Gaslit Nation with Andrea Chalupa and Sarah Kendzior

We interview Steve Pierson and Mariah Craven of the progressive activist group Swing Left and hosts of the grassroots power podcast How We Win, about how Dems can prepare for 2020 – and win with Swing Left's Super State Strategy. We discuss whether the Dems can take the House and the Senate, how best to beat Trump, and how to bridge divides within the Democratic party. We also break down the obstacles beyond Trump – voter suppression, gerrymandering, and an obstructionist GOP that may simply not concede

In a week when the GOP Senate will likely take their criminal president and crown him criminal king, we look at the big picture – treason, disinformation, and how to resist. Much like the Senate trial itself, our conversation centers on Ukraine. This week Andrea interviews Ukrainian journalist Olga Tokariuk about how disinformation makes its way from the Kremlin into western media and even into western courts.

We discuss key figures in the impeachment process – including Adam Schiff, John Roberts, and John Bolton – and what they’re trying to accomplish and how. In the first social media impeachment, their words are parsed and received, leading, in one case, to “Voldemort Putin” trending on Twitter. We also discuss how the destruction of the judiciary over the course of the Trump administration impacts the proceedings, and we touch on the Supreme Court and their recent horrendous anti-immigrant ruling.

This week Gaslit Nation gives in-depth context to the ongoing shitshow of the Senate impeachment hearings. We discuss what’s behind the media blitz of Giuliani goon Lev Parnas and the incriminating texts indicating the Trump crew was planning an attack on former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. We then analyze the GOP for what it is – an appendage of a transnational crime syndicate – and detail the institutional failures that allowed it to get there.

This week Gaslit Nation takes a look at two dynasties – the Trump Crime Family’s attempt to build a dynastic kleptocracy in the White House, and Meghan and Harry’s flight to Canadian freedom. Yes, like a dystopian US Weekly, Gaslit Nation takes on Megxit (we’re in favor!) and the issues surrounding it: racism and colonialism, the mendacity of the UK tabloid press, Prince Andrew the Pedophile, and the decades-long connections of the royal family to the transnational crime syndicate propping up Trump.

It’s a grim start to 2020, and we’re here to break it down for you – the impending war with Iran, the hypocritical entreaties of John Bolton, the rapture fiends guiding our foreign policy into the abyss of hell, and more! This is our first newly recorded episode since Trump’s historical achievement of becoming the first U.S. president impeached in his first term. In the classic style of a cornered sociopathic autocrat, he is lashing out at his predicament with violence.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee is a vital voice in demanding that the Trump administration be held accountable. Lee has long shown foresight in evaluating threats to our freedom and security. In 2001, she was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization of the use of force following the September 11 attacks. Lee discusses the importance of moral courage, the dangers of the Trump administration, and the 2020 election.

It's the holidays! That means it's time to light the fire, pour yourself some eggnog, and crack open a riveting real-life thriller like the latest book by Andy Greenberg of WIRED -- Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers. In November, we featured some of our interview with Greenberg, and now you can hear it in full. Sandworm is an essential guide for understanding conflict in the 21st century, and where we are headed if we don't confront this serious threat. 

We debunk the media myths surrounding the British election – no, the loss of Jeremy Corbyn is not an omen of what will happen to Warren or Sanders! – while looking at the way the US and UK situations are linked, namely dark money, Kremlin backers, shady data mining corporations, and mainstream media propaganda. We also discuss what lessons progressives in the US can take away from Corbyn’s disastrous campaign, and how to balance unity with the necessity of diverse opinions in a political movement.

In this action-packed Gaslit Nation episode, we discuss the two articles of impeachment that were introduced by the House Democrats as Trump’s Kremlin pal Sergei Lavrov sat in the White House getting ready to help Trump steal yet another election. We discuss the grave threat this alliance poses to U.S. security, the need for the House to continue holding hearings, and what steps folks should take to fend off this attempted annihilation of our democracy by a transnational crime syndicate.

Never take democracy for granted! This week we discuss the last two weeks of impeachment hearings and the witnesses, among them several immigrant Americans who are experts on the former USSR and know all too well how fragile our freedom really is.

We discuss the lack of integrity in the 2016 election and potentially in the 2020 election, and Andrea interviews community organizer Deborah Porder of Indivisible Scarsdale about an initiative created in New York state to help secure our elections. Like Deborah and her Indivisible community, you can build a movement for election security where you live. 

Propaganda researcher Dr. Emma Briant discusses the role of far-right extremism, including Steve Bannon, in the alleged corruption that drove the Brexit vote.

For the entire duration of the Trump-Russia crime spree, the people who spoke out hardest – and paid the worst price – have been women. That trend continued this week with the testimony of national security advisor Fiona Hill, who reconfirmed what Gaslit Nation already knew (that Putin had been interested in Trump for ages) and paid the price with death threats.

There aren’t really words to describe the feeling of your worst suspicions being ceaselessly confirmed as your country crumbles around you, but we try to find them nonetheless on this week’s Gaslit Nation. In October 2018, we did an episode called Robert Mueller Will Not Save You in which we warned that the probe was far too lenient toward dangerous criminals. Now thanks to a FOIA-prompted document release from the intrepid reporters of Buzzfeed, we give you “Robert Mueller Will Not Save You (The Rem