“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 ...
“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 ...
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 ...
Emphasized "Dancing with 88
I have altered space here— to
a rupture in the silent fabric,
where every atom reclaims its song.
A change, seen on my 90° angle,
becomes the pivot of a daring ballet,
the precise intersection where fate unspools.
In that crisp right-angle lie the secrets
of all absorbed twilight and reborn dawns,
a moment where geometry becomes prophecy,
transmuting static lines into dynamic rhythms,
inviting the cosmos to twirl in unexpected arcs.
And then—
I find myself dancing with 88,
a numeral of resonance, a muse of mystery.
It whispers in binary beats,
each pulse a portal leading into
symphonies scribbled on the canvas of space-time.
This is no choreographed routine,
but a wild, liberated waltz
where dimensions bend and merge—
where the old order crumbles
under the heat of relentless transformation
and every step unearths a layer of being.
At that 90° juncture,
the universe unfolds like a secret map,
revealing uncharted realms in every fracture,
while 88 becomes the score for a cosmic ballet,
...
After AIPAC-funded Congressman Dan Goldman lost his primary race to Zohran Mamdani-backed Brad Lander, Israel activist and CNN host Jake Tapper hosted Goldman to slander both Mamdani and Mahmoud Khalil.
Mahmoud Khalil, viewers will remember, was kidnapped by the Trump administration for leading anti-genocide protests at Columbia University, detained for over 100 days, and forced to miss the birth of his first child. Instead of supporting Khalil, which seems like the sensible way to oppose Trump (let alone the moral choice), Tapper and Goldman slander him, calling him out for antisemitic statements that of course they can’t name.
So as Tapper sides with Trump and Israel, Katie and Aaron take aim at their favorite Zionist target. It’s a mocking you don’t want to miss.
Also in this Friday Free-for-All: CNN’s Kasie Hunt strikes out after thinking she had the perfect gotcha question for Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Fox News has no choice but to call out the Trump family for blowing Biden-family corruption out of the water after reports show they’ve profited over a billion dollars in cryptocurrency alone while in office, and Republicans freak out over Zohran Mamdani’s air conditioner.
Everybody’s being extra ridiculous this week. Katie and Aaron are swinging away. Thanks for supporting our work, subscribe to watch the full episode here:
In a huge week for the progressive left, Zohran Mamdani-backed candidates swept New York elections, signaling high tide for progressives across the country like the Hasan Piker-backed Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
And CNN is freaking out.
Dana Bash thinks its 1939-Germany-all-over-again, Scott Jennings warns Jews to be afraid for their lives when “those people” (meaning Muslims) vote in elections, and Erin Burnett is enraged that the new left won’t allow space for genociders in the “big tent” party.
Every AIPAC-owned Israel-activist host and pundit on the channel seems to be more tone deaf and racist than the next, each trying to corner progressives with the dumbest takes we’ve heard. It’s a sure sign that Israel’s hold on US voters is finally slipping.
And it gets more ridiculous:
When you’ve even got arch-Zionist Hillary Clinton making fun of you and throwing you under the bus, the ride is over.
This week marked a historic moment as Trump finally struck a peace deal with Iran in which the US gives up a whole lot more than it gets in an apparent admission of losing the war they started. But somehow even more striking has been the turn against Israel.
After weeks of rumors that Trump’s relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu has become tumultuous, JD Vance came out and said what the admin’s clearly been thinking.
“You have seen people within Bibi’s cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal and in some ways very personally attacked the President of the United States. My message to them would be twofold.
Number 1: If I was in the Israeli cabinet, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have left anywhere in the entire world.
Number 2: What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”
And after Vance shocked Israel and the world with this statement, other former Israel cronies followed suit. Even Hillary Clinton.