DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Trump Nearly Killed in Near Miss | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET. Today we discuss:• We almost got a new president! The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating why an American Airlines jet came dangerously close to a helicopter carrying President Donald Trump—an incident taking place as the presidential helicopter approached the same airport where an Army helicopter collided with a regional jet over the Potomac River in 2025.• The CIA has covertly established a Cuba task force for the first time since 1960. The task force has begun adding case officers who recruit and manage spies, intelligence analysts, officers who conduct cyberoperations and officers who specialize in covert influence operations, the people said. It aims to create fissures among the Cuban political elite, in hope of pressuring the Cubans to replace perceived anti-American hard-liners with more practical leaders more amenable toTrump.• The Clintonite group Third Way will spend at least $15 million in a “war” against left-leaning voters to drive them out of the Democratic Party. Third Way plans to target the Democratic Socialists of America movement, which they call a “mortal danger” for Democrats. The war will include opposition research into DSA, polling, social media programs and propagandizing Democratic activists and leaders. It would target both proud democratic socialists and those such as Abdul El-Sayed—and try to defeat them.LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowhttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JamarlThomas#tedrall #jamarlthomas #news #politics

Good morning you're watching D. Program with Ted Roll and Jamal Thomas. It is Thursday, August 6th, 2026. Hope you're doing well. Just if we seem a little glum here on the show, it's because we just got, had a bleak meeting with producer Robbie West, who was telling us about the latest figures. Rumble redid their creative program. And basically, even though this show has never,

had as many people watching or as many hours watched on Rumble. We've never been paid as little. Apparently, you know, we were told that they were trimming away some of the small, tiny shows that were sharing the profits and it was going to be harder for them to get in, to even qualify at all. We're not one of those shows. We're, you know, sometimes, as you guys know, we're number three in the country on politics. whatever so that we thought well there's gonna be more money for us the thing about it is that their metrics are incredibly opaque like there's you know when you're like well what's this you get a paycheck it doesn't say like okay well you had this times

this and therefore you plus that and therefore this is why you got paid you just get a you just get a you just get an amount and you're not really there's no way to discern exactly how they calculate the compensation so anyway It's kind of absurd. The Rumble payments are like literally down to the three digits now for this month. And not the highest three digits either. The show took it to this show, the one that you're watching right now on Rumble,

took a 70% pay cut in one month. Even though we have more, our metrics are better this month than they were last month. This show has never hit number one ever. when John Kariyaku is here. But we have here. We hit number one

twice on our time slot here on Rumble since JT has come on board. Watch hours are through the roof. The metrics are trending in the best way possible. And I don't know. It's blown up.

We don't really know what's going on with them. You know, I don't know that as far as we know, everything remains the same. To their credit, even though they're a giant corporate, Their metrics are far more transparent. So we can kind of tell how they calculate stuff. And that's, so that number has steadily increased.

It dropped off a cliff after John left, but then it has built up over time. So I don't know. What's going on with Rumble? But it's like, it's bleak. And, you know, the, so because of that, unfortunately, even though you guys really stepped up to help out Robby, up Robbie helped out help out Robbie with the call to action and we still want you to do that. It's you know it hasn't turned out to be the boon we had hoped and you know it looks like

Robbie is going to be out job hunting. So I'm so looking for jobs today because seriously I appreciate everyone stepping up and going and streaming over there on rumble and stuff and just step it up and supporting the channel just the gaming channel made 240 bucks with almost 5,000 watch hours, which is insane, which is completely insane. So basically, I was flat. That should be more like three or four grand. I mean, seriously, it should be. So I mean, one thing that nobody can try doing, I don't know if this is going to work or not, I have no idea.

People who are watching this is still early in the month. Instead of streaming stuff on Rumble, jump over there on YouTube, putt and putt and buy gaming, pull up a play list, let that puppy run. Well, so it happens. I have through this month at least. And if not, producer Robbie will be riding into the sunset because the show just simply does not make enough. It does not make enough now with what happened with Rumble to split three ways. It's just that's simply not there. The math does not work. Before they newt the metrics, what was it prior? Like if you got 5,000 watch hours on a random show, you don't have to expose your own show, but on a random show, what would be the compensation?

Because you made the point of saying they changed their metrics. They altered something. Well, because what they did was, so they have what they call a KPI. KPI is basically a fancy term for what you've got to qualify for to reach to stay in the program. The point of the program was to receive a higher payout based on more than just ad revenue. So in Rumble's case, before July, you're paid based off of your watch hours and channel subscriptions. So people go on to become a Rumble premium subscriber.

If they do it on your link, then you get profit shared, kind of like YouTube Red. Yeah. So instead of having to earn a minimum of 200 watch hours, I'd earn a minimum of 500. Instead of 20 to 8 chatter, you get 75. The other metrics stayed the same. And the idea behind it was, at least one. what Rumble communicated to us was that smaller platforms, smaller shows that just simply could not compete, they would be pushed out and then those earnings would then be allocated among the larger shows

to increase payouts. That is exactly what they told us. Every creator that I've talked to on Rumble since this broke yesterday, they are down between 60 to 70 percent across the board. It's not just the show. Right. Rumble has taken a great big steaming crap on every single person that produces content that's independent. So they're going to be hearing from everybody, of course. Oh, they already, they already are. Yeah. Yeah. And so the question is, are they trying to put small, are they trying to put small businesses like this one out of business? Or are they just in so much trouble that they just can't, you know, they just can't pay? Well, I mean, I'm sure it's a part of it. I mean, they just got finished buying nine data centers.

Chris Pavlovsky, he came out last week on a tweet, Sam, one that he sees going to, he wants to start doing, is allowing AI to start training off of people's live streams and stuff. And so the creators will be monetized off of that. Rumble's not profitable, but that's one of the reasons why supposedly they've been pushing into the AI and infrastructure business, because you can't compete with YouTube in this sphere. You just can't.

They're too big. They're too entrenched. So you have to find other ways to do it. It looks like one of the ways they're going to do it is by making sure that Dan Bonjino and Steve Crowder are taken care of and small independent channels like this one are squeezed nuts to you. And if you are in gaming, gaming is now dead on rumble. No one's going to do it. It's completely fucked.

And so I mean, one of our, one of our. maybe Bluth Funk was asking, you know, what percentage of our income here comes from, you know, donations and what percentage comes in from ads. And I mean, it just basically depends on how much people donate. The donations have been, they're all over the place. Some months, they're very generous. Some months, they're less generous. It's been, you know, it's, it's, look, to be honest, I mean, look, if there were tons of donations coming in, we wouldn't care about this advertising, you know, revenue stream issue at all. You know, if we had here back of the envelope, there's about 22 business, there's 22 Monday through Fridays in an average month, right? I'm a former banker. Sorry, I remember that.

So, you know, if we had, say, 400 bucks a, you know, a show coming in, you know, then we would, we'd be fine. You know, no problem. We don't care about the fucking, you know, how much YouTube or Rumble are paying us in ads. But there are, there are days where there's, you know, 30 bucks or 40 bucks. So, I mean, obviously it just doesn't add up. I mean, yeah. Well, I mean, I can answer the question. I'm looking at it.

So, so year to date over on, on Rumble, because that's where I'm looking at right now through Rumble studio. Donations and channel subscriptions contributed about 30 to 35 percent of overall channel revenue. Of course, it was higher whenever John was here because he was CIA, people come in with Super Chas, ask some questions. Hey, tell us about hummus. that kind of stuff. But no, since John left, that's about 30 to 40% of the revenue comes in from donations and also the paid channel memberships. The vast majority came in, though, from the creator program because you're paid based off

of watch hours. It's the way the terrestrial TV works. It's your ratings. The higher rated your show is, the more you get paid. And we have good ratings. Rumble has obviously walked away from that model. and they have not communicated at all. Like I was streaming yesterday.

Spock's Turtle was, we were a clown around yesterday on the stream. The news broke and I ended the stream because I was just so disgusted. I mean, this is it. I don't know. I don't know what the next step is. Yeah, I mean, obviously. I don't know to fix this. Yeah.

No, I mean, look, I don't know. It's like obviously we would, the thing is, it's, and by the way, We see these big donations coming in right now, and we really appreciate you. I mean, thank you so much for Dead Meme Club for $50. Thank you so much to Montana Native for $10. There's thank you for $2 from Auntie. Can't do the show and have a job. You guys can't get sponsors like other podcasts do.

I mean, look, it's not like we're turning down sponsors. We would totally take a sponsor. But political shows have more trouble getting sponsors, as you can possibly imagine, because they don't like to be associated with content that might be deemed controversial, right? Right. So, you know, so basically if we were, you know, I don't know. So, I don't know. We can sit here and like the only model I can think of is we're sitting here begging for money constantly.

and just explaining to everyone. Listen, we have a thermostat, you know, a thermometer every morning. Like, we need 400 bucks or 500 bucks today. You know, we got to get there. Come on, guys. Let's do that. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think that sucks to have to do that.

And it makes for not a great show. Yeah, because you come across as a grifter. I mean, listen, at the end of the day, I don't know how to fix this. I do not know what to do at this point. I did I have an answer for you well we just got this bad news right so you know part of it is trying to do research and and trying to figure out and you know one thing I've always learned in life is when you get bad news don't react quickly um you know sort of think about try to figure it out yeah um I don't know yeah I mean I mean it's it's wild right because um

I don't know. I mean, one thing that we can try doing on my end, that I have no idea this is going to work or not. I mean, YouTube hates me. I mean, my channel's name is Putin but gaming. I mean, clearly a political place. Time for brands change. So let's be but gaming. Fuck that guy. I would rather go push buggies at Walmart than ever do that.

I don't know. I guess pull up playlists over on YouTube and let them run. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. Well, no, I mean, look, the truth is, look, this reminds me a little bit of the scenario I had when I was fighting the LA Times. I got a call one time from my attorney, and she said, listen, they filed this crazy motion that you have to you. And I was the plaintiff. People don't always realize that. But I was the complainer.

And I was the aggrieved party. I called up, so they said in order to continue your case, you have 10 days to file $75,000 bond. And I said, what? Like $75,000 bond. Yeah, because you're an out-of-state plaintiff, in other words, I lived in New York and the case was in California, they're worried that if their attorney's fees are awarded to them because you lose, then they won't be able to collect because you're out of state. So there's this obscure California statute that allows them to require you to post bond.

So I thought, you know, because I've seen a lot of criminal, you know, a lot of crime shows. Oh, so I have to post 10%, like a criminal defendant, right? Like, no, full 100% cash bond. We need $75,000. And by the way, parenthetically, when you do that, this is the most insane part. You literally have to pay a fee to them. They should be paying you interest on the money that. that they're keeping from you, but they keep the money.

And you have to pay the bondsman a pretty high percentage. I remember it was like something like $1,500 or $2,000 a year to hold on to your money. So I had 10 days to come up with $75,000. My attorney goes, obviously I know you don't have $75,000. I've seen your taxes. You know, I know you're not gonna be able to pay this. And I was just like, you know,

so we know the case is screwed. And I didn't know what to do. And I thought about it for a day or two. And I thought, you know, I can't really say that I didn't reach out to the universe and ask for help unless I try like a GoFund me and just explain to the world what's going on. I did that. And people did step up. And we got together the $75,000 and then some and filed it early. And, you know, basically fuck you, L.A. times.

Like, we're still fighting. Right. So I guess my point is you kind of have to ask for help if you want to get help. And I think this is probably going to be one of those times. So guys, we need $500 per show. And we will keep, I guarantee you we will keep going. All right. But yeah, that's how things are right now.

Thanks so much for the $20. So thanks. This is from Not the Cat Williams. So guys, why not create your own website, aka the Last American Vagabond and the Corvette Report, where you can stream whenever you want. Robbie, maybe you can explain. I mean, that's effective about what we're doing,

because the way that those websites work is that they use the embed link from either YouTube or Rumble. So, I mean, that's not the issue. The issue is, at this point, is the model. The advantage of Rumble has had up until yesterday is that the payout structure was fundamentally different. So YouTube pays based off of ad revenue and channel subscribers and also profit sharing off of YouTube read.

The flip side of that is that you're kind of, you're beholden to the algorithm. The algorithm shows you to people. You'll get more viewers. If it doesn't, then you don't. But you can scale and build around it because YouTube gives you analytics so you know what you're going to build. Rumble, on the other hand,

it doesn't they don't really have analytics you just kind of just get a lump sum you're able to see what views are but you're able to see how long someone stayed or what the click-through rate is or it's just it's just kind of there but you were paid based off of people watching and you were able to see your watch hours

so that's the difference with Rumble a good way kind of thinking about at least with the new model imagine putting on a a blindfold and then be told to sit down and put together a carburetor for a car for a car that you have no idea what model it is or anything you just don't know that's what rumble is it's a dumb analogy but that is that is how it is right now right right well and so i think that rump i think that uh that youtube

at least for the foreseeable future it was probably going to be more profitable for d program than rumble is and y'all know me i hate youtube with a burning hatred. I hate it. I hate the censorship. I hate the bullshit. By the way, thanks for the $5 from Antoya. Much appreciated. So Manchild says time for a solid rebrand and restructure. Kick and roll to the curb as your business daddy. James and one. Thanks for the $20. Seriously, guys, get $10 a month subs from us. Your community. Membership drives are old fashioned, but they work. Tell your members,

us you need help and many easily enough of us will help you. We know content isn't free. Look, I think, I think James is right. 100%. We need subscribers. If we had, you know, if we were able to convert enough of you guys to monthly paid subscribers, we'd be fine. So please subscribe to the show, whether it's on YouTube or on Rumble. Well, in this case, YouTube would be better because you'd be better because you'd be.

You have more, you have more options for the, if you had more membership tiers from becoming a channel subscriber. Yeah. Also, with, with Rumble, you can become a paid subscriber when the show is live. On YouTube, you, you can become a pay, a pay, a subscriber at how much you want. Yes, I'm doing it on a computer. Get it on your phone. So you have to actually go to YouTube.com on your computer, on your browser, click subscribe, pick the tier that you want, and you're golden. So, I mean, for the show to be viable,

All right. So listen. That's the need. We still have a show to do, and we should still do that, and we're going to start doing it right now. Before we do that, I just want to say, you know, maybe Bluth Funk talked about substack. Look, I don't know. I personally have had no fucking luck on substack at all. I feel like they throttle the kind of shit that I do.

But I know people like Glenn Rewald do well on there, so I don't know. know, but I think there's, I think that the path of least resistance, the frictionless way is the subscriptions and we should put our heads together and figure out how to walk everyone through this so they can do it really easily without, you know, us spending the entire show winging about like not making any money. Well, one thing, Ted, you mentioned substack. I just dropped the link to pickax in the chat. Pickax are people who don't know.

It's a new social media platform that's being built by. Jeff Dornick, friend of the show. And one of the things that's cool about him is that they have revenue share. I actually got my first. We never seen anything yet, right? It came out yesterday. I made $120 off of it. So it's not world changing, but it's $120.

I didn't have a $4. And right now, it's really handy. But here's the thing, though, is that substack, you get paid based off of your, off of your page descriptions. Ted, if you start doing that more, you would just, you'd start earning more. more just off of what the show is generating. Just your articles just by people click over their reading rather than how you put behind a paper. I do put it.

I do put them over. I mean, look, I haven't, I've been on pickax. I've been a loyal user poster over there for a long time since the beginning. I haven't, you know, I'm not saying, I'm sure there's a, there's money from them. I have, I don't know where I find it. But, you know, whatever. You click on your dashboard and you click on revenue, rev share. I'll figure it out.

But anyway, the point is it might be great. I don't know. But that's one thing. But this show needs to be viable for the three of us here. Thanks so much to maybe Bluthfunk for the $20. Thank you for B.H. Blomble for the $20. Thank you to Cephylitic Crayola for the $50. Rumble is becoming just like YouTube.

The righteous nerds have to take the Internet back. K. Gregg, 65. Thank you for the $10. No question. James and one. Thanks for 10 bucks. Seriously, get us all the sub for a minimum of $5 a month. As more subs come in, we can have more shows, more apps for us to pay you in chats, et cetera. Don't ask us to watch and hope that Rumble and YouTube pay in ad money. Agreed. A hundred percent. Tara, 20 bucks. Subscriptions make sense.

Yeah. And it's like the thing is it's subscriptions are like, you know, we don't need like, it'll be like more flat and steady and, you know, it won't ding people who are supporting the show in sort of uneven ways, which I know most people have trouble with cash flow. I personally like stuff to be sort of like slow and steady. And some of us can actually, some of you might even be able to deduct that because like if you can, if you're a media type person, you can donate, you can usually deduct subscriptions for stuff like this. Melissa Berger, thanks so much for the $9 for the $9. So listen, if we had a day like this every day, we'd be all set. Okay, but seriously, look, guys, if you got, you know, Jamarral, Robbie, let's put our heads together.

Let's get serious about the subscription thing. That's, I think, what we got to do. What do you think? Agreed. Yeah, agree. Okay, so we'll put our heads together tomorrow and over the weekend and do that. All right, guys, we have a show. So here's what we got for you.

Hopefully it'll be worth supporting. Okay. So we almost got a new president on Tuesday night. An American Airlines jet nearly collided with a helicopter carrying President Trump near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. In the same exact spot where there was that tragic plane collision between a military chopper and a passenger jet a couple of years ago. So, you know, almost got in for the big win.

It's unbelievable that they haven't fixed this. The CIA has established a new Cuba task force for the first time since they created one in 1960 in order to plan the Bay of Pigs. That worked out awesome. Hopefully it'll work out just as well this time. And my favorite story, because it just makes my blood boil, is Third Way, which is, of course, the Clinton night, corporatist, moderate, centrist, Democrat, whatever we want to call them, organization inside the Democratic Party. They have announced in the New York Times that they're

going to war against the DSA and against leftists inside the Democratic Party. They are allocating at least $15 million already to shiv DSA or DSA-type people like Abdul L. Saeed. They're in the middle of an election. literally willing to shiv their own party's candidates, because as we always talk about, corporate Democrats would rather lose while running the party to the Republicans than to win with progressives. So, yeah, my column, by the way, is going to be posted later today about this. Where shall we start? We've got about 34 minutes left, Jamarlem. Let's start with that one. Let's start with that one. Let's do it. Part of me thinks good. I, I, I, I, because the reality of it is, as I think we've pointed this out before,

third way Democrats are a brain trust, and they themselves are trying to hold on to something as opposed to just die. Like, meaning they were able to take control of the power from New Deal Democrats. Okay, congratulations. You were able to do that. You became the center of American politics from the context of, quote, the left, unquote. And I'm using that only in the context of the United States

in the way the political system works between Republicans and Democrats, meaning from the standpoint of the machinery, third way Democrats took over the machinery and they became the brain trust. But that's not a magical thing. And that's not, you know, your control of that device is entirely political. I'm trying to communicate this. You control it, true, but that control is transient. It's not meant for you to hold on to it forever.

The population can make a determination that they want. something different. And so when the population says, we believe the center has fallen and all the energy drains out of, let's say, third way these corporate Democrats, they don't want to let it go. Obviously, the energy and the power within the context of the party is coming out of these radical, quote-unquote, people. And what they're bringing to the party is this notion of the party needs to change. The party needs to focus on people's material needs. The party needs focus on ensuring health care, education, et cetera. That's what the party needs to be.

Yeah, these tweets are still heavy on the Ukraine stuff. So true, but it's a different energy in the party in that sense. And the party doesn't want to let it go. And so from their conception of things, it's not, hey, we need to change because we keep losing. And Donald Trump is in office and the Republican Party holds the Senate and the House. It's not that. It's we need to go to war. part of me thinks good because i think they're going to lose that war yeah well i mean like i posted

that new york times article today to my socials and just said like why on earth are progressives or lefties still voting for this party i mean they are literally they they will throw you out like a they're like they're i always confused is that the red or the white blood cells that uh reject invaders right but oh white blood cells are immune cells yeah the white ones okay so the white so the white so the They're like that, right? They basically view the corporatists view progressive Democrats, not as even helpful voters who are part of this big tent alliance against the Republicans. They view them as an invading force that need to be repelled.

They view them as a cancer. They view them as dangerous. Which is weird. Because it's not like Democrat, it's not like you're born a Democrat. Like meaning, it's not like, you know, there's something in your DNA that makes you're Democrat. It's not like something is etched into you. It's not a spiritual thing. No.

You are just a Democrat. They're acting like the character of the party is finite, that it's, you know, determinative, as opposed to it's transient. People change politically. Parties change politically. They don't seem to believe that. Well, and they're, I mean, look, they're crazy. I mean, it's a two-party system.

And clearly, in a two-party system, to be viable, a party is going to need to to have a, you know, kind of a broad-based ideological coalition. And, you know, Democrats used to kind of understand that. They stopped understanding that in the 1980s and 90s and under Clintonism and everything. And this is the ultimate embodiment of it. It's really, I mean, it was just disgusting to read this. And, you know, I mean, let's put this into perspective here. Saeed, you mentioned Ukraine, right?

Sayyid's pro-Ukraine, right? I mean, Saeed doesn't want to defund the police. Saeed is not a radical by any means. And if he's causing this level of freak out, I mean, it's actually unbelievable. They don't want to change. There was something there before them, and they act like, okay, now we need to just hold on and say what we are. Dude. And they're kicking out young voters.

These are the people they want. I mean, it's like, look, Van Jones of all people, not someone who I'm normally in the business of quoting. But, you know, he said yesterday, look, the DSAers, the, you know, the young lefties, you know, they're Netflix and the old-timers here who are pissed off about it, you know, they're blockbuster. And it's true. I mean, this is like, look, you know, I'm 62 years old and I can recognize when people are more youthful and energetic than I am and be people who are 28, right? And that's as it should be. You know, and it doesn't mean that like, Older people need to step aside and not have a voice in it.

But, I mean, come on, we've got to make room. And we've got to share. And we've got to, you know, take advantage of that, the new ideas and the energy that are coming in here. I mean, it's not that I'm a Democrat anymore anyway. But, you know, it's like, I'm too far left to be a Democrat. But this is like, this is a, it's interesting because when Trump and MAGA were taking over the GOP, of course, the corporatists didn't like it and they resisted. And, you know, they, they winged.

But they didn't declare a fucking war against MAGA. You know, they were kind of like, there's got to be a way to, you know, stay together without throwing them out. Like maybe we can discipline them. And obviously, they're the ones who ended up getting disciplined. Yeah, but they allow, I mean, but they. It was smart, I guess is my point. Their passivity was the right approach for them. Well, they allowed MAGA to pass through them.

and turning the Republican Party into something new. I mean, kind of the same, kind of different. Yeah. I mean, but that's what it's supposed to be. They revitalized a Republican Party that was in real trouble. Exactly. And it's what they were supposed to do. Like the idea that a political party,

I mean, for one, the Democratic Party is not an esoteric thing. People sign up for it and they choose it. And people, as you point out, over the course of time, may change dependent upon environmental circumstance. Meaning, okay, I'm poor. I have more bills. My rent is going up. Okay, that may make me change. My political disposition wanting something a little bit more aggressive, meaning the population is the thing that is backing the change. The Democratic Party is the thing that is resisting that change. I find it wild that they're doing this. Like, meaning every organization tries to defend itself. So I get that. But they're acting like the Democratic Party is a fixed entity, which is the thing that is fascinating. to me. It's like, well, we must fight these lefties. Okay, yeah, but these lefties are getting elected because the population of putting them in office. You've been failing. You lost the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the presidency. You lost it all. What is your claim to the Democratic

Party in this way? And there's no future in the Democratic Party as it currently is configured, right? I mean, if they don't have any DSA, I mean, what is their, what's their big idea, right? I mean, nobody knows. I mean, if the Democratic Party, if you woke up tomorrow morning, the Democratic Party magically controlled all three branches of government, could you tell me what, like, I mean, I couldn't tell you, what are there three top priorities? I don't know.

I mean, keep on, keeping on. Things will not fundamentally change, as Joe Biden said. I mean, what? That's what I'm going to say. We know it. I mean, Joe Biden had what the House of the Senate and the presidency, right? Obama definitely did. Obama did, yeah.

I love it. And, you know, abortion is now illegal in many states in large part because, and you can look this up, Obama said, oh, you know, abortion rights are not legal. You know, codifying Roe v. Wade on the national level is not a priority. Look, if you have all three branches of government, and he didn't just have all three branches of government, he had a veto-proof Senate majority, right? Only for about a year, okay, but still, can you imagine what Donald Trump would have done that, done with that in a week? I mean, you guys are going to be up 24 hours, you guys are going to be, you know, put on that coffee because you have a lot of stuff to vote for. Obama did. I mean, Trump did have it. Yeah. Obama care. He tried to take out Obama. It was McCain. It was just the fact that McCain hated him.

Otherwise, he would have been a dog chasing a car. Yeah. Meaning he would have used it for the effect that he wants. Falls to the wall. Yeah. He was going to use it. And I admire that in Trump. Same here.

Yeah. Same here. Like meaning a president should do what they said they're going to do and what they get elected on. And the public should work hard. They should work hard for their priorities. Thank you to Romero's car for gifting a subscription to the show. Thank you very much to F you so for the dollar. The real dynamic is Zionist third-way Democrats versus leftist free Palestine Democrats.

That's definitely a big part of it. It's part of it. Yeah, that's one of it. But just to be clear, what they're fighting over is the thing that Democrats claim to be ever since FDR and that they were still riding under coattails now, many of these people from the DSA are true believers. That's the fight. I mean, yeah, design is something as a fight inside of it, agreed. But the other fight of it is, hey, let's just talk about woke stuff. And the other part is, well, no, no, no, no. Let's deal with economics.

And obviously they have a difficulty in doing that. The reason that what's her name got $60 million is because they know that we're paying her. She's going to attend to our priorities as an oligarchal class, despite the things that she may see out of her mouth. Whereas, Duceyid, he would say he's not a socialist, but he's a socialist adjacent. It's probably going to be real on, well, we should have Medicare for all. Yeah, we should have 15 and out. Yeah, Bernie Sanders campaigned with him, so I don't think he would have shown up if that wasn't a priority for him. Exactly.

You know, and by the way, I just sort of like to say, I mean, so what I'm writing in my column is this, I mean, obviously it's sort of, you know, a lot of times I write things in my column. I don't expect the establishment to do, but it's kind of like about creating. a marker of expectation to say, like, if you guys were decent or smart, this is what you would do. And then when they don't do it, I can point to it and say, like, this is what they should have done. And, you know, in this case, like what the mainstream, look, Gretchen Whitner, the sitting governor of the state of Michigan who's being term limited out. And it's about to be replaced by a DSA or, right, Hong. And the, and Obama and Clinton, all these big corporate Democrats,

you know, Chuck Schumer, they should all fly in to Michigan and they should be campaigning for Saeed. They should be, they should push hard and say like, hey, listen, vote blue no matter who. It's not a one-way street. We, I know, you know, you guys have stepped in line for us, you progressives. You voted for Biden. Thank you very much. We now we're returning the favor. And it's time to defeat Mike Rogers, this shitty Republican, asshole who's you know who who's going to fuck up this you know who's going to fuck up the senate let's not like let him let him in that that would be the right approach to unify the party and say like hey you know we're all welcome you know don't be fucking and and definitely call in your dog third way

like cut the shit don't divide the party i mean if you guys want to fight for the you know literally they're going to do oppo research on the dsa that's literally an announcement today are you kidding me? Like, you're going to shiv your own sitting nominee, Saeed. Like, who literally the balance of the Senate could, could hinge upon him. I mean, these people are maniacs. They're traitors to the Democratic Party, really. We did say that's what they were going to do. We did. We did. I think we said it like yesterday. It's what they always do. But I guess, to me, this is illuminating. Like, look, I, for sure. There's something, there's There's something true about it that I accept.

What I don't like and what I've never liked, look, I will tell you, during Sanders race, the thing that blew my mind at the time, because I was one of those people who at the time, well, when Obama was in office, I was, I initially voted for Obama. And then I realized when, especially during the Sanders election, it was the Sanders election that opened my mind to this, that for all of the talk that we're united, we're together, blue no matter who, you vote for us, et cetera. and the implication being will vote for people like you and your priorities if indeed you're the power and energy in the party. And then you see Sanders as a power, energy in the party, they do everything in their power to put a knife at them. And it was like, oh, we've been had. It was that. And I guess my point is that article, if nothing else should be illuminating. That's what I wanted to be, illuminating. We are not on the same team. They are not looking out for your interests. You are not the same in regards to your political ideologies. You're not even close.

And they do everything in their power because this is about the maintaining their hegemon in the Democratic Party. That's all. It blows my mind. Thanks for the 50 bucks. Much appreciate it. Oh, yeah, definitely. Thank you for that. It just blows my mind that they think that they own it, which is wild to me. Like there have been other iterations of the Democratic Party. There were Dixie Krets. They were Third Way Democrats. They were New Deal Democrats. And Third Way has decided we are just going to stay. Yeah.

Move into the detriment of America. Yeah. We are literally willing to let democracy go down the shitter. Yes. They're unbelievable, really. Okay. Democracy doesn't exist, Ted. I mean, I make the argument, you can make the argument that federalism,

federalism died in 1865. That's where I subscribe to personally. When it comes to the idea of having a representative government, that died in Dallas in 1963. I mean, let's be honest. We have the trappings of an election. We have the veneer of Republican government, small R. But the country is ran by, it's a corporation controlled by oligarchs. It doesn't matter who you vote for anymore.

And that's a bleak thing to say. but I firmly believe it. By the way, some breaking news. A Senate panel has just voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions at the COVID hearing. I mean, he has our amendment. I mean, he can always call the fifth. And he did.

Yeah, I know. I don't see how like, yeah, I mean, honestly, I don't see how he can really be found. I mean, it's not fair. I mean, I'm not a big admirer of Dr. Fauci, but I don't see how you can. Well, it's not a contempt of Congress. He showed up and he took the fifth, which is your constitutional right given to you. Right or wrong. This is them about Republicans going after Fauci.

Yeah. Like, reality doesn't matter. I mean, and this, again, goes to what Robbie is saying. And look, from my point of view, there is no such thing as international law. There's no such thing as law. those are human creations to try to create guardrails around the way we engage with each other to try to find some level of fairness and to keep some level of competition down. It's breaking down to Robbie's point.

I mean, it takes human will in order to keep that shit going. And the human will is just not there. I mean, look, whatever I think of Fauci and whatever anybody thinks of Fauci, he has a Fifth Amendment right to say, I'm not going to incriminate myself because I don't want to be put in a jail cell, so I'm going to shut the fuck up. Right. Which I would do and which anybody in that position would do. Yeah, they're trying to get him and he knows it. Like meaning when Fauci is sitting there, Fauci knows they are trying to put me in a cage. They hate my guts. And he's terrible.

Yeah. And so he his lawyers tell him, shut the fuck up. Right. Shut up. Don't say squat. If they're going to get you, let him get you, don't let him get you for something that you have said. So this idea that we're poading him the in contempt because he didn't answer questions. He showed up. He has a right to say. Right. He didn't have contempt of Congress. This isn't like Hunter Biden showing up outside the building and giving a press conference in the parking lot and then driving away.

That's contempt of Congress. Yeah. He did what he was supposed to do. Yeah. Well. You know, whatever I think of him, he has the constitutional right for it. But again, this is the whole thing of rights. They have to be defended. And you have to have a country that cares about it ideologically to defend those things. And whether you're talking about Europe, whether you talk about U.S., that shit's breaking down.

Cuba? Yeah, I saw that. I mean, yeah, please, go into it. Yeah, no, go ahead. No, no, no, no, go into the story. Because you do a better job of presenting the story. Oh, sorry. I mean, so the CIA has covertly established a task force related to recruiting spies.

intelligence analysts, officers who conduct cyber operations and officers who specialize in covert influence operations. That according to the New York Times, basically their idea, they did this back in the early 60s to try to overthrow the Castro government at the time. That was new. And after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, those efforts got sidelined, although there's now been three-quarters of a century of sanctions against the Cuban government, which has them on the ropes, much like Venezuela. And, of course, toppling the Venezuelan government cut off the fuel supplies to the island. So they have blackouts and brownouts constantly. So anyway, the idea here is to try to create, it's not obviously covert because everyone knows

it's happening, but they're trying to do the Venezuela model, right? They want to try to recruit some amenable Cuban elites who would be willing to become like the sort of Vichy American puppets, you know, to basically control Cuba's new colony, Cuba. We already have a new colony in the form of Venezuela that we've been running now for over six months. I mean, look, the Venezuela thing, Republicans are already crowing about what a success it is. And look, okay, you guys have been like, you guys have had, you know, Dulcei Rodriguez running things for six months. Woo-hoo. But the Venezuelan people are socialist and they are lefty and they are angry and they're politically savvy and they're waiting their chance. There's going to, I mean, check back in five years.

Will this situation still be going on? I highly doubt it. The Venezuelan people won't tolerate it. And I think same thing goes for the Cubans. Like, you know, you can try to copy this very. short-term experiment, but I'd say the jury is way out as to whether it's going to stick. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, we're effectively visiting pain on countries just because. And people should sit with that. And again, this goes, I was having a conversation with a

guy today on the channel. What time to see? Do we have time? Yeah, I was having a conversation. Yeah, on the channel today about, because I think it's, I think it's applicable in this case. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, those occurred today, historically, in his historical context. And, you know, the question he bought up, he was like America should apologize for dropping the bomb. And my thing was like, why? Like, apology assumes that you're wrong in doing something, or at the very least you are, there's a level of contrition associated with you doing it. It's true that we didn't have to, but apologizing for it, I think you're going to be waiting a long time for America to do that. The point that he made was, you know, Japan might have been monsters, but the people who were bombed were practically, quote, unquote, innocent.

And I guess my question is, were they? And I know this sucks as a political position, but I'm asking a question because if you are visiting, if you are part of a civilization and everybody does, working in the context of that civilization allows it to function in the way to the functions. And you are Japan and you are monsters. Or let's say you are the Nazis and you are monsters. And the Russians go from Stalingrad and crush Berlin. Or for that matter, the U.S. drops a bomb on Japan. Is society capable for what their government does? And that question plagues me. Because part of me says, yes. I mean, give me your take on that.

I mean, the Cuba thing is the reason why I say it kind of applies is because we're visiting mayhem upon countries for very little rationale for it. What's his name? Marco Rubio, that psychopath effectively is touching himself inappropriately from the U.S. policy and blockading Cuba and licking his lips at the potential to destroying that country. The same thing grew with Venezuela. the same thing is true with Ukraine, the same thing is true with Iran. Are we culpable? Yeah. No, look, that's exactly what's going on. And I don't think, look, I don't think it's going to stick. I mean, Marco Rubio can want what he wants, but, you know, I mean, this is a temporary matter. And like, also, it's like we shouldn't, not only should we not want to do this for ethical reasons,

because it's obscene. I don't think we should want to do it for, you know, for practical reasons. I mean, the United States has a lot of major challenges economically, socially, and politically. And the last thing we need to be doing is trying to, you know, suppress the people of Venezuela or Cuba or anywhere else, right? We don't have the bandwidth for it. You know, we can't, we're not good at being colonizers. We're not, this is going to bog us down. There's going to be an insurgency.

or something else or, you know, street riots or whatever that are going to have to be suppressed. You know, we can't, we cannot do it. So, I mean, we have, I mean, the United States has, is always, I was going to say has interests in, but is interested in and always has been interested in Haiti. And yet, it can't do shit over there, right? Haiti is probably an easier fire to put out for the United States than Cuba or Venezuela. I mean, in that Cuba hasn't burned completely to the ground like Haiti has. And so with Haiti, we couldn't really fuck up as much.

Like we could go in and, you know, I mean, anything we do to slightly improve matters would probably fly well, you know, in the international community. People go, oh, thank God someone's doing something. So I have a question at all. We're only going to make things worse. So I have a question to that place in order to make things better. No. I mean, where have we ever gone to make things better?

Never. Well, I have a question for you, Ted. And this will play more to the lefty idea about systemic racism in the country. Is the reason why America doesn't want Haiti is because it's full of, I guess you could say, savage black people who. Haiti is important. Yeah, I understand that. But we'll be more interested in actually owning 80 if the demographics were different than what they are. Is that the problem?

I did try to own Haiti. I mean, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton's intrusion into Haiti was disastrous. U.S. Marines have invaded Haiti. I mean, it's not like it's another. What's his name? The Starved with the M. Yeah, Mosevian, right. But I guess the point I'm trying to make it is that Puerto Rico is a colony.

It's a territory of the United States with Hispanic people. If Haiti was Hispanic as opposed to black, would it be a temporary, would it be a territory today as opposed? as opposed to a failed state? Is that why? I think race is the subtext in Haiti, but I don't think it's the main point. Haiti has a really powerful revolutionary tradition, you know, going back to Cajnich, Chene, Touss, right? And, you know, they threw off the colonial yoke of the French, and the Haitians have been,

they're fucking unruelable. And I mean that as a compliment. They just, they do not like or tolerate foreign intervention or interference. And they would rather, like, they just, I think it's too hard for the United States to go in. They will lose. They know it. It's like those organized, quote unquote, gangs, as we call them, they will, they're well armed. They will create a lot of resistance.

It'll just be like a lot of body bags will be coming back to Andrews Air Force Base. think that's why we don't go in there heavy. Yeah, but we have wrecked that country just throughout interventions. 100%. Us and we share that with France, but yeah. Seven more minutes. Okay, so we almost got a president, a president, J.D. Vance on Tuesday night.

So Trump's chopper came within a mile of hitting an American Airlines flight in D.C. airspace. I'm surprised that after this accident that killed over 100 people a couple of years ago, that they didn't, or maybe it was like 80 or something, but why did they, why has this not been fixed? I mean, there's been all these problems with near misses in and out of the, out of Reagan airport, the airspace, you know, by U.S. politicians like the president. I mean, the level of incompetence is kind of staggering, right? I mean, it's like this is the president of the United States. And of course, also, I have to ask, like, what would have happened? I mean, where would we be politically if that had happened?

Would it then other people killed other than Trump? Yeah, probably the, probably the, yeah, the American Airlines flight was full of people, right? I think people would have been mourning the fact that all of the people died in that flight in American Airlines. I agree. I don't think anybody would care one a yoda that Trump. I agree with that too. I don't think anybody would care. And I think like that's horrendous.

It might be a relief. Yeah. I mean, I would wake up and I would put my suit on and I would applaud and I would trash him in the same way I trashed Lindsey Graham as a commemoration for his death. Which again is sad. I don't want to be that way. Like meaning I don't want to be in this situation. I want to be like John Wayne where John Wayne was like, you know, I didn't vote for him. He's my president. I hope he does a good job. That's what I would prefer as my base position. But Trump is a psychopath. And I don't wait when psychopaths die. And so I think a lot of people, as you point out, they would look at it as a relief. I don't know why, because I don't know if they even know what J.D. Vance would do. So. Yeah, but I mean, J.D. Vance seems more sane than Donald Trump.

Right. More stative. I mean, I don't know if that's positive. I mean, it would definitely give Vance. It would put Vance in the catbird seat for 2028 in a way that he will not be if Trump remains in office. I mean, Vance could credibly be in office for 10 years. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. The next two, he can run in next to elections, meaning whatever policy, Vance enacts, he can follow through over the course of time in a way many of residents can.

True. Maybe Blue Thunk, thanks for the dollar. I'm going to agree with Jamarle. We're culpable. You can't just ask with the support and praise of the good parts of your government without accepting and fighting the bad. Yeah. Yes.

We're culpable. I mean, when Reagan was shot in 1981, I was 18 years old, I hated Ronald Reagan with a passion. He fucked, I had a, you know, I had full scholarship to go to college. He, you know, basically gutted that. And I ended up having to get, like, three jobs. try to make it through college and basically fucked up my grades. I hated him. I hated him.

That said, when he was shot, I felt sad not because this guy had been shot, but because the president of the United States had been shot. And that seemed bad for the country. It seemed not like just not a place where the political space should operate. Right. And you're right. It's like, I don't think, and I think a lot of people probably who were sad about JFK, you know, didn't vote for him, but nevertheless, we're sad.

The John Wayne thing is very apropos. Yeah. I mean, by the way, Donald Trump is now approaching Hilarian levels of devil's luck when it comes to surviving assassination attempts. I mean, people try to shoot him at the golf course all the time. I mean, they shot off a little tip, a little bit of his ear. You know, I mean, people are always coming after him. And, you know, Hitler was constantly, people may not know this,

but Hitler was constantly surviving assassination attempts. There was a bomb placed in his plane. The detonator didn't go off because of a, because of an altitude, you know, pressure change. There was a bomb placed in the, wall behind where he was giving a speech. He, uncharacteristically, long-winded guy, ended the speech early and went off after he left. And of course, obviously the most famous one led by von Stalfenberg, where they blew up the place at the Wolfslair where, and he was, you know, basically the bomb went off in this small enclosure,

but he was protected because at the last second, some SS guy sort of, oh, found the bomb, you know, found the briefcase that the bomb was in. It was in his way. He pushed it under this heavy German, you know, wooden table. And when it blew up, the table protected the furor from the blast. You know, I mean, we are, we are, we are, Trump is at that level now. Yeah. Yeah.

Look, do you think the first assassination attempt that skinned him that that was faked? No, I think it was. was real, although, I mean, I think it's the devil's luck. I mean, the part that it's really hard for me to understand is the fact that the shooter was on top rattling around on top of this metal roof. Yes. On top of a building where the cops were. Everybody could see him. Yeah. You got to see the guy. The cops can hear him banging around, right? They're inside eating donuts. And this guy's up there like, bum, bum, bum. Nobody thinks like, hi, guys. Let's Let's go up there and see what going on.

Look, I agree with you with the Reagan thing. Like, I remember when he threw to shoe at George Bush. Even then, I thought, I feel so kind of what you're going to shoe at the president. Despite the fact that Bush was a murder. Like, I don't like having that sense that this guy is so irreparably corrupt and evil that if something happens to him, God bless whatever happens to him. Like, I don't like to be that way. Yeah.

I do feel like I hate to say this. I mean, I think the country would be better off if he were not with us anymore. And that sucks. You know. It does. But, yeah. All right, guys. Thank you very much for your support.

Thanks to you for listening to us. We're going to put our heads together here on Deep Program with Ted Rall and Jamal Thomas. And we are going to figure out the subscription stuff. And we know you guys are going to step up because we know you will and we appreciate you. So thanks everyone for tuning in. Please stay tuned for a TMI show coming up right now. We'll be back tomorrow. We will be back tomorrow at 9 a.m. Eastern Time to 10 a.m. Eastern Time live.

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