Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Useful Idiots, LLC

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.

  1. 5 DAYS AGO

    Doctors EXPOSE Israeli TORTURE: “Naked, cuffed, blindfolded, and beaten.”

    You can go to our sponsor https://aura.com/usefulidiots to try 14 days for free. That’s enough time for Aura to start scrubbing your personal info off these data broker sites, without you lifting a finger Support local jobs and get variety of high-quality clothing and activewear at https://www.american-giant.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code USEFUL. Thanks to American Giant for sponsoring the show! Go to groundnews.com/useful for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access to world-wide coverage through our link. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Hunter Biden FLAMES George Clooney & Establishment Dems: “F*ck them!” https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/hunter-biden-flames-george-clooney?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false 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. For this week’s episode of Useful Idiots, we’re focused on the moral issue of our time: Israel’s genocide and starvation siege against the people of Gaza. First up is our interview with two doctors, Dr. Mohamed Nour and Dr. Ahmed Twaij, who recount the horrifying methods of torture Israel uses against other doctors and nurses who have bravely attempted to give care in Gaza. Doctors and nurses have to go through these checkpoints. And some of them would get picked out of the line. They would be made to go wait in another holding area.One of them, I remember he said to me, “I got taken behind the building. I remember seeing two hundred men all completely naked with their hands in plastic cuffs on and blindfolded. They took all of my belongings, made me naked, no boxers, nothing. I remember sitting there for hours. Then they took us into a building and we were just beaten for another couple of hours.”Then they get transported to a prison in Israel: “We got packed into the truck. It was like we were chickens. We weren’t picked up and sat down, just shoved in the back of a truck.”When they get to the prison, the plastic cuffs get changed to metal cuffs. And the blindfold stays on. They'd be given a small area, one meter by two meters. And they get put in a certain position. And they stay in that position, like on their knees, essentially, for twenty hours a day. “We were allowed to lie down for four hours a day.”There's one toilet between, I don't know, a hundred of them. I asked, “How did you go to the toilet?”“They picked us up and took us to the toilet with our cuffs. There's no kind of tissue, no water, nothing. And we had to pull our pants back up ourselves and then go back and sit down.”Another said to me, “I remember we got to have a shower once a week and it was always cold water. I'll never forget that because one day a prisoner cried out, ‘Why is it always cold? Why is it always cold water?’ And then we heard him scream because they'd thrown boiling water over him.” And no one's checking, right? Who's going there to check what's going on in the Israeli prisons?But outside of the Israeli torture prisons, life isn’t much easier. Pulitzer-Prized Poet from Palestine Mosab Abu Toha says that worse than the bombs, the violent soldiers, and the machine guns is the hunger. The ‘aid’ they're getting from the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation [a fake humanitarian organization set up by Israel and the US] includes massacres because Israelis and mercenaries have been shooting at people. These are death sites.People go to these sites in the very early hours of the morning before they open, hours and hours there waiting for the gates to open. Then the people who are running these sites would turn on a light which is a signal that now it's time to go. And they would go in, and then there would be another sign that it's shut. So anyone who stays there for five minutes, for ten minutes, they would be shot at, they would be killed.They tell me: “The problem now is not the airstrike, it's not the drones, it's not the bombs, it's just that we don't have food.” People want to eat, even if they are going to be killed. They can't stop the killing, but they can't just stay in their tents while their children are crying out of hunger. Can you just imagine you're sitting in a tent and there are F-16s and drones in the sky that could drop a bomb and kill you, and you're sitting there for twelve hours and there is no food, there is no water. What do you do?I was listening in the background when Samah, six years old, was in a tent with my mother-in-law in Gaza City. She was crying. She said, ‘I want to eat. I'm hungry. I'm hungry.’ And then my mother-in-law told her, ‘Samah, just be patient. When it's sunset, we will have some food. Just try to drink some water.’Little babies had to fast for twelve or fifteen hours because the fathers and the brothers are outside looking for food knowing that they could not come back with anything or they could not come back at all.A takeaway that was highlighted in both interviews was what we could do to help, not just as journalists, activists, poets, or doctors, but as people in our everyday lives. Mohamed explains: I don't think it's okay for people not to talk about this. When I say people, I mean the general public. People who are going to work, watching Netflix, going out to the theatre, whatever. In years to come, being silent on this issue is going to be something people will really, really regret. The fact that we should at least have spoken about this.We should be talking about it everywhere, at work, at schools, wherever, to say this is not acceptable. And so at the very least, we can all say, ‘look, we spoke up against this. We did as much as we could do for this issue, and we tried our best.’ I think everybody should be able to say that.Thank you for supporting independent media. Help us tell the stories of the people in Palestine by sharing this interview. 00:00 Intro 01:42 Amy Klobuchar gets CAUGHT 11:36 Republicans ADMIT why they're hiding Epstein files 16:56 AOC throws her friends under the bus 24:25 Someone snuck a camera into the ICE detention center 26:33 Doctors Mohamed Nour and Ahmed Twaij interview 56:18 What YOU can be doing! 58:37 Mosab Abu Toha interview 01:25:01 A poem reading Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 33m
  2. 18 JUL

    Seinfeld Writer EXPOSES the “Israeli Propaganda Machine”

    Click here for the full interview with Larry Charles: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/full-episode-seinfeld-writer-exposes?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false You can go to our sponsor https://aura.com/usefulidiots to try 14 days for free. That’s enough time for Aura to start scrubbing your personal info off these data broker sites, without you lifting a finger Support local jobs and get variety of high-quality clothing and activewear at https://www.american-giant.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code USEFUL. Thanks to American Giant for sponsoring the show! Go to groundnews.com/useful for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access to world-wide coverage through our link. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: MAGA Influencers Suddenly Drop Epstein Questions After Trump Meltdown https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/maga-influencers-suddenly-drop-epstein?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false 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. 00:00 Intro 00:16 Dems aren't pretending to be anti-war anymore 03:29 Dr. Oz is in charge of Medicaid now 07:48 Don Jr. thinks he invented the first anti-woke gun 09:10 Trump threatens to bomb Moscow and Beijing 15:20 Larry Charles interview 16:45 The Comedy Samurai 19:08 Did the 80s have the same political pressure on comedians? 20:46 Tackled by Jimmy Carter's secret service (to bring his sister a joint) 23:03 Meeting Larry David 24:48 We should be talking about the Arsenio Hall Show 29:54 Can you be politically righteous AND funny? 31:47 Jerry Seinfeld got SEDUCED Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    34 min
  3. 11 JUL

    CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou: "They DESTROYED Epstein Files”

    Click here for the full interview with John Kiriakou and Marta Havryshko: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/full-episode-cia-whistleblower-john?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false Support local jobs and get variety of high-quality clothing and activewear at https://www.american-giant.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code USEFUL. Thanks to American Giant for sponsoring the show! Go to groundnews.com/useful for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access to world-wide coverage through our link. Visit ProlonLife.com/USEFUL to claim your 15% discount and your $40 bonus gift. Go to our sponsor https://venice.ai/useful and use code useful to enjoy private, uncensored AI. Using our code will get you 20% off a pro plan. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at http://betterhelp.com/USEFUL and get on your way to being your best self. Check out DeleteMe and use our code IDIOTS for a great deal: https://joindeleteme.com Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at selectquote.com/useful. Let CrowdHealth help with your healthcare needs. Get started today for just $99 per month for your first three months by using code USEFUL at joincrowdhealth.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Latest Zohran Mamdani Smear Likens Him to KKK’s David Duke https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/latest-zohran-mamdani-smear-likens?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false 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. 00:00 Intro 01:46 Corporate Dems can't handle Zohran 09:48 Trump accidentally praises Al Qaeda 16:41 Kamala Harris' unaired Subway Take 21:31 Charlie Kirk blames the Texas floods on DEI 25:08 John Kiriakou interview 26:33 Why did Trump flip on Epstein? 27:26 Did the FBI destroy files? 30:02 Why Trump won't release the files 32:27 CIA perspective on Israel-US relationship 35:10 Mossad-CIA relationship? 36:41 Trump and Bibi's circle jerk 39:10 The evangelical take 47:20 WHO IS IN THE BLACK BOOK? Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 25m
  4. 4 JUL

    Why Trump Threatened to DEPORT Zohran Mamdani

    Click here for the full interview with Liza Featherstone and Ted Hamm: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/full-episode-why-trump-threatened?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false Support local jobs and get variety of high-quality clothing and activewear at https://www.american-giant.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code USEFUL. Thanks to American Giant for sponsoring the show! Go to groundnews.com/useful for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access to world-wide coverage through our link. Visit ProlonLife.com/USEFUL to claim your 15% discount and your $40 bonus gift. Go to our sponsor https://venice.ai/useful and use code useful to enjoy private, uncensored AI. Using our code will get you 20% off a pro plan. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at http://betterhelp.com/USEFUL and get on your way to being your best self. Check out DeleteMe and use our code IDIOTS for a great deal: https://joindeleteme.com Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at selectquote.com/useful. Let CrowdHealth help with your healthcare needs. Get started today for just $99 per month for your first three months by using code USEFUL at joincrowdhealth.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Aaron Maté & Katie Halper Demand Meeting with “Fraudfather” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/aaron-mate-and-katie-halper-demand?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false 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. 00:00 Intro 01:05 Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are USELESS 04:33 The worst part of the One Big Beautiful Bill 11:15 Trump official calls for return of hostage that Israel killed in 2014 13:57 The guy who called Hitler God's Hunter is now Israel's best friend 16:34 Ted Hamm and Liza Featherstone interview 17:22 Covering Zohran 23:02 The moment the candidacy became REAL 24:56 Does Cuomo even want to be mayor? 29:51 Zohran and Palestine 35:47 What dangers does Zohran face next? Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    38 min
  5. 27 JUN

    Professor DEBUNKS Trump’s Iran Nuke Lie, Ceasefire, & Israel-US Propaganda

    Click here for the full interview with Johns Hopkins Professor Narges Bajoghli: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/professor-debunks-trumps-iran-nuke?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false Support local jobs and get variety of high-quality clothing and activewear at https://www.american-giant.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code USEFUL. Thanks to American Giant for sponsoring the show! Go to groundnews.com/useful for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access to world-wide coverage through our link. Visit ProlonLife.com/USEFUL to claim your 15% discount and your $40 bonus gift. Go to our sponsor https://venice.ai/useful and use code useful to enjoy private, uncensored AI. Using our code will get you 20% off a pro plan. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at http://betterhelp.com/USEFUL and get on your way to being your best self. Check out DeleteMe and use our code IDIOTS for a great deal: https://joindeleteme.com Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at selectquote.com/useful. Let CrowdHealth help with your healthcare needs. Get started today for just $99 per month for your first three months by using code USEFUL at joincrowdhealth.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Trump Thinks He’s Hotter Than Zohran Mamdani https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/trump-thinks-hes-hotter-than-zohran?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false 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. The US-Israel-Iran conflict is changing fast with civilian strikes, ceasefire talks, sneak attacks, and coverups. And Western media is as war-mongering and dishonest as they have been since the beginning of the genocide and were during the Iraq War. Narges Bajoghli, Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, helps sheds light on the reality in Iran and parse through the propaganda. Useful Idiots: The big debate right now in Washington is the Trump administration claiming, ‘Yeah, we basically obliterated Iran's nuclear program.’ And the media saying, ‘No, you didn't.’ And that's the debate, not whether the U.S. had the right to do that, or whether it was right for Trump to pretend to engage in diplomacy just to help Israel kill a bunch of people in Iran, including many civilians. As you're watching all this unfold in Washington, what is your sense of what is missing from the public discussion? Narges Bajoghli: First of all, this was an unprovoked war that Israel launched inside of Iran. And as much as the framing around it by mainstream media was that Israel was just targeting military infrastructure, military officials, and nuclear facilities, from day one they were targeting civilian infrastructure. Lots of civilians ended up losing their lives in this twelve day war that we had. So the erasure of that and the focus on the civilian infrastructure in Israel, that is important to pay attention to. The other is that we still talk about nuclear energy as if nuclear energy can only be used to create a bomb. Not only did the IAEA and all US intel agencies say that they had no evidence that Iran was going for a bomb. But what we were not discussing is that nuclear energy is actually used for medical research, it's used for cancer research, it's used for electricity, it's civilian infrastructure. And so targeting civilian infrastructure in this way actually violates international law. Useful Idiots: There's a lot of talk right now about a ceasefire. Is there a ceasefire? Narges Bajoghli: So far, there's a ceasefire in the sense that both sides have ceased firing at one another. Trump’s base turned against him so publicly, so loudly that he could not risk starting another war or else he would have to risk losing his base. So it seems like he's put some pressure on the Israelis as well. But Israel is not known for abiding by and honoring ceasefires. I think to date with the ceasefire in Lebanon, it's already violated it over a thousand times. So I know that there's a lot of trepidation about how long this will actually hold. But for the moment, this is where we are. Subscribe to hear the full interview with Narges Bajoghli on the impact of US sanctions on working people in Iran, whether sanctions should be considered a war crime, what we can predict about Iran by analyzing the regime change operation in Syria, and a weird CNN propaganda video fear-mongering about Iranian sleeper cells in the US. 00:00 Intro 00:28 Hakeem Jeffries sucks 07:37 Fox News wants to bomb Iran more 13:27 Trump is calling himself Daddy now 15:49 Destiny's war crimes are caught on video 18:54 Narges Bajoghli interview 19:23 Is there a ceasefire? 22:13 Media propaganda exposed 30:04 Israel-Iran through an anthropological lens 35:26 Why doesn't Iran have US military bases? 39:33 Can Iran still promise security to its people? 42:02 How do sanctions ruin lives? 46:38 The real victims of sanctions Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    49 min
  6. 20 JUN

    What Trump Is HIDING About Israel’s War on Iran – with Sina Toossi and Negar Razavi

    Support local jobs and get variety of high-quality clothing and activewear at https://www.american-giant.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code USEFUL. Thanks to American Giant for sponsoring the show! Go to groundnews.com/useful for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access to world-wide coverage through our link. Visit ProlonLife.com/USEFUL to claim your 15% discount and your $40 bonus gift. Go to our sponsor https://venice.ai/useful and use code useful to enjoy private, uncensored AI. Using our code will get you 20% off a pro plan. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at http://betterhelp.com/USEFUL and get on your way to being your best self. Check out DeleteMe and use our code IDIOTS for a great deal: https://joindeleteme.com Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at selectquote.com/useful. Let CrowdHealth help with your healthcare needs. Get started today for just $99 per month for your first three months by using code USEFUL at joincrowdhealth.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Trump Outsources Iran WMD Lies to Israel https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/trump-outsources-iran-wmd-lies-to?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false 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. 00:00 Intro 01:50 Aaron on Piers Morgan 04:58 Ro Khanna calls out Chuck Schumer 11:33 ZERO Republicans cosigned Thomas Massie's war powers resolution 15:57 Betar's EMBARRASSING new vendetta 19:43 Israelis make their YOUNG DAUGHTER sing about bombing people 20:44 Sina Toossi interview 21:23 A war of Israeli aggression 22:07 Iran hits Israel hospital 26:29 The Hospital Hypocrisy 31:05 Is the IAEA lying? 47:35 Tucker Carlson vs Steve Bannon 53:35 Netanyahu speaks to Iranians 1:01:38 Is Iran acting rationally? 1:03:21 The Theocratic Ethno State 1:07:55 Negar Razavi interview 1:08:26 The New York Times said WHAT? 1:14:07 Are any think tanks good? 1:17:27 Do Iranians want regime change? 1:21:13 NYT warmongers against Iran 1:25:22 Would the Nuclear Deal have prevented this? 1:27:21 Has Iran made any big mistakes? 1:31:16 Can Iran trust the United States? 1:33:47 Tucker Carlson OWNS Ted Cruz 1:38:03 News from the ground in Iran 1:41:33 The Real Goal of Regime Instability Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 44m
  7. 13 JUN

    Is Iran-Israel About to Go Nuclear?

    This episode was recorded just hours before Israel attacked Iran. Click here for the full interview with Johns Hopkins Professor Vali Nasr: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-is-iran-israel-about?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false Support local jobs and get variety of high-quality clothing and activewear at https://www.american-giant.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code USEFUL. Thanks to American Giant for sponsoring the show! Go to groundnews.com/useful for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access to world-wide coverage through our link. Visit ProlonLife.com/USEFUL to claim your 15% discount and your $40 bonus gift. Go to our sponsor https://venice.ai/useful and use code useful to enjoy private, uncensored AI. Using our code will get you 20% off a pro plan. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at http://betterhelp.com/USEFUL and get on your way to being your best self. Check out DeleteMe and use our code IDIOTS for a great deal: https://joindeleteme.com Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at selectquote.com/useful. Let CrowdHealth help with your healthcare needs. Get started today for just $99 per month for your first three months by using code USEFUL at joincrowdhealth.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Trump Claims No One Wants to Protest His Birthday Parade (but threatens them just in case) https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/trump-claims-no-one-wants-to-protest?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false 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. Hours after we spoke to Johns Hopkins Professor of Advanced International Studies Vali Nasr, Israel killed multiple Iranian military officials in a strike against “Iranian nuclear sites.” Both Israel and the United States threatened “even more brutal” attacks to come. Professor Nasr, whose latest book is Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History, explains why Israel benefits from attacking Iran, and why they can’t do it without US assistance and consent. Useful Idiots: Are you expecting some sort of military strike from Israel against Iran? Professor Vali Nasr: I don't think Israel is actually able to take out Iran's nuclear facilities on its own without US assistance. It could perhaps hit Iran and then hope the Iranians would retaliate and then bring the United States into a war with Iran. But even in order to get to Iran, Israel cannot surprise the US. It has to go through US radar lines. This idea that Israel would attack Iran on its own without telling the United States, without US cooperation or US support, is just not credible. Useful Idiots: From Iran's perspective, can you explain why enrichment is a red line? Why they insist on what they see as their right to enrich and how they would respond to an argument from the outside saying, ‘Why can't you meet your energy needs through some other means that doesn't include enrichment, which could put you one day on the path to a nuclear weapon?’ Professor Nasr: They view it as an inherent right. To say that Iran does not have a right to enrich is basically singling out Iran as a special case in the international community. There are other signatories to the non-proliferation treaty agreement, which also enriched uranium. So the Iranians are basically saying, ‘We're happy to give you inspections, we're happy to be transparent with the inspections, but this is an inherent right.’ Secondly, the Iranians have spent billions of dollars over two decades building essentially an industrial capacity enrichment program. And it's now very much embedded in Iran's economy with tons of companies, businesses, et cetera, tied to it. And thirdly, I think they believe that if they gave up enrichment, the United States would not abide by any deal that is signed. They have zero trust in the US, particularly given that this is the very president who walked away from the previous deal. What guarantee do they have that after they gave up all of their enrichment that any country will supply them with their fuel? And then the United States says, ‘OK, we took everything out of Iran. Now let's renege on the deal like last time, reimpose maximum pressure sanctions on them, and then go after the regime.’ So for varieties of reasons, they don't think it's a good idea to give up the right to enrich. And that's their red line. ------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to hear the full interview with Professor Vali Nasr on the validity of the claim that Iran’s aim is to destroy Israel, whether Iranian tensions would cease if Palestinians were freed from Israeli occupation, and the true nature of Iran’s relationship with Russia and China. 00:00 Intro 00:47 Zohran Mamdani takes the lead 04:42 The most anti-semitic event in history 12:01 Mitch McConnell admits the truth about Ukraine 15:27 Racist Uncle Sam government cartoons are BACK 21:48 Professor Vali Nasr interview 23:07 Why would Israel attack Iran? 24:27 Why would the US do this DURING peace negotiations? 25:48 Why is "no enrichment" a red line for Iran? 32:36 Hegseth lies to Congress about nukes 37:36 Is the IAEA colluding with Israel? 40:54 A lesson in Iranian history 47:52 Does Iran want to destroy Israel? Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    50 min
  8. 6 JUN

    Ex-CIA Agent Reveals Government's "Nefarious" Plots + Ben & Jerry's Founder Arrested over Israel

    Click here for the full interview with Barry Eisler and Ben Cohen: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-cia-agent-turned-novelist?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false Support local jobs and get variety of high-quality clothing and activewear at https://www.american-giant.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code USEFUL. Thanks to American Giant for sponsoring the show! Go to groundnews.com/useful for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access to world-wide coverage through our link. Visit ProlonLife.com/USEFUL to claim your 15% discount and your $40 bonus gift. Go to our sponsor https://venice.ai/useful and use code useful to enjoy private, uncensored AI. Using our code will get you 20% off a pro plan. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at http://betterhelp.com/USEFUL and get on your way to being your best self. Check out DeleteMe and use our code IDIOTS for a great deal: https://joindeleteme.com Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at selectquote.com/useful. Let CrowdHealth help with your healthcare needs. Get started today for just $99 per month for your first three months by using code USEFUL at joincrowdhealth.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Ukraine Proxy Warriors Have Second Thoughts about WWIII https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/ukraine-proxy-warriors-have-second?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false 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. On this week’s show, you’re getting two scoops. It’s a Useful Idiots double header, with former CIA Agent Barry Eisler, who left the CIA to become a spy-thriller novelist (get his latest book The System at barryeisler.com), and Ben & Jerry’s Cofounder Ben Cohen, who was arrested recently for interrupting RFK Jr.’s congressional testimony to protest US funding of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. First, Barry Eisler explains his role as a covert operative in the CIA, and the truth it taught him about American tribalist politics. I spent three years in a covert position in the CIA. It taught me a lot about the culture and machinations of the U.S. government and what some call the deep state. And it became great fodder for a guy who then went on to become a full-time thriller writer.What I found there is in some ways a microcosm of tribalism politics in America. And it's this.A lot of people think, ‘oh, is it a bunch of liberals there? Or is it a bunch of conservatives?’ But the fundamental, underlying, and much more meaningful political culture in the CIA is the belief that ‘Hey, America is a force for good in the world. And everything we do, whether it's traditional espionage or shading off into coups or even invasions and occupations, that's all just to make the world a better place.’It's that more fundamental thing where they really believe that America is a force for good in the world and that our mistakes are just innocent mistakes, rather than something much more nefarious.Subscribe for the full interview with Barry Eisler, where we discuss Russiagate from a CIA perspective, watch Palantir’s Alex Karp let slip that his AI kills people, and the connection Barry’s spy thrillers have to Aaron’s nonfiction writing. Next we talk to Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s. After disrupting a Senate testimony from RFK Jr. to protest US funding of weapons for Israel’s mass assault on Gaza, he was hauled out by police and arrested. He explains why he did it: Everybody has their breaking point. I was reading about the slaughter of all these innocent children in Gaza. And then I read another article in the paper about another outbreak of lead poisoning in Milwaukee. Lead poisoning creates irreversible brain damage and there's nothing you can do about it.And we know how to prevent it! It's chipping lead paint and lead in plumbing pipes and we could fix it, for a minuscule five percent of the Pentagon budget!And so those two things: we’re making a conscious decision to provide the bombs as a gift to Israel that they use to kill kids in Gaza. And we're kicking kids off Medicaid and not preventing lead poisoning, an easily preventable permanent disease.So I said, I’ve got to make my voice heard. I’ve got to take the most serious action that a citizen can take, which is an act of civil disobedience. And so that's what I did.00:00 Intro 01:06 Matthew Miller FLIPS 04:30 Musk and Trump break up over Epstein 08:20 Indian Lt Gov's CRAZY evolution take 12:57 Israel runs NYC mayor debate 17:50 Barry Eisler interview 33:57 Ben Cohen interview Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/useful-idiots-with-katie-halper-and-aaron-mate/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 3m

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3 Ratings

About

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.

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