By William H. Benson
The Parallel Lives
Of The NOBLE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS THINKERS AND BELIEVERS:
Roger Williams VS. Cotton Mathers
NEW ARTICLES
The Stamp of Criminality
Fintan O’Toole, a writer for “The New York Review of Books,” wrote in his July 18, 2024 column, that, “Being close to Trump was like being friends with a hurricane.” O’Toole lists a series of people’s names who worked for Trump, believed him, and then faced legal troubles.
Rudy Giuliani appeared in court in New York City, on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, because he failed to turn over all his assets to the court.
His crime: he defamed two election workers in the state of Georgia, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, accusing them of election fraud in the 2020 election in that state. The pair took Giuliani to court, and a judge awarded them $148 million, reduced later to $146 million.
Giuliani pleaded with the judge, “I have no car, no credit card, no cash. They have put stop orders on my business accounts, and I can’t pay my bills.” The judge was less than sympathetic.
It gets worse. In July, officials disbarred Giuliani in the State of New York, and in September, Washington D.C. did the same. Thus, Giuliani has lost his means to a livelihood.
In November of 2018, Michael Cohen, Trump’s long-time attorney, pleaded guilty to lying to a Congressional committee. In December that year, a judge sentenced Cohen to three years in a federal prison. In all, he served thirteen and a half months, plus one and a half years at home.
Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, sat in prison twice.
On August 18, 2022, Weisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 felony counts of evading $344,745 in taxes over fifteen years. He was required to pay back “almost $2 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties, without any right to appeal.” In 2023, he served 100 days in prison.
The second time, in 2024, Weisselberg served five months in prison, on Riker’s Island, for two counts of perjury, lying under oath, during Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial.
Steve Bannon was released from prison on October 29, 2024, “after serving a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena in Congress’s investigation into the attack on the Capitol.”
Bannon’s next trial is now set for February 2025, this time for wire fraud and money laundering related to his scheme to raise funds for a charity, “We Build the Wall.” He and his cohorts raised $25 million but retained hundreds of thousands of dollars for themselves.
On the final day of Trump’s presidency, in January 2021, he pardoned Bannon of federal crimes, but Bannon faces state charges for the same crimes.
After almost four years, 944 defendants have had their cases adjudicated and received sentences for their criminal activity on January 6, 2021. About 562 have received prison sentences. The Justice Department continues to arrest and prosecute attackers, once identified.
On November 8, 2024, two Chicago men, Michael Mollo Jr., and Emil Kozeluh, were arrested for their participation in the criminal attack upon the Capitol Building.
Certain of Trump’s closest advisors in the White House have either faced prosecution or still may: Mark Meadows, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulus, Roger Stone, Peter Navarro, and Sidney Powell.
On November 12, 2024, the Supreme Court rejected a plea from Mark Meadows to move his Fulton County, Georgia election interference prosecution to a federal court.
Certain of Trump’s lawyers have faced indictment for their words and actions over the 2020 election: Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Cheseboro, Jeffrey Clark, and John Eastman.
Fintan O’Toole said, “each paid legal bills and will always bear the stamp of criminality.”
Certain of Trump’s enablers escaped legal trouble: Mike Pence, William Barr, James Mattis, H. R. McMaster, John Kelley, Chris Christie, and Mick Mulvaney. Yet, O’Toole said, each had to “face Trump’s sadistic ingratitude.”
O’Toole writes, “The ruler’s ultimate expression of power is the destruction of those on whom he has relied most, the ones who have been such good servants.”
A quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby,” sums it up. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.”
Imitating Shakespeare
Strange how certain books captivate my interest, others not as much. I find myself going back again and again to reread Mark Forsyth’s 2013 book, “The Elements of Eloquence.” In Forsyth’s “Preface,” he writes, “Shakespeare was not a genius. He was the most...
2024 Election
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was elected President of the United States of America on November 6, 1860, for a four-year term. One year later, on November 6, 1861, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected President of the Confederate States of America for a six-year...
Allen Guelzo’s “Our Ancient Faith,” Continued
Allen Guelzo, history professor at Princeton, tells a story about Lincoln that he included in his recent book, “Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment.” Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, one...
Allen Guelzo and Abraham Lincoln’s religious faith
Two weeks ago in these pages, I discussed Allen Guelzo’s recent book, published on February 6, 2024, entitled, “Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment.” In it, the Civil War historian, Allen Guelzo, wrote a series of enlightening...
Allen Guelzo’s “Our Ancient Faith”
When driving to destinations from home and back, I occupy my time by listening to YouTube videos of Civil War historians on my mobile phone. I am curious to hear their ideas and stories. The best crop of Civil War historians today, in my estimation, include:...
Habits
Universities opened their doors a week or two ago. Freshman students moved into their dorm rooms, met their roommates, hung pictures on the walls, and completed their class schedules. Most students want to do well, even just ok, at college, but not everyone does....
Older Posts
About writing and how to improve yours
Students will walk back into school soon and settle themselves into a small desk. Once seated, each girl and each boy will stare at a series of math story problems, or long pages of difficult-to-read text on science or history, plus the dreaded weekly compositions in...
People and their specializations
During the first World War, Henry Ford brought suit against the “Chicago Tribune,” because a reporter wrote that Ford was an “ignoramus.” At the trial, the newspaper’s attorneys peppered Ford with trivia questions, each designed to prove Ford’s ignorance. To each...
Thoughts on Jack Nicholson
Columbia Pictures released “Easy Rider” on July 14, 1969, fifty-five years ago last Sunday. I missed seeing it that summer, because I was busy on the farm driving a 92 Massey Harris combine in wheat harvest. I missed the film later, because I was busy my sophomore...
Frederick Douglass’s Speech, July 5, 1852
At the inception of America’s Revolutionary War against King George III and Parliament, certain Pennsylvania Quakers urged a policy of abolishment of slavery within their colony. In 1775, a Quaker named Anthony Benezet founded the Pennsylvania Society for the...
Incarceration of celebrities and a president
In 2022, a jury convicted Elizabeth Holmes, founder of biotech firm Theranos, of four counts of defrauding investors. A judge sentenced Holmes to 11 years and 3 months in prison. The film producer Harvey Weinstein was declared guilty of inappropriate relations with...
Desegregation at Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957
Last time in these pages I discussed the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, out of Topeka, Kansas. It attempted to rollback the premise that, if schools were “equal” in quality, then they may remain “separated” between blacks and...
One of University of Northern Colorado’s 2020 Honored Alumni
William H. Benson
Local has provided scholarships for history students for 15 years
A Sterling resident is among five alumni selected to be recognized this year by the University of Northern Colorado. Bill Benson is one of college’s 2020 Honored Alumni.
Each year UNC honors alumni in recognition for their outstanding contributions to the college, their profession and their community. This year’s honorees were to be recognized at an awards ceremony on March 27, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak that event has been cancelled. Instead UNC will recognize the honorees in the fall during homecoming Oct. 10 and 11……
Newspaper Columns
The Duodecimal System
For centuries, the ancient Romans calculated sums with their clunky numerals: I, V, X, L, C, D, and M; or one, five, ten, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000. They knew nothing better.
The Thirteenth Amendment
On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and by it, he declared that “all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are and henceforward shall be free.” Lincoln’s Proclamation freed some 3.1 million slaves within the Confederacy.
The Fourteenth Amendment
After Congress and enough states ratified the thirteenth amendment that terminated slavery, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law declared that “all people born in the United States are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.” The Act equated birth to citizenship.
The New-York Packet and the Constitution
Jill Lepore, the Harvard historian, published her newest book a month ago, These Truths: A History of the United States. In a short introduction, she describes in detail the Oct. 30, 1787 edition of a semi-weekly newspaper, The New-York Packet.
Mr. Benson’s writings on the U.S. Constitution are a great addition to the South Platte Sentinel. Its inspiring to see the history of the highest laws of this country passed on to others.
– Richard Hogan
Mr. Benson, I cannot thank you enough for this scholarship. As a first-generation college student, the prospect of finding a way to afford college is a very daunting one. Thanks to your generous donation, my dream of attending UNC and continuing my success here is far more achievable
– Cedric Sage Nixon
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– Extra Times
FUTURE BOOKS
- Thomas Paine vs. George Whitefield
- Ralph Waldo Emerson vs. Joseph Smith
- William James vs. Mary Baker Eddy
- Mark Twain vs. Billy Graham
- Henry Louis Mencken vs. Jim Bakker
