Useful Idiots with Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper

For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: CNN compares Keffiyehs to Confederate Flags https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-compares-keffiyehs-to-confederate?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. 265 days into Israel's mass assault on Gaza, Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization Diana Buttu joins us from Haifa, Israel with a stark warning: Things are going to get worse. “For Netanyahu,” she explains, “he needs to open up another front in order to maintain his power. He's made it clear that he's not going to push for a ceasefire. He doesn't care about the Israeli captives. And so it's pretty clear to me that he's going to go ahead and attack Lebanon.” Israel has no aim to rescue its hostages. It never did. “If they actually cared about them, they would have done what should have been done very early on, which is negotiate a ceasefire. Instead, they've done the opposite. And this is why you can look at these ceasefire proposals with such skepticism. Because instead, what they've done is bombed Gaza to virtual smithereens.” Diana, whose father survived the Nakba in 1948, moved to Haifa in 2000. And like many others, she believed what the media told everyone to believe: that with a simple peace plan, Palestine would be fixed. Then she arrived in Palestine and saw the true reality. “All of the things that had been dismissed by the mainstream media,” she says, “I had dismissed too. I had dismissed this idea of settlements and the impact of settlements. And I kept thinking, it'll be undone. It'll all be undone. I dismissed the harm of what it means to be a Palestinian political prisoner, to be somebody who's abducted in the middle of the night. I dismissed the harm of the checkpoints. I dismissed a lot of things. And so when I arrived here, it was the first time that I had to confront the reality that this political process was not going to undo any of those harms.” Stopping the bombs is one thing. Stopping settlements, returning land, granting rights to Palestinians, and removing the literal wall that cages them is another. “They talk about reconfiguring the prison, reconfiguring the occupation, but they never talk about ending the occupation because this mentality of control permeates deep inside Israel.” There's only one way this ends, Diana says. “It's going to end when the world says that it's enough. And that's it.” Diana also shares haunting stories of Palestinian children who were kept in Israeli torture prisons for months, and the ways that western corporate media has worked to cover it up. This week's interview with Diana Buttu will not be paywalled. We hope you'll listen to and share her important perspective. Plus, catch this week's Thursday Throwdown: CNN compares Keffiyehs to Confederate Flags, where Van Jones claims that wearing a keffiyeh around Israeli government supporters is as much a call for violence as waving a confederate flag in Harlem. And we celebrate the freedom of Julian Assange, a rare victory that couldn't have happened without supporters of independent media like you. Thanks for your support, we'll see you next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Ian Proud: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-uk-diplomat-reveals?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: White House would NEVER pause shipments to Israel, reports White House https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/white-house-would-never-pause-shipments?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Daniel Levy: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-former-israel-negotiator?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Brian Stelter warns Trump will arrest Rachel Maddow https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/brian-stelter-warns-trump-will-arrest?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Nathan Thrall: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-pulitzer-winner?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté debunks the Washington Post's Grayzone propaganda https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/aaron-mate-debunks-the-washington?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-interview-un-rapporteur?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: John Kirby feels "perfectly comfortable" with Israel bombing Rafah https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/john-kirby-feels-perfectly-comfortable?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first 50 people to click this link get 30% off ONE YEAR of Useful Idiots: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/first50 See the full interview with Antony Loewenstein here: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/how-israel-spies-on-the-world-with?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web The Palestine Laboratory: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2684-the-palestine-laboratory Not in My Name: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOSMdSYZtMw&ab_channel=ABCNewsIn-depth For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Blinken's Neo N*zi Pizza Party https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/blinkens-neo-nzi-pizza-party?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “Israel makes a killing from the occupation,” says journalist Antony Loewenstein in his new book The Palestine Laboratory, which uncovers how Israel has profited off the terror it reigns over Palestinians. “Israel's military uses the occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that they then export around the world to despots and democracies.” And with this scheme, he explains, Israel is able to genocide three birds with one stone. First, most obviously, they achieve their goal of control and carnage in Palestine, making the territory unlivable for the indigenous people in an effort to take the land. Second, Israel's military industrial complex is vastly enriched from the sale of weapons and tech. And third, Israel's weaponry allows them to to commit mass terror in Gaza: “After 1967, there were many nations that publicly opposed what Israel was doing, but the insurance policy is that Israel has been selling weapons and surveillance tech to so many countries for so long that those nations were less likely to criticize Israel where it matters, like the UN.” And the vast extent of this insurance policy is likely greater than we realize. “No one even knows, by the way, how many countries Israel has sold weapons to. I calculate anywhere between 125 and 145 nations, which is the majority of nations on the planet, have bought some form of Israeli weapons, surveillance tech, or repressive technology.” But since October 7, Antony explains, Israel's grip over the world is slipping. Subscribe to hear the full interview in which Antony explains why “Israel is a house of cards,” how companies like Google and Amazon “are directly complicit in potential war crimes,” and why Israel's potential war on Hezbollah “would make what's happening in Gaza seem like kindergarten.” 00:00 Intro 00:49 ICC wants to arrest Israel: The Four Food Groups of News 20:31 Antony Loewenstein interview 21:38 How Israel exports the technology of occupation 24:24 Israel's insurance policy 28:25 The Palestine laboratory 32:49 Israeli surveillance of Gaza 36:57 How the US uses IDF tactics to silence protesters 43:10 Google and Amazon war crimes? 49:26 What is Israel's goal? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first 50 people to click this link get 30% off ONE YEAR of Useful Idiots: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/first50 See the full interview with Susan Abulhawa here: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-palestinian-writer?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web See Katie's mashup of politicians' and corporate media's hypocrisy on Zionist violence here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDOlPim1wc0&rco=1&ab_channel=KatieHalper For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: GOP brags Trump hates Palestinians more than Biden does https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/gop-brags-trump-hates-palestinians?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Said Arikat: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-israel-is-a-gangster?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Billionaire tech bro calls protesters an "infection inside our society" https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/billionaire-tech-bro-calls-protesters?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Dr. Jill Stein and Jason Call: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/jill-stein-on-getting-assaulted-by?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Pervy Prof is Horny for Genocide https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/pervy-prof-is-horny-for-genocide?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web In a disturbing assault caught on camera, Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein was attacked and arrested by police at Washington University in St. Louis. She, along with her campaign manager Jason Call and hundreds of others, were arrested for peacefully protesting Israel's genocide in Gaza. As they held their ground, cops attacked Dr. Stein with a bike and pinned Jason to the ground. They recount the aggressive story in this week's interview. This campus beatdown is the latest in a long line of fascist attacks at colleges around the country, with students and professors hospitalized as US leadership looks on. President Biden, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, corporate media journalists, and countless members of congress have condoned or even encouraged these police attacks, giving them the green light to escalate their violent methods. And Dr. Stein has a theory for why: “The red flags are flying all over the place that they really are losing their stranglehold,” she says of the global empire. “It's a scary moment because the bear has been cornered and knows that it's under attack. The empire is striking back in every way that it can because its days are numbered.” The growing protests around the country are a sign that things are changing and people are committed to that change. “It's a very distressing and disturbing moment but it's important to also recognize that behind that is this power of a different world rising up.” Subscribe to watch the full interview with Dr. Jill Stein and Jason Call where we analyze Mayor Adams' claim that professional protesters are taking over Columbia, debunk CNN's propaganda that the wife of a terrorist has joined the students, and explain why it is actually the Zionist counter-protesters who are spreading dangerous antisemitism. And for a full recap of corporate media's dishonest bias against student protesters, including a sickening speech from CNN's Dana Bash and a weird rant from NYU Professor Scott Galloway, catch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Pervy Prof is Horny for Genocide. 00:00 Intro 01:03 The Four Food Groups of News 22:27 Dr. Jill Stein and Jason Call interview 23:51 Assaulted by cops (video) 34:10 Professor attacked (video) 36:04 Why is the US breaking up protests? 39:11 Politicians fuel the fire 41:41 Congress passes $95 billion for war 47:11 Dems make ballot access impossible 51:22 Eric Adams demonizes students Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Columbia protests organized by CHINA (say MSNBC conspiracy theorists) https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/columbia-protests-organized-by-china?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Get a copy of Deluge at http://orbooks.com Jamie Stern-Weiner, Ahmed Alnaouq, and Colter Louwerse, authors of Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm, join the show just in time to check Netanyahu on his sickening new video address instructing the US government to censor college protesters: “Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” begins the Israeli leader in a speech that comes across as desperate. “They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty. They want to kill Jews wherever they are. It has to be stopped.” Israel murdered many family members of our Palestinian guest Ahmed, including fourteen children under the age of 13. When Netanyahu lies that protesters are against Jewish people and not against Israel's uncountable horrors, it becomes crucial for journalists to thoroughly debunk his dangerous claims. So Jamie, Ahmed, and Colter lay out a complete history of Israel's war crimes against Palestinians, from the mass murder in Jaffa in order to create Tel Aviv, up through the massacre at the Great March of Return (Ahmed shares personal stories from the march). They show the countless attempts at peaceful protests by the Palestinians that were met with Israeli violence, and explain how today's college protests, including a large contingent of Jewish students, signify that years of peaceful protesting is finally making a global impact. This week's interview will not be paywalled because we think Netanyahu's claims should be debunked for everyone. If you want a full breakdown of the college campus protests, the Israeli actors posing as protesters to disrupt them, and the professors who are gunning to censor and expel the brave students, subscribe to watch our Thursday Throwdown. We cover it all here: Columbia protests organized by CHINA (say MSNBC conspiracy theorists) Thanks for supporting Useful Idiots and independent media. 00:00 Intro 01:47 The Four Food Groups of News 24:41 Biden is stoned 31:02 Jamie Stern-Weiner, Ahmed Alnaouq, and Colter Louwerse interview 38:41 We Are Not Numbers co-founder 44:42 Ahmed shares how Israel bombed his family 50:11 Is Hamas to blame? 57:53 Hamas' peace offer 1:11:50 The Great March of Return 1:20:34 A Palestinians vision for the future 1:21:36 Netanyahu's shameful speech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with As'ad AbuKhalil: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/professor-exposes-campus-free-speech?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Order Karina Gonzalez' new children's book, “Churro Stand”: https://booksofwonder.com/products/churro-stand-street-vendor-project-english-vers For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Morning Joe begs you to love the US military https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/meltdown-joe-begs-you-to-love-the?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web At a time when genocide is being broadcast live on TV and western democracies are cracking down on free speech in order to enable it, As'ad AbuKhalil, Lebanse-American Professor of Political Science at California State University Stanislaus, finds a silver lining: “The rest of the world is watching,” he says. “The west is being seen for what it really is: a racist, colonialist west that stands for war crimes.” And as the United States supplies the weapons that massacre civilians, uses the press to cover up the crimes, and arrests students who speak out against it, it becomes “a full participant in the genocide.” But will the Western governments that support Israel ever stop supporting it? “I don't think that Israel can cross any threshold” for its supporters.  He gives a history of Israel's crimes. “Every crime of terrorism in our region has been pioneered by the Israelis: throwing bombs in buses and crowded markets, letter bombs against British embassies, booby-trapped cars, the incineration of the people of Jaffa in order to create the greater Tel Aviv region.” And he shares harrowing stories from his own life in Lebanon, where Israel “incinerated Palestinian refugee camps,” indiscriminately killing “20,000 Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians.” But instead of condemning any of that, the US is fighting its students who refuse to support a genocide. “In this country that prides itself on being the freest country in the world, members of Congress are summoning presidents of universities and holding them to account about which views are allowed on college campuses. They're taking pride that they are clamping down on the freedom of speech of students of the United States. That is very significant. That is western democracy at work.” Subscribe for the full interview where we watch some of the most outrageous moments from Congress' questioning of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, discuss why the Zionist lobby has “every reason to be worried,” and get Professor AbuKhalil's take on the Biden-Trump rematch. 00:00 Intro 04:42 The Four Food Groups of News 19:41 As'ad AbuKhalil interview 20:24 NYT covers up Israel's attack on Iran 30:37 Does the western left care? 31:55 Israels massacre in Lebanon 40:59 US backs Israeli invasion of Rafah 43:41 US vetoes proposal for Palestine statehood 49:04 Will Israel fight Hezbollah? 53:17 Columbia president testimony Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Sam Harris thinks Nazis are better than Hamas https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/sam-harris-thinks-nazis-are-better?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web After several connection issues, we were unfortunately unable to record our interview this week. Here is our brand new Food Groups plus the previously-paywalled section of our Jeffrey Sachs interview: “Biden's frustrated, because someone told him he was president, and then he found out that it's actually President Netanyahu who determines US policy.” This is how Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor of economics at Columbia University, sees the “pathetic” administration. “The truth is the Israel lobby is very powerful. Netanyahu has gotten his way on every single thing. If the US is actually going to try to have a US foreign policy, that would be something new.” But what about The Call, which the White House rushed to leak, where Biden supposedly urged Netanyahu to reach an immediate ceasefire? Well, once Netanyahu finishes “laughing off” anything said on this call, there's not likely to be any change. Because the United States doesn't have to convince Israel of anything. “All it has to do is stop providing munitions. Biden can say ‘the munitions stop, period.' That's what an immediate ceasefire is. We don't have to convince the Israeli government, we have to stop arming the war. That's all.” Biden is still pushing votes in Congress to arm Israel with fighter jets, weapons, and money. But while we at Useful Idiots have focused on Biden's storied career of obsession with Israel, Sachs disagrees on what Biden's true motive is. He says it's not a deep, emotional attachment to Israel. “I think he's got a deep, emotional attachment to becoming president. And he determined early on that never show light with the Israel lobby and someday you might grow up to be president. I don't think Biden has too many deep attachments to public policy. This was the politics necessary to get him to the presidency.” But then he found out “being president isn't as good as being prime minister of Israel. That's the part that frustrates him. He found out it doesn't have that much power for the same reason he towed the line for forty years.” Subscribe to hear the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs on the US's disastrous wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the upcoming wars with Iran and China, and the recent mania around TikTok. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-interview-jeffrey-sachs?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: CNN says Israel killed food workers because of workflow breakdown https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-says-israel-killed-food-workers?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Norm Finkelstein: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-norman-finkelstein-54c?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: MSNBC's Hypocritical Meltdown Over Ronna McDaniel's Hiring https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/msnbcs-hypocritical-meltdown-over?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: US Politicians Ban TikTok to Save Free Speech https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/us-politicians-ban-tiktok-to-save?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Preorder Karina N. González's new children's book “Churro Stand” here: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/churro-stand_9781951836955/ Our full, unpaywalled interview with John Mearsheimer from 02.23.24: Professor John Mearsheimer, whose political analysis predicted today's horrors in Ukraine and Palestine, joins Useful Idiots to give his take on what's next in the world's biggest wars. And since he's been largely excluded from corporate media for his dissenting views, it's more important than ever to get his word out. “What you have here is a real disjuncture between what the elites think and what the publics think,” he says of the two conflicts, in what is already a clear affront to the narratives of elitist western media. “There are recent polls produced by the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Quincy Institute that show that only 10% of Europeans and 12% of Americans think that Ukraine can win the war.” And when it comes to Israel, Mearsheimer explains that US policy is even further from what the people want. It's not the voters who have a say, and even Congress (as pro-Israel as they are) isn't in control: “I believe that 90% of it is accounted for by the [Israel] lobby.” Professor Mearsheimer deep dives into each war: he explains why the US tanked Ukraine's peace talks to further instigate Russia and what he would do now if he was in Biden's or Putin's position. He also delves into the influence of the Israel lobby and how Biden has given impunity to Israel's killing Gaza killing spree. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: US Politicians Ban TikTok to Save Free Speech https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/us-politicians-ban-tiktok-to-save?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with George Galloway: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/george-galloway-returns-to-office?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web See Katie LIVE TONIGHT in-person or on Zoom: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/laughs-for-good-tickets-793162168397 For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: "F you!" – Morning Joe gets desperate https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/f-you-morning-joe-gets-desperate?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “This is for Gaza!” announced the veteran British politician George Galloway in his victory speech, shocking the UK establishment with his win in Rochdale to rejoin the country's parliament nearly forty years after his first election. He addressed his words to Kier Starmer, the leader of the UK Labour Party: “You will pay a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging, and covering for the catastrophe in occupied Palestine.” Galloway explains that the parties in the UK aren't much different than the Democrats and Republicans: you have Rishi Sunak and his Conservative Party, who send weapons to Israel and prolong the proxy war in Ukraine, and then you have Starmer and the Labour Party, who are in complete lockstep. After Biden waited until the very end of his State of the Union address to even mention the crisis in Gaza and Trump recently called for Israel to finish the job, the Uniparty is alive and well in both our countries. And like everyone brave enough to speak out against the War Party and its genocide in Gaza, Galloway gets accused by good narrative-following Twitter users of spreading hate speech. However they, and the entire UK media, were largely silent when George was viciously assaulted by a pro-Israel supporter. He describes the harrowing attack and shares the origin story of how it led to his iconic hat. Subscribe to hear the full interview with MP George Galloway on his relationship with former Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn, the immediate goals of the Workers Party, and the smears and lies that he most wants to debunk. Thank you for supporting independent media. 00:00 Intro 03:13 The Four Food Groups of News 19:51 Something funny 22:00 George Galloway interview 27:53 Rishi Sunak is MAD 31:23 The Hat origin story 34:50 Spanking Kier Starmer 38:27 Running to help Gaza 44:55 UK's role in Ukraine 48:04 BREAKING: Leak from Germany 52:05 Jeremy Corbyn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Chas Freeman: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/biden-is-a-senile-war-monger-veteran?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: CNN Melts Down Over Uncommitted Voters https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-melts-down-over-uncommitted-voters?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “Our foreign policy is diplomacy free.” As he watches the escalating crises in our world today, this is the main takeaway for Chas Freeman, who, as the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, knows a thing about diplomacy. “It's a lot cheaper and more effective to sit down and talk to someone than to pull a gun on them and shoot them,” he says. “But that's what we seem to have substituted for our normal course of diplomatic interaction.” Freeman explains the leading cause of forever wars: “There's nobody quite as bloodthirsty as a civilian with no experience of war.” As shown in the episode thumbnail above (side note: you know it's a bad crew if the most likable character in the picture is Matthew Miller), the warmongers in charge of foreign policy are all civilians. When the top US general Mark Milley called for peace talks in Ukraine, it was these bad actors who shut it down. “The military know that they can die in a war, that their comrades will die,” says Freeman. “They know that you should never enter a war without figuring out first how you're going to end it, on what terms, and with whom.” But the ‘leaders' we do have never had to fight. “Civilians typically define no end state, have no war termination strategy, which is why we get forever wars.” And the future only looks bleaker. “Here we have an election which is between someone who is widely regarded as a senile war monger and somebody who has been correctly diagnosed as a malignant narcissist.” Subscribe to hear the full interview with Chas Freeman on why the protest vote against Biden in Michigan was “very significant,” how the New York Times has been complicit in the information war, the main similarity between the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza (bet you can guess it), and the main difference between the genocide in Israel and the one in South Africa: “South Africa was on the verge of having a race war but it never had one. Israel is having a race war.” Freeman's important voice makes this an episode of Useful Idiots you're not going to want to miss. Subscribe now to hear the full interview and support independent media. 00:00 Intro 00:51 The Four Food Groups of News 08:49 Chas Freeman interview 09:29 Uncommitted shocks Biden 14:01 Our foreign policy is diplomacy-free 20:33 Does Israel have a right to exist? 23:43 Israel vs South Africa 28:08 Aaron Bushnell 33:23 Has this ever happened before? 36:47 Palestine vs Ukraine 41:19 Diplomats kill peace in Ukraine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with John Mearsheimer: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-insanity-john-mearsheimer?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Nancy Pelosi needs Russiagate Detox https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/nancy-pelosi-needs-russiagate-detox?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: AOC calls Genocide Joe "the most successful US president" https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/aoc-calls-genocide-joe-the-most-successful?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For 30 years, Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert has risked his life to give medical care to Palestinians, performing surgeries, training medical students, and supporting their renowned healthcare system. But in their most recent assault, Israel banned Dr. Gilbert from entering Gaza. “This is the politics of elimination,” Dr. Gilbert tells us. “Israel is the only nation on Earth who has a military strategy to attack, to kill, and to dismantle civilian hospitals.” Forced to watch the unfolding tragedy from afar, Gilbert struggles to believe the horrors he's seeing. “It is such an avalanche of human suffering that it is almost incomprehensible. And it's all done with full will, planning, dedication. It is a 100% man-made disaster, designed to achieve exactly the goals that they have achieved: to maim and destroy Palestinian society.” What should have led to a huge uproar has instead been tolerated and even encouraged by Western politicians and media outlets, who have laundered false claims about militant hideouts at Palestinian hospitals. But while the genocide of Palestinians has only just broken through to mainstream consciousness, Dr. Gilbert explains that none of this is new. “Israel is going against absolutely every international law aimed at protecting civilian hospitals. This is unprecedented, but I'd like to add that for us who have been working with the Palestinians and their healthcare for many years, it's not a new feature. The Israelis have always been attacking healthcare. In last year's report from WHO, they reported 600 attacks on healthcare in the last two years.” And in the latest assault on Gaza, there have been “hundreds and hundreds” more. “We've seen attacks in the West Bank where they even dress up as doctors and kill patients in their beds.” Gilbert gives his scathing post-mortem: “This is a historical low point in human history. This enormous collapse of western morality and principles. We're back to the jungle.” Hear the full, unpaywalled interview with Mads Gilbert, and listen to the end for his message on how to help. “We can all do our part: write a poem, sing a song, participate in a demonstration, write a letter to your politician. Take part in history because we need to change history now.” He finishes, solemnly: “What you are doing now, or what you are not doing now, is what you would have done, or not done, during the Holocaust.” 00:00 Intro 5:55 The Four Food Groups of News 20:57 Dr. Mads Gilbert interview 22:13 Israel warns of new hospital attack 27:35 Stories of killed doctors 40:34 Israeli doctors sign letter to BOMB MORE HOSPITALS 55:13 Israeli protesters block humanitarian aid 1:00:58 Israel shuts of water 1:09:13 Answering Israeli arguments 1:23:40 Rafah update 1:29:01 HOW TO HELP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Dennis Kucinich: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-dennis-kucinich?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Tucker Carlson's Putin interview enrages MSNBC https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/tucker-carlsons-putin-interview-enrages?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Morning Joe wants to play Battleship with Iran https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/morning-joe-wants-to-play-battleship?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interviews with Asa Winstanley and Maoz Inon: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-son-of-israeli-victims?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Adam Schiff mourns the genocide he's supporting https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/adam-schiff-mourns-the-genocide-hes?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “I see the government of Israel as accountable for October 7th.” Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon lost both of his parents on October 7th. And while many Israelis who didn't lose anyone want increased bloodshed, Maoz's calls for peace show compassion and bravery. “It's very difficult in Israeli society to speak out right now, and he's one of the few people doing it. He's not letting his tragedy become weaponized to create even more tragedies.” While it's still unclear which side ultimately killed his parents, Maoz says it doesn't matter: “Maybe you're right, maybe they were killed in Israeli crossfire. But what does it matter? What does it matter? My parents died because of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And I decided to commit my life to making peace. What does it matter who killed them. They were killed because of the conflict, and I'm going to make peace from the river to the sea.” And though Israeli police make it dangerous, Maoz is protesting in Israel “with a very direct call and message that the government is accountable and the government must go.” As information comes out about the events of October 7th, Israel's role in the death count of its own civilians continues to increase. So we also interviewed Asa Winstanley, a journalist with the Electronic Intifada, whose reporting shows more and more evidence that Israeli forces killed their own people on October 7th. He explains that even today, with Israeli hostages still in Gaza, the Israeli government shows no signs of letting up their deadly assault. “It's starting to seem like the political leaders of Israel do not want those captives to come home alive.” Subscribe for the full interview with Asa Winstanley where he uncovers more Israeli military fabrications and we discuss an article in the Washington Post that smeared Asa, the Electronic Intifada, and the Grayzone. 00:00 Intro 4:34 The Four Food Groups of News 17:51 Asa Winstanley interview 19:42 What really happened on October 7th? 28:18 The Hannibal Directive 39:00 Israel or Hamas? 46:51 Maoz Inon interview 47:36 What happened to Maoz's parents 53:58 How Israel has responded to October 7 57:08 Could Israel have prevented it? 1:04:56 Who is responsible? 1:17:17 A call for peace Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Andrew Feinstein: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-jewish-south-african?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: "Butcher Biden" Loses Irish Citizenship https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/butcher-biden-loses-irish-citizenship?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Mouin Rabbani: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-genocide-trial-should?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Jamie Raskin defends democracy by removing peace activist https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/jamie-raskin-defends-democracy-by?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Rev. Munther Isaac: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-palestinian-pastor?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Israeli psychotherapist wants 30,000 Palestinians killed https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/israeli-psychotherapist-wants-30000?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Award-winning Israeli journalist Gideon Levy is such a scathing critic of Israel's policies and outspoken defender of Palestinian human rights that he's only narrowly escaped physical attacks, even needing to have a bodyguard. But the Haaretz columnist and author wasn't always like this. He describes his former self as “a full member of the nationalistic religious orgy [of Israel]. We were all under the feeling that the whole project of Israel is in existential danger. We all felt that another Holocaust is around the corner.” So when Israel won its 1967 war on Palestine, he didn't think of killed Palestinians and Israel's occupation: “We felt that victory in 1967 was like a messianic miracle, and we were so grateful for this. We didn't ask any questions. We didn't see any Palestinians.” Levy was 14 at the time. And, as he realized years later, “totally brainwashed.” He is now one of a very small number of prominent Israeli voices speaking out against Israel's assault on Gaza and its brutal occupation. Joining Useful Idiots from Tel Aviv, Israel, he shares what he sees happening in his country. “There are three things that let Israelis live in peace with the occupation,” he says. “The belief that they're the chosen people. The belief that they're victims. And the dehumanization of Palestinians.” He discusses how Israeli media spreads these three beliefs, and how Netanyahu and his far-right government exploit them to bomb hospitals and humiliate Palestinians on a daily basis without pushback. Levy sees the two state occupation as no longer possible. A one state of apartheid is the status quo and a one state with equal rights as the ideal, but an unlikely one for now: “I don't see any hope from any direction. Israelis will not wake up one morning and say ‘oh this occupation, this apartheid, we don't like it so much. Let's put an end to it.' This will never happen. It will only happen when Israel is punished for it. And this is not going to happen because the international community basically supports the occupation. The United States supports the occupation.” Subscribe for the full interview with Gideon Levy where he explains how young people in both the US and Israel view the war, the horrors he's witnessed in the West Bank, Israel's “Nazi proposals” and why the two-state solution is dead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Ted Cruz on Liberal Women's Sex Lives https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/ted-cruz-on-liberal-womens-sex-lives?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “They're targeting journalists,” says Anan Quzmar, a volunteer with the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate. “But it's maybe a wider segment of the Palestinian society. The target is the foundations of Palestinian society.” Anan speaks to us from the West Bank city of Tulkarm, reporting on the estimated 97 journalists who have been killed by Israel. “These people represent a portal for hope for the people of Gaza. They deliver their voices to people around the world. And targeting them is basically killing hope.” Anan shares the stories of his journalist friends and heroes who have been hunted, killed, or forced to flee by Israel. He goes on to explain that it isn't just Israel, but the US, President Biden, and our corporate media who are inciting this genocide: “They are complicit in justifying, facilitating, and covering up for an ongoing genocide.” Just this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that it is the Palestinians who are the aggressors and Israel who is the victim. This comes after Biden doubled down on his false claims of seeing photos of beheaded babies and state-media propagandists like Jake Tapper and Dana Bash pushed unverified claims of mass rape. These tactics contribute to the US strategy of dehumanizing Palestinians and selling a genocide. Subscribe to hear the full interview with Anan Quzmar where he debunks claims that Hamas is using human shields (and proves that Israel does use them), calls out Israeli journalists who are cheering on the murder of Palestinian journalists, and what he's witnessing living in the West Bank. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the latest interview with former UN official Craig Mokhiber: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/former-un-official-biden-is-inciting?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Biden tells Jews they're not safe in America https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/biden-tells-jews-theyre-not-safe?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Gazan writers Muhammad Shehada and Yousef M. Aljamal, both students of Refaat Alareer, join us to remember their teacher. Refaat, who was a guest on Useful Idiots in October at the beginning of Israel's assault on Gaza, was killed this week in a targeted attack by Israel. Watch the full interview with Refaat here: https://youtu.be/Nk0x_s_h-pU Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Craig Mokhiber: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/former-un-official-biden-is-inciting?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Biden tells Jews they're not safe in America https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/biden-tells-jews-theyre-not-safe?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web International human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber served as the director for the New York office of the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, but resigned over the UN's failure to stop what he, and others, calls a "textbook case of genocide" in Gaza. He describes the politicalization of the organization and the West's refusal to follow international law. “If you have a message coming from the United States and their western allies that says these rules do not apply to us or to our western friends, or in short-hand, they do not apply to white people, but they do apply to the rest of the world, that is maybe the last nail in the coffin of these international laws.” “The security council belongs in a Cold War museum,” he says. “It is an entity that empowers five permanent members with a veto that is usually used to prevent any action to the benefit of normal human beings. The US in this case used its veto to prevent ceasefire, and after each veto, thousands of more Palestinians are being massacred in Gaza. It's an act of complicity.” So when Israel commits war crimes that are empowered by the US, it is no longer only their crime: “Just to put it simply, this assault on Gaza is being perpetrated by Israel and the United States. The US is a party to this.” And given that Biden has repeatedly claimed that he saw photos of beheaded babies (even after his staff urged him not to and the White House walked it back), we asked Craig: Can the argument be made that Joe Biden is inciting genocide? His response: “Absolutely.” Subscribe to watch the full interview with Craig Mokhiber on the fear used to silence UN officials, and Israel's allegations of rape on October 7. 00:00 Intro 00:43 The Four Food Groups of News 11:45 Craig Mokhiber interview 12:15 Resigning from the UN 20:43 What should the UN do? 30:38 UN staffers protest 34:20 Is it genocide? 46:49 Why is Biden lying? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Ilan Pappé: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-israeli-historian?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: CNN Declares Palestinian Civilian Death Ratio 'Tremendous' https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-declares-palestinian-civilian?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full episode with Gideon Levy: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-israels-nazi-proposals?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Democrat claims that voters LOVE GENOCIDE https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/democrat-claims-that-voters-love?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: White House Triggered by Genocide Joe nickname https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/white-house-triggered-by-genocide?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat Presidential candidate Cornel West and author Gabor Maté met for the first time this week to discuss the horrors of Israel's war on Gaza. “I don't know about you,” Dr. Maté says to Dr. West, “but for me, what's going on is one of the heaviest things, if not the heaviest thing, I've witnessed in my whole life. I don't know how to compare tragedies, but there's something about what's going on right now that seems heavier and darker.” West responds: “When you watch precious human beings being literally killed, crushed, demeaned, degraded, day after day, it makes you think that this particular historical moment has a certain grimness and darkness that others don't.” The two men use their complex histories with tragedy and suffering to analyze the horror of the current moment. “I've always felt that no evil would surprise me and no despair would paralyze me,” West continues, “because you and I know the history of the species.” But the conversation that stems from this is a much more hopeful one, where the scholars' vast study of philosophy and history intertwine to create a message not of helplessness but of possibility. Hear the full conversation on how oppressed people create music of rebellion, their favorite philosophers, and a final message to take from the conversation: “Never again is not a tribal slogan. It's a universal slogan. It applies to everybody.” This week's special episode is free to everyone. We hope you have a happy Thanksgiving and we thank you for supporting Useful Idiots. Plus, catch this week's Thanksgiving Throwdown: White House Triggered by “Genocide Joe” nickname Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Rahma Zein: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-us-media-covers?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Sen. Chris Coons Throws Aaron Maté Off a Train https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/sen-chris-coons-throws-aaron-mate?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Yanis Varoufakis: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-yanis-varoufakis?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: John Kirby has no tears and no red lines for Gaza https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/john-kirby-has-no-tears-and-no-red?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Rashid Khalidi: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/rashid-khalidi-how-biden-fuels-israels?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Israel stuns former Israel lobbyist Wolf Blitzer https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/israel-stuns-former-israel-lobbyist?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat “Have you been surprised at all at how extreme Biden has been in supporting Israel,” we asked Professor Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, “refusing to call for a ceasefire and downplaying the death toll?” “Short answer,” he responds. “No.” “I think that what the president said about the Palestinian death toll is absolutely despicable and unforgivable, and requires a public apology by the president himself. When you have, day after day after day after day, the administration harping on Israeli civilian casualties, and you have nine times the number of Palestinian civilian casualties, with the president of the United States disparaging the numbers, it is insulting, demeaning, and repugnant.” Khalidi continues on to explain that Biden's actions are not just morally untenable, but politically as well. “He will lose the support of vast numbers of people. This administration has been beyond Trumpian in its furtherance of every position put forward by the Trump administration, without exception.” Khalidi predicts that if Biden stays on this track, he'll not only lose the presidency, but also cost the Democrats the House. “So, was I surprised? No.” Subscribe to hear the full episode with Professor Khalidi where he responds to a recent Atlantic article claiming that Israel is not a settler colonial project, an important update on the occupied West Bank, and his final answer to the question: “What should we be fighting for right now?” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Ofer Cassif: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/israeli-lawmakers-dire-warning-with?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Fox News Guy is SO Over Palestine https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/fox-news-guy-is-so-over-palestine?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat “I am not anti-Israeli,” explains Israeli Knesset member Ofer Cassif, who was suspended from the legislature for 45 days after criticizing Israel's “fascist assault” on Gaza. “The government is anti-Israeli. The government undermines the security and the well-being of the state and its citizens.” Cassif, who is Jewish and served in Israel's military, goes on: “Because I stand with Israel, I stand against the government of Israel. Because I stand with Israel, I stand with the Palestinians.” Rational, empathetic voices like Ofer's have become not only controversial in today's political culture, but illegal. “There is now persecution of every and any voice which is in opposition to the war, to the assault on Gaza, or even expresses any sympathy for the children of Gaza. People who try to demonstrate are violently beaten by police.” And after the interview concluded, Ofer called us back to share an ominous breaking update: “Netanyahu and his thugs use the smokescreen of the war to impose a martial law on Israeli citizens, predominantly Palestinian ones: PROTESTS ARE PROHIBITED AND CAN NOW BE ANSWERED WITH LIVE AMMUNITION, workers and students are suspended and dissidents are persecuted for posts on the social network. “I plea to the world - supporting the Israeli government is not supporting Israeli people - it is supporting fascism, death and dictatorship. If you wish to help Israeli people in this dire time - support the peace movement, not the warmongers who waged a war against their own people!” Subscribe for the full interview with Ofer Cassif where he responds to Bernie Sanders' refusal to call for a ceasefire, the only way to find a solution to this war, and his dire warning if we continue on this path: “We are on the verge of an international or even world war, and everyone is going to pay the price.” And after listening to the extended interview, we challenge you to find any US politician with half as much journalistic knowledge or bravery to criticize their own government as Ofer Cassif. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Miko Peled: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/israeli-generals-son-slams-israels?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Senator Chris Murphy (D–CT) believes anything Israel says https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/senator-chris-murphy-dct-believes?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat “Israeli society has always been held together by scotch tape. The scotch tape is falling apart,” says Miko Peled. And he would know. Miko is the son of one of Israel's highest ranking generals and the grandson of a signatory to Israeli independence. He was raised in Israel and served in its army. And he condemns Israel's "savage" attacks on Palestinians. He answers several questions: How was Hamas able to do what it did? Where was the Israeli army? Is the IDF prioritizing keeping the hostages alive or killing Hamas? And explains the history of Israel's control over Gaza, how it led to the brutal massacre we're witnessing today, and the way to end this war. “That really is the conversation: how we bring this to an end, for real. Not a ceasefire, but a complete end to the blockade, a complete release of Palestinian prisoners, immediate aid to Palestinians. And all this with no conditions.” He's not stopping at just a reprieve from the bombings: “To the point that at the end of the day we bring the unconditional surrender of the apartheid state. That should be the main goal.” Subscribe for the full episode to hear Miko's logical plan for achieving this, and the harsh reality Palestinians face until we do. “Between now and then, we can be certain that Palestinians are going to continue to pay a heavy price. And the world is silent.” The world is silent, for the Palestinians at least. In the US, the president, Congress, and media brazenly cheerlead the genocide, lamenting the deaths of only Israeli citizens, understanding that referring to Palestinians as “civilians” will get you in trouble. “One party explicitly rejects talking about Palestinian civilians and explicitly blames Hamas for whatever happens to them. The other party pays some lip service but doesn't do anything. And that is American democracy.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: US politicians call for religious war against Palestine https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/us-politicians-call-for-religious?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat After Hamas's attack in Israel on Saturday, the Israeli massacres of Palestinians in Gaza have skyrocketed. This genocidal ethnic cleansing has scarcely been reported by mainstream media at any time in its 50 year history, let alone at a time when western media and politicians openly support a religious war against Palestine. So we're giving a platform to three Palestinian voices to share their story. We speak with Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian academic currently sheltering 15 children in his Gaza apartment, Yumna Patel, the Palestine news director for Mondoweiss, and Muhammad Shehada, a Palestinian writer from Gaza. Their stories of bombings, murder, cruelty, and lies from the Israeli government and malicious rumors from US media and politicians are difficult to hear, but so important when they're being silenced everywhere else. “The American public and the general public around the world is being sold a genocide,” they tell us. “We are being convinced through the rhetoric of Israeli politicians, the US president, and US state department spokespeople that Palestinians, specifically Gazans, are not human. They are trying to wipe Gaza off the map.” And while the deaths of Israelis must be covered and mourned, the West's hypocrisy and double standard on the value of life is clear. “I have never seen the amount of profiles and interviews with the families of victims than I've seen of mainstream media interviewing these Israeli families. I have never seen this level of attention paid to one singular Palestinian.” Israeli children matter. Why don't Palestinian children matter? “No attention is being paid to the killing of 270 children just in the span of three or four days.” Refaat, Yumna, and Muhammad share their frustration and disgust with “the fact that our government and the President of the United States is repeating dehumanizing genocidal language, repeating these unsubstantiated claims.” And sadly, we may not be able to hear their voices for long. Refaat, calling from Gaza with the sounds of bombs exploding in the background during the interview, warns that resources are running low. “But in a couple of days, maximum a week or two, if things don't change, we're looking at a total blackout, no coverage, no media, no internet. Not that Israel cares, and mainstream media is complicit.” Hear them speak, and share the interview to spread their message. At a dangerous time, we thank you for continuing to support Useful Idiots and our guests. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Gordon Hahn: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-ukraines-inconvenient?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Speaker Trump to the Rescue? https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/speaker-trump-to-the-rescue?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiotspodcast.com/chat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Norm Finkelstein: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/norman-finkelstein-on-canadas-applause?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: US Govt shutdown threatens workers' salaries – but not Ukraine's https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/us-govt-shutdown-threatens-workers?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Norman Finkelstein, whose latest book is I'll Burn that Bridge When I Get to It, returns to Useful Idiots with as much heretical bravado as ever: he's coming out swinging. First, he's dissecting the embarrassing Nazi celebration in Canada: the Orwellian push to have it erased from history, Trudeau's fake apology, and the despicable claims that Zelensky, who speaks English and understands Ukrainian history, didn't know that he was saluting a Nazi soldier. “When he [Zelensky] raised his hand,” Norman explains, “this Jew as we're constantly told, he was lending himself to the Nazi cause.” Next, Norman's talking about presidential candidate and celebrated leftist Cornel West. Norm explains he hadn't read any of West's books until this month when he prepped for an interview with the candidate. “I was dazzled,” Norm says. “He's better than me!” The interview, which drops soon on Norman Finkelstein's Podcast, will be a three-hour wide-ranging intellectual conversation. Norm gives us a preview. Subscribe (before prices rise on Oct 1!) to hear our full 90-minute interview where Norm shares his take on Cornel West's candidacy, and we get into a long debate about Norm's favorite pseudo-intellectual millionaire Ibram X Kendi. You're not going to want to miss it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Bryce Greene: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-us-media-cant-stop?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Nikki Haley's Unhinged China Rant https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/nikki-haleys-unhinged-china-rant?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Amanda Yee: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/bidens-trumpian-war-on-korea-a0b?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: NATO Chief Spreads "Pro-Putin Talking Points" https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/nato-chief-spreads-pro-putin-talking?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Journalist Amanda Yee of Liberation News joins the show to break up some hardened American propaganda about the “forgotten” war in Korea and what's actually going on behind the travel ban in North Korea, which Trump started and Biden has renewed each year since. This proves, once again, that despite running as the opposite of Trump, the one campaign promise that Biden has actually kept is the one he made behind closed doors to donors: "Nothing would fundamentally change." Even some of the most jaded skeptics of US propaganda still believe the misrepresentations about North Korea, and the travel ban makes it that much harder to see reality for ourselves. Luckily, Amanda Yee is sharing some first-hand accounts to shed light. She explains the painful family separations caused by Biden's draconian ban and the untold horrors of the war the US wants us to forget. A war which never ended. Amanda also discusses the national security state's selective, unprincipled and hypocritical war on independent organizations who dare to criticize U.S. foreign policy. Subscribe now (while the price is still low!) for the full interview with Amanda where we discuss the New York Times disinformation campaign to fuel fear of our “enemies” and the New Cold War with China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full episode with Matt Taibbi: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/matt-taibbi-on-gop-debates-censorship?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Click here for the full interview with Max Blumenthal and Matt Orfalea: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/matt-taibbi-and-max-blumenthal-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: NATO Pinky Swears that it's a "Defensive Alliance" https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/nato-pinky-swears-that-its-a-defensive?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Did you ever wonder what Democracy Now's Amy Goodman would sound like if she was played by director and actor Werner Herzog? Or what Chris Christie would do if Trump ordered food for him that he was allergic to? Have you wondered what the German word is for a Brazilian spider bite that causes painful, hours-long erections? Do you know the world-record time for drinking 2-liters of soda? Can you guess how many buffalo wings Matt Taibbi has eaten in one hour? Or how many hugs two erotically-charged men can do in one minute? Did you ever wonder if hugs could be counted? Or if an act of love such as a hug can't be quantified as there is so much more to a hug than a physical entanglement of arms, and that in the same way a competition for who can fall in love more times is a fleeting grasp at ordering the confusing nature of life, it is ultimately an impossible feat, and maybe the point of life isn't to count but to live, so when you finally allow yourself the freedom of falling out of control instead of waiting indefinitely behind the curtains of a stage that only exists in your own mind, preparing to say the lines you wrote for yourself but know deep down you'll never perform, when you finally let all that go and “embrace” the lack of control you realize you aren't falling but flying? Did you ever wonder those things? If so, you're in luck! Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper have all the answers while they celebrate three and a half years of Useful Idiots with a reunion episode, throwing it back to the four food groups, terrible media clips, a scary new censor, and as always, a whole lotta nonsense. Subscribe to watch the full episode where Matt and Katie do shrooms with Trump in a bowling alley and discuss the dystopian future of government censorship where the word transparency no longer means we get to see what they're doing, but where they get to always keep an eye on us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Max Blumenthal: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/matt-taibbi-and-max-blumenthal-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch the latest Thursday Throwdown: NATO Pinky Swears that it's a "Defensive Alliance" https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/nato-pinky-swears-that-its-a-defensive?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat “The constitution is just a sideshow at this point.” Censorship, no longer just a threat from the government but now from private tech corporations as well, has snowballed into dystopian size. And the scariest part about censorship? It hides itself. So it's hard to know just how huge it really is. Which makes this an issue on a scale so large that the only team possibly fit to crack into its titanium shroud is the original Useful Idiots: Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper. That's right, Matt's joining us for a two-week special. Buckle up. This week, we're interviewing two journalists recently trampled by the wheels of big tech. First is Max Blumenthal, editor and founder of the Grayzone, which had a recent fundraiser frozen and withheld by GoFundMe “due to some external concerns.” GoFundMe, along with corporations like PayPal, has buried other independent news sites for speaking out against US war. But none as big as the Grayzone. Which means they can speak up and fight back. Tune in and join the fight. The second guest is Matt Orfalea, video editor and Racket News contributor, whose videos on Youtube have been deleted and demonetized for being “potentially harmful,” or for spreading election lies. The main video in question was simply a mashup of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump claiming that the 2016 and 2020 elections were stolen from them. No opinion, just documentation. Check out the video, it's back up on Youtube but demonetized. You wouldn't want such a dangerous video to make any money for its creator. Subscribe for the full interviews with Max and Orf where they explain the digital de-democratization of the world under the guise of a NATO proxy war, the terrifying new DIIA app which is creating a new digital passport, and Max Blumenthal's grim prediction: As the power of corporations takes hold, “the only kind of activism that's going to be allowed is activism that supports the state's objectives.” It's a new world model where transparency no longer means we get to see what they're doing, but where they get to always keep an eye on us. Subscribe to watch the full episode and support independent media at a dangerous time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Sohrab Ahmari: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-how-both-parties?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Read Tyranny, Inc. here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/708057/tyranny-inc-by-sohrab-ahmari/ For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: NATO Pinky Swears that it's a "Defensive Alliance" https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/nato-pinky-swears-that-its-a-defensive?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full episode with Professor Junaid Ahmad: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-exposed-us-backed?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Hillary Clinton and Rachel Maddow Save Democracy https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/hillary-clinton-and-rachel-maddow?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Professor Junaid Ahmad, director for the Center for Global Dialogue, joins Useful Idiots to shed light on a bombshell story that you may not have heard about. And you have western corporate media to thank for that. The Intercept released a secret Pakistan cable which documents US pressure to remove Prime Minister Imran Khan from power. That was achieved in April 2022, when Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote. Since then, the Pakistani government has arrested Khan and banned him from the next election. Ahmad explains the consequences of the findings in the classified documents and shares one of the craziest quotes reported in the Intercept article: “All will be forgiven,” said a U.S. diplomat, “if the no-confidence vote against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan succeeds.” So why did the US want Khan out? Because he didn't follow the rules of western imperialism. In a speech, Khan responded directly to Western demands that Pakistan rally behind Ukraine. “What do you think of us? That we are your slaves and that we will do whatever you ask of us? We are friends of Russia, and we are also friends of the United States. We are friends of China and Europe. We are not part of any alliance.” Of course, such a statement is blasphemy under US rule, so Imran Khan was swiftly taken care of. Watch the full interview with Junaid Ahmad where he explains in depth what Khan believed as leader of Pakistan, how the regime change happened, and the next steps for the imprisoned prime minister to walk free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full debate: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/debate-is-trumps-jan-6th-plot-kooky?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: "Livin' on a Prayer (for endless war) https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/livin-on-a-prayer-for-endless-war?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Trump Indictment Season is officially in full swing, and corporate news, in their best attempt to give Trump as much free campaign coverage as possible, is covering it nearly 24/7. Whichever network you tune into, whether Fox News or MSNBC (and we sincerely hope you never tune into either), you'll find panels with talking-head lawyers professing to know the exact legal implications of the indictment. As is our mission at Useful Idiots, we aim to be fundamentally opposite of corporate media in all ways. So accordingly, we admit to not mastering the legal implications of anything. Which is why Useful Idiots is hosting a proxy debate on the criminality of Trump's actions around January 6. Congressional Dish host Jennifer Briney argues that Trump did in fact break the law, while writer and substacker Michael Tracey claims this indictment, like the others, is merely political. It's a debate you could only get from independent media: respectful, evenly-matched, and honestly hard to choose a winning side. So cut the cable, tune into Useful Idiots, and let us know in the comments who wins you over. Did Trump break the law, or are we watching Russiagate 2.0? Subscribe to support independent media and watch the full debate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full episode: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4381986/nato-is-the-zombie-that-won-t-die For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: MSNBC Celebrates Trump Indictment with 24/7 Campaign Promotion https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4375164/msnbc-celebrates-trump-indictment-with-24-7-campaign-promotion Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat “The likely outcome of the Vilnius summit,” Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia program at the Quincy Institute, explains, “will be once again to dangle a never ending timetable for Kyiv's admittance into the alliance.” As we progress further and further into the proxy war against Russia, Ukraine's roadmap for joining NATO grows foggier and foggier. In 2008, Ukraine was given an explicit list of steps to complete in order to gain acceptance. Today, they're told something else: “Ukraine can join NATO when allies agree and when certain conditions are met.” This purposefully vague promise seems to be the West's way of pushing off Ukraine indefinitely while still making sure that they fight to the last Ukrainian. As Lieven says: “At the very least I'd say Ukraine is just as far away as it was in 2008. The case for Ukraine's NATO membership is the zombie that won't die.” At Responsible Statecraft, he writes of the danger NATO faces if they ever actually followed through on their promise: “The West will be committed to an endless strategy of arming and financing Ukraine against Russia, while praying that the United States remains fully committed to this and is not drawn away by more important domestic and international threats.” He adds: “For if America ever does pull back, NATO's European members may find that the only thing more stupid than pulling a bear's tail and running away is pulling its tail when you can't run away.” Watch the full interview with Anatol Lieven where he explains how journalists have become part of the elite system they once reported on, the danger of Russophobia, and his scary answer to the question: “Do you have any fear that we're heading towards World War III?” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Congress Says the Aliens are Coming https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4342771/congress-says-the-aliens-are-coming Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Click here for the full interview with Lev Golinkin: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4318784/ukrainian-journalist-shocked-by-new-poll The poll: https://voxukraine.org/en/the-ability-of-ukrainians-to-distinguish-messages-of-russian-propaganda-results-of-public-opinion-research For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Anderson Cooper upset by Cornel West's morality https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4311701/anderson-cooper-upset-by-cornel-wests-morality Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat “This poll is earth-shattering.” “I wonder if any media will pick it up.” “Of course not!” Ukrainian-America journalist and author Lev Golinkin joined the show this week to discuss on a new poll that flips everything we've been told about “real Ukrainians.” And before you write off the poll as Russian propaganda, check out who conducted it: not Moscow, with its memes of deception to trick Americans, and not Useful Idiots, those secret Putin agents, but Vox! Now the poll: A shocking 43% of respondents in Ukraine disagreed with the statement “Nazi and/or neo-Nazi ideology is not widespread in Ukraine.” Guess what percent of respondents agreed with the statement “The West is using Ukraine for its own purposes in the war against Russia.” Check out the interview to find out. But you'll see that Ukraine is not the monolith of pro-war nationalists that our media claims they are. As Lev goes through the responses of the poll, each one shockingly truthful about the split of what Ukrainians actually believe, he has a dark conclusion about the US government which refuses to look at the data: “These people who have control over our future know nothing about us.” But Vox Ukraine's conclusion (we give props to them for even publishing the results at all), is very different. “The conducted survey revealed the overall ability of Ukrainians to differentiate narratives of Russian propaganda. In this case, the active promotion of counter-narratives is necessary.” So now it isn't “listen to Ukrainians” but “these Ukrainians are duped by Russian propaganda and we need to teach the troglodytes that they like the war.” So, don't listen to them. Join Lev, Katie, and Aaron as we analyze a poll that surely won't be reported by the New York Times or any other corporate warriors, and watch the extended interview where Lev shares the truth about the real people of the Donbas, the war crimes committed by the West and Russia (“Any war crime you can name that has been committed by one side has been committed by the other”), and the one difference between Wagner neo-Nazis and Azov neo-Nazis: “The Wagner neo-Nazis are not put on MSNBC. The Wagner neo-Nazis are not being trained and armed by the United States. The Wagner neo-Nazis are not being invited to Congress.” It's an enlightening interview with a Ukrainian voice ignored by the mainstream. Check it out, share the poll, and watch the extended interview with Lev Golinkin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices