This week’s Gaslit Nation explores narrative warfare, from Russia’s Stalinist revisionism (now including an attack on Andrea’s film Mr Jones!) to the “both-sidesing” of the Holocaust in US schools, to the memory-holing of the Capitol attack. We kick things off by describing the Kremlin lackey freakout over a Russian human rights group screening of Mr Jones, Andrea’s film about a journalist who attempted to cover Stalin’s genocide-famine in Ukraine, and we warn that Russian-style censorship is a GOP aspirational goal. We then turn to fugitive felon Steve Bannon and the feckless January 6 Committee, which has discovered the information Gaslit Nation released about Bannon nine months ago – the very same information we urged them to use in the February impeachment hearings but which they ignored!

We then discuss how the publishing industry is protecting the Trump Crime Cult by continuing to churn out books from corrupt officials who witnessed terrible crimes and were rewarded for their silence and delay. We get into bulk book buys as a form of money laundering, the promise of publishing deals as a bribe that provides incentive to stay quiet, and how publishing agreements function as tacit NDAs. We note that Bob Woodward and Michael Wolff are two sides of the same coin – one hiding behind respectability, one hiding behind sensationalism, both portraying a sophisticated criminal operation as mere incompetence or idiocy. This damning evidence display was so long that we had to continue it in our Patreon bonus special, so subscribe at the Truth-Teller level or higher to hear the whole thing!

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It has been over nine months since the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and none of the key perpetrators – Trump, Bannon, Flynn, Stone, etc – have been held accountable. And now they are dodging and defying subpoenas! What the Democrats are showing is that you cannot fight hate speech with weasel words and you cannot fight accelerationism with inertia. This whole gang is running out the clock – the GOP, the transnational crime syndicate that backs them, and the Vichy Democrats enabling their impunity. Every day that passes without consequences erodes both our democracy and the sense of urgency about the threats it faces.

Gaslit Nation is blessed with 2020 vision, meaning that we told you all this shit was going to happen in 2020 and officials did nothing about it! We review the course of events that led us to this terrible juncture, including Pelosi’s efforts to block impeachment and witnesses, how the excuse of “bipartisanship” was used to stall the Jan 6 investigation, and the Dems' and DOJ’s current refusal to enforce subpoenas. We then go into corruption at the DOJ and bring you the Villain Origin Story of Merrick Garland. Did you know that Merrick Garland was mentored and brought into government by Jared and Ivanka’s lawyer Jamie Gorelick – and that Gorelick also jeopardized US national security in the 9/11 lead-up and then went on to abet big oil, big tech, racist police, and white-collar criminals? What’s even worse -- this Forrest Gump of corruption continues to advise Merrick Garland today!

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The US government may have avoided a shutdown, but Facebook did not! On Monday everyone’s least favorite data-mining, genocide-abetting tech behemoth had the longest shutdown in its history, less than a day after an explosive interview with a Facebook whistleblower aired on “60 Minutes.” Coincidence? We think not! We discuss the Facebook shutdown, the whistleblower’s revelations, and how dependency worsens the disinformation crisis. We speculate on what Zuckerberg and his dirty partners were doing in their offline interim period and discuss what should be done about this mass surveillance and propaganda system posing as a social media site.

We continue last week’s brain-melting conversation about rotating Biden Blockers Sinema and Manchin, a conversation we are tired of having about a situation we are tired of facing. So maybe the Dems could, you know, do something productive about that! We reveal why Sinema made her heel turn in 2014, discuss why the problems facing Sinema’s constituents are the real crisis, and ponder why the media obsession with “optics” does not include the optics of deportation, poverty, and suffering that Americans endure as a result of her obstructionism.

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The government may be shutting down – again! Thanks to fatuous GOP concern about the debt ceiling, the government may be shutting down by Friday and the Treasury may be out of money by October 18. This is part of a long and destructive pattern that we’ve discussed previously on this show. The last shutdown, which happened under Trump and went from Dec 2018-Jan 2019, felt like a test run for a broader destruction of infrastructure, basic goods and services, and anything else that relies on a functional government. The 2018-2019 shutdown was a sequel to the January 2018 shutdown, which was a sequel to the 2013 shutdown, which itself felt like a test of how much hardship Americans would put up with and how many resources they would do without.

What’s new now? It’s happening under a plague! We discuss the political manipulation behind the possible shutdown, the torpedoing of the Build Back Better plan and other Biden proposals, how the shutdown will affect the midterms (along with voter suppression!) and the snapping of the social safety net under the pandemic. Andrea explains what the debt ceiling is and the economic disasters that will occur if the government shuts down and the Treasury does not function. Sarah wonders what the hell happened with the infiltration of the Treasury in 2015 by the Kremlin and the hacking of multiple government institutions (including the Treasury!) by Russia in 2020. Seems like it might be relevant as we run out of money. So many mysteries to explore!

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Today we examine the most powerful person in the United States -- Elizabeth MacDonough! Who, you might ask? Why, the Senate Parliamentarian, of course! You know, that person who you stood outside for hours in line in a plague waiting to vote for, the person whose policies you studied and advocated and critiqued…oh wait, that’s Joe Biden, the helpless inhabitant of the White House! Once again, the Biden administration agenda is being conveniently held up by the thumbs down recommendation of the Parliamentarian, and once again, Vice President Kamala Harris could simply overrule the Parliamentarian, or the Senate could fire the Parliamentarian…but since the Parliamentarian creates such an amazing excuse for Democratic inertia, they aren’t! And they’re screwing over the American public in the process.

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Remember back in April when we described Joe Manchin as a “an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a lot of money”? Well, the Dem’s most annoying kleptocrat obstructionist isn’t so mysterious anymore! We discuss who’s funding him and why, the illicit and evil business activity in which his daughter is engaged, the attempt to buy off his wife with a government position, and his cavalier attitude toward the destruction of US democracy, infrastructure, and voting rights. The Manchin family has oligarch envy, just like the Trump family. The Democrats had a long time to figure out how to handle him and they did not – and now Americans and the entire polluted planet will pay the price!

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This week’s episode is devoted to the Texas state attack on reproductive rights and civil rights and its ramifications – not just for Texans, but for all Americans. This authoritarian attack codifies violent vigilantism, will inspire baseless reporting of citizens for political reasons, cultivates an atmosphere of vengeance and paranoia, and is backed by a Supreme Court packed with multiple corrupt justices installed by a career criminal Kremlin asset president. The Texas attack on reproductive rights is where theocrats, kleptocrats, authoritarians, white supremacists, misogynists, and secessionists all meet – much like they have in the Trump administration and its GOP backers. Texas is a hostage state, and we encourage you to support the Texans fighting back against their oppressive legislature. We are all Americans and we must support vulnerable Americans threatened by this abuse of power and corruption of law.

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On August 31, the War in Afghanistan – a war that has been going on for nearly our entire adult lives – came to an end, at least officially. We discuss the ramifications of twenty years of war and how different political entities worldwide are exploiting the situation. We situate Afghanistan in the history of other quagmire wars – Vietnam, Iraq – and revising Eisenhower’s 1953 speech on the military-industrial complex, “A Chance for Peace”, a prescient warning which would today be reviled as radical.

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This week we discuss Angela Merkel’s recent trips to Russia and Ukraine while getting played by Putin and his merry band of Western blood money lobbyists, finally some hope in the Congress for democracy-saving legislation (it's going to be a make-it-or-break-it fall!), and the latest with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the US evacuation. We detail why we need a comprehensive investigation of the entire twenty years of war instead of letting Republicans politicize the humanitarian crisis.

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We break down myths about “the unvaccinated” vs the anti-vaxxer propagandists and discuss the institutional distrust that have made a diverse crowd of Americans hesitant about the vaccine. We go through twenty years of horrific policy decisions that enabled a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, wasted trillions of tax dollars, and led to war crimes and tens of thousands of Afghan civilian casualties. And we end with hopeful words from our December 2019 interview with Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

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The corruption in our broken and abusive systems won't change until we change them ourselves. That's why we need you -- yes, you -- to serioiusly consider running for something. Don't know where to start? Meet Amanda Litman, author of the essential roadmap to running for office Run For Something: A Real-Talk Guide to Fixing the System Yourself, a book that will hold your hand and help you through the entire process.

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With so much ominous news about the climate crisis heralding the man-made apocolypse, we need leaders like the women highlighted in the must-read book All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. Co-edited by Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, climate author and teacher, and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist and founder of the non-profit think tank Urban Ocean Lab, this soul-hugging anthology provides a breathing space. Dr. Wilkinson joins us for an unforgettable discussion.

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Nelson George set off to become the greatest music writer in the world. Given his strange relationship with Prince who summoned him to listen to new music, George achieved his dream. George contributed to the bohemnian renaissance of Spike Lee turning Brooklyn into a global brand, living the explosion of Black culture across film, music, art, and more at the close of the 20th century and looks back at this groundbreaking time in a sweeping and important discussion of why art matters.

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In this eye-opening discussion to kick off the Gaslit Nation Summer Reading Series: Essential Conversations with Leading Experts on How to Protect Our Democracy, running mid-July to mid-August, Bill Browder discusses the ongoing threat of Putin’s aggression and what to do about it. We ran an excerpt of our interview with Browder in May. This is the full interview.

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After examining the latest voter suppression situation in the United States, we do a deep dive into mercenary Erik Prince. After committing war crimes in Iraq, this Blackwater founder has been building up his "blood money" business, including teaming up with Russia and Gulf States to make dirty deals involving the 2016 election and now attempting to build a private army in Ukraine.

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Welcome to a Gaslit Nation blazing with the fury of an ocean oil spill fire! In today’s episode, we discuss the corrupt politicians selling what’s left of our country’s soul and sovereignty to Exxon, the complicit officials who refuse to tackle the mafia state apparatus that makes the aforementioned collaboration possible, and who exactly stands to benefit from the melting of the Arctic and other disastrous effects of climate change.

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Of the many mysteries surrounding the failure of the Democrats to enforce accountability, none is more confounding than the continued tenure of mail-destroyer and 2020 attempted election saboteur Louis DeJoy. DeJoy launched his USPS crime spree under Trump and remains postmaster-general under Biden, despite Biden rearranging the USPS Board of Governors so that they could finally fire him. But there remains an obstacle on the board, and his name is Ron Bloom, and unsurprisingly he is yet another government appointee attached to the Trump-Kushner crime syndicate.

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Ari Berman, senior reporter for Mother Jones, closely documents the voter suppression emergency fueled by dark money as Republicans pass state laws based on the Big Lie. This is legal warfare to hijack our democracy and help ensure the next Trump steals the election and stays in power. We must all listen to Stacey Abrams and call our Senators to demand they support the For the People Act. Make sure to call your Senator today, and every week, until the For the People Act is passed.

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This week we take a look at Joe Biden’s world tour which culminates in the long-dreaded “summit” with mass-murdering dictator Vladimir Putin. For our instant take on that, please join us on Patreon; we’ll be giving our analysis on Wednesday after the summit occurs!

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Welcome to the “red state” resistance! This week Sarah interviews fellow Missourian Lindsey Simmons, a former Democratic nominee for Missouri’s gerrymandered 4th congressional district and an excellent analyst of Missouri as the bellwether of national decline.

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