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The average price of gas across the nation is $4.50. The price of groceries just rose faster than at any point in the last four years. Millions are losing their healthcare. Rent and housing are getting more expensive. Inflation is rising faster than wages. The economy is coming apart at the seams, and everyone knows Donald Trump and his party are to blame.

Naturally, they’re going to barnstorm the country and campaign on all of the amazing ways they’ve fucked helped the American people:

Trump and his top officials are fanning out across the U.S. this week for events aimed at touting his domestic achievements — a notable pivot after major foreign policy matters in Iran, China, Cuba, Venezuela and elsewhere have dominated headlines for months.

Back in 2017, Republicans pushed through the largest tax cut in American history, and it went overwhelmingly to billionaires and corporations. They tried to campaign on this magnificent accomplishment for the midterms because Republicans live in a hermetically sealed propaganda bubble. They were absolutely shocked to discover the public, including their own voters, was intensely hostile towards tax cuts for the rich when the economy was sluggish.1

The economy right now is not sluggish; it is being actively murdered by a regime whose goal is to turn America into a piggy bank for the Epstein Class and their enablers.

These motherfuckers just stole almost $2 billion of OUR money to use as bribes, and they’re going to steal soooo much more before we drag them into the streets and hang them for crimes against humanity.2 This is what EVERY dictator has done throughout history: They loot the country and leave behind a smoking husk when they’re done. Fuck that and fuck these cheap little criminals. They haven’t done a goddman thing for the American people.

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Here’s the thing…the regime is going to run around the country and lie through its fucking teeth. That’s the strategy.

“This is the strongest economy in American history!” - Reality: We’ve been flirting with stagflation for the first time in half a century.

“We have a manufacturing revolution!” Reality: We’re shedding manufacturing jobs.

“We’ll have affordable healthcare in two weeks!” Reality: Prices have risen sharply as millions dropped their coverage. Which is exactly what Republicans wanted when they passed their “Big Beautiful Bill” last year.

“I will make groceries cheaper!” Reality: Between the oil shock and fertilizer shock, groceries are only going to get more expensive throughout the rest of the year.

Trump and his bootlicking toadies are going to promise everyone puppies and ice cream and unicorns and it’s all going to happen right after the midterms! Just you wait and see! It’s going to be amazing. An economy like you wouldn’t believe!

Now, the MAGA cult will believe because Trump could feed them a pile of his used diapers, tell them it’s premium Trump Steaks™, and they would brag to their friends about how they ate some of the finest steaks ever made. Is that poop dribbling down your chin? And why does your breath smell like shit, Cletus? Shaddup, Elroy! Fake news!

But the rest of the country? Ain’t no one going to believe a goddamn word coming out of the regime’s mouth. Even with the legacy press carrying water all day long, the lies will just be too ridiculous to work.

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By the summer, we will be in the middle of Trump’s oil shock, and the economy will spiral out of control. As I’ve said too many times to count, a competent and well-intentioned administration would struggle to keep things from falling apart. The regime is maliciously incompetent and will not only be incapable of preventing an economic meltdown, they will welcome it.

It’s important to remember, autocrats see economic distress as an excuse to grant themselves “emergency powers.” EVERY emergency is another excuse to grab more power. The economy is in jeopardy, we’re at war, there’s civil unrest, why, how can we trust the results of the midterm elections, y’all?!

That’s not going to work, but they’re definitely thinking they can try it.

Regardless, the regime, at the moment, thinks it can boost its chances in the midterms by bragging about all of its “accomplishments.” Which tells us they are either completely detached from reality or supremely confident in their ability to bullshit the public. Or both.

A third option is that they really do not understand just how bad the economy is about to get and just how intense the public’s anger will be. Or that it will be entirely directed at the people in charge, aka, Republicans. I would bet a shiny nickel on Option #3. These are the same people who thought they could topple Iran in a few weeks and still can’t figure out why the Strait of Hormuz is closed. Long-term thinking and understanding more complex ideas than “Does it look good on TV?” is really hard for them.3

So here’s what I think is going to happen: Trump and his flying monkeys will race around the country for a few weeks, maybe a month, making shit up the entire time. They’ll handpick their audiences so they can pretend they’re speaking to crowds of “average Americans” who just so happen to all love Trump. The press will pretend these are real events and try really hard to push a narrative that everything is awesome.

But then the oil shock will hit, and everything will not be awesome. The regime will hold its breath and stamp its feet, but the economy will contract hard and fast. Trump’s popularity, already at historic lows, will erode even further.

The Republican Party will then pivot to the same closing message it always pivots to when it is losing: Naked racism and bigotry. We will see a massive surge in Islamophobic rhetoric in late Summer, early Fall. Trump will suddenly rediscover how much he vocally hates immigrants from predominantly Black countries. The regime will almost certainly avoid antagonizing the Latino community any further, but any other kind of immigrant? It will be open season on them. Expect the regime to cancel as many TPS orders as it can to pander to its base of white nationalist trash.

The attacks on the Trans community will intensify, and don’t be surprised if the regime begins its war on the rest of the LGB_Q community. They’re going to be desperate to distract from their failures on both the domestic and international stage.

If (when) this happens, we have to be ready to stand in front of the vulnerable and say, “Not today, you fascist Nazi fucks!” and then kick them in the teeth so hard in November, even the most weak-kneed Democrats know that it’s time to go for the throat of the regime. We have to stand for more than just protecting our money. We have to stand for protecting each other, and the time is coming to prove we are who we say we are: The party of all the people, not just the ones we’re comfortable with. Otherwise, we’re no better than the fascist fucks trying to destroy our country.

I hope you feel better informed about the world and ready to kick fascists 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!

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There are 167 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.

Do you want to know what our president spent today doing? He posted 36 times on his Truth Social account endorsing Republican candidates running in primaries for Congress. One after another, he posted crap like this:

Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson is a Tremendous Champion for Pennsylvania’s 15th Congressional District!

Congressman Rob Bresnahan is a terrific Representative of Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District!

When he wasn’t endorsing Republicans, he was attacking the ones he doesn’t like, Thomas Massie first among them.

Third Rate Congressman Thomas Massie, a Weak and Pathetic RINO from the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky, a place I love, and won big SIX TIMES, including all Primaries, must be thrown out of office, ASAP!

Trump just couldn’t resist reminding all his fans that he won Kentucky SIX TIMES.

Of course you know who didn’t spend the day endorsing candidates for primary elections: The leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They don’t have elections, and they don’t have to worry about the kinds of polls that have recently been hitting Donald Trump like machinegun fire: His job approval is at 37 percent in the Times-Siena poll published today. His numbers on how he’s handling the war against Iran are even worse: 31 percent approve, with 65 percent of all Americans disapproving. On “cost of living,” a pretty good bellwether for the economy, Trump is at 28 percent approval. Other recent polls have said the same. CNN found only 30 percent approve of his handling of the economy, with 77 disapproving.

Buried beneath all the political endorsements and whining about how he’s covered in the press, Donald Trump made the announcement that he won’t be bombing the shit out of Iran tomorrow. Trump claimed he was “asked” by the heads of state of three Gulf countries – United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia -- to “hold off our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow.”

You bet he was asked to cancel the bombers. Just yesterday, an Iranian drone hit what was described as an electrical generating station next to one of the UAE’s two nuclear reactors, the only ones that have been built in the Middle East. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said today that the Iranian drone strike has caused that reactor to rely on emergency diesel generators. This sounds rather benign until you realize that nuclear reactors rely on electrical power that comes from somewhere else to run the reactors. That electricity, for example, runs the control rooms of the reactors, the pumps that supply the cooling water to the reactor cores – pretty much everything that keeps the reactor from melting down, in other words.

Iran targeted the UAE far more than other Gulf countries during Trump’s war, firing 563 ballistic missiles and more than 2,200 drones at the UAE. On some days, the UAE saw more than 100 missiles and drones aimed at targets within its borders. So, almost immediately after Donald Trump rattled what’s left of his sabers, telling Iran “the clock is ticking” and if Iran doesn’t “move fast” on accepting U.S. negotiating terms, “there won’t be anything left,” Iran hit the one nuclear reactor in the Gulf. Hours later, the president of the UAE joined the Emir of Qatar and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia begging Trump to back off.

That wasn’t predictable, was it?

Hmmmmm…what else happened over the last few days? Oh, I remember! U.S. intelligence sources told the New York Times that Iran has maintained about 70 percent of its ballistic missile capability after Trump’s and Hegseth’s almighty bombing campaign. Thirty of 33 missile sites overlooking the Strait of Hormuz are back on line. Those would be the ones that target ships in the Strait if Iran decides it’s not only going to blockade the Strait with threats but start blowing tankers and cargo ships out of the water. All those strikes Hegseth assured us had “destroyed” Iran’s missile capability? Well, it turns out that the missiles themselves weren’t destroyed. All the U.S. was able to do was hit the entrances to the caves and tunnels, and Iran has spent the ceasefire digging out the rubble covering the tunnel entrances and moving mobile missile launchers to new locations.

Iran’s underground missile storage facilities are largely intact, as are the country’s underground stockpile of drones and drone manufacturing plants.

We are now aware of who else knows all this: the nations of the Gulf who got hammered by Iran during the war. They know that the drone hit on the UAE’s nuclear facility was just Iran dropping a hint – and a rather dangerous one – of what is to come if Trump orders another bombing campaign on Iran.

While Iran has been busy repairing its military installations and getting ready for a new U.S. strike, Trump was in China begging President Xi to order some civilian airliners from Boeing, bragging on the way home that they are going to buy 200 aircraft, rather than 150, which Trump claimed they had planned on buying. Reports since his trip say that China has not placed an order with Boeing, that the 200 number could end up being smoke and mirrors, and that was the big accomplishment out of his three days of pomp. Late reports say that Trump didn’t even eat the food he was served at the banquet put on in his honor.

Today it was reported that Xi and Putin exchanged “congratulatory letters” in advance of Putin’s visit to China later this week. Gee, I wonder what Xi was congratulating Putin for. Could it be reports that Russia has helped Iran by supplying intelligence on where U.S. assets are held in the Middle East and Europe, as well as providing satellite intelligence on flight patterns of U.S. attack aircraft? Recall that Iran was able to shoot down one F-18 before the ceasefire began, which must have sent some chills down some Pentagon spines.

Congrats, Vladimir! What do you know about U.S. naval jet flight patterns in, let’s see…the South China Sea? How about flight patterns for U.S. jets flown by the air force of Taiwan?

You know, and China knows, and Russia knows, and Iran knows how Donald Trump spent the weekend before the national security meeting he had scheduled for tomorrow in the Situation Room. Playing golf.

That’s what most presidents do two days before they’re going to order the resumption of bombing of a serious adversary that is causing the largest disruption in the world economy since the crash of 2008. They play golf. Then they go on social media and complain about a New York Times reporter being a “traitor” because he reported, accurately, that the Pentagon had not been exactly straight with the American people about the damage that had been done to Iran during the war.

Everything about this war is way, way out of the control of Donald Trump. He knows that he’s going to have to settle for an agreement on Iran’s nuclear facilities that won’t even be as good as the one he cancelled that was negotiated by his nemesis, Barack Obama. There are multiple reports that Trump asked Xi for help with Iran and was turned down – by the guy who gets tons and tons of his oil from Iran and presumably has some juice with its leaders. Trump knows that his war is so unpopular with the American people that it’s driving his overall numbers to record lows for a president at this point in his second term in office.

And he knows that the midterm elections are less than six months away.

Boy, I bet he’s glad that he’s got he game of golf to calm his nerves. Nothing like driving your own personal golf cart emblazoned with presidential seals and cheating your way to another “win” over whatever hapless supplicant you’ve chosen to play against this week.

Are you listening, Lindsey? There’s a hapless supplicant position open for next Saturday. Maybe by then Trump will have changed his mind about bomb-bomb-bomb Iran and you guys can pick targets while you’re playing the back nine at Bedminster. What fun!

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It’s a sad day in America when a tiny, petty little copycat of a tyrant can start a war of choice in the Middle East and the country doesn’t rush to praise him as a conquering hero. Whatever happened to good ol’ fucking American pride?!?! Has the United States of ‘Murika become too goddamn woke and filled with weak-kneed liberal pussies to celebrate our massive indisputable AWESOME military victory in Iran that has resulted in exactly zero of our stated objectives and has made the price of gas (and everything else) shoot through the fucking roof?

Ummmm…looks like the answer might be…yes?

Most voters think President Trump made the wrong decision to go to war with Iran, a New York Times/Siena poll found, leaving the Republican Party on rocky political footing heading into the midterm elections as his approval rating sinks and economic concerns rise.

Majorities of voters said that the war was not worth the costs and held deeply pessimistic views about the economy.

73% of Independents rejecting your stupid war and the inflation it’s causing is not an electoral kiss of death going into the midterms. It’s the throat fucking of doom.

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How much trouble is Trump in? Soooo much fucking trouble. This is not a blip. This is a trend and it’s been going on for too long to ignore:

A four-point decline isn’t necessarily huge, but it puts Mr. Trump’s ratings in new political territory. While recent presidencies have often been unpopular and polarizing, no president’s approval rating has been under 38 percent for more than a few days in the last 17 years, according to our average. If there has been a floor during this partisan era of politics, Mr. Trump’s ratings today have fallen to it.

But let’s be more specific. Let’s look at what’s coming and what happens next. There are two things to consider here.

1. 37% is what the Professional Left Podcast calls “The Sarah Palin Floor.” This is the lowest Trump can go. Maybe. This is the 37% of Americans who will lick Trump’s unwashed balls while he is raping their 14-year-old daughter and thank him for the privilege. He can shoot their family dog, and they will beg him to stay for a dinner of unseasoned mashed potatoes and boiled chicken. He can burn their house down in the middle of winter, and they will marvel at how their favorite president DONALD J. TRUMP!!! made a campfire for them.
   
   But worshipping Trump does not translate into worship for the Republican Party. No matter how tightly the party clings to Trump’s leg and humps it for all they’re worth, his cult will inevitably vent their frustrations on them, mostly by not voting. They may understand, intellectually1, that their godking needs them to vote, but they’ll be sooooo fucking mad at the GOP, they’ll just stay home.
   
   The end result will be a blue wave that the legacy press won’t even bother trying to downplay like they did in 2018.2 Gerrymandering will not save them if their voters do not turn out.

2. As I have been reminding people since last year: We still have not reached the really nasty part of Trump’s economic disaster. We’re about to, though. We crossed the event horizon weeks ago, and it’s too late to stop Trump’s oil shock from impacting the country now. Even if Iran surrendered today and reopened the Strait of Hormuz, it wouldn’t matter. Even if Trump capitulated and gave Iran everything they wanted right now, it wouldn’t matter. If they shook hands and reached a deal neither side really likes but restores peace and gets the oil and fertilizer shipping again, it wouldn’t matter. The damage is already done, and we’re going to start feeling the real effects in the next couple of weeks, long before any oil from the Gulf could possibly reach us. You still have some time to prepare, but that time is running out:
   

   But let’s be honest…Trump is too stupid and arrogant to end his war of choice. He started it to look good on TV, and now that it’s a disaster, he has no idea how to get out of it without looking like the fucking loser he’s been his entire life. He went to China on his knees, begging to be bailed out because when Trump has fucked up, like he has so many MANY times in his life, someone always bails him out. His father, the American mob, the Russian mob, Elon Musk, some bigger piece of shit has always swooped in to pick up the pieces because Trump was a useful idiot who served their agenda. But now, Trump failing serves China’s agenda, and they’re the only bigger piece of shit in a position to help. Womp-womp for us.

   
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   The American economy (and the global economy with it) is going to contract, hard. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs, their benefits, access to health insurance, food banks are going to be overwhelmed because the regime has crippled them, and on and on and on. Unlike what Fox News would have us believe, most of those people aren’t going to be minorities in cities. They’re going to be rural whites, aka, Trump voters, aka “real Americans.”
   
   They will be furious, but even in their psychotic fugue state of racism, misogyny, and bigotry, it’s really hard to tell yourself that immigrants and Trans kids made the price of gas and inflation go up. Even Fox News has been talking about how closing the Strait of Hormuz is a problem for consumers. The dimmest of MAGA will be able to connect those dots.

   
   Trump may be the Second Coming of Christ Himself, but when a few million more of his disciples lose their homes and their retirements because of him, they’re going to discover what we’ve known all along:

So what happens when Trump destroys EVERYTHING? We can look to the last Republican cult and how they responded when their infallible divine messenger shit the bed. When George W. Bush annihilated the economy and left two disastrous wars in his wake, his cult magically discovered that they never supported him from the beginning. Praise JAY-zus! They were never Republicans! Heavens no! They were the Tea Party! Or Constitutional Conservatives! Or “Independents!” We saw this with Bush, and we will see it with Trump because Republican voters hate one thing in this world more than they hate us,3 and that is being demonstrably wrong.

They erased Bush because he was so terrible that they couldn’t avoid the reality that he had destroyed the economy and their lives. Trump is heading down the same road, but worse. What choice will they have? Blame Joe Biden for attacking Iran? I mean, they can try, but I’m not sure even the most cult-brained inbred MAGA will be able to tolerate sounding that fucking stupid for long.

Trump’s cult will kill for him. They will die for him when they believe diseases and vaccines are a hoax. They will not, however, tolerate ongoing inconvenience and poverty for him. When it costs $100 or more to fill the manly pickup every week, and the grocery bill tops $250, while Trump won’t stop talking about his fucking ballroom? Well, that’s a man who doesn’t care about me and my red-blooded, God-lovin’ American family. That’s an out-of-touch billionaire and maybe he was one of them all along. That’s why I’m an Independent and never voted for that lying piece of shit, and any Trump bumper stickers you see on my F-150 were probably put there by some commie-pinko leftist!

The Trump cult will lie, cheat, steal, and murder for their Dear Leader and they will vote away their future time and again. But when the bill comes due, there’s only so much they’ll put up with before abandoning their cult and pretending they were the victim all along.

George W. Bush found that out the hard way, and I think Trump is now going to learn the same hard lesson in the very near future. Just breaks my little Ogre heart…

I hope you feel better informed about the world and ready to kick fascists 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!

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There are 168 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.

The Opinionated Ogre is 100% reader-supported. Please help me continue to inform/amuse/outrage you by becoming a supporting subscriber today for only $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!)! If not, it’s all good. Welcome to the Ogre Nation anyway!

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Time is almost up, and the last of the mitigation efforts will run out in the next couple of weeks. A month or two at most (and that’s a huge stretch). After that, all of the really bad things start. There will be no one to blame except Joe Biden Trans kids Immigrants Hillary Clinton Your Mother Donald Fucking Trump.

You still have time to get ready. Get to it. Then pull up a seat and enjoy the show as the regime panics.

Monday: Don’t listen to the people telling you society is going to collapse. But you do want to get ready for rough waters ahead.

Tuesday: You cannot be friends or allies with people who want you dead.

Wednesday: Recording and Writing D&D for the girls.

Thursday: Podcast!

Also Thursday: Be careful what you wish for.

Friday: The kids had a wonderful prom night. Me? Not so much.

5 Things I found Interesting This Week

1. On Superpower Suicide - And the recovery of justice by Timothy Snyder at Thinking about…

2. Trump Has Officially Lost The War In Iran And The Great Energy Collapse Of 2026 Is Coming. - Bob Kagan just declared “checkmate” on America in Iran while the US prepares to fall off an energy cliff in the next two weeks. You should probably buy an EV soon. by Dean Blundell

3. Nobody Tells You The Last Time They’ll Reach For Your Hand - On Grief, Granola, and the Country Our Children Deserve by JOJOFROMJERZ at Are you f’ng kidding me?

4. The Sex Economy: The Enclosure of Connection - Your Loneliness Is Not a Personal Failure. It’s a Business Model. by Farida Khalaf at Lights On

5. Is Russia Finally Losing Its War of Choice in Ukraine? - The raw numbers don’t lie, and they carry a stern lesson for the U.S. by Jay Kuo at The Status Kuo

Let’s start by calling the 57 missile strikes that have sunk boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean what they are: murders. The Pentagon cannot provide the names of the 192 people killed by missiles fired on civilian boats. The Pentagon calls the victims of the aerial bombings narco-terrorists or drug smugglers. No one knows the names of those who have been killed on the boats because no attempt has been made to learn their identities or to provide proof that what the boats and the 192 victims carried was indeed drugs. They just fire missiles and drop bombs and call what they are doing “authorized.”

Hegseth’s Pentagon could prove that they are hitting drug boats by picking up the debris left by the sunken boats and showing the drugs, if in fact there are any, but they don’t do that. They make another strike or multiple strikes to sink the debris, whatever it is – plastic wrapped boxes, stuffed garbage bags – it’s hard to see from the grainy videos they have largely stopped publicizing. In one early strike on a boat in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic reported retrieving packages filled with cocaine, but those packages, if they were recovered at all, have not been provided to U.S. law enforcement as evidence, because there were no prosecutions resulting from the boat’s sinking. The men on the boat were killed during the strike. Their bodies were not recovered, either, because the U.S. Navy makes no attempt to recover the bodies of the alleged drug smugglers or anyone found to have survived the missile attacks.

In what other context has the United States of America set out to kill alleged drug dealer or smugglers without evidence, much less an arrest, trial, and conviction resulting in a death sentence? None. I don’t believe if a drug dealer or drug smuggler was arrested, tried and convicted that there is a federal statute allowing a death sentence for a drug crime. The former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, is currently in jail in The Hague awaiting trial for killing alleged drug dealers without trial and conviction. What he did as president is being described in charges as “crimes against humanity.”

Donald Trump commits crimes against humanity every day. There is a legal word for this campaign of murder that has been carried out on the orders of Donald Trump: impunity. The word connotes being exempt from prosecution or punishment or any legal consequences. The Supreme Court infamously issued its decision in Trump v. United States awarding Trump immunity from prosecution for decisions he makes and actions he takes as part of his official business as president. The immunity granted to Trump – and to any future presidents – was not described by the Supreme Court as transferrable to others if they follow his orders in carrying out what he claims are his official duties. But Trump has made it clear that he will pardon anyone facing prosecution for following one of his illegal orders, so that question is, for the time being anyway, moot.

Trump has expanded the immunity against prosecution granted to him by the Supreme Court. He has taken what is understood by legal experts to be a specific form of criminal immunity and applied it to practically everything he does. He did not have the legal authority to rename the Kennedy Center, but he did it anyway. He did not go through the legal processes mandated under the law that apply to making changes to the structure and appearance of the White House before he tore down the East Wing and began construction on his absurd “ballroom.” He just did it.

Perhaps most importantly, Trump did not seek the support of Congress under the Authorization for Use of Military Force Act before he ordered the massive bombing campaign on Iran. He just did it. The deaths of Iranian nationals, especially civilians, could be seen as murders because of his refusal to follow clearly written law. But that does not matter to Donald Trump. He can kill unidentified alleged narco-terrorists in boats on the open waters of the Caribbean and Pacific. He can kill anyone in the vicinity of the bombing of what he would call military targets in Iran.

Trump has taken the presidential immunity invented by the Supreme Court and turned it into permission to do anything he wants. He is taking the gilded Boeing 747 given to the U.S. government by Qatar and turning it into Air Force One, and when he leaves office, he is going to take the plane with him to be part of his “presidential library.” That is, by any rational measure, the theft of at least a billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury, but it is small beans compared to what he is trying to do by suing the IRS, over which he has authority, for $10 billion because his tax records were publicly released in 2020 by an IRS contractor. Recently, a so-called “settlement” of the case has been announced, whereby in return for dropping his lawsuit, a slush fund of $1.7 billion will be created, over which he has sole control, to pay off insurrectionists who attacked the Capital on January 6, 2021. It isn’t even clear if the pay offs would go only to those convicted of crimes committed on that day, whom he has already pardoned. Apparently, if you claim you attacked the Capital, you would be eligible to be paid “compensation,” for what isn’t clear, but what does it matter?

Trump would be barred from receiving any of the funds himself, but “entities” associated with Trump are not prohibited from applying for compensation. You can be certain that Trump has lots and lots of entities, and if he doesn’t have enough, he’ll invent more.

So, there will be no money for the 140-some police officers who were assaulted during the attack on the Capital, no money for the relatives of those who died on that day or afterwards. But lots and lots of money for the insurrectionists. If all 1,600 of those pardoned by Trump applied for compensation, there is enough in the slush fund to pay each of them a million dollars.

If there isn’t enough money after Trump has paid off anyone he wants to, including “entities” he controls, he’ll just grab some more money from the Treasury he already raids almost daily. Where do you think the money for all that gold leaf in the White House is coming from? Donald Trump?

MSNOW host Chris Hayes described in a BlueSky post having his “spirit leave my body” when he read the terms of the so-called proposed settlement of Trump’s IRS lawsuit.

I can speak only for myself and Tracy and the cats and Ruby, but our spirits leave our bodies as we watch what this criminal monstrosity is doing on a daily basis. People used to warn against “normalizing” Trump’s behavior by not calling it what it is.

We are far beyond worrying about any sort of normalization of Donald Trump. We are on a lost highway of wonderment at this point, looking around for signposts that might give hints of where we’re headed. But there are none. Trump does what he wants, and there is nothing to stop him. The law does not apply anymore. The Supreme Court took care of that.

We would be defenseless if we didn’t still have elections, but the Republican Party – aided and abetted once again by the Supreme Court – is trying to negate the right to vote along with the right to control your own body and your right to drive a car or walk down a street without being shot dead by an agent of the state wearing a badge that reads ICE or CPB.

It needs to be said that this country is in more trouble than it has ever been in. It can be saved by people of goodwill, but the question is, are there enough of them?

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Prices are on food, and everyday essentials are going up fast. But Trump’s oil shock hasn’t really hit yet, and when it does, prices are going to explode. and I give you a practical guide on how to prepare before that happens.

Oh, and we cover some other important news, too.

Come join the Ogre Nation Conversation!

Ogre Nation News Update!

4:10 - 4:50 Trumpflation explodes, and it’s just going to get worse

4:51 - 27:45 Trump’s Oil Shock is here, and we’re going to feel it soon. There are a lot of simple, common-sense steps you can take to protect yourself. We give you some.

27:46 - 39:07 Trump’s Epstein scandal refuses to go away, no matter how many countries he invades…

39:08 - 1:02:30 Headlines for Short Attention Spans!

1:02:31 - 1:10:00 Self-care of the Week

Here’s the chart of how much traffic right-wing sites are losing. Ha-Ha!

The Unedited Hot Mess Livestream!