Title: DeProgram Show with Ted Ra
Show: DeProgram Show with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas
Date: 2026-03-20
URL: https://youtu.be/145C1-XphQs
Duration: 60:00

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[00:07] Good morning. It's Friday, March 20th. It's Ted Rall and John Kiriakou with D Program with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ted. How are you? I'm good, good. Let's talk about today. Uh you know, I always try to make the rundown short, but the news doesn't cooperate. No. Uh let's go through it. Uh Defense Department wants $200 billion for for uh we don't know how much Iran war. Uh Congress wasn't consulted, so we're going to find out are they going to pay up anyway? Um Can I interrupt you on

[00:38] that? Can I interrupt you? Congress was not consulted. And what's funny is now the really hardcore Republicans are starting to say, "Well, like the MAGA guys, well, you know, we don't want to put our our war fighters in harm's way, so Mhm. >> going to have to give it to them. We shouldn't Now's not the time to be asking questions." Bunch of cowards. From what I can gather, John, even adjusted for inflation, this is more than the cost of the entire Gulf War.

[01:08] Yeah, I'm sure that's true. And I mean so >> And we don't >> the Gulf War, we had that thing called burden sharing, where we actually made the Kuwaitis pay for everything. Yeah, pay for the cost of their own liberation. Always a always a Well, Bush had that idea for Iraq, too, but I don't know how that worked out. Um yeah, I don't we'll see how So, I I'm curious to see how I mean, Congress is a bunch of lick spittles, but we'll see what happens. Um Iran, okay, so here's what we've got. Uh they've been squeezing the Strait of

[01:38] Hormuz. Iran uh Iran attacked Qatar's Ras Laffan uh natural liquid natural gas facilities. Um Qatar says Qatar says that their uh export capacity is down by 17% and that it'll take at least 3 to 5 years to repair. Oil shot up to a is at $108 a barrel. Uh >> Down from 115 just a few hours ago. And who knows where it's going to go next. Um the this part, John, made me laugh so much. The US is uh is thinking of

[02:09] lifting sanctions on Iranian oil at sea. Uh so in other words, we go to war against Iran and then uh after oil Iranian oil has been sanctioned for years and because we attacked them that we're going to have to lift the or the because the prices are going up so high. >> And and there's something to that. Uh know, Trump has been talking tough about, you know, we're going to have to just tighten our belts. We're going to have to just pay a little bit extra. We're going to have to be all in this together. And then

[02:42] an Indian ship paid for the oil in yuan. Mhm. >> And this was yesterday and the Iranians said, "Okay, free to pass." No, that's the $2 million >> "Wait a minute, wait a minute. The oil has to be paid for in dollars, otherwise it's going to crash our economy." And they said, "Tough luck for you." So then we lifted sanctions on Iranian oil. And and that said was that the $2 million fee that there's Yeah, one So, that I Yeah, I read about that. Um and then Netanyahu says basically Trump is

[03:14] pressing Netanyahu to say that Israel acted alone in its attack uh on that gas facility in Iran. Uh who knows what the truth is there. Uh I I have my suspicions. I suspect you do, too. Um meanwhile, we're forgetting all about Gaza. Um where Hamas is still in charge. Um the mediators in Cairo have handed Hamas a proposal that basically says, "You should hand over all your weapons and we're going to have some new Gaza authority take over." Yes. >> Uh and the uh we don't know what it's going to be. Uh but basically Hamas is

[03:46] now saying, "You know what? We like the way this Iran war is going and we're going to we're not getting back to you until we see how that plays out." Um and then J.D. Vance, I thought this was fascinating. He's worried about the unpopularity of the war and he's signaling to people close to him that he may not run for president in 2028. I think he's a sure loser. I really do. He's young. He can run 10, 20, 30 years from now if he wants. True. And still be plenty young.

[04:17] Um I think that if he were to run in in 2 years, sure loser. I agree with that. >> tied to Donald Trump. I agree with that. Um 65% of Americans tell the latest Reuters poll that they think Trump will order a large-scale ground invasion of Iran just like Iraq. Uh 7% say they would be okay with it. Uh broader approval rating for Trump is hovering around 40%. That's a couple of points higher than it's been. I attribute that to the rally around the flag effect. Uh and John Denmark was

[04:49] preparing to They were really, really scared that Trump was going to invade Greenland. Um they actually had plans to send troops to Greenland to uh line up all the airstrips with bombs and blow up all the airstrips. They had blood supplies ready to go. Uh they really thought that there was a there was a possibility and then they weren't going to play, either. They weren't going to take it lying down. God bless them. Um Uh I mean, what can you say? I I every time I encounter a Dane, I want to apologize on behalf of the American

[05:21] government. Fair. Totally fair. But Uh you're right. They did all the things that you just said they did because they genuinely believed Donald Trump was going to invade Greenland. Insane that we got that it got to that point. Um and and you know who knows? That that crisis could uh >> [clears throat] >> you know, the the Greenland topic keeps popping up again like a meerkat. Um the analogy I don't get to use too often. Um >> [laughter] >> So, John, uh we have a bunch of leftover super chats from yesterday that I promised we're going to get to first

[05:52] thing or maybe second thing, but let's let's kill a story or two first before we do that. What do you want to talk about first? Uh yeah, let's let's talk about the Gulf. I think we should we should probably talk about the Gulf since that's sort of where all eyes are pointing. Um listen, it's it's worse than it was yesterday. Yeah. This is not this is not going to end quickly. It's not going to end easily or nicely. It's going to be hideous. The United States announced um yesterday afternoon that it had killed the IRGC spokesman. Now

[06:24] killed the head of the IRGC. Killed the minister who's in charge of the IRGC. Now we killed the spokesman. Um uh Benjamin Netanyahu is not dead. A couple of podcasters who until yesterday were highly respected um said, "The reason we haven't seen Netanyahu is he's dead. The reason why we haven't seen his son is because he was sitting shiva for 7 days. He went quiet on Twitter for exactly 7 days Mhm. and then retweeted something yesterday because Netanyahu's dead. And then Netanyahu gave a press

[06:56] conference. Oops. >> Interesting. Yeah, so he's not dead. Yeah. Yeah. There are plenty of bunkers in in Israel. They're all over Israel. Everybody has a bunker. I saw I saw a bunker yesterday. I I was walking back from the the speaking event with this young guy and um and he says, "Hey, you want to see Hitler's bunker? You can't really go into it right now." And I said, "Yeah, sure." He's like, "It's right there across the street. It's a laser tag place now." >> [laughter] >> I know it was used to be under a car

[07:26] park, right? >> Uh-huh. It is. It still is. The car park is under >> honestly I think they should dig it up and uh and turn it into a uh tourist attraction. I would totally go. I think it would be awesome. I mean >> Totally. I would totally be there. I'd pay whatever the price was. Yeah, totally. Um you know, I understand why a lot why they didn't do it for a long time, but I mean, I think enough time has passed. Um So, John, um you know, where are we when it comes to uh you know, I mean, I think we may see $150 a barrel oil and you

[07:57] know the conventional wisdom here is that basically the price of gas in the United States tax uh exactly one for one uh to the price per per barrel of oil. If that's true if you're if you're currently looking at uh gas prices that are like $3.85 or $4 a gallon like most parts of the United States um you could be seeing seven or eight dollars a gallon. Um you know, cuz we're now at twice uh pre-war per barrel prices. I

[08:28] mean will Americans freak out in California when oil is when gas prices go to four digits go to $11 a gallon? >> Yeah. I mean, just at a normal gas station. I was just in LA 2 weeks ago. In normal gas station you're like, "Oh, it's only $5.50 a gallon. I got to grab that." Right. Right. know, you go to the airport and it's like seven a gallon. Right. >> right. That's that's under a normal circumstance. This reminds me it reminds me of the hyperinflation in Turkey where

[09:00] like I would get up in the morning and exchange I want to exchange my you know, my da I my my dollars as late as possible, just a little bit at a time because I'd get more lira later in the day. Yeah. Um This is >> Exactly right. I mean you know you and both have you know, we've lived long enough to hear you know presidential campaigns affected by a 10 cent or 20 cent deviation in gas prices. This is a lot more than that. I mean you know what about the political ramifications this

[09:31] fall? I mean does that still matter? Cuz now the spin we're hearing on social media from the Republicans are "It's a small price to pay a little more at the pump to liberate 92 million Iranians." Is it? Yeah. Yeah, that's that's what they're going to go with. The problem is that the Iranians don't want our liberation. They've been clear about it from the beginning. We overstepped. We overreached like we always do. And like we always do, we have no exit strategy. And then I wanted to reach into the TV

[10:02] this morning, Ted, and punch Benjamin Netanyahu in the face when somebody said something about about Israel's war with Iran. And he said, "Oh, no, no, no. This is America's war. We're America's ally. The Americans are the heroes here." >> [laughter] >> I was like, "You [ __ ] asshole." He He just played Donald Trump from beginning to end. He is an [ __ ] and he's a smart [ __ ] too, though. >> Yes, he is smart. Um that that's that's amazing spin. Um

[10:35] you you know, how much daylight is there between Israel and the United States in this war? I think only a little bit. And I say only a little bit because the Israelis have done a couple things like like trying to blow up um the uh South Pars that the Americans didn't want to do. You know, we we call it South Pars. Only Only a third of it is called South Pars. The southern two thirds are called the North Dome. And they're in Qatari waters. Yeah, they're it's underneath This is

[11:06] all under the um Persian Gulf. Yeah. >> Exactly, it's underneath. And so, if you're going to hit one, the other one gets hit, too, kind of automatically. And it just leads to from from one problem to another problem. And the Qataris are like, "What are you guys doing?" But the Israelis hate Qatar because the Qataris are pro-Hamas. And so, they're happy to they're happy to bomb the gas field and then say, "Oh, sorry. You know what? We didn't realize that the Americans didn't want us to bomb that. Sorry." And then Trump is

[11:38] like, "They bombed it, but I told them to stop, and they stopped." No, they knew exactly what they were doing. No, they definitely [clears throat] did. Um Saudi Arabia says they're getting impatient. Um they're threatening Iran. They're saying all trust is lost between them. They just, you know, they had nascent diplomatic relations that only go back 3 years, barely. Yeah, barely, barely. And And so >> After decades of of no relations. So now basically they're kind of like, "Yeah, you have relations, but that's about it." Um you know, with the South What would the

[12:09] South What would a Saudi slap back at Iran for hitting Saudi facilities and Saudi targets look like? You know, this is going to sound silly, but it's actually quite important. First of all, the Saudis could um could break relations again, or even just recall ambassadors. I wouldn't be surprised if they broke relations. But if you really want to hurt the Iranians, you forbid Iranians from uh making the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. They did that for a couple of years, 1979,

[12:41] 1980, 1981. And it was a crisis, let me tell you. I bet. crisis to the point where the Iranians started carrying out terrorist attacks against Saudis. They supported the the takeover of the of the Dome of the Rock by Saudi radicals. People were killed. It's a bad situation. My guess is that's what the Saudis are going to start with. Just ban all Iranians from the Hajj. So interesting. So not a military response.

[13:12] No, the thing is is the And every time I say this, I take [ __ ] from Saudis, but I'm going to say it again cuz it's true. There are very few Saudis in the Saudi military. They're almost all Pakistanis. The The leadership are Saudis. The generals, the colonels, they're all Saudis. But the lower-level officers and all the grunts, they're all Pakistanis. So they don't really care one way or the other. They just do as they're told. You know, John, I just got to say before we move on to the Hamas thing and to

[13:43] start and start dealing with the questions. And by the way, please like, follow, and share the show. Please go ahead and put your questions into the live chat if you're watching live at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time. Um and uh that both in Rumble and YouTube, and we really appreciate you. Um super chats get priority, unfortunately. That's just how it is. Um so let's see. Um You What do you think the um the you I mean I keep I have to just say every morning I wake up and I'm worried that something

[14:13] really big, like the Turkmenistan thing that we talked about yesterday, is going to happen. We're something big is going to blow up, and not in We're going to have a massive ecological and environmental disaster to deal with on a global scale, and no ability or will to deal with it. I mean, you know, putting out oil fires is extremely difficult and complicated. >> Yeah, and it's it's not like, you know, the Exxon Valdez, where you just, you know, everybody just runs there and starts taking Dawn dish soap and cleaning off animals. This is an active

[14:44] war zone. Right. >> get there. Right. And you would need incredible amounts of you know, brilliant engineers and so and you know, amazing huge amounts of demolitions well placed to cave in the hole so that you start you you have a chance of putting out an oil or a gas fire. But it's not it's it's no it's not piece it's no piece of cake cake. We've The one in Turkmenistan that we talked about, it's been going since 1971. >> And you know what? We didn't talk about

[15:15] Centralia, Pennsylvania yesterday. Oh, right. Centralia, Pennsylvania is is a it's a ghost town now in the middle of Pennsylvania. In the 1950s the whole town sits on top of a a seam of coal, right? Bituminous coal. And um in the 1950s somehow the coal caught on fire. Somebody dropped a cigarette or knocked over a lantern or whatever, but in the '50s it caught fire. >> Even static electricity could do it.

[15:46] Even static electricity. It is still burning. Mhm. And if you've ever you can still drive through Centralia. The whole place is abandoned. Nobody lives there anymore. But everywhere you look, there's just smoke coming out of these holes in the ground. And it's going to burn for the next 500 years. It's insane. Is there no political will to to fix it? >> No political will at all. They talked about how they would do it. You know, you could put Like they put out the Kuwaiti oil fires, you put Rolls-Royce jet engines above the holes and then blow them out. Oh, wow. Um but even that

[16:18] they the the seam is so big. It could go for miles. It could go for hundreds of miles. We don't know. Yeah, a lot of that part of the Yeah, the Ohio, Kentucky, and and and Pennsylvania have a lot of caves. It's kind of like Oh my god. Oh, we used to we used to do that on weekends, just go caving, spelunking. Yeah. >> Walk through caves. Yeah. Good time. For sure. Definitely for awesome for kids. Um what Hamas, let's talk about that. I mean, uh you know,

[16:50] Hamas uh they're sitting pretty. Two and a half, you know, it's been 2 and 1/2 years since October 7th, 2023. Um you know, the Israelis flattened Gaza, but they didn't flatten Hamas. They're still the only game in town. And it's And seems like they've been really They feel like their take is uh Israel is tied is bogged down in Lebanon and in uh Iran. They don't have time to deal with us. They you know, they they're not going to be able to deal with us. We're still here like

[17:20] cockroaches. You can't kill us. Um and they but they're being told nevertheless as part of the ceasefire deal, uh "Hand over all of your weapons." And they're like, "Yeah, we're we're not going to do that not anytime soon." I mean, what's going to happen is there's a deadline, right, approaching for these negotiations. I mean, can Israel like I mean, I suppose they could go back to genociding. I mean, it's not exactly a target-rich environment anymore in Gaza. No, there's nothing left to blow up. They've blown

[17:52] it all up. So what do you what do you think's going to happen there? Um I think that, as crazy as it might sound, Hamas is actually in the catbird seat right now. Hilarious. >> [laughter] >> The Israelis the Israelis can't force them to take this deal because they're preoccupied in both Iran and Lebanon. Hezbollah's putting up a a tougher fight than the Israelis had expected. Mhm. Not to say that Hezbollah's winning, they're not.

[18:23] They're getting [snorts] creamed. But they're fighting back. There are almost 1 million Lebanese on the run right now, internally displaced, with nowhere to go because they're surrounded by by Syria on two sides, Israel on one, and the Mediterranean Sea on the fourth. So there's nowhere to go. So You know, for [clears throat] me, the big the big takeaway of all of this, the big meta headline is air wars are overrated.

[18:53] You can say that again. Um all right, so we do >> you for one second, real quick. We all sent around footage yesterday of an F-35 being hit by Iranian ground fire. Uh at first, people were saying, "No, it's AI. It's [ __ ] It's a stealth fighter. They're invisible." No, the Iranians hit it. And not only did they hit it, they wounded the pilot to the point where this morning, the Pentagon released a

[19:24] state a statement saying that he made it back to an airbase in the Middle East and that he's in stable condition. So he's admitted to the hospital. He's been wounded. But nobody is saying why, how the Iranians, whom, to use the president's word, we have obliterated, he said it twice yesterday, how they were able to hit an invisible plane that is the art

[19:54] of the American force. True. Another question is why didn't why didn't the pilot eject? Yeah. Well, probably because he didn't want the Iranians to get the plane. They would turn it over immediately to the Russians and the Chinese and then we're screwed. Yeah, well and I you know my my my father, you know, was in the Air Force and he project manager for a lot of these fighter projects and he said fighter one of the problems is that they fighter fighter pilots really don't want to eject. Like they want to they're

[20:25] they're so trained to try to fix every problem to the last second that sometimes they wait past the last second. And they're just so they're so like in love with their their machine, you know, they just don't want to let it go. It's like captain of the ship. Um let's do some questions from yesterday. Uh Hawk Hawko, thanks for the $7.99 Australian dollars. Trump points the finger at Israel for the attack on South Pars. A sign of the relationship fracturing? Is Trump trying to back off by shifting focus?

[20:56] Um I I don't think the relationship is fracturing. I think there are always disagreements in times of war and I think Trump is probably getting a little sick and tired of Netanyahu pushing all the blame onto him. I think that's what it is. Yeah, I think that's my take too. Um so here's a super chat from March 18th when John you were out. Hey John, I'm a 21 and by the way thanks for the $19.99. Uh hey John, I'm a 21-year-old student pursuing a career in intelligence analysis. What degrees of study would be the most

[21:28] applicable to the modern day in your opinion? What information and media should I be consuming? Sorry, it's so small to familiarize myself with the world of analysis. Thank you. That's a great question. Um I would focus [snorts] on your geographical um area of interest. For me it was the Middle East. Some people devoted their whole lives to Latin America, Eurasia, China, whatever. Um become the go-to person on that issue

[22:01] and honestly consume everything, everything. I don't mean, you know, go to InfoWars and watch people blow VA for 2 hours every day. But but in your field, in your area, be sure to get everything. I I would even force myself through, you know, Foreign Affairs magazine which is sometimes so dense and the article's usually written by people who have never actually created or implemented foreign policy, they've just studied it. But you

[22:31] have to know what everybody is saying. And you know, oftentimes and I mean this literally, oftentimes there are issues that I know I'm going to have to comment on that I just simply haven't formed an opinion on. And so I need to see what other people whom I respect are saying so that I can form my own opinion. Yeah, about foreign policy, I feel like that's like why I used to like to read Time and Newsweek just to know what mainstream middle America was being

[23:02] spoon-fed. Foreign policy is like what the Beltway is thinking. Exactly right. Exactly right. >> like a month or so ago Foreign Policy basically started admitting that Ukraine had lost the war. And that's like well that's sort of, you know, you and I were talking about that years ago. But like it you know, basically it's like okay, so that means the establishment has accepted it. Um Pink Lady Apples 83, thanks for the $5. Hey Studs, John are you going to do a book signing tour with your new book

[23:32] coming out? If so, could you please come to Atlanta or North Georgia? I need a selfie with those gorgeous dimples. You guys are the best. I get it narcissist. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> I got to tell you um Tony Lyons from Skyhorse Publishing called me the other day and he said and Tony's the owner the the publisher. And he said uh he said you're you're everywhere in my feed, you're on you're on Instagram, you're on TikTok, you're on YouTube and I said I know I I I can't figure it out, you know, this kid cut my videos up and

[24:03] you know, I I told him the same story I tell everybody else. So he said we decided to republish your your three books um the CIA Insiders Guides to Surveillance and Surveillance Detection, Lying and Lie Detection, Disappearing and Living off the Grid, but we're going to do them in one fat book. Can can you update them? And I was like, yeah, I guess so. When do you want them by? He's like, Saturday? I said Tony >> [laughter] >> 550 pages, I can't do it by Saturday. >> his mind? So he said he said uh Tucker

[24:34] Carlson's going to write the introduction. I said, oh nice, I'll call him and thank him. Mhm. He sent it the next day. Wow. So I call him, I was like, you wrote the introduction in 1 day? He's like, well, it's not that long. I Yeah, he said I just dashed it off. But you need to get this book out. I said we we actually don't, it's all still in print. They just want to want to repackage it and and update it. So I'm going to do that. They want me to update the CIA Insiders Guide to the Iran Crisis which is going to be a bigger work since we're at war.

[25:06] Um I've got the Cemetery book that was supposed to be out actually in in 4 days and um and now is postponed 2 months for reasons that are inexplicable to me. And I've got the Mafia book that is done and I'm just waiting on a release date and now I'm writing a book of stories. I I got to get all my stories all in one place and release that. So it's going to be a big a big book year. But yeah, uh you know, now that I now that I have a really

[25:37] great literary agent, um I'm hoping that my books from now on will be published just by one of the big five and my best relationship is with Simon and Schuster since they've done several of my other books. And so Simon and Schuster, Random House, Penguin, Knopf, all those guys, um Putnam, they uh they have PR budgets. And so they will send me on a book tour. It won't be extensive, but I'm going to

[26:07] I'm going to do my best. Yeah, book tours are good. Yeah. Decatur, Georgia has a great book festival. Really? Yeah. Uh LA does too. Yeah, that's true. John, I've been reading Director Director at S by Steve Coll. From your experience, where does it get the CIA, Pakistan and the and Afghanistan war right? And where does it miss nuance? Um thanks for the and thanks for the $5, Ryan. I thank you, Ryan. I I hate complimenting Steve Coll. Uh Steve Coll wrote an article about me in

[26:38] the New Yorker called The Spy Who Talked Too Much. And I wanted to punch him in his face. And that was after I welcomed him into my home and he like held my kids. What what did the article say? You know, Barrett, you know they don't always write the the author doesn't write the headline. Yeah, and he said that to me when I called him to yell at him from prison no less. That's true though. Uh I know it's true. Yeah, I never ever write my own headlines, never. Yeah, I I always suggest I always suggest one, they almost never use it.

[27:09] Twice I've I've suggested headlines that people have used, both times at Consortium News. Mhm. But Steve Coll is actually one of the country's great writers, one of the country's great investigative journalists and he's in addition to being an investigative journalist, he's the dean of the School of Journalism at Columbia. Mhm. So he's a very big deal. That book was excellent, I have to say. And I'm not sure he missed nuance. I think he pretty well got it. Mhm. I read one of his other books and and I did like it. Um Yeah, I wanted I as I

[27:40] read it I wanted to criticize him and I couldn't. He didn't write the headline, John. >> [laughter] >> $4.99, thank you so much. I work at the EPA and I'm wondering what you think think about the EPA rescinding the greenhouse gas endangerment finding. Thank you. #pardonjohn. Uh thank you. Yeah, I I I lose sleep over these over these issues. I really do. Um and the only solace that I take is something that I told a friend this morning. There's only 2 and 1/2 more years of this.

[28:10] Like even if a Republican wins, it likely won't be as bad. Like with the wholesale deregulation across the board deregulation and you know, putting up statues of slave owners in Washington D.C. which they announced yesterday they were doing and you know, it's >> Trying to make it so married women can't vote. Yeah, um charging people with murder for taking an abortion pill which also happened yesterday, changing the name of the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center, minting a gold coin with

[28:41] his face on both sides. Mhm. Yeah, this is >> Bashi. Yeah, it's Turkmenistan Bashi all over again. >> [clears throat] >> Um I mean John, the thing is though, even if we were to get President AOC, uh which I don't think we're going to get, uh but if we were, you know, you and I both know Democrats wouldn't roll back most of this stuff. >> they wouldn't because they're because they're cowards. Yeah. And because they want the power and authority for themselves. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is like uh you

[29:11] know, Joe Biden did not roll back much of the Trump first term stuff at all. >> No, in fact Joe Biden never reestablished relations with Cuba which had been the crown jewel of the Trump Biden foreign policy. Uh Steve and uh thanks for the uh two Canadian dollars. Ted, are you in a bathroom? No, I respect my viewers too much to be in a bathroom to do while doing a show. If you say I think you are. I could say no, I understand the

[29:42] question. >> [laughter] >> Thanks for the dollar. Shout out to Cutter for the worst return on a $400 million bribe, the airplane to Trump. I I forgot about that in modern history. That's true. Have have you so your your your dollar is well placed. Royce bet 1999. Hey John and Ted, I'm a US Filipino citizen. My question is how is the war in Iran going to affect the US Philippines alliance? The Filipino people are suffering from the effects of this war.

[30:12] I'm wondering how the Filipino Do you know? I how why Filipinos would be suffering? >> US Philippine relations are are very close right now. I think the Philippines The Philippines imports all of its oil. Mhm. And um Yeah. And and and people are poor there. Yeah. And this is just going to just push people into misery. And it's all going They have a lot of light manufacturing like uh cheap clothing and stuff like that. That's also going to be affected

[30:42] by this. Um Yeah. I don't know. I mean >> can't believe I can't imagine that the conversation yesterday between Trump and the and the new Japanese Prime Minister was terribly warm. Not just because he mentioned Pearl Harbor. Like because Japan imports literally 100% of its oil. Mhm. >> They have zero oil or natural gas. >> Which is how Pearl Harbor start happened in the first place because we had a US naval blockade of oil imports to Japan. That's right. And the

[31:14] Japanese were desperate and they were basically trying to bloody our nose and telling tell us to [ __ ] off and leave them alone. >> It's true. Um Bryson, thanks for the uh 999. Um third super chat this week. Thank you for the love the show. Thank you for your support. How would you both rank Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden? That's a good question. And if you had to live under one of those presidents for the rest of your life, God forbid, uh which would you choose? >> Oh my God, what a question. It's a great question. Well, Biden was

[31:45] having no president at all, basically. I would say. Yeah. >> Um Everything was on autopilot. Yeah, I mean so that's pretty rough. I mean, I guess you could say it's a tribute to the American system that you could that it survived that. Yeah. Um I feel like Trump one and Trump two are two totally different animals. So those almost have to be separated. Um Uh I hated George W. Bush. I hated Barack Obama. I'm going to have to say I'd go with Barack Obama because um he presented the

[32:19] least bad outward-looking face to the world, even though he was busily droning people in places like Pakistan and you know, pissing people off all over the place that we didn't know about. But still Bush I thought was reckless. Um So I guess I'd go with Obama, even though I really I can't stand them. >> [snorts] >> Um You know what? In good conscience, I just can't with Obama. Because of what

[32:49] he did to you personally. He He prosecuted me and not just me, but seven other whistleblowers. Yeah. >> He He's the the the worst, harshest enemy of whistleblowers in American history. And the worst part is that was burnt that was peak brunch Democrats, too. You know, everybody went home and put their protest signs in the in the closet because Obama was president. Yeah. And Robbie's pointing out in our chat that it was Obama who destroyed Libya. I would add it was Obama who destroyed

[33:20] Syria and Somalia, too. One part Somalia. And Honduras. And and Honduras, that's right. Thank you, Hillary Clinton. Yep. Um and he appointed not just Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, but Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. So no, thank you. Um Bush was a war criminal. So that's a hard no. Yeah. Trump, I mean, what are you going to say? Biden, you're right, the country was running itself. For me personally, the least damaging of all those

[33:51] presidents was Joe Biden. That's true. Least damaging. You know, I mean >> what a choice, huh? It's like you want to punch a >> was pretty good in Trump under Trump one. Mhm. Pretty good. Uh but then the way he behaved recklessly with COVID bizarre, you know? I mean, on the other hand, I I give him credit because I don't think I don't think President Hillary Clinton would have approved the vaccine. Um you know, to go so quickly.

[34:21] You don't think so? I do. I think Democrats are they would be so obsessed with the testing process. Be like, uh let's take 5 years and Do you remember those idiots some married couple in uh Arizona? Trump mens mentioned something about I forget what and it happened to be an ingredient in their pool chemicals. And so they they ate the pool chemicals and they both died. Yes, I do [laughter] remember that. Dar The Darwin Award goes to Yeah.

[34:52] Uh Vilmer 80 Whatever happened to the Darwin Award? Do they still do that? It was used to be one of my favorite things. Yeah. I used to love that thing. Uh Vilmer Air 8791, thanks for the two Canadian dollar. What are the odds that Trump brings up Hitler to the German Chancellor? Not zero. >> [snorts] >> Yeah. Not zero. It should be zero. Um Shawn thanks for the 499. And to think Cutter don't Okay, donated that expensive plane only to get bombed by Israel and Iran within a year. Great minds think alike.

[35:22] Uh Bailey, thanks for the 499 pounds. I'm interested in your opinions on Piers Morgan, especially regarding his false publication of US troops torturing Iraqi prisoners. You know, I have to say that I've kind of come around on Piers Morgan. I loathed Piers Morgan. I really did. And then his producers started hounding me to go on the show. Mhm. And and I went and he treated me really well. And then

[35:53] a couple of times ago that I went on I was on with Scott Horton and I have the deepest respect for Scott Horton. Uh libertarian Scott Horton, not the Atlantic Monthly journalist Scott Horton. Although he's okay, too. But um I was on with libertarian Scott Horton, Alan freaking Dershowitz and uh General Danny Ayalon from the Mossad. And in the end What What a group. Oh, it was it was harsh, man. And they were at

[36:24] each other's throats. And I was just kind of sitting there watching the whole thing play out. And then finally Piers says to me um John, we haven't really heard from you, he says um do you consider Hamas to be uh a a terrorist organization? And I said I didn't until October 7th when they attacked civilians. Mhm. Fair. I I believed that they were a a liberation organization. But when they when they murdered civilians, yes. Agreed. He says, do you believe October 7th was a terrorist attack? I said, in

[36:56] part, yes. Mhm. Um well, what then what's your position on Gaza? I said, the Israelis are wrong and they need to get out of Gaza immediately. I said, listen, Piers, the bottom line is this, you can't have as your policy kill everybody. That's the definition of genocide. And if anybody should know genocide, it should be the Israelis. Mhm. And then he said and I I was very heartened by this. He said um I've finally come around on this issue and I have to agree with you.

[37:28] And he's been Joe Zionist from the very beginning. >> Yeah. I've seen that I've seen that transformation with Piers, also. Um you know, I mean, again um you know, one would hope that you'd have the moral clarity to see something like that on you know, October 8th, 2023, but better late than never, seriously. Yeah. Yeah. Trump thanks for uh sorry, Yass Yass thanks for the uh 1799 Emirati dirham. Uh Trump rarely makes an unwitting political mistake. If

[37:59] you had to guess I wouldn't say that's true. If you What's a mad genius strategy we might not see? But I'm just going to push back on that. Uh the Save America Act is a and is a is a mistake and the and the his opposition to vote to mail-in ballots during the pandemic uh was a huge contributing factor to his defeat to his defeat. Uh so he makes mistakes. But okay, genius strategy that we might not see. Uh let's take that question at its at its face value. You know, I believe

[38:31] that he believed Netanyahu's propaganda that if we decapitate the Iranian government, the whole thing comes down like a house of cards. And I think that he believed that was the genius strategy. And instead, he's gotten us into a war that we're not getting out of. It Remember, to win, we need to wipe out the entire Iranian government and military, which is not possible. And install a pro-American or pro-American and pro-Israeli

[39:03] government. Essentially a puppet government. It's not going to happen. And anything short of that is an American-Israeli loss. What what the Iranians need to win is just to survive the war. And they're going to survive. John, one more question, we'll bring in Robbie. Um he has some stuff to talk about. Um What would you say um I mean, to my theory that he's kind of Trump is kind of lost his superpower. He

[39:35] spent much of his first term still doing rallies, which was weird, you know, campaigning. A president continued to campaign. But, he kept his ear to the ground, maybe not with America, but certainly with half of America, with the conservative half. Um, and now he doesn't do that anymore. No more rallies. I feel like he's out of touch now. He's firmly wrapped in DC in Beltway bubble wrap. Yeah. And I think that's [ __ ] him over. I think that's right. Yes. Um,

[40:07] Okay, one more. Sodan, thanks for the $19.99. Good morning John, if you were to have dinner with John Brennan at Filomena in DC, what would you get off your chest? Same for Ted, lunch with your LA Times boss. What would you ask and would it end with a handshake? #closure. Great questions. John, you go first. Uh, somebody asked me yesterday, um, we were we were talking we were talking about somebody that we mutually hate. And I said, I can

[40:39] literally count on one hand the number of people in my life whom I hate. Mhm. And I said, I hate John Brennan. Mhm. I wouldn't have that meal. >> up here yesterday on the show, yeah. >> [snorts] >> Yeah, he did. I I wouldn't have that meal with Brennan. I wouldn't shake his hand. Mhm. And frankly, I I'll say this and I I won't say anymore. I am working very hard right now to see that he spends much of the rest

[41:11] of his life in prison. If you could say something to him, what would you say? Shame on you. Monster. Ruiner of families and lives. Um, the thing I would say, I have no idea if we would end up with a handshake or not. I I wouldn't know until I went into it. I certainly would sit down with Austin Butner. Um, but I would ask him, did you give any thought whatsoever to the damage you were doing to me

[41:42] personally as a human being and to this institution, the the the biggest newspaper in the state of California. That's like, did you did you give that any thought at all? When Yeah, I I would want to know that. Um, all right, so let's with that, let's bring in Robbie West. Robbie, thanks for coming on and filling us in on what you have to fill us in on. Yeah, no, of course. Uh, this will be really quick. Uh, y'all over on Rumble, uh, John's newest premium episode is up. Talk about

[42:13] how he became a internet superstar. Uh, it is a Rumble exclusive. So, what y'all need to do, if y'all over on YouTube, come on over to Rumble. I promise you the weather is fine. Uh, the water's the water's okay. It's not frigid like it is here in Montana. And uh, y'all can see all of their premium content here on Rumble. You can become a Rumble subscriber for $10 a month or if you just want to support Dprogram and then just support John and Ted, you go down on live stream for just $5 a month and they keep 100% of those

[42:43] proceeds. Rumble does not take a dime if you become a channel member, which is huge. And uh, also Rumble pays them based off their watch hours as opposed to ads. So, you're uh, they actually earn more money for you watching here on Rumble just cuz it's just the way that the just the business models work. And uh, lastly, uh, John, for uh, for you, uh, more of his content will be going up on his official Rumble channel today including shorts. Uh, his channel's really taking off. It's exploding. So,

[43:15] thank you everyone that's supporting that's supporting him. And also John, do not feel bad about hating John Brennan. Uh, one of the things that people have a big misconception about is that they think that Christians are commanded not to hate. We're not commanded not to hate. We are commanded to hate and we are commanded not to hate our brothers and and to pray for our enemies, but we are allowed to hate enemies of God. And John Brennan is 100% that. So, hate away. Thank you. And I have a Rumble page, too, but >> Yep, he does. Yep, uh,

[43:47] uh, Ted Rall. So, come on over for more content on his channel now, too. Thank you, Robbie. Uh, but do we have an ad? Uh, we do. I'll throw it up for you. Thank you. All right. Well, in the meantime, while Robbie's doing that, we'll take another question. Uh, thanks for the dollar from Desert Fox. Breaking news within the past 4 hours, Ansar Allah has announced that they are getting involved and will join uh, start joint operations with Iran. Joint operations are going to be hard since Ansar Allah is in northern Yemen and Iran is in Iran and

[44:19] never the two shall meet. Mhm. But, good luck. Coordinated? Maybe. If that means attacking, you know, shipping in the in the Red Sea. Yeah. Okay. >> 90% chance, I would say. Yeah, we're we've been down that road before and they're going to get the daylights bombed out of them. Yeah, yes, they will. Rainman777, thanks so much for the $9.99. Do you think that the American empire is over? I don't see any way that we can continue to afford this. Is the economy

[44:50] permanently cooked? Um, the empire's on the ropes, I would say. >> Yeah. Over? No, certainly not. I agree. Uh, Kevin Mills, thanks for the $30. Your favorite retired Oregon sheriff here. No question, just wanted to say hi. >> Hey, yes. Yes, welcome. Thank you. Go Oregon.

[45:25] Mhm. That's right. Say I'm represented by counsel and I don't >> don't talk to cops. I like it. Uh, Toast to God, $9.99. I saw Nuremberg the other day and thought how boy, have the tables have turned. Israel is currently moving like Nazis and it's extremely weird. You can call them an anti-Semite for pointing it out. You know, for years every I I hesitated to say what I'm about to say and uh, now I'm really convinced that the Israelis really were

[45:56] they're they really were inspired by Nazi Germany in terms of their tactics. Uh, you know, the the the the retaliation against family members, against people who resist them, uh, the humiliation, all that stuff is very, very similar. Oh, we got to go do this ad. >> lose the ad. All right, we'll do do that. Sorry about that. Today's sponsor Chicago Steak Company and they're giving away four free steaks on every order. Code BPSIR

[46:28] free. Do you ever buy steaks at the grocery store? I mean, it's a total gamble. You're

[53:12] that mean for the future? I keep thinking at some [clears throat] point, but it there's no sign of it. That the that the legislative >> That's No, and it and the Democrats in the same way, just as soon as a Democrat wins the White House, the Democrats are going to gladly concede whatever authority they have on Capitol Hill. 100%. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if the SAFE Act were to pass. Yeah. Exactly. Uh episode dollar, thanks. The vaccine was a money grab scam. Um

[53:46] Kitty Catastrophe, $1.99. John, did you say Remains of the Day is postponed? Yeah, um I talked to the publisher about it last weekend, and he said that this is not on them, it's on Amazon. That Amazon was just slow in the uptake to to order from the warehouse. So, instead of March 24th, it's like June 25th, I think. Mhm. Yeah. Makes me very angry. Claudio, thanks for the 5,000 Argentine whatever. So, I keep saying that. I'm going to have to look that up. 10 scooter 10

[54:17] scooters, gasoline shortages and rationing are daily problem in Southeast Asia and the Philippines right now. Gas is beginning Diesel expected for the next month directly hits tourist services, so people who who live off it, the poor is always the are always the first to suffer. John, you know, with the day that you were out and Robbie and I were talking about um we were talking about how there's countries like uh Myanmar and Vietnam uh and Singapore that only have 30 days of gas left uh before they're

[54:47] They they run completely dry. Uh Taiwan, I think is at is has 100 days. Um there's I mean, that's going to roll around That's going to come around sooner rather than later. Um the the squeeze is really It's hard to overestimate how harsh this is. Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is bad. It's like, you know, American Most Americans are like one medical disaster away from bankruptcy. It's the same thing with whole countries in this case. Mhm. These countries, as you said, like Singapore,

[55:18] Myanmar Myanmar is a little bit more resourceful, I think, but Singapore, Japan, they the economies will just screech to a halt. Yeah. >> And there's only so much oil available on the on the open market. And if it's not coming through the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for at least 30% of the world's oil supply, then they're SOL. And then what do they do? I I imagine the mullahs down in their bunker playing a 45 of the Rolling Stones

[55:49] Yeah. >> is on my side, just over on loop. They just have to They just have to hang tight. Because time is on their side. I mean, we we know how to blow [ __ ] up, but that doesn't mean we know how to win. That's right. Soma, thanks for the 1799 dirhams. Great thumbnail. Why do you think Iran has been targeting Gulf countries so much more than Israel, aside from the fact that we're much closer? Well, I think probably

[56:20] they don't have Iron Dome, right? Also. No, they don't have Iron Dome. So, you know, if you only have a certain number of of missiles, you want to make them count. Um and aren't Aren't the Gulf states I mean, Iran must view the Gulf states as traitors to the Oh, yeah. Gulf states and Iran have have always hated each other. And there was this uneasy, you know, coexistence. But if if the Gulf states are going to are going to sponsor and house American, you know, troops and airmen and and

[56:51] ships and all all that stuff, then the Iranians are all in. And the Abraham By the way, and the Abraham Accords must have driven them absolutely crazy. >> that was That's what added insult to injury. Yes. Um so, let's talk about JD Vance. Um I know we we mentioned it at the top of the show, but do you think it Do you think that it's really true that like this war would be so unpopular that it would he wouldn't be able to rinse off

[57:22] the stink of it in 2028? I don't think he has time to. And he's going to have to either break with Donald Trump now or break with Donald Trump in 2 years. And I don't think he can survive that within the Republican Party. I think it would be far more advantageous for him if he were to finish out the term, go back to Wall Street, make millions and millions of dollars, and just wait a little bit like Richard Nixon did. I mean, I always had this fantasy that Colin Powell walks up to the UN lectern

[57:53] says, "They gave me this speech, but it's all lies." The music starts to come up. Yeah. Both parties nominate him in 2004 for president, right? He runs unopposed. Um I think something like that might have happened, right? But I think if JD Vance were to like resign as vice president and said, "In good principle in good faith, I can't support this war. It's wrong." But JD Vance That doesn't mean he begets to become president, right? Because he's just not beloved. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, that's it. Even though we might

[58:25] agree with him and be like, "Good for you, JD." Yes. Um What does it say? And we're going to We have 30 30 seconds, 45 seconds left. What does it say that the Danes were so [ __ ] worried that they were they shipped explosives to airstrips in Greenland to protect themselves their territory from a US invasion? They believed they took Donald Trump at his word. He said, "Greenland will be ours."

[58:55] And they knew that they were going to have to fight this Goliath somehow. And so, you might as well take the place down with you. Yeah, no ball balls out, though, you know? I mean, I seriously didn't think they had it in them. Yeah. Kudos to them. Yeah. Yeah, cool. Well, John, um go and have a great weekend. Um it's it's the it's the end of the show, but we'll be back Monday, as we are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Please We had a If you missed it

[59:26] yesterday, John and Scott Stanton and I had a good chat on DMC America. That's up on YouTube and Rumble. Go check that out. And uh please stay tuned for TMI with myself and Millenial Chan coming up right now. See you Monday, John. See you. >> [music]
