The Buck Stops Here | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:01][music] >> Oh.

[00:00:13]Oh.

[00:00:14]>> [music] [music] >> Oh.

[00:00:28]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [bell] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Good morning or if you're in other part of the world, good afternoon or good evening or whatever. Thanks for tuning in. You're watching D program with Ted Rall and Joe Merl Thomas. It is Friday, May 29th, 2026. Please like, follow, and share the show. If you have questions or comments, please put them into the live chat if you're watching in the 9:00 hour East Coast time here in the United States. Uh good morning, JT. How are you doing?

[00:04:43]>> I'm doing okay. What's going on, man?

[00:04:45]Doing okay this morning?

[00:04:46]>> I am doing okay. Uh glorious weather here. Just amazing, like stunning.

[00:04:51]Uh so, um I you know, I'm a collector of of money. Um I love to collect paper money. I collect uh all sorts of things.

[00:05:00]I'm quite the collector. Propaganda posters, political buttons, coins, stamps. I'm a packrat. Um these so uh I took great interest in the new $250 bill that the United States uh Treasury is apparently planning.

[00:05:19]Uh and that's a real thing. Uh there's already been a few resignations from inside the Treasury Department and the Mint from people who are angry about this plan. We can get into the details of that. And uh you know, look, this would have been a classic John story, but he's not here, so we're going to do it anyway. Um the CIA a former uh CIA a former senior CIA official apparently was sitting in his house there near you in Virginia.

[00:05:45]Uh little did you know that if you broke into his house, you would have found over four 40 million dollars in hundreds of gold bars stolen from the CIA. 40 million dollars in gold. So, you know, you have it's you know, the you heard of the millionaire next door. He's under arrest, David Rush. We'll talk about that.

[00:06:07]Um we talked to >> Whoa, what is his name? David Grush?

[00:06:10]>> David Rush. Yeah, so here's the >> Rush. Okay.

[00:06:13]>> No, let's just Rush. Sure. Let's just talk about it, right? So, this dude, so basically what happened is um the he's a senior former CIA CIA official. Um the FBI the CIA got wind of the fact that he had stolen this money from the CIA or I should say the gold and they went into his house. Uh they notified the FBI. The FBI raided his house and he's under arrest, right? So, um the the logical question here is how did is it that he came to steal gold from the CIA? Well, it turns out that he checked it out. He told the CIA, "I need this gold for an assignment." And um that assignment, you know, we don't know what the nature of it is, but you and I both know from like stories from the war on terror that the United States likes to throw around hundreds of millions billions of dollars in cash. I didn't know that they used gold. Um but basically to bribe foreign warlords, dictators, and so on. Like for example, and this happens all the time, when the Israelis raided the homes of the top officials of Hamas uh during their invasion of Gaza, they found, you know, hundreds of millions of euros that had been delivered by, wait for it, the United States and Israel to Hamas when they were supporting Hamas in order to sort of us, you you divide and conquer the the uh Palestinian Authority, right? So, I mean, Hamas is a wholly owned, you know, subsidiary of Israel, but that's a different discussion. So, and during the Iraq War, this was really a great story. I don't know if you remember it, JT, but at one point, four C-130s containing over $25 billion in $100 bills were sent to Iraq to bribe local tribal officials, uh warlords, you know, various Iraqi people of influence by the CIA.

[00:08:17]They at the end of all this, they couldn't account for a penny.

[00:08:22]They didn't have uh literally, it was just all gone.

[00:08:25]And um it's like there's just the money is just So, this is just a reminder that like while you and I are worried about how we're going to keep the the lights on every month, and ordinary Americans don't know if they can send their their kids to the doctor, that the government is awash in money, and they're using it for the stupidest things. And I mean, in a way, I don't even blame this dude. It's like there he is, he's probably like uh if he's a senior official, what did the guy make?

[00:08:55]Let's say he's a GS-15.

[00:08:57]What did he make? Like 150, 150,000, 200,000 dollars a year? Um he, you know, he sees all that money.

[00:09:06]He's like, "I can give all this gold to you know, who knows what evil reprobates that like the you know, right-wingers in Venezuela or whatever. Um or uh I can, you know, keep it for a person that I like better, me." Me. And and so, I mean, it's kind of like I don't I'm not surprised that you know, you know, cops steal money from drug dealers when they raid them. I'm surprised that they don't. So, like, you know, I mean, it's it's just you're just creating a system.

[00:09:37]But anyway, the scale of this is monumental.

[00:09:41]>> Yeah. So, he's like, "Hey, Delcy Rodriguez needs a new pair of shoes and a new Mustang.

[00:09:50]So, I need to check out the gold bars um to give to her.

[00:09:55]Look, I Look, it you explained it beautifully. Like we bribe people all the time. Like meaning it's by hook or by crook. The um Smedley Butler was a rack. In that book, he points out that, you know, we were sitting in jackals and those were people who would be like, "Hey, you can get a new house, a new car. Your kids will be good for life. You can send your kids to the US for education. Here are all the benefits. You want gold bars? Here are gold bars. We just need you to do X, Y, and Z. Basically, we need you to bend over. And we need you to kind of accept it, but we will pay you handsomely for it."

[00:10:32]It's that. Meaning his job on some level was getting those gold bars to people for influence.

[00:10:40]And what's wild about it, as you also point out, it's like the money doesn't matter.

[00:10:44]Like that's what I mean when I say um under normal circumstances, when we're going after governments, whether it's knocking them over militarily, bribing them, or whatever else, the fall back consequences to the American public don't typically exist. They exist in the sense of okay, you spent $10 trillion on the Iraq and Afghanistan war.

[00:11:05]Okay, that's a number.

[00:11:07]Do we really feel that number that really with $39 trillion in debt? So, obviously, the number is a thing, but it's not something that really has legit consequences.

[00:11:19]They continue So, yeah, since it don't matter.

[00:11:22]Yeah, it's like it doesn't matter, which is wild.

[00:11:25]Like that that's a very weird phenomena that seems to only exist in America where the money doesn't matter.

[00:11:34]And so yeah, this guy's like they're not going to miss it.

[00:11:37]>> It's Bretton Woods, right? Like when you're the world's reserve currency, you know, as the empty as the Dire Straits song song goes, you get your money for nothing and your chicks for free, right?

[00:11:49]>> Yeah.

[00:11:49]>> You literally there are no consequences.

[00:11:52]And um it and so yeah, I mean like during the to be specific, right? Like during the invasion US invasion of Afghanistan, um and I was there, but I didn't see obviously see this kind of money. But it was widely reported that about 800 CIA para people guys parachuted into northern Afghanistan all carrying massive backpacks full of cash. And as I learned in a war zone like that, as I'm just going to quote um Lois Romano of the Washington Post who I was there with, um she said, "In a war zone, everything is paid in bundles of $100 bills, even for ordinary people."

[00:12:35]And that was true. Um you know, like and we're talking about a country where at the time, um you know, 15 to $20 a month was considered an excellent salary. So, you know, suddenly and that's part of what happened, you know, with with the Northern Alliance government set up under Hamid Karzai is they were every month or so every week or whatever, pallets of cash were flown in to Kabul and dropped off with like people like Karzai's family, not so much Karzai himself, and all these top officials. And even now, something that many Americans are unaware of, even now, the United States is continuing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to the Taliban government. Um it's like the the even before 9/11, the United States was sending hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to the Taliban government to pay their their their government salaries. This was to compensate them for opium eradication. And it's just like it's like that all over the world, right? And the thing is cash has a toxic effect. I mean, it's completely liquid.

[00:13:44]That's why people want it. And it's but there's it's also completely unaccountable. And it you know, drives up massive inflation. I mean, when I was there in 2001, uh I got wind of an NGO in Kabul that had rented out a house in Kabul. It was paying $10,000 a month in Kabul. Okay, a place where if you wake up in the morning alive, you're a lucky person. Um at the time, you know, now it's much safer. Um you know, it's like 10,000 I mean, it wasn't worth $100 a month. And but but with the inflation that was caused by, you know, the massive inflation, which caused utter misery and for it put ordinary Afghans into a position where they had to be like either corrupt and work for the corrupt powers or they starve to death and die.

[00:14:39]Um and that talk about resentment. No wonder they wanted us out.

[00:14:44]>> Well, lessons learned. There was a document um that the US military commissioned to understand how they effed up so bad in both wars and how did they end up losing both of those wars ultimately when the Taliban effectively took power back.

[00:15:01]And what they pointed out was exactly what you're saying.

[00:15:05]That they were given, let's say, like a billion dollars to spend.

[00:15:10]And he pointed out like how are we going to spend a billion dollars in a place that basically has mud huts?

[00:15:17]Like meaning, where do you spend this money?

[00:15:20]>> [laughter] >> It's ridiculous, right? It's like Brewster's Millions, right? Like like spending it's hard.

[00:15:27]>> Yeah, you have it's like you have a place with mud huts, no infrastructure.

[00:15:32]Um and they're like, "Okay, here's a bunch of money. Now we need you to spend it to bribe people and everything else." And it's like, "Okay, what am I going to do with this money?"

[00:15:40]And you're they're talking about like millions of dollars every week that they are supposed to spend.

[00:15:48]And obviously it drives corruption.

[00:15:51]Which as you point out >> On steroids.

[00:15:54]>> the lessons learned document where the public looks at the government as being so radically corrupt.

[00:16:00]>> And by the way, and and by the way, T T, how much does it cost to bribe a congressman here in the United States? 5 grand, right? Like you can buy a congressman for 5 grand, no problem. Um and it's hilarious.

[00:16:15]We're paying these people who don't who who are living in places with a much lower cost of living a lot more than our own people. I mean, it's very very [ __ ] up. I mean, look, the what it what this is about is it's not about Greece, you know, I don't know what the the intent is, but but the effect is uh when we pour billions of dollars into a war zone like this in some [ __ ] country, right? It's like is is not like you're not really renting people. Like it's not a tip. It's not a like a $5,000 bribe. It is like you're actually changing the economy of the place because the scale is so massive.

[00:16:55]Um when the US troops went into the home of uh Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, the one-eyed cleric, right? They were shocked cuz they were looking we're like looking for the money.

[00:17:09]There was no money. Mullah Omar had a locker under his under his he lived very frugally. He lived in a mud in a mud adobe house with no windows and no glass in the windows. He was cold at night.

[00:17:23]It was very primitive. He liked that. He was like, "You know, I'm an aesthetic. I don't need a lot." He had a locker with the entire national budget of Afghanistan in there, which at the time comprised about 150,000 US dollars.

[00:17:38]Um he you dolled that out to people pure personally like an emir.

[00:17:44]And you know, I mean and they looked in vain for the bank account the numbered accounts in Switzerland or you know, in Luxembourg and so on. They did not the Cayman Islands didn't find anything.

[00:17:56]There was no corruption under Taliban 1.0 1996 to 2001. It's why the Taliban were popular.

[00:18:04]Um you know, the corruption And so we brought back we bring in corruption.

[00:18:10]You don't >> [clears throat] >> I don't know if you if you need Delcy Rodriguez on your side, you don't really need to give her you know, 100 million dollars. If you do, you're not really renting Delcy Rodriguez as the acting president of Venezuela. What you're really doing is you're telling her your days are numbered and this is your retirement plan for you and all the people you care about. And that's a different mentality.

[00:18:33]>> Oh, that's interesting.

[00:18:34]I mean because the reality of it is even with Syria, the belief is that a lot of these people were effectively paid off.

[00:18:40]Meaning it is >> Oh, yeah.

[00:18:42]>> better military strategy to just pay people as opposed to attacking a country. Meaning if I can pay you off, I don't have to attack you.

[00:18:51]And in the case of Venezuela, it was I guess a little bit of both.

[00:18:55]I mean because what they were using or what they were saying seemed ludicrous to me. It was a beam that made people get sick at the stomach and the military went in as they were throwing up or as they were on the toilet. It was like, okay, dude. Are you serious right now?

[00:19:09]It sounds more to me like people were bribed and you were able to get your hands on them because people were bribed. Especially if there's a change in policy after the fact, which it seems to be.

[00:19:20]So, yeah, I mean I'm not shocked that this guy had all these gold bars.

[00:19:25]Obviously, this is what the CIA does every day. Like meaning even on a Tuesday, >> [laughter] >> they would be given gold bars.

[00:19:34]>> Yeah.

[00:19:34]>> Um to somebody. It's just funny that it's gold bars and not cash.

[00:19:38]>> Oh, it's hilarious.

[00:19:40]Remember Gold Bar Menendez, the senator from New Jersey?

[00:19:43]>> Yes.

[00:19:44]>> And he only had what? A few.

[00:19:46]Um I mean hundreds of gold bars.

[00:19:50]I mean, again, uh I'm not surprised. I mean like of course, you know, you as the great philosopher said, you got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.

[00:19:59]Um you know, he obviously didn't know that, right? And and basically but at a certain point, you're like, you know, it's >> [laughter] >> it's like it's like Frog and Toad.

[00:20:09]I'll just have one very last cookie. And it's like, you know, he took home a a gold bar and it's like, oh, that was easy. They're so small. That's like, here's another one. And he kept it in his house.

[00:20:23]Right? In his house.

[00:20:26]Like why not like why don't you go to a state park, find an empty tree trunk, you know?

[00:20:32]>> Yeah.

[00:20:33]I wonder how they caught him. I mean, like if he signed them out.

[00:20:37]>> I but I know how they caught him.

[00:20:39]>> He was supposed to keep it to somebody and then give it to him. Probably.

[00:20:42]>> Yeah, someone complained. Where the [ __ ] is my is my gold bar?

[00:20:45]>> Where's my money? I'm a gold bar short.

[00:20:49]>> [laughter] >> I'm two gold bars short. If you want to keep bribing me, I need my gold bars.

[00:20:53]Where are my gold bars?

[00:20:54]>> Yeah.

[00:20:55]That's [laughter] exactly what it is.

[00:20:56]It's like a 1-1-1-800 CIA help.

[00:21:03]>> [laughter] >> Right.

[00:21:04]Right, you're on the customer service line. I'm missing my gold bars.

[00:21:08]I can't find my gold bars. Where is it?

[00:21:11]>> Oh my god. And you know they just have this like you know at the CIA they have this safe that's massive with bundles. I mean LIKE BEAR IN MIND, RIGHT? 20 like four C-130s. Those are the ones with the nose opens up in the front and they they can put a plane inside the plane, right? Like like a C-130 is like I mean it requires a a landing a a runway that's 2 mi long to get up and down. It's a [ __ ] monster.

[00:21:41]Piled to the ceilings with pallets of shrink-wrapped hundreds, right? Like 100 $100 bills is $10,000. Like one little bundle, right? Those things are all wrapped together. I mean I know I've personally had to for a client handle $1 million in cash once. And that's a lot of money. That's like heavy. It's like you know you wouldn't really want to carry that [ __ ] like to Europe in you know as as check it. It's heavy. It's like and a billion of that is a thousand of those, right? And then 25,000 [laughter] I mean all of those. Like what?

[00:22:20]>> That's insane.

[00:22:21]>> the scale is ridiculous.

[00:22:24]>> Well, people stop.

[00:22:25]>> What email address >> Hey Robbie.

[00:22:30]>> Hey sorry just one second. My wife is talking to me. I'll be back.

[00:22:34]>> Okay. All right. Well, that's what happened. Okay. Um I guess I guess that's an opportunity to see Speaking of money, we can get our a few gold bars from uh Rumble Premium. Doesn't look like it though. Not right now. Um Anyway, I just love this story. Um you know I will make sure that we say that he is a he is alleged to have done this.

[00:22:57]>> I'm back.

[00:22:58]>> Yeah. And so so so for those of you who who have gold bars that you have acquired illicitly I uh not illicitly whatever that word is. Remember I'm [ __ ] and I'm tired.

[00:23:10]I'm going to do you a solid. So, what you do is that you get your gold bar and you don't do this all at once. Like you do it once every couple of months. You take your gold bar and then what you do is that you deposit it with MoonPay.

[00:23:21]That way your gold bar then links up to Rumble Wallet. So, that way you can use a debit card linked to your Rumble Wallet account and it's just like cash. You don't have to keep your gold in your house anymore. So, for those of you who have this you can thank me later. You can send me a tip in Rumble Wallet.

[00:23:41]Well, just whoever. I mean CIA agents APAC bundlers I mean it doesn't really matter. I mean the Washington's full of [ __ ] and if you need to move your money MoonPay plus Rumble Wallet equals your best friend.

[00:23:57]>> This is my favorite thing to do with MoonPay. And that's CIA agent Robbie.

[00:24:02]He should have if he would have known this in advance he might you know >> He might be okay.

[00:24:07]>> Yeah, he would have been screwed either way.

[00:24:09]Cuz the more money they call >> Hiding the money gives you leverage. You could if you hide the money and you want it and they want it back you can negotiate for a better deal, right? Like I'm not telling you where the gold where the gold is until you unless you agree like I only go to jail for a year, right?

[00:24:24]>> Well, if they call me I don't have to go. I gave it to them.

[00:24:27]These people are lying about it.

[00:24:29]>> Mhm. He shouldn't have done that too.

[00:24:31]>> Yeah, there's a lot of crimes going on crime, right?

[00:24:34]>> Yeah, exile me to Kazakhstan. I I will live in the Montana of Asia.

[00:24:38]>> Kazakhstan is a close US ally would turn your ass over.

[00:24:42]>> Yeah, you need to go somewhere that's not a US ally.

[00:24:46]>> Well, in in all fairness though the US did try to color revolution them and the Russians stepped in and said not in our backyard. So, they're not that close.

[00:24:54]>> That's not Kazakhstan. That's uh Tajikistan.

[00:24:57]>> No, they did the same thing in Kazakhstan. They tried to they They did do it. They did the riots, sir.

[00:25:01]>> They did do it to Kyrgyzstan.

[00:25:03]>> Yeah, they tried it in Kazakhstan and the Kazakh president was just like, uh "Hey Vlad, can you can you help me out here?" And uh the rest was there lickety-split.

[00:25:11]>> Um Akaev, the president of uh of uh it was Kyrgyzstan who was deposed by Bush uh in 2005, the only democratically elected leader of a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia.

[00:25:24]He when he when he fled because um American-trained is radical Islamists from Osh uh basically uh surrounded the presidential palace. I love this story.

[00:25:35]He his presidential guards were like, you know, "Okay, we have machine guns on the roof. We're going to we're going to mow them down." And he said, "I forbid it. Like no Kyrgyz should die because of me." And he's like, "I'm leaving." So, he went to exile in Russia where he is now. And when the the mob burst into his office, there was a note on the desk that said, "Please take good care of my country."

[00:26:00]>> Yeah.

[00:26:01]>> You love that story? I don't know if I love that story.

[00:26:03]>> I like that story cuz it's like sort of I mean, his his attitude, which was >> I mean, you can make the case that Richard Nixon that the election of 1960 was stolen from him by Kennedy because of voter fraud in Chicago.

[00:26:17]>> Although that's pretty debunked, though.

[00:26:19]>> Well, I mean, it depends on who you ask.

[00:26:21]People often say that. I don't know if that's true.

[00:26:24]>> People I mean, the shoot out there was there Here's the thing. Illinois absolutely had like lots of dead people voting. No question due to the daily machine. But it But even if Illinois had gone for um Nixon, he still would have lost.

[00:26:37]>> Well, maybe. But the point I'm trying to make though is that when his advisers recommended Nixon, he made a stink out of it. He said, "No, it's okay. Kennedy loves this country. It's it's in good hands."

[00:26:46]>> So, but that's the old days. That's the way it is. Like John Wayne, you know, I didn't I for him, but he's my president.

[00:26:51]I hope he does well. [clears throat] That's not really the way they look at it today.

[00:26:54]>> Well, that's not how it is now. Now it's about who can who can pick up the corpse the most.

[00:26:58]>> Yeah, by hook or by crook.

[00:27:00]>> Yeah, I I the craziest thing >> The reason why I don't like that is because I don't like it sets a bad precedent.

[00:27:06]It goes beyond just the individual circumstance.

[00:27:09]I mean, imagine it's like kind of like Evo Morales stepping down when the fascists was taking over the country.

[00:27:15]And Evo's thing is, look, I don't want to have a war.

[00:27:17]And which is effectively what would take place. It would be some kind of civil war of sorts or some kind of um >> Or Al Gore not fighting Bush v. Gore.

[00:27:25]>> Yeah, but see, I don't think these things are positive, especially from a larger context. I get the in the immediate of it. But the entire point of people doing stuff like that is because they believe that the other side won't fight for their country when it's really the responsibility of the president to defend the country.

[00:27:44]And so, if the >> I'm with you on Al Gore, and and so am I usually. And so I mean, I I I I definitely see your point. Look, I think Evo Morales should have fought. I think I mean, I think I think the Cuban the Cuban government should not be negotiating with Trump. I think they should be like, "You want it? Come and invade.

[00:28:02]Come and take it. Come and take it by force. Like, you know >> Like >> Like the Iranians. Like finally, look at the Iranians. They pushed out for a few times, and then finally when they're like famously like, "We've closed the Strait of Hormuz. Let the orange pig try to open it."

[00:28:18]That's that's That obviously worked out better.

[00:28:21]>> Yeah.

[00:28:22]It It's Look, it's not that I get it, right? But the reason that they put people in these positions because they they're basically saying, "We dare you to defend your country."

[00:28:32]>> Yeah.

[00:28:32]>> Because of what it costs to do so.

[00:28:35]But there's a cost to us, too.

[00:28:37]>> And you know, as as Iran is is inflicting I mean, obviously every situation's different in terms of the cost.

[00:28:44]JT, up for some comments?

[00:28:46]>> Yes.

[00:28:46]>> Okay.

[00:28:47]Uh maybe Blue Funk, I was thinking about Jackson Pollock. Did he pee on his painting?

[00:28:53]>> What?

[00:28:54]>> I don't know. I don't think so.

[00:28:57]>> peed on his painting?

[00:28:58]>> He sprat He I've I've been to the Jackson to the Pollock-Krasner house in East Hampton, New York.

[00:29:05]And that is where he lived with his wife, the fellow artist Lee Krasner. And I've seen the studio where he worked. It's And it's kind of fascinating cuz you can see the outlines of where there was a square or a rectangular painting. And then where the paint splattered off there. He used house paint, which is the crazy part.

[00:29:26]Which means if you own a Pollock, it's probably going to start to fall apart, you know, sooner rather than later, right? Cuz the the paint sucks.

[00:29:33]It's not really It's low-quality paint.

[00:29:35]It's not proper paint for a Anyway.

[00:29:39]Frank Field sounds like the CIA doesn't want dollars, either.

[00:29:44]>> Hilarious.

[00:29:46]>> Let's see. Fras Matas says the chat remembers spirit cooking in the WikiLeaks emails around Halloween 2016 that was verifiably black magic that Latino and black voters talked about on Facebook and in church.

[00:30:00]But then Shareblue's CEO's ex-husband's pizza shop, Comet Ping Pong, becomes the focus of Pizzagate, which although compelling only makes sense to white people who already likely voted for Trump.

[00:30:15]>> [laughter] >> Okay.

[00:30:17]>> I didn't fully get into what I would how that I just thought it was weird.

[00:30:20]>> Rogue Bot, I love this. I wonder how much money was buried in Afghanistan and Iraq only to be retrieved later by some retired military personnel. It's like Three Kings, right?

[00:30:30]>> Yeah. I wouldn't be shocked. And in fact, it that gets to your point about why did he keep it in his house?

[00:30:36]Like if you're going to get that money, why don't you put that money somewhere?

[00:30:39]And why don't you have a safe I don't know. Maybe we're thinking too much about the CIA. Maybe we think they're smarter than what they actually are.

[00:30:45]But I guess my first thought is, why wouldn't you have an exit plan? If you're shuffling gold bars, I would think that you're shuffling with the idea of going somewhere else and disappearing with that money. [snorts] >> I think it's, you know, I think it start I think it's an addiction, right? I think it starts out like you're like the first time like he probably Here's my I'm willing to bet like you know, my own gold bars that he will that this that the following is what happened. He at first was paying out the gold bars and cash and Rolexes. There were Rolexes, too. Um it dutifully as required and it's like dropping them off with, you know, Emirati sheikhs or whatever. And then after a while he's like, I'm just What if I kept one? What would happen? And then like he keeps it and nothing happens. Then he's like, rinse, lather, repeat. And then so because of the way that he's thinking of it that way, it's not like a master criminal who's like, man, I would like to like do like the Johnny Cash song one piece at a time. I would like to bring this back I would like to build up a little cute seven-figure nest egg. How am I going to do that? That mentality is entirely different. You would think like if you're thinking about it with your best friend like you and I over drinks we're like thinking about like how would we do this? If we be like, well, you don't keep it at the house.

[00:32:08]>> [laughter] >> But he's not thinking that way. It is own little secret that he's maybe keeping from his family, probably keeping from his family. Um he's just doing it himself and it's his own little it's his little thing. It's he's like a little squirrel. I think that's I think it's like it's so psychological. It's not logical, it's psychological.

[00:32:31]>> I mean, by the way, he could have been paying people in the US, too.

[00:32:34]It's the CIA. I mean, they use What is it operation um Oh, what is the name of what is the name of what is the name I forget the name of it. But they were paying people in the US also.

[00:32:44]I mean, I wouldn't put it past >> No, no, for sure. Although they're not supposed to do anything like that. Uh PW Walker, that money comes right back to the US, which is why they were so willing uh to throw it around in places like Af- willing to throw it around in places like Afghanistan or those running the program were skimping off the top.

[00:33:03]Um Crown Heights Brainiac, thanks for the $9 or $10 I should say. If Putin and Xi decide to go after the petrodollar, I won't be mad. The US uses it for sanctions, conflict, and regime change.

[00:33:17]Agreed.

[00:33:19]>> Yeah, agreed. Um Well, that seems to be happening naturally.

[00:33:26]I mean, like anything that you use as a weapon and you use it as a a weapon at one point that was uh let's say un- um where there was it it was uncontested as a weapon.

[00:33:40]It would inevitably your enemies are going to find ways to deal with it. Same thing with nuclear weapons. When the US gets a nuke, it starts threatening um China and Russia or at the time the Soviet Union with using a nuke in a very short period of time, the Soviet Union gets their own nuclear weapon. Soviet Union puts up satellite in a very short period of time, the United States goes to the moon. Meaning it's never going to be a situation where a particular weapon is uncontested. The issue is that the US decided to use their leverage in the economic system as a weapon, which is very dodgy because obviously the other countries are going to find ways to mitigate that weapon, which is the reason why the US um at one point the had what 70 75% in regards to countries using the dollars and then it never dropped down to 50% currently.

[00:34:30]Like there's a reason for that. It's not random.

[00:34:33]>> Yeah, we we Yeah, you can only do that if you are totally a neutral actor uh you and you never weaponize it and I mean, that's it.

[00:34:44]Yeah. Um Okay, so uh Frank Feel giving someone that kind of money to poor country basically turns that person into a mini oligarch. True.

[00:34:55]Storm Stormburn Stormborn, thanks for the five. Good morning, gents. What are your thoughts on the Russian drone strike in Romania? Will they invoke Article 5 and bring NATO into this?

[00:35:05]Thank you for bringing that up. Um >> I think that was an accident.

[00:35:09]And you take it as a drone strike.

[00:35:10]Calling it a drone strike act as if Russia intentionally hit Romania. I don't think that's a >> a It is a drone strike. I mean, I agree with you. It's a It has to be an accident. I mean, it It's happened It's happened before.

[00:35:23]Um you know, Ukrainian drones have gone into Poland Russia was Remember that time Russia was accused I mean, drones go off target. You know, they they get lost and they you know, part of the danger of drones. So, something that doesn't really happen in conventional warfare with normal ballistic missiles.

[00:35:43]They don't really go into other countries entirely.

[00:35:46]Um But uh there's probably someone will point out an exception to that, but I can't think of one. Um yeah, but it's happened before.

[00:35:53]>> the way, didn't an Article Article 5 over Ukraine hitting Latvia?

[00:35:58]Or like the drones that were washing into the shores of the Estonian states.

[00:36:02]I mean, the Latvian government literally collapsed from that mistake if I'm remembering this correctly.

[00:36:06]>> That's correct. Yeah.

[00:36:07]>> The result of the drones that were flying into Latvia. Now, it's very possible that Russian operators took control of those drones in order to fly them into some of the Baltic states, but they were still Ukrainian drones. They didn't declare Article 5. I don't think NATO wants to have that fight with this Russian military.

[00:36:25]>> They do They do. Don't they?

[00:36:26]Yeah. And I think I think it's like it's just sort of like we Look, it's it's a it's relatively minor. Uh you know, it was clearly not I mean, you know, Russia we know didn't do this on purpose. And it sucks for the people whose apartment got blown up, but um you know, it's it's not like Yeah, no, article five is not going to be invoked here. Uh although when I heard about it, it's I'm scared. And the very fact that by the way, this question comes up is why NATO is dangerous. Article five is dangerous. It is you know, it's like this shouldn't be something that anyone in Brussels has to discuss. It shouldn't be like "Oh, so do we go to World War III over this?" No, okay, all right, everybody go home. I mean, I'm glad that cool heads prevail, but I mean, they shouldn't have to. The structure shouldn't exist in the first place.

[00:37:14]>> Yeah, agreed.

[00:37:16]>> Uh Govman, thanks for the $7. How could Gore have fought Bush v. Gore without a rebellion? It was Supreme Court, it was over. He could have complained more. I got Um okay, so let me tell you. First of all, there are things that in Bush v.

[00:37:29]Gore uh Gore didn't do correctly, but that's a different question. Like for example, he didn't ask for a statewide recount in Florida. He asked for uh a Democratic counties recount. Uh that provided the opening for the Supreme Court to rule against him. It was also really boneheaded because the counties that are going to undercount your votes are going to be the counties that are controlled by the opposite party, right?

[00:37:56]So, better to ask for a Republican counties recount, right? So, his party his his campaign was run by by fools.

[00:38:04]But yes, he could have gone on TV every single day and done rallies and said, "They stole it from me." We know you can do that. Donald Trump did it. You can you can you could He could have said, you know, like, "This is not acceptable." He could have created a constitutional crisis. He could have refuted refused to concede. He could have tried to fight it again in the courts. I mean, the fact is that Al Gore won the 2000 election and he won the state of Florida by tens of thousands of votes. Um and it's you know, that's that's kind of like beyond I mean, I wouldn't say it's beyond dispute, but it's provable. And um it's he didn't do that. He chose to be a gentleman. Um What was her name? Um God. Um His campaign manager um from New Orleans. He's always on Oh God, what is her name? Um it's going to come to me.

[00:39:00]Anyway, she I I I I was talking to her about signing her for syndication when I used to be uh an editor at United Media and we ran a syndication arm. And um And so, she came in. She wanted to write a syndicated column. Um and she basically she was Al Gore's campaign manager. And she told me one-on-one that on election night 2000 at about 9:00 at night Eastern time right after the last polls had closed um she walked into the hotel suite where and she saw Gore on the phone. And she asked one of the other staffers, um "Who's Who's he on the phone with?" And she And she was told, "Oh, he's on the phone with Bush. He's calling to concede."

[00:39:45]And she was like, "What?"

[00:39:47]Now, bear in mind, right?

[00:39:48]So, he she walked over and hung up on Bush. She pushed the receiver down and just basically like you're you know, gone. You're not calling. And yelled at him like, "What the [ __ ] is wrong with you?" Um It's like she said he didn't have the hunger. He didn't have the fire in his belly. He didn't want to be president. He didn't care enough.

[00:40:15]He was didn't Well, he didn't have any fight in him. He wasn't a fighter. He was soft.

[00:40:21]>> This is a Democrat thing.

[00:40:22]I mean, also like meaning This like for the longest time people may forget this.

[00:40:30]Um but >> Oh, Donna Brazile. That's her.

[00:40:33]>> That was his campaign?

[00:40:35]Are you [ __ ] me? That was Al Gore's campaign manager?

[00:40:38]>> Donna Brazile, yeah. She Yeah, she was his manager.

[00:40:41]>> [snorts] >> I didn't know that.

[00:40:44]>> Yeah.

[00:40:46]>> So, here's the thing about Democrats.

[00:40:48]For the longest time it was a third rail for Democrats for Democrats to bring up any idea of elections being stolen.

[00:40:57]In fact, it was a third rail in politics.

[00:41:01]And it was a third rail for a reason because the integrity of the system depends upon elections and [clears throat] credible elections. Meaning that it's not like there's a king, right?

[00:41:12]If you challenge the electoral system, you say the elections are fake and people, let's say a large percentage, believe you, then there's no way to govern America.

[00:41:23]Because at that point legitimacy comes into question and the entirety integrity of the system depends upon legitimacy.

[00:41:29]That the public believes that whoever won is legitimate. That's the only thing that gives you the lever of power. And so, this was very dodgy for them to touch any electoral space until Trump got into electoral space and start screaming that the elections are fake, it's all fake, etc. risking a civil war.

[00:41:45]He didn't seem to care.

[00:41:47]Gore agreed. Didn't have the hunger in him. It wasn't in him not to mention the third rail. If you remember, Clinton was dodgy about the third rail also. Where she ends up getting Jill Stein to challenge the election in order to get a recount because she doesn't necessarily want to touch the third rail of politics saying that it might have been rigged or fake.

[00:42:08]Um Gore allowed the disenfranchisement of millions in Florida.

[00:42:15]And and I mean that seriously because all of those were black communities and most of those were black communities. If you remember Gore Gore being Speaker of the House gavel down one person after the next as they came up saying, "We believe that the election were fake. We believe there needs to be a recount. All of these people were disenfranchised." And Gore would gavel them down one after the next after the next. You can look at the video on YouTube. Yes.

[00:42:41]>> I remember it just being astonished.

[00:42:44]>> Yeah. He He didn't have it in him. And this is meaning Gore, who was just cheated out of the election, gaveling down people telling him that he should fight for his own electoral >> Remember the Brooks riot the Brooks Brothers riot?

[00:42:59]Where like the the Brooks Brothers riot they called it. Um during the counting in Miami-Dade, which I'm pretty sure is the biggest county in uh Florida. Um the the the basically these right-wing Republican Capitalist Capital uh Hill goons, who were all staffers for Republicans, uh were all bundled up on a plane, sent down to Miami-Dade, and they broke in on on national television. You can look this up. And broke into and started beating up campaign count the people who were counting the ballots. And that caused the the stopping of the count they stopped counting the votes in Miami-Dade because of that. Um a bunch of like little, you know, 25-year-old little shits, um you know, from Capitol Hill went down there to do that.

[00:43:48]>> I mean it's on television. It's on CNN.

[00:43:51]>> That's what I mean. How's that illegal?

[00:43:53]I mean, especially intervening in the election.

[00:43:55]>> It was a coup. I mean, I remember Karl Rove going on uh PBS NewsHour during the crisis, which lasted from November 7th to December 20th, 2000, and saying, "Well, they can recount, but if it doesn't come out our way, we're going to have to have the military step in."

[00:44:18]I mean, it's a coup. I mean, for sure, it was a coup. Um we should, cuz we have other interesting things to talk about today, we we should do that. Um we also have to talk about this the $250 bill. So, uh Trump apparently is pushing hard. The law says, ever since 1866, that a living person cannot appear on US currency.

[00:44:43]Trump wants to create a new $250 bill, something that has never existed before.

[00:44:48]There used to be 500s, and there used to be 1000s. Um to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. Of course, it would have the design, the mock-up would have Trump's scowling glowering face on it. Um it's a very ugly design from a graphic uh design standpoint, not surprisingly, cuz that's where we are now. And um anyway, a couple of people at the, you know, in Treasury, at the Mint, have stepped down. They were because they were being bullied by the White House to do this.

[00:45:17]Apparently, it normally takes about 6 to 8 years to um approve, from the beginning of a conception of a new bill design, to roll it out, because especially a high denomination note like that has to be super counter-proofed, um you know, counter-proof protected, right? Um counterfeit protected. Um so, the Anyway, the thing is, they're like, "Well, we can't do it, and also, it's illegal, and we don't want to, and it's gross, basically."

[00:45:48]Thoughts?

[00:45:51]>> Well, I mean, if it's illegal, then that should be the end of the discussion of the conversation, short of Congress. Right. Exactly.

[00:46:01]Congress would have to pass it. And it would be filibustered to death.

[00:46:07]>> Hopefully.

[00:46:10]You don't think so?

[00:46:11]>> I'm not sure. I mean, you know, you just you just mentioned what the you know, how much spine the Democrats are composed of. There's not a lot of calcium in those in those bones. Um you know, they they I mean are they really going to you know, they won't filibuster to stop a genocide.

[00:46:27]Uh are they going to >> Yeah, well yeah, but Yeah.

[00:46:32]>> Well, that's something they agree with.

[00:46:34]>> Yeah, they proposed they're on team genocide. Okay, but they won't they won't go to the mat for anything that they supposedly actually care about. So [snorts] you know, are they going to go to >> cost for them doing this. I I guess that's what I'm saying. Like it's one thing for them to put themselves online when there's no cost. There's no cost. I don't think Chuck Schumer wants um all of this money in his pockets or or Nancy Pelosi wants Trump glaring at her from her wallet. I don't think she wants that.

[00:47:02]>> She'll use her she'll use Apple Pay.

[00:47:06]>> [laughter] >> I don't know.

[00:47:08]I don't know. Um I get the feeling that Nancy Pelosi, if they checked her icebox, she'd have a lot of gold bars >> [laughter] >> I don't even have a point though. Like I get the >> Trump and Rush have something in common maybe, yeah.

[00:47:21]>> Yeah, I don't get the sense that Democrats are going to be okay with this because it's no cost in them fighting it. I mean, there's no financial interest saying we need Donald Trump's face on money. There's no um Israeli interest putting hundreds of million dollars into Democrats allowing Donald Trump's face on money. There's no cost for them to fight this. In which case, but their base hates it.

[00:47:44]>> So I mean, I think I mean, look, the thing is that is something right out of a third world country. I mean >> It's banana republic stuff.

[00:47:53]>> It's Saddam Hussein. It's Muammar Gaddafi, it's you know.

[00:48:00]>> Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It's banana like a lot of this stuff is banana republic stuff. We're just going to start wars. We don't need Congress.

[00:48:07]We don't need any of that stuff. The president, the strongman and enough self-interest enough to do it. Um we are going to strangle other countries. We are going to put my face on money.

[00:48:19]>> [laughter] >> They're going to put my face on money.

[00:48:21]>> My face on money.

[00:48:24]I mean we shouldn't even be talking about the legalities or whether it's possible to pass it through Congress.

[00:48:30]An idea like that should A country that had proper unified values um would literally just Democrat, Republican, you know, everyone else would just agree like uh yeah, no. We don't do that. Like like we don't rape children and we don't put the president's face on on money. We just don't do that.

[00:48:54]>> Well, rape um considering Israel is a a staunch ally of the United States and considered they just been put on the UN blacklist for being system- systematic rapists.

[00:49:09]>> Well, and they just they just raped the Gaza flotilla people apparently.

[00:49:14]>> Yeah, exactly. So, the whole raping of people being off the table, well, that's not the case.

[00:49:21]And the president putting his face on money at the very least an attempt to do so.

[00:49:26]Same.

[00:49:27]>> It's crazy. Uh comments uh Manchild, thanks for the dollar. With Congress needing to approve a Trump coin and a $250 bill, there's no way this happens.

[00:49:35]He has way too little time left in office to pull off a process that takes 7-plus years. Hopefully, but I can't but it shouldn't even be proposed.

[00:49:45]Um Phyllis Pollick, CIA's favorite artist, at least two of his exhibits were funded by it.

[00:49:52]There's a field in academic history that deals with the so-called cultural Cold War. Yeah, you know that theory, right?

[00:49:58]About Jackson Pollock.

[00:50:00]>> Yeah. Yeah. The paintings and everything else gets across.

[00:50:03]Kind of like Oh, what is the other painter's name? What is the other painter's name?

[00:50:07]>> on It was an attack on socialist realism, right? Like the idea Like the >> block pictures. The pictures of Soviets dealt with real life, real physical matter phenomena, and then these kind of totally abstract, meaningless Yeah, I don't want to call it esoteric.

[00:50:23]>> Decorative.

[00:50:25]>> Yeah, the abstractness of it all is the thing that negates this idea of the realism of the Soviet uh photos and states and culture. Yeah.

[00:50:34]I Do you give it credence? I mean, like there's something in it.

[00:50:38]>> document that we know it happened, right? We know it We know it's true.

[00:50:42]Yeah, it's So, I I do. Yeah. It I mean, it it absolutely occurred.

[00:50:47]>> What I guess what I'm asking is do you think it had the bang for the buck that they're trying to imply?

[00:50:50]>> Oh, no. Although, I think there's something to it. I mean, I think it's I mean, you know, again, at the at the at the risk of sounding like Zizek and his Lacanian [ __ ] the search for the real, but I'm obsessed with it.

[00:51:05]Um it is, you know, the the the >> [sighs and gasps] >> the the last half of the 20th century, and certainly this century so far, has been defined in the United States by living in by by trying to promote the We were trying to get people to not understand their own material realities.

[00:51:28]Like, for example, you live in the best country in the world with the highest living standards in the world that everybody wants to leave their country to come to our country, and that's why we're awesome. Except for the fact that when you actually drive through this country, whether you're in rural or urban areas, what you see is an ocean of people living in massive amounts of poverty that scores like number 38 on on quality of life indices. Um you know, none of those things are true. Um basically, Americans don't connect to what's true, and because of that, they can't possibly think about forming an opposition to their reality cuz they don't know what their reality is, or at least they're confused about what their reality is. I mean, they're not confused when they're sitting down to pay their bills every month, but they're confused the rest of the time.

[00:52:19]>> Right. And then they think it's a purely a factor of their own failings because the country is fantastic. Everybody else is living in wealth and etc. etc. I'm alone. I'm an individual. That type of stuff as opposed to kind of putting the blame on society. That's absolutely right.

[00:52:35]>> this reality to take place. No, I I I get it. No, you're right.

[00:52:40]I mean, even the money is not attached to real-world phenomena.

[00:52:44]Like the I Like other countries can't produce $10 trillion to invade Iraq and Afghanistan and just put it on the credit card.

[00:52:51]Other countries need to actually have some kind of financial backing to whatever the the thing that they're dealing with.

[00:52:57]We don't.

[00:52:59]It's like we're also superheroes.

[00:53:01]It's like Batman.

[00:53:02]>> Speaking of rich. Speaking of non-reality, um so, we talked yesterday about uh Trump's plans to uh send And this makes me angrier the more I think about it for multiple reasons, to send uh US aid workers who traveled to um the Ebola zone in the Democratic Republic of Congo um to uh he was trying to quarantine them in at some new facility to be stood up in Kenya.

[00:53:30]Supposed to open today. Um and you know, as you pointed out, it's uh you know, obviously, he's racializing Ebola, right? Ebola, like it's like in in in the public's imagination is a African disease.

[00:53:44]Um it's a disease. Diseases just go wherever, right? But um he And but also so it the race the racializing of it is infuriating. And so is the like punishing people who are so noble that they're willing to go to a place to deal with this very to treat people with this highly contagious, very fatal disease. And you're treating them like [ __ ] And now the latest is that a Kenyan court so, you know, I had brought up yesterday the question of like What about the Kenyans? Why do they want Ebola patients? Well, they don't apparently. So a Kenyan court has just said like no, you can't build this. So currently that's on hold. So now Trump's like well, I'd like to send them to Europe, but there's no idea of where in Europe they could, you know, who in Europe would want them or where that how would that look or whatever. Um This is just a it's just Trump being a a mega turd again.

[00:54:42]>> [snorts] >> It's Trump being Trump. I mean, he's acted this way all the way through. I mean, and and I remember people used to argue even black people would argue, well, I don't know if he's racist. And it's like, okay, so when he's going after the African American Museum, okay, why is he doing that? And it's not just racist, classist also. I mean, when Elon Musk comes in and is firing um American workers who working for the federal government and firing workers at Social Security and Medicare, okay, who is he affecting?

[00:55:11]And then they're still spending $2 trillion a year. So it's like, okay, so obviously this did nothing.

[00:55:17]And you guys don't have an issue um in let's say increasing the wealth or maximizing the wealth of the US government for the people who are effectively a means. I guess I'm saying this is Trump being Trump through and through. It's disgusting. It's like these people are putting their lives on the line for others.

[00:55:37]And when they're trying to come back for some kind of treatment or so forth, where do they get the best treatment in the US?

[00:55:43]We're like, "Yeah, send them to Africa."

[00:55:45]Oh, no, no, no, send them to Europe.

[00:55:46]They're our vassals. They'll take them.

[00:55:48]>> Who's going to go in the future if if they do this?

[00:55:52]>> There's that.

[00:55:53]But again, Trump doesn't care.

[00:55:56]I mean, from his point of view, we're okay with not having tourists coming into the country, not having people from let's say China or from other schools once to get their technical degrees coming into the country. Mind you, that is in our best interest. It is one of the things like us being a melting pot and bringing people and getting the best and brightest from around the world cuz in the way that you point out, we have projected to the world that we are the greatest. Everybody wants to live here.

[00:56:24]That's not just being projected to the United States. The American dream is something that is being pushed out in media and everything else all across the globe, whether you're listening to American music or American movies.

[00:56:34]You may take that as true even if you live in a different country.

[00:56:37]And I'm saying that many countries, China being one of them, many of their dreams was to come to America and live in America. Many of those people work in technical fields that we can use and require.

[00:56:51]And us telling those people around the world to f off is not in our best interest. This is just another one of those cases.

[00:56:58]>> Not good. We've got to talk about Israel in and their latest outrage in Gaza, but let's get through the comments that we have hanging from the previous topic.

[00:57:08]Frank Field, the thanks for the donno.

[00:57:11]The writers of network could never imagine this [ __ ] You know, it's funny that you brought that up cuz I was literally just thinking about that while we were talking. Like, you know, the I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. No, we're not mad as hell and we're totally going to take it more. Um Uh Phineas Fogg, there are debates about whether uh Pollock's work was intended to strip art of the ability to sleep to speak literally about politics interested in Ted's view.

[00:57:39]Um I Yeah, I mean we talked about that. I I I do think that um it's you know, I mean as a political cartoonist obviously political art is what I do for a living um and I got to say um that is Yeah, I mean you see we have politics without politics in this country in terms of the electoral political system and now we have political art without politics in it. Um you know, you'll like you know, wokeism in some respects is kind of politics without politics. Um so it can be uh especially when class is completely eradicated. Um And when you go to and you look at even political cartoons um the least hard-hitting political cartoons are the ones that get the most reprints, get run all over the place, win prizes and so on. So yeah, I know I think this is I I think that that was part of it. Uh John D. Rockefeller could thanks for the [clears throat] $2. Can we make a Trump $1,000 note as a symbol of inflation under his governance? It can be our version of that African $1,000,000 note and don't forget he already got rid of the penny which was also a sign of inflation.

[00:58:48]>> The penny was a sign of inflation?

[00:58:50]>> Getting rid of the penny was is a sign of inflation. I mean the United States has had the penny since it's founding and like literally he abolished the penny and there was no there are no new pennies being minted anymore and a lot of people made the case that they're wasteful and that you know, basically you know, the prices have increased so much that the nickel needs So now when you have a let's say something rounds to three cents or whatever it rounds up to five or whatever. So that's getting rid of the penny is definitely a symptom of inflation.

[00:59:21]>> That's interesting. I never thought of it that way. I mean because even if you have inflation, you can still end up with the a penny amount.

[00:59:29]>> [clears throat] >> Well, think about >> You end up with a 5 cent.

[00:59:33]>> If prices went up five times more than they are now, you wouldn't need the nickel anymore. You know what I mean?

[00:59:38]>> Yeah.

[00:59:39]Interesting. I guess for my part, you always could end up with a number of something something point zero one.

[00:59:47]>> You could, but it's like it's less necessary cuz you have nothing that really is nothing that's really worth one penny at a certain point. Um when I when I was a kid, there were five you French francs to the dollar and um you they still had a centime. Uh they had the French franc and a centime is 1/100 of a franc. And that so that that centime was what? Like 1/5 of a penny.

[01:00:12]Um and you know, and frankly they were very very small and like they were useless and the the French government eliminated them at a certain point. You know, it was like the smallest coin became the five centime which was effectively a US penny. Um we've got to talk about um so under the US brokered ceasefire agreement signed it back in October, um Israel agreed not to have any direct control over Gaza over more than 53% of the territory which is as far as I'm concerned 53% too much, but they uh now um in contradiction it uh Bibi Netanyahu unilaterally has said um gave the order we're going to make it 70%.

[01:00:55]Um does the ceasefire fall apart at this point?

[01:00:57]>> Well, wait, just to be clear because they've already taken 60%.

[01:01:01]Which is more than the 50% that you just mentioned.

[01:01:03]>> 53, yeah.

[01:01:05]>> Yeah.

[01:01:06]>> Yeah. Um >> Does the ceasefire fall apart? There was never a ceasefire.

[01:01:12]I'm sorry, there was never a ceasefire.

[01:01:14]I mean, it was >> Just cuz people are still shooting and and killing each other, yeah.

[01:01:18]>> Yeah, pretty much. And Israel Look, if I enter into a peace agreement with you and I continue the war under the guise of a peace agreement, that's me continuing the war under the guise of a peace agreement. And I'm saying that's true in Gaza, that is true in Lebanon.

[01:01:35]It's true in both. Which is the reason why Iran has extended its umbrella over Lebanon in any kind of negotiations.

[01:01:44]Basically saying, "Get your dog in order.

[01:01:48]Your rabid dog needs to be put down if indeed we're going to come to some kind of terms of an agreement."

[01:01:54]So, that's why I mean, like the Lebanese government that is effectively a vassal state that wouldn't fire a shot in anger at an invading invading military decided to make an agreement that apparently didn't include Southern Lebanon despite the fact that that's still Lebanon.

[01:02:11]Israel has even been violating that in its bombing of Beirut.

[01:02:16]So, I I hope you get my point, right?

[01:02:18]I'm trying to make the point of saying these guys go into negotiations and ceasefires, quote unquote, as a way of continuing to pursue their war aim, knowing full well that the United States is not going to say anything about it or do anything about it.

[01:02:34]They're going to turn a blind eye.

[01:02:35]And so, yeah, of course Israel's doing this. I think what's interesting is are they doing this because they believe that negotiations with Iran are proceeding?

[01:02:46]Meaning, are they doing this to play spoiler because it seems like they've increased the amount of murdering that they've done over the course of the last couple of days as talks and negotiations have started to >> We'll have to leave that there. Um JT, have an awesome weekend. I'm sure we're going to record on Sunday. We'll talk about that later.

[01:03:05]>> Yes.

[01:03:05]>> See you guys Monday 9:00 a.m. We're here Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. And stay tuned for TMI show with Manila Chan and myself, Robbie West, filling in. Appreciate you guys tuning in. See you later. Bye.

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