DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Unfriendly Skies | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• ICE agents began supplementing airport security. ICE officers seen yesterday were not wearing masks or screening passengers. The Trump administration says they'll help man security checkpoints, but mostly they were standing around as lines remained long. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon says it’s a “test run” for posting ICE at the voting stations in November. Travelers and the TSA union say they’re scared and angry at the ICE presence at airports.• Reports say Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is talking to Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi; Iran calls it fake news as more, bigger missiles strike Israel. The EU refuses to use military force to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Even Iranians who oppose the government say they are angry and in despair about the chaos and destruction unleashed by the bombing campaign.• New research finds that the rate of global warming has nearly doubled over the last decade. Many of the consequences of global warming — such as more intense storms, warming oceans and melting glaciers — are arriving faster and more powerfully than many scientists had expected. This week, extreme weather pushed temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of California and the Southwest, even as it is still winter, and the duration and intensity of heat waves is accelerating. At the same time, blizzard conditions whipped the upper Midwest and severe thunderstorms moved east from Arkansas to the Gulf.MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLIVE 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

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. You're watching D. Program with Ted Rall and John Kiroaku. It's Tuesday, March 24th, 2026. Thanks for joining us. Please like, follow, and share the show. We're here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time. And John, good morning. Great to see you. Good morning, Ted. Good to see you, buddy. Enjoying your fresh cup of coffee. This is my fifth espresso of the long morning. Yeah, I'll tell you, Jet Lab. with me is it's always been a thing I just can't get past it. So it's the second morning in a row. I'm up at 4 a.m. answering cameo requests until it's time to go on the show. And then when we finish, I'm going to do more cameo requests and try to get myself to a regular sleeping schedule again. I love it. Yeah, I know. Well, once, I'm sort of in between working on like full out books. But when I do books, I find that like getting up at 4.30 in the morning and like working and banging out pages before I start my day is the right way to do it.

Yes. Amen. I'm the same way. You know, jet lag. Oh, my God. I'm terrible. It's the worst. All right. Well, speaking of travel, ice is at the airports. Not all of them, but at many of them. And they're going to be arriving at more. Reports are kind of mixed. Basically, it doesn't seem like they're doing a lot. Some ice guys sort of roughed up and and carted off an alleged illegal migrant at SFO, San Francisco International Airport. But that was before the current surge. And I think TSA doesn't actually run airport security at SFO.

I think it's one of the exceptions. No, we don't. It's one of just a small handful of airports. And it's a major international airport, but one of a small handful that TSA doesn't handle. Yeah, San Francisco is a relatively small city, but it is not a, it's a huge airport. It's the gateway to the Pacific, East Asia. Yeah. And so, but TSA Union came out and said they are that as far as they're concerned,

they don't view ICE as being helper bears at all. They don't want them there. And they say that they're making travelers scared and they're making TSA workers scared. And not to mention, it's kind of like they're trying to do their jobs. John, what is the logic? Steve Bannon says this is just a test run for posting ICE at voting stations in November. I kind of think he's probably right.

I think he's probably right. But my question is, what would be the legit reason her having ice at the airport? I mean, they can't check, they can't really make the screens go by faster. They can't run your, they don't know how to scan your luggage. The TSA guys barely know how to do that. They don't know how to check your ID, really. So it seems to me like it's a secondary line that they're going to set up to screen people for their immigration status.

us and that would just make the lines longer maybe yeah it's an intimidation tactic that's exactly what it is yeah i flew back in from uh from germany a day before yesterday and i got like the chattyest immigration officer i've ever encountered um kept trying to make jokes and wanted to uh just wanted to chat and the line is gigantic right there are hundreds we we came on a 747 for heaven's sake and It was one of three that landed at the same time. So I said to him just because, I don't know, I was pandering, I guess. I just wanted to make him happy so I could get through. And I said, hey, sorry.

Normalizing behavior psychologists call that. Yeah. I said, hey, sorry you guys are working for free, but your pay will catch up to you. And he said, he leans forward. He goes, we're not working for free. And I said, you're not. He said, no, only TSA is. is covered by this. He said, we're considered law enforcement. So even though I'm immigration or

customs and border protection, I guess it is, CBP, he said, all the rest of us are getting paid. It's only the guys who are actually looking at the IDs. They're the only ones not getting paid. With the blue gloves. That's right. John, I got a question. I keep thinking about what you have said a number of times here on the program, that they're going to get, what you just said, the TSA guys are going to, when the shutdown is over, they're going to get their back pay. So what's Elon Musk about when he's offering to pay their salaries? I mean, is he serious? And if he is serious, does that mean that essentially they would get double salaries when they got their, you know, they're going to get their Elon bucks and they're going to get, which by the way, I don't have a problem with

TSA guys getting more money, they're underpaid. But is that basically what he's talking about? I think so. I don't think it's legal for a private citizen to do that. It's a nice gesture, but I don't think he can. I think what's more important is Senator John Kennedy, the Republican from Louisiana, said something yesterday that put the whole situation into perspective. He said that the White House told the Senate leadership don't make any deal with Democrats. So that's why there's been no continuing resolution when in every other budget shutdown, there's a continuing resolution for things like TSA. And there is none this time because the White House has specifically said no deals with Democrats.

And then the White House wants Republican senators to jump up and down and yell, the Democrats are shutting down TSA and making the country unsafe. No, that's not it at all. Well, I believe you and I believe that, John. So why? Okay, I know this is a dumb question. And there are no dumb questions. There are just dumb.

That's right. But what on earth? Why don't Democrats point this out and say, you guys are the ones who don't want to deal? Exactly. Why haven't the Democrats said anything? Why? What do you think? Bad, weak leadership.

You know, I mentioned to you, I'm going to say six months ago, Ted, you and I were talking about Chuck Schumer. And I said, I've never really liked Chuck Schumer. I think he's a blowhard. I think he's emblematic of everything that's wrong with today's Democratic Party. But that week, I spoke to three different people, independently of one another. None of them know the other two, right? And independently of one another, they told me that they had been in the room at different times over the previous years when Chuck Schumer either solicited or accepted a bribe. And we're talking. Very serious allegation.

Very serious allegation. Very serious. It shakes the foundation of our democracy. I mean, he's, yeah, I mean, he's, he's the Senate minority leader. Yeah. And was the majority leader at the time. Would he, is he in the line of president? No, he's not in the line of presidential.

No, the president of the Senate is. Yeah, the Speaker of the House is. Mm-hmm. That's right. Wow. So, you know, I hate to, I hate to, you know, start yelling early in the morning like this, but they're all corrupt. Yeah. They're all corrupt.

They're all bums. None of them are worthy of our respect or our support. You know, yesterday Mark Wayne Mullen was, let me correct myself. Yesterday, former MMA fighter, Mark Wayne Mullen was. Do you think he'll perform on July? 4th at the cage match on the White House lawn? Donald Trump has performed. That's true.

He's in the W&W.E Hall of Fame. Oh, yeah. Mullen was approved, confirmed by the Senate. The vote was 54 to 46. Not close. One Republican voted no. That was Rand Paul. Two Democrats voted yes.

John Fetterman, which surprises literally no one. And, and, uh, uh, What's his name? Heinrichs of New Mexico. He just came out of the woodwork and voted yes. The funny thing, the Washington Post said today, they said two things that really pissed me off. I actually canceled my subscription this morning. I was so angry. Wow.

I did. It's my hometown paper. I've subscribed since 1982. And I can't. And consider your job. I mean, reading the Washington Post. I mean, I'm with you. You and I've talked about it.

Washington Post sucks now anyway. It sucks. It's no longer. They said two things today. I think I should get the economist or something instead. They said that the vote on Mark Wayne Mullen harkens back to the golden age of the Senate when there was bipartisan cooperation. It's like, what are you freaking talking about?

One Republican voted no. Two Democrats voted yes. How is that hearkening back to the golden age of bipartisanship? What are you talking about? No, in the past, an appointment like this would have sailed through almost unanimously. He's not a sitting senator for heaven's sake. Yeah.

You know, I remember it was national news too. It was national news, Ted, when John Tower was rejected as George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Defense. Tower was a long time, three-term senator from Texas, and chairman of the Armed Services Committee

was rejected as Secretary of Defense. Why? Because he cheated on his wife. He cheated on his wife. And they were like, my God, we can't have him as Secretary of Defense. He cheated on his wife. Yeah, and he was rejected. His moral character is lacking. Well, the reason it was so newsworthy is that they never reject a sitting senator, ever. Now, yesterday they almost did comparatively, and it harkens back to the golden age

of cooperation. The other thing, there was an editorial, unsigned editorial by the editorial board, specifically criticizing our friends, Code Pink, Andy Shalow. I saw that. Everybody who went to Cuba with medicine and food, mocking them as stooges of communism, it was like this editorial came right out of the McCarthy era. Totally.

And that did it for me. It called them useful idiots. That shit, it was old-fashioned when you and I were teens. Yeah, it was, seriously. All right, John, we're going to be talking about, obviously, we're going to be talking about Iran and whether talks are a real thing or are they just in Donald Trump's imagination. And climate change. New study finds that the rate of global warming has nearly doubled. That's worse than the previous most pessimistic forecasts.

And it sort of may explain some of the really extreme weather we've seen lately. but we have some housekeeping to do. First, let's bring in producer Robbie West to talk to bring us up to speed on that. And then we're going to get to some of the leftover super chat questions from yesterday that we have unfortunately a chance to get to yesterday. Thanks, Ted. This is going to be really quick. So Ted, y'all host appropriately to the left of me,

he now has a official channel over here on Rumbled. just like John Kariyaku does. And he has broken a hundred followers. So what that means is, is I can work on getting him into the Rumble Creator program. I'm going to stream some videos to him today, get that in. Awesome. So what I need for y'all to do is pretty easy.

A bunch of y'all over there on YouTube, come over here to Rumble. The weather's fine. And the reason why I bring that up is that the way that they monetize content here is different. YouTube pays about ads. Rumble pays based off of watch hours. So in English, the more content that you consume here on Rumble,

the more than the host gets paid. And so if you like to work that John and Ted do, come on over, watch the stuff over here on Rumble. It's perfectly fine. A lot of people do both. Yeah. I get it.

I mean, the Rumbles, kind of like YouTube was 12 years ago, but it's where we're getting better. But you actually get more unfiltered content. You can't get anywhere else. Second, speaking of John's account, he has cleared his metrics this month for the,

for the Rumble Creator program. Big shout out to all of y'all. Thank you all for coming over. And we are working on getting premium content coming up that you will not be able to see on YouTube. That will feature here on D-Program, on Dutch Channel, and also on Johns. And lastly, if you are looking for official John Kariaku shorts and not the memes, they're only here on Rumble because that's his home base. Oh, I thought you were going to make different kind of shorts.

Okay, we won't get into that. That's for other merchandising that will develop. But you can have shorts for me. Now, I'm working on trying to make the cartoons I'm animating for you. Oh, those are good. I'm trying to make them in the shorts, trying to fix the formatting so they don't look gay. So we'll see how that works out. You know, I got to say, too, if I could add something,

I get texts like every couple of hours asking people which of the, you know, 200 John Curiaco pages on TikTok are mine? the answer is none of them are everybody's making money on John Kiriaku on TikTok except John Kiriaku so I get to figure something out that's over on rumble that way you get paid for it

Robbie quick question I've had some people ask they'd like to do the $5 a month rumble thing and just subscribe to the show but they don't know how to do it even when they're on the live stream so if you're if you're

if you're becoming a channel subscriber on Rumble you can't use the app on your phone. It has to be through a web browser. So either Safari, Edge, whatever, either on your phone or on your computer. On the live chat tab, scroll down to the bottom, you're going to see a little button there to subscribe, click on it, and that's how you become a channel subscriber. That way you get access to all of their premium content. Plus, and this is the big part, when you become a channel subscriber on Rumble, the creator

keeps 100% of it. YouTube takes a cut. does not. That is YouTube, that's just a big difference between the two platforms. YouTube has this hand in the creator's pocket. Rumble does it. And on Rumble, we share the, the $10, but we don't share the five bucks a month. Right. So Yeah, the five bucks is a hundred percent for you. If someone is a Rumble premium subscriber, then you can watch premium content with no ads across the entire platform. It's kind of like YouTube red. And then creators get a profit sharing. If you are a channel

subscriber, though, the creator keeps 100% up. it rumble does not take anything. Robbie will do an ad a little later on because I think we've waited too long for the questions as it is. Thank you so much. Okay, so let's do some some leftover from yesterday. Ms. Maugh, thanks for the 499. Hi guys, good morning. Happy Monday. Well, it's Tuesday. What's the intro song? I love it. Have a great week. Well, so I found it. Basically, it's just like I wanted copyright-free stuff so that I'm not stepping on anyone's toes

and YouTube has like a library of copyright-free songs that you can choose from and it's one of those and I'm really sorry I don't know what it's called but you could probably shazam that maybe and find out Artin Arthur Nassisian

thanks for the 499 also from yesterday a leftover question Aroten how will this war impact the South Caucasus, especially Armenia and Azerbaijan. As an Iranian Armenian, I'm very concerned. Well, they're not a direct target, of course, but there could be refugee flows. Yeah.

And there could be accidental missile strikes. I think they're going to lay low otherwise. What do you think, John? I think that's right. I think they're going to lay low. Thanks. This is the thing. I'm sorry, one more sense.

This is the thing about the situation. It's like everybody's on the verge of a refugee crisis. You know, this could be disastrous for the whole planet. John, we've already seen a reverse migrant flow from Iran back into Afghanistan of exile to Afghans. Now, I think a lot of Iranians might not mind, but still. Yeah. Oh, I think we have an ad, Ted. We do.

Okay, let me, all right, let me go and take a look at that. Well, I need to just, Robbie, you have to put it into the chat so that I can see it. Let's do another question in the interim. Aspire, thank you for the very generous from three days ago, $75 donation. Thank you very much. Do you think social media platforms are deliberately tuning their algorithmic weighting toward profit optimization rather than long-term user well-being? This is one of the easiest questions we've ever been asked.

Because the incentive structure basically guarantees it. How might this play into national security? I think the pardon is coming. John, thank you for everything. History will remember you as one of the good men of our day. Agreed. Amazing work is always. Love the show.

Can't wait to see where it goes. So how might the, I mean, yes, obviously the algorithms go toward profit optimization. How might this play into national security? That's actually a pretty profound. question, John. Yeah, yeah. It is a profound question. Oh, I think the answer is, of course, it's all about financial optimization. I don't think any of these private companies do anything for the public good. I think that if there is a benefit to the public, it's almost accidental. Totally. No, I agree with that. It is totally accidental. But in terms of the national security

implications. I mean, look, if we live in a world, John, where no, you know, the first thing, you and I live in this world, we all, all of us watching this show are, where you see something break on social media. And you're like, your first thought is, oh my God. And your second thought is, wait, that might not be true. Well, what's that going to mean when you get a warning, for example, from the emergency broadcast system that you need to take shelter. And people might not take that seriously. What's that going to mean if there's like, you know, a disease outbreak that requires people to take certain steps? We already know that the government's credibility is, was compromised six years ago in a big way. A lot of people don't believe anything they have to say.

I mean, I think the ability of the government to interact with its citizens and be believed is in the fucking toilet. And that's, that's a weakness for any society, John. John? Are you frozen? I don't know. John. Oh, yeah. Robbie, what do you think? John's frozen. Yeah, John's frozen. Let's go and do the ad before we lose it real quick. Okay, let's do it. Do you want to put it up? Yeah, it already is.

Okay, thank you. All right. You've already, you've probably noticed Rumble is growing fast and it's not slowing down. They're building a real alternative to big tech that puts creators first and actually protects free speech. And now there's Rumble Premium, an easy way to upgrade your experience. With the premium, you get ad-free viewing across the platform. No pre-rolls, no interruptions, just the content you came for. Plus, premium members unlock exclusive content like bonus videos, behind-the-scenes drops, and more from your favorite creators. Right now, Rumble is offering $10 off an annual subscription.

Just go to Rumble.com slash premium and use the promo code studio at checkout. That's Rumble.com slash premium, promo code studio, no ads, more freedom and content. you actually care about. That is the deal. And John Kyriaku is back. So John, I don't know what happened. You froze up a little bit, even though you're at home. So, so I was, so I was just wondering if what you thought about my, my claim that like, if the government doesn't have an ability to be believed in any kind of credible way by the American people, that's a weakness. That's a massive national security weakness. Huge national security weakness. Just huge. When people stop trusting the government for basic issues concerning life and death. Yeah, that's a serious problem. Yeah, I don't even know if

people would believe a tornado warning now. Exactly. That's exactly what I was thinking. What about a tornado warning, for example? Ah, it's probably bullshit. Yeah. It's really, they're the ultimate boy who cried wolf. All right, let's see some more. Manchild. Thanks for the two bucks. Good morning. Now that Ice Barbie is out and Mark Wayne Mullen is taking over at DHS. I remember, I remain skeptical of new leadership providing better results. Any thoughts? And of course, Tom Holman is now like the man on the field

instead of Dan Bongino. I guess that's a marginal improvement. What do you think? Do you think, you know, Mark Wayne Mullen says that he says that unlike Christy Knoem, he doesn't, he sees prioritizing going to prisons

and getting and deporting criminals rather than, you know, your babysitter. as more of a priority. I mean, who can argue with that? Sure. If it's true. But then at the same time, now we have ICE at the fucking airport. So, I mean, how much autonomy does he have? Is this really, you know, he can't really push back against the president. So I don't know. Do you think it'll make much difference? I mean, Christy Noem was a foul. She was a horrible human being. Yeah. Just a horrible. And I'll tell you what, that was a twofer.

because when we got rid of her, we got rid of Corey Lewandowski, too, who is an equally horrible human being. Yeah, whoever's flying the ice jet is certainly in a better mood these days. Can say that again. Unlikely Utopia, thanks for the Fiver morning. Hope you slept well, John didn't sleep much. I'm sure you guys saw Trump's meeting with Prime Minister Sinai Takaichi. Yikes, that's the Pearl Harbor joke.

opinions on our future relationship with Japan. I was surprised she just took it. She just sat there and smiled politely and nodded. Yeah, to quote one of my favorite movies, Ace in the Hole, I've met some hard-boiled eggs in my time, but she's 20 minutes. She doesn't care. No, she didn't care. She's trying to make Japan great again.

Yes. By the way, did you take note of the new military, the new military cooperation? agreement between Germany and Japan because, hey, all that's missing is Italy and then the gang will be back together. Where have I heard that before? That worked not great last time. Wow, wow. I mean, the whole point of the immediate post-World War II talks was that Japan wouldn't

have an army. And not only did they have an army, they're aligning themselves with Germany and they're going to start using that army overseas. I mean, obviously it would be up to the U.S. to enforce this and they don't care. I mean, is it fair to say, even despite all the shit that the Japanese and the Germans pulled, murdering tens of millions of innocent people that, you know, at a certain point, the world has to move on and say that's in the past? If we've learned the lessons from the past, maybe.

I'm not sure that we have. And the Japanese are still fascists. And the Germans, you know, having been in Germany all week last week, I like Berlin very much. It's got an awesome art scene and music scene. And it's a great city for restaurants. There's lots of life and activity. But these reminders of Nazism are everywhere you look, like in the architecture, for example. And it just seems to me thinking about, wow, breaking news, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urges Trump to continue war against Iran.

Wow. He says this is a historic opportunity to remake the region. No peace. Well, I've heard that before. Historic opportunity to remake the region. I didn't realize he was here in Washington. There were pictures of he and Trump together. other this morning. Anyway. We know that MBS often says things for public consumption and he says

exactly the opposite in private. Could this be one of those times? And that may be the case. But getting back to Germany, the Germans, the Germans want the world to see that they are so sorry for their Nazi past that they bend over backwards more than any other country to support Israel to the point where they're now supporters of the genocide against the Palestinians, which puts them right back in bed with their Nazi past. Right. True. Yeah. I don't get it. Yeah, well, they've lost the thread. You know.

Bugs and clowns, thanks for the $10. Hey, guys, back again at 3 in the morning. Do you have any thoughts and insights on the environmental impacts of the war in Iran, especially Tehran? Thank you for this question. I'm an environmental science freshman in college, And it's been a hot topic at school, as it should be. Good. Well, John, you and I both saw the...

Very pleased to hear that. We saw the acid rain that was caused in Tehran by the bombing of the oil refineries right on the outskirts of the city of over 9 million people. If they've really hit 8,000 targets, that's, you know, that's heavy metals in the soil. That's contaminated groundwater. that's, I mean, there's obviously more energy pumped into the atmosphere from all of these explosions. There's obviously a huge carbon footprint from the military that's not generally appreciated or much discussed in the mainstream news. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. You know, every once in a while, you'll see a picture.

There was one that the Associated Press ran yesterday of a car completely covered in like oil droplets, you know? I remember those days from the weeks after the liberation of Kuwait. When I was assigned to Kuwait, I had to throw away all my clothes when I got home because all of it was just covered in oil droplets. Because the Iraqis set fire to the oil wells. And in Iran now, they're breathing that in. And like you said, it's not just oil and smoke. It's heavy metals as well.

This is going to cause, I mean, immediate problems, of course, immediate respiratory problems. But it's going to lead to cancers and all kinds of different craziness. Yeah, like you remember the wildfires a few years ago here in the United States and in Canada. And what's not generally appreciated when things burn, I remember this from 9-11. Like, okay, so you think it's like when a building burns, right? Buildings are made of all sorts of toxic shit. And furniture has toxic shit. And there's wiring and all sorts of crap in there.

And the World Trade Center was 40% percent. built with asbestos until the law changed. This is the same thing in Iran, right there. When you blow up buildings, you're blowing up stuff that becomes, you know, toxic particulate. It's not like burning trees at a campfire. That's right. That's exactly right. This is very, very dangerous and long-lasting.

Yeah. To say nothing of, you know, depleted uranium. Now, we're not, apparently we're not using that yet. but if we were to put troops on the ground, we would be using a lot of depleted uranium. Or phosphorus. Or phosphorus. Like we used in Fallujah.

That's right. Neat Benny, thanks for the 10. I live in Ohio and grew up in Canton. You guys have talked about you people. I've talked about Ohio. You people have talked a lot about Ohio in the past. I was wondering if you guys had a favorite spot in Ohio. Best luck on the pardon, John.

I mean, Ohio is my home state. I grew up there. I grew up in Kettering just south of Dayton. So I have lots of favorite spots. I mean, my favorite thing in Ohio is really just to drive along state routes in the middle of nowhere and look at old one-room schoolhouses and stop at antique stores and all that. But my favorite city is Cincinnati. It's, I think, the most fun. It's a little bit wild and crazy for people who know the nightlife.

And it's like it's a cool looking city topographically. Beautiful. And by the way, oddly, you know, John, did you know, John, did you know? John, did you know, fun fact, that it's where reformed Judaism was founded. What? No. Cincinnati, Ohio. It's where reformed Judaism is from.

I just assumed it was European. Yeah, everyone, I thought that too. And I grew up 45 miles north of Cincinnati. But yeah, you know, it's, it's, but Cincinnati's cool. But, I mean, I really love, I love the state. You know, Appalachia is cool. I mean, you know, it's home. I mean, is it objectively like the,

best most fun state in the country fuck no but you know it's mostly rust belt but it's home how about you john my mom was born and raised in warren ohio my first wife was from warren ohio my first two kids were baptized well my first was born was baptized in warren my second was born and baptized in warren my second wife is from oxford ohio where miami of ohio is now that's beautiful and and my son goes to Miami of Ohio now. My daughter goes to the University of Cincinnati and my old my eldest son went to Ohio State and my second son to Cleveland State. But I have to agree with Ted. Cincinnati is the best place in the state. There is so much to do there. And when I go to visit my my third son at Oxford, we spend almost all of our time in Cincinnati. I sleep in Oxford. I stay in a hotel in Oxford.

but Cincinnati is fun. It's got great restaurants. It's a great sports town. It has terrific art galleries. The art museum is world-class. True. And frankly, Kentucky's pretty cool. I was just going to say, right across the river is Covington, Kentucky,

which is a very cool, hipstery town. Great restaurants, great bars. It's highly recommended. I like it a lot. Yeah. Back last December, we went to the, The Steelers, Bengals game, the Steelers kicked the Bengals asses, actually set a scoring record, an all-time scoring record for the AFC North.

Anyway, after the game, we walked across the bridge to Kentucky to Dewey's Pizza, which is one of my favorite pizza places anywhere in the world, and hung out there for hours and then just took an Uber back to Cincinnati to our car. It's awesome down there. Yeah, it's nice. It's a secret. Yeah. Aaron Gordy, thanks for the 499.

Good morning, men. Thoughts on the new secretary of SNSC of Iran. Also, Bahrain Island Kingdom attacked. As this progresses, the more madness. Hashtag pardon John and hashtag in the war. Agreed on both of those. Yeah. Yeah, so, yeah, do we care, the new secretary,

I don't think that's going to matter a lot. I don't either. The policy. I mean, the Iranians think that they can hold out, and I don't think they're wrong. F you so, two bucks, thanks so much. Interesting that we never hear about ICE going into the hoods to apprehend illegal MS-13 gang members. Like they said they would. So true. Good point. Aurora, Colorado, where's ICE? Only see them beating up old men and women. Yeah. They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. Springfield, Ohio. Go save the dogs and the cats. Yep. Dark Truth AI, thanks for the five pounds.

Hey guys, question for John, back to Greece. John, are you Arvanitas or your parents were? No. Funny because we're related to Arvadnizis through marriage, but no. You know, I always, there are freedom fighters from the mainland, mountain dwellers, very proud history. My grandmother always told me that we were descended from a very religious man. My family name is actually not Kiriaku.

Kiriaku means Charles and Kiriakos is Charles. And OU on the end is the genitive case. So it means the son of Charles. Oh, cool. And it's because my great, great grandfather was arrested for stealing a potato. And he was hungry, the poor guy. So he got arrested for stealing a potato. He went to court and they asked him what his name was.

He said, Mark, Marcos. Marcos what? Marcos to Kiryaku, Mark the son of Charles. Instead of saying our family name, which was Christodulu, which means the servant of Christ. So the judge wrote Mark Kiriaku and we just never fixed it. So my grandmother always told me that we were actually descended from a very wealthy man, very religious man from the island of Batmos, who traded his land to the Byzantine emperor in exchange for the cave where St. John received the book of Revelation.

And I told this story to the archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church, who actually came to prison to visit me with his big hat and his gold staff and everything. Cool. Very cool. And he said, you're talking as good as Jake Tapper. I know, right? He said, you're saying your family name is Christodulu, and I said, yes. He said, you're talking about Saint Christodoulos.

So, too Christodulu, you are the sons of Saint Christodoulos of Fatmos. So I said, that's an awesome story. I'm hoping it's not apocryphal. So now that I'm making a couple dollars, I'm going to engage a Greek, professional genealogist, a friend of mine, and I want him to get to the bottom of this. Am I a descendant of Christodoulos? Or am I a descendant of one of the followers of Christodoulos and that he was the original Christodulu? We'll see. Genealogy is awesome. You have to let me know what happens. I love it. I don't know if the Greek

government does this, but the French government, I guess in the last like seven to ten years, they digitized all of the old church parish records, and you can now get them all online for free. And it allowed me to go back to the 14th century and found out that I had some Dingus crusaders in my family tree, but kind of cool. In the church records, they have like a cross next to them in the register. Demetros Sivengas $5.

This follows nicely your last question. John, have you ever read the question, the book, The New Byzantines? And if so, what did you think? The New Byzantines is a book written by Sean Matthews, who's a journalist for Middle East Eye. I've read his stuff over the years. He worked for Al Jazeera and Electronic and Fada and all kinds of stuff. The New Byzantines is a book about the rise of Greece as a player in the

Middle East. I have not read it, but I have ordered it and just came out. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm a voracious consumer of everything written about Greece. I just love it. I think this is going to be a good one. You know, funny thing. I actually think about Byzantium. I love it. Anything, anything having to do with Byzantium. When I went to the Amazon website, the Amazon page to order this book, I noticed it only got like three and a half stars or something like that. So I was like, oh, maybe it's poorly written.

So I clicked on it. And it was just angry Turks gave it one star. I was just going to say that. Yeah, yeah. This is me off as an author. I'm looking forward to getting it. You should be a verified, you should have to answer some questions

to prove that you read a book before you give a review. Yeah. Anthony Favorito, Thanks for the 1999. Page 159 of Project 2025 calls for TSA to be privatized, says until it is privatized, TSA should be treated as a national security provider. Its workforce should be deunionized immediately.

Well, I don't agree with the deunionization. They don't make enough money as it is. But I don't know that we need TSA at all, to be honest. I mean, there's no evidence. Is there any credible evidence that you've ever heard of, John, that they've ever prevented a terrorist attack? No. No, in fact, I wrote an op-ed, I'm going to say a year and a half, two years ago, saying that NSA, I'm sorry NSA, TSA had been responsible since 9-11 for the capture of exactly zero terrorists. But more than 200 TSA employees had been arrested in the same period for stealing shit out of people's luggage.

Oh, I'm surprised at so few. So do we really need TSA? I've had some valuable stolen from my luggage by TSA. Yeah, I believe it. Morsuchin, thanks for the two Canadian dollars. Can the United States invade and hold Karg Island with 3,000 Marines? John, correct me if I'm wrong. Oh, they can certainly invade.

Oh, yeah, they can invade anything they want. They can't be blown up. Yeah, not a chance. Joseph. They'll get blown up, exactly. Good morning, John and Ted. John, I've seen you mention the economy is a wartime economy. economy a few times. What would we do to go about changing it? When did it start? Love the show,

guys. Pardon John? It started on the 12th of September, 2001, in all seriousness. We could do it, but it would require some real cahonious on the part of Congress and a leader in the White House that is willing to shrink the Pentagon budget, even if you don't cut the budget and then and cut taxes, you can transfer a lot of what the Pentagon does to civilian agencies in order to improve infrastructure domestically. So I'm not saying slash the Pentagon budget and, you know, shrink the overall budget, cut taxes, whatever. I'm saying you don't have to spend it all on weapons and overseas bases and military personnel. We need roads, we need bridges, we need modern airports. Our airports are shit compared to airports around the world. High speed rail.

High speed rail would be at the very top of the list. Free college. Yeah, seriously. All civilized countries have. Exactly. National health care. You know, this is one of the reasons why I got European Union citizenship from my kids, because college is free. It's civilized. And if they want to go get a master's degree in any European Union country, they can do it for free. Yeah, they have to pay for the books. Yeah. Cheeks, thanks so much

for the $3.49 New Zealand. Big love from New Zealand. Amad, thanks for the Hungarian 2000. Do you think, I think they're Hungarian,

do you guys think that Iran firing a missile at Diego Garcia puts the U.S. in a position to take more action because it scares the Europeans and through that fear

Trump might get the EU to during that fight? It's not inconceivable. Yeah, it's not inconceivable. I agree with that. Are you familiar? Sneaker Dad, thanks for the 50 bucks, man. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Are you familiar with Graham Platner, the Maine Oyster Farmer, campaign for Susan Collins as a government seat? I like this guy. You know, it's funny, he and the governor, Kay, I forget her last name, she's running for the Democratic nomination as well. But she's like 40 years older than,

he is practically, or maybe, not even practically, she's 40 years older than he is. Their positions on the issues are almost identical. He's very slightly more to the left than she is. I think he would be an immensely stronger candidate against Susan Collins than Ivy, then Governor K. Ivy would be. And, you know, Ivy's too old. She would be a one-term senator. She'd be a lame duck from the get-go. and I think he would be better. And he's more solidly pro-organized labor than she is. Question for you, John, from Bryson. Thanks for the 499.

Have you watched Snowfall? If so, what do you think about the portrayal of the CIA? I friggin love snowfall. My son, Max, got me hooked on that show. I love it. Yeah, it's great. Cleve to antiquity, thanks for the dollar 99. Thoughts on the Mark Levin, Joe Kent interview.

I did not see. Geez, I didn't even realize that he had interviewed Joe Kent. That would have been hostile territory. You know what? Thanks for flagging that. I'm going to check it out. Yeah, I'll check that out too. I like Daniel in the Lions Den situations.

You and I, John, are not strangers to that. 12 hours ago, mediaite says Mark Levine blows up at Joe Kent. over Iran war claim. Maga host, Daily Beast, MAGA host melts down at Tulsi Goon who quit. Fuck Mark Levin. What do you guys think about?

Thanks for the $1.99 from WNSN.S. What do you guys think about the Valero explosion? You know what? I don't know anything about it. I don't either. I was hoping you did. All right. Valero explosion.

All right, please look that out. Oh, and Port Arthur, two hours ago. Oh, Texas oil refinery explosions sent smoke into air. Residents advised to shelter in place. Yeah, I'm sure that's just an accident, but I mean, you know, it does, it did bring to mind like, wow, like what if the war came home for Americans and the way that 9-11 brought it home to Americans? No injuries reported. Yeah, it looks like it was an accident. Or October 7th brought it home to the Israelis. Right. Jimidi, thanks for the 499.

With the networks like 764 popping up, do you think there's. intelligent assets like Joshua Caleb Sutter, FBI informant, not CIA, but still. Can you repeat that about something? Yeah, sorry. With networks like 764 popping up, do you still think there are Intel assets like Joshua Caleb Sutter? He was an FBI informant, not CIA. I don't know.

I'm totally unfamiliar, John. You know, I've heard rumors. I've never seen any proof, but I've heard rumors that that's the case. and it wouldn't surprise me. Demwell, thanks for becoming a member for a month. Hey, guys, my friend George says that the reason we have millions of illegal immigrants in Europe is because the U.S. keeps supporting all of these wars in the Middle East and Africa, and now Iran.

There it is. What say you? Well, it's a contributing factor. Sure. And, of course, it's also a legacy of European colonialism. Absolutely, especially in Africa. Geneva Gardner, thanks for the $799 Australian dollars. I've seen commentators say that this war will have long.

long-lasting effect on gas prices that even if it ended tomorrow, prices won't go back to normal for years. I think that's right. I think that's right. They go up faster than they come down. And I think we're going to see, honestly, I think we're going to see four-digit, you know, gas prices, $10 and more in California and other places. Did you happen to see the report this morning? I saw it in the New York Times that the Trump administration is going to pay a $1 billion buyout to this French energy company. I think it's Total.

It is. The big one. To get them to drop their wind farm idea. Their wind farm idea was an awesome idea. True. They're going to get a billion dollars to break the contract. Donald Trump's not going to be president in two and a half years. Nope.

And if a Democrat wins, they'll get their wind farm back and they get to keep the billion dollars. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure Total stock is up. It must be up today. Yeah. No, it's. Yeah. But I'll tell you what, the agreement is that the White House is forcing TOTAL to invest in oil refineries in Texas.

That in and of itself makes me want to buy an electric car. You know, it's like we're being forced to cling on to oil and gas. What, John, what happened to free markets? I know, right? And the markets have been very, very clear on my other show with Manila. We've often had this lady who's an expert, Lauren Fix, come on and talk about the auto industry. And she's very, very clear. She's no lefty.

But she's very clear that the American, that auto consumers in this country, they want hybrids. And if they can afford them, they want electric vehicles. And especially that's going to be true now. I mean, it's stupid to, you know, to go backwards when the industry itself is already moving forwards. Yeah, that's exactly right. Destined for Nothing and I Bobelot were both gifted memberships by Poonbanger 69. Thank you, Poonbanger 69. Q-K-Note 729, 499. Thank you so much.

Hey, try to make a super chat on Rumble, a rant. YouTube censorship won't allow me to post the question here. When you read those? Yes, 100%. Robbie always reads the Rumble rants and posts them. In fact, I'll read one right now from Gant. $5. Love the Love for Cincinnati.

Don't abandon all hope. I shouldn't have said that. At least I shouldn't have said it out loud. I tell myself all the time. Daniel 96. I don't know what... Okay. So this is from Brazilian...

What's the currency there? God don't even know. Rials. That's right. 20 reals. Thanks so much. Thank you. Good morning, John and Ted.

Shout out from Sao Paulo. What are your thoughts about? America's counter-cartel coalition and the Shield of America. The way we all have to say. I forgot all about the Shield of America. The Pentee Shield of America Summit in Florida on March 7th. Keep up the great work. I guess my invitation was lost in the mail to the Shield of America Summit.

I think it's retarded is what I think. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I got to tell you, I got to tell you, a good friend of mine from college listens to show and she sent me a livid email because of the R word. Oh, and I'm really the most guilty here. So apologies should be coming for me, but I can't promise it's not going to happen again because I just like the word too much.

Besides which, you know, the thing is there's no other word that really quite works as well. No, in fact, you know what? It used to be an actual medical term. There were there were degrees of. of it. Like, you could be a moron or an idiot or, you know, there were like four, five, six degrees. Now they're all members of Congress. But yeah. Yeah, seriously. No, but like, yeah, you're right. I remember. I do remember that. But retarded. It's just a French word for, you know, moving more slowly. Retardé, right? Like, yeah. Right. When you say, I was late to lunch, oh, jeet retarded, pardon.

Oh, I saw the funniest thing on, on Facebook the other day. This woman wrote this just, nasty letter to Craila Crayons because she bought a box of Craila crayons at the dollar store. It happened to be in Spanish. And she pulls out the black crayon and it says Negro. And she's like, how dare you say black is Negro? How dare you? That's the word for it. She's demanding that all of these crayons be recalled and destroyed because it says Negro on it.

And they're like, it doesn't say Negro. Creoles are political, John. Do you remember when we were kids? The flesh-colored crayon? Yes. I do remember. Not Negro. No, I do remember. I'm sure that's gone. I think they changed it to peach. Okay, well, and rightly so. Vim Al-Nair, thanks for the two Canadian dollars. What's the best course, best, worst-case off-ramp for the Iran and the United States? worst case land invasion I would say worst case

I mean worst case there's no limit to how bad worst case could be nuclear best case we sit down with the Iranians and we establish full diplomatic relations and we cut the Israelis loose God yeah never to be talked to again they should never get their calls returned ever again

I agree with both of those points Thanks for making us number seven on Rumble, everyone. John, let's talk a little bit about Steve. So reports say that Steve Whitkosh has had some chit chats with Abbas Arajee. He's the foreign minister of Iran. Iran says, is not denying that the two men talk, but basically says there's been nothing substantive discussed. And so basically, do you think that I kind of believe the Iranian narrative here that nothing much. has happened. I agree. The EU says they're not going to use military force to reopen the

Strait of Ormuz as much as Trump would like to do it. Otherwise, this part I thought was super interesting. A lot of Iranians, of course, oppose the Iranian government. It's not a popular government, but they say that they're angry, and I remember this. I mean, I witnessed this personally. John, I got to tell you, I don't know if I've told this story. I don't think I have. So last time I flew out of Iran, It was very somber. There's no music in the terminal at Colmeny International Airport at all. It's like very, there's no like Musak or anything like that.

It's like the lights are a little bit dim. It's like just, it's not like the bright fluorescent lighting of a normal international airline terminal. And you know, there's all the women, you know, you used to see their eyes. And everyone's just very quiet and hushed, right? So we all file onto the plane. It was Turkish air to Istanbul. Get on the plane and we get off the ground. And the pilot comes on, goes,

don't. Attention, ladies and gentlemen. This is your pilot. We have left Iranian airspace. Everything comes right off. Everything comes right off. All the women are, like, wearing, like, scanty clothes, big, like, busts, like, popping out all over the plane. Some people are dancing out in the aisle.

Music comes on the plane. It's like the drink cart comes down. That's exactly how it is leaving Saudi airspace. Really? Does everybody, all the women are in design. jeans and crop tops and all that shit comes right off. I was like, man, they're all, they're all sluts underneath the, underneath the Chador. It's great.

It's like, so, yeah, so the point is the Iranians are, you know, but they say that they're in despair, even though they want the government to fall because of all the, they don't know how their country is going to be rebuilt. And they're worried about it collapsing into the kind of chaos that they saw in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan. after the U.S. invasion. I think they have good cause for concern. I just are worth noting.

Gringo change. Thanks for the 99. Hey, Ted and John, what are your views on the use of FPV drones against U.S. forces? Are we prepared for a real war? What's FPV? That's the suicide drones. Oh, oh, okay. 5,000 Marines get to the Middle East the same time as Trump's deadline ends, right? I think this is the future of warfare.

You know, between drones and robots and those robot dogs that scare the hell out of me more than the robot men do, just because I love Black Mirror and that one episode, I'm still like having bad dreams about it. Yeah, I hear you. That's the future of warfare. It is. But one of the shames of that is that it seems to me that, that it seems to me that that, that, that, that. that whether we're talking about the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Iranians, you know, whomever, the Israelis, they're perfectly happy to crash these explosives laden drones into civilian targets.

Yes, they are. Yes, they are. John, have you seen the new Trail for Wild Horse 9 featuring Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich? Supposedly about two CIA agents in 1973 being sent to Easter Island from Santiago. go. Thanks for the $2 from Jack Phil. By the way, John, did you know the statues? There's a whole body. There's a whole body underneath.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a whole body. I did see the trailer. And I saw it in the theater just last time I went to see a movie. And I was like, dang, that looks like a good movie. I'm going to have to check that out. It should be coming out soon. Looking forward.

Cole Ballard, thanks for the 499. You guys are from Ohio and Pennsylvania. Have you guys ever traveled to places in West Virginia? What was your favorite place to go in West Virginia? My ex-wife and I, this was my idea, we spent an entire month just doing road trips around West Virginia the entire month. We stayed there. Wow. Because it was like nobody ever fucking goes to West Virginia.

No. There was no. So this is one of those trips where it wasn't about any one thing, although I was really taken by Maytwin, where the movie about the coal mining strikes were set. I think Maytuan was my favorite. I love West Virginia. Fantastic. very poor, beautiful state. Really worth checking out.

My grandparents lived in Wyrton, West Virginia for a while. And so I'm looking for something that I remember seeing in West Virginia. And I was like, I got a, yeah, there it is. The Trans-Appalachian Lunatic Asylum, it was a mental hospital. from before the Civil War, it closed in 1972, if you could imagine, going that long. Hundreds upon hundreds of people died in there. Now they do tours and ghost tours where you sleep on a cot in the lunatic asylum. And people say you can hear, in the darkness down these darkened halls, you can hear people talking.

There's nobody down there. but I wanted to take my Yeah I wanted to take my kids I thought it would be kind of a You know fun thing to scare the hell out of them like that They were like absolutely not they wouldn't do it But anyway I like Morgan Town

My mom and I used to go shopping in Wearden Or in Wheeling Wheeling is a nice town You know Virginia and commute and sorry for some reason my phone microphone and they commute into Langley from West Virginia because it's so much cheaper. It's nice.

I wouldn't live there, but it's not. Very, very quickly. Katanas, last question for today, and we will get to the ones we didn't get to tomorrow. $5. What do you think of the assertion that Abu Dhabi is a Trojan horse from Israel? Oh, no. I, no. I think that the Emirates see dollar signs in this relationship with Israel. But no, I wouldn't call it a Trojan horse. Okay. And with that, we're going to call it quits for today. But no worries. We'll be back tomorrow, Wednesday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time with the program with Ted Roll and John Curiacu. Thanks so much for tuning in. TMI show with my and Manila Chan coming right up in just a minute or two.

Stay tuned. And John, always a pleasure. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. Bye.