Useful Idiots

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This week, we’re joined by Useful Idiots fan-favorite Muhammad Shehada, the political analyst and writer from Gaza who has guided us through the mirk of corporate media propaganda since the first week of Israel’s genocide three years ago.

On the week of the third anniversary of October 7, and as Gazans prepare for their fourth winter in these unimaginable conditions, Muhammad shares what he’s heard about the conditions on the ground from his friends and family, many of whom have been killed by the Israeli military.

My late friend, Ali, my closest friend, was in a refugee camp in the center of Gaza. I asked him how it was going. And he said, ‘Well, you know what? If there’s a God, if there is a judgment day, I would ask him for one thing, one thing only.

‘I would ask him to force those Israeli soldiers to go on the same adventure that I have to take every single day to find water and food. Nothing more. That is enough punishment for them. The idea of going every day, out in the open under airstrikes, under constant gunfire, and walking around desperately from one place to another, ten hours just to find water, that is enough punishment.

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Recently, Israeli filmmakers premiered a new film called Naza in which they interview Israeli soldiers confessing to war crimes. The Israeli government has threatened the filmmakers and there have been protests at the homes of one of the filmmakers’ parents. We asked Muhammad about the film and what he makes of the backlash.

The most striking thing in that movie was how casually soldiers describe the atrocities they unleashed in Gaza, as matter-of-fact with zero remorse or contortion, nothing.

And the thing that strikes you the most is that those soldiers were not providing these confessions out of guilt or shame. They were providing it out of excitement. They were very eager to brag about the formidable force that was at their disposal.

I’ll give you an example. I read an article in an Israeli newspaper describing soldiers who were coming back from Gaza and falling into severe depression. They interviewed a psychiatrist in that article to provide analysis about why soldiers feel depressed when they come back.

The psychiatrist didn’t say it’s because the soldiers feel guilt or shame. He said it’s because the soldiers in Gaza felt like gods. They were superhumans. They decided who lives and who dies, like they are in charge of life and death of two million people.

And then that psychiatrist says that when those soldiers come back home, they feel like nothing. Nobody knows them. Nobody recognizes them. Nobody opens the door for them. There’s no prestige. And that’s what tears them down the most.

That’s why a lot of people go back to serve in Gaza, because of the adrenaline, because of the excitement, because of the euphoria of feeling like a god, feeling like a superhuman. And it seems to me that those soldiers in Naza were basically craving that sensation again. They were bragging.

Watch our full, extended interview with Muhammad, and please share this episode. Corporate media has ignored Gaza for most of the genocide, so we rely on voices like Muhammad’s to break the information siege.

You can support our work by subscribing to us here on Substack. You’ll also get our weekly recap of the craziest moments in corporate media, the Friday Free-for-All: It Doesn’t Go Well When JD Vance Tries to Define Socialism

Support independent media and the effort to share information about Gaza

How do you define socialism personally?

A reporter asked this seemingly simple question to JD Vance, who has been busy racing around the country in a 32-day campaign blitz in an attempt to turn the Republicans’ failing poll numbers around. With prices rising, housing becoming unaffordable, and an oil shortage stemming from the administration’s disastrous war on Iran, Vance had an important choice to make:

Do I say what socialism actually is, with the risk that its principles of helping workers afford basic goods may sound enticing to voters? Or do I hit ‘em with an epic culture-war slam that has nothing to do with the question?

You can now guess which one he picked:

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“I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is you want to replace American workers with foreigners workers, and you want boys to play in girls’ sports!”

Don’t miss our weekly recap of the craziest moments in corporate media:

Watch this week’s Monday Mourning here:

Beat the censors here!

Subscribe for the full interview at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:

A New York prosecutor has reopened a sexual assault investigation at Cornell University after a woman alleged she’d been drugged, assaulted and gang raped by seven former and current members of the Chi Phi fraternity in 2024. The allegations came in a lawsuit filed this month by a woman identified only as “Jane Doe,” who says campus officials and law enforcement failed to take her accusations seriously.

None of the alleged attackers have been arrested.

To discuss this case, we’re speaking with someone whose case Cornell DID take seriously:

Momodou Taal is a Ph.D. student at Cornell University who was suspended twice for joining a demonstration calling on Cornell to divest from Israel and faced deportation from the US. As a result, he left the US but was arrested and detained by the UK government under a law that allows police to question anyone they suspect to be involved in “current, emerging and future terrorist activity.”

We speak with Momodou and his lawyer, Chris Godshall, about why Cornell prosecuted the crime of peaceful protest against Israel with such intensity while covering for the seven students accused of rape.

Subscribe to watch the extended interview with Momodou and Chris where we discuss Israel’s power over Cornell, the weaponization of antisemitism, and the current state of conversation between Zionist and anti-Zionist students on campus.

You’ll also get our Friday Free-for-All: MAGA Congressman Warns that Belligerent, Religious Army is Planning to Destroy the Middle East

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And check out Ground News, an awesome tool we found that helps us sift through the news and compare headlines to expose media bias. For an example, watch our comparison of two headlines covering Israeli strikes on civilians in Lebanon in today’s episode. Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world.

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Subscribers can catch the full episode at the bottom of the page.

There’s a belligerent, religious-fanatic army run by a madman that’s planning to destroy the Middle East!

This warning comes from the very serious Congressman from Georgia, Rich McCormick, who, after blaming high gas prices on Obama, ripped into the religious army spreading across the Middle East.

In other, unrelated news, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the unveiling of a new military sect: the Office of Religious Affairs. The chaplains at ORA will reportedly have a line directly to the secretary himself, who in turn has a direct line to God, making it one of the most powerful offices in the land.

After all, Hegseth says in his speech, “as Psalm 33:12 extolls us, blessed is the nation in which God is the Lord."

Watch out for the religious army in Iran though…

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It’s all this, and more insanity, on this week’s Friday Free-for-All. Thanks for supporting our work, catch the full episode here:

Don’t miss our weekly recap of the craziest moments in corporate media:

Watch this week’s Monday Mourning here:

Help us beat corporate media

Subscribe for the full interview at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:

Subscribers also get our Friday Free-for-All:

An important update on the Ukraine Proxy War came this week with the Russian parliamentary elections.

Contrary to widespread predictions that Vladimir Putin’s days are numbered as a result of prolonged war, his party, United Russia, once again won a supermajority. It’s unclear how much rigging occurred to alter the vote, along with banning of opposition parties, but a sizable turnout gave Putin and the war an endorsement for now, much to the disappointment of neocons globally.

To discuss these pivotal elections, we spoke with veteran Russian journalist Leonid Ragozin. Ragozin is very critical of Putin and the Russian government, but also critical of all the western chauvinism directed toward his country and opposes NATO and the US’s murderous proxy war and sanctions on Russia.

And he explains that the real country in trouble is Ukraine:

Subscribe to keep reading and get the full, hour-long interview with Leonid Ragozin.

And check out Ground News, an awesome tool we found that helps us sift through the news and compare headlines to expose media bias. For an example, watch our comparison of two stories about the media’s coverage of Israeli military bulldozers ripping up olive trees in the West Bank in today’s episode. Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world.

We’ve got an extended Friday Free-for-All this week, jam-packed with ignorant Zionist professors, racist senators tripping over mixed metaphors, Hollywood agents unraveling over Macklemore, psychopath economists drooling over “choking” Iranian civilians, and even the Hasan Piker craze reaching all the way up to Netanyahu himself.

And Katie and Aaron don’t pull punches.

Just look at NYU Professor Scott Galloway, also known as the “Pervy Prof.” While interviewing Abdul El-Sayed (a chat that was really more of a monologue by the Pervy Prof), Galloway unleashed a lecturing tirade over why his religion gives him special power to judge whether Israel is committing genocide or not. The problem is, he admits he doesn’t actually know the definition of genocide.

But it gets worse: