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Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Useful Idiots, LLC
Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Iran Strikes US Bases & Israel’s Secret Nuclear Plot w/ Jeremy Scahill & Sami al-Arian

    10/07/2026 | 1h 23 mins.
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    This week we have a powerhouse panel on Useful Idiots: Professor Sami al-Arian and investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of DropSite News, who join us to analyze Trump’s wars in West Asia.
    The breaking news is that Trump is renewing the bombing of Iran, insulting its leaders, and threatening to take out more civilian infrastructure, all while Israel is allowed to continue its genocide in Gaza as well as steal and destroy land in Lebanon.
    Useful Idiots: Trump has said the deal is likely over. So where are we with the state of war against Iran?Sami al-Arian: The deal was basically an admission by the United States that it’s been defeated. It is surrender in all points. And I think the Zionists have upped the pressure against this administration, which has been beholden to it for whatever reason. They were trying to find justification to renege on this deal.But regardless, there is nothing that the US could do to defeat Iran. There is nothing that it could do to achieve its objectives, which is basically regime change, regime collapse, breakup of the country, and to reverse its advanced scientific achievements in nuclear power or in missiles or even to stop its support of its allies in the region.None of these objectives were reached in the first thirty-nine days of the war and they are very unlikely to be reached again.Jeremy Scahill: What we’ve seen since Trump took this deal is that he has not been able to effectively spin his victory-narrative on this thing. This is the latest iteration of the Trump pattern, which is that he’s flailing around like a child throwing a tantrum and threatening.And the more he escalates it, the more it becomes clear that he is in the quagmire of all quagmires in this situation. One thing that we have to be always concerned about is that Trump is a very erratic character. I wouldn’t put it past him to authorize a much more significant escalation of the bombing against Iran.My understanding from Iranian officials is that if that happens, if a Rubicon is crossed and it becomes a full-blown war again, that Iran’s response to this in the Persian Gulf and aimed at Israel is going to exceed what it did in the initial weeks when it fought the United States and Israel to a point where Trump was the one essentially begging for some kind of a deal.Watch our full, unpaywalled interview with Professor Sami al-Arian and Jeremy Scahill. Please consider subscribing to support our work and watch the ad-free version of the show.
    00:00 Intro
    01:05 Aaron's new book
    03:16 CNN manufactures a scandal with Netanyahu to hurt Michigan's el-Sayed
    09:35 Jeremy Scahill and Sami al-Arian interview
    15:38 Could Israel use its nukes?
    28:08 Jeremy's sources in the Iranian government
    42:56 Who really benefits from this war?

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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Abby Martin Exposes Palantir CEO and US Military’s “Disturbing” Secret

    03/07/2026 | 29 mins.
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    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Watch Abby Martin's new film OUT TODAY: https://createsend.com/t/i-96F446CD3620EF692540EF23F30FEDED
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    Friend-of-show Abby Martin, journalist and filmmaker behind the Empire Files, Gaza Fights for Freedom, and Cuba After Castro, returns to Useful Idiots on the premiere day of her bold new film: Earth’s Greatest Enemy.
    The new documentary examines how the Pentagon, exempt from international climate agreements or emissions laws and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, is the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe.
    Martin went deep into Washington as well as into the communities and ecosystems it destroyed in order to expose the truth about the US military and put pressure on its most powerful conspirators, from bought-out politicians like Nancy Pelosi to squirming army officials to corporate profiteers like Palantir’s Alex Karp.
    In this interview, Abby recounts the most shocking discoveries she and her team made while unraveling the story and filming where the military didn’t want them to be filming. She also reveals bonus secrets she uncovered that aren’t in the documentary, explains why a movie on such a serious topic is filled with biting gallows humor, and the real way that AI data centers are “going to literally kill us all.”
    To watch our full interview with Abby Martin on what she found on her reporting trip to Israel (and the most racist Israelis she caught on camera), the truth about the US history of violence on Cuba and how she became the first US journalist to be granted a sit-down interview with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and what Israeli military officers are doing in Venezuela after the US coup and a devastating earthquake in Caracas, please subscribe to our show.
    00:00 Intro
    04:12 Jake Tapper Humiliated for Zohran Mamdani Meltdown
    08:16 Fraudfather Jonathan Greenblatt gets mocked for antisemitism rant
    09:27 Abby Martin interview
    13:08 Confronting Nancy Pelosi
    19:53 Palantir's Alex Karp wants to kill the Earth
    27:56 Exposing the most RACIST ISRAELIS

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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Let's bomb Iran to make sure the ceasefire holds

    29/06/2026 | 1h 12 mins.
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    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    "The chance of AI World War is now 50% in the next 30 years"

    27/06/2026 | 17 mins.
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    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: CNN IS MELTING DOWN AS PROGRESSIVES TAKE OVER https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-is-melting-down-as-progressives?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    AIPAC Panics After Zohran Mamdani’s Election Sweep

    26/06/2026 | 31 mins.
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    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: CNN IS MELTING DOWN AS PROGRESSIVES TAKE OVER https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-is-melting-down-as-progressives?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.
    On this week’s show we’re analyzing the Mamdani Sweep in New York City where progressive, populist, pro-Palestine candidates, backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, won important elections across the board in a huge rebuke to AIPAC and Israel.
    So as AIPAC and the entire Democratic establishment freak out about the electoral loss, we’re speaking with journalists Ross Barkan and Liza Featherstone to dissect what went right for the left and how progressive stars like Mamdani and Hasan Piker can leverage this victory into a more controlling stance in the Democratic Party.
    Useful Idiots: What’s your one-sentence takeaway from the elections?Ross Barkan: It was a great night for Zohran Mamdani and he is emerging as the new political boss of New York politics.Liza Featherstone: I wondered whether the left should have gone even bigger. Zohran won every single race that he endorsed and DSA won almost all of them. None of their incumbents were taken out and almost all their challengers won. If you’re not losing more, are you really trying hard enough?Useful Idiots: Establishment Democrats are freaking out about these progressive winners, including Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier who sparked controversy with a now-deleted tweet saying “Fuck Kamala Harris.” What’s your response to this?Liza Featherstone: I would just like [these establishment Democrats] to actually spend a day gathering petition signatures for a candidate. When I did that for Zohran Mamdani in Bed-Stuy, a Democratic stronghold, the biggest obstacle was people saying, ‘fuck the democrats.’I would lead with ‘are you a registered democrat?’ and even normie, middle-aged ladies, white ladies, black ladies, you know, who are normally the base of the Democratic Party, would be like, ‘no, fuck them.’ Everyone’s fed up. Everyone’s fed up.To see the full interview with Ross and Liza on why Trump has more respect for Zohran’s game than Dems do, responses to CNN fear mongering that Jews are no longer safe in New York City after the election, whether Brad Lander is actually a progressive or just establishment-in-disguise, and where AOC was while Mamdani was endorsing candidates, please subscribe to our show.
    00:00 Intro
    02:00 Dana Bash's Zionist Meltdown
    07:49 Sean Hannity cries over Brad Lander
    09:02 Ross Barkan and Liza Featherstone interview
    09:42 What the Progressives MISSED this week
    16:07 Is it GOOD Zohran can't run for president?
    30:05 Why wasn't AOC there?

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About Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
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.
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