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August 28, 2025 17 mins

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This WTF Wednesday, I rip the mask off “patriotism” and show what it looks like when power hijacks the headlines. From Trump’s push to criminalize flag burning, to FEMA workers punished for speaking out, to ICE slamming recruits through a 47-day crash course, the pattern isn’t random…it’s a dictator’s blueprint.

In this episode of A World Gone Mad, I take you inside the headlines they want you to swallow whole. The crackdown on protest dressed up as patriotism. The purge of disaster responders who dared to tell the truth. The militarization of Union Station in Washington, D.C., where National Guard troops guard platforms while glossy press releases talk about “safety” and “beauty.” 

None of it is progress. It’s control, fear, and authoritarian theater.

No bedtime stories. No unity slogans. Just the anatomy of dictatorship unfolding in plain daylight. Because when you silence protest, punish frontline workers, seize transit hubs, and build an ICE militia out of barely trained recruits, you’re not keeping the country safe…you’re strangling democracy.

I’m not here to coddle. I’m here to grab the lapels of the frauds, the liars, the self-proclaimed patriots who think obedience is the same as love of country…and shake until their lies fall out. 

And then I hand the mic back to you, the Wolfpack, to answer the question at the heart of every WTF Wednesday:

What the hell are they trying to get away with now?



AWorldGoneMadPodcast@gmail.com

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a world gone mad.
This is a world gone mad, mad,mad, mad, mad.
Welcome back to A World GoneMad, the podcast where reality
doesn't walk through the door.
A twisted version of itstaggers in drunk, steals your
wallet and then lectures you onfamily values.

(00:23):
I'm Jeff Allen Wolfe, yourunwilling tour guide through
this carnival of idiots, liarsand sociopaths who somehow wound
up running the demolition derbywe call America.
It's WTF Wednesday, where theheadlines aren't news.
They're weapons firedpoint-blank by frauds who call

(00:47):
themselves patriots while thiscountry bleeds.
If this is your first timelistening, welcome aboard.
If you're a member of theWolfpack, thank you for
returning.
Either way, you've found yourhaven.
I'm not here to coddle you ortuck you in with bedtime stories

(01:07):
about unity.
I'm here to grab the powersthat be by the lapels, shake
them until all their lies fallout and scream in their faces.
How dare you gut our democracyjust to fatten your wallets?
You're WTF Wednesday becauseevery headline has you asking

(01:31):
what the fuck are they trying toget away with now?
What outrageous garbage arethey serving up this week?
Hazmat, gloves on sledgehammer,ready time to smash it apart.
So let's start right here.

(01:51):
Donald Trump wants tocriminalize flag burning.
Let me repeat that Donald Trumpwants to make it a crime to
burn the American flag.
Think about this for a second.
The guy who wraps himself up inthe flag like it's a superhero
cape yeah, captain, fascism.

(02:11):
Here to save you from freedom.
He now wants to throw people injail for exercising the very
freedom that flag is supposed torepresent.
This isn't patriotism, it'sfascism, dressed up in red,

(02:35):
white and blue sequins.
The Supreme Court already ruleddecades ago that flag burning
is protected speech.
It's literally the goldstandard test case for free
expression.
But Trump doesn't care.
He's daring the courts, daringthe Constitution, daring anyone
with a spine to stop him,Looking for spines, calling

(02:55):
anyone with a spine.
And here's the sick joke thesame people who scream free
speech, the same people whoscream free speech every time
they get banned from Twitter forcalling someone a slur, are now
cheering cheering to ban thisprotest.

(03:20):
These patriots don't loveAmerica.
They love control.
They love obedience.
They want a country where theyget to define patriotism and
everybody else just salutes orshuts the hell up.
You want to know what loyaltylooks like to Trump?
It's not defending democracy.
It's kneeling at his feet whilehe shreds it.
It's letting Trump take alighter to your rights while he

(03:42):
pretends the fire is freedom.
That's not patriotism, that's acon, that's a hustle.
So let's not sugarcoat this.
When a president tries tooutlaw dissent, when he
criminalizes protest, when hedecides that respect for the

(04:02):
flag matters more than respectfor the Constitution, that's not
leadership, that's dictatorship, that's a tyrant, holding a
Bible in one hand, the flag inthe other and gasoline in both.

(04:23):
And if you're not screaming,what the fuck?
Yet you're not screaming, whatthe fuck?
Yet you're not paying attention.
And if you thought silencingprotest in the streets was
enough, think again, because nowTrump's people are going after
their own employees.
Fema staffers the people whoseentire job is to protect

(04:43):
Americans when disaster hitssigned an open letter.
The FEMA staffers signed anopen letter criticizing God
forbid Trump's administration.
You know what happened they gotslapped on leave, punished for
speaking the truth.
Think about how twisted that is.

(05:04):
The folks who run into floodsand hurricanes to save lives are
being sidelined for speakingthe truth.
Think about how twisted that is.
The folks who run into floodsand hurricanes to save lives are
being sidelined because theydared to question Donald the
Delusional One.
This is what authoritarian rotlooks like.
It's not just policydisagreements.
It's fear, it's intimidation,it's turning every federal

(05:26):
office into a loyalty test.
You don't salute the flag theirway, you don't keep your mouth
shut, you're gone.
Here's the kicker.
Everyone, these are emergencyworkers, the very people who
should be stacking sandbags.
Instead, they're forced towatch their backs in a political

(05:48):
purge.
Natural disasters mount, butTrump's disasters always come
first.
So let me be clear this isn'tleadership, this is revenge.
This is control.
This is the slow suffocation ofanyone who dares to say wait a
second.
This isn't right.

(06:10):
You silence the people on thefront lines of disaster response
and the only disaster left isthe one sitting in the Oval
Office.
Control the trains.
Control the.
The trains control the movement.
Control the people.
The Trump administration is nowget this seizing control of

(06:32):
Union Station, dc's secondbusiest rail hub, placing it
directly under the Department ofTransportation as a federal
stronghold of control.
Think about that.
A station that should ferrypeople now ferries power.
National Guard troops, armedNational Guard troops aren't

(06:57):
just holding traffic linesanymore, these troops.
They're deployed at UnionStation and Metro stations,
turning America's transit pulseinto a security checkpoint.
The sales pitch sounds like aglossy makeover Make it safe
again, make it beautiful again.
Yeah, real pretty If your ideaof pretty is control, fear and

(07:22):
state-staged patriotism.
They talk about tackling crimeand homelessness, while
know-it-all officials blame badactors, vagrants and drug
addicts for a PR disaster.
But here's the fear engineworking.
You don't need to commit acrime when the government is

(07:45):
policing the soul of the station.
Second, look, the sameofficials who thought a burger
handout at Union Station wouldbe a great photo op, rolling in
with National Guard troops likestage extras and cheeseburgers
like props, got booed off theplatform with chants of Free DC,
free DC.

(08:05):
Like props got booed off theplatform with chants of free DC,
free DC.
And yet somehow they're stilltreating disaster response like
it's a campaign commercialmugging for the cameras, while
the real emergencies keepstacking up.
You can wave the flag, you canpoint to that next-gen Acela
gliding off Pretty optics, butwhile your eyes are on the train

(08:31):
, the federal government isquietly seizing Union Station,
deploying National Guard troopsinside and out, declaring safety
concerns but staking ownership.
This isn't infrastructure, it'sa power play disguised as
beautification.
Declaring safety concerns butstaking ownership this isn't

(08:51):
infrastructure, it's a powerplay disguised as beautification
.
We're not talking about badmanagement or broken tile.
We're talking federalmilitarization of civil transit,
turning a public hub into adecision node, turning citizens
into subjects, while glossypress releases tell you it's
safety and progress.
If that doesn't feel sinisterto you, you haven't been

(09:15):
listening.
We're watching transit become aspectacle, a gilded backdrop
for expanding federal control.
And this is just one more pieceof the dark puzzle Smack of the
heart of democracy's hamsterwheel, running full speed,
getting nowhere and stillwondering why we're exhausted.

(09:39):
And just when you thought theauthoritarian machine couldn't
crank any louder, ice, underTrump's order, just slam the
throttle.
They've cut their tradingprogram down to 47 days that's
right.
In less time than the standard90-day probation period at

(10:03):
almost any job in America.
They're cranking out freshminted deportation agents in 47
days.
No more Spanish lessons, nomore five-week language prep.
It's now a supercharged 47-daypipeline packed with firearms,
tactical drills, immigration lawand de-escalation, but trimmed

(10:27):
of any cultural context orlanguage empathy.
And if it doesn't stop there,they've lowered the starting age
to become an ICE agent to 18years old.
That's right to 18.
Dangling $50,000 bonuses, evencalling back retirees pension

(10:49):
and paycheck in hand, all toflood the streets with roughly
8,000 to 10,000 new deportationagents.
And the cherry on thispoisonous Sunday, a roughly $75
to $76 billion funding surge tobankroll the whole operation.

(11:14):
Let's be clear this isn't lawand order.
This is a deportation militia,a fear machine with a badge.
The kind of shortcut trainingthat churns out power without
restraint, enforcement, withoutoversight.
Think about that.
A government so eager toweaponize immigration that would

(11:34):
rather rush half-baked recruitsonto the streets then actually
prepare them.
That's not public safety,that's authoritarian
speedrunning.
Nothing, nothing's gonna gowrong.
Right, and it fits the pattern.
Shrink training, skip theguardrails, build the army fast.

(11:54):
Because when you're turningdemocracy into dictatorship,
oversight isn't an obstacle,it's the first thing you cut.
And if you think this is justabout trains or guards or just
about FEMA, here comes thehammer.
Because what we're seeing isn'trandom headlines, it's a

(12:18):
blueprint.
Trump is moving to deport DACArecipients, young people who
grew up here, studied here,built lives here, suddenly told
they're strangers in the onlycountry they've ever known.
This isn't policy.
That's cruelty packaged as law.
Families torn apart, futuresburned, neighbors vanished

(12:41):
overnight.
At the same time, theadministration is trying to
rename the Department of Defenseas the Department of War.
Think about that one.
They're not even pretendinganymore.
They don't want defense, theywant permanent war War abroad,

(13:01):
war at home war as theorganizing principle of the
state.
Words matter, and this wordtells you exactly where they're
headed.
And let's not forget thebroader sweep listeners Clean
energy projects, frozen Federalagencies, gutted Judges, stacked

(13:23):
Military planted in cities.
This isn't about fixing problems.
It's about consolidatingcontrol.
Every move is one more brick inthe fortress of
authoritarianism.
Look at the pattern Silence theprotesters.
Punish the workers.
Seize those transit hubs, gutthe courts hubs, gut the courts,

(13:47):
deport the immigrants, renamethe Pentagon war.
Put it all together.
What do you see?
It's not leadership, notconservatism, it's the anatomy
of dictatorship, unfolding inplain daylight.
And here's the raw truth staringus in the face.

(14:08):
They're daring us not to notice.
Their betting will shrug andkeep on scrolling, too tired to
care.
That's the play, that's thegame.
But this is WTF Wednesday and I, jeff Allen Wolf, refuse to
shrug, I refuse to scroll past.

(14:30):
And if you're not screaming,what the fuck are they trying to
get away with now?
Then congratulations.
You've just given them exactlywhat they wanted.
Wake up, because the blueprintisn't coming.
It's here and it's aimed rightat us.

(14:54):
But now I've got to turn it backto you, the Wolfpack listeners,
because this show isn't just meshouting into the void.
I get it.
Your life is busy Guess whatMine is too, but I see a lot of
you posting and replying andcommenting in other places, so I

(15:15):
know you've got a voice andyou've got time when something
hits you.
I respect that.
What I'm asking for all of you,from all of you, is simple what
would make you send some ofthat same energy here?
This show is built for theWolfpack, but I can't hear you

(15:36):
if you don't email me, text meor leave me a voice message.
I've talked.
I'm the one always talking.
Now it's time for you, theWolfpack listener.
You've got two ways to howlback.
Email me wolfpacktalks atgmailcom

(15:57):
W-O-L-F-P-A-C-K-T-A-L-K-S atgmail, or pick up the phone and
call the toll-free voicemail box833-399-9653.
Don't overthink it.
Just tell me what you feel,tell me what you think.
One line, one sentence, onethought from you.

(16:20):
It matters to me Because thisshow doesn't exist without you,
the listener.
Otherwise, I'm sitting in aroom talking to myself.
I've said that over and overagain and that sucks.
This has been A World Gone Mad.
Wednesday's WTF edition.
I'm Jeff Allen Wolf.

(16:41):
I'll be back Friday Becausesomeone has to say the shit that
no one else will, andapparently that job's mine.
Until then, wolfpack listeners,stay skeptical, stay focused
and, most of all, stay hopeful.
And we need to stand up andpreserve our democracy.

(17:11):
This is a world gone mad.
This is a world gone mad.
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