DeProgram: “Why Jeffrey Epstein Refuses to Die”
It’s time for “DeProgram,” where political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou tackle today’s most urgent stories. Ted and John bring you up-to-date on the Jeffrey Epstein case Trump wishes would just go away, where the WSJ reveals a bromance between the president and the disgraced financier in a bound birthday book, and the White House orders the release of some court documents but not all. Next, we dissect the Senate’s vote to cut $9 billion from NPR and PBS, threatening public media and perhaps even the lives in media deserts in places like Alaska and the Great Plains. The focus then shifts to Iran’s nuclear program, bombed by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan, with conflicting reports on damage—Trump claims “obliteration,” while intelligence suggests a mere months-long setback, raising the stakes for diplomacy, European sanctions or renewed war with Israel. Finally, they address the NYPD’s use of FDNY’s Clearview AI access to bypass a facial recognition ban to illegally identify a pro-Palestinian Columbia protester, Zuhdi Ahmed, in a case dismissed due to this privacy violation, sparking outrage over free speech.