DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Trump’s Fireworks Will Cause Air Pollution Hazard, Secret Parks Documents Show | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• Fireworks for this year’s July Fourth celebration are expected to cause hazardous levels of pollution around the National Mall and “very unhealthy” conditions in central D.C., according to internal National Park Service documents. The show, billed by the Trump administration as the largest pyrotechnic display in history, will include 850,000 fireworks in a roughly 40-minute show expected to start at 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m. Combustion from large fireworks displays generates fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5. These small particles can penetrate deep into the heart and lungs, causing irritation and in some cases asthma attacks and other illnesses.• Russia launches a large-scale missile and drone attack on Ukraine, targeting Kyiv and other regions across the country. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that it carried out a “massive strike using long-range precision air, land, and sea-based weapons and attack drones.” Moscow said the strikes targeted military-industrial facilities, fuel and energy complexes in Ukraine’s capital and the Kyiv region, as well as military airfields in the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions.• Ohio cities have canceled activities, opened cooling centers and made public transit more accessible as the blistering heat wave crawling across the eastern US appeared to be especially intense midweek over an area that stretched from Cincinnati to Cleveland. On Wednesday afternoon, it was 103 in Athens, 102 in Toledo and 113 just north of Columbus. MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JamarlThomasLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504

You are watching The program with Ted Rall and Tomorrow Thomas. It is Thursday, July 2nd, 2026, Housekeeping First. No show tomorrow because July 4th is effectively falling on a Saturday. So it's being celebrated by most people tomorrow, including by us. No TMI tomorrow also. But just to be quirky and weird, DMZ America will be on at 11 a.m. tomorrow. So it's moving from Thursdays to Fridays. Just a reminder of that call to action, if you're just joining us or you're watching live for the first time.

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And you don't have to do anything else. We need 75 unique chatters a month. And we're almost there, but we're not there. So otherwise we've kicked out a whole show that gets to monetized, and it really sucks. So they rumble change the rules, and ultimately the rule change will be good for the show. But right now we're just adjusting to it.

So we'd really appreciate your help. We're here 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, Eastern time. Thanks so much for joining us. Good morning. What's going on, man? You're doing okay? I am doing good. I'm getting, I'm preparing to bake. That is the official term here. Temperature is expected to go up to 99 degrees actually today with a heat index of 108. So it'll be nice and toasty if you kind of sort of thing.

How about it down there in Richmond? How is it? It's going to be high. I don't mind the heat, to be honest. Like I said, when I was a bro, I loved it when it was hot. I got familiar with it. I got used to being able to wear your flip-flops every day of the year. Were you in the summer? Yeah. Well, I mean.

Because that's crazy. I mean, the thing is, though, in certain countries, like near the equator, it was always hot. Like, it was like 90 degrees every day. Like, in Malaysia, it was like 95 every day. Like, every time you get out of bed in the morning. And humid is balls, especially in the middle of the day. Yes, it is brutal. It is brutal, but you got used to it.

You do, yeah, I'm, I agree with you. You do get used to it, and I'm a huge heat pussy. I mean, I just hate weather. If it's over, like, I could really seriously, you know, roll Scandinavian style, like never see the temperature over 40. I'd be totally fine. Oh, that's wild. Don't cry.

Here, it's 57. I am, I'm trying inside. I told you you should just move to move here to Montana. I said that you had a good friend who was here, lots of guns, plenty of things to do. And you said you're like, no, I'm going to stay in New York in the communist utopia. I remember the conversation going quite like that.

But, you know, that's because you were drinking and I was drinking Coke. Yeah, well, I've never had it. It was the first time I'd ever had it. First and the last time I've ever had an alcoholic beverage was in Montana. Oh. I can't believe that. Not actually.

you had alcohol. You keep one of that, Ted. Every one of your kids would be born naked. All right. So today, main topics. And of course, whatever you guys want to talk about, we're always open to. So I was amused by this story about the fireworks display. So Donald Trump's is, of course, the host of the big DC fireworks display this year at the Washington Mall.

They do it every year. normally they use 20,000 munitions, but because it's it's Trump and it has to be bigly. And also, in fairness, it is the 250th. And that is 250. Yeah. It's 250. You got to go big or go home. But anyway, from 20,000 to 850,000 this year.

That's a for a 40-minute show. Usually it goes for about 20 minutes. You know, it goes from 1030 or 11 p.m. to mar. This will be, I guess, on Saturday. And according to documents revealed by the Washington Post issued by the National Park Service, the environmental impact is going to be substantial and very negative. They expect hazardous levels of pollution around the national mall, very unhealthy conditions in central Washington.

And it's going to, there's going to be huge amounts of particulate called PM2.5, which basically causes asthma and all sorts of cardiopulmonary diseases. I have asthma, so I'm sensitive to anything that causes asthma. I mean, it is a rough disease sometimes. And, you know, that's an affliction. You know, I just thought that was amusing. Also, Russia got tired of getting beaten up in the energy sector and causing fuel shortages. Ukrainians have been busting up oil refineries and stuff, and it's cut off Crimea from gas deliveries.

So Russia struck back. They fired a massive strike using long-range precision air, land, and sea-based weapons and attack drones yesterday. So, you know, that war is, you know, still going. I wouldn't say heating up again. It never de-heated. And Ohio, my home state, is getting fucking fried by the massive heat dome across the United States. Triple-digit temperatures in all major Ohio cities from Cincinnati to Dayton to Cleveland,

Columbus to Toledo and Cleveland. So, you know, lots to talk about. And yeah, oh, the new jobs figures are out, by the way. That just happened just as we were preparing to go on the air. The employers added 57,000 new jobs in the month of June. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2%. So I had some thoughts about that, basically. That's a very anemic job growth.

You like to see two to 300,000 a month at least. And so the fact that the unemployment rate did not go up to me indicates that a lot of people are dropping out of the workforce and that the worker participation rate is dropping discouraged workers, people who are just like, fuck all these fake ads on Indeed and LinkedIn. A lot of them are fake. They're bots. They're just like, fuck this. There's no real jobs out there. I'm just not going to look. I'll try to hustle some, some, you know, freelance, whatever.

And so, yeah, I mean, it's not a pretty picture, but I guess it's, from a political standpoint, probably not going to move the needle either way. Let's start with the fireworks. I may surprise you on this. Okay. I don't care. I love fireworks. I love fireworks.

And it's the, it is quarter of a millennia, quarter of a. millennia. I don't think that's mine. We should go balls up. It is, it is a big deal. 250 is a big deal. 250 is a big deal. I mean, granted, we're sure in our age. Long than the deal, right? Go big. Go big. This will be, this is a trumpian occasion. Go bit. You have all, like, meaning this is not like, I've had the biggest crowds in the history of crowds at the inauguration. Okay, it's not that, right? This is something where I can actually get behind whoever is going big on. When Juneteenth happened, I remember I was sitting here. I forget what I was doing. I think I was at desk working. And I heard explosions go off. And then it was another one

and another one. And for nearly 10 minutes, they seemingly emptied everything that they had at their disposal that they've had for 250 years all at once for 10 minutes. They went bananas. There's a black college of Virginia Union. I suspect it was coming from there or somewhere close to there, but in Richmond is predominantly, or very least, heavily black city. So for June Teeth, they showed out. They showed out. My room was literally shaking from the explosions that took place. But again, it's an African-American city, Juneteenth. This is their time to go bananas. And I guess I feel that way about the explosions, firework. Go bananas.

They get over it. The environmental level up. Just don't be around the Washington, D.C. area for a few weeks. It'd be all right. Yeah, I don't even think it's going to take a few weeks. I mean, a day or two, especially if it rains, that'll be it. It'll be. Exactly.

So, yeah, no, I mean, look, I will agree with you about that. My main critique of this fireworks display is, I mean, just generally the way the president has politicized the 250s. which really blows. But the thing that really I think sucks is, I mean, I'm not going to it. I don't live there. But starting so late sucks. I mean, fireworks are such a thing for kids. And like asking parents to drag their kids out at 11 o'clock to midnight to 1 a.m.

I mean, it's like you're not going to a, you know, you're not going hanging out with cocaine whores. I mean, it's a fucking fireworks display. I mean, like, what the fuck are you doing up with that hour? If you're not committing crimes, you shouldn't be awake at that hour. It's like, I don't know. I don't get it. It's a celebration. It's about kids.

To start it now. We'll put it this way. When Richmond was doing the Juneteenth thing, it wasn't for kids. It was an affirmation. It was, it was, um, June teeth isn't for kids, but July 4th is for kids. It's the celebration of independence. Sure. And so you don't also, too.

But I mean, the point is, come on, your parents didn't bring you to fireworks on 4th of July? My mom did. Oh. Oh. I don't know. It's all the, it's the personal lint. I mean, you know, it's like the asthma thing. I mean, also, I got to be honest, I don't care. I stopped caring for fireworks after I went to Afghanistan in 2001 and I came back. And I was so like, after that, I was so high strung every time I heard like a, you know, engine like backfire or anything like that. I was just like, yeah. I can do with that. That's not about the loud noise. It's about the explosions. I see. And so I think I'm over it now. But for years, it was really a problem.

For me, that's, don't like fireworks. Well, I can understand why. I mean, they are bombs. They're just bombs that are at a lower level, right? Yeah. They look pretty as opposed to kill people. No, I get that. I don't care.

They are beautiful and stunning and amazing. They're beautiful. And have you seen? the ones that China be doing with their drones and stuff like that. They're amazing. Awesome. So cool. Yeah.

I guess my thing is it's, it's an affirmation of sorts. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, we're here. We're still here against fate, reality, everything in the universe that wants to kill us. We hear, God damn it. And we're popping off fireworks as a demonstration of such. Yeah, you'll be able to see that shit from space for sure. Tell you all right. I like it.

Open invitation to the two of y'all. Let's plan for it. It's make this happen. Next year, next 4th of July, y'all come here to Calisville. It'll be great. We'll watch a fireworks display. We'll live stream the whole thing. I'll take it up to Lone Pine State Park.

It's a little park. It's right. I'm in the Valley. So by definition, I mean, we're just surrounded, right? By mountains. We'll go up there. And you can see the fireworks from Eureka, which is like right on the Canadian border down to Pulse.

You're just that high up. And we got Flathead Lake. It's the largest freshwater lake. lake west of the Mississippi River. It is a panoramic, unlike anything you'll ever see. And to your point, JT. If you go back, look at what the founders achieved. They went to war against the most powerful nation on earth, which is the British Empire.

One, established independence. Then the country tried to destroy itself like 70 years later, no, through the the Civil War. And we're still here. I'm the first on that said the country's far from perfect, but we're still here. That means something. And that should be celebrated. And the fact that Trump has politicized this and that so many people are just are falling into partisan politics over should we celebrate the fourths, should we not celebrate the fourths?

Should we celebrate the nation? Got to celebrate it. I mean, this is your country. If you cannot celebrate the country that you're born in or you chose to move to, then maybe you should leave. If anything, this celebration, if Trump hadn't politicized it, and that's part of my complaint, it would have been bigger. There would have been more participation. It would have been bipartisan. Liberals and Democrats, progressives would have been into it also.

That's part of, it's smaller than it should be because of Trump. It doesn't Obama, do you think it would have been as politicized? No. Like meaning if Republicans, if it was Obama, would Republicans be... Well, Republicans might have worked themselves into a lather being pissed off because it was Obama. But Obama would not have, you know... Politicized it, agreed. Wouldn't have politicized it the way that Trump did.

I mean, Trump literally took it away from the National Parks Service, you know, organization that's set up to do this, right? It's like his thing is called Freedom 250. The original thing was called American. America 250 was set up before he even his first term. They were all getting prepared. This was another grift for him. Like they, you know, they've been using this to line their pockets in the Trump family. So it's all, you know, this is, he politicized it on purpose. It might have become politicized under Obama, but I don't think it would have been intentional. Agreed. I don't think Obama would have been politicized. I mean, Obama's. I don't like Obama, but I mean, I just don't think that

would have happened. No, agree. Yeah, this is not a Robert Obama. It was trying to put it in a different context. No, I appreciate it person. Like, meaning is it the office? Like, is it, is it a politics or such that any particular political figure would have been political? Because we have a weird, it's not weird, but we have a, if we had a king, the king would do this. Yeah. Because the king would be apolitical. The king will be above it all. You want to bring people. And that is, weirdly enough, a weakness in our system. I think like there is no figurehead. There is nobody above it all in this case.

And this is not Jamal calling for a king. It's not that. No. If there was a figure that is above the political space that doesn't get involved in politics, but is representative of the nation. Maybe that's what I'm talking about. Like you could say the king of England

is the representative of England, even though technically, okay, spiritually, he has no political power. Meaning if he tried to assert that power, they would take the power away from him immediately in the parliament, right? It's the very fact that the king sits there above it all is the reason why the king can remain a king in the UK.

I hope that makes sense. Yeah. I'm saying if there was a 250th anniversary of the UK, and I know the UK is thousands of years old or over a thousand years old, but if there was 250th anniversary, the king would do it. Not the political space. Because the political space, by definition, creates division. We don't have a cohesive element in this country,

and it's to a detriment. I hope that makes sense. This is that uncouth king. I think it's totally clear to me anyway. And I'm probably the dumbest person watching right now. I wanted to ask maybe Robbie would be interested in on this too. I mean, I was giving some thought to, you know, how much of an achievement really was the American Revolution?

And I think we tend to overblow it. You know, I think the United States was, I mean, sorry, Great Britain was far more interested in holding on to its other colonies than they were to us. And they kind of half-assed their attempt to suppress the revolution. I mean, they didn't really unleash the full strength of the empire against us, militarily or otherwise. And it was kind of like they were willing to fight back and try to hold on to it,

but they didn't go tooth and nail. It wasn't existential for them. They cared about the Caribbean colonies a lot more, because that's where the money was coming from, from the sugar plantations and the slave trade and all that. They cared about the colonies, but it wasn't like the end of the world in 1781 when Cornwallis got borked.

I kind of think we tend to pat ourselves on the back a lot about how much of a military achievement this was to defeat Great Britain. I mean, oh, go ahead, Robbie. Go ahead, J.T. No, no, go ahead. I think people over-emphasize the military achievement, but they de-emphasize the social and political achievement. So here's what I mean by that. The United States is the first nation on earth founded imperfectly, but founded with the promise that everyone had a true freedom, a freedom of speech and expression.

That did not exist anywhere else. and most of the world, it still does not exist. Most places, their speech codes, you go to Germany and you say the wrong thing, or if you go to Great Britain and you post an offensive Facebook post, you've got a prison. The freedom of speech is something that is uniquely American.

That's something we should celebrate more than anything else. The freedom of religion, the freedom of conscience. That's huge. I mean, before the American Revolution, for example. However, you know, they lifted that shit from France, right? I mean, because we didn't have that in the Articles of Confederation. That's only later. That's true. But what I'm saying is that would have never happened without the victory that was achieved. And also the articles of the Federation. France is the first country that

in China. That's what he's trying to tell you, Robbie. It's France that we pull that from Libertide and what is it. I forget the exact phrase. Yeah, I get that. But the problem is that, France is never able to encode it. Like even now, I mean, there are hate speech laws in France. Go there and say something as offensive. So what happens to you? Well, I mean, don't throw you in prison. Here, I hear, you know, like,

Germany where like, you know, like Nazi, like mentioning Nazism is, is banned officially. Well, not as bad is still bad, Ted. But you're right. You're right. That's the point that I'm making. No, it shouldn't. It's true. You know, and there are a lot of places, hell, even to this day.

If you're, if you live in an Islamic country and you decide to say, you know, go peon in the Quran, what's going to happen to you? Probably going to get executed. Or you're going to say, I'm going to convert to my religion. You're going to get put down. Here the United States. On the country. Like not you, Gordon, let's say.

But that's the point that I'm making is I hear the United States, you have the freedom of conscience. You are able to say what you is that you want to say. You're able to expounce those beliefs. Could there be a social cost? Yeah, absolutely. But it's not coming down from behind by the state. But that's an achievement.

But I guess my point is that, like, getting back to it, like where this is about the American Revolution, which, by the way, from a Marxist standpoint, is not a revolution because it did not replace one class of people with another class of people as elites. The elites remain the same. If you were rich before, 1775, you were rich after 1781. If you were poor before, you were poor after. You know, I mean, that's, it's a changeover at which it leaves. And it's also not a, it's, and the Brits were kind of like, it's kind of like us in Afghanistan. We could have won. We just didn't have the political will. It just wasn't worth it. And that's how it was for the Brits. We weren't worth doing what it took to hold on to the colonies. But that's the issue of empire in general, right?

I mean, like, France is right there. And they just had the seven-year war with them like eight years before. I mean, could they afford to fight another major European war? The answer is no. Yeah, I agree. Robbins. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's true. I mean, these guys, yeah, these guys were at war for God knows how long. I mean, that's the issue of empire in general, right? I mean, like the U.S. is fighting Iran, but the U.S. is not raising a million men

military. Because we don't need to win. Yeah, that's what I mean. First, I'm at the wall, and we hope that it went, we hope, and if it sticks, great, and if not, who cares? Yeah, we got our asses kicked pretty much, what, Vietnam, Somalia, you know. See, I think this is the thing of

empires. Like, they don't Iraq. It's not, existential for us. And so it's a war of choice. And the same thing with Britain. I don't think losing America was existential, but they didn't want to lose it. You could tell because they weren't pissed off about it, right? Like, you know, they made nice with us right after the revolution. I mean, the war of 1812. Yeah, but before that, which is funny, right? Like, I mean, the, I mean, it was kind of weird because we basically kicked our French allies to the curb, like, right away. Like, hey, thank you.

a lot. Oh, sorry it caused a whole tank to your economy and caused a revolution over there. Are bad. Anyway, hello, old British friends. We speak the same language. We love you. And we didn't care about your investments or anything. And the colonies were just Brits. Even then they were just Brits. They were. Like, it wasn't. Yes, they might have called themselves Americans. Fair enough. But they were Brits. They were British. And in fairness, I mean, the U.S. Navy was like, the Baham-Rashard and two Whalers. I mean, What was a fledging United States going to do? It was broke. The argument was good.

Right on their French buddies. I mean, the ultimate counterweight to Britain was always the French. I know, but in 1812, we could have as easily went to war with France than Britain. Well, look at the XYZ affair. We were effectively at war with the French. I mean, they were pressing and marrying a sailors. So let's not forget that back. No, nations, here's the thing that people need to understand.

And J-Tam, I know you'll get me on this. Well, wait, wait. The Brits were press-ganging American sailors. Both war. Basically, they were trying to have a block eight. And they were at war with Napoleon. Yeah, both were. Yeah.

It's so wow, which is why we could have ended up in war with both. But I'm sorry. Go ahead, Rob. Nations don't have friends. They have interests. And that's something that people need to understand. John Mearsheimer, great book. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics.

If you've never read it, please read it. Fascinating book. nations will work in their interests even if that means that they're going to take an irrational act in order to maintain their survival. The United States back then was a fledgling nation. It was more like a collection of Greek city states, especially under the articles of confederation. There was no strong central government. It was never supposed to be. Like, if the founders saw what we have now, they'd be calling for a civil war like right now.

Now, that's a statement of fact. That's why we have states, not provinces. that's why states were responsible for their own military defense. That's why states actually issued their own money. It was never supposed to be what we have now, which is a strong centralized nation state. It was supposed to be a federal union of sovereign states. Probably you're right.

But if we would this country as big as it was, and consider it size in the context of a pre-automotive society, right, where, you know, a society where during the war of 1812, communications are so bad that Andrew Jackson has to go, you know, win the Battle of New Orleans without even knowing that the peace treaty had already been signed because of the communications were so poor. Would it have been possible for a country this size to be manageable if it wasn't centralized and more federalized than, you know, sort of a loose article of confederation, a loose confederacy? I think it would work. I thought it would have worked better. I think that's fundamentally one of the reasons why the Roman Empire collapsed is that they tried that they tried too hard. They tried too hard with that clenched fist and all the sand ran out. The best thing to do is people are going to work in their best interests. And what's your best interest? A collective defense and a stable economy. Those are the two things at the end of the day really matter more than anything else. That's what that's what the central government should, for, for,

really any nation in my opinion should strive to do and if you do that is in the interest of the several states to work together but you got to remember during the war of 1812 new england threatened the cussession the south is all about war with the brits it was new england that wasn't and they took it so far like they actually voted on leaving the union so this is not a radical concept people work their interests and so that's all the reasons why no government look at you trump should declare war unilaterally. That's why it must go through the Congress to reflect the will of the people. You've got to make your case first. So you're able to make your case. People are we would have become a superpower, you know, a global hajima, not that I think we should be. That would be a good

thing, Ted. That would have been a good thing. We never should have been. I mean, look at our geography. We have two huge oceans on either side of us. Jeff Canada to the north, and Mexico to the south. What threat do we have? Unless we bring it here. Right, none. We have none now. Why do we need an army more than 200,000 men? Well, no, no, no. You're arguing that from now.

No, I'm arguing, I'm arguing up from like the point of from 1860, because logistics is still a thing. Only a full situation. We had the front of Mexico was either a French or a Spanish colony, right? Right. That's what I mean. You're arguing this from now. And we're back in time.

France and Spain were great powers in the United States. 19th century. Yes. And they would have preyed upon the United States. Like, I mean, keep in mind, part of the reason that we were at odds with France and Britain is because we believe that they were working with the Native Americans against. And Canada was a British colony. Yeah, and Canada was a British colony.

We even talked about attacking Canada, if I'm not mistaken, but they pushed this back. We failed. Oh, we didn't talk about it. Yeah, that's what I mean. We invaded twice. So we had enemies. The point that Ted is making is we had enemies. It wasn't like the strong central.

strong central. Most of our shipping at the time were boat, were, um, were mercenaries, not mercenaries were boats that were, uh, there's a name for it. Basically, treating goods, services that turned into military when the privateers, privateers, I think that's the name of it. And CIV, they call the profiteers, but basically people who were merchants who turned into military when the government needed. We were a much weaker place. I mean, the centralized, But also look at what this country became powerful due to something that Robbie, you hate the federal income tax. You know, it's like when, you know, Theodore Roosevelt decided, hey, we're going to make this, you know, we're going to build an empire here.

Just like the European countries. And the country was, you know, couldn't afford that. And basically they had to go where the money was. Tariffs were not bringing in enough money. And income tax changed. it was a game changer. It brought money into federal coffers. It allowed them to raise the army that became the huge army in World War I. And we were off to the imperial races. And how's that worked out for the American people? It's been a complete disaster.

Like shit, but that's not my point. And the point is also, it was Wilson that did that. What Roosevelt did, Teddy, not Franklin. He had the Great White Fleet, had no, circle about the globe with the with the objective of keeping trade range of trade lanes open that was the point speak softly but carry a big stick i'm all about commerce i'm all against imperialism and that's the point i'm trying to make it also you got to remember the united states was still a was still a small r republican nation when we shit kicked mexico so i mean that that is something that that happened i mean we took mexico city with 12 000 men so who could never have held it didn't need to hold it become what we needed it was a raid yeah um i guess the point that they they marched across

mexico and took the capital it wasn't a raid that was a that was a class a bitch slap there's a raid it's like do little's rape it's a raid you if you if you if you if you traips in break some things and leave that's a raid yeah that's not you taking the capital what wasn't the well we do take the capital stolewall jackson and actually attended Mass in Mexico's National Cathedral. He was an artillery officer at the time. I guess so if they gave it back, then it's not keep, okay,

this is quibbling over. I mean, you didn't conquer Mexico. That's not the point of that making. I'm saying that the objective for Polk War. We captured Mexico City, yeah. I mean, the point of Polk's war is American blood on American soil. And it's a mountainous country too. And

what you all talk about says that the United States is too we got that time to effectively deal with an enemy. We clearly, that clearly was not true. We've obviously dealt with an enemy. Well, not any random enemy. I'm talking about we were dealing with empires at that point. Like, meaning you're talking about Spain and Britain and France and all of these guys are engaged in their own wars, but all of these guys have colonies in various parts of either Canada, the U.S., Mexico, etc.

Like, it's not, let me actually this. If the European Union were individual countries. individual states. What do you think the U.S. would do in order to gain clout into Europe? They would buy off individual states to play one against the other. Sure. Saying without a central government. And this is not making an argument for this kind of imperialistic overreach or anything like that. But there is something to be said about centralization to not allow larger countries to do that, which is what they would probably do to us. Hey, Virginia, you're pretty sexy.

Well, they would try to be. But here's the thing, though. The United States, though, was fundamentally founded on the principle of nationalism. And I cannot think of a stronger political force than nationalism in the system. Yeah. If there is one, I can't think of what it is. And up to like 10 minutes ago, people were legitimately proud to be an American. Now, what that means, who knows?

So if you ask somebody now, what's an American. They're like molder. They want to believe. Yeah, for sure. I'm like molder. I want to believe. I mean, you got to remember, like the back of the. you know, back in the 1800s, early 1900s, probably arguably up to like 1950,

if you burn an American flag, odds are that you were going to get fed your teeth for breakfast. That's not the case anymore. But back then, though, it was. And so I think it would have been harder for other powers to play a state against a country. Now, it would be easier to kind of what happened in 1860 for the system just simply fall apart and fail. Right. That's a different argument. But from outside forces,

it feels a little bit like 1857 right now. But it's just like, I think Iran is a good look at this. The Iranian government's incredibly unpopular until now. Yeah, now. I mean, even if you've seen the... Because of a foreign intervention. I mean, like, literally, there's like, you know,

the, the, the, it had, we united the Iranians. Yeah, now we have like women, not in hijab. We have lefties, communist, socialist, rallying behind the government. You know, we have strengthened them. We are idiots. Part of the reason that we strengthened them, though,

is because many of the younger people didn't live during the revolution. And so when the government's making this argument, like, dude, it's not entirely us. Yeah, we have an ex-a-hress. The big, bad Americans, if they get a hold of us again, they'll fuck us again. Yes.

And basically, we have legitimized the argument that the government was making. it's the Americans. Don't blame us for this. And now that's clearly true. That's clearly true. It's that part, right? It's like we have been telling you young kids.

If we invade again, it's going to remind all the people who are like bummed out by the long lines at the grocery store that it's like, oh, there's bigger issues. Like when we come here, when we go back to Cuba and take it over, whether it's through economic hegemony or military hegemony, we're going to fuck them and rape them that we did under. same way we did under Batista. Yeah. And they're going to find that out. I mean, the old people know. The old people know. The young people don't, but they know now.

No, they do. That's the point, right? We got comments. We got a lot of comments. Oh, let's be comments. We feel many. Okay, so, guys, we're going to race through these. Big rigs table team.

Come on, Ted. Friday is not a holiday, bro. Well, when the holiday falls on a weekend, we either take it on a Friday or on a Monday. And this year, it's clear that Americans are taking it, on Monday, right? I mean, on Friday, but anyway, because I think it would if it fell on Sunday, we'd take it on Monday, right? Isn't that kind of how it works? All right. Chopra, hello, Ted. You could join the 5 to 6 percent of the Hispanic population and the less than 2%

of the other demographics in Kalispell, Montana. Robbie inviting another out-of-state immigrant would be interesting. I am an American. All right, Apat Testoni. How many 850,000 fireworks will affect my dog? Probably the dog will not be happy. Pugs and bubs. You will not be happy. Who lives in Brooklyn who takes care of straight cat populations. What, as opposed to gay cat populations?

I'm concerned for street kitties. Oh, street cat is probably what they meant to write. I'm concerned for, because there's like street cats. I didn't know you could tell a cat, sexual orientation. I'm concerned for veterans and PTSD. every July 4th, any holidays it features fireworks. No, it is an issue. I mean, for sure.

Jack Phil, I agree with Jamarle, that pollution story is a big nothing burger. How many rounds of fireworks are being blown off in Manhattan? Why there's no story covering that? Because the number's a lot less. But Manchild, thanks for the dollar. For a country that has shit the bed is so hard after your 250 years, there's not really much to celebrate.

I celebrate that idea. Like, look, I've said, before, I'm a patriot. Like, I am, I don't like what the government is doing. And it behooves me to point out that they are fucking up. As the guy said, they're shitting the bit and they've done so for a very long time. Agreed. But I'm an American. I mean, like, my, like, identify with this country. Anyway, if I went to Africa right now, I would still be seen as an American with the same value set and everything else. Sure. I'm of the Americans. It's just, it's what it is. I don't, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Jim Ramron.

R. J. Ramrod, I have an even better take. If you can't celebrate the country we're born, instead of leaving, you should stay and fight to change it into a country, you can actually be proud of. Well, that's been my take in my entire life. Agree. Just filming, really. I'll agree with Robbie on one thing. If an immigrant is upset over a flag or over the culture of a country,

off back to your own country. Yeah. If you think... The most patriotic people are immigrants. Just, that's true. Just filming, really. If you think America is a racist country, how about go to a country with majority, black people, I have not been to any, like, African-

I've been to a majority of black country, I've been to Kenya. I mean, like, I didn't, oh, okay, that's black person saying I don't see racism in Kenya when everybody's black. And there's no way for me evaluate that. Japan is crazy racist. I mean, like-

See, I had no issue in Japan. But maybe that's the rub though. When you go somewhere as a black American, you're just in America. So, course, there are people. Hey, Ted, how are U.S. Turkmen relations? that's Turkmenistan. I feel like Trump and Gurbunguli would get along great. So the relationship is solid enough.

Turkmenistan officially, going back to Niazov and Turkmenbashi, has a policy of neutrality. They're right on the border with Iran. They're a former Soviet Republic. They also hosted a U.S. military base. They basically have had a foreign policy of like, hey, we're just in the middle here. and we know we so we don't want to, you know, really just be part of one polarity. So they're welcome to, you know, they talk to all comers, including all the great powers, including China, which has been kind of, Turkmenistan is probably the most extremely neutral country in Central Asia. So I would say they certainly get along with the U.S., but it's not like they're butt buddies.

Captain Obvious, thanks for the Fiver, Robbie's never heard of cancel culture or the Red Scare. Well, he's certainly heard of both. Let's see. The annual day 36, to answer Robbie's question, so you can drive to Walmart, $5. I don't know what the question was. Do you remember? I don't have any question at all. I don't know.

Maybe freedom of travel. I don't know. I do think it's cool that you can, I think this is changing, but that you could drive all over this huge country. And not even hit a stoplight, much less a checkpoint. I would rather have a train. I'm sorry, I would rather have a train. I would rather have trains. In a lot of countries, the train stops at various provincial borders for checkpoints and stuff.

Fair enough. I accept that because those are different countries. Whereas these are states. No, no, no, I mean, like, within the state. Like, inside, like, I have a friend. He's Jewish. He was traveling in Germany. He woke up in the middle of the night.

And literally, there was a German cop, like, knocking on his cabin, like, Papillas! And like he looks out the window and it was like three in the morning and he said it was like, D-Station is to Dachau, Dachau. He was like, uh, fair enough. They do come in and ask for your papers. But it's put it this way when I was in, if I'm in Europe right now, if I'm in, let's say Europe, I can get around far easier than I came back in the States.

And the reason why I say that is beforehand I drove. Now I don't drive because I don't necessarily wouldn't hit anybody. a bad ass like after the blindness thing. It is a challenge to be in America. And if you can't drive, you are screwed. You're just screwed. Like everything, it costs more. So it was me paying $5 for a tram, let's say if I'm in D.C. or from in New York. Okay, well, if I'm in Richmond, there is no tram. There is no train. There's only cars, which means you're going to have to pay $20, $20, $30 for Uber to go one way and another $30 to get back, which puts a $60 tax pretty much on anything that you do and transport.

Okay, that's outrageous. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the things that, Ted, you've heard me gruff about this. Why do you not have a high-speed rail? Yes. From Calispell, Montana to New York City. There ought to be. There should be, but we're too busy.

I mean, I've been to Richmond, cool city. And the way it's laid out is perfect for streetcars. It would be so good to have like a tram system like they have in Portland. But we used to have one. Oh, I'm sure. All major cities did. Yeah.

Like where I grew up, Dayton had trolleys. There were still like one line when I was a kid left. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when I was younger, there was a line also. I don't remember when they got rid of it. But we used to have trolleys. I guess my point is buses suck.

Yeah, buses. I love trams. I used to love trams when I was abroad or even in New York. where you can go to the subway, go from point A to point B, you don't have to rent a car or taxi because those are going to be much more expensive, but the tram pretty much get you everywhere. This country had so many trains, right? Like if you, like wherever you live in the United States,

if you look up a map, go online and look at like an old-timey, like late 1800s railway map of where you live, you're going to be shocked. There was like a train that probably stopped three miles away from your house, even if he lived in the country. They were everywhere, even in the countryside. Here in Calisville, in 1900, I was looking at an old map from when the town was first founded. Yeah.

And we had a Chinatown. There was a railroad going right through. I mean, that Center Street, that road that me and you went on to him when we walked to the bookstore. Yeah. That's where the railroad used to be. We saw the grain silos from where they would load the grain. And that was where Chinatown used to be. And it's just.

Yeah, it's crazy. It was railroad workers, right? I mean, yeah, yeah, they were. Yeah, there were the workers. And it's just what's insane is that our government has decided that instead of providing butter, it was going to provide bullets. Well, bullets don't do anything for the people to live here. And people need to understand that a government can either give you bullets or it can give you butter. It cannot give you both.

And butter is one thing that everyone should want to have. By the way, this is hilarious. Captain, obvious. thanks for the $5. And the hilarious question, which actually should be considered seriously, is Robbie selling his signature white t-shirts in the merch shop? I 100% can.

I will do that. It'll be the dirty candy machine in Tokyo. Yeah. Like guaranteed, like unwashed Robbie worn. Like, you know, like when you visit your congressman, you can get a flag that flew like 10 minutes over the Capitol? And this flag flew over the United States Capitol at this time on this day. Robbie, you could be like, you know, worn on D program Thursday, July 2nd, 2026.

Folded up by his hot wife. It's like those women who sell their underwear. I was like, I've worn these for five days straight. Robbie, it signs this. Be careful, though. You're going to have all the ladies and some dudes sniffing around, literally. I have never been on a train, never. Really?

Never have. I love trains. That's, I prefer trains than plants. It's got to be fixed. That's got to be addressed. Yeah. Well, I mean, if we could get a rail line, Ted, between Calispell to New York, I got a train and come visit you. It'd be great to have one going from Richmond to California.

There is one. The entire country should be connected, not just by highway, but not really. No, the interstate. is honestly one of the modern marvels of the world. If you're thinking about what it is, what it does. But we should have the equivalent of that for rail. Agreed. Think about how much more efficient it would be in every way, shape, and form.

And so we have Amtrak. It's like, why. I mean, I'm not bitching about the highway. I think the highway system is a marvel. Oh, no. Well, we need both. We should have both. world country country yeah by some say we should have both it shouldn't be one of the other you

should give us both we can do this city on the field god damn i mean i mean i mean no jt if if we can go to the freaking moon why can i take a train high speed rail yes yeah i mean why can i why can you why can you take a train from seattle to boston agreed agreed it's regret agreed agree totally um i mean god damn moon why can't we build a high speed rail agree yeah no and to me it's a national security issue i mean it's essential infrastructure every every advanced country has it if we're going to be an advanced country we need to have it um okay we should probably talk about the heat wave um since we're still on domestic politics and we talk a little bit about russia ukraine so the weather who cares they can't change it it's going to happen no first of all we we are

changing the weather so we know we can change the weather. But yeah, right now the 250 million people are going into the 4th of July weekend under major heat advisories. I mean, Americans are going to and will continue to die from this. Every year is always like the hottest year ever. So, I mean, when do we wake the fuck up and start to, I mean, we can't put the genie back in the bottle, right? We can't do deindustrialization. Even if we stopped, you know, we stopped the internal combustion engine, we could, you know, we can't go back. The, the thermote energy is in the atmosphere.

The climate's going to keep heating up. But there's so much shit we could do. Like, for example, no, we shouldn't be selling cars that have like, you know, that get 10 miles to the gallon. That should be illegal. You know, we shouldn't be, we shouldn't allow blacktop all. All, you new roads should be paved with white top. We should be planting trees and plants all over the place in order to greenify. We should be limiting the population of cities that are dependent on water from drought zones like the Colorado River zone. We shouldn't be like, oh, let's keep growing Phoenix. That's a great idea. I mean, there's a lot of shit we should be doing and we're not doing anything. Agreed. I mean, but if you remember Donald Trump's climate thing, I believe the

was in his first term was that the temperature was going to reach, I think he said, like 10 degrees above normal baseline or something like that. And I think if I'm not mistaken, they were making the argument that when the Arctic melts, that would allow gas exploration in the Arctic. It was something like that. Meaning their point of view is we accept this is probably true, but we don't care. That's their point of view, like the 50-year plan or something like that. Look, I agree with you. I mean, if I was the president, President Thomas would have, would say, all right, we are starting a beautification office for the U.S. because we care about this country so much. We love it. It's a 250th anniversary. So we in this office will create a new branch of the government called beautification where we were hired.

That reminds me of Lady Bird Johnson, right? She was, she ran a beautification project. I mean, it's hard for people who are not as old as I am because they don't know. But like, it used to be like when you drove on interstates and state routes across this country, there were billboards everywhere. And it was kind of cool of Americana, like, you know, two miles ahead, like Howard Johnson's or, you know, Red Roof Inn or whatever. But like, you know, and now you don't need it because obviously your phone will tell you like where Howard Johnson's if one still is. But like she she hated the billboards. And she was like, we should see trees. We should see farmland.

And so she had this huge project to get rid of the billboards. And it worked. Yeah, I would go further. I mean, I would do things like, as you said, plant trees. Okay, well, they may not be a fiscal incentive for people to plant trees, hence government. I would pay Americans to do that particularly job. I would pay to bill things like to cut the cost of food. So say, for example, houses that are, for the most part, autonomous that taking like old factories, like we're doing in Richmond, like we have a lot of factories in Richmond and they've taken them and made them into apartments.

Okay, what if you made them into greeneries where their food is grown, where you can grow plants and those type of things? So you could do it for basically inexpensively, especially if you build it where it's basically more so autonomous. Or if you want, you can hire people to do it. I mean, that's basically all it is, right? you're just finding a reason to hire people. And it's just so happened to have a good reason to do so in a sense of, okay, we can do things in the country itself that needs to be done that nobody is effectively going to do. I would, that would be one of the first main things,

especially if we're talking about full employment and making sure that anybody who wants a job can get a job. Like you, CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps. Yes, yes. I love those three LR agencies. Well, because I think you and I would make the argument that if any, wants a job, they should be able to get a job. 100%. And if the government can basically guarantee employment, okay, I know people are going to quibble

with the guarantee part. But if you create an entire edifice of just, we just need people to do shit that is productive. And there's a lot of shit that would like, should is cool. But there's no like market for. Exactly. Hence government. For example, Sherwood Anderson, my favorite author. who wrote Warnensburg, Ohio.

During the Depression, he was like a lot of other authors out of work. The WPA paid him to basically do a book project called Hometown. He loved Small Town America. He was famous for writing about it. So they sent him all over the country during the Depression to photograph the end of mainstream life. Because it was really like with the automobile already challenged, right? So the general stores and all that stuff in, typical mainstream USA, Main Street USA all over the country.

And he documented that. That book's amazing. It's an amazing, like, there's nothing else like it. It's like, I mean, if you're a sociologist, you want to know what America felt like in the 30s, there's no better place. That book would have never, he couldn't have told, like, Simon and Schuster, hey, I want to publish this book, they wouldn't have given a shit. But I'm glad the book exists.

Yeah. And I guess my feeling is there's a lot of stuff that doesn't. doesn't necessarily have a fiscal incentive. I mean, that's kind of on some level, the point of government. Yeah, defense. Obviously, the military is a beating heart of a nation. You can't have a country without a military.

No. But the second part of that is provide for the well-being of the citizenry itself. And I would argue that part of that is also ensuring the integrity of the country in an economic beautification sense, et cetera, et cetera. There are things that we would be benefited from that we could have an office for, We just don't think of those terms.

I would rather have a work program like y'all are talking about than a UBI because people need something to do, otherwise to go crazy. And we have stuff that needs to get done. Yeah. I mean, this country, I mean, that high speed rail is not going to build itself. No, I agree. And as a righty, I mean, I think y'all are converting me because I agree with everything you all just said. Are we? Welcome, comrade.

Let me think about it. I mean, I mean, think about it. I mean, the United States, we have USA, we have all these other programs all around the world, helping these other countries just develop, right? And then we end up importing their populations anyways. What's the point of even doing that over there? Just do it here. Why just take care of the home folks here?

I'm serious. I mean, think about what I just said. Like, you're talking about, no, in Richmond, right? You know, with all those old factories and things. I mean, go all through the Rust Belt, go through any small town that's just, that's dying. You have all these dilapidated buildings. If people want work, we could know, we could cut off, say, financial aid to Bangladesh. Sure. Take care of our people here. Yeah. Which should happen. That's a nationalist approach. You know, fix your own roof. Just the other thing. I was thinking about you, um,

as I often do. Good ways or bad ways? It was about the only in the worst possible ways. Good. It was talking about the Supreme Court decision revoking special protected status for the Haitians and Somalis. A lot of the coverage was about 30% of the Haitians work in nursing homes. And like how if they're kicked out, there won't be anyone to work at these nursing homes.

Well, my mom died in one of those nursing homes. And I can tell you, by the way, it was a pretty good one as far as they went. But they're all, and hers was no exception, totally understaffed. Like there's nobody there. There's like nobody at the front desk. You can walk right in. There's no, there's like when you need someone like, hey, my mom needs help. You know, good luck.

It's not, you got to go find someone. This is an example, right? Nursing homes need employees. So, okay, yeah, these are private entrepreneurs. And they really shouldn't be. But even within a private enterprise, I think there could be government programs that say, we are going, we the U.S. You might work at this private nursing home, but you're a U.S. government employee.

You work here at this. We've assigned you to this nursing home. Those people, those facilities in an aging population, which we have now with the boomers, you know, boomers are well into old age. They, you know, they, they, they, they, they, we need more nursing home attention. I mean, why are we importing Haitians to do shit that we could do when we have massive unemployment here? I just finished. It's nurses in general.

Like I could tell you, at the hospital, they were literally giving like $5,000 bonuses to get nurses. And it was mainly because they just didn't have enough. Many of them were foreigners. Many of them were from other countries. They just didn't have money. And I know lots of people who want to study and become RNs, and they can't afford it. Right. There's no, they can't afford the tuition.

I mean, that's ridiculous. I mean, there shouldn't be tuition. No, back when I worked at the hospital, one of the things that I brought up was that there should be an apprenticeship program. So, there's nothing better than on-to-job training. You go in, you go through, you get trained, then you take a certification test. Why you have to go to college for two years to do this? You don't, especially if you're doing the job every single day in the emergency room. That's what you do.

That's how, that's why it used to be done. And one of the things, again, But then the college industrial complex doesn't collect their tuition lucre. Oh, fuck them. Seriously. What? Fuck them. Why do you need them?

Sir, that's the prophet that you're talking about. Am I, that's our high opinion? That's our God. Am I stuttering? Did I stutter? Was I unclear? I'm just shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

No, I'm serious. You know, we talked about this before. If you're going to have universal health care, you've got to have it. That means that the health care system. should be managed by the government, by definition it would be. So why can't you have the National Guard actually going in and helping fill these roles? Why do you have to import a million people from around the world to go do jobs that Americans supposedly won't do?

No, they're going to do it for free. That's the difference. If you take it by the profit model. And they would do it. And you said to pay it would. Of course. That's the whole point. Well, here's the other thing, too.

Why the fuck should American employers have access to the, why the fuck should American employers have access to the entire global marketplace of potential employees, but American workers don't have access to the entire world of global employers. It's a wild balance between labor and management. The grocery store, my son works out right across the street. You've been there. They've got five people working there on H-1B visas. Because there's no one else here in Calisville who's able to be a bag boy.

Yeah, ridiculous. You want to know why I'm such a hard. ask us as immigration is because of stuff like that. It screws the American word. I agree with you on that. You are right? I mean, look, I agree with you when the Trump argument came up about H1B1 visas. And it's like, why are we doing this?

You had two foreigners, Elon Musk and I forget the other guy's name who were like, no, H1B1 visas are fantastic. Bivik from Ramoswami. I used to. I like that guy. I like to. Trump uses. Trump hires H1B visa people at his resource. Yeah.

Vivik blocked me on. about immigration for every speech. It blocked me on X because I trolled him so hard. Guys, it's 10.01. I got to go hit TMI. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Well, Robbie, I'm going to see you soon. Have a great weekend, JT.

See you Monday. Good one, guys. Be safe, okay. I'll be happy for it. Thank you. Bye.