Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté By cover art

Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

By: Useful Idiots LLC | Cumulus Podcast Network
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  • Summary

  • Useful Idiots is an informative and irreverent politics podcast with journalist Aaron Maté and podcaster/writer Katie Halper. Episodes feature analysis of the political news of the week and exclusive interviews, with humor, commentary and dissection of why both Republicans and Democrats suck. Join Aaron and Katie as they examine important stories that have slipped through the cracks and what the media got wrong – and laugh about whatever is left to laugh about.
    2023 Useful Idiots, LLC | Cumulus Podcast Network
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Episodes
  • Nancy Pelosi is Working for Putin + Jeffrey Sachs Unlocked

    Nancy Pelosi is Working for Putin + Jeffrey Sachs Unlocked
    Apr 12 2024
    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: Sam Harris thinks Nazis are better than Hamas https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/sam-harris-thinks-nazis-are-better?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web After several connection issues, we were unfortunately unable to record our interview this week. Here is our brand new Food Groups plus the previously-paywalled section of our Jeffrey Sachs interview: “Biden’s frustrated, because someone told him he was president, and then he found out that it’s actually President Netanyahu who determines US policy.” This is how Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor of economics at Columbia University, sees the “pathetic” administration. “The truth is the Israel lobby is very powerful. Netanyahu has gotten his way on every single thing. If the US is actually going to try to have a US foreign policy, that would be something new.” But what about The Call, which the White House rushed to leak, where Biden supposedly urged Netanyahu to reach an immediate ceasefire? Well, once Netanyahu finishes “laughing off” anything said on this call, there’s not likely to be any change. Because the United States doesn’t have to convince Israel of anything. “All it has to do is stop providing munitions. Biden can say ‘the munitions stop, period.’ That’s what an immediate ceasefire is. We don’t have to convince the Israeli government, we have to stop arming the war. That’s all.” Biden is still pushing votes in Congress to arm Israel with fighter jets, weapons, and money. But while we at Useful Idiots have focused on Biden’s storied career of obsession with Israel, Sachs disagrees on what Biden’s true motive is. He says it’s not a deep, emotional attachment to Israel. “I think he’s got a deep, emotional attachment to becoming president. And he determined early on that never show light with the Israel lobby and someday you might grow up to be president. I don’t think Biden has too many deep attachments to public policy. This was the politics necessary to get him to the presidency.” But then he found out “being president isn’t as good as being prime minister of Israel. That’s the part that frustrates him. He found out it doesn’t have that much power for the same reason he towed the line for forty years.” Subscribe to hear the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs on the US’s disastrous wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the upcoming wars with Iran and China, and the recent mania around TikTok. 00:00 Aaron at the Knicks game 04:39 Nancy Pelosi works for Putin?? 08:30 AZ Republicans pray in anti-choice tongues 11:27 John Bolton reveals who he's voting for in 2024 13:32 Testicles stabbed by what?? 15:55 Our guest mixup 18:31 Jeffrey Sachs on Biden's call with Netanyahu 26:34 US troops in Taiwan 29:24 TikTok mania 31:48 $61 billion to Ukraine 41:15 NYT admits Ukraine proxy war is a failure Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    47 mins
  • Jeffrey Sachs: Biden is a miserable failure

    Jeffrey Sachs: Biden is a miserable failure
    Apr 5 2024
    Click here for the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/jeffrey-sachs-biden-is-a-miserable?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 Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: CNN says Israel killed food workers because of workflow breakdown https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-says-israel-killed-food-workers?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “Biden’s frustrated, because someone told him he was president, and then he found out that it’s actually President Netanyahu who determines US policy.” This is how Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor of economics at Columbia University, sees the “pathetic” administration. “The truth is the Israel lobby is very powerful. Netanyahu has gotten his way on every single thing. If the US is actually going to try to have a US foreign policy, that would be something new.” But what about The Call, which the White House rushed to leak, where Biden supposedly urged Netanyahu to reach an immediate ceasefire? Well, once Netanyahu finishes “laughing off” anything said on this call, there’s not likely to be any change. Because the United States doesn’t have to convince Israel of anything. “All it has to do is stop providing munitions. Biden can say ‘the munitions stop, period.’ That’s what an immediate ceasefire is. We don’t have to convince the Israeli government, we have to stop arming the war. That’s all.” Biden is still pushing votes in Congress to arm Israel with fighter jets, weapons, and money. But while we at Useful Idiots have focused on Biden’s storied career of obsession with Israel, Sachs disagrees on what Biden’s true motive is. He says it’s not a deep, emotional attachment to Israel. “I think he’s got a deep, emotional attachment to becoming president. And he determined early on that never show light with the Israel lobby and someday you might grow up to be president. I don’t think Biden has too many deep attachments to public policy. This was the politics necessary to get him to the presidency.” But then he found out “being president isn’t as good as being prime minister of Israel. That’s the part that frustrates him. He found out it doesn’t have that much power for the same reason he towed the line for forty years.” Subscribe to hear the full interview with Jeffrey Sachs on the US’s disastrous wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the upcoming wars with Iran and China, and the recent mania around TikTok. 00:00 Intro 00:41 The Four Food Groups of News 21:27 Jeffrey Sachs interview 22:22 How to end four wars 27:20 Kicked off MSNBC 30:47 Blocked by the New York Times 35:51 US coups 39:21 Biden's war in Ukraine 45:26 Israel wars with Iran 47:32 What is US hegemony 54:35 Biden's ceasefire call with Netanyahu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Norman Finkelstein: UN ceasefire resolution shows that Biden is scared

    Norman Finkelstein: UN ceasefire resolution shows that Biden is scared
    Mar 29 2024
    Click here for the full interview with Norm Finkelstein: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/norman-finkelstein-un-ceasefire-resolution?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 Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: MSNBC's Hypocritical Meltdown Over Ronna McDaniel's Hiring https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/msnbcs-hypocritical-meltdown-over?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Israel is confronting a legitimation crisis, political scientist and prolific author Norman Finkelstein observes, as international pressure on Israel grows from both global protesters and the UN. He flashes back to before the current war for context: “Another war was inevitable, senior Israeli officials observed in 2016. We cannot conduct a constant war of attrition. Therefore, the next conflict has to be the last conflict.” This conflict will be the last one. They’re not going to mow the lawn again, Norm explains. They’re going to extirpate every blade of grass from Gaza. “It’s not about Hamas,” he says, shedding light on Israel’s real plan to solve the Gaza question. “It’s about the refusal on the part of the people of Gaza to accept the fate that has been meted out to them by the state of Israel to languish and die in a concentration camp.” That’s the dark part, but Norm also gives his reason why we can’t give up. “During the Iraq War, many young people concluded in despair that here are the largest anti-war demonstrations in world history and nonetheless the Cheney-Rumsfeld administration goes ahead with the war in Iraq. That to me is a naive understanding of how formidable and concentrated the power we’re up against is. It’s a very long battle.” But though it’s hard to see, the protests are working: “The pressures on Biden gradually accumulate and accumulate until they reach the proverbial critical mass and have a real political impact. “You’re not going to see it. You’re not going to see the connection between your demonstration in your town square and the abstention in the UN Security Council, but it’s there. And so we should always remember not to despair.” Subscribe for the full interview with Norman Finkelstein where we discuss Bernie Sanders’ recent comments on Israel and Golda Meir, the history of Israel’s occupation of Gaza, and what comes next in this genocide. 00:00 Intro 00:39 The Four Food Groups of News 12:29 Norman Finkelstein interview 13:12 UN Security Council ceasefire resolution 20:43 Why did the US let it pass? 31:14 Biden vs Netanyahu? 52:57 Bernie Sanders on Israel 53:32 Katie tells Norm a joke Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    59 mins
Political Science
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Profile Image for jjamesmml

great dynamic and interviews

obviously passionate and principled people, they disagree in cool ways, focus is usually on point with an interesting angle… it’s tight

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