Trump’s decision to cut weapons sales to Ukraine means that a war that would have ended up in defeat years from now will end up in defeat now, instead. Sadly, billions of dollars in weapons sales will be lost.
TMI Show Ep 82: Trump Wants To Slash Defense
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Live at 10 am Eastern/9 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered Pentagon officials to draw up plans to cut 8% from the military over each of the next five years, the most radical attempt to rein in such spending ever.
There would be 17 exceptions to the proposed cuts, including military operations at the southern border. Cuts to defense will face opposition in Congress, where lawmakers focus on budget cuts that could affect their districts.
On “The TMI Show” Ted Rall and guest cohost Robby West discuss this shocking attempt to co-opt anti-militarism as an issue away from the Democrats.
TMI Show Ep 78: Putin and Trump’s Perfect Phone Call
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Live at 10 am Eastern/9 am Central time, and Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:
The deep freeze in U.S.-Russian relations is about to thaw out bigly.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump talked for about an hour and a half yesterday, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The call was “lengthy and highly productive,” Trump said on Truth Social. “We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects.” They agreed that they “want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump added, announcing an “immediate” start of negotiations to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
The two men discussed the Middle East and Iran’s nuclear program and agreed to visit one another in person.
What’s next for Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine? Political and international relations expert Mark Sleboda joins Ted Rall and Manila Chan on “The TMI Show” to figure that out.
TMI Show Ep 62: “Trump’s Foreign Policy Begins to Take Shape”
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Live at 10 am Eastern time/9 am Central time and Streaming 24-7 thereafter:
After being unanimously confirmed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio immediately met with his “Quad” counterparts from Australia, India and Japan, signaling a focus on China. Rubio also supervised a 90-day suspension of all foreign aid payments.
In the Middle East, Trump said that he was not optimistic about the prospects for the new ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, and eliminated Biden’s sanctions against some West Bank settlers accused of violence against Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israel appears to be taking advantage of the ceasefire to escalate military attacks and settler violence in the West Bank. Will Trump, an ally of Israel, be able to rein in Netanyahu?
Trump plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the next few weeks and said that they will discuss bringing an end to the war in Ukraine. Most experts believe that Russia will wind up with about a fifth of Ukrainian territory and a guarantee that a rump Ukraine will not join NATO.
Nick Cruse of the Revolutionary Blackout Network joins “TMI Show” hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan to discuss the state of the world and the American role under Trump.
TMI Show Ep 58: “Biden’s Farewell + Gaza Ceasefire”
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Echoing President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning of a “military industrial complex” in his 1961 farewell address, President Joe Biden brought his decades-long career in politics to an end by warning of “an oligarchy [that] is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom.”
Indeed, income and wealth inequality have exploded to levels similar to those that preceded the 1789 French Revolution. “The TMI Show”’s Ted Rall and Manila Chan ask: what can or should be done to make American society and economics more equal?
Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal in the Gaza War that could send three dozen Israeli hostages home and give starving and homeless Palestinians a reprieve from more than a year of genocidal violence and wind down a 15-month war that helped destroy Biden’s presidency.
Streams live Monday-Friday 10 am Eastern time. You can watch anytime thereafter.
TMI Show Ep 57: “North Korea Has Entered the Chat”
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The Russo-Ukrainian War has entered a new phase, in which Ukraine’s Western allies are finally acknowledging that Russia, which controls 35% of Ukrainian territory, is prevailing and will likely win in the end. Trump has signaled that the blank check of weapons and money to Kyiv is about to expire and that he wants a peace deal. Putin has responded that Russia is ready to negotiate. Zelensky says he’s willing to talk. So, will peace talks actually happen? If so, how are they likely to conclude?
A side show to the conflict has been Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk Region of Russia. Russian and allied North Korean forces have encircled the Ukrainians occupying Russia, and Ukraine has made much of the North Korean presence, though it’s not clear what their point is.
“The TMI Show”’s Ted Rall and Manila Chan check in with Mark Sleboda, international relations and security analyst, on the state of the Ukraine War.
War Against Canada
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Although he’s purportedly less serious about it than his sabre-rattling against Greenland and Panama, Donald Trump is making dark threats against Canada, saying he wants it to become the 51st state. He should be careful! The US almost always loses its wars.
Operation Greenlander Freedom
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President-Elect Donald Trump has threatened to use military force to invade and annex Greenland, which is currently a Danish colony, because he says the US needs it for vague national security reasons. It’s like the US never invades nice places anymore.
TMI Show Ep 46: “Great Power Politics: The Winner Gets Ukraine”
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It looks and feels like the Russo-Ukraine War is entering its final phase. President-elect Donald Trump has signaled that he will reduce or eliminate military and economic aid to the Zelensky government. Even before that happens, Russia has improved its position on the battlefield. Now Zelensky is saying he would consider acknowledging the loss of Crimea and the Donbas. What happens next?
The TMI Show Ep 25: “Trump’s #1 Pick Is a NeoCon”
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Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio has flown under the radar as the media spotlight shines a light on controversial cabinet picks like Matt Gaetz and RFK Jr. In many ways, however, Rubio—who will head the first or second most powerful federal department alongside Defense and will be on the short list in the presidential line of succession—is the most extreme and radical of them all.
Rubio, an unreconstructed neoconservative who would have been home in the Bush Administration that brought about the misbegotten war against Iraq, is exactly the kind of DC swamp creature Trump promised to purge. And he’s espoused extremist militarist positions against Latin American nations like Venezuela, Nicaragua snd Cuba. He’s out to pick a fight with China.
On today’s The TMI Show, co-hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan are joined by human rights, labor rights, and peace activist Dan Kovalik, to explain how State became more militaristic than Defense, why Trump picked a member of the DC “blob”for State and what it means for Trump’s foreign policy.
