DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Senate for Sale | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • After Democrats won a pair of special elections in surprise upsets, another bright spot for the party as they try to back the Senate: their candidates are raising a lot of money. Democrats have two weeks to squeeze concessions out of ICE—which has locked down its Texas gulag due to a measles outbreak—is it possible? • Trump wants to build a 250-foot-tall memorial arch in DC to celebrate July 4th. • Gulf Allies characterize Iran’s mid-range missiles as a deadly threat to the Middle East and US bases there. Turkey to host US-Iran negotiations. • Google accused of violating its own ethics rules by handing over AI tech to Israel, which is using it to build its surveillance state. Meanwhile, Israel bans MSF from Gaza as Rafah crossing sort-of reopens.JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLE!https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowFOLLOW TED:https://rall.com/https://x.com/tedrallFOLLOW JOHN:https://www.instagram.com/realjohnkiriakouhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLISTEN ON SPOTIFY:https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuLISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall

Good morning. It's Monday, February 2nd. Groundhog Day. Thank you for tuning into Deep Program with Ted Roll and John Kiriaku. John, good morning. Nice to see you. Good morning, Ted. Good to see you, buddy. As a person from Western Pennsylvania, I do want to ask you about this mysterious lore, which I recently did a deep dive into. I guess you probably know more about this than I do. The Green Man? Groundhog Day. Yeah, Groundhog Day. I mean, so first of all, I don't have to. I don't understand. understand the lore. Like, okay, so if he sees his shadow, then it's going to be six more weeks of winter? Six more weeks of winter. It's always six more weeks of winter on February 2nd. Especially if you're in western Pennsylvania. Right. So, and also, I don't, so I don't understand that

at all. And apparently also, it's been a different animal. Yeah, it's from Germany. Well, this is badger at one point, right? And yeah, and now it's a groundhog. And this is like the fourth or fifth groundhog since they switched it from Badger or Groundhog. Listen, we have millions and millions of groundhogs in Western Pennsylvania. They're like squirrels. They're everywhere and they're big. When I was in college, I was a toll collector on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as a summer job one year. Oh, wow. And so my boss asked me to pick her up on the way to work one time. So I picked her up. And to show her thanks, she gave me a Tupperware with some stew in it. And she said, groundhog stew.

She said, I bet you've never had it before. And I said, no, I've never eaten a groundhog before. And she said, well, they're really tough. So you have to boil them in saltwater all night long. But then the next morning, they make a delicious stew. Nobody in my family would touch it. I ate it. And it was actually quite good.

It tasted like beef. well but anyway these groundhogs man they are absolutely everywhere also when i was on the turnpike this the long distance trucker asked me one time he was coming through my lane and he said hey buddy what are all these these animals that i see on the side of the road they're they're like they're like um what did he call it like a big oh like a big musk rat i said oh those are those are groundhogs i said man they're everywhere everywhere and they make big holes they ruin your yard Yeah. They're everywhere.

Although I had one in my old house in the Hamptons living under my, under my tool shed, and it was causing the wood floor to collapse. And my handy guy is like, oh, I can get rid of that for you. And my inner little boy was like, I'm like, what would you mean? How would you get rid of it? He's like, oh, we gas it. Yeah. And I'm like, you want a fucking bookinval, my fucking backyard?

I'm like, no, thank you. Like, part of why I like living in the country. is like, you know, it's like I like living with these wonderful animals. He rolled his eye, you know, pussy. Yes. Isn't that awful? It is, it is. Although I definitely have a different view of deer now that, you know, I've gotten to know them.

It's kind of like people kill them. That's fine with me. We have more deer, many, many more deer now than we had at the time of the Revolutionary War. Well, that's because we have no wolves, right? That's right. That's right. The wolves are gone. The wolves are gone in most of the time.

people don't hunt for deer. I used to joke that like, you know, reintroducing wolves to the Hamptons would keep the, rich, would keep the summer vacation spicy. Say that again. Speaking of Pennsylvania, John, and then we're going to get into the news of the day, which includes, but is not limited to, this spike of democratic fundraising. They're rolling, they're raking in the cash. I got it. We got to talk about this memorial arch in D.C. Not going to happen. Iran. Got to talk. about that and Google and Google in their deal with Israel, which is taking heat.

And obviously the Epstein files. But John Federman, the America's pride and joy and best representative for the mentally ill is, you know, he's he's on, he's now on record. He's going on social media. He's very upset about ICE agents being doxed. And he says like, you know, they can't be demasked. John, I got a question. I mean, if you're a law enforcement officer from any other agency, FBI, local police, state police, you're identified. You could be doxed, right? When the FBI approaches you, they hand you their card so you can, like, reach out to them anytime. They always show you their ID. I mean, if you're an LEO from another agency, are you pissed off that ICE is getting special treatment? I sure would be. And then there's a question. And then there's the

constitutional question. I wish we need to get like Ron Kuby or someone like that on to answer some of these questions sometimes. But like what about, you know, in America, under the Constitution, you have the right to confront your accuser. You know, I mean, if ICE is accusing you of being in the country illegally or committing some other violation, don't you have the right to know the name of the officer who's accusing you of that? I certainly would think so. I'll tell you, Fetterman went on Fox News last night, I guess it was, yelling about protesters. He looked like a homeless guy. He went wearing a sweatshirt and shorts, looking like a bum like he always does.

A complete embarrassment to the people of Pennsylvania. True. I still want my 50 bucks back. Yes. And yeah, and it was all about hating on protesters. Now, the only decent thing he said was that was that, uh, Pretti and what was the woman's name? Good.

Good. Should still be alive, that it's terrible. They were killed. Yeah, it is. So why are you still standing up for their killers? Right. I don't understand it. But, um, I,

yeah, listen, he, he just has a bad habit of making a fool of himself everywhere he goes. Everywhere he goes. I'm also going to say, like, I think that like a lot of times, um, people in power disregard basic human psychology. If you make information hard to get and scarce, like the names of ICE officers, that's going to make it a contest. That's going to make people want to know and obsess on the names of these people. And they're moral, I think it puts them in greater peril, actually,

because you're trying to keep them hidden. Agreed. Agreed. It fetishizes their, you know, their identity. It does. In the same way that like, look, the Epstein files, obviously journalists have been and other people have been pouring over the release of three million documents, but there's three

million more that haven't been released. And the administration is kind of implying they're not, they don't intend to release them unless they're forced to. That makes everybody wonder what's in the other three million, right? That's right. And that it makes rich and powerful people look bad. and I mean, maybe they don't, but we don't know that. No.

But like when you hide things, it's just naturally people are going to be suspicious. I was on what's it called LBC last night. I think it's LBC. Let me look. LBC. It's a British radio station last night talking about these Epstein files. And exchanging emails with one of my correspondence about the word bread.

There are thousands and thousands of references to bread in these files. It's weird. And my only conclusion there was either it's some kind of a code that the Justice Department hasn't told us about or he had this bizarre obsession with high-end gourmet baker's bread. It's very strange. Anyway. Well, I mean, it's a good part French.

That might explain it. The point that I wanted to make was what I said on this LBC show last night. They asked how seriously Americans were taking this because Lord Mandelson now appears in a picture with an obviously underage girl. They're looking at a laptop together and he's in his underwear. And he had been claiming, promising, swearing that he never. ever, ever had contact with any underage girl. Bloop, there's the picture.

So now last night he resigned from the labor party. He's just walking into the sunset in disgrace. Same thing with you, Prince Andrew stuff. Same thing with the former Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor. They said, what's next? Does it get worse for them? And I said, I think, no, it doesn't get worse. But what we're seeing now is pretty darn bad.

I said they're not going to be, they're not going to be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired in all of these cases. They may be sued because the victims just became aware of crimes that were committed against them or of evidence, rather, of crimes committed against them. But I said, look at it this way. And when they die, their obituaries are all going to be about the Epstein files. True. Forever.

forever. And that's just like being in a prison forever, I think. They're ruined. Their reputations are ruined and deservedly so. There was another thing, too. There's talk that either or both maybe Mandelson and Andrew would be subpoenaed to testify before a congressional committee. I said it won't happen. Even if they were, they're not subject to a congressional subpoena. They're foreign nationals. They're not in the United States. All they have to do is ignore it. I said, I think that for the most part, this whole thing is over for them. Well, the Brits want them to testify before Parliament. Yeah, they do. Yes, they do. I don't, I'm not familiar with, I assume they could be dragged before Parliament and compelled to testify, but I don't know, I don't know English law.

Yeah, they can't be compelled. But not in the U.S., but I mean, could they be compelled in the U.S.? In the U.K. in the UK it's possible i suppose yeah we need a we need a brit to weigh in on this yeah obviously we have english uh viewers so yes you guys want to chime in on the youtube and or the rumble chat and those now speaking of which um if you are uh in the if you're watching live on youtube or rumble please go ahead and put in your questions we already have a few of them uh waiting in the wings that we're going to get to um but go ahead we always try to get to all of them um please Like follow. Go ahead.

I'm sorry. Sorry, sorry. Go ahead. All right. My other thing is, I'm not sure. I mean, this is a test test. Let's see if Robbie's mic is working. Robbie is your mic working?

I believe so. It is first. Yeah, there it is. All right, very quickly. It is not only Groundhog Day, but it's also the first day of D program in the month of February, which it means it's once again time for Robbie Aid when we shake everybody down for, we're trying to get to $1,000 on Robbie's GoFund to me. Every month, you guys have been great.

You guys have been doing it every month. So we really desperately need Robbie to stay on as our producer. John and I each kick in 500 bucks each month to Robbie. And Robbie makes due between this and other gigs and your $1,000. He's able to make, hopefully, make ends meet. So please go to GoFundMe and search for Deprogram Robbie. I put the full URL up on the screen. GoFundMe.com slash F slash Dprogram Robbie.

Robbie, if you want to add anything to that, go ahead. No, just I appreciate all the support that the folks have been given me. I mean, even people who don't agree with me politically, which is the vast majority of you, not surprising where I am. Helping Robbie is helping John and I, too. Don't forget that. It is very much. And lastly, come on over to Rumble.

Rumble pays John and Ted significantly better than YouTube. I will drop the link. And I mean, significantly better for every nickel that YouTube pays. Rumble pays them like 94 cents. And if you're doing the exact same things, come on over, the weather's fine. And viewership is going great, and we really appreciate your donations.

And definitely, I would say that, like, I'm breathing a sigh of relief finally, that the show is viable. You know, it's, you know, it's not, we're not living, we're not living like kings here. We're not Joe Rogan, but,

or Seth Rogan or any other Rogan, but we're doing, but it's definitely things are moving well in the right direction. Okay, thanks very much for that, Robbie. We will just remember gofundme.com slash deprogram Robbie. As soon as we get to a thousand bucks, we'll keep you posted on this, and we won't bother you until early March. Okay.

So, John, should we take some questions since they're backed up, and then we'll talk about the Democrats or whatever? Sure, sure. That sounds like a plan. Okay. All right. Question from Google Homani, asking about the big, the gold and silver market.

markets, which John, you're a little more involved with than you used to be. Basically, both precious metals hit record highs last week and then crashed over the weekend. And, you know, what does this all mean is the question? I mean, I view this as a former banker and Wall Streeter. I viewed this as a standard correction. There was a lot of hype. A lot of people were following the news who don't normally buy gold and silver. They, like, oh, my gosh, it went way, way up, and then, you know, breaking all the rules of buying, buying low and selling high. People, that's not what people really do. People really do buy high.

Because it's going up. It might go up more. And then they do. And then there's profit taking from all the people who invested early. And they're like, suckers. And then they pull out. So, but I think the, you know, the main reason people go to gold and silver is fear of instability and distrust of conventional investments and distrust in the dollar.

And therefore, you know, I think all the sources of instability are still present. So, I mean, I don't, you know, full disclosure, I don't buy gold or silver. But let me put this way, there, I probably, you know, if I had some spare cash lying around right now, it wouldn't be the worst thing to do. I think in the long run, it'll go up. Well, this is really a reaction initially to the Trump tariffs. That's how this whole thing started. This whole run-up started.

So gold searched past $5,600 an ounce last week and then went back down. It was $35 an ounce when you and I were 10 years old. It was literally $35 an ounce. Yes. Richard Nixon took the price control off of it and it began floating with the international market. But it went up to $5,600. It's down significantly now. Let's see.

I'm going to find it while I'm talking. talking about this price of gold. But, and now it is 4740. And silver, which a year ago was $32 an ounce, is now $82 an ounce. So put this into perspective. Like I'm a coin collector also among all my many other collectors. I feel very sorry for my kid when I die. He's going to have to sort through all this crap. But, you know, we're now at the point where like gold, like $10 gold pieces, things like silver half dollars, that basically they no longer have numestatic value in many. It's only the value of the metal. Yes, the melt value. And that's it. That's really crazy. You know, and I travel a lot like you do. And I like to shop. I just do. It's fun. I find

it relaxing, not for myself, for other people. And even to buy a pair of, you know, gold earrings and a duty-free somewhere, you can't do it. No. You can't do it. It's just, it's just prohibitively expensive. Although I always think of earrings as like ultimately disposable. I bought my mom when I was doing well, a pair of diamond earrings because she'd always want them. She went straight to like one, you know, basically she went from two to one just like that. You know, you know it's in the vacuum cleaner bag somewhere. Earrings be getting lost so easily. Oh, that's terrible. But anyway, people are looking for a shelter. The dollar has dropped in value by 10% against the euro, by something like 12% against a pound. People don't fully

trust crypto. Even, even, what do you call it? Bitcoin is down significantly, like 20% since October. they're looking for somewhere to just stash their money where it's not going to lose value. And because everything else is so weak right now, the consensus has been around not just gold and silver, but platinum and palladium as well. And Barron said a week ago Saturday that if you really want to get in on the ground floor on something, buy copper right now. Ooh. Yeah.

However, copper is heavy. Yeah, copper is very heavy. I mean, one of the things I would look for, honestly, is I'm always thinking of post-apocalyptic scenarios, like total collapse of the U.S., like, you know, the greenback is worth nothing. But you can still show, you know, I don't know, a collectible watch or a, you know, or a gold coin to someone who will be like, oh, I know what a Krugerrand is. Okay, I'll take that, you know. Do you have gold in your IRA? For a free report, visit www.johnlovesgold.com. I've been watching your X-feed too.

Yeah, somebody hacked again last night. Yeah, we've got to, yeah, we got to fix that. Yeah, we talked about that. Beside myself. I think we can help you with that. I can help you with that too. Thank you. All right, hi from Sydney.

There's reports that the Five Eyes relations have been strained recently and that the U.S. wants Canada out. What kind of impact will this have on the alliance and the agencies involved? Thanks for the fiber from that key week. There's always tension. between the United States and Canada. Always. There's always tension between the CIA and the Canadian CSIS.

They really don't like each other. We don't work well together, but we have to acknowledge that we share the longest international border on the planet. And so, you know, whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not, we're stuck together. Yeah, we are. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, come on. It's just northern United States. They even copy the... the size of our coins. That's true. They're barely an independent country. If C. Morris, guys, if Trump is as innocent as he claims to be, why doesn't he sue for defamation related to the Epstein files?

He sues for everything else. Well, that part's true. Is he fearful of discovery being provided if he sued? He's talking about suing Trevor Noah because Trevor Noah made a joke at the Grammys last night. I don't think he will sue for that, though. No, I don't think he threatens a lot. Look, it's true. When I had my whole thing with the LA Times and I was trying to figure out whether I wanted to sue or not because, well, I mean, I wanted to sue.

But I'd know if I wanted to put myself through the hell scape that is the American legal system. Yes. And the, and you know, and Greg Pallas said like, dude, you got to sue. It's like, that's that way you're proving to everybody that you were really defamed. Otherwise, you're like, you know, people are going to think like, ah, they told the truth. And I was like, he was totally right. It's like, you have to expose yourself through. debt through you know like it's going to if you lied it's going to come out in discovery for sure oh yeah

it is so um i think it's a valid question honestly i don't think the president is guilty when it comes to all that i really don't either it could be it would it come out i think it i could be proven wrong but i'd be i'd be sure i think i think you're right i'll tell you one thing that i really hate i don't think it's his thing either no i don't think it's his thing i don't think so i'll tell you one thing that i hate i've got i've got a lot of friends from high school mostly uh who are very active on facebook and they're they're publishing stuff like a picture of of trump with uh an 11 year old and he AI yeah it's all AI it's all bullshit it's all alive there's mom donnie like little momdoni in with abstin and on AI ridiculous and and like just ridiculous it's like um yeah it's like

Everyone knew Epstein. Clovis was hanging out with Epstein. Everybody's saying, Exactly. But it's like, I mean, I do think that. But if you can't win your argument on the merits, they just walk away. Right.

No, I mean, I do think, so I can see, on the other hand, I could see the advantage of Trump filing this lawsuit, filing a suit. It would go a long way. Look, the best solution here is transparency. Yes. These other three million documents are going to come out.

You might as well just get them out. They should have all been, you know, Chris Christie said it yesterday morning. He said all six million documents should have been released six months ago. We wouldn't be talking about this anymore. He's right. I think that's right.

Yes. John, do you, Matthew wants to know, do you think the CIA should be scattered to the wind? And if so, should something replace it with oversight, of course. I do think it should be scattered to the wind. And I think it's already been replaced in that you've got defense human services that that recruit spies to steal secrets. You've got the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research that does finished intelligence analysis.

You've got NSA and DARPA that does all of the science and technology stuff. You know, we're the only country in the world that has 18 separate intelligence services. 18. Absurd. Yeah. I mean, somehow the Chinese who are a little bigger than us feel like they don't need 18. Right. John, what do you think?

Kirk Swenson wants to know. What do you think about Pennsylvania? students getting the first day of hunting season off as a holiday. Oh, man, I was the only one of my group of friends that didn't go hunting on the, on the first day of hunting season. My dad wasn't a hunter. He fished occasionally, and I fish, but I, we just were never hunters. But my friends were thrilled. Like, that was the, that was the happiest day of the year to have the first day of hunting season.

All the schools in the state are closed, and everybody goes hunting, except me. I really think that we need, like, honestly, like, you know, like having proper days off is so important for kids. Like, I can't believe that during the big snowstorm last week, Mayor Incoming brand new Mayor Mammany forced kids to do remote learning from home. I saw that. Gay. You know, here in Arlington County, we're more than a week past the snowstorm. The schools have not yet reopened.

Well, that's a little extreme. I mean. Yeah. And there is no remote learning for Arlington County. You just can't park your car, but most New Yorkers don't have one. Yeah. Five bucks from Elliott Covert. Thanks.

Can you guys provide your takes on the Clintons refusing to testify before Congress, despite the subpoena? Here, I'll be clear. Unlike President Trump, I think President Clinton is guilty. And I think that both he and Hillary know it. And that's why they're basically being silent and refusing to testify. What do you think, John? I think you're probably right.

I think that the refusal to testify is a secondary mistake. The Clintons are not special people in any way. And when you are subpoenaed to testify, by God, you go testify. And if you have something to hide, you take the fifth. At least show the respect for Congress and for that's right. And they don't have any respect. And you were the president of the United States. And you were a high-ranking cabinet secretary.

And she was a member of Congress. Yes. Issuing subpoenas to other people. Yeah. So I think that this week, I think it's disgusting. They're going to be held in contempt of Congress. Yeah.

And because. With a lot of Democratic votes. With Democratic votes. And because Steve Bannon was prosecuted and Steve Woods's his face was prosecuted, the trade guy, Navarro, we're going to see the Clinton's prosecuted. Yeah. And deservedly so. Yeah, I mean, for sure.

I mean, like, this isn't like, I would have far more sympathy if it was like, you know, Ilhan Homer refusing to testify. It's like, you know, this is someone, these are the people who've benefited the most from the American system. You know, they have a front row seat to the wealth and the power. They should follow all of the rules scrupulously. These are people, they should never double park. You know what I mean? They should be every day they should wake up, like, grateful and get on their hands and knees and be happy to live in the U.S. of A. I mean, those people, not all of us, but them.

Let's see. A few more questions. Could someone please run it as an arch conservative only to get elected and then turn Democratic Socialist bait and switch. That's like the Supreme Court guys who always turn liberal. Oh, yeah, that happens a lot. Hey, and so don, thank you for the 50 bucks, man. Yeah, thank you very much.

And let's answer that question. And I can't access his question. It says, good morning, guys, as I sit on my morning screwdriver after work, I'm asking myself, where's the humanity in our government? The Cuban people are suffering. And now we're trying to box them in. I mean, shame on our government. We must be better. We are better than that. Well, we're not better than that. We're not. We're not. And it's like, and the thing is, the American people don't even know, much less care. If they did know, they wouldn't care. Agreed. Catastrophe is in Minnesota, and I hate that they're all saying that we're paid agitators and must be backed by big money. Like, no, we're simply a community coming together.

As someone who's been active in leftist causes for many, many years, let me just say the whole paid agitator thing is bullshit, and someone should file a lawsuit against the people who claim that. I mean, literally, when you go on social media, the claim is because they see signs being passed out to protesters. Yeah, let me just tell you how that works. There are left-wing groups like the DSA who print up a bunch of signs. They spend like one or two grand.

They usually get it at a union print shop after hours. Then they pull up to the protest and they hand out the signs to people. It helps promote their organization because the name of the organization printed on the bottom of the sign. This is not George Soros money. It's the groups whose names are on the signs. That's all. And nobody's getting any payment. No one's getting zeld.

No one's getting Venmoed. Unfortunately, I'd have no problem with it if it was true. It's just not true. There's no advertising on Craigslist for crisis actors. No. No. I mean, again, it would be fine. It just isn't true, you know?

No, it's just not true. Okay. Pink Lady Apple, great show guys. John, I love your content, especially Dead Drop. Do you read fiction? Who's your favorite fiction writer and book? Well, it's going to sound kind of corny. But I have read every.

book that Stephen King has ever written. I love, love, love Stephen King. Even his one nonfiction piece on writing, oh my God, I marked it up in the margins and absolutely fantastic. If you have any thoughts about writing a book, you want to read Stephen King's on writing. Agreed. Yeah, no, it's absolutely essential. I don't read a lot of fiction, so I'm just going to be. That's the only fiction that I read. I'm a big nonfiction person. And I'm going back to rereading the second part of the trilogy about Hitler being in power. And I think I showed it on the show the other day.

It's just because I honestly think we are now, there's some parallels that I want to like investigate exactly how things went down in Germany in the 30s. Yeah. John, from HP, a couple questions for operations. If the CIA look for specific physical traits that are more or less saw. after. Physical traits. Physical traits. No, not really. I mean, you've got to be in decent. Is there a physical?

Only sort of the most rudimentary. The only reason that they have a physical is if you're morbidly obese, you can't get medical clearance to travel abroad. I see. But that's pretty much it. Yeah. I applied for the Naval Academy. And man, the physical,

It was two full days. I bet it's worse now at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. My favorite was the sensory deprivation chamber. That they put you in for like an hour. Yeah. And basically they just want to see if you'll freak out being in a dark place without any noise whatsoever. I just, for me, it was a golden opportunity for a map. I guess that's what they look for.

I have had, or I had two colleagues who, you know, got on a plane, to go out to the theater, one to Afghanistan, one to Pakistan. Colleagues, close colleagues, where we were friends and we hung out together and stuff. One had a blood clot on the plane and died on the plane. Fuck. And the other died in Kabul Airport just as he got off the plane. Oh, my God. Yeah.

Having been to Kabul Airport, I don't want to die there. It's not the place where you want to have a medical emergency. No. No, sir. Certainly not. Yeah. Handsome Libertardian question for both of us. With him gaining public and national popularity with the Epstein files to release,

do you think there's any shot of Thomas Massey making a 2028 run for president? Absolutely not. No. And my reason, my reason is, first of all, he could, I don't even think, there's no chance he could get the Republican nomination. Not a chance. I mean, you know, you could see like in a different country, like a unity ticket with like a far, you know, combined with a far lefty,

like a, you know, like a populist left, populist right. Yes. Combo ticket. Like, they could pull that off in a place like France. Yes. They're not going to do that. In the U.S., it just doesn't work. So you can't get the Republican nomination.

No. And then if he somehow magically got the Republican nomination, I mean, there's no way to win in the general because every Democrat is going to be like, just going to be like Thomas Massey, he was a right wing Republican. He was a right wing Republican. He was a right wing. That's it. I mean, no one can get past that.

I have. people who know that he's different are Republicans. That's it. I have deep respect for Thomas Massey. Deep respect. And he is as honest as the day is long. But that's one of the reasons that he's not going to go anywhere besides his, you know, congressional district in Kentucky. Quick question.

Okay, we can maybe pop Robbie on for this one. Guantanamo Goblin. Have we heard Robbie's take on government thugs? gunning down a U.S. citizen who is legally carrying. We have heard it, but, oh, sure. Hey, we could hear it for those who have missed it, Robbie, and then you can tell us if we have an ad or not. No, I think it's repugnant.

I mean, I support what ICE is doing. We need to have mass deportations. That's my default position. That being said, that we do have a right to carry arms. We do have a Fourth Amendment. No police force. Should ever be able to just go into someone's house without a warrant? I mean, what's the point of deporting

people to try and rescue the working class if you come a dictatorship while you're doing it. What has you gained? Well, I've got you here, Robbie, and you are a resident, you know, nativist. What is, what do you think about, first of all, the Democrats have about 12 days now to shake out some concessions from Trump over ICE?

John Federman said, and I mean, he's basically a Republican. John Federman basically says, and the administration says they will not agree to demasking. Seems to me like right there the whole deal falls apart, right? I mean, and like I was saying to John at the beginning of the show, I do not understand at all what is the legal or the logical justification for this one law enforcement agency. Yeah.

All by themselves. Yeah, why them? Why not all? And by the way, we're not entitled to not. There's no anti-doxing. law that protects the three of us. No. I mean,

so how come, you know, why, were they, they're special little snowflakes? Of course they are. Did you get the memo? I mean,

Trump said that they can do no wrong and that, uh, law is not applied to them and they can do whatever it is they want. And I don't know. I mean, it's just, it's the whole militarization of the police force. And that's I said before.

Soldiers are not good cops. They have, yeah, a lot of different jobs. That's the issue. Even soldiers have dog. tags, you know, I mean. Yeah, but I mean, they're up under their,

they're up under the uniforms, right? Yeah, yeah. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, is that I am not willing to sacrifice our civil liberties on the altar of fixing the country. If the American people are that suicidal, if we have, if we have decided corporately, we're just going to destroy the nation, then I guess we can do that.

That being said, if I had to choose between that and a police state, I would just say just let the thing fall apart. And that is the correct answer. And to be clear here, John and I both favor, you know, controlled borders, right? I mean, we want to know who's coming in and out of the United States like any country does. Also, what do you think about this, you know, Texas Gulag, where this giant ice facility, you put, as the Nazis found out, you put a lot of people in squalid conditions into one place from different places. You're going to get disease outbreaks.

And now they've got a measles outbreak in this place where that five-year-old was held. That's right. And he may have been exposed before he was released. And now they put the whole place on lockdown, which, by the way, makes it impossible for them to deport anyone, right? How retarded are they? Incredibly. It's all about money. It's a private prison.

Why do you think they're doing this? If they follow the Robbie model, they're just around these people up. They'll be on a plane within two days and they would be gone. and then it's not one hand washing the other, the problem is solved. If the country has to take back their citizens, you cut off all their admittances. There are things that we can do here to make them play ball. This is all theater. This is a scam.

It's the president industrial complex in a big way. All right. So, Robbie, do we have an ad? We do. I'll push it for you. All right. Thank you. Okay.

So more questions here. Oh, let's talk about, let's talk about, let's talk about, this, you're a resident of the D.C. What do you think about this memorial arch? So not only, so basically, Trump wants to build a 250 foot memorial arch. Get it. The training for ISIS is 47 days because ISIS,

because he's the 47th president, 250 feet tall because the U.S. is 250 years old. I'm going to read this out. And while you think about the, can't do it. You can't do it for both legal. and practical reasons. First of all, he wants to put this 250-foot arch on the Arlington, Virginia side of the Memorial Bridge at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. So it's not in the district.

No, it's in Virginia. And it's on a traffic island. The traffic island is not big enough to handle it. Besides, there is a 13-story height limit because you are directly in the landing path at Reagan National airport. Well, there's never been any problems with things bumping into each other at Reagan National Airport. This will not make it past the drawing that we saw in the Washington Post yesterday. It's not going to happen. Where would the money come from? Private donations? Who knows? It's not going to happen. And then my big question is, well, my major objection, I actually don't think there's a problem with posting, with putting up monuments. I mean, you know, it's the... No, it's fine. You want to put up a monument. But, but, you know, my, my, my beef is

You know, here you are copying a 2,000-year-old design style. What on earth would something like this say, you know, in 200 years, assuming we're still around, hell, assuming we're still around by July 4th. But in 200 years, what would it say about the American people and their, our character and our personalities back in 2026? Nothing, right? I would want architecturally and design-wise something that spoke to the future like a time capsule and said something about what we were like.

like. Yeah. You know, and this doesn't. It's cheesy, like, you know, I mean, the after triumph, right? That was in a play. Right. Right. I mean, who put that up? So, so stupid. All right. Still haven't tried 1775 coffee now as your shot. The 1775 starter kit just dropped only a thousand units. You're getting the bold, dark roast that hits hard, the smooth mushroom roast and the vitality mushroom coffee for clean energy and laser focus. No crash. All single origin, small batch, toxin free and mold-free. Plus, you're also getting a gold spoon clip because freedom isn't scooped with plastic. A fraud, they're strong enough to stir up your coffee and your mother-in-law's opinions and a black 1775

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So Memorial Arch, not going to happen. He also would, he also would, he, this would also be his excuse to shut down the Kennedy Trump Center, right? Right. So is that, is that like a distraction like because so many people are dropping out, like not refusing to to do stuff at the Kennedy Center that pretty much after a while he'll only have like Hank Williams Jr. I think so.

Yeah. I think it's embarrassing. him that literally everybody's walking out of the Kennedy Center. And so, listen, it actually is in need of some renovation. And so might as well kill two birds with one stone, renovate it, close it for two years so that it can't be used against you and won't embarrass you. And you sort of get away with things that way. John Hurth is asking, what's our biggest problem with the Democratic Party and do you see them ever turning the corner? I do not see them turning the corner i think that the problem with the democratic party is that it really is the smoke-filled backroom

politico party um just one issue being the most important to me is this issue of super delegates the democratic party the dnc was so angry that george mcgovern as an outsider won the nineteen seventy two nomination that they vowed never to let that happen ever again and so they instituted this this policy of having superdelegates. So it doesn't make any difference who you vote for or what candidate wins, what state. The DNC decides in the end who the nominee is going to be. And they squished popular, more likely to have won. Every four years.

Liberal and progressive insurgents every single time, right? Ted Kennedy in 1980. That's right. Jesse Jackson in 1988. Yeah. Howard Dean. You know, the list goes on. Bernie Sanders.

Well, of course. Yeah. Not once but twice. I mean, you know, and I'll never forget those New York Times, you know, headlines. Like how will the Democrats stop Bernie Sanders? Why would you want to stop the guy who's like captured the imagination of your party's base and who threatens to peel away your opposing party? The problem with the Democrats is they would rather lose as cold. corporate neocon conservatives, then win as a progressive party that cares about the American people.

That's right. That's right. They don't. They're very much part of the, the Unip Party. Very, very much. Let's see here. John Kelly wants to know. Do you know anything about James Acuna? The investor? I know that he's very big in gold and silver. He's sort of out there giving a lot of talks, a lot of interviews. And by all accounts, he's highly respected. I've not met him. I don't really follow him to tell you the truth. I don't know anything about him.

Hey, you, thanks for the $10 on YouTube. A lot of these new ICE agents are cop rejects. True. You're the type of person who wants to have power over others and enjoy when it gets physical. That's absolutely true. I know of a situation like this firsthand. I've always said that people who want a job like that shouldn't be allowed to have it.

Amen. It should be drafted. The more I watch, so, thanks for the 1999, the more I watch House of Cards, the more I realize how nasty and ruthless the people running our government can really get. Guys, what are your favorite characters on House of Cards? And I have to admit, I really did enjoy that show. I did too. That show was about the Clinton's period. One million percent.

I liked the guy that the bald political operative guy Oh God, what was his name? But he has this very quiet mean He's he's like he's an addict He's like oh my God And he's like fucked up and like basically just sacrifices everything For this horrible couple I actually think that's like a documentary

I don't think it's like a you know a dark take on politics. I think it's pretty much the way things actually are. I think you're right. I think you're right. I mean, I don't know if like a, you know, you'd have a future president pushing a girl in front of the metro. Yeah.

But, you know, they would have someone else take care of. I would agree. I would agree. Question for you, John, from Patrick Starr. In light of the upscene files, do you feel vindicated along with other people who are called crazy conspiracy theorists, the Mossad access agent thing, turns out to be correct.

I have always been 100% confident that I was right about the Mossad access agent thing. And you remember that Alan Dershowitz beat the shit out of me on the Pierce Morgan show because I said that. And I'm still with it. I still believe it. Never any apologies or corrections to be bad, right? You're never going to be invited. back onto peers to be like, oh, like, oh, by the way, John, you were right about that. That's right.

That's what I hate about this system. Okay. And next, I'm annoyed. You're only asking John about MBTI. I can answer about MBTI, too. But what do you think about MBTI? Any other personality that's accurate for analyzing people? We're talking about the Myers-Briggs personality profiles.

There's 16 basic personality types according to this theory. Yes. John, do you know what your type is? I do. I am an ENTJ. Quite a strong ENTJ. I'm a strong I-N-T-J. You're an I? Yeah, I'm an eye. Barely, though. A scale of, on a scale from one to nine, I'm a four. Yeah. Yeah. That surprises me. I do like other people, but like if I spend like say a few days at a cartooning convention, I'm really tired at the end of that time. You know, just like. Oh, how interesting, Ted. Yeah. Yeah. I actually, look, I don't know. It's, you know, it's, MBTI is really controversial, but I find it really fits. You know, I find that like when I find someone's personality type and then I see like how compatible they are to mine. I find that like 85% of it is right. I think that's, I think that's true. And I'll tell you, the Myers-Briggs exam is, is the go-to personality test. at the CIA. They use it on everybody.

Everybody. Okay, so I'm being asked here by John Marjorie and Keady Catastrophe. They're calling me out, why don't I think Trump is guilty of the Hepstein stuff? I'll tell you why. Because sex isn't Trump's thing, not that kind of thing. He, I know he likes to have sex that's established, but power and fame and notary.

variety is what he really craves and cares about, obviously money too. But he's not a sex addict. He's not the kind of guy who's going. And also, there's not really any evidence that he has a fondness for underage women, or I should say girls. Now, like I said, I could well be wrong. This is purely speculative, obviously. Yep. But I just, it just, my instinct tells me that, you know, everybody's got secrets, everybody's got dark urges, but I think among whatever dark urges Donald Trump has is not having sex with women under the age of 18. That's all. Yeah. And there's no evidence at all to support the idea that he does. I think that, I think that's right. Listen, there are a million things that we can criticize Donald Trump on if we want to. Sure. There's no

reason to make stuff up. No, exactly. Exactly. I mean, look, I, I, I'm, I despise the way he's handling the immigration stuff. And again, this is about the, with so many things Trump related, it's less about what he does than, than his policies, and it's more about how he does it, that I really, like the arch. I'm not against the idea of a big new monument in Washington. No, I think that's great.

It's not on that traffic island at the foot of the runway of the airport. And not something that is gone. body that looks like it came out of, you know, the Napoleonic era or earlier. I want something that's modern. That's all. Frazmatas, comment for John. Epstein required a free DefCon hacker requested a free DefCon hacker conference badge in 2018 via a board member of Black Hat, the conference Tom Alexandervich was in town for when arrested. Interesting.

I hadn't heard that. That's interesting. Adam 2, but my big on non-fiction or non-non-fiction. Just non-fiction. If you look behind me, this is just, I mean, this is just what I've bought in the last couple of years, but my books are still in storage in my garage. I have hundreds of books, and you could probably count on one hand the number that are fiction, and they're all Stephen King. I do love Stephen King. I read every single one into the 90s.

And then I sort of lost my path, but I could go back. I mean, you know. I didn't like the Dark Tower series. I just never got into it. That's the only Stephen King work that I just, I could not appreciate. And I'll add to my sister, years and years ago, my sister was in charge of ticket sales for all the sports at the University of Maine. And Stephen King lives half the. year in Maine and half the year in Florida. And so he had season tickets to every university

of Maine team. And she said he could not have been any nicer. He's just a completely down to earth, normal guy. And I do hate his politics. He's so he's so team blue. He just loves the Democratic Party. Yeah, he's Joe DNC. Yeah. Yeah, there's no question about, you see it in his Twitter feed. His Twitter feed is just insufferable. He's so pro. you know, Obama, Clinton. Yeah. Unfortunately, there's a lot of that going around. That's right.

John, we got more questions, but I do want to be forward. We got to talk about the Middle East here. So the Gulf allies of the United States are, they're basically planting articles in the international press saying that Iran's mid-range missiles are suddenly represent this huge, dangerous threat to U.S. and allied military bases in the region and also to, you know, Iran's neighbors, obviously Israel being the one that's most notable. Iran's had these missiles for a long time. I mean, this is one of Netanyahu's three main requests to Trump that, like, Iran be pressured to give up their mid-range missiles. I mean, that's a total red line for Tehran, right?

Listen, this is right out of the Israeli government's talking points. How could that be, how could the Iranians even seriously consider such a thing? I mean, literally, it's like they wouldn't even be a country anymore. No, no, but I'll tell you what, on Thursday, Muhammad bin Salman and General Sisi of Egypt both called Trump and said, please don't bomb Iran. on Friday Netanyahu called him and said don't bomb Iran. I think because the Israelis have not had time to replenish their surface to air missiles, right? But then yesterday, the GCC minus Saudi Arabia issued a statement. It looked like a United Arab Emirates statement saying that the Iranians and their missile program are an existential threat to the Gulf countries.

and they want the U.S. to bomb Iran. So I've said a thousand times. There's only one aircraft carrier battle group in the region, and that is the USS Abraham Lincoln. We cannot attack Iran and carry out a sustained campaign with one aircraft carrier battle group. I don't think we're going to attack Iran in the next couple of weeks. But I heard mixed reports.

Some are saying that they're sending more. Well, that's what I would expect. I would expect them to send more. And then I would be afraid of an imminent clash. But right now I'm just not seeing it. And then your favorite people, the Turks, are hosting these. It hacked me last night.

Negotiations. What do you think the deal is? I mean, you know, is anything going to come out of these talks? Well, I guess in Iran. It's my understanding that the United States, that neither the United States nor Iran has committed to talks. the Turks are offering to host. We don't know what these talks are going to be about.

We don't know if they're going to be taken seriously. You know, if it's going to be Wykoff or whomever, Tom Barack, whoever is going to be the head of the U.S. delegation, just saying give up all your missiles, give up all your enriched uranium, and, you know, whatever, whatever the third outrageous demand is, then this is going nowhere. Yeah, and that's what it's. looks like to me.

Quick question for you, John. What's your take on from J-Rock? Have you ever given your ideas about the Kennedy assassination? I'm so confused by it. You have, but I have. I gave a, you know, I've actively studiously avoided the 9-11 truth movement. I disagree with them. I don't like most of them personally because they're weirdos and morons and closed-minded.

That would be a good reason. I'm thinking of one person in particular. and I've actively avoided them. But where we agree is that we don't know the truth of what Israel's position was. We don't know the extent to which the U.S. government believed at the time that Israel was involved because those documents have never been declassified. And I think that all these years after the Kennedy assassination, you know, 62, 62, and a half years, almost, we deserve the truth.

Agreed. Thank you for, spec for the fiber. Quoting KJ, no, they would rather see the world end than see their world of privilege end. Great show. Thank you. KJ is right. Logger, the world's military spending has fallen off a cliff as a percentage of GDP. In the last 100 years, we compared to the prior one to 500 years, is military spending really too high? John, I never understood the percentage of GDP issue.

No, I think it's just an arbitrarily chosen number. Yeah, like who said this, right? I mean, it's like I don't look at, I mean, it's like the amount of military defense or offense that a country needs or wants is just simply like it costs what it costs at the time, period. And GDP is what GDP happens to be, period. Now, obviously, with improvements in technology, GDPs for all Western nations are stratosphericly higher than they were 400 years ago. I should certainly hope so. Yeah.

But, you know, but the need for, but countries are invading each other at a far lower rate than they ever did in the past. You can say that again. I mean, so the need for defense is much, much lower. So, I guess, as a percentage of GDP or maybe as a percentage of the average number of asteroids circling the sun or whatever. I mean, but it's a bullshit number. Yeah, it's made up. The overall defense spending is never been higher.

Yes. I agree. I agree. Oh, and so finally, John, your thoughts as we get ready to wrap up here. Google had announced a rule that it would not hand over any AI technology to any entity that was using it to build a surveillance state or to use it for oppressive political reasons. And then when turned around and struck a deal with an Israeli company to use AI for facial recognition and for identifying targets for drone strikes and collection of drone information. Needless to say, Google employees who are progressive leaning, there's a subset of them, have been angry about this. Some have even been fired over protesting on the Google campus about it.

So what do you make of that? I mean, basically big corporations just going to do what big corporation is going to do? Or do you think they just sort of, you know, one hand, it's such a big company. The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. Oh, no, I think the two hands know what the other's doing. Yeah. They just figured, fuck it, we'll just get away with it. Yeah.

I believe that, yes. I mean, obviously it's impossible to boycott Google. Yeah, it's impossible. They have a stranglehold on us. In so many different ways. I mean, you essentially can't operate without Google. Well, and then also wanted to talk about Rafah border crossing opening. So the border crossing,

opens today. The Israelis have announced that five people, Palestinians, are going to be allowed to leave to seek medical care. It does not apply to anyone who's not seeking medical care, and they're not promising that anybody who leaves will be allowed to return. How meaningless is this? Totally, utterly, completely meaningless. So they're still trapped.

They're still in a giant open air concentration camp. but now with rotting bodies. Yes. By the way, I don't know if you noticed very quickly. Last thing, the IDF quietly acknowledged that after all those years of denial, the Gaza Health Ministry estimates of those killed is accurate, and they accept those numbers. I actually think they're very low ball.

I do, too. We don't have any idea how many people are underneath the rubble. I'm guessing, honestly, it's arithmetic, John. The pre-war estimate of population was 2.2 million. Now it's 1.8. 400,000 people be gone. There it is. Okay, so thanks very much, John.

Thanks to everyone for watching us. Please contribute to Robbie Aid, go to D-Program. I'm sorry, search for D-Program, Robbie on GoFundMe. Appreciate it. Then we won't have to bug you until next month. Please stay tuned for the TMI show with me and Manila Chan. John and Eli will be back tomorrow, Tuesday, at 9 a.m. Eastern time. Thanks everyone and take care.