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.”
Authoritarianism versus liberal democracy
Authoritarianism versus liberal democracy Certain individuals desire a headstrong official to govern. They submit to that man or woman who claims all power belongs to him or herself. They follow. They obey. They do what they are told. They cease thinking for...
Inspectors General
Inspectors GeneralInspectors General by William H. Benson July 20, 2020 On Saturday night, Oct. 20, 1973, President Richard Nixon instructed Attorney General, Elliot Richards, to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Elliot Richards though refused to comply...
Kerner Commission
Kerner CommissionKerner Commission by William H. Benson July 7, 2020 Rosa Parks and her husband Raymond lost their jobs in the backlash from Montgomery, Alabama’s successful bus boycott to end segregation on that city’s buses. In the late 1950’s, the couple moved to...
Zane Grey, Fran Striker, and the Texas Rangers
Zane Grey, Fran Striker, and the Texas RangersZane Grey, Fran Striker, and the Texas Rangers by William H. Benson June 25, 2020 Zane Grey was a most prolific author who wrote more than ninety books, mainly fictional westerns, but also non-fiction books on...
DNA and Father’s Day
DNA and Father’s DayDNA and Father’s Day by William H. Benson June 11, 2020 In Bill Bryson’s 2003 book, “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” he writes, “If your two parents had not bonded when they did—possibly to the second—you wouldn’t be here.” Your existence...
First Memorial Day
First Memorial DayFirst Memorial Day by William H. Benson May 29, 2020 On Feb. 15, 1865, General Beauregard of the Confederate States Army ordered the evacuation of all Confederate forces from Charleston, South Carolina. He knew that his army could not stop General...
Older Posts
App shouldn’t be necessary to identify family
Phone App that Prevents Incest?Bill Benson, In Retrospect by William H. Benson June 12, 2013 Recent news tells of a cell phone app for Iceland’s 325,000 residents. Because nearly all are descendents of about 15,000 Vikings who settled there late in the ninth century,...
Israel’s Independence Day
Israel’s Independence DayIsrael's Independence Day by William H. Benson May 14, 2020 On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israel’s Declaration of Independence. He said that the new State of Israel will “uphold the full social and political equality of all its...
America’s Civil War—final days
America’s Civil War—final daysAmerica’s Civil War—final day by William H. Benson April 28, 2020 Abraham Lincoln won a second term as president in the 1864 election in November, and he was inaugurated on Saturday, March 4, 1865, on the Capitol’s east front. Crowds...
The Fourteenth Amendment
The Fourteenth AmendmentAfter 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...
Shakespeare and the plague
Shakespeare and the plagueShakespeare and the plague by William H. Benson April 13, 2020 In Thomas Dekker’s first pamphlet, The Wonderfull Yeare, he highlights three events that occurred in England in the year 1603. First, on March 24, 1603, Queen Elizabeth of England...
War, pestilence, famine
War, pestilence, famineWar, pestilence, famine by William H. Benson March 30, 2020 Voltaire, the French philosopher, stated his creed in his Philosophical Dictionary. “I believe that theological disputes are at once the most ridiculous farce, and the most dreadful...
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
