Today Donald Trump was arraigned in New York City on 34 felony counts involving the falsification of business records.
I was thrilled.
Trump is a horrible human being. He has lied and cheated his way through a life that, amazingly, until now hadn't included being charged with a crime. That changed today, and almost certainly Trump will be charged with additional crimes since there are other ongoing investigations into his wrongdoing.
Following the news about the indictment against Trump that was unsealed today, I heard lots of legal analysis on MSNBC and CNN. I also read stories about legal issues involving the indictment on the Washington Post and New York Times web sites.
I find the law fascinating. I also find science fascinating. But somehow I hadn't made a connection between the two until now. At least, not consciously.
Here's some of the parallels that come to mind.
Both law and science strive for objectivity. Judges and juries are expected to leave behind their personal biases and preferences in favor of rulings that rely on facts and the law. Scientists are expected to behave similarly, making truth the foundation of their investigations, even if their findings aren't what they hoped.
I said "expected" twice in the previous paragraph because law and science are imperfect disciplines. Mistakes are made. Scandals happen. False conclusions are accepted.
However, I have little patience for religious fundamentalists who criticize science and scientists because of those imperfections. I also have little patience for those who consider our legal system to be worthless because innocent people sometimes are found guilty, and guilty people sometimes are found innocent.
Perfection isn't the goal in law and science.
The goal is to arrive at conclusions through a method that is better than any other approach. For example, judges and juries are much more likely to reach a fair verdict than a king or queen who sits on their throne and decides the fate of people accused of crimes.
And science is much more likely to discover truths about reality than religion is. Careful observation and experimentation, along with rigorous review of claimed findings in an open process, will beat blind faith and dogma when it comes to knowing things about our world and the universe.
But law and science both are messy. In a good way. Meaning, they are designed to be productively inefficient.
Today the judge in the Trump case said that the defense has four months to file motions. Then the prosecution has four months to respond to those motions. This means that the next hearing in the case won't be until December 2023, with the trial not scheduled to begin until January 2024 at the earliest.
And it could be even longer. The defense is hoping for spring 2024. The trial will take months, probably. Then a verdict could be appealed.
Like many other people, I wish our legal system would move faster. But I rarely, if ever, hear expert lawyers say that. They accept that cases move at a speed that is designed to arrive at the fairest outcome, not the fastest outcome.
Same applies to science. Research can take years, if not decades. A seemingly significant finding isn't accepted without question. It has to be reviewed by other scientists. It has to be published so others can critique the validity of the finding.
By contrast, religious experiences tend to be accepted uncritically by both the person who had the experience and people who believe that the experience confirms a certain theology. Preachers aren't accustomed to someone interrupting their sermon with "Excuse me, but I think you've got that wrong."
Lawyers and scientists are very accustomed to hearing this.
Winston Churchill's quote about democracy is appropriate here. Law and science aren't perfect, but they're a heck of a lot better than the alternatives to finding justice and truth.
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Of course you were "thrilled." You believe your petty grievances are a just cause to overthrow the most basic democratic norms of this nation.
You know very well that the charges against Trump are meritless. And far worse, you believe that the transparently partisan motivation behind these charges -- to prevent a major political candidate from running for President -- are peachy keen fine.
If you find fault with Trump for denying the 2020 election results, fine. I'm with you on that. But you and every progressive like you has jumped into the same moral evil by cheering on these laughably insubstantial criminal charges. For the sake of spite, and to win the next election.
Simply put, you're the same as anyone on the Right who felt justified in ignoring election results. You believe in mob justice over the actual rule of law.
You for sure don't believe in democracy. Or in the very basics of American civics.
What's being done against this political candidate is something we've never seen in this country's history. We really have become a Banana Republic. One party has seized power and is perverting the rule of law to get its own way.
And it's not just being done to Trump, it's being done to half the nation. In fact, this new norm is being done to all of us, left and right. Our rule of law, the concept of equal justice, has been thrown out on the basis of political expediency.
So happy this makes you "thrilled."
Posted by: Dolus | April 05, 2023 at 08:01 AM
What's happening has never been happened before, before such a brazenly utterly dishonest ...person, hasn't besmirched the Presidential office before this.
It is amazing that you condone the dishonesty of Trump, but criticize the law for moving in to account for that dishonesty, and criticize critics like Brian for pointing that out.
Of course there's merit to those charges. It's common knowledge, what those charges are. And that, as you well know, is just the tip of the iceberg; there's lots more, lots lots more, where that came from. There are far more serious crimes for which, also, Trump will hopefully be dragged to court for, and to jail after that.
Man's a crook, as simple as that. A hypocrite, a liar, a self-serving POS; but, more to the point, an out-and-out crook. Jail is where he belongs.
LOCK HIM UP!
Posted by: Appreciative Reader | April 05, 2023 at 08:30 AM
Nobody, regardless of wealth or status, should be considered as being above the law and it is very good that this principle is being upheld.
Posted by: Martin | April 05, 2023 at 10:02 AM