Useful Idiots
Useful Idiots
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Useful Idiots@UsefulIdiots
June 09, 2023
Free preview: Oliver Stone Goes Nuclear
Click here for the full interview with Oliver Stone: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4126330/extended-episode-oliver-stone-goes-nuclear
Oliver Stone grew up in a world that hates nuclear energy: we heard horror stories of catastrophic “disasters” like in Chernobyl and Fukushima, subconsciously linked it to the nuclear bomb, even died under the trampling feet of its nuclear spawn in Godzilla and Them!
So what, after decades of mistrust against the nuclear boogeyman, made Oliver change his mind? “Fear. Fear and confusion.”
His new documentary Nuclear Now debunks years of propaganda, misinformation, and sensationalism, urging us to see that “nuclear energy is the only viable way to get out of this mess.”
It turns out, the documentary shows, deaths from nuclear energy are minuscule compared to any other form of energy: “The HBO series Chernobyl is a fear document,” he says. “It’s sensationalism. The World Health Organization and the UN did extensive studies and they came out...
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Sanctions Are a Form of Warfare
“Sanctions are a form of war. They’re economic warfare. And they destroy people’s lives.”
Joshua Landis (https://twitter.com/joshua_landis), Sandra Mackey Chair in Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, is one of the foremost experts on Syria. This week, as Syria, along with neighbor Turkiye, grapples with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Professor Landis joins the Useful Idiots to explain the deadly consequences that sanctions pile on to the damage.
“America likes to talk about all its precision bombing and hitting someone with a drone to avoid collateral damage,” Landis explains. “But sanctions? It’s all about collateral damage. Very little of it is targeted.”
But if you read corporate media outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post, you’d find a much different story. Both papers this week published headlines that were hastily changed when they realized they were being a little too truthful. See if you can tell the difference:
The ...
00:01:17
"Shameful" New York Times Changes Headline to Protect Sanctions
“Sanctions are a form of war. They’re economic warfare. And they destroy people’s lives.”
Joshua Landis (https://twitter.com/joshua_landis), Sandra Mackey Chair in Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, is one of the foremost experts on Syria. This week, as Syria, along with neighbor Turkiye, grapples with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Professor Landis joins the Useful Idiots to explain the deadly consequences that sanctions pile on to the damage.
“America likes to talk about all its precision bombing and hitting someone with a drone to avoid collateral damage,” Landis explains. “But sanctions? It’s all about collateral damage. Very little of it is targeted.”
But if you read corporate media outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post, you’d find a much different story. Both papers this week published headlines that were hastily changed when they realized they were being a little too truthful. See if you can tell the difference:
The ...
00:01:24
Free preview: Matt Taibbi Exposes Russiagate Bots
With Matt Taibbi’s Twitter Files and Jeff Gerth’s new in-depth reporting for CJR exposing the years of lies spread by Russiagaters, bitter attacks from outed journalists are rolling in.
Gerth and Taibbi, who come from the old style of journalism where you fact check your work and don’t accept government officials’ claims on faith, have each shown clear, indisputable evidence of disinformation campaigns pushed by corporate reporters. And since the so-called journalists can’t argue the facts, they dig themselves a deeper hole with more lies and name-calling.
Jeff Gerth has been working as a reporter for decades and published, in the very mainstream Columbia Journalism Review, a 20,000-word report on his findings, only to be called a liar and misdirecting magician in the most self-important article by Mother Jones’ David Corn (“The true media failure is that Trump got away with it and that articles like this one that you are now reading are still necessary.”) And possibly worse ...
00:54:34
Good to be part of the community. I think that Aaron and Katie do a brilliant job in these hellish times when such great in - depth research and reporting are essential.
The full Video is now up on our Locals Channel; Truckers Roost.
Our intrepid reporter, Mr. Fat Flabbie Doobie, reports on the war between Russia and Ukraine in the former Crimean Khanate:
By around 800 a.d. the Kievan Rus was the dominant force in Rus culture, but the Crimea, and all coastal areas, were dominated by nomadic Turkic peoples, with ancient Greek port settlements scattered along the coast. In 1222 Ghengis Khan invaded the Crimea and defeated the Turks there. In the years that followed, his Golden Horde would conquer the entirety of the Crimea and the Kievan Rus. In 1441, the descendants of Ghengis Khan established a new nation, the Krimean Khanate, encompassing the Crimean peninsula and the Donbas region. In the meantime the center of Rus culture had shifted to Moscow and had slowly pushed the Mongols out of the greater Rus. In 1783, Catherine the great finally defeated the Khanate (ruled by Khans of Ghengis' Giray clan) and annexed it into Russia. For the next 134 ...
She Defended Republicans’ Free Speech—And They Betrayed Her
Civil Liberties Attorney Jenin Younes on "the most severe free speech violation in American history"
Attorney Jenin Younes has a long career defending free speech. This has brought her across both sides of the political aisle, with Democrats and Republicans trading places on civil liberty abuses. After four years of defending conservatives against Joe Biden, she’s now leading the fight against Donald Trump and his administration as they censor, kidnap, and deport foreign nationals who stand up to genocide.
Useful Idiots: Now must be a really crazy time to be a civil liberties lawyer. Tell us what you do and how you are trying to fight for civil liberties under this administration in particular.
Jenin Younes: I have a focus on First Amendment free speech rights. I was a public defender in New York, which is a very left-wing career. I ended up going into the civil liberties practice of law because I was really opposed to COVID restrictions. I thought it might hurt the poor and working class the most. I actually started defending what would largely be called conservative speech, people who questioned the lockdowns, vaccine mandates, the vaccines themselves, and the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
For the last four or so years, I've worked mainly with conservatives, even though that's not really my political persuasion. Obviously, that's changed since October 7. A lot of the speech suppression that's been going on has been pro-Palestine speech. What is happening now under Trump is probably the most severe civil liberties and free speech violation of not just my lifetime, I would say modern history and possibly all of American history.
Useful Idiots: Why is the current censorship so historic?
Jenin Younes: Throwing people in ICE detention and putting them in deportation proceedings for writing op-eds is historically unprecedented. I don't think there's been anything like that ever. You had some during the Red Scare. There was some sort of echoes of that.
The fact that we are throwing people in ICE detention, tearing them away from their families, and deporting them out of the country for criticizing a foreign nation is so without precedent in this country that I really don't even have words for it. I don't know how many people they're going to eventually punish. I don't know if they're going to go after citizens next. I think they might because they've indicated they could. But what they're doing is chilling everybody's speech. That's a major concern in First Amendment law, that when people see others being punished for the same kind of speech they want to engage in, that they're going to say, ‘I can't risk that. I can't risk being deported. I can't risk going to prison. So I'm just going to shut up.’ And I would say that the ultimate aim is to entirely suppress any pro-Palestine advocacy.
Subscribe to hear the full interview with Jenin Younes on JD Vance’s “playbook of tyrants,” the age of Trial by Twitter, the turn of RFK Jr, a dangerous new legal definition of antisemitism, unmasking the doxxers at Betar, and so much more.
Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Tim Walz Says ‘Oops’ on Refusing to Break From Biden on Gaza
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Tim Walz Says ‘Oops’ on Refusing to Break From Biden on Gaza
With the latest draconian measures from the Trump Admin, former VP candidate Tim Walz has some regrets
“Should there have been a more definitive break with the [Biden] administration on Gaza specifically?” asks MSNBC’s Chris Hayes to former VP candidate Tim Walz.
Many will remember the Harris campaign’s stance on this issue during the months leading up to the election: when Kamala Harris was asked by The View if she would have done anything differently than President Biden, her response was “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” This was at the same time that national polling showed that a majority of Americans, not just Democrats, opposed Biden’s funding and facilitation of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
Months later, as the Trump Administration is kidnapping student protesters, hosting special visits for Netanyahu, allowing Israel to continue to destroy hospitals, and bombing civilians in Yemen, Tim Walz admits they mayyyyy have made a mistake.
He responds to Hayes’ question: “Well, I think we would have been clearer because a Harris administration wouldn't have us in the situation we are now. That wasn’t believed by a large number of people.”
Hmm, we wonder why.
Also in this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Rachel Maddow finally admits that Bernie was right about Democrats, Fox News’ Jesse Watters has the stupidest reason why he thinks Ábrego García is part of MS-13, a GOP Congressman thinks we should feel sorry for billionaires, and Biden makes a triumphantly racist return.
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