usefulidiots

Click here for the full episode, including an extended interview with Branko Marcetic about Ukraine, Epstein & more, plus a chat about Vaush: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-how-the-us-caused?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Note: This episode was recorded before Russia invaded Ukraine. The interview with Branko Marcetic provides a lot of useful context on how we got here. When we look at the progression of this war, the Biden administration and cable news hosts will tell you that Mastermind Putin foresaw this six moves back in his chess game, and that the only thing we could’ve done was impose sanctions earlier. They won’t tell you about the US escalating tensions for years, stoking the 2014 coup and aiding neo-Nazi protesters for its own benefit. Now, two war-mongering countries, both with bloated militaries, whose people are neglected in favor of raising military spending, whose politicians profit from war, are back to causing destruction. And Ukraine is stuck in the middle. Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic joins us to breakdown everything happening in the region and the steps that led to Russia’s deadly aggression. See the extended episode for the full discussion on Ukraine plus a look at his in-depth reporting on Jeffrey Epstein’s death. It’s a dark day, but Useful Idiots will always keep spreading our anti-war message. Join us as we follow the news and keep the people of Ukraine in our thoughts. It’s this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out now.

See the free episode here: https://youtu.be/jP-dbOIsfmU See the extended episode with Rania Khalek here: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-rania-khalek-debunks?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Just in time to celebrate Hillary Clinton's work in bringing slavery to Libya, Onward Together announces special Valentine's shackles to get for your special someone. Who are you going to buy one for?

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/useful-idiots-q-a-RGhXyTULJt Katie and Aaron review the Sunday morning shows that they watch so you don't have to. If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

Click here for the full episode, including an extended interview with Rania Khalek: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-rania-khalek-debunks?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Breakthrough News’ Rania Khalek recounts her horrifying travel nightmare: “So I went to Cuba and it was terrifying… just like Marco Rubio said.” Then she laughs and proceeds to share an enlightening and inspiring story of a country perpetually beat down by the US that still continues to survive. Seeing the stellar healthcare, education, and public safety of a poorer nation only underscores that we’re doing something wrong here. She explains: “When you see how this poor country, which is poor because of the US, spends all of its revenue providing medical care and education for everybody, it really tells you something about the US system. I walked around all of Havana and not one person begged for money. That was astounding to me after being in New York. Plus, Rania, who’s currently based in Beirut, gives her on-the-scene takes on Syria, ISIS, and Ukraine mania. Subscribe now to hear it all. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.

See the free episode here: https://youtu.be/1sCPPLvy8iE See the full episode with Margaret Kimberley: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-how-obama-failed?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web MSNBC War Correspondent Richard Engel goes to Ukraine to film "ordinary citizens" training to defend their country from Russia. Little did he know they were actually a right-wing neo-Nazi militia training for war. And mainstream media warns us about trusting other news sources...

NEW THIS WEEK: 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/monday-mourning-q-a-stNtnQoJGU Katie and Aaron review the Sunday morning shows that they watch so you don't have to. If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

Click here for the full episode, including an extended interview with Margaret Kimberley: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-how-obama-failed?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Black Agenda Report’s Margaret Kimberley is fed up with the US progressive caucus. With zero politicians in Congress calling out Biden for escalating tensions with Russia or doing little more for progressive causes than sending hopeful tweets, she believes that US politicians who call themselves left are finally revealing their true colors. This loss of true progressives worsened under President Obama: “I think Obama’s presidency is one of the worst things to happen to Black people politically.” “No one talks about what he did to Libya. What he tried to do to Syria. When you see a story about migrants drowning at sea, that’s Barack Obama.” And yet, in the halls of Democratic Congress, he remains infallible. To Kimberley, if you’re silent on war mongering and profiteering, you shouldn’t be considered left. Plus, Margaret shares her thoughts on Joe Rogan, Biden’s terrible Covid response, and the fall of progressive news: “Would the Pentagon Papers be published today? I don’t think so. I think if there was some bombshell revelation about Ukraine, the New York Times and Washington Post wouldn’t touch it. We need people with more courage.” It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.

See the full episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/lky_E_tmPmY See the full interview with Katrina vanden Heuvel: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/full-interview-katrina-vanden-heuvel?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web CNN's producers are panicking! They've got a rogue agent! Brian Stelter's going off-script! And of course it's only to brown nose CNN even more than usual. The most pretentious thing since, well, last week when he thought CNN is more factual than Joe Rogan's podcast.

See the full episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/jeNr2YlfR4w See the full interview with Katrina vanden Heuvel: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/full-interview-katrina-vanden-heuvel?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Brian Stelter calls out Joe Rogan for not being as factual as CNN. Huh. We don't know what Joe Rogan actually says on his show, but we're willing to go all in on the bet that Joe Rogan couldn't even chip the surface of the misinformation machine that is CNN.

Katie and Aaron review the Sunday morning shows that they watch so you don't have to. If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

There is only one truly bipartisan issue in the United States Congress these days: increasing military spending. Every year it passes, and every year we spend trillions of dollars on weapons and soldiers. Money that could be spent on education, homelessness, and infrastructure all goes to the war chest. The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel joins the Useful Idiots to warn of the dangers of the US escalating tensions with Russia over Ukraine. It’s not about helping Ukraine, she explains. It’s about money and power. We’re at war to show that NATO matters. We’re at war to save Biden’s sinking poll ratings. We’re at war so politicians, lobbyists, and pundits can make money. “That is not a good reason for a soldier to be away from his family. They’re being used for symbolic fodder.” And while anti-war groups are speaking up to stop this, mainstream media is a lot louder. CNN, Fox News, and the New York Times are helping shape the propagandist narrative that a Russian invasion is imminent and US troops and weapons are needed to stop it. So don’t listen to them. Let’s find the facts and figure out for ourselves: are there peaceful solutions? Plus, attempted cancellations of Joe Rogan and Whoopi Goldberg, Trump’s biggest protest this country has ever seen, and please, don’t inject stuff into your penis. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. And stay tuned for the full interview with Katrina vanden Heuvel on Monday at 7am.

Read Aaron's article on the Ukraine crisis here: https://mate.substack.com/p/the-ukraine-crisis-sponsored-by-us Katie and Aaron Maté review the Sunday morning shows that they watch so you don't have to. If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

See the full episode here: https://youtu.be/tx1sXH3PmEo Little kids annoyingly ask: "Are we there yet?" Mainstream news hosts annoyingly ask: "Are we sanctioning Russia yet?" Here's a mashup from this week's live episode, in which Blinken goes on every news show to discuss the one thing Ukraine explicitly doesn't want: US troops.

Hear the ad-free version at http://usefulidiots.substack.com “But if Obama knew,” Aaron and Katie ask Status Coup’s Jordan Chariton, “why didn’t he go to Flint and bust Wall Street and the Republicans for poisoning the city? It would’ve been an easy political win.” “If Obama didn’t go after Wall Street for tanking the global economy,” responds Chariton, “what makes you think he would’ve done anything to go after them for a fraud financial deal that led to a city being poisoned?” Today, Chariton is breaking stories in Flint about Obama’s complicity, Wall Street’s greed, a state-government coverup, and the continued pandemic of Flint residents who are still dying. “I talk to people who are still getting rashes, whose hair falls out in the shower, whose children are growing with learning disabilities, people with early development of Parkinson’s. If you just look at the cherry-picked data, it seems like everything’s fine. These people are still in an 8 year pandemic. It’s not over.” But why don’t we hear about it? No one wants to run the story. “The hardest part of investigative journalism should be breaking the story, not getting outlets to pick it up.” Chariton laments. “But the amount of time and money is not worth the amount of clicks for the New York Times and CNN. Some, like Mother Jones, even asked: ‘Is there a connection to Trump?’” And, darker still, when he publishes his reports himself, it’s hard for people to see them. Youtube refuses to send video notifications even to his subscribers and they dampen every video and livestream. It’s the reason we couldn’t put “Flint” in the title and why Jordan thinks it might be easier to just start making videos about who’s feuding in the political punditry world. So go subscribe to Status Coup on Youtube. It’s real journalism that you will miss if you look anywhere else. One silver lining, however, is that the children of Flint may be reassured that the US Government just sent 200,000 pounds of new weapons to Ukraine. So they’ve got that going for them. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Plus, stay tuned for the full interview with Jordan on Monday at 7am. Peace out, Useful Idiots.

Hear us analyze the full article here: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/video-bidencheney-2024-a-reading?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web In the latest push to move the (big D) Democratic Party to the center, neolib (or neocon? we’re not sure) Thomas Friedman has an idea so crazy, it just might work. Nominate a Joe Biden–Liz Cheney ticket in 2024. And where did he get this spicy new idea? You guessed it: Israel! So does it matter that the Democratic electorate is clearly further to the left than either of these candidates? Or that Cheney is the daughter of a man who hurt democracy far more than Trump ever could? Nope. Not to Friedman. This is the best way to beat Trump, he argues. But is that his only motive? Is he also trying, like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama before him, to use an excuse to move the party right? Listen and share your thoughts.

Katie and Aaron Maté review the Sunday morning shows that they watch so you don't have to. If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

Click here for the full interview with Dr. Horne: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/video-why-the-us-is-a-bigger-threat?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “There’s an underestimation of how dangerous the United States government is right now.” Prolific and esteemed historian Dr. Gerald Horne, who holds the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies and has authored over 40 books, warns that the greatest threat to world peace is the US government. Whether taking down civil rights leaders, starting countless wars, killing foreign civilians, using imperialism to rule other countries, causing economic ruin for entire regions… need we go on? Just this week, we got to see the FBI cheer on Dr. Martin Luther King after aiding his assassination. Plus, measures were introduced in the Senate to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline…in another country. It’s US imperialism that would cause economic disaster in Europe. It’s not easy being the world’s policeman, but someone’s gotta do it. So join us as Dr. Gerald Horne unravels the danger of the United States government. But make sure not to speak up too much about it, or who knows what will happen. As the FBI wrote to Dr. King: “You are done.” It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. And come back Monday for the extended interview with Dr. Horne.

See the free episode here: https://youtu.be/G4QmnT10RfE See the extended interview with Mansoor Adayfi: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/tortured-guantanamo-survivor-on-living?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web To anyone dealing with trauma, Mansoor Adayfi shares an inspiring message: "My friend I haven't overcome my trauma. I'm fighting it every single day. It's a process. It's your choice. There is always a way out. And you have to keep moving." Watch the extended interview to hear Mansoor's sad yet inspiring story.

Katie and Aaron Maté review the Sunday morning shows that they watch so you don't have to. If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

Click here for the full interview: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-interview-tortured-guantanamo?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Mansoor Adayfi shares his harrowing story of being kidnapped and brought to Guantanamo: “Then I was dragged to my cage, naked. Six of the guards beat me and tied me with a hood and duct tape. It was messaging. When they took the hood off, I couldn’t see for hours because of the bright light and my eyes were swollen from the beating. “I was asking: Am I in Hell? Am I dead?” Fourteen years later, Mansoor was proven innocent and released to Serbia. He still lives with years of trauma and the social shame of being formerly-labeled a suspected terrorist. And after all that, our government does nothing to help him. Now, Adayfi is working to shut Guantanamo down with activism, paintings, and his book Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantanamo. The US government tries to hide and mask their torture of innocent people. It’s time for us to learn what’s really going on. Listen to Mansoor Adayfi’s story. It’s tragic, evil, and in the end, inspiring. Plus, terrible Dems love Dick Cheney, Tucker Carlson’s awful joke, and virtual reality cows. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. And stay tuned for the extended interview on Monday, in which Adayfi discusses his hunger strike, the cruelty of American torture, and how he’s learned to live with trauma.

See the free episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/fSV4hYEbdBE See the extended interview here: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-interview-david-cross-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Comedian, actor, and activist David Cross tweeted back at Andrew Yang's embarrassing Israel tweet with a simple response: Fuck all the way off. He sees Yang as only a lying politician who abandoned his morals for votes. Agree with him? Let us know your thoughts and go to substack for the full interview.

See the free episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/fSV4hYEbdBE See the extended interview here: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-interview-david-cross-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Comedian, actor, and activist David Cross explains why 2016 Hillary Clinton supporters were "blinded by tribalism" and how Bernie's policies would've helped woman "times 15." Agree with him? Let us know your thoughts and go to substack for the full interview.

Katie and Aaron Maté review the Sunday morning shows that they watch so you don't have to. If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

Click here for the full interview: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-interview-david-cross-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web The infinitely funny and smart David Cross stopped by for a chat and we couldn’t contain our excitement. You know him from Mr. Show, Arrested Development, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret (tip from Wilson: the best hidden gem show you’ll find), and his hilarious standup specials. And now you know him as a Useful Idiot. We talk comedy: creating a standup special, using audience feedback to perfect his set, and how he felt when Netflix took down an episode of w/ Bob and David for having a character in blackface. We talk politics: why Bernie would’ve won, why (some) Hillary Clinton supporters were blinded by tribalism, and why Andrew Yang should “fuck all the way off.” And for good measure we geek out about our favorite David Cross roles and bits. Come back Monday for the extended interview where we take a deep dive into his new special “I’m From the Future,” politics, and more. Plus, Joe Manchin and the crackhead daughters, military-grade snow removal, and naked but masked. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. And subscribe to hear the ad-free version. Your subscription goes to help the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press and independent journalists everywhere.

See the free episode here: https://youtu.be/RRUDJEsvoGY See the latest extended interview at http://usefulidiots.substack.com While Taibbi is off writing his great American (pandemic) novel, who better to join us than Assad's favorite Useful Idiot Aaron Maté?