Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:A lot is happening in Ukraine this week, so we start there with our two guests: retired Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis and Norwegian political scientist Glenn Diesen.After Russia launched its largest strike on Kyiv in a long time, peace talks between the two sides with the US as intermediary are stalled, with Trump appearing to blame Volodymyr Zelensky for the impasse.Useful Idiots: What is your assessment of where we are in the Ukraine proxy war?Lt. Col. Daniel Davis: We need to understand from the first point here that this war is already concluded. Ukraine lost, Russia won. That's the entry point that we have to start with because there's too many people in the West who still operate like there's a choice that can be made, that Trump can either press for a good outcome or he can quote ‘abandon Ukraine’ and give in to a bad outcome.There isn't. There is no good deal here to be had. We can get an ugly peace deal right now or we can avoid that yet again and end up setting the stage for a Ukraine military outright defeat.Useful Idiots: Meanwhile, you had these talks this week that were supposed to happen in London, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped out, saying that Ukraine is not ready to come to the table. And Volodymyr Zelensky is openly rejecting one of the key U.S. concessions so far, which was to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea.Glenn Diesen: I think it was a poor play by Zelensky, because this is Trump's hundred-day plan to finish off the war. The United States is preparing to walk away and wash its hands of this war if it can't get a peace deal, and the Russians are making real concessions, so obviously you want to at least appear to accommodate Trump's proposal. But Zelenskyy shut it down before the meeting even took place.Our chats with the two experts cover the history and future of the war in Ukraine, the “catastrophic” prediction they have for Trump’s China plans, and why the role of Deputy Director of National Intelligence was taken from Lt. Col. Davis at the last moment.Davis: I actually was going to be the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, but that got sank. There were these voices: the Jewish Insider, Mark Levin, the ADL, spreading all kinds of stuff. That's a shame, because what that's telling you is that there is some external entity that has power over who gets to serve in the United States government at even the highest levels.When you say, ‘We're going to follow one path here that harms another group of people writ large, not just Hamas but all of the Palestinian people, and if you don't hold that view, you're going to be prevented from serving in the United States government,’ something is desperately wrong and we need to get that fixed.Subscribe for the full interview with Lt. Col. Daniel Davis where he deep dives further into how the Israel lobby got his job rescinded, which president from the last 40 years he considers to be a strong leader, and some crazy China comments from Bari Weiss.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt Accidentally Celebrates College ProtestsThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

NYC May 5: See Gabor Maté and Chris Hedges speak live: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/palestine-the-moral-issue-of-our-time-with-gabor-mate-and-chris-hedges-tickets-1316539207209?aff=oddtdtcreatorUseful Idiots is an audience-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Attorney Jenin Younes has a long career defending free speech. This has brought her across both sides of the political aisle, with Democrats and Republicans trading places on civil liberty abuses. After four years of defending conservatives against Joe Biden, she’s now leading the fight against Donald Trump and his administration as they censor, kidnap, and deport foreign nationals who stand up to genocide.Useful Idiots: Now must be a really crazy time to be a civil liberties lawyer. Tell us what you do and how you are trying to fight for civil liberties under this administration in particular.Jenin Younes: I have a focus on First Amendment free speech rights. I was a public defender in New York, which is a very left-wing career. I ended up going into the civil liberties practice of law because I was really opposed to COVID restrictions. I thought it might hurt the poor and working class the most. I actually started defending what would largely be called conservative speech, people who questioned the lockdowns, vaccine mandates, the vaccines themselves, and the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story.For the last four or so years, I've worked mainly with conservatives, even though that's not really my political persuasion. Obviously, that's changed since October 7. A lot of the speech suppression that's been going on has been pro-Palestine speech. What is happening now under Trump is probably the most severe civil liberties and free speech violation of not just my lifetime, I would say modern history and possibly all of American history.Useful Idiots: Why is the current censorship so historic?Jenin Younes: Throwing people in ICE detention and putting them in deportation proceedings for writing op-eds is historically unprecedented. I don't think there's been anything like that ever. You had some during the Red Scare. There was some sort of echoes of that.The fact that we are throwing people in ICE detention, tearing them away from their families, and deporting them out of the country for criticizing a foreign nation is so without precedent in this country that I really don't even have words for it. I don't know how many people they're going to eventually punish. I don't know if they're going to go after citizens next. I think they might because they've indicated they could. But what they're doing is chilling everybody's speech. That's a major concern in First Amendment law, that when people see others being punished for the same kind of speech they want to engage in, that they're going to say, ‘I can't risk that. I can't risk being deported. I can't risk going to prison. So I'm just going to shut up.’ And I would say that the ultimate aim is to entirely suppress any pro-Palestine advocacy.Subscribe to hear the full interview with Jenin Younes on JD Vance’s “playbook of tyrants,” the age of Trial by Twitter, the turn of RFK Jr, a dangerous new legal definition of antisemitism, unmasking the doxxers at Betar, and so much more.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Tim Walz Says ‘Oops’ on Refusing to Break From Biden on GazaThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

MONDAY MAY 5 in NYCPalestine: the Moral Issue of Our Time with Gabor Maté and Chris Hedges Tickets here:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/palestine-the-moral-issue-of-our-time-with-gabor-mate-and-chris-hedges-tickets-1316539207209?aff=oddtdtcreatorUseful Idiots is an audience-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:In a week of market turmoil, we need a real expert to explain WTF is going on with Trump, tariffs, reversals, and crashes. So we’re talking to Useful Idiot-favorite, economist Richard Wolff, who sheds light on a tumultuous week and gives a fascinating lecture on what Trump should be doing to save the economy, and why he won’t.Useful Idiots: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just gave a speech saying ‘yes, the market is tumbling, but too bad, Wall Street. It's not your turn. This is the era of Main Street.’ This is the Trump administration's message now: The stock market has taken a huge hit, but that's because we're focused on restoring Main Street. How do you respond to that? Richard Wolff: This is all advertising noise. It has nothing to do with anything. The reason that Wall Street is yelling is that they don't want to be pinched. They're perfectly happy to have Mr. Trump do most of the things he wants to do. But they don't want to pay even this much of a fee for the benefits.Let me give you an example. When Mr. Trump was president the first time, the only basic economic achievement was the tax cut of 2017, an enormous tax cut given to corporations and the rich. The thirty years before 2017 were an enormous and unprecedented redistribution of wealth and income from the bottom and the middle to the top. If ever you didn't need a tax cut for those people, it was then. The only opposition to it that the Democrats could achieve was a sunset. It would expire this year, 2025. And so Mr. Trump has an urgent need, which all of Wall Street understands. He can't allow that to happen because they would all blame him.So that's what he's about to do. And the major way he thinks he can do that is by savaging public employment through all the firings, and by income from tariffs. I want people to understand this means that the Republican Party, which for a hundred years has branded itself the anti-tax party, has overnight become the mammoth tax-imposing economy, because a tariff is just a tax. And so what they're achieving is huge increase in taxes and firing large numbers of public employees. That's what it's about. The Main Street/Wall Street nonsense is pure fluff and shouldn't detract anyone from the underlying realities.Useful Idiots: Trump announced [on Wednesday] that he’s authorized a 90-day pause and a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff of 10% during that period. Help us make sense of what he’s doing here.Richard Wolff: I'm mystified. In my wildest imagination. Since I've just explained about uncertainty – I'm blown away – it's just incredible what he's doing. It’s beyond anything I can give you a rational answer for because this is no longer a rational behavior pattern.Useful Idiots: ‘Incredible’ like incredibly stupid?Richard Wolff: Yeah incredibly self-defeating. It undercuts any calculation. Even Jamie Dimon said that the uncertainty is the issue. This is just revving up uncertainty by cutting it down, making it not effective for ninety days. Everybody has to wonder: what happens at the end of ninety days? Another thirty days? Another twelve? I mean, this is beyond words.Subscribe to watch or listen to for the full interview with Professor Richard Wolff where he gives his prediction for the future of the US empire, the rise of BRICS, and answers the question: are we headed for a recession?Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Fox News Reluctantly Criticizes Trump’s Tariff "Capitulation"Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Useful Idiots is an audience-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Activists and former Members of the European Parliament Clare Daly and Mick Wallace return to the show a day after returning from a momentous trip to Yemen where they attended (and Mick spoke at) a Palestine Solidarity rally of over a million people. We discuss the US bombing campaign they witnessed first-hand in Yemen, the resilience of the Yemeni people, the history of terror against their people, and their attempt to block Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, which continues to be enabled by the West.Katie Halper: Tell us what you were just doing in Yemen, what brought you there and what you observed.Clare Daly: We're a bit overwhelmed still. We only came back yesterday. We were there on invitation at the National Conference on Solidarity with Palestine, the theme being You Are Not Alone. And this was the first time that they had international visitors in Yemen, in the midst of a US blitz. We were not disappointed, it was just from start to finish an absolutely incredible experience in terms of both the solidarity with Palestine but also the absolute resilience of the Yemeni people.Mick Wallace: You'd struggle to find a people so determined and so united. It's hard to imagine that any state has opposed Western imperialism in quite the same way as Yemen has.KH: Much like the situation in Gaza ‘starts on October 7’ for lots of people, what's happening in Yemen just ‘starts with the Houthis blocking ships’ and being ‘bad men’ and ‘terrorists.’ But why does Saudi Arabia, with U.S. support, want to destroy Yemen? And why did the U.N. give them permission to do so?Mick: The Yemenis had done nothing to anybody other than the fact that [in 2011 the president] had been pushed aside and the assistant Hadi had been put in power with a program of introducing neoliberalism and facilitating Western investment and plunder. They wanted to raze the place blind and get control of yemeni assets and resources.Yemen was one of the most self-sufficient food countries on the planet. And Hadi manufactured loans from the likes of the IMF and the World Bank with a view to changing how they did agriculture so that they would produce food for export instead of for themselves. And it was a disaster. Before long, people actually found themselves short of food. And they said no to this.There was an insurrection and of course the insurrection wasn't to the pleasing of the West and so in March 2015 [the West] said ‘we have found it impossible to subdue these people so we'll do it the other way.’ That was with military might. It's what's normal for settler colonials, be it America, Europeans or Israel. And that's what happened. Sanctions and blockades still continue to this day. And it's an enormously difficult situation for people living there now.KH: What do you think of the way that the Houthis [Ansar Allah] are portrayed as terrorists, given that, as you pointed out, they're actually the ones following the law when it comes to genocide?Clare: Isn't it amazing? It's deliberately portrayed as marginal and as terrorist. But in actual fact, this government is one of very few internationally which is fulfilling its responsibility under the Geneva Convention, which says that the obligation on all signatories is not just to not commit genocide yourself, but to actively prevent and punish those who do. And the Houthi-led government in Yemen is one of the few doing that. Their actions are directly targeted at interfering with international shipping, which is on its way to enable genocide.Meanwhile, the Israelis are targeting civilians and deliberately killing ordinary people and they're the ones enabled by the West but the Houthis are the ones who are demonized as terrorists. They've been incredibly restrained, they did not attack the ships when the ceasefire was in place and they only resumed the action when the ceasefire was broken with the implementation of the mass starvation again and targeted killing of civilians by the Israelis.The Houthis clearly have the support of their people. We were on a march of over a million people. It happens every Friday. People come out, and bear in mind that these are now the victims of American bombings. every night, to say ‘we stand with Palestine.’We had a meeting with the former prime minister. And he said, ‘look, it's very simple for us. We are not going to stand by. When children are being murdered and starved, we have an obligation to do something and we are going to do it.’ For us, that's heroism. That's not terrorism.For our full interview with Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, where we discuss War in Ukraine and how the West is happy to use the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, please subscribe to Useful Idiots. Your support keeps independent media strong.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: State Dept Blames Hamas For I

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:There’s a lot going on in the world this week: Israel is increasing nuclear tensions with Iran, the Trump Administration leaked on Signal its plans to attack a civilian apartment building in Yemen, US federal officials kidnapped another college student for pro-Palestine speech, and the JFK files unveiled decades of new classified information.This is high level stuff, which means we’ve got to go high up to get real answers.Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who served in the CIA at the time of JFK’s assassination, has become one of the most important peace activists in the country, breaking important classified stories and fighting the military industrial complex. He also cofounded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity to “protest the use of faulty intelligence” to justify US wars.Ray breaks down SignalGate, US terror in Yemen, the JFK files, the latest in the proxy war in Ukraine, and how the intelligence community uses the threat of Iranian nukes an excuse for Israeli aggression.This week, the Tulsi Gabbard-controlled Office of National Intelligence put out a threat assessment that flies in the face of Israeli officials who are constantly fear-mongering about Iran’s nuclear program and encouraging the U.S. to bomb Iran accordingly.“This is the front burner question right now,” Ray says. “It's worth reading because I think it will be a very great disincentive for the administration to claim that the reason they are with Israel attacking Iran is because Iran has a nuclear weapon.”He reads the report: “The threat assessment dated two days ago says this, ‘We continue to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.’”Ray explains what all this means for the Middle East, analyzing all the players from the Houthis in Yemen and their effort against Israel to Marco Rubio’s State Department and its funding of the ongoing genocide.Subscribe for the full interview with Ray McGovern where he breaks down the new information in the JFK files, if Trump actually has an anti-war agenda, and the unsolved mysteries surrounding the DNC email leaks. Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump Bombed Yemen the Wrong WayThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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Watch the full, unpaywalled interviews with Diana Buttu and Abubaker Abed here:According to western corporate media, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire was firmly in place until the events of this week. Just look at this Guardian article from March 15:It is reported that at least 150 Palestinians were killed during the ceasefire, and that Israel’s continued blockage of humanitarian aid has led to the deaths of many more in that time. Somehow, this still fits into corporate media’s definition of a ceasefire.This week, however, Israel ramped up it’s mass assault on Gaza, wiping out huge areas of people, including hundreds of children. The attack was too deadly even for corporate media to whitewash. So we have shameless headlines like this:To discuss this, we are joined by Haifa-based Palestinian-Canadian human rights lawyer Diana Buttu and Gazan journalist Abubaker Abed. They explain the devastating destruction by Israel this week, why there was never a ceasefire to begin with, how Trump has been pushing forward this violence, and the genocidal flyers that Israel dropped over Gaza.Palestinian voices are nearly completely censored in western media. This episode is free to all so that they can be heard.And stay tuned for this week’s Saturday Shitshow, the weekend edition of Thursday Throwdown. Thanks for supporting independent media, subscribe to watch full episodes and bonus content here:Useful Idiots is an audience-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“There have been widespread massacres along the coast of Alawites,” reports Professor Joshua Landis, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “This is a religious minority in Syria. They're also the community that backed Bashar al-Assad's regime. Most of the top officers in his security forces and intelligence service were Alawites. And so for that reason, the entire Alawite community has been labeled as guilty and is accused by these Jihadi militias of being guilty.”We don’t show the videos coming out of Syria this week in this episode, but Professor Landis describes the disturbing footage he’s seen.“They just slaughtered every Alawite male they could find along the coast. And not just men, although the vast majority were men. But in many instances, entire families were killed in their apartments. And we have a number of videos of mothers showing you their kids and their entire household who have been shot. A hundred and forty people were just slaughtered in the main town on the roads and the square. And you can see just horrible videos.”The narrative that we've been told in the west is that regime change is necessary to promote democracy around the world. But, Landis explains, though many Syrians justifiably hated the Assad government, the results of US foreign policy make things worse.“Americans believe that when they overturn dictatorships, they're going to get a democratic outcome. We convinced ourselves of this in Iraq, in Libya, in Afghanistan, that we could somehow mold these societies in our own image. And we've discovered that time and time again: we're wrong. And what has happened throughout the Middle East, whether it's the Taliban or Al-Qaeda or ISIS, is you're going to get these extremist militias.”We’re also joined by former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who has visited Syria over a dozen times and studied its history.“This was so predictable,” he says of this week’s massacres. “The US has been involved for thirty years in an effort to take over Syria.” Kucinich explains the US role in Syria since his time serving in Congress, when he saw firsthand how Bush administration officials focused on helping Israel by employing disruption tactics throughout the Middle East.“The ongoing humanitarian crisis and severe sectarian violence in Syria are direct outcomes of policies dating back to the Clean Break doctrine of 1996, by a D.C. think tank which counseled Benjamin Netanyahu.”“The Clean Break doctrine laid the groundwork for aggressive policies toward Syria which emerged through an effort coordinated by the Bush White House as several authors of the Clean Break strategy ascended to federal government policy-making positions.” And as always, this was a bipartisan strategy. “The "Clean Break" approach was further advanced by Hillary Clinton, who, as Secretary of State, together with CIA Director David Petraeus, proposed arming Syrian rebels.”This, Kucinich explains, led to the CIA’s plot to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, replacing him in 2024 with a new al-Qaeda-led government.Subscribe for the full interview with Dennis Kucinich in which he recounts his trip to Syria with now-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, what Elon Musk should be doing with DOGE, and how he would end America’s debt crisis.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté DEMOLISHES Rabbi Schmuley on Piers MorganThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Useful Idiots is an audience-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a stunning and unprecedented statement to the world: he called the Ukraine war a proxy war.Rubio’s statement makes him the highest ranking official to admit what has been happening in Ukraine since the start of this war. Adam Schiff said it: “The United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there and we don’t have to fight Russia over here.” Lindsey Graham said it: “As long as we help Ukraine with the weapons they need and the economic support, they will fight to the last person.”Now Rubio: “I’ve been very clear from the beginning that President Trump views this as a protracted stalemated conflict, and frankly it’s a proxy war between…the United States and Russia.”The Duran's Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris join the show this week to explain the history of the proxy war, the magnitude of this unprecedented statement, and why it could represent a major shift away from the last 30 years of US foreign policy.“Since 2014,” Alexander explains, “[the CIA] has basically been controlling Ukraine's intelligence services and has even trained people who have taken part in the assassinations of rebel leaders in the Donbas. Admissions are slowly coming out about what has preceded all of this and what helped provoke Russia to invade.”But Rubio’s statement could be more than an admission; it could be a policy shift. “It's just so unprecedented to get at this level. The secretary of state saying, ‘This is indeed a proxy war. It has to come to an end.’ I think Rubio knew exactly what he was doing. He made this extraordinary statement a few weeks ago that the unipolar moment is over, that the United States is one great power amongst several, that it must pursue its own interests, that the entire history period of American foreign policy has essentially come to an end. Which is a massive reversal of everything that the US has been saying it's been doing for the last thirty years.”Subscribe to hear the full interview with Alex and Alexander on whether a proposed peace deal would actually be accepted by Russia, why there hasn’t been a single US lawmaker to oppose any military spending for Ukraine, and if the Trump administration’s peace messaging will extend to their policies in the Middle East.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump Attacks Trans Mice; MSNBC Attacks a ChildThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Useful Idiots is an audience-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Useful Idiots’ resident economist Yanis Varoufakis returns to the show this week to analyze Trump and Musk’s chainsaw cuts to Medicaid, USAID, and other government programs, answering the important question: is it actually bad for a government to run a deficit?But before getting into the DOGE of it all, Varoufakis gives an economic explanation for how Trump reclaimed power, and whose fault it is.“Donald Trump is the creation of the Democratic Party's spectacular, lamentable failures,” he says. “The first time he was elected, it was entirely due to Barack Obama. Barack Obama betrayed every single promise or principle that he put forward in 2008.”And his reelection was a result of the same calculated missteps by the Dems. “The average American couldn't make ends meet. And yet the liberal establishment were saying you've never had it so good and you should celebrate the fact that we've had a recovery in the labor market and inflation. People couldn't make ends meet. And there was a Democratic establishment telling them that it was the best of all possible worlds. How dare you complain about your finances?”Just as he did after Obama, Trump capitalized on this: “Trump comes again and says, I'm looking you in the eye and I can recognize your pain and I'm going to make you great. So he got elected as a result of very concerted efforts by the Democrats to lose.”But will Trump follow through on these promises to help the working class, or will the donors in Mar-a-Lago trump the voters?“The Republicans,” Yanis explains, “are notorious for being exceptionally liberal when it comes to handing money to themselves, to their friends, to the financial and real estate community. They have no problem doing that. But they look at a single cent, nickel, or dime being spent on a poor person and they scream blue murder. Why? Because they are class warriors. They're in the business of conducting a vicious class war against the little people.”But the even harsher reality, he says, is the reason it will be so challenging to fix any of these problems: “Unfortunately, the Democrats have been even more efficient class warriors than the Republicans.”Subscribe for the full interview with Yanis Varoufakis where he explains this, plus why Amazon is “the wet dream of the Soviet Economic Planning Ministry,” how technofeudalism killed capitalism, and the real reason that Germany is so beholden to Israel (hint: it’s not Holocaust guilt like they say).Catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Brian Stelter: Voters Who Want Peace Are IlliterateThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Useful Idiots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“Every single day, we are losing territories. Every single day, we are losing people. Every single day, our children in Ukraine are suffering from these rocket attacks, drone attacks. And nobody knows what happened next.”Dr. Marta Havryshko is a Ukrainian historian and professor at Clark University. She has watched as the proxy war between the United States and Russia has destroyed her country.“Those who want to continue this disaster and this hell,” she says, calling out the proxy warriors and those who have criticized her for seeking peace, “are you ready to sacrifice your life? Are you ready to sacrifice the life of your brother, son, and other loved ones for this crazy idea that victory can be achieved?”Ukraine, she believes, was doomed from the beginning of the war.“Russia is bigger, Russia has a lot of resources, Russia has powerful friends. I can't even understand who in their right mind actually can believe that Ukraine can change the situation on the front line and retake all those territories.”Marta has watched as her family members were forced to fight and die for this proxy war. She shows us footage of the Ukrainian army chasing and kidnapping men as a method of forced conscription as the fighting population wanes.“Who will retake those territories? Many of my friends, many of my relatives are in the army now. They suffer from suicidal thoughts. They suffer from this desperation, frustration. But nobody can replace them because we have this problem with mobilization, we are running out of manpower.”And she explains who Ukrainians are blaming: “That's why the popularity of Zelensky nowadays is really low. Ukraine under Zelensky is not a democracy.”Subscribe for the full interview with Marta Havryshko on how western media whitewashes neo-Nazis, why comparing Putin to Hitler doesn’t work, and how Zelensky shut down TV channels to censor opponents.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Rachel Maddow Incites a New January 6 Over Ukraine Peace TalksThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Useful Idiots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:This week, the world saw the president of the United States sit quietly at his desk while the richest person in the world stood over him to take questions from reporters. It comes only days after another subservient look from “tough guy” Trump when he pushed in his boss’s chair like a waiter:While Netanyhu seems to be in complete control of Trump internationally, we’re turning to the domestic front to ask: how much power do Musk and the Broligarchy have over the president’s decisions?Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at Boston University and author of the upcoming book Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right, and journalist Michael Tracey join the show to unravel the mystery around Elon Musk, analyzing what he’s already done, what DOGE has the power to do, and how he plans to build his influence.Quinn explains the difficulty in putting a label on Musk, which he says is often helpful in giving a historical analysis for a person. Some call Musk a techno-fascist, others call him a libertarian, and others a tech oligarch. Quinn doesn’t quite agree with any of these labels, and begins building a new one.We also ask him about Steve Bannon, who has been replaced at Trump’s side by Musk, and whether there will be some kind of MAGA civil war between the pseudo-populists and the tech elites. And dive into how Elon Musk was shaped by the South African apartheid.Michael Tracey discusses Trump’s role in the Ukraine War. After Trump’s failed promise to end the war in “24 hours,” it’s become clear that he doesn’t plan to stop giving aid to Ukraine. And with reports of a historic phone call this week between Trump and Putin, what is next for Ukraine?Subscribe for the full interview with Michael Tracey on what Russia is willing to accept from Trump, the hypocrisy of the culture wars, and what Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation as director of national intelligence means for foreign policy.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna Calls on Ghost Witnesses from JFK CommissionThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Useful Idiots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Former U.S. Marine Brian Berletic, who focuses on geopolitics in Eurasia and hosts the informative Youtube show The New Atlas, joins Useful Idiots this week as Elon Musk and the Trump administration are gutting USAID and attempting to move it under the control of Marco Rubio’s State Department.Musk claims he’s “dismantling the Deep State.” Berletic, whose years as a marine gave him a harsh awakening about the reality of US hegemony, gives an in-depth analysis of what’s really going on.He explains why each side is up-in-arms over the issue: Dems are painting USAID as an all-loving agency that is essential to upholding Democracy around the world, while Republicans are crying wokeism by finding relatively trivial expenses in the fine print. Neither, Berletic says, are highlighting the real, and much more nefarious issues with USAID.“They have not mentioned foreign interference, regime change, subversion, stifling development, and they have not said that they are going to stop any of that.”“And here's a photo,” he shows us from the U.S. Government Counterinsurgency Guide, drafted in part by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). “Just think about how tone deaf or brazen they are to post this picture. This is a picture of the Philippines, the U.S. conquered the Philippines. There was an uprising because they wanted to be an independent nation. The US military brutally suppressed it. Mass murder, concentration camps. This is all listed on the State Department's website And so they're talking about insurgency, counterinsurgency, and USAID's role in the counterinsurgency process.”Subscribe for the full interview with Brian Berletic on Trump's fight with China for the Panama Canal, Brian’s realization of the sick acts committed by marines, and what the Deep State really is.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump Lackeys Sell “Bold, Fresh” Gaza Expulsion PlanThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Useful Idiots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:This week we are joined by two guests, Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha and tech Professor Ramesh Srinivasan. First is Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha, who recently won an Overseas Press Club Award for his “Letter from Gaza” columns for The New Yorker, and authored the new poetry book is Forest of Noise. He is also the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, which was destroyed by Israel.Over the course of Israel’s mass assault on Gaza, Mosab has lost 31 members of his family. He has expressed his catastrophic loss through poetry:“All of Gaza has become a funeral home,” Mosab explains to us, “because the mourners themselves are killed. Who is going to mourn the death of someone when their father, their mother, their siblings were killed? And sometimes we do the funeral on the phone. We call someone and say, ‘I'm so sorry to hear about your loss.’ And then a few minutes later, that person, the caller or the recipient of this condolence, would be killed.”Mosab also explains why he doesn’t consider this pause in Israel’s attacks on Gaza to be a ceasefire.“The whole area is a pile of rubble, so where do you place your tent? People are deciding to go back. Going back for what and for how long? No one knows. This is why it's not a ceasefire.”We also talk to Ramesh Srinivasan, professor of information studies at UCLA and author of Beyond the Valley: How Innovators around the World are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow.The big news out of the tech world this week is that Chinese AI company DeepSeek has surpassed the abilities of ChatGPT. In response, the Trump administration imposed new tariffs against China, a move that exposes a fear of falling behind.We ask Ramesh: why does the US government see DeepSeek as a threat, and should regular Americans see this new AI as a potential for human progress or as a dangerous new advancement? His answer gives a clear explanation for why the US is losing the AI War so far.Ramesh also explains the surprising effect AI usage has on depleting natural resources.Subscribe for the full interview with Ramesh Srinivasan on how the government uses tech companies to spy on Americans through the Patriot Act, the lack of disclosure by Big Tech of anything that they’re doing behind the scenes, and what the oligarchs who sat front row at Trump’s inauguration are planning next to tighten their control.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump Exposes Hamas Condom BombsThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Useful Idiots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:What is really behind the TikTok wars? According to Arnaud Bertrand, our guest this week, it’s less about Palestine content and more about good, old-fashioned American colonialism and hypocrisy.Bertrand, a French entrepreneur and political analyst based in Malaysia, who lived in China for eight years and has debated China with the likes of Adrian Zenz, reflects on the hypocrisy of the American government, which claims to respect the free market, but actually intervenes in business in order to ban a company for simply being Chinese:“This is the kind of stuff that Cuba would get accused of,” he explains, “talking about the evils of communism, like appropriating enterprises. It’s ironic that the United States government, which presents itself as this bastion of entrepreneurship, free market, where the government doesn't meddle, is doing exactly that.”“If [the Tik Tok ban] goes through, it sets a very worrying precedent because basically what it's saying is that, if as a non-American tech company, you make it big, then basically we're going to try to colonize you. It's digital colonialism.”The fairness of the free market, Arnaud explains, is reserved only for American companies. Beyond that, the government steps in for control.“It completely destroys the incentive for any country. It's already so hard to succeed given the odds on how dominated the landscape is by American VCs and American tech companies. If you're one of the lucky few that finally make it, then you're forced to sell to the Americans. It's definitely not right and that's a precedent that I don't think should be set.”The irony is that the crackdown on TikTok has brought Chinese people and American people together as Americans are migrating to the Chinese platform Red Note.Subscribe to hear the full interview with Arnaud Bertrand on the myths the West tells about Chinese culture, China’s roll in the Ukraine-Russian War, and the claim that China is engaging in a genocide against the Uyghurs.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump’s Creative Excuse for Hiring “Very Stupid Person” John BoltonThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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Watch the full, unpaywalled episode here. Thanks for supporting independent media.This week, after over a year of genocide in Gaza, Israel and Hamas have finally reached a tentative ceasefire deal:“The giant loophole in this deal is that it comes in three phases. A permanent ceasefire comes in the second phase. The first phase is a limited prisoner exchange, and so Hamas has very little reason to believe that Israel will go into this and actually see it through to the end of the three phases.”And here’s another trick: this quote isn’t from this week – it’s from our interview with Nathan Thrall in May 2024 regarding the ceasefire deal that was never implemented. But Gazan writer Muhammad Shehada, who is based in Copenhagen but with family still in Gaza, points out this week’s deal is remarkable similar to the one from May:“I started reading through [the recent deal],” he tells us, “and I looked up the May 27th deal. I read the whole text: word-for-word identical, one hundred percent, not a change. There's only an appendix of elaborations.”So we’re having onto the show former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy and Muhammad Shehada to analyze why this deal is back, whether it will actually signal an end to the mass killings in Gaza, and what really happened in the negotiations between Trump and Netanyahu.“Could this then lead to a quid pro quo down the line where Netanyahu gets something from Trump that will be horrific for Palestinians, such as expanded theft of West Bank land?”Daniel Levy also discusses “Bloody Blinken’s” terrible track record as Secretary of State, which has become a pressing matter as Blinken is now having journalists dragged out of press briefings for challenging him on his complicity in the genocide in Gaza. Muhammad Shehada discusses the Biden Administration’s false history of ceasefire negotiations, and shares what it has been like to lose so many friends and family in Gaza.This week’s interview is free to all viewers. Thanks for your support of Useful Idiots and independent media.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Biden’s Ceasefire JokeUseful Idiots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: Trump’s Middle East envoy is named Steve Witkoff. He was wrongly identified at 5:00. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Useful Idiots is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Dave Smith is Part of the Problem. He’s a Jewish, anti-Zionist, libertarian comedian who makes a lot of people mad – but today he’s on Useful Idiots to make us laugh. And you’ll see very quickly how his no-nonsense approach to foreign policy matches almost perfectly with the progressive anti-war mindset.“My beef with Israel,” Dave explains, “has nothing to do with how I feel about Jewish people. I just think you can't occupy a group of people and then indiscriminately slaughter them. That's not cool.”And here’s where the libertarian comes in: “And why on earth should I be forced to fund that, especially when it's so clearly at the expense of my country and my country's interests? Syria is the perfect example of this. On one side you have Al Qaeda, the enemy of the American people. And on the other side, you have Bashar al-Assad, the enemy of the Israeli government. And who are we picking? We're picking the enemy of my country's people. It's such an outrage.”But as Useful Idiots knows all too well, speaking out brings a flood of outrage and name calling. But outrage and names, Dave explains, is about all they’ve got.“If that's the counter argument then you really must be on weak ground. You know whatever I'm a Putin-apologist or I'm a terrorist-lover or a self-hating Jew or a Nazi or whatever you want to say. It's just so dumb, are we in the third grade?”But his common-sense, anti-war argument is far from mainstream, especially in places where the government can dominate thinking in both the media and the culture itself. “It’s the dynamic under the U.S. dominant culture,” he says. “If joe Biden or Donald Trump or Barack Obama were to drone bomb a wedding in Yemen, which is something they tend to do, and they kill like six children and fourteen adults and a couple hundred others were wounded; and then that same day they gave a press conference and they said ‘I don't believe [x culture issue],’ what would be the big outrage of the day?”Subscribe for the full interview with Dave Smith for his takes on Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Jake Shields, how Israel has created more antisemitism, and a progressive vs libertarian debate on welfare.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump Pins January 6 On HezbollahThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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Watch the full, unpaywalled episode here. Thanks for supporting independent media.Healthcare workers are being targeted and killed by Israel in Gaza. This hasn’t stopped American doctor Tanya Haj-Hassan from repeatedly going back.“I think it's normal to have some fear for your own safety,” she tells us. “You're going into a war zone where essentially there is indiscriminate killing of everybody. But at the same time, our colleagues have been enduring this for fifteen months straight. And it's intolerable and unbearable to watch it from the outside.”Despite the oath she and every other doctor took to care for people, Tanya describes a "Palestinian exception": “When you work in the American healthcare system, you aren't given the freedom to show solidarity with Palestinian healthcare workers, with the Palestinian people, with patients, to express outrage about the intentional targeting of the healthcare system and healthcare workers. And you are either directly or indirectly attacked if you show solidarity in this way. True solidarity means risking something. And I can tell you as someone who's working in the North American healthcare system that we are silenced, and that when we speak out, we pay the price.”But to Dr. Haj-Hassan, remaining silent isn’t an option. “Being silent in the face of the intentional decimation of an entire healthcare system, the intentional killing and targeting of healthcare workers, the intentional detention and torture of healthcare workers for no other crime other than providing healthcare is complicity.”So, Tanya shares the harrowing stories of her time in Gaza, and while it’s very hard to hear, it is more important than ever to bear witness to the crimes committed against the Palestinian people.“You just finish mourning the loss of somebody you know,” Tanya shares, “and then you receive the next bit of news. And I think that's characteristic of everything we've been witnessing since October of last year. Just as an example, on Christmas Day, five journalists in a press marked vehicle were killed by a direct airstrike. A day later, Kamal Adwan Hospital is raided and burned down. Dr. Hassan Abu Safiya, the director, is, we're told, beaten and taken away to Israeli prisons.”Dr. Hassan Abu Safiya, who was photographed bravely walking towards Israeli tanks, was already injured by Israel. His son had already been murdered by Israel. Yet he refused to leave the hospital. His pleas for help to the international community were ignored. His hospital was destroyed. And now he is reported to be in the notorious Sde Teiman prison, where Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh was killed and, according to witnesses, essentially raped to death.Dr. Haj-Hassan continues: “And if it happened anywhere else in the world or it had happened in isolation, you'd have time to report on it and to share it with the world. But you just you move on the next day.”Tanya also talks about pushing back on a CNN reporter and explaining that this is not some natural humanitarian crisis. This is genocide. And she reacts to the hateful smearing of child-educator and youtuber Ms. Rachel who is being called an antisemite for saying "children have the right to live." And Tanya debunks the malicious claim that children in Gaza aren't really freezing to death.Listen to and share this interview with Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan. Thanks for your support of independent media and healthcare workers.And if you subscribe, you’ll also get this week’s Thursday Throwdown: CNN Drunkenly Admits It’s Fake NewsFor $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot and support independent media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Watch our full interview with Norm Finkelstein from October 11 here:“I think the reasonable conclusion is that Gaza is no more. There's nothing left in Gaza.”Monday the 7th marked one full year of genocide in Gaza, the darkest era of a decades-long occupation by Israel, which has now begun to spread into the broader Middle East region.This week we’re joined by Gaza expert and Useful Idiots fan-favorite Norman Finkelstein to look back on this genocidal year.Norm points out that this is not, as Western and Israeli media claims, an “Israel-Hamas war.” This is not war. This is genocide. And Israel is not targeting Hamas; they are killing civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, and picking off journalists, health workers, and children.“I read this letter,” he tells us, “from sixty-five physicians from around the world who gave testimony as to what they observed. And every one of the physicians testified that the children who were coming into the hospital had bullet wounds to the skull or to the chest. No shrapnel. It wasn't bombs and shrapnel. It was targeted bullet wounds to the skull and to the chest of children. What does that have to do with war?”“There were fifty-four disabled children who used the school in the convent complex. They fired two shells at it. What does that have to do with war?”Norman also recalls meeting Hezbollah members, and shares what he got wrong about the organization. “Israel, he says, “is willing to kill for material benefit, and Hezbollah and Hamas are willing to die for survival” He also recounts his time meeting Hamas leaders, and explains Israel’s unfair advantage:“Israel is the entrenched, concentrated manifestation of Western imperialism. It's got deep roots. It's got the whole Western system behind it, that Western system which won't let go. It will nuke China before it lets go of its global dominance. And in order to defeat it, it requires a very long-term struggle and intense calculation.”Subscribe for the full interview where Norman explains this despair, and the generational hopelessness which lacks historical precedent.“Our generation,” he laments, “has, for good reason, lost the belief, the conviction that we have the force of history behind us. That we have the force of justice behind us. Our generation believes there's a good chance we'll be defeated. There's a good chance we're not going to win.”But that doesn’t mean we should give up.“The only thing I can say as a conclusion is you never know. You can only know one thing for certain: If you do nothing, it can only get worse.”It’s that certainty that he says keeps him going. “If you resist, there are moments where it looks very grim. And then there's that folk song, it's always darkest before the dawn. It's this hope that keeps me carrying on. It's always darkest before the dawn.”“There's another reality. There's something in the human constitution that simply can't do nothing. In the face of such death and devastation, you just can't.”For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot and support independent media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:He’s the author of the new book Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine and host of the Scott Horton Show – it’s Scott Horton! And he’s joining Useful Idiots this week in a Santa hat to bring us the much-needed gift of finding out WTF is really going on in Russia, Ukraine, and the Middle East.A theme of this interview – and much of our reporting these days – is that so much of what was previously dismissed and smeared as Russian propaganda is now admitted openly as fact. Two glaring examples: the US and UK prevented a peace deal that had been negotiated between Ukraine and Russia right after Russia invaded in February 2022. And the idea that this whole conflict is a US proxy war.When we reported these on our show, we were called Putinists, Russian propagandists, and, by some really clever haters, useful idiots.But today, either everyone has fallen for these Russian talking points, or the West has finally realized it can’t hide the truth much longer as mountains of evidence prove these to be true. Just listen to Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister who famously warned Zelensky not to finalize the peace deal, describing the war now:“We are, let's face it, we're waging a proxy war. But we're not giving our proxies the ability to do the job. For years and years now we've been allowing them to fight with one hand tied behind their backs, and it has been cruel and we need now to give them what they need.”He admits that this is a proxy war, but using Ukraine as fodder against Russia isn’t the cruel part. The cruel part, according to neocons, is that we’re not giving them all the weapons possible to fight and die on our behalf.That’s the perspective that Scott Horton takes apart in this week’s episode, giving a very detailed account of the US role in provoking the proxy war in Ukraine and the methods to prolong it ever since.Subscribe to hear the full interview with Scott Horton where we discuss how so-called anti-war President Trump has stood as firmly by NATO as anyone else, whether actual Ukrainians want western support, and a complex look at the Middle East where Scott reveals the country that spies on the US more than anyone else.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté Silences Piers Morgan Panel with Facts on Syria & PalestineThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

Give the gift of Useful Idiots, send a gift subscription to a friend: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:To the applause of the United States, Mohammad al-Julani and HTS (formerly known as al-Qaeda in Syria) overthrew the Assad government in Syria, a shocking victory for Western regime-changers that has been years in the making.But now the question remains: who will rule Syria?Founding director of the Middle East Studies program at George Mason University Bassam Haddad shares his analysis: it won’t be al-Julani. He gives an in-depth history of the conflict from the perspectives of the Syrian government, HTS, the US, and Syrian citizens to explain why.The situation in Syria is trickier to analyze than other global conflicts: with so much destruction on all sides and the overflowing propaganda surrounding it all, it has become exceedingly difficult to find the truth of what’s happening on the ground in Syria, let alone analyze it from afar. Which is why (and we try never to use the word), the situation needs *nuance.* Bassam Haddad’s analysis is extremely well-rounded and unbiased, which makes his take very crucial to anyone looking to cut through the noise.Subscribe to watch the full interview with Bassam on the type of rule he predicts for the future of Syria, if the corruption-plagued Syrian government would’ve collapsed even without US interference, and why Israel is benefitting from the fall of Assad.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Rachel Maddow Finds a Way to Connect Alleged CEO Shooter to TrumpThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:This week on Useful Idiots, we’re doing a deep dive on Syria, a foreign policy issue constantly shrouded in propaganda and misinformation. We hear reporting from two sources:Kevork Almassian, whose family lives in Syria, is a geopolitical analyst and host of Syriana Analysis, and Lindsey Snell, an independent journalist who was taken captive by Al-Qaeda in 2016.Syria is back in the news because a long-dormant war there has reignited with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the group formerly known as Al-Qaeda, which has launched a major offensive taking Syrian territory, including the major city of Aleppo. This is a huge setback for the Syrian government, sparking widespread fears that we're going to see a repeat of the awful years after 2011 when there was a massive war inside Syria fueled by foreign powers, including the U.S. The group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, is led by Mohammed al-Julani, the founding leader of al-Qaeda in Syria and the former deputy to the founding leader of ISIS, al-Baghdadi. But after multiple name changes and rebrands, HTS is portrayed as “reformed” in western media.There’s a lot of propaganda to cut through. Kevork and Lindsey are guiding us through it all.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: CNN’s Hunter Biden Pardon Therapy SessionThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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Here’s our full Thanksgiving chat with Simon Shuster. Thanks for your support.After President Biden gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use long-range US missiles in Russia, the Russians responded by shooting an intercontinental ballistic missile back into Ukraine. Now, as we wait for the next move that could ignite nuclear war, we’re talking to TIME correspondent Simon Shuster to analyze the conflict.At TIME, Shuster covers international affairs, with a focus on Russia and Ukraine. For his first book, The Showman, he reported inside the Ukrainian President’s compound in Kyiv as the Russian invasion unfolded.Our interview includes insights into President Zelensky’s inner circle, a fascinating story of the Ukrainian president during the early days of the war, and first-hand accounts of the back and forths of generals.Plus, Simon and Aaron have an extended debate over the cause of the conflict as well as the motives of Putin, Zelensky, and NATO. And don’t miss this week’s Thursday Throwdown, where Katie breaks down her debate with Alan Dershowitz during her recent appearance of Piers Morgan.Thanks for supporting independent media. Enjoy this week’s full episode, unpaywalled, and have a happy Thanksgiving.For $6 a month, support independent media and become a Useful Idiot This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“I've just never seen anything like this.”Jeffrey Sachs, the renowned economist, University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University returns to Useful Idiots at a time of global peril to warn that we are close to World War Three.“The president himself,” Sachs says, “and his extraordinarily weak team understand nothing about diplomacy. They have gotten us closer and closer to complete global disaster, World War III, nuclear Armageddon, whatever you want to call it.”Just this week, the administration gave Ukraine the go-ahead to launch long-range missiles into Russia, which Russia responded to with an intercontinental ballistic missile strike into Ukraine, and the US for the fourth time, vetoed a UN ceasefire resolution.“Absolutely shocking, awful, and lawless,” Sachs says.Given that Biden himself seems utterly incapacitated, who is really running the military industrial complex? “I would say the deep state is true, which is that The U.S. has strategies that persist certainly between administrations, but really for decades. And I think that's essentially what we are witnessing right now. War has been the policy of the U.S. deep state or the permanent security state.”Jeffrey also explains how the New York Times has been the propaganda arm of the security state, analyzing two insane passages from the paper:And no, we didn’t make that up and put it in NYT font.Subscribe to watch the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs on what to expect economically from the incoming Trump administration, if BRICS has enough power to survive outside of the US dollar, and how Democrats should have responded to Trump’s ‘illegal aliens’ rhetoric.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: The Morning Joe-Hitler PactThanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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Watch the full, unpaywalled episode here. Thanks for supporting independent media.In response to the Biden administration’s unfettered support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, several US officials resigned from their posts in protest, refusing to take part in the mass slaughter of civilians.Josh Paul, a State Department official who worked on arms transfers, dropped Biden in October 2023, weeks after the assault on Gaza began, and Tariq Habash, a Palestinian-American appointed as a senior official at the Department of Education, left in January 2024.Now, in the wake of a disastrous election for the Biden-Harris administration, they’re joining the show to explain how the Democrats failed them, and what the party should have done differently to earn back their support.“Americans feel disconnected from their government,” Tariq said. “They don't feel represented. We've seen poll after poll after poll where Americans say: ‘We want a ceasefire. We want to stop sending weapons to kill children. We don't want to see dead kids and doctors and journalists on our social media every single morning when we wake up.’“And you see elected officials repeatedly vote the opposite, continue to do the bidding of external interests instead of their own constituents' interests. It creates this disconnect in a way that is really, really damaging to American democracy.”He goes on, explaining how Biden himself is at the root of this divide.“Joe Biden has been willing to make exceptions for the destruction of Palestinian life in a way that we've never seen a United States president be willing to do. And I can't think of another way of rationalizing it other than you just don't believe that Palestinians deserve life. And that is, frankly, just rooted in hate.”But it isn’t just the Dems, they explain. In the interview we also go through Trump’s new cabinet picks, who, in line with mega-donor Miriam Adelson, are all deeply in the pocket of the Israel lobby.It’s like Biden promised in his 2020 campaign: “Nothing will fundamentally change.”Follow Josh and Tariq’s organization A New Policy.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump’s New Cabinet Will Make Israel Great AgainFor $6 a month, support independent media and become a Useful Idiot This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:“Trump did not convince a lot of Biden voters to become Trump voters,” says Palestinian-American scholar Yousef Munayyer in his postmortem of the Democrats’ disastrous performance in the 2024 election. “Harris failed to convince Biden voters to become Harris voters. And that ended up deciding this election.”The Democrats, Munayyer explains, led four years of economic hardship for the working class and continued to double down on their support for a genocide in Gaza. “This was a change election. People wanted something different.”And when Democrats showed up with nothing, voters stayed home. “For some people,” he tells us, “it was just a moral question. There was just no way that they could cast their ballot for someone who could not say that what was happening [in Gaza] was wrong, let alone do something about it.”The Biden-Harris administration’s enabling of Israel’s genocide even disillusioned voters who don’t care about the Middle East.“And whether you care about Palestinians or don't care about Palestinians,” Munayyer explains, “the fact that your government seems to be more concerned with issues thousands of miles away than the issues that impact you at home reinforces the message that these people don't get me. They don't care about me.”So why, if it’s such a losing message, did Harris stick so tightly to her support for Israel?“The only sort of rational explanation for doing this is that parties don't just think about one election. They think about their ability to be competitive over many elections over time. And for that, money is more important than votes. If they were facing the choice between risking several hundred thousand votes in some of the key states or potentially losing major contributions from pro-Israel donors for the next generation, maybe they calculated that they'll take the loss here.”Subscribe for the full interview with Yousef Munayyer on how Democrats allowed Trump to claim the mantle of being the anti-war, working class champion, Israel’s recent confirmation of its plan for ethnic cleansing in Northern Gaza, and a terrible victory-lap video in which AIPAC brags about how much it influenced US elections.Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Dems Shoot Themselves in the Face (with the help of Dick Cheney)Thanks for supporting independent media. Subscribe for the full episode here:

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Our last episode before the election will not be paywalled. Thanks for supporting independent media“What is your overall view of 2024 and what should be done?”This is the question we asked two Palestinian-Americans: Lexi Alexander, a filmmaker, and Rania Batrice, a political strategist who served as deputy campaign manager for Bernie Sanders in 2016. Both guests took the question not to mean who will be better between Trump and Harris, but instead which evil will be worse.“Number one,” responded Lexi, “is that I don't think anybody in any situation ever should vote for genocide. Not just for Palestinians, but for themselves. And so I find myself constantly shocked to watch Americans eagerly vote for what I consider to be Adolf Hitler in 1942.”Voting for either candidate, she argues, is a vote for genocide. “If Trump will be worse, then we'll endure it together. And we'll fight that fucker too. But you still can't reward genocide.”Rania, on the other hand, warns of the dangers of a second Trump presidency. “I don't think we get to continue this fight and continue fighting for humanity, for Palestinian people, and many, many other communities under a Donald Trump presidency. But I do believe that with a President Kamala Harris, we have a fight to fight.”The two each give a long list of reasons why both candidates are terrible, but give different takes on whether a genocide could get worse, whether or not Jill Stein is a worthwhile candidate, and how the two candidates compare on domestic issues. Plus, Katie reveals who she’s voting for in 2024.And don’t miss this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Victoria Nuland Preemptively Warns Rachel Maddow and her audience that Putin Stole the ElectionFor $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot and support independent media This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe