I'm Sarah Kensier, the author of the bestsellers, The View from Flyover Country and Hiding in Plain Sight, and of the upcoming book they knew out this September.

I'm Andrea Chalupa, a journalist and filmmaker,

and the writer and producer of the journalistic thriller, Mr. Jones, about Stalin's genocide

famine in Ukraine. And this is Gaslit Nation, a podcast covering corruption in the United States

and rising autocracy around the world.

This week's Gaslit Nation Early Show, available to listeners at the truth teller level and

higher on Patreon, is a big deep dive discussion into Putin's Cold War rematch.

We'll play some clips from it now.

If you have any awareness of this situation, any understanding of the historical context and the present context, you know that this is

a humanitarian catastrophe. You know that Russia has historically been an imperialist power, a colonialist power, and they took Crimea.

You know, and before that, Russia had made similar incursions in Georgia, you know, constantly,

constantly trying to reclaim territory, that is not theirs.

Like, if you oppose imperialism when the United States is doing it or war, like for example,

if you oppose the war in Iraq, which you should have, if you oppose what Israel does to the

Palestinians, if you oppose what China does to the Uyghurs, I could go on and on, this is the same

thing, only it's also wrapped up in this broad, deeply corrupt alliance of oligarchs,

plutocrats, transnational organized crime, which is deeply immersed in white collar crime.

You know, the reason I'm saying this is actually not to call people out, not to bitch people out, but to encourage them to look at it this way.

Because I think that there is solidarity among, you know, a great number of very frustrated Americans,

frustrated Ukrainians, frustrated Russians, anybody who has had to deal with these abuses of power from a military industrial

complex, from, you know, corrupt actors, from the people who have caused incredible income

inequality, hoarding of wealth, hoarding of opportunities. You know, if you oppose that, if you

...