Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Click here for the full interview with Noura Erakat: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4255962/israels-illegal-assault-on-jenin-w-noura-erakat For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: US "Free Press" Loves State Censorship https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/us-free-press-loves-state-censorship?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 “Their crime is to exist,” Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat says of the Palestinians resisting Israel’s state-perpetrated terrorism and the recent attacks on the West Bank city of Jenin in particular. “When they attack, with war planes and tanks, indiscriminately, it’s a message to Palestinians that you are not safe. Anywhere. That unless you completely surrender, we will terrorize you. And the rest of the international community is going to blame you.” But, she tells us, sharing the resilience of Palestinians, “this is not a people that watches this and gives up. We’ll fight. We’ll fight and we’ll die fighting for our freedom.” And their fight is challenging Israel’s illegal violence: “The fact that Palestinians refuse to disappear is the existential threat. It’s not Molotov cocktails, or IEDs, or armed Palestinians. It’s the fact that Palestinians have united themselves across violent geographic demarcations that are meant to separate us, and refuse to disappear.” Watch the full interview with Noura to hear her family’s tragic first-hand experience with Israeli terror and her predictions for the future of the brave people of Palestine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Click here for the full interview with Scott Ritter: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4225085/scott-ritter-putin-won-the-coup-and-will-win-the-war Watch this week's FREE Thursday Throwdown on Locals: A "Non-Panicky" Nuclear War https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4216874/a-non-panicky-nuclear-war For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat “How does this war end?” we asked former marine corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter. The answer was not pretty. “With a lot of dead Ukrainians,” he told us gravely. “When Lindsay Graham gets out there and does his sick cackling and says we’re going to fight to the last Ukrainian, unfortunately that’s what’s going to happen.” Ritter explains that Putin and Russia will not be beaten militarily, and every day the US extends the proxy war in its attempt to bleed Russia and enrich weapons manufacturers, our “friends” will suffer even more. “We are condemning our friends the Ukrainians, everyday hundreds of families, to a fate that is in many cases worse than death. Bombing houses, people out on the street with their kids; this is what we’re doing to our friends every day of the week.” He finishes, giving the proper name for our relationship with the Ukrainian people: “We’re not friends. We’re the worst enemy one could imagine.” So what would Scott Ritter do if he was president today? “I would stop this war instantly,” he says. “There’s no more weaponry going to Ukraine. It’s over. I’d call Zelenskyy and say it’s done. And then I would call Putin and say we’re going to stop the fighting and we’re never going to start it again. We need to sit down and talk. That’s it, it’s called diplomacy.” Watch the full interview with Scott Ritter where he explains the history of Prigozhin and the Wagner Group, the disastrous Ukrainian counteroffensive, evidence of the peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and his full plan for how to end the war. Plus, watch this week’s Thursday Throwdown, which we’re giving to you for FREE on Locals: A “Non-Panicky” Nuclear War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Click here for the full interview with David Talbot and Aaron Good: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4191638/the-kennedys-vs-the-deep-state For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown – Biden: Build a 700-mile Fence to Keep Out the Illegals https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/biden-build-a-700-mile-fence-to-keep?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “We’ve gotten to the point now where we’ve been lied to for so long that people are really pissed off. One major event after the other we’ve been lied to. And we want the truth.” These wise words come from our guest David Talbot, journalist and author of The Devil’s Chessboard and Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years. He’s joined by Aaron Good, a historian and host of the American Exception podcast. They both bring their extensive research of the deep state, the secrets of the American empire, and previously-classified info from first-hand interviews and loads of documents. Plus they share their respectful disagreement with Noam Chomsky over JFK. Watch the full interview where they reveal who their research shows killed Robert F. Kennedy, their thoughts on presidential candidate RFK Jr, and how news media has collapsed since David founded Salon in 1995, one of the first online news magazines. The deep state has a lot of secrets, but the Useful Idiots are digging them up. Listen in. Don’t miss this week’s Thursday Throwdown where we watch a newly-resurfaced clip of Biden calling for a 700-mile fence on the Mexican border to keep out the “illegals.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Click here for the full interview with Touré: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4160086/80s-grooves-that-explained-the-news-w-tour For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Cornel West Blows Jake Tapper's Mind https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/cornel-west-blows-jake-tappers-mind?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web We’re throwing it back to the 1980s with Touré, host of the excellent new podcast Being Black: The 80s (70s and 90s to follow), which breaks down some of the most impactful Black music of the decade, including what was happening in Black America at each moment in time. We listen to Dianna Ross, Public Enemy, Tracy Chapman, Stevie Wonder and more as Touré explains the Black culture history that led to the iconic songs, not just how they reflect the stories of the time, but how they ushered, or forced, in a new era of revolution. Touré, who was a cohost of MSNBC’s The Cycle and a writer for Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and The New Yorker, deep dives into the rich political and cultural history of Black life and music, including the influences of gay liberation, the power of MLK, mass incarceration, and the crack epidemic. It’s a fascinating musical episode of Useful Idiots that you won’t want to miss. And watch the full version where things get political: Touré, whose past as an MSNBC host can’t be hidden forever, debates Katie and Aaron on Cornel West, Bernie Sanders, and Obama. It’s a heated back and forth that seems to only prove the power of music, because no matter the disagreements on political issues, the tunes we listen to bring everyone back together. Listen and groove along with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Click here for the full interview with Oliver Stone: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4126347/free-preview-oliver-stone-goes-nuclear For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: FBI Helps Ukraine Censor Aaron Maté – Twitter Files https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/fbi-helps-ukraine-censor-aaron-mate?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Oliver Stone grew up in a world that hates nuclear energy: we heard horror stories of catastrophic “disasters” like in Chernobyl and Fukushima, subconsciously linked it to the nuclear bomb, even died under the trampling feet of its nuclear spawn in Godzilla and Them! So what, after decades of mistrust against the nuclear boogeyman, made Oliver change his mind? “Fear. Fear and confusion.” His new documentary Nuclear Now debunks years of propaganda, misinformation, and sensationalism, urging us to see that “nuclear energy is the only viable way to get out of this mess.” It turns out, the documentary shows, deaths from nuclear energy are minuscule compared to any other form of energy: “The HBO series Chernobyl is a fear document,” he says. “It’s sensationalism. The World Health Organization and the UN did extensive studies and they came out with 4,000 people who possibly died from cancer. A lot of people say millions died, but it’s not coming out in any scientific evidence.” And the “disaster” at Fukushima caused one (disputed) death. And there are no other cases. So why are we told nuclear energy is so dangerous? Well first, “keep in mind that the fossil fuel industry has benefitted from renewables.” When you have oil and gas and coal lobbies fighting against you, we’ve seen too many times how easy it is to get lost in the propaganda. But while renewables like wind and solar energy are good things, Oliver explains that they “won’t make the gap. It will not make the continental volume to get where we need to be to really have clean energy.” “An Inconvenient Truth popularized renewables, but here we are twenty fucking years later and we still have the same amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It’s not working.” Subscribe for the full interview with Oliver Stone for his take on the Ukraine proxy war and its effect on climate change, his scathing review of the Green Party and their neocon friends, and why he believes “America is divorcing itself from reality.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Click here for the full interview with Nick Turse: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4092319/extended-episode-henry-kissinger-kill-anything-that-moves Read Nick's article Blood on his Hands: Survivors of Kissinger’s Secret War in Cambodia Reveal Unreported Mass Killings https://theintercept.com/2023/05/23/henry-kissinger-cambodia-bombing-survivors/ For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: "The Russians are dying...It's the best money we've ever spent." https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4084907/the-russians-are-dying-its-the-best-money-weve-ever-spent Since CBS is celebrating Henry Kissinger’s 100th birthday, we figured it’s time to look into the “elder statesman’s” past with journalist Nick Turse, author of books including Next Time They'll Come to Count the Dead and a recent investigation “Blood on his Hands,” an extensive examination of the unreported mass killings of Kissinger’s secret war in Cambodia. “It’s long been known that Henry Kissinger has a lot of blood on his hands for Cambodia,” Turse begins. “But this investigation, using an archive of US military documents and never-before-published interviews, shows that Kissinger was responsible for far more civilian deaths than we knew about, and that the violence was far more intimate.” Turse, who visited Cambodia to hear the stories of survivors, shares in-depth accounts of the horrors unleashed by Kissinger. And he was asked over and over again by the people of Cambodia: “Why? Why were we bombed?” Nick, in an ambush interview with Kissinger himself, asked the statesman those very questions. “Why were they bombed?” “We didn’t bomb Cambodians,” Kissinger lied back. “We bombed North Vietnamese in Cambodia.” “Then how were 50,000 Cambodians murdered by your bombs?” And the answer Kissinger gave, as strange as it is chilling, Nick still doesn’t understand: “He told me to ‘Play with it and have a good time.’ And then he stomped his cane on the floor and stalked off.” Hear the full interview with Nick Turse in which he recounts finding the secret tape recordings from Kissinger’s office, widely unreported, that detail the extent of Henry Kissinger’s hands-on control in the murders of tens of thousands of people. As Aaron puts it: “Well that was bone-chilling.” Subscribe to watch the full interview below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Click here for the full interview: https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4059339/full-interview-syrians-find-hope-under-crushing-us-sanctions Read Hekmat’s article: Immiserated, humiliated, yet resilient: how Syrians survive America’s economic siege https://thegrayzone.com/2023/05/16/syrians-survive-americas-economic-siege/ For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Find us on Substack at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: "Donald Trump loves communist Russia," announces Democrat https://usefulidiots.locals.com/post/4051134/donald-trump-loves-communist-russia-announces-democrat From Iraq to Syria to everywhere else the US government attempts regime change, when corporate media tells us what the “voices of the people” are saying, it’s not often that we actually hear voices that deviate from the US agenda. That’s why we invited Syrian analyst Kevork Almassian and journalist Hekmat Aboukhater. And even under accounts of dangerous war zones, terrorist groups, and crushing US sanctions, they both noted that there is hope in Syria. And the truth they found in Syria only underscores how much western corporate journalists lie to us to help keep the oppressive sanctions going: “The western journalists who are the so-called experts on Syria,” Kevork, who founded Syriana Analysis, says. “They also have blood on their hands. They’re like a parallel intelligence apparatus giving justifications and information so that these criminal psychopaths in Washington would continue in their policy. Their entire goal is to give justification for US regime change and sanctions.” Hekmat, cofounder of Project Onwards, shares the story of a Syrian student unable to access most websites and learning materials under US sanctions: “At every single turn as a youth trying to better himself, he’s blocked by a country oceans away that seems to have its knee on his neck as he’s just trying to exist as an internet student.” But the US government and media pretend that sanctions are targeted only at President Assad, not destroying the lives of citizens. It’s a world of propaganda that’s become increasingly difficult to see through, but the first step to finding out what’s really going on is hearing the voices of real Syrians. Subscribe to hear the full interview with Kevork and Hekmat where they share stories of US weapons used against the Syrian people, the CIA-backed army that kidnapped and threatened to behead Kevork’s brother, and the glimmer of hope they found back home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Click here for the full interview with Ben Smith: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/former-buzzfeed-chief-on-the-end?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: BlueAnon Cracks under Russiagate Report https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/blueanon-cracks-under-russiagate?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web The era of corporate media is dying. The future is independent. Ben Smith, former Buzzfeed chief and New York Times media columnist, is the founder of Semafor, a news site which, unlike corporate rags who pretend otherwise, doesn’t hide the author’s opinion. Check it out here. Ben joins Useful Idiots to explain the beginnings of the internet age of media that led to Obama’s election, the rise and demise of outlets like Buzzfeed News and Vice, and describes what he sees as the next era. And yes, it includes Useful Idiots. Watch the full episode where Ben debates Aaron on the Durham Report, which this week showed that the six-year story of collusion between Trump and Russia was a hoax led by corporate media. Buzzfeed, with Ben in charge, was the first outlet to publish the Steele Dossier in 2017. When Aaron challenges him on this, things get heated. Then, as an ex-Times writer, Ben exposes the biggest clusterf*ck from his years at the paper, a notorious example of choosing traffic over truth. Hear his report in the full interview. And speaking of Traffic, check out Ben Smith’s new book on media genius, rivalry, and delusion in the billion-dollar race to go viral. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Click here for the full interview with former CIA agent Ray McGovern: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/ex-cia-agent-reveals-the-truth-about?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: If you're voting for Joe Biden, you ain't 18-29 https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/if-youre-voting-for-joe-biden-you?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web A 23-year-old Ray McGovern, fresh in the CIA, a believer in John F. Kennedy, sat for a lecture from a senior operations officer at the agency. And was shocked by the rant he heard: “This president is a coward! He failed to back us up on the Bay of Pigs! He’s so cowardly, this is an awful, awful thing!” That was the summer of 1963. Three months later John Kennedy was assassinated. McGovern, who worked in the CIA for 27 years and has spent an equal number of years critiquing it, lays out step by step the factors that led to what he suspects is the agency’s role in the assassination of a president. First, he explains, was that “Kennedy threatened to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and throw it to the four winds. Now, what President Kennedy didn’t realize is you don’t say those kinds of things. You don’t threaten to do those kinds of things.” Already in dangerous territory, Kennedy also went rogue on the CIA’s war: “Not only had John Kennedy already made two executive orders to pull our troops out of Vietnam, but in June 1963 he gave an incredible speech saying ‘Why can’t we just get along with the Russians?’” The result? “He was killed. Very simply. He was assassinated and it was a warning to all other presidents who might want to threaten the CIA.” McGovern, who since leaving the CIA founded the anti-war group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, is calling for the CIA to be disbanded. “It should be splintered. It serves no useful purpose. Somebody should set up an apolitical, agenda-free institute to do substantial, substantive, and untainted intelligence.” He adds, slyly: “And then if you want to do operations like blowing up pipelines, you put that in the Pentagon.” Watch the full interview to hear Ray McGovern dissect the CIA’s proxy war in Ukraine, the Biden administration’s hoax of Russian disinformation, and the shocking private Trump quote that made him ask: “Who the hell is running this country?” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Click here for the full interview with Branko Marcetic: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/kremlin-droned-tucker-carlson-debate?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and chat live with Katie and Aaron in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Or find us on Locals at http://usefulidiots.locals.com Join the Absurd Arena live chat with Katie and Aaron every Tuesday at 12pm est at https://usefulidiots.substack.com/chat Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Biden Toasts Media for Ignoring Julian Assange https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/biden-toasts-media-for-ignoring-julian?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “Humanity escaped by the skin of its teeth.” But you wouldn’t know it without journalists like Branko Marcetic, a returning Useful Idiot revealing the contents of the Pentagon leaks that the media has tried so hard to bury. And after this week’s attempted drone strike on the Kremlin, these leaks of US aggression become even more important. “One of the topline revelations,” he tells us. “Was that despite the fact that Joe Biden said early in the war we’re not going to send US troops, it turns out that there are boots on the ground.” What they’re doing there, we don’t know yet. What it means for the war, Branko explains. Another major revelation, he explains, is that “last year there was a run-in between a Russian and British plane. It turns out, we know from these documents, that a Russian plane fired at a British spy plane because the pilot misunderstood the instructions he was getting from the ground.” The only reason the plane wasn’t shot down, potentially leading to World War III: “The plane malfunctioned. And humanity escaped by the skin of its teeth.” But our heads of military in both the Pentagon and the media can’t let Americans know how dangerous this increasingly escalating war is for fear of losing support for the billions of cash we spend on it. And that’s where Branko gives the third revelation from the Pentagon leaks: “US officials lied about Ukraine winning the war. Privately, they believe Ukraine can make modest land gains at best. But if Americans believe that Ukraine is winning, they’re more likely to support sending further military aide.” The Pentagon leaks are being censored to keep a deadly proxy war alive, to keep support for sucking Ukraine dry until we fight to the last Ukrainian. Branko Marcetic is uncovering it. Watch the full interview to hear the scary extent of the Pentagon leaks, the depressing reelection campaign of “yesterday’s man” Joe Biden, and a heated debate: Is Tucker Carlson actually anti-war? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesOur Sponsors:* Check out American Giant and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.american-giant.com* Check out MyBookie and use my code USEFUL for a great deal: www.mybookie.agAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy