Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Journalist and professor Christian Parenti’s latest NonSite (the Adolph Reed site) article, The First Privilege Walk , has, among other things, one of the greatest subtitles of all time: How Herbert Marcuse’s widow used a Scientology-linked cult’s methodology to gamify Identity Politics and thus helped steer the U.S. Left down the dead-end path of identitarian psychobabble. The article, which Matt...

Nils Melzer responds to the Julian Assange verdict on a special Useful Idiots Livestream. Nils Melzer is the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture; Human Rights Chair, Geneva Academy; Professor of International Law, University of Glasgow; Vice-President IIHL, and the author of The Trial of Julian Assange (https://twitter.com/nilsmelzer) Subscribe for extended interviews and to support independent journ...

He wrote and directed multiple classic, culture-defining American movies. He created groundbreaking documentaries, interviewing Putin, debunking Russiagate, and uncovering JFK’s murder. He won three Academy Awards. There was only one thing left for Oliver Stone to do: Become a Useful Idiot. Stone’s new documentary, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass , uses newly declassified and reexamined f...

When Professor Adolph Reed joins the zoom call, Matt welcomes him: “Hi, Professor, how are you doing today?” Reed responds: “I can’t complain.” Matt eyes him, incredulous. Reed smiles. “Actually, I can complain. And I’m going to.” Reed, author of the forthcoming book The South: Jim Crow and its Afterlives and host of the new podcast Class Matters, has a lot to complain about White liberal #resista...

*This week, we had tech issues during out international interview, so we had to reschedule for next week. Now enjoy your food groups.* Can you guess what eco-friendly-back-to-normal-Earth-loving-diplomatic Joe Biden is doing? That’s right! Reopening oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. We’re not saying Let’s Go Brandon, but we won’t yell at you if you say it in the comments. And while Joe and the D...

Well, it looks like there’s new information out there about Russiagate. Who knew? Your two favorite Russiagate addicts are back and feeling very vindicated. We watch as Adam Schiff, the Washington Post, and more slowly realize their facts were only conspiracy theories. Now we’re just waiting for a resounding “Great job, Matt and Aaron!” Aaron Maté of The Grayzone’s Pushback has spent years putting...

This week, Taibbi went down to Virginia to get Useful Idiot boots on the ground for the crucial election. Let’s just say it didn’t go as planned for Dems. What does this mean for 2022? 2024? What caused the disastrous loss? Was it messaging? The candidate? Bernie and the progressives? In our election wrap up, we cover it all, and if you’re hankering for more election coverage, see the full live el...

On this week’s show, award-winning journalist David Sirota justly rips Democrats for not only selling out the American people but for enabling Right Wing authoritarianism: “Democrats get elected promising to help people, promising various programs to directly help people. And then you get into power and you shield your corporate donors who don't want that change. You choose your corporate donors a...

Facebook is changing its name. The reason? They’re not just a social media platform anymore. They’re so much more! Definitely not the reason? Distract and distance from a whistleblower scandal, rampant fake news issues, and an evil reputation. No, really, it has nothing to do with those things… Activist and writer Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future , joins the Useful Idiots to discuss Th...

Subscribe for extended interviews at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Facebook is changing its name. The reason? They’re not just a social media platform anymore. They’re so much more! Definitely not the reason? Distract and distance from a whistleblower scandal, rampant fake news issues, and an evil reputation. No, really, it has nothing to do with those things… Activist and writer Evan Greer, di...

See the full interview at http://usefulidiots.substack.com “By the time Biden won the presidency, I was struggling to square what I was learning about the family's business dealings with the folksy image I had of him and his family. I just wanted to tell the story in full.” Author Ben Schreckinger dug up the history of a family dynasty and put it into his book The Bidens, which explores the Biden...

“By the time Biden won the presidency, I was struggling to square what I was learning about the family's business dealings with the folksy image I had of him and his family. I just wanted to tell the story in full.” Author Ben Schreckinger dug up the history of a family dynasty and put it into his book The Bidens , which explores the Biden family, Joe’s childhood, weird Delaware loyalty politics,...

We did Idiots Live this week instead of the Four Food Groups. Let us know what you think of it. “We're at the beginning of the fourth quarter.” This is what The Intercept’s D.C. Bureau Chief Ryan Grim predicts for the play unfolding in Washington: Will Biden get his bill passed? He analyzes the major players. The Dems. 48 of them want a bill that has free college and a whole bunch of other Sanders...

*We did Idiots Live this week instead of the Four Food Groups. Check it out here * “We're at the beginning of the fourth quarter.” This is what The Intercept ’s D.C. Bureau Chief Ryan Grim predicts for the play unfolding in Washington: Will Biden get his bill passed? He analyzes the major players. * The Dems. 48 of them want a bill that has free college and a whole bunch of other Sandersian provis...

Josiah Zayner wants to teach you genetic engineering. For two reasons: 1. He thinks it’d be awesome. And 2: It would hurt Big Pharma. “Gene therapies can cure and treat diseases,” he explains. “We can engineer animals and plants to make fuels and food and crazy stuff. The applications are limitless. We just need people working on it. And the only reason people aren't is because there's that knowle...

See the extended interview at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Josiah Zayner wants to teach you genetic engineering. For two reasons: 1. He thinks it’d be awesome. And 2: It would hurt Big Pharma. “Gene therapies can cure and treat diseases,” he explains. “We can engineer animals and plants to make fuels and food and crazy stuff. The applications are limitless. We just need people working on it. A...

During the first Gulf War, there was a transformation to an era of constant new news . The face of this change was CNN reporter and Useful Idiots Hero Charles Jaco. Viewers went from checking the news once or twice a day to constantly staying plugged in, anchors got famous, and the whole thing became a spectacle. Jaco’s response? “What the devil is going on?” Jaco, who’s the star of the weekly UI...

Subscribe at http://usefulidiots.substack.com During the first Gulf War, there was a transformation to an era of constant new news. The face of this change was CNN reporter and Useful Idiots Hero Charles Jaco. Views went from checking the news once or twice a day to constantly staying plugged in, anchors got famous and the whole thing became a spectacle. Jaco’s response? “What the devil is going o...

“The charade of statesmanship played out by George W. Bush and his enabler, Condoleezza Rice, as they wander the Middle East is a fitting end to seven years of misrule, stripped of power and transformed from monsters into buffoons. One half expects to see him stand up at the next president's inauguration and screech ‘ I’m melting! I’m melting! ’ as he sinks into a puddle of slime.” This was penned...

See the full interview at http://usefulidiots.substack.com “The charade of statesmanship played out by George W. Bush and his enabler, Condoleezza Rice, as they wander the Middle East is a fitting end to seven years of misrule, stripped of power and transformed from monsters into buffoons. One half expects to see him stand up at the next president's inauguration and screech ‘I’m melting! I’m melti...

Subscribe at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Matt lost his voice this week, so we’re unpaywalling this extended interview with Adolph Reed. We’ll be back next week with Monday Mourning and a new UI episode. Subscribers can still get their UI fix with Katie’s attempt at the Taibbi dating app, also out today. “But if that doesn’t happen, then that’s gonna be the end of American democracy in the nex...

Matt lost his voice this week, so we’re unpaywalling this extended interview with Adolph Reed. We’ll be back next week with Monday Mourning and a new UI episode. Subscribers can still get their UI fix with Katie’s attempt at the Taibbi dating app, also out today. “But if that doesn’t happen, then that’s gonna be the end of American democracy in the next year.” Does he mean Republicans taking the s...

“That was what the unity after 9/11 really concealed: who it was aimed against.” Next week marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. And as usual, Obama’s apology-free drone strikes, the domestic racism, the enhanced government surveillance, and curtailed civil liberties will be downplayed, if not completely ignored. “The longer this war on terror circumstance goes on,” says Spence...

Subscribe for the full interview at http://usefulidiots.substack.com “That was what the unity after 9/11 really concealed: who it was aimed against.” Next week marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. And as usual, Obama’s apology-free drone strikes, the domestic racism, the enhanced government surveillance, and curtailed civil liberties will be downplayed, if not completely ignor...

After 9/11, the US government jumped into war in Afghanistan, giving shells of reasons for their aggression. But at least they still gave reasons. However, after Bin Laden was killed in 2011, even the illusion of a reason for this war was gone. It’s been time to come home for a while. In an April interview with Matt, Adrian Bonenberger, author and veteran, predicted that Biden would execute the wi...