DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Trump "Out of Options" Against Iran | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: September 3, 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:• For 24 hours after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told Trump the US has lost to Iran and a US bomb attack killed at least 5 guests at a wedding party and wounded at least 67, Trump’s familiar playbook for his war for/with Israel was on full display. The president went from boasting that Iran was defeated militarily, a “failed nation,” to threatening an apocalyptic attack that would leave “very little left” of the country. Then he was back to trolling, asking his followers whether the United States should name the Strait of Hormuz the “Trump Strait.” Foreign policy experts say he has run out of options.• Citing an “unprecedented lowering of standards,” a career ICE official who stepped forward as a whistleblower said that “systemic breakdowns” had allowed applicants to receive job offers before they had passed basic fingerprint, identity or credit checks in a preliminary vetting process. Political appointees had unjustly skirted background investigations and received national security eligibility.• Global heating will reach at least 1.8C under even the most optimistic future, well beyond the Paris agreement goal of 1.5C, according to a UN report that warns every fraction of temperature rise intensifies destructive extreme weather, glacier melt, ecosystem loss, and island and coastal city submersion. The report by the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme confirmed overshooting the 1.5C goal inscribed in the landmark Paris agreement of 2015 was now “unavoidable” and, despite some progress in addressing the human-caused climate crisis driven by burning fossil fuels, likely in the next few years. It said: “There are no good outcomes above 1.5C”.MERCHANDISE: DeProgram.MySpreadShop.comLIVE ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@DeProgramShowLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowhttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JamarlThomas#tedrall #jamarlthomas #news #politics

Good morning. It's Thursday, September 3rd, 2026. And this is D-Program with Chad Rall and Jamaral Thomas. Jamaral is going to be joining us as usual today. He is just running a little late today. Anyway, I hope you guys are all doing great. Thanks so much for supporting the show. Our element is still on one in a second. Wait, wait, what's our element? Oh, did you? I can't see us. I thought. I thought, oh, there it is. There it is. There it is. Well, we look, I look a lot better in the, you know, as a blackout screen.

So, okay, so anyway, please like, follow, and share. Appreciate all that. And also, thank you for supporting the show. Just a reminder, please subscribe to the show. If you haven't done so already, that's the best way to support it. But we do really also appreciate the Rumble Rants and the YouTube and the YouTube super chats. And of course, keep your comments and questions coming in.

Just before J.T. comes in, we'll just say that both, this is kind of the first time since April. Just an update. Both Robbie and I heard from a former certain CIA whistleblower yesterday for the first time. And I guess it's fair to say we both had nice chats. And, you know, hopefully we can put all that behind us. Would you say that's fair? Robbie. Oh, yeah. I'm very put it behind us for a couple months now.

Me too. Me too, for sure, really. No, it was a good conversation. It was a good talk. It was a good chat. And I got told him about hell just like I got told everyone on the internet who watches the hinterwebs. Said, no hard feelings. Do what you do. Chase that money and see on the other side. There was a there was a, I used to, I know it's a really silly show, but I used to love candid camera. again. And there was one where, I don't know if it was the reboot of Candid Camera or the original series, but there's one in Grand Central Station where they attached like a, I don't know,

maybe a $5 bill or a $10 bill to a fishing line and like pulled it through the crowd of people to watch, just for the fun of watching people run after it. And it's kind of like, you know, it's like the Nirvana album cover, never mind. It's just sort of perfect. It just tells us all. Good morning, Jamarle. How are you? I'm doing fine. How are you guys going? Okay, okay. All right. I remember Kenny, actually. Do you know what I'm talking about?

You know about the show. People would be chasing the money down the street. Yeah, I mean, there's been at least two iterations of the show. There might have been three. And, you know, it's basically the best candid camera story is actually, so the original host, Alan Funt, who was kind of this jovial-looking man. he was on a plane that one of the many planes that was kidnapped that was hijacked to Cuba in the 1970s. And this was at the peak of the fame of the show.

And someone on the plane noticed that Funt was on it and said, oh, guys, it's all going to be okay. It's Alan Funt is on the plane. It's candid camera. We're all on candid camera. Because it was all about pranks, right? And it's like, it turns out like, and Alon Funt is. Alan Fund stands up and he's like, no, like, this is not the show, okay? You are wrong. Okay, we are being hijacked to Cuba. This has, and they're like, oh my God, that's so great. He's in character. He's doing a great. It's like, no, no, no. And then, you know, they land in Havana. They see the palm trees. They see the Cuban. They see the Cuban police and soldiers, like, coming up to greet the plane. And they're as the high, as the, as the, as the, as the, as the, as the, as the, as the, the hospital.

were being taken off the plane. One of them punched out and wanted the nose. What? Yeah, yeah. Why? Because he was, I don't know. I remember hearing his son tell the story. It's like so funny.

If I was going to get kidnapped, Cuba would be one of the places I would like to go to. Oh, yeah. Please hijack me to Cuba. Any time. Hello. Hello, government of Cuba. of Cuba. I need desperately need to be hijacked to Cuba. Yeah, there were places to be kidnapped to. For sure. I'm going to wake up in Afghanistan, right? Or honestly, even though they have a

high standard of living, let's say Norway. It's like, Cuba's better. I love Norway. Really? I've never been. It's freezing. I mean, so they had tickets in the winter for 400 bucks. And I was like, Okay, I can't pass this up. My ex-wife and I, we went and we stayed for a good week. It was great. I love it. I love coming across the weird cheap tickets every now and that. Like, in this.

This ticket is cheap because it's freezing. I accept. Right. No one wants to go. Right. I accept it. But all the hotels will be cheap and you will not have any problem getting a table at a restaurant. It'll all be easy.

It was great. I went to, yeah, I went to, I had a ticket like that to Bayesian. And it was like same thing like January out of and it was like via Northwest you had to get to New York to Detroit but then direct inexplicably direct from Detroit to Beijing but it was 500 bucks and this was a you know and I was like holy shit I got to I want to go to Beijing for $500. It's less than the cost of going to you know California sometimes. So it was like yeah and it was great also and it was so fucking cold too. And this was when most Beijing are still bicycled instead of drove cars. This is not true anymore.

And like they're literally in like a foot of snow on their normal little normie bikes, right? Like they're flying dragons. Like yeah, they're just like, yeah. I mean, they're fucking beasts. I mean, I don't even know how they do it. So, oh, by the way, did you guys hear

before we get to the real news and just so you guys know what the real news is, we're going to be talking about the climate change report, this ice whistleblower who says that basically they're hiring everybody just like doucheback. bags, violent criminals, whatever, and Iran. Do you guys hear about the Trump administration has declared war on bike lanes?

Who declared war on bike lanes? The Trump administration. That basically they are trying to cut off the, I was going to say, Department of Transportation like dollar subsidies, but they're really like cents. I mean, they send like, you know, the city of Baltimore will get like $1 million to put in bike lanes, right? And somehow the Trump administration is calling them DEI lanes and saying that like they're a feat.

And they point out that Buttigieg is gay and likes to bike. I mean, it's just, I don't understand the cultural, the cultural signifier of bicycles as a family. They don't believe in culture. I just don't think they believe in culture. I think they're an anti-cultural group. I mean, the things that they go with are things that are antagonistic to. what would be considered cultural norms in a way of society operates.

You have religious maniacs. You have people who don't necessarily care about, let's say, identity issues. Meaning you can have society and people can have their identities, but you can still have a larger culture on top of that, that still people represent and respect those things. I don't think Trump cares about any of those things. I think from him, it's purely what is in my personal best interests. What do I care about?

And I want to make the country that. So abortions, no. This idea of having African-American museums. Yeah, we don't like that because we don't like being reminded that we had all these people as slaves. Or that they represent one-sixth of the population. Right. We don't like that. I mean, but you can go down the list, the issue of Medicare, Social Security.

We don't like those things. We don't need those things. We're rich. What do we care about those things? Like, all of these things are effectively being attacked and maligned. And I hate to point out to them that all of these things are necessary. for society to function. Like meaning this idea that people don't pay taxes is nonsense.

Like, it's like, well, we need to cut the taxes of the rich even further. Fair enough, you could do that. You just be aware. You won't be able to pay for things. We're 40, what, trillion in debt. Donald Trump is raising, it's $2 trillion on top of it, just like Joe Biden was putting $2 trillion a year on it. This is after Doge, by the way.

Right. We're going to fire American workers. We're going to go after Social Security and Medicaid. And we're going to destroy these institutions. And we're going to destroy the ability for people to get their hands on these things. Again, what does it mean? It means that you don't ultimately have a society. Your roads suck.

Your power lines go down on a whim. And from the standpoint of Trump, it's, I want to pull more money out of the government. I said, you can't have society like that in general. Yeah. It's true. It's true. By the way, another random thing. And I know I got some criticism from one of our regular viewers yesterday.

I don't really care. No offense, but I can't. Like, basically, the show is, you know, it's not well disciplined. I'm like, no, it never was, though. So, and it makes it, you know, whatever. We always wanted a fast-moving news and current events show, and that's what it is. Jamarles, you see this comment, it's totally excusable if you missed it. But in the oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court about the ballroom case.

One of the justices, sorry, in the case, not, I apologize, not the Supreme Court, in the appellate court, federal court before it went to the Supreme Court, the judge asked, if the U.S. government were to move quickly to demolish the statute of liberty, would there be any, is the government allowed to do that without going to Congress or getting any authorization? and the administration's attorney said yes, that would be okay. Right. Yeah. Well, they would have to say yes. They have to, right? I mean, they're talking about destroying the Kennedy Center. They're like, well, we may just demolish the Kennedy Center.

Right. If you could make arguments like that, you got to make the argument that, yeah, we have the right to destroy this natural liberty. I'll give them points for consistency. But consistency. But the judge is going to say you're a hypocrite, right? Like he's going to get stuck in a legal quagmire in court if he says. Totally. It's like, yeah, why this and not that, right?

Right. Yeah, he stuck saying yes. Amazing. By the way, do you see Massey out the Epstein list? Massey what? Massey went on the floor of Congress and outed the names that were on the Epstein list. No way. All right.

Any interesting ones? Let's see. David Copperfield is apparently on the list. Every time I hear his name, I'm like, you mean the magician? That's what I keep thinking to. The magician? What would he do? I keep, I was like, David.

And couldn't he, if David Copperfield were a pervert, can't he just conjure up his victims? He doesn't need to go to Epstein's island. Well, apparently, he didn't want to use that much magical energy. It's like, I need a 14-year-old. Here you are. She's just going to give you a massage. I mean, hey, you look tense. Yeah, right. I mean, it's funny to be how people pick and choose the pedophiles are okay with.

Right, right, a la carte pedophiles, one from column A, two from column B. Yeah, but I've become, I've become cynical on this stuff. I think people choose their sides and they're perfectly willing to accept somebody who may be in disrepue if they are given something that the audience likes. Absolutely. From our point of view doesn't provide anything that we like or care about

so Epstein is persona of Laingrada. If it was somebody else, they will be accepted. And the audience and say whatever they want, I don't believe it. I think most will accept them.

I have evidence, I have proof of it. I know it as a flat fact that they will be accepted. Epstein has just so happened on the others. Yeah, no, that's exactly it. He was disposable,

so he was disposed. If you, yeah, people will make any excuse for their own. Tomorrow, I mean, I learned this when I was 10 years old. So my, my neighbor was babysitting for me after school. My mom used to work really late. And I, and they had a dog. The dog, I went into the kitchen to get something to drink. The dog was there. I went to pet the dog on the head. The dog growled and then bit my arm and bit out a huge chunk of flesh. I still have the scar.

and ran off. So afterwards, you know, I had no editorial, you know, hard to believe, but I was only 10, so no editorializing about this. But the kids went to school, and I guess the son and the daughter of the babysitter went to school and told everybody that I must have provoked the dog. It was a perfect dog, great dog. But they weren't there, by the way, when it happened. So they don't know anything, right? Maybe I poke the dog in the eye. Maybe I didn't, but they don't know. They He defended the dog, right? They're on team dog because it's their dog. The wife defended the dog because they were, it was, Pepper was their dog.

And I, you know, as a human, but not their human, I ranked lower. About a month later, Pepper bounded over to our neighbor's house where this kid, Scott, was raking leaves. And very playfully leapt up and bit off his cheek and swam-ed and ran away. Were they still on team dog? They're still on team dog. Scott must have done something because it's a good dog. This dog at Pepper never did anything wrong. Not a bad bone in the dog's body.

Finally, Thanksgiving Day, Grandpa is visiting from Minnesota. And he goes to Pepp Pepper at the Thanksgiving gathering. Pepper bit off his pinky finger and swallowed it. Are they still on Team Dog? At this point, there's a problem. Okay. So now you've been, now you've gone into the inner core. Now you've been one of ours, right?

Yeah. So my mom was dating a police detective and she was complaining about this situation. And he said, listen, I have just the solution. So she goes over to her, she goes over to the neighbor's house and says, listen, obviously there's a possibility with all these bites, you've got to test for rabies. well the test involved and i think still involves sending the head of the dog to the state capital in columbus now i lived in dayton now so well wait wait did you say sending the head of the dog

yeah did they test the brain mm-hmm so yeah that's that's correct doggy guillotine yeah that's what they do so the point is so as my mom said perfectly and she really did have a wonderful way with language. She said, the test solves the problem. Like, we don't care about the results of the test. The test is itself a solution. And so at that point, they refused. They were like, oh, we're going to send, now, of course, I only learned later that this about this very American euphemism. Where's Pepper? Oh, Pepper went to a farm in Wisconsin where he's playing with all the other dogs. It's like,

yeah. So he went to Christine Homes farm. So God's bless, Pepper. He was always a loyal member of the family until he wasn't. But that's tribalism. That's what it is. People would do that with dogs.

Imagine how people would do that with people. Yeah. Look at the Israelis. I mean, Israel is pepper on a global scale. Correct. Yeah. Yeah.

I learned this as a kid. It's a good lesson. It was a great lesson. Oh, I mean, it just like, I mean, it informed so much about the way I see the world. I was like, oh, I get it now. I see. Like, you know, you'll make, if you're, if this person's a member of the in crowd, then, you know, they can do no wrong. If they're on the out crowd, they can do no right.

That's just how it is. Whether they are right or not is the point. Correct. It's step up where you're like, eh. right or wrong doesn't really matter in this case. Right. It doesn't matter. It's that.

It is a lesson that everyone should learn flesh to bone because it's important. Yeah, well, I learned it flesh to bone for sure. In fact, I could, when I went like this, I could see the bone going back and forth. It didn't hurt at all because all the nerves were severed. Anyway, all right, let's do some comments. I will get to the main news. FU.S.O. article. Pete Hanksett's path to the

28 nomination isn't a joke. Well, it might be real, but it's still a joke. The defense secretary's tough guy persona may be exactly what wins over white evangelical voters. But it's also repellent to everybody else. He's repellent, yeah. I mean, that's a question. Would a major political party,

how often does a major political party intentionally nominate someone who they don't think has stands any chance of victory in the fall. It has happened, but it's rare. Yeah. I mean, I don't think they thought that about Barry Goldwater. I mean, you know, I don't think they thought Trump could win.

And under normal circumstances, Trump couldn't win. Right, right, right. Okay, so Payne to Liberty. The USS Abraham Lincoln has docked in the city of Pataya, Thailand. What happens on Liberty makes for ha-ha-ha-sie stories. although I'm being told that these sailors have been given strict orders not to go to the prostitute, to the Red Lake District in the attack. And by the way, they were rounding up prostitutes before they got it, which is like, I mean, that's sad.

That's like, that's like I had a, I had a friend who had a cat, and then she got, like, she got birds, too. And it was like, the, I mean, the birds were terrorized because the cat would sit on top of the cage and look inside. at these delicious treats. And the poor cat was fucking like the sailors, just like staring inside. Like, they're so close. I can smell them. Let me have one.

Let me put it in here. Right? Like, these sailors have been out to sea for nine months. I mean, come on, let them have the prostitutes. Let the prostitutes get the business. Jacking ourselves of cold testosterone and then clearing out the prostitutes is outrageous. That's actually true. It's a bad idea.

Yeah, it's a bad idea. Warfighters need to get their testosterone off. Yeah, and they'll probably be less likely to commit war crimes. Exactly. And less likely to jump off boats. Yeah, all right. I will tell you, I'm very chill for the next few days after. Everybody in the house is chill.

The wife is good. I'm good. Everything's fine. Yeah, yeah. Double dose of kind of sailing on the way back on board, and everything is fine. Double bag, double bag that rascal. I mean, y'all did see Trump is pushing for Congress to nominate Mr. Hung Cow as the new secretary of the Navy, didn't you? I approve of that.

Me too. Although, is that kind of a trans thing? Shouldn't it be humble? Well, the dude's Vietnamese. And a lot of people, like my political persuasion, like, are seriously asking why are we allowing a foreign-born immigrant? to be the Secretary of the Navy. He's a U.S. citizen. There's no requirement constitutionally for anyone other than the president or vice president

to be natural born in the United States. Correct. But people are asking that question. And that's a good, that's a fair question to ask. Look, it's a fair question to ask. I personally think that the French method is better. There's no second class citizens in France. I, even though I'm born in Massachusetts, I can be president.

I can run for president of France. and if they're stupid enough to elect me, I can serve. Well, you're a French citizen. I mean, you're a good friend citizen. But he wasn't born an American citizen. But I don't need him to be. He's naturalized. No, I get that.

But I mean, but that is a, but that's a conversation, though, that I think that we should probably have as a people. Well, the assumption here is that that if you're not born in the United States, you're somehow your, your loyalties are suspect. Well, Trump himself is saying that. But you got to remember, though, his whole thing is about the yellow menace. Like, you can't trust the Chinese or spying on you. They're our biggest enemy. Now, I've realized that he's Vietnamese. He's not Chinese. But I would imagine he's probably descended from

South Vietnamese refugees who were right-wingers fleeing from communism. He's a book person. So, I mean, I'm not saying that derogatory. I mean, that's what he, that's what he is, is a refugee. Right. And I know, this just goes to show that Trump had, he has a special skill of pissing off his base. It doesn't matter if it's people who really, really They're just saying on America First or ranchers. But he's your pepper, though, right? Isn't he kind of on the right? Because you guys like, not you, but you know, your team, you guys kind of let it go.

Like, okay, he fucked us again, but he's pepper. He's so cute. He's ours. Are you talking about Trump and MAGA? Trump and MAGA, yeah. Listen, MAGA is a cult. Maga's a, Trump could tell, gaze into the sun and it will cure your cataracts. and they would do it because they're that stupid.

Yeah. Well, I mean, and honestly, Democrats have their cults too. I mean, Biden was a cult. Do you think that a Obama was more of a cult? Do you think Pete Hedzekielder can have his own cult? No. No. Or the swore swallows?

Or is that just too small of a? I don't think Pete Hakeseth has the Riz, to be honest. Yeah. He's well spoken. I mean, look, I think the guys are all out. And to be honest, I think that's what Trump hired. It wasn't like he was hiring. It wasn't like he was hiring for competence.

In fact, I don't think he hires for competence in general. He hires for optics. He likes the way they look on TV. That's what he says. I think Higgs said... If y'all let him get away with it, then that's going on y'all. Yeah. I don't think Higgs.

HECF is not a real candidate for 2020. I love the patterns. Mighty name Hunkow in government, where we can talk about Hunkow during the show. Yeah, it'll be great. Let's have them. But it's the president who's ordering and dictating etc, et cetera, et cetera. He just needs to implement policy.

Why do I care if he's a foreign boy? Yeah. I mean, Robbie, do you care? No, not one bit. I care about if he's competent. That's all that matters. But all I'm saying is that this is going against Trump's brand again. Like he's about make America first.

And all those campaign ads, like he's got these middle-aged or older white dudes standing up there with their American flags behind them, you know, old-school Americana. And he was like, now I made hung cow, secretary of the Navy. It sounds like you do care. And why wouldn't you care? I don't care. Well, real quick, you made the argument that you don't like H1B1Bs, we would agree with you on that.

Fair enough. You don't want immigrants into the country. Again, fair enough. You want them kept out of the country because Americans can take those jobs. Where he isn't a job. Not immigrants. Illegal immigrants. There's a difference.

No, you don't entirely make a difference when you're talking about. Oh, no, there's very much a difference. No, what I want, I want, I want, moratorium on all new immigration. Punk out is a foreigner that became an American, why wouldn't you want an American taking that job? Meaning, a natural born American taking that job. You wouldn't. Obviously, you care.

No, I don't care. Listen, if I care. Should he have been legally admitted to the United States in the first place? No, but he's here. And he's heard in the Navy. Wait, that's a Ted Raul argument. He's here. No, but he's here.

That's my argument. about like letting the people be who are already here. Correct. So you're just drawing a different date line. This happened back in the 70s, so that's different. No, you have to, okay, so let me see if I can talk slower so we can understand what what I'm trying to say. If you come across the border illegally, I don't care if you're too much old, two years old,

20 years old, or 200 years old, go home. Hong cow did not come here. He did not come here illegally. he was a, he was talking about for Biden, came here legally. You said, I don't care. They did not come here illegal. They did not come illegally. Again.

They did come legally under the previous president. They did not. They came under the model that the previous president allowed them. That's true, which was that definition, legal. They did not. They didn't sneak across the border. They were admitted by, they showed up and filled out all the right forms and they were stamped in. It was legal.

It was not legal. It was not legal. A president deciding not to enforce a law does not make it legal. It does when it comes to immigration. The president has wide latitude to have discretion on border control. A president is required to enforce the law. That is part of his job. They have discretion on how to do it.

If a president decides, I'm going to ignore Congress, I'm going to nullify Congress by not enforcing the law that they passed. That is a major, major company. Legally. Now, you could say you don't like the fact that many of the people who came over came over under this model of fleeing terrorism or fleeing, so forth, and fleeing this, basically looking for asylum. Just like Kongkow, by the way. Well, also his family was fighting for the American people against the

duly. Okay. And they're exactly the same as the Afghans, that you don't want. want to hear because they're traitors. They were traitors against the Vietnam, the Vietnamese people supporting basically a corrupt regime of the Republic of South Vietnam, which was wildly unpopular, and nobody misses in Vietnam today. So here's, so here is the difference. There were two separate nations called Vietnam, correct? Yeah. North and South Vietnam. The whole reason South Vietnam was formed, and I agree with you on this, it's the same thing with South Korea.

Well, not so much South Korea because there was no election. The people of Vietnam elected, they voted to unify with Ho Chi men, who is a national hero because he defeated your people, the French. It's going to show them that France cannot win a war to save its life, cannot do it. The French suck. They need to just, they're taking less than to the Italian. Well, they won World War I, but okay. And they won the American Revolution, but okay.

They did not win World War I. The dough boys and the British did. They certainly won the American Revolution. revolution for the Americans. For sure. And then they bloop their, they bloop their country doing it. But to get to your point, there is a difference between being allied with another nation, which South Vietnam was rightly or wrongly. First, I don't think we should have been involved there at all.

It was another nation. We were in a military, we were in a military partnership with them. Just as we were in the same exact arrangement with the Northern Alliance government of Afghanistan. But Afghanistan was not split in the two separate countries. We installed a new government. These people betrayed their government. They did it for money. What are you talking about it?

The Afghans? They didn't betray their government. They were working for their government. And then their government fell. And then we led them in. You're talking about the Northern Alliance dudes, right? Yeah, I'm talking about the Northern Alliance guys, the ones who want the Afghans who are coming to the United States now.

and driving ubers in DC Metro. Yeah. Well, they can go home. They are, I mean, but it's the same exact political situation as the South Vietnamese refugees. As far as their status in the United States, I mean, literally,

like you guys were working for a U.S. aligned puppet state. Our puppet state collapsed. We withdrew, and now, and you fled, and then we let you in. Listen, I hear what you're saying, and I understand the argument. It's just... It's unpeachable.

I mean, it's airtight. It's watertight. I mean, where's there, where's there leak here? It's the same exact thing. The same... So here again is the difference. There was a different nation called South Vietnam. That makes no difference.

We were in a bit of their control. It sounds like your argument would be consistent if it was an American should be taking that job. Hongkow should have never been right. If North Vietnam were just had renamed themselves, you know, Asbutt stand and it's It was still with South Vietnam, the relationship, the United States didn't have diplomatic relations with North Vietnam. What's relevant here is it was propping up the government of South Vietnam.

And they should have collapsed. And they never should have been. Nor should we have done the same thing in Afghanistan, nor should we have been. And the issue that I guess what I'm trying to say is, if. It's the same, Robbie. It really is. It should have never been allowed into the country. And American should be taken that.

It's exactly the same. There's like no difference. It's the same thing with, as you were pointing out, Trump having all these people come in and doing the food stuff and they should be doing an American should be doing those jobs if there's a job for an American. You have a foreigner, an American, naturalized, but foreigner in a particular position that an American should be out in. Just say it. What's issue? Like it just, you have no one you said. You have no other things why this one is a sticking point.

I think of the only things that's different really, truly, is just when it happened. happened. That's it. And I don't think that that should matter if you're being, you like to be consistent, Robbie. I'm just trying to help you be consistent. Listen, I am doing my very best here to be consistent. Here's the issue. And again, I will speak slowly. So I try to, I saw I can try to go to. We have a lot more to talk about and comments to go to. The issue is the dude is brought over here before I was born. Ted, you're still here. And to your point, he came here, he came here, Legally. They should be an American doing the job on deprogram also.

I'm pretty sure there are three Americans here. Oh, yeah, yeah, I was born here. Yeah. I'm pretty sure there are three Americans here. The issue is, honestly, but what does this even mean? Because, you know, you got Trump. He's over here, he's just whipped all the stuff up. And this is crazy because usually everyone has been called a racist here on the show.

Like, this dude's been here for 100 years. He's an American citizen. citizen, does it matter that he doesn't have an Anglo name? For me, if the issue is race, I'd be right there with you saying, yeah, no, no, deport him, send him on out. No, no, no, no. I mean, if this guy can do the job, I'm never going to race just be very clear. No, I'm talking about the people in the this.

I'm talking about the people in the chat. Also, you got to kind of think about also the demographics in 1970. The United States is just the majority white. You know, it was the people who, I, I don't know, we're born here. And now, as Ted, as you pointed out yesterday, the country is now, is now minority white because of mass immigration. Also, it's an entirely different world. It's a different country.

I mean, no, you've got, no, you've got fewer jobs being competed over with more people. You have got AI and automation coming in and doing all these things. And so what you're trying to do is that you're trying to trap me in this box about a dude you came over here in the 70s because this, because this parent's spot for the U.S. military. Dude, he walked right into the road. and close the lid on top of yourself. No, listen, I get it. The only thing I'm trying to point out is, you brought up this issue of Hong Kongkow.

I didn't even know about the issue that the right wing was bringing up a conversation about it. I didn't bring that up. You brought there. Well, sure. It's because I make the mistake of actually reading what Trump says. No, no, no. I'm not condemning you.

I'm trying to point out that there's a... I do think you care about the fact that Hongkow, why wouldn't you care about Hong Kong? You've been consistent on everything else. The consistent position would just be, yeah, I don't think you should have been in the country. And by the way, but I'm trying to help you, Robbie. By your own standards about the Afghan traders, Hungal should not be in the United States. So again, not trying to trap you.

I'm pointing out. You should never have been admitted in the first place. I'm helping you. It just seems like that would be the natural position that you take. That's right. When you said you don't care and my thing is, well, I do think you care. You brought up the issue. You mentioned it.

Because nothing I care about is actually going to matter in this situation. So you got Trump who's out here saying, you got to have America first. Okay, great. What does that mean? So you got this dude who comes over here. He's a naturalized citizen. I'm not, I don't know if he's, I imagine he's just a full on citizen now. Oh, I'm sure.

I'm sure. And so to your point, Ted, he went through. He did this the right way. He did it the legal way. I guess I guess the distinction I'm trying to make is, is between legal and eagle and illegal immigration. When it comes to the Afghans, they did it solely for money

and is a very tribal society. Afghanistan is even, it's not even a real country. It's a tribal construct that the British carved out from the days of the Raj. That's true. I mean, it doesn't even exist. There's never been, it's like Ukraine. Like Belgium.

It's a remnant of the great game. The difference is, is that the South Vietnamese made a concerted effort to at least fight for their country. The Taliban didn't. When the Americans pulled the plug, what happened to the Afghan army? I hate to say it, Robbie. It's exactly this.

I hate to say, again, the parallel is chilling. It's exactly the same. The South Vietnamese Army, they were only in it for the money. And they did not give a shit about their country. They did not fight hard for it. And when the U.S. withdrew, they got rolled by the V.C. by the Vietnam and by the army of North Vietnam, Arvin, right? Sorry, that the Arvin was the South Vietnamese.

But they came right in and like rolled right over them. The United States, it was the same exact thing. We're withdrawing, but we'll continue to leave, you know, some advisors to help you out. We'll still supply you with weapons. Basically, just like in Afghanistan, the weapons were being sold on the black market by corrupt officers. everyone was looting.

All the top South Vietnamese officials were heading to the airport with duffel bags full of gold bullion. It's exactly the same. In fact, the optics of the fall of Saigon, as you know, were compared directly to the optics of the fall of Kabul. It's exactly the same.

I mean, it's crazy how similar it is. They didn't fight for their... There's no difference, Rob. I mean, I hate to say it. The only difference is where it happened and when it happened. That's it. It went down the same fucking way.

So the South Vietnamese did not fight for their country? Not really. I mean, no more, I would say that like the similar, the percentage of roughly, the percentage of South Vietnamese troops who fought hard for their country was about the same as the Northern Alliance ones who did. There were some Afghans who fought hard, but just not enough, not very many. You know, I mean, it was a very corrupt army. I was in Afghanistan when I, you know, several times.

And I remember seeing the recruiting posters for the Army. I mean, they literally, for fuck's sake, they'd literally dress these guys in uniforms that made them look like custodians at an elementary school. You know, there was no pride. There was no, like, there was no, you know, there was no esprit de corps.

There's no, it's just like the South, you can talk to Vietnam vets. They'll tell you. South Vietnam, Vietnamese Army, there were some stand-up dudes, but mostly not, you know? then here's my question. If that's the case, I'll take your word for it. You're alive then I wasn't. Why do we let them here in the first place?

Robbie, you and I are on the same page. We shouldn't. I mean, let me put this way. The only reason that you left them in the war should never have been happening in the first place. As long as the United States Empire is going to be propping up puppet dictatorships around the world, those dictatorships are going to collapse. And our allies slash, local traders have to know that like when things go tits up, we will, we will allow them to come here and flee with their families. Otherwise, who the fuck will work for us? Alanist always pays his debts. But why would you ever want to work with a nation like us that's going to screw you over in the first place?

Well, I think that's the point. Because you're desperate and you want the money. Yeah. Well, eminent power. I think I assume the coalition that they think the U.S. is going to back is going to put them in power. And, I mean, it was 20 years in Afghanistan, right? Not to mention, these are illiterate dudes in Afghanistan. They're not fucking reading U.S. history, military history.

They don't know what fucking happened in Vietnam, you know? Sure. This is a part of the world where literally, like, in India, there's, like, a Hitler ice cream. Because they're like, they don't even know what Hitler did. They're like, he's famous. Like, literally, that's it. Are you serious? Yeah.

Yeah, you can look it up online, Hitler ice cream. Wow. So, you know, let's do some more comments. Just do it. Okay. Kilroy, saw a video yesterday of IDF terrorists. It's pointing guns at children and terrorizing West Bankers needlessly. They were also harassing journalists reprehensible.

I saw that too. F you so, thanks for the dollar. Marijuana smoking at a record high in the U.S. cigarettes at low, continuing 17% of U.S. adults smoke marijuana, 15% consume edibles, 11% smoke cigarettes, 9% vape, 4% use nicotine pouches. I don't know what those are. 49% drink coffee. Yo, 20% drink caffeinated soda daily.

Wait, that's all? 29%? 49% drink coffee. I'm surprised it's so low. Wait, wait, what about so? They say caffeinated soda is 20%. They're not talking about just regular soda. You're telling me that more people drink soda, I mean drink coffee than Coke?

They didn't talk about Coke. They talked about, oh, yeah, you're right. That's a caffeinated soda. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, more people drink coffee than drink soda. I guess soda consumption is way down. Really?

More people smoke weed than as nearly as many people smoke weed. Yes, the same number of people. And if you had, if you could, I would imagine that not all people who smoke pot also eat edibles and vice versa, right? I'm sure there's some overlap, but I bet at least the total of cannabis consumers is more than the total of soda. That is, I cannot believe that. I don't believe that that thing. Yeah, it doesn't sound right. Because that would mean that so many, that would mean 80% of people decide not to drink caffeinated sodas. Everybody who eats fast food has can, has caffeinated sodas.

Because you always get like a Coke or something with your... I just can't believe that. That number just seemed so low. I would have thought the caffeinated soda thing would have been like 70%. Yeah, I don't know. It's self-reported, so who fucking knows, right? But the pot thing is, wow. Kilroy, Robbie, join the Patreon.

Is there anything I need to do to unlock the members-only content on YouTube? The best... What we'll do, all of court, it would trend about this. So what we can do is Patreon is that we can download those videos and then upload them over onto Patreon so that way you'll be able to see it. I've already done that. I've been putting the videos up on Patreon.

Yeah, then you're golden. Just go there and just click on the members-only videos. You're about to see them. Okay. I'll just make sure they properly coded. In there also. I mean, I don't know if you want to play it or not. I mean, especially we're running a long time,

but it's there. Maybe if they hit it in Q&A or something. Would we say that again? I put Massey's open the Epstein. I put the in the deep program. Oh, cool, cool. Yeah, that's the other thing, too.

Like, all of us, all three of us should be, you know, whenever we feel like posting anything to the deep program Patreon, we just should. I've been putting cartoons and columns up there too. Cool. Okay. Yeah, so everything. You know, you write something, like Robbie, you write something, whatever.

Just put it up there, whatever. Because you write an essay every down then. Okay. I've reached myself over on pickax. Well, you can cut and paste it. Because it's crazy. No, you know my spreeze. My spelling, my spelling sucks.

I know you fix it, though. Oh, yeah. No, well, that's, thank God for AI, right? By the way, do you know the New York Times has told their freelancers that they're not allowed to use AI even for spellcheck, which, look, I use it for spell check. I do. And it's like, that's ridiculous. You can use spell check on Microsoft Word. Yeah, that's no difference between an AI spell check and a Microsoft Word.

It's the same exact thing. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I don't get that. That's weird. Unless they're thinking that there's been. so much pleasureism in regards to that pledgerism, basically if AI writing articles and getting stuff wrong. Yeah. That for sure happens. And, you know, that's why a real writer fact-checked

everything before they publish it, right? But, but I mean, I use AI for research. If you don't, you're a fucking idiot. I mean, it's been an asset to me. I mean, just in general. Yeah, me too. Spell chat, the images, thumbnails. Grammar check. I literally, I literally, my, My code is I'll write the column, then I'll say, fix. I'll say flag, so it's not fixed, right? Because otherwise, if it fixes, you don't see what it does. So it's like flag, grammar, and spelling errors. And then I can go through and decide.

Yeah. And then it tells you, then it gives you a list. You can decide which ones to take and which ones not to take. That's so cool. That's better than telling them. If you tell it to fix, it might like fix it wrong or, you know. Oh. Oh, yeah.

I do much my thumbnails like that in titles. I would say pull the transcript of this video, come up with 10 titles that will do so-and-so based on the trends that are taking place. Titles for this show I come up with with AI. Yeah. And then I mean, otherwise, I'm going to be like three hours. Yeah, it's like, yeah, seriously. All right. I was thinking, let me throw this out there real quick because I'm going to drag myself back into the hung cow trap.

And so I'm thinking about this. We're going to get you a hung cow t-shirt for the program story. Because you're right. I've been thinking about this. Like, where is a consistency? Because I like to be consistent with where is that I stand? I think what the biggest difference is is that with Afghanistan, we invaded the country. So they were actively assisting and invading power.

I think that's the biggest difference. South Vietnam was an artificial construct. that was set up kind of like South Korea after World War II. We were invited there with the premise to help them build a country. Of course, we lie, like we always lie. And the people of South Vietnam, they voted to join with the North. That's what you're saying, that the South Vietnamese people do not support the country. That makes sense because the South Vietnamese government lost the election.

But the difference is, though, is that there were two separate nations. It was two separate political systems. and we didn't invade South Vietnam. It was so kind of like South Korea was after Indochina was partitioned. But we effectively... I have to say that's the biggest difference. It's a technicality at best, Rob. If you insist an invader, well, we didn't invade Vietnam.

Oh, the Vietnamese considered us to be invaders. But we were invited in. By a corrupt... Come on, we install a corrupt government. And then they invite us in. The guy that we're paying, like invites us in. Come on. But I have to say, that's probably the biggest difference is that...

We installed a corrupt government in Afghanistan, too. It's the same exact thing. I mean, Karzai was an unknown. Nobody in Afghanistan even ever heard of him. He's corrupted shit. I mean, even in our own documents, like the military documents of learn lessons, they talk about how the corruption in the Karzai government was eroding any kind of trust that people had in that government.

I think what is. I think that that's where it is that I kind of draw the line between Afghanistan and South Vietnam. It's the same bit with South Korea, right? South Korea was set up, no, Sigmund Rhee. There was no, it wasn't a republic. The dude was a dictator. He was corrupt. We were there.

We said there's still South Korea today. So there you have that. So I think that would be the difference. If you support an invader, which we were in Afghanistan. And in Vietnam, as far as the people or Vietnam, we're considered. Dudes, we can talk about this later. Maybe we can talk about it tomorrow in the Q&A.

We have, we still have yet to talk about there are three stories. And we have a bunch of comments waiting, and we have 13 minutes ago. So we're going to do this rapid fire. But I just didn't think about that. No, where am I assuming inconsistent? Because that's one thing I never want to be as inconsistent. Okay, the Vietnamese people definitely, look that up, they definitely considered us to be invaders. That was the rhetoric of all of the North, too.

All right, Dr. Nero, they go home. It's what they used to tell. Totally. Yankee Go home. Dr. Niro, all right, we're going to bang through these things. And have you guys seen and talked about U.S. federal court that said AI child porn is legal? Absolutely disgusting. But it has been legal.

Yeah, because there's no person involved. Yeah, by definition. I agree with the ruling even though I find it repugment. Does that make sense? Yeah, it's repugnant rule. It's repugnant but legally correct, you know, unless you want to change the law. Yeah, the judges, the courts are supposed to be interpreting the law as it stands, not making new law, and that's what they did here. All right, Kilroy.

YouTube really doesn't like what I wanted to say, $2. That's for the, yeah, because he said corn, is it a porn? All right. Thanks for the dollar spooky fog. Two dollars. My apologies. Why not attack the tech billionaire immigrants? Well, we know why. Sir Bikes a lot. Did you hear about the federal enforcement on truck drivers? Please confirm the numbers. Something like 100 people arrested in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Thousands lost their commercial driver's licenses in Arizona. Fink CDL schools in California. I did hear about this. I did not hear about this. So they were fake schools in California that were giving people licenses that the federal government. government crackdown on. Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, yeah, I mean, I don't mind that crackdown.

I mean, you know, it's like if people are not, you know, properly, commercially, you know, driving, driving a big reg a serious business. I have driven nothing that big. I have driven a city bus, and that's serious enough. So, yeah. Trent just sung. Thanks for the $5. Foreign born, naturalized citizen, Trent takes the D-Program, producer job from American Born citizen. True. True. Deport Trent. All right. As you said, thanks for the dollar.

My comment from yesterday, you want to determine illegal immigration, stop our corrupt authoritarian imperialism destroying their homeland? Yes, stuff fucking up countries. And people won't be, you know, we broke it. We should fix it. We should fix it. Macadon, having escaped the lion's den, Robbie went back for his hat. Thanks for the dollar. Black Spock, thanks just for the two dollars. Okay, now, all right, we got ten, we got ten minutes to do three stories. Okay, you can do it. All right. I'm just going to do one in a row, bang them out. All right. So, Trump was told by outgoing Army Secretary Dan Triscoll that the United States has lost the war to Iran. Meanwhile, the United States bombed a wedding. I guess it's like, hey, let's do it Afghan-style and killed at least

five guests, wounded at least 67, innocent people. The Pentagon is not denying it, which is basically you know that they're basically, it's true. The U.S. meanwhile, Trump is running around social media saying that, you know, Iran is defeated. They're a failed state. But at the same time, and he's going to rename the Strait of Hermuz, this Trump. straight, but experts say he has completely run out of options, doesn't know what to do, and it's basically just trying to change the perception of reality to suit his followers and maybe to suit himself. I mean, I agree with that analysis.

Where does the United States go from here? Like when you are in a state of denial about reality, about any situation, how do you get out it psychologically. How do you? Or don't you? They chose this fool. And mind you, everything that Trump has done has been about illusion. It's been about optics, right? Reality asserts itself. This was the same thing in Ukraine, where Ukraine is winning the war. Ukraine is fighting up those standstill, the ghost of Kievs, the snake owl and the Russians are blown up the North Stream. And I used to say on the show, reality will assert itself. Eventually, inevitably, things happen on ground that you can't, you know, Hitler your way out of. You can't have gerbils saying, we're winning

Stalingrad. We've taken Stalingrad. And then the Russian soldiers are on the way to Berlin. It doesn't, like at some point, it falls apart. And the reality of it is, when he bombed the wedding party, he hit that wedding party with multiple missiles and multiple things. Apparently, the most precise missile in Boeing's arsenal, multiple of those hit that wedding party and murdered all of those people. I don't know if you've seen Iran's response. It has been withering, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, they decimated a different base in Jordan. I think it was called the Titan or Titan base in Jordan. Their response to this has been withering with the explicit point of we have killed American soldiers in response to their attack on their wedding part.

Okay, you can't hide that, right? You can try. And they are trying. They've covered up a lot of the damage to our bases. They've even covered up the death counts. You can see the satellite images. I can show you video of satellite images looking at bases that. But you know, the main news that most people watch, like New York Times, NBC, they're not very good at covering this shit. Well, you can look at my channel if you need to. I mean, what I'm pointing out is you can see the military bases and you can see the plume clouds coming from those military bases from satellite images.

So whatever Trump is saying, you can see it. I mean, the picture that was showing the American barracks that was there and then not. Okay, that's pretty. amazing. There was most likely people there that were being killed. And I can even show you Hegsef being dragged before Congress. What Congress is asking him. You sent Americans to those bases. Those bases

were not defended. Correct. And Hesstaff is doing a lot of dancing, but ultimately the answer was, yes. It's outrageous. I mean, like, it's amazing. And he's running around like, we want the base of, you know, this is now America's straighter from,

I don't know who believes that. Just as you pointed out, Driscoll leaving saying we've lost the war is damning. I mean, I don't know how long this, this play of unreality can last. Yeah, it can't go on forever, obviously. Did you just flip out at that reporter when she asked them about using nukes? She was like, hey, are you thinking about using nudes? Trump's like, I never do that.

And then when he realized what the question was effectively asking was basically, you don't have a way to end this war. And he flips out. oh what do you mean you asked me this question what a stupid question they're beat to death they don't have a military they don't have an army the reporter obviously doesn't believe that we all know the truth here we all know we all know i mean i do think there's i don't know 20% of the country who don't know don't want to know or really objectively just don't pay attention and don't know but 20% is not a is not a high floor to have.

You know, I mean, that's, yeah, that's totally impeachable. That's totally resignation worthy. All right, we have two more. We kind of talked about this before. There's a career ice whistleblower who stepped forward said that there's basically, they're hiring people who haven't even passed fingerprint tests. They haven't even cast ID tests. These are the same people who want you to show your passport when you vote,

but they hire, you know, armed goons of the state and don't even check to find out who the fuck they are. They don't do credit checks and make sure that they're not vulnerable to corruption. Basically, and there's lots of, lots of political appointees inside ICE. It's basically becoming like a political machine like for, like, you know, like a, like a Tamini Hall type thing. I have a theory about this. My theory is that they don't really care about these people.

being anything other than loyal and willing to shoot Democrats or liberals or protesters after the midterm elections. They're preparing for a clamp down in American cities after November. I think that's what this is about and they just need as much personnel as they can get. Do you think we'll have elections? I'm not convinced. I think if there's a, we will either not have elections or more likely we will have them and then they'll be nullified. I don't know. I'm skeptical. I mean, there are some things that run from the standpoint of tradition,

and it would be very hard to just blow off. I mean, God's sake, we had elections around the Civil War. Right. If you can have elections. Like, that is a very hard thing to tell Americans, hey, we're blown up this election for a particular reason. I don't think they would accept it. We had elections.

Oh, I don't know if we, I don't think we would accept it either, but what would that look like besides just grumbling to your barista? Well, what they would do is that they say that they have credible intelligence that the Iranians are going to be attacking polling sites and that have an abundance of caution. That's what we're having to do just to protect the country. It's a matter of national security because the civil war analogy doesn't really work because it was a different age as a different time. It was two armies tearing each other.

Now it's a more asymmetric world and as much as a dirtbag as Abraham Lincoln was, at least he was honest about his tyranny. Well, I'm trying to make a point of saying it's, okay, whatever you think about, about Abraham Lincoln. I'm trying to make the point of saying the country was in the middle of the situation where it was being literally torn apart and brothers, killing brothers, and we still had elections. Well, the union had elections, right? So it would, I mean, it would have been hard to tell the, I mean, in a way, it's very self-serving, right?

Yeah, the spicy part is not voting, right? Yeah. So. Well, I guess the point in the making is, even in that horroring situation for a nation, we still have elections. That's what everybody's going to say. Like we had an election in 1864. You're right.

It's like how do you justify that? I think it's 6040. 6040 effectively no election. Yeah. And that's the most extreme case. And we still have them. It's the point that I'm trying to make. There's nothing.

There's no excuse. They're ever close to that in order as a justification to not have a more to nullify. We encourage people in Iraq to have elections with their purple fingers, right? All right. Last thing, not the least important. Climate change. UN report, you know, they look at the benchmark how much global warming has happened since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The Paris Agreement legally required every signatory, including the United States, to help do things to keep it down under 1.5% Celsius. We will be at over 1.8 within a couple of years, if not sooner. It's unavoidable. Basically, there's going to be all sorts of extreme weather, more glacier melts like we saw in Nepal. We're going to see a lot more islands going underwater.

We're just not going to do anything, right? Because we care more about the money, about the corporate profits. It's not really caring about the money. It's not me. I mean, I don't care. I don't get any corporate profits. but the powers that be, they just want to suck corporate cock, so nothing will be done, right? I mean, but they're not entirely wrong.

We've set up a system that says, profit is king. They believe it, and they're running under that system. And now you're saying, hey, you should also care up with the claim. How do that happen to my profits? Right? Like we've set up and designed a system to do exactly what this is doing. Yeah. Well, that's true.

I mean, this is the problem. This is why I'm a socialist, right? Because, like, you can't reform capitalism. You can't control it. It's a voracious beast. It runs wild. You're riding the tiger. You know, you can't, like, you know, like winnow down its rough edges and make it okay.

We're out of time. We will be back tomorrow at Friday morning, 9 a.m. Eastern time. Thanks so much for joining us and supporting us. Please become a subscriber on YouTube or on Rumble. really appreciate you doing that stay tuned the tmi show is coming up right now with manila chan and here is truly and see you later bye guys