In George Washington, Mules, and Donald Trump (2015), I quoted from a book about the Oregon Trail:
George Washington was America’s original maharaja of mules. Historians have long been squeamish about acknowledging that General Washington, like many of the American founders, was a voracious land speculator. Few academics and high school history teachers want to risk their careers by suggesting to their students that the father of their country worked the same day job as Donald Trump. Washington was a land developer, often described as the richest of his generation. By the end of the American Revolution, General Washington controlled about sixty thousand acres of land, more than half of it in the promising frontier country west of the Alleghenies, in what we today call West Virginia, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania. Wresting clear title to this rich bounty of soil from the English crown may not have been a principal motive for fighting the Revolutionary War, but Washington knew that he would profit mightily if independence was achieved.
Donald Trump has now been convicted by New York Democrats of (a) paying a prostitute, and (b) trying to make it look like he didn’t pay a prostitute. For this crime, which somehow expanded into 34 crimes (would someone please explain this?), Trump could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. (If Trump had murdered someone in New York State, he could be imprisoned for 15-25 years.)
I visited the North Carolina Museum of Art this week. The curators explain that George Washington was involved in “indigenous dispossession” (not such a bad dispossession that any of the curators want to give their own land back to the Native Americans and pay rent for it?) and also “enslavement of 317 Africans”.
Slavery and stealing from/killing Indians both sound bad, but on the other hand, a political party opposing George Washington never managed to convict him of any crimes. Are we thus forced to conclude that Donald Trump is definitively a worse person than George Washington, the enslaver of 317 lives (all of which matter)?
Update: two days after the case ended, the entire New York Times front page is devoted to the glorious conviction. Note that one article (bottom right) is by a reformed sinner. Democrats reject religion (except Islam?), but work within established conventions for religious worship:
I thought Donnie Boy had sex with someone who is very much not a prostitute (she gets paid for being in movies, the fact she has to have sex in said movies is coincidental), and he has been found guilty of something that is a crime in his own times.
Washington, on the other hand did things that did raise ethical questions at the time, and would be considered crimes now (i.e. well after Washington’s death), but were very much not actual crimes during his life. So no meaningful parallel. Admittedly, the modern pearl clutching concerning the ethical purity of historical figures is gauche.
Look Phil, you are smart enough to know all of this yourself, so why the trite question?
Federico: Washington didn’t do anything against the laws of the 1700s? It was, in fact, against the law to steal land west of the Apallachians from Native Americans. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Proclamation_of_1763
I’m not an expert on British law, but I expect that George Washington’s participation in an insurrection against the legitimate government of the colonies was a violation of at least one law.
There was no law against enslaving 317 Africans and therefore it was not as bad a thing to do as whatever Donald Trump purportedly did with Stormy Daniels? It was against the law in England (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_v_Stewart ) and quite a few people believed that holding slaves was immoral even in places where it was legal. Samuel Johnson, regarding the American insurrectionists: “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?”
there you go: “Accordingly, each check, invoice or other document that the jury found had been falsified was a separate offence, which can be the basis of a separate count and punished separately”
https://theconversation.com/trump-found-guilty-5-key-aspects-of-the-trial-explained-by-a-law-professor-231236
aerg: Thanks for that explanation. It doesn’t sound like “justice” to me that a person can be imprisoned for 136 years if 34 pieces of paper were involved in concealing a payment to a prostitute and 144 years if 36 pieces of paper are involved. The typical murder in New York States, if a defendant doesn’t take a plea bargain, can yield a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. This can’t be increased to 50 years or 75 years if the murdered has multiple weapons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_in_New_York_law
Why aren’t these checks invoices etc. simply undocumented documents?
Nearly always such sentences are served concurrently, so this is a straw man argument. Also Trump, having no previous record is most unlikely to serve a custodial sentence.
Do we have a list of other trials that are ongoing for falsifying business records? Hard to believe this is the only one to prosecute.
The lion kingdom thinks the affair never happened & Stormy is just a bitch. If a lowly thousandaire blog commenter hit on her, she would have said get lost & that would have been it. It takes a certain state of mind to go through the trouble of advertising you had an affair with the rich & famous, getting enough attention to win $130k. Supporting Bide means supporting animals like that.
It all sounds a bit half baked. $130k doesn’t sound like a lot of cash for someone like Trump to just give to someone without such an elaborate scheme.
The whole thing wouldn’t matter if there was anyone else to vote for. It doesn’t matter for lions because their vote doesn’t count.
Correction, Trump was not convicted by New York Democrats. Trump was convicted by jurors that his own laywers selected.
Lawyers do not select jurors. Lawyers can veto jurors, and they can use veto only limited number of times. Any juror that gathers enough courage to withstand the courtroom pressure to convict would be outed and would have to flee Manhattan at best. People who choose or have to pay $$$ to live in Manhattan are not known for their rugged individualism and ability to live off the land, or of anything that does not involve governmental or other societal institutions and constructs.
Here is what I don’t get. Was there any hard evidence by Stormy as such Trump wanted to shut her off by paying her? If so, why wasn’t this hard evidence presented during the hearing? If not, why didn’t Trump just told her to “F*ck off” and moved on?
As for the Attorney General going after Trump. In my opinion, they did so out of political motivation and they used Stormy’s story — the hush money payment — to get things going. NY and especially NY politician are know to dislike of Trump and this was their opportunity. After all, NY passed “Adult Survivors Act” [1] so that they can use Stormy’s story to go after Trump.
[1] https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-signs-adult-survivors-act
Stormy was paid off by Cohen, so no, she had no direct evidence of what Trump wanted. Stormy was essentially blackmailing Trump, and he hired Cohen to settle her claims.
Roger: It is interesting that we live in a time where roughly half of Americans consider a blackmailer/prostitute to be a heroine. I am not impressed with Stormy, however. Assuming that she did bank $130,000 from her blackmailing, she could have made more money by having sex with a married dermatologist in Massachusetts. http://www.realworlddivorce.com/ChildSupportLitigationWithoutMarriage
Our host might comment on why Mrs T isn’t cashing in her chips while, eg, Truth Social is so well priced, maybe even more than a “dermatologist”‘s pension fund. Can there be a pre-nup solid enough to hold her off, or does she have inside info on the likely lifespan of the Donald?
Is Donald Trump worse than George Washington? Yes!
“Donald Trump has now been convicted by New York Democrats”
Should be changed to “has been found guilty by a jury in New York.”
The area is 80% Democrat, so the jury was surely mostly Democrats. The judge and prosecutors were Democrats. The jury only got to see the evidence the judge allowed, and had to follow the judge’s instruction. So yes, Trump was convicted by NY Democrats.
Hillary Clinton mischaracterized her payments for the Steele dossier as legal expenses, and unlike Trump was fined by the Federal Election Commission for doing so. When does jury selection for her trial begin?
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-2022-midterm-elections-business-elections-presidential-elections-5468774d18e8c46f81b55e9260b13e93
Hillary Clinton mischaracterized payments for the Steele dossier as legal expenses, and unlike Trump was fined by the Federal Election Commission for doing so. When does jury selection for her trial in NY start?
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-2022-midterm-elections-business-elections-presidential-elections-5468774d18e8c46f81b55e9260b13e93
Jurors would be afraid to acquit Trump. In the same way that people are afraid to work for him. Not many citizens can stand up against military grade government and media propaganda. You can see some of the cult behaviors you would have to deal with for the rest of your life even in this comment section. After all, Trump is Hitler and we all have an obligation to stop him. Except for vote fraud, that one thing is out of bounds and The Big Lie.
I do appreciate the author of this blog for always being willing to entertain contrarian views – and by the way, there was a large contingent of people who were so convinced that Washington was bad that they moved to what is now Canada. The “Loyalists” did what no Hollywood A-lister did, and actually did move to another country!
Now we have people saying they will vote for the “Outlaw President” in the upcoming election. Phil, you were prescient!