Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Abby Martin Exposes Palantir CEO and US Military’s “Disturbing” Secret

Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Show Notes

Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world. Check out Quince and use our code https://quince.com/useful for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/IDIOTS Check out Chilipad and use my code sleep.me/USEFUL for a great deal: https://sleep.me/useful Visit www.functionhealth.com/USEFUL and use gift code USEFUL25 for a $25 credit toward your membership. Check out the Peace Corps at https://peacecorps.gov/serve Check out Webroot: https://webroot.com/USEFUL Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/useful ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Watch Abby Martin's new film OUT TODAY: https://createsend.com/t/i-96F446CD3620EF692540EF23F30FEDED Support our work and get the extended interview with Abby Martin: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/full-interview-abby-martin-exposes?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Watch the Friday Free-For-All: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnns-jake-tapper-humiliated-for-zohran?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. Friend-of-show Abby Martin, journalist and filmmaker behind the Empire Files, Gaza Fights for Freedom, and Cuba After Castro, returns to Useful Idiots on the premiere day of her bold new film: Earth’s Greatest Enemy. The new documentary examines how the Pentagon, exempt from international climate agreements or emissions laws and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, is the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe. Martin went deep into Washington as well as into the communities and ecosystems it destroyed in order to expose the truth about the US military and put pressure on its most powerful conspirators, from bought-out politicians like Nancy Pelosi to squirming army officials to corporate profiteers like Palantir’s Alex Karp. In this interview, Abby recounts the most shocking discoveries she and her team made while unraveling the story and filming where the military didn’t want them to be filming. She also reveals bonus secrets she uncovered that aren’t in the documentary, explains why a movie on such a serious topic is filled with biting gallows humor, and the real way that AI data centers are “going to literally kill us all.” To watch our full interview with Abby Martin on what she found on her reporting trip to Israel (and the most racist Israelis she caught on camera), the truth about the US history of violence on Cuba and how she became the first US journalist to be granted a sit-down interview with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and what Israeli military officers are doing in Venezuela after the US coup and a devastating earthquake in Caracas, please subscribe to our show. 00:00 Intro 04:12 Jake Tapper Humiliated for Zohran Mamdani Meltdown 08:16 Fraudfather Jonathan Greenblatt gets mocked for antisemitism rant 09:27 Abby Martin interview 13:08 Confronting Nancy Pelosi 19:53 Palantir's Alex Karp wants to kill the Earth 27:56 Exposing the most RACIST ISRAELIS

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More from Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Oct 19, 2026

Support our work and get the ad-free, extended interview with Miko Peled and Trita Parsi: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-interview-netanyahu-panics?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Kamala and Pete Are Trapped in a Cult https://usefulidiotspodcast.com Join Miko Peled in supporting Palestine House of Freedom, which creates a high-profile presence for Palestine in Washington, DC: https://www.daralhurriya.org/ Follow Trita Parsi on Substack: https://tritaparsi.substack.com/ Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world. Pre-order Aaron's new book on the Ukraine war: Their Blood, Our Bullets https://orbooks.com/catalog/their-blood-our-bullets/ Check out Quince and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Check out TruDiagnostic and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com Check out HomeServe at https://homeserve.com/useful Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/IDIOTS Check out Chilipad and use my code sleep.me/USEFUL for a great deal: https://sleep.me/useful ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oct 16, 2026

Support our work and get the ad-free, extended interview with Miko Peled and Trita Parsi: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/extended-interview-netanyahu-panics?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Kamala and Pete Are Trapped in a Cult https://usefulidiotspodcast.com Join Miko Peled in supporting Palestine House of Freedom, which creates a high-profile presence for Palestine in Washington, DC: https://www.daralhurriya.org/ Follow Trita Parsi on Substack: https://tritaparsi.substack.com/ Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world. Pre-order Aaron's new book on the Ukraine war: Their Blood, Our Bullets https://orbooks.com/catalog/their-blood-our-bullets/ Check out Quince and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Check out TruDiagnostic and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com Check out HomeServe at https://homeserve.com/useful Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/IDIOTS Check out Chilipad and use my code sleep.me/USEFUL for a great deal: https://sleep.me/useful ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This week, two special guests return to Useful Idiots. First up is Trita Parsi, the geopolitical analyst who has kept us updated with on-the-ground information on Trump’s war on Iran that breaks through the walls of corporate propaganda. We asked Trita what are the most important stories coming out of the Middle East that corporate media is hiding. Trita Parsi: Look, this could change in three days because things are changing so fast. But right now, I would point to two things, one that the media is not necessarily ignoring, but the other one they’re largely hiding.The open one is the fact that we are now seeing increasing movement towards what I think can end up becoming uncontrollable escalation. As bad as the war has been so far, it’s been calibrated escalations by both sides.What is happening now between the Houthis and the Saudis risks transforming into something much bigger, and the calibration can be lost, control can be lost, and that would be very dangerous for everyone.The second thing is the manner in which the Israelis are openly discussing how their security doctrine has changed and turned into something that you certainly wouldn’t associate with what claims to be a democratic country.What I’m referring to is the article by the head of the INSS, the big Israeli think tank, in which he described several points of the new doctrine that should really give you chills.There’s some stuff in it that from an American perspective, I’m sure many people in Washington would not like to hear, such as treating the United States as a declining power, believing that the US is going to abandon Israel anyway, and as a result Israel itself should sever ties with the US.But the other parts of what they’re saying as principles of this new doctrine should really make decision makers and others in America think twice about what does it mean to be a strategic ally of a country that pursues this doctrine…Watch the episode for Trita’s full take. Share Second, we speak with Israeli peace activist and founder of Palestine House of Freedom Miko Peled about the upcoming Israeli elections. Will the elections, which have the potential to oust Benjamin Netanyahu, lead to any major shift in Israel? Spoiler alert: No. Useful Idiots: A lot of people present Netanyahu as the unique cause of the genocide. Once they get rid of Netanyahu, it’ll be OK. What are your thoughts on that claim?Miko Peled: It’s the most unfounded claim anybody can make. I have no idea why anybody would say something so ridiculous.Everyone in th

Oct 12, 2026

Support our work and watch the Friday Free-For-All: It Doesn’t Go Well When JD Vance Tries to Define Socialism https://usefulidiotspodcast.com Please watch and share this full interview with Muhammad Shehada. Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world. Pre-order Aaron's new book on the Ukraine war: Their Blood, Our Bullets https://orbooks.com/catalog/their-blood-our-bullets/ Check out Quince and use our code https://quince.com/useful for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Check out TruDiagnostic and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com Check out HomeServe at https://homeserve.com/useful Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/IDIOTS Check out Chilipad and use my code sleep.me/USEFUL for a great deal: https://sleep.me/useful ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oct 9, 2026

Support our work and watch the Friday Free-For-All: It Doesn’t Go Well When JD Vance Tries to Define Socialism https://usefulidiotspodcast.com Please watch and share this full interview with Muhammad Shehada. Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world. Pre-order Aaron's new book on the Ukraine war: Their Blood, Our Bullets https://orbooks.com/catalog/their-blood-our-bullets/ Check out Quince and use our code https://quince.com/useful for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Check out TruDiagnostic and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com Check out HomeServe at https://homeserve.com/useful Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/IDIOTS Check out Chilipad and use my code sleep.me/USEFUL for a great deal: https://sleep.me/useful ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This week, we’re joined by Useful Idiots fan-favorite Muhammad Shehada, the political analyst and writer from Gaza who has guided us through the mirk of corporate media propaganda since the first week of Israel’s genocide three years ago. On the week of the third anniversary of October 7, and as Gazans prepare for their fourth winter in these unimaginable conditions, Muhammad shares what he’s heard about the conditions on the ground from his friends and family, many of whom have been killed by the Israeli military. My late friend, Ali, my closest friend, was in a refugee camp in the center of Gaza. I asked him how it was going. And he said, ‘Well, you know what? If there’s a God, if there is a judgment day, I would ask him for one thing, one thing only.‘I would ask him to force those Israeli soldiers to go on the same adventure that I have to take every single day to find water and food. Nothing more. That is enough punishment for them. The idea of going every day, out in the open under airstrikes, under constant gunfire, and walking around desperately from one place to another, ten hours just to find water, that is enough punishment.Share Recently, Israeli filmmakers premiered a new film called Naza in which they interview Israeli soldiers confessing to war crimes. The Israeli government has threatened the filmmakers and there have been protests at the homes of one of the filmmakers’ parents. We asked Muhammad about the film and what he makes of the backlash. The most striking thing in that movie was how casually soldiers describe the atrocities they unleashed in Gaza, as matter-of-fact with zero remorse or contortion, nothing.And the thing that strikes you the most is that those soldiers were not providing these confessions out of guilt or shame. They were providing it out of excitement. They were very eager to brag about the formidable force that was at their disposal.I’ll give you an example. I read an article in an Israeli newspaper describing soldiers who were coming back from Gaza and falling into severe depression. They interviewed a psychiatrist in that article to provide analysis about why soldiers feel depressed when they come back.The psychiatrist didn’t say it’s because the soldiers feel guilt or shame. He said it’s because the soldiers in Gaza felt like gods. They were superhumans. They decided who lives and who dies, like they are in charge of life and death of two million people.And then that psychiatrist says that when those soldiers come back home, they feel like nothing. Nobody knows them. Nobody recognizes them. Nobody opens the door for them. There’s no prestige. And that’s what tears them down the most.That’s why a lot of people go back to serve in Gaza, because of the adrenaline, because of the excitement, because of the euphoria of feeling like a god, feeling like a superhuman. And it see

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Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world. Support Two Pro-Palestinian Activists Targeted by ICE: https://chuffed.org/project/200834-support-deported-activists?utm_campaign=campaign_share&utm_id=01a09598-a023-794c-aa44-bfe0371f4d89&pdm=twitter Pre-order Aaron's new book on the Ukraine war: Their Blood, Our Bullets https://orbooks.com/catalog/their-blood-our-bullets/ Check out Quince and use our code https://quince.com/useful for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Check out TruDiagnostic and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com Check out HomeServe at https://homeserve.com/useful Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/IDIOTS Check out Chilipad and use my code sleep.me/USEFUL for a great deal: https://sleep.me/useful ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Support our work and get the ad-free, extended interview with Momodou Taal and Chris Godshall: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/bombshell-cornell-suspends-pro-palestine?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Watch the Friday Free-For-All: MAGA Congressman Warns that Belligerent, Religious Army is Planning to Destroy the Middle East https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/maga-congressman-warns-that-belligerent?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.

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