Monday, October 31, 2016

The Test of False Equivalence

The media's so focused on speculating on the meaning of FBI Director James Comey's letter, that the media has seemingly forgotten the laundry list (including money laundering!) of known violations Donald has committed over his life time.

  • 1973 -- Settled Fair Housing Act violation of discrimination against African-Americans.
  • 1988 -- $750,000 fine for violating federal antitrust laws meant to prevent quiet takeovers of competitors.
  • 1988 -- $15,000 fine to FEC for excess illegal contributions.
  • 1991 -- $65,000 fine to NJ gaming officials for not getting approval for financing (chipgate) from his daddy..
  • 1991 -- $450,000 fine for circumventing NJ laws blocking gifts to patrons, particularly a rich bigot (see next entry).
  • 1991 -- $200,000 fine for pulling black workers from a casino pit, catering to a bigot's hatred of African-Americans.
  • 1998 -- $477,000 fine for violation of Treasury's (Fincen) anti-laundering rules.
  • 2000 -- $250,000 fine for secretly funding ads against a rival casino.
  • 2000 -- $250,000 fine for not reporting lobbying money spent.
  • 2015 -- $10,000,000 record fine for violation of Treasury's (Fincen) anti-laundering rules, directed at Taj Mahal property for activities in the 2000s (when Donald maintained majority stake).
  • 2016 -- $2500 fine for using his charity to make a political donation (Pam Bondi).

Note that there are multiple criminal complaints against Donald, including corruption involving that donation to Pam Bondi who promptly dropped her investigation into Trump University. There are the investigations into violations of IRS rules against self-enrichment, too. Also, he has at least two ongoing court trials set for later this year involving Trump University and accusations of rape involving an underaged girl. That's all completely separate from the dozen allegations of sexual assault.

I profess that I can't quite understand the false equivalence of Donald's known violations to the innuendo and unproven accusations Hillary faces. By any measure, Donald is demonstrably worse -- and I'm not talking about the lesser or worse of two evils.

But even ignoring the known violations and simply comparing the current list of allegations, how exactly does a pedophile serial sexual assault perp who has cheated on his taxes and cheated people out of their money get high marks against classified info and an improperly secured server?

That is the true test of false equivalence.

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