260 episodes

Useful Idiots is an informative and irreverent politics podcast with journalist Aaron Maté and podcaster/writer Katie Halper. Episodes feature analysis of the political news of the week and exclusive interviews, with humor, commentary and dissection of why both Republicans and Democrats suck. Join Aaron and Katie as they examine important stories that have slipped through the cracks and what the media got wrong – and laugh about whatever is left to laugh about.

Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Mat‪é‬ Useful Idiots, LLC | Cumulus Podcast Network

    • Noticias
    • 5.0 • 1 Rating

Useful Idiots is an informative and irreverent politics podcast with journalist Aaron Maté and podcaster/writer Katie Halper. Episodes feature analysis of the political news of the week and exclusive interviews, with humor, commentary and dissection of why both Republicans and Democrats suck. Join Aaron and Katie as they examine important stories that have slipped through the cracks and what the media got wrong – and laugh about whatever is left to laugh about.

    The one way to stop Israel – w/ Diana Buttu

    The one way to stop Israel – w/ Diana Buttu

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

    • 57 min
    You Might Also Like: Millionaire University

    You Might Also Like: Millionaire University

    Introducing 125. How to Start and Grow a Vending Machine Business with Little to No Money with Mike Hoffman from Millionaire University.
    Follow the show: Millionaire University

    Building a lucrative income stream through vending machines is the discussion for today's podcast. Mike Hoffman from mrpassive.com shares how he transitioned from a career in sports science and real estate to managing 25 vending machines that yield significant monthly profits. The conversation covers the initial investment, operational strategies, and the high profitability of vending machines compared to stocks and real estate. Mike also emphasizes the growing potential of the vending industry, especially with technology advancements and market saturation ripe for disruption. Listeners can learn about the ease of starting and scaling a vending machine business, hiring strategies, and the long-term financial benefits and equity-building potential of this venture.

    What we discuss with Mike:+ Meet Mike Hoffman: From Sports to Vending Machines
    + The Journey to Vending Machine Success
    + Why Vending Machines Over Real Estate?
    + Earning Potential and Location Strategy
    + Getting Started with Vending Machines
    + Stocking and Managing Your Vending Machines
    + Hiring and Scaling Your Vending Business
    + The Importance of Technology in Vending
    + Disrupting the Vending Industry
    + Buying and Valuing Vending Routes
    + Expanding Vending Operations
    + Vending in Hotels and Remote Management
    + Time Commitment and Profitability
    + Challenges and Liabilities in Vending
    + Future of the Vending Industry
    + Final Thoughts and Advice

    Thank you, Mike!A BIG thank you to Mike for sponsoring today's episode and for sharing so much value! To learn more about starting your own vending machine business, go to Mr.Passive.com.

    And to connect with Mike check him out on Instagram and Youtube.

    To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors.

    Sign up for our FREE Millionaire University Business Course - Understand the 7 Phases of A business, so you know where you are now and where you need to go next! Go to https://www.millionaireuniversity.com/training.

    Wanna get social? Click on any of the links below to connect with us.
    Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, TikTok and LinkedIn. We'd love to hear from you!

    And if you want us to answer your business questions on an upcoming episode, drop us a line at support@millioinaireuniversity.com.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to team@podroll.fm.

    UK diplomat reveals NATO STARTED the WAR in Ukraine

    UK diplomat reveals NATO STARTED the WAR in Ukraine

    Click here for the full interview with Ian Proud: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/uk-diplomat-reveals-nato-started?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
    Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: White House would NEVER pause shipments to Israel, reports White House https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/white-house-would-never-pause-shipments?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.
    From July 2014 to February 2019, veteran diplomat Ian Proud was posted to the British Embassy in Moscow where he advised UK Ministers on sanctions against Russia.
    His embrace of diplomacy over war made him a Misfit in Moscow.
    Proud joins Useful Idiots to explain how British diplomacy failed in Russia, and how a strategy other than aggression and saber-rattling could have averted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He gives a complex history of the conflict, beginning with the 2014 West-backed coup in Ukraine, and culminating in Boris Johnson’s infamous in person threat to Zelensky that he must reject a peace deal.
    We ask Ian if it was Biden who instructed Johnson to do so.
    And today, with a (“so-called”) peace summit convened by the Ukrainian government and Putin making his most concrete peace offer to date, Ian’s long history as a British diplomat in Moscow gives us a chance to pull back the curtain on the talks that could potentially end the proxy war.
    Subscribe to hear the full interview with Ian Proud where he explains:
    •How the US’s Victoria Nuland undermined peace talks at every step since 2014
    •Boris Johnson’s admission that the proxy war is about “defending western hegemony” (and his embarrassing meeting with the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion)
    •The UK’s role in the dirty war in Syria
    •The UK’s role in aiding Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza
    •How much the British government and its allies invest in propaganda (or, as they call it, strategic communications) to deceive the public into going along with their proxy wars
    •And the 2024 US presidential election: Would there would be any foreign policy difference between Biden and Trump?
    00:00 Intro
    01:11 The Four Food Groups of News
    15:17 Ian Proud interview
    16:05 Peace talks in Ukraine
    18:26 What the media gets wrong about Putin
    23:06 The bridge that could have prevented a war
    27:26 Did Biden instruct Johnson to threaten Zelensky?
    33:10 Censoring his new book
    38:02 Was the west involved in the 2014 coup?
    40:50 Victoria Nuland undermines it all
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 46 min
    Former Israel negotiator Daniel Levy: THIS is Israel's real goal

    Former Israel negotiator Daniel Levy: THIS is Israel's real goal

    Click here for the full interview with Daniel Levy: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/former-israel-negotiator-daniel-levy?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
    Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Brian Stelter warns Trump will arrest Rachel Maddow https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/brian-stelter-warns-trump-will-arrest?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    President of the US/Middle East Project Daniel Levy used to be an Israeli peace negotiator. Today, he’s a leading critic of the Israeli government. This former insider talks to us about the real goals behind Israel's assault on Gaza, why the U.S. is so enabling of Israel, and the political impact this will have on Biden.
    He describes Israel's depressingly narrow political spectrum: “from apartheidists with a smiley face, through to ‘reoccupy Gaza permanently,’ through to the expulsionist eradicationist camp.” It’s a bleak but increasingly undeniable reality that what was once considered the left in Israel and the US has now become ‘the right but nicer about it.’
    And what is Netanyahu's plan?
    “Right now I'm not sure that Netanyahu has a plan of what his morning-after looks like. To the extent to which there is an ongoing Israeli position, it’s ‘entrench the control,’ it's ‘maximum land,’ and it's this matrix of domination which is going to prevent any Palestinian freedom rights. The idea is push them out and resettle Gaza now.”
    Daniel also blasts the so-called peace process: “What they’re essentially saying,” Daniel explains, “is ‘let's go back to the status quo ante,’ which is a regime accurately described by Palestinians, Israeli human rights NGOs, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and the International Court of Justice as meaning the bar of a legal definition of apartheid.” 
    Subscribe to hear the full interview with Daniel Levy where he explains what the US gets out of its enabling of Israel, Hamas’s new goals, and how he went from Israeli government official to leading critic.
    00:00 Intro
    04:36 The Four Food Groups of News
    29:12 Daniel Levy interview
    29:37 What's going on with the ceasefire?
    34:35 Netanyahu's real goal
    38:04 Israel's real goal
    42:36 A refuge of scoundrels
    46:34 How does peace happen?
    52:42 Will Palestinians have rights?
    57:31 Why is the US fueling this?
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 1 min
    Pulitzer Winner Nathan Thrall on Israel’s ceasefire ruse

    Pulitzer Winner Nathan Thrall on Israel’s ceasefire ruse

    Click here for the full interview with Nathan Thrall: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/pulitzer-winner-nathan-thrall-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
    Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté debunks the Washington Post's Grayzone propaganda https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/aaron-mate-debunks-the-washington?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    “Netanyahu has messaged over and over again that he will not end this war. Israel absolutely and categorically refuses to end the war until Hamas is totally defeated.”
    This is the analysis of Nathan Thrall, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and writer who lives in Jerusalem. What’s surprising, however, is the newly announced deal brokered by Israel and the US which stipulates that Israel would agree to a ceasefire if the hostages were returned.
    “The giant loophole in this deal,” explains Thrall, “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.”
    Israel’s intransigency and unyielding occupation makes Thrall loath to talk about the potential of a one state or two state solution.
    “The discussion about solutions and about one-state-versus-two has served to distract people from the real present day reality. What that distraction has allowed people to do is to treat the present reality, the more than half century long present reality, as though it's temporary.”
    Focusing on the one or two state solution allows people to “debate the fantasy Utopia” and perpetuates the lie that the occupation is “only temporary. Clearly it can't last, they say, Israel is going to have to choose either to give Palestinians citizenship or give them a state”
    The reality is that “Israel doesn't have to choose. It will require a revolution in the way that the world treats Israel for it to have to choose, and maybe we're on the road to that now but it's a very long road.”
    Subscribe to watch the full interview with Nathan Thrall in which he discusses his Pulitzer-winning book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy, which tells the story of a deadly school bus crash caused by harsh restrictions imposed on Palestinians living in Jerusalem.
    Thrall also updates us about how the main characters have been affected by Israel’s response to October 7. For example, Abed recently told Thrall “in all his life and experience of this occupation, these are the greatest restrictions on movement he has ever seen. It can take hours to travel distances that used to take half and hour inside the West Bank.”
    Also in the extended interview: For people who claim that Hamas broke the ceasefire, what was the state of violence in the occupied West Bank prior to October 7? What is life like in Gaza, where he spent 6 weeks. What’s it like being an American Jew in Gaza? And what kind of revolution would have to happen to reach peace?
    00:00 Intro
    01:08 The Four Food Groups of News
    17:57 Nathan Thrall interview
    19:00 Is the ceasefire real?
    22:15 What's going on in Jerusalem?
    23:40 Israel's goal
    26:14 Hamas's goal
    32:12 Life for Palestinians in Jerusalem
    38:48 A Day in the Life of Abed Salama
    43:02 The crime of saving children
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 47 min
    UN Rapporteur accuses Israel of sexual violence against Palestinian women

    UN Rapporteur accuses Israel of sexual violence against Palestinian women

    Click here for the full interview with UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/un-rapporteur-accuses-israel-of-sexual?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
    Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: John Kirby feels "perfectly comfortable" with Israel bombing Rafah https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/john-kirby-feels-perfectly-comfortable?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    “They knew,” repeats Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. “They knew this would result in killing. They knew this would result in immense physical and mental harm. They knew that by declaring a siege with no food, no water, no fuel, no medicines, people would be destined to die.”
    She continues, citing the definition of genocide: “These are conditions calculated to ‘bring about the destruction of a group in whole or part,’ and this is why it's genocide.”
    Working at the UN, Francesca Albanese released a groundbreaking report titled Anatomy of a Genocide, which concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide has been met.
    And Albanese is not alone in her conclusions. The International Court of Justice found plausible grounds for the genocide case against Israel. And the International Criminal Court has sought arrest warrants for Israeli officials over genocide.
    “The reason,” Francesca explains, “why Israeli leaders are being investigated and hopefully one day prosecuted by the ICC is because Israel has proven unwilling and unable to comply with international law [related to] war crimes against humanity, genocide, and oppression.”
    And the Biden administration is complicit:
    “The US administration considers the ‘red line’ as a sort of movable geometry. They keep on pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable, they keep on pushing the red lines further and further in order to justify their lack of action. The current administration is embroiled in this catastrophe in a way that words can’t say but justice can fix.”
    Subscribe for the full interview with Francesca Albanese where she responds to the argument that Israel has a right to defend itself, explains how mainstream media has censored her accounts of sexual violence against Palestinian women, and details the threats the ICC has received from Israel over their war crimes inquiry.
    00:00 Intro
    00:32 The Four Food Groups of News
    19:32 Francesca Albanese interview
    20:16 Can the ICJ stop Israel?
    25:01 Anatomy of a Genocide
    27:46 No red lines for John Kirby
    34:55 The trick of humanitarian camouflage
    40:59 Does Israel have a right to defend itself?
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 45 min

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