DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Where Will ICE Killers Go Next? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • Where will ICE kill its next American citizen? Greg Bovino replaced by Tom Homan in Minneapolis, Trump to pull “some” ICE stormtroopers out of Minnesota, gun rights groups seething over DHS rhetoric as Trump distances himself from his own staff. ICE isn’t done—where will they go next? Some are at the Winter Olympics. • 1968 Redux: There’s no telling what an anxious United States will do next as a sense of disorder and chaos spreads across party lines. • After the Nursing Home Lobby gave $5M to MAGA, Inc., Trump canceled a rule that would have required more staff.JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLE!https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowFOLLOW TED:https://rall.com/https://x.com/tedrallFOLLOW JOHN:https://www.instagram.com/realjohnkiriakouhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLISTEN ON SPOTIFY:https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuLISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall

Good morning. You're watching D. Program with Ted Rall and John Kirooku. It's Tuesday, January 27th. And the administration is backing off from its untenable position about ICE in Minneapolis. We'll be talking about that. Also, sort of a growing sense of chaos that's spreading across party lines and how Americans are going to react to that. And kind of this seedy nursing home lobby story where the nursing home lobby gave all most $5 million to a Trump-affiliated super PAC. And then immediately the administration canceled a rule, much-needed rule, as anyone who has an elderly relative or is an elderly person knows that would have required more staff in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ted. Good to see you, buddy.

So, as always, please like, follow and share the show. and we are here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time every single week. And we're looking forward to reading and answering and discussing your questions and comments. Please post them into the live chat if you're watching live on YouTube or on Rumble. And if you're watching later on streaming, which most of you are. You're so don't feel like you're weird if you're not watching live. You are in the majority. I always say that to women who don't have kids. You know, 50% of American women. don't have, we'll never have a child and they're made to feel weird. They shouldn't. Good grief. Anyway, so anyway, thank you very much for listening. John, I was, I thought this whole, the way that the administration is responding to the killing in Minneapolis, I should say multiple killings in Minneapolis was really is interesting and kind of amusing if it wasn't for the fact that people were dead.

Greg Bovino, who kind of has a sort of swaggery Nazi vibe, has been pulled out, not fired. There were some reports that he was fired. Those are false. He's been pulled out of Minneapolis. Tom Homan, now this is the world we're in. Tom Homan is considered the kinder, gentler force. Yeah, Tom Homan is the voice of reason in this whole thing.

That's right. That's where we're at. So he is, he's, he's like now the, the kinder, gentler face of, of, of, of, of ice in Minneapolis. Gun rights groups are rightfully still seething about this. Interestingly, Kyle Rittenhouse posted on X yesterday that people should be able to carry guns to anywhere and anywhere that they want. Well, he's, he's consistent, if nothing else. I give you, I give you, I give any. but any point for consistency. Yeah, agree.

And so now the big question of the hour, as we posted it in the description of today's show, is, so where's ice? Well, I think there's two big questions. First of all, is Christy Noem done? She requested a two-hour meeting with the president yesterday. That's a lot of meeting, you know, with a very busy man. And obviously, she's terrified. She's about to be fired. inside chatter in the White House is that she's not dead yet, but, you know, I think she's on double secret probation.

And the other big question is, what happens to ICE now? It's not like they pack up and pack up their toys and close shop and say, well, it was a nice immigration sweep while we had it. I mean, they're either going to come back to Minneapolis or they're going to go somewhere else or both. Yeah. So, John, what do you think, you know, what do you make of the current lay of the land? I mean, clearly they're getting savaged in the court of public opinion. And Donald Trump knows how to read polls. And that's the driver here.

Donald Trump realizes that the country is, you know, Fox News aside, the country is almost united on this. This was an execution in Minneapolis. This guy was perfectly within his legal rights to be carrying a gun. He did not draw the gun. The ICE officer pulled it out from his, from his whatever it was, holster, body, pocket, whatever, and shot him.

And then they just opened fire and he was hit at least nine times. I did not realize until I saw it in the Washington Post this morning that since July, ICE officers have shot 16 people. That's a Gestapo force. And it's got to end. And I think Trump sees that. As I said, Fox News aside, because Fox News is all about supporting ICE. right now, which is funny because they were all about, about, you know, smothering out, snuffing out

the Capitol Police on January 6th. Yeah, although Fox News has had some, I mean, basically, that's 100% right, but there's, there's been a few notable exceptions. Ted Williams, the black former DC cop, who's a frequent commentator on, he's always good. on Fox basically had a meltdown on Sunday where he said that the guy had been executed and yeah and that there was no cause for it and that the rhetoric coming out of the administration was wrongheaded and that they needed a full investigation yeah but for for the most part it's totally the way the way you say fox has been in the tank for ice all along and you know

their talking point is oh you know you if you interfere with ice you you kind of like get what you get and you don't get upset. That's right. It's on you. I mean, of course, that's ridiculous. Yeah, it is ridiculous. I mean, it's basically just saying that protest is no longer legal and the Second Amendment no longer applies. Unless maybe you're a Republican, maybe you should carry your R&C membership card when you go to a protest with a gun.

Then you could present it and get permission to exercise your constitutional rights. Outrageous. You know, so the administration, I mean, you know, I'm glad. you mentioned, John, the Washington Post piece, 16 people have been shot by ICE, not to death, but, you know, 16. And in all 16 cases, the administration has reflexively sided with ICE, said that they issued public statements to the effect that they were justified in doing, in shooting these people. And it never crossed their minds once that maybe they should just sort of not put their thumbs on the scale or at least pretend not to.

No. And just sort of say, hey, we will. want to invest, we, you know, obviously let's, let's all stay calm and let's keep the, you know, let's let's see what happened and let the investigators do their job. Keeping things calm, it hasn't been the idea, hasn't wasn't the idea here, right? I mean, this was about stirring things up. And John, you know, I was five years old in 1968, but I read a lot about 1968, and I kind of remember barely because that's how when I learned here read.

And I, and I, and I, this feels like 1968, right? where, I mean, basically the authorities were cracking down all over the world, right? We think of just, you know, the United States and the race riots and everything. But in the Columbia University takeover in 1968, all that. But there was the takeover of, there was a new Paris commune, you know, at the Sorbonne in 1968. Right. Tokyo University takeover. It was all, I mean, it was a year of revolution and revolt.

Yes, it was. And, you know, the thing is that the take of the elite, seem to be the reflexive take was if we come down like the fist of God on these fucking hippies, you know, we're going to have the support of the great, you know, silent majority, as Nixon called them. That, I think, is the instinct now, you know, like if we crack down on the hippies and the illegals with, you know, just really hard, then they're going to, you know, we'll get support. And I guess the thing is you do until something like this inevitably happens. Yeah. And then people think you're, you know, opening the borders under Biden created chaos and you're not solving that chaos.

You're creating a different kind of chaos. Yeah. If anything, it's just worse. It's just getting worse. Yeah. Biden, Biden was wrong. That did create chaos and it divided the country. But this reaction is so heavy-handed. It's just as wrong. I mean, people are being killed. American citizens are being killed in the streets. quite literally. It's got to, it's got to stop. John, what do you make, before we start getting into the questions from the, from the viewers, what do you make of the credibility question? I mean, you know, it's like elites can no longer control the narrative. You know, we have the internet. We have our own sources of original reporting that we can refer to. Of course, you know, it's a good thing no one, we haven't seen much AI shit yet or deep fakes on this story. But I mean,

when a public figure goes and says things that are plainly disproven and not true and couldn't have and basically were lies because you know it's not like oh it looked like he was holding a gun it turned out it was a phone like no it didn't and and the thing is so when you're caught in a lie like that i mean does it matter or do your partisans just figure like oh he's he's our liar so it's okay. I think that's, I think the latter is the case. I think that's what we're seeing, uh, we're seeing in America today. And it's perpetuated by the likes of, of Fox News, O-A-N, Newsmax, you know, people have a position and the facts be damned. You know, it's funny, you and I are both, well, we're both independence. I'm, I'm more

libertarian, although I think you're libertarian. I have a very strong libertarian. I think you do. Yeah. And it's just, it's a misdemeanor. to me, why any American would be joined at the hip to a political party when they've both proven themselves to be so corrupt or a government or a government. They're corrupt and dysfunctional. I don't get it. And like, look, let's be fair here. I mean, the Biden administration and their supporters lied to the American people like the day is long, right? You can say that again. And I mean, you know, starting with and not limited to the fitness of the commander in chief, right? Oh, he's great.

He's behind the scenes, Karin John Pierre said he's like the human tornado. Remember that? Remember? I can't even keep up with him. Fucking liar. Yeah. What a joke.

And we all laughed at her when she said that. Right. And then the minute that she's not the press secretary anymore, she writes this book and she's like, we were all so worried. I wanted to tell the truth, but I couldn't. They wouldn't let me.

It's like, I hope we never hear her name again. No, I know. I mean, just once. I always dream. I know I think I've told you this before, but I always dream of the Hollywood moment where Colin Powell walks up to the podium, starts to read the speech,

the music starts to swell, the music stops, he tears up the speech and he's like, I was sent out here to lie to the world and the American people, but I can't and I won't do it. I will tell you the truth. Never happened. Never happened.

And then, of course, in his memoir, he's like, that is my greatest regret in life. Well, it's kind of too late to lament that, isn't it? Yeah, it's a million dead Iraqis too late. Yeah, for sure. John, should we do some questions? Yeah, let's do some questions. Already there are so many good ones. Yeah, there are. Robbie, a full Tammy Landigrant, my fellow Daytonian, a full court press assault on the press. Please ask to discuss. Tammy, we need more details on that. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. John, do you understand that one?

I regret that I don't. I know. Okay, Tammy, pipe in. We'll get to you. If the U.S. Aaron Arnold, if the U.S. attacks Iran, Ron, will Russia get actively involved? John? I doubt it.

I think the Russians are, you know, preoccupied with their own situation in Ukraine. And, you know, I think that the Russians... Yeah, definitely. Definitely, definitely. And I think the Russians and the Chinese have this longer-term view of these kinds of issues where they just believe that the U.S. is going to hang itself over the long term. We're going to bankrupt ourselves with these wars everywhere in the world. We're fighting all over the doggone place. Our military budget is bigger than the next eight largest countries combined.

And they know that we can't keep this up permanently. So I think that they're perfectly willing to just sit back and watch us hang ourselves. That does seem like the right strategy always. But I mean, you know, what about credibility, right? I mean, Russia is not the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union definitely would lose, worried about losing credibility if they were seen as not supporting, you know, being completely stand up for their allies. You know, in terms of Russia, I mean, they already kind of looked like shit, you know, in the Syria situation where they kind of like cut loose and Assad is out. and now, you know, the former al-Qaeda guy is running the country.

Is this, you know, I mean, is Russian credibility an issue for President Putin? It must be. I think it is. I think he takes that all very seriously, too, much more seriously than we give him credit for taking it. And, you know, this is another thing, too, that I think most Americans, or at least most Americans in government don't understand. And that is that we have lied to the Russians repeatedly over the years about not expanding NATO to Russia's borders. We did it anyway. And they said, okay, you lied to us about the Baltic states.

You lied to us about, what was it, Poland. All of Eastern Europe. Yeah, all of Eastern Europe, really. We're drawing a final line with Ukraine. And then we said, okay, we respect that. And then we said, no, we're going to put Ukraine in NATO. Right. After helping to overthrow the government.

Yeah, after overthrowing the government in 2014. And then we're shocked, shocked that the Russians invade Ukraine. I would say that if I had been advising the Russians up until 2014, 2014, I would have said, the Americans, man, they're the classic. Give them an inch. They'll take a mile. You got to cut it off earlier than that. You can't wait till they're right up on your border.

Yeah, that's right. Okay, let's read an ad here. You 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 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 bucks 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's the deal. Let's do some more questions and we can, I still have thoughts about Minneapolis. Teflon money, Don. Hey Ted and John, do you think Canada could manage without U.S. trade since 70 to 80% of Canadian exports are to the United States. And what do you know about CSIS Canadian intelligence, John? Thank you. I can tell you CSIS are a bunch of fucking assholes, first of all. Excuse my language. They're just total assholes. They don't like us. We don't like them. We're forced to pretend we're friends and to work together because we're all five eyes.

We're both five-eyes countries. But I never met a Canadian intelligence officer that I liked or that I wanted to work with because they're all jerks. What's in what way are they jerks? Just personally. They don't like us. We don't like them. They don't want to work with us. We don't want to work with them.

Temperamentally, personality-wise. Yeah. Yeah. They're just not nice. At least the Brits, even if the Brits don't like you, they're at least nice to you. Are there any Quebecois in there or is it sort of all English? I never met a Quebecwa. No. I mean, I'm sure there are, of course. But, but no, I never, I never worked with one.

Huh. Yeah. In fact, a guy that I worked for in New York, he had come to New York to be, well, he had come to New York from Ottawa. And he said that he more enjoyed working with the Russians than with the Canadians. Yeah. Well, I mean, I temperamentally love. of Russians, but they're funny as shit. Do you think, but could Canada manage without American trade? I mean, I have to say, it'd be tough, I think. Economically? I think it would be tough.

And I think that they, I think that they understand that. But I think that they're just trying to poke the bear a little bit. They do have deep sea ports, though. They could definitely, but on the other hand, they got big fucking oceans to contend with. Big giant oceans. I think that this effort by the Canadians to improve relationships, with China is real. I think that they're not going to be led down this odd path by the United States.

And they figure they're going to do what they can with the Chinese, weight out Donald Trump, and then reassess in three years. Well, we'll see what happened. Yeah, no, I think everybody's in that wait and see mode. John, getting back to the domestic situation, there's an, you know, there's an, I talk to friends who are like increasing, wondering if they're not going to leave the United States because they want to like be Alec Baldwin and vote with their feet. But they're scared that like, you know, something bad will happen. Ice will turn into, you know, I've been, I've been reading up, you know, like the,

on like the rise of the essay and all, and the brown shirts. That was the subject of my column that I just dropped yesterday. And there are, there are comparisons. You know, we, Trump has created a, a, a, a, a. a goon squad that is personally loyal to him. And now, you know, people are talking about maybe needing to leave. I have friends who are political cartoonists who are scared that they might end up on some like AI-generated like hit list at some point and that the election might not happen.

And one of the metrics that people that I know are looking at is, will this election, this midterm take place as needed as a scheduled? Ted Cruz apparently told Trump privately that he thinks the House of and the Senate are both going to be probably gone for the Republicans. That was a shock to me. The next two years is getting impeached every other week, as Ted Cruz put it. I mean, Ted Cruz is not as smart as he or his friends think, but he's not a complete tard either.

No, I mean, the guy graduated from Harvard Law School. And he's as unpopular as he is even in Texas. He manages to win every six years. I was surprised by that, but I'll tell you what, if you read it. it's not going to appear in one place. It's not going to appear in an article in the Washington Post or the New York Times. But if you look at the Post, the Times, the journal, the Hill, Politico, you can sort of put together this path that the Democrats might have to taking the Senate. I said on this show, Ted, six months ago, the Democrats had no prayer of taking the Senate.

And I agreed with you. Yeah. They were likely going to take the House, but not the Senate. But now it looks like Susan Collins in May. Maine could lose this race only because of Donald Trump. There are, and this hasn't been reported very widely, but there are ice, you know, heavily armed ice agents on the ground in Maine. Which is a very libertarian state.

Very libertarian and they're not liking it one bit. And then you've got Susan Collins who thinks that she can just- Talk about a gun state too. Oh, everybody owns multiple guns. guns. Everybody hunts, yeah. And, and then you've got Susan Collins who thinks she can trick her way into another, another term. And people have had enough. And now people are asking her, I never could stand her. And she's not very nice. I debated her once on Yemen. And then, uh, oh God, you must have been a blood bath. Well, I didn't know, I didn't know she was going to be the one I was going to debate. I was invited

to participate in this debate. So I went to this. What the fuck does she know about Yemen? Nothing. And I kicked her ass. And the next day, the next day, John Kerry came, John Kerry came to my office. And he said, did you debate Senator Collins last night? And I said, yes. And he goes, don't do that again. And I said, sorry. Why?

Why didn't he? Why didn't he like it? Because I wasn't worthy to debate a senator. I was just, oh, I thought it was more like he was concerned that you were going to humiliate her. No, I, I did. I did humiliate her. And he was pissed off that a lowly. staff member had had had had had the gall to debate a a sitting senator but anyway her her constituents are

her constituents are on her case to pick aside on this ice thing either you're with donald trump or you're not with don't Trump one or the other and she just won't choose and it's going to end up costing her that seat in the meantime joanie ernst in uh in iowa she was a shoe in for reelection and Iowa has moved farther and farther into the red, but now that's an open seat. Democrats have a real chance. John, and this is all, I mean, this is, look, the best metric here is the president's approval ratings. Is it me or have you noticed that there's been a distinct absence or shortage or posity of polling for the president's approval numbers in the last month or so?

Yeah, I noticed the same thing. And then the handful of polling numbers that you do see just show that he's flatlined. You know, we've got this MAGA core that's about like 43%. And then you've got the anti-Trump core. And then it's just six or seven percent in the middle that's just going one way or the other. But yeah, you're right. There hasn't been much. I mean, his approval ratings, as I've seen, it's been like around 38, 37.

I mean, basically those are Joe Biden numbers. Yeah, those are Joe Biden numbers. Yeah. Greg Battis, will Trump release the Epstein files? to distract from failed ICE CBP events and a bad economy. What a great question. So in other words, like we send ice to distract from the Epstein files, and then we do the Epstein files to distract from ice.

We can just have a distraction paloosa. All while sending an aircraft carrier battle group to Iran. Right. That's looking really serious. I'm worried. As you've been talking about for weeks, John. I'm worried. I really am.

Yeah, it really does look like something's going to happen by the end of the month, by the by next week or whatever yeah yeah well so will trump release the obscene files i don't think trump will release the obscene files under any circumstance what do you think john no i i don't think he has anything to gain by releasing them and i think that that you're right ted that if you just keep keep distracting distracting distracting distracting people eventually move on i mean that is that was that was mussolini's insight you know yeah the cult of action Yeah. Just keep doing things.

Flood the zone. Just, you know, your opponents are, while they're reacting to the thing you did, you know, yesterday, you're on to the next thing. And they're not, and they may have to figure that out. And it's like, ah, it's like drinking from a fire hose. Yeah. That's right. Okay. PD Hendricks, what gives the ICE agents the jurisdiction to confront protesters?

They're there to enforce misdemeanor border offenses not to force people to move away. Exactly right. They do not have live ammunition. Well, I mean, I think their argument would be that they have the right to be unimpeded to perform their functions unimpeded. And they're arguing that they're being impeded by the people who are following them around and blowing whistles and maybe blocking the road. Legal protest. Right, right. I mean, maybe not blocking the road.

But if you want to enforce a noise ordinance against the whistles, that's, up to the local cops, but these are legal protests. And the local cops, you know, are between Iraq and a hard place. Obviously, there's a, I mean, local cops are really interesting. You know, they basically follow the orders for whoever's in charge, right? Like in occupied France, they, you know, they worked for Vichy during and helped deport Jews, but they often weren't that into it. And they would, like, warn Jews in advance sometimes and say,

like, you know, you really need to be out of here tomorrow. There's a raid coming. And then like when the allies arrived in 44, then they flipped and started shooting at the Germans. So they're kind of like a, they're a weather vein. The local, how the local cops react. Minneapolis police chief, obviously, you know, working for the mayor, has been very clearly opposed to what ICE is doing.

What do you make of this? How credible is the administration line that this is all due, that the chaos in Minnesota isn't caused by heavily militarized masked men running through the streets, snatching five-year-olds. But it's really caused by a lack of the refusal of Governor Walts and the mayor of Minneapolis to cooperate with federal authorities and that if only they had that cooperation, things would be nice and calm. My understanding was that ICE told the Minnesota authorities, we're coming whether you

like it or not. Yeah. Exactly. That's why there's no cooperation. Get out of a fucking way. Yeah. That's why there's no cooperation with local police. Yeah.

Or local government. They just came in like an occupying force and said, we're doing it our way, whether you like it or not. Step aside. And they were getting some, I mean, and let's be clear here, right? The Minnesota prison authorities, for example, have continued to cooperate for deportations of criminal illegal aliens in Minnesota prisons. Yeah, no problem.

So it's not like that's over. Do you think there's, I mean, two questions, big ones. Where's ICE going next is the big one? And then, you know, what do you think, you know, does ice have to have a, are they going to have a more targeted, less indiscriminate approach going forward where they really are more focused on like the worst of the worst as opposed to any random Home Depot, you know, person? They are going to have to, yes, just because of public opinion.

I see Robbie's texting. They're all illegal by definition. Yes, but it's not practical. We don't have the manpower to just scoop up everybody who's here without documentation. That will never, ever happen. It will never happen. It's kind of like the version of prosecutorial discretion, right? Like everybody driving over 55 is speeding.

Exactly. But politically, if you pull over everyone going 56, you're an asshole. Yeah. And everyone hates you. It's just not going to happen. You start with the 85, the guys who are going 85, and then you work your way down. You know, I actually looked this up when I was in prison because I looked it up in the law library because everybody, every non-American in prison in my prison was illegal.

And they weren't in prison because they were here illegally. They were in prison because they had, you know, a warehouse full of cocaine, for example. where they got in a shootout with the DEA and got caught or whatever. So they do their 10, 20, 25 years and then they get deported. The prisons are full to the point of overflowing. We're not going to arrest more people just because there's a roundup of undocumented migrants. It's not going to happen. By the way, why do they do that?

Why do the, why do, why does our judicial system do that? Why don't we just say, I mean, I guess I get it like, okay, you broke an American. American law. You've got a Miss American Justice. I interrupted myself. I apologize. Yes. So the point I was going to make is I look this up in the law library. If you are if you are caught for being here without documents, without a visa and you're prosecuted, first offense is five up to five years in prison. The second offense is up to 10 years in prison. The third is 20 years in prison. But it's one of those laws that's just not enforced. It's just not. It can't be because if. Effectively, you could have a cumulative of, cumulative prison sentence of 35 years in prison. And that's not even including for the underlying offense that they were arrested for, right? Yeah, that's right.

And not to mention, and we're paying over $100,000 per inmate to warehouse them. John, why don't we just change the law and just sort of say, like, for a lot of offenses, let's say, I mean, I could see, like, you catch a terrorist. You don't want to, like, let them go because they could come back and attack us again. But let's say you catch, I don't know, a fucking robber, a liquor store robber. Right. I mean, yeah, they could come back and rob your liquor store. But why not? I'm not that worried about it.

Why not just, you know, send them back home and say they can never come back and let the local authorities deal with them or even have them have an arrangement with, say, the Bolivians. Yes. You know, they'll serve their sentence back home in Bolivia. Right. Like, why are we paying for these people? Why are we, you know, I mean, just financial. Why? But what you're proposing here, what you're proposing here, Ted, is too logical.

Right? It's just too logical. And I think that deep down, politicians are afraid that they're going to be accused of being weak on crime. Right. Is it also prison industrial complex shit? Oh, absolutely. When so many of the prisons, well, overall prisons, so many of them at both the state, well, the local state and federal level are privately. run, GeoCorp and CoreC Civic and some of these other monstrous private prison companies.

But then all of the immigration prisons are privately run. You're talking about serious shareholder, you know, investor money here. They're feeding a few biscuits. Yeah, yeah. People don't want to mess with that. Yeah, that's good money. It's like that crazy scandal back in your home state in Pennsylvania with the asshole judge who was sending, you know, kids who.

in many cases hadn't really committed a crime to Juvie prison because he was on the getting kickbacks from the private prison system. Remember that? Oh yeah. Hey, I wanted to tell you. I just got a, I just got a text from Shane Stranahan. You remember Shane from Sputnik. Of course. He says, hi, everyone. This is Lee's son, Shane sitting with his brother Ken. We want to give you an update on how dad is doing Lee Stranahan. We're asking for a little help. finding older photos and videos. My dad has been in a skilled nursing facility for the last several months after more strokes. He's unable to speak or to communicate beyond a thumbs up or thumbs down hand gesture. I asked him if we could write on here to let folks know what's happening

with him and he said yes, he's completely cut off from the world and barring a miracle, he's not coming back. That's painful for everyone, most of all him, but he's comfortable and they're taking care of him, although he doesn't like the food very much. He's being represented by the people who'd been helping him with physical therapy for most of 2025. And it goes on. And there's a picture of Lee, and yeah, this is not good. Oh my God. I didn't know. I'm very sorry to hear that. Yeah, I was a frequent guest on Lee with Lee. Yeah. He and I had a show together. Yeah, you did. Yeah. And didn't he have a show with Michelle or no, who did he his other show was with? With Garland.

That's right, with Garland. And they got in such fights that they both got fired. I mean, how crazy is that? Can you imagine like left versus right wing talk morning talk radio guys getting fired for being too spicy? That's supposed to be a feature, not a bug. I really feel bad about Lee Stranahan. So I guess if people have, I don't have any pictures. I don't either.

Yeah. I don't either. And Shane did some talk radio too. Yeah. Shane, Shane was there in the mornings for a long time and then ended up quitting so that he could bike all the way around the country, which was very cool. It's great to be young, you know? Shane was a good guy.

Yeah, that's so cool. Well, we're sorry to hear that. Sorry to interrupt you, but yeah, I thought people would want to hear about that. I mean, no, it's, that's, that's, that's new. By the way, thank you very much to John X1 for becoming a paid member on YouTube, which makes you, by the way, I think if he's tier two, that's going to qualify him as anyone else who does the same thing, to have the thank you in the closing credits of the show every day.

You've seen that if you watch the show every day. So, by the way, we are getting some breaking. news that apparently health care stocks are tanking. The Trump administration wants to hold, let's see, wants to hold Medicare rates almost flat next year. Oh. So, yeah. See, but this just goes to show you what a fucked up system we have where it's all about the profits. Yeah. It's all about the profits.

Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah, that's, well, that's all it is. It's disgusting. Okay, well, while we're on, I'm glad we're on economic issues here, Adam Tube 2 is asking, how are we going to handle the crushing $40 trillion debt? Yeah. Now, Adam, I think it's only 39. And while few are distant to be, distant to be trillionaires, the remaining $320 million or 320 million people are barely hitting by. 2001, we had a $250 billion surplus, thanks to Bill Clinton. Although that was kind of dumb, frankly. Bill Clinton should have, he kind of ran an austerity economy.

Yeah, he did. Kind of needlessly. How are we going to handle the debt? I mean, those are two different issues, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure they're closely related, right? I mean, there's rising income and wealth disparity, which is, I think, a fundamental core feature inherent to capitalism, just like Marx and Engels said from day one. And then there's this crazy deficit spending. And like, we can deficit spend a lot. Yeah, we can. But we're not

going to know when we've gone too far until after we've gone too far. That's right. So that's the problem. I mean. What a mess. What a mess. But at the same time, and I understand the, you know, MMT people. I get it. I get it. I'm not sure I believe it. I want to. I'm not sure that I believe that you can just spend, spend, spend and never have to pay anything back. That just doesn't make any logical sense to me. But what does make logical sense is that eventually we're going to have to pay the Piper. That at the very least, we're going to have to pay the interest on the debt. The interest is in the form of government bonds, mostly long-term government bonds.

most of those are owned by the governments of the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, and China. And the more the Chinese buy, the more they can squeeze our balls and weaken us. So we've got to get our act together with this debt. It's going to kill us in the end. I guess I would probably push back against you. If not for the fact that we're driving up,

we're creating so much debt by buying shit, we shouldn't want to buy, like defense shit. Yes. You know, I mean, we could cut the federal budget easily by 40%. In other words, get rid of 80% of defense spending within a few years. My main concern would be what do we do with all the people who are directly and indirectly employed by the Pentagon and all those defense contractors?

You have to find something for them to do. But that's the issue, really. But otherwise. Yeah. Dr. Douglas Houser, MD, Dokey. Where does Robbie draw the line for when someone is considered an immigrant versus an American? Is there a cutoff year before anyone who got citizenship can stay or just illegal immigration? Robbie is capable of speaking in the English language.

Why don't you answer that question, Robbie? Well, yes, I misspoke when we were talking. And I said I want all immigrants deported. I 100% misspoke and I own it. I want all illegal migrants deported. If you're here illegally, man, woman, child, you need to go away. Goodbye. Go back to the place from which you came.

If you're a citizen, more power to you, just as much of American as I am. It's a legal status. That's nothing to do with race. Thank you, Robbie. Okay, so, but, but, but, but, but, okay, thank you very much for the five bucks. Alexander Bruce. How can we come together as Americans? I've been right-leaning most of my life, but love my liberal friends.

Don't forget us. Don't forget us lefties. I have zero trust in either party. You too rock. Thank you so much. I mean, God, isn't that like the, that is the $40 trillion question? I mean, I have to. What I really want is for us to have a shared set of values, right?

Like core values, like where we can all agree, like that we should care about our country. We should care about a country before we care about other countries. We should care about each other. We should want the best for each other. You know, we make policy differences, not personal. We make it, you know, I mean, obviously politics are personal. But, you know, where we stop blaming each other, I don't know. I don't know if it's possible, John.

Yeah, I don't know if it's possible either. If it is, it's going to take a heck of a lot of work. Well, you know, you know, when it felt possible last one time for me was for about a week after 9-11, when everybody was shocked. Totally unified. Totally unified. And everybody slapped an American, I slapped an American flag on the back of my car. Oh, my God, I did too. And even my dad said, seriously, you with a flag?

I said, I know. You're going to laugh. Someone fucking stole it. New York. But the point is that like it's like sort of, but yeah, we were all feeling that way. And then Bush did his, you're either with us or against us. And that was the beginning of the end of that. But the point is it shows, I mean, obviously if you come together, you can come together to fight a crisis, a war, you know, a natural disaster.

I think during a natural disaster, nobody's asking your party affiliation when you show. up to help your neighbors, you know? Right. Right. Yeah. That's right. Why didn't Biden, Lisa Luchichichiko asked, why didn't Biden release the Epstein files? Because he's a freaking coward, just like all the other politicos. Too many of their buddies, both Democrats and Republicans. That's right. That's what it comes down to. Any updates on John Brennan possibly going to jail?

I'm working on it. John, this is from I'm So High. What's your insight on Trump's statement this past week about the military's secret weapon used to take down Venezuelan soldiers? Do you think the CIA has any involvement with the development of such a weapon? Probably not, but I know with 100% certainty that DARPA has been working on this weapon for at least 10 years. There's a little problem here. What Trump was talking about was some sort of a directed energy weapon. a sound weapon that just made everybody double over with nausea so that they're new though it's not new

but it's very much illegal according to international law we are signatories it's been used against protesters we're signatories to to international conventions that ban these kinds of sonic weapons sonic weapons yeah and we used it anyway and then trump just admitted that we used it so insane it's Apparently it's the first time it's ever been used in a combat or near combat situation, and I guess it worked. The technology is hardly even complicated. It's kind of surprising. It hasn't been done, it wasn't done earlier.

Roberto Wilco, John, have you heard about our anti-Semitism law in Oz? I don't know what Oz means. Yeah, Australia. Oh, yeah, I have. Jews and Sikhs are covered. Yeah, it's very much like the anti-Semitism. law in Florida where if you criticize Israel on social media, just criticize, then you're open for investigation. Even if you just say, you know, Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. That's a potential

criminal offense in Florida. Now, the reason why it's still on the books, of course, a court is going to have to throw it out. But the reason it's still in the books is nobody's actually been charged under it yet. Yeah. And let me add that this traitor, Governor DeSantis, when the Florida legislature passed it into law, he flew to Jerusalem

to sign the bill into law in the presence of Benjamin Netanyahu. Insane. Insane. Yeah. DBGT, thanks for the 200 rupees. Love from India, John and Ted, have any of you had Indian food

If so, what's the favorite? Oh, my God. Probably a quarter of all the food have ever consumed as an adult is Indian food. Seriously. Yeah, I mean, I've never had bad Indian food ever. No, it's true. Never. It's wonderful.

I'll go for a beef madras. I'll go for chicken teaka, chicken teca masala. I'll go for... But that's British. That's not Indian. True. So is Molagatani soup, one of my favorites. You know, but and there's so many different varieties of Malagatani soup.

I'm partial to the more tomato-y ones over the more lentil-y ones. Me too. My favorite bread is puiri. But, you know, give me a plain paratha anytime. And a biryani, any kind of lamb biryani would be my favorite, I think. Ooh, I like goat, too. Goat's quite good. I was in, I spent six weeks in Hyderabad 20 years ago.

And it was like biryani every single day. they're so famous for it. I mean, Indian food is the only reason you can eat in England. Yeah. It's like, you know, it's like otherwise you might die of starvation. Well, you can't eat eel pies every day, you know. As tasty and yummy as they are. Rosa Linder, 4975, Triple J, I can hardly, I can barely talk to my liberal friends in

upstate New York and they assume I love Trump. Yeah, that sucks. Yeah, it does. Tatum Hedrick, what's needed to pivot from the increasing authoritarian role of the executive. Trump is but the latest iteration of pushing the boundary of executives unchecked power. That's true. And unfortunately, people always say things like, well, it's like, you know, it's like getting the money out of politics. Well, they're not going to, no one's going to vote to get rid of their own power.

Yeah. The only counterbalance in our current system to executive power is legislative power. and judicial power. They would have to flex their muscles. They would have to be a fight within the system. They'd have to have some balls. I mean, you know, I used to have trust in the judiciary, the legislature, forget it. But I don't know if I have much trust.

I mean, John, I'm really watching this case about tariffs before the Supreme Court. Yeah. It's crucial. I don't really care that much about tariffs, even though it's an important topic. But I don't personally care about it. But like, if they side with Trump, game over Agreed

Agreed John if you ever worked with Sarah Adams former CIA targeting officer She's not a targeting officer She's very knowledgeable about the Middle East She's making it all up She's making it all up She was an open source analyst

At the open source.gov previously known as the federal broadcast information service She has She has decided She's made a conscious decision to be a hair on fire doomsday. What's a targeting officer? Somebody who it's an analyst who goes through metadata to identify the location of a person so we can kill him.

So literally. Yeah. She wasn't a targeting officer. She likes to say she was. She was an open source analyst. But she's made a name for herself by shouting from the rooftops that the end is nigh. You know, the terrorists are going to blow us all up. 9-11 is going to happen times 10.

It's, we're on the brink of something, you know, awful. She's just making it all over. There's no evidence for that even. I mean, even like without being in the CIA, I mean, in 2000, you could plainly tell that Al Qaeda was ramping up from the, from the coal, from the embassy bombings. Exactly right, Ted. They were getting closer and closer. And she's made herself a handsome living. You know, she's, her podcasts are monetized, and she's written a book, and she's, you know, she's out there making a living.

But she's a phony. Lo-key asks, do you think that, do you think the two sides are so entrenched, D's and ours, that the ice raids won't even matter? I mean, the new angle I'm seeing is both sides going with a, they'll utilize all the power against you if they win. two sides are very entrenched and they're not talking to each other for sure. Agreed. And I mean, you know, you got to listen to other people. You just, you know, to be smart, never mind to be good. Yes.

Tatum Hendrick, do you know that, don't you guys know that Obama's deportation numbers are seriously, severely inflated since its administration counted every time someone was turned around at the border? Yes, that's true. they did count that. It wasn't just people that they were scooping up from the middle of the country after they'd been living here for years. Star Runner 2020, ICE isn't going anywhere. If Minnesota is just honored ICE detainers instead of releasing illegals from jail, they wouldn't have to go out and find them. I disagree with that.

I mean, they're going, I mean, they are, Minnesota is honoring those detainers, is according to all reporting. Right, right, right, right. You know, it's like if you're in prison in Minnesota, you know, and ICE wants, ice can come and pick you up. They can. They, you know, the sanctuary policies do not apply there. Just filming.

We're all humans. Us little guys should be against the big guys holding us down. Totally. Some of the illegal immigrants are immigrants because of what the USA has done. Maybe Robbie should remember that. True, too. For Robbie, we focus on illegals and jobs, but we should focus on the impact illegal children have on K through 12 schools.

Overcrowded classrooms, most spent on ESL teachers. I'll let Robbie talk about that. What do you think about that? Well, it's true. I mean, here in Calisville, when the Ukraine war started, these people weren't illegal. They're brought in as refugees, a bunch of people from Ukraine. I live in a town of 10,000 people.

There's no one here who speaks Ukrainian. So they had to hire translators to try and teach these kids because, I mean, if you don't speak the language, what are you supposed to do? And I understand, you know, why, I understand that they are refugees from a war. But I also understand that that is money that is being spent for translators and all these other services. They're now not, those dollars are not going to, are now not going to kids or are you going to school here. So, I mean, no, resources aren't finite. You have to pick and choose. My whole problem is I'm sick and tired of our government prioritizing every other group of people on earth except for the American people.

Our life expectancy is going down. The economy here sucks. Wages are stagnant. And the question is always just like, no, shut up. No. I'm sorry, that's just not an argument to me. Shut up, Robbie. No, I'm just kidding.

No, that's true. There. I have the power. We're number 18 on Rumble. Thank you to Robbie and everyone else. John, you've mentioned that one of your former bosses became an author and writes books on obscure topics like Indian U.S. economics during the Kennedy administration.

You've never mentioned their name. Oh, Bruce Riedel, R-I-E-D-E-L. He's a brilliant author. Brilliant. Angela, thanks for the five bucks. Let me see. John G.endra, the Minneapolis situation is a color revolution. Not sure how a previous CIA guy doesn't see

for what it is. The organization running the protest is a paramilitary group. An untrained eye can see. Well, thank you for enlightening me, but I think you're dead wrong. It's not a revolution at all. It's a, you know, it's a, it's a fascist clamped. It's a right wing clampdown. Yeah, it is. Fascist is an exaggeration. Yeah, it's a right wing clamp down. Yes. Okay, Rocklight. I'm a Brazilian who migrated to the U.S. in 2022 legally. I support the current administration when it comes to the concept, but definitely not how it's being implemented. They need to fix the MO, yeah, for sure. Mania, John, what you take on President G purging the Chinese military,

one of his closest generals nonetheless? We did talk about that yesterday. Yeah. We talked about how now there are no senior generals with any combat experience, which I find fascinating, really. You know, G really is making strides in fighting corruption. And I think that that's something that the Chinese should be supportive of. I mean, if I was Chinese, I would want to fight corruption.

Well, yeah, no, always a problem. John, when you get pardoned, Young Courthouse says, I'm going to chug a bottle of Uzo, Papa Mali, and watch. Yeah. Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Count me in. I'll tell you the truth. I hate Uzo, though.

I don't want to say. I love Uzo. I don't want to get ahead of myself. I truly do not want to get ahead of myself. Are there better Uzo's? Like, does it's the quality matter? Maybe I've just had more. Yeah, yeah.

No, it's everybody makes their own Uzo, but you want, you want Uzo from the island of Lesvos. Yeah, okay. Yeah, Mitya. I won't make any jokes about that. No, go ahead. Good. I forgot what I was saying. Oh, no, I did buy an expensive vintage port that I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to,

celebrate with when that pardon comes, if the pardon comes. I do love a do love a port, especially on a cold day. Giacni, what do you think of the likelihood that countries like China, Russia, or even Iran, Pakistan are using BOTS astroof campaigns to rile up during the U.S. during this Trump term? I would. Yeah, but I mean, we haven't seen much evidence. No, there's not been any evidence, but if I were the Iranians or the Russians or the Chinese, I certainly would. Mayshak, can we ask Robbie, how many people died in the Holocaust after his immigrant statements? I don't actually, Robbie. I have no idea. Couldn't tell you. But we're not allowed to ask the questions. I don't know. I know it's a lot. I know it's too many. Six point eight million Jews, but they were the biggest of a group of

that goes up to over 20 million, right? Like all the Catholic priests we forget about. Yeah. I mean, I mean, they slaughtered all kinds of people. I mean, ask me how many people down to the Holocaust? I have no idea. I'm not God. Sorry. All right. And let's see. Ray, John, thanks for the fiber. John, what are your thoughts on the letter from the Patriarch of Jerusalem calling out Christian Zionists is taking church property and Mike Huckabee's response defending Zionism? I hate Mike.

I want to punch Mike Huckabee in the face, number one. Number two, I thought that the patriarch coming out with a statement like that was very brave because, you know, You know, in Israel, the church has owned these properties for more than a thousand years. They own half of the old city of Jerusalem. But they're not allowed to make any improvements, any repairs at all, without specific written permission from the Prime Minister of Israel. And it should not be up to Benjamin fucking Netanyahu to decide if my church gets to have a new roof or not. All right.

We've got time for one little topic and one more question, I think. Maybe we can do two questions. We'll see. Nursing, any comments about this story about the nursing homes? Say that again? The nursing home lobby. So basically the nursing home lobby was facing the requirement that they were going to have to actually hire some fucking people to watch the old folks. And, you know, everybody who, everybody knows there's like no staff in these places.

Yeah. It's a big problem. Anyway, then the nursing home gave four point, lobby gave four point eight. million dollars to something called MAGA Inc. I did not make that up. I wish it were. And then magically, the rule went away. You know, I mean, it's just standard influence peddling, but it's disgusting. Yeah. Well, not influence pedaling. It's awful. It's a big. It's a awful. Yeah, it's a bribe. Flanderina, in a recent episode, Tucker Carlson spoke about the United States following Rome

in changing from a republic to a much more powerful executive. He meant it as a good thing. It's not, do you think it will happen? It has. I mean, it has. This is not a republic. I mean, look at the Congress is asleep. It's not a republic. We like to pretend that it is. Yeah. But it's not. No. No, not at all. Well, that does it. We are now at the end of our show, but we'll be back tomorrow. So please tune in then.

We're here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time. Please like, follow, and share the show. If you are so inclined, please stay tuned for the TMI show with Manila Chan and myself. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, John. Take care. Thanks, Ted. Thanks, Robbie.

We will talk to you guys later. See you tomorrow. Bye.