Overlooked in the campus protests is the witch-trial hearings by MAGA Mike Johnson’s House that bullied university presidents and scrutinized their federal funding, pressuring them, as Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton famously wrote in the Newspaper of Power, to “send in the troops.” Ultimately, the responsiblity falls on campus leadership, with several schools, like Rutgers University and Northwestern University, choosing a peaceful approach, reminding us that another world, free of police...

The recording of the Gaslit Nation Make Art Workshop: The Business Side of Things is here along with the transcript in the show notes for our subscribers at the Truth-teller and higher. Not a subscriber? Sign up and join a community of listeners, get all shows ad free, bonus shows, exclusive invites, questions answered in our Q&As, and more by subscribing at the Truth-teller level and higher on Patreon.com/Gaslit!    In this special workshop, a follow-up to last fall’s Make Art...

Russia’s transnational crime syndicate uses our own weaknesses against us, to entrench their weaponized corruption. Take, for instance, the Act 22 tax loophole that lets rich Americans buy up land in Puerto Rico to avoid paying any money in federal taxes. It’s called “trickle down theory,” but the locals call it gentrification and tax dodging. So why is RT (Russia Today) latching on to a grassroots campaign to close the Act 22 tax loophole threatening to turn Puerto Rico into a dangerous...

With growing campus protests against the U.S. backing Netanyahu’s genocidal war to cling to power and the Democratic National Convention returning to Chicago this summer, it’s hard not to think of 1968. As this week’s guest, Ari Berman of Mother Jones, explains, the Founding Fathers of America set us up for cycles of fascism vs. democracy, cynicism vs. idealism.   It’s important to be aware of how social movements can be hijacked and weaponized. For that, read the essential 2017 piece in...

How do we protect ourselves from a corrupt Supreme Court? How can the gerrymandering crisis be stopped? What were the Founding Fathers thinking? Can the American Experiment survive?    Ari Berman of Mother Jones stops by Gaslit Nation to discuss his new book Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It. Berman shares insights into the troubling compromises that made the U.S. Constitution, the Koch-funded far-right plan to turn America into a...

House Speaker Mike Johnson, self-proclaimed champion for human rights and freedom, and enemy of dictators everywhere, inched closer to getting Ukraine aid after eight months of successfully delaying it, empowering Russia’s genocide. Kremlin state TV repeatedly praised Johnson for assisting their brutal invasion, which, as discussed in this week’s bonus show, emboldened Iran to unleash a shocking swarm of drones and missiles against Israel. The Ukraine aid package still faces delays, thanks...

Every dictator or wannabe dictator relies on a base of support to stay in power. For Putin, Orban, and Trump, their base is Christian nationalism – claiming God wants white, straight "Christian" men to rule, even if this means violently stripping all others of their human rights. (Nevermind what Jesus actually taught in the Gospels about loving thy neighbor!) The Republican Party has been taken over by Christian nationalists backed by American and Russian oligarchs, in a death cult commonly...

In this week’s bonus show, we dig into Israel and evangelicals, two fellow travelers that shaped U.S. politics and the world together. Many evangelicals believe God will protect Israel, as long as they accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, or they'll burn in hell with other nonbelievers when Jesus returns. That means the destruction of Israel, a Jewish state. Digging into Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch evangelical, and the other MAGA Christian nationalists blocking aid to Ukraine in...

Reminder! This Thursday, fight for your mind! To get inspired to make art and bring your projects across the finish line, join us for the Gaslit Nation LIVE Make Art Workshop this Thursday April 11 at 7pm EST – be sure to be subscribed at the Truth-teller level or higher to get your ticket to the event!    We also ask you to urge members of Congress to sign the discharge petitions to overcome MAGA’s blockade of Ukraine aid in the House. Use this handy site made by a Gaslit Nation listener...

This is an excerpt of this week's bonus show. To hear the full episode subscribe at the Truth-teller level or higher on Patreon.com/Gaslit. If you're already subscribed, be sure to grab our RSS feed on Patreon to never miss an episode! Mike Johnson is Lucy playing football with Charlie Brown. The MAGA Ken doll delayed the vote for Ukraine aid by several more weeks, coming through for Donald Trump, his MAGA cult of violence, and their Kremlin backers. Call it what it is: treason. In this...

If there’s one thing fascists love it’s using the threat of terrorism to rile up their base. The largest terrorist attack in Moscow in decades signals a resurgent ISIS, one that Trump and his MAGA cult will no doubt campaign off of, to “scare out” the vote. (The independent voter needed to win close states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin may not care about Netanyahu’s terrorism, only that committed by brown people). How will Trump and his longtime crime-partner Paul Manafort, rumored to...

For decades in its war on terror following 9/11 the U.S. government poured resources, including its own terror tactics, in combating Islamic radicalism during the rise of ISIS. Meanwhile, white domestic terrorism, fueled by extreme religious groups like white evangelicals, increasingly went unchecked, leading to Trump and his violent January 6 insurrection. Can those same far-right Chrstian extremists help Trump win the Electoral College?    This week’s bonus show, based on a listener's...

Gaslit Nation is recharging our batteries for the big election ahead so we're re-running a popular episode this week: Andrea's interview with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, the co-author of All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. Exclusively for our Patreon community we're publishing an all new bonus show this Saturday answering questions from our supporters at the Democracy Defender level and higher. Thank you to everyone who supports the show -- we could not make...

Congratulations, New York Times! Trump is the GOP nominee. Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman and Monique Camarra of the Kremlin File podcast join Andrea to discuss why the New York Times wants Trump to win, with coverage and an editorial board that normalizes his fascism.    The conversation includes a plan to defeat MAGA, the Bannon Strategy and what the Left can learn from it (without turning into a cult!), why we’re glad that Nikki Haley isn’t the GOP nominee either (she uses genocidal...

Gaslit Nation is recharging our batteries for the big election ahead so we're re-running a popular episode this week: Andrea's interview with her longtime friend and mentor, the journalist, filmmaker, and author Nelson George. Exclusively for our Patreon community we're publishing an all new bonus show this Saturday on how to stop MAGA. To our supporters at the Democracy Defender level and higher, submit your questions for our Q&A in the comments below or in a private message -- we always...

Welcome to Gaslit Nation where we name and shame! This week, meet the Kremlin Caucus and their financial backers. What started off with Putin groupie Dana Rohrabacher, a former Congressman from Orange County, has grown into a proud fascist movement threatening our democracy and Ukraine’s very survival.    Want to see the posh yearbook photos of the banality of evil? Check out the show notes below, listing the Kremlin Caucus members in the House and the Senate. Explore the many white faces...

Welcome to the Gaslit Nation State of the Union Super Special! This episode has everything! Suge Knight dissing Diddy at the 1995 Source Awards! World War II era journalist Dorothy Thompson’s warnings about Katie Britt! A dictator loving pope! George W. Bush’s pandora’s box of evil! A smirking Russian oligarch on the Oscars’ stage! You’ve never heard a state of our union analysis, and where we must go from here, quite like this.  Terrell Starr of the essential Black Diplomats Podcast and...

Warning: If you prefer to watch a film with a blank slate, don’t listen to this episode if you haven’t seen or read Killers of the Flower Moon. While it doesn’t give away spoilers or information that isn’t widely known, and the film itself will be a powerful discovery given the stunning directing, acting, and musical score, it does prepare you for an unforgettable experience with a crash course on the brutal history.    Andrea and Terrell Starr of the essential Black Diplomats Podcast and...

Remember when Jared Kushner tried in late 2016 to establish a secret back channel to talk to Russia? Jared and Ivanka ran the Trump transition team, with Paul Manafort operating from the shadows, where he blooms like mold, pretending to have taken a step back to avoid the heat of, well, having been outed by a Ukrainian investigative journalist for being a highly paid Kremlin operative. The latest back channel between the Trump Crime Cabal and Russia is Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán, the...

Gaslit Nation launched in 2018 to help build the Blue Wave, which set up progressive infrastructure that expands today, including in states like Kansas. In Virginia in 2023, our community produced one of the largest phone banks for Sister District, helping to get out the vote, flipping the Senate, and helping elect Danica Roem, the first transgender person to serve in the state Senate. We also protected abortion rights from Posh Trump Glenn Youngkin. An early September 2023 Gaslit Nation...

American taxpayers bailed out Citigroup, owners of Citibank, to the tune of $476.2 billion. This was the highest bailout by far for any bank during the 2008 Wall Street Crash, caused by Wall Street. Given the immense federal aid that saved Citibank, it should be no problem then for Citibank, built with the stolen wealth of slavery, to pay reparations, right?...Right?...   In this important discussion, David Montero, author of the new book The Stolen Wealth of Slavery: A Case for...

This week’s bonus show answers questions from our listeners at the Democracy Defender-level and higher, starting with incarceration rates in the U.S. vs. Russia. Spoiler alert: GOP-led states and swing states are as bad or worse than Russia, starting with Mike Johnson’s Louisiana. We look at prison incarceration rates and what they can tell us about the struggle for democracy in America, what we’re up against, and how to overcome it, and more, in this week’s bonus show.   There’s a lot to...

February 20 marks two years since Putin launched his total war in Ukraine. February also marks the assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, gunned down in the shadow of the Kremlin in 2015, on the eve of his anti-war march. And now Alexei Navalny, killed in a Siberian gulag, his body reportedly covered in bruises and kept from his family.    It may seem like Putin is winning, with Trump sailing into the Republican nomination, and MAGA lackey Mike Johnson deliberately...

This week’s bonus episode, for our subscribers at the Truth-tell level and higher on Patreon, features our audience Q&A at the live taping with Tristan Snell, a former New York state prosecutor who won the Trump University case, and author of the new book Taking Down Trump. Our discussion includes exposing Jeffery Epstein’s full network, how Trump back in the White House would impact our listeners in Canada, whether it’s time to launch an underground resistance, ways to put pressure on...