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Ep. 60: The Sweet Smell Of Republican Panic

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Ever see a chicken run around with its head cut off? Well, I have not but I suspect it looks something like the last week of Republicans losing their shit over the coming midterm wipeout.

Gerrymandering, dark money in churches, rigged census counts. Yeah, Republicans are desperate to hold onto power because they know how much this country hates them.

This is what it looks like when fascism panics.


Ogre Nation News Update!

4:08 - 12:40 The July Jobs Report was bad so Trump fired the woman in charge of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Because that’s what fascists do to hide the truth, they panic.

12:45 - 16:34 Texas dictator Greg Abbott is trying to remove Democrats from their elected positions so he can steal House seats through gerrymandering. More fascist panic.

16:35 - 21:15 Florida’s tinpot tyrant Ron DeSantis is demanding a new Census we can eliminate all those pesky immigrants from the count. Even more fascist panic.

21:25 - 29:41 The Epstein scandal is still going. How’s it going? Badly for Trump. He’s protecting a pedophile and now the right wing media is circling the wagons to protect their Dear Leader.

29:42 - 36:22 Israel is deliberately starving Gaza and the Very Concerned People of the “Free Palestine!” crowd are really upset. But not at Trump. That’s weird.

36:23 - 40:30 You Scream I Scream We All Scream Because of Fucking ICE

40:31 -1:08:20 Headlines for Short Attention Spans

1:08:21 - 1:15:10 Self-Care of the Week


Things We Discuss On The Show

Fact check: Trump’s claims jobless numbers were 'rigged'

Did Trump Cook The June Jobs Books? A Live w/ The Opinionated Ogre

Skydance Tells FCC It Will Create CBS News Ombudsman, Eliminate DEI at Paramount

Trump on Texas redistricting: ‘We are entitled to 5 more seats’

Gov. Greg Abbott asks Texas Supreme Court to expel House Democratic leader who left state

California could slash 5 GOP US House seats to counter Texas’ move to pad Republican margin

DeSantis says a census redo could be in works amid state redistricting wars

Newsmax's Greg Kelly says Ghislaine Maxwell “just might be innocent”

Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer to cushy prison camp is a 'travesty of justice,' ex-BOP official says

In Gaza, more Palestinians are killed while waiting for food aid

White House denies Stephen Miller’s alleged ‘arrest targets’ for ICE agents exist

Student Loans Update: Trump Admin Touts Forgiveness in ICE Recruitment Push

The IRS Says Churches Can Now Endorse Candidates. That Could Give Texas Pastors More Power Than Ever.

State Department may require visa applicants to post bond of up to $15,000 to enter the US

Florida officials warn about risks of drinking raw milk after 21 infections

Tennessee school district will no longer excuse students with a doctor’s note

The vast majority of US adults are stressed about grocery costs, an AP-NORC poll finds

Rep. Nancy Mace kicks off South Carolina GOP gubernatorial bid. She says she’s ‘Trump in high heels’

The IRS Says Churches Can Now Endorse Candidates. That Could Give Texas Pastors More Power Than Ever.

Mamdani holds double-digit lead over Cuomo in DDHQ average





Download audio: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/170290759/4013e5b511c64ca5f0fe64cfecb903ee.mp3
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DGA51
18 hours ago
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Central Pennsyltucky
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GOP = Big Government and Corrupt Crony Capitalism

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I don’t want to hear Republicans claiming they’re the party of free markets.

The GOP is now all in for govt intervention in the market, but now, they don’t even offer a pretext of “regulating in the public interest”… Just blatant partisan politics, ideological enforcement, revenge, or self-dealing corruption.

Tariffs. Suing for “defamation” and negotiating/bullying for settlements that are really corrupt pay-offs under duress.

Blocking market deals for partisan purposes. Using those corporate deals as leverage against media companies to fire the administration’s critics.

Picking winners and losers for contracts based on partisan politics and ideology, especially among universities and biotech companies.

The list goes on and on and on…

Trumpism and MAGA are converging with China’s state corporatist/communist hybrid.

The GOP has already abandoned American free market capitalism.



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DGA51
1 day ago
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Central Pennsyltucky
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Netanyahu: “The die is cast – we’re going for full conquest.”

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Netanyahu, according to staff, via CNN: “The die is cast – we’re going for full conquest.”

Bibi is quoting Julius Caesar. “The die is cast” means “point of no return,” from “crossing the Rubicon” 49 BC.
Caesar became official “dictator” that year, leading to the end of the Roman republic.
“Caesar” is root of the words “Czar” and “Kaiser.” Unchecked imperial kings.

The point of no return is on Bibi. He must be stopped.
“Conquering” Gaza would be a disaster for everyone.



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DGA51
2 days ago
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“Conquering” Gaza would be a disaster for everyone.
Central Pennsyltucky
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Trump's Mental And Physical Collapse Is SOOOOO Boring To The Same Press That Was JUST Fucking Obsessed With Joe Biden's Age

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Trump has dementia and he’s dying? LALALALA! I CAN’T HEEEEAAAAAR YOU!

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In the far distant past of June 2024, Joe Biden was literally sick and tired with a head cold and jetlag during a debate with Donald Trump. While Trump could barely string two sentences together and had been growing increasingly incoherent since 2016, the only thing the legacy press wanted to talk about was Joe Biden’s age and “cognitive decline.”

They wrote hundreds of articles in just one week. Demands that he step aside were rampant. Questions about his ability to even finish the last seven months of his presidency were nonstop.

After all, the physical and mental well-being of the President of the United States? What could possibly be a bigger story?!?!!?

But that was then. This is now. These days, the press doesn’t really seem to care about the physical well-being of the president, even if they’re turning into a shambling mound of deranged syphilis-infested maggot meat right in front of us.

Not for nothing, Captain Cankles sure seems to be having some real medical problems. We know this because the regime was forced to fess up. But did they? Chronic Venous Insufficiency? Really? As if the regime has ever once told the fucking truth about Trump’s shitty health. Now we’re supposed to believe they’re suddenly forthcoming with honest information? Bish, please.

The fact that the regime told us this much means something far more serious is wrong. You can bank on it. And yet, the same journalists who doggedly pursued the “Biden is old!” story for so long they forgot he wasn’t president anymore and still won’t shut the fuck up about it are deeply unconcerned about glaring signs of Trump’s collapsing health. How curious.

Joe Biden had a stiff gait, but he constantly rode a bike for exercise and was clearly physically active while in office. Trump is a slob who has spent a lifetime stuffing McDonald’s into his gross vagina mouth. Does he even know how to ride a bike? He barely knows how to walk, refusing to even waddle while playing the laziest game known to man: Golf. A game he constantly cheats at because even though Trump has been playing for decades, he sucks at it. President Whiny Little Diaperbaby can’t tolerate losing. And he definitely can’t tolerate walking.

Is it any wonder his legs are swollen from years of not being used?

Did you know the Opinionated Ogre has a weekly podcast? It’s true! New episodes every Thursday! Catch the latest episode here:

The Ogre hates walking, too, but JFC.

But, hey, it’s just a little case of possible heart failure. No big deal, right? He could be dead within six months and is that REALLY a story as important as the hard-hitting news of “JOE BIDEN IS STILL FUCKING OLD!” that the legacy press was yapping about in *checks notes* July of 2025? As long as Trump is fully in command of his faculties, who cares, right?!

Oh, wait:

A high-profile example came in mid-July, when Trump claimed his uncle, the late professor John Trump, had taught Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, at MIT.

Trump recalled: “I said: ‘What kind of a student was he, Uncle John? Dr John Trump.’ I said: ‘What kind of a student?’ And then he said: ‘Seriously, good.’ He said: ‘He’d correct – he’d go around correcting everybody.’ But it didn’t work out too well for him.”

The problem is: that cannot possibly be true. First, Trump’s uncle died in 1985, and Kaczynski was only publicly identified as the Unabomber in 1996. Second, Kaczynski did not study at MIT.

Trump is so far out in La-La-Land that he remembers things that didn’t happen. He’s not lying. He actually thinks this happened because his brain is melting in real time.

Then there was this piece of brilliance:

Now, I’m no mathematician, but I seem to recall that reducing the price of something by 100% means reducing it to $0. So…what would a 1400% cut be? The drug companies pay YOU? Cool! Can I get my check to continue taking my Ozempic, please? No? Oh, so Trump is fucking deranged and the press just looked the other way.

Man! Remember how Biden having one night of slow responses was enough for the entire legacy press to demand he resign and fuck off into the sunset?

Where’s that vigorous defense of America these days? Where are the noble guardians of democracy protecting us from a mentally compromised leader?

Never mind that Trump is crazy. Never mind that he’s evil. Never mind that he’s corrupt. Stupid. Gullible. Easy to manipulate. Greedy. A pathological liar. A fascist. A convicted criminal. A rapist. A literal pedophile engaged in a cover-up of the worst pedophile ring in American history.

Ignore ALLLLLL of that shit because the fucking press sure is. (OK, they’re not ignoring the Epstein stuff anymore, but isn’t it weird how there’s literally nothing new to this story we didn’t know last fucking year, but NOW it’s a scandal?)

If any elected Democrat anywhere in the country said something this stupid, the press would question their ability to do the job. If they followed it up by ranting about windmills killing birds in the middle of a conversation about immigration, the press would demand cognitive tests and an investigation into drug use.

No Democrat did that, but Donald Dementia sure as fuck did:

Over the weekend Trump, during a meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, abruptly switched from discussing immigration to saying this: “The other thing I say to Europe: ​we’ve – we will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States​. They’re killing us. They’re killing the beauty of our scenery.”

Trump proceeded to speak, non-stop and unprompted, for two minutes about windmills, claiming without evidence that they drive whales “loco” and that wind energy “kills the birds” (the proportion of birds killed by turbines is tiny compared with the number killed by domestic cats and from flying into power lines).

Yeah. The press would have torn Biden to shreds for this. Or Harris. Or Clinton. Or Obama. But not Trump. Never Trump. Someday soon, Trump will shit himself on camera and drool into a microphone. The legacy press will respond by writing one hundred articles about America’s aging population and how it’s just wrong to hold the infirmities of age against politicians. How fucking DARE you notice how old Trump is?! Who the fuck do you think you little peasants are, demanding we cover this story?!

Just to be clear: I am not asking (or demanding, my Great and Powerful Media Overlords) for special attention to be paid to Trump’s age. Not at all. I just want the same compulsive coverage you gave to Joe Biden’s every fucking stutter and stammer and stumble. And if you can’t, or rather, WON’T do that, you should be able to explain why. Why were Joe Biden’s mild infirmities worth hundreds of articles, but Donald Trump’s advanced dementia and obvious signs of imminent physical collapse only worth a brief mention?

But of course, we know the answer. It’s always the same tired, miserable, scumbag answer from soulless, corrupt assholes:

Republicans are not held to a lower standard. They’re held to no standard at all.

It’s important to understand that the press WILL, someday soon, start to focus on Trump’s physical and mental decline. Not because they’ve come to realize that journalism is their job, but rather because the signal will go out that it’s time to replace him with the next Republican demagogue. Rupert Murdoch is having the Wall Street Journal very loudly make the case that Trump has outlived his usefulness.

The Epstein stuff is just a warmup. The rich and powerful are just fine with fascism coming to America. They are less fine with a deranged imbecile lurching from self-made crisis to self-made crisis while costing them billions, putting the entire “Murder Democracy” project in jeopardy. They would prefer a less erratic fascist to be dictator. Someone they can work with. Someone who won’t see a random tweet at 3 AM and then decide that today would be a good day to start a war in the Middle East.

For now, though, the legacy press is completely blind to Trump’s failing health and rapidly approaching cognitive wipeout. And when I say “blind,” I mean they’re looking right at it, seeing it for exactly what it is, and then making the very conscious decision to ignore the shit out of it.

After all, reporting accurately on Republicans just isn’t done in the United States. That would be biased. Would you like to read another article about Joe Biden’s age? The latest juicy gossip is that he’s one entire day older than he was yesterday! The New York Fucking Times might have to assign its top reporters to this breaking news.

Fuck these collaborators. When the regime is pulled down and thrown in prison for the next 25 years, the legacy press needs to be investigated just as closely. Anyone who worked with the regime to undermine democracy has to pay for their crimes. It’s that simple.

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, you can keep the lights on.

🖕FUCK THE LEGACY PRESS!🖕

Fascism hates organized protests. They fear the public. They fear US. Make fascists afraid again by joining Indivisible or 50501 and show them whose fucking country this is!

The Blue Wave has begun and the fascist fucks are scared. There are 90 days until it hits Virginia and Pennsylvania. If I were a billionaire fascist loser, I’d think REALLY hard about getting out of the way.

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DGA51
2 days ago
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But Biden was OLD!
Central Pennsyltucky
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Targeting Jack Smith

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Team Trump is seeking to rewrite history not only to clear Donald Trump of any wrongdoing ever, but declaring along the way that anyone who investigated, prosecuted or suggested differently broke the law themselves. Especially Jack Smith.

We’ve seen it with pardons for the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters at the Capitol, we’ve seen it in pardons for those near and dear to Trump, we’ve seen it in attacks on the judges and prosecutors involved in his conviction on 34 felony counts in New York and civil rulings that found him to be a sexual abuser of E. Jean Carroll. We’re witnessing Trump’s discomfort in any mention of his longtime close friendship with child rapist Jeffrey Epstein.

Now comes word that the Justice Department’s Office of Special Counsel is taking the unusual step of opening a non-criminal investigation of Jack Smith, the former special counsel who oversaw two federal prosecutions of Trump, for potentially violating the law barring federal officials from political activity.

It’s a blatant case of “weaponizing” justice in the opposite direction that Trump repeatedly has blistered for years — abusing the power of the presidency to pursue political opponents.

Of course, in this case Jack Smith was an opponent only because he did his job as special counsel. And the law under which this investigation will proceed is the Hatch Act, which bars federal officials from political activity.

What the Hatch Act aims to do is to stop most federal employees from using their official duties to promote or influence elections — frankly the kind of things that have become so commonplace in the White Houser that we don’t even notice it anymore. It is not only ludicrous but fully hypocritical that this administration hectors a prosecutor for actions that the administration itself values daily.

Why Now?

Last week, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked acting special counsel Jamieson Greer — someone you might think has his hands full with his other job as U.S. Trade Representative during the tariffs and trade war deluge — to look into whether Smith “unlawfully took political actions to influence the 2024 election to harm then-candidate President Donald Trump.”

A quick look at the calendar might remind Cotton and others that Smith was appointed well before the election, and that it was Trump and his legal team who kept delaying various legal hearings and taking appeals that brought Smith’s prosecution anywhere near the 2024 elections.

Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed charges stemming from discovery of loads of classified document in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in a ruling that undercut Smith’s appointment as special counsel, and a set of charges related to Jan. 6 never made it to trial as the election loomed.

Also, Trump won, which might nullify any “political” violation of the Hatch Act.

Trump may have pardoned his Capitol rioters, but it has not erased the fact that he sought to undercut the 2020 elections and remain in office. Trump may have the Smithsonian exhibit about impeachments of presidents revamped to remove mention of him, but his double impeachments still exist. Whatever the mentions of Trump in Epstein files exist are still there despite his ever-changing stories about his role.

The broad whitewashing brush that Team Trump uses to rewrite history doesn’t change what happened. It’s an attempt to force us to see him as an unblemished hero.

That won’t wash.


The post Targeting Jack Smith appeared first on DCReport.org.

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DGA51
3 days ago
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Trump is at war with the past.
Central Pennsyltucky
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Resist the App-ification of Everything

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person holding black android smartphone
Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash

A few months back, I bought a Hatch sound machine. I’ve never owned a sound machine before, so you will excuse my ignorance, but I thought you plugged it in, hit the “on” button, and it would play some sounds (ideally white noise) to help with sleep. This sound machine had good ratings. It looked straight-forward enough.

This sound machine is not straight-forward.

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To get the damn thing to even work, I had to download the Hatch app, which requires connecting the machine to my phone’s Bluetooth, and also to my Wifi, which conveniently has one of those 96-part passwords made up of a jumble of letters and upper and lower-case letters printed in 4-point font on the bottom of my router. The sound machine app would like to know my child’s birthday, and perhaps my birthday, and would I like to grant access to a caretaker? I cannot emphasize this point enough: This damn thing would not work unless I downloaded the Hatch app. Once it was all apped-up I could use it just by touching it, but the app was a prerequisite for any sound to sound.

This is a silly and small thing, but in recent years I have had to download an app to order room service at a hotel, adjust the temperature of my thermostat, pay my bill at a restaurant, pay my bill to the electric company, book a yoga class, pay for marking, use a washing machine at a laundromat, dispense a home fragrance in my basement, and use the air fryer in my oven. Toasters, salt shakers, and floss dispenses have apps. Schools and pre-schools and daycares require you to download an app. One of the most highly-rated baby monitors doesn’t even have its own screen; the camera goes straight to an app in your phone, so I guess you’re looking at that all night long. You can buy a “connected” fork.

Enough is enough.

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DGA51
3 days ago
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Then the app says my phone is not compatible.
Central Pennsyltucky
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