Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• Are government goons at “shithole countries” on Trump’s payroll? Four journalists, including reps of the New York Times, AP and the BBC, investigating a secret Trump plot to deport migrants to Cameroon—none of them Cameroonian, all of them under strict protection by US court orders not to deport them—were arrested and roughed up in Yaoundé. The AP reporter was beaten up by the police, who also confiscated their phones, cameras and laptops.

• Trump announced a $10 billion U.S. contribution to rebuilding Gaza at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace, describing the organization as the premier world body for international peace and harmony. What of the UN? Where will the money come from?

• Backed by the IDF, Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank shot and killed a Palestinian American man, 19, during an attack on the village of Mukhmas.

• Rarely has the U.S. prepared to conduct a major act of war with so little explanation or public debate as Trump prepares to attack Iran again.

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

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LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow

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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:

• Is Big Tech about to be finally be held accountable for their toxic products? Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified at trial about whether his company designed Instagram to be addictive. Parents who traveled from across the country for the trial brought by a girl who said bullying and addiction turned her suicidal, saying their kids were hurt or died because of social media. The outcome in the “Kaley” trial could put Big Tech on the hook for billions in damages and forced to make changes to platforms that have shaped how we live.

• Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the perv formerly known as Prince Andrew, is arrested at his home in Great Britain.

• Trump plans to turn eight warehouses into “large-scale detention centers” and 16 facilities into processing sites, according to ICE, with at least 100,000 beds. ICE also intends to buy 10 detention facilities where they already operate. Cost will be about $38 billion, which will be drawn from the billions of dollars Congress for ICE approved last summer. But community opponents include pro-deportation Trump voters.

• Bernie wants a Billionaire Tax in California. Gavin does not.

• Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was found guilty of leading an insurrection and sentenced to life in prison for his brief imposition of martial law in 2024.

• The beating death of Quentin Deranque in Lyon has quickly become a flashpoint between the far right and far left as France prepares for local elections next month and presidential elections next year.

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 “alternative homeland” – the notion that Jordan should become the Palestinian state – is rocking the Hashemite Kingdom, following Israeli measures to register swaths of the occupied West Bank as sovereign Israeli soil. Mamdouh al-Abbadi, Jordan’s former deputy prime minister, says: The fear in Amman is not just about military invasion, but about making life in the West Bank impossible to force ethnic cleansing into Jordan.

• Senate Republicans are under increasing pressure from the hard right to do whatever is necessary to break through a filibuster and ram through the Save America Act on a simple majority vote over Democratic opposition.

• Last year, between 200,000 and more than 1 million immigrants in the United States stopped working, according to analyses of Census Bureau data. But as immigrants left, unemployment for native-born Americans jumped to 4.7% in January from 4.1% a year before. That not only exceeds the overall unemployment rate of 4.3%, but also the 4.6% rate for foreign-born workers. Removing people from the country led to fewer workers and fewer people to buy the goods and services those workers produced, argues Stan Veuger, senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Plus: tariffs and AI are having a depressing effect, and low-wage employers are refusing to pay more.

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• France has its own Charlie Kirk. The centrist Macron administration blames the "ultra-left" LFI party and the Jeune Garde of Jean-Luc Melenchon for the fatal beating of 23-year-old Quentin Deranque, a right-wing extremist, in Lyon—a notorious hotbed of right-wing violence. Macron calls for patience and calm. Will France listen?

• Local police, sometimes seen as a bulwark against ICE goon squads on city streets, are signing deals to cooperate with and deport immigrants for the aggressive agency. There were 135 such deals a year ago; now there are 1,168.

• Persian Gulf Showdown: As US-Iran/Israel talks stall and another carrier heads to the Gulf, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards drill in Strait of Hormuz.

• BlanketGate: Corey Lewandowski, an unpaid special government employee who acts as chief of staff for and lover to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, fired a Coast Guard pilot for leaving Noem’s blanket on a plane — but was forced to rehire them upon realizing there was nobody else to fly the party home. Lewandowski has overseen a reign of terror over DHS.

• Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who made history as a third-party presidential candidate, dies at 84. Robert Duvall, the actor, passes at 95.

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:

• In the worst-case climate scenarios from unchecked greenhouse gas emissions (high-emission pathways like SSP5-8.5), global temperatures could rise 4–5°C or more by 2100 or beyond. This unleashes catastrophic threats: widespread ecosystem collapse, including near-total loss of coral reefs and Amazon dieback into savanna; irreversible multi-meter sea-level rise from melting ice sheets, flooding coastal cities and displacing hundreds of millions; intensified extreme weather—deadly heatwaves, mega-droughts, super-storms, and wildfires—causing mass crop failures, famine risks, and water wars. President Trump announces he is erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet. The action is a key step in removing limits on carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases that scientists say are supercharging heat waves, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather.

• There’s no deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security — so a partial government shutdown starts today. Who will make you take off your shoes at the airport?

• The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has claimed victory in the country’s first election since the 2024 uprising. The BNP is headed by 60-year-old Tarique Rahman, who returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in self-exile in London. He is the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who died in December.

• South Korea's spy agency says Kim Jong Un's teenage daughter, Kim Ju

Ae, is close to being designated as North Korea's future leader.

• Gallup will stop tracking presidential approval ratings after 88 years. Trump's last Gallup approval rating, in December, was 36%. Why the drastic decision?

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Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Today we discuss:

• In a bizarre episode of epic incompetence and lack of coordination, the Trump Administration shut down El Paso’s airspace—originally for 10 days—over a party balloon. First, it turns out the Defense Dept. lent a high-powered anti-drone system to the Border Patrol. Who turned it on without permission. To shoot down a “Mexican cartel drone.” Which didn’t exist. Fearing passenger jets would tumble out of the sky, a panicked FAA—who never got a call from the Border folks playing with their borrowed toy—ordered a shutdown. Organ transplant recipients may die as a result. Then the Trump Administration reflexively spun tall tales to cover it up. We’ll try to peel away the many layers of insanity here.

• Asked about the Epstein Files under oath, AG Pam Bondi helpfully points out that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a record high.

• As Trump dispatches a second carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf, he tells Netanyahu he prefers to negotiate with Iran, rather than bomb it—for now.

• House Republicans advance the SAVE America Act, which would pass Americans’ voter information to the Dept. of Homeland Security, require proof of citizenship to vote and require special paperwork for people who have changed their names, like women and trans people.

• Russians are being evacuated from Cuba.

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FOLLOW TED:

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LISTEN ON SPOTIFY:

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Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.

Scott Stantis, editorial cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune, fills in for John today.

Today we discuss:

• Cuban Gas Crisis: The Cuban economy hangs on the brink as Trump’s sanctions, including cutting off Venezuelan fuel shipments, force flight service cancellations and school closures. Russia expresses solidarity, exploring ways to ship fuel to the socialist Caribbean island. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel says he’s willing to talk.

• It took Pima County, Arizona law enforcement officials almost two weeks to access Nancy Guthrie’s Google Nest footage from the notoriously-hard-to-reach company, revealing a creepy masked man at the door. Should Congress mandate direct phone customer service for big tech?

• The Federal Aviation Administration is closing the airspace around El Paso International Airport in Texas for 10 days, grounding all flights to and from the airport.

• After a Border Patrol agent shot 30-year-old Marimar Martinez, a US citizen/Chicago teacher assistant 5 times, Gregory Bovino, congratulated him. “In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you have much yet left to do!!” he wrote to the agent.

• As Netanyahu arrives in DC, Trump says he opposes Israel’s moves to annex the West Bank.

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FOLLOW TED:

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FOLLOW JOHN:

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https://x.com/JohnKiriakou

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/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:

• Will a raging measles outbreak in South Carolina, which has infected more than 900 people and become the largest U.S. outbreak in recent history, become another pandemic?

• Tech is messing with the search for Nancy Guthrie: Before AI, proof of life could be established by having a hostage take a picture holding a newspaper or talking on the phone. Now you can mimic someone's voice or image in photos, videos and audio, known as “deepfakes.” You can also devise fake documents, like passports.

• A U.S. immigration court terminated the Trump administration's attempt to deport Tufts University student and pro-Palestinian activist Rümeysa Öztürk, a Ph.D. student from Turkey, for her essay criticizing Israel. Meanwhile, ICE is arousing the ire of judges across the country for willfully defying their orders.

JOIN US LIVE ON RUMBLE!

https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow

FOLLOW TED:

https://rall.com/

https://x.com/tedrall

FOLLOW JOHN:

https://www.instagram.com/realjohnkiriakou

https://x.com/JohnKiriakou

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu

LISTEN ON APPLE MUSIC:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall