podcast

GasLit Nation: Trump Lost, But the Coup Won

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

February 8, 2023

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

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!

GasLit Nation: A Book Deal Isn’t Justice

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

February 1, 2023

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

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!

GasLit Nation: Follow the Money and You Won’t Lose the Plot

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

January 4, 2022

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

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.

GasLit Nation: Last Call at Hotel Imperial

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

December 28, 2022

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

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. 

In our very special bonus episode, we let loose on what TV shows and films we’re watching to self-care and why. Television is something that we both take seriously, for different reasons, as we share in this discussion which covers a lot of ground on the importance and impact of culture in a time of encroaching autocracy. Let us know what shows you’re watching and why in the comments section. To make sure you never miss an episode of Gaslit Nation, subscribe at the Truth-teller level or higher. And to submit questions to our regular Q&As and get access to exclusive events and more, subscribe at the Democracy Defender level or higher. Discounted annual memberships are available. Thank you to everyone who supports the show — we could not make Gaslit Nation without you! 

We’ll be back with an all new episode and Q&A next week. Until then, we wish you and your family a Happy New Year! 

GasLit Nation: The Merchant of Death Rides Again

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

December 14, 2022

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

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!

For our weekly bonus episode, available to Gaslit Nation subscribers at the Truth-Teller level or higher, we discuss crypto and attacks on democracy, book banning, Jack Smith’s backstory, the Hunter Biden laptop fiasco, the MeToo backlash, and more. If you are a subscriber at the Democracy Defender level or higher, stay tuned because you are invited to a special live taping of Gaslit Nation on January 24! Details to come. Thank you to everyone who subscribes to our podcast and keeps it going. We know economic times are tough and we very much appreciate your support – we could not make this show without you!

Show Notes Galore! 

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.

Our bonus episode, available to Patreon subscribers at the Truth Teller level or higher, will run later this week, since it is our reaction to the Georgia runoff election, which is happening as I type. Hopefully we will be ruminating on what a Warnock win means. We also plan to discuss the new Congress in general, and answer some of your Q & A questions as well. Gaslit Nation is 100% independent and survives only through Patreon support, so please consider joining so that we can keep reporting and you can get bonus features and more!