Impeach Him
Welcome to Gaslit Nation, where the firestorm of corruption meets the firehose of resistance. Terrell Starr of the Black Diplomats Podcast and Substack, recently home from Ukraine–the frontline of showing the world how to stand up and fight, joins Andrea to discuss how good Democrats, and We the People they serve, have a lot of power, if we remain defiant.
Senator Chris Van Hollen provided an urgent reminder of this as he warned El Salvador’s wannabe strongman Nayib Bukele: the U.S. isn’t the only power player in the world, and the international community is watching. This came after Van Hollen was denied access to the Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, abducted by Trump’s agents, wrongfully deported, and sent illegally to El Salvador’s notorious gulag. Yet Van Hollen didn't back down. Even with the White House under occupation by a Russian asset, we still wield power.
The energy in the country is shifting. Over 1,500 “Hands Off!” marches just shook the ground in all 50 states, powered by everyone from labor unions to LGBTQ+ activists to veterans' groups. One Southern white man waved a giant American flag with a giant Ukrainian flag at a protest in Virginia, while wearing a MAGA-looking red cap that said: “My Grandpa Killed Nazis.”
Trump’s approval is slipping. The push for impeachment is gaining steam thanks to the grassroots movement CitizensImpeachment.com. And while spineless Republicans like Lisa Murkowski make excuses instead of calling for the impeachment of a lawless would-be dictator, people are waking up. We’re in a fight for accountability, truth, and justice, and we will win. Don’t let disillusionment or complacency stop you from building a world that’s fair, just, and truly livable for everyone.
We’re not just witnessing history. We’re shaping it. So let’s keep pushing. Join a Tesla Takedown protest near you, demand your reps in the House call for impeachment, help good people run for office and primary Do-Nothing Dems, ignore the cynical edge lords, and stay creative and defiant as we shine our collective light.
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Show Notes:
CitizensImpeachment.com – track which members of Congress are calling for impeachment and how to pressure others to join the movement for accountability and justice: https://citizensimpeachment.com/
Terrell Starr's Black Diplomats Podcast and Substack: https://terrellstarr.substack.com/
Sen. Chris Van Hollen says Salvadoran government "tried really hard" to prevent him from seeing Kilmar Abrego Garcia https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chris-van-hollen-interview-kilmar-abrego-garcia-visit/
Opening clip: Senator Chris Van Hollen’s press conference in El Salvador https://x.com/tify330/status/1913040416611455142?t=W4mDUace_uXsVWOdt8de7A&s=19
US paying El Salvador $6M to jail hundreds of Venezuela gang suspects: ‘Pennies on the dollar’ https://nypost.com/2025/03/17/us-news/us-paying-el-salvador-6m-to-jail-venezuela-gang-suspects-pennies-on-the-dollar/
Anti-Trump rallies held across the U.S. to protest administration's policies https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anti-trump-rallies-hands-off-administration-washington-new-york-boston/
Financial Times on Trump trying to stay in powe foreverr: https://x.com/bennpeifert/status/1913040600791945568?t=j0g7J1AFiX9hSKFXDSskbg&s=19
Trump’s illegal kidnapping of people and sending them to El Salvador using tax payer money is highly illegal: https://x.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1912960051326623796?t=AZSVz6PSyCN4TkPbh6vdYg&s=19
FSU student and Parkland survivor describes experiencing second school shooting: "This is America" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fsu-student-parkland-survivor-school-shooting/
Schiff and Raskin push for accountability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElEVeJA-byE
Resistance video by the South Korean Activist: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1043733301107315
Stacey Abrams on how is taking your medicine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff2LVuUbtMQ
Native Land Pod We Been Outside: Gen Z Responds to Roland Martin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm6_C4TQF4U
5051: https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
Is this Gen Z’s Most Dangerous Candidate? (w/ Kat Abughazaleh)”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3daDf_iih5g
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Senator Chris Van Hollen (00:00):
Point out that this inability to communicate with his lawyers is a violation of international law. El Salvador is a party to the international, international covenant on civil and political rights. El Salvador has signed and ratified that covenant and that covenant says, and I quote, A detained or imprisoned person shall be entitled to communicate and consult with his legal counsel. I should say also on this trip, I met with some representatives of human rights and civil society groups who expressed concerns about many things, including the inability to communicate with prisoners in SECOT.
Andrea Chalupa (01:08):
Welcome to Gaslit Nation. I'm your host, Andrea Chalupa, a journalist and filmmaker and the writer and producer of the journalistic thriller, Mr. Jones, about Stalin's genocide famine in Ukraine. The film that Kremlin doesn't want you to see, so be sure to watch it. Our opening clip featured Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland delivering a pointed reminder to El Salvador's authoritarian leaning president Na b Kelly, that the United States is not the only country on this planet and that he must still answer to the international community, especially if he wants to avoid sanctions and prosecution by the International criminal court. This clip is a powerful reminder that just because Democrats are currently out of power in Congress, it doesn't mean they've lost all leverage. In this case, van Holland was being barred from seeing it kidnapped Rego Garcia, and he responded by leveraging this moment, by having a press conference because that's how you do it, we and our elected public servants are far more powerful than many of us realize.
(02:18):
Certainly the Democrats are pushing. Corey Booker just had his huge moment on the floor of Congress. That is what needs to be done. That level of endurance, creativity, showing up and doing what matters because I'm telling you, as someone who has studied authoritarianism for decades, yes we have a window of opportunity to stop him. Obviously that window was easier done decades ago given all the corruption and crimes that brought him to power in the first place, including illegally coming to power in 2016 with the Kremlins. Very illegal help, but there's still time left if we act with urgency, creativity, and defiance. And so with that said, thank you to everyone who is doing something instead of nothing and working through your despair. I want to open by also reminding everyone that it is highly illegal for the Trump administration to use taxpayer money to send anyone including without due process to a foreign country and pay that foreign country to hold prisoners, especially prisoners that were denied their constitutionally protected rights.
(03:31):
That is highly illegal. That's several laws broken right there, and that is not only a clear and present danger to our country, but it's clear and present grounds for impeachment and we'll get more into that in this conversation. I want to also begin by thanking everyone who showed up to the over 1,500 marches across this country nationwide, the Hands Off March. It was organized by a diverse coalition of grassroots groups including veterans groups, L-G-B-T-Q, rights activists, labor unions and so on. People just took matters in their own hands and showed up. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who did that. I was in Virginia at the time for the Easter holiday with my family and I ran into a very southern white gentleman, very thick accent, beaming with pride. He had been at a march in Virginia, Northern Virginia, where he waved a giant American flag and a giant Ukrainian flag together because Ukrainian America are allies in democracy against Russia's global terrorism fascism.
(04:43):
I mean this is an obvious fact. Experts in authoritarianism confirm it, believe your eyes and your ears. And this gentleman also was wearing what looked like a red MAGA cap, but instead it said My grandpa killed Nazis. And that is very much the mood in this country right now. And so how are you feeling, Terrell? I mean, you're freshly back from Ukraine and you're coming home to what's looking to be springtime for Hitler with marches across this country against Trump whose approval rating continues to plummet. I think the latest Reuters poll shows that he's now at 42%, which is a big drop from his inauguration high in the high forties and also one independent pollster. G Elliot Morris puts his disapproval rating at 51% and that's of course going to grow. So what are your thoughts on this pivotal crucial must fight back all hands on deck moment in America?
Terrell Starr (05:38):
I think we're really beginning to realize that so much of this country doesn't want democracy. And I think that has always been the case in America. Anytime you have a country that has existed for hundreds of years during slavery and then after slavery, you have reconstruction that failed and then you go into Jim Crow and then you have our post Jim Crow reality, which is what we're experiencing right now. A lot of these undemocratic practices exist because a large portion of the country never wanted it. And so I know that we're in the present right now, but I think that what's happening right now is very much by design. And so I talk about this with Ukrainians a lot because they asked me how on earth did America get here? And my response is always, we've always been there. It is something about after the civil rights movement ended and after all the various acts of the sixties, the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Voter Rights Act, and people felt like everything is over and very much so.
(06:45):
It's not over. We really have to think about what revolution looks like because revolution is required right now. And my trainer in Ukraine was telling me, Terrell, why don't you go to the White House and do a don like we do? And I said, well, if much of America really had that type of vigor, I think it's very possible, but unfortunately you have much of America which is white, which by vast majority of that group voted for the man that we're seeing right now. There is resistance quite clearly. We see all these mass protests that are happening. What's unfortunate is that it's so divided between people who want to live in a democratic society and you have another half that doesn't do you have another group of people who are just completely underengaged and that has been the long lasting struggle and I really think that so many people take what we have in the United States for granted, and I feel that way because of living in Ukraine for so long and just living across Eastern Europe.
(07:52):
But I saw something interesting on the Kara Hunter show. They were talking about how a lot of black people are not really participating in a lot of these kind of larger protests. Even though we are active and resisting, we're not resisting in a way that's visible. I also, as a black person, I feel a certain degree of fatigue because we literally have devoted our lives and the history of our lives on this country fighting for a democracy that either a majority or a closer majority of people never want it and we all are suffering for it. And that's happening then, and that's what's happening right now. I don't think the script has changed. I just think that the year has.
Andrea Chalupa (08:35):
And I think it's massively demoralizing for a lot of black people, especially black women, to see a black woman like Kamala Harris gets so close to the White House and then misogyny, racism, democratic party, apathy, antibi obviously worked against her. So I think there is this feeling of from black people especially, we've show up for you again and again, even when it's hard, it's always hard. Where the hell were you when we needed you and it's our life.
Terrell Starr (09:04):
I think there's a time where you realize that showing up for the rest of the country is not appreciated because they don't want to be shown up for, they don't show up for themselves. 2018, I went to West Virginia and I was doing a series of stories on the opioid addiction and I was working at the root at the time, and the whole conversation was around how our national and local governments are looking at this as a public health issue as opposed to criminalizing it as has been the case with black people who are addicted to drugs. The main thing that I saw down there was that these people voted for Republican governors, local officials for decades, and they're dirt poor. I was so shocked that a white person could be that poor, that a white LED state would actually allow such white poverty. Now, and it sounds very naive because it was because it just, one, it just shows you how separated our lives are, but also it really shows you that even white wealthy people don't give a damn about white poor people, but white poor people think that the wealthy care about them.
(10:21):
In reality, what you really need are the working poor and black people and the Latino community, which is very complex because there's whiteness that pervades that conversation in many respects. But ideally, we should, all the working PORs should all unite against this. Not only fascism, but these wealthy oligarchs not know that. Some people say we shouldn't use the word oligarch, but in reality, that's another frustrating thing for me. People criticize Bernie Sanders for using the word oligarch. You go anywhere else in the world, everyone, I don't care how poor you are, they understand what oligarchy means. There's a particular type of awakening that is required outside of the black community and these working poor people that I'm not sure should come about, but it's very much necessary because otherwise we're going to be in the same cycle. Even if Democrats miraculously win one of the chambers the next year we're going to run into the same problem because also Democrats live in a world that doesn't exist. They have an idealization not only of this country, but of many of the people who are in it. Whereas Donald Trump has a very keen understanding of the American landscape and the peoples. That to me is the number one problem.
Andrea Chalupa (11:36):
A hundred percent. I want to make two points on what you said earlier about where is America's Euromaidan where people taking the streets and it's obvious Ukrainians were united and you're myan across society. You had a mix of people on that square and reason why was because they were united in fighting for their sovereignty against Russia. Whereas in America, we have this long history of divide and conquer by white supremacy. That is what built this country. But something is changing in recent years and you see that with the case of Free Garcia or all these white meat and potato men are holding up signs saying Free Garcia, that white southern gentleman I mentioned earlier, he rolled up in the back of his car taking up his entire back windshield. He wrote Free Garcia and then it had a Ukrainian Tzu, the symbol of Ukraine on it.
(12:31):
There is something shifting and unfortunately it is this unprecedented time that we are in with Trump. I mean Republicans, there's always been an authoritarian movement that built this country through bodies, slavery, genocide of Native Americans. It's always been there, this ideological hatred of farming humans essentially. It's something that the whole world has to unite to contain obviously. But there is something shifting, and I want to mention that over the weekend I caught up with a longtime veteran political reporter. He has covered Washington DC for decades. He works at a major political magazine and I asked him, I'm like, how does this compare to all of the corruption, all of the scandals you've seen come out of Washington DC in all the decades? And he said, this is uncharted territory. This is new for even America as crazy as we are as a country and the Financial Times, which is the newspaper of the business elite, they also are ringing the alarm on this and they sound like me back in 2016 trying to warn everyone of Paul Manafort's managing Trump's campaign.
(13:40):
That means that Kremlin is managing Trump's campaign. Paul Manorfort, having been a long longtime Kremlin operative who brought a Ukrainian trump to power victory Kovich who enriched himself and his family while in power hastily illegally passed all these dictatorship laws and had to get ran out of town by popular uprising. And he's been exiled in Russia ever since and maybe, hopefully the Trumps one day will join him, but this is the Financial Times sounding like us back in 2016: Once Trump has most law firms, universities, news organizations and private companies under his thumb, it'll be almost impossible for any form of opposition to gain traction. His weaponized Department of Justice can arrest protesters and there'll be fewer lawyers to defend them. University research and academic discussion of ideas that run counter to the Trump ideology will be threatened. Private companies will not object as the rule of law collapses.
(14:31):
This is not some innovative new strategy. It is the global playbook for democratically elected leaders who want to stay in power forever. And that again is the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal is taking that same note against him. I know it's all too little too late, and where were these guys back in 2016 for the most part. But there is something changing with I think white America, white male meat and potatoes America realizing, oh damn, they're doing this. They're kidnapping people and sending them to El Salvador. They're openly breaking the law left, right and center. It's sort of like the dynamic of Ukraine's oligarchs. Ukraine's oligarchs were out for themselves. They were patriotic to their corruption enriching themselves. But when Russia was coming in with the kovich and trying to invade Ukraine politically through Kovich, Ukrainian oligarchs stepped up not for the good of the people, not for national sovereignty, but their own personal sovereignty. And I think that's what is finally getting through to at least a sizable portion of America, especially when they see so many major institutions like law firms and universities like Columbia capitulate.
Terrell Starr (15:41):
I totally agree with that. What's troubling to me is not what you're saying, which is 100% true, but what does that say about those people?
Andrea Chalupa (15:49):
Greedy and self-interested? I mean, it didn't take a genius. I'm not saying I'm Nostradamus saying back in 2016, this guy's coming in and trying to be a dictator. It was obvious from the jump he's coming down that escalator. He is aging a Mexican-American judge. He is taunting a disabled reporter. I mean right there, just the lack of empathy. Empathy is not just a kind thing to do. Civilization evolved from empathy. It's also pure self-interest when you're empathetic towards others, when you look out for others, you're also looking out for yourself. And these business elites cloistered in their privilege and their money, they're not like the more vulnerable communities that have to look out for each other as a matter of survival and progress. So there was this horrible ivory tower blind spot that has plagued American society for generations that also did us in.
Terrell Starr (16:41):
I think it's total selfishness because I point to white America as the main primary problem. But I was at Tara Chika University about three weeks ago and I was doing a presentation on similar topic that we're discussing right now. I was playing video of remorseful Trump supporters and they come in all shades. And ultimately what it comes down to is that these people never thought that what's happening right now could never happen to them. And each person who said that they were remorseful talked about something that impacted them, whether they were a part of this doge purge of their job or if someone that they actually cared about was deported or if they felt like the economic impact of what's happening hurt them so bad to the point where it's making them second guess. It was something that had to do with them individually. They did not hear the warning that this could hurt people.
(17:42):
That's not what they heard. What they're feeling after their decision is that it's now hurting me, which tells me that they don't give a frying federal fuck about anyone but themselves. And I think that I have no other explanation behind this other than the fact that this is just blood thirsty capitalism and the type of culture and the type of attitudes that it breeds. And we're living in a country where we don't have the best access to healthcare at all in effective developing nations. We have arguably the least access to affordable healthcare. And the way that our economy is set up is that it makes us scavengers, it makes us very vicious. It makes us fight for every tooth and nail for ourselves that we don't think about everyone else. And so while I do think that race is the predominant issue and distinguishing who is doing this, I also think that it's just this very selfish culture that we've built in our society that makes us not care about anyone else. And I think that once you start there, then you're going to start correcting a lot of the issues that we see because until people start caring about their fellow human being, I just don't see how this is going to stop.
Andrea Chalupa (19:02):
Exactly. And it's a culture that was conditioned. The Reagan revolution stood for greed as good farming human beings to enrich yourself cutting all of these lifesaving social programs, safety net programs so you can get tax cuts for the very rich so they can buy more homes, employ more servants. And then on top of that, you have the explosion of social media, which has fueled this narcissism epidemic and a loneliness epidemic. And that's also fueling all of this and the swirling gyre of sort of a lack of accountability and morals in our society. Like you said, it's encouraging an attitude of greed and strife. And this has been 40 years in the making, not just because Republicans, Christian nationalists got their acts together and became extraordinarily well organized. They were also planting the seeds for this. And one example I want to give of this is the Republican party and the NRA where they allowed our gun laws or lack of gun laws, lack of gun reform to lead to a mass shooting gun violence epidemic.
(20:10):
And one of the most chilling reminders of this was what happened at the University of Florida just a couple days ago. It's important to know that the Republican Party and the NRA had done for all those decades in allowing this mass shooting epidemic, gun violence epidemic to flourish just so they could line their pockets. That was seeding the ground for Trump's authoritarianism to come to power. Because what you're doing is you're showing people you cannot stop us. We don't care if kindergartners get killed. We don't care if high schoolers get killed. We don't care if people dancing, enjoying their night away in a gay club get killed. What matters is greed is good, and that is really what laid the groundwork for Trump. Now, I'm going to play a clip of Stephanie Horowitz, a survivor of that recent shooting in Florida who was also a survivor of the Parkland shooting back in 2018 in Florida.
Gayle King (21:04):
I would imagine, Stephanie, that you never thought that this could happen to you again.
Stephanie Horowitz (21:11):
Yeah, I mean I never thought it would happen to me for the first time. And here we are and unfortunately this is America for you.
Andrea Chalupa (21:20):
And so I want to turn now to a way to fight back against all of this in addition to the massive nationwide protest that we had just this past Saturday where organizers estimated to somewhere of 3 million to 5 million people showed up in all 50 states across this country in the hands-off March. There's also this growing grassroots effort to demand impeachment, and there's a new site that I want to direct people to. A Gaslit Nation listener flagged this for me at our most recent Gaslit Nation salon on Monday. And that site is citizens impeachment.com, citizens impeachment.com. I'll link to it in the show notes because impeachment has to begin in the house. You can see which members of the house are already on board for impeachment. Obviously it's easy to be cynical because Trump has faced two impeachments and Republicans got information to protect him in both the House and the Senate where he was not convicted either time, and he went on to commit those same crimes.
(22:24):
His first impeachment, most famously was for trying to extort Zelensky in exchange for aid that was already approved by Congress. And he's basically doing the same thing now again with Zelensky mineral deal. And the second impeachment was for violently trying to overthrow our democracy on January 6th before the eyes of the world. And again, Republicans, they weren't going to impeach him for that. I don't think they're going to impeach him at all. And Lisa Murkowski of Alaska underlines that point. She was asked, are you scared? And I'm going to share her answer now because people are furious at her for even remaining in power if this is how she feels and I'll play the clip.
Senator Lisa Murkowski (23:04):
What do you mean? Have a say to people who are afraid or who represent people who are afraid? We are all afraid, but we are in a time and a place where I don't know, I certainly have not have not been here before. And I'll tell you, I oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real and that's not right, but that's what you've asked me to do. And so I'm going to use my voice to the best of my ability and sometimes it will be viewed in a way that, well, that's pretty confrontational and other times it's going to be using my mother's charm that I learned as a young girl and in direct communication with those that I've made relationships with and able to affect some change that way. But I've got to figure out how I can do my best to help the many who are so anxious and are so afraid.
Andrea Chalupa (24:39):
You know what you can do, Lisa Murkowski, you can call for impeachment. You can call for Congress to enforce the 14th amendment of the Constitution, which bars traitors from running for office and holding office. She's saying, yes, we're scared giving us a pep talk about fear and acting as though she's helpless in the situation. There's so much that she could do which could save the day right now. And that is first and foremost, yes, she's in the Senate, but she could still as a powerful Republican in the Senate call for impeachment start normalizing impeachment. So I'm tired of these Republicans with their just wearing their lack of moral courage and being traitors to our country, and I know she's sounding like, oh, I'm one of the better guys. I'll have this conversation with you and sound like I'm talking from the heart, but it just exposes her cowardice and her lack of morals even more clearly. What are your thoughts?
Terrell Starr (25:29):
She's not a good guy.
Andrea Chalupa (25:30):
None of them are.
Terrell Starr (25:32):
None of them are. In fact, anytime when it's come down to her to make a pivotal decision, she always says that this was too difficult and I struggled with it or I cried. It's just always some woe is me, but I just couldn't pull the trigger. So she is coward. The reality of this is that sometimes in order for you to do your job, you have to lose your job. You just have to eat the shit sandwich and that shit sandwich means losing your job. What it tells me is that she has no moral character whatsoever because that is a weapon. Your character is something that you can use. In fact, I'm not a fan of Lynn Cheney or any of these other people at all. Basically, there were Trump people during this first term who dared to challenge him. They lost their seats and they did their jobs. And what we are seeing is that this is no longer a party. They are a cult. They are a group of worshipers.
Andrea Chalupa (26:40):
Putin's, Russian Duma that just rubber stamps Trump wants, and some that like to be more moderate in the public's image. They're just actors. They're crisis actors, just like the ones Russia employees.
Terrell Starr (26:52):
These people are absolutely worthless, and I don't want to hear a public official talk about their skin, get the fuck out, resign. I just don't have any respect for people who take a job and their number one priority is to protect the country. She may not be a traitor, but she's aiding and abetting a traitor.
Andrea Chalupa (27:18):
Which makes her a traitor.
Terrell Starr (27:19):
By doing nothing. And so she has an accomplice, and I think that in a righteous society, people like her ought to be impeachable as well. All of these people, I don't know what means, how that could be done.
Andrea Chalupa (27:33):
Well, he's breaking so many laws. We'll go into that some more, but yeah.
Terrell Starr (27:37):
But I just find her to be absolutely contemptible. I find her above all to be annoying because this is not the first time that she does this and she comes across as I am just a moral person, but I am outnumbered. Well, you know what though? You got to be the person that goes out in a blaze of glory because you may not be able to take out everybody, but you'll be able to take out somebody and thus losing your job in the process, her number one priority ought to be, I may lose my job over this, but I'm going to do a whole bunch of damage to these fucking Trumpers before I go. But she doesn't want to do that because she is a, not only is she a coward, that's a simple way of describing her actions. She has no moral code that she follows zero, and the reality of it is that the people in Alaska are being harmed by it even though they don't know it. The biggest tragedy of this all is that Trump is making his constituents happy, but are they really benefiting materially? Yes. Their whiteness and all this other stuff and male masculinity. Yeah, I get all of that. I understand that, but these people's economic stations in life are not going to improve even though they think it is Lisa Murkowski, she could be explaining this to them, but she won't because she cares much more about holding her seat than she does about serving this country.
Andrea Chalupa (29:16):
Yeah, believe what they do, not what they say. And when you look at Congress acting like a rubber stamp, you're basically seeing the inside of corporate America where they want to make money off of us, as they say in Ukraine, as the oligarchs. See the people in Ukraine, I heard this saying when I lived there in 2005, the oligarchs see the people as the shit they grow their money in. That's how American corporations see us, those members of Congress, many on the Democratic party side too, the Democratic Party centrist, they are just corporate lobbyists who have narcissistic streaks. They love the attention, they love the TV ready makeup going on camera in the halls of Congress. They love the marble halls of Congress and all the respect they get. That's what they are. They're corporate lobbyists. That's why they're towing the line now because Trump is the guy that's going to get their rich donors, their tax cuts and roll back regulations.
(30:12):
So if you want to see the disaster heading to where they're rolling back regulations at the FDA, which is not catching salmonella outbreaks and so on, and the rolling back regulations that are meant to protect consumers, people are going to die because of products that should not be on the shelves from products that are banned or forbidden on the shelves of EU nations, right? They do not care. They take a Russian oligarch mindset to how they see the people, and that is why you have these Russian oligarch forces and American oligarch forces combined now in the White House because it's all about greed is good. That is what they worship at the expense of all of us, but we can push back against that another world, a better world is possible in Brazil right now. Bolsonaro who tried to organize a coup just like Trump, he fled to Florida to see Bannon after his coup failed.
(31:10):
Now he is in the hospital recovering, which derailed him from traveling the country to use disinformation and hate speech to gin up support for a comeback, and he faces a trial from Brazil Supreme Court in France, Kremlin financed Marie Lappen who is ban aligned, Trump aligned or whatever. She certainly Putin aligned. I mean, she gets her money from the Kremlin. She now faces prison time for her corruption. So it is possible like Lisa Murkowski, Senator of Alaska can't just send us a Hallmark card and say Good luck with all that. Justice and accountability is absolutely possible, and as cynical as we all want to feel about the chances for impeachment, we still have to push for it. We still have to push for it. If you look at Syria, for instance, people thought the Assad family would stay in power forever backed by the Russians.
(32:07):
The Russians would never leave Syria. Now, Syria has been liberated in a stunning turn of events. America can undertake its own stunning turn of events. We have to refuse to give up, be defiant, and keep demanding the world we want to live in. We need the power of imagination to envision that world and we need our own inner defiance to say, yes, I deserve this. You deserve this. We don't need to be at each other's throats in this starvation economy that's being forced on us by the oligarchy. We can live in a safe, free, just society for all. Another better world is absolutely possible, and we have to keep talking about it, putting words to it, images to it, statements to it, and electing leaders who are communicating this better world to us, not from their stupid empty speeches where they center themselves and not the people, but through their actions that bring along everybody.
(33:04):
That's what we need. That's what we're headed. So fight for impeachment. Go to citizens impeachment.com, call your rep in Congress and demand impeachment. Trump has broken so many laws in his fire hose of terror and corruption, but if we push back again, we can win and not only defeat Trump, but also democratic party excuses and usher in a new, better healed world. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who was one of the first to call for Trump's impeachment back in 2019 when Nancy Pelosi was saying, it's not possible. That's not why the American people elected us in a big blue wave. She was gaslighting. I remember all of the protests, all the people knocking on doors creating that big blue wave. They wanted impeachment. They're calling for impeachment, and Nancy Pelosi had her minions on social media trying to spike the punch in saying that No, Nancy's playing 40 chest Trust her when she says that impeachment is not the thing.
(34:02):
Senator Elizabeth Warren was like impeachment now, and she came out even though she's in the Senate, it has to start in the house, but she still was normalizing. Believe your eyes, believe your ears. This call for impeachment back in 2019, she needs to do the same thing now because listen to how brilliantly on CNBC was schooling an anchor by explaining in this very clear civics lesson that Trump is absolutely breaking the law when he denies funding allocated by Congress like he's doing in so many different ways, including in trying to pressure Harvard to whitewash history and so on. Columbia folded to that. Harvard is staying strong, thank goodness, but that is another example of the many ways to breaking the law. Let's hear from Senator Elizabeth Warren breaking it all down on CNBC.
Elizabeth Warren (34:47):
First crack in the wall McConnell. We got four Republicans who crossed the aisle that gave us a majority, but it ultimately doesn't matter. What do you mean it ultimately doesn't matter? This is the law. I'm so Constitution 1 0 1, he has the authority ultimately. Well, no, he does not have. That's the whole point. He does not have the authority. If Congress does not let him keep this authority, we can take this away. Can I get you? He has declared an emergency. That's what gives the authority, otherwise it belongs to Congress. Before you go, instead of just mouthing off about what you think is happening, actually present some evidence and let's look at the evidence. Let's let the other side come in and question that evidence. But you don't just get to lip off and say, and therefore the king gets to wave his magic wand and say off with your head, doesn't the government determine where federal dollar tax dollars go?
(35:38):
And so they're allowed to decide under law, do you think they have a big bushel basket of money and they just say, you good looking? You'll have money. You not so good looking? You're going to have to go hungry for a while. That's not how it works. Let's just do Con Law 101, and that is Congress writes those laws and allocates that money. The administration's job is to enforce those laws and spend that money the way the law tells them, and if they fail to do that. Part three is the courts are the ones who step in and enforce the law.
Andrea Chalupa (36:15):
That's what we need is we need an Elizabeth Warren moment, a Bernie moment, an AOC moment where all of these progressives who are always leading on all of these issues and anybody that goes after them for calling this an oligarchy, as you mentioned earlier, whoever does that is a handmaiden, a handman or whatever to oligarchy. We need to be all in now for impeachment. And I don't listen to the cynics because the more you listen to the cynics, the more you lower your expectations of what's possible, and that's dangerous
Terrell Starr (36:46):
At some point. We really have to make the American people accountable for the country that they live in. And I go back to this whole thing about the oligarchy, because yes, we need people like Bernie Sanders explaining it, and that's another interesting thing people push back against, I'm using the word yet, thousands upon thousands of people go to rallies. They get it. I think the reason why people don't want to talk about the term oligarchy is because they may be talking about themselves or people that they're close to or that it may hurt their own interests, right? They may be implicating themselves in one way, shape, or the other. You need to explain to people, yes, this is an oligarchy. This is what's happening because I'm telling you, every other place in the world where I live and where I visit the poorest, a person understands the term oligarchy.
(37:38):
And the reason why you don't say it to America is that you just have to assume that they're stupid. And if you think that they're too stupid or elect the intellectual depth are too simple minded to get it, then just say that. Of course you're not going to say it, but it's already inferred that you feel that way about them, that they just don't have the brain cells to do it. I do believe that we do need to take accountability for our country. And as a child, look, I grew up one of the poorest circumstances growing up. I always had that value of I am responsible for my own destiny. I am responsible for my community. I am responsible for my own wellbeing. I am responsible for the choices that I make and the way that our media talk about the American public, it's one where no one actually challenges people.
(38:27):
Why did you say this? Why do you believe this? Why is it that you believe in a man that says this and says that one thing that we understand about much of the American public is that they're okay with sexual assault. We live in a serious rape culture, and that term is used a lot. But the fact that so many people elected this man when dozens of women said that he did this, it's not a matter of, I don't know. Is it possible it is her plus her, plus her plus her plus her plus her plus her plus her plus her plus her, and over and over and over and over and fucking over again. Okay, so that makes me think, okay, this guy's a fucking rapist, right? I just can't draw anything. But in addition to much of the voting electorate in the last election saying, alright, you have this white Christian, this movement that put their hands on him and they don't give a shit either, which tells me that this whole idea of faith and how it's used politically is also fucked up.
(39:37):
Now, meanwhile, you have all these people talking about fucking transgender women and men in sports who gives a fuck no, seriously, and people are actually running on this shit. I don't think that there's any real intellectual way of really breaking this down because this is not a policy conversation. This is a morality conversation in this country because based on who this man is and what he is being documented as either doing or convicted of doing or accused of doing, this man should not be allowed to participate in any civic activities, let alone anything that has to do with our country. So we are a country and pure moral decay. That is where we are. That's the larger conversation that we need to have because I think unfortunately, this whole thing with Democrats trying to go to this middle ground person, those people are gone. You think Trump gives a fuck about converting a liberal?
(40:38):
No, no. Republican gives a frying fat fuck about converting liberals to their point of view. They're like, fuck you, you're fucking deranged and you're the antichrist. You're pieces of shit. Fuck you. That's their attitude towards us. That's their attitude. And Democrats need to have a similar attitude and reach out to the people because I do believe going, being optimistic, I do believe that there is a much bigger majority of people that are like us than it is about these demons that elect these other demons like Trump into office. I truly believe that. But the most powerful party that could speak to them, and the reason why they don't speak to them is because if they do, then they're going to implement themselves. All these conversations that we're having about the greed of capitalism and the oligarchy Democrats in many respects are wrapped up in this shit too.
Andrea Chalupa (41:35):
A trillion percent. The Democratic party of today, the centrist, they're basically the Republican party before the whole Christian nationalist takeover of the Republican party. And Bernie Sanders would be a centrist by European Union standards. And here in America, he's still treated like some radical just because he's fighting for the working class. There's new reporting that Democrats stayed home in 2024, and that helped tilt the election for Trump. This was something we on Gaslit Nation warned was happening throughout the election. We also worked hard to warn those Democrats not to do that to themselves. A leading reason was the Biden administration's financial backing of wanted war, criminal, and Putin, Trump ally Netanyahu, whose corruption and pledge of a forever war to clinging to power after his purge of Israel's courts didn't work unleashed the largest anti-government protest in Israel's history. But I do want to say, I think the larger reality remains in what you're saying.
(42:35):
No matter who is in power, there's always going to be an incumbent backlash because prices keep rising. Wages stay the same. Automation and ai, not immigrants are taking jobs away. And the oligarchs continue to buy politicians in both parties to get tax breaks, rollback regulations, stop new regulations and refuse to pay their fair share in taxes. And they also buy up all of our media, newspapers, newsrooms. Fox News is spreading on the local TV news level through Sinclair, which is turning your local TV news station into Fox News. We've been on this 40 year trajectory, launched under Nixon, accelerated under Reagan, and aided under Clinton and Obama, and even Biden, even though he was pro-union by appointing Merrick Garland and keeping Christopher Ray as head of the FBI, even though he let January 6th happen, even though all the warnings were out in the open for all of us to see.
(43:36):
We even did a pre coup special on it here at Gas Nation. So by Biden allowing Trump and his goon squad of corruption to flourish and dodge accountability by the Democratic Party centrist, not pushing for the 14th Amendment in Congress when they controlled both chambers of Congress and their January 6th inquiry, yes, they showed us all of those powerful videos of all the grotesque violence by Trump and his storm troopers. But what really mattered was not that pageantry of accountability, but actual accountability by enforcing the 14th Amendment, banning Trump and all those from Congress who spoke that day inciting that violent mop should have been banned as well. All those members of Congress like Marjorie Taylor Greene and others should have been banned. We have in a 14th amendment against traders running for office and holding office for a reason. We fought a war over this, the Civil War. So all incumbents, whatever happens if we should survive Trump, but I do think we have a fighting chance to survive Trump and get a Democrat back in power again. It's going to happen, but we cannot afford to go the Biden route again. Biden ran on the soul of our nation. And then what did he do? He allowed the soul of our nation to blacken even further. Thanks Mayor Garland and Christopher Ray.
Terrell Starr (44:56):
Dying in office, this old motherfucker.
Andrea Chalupa (44:58):
Yes.
Terrell Starr (44:59):
I was covering that 2020 election as a reporter for The Route before I moved to Ukraine. And we really have to use our platforms to tell people about what is possible. The thing about Republicans that I think people like us and on our side need to get is that through hell or high water, the vision that I want for my country and my society, I can actually exist in it. And so there were so many people, I was focusing on black women. That was my primary beat. And most of the black women I spoke to, and this is hundreds more as I was going across the country, they wanted to vote for Elizabeth Warren. If you actually look at the data from that time, you'll see that Elizabeth Warren had a, as far as favorability, they actually liked Elizabeth Warren. What they said was that the white people in Iowa are not going to vote for her.
(45:58):
So they voted for Joe Biden. And of course we understand all the psychology behind that. But the larger point is that you had the most significant voting block in all of America that said, I like Elizabeth Warren, but I don't believe that the rest of society can do it. And so with us, we need to see through our dreams and our possibilities. Now, I do understand it because for black folk, period, we feel like we don't have the luxury to dream. And while I'm speaking about black people, I do think a lot of people who feel marginalized also feel like they don't have the luxury to dream. They can only afford to be practical. That is the thinking that I think that we need to get over because practical thinking is temporary and it keeps us on the hamster wheel. But if I think long term, we really need to pursue our dreams.
(46:56):
And sometimes what that means is that we go all in and on good days, we're going to win together. But on some of those days, we got to go on in and we just have to lose together and we have to go all in. A hundred percent. Republicans are all in on their white supremacy, on their misogyny, on their transphobia, their homophobia, that white supremacists very evil, nasty, blood thirsty, capitalistic view of this world. They are 1000% in. And the rest of us need to have that same mentality for our vision of the world. Otherwise, we're going to get some old man that thank God he didn't die in office, in people like him where we'll get a win here and a win there. But we're, we'll get these battles, but we're never going to win the war.
Andrea Chalupa (47:47):
Perfectly said. And now I want to play this clip by comedian Sam J that's going viral.
Sam Jay (47:52):
I also feel like the Democrats deserve to lose. I really do. I really feel like they deserve to lose. I didn't want them to lose, but I just don't think they get the country that we're living in now. I think they just believe in some shit that doesn't exist anymore. Republicans know how to market to their audience, and that's all this shit is now. It's sales, bro. Even the presidency's up for sale. And you got to know how to sell your product. And Trump knows how to sell his product to the people that are buying it. I'm not buying it, but to the people who want it, he knows how to fucking get them riled up. And I feel like Democrats don't know what the fuck they doing anymore, bro. They don't know how to sell the product. And I think the problem is they still believe in America.
(48:29):
You know what I mean? They really do. They actually have hope in believe in us as a society, and they should stop. You know what I'm saying? They should stop. We are pieces of shit, bro. We not good no more. Stop having all that hope. They really think we're good and kind. They think we still want to read. I'm like, nobody want to read. You don't even know what country you in. Nobody wants to read ever again. We done reading, bro. I feel like every time I would go on Instagram, every Democratic Post would just be so many words. There's so many words, three pages of words, wires on words. This is a video app. All these fucking words and every Democratic commercial, just bad words while they talking. Just proposition A, B, B, C says that if you vote B three on line C four, so make sure you vote, check A B when you get to like, what the fuck, bro? And every Republican commercial would just be like, do you want a man and titties and a bathroom with your daughter? You want that? A man with titties and a bathroom with your daughter? You like, dad, you want that? You like that? That's some shit you want. No, go for us. You won't have to deal with no shit like that to the point if that's what you want. You know what I'm saying?
Andrea Chalupa (49:57):
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(51:04):
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