Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

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How are Democrats wielding the anti-war mandate they earned from their sweeping midterm victory, in which 74% of voters ranked the Iran War as either “crucial” or “a major factor” in how they voted?
Well, their first order of business back in Congress was to NOT SHOW UP for the vote to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
11 Democrats missed the vote, which lost by only 7 votes, with four Democrats claiming that they were “stuck in traffic,” while Drop Site News reports that three other Dems were at an event for “AIPAC and defense lobbyists.”
So, not a good start.
And when it comes to their pledge to stop the Iran War, will Hakeem Jeffries turn this failure around and rally members to block funding like the vast majority of his constituents are begging for? Or will he, and the new progressive class, bend the knee to the Israeli and weapons lobbies?
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To discuss the Dems’ immediate failure on the Pete Hegseth impeachment, the chances Congress will actually take steps to end the war, and an in-depth analysis of the US and Israel’s inability to take control of Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, or make any progress in regime change, we’re speaking with returning guest, Marine Jim Webb.
Jim Webb: This is a failure on Hegseth. And I would impeach him based on this: he has failed to do his job.There is not a whole lot more we can do militarily. We threw everything we have at them and it didn’t work. All it did was move our logistic bases further out of the region, which in tandem weakens our ability to actually prosecute military operations.We’re not going to change the regime. We’re not going to collapse the regime.The reason we’re not going to do that is exactly what Rubio is describing. We have been trying to do this for what, forty years of economic pressure?When I was working up on the Hill, we had the maximum pressure campaign going on under Mike Pompeo. And in the middle of that, I had the opportunity to participate in a bunch of Track 2 negotiations following the assassination of [Iranian military officer Qasem] Soleimani regarding US posture.And the message that we continuously got from the Iranian side was, ‘you are incentivizing the people that you don’t want in power. We have a fairly moderate president right now. By pressuring the people at the bottom, you only validate folks from the IRGC and people who want an aggressive posture towards the United States.You validate their perspective, you validate their rhetoric, and then you push them into power.’0:00 Intro
1:06 Exposing Dems' FAILED impeachment of Hegseth
2:32 Democratic war funding
5:03 Debate on war powers
6:51 Interview with Jim Webb
10:31 Impeachment and Pentagon failures
14:10 Hegseth's defense
18:48 Marine analyzes US military failures
20:53 Can the new Congress actually stop the war?
24:47 The power of the Israel and weapons lobbies
31:58 What's going to happen?

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Read Francesca's latest book: When the World Sleeps: Stories, Words, and Wounds of Palestine https://otherpress.com/product/when-the-world-sleeps-9781635426038/
Read Gabor's latest book: The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/727007/the-myth-of-normal-by-gabor-mate-with-daniel-mate/9780735278363
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Pre-order Aaron's new book on the Ukraine war: Their Blood, Our Bullets https://orbooks.com/catalog/their-blood-our-bullets/
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Support our work and get the ad-free, extended interview Dr. Gabor Maté and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese: https://usefulidiotspodcast.com
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It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.
Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot 2:16
“The task is not yours to finish,” explains Dr. Gabor Maté in reference to the quote from Rabbi Tarfon, who lived around the time of Jesus. “But you have to take part in it, in this struggle and in this search for truth. Not because one is going to complete the task or even necessarily succeed in one’s lifetime, but because as human beings, what are we to do except to contribute to the cause of justice and truth and freedom as best as we can do it?”
This week, for a special edition of Useful Idiots, we are joined by two people leading the fight to ‘finish the work’: Gabor Maté and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
Our discussion tackles Israel’s genocide in Gaza, from Francesca’s legal attempts to hold governments accountable and the backlash she’s received, including getting personally sanctioned by the US government for, according to Marco Rubio, engaging in “illegitimate and shameful efforts” to prompt the ICC to investigate, arrest, or prosecute U.S. and Israeli officials and executives, to Gabor’s philosophical battle for the light of humanity.
And he explains why, even though the work is far from done, the light will never go out:
“This great evil has been fighting forever to stamp out the small kernel of human kindness and humanity. But if it hasn’t succeeded until now, it never will. There is this light of human truth and kindness and justice. It’s going to keep burning.”
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