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TMI Show Ep 88: Chaos in Trumpworld

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Ted Rall

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?

To the Barricades for Beleaguered Bureaucrats!

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Ted Rall

As Elon Musk’s DOGE cost-cutting brigade ordered mass layoffs and targeted entire agencies, Democrats who tried to use the cuts to rally Americans may have been surprised to learn that the trials and tribulations of bureaucrats don’t resonate with voters who don’t understand what bureaucrats do in the first place.

DMZ America Podcast Ep 193: Democrats Say Resistance Is Futile

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Ted Rall

Live at 12:30 PM Eastern/11:30 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

House Leader Jeffries sounds like a Vichy Democrat who has given up. “What leverage do we have?” he asked reporters at his weekly news conference on Friday. “They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s their government.”

Yet Republicans had a very different attitude when they found themselves in the same position Democrats are in now. They threatened to shut down the federal government and sometimes did so. They extracted concessions in order to raise the debt ceiling. They blocked judicial and other nominations.

What parliamentary and other tools could Democrats deploy to block or slow down Trump and his initiatives? Do they want to use them? If not, why not?

That’s what editorial cartoonists Ted Rall (from the Left) and Scott Stantis (from the Right) are talking about on today’s DMZ America Podcast.

 

TMI Show Ep 77: Dems Threaten a Shutdown

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Ted Rall

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

“I’m not a cheap date,” Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said yesterday. “[Republicans] want to run and tell everybody that they have this huge mandate — that they can do whatever the hell they want to do. Well, if that’s the case then they should put their mandate-pants on and do whatever the hell they want to do. But if you want us to be helpful, then you have to engage us. And we’re not going to just be there to bail you out.”

Democratic votes will be needed to get a federal spending bill through Congress. That might mean holding the line to save Medicaid, US-AID and education. They might try to fire Musk and DOGE. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warns that Democrats won’t support efforts to reduce the mortgage interest deduction or slash food subsidies for low-income children.

Does the Democratic #Resistance (finally) start here? Or will they cave like a cheap date? “The TMI Show”’s Ted Rall and Manila Chan preview the budget fight.

Elon Musk on the Rampage

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Ted Rall

DOGE leader Elon Musk is gutting government agencies, including US-AID. Why do so many liberals and Democrats seem to get more agitated about Trump’s war on DC bureaucrats than capitalism’s longstanding war against ordinary Americans?

DMZ America Podcast Ep 192: Trump Trashes Checks and Balances

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Ted Rall

LIVE at 10 am Eastern Time/7 am Pacific time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

Is this the end of the American experiment? Donald Trump, Elon Musk and his administration are flouting the Constitution and making a mockery of the checks and balances that have kept U.S. democracy going over nearly a quarter millennium. Congress has signaled that it does not plan to rein in the president so it’s mostly up to the Supreme Court. With governing norms demolished, will we still be able to say this is a nation of laws?

Editorial cartoonists and best friends Ted Rall (from the Left) and Scott Stantis (from the Right) draw on history to forecast what appears to be a rapidly growing constitutional crisis.


TMI Show Ep 73: What’s Next for DOGE?

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Ted Rall

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

Chief Trump consultant Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have hit the ground running, shocking Washington’s Inside-the-Beltway bureaucratic infrastructure by following the Silicon Valley approach of “move fast and break things.”

Musk is moving to shut down US-AID. He offered bullying buyout offers to 2.3 million federal employees. He and his team of very-young assistants has been granted access to confidential government data, including those of the Treasury Department payment systems, NOAA, Medicare and Medicaid, and more.

Musk says DOGE is thoughtful and deliberate. But the speed with which he is moving worries critics who think he’s endangering essential government services and might have nefarious designs on Americans’ personal data. What’s next for DOGE?

On today’s “The TMI Show,” Manila Chan and Ted Rall speak with financial expert and political analyst Mitch Roschelle.

TMI Show Ep 67: You’re (Self-) Fired! Trump Threatens Federal Workers

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Ted Rall

Live at 10 am Eastern time/8 am Mountain and Streaming all the time after that:

Bearing the same subject line as a downsizing memo sent to Twitter employees by Elon Musk, an ominous mass email was fired out by the Trump Administration to millions of federal employees offering them a buyout if they voluntarily agree to resign within a week. There is a fist inside the velvet glove: most federal agencies will probably be slashed and a substantial number of employees will be furloughed or reclassified to “at-will status,” making them easier to fire. Most remote workers will have to go back to the office. And many will have their offices moved elsewhere.

On “The TMI Show,” co-host Manila Chan is out sick. Filling in for Manila is Robby West, alongside co-host Ted Rall. Robby and Ted will discuss whether Trump has the power to pay buyouts, the possibility of court battles, the pros and cons of remote work and whether this disrespectful treatment of government workers is fair.

TMI Show Ep 62: “Trump’s Busy First Day”

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Ted Rall

Listen and Watch LIVE at 10 am Eastern time/7 am Pacific time today and Streaming 24-7 thereafter:

After a strange inauguration speech that really wasn’t, President Donald Trump charged out of the gate on his first day with a blizzard of executive orders and actions designed to remake the government as quickly as possible in his image. Within hours, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of the January 6th defendants and inmates, declared an emergency at the Mexican border that allows him to send the military, shut down the main immigration app, declared drug cartels to be terrorist organizations, fired over 1000 Biden appointees, threw a lifeline to TikTok, re-declared Cuba a partner of terrorists, withdrew from the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization, and attempted to end birthright citizenship.

Oh, and the DOGE bromance ended 6.75 hours into Trump’s second term.

On today’s “TMI Show” hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan tell you what’s likely to stick and what’s not, what’s happening and why it matters, and predict what’s coming next down the pike.

TMI Show Ep 61: “Trump 47: Lame Duck or Wrecking Ball?”

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Ted Rall

This morning at 10 AM Eastern time and streaming 24-7 thereafter anytime:

Donald Trump becomes the first president since 1893 to return to office after having lost an election and sitting out for years. What can we expect from his second term?

“The TMI Show”’s Ted Rall and Manila Chan analyze the prospects for the new administration’s economic policies and their chances for success amid a clear division within their own party about whether to go with trickle-down economics or populist economics. What about those mass deportations? Not to mention the price of eggs.

On the foreign-policy front, Trump promised to fix the Ukraine war immediately after taking office. Will it be done by tomorrow? Will the first phase of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas hold, and will there be a second and third one? Will there be a trade war with China?

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