Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola kick off a new season of the podcast with guest Abby Martin, host of "The Empire Files." She joins the show for the entire episode. Martin discusses how a show she anchored for RT America was mentioned in the recent intelligence report on Russian hacking. We discuss the deep state's push to increase aggressive action against Russia, and whether that is good if we all truly believe Donald Trump is erratic. We talk about where RT America fits in the media economy and how we need to focus on media literacy. And we talk about liberal delusions about America's history of meddling in democracies and supporting dictatorships. Trump will not be the first president to normalize this — at all. If you would like to support the show and help keep us going strong, then become a subscriber on .