Click here for the full interview with Lee Fang: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/lee-fang-on-pentagon-leaks-twitter?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

*We recorded this episode before it was revealed that Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett had written Matt Taibbi a letter threatening him with prison time over his Twitter Files testimony. This makes our discussion with Lee even more crucial.*

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com

Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com

Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Build Back Better in Ukraine https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/build-back-better-in-ukraine?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Lee Fang, an independent and highly accomplished investigative journalist, is needed this week more than ever. His in-depth research and reporting, increasingly foreign to “intellectually lazy” corporate pundits like Mehdi Hasan, is a superpower for independent journalism in the fight against a mainstream media which has become little more than a traffic cop for the US government.

Lee explains the contents of the leaked national security documents (something people know very little about thanks to the NYT & co) and corporate media’s response, sharing the importance of one specific unearthed secret he found in the leak: Biden and national security officials, while publicly parading Ukraine’s advantage in the war, privately claim that Ukraine is losing rapidly to Russia. But instead of allowing Ukraine to negotiate peace, they continue the lie to “weaken” Russia and bleed Ukraine dry of any money they can suck out of it.

And then we get to the Twitter Files. Lee, who had exclusive access to Twitter documents, explains what he unearthed about a sweeping Pentagon propaganda campaign.

But the more the Twitter Files reveal about the government, the harder corporate media tries to bury them. After Mehdi Hasan’s embarrassing attack on Matt Taibbi (with enough name-calling and avoidance to make Trump proud), Rep. Stacey Plaskett sent a letter to Taibbi threatening him with jail time for committing perjury in his Congressional testimony. Lee’s response: “That is bullshit. What Matt Taibbi said in his testimony is 100 percent accurate.” He proves it point by point.

One bright side, however, is that Mehdi, whose flashy punditry needs no actual research, clearly chose the wrong people to go after when he attacked real investigative journalists. Lee’s entire career is highlighted by his willingness to go in the weeds with mountains of documents and sift through years of archives. So he decided to comb through Mehdi’s entire career. And what he found: multiple instances of plagiarism.

Watch the full interview with Lee Fang where we read Mehdi’s articles side-by-side with the originals he lifted and decide for yourself if Mehdi Hasan can be considered a journalist.

Plus, watch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Build Back Better in Ukraine.

And join the Absurd Arena live discussion board with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est in the Substack app.

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Click here for the full interview with Jacob Siegel: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/the-disinformation-hoax-of-the-century?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com

Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com

Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Matt Taibbi vs Mehdi Hasan https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/matt-taibbi-vs-medhi-hasan?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Read A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/guide-understanding-hoax-century-thirteen-ways-looking-disinformation

“Something monstrous is taking shape in America,” warns journalist Jacob Siegel in an article at Tablet:

America is ruled by a regime of censorship whose aim “is not to censor or to oppress, but to rule. That’s why the authorities can never be labeled as guilty of disinformation.” What is disinformation? It’s “whatever they say it is.” But, Siegel argues, “if the underlying philosophy of the war against disinformation can be expressed in a single claim, it is this: You cannot be trusted with your own mind.”

Since 2016, the US has pumped out Orwellian programs like the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act and Nina Jankowicz’s (Scary Poppins) Disinformation Governance Board, claiming that protecting citizens from state spying was jeopardizing national security. The US was losing “influence warfare.”

Make sure to watch the full Substack-only interview, in which Siegel weighs in on the Twitter Files, discusses the significance of Hunter Biden’s laptop story, and pushes back against the claim that they didn’t reveal any censorship.

Plus, watch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Matt Taibbi vs Mehdi Hasan.

And join the Absurd Arena live discussion board with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est in the Substack app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Congressman Ro Khanna: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/congressman-ro-khanna-vs-useful-idiots?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com

Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com

Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Even Trump-Crazed Media can't get it up for Indictment https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/even-trump-crazed-media-cant-get?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Congressman Ro Khanna joins Useful Idiots to answer the question once and for all: can we still call him, or any member of Congress for that matter, a progressive?

Aaron and Katie come ready with hard-hitting questions on the Ukraine proxy war, the strangling sanctions on Syria, Biden’s drilling hypocrisy, and more, challenging the corporate establishment’s propaganda, constantly shoved down the throats of progressive members of Congress.

But did the establishment get to Ro?

Watch the full episode as the interview turns to debate, with Aaron confronting the congressman’s version of history in both Ukraine and Syria; the idea that the US wants peace, even after multiple top officials have denounced a ceasefire as unacceptable; and the blind trust in a president who hasn’t fulfilled a single progressive promise.

Katie and Aaron don’t pull punches, citing facts and history when given the White House narrative, calling out the president’s lies.

In a time when sitting for an opposition interview is almost unheard of for US politicians, it’s a big deal to have Ro Khanna, the last willing member, on the show. Hopefully, other politicians will follow his lead and allow their policy to be challenged. We’re looking at you next, Adam Schiff…

Plus, watch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: even Trump-crazed media can’t get it up for the indictment.

And join the Absurd Arena live discussion board with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est in the Substack app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com

Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com

Click here for the full interview with Sharmine Narwani: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/the-middle-east-kicks-out-the-us?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté vs British Diplomat at UN https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/aaron-mate-vs-british-diplomat-at?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

“It’s the biggest lie I’ve ever witnessed in my life. I’ve never come across this amount of misinformation.”

The Middle East, known geographically correct as West Asia, is fogged with years of propaganda and misinformation, lies told to us from within and out. And from just reading western media, the perspective of the region is wholly different than what’s really going on.

But Sharmine Narwani, columnist at The Cradle, is actually there, interviewing people in Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, and more, discovering the real story of West Asia. And now she’s sharing her findings with Useful Idiots.

She explains the truth about the war in Syria and the propaganda coming out of it, lamenting that “a picture is no longer worth a thousand words.” She shares the unreported stories of the women in Iran and the truth about hijab laws. And she reveals a truth about Israel that isn’t told by the protective US media: “Israel is being hit from all sides. It’s so deeply fractured from within.”

It’s a chance to learn about a culturally-rich region, outside the veil of western propaganda. Watch the full interview with Sharmine Narwani on the US’s “no values” policy on dictators in the region, the truth about the morality police in Iran, and the lie of the US fight against ISIS in Syria.

Plus, watch this week’s Thursday Throwdown about Aaron’s testimony at the United Nations: “Aaron Maté vs British Diplomat at UN.”

And join the Absurd Arena live discussion board with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est in the Substack app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com

Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com

Click here for the full interview with Michael Tracey: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/ceasefire-is-unacceptable-the-us?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: "Suck on this!" – Thomas Friedman celebrates 20 years in Iraq https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/suck-on-this-thomas-friedman-celebrates?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

The US has finally stopped pretending to be pro-peace: with China proposing a plan for a ceasefire, Secretary of War Antony Blinken announced that stopping the war is unacceptable. And when CodePink’s Medea Benjamin called for Blinken to act as a diplomat instead of a war hawk, she was dragged out of the room by security. The US does not want peace.

So to dig deeper into the US’s aggression, we asked Twitter superhero Michael Tracey to help us unearth more evidence of warmongering weapons-dealers calling themselves politicians.

What he found was a 2014 interview with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, after a trip to Ukraine with best bud John McCain, unknowingly giving away the US’s entire efforts of regime change.

“With him being forthright about the decisive role that the United States played in ousting Yanukovych from power,” Tracey explains, noting that Murphy didn’t know this would become a hot topic. “He’s talking about it as though he’s recounting just an average day’s work that wouldn’t have any noteworthy political content.”

But he tells us why Murphy’s confession is so important: “If today somebody who was not a US senator uttered the same exact words that Murphy did in these clips to describe US conduct in 2014 in Kyiv, they would be accused of being a Russian propagandist.”

Watch the full interview with Michael Tracey on the state department-funded report that Russia is kidnapping Ukraine’s children, Ron Desantis pretending not to be a war hawk, and the House hearing on TikTok, where free speech and free market are only cool if the US gets to do it.

Plus, watch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: "Suck on this!" – Thomas Friedman celebrates 20 years in Iraq.

And join the Absurd Arena live discussion board with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est in the Substack app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com

Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com

Click here for the full interview with Christian Parenti: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/will-the-left-stand-up-to-the-deep?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Democrats' Matt Taibbi Meltdown https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/democrats-matt-taibbi-meltdown?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

“Why has the Left turned its back on free speech?” asks Christian Parenti, professor of economics and author of Radical Hamilton.

As Democrats censor Matt Taibbi over the Twitter Files, smear journalists Seymour Hersh and Jeff Gerth for reporting facts they don’t like, bury coverage on the Ohio train derailment, and vote for censorship bills in the name of stopping Putin, Parenti recalls a time when it was the Left who were the defenders of the First Amendment.

But now, as US leaders move deeper and darker into warmongering and censorship, lying to us at every turn to grow their power and wealth, Parenti instead asks: “When will the Left stand up to the deep state?”

The most recent move by the rich and powerful is the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank. “This is triage,” Parenti explains. “This is a tourniquet on a shattered leg, and that has to happen. You cannot let the US financial system collapse and not bring down the rest of the economy.” But while he agrees that the bailout is necessary in the short run, Parenti explains that the collapse is the fault of the capitalist system itself. Hear his analysis on how to fix it.

Plus, listen to the full interview on how the FBI intervened in the election, why liberal media is against free speech, and Christian and Aaron’s debate on Trump’s anti-war message.

Check out this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Democrats’ Matt Taibbi Meltdown where Useful Idiot Matt Taibbi goes to Congress.

And join the Absurd Arena live discussion board with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est in the Substack app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 interview with Glenn Diesen: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/europeans-protest-the-proxy-war?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: The Covid Lab Leak https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/the-covid-lab-leak?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

“You either fight to the last Ukrainian or you’re pro-Russian.”

As this motto of CIA-backed corporate media and politics strengthens, there is suddenly a glimmer of hope: people are beginning to wake up. Protests, no matter how “random” Rachel Maddow may claim, are growing across the world, demanding peace, not backing down in the face of increasingly intense propaganda.

Glenn Diesen, professor at the University of Southeastern Norway and author of the book Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics, joins Useful Idiots to report on the largely-uncovered peace protests and explain what’s actually going on in Ukraine.

“This is what we’re doing,” he says. “We’re shipping weapons in, we’re sabotaging all the peace agreements, and we’re accusing China of doing what we’re doing. I think it’s called projection.” The Chinese, if you ask the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman or MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, are prolonging the war to destroy the West. The truth, Diesen explains, is that China is the only country with a peace plan.

“I think that China is the best actor at the moment to rally the whole world and push for negotiations because the West can’t. We’re part of this conflict. We’re sending the weapons. We’re giving the intelligence. We’re celebrating every time we see a dead Russian general.”

Listen to the full interview, where Diesen explains why the Chinese peace plan is the most practical path to peace and who he believes blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.

Plus, check out this week’s Thursday Throwdown on the Covid lab leak and the propaganda around it on MSNBC and Fox News.

And join the Absurd Arena live discussion board with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est in the Substack app.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 interview with David Sirota: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/david-sirota-vs-pete-buttigieg?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Biden https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/brave-brave-brave-brave-sir-biden?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

For all the Pete Buttigieg-defending Democrats who say that the chemical explosion in East Palestine, Ohio isn’t the chief regulator’s fault because Donald Trump repealed the Brake Rule, and for all the Trump-defending Republicans who argue that the Brake Rule wouldn’t have helped this crash because Obama sided with the chemical lobby to narrow safety requirements, David Sirota has good news for you all:

You’re both right.

This story truly does span three presidential administrations,” Sirota explains. “The truth of this story is that this was a bipartisan effort to allow the rail industry and the chemical industry to avoid the safety regulations that needed to be put in place.”

Sirota’s work at Lever News sparked national attention and outrage over the deadly train derailment and pressured Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to visit the explosion site and promise to fix the rules. You can support their important work which is holding politicians accountable and saving lives.

Of course, not everyone supports independent media. As Politico reporter/Buttigieg stenographer Adam Wren tweeted, “David Sirota’s The Lever is fundraising off of the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment.” Because true journalism isn’t sponsored by the readers, but by the corporations that the corporate media claims to report on:

Subscribe to watch the full interview with David Sirota detailing the bipartisan collusion to peel pack safety rules, the sickening politicians attempting to downplay the disaster, and why journalists should work for their readers, not corporations.

Plus, check out this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Biden rode forth to Ukraine; and Rachel Maddow is so triggered by a certain politician, she refuses to even say her name in her very disdainful coverage of the Rage Against The War Machine rally.

And join the Absurd Arena live discussion board with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est in the Substack app.

It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

Watch the full interview with Chris Hedges here: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/chris-hedges-rallies-for-a-left-right?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat

Rage Against the War Machine Rally on Feb 19: https://rageagainstwar.com/#home

Chris Hedges substack: https://chrishedges.substack.com/

“If we do not build left-right coalitions on issues such as militarism, health care, a living wage and union organizing,” warns Chris Hedges, “we will be impotent in the face of corporate power and the war machine.”

Award-winning journalist Chris Hedges returns to the show to argue for a left-right alliance and explain why he’s speaking at the Rage Against The War Machine rally on Sunday.

The stakes are too high to not form a coalition: “We’re flirting with a nuclear holocaust.”

“The Democrats made a conscious decision to become the Republican Party,” he says. They consciously and very cynically decided to sell out the underclass for political expediency. But the damage they did, the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of families that they destroyed, we don’t talk about it. There’s just no accountability.”

But people, on both the left and right, who were terrorized by these policies, know who hurt them.

“They know what the Democrats did to their neighborhoods by militarizing police and creating internal armies of occupation. I teach at a prison and half the students wouldn’t be there but for Clinton. They know who did that to them.”

But fighting the powerful from just one side has shown not to work: “It’s much scarier for politicians when you have people from both sides of the political spectrum making demands than it is from just one side.” A left-right coalition can’t be bought off, it can’t be smeared as partisan. It’s a movement.

This is why Chris Hedges is joining activists from all across the political spectrum to rally this weekend to Rage Against the War Machine. If you can get to DC this weekend, your voice can make a difference.

Watch the extended episode where Chris Hedges discusses how the silence on the Nord Stream story is an indication of how degraded the media has become, how mainstream consumers may never learn the truth of Russiagate, and his disgust for the leaders in our government:

“These people are really frightening, amoral, they cover themselves in the veneer of Ivy League degrees and cloying snobbery, but they’re very limited intellectually. They’re drunk with their own power and hubris, and of course they have made a very good living being shills for weapons manufacturers. They’re pimps of war.”

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown where the White House takes a break from covering up the chemical explosion that devastated East Palestine, Ohio to cover up the other major story (not) in the news: Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s groundbreaking reporting that the US blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.

And join the Absurd Arena live discussion board with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est.

It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices