Cynical Publius Profile picture
Jun 4, 2024 1 tweets 2 min read Read on X
I am hoping there are still a few rational Democrats in existence, so I am writing this post in hopes reason will pull them back from the abyss they are about to throw the United States into.

The following statements are indisputable, verifiable facts:

1. The criminal prosecution of the leading Presidential candidate of the opposition party is a wholly unprecedented event that violates all American political norms.

2. In recorded world history, literally every time a nation’s ruling political party acts against prevailing political norms and imprisons or kills the leadership of its major political opponent, the history books record such action as tyrannical despotism. Think about it, just as examples—Ancient Greece and Socrates; Ancient Rome and Julius Caesar; the French Reign of Terror; Russia, Lenin and the Romanovs; Stalin and his purges; every other Soviet premier and the Gulag; Nazi Germany (enough said); the British Raj and Gandhi; Mao’s Cultural Revolution; Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel and the Warsaw Pact versions of Poland and the Czech Republic; South Africa and Nelson Mandela; Vladimir Putin and everyone who ever opposes him; the list goes on and on and on. History records EVERY SINGLE EXAMPLE of this phenomenon as the embodiment of abject evil and tyranny.

3. When tyrants imprison their opponents, they always justify the action as being necessary and lawful. Always. Without exception. Additionally, when that happens, there are MILLIONS of citizens who believe in good faith that their leaders' actions are justified. Average Germans in 1933, average Russians in 1917 and average Chinese in 1970 all GENUINELY BELIEVED that they were the good guys and the actions of their leaders were entirely justified.

These are facts.

Indisputable.

Undeniable.

Here’s another set of facts: in the USA in 2024, the ruling party is seeking to imprison the leader of the opposition party, acting against historical political norms; the leadership doing this believes its actions are necessary and lawful; and average American Democrats believe fervently that the actions of their leaders are entirely justified. The parallels to historic tyranny are powerful, precise and alarming.

Democrats, please consider these facts. I implore you to reconsider your actions. You are not the good guys. Instead, you are the average German of 1933 or the average Chinese citizen of 1970. I warn you now:

History is about to mark you as yet another despicable entry in the pantheon of evil tyranny.

Step back from the abyss. There is still time.

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More from @CynicalPublius

Sep 1
I really don’t like it when racists, antisemites, xenophobes and/or all-around nutters follow me on X. I don’t like being associated with any of that.

So, on this Labor Day, here is a compendium of twenty things about me (or things I believe) that I know are deeply unpopular in certain sectors. If you disapprove of these, please feel free to self-select and unfollow.

Thanks in advance!

Here is the list:

1. I was once a Democrat. I voted for Walter Mondale in 1984 because I believed Ronald Reagan wanted ketchup to be a vegetable. Later, I became an adult.

2. I believe Israel is the freest nation in the Middle East, and is a force for good—a shining light of personal liberty and democracy in a desert sea of abject tyranny.

3. I’m a white Irish kid from New Jersey. I’ve been married for 35 years to a black woman from the South who descends from slaves, and we are deliriously happy. If you find this in any way offensive, you have a subtard ratbrain.

4. I believe such a thing exists as the “Judeo-Christian Tradition.”

5. The Earth is round. It’s not flat.

6. “We’re a republic, not a democracy” is a stupid comment because we do have representative democracy, which in fact is a form of democracy.

7. We landed on the Moon.

8. Race is a human construct, and God knows no races. The only way to end racism is to stop talking about race.

9. “QAnon” is now and always has been a whackadoodle loony group, deliberately created by intelligent Leftists as a way of embarrassing the most gullible among us on the Right.

10. They are contrails, not chemtrails.

11. Catholics are Christians. The most socially acceptable form of bigotry in the USA today is hatred of Catholics.

12. MartyrMade would have fit in quite nicely in a Hugo Boss uniform, and Conceptual James is devoid of valid concepts of any kind. Both are midwits who mistakenly believe they are geniuses with unique insights that elude lesser humans.

13. Burning a US flag (so long as you are not breaking other laws in the process) is protected free speech under the First Amendment.

14. Prattling on endlessly about how Jews control the world makes you an evil antisemite.

15. I oppose the death penalty. Why? Because you can’t oppose abortion without opposing the death penalty, because the law often makes mistakes even with eye witnesses, and because the state should not have the power to kill its own citizens.

16. People who wave you through at intersections when they have the right-of-way should be publicly shamed in the town square.

17. Demons exist, and walk among us.

18. Atheists generally become atheists because they have slightly-above-average IQs and went to a university. Smart enough to be indoctrinated, not smart enough to challenge any premises of the indoctrination, and not smart enough to realize many things are unknowable.

19. A plane flew into the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. I was friends with one of those who died there that day. Later, many of the group of civilians I supervised in my last Pentagon assignment narrowly missed being killed on 9/11 and saw the burning engines between the C and D Rings as they evacuated. If you say something other than an airliner hit the Pentagon that day you are a disrespectful brainwashed conspiratorialist loon.

20. Pam Bondi is the best U.S. Attorney General of my lifetime.
Let me elaborate on #15.

While I oppose the death penalty, I'm perfectly OK with child rapists and the like being locked naked in an 6'x'6'x6' concrete box, drenched in freezing water 8 times a day, and fed a diet of grubs and beetles.
Even Mrs. Dr. Publius only agrees with 19 of 20.

I'm not saying what the 1 is.
Read 4 tweets
Jul 19
RE: DeepStateGate & Federal Criminal Law

So a lot of my followers have been asking me to explain what Tulsi Gabbard's reveal yesterday means as a practical matter, i.e., what can actually be done about it in the courts?

Well, while I am a lawyer, I’m not a litigator, and I’m not well versed in criminal law, so I’m probably not the right guy to ask. BUT… as a lawyer I do know enough to do basic statutory research, and as a public service I thought I would tie out Gabbard’s allegations against actual federal criminal statutes that MIGHT apply (note I did not say “DO apply”).

(Before I begin, I want to make two things clear because I know I will hear about these in the comments. Yes, the statutes of limitations for these various crimes are important here. But I am not going to get into that, as the very specific, non-public facts matter as to when the last acts in the alleged crimes occurred, and certainly with at least conspiracy it would seem the statute has not yet run. Second, I’m not going to get into “They’ll never win in DC” argument. The DOJ is full of smart lawyers who can figure out how to get these charges into friendlier venues.)

OK, let’s start.

In non-legal, layperson’s terms, Gabbard is alleging that certain elected and appointed federal government officials engaged in the following bad behaviors:

1. Knowingly falsifying classified intelligence reports for political gain.

2. Relying on such knowingly falsified classified intelligence reports as a basis to engage in illegal searches and seizures against political opponents, and otherwise compromising such opponents’ constitutional rights.

3. Releasing classified information to the media.

4. Conspiring with other government officials to accomplish any of the foregoing.

5. Lying about the foregoing to Congress while under oath.

6. Attempting to cover up any of the foregoing.

Hopefully we can agree that these cover all of the bad actions of DeepStateGate (and we’re not even including the media’s willingness to lie about all this).

I’ll now repeat that list and for each entry cite the federal criminal laws that may have been violated:
__________________________________________
“Knowingly falsifying classified intelligence reports for political gain”

18 U.S.C. § 1001, “Statements or entries generally” (Basically this covers knowingly falsifying official documents.)

18 U.S.C. § 1519 , “Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy”
__________________________________________
“Relying on such knowingly falsified classified intelligence reports as a basis to engage in illegal searches and seizures against political opponents, and otherwise compromising such opponents’ constitutional rights”

18 U.S.C. § 241, “Conspiracy against rights”

18 U.S.C. § 242, “Deprivation of rights under color of law”
__________________________________________
“Releasing classified information to the media.”

18 U.S.C. § 793, “Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information”

18 U.S.C. § 798, “Disclosure of classified information”
__________________________________________
“Conspiring with other government officials to accomplish any of the foregoing”

18 U.S.C. § 371, “Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States”

18 U.S.C. § 241, “Conspiracy against rights”
__________________________________________
“Lying about the foregoing to Congress while under oath”

18 U.S.C. § 1621, “Perjury generally”
__________________________________________
“Attempting to cover up any of the foregoing”

18 U.S.C. § 1505, “Obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees”

18 U.S.C. § 1512, “Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant”

18 U.S.C. § 1519, “Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy”
__________________________________________

OK that’s it.

TO REPEAT: I am not saying anyone will be, can be or should be charged under the code sections I listed above. But they MIGHT be. Ultimately, that will be up to smart DOJ lawyers who have way more information on these matters than any of us do. I posted this merely so laypeople can do their own research, which I encourage.

An informed citizen is a powerful citizen.

Those code section cites above are easy to Google, and you don’t need to be a lawyer to understand the plain language of those laws.

I encourage you to review the actual text of these laws.

I hope this helps inform the public debate.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

(P.S., if you are a litigator or criminal law litigator, please correct me if I said anything wrong, I would appreciate the clarity.)
@shipwreckedcrew, @ProfMJCleveland, @KurtSchlichter, @RonColeman, if so inclined I would love if you could point out anything I might have gotten wrong, or add salient points I missed.

(I write contracts for a living, not motions.)
@Heather27207971, ask and you shall receive.
Read 6 tweets
May 5
Are you sick of engagement farming via threads by paying blue checks?

A thread, 1/10🧵
They can make their posts as long as they want.

2/10🧵
But they don't.

3/10🧵
Read 10 tweets
Mar 24
Re: the Signal chat and The Atlantic article.

The minute I read the chat my very first thought was that Goldberg was specifically and deliberately included so that he would leak what he saw to the public. The idea was to let Europe know just how unhappy American leadership is with Europe's unwillingness to pull its weight militarily. The backchannel, seemingly accidental nature of that reveal was powerful and I believe intentional.

Also, as someone who has read his fair share of Top Secret/SCI war plans, this ain't it.Image
Image
I also envision Trump, JD and Hegseth laughing their a$$es off as they set up Goldberg.
Note what a National Security Council spokesperson said when asked about the chat:

""The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials."
Read 7 tweets
Jan 4
If you were going to write a Hollywood script that contained a contemporary, giga-conspiracy theme, you could do no better than what we're seeing right now play out before us regarding Master Sergeant Matthew Livelsberger.

Think of all the contemporary/conspiracy theory elements:

-Trump Tower.
-Cybertruck (Elon).
-Special Forces Afghanistan vet, one year from retirement, whose family and teammates say he could not have done any of this.
-Worked in cutting-edge, military drone tech.
-Emails to whistleblowers about super-secret anti-gravity tech, Chinese forces attacking the East Coast, wartime cover-ups about killing civilians, and the Deep State hunting him as he tries to cross the border into Mexico.
-A MAGA Manifesto that millions of Americans could have mostly truthfully written without blowing themselves up (i.e., a scriptwriter theme, MAGA = crazy suicide bomber).

The story even has a MacGuffin--a Desert Eagle handgun suicide weapon that no self-respecting SF operator would ever actually carry. It's like the scriptwriters threw that little detail in there just to troll us.

Honestly, it all just feels to on-the-nose for me.

"Grok, write me a treatment for a movie about a paranoid anti-hero that includes a deep, dark conspiracy theory regarding the US government, and make it rotate around all of the biggest news issues of the past 6 months."

Too perfect.

Too much like we're living in a simulation.

At this point I have zero idea what is true or untrue about Livelsberger, or what is missing from his story.

I know Occam's razor says that the most logical scenario is that the guy snapped and had some sort of psychotic break, but my spidey sense is nevertheless tingling big time.

Something is off.
...and if you followed me for a while, you know I am almost always the one stomping on conspiracy theories and reverting to Occam's Razor. But this just feels too much like this: Image
Last point:

A key character in the movie Wag the Dog goes by the nickname "Shoe."

-also-

A key character in the unfolding Livelsberger story goes by the nickname "Shoe."

Sometimes the universe has a good laugh at it itself.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 2
So they identified the guy who was in the Cybertruck that blew up at Trump's place in Vegas.

His supposed LinkedIn is below.

✅Green Beret NCO?
✅Intelligence and Operations Specialist?
✅19 years, 1 month of Army service?
✅"Remote Autonomous Systems"?

Holy crap is the information op gonna be unreal on this one.

Could somebody please hit Ctrl-Alt-Del on 2025 please?

kthxbaiImage
Here's some fuel for the fire. Image
If he is SF, he almost certainly spent time on Fort Bragg.

Home of the 82nd Airborne Division.

In which the NOLA terrorist served.

On Fort Bragg.

Jus' sayin'
Read 4 tweets

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