Trump’s pre-midterm offer to send every American adult $5,000 if the GOP retains the House and Senate has fallen flat with voters, not because it’s a bribe, but because they don’t trust him to deliver.
Ted Rall’s Latest Books:
Gen X Parent, Gen Z Kid
Gen Z young people, especially men, have their parents deeply concerned because they are not having sex or partying the way young people used to. This may be the first time in history that an older generation has screamed at their kids to turn that damn music up.
Plans for Two to Four Years From Now
In America’s two-party system, voters who are unhappy with the incumbent Republicans have only one electoral alternative: vote for the Democrats they know will do the same thing.
Trump World
For the president and, presumably, his supporters, there is an alternative reality in which everything is going as well as possible. The polls show that most voters do not believe that, yet the strategy of speaking demonstrable falsehoods persists.
Scramble for the Government You Deserve
From curbs on mail-in voting and the purging of voter rolls to widespread confusion about the validity of elections, the Trump Administration—dreading losses—is scuttling Americans’ opportunities to cast lawful ballots in the 2026 midterm elections.
Good to the Last Drop
After the CIA overthrew Iran’s democratically elected leader, U.S. policymakers helped themselves to Iranian oil at discounted prices and smugly congratulated themselves. But the blowback was a bitch. Their puppet ruler, the Shah, was soon overthrown by revolutionaries who despised and resented the United States. Sanctions intended to soften the Islamic Republic had the opposite effect, hardening its resolve and prompting it to wage proxy wars against the U.S. and Israel throughout the Middle East. Fifty years later, the Middle East is a hot mess, Iran is its dominant regional power, and the United States has lost. So why is the U.S. pursuing similar policies against oil-rich, socialist-majority Venezuela?
Move Fast and Break Laws
The Supreme Court’s de facto approval of Trump’s illegal ballroom construction and destruction of the East Wing is the latest example of a White House determined to outrun the slow-moving court system in order to remain unaccountable.
Brad Throws Down
These days, many of the things you feel you might have to do in order to get ahead are things that make you completely hated and reviled.
No Judgement
Why would the same government that doesn’t allow a 17-year-old kid—or even an 18-year-old—to rent a car or order a beer at a bar allow them to enlist in the United States military and carry a gun into combat, where they can kill and be killed? Shockingly, there’s no contradiction at all.
The Arguments Are Timeless
Pro-Israel “hasbara” internet warriors frequently regurgitate the same arguments to defend that country’s actions against the people of Gaza and the West Bank: there was never such a country as Palestine—not that Palestinians ever claimed that there was. Israel is merely defending itself. And so on. Chillingly, these are all arguments that have close analogies to those used by Nazi Germany during World War II to justify the Holocaust against the Jews.
“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 Death of Sarcasm
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In 2002, I drew a six-panel political cartoon titled “Israel vs. Palestine: Where Do You Stand?” Each panel shows a different speaker making a statement about the conflict, with a bold label underneath that sarcastically identifies the speaker’s supposed position. In the first panel, a man labeled “MODERATE HONEST BROKER” says, “The Arab killers must be killed before they get the chance to kill.” Next, another man says, “It’s always sad when innocent women and children die, but hey—that’s war!” Then a woman identified as a “GARDEN-VARIETY ANTI-SEMITE” says, “i can’t help noticing that Israel kills more Palestinians than vice versa.” The labels escalate, culminating with a person called “THE LIVING INCARNATION OF ADOLF HITLER” saying, “Surely Israel could find a better way to keep itself safe?” The cartoon’s joke is that any statement short of a blank-check endorsement of the IDF is recast as anti-Semitic. At the time of publication, reaction was predictable: supporters of Israel disliked it; those…
Read MoreIran Lays Down the Law | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas
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LIVE 9:00-11:00 am Eastern time Mon & Wed & Fri LIVE 9:00-10:00 Eastern Time Tue & Thurs Streaming Anytime Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET. This week, “Deprogram” expands into two hours Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! Today we discuss: • Trump asks “if and when do I blow the entire nation [Iran] up?” • The cost of the war in Iran was $43.6 billion through Sept. 3, with bombs, missiles and other munitions accounting for more than 60 percent of the expenses, the Pentagon told Congress. • Security chief Mohsen Rezaei has laid out Iran’s new set of conditions to end its war with the U.S.: An end to the war on all fronts, including, in particular, Lebanon. The release of its frozen funds that run into billions of US dollars. An end to the naval blockade on Iranian ports. An end to US interference in…
Read MoreChina Won the Iran War | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas
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LIVE 9:00 am Eastern time, Streaming Anytime: Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET. Today we discuss: • China, long highly vulnerable to oil supply shocks, has transformed that weakness into a source of geopolitical power, by stockpiling huge amounts of oil, building extra oil refining capacity and investing in coal and other alternatives. And it flexed that power by cutting off supplies of jet fuel, gasoline and diesel to neighboring countries. Already dominant in solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles, China now has an unparalleled position across the energy landscape. • Under pressure, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, rejected Hasan Piker’s argument that the U.S. has caused more terror than Al Qaeda. Can he/should he be cowed by the corporatists? • Washington and Florida insiders – from billionaire Trump allies and Rubio-linked lobbyists to Cuban exiles – are jockeying for control of the…
Read MoreGet Rid of All Things Trump
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Politics is war. In war, capturing and replacing a rival head of state does not constitute victory. Looking into the future, policies and practices have to change. But you also have to look back into the past. Statues of the old leader must be demolished. The people he appointed must be fired and replaced with new personnel. His institutions must be dismantled. If you fail to abolish their legacy, everything that mattered about them lives on. You may not know it—but you have lost. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint written as a governing plan for a conservative administration, understood that. It treated rolling back rolling back the prior Democratic agenda—especially Biden’s—as a central task. Trump spent much of his first year focused on that rollback, and Republican voters loved it. As the 2028 campaign begins in earnest next summer, however, Democratic voters have little reason to believe the next Democratic president would erase Trump’s legacy with anything close to…
Read MoreHegseth Only Wants Pretty Warfighters | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas
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LIVE 9:00 am Eastern time, Streaming Anytime: Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET. Today we discuss: • The Wall Street Journal reports that dapper Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth only wants attractive, masculine, troops who meet waist-to-height requirements and have “impeccable” grooming to attend his speeches. This comes after he encouraged troops to inject testosterone and Hegseth’s speech at Quantico Base, where he declared “no more beardos” or “fat generals.” A scantily-clad Hegseth likes to work out with ripped, buff, totally 100% straight soldiers on base. Hegseth, in Democratic crosshairs for investigations next year, ordered two US Air Force crewmen whose F-15E was shot down over Iran in April to take part in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” about their experience. • Trump set out to make it the 51st state. Instead, he has driven Canada into the arms of the European Union as an Associate…
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