Month: February 2024

This is Andrey Vyshinsky...

 

When atheism is the main pillar of your ideology it’s only natural that there’s no such thing as “God-given rights”.

Vyshinsky is also attributed by some as the author of an infamous quote from the Stalin era: “Give me a man and I will find the crime.

Andrey Vyshinsky would have been so proud of Judge Arther Engoron who presided over Donald Trump’s real estate fraud show trial.  And…

It succeeded wonderfully with New Yorkers, who celebrated the verdict like a popular public execution. It also worked wonderfully to make it difficult to appeal.

Much of the criticism of the decision focused on the unprecedented use of the law and the excessive size of the fine. The New York statute has been on the books for decades and has always been something of an anomaly in not requiring an actual victim or loss to justify disgorgement or fines.

Even the New York Times agreed that it could not find a single case in history where this statute was used against an individual or a company that did not commit a criminal offense, go bankrupt, or leave financial victims.

Engoron then combined that unprecedented application with an equally extraordinary penalty, which is greater than the gross national product of some countries.

There is also an added inequity to Engoron’s decision.

Under New York law, Trump cannot appeal this ruling without depositing the full amount, including interest, in a court account. Even for Trump, $455 million is hard to come by. Likewise, a bond would require a company to guarantee payment for a defendant who has been barred from doing business, in New York and is facing the need to liquidate much of his portfolio.

Nothing succeeds like excess for judges like Engoron. By imposing this astronomical figure, he can make it difficult or impossible for a defendant to appeal, absent declaring bankruptcy or selling off assets at a distressed price.

America is not the same country of my youth,  but becoming more like the bad old USSR with the FBI and CIA morphing into the American version of the NKVD. The change did not happen overnight but over decades. But in the last ten years, the decline has increased exponentially. And not just America but Western civilization in general. 

I’m glad I’m old,  but I’m grateful that for most of my life, I lived in an America that still was that shining house on the hill. Nothing lasts forever. I hope America will eventually pull itself out of its present cesspit but whether it does or not it’s not likely to happen in my lifetime.

And remember this, God never turned his face away from you, you turned your face away from him. The result is there for all with eyes to see.