My boyfriend just gave a good analogy to why trump wasn't prosecuted 20 years ago

[lostnfound]

They are reading Trump’s statement and I’m bitching about why a rich white guy like trump gets to be 76 before he gets prosecuted. I’m sarcastic about how we need to give him PLENTY of airtime to explain his side of the fraud story, just like we need to give him PLENTY of airtime to explain why he was selling loosies on the street or passed a counterfeit bill at the convenient store.

Why DIDN’T they prosecute him 20 years ago?

“Puffer fish. They’re tasty aren’t they?”
Huh?
“In Japan they eat them because they are tasty, but they’re poisonous.”
Yeah, I know it as fugu, but yeah.

“Well, Trump is like a puffer fish to a DA. They go ‘that looks like a really tasty case that I could prosecute..but I’d be eating poison.’”

Ah. Good point. We talk about whether Cy Vance was compromised, not defending gutless DA’s but… Trump is a puffer fish.

Looks like one, too. Acts like one.

My boyfriend. I don’t know whether I love him more because he is brilliant (in wonderfully weird ways), or because he’s a good liberal, or because he is 100% kind to me, such as making me a fluffy coffee in the mornings. Guess it’s all three.

What a great day to be alive. Go to jail, puffer fish. Good job for Alvin Bragg. Good brave man.

[irisblue]

1. I like your guy

[ShazzieB]

32. Me, too.

He sounds like a "keeper." 😉😊

[calimary]

49. I do too! So much so I have my own version of him!

Including the nice creamy coffee he fixes for me every morning. It’s almost a ritual.

Gives a whole new meaning to “gettin’ lucky”!

[wryter2000]

2. You are a lucky person

[TheBlackAdder]

46. Columbo always catches the perp, even if it's death by fugu.

.

.

[cilla4progress]

3. Love

your post and analogy!!

It's a strange feeling of calm, isn't it...

There IS a reason to do the right thing. And it WILL catch up with you eventually!

[whathehell]

4. I hate to be a naysayer here,

but it took Bill Cosby even longer than that to get prosecuted.

[misanthrope]

14. Yep, because of his power and access to resources

There's no shortage of evidence in our national history as to the various tiers in our justice system. The person "selling loosies" or passing counterfeit bills is on a lower tier than Coz or Trump, so things don't happen at the same rate or with the same zeal.

[whathehell]

20. Yep.

My point was that when you get to Trump and Cosby's level, it is, to paraphrase Rupert Murdock, less about the Black and White than the Green. FWIW, though, I think this is the big issue in most countries, not just here.

[oldsoftie]

21. Of course. GREEN is always the color that wins! nt

[soldierant]

28. Cosby's crimes were not financial.

Financial crimes are a much worse insult to our misgynostic society.

Yes, there is a woman involved in this case, but she's not the point. The point is financial.

[whathehell]

38. True.

and I do agree that his crimes were worse.

[republianmushroom]

6. like the posting

Your boy friend nailed it.

[Shipwack]

7. Good analogy, but it shows the flaw in our system

For the DA, it’s easier and safer to prosecute a guy selling loose cigarettes, or a John, etc. They are risk averse and won’t press to prosecute a powerful individual because they have resources, and the DA might lose.

They don’t want to upset their win/loss ratio. From what I’ve read, this viewpoint sometimes goes all the way up to the Attorney General (not necessarily Garland, but others).

Jack Smith seems to be a counter-example of this. He goes after the most powerful people imaginable. Some prosecutions he wins, some he loses. It seems as if he doesn’t care about his record.

We need more Jack Smiths in our justice system.

[misanthrope]

17. Precisely

It's what has resulted in our country now having de facto separate systems for white collar vs. blue collar crime.

[BunnyMcGee]

37. Don't forget...

if the prosecutor loses, double jeopardy prevents another trial for the same offenses. Don't want the puffer to get off free.

[lostnfound]

41. That's true.. however with a guy like trump...

There’s a virtual certainty he will commit another crime before the week is over..

[3auld6phart]

43. Two thumbs up.

I ‘d like to give you and Lostnfound two thumbs up.. I have no axe to grind in your Politics,I look out my patio door into WA state and I Fear for the future of the USA that filthy orange diapered tub of orange grease and some of his super rich asshole buddies
are tearing the place apart..two sets of rues for some is a world wide problem seems moreso in
the Sttes. take cre

[Ponietz]

8. Cut the liver and gonads out before serving

Last edited Wed Apr 5, 2023, 05:33 AM - Edit history (1)

[lees1975]

9. Well said.

That's exactly right. Trump isn't the only wealthy criminal who steals and gets away with it.

I'm just glad to see this indictment. Here's to his being convicted on every count, and to more indictments for the big stuff that will strengthen American Democracy. This was a demonstration of courage and resolution, and the DOJ is a much bigger power than the Manhattan District Attorney.

Put him away for the rest of his life. Guantanamo works for me.

[calimary]

50. Agreed!

He’s got a bad year ahead, and we already know about the early-December “Christmas gift” he’s getting (the first formal follow-up to what we witnessed yesterday). And there are several more “courtroom visits” on any of the three other major cases against him between now and then.

Isn’t the next one starting sometime next week?

[Permanut]

10. Good analogy, but I'm not sure about the fluffy coffee.

[lostnfound]

11. Latte. Nt

[Permanut]

31. My little partner has those all the time..

Never heard 'em called that. Mocha here.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. What's fluffy coffee?

[ShazzieB]

39. I'm thinking coffee with foam on top.

Like a latte.

[AllyCat]

40. Fluffy drinks are coffee with a zillion additives to make

Them more like a hot chocolate than a coffee. At least in our house that’s what we call it.

[Aussie105]

13. Puffer fish is a great analogy.

. . . and it's time you ladies acknowledged us blokes' innate genius . . . still not getting that through to my wife after 30+ years.



Seriously though, I watched Bragg in real time after the closed door courtroom session, he seems to have done his due dilligence and Trump going . . . 'Not me, I'm innocent!' just isn't going to do it.

Just waiting for the MAGAt backlash.

[panfluteman]

15. I Ate Fugu, or Puffer Fish, When I Lived in Japan Back in the 70s.

I went to eat Fugu, or Puffer Fish, at a special restaurant that served it with a client of mine, a doctor and surgeon, whose children I taught English to. The doctor client I had could have put me on an automatic respirator if I had been poisoned, which is about the only way a person can survive poisoning by eating Fugu poison. It attacks and paralyzes the respiratory center, but if the victim is "breathed" on an automatic respirator, then the liver neutralizes or detoxifies the poison in twenty-four hours or so, and survives the poisoning. So I was in good hands with my client at the Puffer Fish restaurant, and had nothing to fear.

I'm still not sure really if this is a good analogy to use when discussing Donald Trump's lifelong avoidance of legal accountability for his many crimes. I'm still trying to figure that one out. However, as luck would have it, I didn't get poisoned at the Fugu / Puffer Fish restaurant in Japan.

[housecat]

26. good story!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. The rump learned a lot after his consent decrees (2) for racist housing & from Roy Cohen mentoring.n

[Initech]

18. Because white collar criminals have been stacking the courts in their favor since Reagan.

It's way past time we start reversing this trend, it's way overdue.

[LiberalArkie]

35. Really since before Al Capone

[Pinback]

19. +1

I have a bit of a beef with your boyfriend, though. Standout guys like him make the rest of us “trying our best but not quite measuring up all the time” guys look bad by comparison.


Sounds like you’ve got a keeper, and I’d wager he does as well. Thanks for the post.

[elias7]

22. Not positive, but I recall reading that way back when, he was an informant for the FBI

Which would have protected him from criminal charges

[Sogo]

23. Excellent analogy!

[Karadeniz]

24. He's been prosecuted many times. When he campaigned the first time, the $25M Trump U. case

was going on... unfairly, of course, because the judge was Mexican.

[Ligyron]

25. A skilled sushi chef like a skilled DA could get around the creature's poison and neutralize it

[housecat]

27. "What a great day to be alive." Yes

[Artcatt]

29. Your guy sounds like a keeper.

[Louis1895]

30. Puffer Fish With Donald Trump's Mouth

The internet is wonderful!!

[PatSeg]

45. Trump's mouth is weirder

[Joinfortmill]

33. Love this.

[Captain Zero]

34. Interesting idea, and might explain Rudy Giuliani

throwing in his lot WITH Trump rather than prosecuting Trump when he was DA for the Southern District, which would have been a prime time to take Trump down when he was younger.

[Warpy]

36. I agree about 20 years ago when he was knocking down poor folks' housing

and increasing city tax revenues by erecting huge towers for rich people to live in. Going after him back then would have been suicide for any DA.

15 years ago was a nother matter, the bottom had fallen out of real estate, the banks were teetering on the brink, retirement funds and investment houses alike were going bust, it was the perfect time to shred him, make him too hot for Russian mob money to bail out.

I don't know why they didn't. i suppose they were distracted by other, bigger thieves.

[BumRushDaShow]

42. "Why DIDN'T they prosecute him 20 years ago?"

There's a simpler explanation and our current President called the problem out very clearly and succinctly back in 2007 (and we see now in hindsight, how that level of politics back 20 years ago, eventually lead to a different sort of national tragedy that manifested into what we have suffered through the past 7 years) -

[PatSeg]

44. Excellent analogy, thank you!

Your boyfriend sounds like a keeper!

[BradBo]

47. That was a good article. My wife away for a week and that made me feel better!

[paparush]

48. All that, AND fluffy coffee?

That man's a keeper!

[Rural_Progressive]

51. This applies to the IRS as well

Years ago my teenage and outraged daughter asked me why the IRS didn't go after the real crooks who owed the country millions of dollars in taxes. What triggered that was a friend of hers parents in a dispute with the IRS over a bill of $10k.

I said "Sweetie you're pretty good at math and logic so let me present this to you strictly from the perspective of what makes more sense economically. If you had to decide what was a better use of your limited resources would you:

A) Go after someone who owed the IRS $2 million but could afford excellent tax lawyers and had a history of dragging out disputes with the IRS and after much time and expense on the government's part ended up settling their tax debt for pennies on the dollar.

or

B) Go after 1000 people who may have made innocent mistakes on their tax returns and owe on average $2000 each. They aren't going hire a lawyer to contest this and in all likelihood the overwhelming majority of them will simply pay the $2000

She pondered that for a moment, did the math and that was the end of the discussion except for the obligatory "But Dad that isn't right" to which I heartily agreed.

[OverBurn]

52. Your boyfriend is the lucky one.