Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté (private feed for csanachan@outlook.com)

Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté (private feed for csanachan@outlook.com)

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Useful Idiots is an informative and irreverent politics podcast with journalist Aaron Maté and podcaster/writer Katie Halper. Episodes feature on-the-road coverage of the 2020 campaign and exclusive interviews, with humor, commentary and dissection of the politics news of the week. Join Katie and Aaron 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. www.usefulidiotspodcast.com

Episode List

Ukrainian Scholar EXPOSES $100M Corruption Scheme—Here’s What Ukraine Hid

Nov 21st, 2025 4:51 PM

For our news of the week segment, check out our Friday Free-For-All: Fmr Obama Speechwriter: “Genocide is Bad” Is WRONG Takeaway of the HolocaustSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:There’s been a lot happening in Ukraine: there is talk of a new peace proposal floated by the US and Russia, and meanwhile, Ukraine internally is in chaos over a corruption scandal touching Zelensky and his inner circle.We spoke to two experts: returning guest Marta Havryshko, visiting assistant professor at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, and Nicolai Petro, professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island and author of The Tragedy of Ukraine.Useful Idiots: What is going on with this corruption controversy in Ukraine?Marta Havryshko: First of all, I must say that it’s not only a corruption scandal. It’s an entire political crisis. This energy scandal is part of a bigger picture, and different security services and state agencies are all involved in these corruption schemes crafted by Zelensky’s friends.The corruption scheme involves kickbacks with Ukraine’s energy production at a time when a lot of Ukrainians are going without power because of all the Russian attacks. So now, Ukrainians are sitting without water, electricity, and heat for twelve, fifteen hours per day in some cities.They are outraged. And they are thinking, ‘Why is this happening? How is it possible that ordinary Ukrainians are demanded to go to the front line, to send their sons away, but at the same time our political elites are making money out of their sufferings while we sit for hours without heat, water, and electricity?’Useful Idiots: We have word of yet another new seismic development in the Ukraine proxy war. There is talk now that Ukraine has been presented with a new sort of ultimatum from Trump. It includes ceding all of the Donbas to Russia and a reduction in the size of the Ukrainian military. What is your understanding of where things are both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table?Nicolai Petro: The battlefield situation is getting increasingly critical for Ukraine. There are some assessments that we’re reaching a tipping point at which it is possible that the front line collapses at several points and then the situation will be dire indeed. And perhaps it is to prevent putting Ukraine and its European backers in that kind of dire situation that the current proposal has been floated…Subscribe for the full interviews with Marta Havyrshko and Nicolai Petro here: Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Full episode: Ukrainian Scholar EXPOSES $100M Corruption Scheme—Here’s What Ukraine Hid

Nov 21st, 2025 1:47 AM

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Marjorie Taylor Greene tells CNN that Israel is Covering Up the Epstein Files

Nov 17th, 2025 4:45 PM

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Richard Wolff’s GRAVE WARNING for America

Nov 15th, 2025 12:02 PM

Subscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:Support independent media here to watch our full interview with Richard Wolff! Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Jewish Journalist EXPOSES the Truth about the State Department

Nov 14th, 2025 8:55 PM

This week’s interview with Jasper Nathaniel is free to all. For our news of the week segment, check out our Friday Free-For-All: JD Vance Can’t Stop Laughing at Trump’s al-Qaeda Joke. Thanks for supporting independent media!If you’re wondering about how the so-called ceasefire in Gaza is going, look no further than this BBC News headline:Some ceasefire. And if you want to know about the even-less-reported-on West Bank, where settlers are committing unwatchable atrocities as you read this, listen to this week’s interview with Jasper Nathaniel, a Jewish-American journalist who is just back from the olive harvest, where IDF soldiers set him up for a violent mob attack from Israeli settlers. The videos he took are horrifying.We asked Jasper about the situation in the West Bank, to describe the settler attack in which he caught on video the moment where a settler beat an elderly woman in the head with a stick, and the US State Department’s response to his plea for rescue.Useful Idiots: Tell us about your own government’s response to the settler attack. You contacted the US Embassy, what have your elected representatives told you?Jasper Nathaniel: They immediately sent out Marines to rescue me from the oil fields and put me on a private plane back to... No, they did nothing. I actually did speak to two people at the US embassy who saw the video and they expressed horror and sympathy and fear. And when I told them we needed protection, one guy says to me, ‘Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do to protect you. It is the responsibility of the host government, meaning Israel, to protect you.’And then I point out that it was the host military that led us into this ambush. And he says, ‘Well in the instances where the host government can’t protect you we pull our embassy, like Venezuela and Syria.’ So I say ‘Okay, so you’re pulling the embassy from Israel?’ And that was the last I heard from them.Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, all completely ignored me.Useful Idiots: It’s not surprising, it’s kind of predictable, and yet it’s still shocking. Can you talk about the outcome of your reporting on this and what effect it had on the people living there?Jasper Nathaniel: People started to tell me that this might be one of those rare instances where something so heinous is caught or documented that Israel can’t spin it and might have to issue some sort of a response.And sure enough, the next morning, there was a story in the Times of Israel where the chief of police in the West Bank, who is a far-right Ben Gavir acolyte, said ‘We must arrest him and demand justice.’ The next day I was back in the oil fields and there were Israeli soldiers there patrolling, protecting the Palestinians. And it was clear to me and to all the Palestinians that they didn’t suddenly grow a conscience and decide they wanted to protect these people. They understood that they had a PR disaster on their hands and they had to save face by preventing another attack.Thanks for supporting independent media. It’s moments like Jasper’s video that couldn’t happen without your support.To join the community and get our analysis on Bari Weiss, John Fetterman, JD Vance, and Trump’s al-Qaeda Oval Office visit, please subscribe for $6 a month. Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

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