Gaslit Nation

Andrea joins Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman to expose the transnational looting spree and warn Stephen Miller will turn Venezuela into a new Alcatraz. First, we look at who stands to get rich off Trump's illegal invasion. Devin Nunes and a squad of Trump Media cronies just took over a company that tried to bid $10 billion for Citgo, Venezuela's oil crown jewel, right as their boss plotted a secret invasion. So who  won Citgo? Why, MAGA billionaire Paul Singer, a vulture capitalist who serves as Trump's ATM and hand-picked Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. Who else is a big winner? The Republican Party's longtime backers, Exxon. Just as Trump hoped invading Venezuela would boost his plummeting approval ratings, Maduro threatened to invade oil-rich Guyana to distract from his own corruption. Now that Maduro is no longer harassing Exxon in Guyana, Exxon's stocks are soaring along with the rest of Big Oil. But the darkest "follow the money" story goes beyond oil. The private prison industry rakes in a fortune thanks to Trump's cruelty. El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison holds 40,000, but Trump and Stephen Miller want space for 80,000 people kidnapped from the U.S. Construction takes years; so Venezuela offers the obvious solution: the "New Alcatraz." Outsourcing prisoners to a lawless, torture-filled transnational Gulag, a story censored by Bari Weiss's CBS News, is the most troubling crisis of MAGA's illegal invasion of Venezuela and co-rule with a violent oil mafia. There's always hope, but it requires a blueprint and courage. The Venezuelan people proved their 2024 election victory through heroic citizen vote-counting: a model of resistance that we in the U.S. must study to reclaim our own democracy. We must align with these transnational forces for good to dismantle the global crime syndicate. We warned you this would happen. Now, we must organize, stand up, and remain defiant.  Show Notes: Devin Nunes and others linked to Trump Media became officers of a company soon after it made an unsuccessful $10 billion bid for Venezuelan-state-owned Citgo Petroleum's U.S. assets by Wendy Siegelman https://newstracs.com/devin-nunes-and-others-linked-to-trump-media-are-officers-of-a-company-that-bid-for-citgo/2026/01/01/ Learn from Venezuela's opposition: The Official Unofficial Record How do you count almost 12 million votes if you're not the government? This week, we bring you the extraordinary story of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who created the only verifiable public record of votes in their presidential election — and other stories of people trying to correct the official record with their own versions. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/848/the-official-unofficial-record Olga Lautman's Trump Tyranny Tracker: https://trumptyrannytracker.substack.com/  Venezuela raid enriches MAGA billionaire: The ouster of Maduro is a financial windfall for a prominent Trump-supporting billionaire, investor Paul Singer. https://open.substack.com/pub/popularinformation/p/venezuela-raid-enriches-maga-billionaire?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email Opening clip: https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3mbmostp3xk2j CNN Data Guru Reveals Trump's Devastating Drop in Approval Rating https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/cnn-data-guru-reveals-trump-105250680.html Trump admin sends tough private message to oil companies on Venezuela: The White House has told companies they must rebuild Venezuela's crude-pumping infrastructure if they want compensation for assets seized by Caracas. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/03/trump-venezuela-oil-us-companies-return-00709782 The U.S.-Venezuela-Guyana Oil Triangle https://drilled.media/news/guyana-venezuela Gabbard abruptly ousted CIA Russia expert days after Trump-Putin meeting https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/28/politics/gabbard-abruptly-ousted-cia-russia-expert-days-after-trump-putin-meeting Tulsi Gabbard's history with Russia is even more concerning than you think https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tulsi-gabbard-russian-connection-dni-trump-syria-b2692244.html Join our community of listeners and get bonus shows, ad free listening, group chats with other listeners, ways to shape the show, invites to exclusive events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Discounted annual memberships are available. Become a Democracy Defender at Patreon.com/Gaslit!  

With Trump's unpunished coup, we officially entered a New World Order. And it's a lot like the car-bomb 1990s in Russia–a lawless era where the biggest oligarch wins. But the crisis is bigger than Trump. It also comes down to the American elite hitting the panic button on China. While China secures global influence through infrastructure and green tech, the U.S. has reverted to the Monroe Doctrine. We are seeing this with the illegal invasion of Venezuela and the impending invasions of Greenland and Mexico. The objective is resource acquisition: oil from the south and rare earth minerals from the north. Their premature celebrations and promise of big oil money are Bush/Cheney hubris. Successfully extracting Venezuela's famously challenging oil would require major oil giants to commit roughly $10 billion annually in a viper's den of Russian intelligence agents and fierce anti-American resistance, thanks to generations of traumatic American foreign policy in the region. The Venezuela crisis is larger than Trump, as Andrea explains in this recording from Monday's salon with Gaslit Nation listeners. The American empire is throwing a violent tantrum against Chinese global dominance. This leaves Europe abandoned to fight Russian terrorism and genocidal imperialism on its own. And once again, the arrogant Washington, D.C. elite think tank world underestimates Russia–the same stupidity that helped bring Trump to power in the first place, with the Kremlin's illegal help. Trump and the Pentagon are banking on "shock and awe" to normalize their grab for resources. They want us to accept this lawlessness as the status quo. We must refuse. We must own our agency and demand a future defined by democracy and the global community, not the violent whims of the highest bidder. January 6 is a day of national mourning and rage. Commemorate this dark day by shining your light into the world. Find ideas to fight back at the Gaslit Nation Action Guide. And see you at Monday's Salon at 4pm ET on Patreon. 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!  

Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to the very first Gaslit Nation episode of 2026, one of the most consequential years for humanity, because the world is about to find out whether American democracy survives Donald Trump and his MAGA crime cult. Will they try to steal the midterms? Will Trump attempt another January 6-style power grab as 2028 approaches? Stick with Gaslit Nation as we fight back and build a new American revolution, one act of hope and defiance at a time. This special bonus show, made for our Patreon community, highlights a thoughtful question from Ken B., a listener and Democracy Defender supporter on Patreon. Ken asks us to focus on a dangerously undercovered issue: the GOP's coordinated effort to loot America's public lands. From rolling back the Roadless Rule to gutting park budgets and opening millions of acres to extraction, Trump and his donors are positioning massive areas of national parks and forests for a sell-off.  Ken, thank you for your insights, and thank you to all of our listeners who keep our show going. Your questions shape our show. If you want to submit your questions, comments, and hear them on the show, subscribe at the Democracy Defender tier or higher on Patreon.com/Gaslit.  If you want to hear this full episode, including our three major predictions for 2026 and what they mean for democracy, join us on Patreon. Get ready for another big year of the people fighting back. 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!    

We close out this year from hell with a grounded kind of hope, not wishful thinking. Ushering us into a better new year is a montage of organizers, journalists, and activists reminding us that history isn't finished, and that power has always been built from the ground up. We end with a simple reminder: convert hope into power through solidarity, defiance, and showing up, again and again. Be relentless, like water eroding rock. That is how we win.  As we face the year ahead together, what's giving you hope right now? 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! Show Notes: Erica Smiley — "Building Real Democracy Starts on the Shop Floor" (8/26/2025) Katherine Stewart — "Money, Lies and God" (3/5/2025) Gil Duran — "Nerd Reich" (3/11/2025) Carter Sherman — "Brett Kavanaugh is Ruining People's Sex Lives" (7/1/2025) Sandi Bachom — "Nazi Hunting" (3/25/2025) Mona Eltahawy — "Smash the Patriarchy with Rage and Risk" (8/12/2025) Irin Carmon — "Unbearable: The War on Women" (10/28/2025) Kate Manne — "Naming the Rot: Kate Man Exposes the Lies Holding up the Patriarchy" (8/5/2025) Leah Litman — "Lawless" (5/20/2025) Shawn Werner (Sister District) — "The Midterms Start Now: Virginia is a Belweather" (9/23/2025) Ahmed Gatnash — "Power, Profits and Protest: Trump, Russia and the Middle East" (9/16/2025) Andrea Chalupa — "Nature Always Wins" (5/6/2025)

In this quick update, Andrea shares a dream she had about Ukrainian dissident poet Vasyl Stus, killed in a Russian labor camp in the 1980s, and whose poetry and human rights campaigns helped lay the groundwork for a free Ukraine. In a time of rampant gaslighting, it's never been more important to believe our eyes and ears, and honor our intuition. Pay attention to your dreams; it will help you endure and overcome.   If you're finding moments to rest and binge this holiday season, here are two documentary recommendations: First, Amy Berg's It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a haunting intimate tribute to the late musician whose voice and powerful songwriting are otherworldly. For something totally different, check out Murder in Monaco, a chilling true-crime documentary about the murder of mega-banker Edmund Safra. It exposes the Russian-mafia viper den of Monaco. See you at today's Gaslit Nation Salon at 4pm ET. Look for the Zoom link on Patreon.com/Gaslit.