Useful Idiots
Politics • Comedy
US media is hiding THIS about Venezuela’s elections – w/ Anya Parampil
Your guide to everything that's going down in Venezuela this week
August 02, 2024
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When the US government has been running a decades-long regime-change operation, sabotaging another country with shadow governments and crippling sanctions, it’s hard to take anything it says about the country’s leaders at face value. Which is why, as Venezuela held elections this week and corporate media shouted reports of stolen elections, dictatorship, and civil war, you might find yourself asking:

Is any of this actually true?

Journalist Anya Parampil, author of the new book Corporate Coup: Venezuela and the End of US Empire, documents the bipartisan efforts of the last four US presidents to destroy Venezuela’s economy enough to remove its leaders from power and instate a US-backed puppet as head of state.

“You can't deny,” she says, “what was an orchestrated demolition of the Venezuelan economy on behalf of foreign powers.” And while we hear repeatedly from corporate media that the problems come from within Venezuela, whether it’s dictatorship, gangs, or corruption, Anya points out a basic truth:

“Coming at it from the point of an American, I'm not going to intervene in your country at all, and beyond that all I know is that their lives would be better if the sanctions were lifted.”

She explains why, even after the constant meddling of neocons like John Bolton and Gargamel-doppelganger Elliot Abrams, the piracy of the country’s oil, and the destruction of countless people’s lives with harsh sanctions, the US has still been unsuccessful in regime change.

Subscribe to hear the full interview with Anya Parampil where she details how each US president from Bush to Biden made efforts to derail Venezuela’s economy, how these efforts have actually created the immigration problems they love to complain about, and Anya’s epic 2019 interview with Tucker Carlson which led to a call from then-President Trump.

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: The State Dept Doesn't Know What a War Crime Is

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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:

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"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.”

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Free preview: Matt Taibbi Exposes Russiagate Bots

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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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Fox News ABANDONS Israel, Right-Wing Zionists Flee to CNN to Panic Together
Plus, Aaron and Katie critique a Tupac-style diss track from New York’s newest Congressman

“The funding for Israel, I just found out! We give them $4 billion a year. You know what that is?”

Fox News’ Jesse Watters seemingly had an epiphany live on air this week in which he finally understood how the US-Israeli relationship works and why the military industrial complex is so happy about it.

"We give them money,” he spells out, “so they can buy our weapons. So it's kind of like a way to launder money to the defense contractors.”

Well, yeah actually. We never thought we’d give the gold star to Jesse Watters, but with the disastrous failure for Trump in the midterms, in large part due to the war on Iran and subsequent gas-price hike, it seems that Republicans everywhere are jumping ship and grasping for anything that floats as Trump sinks.

But for the neocons who refuse to ditch Trump and Israel’s endless wars, luckily there’s a place for you to go now that Fox News is turning. You’ll be welcomed with open arms at your new home: CNN.

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There was one other thing, however, in that Jesse Watters lecture that made us think, ‘huh, maybe Fox News hasn’t changed so much.’ He adds at the end:

“A lot of the Muslims that are now in the country just don't like to see US financing of Jews killing Muslims. That’s where that comes from."

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Stupid Fact Check: Does Abdul El-Sayed REALLY Sleep in an “Osama Bin Laden Jersey”?
Plus, Hillary Clinton unveils a new plan to take down Trump once and for all: The Pee Tape Part 2

“I believe Abdul El-Sayed is Muslim Brotherhood!” yelled Ted Cruz in an interview this week.

“If he were to win, Chuck Schumer could place him on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He would have access to the very highest level of classified materials! There’s every reason to believe El-Sayed would share that classified information with Muslim Brotherhood terrorists!”

In the final days before the Michigan Senate election, down-in-the-polls Republicans have resorted to their favorite tactic: ridiculous Islamophobic slurs against Abdul El-Sayed.

"He’s part of the brother, mother, mother, moth-- the Muslim Brotherhood!" DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin stuttered out, thinking he was helping the cause.

“When El-Sayed goes to bed at night,” finished NRSC director Jason Theilman with the most incisive and believable blow of all, “it looks like he’s sleeping in Bin Laden’s jersey!”

Did Bin Laden… wear a jersey?

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Kamala and Pete Are Trapped in a Cult
2028 Presidential (un)hopefuls Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg strangle their own chances of victory as they cling to Biden’s disastrous Gaza policy

“God did the State of Israel a favor,” announced Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog in April 2025, “that Biden was the president during this period [2023 and 2024]. We fought [in Gaza] for over a year and the administration never came to us and said, ‘ceasefire now.’ It never did.”

The Biden Administration was there to help kick off Israel’s genocide in Gaza, supply them with endless weapons, silence protesters, and prevent international bodies like the UN and the ICC from holding the Israelis accountable.

And yet for some reason, members of the Biden Administration are continuously given second, third, and fourth chances to reverse their position, condemn Israel, and ditch Biden’s policy, which has been as disastrous politically as it has morally.

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This week, after Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul El Sayed (who is now leading in the polls) refused to bow to pressure and say that Iran poses more of a threat to the United States than Israel does, Pete Buttigieg (who is not leading in any polls) could barely wait for the question to finish before he bowed and said:

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Kamala Harris was only slightly less weak than Pete. “We should,” she announced, bravely, boldly, powerfully, “have acted sooner, and more forcefully." This is the same candidate who, when asked if Israel’s bombing of a refugee camp in Gaza counted as a “legitimate military target,” responded: “We are not telling Israel how it should conduct this war, and so I’m not going to speak to that.”

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And that’s not all we cover in this week’s Friday Free-for-All: Ukrainian President Zelensky tells Piers Morgan a military secret in front of millions of viewers, a Republican Congressman melts down after his constituents laugh at him when he tries to blame rising gas prices on the Democrats, and Russiagate is back! Aaron has a field day dunking on an MSNow stenographer.

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