100 Comments
May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

In one of the more fortuitous ironies of the whole mess, Trump himself signed a bill increasing the penalties for violations of the Espionage Act.....

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Bruce, I bet he's glad the espionage act revision he signe didn't call for spies to be shot or hanged as in colonial times. But he'll still be angry at himself for approving a longer prison sentence if that was the increased penalty :)

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As I recall, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for crimes along these lines. That wasn't in "colonial times"; it was in the 1950s. True, they weren't "shot or hanged" but rather electrocuted, but the result was the same.

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Yes, Susanna, I was going to mention the Rosenberg's and wondering about WWII as well, if anyone executed for spying/informing the enemy of troop movements, military facilities, etc.That was the worry about the Japanese, which was unwarranted as most were loyal Americans.

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Nah, he would NEVER blame himself! Any awareness of effing up is to be pushed outward and fastened to another (any "other" will do) person or entity that he already hates.

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So true, TJ, in his mind he can do no wrong, it is either someone else to blame or unfair persecution. He is delusional, thinks he is super smart and loved by millions except those who are envious of him and his (so called) wealth and success, Yeah right :)

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I bet he didn't even read the revised espionage act when he signed it, if he had he wouldn't have violated it by taking the documents in the first place. They say he never reads anything so maybe they just gave him a brief description verbally that it was an increased penalty. Besides he claimed agaim recently that he was entitled to take the papers with him which automatically declassified them. Maybe the lawyers will use that as a defense, that that is what he thought which is why he keeps saying it, to prove n advance he was somehow mislead (like Thomas ) Somebody (he can't remember who) told him that.

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founding

Then time to whip out all the evidence against him, including the mountain of it he continues to provide in all his public comments, statements, screams and cries he may come up with. The man is a lifelong criminal who's been allowed to skate by all of his adult life, except for a few dollars here and there.

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You're right. He didn't read it. He also obviously has no idea what the Presidential Records Act he keeps quoting says either.

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Yes, as Lucian said, all papers, not only classified documents should have been turned over, even hand written notes, and certainly the letters, including all gifts. But even if he was told this he would have ignored it, Ruled and regulations have never applied to Donald Trump.

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There is no telling what this zero will say if they ever get him in a deposition, under oath. He might say something like he had the absolute right to sell the documents to foreign nationals under the Presidential Records Act, which he has never read. Sometimes I wonder if trump is not so much diabolical as he is Captain Queeg.

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Haha, Eric, made me laugh, the reference to Captain Queeg. I can just see Trump now sweating under heavy questioning pulling three steele balls out of his pocket and start juggling them in his hand :) And that is the moment everyone knows he is paranoid. "Queeg was a paranoid commander who blew up when he thought crew members stole his strawberries. And when Capt. Queeg was under stress, he pulled out three steel balls from his pocket and rolled them in his hand."

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It was the strawberries. That's where I got them.

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Elise Stefanik is my rep and one of Trump’s biggest enablers. She was one of the ones out crying Soros backed DA after Alvin Bragg’s indictment. This is what I’m dying to see is what the excuses are going to be on Georgia and the DOJ cases. It’s no surprise that the documents case is looking worse than it did to start. The January 6th case will probably end up looking more disgusting too, if that’s possible.

Repeatedly saying “Far Left Democrats” like she has some form of Tourette’s probably won’t cut it. Even in upstate NY, I hope.

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Elise is going to have a very hard time backing Trump if he is indicted under the Espionage Act given the heavy concentration of active duty military and veterans in her district. They can go along with the Big Lie, the racism, the anti-LGBT hate, the violence, etc. but spying is likely a bridge too far.

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She has a primary opponent who seems normal. I’ve come to believe we’re not going to get a Dem elected so I’m becoming Republican to support some small change.

If I can’t have a Democrat, then at least a better Republican.

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Almost any Republican would be better than Elise. And sadly, you are likely correct, no Democrat can win over the rubes in the backwoods or the military and military adjacent. Also because of all those brown people sneaking over the Canadian border /s

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I think everyone can agree that Trump probably took this stuff thinking, "hey, a few souvenirs won't hurt anyone."

Needless to say those souvenirs are going to cost him plenty. I hope it's at least 10 years for having the documents, not turning them over to the NA properly and another 10 for obstruction. Then after that Jack Smith can nail him with any Jan 6 crimes and Fani Willis can go after him for the 2020 Georgia phone call-with the rear being brought up by Alvin Bragg for fraud in his company.

Donald Trump's had an amazing run of luck and he's about to find out what happens when karma descends on him like Saint George slaying the dragon.

It'll be fun to watch. Oh, and one more point-it appears that Trump's media thing, "Truth Social" is in serious (what other kind is there) trouble with the SEC.

His summer of fun is going to be good schadenfreude for all of us. I can't wait, because everything will happen all at once.

Things always happen like that and the fat lady is getting ready for her aria.

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When the Mango Menace learned that Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years, he probably shit his diaper.

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As usual, Mary, another excellent comment!!

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Great summary.

Go Jack Smith Go 🙏

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

All the people who came into his office at Mar-A-Lago had cell phones and cell phones have cameras.

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founding
May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Another great column, Lucian. We are very much in your debt for your research and writing skills. Succinct and complete summaries of the facts are your specialty, if there only were more writing like yours. As we await breathlessly(and wait, and wait) for the oft predicted *Rump indictments the responses and reactions are already in the drawer waiting to be performed. The Kabuki theater soon to be at its most active, presumably. The MSM media will be orgasmic; the Reichwing media unstinting in its condemnation; *Rumpers threatening retaliation and violence; never-*Rumpers saying, “finally”. And the evil one himself whining and complaining, as usual, about weaponized government, persecution, fake evidence, “nasty” people, his innocence, and dog-whistling his ever loyal cult to “standby”, or maybe worse. I don’t mean to downplay the importance of these indictments, because the need for them is fundamental for us to be a nation of laws, and not of men. It just seems like there’s a script, and the show must go on. The glacial speed with which this is all unfolding, when his guilt is so obvious, that it all becomes an anti-climax when something does happen. If I sound jaded it’s because I am. It’s hard not to tire of the perpetual, exhausting drama. Why in the name of sanity would anyone want five more years of this. I’m going to bed.

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author

If there were a bunch of people who write like I do, there wouldn't be any reason to subscribe to my column, would there? I've always made a living being one of a kind as a writer, no matter what I have written-- for the Village Voice, magazines, novels, movies, or online publications like Salon and Substack. I work hard, I write well, I stay informed. It's what I have done for 55 years. Why stop now?

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Thank you for your hard work and your honesty in your writing.

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You and Jeff Tiedrich are the only two Substack writers I read consistenly for education, amusement and wisdom. You both write with a superb sense of outrage, indignation and intelligence, and that's rare in most writers.

I don't know how you guys do it, but it works every time-and I end up saying to myself, "Yup, that's exactly how I feel!"

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And I for one (among many!) am grateful that you do so!!! THANK YOU!

(and give a pat to each of your furbies for me!)

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Lucian, you write superbly well. I always appreciate your rare facility and eloquence, and the pleasure of reading good writing is especially sweet in reading today’s column. Thank you for doing such a masterful job not only keeping us informed but tying all the details together with wit and deep insight. Long may you wave.

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No one writes like you do. Please continue.

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Don't you dare stop! Your columns are gems.

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Sleep well.

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founding
May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

For Trump, classified documents were simply more showoff material. Anyone else remember that he was somehow *televised* blowing Israeli Intelligence cover to one or two Russians in his office?

Discussion of likely indictments gives me a stomach ache., perhaps ulcers to follow. I cannot figure out how this ignoramus even became President ... and he's even NOW the Republicans' top choice. What about this mental midget appeals to anyone with a working brain? It is dispiriting, forget disgusting, that tens of millions of people find him acceptable.

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Margo

First, he gets them to sign on to the scam. He does that by making their enemies, his enemies. He attacks liberals, the people he gets along better with than anyone and always has, thereby demonizing them. He speaks to them as if he is actually stupider than they are, which isn't easy, and that makes them feel better.

Once they are a party to the grift his behavior becomes increasingly deplorable and they are trapped. If they renounce him they look like they approved of what he has become, not what he was. As Trump continues to sink to new depths of depravity (which isn't easy considering where he started) the idea of admitting they were wrong becomes increasingly horrifying. Their only choice is to make excuses for him, no matter how absurd. They pretty much have to exist in denial. They cannot admit to themselves what they have become.

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founding
May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Thank you for trying to help me understand. But really, that many schnooks?

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I think my theory accounts for a good part of them, but not all. A poll showed 57% of Republicans want a candidate who can take on the libs or something like that. It's all about hatred.

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founding
May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

What a country...

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Does being ecstatic if Trump gets convicted of espionage make me a bad person? 🤔

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If feeling schadenfreude while watching an arrogant, ignorant, vile, despicable, mendacious, scofflaw traitor finally—hallelujah—being multiply nailed to the legal wall for manifold crimes while in and out of office is a sin? I will joyfully and wholeheartedly embrace being a sinner.

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From my perspective it would make you sane Eric, btw I liked your take on the repugnantkins dilemma that Margo thanked you for.

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Apparently it was worse during the Civil War, so there is hope.

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author

Now that is funny.

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May 27, 2023·edited May 27, 2023

@Ms Howard...I know, it's beyond tragic, isn't it?

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founding

Forgive my quoting myself, but we live amongst morons.

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Who makes liberals angry was the poll.

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This is an excellent explanation of how a con man ropes in his victims. It is very embarrassing for the victims of a con to admit they were just that - victimized. It makes them feel stupid, and potentially shows others just how stupid they were (are), so they cannot change course.

What I try to emphasize to people when I talk about NOT voting for the orange traitor is that NO ONE IS IN THE VOTING BOOTH WITH YOU when you cast your ballot. This makes it possible to jump off the ridiculous bandwagon while it is still rolling.

At this point in time, any vote for a republican is a vote against the United States and Democracy itself. Although I am a huge supporter of voting and voting rights ( which the suppression of is the greatest threat to our country at this point, I think), I hope that all those "victims" who have swallowed the republican garbage either change their vote to support our Democracy, or stay home.

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Sadly, people like me are complicit in this tragedy. If we had just not said anything many of them would have found their own way back from the abyss. So that when there could have been an awakening that using nuclear weapons against hurricanes was completely insane, instead their minds had to find a way to make that somehow acceptable. The alternative would have been to admit that Eric was right when he called me a complete, stupid, ####ing ###hole.

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You cannot blame yourself for someone else's idiocy. You can only do your best to defend what is right from what is clearly wrong. There is a saying having to do with, "when good men do nothing."

Good men and women must always try to do something.

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I don't really blame myself but that doesn't make us any less complicit. In 2016 a Venezuelan journalist wrote an editorial warning us not to do the same thing with trump they did with Hugo Chavez. He said they came to power the same way and that trump would stay in power by dividing the country. And the further apart we are the more entrenched his supporters will be.

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May 27, 2023·edited May 27, 2023

This ignoramus became president because of the millions of ignorant, racist, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and other people without a working brain who voted for him. In other words, people who "think" just like him.

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Words not directly associated with US Presidents until Trump:

Indicted.

Espionage.

Insurrection.

Sedition.

Sexual abuse.

Defamation.

Diapers.

Shithole countries.

Made up countries.

Flim Flam Man.

Shat list of future words: crimes, charges, counts, convictions, x#-criminal trials, sentencing, incarceration.

Word associated with only two US Presidents:

Shoes (elevated, ducked).

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Very good point Shadowcloud, the Dems if they are smart could use that in ads, and I’d bet it didn’t take long to come up with your list 😎

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Am grateful. And you're right on both counts.

Was obligated to include W. cuz he is still ducking, manifests as his silence vis a vis Trump, today's Republicans, conservative, militant rightwing, Texas Republicans, mass shootings, immigration, his SCOTUS selections, and on and on.

W., as well as other Rs/cons/right wingers don't understand ~the fluency of silence~.

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I cannot believe that Jack Smith is not already digging his claws into this luscious pile of personal offal, presented to the Special Prosecutor through the stupidity and ignorance that marked the previus administration.....

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Trump's prosecution and ultimate conviction presents a political problem. Individual One is unelectable. If we take him off the board the next batter up might not be.

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A risk to be sure, but considering how slowly the wheels of justice turn these days, I doubt he'll be "disbarred" much before the election. I also suspect there is no one else currently in the running for the Republican nomination who would do better than the Donald, and most polls show now he'd probably lose to Smokin' Joe..... We live in hope.

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Trump would lose but most polls show others could possibly win. That's the problem.

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This is how a Stable Genius behaves. He is not just the unclothed emperor, he thinks he IS an emperor and therefore not hampered by laws of mere mortals. When Humpty Dumpty has that great fall, the earth will move! I’m soooooo ready!

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

In the name of all that is Good and Holy, can someone PLEASE just toss this traitor into the nearest tumbrel???

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Kathleen: thank you for teaching me a fantastic new word:

tumbril

/ˈtʌmbrɪl/

nounHISTORICAL

noun: tumbrel

an open cart that tilted backwards to empty out its load, in particular one used to convey condemned prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution.

Perfect for treasonous monsters as well....

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

"... information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States ..."

golly gee whizzers, don-- looks like your only defense can be one based on ignorance, a popular concept in down in magastan.

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founding
May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

From your pen to the FSM’s ear!!

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Much of the public thinks about January 6th 2021 because there’s drama and ongoing prosecution. Charging him with obstruction or violating the espionage act might be very serious but not all that interesting to the general public. Republicans will try to defeat the seriousness of such charges in part because of their own contacts with foreign powers. Jack Smith will have to avoid catching other players.

Trump should be prosecuted regardless of partisan response because the republic is more important.

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We have a legal principle in this country called prosecutorial discretion. Prosecutors don't have to explain why they sought to indict one person and not another. The "what about?" excuse is non-pertinent. When trump uses it that is a political ploy. It has no place in the judicial system.

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May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

I hope so. We'll see.

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founding

While Harry was on a summer break from law school in the summer of 1976, we enrolled in a law program at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Among many side-trips, was a visit to a maximum security prison, Ramla.

During a tour we were escorted into a high/security unit with convicted Palestinian terrorists who spoke English and were very excited to meet us. They asked if Serhan-Serhan (the convicted murderer of Robert Kennedy), was likely to be released. We replied that it is highly unlikely.

We were able to meet with a convicted spy who was a mechanical aircraft engineer. We asked him if he was going to be released and his response surprised us: “That would be unlikely (l think the word he used was “STUPID” - since l was caught with top secret documents which l was selling to Syria.”

So is appears that incarceration does have an important impact and might actually bring closure and reflection.

The top-prize was a Japanese convicted mastermind of an airport attack. This prisoner was in isolation, but we could peer into a door window and see his sumo- sized body. We had no other contact.

Proving once and for all, that in a just society “crime does not pay.”

The question remains: under the current strictures in these United States, will justice prevail?

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May 27, 2023·edited May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV

Well, Trump certainly is ready in one respect: has the "sumo-sized body"---weighed in by "weeping" NYC police at 6ft1" and an astounding 270 pounds!

(The lunatic claims to be 6ft3" and only 240 pounds; much like an NFL linebacker--big but catlike quick!)

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"Sumo-sized" is particularly resonant to anyone who has actually seen it in the flesh—ALL that rolling flesh. I once watched a demonstration match, the real thing, on the plaza under NYC City Hall's Room 9 (press room) windows. City Hall used to be rich with improbable moments like that—champagne and strawberry celebrations at 10 a.m., turn a corner any day and bump into John Lindsay, still gorgeous even after he got sick with whatever it was that killed him, or Bianca Jagger or JFKjr—and probably still is.

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