It’s a government shutdown by another name! Accused sex trafficker, proud January 6 insurrectionist, and Kremlin shill Matt Gaetz makes Russian state TV gleeful by leading the Kremlin Kaos Kaucus (KKK) by blocking much-needed aid to Ukraine and overthrowing Kevin McCarthy as speaker for trying to do a Ukraine deal with the Democrats. You may remember McCarthy as that guy who admitted Putin pays Trump, yet went on to support him and his MAGA death cult, earning his place in history as the first speaker to be ousted. Gaetz’s Kremlin disinformation antics are part of a larger operation serving the Republican Party’s dark money backers that include dirty Russian-linked financing that helped elect George Santos, the Koch political network that wants to drop sanctions against Russia to protect their profits, and the PayPal mafia like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel that deliberately destroyed Twitter, an organizing space for activists and journalists, in a unified bid to weaken American democracy and usher in dictatorship. Yes, this is all happening, and none of it is normal.

The KKK in Congress makes America look like an unreliable ally and demoralizes Ukrainians fighting and giving their lives to stop Russian imperial fascism. When they scream on the House floor about the national debt, what they really mean is protecting their corporate backers’ record profits, historically and criminally low taxes, and wealth hoarding at the expense of the public good. This is Reagan’s Revolution ideologically aligned with Putin’s court of oligarchs: Greed is good and the firehose of corruption and scandal ensures they live above the law. As history shows, our courts are the anecdote when Congress is gridlocked. Unfortunately, Biden’s judicial appointments were stalled this year as Senator Dianne Feinstein and her enablers refused to let her retire with dignity, tarnishing her legacy by slowing down Biden’s appointments for months. If people weren’t getting rich off of Washington being broken, it would have been fixed by now.

The great Heather Cox Richardson, historian and author of the latest must-read book Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, stops by Gaslit Nation to give us insight on how we got here and what to do about this dangerous crossroads in our nation’s history. Needless to say Andrea and Heather geek out over Ulysses S. Grant!

This week’s bonus episode will include a livestream on Patreon and on Instagram (to help wean us off of Twitter – the largest Russian disinformation outlet in the world, according to the European Union). That will take place on Thursday at 4pm ET – Patreon subscribers should look out for a link posted shortly before we go live, or join for free on Instagram. The topic will be some disturbing tea spilled about Fox News and how the sausage gets made there, according to a former insider. If you would like to support our independent journalism, get our episodes ad free, bonus shows, special invites, our archives, and more, subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit. Thank you to everyone who supports the show – we could not make Gaslit Nation without you!

Check out HelloFresh, our sponsor for this week’s episode. Go to HelloFresh.com/50Gaslit and use code 50gaslit for 50% off plus free shipping!

Show Notes:

Save the date! Thursday October 26 6pm - 8pm ET we’re getting together with Sister District for a virtual phonebank to get out the vote in Virginia to prevent Posh Trump (Glenn Youngkin) from banning abortion. Signed copies of the Gaslit Nation graphic novel Dictatorship: It’s Easier Than You Think! will be given out to three attendees as a thank you to our community. Sign up here, selecting the October 26 6pm ET phonebank to join us: https://www.mobilize.us/sisterdistrict/event/387377/?utm_source=2023-natlpb-gaslit

Feeling festive? Send us a 5-page or less Halloween-themed radio play about the Kushners and other ghouls we’re up against and how to defeat those monsters. We’ll turn one of the scripts we receive into a radio play to run on Halloween! Send your submissions to gaslitnation@gmail.com by October 18th!

Opening clip: Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas calling out the show trial in the House of Hunter Biden and President Biden https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1707464799209070665

Ben Collins of NBC News: What was Elon Musk’s strategy for Twitter?https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/was-elon-musks-strategy-twitter-rcna118490

Putin’s Next Target: U.S. Support for Ukraine, Officials Say https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/us/politics/putin-ukraine-spy-united-states.html#:~:text=American%20officials%20said%20they%20are,conspiracy%20theories%20with%20new%20technologies.

House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html

Trump suing ex-MI6 officer who alleged he was ‘compromised’ by Russian security service https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/28/trump-suing-ex-mi6-officer-who-alleged-he-was-compromised-by-russian-security-service

First on CNN: DOJ officially decides not to charge Matt Gaetz in sex-trafficking probe https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/politics/matt-gaetz-justice-department/index.html

Rep. Matt Gaetz Speaks Out For 1st Time Following Sex Trafficking Investigation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZJdqwam0fs

Seventeen year old Eric Willoughby stands up to Republican gerrymandering in North Carolina https://twitter.com/HC_Richardson/status/1708139641499435151?t=oy8Tp1lbc_GbBAtwkKfKGw&s=19

Secretary of State Antony Blinken launches music diplomacy initiative in the White House by performing with his band https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1707230831528620109

Trump’s Fraud Trial Starts With Attacks on Attorney General and Judge https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/nyregion/trump-fraud-trial-letitia-james.html

Tristan Snell on Twitter about Trump’s fraud case https://twitter.com/TristanSnell/status/1708908759655792899?t=KrBUdTPZLGfQISCq1kWmrA&s=19

Steve Bannon threatens to throw Merrick Garland in prison for life https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1708941399217827865?t=sW_CUa7D5vN2M1Vi4BtFLg&s=19

The far-right goes after Taylor Swift for being anti-Trump and registering voters https://twitter.com/mikefreemanNFL/status/1707164874608869395?t=71nxtwb6evwFKnb7j4BZmw&s=19

https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1707163480715899087?t=wJS9tRH7mkt_d3mi_N6Fdw&s=19

Gaetz: "We're proud of the work we did" on Jan. 6 https://www.axios.com/2022/01/06/matt-gaetz-jan-6-capitol-riot

Gaetz showed nude photos of women he said he’d slept with to lawmakers, sources tell CNN https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/politics/matt-gaetz-photos-women/index.html

Biden has appointed more federal judges than any president since JFK at this point in his tenure https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/08/09/biden-has-appointed-more-federal-judges-than-any-president-since-jfk-at-this-point-in-his-tenure/#:~:text=President%20Joe%20Biden%20has%20appointed,from%20the%20Federal%20Judicial%20Center

AOC leads call for federal ethics investigation into Clarence Thomas https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/12/aoc-democrats-federal-investigation-clarence-thomas

Pro-Russian politician wins Slovakia’s parliamentary election https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/01/world/slovakia-election-pro-russia-robert-fico-win-intl-hnk

Kenneth Roth on Twitter: A European Union study of six social-media platforms in Poland, Slovakia and Spain "finds that Twitter has the highest prevalence of disinformation." The main source is "Russia’s disinformation operation [which] is a ‘weapon of mass manipulation.'" https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/1708032306265378870