The Final Countdown – 3/28/24 – Judge Casts Doubt on Hunter Biden’s Attempt to Evade Tax Charges

On this episode of The Final Countdown, Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss various current events, delving into Hunter Biden’s ongoing legal saga. 

Jamie Finch: Former Director at the National Transportation Safety Board 
Tyler Nixon: Counselor-at-law 
Mitch Roschelle: Media commentator 
Professor Francis Boyle: Human rights lawyer 

In the first hour, Former director of the National Transportation Safety Board Jamie Finch, joins to discuss the aftermath of the Baltimore bridge collapse. 

Then, counselor-at-law Tyler Nixon weighs in on Hunter Biden’s bid to get his tax evasion case dismissed.   

In the second hour, media commentator Mitch Roschelle joins to share his perspective on RFK Jr.’s presidential campaign and how it will impact the Republican and Democratic parties. 

The show wraps up with Professor Francis Boyle, a human rights lawyer, who gives an analysis of the ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and the latest out of Gaza. 

 
 

What’s Left 8: How to Fix the College Mess

            Learning is a societal and individual good. American businesses, however, have weaponized higher education into an overcredentialization racket that coerces millions of young people to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars in tuition, room and board, often to study subjects in which they have little interest, for the chance to be hired for a job. To add insult to usury, the diploma for which they sink into high-interest student loan debt reflects an education with no useful application to the position where they land.

            It is tempting, from the standpoint of the Left, to dismiss the soaring price of college tuition, usurious student loan interest rates and overcredentialization as a first-world problem afflicting middle-class suburbanites who, after struggling after graduation, will soon enough pay off their debt and enjoy a significantly higher income than workers with high-school degrees. But no society can afford to ignore the plight of its most highly-educated ambitious young people who, as Crane Brinton reminded us in “The Anatomy of Revolution,” are an essential catalyst to radical political change. College students are a diverse lot; nearly half are people of color and more than 60% are women. Despite the problems within higher education America has no bigger engine for upward economic mobility.

            The problem is, the college income premium only accrues to those who finish all four years and get their degree, which includes very few poor and working-class people. 15% of students from the lowest quartile of wage earners make it all the way through, compared to 61% of those in the top quartile.

            Too many employers, too lazy to sort job applicants from a broader pool, demand college diplomas even when the job they are hiring for does not require the relevant education and training, as a way of culling the herd. “More than half of Americans who earned college diplomas find themselves working in jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree or utilize the skills acquired in obtaining one,” according to CBS News.

            Requiring a superfluous college degree brazenly discriminates against poorer people, expanding and prolonging the class divide. Under a Left government, economic disadvantage would become a protected legal class alongside race, age, sex, gender identity, physical handicap and so on. Workers should be able to report job listings that seek overqualified workers to a federal bureau in the Department of Labor, which would have the power to impose substantial penalties, including fines and compensation for applicants who are discriminated against.

            “Nearly two-thirds of American workers do not have a four-year college degree. Screening by college degree hits minorities particularly hard, eliminating 76% of Black adults and 83% of Latino adults,” The New York Times reported in 2022. Yet 44% of all U.S. employers required at least a BA or BS for all their openings.

            A 2017 Harvard Business School study found that “60% of employers rejected otherwise qualified candidates in terms of skills or experience simply because they did not have a college diploma.”

            Requiring employers to do the right, logical and fair thing, and hire qualified high-school graduates, dropouts and GED holders will allow more Americans to avoid college debt traps, incentivize companies to train workers, give working-class families more opportunities and reduce the high-intensity competition for college and university acceptance.

            Student loans are a $1.7 trillion for-profit business which gives lenders the ultimate leverage: no matter what they do or how legitimate their inability to pay, distressed borrowers cannot even discharge their college debts in bankruptcy. At this writing, the average interest rate on student loans is 6.9%. The highest rate at which banks borrow money, however, is 5.5%—and the rate for the much longer terms of student loans is lower.

            Young scholars are bright, vulnerable citizens with endless potential, not a profit center for transnational lending institutions. If we must have a for-profit system of post-secondary education and student loans to afford it, those loans should be at zero profit to banks or anyone else. And they should be able to be discharged in bankruptcy, just like any other debt.

            Because college dropouts do not enjoy the college wage premium, their loans should be forgiven entirely or heavily discounted.

            But the duty of leftists is no merely to tinker at the edges to make a troubled system fairer or more efficient. We look at a situation and ask: do we need a complete overhaul? If we were inventing America’s higher education system from scratch, is what we have now anything close to what we would come up with?

            It’s hard to imagine that anyone, regardless of their general political orientation, would say that we have the best possible way to educate young people and prepare them for the future of work and life in general. The average household with student loan debt owes $55,000. Over a 10-year term at 6.9%, the total due including interest is $76,000. That’s the cost of a starter home in many parts of the country, and much more than students and their families spend in virtually any other nation.

            Thirty-nine nations, including European powerhouses like France and Germany but also poor ones like Greece and Portugal, as well as developing socialist countries like Cuba and Brazil, currently offer their citizens college for free or for nominal fees.

            We can too.

            Students and parents borrowed $95 billion in the 2021-22 academic year. Going forward, then, replacing every penny borrowed as student loans as a free federal grant would cost the government about $100 billion—a tiny portion of the $4.5 trillion a year we’re currently wasting on the military and other misbegotten budgetary priorities.

            There is also an argument for nationalizing public and/or private institutions of higher education. A college education, after all, will remain essential for a significant segment of the population even if we abolish employers’ current obsession with overcredentialization. Goods and services that are essential for contemporary human existence are, by definition, too important to be left to the fickle whims of a boom-and-bust marketplace. A college education surely qualifies. Higher education is too expensive a cost for cities and states to absorb. For the feds, however, it’s not that big a deal. Moving to federal control would create economies of scale and countless efficiencies, such as the ability to negotiate discounted prices for textbooks and equipment, plus the ability to transfer professors and personnel throughout the system in accordance with educators’ desires and regional needs.

Next: What should a Left foreign policy look like?

(Ted Rall (Twitter: @tedrall), the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, co-hosts the left-vs-right DMZ America podcast with fellow cartoonist Scott Stantis. You can support Ted’s hard-hitting political cartoons and columns and see his work first by sponsoring his work on Patreon.)

 

The Final Countdown – 3/27/24 – NBC Ousts Ronna McDaniel in Wake of Explosive Internal Revolt

On this episode of The Final Countdown, the focus was on recent developments surrounding NBC’s internal turmoil and other significant global events.

Steve Gill: Lawyer and Political Commentator
Dan Lazare: Independent Journalist
Mark Sleboda: International Relations and Security Analyst 
Dan Kovalik: International Human Rights and Labor Attorney 

In the first hour, Steve Gill discussed the Baltimore bridge collapse and the outdated U.S. infrastructure.

Then, Dan Lazare joined later to share his insights into RFK Jr.’s announcement of his running mate, Nicole Shanahan.

In the second hour, international relations analyst Mark Sleboda delved into the Russian intelligence chief’s accusations against the U.S., Ukraine, and UK regarding the Moscow concert hall massacre.

The show closes with human rights attorney Dan Kovalik addressing the rift between Biden and Netanyahu over a ceasefire resolution passing in the UN Security Council.

 
 

The Final Countdown – 3/26/24 – 11:55 AM Disaster Strikes: Container Ship Collides, Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapses

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discussed breaking news with a selection of esteemed guests on a wide range of topics, including the Baltimore bridge collapse. 

 
Tyler Nixon  Counselor-at-law 
Dr. Wilmer Leon – Syndicated columnist, Co-Host of The Critical Hour
Robert Fantina – Journalist and activist
John Kiriakou – Former CIA officer, Co-Host of The Political Misfits 
 
In the first hour, The Final Countdown talked to Counselor-at-law Tyler Nixon about Trump’s bond reduction to $173 million and the former president’s upcoming hush money trial. 
 
Then, Dr. Wilmer Leon, co-host of The Critical Hour, joined to weigh in on the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and what could have caused it. 
 
In the second hour, the discussion shifted to the U.S. abstaining its vote from the UNSC’s ceasefire resolution, triggering Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to pull his delegation to Washington. 
 
The show closes with former CIA officer John Kiriakou who shares his perspective on Julian Assange avoiding extradition to the U.S. 
 
 

The Final Countdown – 3/25/24 – Budget Passed Amidst Controversy Over Aid to Ukraine and Israel

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall dissect critical events shaping domestic and international landscapes, featuring expert analysis.

Aquiles Larrea – Finance Expert 

Steve Hayes – Tax Attorney 

Mark Sleboda – International Relations and Security Analyst

Steve Gill – Lawyer and Political Commentator

In the first hour, the show explores the implications of the U.S. passing the budget while foreign funding remains unresolved. Finance Expert Aquiles Larrea offers insights into the financial intricacies at play.

Simultaneously, the discussion turns to former President Trump’s involvement in a hush money trial and the looming deadline for a $457 million bond. Tax attorney Steve Hayes provides his analysis on the fate of the former U.S. President as he faces several charges.

In the second hour, attention shifts to the tragic Moscow concert hall massacre and Russia’s response. International Relations and Security Analyst Mark Sleboda offers insights into the geopolitical implications and potential security measures in response to the attack.

Later, the show discusses the resignation of Boeing’s CEO amid the Max-9 crisis. Lawyer Steve Gill weighs in on the aviation industry’s response and the potential ramifications for Boeing’s future.

The Final Countdown – 3/20/24 – Accusations of Google Meddling in U.S. Election: Explosive Allegations

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss the latest stories from around the nation, including Google being accused of election interference. 
Andrew Arthur – Resident Fellow in Law and Policy for the Center for Immigration Studies 
Peter Coffin – Journalist, podcaster, & author 
Aquiles Larrea – CEO of Larrea Wealth Management
Tom Norton – National Director of the America First P.A.C.T. 
 
The first hour begins with immigration expert Andrew Arthur, who weighs in on the Supreme Court giving Texas the green light to enforce its controversial immigration law. 
 
The show is later joined by journalist, podcaster, and author Peter Coffin, who discusses Google being accused of interfering in 41 elections. 
 
The second hour begins with financial expert Aquiles Larrea sharing his perspective on the likelihood of a Congressional budget deal being passed. 
 
The show closes with Tom Norton, the National Director of the America First PACT, on the Ohio election results. 
 
 

The Final Countdown – 3/19/24 – Eric Adams Under Fire: Shocking Sexual Assault Claims Surface

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss current events from around the globe, including accusations against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. 
Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston – Pastor, Civil Rights Leader 
Robert Hornack – Political Consultant 
Steve Gill –  Attorney 
 
Jeremy Kuzmarov– Editor at Covert Action Magazine 
 
The first hour starts with pastor and Civil Rights leader Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston to discuss the newfound accusations against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. 
 
Later, political consultant Robert Hornack joins the show to share his perspective on Trump’s various legal cases, including Trump’s inability to pay $464 million in the civil fraud judgment against him and the ongoing Georgia case saga. 
 
The second hour begins with attorney Steve Gill who talks about the Russian elections and shares his insights from his trip to the country as an election observer. 
 
The show closes with Editor at Covert Action Magazine Jeremy Kuzmarov who weighs in on the latest out of Gaza and the rift between Israeli PM Netanyahu and his European Union allies. 
 

The Final Countdown – 3/18/24 – Biden Takes the Offensive Against Trump as Election Heats Up

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss top news from around the world, including Biden heating his offensive against Trump. 
Scott Stantis – Cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune
Andrew Langer – President of The Institute for Liberty 
Tyler Nixon – Counselor-at-law 
Garland Nixon – Co-host of The Critical Hour 
Robert Fantina – Author, journalist, and activist 
 
The first hour begins with Cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune Scott Stantis and Andrew Langer, the President of the Institute for Liberty discussing Biden’s campaign strategy and his offensive against his political opponent Donald Trump. 
 
Then, counselor-at-law Tyler Nixon shares his perspective on the latest out of the Fani Willis saga. 
 
The second hour starts with Co-host of The Critical Hour, Garland Nixon, who weighs in on the Russian elections and Putin’s victory. 
 
The show closes with author, journalist, and activist Robert Fantina who discusses the latest out of Gaza. 
 
 

Israel, the Hermit Kingdom

            “The world is kind of deserting Israel right now,” Representative Tim Burchett, Republican of Tennessee, remarked after meeting with members of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. “So they’re worried about that.”

            Their concern is warranted. Less than six months after Hamas attacked on October 7th, killing 1,200 people with brutality that sparked widespread sympathy as well as material support for the Jewish state, polls show that popular opinion in the U.S. and internationally has turned against Israel at unprecedented levels. The UN secretary-general is angry, the International Court of Justice is giving serious consideration to the charge that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, and even President Joe Biden—a self-described Zionist who has repeatedly visited Israel and rushed to send it weapons after October 7th—has warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that continuing his ground offensive into Rafah, the last relatively intact city left in the Strip, would cross his “red line.”

            Israelis and their supporters are confused. Why is Israel rapidly sliding into pariah status now?

            Netanyahu has forgotten that Israel is a U.S. vassal state. They don’t call the shots. We do. Bibi nonetheless has insolently rejected Biden’s ultimatum.

            Israelis’ cluelessness is understandable. They’ve been oppressing the Palestinians for decades. They’ve ignored UN resolutions requiring that they stop occupying Arab territory, they’ve sent nearly a million religious fanatics to colonize the West Bank, and they’ve run the only apartheid state in the world following the end of that system in South Africa—yet nothing bad has ever happened to them. America kept sending them billions of dollars a year, arming them with high-tech weapons and intelligence, and ran interference for them at the UN whenever the world tried to hold them accountable for human rights abuses. Why should the good times come to an end?

            The answer, of course, is two-fold. The systemic decimation of Gaza, caught in high-definition videos on social media in an act of ethnic cleansing obviously intended to be succeeded by annexation, is even more extreme than Israel’s previous crimes. Israel’s war against the innocent civilians of Gaza is the feather that broke the world’s patience and indifference…a one-ton feather.

            That the world would turn away from Israel was easy to see coming tens of thousands of dead Gazans ago.

For everyone but the Israelis, that is.

            Israelis are not stupid people. How did they fail to anticipate that they would soon be shunned and despised for what most of the world sees as a grotesque and opportunistic overreaction to October 7th? As a nation created by the UN, no other country depends as much upon international goodwill for its survival.

            Israel, you’ll notice if you visit, is along with North Korea and the United States one of the most insular countries on earth. Whereas most of the world and its news coverage is omnivorously internationalist, and floods in Myanmar or a coup in Central America makes the top of the news, Israel, like the U.S., obsesses over its own domestic affairs to the exclusion of all else with the exception of events that impact it directly—and it does so from an unabashedly nationalist viewpoint.

            Like the U.S., Israel is a melting pot of immigrants where assimilation is expected to include learning the national language. Unlike us, who have been blessed with seeing our mother tongue spread as the 20th and 21st centuries’ lingua franca, more than 90% of Israelis read and speak one of the most globally useless languages anywhere, an artificially revived form of long-dead Hebrew.  Curious Americans looking for viewpoints outside the MSM echo chamber can access the BBC and the CBC and Al Jazeera English for foreign coverage in the English language. Israelis looking for alternative news and opinions in Hebrew have no options.

            Founded in large part by Holocaust survivors, veterans of numerous wars and beleaguered by countless terrorist attacks, it is completely understandable why Israelis are obsessed with security. But security is a two-edged sword. When you keep other people out, you yourself remain inside. And you are deprived of the insights and different ways of looking at things people get when they interact with others and opinions that differ from their own.

            It’s also not very effective. Israel, a self-declared safe haven for global Jewry, is by far the most dangerous country for Jewish people.

            Consider, for example, the massive “smart” high-tech security walls Israel built to keep out residents of the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank. They were remarkably effective (until October 7th) at segregating populations that Israelis have come to view as dangerous, if not as inherent enemies. At the same time, Israelis now have no day-to-day interaction with their Arab neighbors. They don’t do business together, they don’t make friends, they don’t date, they don’t talk, they can’t get each other. Walling off Gaza is such an extreme act that it cuts off Israel from the Mediterranean Sea; no country interested in its internal security or military strategy voluntarily relinquishes access to the sea. Even the Arab Israelis who comprise 20% of Israel’s population have found themselves discriminated against, isolated and alienated within their own country.

            It’s the height of irony. It’s not just the people of Gaza who live in a giant open-air concentration camp. Survivors of Germany’s camps have built their own prison camp—for themselves—and it’s the biggest, most effective one of them all.

            No wonder Israelis can’t relate to the rest of the planet. They’ve been living on the inside so long they don’t see the real world anymore. Colonialism, a distinctly 19th and early 20th century project, is an anachronism. Apartheid too. Israelis don’t see that opposing the war against Gaza isn’t the same as anti-Zionism, which itself isn’t the same as anti-Semitism. They don’t understand that, these days, even if you don’t care about the people you are killing to steal their land, you have to pretend that you do (e.g., Biden’s parachute drops of food supplies into the same place his bombs are killing the starving locals).

            A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 75% of Jewish Israelis think the country should ignore pressure from the U.S. to wind down the war in Gaza. A poll by Gallup showed that 65% oppose an independent Palestinian state. “It isn’t fashionable to trust Palestinians, any Palestinians,” former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert observes. That’s how white South Africans felt about Blacks during apartheid. Now, of course, they’re fine. So it would be in a unified post-apartheid Palestine.

            Now the highest-ranking Jewish politician in the U.S., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, has formally issued a Biden-approved verbal demand for regime change in Israel, saying that Israel should call new elections, which polls indicate Netanyahu might lose.

            Yet Netanyahu persists. “No international pressure will stop Israel,” the prime minister says, pledging to attack Rafah despite Biden’s warning.

            “Isolated, cloistered, militaristic and more unhinged than ever, Israel is becoming the North Korea of the Middle East,” Uri Misgav writes in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Israelis need to tear down their paranoia-grounded security walls—not just to liberate the Palestinians, though that is way overdue!—but to free themselves.

(Ted Rall (Twitter: @tedrall), the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, co-hosts the left-vs-right DMZ America podcast with fellow cartoonist Scott Stantis. You can support Ted’s hard-hitting political cartoons and columns and see his work first by sponsoring his work on Patreon.)

The Final Countdown – 3/15/24 – Judicial Bombshell: Judge Orders DA Fani Willis or Nathan Wade to Abandon Georgia Election Case

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss breaking current events from around the world, including a Georgia judge giving DA Fani Willis an ultimatum for the Trump election case. 
Melik Abdul – Cohost of Fault Lines
Scott Stantis – Cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune
Steve Gill – Attorney and CEO of Gill Media
Prof. Francis Boyle – Human Rights Lawyer, Professor of Int’l Law 
 
The first hour begins with Cohost of Fault Lines Melik Abdul who weighs in on a Georgia judge’s ultimatum for District Attorney Fani Willis. 
 
Then, Scott Stantis joins the show to discuss Biden and Veep Kamala Harris campaigning in the Midwest. 
 
The second hour starts with attorney Steve Gill calling from Russia to share his perspective on the country’s presidential election. 
 
The show closes with human rights lawyer Prof. Francis Boyle on the latest out of Gaza including Hamas’s ceasefire proposal. 
 
 
css.php