<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[ESCAPING THE L’ORANGE ERA & BEYOND : THE POLITICAL FUCKERY REPORT]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sharp, no‑nonsense commentary on the daily political fuckery—who did what, why it’s ridiculous, and how it really hits regular people. Smart, funny, and just petty enough to be satisfyi]]></description><link>https://www.escapingthelorangeera.com/s/the-political-fuckery-report</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7Fp8!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8453aba7-1d67-4f0c-aef3-45f8f288eb7f_1280x1280.png</url><title>ESCAPING THE L’ORANGE ERA &amp; BEYOND : THE POLITICAL FUCKERY REPORT</title><link>https://www.escapingthelorangeera.com/s/the-political-fuckery-report</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 12 Jul 2026 01:49:50 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.escapingthelorangeera.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Kimberly Ann Hawes]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[hawsesumi@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[hawsesumi@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[ESCAPING THE L’ORANGE ERA]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[ESCAPING THE L’ORANGE ERA]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[hawsesumi@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[hawsesumi@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[ESCAPING THE L’ORANGE ERA]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[Where Is Mitch? (Did We Ever Find Waldo?)]]></title><description><![CDATA[Mitch McConnell Left the Spotlight, but the Political Damage Never Left the Building.]]></description><link>https://www.escapingthelorangeera.com/p/where-is-mitch-did-we-ever-find-waldo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.escapingthelorangeera.com/p/where-is-mitch-did-we-ever-find-waldo</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[ESCAPING THE L’ORANGE ERA]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 11 Jul 2026 22:12:54 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/d810c1b3-4009-49e7-b498-4710f8a6b8ba_1122x1402.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>At some point, Mitch McConnell just&#8230;slid off the national stage. One minute he was freezing mid&#8209;sentence on live TV like somebody unplugged his router, and the next minute it was like the whole country quietly agreed to stop asking questions. No farewell tour, no real reckoning, just a slow fade to &#8220;Oh yeah, him. Whatever happened with that?&#8221;</p><p>It feels a lot like those &#8220;Where&#8217;s Waldo?&#8221; books we grew up with. Except the joke here is: did we ever actually find Waldo, or did we just get tired, close the book, and move on? Mitch pulled a political Waldo&#8212;only instead of hiding in a crowd of red&#8209;and&#8209;white stripes, he disappeared into a crowd of cowards, consultants, and colleagues who were more than happy to let him slip into the background so nobody had to explain how we got here in the first place.</p><p>Because let&#8217;s be honest: if a long&#8209;time Senate leader can vanish from the national conversation and it barely registers, what does that say? Either he was always more useful than meaningful, or the system is so numb that even the disappearance of a main character barely moves the needle. The media doesn&#8217;t do a &#8220;Where is Mitch now?&#8221; special; they just move on to the next chaos headline. No closure, no accountability&#8212;just vibes.</p><p>The wild part is how normal it feels. We watched this man help engineer decades of judicial and political mess, and now that he&#8217;s no longer convenient, he&#8217;s treated like an expired coupon: &#8220;Oh, that&#8217;s old. Throw it away.&#8221; No one&#8217;s asking, &#8220;What did all those{ decisions cost us?&#8221; They&#8217;re too busy pretending the machine will run just fine if we quietly erase the people who built it.</p><p>So maybe the real question isn&#8217;t &#8220;Where is Mitch?&#8221; It&#8217;s: why do we keep letting these folks vanish without a final report? Why do we let them slip out the side door with lifetime power, lifetime benefits, and zero emotional severance for the damage they did to everybody else&#8217;s life?</p><p>&#8220;Where&#8217;s Mitch?&#8221; might end up being the most American question of all: not because we can&#8217;t find him, but because we&#8217;re realizing it never mattered where he was. The policies, the judges, the fallout&#8212;they&#8217;re still here. Mitch is just off&#8209;screen now, somewhere comfortable, while the rest of us are stuck living inside the fine print he left.</p><p>&#169;&#65039;<em>Kimberly</em> creator of <em><a href="http://www.the412drop.com">THE 412 DROP </a></em>&amp; <em><a href="http://www.thedailyfuckcabulary.com">THE DAILY FUCKCABULARY </a></em></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wEtx!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdb06eef-fc09-48f3-96e8-fa00f12a595e_1433x750.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wEtx!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdb06eef-fc09-48f3-96e8-fa00f12a595e_1433x750.png 424w, 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