What lurks below the depths

There is a subclass of largely anonymous gremlins that toil alongside politicians and play an almost equal role in producing the toxic environment that repels normal-brained Americans.

It’s the Weeklong Giveaway at Rooster Worldwide LLC, an annual event where I attempt to entice the free-loading hogs in the parking lot to take the plunge on a financial subscription.

Being a free subscriber and opening the occasional public dispatch helps keep the lights on. But the brave and noble warriors in the Patriots Caucus sustain the operation, from the viral videos to the in-depth, on-the-ground reporting.

Subscribers receive every dispatch, exclusive videos, commenting ability, a free Statehouse tour and entrance to book giveaways.

Plus, it comes with the peace of mind that you’re putting psychic damage on the lizard cabal that controls Ohio’s state and local governments—all from the comfort of your couch.

The Man Behind the Curtain

The Batchelder Group, named after the late and not-so-great William Batchelder, one of the most reactionary House Speakers in Ohio history.

According to a trusted source, State Rep. Steve Demetriou (R-Bainbridge Twp.) once remarked, “I can’t stand The Rooster, but he has a phenomenal business model.”

The crux of the business model is that Americans loathe politicians. And I take pride in playing a small role on the state level in casting a light on little-known legislators who wield outsized power over working people’s everyday lives.

But say what you want about the politicians—and I have said a lot—at least they’re in the arena, operating under their government name. There’s something admirable about that, even for the most repulsive slugs in that line of work.

But there is a subclass of largely anonymous gremlins that toil alongside politicians and play an almost equal role in producing the toxic environment that repels normal-brained Americans away from the political sphere, which only benefits the oligarchs in the post-Citizens United world.

Take, for example, the dark money group Hard Working Ohioans, mentioned in HBO’s The Dark Money Game, a documentary about the (somehow still ongoing) HB-6 investigation.

A still featuring Hard Working Ohioans in HBO’s The Dark Money Game.

Hard Working Ohioans received $1.4 million from Generation Now, the dark money group at the heart of the largest bribery scheme in state history (that we know about).

Hard Working Ohioans used the money to pillage Dan Foley, a Democratic House of Representatives candidate from Dayton, in a nasty campaign on behalf of J. Todd Smith, a Republican Baptist pastor (repetitive, I know) aligned with future House Speaker Larry Householder.

According to one Statehouse source, then-Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer stationed a deputy outside a bar that Foley frequented, hoping to catch the Democratic candidate driving home drunk.

The deputy eventually stopped Foley and put him through his paces; however, the stop did not result in any arrest or charges.

That didn’t stop Hard Working Ohioans blasting “Drunk Dan Foley” while using the body camera footage from the stop to make it appear Foley had been arrested for drunk driving.

Smith went on to win by 137 voters in an election where over 44,000 Dayton-area residents participated.

Smith, an anti-abortion crackpot, would still be in power today if he hadn’t been forced to quit like a dog over a widely known affair.

While HBO’s documentary covered that saga blow by blow, it did not reveal the gremlins behind the curtain, which we know to be Troy Judy and Chad Hawley, the two co-founders of The Batchelder Group, a Statehouse consulting firm that engages in the dark arts.

An federal prosecution exhibit from the case against former Speaker Larry Householder, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for racketeering and bribery in FCI Eltkon.

Before that exposé, I only knew Judy as the Statehouse regular who bore an uncanny resemblance to Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski.

On Wednesday, I saw him in the Senate office wing of the Statehouse, and I decided to press the issue about his involvement with Hard Working Ohioans:

It was a patented Ohio Statehouse Moment™️ when I asked Judy if the FBI interviewed him as part of its HB-6 investigation, and he gave me a long-winded answer that was something other than “no.”

I’ll edit this interview later this morning for social media hits because, for some reason only known to him, Judy wanted to desperately talk about anything other than his involvement with Hard Working Ohioans and his lucrative career.

I also enjoyed how he tried to paint me as doing the same work as him, as if using anonymous sources to put information into the public sphere is the same as hiding behind dark money groups with ridiculous titles to lie on behalf of the highest bidder.

As I said near the end of our encounter, maybe I would be doing that kind of work had I taken my education seriously and become a “consultant.” As Judy admitted, I have the skills despite that grave mistake.

But I’m thankful I landed where I did. It’s a lot easier to sleep at night because I’m not going to work and making the world worse while having to delude myself to the contrary by passing the buck on my responsibility.

Filthy Phil Plummer caught in the Matrix

Yesterday’s dispatch covered the ongoing war between State Reps. Rodney Creech and Phil Plummer.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) investigated allegations Creech climbed into bed with his then-15-year-old daughter multiple times while blackout drunk and fully erect.

The investigation noted irregularities in how Creech’s allies in Preble County initially investigated the claim, as well as Creech’s creepy behavior during the second investigation.

No charges have been brought against Creech, though Speaker Matt Huffman stripped the West Alexandria Republican of all his committee assignments, a decision he told reporters on Wednesday that he did unilaterally.

Yesterday, The Rooster obtained partial audio of Plummer’s interview with the BCI in 2024.

In it, Plummer says he’s unsure if he’ll run against Creech for Senate since they didn’t yet know they’d be in the same district.

Plummer lamented that he might get “stuck” with the “whole city of Dayton,” which offers insight into how these guys view Ohioans who don’t vote for them.

Most notably, Plummer says that even if the charges against Creech aren’t true, it could still embarrass him if they became public, which, at best, is a statement of fact.

At worst, it’s a calculated ploy of somebody who knew Creech could obstruct his path up Ohio’s political totem pole.

Creech’s camp will undoubtedly seize the audio as proof that Plummer is pushing these allegations as a political hit job—truth be damned.

The Rooster can also reveal, for the first time, a picture of Plummer and the husband of Creech’s ex-wife from 2022:

State Rep. Phil Plummer on the far left, and Brookville, Ohio, Police Chief Douglas Jerome (the husband of Creech’s ex-wife) on the far right.

In my opinion, two things can be true.

Creech can be a creep that was ultimately protected by local authorities that intentionally botched the initial investigation because they agreed with Creech’s assertions that his bitch of an ex-wife manipulated his daughter into making those allegations.

And at the same time, Plummer can be using the allegations to bludgeon a political rival for a future Senate campaign at the most opportune time.

I didn’t get Creech or Plummer on camera about the audio yesterday. But the good news is I know where they work, and I can chase this story as far as I want.

About that diabolical Supreme Court Decision

I cut my first interview with Democratic State Rep. Eric Synenberg, a freshman legislator from Beachwood, yesterday.

We discussed a topic close to our hearts: The Republican hobgoblin cartel that currently masquerades as Ohio’s Supreme Court.

As you might have read earlier this week, the Ohio Supreme Court, in a ruling along party lines, spit on the memory of a 32-year-old firefighter who moonlit as a security guard at TimkenSteel in Canton.

From Jake Zuckerman of Statehouse Signal:

No one knew at the time, but nitrogen had continuously leaked into the room from a device designed to blast small puffs of pressurized gas to dust off the ventilation filters. Oxygen typically comprises about 21% of ambient air. On March 20, 2016, it was measured at 4.7%, slowly and lethally displaced by inbound nitrogen.

All parties agree the nitrogen gas almost instantly killed Ray, who was tasked with inspecting fire extinguishers on site. But on Wednesday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that nitrogen gas is not “toxic,” as the law at the time required for a lawsuit accusing the company of a safety violation to prevail. The court’s ruling blocks Sharmel Culver, Ray’s widow, from punitive financial penalties that her lawyer said could have potentially been worth millions.

The six Republicans on the Ohio Supreme Court sided with TimkenSteel (now known as Metallus Inc.) and the Ohio Industrial Commission, which hears appeals of workers compensation claims. They agreed that because nitrogen is a primary component of the air we breathe, it’s not toxic.

This kind of ruling should stain the sole of the parties involved under normal circumstances.

But it’s worth noting that TimkenSteel, at the time of this death, was owned by Tim Timken, one of the most influential Republican donors in the state.

Tim’s wife, Jane Timken, recently won an appointment to the State Senate as a consolation prize for failing to earn a free ride to the Senate that went to former Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted, who has a melted Klondike bar where his brain is supposed to be.

Tim Tiken donated to every Republican Supreme Court justice, which somehow wasn’t worthy of recusal when they issued a ruling that likely saved the company millions of dollars in payouts.

It’s a shame, too, because you know the United States Supreme Court won’t be in any rush to right this travesty, either.

As I mentioned to Synenberg, I am a reliable Democratic voter because of the courts. I was no fan of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris. But I put my reservations aside and voted for all three, because nothing will fundamentally change in this country until we have an armed revolution, or, more likely, break the Republican control of our courts.

This type of ruling is the perfect example of whom the Ohio Republican Party ultimately serves. And most of its voters aren’t rich enough to benefit from these types of rulings, either.

The Senate’s most interesting Republican laughs at the idea of abolishing property taxes

We took a step closer toward a statewide vote on abolishing property taxes on Wednesday, as the Ohio Ballot Board cleared the way for activists to start collecting the 440,000+ signatures needed to put the question on the ballot.

From Morgan Trau of wews.com:

Due to what Lakewood advocate Beth Blackmarr calls the lack of movement from lawmakers to provide relief, residents are taking taxes into their own hands.

"We really need change, because nothing was getting done — substantially," Blackmarr said.

She is leading a movement to abolish property taxes in the state, and the Citizens for Property Tax Reform is on their way to getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

Click here to read the full proposal.

"Legislators, in many ways, are reluctant to dive in," she added.

I spoke with State Senator Bill Blessing III about the proposal, which he called one of the dumbest he’s ever encountered in his career as a public servant.

It’s no simple task to put a Constitutional proposal on the ballot. It takes deep pockets and keen organizing, two things this group of yahoos seems to lack.

As Blessing noted later in the day, it’d be a massive handout to the ultrawealthy while saving the middle class pennies on the dollar.

There’s a small chance it makes the ballot, and probably an even smaller chance it passes. It would be hard to overstate how calamitous it would be if it did.

Rep. Matthew Kishman… Welcome to the War on Dollar General

I finally got a chance to talk to freshman Republican State Rep. Matthew Kishman, whose family has run an independent grocery for over 70 years.

American society would be better if most residents could walk to independent groceries instead of driving cars to massive corporations like Kroger or Meijer.

On Wednesday, I asked Kishman his opinion about the source of the problem, and he surprised me by fingering Dollar General.

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been that surprised. Dollar stores are a plight on rural and urban areas. They undercut small businesses and screw over employees at every turn.

Oh, and they also make prime targets for robberies. Don’t let them into your community; you will regret it!

THOSE WMDs. I worked on an assembly line, and it wasn’t so rosy… Seventy miles of Hell: What I saw in the Darién Gap… America’s coming brain drain… The elite college students who can’t read books… The Unabomber’s brother turned him in, and then spent 27 years trying to win him back.