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The situation and discourse over the escalating US-Israel-Iran conflict are changing fast with civilian strikes, ceasefire talks, sneak attacks, and coverups. Narges Bajoghli, Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, helps us parse through the propaganda.

Useful Idiots: The big debate right now in Washington is the Trump administration claiming, ‘Yeah, we basically obliterated Iran's nuclear program.’ And the media saying, ‘No, you didn't.’ And that's the debate, not whether the U.S. had the right to do that, or whether it was right for Trump to pretend to engage in diplomacy just to help Israel kill a bunch of people in Iran, including many civilians. As you're watching all this unfold in Washington, what is your sense of what is missing from the public discussion?

Narges Bajoghli: First of all, this was an unprovoked war that Israel launched inside of Iran. And as much as the framing around it by mainstream media was that Israel was just targeting military infrastructure, military officials, and nuclear facilities, from day one they were targeting civilian infrastructure. Lots of civilians ended up losing their lives in this twelve day war that we had. So the erasure of that and the focus on the civilian infrastructure in Israel, that is important to pay attention to.

The other is that we still talk about nuclear energy as if nuclear energy can only be used to create a bomb. Not only did the IAEA and all US intel agencies say that they had no evidence that Iran was going for a bomb. But what we were not discussing is that nuclear energy is actually used for medical research, it's used for cancer research, it's used for electricity, it's civilian infrastructure. And so targeting civilian infrastructure in this way actually violates international law.

Useful Idiots: There's a lot of talk right now about a ceasefire. Is there a ceasefire?

Narges Bajoghli: So far, there's a ceasefire in the sense that both sides have ceased firing at one another. Trump’s base turned against him so publicly, so loudly that he could not risk starting another war or else he would have to risk losing his base. So it seems like he's put some pressure on the Israelis as well. But Israel is not known for abiding by and honoring ceasefires. I think to date with the ceasefire in Lebanon, it's already violated it over a thousand times. So I know that there's a lot of trepidation about how long this will actually hold. But for the moment, this is where we are.

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Subscribe to hear the full interview with Narges Bajoghli on the impact of US sanctions on working people in Iran, whether sanctions should be considered a war crime, what we can predict about Iran by analyzing the regime change operation in Syria, and a weird CNN propaganda video fear-mongering about Iranian sleeper cells in the US.

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump Thinks He’s Hotter Than Zohran Mamdani

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“It’s finally happened,” Trump complained in a rant on Truth Social. “The Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary. We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting ridiculous. He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart.”

Say what you will about Zohran Mamdani, but it’s not easy to find a picture of him not looking good. And for Trump to say that, well we don’t need to stoop to the president’s level…

Trump then goes on (and on) in his post claiming that “even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him.” So not only is America’s leader using a nationality as a racist, derogatory term, but he’s also wrong. Cryin’ Chuck is one of the most vehement supporters of Israel, receiving at least $1.7 million from AIPAC, and leading the charge to supply Israel to the teeth with weapons. There was one time when he criticized Netanyahu, calling for a different Israeli politician to lead the genocide against Palestinians.

And for that, Trump slanders him as “Palestinian.”

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Trump’s not the only one having a meltdown – we watch Fox News and CNN pundits freak out about a potential Mamdani Mayorship, and for a podcast that doesn’t usually get to feel good about anything, we have to say it’s pretty sweet to watch.

Plus, Joy Reid surprisingly embarrasses some racist, anti-Iranian hooligans on CNN, dropping truths about the US’s history of regime change, the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt is mad at “the woke right” which includes Tucker Carlson, and State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce declares that America is “the greatest country on Earth… next to Israel.”

It’s an embarrassing day for the losers on corporate media – Katie and Aaron are laughing at all of them. Thanks for supporting independent media, subscribe to watch the full episode here:

Watch our full, unpaywalled interviews with Sina Toossi and Negar Razavi here:

News from Israel and Iran is breaking fast this week, and with conflicting stories about hospital bombings, drones attacking nuclear programs, and so-called preemptive strikes, it’s hard to focus in on the facts of what’s really going on.

Which makes it all the more weird why corporate media refuses to host any Iranian voices, completely ignoring half the story. So we interviewed Iranian-American analysts Sina Toossi and Negar Razavi, and are releasing them unpaywalled so their message can be heard.

Useful Idiots: What do you think is the most important thing for people to know right now about what is happening?

Sina Toossi: This is a completely unnecessary, unjustified war. It is objectively a war of aggression on Israel's part. Iran had just done five rounds of negotiations with Trump, and Trump was adamant that he wanted a deal. And all of a sudden, they're surprise attacking Iran. So this is a war of choice.

This could be potentially catastrophic for American interests and stability in the Middle East and the world. And it is entirely due to the recklessness and impunity by which the Israeli government has been acting.

Useful Idiots: I want to show you a headline from the New York Times. This is just shocking: “Israeli strikes kill civilians across Iran.” After a year and a half of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a headline like this, just a straightforward, factual headline that applies agency to Israel as it kills civilians is a rarity. It's almost unheard of. What are your thoughts on this and the overall media climate in this Israeli assault on Iran?

Negar Razavi: The fact that we are all shocked by this headline is in itself shocking. We have come to expect the mainstream media to always center Israeli lives when they are lost and to always put the losses of Palestinian lives, Lebanese lives, Yemeni lives, and now Iranian lives in the passive tense. They have somehow died without the aggressor being named.

The fact that this was just given straightforward, and then they took one step further and interviewed fifty people inside Iran to actually add some texture to those losses and tell the stories of the people who have been killed, this is unprecedented. And the fact that we are starting with this and remarking on how exceptional it is in itself, it tells us a lot about the Iran discussion and the Iran debate.

Useful Idiots: Here's a video of Netanyahu giving a message directly to Iranians:

“The nation of Iran and the nation of Israel have been true friends since the days of Cyrus the Great. And the time has come for you to stand up for your freedom from an evil and oppressive regime. This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard. Woman, life, freedom. Zan, Zendegi, Azadi. Israel's fight is not with you, the brave people of Iran, whom we respect and admire. Our fight is with our common enemy, a murderous regime that both oppresses you and impoverishes you. Brave people of Iran, your light will defeat the darkness. I am with you.”

Okay, so I know it's laughable. I heard you laughing. It's like we're watching a standup routine. But what are your thoughts on this set?

Sina Toossi: It's this religious fanaticism. Israel is increasingly like ISIS with nukes.

It's ISIS with nukes with the backing of the entire West: They're religious fanatics, they engage in genocidal slaughter, they're trying to destabilize the region. I don't think there's that much moral difference between what they're doing.

And so Netanyahu right now is acting like he's liberating Iranian women. I saw a tweet that said that they're liberating Iranian women from their lives. Like one murder at a time. This is the same thing with the LGBTQ people in Gaza. It's like you care so much about them? You want to free them by killing them?

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Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Trump Outsources Iran WMD Lies to Israel