Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté – Details, episodes & analysis

Click here for the full interview with Sarit Michaeli: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-israels-sadistic?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: AOC vs Predator – Is Anti-Genocide a Predatory Stance? https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/aoc-vs-predator-is-anti-genocide?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

Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.

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Though Western media has barely covered it, Israeli soldiers engaged in what can only be described as a gang rape of a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman, an Israeli military prison in the Negev desert, which Israeli media has dubbed the Israeli Guantanamo Bay.

When Israeli police detained soldiers who engaged in the rape, which was recorded and broadcast on Israeli TV, Israeli citizens, including Israeli politicians, protested not the rape but rather the attempt to hold the rapists accountable. In addition to these "right to rape" protests, the governemnt has given the rapes its blessing. Hanoch Milwidsky, a member of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, said during a session of the Knesset, that “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum” is "legitimate." 

A one off gang rape would be bad enough. But the truth is this is merely one example of a systemic epidemic of abuse. In fact, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a haunting report on the Israeli prison system which it described as “a network of torture camps.” The title of the report is what an Israeli jailer told a Palestinian prisoner when he arrived at one of these torture camps: Welcome to Hell. 

To learn more about this hell, we spoke to Sarit Michaeli, the international advocacy lead for B’tselem, which focuses on human rights abuses in the occupied territories. The abuse suffered by Palestinian prisoners was not random. Rather, “the most gruesome accounts” of the victims revealed “the systemic nature of what has been happening in the Israeli prison system. After October seventh, Israel turned the prison system that deals with Palestinians into a network of torture camps.”

This is not a case of a few rogue actors or bad apples: “The most important thing,” says Michaeli, “is that none of this is the result of individual actions by any sort of individual prison guard. These are systemic actions inspired by [National Security] Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.” And while the torture may have been inspired by Ben Gvir, it's approved of and encouraged by the Israeli government. 

The testimony of the Palestinian detainees is harrowing. Fadi Baker, a 25 year old father and lawyer recalled, "they put cigarettes out in my mouth and on my body. They put clamps on my testicles that were attached to something heavy. It went on like that for a whole day. My testicles swelled up." Another detainee witnessed the killing of a Palestinian prisoner: 

"He screamed in pain constantly, begging for the doctor. The guard would come now and then and swear at him and tell him to shut up. In the morning, the guards came to count us. One said, 'Get up, you animal. Get up, you dog.' They checked him, and the whole place went silent. Finally, the doctor said, 'There’s nothing to be done.' One of the guards said to them, 'My condolences.' And they all started laughing. They put him in a black body bag and carried him out like trash."

Eighteen year old Muhammad Nazzal recalls, "they kicked us and hit us with metal batons. Every time I tried to cover my head with my hands, they hit me on the hands as well as the rest of my body... people beat me again, and also strip-searched me and took photos of me naked." He also witnessed a fatal beating. When a prisoner dared to ask if there had been a ceasefire, "they beat him to death. The guards simply left him there for half an hour after the assault."

Subscribe to watch the full interview with Sarit Michaeli where she describes the “sadistic... orgy of hate and revenge that Israeli society was plunged into," explains why it's Netanyahu, not Hamas, that's blocking a ceasefire deal, and argues that Netanyahu is rooting for a Trump victory. Plus, she reacts to a truly terrible clip from the Israeli podcast “Two Nice Jewish Boys.”

00:00 Intro

00:58 Jake Sullivan HATES that China chooses diplomacy

14:58 The New Russiagate

25:11 Sarit Michaeli interview

26:01 What's happening in the West Bank?

29:04 R*pe in the name of God

33:42 Netanyahu erases the West Bank

37:56 Israel's real goal

43:07 Welcome to Hell

47:44 Is r*pe legitimate?

50:01 International Court of Justice

56:17 The Biden Admin Doesn't Care

1:01:21 Does Netanyahu prefer Harris or Trump?

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Click here for the full interview with Danièle Obono: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/extended-episode-frances-neoliberal?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: CNN is offended that Palestinians wanted to speak at the DNC https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-is-offended-that-palestinians?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

Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.

If you want to experience smoother digestion, a boost of energy, and an overall healthier body go to roundhouseprovisions.com/USEFUL for up to 44% off your regular-priced order plus a 90-day, money-back guarantee!

In the name of democracy, neoliberal French President Emmanuel Macron is thwarting democracy in a move that some are calling a coup.

The French left coalition, The New Popular Front, shocked the nation (and Macron) when they won the elections in July. Usually this would mean that a leftist candidate becomes the Prime Minister. But in the name of “institutional stability,” Macron is refusing to allow this to happen.

So, the leftist France Unbowed party, a member of the New Popular Front, is calling for mass demonstrations on September 7.

Our guest, France Unbowed Member of Parliament Danièle Obono, joins Useful Idiots to explain it all: “It's very disrespectful to the voters that their government would not actually be serious about what they voted for. They voted for us because our platform is to implement changes, to raise the minimum wage, to rebuild social services, to fund healthcare and education and environmental policy, to provide shelter and legal papers to migrant people. The voters should be respected.”

But, Obono vows, “they won’t succeed in silencing millions of people.”

Obono also criticizes Macron for cozying up to France’s fascist far right: “People [are] quite shocked that he would agree with the far right. It triggered something very deep within the people because the National Rally is an actual fascist party. They target migrant people, Muslim people. People feared for their lives, for the future of their kids.”

Subscribe for the full interview with MP Danièle Obono where she explains how Macron plans to use the far-right to launch a coup, how her comments about Hamas incited a government probe on her, and why France just arrested Telegram founder Pavel Durov.

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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: CNN compares Keffiyehs to Confederate Flags https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-compares-keffiyehs-to-confederate?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. 265 days into Israel’s mass assault on Gaza, Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization Diana Buttu joins us from Haifa, Israel with a stark warning: Things are going to get worse. “For Netanyahu,” she explains, “he needs to open up another front in order to maintain his power. He's made it clear that he's not going to push for a ceasefire. He doesn't care about the Israeli captives. And so it's pretty clear to me that he's going to go ahead and attack Lebanon.” Israel has no aim to rescue its hostages. It never did. “If they actually cared about them, they would have done what should have been done very early on, which is negotiate a ceasefire. Instead, they’ve done the opposite. And this is why you can look at these ceasefire proposals with such skepticism. Because instead, what they’ve done is bombed Gaza to virtual smithereens.” Diana, whose father survived the Nakba in 1948, moved to Haifa in 2000. And like many others, she believed what the media told everyone to believe: that with a simple peace plan, Palestine would be fixed. Then she arrived in Palestine and saw the true reality. “All of the things that had been dismissed by the mainstream media,” she says, “I had dismissed too. I had dismissed this idea of settlements and the impact of settlements. And I kept thinking, it'll be undone. It'll all be undone. I dismissed the harm of what it means to be a Palestinian political prisoner, to be somebody who's abducted in the middle of the night. I dismissed the harm of the checkpoints. I dismissed a lot of things. And so when I arrived here, it was the first time that I had to confront the reality that this political process was not going to undo any of those harms.” Stopping the bombs is one thing. Stopping settlements, returning land, granting rights to Palestinians, and removing the literal wall that cages them is another. “They talk about reconfiguring the prison, reconfiguring the occupation, but they never talk about ending the occupation because this mentality of control permeates deep inside Israel.” There’s only one way this ends, Diana says. “It's going to end when the world says that it's enough. And that's it.” Diana also shares haunting stories of Palestinian children who were kept in Israeli torture prisons for months, and the ways that western corporate media has worked to cover it up. This week’s interview with Diana Buttu will not be paywalled. We hope you’ll listen to and share her important perspective. Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: CNN compares Keffiyehs to Confederate Flags, where Van Jones claims that wearing a keffiyeh around Israeli government supporters is as much a call for violence as waving a confederate flag in Harlem. And we celebrate the freedom of Julian Assange, a rare victory that couldn’t have happened without supporters of independent media like you. Thanks for your support, we’ll see you next time. 00:00 Intro 00:37 The Four Food Groups of News 18:10 Diana Buttu interview 18:52 Will Netanyahu attack Lebanon? 23:17 Why Netanyahu needs the war 24:50 Does Israel care about the hostages? 28:24 Is the peace process bogus? 33:01 Responding to Israeli talking points 42:10 Israeli is torturing child prisoners 52:10 How does the occupation end? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Click here for the full interview with Wyatt Reed: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-episode-us-journalist-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get access to extended interviews and bonus content here: http://usefulidiots.substack.com “Welcome to Donetsk. You survived your baptism by fire.” Wyatt Reed, a US journalist who writes for Sputnik, a Russian-state media outlet, is reporting from the front lines in Ukraine. His hotel was bombed by a Ukrainian strike just hours after he had arrived there — and while he was just steps away. He shares with us his videos of the attack and describes what it’s like in the war zone. In Donetsk, Reed reports, the war is in every moment of daily life. He details the choice of which direction to face when choosing a seat at a restaurant, taking into account which way the bombs will come from, which way the shrapnel will fly. “This is something that people here just live through.” And yet western media refuse to cover these deadly parts of Ukraine. Donetsk, home to many ethnic Russians, is one of the breakaway republics that has fought the Ukrainian government since a US-backed coup in 2014. For them, the war didn’t start when Russia invaded this past February, but eight years earlier. Reed tells us that he can count the number of western journalists in Donetsk on one hand, and that Useful Idiots is one of few western outlets that would share his story. The people just want to be heard, he explains, telling the story of a man who “through tears, said ‘I wish that these so-called western journalists that are saying all this about the situation would have to spend just one day in my shoes.’” But these days, reporting on a perspective from the other side only gets you labeled a Kremlin propagandist. It is important to note that Reed works for a Russian state outlet when analyzing his reporting. But it is impossible to fully assess the situation if you don’t hear from both sides. And Reed is sharing the perspective of the people of Donetsk: “It’s really unimaginable until you come here and you understand this is what people have been enduring for nearly a decade.” Note: We apologize for the poor quality of the interview, wifi and war zones don’t seem to mix well. Subscribe for the full interview with Wyatt Reed. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Click here for the full interview: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-col-doug-macgregor?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Who bombed the Nord Stream pipeline? Will we have nuclear war? These are today’s two big questions puzzling journalists (and not really bothering Western politicians, it seems). So who better to break down the walls than former army Colonel and senior Pentagon advisor Douglas Macgregor. “In this war, for which nobody voted, you have to set aside rationality,” Macgregor says. “We’re not dealing with reasonable people.” So let’s analyze what we do know. “I think it’s very clear that when President Putin began this campaign, he fully expected that when he demonstrated he was serious, he would have a negotiating partner. He thought Washington would be interested in negotiating an end to the fighting. I don’t think he appreciated the level of ideological commitment and hatred in support of a war with Russia.” And then comes the daunting prediction. Although he doesn’t think that Russia will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, he does think that the conflict could get far worse. “If ]Putin] has no success and no one will talk, I think he’s going to unloose hell.” Plus, subscribe for the full interview where Col. Macgregor explains Russian and Western war strategies, his views on “globalism”, and his prediction for the future of NATO. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Click here for the full interview with Assal Rad: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-iranians-protest?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com “The state is responsible. Period. There’s just no question.” Author and historian Assal Rad joins Useful Idiots to discuss the Iranian protests over the case of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after being detained by Iran’s “Morality Police” for not adequately covering her hair. “She shouldn’t have been detained in the first place,” Rad says. “The fact that there is this law, this dress code, that doesn’t allow women a basic form of free expression is the problem.” Amini’s death has sparked protests across Iran and the west, with politicians and celebrities weighing in from around the world. “This is a human rights issue,” Rad says. “But so were the sanctions on Iran during the pandemic. It’s problematic when you only cite human rights organizations and international law and the UN when it serves your purpose.” Today, crippling sanctions on Iran are starving its people, and women are affected the most. But Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber aren’t posting on Instagram about it. The West chooses when to call out human rights abuses against women and when to ignore them. “And that’s why outside powers having any kind of intervention is so problematic. They’re not doing it in the interest of those civilians, they’re doing it in their own national interest,” Rad says. “This is why listening to and supporting voices in Iran is so important.” Assad Rad’s new book is “The State of Resistance Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran.” Plus, subscribe to hear the full interview on why Biden won’t reenter the Iran nuclear deal, the historic suppression of the Iranian left stemming from the Cold War, and how sanctions are crushing Iranian workers. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Click here for the full episode: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-interview-how-the-west-provoked?r=je5va&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web How the West Brought War to Ukraine: https://www.amazon.com/How-West-Brought-Ukraine-Understanding/dp/0991076702 Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Researcher and writer Dr. Ben Abelow, a scholar who lobbied Congress on nuclear arms policy, joins Useful Idiots to explain, as his new book argues, how the west brought war to Ukraine. “The goal of the US,” Abelow says, “is not to save Ukrainians but to degrade Russia’s military until they won’t be able to fight in the future. And while some say stopping Russia is a humanitarian goal, the way one would degrade Russia’s military is to keep an extended war going and fight to the last Ukrainian.” Abelow analyzes the history of this cold war, the aggression by each side, and the hypocrisy of the argument that Ukraine has a sacrosanct right to join NATO. “The right to join NATO is the right to place a western military arsenal on Russia’s border. If Russia made a military alliance with Canada or Mexico, US leaders would not be talking about their right to do so.” And on this week’s news of Putin announcing military escalation and giving a thinly-veiled threat of nuclear war, Dr. Abelow warns: “I hope it’s taken seriously.” These are scary times. So buckle up, cook some Nyquil chicken, and get ready for this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Click here for the full episode: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-matt-taibbi-returns?r=je5va&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Once a Useful Idiot, always a Useful Idiot. Matt Taibbi, who’s taken a hiatus from this pod to write his next book (he gives a sneak peek in the extended interview), just can’t stay out of the game. He’s back to talk about Democrats and Republicans sucking, the weird and terrible media, and the scary stories that are ignored by the mainstream. His newest article on taint teams sheds like on a dark new phenomenon. The FBI has given itself the power to raid lawyers, take all of their documents, and then give itself permission to use the stolen documents in unrelated cases. It’s an easy way to skip getting a search warrant, and gives the government unprecedented power to bury its enemies. Matt explains the ominous story in detail. And subscribe for the full interview: Matt and Aaron ask why hasn’t Hillary Clinton been questioned for her Russiagate involvement, Matt remembers pranking General Secretary Gorbachev, and we take Matt’s new media quiz. Taibbi’s back this week, and you’re not gonna want to miss it. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Click here for the full episode: https://usefulidiots.substack.com/p/extended-episode-katrina-vanden-heuvel?r=je5va&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com “We need to not treat the idea of peace as subversive.” Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher and editorial director of The Nation, predicts a dark cold war ahead if our leaders continue their craven militarism. The first step, she says, is talking about it openly, which, sadly, the media won’t do. “The crisis is on us. And there’s a lack not only of preparedness but of thinking about the crisis.” Katrina, who was close with the late Mikhail Gorbachev, shares the leader’s personal thoughts on peace, nuclear weapons, and the worsening relationship between US and Russian presidents. She calls Gorbachev “a great reformer in his country’s tormented history.” And shares some private stories about him too. And she reflects on her late husband, scholar Stephen Cohen, when we react to a video of him offering a very prescient analysis of the new Cold War. Plus, Biden does fascist Roger Waters, Liz Truss wants to nuke you, and the latest in terrible Trump-themed drinks. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Become a Useful Idiot for extended interviews and bonus content at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Emmy-winning writer and comedian Kurt Metzger, who wrote for Who is America? and Inside Amy Schumer, stops by to talk comedy with the Useful Idiots. We figured since August is wrapped, it’s probably time we all had a Summer Friday. So instead of talking death in Ukraine and poverty in the US, Kurt shares stories of running from Chinese cops, illegal standup comedy in Shanghai, joining (and then ditching) the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and, most importantly, how he’d look with Katie’s hair. When the Useful Idiots decide to go silly, we’re no-nonsense about it. So we also enroll in the new college major Lesbian Dance Theory, chat about stoned (and dry-diapered) President Brandon in a fighter jet, and announce a watch party for the new off-the-wall Hunter Biden movie (watch the trailer with us in the four food groups). And subscribe for the full episode, including the extended interview with Kurt Metzger on call-out culture, Youtube suppression, and whatever the hell is going on with that “robot with salmon eyes” Mark Zuckerberg. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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