usefulidiots

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/awful-media-review-rmPQSdOhQu If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

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/awful-media-review-rmPQSdOhQu If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

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 and Useful Idiots announcements 0:59 The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board winners: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!) 4:44 Four food groups of news 26:03 Jemima Pierre interview

Click here for the extended interview with Medea Benjamin: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-why-are-us-progressives?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web 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 With the proxy war raging on in Ukraine and the new threat of nuclear war, CBS's Charlie D'Agata can't seem to contain his excitement for the upcoming armageddon.

Click here for the extended interview with Medea Benjamin: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-why-are-us-progressives?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web 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 With AOC (and the Squad by extension) being recently heckled for their support of sending weapons to Ukraine and prolonging the proxy war, Useful Idiots had anti-war activist Medea Benjamin on to explore the question: when did US progressives become pro-war? Were the protesters right to confront AOC? Can you disagree with someone on some issues and still stand with them on others? How can progressives become active to push a path to peace in Ukraine? Medea Benjamin answers.

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-aimJNTnYCs If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

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-aimJNTnYCs If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

Click here for the full episode, including the extended interview with Medea Benjamin: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-why-are-us-progressives?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web 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 With AOC (and the Squad by extension) being recently heckled for their support of sending weapons to Ukraine and prolonging the proxy war, Useful Idiots had anti-war activist Medea Benjamin on to explore the question: when did US progressives become pro-war? Benjamin, known for such bold acts as announcing “Here comes the war criminal!” as Donald Rumsfeld entered the White House Correspondents Dinner, is the founder of Code Pink, a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism. She discusses how building an anti-war movement was easier during the Iraq War, while the left now has become more divided and often in support of proxy wars like Ukraine. This, she explains, stems from US demoralization efforts: “During the Iraq War, we were able to build a movement that got hundreds of thousands of people out into the street. The problem is, that did not change Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, and so many people were demoralized. It made people question putting their energies in front of this war machine.” But Benjamin urges us not to give up hope. “We have to recognize that it is our absolute responsibility right now. And I do feel as I travel around the country that there are many people recognizing the need to go in front of the offices of their representatives and protest, to educate their friends and families, I think we are in the midst of building up again.” And, importantly, we need to “keep the pressure up on the Biden administration.” To educate yourself, your friends, and family, Medea Benjamin’s book and short video are great learning tools. And follow Code Pink to support their activism and their coalition Peace in Ukraine. https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/war-in-ukraine/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjPGCiTu4wU https://www.codepink.org/ukraine Plus, this week we announced two new features: Thursday Throwdowns: Our new mini-episodes premiering each Thursday to get your exclusive dose of midweek media madness. This week, we watched the Tapper/Biden interview. The Absurd Arena: The Useful Idiots discussion board for people who think you can talk back to a podcast. Share your opinions and get your questions and comments read on the show. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. 0:00 Intro and NEW Useful Idiots announcements 1:45 The Absurd Arena (the new weekly UI discussion board) 7:28 Four food groups of news 23:09 Medea Benjamin interview

Click here for the full interview with Wyatt Reed: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-us-journalist-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get access to extended interviews and bonus content here: http://usefulidiots.substack.com Wyatt Reed, a US journalist who writes for Sputnik, a Russian-state media outlet, is reporting from the front lines in Ukraine. His hotel was bombed by a Ukrainian strike just hours after he had arrived there — and while he was just steps away. While in Donetsk, he learned first-hand about the Azov Battalion, how they treat people in the region, and the fear and hatred they provoke. Prior to the Russian invasion, the US government and its media outlets like the NYT condemned Azov as Neo-Nazis. Now, they are celebrated and armed by the west. Wyatt Reed reports.

Click here for the latest episode with Wyatt Reed: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-us-journalist-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get access to extended interviews and bonus content here: http://usefulidiots.substack.com As Biden officially announces the launch of the student loan forgiveness, Democrats have been slowly restricting who actually gets access to the help from a bill which originally proclaimed to be for everyone. In order to do this, they need to do means testing, which restricts who qualifies, and a recent report showed that this research will cost $99 million. A lot of money to make sure some people will stay in debt forever.

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews and bonus content 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-roZRTVwAJM If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Let's get to 10k Useful Idiots! Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/UsefulIdiotpod 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-roZRTVwAJM If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

Click here for the full interview with Wyatt Reed: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-us-journalist-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get access to extended interviews and bonus content here: http://usefulidiots.substack.com “Welcome to Donetsk. You survived your baptism by fire.” Wyatt Reed, a US journalist who writes for Sputnik, a Russian-state media outlet, is reporting from the front lines in Ukraine. His hotel was bombed by a Ukrainian strike just hours after he had arrived there — and while he was just steps away. He shares with us his videos of the attack and describes what it’s like in the war zone. In Donetsk, Reed reports, the war is in every moment of daily life. He details the choice of which direction to face when choosing a seat at a restaurant, taking into account which way the bombs will come from, which way the shrapnel will fly. “This is something that people here just live through.” And yet western media refuse to cover these deadly parts of Ukraine. Donetsk, home to many ethnic Russians, is one of the breakaway republics that has fought the Ukrainian government since a US-backed coup in 2014. For them, the war didn’t start when Russia invaded this past February, but eight years earlier. Reed tells us that he can count the number of western journalists in Donetsk on one hand, and that Useful Idiots is one of few western outlets that would share his story. The people just want to be heard, he explains, telling the story of a man who “through tears, said ‘I wish that these so-called western journalists that are saying all this about the situation would have to spend just one day in my shoes.’” But these days, reporting on a perspective from the other side only gets you labeled a Kremlin propagandist. It is important to note that Reed works for a Russian state outlet when analyzing his reporting. But it is impossible to fully assess the situation if you don’t hear from both sides. And Reed is sharing the perspective of the people of Donetsk: “It’s really unimaginable until you come here and you understand this is what people have been enduring for nearly a decade.” Note: We apologize for the poor quality of the interview, wifi and war zones don’t seem to mix well. Subscribe for the full interview with Wyatt Reed. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. 0:00 Intro 0:28 Four food groups of news 15:47 Wyatt Reed interview

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Jake Tapper has moved to primetime on CNN. His first night he was crushed in ratings by Fox News and MSNBC. It seems nobody watched the poor guy. Except for us. We’re testing out a new Thursday short segment where we watch Tapper or another worthy tool with you, dissect the show, and see if there’s anything good inside. It might be fun, might be cringy, or maybe it’ll just burn our brains a little extra each week. We’re trying some new stuff out in the Useful Idiots community, so please let us know what you think. Until then, stay useful.

Click here for the full interview: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-col-doug-macgregor?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com In response to OPEC cutting oil production and increasing attempts of international "dedollarizing," Col. Doug Macgregor says, "A serious effort to replace the US global financial system has begun, where no one wants to buy our debt. And it's closer than we think. I don't think we're in control anymore."

Click here for the full interview: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-col-doug-macgregor?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com After years of calling out the Azov battalion as a Neo-Nazi militia, the New York Times now refers to them as "celebrated" in a heartwarming article about Neo-Nazis reuniting with their families. Col. Doug Macgregor says: "The US will use anything and anyone to win. That includes Neo-Nazis. That includes blowing up pipelines. That includes sanctions. They will leave no stone unturned."

Become a Useful Idiots for extended interviews and bonus content 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/crimea-bridgemedia-fails-JVdaUJPDQH If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

Click here for the full interview: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-col-doug-macgregor?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Who bombed the Nord Stream pipeline? Will we have nuclear war? These are today’s two big questions puzzling journalists (and not really bothering Western politicians, it seems). So who better to break down the walls than former army Colonel and senior Pentagon advisor Douglas Macgregor. “In this war, for which nobody voted, you have to set aside rationality,” Macgregor says. “We’re not dealing with reasonable people.” So let’s analyze what we do know. “I think it’s very clear that when President Putin began this campaign, he fully expected that when he demonstrated he was serious, he would have a negotiating partner. He thought Washington would be interested in negotiating an end to the fighting. I don’t think he appreciated the level of ideological commitment and hatred in support of a war with Russia.” And then comes the daunting prediction. Although he doesn’t think that Russia will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, he does think that the conflict could get far worse. “If ]Putin] has no success and no one will talk, I think he’s going to unloose hell.” Plus, subscribe for the full interview where Col. Macgregor explains Russian and Western war strategies, his views on “globalism”, and his prediction for the future of NATO. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. 0:00 Intro 4:12 Four food groups of news 17:23 Col. Doug Macgregor interview

Click here for Katie's redux monologue on Breakthrough News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a7d4Qa8M6I Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com As guest host on The Hill, Katie Halper filmed a monologue in which she criticized Israel as an apartheid state. Her segment was immediately censored and days later she was fired. On a completely unrelated note, the Hill, which has always allowed opinion pieces on Israel from both Katie and Aaron Maté, recently came under new ownership by media conglomerate Nexstar Media Group, who filled the position of Deputy Managing editor with (wait for it) the former media director of the Israeli Consulate General in New York. The Hill, now another corporate media outlet, joins the likes of CNN and Fox News as Israel propaganda promoters.

Become a Useful Idiots for extended interviews and bonus content 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/after-monday-mourning-zNUwrBNtQI If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning

Click here for the full interview with Assal Rad: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-iranians-protest?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com “The state is responsible. Period. There’s just no question.” Author and historian Assal Rad joins Useful Idiots to discuss the Iranian protests over the case of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after being detained by Iran’s “Morality Police” for not adequately covering her hair. “She shouldn’t have been detained in the first place,” Rad says. “The fact that there is this law, this dress code, that doesn’t allow women a basic form of free expression is the problem.” Amini’s death has sparked protests across Iran and the west, with politicians and celebrities weighing in from around the world. “This is a human rights issue,” Rad says. “But so were the sanctions on Iran during the pandemic. It’s problematic when you only cite human rights organizations and international law and the UN when it serves your purpose.” Today, crippling sanctions on Iran are starving its people, and women are affected the most. But Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber aren’t posting on Instagram about it. The West chooses when to call out human rights abuses against women and when to ignore them. “And that’s why outside powers having any kind of intervention is so problematic. They’re not doing it in the interest of those civilians, they’re doing it in their own national interest,” Rad says. “This is why listening to and supporting voices in Iran is so important.” Assad Rad’s new book is “The State of Resistance Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran.” https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/state-of-resistance/F3CF47C8AF8E27236C52AB473E120361 Plus, subscribe to hear the full interview on why Biden won’t reenter the Iran nuclear deal, the historic suppression of the Iranian left stemming from the Cold War, and how sanctions are crushing Iranian workers. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. 0:00 Intro 0:34 Four food groups of news 14:19 Washington Post's Snowden Hypocrisy 18:25 Assal Rad interview

Click here for the full episode: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-interview-how-the-west-provoked?r=je5va&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Dr. Abelow's new book: How the West Brought War to Ukraine: https://www.amazon.com/How-West-Brought-Ukraine-Understanding/dp/0991076702 Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Researcher and writer Dr. Ben Abelow, a scholar who lobbied Congress on nuclear arms policy, joins Useful Idiots to explain, as his new book argues, how the west brought war to Ukraine. “The goal of the US,” Abelow says, “is not to save Ukrainians but to degrade Russia’s military until they won’t be able to fight in the future. And while some say stopping Russia is a humanitarian goal, the way one would degrade Russia’s military is to keep an extended war going and fight to the last Ukrainian.” And if this seems like cynical Useful Idiots conjecture, watch Senator Lindsey Graham literally say that this is the US policy. And everyone applauds.

Click here for the full episode: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-interview-how-the-west-provoked?r=je5va&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Hey Useful Idiots, listen up right here, There's a new 80-year-old great-grandma and Utah State Senate candidate on the block this year. Her name is Linda Paulson, Her rap is pretty awesome. And it would be a win-win for Utah and the rap world if she loses. Keep rapping Linda.

Click here for the full episode: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-interview-how-the-west-provoked?r=je5va&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web How the West Brought War to Ukraine: https://www.amazon.com/How-West-Brought-Ukraine-Understanding/dp/0991076702 Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Researcher and writer Dr. Ben Abelow, a scholar who lobbied Congress on nuclear arms policy, joins Useful Idiots to explain, as his new book argues, how the west brought war to Ukraine. Abelow analyzes the history of this cold war, the aggression by each side, and the hypocrisy of the argument that Ukraine has a sacrosanct right to join NATO. “The right to join NATO is the right to place a western military arsenal on Russia’s border. If Russia made a military alliance with Canada or Mexico, US leaders would not be talking about their right to do so.”

Become a Useful Idiots for extended interviews and bonus content 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-ZmdgVTKFQy If it's Monday Morning, it's #MondayMourning