Latest / DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas / Will the US and Ukraine Break Up? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

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Will the US and Ukraine Break Up? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas · DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

0:09
Good morning. It's Thursday, October 15th, 2026.
0:14
This is the program with Ted Rall and Jamarl
0:16
Thomas. Good morning, Jamarl. Nice to see you.
0:19
Nice to see you too. We have a lot this morning.
0:24
I'll tell you what we have in the hopper, then
0:27
we can start getting to it and we'll do some
0:29
housekeeping. Zelensky and Trump appear to be
0:33
headed towards a possible breakup. We'll get
0:36
into the details there. Also, there's controversy
0:38
over Elon Musk and his Starlink Starshield service
0:42
as it pertains to Ukraine. Republicans say that
0:47
their best chance for winning the midterms is
0:50
that all the polls are wrong. Got to laugh there.
0:54
Okay. Harris County, that's in Texas, is looking
0:59
at possibly charging an ICE officer who deliberately
1:04
ran over. a victim that they were tracking, potentially
1:09
constituting aggravated assault. The video is
1:14
online if you want to go check it out. We can
1:16
maybe show it here too. Iran has struck and sent
1:21
two large ships down to the bottom of the Strait
1:23
of Hormuz. That's one of the most violent actions
1:28
that's happened in the Strait since the war began.
1:31
And Representative Ilhan Omar the jihad against
1:35
her from the trump administration continues uh
1:38
with more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas uh
1:41
filed against her and her relatives and they've
1:44
also seized her phone in conjunction with possible
1:47
immigration fraud bear in mind she's running
1:50
for re -election in just three weeks is when
1:53
she's going to be at the polls there so basically
1:55
what you're saying is that while i've been gone
1:58
i haven't missed anything well that's always
2:02
that's how it is when i travel i always think
2:06
like i'm going to come home and there's going
2:08
to be all sorts of exciting things i have such
2:10
fomo and you know nothing really happens you
2:13
know there's a few bills some people have reached
2:16
out but really nothing happens there's nothing
2:18
there's never a reason not to travel okay but
2:21
what happened with omar because like i've been
2:23
off the grid nothing happened like meaning she's
2:27
donald trump is just going after her nothing
2:31
nothing happened with her like meaning What,
2:34
for marrying her brother or what? No. That didn't
2:37
happen. She did not marry her brother. That's
2:40
been debunked. It's not true. Yeah, they're trying
2:42
to say that there's some kind of immigration
2:43
paperwork that took place with her dad. And it's
2:47
like, how do you plan to find that by raiding
2:49
her house? Yeah. Like, you could have sent her
2:54
a letter. Hey, please come to the immigration
2:56
office. This stuff is not necessary. I mean,
2:58
they do know where to find her. Right in Washington.
3:01
Conveniently. Congresswoman. Right. She has an
3:05
office and everything. They know exactly where
3:07
to find her. So basically, what the claim seems
3:12
to be is that her father lied about either his
3:15
age, his wife's age, or Ilhan's age on the application
3:20
forms when they arrived in the United States.
3:24
And basically, maybe there's some way based on
3:28
that to deport Ilhan Omar, which is... you know
3:32
ridiculous it also violates this rule that the
3:36
department of justice usually enforces about
3:38
not charging any kind of political candidate
3:41
you know 60 days or less before an election so
3:45
you know it's obviously very political and and
3:48
disgusting really yesterday we were on there
3:51
being kizzy we were trying to come home from
3:53
glacier national park of course trump is here
3:56
in kalispell and if he's here in montana trying
3:59
to prop up aaron flynn The Republicans know that
4:03
they are in deep doo -doo if he has to be here,
4:06
of all places. Aaron Flynn is who? So Ryan Zinke's
4:11
not running for re -election. So he's stepping
4:14
down. Congress or Senate? Congress. So he's our
4:18
congressman. How many congressmen does Montana
4:22
have? We have two now because our population
4:24
has broken a million. So we have two people.
4:29
And so Aaron Flint is like the handpicked successor
4:32
for the douchebag. And I see that Paulie, I saw
4:37
the douchebags out there because it's really
4:38
a disservice to them of Ryan Zinke. And the guy
4:44
who gets him is a Democrat. His name is Forsath.
4:48
I'm probably going to actually end up voting
4:50
for him. He's a firefighter out here. He's a
4:53
smokejumper. And he just kind of caught fire,
4:56
pardon the pun. And it looks like that he may
5:01
very well win in a very deep red district because
5:05
people here are just sick and tired of all the
5:07
crap. Yep. And I hope he does. I want to point
5:11
out, I predicted this long before the media and
5:15
everything got behind it. I kept saying Republicans
5:17
are going to lose. They're going to lose. By
5:19
the way, Texas also. Tallarica seems to be winning
5:24
in Texas. I mean. He's a funny dude, right? I
5:29
mean, it's for Texas. I mean, I am, you know,
5:32
like I kind of understood. What was her name?
5:35
The governor of Texas, that lady. Oh, my God.
5:41
She was a woman governor of Texas. This is like
5:45
I'm getting old. Ann Richards, right? She was
5:48
governor from 1991 to 1995. And she had, you
5:52
know, she like rode a motorcycle to the statehouse.
5:55
She was, you know, kind of like a badass, brassy
5:58
Texan lady. And you're like, okay, well, if there's
6:02
going to be a woman governor of Texas, and she
6:05
actually wasn't the first one. The first one
6:07
was back in the 20s, Miriam Ferguson. But, you
6:11
know, it's kind of like if they're going to have
6:12
a Democrat, they're going to have someone, you
6:14
know, she's going to be really Texan. This, you
6:17
know, she, this, you know, Tallarico just. You
6:21
know, he doesn't seem really what I think of
6:23
as a Texan, but what do I know? It's a big state.
6:25
I know it's got diversity of all kinds, but still,
6:29
it's kind of like he's kind of like a Mormon.
6:33
He's like a pipsqueak, like all super like clean
6:36
cut and not like particularly butch. And Trump's
6:39
been kind of implying that he's gay, even though
6:41
there's no evidence for that to support that.
6:43
Well, he's been implying he's a vegan also. Right,
6:47
right, which in Texas is worse than being gay.
6:50
You can suck sausage, but you better eat it too.
6:55
You better be willing to eat it. He's been making
6:58
it like he's less than a man or something like
7:00
that. Don't mess with Texas. Look at this guy
7:03
who's emasculant. That type of thing. I don't
7:06
think it has anything to do about it being...
7:08
Well, for one, I don't think that helps the candidate
7:10
that Donald Trump is there stomping for him.
7:13
There's that. Because it ties the two together.
7:16
Two, I don't think it's about Tallarico. I think
7:19
it's the fact that he's a Democrat and he's just
7:21
not a Republican. It's about Paxton, right? Yeah.
7:24
Paxton's a terrible candidate. I was really surprised
7:27
that the Republicans nominated him. Well, he's
7:30
a Trump guy, which is the problem for Paxton.
7:33
Right. But it's also Paxton's a terrible candidate.
7:36
I mean, there's all sorts. He was really deeply
7:38
damaged to begin with, right? I mean, infidelity,
7:41
corruption. I mean, he's not awesome. Yeah. So
7:46
he is. Donald Trump is doing him no favors by
7:49
stomping him. No, he's just not. And I watched
7:53
a video of Trump recently and he's like just
7:55
enjoying the stump speech. He's enjoying it.
7:59
And it's like, dude, you're killing your party.
8:02
Yeah, no, it's amazing. It's amazing to behold.
8:06
So probably that's where we should start. Right.
8:09
So. Politico has a piece, and Axios also today,
8:14
saying that basically at this point, Republicans
8:16
now admit privately that the House of Representatives
8:18
is lost. They're sort of making their peace with
8:22
possibly losing the Senate as well, although
8:24
that's going to definitely be tight. It'll be
8:26
tight. And basically, they're saying that maybe
8:32
the polls are wrong. Polls have certainly been
8:35
wrong before. Can't happen. But once you find
8:40
yourself in one direction, like you have to explain
8:43
how like five different polls from five different
8:45
polling agencies end up like with the same numbers.
8:50
Yeah. Well, you're kind of hoping, you're kind
8:53
of hope. I mean, you know, once you find yourself
8:55
hoping for an act of God, you know, it's like,
9:02
you know, like, you know, maybe my mom won't
9:05
notice the D on my report card and she'll. be
9:08
squinting and it'll look like a bee. You know,
9:11
maybe the principal will forget to call my mom
9:15
and tell her about the incident at school. You
9:17
know, anything could happen. Before he can move
9:20
the piece, the checkmate me. Like if a guy dies,
9:23
before me, then I win the game. Right. It's like,
9:28
oh, if you have to do that, something is wrong.
9:31
I mean, they understand that this is like a live
9:36
by the Trump, die by the Trump. Because as I
9:39
pointed out today, right, like Trump is out there
9:41
giving some speeches like this is just, you know,
9:44
a regular day where he's doing this. He's hamming
9:46
it up. The crowd is screaming at him in adoration
9:49
and he loves it. Missing the fact that this is
9:52
not like a normal campaign where your crowd size
9:55
is indicative of how you're going to perform.
9:57
This is a small amount of people who still are
10:00
on the Trump train with the majority of the people
10:02
are just not. And so it's like you got in office
10:06
based on the strength of Donald Trump. And Donald
10:09
Trump was even able to use the fact of the matter
10:11
that he had that many people that were backing
10:12
him to go after certain Republicans. What's his
10:15
name? Massey being a good example. Or for that
10:18
matter, Marjorie Taylor Greene getting out of
10:20
politics altogether. That was because of the
10:22
power of Trump. What about now? What about now?
10:27
Right. Like they're going to effectively die
10:29
at the hand that got them in office in the first
10:32
place. Yeah. Yeah, they are. Because that's more
10:38
than a cult of personality. I mean, if you're
10:40
going to run on something specifically, increasing
10:43
wages, decreasing the cost of living, or at least
10:46
bringing the two into parity, and then you go
10:49
start wars on behalf of a foreign nation, and
10:53
then economically your people pay the price for
10:55
it. I mean. eventually americans might not really
11:00
understand what happens across the street much
11:02
less across the world but they do understand
11:04
whenever things impact them economically and
11:06
instinctively people know what's wrong and so
11:10
that's what's good that's the issue here is you
11:13
said you're gonna put america first you said
11:15
that we were going to be winning so much and
11:16
we'll be crying to stop people are crying but
11:19
some because of all the women it's because you're
11:21
a buffoon and by the way that argument is dead
11:25
on Because Donald Trump, when he was giving his
11:27
thumb speech, he was like, we beat Iran to death.
11:29
Their inflation, their economy is failing. Their
11:33
military is busted and blah, blah, blah. Okay,
11:35
well, their ship's sinking to the bottom of the
11:37
Strait of Hormuz. One was a tanker ship. The
11:39
other one was a cargo ship. But you can see all
11:41
this stuff just like literally falling to the
11:42
bottom. So they actually sunk two ships there
11:44
while I was gone. Yeah, they did. Sunk two ships.
11:46
But they've been firing at ships all week. I
11:48
know they're firing. I know they've been shooting
11:50
at them. Well, here's the thing. Trump seems
11:53
to go with the argument that. Hey, I understand
11:56
you're in pain, but they're in more pain. And
11:59
again, these rugged individualist Americans that
12:01
don't really give a shit about what's happening
12:02
abroad is not going to care about that. He seems
12:05
to go with this argument or have this belief
12:07
that if I can inflict pain on somebody else,
12:10
then the pain that you're experiencing is less
12:13
than the pain that we're inflicting on them,
12:14
as if the American public cares. They don't accept
12:17
your premise for the war. And so because they
12:19
don't accept your premise of the war, it doesn't
12:21
matter the pain you're inflicting on somebody
12:24
else. We are in pain. Our diesel is through the
12:27
roof. Our inflation is going through the roof.
12:29
That's what we care about. His argument doesn't
12:31
work. No, I mean, the thing is, it's there's
12:36
nothing new in this respect. Right. I mean, like
12:38
we might be living in a different world from
12:40
AI and a million other things. But, you know,
12:42
it's a fundamental truth about about American
12:45
politics is economic matters always dictate the
12:48
outcome. um it's always the number one thing
12:51
on people's minds unless things happen to be
12:54
going relatively well and that's not the case
12:57
now it's not usually the case actually the american
13:00
economy is not really that great for most americans
13:03
most of the time and this is a particularly bad
13:06
time and so you know if you're looking for a
13:09
job or you're hoping for a raise or you know
13:12
god help you and you know even if you already
13:14
have a job God help you in your ability to afford
13:18
to, you know, to buy groceries and gas and all
13:21
and so on. So, you know, everything's going up.
13:24
I don't know. I mean, it's crazy. And let's see.
13:30
We have some comments. Okay. P .L .B. Walker
13:35
says the more people say Democrats are going
13:36
to win, the more individual Democrats will think
13:39
they won't have to show up to vote. And also,
13:42
remember, the polling companies are paid by political
13:45
parties. Some of them are. It's always nice when
13:48
they return results that support the current
13:50
trench of political operatives running their
13:53
respective parties. But they also have internal
13:56
polling, which is basically what they really
14:00
rely upon. There's the public polling. And nowadays,
14:03
there's a bunch of bullshit polls that you can't
14:05
really pay attention to. If you've never heard
14:07
of it, the odds are there's a reason that you
14:09
should just ignore it. But that is I mean, look,
14:14
Republicans are going to lose the House. No question
14:16
about it. I don't I just don't know if it's going
14:18
to be historic like 1982 or 1974 or just substantial.
14:26
But it's not going to be less than substantial.
14:28
That's for sure. I would make a prediction. It
14:31
will be historic. I think so, too. It's just
14:34
so he's like I've never seen like. a polling
14:40
that had like 80 of the american public against
14:42
the president on the economy like or he's 80
14:45
points underwater meaning from when he got in
14:47
office and this kind of you know this belief
14:51
that he was much better than the democratic party
14:53
in which case he had like a 30 point lead on
14:55
kamala harris to now it's like an 80 point difference
14:59
and the polling people were like we've never
15:02
seen anything like it and can you really blame
15:04
him when you look at the price of gas and diesel
15:07
When is the last time? I've never seen gas at
15:09
$4 .32. I've never seen it. And yet here in Virginia,
15:13
in Richmond, who doesn't necessarily have all
15:15
the more expensive gas, it was like $4 .32. It
15:18
even hit like $4 .50. You could say the Putin
15:22
price hike for Joe Biden, this is obviously worse,
15:24
which means that everybody pays it. It hits every
15:28
last person. And because it hits every last person.
15:30
Even if you bike every day, it hits you because
15:33
you're buying stuff that's transported by fuel,
15:35
right? Exactly. And so it's like, is it shocking
15:39
to see polling that says the public is pissed
15:42
off at Trump because of it? No, it's not shocking.
15:44
It makes all the sense in the world. I'm more
15:46
confused by the 20%. I'm agreed with that. I'm
15:51
also confused by the fact that Trump doesn't
15:53
even attempt to talk this down a little bit.
15:57
I mean, he doesn't even, you know, when you tell
15:59
people, hey, the economy is great. I heard him
16:03
say that yesterday at a rally. The economy is
16:06
doing great. Okay, that's televised. People hear
16:10
that. If I were the Democrats, I would just be
16:12
playing Trump saying that over and over and attack
16:14
ads. It's bad enough to be feeling the pain.
16:21
It's worse when the President of the United States
16:24
is... you know denying that your pain even exists
16:27
i mean americans are rugged individualists right
16:30
we we tend to personalize internalize uh our
16:33
you know we lose our job we just roll up our
16:36
sleeves and try to find another one we don't
16:38
kind of look to the government to go out and
16:40
protest and say you should be providing us with
16:42
more jobs we just try to take care of it ourselves
16:44
but but but it does go a bridge too far for americans
16:49
when when biden did the same thing like oh you
16:52
guys you know you you don't see the numbers that
16:54
we see you guys don't really know what you're
16:55
talking about we're looking at different metrics
16:57
like no don't tell me when i you know my credit
17:00
card isn't isn't screaming in pain um you know
17:03
when it is and like yeah it's it's i mean that's
17:07
the part that's crazy to me is that he can't
17:09
even say you know like guys i get it it's a little
17:13
rough But it's worth it. And it's only temporary.
17:16
And I promise you it's going to get better. And
17:18
I'm working on it. I'm working on it night and
17:20
day. He doesn't say that because he doesn't have
17:23
not only does he not have empathy. I mean, he
17:28
just doesn't. It's not in his. It's not. There's
17:30
no empathy in his in his personality. But on
17:33
top of that, he doesn't even know how to act
17:36
and pretend as though he had empathy. I mean,
17:40
I don't think Bill Clinton cared about us either,
17:42
but he knew how to pretend that he felt our pain.
17:44
He rejected. Yeah. No, I accept that. Yeah, I
17:48
agree. He's obviously unempathetic. The only
17:50
modification I would make to that is he does.
17:55
You're right. He doesn't have this. So it doesn't
17:57
come across well. But he does make this argument
17:59
of like, well, the war will be over with after
18:01
the election. The problem is he's been telling
18:05
us that. You know, he's been saying that since
18:08
the beginning of the war. He said that it was
18:10
won after the first weekend, right? I mean, there's
18:13
a classic editorial cartoon from the Vietnam
18:15
War by Mike Peters where it's Richard Nixon.
18:18
He kept saying about the Vietnam War, the end
18:22
is right around the corner. And so it's a visual
18:25
pun, right? And you see him just going around
18:27
the corner and around the corner and around the
18:29
corner. And he's right back where he started,
18:31
right? The end is right around the corner. And
18:35
that's... You know, I mean, we've heard that
18:38
too many times. Nobody believes a word that he
18:40
has to say because he said the same thing over
18:42
and over with no grounds to. I mean, it's like
18:45
it's like the Ukraine thing that he was going
18:47
to end on day one. Right. I can end it in 24
18:49
hours. Here we are. Right. We're going to be
18:51
talking about that. But yeah, it's not ending
18:55
anytime soon. Trump has no exit. And Reuters
18:59
is reporting that Donald Trump is talking about
19:01
war plans, this idea of attacks on Iran, what
19:03
they could hit the energy grids and those type
19:05
of things. And, you know, this was reported before,
19:09
too, right, where the Trump administration was
19:11
thinking about attacking, but he kept backing
19:13
away from the attacks. There is no military solution,
19:17
which is the issue. Well, I mean, there's a military
19:21
solution. It just favors Iran. I mean, it's like
19:26
they have a military solution. They've already
19:29
achieved their military solution. To be honest,
19:31
it doesn't really favor Iran because Iran never
19:33
wanted a war, right? They don't want their infrastructure
19:36
blown up. They don't want their oil refinery.
19:38
They just want to be able to sell their oil and
19:40
do their business like any other country. That's
19:42
all they want. And so it's like, does it favor
19:44
Iran? It doesn't favor them, but it destroys
19:46
the world, or at least the world's economy. Meaning
19:50
Trump could do that, but that's not really a
19:53
military solution. That is you hitting targets,
19:56
and then you're going to have to deal with the
19:57
fact that Iran is going to respond, and their
20:00
response is going to be commiserate with your
20:01
attack, which can be withering. To all of us.
20:05
So, I don't know. I agree with you. He doesn't
20:09
have empathy. He doesn't even have to know how
20:11
to pretend. If I was a Democrat, especially in
20:15
Montana, I'd be running that clip over and over
20:16
again about Donald Trump talking about Argentine
20:18
farmers. It's like, well, we got to buy Argentine
20:20
beef. Fuck American farmers. I would be showing
20:22
ads about fertilizer going 70, 80%. I would be
20:25
showing all this. Because all of it is true.
20:28
They are. This is the... There are a bunch of
20:32
grassroots groups. And what I mean by grassroots,
20:34
I mean organizations not being funded by some
20:37
pack out of D .C. Yeah. And, I mean, when we
20:41
were coming home, so basically if you're coming
20:43
home from Glacier Park, you go down what's called
20:44
Highway 2. And it's a long hill. I live like
20:48
35 miles away from the park. And there's lots
20:51
of ranches on either side. You go through Columbia
20:53
Falls. Columbia Falls is a little town. Its major
20:55
economy used to be an aluminum plant. The plant's
20:58
gone. It was outsourced to China. So the town
21:00
is decimated. And there are people on either
21:04
side, because if you're going to Trump's rally,
21:06
you've got to go on this road. There's only two
21:08
major highways where I am. And they're holding
21:13
up signs saying, Trump cares more about Argentina
21:19
than he does about you. Really? Yeah. These are
21:22
just normal people. These are just normal folks
21:25
out there just wearing flannels, just standing
21:27
out there in 30 degree temperature. It's just
21:30
people are pissed. And the fact that the RNC
21:34
has got to deploy both of our senators, Tim Sheehy
21:38
and Steve Daines, and the president to come campaign
21:43
for Aaron Flint, who is a complete buffoon in
21:47
deep red Montana. So is he going to lose? Who's
21:50
going to win here? Who do you think? I'm hoping
21:53
so. I have no idea, and I really don't know if
21:56
voting for the firefighters will make any difference.
21:58
I know that polling in Montana is thin on the
22:01
ground. I looked into that. There's not a lot
22:03
of reliable polling. It must be very hard to
22:07
poll. It's very hard to poll there because it's
22:09
so sparsely populated. Also, people here don't
22:16
understand why Trump's picking a fight with Canada.
22:18
Because that's right. The Canadians coming down
22:20
is a big part of the economy here. They're coming
22:22
down here to shop because it's cheaper to shop
22:24
here in the U .S. than it is in Canada. No one
22:26
on the border understands why we picked a fight
22:28
with Canada. I mean, no American can possibly
22:31
explain. No defender of Donald Trump can possibly
22:34
explain to me. Donald Trump cannot explain to
22:36
me why he picked a fight with Canada. I mean,
22:38
the man is insane. I mean, I don't think there's
22:44
any other way. By the way, I was thinking that
22:46
he needs a... In the same way that the Republicans
22:50
are kind of hoping that the dog will eat their
22:52
homework or something on the polling, what they
22:56
need is for the Strait of Hormuz to detach itself
23:00
and float away from Iran and go thousands of
23:03
miles away. Then the U .S. has a chance to win
23:05
this war. But as long as the Strait of Hormuz
23:09
is pretty much where it is now, or within a few
23:13
hundred miles, they're fucked. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed.
23:18
You know, a little continental drift. You know,
23:21
they need that to rock. A lot of continental
23:23
drift. A lot of continental drift. I mean, we
23:28
should not be going thousands of miles to pick
23:30
fights. This is necessary. I think Trump is necessary.
23:35
Like Carl used to say, he's my president. I think
23:39
he's great. I mean, I said this in 2017. I was
23:43
like, American foreign policy is rude, crude,
23:46
and socially unacceptable, right? I mean, and
23:49
so is Donald Trump. And I thought he was seriously,
23:52
it was great to have truth in advertising after
23:55
eight years of the very civilized, calm, smooth,
24:00
professorial Barack Obama, who... put up such
24:04
a beautiful face on such an ugly system it's
24:07
like now we have a nasty president to uh you
24:10
know just to prop up the nasty empire and its
24:14
nasty deeds i'm with you i i you and i both don't
24:18
like it's like yeah the veneer is gone yeah it's
24:22
very honest And by the way, for the Democrats
24:25
who think that this MAGA phenomenon is new, too,
24:27
like, no, no, no. That strain in politics has
24:31
always been with us, and it always will be. You
24:34
know, like the John Birch Society, the Tea Party,
24:38
you name it, whatever. It's just cynical. But,
24:42
I mean, and let's be honest, though. Those things
24:44
were harnessed, not used in earnest. Like, Donald
24:49
Trump didn't MAGA, let's say, in its... rawest
24:55
form, this idea of America first. It's not what
24:58
he did. This wasn't America first. This was something
25:00
else. An American first foreign policy would
25:03
just look differently and, weirdly enough, would
25:07
be supported by many Democrats. Even though they
25:09
wouldn't necessarily support a Republican doing
25:11
it, it would be supported by Democrats. Meaning,
25:13
if you say, look, we're pulling out of the war
25:17
in Ukraine because we shouldn't be in this fight.
25:20
This was Joe Biden's war and he did this on day
25:22
one. He would have gotten credit from that. even
25:24
from many people on the left who was against
25:26
the war, right? If Donald Trump said, look, we're
25:30
not fighting Israel's wars, just not having a
25:33
war in and of itself, focusing on the American
25:35
economy, those things, depending upon how we
25:39
went about it, because Donald Trump is incompetent,
25:41
so there's that. Those things would have been
25:43
valued as an actual America first. That's not
25:47
what Trump did. It's just not what he did. He
25:50
did the opposite of those things. So I don't
25:53
know. It's like you may harness the Tea Party.
25:54
You may harness MAGA. You may harness these things.
25:57
But it's not like they're used in earnest once
25:59
the president gets an office. But you can correct
26:01
me on this. You know this better than I do. Yeah,
26:05
no. I don't have anything to say to that. You're
26:09
right. It's totally, yeah, totally. By the way,
26:12
they do the same thing to Democrats. Like Occupy
26:15
Wall Street being harnessed by Obama. Well, Obama
26:17
starts using the 1 % in his speeches, despite
26:21
the fact he's being paid by Citigroup. they harness
26:25
the stuff they don't yeah they do in earnest
26:28
no i mean yeah i mean i i will say this again
26:32
i've said it before i'm sure i'll say it again
26:34
um you know it it's like we think we're raised
26:38
as kids to believe that basically you have a
26:41
political system where we elect politicians who
26:44
then try to determine a way to uh to identify
26:48
the top problems of the country you know present
26:52
and future and try to come up with solutions
26:54
to them and then debate them and that there's
26:59
different ways to skin a cat and that they debate
27:02
that in Congress. And then ultimately what comes
27:05
out of this system is something that is an attempt
27:07
to solve our problems. That's just not true.
27:11
That's just not the system. And I think if the
27:15
American people realize that they're being played
27:17
over and over and over by that, it's a grift.
27:20
That neither party gives a shit about them. It's
27:23
a money making operation. You know, it's I don't
27:27
even think it's fair to say that it's corrupt
27:29
because corruption implies that it's not that
27:33
it's kind of like if it wasn't being run. Yeah.
27:38
Sorry. That is out of bounds. Corruption implies
27:41
that something is out of bounds. Exactly, that
27:44
the machine isn't working the way it's supposed
27:46
to. It's like, no, no, no, this machine is working
27:48
exactly the way it's supposed to. Let me tell
27:52
you this. This is wild because the whole reason
27:55
I'm even here is as of last night, we went to
27:58
church this Wednesday night. I'm one of those
28:00
Bible thumpers, as you all know. And Kizzy, she
28:03
had to serve in the kids' class. So that's why
28:08
we're back. One of the people who go to our church
28:11
was wearing a T -shirt. And this is wild. I go
28:15
to a small, independent, fundamentalist, Zionist
28:18
church. That's what we got here. And this guy
28:22
was wearing a shirt that says, Satan is a liar.
28:26
Or no, it says the devil is a liar. That's what
28:29
it said. And someone looked at him and said,
28:31
oh, are you going to go see Trump after church?
28:35
I mean, think about what I just said. Well, maybe
28:39
the devil is a liar, but maybe the liar isn't
28:42
always the devil, right? That's funny. The fact
28:46
that that comment would even be made shows just
28:50
how deep this anger has gotten. It's crazy. When
28:57
Kamala Harris was running, and I remember I was
28:59
at the pharmacist, quote unquote, as they call
29:02
them in D .C. I was at the pharmacist, and one
29:05
of the people that was in the pharmacist bought
29:07
up. the race they were like just talking offhand
29:09
and the woman african -american woman she was
29:11
like i don't think i can vote for cars she's
29:13
supporting a genocide i can't support somebody
29:15
who's supporting a genocide and i was like oh
29:17
she's screwed if you can't get the black community
29:20
in dc and you got people who are ambivalent about
29:23
voting for you that are african -americans this
29:25
is the bread and butter of the democratic party
29:27
and this random person is having a random conversation
29:30
with central casting yeah you know i think i'm
29:34
saying like there are things that are indicative
29:37
of kind of like Hillary Clinton. I remember when
29:41
I was working in the software shop and it was
29:45
noted that somebody was dispatched from the Clinton
29:48
campaign to go to Wisconsin on the day of the
29:50
election. I was like, she's fucked. If you're
29:52
not going to win Wisconsin and you're that concerned
29:54
about Wisconsin on the day of the election, A,
29:56
you're going to lose it. And she did. In fact,
29:59
she lost all of those upper states. You remember
30:02
my Wisconsin story though, right? I was friends
30:06
with a... person who was pretty high ranked in
30:08
the uh in the clinton campaign and he's and so
30:11
he said that she had a remarkable phenomenon
30:14
which was that they had tracking polls in the
30:17
counties after before and after she appeared
30:19
she was the only candidate that he was aware
30:22
of or that any other uh campaign experts were
30:25
aware of in like modern history who when she
30:28
appeared somewhere in public her tracking polls
30:30
in that area would drop wow like everyone else
30:34
is just grateful like You know, I'm sure in Kalispell,
30:37
Trump's tracking polls did not drop. I don't
30:40
know if they went up, but they don't, you know,
30:42
normally people are just happy that, you know,
30:44
a presidential candidate or the president got
30:46
on a plane and came to their town and talked
30:49
to them. They appreciate that. But in Hillary's
30:53
case. To know, know, know her is to hate, hate,
30:57
hate her. And that's how it was, right? I mean,
31:02
she was, you know, it's kind of like when it
31:05
comes to Hillary, less is more. That's why it's
31:08
not like, you know, the official story is, oh,
31:12
they were incompetent. They forgot to send her
31:14
to Wisconsin because nobody paid attention. no
31:16
that's not what happened at all they were totally
31:19
competent they knew exactly that wisconsin was
31:21
in play they didn't that that's why they didn't
31:24
send her they were scared to send her because
31:27
they thought it would up wisconsin even more
31:29
which you know in a way is they'd rather be perceived
31:32
as incompetent than for their candidate to be
31:35
perceived as toxic which she was which she was
31:38
yep yep i mean i don't think kamala was toxic
31:43
i think she was just a derp you know, she was
31:47
worth it. I was only using it to give across
31:49
how, like, small events can foretell larger disaster.
31:54
And the fact that the guy was making that comment
31:56
at Church with Robbie, I think, be spelled, indicates
32:00
disaster. Oh, yeah, no. When you've lost, when
32:04
Republican Party has to fight for Montana, forget
32:07
it. Yeah, something's wrong. Game over, man!
32:10
Like Bill Paxton in Aliens. All right, so...
32:17
Iran, obviously, totally in control of the Strait
32:19
of Hormuz. Energy analysts are now saying they're
32:24
really expecting another big spike in oil prices.
32:26
Now, basically, all of the tricks that the Trump
32:31
administration and the oil companies have been
32:34
using to keep prices down, releasing reserves
32:37
and all that, that they're out of cards now.
32:41
There's no more jokers to pull out of the deck.
32:44
And we're going to start to see, you know, real
32:46
serious like right now national average is like
32:49
close to five dollars a gallon um you know we're
32:53
the sky's the limit now I mean they're gonna
32:55
have to start thinking about four digit gas pumps
32:57
um good it's necessary we I look it's not we'll
33:06
get our attention maybe yeah maybe we won't do
33:08
this anymore I doubt it but like there should
33:11
be consequences for bad behavior in this case
33:13
like the idea that we can go to other countries
33:16
and kill people it's just outrageous But Donald
33:18
Trump's going to walk away with billions of dollars.
33:21
Yeah, and that we don't care about it is amazing.
33:23
And now you have to care. And there's no protests
33:26
and there's no left. I mean, I have this conversation
33:29
all the time where people are like, oh, we do
33:33
protest. We go out to, I went to a No Kings rally.
33:36
I swear to God, people actually say that to me
33:38
on my Facebook page. I'm like, okay, that's not
33:41
what I need. I mean, like what the students are
33:44
doing in France. In Europe. That's protesting.
33:47
That's actual. Belgium, France, Spain, et cetera.
33:50
That's a protest. Like, did you see the protests
33:53
that were taking place in Belgium? It was like
33:55
they were tearing shit down. It's every day.
33:57
Things are on fire. Like schools are closed.
34:02
Businesses are closed. There's solidarity, not
34:05
just among the aggrieved parties, but other groups
34:09
that seem like they're unrelated, like the police
34:11
union. There's solidarity. That's a protest movement.
34:16
Are they still going to lose their jobs? Oh,
34:18
yeah, yeah, yeah. It will happen, by the way,
34:20
when the oil price... Because, look, what's going
34:21
to happen is, and people may not realize this,
34:23
when the oil price goes up to a certain amount,
34:26
companies start to dissolve because they can't
34:28
necessarily afford to operate. Same thing in
34:30
Germany, right? Well, all of the companies...
34:31
The AFD leader in Germany was giving a speech
34:34
effectively saying, merits is at 10%, companies
34:37
are going belly up and are leaving the country.
34:39
And she's right. And the reason is because of
34:42
the price point for energy in Europe. fundamentally
34:45
and radically changed the moment that nordstrom
34:47
blew up and the war started and they started
34:49
cutting off energy um in their usage in which
34:51
case okay well this and by the way that has a
34:54
direct result between with what's going on in
34:57
france and belgium and so on right yes because
34:59
it's like they had to impose austerity because
35:02
their economy is in trouble and they they can't
35:04
they can't maintain their schools are the protests
35:07
in france still going on i've been off off every
35:10
single day it's almost a month now yeah they've
35:13
been going on for a while and they spread to
35:15
other european countries seven days a week 24
35:18
000. so who else who else protested now france
35:21
belgium spain uh that was somewhere else the
35:25
spanish are pissed off because that landlord
35:27
killed that little old lady by being a greedy
35:29
bastard and they're right to be pissed off 100
35:32
but that's that's ted's point about solidarity
35:34
like we look at ourselves as rugged individualists
35:38
which inhibits any notion of solidarity and i
35:41
would argue that part and parcel to the reason
35:43
why there aren't protests like that in the states
35:45
because anything happens to us we look at it
35:46
as individual as opposed to like when you would
35:48
have saw that woman get evicted it's like oh
35:50
that sucks for her and we would have went on
35:52
and I mean, look, there's no question there's
35:55
an individual, a strong individualistic component
35:58
in the human personality. But there's also a
36:00
communitarian impulse. And in this country, you
36:05
see it expressed, for example, by the people
36:07
who say, oh, I would want socialized medicine
36:09
or I would consider voting for the DSA. Even
36:13
though that stuff is like soft and squishy and
36:15
it's not communist the way I would like, you
36:18
know, you can see the impulse. Americans recognize
36:22
that they're losing out, that something's missing,
36:25
that they need something better and different,
36:26
that they need to come together and push back
36:29
against this hegemonic system that is crushing
36:32
them. Well, I agree with you, but I think it
36:36
goes both ways. I think. I think both impulses
36:40
can be stimulated. You can have the impulse of
36:43
people saying, hey, let's work together, in which
36:45
case if you were raised that way, that would
36:46
be the way that your community kind of operates
36:48
or looked at themselves, kind of like France,
36:50
right? Right. Where they're willing to protest,
36:52
they're willing to go after stuff if it's in
36:54
the interest of the collective. You can be taught
36:57
that way and you can be raised that way or you
36:59
can be raised in an individualistic way. that
37:02
you are your own person. You are a rugged individualist.
37:05
You do so -and -so. Both things can be stimulated
37:08
from the standpoint of the human beings. I always
37:10
say human beings are water in the glass. You
37:12
could be either of those things. It's just that
37:15
the one impulse is stimulated in this country.
37:17
It's not the community. And so, you know, you
37:20
get a situation where fuel prices go through
37:22
the roof and the American public can't come together
37:25
and say, this is outrageous. This is unacceptable.
37:28
If it was France, well, obviously the students
37:30
are burning shit down. They do. It's the same
37:33
thing, I guess is what I'm saying. It's just
37:34
we deal with it in a different way. It doesn't
37:38
hit us in a way where we go and burn the White
37:41
House down, even when that should be taking place.
37:42
Look, we will get to a point where businesses
37:44
are not able to pay the price point of fuel.
37:47
Well, let's say you can sell your cookies at
37:49
$4. That's already starting to happen, yeah.
37:51
Yeah, but you can't sell them at $5. With diesel.
37:53
When it hits $5, those companies go belly up.
37:55
And yeah, it's already happening with diesel.
37:57
And there's trucks that are just stopped on the
38:00
side of... Interstate 70 in Ohio right now, not
38:02
going anywhere as a result of, you know, their
38:05
companies have been and, you know, they pay late
38:07
fees for not delivering their goods on time.
38:09
And even accounting for that, you know, the cold
38:12
blooded Excel spreadsheet has told them, like,
38:15
we're probably better off just being taken, absorbing,
38:17
eating the late fees because the diesel is too
38:19
expensive. It's not coming down. No. So I don't
38:25
know what they're going to do with the trucks,
38:26
but it's not coming down anytime soon. No. for
38:30
sure resume strikes and iran destroys capacity
38:33
like meaning not just we can't get it through
38:36
straight but it just doesn't exist it's like
38:38
well the hooties are destroying capacity right
38:41
i mean uh holy i'm sorry allah they're they're
38:46
like kicking ass and taking names they they set
38:48
the uh aramco office building on fire um you
38:52
know i mean We, you know, yesterday we had Leif
38:55
Malouf on and, you know, we talked a little bit
38:59
about it, but I kind of think we do need an economic
39:01
expert on the oil politics to come on and talk
39:05
about, I mean, honestly, Saudi Arabia, they don't
39:08
have a way to get, I mean, if they need to basically
39:13
nuke the Houthis, which they can't do, otherwise,
39:17
I mean, they need to, and they probably need
39:19
to nuke Iran too, which again, they can't do.
39:22
I mean, I don't see what options they have. I
39:24
mean, as I see it, you know, this is checkmate,
39:29
right? Like, you're going to lose. You have no
39:32
place to go. You can't, you know, you can't use
39:34
the Strait of Hormuz. You can't use the Gulf
39:36
of Aden. And you can't use your pipeline. I mean,
39:40
if you look at a map, they've got no other options.
39:43
I mean, I guess they could make nice with the
39:45
Russians and try to, you know, export north.
39:48
They're not going to do that. So, like, there's
39:51
just no, they don't have, they've painted themselves
39:54
into a corner. And, you know, Saudi Arabia is,
39:57
you know, the number two or three largest oil
40:00
exporting nation in the world. I mean. Is there
40:04
anything out of Israel now with the elections
40:06
going on there? Is there any kind of economic
40:09
pain that they're feeling? Are they being hurt
40:10
the way we are here in the U .S. or Europe? If
40:12
so, are there protests going on there? Like,
40:14
what have you all seen coming out of that hellhole?
40:18
I haven't seen much of anything coming out of
40:19
Israel. I mean, most of the news has been Saudi
40:21
Arabia, as Ted said, getting the shit kicked
40:23
out of them. I mean, Saudi Arabia is a glass
40:25
house, right? The election's in 12 days. With
40:29
the oil, with the election's in 12 days for Israel?
40:32
Yeah. He's up for re -election. And then Yahoo's
40:35
losing. um he he's currently the but here's the
40:39
thing it's a parliamentary system so nanya who
40:42
could technically uh his party could lose likud
40:45
but he could still win if he can form a government
40:48
right because he has to form a coalition with
40:50
all the right -wing uh religious parties and
40:53
that's usually what he does if they were to withhold
40:55
their support then he would be um you know if
40:58
his opponent were to form a coalition with the
41:01
arab party something that up until now no jewish
41:05
party is ever willing to do then though that
41:08
would be a game changer so it depends on how
41:10
badly he wants to win right but he's ahead wait
41:14
a minute didn't one of the government's former
41:16
coalition with the arab party a few years ago
41:19
i could be wrong no i think you're right briefly
41:22
and it was like one but basically it's not something
41:25
they like to do no they typically don't do they
41:28
typically freeze out the arab parties um if netanyahu
41:31
loses there may be a cage with his name on it.
41:36
Because the only thing that's keeping him out
41:37
of jail right now is the fact that there's really,
41:39
that he's in government. True. He and Trump have
41:43
that in common. Yes, they do. And Netanyahu has
41:46
run into a headwind with this notion of people
41:48
pointing out, it seems that you allowed October
41:50
7th to happen. Almost certainly. Look, at bare
41:55
minimum, they were dumb. Okay, so if we are to
42:00
believe Bibi Netanyahu and his defenders, we
42:03
are... it's does it's still a terrible look right
42:06
so to hear them it's like well we basically just
42:09
forgot to send people to the kibbutzim for over
42:12
eight and a half hours and also we never saw
42:16
it coming despite the fact that we have the masad
42:20
and you know this vaunted intelligence agency
42:22
uh but nevertheless they didn't know what the
42:24
they were doing and they never even though the
42:27
practice sessions for hamas were posted on the
42:29
internet and but They didn't read the internet.
42:32
That's literally like, you know, so literally
42:34
it's like, I'm not corrupt. I didn't let it happen.
42:38
I just never saw it coming because I'm a dingus.
42:41
That's your campaign. And I'm the one that's
42:44
keeping you safe. Right. In a country where the
42:48
voters, that's the only thing they care about
42:51
is being kept safe, right? Yeah. And that was
42:53
the one thing that he failed on. It's kind of
42:55
like the US. The one thing Americans care about
42:57
is the economy. That's the one thing you failed
42:59
on. Like, I don't know how he gets elected with
43:02
that. You know, I mean, like you can be like
43:05
he's kind of following the George W. Bush model.
43:07
I always thought Democrats would say George W.
43:10
Bush was supposed to keep you safe and he didn't
43:12
on 9 -11. He fucked up. But they didn't play
43:14
that card. And, you know, Bush basically was
43:17
like, you know, I'm going to use this as my Reichstag
43:19
fire moment to start some wars against countries
43:22
that had nothing to do with 9 -11. I mean, this
43:25
is it's even more potent for Netanyahu because
43:27
it's like, you know, they want. They want greater
43:29
Israel, right? Literally, the Times of Israel
43:32
is now publishing articles where they're not
43:34
joking, where they're calling for Lebensraum,
43:36
which was the Nazi German word for living space.
43:42
They wanted, you know, like we, Germany's all
43:44
penned in, little tiny Germany. Never mind, it's
43:48
the biggest country in Europe, but, you know,
43:49
tiny little Germany, and it needs some breathing
43:52
room out east, mostly, but not just. And Israel
43:56
is literally like, we need Lebanon. But that's
44:02
what they've been trying to do the entire way
44:03
through. Meaning, whether they say it or not,
44:06
them destroying Gaza, like flattening Gaza, them
44:10
flattening these areas of Lebanon. Okay, why
44:13
are they doing that? Why are they going after
44:15
construction equipment? Why are they going after
44:16
construction companies? Why are they doing that?
44:19
We don't want you to rebuild because we want
44:22
that territory. Meaning, regardless of whether
44:25
they say it. it is literally what they've been
44:27
doing from day one yeah yeah um we got some comments
44:32
and just a reminder everyone uh donations are
44:34
kind of down and uh if you can see your way clear
44:37
and you like the show uh you know don't you don't
44:40
have to put a ring on it but definitely think
44:42
about putting sending some money our way so we
44:44
can keep doing this um okay so uh this is from
44:49
duskburn ted means man the barricades and i'm
44:51
here for it But it won't happen until they openly
44:54
declare our votes invalid and people start freezing
44:57
and going hungry. January is going to be wild.
45:02
Yeah, agreed. And Maverick says we'll be buying
45:06
Iranian oil from Russia, LOL. With luck. Montana
45:13
native. That's what people have been saying,
45:14
that the diesel deal that Donald Trump struck
45:16
is Russia taking Iranian oil and selling it to
45:19
the Americans. Oh, yeah. yeah yeah i don't i
45:21
don't think it's that much oil but okay no it's
45:24
not that much montana native i've heard a few
45:26
people say that the house of saud is collapsing
45:28
viva la viva la um and justice says assassination
45:36
of journalist jamal khashoggi by saudi agents
45:39
oh following the assassination of khashoggi epstein
45:43
exchanged messages with associates closely tracking
45:46
the international fallout remarking that well
45:50
The murder, dot, dot, dot. And thank you, Ray,
45:54
for the $10 for the beer fund, gentlemen. Much
45:57
appreciated. So, yeah, thanks for coming through
46:02
for us that way. Okay, we have more to talk about.
46:05
14 minutes left in the show. So what do we want
46:09
to talk about? Ilhan Omar. We want to talk about
46:12
ICE. Is this a two -hour show today? Is it Thursday?
46:17
Today's a one -hour show. One -hour show. I'm
46:20
so confused. I don't know. I don't know. No TMI
46:26
today. No TMI today. TMI resumes next Tuesday.
46:31
Okay. Let's do Ilhan Omar. Okay. I find this
46:36
to be outrageous only because if they can do
46:40
this to her, they can do this to pretty much
46:41
anybody. I mean, she's a sitting congresswoman
46:43
who they're using the FBI. By the way, this is
46:46
very Nixonian. um like when nixon was using the
46:50
irs to go after political opponents and they
46:52
put a bar between the irs and um and and the
46:55
white house it feels not just feels he is using
46:59
the fbi to go after a sitting person of congress
47:01
using effectively her race uh as a rationale
47:05
to do so how on earth could ilhan omar have anything
47:09
to do with her father bringing her into the country
47:11
decades before and how are you raiding her house
47:15
gonna find information and evidence associated
47:18
with something that happened decades before.
47:20
I just find this to be outrageous. And then all
47:25
of the talk about her marrying her brother and
47:27
shit like that. You know, it puts you in the
47:30
mind of the Haitians are eating cats narrative.
47:33
Totally. It's like this foreigner is doing something
47:36
that's very foreign. And we in the federal government
47:38
are just pursuing the law and checking it to
47:41
nonsense. I don't believe this at all. By the
47:44
way, this is like, it's lawfare is just like
47:46
the kind that Republicans complained about being
47:48
done against Trump. Yes. It's exactly the same
47:51
kind of shit. And look, you're totally right.
47:53
Look, if Ilhan Omar, even if she had the same
47:57
exact color of her skin and skin features and
47:59
facial features that she has now, but let's just
48:01
say she, you know, didn't have a headscarf. Let's
48:04
just say she dressed like Hillary Clinton. Or
48:08
Amy Klobuchar. They wouldn't be going after her,
48:13
right? I mean, it's the fact that they're able
48:15
to otherize her because she looks a little different.
48:19
And, you know, I mean, literally it's ridiculous.
48:22
One piece of cloth in their upper ass. And, I
48:25
mean, part of me thinks, I mean, I got to say,
48:29
when I see Democrats go, you know, kind of like
48:32
just accept this shit, it amazes me. Like Ted
48:35
Cruz. You know, he's always on his Twitter feed,
48:39
libeling and defaming Democrats, you know, and
48:42
saying things that are just outrageously not
48:45
true. Like he claimed today that Saeed in Michigan
48:50
has direct ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. In
48:53
other words, implying him, you know, implying
48:56
him with a State Department. designated terrorist
48:59
organization. I don't personally consider the
49:02
Muslim Brotherhood to be terrorists at all, just
49:04
to be clear here. But from Ted Cruz's point of
49:06
view, right, he's saying that. Saeed should sue
49:10
for defamation. Similarly, you know, Omar should
49:16
absolutely, she should sue. She should be like,
49:19
I'm not, I mean, Trump would sue and he'd be
49:22
right. You know, Democrats, like, I mean, I understand
49:25
the Streisand effect. Better than most. But like,
49:29
you know, you're giving air to an accusation
49:33
that most people might never have seen in the
49:35
first place. And you might make it worse rather
49:37
than just ignore it and hope it goes away. But,
49:40
you know, I mean, Bill Clinton and James Carville
49:45
in 1992, he came out with, you know, they had
49:48
this whole war room approach to the campaign.
49:51
Anytime something comes out, whether it's true
49:53
or false, we come out strong against it and we
49:55
swat it like guacamole. That's the right way.
50:00
That's the right approach. Agreed. I don't think
50:04
that would make it worse. I think a lawsuit is
50:06
kind of making the point of saying this shit
50:08
is false and I'm willing to fight this in court
50:10
in order to get across as false. I don't know
50:13
how that works with a political campaign. That
50:14
might be a little bit difficult to pull off,
50:16
but I agree with you. Trump would have sued.
50:19
trying to associate me with a group that's designated
50:21
as a terrorist group you're trying to basically
50:23
say because i'm muslim i'm a terrorist that's
50:26
obviously outrageous which is what he's trying
50:28
to do that's the insinuation that he's trying
50:30
to make well el saeed is a terrorist he's obviously
50:33
a terrorist he's muslim look at him that's what
50:35
he's trying to you know that's the whole point
50:37
of that association that he's effectively trying
50:40
to make which is so deeply racist and maybe that's
50:43
why pete hicks have thought it would be perfectly
50:45
okay to shoot a man in a wheelchair It's like,
50:48
yeah, Trump will be for it. He's a man's man.
50:50
He'll be for this. This is, you know, great and
50:52
aggressive. By the way, I've been thinking about
50:55
that. We talked about it yesterday. We don't
50:57
need to belabor it. But, I mean, you know, my
51:00
mind works in the, often things run in the background.
51:03
And I still find it incredible that Trump did
51:06
not know he was in a wheelchair. Like, I mean,
51:10
like, he was asked to sign off on this. Like,
51:14
literally, like. Mr. President, hey, so you remember
51:18
the Fort Hood shooter? Maybe, maybe not, but
51:20
he's a guy. He did this. He killed these 13 soldiers.
51:23
Hey, so we're going to, we want to, we want to
51:25
execute him by firing squad. You cool? And they
51:29
had him sign something that said like, okay,
51:31
death warrant, December 3rd. So in that signing,
51:35
no one tells the president like, oh, like there's
51:39
this detail and there's that detail. Like, no.
51:42
I mean, and I just I mean, the reason I ask this
51:44
is not because of the issue at hand, but like
51:48
it really calls into question the decision making
51:50
process in the Oval Office on everything. I mean,
51:55
is he not getting briefed on like in detail on
52:00
everything he signs? He's not because the president
52:03
doesn't read. Like, don't take my word for this,
52:06
reporting. But couldn't there be someone, couldn't
52:08
they get some hot, busty blonde to, like, read
52:11
the bullet points to him? Well, the dumb press
52:14
secretary, you've seen her. Oh, God. She's dumb
52:17
as a box of rocks, but gorgeous. She's the worst.
52:20
Yeah, but gorgeous, but dumb. And it's like,
52:24
but... She makes all her predecessors look like
52:28
geniuses. Yeah, which is a problem, right? Because
52:31
you want somebody who's effective at communicating
52:33
in that spot. it's not about her looks, it's
52:35
about her ability to communicate. He seems to
52:38
get on his back, right? Like a Kaja Kalas. Kaja
52:42
is even more effective in her communication than
52:45
this woman is. Right. But no, the reporting is
52:49
Donald Trump doesn't really read. They give Donald
52:51
Trump pictures and images of stuff blowing up
52:54
and Donald Trump thinks that that's the world.
52:55
Which is why when Trump comes out and saying,
52:57
I don't know why you fake media keep saying I'm
52:59
losing the war. because in his mind what he's
53:02
been shown is hey stuff is blowing up everything's
53:04
going great he doesn't know he's dumb he he doesn't
53:08
read right meaning the fact that he didn't know
53:13
that i mean i get that he doesn't read i mean
53:17
i get that he doesn't read i remember my father
53:19
telling me that reagan had a new diktat back
53:22
at the back in the 80s that like no matt he wouldn't
53:24
read any memo longer than a page and no cheating
53:27
with like you know like no margins or you know
53:30
smaller smaller type or you know like no cheating
53:33
you know like you know increasing with the kerning
53:37
and the letting like no nothing like that um
53:39
and so i get that he doesn't read but still isn't
53:44
there someone who should just sit there like
53:46
like i remember like i was And, you know, I was
53:49
my basically my boss's number two at the bank.
53:52
And, you know, I would bring up something to
53:54
sign and I'd be like, all right, so this is who
53:58
it's to. This is what it's for. This is when
54:00
it's due. This is how much the interest rate
54:02
is. You know, here's the risk factors. You know,
54:07
here's what might go wrong. Here's what will
54:09
probably not go wrong. And then, you know, and
54:12
it would only take like a minute or two. And
54:16
he doesn't have someone like that say, by the
54:18
way, the dude's in a wheelchair and it's going
54:20
to be on TV. So, you know, people might raise
54:22
questions. Really? That didn't come up. I just
54:24
did that in 30 seconds. But Trump didn't hire
54:27
people for their competence. He might start a
54:32
nuclear war without being fully briefed. You
54:34
know what I mean? It's like, yeah, no, it's terrifying.
54:37
He's incompetent. Or is he fully briefed? Or
54:41
is it an and or situation? Is he fully briefed?
54:44
And he's too fucking stupid to remember or internalize
54:48
the shit that he hears. There's some things where
54:51
Trump comes out and he seems well -prepared in
54:54
order to deliver. Like when he came out and said,
54:56
Zelensky keeps his own refineries. I told him
54:59
to stop. He's blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we got
55:00
to talk about that. He seemed well -prepared.
55:02
He knew exactly what he was going to say. And
55:04
he said it. Now, whether or not there was something
55:05
rolling in his head as he was saying it of understanding,
55:08
who knows? He's just like, oh, my new press secretary
55:11
has nice boobs. Right. Yeah, I think he understands
55:15
that. But in regards to what's happening around
55:18
the world, I don't think that he fully understands.
55:21
Like even with the Russia stuff, where Trump
55:23
is like, well, we made this deal, or the very
55:27
least reporting was that the deal that Trump
55:30
made with Putin, in some part, was to try to
55:33
get Russia closer to the US in order to sit down
55:35
and make a deal or try to come to a deal. The
55:38
terms of the deal that they were putting in the
55:39
Washington Post was the same nonsense that they
55:42
were putting out before. It's dead on arrival.
55:44
Now, does Trump understand why it's dead on arrival?
55:48
I don't think he does. I don't think he understands
55:51
the stuff. I guess part of it is personnel, it's
55:54
policy. And if you hire a bunch of yes -men as
55:56
your personnel, then you're just, you are not
56:00
in a position to be able to make good decisions.
56:03
We got to talk about the Ukraine situation. By
56:06
the way, just a confirmation, Stephen Kinzer,
56:09
the author of Boiling Point, How America... uh
56:12
brought war to ukraine is going to be here on
56:15
d program either november 4th or november 5th
56:20
uh we're going to get the details on that but
56:22
i've been i've been talking to his publicist
56:23
and it's it's it's a good read uh by the way
56:26
he they should have sent you the pdf yesterday
56:29
i haven't seen the pdfs for that book let me
56:32
let me check though all right i'll i'll i'll
56:34
double i'll follow up again if they didn't let
56:36
me know right boiling point yeah stephen kinzer
56:41
um best -selling author um okay so basically
56:46
you know the main topic today was whether ukraine
56:49
and and the united states are finally breaking
56:51
up it's been kind of a awkward partnership at
56:55
times um trump announced this fake energy ceasefire
56:59
um basically obviously it didn't happen both
57:02
sides traded exchanges nevertheless um and then
57:06
um starlink star um star shield which is elon
57:09
musk's satellite system part of which provides
57:13
the internet to rural parts of Ukraine on behalf
57:17
of the United States government. We pay for it
57:19
with our tax dollars. That system was throttled
57:23
yesterday, where suddenly objects like drones
57:28
that moved over 100 miles per hour suddenly no
57:31
longer receiving signals. Zelensky and his people
57:34
were furious. They said that it left. uh ukraine
57:37
more vulnerable to attack from the russians uh
57:40
and in fact the russians have been drawing more
57:42
blood than usual um with their drone attacks
57:44
um but also the russians have unveiled new um
57:48
you know jet propelled drones that are more effective
57:51
uh nevertheless so it's kind of a mix of those
57:54
things but anyway uh zelensky accused the white
57:57
house and or musk of trying to subtly threaten
58:02
um ukraine by basically throttling start the
58:06
starlink system and uh you know like we're we're
58:10
turning we're sort of turning you off a little
58:12
bit to rate you know sort of pull it the choke
58:14
collar on the dog um i don't know i mean there
58:19
may be something to this but it does seem like
58:22
you know from that exchange in the white house
58:24
with jd vance and uh zielinski this was never
58:28
this was not a marriage that was meant to last
58:31
um and uh i think we're beginning to see this
58:34
the strains to the point where this might be
58:37
i don't know is this the beginning of the end
58:39
or does this continue i don't know i mean i mean
58:45
there are a few things about this that's weird
58:46
i mean for one ukraine can't hit refineries without
58:49
the united states assistance in hitting those
58:51
refineries it's not like they can do this on
58:54
their own right and yet a refinery went up in
58:57
smoke yesterday that ukraine apparently hit so
59:00
Does the president not have control over the
59:02
CIA and the entities that is effectively assisting
59:06
Ukraine in hitting refineries? Does he not have
59:09
the power to tell them to stop? Does he not have
59:11
the power to pull the CIA out? Does he not have
59:13
the power to stop sharing intelligence that would
59:15
allow them to hit refineries? Because, again,
59:17
they hit one yesterday despite Trump claiming,
59:19
hey, I need you to stop doing that. Two, there
59:23
are two interesting points of the Starlink thing.
59:25
A, Elon Musk came out. and made a statement on
59:30
this apparently and he says star show systems
59:33
uh right here star system system star shield
59:37
systems are owned and controlled by the government
59:39
of the united states any limits on speed or usage
59:42
are decided by the u .s military and ultimately
59:45
the president of the united states basically
59:48
look we are it's not me i've rented this out
59:52
to the u .s military the u .s military makes
59:54
the determination about what happens in regards
59:56
to limits on the system. I believe Musk 100%.
1:00:00
Yeah, I believe him completely, right? I don't
1:00:03
believe for a moment that Elon Musk is sitting
1:00:04
around trying to figure out whether he wants
1:00:05
to turn up or down the system for Starlink. The
1:00:08
second thing is these systems were obviously
1:00:12
being used as offensive military capacity. Because
1:00:15
otherwise, why would Zelensky bring that up saying,
1:00:18
hey, you shut us down if indeed you weren't using
1:00:21
it to attack? Starlink is a commercial service
1:00:23
owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage. of the
1:00:26
defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive
1:00:30
military actions as doing so will be inappropriate
1:00:32
for a commercial company basically look we're
1:00:36
private entity we're not involved in offensive
1:00:39
operations because if we were the russians may
1:00:42
consider us a target and go after our system
1:00:45
so just want to know we're private entity we're
1:00:47
not doing that but obviously they are The Russians
1:00:51
have found missiles that had Starlink information
1:00:54
built into the systems. The Russians know that
1:00:57
Starlink is being used as an offensive weapon.
1:00:59
They also read the New York Times. They read
1:01:02
the New York Times. And Zelensky out here screaming,
1:01:05
hey, wait a minute. We were trying offensive
1:01:07
operations as we normally do. And they were inhibited
1:01:12
because you turned down our capability of using
1:01:14
our missile systems. Which means that this was
1:01:17
something that they were doing before. And that
1:01:19
has now somehow been inhibited, in which case
1:01:21
they're not able to do. Elon Musk coming out
1:01:24
saying, hey, we're not in for offensive actions
1:01:27
is nonsense. Zelensky wouldn't be out here screaming
1:01:30
about it if indeed that was true prior. Meaning,
1:01:34
obviously, Starlink is being used for offensive
1:01:36
operations. There's that. They obviously were
1:01:39
turned down for some particular reason, which
1:01:40
seems to be coming from the White House. There's
1:01:42
that. And then the catch becomes, OK, well, why
1:01:45
is he turning this down? Is it in order to put
1:01:47
pressure on Zelensky? The last part I want to
1:01:50
make the point of also. Sounds like it. The last
1:01:53
part is, for all of this talk about Americans,
1:01:56
like in the way that the newspapers repeat it,
1:01:58
like Donald Trump is sitting on the outside of
1:02:00
the war and it's Ukraine fighting the war. Well,
1:02:03
Ukraine was screaming about the fact that they
1:02:06
weren't getting intel for the missiles that were
1:02:08
landing in Kiev because they weren't apparently,
1:02:10
Zelensky was saying there was no warning to the
1:02:12
missile systems that were hitting Kiev. Russia
1:02:14
has been hitting Kiev every day around the clock.
1:02:17
The last attack that they hit was a power plant
1:02:20
that took down, I think it's like 600 ,000 people
1:02:21
without power. Like Kiev just went black when
1:02:25
they hit it. And so his thing was, well, we didn't
1:02:29
know that these attacks were coming because there
1:02:31
was no intel being shared by our, quote, allies,
1:02:33
meaning the U .S. intel us. So what that means
1:02:35
is, A, the U .S. is completely, Ukraine is completely
1:02:39
reliant upon the United States telling it when
1:02:41
missiles or drones are coming in. So they're.
1:02:44
Air defense is entirely tethered to the U .S.
1:02:48
and B, the U .S. is entirely instrumental in
1:02:51
missiles flying into Russia, hitting their targets,
1:02:54
which is, again, evident by the fact that the
1:02:55
U .S. turned down Starlink, which means that
1:02:57
Ukraine could launch their attacks. How on earth
1:03:01
is America saying they're not party to this war?
1:03:04
Like your entire air defense system is dependent
1:03:06
upon the U .S. and your capacity to strike is
1:03:09
dependent upon the U .S. How does the U .S. argue
1:03:12
that they are not fighting the Russians? Well,
1:03:15
I mean, they can't. I mean, I don't think nobody
1:03:17
believes it. I mean, including the president's
1:03:21
supporters here at home. I mean, I mean, look,
1:03:24
you don't see as many Ukrainian flags, you know,
1:03:27
all over the place the way we did, you know,
1:03:31
in liberal democratic enclaves. That seems to
1:03:34
be part of it is just the fact that it was Biden's
1:03:36
war and then and now it's Trump's war. And that
1:03:40
sort of softens up the support. But also, I mean,
1:03:44
it all ties into the narrative that we talked
1:03:47
about earlier in the show. You know, the U .S.
1:03:50
is squandering billions of dollars in part to
1:03:53
blow up other people overseas. And meanwhile,
1:03:55
Americans are in trouble here at home. And Ukraine
1:03:59
is part of that. And also, even if you don't
1:04:02
believe any of that or you don't care about any
1:04:04
of that. I mean, you've got to look at the calendar
1:04:07
and say, okay, this war is now in its glorious
1:04:10
fifth year, and it's all been fought on Ukrainian
1:04:13
soil. There's no, you know, sure, they lobbed
1:04:17
some projectiles across the border, but the Ukrainians,
1:04:20
there's no world in which the Ukrainians are
1:04:23
going to recapture the Donbass and Crimea. They're
1:04:28
not going to be whole again. They're not going
1:04:30
back to their pre -2014 borders. They're not.
1:04:35
they've lost and you know i think americans it's
1:04:39
like if their sports team is losing they tend
1:04:42
to not show up for the games anymore i think
1:04:45
it's just all about killing at this point seriously
1:04:47
i think this is all about how many people can
1:04:50
we kill and by we i mean the west the west at
1:04:54
large because for us it's like it's its own reward
1:04:59
yeah for sure because i think there's also uh
1:05:03
honestly the defense business is loving the opportunity
1:05:07
to test out all sorts of new gadgets you know
1:05:11
it's a it's the first true drone war and anti
1:05:14
-drone technology this is about testing new weapon
1:05:17
systems more than anything else but tell me think
1:05:20
about this i mean you're student of history edward
1:05:22
longshanks edward ii once famously said the only
1:05:25
thing wrong with scotland is that's full of scots
1:05:28
Well, if Ukraine, if the only thing wrong with
1:05:30
Ukraine is it's full of Ukrainians, what do you
1:05:34
do with them? Give some to the meat grinder.
1:05:36
I mean, you got this huge piece of land the size
1:05:40
of Texas that's rich in resources, and you can't
1:05:43
get it because those pesky people are there.
1:05:45
Well, I don't think the people are there anymore.
1:05:47
Yeah, I don't buy that. I don't think that they
1:05:49
want to just kill just for the sake of killing.
1:05:51
Oh, I do. I think they're drunk on blood. Listen,
1:05:54
we're talking about executing a dude in a wheelchair.
1:05:58
Laura Loomer's like, we need to gag him so he
1:05:59
can't say Allah Akbar when they pull the trigger.
1:06:03
I mean, seriously, our government is drunk on
1:06:07
blood. That cow should shut the fuck up. Agree.
1:06:11
Deport that heifer. Yeah, deport that heifer.
1:06:14
Deport that heifer. Look, I don't think we care
1:06:20
about killing. And I don't think the human life
1:06:22
matters. But I don't think we just kill just
1:06:25
for the sake of killing. Like, it costs money
1:06:27
to kill. Right? Like, I hate to say that that's
1:06:31
our hedge. But I don't think, look, I don't think
1:06:33
they care if Ukrainians die. But I don't think
1:06:36
they started the war for the point of Ukrainians
1:06:37
dying. If anything, I think this has more to
1:06:39
do with, at this point, as Ted pointed out, weapons,
1:06:43
meaning the amount of money that they can make
1:06:44
on selling them. You have the Trump family members
1:06:47
that are all in. making money on this. In fact,
1:06:51
there was a CBS report, CBS just reported on
1:06:54
the amount of money that Donald Trump was effectively
1:06:56
making off this war, using his family members
1:06:58
as a way of a gateway into it. So I think people
1:07:01
are making a killing on the war. I think they're
1:07:03
making a huge amount of money off of it. I mean,
1:07:05
I don't think that they would just kill just
1:07:07
for the sake of killing. And if they wanted access
1:07:09
to - Every war is fought for economic reasons.
1:07:12
Yeah, there's usually reasons behind it. It's
1:07:14
not just - it calls the bull it calls the dollar
1:07:17
it calls money to make bullets it calls money
1:07:19
i get it no i get it but again if you're to go
1:07:21
if you want to export the land well then you
1:07:24
got to do something to the people there you can
1:07:25
do the israeli model but you can't if you're
1:07:27
a civilized european wait what do you think who
1:07:30
do you who who i'm talking about the people i'm
1:07:33
talking about the people who are running the
1:07:35
eu and nato they know but they had already overthrown
1:07:38
the government of ukraine if they want access
1:07:40
to the territory they had it Yeah, I agree. It's
1:07:42
not like the Russians got involved immediately.
1:07:44
Putin waited for like eight years, nearly a decade
1:07:46
before getting involved. If they wanted to exploit
1:07:49
the land, they could have done so. Could they
1:07:52
have? Because even dogs got us pride. You got
1:07:56
to do something with that dog. You think Zelensky
1:07:59
and these guys, I don't think, you think the
1:08:01
European leaders have pride? I think that they
1:08:04
have greed. The last one who had pride was de
1:08:09
Gaulle. Yeah, I don't think they do. I think
1:08:13
really what this is about, Ukraine was overwhelmingly
1:08:17
a Christian Orthodox country, even after the
1:08:21
imposed atheism from the Soviet Union. This is
1:08:24
about filling body bags as quickly as they possibly
1:08:27
can for profit. And once the lands are depopulated,
1:08:31
you got to move other people in. Who are those
1:08:33
other people going to be? The people who are
1:08:35
able to do the machine. Who are these other people?
1:08:42
oh germans french italians i mean there's plenty
1:08:45
of people from western europe who go in and actually
1:08:46
they think they're going to leapfrog over eastern
1:08:49
europe and uh sort of do a laban's their own
1:08:51
laban's round version um settle the east who's
1:08:54
going to stop them serious questions putin is
1:09:00
too much of a person underemployed from from
1:09:03
southern france moving to ukraine you tell the
1:09:06
two million dead ukrainians that putin is a you
1:09:11
tell them i already have and you know what if
1:09:14
putin was serious about winning this war this
1:09:16
war been over three years ago he's too cautious
1:09:20
he's very cautious he's too cautious and the
1:09:23
thing is no there would not be two million dead
1:09:25
ukrainians right now if russia had if the russians
1:09:27
fought this war the way that needed to be fought
1:09:30
he could have saved a lot more lives than what
1:09:32
he has because he's too cautious but he also
1:09:35
would have lost more lives And he would have
1:09:37
also lost any opportunity to, I don't think,
1:09:40
for example, the Chinese would be in bed with
1:09:42
him now if he had gone that route. At least not
1:09:45
in the beginning. Now, there's leeway. Well,
1:09:48
here's the thing. So China has two options. You
1:09:52
can either work with the Russians or you can
1:09:53
work with the Americans. Of the two of them,
1:09:56
it's the United States that's trying to split
1:09:59
Taiwan off of your country, make it to a permanent
1:10:02
military base. It's already split off. And then
1:10:06
you come out with Congress and presidents saying
1:10:09
that China is not a rival, not a competitor,
1:10:11
but an enemy. And then you have Russia up here
1:10:13
saying, hey, you know, we. We have mutual interests
1:10:17
here. Maybe we can work together. You can do
1:10:21
as you will with Korea. Do as you will with Taiwan.
1:10:25
It's kind of like objectively. China is still
1:10:28
the China Valley. All right, let's call it a
1:10:33
show. Thank you, everyone, for watching. Appreciate
1:10:36
you. We'll be back for the full two hours tomorrow,
1:10:38
9 to 11 a .m. Friday, and then 11 o 'clock, Scott
1:10:43
Stantz and I on DMZ America. And have a great
1:10:47
one. No TMI, just a reminder. TMI will be back
1:10:50
on Tuesday. Thanks very much for your support.
1:10:53
Please like, follow, and share. And we'll see
1:10:56
you guys later. Have a good one, guys. Bye, y
1:10:59
'all.