DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.
Today we discuss:
• In the Strait of Hormuz, the Trump administration is trapped between the specter of a global economic recession and a naval catastrophe. Energy arteries are constricting to a point of “nonlinearity,” where every day the Strait of Hormuz remains closed multiplies the economic pain exponentially. Iran will bomb Liquefied Natural Gas tankers first—vessels that could “explode like the Beirut bomb”—followed by oil tankers to maximize environmental and economic chaos. But there’s also a huge risk in sending US naval assets as escorts into a war zone. White House analysts call the Strait their “Death Valley.”
• Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy chokepoint that carries about one-fifth of all crude oil, according to CNN. Despite US claims of having destroyed 14 Iranian minelayers, Iran still retains upward of 80% to 90% of its small boats and mine layers, so its forces could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway.
• Iran attacked commercial ships across the Persian Gulf. Two Iranian drones hit near Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest. Iran’s joint military command announced it would start targeting banks and financial institutions in the Middle East.
• San Francisco’s iconic mass transit system, BART, has entered a death spiral. Ridership cratered during the pandemic and remains less than half of what it was. The very future of the familiar white and blue trains, which have zipped around the Bay Area since 1972, is in doubt. BART says that only Bay Area residents can rescue the system by passing a new sales tax in November to cover its $400 million annual loss. Absent that, the board recently warned that it would take eye-popping actions out of desperation in 2027: Fewer trains. Higher fares and parking fees. Ending service at 9 p.m. instead of midnight. Laying off a quarter of its work force. And shrinking the system almost back to its original footprint by shuttering 15 stations. All of which will further reduce ridership. Meanwhile, the Iraq War costs $2 billion a day.

MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live

https://x.com/tedrall
https://x.com/JohnKiriakou

LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu
APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.
Today we discuss:
• Trump dismisses the economic costs of his war against Iran as a “very small price to pay” for—what, exactly, nobody knows. Fuel prices are soaring, and may stay high for months. That could make groceries and other goods more expensive. Consumers and businesses could spend less, triggering a recession.
• Wary of low approval ratings, Trump calls his Iran War a “short-term excursion.” Will this be a walk in the park? Or will Iran become another Mideast quagmire?
• America For Sale: 300 billionaires and their immediate family members donated more than $3 billion—19% of all contributions — in federal elections in 2024, directly or through PACs. Before Citizens United, the share of billionaire spending was almost 0.3%. Billionaire families gave an average total of $10 million each, an amount roughly equal to what 100,000 typical political donors gave, combined. And that does not count dark-money contributions.
• Republicans want the SAVE Act “show your papers” law so badly they’re willing to consider a “talking filibuster.” Ted’s done the math—and the GOP should be careful what it asks for.

MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live

https://x.com/tedrall
https://x.com/JohnKiriakou

LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu
APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.
Today we discuss:
• As oil prices rose 50% to $110/barrel and U.S. gas rose more than $1/gallon in a week, U.S. and Israel blew up four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran, deliberately triggering an ecological disaster in a capital city of 9 million people. Thick black smoke rose, soot covered streets and cars, balconies filled with black gunk, and toxic air filled lungs. Toxic chemicals lead to acid rain and hurt the skin and lungs, contaminate food and water reservoirs. Next: a spike in asthma, pulmonary and heart disease, and cancers.
• A report by the National Intelligence Council completed before the Iran War assessed that even a large-scale U.S. military assault on the country would be unlikely to topple the Iranian government. Mojtaba Khamenei, has been named to ‌replace his assassinated father as supreme ⁠leader.
• Trump is trying to negotiate a deal that would turn Cuba into an U.S. vassal state, as it was before the communist revolution. Americans could travel to Havana, President Miguel Díaz-Canel would resign, the Castro family would remain on the island and ports, energy and tourism would be exploited by the U.S.

MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live

https://x.com/tedrall
https://x.com/JohnKiriakou

LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu
APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.
Today we discuss:
• ICE Queen Kristi Noem is out at Homeland Security. Not because she unleashed thugs on Americans or covered up their murders. Because she blamed Trump for her own self-aggrandizing ad campaign and got caught in her on-the-job affair. Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma will replace her. And what’s this Shield of the Americas thing she’s going to do next?
• 1,300 Iranians have been killed by the U.S. and Israel. The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon rose to at least 123, as a new wave of strikes pounded the Lebanon and Hezbollah warned Israeli residents to evacuate towns within 3 miles of their northern border. Yesterday, Israel threatened residents that they should leave Beirut’s southern suburbs, prompting a huge exodus from a swath of the capital’s densely populated area known as Dahiyeh, home to half a million Lebanese.
• Trump tells Axios he needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader—just as he was in Venezuela. Khameini Jr. is pre-nixed. Freedom, it seems, isn’t very free.
• No money for high-speed rail, new schools, the homeless, or healthcare subsidies—but the U.S. government has $2 billion a day for the Iran War.

MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live
https://x.com/tedrall
https://x.com/JohnKiriakou

LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu
APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.
Today we discuss the US/Israeli War Against Iran:
• The U.S. bombing of the Iranian elementary school that killed 165 people, many of them schoolgirls, included more targets near the school than has been initially reported. Satellite images suggest that the school was hit as part of an airstrike on a neighboring military complex — and that it may have been struck as a result of outdated targeting information. Satellite images show that the school and clinic buildings were both once part of the base. The school was separated from the base by a wall between 2013 and 2016. The clinic was walled off between 2022 and 2024. Did the U.S. ignore signs of scores of girls going to class?
• Did the U.S. commit a war crime by torpedoing an uninvolved Iranian frigate, IRIS Dena, returning from a diplomatic visit to India, in the Indian Ocean, and failing to rescue its crew—something Nazi U-boat commanders did during World War II until the Laconia incident?
• Europe is transferring assets from Ukraine to the Mideast as rising oil prices benefit Russia’s economy. Are the U.S. and Israel indirectly defeating Ukraine?
• Likely 2028 presidential contender Gavin Newsom, criticized Israel, suggesting that the U.S. should reconsider its military support for the country, which he compared to an apartheid state.
Also:
• The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed attorney general Pam Bondi, to testify about the Epstein files. The 24 to 19 vote was a rebuke to the Trump administration.

MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live
https://x.com/tedrall
https://x.com/JohnKiriakou

LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu
APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504