Warmongers in both major political parties say that we shouldn’t “abandoned” Afghanistan as if a violent occupation that brutalizes the population is something that anyone who lives there wouldn’t want to see come to an end.
Ted Rall’s Latest Books:
Got Guillotines?
Assuming the Democrats get their way, and that’s highly unlikely, their proposal for the minimum wage isn’t really for $15 an hour. It’s for $15 an hour eventually, four years or five years from now. And the Democrats seem to be about to give that up as it is. When it comes to not doing anything for the working class, there’s lots of bipartisanship.
The Biden Administration Takes on the Big Issues
Joe Biden takes over the presidency facing a number of pressing challenges about very important, long neglected issues, yet Democrats continue to obsess over former president Donald Trump even after they impeached him a second time.
In Afghanistan, the Lesser of Two Evils Is Anything but
One year ago, the Trump administration signed a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan in which they agreed to stop attacking American troops in exchange for a complete US withdrawal. Indeed, no US troops have died in Afghanistan since then. Now the Biden Administration is hinting that they may decide to go back on the deal.
To End Virtual Instruction, End Virtual Funding
Americans have been neglecting public education for many decades. Buildings are old and have outdated ventilation systems. Classrooms are overcrowded. Teachers are under compensated. Now everyone’s talking about how important it is for kids to get back to school following or during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, but they still don’t want to fix those issues. Then they blame the teachers unions for refusing to let their members risk their lives because the community is too cheap to make school safe.
There Is No Good Side
What to do about the military coup in Myanmar is the latest of a standard dilemma for American foreign policy makers. A military junta has overthrown the democratically elected president. However, that president, who used to be a darling of human rights organizations, turns out to have endorsed ethnic cleansing. Sometimes there are no good sides; usually the best thing to do is nothing at all.
When They Impeached Trump, I Didn’t Say Anything Because…
As it became evident that the second attempt to impeach Donald Trump would fail, they began to be an outcry against Republican senators who voted against convicting him in the Senate. What next?
Donald Trump’s Funeral
Whatever happened to Donald Trump politically in the future, it’s clear what his day-to-day life is going to look like: subpoenas, depositions, and countless investigations. The way things are looking now, who knows? Maybe he’ll even be impeached again.
It’s Not How Long It Takes, It’s How Big It Is
Progressives and centrist Democrats often seem to be speaking different languages. Currently centrists are defending Joe Biden by pointing out that fixing the mess left by Donald Trump will take time. But that’s not something progressives disagree with. They are complaint is that Biden isn’t ambitious enough.
Billions for Terrorists, No Tribute to Americans
There’s always a sense that the government is broke when it comes time to help ordinary Americans in distress. But when it comes to militarism, even when it comes to paying out enemies, there’s an endless supply of cash.
“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
Don’t Hate Rush Limbaugh. Copy Him.
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My death will make some people giddy with joy. That’s cool. I like to make people happy. In the unlikely event that I’m somehow able to witness the gleeful grins and chortles of those who savor the sweet news of my demise, I hope that whatever is left of me on the astral whatever will remain sufficiently objective to recognize the fundamental fairness of the celebrants’ reaction. After all, criticizing the dead is one of my things. Rejecting the traditional maudlin obituary cartoon format that depicts every boldface name showing up at the pearly gates to check in with Saint Peter — why are American political cartoonists so certain that the next world will be configured in accordance with Christianity? — I have occasionally acquired notoriety by publishing critical observations about such dearly departed figures as Ronald Reagan, Jerry Garcia and other politicians and celebrities whose life stories I believed to have benefited from grade inflation. I have…
Read MoreBiden Offers Moderate Solutions to Radical Problems
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“Radical problems require radical solutions,” I wrote in my 2010 book “The Anti-American Manifesto,” a polemic that calls upon us to save ourselves from imminent social, economic and political collapse by overthrowing the system and rebuilding society from the ground up. We currently face several radical problems. But we’re not likely to rise to the challenge, because the Biden Administration’s adherence to the Democratic Party’s cult of militant moderation ensures that their proposed solutions will mitigate these grave issues—at best—with zero chance of avoiding disaster. There is a time and a place for tweaks and minor adjustments. You don’t amputate a leg to cure a sprained ankle. Extreme situations require going big; if your oncologist suggests removing half your tumor and then waiting to see how it goes, fire her. Our planet has cancer. Exponentially increasing temperatures have killed most of the world’s reefs and threaten widespread food shortages and thus political stability. Garbage, toxins and other pollutants are clogging…
Read MoreIt’s Not That Biden Is Too Slow. It’s That He’s Going Too Small.
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In the intraparty Democratic war between progressive leftists and corporate centrists, each side speaks a different language. The two factions’ takes on Joe Biden’s first weeks as president starkly demonstrate that inability to communicate. Biden’s base is his centrist supporters, those who backed him against Bernie Sanders during the primaries on the grounds that his moderate demeanor and years of wheeling and dealing would allow him to find common ground with Republicans who would probably continue to control the Senate. Centrists’ response to criticism of Biden is that Donald Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis, the shattered economy and the deep wound to our national psyche caused and embodied by the January 6th Capitol insurrection will require a long time to fix. Impatience, they say, is unrealistic and unfair. The same principle applies to Biden’s response to longer-standing policy issues that predate Trump, like climate change and the healthcare system. They say, he just moved into the White…
Read MoreNo, Virginia, It’s Not Too Early to Criticize Joe Biden
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Joe Biden approves of this message. Censorship in mainstream corporate American media outlets is subtle. It’s not so much that they spin the truth. It’s that they omit pertinent facts and exclude relevant points of view. So it is with politics. Among the tools available to messaging and framing experts is “flooding the field” — dominating the news with a blizzard of headlines in order to obscure actions they ought to be undertaking but are instead ignoring. That’s what we are seeing, or not seeing, from the new Biden Administration. Donald Trump and his predecessors left behind a hell of a mess. But much of what you and I consider unfinished disasters to be reversed or cleaned up is to this centrist Democrat’s cronies and top administrators just business as usual, perfectly desirable neoliberal policy that, as far as they are concerned, can and should continue. Only one thing to get in the way of the continuationists:…
Read MoreRead This and Tell Me Biden Isn’t Losing It
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I have been criticized for saying that Joe Biden is suffering from dementia. Many Democrats point to his scripted appearances where he is reading prepared remarks from a Teleprompter as evidence of his being of sound mind and body, but what really matters is your ability to speak extemporaneously. That’s where the president falls short. I was watching one of his press conferences yesterday and was amazed by the word salad coming out of his mouth. Check out this exchange as an example and tell me that this president should be in charge of this country at this time. Q: What is unity when you see it and as you define it? A: Well, Annie, I think it makes up several of the points you made. One is, unity requires you eliminate the vitriol, make anything that you disagree with about the other person’s personality or their lack of integrity or they’re not decent legislators and the like. We have…
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