DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Two More Weeks | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• As we predicted, Trump TACOed again in the final hour, extending last night’s deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and agreeing to a ceasefire for another two weeks to allow the U.S. and Iran to hash out an end to the U.S.-Israeli War Against Iran. Israel, with a history of scuttling ceasefires, says it will continue to invade and bomb Lebanon, and is reported to have attacked an oil refinery on the country’s Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf.• Sticking points include: the US demanding zero uranium enrichment on Iranian soil with full dismantlement of capabilities and stockpiles versus Iran's insistence on its sovereign right to enrich; Iran seeking immediate full lifting of all US sanctions and asset releases versus the US offering only phased relief tied to verifiable compliance; disputes over Iranian control versus unrestricted access through the Strait of Hormuz; the US pushing limits on Iran's ballistic missiles and an end to support for regional proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis versus Iran's refusal to negotiate these defensive elements; and Iran's demands for US non-aggression pledges, possible troop withdrawal, reparations, and a binding UN resolution.• Gulf countries are being forced to re-evaluate their relationships with Israel, Iran and the United States — their main security guarantor — now that the war has exposed the vulnerability of their oil fields, water desalination plants, hotels and airports.• ICE shot another man, Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, in Patterson, 80 miles east of San Jose. ICE claimed Hernandez is a member of the Los Angeles 18th Street gang and was wanted for questioning in El Salvador related to a murder. In a video, three ICE agents were seen flanking a black sedan pinned between two other vehicles – respectively at its front and back – with flashing police lights. As the officers reached into the vehicle, the black sedan reversed with its right passenger door open. That door collided with the car behind it. The agents had their weapons drawn as the car reversed.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-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

look at us. We're still here and not dead. Good morning. It's your watching D program with Ted Rall and Jamaral Thomas. It's Wednesday, April 8th. Good morning, Jamar. How you doing man? You're doing okay? Well, yeah. I mean, look, there was a deadline last night that Trump had set for Iran to reopen the Strait of Ormuz. Otherwise, he said he was going to destroy their entire civilization to the point where people in Tehran were literally preparing. them stealing themselves for the possibility of a nuclear attack. I literally was thinking when I talked to Trent about the thumbnail last night. Well, this will be the thumbnail unless there's a nukeing overnight, in which case we'll revisit in the morning if we're still here. So I guess we,

once again, Trump has kicked the can down the road. He announced all of this in the 6 o'clock hour for an 8 o'clock deadline on the East Coast. And, you know, here we are. The two, basically, the terms are that negotiations on the ceasefire will continue towards a permanent solution to the war. The Strait of Ormuz reopens. A couple of ships have already passed through, one flagged by Greece. Right.

There's no details to be worked out in terms of what this looks like in the future. The U.S. and Iran's are to stop firing at each other. Israel has said we're not, we continue to have the right to continue to bomb Hezbollah in Lebanon, and they're continuing to do that. There's been some reports, some scattered reports of some fire, which always kind of happens in the initial days of a ceasefire, especially because command and control in Iran has been widely disrupted by internet outages and so on. So you can see how not all the commanders on the ground necessarily know what's going on yet.

But they'll be informed. But yeah, we have a lot to talk about this morning. We'll talk about what the sticking points are between the two sides. The new status of the Gulf countries, you know, news slash you guys are now Iran's bitch. And ICE just shot another dude this time in the Central Valley in California. We'll talk about what that looks like. It looks like once again, ICE hasn't been completely honest about their story.

As usual, the video is kind of telling a different story from what Todd Blanche had to say. So with all that, please like, follow and share the show. As usual, we will answer your questions throughout the program, throughout the 9 o'clock a.m. live show between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. here on the East Coast. We're here Monday through Friday. Just a reminder, we started last week, these new Q&A shows in addition to the regular program.

So if you just want the Q&A and you have questions for Jermal and or myself, please tune in at 12 noon to the same channel and we'll be here. Just answering your questions about anything and everything that is on your minds or is not on your minds. And by the way, I just want to say, Jamal, you asked me how I was doing. The answer is not great because I watched the Melania movie. last night. You watched that? You sit there, watch that?

Yeah. How was it? So I expect, so it's rated a 1.2 on a scale from 1 to 10. That high. Various, yeah. I think that's generous. It's one of the worst pieces of shit I've ever seen in my life. Really?

It's actually, I really encourage everyone to watch it because it's a truly, it makes Battle Battlefield Earth look pretty good. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes? Really good. So it's actually like a study in how not to make a film. So it's got

everything that could, except for the some of the songs that are played inexplicably are pretty good. But otherwise, oh my God, holy shit. I can't believe it was released. And by the way, the takeaway is that Donald Trump shows himself basically being cucked

in the movie. What do you mean? Really? Yeah. So Melania goes to sleep. It's like an episode of House of Cards. She goes to her bedroom. He doesn't, he is not following her into her bedroom.

He goes elsewhere. Shuffles off. Good night. And the thing is she's kind of like I've been on the arm of a big strapping Marine like right before that. And I'm like, oh, I think I know what's going on here. it's it's actually i felt really sorry for president trump watching this whole thing i'm like why did he marry her like like like why like it's it's it looks miserable for him unless he's

not a sexual person and well older men oftentimes so again one of my guilty pleasures is real housewives uh-huh it wasn't that way it happened because i was in a hospital and that was the only thing that was on you get addicted to it um older men sometimes get younger women sometimes get younger women and they have arrangements of like, all right, I know I can't satisfy you. I know I'm too old to do anything. I'm in my 80s. I'm near death. And so I will turn a blind eye to you having your fun, having your eye candy. Sure. Sometimes they have arrangements that are big between the older woman and older guy and a young woman, especially 20 years or 15 years. Yeah, no, it makes sense. I mean, I'm just like, it's weird, like what the LaVitra, the Viagra is not the Cial

isn't working anymore. I mean... Still hard work, man. But also, why would he allow that... It's true. But why would he want the world to know

everyone who watches Amazon Prime now knows that he's not fucking his own wife? And that she might be working someone else. He's old. And she probably doesn't want him to touch him. It's like...

Yeah, but why would he let... He's a man who's trying, he's the president of the United States. Presumably he's interested in controlling his image. I mean, true. True. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I got to be honest, I don't know why the movie was made. Like, sometimes I always shocked that there's a,

that somebody sitting in an executive room somewhere said, there is clearly a demand to know more about Melania Trump. Well, is that? Actually, let's just say that you and I were, Jamal, were assigned to the production team of the Malania movie, right? I mean, look, honestly, what are some of the basic things you'd do? You'd go to Slovenia, you'd interview her neighbors, you'd show pictures of her as a little girl, as a teenager, as a young woman.

You'd talk about her career. You'd show stuff from her career, like as a model and all that stuff, right? Right. None of that's in this. Nothing. You literally have, there's literally nothing about her background. We don't learn how they met. We don't know anything about, I mean, and literally,

it's like a joke. I mean, there's a scene where the documentary, the filmmaker is off camera, and he's like, you know, oh, it's incredible to be here in the White House. And Trump goes, yeah, it's just so great. And she's like, it's wonderful. And it's just fable.

It's like, like you've just used, like a bug has fallen out of the air short of oxygen because you just said those words. And you just wasted. We're now, you know, 15 seconds closer to all of our deaths. And this is all you have to say? Really? And that's what they put into the film.

Wow. Oh, that's literally all that there's there. I mean, and it's hilarious. I'd say a good quarter of the movie is dedicated to her in the back of a, or getting into or out of a Cadillac Escalade and going into a, She's always like on the move, right? Like go in this place, that place. But, you know, there's no insight.

There's no behind the scenes moments except for her like choosing, like choosing what she's going to wear. Like what, you know, which by the way isn't great. And just like, no, I mean, it's actually baffling. I strongly urge everyone with an Amazon Prime subscription because it's free. It's included to go to watch this piece. of shit and we can have a convo about it because I'm like wait wow I mean it's kind of a colossal achievement of of of of shittiness I got to be honest I can't believe they made it like of all the first ladies she is the least interesting to me I mean most of them are not interesting to me

in general yeah but Robbie's right Robbie's like we got real used to talk about yeah yeah okay I apologize my you know okay so let's talk about where we're at okay Okay, so the clock is ticking again, presumably to 8 p.m. two weeks from last night. So we have 13 more days, you know, to Tuesday, the 21st, right? That's, so what happens between now and that? So Israel, let's talk about Israel. Israel has a long history of scuttling ceasefire agreements and deals. They do, they've done it repeatedly.

with the Palestinians. They've done it with Hezbollah. They just, it's kind of like you can count on them to, to fuck it up. They want this to be, they're going to want to scuttle this deal. They're going to try to stir some shit up. Agreed? Agree. And that's what they're doing now. I mean, they haven't stopped bombing Lebanon.

I mean, they've continued their attacks. And, you know, see, there's so much gray area in this, quote, unquote, ceasefire at this plant. A lot of people are very excited, but I think their excitement is a little premature. The United States has attacked Iran and attacked other countries in the middle of negotiations. The U.S. wanted to drag Iran into negotiations, and now they've been able to do it, even though they're saying this is a basis for a peace plan, meaning we will use your 10-point peace plan as a basis for negotiations. Well, I mean, the stuff that's in that plan is effectively a surrender document for all intents purposes. Commitment to non-aggression, continued Iranian control over Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of Iran's uranium enrichment, lifting of oil primary sanctions. Ah, that's my phone.

Give me one second. Lifting of all secondary sanctions, termination of U.S. Security Council resolution, termination of IAEA, Board of Governance Resolutions, payment. of compensation to Iran, withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from the region, and cessation of war on all fronts, including against resistant forces, meaning Lebanon, Hezbollah, and of course, Hamas, the Hootis. Are they going to do that? Well, yeah, let's talk about, let's take them one at a time, right? Shall we?

I mean, all right, so we'll go through the sticking points. And I have to admit, this is kind of like when you go, let's say you're negotiating to buy an item like at a you know like at a rug market or something where the price isn't fixed and if you know like if someone wants like oh i want a thousand dollars for this rug and you only want to spend 50 dollars you're not going to get a deal you should probably just walk away these two sides are so far apart i don't see how even in the passage of 13 days how they're going to get there but um you know with these talks in Islamabad but let's take them one at a time. Okay, so the U.S. wants zero uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, and Iran wants

complete sovereign right to enrich as much as it wants. Now, those two sides are, there's not, there's no daylight. There's no daylight, right? There's the daylight of the Grand Canyon in there. I mean, it's a vast chasm. I don't, and let's talk about the likelihood of where we all come down on all this. What can look, what can these two sides agree to? I think maybe we can go back to a JCPOA kind of

arrangement where Iran continues to be able to enrich for domestic research, medical, and power purposes with inspectors who come periodically and look at it. That would be a return to the status quo

anti-bellum. Right. What do you think? I mean, we could end up there. But Iran has gone so far as to say, we don't even want the IAEA Board of Governance. Basically, we want to get rid of all of it. Meaning the provisions of the JCPLA that were

in force at first. Gone. Gone. But they could, but that could be a giveaway item, right? If you're going to negotiate, you have stances that you're willing to give up on. I mean, look, if these both, if both these sides insist on

these stances, they're not going to get there. And we're going to be right back at people in Tehran kissing their loved ones good night and wondering whether they're going to see them again in the morning in two weeks. So they have, I think this is like, let me put this way, I'm willing to offer to fly to Islamabad and negotiate this deal for you guys. I'm actually very good at this sort of thing. I think that's where we're going to end up, though, is somewhere like that. Okay, let's take let's let's move on to what wait quick i agree with you these are max demands on both sets yeah but i don't it's weird though because the united states and iran both think that they've won um you know the united states has blown up a lot of iranian shit and the iranians own the have

have clogged up the strait of armoos and they own that shit and there's no getting them to unown it i mean i've been doing deep dives into this for my column that I just released yesterday. And it's like, I don't, there's literally no way to militarily unclog the Strait of Hormuz and get the Iranians out of there. Even if you send in, you go in a year, you raise 500,000 troops, which we don't have. We only have about two to 300,000 combat troops, and they're not already. But let's just say you send all 300,000 right now.

they can only occupy a small piece of Iran. Even if you could occupy two-thirds of Iran, their missiles will reach the Strait of Ormuz, and as long as you have a credible threat of violence, you know, no one's going to send their tankers through there. So that's why that you have maximalist demands here. But that's why I don't see how we're going to get there. See, I think the U.S. believes that it won.

Like I give me an example. One of the things that came out, I believe it was the New York Times, this was one of the reports. And they were talking about what was taking place in the White House. And they make this point of saying that Ratcliffe, Rubio, all of these guys when they were in a meeting, basically were saying, this plan is nonsense. In fact, Ratcliffe apparently says something like,

it's far school, like after the Ninthahu and Israel gives his pitch. Yep. Ratcliffe said, this is far school. This is nonsense. Rubio. And someone else is, said in other words it's bullshit that was rubia rubia says it's bullshit these are hardcore neocons these are people with a hard on for Iran and they're like they said Israel has a tendency to oversell

because they know they can't do it without us right and trump decided screw it let's do it now this could be revisionist history they said regime change is not yet they knew regime change was almost certainly not going to happen and they knew that like they there was not going to be a revolution right and trump did it anyway I mean but Again, that's assuming that what they're saying is true. I mean, this could be, you know, kind of like... I believe it. I 100% believe it. Oh, that they said, told them, dude, this is a horrible...

And J.D. Vance is hardcore opposed to the war. And Trump did it anyway. And so I don't get the sense that this kind of... Well, I said it wasn't going to work out well if the U.S. really believes that they won. Meaning Trump says anything. Like, he says, you know, well, we decided to pull out of human because we're accomplish objectives. No, you did. Like, I feel like this. I can't necessarily take something that Donald Trump says when he's claiming victory as that he actually believes that the subject of victory. Keep in mind,

all of this comes on the heels of that failed operation where they were apparently trying to get the uranium and wasn't able to do it. And some of the reporting is that Trump wanted to be able to grab the uranium and say, hey, we accomplished objectives, we've got their uranium, everything is good, we're out. That failed. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I agree with you, though, but They're worlds apart in regards to any kind of deal or any kind of agreement. Sanctions. U.S. sanctions and sanctions against Iran and freezing of Iranian assets in American and Western banks has been imposed for ever since really the beginning of the revolution in 1979. That's like baked in policy. Trump seems open to unwinding those sanctions. So I think we'll see movement there, but he wants it to be graduated based on metrics.

The Iranians, I don't think the Iranians can agree to that because you and I both know that if the, you know, if it's set on metrics after this is all over, the U.S. will come up with one reason after another to say, well, you didn't meet it, you didn't jump high enough. You didn't say Simon says, you know, they'll come up with some reason. some excuse to not release those funds. I mean, should, there's a question about whether or not Iran should even agree to a ceasefire general. I wouldn't have. No, I would not. I wouldn't, I wouldn't have. I wouldn't have at all. I think, I think Iran fucked up. I think they're trying to be, they're, they are temperamentally reasonable people. And that, and that's like, caused them to make an error last night.

Yeah, reasonableness is weakness in this case. Because from their point of view, your reasonableness is just weakness. And like up to this point, every agreement or every deal has been violated. Israel has used the ceasefires in like Lebanon or for that matter, Hamas as a way of going after those countries after the ceasefire. Meaning even when they declared a quote-to-quote ceasefire with Lebanon, they were still attacking Lebanon continuously. And they were still doing the same thing. And if you remember after the first 12th day war, their thought was, well, we'll have a ceasefire. with Iran and we will make this a Lebanon option, which I thought was always ludicrous, but whatever, that was in their minds. They need to accept that Israel's objective is to destroy Iran. And as long as they have a willing actor in the context of the United States, that plan is not changing. So whatever they get here in regards to, it's like, okay, you've had this big explosive war. Things need to change. And however that looks, because if you agree to something that is not necessarily longstanding or it's not necessarily, I don't know, then you're going to be back in this situation again.

And whatever deal you come up with needs to prevent you from getting back into a war again in another six months. You know, let's talk about things that like Iran has given up. You know, for example, they had originally asked for all U.S. bases in the Middle East to be a evacuated from American troops. But that's no longer on the, the Iranians are no longer asking for that. So it shows that, you know,

they're kind of like willing to accept reality in some ways. I mean, you and I both know the U.S. is kind of like herpes, very hard to get rid of once they've installed themselves. But, okay, so, but like the U.S. wants limits on Iran's ballistic missiles.

Iranians can't agree to that. Not going to happen. Right. It's just not going to happen. It's not even on the table. They also want the U. the U.S. also wants, I think this sounds like an Israeli demand for them to cut off their allies in the access of resistance, right?

The Houthis, the Hezbollah, Hamas. And I think, again, they can't do that because this is a Shia country with no other allies. So you're literally like, oh, you want to isolate us? Like, I mean, it's not even like they're the most useful allies. They don't really do much for Iran. but it's nice you got to have friends such as you can agree and you know having this kind of X factor of Hezbollah attacking having this X factor of random hooty missiles coming in it's still something

that's on the mind even if it's not necessarily a huge military force yeah it's allies in the region but they can't do that they're not going to do like some of the stuff is a deal breaker that's one of the ballistic missiles a deal breaker reparations the U.S. will never agree to because it would set it would definitely set, you know, a precedent for the U.S. because we blow things up all over the world. But the Iranians, you know, they have this idea of charging this $2 million toll per vessel, which effectively would be a tax on global energy supplies. And sharing the money with the Omani's across the strait, that's interesting. It is interesting.

By the way, Trump was asked about this. And he says something to the effect of, yeah, we're thinking about sharing the. money with, I think they said, something like sharing the money with Iran or something like that. It's like, okay, dude. Not everything is a business venture, right? And Djibouti, I guess, doesn't get shit, even though they're right there. But Djibouti is also a U.S. vassal state, and I think that's how the Iranians are looking at it.

I see. What do you make of the Gulf states in all this? I'm so glad you brought that up. Yeah. I think it's a whole new world for the Gulf states. I mean, if I'm those guys, if I'm the Emirates and, you know, whatnot, I'm thinking we have been conned by the United States and the end, like the Abraham Accords and Israel, all that shit. We, you know, like we basically, they made the mistake that the Ukrainians made, which is they don't look at them. They didn't look at a map. It's like if the Iranians want to fuck us, they can. It's like, you know, the Ukrainians, Russia's right next door and they're bigger than us, and they can come and go as they please. The Gulf states are going to have to make nice with Iran. I mean, they're going to have to do it yesterday. It's a new world. If I'm them, I'm like, I'm going to Tehran. I'm like, guys, let's have some tea. Let's bring this in for a landing.

We're really sorry. Things have gone too far. Yeah. I mean, it think, I mean, we need to really put this in perspective, right? The oil for gas, that was the deal. I mean, oil for protection. We'll give you oil. We'll have this in Petro dollar and we will protect you because we're the United States and we're going to put military bases. We're going to have like 80 bases all throughout the Middle East and we're going to protect you from the big bad Iran and Iran is never going to do anything because of that, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And within what, six weeks, that 50 years. up in smoke. That's amazing.

Like, I don't think people, people are using a certain fourth world power that you get, like, the U.S., China, Russia, and now they're basically saying Iran. So three of the world powers are effectively part of this kind of axis against this imperialistic West. That's fascinating. Like, that's a new norm. Like, going forward, I don't even entirely know what that means. I mean, that's assuming the war ends.

I mean, this is just a ceasefire. As we pointed out, many of these things are diametrically opposed. And there's going to have to be some kind of middle ground in regards to kind of come into terms. But if I'm Saudi Arabia or UAE or any of these Gulf states, new day. Totally. Yeah. I'm surprised that they, honestly, I was always surprised that they didn't sort of see this coming a million miles away. way.

It doesn't seem like they did. I mean, it doesn't even seem like the U.S. saw Iran's capability. Like, it seems like they massively underpaid Iran's capability. I don't get it. I mean, it's not like this stuff was a secret. I mean, I'm a fucking cartoonist and I knew it. You know, I don't get it. It's like you have a racist point of view towards a group.

Because let's be honest. It's not like, I don't get the sense. that the Israelis are the most clear-act people on the planet in regards to looking at Arabs or looking at... They think they're fucking animals. Have you been to Israel? Exactly. From their point of view, Muslims are animals. And so they don't, I don't think they looked at their capability as being what it was. And maybe they thought the U.S. will fight the war and out of the hat. I don't know.

I want to, we have an ad. I want to, I'll read the ad. Before we do, have you been to Israel, Jamil? Yes. Yeah. So let's talk about that a little bit after the app. Okay. They can cancel your accounts, freeze your cards, decide what you're allowed to buy, say, or support.

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When the system fails, when institutions turn on their own people, financial sovereignty is the difference between security and vulnerability. Rumble Wallet isn't about politics. It's about freedom, ownership, and protecting what's yours. So take control today. We do have some questions to answer, and we should do those. But before we do, I just wanted to... So, you know, I've been to Israel a few times.

And, you know, I was appalled at the treatment of Arabs, Palestinians, and the open way that Israelis talk about Arabs, it's fucking amazing. It's the way I imagine, like, racist, white, southerners, talking about blacks like 100 years ago. I mean, I wasn't here, but I imagine it sounded not unlike that. Yeah, that was my sense too. Like I give an example. I was the first time I went, I was going into Bethlehem in the various areas, and you had to go through like all of these checkpoints. As an American, you just blazed through. I think it might have been three people in the line for the American line. The Palestinian line was so far back.

where it was like this kind of slow plotting thing. And the significance of that is there's a few significance or a few pieces of significance. But one of them is if you had a business, how do you get supplies and materials into your business? Like there was a huge disparity between, let's say, like a Jerusalem or parts of Israel and then these parts of Palestine. One looked like a third world. The other one looks like little America. And the way they treat them is just outrageous. Yeah.

And also the smarminess, the snarkiness, the snarkiness, the, the jokiness of the Israeli soldiers. They're so snotty and obnoxious the way that they act while they're doing this. I mean, the whole thing is it's putrid. All right, let's just, you ready for some questions? Sure. Man child, thanks for the donation. I feel that this whole thing could have been taken care of in the UN by simply talking.

Yep, that's what the UN's for. Iran and the U.S. are founding members. Why do we continue to let retarded-ass dudes run the world? It's a good fucking question, Jamal. Well, the UN, I mean, what is the UN going to do? I mean, because think about the genocide, for example. You had a situation where it was clearly illegal. The United Nations clearly had a mandate to prevent that.

Even with the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly could have passed resolutions to override the Security Council in that sense. None of them did it. We sat there and watched hundreds of thousands of people get mowed down with just deplorable behavior, starvation, rape, murder, etc. And the UN was like, we don't like that, but we can't do anything about that. Yeah, there's no mechanism for enforcement.

That's the rub. Yeah. So I don't know how they do it. I mean, the reality of it is, unless you get countries that have a willingness to do something, then nothing happens. That's true. And so you just get them stalled. Nothing takes place. It's, you know.

It's unfortunate. Yeah. No, no question. F-H-H-E-Soh, thanks for the dollar. Trump always has Bill. What? I don't know. Who's Bill?

F-E-Sah, let us know. Zola Rosa, thanks for the two bucks, is a real Gaza ceasefire in the Iranian terms. That's an interesting point, right? Because technically there is a ceasefire in effect. However, the Israelis have, you know, hundreds of Gaza. thousands have been killed by the Israelis since the so-called ceasefire kicked in.

I mean, basically it just means that the rate of killing and destruction has slowed, but it continues. And so it seems like that would be covered by the, you know, by Iran's desire to be able to continue to support its proxies. But I don't think it's specifically covered, right? I think it's sort of like implied because Hamas is an ally of Israel. That I'll be wrong. That's my take.

I will make a prediction that, and this may piss people off, but I suspect they're going to be, I think these are men as a maximalist. And in the context of these being maximalist demands, there are going to be some things that they're going to be willing to throw away. On both sides. And I don't, yeah, on both sides. I don't know if Hamas is going to be covered under that. Like, because when I think about it, if we think about it, Iran didn't get involved in war until they were attacked. Meaning the genocide and everything else was taking place, but it wasn't until Israel attacked Iran

proper, either in the war or this time around where they actually got involved saying, okay, we're going to defend our sovereignty, et cetera, et cetera. And then they add in and say, hey, as a maximalist demand, we want the U.S. out of the region. We want Israel to stop and honor the ceasefire against Hamas and everything else. But if they break the ceasefire with Hamas, is Iran going to. going to be willing to go back to war. I don't think so. But I think they might initially ask for it. And I think they might push for it beyond just a normal immediate throwaway demand for the simple reason that this is a lot of what Iran is doing now is trying to position itself as the new

dominant regional superpower in the Middle East. I think they're going to achieve that. And one of the reasons they can, one of the ways they can do that is appealing to the Sunni Arab street by saying, look, we're standing up for our Palestinian brothers. You guys all care about them. Right. And so I think that's like not a, that's not going to be a throwaway. But I agree with you. If it gets fucked up, then I don't see them like starting up hostilities again.

Mustafa, thanks very much for the donation. Jack Johnstone, thanks for the 10 Aussie dollars. In what sense do we live in a quote unquote democracy? Opinions of polls are used to gauge approval ratings. but the actual will of the people is ignored blatantly when it comes to governance, including war, fuck them. I mean, as Robbie would say, it's a republic, not a democracy, right? Yeah, it's a republic.

But so we don't really, I mean, look, I think if I had my druthers, if I'm King Ted of America, there would be a, every morning we would wake up, and on our phones there would be a plebiscite for important topics. I think war and peace should be one of them. It'd be like, hey, President Trump here, I'd like to attack Iran. Maybe that Yahoo says it's a good idea. What do you think? And I'd be like, fuck no.

And then basically the president would have to abide by these kind of votes. I don't think we should, I don't really care about like how many paper clips, the Department of Commerce buys every year. But like I think for really certain issues, we could all argue about, what they should be, we should be weighing in. I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's, we're 40, 50 years into California's referendum system. Americans kind of want some some direct democracy. We don't live in a democracy at all. I mean, and we don't even really live in much of a republic if you can go to war with 27% approval. Right. I mean, it's,

yeah, I think it's worse than that. I mean, because ultimately what you end up with is a bunch of people who are oligarchs looking out for their own interests in regards to rules, regulations, and laws. It's not about what the public wants. I mean, if you act in the public, hey, do you think everybody should have health care? Most people will say yes. Do you get it? No.

And even on the issues of war, if you ask most people, hey, should you go to war with Iran? Most people will say no. It doesn't change what effectively people do. But I don't know what the plebiscite thing. I mean, how many people want to engage in that level of direction? democracy. I don't know. Yeah, well, you mean, and maybe, but you don't have to. You don't have to vote. I mean, and I kind of think, and I think, yeah, maybe, I kind of feel like some people shouldn't vote.

Like, you know, I don't watch sports, so I shouldn't vote on the Heisman trophy. And I don't know. I feel like if you don't know some basic shit about, like, you know, the system and about the issue, maybe you shouldn't vote. But see, you should choose not to vote, you know? Kruger effect. Like,

where people think, they know more than it, they know, it's like, I'm a professional at chess. And your rating is like $1,400. But because you only beat 1,200 people,

you think I'm, you know, great at this thing. Or I can sing very well because my family members says I can sing very well. You're going to get that, too, though. True.

But, and the thing about politics is we've all been told, Americans are constantly told, that everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how uninformed it is. It's the only topic like that. Like if you go to a bar and you talk talking about shit about movies and like clearly you never watch movies,

people would be like, dude, do you ever watch movies? Well, no. It's like, let me, I'm like, shut up. I've never seen this movie, but I got a very strong opinion about it. Yeah. Right. Um, I don't know. I think you're right.

Ultimately, I think you're right. Like, it would be, there's no perfect area, right? But at the very least, it would get you probably further along than what you got now, where it's like a small ball of, you know, obscene elites that decide on policy that's in their best interest in regards to war on peace. I mean, Lindsay Graham, if Lindsey Graham had his ass shipped into a conflict zone,

do you really think Ms. Lindsay would be up there with a gun and be so gunho about? Having seen shots fired in anger, some in my direction, no. Exactly. No. Exactly. Or at the very least, the people who agree to the wars, you need to go out and put themselves on the front lines, something, because this doesn't work.

No, I couldn't agree more. Okay, but that is a good, it is a good question. Frank Castle, thanks for the $10. TikTok opened me up to John Kiriaku, then D-Program, then Ted Rawls political cartoons, now, Tremal Thomas. I'm very entertained. Thank you, gentlemen, for the content

and actual great political announcement. And thank you so much for watching and for the donation. We do it, damned us. That's fantastic. Jack Johnstone, thanks for the five Australian dollars. Iran didn't fuck up. They're using their position to imply that the US has agreed to their 10-point plan without the US saying so explicitly.

Exactly. That's true. But what's also true is that Trump is all over truth social this morning, claiming that Iran has agreed to all sorts of shit that they haven't agreed. too, for example. Oh, Iran's going to let the U.S. in to dig up what he calls the radioactive dust, which is actually a liquid, which is the enriched uranium, which is not dust because Donald, dust and liquids are not the same. But, you know, it's like, not only is that not going to happen, Israel will never allow, I mean, Iran will never allow that to happen. No way. Of course not. Of course not.

I mean, but look, we have a basis of example with the whole Ukraine thing, right? Where Trump is like, Putin is going to allow this and Putin is going to do that. Russia has agreed to this. And it's like, oh, I'm completely disappointed that Russia didn't agree to so. It's like, dude, they never agreed to that nonsense. Like, you would get the traction immediately. We didn't say we were going to do that. Right.

No, I mean, that's what I'm worried about. I mean, look, Jamal, I think the odds right now are like 90%, 95% we're going to be right back where we were. This is like the negotiations over the homeland security shutdown between the Democrats and the Republicans. There's like no real way for, I think in two weeks we're right back where we were yesterday. Then what is the point of the ceasefire? You know, I don't know. I mean, I think, I think obviously the U.S.

went this route because things were going poorly. Well, they're terrified about the Strait of Hormuz, because the global economy hangs in the balance. I mean, at one point yesterday morning, oil was trading at $140 a barrel. It was 60 before it began. Yes. So five weeks ago.

So, of course, the whole global economy is hanging on, you know, it's about to fall off a cliff. That's all, I mean, so we see why the U.S. was scared, shitless. You know the White House switchboard was buzzing with, you know, the president of Vanuatu is on the, line and he's scared to death. You know, like, the Prime Minister of Germany's on the line.

She's scared to death. Emmanuel Macron is scared to death even more of you than of his wife. You know, right. No, no, no, no. She has a left hand on her man. She has a right hand. For sure.

Maybe it's the straight of her moves. I mean, maybe this is just Donald Trump getting from point A to point B. Like just political experience. We need something to create a loft. We need something to create a gap. People are freaking out. The oil prices is spiking.

We need to do something. If I were in Iranians, I would have kept that fucking straight closed and said, we can talk. We can talk for the next two weeks, but we're not going to open the street. Why do you think they, I mean, looks like they would have learned from the Russians on this, right? Where Putin is like,

we get a ceasefire when the war ends. Not before. Basically, we're not doing, we are not giving you a breather. Why would you? Yeah. The only thing I can think of is are there economic implications that are also that could boomerang on the Iranians? I mean, I don't see how. I mean, they're a major oil producing state. So they're going to be raking in more money. But of course, Iran's economy is far more diversified than the Gulf states. I mean, they have a lot more going on. So it's entirely possible that they also don't really want to see, you know, global economic collapse. But they're not as integrated into the global economy as, you know, as they could be because of the sanctions. So that part is, it's a little mystifying to me.

Yeah, I don't know the internal dynamics of what's in their minds. I mean, from my point of view, Iran off the banks. Robbie has a good, a good point. He says, I'm going to put Robbie on here. Robbie, you have some insight here? Yeah, I think it's probably, they probably do it a solid to China. I mean, China needs that energy. And they need, and Russia just, they can't get it to them fast enough.

with the existing infrastructure. I think that that's why they did this. They're doing a solid to China, just reminding that, and probably also they're, in their own subtle way, reminding China is like, hey, you do need us.

If we go under. They were letting China through the street, for my understanding. Russia, China were being allowed to the street. Well, they were, but also though, a lot of people realize this, the Chinese, no, here in North America, here in America, we complain about how jobs are being off-source.

being outsourced overseas. The Chinese are doing the same thing with Indonesia. Indonesia is almost out of gas. So if the Chinese are offshoreing a lot of these jobs over to Indonesia, if Indonesia stops working, that impacts them directly. I think Myanmar is a Chinese ally, and they're literally out. They're completely out. I really do think that they did this, not for the United States.

I think they did this as a solid to China and also just to remind the Chinese the Russians don't need us. You though do. I like it. Thanks, Robbie. Thanks, man. I don't know. Maybe. I mean, the thing is, though, if I'm the Iranians, it's like this is a oneer.

Well, if I'm the Iranians, I'm not stopping the war until, you know. Me neither. Maybe. I mean, like, I got to be honest. I appreciate China. I appreciate Russia. But this is existential for us. And they're going to keep doing this.

I mean, look, man, the U.S. has gone from country to country in the Middle East, destroying those countries. I mean, think of the number of people they killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, etc. Like, they were always coming to your door. And they will be coming back to your door because the objective has not been accomplished. How long did it take them to take down Syria? 15, 16 years. By the way, a very hilarious thing just happened.

Reuters is reporting that Saudi Arabia has an oil pipeline bypassing the Strait of Ormuse and sadly and tragically for them, it has been blown up. Also, stock futures are soaring. Oil prices

have fallen 17% since the start of trading 16 minutes ago. I think it's like 95. one from 140 to 90 overnight. It's so volatile. If I had to guess, White Trump would say, well, sure, we'll work on the basis of your 10-point plan, which again, I don't know what that means,

the basis of your 10-point plan. It's probably that. It seems that he was very concerned about oil. And so he would make statements, if you remember over the course of the last few weeks, that would get the oil price for a few hours, and then it will pop back up when he realized Donald Trump was effectively lying.

Maybe that's the reason, or that's the use, U.S. tenor in this. But again, the catch becomes, okay, what can you guys actually agree to to actually end it? And whatever agreement that you come up with, can you really trust the United States to maintain it? And if so, how do you entrust that the U.S. maintains their part of the agreement? Right. If you're just joining us, just a reminder, Jamal and I are doing a Q&A show 12 noon Eastern Time. So in about two hours and 15 minutes. So tune in to that. on YouTube and Rumble live for the questions. Much appreciated.

One comment, there's an American pastor going around saying women should not be allowed to vote. Yeah, I read about that, dude. And Alexander says, don't they need a bit of a market in the so far first world? How much of the capital China accumulated is our money? We bought all of the made in China with basically all of our consumer goods. having a little high you didn't buy it that's like

if I go to someone buy something that is an exchange that I'm making in essence it's like the store is not forcing me to do something unless it's like food or something like that

I mean unless it's such the comment if you so is clarifying Trump can always blow Bill Clinton you missed my first rant yes I've heard those rumors

John Trump and Clinton Yeah yeah yeah Like Eustine Island kind of shit What happens on Ebson Island Doesn't really stay on Ebsty Island Right Right

Johnstone Thanks for the 10 Australian dollars Why should Australia remain in the Ocas Alliance after this We're paying $2.50 a liter So for Americans That's $10 a gallon For petrol

And our prime minister is now telling us To take the train And at this point, we should just make nice with Iran, et cetera. I agree. You guys are like in China's neighborhood. You're not in America's neighborhood. Yeah. I mean, most of their trade is with China.

And yet a lot of belligerents is aimed at China, which is the weirdest thing in the world. It's like, so you're going to attack your major trading partner? Is that what you're going to do? No, he has a point. He has a point. Totally. A few other comments here. Daniel says more than 55 towns and villages across Lebanon are being bombed by Israel right now,

beginning to think this whole thing is just a chance for Israel to focus on Lebanon for now and expand greater Israel. I don't think that's it. That's an interesting point, though. I'm sure the Israelis are taking advantage, though. Yeah, they're taking advantage. And one of the questions asked Moranini this one, it was, is Lebanon included in this? Meaning, if Israel continues to bomb Lebanon, does a ceasefire hold?

his thing was like, no. Lebanon is included within the context of a ceasefire. Do you think they're going to maintain that? Because if true, that's a whole new norm. Like up to this point, any attacks by, let's say, Israel or Lebanon, Iran didn't get involved. I mean, Israel has been violating a ceasefire for the last, what, year or so, however long the ceasefire was in place between the two.

If now they're under the umbrella of Iran, that is a new norm. The Israelis are completely untrustworthy. They are not, you know, as an ally. I mean, you're the U.S., you can't trust these people, I mean, you know, at all. So you know they don't mean well here. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, I think that's the $64,000 question. Alexander says if Trump calls for sailors to grow a pair again,

I guess we're talking about U.S. sailors or foreign sailors and just cross the straight, would Iran attack them now? I think yes, because Iran's terms for reopening the strait have been that all vessels have to coordinate with IRGC, you know, logistics. So they can't just go. It's not a free-for-all. It's like, and I think that coordination might involve inspections, but it's certainly specific ship-by-ship approvals. So, yeah, I think they would fire at them. What Trump says the US will be hanging around, whatever the hell that means.

Yeah, I picture them like. What's up, dude? It's like, hey, we're just hanging around. Yeah. I was, I was like hanging around. What the hell does that mean? Yeah, like, like teenagers behind the 7-Eleven smoking by the dumpster. Right, you just smoking like, like no laundering, dude.

She's hanging around. So funny. Smoking. Manchild asked, why did it take this conflict for the Gulf States to realize their infrastructure was vulnerable. What are they stupid with two O's? I don't know. And to make it even more interesting how the U.S. troops were vulnerable. Like the bases that these guys were in, these things weren't hard. Like they didn't have underground stuff, that type of stuff. Like they were getting hit. Like those U.S. troops had to effectively leave and move to other locations. Yeah, they did.

Yeah. I don't know. I mean, Iran kept saying you are vulnerable. You have 80 bases, that 80 places for us to attack or whatever that number is. and it turned out to be right. We have a very generous $20 donation from GV Man, 43. Thank you very much, GV Man. Jamaral, this one's for you. Tell us about your Star Trek fandom. Oh, you don't want me to do that. Don't do that.

Don't do that. Don't know that. You'll be here for an hour. No, man, I am a huge fan of Star Trek. Obviously, I have fine photos in the background of the various characters. I don't even have all of them up. I am a sucker for Star Trek. I think ultimately, I am cynical in the moment over long term. I'm optimistic.

And either we are going to destroy ourselves or we're going to get into some kind of new norm. I think this is prehistory. And yeah, I'm a sucker for. Sucker for it. Deep Space Nine, next generation. What's your favorite? series. Deep Space Nine. I love Deep Space Nine. It's even got mysticism in it. It does. Well, the Wormhole aliens. I mean, but to be honest, all of the series of mysticism, I mean,

even the original Star Trek series had, like with Captain Kirk had a Q-type figure. I forget Shred and Tristan, whatever his name is. And then you get into the next generation and you get Q. And I love it, right? Like when Q first appears, Picard is looking at him. And Bakar doesn't say this is a God. This is some kind of demon. This is some kind of, he said, what sort of being are you? Like, what fuck are you? And why are you on my shit?

It's like, this thing is exuding all of these different abilities and everything else. And his thing is, what sort of being are you? And one of the best things in the first episode was when he's, when humanity is put on trial by Q. And Picard is representative of all humanity. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. But no, man, the series is good. I sat here and watched the first season again of Next Generation.

And I was enamored on how wholesome is. It's scientific triumphalism. But there's a wholesomeness that we don't see in our current stuff. I don't know. It's just really good. Couldn't agree more. I love Star Trek, too. By the way, two little Trekkie things.

So I used to be friends with a singer, Joe Jackson. You know, is she really going out with him? And anyway, he's a big Trekkie. And he had an incredible collection of Trek ephemera in his apartment because he was a rich guy. So he had like, he had like an original series tricorder from the set that was used on the set. He had shit like that in his, it was like, oh, my God. also John Delancey who played Q you mentioned Q I saw him I saw him eating at the

at the same breakfast place at the farmer's market in West Hollywood as me one morning and it was so weird because he's like disheveled and like kind of like you know run down he looked like he looks like he drinks hard I don't know if he does or not and I was like wait you run the entire universe but he looked like shit it was just so weird I actually got a sign autograph from Delancey.

He's a big liberal. He's a big liberal. And he, when we were at the thing, he was like, hey, he was like, you know, we got to vote for Hillary Clinton. And I was like, oh, don't say that. I was like, don't say that. It's like, don't tell me that. He's like, are you telling your people go vote? It's like, I think people should vote who they want to vote for.

Like, it's very awkward, right? because he's like leaning in to having this conversation. I'm like, oh, God, man, you're cute. Don't do this to me. Don't do this. No, it sucks. It sucks when your heroes have dumb political opinions, which unfortunately most actors do.

Very quickly, I want to talk, well, let's talk about ICE. And we have this one question that I want to answer to. Jack Johnstone, thanks for the 10 Australian dollars. For Ted, how should war be decided under the glorious Ted Raul's socialist dynasty? That's simple. I'll answer that one. War is not affected by the economic system that is imposed by a certain nation state. But I do think under socialism, it should be absolutely, you don't go to war without mass approval of the country.

For Jamal, recently I watched the original Star Trek series, and it's shockingly philosophical and actually really darn good. We have only four minutes left, Jamal, in today's show before. So if you have questions, keep them for the QA. 12 noon Eastern Time. But ICE just shot a dude in Patterson, California. That's about 80 miles east of San Jose in California's Central Valley. So basically, the guy's dude is, the dude's name is Carlos Hernandez. According to ICE, he was a member of the LA 18th Street gang, whatever the fuck that is and was wanted for questioning in a murder in El Salvador, no word on whether he was a suspect or not.

Anyway, three ICE agents pinned him with a, pinned his car and boxed it in from the front and the back, flashing police lights. And new video reveals that the agents had their weapons drawn as they approached the car. Someone tried to break the window and grab the dude and open the door. He tried to leave and they shot him. I have questions, but my big one, Jamal, is why the fuck are. ICE agents even involved in a situation like this? Why would this not be local or state law enforcement who are professional law enforcement officers? That's question number one. And question number two is, what about de-escalating tactics, right? Like, how about just sort of like, you've got the guy

boxed in, calmly ask him to come out, otherwise you don't want to hurt him? I mean, why do you have breaking people's windows? Of course, he's going to panic. It's human instinct. Yeah. Well, de-escalation is usually when there's consequences for that action, meaning I have to de-escalate when I know that there's going to be a consequence if I take things too far. If I don't know that there's going to be a consequence, then what is the whole, you know, like where's your incentive to de-escalate in that sense? No, I agree with you.

I mean, California is California is a sanctuary state, correct? It is. So local law enforcement is not really going to work without. Okay, so that would explain that. Yeah. However, if there's a El Salvador, which is a U.S. ally and has close relations with the U.S. asks for a suspect to be picked up,

that would be a law enforcement issue. That's not an immigration issue. Right. Yeah, that's different. See, I don't know. Did El Salvador ask for him to be picked up? Or was this just an ICE action where they were? Sounds like an ICE.

It sounds like we're being bullshaded. But if they're trying to bring the guy in from, murder, you're right. That's a domestic thing. Why is ICE involved? Ice should not be involved. And like, the thing is, under California sanctuary law, if ICE really has a hard on to deport the dude, they can

because as soon as he's locked up, waiting for extradition to El Salvador, they can deport him. So, yeah, I don't understand this at all. Anyway, thank you everyone for tuning in. Thank you, Jermal, enjoying day three of our show together.

Yes. We are, things are progressing nicely. Thanks everyone for tuning in and for liking, sharing, and supporting the show and following the show. Please spread the word as much as you can on your socials and so on. Stay tuned for TMI show with Manila and Chan and myself. That's coming right up, except no Manila Chan today. She's out doing pregnancy stuff. Robbie is going to be sitting in in the Vanilla seat.

So stay tuned for that. Then stay tuned at 12 noon Easter time. Jamal and I will be back right here answering your. questions at 12 noon Eastern. Thanks everyone and see you soon tomorrow. Have a good one.