I don’t particularly care about Melania Trump one way or the other, but I don’t like to see her humiliated publicly. I take Trump’s infidelity as a given, and I guess the fact that he continues to lie about it should be a mark against him, but the state of his marriage isn’t something that interests me or that I think should be used as cudgel against him. On the other hand, the fact that he paid a ransom to keep this affair secret does have relevancy to whether or not he is subject to blackmail and in the habit of giving things of value to people to keep his secrets.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
35 Comments
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
Yeah, leave her to her own miseries. It seems she has established her own territory and intends to shield their young son from the media. She has to live with the life she chose and I neither support nor condemn her. Whatever Trump has done to humiliate her and however she responds doesn’t matter to me.
I’m having some trouble defining Trump, or figuring out what exactly he is. We won’t ever know, I suppose, with so much crap in the media and so few decent journalists. But I am struggling.
One example is this “shithole” thing. So, I believe Dick Durbin’s account of what Trump said, and it was confirmed again in my mind when WH sources said Trump was taking a “victory lap” after the comment was released, calling friends and supporters for feedback. So, he deliberately said it for everyone to hear, and the weak tea denials from the Republicans in the room are lies or deflections.
How does this type of deliberate damage work? Is he suffering from dementia or is he just cruel and mean? Is it part of a game plan, or is he just blowing shit up because he can? I have a sense that he does have some sort of mental illness, but he and the Republicans keep bulldozing along. And “shithole” will be old news in a week, just like the Nazi embrace in Charlottesville.
I am hoping that Mueller does some sort of damage when all is said and done. And I hope the Democrats shore up good candidates and we all motivate people on the local level to vote big. Other than that, I don’t know what can help.
I question your conclusion that it was somehow “deliberate.”
Reading Boo’s post and the linked article, I found myself pondering that poor kid’s life and future, growing up as he is in a shithole constantly roiling in a shitstorm.
The impediment of his genetic heritage aside, how does he possibly mature into a sane, decent human being?
(My best guess: he doesn’t. Exhibits A and B in support of that prognostication: Uday and Qusay Trump.)
I tend to agree with you. No amount of money can compensate for such profound dysfunction.
So we can force Al Franken out of the Senate without knowing the details of what he purportedly did (and apologized for), but we can’t use consorting with porn stars against Trump? The fact that she was prepared to go on TV with her story suggests this wasn’t an affair but either a sordid transaction or sexual harassment or both.
Adam Silverman (@ balloon juice) and Seth Abramson said it well: the point isn’t that he’s an adulterer. It’s that he systematically pays off the women involved, and hence has a ton of buried blackmail material.
A. Ton. That’s the scandal: that the Oval Office Squatter is liable to blackmail in startlingly many ways.
And this has nothing — nothing — to do with Melania. Littledick is also liable to blackmail for his involvement in money-laundering. And his raping 13-year-olds. And on and on.
And the reason “we” forced Al Franken to resign was really simple: we’re the party that takes these things seriously. They aren’t. That’s a bright line, eh?
And sure, if in fact, he didn’t do the things he’s alleged to have done, I want him to fight his accusers. But we don’t know, do we? So the best we can do, is “when there are multiple credible accusations, it’s time to push for resignation”.
-He- resigned. It was voluntary. Neither life, nor liberty, nor possessions, were taken from him involuntarily.
You have an odd definition of voluntary.
Al Franken was pushed out by an organized effort by many democrats in office to do just that. I don’t call his resignation voluntary.
How could he fight his accusers when a cabal of Democratic Senators decided he should go without giving him a chance to explain, as he offered to do?
To many this didn’t come across as Democrats taking the moral ground but an action taken for political reasons being kept from the public, hence open to broad speculation. I am not the type who runs to conspiracy theory every time I don’t have a ready explanation for something, but this had a bad odor about it. A viewpoint many share.
If the entire internet and the wider left adopted the moniker “little dick” for Trump, the guy would implode.
No he wouldn’t. He’d just abuse more women to prove everyone wrong.
That seems to me to be a simplistic read. The politician*, his/her political party, and related current issues play a huge part in whether bad (sex related) behavior leads to a resignation. Thus, Gingrich and Livingston resigned and Asa Hutchinson and Clinton didn’t. (Hastert emerged out of that period as the ‘clean one’ and was promoted to Speaker.)
Reports on Diaper Dan Vitter and prostitutes began in 2002. Voters promoted him from the House to the Senate in 2004. More reports and evidence in 2007. Didn’t resign. Reelected in 2010. It didn’t catch up with him until his 2015 gubernatorial election.
*The amount of media attention on the bad behavior of the politician is a factor in his decision. It’s personal as to how much heat and individual can take.
It is telling that a scandal like this would, no doubt, take down a Democratic politician. Republicans, and Trump, have become basically immune to stuff like this. This seems so wrong. I have a few ideas as why this might be so:
Still, it is astounding to me how much crap Trump gets away with. Our system is apparently broken. I’m not sure I have much hope that it is going to get better.
After Lewinsky, you say this?
My moral principles aren’t defined or influenced by my political opponents.
But respectfully, “don’t stoop to their level” is always a risk in asymmetrical conflicts; it tends to lead to defeat.
I mean I’m not talking about the Red Cross and “total war” and Soviets vs. Nazis…or am I? I’m not sure. But it’s at least a question, isn’t it? Calling out hypocrisy? Suddenly this doesn’t matter when in 1996 it was so crucial?
Like Digby pointed out last month — how we’re supposed to expect only Trump supporters in the FBI investigation (to prevent its being “biased”) whereas the exact inversion was used during the Whitewater investigations — only Republicans can judge Clinton “fairly.” It’s not just moving the goalposts — the goalposts don’t move — it’s just flagrantly reversing the rules.
This is much worse than Lewinsky. First, it’s not a consensual affair. She wasn’t interested in him, she was being paid and/or coerced. Second, there’s the little matter of hush money equal to about 3 years of median personal income. It’s worse even than Spitzer, and he had to resign.
How so?
Which federal laws might the governor have broken?
Prosecutors settled for indicting the “escort service” and not the clients and escorts.
Agreeing, as I do, that not charging Spitzer was reasonable on the part of the federal prosecutors, it was a discretionary call by them.
(Interesting side note in the list of federal laws is “structuring.” The one used to get Hastert.)
Payment of hush money common
Fair or not, bad (or a sexual nature) behavior while in office tends to be judged more harshly than past bad behavior that isn’t reported before winning office.
Speak for yourself my friend. I intend to use this as a cudgel.
“Family values.”
are you really saying we should go back to the pre-Clinton days when even if the press knew about it they
agreed not to say it?
No. I have no problem with it being reported. I just don’t think it’s something Democrats should focus on.
In the linked article full of bizarre shit, this stood out:
WTF kind of “A-list” [sic] “Celebrity . . . golf tourney” has an “on-site” porn-“merch” “gifting suite” staffed by “big name” porn-star “representative[s]” of “her adult company” “in the XXX biz”?
A not-unsavory one I’ll venture.
I.e., just the sort you’d expect Trump to be associated with (he musta been a poor credit risk at the time, since the article didn’t say he “owned” the hotel/event).
interesting, I bet that’s the same tournament where Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault 2 years later.
Both Tahoe, so wouldn’t be at all surprising.
Porn stars at the golf tourney. Wonder if they were the draw for the trump jr golf charity event?
. . . those “scare quotes” in any context including Trumps.
. . . right into incoherence, I see.
Let’s try: “An unsavory one I’ll venture.”
Uh, isn’t it Trump that should be humiliated as his carefully constructed image of being a chick-magnet takes a hit because he resorted to hiring a sex worker.
(Melania is a trooper; humiliation at some point is part of the deal with marrying Trump (as if marrying him isn’t humiliation enough).)
This is exactly on point.
am i the only person who imagines that melania might be just his russian handler … ?
I couldn’t begin to care about anything Melania is doing. Hope she continues to keep and nurture the veggie garden and stays under the radar. She signed up for the humiliation when she married that sociopath, just like Hillary knew what she was getting with Bill’s bad behavior. Political wives make their beds; they get to sleep in them.
I agree with BooMan, the this is bad juju for Dems; hope they take the high road and stay out of it.
Tien Le…there is no “high end” in the current U.S. political culture. OK…maybe Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren etc. until proven otherwise. Other than that, there is only international greed, wealth and hustle.
One night recently I drove past the 20+ billion dollar Hudson Yards high rise development on the far west side of midtown Manhattan. It was shining like some huge Christmas bauble, all lights and power and tall buildings. Someone in the car mentioned how amazing it was to see that neighborhood…a tawdry late night hangout for the various sex trades for about 50 years…turned into a high rise luxury residential area populated primarily by absentee owners who bought apartments as investments and occasional Manhattan residences.
“Remember when this area was all pimps and whores?” he said.
I answered “It’s still all pimps and whores, brother. They’re just more expensive now.”
Like dat.
Up and down the system.
Bet on it.
I am.
AG
P.S. Melania and Donald.
We got the First Couple that we deserve!!!
AG
P.P.S. And you know where this pimps and whores movement really started, don’t you?
Right at the top.
Bet on that as well.
With all the real misery, poverty and suffering in the world, pardon me if I don’t expend an ounce of empathy on the gold-digger in chief, Melania.