As the Middle East Erupts into War, Our Country’s Leaders React from Two Distinct Directions

By Kenneth Lee Warner in ROME Magazine

The insensitivity of Donald Trump is unfathomable in light of the conflicts that are fast spreading across the world. (Photo by Naomie Daslin)

The world awoke on Saturday last week to news that war had once again erupted in the Middle East. Hamas began shooting thousands of rockets reaching well into Israel and as far as Tel Aviv. Israel responded with complete mobilization and vowed to retaliate against the invaders without reservation.

History shows us that the Israelis are not ones to be messed with.

Reaction by America’s leaders was swift. And, the two most likely contenders for President in 2024 demonstrated a clear difference in their responses. President Biden was strong and concise in his support for our Israeli allies.

“I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel,”

and

“Israel has a right to defend itself and its people — full stop,” he said. “Let me say this as clearly as I can. This is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks to seek advantage. The world is watching.”

Donald Trump immediately used the occasion for personal gain and, rather than demonstrate real leadership and diplomatic skill, he chose to blame President Biden for the conflict.

“Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration,”

If I had any small idea that Donald Trump was in any way fit to lead America, that thought disintegrated with his response.

This guy is a self-serving idiot with little regard for America’s standing in the world or for the lives of so many innocent civilians who will be lost in this conflict.

It’s disgusting.

For one day at least, while the Middle East is enveloped in war, Putin’s plan for empire-building is temporarily out of the headlines. Trump may have his legacy border wall and a self-absorbed Congress blindly allocated the funds to build it. But make no mistake, Putin will never stop until he rebuilds the iron curtain that sealed off much of Europe far into the waning years of the last century.

The Berlin Wall, which half of America has forgotten, came down in November of 1989 symbolizing the end of Soviet domination and independence for countries for whom WWII had never really ended.

That means that anyone under the age of 35 (fully a third of our population in the United States) doesn't even know the wall existed or the history of Soviet domination in Europe.

That’s why some 90 Republicans in Congress voted to stop aid to Ukraine, ignoring that Putin’s plan for rebuilding the Russian empire is right out of Adolf Hitler’s textbook. First Hitler annexed Austria, then marched into Czechoslovakia, and finally started a world war by creating a fictional crisis in Poland.

Last year at this time, I was right where World War II started in Gdansk, Poland. I wrote then about what military leaders call the most dangerous place on earth.

The air hangs heavy with the fact that Gdańsk is two hours away from Russian territory. Right now, an estimated 20 to 30 thousand Ukrainian refugees are in Gdańsk out of the 2,000,000 who have fled their homeland and into Poland. There are signs of their presence everywhere.

Poland shares a 300-mile border with Ukraine. The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is a scant 2-hour drive away. And, just a little further is Druskininkai and the Suwałki Gap, a place POLITICO has labeled the most dangerous location on earth.

The Russians could be here before dinner if Putin decides to expand his tragic war to the rest of Europe. Worse yet, his missiles could be here in minutes.

While in Poland I visited the Westerplatte peninsula, once a booming seaside resort, but in 1939 it was a tiny military garrison and the site of World War II’s beginning. Hitler’s plan for European domination and the subjugation of France and Great Britain ended up with somewhere between 30 and 60 million people dying. Including the “extermination” of some 6 million Jews.

It has been almost 80 years since the planet fought a worldwide war. Sadly though, they say history repeats itself. And I fear that without real leadership for America, it will.

Steven King’s Novels Aren’t the Scariest Books Around

by Kenneth Lee Warner in ROME Magazine

If you’re nervous about another Trump Presidency, reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is guaranteed to keep you up at night

Iwas a voracious reader when I was a teenager and read every history book I could lay my hands on.

I still am and I blame my mother. When I was growing up my bedtime was 8:00 p.m., but I could stay up till 8:30 if read a book. My first “real” book was The House At Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne and I haven’t stopped reading since.

By the time I was a senior in high school, I was undertaking much more challenging works like The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

I can tell you from personal experience, it’s a long way from A.A. Milne to William Shirer.

Now in my so-called golden years, while following the daily news, the shenanigans of Donald Trump have stirred up dim memories of my high school studies. As I read about world and national events, I can't help asking myself, “Haven’t I heard this all before?”

Consequently, this has inspired me to re-read a few books, among them, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Frankly, it makes Steven King’s novels look very much like The House at Pooh Corner. Shirer’s eyewitness view as a reporter is an almost day-by-day account of the unparalleled ascension to world domination by Adolf Hitler, and his just as meteoric demise.

But, if you like horror stories, you’ll find it terrifying in its mirror image of what’s happening today in the good old U.S. of A.

I’m certainly not the first one to liken Trump’s actions to that of Adolf Hitler. There are books written about it by much smarter minds than mine. Even Trump himself often makes the comparison and bases many of his antics on the German Fuhrer’s blueprint.

For example, two of the former President’s recent remarks illustrate the point with chilling similarity.

Mr. Trump, in a video interview with right-wing leaning website The National Pulse, stated that immigrants are “…poisoning the blood of our country” which is right out of the Nazi leader’s playbook on hatred of Jews.

And then there’s the comment Trump made on his own social media network, Truth Social. He casually suggests that General Mark Milley, his own Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should have been executed for his remarks in the aftermath of the January 6th invasion of Congress. Referring to the General’s comments against the event, he calls them “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been death.”

Murdering generals who spoke out against him was a tactic Hitler frequently used throughout his rise and fall.

Ironically, in a book written by New York Times reporter Peter Backer along with Susan Glasser, Trump once complained to one of his generals, “Why can’t you be like the German generals of the Third Reich?”

He should be careful what he wishes for. Apparently, in his reading about Adolf Hitler, he skipped the chapters where Hitler’s generals attempted to assassinate him on several occasions.

The parallels between Hitler’s rise and the current condition of America are frightening at the very least … and gravely disturbing at best.

Anyone with half a brain realizes that Trump’s words led to incitement to riot on January 6th. But, so far the former president has escaped actual blame … much like Hitler did after the Reichstag fire, the burning of the German legislature building in 1933 that precipitated Hitler’s final take-over of the German government.

But above and beyond his rhetoric, it’s the more insidious events that compare to Hitler’s rise to power that are much more horrifying.

To point out just a few …

• Trump’s weakening of democratic institutions: The Weimer Republic guaranteed even more democracy than our U.S. Consitution. Yet, Hitler was able to subvert German democracy by manipulating election outcomes, much the same way as Trump tried to discredit American elections.

• Subversion of the press and spreading of misinformation: Hitler had Goebbels, Trump has Steve Bannon, and now it appears, Elon Musk.

• Diversion of the public’s attention from real issues: Our Congress is paralyzed by leadership fights, disagreements on border security, and charges of election fraud, while ignoring our broken healthcare system, failing to shore up our disintegrating education infrastructure, and ignoring the devastation wrought by climate change.

The list seems endless and includes fostering disrespect for law and order institutions like the FBI, making a mockery of our country’s Judicial system, and Trump’s support of book banning that harkens back to the Nazi state-sponsored book burnings that characterized Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s.

Sadly, there’s no question that the Austrian corporal was a genius. But what makes me even more troubled is that I have come to appreciate the genius of Donald Trump as well.

It’s textbook Nazi-ism. If you can’t take it over, tear it down.

Clearly, this is a nightmare worthy of a Steven King novel. But it’s one we have to wake up from before it is too late.

Did Jamaal Bowman Foretell the Future When He Rang the Alarm Bell?

by Kenneth Lee Warner in ROME Magazine

Photo by Nothing Ahead: https://www.pexels.com/photo/manual-red-fire-alarm-system-7425340/

Democratic Congressman Jamaal Bowman’s schoolboy prank earlier this week turned out to be a bellwether for what’s happening in Congress

A virtually unknown member of Manhattan’s 16th district, Mr. Bowman’s only claim to fame seems to be that his wife’s last name is Oppenheimer. Beyond that, he has made little impact since getting elected in 2021

But he gained his 15 minutes of fame when he pulled the fire alarm outside the Congressional Hall while several G.O.P. nutcases were trying to stall a vote on stopgap funding that would prevent a government shutdown.

He later said he did not pull it intentionally, he thought it would just “open the door.”

Whatever it was meant to be, he managed to do what political leaders couldn't do. He temporarily stopped the insanity of the gang of crazies who control the Republican Party in Congress. Consequently allowing them to later pass the measure, and at least kick the can down the road.

The co-sponsors of the stopgap measures, as you might expect, included many of the usual suspects: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Mike Collins (Ga.), Austin Scott (Ga.), Tony Gonzales (Texas), Mary Miller (Ill.), Gary Palmer (Ala.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), Randy Weber (Texas), Troy Nehls (Texas), Josh Brecheen (Okla.), and Barry Moore (Ala.).

Now that’s a list that should be on America’s Most UN-Wanted.

But Congressman Bowman’s 15 minutes of fame was fated to only last about 5 minutes as he was quickly pushed off the front pages by another political earthquake. Democrats and another team of questionable G.O.P. conservative loons passed a motion to vacate the House Speaker’s position, winning 216 to 210.

Democrats joined with 8 other Republicans to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership position, thereby rendering the House of Representatives rather speechless.

Only Matt Rosendale of Montana joined both groups. But it is interesting that neo-nazi Matt Gaetz of Flordia was quick to jump on the second bandwagon … even if the wagon were on fire and the band all a little off-key.

However, the sound they made was historic. It’s the first time a Houe Speaker seat has been vacant in U.S. History.

Here’s who is part of this little merry band: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

So even if Jamaal Bowman’s fire alarm prank was a spur-of-the-moment idea, it was incredibly significant. He made it clear that the House is burning down, and who knows who will rise to dampen the conflagration.

Should 535 People be in Charge of Running the Country? Maybe it’s time to update our political system Kenneth L. Warner Rome Magazine

Maybe it’s time to update our political system by Kenneth L. Warner Rome Magazine

Time will have to stand still before we ever update our political system to meet the needs of 50 states and 332 million people. (Photo by Charlotte May on Pexels)

Starting a year after the Declaration of Independence, America was made up of 13 loosely joined former British Colonies and was governed by something called the Articles of Confederation.

It was kind of a disaster.

And so, guys like James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton were busy writing The Federalist Papers in support of an actual Constitution for the new country. So influential were their ideas, that they caused a bunch of rich white men to gather in Philadelphia to perform what was later coined a “miracle”.

They wrote the United States Constitution.

Writing that document came as the result of a lot of compromise but, it has stood for a couple of centuries as a miracle in government. Countries all over the world have used it as a basis for writing their own constitutions.

Our daily lives are governed by the thoughts of these founding fathers. But in today’s modern age, I’ve come to believe that the only founding father worth paying attention to is Benjamin Franklin. He deserves the title more than anyone simply because he had 17 illegitimate children.

Makes you wonder what his weekly child support bill was, but no matter.

The fact is, the U.S. Constitution is really pretty amazing. But even the founders realized that times would change. Tom Jefferson who crafted the Declaration of Independence, (who missed the constitutional convention because he was on a diplomatic mission to France), was known to have said that having a revolution every ten years or so was a good idea as the world changes very quickly.

I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean doing it like the January 6th fiasco, but he was right in thinking that times would change.

Constitution writers eventually came to the same conclusion and thus we have 27 amendments, starting with the first 10, the Bill of Rights that guaranteed basic rights like freedom of speech, religion, and other such radical ideas. The rest of the amendments that were passed throughout our history included such unique ideas as the freeing of slaves, voting rights for women, and more.

All good ideas.

Now though, we should probably ask ourselves if some of the basic rules of the Constitution should be modified with the change of times.

Take age requirements for starters. The minimum age for running for President is 35. Senators have to be 30. And, members of the House, 25. They claimed the age requirements for running for President had to do with the lack of maturity of men under 35. Apparently, they overlooked the fact that Thomas Jefferson was only 33 when he crafted the Declaration of Independence and wasn’t found lacking.

As I wrote recently, those who wrote the Constitution really put the minimum age requirements in because they didn’t want young upstarts running against them, and wanted to protect their asses as they grew into old age.

They were so successful that now Congress is full of old people who pass laws they will never see the consequences of.

Maybe instead of minimum age requirements, we should add maximum age requirements as well.

Age requirements aren’t the only issue that needs reconsideration in this modern time.

Representation is another requirement that has unintended consequences. When the Constitution was written, they needed the little states to sign on with the big states. To facilitate this, it was agreed that every state, no matter the population, should have 2 Senators.

It’s a little out of proportion.

Today that means that the people of Wyoming for example, have some of the most powerful leaders in the free world. These guys can win election to the world’s most powerful legislature by campaigning to fewer people statewide than live in the county I grew up in.

Requirements for numbers in the House of Representatives are another set of problems.

Each of the 435 members represents 761,179 people.

It used to be that the number of members was determined after the U.S. Census every ten years. This “reapportionment” obviously caused for political fighting on a grand scale as parties and states in the expanding country battled for more representation.

In 1920, a member of Congress represented 241,000, fully a third of the people they do now.

No wonder my representative doesn’t recognize me.

So prior to the 1930 census, Congress passed the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act to avoid the battles.

Article I, Section II sets the guidelines that every state shall have at least one while the actual number in any state depends upon population. It also says that the number cannot be greater than one for every 30,000 people.

The long and short of it is that representation is now way out of whack and needs to be reconsidered. Having 535 people write laws for the other 300 million makes no sense. My high school student council had a better balance of representation.

The political circumstance facilitating this change is about as likely as my winning the Powerball lottery. On the other hand, all it takes is a dollar and a dream.

But if we are to survive as a country, it is inevitable.

“When I Leave Elected Office, I’m Going Feet First”

Senator Dianne Feinstein’s death brings up an “old argument” about age requirements for holding office

Since the 1st U.S. Congress almost 1,100 members have left office feet first out of approximately 11,500 members. (Photo by Pavel Daniyuk on Pexels)

OnMay 3rd, 2023 I celebrated my 70th birthday. And, as a consequence, my wife forced me to make my first visit to a Doctor in about 15 or so years.

When he asked me why it took me so long to come in, I quoted Mickey Mantle who said, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”

Interestingly enough, (and to my wife’s shock) I got a clean bill of health.

But, when Senator Dianne Feinstein died recently, it gave me pause to think about age and the mental capabilities of our elected officials to hold office at an advanced age. After all, she was 90. And she spent her last years in the Senate being pushed around by ever-present aids, spending a lot of time in the hospital, and being reminded what day it was.

If you happen to be as old as me, this sounds all too familiar. My morning ritual is often marked by my asking the day of the week, forgetting where I left my phone, being told to take my vitamins, and being reminded that I’m wearing two different colored socks before venturing out into the cold dark world.

So when I compare leaders of the free world with my own small corner of it, I have to ask myself, “Just how old is too old, for holding public office?”

It’s a good question.

Senator Feinstein wasn’t alone in her geriatric service. There are 4 other Senators who are over the age of 80.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, “Silent Mitch”, as I’ve come to call him after the two moments where he froze on camera with what some are calling “mini-strokes”, is 81. And yet, Senator McConnell is the leader of the Republican Minority.

Oh and, in case you’ve forgotten, President Biden is 80. Donald Trump is 77 and the average age of the 118th Congress (one of the oldest on record) is 64.

That means they were born in the 1950’s. And that they are passing laws that they will probably never see the effects of.

Just as a refresher of what the world was like back then, here are a few highlights for those years.

High fashion was women were wearing Bobby Sox, poodle skirts, and saddle shoes. The Korean War was raging. Dwight Eisenhower was President and Joseph McCarthy along with the rest of Congress, was searching Hollywood for hidden Communists. The Russians launched the first Satellite, (Sputnik), we had a “party line” for a telephone and the Mustang and Corvette were mere dreams.

Oh, and everyone was afraid of the Atomic Bomb. Here’s how our government sought to protect school children from the Red Menace.

Duck and cover. (2023, September 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_and_cover

If you see the flash, the reality is duck down, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye.

Move forward a few years and you’ll remember Congressman Charles Wilson, who served 12 terms in Congress representing Texas’ 2nd congressional district. He’s credited with saying upon his leaving office that retirement was the best of 3 options for ending his political career: “To get defeated, to get carried out feet first, or to … start another life.”

The point of all this is that we have minimum ages to run for higher office, but no limits on how old someone can be to serve with most of their wits about them.

The U.S. Constitution sets the minimum age for running for President at 35. Senators have to be 30. And, members of the House, 25. In a strange twist of history, 12 of the delegates at the Constitution Convention were under the age of 35, including Alexander Hamilton.

Yet, the authors argued that young men (there was no thought of women) were too immature, not experienced enough to handle elected office, were too impetuous, and hadn’t fully developed into manhood.

Apparently, they forgot that Thomas Jefferson was only 33 when he drafted the Declaration of Independence.

The real reason they set the limits is that they didn’t want young upstarts running against them, and they wanted to protect their asses as they grew into old age.

Forgive me for bringing up an old question, but isn’t it about time we have age limits for serving in public office? Not minimum limits, but mandatory retirement ages.

It’s an old argument. But, it’s one that needs to be made.

You Get Rid of Your Dirtbag, and We’ll Get Rid of Ours

Democrat Robert Menendez and Republican George Santos are cut from the same cloth

Corruption as illustrated by a mural in the U.S. Library of Congress Reading Room vestibule.

Someone once said, “You just can’t make this stuff up!” and it is attributed to a variety of satirists from Dave Barry to Molly Ivans and sometimes even to television’s Simpsons.

The truth of that statement is once more heating up as New Jersey’s Senator Democrat Robert Menendez’s vat of corruption has boiled over. It has become headline news as federal prosecutors alleged he’s taken bribes, interfered in criminal investigations back home in New Jersey, and accepted vacations, transportation on private planes, and outlandish gifts that make Clarence Thomas’ pocketing of treasures look like a Boy Scout earning merit badges.

What surprises me most about the Senator Menendez hullabaloo, is that it shouldn’t really be a surprise at all. He’s the product of a corrupt system and has been under scrutiny going back to the days of his being Mayor of Union City, New Jersey.

It’s carried on throughout his political career right into the United States Senate where back in 2018 he was admonished by the ethics committee for playing fast and loose with the rules.

Now, investigators have found suspicious cars, cash, and currency when they raided his house. They even found $100,000 worth of gold bars under the mattress. Prosecutors are now using the cache of goodies as evidence of his wrongdoing.

I’m confused about what this has to do with any wrongdoing. Doesn’t every U.S. Senator have a few gold bars lying around in the basement?

Remember, he’s only a U.S. Senator. How can he live so lavishly on a meager $174,000 a year? My goodness, they haven’t had a raise since 2009. How can he be expected to survive on that paltry salary?

Not surprisingly, Senator Menendez is crying not guilty despite outraged colleagues calling for his resignation. But not so fast. Cooler heads will prevail.

Senator Schumer announced his dismay and disappointment, but he also is shrewd enough to realize that Democrats need his vote in the Senate to hold back the crazies.

Menendez may be a dirtbag, but getting rid of him would flush the country down the toilet at a time when we need even the likes of him to keep our Democracy safe.

It’s no different over in the House of Representatives. The Republican majority may be smiling like a house full of Cheshire Cats, but make no mistake about it, they’ve got their own dirtbag to deal with.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would love to shout “Hang ‘em” from the rooftops but has to remember his own handling of George Santos with kid gloves.

Santos is the Republicans’ very own bag of doo-doo. Despite lying about everything to everybody … including voters … and writing bad checks like a drunken sailor on leave in a foreign port, he sits quietly in his House seat, representing Long Island with aplomb.

His colleagues censured him and even called for his resignation. But he’s still sporting that snazzy blue cardigan sweater just as Menendez will still go on driving around in his Mercedes.

Both these guys are cut from the same cloth. They think getting elected gives them free rein to lie, cheat, and steal everything they can get their hands on.

Our elected officials have been reaping ill-gotten rewards since the founding of the Republic. It’s the American way.

Think George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall who perfected the practice of what he called “Honest Graft” and who described his larceny with the famous political line, “I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em.”

There’s a silver lining in all of this. Even though our leaders can’t agree on a budget because crossing the line to compromise with the other side of the aisle is considered the eighth deadly sin, this dirt-baggery presents a golden opportunity.

Democrats and Republicans could go down in history by agreeing on one simple idea, “You get rid of your dirtbag, we’ll get rid of ours.”

I'm betting time will not tell.

Once Upon a Time, We Called Them Traitors

Elon Musk, along with a gang of Republican members of Congress, is following Donald Trump’s lead and siding with the enemy

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin make nice despite Russia’s plans to destroy Ukraine. (Photo from Wikipedia Commons)

Back in the 1950s — the so-called good old days when (according to Donald Trump’s MAGA movement) America was great, at least we all knew the good guys from the bad guys. Average people like my father and uncle fought in WWII and were the good guys. Nazis and fascists were the bad guys.

Then came the Cold War, pitting the United States against the Soviets, who put an Iron Curtain across Eastern Europe. Communists were imagined under every kitchen table, and kids like me hid under our school desks in duck-and-cover drills meant to save us from nuclear explosions in our backyards. Anyone who thought Nikita Khrushchev, then premier of the Soviet Union, was a nice guy needed to have their head examined. And, if you sided with the Rooskies, you were branded a traitor, pure and simple.

But now, it’s not as easy. These days, it’s hard to tell who is on whose side, which people are the heroes, and which ones are the scoundrels.

Take the new American hero icon, Elon Musk, the epitome of the American dream. He’s the guy who invented the Tesla, saved Twitter with a 44 million dollar deal, and launched Starlink, the high-tech wonder that can be seen in the night skies throughout the world, bringing the internet to far-flung places.

If he’s not a good guy, who is? But, wait a minute, though. Turns out he didn't really invent Tesla. That credit goes to two engineers; Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who founded the electric car company in 2003.

Nor did he actually save Twitter, aka “X.” Following a series of infantile policy changes, people are dropping the social media disaster like a bad habit, and my stock is dropping in value along with it.

And, last but not least, Starlink’s internet is apparently not for everyone after all.

Anyone with half a brain knows that Ukrainians should get the “Good Guys of the Decade Award” for standing up to this century's ultimate bad guy … Vladimir Putin.

Everyone except our boy, Elon. Seems last year he sided with his buddy Vlad by denying satellite internet service to Ukraine, thus preventing a drone attack on a Russian naval fleet.

What an S.O.B.

If he had done that back in MAGA’s ‘good ole days’, he would have been labeled a traitor to his country.

But he’s not the only one who is cuddling up to Russia. A gang of Republican congressmen led by Representative Chip Roy of (you guessed it) Texas is leading a group of deranged far-right members of Congress to block further military aid to Ukraine.

In private talks with U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky flatly stated that without the aid, Ukraine would lose the war.

But that’s not enough for amateur military tacticians geniuses like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, former delicatessen owner whose experience in military tactics came from his days as a weekend warrior in the United States Army Reserve. He wants to know Ukraine’s plan to win the war before Republicans in the House support more aid.

He’s joined by the usual suspects; Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Eli Crane of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

So there you have it. It’s no secret that these politicians are pandering to the Republican base. However, it does make you wonder whose side these guys are on. Especially because they’re following former President Donald Trump’s lead and cozying up to Vladimir Putin.

Their self-serving actions are putting millions of people like you and me at risk and opening the door to further aggression by the world’s latest effort at world domination — the bad guys, Russia.

Back in the day, we called them traitors. Now we just scratch our heads and order another Heineken beer …. Oh wait, that’s one of the companies that can’t pull out of Russia because of their “duty” to shareholders.

I, for one, am done with guys like Elon. I’m not drinking Heineken anymore, and I sure am not going to vote for any traitors in the 2024 elections.

Would Jail Time Get Trump’s Creative Juices Flowing?

Maybe he’ll write his version of Mein Kampf while under lock and key

Would prison time bring out Trump’s literary genius? (Photo by Larry Farr on Unsplash)

Barely a day goes by that someone, somewhere doesn’t draw a parallel between Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1932 Germany and Donald Trump’s splash into political history with his 2016 election as President of the United States.

Both used the media to create an image bigger than themselves. Both tried an attack on their nation’s legislature. Both are characterized as genius, crazy, or both.

For those who are historically challenged, in November 1923 Adolf Hitler launched a failed coup attempt in Munich resulting in him being sentenced to a five-year prison term for high treason. While there, he wrote his infamous Mein Kampf — “My Struggle”, an autobiography of his early rise to leadership of the German Workers’ Party. Not only did he describe his own version of his meteoric rise to fame, but his writing also foreshadowed the notorious and fantastical events that were to shape the next two and a half decades.

Now, with so many prosecutors chasing Donald Trump, it’s hard not to imagine that sooner or later, he too might be convicted. While it’s questionable whether Trump will ever spend a day in jail for his crimes, but it’s interesting to speculate on the idea that a stint behind bars would get his creative juices flowing and see him writing his own Mein Kampf.

In the latest court battle, a Miami court made Donald Trump the first former president in history to be arraigned on federal criminal charges. Some would say he deserves it.

Trump has faced literally thousands of lawsuits over his lifetime relating to his business dealings resulting in all sorts of outcomes, perhaps most notable being the $ 1.6 million dollar fine earlier this year for tax fraud levied by New York prosecutors against the Trump Organization for a decade-long tax fraud scheme.

But Don Trump has never spent a moment behind bars, even though any of us ordinary Americans would find ourselves as long-term guests of the prison system for doing the same things he has. Trump’s talent for avoiding jail time makes him a modern-day version of 1960s mobster John Gotti, who was notorious for escaping prosecution and dubbed the “Teflon Don.”

It’s easy to see how Trump deserves this moniker.

Earlier this year, the April 4th Manhattan court arraignment on 34 counts of business fraud got Democrats’ hearts pumping. But the issue pretty much fell off the front pages on news sites almost as quickly as it started, washed away by the next wave of legal challenges.

Most recently, the Miami court is adding 37 counts of unauthorized retention of national security information to the list of felony prosecutions. Some would say this latter is a pleasant way of charging him with treason.

It seems almost impossible that he’s going to get away with this one. But even if that doesn’t work, next up at bat are Alabama prosecutors who are licking their chops over Trump’s meddling with their secretary of state’s approval of the 2020 election results.

No matter what, it’s hard to believe that Alabama is where the chickens might come home to roost and that it might mean serving time for the new Teflon Don. It is, after all, Alabama.

But whatever crime finally gets him jail time, it is hard to envision Trump stretched on his jail cell cot dictating his own version of Mein Kampf to one of his minions.

Hitler originally wanted to title the book “Four and a Half Years [of Struggle] Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice.”

Adolf’s publishers thought the title a bit too long.

But it sounds like an apt title for Trump to steal. Would the “Teflon Donald” use his time in the klink to document his own version of struggle? He could call it “Four and a Half Years of Struggle Caused by My Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice.”

There is, however, a minor problem with this fantasy. I’m not sure Donald Trump can write.

Evidence suggests that many of the infamous tweets that so excited the masses were never in fact, written by him. Instead, a little-known, virtually anonymous Trump fanatic created most of them.

And, he didn’t actually write “The Art of the Deal,” his first autobiography that served time on the New York Times bestseller list. It was authored by a ghostwriter.

The problem Trump faces is that if you listen to him even for a minute, you’ll find that he can barely put two complete sentences together coherently. Consequently, it seems unlikely that we’ll see a brilliant manifesto coming out of him any time soon.

It may be a disappointment to his followers, but the rest of us can just thank God for small favors.