Ted Rall’s Latest Books:

“The Stringer”
graphic novel
by Ted Rall & Pablo G. Callejo
“Political Suicide: The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party”
by Ted Rall
“Bernie (Revised 2020 Edition)”
by Ted Rall

The Strategic Voting Fallacy

         Many people who typically vote Republican but dislike Trump, and others who typically vote Democratic but dislike Harris, are wrestling with a fundamental dilemma of the voter who lives in a duopoly. A vote is an endorsement. A vote declares to the world: “I approve of this candidate.” There is no half-vote. A vote is binary: yes or no. If your vote helps someone win who goes on to do something awful, their sins are partly your fault. If there are only two major-party candidates, and both seem likely to commit an atrocity if they win, the moral and rational alternative is clear: vote for a third-party or independent candidate whose odds of carrying out a heinous act appear to be low, or boycott the election. For the 61% of Americans who oppose sending more weapons to Israel, this condition has been met. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are both enthusiastic supporters of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinian civilians…
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It’s Time to End Our Cynical Policy of International Disruption

           Mainstream American political leaders regularly argue that the United States adheres to, defends and promotes a “rules-based international order.” What’s that? It’s rarely defined.             The best summary I’ve been able to find was articulated by John Ikenberry of Princeton University, introduced by The Financial Times as “an influential scholar whose former pupils populate the American government,” in 2023. “I think the rules-based order has a history that predates the U.S. and even predates 1945 and the great order-building efforts after World War II,” Ikenberry said. He continues: “But if you were to try to identify what open rules-based order is, it’s a set of commitments by states to operate according to principles, rules and institutions that provide governance that is not simply dictated by who is most powerful. So it’s a set of environmental conditions for doing business—contracts, multilateral institutions—and it comes in many layers. At the deepest level it’s really the system of sovereignty. It’s the belief…
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DMZ America Podcast #164: Pager Rager, Dogging Cats, Half the Point

Political cartoonists and analysts Ted Rall (on the Left) and Scott Stantis (on the Right) take on the week in politics. First up, Israel’s Mossad launches a fearsome attack against Hezbollah by blowing up their pagers and walkie-talkies throughout Lebanon, injuring thousands of people and killing at least a dozen. Does this impressive act of international terrorism cross a red line for supporters of Israel against Gaza? What happens next in the Middle East? Springfield, Ohio has made headlines, most of them probably false, about the allegation that Haitian migrants have been chowing down on the locals’ cats and dogs. Ted relates what he heard from relatives who live in Springfield and Scott and Ted dissect Trump’s ability to touch upon big truths even while lying like the day is long. Finally, the Federal Reserve Bank has decided to cut short-term interest rates by 0.5%. How much will juicing the economy help Kamala Harris’ campaign? Watch the Video version: here.…
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The Final Countdown – 9/18/24 – Federal Reserve to Make First Rate Cut in Two Years

On this edition of The Final Countdown, hosts Ted Rall and Steve Gill discussed several topics from around the world. The American political landscape is complicated, and to add to the political chaos in the United States there has been a second assassination attempt on former president Trump.  Censorship is raising its ugly head again as well.  To defend democracy is it necessary to suspend free speech?   In the final hour The Final Countdown team will discuss interest rate cuts by the Fed, and the unprecedented attack in Lebanon using consumer electronics as booby traps.   In the opening segment, Ted and Steve discuss the turbulent American political scene. Journalist and political insider Angie Wong  will speak to Ted Rall and Steve Gill about the second assassination attempt on former President Trump in just under three months.     Then The Final Countdown team speaks to reporter and international journalist Rachel Blevins.  The United States famously has the First Amendment that…
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