Gaslit Nation

How do we take our democracy back from the oligarchs and build a livable future? When we're up against all the money in the world, what is our leverage? And what does an economy based on human dignity look like? Economist Isabella Weber joins Gaslit Nation to discuss the urgent answers in her new book, Anti-Fascist Economics: In Defense of Affordability, Dignity, and Democracy. 
Weber grew up in Nuremberg, Germany, an ancient city--important for the Holy Roman Empire--which is why the Nazis chose it to launch the Third Reich, with their racist Nuremberg Laws and fascist pageantry rallies. Witnessing the scars of that nightmare, she studied the history of how business elites empower fascism to crush workers and keep them in line. History repeats today with American oligarchs and high-powered law firms cozying up to Trump as his goon squad, ICE, disappears people off the street, and to concentration camps, and his regime weaponizes the government against dissidents and elections. 
We discuss the oligarchs' revolt of threatening to leave states that dare to force them to pay their fair share in taxes, how FDR won the war against wannabe oligarchs as a national security urgency of protecting democracy, the chilling legacy of Joe McCarthy's Red Scare, how to confront the weaponization of greed used by Russian oligarchs to hijack democracies, and much more. To listen to our full discussion, grab your discounted annual membership at Patreon.com/Gaslit or GaslitNation.Substack.com – thank you to everyone who supports our independent journalism during these difficult times. It means a lot. 
Fight back with Gaslit Nation: Join our Halloween phonebank with Indivisible this Wednesday, October 28 at 6pm ET. RSVP here: https://indivisible.org/events/indivisible-and-gaslit-nation-halloween-phone-bank-party/
Help Ukraine make it through the winter. Bid on these items, including the chance to develop your own story with Andrea, to benefit Razom for Ukraine. Check out our silent auction here: https://givebutter.com/c/Gaslit-Razom/auction
Haunt Steven Bannon's nightmares with us. Pre-order Andrea's new book, A Reasonable Guide for Unreasonable Women: 20 Steps to Find Your Purpose and Power in a World on Fire, from your local bookstore or BookShop.org. Forward your receipt to GaslitNation@gmail.com for a pre-order gift and a signed book plate to turn your first edition into a signed copy. Pre-order here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807202/a-reasonable-guide-for-unreasonable-women-by-andrea-chalupa/
Program this voter protection number into your phone: 1-866-OUR VOTE // 866-687-8683 https://866ourvote.org/
 
Show Notes:
Anti-Fascist Economics, by Isabella Weber https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/804175/anti-fascist-economics-by-isabella-weber/
Isabella Weber on Anti-Fascist Economics: https://www.isabellaweber.com/anti-fascist-economics
Germany's Far-Right Achieves an Electoral Breakthrough in Key State Election https://www.wunc.org/2026-09-06/germanys-far-right-achieves-an-electoral-breakthrough-in-key-state-election
Sheinbaum, Business Sector Agree to Lower Basic Food Prices https://mexiconewsdaily.com/?p=409456
Oil Companies Made $200 Billion in Profits in 2022. Here's How https://www.cnbc.com/video/2023/03/03/oil-companies-made-200-billion-in-profits-in-2022.html
Address at Madison Square Garden, October 31, 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-madison-square-garden-new-york-city-1
Political Aspects of Full Employment, by Michał Kalecki https://mronline.org/2010/05/22/political-aspects-of-full-employment/
Mark Zuckerberg Makes Deal With Meta to Help Him Pay California Billionaire Tax, If It Passes https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/ap-top-news/2026/10/22/mark-zuckerberg-makes-deal-with-meta-to-help-him-pay-california-billionaire-tax-if-it-passes0
Meta Apologizes After Suspending "No Kings" Instagram Account https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/10/19/meta-apologizes-after-suspending-no-kings-instagram-account
Trump's DOJ Investigating Suspiciously Well-Timed Trades https://thedailybeast.com/trumps-doj-investigating-suspiciously-well-timed-trades/
Mysterious Trading Patterns Follow Trump Into War https://axios.com/2026/03/25/trump-iran-oil-insider-trading
The Rise of End Times Fascism, by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, Article 1 https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.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 or GaslitNation.Substack.com

We're opening today's Gaslit Nation Salon at 4pm ET with a sneak peak at Matthew Cole's damning new book on Dutch intelligence hacking Jared Kushner and discovery that the corruption is so much worse than even we thought. Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East is explosive. Kushner and the whole Kremlin Klown Kar used illegal means to come to power and stay in power--they should be in prison.
Be a part of that conversation and join our live-audience Q&As every Monday at the Gaslit Nation at 4pm by grabbing your membership at Patreon.com/Gaslit or GaslitNation.Substack.com -- thank you to everyone who supports our independent journalism. 
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 or GaslitNation.Substack.com.

Welcome to the future! It's a lot like today: looting sprees at the top–by hedge funds; looting sprees by protesters in the streets. It will take all of us in a popular uprising, led by real leaders, like AOC, not self-serving politicians like Ro Khanna, to get us out of this. Gaslit Nation is here to help you stay grounded in this week's bonus show looking at why you can't trust Ro, the Paris protests, Trump's lifeline to Putin's failing invasion of Ukraine, and more. 
But first, congratulations to Jared Kushner for finally becoming just another Russian oligarch with an Israeli passport. There's hope for other nepo-baby trust fund kids whose parents had to buy their way into the ivy league. More on that in our news round-up – there is just so much news we had to share what we couldn't cover in the bonus instead in the show notes. 
Here is your World War III news round-up:
Vanity Fair published an excerpt of investigative journalist Matthew Cole's new book, Princes and Thieves Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East. Kushner and a lawyer at the DOJ both responded by threatening legal action, which they will never do, because that would lead to discovery–revealing even more dirty secrets. What's not a secret, as Cole's book confirms once again, Kushner, with his no-longer-secret bank accounts, is dangerously corrupt: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Princes-and-Thieves/Matthew-Cole/9781668095324

Matthew Cole's damning book into Jared Kushner's illegal Middle East cash machine confirms once again that Kushner is illegally operating as an unregistered foreign agent and must be prosecuted: https://newrepublic.com/post/216985/jared-kushner-phone-hack-middle-east-dictators

Prosecute Jared Kushner: "'It's not complicated,' the Kushner acquaintance told me. 'All the Middle Eastern countries invest in Jared's fund, and they suck his dick, so they can get political favors from the Trump Administration.'" https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/21/jared-kushners-dollar-diplomacy

Amid Starlink crisis, Finnish tech giants announce plan to help Ukraine build its own sovereign satellite system https://kyivindependent.com/amid-starlink-crisis-finnish-tech-giants-announce-plan-to-help-ukraine-build-its-own-sovereign-satellite-system/

Ukraine Evidence Hub documents war crimes: https://ukraine-evidence.org/?src=x

A message from Prairieland Defendant Elizabeth Soto from Johnson County, where her state case is currently pending. https://x.com/DFWSupCommittee/status/2112967468453069153

The US Military's Notorious 'Heat Ray' Is Headed for the Border https://www.laserwars.net/p/military-heat-ray-souther-border-mexico

Unvetted AI agents are accessing U.S. bank accounts https://www.laserwars.net/p/military-heat-ray-souther-border-mexico

Kremlin darling Anna Paulina Luna's Husband Owns 10 Percent of Drone Startup That Got $37 Million in Pentagon Deals https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/10/anna-paulina-luna-husband-andrew-gamberzky-nokturnal-ai-oksi-drone-startup-pentagon-contracts/

Former CIA official with Top Secret clearance admits to $194 million fraud, including 298 gold bars and four luxury South Florida properties https://fortune.com/2026/10/06/cia-official-top-secret-clearance-gold-bars-194-million-fraud/?utm_campaign=social_share

Italy Is Looking Into Whether Russian Agents Helped Fuel Riots https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-21/italy-is-looking-into-whether-russian-agents-helped-fuel-riots

Trump DOJ's Fraud Snitch Scheme Instantly Backfires https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-dojs-fraud-snitch-scheme-instantly-backfires

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 or GaslitNation.Substack.com

Voting rights legend David Walbert joins Gaslit Nation to discuss the long history of bloodless coups in America. His new book, Stealing Elections, American Style, opens in 1876, when Louisiana threw out enough votes to steal the White House for Rutherford B. Hayes, the white supremacist who, as president, stopped Reconstruction.
How do we stop today's MAGA coup, which – given January 6 – is hardly bloodless? How can we "vote harder" and "vote blue, no matter who" when our vote is suppressed? Walbert, who won Rogers v. Lodge at the Supreme Court in 1982 – protecting the votes of marginalized communities – and has fought Georgia's rigged maps for five decades, shares tactics and insights for us today to overcome the new Jim Crow.
If you don't exercise your rights, you lose them. So vote early, make sure five people in your life have a plan to vote, and talk to your neighbors, especially those who skip the Midterms. Then haunt Elon Musk's nightmares with us at our Halloween phone bank with Indivisible October 28 for Angie Nixon, Florida's next US Senator. Fight for Angie like Angie will fight for us! RSVP here and in the show notes.
Paul Weiss folded for $40 million. Gaslit Nation can't be bought, because it belongs to our listeners. To hear the full episode, support Gaslit Nation on Patreon and Substack. Discounted annual memberships are available, and on Patreon you can give the gift of membership.
Burn down the patriarchy, build something new. Pre-order Andrea's new book, A Reasonable Guide for Unreasonable Women, out November 24 (new date!), and forward your receipt to GaslitNation@gmail.com for a thank-you gift and a signed book plate.
Show Notes
Want a plan to bash the patriarchy? Live your most creative life and help build a better world with Andrea's new book, A Reasonable Guide for Unreasonable Women: 20 Steps to Find Your Purpose and Power in a World on Fire: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807202/a-reasonable-guide-for-unreasonable-women-by-andrea-chalupa/
Join the Gaslit Nation x Indivisible phonebank! https://indivisible.org/events/indivisible-and-gaslit-nation-halloween-phone-bank-party/
Stealing Elections, American Style, by David F. Walbert: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/stealing-elections-american-style-9798216391999/
David F. Walbert: https://davidfwalbert.com/
Gaslit Nation x Indivisible Halloween Phone Bank for Angie Nixon, October 28: https://indivisible.org/events/indivisible-and-gaslit-nation-halloween-phone-bank-party/
The Vote That Made the President, by David Dudley Field (1877) on the Louisiana returning board: https://gutenberg.org/files/30231/old/30231-h/30231-h.htm
2026 United States Senate Elections: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_Senate_elections
FBI Raids Fulton County Office for Records Tied to 2020 Election: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2026/01/28/fbi-executes-search-warrant-fulton-county-main-election-office/
Supreme Court of Georgia Strikes Down Four State Election Rules: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/06/10/supreme-court-georgia-strikes-down-four-state-election-rules/
The Supreme Court's Death Blow Against Voting Rights Is the Culmination of John Roberts's 50-Year Crusade: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/jon-roberts-callais-v-louisiana-supreme-court-voting-rights/
The Supreme Court's Callais Decision Sets New Framework for Racial Gerrymandering: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-supreme-courts-callais-decision-sets-new-framework-for-racial-gerrymandering
Were Three of the Sitting Supreme Court Justices Involved in the Bush v. Gore Legal Disputes? : https://gigafact.org/fact-briefs/were-three-of-the-sitting-supreme-court-justices-involved-in-the-bush-v-gore-legal-disputes
Naked City: Bush's Own Texas Recount Law: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/naked-city-11707297/
When the Votes Were Recounted in Florida, Who Won?: https://www.factcheck.org/?p=19621
Reagan Judge Slams Trump While Calling for Defense of Rights https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/reagan-judge-blasts-trump-while-calling-for-defense-of-rights
Law Firm Targeted by Trump Could Have Been 'Destroyed,' Chairman Says: https://www.ksat.com/news/politics/2025/03/23/law-firm-targeted-by-trump-could-have-been-destroyed-chairman-says-in-explaining-deal-with-trump/
We Don't Know Who Will Win the House. That's Because the Maps Are Rigged: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/we-dont-know-who-will-win-house-thats-because-maps-are-rigged
Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins: https://rmwfilm.org/films/raise-hell-the-life-and-times-of-molly-ivins/

The GOP/MAGA's policies are so unpopular that they depend on stealing elections to stay in power. This week, Andrea is joined by Leah Greenberg, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, to discuss ways to safeguard our vote in a time of Jim Crow 2.0. 
Gaslit Nation opens this week's show with Ukraine's response to Trump/Putin trying to force Ukraine to surrender and blaming Zelensky for all of America's crises under Trump: by bombing three data centers/bot farms in Russia weeks before the midterms. Russian-powered MAGA bots have fallen silent on social media, right when the GOP depends on them to rot brains and manipulate our elections. We also must point out: this is a historic first of the United States and Russia joining together to try to force regime change and oust a democratically elected leader in violation of that nation's constitution. You're under Russian occupation, America. We warned you!
What's the best way to fight back against Trump/Putin' s global war of sadistic fascism against democracy? 
Fight like hell in these midterms to take back Congress and demand that our new leadership hold Trump/Putin accountable: 
Step 1: Make sure that you're registered – even if you've voted in the same place every year, year after year. Expect funny business. So be sure to double-check your own registration. 

Step 2: Make a plan to vote and vote early if you can. Ask ten people among your family, friends, and neighbors to also make a plan to vote. Remind them that if their vote didn't matter, then the GOP/Russia wouldn't work so hard to steal it. 

Step 3: Help get out the vote. Join our Indivisible phone bank for Angie Nixon for US Senate in Florida on October 28. Sign up here. Remember: phone banking is super easy, but it's a volume business. Meaning, you need to make a lot of calls – because most people don't pick up the phone – just to reach that one person who really needs your help in voting or deciding who to vote for. And, if they're tired of the phone calls, just remind them that their name gets taken off the call list as soon as they're marked as "voted." That's the best incentive to vote!

Step 4: In your phone, save this number for a voter protection: (866-OUR-VOTE) to report any funny business at the polls.

Step 5: Create a get-out-the-vote playlist for fighting the dark forces – which songs get you pumped up to punch Nazis by voting against them at the polls? Share it with us here at Gaslit Nation!

Events at Gaslit Nation:
Join our speakeasy benefit for Ukraine October 15 from anywhere! Or come in person. Get your tax deductible ticket, grab a VIP gift bag, enjoy refreshments, inspiring conversations, live French jazz, and a sneak peak of Andrea's new book, A Reasonable Guide for Unreasonable Women. Your ticket supports Razom for Ukraine, an impactful humanitarian aid organization. Get your ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/people-power-ukraines-unreasonable-women-tickets-2002002955733

Help build the rage wave! Join our Gaslit Nation x Indivisible phonebank for Angie Nixon for US Senate in Florida. Come phonebank, get a quick training, for your chance to win fun prizes and help elect Angie Nixon to the Senate: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/1022879/