Useful Idiots

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It’s been a while since we’ve covered the proxy war in Ukraine, so who better to give us an update than Useful Idiots fan-favorite Lev Golinkin, the Ukrainian-American journalist and author of A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka.

The big takeaway: remember Ukraine’s whole neo-Nazi problem? It’s gotten worse.

Lev explains how this began:

Lev Golinkin: Right when Zelensky came to power, a TV company in Ukraine wanted to set up something called the Telemost [Russian for TV bridge]. It’s an echo back to the Soviet days in the 80s where you had television studios in Moscow and television studios in America and everyday people in the studios could talk to each other. The whole idea was for them to try to see each other as human beings.

So there was somebody who wanted to revive that and do it between Kiev and Moscow. Andriy Biletsky, the main neo-Nazi who is being whitewashed right now, put out a short video telling Zelensky, ‘You have until tomorrow morning to cancel this, or if not, we’re going to have our next conversation in your office.’

Within a half hour, the program was canceled.

Lev reveals why Biletsky wanted war with Russia, and why he can be considered the real winner of the war:

“If there’s one guy from this war who is winning,” he tells us, “it’s Beletsky. He went from being a street gang leader, a thug, to having untold number of men at his command, to being a general, and to being blown by Reuters and by other media institutions”

So now, with the nation’s top neo-Nazi installed as brigadier general, Zelensky, whose own family died in the Holocaust, is using his power to give a re-burial ceremony and high honors to a man named Andriy Melnyk, a World War II Nazi collaborator who helped hunt down Ukrainian Jews in the Holocaust.

In case you had any doubts, Fraudfather Jonathan Greenblatt and the ADL have been completely silent on this.

To see the full interview where we watch Reuters’ (as Lev himself describes it) metaphorical “blowing” of the neo-Nazi Biletsky, as well as Zelensky’s former press secretary reveal some huge secrets about Zelensky to Tucker Carlson, please subscribe here!

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We also speak with Irish activist Cat Graham, who journeyed to Gaza this month on the Global Sumud Flotilla, and was kidnapped and detained by Israeli forces. In a now infamous video posted by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Cat can be seen bravely chanting ‘Free, Free Palestine!’ at Ben Gvir, before being violently wrestled to the ground.

She joins us to share the story of Israel’s brutal treatment of global activists and the far worse and less-televised treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

It’s a Useful Idiots double header: subscribe to watch the full episode as well as our Friday Free-for-All: AIPAC PANICS As It Realizes It’s Losing Control Over Voters

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This week at the Emmy Awards for News, student journalist Santiago Campos won CBS’s Mike Wallace Memorial Scholarship. Here’s what he said in his speech:

“While I want to thank CBS News for funding this generous gift towards my education, I want to also acknowledge how the recent direction of the outlet stains the legacy of Mike Wallace.

As corporate elites take hold over the very pipes through which our information flows, journalism that serves the people becomes increasingly harder to come by, yet ever more crucial. And what people want is the truth.

So if at any time you hesitate to utter the word genocide or remain silent in the face of blatant lies, remember to ask yourself: who is this for? I hope you choose us.”

There is currently an existential battle over the future of journalism, with pro-Israel billionaires like the Ellisons and Jeff Bezos attempting to suck up media outlets and install pro-Israel activists like Bari Weiss, Jake Tapper, and Jeffrey Goldberg into positions of power, taking on the rapidly accelerating explosion of independent media, which has brought on the mass exodus of viewers from corporate news outlets like CNN, Fox News, and the New York Times.

With young journalists like Santiago boldly taking the side of independent journalists, the corporate elites may not stand a chance.

Also in this Friday Free-for-All: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin thinks he can shut down international flights to sanctuary cities during the World Cup, Fraudfather/ADL head Jonathon Greenblatt tries to talk away a mass shooting at a San Diego mosque, and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz wants Democrats to get credit for being more Israel-first than Donald Trump.

It’s a sickening week as always, but with a bright twist that gives us some hope. Keep on supporting independent journalism and catch the full episode here:

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After starting two regime change wars in Venezuela and Iran, Donald Trump is now ramping up his campaign to overthrow the government of Cuba, and in the process impose serious misery on its people by tightening his blockade and deepening the country’s humanitarian crisis.

And much like in Venezuela and Iran, there are suddenly reports of an imminent threat from Cuba, the tiny, starving island off the coast of the United States: Members of the Trump administration have begun claiming that Cuba has hundreds of Russian and Iranian drones that they will use to attack Florida.

It seems to be the same exact playbook each time: claim an “imminent” threat, increase sanctions, take out the leader, and start a regime-change war.

And as if to prove to the world that this is indeed the game plan, the CIA just made an uncharacteristically overt trip to Cuba.

So to discuss the humanitarian crisis and potential regime-change war in Cuba, we’re speaking with Peter Kornbluh, Director of Cuba and Chile Documentation Projects for the National Security Archive, who has been unearthing classified documents showing the reality of US foreign policy in Cuba.

In his latest piece, The CIA Goes to Cuba, Kornbluh examines the CIA’s aggressive operation in Cuba, including CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s “do or die” ultimatum to the Cuban government. Kornbluh reveals documentation that proves US officials “don't believe Cuba is an imminent threat, or actively planning to attack American interests,” and explains how Marco Rubio seeks to benefit from a false flag attack.

It’s the latest in Trump’s “empire-building” scheme that now spans across the globe, all fueled by neocons like Marco Rubio, and would be a sizable “Cold War trophy” to boost Trump’s imperial ego. Watch and share Peter Kornbluh’s full analysis (ad-free version):

This week, Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer went on Newsmax, the furthest to the right a cable news network can be, to discuss the US’s sudden increased aggression against Cuba, and proceeded to say the wrong thing so many times that even the Newsmax host Rob Finnerty sounded like he could be hosting Useful Idiots.

Read this excerpt from the interview, then we’ll talk:

Finnerty: This Cuba thing -- people struggle with how this is America first when gas is $4.55 a gallon right now.

Rep. Comer: You’re absolutely right, but at the end of the day, Cuba has always been a national security threat. We’ve been negotiating with Cuba since before I was born! The negotiations have gone nowhere, Cuba’s leader is at the end of his lifespan, the Cuban people clearly, unlike maybe the Iranian people, want a regime change in Cuba.

Finnerty: But do you really think Cuba’s a threat?

Rep. Comer: If some country went in and loaded Cuba with the same drones Iran had when we first started bombing Iran, then yes I think it could be a threat. The CIA’s on the ground as we speak. We’ve to be on guard because of the new types of warfare that’s out there with these new drones and technology.

Finnerty: I’ll be honest, to me this just sounds like we’re trying to make the case to attack Cuba. I don’t buy it. It sounds like a false flag operation.

Katie and Aaron have about a million ways to mock this dude.

First, who has been negotiating with Cuba? The US has famously refused to negotiate, choosing instead to strangle them with an embargo and destroy their economy with murderous sanctions. That’s what could be called the exact opposite of negotiation.

Second, when he says Cuba’s leader is at the end of his lifespan, what is he talking about? President Miguel Díaz-Canel is 66 and at a quick glance seems to be healthy. Which means that unless that’s some weird mafia-style riddle threat, Comer thinks that Raúl Castro is still the president of Cuba. He doesn’t know the leader of the government he’s trying to run a regime-change against!

Third, (and yes we’re still only on his first answer) did he just admit that the Iranian people, against every talking point that the Trump Administration and their bosses in Israel have worked so hard to convince Americans of, don’t want regime change? The Newsmax host stares at his guest as Comer accidentally undoes a year of propaganda. And it only get’s crazier:

Don’t miss our weekly recap of the craziest moments in corporate media:

Watch this week’s Monday Mourning here:

From Lindsey Graham’s mouth to God’s ears: when asked on Meet the Press if the Iran War was worth losing the midterms over, Senator Lindsey Graham proclaimed: “It’s worth losing my job!”

Finally, something to agree with arch-Zionist warmonger Lindsey Graham on!

And speaking of God’s ears, Trump held a Christian Nationalist party to celebrate the US’s 250th birthday, where speakers claimed that it took God two centuries to bring us Donald Trump so that he could finally put a ballroom in the White House. That’s not a joke they really said that.

From Lindsey Graham to Mike Johnson to John Fetterman to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, we’ve got a Monday Mourning that oscillates between the importance of bombing civilian infrastructure in Iran to the importance of that ballroom. It’s a ridiculous and jam-packed episode.

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It’s another classic Useful Idiots double header!

First up we’re speaking with Rami Elghandour, biotech CEO whose company is developing transformative immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. He’s also executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab and The American Doctor. (note to other CEOs: it’s possible to do good things with your money)

Rami was scheduled to give the convocation speech at Rutgers this week but was abruptly canceled, being told by a dean that “we’ve had a few students who feel that your social media posts are opposed to their beliefs.”

Here is the tweet that got Rami canceled:

“Forget a free ride. They’ve committed genocide. They’re running dungeons where they train dogs to sexually assault prisoners... Weapons embargo is the absolute minimum. Sanctions and diplomatic isolation are beyond justified. This we’ll sell them weapons won’t fly…”

Rami reveals his full conversation with the dean and shows us a clip of the speech he would have given, which is now available on YouTube.

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We also speak with Wyatt Reed, journalist at the Grayzone who is currently reporting in Lebanon and Iran. As one of very few western journalists to actually go to Iran, Reed’s reporting is crucial to understanding what’s really happening on the ground, what actual Iranians feel about the US and the war, and how Trump’s attacks inadvertently pushed Iranians to rally around their own government.

“Every night in cities all across Iran, there are pro-government protests in the major squares and town centers. This is happening throughout the entire country.

Before the war, the die-hard support for the government was relatively limited to people who tended to be more conservative or more religious.

After their country came under an existential threat, an existential attack that sought to topple not only their government, but clearly was not distinguishing between their government and their civilian population at all, this expanded to include a huge part of the population.

So, the irony is that if they wanted to overthrow this government in Iran, they’ve done basically the opposite. They have solidified support for it through every segment of Iranian society. Iranians came to understand that basically their choice was between ruling themselves in a somewhat authoritarian manner or being ruled by an occupying foreign power which clearly seeks to conduct basically a genocide against them. It’s not hard to understand why more and more people began to side with their government.”

Wyatt also shares footage of his reporting of the US bombing on the Minab elementary school, as well as the Israeli bombings of a hospital and synagogue in Tehran. It’s tough to watch, but Wyatt’s journalism is some of the only western journalism we’ve seen from Iran. Help to share his reporting!

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“I hear people say, ‘I don’t want anything to do with Israel,’” says US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on a podcast called JC ZC, which stands for Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress (which is also the only type of podcast that religious fanatics like Huckabee can get on anymore).

He continues: “I say, ‘Okay, give up your cell phone. Give up car navigation. Give up conveniences like cherry tomatoes and seedless watermelons. I’m sorry to break it to you, but if you hate Israel that much, you’re going to be living a very different kind of life.”

This is the state of Zionist arguments in 2026, a sure sign that they’re struggling desperately as they lose their propaganda war. Does Huckabee really think that we won’t have phones and GPS without a tiny apartheid state in the Middle East? And even crazier: does he think he’s going to win hearts and minds with “You can’t have cherry tomatoes without genocide!”

[Those cherry tomatoes, by the way, are grown on occupied Palestinian soil]

And that’s not the only front on which the elites are losing the global narrative. Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom is set to cost hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Congressman Greg Casar of Texas asked Education Secretary and former WWE executive Linda McMahon:

“For the $1 billion we're being asked to spend on Trump's ballroom, we could fund 217 million free school lunches and 15,000 more teachers. As secretary of education, which do you think helps our nation more?”

Then comes a pause big enough to fit a seedless watermelon. Finally, McMahon responds: “I think those are incredibly weird comparisons.”

As dark as these days may seem, something tells us that slowly but surely we’re getting to these people, as the one thing the elites hate the most is to be mocked. Watch Katie and Aaron do what they do best, from JD Vance to Mike Johnson to Kash Patel, we’re taking them down.

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Don’t miss our weekly recap of the craziest moments in corporate media:

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From UN Ambassador Mike Waltz all the way up to the top: Benjamin Netanyahu, it was a disastrous affair watching the Sunday Morning News Shows. Katie and Aaron pick apart every lie: why oil prices are actually skyrocketing, how Iran never actually wanted to build nuclear weapons, why Trump’s fake negotiations will never work, and how Netanyahu, who seems to clearly own the 60 Minutes anchor, is deliberately sabotaging US-Iran peace talks.

It was a nightmare to watch corporate media this weekend: do yourself a favor and watch with Katie and Aaron so you can laugh instead of cry at it all. And if you want to support our work, please consider subscribing here:

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