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How to Be a Human Again
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com
Click here for the full episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/how-to-be-human-again?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
If an alien life form (or just someone who watches mainstream media) happened across the Useful Idiots community, watched a few episodes, and read the the Absurd Arena, they might start to think: “Hey, these people seem pretty down.”
We’ve talked extensively about the discouraging nature of constant news and how escaping it feels increasingly impossible, waves of bad news drowning us, the next one always breaking just when we think there’s a moment of peace.
But we also learned from you that 2023 is a year of wellness, a time to fight back and build a boat to sail atop those waves. You shared your tips for feeling good each day, and we promised an expert to teach us how to feel like humans again.
Darcia Narvaez is a professor of psychology emerita at the University of Notre Dame. She joins the Useful Idiots to explain how we’re living in a culture that goes against everything it means to be human, emphasizing toughness over tenderness, isolation over togetherness, making the US the most depressed, anxious, and chronically ill country in the world.
“We’re stuck in a cycle of competitive detachment, where we feel disconnected from others and even ourselves, while at the same time feeling we have to compete for anything worthwhile.” But Professor Narvaez has hope: we can break the cycle.
“There are still societies around the world though that resist this hierarchicalism and think it’s immoral,” she explains. “We have a lot to learn from them because they successfully live in egalitarian and healthy, happy ways. Unlike us.”
Watch the full episode to learn how other cultures and species are able to live rewarding, fulfilling lives, why learning and school is actually one of the biggest detriments to humanity, and everyday, practical tips to help you break your own cycle.
Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown on the other way we might break the cycle: nuclear Armageddon.
It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.
0:00 Intro
2:09 The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!)
8:42 The Four Food Groups of News
25:39 Professor Darcia Narvaez Interview
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Biden Continues US Torture Program – CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with former CIA counterterrorism officer John Kiriakou: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-cia-whistleblower?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
After CIA officer John Kiriakou blew the whistle on US torture, no one in the CIA was arrested for their crimes. Except, of course, John Kiriakou.
John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act. He served 23 months in prison as punishment for his opposition to the Bush administration’s torture program.
This week, he joins Useful Idiots to speak (freely this time) about the torture and war crimes of the US Government, the sickening purpose of Guantanamo Bay and its continuing crimes against humanity, and the hardest question of all:
Who’s worse – The CIA or the FBI?
Don’t worry, John’s got a lot of dirt on each. It’s one of the most jarring, sickening, revealing, scary, and funny episodes of Useful Idiots, which is why you’re probably going to want to watch…
…the extended interview, in which Kiriakou uncovers the CIA’s sadistic psychedelics testing, the hawks in the mainstream media who are gunning for war with China, and his last words spoken to Keith Olbermann and Alec Baldwin:
“Fuck you, Olbermann.” and “Fuck you, Baldwin.”
And don’t miss this week’s Thursday Throwdown on Hollywood's New "It" Couple: Volodymyr Seanpenskyy.
It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.
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Joe Biden Checks In to Hoarders Anonymous
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full episode making fun of MSM's unraveling over "Doc Talk" https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/serial-document-hoarder-joe-biden?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Click here for the full interview with former CIA counterterrorism officer John Kiriakou: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-cia-whistleblower?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
In a slate of Sunday New Shows that went nuts over Doc Talk regarding Biden and Trump's classified documents (the perfect distraction from real issues like nurses and rail workers getting crushed by Biden), Rep Mike Turner calls Biden a serial classified document hoarder.
We at Useful Idiots, unlike Biden with his "three strikes and you go to jail" approach to crime, think the best approach is to seek treatment for Biden. So we're checking him into HA: Hoarders Anonymous.
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Useful Idiots Monday Mourning with Aaron Maté and Katie Halper
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Katie Halper and Aaron Maté go over the worst moments of the Sunday morning news shows that they watch so you don’t have to.
Join Katie and Aaron with your questions right after the stream at Callin Just download the free app to ask a question or listen on the web.
https://www.callin.com/room/media-fails-xAVlgOWpDI
If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning
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Useful Idiots Monday Mourning with Aaron Maté and Katie Halper
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Katie Halper and Aaron Maté go over the worst moments of the Sunday morning news shows that they watch so you don’t have to.
Join Katie and Aaron with your questions right after the stream at Callin Just download the free app to ask a question or listen on the web.
https://www.callin.com/room/media-fails-xAVlgOWpDI
If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning
97
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CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: GOP won't do real intel oversight
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with former CIA counterterrorism officer John Kiriakou: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-cia-whistleblower?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
After CIA officer John Kiriakou blew the whistle on US torture, no one in the CIA was arrested for their crimes. Except, of course, John Kiriakou.
John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act. He served 23 months in prison as punishment for his opposition to the Bush administration’s torture program.
This week, he joins Useful Idiots to speak (freely this time) about the torture and war crimes of the US Government, the sickening purpose of Guantanamo Bay and its continuing crimes against humanity, and the hardest question of all:
Who’s worse – The CIA or the FBI?
Don’t worry, John’s got a lot of dirt on each. It’s one of the most jarring, sickening, revealing, scary, and funny episodes of Useful Idiots, which is why you’re probably going to want to watch…
…the extended interview, in which Kiriakou uncovers the CIA’s sadistic psychedelics testing, the hawks in the mainstream media who are gunning for war with China, and his last words spoken to Keith Olbermann and Alec Baldwin:
“Fuck you, Olbermann.” and “Fuck you, Baldwin.”
And don’t miss this week’s Thursday Throwdown on Hollywood's New "It" Couple: Volodymyr Seanpenskyy.
It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.
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Racist Democrats Thrive in Fascism
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with Shahid Buttar: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-force-the-vote-with?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Advocate, artist, lawyer, organizer, musician, and former politician Shahid Buttar joins Useful Idiots to explain why Democrats are failing. Why is he a former politician, you ask? Well after running a campaign against Nancy Pelosi and getting buried by racist attacks from liberals, Shahid realized a sad truth about politics:
“Politicians, as well as journalists and lawyers,” he told us. “Are all about careerism. People care about their careers more than the principles of their profession.” And so self-proclaimed non-racists like Pelosi use racist attacks against opponents of color, like Shahid and Nina Turner, to keep their claws sunk deep into power, shielding themselves from any review of their own anti-democratic voting records.
But Shahid doesn’t put all the blame on these power-hungry, corporate vultures for choosing power over human values: “It’s impossible not to in a fascist country.”
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The Democratic Party has No Conception of Ethics
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with Shahid Buttar: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-force-the-vote-with?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Advocate, artist, lawyer, organizer, musician, and former politician Shahid Buttar joins Useful Idiots to explain why Democrats are failing. Why is he a former politician, you ask? Well after running a campaign against Nancy Pelosi and getting buried by racist attacks from liberals, Shahid realized a sad truth about politics:
“Politicians, as well as journalists and lawyers,” he told us. “Are all about careerism. People care about their careers more than the principles of their profession.” And so self-proclaimed non-racists like Pelosi use racist attacks against opponents of color, like Shahid and Nina Turner, to keep their claws sunk deep into power, shielding themselves from any review of their own anti-democratic voting records.
But Shahid doesn’t put all the blame on these power-hungry, corporate vultures for choosing power over human values: “It’s impossible not to in a fascist country.”
He explains how the body of insider-trading millionaires known as Congress has no conception of ethics.
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Useful Idiots Monday Mourning with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Katie Halper and Aaron Maté go over the worst moments of the Sunday morning news shows that they watch so you don’t have to.
If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning
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Useful Idiots Monday Mourning with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Katie Halper and Aaron Maté go over the worst moments of the Sunday morning news shows that they watch so you don’t have to.
If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning
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Force the Vote with Pelosi Challenger Shahid Buttar
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
0:00 Intro
0:20 The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board winners: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!)
4:27 Four food groups of news
20:48 Shahid Buttar interview
444
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MSM Ignores Biden Tape Dismissing Ukrainian Prosecutor General and Choosing Prime Minister
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with Ukrainian Professor Ivan Katchanovski: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-ukrainian-scholar?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Ukrainian Professor Ivan Katchanovski uncovered leaked videos and audio which CNN tried to bury. He joins the Useful Idiots to share the hidden tapes.
In ignored audio, Joe Biden brags about his power over Ukraine, threatens to withhold military support if they don't fire the prosecutor, and shows his power in deciding who gets to lead Ukraine.
The mainstream media not only ignored this story but even tried to bury it. So we're going to broadcast it.
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Hakeem Jeffries' Cringey Congress Rap
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with Ukrainian Professor Ivan Katchanovski: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-ukrainian-scholar?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Pentagon over poverty!
Millionaires over Medicare!
Wall Street over working class!
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader of the most diverse Congress in history, is finding clever new ways to prop up the wealthy and crush the working class. Laugh along with Katie and Aaron at his childish acrostic poem that he somehow thought was genius.
Have you ever seen someone so proud of themself?
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Useful Idiots Monday Mourning with Aaron Maté and Katie Halper
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Katie Halper and Aaron Maté go over the worst moments of the Sunday morning news shows that they watch so you don’t have to.
Join Katie and Aaron with your questions right after the stream at Callin Just download the free app to ask a question or listen on the web.
https://www.callin.com/room/force-the-gop-vote-EOqxJCIJyT
If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning
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Useful Idiots Monday Mourning with Aaron Maté and Katie Halper
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Katie Halper and Aaron Maté go over the worst moments of the Sunday morning news shows that they watch so you don’t have to.
Join Katie and Aaron with your questions right after the stream at Callin Just download the free app to ask a question or listen on the web.
https://www.callin.com/room/force-the-gop-vote-EOqxJCIJyT
If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning
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Ukrainian scholar calls out US media's lies about war
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with Ukrainian Professor Ivan Katchanovski: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-ukrainian-scholar?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Ivan Katchanovski, Ukrainian-Canadian political scientist who teaches at the University of Ottawa, is exposing US media lies about the Ukraine proxy war. And, like many Useful Idiot guests, no one will report on his story.
This week, Katchanovski shares his research on the Maidan Massacre, a mass killing of Ukrainians protesting the Yanukovich government in February 2014. The US and opposition leaders blamed Yanukovich, triggered a coup and the ensuing civil war that radically escalated with Russia’s invasion eight years later.
But when Professor Katchanovski dug into video, witness testimony, and other evidence which reveals who really committed the massacre — including footage that CNN tried to bury — he was ignored by mainstream media for attempted disruption of the approved narrative.
But now he’s joining the Useful Idiots to tell us what really happened: the massacre, he argues, was carried out by pro-Maidan snipers.
Watch the full interview with Professor Katchanovski for his take on who committed the massacre, how the US media is covering it up, and that weird interview between David Letterman and Volodymyr Zelenskyy:
“We did a survey,” Zelenskyy told Letterman. “It showed that 98% of our country’s population today would rather stay without electricity and water as long as they are free from Russia.”
Ivan responds to that seemingly impossible statistic.
Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown on how our “free press” is really just US-state media.
It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.
0:00 Intro
0:46 2023 Predictions: The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board winners: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!)
4:03 Four food groups of news
24:42 Ivan Katchanovski interview
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Useful Idiots 2022 Special plus Mick Wallace & Claire Daly Unlocked
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Our 2022 end of year show, plus the full version of our previous interview with Claire Daly and Mick Wallace
0:00 Intro, the latest from Ukraine, and other terrible 2022 moments
17:27 Claire Daly and Mick Wallace full interview
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The Two-State Solution is a Lie
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with Miko Peled: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-far-right-israeli?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Miko Peled, author of “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” is the son of an Israeli general and former family-friend of Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, he’s an anti-Zionist fighting for Palestinian rights.
He joins Useful Idiots to warn about Israel’s new far-right government, headed by Netanyahu and far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, whose positions give them newfound power over occupied Palestinians.
“The lives of Palestinians are going to be governed by two men who are dedicated more than anyone to the expulsion and terrorizing of all Palestinians,” Peled says.
“Palestinians are going to be looking back at the years leading up to this government as the good old days. This year has been a record year in terms of killing of Palestinians. But they’re going to be looking back at this year as the good old days. What is coming up is the worst that Palestinians have ever suffered.”
Subscribe to hear the full interview with Miko Peled on Israeli apartheid, US hypocrisy, and why we ignore Palestinians while funding billions in weapons for Ukraine.
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MSNBC is US State Media
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full Thursday Throwdown: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/an-ode-to-the-pentagons-most-aggressive?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
MSNBC's Morning Joe fawns over the legend of Nancy Pelosi to incoming House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies.
In countries like North Korea, the newscasters might ask only easy questions and celebrate their leaders. But on MSNBC, they're real journalists. Check it out.
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Far-Right Israeli Government is Most Extreme Yet
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with Miko Peled: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-far-right-israeli?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Miko Peled, author of “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” is the son of an Israeli general and former family-friend of Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, he’s an anti-Zionist fighting for Palestinian rights.
He joins Useful Idiots to warn about Israel’s new far-right government, headed by Netanyahu and far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, whose positions give them newfound power over occupied Palestinians.
“The lives of Palestinians are going to be governed by two men who are dedicated more than anyone to the expulsion and terrorizing of all Palestinians,” Peled says.
“Palestinians are going to be looking back at the years leading up to this government as the good old days. This year has been a record year in terms of killing of Palestinians. But they’re going to be looking back at this year as the good old days. What is coming up is the worst that Palestinians have ever suffered.”
Subscribe to hear the full interview with Miko Peled on Israeli apartheid, US hypocrisy, and why we ignore Palestinians while funding billions in weapons for Ukraine.
Plus, watch our Thursday Throwdown where we say goodbye to CNN’s Barbara Starr, the Pentagon’s most aggressive cheerleader, and join the holiday Absurd Arena to give presents to this year’s suckiest politicians.
It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.
0:00 Intro
1:37 The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board winners: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!)
3:54 Four food groups of news
18:59 Miko Peled interview
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WARNING: Hillary Clinton's Weird Carpool Karaoke
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
After causing the deaths of thousands of people around the world as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton is now singing that she will survive in carpool karaoke.
And we think that's weird.
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The Most Humble President NFT Collection
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Doubting Donald has become the most humble president, calling himself "hopefully" your favorite president, and question if dinner with him really is amazing. After years of self-improvement, he's truly found humility.
And now, you can get his NFTs for only $99! Just don't take a screenshot!
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Useful Idiots Monday Mourning with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Katie Halper and Aaron Maté go over the worst moments of the Sunday morning news shows that they watch so you don’t have to.
Join Katie and Aaron with your questions right after the stream at Callin Just download the free app to ask a question or listen on the web.
https://www.callin.com/room/worst-media-moments-XOtLUILKLV
If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning
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Useful Idiots Monday Mourning with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Katie Halper and Aaron Maté go over the worst moments of the Sunday morning news shows that they watch so you don’t have to.
Join Katie and Aaron with your questions right after the stream at Callin Just download the free app to ask a question or listen on the web.
https://www.callin.com/room/worst-media-moments-XOtLUILKLV
If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning
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How Do Pro-Russian Ukrainians See the War?
For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com
Click here for the full interview with Luhansk Deputy Foreign Minister Anna Soroka: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/how-do-pro-russian-ukrainians-see?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
War in Ukraine did not start with Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Ukraine has been at civil war since 2014, when the US backed a coup to overthrow President Viktor Yanukovych. When the new post-coup government cracked down on ethnic-Russian Ukrainians and their Russian culture, Ukrainians in the eastern Donbas region rose up in rebellion, leading to the creation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Anna Soroka, joining the Useful Idiots from Ukraine, is the former Deputy Foreign Minister of the Luhansk People's Republic. She joins Useful Idiots to share what it’s like being on the other side of a civil war that has now escalated into a full-blown proxy war with Russia.
Sometimes discussions about war can become abstract, but it’s important to go “behind enemy lines” and hear from real people on the other side.
It’s a perspective that you don’t get to hear at all in the NATO states. Unless you follow shows like Useful Idiots.
Plus, watch our Thursday Throwdown where Biden completes his transformation into Trump as he kills Bernie's bid to stop the Saudi war on Yemen.
It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.
0:00 Intro and Katie's new hobby
1:32 The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board winners: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!)
4:48 Four food groups of news
14:39 Anna Soroka interview
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