Gaslit Nation

• Nixon Ran so Trump Could Fly - TEASER

  In Part II of our conversation, Nick Schwellenbach, a Senior Investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, shares his insights from his time in the U.S. Office of Special Counsel–a government agency set up after Watergate, meant to protect us from the next Nixon. So, what happened?  In this week's bonus show, we're looking for checks-and-balances. With a grifter-in-chief enriching himself and his family, following in the footsteps of overthrown Kremlin-backed kleptocrat Viktor Yanukovych, we're especially curious about the Hatch Act–whatever happened to that? This Thanksgiving, we're grateful for our Gaslit Nation listeners with us in the fight of our lives, for a livable future for our families and the world. We wish you all a restful holiday season, as we charge up for battle in the 2026 Midterms–building another blue tsunami together. Join our community of listeners and get bonus shows, Q&A sessions, invites to exclusive events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, ad free listening, group chats with other listeners, ways to shape the show, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit! Art is a big source of our power. We're proud to share with you a Kickstarter by longtime Gaslit Nation listener Leslie Nuss to help her release her next album, Ride at Dawn. Check out and support her work here!: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leslienuss/ride-at-dawn-the-new-12-track-vinyl-lp-cd-by-leslie-nuss/posts   EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: December 1st 4pm ET – Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky + Total Resistance by H. Von Dach – Poetry and guerrilla strategy: tools for survival and defiance. Minnesota Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: join on Patreon.  Vermont Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: join on Patreon.  Arizona-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to connect, join on Patreon.  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, join on Patreon.  Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, join on Patreon.  Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community  

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• American Gestapo: Gregory Bovino's Border Patrol

  This week we go into the dark heart of American Gestapo: Gregory Bovino's Border Patrol, which pushes ICE to become even more aggressive in his fascist feverdream.  Here to help us make sense of this hellscape is Nick Schwellenbach, a Senior Investigator at the Project on Government Oversight and former Communications Director at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel–a government agency set up after Watergate, meant to protect us from the next Nixon–more on that in this week's bonus show out Thursday.  Bovino grew up a Border Patrol fanboy idolizing fascist fiction and now stalks American cities in a Nazi-style trench coat with a taxpayer-funded film crew glamorizing his violent raids. Like Trump is a showman, Bovino is cruelty as a recruitment tool to consolidate power. Under his un-checked leadership, his border patrol army operates deep inside the U.S., smashing car windows, kidnapping U.S. citizens, and rounding up tens of thousands of people, including veterans and children, into detention centers where deaths are spiking at unprecedented rates.  With the help of questions submitted by a Gaslit Nation listener (thank you, Isabel!) we go into all the pressing questions about Bovino's Border Patrol and also ICE, including what happened to the children who disappeared under Trump's first term and what can be done to protect vulnerable immigrants today? As you listen to this episode, which opens with a clip of Bovino justifying shooting protesters with pepper balls, keep in mind Republicans gave ICE, which works closely with Bovino's Border Patrol, $75 billion over the next four years. They're also operating under aggressive weekly quotas. But is their war chest also for general population control?  For our bonus episode this week, we look at the safeguards that could have prevented Trump's return and why they didn't. To listen to the bonus, subscribe to our Patreon at the Truth-Teller level ($5/month) or higher. We are extremely grateful to our listeners who are keeping us afloat during a very difficult economic time. Every bit of support helps give us the freedom to be independent and tell the truth, so thank you again for making Gaslit Nation possible! If America climbs out of this black hole, it will be because people like you, our Gaslit Nation listeners, refused to look away. Want to hear Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit! EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: December 1st 4pm ET – Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky + Total Resistance by H. Von Dach – Poetry and guerrilla strategy: tools for survival and defiance. Minnesota Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: join on Patreon.  Vermont Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: join on Patreon.  Arizona-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to connect, join on Patreon.  Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, join on Patreon.  Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, join on Patreon.  Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community Show Notes:   Where ICE Has Taken The Most People | On The Grid | WIRED https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD9ETC80HDA NPR report: This year was the deadliest since 2005 for people in ICE custody  https://www.expressnews.com/news/border-mexico/article/ice-deadliest-year-npr-21119815.php Big Budget Act Creates a "Deportation-Industrial Complex": The result will be a lopsided, enforcement-only machine that will be hard to dismantle. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/big-budget-act-creates-deportation-industrial-complex   Man arrested by Ice dies in jail cell in Long Island, New York: This article is more than 1 month old Officials in Nassau county confirmed death of 42-year-old man to Newsday but declined to share details https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/19/ice-death-long-island-ny   Trump officials launch ICE effort to deport unaccompanied migrant children https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-directs-ice-agents-find-deport-unaccompanied-migrant-2025-02-23/ Federal judge says border patrol chief admitted he lied, in ruling limiting federal agents' use of force in Chicago https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/us/gregory-bovino-deposition-chicago-immigration   Greg Bovino's Border Patrol Agents Use Disproportionate Force, Data Shows https://www.pogo.org/investigations/greg-bovinos-border-patrol-agents-use-disproportionate-force-data-shows   Fighting for a government that serves the people. https://www.pogo.org/   8-year-old girl dies in Border Patrol custody in Texas, as agency struggles with overcrowding https://apnews.com/article/border-patrol-child-custody-death-harlingen-2e2b27eeb3da669ee17241b8b3ee9ee2   Detainee Death Reporting https://www.ice.gov/detain/detainee-death-reporting   CBP Fatal Encounters Tracker https://www.aclutx.org/en/cbp-fatal-encounters-tracker   FACT FOCUS: Claims that more than 300,000 migrant children are missing lack context https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-migrant-children-missing-7ab0cea2fd2238346197429e952baa8b   How they did it: The New York Times exposes migrant child labor exploitation across 50 states https://journalistsresource.org/media/migrant-children-labor-abuse-goldmith/   Homeland Security agents rescue migrant teen sisters from sex traffickers — after they arrived in US as unaccompanied minors https://nypost.com/2025/04/29/us-news/hsi-agents-rescue-teen-migrant-sisters-from-sex-traffickers/   Gaps in Sponsor Screening and Followup Raise Safety Concerns for Unaccompanied Children https://oig.hhs.gov/reports/all/2024/gaps-in-sponsor-screening-and-followup-raise-safety-concerns-for-unaccompanied-children/   Trump's False Claim of Missing Immigrant Children  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/16/trump-false-claim-missing-immigrant-children   Under Joe Biden, Have 85,000 Undocumented Children Gone 'Missing'? https://www.newsweek.com/under-joe-biden-undocumented-children-missing-1812728   Democratic Women's Caucus Open Letter https://juliabrownley.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/dwc-letter-to-dhs-on-ice-impersonators-and-women-s-safety.pdf   How ICE Raids Are Making It Easier for Civilian Men to Assault Immigrant Women: Kylie Cheung argues in this op-ed that a rash of cases of men dressing as plainclothes ICE agents and assaulting immigrant women is possible because ICE agents operate with impunity. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/men-dressed-as-ice-agents-to-assault-immigrant-women-horrifying-trend   Houston man pretended to be ICE agent to rob driver, charging docs allege https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/houston-ice-agent-robbery-20395157.php   North Dakota man accused of impersonating an ICE officer when jail staff released an inmate to him https://apnews.com/article/north-dakota-immigration-williston-ice-agent-f89f0f070e5c39cd763a5018017ff332 US sees spate of arrests of civilians impersonating Ice officers https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/28/civilians-impersonating-ice-officers   ICE Annual Report Fiscal Year 2022 https://www.ice.gov/doclib/eoy/iceAnnualReportFY2022.pdf Border agent charged with child sex trafficking, fraud in Cochise County https://tucson.com/news/local/border/article_5e596767-4575-485b-88e8-0a6265e5bb41.html The Green Monster: How the Border Patrol became America's most out-of-control law enforcement agency. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/border-patrol-the-green-monster-112220/ FBI Warns of Criminals Posing as ICE, Urges Agents to ID Themselves: In a bulletin to law enforcement agencies, the FBI said criminal impersonators are exploiting ICE's image and urged nationwide coordination to distinguish real operations from fakes. https://www.wired.com/story/fbi-warns-of-criminals-posing-as-ice-urges-agents-to-id-themselves/ How a tragic family secret turned Greg Bovino from a quiet country boy into the force of Trump's unflinching border patrol crackdown https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15288355/greg-bovino-border-patrol-family-secret-donald-trump-immigration.html Revealed: Trump administration retreats on combating human trafficking and child exploitation https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/17/trump-human-trafficking-programs-cut Trump administration takes hundreds of migrant children out of their homes, into government custody https://archive.ph/qc65g#selection-2109.7-2109.106 Oversight Agency Says 32,000 Unaccompanied Children Are Missing. But Are They? https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/are-32000-unaccompanied-children-missing/  Judge rules against Department of Homeland Security: "Given the inconsistencies between the BWC footage and the use of force reports, with the BWC footage undermining what agents put in their reports, the Court cannot rely on Parra's [who is Bovino's deputy] broad generalizations of protesters' actions or Defendants' responses to those actions. Turning to Bovino, the Court specifically finds his testimony not credible.  Bovino appeared evasive over the three days of his deposition, either providing "cute" responses to Plaintiffs' counsel's questions or outright lying." "To the extent that agents use ChatGPT to create their use of force reports, this further undermines their credibility and may explain the inaccuracy of these reports when viewed in light of the BWC footage." https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571/gov.uscourts.ilnd.487571.281.0_3.pdf

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• The Holodomor: Stalin's Deadliest Weapon

  November is a month when communities around the world commemorate the Holodomor–Stalin's genocide famine in Ukraine that, in 1933, starved millions to death, the vast majority of them Ukrainians. Conservative estimates place the death toll at 3.9 million. During the famine, a death certificate listed the cause of death simply as "Ukrainian." In the years leading up to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine today, Vladimir Putin's KGB dictatorship revived the cult of mass-murdering dictator Joseph Stalin–producing propaganda textbooks, putting up Stalin statues, and outlawing acknowledgment of the fact that Stalin helped launch World War II by invading Poland two weeks after Nazi Germany, then holding joint military parades with the Nazis. Stalin monuments and billboards are today in regions of Ukraine under Russian occupation. Back in the early 1930s, as Stalin laid the groundwork for his man-made famine–a diabolically efficient way of killing millions before the invention of the atomic bomb–the New York Times praised his regime. Walter Duranty, the paper's Moscow bureau chief, won a Pulitzer for Soviet propaganda and went on to gaslight readers by insisting, "There is no famine." Challenging the media establishment, political elites, and industry leaders eager to profit from helping Stalin modernize his empire was a young Welsh journalist, Gareth Jones. Idealistic and courageous, he risked his life and career to become a vital independent witness to the genocide. His story is told in the film Mr. Jones and in the award-winning graphic novel In the Shadow of Stalin: The Story of Mr. Jones. The film was developed with support from historical advisors, including Timothy Snyder, whose classic Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin opens with Jones's story. To commemorate the Holodomor this year, we're sharing the audio from a video interview from September 2024 featuring In the Shadow of Stalin: The Story of Mr. Jones, which recently won a Ringo Award for Best Nonfiction and received the honor of being a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. (You can find the video in the show notes). Andrea Chalupa of Gaslit Nation, the writer/producer of the Mr. Jones film and comic In the Shadow of Stalin, speaks with Anastasia Ulanowicz, an Associate Professor of English at the University of Florida who specializes in comics as a medium for personal and historical memory. If you're looking for a way to help Ukraine, consider purchasing a copy of In the Shadow of Stalin: The Story of Mr. Jones for your local school or library. Hundreds of copies have already been given to members of Congress and sold to raise funds for Razom for Ukraine–Andrea has given away so many copies that she will never see any royalties for this as those books must be paid off to the publisher to cover their costs. When you purchase a book to give away to raise awareness, you're supporting Ukraine, not the author. Any effort to help spread this story is deeply appreciated. For those who haven't seen Mr. Jones, it's available here, and Andrea's short documentary Stalin's Secret Genocide–which screened at the United Nations in 2016 and features Timothy Snyder; Anne Applebaum; Norman Naimark of Stanford, author of Stalin's Genocides; Serhii Plokhii of Harvard, author of The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine; and other leading historians–is available here. Thank you to everyone who continues to raise their voices for Ukraine during the country's existential fight for survival–and for the freedom of the world against Russian fascist lawlessness.   Show Notes: Buy a copy for your local school or library: In the Shadow of Stalin: The Story of Mr. Jones By Andrea Chalupa, Illustrated by Ivan Rodrigues https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/In-the-Shadow-of-Stalin-The-Story-of-Mr-Jones/Andrea-Chalupa/9781637152775   Watch the video discussion of the Mr. Jones graphic novel In the Shadow of Stalin: The Story of Mr. Jones:  https://education.holodomor.ca/new-webinar-holodomor-hot-off-the-press/   Watch Stalin's Secret Genocide: https://youtu.be/Sr5WkhEiqcY   Where to watch Mr. Jones http://www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/mr-jones/   Music: Prayer for Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn0_p1ZR3hg&list=RDzn0_p1ZR3hg&start_radio=1

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• Elect Better Democrats

  Here's a clip from last week's Gaslit Nation Salon, where I lay out what it will take for us to stop reactionary elections that punish whichever party is in power: the political pendulum swinging between Christian nationalists to establishment Democrats back to Christian nationalists. If we're serious about defeating fascism and overcoming the many crises we face, we need real political stability built from the ground up, not another cycle of rage-voting whiplash. Because if we don't confront these systemic issues, the voters will continue to punish whichever party is in power, and, as we saw in 2016 and 2024, this just makes everything worse, for everyone.  The clip also unpacks my conversation with the great E. Jean Carroll, an interview that sparked a lot of questions and debate among our listeners. You can listen to the full interview here on Patreon, here, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Last week's full salon discussion will be available on Monday morning for our Patreon members, along with a Zoom link for Monday's salon at 4pm ET. Come vent or tell us what's happening in your corner of the country.  EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: December 1st 4pm ET Book Club Discussion – Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky + Total Resistance by H. Von Dach – Poetry and guerrilla strategy: tools for survival and defiance. Minnesota Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: available on Patreon. Vermont Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: available on Patreon. Arizona-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to connect: available on Patreon. Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join: available on Patreon. Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group: available on Patreon. Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community Coming soon! Patreon members at the Democracy Defender ($10/month) tier and higher will receive a PDF of Andrea's book Orwell and The Refugees: The Untold Story of Animal Farm.  Coming soon! Patreon members at the Fact Checker ($25/month) tier and higher will receive a new behind-the-scenes look of Mr. Jones, directed by three-time Academy Award-nominee Agnieszka Holland.  Mrs. Orwell – Andrea's new graphic novel on Eileen O'Shaughnessy Blair, the Irish-English poet, wife, and muse of George Orwell who made him into the artist he always longed to be, is out in April. Pre-order your copy here. Patreon supporters at the Freedom Fighter ($50/month) tier and higher will receive signed copies.  Thank you to everyone who supports the show – we could not make Gaslit Nation without you. 

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• Trump's Crypto Scheme to Sell Ukraine to Russia - TEASER

  In this extremely enraged episode of Follow the Money, we ask the only question that actually matters in Trump's second crime spree through history: who is getting rich off of Trump chaos and the world's misery? Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman of Trump Tyranny Tracker and Andrea Chalupa of Gaslit Nation together trace a financial pipeline of blood money that runs from the Kremlin, through Qatar, through crypto, straight into Trump World and its favorite oligarch bagmen.  While Ukrainian kids are protesting, begging the world not to look away as Russia bombs their playgrounds and kindergartens, Trump's MAGA lackeys, like Matt Gaetz protege Rep. Anna Luna, are in Florida huddling with Putin's money man and messenger, Kirill Dmitriev, sketching out yet another fake "peace plan" that is nothing but a genocide plan for Ukraine and a launchpad for a larger war with Europe. In a blatant crime of access journalism that would make Michael Wolff jealous, Axios published Kremlin/MAGA disinformation by calling it a "peace proposal." In reality, it's a Kremlin bribe: sell off Ukraine's land, launder the theft through "diplomacy," and cash out in crypto for Trump and his longtime real estate buddy-turned-Kremlin fixer Steve Witkoff, and their sons.  Their plan is for Ukraine to give up Donbas and Crimea, which suffers under Soviet-style repression, disarm Ukraine' military, and expect the world to recognize stolen land as Russian. In exchange, Trump, Witkoff, and their sons would allegedly get crypto via Qatar and a chance to turn genocide into an investment opportunity. All of this is happening while Russia openly kidnaps Ukrainian children, erases their identities, and feeds them into a military pipeline of Putin's forever war, while half of Europe anxiously prepares for war with Moscow.  Follow the money, and you see the gaslighting of Trump once again being bribed to call the Kremlin's foreign policy his own.  Be sure to follow us on our new YouTube channel to help us get the word out about Follow the Money! https://www.youtube.com/@FollowTheMoneyTrail Want to hear bonus shows and listen to Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for live events like our Monday 4pm ET salons over Zoom, bonus shows, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit! Show Notes: Trump Tyranny Tracker: https://trumptyrannytracker.substack.com/ Putin ally suggests Seychelles meeting with Erik Prince more than chance encounter over a beer https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/putin-ally-seychelles-meeting-erik-prince-chance-encounter/story?id=55408942 The Story Behind Jared Kushner's Curious Acceptance Into Harvard https://www.propublica.org/article/the-story-behind-jared-kushners-curious-acceptance-into-harvard Kushner got emails about WikiLeaks, Russia in 2016, lawmakers say https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/16/jared-kushner-wikileaks-emails-245197 Trump's Mideast Envoy Steve Witkoff & Sons Blur Peace & Profit, from Real Estate to Crypto Deals https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/3/debra_kamin_steve_witkoff_real_estate Trump and special envoy Witkoff stand to reap rewards from official business https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/30/trump-steve-witkoff-envoy George Nader arrested on child pornography charges: Nader, a well-connected Middle East fixer, accused of having sexually explicit pictures of children on his mobile phone. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/6/4/george-nader-arrested-on-child-pornography-charges Former Trump lobbyist from Lake Norman charged with distribution of child porn https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/former-trump-lobbyist-lake-norman-193651678.html Maryland delegate for Trump charged with child pornography and possession of illegal gun and explosives https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/19/politics/trump-delegate-child-porn-gun-explosives Former Trump Commerce Department official and Turning Point USA ex-employee sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for child pornography possession https://www.businessinsider.com/former-trump-commerce-official-pleads-guilty-child-porn-charge-2022-10 Former GOP Hill aide pleads guilty in child porn case Ruben Verastigui, 27, faces 12 years or more in prison under a deal with prosecutors. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/09/former-hill-aide-pleads-guilty-child-porn-498937

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