Useful Idiots

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This week we’re welcoming back to the show Useful Idiots fan-favorite California Congressman Ro Khanna to discuss his efforts to reign in Trump’s war on Iran, what’s happening with the Democrats in the aftermath of Graham Platner’s victory in Maine, and why he’s calling out other Dems like the AIPAC-owned Chuck Schumer and Josh Gottheimer.

Useful Idiots: You’ve been critical of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on multiple issues, including on Iran because he opposed the Iran nuclear deal and he supported regime change inside Iran. How has he been on this issue?

Rep. Ro Khanna: He’s been weak. He opposes the war, but he was not clear when Trump was threatening the genocide of the Iranian people. He basically issued a weak statement saying ‘consult Congress’ instead of saying that this is a war crime that an American president should never contemplate.

He’s not clear in saying that this is an immoral, illegal, unstrategic war.

Useful Idiots: What do you think the connection is between people’s support of this war, especially Democrats, and their support of Israel?

Rep. Ro Khanna: It’s correlated. There’s no secret that Netanyahu has been wanting this war for the past thirty years. There’s no secret that he has talked Trump into it and that Trump basically went along with it.

And even when Democrats oppose it, you hear many of them saying, ‘Well, we agree there should be action that takes out Iran’s nuclear capability. We just don’t agree that Trump did this without consulting Congress or consulting our allies.’

Well, there should not be a military solution there. Can there be negotiation like Obama did to have a JCPOA of the modern times? Absolutely. But there are a number of Democrats who are secretly applauding this goal of striking Iranian sites because that is something that Netanyahu also has wanted for two decades.

Useful Idiots: Want to name any names?

Rep. Ro Khanna: I don’t think there’s much to hide. I mean, [NJ Congressman] Josh Gottheimer, et cetera, he’s very open about it. They’re very clear that they support the goal of the military destruction of the Iranian people.

But the military has not been affected. We may have degraded Iranian capability, but they still have a nuclear capability. If anything, you’ve told Iran that the way to prevent America from attacking is to develop a nuclear weapon. And now Iran is less willing to have a fatwa banning nuclear weapons. Now they’re not willing to. So they’ve actually strategically made a blunder.

Watch our full interview with Rep. Ro Khanna on Graham Platner’s victory, working with Republican Congressman Thomas Massie on Iran and the Epstein Files, and why he’s working to lift the fuel blockade on Cuba and oppose Trump’s illegal regime change war.

Plus, subscribe to watch our full second interview with journalist Adam Johnson, author of How to Sell a Genocide, which focuses on the liberal media’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. We go through his reporting and data which shows a bigger difference than we realized in the media’s reporting of Israelis vs Palestinians, plus, what he found most shocking in his research.

And don’t miss this week’s recap of the craziest people on corporate media, the Friday Free-for-All: Trump Accidentally Tells Iran He’s Secretly Stealing Their Oil

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.

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“Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning?”

A simple enough question from a reporter unravels Trump into first ripping off a line on inflation that is now haunting every Republican member of Congress in press conferences, and then into a somehow worse slip of international piracy secrets.

“No, I love it, the numbers were great,” Trump says. “You know what I really love? I love inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now… something you didn’t know…”

At this point you can see in his eyes that he considers the moment. It’s not too late to stop himself, but the thrill of spilling is too good.

“Did you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran.” He thinks quick. “Until right now.”

And the fallout’s been immediate. Mike Johnson and Republican congresspeople all the way down are being forced to dodge questions from reporters about why Trump loves inflation (we watch one guy embarrassingly get caught faking a phone call while running away). And even worse for the MAGA camp, Energy Secretary Chris Wright got blasted in Congress when pressed on whether he was aware that the US has been illegally stealing millions of barrels of oil from Iran:

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

Watch this week’s Monday Mourning here:

Trump met up with Meet the Press’s Kristen Welker for a literally and metaphorically stormy interview in which he failed to defend his disastrous war on Iran and insisted that he never promised to be an anti-war president.

Right from Welker’s welcome, Katie and Aaron turn on the gas and don’t let up on the lying president, right up to the point where he storms out of the interview.

It’s a beautiful takedown, watch the full, free episode on YouTube.

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

The Trump Administration just announced their latest achievement: it’s a ceasefire in Lebanon!

One problem: they excluded from their ceasefire talks Israel’s main target, Hezbollah. The US is fully backing Israel’s continued assault, which has included the bombing of civilian infrastructure, killing over 3,000 people since March and displacing over 1.2 million.

What this means for the so-called ceasefire: Hezbollah must withdraw from its own territory in the south of Lebanon and Israel has no terms. Unsurprisingly, Hezbollah has rejected this deal, declining the opportunity to freely hand over their own territory to the invading Israeli army.

While corporate media has reported this simply as Hezbollah refusing peace, we’re digging deeper into the story to find out what’s actually happening in Lebanon: where is Israel attacking, what is Hezbollah’s goal, to what extent will Iran back Hezbollah, and why are the US and Israel failing to take control in Lebanon.

To do this, we speak with Michael Young, senior editor at the Carnegie Middle East Center and author of The Ghosts of Martyrs Square. He is based in Lebanon.

Michael has a different perspective on Hezbollah and Lebanon than most of our guests, but rather than giving you the same perspective every week, we want to feature different voices who may disagree with us, which gives us a fuller picture of the conflict. So speaking from Lebanon, Michael Young gives his take on the dilemma that Lebanon faces and what he thinks is the best way to stop Israel’s invasion.

Subscribe to support our work! You’ll get the ad-free version of our episode PLUS our Friday Free-for-All: Former Biden and Obama Official Wants You to "Put Aside the Horrors of Gaza" For a While...

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Did you know that Congress is working on a new plan to “distance” the US-Israeli relationship by slowing US aid to Israel and replace it with a “financial partnership”? A partnership which has the power to not only increase the amount of money and weapons the US sends to Israel but also future-proof it from being dismantled by future presidents and lawmakers?

And do you know who invented this plan that allows members of Congress to become more independent from Israel?

Let the words of GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman speaking on CNN enlighten us all: “This was actually something that came from Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

This, and a whole slew of other remarks that will make your skin crawl were topics of what many people are calling the antisemitic events of the year! The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, where Zionists gave speeches on and cheered for things that, if we had said them, would get us immediately kicked off YouTube for being antisemitic.

From bragging that the “Jewish coalition” spent five million dollars to oust Thomas Massie and control US elections, to explaining that Jews can now use AI to “manage and control” social media content, to laughter at John Fetterman’s celebration of Israel’s pager attacks in Lebanon that killed and blinded children and civilians, it was one antisemitic trope after another.

And no condemnations from the Fraudfather over at the ADL yet…

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

Watch this week’s Monday Mourning here:

After months of struggling and failing to inflict enough damage on Iran that they reopen the Strait of Hormuz to US ships, Trump is now coming out with a new talking point that he hopes will convince the world that defeating Iran militarily was never actually his goal:

“Their military we’ve sort of left it alone because we think their military is somewhat moderate. Mistakes have been made in wars where you wipe out everybody and then you have a country that for 40 years can never rebuild. You look at what happened with Iraq, we did so bad that was such a foolish thing. Shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

Donald, you’re so close! Just change the word ‘Iraq’ to ‘Iran’ and you’ve got it! You won’t have to do this embarrassing backpedaling about the military, you can just go home and not have a war!

Maybe he’s been listening to Useful Idiots but on double speed so he missed some key points…

Also in this Monday Mourning: Democratic Senator Chris Murphy claims he OPPOSES the war on Iran (but only because it somehow “strengthens Russia”), Ukrainian President Zelensky also wants peace in the Middle East (so that Ukraine can go back to being the US’ primary weapons recipient), and Chuck Schumer speaks at a “Jew Klux Klan” rally.

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

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It’s been a while since we’ve covered the proxy war in Ukraine, so who better to give us an update than Useful Idiots fan-favorite Lev Golinkin, the Ukrainian-American journalist and author of A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka.

The big takeaway: remember Ukraine’s whole neo-Nazi problem? It’s gotten worse.

Lev explains how this began:

Lev Golinkin: Right when Zelensky came to power, a TV company in Ukraine wanted to set up something called the Telemost [Russian for TV bridge]. It’s an echo back to the Soviet days in the 80s where you had television studios in Moscow and television studios in America and everyday people in the studios could talk to each other. The whole idea was for them to try to see each other as human beings.

So there was somebody who wanted to revive that and do it between Kiev and Moscow. Andriy Biletsky, the main neo-Nazi who is being whitewashed right now, put out a short video telling Zelensky, ‘You have until tomorrow morning to cancel this, or if not, we’re going to have our next conversation in your office.’

Within a half hour, the program was canceled.

Lev reveals why Biletsky wanted war with Russia, and why he can be considered the real winner of the war:

“If there’s one guy from this war who is winning,” he tells us, “it’s Beletsky. He went from being a street gang leader, a thug, to having untold number of men at his command, to being a general, and to being blown by Reuters and by other media institutions”

So now, with the nation’s top neo-Nazi installed as brigadier general, Zelensky, whose own family died in the Holocaust, is using his power to give a re-burial ceremony and high honors to a man named Andriy Melnyk, a World War II Nazi collaborator who helped hunt down Ukrainian Jews in the Holocaust.

In case you had any doubts, Fraudfather Jonathan Greenblatt and the ADL have been completely silent on this.

To see the full interview where we watch Reuters’ (as Lev himself describes it) metaphorical “blowing” of the neo-Nazi Biletsky, as well as Zelensky’s former press secretary reveal some huge secrets about Zelensky to Tucker Carlson, please subscribe here!

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We also speak with Irish activist Cat Graham, who journeyed to Gaza this month on the Global Sumud Flotilla, and was kidnapped and detained by Israeli forces. In a now infamous video posted by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Cat can be seen bravely chanting ‘Free, Free Palestine!’ at Ben Gvir, before being violently wrestled to the ground.

She joins us to share the story of Israel’s brutal treatment of global activists and the far worse and less-televised treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

It’s a Useful Idiots double header: subscribe to watch the full episode as well as our Friday Free-for-All: AIPAC PANICS As It Realizes It’s Losing Control Over Voters

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This week at the Emmy Awards for News, student journalist Santiago Campos won CBS’s Mike Wallace Memorial Scholarship. Here’s what he said in his speech:

“While I want to thank CBS News for funding this generous gift towards my education, I want to also acknowledge how the recent direction of the outlet stains the legacy of Mike Wallace.

As corporate elites take hold over the very pipes through which our information flows, journalism that serves the people becomes increasingly harder to come by, yet ever more crucial. And what people want is the truth.

So if at any time you hesitate to utter the word genocide or remain silent in the face of blatant lies, remember to ask yourself: who is this for? I hope you choose us.”

There is currently an existential battle over the future of journalism, with pro-Israel billionaires like the Ellisons and Jeff Bezos attempting to suck up media outlets and install pro-Israel activists like Bari Weiss, Jake Tapper, and Jeffrey Goldberg into positions of power, taking on the rapidly accelerating explosion of independent media, which has brought on the mass exodus of viewers from corporate news outlets like CNN, Fox News, and the New York Times.

With young journalists like Santiago boldly taking the side of independent journalists, the corporate elites may not stand a chance.

Also in this Friday Free-for-All: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin thinks he can shut down international flights to sanctuary cities during the World Cup, Fraudfather/ADL head Jonathon Greenblatt tries to talk away a mass shooting at a San Diego mosque, and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz wants Democrats to get credit for being more Israel-first than Donald Trump.

It’s a sickening week as always, but with a bright twist that gives us some hope. Keep on supporting independent journalism and catch the full episode here: