251 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 Cumulus Podcast Network

    • News
    • 5.0 • 2 Ratings

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.

    Jill Stein on getting assaulted by cops & campus crackdown

    Jill Stein on getting assaulted by cops & campus crackdown

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

    • 56 min
    This book debunks everything Netanyahu just said

    This book debunks everything Netanyahu just said

    For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
    Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Columbia protests organized by CHINA (say MSNBC conspiracy theorists) https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/columbia-protests-organized-by-china?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    Get a copy of Deluge at http://orbooks.com
    Jamie Stern-Weiner, Ahmed Alnaouq, and Colter Louwerse, authors of Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm, join the show just in time to check Netanyahu on his sickening new video address instructing the US government to censor college protesters:
    “Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” begins the Israeli leader in a speech that comes across as desperate. “They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty. They want to kill Jews wherever they are. It has to be stopped.”
    Israel murdered many family members of our Palestinian guest Ahmed, including fourteen children under the age of 13. When Netanyahu lies that protesters are against Jewish people and not against Israel’s uncountable horrors, it becomes crucial for journalists to thoroughly debunk his dangerous claims.
    So Jamie, Ahmed, and Colter lay out a complete history of Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians, from the mass murder in Jaffa in order to create Tel Aviv, up through the massacre at the Great March of Return (Ahmed shares personal stories from the march). They show the countless attempts at peaceful protests by the Palestinians that were met with Israeli violence, and explain how today’s college protests, including a large contingent of Jewish students, signify that years of peaceful protesting is finally making a global impact.
    This week’s interview will not be paywalled because we think Netanyahu’s claims should be debunked for everyone.
    If you want a full breakdown of the college campus protests, the Israeli actors posing as protesters to disrupt them, and the professors who are gunning to censor and expel the brave students, subscribe to watch our Thursday Throwdown. We cover it all here: Columbia protests organized by CHINA (say MSNBC conspiracy theorists)
    Thanks for supporting Useful Idiots and independent media.
    00:00 Intro
    01:47 The Four Food Groups of News
    24:41 Biden is stoned
    31:02 Jamie Stern-Weiner, Ahmed Alnaouq, and Colter Louwerse interview
    38:41 We Are Not Numbers co-founder
    44:42 Ahmed shares how Israel bombed his family
    50:11 Is Hamas to blame?
    57:53 Hamas' peace offer
    1:11:50 The Great March of Return
    1:20:34 A Palestinians vision for the future
    1:21:36 Netanyahu's shameful speech
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    • 1 hr 33 min
    Professor Exposes Campus Free Speech Crackdown

    Professor Exposes Campus Free Speech Crackdown

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

    • 58 min
    Nancy Pelosi is Working for Putin + Jeffrey Sachs Unlocked

    Nancy Pelosi is Working for Putin + Jeffrey Sachs Unlocked

    For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
    Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Sam Harris thinks Nazis are better than Hamas https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/sam-harris-thinks-nazis-are-better?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    After several connection issues, we were unfortunately unable to record our interview this week. Here is our brand new Food Groups plus the previously-paywalled section of our Jeffrey Sachs interview:
    “Biden’s frustrated, because someone told him he was president, and then he found out that it’s actually President Netanyahu who determines US policy.”
    This is how Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor of economics at Columbia University, sees the “pathetic” administration. “The truth is the Israel lobby is very powerful. Netanyahu has gotten his way on every single thing. If the US is actually going to try to have a US foreign policy, that would be something new.”
    But what about The Call, which the White House rushed to leak, where Biden supposedly urged Netanyahu to reach an immediate ceasefire? Well, once Netanyahu finishes “laughing off” anything said on this call, there’s not likely to be any change. Because the United States doesn’t have to convince Israel of anything.
    “All it has to do is stop providing munitions. Biden can say ‘the munitions stop, period.’ That’s what an immediate ceasefire is. We don’t have to convince the Israeli government, we have to stop arming the war. That’s all.”
    Biden is still pushing votes in Congress to arm Israel with fighter jets, weapons, and money. But while we at Useful Idiots have focused on Biden’s storied career of obsession with Israel, Sachs disagrees on what Biden’s true motive is. He says it’s not a deep, emotional attachment to Israel.
    “I think he’s got a deep, emotional attachment to becoming president. And he determined early on that never show light with the Israel lobby and someday you might grow up to be president. I don’t think Biden has too many deep attachments to public policy. This was the politics necessary to get him to the presidency.”
    But then he found out “being president isn’t as good as being prime minister of Israel. That’s the part that frustrates him. He found out it doesn’t have that much power for the same reason he towed the line for forty years.”
    Subscribe to hear the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs on the US’s disastrous wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the upcoming wars with Iran and China, and the recent mania around TikTok.
    00:00 Aaron at the Knicks game
    04:39 Nancy Pelosi works for Putin??
    08:30 AZ Republicans pray in anti-choice tongues
    11:27 John Bolton reveals who he's voting for in 2024
    13:32 Testicles stabbed by what??
    15:55 Our guest mixup
    18:31 Jeffrey Sachs on Biden's call with Netanyahu
    26:34 US troops in Taiwan
    29:24 TikTok mania
    31:48 $61 billion to Ukraine
    41:15 NYT admits Ukraine proxy war is a failure
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 46 min
    Jeffrey Sachs: Biden is a miserable failure

    Jeffrey Sachs: Biden is a miserable failure

    Click here for the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/jeffrey-sachs-biden-is-a-miserable?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
    Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: CNN says Israel killed food workers because of workflow breakdown https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-says-israel-killed-food-workers?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    “Biden’s frustrated, because someone told him he was president, and then he found out that it’s actually President Netanyahu who determines US policy.”
    This is how Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor of economics at Columbia University, sees the “pathetic” administration. “The truth is the Israel lobby is very powerful. Netanyahu has gotten his way on every single thing. If the US is actually going to try to have a US foreign policy, that would be something new.”
    But what about The Call, which the White House rushed to leak, where Biden supposedly urged Netanyahu to reach an immediate ceasefire? Well, once Netanyahu finishes “laughing off” anything said on this call, there’s not likely to be any change. Because the United States doesn’t have to convince Israel of anything.
    “All it has to do is stop providing munitions. Biden can say ‘the munitions stop, period.’ That’s what an immediate ceasefire is. We don’t have to convince the Israeli government, we have to stop arming the war. That’s all.”
    Biden is still pushing votes in Congress to arm Israel with fighter jets, weapons, and money. But while we at Useful Idiots have focused on Biden’s storied career of obsession with Israel, Sachs disagrees on what Biden’s true motive is. He says it’s not a deep, emotional attachment to Israel.
    “I think he’s got a deep, emotional attachment to becoming president. And he determined early on that never show light with the Israel lobby and someday you might grow up to be president. I don’t think Biden has too many deep attachments to public policy. This was the politics necessary to get him to the presidency.”
    But then he found out “being president isn’t as good as being prime minister of Israel. That’s the part that frustrates him. He found out it doesn’t have that much power for the same reason he towed the line for forty years.”
    Subscribe to hear the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs on the US’s disastrous wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the upcoming wars with Iran and China, and the recent mania around TikTok.
    00:00 Intro
    00:41 The Four Food Groups of News
    21:27 Jeffrey Sachs interview
    22:22 How to end four wars
    27:20 Kicked off MSNBC
    30:47 Blocked by the New York Times
    35:51 US coups
    39:21 Biden's war in Ukraine
    45:26 Israel wars with Iran
    47:32 What is US hegemony
    54:35 Biden's ceasefire call with Netanyahu
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 59 min
    Norman Finkelstein: UN ceasefire resolution shows that Biden is scared

    Norman Finkelstein: UN ceasefire resolution shows that Biden is scared

    Click here for the full interview with Norm Finkelstein: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/norman-finkelstein-un-ceasefire-resolution?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com
    Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: MSNBC's Hypocritical Meltdown Over Ronna McDaniel's Hiring https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/msnbcs-hypocritical-meltdown-over?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    Israel is confronting a legitimation crisis, political scientist and prolific author Norman Finkelstein observes, as international pressure on Israel grows from both global protesters and the UN.
    He flashes back to before the current war for context: “Another war was inevitable, senior Israeli officials observed in 2016. We cannot conduct a constant war of attrition. Therefore, the next conflict has to be the last conflict.”
    This conflict will be the last one. They’re not going to mow the lawn again, Norm explains. They’re going to extirpate every blade of grass from Gaza.
    “It’s not about Hamas,” he says, shedding light on Israel’s real plan to solve the Gaza question. “It’s about the refusal on the part of the people of Gaza to accept the fate that has been meted out to them by the state of Israel to languish and die in a concentration camp.”
    That’s the dark part, but Norm also gives his reason why we can’t give up.
    “During the Iraq War, many young people concluded in despair that here are the largest anti-war demonstrations in world history and nonetheless the Cheney-Rumsfeld administration goes ahead with the war in Iraq. That to me is a naive understanding of how formidable and concentrated the power we’re up against is. It’s a very long battle.”
    But though it’s hard to see, the protests are working: “The pressures on Biden gradually accumulate and accumulate until they reach the proverbial critical mass and have a real political impact.
    “You’re not going to see it. You’re not going to see the connection between your demonstration in your town square and the abstention in the UN Security Council, but it’s there. And so we should always remember not to despair.”
    Subscribe for the full interview with Norman Finkelstein where we discuss Bernie Sanders’ recent comments on Israel and Golda Meir, the history of Israel’s occupation of Gaza, and what comes next in this genocide.
    00:00 Intro
    00:39 The Four Food Groups of News
    12:29 Norman Finkelstein interview
    13:12 UN Security Council ceasefire resolution
    20:43 Why did the US let it pass?
    31:14 Biden vs Netanyahu?
    52:57 Bernie Sanders on Israel
    53:32 Katie tells Norm a joke
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 58 min

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