{"id":3744,"date":"2019-11-19T21:06:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T02:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/?p=3744"},"modified":"2019-11-19T21:06:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T02:06:02","slug":"trumps-impeachment-hearings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/19\/trumps-impeachment-hearings\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Impeachment Hearings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Trump<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump’s impeachment hearings are going on now and I thought that I might go back in history with some thoughts of my own on Presidential actions that have been done in the past that might have wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many do not know that Thomas Jefferson would say one thing to your face and then behind your back do something vindictive if he thought it was in his own interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the Napoleonic Wars Jefferson<\/a> sought \u201cTo control the rampant violation of one of the most damaging laws in American history, Jefferson started to have people rounded up and detained without trial. All of that was illegal until 1808, when Congress obligingly passed the Enforcement Act, which empowered local authorities to seize the property and persons of anybody who was even suspected of smuggling. Under the loosest interpretation of the law, even privately thinking about smuggling was an arrestable offense.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

As the country suffered privation, and as gangsters delivered all the goods of the world to those who could afford them, and as the government of the United States hardened into a North Korean-style hermetic chamber, Congress quietly repealed the laws as Jefferson was leaving office.<\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, \u201cJefferson wasn\u2019t fond of debate or criticism, either. In the manner of many crybullies who would be born 200 years later, Thomas Jefferson kept his lawyer close by, never hesitating to sue his critics \u2014 especially newspapers that pushed Federalist politics and hinted that he might be fathering children by one of his slaves.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Jefferson\u2019s many lawsuits were one of the primary sources for his money problems. Lawyers are expensive, after all \u2013 especially if your lawsuits are frivolous wastes of time and you rarely win \u2013 and Jefferson wasn\u2019t above borrowing money to pay his legal bills. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Jefferson also used the power of the state to punish critics. While most of the country had a comfortable Democratic-Republican majority, some, notably Connecticut, were hard Federalist. The state government there was closing down Republican newspapers and prosecuting Republican speakers and party organizers. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, pro-Federalist editors, journalists, and preachers were free to slander their enemies without consequences. It goes without saying that the Connecticut Federalists\u2019 favorite target was Thomas Jefferson, who was, according to one old preacher in Bethlehem, Connecticut: \u201ca liar, whoremaster, debaucher, drunkard, gambler, and infidel.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

This obviously got on Jefferson\u2019s nerves, and he eventually called for local prosecutions during his second inaugural address. In what became known as the Connecticut Libels, Jefferson\u2019s administration spent three years, the same three that he spent starving the nation with an embargo, dragging Federalist agitators into federal court and trying them for a dog\u2019s breakfast of charges that ranged from seditious libel to treason.<\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So you can see that Trump is not the first President to act this way and be attacked for his bad behavior! In fact libel cases against Jefferson\u2019s detractors by the President were dropped because \u201che claimed that the suits had been filed without his knowledge, despite the fact that he had effectively called for the prosecutions during an official presidential address three years before.<\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Today most of us do not know the dark side of Thomas Jefferson and think of him as a great man, which we now know not to be the entire truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Richard Nixon was no angel, I think in many ways he was not as bad as Jefferson except that for the fact that Nixon tried to cover up and destroy evidence, IE the erased tape<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think that these impeachment hearings will not result in Trump’s removal from office and are just hurting the country. That is not to say that I condone such behavior and it would be nice to see the President act more presidential!<\/span><\/p>\n

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike<\/span><\/p>\n

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