DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Sailin’ From Sudan | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • Sudan’s military government has offered Russia what would be its first naval base in Africa and an unprecedented perch overlooking critical Red Sea trade routes, reports the WSJ. • Negotiations between the U.S. and Ukraine focused on where the de facto border with Russia would be drawn under a peace deal. Russian President Vladimir Putin — who will meet with President Trump's envoy today — wants the entire Donbas region. • A lawsuit by an immigration judge fired by Trump has the potential to scramble the federal workforce and upend foundational civil rights laws. She says she was dismissed because of her gender, her status as a dual citizen of Lebanon and the fact that she once ran for municipal office in Ohio as a Democrat, all in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the First Amendment. The government has responded by arguing that the president's power to oversee the executive branch under Article II of the U.S. Constitution essentially overrides that core civil rights law.• A small, highly anticipated study shows a glimmer of hope in the long effort to control HIV without medication and search for a cure for a virus that attacks immune cells. In six participants, the virus rebounded slowly and stayed at a low level for months, and one person’s immune system kept the virus in check for more than a year and a half.

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Good morning. You are watching D-Program with Ted Roll and John Kiriaku. I don't know why John's all small here. I was thinking, geez, I was only gone for a day and I've been relegated. I think I do. That was my fault. Like, what is that? Yeah, you know, my father. I worked in the Air Force. It's one of my favorite stories about workaholism. He was a young officer and a, and he went on vacation. When he came back, some other dude was sitting at his desk and the guy.

And so he asked his boss, he's like, well, you know, you weren't here. So we needed your desk. It was going to waste. So he's like, what can I have my desk back? It's like, well, where's that guy going to sit? For a month, my father made do sitting on the floor behind a cardboard box. oh my god that's the military came in and saw him and said you know what the hell is that man doing sitting on the ground and then yelled at his at my dad's boss and and i was always like god that's such a lesson you go away for just a little bit people be screwing with you you know we got to go ahead john sorry totally apropos of nothing but that story uh when i was in the centerborn relations committee uh staff my boss said to me one day, he pulled me aside. He said, listen, I'm, I'm really sorry to have to do this. And I was like,

oh, my God, they're going to fire me or something. He said, I'm going to have to move you out of the office that has the window because we've got a team coming in and we're going to have to squeeze three people in there. And I said, oh, yeah, sure. He said, you're not mad? I said, oh, Doug, I said, I've been in government for 20 years. I don't think I've ever had a desk where I sat more than a year. It's constantly round robin with desks in government. No problem. He had come from journalism. He didn't know anything about government. But yeah, that's what they do. The news be breaking literally just as we went on the air. Two major stories. The former president of Honduras, Hernandez, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison, has just been released from prison. Also,

so he's out. And then the city of San Francisco is suing the manufacturers of ultra-processed foods that just broke. So that's, and I think that's going to work. I think that's going to be as big a deal as the big tobacco litigation. John, we have a full-packed show here, a lot to get through. Coming in halfway down, we have Achilles Lorea of Larea wealth management, friend of the show. He's been on before to talk about, I think the timing couldn't be better about the economy and what's, you know, basically how things look, because I think a lot of people are on edge.

I'm one of them. Yeah, seriously. So we'll see what he has to say about the imminentated of the economy. We've got the lead story today about Sudan offering Russia a naval base, always a big deal for Russia. They always have sought access to the sea historically. The U.S.-Ukraine-Russia negotiations, Putin's meeting with Trump's envoy today, this lawsuit by a federal judge, which I think I'm really interested in what you have.

have to say, as a former federal employee, because you have insight into this interaction between the federal, the executive branch control over the federal workforce and all that. And after Achilles, we'll talk about, I think, something that's groundbreaking. It's, we look, really, we've never been closer to a cure for HIV, and it's a new study shows a lot. I don't know, I just wanted to get through all that, John. And also wanted to bring everyone up to date on Robbie Aid. Robby Aid is our effort to fund our producer every month at the beginning of the month we try to get to a thousand dollars we you guys got us there last month with this our first month doing it thank you for that and yes thank you very much um you know and uh i know robbie's grateful and we're grateful and

uh i just got robbie's invoice for my 250 and i'm sure you're going to get yours i paid mine i'm gonna pay mine today robbie so uh yeah so anyway please keep please keep that money coming in As of yesterday, you guys kicked in $207. So if we get to $1,000, we'll stop asking. We'll bring in Robbie a little bit later on to talk a little bit about that, but also to talk about the Rumble thing, which you guys, who are regular viewers, know all about. But, you know, new people come on board all the time.

We have hundreds of new subscribers every month. So the show is growing and that's doing great. John, what would you like to talk about first? To tell you the truth, I'd like to talk about what we were talking about backstage. Just really quickly. Great. There is a special election today for a congressional seat in Ruby Red, Tennessee. This is a congressional district where Donald Trump won 70% of the vote. And the latest poll show the Republican there winning 45 to 44. This is well within the margin of error.

well within the margin of error it's all about turnout today but this is an indication of just how frustrated um republicans are where you know robbie made a good point backstage and i think bears uh repeating there are a lot of mega republicans who are upset that donald trump seems to be trending toward the neo-conservative position, especially as it relates to Venezuela. Magna Republicans do not want these wars of choice. There's no reason for us to invade Venezuela. No. We have a national interest in keeping China out of Venezuela, but you don't have to put troops on the ground to do something like that. I think what happens today, I think the Republicans going to win. But I think what happens today is going to set the tone for what happens

in the midterm elections in 2026, November of 2026. Agreed. And we already saw Democrats swept in the recent elections last month. John, very quickly, this was yesterday's topic, but you weren't here. So I'm interested in your take on, you know, how much heat and how much continued heat will Pete Hegseth suffer for that sort of double-tap strike in the Caribbean. The Washington Post reported this morning that Hegseth is trying to pin the blame on the general who actually carried out the order. I'm sorry, the admiral who actually carried out the order. And uniformed leaders, other admirals and generals are jumping up and down saying,

there's no way this guy's going to go down for a war crime when the order came from the top. So much for Harry Truman, the buck stops here, right? I mean, that's not a good look for Heggseth. No, no. You know, you and I were talking about Hegsef. I'm going to say it was a year ago. Not a year ago. I'm going to say six or eight months ago after Signalgate, right?

And I said, I just didn't see how Heggseth could last the rest of the year. Well, here we are in December. He may not. He may still not. He may not. And I... He seems to really be bugging the president. He's causing the president trouble.

See, and that's the key right there. The president doesn't need this kind of silliness going on. No. And I think a lot of these mistakes are being made just because the guy's not, you know, a career administrator. He's not a corporate leader. He was a Fox News personality. We talked about this when he was appointed, right? It was just like, this is the hardest managerial.

job literally the biggest employer in the world in the world and it's a it's been and it's a job that has chewed up far smarter and brighter people than him exactly right exactly right okay so let's all right so what's what's next which we talk about Sudan yeah let's talk about Sudan i had to get a chuckle out of this ted um because first of all Sudanese military dictatorships usually last but 15 minutes or so a military dictatorship that lasted a decade in the 90s. But usually these junta's come and go in Sudan. So to offer the Russians a naval base, friendly gesture. That's a nice gesture.

It's not going to happen. No? No. And even if it does happen, as soon as a new government takes over in Sudan, they're going to throw the Russians out. I was just going to say, so, I mean, if you're the Russians, do you want to invest the time and the money to build infrastructure that you might lose. You know what I would do if I were the Russians?

I would talk to Eritrea. So let's put up a map here. Yeah. Oh, there's Eritrea. Okay, good. Yeah. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Sudan is one of the most unstable countries on the planet.

Literally in the middle of a, I don't know if you, you can't really call it a civil war. I guess you could call it. It's a civil war. So Sudan is kind of like, so it's a unstable country. So it already had a civil war a few years ago that led to the creation of South Sudan, which nobody really remembers is a full-fledged independent country now. Oh, yeah. Recognized by the international community with the seat at the UN and all that.

And now Sudan is the rump Sudan is at civil war between the rapid support forces, paramilitaries, and the Khartoum-based government. It's rough there. It's really fucking bad. I have a friend who's a cartoonist who lives in Khartoum. has heinous stories to tell. Oh, you're kidding me. Yeah.

I've got a friend who is from Osmara. I was just talking to her yesterday. And she was telling me about how desperately Eritrea wants good and normal relations with the United States. There's an embassy here in Washington. I've met the ambassador once or twice at different like Julian Assange events. But when I went to Ethiopia in 2011, the head of political. political affairs at the American embassy described Eritrea to me as the North Korea of Africa. And yes, I always thought that was the Central African Republic.

Oh, no, they've changed since they had their asses kicked by the Rwandans. But Eritrea is a police state. It's got its problems, but it's stable. And if it's not going to have good relations with the United States, it could and should and probably will have good relations with Russia. And so if the Russians want a Navy base that they're not going to have to evacuate from, why wouldn't they? I mean, just look at that map. That is incredibly important. Exactly. I mean, so much of the world's shipping traffic, including not little oil, goes through the Red Sea. Correct. You know, including through the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal. I mean, it's incredibly important. You know, what in the, you know, why not do both? Why not approach Eritrea?

and have a sort of a low-key, you know, temporary facility in Port Sudan, just sort of see how it goes. Yes. Why not do both? The only reason I could think of that the Russians wouldn't want to do both is the cost. But that would be about it. Why not do both? Why not approach whatever rump government happens to be in place in Somalia? Right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, they're losing the Seahel, but this is, frankly, on this particular, you know, game of, of risk. I would rather have these ports than the Sahel. I agree with you. I'd rather have the ports without any question, yes, because the ports give you an opening to the entire world. And the Sahel, you're stuck in the middle of nowhere. If you so, thanks for the buck. He said, watch Texas men indicted for planning to invade Haiti, take women and children as sex lives on YouTube. Yeah, I saw it too.

I saw that hilarious. Village idiot, thanks for the comment. What does the Horn of Africa have that anyone would want? John, take it away. Geographic location. That's about it. There's no oil. There are no rare earth metals.

There are no diamonds laying on the ground. It's just location, location, location. It's those shipping channels. It's it. It just is. And U.S. Triple X, thanks for the two bucks. with everything going on with Hegseth and pushing blame and the weird pointless conference with all the generals,

how much more will the military top need to take, sorry, before they get fed up, possibly a coup? Well, that's not going to happen. No, a coup's not going to happen. But I think that everybody's waiting to see what 2028 ends up as. I mean. Yeah, I mean, what's the practical effect? I mean, of a, of dissent or anger within the military ranks.

I mean, people, I guess, take early retirement, people, recruitment becomes more challenging. But beside that, anything? No, not really. Because, I mean, obviously, people have exiled the Knights of Malta now. Ted, maybe you could capture that in a comic. Oh, maybe. First deadlines tomorrow, so I can do that for this week. Yeah, no, I think this is a big story.

So you don't think they will avail. Do you think the Russians will avail themselves of the Port Sudan offer at all? Like, they won't even send a single boat? Oh, no, not as a permanent base, no. And to really, to build out a permanent base, it's going to take years. And the Russians really don't have the money for this kind of thing right now. They're busy prosecuting a war, which is very expensive. Maybe we should talk about that.

Yeah. So, okay, so basically the current right now, Trump, I'm sorry, Putin's going to be meeting with Trump's envoy. It looks like the administration can smell a deal. It looks like the Ukrainians kind of see what's coming. So basically, it looks like the major sticking point is there's areas of the Donbos that Russia still doesn't control. And Putin's insisting that he wants the entire Donbos. This is like that joke from the first family comedy album where they're ordering sandwiches. And then Chris Jeff says, I would like the Eastern sandwich. And then, and then JFK, go, there is no eastern sandwich. And then he goes, there's only the Western sandwich.

And then Chris Jeff says, then I want the Eastern portion of his Western sandwich. And I think right now Putin wants the eastern portion of Ukraine's Western, you know, Western European Donbos. Yeah. That's, it does look like, I mean, so here's the question. Is that a throwaway for, I mean, why does Putin want the entire Donbos? Or is that just a throwaway? way negotiating point. I think it's, I think it's a negotiating point. And they'll just, I think we know we're ending up with the frozen line of control. The lines, the military lines are the military lines. There's no world in which Trump or, for that matter, Zelensky, can be seen, okay, we've signed this deal and now we're watching the Russian troops advance after the deal. Right. No, that doesn't

happen. No. This is exactly, and we're no smarter than anybody else, you know, any expert on on Russian affairs. But this is what we have said from the very beginning. It's about the Donbass. It's about Crimea, Kerosan, Luhansk, Donetsk, the Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine. Yeah. I don't think he's at all interested in the Ukrainian-speaking areas of Ukraine because were he to take something like that, it would result in terrorism and malcontention

and troubles that he doesn't. need. Between the, reading between the lines, it does look like the Ukrainians have, just have finally come to Jesus. It seems that way. This morning, Wittkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow for talks with the Russians. That tells me that they have a message to convey to the Russians from the Ukrainians. So I think we're inching toward something here.

Do you think we'll see it by the end of the week? What's today? Tuesday? It's possible. Sure. Okay. Well, obviously, we'll be following that here. Okay, so Chris Stubbs show, why is that our job to replace any other government?

That's our job at home. Now we do, you decide tyranny? I drew the line at endlessly mass printing dollars and taxing us. A lot going on there in that comment. Look, I agree. It's not our job to overthrow foreign governments. Unless they pose a direct threat to the United States. And even then, I'd be very careful.

Real quickly, Ted, let me ask you. what you make of these recent reports just out over the last two days or so that, and maybe you spoke about this yesterday, but Maduro called Trump a few days ago and begged him, you know, just give me enough time to get out. I'll give you all the oil, you know,

all these reports that we're seeing that the CIA tried to recruit the pilot to land the plane in Key West and trick Maduro into thinking he was landing in Cuba and where does this go? Is it over for Maduro? I think there's, I think that, you know, negotiations rely on trust, and I think there's too much mistrust, particularly on Maduro's side toward the U.S., and understandably so, that, like, you know, he can't trust any deal because of what you just said, right? If, let's just say, you know, we have a, a Ferdinand Marcos type situation scenario. It's like, you can board the, you can board the chopper or the plane with your bag, your gym bag full of bullion and get the fuck out.

Okay, but who can believe the U.S. at this point? I mean, you know, who's going to, and this is not specific to this current president, but in general, you know, we lie a lot. Our deals are not like set in stone. He could easily end up getting, you know, his advisors have to be telling him, oh, you know, you could be, you could, you could end up, you know, in, you know, occupying the cell formerly occupied by Noriega in the Georgia prison system. So I don't know, I don't think they can, I don't think they can come to terms. and the challenge for Trump is does he want to go to I mean there could be armed resistance from the Venezuelans there's a lot of guns in that country and they have a lot of militia you know it could look a lot like a South American version of Iraq and you know he knows that that destroyed

Bush he's president partly because of Bush's mistakes in Iraq he's not he knows this so it's kind of like I think I think he wants to sort of put much Maduro out, like sort of, and if it works, if it's not too hard, he's willing to do it. But if it requires a ground invasion and all that, like, no. What do you think? I think you're exactly right. I think that Maduro genuinely wants to settle this. And if that means that he gets out with his bag of bullion, he would be willing to do it.

But he cannot trust the United States to let him get out, to make. his way to Cuba or to Moscow or wherever it is he's going to run. And so he feels panicked and stuck. With that said, I genuinely do not see a scenario where the U.S. sends ground troops. I don't either. I can't see it. I mean, I can't even imagine a Bush Cheney administration doing that. And certainly not this president, who's so skeptical of foreign adventurism. Although, when the truth comes out from the Trump administration, when a tell-all book in 15 years, which you and I will be at the bookstore, if bookstore still exist, to buy. It's like, I am always going to want to know whose fucking idea was this boat bombing campaign.

I don't think it was President Trump's. Totally agree. I think this came directly from Heg-Seth. This is a, it's a boneheaded fucking thing. It makes no sense. I mean, you know, we talked about it, the fake, you know, the fake cartel, the fake, the fake drugs, the fake everything about it, the whole thing smells so bad. It's so dumb. Couldn't agree more. Philip Blair's asking me how safe my friend in Khartoum is.

He's a controversial political cartoonist in Sudan, so he's not safe. Does Zelensky end up in Israel because of the investigations? What do you think? You know, it's possible. I told you, I've read that. that he just recently bought a house in Greece. We've seen reports over the past couple of years that he has a house in London.

Italy also, right? I think that, well, for me, my bottom line is he does not retire and live happily ever after in Ukraine. No. I think that's that's. There's no world in which that happens. No. I mean, it's hilarious.

I mean, Karzai still lives in Kabul, which I still can't get over. But he's under house arrest. Oh, is he? Oh, yeah. so basically is it kind of like he has his beautiful house and it's sort of like what's her name from uh from from from from from from from from from from from from from yeah um yes i'm san suchi yeah where she

hey ted ted the last time i left uh i left Kabul i left in a in a helicopter and um the helicopter goes in a it's called a corkscrew take off so so does so does the passenger plane yeah so that you can't fire a rocket at it and um you you go over these absolutely magnificent palatial homes and those are the heroin poppy traffickers homes they're so gaudy and gross gody painted in the gaudiest colors that he lives in one of those oh frasmataz this is for you john but um i might have a thought what would be curious what you have to say about the dc shooting with regarding to resettlement for collaborators is this an economic issue or a PTSD issue or both. It's certainly a PTSD issue. Yeah, I believe very strongly

that it's a PTSD issue. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I don't think anyone will ever work for us overseas if we never admit any of our former collaborators. No way. I mean, as it is, we're not very good at it. Okay, Chris Stubbs. What caused our hand to wash what was going on in Vietnam like Laos was? Vietnam happened because of the guns and drug running out of Laos. and the French connection. Okay, guys, I'm going to have to ask for better spelling and grammar when I read your questions because it's like, we're doing the show live. We're reading them on the air.

And like, if I have to interpret your typing, you know, that's going to be hard. Okay, sorry. Sorry about that. Don't mean to be snotty that way. Okay, so let's talk about this, well, we can talk about maybe the immigration judge thing before we bring in Achilles in a few minutes. So an immigration judge was one of many people, federal employees, fired by Trump earlier this year under the whole Doge thing. And so she filed a lawsuit complaining about discrimination under the Civil Rights Act.

She said that she was fired because she's female, also because she's a double citizen of the U.S. and Lebanon, and because she ran as a Democrat for a municipal office at one point. And so she's claiming violation of her First Amendment rights as well. the government's counterargument says that the president has power to oversee the executive branch under Article 2 of the Constitution. That's true. And that that right overrides the Civil Rights Act. So if the government's argument prevails here, this would mark a, you know, a real weakening of the Civil Rights Act. Seriously, yeah. I think the administration is wrong.

I think the argument is wrong. The Civil Rights Act has been in place since, what, 1965? Yeah. And the only exemption historically to the protections of the Civil Rights Act have been at the CIA. So everybody in the government is protected by the Civil Rights Act, by the Civil Service Act, except the CIA, which serves at the pleasure of the president. If there's somebody at the CIA, the president doesn't like his tie or his face, he's fired. There's nothing he can do about it.

But in the rest of government, that's never been the case. And I think she's going to win. Although I will say I am deeply troubled that an immigration judge has dual citizenship. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, do you think in order to accept that job, I mean, you and I both have dual citizenship? Yeah. Do you think that she should have had to renounce her Lebanese citizenship? I do.

Listen, if I were an immigration judge and a Greek came before me, I'd give the Greek anything you wanted. I would. I'm biased. I'm that way. Yeah, I love the French. I'm the same way. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, that's a really good point. She could recuse herself from anything involving Lebanese national. Yes. Yes, indeed. I mean, I would hate to give up my French citizenship. Oh, my God. I value it so much.

Me too. I'm so proud to be a dual citizen. And, man, I can't wait. Every time I land in Europe and I whip out that EU passport and I blow right through immigration in 10 seconds. And that's the whole point, isn't it? Yeah, Robbie hates that. I'm going to bring in Robbie right now.

He can rant about that, and then we'll bring in Aquila's. Robbie, let's remind people about your, so we've raised $207 out of $1,000 needed. Thank you. By the way, I think, you know, we got to start, like, hitting a level, like, where John and or I send out, like, books to people who, you know, donate enough money and stuff like that. But, and we're working on that. This show is still, it's just the three of us, you know. So thank you so much for, you know, for your support there.

Robbie, if you could talk a little bit about why everyone should migrate over to Rumble and talk a little bit about what we're doing and why we're raising money for you. And then we'll bring in Achilles. Sure. Well, the reason why you're raising money for me is so that way I can pay my bills. And I appreciate the ability to do so. So that's a huge help. So thank you.

but no i mean as far as why you want to come over to rumble i'm going to paint this real simple because i'm a simple guy for every nickel that youtube pays john and ted rumble pays 98 cents and literally i mean honest to god that's what it is it's it's pure economics rumble pays them significantly more yeah when the rumble check comes you know john and i view that as good news when the youtube check comes in you don't even tele-tell that's like finding money on the ground yeah yeah pretty much and another really cool thing about the way that rumble works is that one it is a free speech platform youtube will censor the ever living hell out of you if you say the wrong thing that goes against their wonderful community

moderators rumble you don't have their problem don't shoot porn you're fine so that's literally that that's that was my plan well you you get sorry you have to go to only fans for that sorry i'll shoot but also though uh just to kind of fill a little cherry on the top rumble you get premium content that you can't get anywhere else and what's really cool is that if you become a channel subscriber on rumble for five dollars a month you have access to that or we'll see everybody's premium content do it for ten dollars a month of the rumble premium and the kicker is is that if you become a channel subscriber rumble does not take a dime of that money that goes straight to the host which is huge because no youtube takes 40 percent rumble doesn't rumbull's built around the creator Rumble has never censored John and Ted, YouTube has, and Rumble is also allowing them to pay their bills. So, honest to God, that is, without Rumble, the show and it exists. Let's just be honest what it is here.

Okay. And you can tell it, and you can tell John and I why we're both wrong for being dual citizens. Well, because, I mean, that's easy. And then we're going to bring in Achilles. Honestly, God, because I wonder Achilles might actually have something to weigh in on this. Oh, here we go. We'll bring them in right now. Bring him on in.

That way, y'all can tell me how I'm like. All right. So here's Achilles Lera. He's from the head of Leraia wealth management, the author of a new book. Achilles, nice to see you. We're going to talk about the economy. But there's a lot of economic news. But let's talk about, so keep going, Robbie.

Well, how I see it with dual citizenship is that what is an escape valve. If you think the things are being bad in the country that you live in, you say, screw it, it doesn't impact me. You can just take your shackles, go somewhere else, and sit hell with it. So you take all the benefits, take all the, take all the money, take all the resources, go somewhere else. You have nothing best in the future. That's the problem of dual citizenship. I mean, my family's been here since the 1600s.

My ancestors are buried here. I'm not going anywhere. If this country falls apart and dies, I'm going on with it because I have nowhere else to go. My kids have nowhere else to go. I have a vested interest to make it better. Robbie, we can have a gay marriage. I'll bring you with me to France. No, I'm not a sodomite.

sorry that's just not going to work well then let's just say it's just playing that up whatever it's not going to happen but now honest to God though I mean that's my argument about it if you care about the country that you're in if if you love your country

they have to be investing in the future that's why having kids is so important that's why your citizenship matters that's why Trump's selling citizenship with his gold card especially a stupid fucking thing to do it's cheap in citizenship what's the point if you can just buy it

what the hell is this is this Rome well i'm always i'm always very i get i'm always hot for rome arguments currently reading uh wealth and uh what is it called uh wealth uh thrones and power um by dan jones pop history of oh yeah of the collapse of the of the roman empire in the middle ages so good book well worth reading very very fun read rami i'm going to let you have the last word on that point and we're going to bring in achilles right now um so achilles lurea thank you so much for joining us Friend of the show. Pleasure to be here as always, guys.

As always. So the polls are very clear. The American people left, right and middle, all want the president to focus on affordability. I wrote my syndicated column last week about how, in my opinion, the last thing we want is to risk a deflationary spiral by actually succeeding in dropping prices. What we really need is more income for American workers so that people can pay these higher prices. What's a you on that? And then I want to ask you about the AI bubble talk. Yeah, it's very interesting when we talk about that. We've seen wage stagflation for more than a decade right now. Wages have not kept up with the cost of living. And it's very interesting. I don't know if you're following this across the country, but it's very interesting to see that Starbucks with its unions, they're walking the picket line.

right now. Any effective change. Now, you don't have to be the biggest union fan per se, but how does change get affected in this country? It was done through unions protesting. You know, the average office worker cannot do that because most states have an at-will employment where they can dump you at the drop of a hat, kind of like what John was pointing to before with the CIA. So going back, you know, with that wage speculation, unless we see some dramatic change from corporations where they start to flow some of that cash flow

that normally goes to the CEOs and to shareholder values, I don't foresee any affordability per se. And I'm going to give you a case in point. I always go to the Rice example in the Asian markets. All right. Go to the Asian

supermarkets. here, H-Mart, and there are quite a few here in New York City. And these guys, just not even three months ago, guys, they were at $24 to $26 for a 20-pound bag of rice, white rice, jasmine rice. And that same bag I went to H-Mart yesterday just cost me $34, $36. So the perfect example of close to 50% price increase. Correct. And that's not the only place we're seeing it. But that is the place where the American consumer is seeing it on a regular basis.

It's thrown in your face. You say, Christmas, not a Baham, but Christmas, holy cow. And then to top it off, these tariffs, whether they go through or not, that's on the higher end. you're not just going to affect the low-level consumer. You're affecting the higher-level consumer who's going and buying these different items and going to have to pay 30 to 50% more guys. So the question becomes,

what can this administration do to make sure that the affordability comes into play? And it seems that New York is front and center in a lot of cases because the cost of living is so high. That's why this mayor was elected right or wrong, but it is the perception that people have, going to the store, paying the rent, regular cost of living, gasoline.

You know, we've seen a jump in gasoline as well here. So are the inflation numbers bullshit? I mean, there was a... Good question. There was a website. They're lower. They're lower than you think. That's what I mean. being reported that's for sure all right you mean what you think inflation is lower than being reported

i'm sorry the other way around the other way around so yeah i mean there's a website called shadow government statistics that has argued for years that the the actual real inflation rate the way that it used to be calculated when we were kids is closer to 10 12 13 percent yeah it looks like we're going back to where we were during the Biden administration, but some areas are worse. Because I don't, I just don't believe all those years where it was like, oh, inflation rate is 1%. It's like, where? I mean, like what's, I mean, some things don't go up, right?

Like, a TV is ridiculously cheap. Like, I'm almost suspicious that a flat screen TV for $212 isn't going to blow up my house, but it won't. It's a beautiful, amazing device. But most things, right? I mean, all the big expenses, right, housing, fuel, transportation, education, health care. They're all through the roof. Yeah, I agree with you.

I think that certain, the inflation numbers do not take the consumer into account. I mean, if you look at the CPI number, consumer price index number, perfect example. It excludes certain expenditures that we as. consumers see on a normal basis, you know, then you, the Fed will look not at the CPI, they're going to look more at the PPI, which is the producer price index to X that amount out of the equation and go with the wholesale numbers. So, yeah, we are seeing numbers that are quite askewed. I think that the inflation rate is closer to 5, 6% at this point. I think the Fed has still work to do.

I think cutting these interest rates down is a good start, but I think we have to make things more affordable for the consumer, and that is not going to go away. And unless wage inflation starts to take front and center in the conversation with corporations, with not only sustainability, but affordability, and making, you know, a sense of, you know, one thing is to have shareholder value. I get it. You know, you want to enhance shareholder value.

Your bonus depends on if you're a CEO. But at the same time, you've got to say, hey, why is my guy, my employee, living out of his car in California, coming into work, you know, going to Planet Fitness to shower and, you know, doing. The current CEO of Ford was just interviewed by Fortune Magazine. He had a piece that really blew up on the Internet. Basically, Henry Ford was famous for doubling his workers' salaries to say, I want my $2, I believe, $5 an hour back in, you know, 100 years ago, saying, you know, I want my employees to be able to buy my cars.

It's not because I'm a nice person. And Henry Ford was not a nice person. No, he was ruthless. Yeah. But the thing is that like, but he wanted, but he, it was self-interest, right? The new CEO talked about because of the way the bifurcated labor contracts basically made it so that the new employers in the factories were making $17 an hour. Some of these guys are like suffering mental health issues. They're working at the factory.

Then they go work at an Amazon warehouse all night long. They come in after two or three hours of sleep. No wonder. They're like fucking miserable. And so the, in the latest contract. they boosted those workers' wages a lot. You know, I mean, that's kind of what you're talking about. Aquila, let me ask you a question from one of our viewers.

Thanks for the five bucks U.S. Triple X-A-Rod. Question for you, how hard does it make your job to interpret the economy when you're going off numbers provided by an administration that has only sought favorable numbers and hired sick offense? Not to mention there's been a shutdown and the numbers haven't been available the last like you know two months you know it's a great question and there's no easy answer we kind of have to uh i hate to say this we have to sift through the BS you know uh we have to sift through the non numbers that we don't see i mean we we're not going to have uh updated numbers from

october so the Fed is kind it's not flying bind but it's most certainly relying on ADP numbers which is not enough information uh relying on solely PPI, CPI numbers is not enough information for them to do their jobs. I think they're going to have no recourse but to cut rates in December. I don't see that not happening. They're always so slow at it. Yeah. In my opinion.

There's a reason. You know, the minute you get too aggressive with cutting rates, you can throw us into a recession faster than you say, John. You know, it's just so quick. And this occurred before. What do you mean, raising rates, right? Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. It seems on a little reverse today, guys. Today's Dyslexia Tuesday.

So let's talk about some of the big economic news. I can't let you go without talking about the AI bubble. So everybody, is there one? No, no. It's still in its infancy, guys. I mean, you know, we talked about, I talk about this with media all the time, you know, look at the dot-com bubble. Yeah, there was a bubble there, but look how fast all of a sudden we're talking about this bubble. You know, the, the time frame

is so condensed, so short. You know, personally, I think that AI is still in its infancy. There's still a lot to go as far as this is concerned. I think there's still a lot of money to be made in this area, and I, you know, I'm guilty as charge making that money. So, You know, I also believe in quantum computing. I also believe in related nuclear. Something has to power this. And it ain't going to be solar and it ain't going to be coal. So your traditional sources aren't going to do that.

You need nuclear power. Well, yesterday on the show where Robbie was filling in for John, we talked about these AI data centers, these data centers that are driving up electricity rates, particularly in rural America. and there's a thought that it might become a potent political issue, like the new price of eggs. Yeah, you know, I don't disagree with that. I think that it affects us all, but the byproduct of that is that we are heading into a new era with new technology that is going to benefit all of us.

But isn't it kind of, I mean, look, I use AI, so I'm not going to bitch about it. But like, isn't it kind of fucked up that, you know, at a time when we're worried about climate change and greed, house gases. We're literally amping up, you know, the stupidest thing ever is crypto. Like, we literally waste electricity on purpose in order to mine crypto. But now, you know, just so we can have a faster Google search, you know, we're going to fuck up the planet too. Well, it's beyond Google. I mean, the search itself is much more detailed. It's like Google on steroids. If you look at chat GPT and you look at how it could fund the business. create opportunities.

If chat GPT, let me look at it, but that's a whole different topic. Yeah, well. I'm blocked on chat GPT. Maybe they don't like you anymore, Ted. You said something, John, and you know about this, the conspiracy behind these companies, and they look to F you out of opportunity. Seriously. A question for you is from KT catastrophe.

Anyone think housing will ever become affordable again? It's a good question. no no i don't i don't see that uh i wish it were true uh can the government do anything i think what would be interesting is someone needs to figure out how can we take the housing starts you know let's just say for arguments take the cost of building housing right now bring it back into the country but affordably have special programs that may are quasi-subsidized by the government to not but not what you're accustomed right now, but have some sort of green deal, new deal with these companies where they can construct

and rehab apartments or houses. That way a certain segment of the population can have the American dream, because the American dream, unfortunately, for home ownership, is dying. It died a long time ago in Japan, you know. Houses actually were affordable at some point. By the way, the Japanese don't like new homes. I mean, old homes. So you can get an old home pretty cheap over there. Having stopped in one of those old Japanese houses in Kyoto with the right, with open

courtyards and rice paper walls on a 30 degree day, I can see why they don't like those. Well, you know, they don't have heater. in their homes because of the earthquakes. Right. You know, so... And the rice paper walls. That's it. That's it.

So, you know, going back in absence of some sort of quasi-government deal, FHA-type deal, I don't see the forwardability coming back into the equation anytime soon. But who knows? There's a lot of smart people out there, guys. It's going to be a political football in a huge way. I mean, last time this country did anything, in any attempt to make housing afford. was like after World War II urban renewal and public housing

obviously with mixed results to say the least but I mean people are pissed about it it's literally the American dream and you're telling them they can't have it yeah yeah it's a challenge to say the least but you know what we have a lot of smart people in this country

so I hope that someone kind of figures it out they all seem so quiet though well you know what it's not profit making yeah Well, something doesn't make a profit. I'd keep my mouth shut, too. We have a question that was kind of waiting for you from before you came on from Phil Chats. And thanks for that question.

How is Japan looking right now? Well, Japan is facing a demographic challenge right now. And what's happening there is that, and the same thing in China, where you have this older population, people living into their 80s, 90s, hundreds, easily. And there is not enough young people. There is not enough birth rate percentage going up to cover the, you know, so they're going to face a deficit. They're going to face issues all related to that.

You know, health care could become acute, you know. That's our future too, isn't it, though? I mean, yeah, well, it's not just our future. I mean, I see it across Europe going to happen sometime within the next 10 years. Absolutely. You know, I mean, all you have to do is take a lost generation because of World War II. You know, so that's, you know, the amount of people to cover those pension schemes that they have throughout Europe, the numbers don't add up.

How are you going to cover that up? Everybody loves Europe. I mean, I hear, I get things about Italy every single day, and I'm not Italian. But I get things say, hey, come to Italy, you know, you'll get a pension, you know, do work here or whatever on the cheap or what have you. You know, the life of a digital nomad seems very real until you're in your 60s, 70s, and you realize that you have nothing saved up, you know, for a pension or the like. Or there's nothing to cover. Can you take one last question before you take out? Of course.

Okay, because I know you have a hard out. So, and thank you for sticking around. The case-shaped economies in the news, and basically that's just a fancy, or not as so fancy, but it's a way of just saying the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. And, you know, how much do you believe in that and how much of a, you know, economic and political effect do you think it's going to have? Hey, if you just look at history, guys, think about it. The rich have always gotten richer, you know, but there's a trade-off here.

Except after a revolution. that's right well you know if you didn't lose your head you you sure made out like a bandit during the french revolution you know so the and this is why we talked about dual citizenship you know or multiple citizenship hey when it's time to get out of dodge it's time to get out of dodge you know i'd love to stick around but you know what if i have the means and the resources to get the heck out doesn't mean i'm any i'm disloyal to my country it just means that i'm not going to stick around till somebody figures it out while you know stuff goes to hell in a handbasket so uh yeah there's always going to be beneficiaries of chaos uh in the world and i mean uh john would know this

as well you know look at afghanistan you know i'm sure that there are beneficiaries aside from the poppy aside from uh you know other type commodities but i'm sure the middlemen made a lot lot of money with the withdrawal. The middlemen made a lot of money with the new administration, the Taliban coming back in and the like. You know, we see that throughout the world. Graft, you know, outside of the U.S., and we have it here in the U.S., graft works. It is the oil of many of these economies. So the rich, if you're a middleman, if you're, you know, someone there who can facilitate you're going to make out like a bandit during chaos i always like to end on the on a dark note and so thank you for that achilles um Achilles la rea is the head of la rea wealth

management in new york city um thank you so much for joining us and a real pleasure and uh take care and stay safe and don't drive out there thank you guys always a pleasure good to see you Nice seeing you. Okay, and DeJohn, we have an ad. Oh, okay. Ready to level up your game. Aim controllers is where custom meets unbeatable value, and right now it's the best deal of the year.

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that's right lifetime one other company does that exactly normally a fully loaded setup could run you 400 bucks but during our one price promo it's just 209 US dollars or 182 euros no matter how many features you add use code rumble at checkout and lock it in this is your sign go to aimcontrollers.com and build the last controller you'll ever need and so just a reminder everyone we still have we're still taking your questions if you're watching us live on rumble or YouTube. If you're watching us streaming, thank you for doing that. Most of you are in that boat. And so we really appreciate you. Please like, like and follow and share the show. John, I'm sure you're the same age as I am. And so, you know, I remember when I was a college student in the early 80s, I was like the, you know, I was the dork among my friends who were like literature majors and stuff.

So I read the news like crazy. I used to run out to get like three newspapers from the newsstand every morning. And, you know, I read all the news magazines. And I remember, I think it was 1983 or so. And I came back to my dorm with a copy of, I think it was Time magazine. And they had this article about this new weird disease that was afflicting the LGBT community. Right. They called it gay cancer.

Yeah. And they didn't. It changed names a bunch of times before. settling on AIDS. Now we call it HIV. And so it's, I went to more funerals during that period than I could count. I mean, it's the first time I bought a black suit because it just became necessary and lost so many people. It was a hideous disease. And then now we've gone through this period of the, you know, retrovirals and people have been living, you know, think about Magic Johnson, who, that amazing press conference, he came, he, he, he came out.

with, you know, where he basically was like, I have this. I got it from a girl, a really hot heterosexual girl. Sure. But the point is, you know, but he's still going strong and, you know, as are lots of other people mercifully. And this was news that I think we've, you know, been hoping for for years, for decades. Finally, there's, there's a highly anticipated study that looks like you're going to be able to not take a bunch of pills every morning to control your HIV. We already have this world where we have positive negative couples where like one couple, one member of the couple has is positive. The other one is negative.

They don't even use any barriers for sex. And they don't transmit because the viral load doesn't transmit is kept low enough that even if you have unprotected sex, it's okay. It's so people can be married and live a long time. But now you may be able to abolish that completely. it's not a sure thing but it's looking incredibly good yeah that's incredible like you i have i had several friends who died of AIDS i even have a relative who is HIV positive and has been for 30 years now i guess um this is going to be life-changing for a lot of people and it also goes to

show you the the immense good that can come from government funded research you know this is exactly what NIH should be doing it's exactly what the federal government should be funding and working together with with private organizations to come up with something like this kudos to them yeah the world has waited for a long time yeah i mean this is like i mean it was almost at a point where you like wonder if it's ever going to happen yeah exactly right um let's see uh got to do a shout out Thank you so much for the $50 donation from Rumble's unsung, Pat. Well, we'll sing your praises. Regarding Russia, 1991, what Gorbachev heard from Baker, that's the 1994 Yeltsin-Clinton-Moscow

summit, and the Putin asked for NATO membership since redacted, Slick Willie Clinton again, 2014 call from Kiev to the United States. So, yeah, no, I mean, for people who know those references, I've always thought that was You know, I can, it's that we had, we blew an opportunity to be friends with Russia that we never should have. So former President Hernandez from, this is just breaking now of Honduras, has been pardoned by President Trump as well as released. So he's out and about. Do you think, John, this is a, you know, President Trump is a, is a stage master. He loves stagecraft and he loves timing.

He knows it really well. He's impeccable. He's a pro that way. Do you think this precedes a possible pardon coupled with a graceful accident for Maduro from Venezuela? I will let you go. I will pardon you. Look, I just did it to the other guy. That had never occurred to me.

I can't imagine. I can't imagine because it seems like in that case, Trump won. wants a scalp. I think in the Honduras case, Trump wanted to affect the outcome of the current election that's that's underway right now. That's just so close, nobody knows how it's going to end up. I'm not sure Trump wants Maduro's scalp. I think he just wants him gone. That's why they had negotiations. Maybe. I never thought of that. It's certainly possible. It would certainly make the pill go down easier, right? Anyway, it's 10 o'clock Eastern time, which means it's time for the TMI show and the end

of the program. We will be back tomorrow, as we always are, 9 a.m. Eastern time. Thanks for watching, following and sharing the show. John, great to see you again. Good to see you. I'm looking forward to talking to you tomorrow again. And thanks for all your questions. Please support Robbie Aide and let's get to $1,000 so we can talk about other stuff instead.

See you tomorrow. TMI show coming up. Thank you.