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The Final Countdown – 5/15/24 – Trump Hush Money Trial, Israel-Egypt Relations, Rumble vs Google and More

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Ted Rall

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss a wide range of topics from around the globe, including the Trump hush money trial, Egypt-Israel relations, and more. 

Tyler Nixon – Counselor-at-law
Robert Fantina – Author, Journalist, and Activist
Craig ‘Pasta’ Jardula – Co-host and Co-founder of The Convo Couch
John Kirakou – Former CIA Whistleblower
 
The show begins with Tyler Nixon analyzing the implications of Michael Cohen’s testimony in the Trump hush money trial.
 
Then, Robert Fantina provides an in-depth look at the recent Israeli invasion of Rafah.
 
The second hour starts with Craig ‘Pasta’ Jardula weighing in on Rumble’s lawsuit against Google regarding fairness in digital advertising.
 
The show closes with former CIA whistleblower John Kirakou delving into the case of an Australian whistleblower who was sentenced to five years for exposing war crimes in Afghanistan.
 
 

 

The Final Countdown – 5/13/24 – Michael Cohen Takes the Stand as Trump’s Hush Money Trial Intensifies

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Ted Rall

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss hot topics from around the globe, including the latest developments out of the Trump hush money trial. 

Steve Abramowicz – CEO of Heartland Journal
Dr. Reese Halter – Award-winning Broadcaster, Conservation Biologist
Mohamed Gomaa – RT Journalist
Mark Sleboda – International Relations and Security Analyst
 
The show begins with CEO of Heartland Journal Steve Abramowicz discussing the impact and significance of Michael Cohen’s testimony in the Trump hush money trial.
 
Then, Dr. Reese Halter examines the devastating floods in Brazil, explaining how climate change is intensifying such weather events globally and the ecological impacts involved.
 
The second hour starts with RT journalist Mohamed Gomaa providing an update on the dire situation in Gaza, amid Israel’s invasion of Rafah.
 
The show closes with Mark Sleboda delving into the latest developments out of Ukraine. He also discusses the strategic reshuffling of Russia’s defense minister. 
 

My Brand New Book! “2024: Revisited”

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Ted Rall

My first new book in three years is an old book. Sort of. Please support my work, and let me know what you think of the book. Here’s the promotional text:

Back in the year 2000, Ted Rall wrote and drew his graphic novel, 2024.

It seems like an eternity. Bill Clinton was president. The biggest TV shows in America were ER and Friends; the Foo Fighters and Linkin Park topped the music charts. More than 90% of households had a landline phone. Blockbuster Video had 9,000 brick-and-mortar stores. No one had heard of YouTube or Netflix. No one had ever been “canceled” the way we now understand that word.

2024 was Rall’s loving parody and update of George Orwell’s dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four. It was also an attempt to predict what society would look and feel like 24 years into the future…now.

This was a time when one-third of Americans still relied on dial-up landline phone connections to access the Internet. The Blackberry, the first device we would recognize as a smartphone, came out in 2002. The iPhone wouldn’t be introduced for seven more years; a Nokia cellphone where you pulled up the antenna to make a call was the best you could buy.

Few people imagined what was about to happen to us.

But Rall did.

Rall didn’t think we would succumb to Orwell’s authoritarian nightmare—because America’s ruling elites wouldn’t need a fearsome Party to spy on its nonexistent dissidents. We the People would become ever more docile and distracted. Thanks to the Internet, we would become so addicted to our devices that it would not be necessary for government to actively oppress us. Instead, we would oppress ourselves with our own stupidity.

Rall predicted a media environment developing where no journalism could be trusted because digital content would be intrinsically mutable, which would erase old consequences for being caught lying or making mistakes. Relationships between friends, lovers and colleagues would become so replaceable as to become valueless, rendering old values like loyalty and integrity obsolete. Anti-intellectualism, as old as America itself, would become the dominant paradigm of the 21st century.

2024 Revised is an expanded and enhanced edition of Rall’s prescient work from a quarter-century ago, now fully colorized for the first time. It also includes Rall’s detailed annotations of the text that elucidate his references to politics, history and pop culture. There’s also a brand-new foreword.

The future is now. 2024 Revised is a time capsule and a fun trip into retrofuturism. What did Rall get right? What did he miss? What should we have seen coming?

Order “2024: Revisited”: here.

DMZ America Podcast Ep 146: Biden Cuts Off Israel, Stormy Daniels Rages, Our Weird Economy

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Ted Rall

Political cartoonists Ted Rall (from the Left) and Scott Stantis (from the Right) debate the week in news and culture as friendly adversaries to bring you spirited debate and smart insight.

First up: President Biden’s patience with the war cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expired. After warning Bibi not to enter the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Bibi went ahead and did just that, cutting off aid trucks at the border to boot. For the first time in memory, the president put a “pause” on the delivery of 3,500 bombs that were set to be delivered to Israel for use against Gaza. How significant is this? Is this a rupture or just a temporary squabble between allies?

Second: Porn actor Stormy Daniels testified in the Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan. It says a lot about the current state of politics that the first-ever criminal trial of a former President of the United States, in which he faces jail time, is not a huge story. Yet the implications, both legal and political, are significant.

Finally: American voters continue to be dissatisfied with the state of the economy. Scott and Ted dissect the good, the bad and the ugly in the current situation.

Watch the Video Version: here.

The Final Countdown – 5/9/24- Biden Puts Foot Down on Bomb Deliveries to Israel

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Ted Rall

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss top news from around the world, including the latest out of Gaza amid Israel’s invasion of the region of Rafah. 

Tyler Nixon – Counselor-at-law
Gerald Celente – Trends Journal Publisher and Founder of the Trends Research Institute
Paul Bondar – Republican Candidate for Congress
Scott Stantis – Cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune
 
The show kicks off with counselor-at-law Tyler Nixon delving into the complexities of Stormy Daniels’ testimony in the Trump hush money trial. 
 
Then, Trends Journal publisher Gerald Celente analyzes the recent U.S. decision to pause bomb shipments to Israel amid its ongoing onslaught of Rafah, along with the impact of Gaza solidarity encampments. 
 
The second hour begins with Republican candidate for Congress, Paul Bondar, discussing the ongoing legal proceedings involving Fani Willis as the case progresses to the Georgia Court of Appeals.
 
The show closes with cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune, Scott Stantis, weighing in on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s unsuccessful attempt to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson.
 
 

The Final Countdown – 5/8/24 – Stormy Daniels Gives Scathing Testimony as Trump Fights Hush Money Case

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Ted Rall
On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Ted Rall and Angie Wong discuss various topics around the world, including Stormy Daniels’ testimony in Trump’s ongoing  hush money trial. 

 
Steve Gill – Attorney
Dan Kovalik – International Human Rights Lawyer 
Dr. Wilmer Leon – Syndicated Columnist, Sputnik Host 
 
The show begins with attorney Steve Gill discussing the latest developments in Trump’s hush money trial where Stormy Daniels has recently testified.
 
Then, International Human Rights Lawyer Dan Kovalik provides an in-depth analysis of the dire situation in Rafah amid the Israeli invasion. 
 
The second hour begins with syndicated columnist and Sputnik host Dr. Wilmer Leon exploring the implications of TikTok’s lawsuit against the U.S. government.
 
The show closes with the hosts discussing the ongoing saga of Fani Willis. 
 
 

The Final Countdown – 5/7/24 – Stormy Daniels Takes the Stand as Trump’s Hush Money Trial Heats Up

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Ted Rall

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss top news from around the world, including Israel seizing control of the Rafah crossing. 

Steve Abramowicz – CEO of Heartland Journal
Jeremy Kuzmarov – Managing Editor at Covert Action
Mark Sleboda – International Relations and Security Analyst
Anna Ge – CGTN Host and Reporter
 
The show begins with Steve Abramowicz discussing the Gaza encampments on college campuses across the country and the administrative response.
 
Then, Jeremy Kuzmarov, Managing Editor at Covert Action Magazine, discusses Hamas’s acceptance of a ceasefire deal proposed by Qatar, and Israel’s refusal amid its troops seizing control of the Rafah border crossing.
 
The second hour begins with International Relations and Security Analyst Mark Sleboda analyzing the implications of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration for a fifth term.
 
The show closes with CGTN Host and Reporter Anna Ge covering Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Paris as part of his European tour. 
 
 

Criticize Hamas. Criticize Israel 30 Times More.

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Ted Rall

            It is a truism bordering on a cliché that the Israeli state and Palestinian resistance organizations have inflicted violence upon one another, claiming the lives of thousands of innocent people on both sides. Media coverage of the carnage has been anything but evenhanded, however. Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Western media have noted and covered and analyzed attacks against Israelis by groups like the PLO and Hamas in painstaking detail, while almost completely ignoring Israeli attacks against Palestinians—and the oppressive high-tech apartheid system Israel created to oppress millions of Palestinians under military occupation—this despite the fact that the death and trauma toll on the Palestinian side has consistently been many times higher.

            For the last seven months, for the first time since the Naqba, Palestinian suffering has finally appeared on the radar of the Western press. As usual, this latest spasm of violence has cost many more Palestinian lives—35,000 in Gaza—than Israeli—1,200 on October 7th. (Because the official Gaza death count does not count bodies trapped under the rubble, it is an underestimate.)

            That’s basically a 30-to-1 ratio. Now establishment journalists are demanding that everyone, including college student demonstrators, devote equal mention and opprobrium—good dead people on both sides, to coin a phrase.

            “Note how one-sided all of this is,” complains Max Boot in The Washington Post. “While denouncing alleged Israeli atrocities, [a statement issued by Columbia University pro-Gaza protesters] has not one word of censure for Hamas or its brutal tactics, which include seizing hostages and perpetrating sexual violence, in addition to committing wholesale murder. Indeed, even though the protesters claim to care about Palestinian lives, they do not denounce Hamas for stealing international aid to build its tunnels and missiles or for using civilians as human shields. They call for Israel to stop fighting but not for Hamas to release its hostages or surrender.” What’s really one-sided, of course, is the loss of life and infrastructure. No one has flattened Israeli cities, razed its schools or demolished its synagogues, graveyards and historic sites. Protesters figure that they don’t need to mention the horrors of October 7th because the media has already done that in great detail.

            To give credit where it’s due, Boot’s call for grief-concern parity is a marked improvement. In the past, neither he nor his ilk talked about Israel’s wholesale land theft in the West Bank, its concentration camps and torture facilities, or the IDF’s total lack of concern for Palestinian lives at all.

            So let’s be fair. Zionists are absolutely correct that Hamas and October 7th should be condemned. Supporters of the Gazans are also correct that Israel’s insane overreaction, including its war crimes, must be condemned. Said condemnation should be in direct proportion to the scale of the acts.

            Israel has slaughtered 30 times more people, for no good reason other than politics and pure entertainment, as Hamas, which did it for no good reason other than spite and attention. Going forward, therefore, Western journalism should look like this:

            Hamas is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            Israel is disgusting and must be stopped.

            (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 – 5/6/24 – Campuses Crackdown on Protestors as Netanyahu Orders Partial Evacuation of Rafah

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Ted Rall

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Ted Rall and Angie Wong discuss topics from around the globe, including the ongoing campus protests for Palestine. 

Robert Fantina – Author, Journalist, and Activist
Tyler Nixon – Counselor-at-law
Mohamed Gomaa – RT Journalist
Mark Sleboda – International Relations and Security Analyst
 
The show begins with Robert Fantina discussing a sweeping range of campus protests across the U.S, including divestment negotiations and commencement cancellations. 
 
Then, counselor-at-law Tyler Nixon analyzes the latest developments in the Trump trial, focusing on the impending testimonies of Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, and the challenges faced by the court as Justice Merchan considers stronger measures like jail due to ineffective fines.
 
The second hour starts with RT Journalist Mohamed Gomaa reporting on the tense situation in Gaza, covering Israel’s censorship of Al Jazeera, raids on media offices, and faltering ceasefire talks amid Israel’s threats to invade Rafah.
 
The show closes with international relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda discussing the financial pressures facing Ukraine as international lenders demand repayment.
 
 
 
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