Avsnitt
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Watch our Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté Silences Piers Morgan Panel with Facts on Syria & Palestine https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/aaron-mate-silences-piers-morgan?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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“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.”
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Click here for the full interview with Scott Horton: http://usefulidiotspodcast.com
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté Silences Piers Morgan Panel with Facts on Syria & Palestine https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/aaron-mate-silences-piers-morgan?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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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.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Click here for the full interview with Bassam Haddad: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/who-will-rule-syria-with-professor?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Rachel Maddow Finds a Way to Connect Alleged CEO Shooter to Trump https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/rachel-maddow-finds-a-way-to-connect?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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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.
00:00 Intro
01:18 Democrats give the NLRB to Trump
05:15 Republicans want to cut everything except the military
07:28 Fox's terrible takes on Luigi Mangione
13:53 CNN's (faked?) Syrian prisoner rescue
17:17 Bassam Haddad interview
18:06 Relationship to Syria
28:15 Dueling narratives from Assad and the West
35:52 Imprisoning leftists
50:53 Do Syrians want regime change?
57:04 Why al-Julani won't rule Syria
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Click here for the full interview with Lindsey Snell: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/syrian-analyst-and-former-al-qaeda?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: CNN’s Hunter Biden Pardon Therapy Session https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnns-hunter-biden-pardon-therapy?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 http://usefulidiotspodcast.com
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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.
00:00 Intro
00:48 Blinken wants younger Ukrainian boys
03:53 GOP rep wants to cut Medicare (but not defense)
08:39 The View covers for Hunter Biden
14:40 Jesse Watters hates orgies
17:06 Kevork Almassian interview
19:17 What's happening in Syria?
25:01 Why Israel benefits from Syrian rebels
30:11 Is the US backing Al-Qaeda?
39:05 The toll on the people of Syria
44:24 Why is the war so bad?
49:12 Lindsey Snell interview
39:28 Kidnapped by Al-Qaeda
53:43 Who's on whose side?
55:18 What is Turkey's agenda?
56:29 The Israel-Turkey relationship
59:05 Why does the US prefer Al-Qaeda to Assad?
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For a break from the news this Thanksgiving weekend, Katie and Aaron have a chat with Bronx comedian Adrienne Iapalucci, whose new special The Dark Queen is available to stream on Netflix.
Adrienne didn’t earn that title lightly: she’s got jokes about Ukraine, Gaza, school shootings, and even a pedophile joke that got her kicked out of a Connecticut benefit. For her, nothing’s off limits.
So for a change of pace and a Thanksgiving laugh, take a trip to the dark side for this funny interview with Adrienne Iapalluci.
This week especially, we want to thank all our listeners for supporting independent media – we couldn’t do what we do without you. Happy Thanksgiving, and we’ll see you next week.
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Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Katie DEBATES Alan Dershowitz on Piers Morgan https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/katie-debates-alan-dershowitz-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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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.
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Click here for the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/jeffrey-sachs-warns-we-are-close?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: The Morning Joe-Hitler Pact https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/the-morning-joe-hitler-pact?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 http://usefulidiotspodcast.com
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“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.
00:00 Intro
00:47 Dems try to start WWIII
12:02 GOP suddenly hates the ICC
18:47 The bald-cap question
21:58 IDF gender reveal party
23:10 Jeffrey Sachs interview
23:55 ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant
25:38 Record number of senators votes to block arms to Israel
27:35 Biden is the worst foreign policy president ever
32:07 The New York Times WANTS WAR
37:56 What motivates these people?
45:59 Will Trump be better?
48:42 Crazy NYT story
51:06 What to expect from Trump economically?
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Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Trump’s New Cabinet Will Make Israel Great Again https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/trumps-new-cabinet-will-make-israel?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 http://usefulidiotspodcast.com
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.
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Follow and share Josh and Tariq's organization A New Policy
Twitter: @anewpolicyorg
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Threads: anewpolicy
LinkedIn: A New Policy
TikTok: anewpolicy
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.”
00:00 Intro
01:16 Blinken abandons 30-day ultimatum
14:39 Trump's pro-Israel cabinet
28:44 Biden wants to hit a reporter in the head
30:29 Elizabeth Warren calls Tulsi Gabbard a Russian agent
36:13 Josh Paul and Tariq Habash interview
37:20 Why did you resign?
41:26 A Palestinian-American working for Biden
43:16 Could Blinken be held liable?
46:29 What was the point of the fake ultimatum?
53:08 Biden vs Trump: What will be the difference?
59:02 Does the admin have any credibility?
1:04:14 A New Policy
1:07:40 What's happening in the state dept now?
1:10:30 Why back a losing policy?
1:16:21 Biden's true thoughts on Palestinians
1:21:00 The mass rape hoax
1:26:43 Tariq's family in Palestine
1:31:55 How to help
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Click here for the full interview with Yousef Munayyer: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/a-palestinian-scholar-explains-why?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Dems Shoot Themselves in the Face (with the help of Dick Cheney) https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/dems-shoot-themselves-in-the-face?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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“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.
00:00 Intro
00:59 Harris' FLAWLESS campaign
08:11 Trump's neocon state department
11:03 Bernie is way too late
14:04 Kamala's fake phone call
16:35 Yousef Munayyer interview
17:28 How did Trump win?
23:47 The Dems refused to change
29:13 Silent on Gaza
36:13 Liberals turn on minorities
37:46 Dems' gift to Trump
40:10 Would Harris have won if she changed her Gaza stance?
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Filmmaker Lexi Alexander and political strategist Rania Batrice each take a side
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Victoria Nuland Preemptively Warns Putin Stole the Election https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/victoria-nuland-preemptively-warns?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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“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.
00:00 Intro
02:19 Bill Clinton vs Rudy Giuliani
28:10 Lexi Alexander interview
30:05 Voting for Adolf in 1942
33:49 Will Trump's genocide be worse?
37:55 Is punishing the Dems too dangerous?
46:44 Clinton's messianic argument
49:04 Does Netanyahu want Trump?
57:47 Working in film
1:00:48 HOW TO HELP
1:06:06 Who are you voting for? (Katie shares her vote too)
1:07:52 Rania Batrice interview
1:08:59 A different take on what should be done
1:13:45 There's a fight to be fought under Harris
1:15:09 What do you think of Jill Stein?
1:22:41 What's going to happen?
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Click here for the full interview with Elijah J. Magnier: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/israel-is-not-winning-military-analyst?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Marvel Announces Next Movie: Liz Cheney the Liberal Superhero https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/marvel-announces-next-movie-liz-cheney?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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Over a year after the start of Israel’s mass-murder campaign in Gaza, what Netanyahu anticipated to be a swift destruction and short-order real estate sale has escalated into a regional war, slipping further out of his control with each attack.
Elijah J. Magnier, a journalist who has covered the Middle East for over 35 years, specializing in politics, strategic and military planning, and terrorism and counter-terrorism, joins the show to give an update on Israel’s war on the Middle East.
“We don't have a loser and a winner now,” he says. “They're both fighting, and certainly Israel is not winning.”
So what is happening? After the IDF’s assassinations of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Nasrallah and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who each proposed multiple peace offers which were all refused by both Israel and the US, the chances of a ceasefire have plummeted, leaving only uncertainty for the region.
Day after day, Magnier explains, Israel mounts attacks which aren’t the decisive and strategic successes they planned but instead amplifiers for the international coalition forming against them.
“The mistake that Israel did,” he continues, “was bombing the south of Lebanon, forcing the inhabitants to be displaced. The entire society that Hezbollah is part of and the society that protects Hezbollah is already displaced. Therefore, Hezbollah doesn't have anything anymore to be afraid of. It gave more freedom for Hezbollah to attack the Israelis.”
Subscribe for the full interview with Elijah J. Magnier for a full military analysis dissecting the next moves for each side and the one way to stop Israel. Plus, who does Elijah think would be worse for the region: Trump or Harris?
00:00 Intro
02:08 Harris and Trump LOVE genocide
23:41 Elijah J. Magnier interview
24:54 Israel vs Hezbollah update
28:07 Israel's 'civilian target' strategy
30:51 Why did Hezbollah get involved?
33:45 Did Hezbollah miscalculate?
36:08 Israel is crazier than they realized
41:02 What is Israel's goal?
44:13 The effect of assassinating leaders
51:12 How to stop Israel
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Click here for the full interview with Haim Bresheeth-Zabner: http://usefulidiotspodcast.com
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“They want world war.”
This is the conclusion, after fighting in the IDF, after watching Israeli aggression expand for decades, and after watching the occupation and destruction of Gaza, of Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner. Haim’s latest book, An Army Like No Other, shows how the state of Israel has been formed out of its wars.
So after last week’s politically-focused interview with Norman Finkelstein, we’re now running a military analysis with our guest Haim, who fought for Israel in the 1967 War and has seen first-hand how the army is embedded in all aspects of Israeli daily life and identity.
He begins with the notion that what is happening in Gaza could be called a war:
“Israel is not fighting against any army at the moment,” he explains. “They're not able to train an army that can fight guerrillas.” And the reason why is a centuries old truth of war. “Those guerrillas in Gaza, in the West Bank, the people of Hezbollah, and other organizations are all fighting for their home. They are fighting to defend their right to live where they are. And they will fight over it until they're killed or they're winning.” The Israelis, on the other hand, “are fighting for real estate.”
And the US, in it’s long-term plan to weaken Russia and China, is more than happy to have Israel play it’s local part in this. “It is the West,” says Haim, “that is doing this genocide, and Israel is the tool.”
Haim goes on to explain a history of the conflict in the Middle East, how it has expanded, when it will reach the inevitable breaking point, and the only way Israel can be stopped.
“I don't think that anyone can actually stand in the way of this unless BRIC came together and said, ‘We will destroy you if you start this war. You want a deterrent? This is the deterrent.’ Now, the Russians more or less said this. And if you follow the press, Biden thinks that they are bluffing. Well, that's not a joke.”
Iran also gave a similar warning, he says. “What the Iranians have done is told Israel, ‘Please, please, please don't fight us. We don't want to fight you. We don't want to kill people in Israel. We can do that. Just give it up, stop the genocide, and we promise we won't touch you.’”
But if those warnings continue to be ignored? Haim asks: “Who is going to stop it? I don’t know.”
Subscribe for the full interview with Haim Bresheeth-Zabner on the Israeli occupation policy that is worse than the Nazis, an analysis of who in the West is really in charge, and a dark conclusion from this genocide: “Life is [now] impossible in Gaza.”
00:00 Intro
00:58 State Dept lets Israel burn patients alive
14:57 Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner interview
15:27 Fighting for the IDF
26:42 Will Israel succeed?
36:57 Can Hezbollah stop Israel?
52:11 What would World War look like?
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Click here for the full interview with Norman Finkelstein: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/norman-finkelstein-isnt-giving-up-045?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Kamala Harris reveals her main difference with Joe Biden https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/kamala-harris-reveals-her-main-difference?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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“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.”
00:00 Intro
01:07 The State Department admits it is COMPLICIT
27:00 Norman Finkelstein interview
28:47 One year of genocide
37:54 Why did Hezbollah intervene?
42:56 What did Norman get wrong about Hezbollah?
48:17 Israel's sadistic advantage
58:18 Palestine doesn't have military targets
1:01:06 Is resistance pointless?
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Click here for the full interview with Bashir Saade and Karim Makdisi: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-interview-how-biden-and?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: John Kerry Wants to Save Democracy (By Ending Democracy) https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/john-kerry-wants-to-save-democracy?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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“It's very bloody and very violent and very dangerous.”
Lebanese political scientists Bashir Saade and Karim Makdisi shed light on Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah and more.
Since the situation is so volatile, news is constantly breaking: after we recorded the interview, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister told CNN that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire just before he was assassinated by Israel. The temporary ceasefire, he claimed, was called for by President Biden, President Macron and other allies during the UN General Assembly.
During the interview Karim and Bashir predict what is to come. “The cost is going to be very high,” warns Karim. “It’s going to be very bloody.” They also reflect on why Israel’s attack on Lebanon was inevitable, but not because of Hezbollah.
“I think this is a war that has been coming,” Karim explains. “It's a war that was going to happen. And if it wasn't going to happen now, it would have happened a year from now. You have an expansionist Israel. It has always been expansionist.” And, Bashir adds, “Hezbollah is prepared for this.”
They discuss the double standards faced by the IDF, which is called the most moral army in the world, and Hezbollah, which is described by western media and politicians as terrorist. As Karim explains:
“Hezbollah could target civilian areas. But it's just not in their doctrine, in a sense, to hit civilian areas for the sake of it. In the way that for the Israelis, with the Dahiya Doctrine, you can level the entire civilian area if you think there's some kind of military target inside. This is something the Israelis have been doing since 1948.” Coming tragically full circle, Israel’s Dahiya Doctrine, which calls for disproportionate military responses and the targeting of civilians (war crimes), was named after a Beirut neighborhood where Nasrallah wound up being murdered.
The West justifies Israel’s war crimes by claiming that Hamas uses civilians as human shields. But this week, when Iran launched a missile attack on a Mossad weapons base, CNN itself admitted that the base was embedded in a civilian area.
“The Mossad headquarters and military and defense ministry,” Karim explains, “are in various very civilian areas inside main Israeli cities. So does that mean they’re targets? Does that mean all the civilians working there and around there are targets? Does that mean that it's legitimate under self-defense or any other kind of doctrine? Does it mean that Hezbollah can blow up cell phones and pagers?”
Notably, the very same western politicians and media who accuse Hamas of using human shields are absolutely silent when it comes to Israel’s documented use of Palestinian and Israeli human shields.
Subscribe for the full interview with Bashir and Karim on the state of Hezbollah after the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, how corporate media is constantly working to cover up Israel’s crimes, how martyrdom is portrayed differently based on who does it, and what Bashir and Karim are calling “political suicide” for the Democratic Party.
00:00 Intro
00:50 Harris and Trump want to bomb Iran
18:30 Bashir Saade interview (with BREAKING NEWS)
19:53 Why does Hezbollah fight Israel?
24:05 Nasrallah refused to abandon Palestine
26:49 Nasrallah's ideology
27:53 Karim Makdisi joins
33:54 Why Hezbollah differentiates between civilian and military targets
40:48 Biden announces sanctions on Iran
48:09 Biden officials are celebrating
49:55 Harris vs Trump – will there be a difference?
59:05 Is Lebanon part of Israel's promised territory?
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Click here for the full interview with James Adomian: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-jordan-peterson?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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You know him from a hundred cartoons and a thousand podcasts – and now he’s a Useful Idiot. It’s comedian James Adomian, bringing jaw-dropping impressions of Jordan Peterson, Bernie Sanders, Elon Musk, Mike Pillow, Marc Maron, and more.
And all of them have a lot to say about the Harris/Trump matchup.
Who is Elon Musk’s new fascist girlfriend? Does Bernie think he sold himself out? What would Chris Matthews say about the election if he were still at MSNBC? Close your eyes, and you’ll be convinced they’re all really here.
Plus, James does a deep dive on the changing nature of comedy, from the conservative era post-9/11 in which he and Katie had to fight to get progressive voices heard, to the leftist scene in the Obama years, and the swing back right in the 2020s. He explains how, similar to left journalism, the progressive comedy space is spread thin, losing ground to a smaller and more cohesive (and heavily funded) right.
Subscribe for the full episode where James gives a roadmap for the left to escape this rut, shares his path as a gay man in comedy, and teaches us about the history of oppression in his family’s country of Armenia (okay, maybe it wasn’t all so lighthearted).
You can watch James’ hilarious new standup special here.
USEFUL IDIOTS NEWS: We have a bonus interview coming out later today with Cornell student Momodou Taal, who Cornell is attempting to deport for his pro-Palestine protests. Stay tuned.
00:00 Intro
01:14 Two presidents admit to foreign interference
27:45 Aaron returns to Piers Morgan
36:12 James Adomian interview
36:38 A comedian's take on 2024
42:46 Jesse Ventura's endorsement
44:30 Dems' ballot censorship
47:04 Did Bernie Sanders sell out?
50:21 Elon Musk's fascist girlfriend
52:29 Jordan Peterson on Elon Musk
53:28 What's happening in Armenia?
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Click here for the full interview with Jim Webb: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/the-most-evil-thing-i-have-ever-seen?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Hillary Clinton Wants to Lock Herself Up https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/hillary-clinton-wants-to-lock-herself?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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Retired US Marine Jim Webb joins Useful Idiots to give a military analysis of America’s neoliberal wars waged around the world. If you miss history class or are fascinated by combat strategy and the decisions of generals, this episode is for you.
We start in Ukraine, where everyone waited anxiously this week as Joe Biden teased a dangerous message to Ukraine: the approval of shooting long-range Western missiles into Russia. In the past month, Biden’s hawkish policy showed he was increasingly flirting with the idea, but Webb explains:
“There were leaks leading up to this meeting between Biden and Keir Starmer last week saying that a decision was pretty much imminent, but it didn't happen. And it didn't happen after Vladimir Putin said that if Biden approves this, then basically the U.S. will be at war with Russia.”
And it’s this waning end of hope for Ukraine, with desperate attempts at surprise attacks, forced conscriptions, and escalated war tactics, that Webb describes as the latest failure in the Washington neoliberal war machine.
“We just don't know how bad the war is,” Webb says. “The lengths that the U.S. has taken to ensure the Ukrainians stay on the battlefield.”
And that machine knows that as the number of killed Ukrainians skyrockets into the hundreds of thousands, their clutch of control will finally slip. “The descendants of Hillary Clinton's State Department are still driving the bus. And it's the last grasp, the last dying breaths of a really hardcore neoliberal element that is in control. They know that if this fails, then their entire project across the world is going to come into intense scrutiny, beginning with Ukraine.”
So Webb gives a military history of the conflict, explaining the strategic (and nonstrategic) decisions made by each side that brought us to this point, and maps out how the upcoming decisions of Biden, Putin, and Zelensky could lead to peace or to war.
He also answers the burning question: What will be the foreign policy difference between a President Harris and a President Trump?
Subscribe for the full interview with Jim Webb where he explains who really started the Russia-Ukraine War, how Ukraine’s Kursk invasion was actually a trap laid by Russia, and why Israel’s string of pager explosions should be considered a terrorist attack.
00:00 Intro
01:11 Congress calls Israel's civilian terrorist attack "innovative"
18:23 Jim Webb interview
19:30 Biden calls of long-range missiles
23:06 Zelensky's strategy
28:13 Victoria Nuland's accidental truth
33:06 Do the Ukrainians target civilian areas?
34:46 The Kursk invasion was a TRAP
39:19 The Monty Python Warplan
41:38 West blames Zelensky for everything
43:50 Are the neoliberals losing?
48:26 Ukraine's forced conscriptions
50:21 Who started the war?
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Click here for the full interview with John Washington: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-heres-why-trump?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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Eight years ago, people were shocked at the insanity of the Trump campaign and his xenophobic border policies, pining for a more civil age where debates were proper and kids weren’t kept in cages.
In 2024, those days seem simpler.
John Washington, staff writer at Arizona Luminaria and author of The Case for Open Borders, joins Useful and reports something that may seem hard to believe: Trump’s campaign promises in 2016 are actually more progressive than either of the candidates’ we saw in this week’s debate.
“Kamala Harris,” he says, “has wholeheartedly embraced policies that are to the right of where Trump was when he took office in 2016.”
And it was all there in the debate. When Trump attacked her for being soft on the border, she didn’t argue that America is a nation of immigrants, built by immigrants. In fact, she didn’t talk about immigrants at all. “She talked about drug smugglers, human traffickers, and people who illegally crossed the border. But she didn't really give any idea of America as a nation of immigrants, which is the most boilerplate standard go-to on the left.”
But in the past three years, what the US considers ‘left’ has shifted drastically. “It's also important to remember where we started,” Washington says. “At the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, they were asking for a hundred-day moratorium on deportations. Now they've gone way past the center and are at the right.”
The Biden administration in a single term has already deported or expelled over three million people. “He's taken the mantle of Deporter in Chief,” a title that was previously held by Barack Obama.
And as we heard in the debate, Kamala Harris is following in his footsteps. “The policies that she is fighting for are vehemently anti-immigrant. They would raise the asylum threshold, build more wall. They would put more surveillance technology on the U.S.-Mexico border. They would detain people for longer.”
Tell us, Democrats, which of those things counts as a lesser evil than Donald Trump?
Subscribe for the full interview with John Washington, where he describes the violent reality at the border, how the media is spinning it to protect Biden and Harris, and how borders affect what is happening today in Gaza.
00:00 Intro
00:28 Dems love Dick Cheney now
15:10 John Washington interview
16:05 Are they eating the pets?
19:29 Is Kamala Harris different than Trump?
23:01 The case for open borders
32:52 Do open borders make countries poorer?
39:49 Why should I have to pay for immigrants coming here?
43:49 The contribution to society
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Click here for the full interview with Sarit Michaeli: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-israels-sadistic?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: AOC vs Predator – Is Anti-Genocide a Predatory Stance? https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/aoc-vs-predator-is-anti-genocide?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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Though Western media has barely covered it, Israeli soldiers engaged in what can only be described as a gang rape of a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman, an Israeli military prison in the Negev desert, which Israeli media has dubbed the Israeli Guantanamo Bay.
When Israeli police detained soldiers who engaged in the rape, which was recorded and broadcast on Israeli TV, Israeli citizens, including Israeli politicians, protested not the rape but rather the attempt to hold the rapists accountable. In addition to these "right to rape" protests, the governemnt has given the rapes its blessing. Hanoch Milwidsky, a member of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, said during a session of the Knesset, that “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum” is "legitimate."
A one off gang rape would be bad enough. But the truth is this is merely one example of a systemic epidemic of abuse. In fact, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a haunting report on the Israeli prison system which it described as “a network of torture camps.” The title of the report is what an Israeli jailer told a Palestinian prisoner when he arrived at one of these torture camps: Welcome to Hell.
To learn more about this hell, we spoke to Sarit Michaeli, the international advocacy lead for B’tselem, which focuses on human rights abuses in the occupied territories. The abuse suffered by Palestinian prisoners was not random. Rather, “the most gruesome accounts” of the victims revealed “the systemic nature of what has been happening in the Israeli prison system. After October seventh, Israel turned the prison system that deals with Palestinians into a network of torture camps.”
This is not a case of a few rogue actors or bad apples: “The most important thing,” says Michaeli, “is that none of this is the result of individual actions by any sort of individual prison guard. These are systemic actions inspired by [National Security] Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.” And while the torture may have been inspired by Ben Gvir, it's approved of and encouraged by the Israeli government.
The testimony of the Palestinian detainees is harrowing. Fadi Baker, a 25 year old father and lawyer recalled, "they put cigarettes out in my mouth and on my body. They put clamps on my testicles that were attached to something heavy. It went on like that for a whole day. My testicles swelled up." Another detainee witnessed the killing of a Palestinian prisoner:
"He screamed in pain constantly, begging for the doctor. The guard would come now and then and swear at him and tell him to shut up. In the morning, the guards came to count us. One said, 'Get up, you animal. Get up, you dog.' They checked him, and the whole place went silent. Finally, the doctor said, 'There’s nothing to be done.' One of the guards said to them, 'My condolences.' And they all started laughing. They put him in a black body bag and carried him out like trash."
Eighteen year old Muhammad Nazzal recalls, "they kicked us and hit us with metal batons. Every time I tried to cover my head with my hands, they hit me on the hands as well as the rest of my body... people beat me again, and also strip-searched me and took photos of me naked." He also witnessed a fatal beating. When a prisoner dared to ask if there had been a ceasefire, "they beat him to death. The guards simply left him there for half an hour after the assault."
Subscribe to watch the full interview with Sarit Michaeli where she describes the “sadistic... orgy of hate and revenge that Israeli society was plunged into," explains why it's Netanyahu, not Hamas, that's blocking a ceasefire deal, and argues that Netanyahu is rooting for a Trump victory. Plus, she reacts to a truly terrible clip from the Israeli podcast “Two Nice Jewish Boys.”
00:00 Intro
00:58 Jake Sullivan HATES that China chooses diplomacy
14:58 The New Russiagate
25:11 Sarit Michaeli interview
26:01 What's happening in the West Bank?
29:04 R*pe in the name of God
33:42 Netanyahu erases the West Bank
37:56 Israel's real goal
43:07 Welcome to Hell
47:44 Is r*pe legitimate?
50:01 International Court of Justice
56:17 The Biden Admin Doesn't Care
1:01:21 Does Netanyahu prefer Harris or Trump?
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In the name of democracy, neoliberal French President Emmanuel Macron is thwarting democracy in a move that some are calling a coup.
The French left coalition, The New Popular Front, shocked the nation (and Macron) when they won the elections in July. Usually this would mean that a leftist candidate becomes the Prime Minister. But in the name of “institutional stability,” Macron is refusing to allow this to happen.
So, the leftist France Unbowed party, a member of the New Popular Front, is calling for mass demonstrations on September 7.
Our guest, France Unbowed Member of Parliament Danièle Obono, joins Useful Idiots to explain it all: “It's very disrespectful to the voters that their government would not actually be serious about what they voted for. They voted for us because our platform is to implement changes, to raise the minimum wage, to rebuild social services, to fund healthcare and education and environmental policy, to provide shelter and legal papers to migrant people. The voters should be respected.”
But, Obono vows, “they won’t succeed in silencing millions of people.”
Obono also criticizes Macron for cozying up to France’s fascist far right: “People [are] quite shocked that he would agree with the far right. It triggered something very deep within the people because the National Rally is an actual fascist party. They target migrant people, Muslim people. People feared for their lives, for the future of their kids.”
Subscribe for the full interview with MP Danièle Obono where she explains how Macron plans to use the far-right to launch a coup, how her comments about Hamas incited a government probe on her, and why France just arrested Telegram founder Pavel Durov.
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