Useful Idiots

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Returning to Useful Idiots this week is 4-time combat veteran and host of Daniel Davis Deep Dive on YouTube: Lt. Col. Daniel Davis!

In the early stages of the second Trump administration, Davis was considered for a top job under the now-former Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. He almost got the job until Laura Loomer intervened.

That’s right. The Islamophobic, arch-Zionist bigot who’s currently visiting Ukraine and extolling the virtues of arming Zelensky’s government got Daniel Davis’s nomination quashed because Davis has been critical of Israel. So of course that’s a no-go in the so-called America First administration.

This week, we tap into his military expertise to discuss the growing conflicts under Trump’s watch, from the Ukraine proxy war to the regime-change war against Iran.

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You’ll also get our weekly recap of the craziest moments in corporate media, the Friday Free-for-All: Rahm Emanual Stands Up to Zohran Mamdani in a Fake Story He Made Up About His Own Terrorist Dad

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 Israel 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.

Catch the ad-free version here:

Rahm Emanuel (whose father was an Israeli terrorist), completely SCHOOLED Zohran Mamdani! He says he walked right up to Zohran and said “I’m my father’s son,” (his father being an Israeli terrorist) “and when you chant ‘From the river to the sea,’ I say ‘Over my dead body!’”

Wow, wow, powerful! Zohran must’ve been very afraid!

One problem: Zohran has never said ‘From the river to the sea.’ He’s been pushed to many times, but has never said it.

And another, slightly bigger problem: Mamdani and his office claim this meeting between him and Emanuel never actually happened. Rahm made it up.

But luckily, not everything there was a lie: Rahm’s father really was an Israeli terrorist.

Since coming to power in their second term, the Trump Administration has launched a regime change war against Iran, kidnapped the president of Venezuela and his wife, aided Israel’s assaults on Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, kidnapped and tried to deport people in the US for expressing the view that Palestinians are equal human beings, and now they’re saying ‘Let’s keep it going” by targeting and spying on domestic media outlets.

The independent online news outlet Breakthrough News just received the first subpoena.

The MAGA-led House Ways and Means Committee is demanding all of Breakthrough’s internal communications, financial records, and more in this McCarthyite crackdown, accusing them of being part of some foreign influence operation. It’s the classic playbook that the Democrats began in 2016 with Russiagate and that the Republicans have now escalated to target any dissenters of Israel.

Of course that’s the big irony: the phrase ‘Every accusation is a confession’ continues to hold true. The Trump Administration is so immersed with the Israeli government that Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale has a $45 million contract with Israel to launch an influence operation aimed at Americans. Trump himself regularly brags about how much money he gets from Israel megadonor Miriam Adelson. And while they’re throwing stones, let’s take a look at the members of the Ways and Means Committee.

According to Track AIPAC, Chairman Jason Smith of Missouri has take $105,099 from pro-Israel PACS. Ranking Member Richard Neal tops him with $139,849. Scrubbing through the list of committee members, we found only one member who had taken less than $50,000, with the committee in total raking in multiple millions of dollars from pro-Israel PACs. For fun, here’s some more honorable mentions on the committee:

Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA): $965,597

Max Miller (R-OH): $366,455

Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY): $278,736

David Kustoff (R-TN): $255,173

Rudy Yakym (R-IN): $231,960

David Schweikert (R-AZ): $206,443

Kevin Hern (R-OK): $161,565

Darin LaHood (R-IL): $146,867

Claudia Tenney (R-NY): $146,157

So while Breakthrough News, which is a nonprofit and earns money through the subscriber model (like Useful Idiots), gets accused of taking money from a foreign agent, the accusers bathe in showers of gifts and cash from their foreign bosses in Israel.

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Last week, we discussed the subpoena with journalist and host at Breakthrough News Rania Khalek.

Useful Idiots: Rania, talk to us about what is happening on the domestic front to Breakthrough News?

Rania Khalek: There’s so many wars happening.

I want to put this in the context of what else has been happening: the Trump Administration has been escalating its war on the left in the U.S. We had that anti-communism summit that Marco Rubio held last week with ministers from sixty different countries where he and Stephen Miller laid out this really dystopian, irrational, fascistic notion that communism is the biggest threat to America and the world.

The word they were using was ‘far left terrorism,’ but they’re not actually defining what any of these things mean, just accusing the far left of being violent and wanting to destroy American civilization, saying it needs to be treated the way that Islamic jihadist terrorism has been treated.

They’re planning to “debank, defund, and destroy.”

Then you had this report that the State Department released, a hundred pages branding activists and journalists on the left as agents of the Cuban government, including entire sections on the Democratic Socialists of America, on Code Pink, on the People’s Forum, on the National Lawyers Guild. Apparently, all of these groups are foreign agents of the Cuban government trying to destroy America from within.

They don’t actually need to prove that we’ve done anything wrong.

Useful Idiots: How does the government plan to actually go after these groups?

Rania Khalek: The design is that we haven’t done anything wrong but it doesn’t really matter.

It’s designed to tie us up: they know that our budget is microscopic compared to any billionaire-funded media corporation that basically dominates our airwaves. They don’t actually need to prove that we’ve done anything wrong, they don’t really even need to win. They can’t win because we haven’t done anything, but they just need to bury us in legal proceedings and hostile press from Fox News until our resources drain away and the reporting stops. That’s what these kinds of attacks are all about.

The process of it is the punishment.

This is also a warning shot to every other independent media outlet that dares to cover the things that we cover. Things that powerful people would rather have buried. For those who are watching, maybe you don’t care about Breakthrough News. It’s small. Who gives a shit? Well, this could be you next. The stakes are really high. It’s an attack on all independent media and really the very principle of a free press.

And it likely doesn’t stop with left independent journalist. The people running this operation don’t see much difference between Useful Idiots and Kamala Harris or the New York Times. Of course you, our readers, do, but to them we’re all “left-wing radicals.” So while liberal media will ignore today’s attack on Breakthrough News, they should know that this comes for them next.

We’ll be monitoring Breakthrough News’ case as well as the Trump Administration’s next moves, and we’ll continue our reporting here at Useful Idiots until they come and stop us. For Rania’s full analysis of Trump’s war on the left, plus an update on Israel’s assault on Lebanon where she’s currently based, listen to our full chat here.

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This week, the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee issued a subpoena to the independent online news outlet Breakthrough News, demanding all of the organization’s internal communications, financial records, and more.

This comes on the heels of Marco Rubio’s State Department issuing a near-100 page report on communism in Cuba and its left-wing international supporters, describing Breakthrough News as being “intimately linked to the Cuban regime.”

To discuss this, we spoke with journalist and host at Breakthrough News, friend-of-show Rania Khalek.

Join the petition to stop the government's attack on their free speech! Subscribe to Useful Idiots to keep supporting independent media and see our full interview with Rania here:

After NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a video this week calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon took to corporate media with what he thought would be the slyest comeback: “Why don’t you arrest Mamdani instead!”

It immediately failed miserably.

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

Watch this week’s Monday Mourning here:

In a desperate attempt to pit progressive stars Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed against each other, Israel-activist Jake Tapper thought he had the perfect gotcha when interviewing El-Sayed on CNN:

“Zohran Mamdani was asked if he thinks there’s room in the party for Democrats who work with AIPAC, and Mayor Mamdani said ‘if they are Democrats and they win as Democrats then they should be part of the Democratic Party.’

When you were asked by CNN if support for Israel could be about anything other than money, you told CNN ‘not if you’re a Democrat and you believe in human rights.’

So it sounds as though you and Mayor Mamdani disagree about how big this tent should be and whether there’s room in the tent for Israel supporters.”

What Smug Jake Tapper is basically asking is this: Can you be in the same tent with someone who gets off on bombing tents in Gaza?

El-Sayed’s response shuts him up quickly:

“Well Jake there’s always room in the tent for folks. Whatever you think about the right of Israel to exist, I wonder if they have a right to our tax dollars. Every time I come on CNN, you guys ask me the same questions about these theoretical rights of existence or whether or not I agree with the mayor of New York.

I’m running for Senate in Michigan. In Michigan people can’t afford their basic needs, they don’t get the healthcare they need and deserve. The question seems to be less about the interest of Michiganders than something happening 6,000 miles away. I want our tax dollars spent in Michigan.”

Jake throws in one meek ‘I didn’t…’ then puts his tail between his legs, mopes for a minute, and then feels a little better when he gets to use Trump talking points to ask El-Sayed a racist question about the murder of Iran’s Ayatollah.

This is just one part of a crazy Monday Mourning, from elections to Iran to Israel to Lindsey Graham’s terrible legacy. Thanks for supporting our work, the Useful Idiots audience keeps us going!

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To support our work and go ad-free, click here. Watch the free version here:

Subscribers get our recap of the craziest in corporate media, the Friday Free-for-All:

There is chaos in West Asia as a result of Trump continuing his war on Iran:

The latest US strikes on Iran hit near a children’s cancer hospital, forcing patients to flee; Israel continues to break the MOU by destroying and stealing more land in Lebanon; and Iraq is back in the picture as Trump cuts off its money in an attempt to break their support of Iran.

In order to make sense of the pandemonium, we spoke with veteran journalist and war correspondent Elijah Magnier, who gives his analysis of the expanding conflict, reacts to JD Vance’s thinly-veiled callout of Trump for getting tricked by the Israelis to oppose diplomacy, and explains why Trump is powerless when it comes to taking the Strait of Hormuz or Kharg Island.

Elijah Magnier: Threatening to occupy an island is very easy for US forces to do with a heavy bombardment on several days. But they can’t stay because the cost will be extremely heavy: Iran has the ability to bomb this island or to bomb the Strait of Hormuz or anywhere in the Gulf. Therefore, this plan is actually not feasible.

Donald Trump doesn’t have an offer to really propose to end the war in a way that everybody comes out not a loser. He wants to be the winner, and the Iranians aren’t allowing him to be. Iran doesn’t need to win. Iran is not losing because it’s defending itself.

And by Donald Trump threatening Kharg Island or the Strait of Hormuz, it means he doesn’t really know the consequences and, militarily speaking, what can be credible or not. His plan in this way is not credible because he can’t hold on to what he potentially can occupy. And then he cannot face the Americans with such a heavy bill.

Watch or listen to the full interview with Elijah Magnier where we react to Trump getting called out in JD Vance’s Joe Rogan interview, mocking Syria’s President (and former al-Qaeda founder) Ahmed al-Sharaa to his face, and embarrassing Iraq’s Prime Minister over the Trump-ordered assassination of an Iraqi military leader.

Subscribe to support our work and get the ad-free version of the interview.

You’ll also get our weekly recap of the craziest moments in corporate media, the Friday Free-for-All: JD Vance tells Israel stooges “Go to hell”

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 Israel 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.

Catch the ad-free version here: