My generation grew up thinking of show trials as a form of political theater undertaken by corrupt, authoritarian governments. They were a danger only in China and the Soviet Union, or in the banana republics of Latin America. With all the constitutional protections defendants enjoyed in our country, and a requirement of near-certainty for a jury to render a guilty verdict in a criminal case, such a travesty did not seem possible in the United States.
In fact, those guarantees disappear even here, in times of intense political strife. For several years, I've been scouring newspapers, government documents and personal correspondence related to the 1864 "treason trials" of the American Civil War, and I can only conclude that they amounted to overt judicial fraud, pursued for partisan effect. The defendants were all Democrats who were accused of plotting an improbably complicated armed uprising, and they were all tried by military commissions, which offered a probability of conviction unlikely under civil justice.
Yeah, It's almost criminal that a someone can be criminally liable for cooking the books in a porn star hush case in which his lackey took the fall and went to prison to protect him.
This observation applies to traitor and wannabe dictator Donald Trump: "If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause which is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to grab power" ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Yeah, It's almost criminal that a someone can be criminally liable for cooking the books in a porn star hush case in which his lackey took the fall and went to prison to protect him.
This observation applies to traitor and wannabe dictator Donald Trump: "If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause which is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to grab power" ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.