87 Comments
Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Beyond me why the Secret Service ignored the voices in the crowd who saw Mr. Crooks. (What a name!). Oh Lucian, I am praying for Kamala and all of us. This is a “tipping point” moment in our history and in world history. Thank you for all you write.

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

After seeing Kamala Harris speak yesterday, I am convinced that she is the warm sunlight that can banish Trump's creeping, sinister darkness. They may make fun of her giggles, but she has a joyful spirit and such positive energy. I love her laughter and sparkle. We absolutely can do this! And now Trump has J. D. Vance tied around his neck like a rotting chicken. Hah!

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I hope she keeps smiling and laughing, as it will drive Trump crazy..

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

https://youtu.be/FciQeRGYFlw?si=P8di6sa97rcEepOL

Here's a tribute to her.

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

And to all women working to save our democracy 👍💖

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Wow! Thanks for this—it made me cry. I'm remembering my mother and grandmother.

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Same here 😔.

It would be the best theme song for Kamala's campaign. I've written to Keb' Mo's manager and to the White House. Maybe it'll go somewhere.

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I will send it to a couple of people I know. One is a delegate.

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Oh yay!!🎉

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

It's perfect!

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Jul 24Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

THANK YOU!!! Hope Kamala sees it!

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Thank you @StillLearning!

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So frigging GOOD!!

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Right??😻😁☺️

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Did you watch the speech? A statesman and my hero. Kamala was a brilliant choice for VP and now for president. I'm so happy to feel so hopeful 💞

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Jul 23·edited Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Love 'rotting chicken'. That's what I used when crabbing around the edges of Chesapeake Bay. Tie a long string around the rotting chicken neck then wade out to waist deep water with a crab net and a basket that floats (attached to your belt along with your end of the string), toss the bait out. Soon enough, there's a nibble. Slowly draw the string & bait toward you until it's close enough to slide the net underneath the crab. As soon as the crab notices the net coming up below it, the crab lets go and literally falls into the net.

Once the basket is half-full (they'll climb out if you fill the basket), head home and steam in a large pot in a couple of inches of beer, add Old Bay seasoning. Put a table outdoors, cover with newspapers and have at it with nut crackers or mallets. Best to wear an apron while eating. There's nothing sweeter than fresh blue crab meat. Unlike the rotting chicken which is eventually released for the enjoyment of the bottom dwellers.

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Yes! I did that a few times along the Eastern Shore of Maryland when I was teenager. I wasn't bold enough to go into the water, so I was lying flat on the prow of the boat, lowering and raising the rope and scooping the crabs with a net. We had amazing crab feasts, just as you described. It was so much fun. Old Bay Seasoning is the best!

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

We have had years of Secret Service scandals. The media either ignores them or drops their coverage after a couple of days rather than following up on what, if anything, was done to fix the problems.

“Prostitutes, Grenades and Drunk Driving: 20 Years of Secret Service Scandals

The near-miss assassination attempt on Donald Trump is the latest in a string of scandals surrounding the Secret Service.”

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/slideshows/prostitutes-grenades-and-drunk-driving-20-years-of-secret-service-scandals

Our mainstream “liberal” media is loathe to besmirch the image of people or organizations that they have put on a pedestal.

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I'm glad you put "liberal" in quotes, because the mainstream media is anything but. Reporters on the ground tend to be a relatively liberal lot, but the shots are called by the upper-level editors, publishers, and owners, and liberal they mostly are not.

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Money tends to quash a fiery liberal spirit...see Tom Lehrer's Whatever Became of Hubert ...

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And here I thought it was being LBJ's VP . . . P.S. I've been a Tom Lehrer fan since I was barely in double digits. Inherited it from my father. My impressionable mind was also influenced by _That Was the Week That Was._

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Jul 23·edited Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Love Tom Lehrer! Here's a favorite of mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs These day, it can as easily apply to climate change as to "the bomb".

Plus a link to a compilation, all of which he placed in the public domain: https://tomlehrersongs.com/

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Jul 24Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

He was so talented. I believe he was a college professor in real life .We wore the grooves out on his record.

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

"tipping point". Please say it's so!

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Great job. Can you extend the streak with more pieces on Alito, Thomas and their brothers and sister on the Court?

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The ladies are doing ok. Even the Godbotherer has acted in a somewhat judicial manner on occasion.

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there is far too much about this incident that stinks to high heaven. if a candidate was shot and wounded where is the team of doctors describing the injury and how it happened. yesterday trump was claiming a "miracle healing" of the injury. claimed doctors were amazed. i have been backstage while faith healers ran their game. this follows that script closer than anything else. it is easier for me to believe that there never was a danger or injury at all than it is for me to believe their accounts of it. a secret service director should be more like a ship captain in the navy who has taken his command into a ship to ship collision underway. the first thing the navy does in that instance is to relieve the captain. their thinking is that he was in command and this happened. that means that until investigators have figured out what led to that collision the captain, who might truly be blameless, is on shore awaiting the results.

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I grew up in the 50s and 60s in the Bible Belt. I will never forget my 5th grade teacher telling us about a family she knew who spent all their savings to bring their paraplegic daughter to be healed by Oral Roberts. Of course he didn’t heal her since she was genuinely paralyzed but what really infuriated my teacher was that the failure was blamed on the girl not having enough faith. I am pretty sure until that incident my teacher had been a believer.

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Poisoned minds like their poison.

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Hucksters, preying on people's pain. I believe that will be TFG's next business venture. He's very fond of the laying on of hands.

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What really stinks is the spin and the lack of information. Shots were fired. A man died of a gunshot wound. Trump had blood on his cheek. That's about all we know -- besides the fact that the Secret Service failed in a very big way. We know next to nothing about the shooter's motives. Was he trying to kill Trump? If so, why?

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Did he ever call the family of the man who actually was hit by a bullet?

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I'd be amazed if he did. There isn't a gracious bone in his body.

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The family wouldn’t accept a call from OHJB, and T💩p misspelled his last name on the firefighter’s jacket he used as a prop at the RNC convention.

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Not to my knowledge

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Lucian, such influence! What is next for you, White House counselor?

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Solve the Gaza strip and Ukraine?

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What a great idea!!!!

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The New York Times - that's what!

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I have to confess being surprised by Drump's muted reaction to the SS failure. Despite his well-known fear for his personal safety the only comment I've seen was that the SS does a great job. He doesn't seem bothered by the attack either, not much whining, just another event he can use to exploit his rubes. There must be something obvious we're all missing, is he afraid of what the SS could reveal about him, does he have some secret death wish to go down as a martyr? What can explain this strange equanimity?

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I read the he really liked his SS detail. I assume that is still the case. They are apparently so in the tank for Trump that Biden refused to have any of them on his team because he didn’t trust them.

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IIRC VP Pence and his advisers didn't trust them on January 6 either.

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Very true. Without saying it directly, Pence said it as loudly in a few words as he could ,that he had zero trust in confidence beyond his own detail.

Much is made about the oft-repeated apolitical nature of USSS Special Agents however that's not the issue as you pointed out. Trust/confidence are the top

factors What can compromise protection is relationships/friendships, whether between the protectee with her/his detail or with one or more members. As well as friendships within the detail.

The detail can't be distracted by small talk, never mind discussing subjects that do not pertain to what they are charged. Yes, during down times getting to know the protectee and vice versa is helpful and positive but that's not what the agents are there to do. The profession requires a slew of skills including communication skills.

The public heard a sample of that during the seconds following the attack due to the live open mic on the stage. Much like we expect of pilots facing an emergency the tone was calm ,the volume non-elevated and most of all no unnecessary words were spoken. Again, much like an airline pilot the job requires training various scenarios, old and new over and over again until the process is as close to second nature as possible.

Trump fought them. Trump did not comply with what he has been told many times to do in the event of an attack beyond get done and small, Chuckled when Rs said ditch the bitch DEI hire USSS SA cuz she was not tall enough or big enough to cover Trump. They are trained to appear bigger in conjunction w/the protectee reduction in size. Again, Trump has been told the same thing all protectees are shrink into the smallest version of yourself when being led away.

And not a single of his detail followed their training to make the protectee comply, one way or another. Was that do because they developed a bond w/Trump? Doesn't matter if they did or not, they did not follow protocol of the USSS or any other known protection groups.

So, with all the attention given the former DIR while praising the detail for rushing to the stage, from there it was a fail.

Still cant get over how quickly people judged a person who was NOT present or part of the pre-planning, site survey, number and deployment of assets, etc, etc. The only thing the public has to go by is a limited vid and sound audio.

Was ashamed of Congress for their words and behavior yesterday and today. The focus was on the wrong person and wrong things if the goal was answers. Same with the press

There is more publicly available info about US Special Operations than there is about how the USSS rolls when it comes to its protection mission. Don't want too much of it in the public domain and no longer can rely on Congress from opening its big mouth about the subject learned from behind closed doors.

The young man exploited ever flaw in the protection plan he needed to exploit. Wasn't luck. He observed much in a short time by moving around inside the outer perimeter. If he didn;t feel high confidence in what he saw, and more importantly what he didn't but expected to, he woulda left to shoot another day.

He likely counted the seconds/minutes it took for the visible snipers with overwatch responsibilities to move their weapon in conjunction with their line of sight from the furthest position, and then gain ingress to the unoccupied roof only from the roof angle that blocked the snipers' line of sight. He had to have used a ladder cuz he aint Spiderman. The ladder issue rarely is brought up. So, he had to get his hands on one, so it was iithah stupidly left leaning against the building during some prior sweep or site survey or asked the LEOs inside the building if one was handy dandy cuz he was going to shoot "the president."

When chit likes this happens all too often only one side is looked at as Pass/Fail. Rarely if ever is that applied to the perp or group. Americans luv it that way. INot me.

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Wow. Thank you. I hadn't thought of that angle -- that Trump didn't do what he should have done automatically, given that he's had Secret Service "protection" for years. And the Republicans grilling the now former Secret Service head didn't bring it up either.

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Did conclude the tall USSS SA was afraid of further messing up Trump's hair while the Rs attacked the woman SA (they came this close to using slurs associated with non-heterosexual wimmin) as she tried to get Trump to bend at the hips or waist to go down the stairs. And the complete upright walk to the SUV Trump's noggin was fully exposed. Yet the Trump camp wants more protection? Having 20 Trojans around a bed including 8 within inches of a man, are useles unless he makes use of one including following the directions. Did that internationally due to Stormy's testimony which demonstratesdhow careless and irresponsible he is across the board.

Yup fire the USSS DIR, that will fix it all, Just love feel good performative good for nothing chit.

PS Sake my noggin when famous perps are escorted out of by local Sheriff Deputies in a jumpsuit and some sort of ballistic amour. Yet we can see him from the head down because no Deputy Dawg is blocking the cameras leaving the target bare ass to a shot above and in front.

Reminds me of Dallas PD escorting Oswald in that manner. Shoulda used white marker on his shirt that read shoot me right here and now

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It was also reported that a local police officer climbed that ladder, saw the guy, the guy pointed his rifle at him and he high tailed it DOWN the ladder.

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PA State Trooper executive later testified the 2 local Special Unit SWAT Officer who were assigned and positioned in the overview/overlook position of a nearby building's second floor window with direct line of sight of the unoccupied roof. Must assume that or else they wouldn't been assigned there.

BOTH left their assigned post when the "suspicious dude alert" was first issued. They kept looking as did other local/state LEOs. BOTH leaving an assignment with such importance is beyond the pale. While many declared dude worked alone and there is no evidence contradicting it , do want to know more about the description of the dude who triggered the alert. 95% certain it was the shooter. 95% ain't enough. Not even close enough. An innocent person coulda triggered it or someone the shooter involved. To date there is no report of locating the person. Keep in mind there was no public reporting of a lot of foot activity in that zone. You can see how little by the very same folk who shot vids of themselves pointing at the roof. And others of themselves strolling inside that zone.

Now the ladder issue has 2 different stories. Thanks to our new GEN of reporters there is ZERO post-incident walk thrus by the national correspondents. To me that's worse thn the DIR saying I don't have all the info. And as far as her going to the site, that's a relatively new thing that was driven by Katrina. Photo op to show I care is the opposition side's default position ever since.

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Somebody better fix the Secret Service. What went down at that rally is totally unacceptable. They're subbing out security to local cops?? I'm curious about what Senior Chief Nance thinks about this!

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I can well believe it. It's always bothered me that he and his family have their own Praetorian guard, funded at taxpayer expense. Why doesn't his campaign pay for this like they do all his other personal expenses?

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After paying the lawyers (if indeed he's paying the lawyers), there may not be much left.

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From what I understand his campaign pays the lawyers. That's why he insisted that his daughter-in-law head the RNC, and she immediately said that their mission was to pay everything for Trump.

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If I were a Republican (muwahahaha), that would not motivate me to give $$$ to the party.

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Which is why some how I think he was in on it to create a buzz around the circus that was the convention. He even talked about something big was going to happen. We know he spills all during his rallies and really can't keep a secret like the 3 year old that he is.

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I hate to think like a conspiracy fabulist but it does seem really odd, especially with the one guy being killed. But stranger conspiracies have turned out to be true. I read earlier that some House rep with no experience or training in rifle shooting went up on the roof with his own AR-15 to try and re-enact it. He claimed to have hit the "kill target" 19 out of 20 times. It was only 150 yards and hard to understand how multiple shots that close could all miss.

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Your column triumphs!!!

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Good work, Lucian!

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Jul 23Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Value of a respected family name?

:)

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You have to wonder don't you what it must be like to be around that POS day after day and the chaos that surrounds him. That's in addition to the fact that I'm told Pennsylvania is an open carry state, (be careful what you wish for) and that the shooter was legally able to walk around with his AR-15. He was a registered repugnantkin as are most of the people walking around with those weapons, it makes perfect sense. According to Timothy Snyder, autocratic shootings going back more than 100 years almost always involve their own. When's the last time you walked into a grocery store and saw someone walking around with an AR-15 and didn't turn on your heel and leave. I'd be gone in a flash.

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Way to go Mr. Truscott. I have a list of names if your powers are still at full strength.

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There are a million iphone recordings of the 6th of January, and no Final Reckoning.

Director Cheadle is chided for lack of information after 6 days.

All the Questioning Politicians

failed to see this irony.

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Keep whackin'. Lots more needs the light of day.

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Now do Josh Hawley.

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:) You da man!

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Obviously, you were the deciding factor!

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Timing is everything!

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