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 Click here for the full interview with locomotive engineer Michael Paul Lindsey and host of Working People Maximillian Alvarez: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-union-joe-biden?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Congress and Joe Biden are pushing through a contract backed by the rail companies and rejected by workers. Michael Paul Lindsey, a locomotive engineer for Union Pacific, and Maximillian Alvarez, editor in chief of the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People, join us to explain why this standoff is a dangerous step backward for all working people. “The rail carriers are going to take it as a sign that they can keep doing what they’re doing and we are all going to be worse off for it.” For the rail workers, this has included denying even a single sick day. “Gradually over the years they got tighter and tighter and stingier until it became you’re straight up asking for permission. They believe that they own a right to your life 24/7.” And ‘Union Joe’ Biden, who calls himself a pro-labor president, continues to side with the companies. “This is what happens when the reigning philosophy is to eliminate the cost of treating your workers like human beings. If you treat workers like faceless meatbags and no one stops you, you can exploit the shit out of them.”

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-moments-KTWcPWnEiP 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 Click here for the full interview with locomotive engineer Michael Paul Lindsey and host of Working People Maximillian Alvarez: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-union-joe-biden?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Congress and Joe Biden are pushing through a contract backed by the rail companies and rejected by workers. Michael Paul Lindsey, a locomotive engineer for Union Pacific, and Maximillian Alvarez, editor in chief of the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People, join us to explain why this standoff is a dangerous step backward for all working people. “The rail carriers are going to take it as a sign that they can keep doing what they’re doing and we are all going to be worse off for it.” For the rail workers, this has included denying even a single sick day. “Gradually over the years they got tighter and tighter and stingier until it became you’re straight up asking for permission. They believe that they own a right to your life 24/7.” And ‘Union Joe’ Biden, who calls himself a pro-labor president, continues to side with the companies. “This is what happens when the reigning philosophy is to eliminate the cost of treating your workers like human beings. If you treat workers like faceless meatbags and no one stops you, you can exploit the shit out of them.” And corporate media, doing what it does best, all but blames the workers, warning viewers that a rail strike could mean economic catastrophe and cripple the economy — ignoring the crippling conditions the workers face. During the interview, news broke that a Congressional proposal for seven sick days, a meek bill that would do the bare minimum to help workers, would fail. Michael Paul, who’s worked 17 years for the rail industry, laments: “Anyone who works for a living just lost ground on better pay and benefits. You lost today.” So how do we fight for workers’ rights? “This is such a systemic problem for working people and we cannot rely on politicians to just bequeath us some sort of solution to this. Working people need to band together and assert their needs as an independent working class.” Subscribe for the full interview with Michael Paul and Max. Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown on how the US decides to censor itself (but only when it accidentally tells the truth). It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. 0:00 Intro and Useful Idiots announcements 0:43 The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board winners: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!) 4:42 Four food groups of news 13:34 Michael Paul Lindsey and Maximillian Alvarez interview

Click here for Part 2 with Norm Finkelstein: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/norm-finkelstein-part-2-ill-burn?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 In Part 2 of the interview, Norman X Finkelstein previews his new book, "I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It," which unleashes his fiery analysis on identity politics and President Obama. To write it, he first had to do some mandatory reading from the experts in those fields.

Click here for Part 2 with Norm Finkelstein: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/norm-finkelstein-part-2-ill-burn?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 In Part 2 of the interview, Norman X Finkelstein previews his new book, "I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It," which unleashes his fiery analysis on identity politics and President Obama. To write it, he first had to do some mandatory reading from the experts in those fields. “I felt in order to write [the book],” Norm tells us, already exasperated, “I should sit down and read this new leftist cancel culture. So I sat down, I read Ta-Nehisi Coates, I read Kimberley Crenshaw, I read Ibram X Kendi, I read Robin DiAngelo, and it’s impossible not to conclude that this stuff is intellectually vacuous and worthless.” But it isn’t meaningless in today’s politics. Far from it: “My conclusion was that identity politics is fundamentally a weapon of the Democratic party to derail, deflect, and diffuse a radical class-based politics.”

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/terrible-media-moments-emAGOnxHcJ 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 In Part 2 of the interview, Norman X Finkelstein previews his new book, "I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It," which unleashes his fiery analysis on identity politics and President Obama. To write it, he first had to do some mandatory reading from the experts in those fields. “I felt in order to write [the book],” Norm tells us, already exasperated, “I should sit down and read this new leftist cancel culture. So I sat down, I read Ta-Nehisi Coates, I read Kimberley Crenshaw, I read Ibram X Kendi, I read Robin DiAngelo, and it’s impossible not to conclude that this stuff is intellectually vacuous and worthless.” But it isn’t meaningless in today’s politics. Far from it: “My conclusion was that identity politics is fundamentally a weapon of the Democratic party to derail, deflect, and diffuse a radical class-based politics.” Norm, a classical scholar who understands Left history like the back of his hand, shares proof of his analysis when he quotes Leon Trotsky, who “talked about all these people who pretend to be radical, but when a moment of truth comes, you see their real colors.” “I felt that moment of truth came with the Bernie Sanders campaign. Crenshaw, Coates, Angela Davis, all these people went out and started to attack Bernie Sanders. They all, in the moment of truth, backed the Democratic party establishment and sought to derail and discredit the Bernie Sanders candidacy.” He goes on, even more fired up here, to take down the one politician who is so brazen to flaunt that he won an election by standing for nothing, the “hollow vessel” known as Barack Obama. Norm’s taking no prisoners, and you’re not going to want to miss it. It’s Part 2 of Norm Finkelstein on Useful Idiots. Check it out. 0:00 Part 1 of the Norm Finkelstein interview begins 28:50 If you heard the free version of Part 1 on Nov 11, the interview continues at 28:50.

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 This Thanksgiving, Thursday Throwdown (your dose of midweek media madness) is free to all, but don’t worry, it’s just as terrible as ever. Secretaries of state Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice went on The Problem with Jon Stewart to continue their lies of the wars, destruction, slave trade, and terrorism they helped sponsor. And it’s safe to say we now have a problem with Jon Stewart. After a career of calling out the US war machine for its lies and illegal invasions, Stewart suddenly chooses not to challenge any claims made by Clinton or Rice, instead giving them a new platform to prop up the military industrial complex, only further enriching themselves. We watch (too much of, perhaps?) the hero-tanking interview and, as Useful Idiots do best, mock them as much as humanly possible. And speaking of trailblazing women, MSNBC salutes feminist icon Nancy Pelosi by talking only about her clothes and superficial actions. We make fun of them too. It’s our Thursday mini-episode. Let us know in the comments what corporate media monologues, interviews, or anything else you want to see on the next Thursday Throwdown. Enjoy this free edition, and tune back to substack tomorrow for part 2 of the Norman Finkelstein interview.

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/twitter-fever-media-roundup-kjjaCZWdwo 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 Click here for the full interview: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-inside-the-ukraine?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Journalist Kit Klarenberg’s latest article at the Grayzone, “FTX partnership with Ukraine is latest chapter in shady Western aid saga,” sheds new light on the money-grabbing schemes emerging from the Ukraine proxy war. The report details how Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX, the crypto exchange that saw its valuation implode from $32B to $0 in a single day, used a Ukraine fundraiser to raise $60 million from donors. This was followed by the mass selloff of FTX currency and a declaration of bankruptcy from the scam company. This raises the question: where did the money for Ukraine go? Kit Klarenberg joins the Useful Idiots with the scoop. He, along with his fellow Grayzone writers, has been the subject of multiple attacks for uncovering stories like this and his other new piece: “Leaked documents: British spies constructing secret terror army in Ukraine.” It seems that when government officials and the corporate media don’t want the truth uncovered, they don’t argue against the story but make personal attacks against the writer as character assassination. And sadly, it works all too often. One such corporate official, Useful-Idiot-favorite of Scary Poppins fame Nina Jankowicz, went after Klarenberg on Twitter. Kit describes the online beef in the extended episode. (turns out we can’t see those tweets because…we got blocked) Subscribe to hear the full interview, where Klarenberg reveals plots from UK operatives to blow up Ukrainian bridges, more Western destruction of peace talks, and how the US uses Britain to spread propaganda. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Plus, catch our Thursday Throwdown on the near-nuclear Armageddon, Trump’s big announcement, and Aaron getting canceled by Olena Zelenska. 0:00 Intro and Useful Idiots announcements 2:01 The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board winners: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!) 4:06 Four food groups of news 19:40 Kit Klarenberg interview

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 extended interview with Norm Finkelstein: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-norm-finkelstein?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web When Barack Obama tweets that we need to vote for people who look like us and represent us, Norm Finkelstein can only laugh. Nancy Pelosi? One of her facelifts was more money than Norm has made in his entire life. Norm shares the true leftist tradition from revolutionaries like Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky and explains why they are so important, especially today.

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 extended interview with Norm Finkelstein: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-norm-finkelstein?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Norman “X” Finkelstein returns to Useful Idiots, fired up and with a scathing critique of Bernie Sanders and The Squad. He begins with a definition of radicalism and The Left, citing the writing of Rosa Luxemburg: “The whole job of The Left is to constantly point out the conflict of interest between the ruling elite, the capitalist class, and yourself. To constantly point out: ‘Their interests are not your interests. Don’t be fooled.’” Historically, he says, Bernie Sanders has upheld this left tradition, calling out the crooks who steal your money. But when it came to Ukraine, “the bunch of crooks metamorphosed into a band of angels. You’re telling me the same people who are cheating you day in and day out, stealing your wealth, stealing your labor, those same people are suddenly heartbroken by what’s happening to the Ukrainian people?” Norm does't pull any punches in his assessment of The Squad and Sanders: “The day the squad and Bernie voted for war credits for Ukraine, that whole progressive enterprise turned into a rotting corpse.”

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-IpodBxuCpD 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 Click here for the extended interview with Norm Finkelstein: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-norm-finkelstein?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Norman “X” Finkelstein returns to Useful Idiots, fired up and with a scathing critique of Bernie Sanders and The Squad. He begins with a definition of radicalism and The Left, citing the writing of Rosa Luxemburg: “The whole job of The Left is to constantly point out the conflict of interest between the ruling elite, the capitalist class, and yourself. To constantly point out: ‘Their interests are not your interests. Don’t be fooled.’” Historically, he says, Bernie Sanders has upheld this left tradition, calling out the crooks who steal your money. But when it came to Ukraine, “the bunch of crooks metamorphosed into a band of angels. You’re telling me the same people who are cheating you day in and day out, stealing your wealth, stealing your labor, those same people are suddenly heartbroken by what’s happening to the Ukrainian people?” Norm does not pull any punches in his assessment of The Squad and Sanders: “The day the squad and Bernie voted for war credits for Ukraine, that whole progressive enterprise turned into a rotting corpse.” Plus, subscribe to hear the full interview where Norm dissects the midterm election results, the Israel election, and the weaponization of identity politics. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. 0:00 Intro and Useful Idiots announcements 0:33 The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board winners: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!) 5:06 Four food groups of news 14:11 Norm Finkelstein interview

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 latest episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-leak-us-government?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web This Sunday on the corporate media shows, it was all election madness all the time. And more importantly, as Rania Khalek points out, not one mention of the nuclear proxy war raging in Ukraine. Has the US gotten bored of pretending to care about Ukrainians while escalating war and breaking peace talks? Do celebrities and politicians no long want to send billions and billions of dollars in weapons to keep the war raging on? Maybe the polling and punditry is just too much fun to talk about anything else.

Watch the midterm returns with The Katie Halper Show and guest appearances from Matt Taibbi, Olayemi Olurin & Ross Barkan. ***Please support The Katie Halper Show *** For bonus content, to support independent media and to help make this program possible, please join us on Patreon at - https://www.patreon.com/thekatiehalpershow Follow Katie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kthalps

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: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-leak-us-government?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web It's Jim Clyburn vs Jim Clyburn! Jim Clyburn, the most progressive member of Congress according to Jim Clyburn, takes on Jim Clyburn after Jim Clyburn said Republicans winning would mean the end of the world. And Jim Clyburn was NOT happy about it. Katie and Rania watch the Fox News interview as the South Carolina goes back and forth on what is equivalent to the Holocaust, or maybe slavery, or who is Hitler, or whoever said the world is ending. Hold on tight.

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-egKdFssRsa 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-egKdFssRsa 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 Click here for the full interview: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-leak-us-government?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “This isn’t a Biden story. It’s not a Trump story either. This is a national security state story.” This week Ken Klippenstein and Lee Fang at The Intercept broke a huge story: Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation. Ken joins Useful Idiots to share how he uncovered the bombshell revelation, what it tells us about our powerful security state, and his predictions for the dark future of information censorship. The story, which reveals collusion between tech companies and the US government, massive CIA incompetence, and Orwellian levels of surveillance, is not a partisan issue, Klippenstein argues. It’s an issue of national security. And yet looking at the headlines from corporate media following The Intercept’s publishing, there was immediate political spin. The Washington Post told its readers that only conservatives would “go after DHS counter-disinformation work,” which means good Democrats should celebrate speech censorship. Meanwhile, as Ken writes in his story, Republicans claim we’ve defeated disinformation by taking down Biden’s disinformation governance board, ignoring that the same DHS tactics happened under Trump. “It’s crammed into this partisan framework,” he explains, “that doesn’t reflect the reality that when someone’s in power they tend not to care about free speech.” And the scariest part, Ken tells us, “this is not formalized in statute. There's no law saying ‘we're going to create the disinformation team.’ They can do this administratively without sign off from Congress. And they probably have beyond what I'm able to report because I'm only able to get details that my sources have access to. We don't know what else might exist.” It’s a huge story that, as with most issues you see on Useful Idiots, is dangerously underreported. Subscribe to hear the full interview with Ken Klippenstein as he shares the government secrets we know about and what still remains covered up. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. 0:00 Intro and Useful Idiots announcements 1:10 The Absurd Arena (UI discussion board winners: get your comments and questions read on the show each Tuesday!) 4:00 Four food groups of news 16:06 Stoned moments with Joe Biden 19:19 Ken Klippenstein interview

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 See the latest episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-us-threatens-haiti?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Chris Sununu, known familiarly to friends as Cuck, was called a Chinese communist sympathizer and supporter of terrorists by NH senate candidate Donald Bolduc. In return, Cuck is endorsing Bolduc for senate.

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 See the latest episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-us-threatens-haiti?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Useful Idiots were "Monday Mourning" the terrifying Sunday news shows that we watch so that you don't have to, and to get into the spirit, threw together the most last-minute costumes we could find. And now, even though Halloween is over, much scarier days are ahead of us: corporate media election coverage....

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