Useful Idiots
Politics • Comedy
Professor Exposes Campus Free Speech Crackdown
As'ad AbuKhalil breaks down the anti-Palestinian, anti-free speech crackdown at Columbia
April 19, 2024
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At a time when genocide is being broadcast live on TV and western democracies are cracking down on free speech in order to enable it, As'ad AbuKhalil, Lebanse-American Professor of Political Science at California State University Stanislaus, finds a silver lining:

“The rest of the world is watching,” he says. “The west is being seen for what it really is: a racist, colonialist west that stands for war crimes.”

And as the United States supplies the weapons that massacre civilians, uses the press to cover up the crimes, and arrests students who speak out against it, it becomes “a full participant in the genocide.”

But will the Western governments that support Israel ever stop supporting it? “I don’t think that Israel can cross any threshold” for its supporters. 

He gives a history of Israel’s crimes. “Every crime of terrorism in our region has been pioneered by the Israelis: throwing bombs in buses and crowded markets, letter bombs against British embassies, booby-trapped cars, the incineration of the people of Jaffa in order to create the greater Tel Aviv region.”

And he shares harrowing stories from his own life in Lebanon, where Israel “incinerated Palestinian refugee camps,” indiscriminately killing “20,000 Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians.”

But instead of condemning any of that, the US is fighting its students who refuse to support a genocide.

“In this country that prides itself on being the freest country in the world, members of Congress are summoning presidents of universities and holding them to account about which views are allowed on college campuses. They’re taking pride that they are clamping down on the freedom of speech of students of the United States. That is very significant. That is western democracy at work.”

Subscribe for the full interview where we watch some of the most outrageous moments from Congress’ questioning of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, discuss why the Zionist lobby has “every reason to be worried,” and get Professor AbuKhalil’s take on the Biden-Trump rematch.

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Meltdown Joe begs you to love the US military

And order Karina Gonzalez’ new children’s book, “Churro Stand” here.

Watch the full interview:

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Sanctions Are a Form of Warfare

“Sanctions are a form of war. They’re economic warfare. And they destroy people’s lives.”

Joshua Landis (https://twitter.com/joshua_landis), Sandra Mackey Chair in Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, is one of the foremost experts on Syria. This week, as Syria, along with neighbor Turkiye, grapples with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Professor Landis joins the Useful Idiots to explain the deadly consequences that sanctions pile on to the damage.

“America likes to talk about all its precision bombing and hitting someone with a drone to avoid collateral damage,” Landis explains. “But sanctions? It’s all about collateral damage. Very little of it is targeted.”

But if you read corporate media outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post, you’d find a much different story. Both papers this week published headlines that were hastily changed when they realized they were being a little too truthful. See if you can tell the difference:

The ...

00:01:17
"Shameful" New York Times Changes Headline to Protect Sanctions

“Sanctions are a form of war. They’re economic warfare. And they destroy people’s lives.”

Joshua Landis (https://twitter.com/joshua_landis), Sandra Mackey Chair in Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, is one of the foremost experts on Syria. This week, as Syria, along with neighbor Turkiye, grapples with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Professor Landis joins the Useful Idiots to explain the deadly consequences that sanctions pile on to the damage.

“America likes to talk about all its precision bombing and hitting someone with a drone to avoid collateral damage,” Landis explains. “But sanctions? It’s all about collateral damage. Very little of it is targeted.”

But if you read corporate media outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post, you’d find a much different story. Both papers this week published headlines that were hastily changed when they realized they were being a little too truthful. See if you can tell the difference:

The ...

00:01:24
Free preview: Matt Taibbi Exposes Russiagate Bots

With Matt Taibbi’s Twitter Files and Jeff Gerth’s new in-depth reporting for CJR exposing the years of lies spread by Russiagaters, bitter attacks from outed journalists are rolling in.

Gerth and Taibbi, who come from the old style of journalism where you fact check your work and don’t accept government officials’ claims on faith, have each shown clear, indisputable evidence of disinformation campaigns pushed by corporate reporters. And since the so-called journalists can’t argue the facts, they dig themselves a deeper hole with more lies and name-calling.

Jeff Gerth has been working as a reporter for decades and published, in the very mainstream Columbia Journalism Review, a 20,000-word report on his findings, only to be called a liar and misdirecting magician in the most self-important article by Mother Jones’ David Corn (“The true media failure is that Trump got away with it and that articles like this one that you are now reading are still necessary.”) And possibly worse ...

00:54:34

Emphasized "Dancing with 88

I have altered space here—   to

a rupture in the silent fabric,

where every atom reclaims its song.

A change, seen on my 90° angle,

becomes the pivot of a daring ballet,

the precise intersection where fate unspools.

In that crisp right-angle lie the secrets

of all absorbed twilight and reborn dawns,

a moment where geometry becomes prophecy,

transmuting static lines into dynamic rhythms,

inviting the cosmos to twirl in unexpected arcs.

And then—

I find myself dancing with 88,

a numeral of resonance, a muse of mystery.

It whispers in binary beats,

each pulse a portal leading into

symphonies scribbled on the canvas of space-time.

This is no choreographed routine,

but a wild, liberated waltz

where dimensions bend and merge—

where the old order crumbles

under the heat of relentless transformation

and every step unearths a layer of being.

At that 90° juncture,

the universe unfolds like a secret map,

revealing uncharted realms in every fracture,

while 88 becomes the score for a cosmic ballet,

...

Has the Gaza Pier Been Beached? | Army Watercraft come ashore off Gaza and Israel

March 26, 2024

Good to be part of the community. I think that Aaron and Katie do a brilliant job in these hellish times when such great in - depth research and reporting are essential.

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Stephen Miller Promises to Carry Out Charlie Kirk’s “Final Wish”
Plus, Kash Patel vs Adam Schiff in an embarrassing Senate blowout

As right-wingers continue to use the murder of Charlie Kirk as a call for increased aggression and division, arch-villain Stephen Miller is fulfilling his dream of state-censorship through the guise of honoring a martyr.

"There are these nonprofit entities that organize attacks on ICE officers, attacks on border patrol agents, organized doxing campaigns, which are a violation of federal law. They have organized drop points for weapons, organized drop points for a gas mask, organized drop points for all the materials necessary to launch a riot."

And with no supporting evidence or concrete examples of this, he unveils his master plan to silence protesters.

"The key point the president's been making is somebody is paying for all of this. This is not happening for free. And so under the president's direction, the attorney general is going to find out who is paying for it and they will now be criminally liable for paying for violence."

Since there is no documented evidence of any of this, Miller’s White House will never find its culprit. But the trick, which he doesn’t say but Katie and Aaron expose immediately, is that the real goal is to never find a culprit:

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Rep. Ro Khanna: “There’s Going To Be Consequences for Israel”
Watch a free preview of our episode and subscribe for the full chat with Rep. Khanna on why he demands "Release the Epstein Files"

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This week we’re joined by California Congressman Ro Khanna, one of the only members of Congress willing to appear on shows that are to the left of the Democratic Party. Our conversation spans from working with “bad guy” Republicans on releasing the Epstein Files, protecting Medicare, stopping Trump’s regime change operations in Venezuela, and taking on AIPAC:

Useful Idiots: You've been spearheading an effort to get Trump to recognize Palestinian statehood. Can you tell us more about this effort and any new developments around it?

Rep. Khanna: We have twenty six signatures to officially recognize a Palestinian state. Now people say, ‘Is this just moral preening? Why does it matter?’ First of all, it obviously matters to Netanyahu and it matters to AIPAC because they have been very opposed to it. So there is real value in recognizing the humanity of the Palestinian people and their national aspirations.

Secondly, the Palestinians need some hope, a horizon of hope to overcome the destruction and extremism that they are seeing. And third, the reality is that the United States recognizing a Palestinian state, unlike all the other countries, really matters because we have the ability to have consequences based on our aid and our support.

Useful Idiots: So when you bring this pitch to your colleagues in Congress, what kind of pushback are you getting? Why are they not on board with this yet, even though it's supposed to be U.S. policy to support a Palestinian state in just twenty two percent of their homeland?

Rep. Khanna: The reality is that when you have the United States actually do it, it sets a marker that says ‘if Israel is not committed to actually taking steps to recognizing a Palestinian state, then there are going to be consequences.’ And that is a red line for AIPAC. It's a red line for Bibi. And so members of Congress have been reluctant to get on.

Subscribe for our full interview with Rep. Ro Khanna on AIPAC ousting progressive members of Congress, why he’s teaming up with GOP Reps Massie, Mace, Greene, and Boebert to release the Epstein Files, and why even though he doesn’t support Maduro he is fighting Trump’s regime change operations in Venezuela.

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday ThrowdownPutin-Xi-Modi Summit Causes Neocon PANIC on CNN

Watch the full episode here:

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Putin-Xi-Modi Summit Causes Neocon PANIC on CNN
Plus, a Democrat Senator goes FULL RACIST against Zohran Mamdani

On today’s Thursday Throwdown, we’re watching everyone’s favorite channel: CNN! And Fareed Zakaria’s guest of the week is The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum, a neoconservative pundit who has supported every single U.S. regime change war and once advocated the murder of Palestinian journalists.

So naturally, she should be asked for her thoughts on the recent summit that brought together Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Narendra Modi:

Fareed Zakaria: You've been talking about this alliance. What keeps them together? Because there is fundamentally the shared opposition to a Western-led world and American power, right? Is there more to it?

Anne Applebaum: These are powers that have very different ideologies: nationalist, communist, theocratic in the case of Iran. What unites them is their dislike of us, and by us I mean the democratic world, and the language of rule of law, because of course that's the language of their own internal oppositions. And China and Russia in particular, but the rest as well, have been working for many years to delegitimize that language, to get the idea of human rights out of international institutions.

Oh, yes.

It's only those states that hate the language of human rights. As opposed to us who support, for example, Israeli mass murder in Gaza, tried to destroy any type of UN oversight of Israel, and has been trying to undermine the UN Human Rights Council. And they just hate us.

Have we ever considered maybe we hate them, given that we're always blaming them for every single problem under the sun and trying to overthrow their governments? Whereas the entire existence of the establishment Applebaum is a part of is to constantly demonize other states and gin up hatred towards them.

But maybe calling for the murder of journalists in Palestine really is the language of the rule of law…

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