DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - V-I (in his Imagination) Day | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss:• It’s V-I Day—Victory in Iran Day! “We've won this. This war has been won,” Trump declares. Or maybe more like Victory in his Imagination. Iran thinks it is winning in its form of asymmetric warfare, at least 2,000 Marines and the 82nd Airborne are headed to the war—er, victory/peace, zone. Also, Israel to keep fighting Iran several more weeks.• After demanding “unconditional surrender,” the U.S. sends Iran a 15-point peace plan proposal. Highlights: full dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, a permanent commitment to never pursue nuclear weapons and a requirement that any already-enriched uranium be handed over.• Airports are the new Minneapolis. After video of ICE agents manhandling a 41-year-old Guatemala and her 9-year-old daughter at San Francisco Airport went viral, it turns out TSA is handing passenger lists to ICE for arrests and detentions. Is it safe to fly? • Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emerges battered from Denmark’s election, yet with a path to retaining power. Social Democrats’ performance reflects a pattern across Europe, where the center-left is showing renewed fight. In recent votes from Castilla y León in Spain, to Marseille and Paris, to Slovenia and now Denmark, standing up to Trump-style politics, or Trump himself, can be a winning strategy.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. Thanks for joining us. You're watching D. Program with Ted Rall and John Kariaku for Wednesday, March 25th. Good morning, John. And from Scott Stantis, happy Greek Independence Day. I just said that in an email. Happy Greek Independence Day. You're well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Lord knows it was hard fought. So let's, we're going to be, we have a little bit of housekeeping. Cleaning to do housekeeping. So there's been some. requests, a notable request that Robbie and John and I have taken to heart, which is to try to make the mix of analysis and question and answer a little more manageable in the show. So towards that end, I don't think there's going to be many complaints about this. We're going to continue to ask you to like, follow, and share the show. We're going to continue to take your questions Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. But in addition, beginning next week, starting Wednesday, a week from today, at 12 noon Eastern time, we're going to be doing a live all Q&A show.

We're going to be doing that Mondays and Wednesdays. But the first time we do it is going to be Wednesday so we can gear up for it. So what does that mean practically? It means that if you have a question, particularly a super chat question, but any question, we'll put it in any time. If it's super chats that are left over that we're not able to get to at the top of, you know, during the program, which will have a little more time for analysis, and John and I, breaking down things to try to explain what we think is going to happen next,

we're going to put that into, we're going to kick those over to the Q&A shows on Wednesdays and Mondays at 12 noon. And in addition, during the live Q&A shows, those will be live, you'll be able to pose your questions there as well, and that'll just be Q&A. We won't be doing any, you know, analysis other than answering your questions. So, you know, feel free to, you know, tell us that that sucks or you think it's great or anything else you want to talk about in the chat or by email. Just let us know. But, you know, we think that's like right now, we're trying to, you know, we're still figuring things out. And we're trying to make things work for everybody as well as possible.

So we're also going to be, so today, obviously, we're going to be talking about VI day, victory in Iran Day, which Trump declared yesterday that we've won. won this, the war has been won, or is it in victory in in Trump's imagination day as troops head out there? We're going to be talking about the 15-point peace plan proposal. John, I'm confused. I thought we only wanted unconditional surrender. Unconditional surrender. And ISIS at the airports, we'll be talking about that. And I thought this would be super interesting. We haven't talked about European elections

in a little while. And, you know, Met Fredrickson, has kind of created a possible way forward for the very beleaguered European center left parties like the traditional socialists who pretty much have been dead on arrival for a while. So it's not like she's out of the woods, but she has a way forward. Anyway, we'll be talking about all that. We have some leftover questions from yesterday that we will get to ordinarily in a situation like this. We would kick them over to the Q&A show. Again, if you're just joining us, we'll be doing that on Monday, Wednesday, 12 noon.

in addition to this. So this is not, the show is expanding. It's not shrinking like the country. Anyway, John, what would you like to talk about first? Or should we just do those, get those old three questions out of the way? Yeah, let's answer the questions. I feel indebted to our questioners. Like, we owe them an answer.

So let's start with that. Totally. Okay, so Vaughn Hicks, thanks for the $799 Australian dollars. I wish you three well and the pardon for John Kiriaku. Couldn't agree more. Thanks to Erotin, Arthur Narcissian for the 49. Earlier asked about Armenia, the reason being that we're already being told to limit utility usage

since oil supplies have slowed down from Iran. That's interesting. Yeah. So I guess the question is, yeah, well, that's more of a comment. That's actually good to know. Ms. Sargent 29, thanks for the five bucks. Governor Janet Mills is the guy. governor of Maine. K. Ivey is the governor of Alabama. K.I.V. is down south.

Mills actually stood up to Trump in person and in court. And finally, last but not least, James Kelly, 98, 28, 28, thanks for the five bucks. She just had a thought where you guys, when you guys were talking about the wind farm, would the U.S., this is for the French company that is going to collect a billion dollars because the Trump administration is canceling their contract. Would the U.S. going to green energy destroy the petro dollar? that's a good question i don't believe so i don't think so yeah how the that's just how these are international transactions between oil and oil buyers would be carried out even if we were a hundred

percent green country those transactions would still continue to take place even outside of the united states yeah also we're not going all green anyway that's right we're not going all green i mean are we partly really yeah and even individual states that wanted to go all green like California, which, which mandated a transition to all electric vehicles by like 20, 35. Trump threw that all out. Just threw it right out. So we're back to square one again. Yeah. So shall we talk about VI day? Yeah, let's talk about VI day. There's not going to be any like hot nurses getting kissed in time square. So, okay, so So basically, Iran thinks it's winning. You and I kind of agree that Iran is winning more than the U.S.

is winning. U.S. and Israel are blowing things up. But as the people of Vietnam can attest, blowing things up does not win a war. You know, we blew lots, we blew up Vietnam like nobody's business, but we didn't win. And that was with ground trips. There are about 2,000 Marines and the 80-second airport are headed to the war. John, first question for you, what do you think those, these troops are going to do. I mean, 2,000 troops aren't going to make a dent in a ground in a land invasion of Iran. I mean, what are they there for? Is just support? Probably, but I think that we shouldn't overlook the notion that this might be about Harg Island, which I think would be an absolute, utter, complete and total disaster. Did you see the statement from the Iranian,

the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, I think it was? He said, we've been planning for something like this for 20 years. He said, we welcome the Americans to Card Island. That that's where their graves will be. I mean, of course, that could just be rhetoric, but. Asymmetrical war, they, no way. They watched exactly how things played out in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they learned lessons from those wars.

And so if the U.S. wants to send ground troops, the Iranians are welcoming the ground troops. Because the Iranians know, just like you and I do. We were talking about this yesterday or the day before yesterday. We would need hundreds of thousands of troops if we intended to really, you know, put boots on the ground in Iran. And we're not doing that. We couldn't do it if we wanted to. No, we don't have them.

And they'd have to stay there. Yeah, exactly. It would have to be like the, you know, the first Afghan war where the, you know, the Brits from 1839 to 1842 just camped out in Kabul. That worked out great for the. them, as I recall. Fantastic. Fantastic results. Everybody, for people, don't know that history, all but one of them were killed, literally. Yeah, and they left one to tell the story. Yeah, Dr. William Bryden. Bryson, Biden, I always forget. There's a fantastic, there's a fantastic painting called Signal Catastrophe of him arriving at, like, the British

checkpoint, all covered, you know, filled with stab wounds and bullet wounds, like, barely hanging on to his horse. So, okay, so what do, what is, what is going on here? I mean, the Israelis say they want to continue to fight for a few more weeks. Let's break it down, two-part question for you, John. What, what, the Israelis say they haven't accomplished all their war aims. Okay, what are those war aims? And then number two, why, you know, why do they need a few more weeks to do that, right? And then number three, Trump clearly wants an off-ramp here. Why? Yeah, he sure does want an off-ramp.

Listen, the Israeli war aims, war goals are unchanged, even if the Israelis now acknowledge that they're impossible to achieve. It's not just the decapitation of the Iranian government, but the removal of the entire theocracy and, more importantly, the removal of the Iranian. I think that both the Americans and the Israelis believe that they could work with the Iranian regular army. The regular army doesn't run the country. The IRGC runs the country.

Hillary Clinton said something in 2009 that was surprisingly insightful coming from Hillary. She said that Iran is actually not a theocracy. It's a military dictatorship. And I think that that's largely correct. Now, with that said, there is not a level of opposition to the Iranian government inside Iran sufficient to topple the regime. It's just not because even with sanctions, even with blockades, even with embargoes, the Iranian government is able to provide essentially what the Iranian people need to live. issues of freedom, democracy, transparency, those are separate. I'm not endorsing the Ayatollahs in any way.

I'm just saying you cannot rely on so-called intelligence from the likes of the M.E.K. The Mujahideen-Hulk, which is exactly what the Israelis are doing. And then the Israelis either pass that intelligence to the U.S. or just make shit up out of whole cloth and pass it to the U.S. and call it intelligence. And the next thing we know, we're mired in a war that we can't win. And what, unfortunately, thanks to the Reagan administration in the early days of the Islamic Revolution, there's no leftist party or organization that could organize the kind of overthrow of the government if that opportunity were to present itself.

having been there, I mean, it's been a while, but when I was there, you know, this was not a country that was desperately barely hanging on for dear life and waiting to be overthrown, right? I mean, it has an economy, it functions. Basic services are provided. You know, it feels a lot like Turkey or Greece or, you know, anywhere like in Eastern Europe, you know, it's one of the better, you know, it's a modern functioning country. And, um, and, um, it's, it's a modern functioning country. And, um, and, um, And also, there's a lot of space for, you know, for disobeying the mullahs, right? People have parties. They all have parties after work. At five o'clock, you know, half of Tehran, all the blinds get drawn, music goes on low, bootleg scotch comes out. People are dancing. You know, women are wearing that, you know, they're not completely veiled.

They have the veil is hanging on barely by a thread to the back of their hair. You know, I mean, they wear the mantle, which is this sort of jacket that is sort of barely passes Islamic, you know, the strictures of the government. But there's flirting in the malls. You know, I mean, it's not a, you know, it's not a bleak, repressive regime to the extent that would be necessary to really cause people who, who are making a fairly decent living to freak out and risk their lives fighting, you know, government troops and cops in the streets. My partner is Iranian, Iranian American. And she frequently watches YouTube videos of just street life in Tehran.

It's just somebody's got a camera or a phone and they're just walking down the street. And the video will go for an hour. And all you see is normal daily life. The restaurants are full. The little juice bars are full. Traffic is driving everywhere, people going about their normal business. Families are out walking around the parks.

It's like it's just a normal, normally functioning society. It's not the way most Americans imagine it. No. And that's not to say that like, I think honestly, if there were a plebiscite, free and fair elections and Iranians could vote for what form of government they wanted. It would not be the present one. It would certainly not be a restoration of the monarchy or the dictatorial Shah's son.

It would be something that looked like European parliamentary democracy, I think. But they're not going to get that vote is the problem. And, you know, they can't. So for the time being, you know, inertia. inertia prevails. That's it. That's the bottom line. Yeah. And anyway, I don't think the U.S. is that interested in regime change anyway. I don't either, actually.

I don't either. I think this is about, you know, regional disruption. It's about, you know, it's about oil. It's about all the usual suspects. John, let's talk about, before we move on from Iran. Trump, apparently the U.S. has sent Iran a 15-point peace plan proposal. So the highlights include Iran would agree to fully dismantle its nuclear capabilities. There'd be a permanent commitment on Iran's part to never pursue nuclear weapons

and a requirement that any already enriched uranium be handed over. You know, John, to me, that's almost like a punch list if I'm the Iranians and I didn't know what to do, to do all the opposite stuff. And what that sounds like to me is the JCPOA. Yes, that's true. And they're not going to, I mean, so first, I mean, there's just not, they can't, there's no starting point here. John, if I'm the, if I'm the Iranians, I'm reading this as U.S. weakness.

Like, oh, without any question. Without any question. Just think I. Yeah. they laugh when they hear the war's over we win we're going to start drawing down did you know i just read yesterday in the greek press the u sss gerald ford is in crete it's not even in the in the region anymore really it's in crete yeah what's it doing there are they fixing the toilets fix those toilets Wow. So maybe that's why they maybe that's why we're sending the 2000, you know, 80-second airborne guys in the Marines.

Yeah. We're just switching them out. I mean, it's so. So go ahead. To the issue of the Marines. I'm sorry. No, please. The only thing I can envision, Ted, is we send Marines, let's say to Carg Island, which is where most of the refineries are. and I'm struggling to think of what there would be that would appropriately and adequately protect them. Why wouldn't the Iranians just shell Karg Island and kill as many Marines as they possibly could?

Why wouldn't they? You see, I don't understand, John. Why would the United States or the supporters of the administration be lulled into thinking that capturing Krag Island is the key to reopening the straight of ormoos. It doesn't reopen the straight of or moose. It just puts you, you know, it just creates a big fat target for the Iranians. Yeah, that's exactly right. And also, by the way, if your object of reopening the strait of or moose is to try to get global oil prices back under control, shutting down a major oil supplier and refinery doesn't seem like really the right move. And, you know, Iranian oil, it's a global market. Iranian oil is as good.

is all other oil, right? I mean, they want that out in the market. That's why they've desanctioned Iranian oil at sea. Yes. Yeah, John D. Cackelfeller, exactly my point. He says the Marines will be able to take Carg Island somewhat easily. Totally agree. The issue will be holding Carg Island, which would be virtually impossible. That's the American, that's always the American wars of our generation, John, right? Invasion's easy. Occupation is hard. I mean, you know, the Brits in 1839, they rolled right into Kabul, no must, no fuss. Yeah. You know, it's all right.

Anything else you want to talk about that? I mean, I mean, obviously the Iranians are not going to give up their nuclear program. They'll accelerate it if they have any brains at all. I would. I would. You know, I gave an interview yesterday to a podcast in Australia. It's the biggest podcast in Australia. We were talking about oil.

And I said that the New York Times. It's in today's New York Times, but they posted it yesterday. They have a graphic showing where Strait of Hormuz oil goes. Literally not one ounce of it comes to the United States. So we don't care one way or the other. But Australia, Japan, South Korea, India, they get all of their oil through the Strait of Hormuz. And there are countries now with three, some of those countries are down to three weeks of supply. That's right.

They're literally going to be like Cuba right now. But I mean, but John, we do care, right? I want to push back a little bit. We do care about that because it's a global market. So if there's a shortfall there, it affects the price of oil globally. Yes. Okay, so let's take some questions, shall we? Yeah.

Okay. In Israeli official proposed buying Greek islands with Jewish National Fund money to create a safe haven for Jews and emergencies. What do we think about that? Listen, my contacts in Cyprus tell me that the Israelis already have begun doing that. And the Israelis just two months ago opened the first ever Zionist high school. And it's called the Israeli Zionist High School of Cyprus for the sole purpose of raising Jewish students to be Zionists after they have fled to Cyprus from Israel.

The Israelis over the last five years have been the top purchasers, international purchasers of real estate in Greece. This year, I looked this up this morning. In August, there was a piece in Kathaméryini, which is the New York Times of Greece saying that Israeli citizens, are buying Greek real estate at an unprecedented rate. And there's no end in sight. God knows Greeks can't afford to buy real estate. They're all emigrating to other Western European countries. It's not a good trend.

It's sad. All right. Aryan, thanks for the 99. Good morning, John and Ted. The orange boy seems to be confused. I like the orange big, as the Iranians call him, seem to be confused about these talks with Iran. Thoughts.

Also, France and South Korea have reported issues with oil supply. Seems like this is much more of a widespread issue. Hashtag, pardon John. What do you think? Yeah, I do think that, like, you know, Trump is not as sharp as he used to be, you know, none of us are maybe. But it is, you know, these are the mixed messaging of, you know, Let's unconditional surrender or here's a peace plan we can negotiate or we're talking and it's going really well but the Iranians say it's not or we're sending more troops and we're going to bomb the shit out of you.

I mean, at a certain point, if you're just flooded with bullshit from the Iranian standpoint of view, you just ignore, right? And you just keep your head down and you just keep on doing what you're doing. That's all you can do. Just keep on, keep it on. I will say, I'll repeat what I said. yesterday. If I were Iranian, I would be complaining that I'm not getting enough from the Russians and the Chinese. I get that the Russians are giving them targeting information. We all expect that. I get that the Chinese have given them some GPS devices, some radar systems, but I would have expected more. Agreed. And there is a land route, you know, in both cases. Exactly. Exactly. Why, by the way, Cuba is on the ropes. Why hasn't Russia had promised to send oil to Cuba? So what happened? I don't know. It never arrived. Yeah, it never arrived. It's like what? The Russian just forgot to send it or I mean, that doesn't make sense.

And God knows the Mexicans have an ocean of oil. Why haven't the Mexicans send it? Well, I think, yeah, President Shinebom's obviously scared of Trump. Yes. I think that's it. And she's, you know, we have that big common border. Thanks for the 99 from It's MacPro. Thoughts on the polymarket bets. Reports show seven accounts betting on U.S. and Israel military operations with a 93% success rate. Betts placed within a week or minutes before Trump's truth social post.

My first thought is you're going to lose that money. That's my first thought. might be my last thought. Well, look, I do think I would love, if we had a proper congressional oversight, honestly, I really want to know if Trump and or his family and or his friends are profiteering from his truth social statements that are clearly, if not manipulating markets, they're causing markets to bounce around in a highly predictable way, right? I mean, John, if you could issue a, you know, a Twitter post tomorrow that said, you know, this or that. out about this or that stock and you knew what was going to happen, it would be very tempting

to buy that stock or sell that stock short, right? I mean, yes, I have to agree. Hey, are you following this at all, this Calci app, these predictive markets where you can bet money on anything? I know about them, but I don't. I'm thinking of actually downloading it and putting in 10 bucks just to see how it works. That's a good idea. We should both do it. Let's both do it. We can report up. Yeah, that'll be fun. We should invest like a hundred bucks total and just see what happens. All right. Because I think honestly, I would put my predictions up against John Bolton's anytime.

Oh my God. We would be head and shoulders above John Bolton. Because John Bolton is going to be one of those guys to predict that the M.E.K will march triumphantly into Tehran and everybody lives in the land of milk and honey. Totally. He's always wrong. And yet he's always on TV. Always. Always on the so-called left-wing shows. Yes, that's right. So-called.

The Mez, thanks for the Norwegian Corona, I guess that is. 249. I love your content. John deserves a pardon. Love from Norway. Appreciate you. Monkey Mind Matters. Thanks for the 499.

Where in Greece should I go on vacation this summer? Went to Cretan Athens last year and loved it. Nothing not to love. Well, I can tell you more easy. Obviously, we're not to go. Don't go to Mikonos or Santorini. It's just a complete crush of humanity. It's a mob scene and the shopkeepers will rip you off. You know, I'm actually, if you have the time and you don't have your heart set on a beach, although you can go to the beach, Vesaloniki is one of the greatest cities in Europe. Whether you're interested in any era of history or you're a foodie or a film buff. or a museum person, whatever your heart desires, they have it in Thessaloniki. It's amazing. If you want to go someplace where it's so rugged and isolated that it's the only place in

all of Greece that the Turks were never able to conquer, it's called the Mani, M-A-N-I. It's on the southernmost part of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, and it is magnificent. Awesome. Thank you for that, John. Manchild, thanks for the two bucks. Morning, y'all, in this era of mayor of major wars, is the UN's inability to broker talks, enforce seats fires, or deploy peacekeepers a sign of institutional obsolescence or a calculated charter limit? Yeah, good question. I think it's the, I think it's the former. Oh, I agree strongly. I agree strongly because we are still in that mindset where our overwhelming force is going to, cause the other side to sit across from our generals at a conference room table and sign articles of surrender and those days are gone that will never happen and that's not the nature of warfare anymore and the u.n is impotent yeah impotent that's right i mean i mean honestly it should

just be dissolved at this point um it because it's an embarrassment uh unlikely utopia two bucks love the additional q-na's the show story can't wait Bryson Small, $4.99. Thank you. John, what was the time in the CIA when you most felt like you were in a James Bond movie? Although, also thoughts on the portrayal of the CIA in Snowfall. Oh, I'm in love with Snowfall.

The most James Bondish was around the Abuza Beta capture. Because it wasn't just electronic stuff. that allowed us to find him. It was human intelligence. And that human intelligence became even better when we finally grabbed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I mean, it was all about, you know, that the very basics of recruiting spies to steal secrets.

That's what it came down to. John, did you ever- And then, Snowfall is incredible. Did you get to play with any cool gadgets? Oh my God, yes. Oh, yeah. Especially in Pakistan where, well, not just in Pakistan. You know what?

I take that back. Not especially. In Athens, in Pakistan, in a Middle Eastern country that I'm not allowed to talk about, we experimented with cutting edge stuff. It was very exciting. That's cool. Very interesting. Did any of that stuff that you played with ever make its way into civilian life?

You know how like dark? A lot of it did. Yeah, I tell the story about my very first day at the CIA. My boss was taking me to lunch. And I saw out of this window there, there was this robot. And I said, oh, my God, there's a robot out there. And it was, it was mowing the lawn in an atrium. And he said, oh, yeah, yeah.

We invent stuff all the time. And some of it, we just can't figure out what the espionage application is. And so people just sort of play with them. Well, that thing became the Rumba. Oh, cool. It was about five, six years later, it became the Rumba. And I remember the first time I saw a Rumba commercial, I was like, hey, I know that thing. it's exactly the same design same shape and it turned out that yeah it was it was the CIA technology

they ended up like the CIA owned a patent that do they sell the patent how does that work who gets the money I was told that they licensed it so it and it's more than 30 years now so the patent probably has lapsed but but yeah the Rumba was a that was a CIA invention crazy Robbie, that's a clip. Okay. Cameron, thanks for the $1.99. In your opinion, is Erica Kirk an Israeli asset? I just think that's too perfect.

No, I don't think an asset. I mean, the word asset has a very specific meaning. And so it means that she is paid to perform a service, whether it's an operational service or information. She's officially a piece of work, though. Man, she defines the word, the term Mary Widow. Morsuchin, thanks for the two Canadian dollars. What might be the planned post-carg invasion on Friday, assuming you might know something I don't know.

And Marjan, thanks for becoming a member of deprogrammed. But what would be the plan? I mean, honestly, I don't think this administration or this Department of War slash defense has a plan. They're playing this by year, right? They're kind of like taking it one step at a time. They don't have like they're not, this is not even one dimensional chess, right? This is nothing. It's just like, they're kind of like, let's push this button and see what happens.

Yes. Yes, I think that's right. And, you know, I have to tell you, I have. a real problem thinking that there are serious conversations taking place at the Pentagon about sending Marines on the ground to occupy, to invade and occupy Harg Island. I have trouble thinking that anybody in his right mind would be advocating for something like that. Yeah, well, you definitely are sending troops to their deaths really.

even more needlessly than usual, right? So there's no, it's really stupid. Culture junkie, thanks for the five euros. Hey guys, you mentioned in the past the role of Algeria as intermediaries in Iran. Can you expand also about the role of Algeria in the Sahel? You know, I have a lot of respect for the Algerians. The Algerians, way back in 1980, the Algerians approached us and said, listen, you guys have this hostage crisis in Iran. We're actually friendly with the Iranians because of our own revolutionary past. And you guys are good guys to us. So what do you say? We mediate between you and the Iranians. And the Carter administration agreed. And it was the Algerians that negotiated the release of the American hostages. In part, the Iranians were probably

worried that, you know, this purported crazy person named Ronald Reagan was going to drop nuclear bombs on them if they didn't release the hostages. And Warren Christopher, who was the negotiator for the United States at the time, he was the Deputy Secretary of State, they had made some inroads, but it was the Algerians that got our hostages out. I think it's hard to, for people who are younger, to overstate just how terrifying to many people, Ronald Reagan, was. We thought he was a madman. John, I didn't have my, I turned 18 in 1981 the year that Reagan took office. And I, and one of my first orders of business when I arrived in college in New York was to go down to the French consulate to get regularized and get my French passport

and all that so that I could like leave if I had to. There was a line of 18 and 19 and 20 year old French American dudes around the block at the French consulate. And it was, a zoo inside. And finally, like, I get this tap on the shoulder and this guy's like, follow me. He was the consul. We go into this giant room on Fifth Avenue on the second floor. There's a huge state portrait of Francois Medinaireen hanging behind him. And he's like, he's like, I have one question for you. Are you willing to serve in the French military if your country needs you? And I said, absolutely, sir. He's like, all right, approved. Boom. And, uh, And so that was that.

Then he immediately said, you're in college, so I'm giving you a waiver so you don't have to serve. Because back then, there was still conscription. You know, that's very funny. When I got my Greek citizenship, I was, how old was I? I was 40, let me think. It was 46. And when I went to, you have to put your hand up in the air and take this oath of citizenship, of course, which I very happily did.

And then I said, listen, if there's ever a war with the Turks, I'm going to be the first to volunteer. And they were like, no, right? That's, we're not going to. Relax. Chill. Chill, dude. That's hilarious.

Pixel shooter, thanks for the five bucks. You, what's up, boys? Okay, I try to do that. Boys. Boring adventure videos, five bucks. Thanks so much. Thanks for mentioning Christopher Hitchens the other day. I really miss his literally work.

I also wonder what he would say about today's environment. I wonder about that, too. Young Courthouse. John, I'm a student at J-H-U-S-A-I-S where you first learned about Doste Le-Lie. Yes. Me and a Pashtun classmate want to interview you about this in the school newspaper. Okay. How should I try to contact?

Yeah, Robbie. can you can you get with young courthouse and we'll set that up Dashde Lele is where the is the Afghan massacre Yes Yeah yeah I wrote about that I was I covered that

In person at the time I've written some essays about it Which you could probably search for Is the goal Thank you Vimal Nair Thanks for the two Canadian dollars Is the goal to get A Tonkin Gulf

type incident in card and then a war. I don't think so. We already have a war. No, yeah. We don't need any more to trick the American people into a war. We just say, we're going to war whether you like it or not, and we just do it.

And we don't like it, and it doesn't seem to matter. I mean, I don't know how Republicans. Republicans are bragging. They have a poll. 75% of Republicans are in favor of the war. You can't win a war with 75% of half the country, John. No, you can't. We should say, too, there was a major political upset last night.

It was in the Florida state legislature. It was Donald Trump's home district in Palm Beach. It had never been Democratic before. And two years ago, or sorry, not two years ago, but four years ago, when it was last up for election, the Republican won by 19 percentage points. A Democrat with no experience. whatsoever. I think she runs a yoga studio, one by two percentage points last night. Maybe it's a really good yoga studio. I don't know, man, because the Republican senator that she unseated was a major honcho in the state legislature, and they just threw him out. And this is a heavily Republican district and one of the wealthiest districts in the entire state. There's been a strain now of something like 12 consecutive,

either special elections or off-year elections, and the Republicans have lost all 12. This is the same thing that the Democrats were struggling with in 2010, and they just pretended that everything was fine. And then the 2010 elections, when they finally came, the midterm elections, were a bloodbath for the Democrats. Well, John, they're headed down the same road. On the other hand, what can they do, right? I mean, like, what could the Republicans do to really change this picture?

I mean, at this late stage, they're not going to change their policies. They're not going to change their tone. They're committed to this course of action. You know, they're going down the drain. They know it. They know it's coming. They just can't help it. And Robbie, if that ad still exists, let's go ahead and do it.

Peter, thanks for the two bucks. And thanks for still being here. After the Great War, there was a proposal to make the area around Thessalonica into a Jewish land. Well, you know what? During the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century, thousands, tens of thousands of Jews moved to Greece, and they settled in Thessaloniki. And they actually maintained their language over the course of the five centuries. It was called Landino. And it's still spoken in a couple of pockets of northern Greece. But when the Nazis came, they killed almost every single one of the, I think it was then like 400,000, 600,000 Jews in northern Greece. On a percentage basis, Greece lost a higher percentage of its Jews than any other country in the world, even more than Poland.

I think Estonia might have it beat, but yeah. Yeah, as a major country, right? I mean, Greece, I mean, Estonia was tiny. Okay, let's do an ad here. They can freeze your accounts, shut off your cards, lock you out of your own money overnight. Banks don't protect you, they control you. That's why real financial freedom starts with ownership. Introducing Rumble Wallet, a non-custodial wallet built for people who refuse to give up control.

With Rumble Wallet, you don't just buy digital currency like Bitcoin and Tether. you can own tether gold. That's real gold on the blockchain. Through tether gold, you get direct ownership of physical gold bars, each one fully allocated, verifiable by serial number purity and weight. This isn't paper gold. This isn't an IOU. This is real gold without bank faults, storage fees, or gatekeepers. You can still buy, sell, or move it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when traditional gold markets are closed. And if you want, tether gold can be redeemed for physical gold. That's power. And when you support creators, on Rumble, like John and I, you can tip them directly using Rumble wallet, peer-to-peer,

and outside the banking system, no permissions, no middleman, no cancel button, the wallet is yours forever. Before we move back to the questions, very quickly, a video of ICE a couple days ago at San Francisco International Airport, arresting a 41-year-old mom and her nine-year-old daughter and saying very quickly that they were going to be, it went violent. They were being roughed up. People were crying, screaming shame and assholes at the ice agents. The New York Times has a piece today. It turns out that the TSA tipped off ice about this. And it turns out that TSA is turning over passenger lists of people who are flying every day from American airports over to ice so that ice can detain anyone that they kind of feel like is on one of those passenger lists. ICE has killed, I think it's safe to say, murdered American citizens.

They've killed, you know, foreign nationals. They've brutalized, God knows how many people, both American citizens and green card holders and, you know, and foreign nationals. You know, they're goon squad. So, and by the way, my first, an aside question, how come they don't wear their masks at the airport? They're not worried about being doxed at the airport? Only in the streets?

Exactly, man. Very weird. But anyway, the point is, is it safe to fly? I mean, I have to admit, the right wingers are saying they feel better, you know, when they see ice at the airport. I don't. I see undisciplined, unkempt, unshaven dudes with a hodgepodge of uniforms who are unaccountable, who look like hillbillies, who are heavily armed, and who can arrest you or beat you up or whatever,

or worse. I mean, is it safe to fly up? fly whether you're a legal citizen or not. I agree completely. I see these guys as almost like vigilantes where they believe rightly so far that they can get away with anything they damn well please. As you said, you want to shoot an American citizen in the face because you don't like what he's saying? Just shoot him in the face. Nothing's going to happen to you. You want to brutal There still hasn't been an investigation into Alex Pretty. It's exactly.

Or not good. No investigation whatsoever. That's right. They killed two American citizens. Even if they want to say, okay, well, you know, we're to let them off the hook. But shouldn't they have some kind of process they have to go through after a homicide? That's right. It's scandalous.

Fantasm. Thanks for the 499. Do you think Iran was able to get any Epstein files? Maybe the recent, well, they are good. hackers. Maybe the recent Iranian logo Lego loser music video they released is hinting at that. It's possible. It is possible. Yeah. It's possible. I think it's more likely that the Israelis have the Epstein files because he was reporting directly to them. So, thus they have files. We don't know how secure they're being held, but probably not secure enough.

There was an interesting piece in the New York Times last week saying that, that a lot of the Israeli targeting has been so good, especially inside Iranian cities, because the Israelis have successfully hacked into Iranian traffic cameras. So they've got live eyes on every major intersection in the country. Yeah, maybe it's time to turn off those traffic cameras. Will, thanks for the three bucks. Hey, Ted and John, love the show.

I'm wondering how bad do you think it can get in Australia. a few fuel prices have already almost doubled. Yeah, that's going to end in sight. In Australia, as you said, John, is a major, you know, destination point for that oil that goes through the state of Hormuz. Yes. I don't think there's a, I don't think there's a ceiling that we've found yet. And the Japanese and the South Koreans are having exactly the same conversation.

But let me ask you something, Ted. Let me ask you something. And I don't expect you to have an actual answer, but I'd love to get your opinion. Okay. But shale oil is profitable when the price of oil is over $60 a barrel. Well, we're like 115 a barrel right now. Why has the administration not called for expansion of shale? And fracking in your home state of Pennsylvania.

That's a really good question. It would seem like, I mean, maybe it's just that they don't expect this to last long enough so that, you know, if they, I mean, because obviously it takes years to, you know, It's not like you can just turn on fracking and that's it. I mean, there's a lot of capital investment. There's a lot of regulatory stuff to get through. I think they really think this is temporary. No question that they believe that.

Yeah, I think that's right. I think they're wrong, but we'll see. Joe Shanahan, thanks for the 999. Good morning, Ted, John, and Robbie. If you could gain access to any classified archive to gain knowledge about historical events kept secret, which archive and which event would it be? I'll put Robbie up to. That's a great question.

I've got to think about that. There's a lot. There's a lot. I mean, I have to admit UFO files have always been of great interest to me. I would have to go JFK. And also, you know what?

I was going to say the same thing. RFK. We are now number six on Rumble, y'all. So we are killing it. Thank you of them for coming over and for the support. Yeah, that's awesome. All right. So thank you, Robbie.

Let's see. John, have you ever watched? Thanks for Pizza 304, 5 bucks. Have you ever watched Breaking Points? We'd love to see you as a guest on there. I have. Yeah, I would do that. I would do that.

Sure. Okay. Blue Mori, thanks for the $699 Canadian dollars. Don't understand why the U.S. government is posturing towards Karg Island so overtly. Wouldn't it be wiser to be silent about the plans or is that naive analysis? No, that's correct. Normal people would be silent about the plans. Normal people who actually think these issues through.

But I'm wondering if the idea is just to scare the hell out of everybody. Yeah, that seems to be the Trump administration way, right? It's a threat. Obviously, the Iranians can prepare for it. Do you think it could be a faint, like F-E-I-N-T? Like, in other words, sort of like, we're really going to attack somewhere else, but we're going to tell you we're attacking here. Right, right.

Could be. But that would be so silly, don't you think? It's a little stupid, yeah. I think so, too. I'm trying to wean myself off the R word. Several commenters have complained about it. So, man child, 5,000 for the dollar. Thank you so much.

Billy Waugh, once spoke of a Vietnam era plan for tactical nukes. What's the current likelihood of using similar low-yield nuclear weapons to neutralize Iran's hardened underground infrastructure? I think that a lot of the people who are in positions of power today believe that they can justify that exact policy and get away with it. I'm very worried about that. It's not, yeah, the odds should be, but they are not zero. Yes.

I think that the international opprobrium would be very severe, right? I think it would push the United States almost to the point of being considered a rogue state by the Europeans and the Chinese. I think a lot of countries would start, they would, you know, up until up to where we are now, The U.S. is viewed as you guys are going too far or you're in danger of going too far. That would be actually going too far, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Way too far.

Jackson McGrath? Thanks for the two Australian dollars. But for the question you have, I think you're going to have to pay more. Can you find me a nice Greek girl, John? For a long time, I looked for one. I married one that I thought was good, and that was a disaster. I wouldn't wish her on you. Yeah, sorry, you're asking the wrong guy.

You know, I used to, so, you know, have you ever been, John, if you ever been to Tom's diner in New York at Broadway and 120th? Oh, yeah, sure. University. Yes. Right, the Suzanne Vega song. It's where, for people who haven't been to New York, it's the diner in the opening credits of Seinfeld.

That was my home diner. And it was a Greek diner. It isn't really a Greek diner anymore, but it was a traditional Greek diner. And I used to go there for decades, almost every single day. I mean, to the point where I could sit down and they just bring me the dish that I always ordered. And I didn't even have to order it, right? Anyway, one day, my waitress is like, there's like three of them.

They all surround me. And they're like, Ted, like, don't you think you should be with a nice Greek girl instead of the horse? you always bring in here. And I was like, excuse me? And they're like, oh, we see you in the morning, like coming in with this one and that one. And it's like, he's like, don't you think you should like, look at her behind the cash register. Isn't she beautiful? I'm like, uh-huh.

And they're like, well, don't you want to go out with her? And I'm like, no, because if I mess it up and it doesn't work out, I won't be able to eat here anymore. That's right. Oh my God. So, Rachel 1284. Hello, John Ted and Robbie. Question for John.

In your time, what was the most bat-shit crazy operation that was proposed that made you say, who the hell is behind this? I love this question. Well, I will tell you very proudly that in one of my promotion panels, one of the psychiatrists that I worked with operationally, in the Middle East told my promotion panel, John Kyriaku will come up with 40 ideas for an operation. 36 of them are bat-shit crazy,

but four of them are going to be really awesome. And they promoted me. That's awesome. John, let's talk about the Danish elections. So Prime Minister met, is it METI or MET? I don't know, Fredericksson. She has prevailed. Appears to be within shot of forming a governing coalition.

She's going to have to, she has some hoops that she has to jump through. The hard left, which got between 6% or 7% of the vote, is kind of saying it needs to be a true left-wing government, which she, obviously, they're just negotiating. But look, the center left, like the French Socialist Party, basically all these old sort of 1980s constructions were pretty much dead as of about a year ago. And now you're seeing like in Spain, the local election Castilla E. Leone, in regional elections in Marseille, in Paris, Slovenia, and now Denmark, there's a model for the traditional center left, which is Social Democrats, which is stand up to the Americans, stand up to Donald Trump, in the case of Denmark, in Greenland, like sending troops and setting up explosives to bomb Greenlander runways in case of an American invasion, telling Trump to fuck off. That seems to be the sweet spot.

You know, I mean, is that going to be enough to revive the center left in a highly polarized European electoral environment? I think we'll. only be able to tell country by country by country. And the reason I say that is I had exactly this conversation yesterday with a Greek whistleblower that I'm very friendly with. And we were talking about how the center left parties and the left parties can protect themselves electorally in the current international situation. And he said in Greece, they just have abandoned the left. He said, even all the left and center left parties, including the Greek Communist Party, the KKE, it's a Stalinist party. They've all jumped right into bed with the Israelis.

And whatever Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu want to do, they're all in. So I think that if we're going to take a lesson from this, we should take a lesson from the Danes and the Spanish. And maybe the French, we'll see. The jury's still out. but not from the Greeks and not from the Italians who've just, like, they're whistling past the graveyard, pretending that everything's fine. And if they just ignore this whole issue for long enough, it'll go away and they're going to be all right. I mean, up until the aughts, I would have said that, you know, the center left is where

Europe and Central Europe sort of naturally belongs. Without a doubt. For most people, I wouldn't say that anymore because not that the center, because basically the center left became like sort of Tony Blairized. And the, and then like the hard right has really sort of found a way forward through hard nationalism and populism and, you know, sort of avoiding international conflict, you know, becoming more isolationist. So it became, so that like opened, that created the opening for the far left,

like Milan Chau and France. Yes, indeed. So, I don't know. So I guess the point is, Center left is kind of like, you know, like in the movie. Not dead yet. Can't too early to say that they're going to thrive, though. Jarvis, thanks for the 10 bucks.

Hey, guys, thanks for all you do. Do you think this will be a drawn-out conflict or do you think we'll reach a de facto stalemate and declare victory who actually wins, praying for John's pardon? Thank you. My position from the very beginning is that Trump is just going to, we're going to wake up one morning

and he will have posted on truth social at 4 o'clock in the morning. we won. It's all over. It's a giant historic American victory. He's pulling everybody out and they're coming home. Well, he started that process yesterday. So there's no question that you're right about that. I mean, I guess the question is, will the Iranians insist on a permanent solution? In other words, could they say we're not opening the straight of formos? We're not stopping our struggle until you and the Israelis fuck off and leave us alone permanently. Yeah. Okay. Big Chimp in 88 says, stop the euphemism treadmill.

Embrace, quote unquote, the R word, which I will not embrace today, only today. Okay, a couple of quick questions. Black Panther, what's the role of Pakistan in its mediation with Iran? Pakistan's also a security provider to Saudi Arabia, security personnel. What kind of hold do they have on the Iranians? You know, interestingly enough, the Pakistanis would never have made that offer had the Saudis not approved. So I'm not sure exactly what we're seeing here. I was speaking to a former U.S. ambassador to a Gulf country yesterday.

And he said that, I said to him, I was surprised that Muhammad bin Salman went to the White House yesterday and then made a public statement calling on the U.S. to just destroy Iran when it took them 15 years to reestablish diplomatic relations and that was actually a foreign policy coup for the Saudi royal family. Yeah. And he said, what makes you think that the message in private was the same as the message in public? We talked about that yesterday. That's good. Yes. Yeah. I think MBS has a long history of that. He's the, he's the key. He's the literally the king of, you know, like, oh, I've got to say this for public consumption, but it's all about what's going on behind closed doors. Okay, so let's see, from your ex-account, shout out to John from the dollar sign CIA community. That's from Sika 310.

Hey, thank you. That's the new CIA coin, the new crypto coin. Oh, are you speaking of which, are you going to buy the new Trump coin? the new gold. No reason to, because now there's a John coin. Is there John coin? Yeah. It's hashtag CIA coin.

Is it crypto? It's crypto. It just jumped in yesterday. Oh my God. I'll have to check it out, John. Thank you so much. I can't think of it better. Racy.

Thanks for the dollar. Nazi retards. Oh, I did it. Fuck off. Dead Kennedy's new song, Dead. Hilarious. All right, guys. Thanks so much for tuning in.

We'll be back Thursday tomorrow. 9 a.m. Eastern time. We're here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time. And don't forget, starting next week, Wednesday and Monday also at 9 a.m. at 12 noon for Q&A only. So, and that'll be live as well. So we're going from 5 to 7 hours a week. John, always a pleasure. Looking forward to more show. Stay tuned for TMI show with Manila Chan and myself. Coming up right now. Bye.