Sixteen year old Kalief Browder spent 700 days in solitary confinement over a backpack he didn’t steal, and traitor to his country, former FBI agent Charles McGonigal, only got four years in prison for being on the payroll of the Russian mafia. That and Putin’s end-of-the-year speech to Russians, promising to destroy and occupy all of Ukraine, are discussed in this week’s bonus episode. 

Joining us for urgent insights into how to navigate this all-to-familiar time of growing fascism is media historian Ray Gamache, a leading biographer of Gareth Jones, the hero of Mr. Jones, the film inspired by Jones’ groundbreaking reporting on Stalin. Jones also reported from Hitler’s Germany, where he warned that Hitler and his “primitive” mobs of supporters were going to transform not just Germany, but the fate of Europe. Gamache is the author of Gareth Jones: Eyewitness to the Holodomor and Gareth Jones: On Assignment in Nazi Germany 1933-34

To our supporters at the Democracy Defender level and higher, send in your questions for our Q&As. We always look forward to hearing from you. Thank you to everyone who supports the show – we could not make Gaslit Nation without you! 

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Show Notes:

Remembering Kalief Browder a Year After his Suicide and Why Rikers Island Should be Shut Down https://innocenceproject.org/remembering-kalief-browder-year-suicide-rikers-island-shutdown/

Ex-FBI counterintelligence chief sentenced to over four years in prison for work with Russian oligarch https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/14/politics/ex-fbi-counterintelligence-chief-sentenced-to-sentenced-to-over-four-years-in-prison/index.html

US Senate report uncovers Louis Freeh's connections with Russia authorities https://news.err.ee/1125367/us-senate-report-uncovers-louis-freeh-s-connections-with-russia-authorities

Putin says no peace in Ukraine until his goals are achieved https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/putin-year-end-news-conference-ukraine-1.7058841