Conservatives are decrying New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to impose a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes, calling it the beginning of a slippery slope that could eventually affect us all.
Ted Rall’s Latest Books:
Gas Menu, Trump Edition
Right-wing supporters of President Trump’s war against Iran have pivoted from bragging about low gas prices to saying that the high prices caused by the conflict are a small price to pay to liberate the people of Iran (assuming this war can do that). Will voters buy that pitch this fall?
Outkilling to Victory
Those who back Trump’s war against Iran argue that the United States has defeated Iran because it has killed many Iranians and destroyed so much of its military and civilian infrastructure. As we’ve learned in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, however, outkilling the other side is hardly a guarantee of military victory.
Big Bad Wolf Not Literally Large or Evil
After President Trump posted a social media message threatening to destroy Iranian civilization, his defenders and supporters argued that words are meaningless, that he wasn’t serious, and that nothing he says is meant to be taken seriously. If true, should such a man be president?
Right Said Fred
The DNC and Democrats who dominate the nation’s op-ed pages and cable news networks argue that Democrats must move right to win, never that Republicans must move left to win. Self-serving?
Obliteravi, Obliteravi Iterum, Oblitero Continenter
President Trump claims he has already obliterated Iran’s nuclear program and other infrastructure, yet he also claims he must continue bombing Iran in order to destroy those same exact targets. At this rate, when will he overshoot and bomb all the way through the Earth to himself?
Help Me, You Jerks!
President Trump didn’t bother to consult with America’s European allies before attacking Iran. Yet now he wants their help, both to finish off Iran—which is proving to be a formidable adversary—and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has closed to oil and gas tankers. He’s like your drunken friend who picks a fight at the bar and then wants you to help him.
Why Were You Silent?
One common tactic of the Right is to arbitrarily fixate on a story that is or purports to be an outrage and then demand to know why people on the Left—who often never heard about it in the first place, because news is so siloed—didn’t have anything to say about it.
America: Solving Non-Existent Problems, One Ignored Crisis at a Time
Our elected representatives spend little to no time addressing, much less solving, the actual day-to-day problems of the American people. Instead, they address made-up fake problems that don’t exist at all.
Communism Doesn’t Work
It’s a cheap tactic that frequently works for the US: when a nation espouses a rival ideology that capitalists don’t like, they sabotage, isolate, and attack it so it never stands a chance. Then, when it fails, they blame the system rather than what the US did. We’re seeing that playbook at work in Cuba right now.
“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
Pirates of Petulance | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas
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LIVE 9:00 am Eastern time, Streaming Anytime: Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss: • Hours after the US and Iran announced a ceasefire deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Trump took to social media with insulting, triumphantalist messaging that reneged on America’s promise to suspend its own blockade of Iranian ships. The Strait closed again, Iran attacked two ships and the U.S. attacked and took over an Iranian cargo vessel. Peace talks are supposed to start Wednesday—but will US envoys be talking to themselves? • Republicans have few days left to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But Trump, GOP leaders and White House officials have failed to come up with a workable framework for months—and there is no agreement. • Progressive Bulgaria, the party led by former President Rumen Radev, wins general elections in Bulgaria with 44.7%,…
Read MorePope vs. Dope | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas
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Live at 9 AM Eastern & Streaming 24-7 Thereafter: Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM Eastern time. Today we discuss: • Pope Leo XIV says the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” with nothing for “healing, education and restoration.” “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth,” Leo said, presumably about Trump and Netanyahu. • Progressive Democrat Analilia Mejia won a special election in New Jersey’s 11th District, by a landslide, allowing Democrats to further narrow Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House to 217-214. AIPAC had interfered in the primary by going after incumbent Tom Malinowski, a self-described Zionist, because he wanted conditions on aid to Israel. • House conservatives, concerned that warrantless government surveillance of foreign individuals could sweep up data on…
Read MorePolitics as Religion
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The first quarter of this century in the United States saw the rise and triumph of “team politics,” in which voters view the Democratic and Republican parties less as representatives of an ideology or set of policies than as opposing teams defined by culture, style and aesthetics. Democrats follow TikTok or Threads, shop at Trader Joe’s, drive Volvos, support their children when they come out as gay and live in big cities; they vote Democratic whether the candidate is a pro-Gaza progressive like AOC or a Zionist corporatist like Josh Shapiro. Republicans display American flags, wear heavy eyeliner, shop at Wal-Mart, follow X and stay up late worrying about transwomen in sports; they vote Republican whether the candidate is a libertarian like Rand Paul or an interventionist like Lindsey Graham. Voters increasingly view members of the opposing party not just as people with different ideas, but as a direct threat to the country. Reduced engagement across the party divide makes…
Read MoreFake Gays in the UK | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas
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Live at 9 AM Eastern & Streaming 24-7 Thereafter: Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM Eastern time. Today we discuss: • Immigration advisers in the UK are charging up to £7,000 to fake asylum claims for Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals to pretend they are gay. • Senior diplomats from Lebanon and Israel met in Washington as their host, Marco Rubio, tried to reach a ceasefire. It was attended by Lebanon’s ambassador to the US, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, and her Israeli counterpart, Yechiel Leiter. Leiter said they had agreed on a long-term vision that there should be a “clearly delineated border between our countries.” Trump says leaders of the two nations will talk today; Lebanon denies that. • The U.S. launches an online portal next week that lets businesses request refunds for tariffs ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will boot up CAPE,…
Read MoreQ&A | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas
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Have a question for Ted and/or new co-host Jamarl Thomas? Join the hosts of “DeProgram” for a full hour of nothing but LIVE Q&A! Any topic, any question, goes—it’s up to you. Q&A extras are every Monday and Wednesday at 12 noon Eastern time. MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live https://x.com/tedrall https://x.com/JamarlThomas LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504
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