The Final Countdown – 1/30/24 – United Airlines Navigates Boeing Woes: Explores Possible Airbus Deal

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss current events worldwide, including United Airlines and its Boeing woes. 

Jamie Finch –  Former Director, National Transportation Safety Board 
Tyler Nixon – Counselor-at-law 
Dr. George Szamuely – Senior Research Fellow, Global Policy Institute
Dan Kovalik – Human Rights Lawyer 
 
The show kicks off with Jamie Finch, the former director of the National Transportation Safety Board, who discusses United Airlines potentially entering a deal with Airbus following Boeing’s Max 9 blunders. 
 
Later, Tyler Nixon, counselor-at-law, weighs in on the IRS contractor getting sentenced to five years in prison following his leak of Trump’s tax documents. 
 
The second hour begins with the hosts talking to Dr. George Szamuely about Hungary accusing the EU of blackmail.  
 
The show closes with human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik, who shares his perspective on the strikes near the Jordanian border and the pressure on Biden to plan a military response. 
 
 

The Final Countdown – 1/29/23 – Nancy Pelosi Urges FBI Probe into Russia’s Role in Gaza Protests

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss the current events around the globe, including Nancy Pelosi accusing the Pro-Palestine movement of “Russian interference.” 

Dan Lazare – Independent Journalist 
Mitch Roschelle – Media Commentator 
Jeremy Kuzmarov – Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine 
 
The show kicks off with independent journalist Dan Lazare who shares his perspective on the border crisis as a major election issue and the GOP unveiling a possible impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Anthony Mayorkas. 
 
Later, Media Commentator Mitch Roschelle weighs in on Trump owing $83 million for defamation against columnist E. Jean Carrol. 
 
The second hour begins with the hosts discussing Nancy Pelosi’s calls for an FBI investigation into the Pro-Palestine movement.  
 
The show closes with Jeremy Kuzmarov who shares his insights on the drone strike in Jordan and the escalation in the Middle East. 
 
 

The Final Countdown – 1/16/24 – Trump Triumphs: A Landslide Victory in the Iowa Caucus

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss news from around the world and domestically, including Trump’s victory at the Iowa Caucuses. 

Steve Hayes– Tax Attorney   
Steve Gill – Attorney 

Jeremy Kuzmarov – Managing Editor of Covert Action Magazine 
Nebojsa Malic – RT Journalist 
 
The show begins with tax attorney Steve Hayes, who weighs in on Trump’s victory in the Iowa Caucuses and Ramaswamy’s endorsement. 
 
Then, attorney Steve Gill shares his perspective on the Fani Willis scandal.  
 
The second hour starts with Jeremy Kuzmarov who discusses the rising tensions in the Middle East, including Iran’s missile strikes against sites in Iraq and Syria, the latest attacks between Yemen’s Houthis, cargo ships, and a U.S. warship in the Red Sea, and the latest out of the Israel-Hamas War. 
 
Lastly, journalist Nebojsa Malic joins the show to share his insights on Zelensky’s Peace Summit. 
 
 

Ceasefire in Gaza, An Offer Israel Can’t Refuse—Yet It Is

            The Left is doing something right.

            And it’s something that I initially disagreed with, even though I didn’t comment in a public space.

            When Israel overreacted to Hamas’ October 7th attack on western Israel with a brutal saturation bombing campaign against the Palestinian civilian population of the Gaza Strip, defenders of human rights, antiwar activists and supporters of the Palestinian liberation movement demanded a ceasefire.

            To me, that felt like yet another example of the Left settling for too little, negotiating against itself. Ask for the stars, I usually advise, and you might settle for the moon. Ask for the moon and you might wind up with nothing. A ceasefire isn’t an armistice, much less a peace agreement. It’s merely an interruption in a war. What kind of antiwar activist doesn’t ask for an end to a war?

One of the most famous examples is the Christmas Truce of 1914, when German and British troops crawled out of their trenches and met in no-man’s land to exchange presents, play soccer and celebrate the holiday together. A day or two later, however, World War I resumed. It’s a cute story that changed nothing.

            Israel owes the people of Gaza nothing less than an immediate cessation of hostilities and official acceptance that the current conflict is a war crime for which top Israeli governmental and military officials should be prosecuted. The IDF should withdraw. Israel should pay to rebuild everything it destroyed and compensate the families of dead and wounded Palestinians. It should house everyone it has displaced on Israeli territory, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem if need be. It should recognize a free and sovereign Republic of Palestine in Gaza and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital, within 1967 borders along with a safe corridor to connect the currently non-contiguous borders. The 700,000 settler-colonists should leave the West Bank and return to Israel.

            A ceasefire seems so tiny by comparison.

            Which is why it’s proving effective as a demand.

            When people confront two parties engaged in a conflict, one of their first reactions is to try to assess which, if either, is right (or at least more right). This determination is affected by such cognitive biases as whether one side looks or acts more like the person making the assessment. In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some Americans have baked-in personal allegiances because they are Jewish or Muslim.

            Which leaves the other 97% of the population. Citizens of the United States are notoriously ignorant about politics and cultures beyond their borders. To the extent that they pay attention to the Middle East conflict, there has been a historical bias in favor of Israel, a fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ally President Joe Biden relied upon at the beginning of the war in Gaza. As we have seen in the past, however, Israeli overreaction has prompted the public to take a closer look and, following the usual practice, led them to a “pox on both of their houses” stance. Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland repeated that trope in 2020 when she claimed on Fox News that in “…the Middle East, they’ve been fighting for 4,000 years. It’s been an ethno-sectarian battle and psychodrama, and they’ve been killing each other for millennia. Their normal state of condition is war.” (This is not even a little bit true, but let’s leave that for another time.)

            20,000+ dead Palestinians into the latest episode of the conflict, the Gaza war has become a catastrophe too big to ignore or dismiss with glib inanities. Day after day, as Americans’ social media feeds fills with bloody images of dead Palestinian babies, initial public sympathy for Israel has given way to a feeling that the Palestinians of Gaza are victims at least as much as the Israelis of October 7th. Choosing sides is no longer easy. But one thing is clear: the carnage has gone on too long and, even if a long-term conclusion like a two-state solution is impossibly elusive, the bombing simply has to stop.

            By mid-December, three out of five American voters—with few differences between political parties—supported a ceasefire, up significantly from October. The public had caught up to the pro-Palestinian activists. By not asking for much, the Left appears moderate and reasonable.

            Meanwhile, voters keep reading headlines in which the Israeli government is refusing a ceasefire. To the contrary, Netanyahu says the war will continue for “many more months.” Israel is framing itself as rabid, overreaching and bloodthirsty.

            Because it is out of sync with public opinion, good will for Israel is ebbing like the pulse of a man bleeding to death from a gunshot wound. Although older voters still tend to support Israel, a mere 28% of voters between ages 18 and 29 told the latest New York Times/Sienna College poll that they believed Israel was seriously interested in a peaceful solution. On the other hand, half said the Palestinians do want peace.

(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.)

Actually, That Was Me

US media outlets say Joe Biden had a heroic “secret” role in negotiating the four-day ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Actually, much of the work was done not by the United States or by Biden personally, but by Qatar.

DMZ America Podcast #120: Hamas Goes to War with Israel

Hamas fighters swarmed into Israel from the Occupied Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a grinding economic blockade since 2007, killing Israeli civilians and soldiers and taking hostages. Political cartoonists Ted Rall (from the Left) and Scott Stantis (from the Right) debate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the ramifications of what Israelis are calling their 9/11. Scott, an ardent defender of Israel, tries to find common ground with Ted, who supports Palestine’s independence struggle.

Watch the Video Version of the DMZ America Podcast:

DMZ America Podcast Ep120: Hamas Goes to War with Israel

America Clutches Its Pearls, Balloon Edition

No country in the world invades the sovereign airspace of other nations as brazenly or extremely as the United States with spy drones, assassination drones, spy satellites and outright invasions. So it’s beyond rich to see U.S. officials whine so much about China’s survelliance balloon.

DMZ America Podcast #57: Cowardly Cops and the Middle East: Who Should We Cozy up with, Iran or Saudi Arabia?

Political cartoonists Scott Stantis and Ted Rall engage in a lively debate over the Middle East. Iran claims to have nuclear weapons technology, whatever the hell that means, which has Scott worried to the point that he’s contemplating bombing the country. Meanwhile Biden cozied up to Saudi Arabia’s dictator this week, prompting Ted to to go off the rails. But first, the final report is out on the police non-reaction at the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and the question is: can the cops be redeemed?

 

 

Next Time Write a Letter to the Editor

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi murdered, chopped up and dissolved in acid, is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden. Biden is visiting the Middle East in order to ask Saudi Arabia to ramp up oil production to make up for the shortage of Russian oil created by his sanctions. If I were the president, I would be nervous—especially since he just published an op-ed justifying the trip in the Washington Post.

The Electoral Trolley Problem

Voting is always an ethical dilemma. For people thinking about voting for Joe Biden, one of the things that they might not be thinking about as they fantasize about the somewhat remote possibility of a liberal stalwart replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the higher probability that Biden, given his history, will start another war in the Middle East.

css.php