136 Comments
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I do not understand the passivity of media I support through subscriptions - including NY Times, WaPo and even the Guardian - in the face of increasing overt and covert threats of violence by Republicans surrounding the upcoming election. This is not normal. Thank you for your sane, thoughtful voice on these issues.

Expand full comment

A New York judge just found Trump guilty of fraud, revoked all Trump Organization business licenses, and put his assets into receivership.

Looking forward to your take on it.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I am trying to determine if canceling his business certificates would mean that the holders of his mortgages can call those loans. I had heard that they could I think on Lawrence O'Donnell but I can't verify it. It would be amazing to see his plane and other properties being auctioned off. There is no way he can cover those loans.

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

The NYPost should not be the ruling authority, but Reuters confirms this much: "Engoron also ordered the cancellation of certificates that let some of Trump's businesses, including the Trump Organization, operate in New York, and ordered the appointment of a receiver to manage the businesses' dissolution."

Expand full comment

Exactly what I said. Thank you for confirming.

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I am thrilled by this news. I thought your information was incorrect because the NYT bulletin

just talked about Engoron basically handing Trump his teeth, but implied that any actions lay in the future, with AG James.

Expand full comment

Thanks! There's so much criming going on, it's hard to keep track of everything. :)

I mentioned the Post because the saw no way to spin it and they would have if they could.

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

There will be more. The trial to address more starts October 2. So more fireworks on the way.

Expand full comment

The best news! Thank you. Trump's comuppance. Karma is a bitch.

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

This information is not correct. It will be Letitia James who can put the dead hand on any Trumps operating in NY State. His assets are not in receivership. All Justice Engeron did was

uphold the complaint that Trump inflated his net worth, for many years, to get favorable loans and insurance.

Expand full comment

I didn't say anything about that. What I am hearing MSNBC right this moment is that Trump Org assets are being put into receivership.

Even the NY Post is saying Trump Org's business licenses have been suspended in the state, i.e., Trump Org no longer exists.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

you may be right, KB,

but these days i dont put much credence on anything from nyp or even nyt, wp, or even msnbc.

sad, hm?

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

He will appeal of course...

Expand full comment

I wonder if Mohammed bin Salman will bail him out. They already gave his son-in-law $2 billion.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Still he will appeal!

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

He has already killed hundreds of thousands with his Covid non-response.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Yes. This is too often forgotten. The greatest mass murderer in American history, thru willful neglect and indifference.

Expand full comment

Make that at least 1 million.

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Trump is now both nauseating and dangerous. He is also mentally ill. I would not mind if someone with authority (most likely one of the judges he has appeared before) put him in the slammer with no way to communicate. He is clearly a danger to any number of people and he will not shut up. There'd be hell to pay, but an Executive Order would not be out of line. The man has been looking for a civil war since January 6th.

Expand full comment
founding

Is he in the Twilight Zone or The Manchurian Candidate?

And if so...what has he done with all those millions and millions of movie extras?

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

The only people with a voice it would seem who have the cojones to speak truth to trump’s dangerous insanity and violent rhetoric are the independent journalists I follow on Substack and other platforms such as yourself, Mr. Truscott. The main stream media has just not done its job and it’s extremely frightening. He’s clearly losing his marbles. He gave a speech over the weekend where he claimed he was running in 2016 against Obama and he stopped World War II. And yet they keep reporting on Biden‘s age and treating him like he’s infirm. I am both fearful and hopeful that the polls are wrong that show Biden in a continuous downward slide. How can that be? And then there’s project 2025, which is already underway. It’s called the next Republican revolution, and it is really looking to install him as king for life and cut off all our freedoms at the knees. The judge’s verdict today in New York should wipe out the Trump organization for once and for all is very heartening. But more must be done to protect the people who speak out. And more credible news people must talk you cannot count on any of our elected GOP officials in Congress or the Senate. They’re too busy giving hand jobs in theaters to care or counting their money.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023·edited Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

In 2025 t-Rump will be in his 80th year, if he's even still alive and not a gibbering, drooling, stumbling, incontinent heap of fat-swaddled ruins. Oh, wait-- he's already all of those things, and it doesn't make any difference to his worshipers. But there must be a lot of power-hungry people hoping to be the power behind that throne, and the incoherent lump squatting on it.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

in the year 2025

even if trump is still alive...

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

If woman can survive …

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

to borrow (or more likely) plagiarize from george carlin: dont worry about women surviving, worry about the men.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Ah, the shades of Zager & Evans!

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

He’s a damn cockroach my fear is, he’ll outlive us all.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

There certainly are wealthy, corporate interests behind the buffoon. He wouldn't still be around if they didn't think he would violate (or eliminate) the law to make himself and them more money. It's always the money.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Not “corporate”--MOB.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Someone on one of the Substack sites mentioned that a picture of tRump holding a gun recently circulated at a gun show. Trump likes communicates to his base in code, and I think the message being sent is loud and clear.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

yes

and initially he stated he was buying the glock.

but someone pointed out that being criminally charged, he would be commiting a felony.

he didnt buy it.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Supposedly!! Guy from the store said he bought it, then retracted the statement.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Pretty sure that was a gun shop where a mass murderer bought his weapon.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Yes! The New Republic is reporting this today.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

WOW, really! That is so sick!

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

The country needs to hear Lucian's words AND take the words of the human garbage pile (a.k.a. the Orange Dumpster) seriously. Lucian's words are the indisputable truth while those of the Dumpster are prophetic in that he WILL do what he says if/when he ever gets back into the White House. Vote BLUE and get everyone you know to vote BLUE as well.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Please continue to ask your colleagues in legacy media to call out the disgraced former president’s fascist statements and behaviors. Unless and until, many brave public servants are, as you indicate, living with increased fear for their lives. I fear for their lives. I pray for their safety. ❤️🤍💙

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I agree with the others. Trump is extremely dangerous now and would destroy our country is elected again. (Wash my mouth out with soap!)

As a retired psychologist, I see a desperate man unravelling. Lately, especially, it's become abundantly clear that he is heading into dementia fast. The pressure of all the lawsuits and the prospect of being in jail are causing him such anxiety, which he is trying unsuccessfully to disguise, that he's coming apart at the seams. Not a very professional diagnosis, but that's what happening.

I am an optimist, and I think there enough decent, honorable people who recognize the danger he presents that Biden will win again. There are other issues to that will help, abortion, the lawsuits, being a rapist, etc.

He has his adoring base, but unlike his first campaign, other people who voted for him before now know that he is a loser, pathological liar, and lifetime criminal. Those people now have a clearer realization of who he really is. I guess that, if they are Republicans, they simply won't vote. (Fingers crossed!)

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Thank you for that, Dr. Fiore. Yale fired Dr. Bandy X. Lee for publicly pointing out Trump's dangerous and obvious personality disorders. In firing Dr. Lee, Yale cited the "Goldwater Rule", which says that a mental health professional cannot comment on a person's mental condition unless they after have personally examined that person first. If you (and Dr. Lee) think Trump is "coming apart at the seams", that is good enough for me. Your profession is important now for the safety of us all because Trump's mental state makes him a clear and present danger to everyone in our nation. Keep it up.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Thank you, Bob.

Her book is excellent. What a shame she paid such a steep price.

Edee

Expand full comment

Goldwater rule applies to Psychiatrists. Psychologists and retired clinical social workers like myself. We have been screaming about malignant narcissists for years now.

Expand full comment

Fingers, eyes, legs, arms and whatever else can be are crossed!

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Eyes, too.

Thank you, Christina.

Edee

Expand full comment

I agree, but I will continue to talk about the danger he presents until he goes away.

Expand full comment
founding

" am an optimist, and I think there enough decent, honorable people who recognize the danger he presents that Biden will win again."

I have always thought this also, yet, since I was in grade school, there has been a nagging question in the back of my mind...What happened in Pre-Nazi Germany to allow Hitler to come to power and do what he did? Where were the "decent, honorable people"?

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Journalists and the media don’t seem to understand that there is no free press under an authoritarian regime. Yet they try to normalize Trump’s behavior. In case they think they are covered because of their authoritarian views this a gentle reminder that dictators often eat their own. Would you like to jump out the window or we could push you?

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Oh I think they know full well what happens to the free press under a dictator

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Absolutely

Expand full comment

I forgot to mention the brave journalists who confront this dangerous clown everyday

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I have an oppressive feeling in my head, like there's a terrible storm coming. We could have avoided this if the Republican party shunned Trump after Jan 6 and his influence faded. But we failed to put a stake in his heart then. The system barely held then and it will be severely tested again. Trump's influence has grown and the calls to his supporters are becoming more unhinged and violent. It's very difficult to defend against stochastic terror, to protect any random upstanding public official all the time from potential threats. Their ability to do their jobs and hold the line is being compromised. The Republican party has become more subservient, the Democrats act like it's business as usual and the mainstream press seems to think it's all good entertainment that can drive ratings and make them some money. They love that Trump sugar high and, after all, good governance is boring. If things go off the rails, just think of the chyrons they could run!

Thank you for doing what you do and telling the real story of these times. I hope we're all wrong and the danger fades, but frankly I feel a little sick.

Expand full comment

We could have avoided this if more people had been paying attention in 2016, or to the rise of the Tea Party / Freedom Caucus in 2010. The anti-democratic, white-supremacist right has a long history in this country: think the KKK, the Dixiecrats, the John Birch Society, the (Joe) McCarthy era, etc. People who weren't their immediate targets tended to minimize the threat. Now it's so out in the open and so dangerous that pretending it doesn't exist is not an option.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

So depressed....

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

When they tell you what they plan to do, believe them. And be afraid, very afraid, that if in power they could do it. So don’t let them get anywhere near any office. Kick the GQP out of every office, down to dogcatcher. VOTE!!

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

And not just VOTE, but SPEAK UP whenever possible to defend democracy; WRITE postcards and letters for SwingLeft or Postcards for Voters or any of the many other organizations that have been founded to get out the vote. VOLUNTEER at your local Dem or Independent headquarters...there are many things to do besides phone-banking or canvassing, if that's not possible; offer rides for people to get to the polls, work at the polls in any of several jobs...the list of ways to get involved and invested is endless!

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

He is a homicidal maniac who loves the idea of other people killing people at his behest. Screamed for the death of those 5 innocent black men wrongly jailed for rape. Wanted the police and National Guard to kill BLM and Antifascist demonstrators. Had the military set off an enormous bomb just to see what it was like and to kill an Iranian general. Wanted his Jan. 6 rioters to kills Pence. Tells his followers to kill judges, juries. Tells his followers that General Milley should be killed. And what about the 1,000s of Covid deaths directly attributable to his policies? He is demented and there's something so miserably crippled about your free market capitalist so called justice system that you are helpless against it. Guess freedom and democracy, and guns/ violence/ militarism or whatever toxic power ologarchy it is that has you by the throat, just can't coexist. Shakespeare put it well, he said "Hell is empty, And all the devils are here". (Prospero, The Tempest). I have standing to say this, because your society's enablement of world wide homicidal madness endangers me too.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

OOh, Liked doubleplus for that wonderful Shakespeare quote!

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Lucian, you have rung the alarm bell repeatedly and well. But I think we need the panic bell. Those of us who eagerly read you daily understand our bad situation with thanks to you. Given the tsunami of normalization of *Rump’s fascist rhetoric and behavior by the MSM, and this is by no means a criticism, efforts at truth telling and alarm raising such as yours are still a sneeze in a hurricane. How do we change that? I am at a loss to understand what it will take to shake the endemic complacency of so many Americans so they become aware of how dire our situation already is. Before someone does get killed. Perhaps that’s what it will take, tragically, but I’m afraid if that happens it could have the opposite effect: a further smothering of democracy by fear. The Red Scare of the 1950s certainly inhibited free expression, and McCarthyism controlled our politics, but the threat of violence was much more muted. *Rump and his ilk are calling openly for rebellion and murder of their opponents, and all the while making him a martyr. We have not seen the likes of him in this country. Thus we don’t seem to know what to do with or about him. But he knows what he’s doing, and he does it every day. The MSM, with Russian help, got him elected in 2016. They are doing it again right now. That is the stuff of nighmares.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Don’t forget that they are armed to the teeth and have been arming themselves for just this scenario. There are millions of assault weapons, a lot of them in the hands of lunatics. I have a cousin that owned 4 assault rifles with 10 thousand rounds for each, when I asked him why, he never answered, who knows how deeply this is buried.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

The really scary part is he doesn't even know he's just a puppet. The real billionaires are pulling the strings. A large portion of our government is bought and paid for. I'm so tired of living in interesting times.

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

You are right! He is their useful idiot and they will do whatever it takes to get the manipulatable idiot back in office!

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I hate to say this, but if trump’s rhetoric causes a death of someone on his broadcasted Hit List, it would probably only inflate his ratings, considering the sick, polarized political times we live in now. Like the in the movie Network where the Albert Finney character gets killed off on air to boost ratings, I can see that happening. Since Fox News has poisoned the political climate and with Right Wing Radio nut jobs stirring the pot, it is possible. Such are the times we live in…

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Peter Finch, actually. "i could shoot someone on FifthAvenue and I wouldn't lose any supporters!"...Defendant P01135890

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

My bad, Peter Finch it was. Mea culpa…

Expand full comment
Sep 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

You're forgiven!

Expand full comment