DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM Eastern time.
Today we discuss:
• Immigration advisers in the UK are charging up to £7,000 to fake asylum claims for Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals to pretend they are gay.
• Senior diplomats from Lebanon and Israel met in Washington as their host, Marco Rubio, tried to reach a ceasefire. It was attended by Lebanon’s ambassador to the US, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, and her Israeli counterpart, Yechiel Leiter. Leiter said they had agreed on a long-term vision that there should be a “clearly delineated border between our countries.” Trump says leaders of the two nations will talk today; Lebanon denies that.
• The U.S. launches an online portal next week that lets businesses request refunds for tariffs ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will boot up CAPE, for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries — so companies can submit claims for up to $175 billion. Customs is putting the burden on the importer. Customs is not figuring it out.
• In September 2024, Amandla Thomas-Johnson was a Ph.D. candidate studying in the U.S. on a student visa when he briefly attended a pro-Palestinian protest. In April 2025, ICE sent Google an “administrative subpoena”—not issued by a judge—requesting his data. The next month, Google gave Thomas-Johnson's information to ICE without giving him the chance to challenge the request

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.
Today we discuss:
• We can’t decide to make nice, or kill you. President Trump told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo he views the war with Iran "as very close to over." The U.S. and Iran could begin a fresh round of peace talks as soon as tomorrow after Trump's administration imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.
• Can Lebanon expel Hezbollah? Following the first direct talks between Israel and Lebanon since 1993, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter hailed what he called a convergence of opinion about removing Hezbollah's influence from Lebanon. "The Lebanese government made it very clear that they will no longer be occupied by Hezbollah," he said. "Iran has been weakened. Hezbollah is dramatically weakened. This is an opportunity." But nothing can happen without regime change in Iran—and maybe not even then.
• Hampshire College, a small liberal arts school in Amherst founded in 1965, is set to close permanently due to low enrollment and financial problems.
• Gov. Kathy Hochul proposes a tax on second homes in New York City worth $5 million and more, dubbed a pied-à-terre tax, aimed at the ultra-wealthy. It would affect roughly 13,000 homes, and would bump for homes valued at $15 million and again at $25 million.

MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live

https://x.com/tedrall
https://x.com/JamarlThomas

LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow
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APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.
Today we discuss:
• Trump is trying to choke off the country’s lifeline with a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. But the Iranians are betting that his tolerance for political pain is limited.
• Iran is waging the conflict in the global markets. If no Iranian oil gets through the strait, prices could keep rising over time — some companies say they are planning for $175 a barrel. The Iranians understand the potential political effects of continued inflation in the U.S. less than seven months before midterms.
• For expert analysis about the energy markets showdown, we will be joined by Mark Barteau, a renowned chemical engineer and expert in heterogeneous catalysis for fuels, chemicals, and energy processes. He serves as Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University, holding the C.D. Holland '53 Chair in Engineering with joint appointments in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. Previously, he directed energy institutes at the University of Michigan and University of Delaware. A National Academy of Engineering member with over 250 publications, his work advances clean energy and carbon management.
• Ramsey County, Minnesota is investigating the arrest of a Hmong American man by ICE as a case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment, officials announced Monday. On Jan. 18, ICE agents bashed open the front door of the St. Paul home of ChongLy “Scott” Thao, 56, at gunpoint — without a warrant — then led him outside in just his underwear and a blanket in sub-zero conditions. Thao is a U.S. citizen. The City of St. Paul is also investigating.

MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live

https://x.com/tedrall
https://x.com/JamarlThomas

LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu
APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.
Today we discuss:
• In one of the most bizarre gambits in military history, Trump responds to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz with his own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. You can’t blockade—I blockade! Oil futures are soaring; stocks are down. (Tune in Tuesday as oil-markets expert Prof. Mark Barteau of Texas A&M joins to explain the economics of global oil markets and this game of economic brinkmanship.)
• Peace talks in Islamabad collapse over the U.S. “take it or leave it” demand that Iran stop enriching uranium and surrender its stockpile, Israel’s war against Lebanon, sanctions, reparations, and control of the Strait of Hormuz. Is there still hope?
• The 55-to-38 defeat of Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, by Peter Magyar, leader of the center-right Tisza party, should deliver a sharp jolt to one of America’s two major political parties—the Democrats.

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LIVE 9:00 am Eastern time, Streaming Anytime:
Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST.
Today we discuss:
• In an unusually expansive way, Sebastian Gorka, senior counterterrorism director on the National Security Council, is designating leftist groups in Greece, Germany and Italy as terrorist organizations, to pressure foreign allies to investigate them and to search for connections with leftists here so they can surveil, investigate and imprison American opponents of Trump.
• Melania Trump denies connections to Jeffrey Epstein and that Epstein introduced her to Donald. Why?
• Trump warns Iran ahead of planned negotiations this weekend, to comply abide by terms he says were agreed on for a ceasefire, or he’ll order large-scale attacks on the country. 6 ships—no oil tankers—passed through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday. JD Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will attend peace talks in Islamabad. After a surge of suspicious trading on prediction markets, the White House tells staff not to use insider information on the Iran war to bet on financial markets.
• If someone wants to break into your Signal chats, they might find a way to do so. The FBI recently extracted incoming Signal messages from a defendant's iPhone. The user had deleted the app, but the FBI scraped incoming messages from the push notification database, even though those messages were set to disappear.

MERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.live

https://x.com/tedrall
https://x.com/JamarlThomas

LIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu
APPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504