You have no doubt seen an interview with attorneys after a trial on the front steps of a courthouse, when a prosecutor, or less frequently a defense lawyer, stands before the cameras and says some version of, “While we disagree with the jury’s verdict, we respect it.” You will never hear those words from the mouth of Donald Trump.
There is another very powerful way to stop normalizing this behavior, and that’s for the mainstream media to begin to call it out for what it is. He is again inciting riots. He’s mouthing complete lies. Start calling it. Don’t let him get away with it. Although his brain dead MAGA minions can’t hear it, but there are a lot of Republicans who are not buying his garbage anymore. Who’ve come to understand the degree to which he’s out for himself and all the stupid slogans are just narcissistic dreck. I also don’t think New York will let them get away with violent protest for a minute it would be very dangerous for this city to be seen as a soft target
I'll take that as rhetorical. I've lived a long time so I've known a far better MSM, one that you could believe and count on. Not this version. But I also know everything has changed for news outlets, print, etc. Adjusting can be a very rocky road. That's why we're now accessing Substack. And I just canceled my NYT subscription.
Trump is facing indictments in NY, GA and at the federal level. Unless one or more MAGAs lies and gets on the jury, he will be convicted. He will call forth his mob to violently prevent the authorities from sending him to prison (although more likely he will get, at worst, house arrest at Mierdalardo). The authorities need to be ready to deal with a violent mob, and unlike J6, the rioters need to be arrested and jailed immediately. More insidious are leading Republicans already gaslighting the country, trying to make us believe that this is a politically motivated witch hunt, not the legitimate holding to account of a career criminal. Will we allow this to continue, or will the appropriate authorities take action against the gaslighters? Never forget, Nixon's pardon have us Reagan's Iran/Contra, the Bush/Barr pardons have us W, Obama looked forward and not backward, leaving war crimes unpunished and we got Trump. If Trump is not held to account, be assured that the next GQP authoritarian will be much much worse.
"The authorities need to be ready to deal with a violent mob, and unlike J6, the rioters need to be arrested and jailed immediately." Yes yes yes. Although I personally doubt more than a couple dozen people show up if that.
He says he's calling for "protests." The new code word for coup-like insurrectionist kinds of activities. And Tacopina, that Daniels attorney, wow, Mr. Mafioso with a whole lot of plastic surgery. Makes me wonder what he looked like before. He's very disturbing.
You had to know that a career criminal like Trump would finally hire a mob lawyer to defend him. I have read that Tacopina might be kicked off the case, seems Stormy tried to hire him during the original case but he turned her down. Per NY ethics rules, that still counts as a conflict of interest.
As a retired attorney, I have to admit that one of Trump's "accomplishments" has been to shine a light on how shady are many corners of the nation's bar associations. How all of Trump's past and former attorneys are willing to kowtow to him and his cronies and present meritless claims, and not face serious sanctions, and apparently not care whether they do or not, is remarkable to me. The entire profession looks worse as a result.
Trump shone a light on a lot more rot than the legal biz. Those of us who were in it in some capacity or other over the last fifty years are shocked by that and so much more. How about that Supreme Court for shockers?
Absent a complete and total corruption of the disciplinary process for lawyers I cannot see any reason why such luminaries as John Eastman, Sydney Powell, Lin Wood, Jenna Ellis, Alina Habba, Lindsey Graham and all the rest of Trump's legal brain trust continue to hold law licenses. Do they have to get to the melting hair stage of Giuliani to finally earn a trip down license suspension lane?
Thanks! My wife worked for attorneys (law professors) at the UT School of Law. From her tales, it was like the old saw about watching sausages being made.
I read that as well. As well it should be because going in for a consultation means she told him a lot of her side. I would love for him to get thrown off. He's got that "look" of scary ego and he's been everywhere trying to make it go away from TV and stuff.
Trump is running out of attorneys and a man who would immediately land himself in prison for perjury if he took the stand would clearly be a disaster defending himself.
If every lawyer in the country refuses to defend him could he be assigned a public defender? 🙂
The little I know since when I was a reporter I wasn't in court but the judge can appoint an attorney but usually when the perp is destitute. I don't know that answer but Trump is not quite so stupid that he would even think about doing that.
Seems that some Proud Boys showed up on 7th Avenue to protest a drag queen story hour and the counter-protesters beat the hell out of a couple of them. As I said, there will be little tolerance for Y'all Queda in Manhattan.
I still shake my head in disbelief at the things that have and continue to happen since the bulbous orange-tinged snake slithered down that escalator in 2015. He needs to receive actual consequences for what he's done to our country and then we need to defeat his acolytes and toadies.
Thanks Lucian for stating it so clearly and simply. What perplexes me at this moment is how slowly the legal process is taking for dealing with Trump. The only thing that is moving forward now is a long-ago hush money payment Trump allegedly made to a porn star. But he more recently set in motion a violent attempt to overthrow our government. And that hangs like a cloud over our campaigns that are already underway for our next national elections. We still haven't take out the garbage from the last one . . . ?
I am wildly curious to see if Jan. 6, squared, takes place Tuesday (?) or whenever Bragg indicts him.
He announced he will be "arrested." (He will not be; he's turning himself in to avoid the picture of him in handcuffs.) I want to see if "his" people, the MAGA loons we live amongst, do his bidding. I hope to God they do not ... remembering their brethren and sistren sitting in the slammer for just such
a riot. I am sick unto the death of him and his license-losing lawyers. It is galling, tho no less predictable, that Lardass knows he's in the wrong, and there's the destroyed research he commissioned, then destroyed, to prove it. (It didn't support him re voting irregularities.) And Jesus went to drink gin from the cat dish
Good point. Sadly many in the CSA did not see it that way back then. And to this day, many still don't.
Personally have an aversion to the many flag traditions v. the actual etiquette around the globe and here at home. It is 2nd only to civs including US Presidents returning a salute to a member of the mil. That too is a tradition v. actual etiquette. 3rd button is all that flag hoopla at non-international sporting events. Again, a rather recent tradition that is misplaced and misguided at best. All that set the stage for demanding the wearing of flag label buttons and a host of other absurd ideas. US is about patriotism, not nationalism.
My bad, adding " My country right or wrong" is NOT me. Love this land and her good people. Love both enough to stand up as so many including Lucian have over the years to say WTAF when it is plain the direction is morally wrong and antithetical to the idea that is America.
I agree, there is an unwholesome idolatry at play here, this notion that the flag is a holy symbol and the president is the divine, chief priest.
I like to remind the flag-paraders to Google images of the KKK marching behind US national flags as well as CSA "rebel" flags, they might be surprised at how only one of those flags has been tarred. And then think about how many American Indians were slaughtered by soldiers and militia carrying the Stars and Stripes. That flag could be seen as an instrument of violence and oppression to many indigenous people. I am always a bit flummoxed at how a US flag ceremony features into so many powwows. Forgive and forget, is that it?
Seems many forgot flags are associated with conquest and conquerors from ancient times to the present (for example daeshbags' black flag w/white shahada). And as you rightly point out includes my kind.
Chuckle at the US flag at gathering of ~indigenous~ peoples. Yes, chuckle and yes, gathering. Powwow is another of a long string of anglicized "loaner words". (Tanx Roger Williams). The word doesn't mean gathering, it means spiritual leader which also is miss translated into holy man.
And since miss translations, loaner words, and made up anglicization (no different than conquering Arabs employed, Arabization or the conquering Japanese did to Taiwan and Korea, Japanification), no where in any ~indigenous~ tongue can be found the word tribe. >95% begin with the word people followed by how they describe themselves or identify with something in the natural world.
Seems like a small thing to many. It ain't due to being the most basic block of understanding someone different than self. Is a sign of disrespect and to most a slur, that is nearly impossible to overcome. Lucian's story about P4 was repeated 100s if not 1000s of times in Ir and Af. Not only to a perceived enemy, also to a perceived friend. And has real consequences as the silent fall of Af and even quieter fall of Kabul demonstrated. Yes, it fell silently yet ended with a KABOOM.
Seeing the Rs in the House focused on the KABOOM while ignoring all the silence that led to it is so on brand for them. And they still don't get it nor the irony of the bookends of start and end being the same.
Those flying the battle flag of the defeated traitors have no idea how small they come off. Will add the nation is at a somewhat similar crossroad as she was at the defeat of the traitorous CSA.
All the talk back then of unity, appeal to the better angels, and leniency led to a hundred years and 6 GENs of backsliding. Post 6Jan. is another one of those moments when Justice is called for, nothing else.
Anybody stays home thinking they won't be voting, they need to understand they just voted in another way. Sitting it out should not be on the list of options.
There has been regret voiced by a great number of people worth listening to about Trump’s likely first indictment coming from a sex charge. (And next month there will *finally* be E. Jean Carrol’s rape trial. There’s also the video (a deposition? not sure) I have seen of a woman who says Trump raped her at the invitation of Jeffrey Epstein. That suit was dropped, it is said, because of death threats, should she proceed. Putting Marla Maples and the grab ‘em-by-the-pussy boast aside, Trump is widely associated with sex -- welcomed or not. It is for this reason that I am not overly bothered that his first occasion for a reckoning has to do with sex. I see it as this century’s version of Al Capone being nicked for taxes instead of murder. Trump’s other felonies will catch up with him, but I don’t mind at all that his first call to the bar of Justice is a tawdry offense by a guy with a screw loose, no pun intended. It is fitting because it is demeaning, and definitively takes away the Lothario cred he’s always pretended to.
This is for another day, but the question has been raised about his security detail going with him if he’s denied bail. That will be an entertainment of a different order. I won’t say “stay tuned,” because, really, how can you not?
Trump is like Robert Bolt’s description of Henry VIII, “a monstrous baby…who started with everything and squandered it all.” England outlived Henry, and let us pray that we outlive Trump.
This ought to assist Jack Smith in his arguments. Love that Ali Alexander is sending prayers, but not people, let alone people with guns. Thoughts and prayers ought to do the trick, don’t you think? Support MoveOn in their current effort:
We want to put up these three billboards outside Mar-a-Lago to help drive a wedge between Tucker, whose audience loves Trump, and Trump, who you know has the thinnest of skin:
"I HATE [TRUMP] PASSIONATELY."
–Tucker Carlson, Jan. 4, 20212
"THERE REALLY ISN'T AN UPSIDE TO TRUMP."
–Tucker Carlson, Jan. 4, 20213
"WHAT [TRUMP'S] GOOD AT IS DESTROYING THINGS. HE'S THE UNDISPUTED WORLD CHAMPION OF THAT."
All of us, including the "media" need to reject the normal urge to treat Trump fairly, to give fair hearing to both sides of the issue, and to choose candidates who won't offend conservatives. Trump and DeSantis are fascists, and reveling in autocracy, they don't deserve to be treated with respect. As Lucian describes they violate every governing norm and have to be voted out for their radical and Un-American goals.
I don't like anything about Donald Trump. He should be put on trial for all his transgressions against both individuals and our country. And if found guilty, he should suffer the full consequences of the law. I don't however feel it is necessary to drag him into court handcuffed or to suffer the country and potential of turning his indictment into some kind of theatre, especially one that incites people to violence. We don't have to respect him. We do need to respect the position he held as president and manage these events accordingly. I did find it amusing that someone posited that his secret service agents might have to go to prison with him if he went.
If he turns himself in rather than making them come for him, it's routine that he (or anyone else) not be cuffed. Avoiding those photos is the whole point of turning himself in.
There is another very powerful way to stop normalizing this behavior, and that’s for the mainstream media to begin to call it out for what it is. He is again inciting riots. He’s mouthing complete lies. Start calling it. Don’t let him get away with it. Although his brain dead MAGA minions can’t hear it, but there are a lot of Republicans who are not buying his garbage anymore. Who’ve come to understand the degree to which he’s out for himself and all the stupid slogans are just narcissistic dreck. I also don’t think New York will let them get away with violent protest for a minute it would be very dangerous for this city to be seen as a soft target
MSM is an enormous disappointment these days.
Only these days?
I'll take that as rhetorical. I've lived a long time so I've known a far better MSM, one that you could believe and count on. Not this version. But I also know everything has changed for news outlets, print, etc. Adjusting can be a very rocky road. That's why we're now accessing Substack. And I just canceled my NYT subscription.
What or who is MSM?
Mainstream media
How I hope this is true!
The adolescent part of my brain would love to see New Yorkers take on MAGA.
Trump is facing indictments in NY, GA and at the federal level. Unless one or more MAGAs lies and gets on the jury, he will be convicted. He will call forth his mob to violently prevent the authorities from sending him to prison (although more likely he will get, at worst, house arrest at Mierdalardo). The authorities need to be ready to deal with a violent mob, and unlike J6, the rioters need to be arrested and jailed immediately. More insidious are leading Republicans already gaslighting the country, trying to make us believe that this is a politically motivated witch hunt, not the legitimate holding to account of a career criminal. Will we allow this to continue, or will the appropriate authorities take action against the gaslighters? Never forget, Nixon's pardon have us Reagan's Iran/Contra, the Bush/Barr pardons have us W, Obama looked forward and not backward, leaving war crimes unpunished and we got Trump. If Trump is not held to account, be assured that the next GQP authoritarian will be much much worse.
"The authorities need to be ready to deal with a violent mob, and unlike J6, the rioters need to be arrested and jailed immediately." Yes yes yes. Although I personally doubt more than a couple dozen people show up if that.
He says he's calling for "protests." The new code word for coup-like insurrectionist kinds of activities. And Tacopina, that Daniels attorney, wow, Mr. Mafioso with a whole lot of plastic surgery. Makes me wonder what he looked like before. He's very disturbing.
You had to know that a career criminal like Trump would finally hire a mob lawyer to defend him. I have read that Tacopina might be kicked off the case, seems Stormy tried to hire him during the original case but he turned her down. Per NY ethics rules, that still counts as a conflict of interest.
As a retired attorney, I have to admit that one of Trump's "accomplishments" has been to shine a light on how shady are many corners of the nation's bar associations. How all of Trump's past and former attorneys are willing to kowtow to him and his cronies and present meritless claims, and not face serious sanctions, and apparently not care whether they do or not, is remarkable to me. The entire profession looks worse as a result.
Trump shone a light on a lot more rot than the legal biz. Those of us who were in it in some capacity or other over the last fifty years are shocked by that and so much more. How about that Supreme Court for shockers?
The SCOTUS business did not surprise me, not after McConnell got away with denying Obama the opportunity of a vote on Merrick Garland.
It started there. Certainly it did. I guess I'm surprised at my constant capacity to tolerate more shock. Even knowing it's coming.
Absent a complete and total corruption of the disciplinary process for lawyers I cannot see any reason why such luminaries as John Eastman, Sydney Powell, Lin Wood, Jenna Ellis, Alina Habba, Lindsey Graham and all the rest of Trump's legal brain trust continue to hold law licenses. Do they have to get to the melting hair stage of Giuliani to finally earn a trip down license suspension lane?
Thanks! My wife worked for attorneys (law professors) at the UT School of Law. From her tales, it was like the old saw about watching sausages being made.
I'm afriad slower. They have machines that make sausage a whole lot faster now.
I read that as well. As well it should be because going in for a consultation means she told him a lot of her side. I would love for him to get thrown off. He's got that "look" of scary ego and he's been everywhere trying to make it go away from TV and stuff.
Trump is running out of attorneys and a man who would immediately land himself in prison for perjury if he took the stand would clearly be a disaster defending himself.
If every lawyer in the country refuses to defend him could he be assigned a public defender? 🙂
The little I know since when I was a reporter I wasn't in court but the judge can appoint an attorney but usually when the perp is destitute. I don't know that answer but Trump is not quite so stupid that he would even think about doing that.
It would be great if more supporters of the indictment than Trumpers showed up at any protest.
Seems that some Proud Boys showed up on 7th Avenue to protest a drag queen story hour and the counter-protesters beat the hell out of a couple of them. As I said, there will be little tolerance for Y'all Queda in Manhattan.
P.S. - Mary Trump said that the biggest protests to a Trump indictment might come from a shortage of beer for the celebrations.
I still shake my head in disbelief at the things that have and continue to happen since the bulbous orange-tinged snake slithered down that escalator in 2015. He needs to receive actual consequences for what he's done to our country and then we need to defeat his acolytes and toadies.
Nicely said. The man is toxic!
Would it not be grand if Trump threw a coup and nobody came?
I think that’s closer to reality than some of the hyperbolic predictions of violence I’ve seen in a few comments.
Another Aaaaaaaamen!
Thanks Lucian for stating it so clearly and simply. What perplexes me at this moment is how slowly the legal process is taking for dealing with Trump. The only thing that is moving forward now is a long-ago hush money payment Trump allegedly made to a porn star. But he more recently set in motion a violent attempt to overthrow our government. And that hangs like a cloud over our campaigns that are already underway for our next national elections. We still haven't take out the garbage from the last one . . . ?
All of these prosecutors are just too timid, do Something! I fear its all going to end up like Mueller.
Ah, Mueller....the name should become a synonym for "timid" or "disappointment".
I think he was threatened and terrorized.
Garland was a big mistake. Preet Bahara should have been Biden's choice.
I am wildly curious to see if Jan. 6, squared, takes place Tuesday (?) or whenever Bragg indicts him.
He announced he will be "arrested." (He will not be; he's turning himself in to avoid the picture of him in handcuffs.) I want to see if "his" people, the MAGA loons we live amongst, do his bidding. I hope to God they do not ... remembering their brethren and sistren sitting in the slammer for just such
a riot. I am sick unto the death of him and his license-losing lawyers. It is galling, tho no less predictable, that Lardass knows he's in the wrong, and there's the destroyed research he commissioned, then destroyed, to prove it. (It didn't support him re voting irregularities.) And Jesus went to drink gin from the cat dish
I don't think Ya'll Queda will be well received, nor long tolerated in Manhattan.
I hope you're right. I am so sick of the confederate flag that I could gag.
The last flag the Confederates actually flew was white.
Dish towel used by R. Lee to surrender to Union

forces, known as the final flag of the Confederacy
lmrao magnifique mockery, touche.
Good point. Sadly many in the CSA did not see it that way back then. And to this day, many still don't.
Personally have an aversion to the many flag traditions v. the actual etiquette around the globe and here at home. It is 2nd only to civs including US Presidents returning a salute to a member of the mil. That too is a tradition v. actual etiquette. 3rd button is all that flag hoopla at non-international sporting events. Again, a rather recent tradition that is misplaced and misguided at best. All that set the stage for demanding the wearing of flag label buttons and a host of other absurd ideas. US is about patriotism, not nationalism.
My bad, adding " My country right or wrong" is NOT me. Love this land and her good people. Love both enough to stand up as so many including Lucian have over the years to say WTAF when it is plain the direction is morally wrong and antithetical to the idea that is America.
I agree, there is an unwholesome idolatry at play here, this notion that the flag is a holy symbol and the president is the divine, chief priest.
I like to remind the flag-paraders to Google images of the KKK marching behind US national flags as well as CSA "rebel" flags, they might be surprised at how only one of those flags has been tarred. And then think about how many American Indians were slaughtered by soldiers and militia carrying the Stars and Stripes. That flag could be seen as an instrument of violence and oppression to many indigenous people. I am always a bit flummoxed at how a US flag ceremony features into so many powwows. Forgive and forget, is that it?
Said better than I could.
Seems many forgot flags are associated with conquest and conquerors from ancient times to the present (for example daeshbags' black flag w/white shahada). And as you rightly point out includes my kind.
Chuckle at the US flag at gathering of ~indigenous~ peoples. Yes, chuckle and yes, gathering. Powwow is another of a long string of anglicized "loaner words". (Tanx Roger Williams). The word doesn't mean gathering, it means spiritual leader which also is miss translated into holy man.
And since miss translations, loaner words, and made up anglicization (no different than conquering Arabs employed, Arabization or the conquering Japanese did to Taiwan and Korea, Japanification), no where in any ~indigenous~ tongue can be found the word tribe. >95% begin with the word people followed by how they describe themselves or identify with something in the natural world.
Seems like a small thing to many. It ain't due to being the most basic block of understanding someone different than self. Is a sign of disrespect and to most a slur, that is nearly impossible to overcome. Lucian's story about P4 was repeated 100s if not 1000s of times in Ir and Af. Not only to a perceived enemy, also to a perceived friend. And has real consequences as the silent fall of Af and even quieter fall of Kabul demonstrated. Yes, it fell silently yet ended with a KABOOM.
Seeing the Rs in the House focused on the KABOOM while ignoring all the silence that led to it is so on brand for them. And they still don't get it nor the irony of the bookends of start and end being the same.
Heh! Funny, good 'un!
Those flying the battle flag of the defeated traitors have no idea how small they come off. Will add the nation is at a somewhat similar crossroad as she was at the defeat of the traitorous CSA.
All the talk back then of unity, appeal to the better angels, and leniency led to a hundred years and 6 GENs of backsliding. Post 6Jan. is another one of those moments when Justice is called for, nothing else.
Displaying that traitors’ flag should be illegal, just as Germany made display of the Nazi flag illegal!
"Ya'll Queda" is cooked.
Aaaaaaamen!
Great column, sir. Stay healthy. Eat well. Sleep much. Rest. We need you!
Anybody stays home thinking they won't be voting, they need to understand they just voted in another way. Sitting it out should not be on the list of options.
There has been regret voiced by a great number of people worth listening to about Trump’s likely first indictment coming from a sex charge. (And next month there will *finally* be E. Jean Carrol’s rape trial. There’s also the video (a deposition? not sure) I have seen of a woman who says Trump raped her at the invitation of Jeffrey Epstein. That suit was dropped, it is said, because of death threats, should she proceed. Putting Marla Maples and the grab ‘em-by-the-pussy boast aside, Trump is widely associated with sex -- welcomed or not. It is for this reason that I am not overly bothered that his first occasion for a reckoning has to do with sex. I see it as this century’s version of Al Capone being nicked for taxes instead of murder. Trump’s other felonies will catch up with him, but I don’t mind at all that his first call to the bar of Justice is a tawdry offense by a guy with a screw loose, no pun intended. It is fitting because it is demeaning, and definitively takes away the Lothario cred he’s always pretended to.
This is for another day, but the question has been raised about his security detail going with him if he’s denied bail. That will be an entertainment of a different order. I won’t say “stay tuned,” because, really, how can you not?
And now we all know about his little mushroom thanks to Stormy Daniels.
One almost could have guessed, no?
You have to assume that for all the big talk, the actual 'equipment' is lacking.
Trump is like Robert Bolt’s description of Henry VIII, “a monstrous baby…who started with everything and squandered it all.” England outlived Henry, and let us pray that we outlive Trump.
This ought to assist Jack Smith in his arguments. Love that Ali Alexander is sending prayers, but not people, let alone people with guns. Thoughts and prayers ought to do the trick, don’t you think? Support MoveOn in their current effort:
We want to put up these three billboards outside Mar-a-Lago to help drive a wedge between Tucker, whose audience loves Trump, and Trump, who you know has the thinnest of skin:
"I HATE [TRUMP] PASSIONATELY."
–Tucker Carlson, Jan. 4, 20212
"THERE REALLY ISN'T AN UPSIDE TO TRUMP."
–Tucker Carlson, Jan. 4, 20213
"WHAT [TRUMP'S] GOOD AT IS DESTROYING THINGS. HE'S THE UNDISPUTED WORLD CHAMPION OF THAT."
–Tucker Carlson, Nov. 6, 20204
What's with the 5-figure dates? 20212, etc.
I think that was an error in transcription. The dates on the billboards would be accurate, worry not!
All of us, including the "media" need to reject the normal urge to treat Trump fairly, to give fair hearing to both sides of the issue, and to choose candidates who won't offend conservatives. Trump and DeSantis are fascists, and reveling in autocracy, they don't deserve to be treated with respect. As Lucian describes they violate every governing norm and have to be voted out for their radical and Un-American goals.
Trump the clairvoyant says he'll be indicted on Tuesday. That will be followed by Wednesday.
I don't like anything about Donald Trump. He should be put on trial for all his transgressions against both individuals and our country. And if found guilty, he should suffer the full consequences of the law. I don't however feel it is necessary to drag him into court handcuffed or to suffer the country and potential of turning his indictment into some kind of theatre, especially one that incites people to violence. We don't have to respect him. We do need to respect the position he held as president and manage these events accordingly. I did find it amusing that someone posited that his secret service agents might have to go to prison with him if he went.
Indeed...THAT might be how media can help: NOT COVER IT!
If he turns himself in rather than making them come for him, it's routine that he (or anyone else) not be cuffed. Avoiding those photos is the whole point of turning himself in.
Narcissistic traitor, and all around POS 😡‼️
Your current commentary deserves to be in all major newspapers, picked up by local papers, and spoken from a chair on the set of 60Minutes.
(Note: major media continues to fail the people and their duty under the 2nd US Constitution.)