Unsought Input

One of greatest tragedies of American history is the untimely death of Abraham Lincoln. Having done a great service to us all by ending slavery and preserving the Union, Lincoln had a plan for southern reconstruction that was more moderate than the measures taken after his death.

Although I sympathize with the radical Republicans of the time and their desire to quickly end slavery, give voting rights to freedmen, and crush the power of slavery as an institution, their methods lead to the “redemption” where conservative whites dominated southern politics for decades. This left a legacy of racial segregation and distrust that lingers to this day.
What if Abraham Lincoln had lived? Countless historians and authors have pondered this, but I think the video below gives the most insightful analysis.

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While researching the RICO statutes, I was astonished to find two disturbing applications of these laws. First, when RICO intersects with mail and wire fraud statutes, it allows the federal government to turn underlying offenses outside the scope of RICO into actual RICO offenses. Second, the federal government can prosecute an offender both under RICO and on the underlying crimes that constitute a RICO violation, creating a scenario equivalent to double jeopardy. After the cut, I will explain what the RICO statute is, how these two applications work, and why this is injust.

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