Everyone knows what an Internet influencer is. But how do you become one?
Ted Rall’s Latest Books:
Nice Idea, but How Does It Help Climate Change?
The COP27 climate change conference was supposed to come up with concrete solutions to global warming. Instead, developing nations shook down wealthy nations for compensation on the basis that the countries that contribute to climate change should pay for the damage to the developing world. All well and good, but how does this reverse climate change?
As If We Had All the Answers
Western athletes attending the World Cup in Qatar are trying to send critical political messages to the local authorities. It might seem cute but it’s also rude. If you can’t stand the politics of another country, it might be best not to visit.
When Democrats Win, Democrats Win
Contrary to polls that indicated that they would suffer devastating losses in the midterm elections, Democrats retained control of the Senate. Good for them, but what are they going to do for us voters?
Remembering the Point Spread, Forgetting the Results
By any objective measure, Democrats lost the 2022 midterm elections. Yet they are celebrating as if they had won. Meanwhile, Republicans are beating each other up over who is to blame for their “loss.”
Ron DeSantis: the Other White Meat
Liberal media outlets and many liberal politicians are urging Republicans to nominate Florida governor Ron DeSantis instead of former president Donald Trump. They say he is just as right-wing as Trump but more electable. Then why would Democrats want to run against him?
Missing: My Invitation to Care
Throughout the campaign for the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans played to their base while Democrats chased Republican swing voters. It’s an old strategy that has never worked for Democrats and didn’t work again.
Blame the Progressives
As Democrats size up their losses and the future of the party, the last thing they consider is the possibility that they might bear some responsibility for discontent leading into the 2022 midterm elections. As usual, there’s a convenient whipping boy. As usual, the criticism couldn’t possibly be less justified.
For Democrats, Defeat Is What Victory Looks like
Unsurprisingly, Democrats are relieved that the expected “red wave” of Republican victories didn’t materialize. But there’s no dodging the hard cold truth that they have lost control of the House of Representatives. Biden’s presidency is effectively over.
Haiti Is in Big Trouble. Are We Going to Help?
It’s understandable that American policymakers would be reluctant to intervene militarily in Haiti given the dismal history of the United States making bad situations worse there. But the country is effectively a failed state and starvation is rampant. Certainly what’s going on there is far more relevant and important to the United States than what is happening in Ukraine. The US should help put together an international force to provide food and medical assistant to the population.
“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
Why Are Women Falling Behind?
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Why do women keep getting pushed to the back of the line? The sociological history of the United States has been defined by struggles for equality with the landed white males, presenting as straight, who founded the republic. Though it’s still a continuing effort, the abolitionist movement and the fight for racial civil rights scored the first major triumph, emancipation in the mid-19th century. Gender equality and feminism achieved the second big win with the ratification of women’s suffrage in 1920. Since then, however, equal rights for women have frequently taken a back seat to other liberation struggles that got off the ground later. The Equal Rights Amendment was never ratified, putting the United States among the tiny minority of nations that do not specifically guarantee equality between men and women in their constitutions. The Dobbs decision made the U.S. one of just three countries in the world to have rolled back the federally-guaranteed right to an…
Read MoreDMZ America Podcast #76: Another Shooting, Misinterpreting the Midterms, Should Greta Thunberg Offer Solutions?
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Happy Thanksgiving! Ted Rall and Scott Stantis, two of the finest editorial cartoonists in all the land, dig deep into the ongoing rash of mass shootings in America. Is there any cause for hope? They demystify the meaning of the midterms and debate whether an activist has a larger obligation than just pointing out a problem. Should they also offer solutions?
Read MoreNo One Should Have To Earn a Living
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The other day, I caught myself using the phrase “earn a living.” For the first time in my life, I questioned myself. The idea that one must “earn a living” is the fundamental assumption of capitalism. When you stop to think about it, that’s some extreme libertarianism. Americans are constitutionally guaranteed the right to speak freely, worship as they choose, purchase and own a firearm and keep their homes private from prying government officials. As important as these rights are, none are nearly important as the right to living. You can live without expressing yourself. Religions are fiction. We would be better off without guns. Yet life itself, without which no other right is worth a damn, is not guaranteed. We need a few things to keep breathing: clean water, food, shelter and medical care. Yet our society can’t even codify the government’s obligation to provide water. While some municipalities push liquid hydrogen oxide to…
Read MoreOnly Biden Can Stop This Political Dumpster Fire Redux
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Grover Cleveland beat Benjamin Harrison in 1884. The same men faced off in 1888, with the opposite result. A second rematch took place in 1892, and Cleveland was restored. If you died in 1892, you didn’t miss a thing during your first four years of death. What could be drearier or more indicative of calcified politics, save for four consecutive terms of FDR? Since Joe Biden’s milquetoast Democratism basically make him Hillary Clinton not-in-a-pantsuit, we now face the dreadful possibility of a third Trump run and a second Biden run that feels like his third. This could be a presidential campaign between two eldercoots we would have been better off never having seen run for, much less achieve, control of the executive branch in the first place. And it could happen all over again. A Trump v. Biden rematch, of course, is the exact opposite of what we want. Two years from now, on Election Day 2024,…
Read MoreDMZ America Podcast #75: Trump Runs Again. NATO Almost Starts WW3. What Should the 2024 Campaign Be About?
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Donald Trump is running a third time. Editorial cartoonists Ted Rall and Scott Stantis discuss his prospects and possible challengers, as well as the media’s attempt to pretend he doesn’t exist. A stray Ukrainian missile kills two people in Poland, Poland blames Russia and NATO almost goes to war with Russia over the mistake. Did Russia have a point about an intertwined military alliance along its border? Finally, a contrast between what the 2024 campaign will look like and what, in a saner country with a functional political climate, it should be about.
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