Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Latest Episodes:

Aaron Maté + Matt Taibbi vs The World Nov 12, 2021

Show notes

See the ad-free episode at http://usefulidiots.substack.com 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 in journalistic work to track down facts, read thick dossiers, and interview top suspects who were ignored by the entire US government and press. Now, he has answers. Our guess is that not many others on the left will be covering this one. So stick around with us and we’ll get to the bottom of it, the Useful Idiot way. Plus, Biden’s royal fart, Big Bird gets vaccinated, astronauts in diapers, and a tale of two penises: one terrible, one beautiful. It’s all this, and more, in this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. And stay tuned for the extended interview with Aaron on Monday. Why ads? Useful Idiots announced we’re donating a large portion of revenue to the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press to help independent journalists with things like legal fees. A couple ads means more money for them. But, to support them yourself and get an ad-free episode, subscribe today on substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

WTF Happened to Dems: Election Night Wrap Up Nov 05, 2021

Show notes

Subscribe for ad-free extended interviews at http://usefulidiots.substack.com 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 election special here: It’s a special election week edition of Useful Idiots. Check it out now. And for an ad-free episode that supports independent journalists, click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Biden's Charade EXPOSED with David Sirota Oct 29, 2021

Show notes

Subscribe at usefulidiots.substack.com for an ad-free listen and extended interview 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 and you betray your promises to voters. What you're saying to voters is that democracy doesn't matter. And if you do that, there's going to be a lot of voters who say, ‘Look, I just voted for you. I just used democracy to put you in power. You're saying we got to get Donald Trump out of here because he's not helping people. I have to support you only because of democracy. You're proving to me that democracy doesn't matter.’" If Dems keep wasting their time in power, they’re going to stop holding power and push people into the arms of people like Trump, which is what happened in 2016. Listen to this interview with the exceptionally interesting, intelligent and prolific David Sirota, and then listen to Meltdown on Audible. Plus, Dems are cutting everything Dem voters want in their bill, and so much more vaccine debating. And don’t worry, there’s some poop stuff in here too. Heads up: this week, we have begun donating a large portion of our profits to the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press to help independent journalists in need. To help this, we’re starting ad reads this week. If you want to donate to indie media (and not have to hear ads), become a subscriber today to hear our chat with David about an important study about the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism. And NO we’re not comparing Trump to Hitler. It’s all this, and more, on the Halloween episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Facebook Oct 22, 2021

Show notes

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, director of Fight for the Future, joins the Useful Idiots to discuss The Company Soon to Be Known As The Company Formerly Known As Facebook. We delve deep into the whistleblower’s findings, how Facebook has made free speech litigious, and its most recent laundry list of crimes against humanity. Plus what whistle blower Frances Haugen gets right and what she gets wrong. We think we found a guest more “absolutist” (whatever that means) about the First Amendment than Matt is. Evan asks the question: Can we see a world without Facebook? If the answer is yes, then it’s time to abolish it. Plus, a final word on Colin Powell and Joe Manchin obstructs the Carbon Offset Consideration Kickoff. Yeah, he’s a real COCK block. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. And stand by for the Substack-only episode in which Katie and Matt discuss potato chips and Evan discusses sex workers and the internet, which drops Monday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Exclusive: Biden Bombshell Book Author Ben Schreckinger Oct 15, 2021

Show notes

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 family, Joe’s childhood, weird Delaware loyalty politics, the shady business dealings of Joe’s brother Jim, his son Hunter and, of course, the 2020 laptop story. But what makes this book truly interesting? This tell-all book is inconvenient to both sides of the aisle because it’s just as critical of Trump, the Republicans, and even some Fox members (looking at you, Tucker). Schreckinger is an equal-opportunity offender, and that’s part of what makes The Bidens such a great book. As Matt Taibbi puts it: “This is reporting. This is what it looks like. I kinda forgot what it felt like. It’s a great book. And incriminating.” Watch for yourself. Can you get a handle on what’s actually going on in the family? Plus, drunk Kamala in space, Laura Ingraham’s kryptonite, and we take the Washington Post conspiracy quiz. 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
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Useful Idiots LIVE + The Final Act of the Spending Bill Show Oct 09, 2021

Show notes

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 Sandersian provisions. This really confuses us after they spent the last two elections trying to bury Bernie and his ideas. Grim explains: '“Hugo Chavez had this funny quote, ‘I saw a revolution coming and it was either going to wipe me out or I was going to carry out a revolution. So I figured I'd rather carry out a revolution.’” Maybe the Dems realized they were falling behind, so they (conveniently) changed their principles. The Villains. Manchin and Sinema. Do they really oppose the bill or are they just cast as the foils for the Dems who don’t really want to pass their own bill? The Republicans. Or are the Villains serious? Could Sinema switch to the Republican party? Will Manchin really defy Biden’s angry tirade: “Joe, you're going to take my fucking bill down. You're going to destroy my fucking presidency.” We’re closing in on the end of the infrastructure and spending bill saga. Maybe we’ll finally get some answers (and get to talk about something else.) Plus, Ryan talks the two Useful Idiots unfairly stuck in prison, Assange and Donziger. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

He Made the First Covid Vaccine. They Shut Him Down Oct 01, 2021

Show notes

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. And the only reason people aren't is because there's that knowledge gap.” But the knowledge gap is something that can be fixed, right? All we have to do is educate people. And that’s the mission of Odin, Josiah’s company that helps you become a scientist without huge grants and a PhD. And if regular people learn how to make this stuff for themselves, we can stop relying on pharma companies. “The drug market is so messed up. These companies are only trying to make drugs that make money,” he laments. “We literally have a cure for a disease that is not being provided to people because drug companies think they can't get the price they deserve for it. How fucked up is that?” Josiah’s latest venture, which got him heavily censored on the internet, was engineering a Covid vaccine. “We found that those who had the vaccine were protected. And it was pretty crazy because I was like, wow, that's amazing data, right? Why isn't everybody jumping on this?” He and his team created a DNA (easier and cheaper than mRNA) vaccine and proved its effectiveness. This was in the summer of 2020. But it wasn’t the big drug companies’ vaccine. So they suppressed him. And only now, over a year later, are other countries finally starting to use it. About time, right? It’s one of our most interesting interviews with a curious experimenter who wants to teach us all to be scientists. It’s worth a listen. Plus, new Russiagate docs, Trump’s toad penis, and throwing shit at politicians. 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
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

How the 24-Hour News Cycle Ruined Journalism Sep 24, 2021

Show notes

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 on?” Jaco, who’s the star of the weekly UI segment "Jaco of the Week,” discussed the negative impacts of unending news. “We should've put up slides that said, ‘Look, this is being brought live. The first draft of history is always wrong. Take this with a grain of salt and we'll try to sort this out.’” With the need to always have fresh news, time for fact checking went out the window. And since the early 90s, trust in media has plummeted. Jaco says that’s why. We also discuss the shift from focusing on in-the-field reporters to idolizing talking heads in the studio: “One of the things that really annoys me now is that you've got these platforms that can give you 24-hour news, but on the three major channels, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, it's degenerated into just talking heads rather than using the expertise of the reporters in the field. It's irritating as hell to those of us who did it for so long.” It’s a fun interview with our charming and funny UI hero. And check back on Monday for the extended interview where Charles discusses teabaggers, conspiracy theories, and the impending US civil war (sense a trend?) Plus, we find out just how much Dems and Republicans suck as Biden lets Haitian migrants get whipped and McConnell plans to let the government default. Ugh. 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
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Chris Hedges: "I Wasn't Surprised by 9/11" Sep 17, 2021

Show notes

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 melting!’ as he sinks into a puddle of slime.” This was penned by friend-of-show and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges back in 2008. And at the time, it seemed to reflect the opinion of George W. Bush among Leftists and Liberals. But now, he’s back. Liberals who used to condemn him now love him! He hangs out with Obama, he gives speeches denouncing Trump, he paints! Now that’s a thoughtful and cultured war criminal with whom we’d like to grab a Sauvignon blanc. In addition to blasting the grotesque rehabilitation of Dubya, Hedges shares his experience of 9/11 which he witnessed in New York City where he happened to be for a meeting with his then-employer The New York Times. He recalls those who jumped from the buildings who were edited out because “that mass suicide just didn't fit the narrative that both the media and the ruling elites were propelling.” When we asked him if 9/11 surprised him after years of serving and reporting in the Middle East, watching US bombs fall on cities, he responded, “That is how we communicate with the rest of the world. Huge explosions and death above a city skyline. That's how we have communicated for decades. And the hijackers learned to communicate back to us in the language we taught them. So when I saw the devastation, it was familiar. That was of course lost on most of the public who drank deep from that very dark elixir of nationalism.” Plus, the new Useful Idiots Wigged Moose Party announces a plan to ride in an armored pangolin and shoot Covid pellets at the Pharma companies refusing to share the vaccine. Maybe you have to see it to get it. It’s all this, and more (including a #JacoOfTheWeek), on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. And don’t forget to subscribe to hear the rest of the interview with Chris Hedges, which drops Monday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Adolph Reed has ENOUGH White People Explaining Racism to Him Sep 10, 2021

Show notes

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 next year.” Does he mean Republicans taking the senate? The creation of a new religion of Wokery in deference to Robin DiAngelo? Duke winning March Madness in 2022? You’ll have to watch to find out. Professor Reed has big statements and important messages for you in this informative and irreverent extended interview. He shares with Matt and Katie his perspective on the changing progression of civil-rights activism from policy-oriented protest to squabbling over abstract moral superiority. The pre-eminent scholar on this new ideology of course being Robin DiAngelo and her new book Nice Racism, which Professor Reed awards Matt the purple heart for finishing. It’s in this “book” (apologies to Norm Finkelstein for using the term) that DiAngelo calls for such BIPOC-infantilizing ideas as moral reparations, seeing white people collectively while seeing BIPOC as individuals. And this new teaching is quickly becoming the dominant theology. This, according to Professor Reed, is dangerous. “What we need,” he argues, “is having frank conversations with actual people in society, not mediated through mass media, about the problems and policies in their lives that confront them.” And he’s planning to do just that. In a Useful Idiots Breaking News Alert, Reed announced his upcoming podcast Class Matters, in which he and other scholars will discuss what society would look like if it were governed by and for the concerns of the working class. Listen to the interview now. Learn something, laugh, but please, whatever you do, stop telling Adolph Reed he doesn’t understand the depths and intensity of racism in America. Because we’re pretty sure he does. Plus, Matt and Katie break their silence on the Aaron Maté vs The Young Turks feud, and yes, they have some demands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Quince and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy