DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Trump in Trouble | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Trump approval reaches new low, a Post-ABC-Ipsos poll finds. Democrats now hold a 5% advantage in support for Congress, up from 2% in February. Americans disapprove of him on Iran by 66% to 33%. He is down 7% on the economy, to 34%. He has fallen 5% in that time to 27% and his lowest rating comes on perceptions of his handling of the cost of living, with 23% approving vs. 76% disapproving.• Oil traders doubted the effectiveness of a plan by Trump for the US to guide neutral ships out through the Strait of Hormuz. The US move was meant to enable vessels that have been stranded by the war with Iran to pass through the waterway. A tanker reported being hit by projectiles 78 nautical miles north of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said. • Rudy Giuliani is in critical condition.• Spirit Airlines shuts down, stranding travelers. Republicans blame Biden.MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JamarlThomasLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504

Good morning watching D-Program with Ted Roll and Jamarle Thomas. Jamarle is out today, sick, but we expect to have him back tomorrow. Substituting for J.T. is producer Robbie Thomas. Good morning, Robbie. I'm not Robbie Thomas. What the hell? Did you straight up this stuff called me Robbie Thomas? My God.

Listen, don't see the abuse I have to put up with on a daily basis? Well, I mean, I thought, I didn't want to, I'm sorry I broke the news of the adoption. What the hell, man? It's just this is what happens when you make friends with a cartoonist is also a communist. It's like the abuse never, ever stops. All right, good morning, everyone. Thanks for tuning in.

And, you know, in honor of Manila Chan, who is on TMI show and is also going to be out again today. Today is May 4th, which for those who celebrate, may the force be with you day, that is today. So may the force be with you, whatever that means. It is, we are a lot to talk about breaking news out of Florida, where former Mayor New York, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is desperately ill, fighting for his life in critical condition. We're not really sure exactly what's wrong with him, but we'll talk about Rudy. We're also going to get into the situation in the Strait of Ormuz. A lot to talk about there.

And Spirit Airlines shut down. over the weekend leaving travelers stranded. Republicans are blaming Joe Biden. If you have a question, comment, whatever, in the live hour and the 9 a.m. Monday through Friday, which would be right now, right now, if you're watching live, please pipe it into YouTube or Rumble, and we will get to it as soon as we possibly can. Thanks, everyone, for supporting the show.

Thank you so much for being here for us during this transitional time. if you're just joining us, Jamaral should be back tomorrow. He has a, I would say, an unpleasant but relatively minor medical procedure to get through today is the best way to put it. But because we reflect, we respect the HEPA Act here, we're not going to reveal what we know about it. And anyway, TMI coming up at 10 o'clock. Robbie, am I leaving anything out? No, you've pretty much got us down. A lot of people are asking questions about my co-host that's right here leading against the wall.

So, Sean, it is a Chinese SKS with a chrome barrel. And he just sits here and just keeps you company out. As far as guns go, it's kind of disappointing. It doesn't get up a walk around on its own. It doesn't do. It's not sentient at all. It only does what I allow it to do. And that's what they say.

They say guns don't kill people. Only retards with guns kill people. This is true. This is true. I'm just really kind of hoping it was a transformer, though. Oh, that would be remarkable. I mean, you know, in the age of AI, that's entirely possible, right? I mean, we already have smart guns, which have, like, the ability to control, like, through facial recognition and thumbprint, kind of like when you sign on to your laptop or your phone to see whether you're the proper registered owner of the gun.

What do you think of smart guns before we get to the news? Yeah, let's go ahead. I mean, I think there's a lot to, I mean, I think there's a lot to be said for a smart gun, honestly. You know, it's like it prevents, for example, if you're a parent and you have a gun at home, it prevents your kid from, your kid can take the gun to school, but they can't shoot anyone with it. That's true, but also, though, if it came time to shoot some two-legged barments that poses government agents, take us it off your gun, and then you couldn't do that. No, I mean, that's, well, that's one thing I never understood, like the whole, like, I don't,

I don't know if you have this experience, but like my liberal friends who are gun owners, they have this whole thing like, well, I keep the gun locked up and it's not loaded. And the ammunition is in a different place than the gun. I'm like, okay, if you're only going to use it for target practicing and target practice and hunting, that's fine. But, you know, for self-defense, that's not going to do you much good. No. No, no, you wouldn't. And, I mean, I'm going to break some people's brains here. I'm a southerner

and I taught Thomas my son I taught him how to shoot when he was five years old using a AK-47 version of a semi-automatic rifle a variant. That's the word I was looking for. Fancy word, maybe you don't have coffee at 7 in the morning. Not that's another word, yeah. Yeah, well, machine guns are illegal.

So a fully automatic rifle that is a that's an assault weapon. the requirement for it to be an assault weapon. You can't get those. I've been here in Montana, unfortunately. So, but I taught him to shoot on an AK-47, and then he graduated over to the SKS. And the reason is, because the SKS is just simply, it's heavier. Those are the safest guns ever to learn to shoot on because you can be, you can be

the most ardent retard. And you cannot break them. And that's, they are amazing guns. So seriously. Yeah, well, that's why in Vietnam, right, I know you know this story, right? But like in Vietnam, famously, American soldiers would be told if you have to just kill one North Vietnamese soldier or at least or steal their gun because those guns work in the jungle. They work in humidity. They can be soaked through.

But the M1 rifle that was issued to American GIs was considered really unreliable. Yeah, well, it's that. And also, I mean, the parts are overshadowed. size, which is nice. Here in Montana, it gets cold, kind of what it does in Russia, right? And so it's nice, for example, with that SKS or an AK-47, you can be wearing your gloves. I got to do just take out one pin, the entire thing falls apart. It makes cleaning them so much easier. And the parts are big enough. You're not going to lose any small parts. And lastly, they like to run dirty. If you clean them too much, they don't like it.

The only way you can actually truly, honestly, God, jam an SKS or an AK-47. They use the same gas mechanism. You just too much. Yeah, if you claim it too much. They like to run dirty, kind of like Cookers in New Orleans. They want to run dirty. And so that's the secret. Honestly, God.

It's like a politician in Washington. All right. So let's get to it. All right, so let's just dive into. I'm not going to do the rundown. The latest, so last week, the New York Times broke the news. that Donald Trump's approval rating in the New York Times poll had dropped the Sienna College poll had dropped to a record low for the president in both of his terms, 33%.

Now comes the Washington Post-IPSA poll that finds similar numbers. Their numbers are a little lower, but they're still, I mean, they're different. They're a little higher, but there's still a record low for the president. So his approval rating is now down to 37% overall. Democrats are now hold a 5% advantage in a generic race between a generic Democrat and a generic Republican in Congress, House or Senate this fall. That's up two points from just two, three months ago. On Iran, which is remarkable because this is his biggest project, and normally wartime at least this early in a war in six weeks in, you would really expect the rally around the flag effect. but that's not the case here at all.

Nobody wants this war. Nobody wants this war. No. And so Americans disapprove of him on Iran by 66% to 33%, which means, without a doubt, that includes a lot of Republicans who did vote for him, right? He's down 7% on the economy to 34%. He's gone, fallen down 5% to 27%. And then that's on the cost of living.

on cost of living he's down 23 to only 23% approve of what he's doing there 76% don't like it so basically this president um i think he's it's you know look um polls go up polls go down um you know you're going to hear that of course don't forget when his polls were up he was always tweeting them out right my polls are so awesome you're not going to hear anything now he's like polls don't mean anything of course when they're not on your side but Bobby, this presidency looks to me as an outsider who did not vote for Donald Trump as a, nor for Kamala Harris, nor for Hillary Clinton. It looks a lot like a presidency that is falling apart.

And I would say it's hard to see how he comes back from this, you know, given who he is and who the people are around him and the direction that he's and the advice that he's taking from a certain Middle Eastern capital. Well, I mean, it's because he doesn't control his own administration. It's just like the first term only more acute. I mean, the biggest problem with the Trump organization is that there's no organization. Honestly, I mean, that was the complaint about the first term. If anything that the first term is better than the second,

because what he is doing is that he is showing one that he's feckless. He's also showing that he's weak. And reckless. And his instinct. for his first term were no more wars. He's completely flipped that on his head for the sake of the donors that supported him during his lawfare campaign and for the donors who are supporting the Republican Party at the detriment not only of his party, but of his entire legacy.

And one thing Trump cares about is his name. And I don't think he realizes just how much people on both sides of the political spectrum despise the man. Like, they honestly hate him. So I guess the thing is, I'm always interested in people who are in a crisis. Like, what would I do if I were in this kind of in Donald Trump's situation? Now, what's interesting is that it's come out in Tucker Carlson's interview with The New York Times. He had a wide-ranging interview early at the beginning of the weekend. And in that, he basically revealed something.

thing that was fascinating to me. He said that nobody, nobody in Trump's orbit encouraged him or told him that attacking Iran was a good idea. There was, in other words, there was no Dick Cheney in the room. There was no Paul Wolfowitz. There was no Richard Pearl. There were no neocons whispering in his ear that this would be a good idea. In fact, they all told him the exact opposite. J.D. Vance told him the op told him not to do it. Marco Rubio told him not to do it. Everybody sitting around the table thought it was a bad idea. Scott Besson thought it was a bad idea.

And in other words, and according to Tucker, and we have not seen any reporting to the contrary, the only influence here came from BB Netanyahu. It's the only person who convinced Donald Trump to do this. And Donald Trump themed helpless. And according to Tucker, not even like very enthusiastic. but kind of like, well, I'm going to do it. It'll be fine, I guess. You know, kind of like a man who fundamentally, you know, when you do something and you know it's like not really a good idea, but you're doing it anyway.

I know that feeling. And, you know, it could be something stupid. Like, I'm going to put my glasses down here. Oh, I know I'm going to forget that I put him here. But it's going to put him here anyway. And then I'm like, why am I doing that? I don't know. And Trump had that kind of mean, according to Tucker.

I mean, I don't get it because Donald Trump, for all of his many faults, really had amazing political cunning and instincts. I mean, this is a man who beat Hillary Clinton's $7 billion war chest in 2016 with a $2 million campaign, a man who basically had no support from the mainstream media, nevertheless won, never served in the military, never served in political office, became president of the United States, rallied back from being impeached not once but twice,

and multiply indicted, convicted of 54 felony counts, nevertheless came back to defeat a mainstream non-felony indicted Democrat Kamala Harris in 24. I mean, it's one of the most remarkable political careers in U.S. history. And yet, here he went, you know, full retard. What the fuck happened? Why did he listen to Bebe Netanyahu? reasons. One, the Epstein files. The whole reason why you run about the whole reason why you run a honeypot is for moments like this. It's like, so listen, Mr. President, we know that you don't, don't ditty little girls. We understand that. However, a lot of your friends do and a lot of people who are in government do and a lot of people who are in high commerce do. And if you don't do this,

it would be a real shame if this information somehow got leaked. And we talked. totally destroyed the oligarchy class that's running the United States. So that would be terrible, wouldn't it? And so then Trump, even his autistic orange-pish self-physical, say, oh, yeah, that's probably a bad idea. I should probably do this. That's the most likely reason, I think, that this is happening. Reason number two. But wait, before, I want to hear reason number two, and we will get to, I promise.

But what is, but what's the point? Let's just, but I'm playing it out, right? Like, so, sure. Let's just say, okay, so let's just say that a bunch of Trump's, let's just say that's all true. Trump's friends get outed and the oligarchy blows up. But Trump still is president. He's still okay. He's not going to prison for diddling little children.

I mean, so what's it to him in a way, right? I mean, it's like, bye, have a good time in the lockup. I mean, does he like them? he need them? Is he afraid of them? Is it all of the above? All of the above. It's all of the above. Okay. So here's a good example. Okay. The United States has its political class and then it has its corporate masters that own the political class. I mean, that's just, that's how our system of government works. It's government by donor, not by voter. Trump likes all these people. He ran in the same circles as those people. That's why he went to their weddings. That's why he went to all the parties

where all these people were hobnobbing anyway. So that's number one. He likes them. Second, if it goes down, the entire country gets decapitated, which me personally, I'm fine with that. Because when I voted for him in 2016, it was for him to set everything on fire and do a hard reset. But Trump, for whatever reason, does not like chaos, even though he sows it. He doesn't want to be trapped in it. So I think that's a big part of it. And number three, three, he saw his business size, he has business interests. And if they go down, what could they do to wreck the Trump organization and make sure that Donald Trump Jr. and his other kids are all, instead of living in these gilded palaces,

are then on welfare lines or worse, maybe even in prison. So it's all the above is a completely self-serving thing. And that's the whole reason why you would run a honeypot in the first place. If you ran a honeypot against me, it's not really to do a whole lot of good because I'm only with woman. That's all that's all I want. And I'm not I'm not man spreading in the Minneapolis bathroom. That's not how I, that's, that's not the game that I play. But a lot of people though in government do and Trump knows these people. And point number two is Trump's ego. I have no, if you listen to Mark Levin, Mark Levin is remarkable because he tells you in his squeaky little

selfish way. What people are saying to him, and by him, I mean, Trump behind closed doors. Donald Trump, if you do this, you will be the next Cyrus de Great. You will be the savior of Israel. Keep in mind, Trump has a neighborhood in the Golan Heights named Trump Heights. And that's true. He has that. Which is occupied Syria.

And so he has a chance to be the savior of the Jewish state, the Jewish homeland, to be likened unto King's cycle. Trump does. It's all about his ego. What would I care about being known as the savior of this 10 million people, tiny little country with no natural resources? Why would I care? I would much rather have a glorious, I would much rather be remembered as the president who saved the United States with 330 million people. And by the way, that I'm from and live in.

that's because you're not a narcissist and a megalomaniac who cares about what people think about you. Well, but even if I were, I mean, I have my ego. I mean, I'm far. But you're not insane. But being recognized as like a great American president is a lot bigger of a prize than being recognized as the savior of Israel. Is it? Because, I mean, if Israel owns the, it owns the American government to its lobby, I mean, you get effectively say that the capital of the United States is not D.C. It's Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, depending on your, on how you want to divide this particular baby. But I mean, this is all, it's either A,

is blackmail and coercion or B, it's because they're telling him Donald Trump, you have the chance to be, you have a chance to be a Messiah, you have the chance to be a savior of a state and a people. You have the chance to build that beautiful Gaza resort and turn it into a beach with a huge golden statue of Trump. And all you've got to do, Mr. President, is bend the knee and do it Bibi tells you to do.

I want to respond to something goonious thing on YouTube. I don't believe anything Tucker says. So for full transparency, I have never met Tucker Carlson. I've never talked to Tucker Carlson. I've never corresponded with Tucker Carlson. And I wouldn't vote for him for president. So, okay, all that said, the reason I believe what he said is because I study Washington denials. And when something like this comes out, if it's not true, it will be denied by the people who are, you know, it's about.

There's been no denials whatsoever here coming out of the administration. If any of this weren't true, we'd be hearing about it from the president or his surrogates. Therefore, it's true. That's just how official Washington works. And there's denials and then there's super denials. a super denial would be along the lines of not only is it not true, but I'm going to sue you for defamation. Then it's like, wow, it's probably not true. In this case, it's certainly true because no one around the president or his orbit is saying anything.

Otherwise, let's do a few comments. F.U. So, thanks for the donation. May the fourth be with you too. We're fighting Emperor Trump with shit-lived jar-jong beings. The rebellion is doomed. True. man child thanks for the two bucks morning retards morning to you too with trump's disapproval hitting a new high of 62 percent and independence ditching him faster than nixon's legal team is the base cracking or is he's just allergic to being liked the base is dead well there's still a base you see them

every morning i i see them but i mean they're around there are people who basically will make any excuse for this guy. Like it's all Obama's fault. It's all Biden's fault. We're going to talk about Spirit Airlines, Spirit Airlines went bankrupt, closed over the weekend, stranding travelers. People, and already Republicans are saying, well, this is Joe Biden's fault because the Biden administration refused to allow JetBlue to merge with Spirit. And, you know, I mean, the point is they'll do anything to, I mean, I don't blame Donald Trump for Spirit Airlines going under. I, I don't blame Biden either. You know, I mean, the real reason that Spirit went under is because the big three, Delta

United and American, basically introduced those like low-cut, those super economy fairs where you have to pay extra to bring luggage and all that. And they basically the same serve as Spirit, except they have more destinations. So that they ate Spirit's Lunge. That's why they went under. Sure. I mean, so why? But I mean, anyway, the point is, is the base, the base is definitely cracked, though, right?

Can we say that for sure? No, the base is dead. And here's what I'm saying this. You're going to have your hardcore Trumpian cultists. If you want to call that a base, you can. Sure. But what I'm looking at from the base is the coalition that Trump built for the populist right, the populist left, the anti-war right, the anti-war left, the immigration hawks.

and then you have just a sea of independent people who Trump actually spoke to, especially in his first term saying, I hear you, I see you. I'm a billionaire, but I've been around working class people all my life. And these people in Washington, D.C., don't care about you,

but I am listening to you. He never said I cared about you, but he said, I'm listening to you. That's a big thing, okay? Trump has destroyed all of that for this. sake of his donors. Let's look at the economy.

Gas prices here in Calisville, know where I am, the average annual income here is $30,000 a year. Gas prices now are $4.30 a gallon for regular. That's unsustainable. It's a crisis here.

And people are really hard to ask questions all over the country reflecting this reality. Mr. President, you promised no wars that here you are dragging us into an illegal war of aggression i'm saying it's illegal because congress didn't declare it and even people who don't understand what that actually means they understand that things are cost a lot more now than what they did under even biden which is which is

crazy and trump can what's gas there now in call a spill four dollars and 39 cents a gallon oh just just and just you wait better buy now because it's as cheap as it's going to be for a long time the ranchers are having or having kittens because the cost of diesel now is insane. They're not making a profit. Yeah, people who are driving around or are just taking the bus by a gas station should look at the diesel sign at the gas station. It is shocking. Diesel is always more than regular, but it's all, it's skyrocketing. Oh, for sure.

And so whenever I said that the base is dead, I'm thinking about this. When Chalkarne got elected, when he ran against Kamala Harris, he won a record number of voters from black and Hispanic people who the Democrat stuff that they owned and they switched then they voted for Trump because they went they wanted to gamble that this guy really gets it he really understands yeah he has he's lost every bit of that I know that's true I mean look in the 2016 campaign he went to my hometown of Dayton Ohio repeatedly Donald Trump did and you know I mean, I grew up there, and it was dying my entire childhood and throughout my adulthood

all my life. It's been a dying city. And it was interesting because he talked about, like Hillary Clinton and the Democrats ridiculed him while he talked about like the boarded up houses and the meth crisis and the opioid crisis and the factory closures, the big beautiful factories that were closing. And I think of the Lourdes Town plant. in Northeastern Ohio that I've driven by more times than I can possibly count. And it's shocking to see that massive, empty parking lot that used to be full of cars of people who were earning an average of $100 or more than $100,000 a year and it could afford to send their kids to college if they wanted to.

Donald Trump could look out of the window of his escalade and say, man, it must suck to live here. And that's not a big reveal for anybody who does. live there. But it's a big reveal for someone like for the, you know, East Coast Democrats. They just don't get it. Hillary Clinton could look out that window and I guess she'd be on her phone or something. She must not, it didn't cross her mind that it would suck to live there. And Donald Trump has forgotten, well, he's decided to set it aside or he's been completely D.C. bubbled, right? I mean, I'm not sure, or he's just, he's also got a bad case of the olds, right?

I mean, the dude is 80. I mean, he's fucking old and he's out of touch. I mean, there's a lot of things going on all I want. Well, he does. And one of the things I'd really encourage you, and I know there's some of your friends watch the show. Some of them are you've told me are Robbie Curious. I'm going to throw you some, I'm going to throw you some nuggets of knowledge here for the

Robbie Curious Liberals that Ted knows. watch the show. Oh yeah. And instead of going to England and France and going to England and I know, all these other places, instead of, you know, going on your on your foreign trips, go to a town out the country that's maybe an hour away from where you live. Look around. Because what you're going to see more often than not is a town that is that's on life support, if not just dead. That's imploding. And then I want you to imagine that happen. in every single state across the country where you have a mass population of people who have been destroyed politically and economically. They have no power at all. They have no voice. And the people

who they elect are supposed to represent them in Congress, don't do it. Instead, what they do is that they represent the donors who fund their campaigns. I mean, that's clearly true. If you want to see why people like me are so freaking pissed off. And I'm not talking about just a white dude. I'm talking about just a working class smuck trying to provide for his family and see why Trump got elected in the first place and then why got elected again. And then by the next time, it could be even worse. It's because people and government are ignoring the working class people.

Now, that's the issue. Robbie, and we got to move on to like the situation in Ormuth, in the state of Ormuz, but But I got to call you out, right? I mean, like, I feel like, okay, so I'm going to flip this script a little bit here. And thank you very much, Sneaker Dad, for the very generous $50 donation. We really appreciate you. He says, good morning when he's on the show. Jamarle is one of the few hosts dressed like a grown-up.

He and Garland Nixon. And that's true. I have to admit, you know, I worked in banking for years. you know, all throughout the 1980s. And the truth is, it's not the capitalism that got me out of banking. It was having to wear a suit. I just ain't having to, and I'd like to just say that if it's true that the U.S. military invented the T-shirt, it's the best thing that the U.S. military ever did because I love

T-shirts. But I guess for, I would take for extra donations, I will definitely dress any way you guys want, you know for enough money i'll wear a tutu um all right i can wear flannel i don't have a suit i can 100% wear a flannel shirt for you my yeah i'm probably too fat to wear my my last suit i haven't worn to stuffed myself into a suit for a while but we'll have to see but call me out i want to hear i want to call you all okay so you know how like um the burney voters were told repeatedly oh like yeah we'll kick out bernie and we'll shiv him but we know in the fall you guys are going to turn out and you're going to vote, you're going to vote Democratic because you hate the Republicans more than

you hate the DNC. Now, that didn't really, it worked in 2020. It didn't work in 2016, right? So the thing is, you Republicans, you conservatives, you right wingers, you guys, basically the RNC has the same exact idea. They're like, okay, yeah, you're pissed off at Donald Trump. He doesn't give a shit about your, you know, about you. and you're pissed and sad about it.

Okay, great. But what are you going to do? You're guys going to vote Democratic? I don't think so. Are you guys going to get an imagination and vote for the Libertarian Party? No. Are you going to get a super imagination and take to the streets and have right-wing, like, riots or peaceful marches or whatever and form a brand new right-wing political movement

based on populism? Don't think so at all. So they basically don't think they're calling your bluff. they don't think you guys will will they think you guys will at least tolerate them and probably just vote for them because you guys hate the libtards more well because what they're going to do is so there's a lot truth by the twice as you just said i'm going to take them over to unpack it before we go to horror movies because this is all related when it comes when it comes to right wingers we don't really do demonstrations very well but we never have

I mean, the last time we did one was when Trump started his little rally there at the White House and it turned into a riot. And before that, you guys had a sustained political movement in the Tea Party. And, of course, there was Charlottesville. Yeah, well, Charlottesville, I mean, that was, I think there's probably so much just federal instigation that was just in there, just agent provocateurs is causing trouble. Not Antifa. Can we agree on that? Oh, that's not Antifa. Antifa doesn't care about people,

though, used together to try and preserve history. Yeah, I mean, Antifa wasn't there. That was the feds. I'm fairly, that part I will, that part I will, I will buy. But the problem with the right is that when right wingers, when, so it's really,

you kind of have three phases. One is that you, is that you believe that the system works. We are past believing that the system works. Option number two is when you become like what I am and you just check out. It's like, no, this matters. It's all a joke. I'll focus on local elections.

National elections don't matter. The only thing I can do is try to provide for my family. It's all I can do at this point. Number three is that when it comes to the point where it's untenable, where you can no longer provide for your family, that's when right wingers get violent. And that's what I'm afraid is going to happen. And I think you're probably going to see a lot of, see a lot of ebb and flow,

but the podcast right and the left. But you guys are like, okay, so the populist right doesn't have an organization. In that sense, you guys are the same as the populist left or the left left, right? Yeah, yeah, Mag is dead. So what you guys have is, so what we're really talking about is lone wolves, individual spasms of violence, yeah? Yeah. And what the government's going to do is that they're going to become war draconian, they're going to start doing crackdowns. They're going to start doing.

It'll feed into their narrative that they need to curtail civil liberties. in order to maintain law and order. Incredibly. And that's what's going to happen. So then what the question is going to be? What's going to happen first is it is going to turn into a full on rebellion where a group of people says enough is enough for not going to take this anymore or does the entire system implode first?

That's the question. And I don't have an answer for it. But neither one of those scenarios is appealing to me. That's one of the reasons why I'm really hoping that someone like a Tucker Carlson who is able to run, who has. who has enough money and enough and enough political clout to be able to tell the ruling class, eat my shorts, to quote Bart Simpson, I really do think that if we're going to have any kind of an organized rebellion politically, it would have to be around someone like that.

Nick Fuentes is popular because of what he's going to get any crossover from the left from a Nick Fuentes. Oh, no, for sure. No, I like a moment. mentioned he's temperamentally unreliable. But no, I completely agree. Well, the thing is, as a right-winger, he's not temperamentally.

He's temperamentally reliable. Well, as a right-winger, I personally consider Nick Fuentes an enemy because he, you know, I'm married to a black woman. I have mixed kids. He would call me a race trader. Fine, fair enough.

I'm not sure Nick Fuentes even likes sex. I'm not sure. I don't know what the man likes. But what I can tell you, though, is that he's popular for a reason. and that's what neither political party is willing to address on this. What is it that has made him a phenomenon? Why do millions and millions of people listening?

People like unfiltered. I mean, one of the reasons that I'm, even though I'm barely hanging on, one of the reasons I am still hanging on is one of the last editorial cartoonists that's in the United States, I mean, let's put this in the perspective. When I got into this gig back in the late 1980s, early 1990s, There were about 1,500 full-time working editorial cartoonists, right? Now there's fewer than 10, and I'm one of them, right? And the reason I've survived is because I'm unfiltered.

I say what I want, I say what I believe, no bullshit. People are tired of bullshit. That's really why the podcast universe has taken off. It's why figures like Hassan Piker and Nick Forintess have taken off. It's why you and I are doing well. you know it's like it's it's definitely just like people and yet the ruling class continues to pump out the bullshit they loved it and they think it works it i mean you know everything works until it doesn't but i don't think inherently this you know it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a

it's a it's a it's a it's a but it's a but what nick fuentes and hassan piker and to an extent tucker carlson because those of the three of them Tucker is the one that has the most peel around the left and the right by asking questions. And that's all the reasons why Ben Shapiro hates him so much. He asks questions that no one else will ask. Nick Fuentes throws bombs. Hassan Piker throws bombs. I guess he kicks his dog.

I don't know. But that's, but those three individuals are a symptom of the biggest problem. And then you figure in the factoring is Kansas Owens. Why do people follow her? I have no idea if she's crazy or not. I don't know, but I do know that. I'll tell you, my, because everybody feels helpless, and they want a warrior on their side, right? That's exactly it.

And Donald Trump presented himself as that warrior, right? Famously, he said, I will be a retribution. The lie aspect here was the your part. He's not anything about your. He's not about us. He's about him. He'll be his own retribution, as we see how. how he's weaponizing the DOJ to, you know, to go after seashell gate and shit like that, right?

I mean, sure. I have a question for you, Ted, before we move on. Did you see the clip? If you didn't, I'll send it to you. Tucker was on Judge Napolitano. It was last week. And he made a full-throated apology to Muslims, talking about how, you know, when he was at Fox News and CNN, he just really played into this whole thing, that that Muslims are the enemy.

No, not Islam to religion, but Muslims, individual Muslims. So no, you're the enemy. One of the reasons why I really like Tucker, and I think he is the real deal. One, he found Jesus. At least he, if he didn't, he is, he is like the master BS artist. But it takes a lot of contrition and get up in front of millions of people and say, listen, I did this and I'm wrong. And I apologize.

That's very rare these days. It is. How does it how does that resonate with the left? Because I mean, no, no, when the United States blew up that school in Iran, that girl's school, no one's been held accountable for that. Who's held accountable when our government killed a million Iraqis with sanctions? Nobody was. No one ever admits ever that they made a mistake.

Nope. Yeah, you got a podcaster here who is directly involved in that stuff. And he apologized for supporting Trump, for campaigning with Trump. He apologized for all this crap that he was spewing. To me, as a Christian, that's very appealing because our entire religion is based around forgiveness and more importantly, asking for forgiveness to the people that you offended. How does that resident on the left? Well, I mean, as someone who has raised Catholic, right, I really value penance. And I agree with you.

I think it's incredibly powerful when people apologize and accept that they're wrong. Now, and admit that they're wrong, and they'll say it willingly in public. I mean, look, Tucker Carlson can't go back in time. He can't erase what he did. So he's doing the best he can, given where he is now. I think the left, unfortunately, in this particular case, Americans put everyone in their box, right? So they've put, you know, you're in a box, Robbie, I'm in a box. And Tucker is in his box.

And his box in the mind of the average Democratic voter is Tucker Carlson's the guy who used to wear a bow tie. They probably think he still does and suspenders. It was on Fox and was spewing Bush administration bullshit. And he's not, and therefore he can, he is never to be trusted. And I, la, la, la, la, la, I can't hear him. that's where he is. That's why I don't think he,

I don't know what he could do to change that perception in order to get enough crossover votes in order to be elected president of the United States. And I think that's the problem. And furthermore, I don't think most people in this country really value apologies as much as you and I do. I mean, as a cartoonist,

I've only really issued a fulsome apology for one cartoon I've ever done. It was a misfire. I'm not going to get into what it was. People could look it up. But the point is it was a fucked up cartoon. I didn't really think it through. I mean, you know, look, I do three, four hundred cartoons a year.

So it's not surprising that I'm going to make some fuck up sometimes. And the thing is, I should never have apologized because that was, I think people on the left who don't like Tucker Carlson, they weaponize an apology against him. Like, look, he admits that he was wrong. Look, he admits that he was, you know, wallowing in Islamophobia. So fuck him. That's literally the take. I don't think it should be like that. I have to say I don't think it would be any different if, like, Kamala Harris were to say, you know what?

To the right, like, oh, if Hillary Clinton were to say, I apologize for the basket of deplorables thing. I never should have said that. That's really wrong to slur my fellow Americans that way. you know, we're all in one country. We all have to love and respect each other. I think no one on the right, everyone on the right would ridicule her. I think they would show it on Fox and they'd make fun of her and say that she was saying it just in order to, you know, to curry favor or whatever.

I really wish I were wrong, but I'm convinced that's exactly what it is. Republicans would? I completely agree with you. And this is the question I have for you. Like I just felt conflated, you know, Republicans with the right. And you talked about no. and then you kind of talked about Democrats in the left. Well, we need to make the line.

Are they right and the far left? I mean, I mean, the Republican Party does represent the right anymore than the Democratic Party represents you. True. So I'm not even sure if those terms even apply anymore. No, look, I agree. It's an easy, look, it's the easiest trap in the world to fall into politically just because of the way that, you know, things have been successfully framed.

I should read some comments and then we should, we should get. Keep going. All right, Manchild is urging me to take it off. Manchild, it's going to take more than a dollar to get you there. Okay. Have you said I want to see a punk rock TED? That you could see also, but I have the shirts for that. P.W. Let's see.

P.W. Walker, thanks for the dollar. Republicans listen to their voters. Democrats lecture their voters. There's some truth to that. I think it's like less true than it used to be. F you so compare the disenfranchised Bernie Bros with the disenfranchised MAGA America first folks. Can we unite? Yes.

That's the question, right? Yep, we can. We can. It's just a matter of finding something that, I mean, no one's ever going to agree on everything. No. I mean, but if we can agree on the big things. We can talk about what we can agree on and then we'll move on, right? But this is important shit.

This is more important than our rundown. 100%. So, all right, so we've got what are the, what's the checklist, right? All right. I think we can all agree America first. Yeah. The populist left, socialist, communists, they're nationalists. We believe in, we live in a nation state system, and even though we may be in favor of ultimately

internationalizing socialism, we know that that's not nowhere in the near future, and we're going to focus on our country first, right? That's something that socialists generally agree upon. Obviously, MAGA is there. America first is there. Okay, so then we agree that improving the economic status of working class and middle class Americans is first, right? That's like top priority, right?

Like improving living standards. Agreed? Yeah, I agree. Protecting American jobs and industries, we agree on that. That's like also super important. That's foundational. That's foundational. A strong protected nation state, like with strong borders and all that agreed, right?

So I think we agree on those things. And I think that where things start to differ is how to get to the last couple things I mentioned. Like people, like, what do we do about, could the right ever agree to nationalized health care? Could the right ever agree to free college? Could the right ever agree to, you know, a broadened welfare state, more of a social safety net? I don't know because they, you know, they seem, there's so much of the culture is pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, rugged individualism, Wild West, you know, that kind of thing. And those of us on the left really believe that if you fall, that if you fall, Robbie, I have to help you. And that if I fall, you should help me.

That's like, but a lot of people on the right don't believe that. Well, it's because people on the right don't read their Bibles. I mean, Christianity and capitalism should never, ever, ever mix, ever. Christianity. I mean, if you go through, if you read the history of the early church in the book of Acts, it was a communal effort where the members of the church would help each other out

business people would go and then they would help the poor people in the church the letters of Paul like over to Ephesus. It's famous for that. That's a statement of fact and as far as pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, well that's fine, but what happens

if you don't have any boots? Exactly. I mean, that's the issue. And I think that people are starting to wake up enough to realize that the bumper sticker slogans don't work, that the world has changed. Federalism is a piece of history. It's never coming back. It is dead.

We live in a nation state, not a federation. And so at this point, do you have a government that works for you or you have a government that works against you? And if you're going to be paying taxes and have a social contract with this government, it has to do a couple of things. One has to make sure that there is not that everyone, has the same has the same destination that that's unreasonable but everyone has the same chance at that destination and secondly the government the government's responsibility is for you mr citizen to make

sure that you're safe that you live in a ordered society and that you have a chance for a good paying job should you decide should you decide to have one where you're going to lose to right is when you start doing force transfer of wealth to people work hard who go out and root hog and die, and then you start scooping away their money at the force of the force of a gun to give them to people who don't work. That's the difference. Well, I mean, so let's let me tease that out a little bit. So people on the, on the, on the, well, conservatives often will argue that like cut raising taxes on the wealthy is an example of wealth. I mean, it is a form of wealth redistribution.

And it's the kind of thing where you're stealing from hardworking people and giving it to not hardworking people. And just parenthetically, I think it's important to understand that socialists don't believe in laziness. Like we think that, you know, you should work as hard as you can and that you should contribute as much as you can. But some people are in a position to contribute more than others. But basically, you know, if you're rich, if you're Elon Musk, you should pay because, you know, you have the best seat. in the house of capitalism, right? You should pay it the boast. Well, that's true. But what happens, like, say for example, if you, Ted Roll, if you became a multimillionaire, you just know you hit a couple of cartoons that they go viral, and then the

government's going to start taxing you, let's say, well, after you make $400,000 a year, then the government's going to start taxing you 90% of your profits as you make after that. What would be your incentive at that point to work after you made your $400,000? Shouldn't have anything. Can you just take the rest of the year off and go golfing or go, I mean, you could do something else. There would still be incentive. I mean, the glory, the fame. I mean, in the former Soviet Union, people, like, they, you know, like, for example, you bet we talked about guns earlier in the show. Mr. Kalishnikov, who invented the AK-47, the most widely distributed and copied a small arm on the planet, and so iconic that it's on the flags of several countries. He never earned a dime, right? He never got any money at all for that. But he helped defeat fashion. He helped arm the liberation struggles around the world. He got a bunch of medals.

He got to fly to Moscow. He was declared a hero of the Soviet Union. He did it for the glory. And he was always very happy with that. He didn't need the money. And he lived quite modestly in Siberia. But the exception proves the rule. Let's say, for example, if I became a millionaire,

and I started getting taxed everything I made after $400,000. Me personally, I wouldn't work for the rest of the year. You got to find yourself another producer because I'm not going to work for free. Robbie, you're a little frozen there, Robbie. I hope that's, of course, that could be me, so I don't know what to do here. Okay, let's see. I'm going to hit refresh in case you guys can hear me,

and it's not, it could be on. Oh, yeah, no, Robbie is gone, gone, gone. Okay, Robbie will come back on and I will put him back on. If you're, and I will probably just, I think, oh, yeah, we do have an ad. So that's good. I'm going to go ahead and do the ad. And then we will hopefully during that time, Robbie will come back on. Okay, today's sponsor is Chicago State Company, and they're giving away eight free steak burgers on every order.

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and we're seven minutes out from the end of the show and the TMI show. But I'm just going to proceed and keep talking about this because I think it's important. And then we'll get into the other remaining issues we haven't gotten to. And I'm going to get to these comments that are here. So, oh, there's Robbie. Okay, so, thanks for the donation. Oh, we already talked about that. There's Robbie.

Okay. I knew he would come back. There you are. Hey, Robbie. We got that wonderful Montana Internet. I don't know how much of what I said that you heard before by Internet. Not much. Not much.

Just a quick recap. Basically, what we need is to have a tax-based system that doesn't penalize people after they make a certain amount that's punitive. You would argue about it. We would fight it out. We would argue. I mean, the question is, like, and that's the thing is the important thing would be to try to not keep the, you know, not to become a, not to go into a schism over something like this.

It's hard, man. Coalitions are very, very, very. hard. And, you know, when you're talking about left versus left and right, obviously it's the hardest of all coalitions to hold together. Robbie, let's talk a little bit about very quickly. Rudy Giuliani is in critical condition for people who are not familiar. He was the mayor of New York City on 9-11. It should be pointed out that at the time, he was, it was, 9-11 was actually the day of the New York mayoral primary. And the election basically stopped in the middle of 9-11 because of, he was, it was, of the attacks. And 9-11 changed the outcome. At that point, the former, a progressive local

politician named Mark Green, cool guy. He was a liberal Democrat. He was probably, he was headed towards victory in the Democratic primary, which at that time meant that almost certainly he was going to become the mayor of the city of New York. The election was postponed. Rudy Giuliani, who was term limited out. He endorsed Michael Bloomberg, the Republican, and of course he was elected as a result. Rudy Giuliani is 81 years old. He was caught on Barat II,

trying to seduce what he thought was an underage woman. Not a very good look. It always surprised to me that he recovered from that, but he did. Is Rudy, I mean, he always looked like shit. He looked like shit 20 years ago. Is this it? Or what do you think?

I think it's probably a swan song. I mean, listen, he's like Trump. He's old. He's like Bernie Sanders. He's old. Barney Frank, your favorite congressman from Massachusetts. They're old. I mean, everyone has the expiration date.

Everybody dies. That's the one uniting factor. We're all born and we all die. What do you think Giuliani's legacy is? I mean, it's complicated, right? Because he left us America's mayor, beloved, you know, united the city considered to be a good leader. We won't talk about the fact that he put the emergency control center in the World Trade Center.

Not a great idea, as it turned out. But then he became a huge team Trump dude. And he was accused of all sorts of improprieties. I mean, you know, he ended up, I would say it's fair to say that most of them people think he's a sleaze bag now. He's 100% of sleaze bag. I don't think he'd become mayor of New York City. city without being a sleaze bag. It's just the problem is, is that he was not able to really wear his sleazy-re quite well. And then whenever he went all in with Team Trump got sued into

oblivion because he was just beating the drum that the election was stolen from Trump. I mean, you can make the case that that's true. But if it is, it's because Trump stole the election from himself by betraying his base the first time. And let's talk about Spirit Airlines. Do Republicans have a point? Basically, Spirit Airlines wanted to. They knew they were in trouble under the Biden administration. They applied for the right to do a merger with JetBlue, another low-cost carrier.

They were denied on antitrust grounds, and now they're on the way out. I mean, I personally don't give a shit because Spirit Airlines sucked. And the only thing that, for me, the real takeaway is that a real society would have have a way to get people home when their airline, you know, tumbles, goes out of business. A lot of people were talking about, like, I had to pay like $1,200 to get home, found myself stranded without a ticket. I mean, it seems to me like the FAA should require airlines to put money into some kind of communal FAA trust fund that is drawn upon in case of a financial collapse that can then be used to compensate other carriers to get people home for the same price

that they paid to get home on spirit or whatever the airline is that's going under. You know what I mean? Like it's just sort of like it's like the equivalent of a security deposit with a landlord. I don't understand why we just don't build high speed rail across the country and not rely so much on air travel. Oh, I'm honestly. That's the solution. Yeah. And I think that should be nationally owned.

I think that should be federalized. That's my socialist upbringing. I agree with you because across the state lines. You should not have a company that goes in. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's kind of like the whole thing, how you just have just talked about the left and the right, how can we agree on something? But we all pay gas taxes to Department of Transportation to maintain the roads, such as we do, potholes and all. So we've got to maintain the potholes, not necessarily the roads.

Maybe we could do something like that with the rails. Why not? Why can we have infrastructure? No reason that I can tell at all. Okay, and listen, I'm going to hit, I'm going to hope this works. It worked last time. But if it doesn't, you're going to have to bring us out of the show. Go ahead and start the button on TMI.

So here we go across. So before you do that, are we doing TMI on Streamyard or are we doing it in the studio? Okay, be sure to send me to link. Okay. All right. So do you still hear of you? I hear you. Okay, great.

That worked. Wow. I got you. I can't believe it. All right. I'm sending you the link right now. Look at us. Success.

We're so good here. All right. Link sent. Okay. We're becoming professional podcasters. Yeah. When Manila gets back, this is going to be a lot easier. Yeah, that's true.

I think Manila's going to be back pretty soon, the vibe I'm getting. What do you think? I think so. I think she's ready to get back in the saddle. Yeah, she's probably like a little tired of being, you know. Like, I've done the mommy thing. The kid's raised. Time to get back to work.

No, I completely agree. Listen, so this gives a two extra minutes. Over the weekend, Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military is going to escort ships that are stuck in the Strait of Ormuz through the Strait of Ormuz if they're from a neutral nation. The Iranian said, don't you even fucking think about it, we will strike you and we will attack any ship that goes through without coordination with Iran. Also, Trump announced that the war is officially over. But meantime, one oil tanker attempted to get through. It's just about 78 miles away from Fujair. That's the UAE.

And the tanker came under attack presumably from the Iranians. So this seems like a particularly delicate moment. Yeah, no, for sure. And Iran gets a vote here. I mean, it is a real country. They do have a real military. they have a save with how this works. So I don't know how Trump can just, I mean, a president can 100% unilaterally declare war.

He cannot, however, declare peace. The party that you attack, they have a vote in that. They do. Okay, well, with that, we will leave that there. We'll be back tomorrow at 9 a.m. Eastern time. Jamaral should be back then from his medical procedure. but either way, we will be here with D-Programming, with Ted Raul and Jamaral Thomas. Thanks for tuning in, and thanks for your comments and generous donations.

Sure, thank you. Please stay tuned for the TMI show with Ted Raul and Manel Chan. But, man, this is like, no one wants to be my co-host except you, Robbie. You're the only person sticking around. Yeah. No, Ted, I mean, seriously, if I was better qualified, I would 100% be your co-host any day of the week. Well, you basically are my co-host these days. But you have someone that's articulate.

I mean, and I'm not. I'm blunt. But you've got to have someone that's able to actually, I don't know, talk smart. Oh. And that's not necessarily me all the time. Well, I mean, I could say the same exact thing about myself. Anyway, all right. So let's see if I can bring us out here without going full, full tard.

I know I promised that I wouldn't say that anymore, but, you know. I can say for you, hey, I mean, well, Fangian AI says gay. It's the only AI model that'll say, that's gay, and I love it. Is that true? Like, why would it be, we don't have time. All right. Off to Timmy. Yeah, we'll talk about TMMA.

Dude, don't forget the raid, Robbie. All right, here we go. Yeah, I got it.