Trump’s decision to back out of his planned public execution of the Fort Hood mass shooter is sad for America. Not because it wouldn’t have been a gruesome spectacle that eroded whatever is left of the country’s international standing—it would have. Not because Nidal Hasan won’t still be killed on December 3—he will.

“Many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming or through any other visual device,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, a medium befitting the gravity of the subject. He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”

Does Trump really believe watching the livestream is mandatory? If so, someone should tell him. He could use a break.

He should have stayed the course. Conducting this state murder-by-firing-squad in the most public of all forums would have been a glorious victory for transparency and honesty. When might the dark stars align again to give us a defense secretary, president, Congress and news media so depraved and indifferent to common decency that they were willing to post a snuff film online where every child can watch it, and force them to confront exactly what America is and all about its state religion: ultraviolence?

As citizens, courts have repeatedly ruled, we have no right to healthcare. More importantly, we’re consumers. What about our right to truth in advertising?

Trump’s decision to cancel the broadcast of the execution (but not the execution itself) appears to have been influenced by an open letter signed by retired admirals, generals, and other officers. “Livestreaming this execution would clearly violate the basic human dignity of the condemned prisoner,” the military men wrote. “It turns what should be the solemn and grave punishment of a member of our society for committing the most serious crimes into a carnival for the enjoyment of voyeurs and spectators.”

Dudes! Dudettes! That’s the point!

A carnival for the enjoyment of voyeurs and spectators is exactly what we need. Who knows—it might even jolt us into the realization that our country is truly awful…that we desperately need to get straight with basic human values.

The firing squad execution, remember, is still going ahead as planned. As we know from recent experience, capital punishment by gunfire is hardly guaranteed to be “solemn.”

Consider the botched firing-squad execution of Mikal (Mikal Deen) Mahdi in South Carolina on April 11, 2025. Mahdi, convicted of killing an off-duty police officer in 2004, faced a three-person firing squad aiming at a small target placed over his heart. It was not quick.

Mahdi screamed when the shots were fired, groaned again roughly 45 seconds later, continued moaning in agony for about 80 seconds, and finally succumbed. He was pronounced dead in four minutes.

Only two entry wounds were found in his body rather than the expected three. One missed entirely. The other two missed the heart, instead damaging the liver, pancreas, and other organs. This allowed Mahdi’s heart to continue beating. An autopsy report concluded that Mahdi suffered “excruciating conscious pain and suffering for about 30 to 60 seconds.” (Courts had ruled that pain should not last more than 15 seconds to pass constitutional muster.)

Death with dignity is not on the menu. If Christa Pike is any indication, death itself isn’t guaranteed.

What is assured on December 3rd is a cruel, anachronistic exercise of optional vengeance by a vicious military that started vicious wars of choice against nations that never harmed us, drove the soldiers it sent to fight and kill completely crazy, assigned them a psychologist so undersupervised that his vicarious trauma turned into psychosis, ignored the ample evidence that he was about to snap, and after he freaked out and killed 13 people, tossed him into the brig after they shot him and paralyzed him from the waist down.

Maybe the Army will do a better job killing Nidal Hasan than it did with Eddie Slovik, the most recent high-profile target of a military firing squad. Determined to set an example to discourage army desertions during the closing days of World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower ordered Slovik shot to death in eastern France on January 31, 1945 for the crime of succumbing to PTSD—they called it “shell shock” at the time—and deserting his post. Eleven armed members of the firing squad fired simultaneously. Slovik was struck by multiple bullets, but none of them killed him immediately. Medical officers examined the victim and discovered that his heart was still beating and he was breathing. While the soldiers were reloading, Slovik finally succumbed to his wounds roughly four minutes. The psychological distress of the firing squad—who were ordinary enlisted soldiers—is widely believed to have caused them to miss Slovik’s vital organs.

Slovik is the only American executed for desertion since the Civil War.

One of the conundrums army brass will have to contend with—this is true—is whether to hoist Hasan to a post and strap him into place like a scarecrow, or shoot him in his wheelchair. This, apparently, was the detail that made Trump back out of the livecast. (Why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth neglected to tell him, and why Trump didn’t know that from watching the news, is unknown.)

The execution is happening. The only difference now is that, as has been the case since the Jim Crow-era “legal lynching” public hanging of a Black man in Kentucky for the rape of a white woman 90 years ago, it will take place behind closed doors.

Such a pity. Americans deserve the right to see their government in action; the executioners are government workers paid by our taxes. And Americans (and people in other countries) need to see what the American government is: hateful, spiteful, cruel.

People should watch Hasan die. They should hear him scream. They should marvel at high-resolution close-ups of the blood oozing out of his body. They should be revolted.

They should revolt.

Or not—in which case, they should be pleased with themselves and their government.

(Ted Rall, the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, is the author of “Never Mind the Democrats. Here’s What’s Left.” Subscribe: tedrall.Substack.com. He is co-host of the podcast “DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas.”)

The post A Missed Chance To Look Terrible appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

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Zelensky says Ukraine will resume Russian refinery strikes, defying Trump. Kyiv’s anger boils over following sudden Starlink throttling and continued Russian attacks. Kyiv suspects deliberate pressure from Musk or the White House after Zelensky criticizes U.S. policy. Partial service returns, yet suspicions linger amid denied early warnings of Russian strikes.

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we also discuss:

• Republicans pin their fading 2026 midterm hopes on another historic polling miss. While conceding a grim national environment, they point to past cycles—2022, 2024, and 2016—where forecasts underestimated GOP strength.

• Harris County DA Sean Teare says videos show an ICE officer intentionally struck and ran over Miguel Parra Hernandez during a stop, potentially constituting aggravated assault. Local investigators allege federal non-cooperation and possible erasure of crash data after the vehicle was driven away. ICE denies and deflects, as Parra faces multiple surgeries.

• Iranian strikes send two vessels to the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz during one of the waterway’s most violent months since the war began. A Singapore-registered container ship, the GFS Pride, catches fire after being hit; its crew evacuates safely.

• Federal agents seize Rep. Ilhan Omar’s phone and issue more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to relatives, in a probe into possible immigration fraud.

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Trump privately debates scrapping plans to livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan after learning the paralyzed gunman relies on a wheelchair. Why didn’t he know? Advisers warn that the grim public images could martyr the terrorist or embolden enemies, even as Trump remains firmly committed to carrying out the death sentence itself.

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we also discuss:

• Cornell University suspends fraternity parties for the rest of the academic year amid explosive backlash over a 2024 gang rape allegation. President Michael Kotlikoff vows zero tolerance as the Ivy League school scrambles to overhaul its response after local prosecutors initially declined charges.⁠ How will Ivy Leaguers socialize?

• Time to move? Scientists say that super-Earths orbiting cooler K-dwarf stars may prove more habitable than Earth itself, with thicker atmospheres, stabler climates, and stronger magnetic shields that could let complex life thrive longer and richer. Garden cress already sprouts faster under simulated K-dwarf light, hinting these distant worlds might host paradise-like biospheres.⁠

• Houthis strike an Aramco building in Dhahran hours after Saudi-led forces hit a Sanaa oil facility, igniting a dangerous spiral of threats against Riyadh airport and oil sites. Missiles and drones continue raining on the kingdom as the “Dawn of Yemen” counteroffensive escalates and airlines flee Saudi airspace.⁠

• Germany closes Nuremberg Airport and scrambles Eurofighter jets after a Corendon Airlines flight from Corfu transmits a false hijack code “7500” due to a radio malfunction. The plane lands safely under escort, operations resume, and authorities confirm no danger ever existed.⁠ Will AI cause more false alarms?

• One year after the Gaza ceasefire, residents remain trapped in tents amid rubble, daily Israeli airstrikes, and almost no reconstruction, saying the war never truly ended. Anger flares at Hamas, Israel, and the world as 65%  still live in makeshift shelters.⁠

• Germany opens a high-stakes Nord Stream pipeline sabotage trial, charging a Ukrainian ex-officer as an accomplice to a war crime and alleging the plot ran “on behalf of state authorities in Ukraine.” Kyiv fiercely denies involvement while the case threatens to strain Berlin’s support for its ally.⁠

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The post Will Trump TACO on Terror Thursday? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

For the price of a single Hellfire missile, you can send an American through a public four-year college. Yet we keep making the wrong choice.

The post Always the Same Incorrect Choice appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

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“DeProgram” invites Michael Tracey, an independent journalist and commentator known for contrarian coverage of media and sexual-assault narratives, to discuss the 2026 Cornell “Jane Doe” civil lawsuit, filed by a former student alleged she was drugged and assaulted by seven Chi Phi fraternity members on October 19, 2024. Tracey has emphasized due-process concerns, the asymmetry of naming the accused while the plaintiff remains anonymous, and reported post-incident texts in which the complainant allegedly called the encounter a “gangbang” and invoked “our body our choice.” He solicited her identity on social media, briefly posted a name he claimed to have verified, then deleted it, arguing the exercise exposed improper use of anonymity in settlement-driven suits. The move drew widespread criticism and a #IAmJaneDoe backlash.

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we also discuss:

• U.S. authorities raid Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington-area home as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation, the Justice Department says. The probe involves alleged immigration fraud tied to paperwork completed by her late father when she was a child. Omar, a leftist and vocal Trump critic, called the search political intimidation; it occurred weeks before midterm elections.

• A New York Times satellite analysis finds Israel has leveled 48 of roughly 60 villages in occupied southern Lebanon since an April “cease-fire,” primarily Shiite areas, while building infrastructure for a longer presence. Meanwhile, Saudi authorities say that operations will remain suspended at the airport in Riyadh after another Houthi attack on the facility on Sunday.

• Elon Musk has quietly given more than $276 million since July to Republican groups and his America PAC, making him by far the largest known midterm donor as he tries to protect the party’s Senate majority.⁠ That includes a $158 million gift to the Senate Leadership Fund, one of the largest political donations in U.S. history. His total this cycle already exceeds his 2024 spending.

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The post The Cornell Controversy (with Michael Tracey) | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

The Cornell University alleged gang-rape case, and the online controversy around it, is the latest example of fear between the sexes: women afraid of men, and men afraid of women. No wonder young people aren’t dating, or having sex, at the same rates as in the past.

The post Never Meet, Never Exist appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

Once again, the debate over capital punishment is raging, driven by the staggering incompetence of Tennessee’s would-be prison executioners, who have repeatedly failed to kill Christa Pike for a murder she committed 30 years ago, and by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s shocking announcement that the military plans to livestream the firing-squad execution of Fort Hood mass shooter Major Nidal Hasan.

Largely missing, as usual, is the question that ought to be paramount in the mind of any citizen considering the wisdom of a government practice or policy: what is the death penalty for?

Clearly, killing killers is not about keeping society safe from convicted murderers. Serial killer Ted Bundy escaped from jail twice in 1977. The 2015 Dannemora break by Richard Matt and David Sweat in upstate New York, Danelo Cavalcante’s escape in Pennsylvania in 2023 and parts of the Texas Seven escape in 2000 all made news precisely because 99.999% of murderers remain behind bars. A 2024 study found that about 91% of overall escapees were back in custody within a year, most within a week.

Proponents repeatedly argue that the ultimate punishment serves as a deterrent. But if you visit a prison and talk to murderers—as I have—you will quickly learn that the vast majority of heinous crimes are committed by young men in their teens and 20s, typically under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, and often driven by the need for money to buy more drugs. By the time these offenders are in their 40s or 50s, they are entirely different people who would never do anything like that again if they were released.

Murder, by the way, has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the criminal justice system.

For a deterrent to work, a person considering a violent act has to be in a reasonably calm and rational state of mind. When Christa Pike and her two accomplices committed murder in the 1990s, she had convinced herself that the victim was plotting to steal her boyfriend. She was a drug addict at the time. It is fair to surmise that she never stopped to consider the possibility that she might end up behind bars, much less subjected to lethal injection. Like most murderers, she did something crazy while she was crazy.

There is no credible evidence that executions prevent murders—by reoffenders or anyone else—that long imprisonment would not prevent. There is also no good evidence for the opposite, liberal claim that executions cause more murders by cheapening life. The data do not support treating deterrence as a demonstrated benefit of the death penalty.

Retribution, then, remains the sole credible justification for executing citizens who commit murder or treason. Some killings are so disgusting, some people believe, that death is the only appropriate punishment. Families of some victims argue that it is an offense to them that their loved one is gone forever while the person who killed that loved one continues to draw breath; they yearn for closure.

Should the feelings of victims’ families trump serious political and ethical considerations—such as whether the state, an entity that is supposed to exemplify, embody, and define the best rather than the worst behavior among human beings, should kill other human beings? We cannot ignore the well-established historical record of a country that repeatedly convicts people of capital offenses, only to determine later that they were innocent all along.

Even if the state were to become incredibly efficient and effective at identifying guilty parties and executing them in a more civilized fashion than in the Pike and Hasan cases, the much-wanted closure argument collapses upon inspection.

A study analyzing news accounts of 138 executions carried out between 2006 and 2011 found that only 31% of relatives quoted said the execution brought closure, healing, or a step toward either, and 35% said they felt it represented justice. About 19% said it brought neither closure nor positive feelings. Thirteen percent said capital punishment was too easy.

A separate 2014 study of relatives who witnessed executions found that only 23% even mentioned closure, and those who did were evenly split on whether they had gotten it.

For those who subscribe to the Old Testament structure requiring an eye for an eye, the justification for state-sanctioned vengeance seems self-evident. If you are a practical American citizen fairly weighing the usefulness of this practice, however, there is not much point to the death penalty.

(Ted Rall, the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, is the author of “Never Mind the Democrats. Here’s What’s Left.” Subscribe: tedrall.Substack.com. He is co-host of the podcast “DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas.”)

The post What Is the Death Penalty For? appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

LIVE 11 am Eastern Fridays, and then streaming whenever you wanna hear/watch it:

Ted sits down with editorial cartoonist Steve Breen to discuss politics and political cartooning.

Steve Breen, 56, was born in Los Angeles and raised in Orange County as the second oldest of eight children. He earned a political science degree from the University of California, Riverside, in 1992. He began drawing cartoons for the campus paper, The Highlander, and in 1991 won the Charles M. Schulz and the John Locher Awards.

He was nearly a high school history teacher when the Asbury Park Press hired him in 1994; he became its editorial cartoonist in 1996 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1998. In 1999 he launched the syndicated strip Grand Avenue. He joined The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2001, won a second Pulitzer in 2009, and left in 2023 after drawing more than 5,500 cartoons. His work remains nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate.

Steve has also written and illustrated children’s books, including Stick and Violet the Pilot, and created the animated series Powerbirds.

Scott is off today.

Live Fridays at 11 am Eastern/10 am Central. Streaming after on YouTube and the usual podcast apps.

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The post Here Come the Midterms (with Steve Breen) | DMZ America Podcast | Ep 261 appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

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The firing squad execution of 2009 Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed December 3rd.

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we also discuss:

• Unidentified ICE agents using unmarked cars surrounded a Dominican man and his 5-year-old child in his car in the Marble Hill section of The Bronx and shot him multiple times.

• The Pentagon has developed plans to strike Iran’s drone and missile arsenal, energy facilities and other military sites. But Trump has repeatedly decided not to relaunch heavy combat operations against Iran. And the U.S. military response to Iran has been more muted in recent weeks. Several explosions were heard in the Saudi capital, including one at the Riyadh airport. A recent Congressional Research Service report shows that at least 81 U.S. military aircraft, drones, and helicopters were lost or damaged during the war with Iran—Senator Chris Murphy calls it a cover-up.

• The Trump Administration suspended major tech companies, including Microsoft and Adobe, as well as IT outsourcing firms from a green card program. J.D. Vance said that the companies had “abused” H-1B visa and green card processes in order to “replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants.” Officials announced probes into 9 universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, that the Administration accused of misusing a program meant for temporary educational and cultural exchanges.

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The post US to Livestream Execution of Traumatized Soldier | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

Customer service has never been worse or more irritating to American consumers, who must suffer countless indignities like A.I. phonemail trees that don’t recognize their voices. The only way out, for those who are willing to publicize their plight, is to go public on social media.

The post Customer Service appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

Live at 9 AM Eastern & Streaming 24-7 Thereafter:

• Israeli settler-terrorists attacked and fired at two Agence France-Presse journalists as they were reporting on settler violence against Palestinian olive farmers in the West Bank. Photographers Jaafar Ashtiyeh and John Wessels were taking pictures of an IDF soldier detaining a man when a driver on a quad bike opened fire with at least six other colonists and stole their camera equipment. Ashtiyeh tried to escape into a car marked “Press,” but two men assaulted him and beat him with the butts of their rifles.

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM Eastern time.

Today we also discuss:

• María del Carmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose eviction from her home two weeks ago prompted widespread protests in Spain and spurred the prime minister to call national elections, died.

• Italian lawmakers approved a law that awards bonus seats in Parliament to election winners, a move supporters say will help prevent governments from collapsing and that detractors denounce as unconstitutional and antidemocratic. Championed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who had threatened to resign should the legislation not pass, the new law gives a bonus to the winning party or coalition of an election: 70 seats in the lower house of Parliament and 35 in the Senate, provided the party or coalition reaches 42 percent in both houses. Italy has a 600-seat Parliament, with 400 seats in the lower house and 200 seats in the Senate.

• Krista Pike is talking and walking. Maj. Nidal Hasan will be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood, Texas, on Dec. 3, for fatally shooting 13 people and wounding 32 in 2009 at the same base. Gov. Gavin Newsom is seriously considering whether to spare the lives of all 563 prisoners on death row in California as one of his final acts in office.

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The post Another Israeli Settler Attack on Journalists | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

IVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• As the Gaza War begins its fourth year, Israel has lost. Israelis are reeling from new revelations in Israeli and U.S. media that the country had been repeatedly warned by its regional allies that Hamas was planning to attack. The war has lifting public debt. Lost output, reserve call-ups, and the departure of about 100,000 skilled Israelis have strained the economy. Hamas is not disarmed, and Israel’s diplomatic isolation has deepened: Palestinian recognitions, settlement sanctions, ICC warrants, arms-embargo pressure, and much less support in Europe and the U.S. What happens next?

• Former CIA officer David J. Rush pleaded guilty in Alexandria, Virginia, to one count of wire fraud that could bring up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors said his schemes exceeded $193 million: a fake classified program used to buy about $145 million in Palm Beach luxury real estate, 298 gold bars costing the government more than $46 million, and roughly $1.8 million in unjustified charter flights. He also admitted disclosing a clandestine human source to a foreign official. Sentencing is set for January.

• The European Commission proposed measures to prepare the EU to take in countries such as Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova in coming ​years. The proposals by the European Union’s executive body reflect a renewed interest among EU members in expanding the 27-nation bloc. The proposed ⁠reforms include a measure ⁠to allow other EU countries to suspend a new member’s voting rights during the first 15 years of membership if it stops adhering to the bloc’s values

• Trump’s plan to fence in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House would deter the free speech activities that have long defined the seven-acre park and make it easier for the administration to curb protests at will. It is the latest example of President Trump’s use of executive measures and legal maneuvers to clamp down on dissent.

• Christa Pike, who survived two doses of a lethal injection drug during a botched execution in Tennessee, is conscious and speaking. The prognosis remains unclear, they said, but lawyers expect a long recovery. Pike, 50, is believed to be the first person to have survived doses of a lethal injection drug.

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The post How Israel Lost the War | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

After World War II, the United States argued at the Nuremberg war-crimes trials—and directly to the German people themselves—that the whole nation bore collective responsibility and guilt for the crimes of Nazi Germany because, despite the risks of resistance in a totalitarian state, they could and should have risen up and overthrown Adolf Hitler. Now the same country, the United States, cannot even be bothered to hold a single substantial protest when its out-of-control president threatens to use nuclear weapons against Iran, despite the fact that Iran poses no danger to us.

The post Collective Guilt, Then and Now appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

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Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Trump said the U.S. is willing to help Russia after the State Department announced it was monitoring a reportedly fatal case of “pneumonia of an unknown etiology”—pneumonic plague—linked to a Russian plague research laboratory in Irkutsk Oblast.

• 1,800 high schools and 90% of universities in France are currently blockaded or closed. The wave of protests started with 15 to 18-year-old lycéens and has now spread to their parents, university students and the biggest union, the CGT. The Interior Ministry estimates about 86,000 protesters have taken to the streets across France, not including the Paris region.

• Leaders in California have denounced Donald Trump as “reckless” and “deranged” after the US president suggested Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Trump’s approval rating at a record-low 32%. That polling included the president losing support among independent voters and Latinos, who had backed him in 2024.

• China has opened its first overseas air force base in its home continent of Asia—in Laos—where the US already maintains several military bases and access arrangements, marking a new phase in Beijing’s military expansion nearly a decade after establishing its first overseas military base in Djibouti, Africa, in 2017.

• The German federal prosecutor’s office announced it had detained the former spy chief, August Hanning, 80 — who led Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, from 1998 to 2005 — but did not say which foreign countries he was accused of spying for. Adding to the drama was the revelation that the investigation had origins in an alleged attempt by a German steakhouse heiress to kidnap her children from her estranged husband.

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The post Deadly Plague Escapes Russian Lab | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.



Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Polls predict a major defeat for Republicans as voters angry about the economy prepare to hand the House and Senate back to Democrats. Yet Trump continues rallying for Republican candidates while visiting Ohio, proposing a defiant outlook on his party’s chances in the November 3 midterm elections. Trump told a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, that he believes there will be a “big surprise” in the upcoming elections, claiming his Democratic opponents do not know what is happening.

• Wanying “Heather” Zhang, an Irvine, California, realtor, was arrested by the FBI yesterday before she boarded a flight to Shanghai from LAX, on a charge of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Zhang and an accomplice stand accused of traveling to Seattle, Washington, in September 2025 and taking pictures at the suburban home of Ting-Yu Lai, the son of Taiwanese President Ching-Te Lai.

• The Supreme Court considers whether the case of Boulder, Colo., which is suing two big energy companies, Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil, arguing they deceived people about the harms of fossil fuels and contributed to disasters that cost Boulder a lot of time and money, may move forward.

• Authorities in the United Arab Emirates shared with Israel a list of passengers and crew ahead of the FlyDubai flight on which a pilot attempted to seize control of the Israel-bound aircraft and crash it, regional officials said Sunday, raising new questions over how the attacker evaded detection.

• As programmers make more and more use of generative AI in the workplace, their responsibilities are quickly transitioning from creating new products from scratch to babysitting a large language model that cobbles together code. It’s gotten to the point where some engineers are no longer able to make sense of the code being spat out by an AI.

•  NASA asked contractors to prepare to build a nuclear reactor that could survive a space voyage and run without maintenance near the moon’s south pole. That may sound like science fiction, but the agency wants it ready to be launched by December 2030. Russia aims to have a lunar reactor running by 2036 as part of a secretive partnership with China. The United States and China want to be first to establish a moon base, to search for resources like frozen water and to launch missions deeper into the solar system. Both superpowers believe a nuclear reactor is the centerpiece of this ambition.

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The post Trump in Denial About Looming Catastrophe | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

The U.S. war against Iran, and the resulting closing of the Strait of Hormuz, exposes America’s Achilles’ heel—its dependence on foreign oil and gas—more starkly than ever before. Looking back at previous examples of the supposedly “invincible” American military, perhaps the adversaries destroyed by the United States should have found some way to hit us where it hurts: at the gas pump.

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Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Murtaza Hussain, senior national security and foreign affairs journalist at Drop Site News, joins “Deprogram” to discuss the latest reporting on the US massacre of schoolchildren and educators at Minab during the opening days of the Israeli/US war against Iran.

• Tennessee’s prison chief, Frank Strada, presided over the fifth “botched” execution under his leadership across two states since 2022. Krista Pike, 50, was heard choking and struggling an hour after receiving the first injection of pentobarbital, a sedative, and after a second dose failed to kill her, she was hospitalized in critical condition.

• Riot police clashed with high school students across France on Friday and unions called for teachers to strike as President Emmanuel Macron’s government battled to contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and education funding. Tear gas choked the streets in the eastern city of Strasbourg, ​fireworks were aimed at ‌police lines in Marseille in the south and rubbish bins set ablaze in Rennes in the west. Rights groups have accused the police of using heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flash-ball guns.

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The post Behind the Minab Massacre (interview with Murtaza Hussein) | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

IVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Christa Pike is in critical condition and receiving “lifesaving care” at a hospital, after two failed attempts to execute her using the drug Tennessee (tries to) use to kill prisoners.

• National protests by French high-school students over long hours (8am-6pm), teacher shortages and decaying facilities has escalated into “urban violence”, the French government warns, as many schools switch to online classes.

• A new AP-NORC poll is the latest ugly data point for Trump. It showed Americans disapprove of the president on cost-of-living by a stunning margin: 82% to 17%. That’s more than disapproved of presidents for wars gone wrong, botched crisis responses and even major scandals like Watergate. Trump faces a map where “the fires are everywhere,” and Democrats are competitive in states such as Alaska, Iowa and Kansas, all of which voted for Trump by double-digit margins in 2024.

• The Supreme Court will consider whether immigrants subject to deportation can be held in detention indefinitely while their cases are adjudicated. The focus is whether such immigrants should have a chance to be released while the deportation process moves forward, which was standard practice under previous presidents.

MERCHANDISE: DeProgram.MySpreadShop.com

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#tedrall #jamarlthomas #news #politics

The post French Students Wild in the Streets | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his strident campaign of misdirection and outright denial of the facts in the Middle East conflict at the United Nations General Assembly. You have to give him credit for moxie, if nothing else.

The post Bibi’s #1 Fan appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.

LIVE: MWF 9-11 am Eastern time & 9-10 am Tues-Thurs & Streaming Anytime

Conflict reporter/writer/cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM ET.

Today we discuss:

• Crisis in Romania: After the PSD Socialists joined with the right-wing AUR to bring down Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s coalition, in protest at austerity, Bucharest parliamentarians turned down independent moderate President Nicușor Dan’s candidate MEP Mureșan and now PM Siegfried Mureșan’s attempt to form a government. A snap election would likely benefit the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party.

• Tortured by Tennessee: A woman convicted of murder survived two doses of lethal injection last night before state officials gave up and had her taken to a hospital. It was the second botched execution in the state this year. The horrifying fiasco came after dueling court rulings delayed the execution of the woman, Christa Pike, by nine hours.

• SkyNet: The Pentagon is creating a new Autonomous Warfare Command to oversee the military’s push into autonomous warfare.

• Resistance: The FBI is charging a Michigan nurse, Chloe Renae Freeman, 33, accused of illegally helping an undocumented immigrant, who was being treated in a hospital, escape from immigration officials. She faces 1 year in prison and $100,000 fine.

MERCHANDISE: DeProgram.MySpreadShop.com

LIVE ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@DeProgramShow

LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow

https://x.com/tedrall

https://x.com/JamarlThomas

#tedrall #jamarlthomas #news #politics

The post Will Romania Join the Far Right? | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas appeared first on Ted Rall's Rallblog.