My picks for 2023 interviews: The Duran (or a sole interview with Alexander Mercouris) and Nick Cruse. of RBN.
My favs anytime of the year: Norman Finkelstein, Vijay Prashad, Glenn Greenwald, Thomas Frank, Chris Hedges, and Richard Wolff.
For Russia and/or Ukraine: Scott Ritter, Douglas McGegor, Lindsey Snell, and Ben Abelow.
For bringing the fire: Mick Wallace and Clare Daley.
Monday Mourning funny moments: Farewell to Brian Stelter and the MSM Celebrates the Disinformation Governance Board.
A reading of a Thomas Friedman Masterpiece was quite hilarious.
My award for an Unhappy New Year, or should I say, Unhappy New Jeer, goes to Joe Biden for breaking the Rail Road workers strike, Nancy Pelosi for blocking the tiniest bit of progressive legislation, and to Adam Schiff because he is, well, Adam Schiff.
Honorable mention goes to The Squad for an underwhelming performance...or should I say just performative.
P.S. In addition, for suggested interviews for 2023 interviews, I must add Jeffrey Sachs (thanks Boris for the reminder!), Vincent Bevins who wrote "The Jakarta Method", and Sabby Sabs and Jaybefaunt from RBN.
I gotta half-disagree about the Squad. They are doing a decent enough snow job to not be called out by establishment adjacent press. Yeah, it is a low bar, but they are young and just learning their craft. Give em, time. They have great potential to emote greatly while bald-face lying, a la Bill Clinton and his, "I feel your pain."
As the years have gone by I've seen how Bill and Hillary's truly evil and corrupt natures turned the Democratic party from a relatively staunch supporter of workers to a fully duplicitious and corrupt organization of virtue signalling grifters. The Clinton ethos as a political party.
I now see Bill's "I feel your pain" more like Emperor Palpatine or an Incubus (particularly fitting for Bill) feeding off the painful energy of the people. Bill causes the pain, then revels almost erotically in the pain he causes.
I will be forever grateful to Elon Musk for his courage to open Twitter Files and fully expose what has been obvious for many years -- the total corruption of FBI, CIA and all their affiliates and slowed down the US hurling into domestic fascism (internationally we had bipartisan fascism for decades).
My favorite moment of Monday Mourning was when a woman in the White House said she fell in love with Joe Biden when he passed the violence against women act
I listen to enough Yanis Varoufakis. He is a giant. I heard him debate John shit for brains Bolton. Yanis speaks to me each week. He doesn't belong on useful idiots he is not an idiot useful or otherwise. He is a first rate philosopher and statesman. The philosopher I choose would be John Ralston Saul and I would to see him in conversation with Katie and Aaron he understands journalism. He is an expert on European history I think the Idiot's audience would enjoy.
Saul doesn't usually do American audiences. He was the head of PEN International not PEN USA.
People to interview: Glenn Greenwald, Michael Tracy, Lee Camp, Chris Hedges, Cornel West, Margaret Kimberly, Ajuma Baraka, Adolf Reed Jr. , Scott Ritter, Clare Daly, Richard Wolff, Nick Cruse, Sabby Sabbs, Ben Norton, Ken Klippenstein, Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Jimmy Dore, Russel Brand, Richard Medhurst, Rhania Kalik, Alexander Mercouris, Jackson Hinkle, ...
I'm with on all except Hinkle. He makes my Spider sense tingle. Smart guy, does his research, but I think there is more than a whiff of grifter about him.
Nothing in my not so short life has been as absurd as the US empire press trying to blame Russia for blowing up its own pipeline.
What has given me hope is that I don't think ever in US history has a blatant war lie fallen apart as quickly as this one.
The extremely short shelf life of the "Russia blew up their own pipeline" is probably because this lie was the most absurd, intellectually-insulting, "the dog ate my homework" level of lie in US history; one that will cost our Eurepean vassals, I mean "allies" billions of Euros and thousands of lives.
The European press is not controlled like the US press. US empire narrative control is not possible in the EU at a level like in the US. Obvious bullshit stories are tougher to swallow when it is your grandma in Hamburg who can't heat her flat and your uncle in Dusseldorf who lost his great chemical factory job and it is all because your American "ally" doesn't want you to buy gas from their frenemy - now enemy - Russia.
Thanks for the shout out and getting my name right a couple weeks ago. I've been really busy and then sick, meant to write sooner. I note you left off the list of fun games! ;-)
One of the problems of being a space cadet is all the deja vu moments. I disagree with Aaron this isn't a proxy war this is the world getting right for the time since 1794.
Mark Twain got Russia Right, America right the world correct and was cancelled by everybody but Walt Disney who lied about everything. Twain wrote antisemitism, racism and religion and he was the best there ever was.
The moment of the year for me was getting my question read on air and your getting the question completely wrong. It takes a particular talent to ask a question that people can't understand but try to answer. Here in Quebec they say autistic is what I am not who I am. I speak in metaphors because words need context and nobody lives in my moccasins but me. Oh yes my moccasins were made for me by a friend and neighbour who made moccasins for the people (the dene).
The biggest surprise of the year was looking for a mystery translated into French and finding Kinky Friedman's Elvis Jesus and Roll and Roll. They know Kinky in France he is a genius and a world talent and unknown in NYC. Unsuitable for air play since 1970.
Oh man... So many insane moments to pick from. I think my favorites have to be all of the really fun imperialists capitalist quotes coming out of our leaders regarding their motivation behind going to war with Russia and using Ukraine as a proxy just because how exactly are liberals ignoring that?!
Listening to progressives defend Congress breaking a railroad strike and support escalating a war was also a little mind-bending. I always enjoy a good Joe Biden or Kamala stoned moment. Oh! And the Nina Jankowicz Mary Poppins song was by far the most funny ... Although the attemp to put her in charge of the Ministry of Truth not so much.
I've loved the interviews with Vjay Prashad, Jeffrey Sachs and Kit Klarenberg off the top of my head, but really your interviews are overall a great source of balance in a media that is pretty much gaslighting the left and anti-war community so hats off to you on a great year of work!!
Kamala attended Montreal's Westmount High. She graduated at a time where I figure 100% of the student body had stoned moments. I am a generation older and todays students are a generation and more younger and Westmount is still a wonderful school and everybody understands the need for stoned moments. I think Leonard knew that when he attended Westmont and sang country music. Cohen wrote my favourite lyrics.
I know I am way out there but there was nothing unusual. 2022 was white bread toast and bad coffee when I was on the road in the seventies and eighties. It was always safe but it wasn't breakfast. Russia was chased out of Crimea in 1853 and Trump finally jumped the shark. Gambling became gaming and the only thing you need to know about gaming is the dice are always loaded and the only entertainment you can't bet on is Professional Wrestling which is at least dramatic and entertaining . I remember when I was a child 70 years ago.
Mark Twain wrote about Russian Autocrats. In 1905 he said Every sane human on the planet knows the Romanoffs should all be assassinated but nobody dare speak the truth.
Great literature is true for all time. History as Voltaire pointed out History is perspective and perception is reality.
Mark Twain wrote about antiSemitism and racism and he too was cancelled except in Disneyland.
Virtual reality isn't real it is an amusement park. I like Jamie Raskin but for me a constitutional scholar who doesn't know Samuel Johnson and Thomas Boswell is not a constitutional scholar. He is a Yeshiva Bucher.
Scalia was a scoundrel and a fraud but he knew Johnson's dictionary was the dictionary the founders used and he used it like a sword called Excaliber. Johnson was a racist and a bigot but Scalia knew conservatives loved conservatism.
Maybe in 2023 Kinky Friedman can be interviewed for an audience that might JUST NOW understand Kinky Friedman.
My picks for 2023 interviews: The Duran (or a sole interview with Alexander Mercouris) and Nick Cruse. of RBN.
My favs anytime of the year: Norman Finkelstein, Vijay Prashad, Glenn Greenwald, Thomas Frank, Chris Hedges, and Richard Wolff.
For Russia and/or Ukraine: Scott Ritter, Douglas McGegor, Lindsey Snell, and Ben Abelow.
For bringing the fire: Mick Wallace and Clare Daley.
Monday Mourning funny moments: Farewell to Brian Stelter and the MSM Celebrates the Disinformation Governance Board.
A reading of a Thomas Friedman Masterpiece was quite hilarious.
My award for an Unhappy New Year, or should I say, Unhappy New Jeer, goes to Joe Biden for breaking the Rail Road workers strike, Nancy Pelosi for blocking the tiniest bit of progressive legislation, and to Adam Schiff because he is, well, Adam Schiff.
Honorable mention goes to The Squad for an underwhelming performance...or should I say just performative.
And -- Jeffrey Sachs ?!
Yes, of course, Jeffry Sachs. How could I forget!
P.S. In addition, for suggested interviews for 2023 interviews, I must add Jeffrey Sachs (thanks Boris for the reminder!), Vincent Bevins who wrote "The Jakarta Method", and Sabby Sabs and Jaybefaunt from RBN.
Great lists.
I gotta half-disagree about the Squad. They are doing a decent enough snow job to not be called out by establishment adjacent press. Yeah, it is a low bar, but they are young and just learning their craft. Give em, time. They have great potential to emote greatly while bald-face lying, a la Bill Clinton and his, "I feel your pain."
As the years have gone by I've seen how Bill and Hillary's truly evil and corrupt natures turned the Democratic party from a relatively staunch supporter of workers to a fully duplicitious and corrupt organization of virtue signalling grifters. The Clinton ethos as a political party.
I now see Bill's "I feel your pain" more like Emperor Palpatine or an Incubus (particularly fitting for Bill) feeding off the painful energy of the people. Bill causes the pain, then revels almost erotically in the pain he causes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB7fgX6H9_M
LOL! I do love me some good sarcasm, particularly as expressed in your first paragraph.
Adolf Reed jr interview! I love that guy and his ability to call bullshit bullshit.
He's been on the top of my list of favorite UI guests. love editing his interviews
Wait, was there an Adolf Reed interview in 2022? Why don't I see it in the Archives section?
I will be forever grateful to Elon Musk for his courage to open Twitter Files and fully expose what has been obvious for many years -- the total corruption of FBI, CIA and all their affiliates and slowed down the US hurling into domestic fascism (internationally we had bipartisan fascism for decades).
My favorite moment of Monday Mourning was when a woman in the White House said she fell in love with Joe Biden when he passed the violence against women act
please interview Yanis Varoufakis!
I listen to enough Yanis Varoufakis. He is a giant. I heard him debate John shit for brains Bolton. Yanis speaks to me each week. He doesn't belong on useful idiots he is not an idiot useful or otherwise. He is a first rate philosopher and statesman. The philosopher I choose would be John Ralston Saul and I would to see him in conversation with Katie and Aaron he understands journalism. He is an expert on European history I think the Idiot's audience would enjoy.
Saul doesn't usually do American audiences. He was the head of PEN International not PEN USA.
People to interview: Glenn Greenwald, Michael Tracy, Lee Camp, Chris Hedges, Cornel West, Margaret Kimberly, Ajuma Baraka, Adolf Reed Jr. , Scott Ritter, Clare Daly, Richard Wolff, Nick Cruse, Sabby Sabbs, Ben Norton, Ken Klippenstein, Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Jimmy Dore, Russel Brand, Richard Medhurst, Rhania Kalik, Alexander Mercouris, Jackson Hinkle, ...
I'm with on all except Hinkle. He makes my Spider sense tingle. Smart guy, does his research, but I think there is more than a whiff of grifter about him.
Agreed. That’s a reason for smart people, like Aaron and Katie, to challenge him in an interview
Nothing in my not so short life has been as absurd as the US empire press trying to blame Russia for blowing up its own pipeline.
What has given me hope is that I don't think ever in US history has a blatant war lie fallen apart as quickly as this one.
The extremely short shelf life of the "Russia blew up their own pipeline" is probably because this lie was the most absurd, intellectually-insulting, "the dog ate my homework" level of lie in US history; one that will cost our Eurepean vassals, I mean "allies" billions of Euros and thousands of lives.
The European press is not controlled like the US press. US empire narrative control is not possible in the EU at a level like in the US. Obvious bullshit stories are tougher to swallow when it is your grandma in Hamburg who can't heat her flat and your uncle in Dusseldorf who lost his great chemical factory job and it is all because your American "ally" doesn't want you to buy gas from their frenemy - now enemy - Russia.
Thanks for the shout out and getting my name right a couple weeks ago. I've been really busy and then sick, meant to write sooner. I note you left off the list of fun games! ;-)
Aaron should see this if he hasn’t already: https://jackmurphywrites.com/169/the-cias-sabotage-campaign-inside-russia/
Top picks: Noam Chomsky, Robert Scheer, Chris Hedges...and many more
One of the problems of being a space cadet is all the deja vu moments. I disagree with Aaron this isn't a proxy war this is the world getting right for the time since 1794.
Mark Twain got Russia Right, America right the world correct and was cancelled by everybody but Walt Disney who lied about everything. Twain wrote antisemitism, racism and religion and he was the best there ever was.
https://samwoolfe.medium.com/mark-twain-on-the-root-cause-of-antisemitism-e620116a90b9
he wrote about the Czar and even today's scholars don't understand Twains seeming complements were the most caustic of insults.
https://www.rbth.com/literature/2015/02/26/an_innocent_abroad_mark_twains_visit_to_russia_44007.html
In 1905 Twain wrote Every sane person on the planet knows the Russian autocrats need to be assassinated.
Twain understood.
The moment of the year for me was getting my question read on air and your getting the question completely wrong. It takes a particular talent to ask a question that people can't understand but try to answer. Here in Quebec they say autistic is what I am not who I am. I speak in metaphors because words need context and nobody lives in my moccasins but me. Oh yes my moccasins were made for me by a friend and neighbour who made moccasins for the people (the dene).
The biggest surprise of the year was looking for a mystery translated into French and finding Kinky Friedman's Elvis Jesus and Roll and Roll. They know Kinky in France he is a genius and a world talent and unknown in NYC. Unsuitable for air play since 1970.
Oh man... So many insane moments to pick from. I think my favorites have to be all of the really fun imperialists capitalist quotes coming out of our leaders regarding their motivation behind going to war with Russia and using Ukraine as a proxy just because how exactly are liberals ignoring that?!
Listening to progressives defend Congress breaking a railroad strike and support escalating a war was also a little mind-bending. I always enjoy a good Joe Biden or Kamala stoned moment. Oh! And the Nina Jankowicz Mary Poppins song was by far the most funny ... Although the attemp to put her in charge of the Ministry of Truth not so much.
I've loved the interviews with Vjay Prashad, Jeffrey Sachs and Kit Klarenberg off the top of my head, but really your interviews are overall a great source of balance in a media that is pretty much gaslighting the left and anti-war community so hats off to you on a great year of work!!
Kamala attended Montreal's Westmount High. She graduated at a time where I figure 100% of the student body had stoned moments. I am a generation older and todays students are a generation and more younger and Westmount is still a wonderful school and everybody understands the need for stoned moments. I think Leonard knew that when he attended Westmont and sang country music. Cohen wrote my favourite lyrics.
I know I am way out there but there was nothing unusual. 2022 was white bread toast and bad coffee when I was on the road in the seventies and eighties. It was always safe but it wasn't breakfast. Russia was chased out of Crimea in 1853 and Trump finally jumped the shark. Gambling became gaming and the only thing you need to know about gaming is the dice are always loaded and the only entertainment you can't bet on is Professional Wrestling which is at least dramatic and entertaining . I remember when I was a child 70 years ago.
Mark Twain wrote about Russian Autocrats. In 1905 he said Every sane human on the planet knows the Romanoffs should all be assassinated but nobody dare speak the truth.
Great literature is true for all time. History as Voltaire pointed out History is perspective and perception is reality.
Mark Twain wrote about antiSemitism and racism and he too was cancelled except in Disneyland.
Virtual reality isn't real it is an amusement park. I like Jamie Raskin but for me a constitutional scholar who doesn't know Samuel Johnson and Thomas Boswell is not a constitutional scholar. He is a Yeshiva Bucher.
Scalia was a scoundrel and a fraud but he knew Johnson's dictionary was the dictionary the founders used and he used it like a sword called Excaliber. Johnson was a racist and a bigot but Scalia knew conservatives loved conservatism.
Maybe in 2023 Kinky Friedman can be interviewed for an audience that might JUST NOW understand Kinky Friedman.