DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - The Bad War | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Most American wars begin with high approval ratings and lose support as the conflict drags on. Mere weeks into the U.S.-Israeli War Against Iran, most Americans already say it was a mistake (59%) and disapprove (61%) of Trump’s handling of it. More Americans say the U.S. is losing (45%) than winning (25%).• Air travelers in the U.S. are dealing the longest TSA security wait times ever recorded because a partial government shutdown has caused thousands of officers to miss work, producing lines of four hours and raising the risk of airport closures.• A crude oil tanker sailing from the Russian port of Novorossiysk to Istanbul was hit by a naval drone near Istanbul's Bosphorus strait this morning. The incident was one of several ⁠in recent months involving Western-sanctioned vessels heading to or from Russian ports.• Étienne Davignon, a 93-year-old former Belgian diplomat, will stand trial for war crimes related to the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected leader of Congo. The CIA station chief gave a green light to the Jan. 17, 1961 torture and execution of Lumumba by a firing squad of Congolese soldiers commanded by Belgian officers. His body was later dissolved in a barrel of sulfuric acid. Davignon was a 27-year-old trainee diplomat at the Belgian Embassy in Léopoldville, junior in rank but with direct access to Congolese political leaders. The US has neither apologized nor opened the Congo files. MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Good morning. Thanks for joining us. This is Deep Program with Ted Rall and John Kirooku. It's Thursday, March 26th. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ted. How you doing? I'm doing great, John. So we're going to be talking about the war. There's new polling about it. I don't think the numbers are going to come as much of a surprise to anyone, but we should talk about them. TSA lines are longer than ever, despite or perhaps because of ice going to the airports. There's been an attack on. on a Russian ship in the Bosphorus. We'll talk about that. I'm dying to talk to you about this Patrice Lumumba trial.

Yeah, how do you like this? It's such an interesting story. And obviously, with your past, I'm dying to hear what you have to say about that. Etienne Davignon is a 93-year-old guy. He's the last man alive who had anything to do with the killing of Patrice Lumumba, who was, of course, the very charismatic leader

of Congo murdered in 1961. in part with CIA cooperation. So lots to talk about today. Please like, follow and share the show. Thank you so much for your support here. If you're watching live in the 9 a.m. Eastern Time Hour, we take your questions in the YouTube and in the Rumble chat. Our priority is going to be the super chats that are paid for.

For those who were not here yesterday, just to fill you in on what's going on, This show is going from five to seven hours a week starting next week. So, well, next week will be six hours, I guess. But we'll still be here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time. Nothing. No changes here. So if you like what you have here, there you have. But there's been some, we've decided that we're going to do, and this is in response

to a lot of, you know, listeners and watchers. We're going to do a little more deeper analysis during the 9 a.m. hour Monday through Friday. We're still going to do Q&A, but it's not going to be. as much Q&A during those hours. And we're going to move exclusive Q&A shows. We're going to have brand new ones at 12 noon Mondays and Wednesdays every single week from now on. So we're here at 9 a.m. Monday through Friday, 12 noon Mondays through Wednesday, Monday and

Wednesday, not Friday. And that all begins Wednesday of next week is the first extra Q&A exclusive show. So if you're just like, you know, dying to ask one of us or both of us questions, that's your big chance. but you can do it always throughout the show. Okay, that's a lot of long-windedness, John. So we have some, let's see, do we have any leftovers? If we have any leftovers, Robbie from yesterday, let us know.

But in the meantime, what do you want to talk about, John? Iran, airlines. Let's talk about the war. There's a piece in the Washington Post today that, you know, just kind of just lays it all out, that the goal. that the Gulf countries want the war to end, but not yet. They want the war to end after we blast the Iranians some war, and make them weaker so that they offer up more concessions.

And yeah, my view is not cool, you know, not cool at all. But that was also the feeling that I got the last, time I was in Dubai, that they wanted, they wanted to make sure that Iran can never pose a threat to them, which is funny because they have a few million people and Iran has 92 or 93 million people. And it would also account for the comment that Muhammad bin Salman made when he was coming out the White House the other day, that he wants the United States just destroy Iran. And so where a public opinion, and we've been talking about this a lot on the show, where public opinion here in the United States is such that we don't want to fight this war. This was a war of choice.

Our Gulf allies now are saying, well, you started this. You've got to finish it. And you've got to finish it in a big way. So I think there won't be any quick end to the war. Oh, there certainly won't be a quick end. I mean, we've seen that in the, there's a chasm wider than the Grand Canyon, separate. the negotiating positions of the Iranians are basically like you apologize, you make reparations, you promise to never, ever attack us ever again in perpetuity.

Meanwhile, we're like, give up all your nuclear stuff, stop supporting Hezbollah Hamas. The Iranians are saying, you stop messing around with Hezbollah and Hamas. It's like, couldn't be further apart. John, isn't it like a completely, let's set aside like the not cool thing. Isn't it kind of objectively impossible to make. for the Gulf states to say, for there to be a position where Iran would never pose a theoretical threat. Not possible. Not possible unless you work for the American Enterprise Institute, in which case, you have already come up with plans. You have already drawn up a map that shows Iran being broken

into five or six small countries. That's a neo-com goal. But even so, one of those, I mean, that degree of instability, sort of like a Balkanization of Iran into sort of a post-Yugoslavia type situation. Yeah. I mean, one or more of those, you know, rump states could still pose a threat to its neighbors. Those weapons would still, that used to belong to the Islamic Republic of Iran would belong to the new Republic of Kurdistan or whatever. I mean, it's not like that stuff goes away.

All you're doing is fracturing. You're not, unless you kill all night. 92 million Iranians, you're not going to eliminate the threat from Iran. These are the people. This is the neighborhood you live in. You live in the, you have to get along with them. Yeah, that's the bottom line. You're going to have to figure something out because conflict isn't going to solve anything. It's just going to make it worse. I mean, in the meantime, Israel this morning announced that it had killed the commander of the Iranian Navy. And somehow magically, that is supposed to open up the straight of Hormuz.

They actually said that. We killed the head of the Navy, so now the Strait of Hormuz is going to open. It's like, what? How do you figure that? Because there's only one person who runs the Iranian Navy, and now it's all over, and they're all going to basically go, does not compute, does not compute. We cannot do Navy stuff anymore. Ridiculous. I mean, the thing is, I mean, historically, when you kill, when you degrade a regime, when you bomb a regime, they tend to harden.

and they tend to become more radical and more militant and more defiant. That is exactly right. So that's almost certainly what we're going to see here. Let's talk about the polling before we take some questions. Yeah. So there's now a bunch of polls. This is like the third or fourth one in the scene. Yes.

But we're now in week four of the war. Most Iranians already say it was a mistake. 59%. That means that includes a significant number of registered Republicans. 61% approve of Trump's handling of the war. And this part is fascinating. More Americans currently say that the U.S. is losing than winning. You know, so much winning, we can hardly stand it. 45% say the U.S. is losing.

25% say it's winning. And I guess the rest don't have an opinion about it or don't think it's either way. John, these are numbers that you don't usually see until you. years into an unpopular conflict. And I'll add something. In today's, I think it was the Times. Let me look real quick. Yeah, it's the Times. So there were classified briefings on Capitol Hill yesterday. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the House, came out of one of the briefings and said that the Pentagon had failed to provide even the most basic details about the scope and direction of the war. And he says, quote, we want to know more about what's going on,

and we're just not getting answers. On the other side of Capitol Hill, Roger Wicker, the senator from Mississippi, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, let me put it this way. He was talking about Mike Rogers. Let me put it this way. I can see why he said that. These are not just senior Republicans, Ted. These are the senior Republicans that are supposed to be helping the Pentagon prosecute the war. And they're coming out and saying publicly, we have no idea why we're at war. The Pentagon has no plan either to fight the war or to get us out of the war. We don't know what's going on. So if Republicans on Capitol Hill don't know what's going on, how in the world are the American people going to support a conflict like this?

This is one, listen, when I was at the CIA, we went through Afghanistan, we went through Iraq, we went through Somalia, we went through, you know, Panama and Grenada and all these other places. There was always an explanation for why we were doing what we were doing, even if the explanation was specious. Here, there's not even an explanation. Well, we've gotten, conflating, it reminds me a little bit of Afghanistan in the early days, right? I mean, first it was like, well, we have to find Osama bin Laden, although there was considerable evidence he was in Pakistan. Then it was like, okay, well, we have to make sure Afghanistan never becomes a hotbed

of Islamic terrorism again or has any training camps, although really hardly had any training camps by 9-11. Those were mostly in Pakistan too. And then it became a way we have to stand up this government that we, you know, installed for some reason. Then it became like, we're going to liberate Afghan women. Yeah. It just kept changing.

And then it was like, oh, the government's really. that we installed is really corrupt. We have to show them to be less corrupt. Then we have, and it 20 years, and it never got better. Yeah, that's absolutely true. John, you're part of, you were part of this infrastructure for many years. Who's in charge? Is it the DOD? Is it CIA? Is it someone else? Who's in charge? CIA is a policy support organization. So state, NSC, and DOD come up with the policy. The CIA supports it, whatever it is. Yesterday on my TV show, Deep State, I had to stop and think of everything begins with a D in my life. Deep State.

I interviewed Judge Andrew Napolitano about this very issue. And I said, Judge Napolitano, you co-hosted a TV show on Fox every day for 10 years with Pete Heggseth. I said, what do you think of Pete Hegseth's performance as Secretary of Defense? And he said, Pete Hegseth is an incompetent boob and a serial killer. He's a nice guy, he says. But he's an incompetent boob and a serial killer. What does he mean by serial killer? Well, I asked him because I thought he was talking about Iran.

He was talking about these so-called drug boats where he's just murdering people wantonly, Half of them are fishermen, innocent fishermen trying to make a living, just murdering them. We're blowing up the boat. And if somebody survives, you circle the drone back and you blow them up again. And it's just murder. There's no other way to describe it. It's gratuitous. It is.

It's gratuitous. So, I mean, normally, so War games come out of the DOD. I mean, look, that's a big-ass building. I haven't been inside, but I've seen the outside. How many, I mean, there must be like whole departments. who are charged with, you know, coming up with and articulating war aims. I mean, we all know historically they have historians working at DOD. I mean, that this is a requirement for successful conflict.

You have to have a clear set of objectives. You have to. Otherwise, you know, the military loses. There's mission creep. You lose track of what you were trying to do. And you can't communicate to the public whose support you need. What's going on? Why don't we have that, why aren't these people, are they not not being given the assignments?

Are they too, do they not know how to do the assignment? This is the change in American politics where instead of having three co-equal branches of government, we have the executive and then Congress is somehow subservient to the executive. You know, when Jimmy Carter was president, Tip O'Neill, although he was a Democrat, was as much of a problem for Jimmy Carter. as the courts were because Tip O'Neill recognized that Congress was a co-equal branch of government. And here we've got, you know, whether there's a Democrat in the White House and Democrats run the House in the Senate or a Republican in the White House and Republicans run the House in the Senate,

they see themselves as existing for the purpose of supporting the president and ensuring that his policies are enacted into law. And that's just not at all what the founding fathers intended. No, it's not. And frankly, it's not a good idea to break in this respect with what bad policy. Very bad policy. Yeah, the founders were wise in that respect. One last question before we go to some questions, John, unless you want to keep talking. Carg Island, all eyes are on Carg Island. That seems to be like the, you know, where the administration wants to pin all of their hopes. I would say odds are better than 50% that the United States is going to try to bomb

and then capture it and then claim that that's some sort of win. But then bodies are going to start coming home. I mean, you agree that we're likely to do that? Yeah, yeah, I do. I think that's the case. And, you know, it's a miracle so far, Ted, that only, well, what they're telling us is that only 13 Americans have died. If that's true, and I think it's probably

not, we're very lucky. And who knows how many Israelis have died? Yeah, they won't tell us. That's highly classified, that is, to the point where if any reporter reveals it, they face 10 years in prison. Is that true about foreign reporters as well? Yes. So if you're working for CNN and you're in Tel Aviv, you could face prison time in. That's right. And that's why when CNN reports, it says in the corner of the screen cleared by Israeli censors? They should just boycott Israel. I would literally, as a journalist, never report from there, just based on that. It's ridiculous.

Yeah, I would boycott it. There's no point. I mean, there's just no point. I would boycott it without any question. Shall we do questions? Let's do questions. We've got answers. Okay, here we go.

Alex Bringlow, thanks for the 99 British pounds. With invasion assistance being quoted as unnamed regional state, they would, say Israel, if it was them, could all the focus on Kark be a misdirect for the Tunes, then get UAE assistance in return? That's a great observation. That answer is a hearty yes. I think it is, I think it is about the Tunes. I think that we're going to do this as a favor to the, I'm proud to say, you know, I told

you part of the story about the Tums the other day. When I was back from Bahrain, it was 1996, and I was temporarily, for one year asked to cover Bahrain again before I moved back on to Iraq. And, you know, I was, I was bored. And so they asked me to mentor this young analyst. She was so wickedly smart. It was scary. She had just graduated from the University of Virginia and just brilliant.

And so Iran invaded the tombs one day. And like I said the other day, nobody, there are no human beings on the tombs. They're just empty sand, you know, sand above the water in the Persian Gulf. So I said to her kind of offhandedly, nobody will ever take the Tunbs back from the Iranians. And she said, why? And I said, because the Tunbs belong to Sharjah. And Abu Dhabi has all the oil, so they don't care. Dubai has all the business in the banking, billions of dollars of which they,

they do with Iran. They don't want to upset the apple cart just so that the Sharjans get their two uninhabited islands back. So the Sharjans are shit out of luck. They're not getting the Tums back. Later that

morning, she was in the boss's office. She came back and sat down and she said, hey, I just resigned. And I was like, what? Why would you do that? And she said, when you were talking about the Tunes earlier, I realized I would never know as much about the Persian Gulf as you do.

Oh my God. So I quit. That's hilarious and sad. It's terrible. She became a very successful real estate investor with her brother and moved back to Vermont. And now she's in Florida. We've stayed in touch all these years. But yeah, the Tums have been on my mind since 1986.

That is hilarious. Man child, thanks for the two bucks. Unsecured airport lines are critical soft targets. Well, are they? I mean, I guess they are. Can untrained ice agents and limited viper teams effectively deter high-level terror or mass shootings during this funding crisis and active war? I mean, that is, okay, you're going to have to help me with this. Was it Athens that the airport was attacked by terrorists in like the 80s?

Yes. And Robert Dean Stedem was, was. executed and thrown out of the plane. Yeah. So the point is, obviously, it is true. I mean, you know, airports are soft targets and, you know, you could easily see any number of scenarios that I'm not going to want to give anyone any ideas that they couldn't get themselves. Go ahead, John. And you remember Carlos the Jackal did simultaneous attacks on Rome and Vienna Airport, where they just walked in the main entrance to the airport and just opened fire with Machaql. machine guns and killed, you know, two dozen people.

All right. The points are very hard to protect. I think it's impossible, right? So the point is if something like that were to happen, right? So ICE is there. These are not, first of all, these are not like elite. This is not SEAL Team 6, right? I mean, these are, you know, they're dorks in many cases.

I mean, they wouldn't really keep the airport safe. I mean, the main function here has been that they've been adding an additional setting up a card table and adding an extra security line at the airports where they've been deployed. Yes. And they're demanding proof of citizenship, which, by the way, to travel domestically, no American has to have. So, you know, I mean, I just wonder how that all plays out, except that we know that TSA has handed ICE all the passenger lists at these airports so that, you know, the

ice knows who to expect. And when you're, when you show up, if they're looking for you, bam, they nail you as soon as you show your ID. That's what this purpose is. So I guess what's the answer here? I mean, there's not going to be. Can untrained ICE agents deter effectively deter anything? No. No. No. It's not about keeping us safe. Absolutely not. It's not about keeping us safe. It's about politics. Ariane, thanks for the 1999. Hey, John and Ted, the freak, the orange freak has really screwed shit up. Philippines secured Russian oil, Iranian Navy Intel chief killed by IDF, with the fantasy negotiations. I like that. Is there any way that the U.S. can recover from this?

Are we cooked? Thanks. Hashtag pardon John. I mean, obviously, the United States has recovered from many very bad things in the past. So I'm sure we could recover. But it's bad. It's bad. It's bad. It's, it's bad. Sure, of course. We can recover. cover, but it's going to take a lot of time, especially in the Gulf. This has really rattled their security. And as we said last week, Ted, we have army bases in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Oman. We have our naval headquarters in Bahrain. We have our Air Force headquarters in gutter. And we have been utterly unable to protect any of those countries. So why would they

Why would they keep us there anyway? Good question. When we just, our presence opens them up to attack And we can't protect them. Let's quickly, you know, knock off this story from Turkey. So a lot of this is weird, man. A lot of oil goes through the Black Sea And next to Ukraine, which is why I'm bringing up this story.

And then, you know, basically passes through the boss for us. When you are in Istanbul, you'll see all these tankers parked offshore in the Sea of Mamara and then on their way into the Mediterranean, right? I mean, so a drone early this morning struck an, this has happened before, a Russian oil tanker. No one was hurt, but it could have been. And so this is kind of a serious story. this was basically a Turkish flagged oil tanker.

So this is an attack effectively on Turkey. This was the Ukrainians, right? It has to be. It has to be. I can't imagine it would be anybody else. There's no reason for anybody else to have done this. So, I mean, so, okay, so what do the Turks do about this, if anything? I mean, that's, you know, obviously they can't have, the Bosphorus is every bit as important.

important to them as the Strait of Ormuz is to the rest of the world. I mean, they're not going to let, can they let this pass? No, they're going to have to respond. Even if they do so clandestinely, they're going to have to respond. What would that look like? I think we're going to see a tit for tat response. You're going to drone our ship? That's fine. We'll drone your ship full of wheat. You know, which people all around the world, I mean, Ukraine's the breadbasket of the world, they call it. And so much of their wheat goes to Africa and Asia. Then you drone a ship carrying Ukrainian wheat and see how they like it. Why would the Ukrainians do that? What a stupid thing to do.

There's no strategic reason to do something like this. It's just petty harassment. But it's the kind of petty harassment that can spin out of control. Yeah. I just thought it was worth taking note of. Agreed. Mad Napkins. Thank you for signing up as a member of the show.

So, Ileviye, thanks for the 99. Vilmar, thanks for the two Canadian dollars. Isn't there more economic downside to GCC than Iran? Oh, my God, yes. By a factor of, you know, 20. Absolutely, yes. This is going to send them into a, at least into a recession. The GCC is the Gulf Cooperation Council made up of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE.

Yeah, this is bad. bad for them. Hey, can I interrupt you for a second, too? Anytime. Did you see Manchild? Hey, Ted, do you think Trump will enlist the cornhole killer as a secret weapon in defeating Iran? Have you followed that, Ted? Oh, my God. We did it on TMI yesterday. I couldn't get enough of it. How does a guy who has no arms and no legs murder somebody? Well, so he, so, yeah, so there's so many questions, right? So first of all, you can be a professional cornholer? Like that's a- With no arms and no. legs. That's a job. How do you do that?

You know, that's true. I saw it. Like, he does like this thing. He has, he's, his arms are severed here. So he has this mark. He has the upper arm. So he takes the two arms and he goes like that. And the thing is, but John, he was driving at the time. He was driving a car and he shot a dude while he was driving. And that, well, he has no arms, no legs. And he shoots a guy while driving a car. And John, he disposed of the body. Yeah. He asked his two passengers. There are two people in the backseat. They left.

They were like, bye. Yeah, yeah, we're out of here. And he dumped the body on someone's allegedly, the body on someone's lawn in, I guess in Maryland or Virginia or something. Yeah, in Virginia. He's in Albemarle County. I'm fascinated by this. I can't.

Me too. While I'm reading the Washington Post report, through the whole thing, I'm trying to envision in my own mind. How does this work? He has no arms of legs? How does he do this? And not just like he recently lost his arms and legs. He was 16 months old when he got a staff infection and they had to amputate his arms and legs.

Yes, right. Yeah. So the thing is he must be incredibly strong. I mean, John, have you ever, I guess I shouldn't ask you this. So you can tell me, I will not answer this question, Ted. Have you ever had to move a body? I mean, like, like it's hard. Thank God.

Yeah. Dead weight is like an unconscious person. I had an unconscious drunken roommate in college that I had to move. I mean, I'm not weak. I tell you, I had a dream. I had a dream one time that I had to kill this guy. And I was in the foyer of my mom and dad's house where I grew up that we sold in 2003. And I had to kill this guy.

And the dead weight was so heavy. I just couldn't move the body. and then my doorbell rang. And I opened it up and it was my best friend from high school. And I said, oh, Russell, I knew it was you. I knew you would help me move the body. And he said, what are friends for? I mean, I love the fact that like, by the way,

I also want to know was the Tesla in auto drive mode or not? Oh, I'd like to know. That's important to know. Like, did he have one? Stump or whatever that's called. I don't know if there is there a new woke term for that? So he's like steering the car. Oh, and how is he?

By the way, and how is he? Gas pedal, right? Or whatever, whatever. I've never driven a Tesla. But I mean, I assume there's a power pedal. Yeah, there is. I test drove one. Yeah.

All right. I don't know. It's like, I mean, if this is all true, I was kind of telling Manila, we should just like drop the charges. Because it's so awesome. It's a pity to leave the guy like that behind bars. We should like recruit him into the CIA. He could become a super killer.

Yeah. Yeah, right. Anyway, it's like, oh my God. I'm so glad that you're into that. Erfant-Shan, thanks for the 499 pounds. Our Iranian talks just political theater showing that we tried diplomacy. Or so escalation, even boots on the ground looks justifies and with public support. All of those are correct.

Yeah, yeah. The Trump administration is not serious about negotiating. I don't think that, honestly, I don't think the Iranians are either. The Iranians don't want to, Iranians know that, what's so funny is they're fighting two different wars. The Iranians, I think, are on the right war because that's global pressure. Agreed. I mean, you know, they're not getting calls from all over the world, begging them, please stop.

But America and Netanyahu are. Yeah. That's right. Elivier, thanks for the 99. Thoughts about Iran using AI to create social media posts. Far more creative than I was expecting modern warfare. Agreed. Have you seen any of these? These Lego things?

Oh, they're great. They're brilliant. Yes. They're brilliant. And the Baal stuff, like the nuclear, the vengeance one with the nuclear bomb, it looks like a nuclear bomb hitting the Statue of Liberty that turns into the statue of Baal in New York Harbor. And it's all the vengeance, right?

There's the Native American. There's like all the Vig. There's the Ghazins. There's the Iranian school girl. And it's all just like about America's. It's like Howard Zinn. Like Reda. All of American Zins.

Vietnam. Oh, the little girl with her daughter in Hiroshima. Yeah. So that one looks like from that Kurosawa, not Kurosawa, Miyazaki movie about, that's an amazing film about Hiroshima. Yeah. Yeah, no, so yeah, I mean, it's,

I think we're just going to see. The United States isn't merely as good at propaganda as, as the Iranians are. You know, John, I collect wartime propaganda posters from like World War II, World War I. I've got two from Paul Pot downstairs in my den. Ooh.

Yeah. A state department friend of mine who served in in Cambodia during Paul Pot brought them back. I want to see. Are they cool? Yeah, they're cool. Yeah. I love those things. But the U.S., in my opinion,

has never really been that great at propaganda posters. The art's not really that great. No. Like the commies do a great job. The Nazis did a great job. I have one right back here. It's actually not really good at all. it's railroad men,

car and supply lines. Yeah, it's awful. Keep your mouth said, it's awful. Yeah, it's awful. There's nothing to it. No, no. I have one that I have to dig up. I used to be in the background of my old place.

That was like, that was really funny. It was like, be smart, stay dumb. And it was like American one. It was like, you know, zip it. It was all about shutting up. Interestingly, I've never seen any like not or Soviet stuff about shutting up, even though they were repressive societies. Yes.

Maybe people there just know to shut up. Mr. Adam, Adam Smith, how much is it, John, how much does it cost to advertise with deep program and deep focused? Well, deep focus would be John's thing. Deep program is you should talk to Robbie about. Deep program, I don't have the foggiest idea. Deep focus. I think the minimum that we do right now is $6,000 a month.

But that's to have, you know, the script read during the show. I have no idea what the little banner advertisements. Because we don't do that. That's what do you call it YouTube and Rumble. So if you weren't interested in D-Program, reach out to Robbie West, our producer. Robbie, is it West Glacier Gaming? Is that the email? West Glacier Gaming at Gmail.

Yep. And email me, we'll work it up. And Robbie, do we have an ad by any chance? We do. I'll go ahead and throw it up for you right now. Thank you, sir. Okay. $2 from Steve, thanks for the two Canadian dollars.

Are you a DC or Marvel guy? Definitely DC. Soden, thanks for the 1999. Good morning, gents. Is Tulsi the worst DNI in history? not leave out of you. Yeah. You know, I'm not sure I would call her the worst in history.

Maybe John Negroponte would be worse. Rick Grinnell would be worse. Actually, there have been a bunch that have been worse. But she kind of hate to even say this. She's not respected at the White House. And so they've cut her out. And to tell you the truth, if I were Tulsi, I would resign

just because I think she's being disrespected and she's not having an impact on anything. She deserves better. She's still actually isn't she? I mean, I believe she is. Yeah. Yeah. It's not right. Would she a lieutenant colonel or something like that?

Yeah. Which is funny because in her civilian grade, she's a four star general. Yeah, she's being disrespected. It's not right. And like you just, yeah, she'd make more of a splash by quitting. But like you said, John, I think she needs the money. They can, all right, here's the ad.

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This isn't a credit line they can shut off. It's your wallet permanently. Yours to protect your future. Yours to protect your family. When the system fails when institutions turn on their own people, financial sovereignty is the difference between security and vulnerability. Rumble Wallet is. It's about politics. It's about freedom, ownership, and protecting you. What's yours. So take control today. Download rumble wallet now and step away from the big banks for good. True ownership, true protection, true financial freedom. John, I got to ask you about the CIA coin that you're, that you're, so first of all, is there a physical coin? Or is it just virtual? And how does it look? Is it like, are you happy with your image on it?

Yeah, it's an image. It's a virtual coin, but in the advertising, they make it look like a Bitcoin, but it has my picture on it. It's called CIA coin, a meme coin. And it's a picture of me in front of the Justice Department. I was giving a speech in support of Julian Assange. It's a picture that's out there. I think it's Washington Post or AP or something like that. I only heard about this on, Friday of last week. And over the weekend, I sort of objected these guys just, you know, used my picture. And then we had a conversation about it. And I brought my attorney in and everything's good, everything's smooth. And it's a legit coin. It's not, it's not something they did just, you know, on a lark. It's like a real thing. To the extent that crypto is ever real. To the extent that crypto is not a 17th century Dutch tulip bulb. Yes. So the picture is okay.

Yeah. So they asked me if I would go on Twitter and say, you know, I saw it. I approve of it. I, you know, I can't endorse it just because, you know, for legal reasons, I'm not saying go out and buy the CIA coin because it's going to make you rich. I can't say that. But I'm going to, I'm going to see where it goes. I would be, I mean, like I was, you know, because like with the Trump coin, my big question is why Trump would want that image on the coin. It's really ugly.

Yeah, it's awful. Awful. I mean, God who cares about his image. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And another thing that I don't understand about Trump and the image that he, you know, prefers to put on these things is, for example, like his mugshot. that's not a flattering photo no he looks psychotic

yeah why do you want to look like a pissed off dictator well I read when I was researching my book about him for people who care I did a book about him back in 2018 he looks like you know he he practices in front of the mirror he's obsessed with Churchill and he said Churchill was always scowling

and looking like like harsh and that's what made him look like a badass. I'm like, Churchill was a prick. That's why. Yeah, he was. He was a war criminal. Yes. And a right-wing maniac. Wife beater. Yeah. Colonialist bastard. Sure. But the point is that like, he's like, so he's like, I want to be like Churchill. But actually, Trump has a very nice smile. And he really, I mean, just as someone who collects coins that's looked at coins from, you know, lots of coins, lots of stamps. I mean, you know, he would be better off being memorialized. with a smiley or a neutral look, I think.

Mr. President, if you're watching, you know, seriously. Yeah. Do you know that iconic Yusuf Karsh image of Churchill, where he's like, you know, like this, he's got the cigar, iconic image. There's a story there where Karsh didn't just go to Churchill's office and take that picture. He took like 100 pictures. That was the only one. in which Churchill wasn't smiling.

And every one of the other 99 pictures is kind of a warm, a little bit aloof, kind of friendly, you know, and they just don't work. And then that one picture has become the picture that everybody knows. Did Churchill sign off on that? Is that why that happened that way? Yeah. That's so, yeah, and you, I know you've seen the film of Hitler practicing his speeches, right? Yes.

In front of the mirror. And he was, he didn't look, yeah, I mean, you know, kind of like he had these, he didn't really gesticulate like that naturally. He had kind of a pleasant voice in real life, but that's not the image he wanted to project to the German public. Even the mustache, right, was something he copied from like the traditional old Prussian 1800s. Very strange.

Anyway, top best, coolest, thanks for the two bucks. Appreciate you. Blazing Scout, 5625. If you do, 65, don't want to get your number wrong. Thanks for the 499. What's the perspective on communists and communism, both domestically and abroad? Good question. Does the U.S. worry about socialism growing in popularity?

Well, I don't think that communism has any meaningful presence in U.S. political discourse whatsoever. Not anymore. It's like it doesn't even exist. Does the U.S. worry about socialism? Internationally, it worries about it a lot. That's why it crushes socialist regimes like Cuba and Venezuela, because I think it's terrified to see that, like, oh, there could be aspects of socialism or communism that would appeal

and that Americans might someday theoretically, you know, want some of that for themselves. Like, oh, it would be great not to go into debt to send my kids to college. I don't know. That's my take. No, I agree with you. You know, I said in my very first book that on my very first day at the CIA, January 7th, 1990, the director of security for the CIA gave a speech, and he opened a speech

by saying, the gravest threat facing the United States today is the threat of Soviet communism. And I remember saying to the guy next to me, does this guy not watch the news? Yeah, yeah. And then a year later, there is no such thing as Soviet communism. there really wasn't, I mean, there was a Soviet Union, but there really wasn't Soviet communism by that point. Right. That's so, yeah, that's so weird. I mean, John, my cartoonist colleagues still draw Russia, like using Cold War iconography, like with the bear and, like, you know, even hammers and sickles.

I'm like, guys, hello? I mean, you know, Russian Federation is not a communist country. No. at all. Hey, I'm going to show you one other thing that I like very much. This is, this is a Soviet Academy Award. I know what that is. That's cool. Isn't that great? It's a Soviet Academy Award. You notice it's, it was never granted to anyone. It weighs a ton, too, let me tell you. This is marble and this is steel. So I found it in an antique shop in Sophia Bulgaria. And the guy said, yeah, when the Soviet Union fell apart.

Like everything associated with the Soviet Union fell apart with it. And this was the Soviet film collective, their Academy Award. And so the ones that had been made that weren't going to be granted to anybody were just sort of released to whoever wanted them. And this guy picked a couple up. The only reason that I even paid attention to it was because before seeing it for sale, I saw one that had been given as a lifetime achievement award to Francis Ford Coppola. I took a tour of the Coppola Vineyard.

And on the second floor of the vineyard, there's this little teeny tiny personal museum. And it has Marlon Brando's desk from the Godfather. And it has Francis Ford Coppola's Soviet Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. And I recognized it as like, oh, I got to buy that. I think I'm being 25 bucks for it. Oh, that's fantastic. And just as a sculpture, it's wonderful. This is what I mean about Americans are not good at propaganda.

No, we're not. The Oscar is a ugly piece of shit by comparison. Yeah, it is. And so is the Emmy. The Emmy is ridiculous. You know, I don't know. The Tony's like better looking kind of. But yeah, that's.

Yeah, the Tony's okay. Yeah, I wouldn't mind having one of those, not that I ever will. But yeah, that's a, yeah, that's fantastic. Oh, my God, I'm so jealous of that. I love it. All right. Oh, I want to shout out to Mike from the Miami airport. Oh, yeah.

Thanks for stopping me, Mike. You know, one of the things that I really love, Ted, is, God, this is going to sound wrong, but I'm just going to say it. You can draw your own conclusions. I enjoy being recognized because it gives me the opportunity to say thank you to people for supporting us and supporting me personally, whether it's for the pardon or when I was in prison or whatever it was. I like being recognized because it allows me to say, thank you so much for your support. And I ran into this guy at the airport of Miami yesterday,

who watches the show every day. And I wanted to say, thank you for stopping me. And it was a pleasure meeting him. Oh, boy. Breaking news. Speaking of awards, John, did you see this from the Washington Post? The latest recipient of the Mark Twain Award, which is something I would like to get from the Kennedy Trump Center. Yeah, uh-oh. Bill Maher. What?

Mm-hmm. The Mark Twain Award? That's a major American literary award. Yeah, it's for, you know, it's for great achievements in humor. Okay, I'm going to be egotistical here. I'm far more deserving of the Mark Twain Award than Bill Maher is. And I've been on Bill Maher show.

Yeah. It's a regular on a show and on both the old one and the new one. new, you know, in quotes there. Yeah. Bill Maher is not funny. No, he's not. You know, and he, yeah, well, I think you could be mean and funny. I think for sure.

I mean, Mark Twain certainly knew how to be mean and funny. But he's not funny. Not, not consistently. I mean, the thing is his monologues are corny. I mean, there's stupid puns that wouldn't be out of place for, like, you know, Johnny Carson. in the 1960s. Actually, Johnny Carson did better than that.

I don't know. It's just sort of like, yeah. Well, you know, in the closing, you mentioned the closing days of the Soviet Union, John, like in the 80s, like only hacks were allowed to succeed in the Soviet Union.

The system was circling the drain. Yeah. And that's what it is, that's what it's like now. Only hacks win Pulitzer's. Only hacks, you know, win big prizes. It's just, you know,

draw that conclusion what you want. That is true. top best coolest thanks for the five why does europe complain about illegal migration without addressing its causes why not pressure corrupt sehel leaders and tackle Libya's instability i'm not sure they're really complaining i think they like the cheap labor yeah sure the greeks do complain the greeks have become assholes about it which i'm not saying is a bad thing I've complained in the past that the Turks take billions of euros from the European Union to set up refugee camps in Turkey. They gladly take the money.

And then in the dead of night, they put these refugees on boats and send them to Greece because they know it's going to crash the economy. And that's what they want to do. And then the boats overturn, or they crash into the Greek Coast Guard boat and overturn. And then people die. And they're like, oh, my God, the Greeks, they're not helping these poor people. that's not it at all. Robbie wants to. Robbie has an explanation about Trump's mugshot.

Yeah. So the whole thing about Trump, it's really kind of brilliant on his end. And that's not a word I use very often with Trump. Is that his whole spiel is they're not after me. They're after you. I'm just in the way. So that's why he uses the mugshot. That's why he has that that hemorrhoid corncob up the butt look.

It's because he's just. trying he's trying to sell the image that they're after joe six pack or citizen america and that he is this valiant defender the shield of america as you like to say defending the american working class against uh all the wiles of globalism meanwhile he does everything he can to continue the hollowing out of the country fuck him robbie i think you're a hundred percent right thank you for that um let's talk about um i'm not gonna i don't want to give short shrift to uh etienne da vignon so he's He's this Belgian dude, 93 years old, kind of peripherally involved in the assassination of Patrice

Lumumba. I think it's impossible to overstate just sort of the romantic interest in Patrice Lumumba among the left and from the anti-colonialist movement. He was the first democratically elected leader of post-colonial Congo. And of course, probably no country, and this is saying a lot, in colonial Africa suffered as much as Congo under colonialism. It was literally the personal possession of the king, Leopold. Like literally, he had the deed to the whole country. Anyway, back in January of 1961, this guy basically, like, dropped a dime on him and sort of arranged for him to be assassinated.

He was tortured, executed, and kind of like what happened to Shoggi dissolved in a barrel of sulfuric acid. So at the time, Davignon was just 27 years old. He was a trainee at the Belgian embassy in Leopoldville. But anyway, the thing is what I found really interesting, I'm not that interested in the trial. I don't think we're going to get a lot of light there. I'm super interested, John, in the fact that the CIA has never released, the U.S. has never released its CIA files on Congo. And I was wondering what your thoughts were about this whole. There was a book published a few years back, well, more than a few. I'm going to, I'm going to find it.

Larry Devlin. It was called Chief of Station Congo. Larry Devlin wrote it and asked his daughter not to publish it until he died. He died in 2008. But the reason he asked her not to publish it until he died was because he didn't want to put it through the CIA's publications review process. So he just came right out with all the secrets. Ooh, that's cool.

Yeah, it was cool. It was one of the first books that I bought when I was thinking of writing my own book, my first book. And I was like, how the heck did he get away with it? So I called his daughter. And she's like, oh, no, that was the whole idea. He knew that they would never let him say any of this stuff, especially about Patrice Lamumba.

And so he wanted to wait until he does. died because she said, I'm not bound by the CIA's publications review process. He was. And so, you know, the funny thing that I remember about this book is that Larry Devlin says that he actually saved Patrice Lamumba's life at one point, that the CIA was planning to assassinate him, and the CIA had recruited the head of Lumumba's bodyguard unit to shoot him in the back. And he tipped Lamumba off. And La Mumba had the guy arrested. But he said, the CIA had so made up its mind that Lamumba was a communist, that he was going to ally himself with the Soviet Union. He had to go. And so they plotted with the Belgians to take him out. And like you said, they took him out in a

terrible way. They arrested him. They paraded him through public, you know, in the back of a pickup truck. They beat him, they tortured him, they executed him, and then they dissolved him in a barrel of acid. And what the people of Congo were left to the tender mercies of Joseph of Joseph Mobutu. That's right, who was a collective rap. And he was one of the most brutal tyrants in post-colonial Africa. Yeah, yeah. Just a terrible, terrible thing. I mean, this is a big meta question, but hey, we're here for that.

I mean, did in the, during the Cold War, it was always my feeling, you know, that the United States over, they were paranoid about like the possibility of the foreign leaders who were leading left, drifting into the Soviet orbit. You know, like Castro, as a young man, wrote to the United States and said that he wanted to, you know, he loved. the United States. Ho Chi Minh had American flags at his inauguration. Couldn't we have made friends with people like... Repeatedly. Repeatedly. With people like L. M. Castro was a baseball phenom and was in the Washington Senator's Minor League Baseball Farm System. He came here as a rebel to seek U.S. support against the Batista regime and was told, to get out because we don't talk to communists. And it was that that turned him against us because we wouldn't help him.

And so he turned to the Soviets. And like you say, Ho Chi Minh was another example. Ho Chi Minh for years would tell people, he just couldn't understand what the United States has against him, that he liked the United States. It was the French that he was fighting against. Paul Pot liked the Western Europeans at first. He was French educated, right? Yeah, no, I just don't get it.

I mean, you know, these people, they reach out to us first, and we tell them to fuck off, and we force them to become enemies. That's exactly right. Weird. Do you think we have anything like that going on now? I mean, I kind of feel like we do. Probably. The Iranians, maybe, is a good example.

Sure. Sure. But we're so stupid, though, that we allie ourselves with the likes of the clown Reza Palavi or the cult leader Miriam Rajavi and then where do we find ourselves? We're in bed with a cult leader, a disgraced crown prince, and the Israeli intelligence service.

That's just grand. Let me ask you about Palavi, right? So my Twitter feed is full of Palavi monarchist people. So when you see like the same exact talking point on X, like the Iranian people have decided they want, Reza Pahlavi to be their new leader. They have decided. I'm like, the Iranian people of Beverly Hills maybe.

Nobody has decided anything, right? There's been no poll of anything. Nobody's, there's been no election. There's been nothing. And there can't be under the present circumstances. And anyway, exiles aren't going to get a vote, right? That's right. So, okay.

Are those like just coordinated talking points that are sent out to everybody and everybody and they came right out of the Mossad? Yes, correct. Wow. Okay. It's really depressing. I think most people who read that shit don't know. You know, I remember during the, in the early days of the Iraq War, at the CIA, we got a real kick out of something that happened at the White House.

The Republican National Committee came up with talking points that were so offensive that multiple people leaked them to the media. And they were trying to coin this new phrase. It was Islamo-Fascism. Oh, yeah, that's Chris Hitchens. That's Croissette's, right. So everybody was instructed, just like over the course of two or three days, to start using this term Islamofascism. And it was everybody from some blonde Bimbo who was the head of the college Republicans at the time to the national security advisor.

And the American people were just like, what? It literally just makes sense. That's not going to work. Yeah. It's the R word. I'm trying not to use it. WN, $1.99, look it up. There's a video of the cornhole guy shooting a gun.

There is. No way. Okay, I'm going to look it up right now. It's totally true. Top best coolest thanks for the five bucks. I found that Iran is relatively open with Persians powerful Azerbaijani's like Khomeini and that it has no allies due to its historical links with Russia. And I think the majority Shia thing enters into it too.

son of Mauritania, two bucks, thanks so much. I see him. I see him shooting a gun. Yeah, and he's good at it too. He's shooting his gun with his stumps as he's sitting on the ground because he has no legs. Oh, here he has thrown cornhole with his stumps. Yep, he's stumping. Oh, my God.

Thanks for the $2. People don't talk about the history of Israeli Jews kicked out of all the world. And a lot of not, I don't know, of not Jews. especially from Soviet and Africa, an Arab leader. Okay, I'm sorry, this is, we need, it's hard to make head or tails of this post. Desert Fox 41, thanks for the dollar. What do you make of the Epstein Rothschild connection?

He brags about it in emails with Teal. Oh, you know, I was reading some of these Rothschild emails yesterday. Go ahead. Yeah. The Rothschilds should be ashamed of themselves for, for the relationship that they had with Jeffrey Epstein. and the behind the scenes there was a there was a piece of the times yesterday about this woman um oh shoot her name escapes me anyway she's one of these high society new york fixer women and she took

geoffrey epstein's money like with both hands right and she's welcoming him home from prison she in solidarity with him on the day he was released she wore stripes right to make it look like a prison uniform and and the emails were saying, you know, we have to figure out how to reintegrate you back into, into New York society. And don't worry, go slowly, but just rest assured that you have the widest townhouse in all of Manhattan, you know, and then two years later he's dead in a prison cell. Guys, we have a few leftover super chats that we'll get to tomorrow.

One of them, John, we're going to give you a chance first thing tomorrow. Advil 999. I heard you're a plant by the state. Is that true? No, it's not fucking true. But we'll talk about that tomorrow with John. I'm a plant by the state. Yeah, you're a plant by the state.

You know, if ever I want to use the R word, it's in response to stuff like this. Yeah, that would be fair. And Dinky, thanks for the 1799, Emeradi, Deeron. Thanks for the consistent coverage. And. Thanks for the Polish 100 from Justine. And finally, Marshmell, hey guys, I love the show. Here's my question of a 25-year-old in manufacturing.

Where do you see the country going economically? I'd love to buy a home. They're crushing my generation with affordability. I regret voting for Trump. Wow. There's always opportunities in any economy, is my big advice there. That's right. And Dingy 33, that's 1790.

99 dirums. Thank you very, very much for that. I don't know how many, how many dirums are to the dollar? $500. Oh, wow. Well, thanks very much for that. Guys, there's a two or three that we didn't get to today, and I apologize for that. We will get to you tomorrow. It's just a reminder of our change schedule next week, but we'll get to that tomorrow.

See you tomorrow, 9 o'clock a.m. Eastern time. We're here Monday through Friday. Tomorrow's Friday, so that means we'll be back. Please stay tuned for the TMI show at 10 a.m. coming up right now with Militian at 11 a.m. I'll also be doing the DMZ America podcast with Scott Stantis. Mr. Fish will be joining us to talk about the state of the world, and I'm sure things will get awesome. So, John, thank you. Thank you so much. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow, everybody.