MIA. He's 84 years old. This is his last term. He's announced that he's going to retire effective at the end of this year. So obviously his seat is going to become open.

But it's a very narrow margin in the United States Senate in favor of the Republicans. And basically he's been hospitalized slash kept in rehab. And the truth about his physical and mental state has been not forthcoming. So, sorry, amid all the speculation, obviously Mitch McConnell's office felt it was necessary to issue proof of life. And so they issued a photo of him in a bed at a rehab center. I'm such a dork that I did a deep dive into where this rehab center is. He was in rehab a couple of years ago. This appears to be the same outfit in Washington, D.C.

I was able to even look online at the sample rooms, and it looks like it's like that. The chair looks the same. He's wearing a red checkered shirt. He's posing next to his wife to his left. Elaine Chow, the former cabinet secretary. And he's holding inexplicably a copy of the Washington Post from Sunday, the sports section. So it's like a proof of life photo in like a kidnap victim. Look, here's today's paper.

I'm still alive as of this day. I'm John Paul Getty the 3rd. Please let me keep my ear. But anyway, so this did not quiet. anyone. So Democrats, Republicans left, right. Everyone was saying, okay, well, is this real? Why is there no video? Why does this photo appear to show his hair a little bit less gray than he looked more recently? Why does he appear to be pushing a button on top of the newspaper? Why are there some elements of AI, according to some experts, but other experts, they know there's no sign of

AI. I mean, I don't know if the photo is legit. I do know that one of the things that people online have been saying is not true, which is that this is a rehash of a photo from 2023. That's just not true. If it is, that photo was never originally released in 2023. The McConnell's office refused to a Washington Post request for the metadata with the original photo in it. So we don't have that info. But, you know, to me, what this whole story is about is about how the distrust in the age of AI and in the age of total bullshit coming out of both political parties and the media has gotten us to the point where we just can't believe anything we see. I mean, the first, we've talked about this before, JTA, and we'll talk about it again. But like, when something

happens online, you see something, your first reaction is, oh, shit, holy shit. Your second reaction is, wait, is that real? Is that, or is that bullshit? Did that happen or not? I mean, there's a psychological term for this. And it's basically, though, it's, if you, people have a tendency to sort of check out when they don't, when they start to not know what they can believe. I think we're at that point now, right, where people are increasingly going to just not take the news at face value. in the way that they thought they were able to in the past.

There was a guy on YouTube called the Farrell Historian, and he does really good pieces on analysis of movies and those type of things from historical context. He is a Western civilization triumphalist. I don't know if you would call himself that. I would call him that. And he often, I remember he was making this thing talking about China, and he was like, yeah, we have high trust society here.

And I'm like, are you out of your mind? Like we don't even know if the senator is alive or dead. And him putting out a photo doesn't give us any indication or whether he's alive or dead. I agree with you. It's a hostage photo. It's a, hey, really, I'm still alive. You know, don't. Okay, but we don't know that.

No, we don't. I don't know that I believe that. I don't know if I believe that. Exactly. And so I'm stuck in this position of not knowing, which is low trust. And that's a low trust from the standpoint of politicians and from the standpoint of what comes out in media. And I don't know how we function as a society like that. I mean, this is basically we assume bad faith, which we should.

But because we didn't get that way just because we became that way, right? It wasn't random. It was as a direct response to the environment to which we're effectively dealing with where people lie, remorselessly. Look at our president. And that you can't necessarily trust what comes out from people who, lie, or for that matter, from the media in general. I don't know how we function this way as a society. I just don't.

It just seems like a worst-case scenario in many respects. Like, something comes out in the media. Is it true or false? Okay, with the fact that you can't believe it, bastardizes the entire point of media, right? Or at the very least, the entire point of schoolboy philosophy of what media is. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, McConnell needs to drag his ass to the Senate if he's still alive.

if he's still alive. And we should have some kind of rule that these people need to actually be in their position to do their job, not dying in a hospital room or dying in some kind of nursing home, but still keeping the position in mantle of senator. I mean, I may be a hard ass on this, but I think that's true. Well, I mean, okay, so look, I want to focus on that, right? How many people watching, no matter what their job is, whether they're working as a barista at a coffee shop, or they're working on a factory, or they work in an office at an insurance company, how many people can disappear for a month, not call in sick, have nothing to say for themselves, and expect their job to be waiting for them when they get back?

Nobody. I mean, I was fired one time, and it wasn't even true. I had asked for the day off, but they claimed that one day, I didn't show up at work. They claimed I had not showed up at work one day, and they fired. me. I mean, it's like, and it wasn't even true in my case. I mean, that's normal. Most bosses, you fail to show up one time. You're out, right? Right. I mean, this guy has failed to show up for a month. And, you know, and because of deep fakes and everything, we can't even really trust a video, even if he's like, hey, I'm Mitch McConnell. I'm doing great. I love my wife, a late child. We just had

sex it was awesome um you know i mean you can't i mean you can't trust that right we would actually need a press conference he would have had to have invite some you know some reporters in from you know and do a live presser answer a few questions and you know thanks gentlemen bye um that's and ladies because there are lady reporters um you know i mean i don't that's where we're at i mean i mean i guess The thing that's interesting to me is that they don't, I mean, there's a lot of things to peel away here, right? The fact that they don't think that they owe us more than a stupid photo with a newspaper that he's holding, by the way, the wrong way. He's not holding it, he's holding it upside down. You know, the fact that it's just like, oh, look, this photo will take care of everything.

They don't think they owe the Washington Post reporter, the metadata. They don't think that they owe a video. They don't think, I mean, they do. And, like, and yeah, there ought to be a rule. Like, I mean, I'm willing to say, like, if you're a U.S. senator and, you know, you're in the hospital for two weeks, that you shouldn't necessarily lose your job. But someone should vote for you, right? I mean, someone should be serving your constituents.

Maybe every senator and congressman needs a vice senator and vice congressman who can step in and cast votes. and service constituents in your absence. Or there should be a certain minimum amount of time. Like if you're absent more than X number of days or weeks or months, you're automatically removed. You repealed the 17th Amendment. I mean, before that amendment was passed, senators were not elected. They were appointed by the state legislatures. If you have an AWOL senator, the center is supposed to be to represent the state, not the constituents.

That's the job of a senator. That's why we have the House of Representatives and the Senate. During the 17th Amendment, the problem is solved. You get so much money out of politics, it solves the problem. The 17th Amendment is the problem. It needs to be repealed. We'll never do that because it'll make the United States look more like England with the House of Lords, right? I mean, it's like the U.S., I mean, just as it is, the Senate's an elite institution.

This would be viewed as de-democratizing. it would just never pass muster in this in this current political environment i don't if this is if this is democracy uh i would hate to see what an authoritarian system looks like wait seriously wait just one player who suppose they like the senate get the 17th amendment is appeal this is the house of the state legislatures the legislatures of the states what they would do is that is that before the 17th amendment was passed there there are two senators the senators are appointed by the state that's what i had six-year terms yeah but I'm not sure how that changes the situation.

You still have the same situation where you, let's say, someone does A-A, someone's AWOL for, they go on the Appalachian Trail for a month. No, because then the state legislature, you just simply recall you. They replace you. You don't need another election. There's no elections. Well, you still need a rule to that effect, right? Right. Yeah, but I mean, the governor.

The rule for it. Yeah, but I mean, just get the governor to go to the state legislature, call up a special session and say, hey, Senator West does AWOL? our state's not being represented that is not being represented we need to get a replacement in you have a vote right there of the upper lower chambers of the House of the House government

the state government you're done require action either way yeah of course but one requires an election the other one is not no I mean that's not true if you have like a I mean like a lot of states

if the president if their senator dies the governor simply appoints a replacement, right? I mean, we're seeing it right now in South Carolina. Lindsay Graham, the governor has appointed his sister to replace him and fill out his term. When Hubert Humphrey died, his, I believe it's his widow who was appointed by the governor of Minnesota to fill the remainder of his term. It's not, I mean, the governor can do that now. I know, but that's not how it used to be. I guess that's the point I'm trying to make.

Democracy does not work. That's what the founding fathers resist the entire idea of having a democracy. That's why they want us to have a republic. Democracies are, they're too unstable, they're too chaotic, and they just don't work. We're seeing that right now. Well, anyway, I think this is more about an imperial,

I think this is more about an imperial government where you're saying, you know, these people have prerogatives like Diane Feinstein, we can all know she's completely incapable of doing the job. And there's no automatic trip mechanism to make sure that she's replaced by someone permanently or temporarily who can. Right. Yeah. I agree.

I mean, this is, I mean, this is no way to run a railroad, right? And, I mean, literally the people of Kentucky are effectively only half represented in the U.S. Senate right now. That's ridiculous. you know i mean that's just absurd that we're a modern country um and like how do you know kind of like and i guess that is part of it too like i've always i've always had the opinion members of congress should not be paid more than the lowest paid american employee they should have and they should have the same benefits and as the worst benefits of any american full-time employee just watch the vacation days increase under U.S. law.

Just watch the minimum wage go up under my rule, right? And like, the point is that this kind of thing sort of shows like, man, they're so fucking privileged. They literally think they can kick off and still get paid, by the way. They're not even like, they're not even on unpaid leave. And they can kick off for months of the time and not even fucking tell us what's going on, right? Like not even just say, by the way, the senator is this and that.

Like so and just we just have to pay them and not be represented and they're making $200,000 a year. And and we're not getting shit with our, if you're lucky, you get two weeks of paid vacation a year. This is ridiculous. I mean, for one, I don't think we're being represented anyway. The people of Kentucky are not necessarily gaining or losing by Mitch McConnell being bringing in. Mitch McConnell was serving a constituency, that constituency were people of means who are putting money in McConnell's pockets. And I think that's true for the overwhelming majority of pretty much everybody who's in that spot. I agree with Robbie.

The shit doesn't work. But changing the 17th Amendment, it's not going to be the thing that makes it work. There's something inherently wrong with all of this. It's a capitalist system. I don't know another way to put it. The people with means are the ones with freedom. It's in the bricks, right? If I could give Mitch McConnell a huge amount of money,

Mitch McConnell will pay attention to me and Mitch McConnell will take my phone call, whether he does it or not, he would take the phone call at the very least meaning, I have a voice, I'm in the room. Randow Kentucky Farmer, you know, in bum-fuck Kentucky, is not getting that phone call from Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell doesn't know that guy exists or care. And you could go from Congress member to Congress member to Congress member to Congress member and the thing will be basically the same.

It's unfortunate. It's screwed up. I mean, he's brain dead and yet it has no effect on our Congress. Yeah. It functioned a bit of the way. Yeah. No, I mean, that's exactly how it is. Yeah, no, for sure.

Let's do some comments here. F.E. So, how long before they just start replacing these politicians with AI, which sci-fi dystopia are we heading for? Is that dystopia, though? It depends why you program the AI. An AI government may actually not be that bad, providing that it's honest and fair. It would, at the very least, be more equitable than this shit. That's true. Yeah

It might not put up that True We will be answering your question a little later A good morning guys Seeing the news of a man killed by ice in Maine If they're here to get immigrants wise The news always death Yeah we're going to be talking about that

DarkWorks 88 Robbie does play back back speed affect your watch hours or any other metrics Streamed your channel for a while last night Hang in there, Manila Yeah seriously I just want to take a moment and just say thank you I picked up almost 200 watch hours yesterday.

I'm with a little bit after that. So seriously, if the trend keeps going the way that it is, this railroad will continue working properly unlike the U.S. government. And that's all thanks to y'all. Just a reminder. Everyone, this is the call to action that we're asking. This is in relation, but not directly related,

to the fact that John just cut loose, Robbie. And Robbie is now short, a substantial amount of money every month. We need everyone to go to Putinbot gaming on Rumble. YouTube, if you really hate Rumble, but it makes a much more difference if you go to Rumble. And just stream PutinBot, bait gaming, find a playlist that plays for a long time and just let it run and just go do your other business. Do it overnight or whatever. It'll help us. We need you to do that every day.

So thank you. Yeah, people ask, you know, if the video is muted. Muting is fine. If you run it faster, I mean, technically get fewer watch hours because it's getting through faster. But honestly, it doesn't matter because yesterday, I know I have to have picked up at least 100 people just click that follow button over there on Rumble, like 60 over there on YouTube. I'm going to veto what Robbie just said. Let it play the normal speed. I'm not trying to be a dick. I mean, seriously, though, I mean, a lot of the comments are this one guy. is Robbie, I'm Iranian. I hate your religious views, but I'm here to support you.

And I say, God bless you. Awesome. And seriously, because part of the problem like by J2 just as saying is, if you can't trust the media and you're supposedly living in a representative of government, how could you possibly have a representative government if you can't trust anything that anyone says? Yeah. That's why independent media is so important. Yeah.

For sure. And seriously, I'm not asking any of you all to agree with me. I am saying thank you all very much to supporting this show by helping me get a paycheck. So, yeah, the term I looked this up, it's called epistemic nihilism. And basically that's what happens when people learn and start that they can't believe anything that they see or hear. And they just start to check out the move.

And they just... You need a German word for it. Germany does better words. Yes. They do better words. One of those 37 word like character word. Yeah. Yeah. We need a German word for this.

Dust. Dust bullshitin nine looking. My favorite one is Freundschaman of those long term names. It's like that feeling of embarrassed. It's like friend shame. It's the feeling when someone's embarrassing themselves, you're the awkward feeling that you feel. Isn't that wild how they

they are encapsulating the human experience in terms that is but intangible intangible stuff like it's very esoteric it's so great

it's yeah it's so cool I love the way we grew up yeah and Matt over there on YouTube he said real democracy has never been tried under capitalism I guess you can say it's true but the Athenians tried democracy and it was a

spectacular failure capitalism didn't exist. Yeah, I mean, not, no, I mean, but the Athenians, like, they developed the concept of a pure democracy. And it became a hellscape to the point where Socrates, all of other people had to commit suicide because it was absolute rule of the majority, nothing at all for the minority. And it degenerated into an oligarchy that led to the Polyphysian War and Athens was destroyed as a result. Democracy does not work. You've got to have a separation of power. There's no difference between having absolute.

power with one person, an absolute power in the consolidated to a group, because there's no checks and balances at all. That's why the founding fathers were so adamant about not forming a democracy. That's why Benjamin Franklin was famously asked, you know, by some lady in Philadelphia, sir, what kind of government did you give us? And his answer was a republic, if you can keep it, that's the hard part is keeping it. And that's where we have, we have, as a people have failed. We have not kept our republic. I think people check out. So government is hard.

No, agree. It's like, but I think people check out. I think people, it's like, all right, I have my kids, I have my dog, I have my life, I have my car, I have my mistress, I have my whatever. And I have to do my job. These people should do their job, missing the fact that their job. That's the problem with representative democracy is we outsource our politics in this country in a way that others don't.

I mean, in other countries, if something outrages people, people head to the streets and they yell and they may break and burn things. That's in this country, we show up every one to two to four years. We cast our votes. We debate. And then once it's over, we're like, well, those guys are, we've assigned you. Go off governors and so on and do your thing. And hopefully you won't fuck up. And we'll turn on you if you do.

That's it. And they don't. F-E-so, thanks for the dollar. Besides McConnell, who will die next while serving in Congress? Deadpool, D.C. By the way, maybe we should have Deadpool. We should. True.

I mean, and I would go further. Maybe it is a good thing that people have gotten to the point of mocking, shaming, and laughing when these psychopaths die. True. Maybe that's a good thing. Yeah. No, I like it. I mean, I know that's one thing that scares Trump. One of the reasons he wants to put his name on everything is he's worried about being ridiculed after he dies.

He will be. Oh, I will celebrate. Oh, it's going to be merciless and endless. Celebrations will be astonishing. Celebrating great joy. It's like the dying of the sun. There's a song by that where he was like a funeral for the dying of the sun. That's so epic, right?

You're talking about something that is basically been around for billions of years, and it finally dies up. And what is the celebration like for whoever is left as the son dies? That will be my celebration for Trump's death. It's like Akbar and Jeff in Matt Greening's first comic strip, Life in Hell, where Akbar and Jeff are talking about it's like, oh, so how do you see the funeral? And it's like, oh, you know, I wanted to be really joyous.

I want it to be, you know, I'm thinking suckling pig, luows, dancing on the beach. And then the other one says, oh, that's really nice that you want everyone to enjoy your funeral. He's like, no, no, I'm talking about your funeral. That talks about mine. Karu, Robbie, I had Putin about gaming on for eight and a half hours last night. Thank you for that. Manchild, thanks for the dollar, Glitch McCorm. looks way too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed

compared to his normal haggard experience. That's true. I mean, it's freaky. He's sort of like... I mean, I've never seen him smell. He's normally... The Turtle is always like this. Pretty much. You know, permafrown, church lady, right? I just assumed...

I don't know. I mean, it's not like he's been doing anything sort of laid in the bed for the last month. I mean, he's basically had a month of vacation. And that's assuming this is real. Right? Like, until I see McConnell to a press conference, I'm not assuming he has the powers of speech.

No, I, no. I don't believe it. I mean, yeah. If he can't speak, then he shouldn't be in the job. So I don't. Like the idea that he's even still a senator is outrageous. And if you don't have the power, to speak, then how do you represent?

Well, you're literally a politician. Your job is to talk, right? I mean, that's like if we can't talk, we can't do this podcast, right? I mean, same thing. I can't do sign language. Right, right. I mean, I guess there probably are sign language podcasts, I would imagine. But, you know, obviously I've never watched one.

Several people have been very nice. Thank you, Tara. Oh, Robbie had several. Putin bot episodes yesterday. Didn't understand it but trying to do my part. Much appreciated. Distinguished Turtle, created this account just to watch Putin Bot Gaming and Deep Program.

Hello, fellow Tards. Hello to you. Okay. So, John D. Cockfeller, thanks for the two bucks. I don't want to hear my side of the fence say another fucking word about how scummy the other side is for just appointing Kamala as the candidate. If we're just going to shove Ms. Graham's sister in. I mean...

That's weird, too, by the way. Like to say, okay, the area votes for somebody. Whether we like them or not, they put that person in office. Mitch McConnell is that person. That is the person who they voted for. How to hell do you replace him with a sister or a wife or anybody? I know they do it, but what intellectual, what background, what anything. She has no political background whatsoever.

That's what I mean, right? It's like the person wasn't voted in. About the same token, maybe the person's better off because we don't have a political background. It's like treating it like it's not an important job. That's literally what it is, right? I mean, like, it's like, oh, it's just sort of like, oh, it's a nice honorer, you know, it's a nice thing for her. That's a job. That's a job. She's representing its faith. But it's not an important job. What does, serious question, what does Congress do,

When was the last time Congress voted to authorize this president to wage war on Iran? Good question. When was the last time this government voted for a infrastructure bill that wasn't patting special interests and actually built roads? And no, Ted, do you remember when you hear last year? They're on reserve right there by the Walmart here. That road was under construction? Yeah. It's still under construction.

It hasn't moved an inch. Wow. I mean, if this is the best government that we're able to get through the Department of Transportation, it's a federal project. My question is this to you, why do we, why do we as a people tolerate this insult of a government that all it does is fleece us, but we get nothing out of it at all? Because we are completely and we are magnificently propagandized too. I think it's two things. One, we're constantly told that we're the greatest, we're the best, we're the city on a hill, China, Russia, Iran, and everyone else is evil. Iran is apparently primitive according to Donald Trump, et cetera, et cetera. So you're propaganda that all of these people are

enemies and all of these people are demonized. And then internally, the focus is usually external at other enemies, other issues, other things. Whereas the reality of it is, I think part of it is to that people would accept something that's imperfect in order to avoid chaos. And they may not know how to change it, meaning you have so many little fine structures in the way that the government is arranged in state, locality, et cetera. Where do they focus their energies? How do they pull time away from the things that they're doing with the wife, kids, children, et cetera, et cetera, in order to now do this political stuff that they were never engaged in,

were never really taught in school in any real sense of the term and yet need to somehow change the mechanics of this system and let's be clear the point that you're talking about the port each politician has incentivized to do that the people who give them money is given them money so they can get an office to get those port projects in those localities and everything else meaning the entire system is stuff with cash the people would have to find some way to change mechanisms of the capitalistic system where the incentives become different in regards to the way it intersects, quote-unquote, democracy. I don't know how to do that. Yeah, I hear you saying, and I understand that, you know, people are going to tolerate it a imperfect system because

we are all imperfect people. Well, I understand it is a lot of it. They think it's worse or heavier to change it. Like, like, for example, this desk is broken. I haven't changed it. It's fun, But it still works out of here. I still have a change. Because it's good enough. But it still works. I guess that's the point in them trying to make, right? Is there a difference between imperfect and incompetent?

Those are two very different things. We have an incompetent government. And then the most insulting thing is that the government bribes you with the money that they stole from you at Bannett point to begin with. They are bribing you with the tax money they took from you. I wish they would, Robbie. They're not bribing me at all. I mean, what money are we, what money, what welfare money are you and the me getting or, you know, or Jamar. None. Also, they're not incompetent. They're corrupt. There's a difference.

Yeah. I want to also add something and I want to hear what you have to say about this too. Jamaral, you brought up, I mean, this is a super important point, right? The American exceptionalism, American exceptionalism where we tell the American people, we're awesome. No one could be better. We're the best country that's, ever been or ever could be. Literally, that's what we say. I mean, if you do that, what's the message? Well, you're good. You don't have to improve. You have nothing to strive for. You don't have any major problems. Nothing needs to be fixed. You should not expect or want more or better for yourself or anyone else. I mean, it's literally like a parent telling their kid,

you are perfect, a perfect little angel. You are the best student. You are the best son or daughter. You are perfect in all respects. Now, that kid is going to grow up probably not to be very ambitious or hardworking, right? And that's what happens to us. We're not ambitious. I mean, imagine if the American people were told.

Like, you know, Jamarly, you talk about like, we are, we will go to the moon. Okay. What is the takeaway there? The takeaway there is we're not at the moon and we'd like to go to the moon. Like, you know, we don't have that ambition. Like, you know, this country has, China's ahead of us. You know, Sputnik was ahead of us. We need a, we need high speed rail like every other fucking advanced industrial country has.

We need, you know, we need free college like every other industrial advanced country has for health care and so on. And like we would have this. We would have, but they're telling us this. We think it's a compliment that we're being told that like it's, that we're exceptional. Actually, what it is is we're being told to settle and not expect anything better. And that's why we're not, I mean, it's part of the reason we don't expect anything better. I mean, to me, what, no, I've read about this a lot. You know, after the Roman Civil War, when Augustus, when he took power, when he defeated

Anthony and Cleopatra. When he came back to Rome, he told the Senate, I found the city made a brick and I left it in marble. So it was a tribute, no, just, because there's a city on the hill, right? Just Rome famous, he's on seven hills. And that was the story that he told. And then fast forward 300 years, the Roman, the Roman state has disintegrated. The barbarians are banging at the gate and the people let them in and celebrate the sack of the city because finally the night that system that they're living under was finally over and done with. And it's because it's because of the de-evolution of the society. Think about this. And I realize this is a history podcast, but I think it's important.

If you lived in, say, 20 AD at the height of a Pax Romano, do you know how many days you had to work to pay? your taxes to the Roman Empire. One day, one day out of the year paid your entire tax debt. And you can go and you can go into. Tax liberation day in the United States is like roughly like May, right? You have to work about 40% of the year. Yeah. And we just sit down and we take it. And it's because people get complacent. It's because governments get corrupt. It just everything just always falls apart. But if you're told, you know, that this, This city is the mother of the world, that we are set apart, that there is no one that can challenge us. And then all of a sudden, you look around and you have a bunch of people who no longer, who not only deny that reality,

but who actively are kicking your face and like bailing, like having bailings over Adrian Opel. All you have that point is the lie. That's all you have. Trump's finding out right now. We are the superpower. and we can't beat Iran. You can't beat Iran, but you're this global behemoth.

Being a superpower doesn't really mean that you can beat any other country. Well, that's the point. But the J.C.'s point, though, it's all about the mythology. Right. There's no one that can challenge us. Well, that is objectively not true.

Yeah, well, we know that. We've suffered defeat after defeat. So why are you paying a quarter of your income every year to a system that hates you and you can't even win a war half of which goes to war. Hey, so let's do some more comments. Matt W. If so-called democracy doesn't work, it's because it's not democracy.

Real democracy has never been attempted under capitalism because the two are fundamentally incompatible. I agree. Because under capitalism, you have money and money will purchase politicians. And you have private enterprise, private property. Like, meaning from their point of view, I mean, I've even heard some capitalists say, we don't even need democracy. The capitalism part is just perfectly thought. Basically, private enterprise and people with private property, et cetera.

But those people are out of their minds. It's like, what are you going to do? Raise private militaries, private militias? What they realize, what don't realize it or not, capitalism requires a government. It's not like one, you can even make an argument that capitalism would create a government if it didn't have a government because it needs something to mitigate, to set policy, to set rules, some kind of independent actor outside of the thing in order to come up with, let's say, military and police, because police will be there in order to protect the private property. Those things are required in that sense. But it's not democracy.

It's only for people with means. And I think the people get wrong is this weird intersection between these two things that one just is a predator. for the other. Yeah. I mean, it infects everything. It affects everything. So. Victor Brown.

Keep money out the system. More comments to get through than we should probably move on to Hormuz. Victor Brown, Ted, could you say a few lines in French? I'd like to hear you speak French. What's what you want to say?

I can tell the French when you want. I can do the program entirely in French, Quapak a sitting buddy day. Okay, great. Done. The dancing monkey is done for today.

Let's see. Okay, thanks. Daniel BTS, thanks for the $10. You guys have been handed, this awful situation, John left you in with nothing but class. Oh, have handled this awful situation, John, he left you with nothing but class.

Kudos, boys. Thank you. that's all you can do right i mean everybody's handed situations and they have to play the cards they're dealt and hope they're best um uh k n kine thanks for the five dollars guys it's what's done all the time the lady who replaced uh kamala is done by the governor news that was gunned by governor newsome no one complains let's be fair oh we complain um manchild under the 17th amendment thanks for the dollar state governors can appoint temporarily u s senate replacements if authorized by state law.

Yeah, state law varies. Like in Kentucky, the state law does not allow that. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster used this power to fill them. They can see nothing shady here. True. It's, well, I mean, something can be shady even if it's legal. Yeah. The state, okay, so this actually would be good.

Alexander Black, Alexandria Black, Robbie, define what a Republic, what keeping a republic is, what keeping a republic is. Well, it starts local. I mean, in my opinion, the absolute most important part of keeping a republic is going to your school board meetings. If the school board is having a meeting in your county, go to it. That's where it all starts. It starts with local self-governance.

and it goes from there. The problem is that people get busy. To JT's point, you're busy, you're working at 40, 50 hour a week, sometimes longer. Some people work in two or three jobs. You don't have time to tell your government what to do. So you outsource the job. Well, the problem is that as you outsource that responsibility, just kind of grows into a critical mass.

And then the people who you're elected just do whatever they want because there's no feedback at all except for like, a handful of people, most of which are old boomer types who have already had theirs and they don't care. And no one's thinking about the future. That's what keeping a republic means. It means that you have to be actively engaged in every aspect of civil life at the local level, the state level, and lastly at the national level. Because at the end of the day, whoever, whoever runs your school board is more important than whose fat ass is sitting in the, behind the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. Reservo desk in the White House.

Okay. Thank you, Robbie. All right. So should we, or Moose or ICE? What should we do? Or Moose. All right. So basically the Baltic and International Maritime Council, which is the world's largest shipping association, is warning that Trump is, this will shock you,

making things even worse than they already are, with his proposed 20% tariff on any. ship passing through the Strait of Ramos under quote-unquote U.S. protection, which setting aside the fact that, like, the U.S. can't protect these ships at all. So you'd be paying 20% for nothing for a service that is not going to prevent an Iranian drone or missile from blowing up your fucking ship. But the point is that let's just say for the sake of argument that it did work, but it won't work. They're saying, well, that would cause a lot of shipping to not go through there and would cause the entire global economy to seize up.

I think he's simply, I think he's simply, you know, trolling. I think it's just a Trump. I don't think he is. Truth, social. And by the way, I love the idea. I told you, I wanted him to attack Greenland. I'm down, I'm here for that. The Europeans never really say anything with the U.S. is, you know, murdering fishermen in Caribbean or going after Maduro or attacking Iran.

And if anything, they back him as he's doing these illegal things. So me, I am team Trump takes Greenland. I would love to see it. God, I would love to see it. Drop U.S. military in Greenland and take it over from Denmark and dare Europeans to do anything about it. Those cucks are going to stay there and just watch. Trump's going to have his dick in Greenland. From the standpoint of this, look, I'm here for it.

Because there needs to be a strategic defeat. And if the president is so incompetent that he can't recognize a loss as a loss, meaning in chess, there's a, there's a, there's certain edicts in chess that people know that are almost like rules, almost like gravity, even though they're like gravity. One of those things is if you're in a draw and you're trying to force a win, you will most likely lose. Well, we can't make gains in this case. Iran can't make gains, nor are they trying to. If you notice, anytime the attack stop, they stop. I don't think they should. but they do. And so from their point of view, we will match you and we will stay level. That's all we want to do because we don't want to fight a war and we want this war to be over with. It's the U.S. that is trying to push or win in this case. And now one of the ways they're trying to do it is tariffs on everybody, anything that comes through. Despite the fact that, as you

point out, a ship is not going to risk a billion dollars in cargo for the Trump's edicts of safety when they know that a missile can be fired or drone can be fired that wrecks and destroys their ship, which will get more severe over the course of time if more and more ships tries to blow off the fact that Iran controls the strait. So I'm here for it. If the world is going to acquiesce to the tariffs that Donald, that Trump was doing the first time around, I guess he believes that he can do it again. I don't know how that's going to work. Yes, he's making it worse, which is why I am for it.

I mean, it's just bullshit, really. But, I mean, look, honestly, this is all going to play. This is a repeat. I mean, Jamal, tell me how I'm wrong, right? Or if I'm wrong. Like, within, I mean, the pressure's building. Within three, four, five weeks, Trump will find himself right back where he was, but not actually a little worse than he was.

Like when he signed the MOU. And then he'll have to make nice again. I mean, what difference? I mean, the economy is going to be fucked up six ways till Sunday when the oil starts running dry. I mean, nothing changes that. 20% of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Ormooz. We can't make do with 80. It's like, that's it.

I mean, what am I missing here? You're not missing anything. You're not missing anything. I mean, it's not, look, the president has been releasing the strategic oil reserve like it was water. Right. And he's been doing this for months. He has been supplying oil to the world, by the way, not just the U.S. Right.

And so it's like, okay, so that is running, that's going to hit the bare bottom. Like within a month or so, they're forecasting that to be empty or the very least. Yeah, by Labor Day, it's going to be an ugly scene, right? I mean. Yeah, it's going to be very ugly. We're already at the lowest that we've been since like the 80s. And so he signed the MOU in order to get out of the situation to which he found himself. Not much has changed over the course of what, a few weeks that the MOU was in effect.

Nothing. So we are still where we were, where we're soft because we're less missiles, less defensive missiles, less oil. You have a meaning the U.S. is limits. We have limits, whether it's from the military capacity, which we don't like to acknowledge, or whether it's from the standpoint of energy, which is going to hit our economy. Both of those things are guardrails. Now, does he acknowledge those guardrails?

He's going to have to. Meaning when the oil runs dry, it doesn't matter how much you claim that the war is almost over with, or that Iran is beat the death, or that their military is X or Y. It's like, okay, for a country that beat the death, they're still blowing up your bases. I mean, have you seen the satellite images

that were coming out when Iran's attacks? Very impressive. Ukraine, Kuwait. Jordan. I mean, they like fucking erupted. Yeah, now we've got the duties involved. Yeah. Well, right. And that's the other part, right?

The Iran, the U.S. war, it's not just between the United States and Iran. It's for all of the actors that are in the region that have a particular side. Saudi Arabia attacked Answerla. I mean, well, you can say attack the Yemen airport. Yemen respond by attacking the Saudi Arabian airport where they effectively drop missiles

on that airport. It's smoking. They were guys speaking in Arabic, and I assume they were saying, oh, fuck. That's my assumption. I don't know what they were saying. Then you had the U.S. push the Iraqi parliament or government to round up pro-Iranian figures that were in Iraq. Okay, considering the millions of people that were there in Iraq for the funeral of Ayatollah, I don't think you're rounding up a few people in Iraq is necessarily going to do the job. you have Jelani who's moving his terrorist army, tens of thousands of terrorists, basically jihadists, to the border of Lebanon. Initially, Jalani, when asked about this, was like, yeah, I'm not going to get involved. I just want stability. But Jalani is not a figure into himself.

It was the Americans, the Israelis, and the Turks that got him in office. And so when they went to Erdogan and Trump was like, I'm going to give you the F-35. At that point Erdogan is like, fair enough, what do you need? And here we are with Jelani's terrorist groups at the border of Lebanon. Whether they cross into it or not, we don't know, but they're definitely there. All of the stuff are pieces that are basically moving on the board with the U.S. in preparation for new attacks on Iran with Trump going to Congress saying the war has resumed. So the area can explode.

I have a question for you, J.T. It feeds right now this. And I think your chess analogy is perfect. I think that the checkmate is when, is when, the larger countries make a run on the dollar when do you think that'll happen i don't think it's a matter of if i think it's a matter of when so if you're so if you're going to pull the plug on the dollar like if you're going to make a run on the dollar when would you do it would you do it when would you do it when the strategic oil reserve is at this weakest point uh when would you do that

because that's the kill shot that both russia and china have you don't need to defeat the America. You don't want to use that geosha. To finally. China has like a trillion dollars of the US money or something to that effect. Like it has a lot of money. Japan also does. So they never want to get it back.

So if you do that, well, I'm just saying if they do that, it also damages them, which is why they don't know. Yeah, they're not going to do that. It's like the old, it's like the banker's cliche, right? Like if you owe the bank a thousand dollars, you have a problem. If you owe the bank a million dollars, they have a problem. You know. That's there's not going to be a run on the dollar. I think they're going to find a way.

I mean, I think the value and the, let's say the latitude of the dollar would decrease. Stylacration is a real danger here. That's a danger. But also the reserve currency thing is big. If the U.S. is no longer the reserve currency, having $40,000. Yeah, but that would make a long time because you have to have an alternative to, you know, bricks isn't ready or whoever. You have to create that alternative to the U.S. And look, and the euro cannot be that alternative because of the sanctions that they imposed on and they seezing Russian assets.

They're not a trustworthy safe haven for capital. So it's not the euro. But if you notice, the usage of the dollar went from 70% it's down to 50%. That number is going lower as countries basically try to find ways around using the dollar and finding sergeant. using their own currency, meaning the impact of sanctions and those type of things are going to diminish over time. I don't know if there's a grand turnover short of the United States coming to some kind of economic collapse or some kind of economic trouble. Now, we may see it with us, especially if Trump goes off the rails. Like if Trump says, I have no limits. Think back when we were having

an economic war with China when it first started. And Donald Trump passed economic tariffs on pretty much everybody around the globe in order to try to force them to come to make deals with Trump that were in the U.S. best interest. And China told them to fuck off. Okay, well, what happened? The economy was dropping like a thousand points a day, I mean, the stock market. And as it got to the bond market, Trump relented. Like he understood the economic damage that the country was taken as a result of his policy. And so there were limits on that regard. Well, if he doesn't acknowledge the economic toll and economic limits. We may see economic devastation. As you point, a stackflation, I suspect we're already in recession, short of the AI bubble. Yeah, this shit can get real. We got to talk about

AI. We had some breaking news just come over a couple of minutes ago. New York Governor Kathy Hockel just turned New York into the first state in the country to impose a moratorium on data farms. Data farms. No new, no. No new data, you know, big data centers. Data centers, yeah. Okay. I mean, why not? What's their issue?

I mean, it is a bubble. Don't get me wrong. Well, it's, you know, it's because obviously there's the concern that it drives up utility rates for all the rate holders, the rate payers in those districts, right? So it doesn't really provide any jobs. So the issue is not the data centers. The issues is that they shouldn't be on the power rate. that somehow you need to get their own separate power grid.

You know, it's funny when the New York City subway was built, well, it was private companies originally. It wasn't. But they built there, there was concerns, there were similar concerns, like why should this private subway system be drawing on the public power energy grid? So they built their own separate system. And to this day, New York City, like most other American cities, are on AC power. but the MTA, a big part of it, is still on these.

They have their own separate DC power infrastructure. That's the answer. Yeah. They should have the own power system. It's already happened. There's a, there's a stock ticker's KC. I can't think what the, I can't think what the action name of the company is. What they do is that they build small nuclear reactors for the sole purpose of powering

data centers. So, I mean, that's, that's how that's how it's, that's how. that's how it's going to go through. Guys, we've got to talk about ICE. Robbie, you should stick around for that because I know you have interest in this. So according to witnesses, it looks pretty credible. The dude who got shot in Houston last week, Lorenzo Arrajo, apologies if I'm mispronouncing. Apparently, ICE claimed that he had weaponized his car and was aiming for them.

But actually, it looks like the shot came through the front passenger side window. and meanwhile another person in Maine, by the way, neither of these were the targets of the ICE operations in question. They shot and killed a dude in Maine. This is at least death number nine. So guys, I have a question for you. So ICE keeps claiming Renee Good and so on that people aim their cars at them. And so they shoot the drivers in order to avoid getting run over. assuming this is all true, which of course I know the chances of that are slim to none.

Zero. Like, why are you standing in front of people's cars when you're trying to apprehend them? Or a better question, why does a bullet go through the passenger window if indeed they're trying to hit you with the front of the car? That's pertinent too. But it's like even if I accept their ridiculous story, it's like, okay, so you admit your retards, right? Like you're basically, you're standing in front of a car. I'm pretty sure cops are trained not to stand in front of the cars driven by people they're trying to stop. I'm pretty sure.

Right. Like cars weigh a lot and they hurt you when they drive over you. So don't. Don't do that. It's typically a bad idea. I mean, I don't say it's a bad idea. So it's kind of like my question. So are ice packs of shit or are they stupid?

or both, which is it? I think they're just, I don't, I just, I think it's a training issue. Because if, if you're trained to act like a soldier, you're not trained to act like a cop. Those are two very different things. If you're a cop, you're, you're trained to de-escalate, take someone, you know, into custody and just get it done with. Like, you're not out looking for a fight. Now, that's really, it's like even the way they talk to you, like, for example, when they say, like, oh, I'm going to have to ask you to,

to open your trunk. I'm going to have to ask you to see, I'm going to need to see your registration. They don't say your registration and hand me your registration. I'm going to need you to do this. It makes it look like it's, I can't help it. It's the law. I'm obliged to ask you for this. And it makes you think that you should go along. It's all that's all part of the training. Yeah, agree. I mean, the cop is not your friend, even if he's being affable. It's a mass. All right. It's like, if you ever look at interrogations, they know that the guys have just murdered four people and ate two babies. And they're like, hey, Bob, how are you doing? You doing okay today? You need anything? You need any water? Would you like a bag of chips? Yeah. Yeah. They're like very. It's the weird thing. Yeah. It's like they know this guy did it. The guy had like blood on his mouth when they caught him and they dragged him in his, you know, and no shirt in his underwear. And they're like, Like, Bob, you need a blanket or anything? I mean, it's also like, we just want to know what happened.

Yeah. They even say like, you know, just tell us what happens so we can clear it up and then you can be on your way. Yeah. It's the wildest thing in the world watching interrogation. And it gives you this new perspective of cops. Like, there are times where you want the guy to win, right? Because it's like, okay, that guy is a monster. You just ate three babies.

There are other times less so. When you're dealing with the public, I don't want that pointed at the public that's in a Right. Right. It's wild, though. But they take on those personas when they're dealing with people and passengers and they can be very pleasant and very polite, even as they're giving you a ticket that's going to wreck your life. Totally. I mean, here in Montana. But the ice thing is different. Like, these are goons that are dropped into cities that are loaded weapons that have very little legal stuff around them. Like, meaning if a cop was, if an ice agent was trying to get me. And I'm like, look, I'm an American citizen. I have a license. This guy is trying to apprehend me. The cop is going to stand down and let the ICE agent violate my rights.

I remember speaking to Garland about it. Garland was like, what can I do? I'm just a local authority. This guy's coming from the federal government. Whether you're American or that, whether you're innocent on that, is irrelevant to the point. Right. It's like that line in the fugitive when Harrison Ford

tells the marshal, like, I didn't kill my wife. And he says, I don't care. In other words, I'm not here for that. I'm just here to arrest you. Yep. Yeah. The morality of it, the legalities of it, the justification for it is irrelevant to the point. And that should be outrageous to anybody as an American.

Totally. Guys, we're out of time. Always a pleasure. See you both. Well, Robbie, I'll see you on TMI coming up. right now. Let me read this real quick. John Cockapeller dropped a don't know. Just another vestige of the GWOT era. So many people learned how to be a police officer and occupied Baghdad and Kabul. They came home and became cops here. These people are now leadership level. I agree.

Good place to end. Global War on Terror. Okay. Thanks, everyone. See you tomorrow. 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Talk to you, Chapa. Go one day.