THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
The question we would have asked: We see where Mary Trump has been interviewed for Slate's Amicus podcast.
The interview was conducted by Dahlia Lithwick. Only part of the interview has been published. The headline on it says this:
Mary Trump on How Her Uncle Keeps Getting Away With It
That's the headline on the piece. As published in Slate, Lithwick's first question was this:
I want to start with you where I just started which is: Why isn’t Donald Trump in jail right now?
Presumably, that question makes sense within the context of the full interview. Having said that, we'll add this:
Mary Trump isn't an expert on any such question as that. In our view, her answer makes that clear:
LITHWICK (9/15/22): I want to start with you where I just started which is: Why isn’t Donald Trump in jail right now?
MARY TRUMP: That is the question of our times. Well, he never has been. I think that is the foundational reason. This is a man who should have been in prison decades ago. He certainly should have been indicted for something. And this is just what happens when there’s no accountability, which leaves room for these countervailing forces to get momentum, and to change the subject. And we see in this most recent ruling by this hack of a judge, Aileen Cannon—she, by postponing what should have happened, gives room for Donald’s enablers and supporters to act as if everything’s fine.
According to Mary Trump, her uncle "should have been in prison decades ago." He "should have been indicted for something," she says, though she doesn't seem to know for what.
Mary Trump isn't an expert, or even a specialist, in matters of criminal law. She doesn't seem to know if her uncle has committed actionable crimes in the past.
It's certainly possible that Donald J. Trump has committed such crimes down through the many long years. Imaginably, some Gotham-based legal specialist might have a lot to say on that particular topic, and on the way financial crimes do and don't get pursued.
That said, Mary Trump doesn't seem to have any such insight. Nor is there any particular reason to think that she should.
In our view, that question went to the wrong person. The question we would have asked Mary Trump would have gone something like this:
Do you think it's possible that your uncle really believes that he won the 2020 election? Based upon your training as a clinical psychologist and your personal acquaintance with your uncle, do you think it's possible that he really believes that?
We'd like to see other (carefully selected) medical specialists asked such questions about Donald J. Trump. Of course, that would be against the rules of the careful, fastidious guild we still describe as a press corps.
Instead, they fantasize about the way the former president should have been locked up decades ago. This is the product our tribunes sell. It's Storyline all the way down.
Mental health / mental illness: Our political world is awash in apparently crazy belief and in sweeping group accusation.
To what extent can these phenomena be illuminated by the expertise of medical specialists? We have no way of knowing that, and our journalists aren't going to ask.
ReplyDeleteOh dear. One TDS mental patient interviews another. How quaint, how charming.
Oh well. As usual, thank you, dear Bob, for documenting this itsy-bitsy portion of the recent liberal atrocities...
The bigger question than “why isn’t Trump in jail”, is “why isn’t Trump in prison?”
ReplyDelete"He "should have been indicted for something," she says, though she doesn't seem to know for what."
ReplyDeleteIt is wrong to conclude that she doesn't know what he has been doing illegally. There are so many criminal acts that are now under investigation, it is hard to imagine he hasn't been functioning similarly in the business world.
"Imaginably, some Gotham-based legal specialist might have a lot to say on that particular topic, and on the way financial crimes do and don't get pursued. "
ReplyDeleteThis is why the Trump organization and the Trump family are being investigated by the State of New York. The crimes are being pursued.
"She doesn't seem to know if her uncle has committed actionable crimes in the past."
ReplyDeleteI think she knows plenty. It is pretty typical of Somerby to assume someone doesn't know anything and then reason from his own assumption to draw conclusions about what they know.
I doubt Mary Trump wants to get sued and Trump is known for being litigious. He sued Bill Maher for joking that he was related to an orangutan.
She has written a book about Trump. Bob doesn’t say if he has looked at it. Much of Trump’s background and his approach to ethics has been well covered. Bob has no doubt never looked into any of it. On top of his other charms, Bob is very lazy.
DeleteSo he posts the same thing day after day.
Somerby thinks Mary Trump should have been asked about her uncle's beliefs. That is a pretty silly idea for several reasons:
ReplyDelete1. She dislikes Trump and is not motivated to provide excuses for him.
2. She is a professional psychologist and would not risk her license by diagnosing someone remotely, without examination, as Bandy Lee did. It is a violation of her professional ethics.
3. She might say something about whether sociopaths believe their own lies (they don't) but that wouldn't solve any issue with Trump, in the absence of a diagnosis.
4. There is evidence from the 1/6 Hearings that Trump heard many trusted advisors tell him repeatedly that he lost, and he even said things to staff indicating that he was aware of his loss. These undermine the idea that he is delusional.
Further, this is a red herring, since it doesn't matter under the law whether he believes he won or not. It is not relevant to the various crimes he is being charged with and/or investigated for.
Somerby is aware of these things, as well he is aware that Trump conned people into giving him hundreds of millions of dollars to supposedly investigate and prove that he really won in 2020, but then Trump just spent that money on himself, on his lavish lifestyle. Trump knew there was nothing to investigate or prove, and Somerby is aware of this.
DeleteSomerby's game is to manufacture ignorance, whether for a bitter laugh or for money, who knows; either way Somerby is a lost soul with no moral compass.
"Of course, that would be against the rules of the careful, fastidious guild we still describe as a press corps."
ReplyDeleteIt is also against the rules of the mental health profession. Those rules exist to protect patients, so a mocking tone about the "fatidiousness" of the guild is inappropriate. Bandy Lee lost her license and her job because she broke those rules by diagnosing Trump without a proper examination. If she had examined him, it would be a violation of his privacy to discuss his mental health in a book (without his permission).
Somerby apparently thinks that professional ethics are quaint. That puts him in the same category as Trump (who ignores all such constraints), not those who are trained to work in such disciplines (where ethics is an important part of training).
"Our political world is awash in apparently crazy belief and in sweeping group accusation. "
ReplyDeleteSomerby says this immediately after calling for Trump's public diagnosis as a mentally ill person! Has he no sense of irony? Is an unfounded individual accusation about Trump's mental health any different than a group accusation?
But there is also plenty of evidence of MAGA Extremist illegal behavior. Some have already pleaded guilty to crimes related to 1/6. Some have been arrested and charged for weapons-related crimes, threats against public officials, carrying a gun into a fast food place, shooting others over political disputes, and so on. There are ongoing grand jury investigations over election-related crimes. And the 1/6 hearings continue. These are not "unfounded" accusations against MAGA Extremists -- they are obvious, ongoing, serious crimes that need to stop.
Rooting out the corruption within the Republican party, at all levels, is in many ways more important than putting Trump in prison. We will be finding out Trump's crimes for the next decade, but it is more crucial that the integrity of future elections be protected, by stopping MAGA Extremists from interfering in our elections.
"Instead, they fantasize about the way the former president should have been locked up decades ago. "
ReplyDeleteAnd why not? If Trump had been locked up decades ago, he wouldn't have been nominated for the presidency, wouldn't have subverted Clinton's campaign and she would have been elected instead. She would have handled the pandemic competently and saved hundreds of thousands of lives. I doubt Ukraine would have been invaded, since Clinton was always appropriately tough with our enemies as Secretary of State. Trump's term has been as disastrous for our country as George Bush's was.
But Somerby mocks the left for our "fantasizing", with an astonishing lack of empathy found only among right-wing trolls like Cecelia.
What’s astonishing, Princess, is that you’d expect anyone but your mother to be empathetic to your embarrassingly puerile fantasies.
Delete6:50 No. Next question…
DeleteAnonymouse 6:50pm, you didn’t even bother reading the post to which I responded.
DeleteMy name was invoked before I had posted a word on this thread.
Go soak your head.
Right, you have no empathy. You have demonstrated that again today, right on cue.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:38pm, I don’t know what’s funnier and more narcissistic- you accusing Somerby of having no regard for your feelings by expressing his opinion, on his blog ,which no one forces you to read, or me not being empathetic toward you and your fantasies of superwoman’s nonexistent term.
DeleteFrom Political Wire:
ReplyDelete"The Wall Street Journal reports that the $3 million paid by Donald Trump’s Super PAC to his new lawyer, Chris Kise, was because the former president “was known not to pay some bills.”
“Mr. Kise avoided at least the issue of nonpayments by securing $3 million in advance and, if the case drags, the leeway to bill for more.”
Another reason to pay his lawyer in advance is that he won’t be able to control expenditures from the PAC if he announces a presidential bid."
Trump will wind up in jail eventually. In the meantime, progress is being made in the GA investigations. From Political Wire:
ReplyDelete"“The prosecutor investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia said this week that her team has heard credible allegations that serious crimes have been committed and that she believes some individuals may see jail time,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Fani Willis: “The allegations are very serious. If indicted and convicted, people are facing prison sentences.”
Democrats squealing like stuck pigs because illegal immigrants have "invaded" their luxury vacationland.
ReplyDeleteThey expected poor and middle class Americans to foot the bill and absorb all social consequences of the influx of thousands of illegal aliens into their communities, and they are now they are showing the very ugly truth about their hatred and disgust for these people. Martha's Vineyard has excesses of money and housing but they are acting as if a plague has been released upon them. No one is surprised by these hypocrites but it's incredibly satisfying to watch the smug and self righteous forced to show their black hearts.
No, Democrats are "squealing" because human beings are not pawns to be moved around a game board, they are people. These migrants were kidnapped from Texas and flown to another location where they have no idea what will happen to them.
DeleteThat is "human trafficking" in every sense of the word.
The Right expects Liberals to be as bigoted against these refugees as the Right is.
DeleteIt’s also a blatant lie:
Delete“On Martha’s Vineyard, a rush to help migrants, from restaurant owners to Spanish students
Food, coffee, bedding, and warm clothes have been arriving as the island works to meet the needs of more than 40 people flown there without warning.”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/15/metro/migrants-arrived-marthas-vineyard-residents-businesses-lined-up-help/
“Planeloads of Venezuelan Migrants Arrive at Martha's Vineyard Airport”
The Vineyard Gazette - Martha's Vineyard News | Planeloads of Venezuelan Migrants Arrive at Martha's Vineyard Airport
4:45 engages in typical right wing projection.
URL for the second article:
Deletehttps://vineyardgazette.com/news/2022/09/14/planeload-venezuelan-refugees-arrive-marthas-vineyard-airport
@4:45 PM,
DeleteNo worries, the limo-lib residents will find a way to exploit the poor bastards right there, on Martha's Vineyard. That's what they do.
Breaking up rocks to improve the landscape, or sexual work, or something.
As far as I know, Florida is not a sanctuary state but Massachusetts is. It makes sense for those states to welcome these illegal immigrants into their own communities and shoulder all of the obligations and consequences. But they're going out of their minds, jumping up and down screaming HUMAN TWAFFICKING! Everyone knows that means "get these unwashed out of our sight and let red states deal with them until we can figure out a way to use them for election fraud."
DeleteThe people of Texas can't afford the economic and social burden. The obvious solution is to move them to wealthy blue enclaves populated by white liberals.
DeleteThis is just ignorance. Far more people stay illegally in the USA by overstaying a tourist visa and just remaining in the US, than by crossing the Southern border. They come in via airports all over the US, including in large cities in blue states. Others come in via shipping at seaports. We all have a share of immigration and the states bordering Mexico are not unique in their challenge. The attitude of shifting people around in order to avoid caring for them pits states against states instead of regarding the US as a single nation. That is pretty typical of the Republican attitude, which doesn't give a shit about the common good and only emphasizes self-interest. And it is a callous attitude toward the migrants themselves, who are generally fleeing serious problems in the countries they have left.
DeleteWith climate change, we may see ourselves needing to change homes because of weather-related disasters. What goes around, comes around and I wouldn't feel very welcoming toward people from states playing such games.
Conservatives have an odd definition for human trafficking which is generally about forced prostitution and slave labor. Do you guys really not know what the term means?
DeleteIt is illegal:
Delete8 U.S. Code § 1324
ii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, transports, or moves or attempts to transport or move such alien within the United States by means of transportation or otherwise, in furtherance of such violation of law;
Digby says:
ReplyDelete"It never fails to amaze me just how many very rich morons just like Trump are out there. He really isn’t the only one. This Estee Lauder heir is just one of them. Look at Patrick Byrne the Overstock guy who’s still out there pimping The Big Lie. The Pillow Guy. There are a bunch of them.
This would all just be for the historical record at this point if he would just give back everything he stole, shut his pie hole and retire. But the man is running for president again and it’s going to be close in spite of all this."
I'm not inclined to let him go, because he has done some terrible things, but it would spare the country a lot of grief.
They are not going to let him go.
DeleteThey’re going to show that they are capable of everything Julian Assange ever published.
To one degree or another, we’ll all eat crow as to how right these whistle blowers have been.
You’ll pretend it’s pheasant.
What are you babbling about? Julian Assange? Whistleblowers? Nothing in the comment had anything to do with that. You aren't making any sense.
DeleteYou’re not very bright.
DeleteAnd you're not very coherent. Do you ever have anything to say besides insulting people?
DeleteDo you ever stop insulting people?
DeleteOkay, mh, I guess I’ll relent and stop you from reading me.
DeleteWhen you see my name you are no longer compelled to read what’s underneath. I’ll quit forcing you. You are released.
10,000 illegals pouring into the country every day. Surely there are enough mansions at Martha's Vineyard to welcome 50. Democrat Obama's 12M mansion alone can accommodate parties with 700 attendees!
ReplyDeleteA lie. Change your diaper.
DeleteTypical of Republicans to disregard the rules and procedures set up for handling immigration and just dump people by the side of the road.
DeleteIt’s terrible. Since Biden took office, red state govs are supposed to handle buses arriving in the night in respectful silence.
DeleteIt’s an affront to human rights to do this to these millionaires and billionaires.
They are being welcomed and cared for. It isn’t just Martha’s Vineyard. They were also sent to NY and Chicago.
DeleteAlso one of the migrants “ said he came to the United States with his eight family members from Venezuela. He has an immigration court date on Sept. 21 in Los Angeles. He said he’s not sure why he was sent to Martha’s Vineyard but is now worried about how to make his immigration court date in California.
Records show Texas has spent at least $12 million to find the rides.
Republicans frequently refer to those taking the trips as “illegal immigrants,” but many of them are asylum-seekers who have been allowed to enter the country pending the outcome of their legal cases. ”
Not that conservatives care about this. But do you think Texas could use that 12,000,000 (or maybe less) to just help these people?
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/15/greg-abbott-texas-kamala-harris-migrant-bus/
This is just choice. Millionaires and billionaires can’t handle 50 people…
Deletehttps://twitter.com/nychomocon/status/1570456702390267905?s=42&t=x1rnLbkV69zURb4ThjdjyA
No, you don’t have to care about the people affected. You’re allowed to wallow in this as a political stunt.
DeleteThe open border is a Democrat political stunt and now they're finally exposed.
DeleteIt’s time blue states cared for the people affected. They’ve sure kicked up a fuss about have to care, but it’s still time that they did it.
DeleteApparently right wing morons are unaware that blue states fund red states; blue states generate income and provide a better environment, red states are awash in toxic behavior and depravation that require blue states to fund cleaning up the mess that red states leave in their wake.
DeleteI say apparently with a hint of cheekiness, since this is well known.
Not well-known enough, Anonymouse11:37pm.
DeletePeople are still coming. Do not falter in getting that word out.
It's already been proven, that every wretched immigrant is a million times a better person than any Right-winger.
Delete@Cecelia 8:04 PM
Delete"Millionaires and billionaires can’t handle 50 people…"
Millionaires? Their butlers and cooks are millionaires.
mh 7:38 PM
"They are being welcomed and cared for."
Great. What's this hysteria all about, then?
Let us ask Mr. DeSantis to send more. Many more.
...also to The Hamptons! Oh, and may we recommend Provincetown on the Cape? Very nice palace.
Will gladly trade racists for refugees,
DeleteAh. Of course. Easier to enslave.
DeleteThat's it, precious migrants are off the island.
Deletehttps://twitter.com/RubinReport/status/1570777836813946888
...didn't take long.
Mao,
DeleteDo your Establishment elite bosses let you eat with that mouth?
Your question is totally valid, and the other "criminality" question is too.
ReplyDelete10,000 illegal aliens crossing to border towns daily.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats respond "deal with it!"
50 illegal aliens flown to liberal enclave. Democrats respond "Pitting states against states!"
The open border policy of Democrats, forcing an unbearable burden on border states already pitted states against states.
It's only fair that those who encourage open borders also accept the entirety of the consequence.
What happened to Trump’s wall that Mexico was going to pay for? That would have surely put an end to all of this.
Delete1. I said "pitting states against states, but I don't represent all Democrats. It is actually MAGA Republicans against Democrats, and DeSantis and Abbott ganging up on Nantucket (a place that hasn't hurt anyone). It is on Republican radar because Obama liked to stay there, so these are political games.
Delete2. Nantucket is a "liberal enclave". It is also a rich people's enclave and many of them are notoriously conservative (26%). They were annoyed too, I bet.
3. Democrats do not have an open border policy and Dem presidential candidates have not advocated it. This is Republican propaganda.
4. California also has a border with Mexico but it doesn't seem to react as badly as Texas. Same for Washington, which borders Canada. No big problem there either. Texas is making a fuss because of their problems with Hispanics and their dislike of people who are different from themselves. It is bigotry.
5. Border states do get federal aid to help deal with migrants, and the borders themselves are administered by federal agencies, not the state of Texas.
6. From hate incidents reported in the news, it seems likely that Republicans confuse Mexican Americans with immigrants, which is nonsense since many were living in what became Texas before Texas was part of the USA, and many more are citizens with long histories in the area. But they get treated badly by white Republicans who don't understand their own state's history (or don't like brown people, or both).
7. Undocumented aliens are not crossing to border towns. Those seeking asylum are crossing the border at checkpoints and being routed to camps. Those crossing illegally avoid checkpoints but are crossing in other places, where they are rounded up by border patrol and taken to camps, where they are sent back across the border. This is not a matter of 10,000 people daily flooding small towns and disrupting life in them. Recently there has been a policy of holding asylum seekers in Mexico, which didn't impact Texas towns at all.
8. People awaiting deportation hearings or asylum hearings in the US are kept in prison-like buildings away from small towns and everyday life in Southern Texas.
9. Sending migrants to areas where there are no facilities for processing their applications, attending to their health and other needs, and where no one knows where they are (family and lawyers), is cruel and interferes with the efficient handling of immigration to our country. This is just a way of creating a nuisance for areas that are not equipped to handle an influx of people, unlike Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and other border states.
10. Undocumented immigrants come to places in New England too. In Boston and other parts of MA, there have been many undocumented immigrants from places in the Caribbean, such as Haiti. Also undocumented people from Ireland, Europe, and refugees from other parts of the world. In Seattle, undocumented immigrants arrive from China and other Asian countries.
11. In the 1930s, California accepted a much larger flood of immigrants from the dust bowl and the South, fleeing drought and poverty and seeking jobs as farmworkers. They lived in camps in the CA river basins and in the San Fernando Valley. They were called Okies and Arkies and Hillbillys, but they were clothed, fed, and given work, despite the huge impact on California's own resources. This kind of thing may happen again. It would be nice if those from Texas and other red states remembered the times when they were migrants seeking handouts out of need. That is often the basis for empathy. That's why, when DiSantis tried to send Cuban immigrants to Nantucket, it provoked a bipartisan revolt in his state. Cubans and other Floridians remember the refugees from Cuba and how they were welcomed to Miami. It is the MAGA Extremist governors who are creating this kind of turmoil for political gain, doing illegal things like kidnapping migrants (who seem to have few ways to object). And this fully demonstrates the difference between those Biden was calling out and those he excepted from his definition.
https://twitter.com/slimjim33_33/status/1570528343241674752?s=42&t=x1rnLbkV69zURb4ThjdjyA
DeleteIf the island were rejecting the migrants, it would put them on another jet, like DeSantis did.
DeleteIt is odd that Republicans think authorities can just comandeer private property at will. Does it now work that way in FL? Meanwhile, MYG thinks she can kick whoever is in her way.
But surely your betters wouldn't want their jets to get stunk up, dear dembot?
DeleteIf there is any stink involved, it is because immigration authorities don't provide sanitary conditions, but Abbott & DeSantis apparently didn't mind.
DeleteBut surely the immigration authorities DO provide sanitary conditions to those crossing the border legally (as they should), dear dembot?
DeleteAsylum seekers do cross the border legally. Those crossing illegally are quickly deported (allowing for backlogs).
DeleteMeh. Asylum seekers file an application, and wait in Mexico for a judge to deny it.
DeleteMartha's Vineyard has set up aluminum and canvas cots in a crowded room in a church while comfortable and stocked 10-bedroom mansions belonging to heartless Democrats including Obama sit empty with no invitations forthcoming.
ReplyDeleteI suspect they would have been able to board 50 celebrities in grand style.
DeleteWhatever Ronnie can do to distinguish himself further as a petty juvenile is fine by me. Hiring planes to transport a few dozen people away from a state he has no jurisdiction over is brilliant but especially precious if his grandstanding has broken any laws. With just a little more effort the man- child could have found Ubers to deposit them at Dr. Fauci's doorstep.
DeleteClassic bigot moves by Abbot and Desantis.
DeleteOf course the "economically anxious" Republican voter, who isn't at all into white supremacy, dontchaknow, rolls around that mud like a pig.
No worries. The National Guard has been called in to liberate Martha's Vineyard from the invaders.
Deleteoink oink
DeleteI can’t stop laughing at Republican voters over the fact that their tax money goes to benefit minorities.
DeleteFuck ‘em.
And look at the generosity of the Republicans who donated the jets to take those migrants there! Don’t forget them.
ReplyDeleteI relish them.
DeleteI can't feel bad for these immigrants.
DeleteIf they wanted the respect of GOP governors, they'd own black slaves.
But you’re just fine with busing them to GOP governors.
DeleteWonder why.
Cecelia,
DeleteAnother spectacular job of not knowing what you’re talking about.
I’d only send them to Republican governors if they were suicide bombers.
Delete“busing them to GOP governors.”
DeleteEver heard of a governor named Newsom, whose state gets by far the biggest influx?
Disingenuous much, 12:30pm?
DeleteEver heard of the Remain in Mexico Program that Biden had been fighting to end. It’s ending.
Get the buses rolling so that border states can help out Gov. Newsom and all the Sanctuary cities in their largess.
Say what you will about the Right, but you can’t deny their deep, deep love of bigotry and white supremacy.
ReplyDeleteIt took less than 24 hours for Democrats to make Martha's Vineyard white and rich again.
ReplyDeleteThe videos of DeSantis picking oranges for minimum wage will make this all worth it.
Delete