DMZ America Podcast Ep 196: Dem Dum Dems

Streaming LIVE at 12 noon Eastern time/24-7 Streaming Afterward

In this episode of the DMZ America Podcast, hosts Ted Rall and Scott Stantis dive into the Democrats’ alarming ineffectiveness and inability to push back against President Trump, a weakness laid bare by Congressional Democrats’ limp reaction to his commanding speech before a joint session of Congress.

Rall, a passionate progressive cartoonist, and Stantis, a razor-sharp conservative illustrator, bring their ideological clash to the table, dissecting the party’s half-hearted gestures—symbolic votes, vague statements, and little else—that crumble under Trump’s relentless drive.

The duo debates whether Democrats need to escalate their efforts to reclaim relevance. Rall demands a fiercer approach: nationwide protests, targeted filibusters, and a cohesive message to rally their base. Stantis, skeptical of their spine, questions if they’ve got the stomach for such a fight or if they’re too fractured to unite. Is this just a fleeting stumble after a bruising election, or a chilling omen of the party’s decline into irrelevance? With wit and grit, Rall and Stantis explore whether the Democrats can adapt and rise—or if this signals a deeper, existential crisis foreshadowing political doom in an era dominated by Trump’s unyielding force.

 

TMI Show Ep 93: “”That’s History!”

Live at 10 am Eastern/9 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

In this engaging episode of The TMI Show, host Ted Rall teams up with guest cohost Robby West, filling in for Manila Chan, who’s off enjoying a sun-soaked vacation.

Steering clear of today’s divisive political minefield, the pair invites Ted’s DMZ America cohost, Scott Stantis of The Chicago Tribune, for a spirited romp through history’s most unforgettable moments. The trio swaps tales with gusto: Ted dives into the chaotic brilliance of the French Revolution, painting vivid scenes of guillotines and rebellion, while Scott counters with the gritty, transformative power of the Industrial Age, marveling at steam engines and steel. Robby shakes things up with a ode to the Roaring Twenties—flappers, jazz, and Prohibition-fueled revelry—sparking laughter and debate.

Or maybe not.

Let’s talk about what history reveal about humanity’s quirks, resilience, and penchant for drama. Free of partisan sniping, the episode blends sharp insights, wry humor, and a touch of nostalgia, proving The TMI Show thrives on bold ideas, not just politics.

TMI Show Ep 91: “Trump’s Congressional Comeback: Breaking Down the Speech”

Live at 10 am Eastern/9 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

“The TMI Show,” hosted by Ted Rall and Manila Chan, with guest Jamarl Thomas, delivers a sharp, unfiltered breakdown of President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025. Airing live weekdays at 10 AM ET on YouTube and Rumble, this episode dissects Trump’s agenda—touted as a “historic transformation”—focusing on his push for mass deportations, military cuts, and DOGE-led reforms. Rall, a leftist cartoonist, and Chan, a politically homeless journalist, alongside Thomas, a seasoned commentator, explore the speech’s bold promises and chaotic undertones. They highlight Democrats’ mixed reactions—outrage from figures like Chuck Schumer over federal job losses, yet tepid resistance in Congress—questioning if this signals a faltering opposition. Will Trump’s momentum hold, or will Democrats muster a counterstrike? Too much info, never enough answers.

TMI Show Ep 90: “Trump’s Ukraine Weapons Pause: Peace Push or Power Play?

Live at 10 am Eastern/9 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

In this episode of “The TMI Show,” hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan tackle the Trump administration’s audacious decision to halt weapons shipments to Ukraine until Kyiv signals readiness for peace with Russia. The duo dissects Trump’s heated Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, debating if this pause is a diplomatic masterstroke or a concession to Moscow. They explore the global ripple effects, from Kremlin approval to European frustration. Breaking news from the past 24 hours fuels the conversation: Russia welcomes the move as a peace gesture, Ukraine grapples with the aid cutoff, and European allies rush to fill the gap. Ted and Manila deliver raw, unscripted takes on this game-changing development, blending sharp analysis with their signature wit. Don’t miss this deep dive into the evolving Russia-Ukraine saga.

The Russians Are Coming? Not Really.

            Trump’s interest in rapprochement with Russia and his annoyance with Ukraine, embodied by last week’s Oval Office shouting match, has corporate pundits and politicians freaking out. Trump’s former national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, said Trump’s dressing down of Volodymyr Zelensky made him “ashamed for my nation”—something he’s never said about Guantánamo or torture or invading Iraq or even racism.

Whenever U.S. support for Ukraine gets questioned, count on militaristic whores to drag out cut-and-paste fearmongering from the Cold War era.

            Putin aims to “absorb Ukraine, all of it, and likely the other former states of the Soviet Union, too,” the editorial board of Canada’s Globe and Mail claimed in 2022.

            “Putin’s Ukraine invasion is the first time in 80 years that a great power has moved to conquer a sovereign nation,” Mitt Romney wrote in 2022. Um—Afghanistan? Iraq? Panama? “It echoes Hitler’s absorption of Czechoslovakia and his lust for Poland. But even more, it reflects Putin’s drive to reconstitute the Soviet Union—or at least its dominant sphere of influence.”

            “Putin saw the invasion of Ukraine as a key step toward rebuilding the Russian Empire,” Mark Temnycky of the Atlantic Council wrote in 2023.

            Dire warnings of the Russian threat have been around for a while. It’s not just Ukraine! They’re coming for YOU!

“[Putin’s] next move will be to invade the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. When this happens, the United States will need to move armored forces quickly to Europe, via Poland, in order to prevent NATO from being checkmated, and it’s going to have a problem doing that. Note that I said ‘when’ Putin invades rather than ‘if,’” Jerry Hendrix of The National Review wrote.

That was seven years ago, in 2018. We’re still waiting.

            No one can predict the future. All we can do is consider data and evidence, calculate the odds of the likeliest scenario and prepare accordingly.

            When you consider the issue objectively, without emotion, the odds that the Russia hawks are right—and that Putin is planning to invade Europe or, as Zelensky warns, that he plans to cross our “nice ocean” to attack the United States—are infinitesimal.

            The neocons love to say that Putin has said that he wants to reunite the Soviet Union. “Putin has openly declared his ambition to reassemble the Soviet Union, a goal he reiterated in his historical grievances aired before the Ukraine invasion,” Franz-Stefan Gady of the Center for International and Strategic Studies wrote last year in Foreign Policy.

            Nothing could be further from the truth. But, as the French social psychologist and philosopher Gustave Le Bon observed, “A lie, when it is repeated often enough, gains a sort of existence of its own, and the effort to destroy it becomes almost futile against the credulity of the masses.” Americans are drowning in propaganda.

            We don’t know what’s inside Putin’s brain. We do know what Putin has said. What Putin has said bears no relation to how he’s misquoted in the West.

            Putin did describe the 1991 collapse of the USSR as a “a major geopolitical disaster of the century” in  2005 State of the Union address. Considering that between 3 and 7 million former Soviet citizens died prematurely as a result and left Russia under the control of the inept alcoholic Boris Yeltsin, Putin has good reasons for his assessment. But that doesn’t mean he wants to get the band back together.

            “Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart,” Putin has been saying since at least 2000, paraphrasing Disraeli. “Whoever wants it back has no brain.”

            “The West fears the recreation of the Soviet Union, despite nobody planning on one,” Putin mused on RT in 2015.

            “There will be no Soviet Union. The past will not come back. Today, Russia does not need this and this is not our aim,” Putin said in September 2022.

            I don’t know whether Putin is lying or telling the truth. I do know that government officials and respected, award-winning journalists have been repeatedly lying about what Putin says.

            We do, however, have concrete evidence of Putin’s intentions beyond official statements.

            If I were the president of Russia, and I was interested in reassembling the Soviet Union, I would start with the low-hanging fruit, the territories that would be most interested in coming back under the fold of Moscow. Belarus, where most citizens believe that life was better under the USSR and is slowly moving toward a union state with Russia, would be an easy lift. Most citizens of the Central Asian republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have a favorable view of Russia and nostalgia for the Soviet period. If Russia were to invade, the reaction would range from joy to indifference. And Tajikistan turns out to have a lot of oil and gas.

            Russia has expressed no interest whatsoever in resuming control of these former Soviet spaces.

            Why not? Reabsorbing Ukraine, the Baltics and the Central Asian republics would mean subsidizing countries that are poorer and less developed than Russia. Putin’s Russia, reliant on energy exports, doesn’t want to subsidize a new union the way the USSR did. The war in Ukraine is less about recreating the USSR than about ensuring that a buffer state doesn’t become a full-fledged NATO vassal state aligned with the U.S.

            Relax.

The Russians are not coming.

(Ted Rall, the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, co-hosts the left-vs-right DMZ America podcast with fellow cartoonist Scott Stantis and The TMI Show with political analyst Manila Chan. Subscribe: tedrall.Substack.com.)

TMI Show Ep 89: “Trump vs. Zelensky: Wars, Words, and Europe’s Panic”

Live at 10 am Eastern/9 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

In this episode of “The TMI Show,” hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan dive into the latest developments in the Russo-Ukrainian War, spotlighting a fiery news conference between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The duo unpacks the contentious exchange that unfolded in the White House, where sharp words and clashing agendas left the room buzzing and Europe on edge. Joined by international relations expert Mark Sleboda, they explore Trump’s provocative stance, Zelensky’s pushback, and what it all means for the conflict’s trajectory.

Sleboda brings his keen insights to the table, dissecting how European leaders are rallying—or scrambling—in response, from diplomatic maneuvers to public statements. Ted and Manila pull no punches, questioning whether this marks a shift in U.S. policy or just another chapter in Trump’s unpredictable playbook. They also examine the ripple effects across NATO and the EU, where unease is palpable. Expect a no-holds-barred discussion that cuts through the noise, blending sharp analysis with bold takes on power, politics, and the human cost of war. Tune in for a raw, unfiltered look at a world teetering on the brink—only on The TMI Show.

DMZ America Podcast Ep 195: Dems Finally Admit Biden Was Senile

Live at 12 noon Eastern/11 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

Now that Biden is out, Democrats who repeatedly dismissed claims of his dementia are shifting their stance, prompted by mounting evidence and political fallout. CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson’s upcoming book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” set for release on May 20, exposes a alleged “cover-up” of Biden’s “serious decline,” based on over 200 interviews with insiders. The book highlights how Biden’s team concealed his diminishing faculties, a narrative Democrats now grapple with post-2024 election loss.

Top figures like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, once silent or defensive, are implicated as likely aware of the truth, per sources like the Wall Street Journal. Even Barack Obama is suggested to have suspected Biden’s condition, yet the party maintained a united front. Tapper, previously downplaying concerns, now frames Biden’s re-election bid as “narcissistic” and “reckless,” signaling a broader Democratic reckoning as they distance themselves from the cover-up narrative they once rejected. This shift reflects both self-preservation and acknowledgment of a deception that cost them politically.

TMI Show Ep 88: Chaos in Trumpworld

Live at 10 am Eastern/9 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

The Trump administration has sparked controversy with aggressive moves to reshape the federal government and military. Budget director Russell Vought ordered federal agencies to plan mass layoffs, targeting thousands of workers at agencies like the IRS, FEMA, and Social Security Administration, aligning with Trump and Elon Musk. Over 20,000 federal employees have been fired, prompting lawsuits from unions and outrage from affected workers. Now a federal judge has ruled that all of those firings were illegal and must be reversed.

Simultaneously, Trump executed a dramatic Pentagon purge, firing Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. C.Q. Brown and five other top officers, aiming to make military leadership loyal to him, and plans to expel transgender soldiers, airmen and sailors. Critics, including lawmakers, warn this politicizes the military, with some alleging a rejection of “woke” policies. Courts are blocking other initiatives like changes to birthright citizenship. Public and political backlash is growing, with protests across the country, yet Trump presses forward, framing the chaos as a drive to achieve efficiency.

As the rapid, polarizing overhaul continues to unfold, “The TMI Show” hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan predict the road ahead for the mayhem in Trumpworld. Will the deep state strike back?

TMI Show Ep 87: Recession Fears

Live at 10 am Eastern/9 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

Historically, Bloomberg Economics has used a recession probability model that incorporates factors like housing permits, consumer sentiment, corporate profit outlooks, and Treasury yield gaps. It doesn’t always work. For example, in October 2022, they projected a 100% chance of a U.S. recession by October 2023, driven by aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes, tightening financial conditions, and persistent inflation.

Here we go again. Consumer confidence fell this month by the most since August 2021 on concerns about the outlook for the broader economy, Bloomberg notes. Many consumers think we’ll see a recession later this year. That pessimism has more than half of consumers delaying major life plans due to uncertainty over the economy and the consequences of Trump’s tariff threats. Of those, about a third said they were putting off buying a home while one in six have postponed education plans—and one in eight have pushed back retirement.

On today’s episode of “The TMI Show,” Ted Rall and Manila Chan discuss the prospects for the economy with finance expert Aquiles Larrea.

Tomorrow

The Feb. 28 consumer boycott is stupid and doomed to failure. This is because there is no real Left and therefore no one to organize it properly. Once again, the corporate Right (which includes the Democratic Party) will laugh their asses off. Pathetic.

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