70 Comments

Yes, but stupidity/willful ignorance really is not an excuse. If someone died because you couldn’t foresee the consequences of your actions, you wouldn’t be charged with 1st degree murder, but you’d get charged with manslaughter or criminal negligence. I feel like this is a similar situation, particularly because people are ALREADY losing their lives, especially in the case of women dying of sepsis for incomplete miscarriages. Voting has consequences for the entirety of this nation. So no, I will not give the unforgivably stupid a pass, disinformation or not. The inability to think for oneself and not be wholly gobbling up spoon-fed bullshit is pathetic and a danger to everyone.

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I am not at all saying give them a pass but they are not the people who are going to turn you in for supporting gay rights. They'll have their faces eaten by leopards soo enough.

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"The Muslims who think Trump is going to end the war in Gaza because he’s a man of peace. They signed the death warrants of their friends and family in both Gaza and the West Bank."

How are those folks and the other examples you give any less dangerous? I get the focus of your article(s) but the person who stabs you because they didn't think the knife would actually hurt leaves you just as dead as the person who was intentionally trying to kill you.

There will be a LOT of people ushered into the cattle cars while their family and friends stand by saying "But all I did was report you. I honestly didn't think that would mean you get killed." Doesn't' matter how much they believe that last part, you're still dead.

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Don’t be so sure. Especially if they are being brainwashed by right wing media who may tell them to turn in their neighbors.

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There's a lot of gay people, and most people couldn't care less. I'm no trump supporter and could give 100 reasons for why he shouldn't be president, like OWS for one. 2, he suggested guns should be taken and "due process" and let due process happen after thr fact. I could go on. Banned bump stocks. I could go on, BUT, he appointed the first gay cabinet member in Richard Grenell, a gay man, Dir. Of National.Intelligence and is now considering him for considering him for another appointment for secretary of state. Mad Prep available to gay and trans at little to no cost, and pledged to end hiv/aids by 2030. He also made invitro available to all families, gay and trans. So he's been a pretty gay friendly president, and has a lot of support from gay people in the know. Do a little research, makes our cause seem ignorant.

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This troubles me deeply, on so many levels. I think your premise is “The previous Administration took actions that accelerated production of novel Covid vaccines by funding Operation Warp Speed (OWS), benefited some members of the LGBTQ+ community, streamlined PrEP and expanded access to it for more people and (maybe, if I got this right) reacted to several mass shootings with magic words, didn’t veto some anemic gun control legislation and appointed a gay man to a Cabinet position.” You posit that these “good” things need to be acknowledged by Democrats (specifically Justin) and by not doing so we (he…JR, is that your preferred pronoun?) appear uninformed and ignorant.”

Please know that I read and re-read your note many times to try to parse from your disorganized, language-challenged, hastily composed, spelling and grammar error-rich, apologia for the paltry good acts of the previous administration any discernible meaning. It was really hard. But I think it’s worth it because I don’t want you to succeed in this whitewash.

I judge this vacuous argument meritless.

Foremost, you engage in largely unspoken rhetorical fallacies. You never make your point and leave that in the hands of the reader, after challenging them and calling them “ignorant.” Justin is under no obligation to balance the horrific truth of what 45/47 says is coming, shows is coming, and by large measure has always been coming by pointing out this broken clock is correct twice a day, and is therefore not broken. Your carelessness in writing and thought demonstrates a huge disrespect for your reader, severely limiting your impact and alienating a huge proportion of potential readers who can legitimately say: “ This Steveo guy clearly doesn’t respect me, so why should I give a shit about what he thinks and make the effort to try to understand him.”

I can counter everything you say (and not just because you say it so poorly, but it helps.) OWS (See what I did there? I took the time to actually spell it out earlier and provided the abbreviation, I can now use the abbreviation without confusing my reader) was legislated by Congress, not 45, and cite the many ways it succeeded despite 45, not because of 45, reallocated its funding from other source (took from Peter to pay Paul; in this case took from the hospitals to pay biotech companies) pushed $10B into very few hands perhaps to garner future political support). You seem to even argue that 45 was helpful in the US’ understanding of the pandemic and individual responsibilities to co control it’s spreading and the global response to COVID-19, having largely been judged quite the opposite.

I’ll go on.

Grenell may be gay, but that doesn’t make him a good man or a good diplomat. He’s far from that. He is a right-winger and always has been. He shattered diplomatic norms in Germany, likely violating Article.41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by openly declaring his (as representing official US policy) goal to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders". He accepted money from Orban and covered it up.He lobbied for Iran and other “bad actors”. He flipped on 45 after initial criticisms and scrubbed his online profiles to eliminate it, later appearing in his media role on Fox as a staunch defender. On so many ways he is a traitor to his own existence, and mine. Still, you use his sexuality alone and his amicus brief in Hollingsworth (the outcome of which he and Matt had a very significant personal stake) as proof of his genuine merit. Talk about cherry-picking.

Which US Presidents since GW Bush have NOT pledged to end HIV/AIDS by 20XX, strawman?

I really could go on and on as every single thing that you claim is spurious or misleading. And it is your intellectual laziness, and sophistry, that warrants this one clap back and nothing more.

I hope the next time you choose to write a note, you put a little bit more thought and effort into it. What you’ve vomited up here, though, is worthless spunk. Your effort to flood the zone with whataboutist bullshit, which clearly took you less than a minute to peck out and failed to proofread, wasted an hour of my life in an effort to try to undo any damage you may have done.

And, you weren’t even on topic. Enjoy having your face eaten they’re coming for me and they’re coming for you. They won’t be happy until all of us fags are dead and it’s criminal that you defend them.

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As a former technical editor, thank you for this spectacular comment. Especially writing out what the fucking acronym stands for before using it in a fucking sentence. I’ll add, regarding the idiotic point about Grenell being gay, that Peter Thiel, the monster behind Project 2025, is gay.

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Ypur reading comprehension appears to be the bigger problem. The facta I posted are simply that. Trumps first administration did gay friendly things. And regardless if grenell is "right wing" this or that, he's still gay and was appointed. I brought up OWS as a negative for why he shouldn't be President, not gay positive. OWS was a kill plan because the pandemic was a military psyop, and you failed. He also signed an EO in 2019 to "modernize and speed up vaccines" in 2019 before they revealed the murderous plan. Don't believe me? Watch the 2012 olympic opening ceremony, wirh the "spike protein" floats of corona. Or maybe you can explain how someone can have the foresight to create a patent for a "novel coronavirus" 5 years before it's discovery? And a rothschild at that! Oh, and the shots, they're made through government (darpa) contractors, not the rx companies at all, i won't do all of your homework for you, I'll let you dig that up.

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/patent/US-2020279585-A1

Oh, and when I write a note, I'm not writing am essay, and I'm vision impaired so there's that. You're shameful! You have a lot to learn in that it doesn't matter who the president is, they're all installed foeba particular reason, and this time is no different. You'll also find that all but one are blood related to king john of england. Ever hear of the Day tapes? Of course you haven't because you've bought into the whole democrat this, republican that. It matters not who is in the white house. This was all planed out decades and decades ago. Their politics have played you perfectly! Happy Thanksgiving! There, I capitalized that for you so you won't have a tizzy!

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Way too Over educated idiots. 👇🏼👇🏼

I'm always impressed with knit picking premadonn-asses.

Probably have careers where they can seriously mess up people's lives, and enjoy doing it. The only issue is that there's no factual argument from any of you because facts don't matter to ideologies.

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Wrong presumption; I own a hotel and provide direct service to the traveling public. I’m adored by thousands. I just can’t abide a lunatic like Steveo making specious arguments and doing so so GD poorly. It was my intention to shut him down to spare you and other Ogre subscribers from his madness. Did you see how he flipped the fuck out? Played the victim card (I cant see! Admitted he doesn’t give a shit about this audience and is trolling?)

And your take-away is to ignore any of the facts we disputed and put us in the same bucket? I have a parcel of insults for you, too. But, insulting me because I have an excellent vocabulary, developed critical thinking skills, a well-rounded education, and am willing to take the time to call conspiracy theorists on their BS and innuendo is probably your go to when you’re in over your head, eh?

I won’t do this very often, but watch out I’ll be reading your garbage for suresies!!

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@PLaNeT PRiSoN, looking forward to it. Cool your jets mister. This Ogre person is fkn deranged. Not I.

And further more. Feel free to examine my Substack. I'm an American through and through. Love this country that showed the rest of civilization that humanity was not meant to be ruled. That's a far cry from what my perspectives are regarding highly educated A-holes that which enjoy picking on self educated society folks.

I'm enthusiastic for you and your hotel business. This must be your darker side for which it shows that you have no trouble taking out the frustrations of your business challenges. Hospitality is a tough gig.

Peace be with You.

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Funniest comment of the day! But, the day is young!

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LOL. My pleasure! And thanks.

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I have no pity for the willfully ignorant when the leopards eat their faces. And I don't see them as any less of a threat than the active collaborators the Ogre is warning about.

As he notes "The Muslims who think Trump is going to end the war in Gaza because he’s a man of peace. They signed the death warrants of their friends and family in both Gaza and the West Bank."

These "ignorants" have indeed signed the death warrants for their own friends and families. That they did it out of willful ignorance rather than active malice doesn't make their victims any less dead, or them any less dangerous.

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Came to say the same. I’m not as charitable as some. I’ve lost lovers, friends, family, so many over the past decade. Painful but it’s the only way I can live with myself.

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It's times like this that it might be good to remind people that having backup and emergency plans is a good thing.

Prepare for the worst. Hope for the best.

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It's so good to hear another voice that is as angry & fearful & disgusted as I am. I am sick of Bill Maher, John Fetterman & every fucking democratic leader who says lets hear what they have to say. We've heard what they have to say - when in the fuck will democrats stop the lets be nice routine and start to RESIST- resist every damn thing maga leaders want to do, no matter how it sounds - THEY ARE FASCISTS - THEY ARE LIARS - THEY ARE EVIL - there is no two sides to this. I fear we have a front row seat to a dystopian future, including environmental devastation. It's not the beginning, as this has been moving in this direction for years. I am not being dramatic - I know we are at the precipice of destruction. I am 75 years old and my thought is thank god I'm at the end of my life and not the beginning - thank god I have a few dollars to see me through - thank god I have the Opinionated Ogre to validate that I'm not crazy - I am sane & can see things so clearly that it is painful. I never give up, but I do get sad for what we are losing. 😢 to quote Gregg Popovich "WE ARE ROME"

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I have only one thing to say. If it unfolds as you say, the very fact I subscribe to independent media will be picked up by Trumps digital watchdogs and I will be at risk of concentration camps. I am 67 years old and never condidered the possibility that my online history could get me into trouble, but it could. I will not stop my viewing of online independent media, but my history gets cleared every day. Or my remaining golden years will be spent in concentration camps, without MAGA friends and family ratting me out.

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I recently posted this on a news feed website about Trump charges being dropped by Federal Gov for insurrection (couldn't use the language I wanted, but got the message across), and realized for the first time in my life I could get a knock on the door for "threatening Trump". So I posted it on every news feed I could - come & get me you mother fucker!

Trust me donald - its not over - it took a while to get these guys:

John Gotti died in prison,

Paul Castellano gunned down by John Gotti,

Veto Genovese imprisoned for 15 years,

Whitey Bulgar - beaten to death in prison,

Bugsy Siegel gunned down by unknown assailant,

Jimmy Hoffa disappeared probably under a nice new concrete pour of a casino.

THEY'RE COMING FOR THE ORANGE BLOB

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"So I posted it on every news feed I could - come & get me you mother fucker!"

Good for you. GOOD. FOR. YOU.

Too many are "obeying in advance", giving in because they worry that threats will be made against them. Fuck that. Fuck all the Morning Joes and their kissing ass before Trump is even in power. Instead: "Bring it on, motherfuckers!"

Don't give in and do their dirty work for them, make them do it. Challenge the cowards to make good on their threats. Be ready to defend if they actually do, but it's awfully likely they, like cowards do, will back down or hesitate when they see folks aren't just giving up.

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May you be a prophet! Or may he die from tertiary Syphilis, like Al Capone!

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I sure hope so. But his incompetent hires can carry on quite well without him. Imagine Musk ego and trump ego competing!😄😂

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Once again with Trump and one of his boyfriends I wonder who’s the top ?

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Naive question…how does one ‘clear’ their history…and, is it truly cleared?

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Well!

You should be using a VPN

For starters and once it’s on the internet it’s there forever but the cost to dig up the past is relative to who you are .

Haven’t seen many reports of

“Mr . Joe SixPack” being nabbed for protesting!

It’s the assholes with kiddyporn that should be dragged into center court !

Have control of your computer and phone account so no one is salting crap with your accounts !

Delete old email and documents you don’t want and don’t open any files that were sent to you !

Anything that went through internet or resided on your devices can be restored!

It always puzzles me how someone somewhere spends a lot of money looking for crap on someone’s computer when any decent lawyer can get almost anything thrown out and not considered evidence!

Unless it’s government or corporate property what’s someone doing poking around your devices ?

You’ll have to look for professional help if you want to clean your devices.

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Sorry. Did not see you had commented. I use Google and Yahoo. There is a section from the icons at the top. One is history. You can delete everything you have looked at or you can just pick and choose what you want to delete. As far as I know, once you delete it can't be tracked by ordinary people. Perhaps a hacker can, but I don't know. If you delete all your activity, though, you will have to re-sign in to your emails, your social media pages and anything else that requires a password.

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Many German Jews tried to be more German than their fellow Germans, believing that it would protect them. It did not. I fear, as you have written, history, a variation of History, is about to happen.

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Re: Latino voters. There are substantial numbers of white Latinos (see Cuban migrants) who are convinced that they will be exempt from all the immigration restrictions that are coming.

I’m not convinced. Especially if they speak accented English.

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I’m not either, sadly whether they have documents like a birth certificate or green card is where shyt will get real for them. Also their friends and relatives will end up feeling the pain.

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Me and mine are requesting official copies of our US birth certificates. Just in case.

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…and keep copies of your birth certificate and other identifying documents in several places, both hard copies and digital images (on multiple thumb drives and on more than one cloud server). What will happen if the newly elected henchmen hire bounty hunters to round up Latinos, and you show them your paper copies and/or your digital copies on your phone? My guess: they will laugh while destroying the copies, and stomp your phone into pieces, because they get paid by their body count, and what’s worse, probably both alive or dead.

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Guess they better hope they “pass” for white. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤬

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It’s not “passing” when they’re blonde and blue-eyed. Or clearly European, like Spaniards. They can just speak accented English, but not always. See my late mother, who people for some reason always thought she was Jewish. Born and bred in Brooklyn, she often had people come up and speak Yiddish to her.

See, race is such a weird construct, especially in the US. When people think “Hispanic”, they think “brown”. Or perhaps “black”. But it’s not always so.

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It might be worth watching Good Night and Good Luck again (about Edward R. Murrow’s reporting during the McCarthy hearings). There will be independent journalists reporting on Trump’s atrocities and we need to be prepared to support them. Also, get a VPN. Best decision I recently made.

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I may not have much assets to my name (and younger than 40), but I am writing my brother, his wife and children out of my trust and will. Their share will now be split between my gay friend and my active duty cousin (who gave an earful to Trump voters after 11/5/24). They’re not taking my joy, they’re getting ZIP.

And before I die, I will include a pointed letter saying why they were cut out.

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At my Thanksgiving table they’ll be 7 adults, all my relatives, all Democrats. And they all voted for Kamala. The only disagreement we’re apt to have is just how stupid the fucking shithead MAGAS are.

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I agree with you completely. There is no compromising with evil, and stupidity is no excuse either. After some days of complete shock I tried to tune in to a few favorite MSNBC shows. Couldn’t do it. The smiling hosts, the guests trying to “make the best of it”. Fuck that! I am still raging “at the dying of the light” of democracy, and they are already going forward as if it’s just another day. Well I’m not ready yet! And I don’t see how they can be.

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"and stupidity is no excuse either."

Yes!

Doesn't' matter if they look forward to harming you or ignorantly "didn't think THAT would happen just because I reported you." Both are *equally* dangerous and need to be guarded against just the same.

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It needs to be said. Some people (like low info voters) don’t want to understand politics or policy. They want to be blissfully ignorant. People of all stripes are not being realistic about how Felon 45 is going to wreak havoc.

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Any person who is a trump supporter or mouthpiece has been removed from our lives a while back. It truly doesn’t make one damn bit of difference if they are family or not. These are people who have taken part in destroying our futures and encouraging people to put us in physical and mental danger. I will not EVER re-engage with them. I am fortunate to know many others who are like-minded and against a Fascist being formally welcomed to steal the office with a bunch of incompetent psychopaths. I am joining Indivisible, MeidasTouch and people on Substack or Mastodon. I also gather news from left wing sources I can trust. We MUST join hands and RESIST and become human thorns for trumpolini.

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I don't care what good they have done in their lives. They've wiped it all away and I will never forgive them.

Lt Aldo Raine had the right idea. These people need to be forever branded with the mark of who they are so that when this is all over (and one day it will be all over) they don't ever get to stop paying for what they have done.

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The irony of this statement while we’re discussing notsee-ism.

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How so? I’m not aware of any place in this thread anyone is suggesting we don’t see something. On the contrary, it’s “Don’t close your eyes to the danger.”

Shutting dangerous folks out of your circle isn’t closing your eyes to them. It’s putting them at a safe distance where they can’t hurt you while keeping an eye on them.

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No, the “branding people with the mark of who they are” which is exactly what they did to Jews.

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How do we balance protecting ourselves with calling out the 47 administration on the crap they do? We can’t let things slide without saying something. If we are silent, they’ve won.

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We cannot stay silent. I will not stay silent. I'm going to fight these motherfuckers until I die trying. I had an uncle land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. PTSD for the rest of his life. But he fought against the fucking Nazis. I'm not gonna let his death be dishonored by the Orange Bag of Shit and his acolytes.

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I've always liked to tell myself that if I'd been in Germany in the 1930's I'd have had people hiding in my attic. That I would have been one of those forging documents, or smuggling people out.

Never really thought I'd have to live up to it, but it's here. And I won't fail to live up to who I want myself to be.

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EXACTLY MY BROTHER! Speaking of which, one of my Bro's is not speaking to me because he, as a Jewish guy, refuses to read the books I sent him about German history. WHY? Because of all that you just stated. He wasn't brought up to be anything but Liberal and anti-bigoted.. BUT-- he was NYC Cop! We must stand strong and Speak Out!!! I am currently reading NIGHT..It was a warning, but is probably going to be a banned book under the Felon/fuhrer

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If I could I would cook up this post on a bent spoon, and inject it straight in to my bloodstream.

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No one talks much about how impactful “the church” is in terms of the current state of affairs. The media, politicians, and the general public are terrified to talk about the elephant in the room: radical “Christian” beliefs. None of this would’ve been possible without them.

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