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:
• Trump’s announcement that the U.S. military would escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz under Operation Freedom angered Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who denied U.S. access to Saudi airspace and American bases in the country because he wants to end the war and saw the idea as a provocation. Prince Mohammed’s action stunned U.S. officials and forced Trump to abandon his plan. Trump’s unpredictable and whipsawing approach to Iran has strained ties with one of his closest allies.
• Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s governing Labour Party suffers big losses and the hard-right party Reform U.K. made major gains in partial results from local elections that are widely seen as an unofficial referendum on Starmer. Reform UK, led by nationalist politician Nigel Farage, won hundreds of local council seats in working-class areas in England’s north such as Hartlepool that once were solid Labour turf, and also made gains from the Conservatives in areas like Havering on the eastern edge of London.
• A crowd at a military Mother’s Day event laughed lightly when Melania Trump referred to her husband’s empathy. “Most know my husband as the strong commander-in-chief, but his empathy transcends the role,” she said as laughter bubbled up among military moms.
• The Washington Post editorial board argues: “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) doesn’t just think there should be no billionaires. She believes accumulating that much wealth is inherently immoral, probably criminal and definitely illegitimate. How does she grapple with the 3,400 or so people who have that much? ‘You can break rules,’ she explained. ‘You can abuse labor laws. You can pay people less than what they’re worth. But you can’t earn that.’ To say that it’s impossible to legitimately earn a billion dollars is to put an arbitrary limit on human potential. And presuming that anyone who becomes too successful must be cheating shows a lack of imagination as to what humans are capable of accomplishing in a free society.”
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