Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Mat‪é‬ Cumulus Podcast Network

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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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: US Politicians Ban TikTok to Save Free Speech https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/us-politicians-ban-tiktok-to-save?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Preorder Karina N. González’s new children’s book “Churro Stand” here: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/churro-stand_9781951836955/
Our full, unpaywalled interview with John Mearsheimer from 02.23.24:
Professor John Mearsheimer, whose political analysis predicted today’s horrors in Ukraine and Palestine, joins Useful Idiots to give his take on what’s next in the world’s biggest wars.
And since he’s been largely excluded from corporate media for his dissenting views, it’s more important than ever to get his word out.
“What you have here is a real disjuncture between what the elites think and what the publics think,” he says of the two conflicts, in what is already a clear affront to the narratives of elitist western media. “There are recent polls produced by the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Quincy Institute that show that only 10% of Europeans and 12% of Americans think that Ukraine can win the war.”
And when it comes to Israel, Mearsheimer explains that US policy is even further from what the people want. It’s not the voters who have a say, and even Congress (as pro-Israel as they are) isn’t in control: “I believe that 90% of it is accounted for by the [Israel] lobby.”
Professor Mearsheimer deep dives into each war: he explains why the US tanked Ukraine’s peace talks to further instigate Russia and what he would do now if he was in Biden’s or Putin’s position. He also delves into the influence of the Israel lobby and how Biden has given impunity to Israel’s killing Gaza killing spree.
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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: US Politicians Ban TikTok to Save Free Speech https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/us-politicians-ban-tiktok-to-save?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
“This propaganda is a weapon to kill Palestinians.”
The New York Times, the US government’s most prestigious arm of state media, has continued to churn out headlines accusing Hamas of a systematic and deliberate campaign of sexual violence as a weapon of war. An independent UN investigation, as well as countless journalists and primary sources, has shown these claims to be completely evidence-free. Even factions within the Times have refused to go along with the story.
This has not stopped the paper of record.
Throughout history, rape accusations have been a tool of dehumanization. Claims of sexual violence have been used to justify colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, and the West’s violent regime change in Libya.
“The bottom line,” explains guest Ali Abunimah, editor of the Electronic Intifada, “is we are now well into the sixth month of this genocide which is partly justified on the basis of these allegations and other claims of atrocities that have turned out to be false. To this day, not a single specific victim, living or dead, has been identified. We keep hearing the refrain ‘believe Israeli women;’ to this date there is not a single Israeli woman who has come forward to say that she was a victim of this kind of assault.”
So where are these rumors coming from? After the lies were debunked by journalists, a UN report was published though as it admits it was not “investigative in nature.” Ali explains, “What the UN report did was simply to compile allegations from the Israeli military.”
Even this biased non-investigation debunks specific claims of violence and proves that sexual violence was not systemic, and yet you’d never know that from the way legacy media is covering the report. 
But while journalists like Ali Abunimah are kept busy debunking these dehumanizing lies, Israel’s assault on Gaza continues. And the independent journalists who are busy covering that are putting themselves in serious danger to shed light on the genocide. Ali reports that four journalists from the Electronic Intifada have been killed and many more are in daily danger.
“People do not know from hour to hour if they will live or die.”
Hear and share the important voice of Ali Abunimah and the reporting of the brave journalists at the Electronic Intifada. Your support of independent media makes a difference.
00:00 Intro
02:59 The Four Food Groups of News
16:20 Ali Abunimah interview
16:51 Claims of sexual violence on Oct 7
21:29 New York Times LIES
26:42 Source revealed: the Israeli government
35:52 Israel can't keep its story straight
45:35 Hillary Clinton and the history of spreading these lies
50:19 Israeli officials in US media
55:41 Digging into the dodgy NYT story
1:06:13 How the justify the genocide
1:17:41 Dems pivot on Netanyahu
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