I have to say, when I read the CBS headline “Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s deleted tweets on Sept. 11 attacks invite scrutiny of past remarks,” I was expecting something at least kind of, vaguely objectionable. Maybe a little too strident on anti-imperialism? Maybe a little too “both-sides” about the attack and what led up to it? At the very least, a tweet that could be taken out of context? There had to be something, right? This was before we learned that Bari Weiss, the extremely well-paid bootlicker for fascism, had “personally directed” the headline. If I had known that beforehand, I wouldn’t have even bothered clicking the link. That’s like opening a bag labeled “rancid dog shit.”
But even without Weiss, I should have known better than to expect anything remotely newsworthy. Not because Abdul El-Sayed is flawless, but because the legacy press has been frantically casting about for something ANY FUCKING THING to hang around his neck to drag him down for months. Honestly, I’m not an El-Sayed-stan. He’s a little too comfortable with people who are a little too comfortable with antisemitism for my taste, even if El-Sayed hasn’t strayed down that path himself. What the press is doing, though? This crazed witch hunt? That’s just fucking embarrassing, and Weiss is leading the clown show, apparently. The amount of effort they’re putting into this tells me a lot about how threatened they are by the Michigan candidate. The one who’s ahead in the polls despite weeks of obviously coordinated media attacks. Ha. Ha. Fuck you. Ha.
The legacy media has abandoned us in favor of sucking up to oligarchs and fascism. Find voices you trust (other than me) and subscribe where you can. Independent voices like the Opinionated Ogre will be needed in the coming days, and we require your support. This newsletter is free,but for $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!), you can keep the lights on.
If subscriptions aren’t your thing, you can leave a one-time PayPal or Venmo tip instead!
To be clear, if you turn your head sideways, squint, and try REALLY fucking hard, you could find some tiny sliver of…something to be offended about? But that would require you to admit your outrage is solely based on El-Sayed being a brown-skinned Muslim. Outside of that, saying that the incredible death toll of Covid should motivate America to fight for public health and against poverty the same way the deaths on 9/11 motivated us to fight terrorism is about as controversial as grilled cheese.
Media Matters compiled a helpful list of public figures, many of them Republicans, who said something similar at the time. Curiously, none of these statements generated any outrage at all. It’s soooo fucking weird that Bari Weiss is having a meltdown over El-Sayed saying the same thing! I wonder why…?
Oh, but we don’t have to wonder, do we? We know what is happening here.
El-Sayed is (incorrectly) perceived as the candidate most at risk of not flipping a critical seat.
El-Sayed has committed the sin of being an unapologetic Democratic Socialist.
Put those two together, and the legacy press is highly incentivized to destroy the Democratic candidate in Michigan.
It’s important to understand that the legacy press, especially scumbags like Bari Weiss, are not “neutral observers.” They’ve been working nonstop to protect the Republican Party and the increasingly fascist status quo for decades. The 2026 midterms are no different. The House is a lost cause. There is no stopping the tidal wave of Republican losses that is coming in November. But the Senate? That is something the press can help Republicans keep control of. At least, that was the hope before Texas and Iowa came into play. After all, they blew up Graham Platner, why not Abdul El-Sayed?
I want to be clear about this: Platner was a piece of shit who raped at least one woman, and he had to go and eat a bag of dicks far away from our party. But there is, right fucking now, a Republican running for re-election who broke the bones of his 2-year-old daughter, and the press hasn’t mustered one-thousandth of the howling outrage over Max Miller that they did over Platner. I usually say that Republicans aren’t held to a lower standard; they’re held to no standard at all, but that’s not what this is. This is a choice by the press to intervene in the election, and they’ve chosen a side. Hint: It’s not ours.
The House in Democratic hands can cause Trump problems. The Senate, though? That puts the Supreme Court at risk, and that shit cannot be allowed. If Democrats gain control of the Supreme Court, it’s all over for the GOP, and everyone knows it.
This newsletter needs your shares and likes and comments to grow. Tell the Substack algorithm that we’re worth your time and attention!
But that pales in comparison to the threat Democratic Socialism poses to the status quo. I’ve been writing about this recently, and I continue to watch with malicious glee1 as all the right people are losing their fucking minds over it. Not just Republicans, the press, and centrists who fear losing power,2 but the alt-left ratfuckers who work to keep Republicans in power. It’s been delicious to watch.
Let’s focus on the press, though. I wrote about this a few weeks ago, and I will be repeating it for the foreseeable future because it’s obviously going to be shaping our news coverage for a long time. If you’re the legacy press whose main task has been to shield the Republican Party and maintain the status quo, what bigger threat is there than Democratic Socialism?
Democrats were bad enough. They allowed Republicans to obstruct most of their agenda, true. But every now and then, they shoved the country to the left, and terrible things like Obamacare and Bidenomics happened. Republicans could contain and undo the damage given enough time, but Democratic Socialists? They weren’t going to play by the rules and allow Republicans to gum everything up for years on end. They’re “radicals” and “extremists” who keep threatening to change things in ways that the public will notice. Large splashy things like universal healthcare and a living wage and fully funding public schools.
That’s the kind of stuff that can’t be undone so easily, and once the public got a taste of that? Screaming about how oppressed white men are isn’t going to get voters to the polls anymore. No one is going to be interested in worshipping billionaires. Why, taxes on the rich sound pretty good, after all!
Not OK! Not OK!!! That motherfucker Mamdani in NYC is a goddamn nightmare.3 How many more of these do-gooder assholes are we going to have to put up with?! American politics is about protecting the rich, not helping the average Joe! Worse, if the Democratic Party becomes too productive, how will the press sell the “both sides” story that both parties are useless and nothing can ever be fixed? Imagine having to actually explain that the Republican Party is a fascist shithole of grifters, pedophiles, and Nazis who wouldn’t lift a finger to help a drowning baby, and this is who they’ve been for the last 60 years? That sounds perilously close to doing journalism, and that’s not the business of the legacy press, buddy!
So, yeah, Bari Weiss is just the latest example of the press crusading against Abdul El-Sayed. He’s an existential threat, on multiple levels, to everything the legacy press has been working to keep in place since at least the 80s. It must be making their blood boil that polling continues to show El-Sayed in the lead no matter how much shit they fling at him. Suck it, bitches.
When El-Sayed is sworn in next January as part of the Democratic Senate majority, I’m going to drink a toast to the abject failure of the legacy press to help the regime stay in power. But for now? The press has annoyed me enough to make my first donation of the midterms. Fuck y’all.
I hope you feel better informed about the world and ready to kick fascists and their enablers in the teeth to protect it. This newsletter exists because of you, so please consider becoming a supporting subscriber today for only $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!). Thank you for everything!
Not a fan of long-term subscriptions? That’s OK! I’ll be your one-night stand with a one-time donation through PayPal or Venmo! I’m easy like that! Just don't tell Mrs. Ogre! 😜
There are 62 days until the most important midterm election in American history. The regime is afraid, and they should be. We are legion, and they are weak. Stay strong. You are never alone.
You have not experienced glee until you’ve experienced the malicious variety.
Oh noes! My party might actually do the things I campaigned on. What a fucking tragedy. -_-
Rumor is that the Editorial Board of the NYT has brought stock in antacids…




