DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Target: Tehran | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • Trump intensified his threats against Iran suggesting he could soon attack “with speed and violence.” He and Europe want: an end to enrichment of uranium and disposal of current stockpiles, limits on the range and number of ballistic missiles, and an end to support for proxy groups including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Will Trump and/or Israel attack? How? When? • Trump and Schumer are trying to avoid a partial government shutdown of Homeland Security this Saturday. Democrats want reforms to ICE—what would they look like? Also from Minnesota: Alex Pretti confronted ICE 11 days earlier, Trump vs. guns, Klobuchar running for governor. • A Dutch court ruled that the Netherlands violated the human rights of residents of Bonaire by failing to protect them from the effects of climate change. • After Trump demanded Minnesota voter records, FBI raids Fulton County, Georgia voter records. This has never happened before.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, John. Thanks to for the program with Ted Roll and John Kiriaku. It's Thursday, January 29th, and it's cold as hell. I'll know. I can't make any sense. But you got to tell people just how cold it is. Ted and I were talking about this just a few minutes ago before it. And I was, I'm embarrassed to say I was bitching that it's 15 degrees in Washington. 10 below zero right now where I am. Temperature, not wind chill. No, it's actually because of the sun feels like minus three. No complaining. Yeah, no, it's pretty crazy. So, yeah, if you're feeling the pain, you know, you have lots of company and you have our sympathy. Please like, follow and share the show.

Thank you for your continued support. It's extremely gratifying. We have a lot to talk about today. As we go into today's show, we're going to be talking about Iran's the main topic. And Trump's increasing threats, which appear to be, I would say, a credible threat. If I were the Iranian government, I'd be deeply concerned. There's a looming partial government shutdown of DHS, the Department Homeland Security. Coming up this Saturday, we'll see if that happens or not, January 31st of the deadline.

Chuck Schumer and Donald Trump are trying to avoid that. Lots of news out of Minnesota. So I'll get to that in a second. And the interesting climate change ruling regarding a tiny Caribbean island and the Netherlands, the island of Bonair, only 26,000 people live there, but it has big implications. Also, another big story that's kind of shocking. The FBI raided the voting, the voting office in Fulton County, Georgia. You'll remember, of course, the whole Fannie Willis, you know, mess down there. apparently the FBI has never ever seized Americans voter records in in U.S. history before.

So that's how, so what exactly is going on there? John, just before we went on the air, news is breaking from Minnesota that Tom, daily mail for, you know, I don't know if we, how reliable that is, is reporting that Tom Homan has given orders, new marching orders for ICE in Minneapolis. in Minnesota, no more sweeps from now on only targeted deportations of people with actual criminal records. So not parking tickets, but bad people, bad ombres. And so that should change things there in a big way. And at the same time, Amy Klobuchar, current senator, is looking to replace Tim Walz as the outgoing governor.

I couldn't imagine a worse time to possibly be running for that office, but for her, of all people, I don't know how the people of Minnesota feel about her. Also, Alex Priddy, the latest victim of ICE, there's video that emerges that appears to show him confronting, basically mixing it up and kicking a car and getting roughed up a little bit by ICE 11 days before he died. So lots to talk about. And of course, as always put up,

Please send us your questions if you're watching live in the 9 a.m. hour on Rumble and YouTube, and we will get to your questions as you know as quickly as possible. If you're new to the show, this is a fast-moving show. We try to keep things moving very quickly and judiciously, as our president would say. So thank you for trying to keep up. And we apologize in advance if we miss something, but we try to get to everything. John, what should we do? questions. Should we talk about Iran? What do you want to do? Yeah, you know, you and I were on Iranian

television yesterday. I don't know if you, if you knew that. I did not know that. I've been on press TV in the past. No, we, um, you and I are regulars on Iranian television. Really? Yeah, we are. And where's my reales? I know, right? Or Tomon. I've never understood the connection between the two. Anyway, the reason why we were on is because we're talking about these issues and that we have made a couple of conclusions. Number one, they're repeating what we've said about naval movements. I think that's very important. Number two, they're repeating what we've said about how so few policymakers understand the history of the Middle East and understand the culture of the Middle East. True. Number three, they are

They are connecting us, and I'm proud to say this, they're connecting us with John Mearsheimer and what he has said about how we're Americans. We want what's best for America, which may or may not be what's best for Israel. Right. Often is not. Often is not. In this case, the Iranians are no threat to us. No. The Iranians have never been a threat to us. We've been a threat to them.

We've been a threat to them. Now, maybe the Iranians are a threat to Israel. I think they're not. I don't think so either. But even if the Israelis believe that they are, that's not our problem. Nope. And so I'm for America first, baby. Me too.

I mean, look, you know, I hate the fact that nationalism, patriotism, America first, whatever you want to call it, that that's considered a right-wing thing. I mean, it's like if we live in a nation-state system, it's logical to look out for the interests of your country and its people before those of other countries. And then it's expected that they'll do the same. Yeah. That's how this is supposed to work. That's right.

That's right. And, you know, another thing, too, we've got friends in the Middle East whom we don't normally talk about, you and I have, but I mean, the mainstream media they don't talk about. For example, the Omani. I love the Omanis. The Amani's have been friends of ours for generations. It doesn't matter who the president is.

It doesn't matter who the Sultan is. The Omanis are friends of ours. And they're never fucking with their neighbors. Never. They're extraordinarily peaceful people. They're thoughtful. I like the Omanis very much. Well, the Omanis are also close to the Iranians.

And many, many times over the years, the Omanis have acted as the go-between between the United States and Iran. I think we should approach the Omanis again, just like we should approach the Algerians. It was the Algerians of all people who got our hostages out in 1981. The Algerians. That's a forgotten, you know, that's a, and I always thought it was Ben Affleck. Yeah, right.

Yeah. Now, he just escaped on his own. But, you know, we should engage, rather than just, you know, send a carrier battle group off the coast of southern Iran. and then just, you know, make threats, we should be engaging in diplomacy, even if that diplomacy is not public, right? What's what's Wyckoff supposed to do? He's the troubleshooter. Let the man do his job. And when I say do his job, I don't mean and then run back to Jerusalem every couple of days to report back. I have little doubt that if, you know, an American administration reached out to Iran, we could settle our outstanding issues and end up with

diplomatic relations and trade relations. I totally agree, Ted. We could, we should. And temperamentally, Americans and Iranians are so much more similar than Americans would bet. We're so similar. I couldn't agree more. We're buds.

We're like, you know, it's kind of like a natural, you know, it's sort of like when you meet someone for the first time, you just like, I just get along with this person. I've never met an Iranian that I didn't like. I mean that with complete sincerity. Yeah. The only thing that would ever stretch it are sort of the, some of the, um, some of the, you know, Persian exiles in the L.A. area are... They're a little weird and crazy.

That's a different... That's a different breed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those are the ones that... Yeah. Yeah. Those are the ones that stole as much as they could as they were bugging out of Iran in 79. Yeah, with the gym bag, laden with gold ingots. Gold and cash and jewels. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. And they're... I mean, they're so funny about it. They should be happy to be alive.

And instead, they're, like, still winging all these years. I think the mayor of Beverly Hills is Persian. Yeah. Yeah, that's a different breed. I'm going to look. I think that's the case. So, yeah, so Trump is threatening an attack with speed and violence. That's the quote that he said.

And he and the Europeans are basically on the same side. John, let's go, if you're okay with this, let's go through, because you and I talked about this with Robbie after the show yesterday. offline, about the three principal demands that are on the table. Interestingly, Trump seems to have completely forgotten about the poor sad demonstrators. He said that he wanted to defend in Iran. Now, he says he and the Europeans are asking for three things. Number one, no more uranium enrichment, get rid of all current stockpiles of uranium. I don't know who gets them. Maybe we do. A limit on the range and number of ballistic missiles. In other words, not like nuclear missiles, though they don't

have those, but just long range. They have medium range missiles. They don't have long range. Right. No, no. They don't have long range. And no more support for groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen. That's basic. That's, that's it. Now, John, you were pointing out, so you should say this. Who came up with that list for the U.S.? I can tell you exactly who came up with that list and his name is Benjamin Netanyahu. That is quite literally, word for word, the Israeli list of demands for the Iranians. Now, like magic, all of a sudden, it's the American list of demands to the letter. That's sick. This isn't a foreign policy. We're conceding our foreign policy. I want what's best for America. It's corrupt. I mean, this reminds me of like how in

domestically, we have interest groups and lobbyists who will literally submit the text of a proposed bill to a congressman who literally cuts and pastes it and submits it as legislation. That's right. And that's corrupt. I mean, you know, there's not even a pretense of decency here. In this case, I mean, look, I got to say, if I were negotiating with Iran, I wouldn't, first of all, the missiles would be off the table. Yeah. You got to protect yourself. Yeah, I mean, it's a real country. And, you know, also don't ask for things that your adversary can't possibly agree to. And as for the proxy groups, it's completely unenforceable, not to mention, is the U.S. going to stop, you know, backing its proxies in the, in the region? You know, I think they could have a conversation about uranium. But, I mean, even so, I mean, they've, this all, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the enrichment controversy is.

was caused by the Trump administration when it threw away the agreement that was signed under Obama. The JCPOA, which was working. Right. It was exactly the same. The old arrangement. That's right. It was exactly the same inspection regime that the United Nations imposed on Iraq, you know, between

1991 and 2003. It was working. Now, the other thing I can't stand, and of course you're never going to get this out of American media, and we always talk about this here. I'm going to keep talking about it. Iran never lost a war. They didn't do anything wrong. They're not being sanctions because they're, they fucked up somehow. They literally, you know, they agreed to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty when they, after the revolution to maintain it after they took over. They didn't have to. They could have said, we just had a revolution. We overthrew

the old government. Old treaties are by-bye, just like Trump does without a revolution. You know, they're doing this voluntarily to be. So, you know, a country that clearly doesn't want to become an international nuclear power is being like, you better not become a nuclear, international nuclear power. They're like, that's what we said. If the Iranians wanted to be. You're pushing on an open door. Yeah. If the Iranians wanted to be a nuclear power, they would have been a nuclear power years ago.

It's not that hard. And the CIA has repeatedly concluded. that the Iranians are not seeking a nuclear weapon. There's no evidence at all. And in like nuclear power, honestly, in the age of climate change, we have a climate change story out of Holland. You know, it's nuclear powers. Weirdly, I say this for, you know, people like our age,

when we remember the no-nukes movement is and three-mile island. But now that's a relatively clean form of power. Yeah, it is. Crazy is that sound. I even had a no nukes shirt. It was a black t-shirt. And in white lettering, it said no nukes on it. And I got into a almost, got into a fist fight in a bar.

I was 18. We crossed the state line into Campbell, Ohio to go drinking at RJ's holiday house. Nickel beer night, Tuesday nights. Oh, wow. Nickel beer night tells you how long ago it was. I bet it was so yummy too. Oh, my God. So much fun.

1981. And I got into a shoving match. And a couple of friends of mine jumped in and decked this guy because he was pro-nuke and he just objected to my t-shirt. It was so political then. It really was a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. I still have my old no-nukes buttons lying around somewhere.

Remember the no-nukes concert in Central Park? Yes. Yes. 1980? I mean, the terrible graphic for that is still seared on. to my brain. So, okay, so I would say that if there is a countdown to midnight clock, it's just moved closer to midnight here. Who's going to attack Iran? Would it be the U.S. or will it be or will it be Israel? I think it'll be both of us together. I really do.

Holding our pinky fingers together. And I'll tell you, Ted, it frightens me that we want to throw our lot in with Benjamin Netanyahu like this. I think it weakens us as a country. Well, no, I mean, of course. I mean, look, the thing is, it's a disastrous policy. I mean, you know, rule number one of political engagement is never start a battle. You can't win. We can't win this. You know, what do they think is going to happen? You're going to overthrow the government of Iran. You couldn't overthrow the government of Venezuela. And now you're trying to overthrow the government of Iran. And we're talking about a country of 92 million people. And it is a modern country. Yes. Very educated people. Very educated. This is not Afghanistan under in the 90s. That's right. And we couldn't even overthrow them. No, you're right.

Yeah. And yeah, so I mean, part of the problem here is the ignorance. I mean, so they go in together. I mean, obviously, I think this is going to be, correct me if I'm wrong, I think it's just going to be the usual we attacked military targets. Maybe they take out a government ministry or two in Tehran. But nothing much is going to change except resentment. This is about it's about keeping the Israelis happy.

It serves no, it does nothing for us at all. And by the way, if, you know, if we care about like getting energy prices, let's make a deal with the Iranians. Yeah, you can say that. They have tons of oil. Yeah, they do. They have tons of oil. High quality. We should, we should normalize those relations.

And it's in a good location there, too. Yeah, it's really, it's really annoying. So how dangerous is this? I mean, how could this escalate? I mean, the Iranians did sort of like fire a shot across the bow during the Gaza conflict when they fired a bunch of drones at Israel. Yeah, but that was in response to get more serious. That's right.

That's right. So in other words, in response to a U.S. slash Israeli attack, you know, how is it? I mean, for domestically, the Iranians can't keep taking it on the nose. They've got to respond. My guess is, based on what I saw in my agency days, my guess is that the Iranians will do two things. Well, maybe three things. I think in the event of an Israeli attack, they'll respond to Israel, whether it's with rockets or with drones. That's fine.

Everybody would expect that. But the Iranians have said, and we should take them at their word, that they will attack American interests. in the region, which is military bases. And they have their pick. There are like 44 of them that are in the immediate vicinity. Remember that joke, why the Iranians put their country right in the middle of our military bases. But number three.

That could lead to escalation, though. Yeah. Number three, and I think they'll cut this when they run this clip on the Iranian news tonight. The Iranians will carry out acts of terrorism against American interests, whether it, it's, you know, American oil workers or American businesses or whatever it happens to be. If I were an American, a private American, you know, working in Pakistan or working in, you know, whatever country, I would be worried for my safety.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, honestly, it's, it's, yeah, I don't want to say I don't blame them, but it's not surprising. Yeah. Let's put it that way. Yeah, it's not surprising. Okay. Shall we do some questions? Yeah, but we need to start off by saying thank you to SOTON.

Oh, yeah. Thank you, thank you for, what was it, 50, 50 euros or let me look. 4999, thank you. Thank you, Sald. Thank you. Yes, and let's ask, let's get to Sondon's question. For 4999, you get your question answered. Do we, good morning?

Do we think President G's purge of the People's Liberation Army Generals is out of strength or desperation? And what should be the next U.S. move with relations to China? I think it's out of strength. You see, there's been no fallout whatsoever. You're not hearing any complaints from other generals. You're not hearing complaints from Chinese dissidents. You're not hearing complaints from anybody. So I think it's out of a position of strength.

And honestly, I think that the United States should be in constant, unending economic negotiations with China. Just as a standing policy. We should be constantly negotiating with the Chinese. Yeah, we should have a close ally of the president on the phone with them every day. That's right. I don't even know who our ambassador in China is right now, but our ambassador to China should be like one of the president's closest friends. Agreed. So that person has direct access. It should almost be cabinet level. Exactly. Yeah, de facto. Yeah, no, I agree with that. I mean, look, I want China to be our partner. I do too.

You know, and I think China would like, would prefer it that way. They just know that we don't want to. And let me add one other thing. There's, there's an ongoing problem in China with official corruption. And I suspect that corruption probably played a role in this, in this firing. You know, it's, it's one thing to fire. or a general because maybe you fear that he's becoming too, too popular, too important, too powerful, and you push him off the side. That's not the case here. No. President G is not worried about that.

No. He's not Truman and that's not MacArthur. Exactly. Thanks for the 10 euros from Cookie Rampage. I love that name. Thank you. I've been known to go on a Cookie Rampage. Let's see.

Thanks for the 31, Australian dollars, Ms. April. Thank you. Again, this is the same question. How might the instability impact on China's ability to support Iran if the conflict turns hot? I don't imagine that China would militarily support Iran. No.

I mean, it would just be. Nor would Russia. It's too spicy for, you know, China's appetite. Plus, over the longer term, I think the Chinese and the Russians are perfectly happy to the United States bogged down in this constant conflict in the Middle East, because over the long term, it weakens us. It's true. And it strengthens them.

No, that's totally true. This is like, stay out of it. It's classic. So, all right, let's do some of these other questions here. Funho be music. I love the show. Hi, guys. John, if you were Polish, if you were Polish, wouldn't you support Poland being in NATO,

helping to collapse communism? Can I get a signed copy of your book? book saying that you invented Chinese whiz? Yeah, sure. That's fun. I would do that. Send me an email. Yeah, of course.

Of course, if I were Polish, I would want Poland to be not just in NATO, but in the European Union and, yeah, and solidly in the Western camp, of course. Of course I would. But if I were Ukrainian, I would say that the, that the, you know, God-given geography of the country is different from that of Poland. And there are other issues that used to be different, right? I mean, I would say Poland was a classic

obviously invasion route, buffer state, in between two blocks, not so much anymore because of NATO's encroachment, but Ukraine is. It's a, well, I mean, it's in Russia's sphere of influence. I mean, Russia now owns 20% of it. You know, I mean. Exactly. Okay.

Have you ever been to that little, what's it called, the little Russian enclave. What's the name of it? Oh, well, there's the Transnistria. No, no. And there's farther north. Up in Poland. And then there's...

No, no, no. In Poland. Oh, no, I have not been there. I've not been there either. Kind of would like to, just to say, I've been in Russia. I like strange little, you know, enclave places. They're weird. Kaliningrad.

Thank you, Robbie. That's it. That's it. Thank you, Ravi. Yeah, East Prussia. D.P. Hey, guys. love the show, keep up the good work. Any chance that Michelle may come back. I mean, there's, I mean, you know, look, we haven't heard.

Michelle. Yeah, we haven't heard from Michelle. No. She sent me, she sent me an email. I'm going to say three or four weeks ago, but that was the last I heard. She likes me on Facebook sometimes, but, you know, we could talk about it. Sure. Sure. It's like, you know, it's like, she's not frozen out. We like her. No, no, no, we're all friends. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, whatever. You know, I'm, you know, I'm. I don't even know what she's up to. That actually reminds me I should shoot her. Yeah, you know, I should, I'm glad for that reminder. I'll give her a ring today and see how she's doing. Cool. Say hi for me.

I will. H.P., what's John's schedule with all of these podcasts? How does he do so many? Let me show you something. Let me show you something. Because I'm an idiot. I'm going to show you what my schedule is like tomorrow. Is it tomorrow?

No, here. No, this is just as an example. this is Wednesday. Holy shit. Yeah. Wow, it's every single hour. Every single hour. Yeah.

That's just Wednesday. And that's a normal day. Monday's the same way. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And then tomorrow, it looks like it's slightly shorter, but it's not because I have a documentary to shoot from two to seven. Wow. Yeah. That's, um, okay.

Ruby does. Thoughts on U.S. World Cup boycott talk happening across Europe. I think we'll see any major teams avoid U.S. tournaments if the violence continues. I don't think it'll be based on the violence. I think it'll be based on harassment by customs and immigration and ICE and all these other organizations. Let me add something too. I spoke with Stefania Moritzi last night. She's the Italian journalist who was a member of WikiLeaks.

and who broke a lot of the WikiLeaks, the early WikiLeaks stories, she told me last night that she's the one who broke this story. She sent me the original article. She's the one who broke the story that ICE is very quietly going to the Winter Olympics. Now why? Why would ICE be at the Winter Olympics? Well, so apparently, John, what I've read here is that it's not the first time that's happened.

Historically, they have basically called been, I guess it's an overtime opportunity, right? Like basically it's an all hands kind of thing. We need lots of security for the U.S. team. So come on over. So I don't think it's new. I don't think it's like a Trumpy thing. I think it happened before. But now, of course, ISIS on the global shit list.

Yeah. One of the things that she, one of the reasons why she called me last night was that she had discovered that there, have you, you've heard of, um, uh, HSI Homeland Security investigations. There's even a TV show on like the National Geographic Channel, whatever, where they follow Homeland Security investigations. Like if somebody mails drugs to your house because you're a moron and you just have it sent to your house, they'll intercept the drugs and then they'll bust you, break down the door of your house.

I thought that was the postal police. It used to be. Okay. Now they turn it over to Homeland Security Investigations. But what she has just discovered is that there is a Homeland Security Investigation, investigations inside ice that nobody's never nobody's ever known before it's this like quick action bust down the door grab everybody inside kind of organization but with what authority i i don't know and now we've got this news from day before yesterday that they tried to get into the

ecuadorian consulate in minneapolis i i just told somebody this morning who emailed me, that is akin to an attempted invasion, right? That is sovereign territory. You cannot enter somebody else's embassy or consulate. That's a violation of their sovereign territory. It's an act of war. It's very serious. And we just tried to bust right into the Ecuadorian embassy

and grab people who would take a refuge there. So, John, one thing that concerns me is you and I both know that, like, now that the heat is on and the poll numbers are bad, the Trump administration is obviously going to tamp down the, you know, ISIS' worst behavior in the coming weeks, perhaps months. But basically, they're just going to wait until the heats off until they can start up again. Meanwhile, Schumer, always the master negotiator, sarcasm intended, is negotiating with Trump to avoid, you know, because so many Democrats and enough Republicans are willing to vote against funding DHS this week, that there could be a partial government shutdown for things like TSA and stuff like that.

And I guess the thing is, the Democrats are looking for some reforms like no more masking. They have to identify themselves and stuff like that. I'm worried that, as usual, the Democrats are going to settle for very little window dressing. But the fundamentals of ICE as this massive, militarized, untrained, unqualified, mean fucking force that's militarizing American cities

is not going to be is not going to change we're going to be right back talking about this in two months. Yes. I think so. There's no,

there's no solution being offered up here. It's just sort of, you know, hit and run, grab and snatch and whatever. I'm worried about it

over the long term. It doesn't, I mean, should, I mean, Is the threat of a DHS shutdown really so bad? I mean, I guess there could be lines at the airport. No.

You know what? DHS said yesterday, well, it actually may have been the White House that said it, that even if the government shuts down, they're just going to treat this like a normal shutdown where everybody just continues to work. And then you get the back pay when it's all settled. So it wouldn't really affect people. Not to mention it's not really a heavy travel season.

No, and the Democrats are all talk anyway, talk talk talk they're not going to do anything schumer's a weakling and a coward he's not going to change anything you know it don't get me started on schumer i think he's corrupt too on top of it and i i mean that quite literally i agree with that quite literally i had two two contacts of mine two people whom i respect told me independently of one another in one week that they had been in the room when schumer took a bribe they actually saw him take a bribe And these are credible sources to you? Yeah, serious people.

That's very serious. Yeah, I thought so too. Well, that's like Tom Holman, by the way. Yes. In a sting operation, he accepted $50,000 in cash. And was allowed to keep it. And his job. Meanwhile, you go to prison.

Yeah. All right, Flendarina, Israel and Gaza, what are the chances now that the last hostage, of course, dead, has been returned, that aid will be allowed to flow freely into Gaza as per the ceasefire agreement, especially considering what actually appears to be happening on the ground, preparations for small, controlled internment camps. Nope. Very little.

I mean. No, yeah, almost zero chance. The Israelis want to force every Palestinian out of Gaza. That's the policy. That's definitely the policy. Nick Orlando, from your intelligence perspective, John, what's more dangerous right now in regard to Iran and the U.S. Miscalculation or intentional escalation?

I think it's intentional at this point. I've said a million times, the Democrats always underestimate Donald Trump. They underestimate his resolve. If he makes a decision to attack Iran, that's it. We're going to attack Iran. It's not going to be an issue of miscalculation.

It's going to be a conscious policy to overthrow the Iranian government. which is, I don't even know where they would begin, right? They don't even have an Ahmed Chalabi. No, exactly. And well, not this clown, Reza Palavi. Right. No, that's ridiculous.

Not going to happen. By the way, I was watching an old episode of the Sopranos and one of the characters that had this hilarious line about. Philian Tardo. Yeah, it's like, it's like, oh, and this guy, this asshole said, I looked like the Shah of Iran. Yeah. Of course, he looks like...

He did. He looked just like him. It's hilarious. Question for you, John. Thanks for the dollar from TSTC. John, do you know or have any thoughts about Larry C. Johnson, analyst for the CIA? Oh, sure. Yeah, Larry's a friend of mine.

He's a serious person. He's far more conservative than I am. But he's a very serious analyst. His substack is quite good. He's been on all my shows. the whistleblowers a couple of times. He's been on deep focus. Larry's a good guy, and he gives these issues a great deal of thought.

John, a question for you. A high school debate coach over the years, news has become increasingly partisan. What sorts of information do you find most trustworthy? My debaters struggle wading through bias in sources. I especially must be true, especially if you're younger. I mean, you grew up in this world and you're like 16. I mean, that's crazy. I mean, I mean, you know what?

I remember legacy media and standards. I hadn't considered that. That's a very important point he's making there. Yeah, I mean, you and I have talked about what our sources of information are. And they're from the right to the left and everything in between. That's really the best way. I will say that that I spend a lot of time with the Associated Press. just because in every in every ranking that you see every grid that you see they're in the center of the center

that's that's always kind of my anchor is ap news.com yeah no i i i totally agree with that um let's see uh Robbie i'm going to bring you in to do you suggested that we talk to people a little bit about rumble and then if we have an ad we can do that later but um Yeah, nope, sounds good. How do y'all? So, no, right now our numbers are off the charts. Have over 700 people watching on YouTube live right now. Wow.

Fantastic. Thank you. And before anyone talks to me about the white t-shirt, yes, I'm wearing it. And if I don't dress fancy for my wife, I ain't going to dress fancy for you either. Now, about Rumble. There are a couple of chats, a couple of questions in the chat about where can people go to watch us if YouTube ever does something with the channel. The question is Rumble.

Rumble is the free speech alternatives to YouTube. Rumble also pays significantly better than YouTube. YouTube pays based off the ads that come up. Rumble pays based off of watch hours kind of like the way that normal TV does. And so if y'all come over, watch your content here. John and Ted get a bigger paycheck. Also, just be honest, Rumble does not censor what they can say. Also, lastly, whenever people do donations or become channel subscribers,

YouTube takes a pretty sizable chunk of that. Rumble, the creators, keep 100% of all your channels, of all of the channel descriptions. It's only $5 a month here on Rumble. And lastly, you can see content that John and Ted do exclusively on Rumble. And it's just a great way to just to keep on see them and support the show. And also, like the 30 of y'all, come over,

we could take out a big Republican channel. So I've loved to see that happen. And do we have an ad? We do. I can go ahead and pop that up for you now. Ed, please and do that. Thank you very much. Robbie. Okay, back to Laundry Day over in the West household. Do we think that with the Hamza, do we think that Iran with the panic of the war is seeking nuclear weapons now?

If they're not, they should be. I've said just like you have, Ted, that if I were Iranian, I would. I don't think we are, to be honest, but they should be. I think they should be. We hear all the time how the Israelis see the Iranians as an existential threat. Well, guess what? Iran sees Israel as an existential threat.

So if I were the leader of Iran, I would absolutely be seeking nuclear weapons. You got to protect your country. Add time. There's a reason you don't hear much. Sorry. There's a reason you don't hear much about molecular hydrogen in mainstream health. It isn't a drug. It isn't patented and there's not much money to be made selling better water. Molecular hydrogen is created by running a small electric current through water, reducing a form that dissolves into the water and can be absorbed by the body. It's been studied for reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, two of the biggest drivers of chronic pain, joint stiffness, and slow recovery. A lot of that research is tracked by the Molecular Hydrogen Institute out of Utah. And the technology is, has been used quietly in clinics and by professional athletes for years, especially around injury and physical wear and tear. The life water hydrogen bottle makes it accessible.

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Okay. Very well. Okay, sorry. Question for John from Frasmataz. A guest of Patrick Bet David a couple years ago, former head of Mossad, Chabtai Shavit, said that the Shah begged the Mossad to kill Khomeini in Paris. They refused any comment. I'm sure that's true.

I'm sure that's true. I remember at the CIA people having conversations about why Khomeini wasn't taken out in Paris. Yeah. And remember, the Israelis and the Iranians under the Shah had diplomatic relations. Yes. They had diplomatic relations. What is the risk to the war? the U.S. homeland, if we have a full-out war with Iran, cyber attacks, asymmetric warfare.

Yes, yes. Yes. Yes, and yes. And lots of other stuff. And, yeah, yeah. And, oh, and not to mention serious disruption of oil shipments through the Persian Gulf and not just Iranian. The Iranians would have literally nothing to lose by shutting down the Straits of Hormuz. And something like 40% of the world's oil comes out through the straits of Hormuz.

Yeah, we'd be feeling the hurt within, within months, the U.S. economy would really be suffering. Cosmo Retro Gaming. I find it crazy. We have so many people in the government that don't care about people. We elected them to represent us. No shit. Yeah.

Got that right. Logger, jogger, John. Any recent Lincoln artifact finds? I love your story about the fake Lincoln deuce. Ted, do you collect anything weird? Robbie, do you mind coming on for literally 30 seconds while I go grab my latest Lincoln find? Thank you.

I'll be right back. All right. we'll wait for for john to do that i'll go ahead and answer that question myself um so anything weird um i do collect well i don't know it's not really weird i mean i'm a big collector though probably um the the weirdest thing i collect is uh world war two propaganda i love posters pamphlets um you know any kind of it doesn't matter fascist anti-fascist uh doesn't matter um i'm very a part of to posters about weird moments in history, for example, when the Nazis were withdrawing from occupied France, their last poster that they put on the wall, basically told the population,

we will be back, and German law continues to apply while we're gone. And so when we come back, we're going to check on all you frogs and make sure you all obeyed German law while we were gone. So here it is. This is the New York Herald from the day after Lincoln's assassination. It's the Extra, extra read all about it. Death of the President. Wow. Yeah, pretty cool, right? And by the way, that writing, believe it or not, by today's standards, that that extra, extra, is minute.

But by that standard, it was huge because all the type was minute back then. Yeah, pretty cool, right? That is very cool. How much did that put you out? $650. Okay. All right. I'm taking Robbie out here, unless you have something to say.

about your favorite president? No, I mean, I mean, probably the coolest thing that I have is my grandfather's grandfather's Confederate saber. That's cool. Those are very collectible. And he never surrendered.

And so after Appomatics, he just left. And so that's the whole reason why we still have it. Long story short, his family was outside of Atlanta and Sherman went through it. And the bluebellies hung his wife and his kids. So he just kept killing like another two years after the war into just about revenge. You know, that was actually quite common in places like Missouri and Kansas. The war was over a year, two years, and there were still raiders out there just killing people.

Yep. And he moved down to the Mobile and he moved down to Mobile, got remarried. And so that's what is. You got the sword, my son will inherit it. I'm obsessed with 45s. Love them. That is awesome. And so I especially, you know, like the pictures, this is the weird housewife bands called Lilliput who were huge, great graphics.

Yeah, this is right, totally awesome. Because you collect an old, there's propaganda posters. Did you ever see the one from after Pearl Harbor that had a picture of General Lee saying, I fought for Virginia now it's your turn. And it was a recruitment poster for the Navy. No, I didn't. I've not seen that. That's great, though. That's cool. We've got some cool stuff here. I love, yeah, I love, I'm very partial to striking graphics, especially when it's like two, three color process. It's like the limitations of art are what make great. Sorry, all right, thanks, Robbie. Oh, well, I got rid of the wrong person here. There we go. Okay. John, who Maria J. Stephan, her name,

that she was behind a lot of color revolutions in Latin America. Cedar and Colbert, also glad you didn't take one for the team. Great interview, and thanks for the two bucks. Let's see. Okay, did we know that the majority of Somalis in Minnesota came to the U.S. legally with the help of Protestant and Catholic Charities in the 90s because of the Civil War there? Yes.

That's not in dispute. No. John, what is the NRO's main job? Ray wants to know. Heard that they're above all other intelligence. Intelligence agencies wondered if you could explain their role in the intelligence community. No, NRO is joined very closely with CIA. It's a DOD entity, but it's joined very closely with CIA.

It's the National Reconnaissance Office. And they're the ones that manage the satellites that CIA and DIA analysts use in their order of battle analysis, just watching military movements from around the world. It's a very important job. Used to be called the Office of Imagery Analysis back in the day. Ah, I like that name better. PNM, thanks for the five Canadian dollars. Do you think Alberta would be annexed by the U.S. for our oil if we separate from Canada?

No, I don't. Because it's shale oil, just like the shale oil that we have in the eastern United States. It's hard to get to. It's only cost effective if oil is over $65 a barrel, and it would be an act of war. Assuming that we survived, thanks for the five bucks, assuming we survived to 2028, what likely candidates would you or would not vote for? What policies should they run on? Will anyone reject APEC money? I was having this very conversation last night with a MAGA Republican buddy of mine.

And he said the funniest thing. He said that the only candidate that he likes so far, and he doesn't even like him very much, is Ro Kana. And I said, Ro Khanna. I said, he's, he's the, the most genuinely left wing person being. He's the squadiest of the squad. Yeah, exactly. He's the squadiest of the squad. And he said, yeah, but I like his foreign policy except on, on Israel.

And I said, you know, I've come to an early conclusion that, that only the green and the libertarian, even though they haven't been chosen yet, but only the green and the libertarian are going to be acceptable to me in the end. Yeah, no, for sure, me too. I mean, I can't imagine any Democrat, you know, who is capable of even getting on the debate stage, much less than the nomination. I mean, the DNC is completely irredeemable. Yeah. I think the Republican nominee is almost certainly going to be J.D. Vance. Yeah, I think so. Although, we shouldn't, rule out Marco Rubio. Agreed. Yeah, but J.D. would really have to fuck up. I mean, but it's a long, you know, the conversation he's having with Usha is, you know, honey, it's a long, it's going to be a long

two years between now and the beginning of the primaries, you know. That's right. I mean, anything can and will happen. And I think Ted Cruz's mom told him he should run again because he's making those noises. I say mom because she's like the only person who would actually vote for him. Isn't he supposed to be out like killing Kennedy's? Isn't that his job? Yeah, I think that's his family legacy. Yeah, killing JFK, right? Kevin Cronin, does anyone believe after a full year in absolute power that the Trump administration and the Republicans are helping working men and women?

No. Does General Mahmood, was he involved in the cover up over Daniel Pearl? Mechmood. Boy, that's a tough. one. It's possible. You know, watch, I'm going to get a dozen Pakistani death threats again. Yeah, I mean, the Pakistani government just by its very nature is corrupt. And sure, it's possible. That's for, yeah, I mean, to say to put a light, to put a light touch on it, yeah, for sure. DJ 928, John, random question, are the so-called, are so-called crime syndicates a

or more hyped up than they are? Yeah, they're not really a problem. You know, you've got this Irish syndicate that's based in Dubai, and you've got the five families in New York, and you've got the remnants of what used to be the Cray brothers in the UK. You know, if that's your thing, if you're an MI5 guy or an FBI agent or, you know, Irish anti-money laundering squad, yeah, that's a living for you.

But I don't think they're that big of a deal in the greater scheme of things. Area Hagaran? Good question. What do you think the people's role? What do we think the people's role in Iran will be if regime change happens. A lot of Iranians want the regime change because of years of religious oppression and socioeconomic reasons. That's true. Yeah. I think it's going to be bloody. Yeah. It's going to be bloody either way. Yeah. I mean, I think you and I talked about the strong possibility of civil. Yeah. You know, I read an article yesterday, Ted. saying that the Iranian government says there were 3,117 people killed. But some independent viewers put the number far higher. One says it was 3,500. It's like, come on, relax. Yeah, not that much higher. Why exaggerate?

I mean, one's too many, right? Yeah, one's too many, exactly. One's too many. Jay, another viewer asking how you can get a signed book from you, John. Oh, you know, I don't have the first one. They're just, they're out of print and they're gone and I regret that. I don't have them. But go to rarebirdlit.com for the autographed cemetery book.

And then I'm awaiting shipment of 2,000 copies of my second book doing time like a spy. I can send that to you directly. But yeah, drop me an email. John, this is a question that I have interested in. If you get your pension back, will you continue to do what you do? Or will you just retire? Oh, no, I don't think I will ever retire unless I'm too sick to work. But God forbid that that happens.

But no, no, this is my life. I enjoy it. I would work for free, just for fun because I enjoy it. By the way, speaking of that, Jermal Thomas, a friend of the show. former colleague he is doing i've been talking to him he's doing better uh he's expecting to be back on the air soon great uh just something to people who are curious what was wrong with tomorrow oh uh charmal had a stroke what it was a mini stroke but um yeah he basically lost partial vision in a lot of his vision in one eye in his left eye and uh he was he had to rush back from you know whatever god forsaken

He was in, like, Malaysia He was in. Yeah. He's 20 years younger than we are. I know. I know. I know. Yeah. I don't know why.

I don't know how it or why it happened. I mean, I don't think anyone ever knows. It's just. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. But he, you know, he is, it is a mini stroke. And, you know, he is young. And he's a, you know, he's a strapping guy. He's in his shape.

So I think he'll recut. He'll bounce back, you know. And poor Lee Stranahan is. Yeah. It's not good. No, it's not good. Sorry. Okay. Let's get it straight, bro.

Priest of Hiroshima says Minnesota is promised to the Somalis 3,000 years ago. We are number 12 on Rumble. Robbie wants us to know. Hey, great. But we want to be number one. Kiara, the question in long term destabilizing Iran is, in destabilizing Iran is a dangerous game for the U.S.

And the current regime is a threat to the Israeli. So with a perspective of power, shifting from MAGA to Neo-Kanons in Washington. Okay, this is, I'm sorry, I agreed. Yeah, okay. Desert Fox, what do we think of, oh, I love this question. What do I think of geoengineering and cloud seeding? The Iranian president mentioned this at the UN.

And that is, full disclosure, something that John and I are thinking of writing a book that would be a plot would be about that in many ways. I think it's terrifying. I understand as a former engineering major, the urge to have a sort of a quick solution to climate change, but the danger of overshooting or unintended consequences in a complicated ecosystem on a planet that we haven't fully explored

is so, I mean, we could really have a catastrophic, you know, situation where you could end up with a mass extinction event caused while trying to avoid a mass extinction event. So I guess the thing is, I don't think our scientists are smart enough to do this. And I don't think our politicians are smart enough to let our smartest scientists do this the right way. I think there's too many, there's too many cooks in the kitchen. I mean, you know, I would want, if we were ever going to do this, though, I would say you need like a consortium of the best scientists from around the world so that we're all in it together and we're figuring it out and it can't be political.

How are we going to do that? Yeah. Good question. I mean, also, I mean, I don't know. We probably just should not have polluted so much. Exactly. How about that? John caught your podcast with Diary of his CEO, laughed hard.

Thank you. You take one for the team with the ugliest woman with her hairy mole and your boss saying you had to fuck her? I wish I'd heard this. Thank God that I didn't. I foolishly was willing to when I thought it was part of the job. My gay friend used to say that everyone's just five margaritas away from fucking anyone. Yeah.

I was not exaggerating when I said she was the ugliest woman I had ever seen in my life, where I had to avert my eyes when looking at her. That's how bad it was. Wow. Yeah. I don't, okay, well, so I had this, this just reminds me, apropos of nothing. I had a friend in college, he and I would, you know, we were each other's wingmen. We'd go out like scamming for girls at like, you know, college dances and local bars. And I rapidly learned that he, his fetish was that he wholly liked ugly women. So normally the argument was always like, you know, there's one girl is cuter than the other, so you'd be like,

can I have her? Like, no, you get her, whatever. But with him, it was the opposite. He'd be like, oh, look at her. She's disgusting. I can't wait to lick her from head to toe. I'd be like, what? And it was just like, I mean, best wingman ever. You know, no, and then he'd be like the next day,

I'd be like, so what happened with the beefy one? And he'd be like, oh, she was great. She smelled terrible. She was even more horrible naked. It was like it was a, it was a fetish. I've never heard anyone talk about this fetish. But no.

At least one person has it. Wow. People, human beings are weird as shit. Yeah, we are. Yeah. Yeah. I mentioned to John once as forasmutaz,

Dane Wigington is the person to have regarding that geoengineering watch.com or something like that. I remember that. I went to the website. Aluminum in the air, dementia rates up. Yeah. I mean, there's also some conspiracy theories, which I do not believe.

I don't either. I don't say that it's already started. No. I don't believe in chem trails and all that silliness. No. No, there's no evidence to support that. No. It's water vapor.

Yeah. Yeah. No. Exactly. Let's talk about the Vodera thing, the climate change. So Bonner is a tiny little island. Netherlands. Nettiles.

It's in the. It's in the southwestern Caribbean. And it's a Dutch colony. The Bonnerians and the Greenpeace went to court. Dutch court ruled in their favor that Holland has not been doing a good job protecting them from the effect of climate change. The Dutch of all people should know the problems with rising sea levels, considering they have so much reclaimed land.

Bonner was destroyed by a hurricane a few years ago. that was probably, you know, part, at least in part, climate change. We're going to see more and more of this kind of thing. I think it's kind of great, but it's, of course, too late. But, I mean... Well, I don't understand how the court could expect the Netherlands to be able to save Bonnerre by itself. Well, because it's their, well, because it's their responsibility.

They own it. Yeah, but what can they? do to reverse climate change mitigation right like like they could build levies they could see walls that kind of thing okay um also um this we should talk about fulton county yeah we should trump's after is trump's about he's we have a minute trump is after voting records he's after minnesota's voting records now the fbi has stolen americans voter records from from georgia what's going on? What's the administration trying to do? You know, the coverage of this was mocking in tone.

I honestly, I don't know what he's trying to do. I mean, 2020 is come and gone. Joe Biden's not the president anymore. These allegations have been debunked. Move on. Move on. I mean, even if there was a crime, which nobody thinks there was, the statute of limitations would be over unless it's. charged as a conspiracy, but even then, it's such an incredible stretch that even by the time you'd get to court, Donald Trump wouldn't be president anymore. Just move on. But do you think this is an attempt to flip elections coming this fall? It's possible, sure. And I don't know how it works. I mean, if anyone has any insight, please chime in.

Yeah, let us know. I'd be interested. I have to admit, I'm kind of the mind reels, although it might occur to me in the shower tonight or something. Right. Anyway, thanks, John for joining. Thanks everyone for following and sharing the show. Please stay tuned. TMI show with me and Mila Chan coming right up. No DMZ America podcast. Not my fault. Scott is on the road today.

We will be doing DMZ I don't know, probably over the weekend, rescheduling Mr. Fish. Kind of a bummer. Oh, shoot. He's terrific. He is great, but we'll get him back. If not, we'll do it next week. I have an email out to him. Okay, anyway. Thanks, John. Thanks, Ted.

Bye, everybody. Enjoy all your podcast today. Thank you.