Click here for the full debate: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/debate-is-trumps-jan-6th-plot-kooky?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: "Livin' on a Prayer (for endless war) https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/livin-on-a-prayer-for-endless-war?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat
Trump Indictment Season is officially in full swing, and corporate news, in their best attempt to give Trump as much free campaign coverage as possible, is covering it nearly 24/7. Whichever network you tune into, whether Fox News or MSNBC (and we sincerely hope you never tune into either), you’ll find panels with talking-head lawyers professing to know the exact legal implications of the indictment.
As is our mission at Useful Idiots, we aim to be fundamentally opposite of corporate media in all ways. So accordingly, we admit to not mastering the legal implications of anything. Which is why Useful Idiots is hosting a proxy debate on the criminality of Trump’s actions around January 6.
Congressional Dish host Jennifer Briney argues that Trump did in fact break the law, while writer and substacker Michael Tracey claims this indictment, like the others, is merely political.
It’s a debate you could only get from independent media: respectful, evenly-matched, and honestly hard to choose a winning side. So cut the cable, tune into Useful Idiots, and let us know in the comments who wins you over. Did Trump break the law, or are we watching Russiagate 2.0?
Subscribe to support independent media and watch the full debate.
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Debate: Is Trump’s Jan 6th plot kooky or criminal?

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.

News

Politics

News Commentary

Click here for the full interview with Said Arikat: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/israel-is-a-gangster-state-says-palestinian?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: Billionaire tech bro calls protesters an "infection inside our society" https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/billionaire-tech-bro-calls-protesters?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Palestinian journalist Said Arikat may have the hardest job in the world: every day he walks into the State Department briefing room to ask serious questions about the United States’ support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, only to be met with the smirking grin of Joker-cosplayer Matthew Miller.
Arikat is one of the last legitimate journalists working in Washington, and his pressure on warmongers like Miller, John Kirby, and the Biden administration is essential in holding their feet to the fire, especially at a time when the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times is working around the clock to cover up their complicity.
So from inside Washington establishment politics, Said shares his thoughts on the US’s plans for more war and the way the Biden admin enables the “gangster state” of Israel.
“This is really an army that is indoctrinated in criminality to kill the Palestinians, to show them they’re not human, to torture them. Shame on the Europeans, shame on the Americans, they’re the ones that should be held in contempt for allowing such a huge crime to take place under their eyes.”
Said, as is sadly the case with all of our Palestinian guests, also has personal stories of family members killed by Israel. Which is why it is so important for him and the rest of us to continue to stand up against the genocide.
But more and more people are seeing through Israel’s lies, which has Israel worried: “They are panicking because Americans can’t be fooled and blackmailed by AIPAC for much longer.”
Subscribe for the full interview with Said Arikat on the power of the college encampments, the House’s racist antisemitism bill, Israel’s attack on Rafah, and the Biden administration’s meaningless “pause” on weapons that will have no impact on Israel’s plans.
00:00 Intro
00:33 The Four Food Groups of News
21:31 Said Arikat interview
22:19 Israel shuts down Al Jazeera
24:35 Invasion of Rafah
26:12 Hamas agrees to ceasefire
27:55 Said vs Matthew Miller
35:01 Jake Tapper's ridiculous take
39:05 Biden and Johnson exploit the Holocaust
50:23 College protests and antisemitism bill
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“Israel is a Gangster State” says Palestinian DC-based Journalist

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
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Jill Stein on getting assaulted by cops & campus crackdown

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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This book debunks everything Netanyahu just said

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
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Professor Exposes Campus Free Speech Crackdown

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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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Debate: Is Trump’s Jan 6th plot kooky or criminal?

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