It looks like the Libertarians of Silicon Valley suddenly love government when they need the government to bail them out. Socialism for the mega-rich, taxes and fascism for the rest of us. In this week’s episode, we delve into the fantasy hellscape of Peter Thiel, his investments in surveillance tech and A.I. that would give aspiring autocrats like him unstoppable power; Dictator Xi of China as a warning of what could happen to the United States if the Silicon Valley Libertarian Fascist Brigade usher in Big Brother 2.0, why Democrats aren’t doing more to stop them (because some are cashing in!).

Thiel’s instigated bank collapse comes at an opportune time: rattling the economy when the 2024 presidential elections are around the corner. Economic anxiety and uncertainty will rattle the Democrats' ability to hold onto the White House. This will pave the way for a wannabe fascist dictator like Ron DeSantis, the Viktor Orban of Florida, who is using the same kind of anti-gay laws Putin used to consolidate power in Russia. DeSantis just gave an interview to Walter Duranty of Fox News, telling Tucker Carlson that supporting Ukraine in the face of an existential genocide from a modern day Hitler is not in U.S. interests, which means DeSantis has secured Russia’s help in the upcoming election.

In our bonus episode, we answer questions from our listeners at the Democracy Defender level and higher. This week’s discussion includes why we should keep an eye on Russia’s threat of invading Moldova (again!) to open up a new front to seize Ukraine; how to hold onto hope and push back against corruption; and how to organize your life to be creative and productive despite the hellscape we find ourselves in, and a fun story about a recent run-in with Hillary Clinton -- possible Gaslit Nation listener? If you want to keep Gaslit Nation going and support the show, join our community of listeners on Patreon to get access to weekly bonus episodes, to ask us anything in our frequent Q&As, and join our live events. We couldn’t produce the journalism the world needs without you!

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This week Gaslit Nation is running an audiobook excerpt from Sarah’s book THEY KNEW: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent. We are running this excerpt now because we are appalled by the pundits and politicians proposing “national divorce”. We want you to understand the conspiracy of kleptocrats behind it. Theirs is not a grassroots initiative, it’s an organized attempt of plutocrats to shake you down by pushing civil war and hardening facile definitions of “red” and “blue” states. Sarah wrote THEY KNEW in 2021 and it is horrifying to see the plots described years ago attempt to come to fruition. This does NOT mean that the victory of the treasonous plutocrats is inevitable. It means we the people must fight back, and the best way to fight back is with the truth. We do not want Americans to fall for opportunistic and destructive rhetoric, and therefore we are warning you of what they are trying to accomplish and what will happen if they succeed.

Our message is coming to you from the state of New York and from the state of Missouri – two states that are purple, purple like a bruise.

Gaslit Nation will return next week will our usual breakdown of current events. For our thoughts on ongoing issues like Russia and China’s alliance, the war on Ukraine, and the lack of accountability from the DOJ and other agencies, listen to our Patreon bonus episode. Every week we do a Q & A with our listeners and additional commentary. You can access this episode and an archive of hundreds of past episodes by joining at the Truth-Teller level or higher.

Gaslit Nation is made possible solely by our listeners and Patreon subscribers. If you like the show, tell a friend or leave a review. If you’d like to ensure we can keep the show going, join us on Patreon! We thank you for your support.

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Every now and again you need to step back and look at the big picture, and then you see that the big picture is a mirror reflecting a void with a mirror reflecting a void with a mirror…hey, welcome to the Gaslit Nation AI Apocalypse Special!

We have a lot of things to get out of our system, apparently, before The System claims us as its own, and they include: artificial intelligence, the death of the news industry, the struggle to survive multiple collective traumas at once, Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays and their dual creation of psychological warfare and public reactions, “the death eaters that prop up the dancing clown of Trump”, child labor and the bipartisan leaders that defend it, the brutal backlash to the social movements of the last decade, nepo babies and purchased merit, weird facts about Hitler, how Trump’s pardons tell you everything you need to know about who really controls America, and the ceaseless desire of our officials to crush progressive policies that help people.

We will cover Fox News and the origins of covid and all the other breaking news stories next week, don’t worry. That slow-moving soap opera of corruption will still be there! What we tried to figure out in this episode is how to find truth in an era of digital media manipulation, informational voids, and shattered community. Because we’re living this life, not just writing about it. It is tough to break news when the news breaks us!

For our Patreon bonus episode, available to subscribers at the Truth-Teller level or higher, we answer questions from our beloved listeners! Topics include: DOJ corruption; environmental disasters; Saudi Arabia, Russia, and transnational crime; Matt Gaetz; Kamala Harris; Seymour Hersh, Ukraine, and much more! Sign up at the Democracy Defender level or higher to send in questions and at the Truth-Teller level to listen to the show and get access to hundreds of past bonus episodes.

Gaslit Nation survives solely because of our listeners! We are shadowbanned in the current Twitter era and could use help spreading the word about our show. If you like it, tell a friend and leave a review! And consider joining our Patreon to keep us going. Thank you for your support!

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Every now and again you need to step back and look at the big picture, and then you see that the big picture is a mirror reflecting a void with a mirror reflecting a void with a mirror…hey, welcome to the Gaslit Nation AI Apocalypse Special!

We have a lot of things to get out of our system, apparently, before The System claims us as its own, and they include: artificial intelligence, the death of the news industry, the struggle to survive multiple collective traumas at once, Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays and their dual creation of psychological warfare and public reactions, “the death eaters that prop up the dancing clown of Trump”, child labor and the bipartisan leaders that defend it, the brutal backlash to the social movements of the last decade, nepo babies and purchased merit, weird facts about Hitler, how Trump’s pardons tell you everything you need to know about who really controls America, and the ceaseless desire of our officials to crush progressive policies that help people.

We will cover Fox News and the origins of covid and all the other breaking news stories next week, don’t worry. That slow-moving soap opera of corruption will still be there! What we tried to figure out in this episode is how to find truth in an era of digital media manipulation, informational voids, and shattered community. Because we’re living this life, not just writing about it. It is tough to break news when the news breaks us!

For our Patreon bonus episode, available to subscribers at the Truth-Teller level or higher, we answer questions from our beloved listeners! Topics include: DOJ corruption; environmental disasters; Saudi Arabia, Russia, and transnational crime; Matt Gaetz; Kamala Harris; Seymour Hersh, Ukraine, and much more! Sign up at the Democracy Defender level or higher to send in questions and at the Truth-Teller level to listen to the show and get access to hundreds of past bonus episodes.

Gaslit Nation survives solely because of our listeners! We are shadowbanned in the current Twitter era and could use help spreading the word about our show. If you like it, tell a friend and leave a review! And consider joining our Patreon to keep us going. Thank you for your support!

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This week’s episode is dedicated to the environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio and its political causes and ramifications. As you have heard – or possibly have not heard, since there was an attempt to bury this story early on – on February 3, a massive derailment of a freight train containing hazardous chemicals led to the release of toxic chemicals in the Ohio town of East Palestine, in the surrounding region in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and perhaps even further afield. We do not know, because state and federal officials have refused to give forthright information about this preventable disaster. Our hearts go out to the people of the region and to the country as a whole, for we are all held hostage to this plutocracy and the broken political system it props up.

We discuss the Trump administration’s destruction of railroad regulations and the Biden administrations’ refusal to reinstate them – which led to Biden union-busting in December as railroad workers begged futilely for sick days and safer conditions. Many workers warned of this precise disaster. The American people can see what’s happening – left, right, and center – and unfortunately, with few exceptions, officials on the left, right, and center are keeping the truth about the extent of the disaster from the public. We discuss the ramifications of gutted local media, social media networks that hide information with algorithms, and cable networks that look the other way. We also review the decades of corporate greed and horrific labor policies that led to the Chernobyl of Ohio.

On a related note, we discuss the appointment of Jeffrey Zients, an investment banker with a history of Medicare and Medicaid fraud, as Biden’s new chief of staff. The appointment of Zients, who was responsible to a large extent for Biden’s disastrous covid policies in 2020 and 2021, could not have come at a worse time. Zients joins a team of eugenicist advisors who believe that one’s worth is solely determined by how much you contribute to the economy – and who believe that if you are elderly or disabled, your life lacks utility to the point of worthlessness. (We wish we were exaggerating, but they say this openly.) This is a terrifying time to be surrounded by, as the Ukrainians say, “oligarchs who see the people as the shit they grow their money in”. We are REFUSING to be ruled by them and believe the first step is to speak truth to power and document the crimes.

Our bonus episode, available to Patreon subscribers at the Truth-Teller level or higher, is on UFOs! You know, those objects in the sky that the US government is giving us the play-by-play on while they dodge the tragedy in Ohio. We discuss China spy balloons, Project Blue Beam, and much more! We then do our weekly Q&A, answering questions sent in by our Patreon subscribers at the Democracy Defender level or higher. Topics include Erik Prince, threats to poll workers, why the Democrats choose snark over serious prosecution, and much more.

Gaslit Nation is a 100% independent podcast – our Patreon subscribers keep us going! Your support allows us to continue taking on these topics and we appreciate your support and our community of listeners!

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We at Gaslit Nation like to think big picture, so like a pair of melting clocks in a desert wasteland we shall force your memory to persist! This week, we look back at the last two years and come to a terrible realization: Trump lost, but the coup won.

Among the points of evidence for this claim: 1) The seditionists and insurrectionists who plotted the coup now control the House of Representatives 2) Trump remains free and running for POTUS 3) Radical right-wing SCOTUS made possible by Trump is tossing out fundamental rights and overruling the public will 4) The US is the first country to not prosecute its own coup plotters, thanks to Merrick Garland’s DOJ 5) Other coup abettor officials, like Christopher Wray and Louis DeJoy, remain in office despite their betrayal 6) We still don’t know key details about the 1/6 attacks – like who that lady planting bombs was -- and neither the DOJ nor the Jan 6 committee members are in any hurry to provide them 7) The GOP launched an attack on civil rights, called it a “culture war”, and liberal officials surrendered in advance.

And there’s more where that came from! We ask and answer key questions, like “What the actual ****?” and “What can be done?” Tune in and find out!

Our Patreon bonus this week will be an analysis of Biden’s State of the Union address followed by Q & A with our Patreon subscribers. We are recording on Wednesday and will release the episode later in the week. To send us a question and get an in-depth answer, subscribe at the Democracy Defender level or higher; to get a weekly bonus episode and other perks, subscribe at the Truth-Teller level or higher. Gaslit Nation is a 100% independent podcast, and the only reason we have that freedom is because of supporters like you. If you appreciate what we’re doing and would like to keep it going, please consider subscribing on Patreon!

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Hey DOJ – quit writing and start indicting! This week we discuss the ongoing grotesque trend of former officials writing books about all the crimes they didn’t solve instead of actually protecting our country while in office. This is a long-brewing crisis going back to the days of John Bolton and James Comey, and its latest iteration is Mark Pomerantz, another lawyer lackey timing his “tell-all” for maximum profits and minimum democracy. We discuss how NDAs block the public from vital info and how the publishing industry has created an incentive for officials to remain silent about – or even participate in -- state crimes.

We continue to discuss the case of Charlie McGonigal – the indicted FBI official who was secretly working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska –  in the context of a broader look at corruption in the so-called “department of justice.” We examine the factors that contribute to this crisis including insularity, elitism, and nepotistic networks. We also destroy the myth that authoritarianism and law are two separate categories and that expertise on one negates knowledge of the other. Mafia states are in fact dependent on the judiciary, which functions as the cage bars of autocracy. If you understand how the judicial system works in a typical kleptocracy, the Biden and Trump DOJs will strike you as familiar. This is why the “legal pundits” polluting our airways with savior syndrome myths are not only vapid, but, over time, dangerous, as they destroy public expectations of good governance.

We also discuss the difficulty of parenting during this era of flagrant injustice. It’s Merrick Garland’s DOJ, but our children will have to live in its aftermath.

For our bonus episode, available to Patreon subscribers at the Truth-Teller lever or higher, we answer questions from our listeners. Among the topics covered are Fani Willis and the Georgia investigation, what happens if Trump is indicted, Ron DeSantis lackey Christina Pushaw, and the debt ceiling crisis. We will answer ANYTHING so please join on Patreon and send us your questions! Gaslit Nation is 100% independent. Our independence is what makes it possible to address topics most media outlets avoid. We thank you for your support and for keeping us going!

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Gaslit Nation has been studying Russian oligarch-aiding FBI traitors since our podcast launched in 2018, and what did we get for our diligent efforts? Yet another traitor! This week we discuss the indictment of Charlie McGonigal, the former top counterintelligence official in the New York field office who was secretly working for mega-oligarch Oleg Deripaska while pretending to investigate him. (You may remember Deripaska from our classic T-shirt slogan “You can’t make a deal with the guy who won the aluminum wars in the car bomb 1990s in Russia, you just can’t.” Rolls right off the tongue!)

We analyze the McGonigal case in the context of familiar Gaslit Nation topics – the top heads of the FBI who went on to work for the Russian mafia, how James Comey betrayed America to serve Semyon Mogilevich, the strange behavior of the FBI and the media during the 2016 election, the partnership between Deripaska and Paul Manafort, the partnership between Deripaska and Mitch McConnell, the desire of McConnell to make Merrick Garland head of the FBI as all this illegal activity was transpiring, and how the McGonigal case and general FBI treason affects Russia’s war on Ukraine. This episode was recorded during our second ever Gaslit Nation Live Event and we thank everyone who showed up for this historic occasion!

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For a month, we at Gaslit Nation have been pulling together disparate strands in the saga of Biden and Trump and the classified records found in each of their homes in order to weave you the tapestry of horrors we present on today’s program! At heart, this is not a story about Biden or Trump, but about the DOJ enabling elite criminal impunity in order to protect the secrets of broken institutions…like the DOJ itself. We break down the Biden documents and the new special counsel, the differences between Biden’s case and Trump’s, how the House GOP plans to weaponize the case and how the DOJ seeks to equivocate in order to weasel out of enforcing accountability, what a Biden impeachment trial would look like, whether Biden will pull a Nixon and resign, and what various successors should look like if he quits or decides not to run again in 2024. We remain in dangerous times and it is critical to look at the big picture threats.

Many of those threats coalesce around one state – Florida! For our special weekly bonus episode, available to Patreon subscribers at the Truth-Teller level or higher, Andrea breaks down the history of Florida’s political corruption. (Don’t worry, Kathy Hochul watchers – she’s planning a New York sequel soon.) We also answer questions sent in from our subscribers at the Democracy Defender level or higher. If you are subscribing at that level, you are invited to a live Gaslit Nation taping on Tuesday January 24 at noon EST! We give more information about how that will work in today’s show, and we will post more online, so stay tuned.

Gaslit Nation remains an entirely independent show, which is why we’re able to do deep dives on topics other outlets are not allowed to touch. (Or are too afraid to touch!) We are extremely grateful to you for making this possible. If you appreciate what we do, please consider subscribing on Patreon to get bonus features and to keep Gaslit Nation going. Thank you!

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America has a new leading export – sedition! Globe-trotting unpunished coup-plotter Steve Bannon and his elite operatives have moved their operation to Brazil, attempting to violently unseat democratically elected president Lula. Meanwhile, ousted dictator Jair Bolsonaro has taken up residence in Florida, the home base of unpunished mafiosos from around the world! We discuss the events in Brazil, how much more effective Lula’s response was to their attacks than the Biden administration has been to 1/6, and how the DOJ’s refusal to hold criminal elites accountable has created a global national security crisis.

We also discuss the continuing downfall of Congress, which has become less of a governing body than a gathering place for social media addicts attempting to build political personality cults. These reality TV show wannabes exist not to pass policy or protect the American people but to follow the path of the departed Donald Trump, a celebrity/criminal/politician hybrid cheered on by an army of “people” indistinguishable from bots. We also discuss the cliquish and cultish behavior in the Democratic party that has served only to strengthen the GOP’s fascist agenda. We also praise the rare officials who are exceptions to this behavior – new California Senate candidate Katie Porter, for one. Never forget that congresspeople are public servants and they work for you, not the other way around!

For our bonus episode, available on Patreon, we talk more about Brazil and about the contrived chaos in the House last week, in which Kevin McCarthy staged a feud with the Seditious Caucus in order to frame himself as a “moderate”, which he is not! We also answer questions from our listeners about covid lies and buried statistics, the failures of the DOJ and the January 6 committee, and much more. You can listen to this bonus by joining at the Truth-Teller level, and send us questions to answer in depth by joining at the Democracy Defender level or higher. Democracy Defenders are also invited to participate in our special live taping of Gaslit Nation on January 24! So sign up today, and we will see you soon – we could not make this show without you!

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Welcome back to the fifth year of Gaslit Nation and the fiftieth year of the quest for Donald Trump’s tax returns!

This week we discuss a panoply of government criminals and their dirty donors, ranging from newly minted oligarch cash receptacle “George Santos” (or whatever his name really is) to fellow recipients of mafia money in Congress (sadly it’s nearly everyone) to Trump’s half-century free ride from the IRS (because, again, they’re all in on it!) to the backers of Putin and Netanyahu’s wars (again it’s the same network enabling the crimes!) We also discuss the chaos and corruption that will ensue under a GOP House, the disturbing rhetoric of new Democratic House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, and give an update into Putin’s war on Ukraine.

We come fully armed with receipts and discuss what this entrenched corruption means for American democracy in the year 2023, a year in which Congress may have lost its illusions but has not found its soul. We discuss the lackluster release of Trump’s tax returns and stress the urgent need for release of his returns going back to the 1970s, which is when he allegedly made a pact with the US government to not pay taxes for thirty years in return for unnamed favors. (Read about it in Sarah’s book HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT which is having a $2.99 Kindle sale.)

We are recording our weekly bonus episode, available to Patreon subscribers at the Truth-Teller level or higher, on Wednesday to mark the second anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the continued inaction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ to hold the organizers accountable. We will also be answering your questions so please keep them coming! If you subscribe to Gaslit Nation at the Democracy Defender level or higher, you can ask us anything you want and we will answer it in depth! Subscribers at that level are also invited to a live Gaslit Nation taping on January 24! Stay tuned for more details and thank you for your continued support of the show – we could not make it without you.

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The 1930s are back! But this time, we're fighting dictators, wannabe dictators, and their propagandists on cable TV and social media platforms. Since the 1930s have returned, super-charged with new tech weapons, we should bring some of the heroes of the 1930s back, too. Enter historian Deborah Cohen, the author of Last Call at the Hotel Imperial, a riveting look at the generation of leading journalists who risked everything to rage against the machine. 

Some of the journalists she highlights in her book are sadly not as remembered as they should be today given that they helped win the war against the Nazis on American soil. One of the journalists in particular is Dorothy Thompson, a one-woman crusade against Hitler who she originally laughed off in her 1931 interview. Hitler never forgot it and suspended her Twitter account, we mean, kicked her out of Germany, once he took over. Thompson went on to confront the Republican isolationist Congress, Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, and the rest of the America First KKKlown Kar with her fierce independent journalism and moral clarity, even getting kicked out of the Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden. We bring back these heroes to see what inspiration and other lessons we need for today. 

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How does the world stop a genocide? How will Russia's war in Ukraine end? Why should Americans, or anyone around the world, care about Ukraine today? Historian Timothy Snyder, who recently produced a viral YouTube series by simply putting his lectures online of his class teaching the making of modern Ukraine, returns to Gaslit Nation. Snyder is our first three-time guest, making him Rufus to our Bill and Ted in this most not excellent adventure. 

Snyder is the author of several bestselling books, including Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, and the resistance pocket guide On Tyranny with an audio guide that has been updated to include Russia's current war against Ukraine and democracies worldwide -- On Tyranny: Expanded Audio Edition Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine.  

 If you want to join Professor Snyder in helping Ukraine, donate to his anti-drone defense fund here. Every little bit helps. 

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! There'll be scary ghost stories, and tales of the glories of war criminals from long, long ago!

This week’s Gaslit Nation tells two stories. One is about the imprisoned Russian mercenary arms trader who enabled the most brutal people in the world for decades only to be freed in a trade for an American basketball player and released to his homeland to likely help carry out logistics in an imperial war. The other story is about a hammer-wielding maniac and his girlfriend – a “nudist activist” imprisoned for child abuse who roamed the US drugging people while her siblings immersed themselves in sex cults, artificial intelligence and the occult, with one of them single-handedly reviving the Freemasons of San Francisco before going on to work for the Trump and Biden administrations.

This is because life in America is fine and normal, and everything is normal and going to plan, and we should not be at all alarmed because clearly our institutions have got it under control!

Anyway, this episode of Gaslit Nation – a deep dive into war criminal Viktor Bout and then into Paul Pelosi attacker Dennis DePape and his girlfriend, Gypsy Taub, and her family – is a series of strange tales to share around the fire this holiday season. That’s because we are living in a real-life scifi dystopia. Might as well record it before Elon Musk inserts a chip in our brains and replaces it with his own!

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Important call to action: Contact your rep in the U.S. House and your two Senators in Congress to demand that they urgently pass financial support for Ukraine before the end of the year. Here are more details on the big budget showdown in Congress, and here's how to contact your reps in Congress. Simply say: "Make sure you pass all the funding before the end of the year that Ukraine needs to defend itself. Don't let the new Republican House hold aid to Ukraine hostage." Thank you!

We’re back! After a two-week break in which several decades of horrific breaking news occurred, Gaslit Nation is back with the rundown on all the developments that happened in our wake. The GOP took the House, Trump announced he was running again and called to terminate the constitution, neo-Nazis and white supremacists carried out terrorist attacks and public sphere takeovers, workers were screwed over yet again by the Biden administration, and mafia state enabler Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to do the work that he is too cowardly and complicit to do himself. Wow!

We start the episode by reviewing the career of new special counsel Jack Smith, who is already being heralded as a savior by the same group of ding-dongs who worshiped Comey, Mueller, Vance, Garland and other failures. We feel somewhat sorry for Smith for attracting a following of freaks who embellish his resume in order to create yet another cult of bureaucracy. We debunk some of their propaganda claims and take a closer look at Smith’s last place of work – the “ghost court” of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. We hope Smith learned from the “ghost court” that justice delayed is justice denied, and we wish him luck as he works within an institution, the DOJ, that hired him to run out the clock. Gaslit Nation endorses Jack Smith going rogue and actually serving his country!

We then move on to the drip-drip-drip of Matt Taibbi’s “Twitter Files”, which could be called the poor man’s Wikileaks if it weren’t being done in partnership with the richest man in the world on the social network owned by the richest man in the world. There are serious issues raised in Taibbi’s work that should be investigated – state control over social media, nepotism and national security – but this is an inane way to go about it. We also discuss the broad attempt to recreate the social media landscape of 2014-2016 in anticipation of Trump’s attempt to become Cosa Nostra Grover Cleveland, what’s changed since then, and what’s in store for the future.

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Important reminder! We’re phone banking with our friends at Indivisible for Reverend Raphael Warnock who we need to keep in the Senate, because he’s a good person; Dems need a 51 majority in the Senate to have a stronger hand negotiating with the ruthless GOP/Manchin/Sinema; and we cannot normalize bonkers Herschel Walker in the Senate for six years. And finally, the Senate map is abysmal for Dems in 2024 so we must ensure Warnock wins the December 6th Georgia runoff to stand a chance of keeping the Senate majority. Join us at any or all of the below phone banks. We’re selecting one volunteer at each event to receive a signed copy of Sarah’s new book They Knew and a Mr. Jones film poster! Sign up here:

• Thursday, December 1st 6:00pm - 8:00pm ET

• Monday, December 5th 5:00pm - 7:00pm ET

Historian Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon's voice is an important one in the frontlines of fact-checking the Kremlin's disinformation war against the West. Her research spans the Black experience in the Soviet Union as well as the Holodomor, Stalin's genocide famine in Ukraine. As you can tell in this interview, Andrea is really excited to finally talk to her for the show.

In the interview, Kimberly makes connections between the Russian far-right and American far-right, the genocidal history that led to Russia's current war, and why should people around the world care about Ukraine. This year marks the start of the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor, an urgent reminder to stay vigilant of Russian aggression. As Kimberly points out, looking away, especially as we enter winter, will only embolden a terrorist state that is waging war not just on Ukraine but democracies worldwide.

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Important reminder! We’re phone banking with our friends at Indivisible for Reverend Raphael Warnock who we need to keep in the Senate, because he’s a good person; Dems need a 51 majority in the Senate to have a stronger hand negotiating with the ruthless GOP/Manchin/Sinema; and we cannot normalize bonkers Herschel Walker in the Senate for six years. And finally, the Senate map is abysmal for Dems in 2024 so we must ensure Warnock wins the December 6th Georgia runoff to stand a chance of keeping the Senate majority. Join us at any or all of the below phone banks. We’re selecting one volunteer at each event to receive a signed copy of Sarah’s new book They Knew and a Mr. Jones film poster! Sign up here:

• Thursday, December 1st 6:00pm - 8:00pm ET

• Monday, December 5th 5:00pm - 7:00pm ET

Comedian Jena Friedman has a long career in stand-up comedy and production, which has often earned her harrassment online from the MAGA crowd and Kremlin trolls. In this interview, Andrea discusses the role of comedy in a time of dictatorship, who's afraid of a good abortion joke?, Jena's 2016 election night live TV moment that still earns her hate messages, and how far comedy has come, or not, for women, whom Christopher Hitchens once declared are inherently not funny.

We're grateful for the fearless comedy of people like Jena working on the frontlines of white male patriarchy grievance and their culture wars. If you like Gaslit Nation, check out Jena's series True Crime Story: Indefensible on the Sundance Channel and AMC+ streaming, available on Amazon, YouTube, and several other places here. Indefensible pulls back the veil on legal warfare and corruption in America in the style of The Daily Show, Jena's old stomping grounds where she worked as a producer. Also, check out her stand-up comedy on reproductive healthcare, violence against women, and other lighthearted subjects called Lady Killer, streaming on Peacock.

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Important announcement! We’re phone banking with our friends at Indivisible for Reverend Raphael Warnock who we need to keep in the Senate, because he’s a good person; Dems need a 51 majority in the Senate to have a stronger hand negotiating with the ruthless GOP/Manchin/Sinema; and we cannot normalize bonkers Herschel Walker in the Senate for six years. And finally, the Senate map is abysmal for Dems in 2024 so we must ensure Warnock wins the December 6th Georgia runoff to stand a chance of keeping the Senate majority. Join us at any or all of the below phone banks. We’re selecting one volunteer at each event to receive a signed copy of Sarah’s new book They Knew and a Mr. Jones film poster! Sign up here:

• Saturday, November 19th 3:00pm - 5:00pm ET with special guest David Pepper, author of Laboratories of Autocracy

• Thursday, December 1st 6:00pm - 8:00pm ET

• Monday, December 5th 5:00pm - 7:00pm ET

It’s been one week since the midterms and, as of now, it looks like the Democrats won the Senate but lost the House – or, shall we say, threw the House away. We look at the hard-fought wins and highly preventable losses of a party full of honest voters and dirty power brokers -- specifically the Pelosi Vichy Democrats and DCCC chair Sean Patrick Maloney, who, along with heirs to the Cuomo corruption ring, was responsible for the Democrats losing New York and therefore the House itself. This was not a loss but a forfeit, and what these Vichy Democrats are trying to forfeit is our future.

This conversation on Democratic wins and losses turned into a broad and emotional discussion on racism, regional stereotyping, media bias, the pandemic, and the future that America’s young people deserve. As Sarah said in a previous episode, the difference between the GOP and the Democrats is that the GOP will kill you but the Democrats will let you die. America’s young people do not deserve a future designed by a geriatric crime cult and its octogenarian enablers. There are so many good people out there – you among them! – and none of you deserve this. We want to make that abundantly clear because as soon as they call the midterms for the GOP, the Democratic politicians will tell you it was your fault and the media will try to convince you that you wanted it all along. Don’t listen! Stay strong and follow your moral compass; you will find it in your heart.

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By the time you read this, the polls will have closed, but the election will not have ended – and our battle for a free and sovereign United States of America goes on. In this episode, Andrea and Sarah blow off steam that has accumulated over the very difficult year of 2022, in which we lost our bodily autonomy, contended with a relentless pandemic, and saw ever more clearly the complicity of our institutions as the US became the first country in history to memory-hole a coup and let a career criminal coup plotter run for office again like a Cosa Nostra Grover Cleveland.

Generally we at Gaslit Nation do not hold back, but there is a time and a place to fully cut loose, and we decided that time was immediately after the polls closed – since this is still a battle between a flawed Democratic party tethered to a Vichy leadership and a GOP that is an apocalyptic death cult. What the two parties have in common is that they will blame us, regular Americans, for everything that goes wrong, while hitting us up for money and telling us to drop dead. We are fed up – and yet we refuse to bow down. So listen to our overview of how we got to this moment, as we rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light! (For those wondering, we will continue to rage, rage, rage on Twitter too – we’re not going anywhere!)

We were also provided some evergreen advice from Dakota Hall as the executive director of the Alliance for Youth Action—the first Black and Indigenous leader of the organization—and former executive director of the Alliance’s Wisconsin-based affiliate Leaders Igniting Transformation. The Alliance for Youth Action grows progressive people power across America by empowering local young people’s organizations to strengthen our democracy, fix our economy, and correct injustices through on-the-ground organizing.

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It’s November – the beginning of the end, the end of the beginning. We at Gaslit Nation have been through this such a long long time, just trying to kill the pain, and we have mitigated it somewhat together. And now we enter a new phase, where the key digital platform that allowed documentation of the crimes of the powerful and literally made our show possible – Twitter – is being steamrolled by a billionaire shitposter. (We are refusing to cede our ground and will remain on Twitter despite Musk; for more on that, listen to our Patreon bonus episode.)

The attempted destruction of Twitter arrives in the midst of waves of political violence: the bludgeoning of Paul Pelosi, violent threats nationwide to poll workers and election officials, and the continuation of the election day “bloodbath” promises that criminal elites have been making for years – and the DOJ is letting it happen. We are dreading the midterms and the violence that will very likely follow; we mourn the violence that is here and the corrupt enablers in government who refused to take action when it really mattered, years ago, when we still stood a chance. Never forget that this all could have been prevented: what’s predictable is preventable. They made their choice, and we made ours. We discuss the landscape of streamlined political violence and then provide some last minute updates to our midterms coverage. Vote early, if you can.

Gaslit Nation needs support! If you like our show, spread the word, because we are on our own and may be impacted by the Twitter takeover. Gaslit Nation is entirely funded by our audience. If you appreciate the work we’ve been doing these past six years, consider joining at the Truth-Teller level and getting bonus episodes every week. You can also join at the Democracy Defender level to ask us a question and get it answered in a weekly Q & A. (We are working through your questions now, if you’ve submitted one, and we’ll have a new Q & A next week.)

Also stay tuned for special election episodes that we will run next week depending on the condition of the proto-fascist hellscape! And please be good to each other in this dark November – everybody needs somebody, no you’re not the only one…

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