Adopt a White Woman
The world is waiting to see if just enough Americans in a handful of states love democracy more than misogyny. Playing their role in this real-life horror show are white women—the majority have voted Republican since 2000, with more white women voters leaving Biden than leaving Trump. Why? The mental slavery of patriarchy gets internalized, just like mind-warped Russians openly embracing totalitarianism and being fed into the meat grinder in Ukraine.
In this special Gaslit Nation, Terrell Starr reports from the country of Georgia, which operates like a Republican-hostage state thanks to the Kremlin’s capture of just enough political and business elites. Sound familiar? Terrell shares the resistance strategies on the ground, how they might apply to the U.S., and why he thinks the people of Georgia will overthrow their own Kremlin-backed nightmare, called Georgia Dream, this weekend at the polls.
Time to dust off your Facebook friend list! Reecie Colbert, political analyst and host of The Reecie Colbert Show on Sirius XM, shares her insights into how to persuade white women in swing states not to vote for fascism. This important discussion, recorded over the summer and saved for prime get-out-the-vote season as we hit the final homestretch of Gaslit Nation’s phone banks with Sister District and Indivisible (check the show notes to RSVP for those events!), will help you reach out to the white women swing voters in your life!
Listeners in our Patreon community have asked about podcasting. So this week’s bonus show will be our special How to Make a Podcast Workshop to help you raise your voice. We don’t need another “Trump is bad” podcast. But we do need more independent voices keeping a watchful eye on local corruption eclipsed by Trump’s Kremlin Klown Kar, which the media can’t get enough of, especially when it comes to normalizing Russian state capture. To hear that workshop, out this Thursday, subscribe at the Democracy Defender ($10/month) level or higher—discounted annual memberships available! Thank you to everyone who supports our independent journalism—we could not make Gaslit Nation without you!
See you Wednesday for our phone bank party with Sister District at 6pm ET. Never phone banked before? It’s easy! Quick trainings are provided! RSVP here to join us: https://www.mobilize.us/sisterdistrictnyc/event/642096/
Want help with the MAGA cultists in your life? Join our live-taping about the psychology of Trump and his MAGA cult with Dr. Bandy Lee, author of The Psychology of Trump Contagion: An Existential Danger to American Democracy and All Humankind, October 29 at 12pm ET! A zoom link will be shared on Patreon the morning of the show!
This week’s opening song was “Change Happens (One Conversation at a Time) by Ellen Schwartz and Roger Bruno of the Band Too Human. Check out their work here: http://toohumanonline.com and Submit your own music here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-d_DWNnDQFYUMXueYcX5ZVsA5t2RN09N8PYUQQ8koq0/edit?ts=5fee07f6&gxids=7628.
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Show Notes:
Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to registered voters could be illegal, experts say https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/20/politics/elon-musk-voter-giveaway-legal-questions/index.html
Harris, Trump and shifting demographics in the US election: In the US presidential election in November, roughly 244 million people are eligible to vote. What demographic groups make up the country's voting population? And how have they voted in the past? https://www.dw.com/en/harris-trump-and-shifting-demographics-in-the-us-election/a-69477852
When will DeSantis listen to his own voters on ex-felons' voting rights? At a time of bitter, partisan division, a supermajority of ordinary Democrats and Republicans joined forces to pass the most significant expansion of voting rights since 1965. https://www.aclu.org/news/voting-rights/when-will-desantis-listen-to-his-own-voters-on-ex-felons-voting-rights
Massive Pro-Europe Rally Held In Georgia Ahead Of Key Parliamentary Vote https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-election-dream-zurabishvili-saakashvili-russia-kobakhidze/33165650.html
Moldova President Hails EU Referendum Win After Russia Meddling Claims The referendum on joining the EU passed with a razor-thin majority in the key electoral test for the former Soviet republic bordering war-torn Ukraine. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/40860
Craig Unger: Trump rose on Russian money. It was all legal. https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/04/01/craig-unger-trump-rose/
Donald Trump Accused of Committing 'Massive Crime' With Reported Phone Call https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-accused-crime-benjamin-netanyahu-call-ceasefire-hamas-1942248
Music (00:11):
Who did you talk to today? Did you manage to slave anybody because we need a change and change happened one conversation at a time. Did they give you some flack or were they open to him? What you saying? We're all to track. We know when change happens, one conversation at time, change happens. One conversation at time Change happens.
Andrea Chalupa (00:56):
Our opening song was Change Happens. One Conversation at a Time by Ellen Schwartz and Roger Bruno of the band to human. Ellen and Roger sent us this statement about their art we're musicians, composers, songwriters, producers, and activists. We use music to spread the word about the power of grassroots activism, and we've been responsible for organizing hundreds of thousands of postcards and thousands of phone calls to voters. Our songs have been recorded by Teddy Pendergrass Share, pat Betar, Martha Davis of the Motels, Agnetha of Abba, Nancy Wilson and others as composers. We were awarded best original score from an international film festival for LA and our band to human performs regularly with co-writer Margo Shepherd. Their statement goes on to say democracy is on the line, but we can count on each other. History has shown us that when we act together, we can accomplish great things. Music is a powerful tool to inspire.
(02:08):
Sing along with our latest song and share this with everyone who cares about democracy. It is our goal to inspire and entertain and encourage everyone to participate in their own way. Talk to a neighbor, write a postcard, make a phone call and vote for preserving the rights. We all believe in the right to vote, the freedom to make personal reproductive choices without government interference. The right to affordable healthcare, the right to live in a state with fair districting, the right for personal safety and reasonable gun laws, and the freedom to love who you love and so much more. Thank you so much Ellen and Roger. We will link to their music in the show notes for this week's episode, and if you're a gaslit nation listener, making music to life and creativity in this world of Republican and Russian death cults, share your music with us.
(03:05):
Look out for a link on how to do that in the show notes for this week's episode, Terrell Star of the Black Diplomats podcast and Substack joins me from the country of Georgia fighting against Russian backed oligarchs that took over their democracy in an existential struggle that mirrors our own. Then we'll have the rest of our conversation with political analyst, REI Colbert, host of Sirius's xms, the Rei Colbert Show. We spoke to her over the summer and she left us wonderful wisdom that we plan to run right before the election when we're all making our phone calls, sending postcards, getting out the vote. In this special segment with rei, we're going to be talking about how to talk to the white women in our lives, especially in swing state. Even though Roe v Wade has driven out a lot of women voters, especially young women, the sad truth is that most white women in the American electorate vote for Republicans and Biden lost more white women than Trump who has managed to hold on to his white women because patriarchy is something that gets internalized, they get scared easily in those suburbs.
(04:17):
So if you have any white women friends, family, sorority sisters in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, this episode will give you the points to make in conversations with the white women's swing voters in your life. So stay tuned for that exciting reminder. We have some fun events coming up for our Patreon community. October 29 at 12:00 PM Eastern. Join our live taping with Dr. Bandi Lee, author of the Psychology of Trump Contagion. Dr. Lee will guide us into the dark waters of the MAGA cult and how to deal with the MAGA cultists in your life. To join us for that virtual live taping October 29 at 12:00 PM Eastern, subscribe at patreon.com/gaslit. Discounted annual subscriptions are available this Wednesday at 6:00 PM Eastern. We're phone banking with Sister District into must win Arizona and next Wednesday, October 30th, where phone banking was Sister District at 6:00 PM Eastern again into must win Georgia.
(05:17):
Leave it all out on the field. Phone banking is super easy and most people aren't home, so come get a quick training and make a difference fighting for a democracy before it's too late.
(05:29):
Lots of big news. Moldova voted for European Union integration. This is a huge deal. This is what Ukrainians gave their lives for and are still giving their lives for. Back in 2013, the Euro madan uprising that sent Ukrainian Trump victory, Kovich b fleeing abroad to Russia where he remains incel to this day that was all about European integration. The Kremlin struck back by activating longtime Russian asset, Donald to run for president with the help of longtime Kremlin operative and Trump neighbor and friend Paul Manafort, who worked closely with Jankovich creating toxic culture wars in Ukraine to bring him to power in the first place. That divide and conquer strategy. The Kremlin wages against us today through MAGA.
(06:16):
So Moldova voting for EU integration despite reports that voters were being paid off with cash from Russia to vote against EU integration. Despite all that corruption, Moldovans still said, we do not want to go back to the Soviet Union. We vote for freedom, we vote for democracy, we vote for our children's future. This is a significant victory. And I have to point out, I have to point out, Moldova is led by a woman, Maya Sandhu, the president, mirroring the story of Russians paying bribes in Moldova. Elon Musk is paying voters in swing states. So here's what went down Elon Musk while campaigning for Trump and Swing states launched a sweepstakes offering $1 million daily to registered voters in battleground states tied to a bullshit petition supporting the first and second amendments Musk claiming to support the First Amendment is classic gaslighting. It's a known fact that a lot of influential Ukrainian accounts and lgbtq plus especially trans accounts on Twitter, have seen their engagements drop since Musk took over Twitter with financing from the children of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
(07:29):
A lot of these, so-called Ukraine, accounts on Twitter, myself included, have felt censored by Musk's Twitter. And to emphasize this point, the investigative journalist Craig Unger, who wrote two damning books laying out all the research, all the reporting on how Trump is a long time Kremlin asset and those books are House of Trump, house of Putin and American Coma. Craig Unger just came out with his latest book confirming decades of research and investigative reporting that the Reagan campaign paid off Iran to hold on to the American hostages in Iran until after the 1980 election to help secure their victory against Jimmy Carter. That was a big news story at the time. Craig Unger essentially lost his job. His reputation was tarnished as the media establishment of the day turned on him to secure their access to the new Reagan administration committing crimes of access journalism like what we saw in my film, Mr. Jones.
(08:24):
So Craig Unger refused to be gaslit. He held onto the story. He spent decades going to Iran, going to Israel and elsewhere and talking to witnesses and collecting all of the documentation to write his latest book Den of Spies. And right when this book comes out, what happens? Craig Unger loses his Twitter account that he's had for many years. He can't access it. He had to start over with a new account from scratch. Why might that be? Well guess who else is breaking the law by interfering with America's foreign policy. Trump has told Netanyahu who he has long had close ties with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law is family friends with the Netanyahu's. So Trump has told Netanyahu to stop it with the ceasefire negotiations with the Biden administration until after the election, just like Trump had his MAGA goon squad in Congress block the bipartisan immigration reform legislation. All of this is to say if it sounds like a paid Kremlin asset, it's a paid Kremlin asset. We've seen that again and again to underline this point, here's Gaslit nation's discussion with Terrell Starr on the ground in Georgia.
Terrell Star (09:44):
So I am in the city of Z in Western Georgia. We're about an hour or so away from Apia, which is being occupied by Russia and has been since 1991. So I am covering the upcoming election that's going to take place on Friday. There's a lot of optimism that the various coalition parties, the opposition, will outnumber Georgia Dream, which has been ruling since 2012. I was just at a mass march in Tbilisi, which is the capitol, and tens of thousands of people showed up. Some people estimate that the numbers went up to a hundred thousand plus people who showed up. So there is a lot of optimism that there will be a change in government, but we'll see.
Andrea Chalupa (10:38):
Tell us about Georgia Dream. Essentially Georgian MAGA.
Terrell Star (10:42):
Some of the people that I spoke to at the march that just happened referred to Georgia Dream as the Georgian nightmare. They are run by a Russian oligarch a bit Zena Ivanni Swee, who made much of his money in Russia. In fact, they are a party that every war star group says it operates the government like a Moscow satellite state that pretty much wants to get rid of all the opposition. Ley has literally said that you have a recently passed foreign an agents law, which essentially spies and minimizes the work of government watchdog groups. They recently passed anti LGBTQ plus legislation, and so they're trying to really turn it into this Russian conservative authoritarian orthodoxy that mirrors that of Putin's vision. And so the Georgian people will be making the choice on Saturday to decide if they want to keep this government. A recent poll shows that Georgia Dream has about 30% of the vote, and all the other various coalition parties have about 70% in its proportional electoral system. That means that theoretically a coalition government will outnumber that of the Georgia dream. But Ben Zina definitely is widely considered the Russian oligarch in Tbilisi who is running the country like a satellite Moscow state.
Andrea Chalupa (12:15):
Sounds familiar in terms of how Georgia dream this Russian MAGA has been operating. It's a lot like how the GOP operates in these Republican hostage states where voters will vote on a referendum like in Florida, voters passed a referendum to allow formerly incarcerated people to have the right to vote to have their voting rights restored. And then DeSantis government has been steamrolling it, and that's a larger pattern across the US. Voters will vote for one thing and these Republican hostage states and those Republicans will blatantly ignore the will of the people. How has that been going on in Georgia?
Terrell Star (12:57):
Well, that's a good comparison because I actually covered that vote in Florida in 2018, and so I was on the ground to cover that referendum. But in many ways what Georgia Dream is doing is far worse. And so their intimidation tactics against voters are a lot more intense. And I know that's saying something for the Florida GOP and their tactics to suppress voters. But what they do here, and this is according to my own reporting, what people have told me and what OG groups report is that they threaten people who work in state jobs. That's where many Georgians work. They work for the state at the local and federal level. You can be a teacher at a school, the principal will go from classroom to classroom and ask teachers who are they voting for, things like that. And then you also have Iani truly himself saying that there should be no opposition, different people from Georgia Dream saying the same thing that they would ban opposition. And so it's not just a matter of undermining the will of the people. That's totalitarianism right there.
Andrea Chalupa (14:06):
One hundred percent.
Terrell Star (14:07):
And so we're going past authoritarianism, so they're telling people this is what we are going to do, and they are so bold that they don't feel like they're going to lose. A recent Edison poll showed that roughly Georgia Dream has about 30% support. A lot of people are optimistic that this new proportional system will essentially put Georgia Dream out of power, but there are fears that they will try to fake votes that they're going to literally steal the election. And so no one really expects there to be a final decision on Saturday when all the ballots are cast. We expect this to drag on over days. Well, after the election on October 26th.
Andrea Chalupa (14:55):
Moldova just voted barely for European Union integration. There are widespread reports that voters were being bribed with cash from Russia to vote against EU membership. Are you hearing reports or seeing anything along the lines of voters being bribed?
Terrell Star (15:14):
Well, right now, no, we haven't seen anything regards to bribery yet. What we are seeing here is a lot of xenophobic messaging, a lot of fake videos, massive disinformation campaigns across the country. And again, they're very bold. They actually have photos of Georgian politicians and they put them with larger noses and make them look stereotypically Armenian. It's very xenophobic in nature. They have videos, they have billboards pretty much saying that this candidate is going to pull you back into a war and disaster misquoting people. So the disinformation campaign is very intense and Georgia Dream has been pretty effective with that language. So if anything, that's the primary tool that they are using at the moment along with the traditional intimidation tactics, the thuggish type of guys that we saw at the mass march the other day. That's what we see at the moment.
Andrea Chalupa (16:20):
Right. The paid thugs that are there to intimidate and rough people up. There have been horrible images of violence that have come out of Georgia in recent months. Do you personally feel under threat being an American in a country that's under Russian state capture?
Terrell Star (16:34):
I don't feel any threat right now. Obviously I am very vigilant and I'm aware of all of my surroundings. I don't feel any intimidation at all, and I've been traveling throughout this country. I don't just hang out in Tbilisi. Like I said, I am almost as far west as you can get in z Didi and Apia is an hour or so away from where I'm at right now. Russian soldiers are literally an hour or so away from me right now and occupied Apia. And as your listeners know that SIA is also under Russian occupation. No, but one of the things that we all are mindful of is that anything can happen. And the biggest fear that all of us have is that if Georgia Dream truly loses, which some people feel that they will try to hold on to power by force. And at that point we don't know what will happen. I was actually advised by one of the people who I interviewed to get a gas mask because they believe that the State security services will throw tear gas into any protests that may emerge in case Georgia Dream does not accept the will of the people.
Andrea Chalupa (17:46):
Stay safe out there. Why do you think this time around it's going to be different?
Terrell Star (17:52):
Georgia Dream has shown their hand. It was 2019 when the government then allowed a Russian MP to speak in the parliament and then you saw the crackdowns on protestors and it just got worse and worse. This foreign agent's law really, I think crossed a major red line for a lot of people.
Andrea Chalupa (18:17):
The foreign agent law was recently passed by this Russian occupying government in Georgia to basically say, if you get any money from abroad than your foreign agent, that includes a lot of journalists, human rights actors,
Terrell Star (18:27):
Right? And so the thing about it is that there are already laws on the books that monitor foreign interference. This law was not technically needed. What it does is we don't sign up then what the government threatens to do is to freeze your assets, right? That's one thing that they do. So basically essentially makes the government a federal bookkeeper, your accountant, essentially they get to look at everything in live time. A type of organization that could be impacted is a drug rehabilitation center, which I'm going to visit in the next couple of days in Tbilisi where if it wasn't for Western money, they wouldn't be able to function. What this law does is that it not only taps into their books, it scrutinizes their activities, which is obviously an overreach of government. A lot of these organizations fear that their facilities will be shut down. And so that means that a lot of people who need methadone treatment, et cetera, won't get it.
(19:23):
And a lot of organizations have refused to register as foreign agents and when they don't, the reprisal would be in the case of Transparency International, which is an anti-corruption organization worldwide. But the one in Georgia for example, they, because they're critical of the government At one point, a government entity run by Georgia Dream accused the head of Transparency International of being a political candidate in the Transparency International Group here in Georgia as a political party. Now, they reversed that decision after uproar. But Transparency International was not only organization that was considered a political entity. Those are the types of things that the government is doing here. With that in mind, there's also the lack of support for Ukraine. When you go around Georgia, you see Ukrainian flags everywhere. In fact, in this small town where I was just interviewing the mayor and deputy mayor of the only opposition run city in the country, she has a Ukrainian flag displayed very proudly in her office.
(20:34):
And you go anywhere else around this country, you see Ukrainian flags. This government does not support Ukraine. And so that is a sticking point as well. When you add all these things together and you deal with all of the bombastic and really paranoid and wacky things that Zina Ivan says, I mean, he sounds like a rabbit conspiracy theorist, pretty much like Trump, right? Well, I think Ben Zina is a real billionaire as opposed to Donald Trump. That's a whole nother story. But my point is that they're equally bizarre and say very erratic things, and so people are tired of it. And so for those reasons, it makes sense that this government stands a chance to lose.
Andrea Chalupa (21:21):
What insights do you have in terms of strategies of the oppositions employing that have been effective that might give them a chance? And how could you see us in the US learning and adapting these same strategies to overcome our own MAGA threat, especially in Republican hostage states?
Terrell Star (21:39):
We in America think that we're not considered a third world country or developing country. We don't have to deal with voter suppression, which we know is not true. We don't have to deal with characters who want to turn the government into a kleptocracy. We saw that with Trump, it can get worse. When Georgia Dream came into power in 2012, it was because of the former president, Mikhail Sako, Schley's own democratic backsliding. Georgia Dream was considered a once promising party. However, they became authoritarian very quickly, and then now they're talking about totalitarian type of government and making totalitarian types of statements. And so the American people should learn and realize that we can be that too. And Georgians, they keep telling me, maintain your democracy. We do hope that the American people choose democracy during our election. They say that very much what happens in our election will impact theirs in both of these countries desperately are fighting for their democracy in very similar ways that a lot of highbrow political scientists and people who have their heads in the sand won't appreciate. So we're dealing with very critical attacks on our civil liberties, on our way of life, just like Georgians. It's scary to imagine that many Americans don't know it or realize, whereas in as much a risk as the Georgian people are, but it's very much true.
Andrea Chalupa (23:23):
And now here's a continuation of our conversation with political analyst, Reecie Colbert. Our discussion kicks off with white women, the swing voter of the 2024 election.
Reecie Colbert (23:35):
Everybody has stepped up white women for Kamala, white dudes for Kamala, AAPI for Kamala, Latinos for Kamala. I'm like, yes, everybody is in formation. Everybody is understanding the assignment. And I think everybody is finding a way to get activated with the networks that they feel comfortable with in the communities, and that's how we're going to win.
Andrea Chalupa (23:56):
Can I ask you about a segment I would like to call Adopt a White Woman? Because it's going to come down to the white women in Virginia and Buckhead, Georgia. And when I look at Kamala Harris, she's beautiful. She's charming. She just is. She just is. And this is how politicians get rated. Unfortunately, we are far past the point where you need a cookie cutter. John Edwards with 2.5 children. So that says something. But Kamala Harris, when I look at her from the perspective of white women in the suburbs of Virginia, I just think, okay, Kamala Harris looks like she shops at Home Goods. Kamala Harris looks like she checks in on Wayfair when two has a minute.
Reecie Colbert (24:42):
Oh yeah,
Andrea Chalupa (24:43):
Whatever. Wayfair is probably the fancier version of that. But so what I'm saying is that I think white women in the suburbs of Virginia know her. They get cocktails with someone like that in their world now. But these same white women could get spooked by posh Trump, Glenn Jenkin scaring them about trans kids, how the woke L is going, turn your children trans. There's nothing you can do about it and all that stuff. And Glenn Jenkins really gunning for democracy in Virginia. There's a lot of horrifying stories coming out of voter suppression in Virginia. He's going for it.
Reecie Colbert (25:21):
He's
Andrea Chalupa (25:21):
Trying, because that's what's going to get him paid. That's what's going to build his power and his reputation across the Republican party and all the corporations that back it. And so my question is to you, because it is all hands on deck moment, so we do need to have conversations, even uncomfortable conversations with our white relatives in Virginia and Georgia and so on. What do you recommend for people today to really have those conversations? What should they focus on and what are some of the big talking points against Kamala Harris that they should be prepared to address, and how would they address that?
Reecie Colbert (26:00):
Well, here is one of the things that I always laid off with when it comes to women in this country. Women are not national citizens any longer. What you are allowed to do with your body, your autonomy depends on where you reside or where you're located, even if you don't reside there. You brought up earlier the woman in Texas where she did eventually have to leave Texas in order to get an abortion because her life was threatened and her and her baby was not viable. And so when you can be surveilled, there was another Texas woman who allegedly, according to her boyfriend, went out of state to have an abortion, and he's suing her, and the courts are allowing him in Texas to sue her and surveil her records, her travel records and her correspondence to find out if she in fact had an abortion.
(26:54):
He doesn't know that he's alleging that. And so the way that we as women in this country have been stripped of our right to privacy of our right to bodily autonomy depending on where we reside, should be reason enough. Because it's not just about abortion, it's about your citizenship. And so that's one of the things that I have to say. I mean, even when it comes to IVF, if you want to start a family you are. Now, that depends if you're in Alabama. No, sorry, not, sorry. So that's one of the things I think that the other thing it's important to know is Vice President Kamala Harris has really come up with, and she hasn't released her platform yet, so she might change from the things that she was talking about in 2019, but one of the things she was talking about was equal pay for equal for women.
(27:39):
And part of that was taking affirmative action, not affirmative action, the thing that was overturned by Supreme Court, but taking executive action to move the burden from women to have to prove that there's discrimination to corporations to prove that they're not discriminating. So there are so many ways when you talk about a lot of women care about children and protecting children have gun violence. She also, when she was the Attorney general, she created the Bureau of Children's Justice. She was a prosecutor going after when she in Alameda County before she became da, going after people who were molesting and abusing children. She created the Coalition for Exploited Kids. She's really championed issues around women's health, women's equity children, and so many things that are important to us in terms of the attacks. I think that they're going to try the standard slate of attacks. You mentioned trans kids, trans athletes, things like that.
(28:37):
If that works, that's hard to combat on a macro level because at the end of the day, she's not going to come out and say, screw them trans kids. No, we not rocking with them. I got to get these votes. She's not going to do that. You know what I'm saying? So you have to balance right balance. Do you care more about the fact that 0% of athletes are trans? The fact that when you discriminate against trans people, for instance, you're actually mostly discriminating against cisgendered women because the percentage of trans people is so small that what ends up happening is people who are misgendered as trans or misgendered are the ones that are actually being discriminated against and
Terrell Star (29:15):
Like that boxer from Algeria.
Reecie Colbert (29:17):
Yeah, exactly. So some of it is trying to understand that transphobia is also bigoted against cisgender people, which you are proclaiming to
Andrea Chalupa (29:26):
On white Serena Williams had her gender challenge. It mostly goes after non-white women that boxer, she was a target of Russian disinformation.
Reecie Colbert (29:38):
Yep.
Andrea Chalupa (29:38):
Russians leverage these anti L-G-B-T-Q attacks. They know it drives a wedge among the left because there are many people that call themselves liberal or left that are still on the fence on this.
Reecie Colbert (29:55):
Absolutely.
Andrea Chalupa (29:55):
JK Rowling is not a Trump supporter. JK Rowing is just on the wrong side of history.
(30:01):
She would vote for Kamala Harris could if she was in the us. So we have a lot of those among our side that are really taking the bait because I understand as a parent, you want to be able to guide your kids until they're 18 because their brain isn't fully developed until they're 25. And the last thing you want to hear is, mom, dad, I'm taking these hormone blockers and there's nothing you can do about it. I understand. As a parent, you want to have a say. I understand. And so there's a lot that they push people's buttons on and they create a lot of hysteria and they finance disinformation reports to fur, their stigmatize, these deeply vulnerable groups and their families that are full on having to uproot their lives and move across the country. That's where they're going. They're going to states like Minnesota because Kamala Harris chose a governor to run with Tim Walls who turned his state into a refuge for trans people and their families because they could be safe there. They would be
Terrell Star (30:56):
Protected. Yeah. I love that. About my last comment to you Reecie and question going out before you roll out is one, I think everybody should listen to your Sirius XM radio show. You are one of my favorite political commentators.
Reecie Colbert (31:09):
Oh, thank you.
Terrell Star (31:09):
Because you're Reese. I mean, I'm not saying that because I'm saying, I mean it because I don't cover national politics anymore.
(31:15):
Since I was essentially downsized my job at The Root, covering the war here in Ukraine. And so I spend all my time doing that, and I don't follow it every single day like you do. And so you're a voice that I trust before I go to any other major network ibe, when I really want to get a voice of what's happening politically. I know you do your research, and I know that you are tapped into the grassroots part of what makes our political process work, and everyone should know that that's who you are. I also listened to you when you are on Will Kane show, who's a phenomenally great political commentator in his own right. And you two make a great dual. And I encourage everyone, even when you, after listening to us, of course, you go over there and listen to her show. And I think you're great, especially when you're on Roland Martin until not just have nothing but profound respect for you. But my last question to you, but how do you take care of yourself? I know that you are doing all these things. You are a brilliant commentator, but ...
Andrea Chalupa (32:14):
And you're a mom.
Terrell Star (32:15):
And you're a mom, and you're a mom, right? But this job, I find that the ways in which black women who have a platform are targeted is just fucking vile. And I noticed because I worked at the Root, and most of the people on our staff are black women, and it was a real introduction into the type of attacks that they give for reporting while being a black woman and commentating while being a black woman. And so you provide us all of this knowledge so that we could be a better country, we could be better informed people. How do you unwind and decompress from it all, how you take care of yourself, and how do you advise others to take care of themselves through the storms that we're endured?
Reecie Colbert (33:01):
Yeah. Well, thank you first of all for all of that. First of all, I have an amazing support system. My husband is amazing. My mother-in-Law, my sister-in-Law are local. I have amazing friends, extended family. My mom flies in all the time, my sisters and stuff like that. So I couldn't do anything, literally anything without their support where I slack or where I lack or where I can't, don't have the capacity to do a hundred percent of the things they do. So much. So first, that's the first thing. Part of it is that, and I say this is going to sound very arrogant, but I'm very much unfuck withable, right? So part of it is being in the trenches with Kamala. I've fought every single faction of Twitter. I've fought international Twitter. I've fought Bernie Moore, ados, every single maga. And so when you have been, and there was actually a troll farm that was created strictly to say, shut up bitch to me, it was literally my face and it was hundreds of tweets saying, shut up, bitch. All directed at me. And so when you have been through the fire as much as I have, you're just like, ah, whatever. Close the computer, close my phone and I'll put on Netflix, or I will go hang out with my family. An espresso martini. Never hurt anybody. So I just don't take it too seriously that a hundred percent of the people aren't going to vote for Kamala. A hundred million people are either going to not vote or they're going to vote for somebody else. That's okay? So I just don't take it upon myself to make everything so heavy. I just take it upon myself to do what I can to help inform people, help move the needle to the extent that works, that's on them. Otherwise, I'm just going on about my business. So I think it just makes it easier, not taking everything so much. It's important to me. But in terms of what comes at me, it just rolls right off. It rolls right off. And I keep it moving in my life. And I have a wonderful, very much enriching life. I love to go to concerts. I love to travel. I like to watch tv. I like to scroll the internet and internet shops. So that's how I take care of me, really put my focus on my family.
Andrea Chalupa (35:01):
We would love to talk to you in the important years ahead because they're going to be so mad when she wins. So we have to keep this conversation going and fact check where we need to fact check and insist and work towards accountability, and also find the joy as like mom to mom. Yes, I will hide those vegetables in mac and cheese. You know what I mean? I'll do what I can and get people to eat your vegetables. But my whole point is I love your whole work towards there's no substitute for political power. Do not get our liberation without building our own power. And we're going to have fun doing it. We're going to look amazing doing it. And that's what this is all about. And yeah, Kamala, you and I are already holding that down. We didn't need that. You know what I mean? But it's nice to have that.
Reecie Colbert (35:58):
Definitely. Definitely. Thank you so much for having me. I would love to come back.
Andrea Chalupa (36:02):
Yeah, we'll have to.
Terrell Star (36:03):
Yeah, no doubt.
Andrea Chalupa (36:04):
We're going to do it. It's going to be amazing. New America's coming. There you go.
Music (36:19):
Who did you talk to today? Did you manage to slave anybody? We need a change. And change happened one conversation at a time. Did they give you some flack or were they open to hear what you saying? Because we're all to ride track. When change happens, one conversation at a time, change happens. One conversation at time, change happens. One conversation, change happens. Person to person, do it. One conversation at a time. When the light goes on, word spreads and is when change happens, one conversation, change happens. One conversation at time, change happens. One conversation change happens person to person. You can do it one conversation at time all alone. We always have it in us. Now is the ring is knocking at our door. We can count on the power of the people. The time is now. Democracy is on the line. Change happens. Conversation change happens. Once conversation change happens, person, person do it, one conversation at a time, conversation at time, change happens one conversation...
Andrea Chalupa (39:28):
Our discussion continues. And you can get access to that by setting up at the truth tone level or higher on Patreon. Gaslit Nation hosts come as you are political salons every Monday at 4:00 PM Eastern can't make it live. Recordings are available to our community on Patreon. Our salons are your space to vent, ask questions, and connect with other listeners who also really, really hate Nazis. Mark your calendar for our special events in October, including our How to Make a Podcast Workshop Publishing Thursday, October 24th, and our live taping with Dr. Bandi Lee, October 29 at 12:00 PM Eastern on the psychology of Trump and his MAGA Colt supporters at the Democracy Defender level or Higher. Submit your questions for our monthly bonus q and a show your questions shape our show. Subscribe today to get bonus shows. All shows ad free invites to exclusive events, and more discounted annual memberships are available at patreon.com/gaslit.
(40:27):
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