Ask Mary Anything within Reason
5 October, 2025
Hello everybody and welcome to tonight’s episode of “Ask Mary Anything Within Reason.” It’s Sunday last I checked and the fascist takeover of our American cities continues, but it’s been a beautiful weekend, so I hope you all got some downtime. Let’s just jump into your questions, comments, et cetera.
CommunityLoveResistance: Hard week. Cutting back to just you for th
e first time. Replacing all others with Star Trek: The Next Generation. You are a rock for so many. Thank you.
Mary: Well, that is extraordinarily kind of you. We try here and I hope we provide what you need. And you cannot go wrong with Star Trek: The Next Generation. Speaking of which, my friend and co-host, Bob Cesca and I just posted a new episode of our show Trek Politics yesterday. He and I talk about a Next Generation episode called “Drumhead,” which is episode 21 of season four.
The whole point of our show is to discuss the ways in which the universe of Star Trek and its shows are still relevant to what’s going on today.
Johnny: Would you rather travel through time or travel to different dimensions with your kids like Rick and Morty?
Mary: Time. The dimension thing is a little freaky. How do you know where you’re going to end up? Although, quite frankly, even time travel is a little unsettling. I couldn’t go back too far because I have asthma, so I would need to go back to a time when inhalers existed. And the idea of jumping too far ahead is a little unnerving. But definitely time. I’m just not quite sure how far back or how far forward I’d want to go. It also depends on whether or not it could change anything in the trajectory of my life.
Agolf Twitler: Why is the US government paying for Donald to golf during a government shutdown?
Mary: Because we’re stupid. I seriously have so many questions about what we pay for and why? I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but Kash, Patel, who is tragically the director of the FBI, had a challenge coin minted. It’s hideous and it’s as embarrassing as he is. And we paid for it. Why?
Donald is allegedly using the money from his shakedowns of social media corporations to build that hideous $200 million ballroom next to the White House. There’s no reason for me to believe that we aren’t paying for it, but even if it were being paid for with blackmail money, why is Donald allowed to do it? He doesn’t own the White House. He’s a temporary tenant. property.
Here’s the thing, beyond the fascism, which is the worst thing, and the destruction of norms and our democracy and our agencies, one of the hardest things to deal with is the pettiness of these people.
We know that they do certain things just to drive us mad. Unfortunately, sometimes I take the bait even though I know I shouldn’t. But the fact that that hideous human being is playing golf at all during the shutdown and that we’re paying for it—not just paying for him to play golf, but enriching his businesses—is difficult to swallow.
So, yes, because we’re stupid but also because the Republican Party will let him.
Myra: Donald’s latest actions against the public seem as abusive as Steven Miller is known for it. Do you feel that Donald is letting go of the reins in favor for trusted goons?
Mary: Yes. There was a headline on the front page of the digital New York Times today about the so-called peace deal with Hamas: “Strong-Armed by Donald, Netanyahu Embraces Gaza Deals a Personal Win.” “Netanyahu took credit for an emerging agreement, but it was clear Donald was calling the shots.”
This is a dangerous normalization of a man who can barely tie his shoes and he is rarely oriented to place and time. Donald isn’t calling any shots and he’s not orchestrating anything. Steven Miller is, indeed, one of the most powerful people in the United States government right now, which should freak all of us out, because he’s a sadist and a Nazi.
brokenallbroken: A video I saw described political parties as communities of practice. Under this definition, do progressives try to reform the Dems or start a new party and leave the Dems to the centrist?
Mary: This is for better or worse, mostly worse, a country with two political parties. No other parties have ever gotten traction. This is not a parliamentary system. So even if we started a new party, good luck. It would basically just split the Democrats thereby making it easier for Republicans to win.
I think the best way to reform the Democratic Party is to elect Democrats who want to reform the Democratic party and get rid of the old, so-called leadership—people like Schumer, for example—and any of those old school Democrats who still believe that the Republicans are operating in good faith or are interested in bipartisanship. They all have to go
[Watch the episode here: https://youtube.com/live/cOlA2PPUy7o?feature=share]
Electron Creations: Hi, Mary. You mentioned you play guitar. What genre do you enjoy most? Blues, classical folk, rock or other acoustic or electric?
Mary: I prefer an acoustic nylon string guitar. I like the sound of it. I have a steel string guitar, but I definitely prefer the nylon strings. I play Taylor. I do have a Gibson SG solid body electric guitar, which is really cool, but I don’t play it very much. In terms of genre wise, classical music and jazz on a guitar is beyond me. I didn’t start playing until I was forty but also in terms of what I like, my favorite genres are, in this order, rock, folk, and blues, and I like playing all of them.
Lizzie Beth: Did your Aunt Elizabeth ever figure out her album went missing, assuming she didn’t read your book?
Mary: It was a cassette tape. I guess it’s genetic, because when I was 10, I stole a cassette from my Aunt Elizabeth. It was Neil Diamond: His 12 Greatest Hits. It’s a truly great album and I still love it. It contains two of the greatest songs ever, “Brooklyn Roads” and “Shiloh,” as well as the live version of “Holly Holy,” which is quite incredible.
Whether Elizabeth knows about the theft or not, let’s put this in perspective, shall we? When I was in my thirties, we were at my grandparents’ house hanging out in the library, the room with no books. Elizabeth came over to me and handed me a box. In it was a Timex watch. She said that the watch was a Christmas present I’d gotten when I was about 12—over twenty years earlier—but because she thought it was too nice for me, she took it and kept it for herself.
I took it from her and said, “Thanks, I guess? Thank you for returning my stolen property.” If only anybody in my family had seen fit to do that with my father’s estate, but that’s a subject for another time.
cb b: Mary, if things went south for Donald, do you think that he would issue an executive “Nero Decree” (scorched earth) order like Hitler did when his defeat was imminent?
Mary: Yeah, honestly, I’ve would saying that publicly since 2020. And I think the way I typically put it is this: If Donald thinks he’s going down, he will take all of us down with him if he can. It’s that simple. The only thing saving us is that he has no self-awareness, and I think at this point, understandably, it would be almost impossible for him to recognize that he’s going down because he has been bailed out so many countless times over the course of his life. Why would he ever think, “Oh yeah, this time they’re going to get me.” That’s not much to hang our hats on, but it’s something.
Mandy: Anyone from Chicago? I hope you don’t have to put up with ice thugs much longer.
Mary: Chicago, I don’t even know what to say. It is utterly despicable what they’re doing. This is a solution in search of a problem. That’s what they’re doing, and it’s making me crazy. Today we heard that, after a judge said that it was illegal for Donald to deploy Oregon’s National Guard troops to Portland, he ordered California’s National Guard troops to go into Portland. See what he did there? That was Steven Miller., undoubtedly
brokenallbroken: How far down the line of succession do we have to get to someone who doesn’t suck? After tre45son, JD, and Johnson is Grassley.
Mary: They’re all in the fascist Republican Party, so, sorry. Battlestar Galactica 2.0 lucked out and got Laura Roslyn, Secretary of Education, who was 45th in the line of succession, but she’s awesome. We’d have Linda McMahon.
The only hope here is for Hakeem Jeffries to become Speaker of the House, but with luck that would make him finally stand up. Let’s make sure that happens regardless. That has to happen no matter what, because he would be infinitely better than any Republican in the line of succession for sure.
Myra: Is Donald too sick to function? Is either Steven Miller or Ross Vought or both running things now?
Mary: That’s a question on a lot of people’s minds. It’s a combination of things. Donald has never been in charge of anything ever—let’s be clear about that. Even during his first administration, he was just slightly less incoherent and obviously unhinged, but he doesn’t run anything. He’s not interested in running anything; he doesn’t understand anything. He likes the power and he likes the grifting that he’s allowed to do, but he’s not running anything. He doesn’t know what’s going on. It’s definitely Steven Miller and Russ Vought and whoever is pulling JD Vance’s strings, people like Peter Thiel.
Barbara: How do we see the government shutdown ending with them in power? Nothing seems to be a good path. Sigh.
Mary: The only way the shutdown ends is if the Democrats cave, which would be a mistake, unless the Republicans make the calculation that it’s too risky for them to keep things closed. Because the longer the government stays closed, the more obvious it is that it’s their responsibility because. they’re the ones with the power here.
Carol: Are other people in other countries laughing at America?
Mary: Oh, uproariously, yes. They’re laughing at Donald. They’re laughing at us, and they don’t trust us anymore. Even if we got rid of this guy, look what we did. We put him back in. So yeah, it’s over; it’s over. For America as a superpower or a world leader, it’s over. And, honestly, that’s okay because we don’t deserve to be leading anything anymore. If Democrats get back into power, their smartest move would be to do whatever they can to atone and to make sure that they put up whatever roadblocks they can so this does not ever happen again. But it will take generations to earn back trust, which makes me sad.
[Watch the episode here: https://youtube.com/live/cOlA2PPUy7o?feature=share]
Manomay: Hi, Mary from London, UK here. I see the reports and think how unprecedented all this seems, but I wonder if there’s anything you’re experiencing that those of us overseas may not notice
Mary: In terms of how this is unprecedented? Having somebody so grotesquely unqualified and compromised and corrupt and fascistic in power is that’s unprecedented in modern American history. But remember, at the beginning we had a bunch of enslavers in charge of things. Even after the North allegedly won the Civil War, we had Jim Crow, which was enabled by the United States government. Even though we were a beacon for democracy in World War II, during that same period of time, the American South was a closed fascist state. So the fascism is not new. The reason it keeps rearing its ugly head is because we have never admitted that that’s what was going on. How do you fix something if you don’t even recognize it?
That’s why the Republicans engage in so much revisionist history and why they’re trying to do things like ban books and whitewash American history.
GhostlyAir59: Hi, Mary. What’s your favorite fiction character from a book or movie or both? What makes them stand out to you?
Mary: My favorite fictional character is Caddy Compson from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. I find her fascinating and compelling. I find her relationship with her family complex and interesting, particularly her relationship with her brother, Quentin Compson. Also the Compson family has many, many things in common with my own family, which is a conversation for another time. But yes, it would be Caddy Thompson for sure.
Close second, Clarissa Harlow from the Samuel Richardson epistolary novel Clarissa, which was published in the late 18th century. It’s brilliant and, unlike The Sound and the Fury, which is a very dense, complex narrative, and the prose style is potentially daunting, very readable.
If you’ve not read Faulkner before, do not start with The Sound of the Fury. Definitely don’t start with Absalom, Absalom. Start with As I Lay Dying. That would be my advice to you.
Despite the fact that The Sound and the Fury is 250 pages long, it’s a much harder read than Clarissa, which is about 2000 pages long. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Clarissa and I’ve read it about ten times, which is probably an embarrassing admission, but it’s phenomenal. Clarissa and her best friend, Anna Howe are two of the most extraordinary characters in all of English literature.
Thank you for that question, and thank you for allowing me to be a nerd.
Sally: If they go after left wing commentators, will you be safe?
Mary: I’ll be fine. We’re going to be fine, but thank you for asking.
Meidas Cheryl: I have three requests fee: one merch with Mary face-palming; two, a blooper reel of just Mary laughing; three, a guest appearance for Mary’s cats. No rush on these, just asking.
Mary: As for the cats, I’ll have to talk to their agents, but I’ll see what I can do. And it’s really up to them. Cap is a little shy, and I can’t hold her for more than 11 seconds. Linden, I could persuade. He’s a bit of a mush.
Carolyn: Hi, Mary. Hello. Question, how does someone deal with exhaustion that sleep cannot resolve? If Kamala were president, I would be very energetic.
Mary: Yeah, it’s tough. It’s very tough. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. All of this is exhausting and enervating and at times demoralizing and frustrating and infuriating. It’s a lot of negative energy, but that’s what they want. And we should do the opposite of what they want.
I know it’s not that easy, but if what’s going on in the world is the thing that is exhausting you all the time, you have to unplug. You have to trust the rest of us to stay in the game while you take a break.
This is one of my favorite stories. In 2020, my life got really weird really quickly. I was getting interviewed by all sorts of people. Not only had I never imagined I’d be interviewed for any reason, I certainly never imagined I’d meet certain people.
And then Jane Fonda asked me to be on her podcast Fire Drill Fridays. As you know, Jane is a champion for policies to combat catastrophic climate change. She’s one of those people who has been in my life forever, like Ella Fitzgerald or Aretha Franklin, and Lily Tomlin. These are people who’ve been in my life in one way or another and Jane is somebody whose work, as an actor and as an activist, I’ve always admired. I’ve found her to be fearless and strong and sensitive.
But I didn’t know her. And I make it a policy never to say, “I admire this person.” Instead, I say, “I admire their work.” Of course, sometimes you can tell because of the work what kind of work the kind of person they might be. As I said, I have always found her strong and sensitive and generous but there was not reason for me to think I’d ever meet someone like her.
When I was asked to be a guest on her show, I jumped at the chance. It was an unbelievable experience. And I’m happy to report that Jane is exactly as I imagined she would be. She’s a phenomenal human being. I can’t say enough about what a lovely, deep, and kind person she is. Now I can say unreservedly that not only do I admire her work, but I admire her as a person more than I admire almost anybody on the planet.
Towards the end of the conversation, which took place in September, 2020 a couple of months out from the election, she asked me, what do you say to people with the election coming up? And I said even though it feels like it’s close, it’s still a couple of months away, so we need to treat this like a marathon, not a sprint yet. We have time. And Jane said, “Well, isn’t it more like a relay race?” And I thought, “Yes, that is a much better analogy.”
[Watch the episode here: https://youtube.com/live/cOlA2PPUy7o?feature=share]
So, what does that mean? Well, that means we’re all trying to get around the track, so if you feel overwhelmed, you can hand off the baton to somebody else, trusting that they’re going to do their bit to keep this going. And the, when you’re up for it, you can step in and take up the baton again.
Whatever unplugging means for you—going for a walk, going on a trip, going to a museum, reading a book—do that thing because, whether it’s a sprint or a marathon, it’s still a relay race and the work is going to get done.
Obviously, we all need each other in the fight, but what good are we going to do each other if we’re too exhausted to engage? Tap out if you need to and give somebody else the baton and trust that that baton is being run down the
Track even if you’re taking a break. In other words, listen to Jane Fonda because she is just truly one of the most amazing people I’ve ever had the great good fortune to meet.
Donna: Good evening, Mary. At this stage in our lives right now, what do you do to distract from all this information overload? Do you get any time for hobbies?
Mary: This is where we learn that I don’t follow my own advice. I have hobbies. Do I make time for them? No, but I should. I’m going on a trip on Wednesday—actually taking a few days off, but don’t worry, you guys will be in very good hands—and I will do some of the things I used to do. I will play the guitar, I will read books, I will hang out with friends, I will swim. I love to work out and I used to play tennis six days a week. I used to play the guitar every day and I used to read three to six books a week.
I’ve been busy and I haven’t been following my own advice. But I’m going to start because there is a lot about life that is incredible, and we do ourselves and each other a disservice if we get mired in all of this horror. At that point we need to wonder what are we doing this for? We don’t just want to be fighting against something. We want to be fighting for something.
Donna: Mary, by the way, I watched the Star Trek episode yesterday. I thought it was so relevant to our situation. Loved it. You both were awesome.
Mary: Yeah, it’s about a witch hunt, by the way. Bob is great. I love working with him. He’s such a great guy. He and I have known each other for since 2020, I think. And we finally met for real in person at Star Trek, Las Vegas a few months ago, and he is as wonderful in person as you would imagine.
DBid: Will the No Kings Protest on October 18th be safe for people to participate?
Mary: There’s no way for me to know that, but we have to show up anyway and be careful. There are precautions everybody can take and before the protests happen, we will get them to you so you know what numbers to call, what protocols to follow, and how best to prepare.
Brian: I try not to be a doomerist, but I sometimes feel that our country is too politically divided, and as much as I want us to fight back, I just feel we’re fighting a losing battle. Am I overthinking?
Mary: No, you’re not overthinking. We’re in a very bad place right now. One of our problems is that despite the fact that there are more of us than there are of them, they have all the power because we have a badly broken democracy. I get your feeling that we’re fighting a losing battle, but we can’t give up. There’s a lot of hope because most people in this country don’t want to lose our democracy. But too many of them aren’t aware that that’s what’s happening yet. And we have to make them aware in whatever way we can.
MandalorianJedi: I know you’re a huge Star Trek fan, but do you have a favorite Star Wars character?
Mary: Oh yeah. Princess Leia. Carrie Fisher, all the way, especially in the last movie she was in. She is just amazing.
Gina: I will be protesting on October 18th. There are always risks with protesting, but defending our country is worth it. Absolutely.
Mary: And that’s a good note to end on.
I will be back tomorrow night, Monday, at 6:00 PM Eastern for “Mary Trump Live.” In the meantime, everybody, please stay safe and be kind.
I wonder if you or your readers have seen this heartbreaking letter written by Stephen Miller's cousin. Alisa Kasmer on Facebook A preface: I have debated about sharing this. A week ago, after the ICE raids in Camarillo, I had the worst panic attack I’ve experienced in over 30 years. (Shoutout to Zoloft for holding it together. F off, RFK, Jr.) Hours of sobbing, shaking, nausea, and complete loss of control into the early morning hours, led me to do the only thing that ever brings some clarity: write. The next day I started to write, while still reeling from the emotional hangover. A few days later, I was struck with another panic attack, this time as I was driving (thankfully close enough to home to make it back in one piece.) This sent me back into a spiral of heartbreak. I picked up where I had left off, and kept writing.
Many of you know who my cousin is. Being public about it is something I’ve struggled with. I live with real fear about what posting something this raw might bring. I am living with the deep pain of watching someone I once loved become the face of evil. But I know that staying silent only deepens the ache. There’s so much more I could say, and maybe someday I will. It’s a long read. I’m wordy AF.
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Last night, I found myself in a stage of grief I didn’t even realize I had been carrying. A grief that’s been living inside me for years—quiet, but constant. It comes from being so close to the root of something violent and vile in this country. I cried until I couldn’t breathe, hours of sobbing, gasping, shaking, sick to my stomach with a weight in my chest that was too heavy to fight. I was having a panic attack I couldn’t escape. Maybe it was ten years of anger and pain finally breaking through the surface. Maybe it was the most recent ICE raids turning my rage into sorrow. Whatever it was, something in me cracked wide open and has shaken me to my core.
I think many of us are grieving. Grieving a world that feels more cruel than kind. A future that feels further away each day. I grieve for the country we could be… one with unmatched wealth, intelligence, and potential. A nation with resources to ensure everyone lives with dignity, equity, health, and safety. A nation with enough technological and medical advancements to be something truly extraordinary. But instead, those resources and that wealth are being hoarded by a few, poisoned by ego and power, devoid of empathy, starving the rest. Our privilege has been wasted on cruelty and torture, targeting the very people who make our communities whole—the hardest workers, the most vulnerable, the ones who carry this country on their backs. A society is only as strong as its most vulnerable, and ours are at their weakest. This is not by accident, but by design. Your design, Stephen.
Then there’s the grief I carry inside my own family- the most personal and painful. I grieve a cousin I once loved. A boy I watched grow up, babysat, and shared a childhood with. The kid I made fun of for his obsession with Michael Jackson and Ghostbusters. The awkward, funny, needy middle child who loved to chase attention, yet was always the sweetest with the littlest family members. A kid that reminded me of Alex P. Keaton, young, conservative, maybe misguided, but lovable and harmless. Or so I thought. But I was so deeply wrong. And the realization that I didn’t know you at all? It guts me. I grieve what you’ve become, Stephen. And I grieve what I’ve lost because of it. I grieve your children I will never meet. I grieve the future family you’ve stolen from me by choosing a path so filled with cruelty that I cannot, and will not, be a part of it. I will never knowingly let evil into my life, no matter whose blood it carries—including my own.
I grieve for the power you’ve been given and for those around you who have enabled it. I grieve for the family I once loved, who lifted me up, who helped me through life, who made me feel safe, who now leave me feeling unsettled and even afraid. I grieve the realization that maybe I never really knew these people at all. My heart breaks every day, over and over.
But most of all, I grieve for those directly harmed by your actions For the communities here in Los Angeles, our shared home, for all of California, and the rest of the country terrorized by the cruelty you have brought upon us all. I grieve for the families shattered by cruelty dressed up as “immigration policy.” Targeting hardworking, vibrant community members who are being terrorized for simply being brown. This was never about criminals. Or “illegal” entry. And now, with the passing of this bloated, grotesque bill—stuffed with more funding for ICE than most countries spend on their entire military, I’m left speechless. Where does this hateful obsession end? What are you trying to build besides fear? Immigrants were a part of your upbringing. Is this cruelty your way of rejecting a part of yourself?
People always ask me, “What happened to you?” I don’t have a clear answer. I can only surmise it was a perfect storm of ego, fear, hate, and ambition—all of it mangled into something cruel and hollow, masquerading as strength. You were born into privilege, into safety, and wealth. And somehow, you’ve weaponized all of it. I didn’t see the descent until it was too late. And now I’m left with guilt and shame. Could I have done something? My sister recently asked me, “If social media had existed back then—if we had seen the horrific videos of you in high school, would we have spoken up? Would we have intervened?” Yes, we absolutely would have. I grieve that we never got that chance.
And here’s where it hurts even more: we were raised Jewish.
Stephen, you and I both know what that means. We were raised with stories of survival. We learned about pogroms, ghettos, the Holocaust—not just as history, but as part of our identity. We carry the trauma of generations who were hunted, hated, expelled, murdered, just for existing. We were taught to remember. We celebrated holidays each year with the reminder to stand up and say “never again.” But what you are doing breaks that sacred promise. It breaks everything we were taught. How can you do to others what has been done to us? How can you wake up each day and repeat the cruelty that our people barely escaped from? We were taught to never forget where we came from. But you seem to have erased it all. And it devastates me. To be this close to the cruelty, through you, has left me ashamed and shattered.
I try to fight your harm in every way I can. But it will never be enough. I can’t undo what you’ve done or who you have become. I can’t outmatch your reach or power. I feel helpless. The panic attacks haven’t stopped since the grief cracked open. The tears won’t stop, and the weight on my chest is constant. This isn’t about politics. This is about humanity. About decency. And you have lost yours.
You’ve destroyed so many lives just to feed your own obsession and ego and uphold an administration so corrupt, so vile, I can barely comprehend it. As surreal as it all feels, this IS reality. As much as I try to disassociate from it, the truth remains—being this close to such deep cruelty fills me with shame. I am gutted. My heart breaks that this is the legacy you have brought to our family. A legacy I never asked to share with you, and one I now carry like a curse.
I would love to know your thoughts on what will happen when Donald dies while in office.