Title: DeProgram Show with Ted Ra
Show: DeProgram Show with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas
Date: 2025-11-19
URL: https://youtu.be/Cxd39y6-Aek
Duration: 56:00

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[00:07] Good morning. Good morning. You're watching the program with Ted R and John Kuryaku. John, good to see you. >> Good to see you, Ted. Good morning. >> Good morning. So, lots to talk about as always. Um, so, uh, I love the there's a couple of spy stories, so you might have some stuff to say about this. the MSS, [clears throat] which is the CIA for uh China, is being accused by the UK [laughter] of using of recruiting assets or maybe agents through uh LinkedIn. Yeah. >> So, you know, I mean, this is good news.

[00:38] I mean, for years I've been on LinkedIn and I've never gotten so much as the slightest lead from LinkedIn. So, I was beginning to wonder if there were any real jobs on it. So this indicates to me that at least in the UK there are [laughter] real jobs betraying your country. >> Let let me add something to that. So I'm on LinkedIn all the time. I have thousands and thousands of contacts. I don't send out contact requests, but people send them to me. I and unless you're like obviously a nut or a weirdo or a scammer, I just accept people. So

[01:10] anyway, um about a year ago, I got a uh I got a an invitation from a professor in China at some university that I I never heard of. And so I accepted it. And then he said he he uh messaged me and he said, "Oh, I've watched your videos on YouTube and I would like to invite you to come to China to speak." >> Okay, [clears throat] great. I'd love to go to China to speak. I have a speaker's agent. I have a price. And so, um, I said, "Great. Let's have

[01:43] that conversation." In fact, that's exactly what I said is, "Let's have that conversation." >> So, then he comes back and he says, "Um, I've made all the arrangements for five stops." And I said, "Whoa, wait a minute. We haven't even begun to discuss this yet. >> So, no, we're not going to do five stops. This has gone on for the last year. And as recently as two weeks ago, he emailed me and said, um,

[02:13] why don't you respond to me? I've already arranged all of your stops all across Eastern China. And I wrote back finally and I said, I don't do work for the Chinese intelligence service. And then he blocked me. But that's what he was. I said I showed I showed all these messages to a dear friend of mine, Fultton Armstrong. Folultton and I were at the CIA together. He was the national intelligence officer for for China. And then we were on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff together. And

[02:44] I said, "Tell me if I'm nuts, but this is Chinese intelligence, right?" And he looks at it and he says 100%. >> The Ministry of State Security. >> Yeah. >> That's amazing. >> Yeah. >> I didn't expect there to be a personal anecdote there. the the the Chinese the the Chinese are successful when when they're trying to recruit somebody who just wants money. They don't care about the fallout. They don't care about the risks. They want money. The Chinese have the money. In terms of developing a

[03:16] source who may or may not realize he's being recruited by Chinese intelligence, they're really bad at it. They're really, really bad at it. But normally they're looking for people who have access to very sophisticated technology. >> Well, so in this particular case, I guess we're just going to leap into it. Uh just please like, follow, and share the show. You know, all that stuff, guys. Uh and we'll bring in Robbie later on to talk about why you should all watch us on LinkedIn on uh not on LinkedIn. Well, maybe we'd make money on

[03:47] LinkedIn working for China. Uh but uh certainly over on Rumble. But okay, so the allegation here from the UK and I guess it's sounding increasingly credible uh is that they approach they've been approaching all sorts of people like academics um MPs. What would they want from a British MP? I mean I guess some of them have access to classified information. I mean, is the idea basically like they dip their toe in the water like come and work for us and it sounds legit at first like you're

[04:20] just asking for say a a white paper or a report or something that's publicly available and then and then you then then you then they ask for something a little more and it goes like that. >> Normally that would be the the progression. Yes. But with a member of of parliament, you would all you would also have access to inside information on official deliberations. Anything from trade to defense to politics, you would have an insider reporting back to you.

[04:52] Now listen, 90% of the time you'll be able to get that same information out of a newspaper. But that extra 10%, they're willing to pay good money for it. >> Interesting. And money is no object. >> Money's no object. They're they're flush with money. >> So whatever. >> Um so I guess the question now is uh what if uh what what if anything can the UK or any target of this kind of approach right >> do to I mean obviously you can't inoculate yourself but how can you

[05:23] mitigate it [snorts and sighs] >> right? Um, you know what? Teach your people good counterintelligence techniques. Most people wouldn't realize that they were being pitched or targeted by a Chinese intelligence officer. Um, and that's the whole point from the Chinese side. And so just, you know, make sure >> although they are Chinese people, the head hunters here were clearly Chinese. I mean, you know, someone named Amanda Chu and Shirley Shen is clearly they're

[05:53] clearly Chinese. But there's lots of The problem is there's lots of legitimate Exactly. >> Chinese business people. >> Exactly. Yes. So just have your counter intelligence antenna up. >> Yeah. And if there's something in your gut that makes you think that that it's wrong, something's wrong. >> Too good to be true. >> Yeah. Then then it is too good to be true. Yes. >> Yeah. Well, I would be suspicious, John, of anybody approaching to offer me money on LinkedIn. I'm really not kidding. It's to me the most worthless thing ever. Uh, I've never had anything legit pop up ever. I mean, I've never had

[06:25] someone say, "Hey, let's do a, you know, would you draw a freelance cartoon for me?" Or, "I'd like to just buy an original." Nothing. >> I I actually make money on uh on LinkedIn. Really? >> I I just made a thousand bucks a week ago. >> Good. >> A guy asked me, he said, "Hey, can you do a one-page paper for me?" I said, "Yeah, give me a thousand bucks." And boom, five minutes later, he sells it to me. I've been f I must be I must [laughter] well you might just have a better profile than me but I also don't I always wonder if I'm not doing uh social media right. Uh all right well

[06:56] other stuff to talk about. Um new poll is out. Super interesting. Want to get your thoughts about that about um it's the first look at uh basically the midterms and it looks like right now Democrats would seem to be sitting pretty but I'm not so sure I believe that. Um, and then, uh, Trump has authorized CIA covert action against Venezuela. [sighs] >> So, I want to talk to you about like what that could possibly entail because it seems like that's very broad and possibly very vague.

[07:26] >> And go ahead. And then last but not least, I wanted to um I'm fascinated by MK Ultra. My son is fascinating by fascinated by MK Ultra. And you know, this really seemed like something that by now happened so long ago that it would really be in our rearview mirror and just a subject of history. Yeah. >> But there's a new lawsuit um that's just been authorized up in Canada in Montreal. Uh there's a class action lawsuit from one of the victims who was she's quite old um but back in 1958

[07:56] uh she was 16 years old. So, she was born in 1942 and uh she went through all apparently through all sorts of hell uh when she was uh basically like kind of like a disobedient juvenile delinquent type and some judge, you know, basically sent her off to the tender mercies of the MK Ultra program that was being administered by a Canadian guy who's now long dead. Um, >> and we know with 100% certainty that many of the MK Ultra experiments took

[08:27] place in Canada. >> Why? >> Um, we asked the Canadian Intelligence Service to help us out. This was all antis-siet, anti-Chinese, you know, remote viewing and LSD and all that stuff, and they gladly helped. >> Was it just I mean, it was just because we're we're just because we're allies. Yeah. I mean, from the CIA point of view, why not just do it here at home? Or was it partly uh you know, it's a little bit remote, it's a little bit plausible, possible deniability? >> We we mostly did it at home. What MK Ultra is, for people who don't know, it

[08:57] was a a top secret CIA program from 1955. It the origins were 1952 up to 1975 when they were caught by the Church Committee. And so what they did was things like they experimented on American citizens without their knowledge uh by dosing people with LSD. Um they uh they hired prostitutes in San Francisco to go out on the street, find

[09:27] John's, lure them back to the CIA safe house, and dose the John's with LSD just to see if the John's would would give up their deepest, darkest secrets. Uh they they pumped a germ into the air during an especially foggy uh morning in uh San Francisco just to see if they could successfully infect large numbers of people and 11 people came down with this very rare upper respiratory infection. And then it was things like

[09:58] >> same thing in the New York City subway system. They dropped they dropped a germ off the back of a subway in a light bulb. >> Correct. And it broke. And they wanted to track it, right? It was about And they thought it was innocuous. Yeah. They thought and some really old guy who suffered from us as uh who had it would have been me. I I have respiratory issues. Sure. And he was like, I don't know, maybe 80 or something. And he kicked. >> He died. >> Yeah. >> Yes. That's what they did. And there were sub uh operations MK Chickwit, MK

[10:29] Nightclub, um that that did other things. The truth is the CIA dosed its own employees with LSD. Um, at least one committed suicide, probably two. And um, and it was only because the the church committee accidentally stumbled on it that we know anything about it. And then Senator Church in that hearing ordered the CIA director to preserve every page of documents. And he went back to CIA headquarters and ordered everybody to

[10:59] destroy everything. And so what we have left is just about 20% of the documents [snorts] >> that they either hadn't found or didn't destroy, couldn't destroy for whatever reason. So we really don't know anymore what MKLA >> carbon paper carbon paper was an investigator's friend back then because every government memo was carboned, right? Like you know for people who are old, you know, is basically how to make a Xerox copy before there was a Xerox

[11:29] machine. And so, you know, like when whenever I've researched government archives, you'll often find the same document, the same memo, uh, you know, in six different archives because it was, you know, different places. So, it's hard for a government to get rid of everything. It always looks like that. >> Yes. >> That last scene of Indiana Jones in the giant arc in a giant warehouse. >> Warehouse. Yeah. Um, somebody makes a comment. Oh, no, no, we we'll get to that. We'll get to that in a minute. But anyway, MK Ultra, uh, I mean, and I I

[12:00] know that I know that we've got a packed show. We only have 45 minutes left and there's a lot on the agenda, but I wanted to say something, too. The Washington Post is reporting today that a Democratic delegate, this is a non- voting member of Congress from the US Virgin Islands by the name of Stacy Plaset. I never heard of Stacy Plasket until this morning. She was found in these latest Epstein documents to have been texting Epstein in 2019 live while the Epstein

[12:34] hearing was going on. Um, it was just found in this in this trunch of documents last night. a Republican from South Carolina by the name of uh Ralph Norman introduced a resolution to um censure her, saying it was beyond comprehension that she would communicate with Epstein live during a hearing on Epste. >> Was this a closed door hearing? >> No, it was No, but Epstein told her what questions to ask of Michael Cohen,

[13:04] Trump's former attorney. >> Wow. >> Yeah. Get this though. So he had his So he had his uh he had his his eye in the room. >> Yeah, he [clears throat] did. He had his eye in the room. The resolution to censure her failed 214 to 209. All Democrats voted no. That just I mean talk about frigin corruption. >> That's disgusting. >> Disgusting. Um, you know, by the way, speaking of disgusting, uh, perhaps the, uh, man in America with the dumbest

[13:36] ideas about women in science, Larry Summers. Yes. U, he, uh, you know, has just stepped down right before the show from the board of Open AI. I guess my chances of of being, uh, decentered from Jack GPT may have gone out the window with him, or maybe not. Maybe they they've increased, but uh, he's gone. Uh he said he said that he was stepping he he was not going to do this but a couple of days ago he apologized said he was deeply ashamed of his association with Epstein and I assume more maybe than his

[14:09] association >> yeah so why didn't why didn't he say that years ago >> years ago >> why now that we've caught him as a pedophile >> right >> only now he decides he needs to resign from these boards and only now is he so deeply ashamed >> and now he but he still wants to teach. >> Yeah, he's going to teach and and he still is going to teach unless Harvard fires him. He's not the president of Harvard anymore, but he's still a tenur professor. >> Absolutely unacceptable. >> Yeah. And this is a I mean, by the way, I don't know how much I would be

[14:39] interested in learning from a person who doesn't think that women are as good at math and science as men. Call Marie Kuri. Um, you know, [laughter] I don't know. But, but I mean, so yeah, I mean, he's been caught. I mean, is that it for him? I mean, basically, it's this. This is the new crisis management. When you get caught doing something really terrible, I'm gonna step aside. I'm going to back off. I'm going to reassess, spend time in therapy, maybe go look at plants and animals. Um, you

[15:11] know, I mean, and and so that's it. I mean, the implication is really clear that he he was doing very bad things to very innocent girls. >> Yes. Yes, he was indeed. Yeah. And there's not going to be any price for him to pay. Just this self flagagillation that's all for the public's consumption and then that's all. >> Um, question related to this for you, John from De's Nuts. I just watched your latest episode on Deep Focus. You guys predicted that the

[15:41] Senate would block the release of the Epstein files, but last night the bill passed. Thoughts? >> Yes, I do have some thoughts. So, we were wrong about that for for a reason that developed very quickly. John Thun had John Thoon, the Senate Majority Leader, had said several times over the past week that he was not going to allow this thing to come to a vote. But night before last, Donald Trump urged Republicans to vote yes. They voted yes. Well, it was the the final vote in the House was 417 to one. Uh there was one

[16:14] [snorts] just piece of trash from I think it was from Texas that or Louisiana that voted no and um and Thoon realized that the the train had left the station and it was barreling right toward him and so he decided to to get on the right side of this. But I'll tell you what, and this is another indication of the insider corruption that are both parties. Um, to save Thoon, Chuck Schumer asked for

[16:46] >> [snorts] >> um, a voice vote. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. The eyes have it. Just like that. [clears throat] That's literally >> the length of time that it took. >> Yes. They didn't They didn't do a roll call. >> No, there was no roll call vote. And so there is no written record of how anybody voted. And now literally everybody but this clown from Louisiana can say, "I stood up against the pedophiles. I stood up against Epstein." No, >> Trump will sign. He will sign, right? >> He said he'll sign.

[17:16] >> Yeah. >> Although today the Times has an article saying, "Sure, he's going to sign it." And then who's going to ensure that he actually does it? >> Right. Well, that's always the thing, right? And like with the DO and of course there's the get out of jail free card. the DOJ saying, "Well, but there's an ongoing investigation and we can't release it just yet. We'll get back to you." Um, John, thanks for the $5 donation. USX A-Rod is asking a very pertinent question. Will there be any way to tell if the release of the

[17:46] documents is legit? I don't trust Bondi, Patel, or Trump not to alter the documents, especially after finally agreeing to release them. I mean, it is true that these are digital files and you know, I I went I I did a deep but it's common sense, but I did a deep dive through this in my lawsuit against the LA Times, which also involved like a discussion of the difference between analog and digital files. If a if you have a paper memo like in the old days, uh like carbon pop copied, it's very

[18:16] easy to authenticate whether it's real or not. >> That's right. But a digital file is really easy to manipulate. And it's very almost impossible to authenticate. I mean, the only way really you can authenticate it, correct me if I'm wrong, is by ver let's say, let's say, for example, I email you and you and you print it out and you say, "This is a copy of Ted's email to me." And then you can check with me and I can say, "This is my copy of it." And if the two are the same, then probably that's legit.

[18:48] But that's not really beyond a reasonable doubt. We both could have altered it in the same exact or modified it in the same way. I mean, if it's in if it went to 10 different people, it's far likelier that that's really the one, right? I mean, >> they can do what they did to Jesslyn Raidak. Jesslyn Raak was one of my attorneys in my case. She's a famous whistleblower in her own right. She was the director of ethics at the Justice Department. The night that John Walker Lind, the American Talib, was was captured in

[19:22] northern Afghanistan, the FBI called her in the middle of the night and said, "We we just >> um we just caught an American citizen." She said, "Whatever you do, you have to read him his rights." >> And they didn't. >> I know. Well, she had written up a a memo, an electronic memo, and it was in the system. She sent a copy to the attorney general, a copy to the head of OLC, a copy to the head of this group and that group.

[19:52] >> How much for legal counsel? >> Right. And so she goes into work and her boss is like, "What are you doing? You write a memo and you send it to everybody in the building." She said, "The guy has he's an American citizen. He has constitutional rights." They deleted that memo. But she had printed a copy that they didn't know about. >> And she >> that's the way >> she sent it to a reporter at Newsweek. Now the reporter at Newsweek then when he published it as a a photo of the memo

[20:24] forgot to redact her name. >> Oh Jesus Christ. Is he working at the Intercept now? This guy >> might as well be. And so um she was not just fired from her job as the director of ethics. She was put on the nofly list and the Justice Department tried to have her bar license suspended. So listen, the bottom line here is we're going to just have to take their word for it. Unless >> Yeah, we are. >> Unless they just screw something up and

[20:55] a whistleblower comes forward. >> Bobby saying pointing out something that is true, but I don't think it makes a difference. You said the metadata can be an can be analyzed when you when you alter it. It stamps the data. True, but metadata can be can be falsified, too. I mean, a really great example of that was the the hack of the Hollywood studio that was allegedly by North Korea and that met and allegedly there was code in there that was uh you know DPRK type used hacker code, but anyone can cut and

[21:26] paste that [ __ ] in there. I mean, there's >> it's just digital. Digital information is fungeible by definition. I mean all of it even if it's you know the un even if it's under the hood which is what the metadata is right although metadata is useful for investigations right that's how they caught >> um who remember the guy who um oh my god that cyber guy who who went on the lamb uh he he was a he had done a sec uh it's it's killing me someone in the chat's going to know this he was this very

[21:57] flamboyant tech entrepreneur who did um cyber security software and then he was on the in the Caribbean and he was sending photos to the authorities to troll them and then the metadata from like revealed where you know when you send a photo when you take a photo with your phone it tags where you are when you take it. So anyway, the point is um all right. So we have a bunch of questions to get through here. Um uh okay um Exile the Knights of Malta

[22:28] now wants to know I have a question if I haven't met if we haven't met the threshold to require military tribunals convened. What would that look like then? I don't know what that's about. Okay. Uh sorry this one I'm gonna have to say I don't know but I'm gonna look into frog enthusiast. Ted, as a Frenchie, have you been following the LFA cement company prosecutions with relation to funding groups in Syria? Whole thing stinks of intelligence operations. I don't know anything about this. I'll look into this. >> I don't neither. >> Um, but I will look into it. Um, why

[23:00] does Epstein never get compared to Bill Browder, Mark Rich, uh, Kamoski of Ukraine, etc. Is it because Epstein didn't do business in Russia? >> Wants to know. >> That's a good question. Probably. And I think we're so focused on the pedophilia >> that people aren't really looking at the at the influence operations that follow the money at the same time. That's right. >> Um, this is for you, John. Head 877. Did Israel actually threaten to nuke Iran?

[23:32] >> That's what President Trump said. We don't we don't know if that's true, but Trump Trump said just after we bombed Iran that the reason he did it was that Netanyahu told him, "If you don't bomb Iran, we will and we're going to use a nuke." >> I believe Trump. >> I I do too. I believe Trump on that. >> I mean, it just it just you know how sometimes it just rings something just rings true. Mhm. Um, Frasmatas, uh, Wikileaks DNC 2016 emails were verifiable because the email server generates a hash using an encryption key

[24:04] or people use a PGP key to sign a document. Um, okay. So, I got to I got to push back on that on a number on on two reasons. First of all, um, so my a very good friend of mine was instrumental in developing PGP pretty good privacy. Um and he explained how that works. And the point is it's not 100% for sure. Um the especially not now it was kind of like you know cyber security encryption is an arms race and

[24:34] and things are always getting you know you know what works stops working right otherwise we'd still be using the enigma machine. But the thing is the those de those emails were not leaked by email. Uh they were leaked on a thumb drive. They were carried by a disgruntled DMC staffer uh over to a park near American University in Washington DC uh and handed over to Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Usuzbekistan, who by the way is the author of a couple of really

[25:05] great books that I highly recommend. >> Um and >> he's a hilarious, brilliant guy who I really hope to get to meet someday. and uh he and anyway he uh he worked for Wikileaks and basically and so we know that the the thing that's tricky is everybody's been inside those files, right? Like so Russian intelligence has been in there. I think Clovis has been in there. everybody like broke in because the DNC had shitty security, but the people who actually handed it over that was and we know because of the

[25:36] speed of the that the data was sucked out in is consistent with a thumb drive as opposed to the much slower speed that it would take to transmit over an internet line. I mean, am I am I wrong about that? >> No, you're exactly right. And Bill Benny, for those of you who don't know who Bill Benny is, he is he he's the former number four at NSA. His title was director of technology, which says a lot. Bill is one of the most brilliant thinkers I've ever encountered in my

[26:06] life and and a noted whistleblower in his own right. And um and Bill is 1,000% certain that these documents were loaded onto a thumb drive because he examined the the speed at which the data was downloaded. And he said that the speed indicates that it could not possibly have been done remotely, i.e. it wasn't the Russians hacking into the DNC servers, >> even though they did.

[26:37] >> Yeah. even though they did on a different issue. >> They just looked. >> Yeah, they looked. They didn't download anything. >> Um, and then Bill asks, you know, another question. If the if the DNC was so surefire certain that these were downloaded remotely, why would they not permit the FBI to look at the servers? >> Right? >> They've never turned the servers over to the FBI. So, what do they have to hide? Well, you know, Hillary and her people, she has this she has a heart on about her servers.

[27:08] >> Yes, she does. >> Um, so yeah, so I I mean, I think nothing like that is is really truly verifiable. Um, so uh the term Epstein, [clears throat] this is from podcast Kiss Kid on YouTube, uh, sorry, on Rumble. Um, the term fixer has been applied to Epstein, but since he had his hand in so many things, would Spy Master be appropriate? >> I don't know. What do you think, John? That's your That's more you than me. >> I don't know. I I I don't know to tell you the truth. >> I think he was a connector. Sort of like

[27:39] a Malcolm Gladwell type, you know, [clears throat] connector guy. He just, you know, was one of those people like for in this case for evil. He connected people >> and it kept him relevant in those circles. >> By the way, it's John McAfee. Uh thank you very very much. Uh it's for to Johnny Jackson for reminding us of that. Yeah, McAfee was a wild man. Um, let's see. John, I heard some private contractors, this is from Ry C2020, have higher clearance than some agencies.

[28:11] Could that be possible? Like for employees of the Global Strategies Group? >> Yes, that is absolutely possible, especially at places like DARPA, NSA, and CIA. Uh, you know, it's funny. We used to wear these badges. The badges are color coordinated at the CIA. Now, now they're standard across the entire intelligence community. So, a blue badge means top secret SITK gamma. Everybody's got it. Everybody >> if you're in the building. >> If you're in the building. Um, and it used to have an H on it. The H meant

[28:43] SITK gamma. Then there would be like, >> what do those stand for? >> Uh, special intelligence talent compartment, keyhole compartment, gamma compartment. >> Okay, >> that's everybody gets it if you're a CIA employee. And then it goes up from there. >> It sounds so cool. [laughter] It's like makes me want to join right now. >> Um, green badges are contractor badges. Yellow badges mean you're cleared only

[29:13] to the secret level. So all of the um most of the language instructors only have yellow badges because they don't need access to top secret information. They're just there to teach a foreign language. And then red badges means you are not cleared. So the guy that works in the Dunkin Donuts at the cafeteria, he's got a red badge. And the lady that vacuums the floor in the evening, she has a red badge. But if you had if you had compartments above top secret, like

[29:43] the questioner is asking, they would add letters to that blue badge. So you wouldn't just have an H. You'd have an H, an L, an E, a Q, an S, a T. And they all meant something, >> but then they did away with that. >> So now if you're cleared for something special, you know you're cleared for something special and everybody else in that compartment knows you're cleared for something special. So they're not going to advertise it on your badge. >> The badge is encoded. >> That's right. The badge is encoded. >> So yeah, it's not unusual at all. Like

[30:15] for example, when I was the uh executive assistant to the deputy director, I had access to literally everything that the directorate of operations was doing around the world. So I had like eight different compartments beyond SITK Gamma. And then there was this there was a guy a man and a woman there. They were colleagues, but they were really having an affair and they made no effort at

[30:46] hiding it. But anyway, um they would sit in on my morning meetings, but they belonged to the Directorate of Science and Technology. And when I needed to give them a briefing book or to go talk to them or ask a question or whatever, I had to go buzz their office, but I was not allowed to step inside the office. And it was because whatever they were doing back there, it was too highly classified for John to know about it.

[31:17] >> Gotcha. Couple more questions, then I've got to do an ad, do some uh housekeeping. Um, village idiot, what percentage of Congress do you think legitimately could be credibly prosecuted for a felony? Insider trading, others? I'm going to say probably 80. >> Lots. Yeah, I I would have to agree. lots. >> Yeah. >> You know, I'm I'm down on Congress normally just cuz I have no respect for them because I've I've worked with them and they're mostly dogs.

[31:47] But when when something like this happens with, you know, live texting Epstein during an Epstein hearing >> pig >> happens. Yeah. And literally every Democrat votes not to censure, the entire party's corrupted. >> Agreed with that. By the way, thanks for the donations, Marble 455, thanks for the two bucks. Who's the US's closest friend? Canada or the UK? That's a good question. >> Uh yeah, the UK.

[32:18] >> Mora, thanks for the two bucks. >> That's an easy one. >> Thank you for the two bucks. Um and uh thank you for your support, you guys. Uh we are in in dire need of cash these days. You can say that again >> for real. >> Let me add one thing. We had a we had a question right at the very beginning. Um, somebody asked uh what's going on in Greece. Kimberly Gilfoil's there and they're loving on her. >> While you're at it, John, someone's asking about Greece building drones for Ukraine. Is that a good idea? So, two Greek stories. Go ahead. >> So, I have I have family in Greece that

[32:48] span the political spectrum. My grandmother's first cousin was a member of the Pullet Bureau of the Communist Party of Greece. And on the other side, I've got a a relatively >> of my heart, >> a relatively close cousin who was elected governor of the Danese Islands from the Conservative party. So, and I've got everybody in between and they all love Kimberly Gilfoil. I don't understand it. But some of them have told me that it's an extension of

[35:53] think the inevit uh you know it's the conclusion here is inevitable although it's been grindingly slow. Uh, Village Idiot also wants to know, have we covered Seth Rich or the J6 Democratic HQ pipe bomb? Not really. >> No, we really haven't. And and I'm wondering if that article in the Blaze was incorrect. You know, they said they said that the pipe bomber was this uh female Capitol police officer. >> Nothing came of that. >> Who had been on rotation to the CIA. She

[36:24] finally came out through her attorney and said, "That is a bald-faced lie." and I never had anything to do with anything and then it just kind of went solid. >> She should sue. That's that's the proper solution here because when you sue you I mean it's like when you're defamed or lie as I learned um you have to you have to sue because then you're telling the world I'm willing to spend money and time to to stand up for my good name and I'm going to expose myself because there's going to be discovery. So if I'm lying it's going to I'm I'm putting up

[36:55] or shutting up, right? Everyone's going to find out the truth. Um, thanks for the buck. Uh, Junah A. Javeed, this is for you, John. Pakistan's new field marshall. Seems like he's making moves. Imran Khan is in jail. Corruption is high. Corruption's always high. It's Pakistan. Pakistani US relations are quote unquote improved. Thoughts? >> You know, I turned down another interview this morning from CNN India and they were like mad. This time they

[37:25] sent five questions. They were like, "Answer our questions." And I said, "You guys, what part of no do you not understand?" I said, "Every time I answer a question about Pakistan or India, you guys make it a banner headline with three exclamation points. You take it completely out of context and then I get a dozen death threats." No need. >> So, the answer is no. But I will say this, and I'll probably get threats for this, too. >> Pakistani corruption is so deep and so broad. Um >> that's totally true

[37:56] >> that it's almost impossible for the country to have a true functioning democracy. Pakistan also has a long history of military coups and other interventions into its democracy. Um Iran Khan should not be in prison. >> It's really it's not really a democracy. It's really it's really a military dictatorship with a veneer of democracy. >> That's right. But Iran Khan shouldn't be in prison. He should be allowed to uh you know defend himself and uh and have

[38:28] his day in. >> They always knock they always send their former prime ministers to prison. >> Every one of them. >> Nawas Sharif. >> Every last one of them. Benazir Bhau. >> Mhm. Yes. >> It's like it's like that's you know that like when you run for the job. Well, I will end up in prison at some point. >> I don't know who would want the job. >> God. Or you get assassinated. >> Or you get assassinated. >> Um thanks for Angela Fala. Much appreciated. So Q clearance for energy or for financial? >> Ah Q is for energy and um it's temporary. So Q clearances are

[38:59] controlled by the department of energy. I only had a Q clearance once. I had to go to uh to Tennessee for a conference and so they gave me a Q clearance that lasted only for the duration of the conference and then they took their Q clearance back. But Q really is it's a clearance for nuclear information. >> [snorts] >> Um, >> so they jealously guard it. >> Okay, off-topic question from Peruse. Um, how easy is it to spoof the AIS signal on yachts and ships, i.e. make

[39:31] them disappear when they sail and pretend they're somewhere else? I understand this is possible. >> I have no idea. >> Uh, it sounds sounds like something that would be pretty easy to do though um to me. Um, Fu said, "Thanks for the buck." He said that he served in the Peace Corps in Palao and and Micronisia. Have you ever been to any of the South Pacific Island? >> No, but I'm dying to go. But I'm gonna go to the Solomon Islands in July with Jeremy Kismarov of Covert Action

[40:02] Magazine and we are going to do some live on the ground reporting on this kurfuffle between the United States and China over who should have access to Japan's World War II era um military bases. So, we're going to we're going to get there through Fiji, which I've also never been to. And um and we're gonna spend about 10 days on Guad Canal. I'm excited about it. >> Well, it sounds amazing. Everyone I know who's been to places like Tahiti or the

[40:32] Micronesian island of Yap um has absolutely loved it. Even though it takes 50 million years and 16 flights to get there. Uh but you know, but at least with the air traffic controllers back to work and not calling it sick anymore. I just want to parathetically say these air traffic controllers kind of are irritating me. Like they it's like you were in the middle of a shutdown and it was treated as legitimate by everybody that they're kind of like slow walking and calling in sick and it's kind of like oh well you know you can't blame them. I'm sorry. Like you're going to be

[41:04] paid later. You get paid much more than the average American gets paid for whatever they're doing. Y like and you're doing an important like really important job and it sucks that you're not being paid. you should be paid, but [snorts] be a patriot and show up to work and and you know and tell the planes where to land. I'm sorry. It annoys me. It's like or let's treat everybody who who withholds their labor with the same level of respect and consideration and say like, oh, you know, you're not paid enough and you want to slow walk or do a sick out, then good for you. But like it's just because

[41:35] you're an, you know, somehow they have special papal dispensation for being ATC, which I guess they didn't have under Reagan. Uh I don't know. It's It annoys me. >> Yes. >> Okay, let's talk about uh what what should we talk about? Venezuela. Um should we talk about >> Yeah, let's talk about Venezuela. And may I start off by by by saying something about covert action. So the president announced this covert action program against Venezuela, presumably to overthrow the Maduro government. >> Let me tell you how unusual it is for a president to even utter the words covert

[42:07] action. I I was a witness in the Scooter Libby trial in 2006 or 2007, I guess it was, and I had to go before the special prosecutor who ironically prosecuted me a couple of years later. So, I I'm I'm meeting with the special prosecutor and the CIA general counsel's office is represented and Scooter Liby's attorneys are there and the Justice Department has its people there and um

[42:40] and he asked me a question. Did I ever see these two senior CIA people talking to each other? And I said, well, they're not friends, if that's what you're getting at. I mean, the only conversation I ever saw them have was about a covert oper a covert action program. And the CIA general counsel jumps up and he's like, "Stop." And I said, "I wasn't going to say anything about covert action." He's like, "You can't even say the words

[43:10] covert action. We don't even acknowledge that there is such a thing as covert action." And I said, "Okay, sorry." >> Now the president's going on television. Yeah, he's going on national television uh to talk about the covert action program that he just approved at, you know, six levels above top secret. >> Boogs Fano of GG is calling me out. Can you be any more anti-worker? Telling people to suck it up when they're not getting paid is crazy. No, I'm saying that if anybody quits for not being

[43:43] paid, they should be treated with that respect. I don't like the fact that there's an exception for air traffic controllers that somehow when they do it, it's okay. But when the rest of us don't do it, it's not okay. So, I'm doing what aboutism. Sorry. [laughter] That's that's right. >> That's my thing. Yeah. Right. >> There's a lot I'm I can defend what aboutism. Um, okay. So, covert action can take many many forms. I mean, I think of some really notorious examples during the Soviet Union when American

[44:15] commandos blew up the Trans Siberia oil pipeline in Siberia, causing ecological damage. Uh when the US hired um Afghan uh gerillas, terrorists to cross the Amudaria River and then uh attack a an oil refinery in uh what was then the southern USSR. Um, but it can also be like dumping cash in a bathroom in Moscow. So, to try to undermine the state currency, the ruble. Um, there's

[44:46] all sorts of things you can do. Um, so when covert action is authorized by the president of the United States, um, first of all, does it does it HAVE TO BE AUTHORIZED or does the US just does the CIA just do covert action as a matter of course? And then if it has to be authorized, does it have to be specified like, well, you can you can blow up, you know, energy infrastructure, but you can't do a cyber attack or you can do a psychological operation, but you can't do this. How does it work? [snorts]

[45:18] >> It's very bureaucratic. So, the CIA has something called the covert action staff. And let's say I have an idea. Hey, I have an idea to overthrow the Venezuelan government. I write it up and I take it over to the covert action staff. They put it in the proper official format and then they send it to the um operational component that would have jurisdiction over it. If they say, "Yeah, this is a

[45:49] good idea. Let's overthrow the Venezuelan government." Then they send it up the chain to the deputy director for operations. If he signs off on it and the director signs off on it, then it goes to the general counsel. The general counsel has to decide that it's legal to overthrow the Venezuelan government. If he decides it's legal, then it goes to the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. If they decide it's legal, then it goes to the National Security Adviser. I'm sorry, to the National Security Council

[46:20] General Council. If he decides it's legal, it goes to the national security adviser for a signature. If that signature is forthcoming, it goes to the president. If the president signs it, then the CIA can go ahead and try to overthrow the Venezuelan government. >> That's kind of insane. Um, before we take some more questions, uh, I do have to I do have to point out, so the government went to the Trump administration went to war against Antifa, which is an organization that doesn't actually exist as an organization. Now, uh, they are going to

[46:52] they're going to war against the so-called cartel de los Solless. >> Oh my god, I read this. >> This is such a great story. Right. So, the cartel, it sounds like a, you know, like as an American, I was like, okay, well, that sounds like a a real evil cartel thing that we should maybe be doing something about. As it turns out, there's no such thing. So, it's just a term that Venezuelan journalists came up with and became popular among Venezuelans

[47:24] uh to describe um stars. Soles is stars in in in Spanish and it means cartel of the stars. And what it is, it's an insult to refer to the generals who are corrupted by drugs in Venezuela, cocaine, and they have lots of stars on their uniforms. So, it's basically saying that these are drugcorrupted, but they don't have a cartel. It's kind of like just it's an expression. It's not

[47:54] real. And yet, this is now on an executive order. It's an internal document. the Secretary of State talking about this threat presented by the cartel de Solis counting on the ignorance of the American people. John, does Trump and Marco Rubio, do you think they know that it's [ __ ] and they just don't care or do you think they don't really know it's [ __ ] >> I think they know. I think they know and they don't care. You know, one thing about Trump is when he decides he wants to do something, he's not going to let anybody stand in his way,

[48:26] >> whether what he wants to do is legal or illegal. And so, >> is he really that different from other >> He's the same as every other president. The only difference is that he actually says it out loud. >> Yeah, I like that part, actually. >> Yeah, I do. I do. You got to respect it. >> Yeah, I do. Um, question for you. Uh, John, are you uh Well, I'm going to skip this. Um Oh, well, okay, John, quickly. Are you Are you familiar with the great community in Tarpon Springs, Florida, and the sponge docks downtown? >> Oh, yes, yes, yes. Uh Tarpon, man, is

[48:56] one of my favorite places. It's um the the Greek food is absolutely incredible. Um they're all from the island of of Galimnos down there, which is the next island north of where my my family is from, but Tarpon has been a a mecca for for Greek um immigrants for a century. And u it's because so many people in in Calimnos were uh sponge divers. And it's the same it's the same situation in tarpon where you can dive for sponges

[49:27] and they did a 100red years ago. So yeah, I love tarpon. >> Thanks very much for the generous $20 donation from MT16N7. Did we see the story about the UK Ministry of Defense putting warning stickers inside its Chinese-made staff cars advising staff not to discuss classified [laughter] information due to fears of built-in microphones. Oh, and it's in all the papers, the Telegraph, the Times, the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the UK Defense

[49:59] Journal. Oh my god. Yeah. What What in blazes would possess them to buy Chinese cars for the UK Defense Ministry leadership? >> Oh my god. >> Well, I guess they couldn't afford Rolls-Royces, right? Um, Finnish Finnish Leica just says, "Thank I find it astonishing. I can actually communicate and my stupid messages are read by people of stature here. There's so many great intellectual people around social media, academics, scholars. I know I find that amazing. Uh, American pastime

[50:31] for you, John. Generic question. How did you decide on what counted as truth in a world based on secrecy while at the agency? And unfortunately, we don't have two hours to answer this. Also, did your understanding of the truth change after you left? >> No. No. I I say this all the time. In our guts, we all know the difference between right and wrong, truth and fiction. And um you you just can't let that culture, that culture of secrecy bastardize what you know to be the

[51:02] truth. And so you just have to, you know, trust in yourself, trust in your judgment, and know deep down that you always have to do the right thing >> because the truth's going to come out and you on the right side of it. It always does. >> Last but not least, we really do have to talk about this. So, uh, the new NPR PBS Merist poll shows Democrats ahead by a lot in a generic congressional race by 55% to 41%. Independents are plus 33 for

[51:33] the Democrats. This looks a lot like 2017 before what turned out to be a a big blue wave uh in Donald Trump's first term midterm elections in 2018. Um so Trump's approval is really low even for him. Historically, he's always uh sort of weaved between 40 and 45. Sort of average 42. Currently at 39, but he's got very strong disapproval. That's stronger than usual. He's get Republicans are being blamed for the shutdown. Although I think everyone Well, there's going to be more

[52:04] shutdowns, right? We're only good till January. >> Yeah, we're only good till January. >> Um 57 So, here's the thing, John. 57% of Americans say that they want prices to drop more than they care about any other issue. They just don't care. John is isn't the media and everyone getting everything wrong? Nobody Prices aren't going to drop. Can't drop. And we don't want them to drop because that would be deflation. Right. >> Right. I mean, what we need, don't we? What we don't what Americans really need is higher incomes? >> Oh, absolutely. But I think they're not

[52:35] thinking about higher incomes. They they want prices to go back to what they were a year ago or two years ago. >> It's not going to happen. >> It's It's not going to happen. You know, I I'll I'll admit to everybody, and I'm not proud to admit it, but I really like raviolis. Like just right out of the can. I don't even heat them up. I just open the can and eat them out of [laughter] the can. And I don't know why, but I just I have this thing where I refuse to pay more than 99 cents for a can of raviolis. And so I'll just wait until they're on sale for 99 cents. They're usually a buck and

[53:06] a quarter. So I went to the grocery store the other day and the the raviolis are $2.49. >> Whoa. >> $2.49 for a can of lousy raviolis. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to I'm not going to pay it. I won't spend the money. I want I want everything to come down to where it was a year ago, too. >> Me, too. But I I mean, I just think But the I mean, I'm gonna I'm going to write about this very soon, maybe next week, just about I mean, really truly for both parties, >> the solution here has to be

[53:37] >> um you know, higher higher income, higher wages. I mean, that's what's been screwing the American people is higher prices are not a solvable problem because of the way that the system is currently set up. Um, okay. So, cartel de lo solus. Well, I mean, I guess. So, what so what do you think? I mean, what kind of um >> covert actions are we going to actually do in Venezuela? >> Um, you know, [clears throat] probably lots and lots of propaganda. That's the easiest sort of entrylevel covert action. Lots of propaganda. And I

[54:09] wouldn't be surprised if we uh eventually begin arming opponents of uh President Maduro. >> Wow. that would really ratchet things up and then then you're going to have fighting in the streets. >> Maduro has uh reportedly offered to resign in two years in exchange for the US having access to Venezuelan uh having I guess concessions for Venezuelan uh oil and natural gas. Um the apparently Trump said no to that. Why would we say

[54:39] no? [sighs] Not that we don't have access to this either. I don't understand that. I mean, oil is a global energy is a global market. I mean, we don't really care about specific Venezuelan oil. We just, you know, we just want more oil so the prices go down so that our cost the costs for industry go down. But anyway, that aside, we have like a minute. >> Yeah. I I I don't know. We we used to buy almost all of Venezuela's oil anyway and it

[55:09] would be refined in Texas and it put people to work and >> it gave us free not free it gave us cheap oil and then we cut them off. >> That's it. >> So maybe >> that's very strange, right? Like we're cutting It's just like the way that we and the Europeans cut off uh Russian oil and gas. >> Yes. >> It's like why would we do that? It's like we're cutting off our own nose despite our face. It's not like Venezuela and and Russia can't sell their [ __ ] elsewhere. Anyway, thanks everyone for tuning in. We're going to be back tomorrow, Thursday at 9:00 a.m.

[55:40] as we are uh every Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. And uh so uh thank thanks for listening and uh please like, follow, and share the show as Robbie Counled. Please kindly watch us over on Rumble. It makes a huge difference. Thanks for all your generous donations. Please stay tuned for the TMI show with Ted R and Manila Chan. That's me, Ted R. And uh we're on in just a minute. See you later. Bye, John. Bye-bye, Ted. [music]

[56:22] >> [music]
