USA, (TRUMP) AND RSA, (ZUMA) AND THE ATTEMPTED COUPS

 

This has been a rough period for America, (USA), South Africa, (RSA), and in fact, the rest of the world. With an uncontrollable pandemic, and the ravages of climate change as a background, their respective democracies teetered on the brink of collapse. Two democratically ousted Presidents attempted to cling to power at opposite poles of the world - Jacob Zuma on the Southern tip of Africa and Donald Trump, in the home of modern democracy itself in North America. For the most part the Southern convulsion was hardly covered in America with the general view that Africa was Africa -after all what could one expect?

 Jay H. Ell will cover the insurrection in South Africa which followed the imprisonment of the immediate past President Jacob Zuma as well as make comparisons with the United America situation which culminated in the attack on the State Capitol and is still continuing to this day. These events have taken place in the USA, the cradle of world democracy and in the RSA, which has the most protective constitution of liberal values according to the late Supreme Court Justice Bader -Ginsberg.

Both of these attacks were extremely serious, rocking the very democratic foundations of their respective countries.  Somehow however there is an unfounded perception that there is no hope for South Africa and it is just following the inevitable pathway to hell of any South American or African banana republic. This latter perception is firmly held while the United States’s attempted coup has been regarded as merely a blip on the screen as the country now, once again, assumes its role as the leader of the free world. In both situations the central figures, who the mobs were promoting, were populists who engendered a cult like following. Their followers being prepared to go to the ends of the earth for their leaders, While race or tribe was the central factor that led to the crises other parameters, such as economic factors and Covid were also responsible. 

A brief history of the two countries might be helpful in understanding how they arrived at these cataclysmic outcomes.

HISTORICAL COMPARISONS BETWEEN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE USA ON RACE - THE CENTRAL ISSUE IN THE FIGHT OF DEMOCRACY v AUTOCRACY  - HOW WE GOT WHERE ARE TODAY

Both of these countries were colonized by white settlers in the seventeenth century. From the earliest times there were clashes with the indigenous peoples of the land. In the USA they were all but wiped out as the settlers marched Westwards while in the RSA the various tribes, by and large, remained intact. The USA created yet another racial problem by the importation of slaves from Africa. In the two territories white settlers were loosely divided into two factions - one which supported the rights of those of color and those who never regarded the latter as equal citizens of the land. The latter argued that the progressives really championed those of color so as to maintain power by enfranchising them. In the USA a civil war was fought between those two factions which was won by the progressive champions. The two territories both fought wars with the colonial power, Great Britain, with differing outcomes. In the USA this resulted in an independent Republic but RSA ties were kept within the British Commonwealth. 

In the USA, in reaction to the amendments to the Constitution which granted the freed slaves the vote, voter suppression followed in the form of Jim Crow laws.  Following the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960’s there was a concerted effort to initiate different methodologies to thwart the efforts to nullify the franchise of the African Americans. These attempts have accelerated of late following a ruling by the Supreme Court which gutted the sixties voting acts. Central to the populist Trump’s thrust is race. While of course denying the latter fact, as leader of the Republican Party he is involved in an ongoing effort to try and regain the presidency and legislature with a minority of support. To make this possible it is crucial to make it more difficult for African Americans to vote. The rationale for the restrictions is to prevent non existent voter fraud, implicitly implicating the African Americans This moves also feed into the mantra of the defeated President in 2020 elections who claims the election was stolen from him.

South Africa’s nightmare began in1948 when the segregationist apartheid National Party narrowly won the General Election. It was an open secret that the United Party under General Smuts, who having just participated in creating the Charter of the United Nations, was about to propose increasing voting rights of those of color. He having been a leader in the Allied fight against Hitler’s racism was smarting from the attack that South Africa was racist by the Indian delegation at UNO. So in RSA not only was there no improvement in the very limited voting rights and representation of those of color the absurd cruel policy of apartheid was set into motion. Besides separate facilities for all groups the African population were told that they weren’t South Africans but were citizens of their particular “tribal’ nation. Citizens were forced to return, if they never had work documents, to work to the least productive areas in South Africa, If nothing else it made them more aware of their tribal heritage. 

All this changed dramatically with the advent of the “new” democratic South Africa which was epitomized by the iconic long lines of voters stretching into the fields waiting to vote in the first election. This all came to an end when Mandela’s designated successor Cyril Ramaphosa was not elected President and soon after a corrupt regime followed. Jacob Zuma was President for eight years and corruption, graft and state capture followed on unimaginable scale. Ironically it was Ramaphosa that deposed him, like Biden, with the slimmest of majorities. 

What followed  both presidents defeats were attempts at insurrection to return the cult leader to power. However there were differences in the motivations and politics emanating from the two rogue leaders. 

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE GENESIS OF THE TRUMP AND ZUMA SAGAS

Both Trump and Zuma were accused of corruption and crime. Their cabinet ministers and administrations were implicated as well. Just two instances of Trump’s woes that were finalized while he was President - he founded a phony University where he misled students and settled the subsequent lawsuit for twenty - five million dollars while his Foundation was fined two million dollars and permanently dissolved for his usage of it for his own personal account. Zuma too was constantly accused of graft and a court finally ruled that Zuma who had spent twenty - three million tax payer dollars on his own private home in Nkandla needed to pay a healthy portion of it back. Zuma sustained a no confidence vote following this revelation but his party the ANC stood behind him. Trump was subject to the equivalent, twice, in the form of impeachment votes but the Republican Party stood firm.

Both leaders behave as if they were ruling by divine right with scant regard to convention, institutional mandates and the courts of law. While Trump used the latter with an army of lawyers to trash the rule of law. Zuma was quoted as querying why he should listen to unelected judges. There were those in fact that used this logic as an exculpatory fact as Zuma’s tradition was tribal where the feudalistic framework mandated obedience to the leaders.

Both their administrations were also in dire legal straits. Eleven of Trump’s inner circle have been indicted on Federal Crimes -  four of whom he unconditionally pardoned - his former campaign mangers Paul Manafort and Steve Bannon, (also  the subsequent National Security Advisor, ((NSA), Roger Stone, a life long fixer and Michael Flynn his first NSA. Trump fired his head of the FBI and several watchdogs of departments who stood in his way. His personal lawyer Michael Cohen was found guilty for committing a crime that the prosecution alleged was at Trump’s instruction. His current personal lawyer has been disbarred from practice for lying to courts that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

 

It has been disclosed that those that allegedly bribed Zuma employed his son at an astronomical salary skipped to Dubai the moment he lost the election. The Gupta family that used government airports counseled the President and even suggested policy and ministerial appointments and their influence was central to Zuma and his administration’s straying off the path of lawfulness. The allegations of corruption of Zuma’s inner circle are legion. His financial advisor Mr. Shaik was sentenced for fifteen years in prison for soliciting a bribe, the court found was for the account of  Mr. Zuma.  Zuma was just prior to ascending to the presidency found not guilty of rape. Another example of the inner circle's widespread malfeasance was when Minister Bongo was jailed for attempting to bribe commissioners into his corruption into the energy facility ESKOM. A national police commissioner was found guilty of accepting a bribe from a crime syndicate and on and on. Zuma fired a succession of Finance Ministers, who refused to go along with his using the national treasury as his personal kitty. The findings of the Zondo Commission on corruption thus far have to be read to be believed. 

Both Trump and Zuma stand on the threshold of serious criminal litigation Zuma in the form of his involvement in a massive corrupt arms deal and Trump on tax evasion, fraud and the like by the Attorney’s general of New York and Manhattan. Trump has to fear that he will charged with racketeering, a crime specifically promulgated to prosecute the mob. This all as a backdrop to the attempted violent coups to return the pair to power.

So far the behavior of these two populists is pretty similar. It needs a photo finish to decide who is worse.

THE ATTEMPTS TO REMAIN IN POWER

Both are involved in ongoing concerted attempts to remain in power.. Trump to this day has refused to concede his loss in the 2020 election while there is every indication that the havoc caused by the riots and looting following the sentencing and imprisonment of President Zuma was an attempt to overthrow the Ramaphosa regime. 

The invasion of the Capitol followed Trump and Giuliani’s exhortations to go to the Capitol and fight like hell. There is no need to go into the well worn details of what happened that fateful day where the “peaceful’ mob were chanting hang Pence with a gallows standing ominously outside. Five hundred arrests have been made. Block buster books about to be published quote the Chief of the Armed Forces, General Milley, fearing a coup and making allusions to Hitler’s firing of the Reichstag. In addition Milley was being contacted by members of the legislature who wished to be reassured that everything was under control. Trump has followed up the January 6 insurrection by claiming that the crowd was peaceful and the protest has been blown out of proportion. The Republicans back him to the hilt claiming that it was Nancy Pelosi the Democratic Speaker’s fault that she didn’t provide adequate protection from the “tourists”. They rejected the formation of a bipartisan non legislative commission.  Trump and his Administration refused to send in troops for a situation the police could not contain.

Zuma’s supporters wreaked havoc. There have been three hundred and thirty deaths, destruction and looting in malls all over Durban. Damage is estimated at nearly three and a half billion dollars. Hundreds of small businesses were wiped out as the carnage enveloped the whole of the Kwa Zulu area in the Natal Province and in the province of Gauteng. Several thousand were arrested for looting and rioting. There are reportedly a dozen Zuma conspirators in jail on suspicion of having orchestrated the uprising. Zuma’s party the ANC roundly condemned the violence. There is overall support for investigations into the causes of the riot. 

MOTIVES FOR THE INSURRECTIONS.

There is no debate about the USA January 6 sedition - the right wing white mob wanted to put Trump back in power as he himself told the Republican Minority leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, when the latter begged for military help, “They obviously care more about the election results than you”. This action goes hand in hand with the Republican State legislatures legislation to suppress the Black vote so as to put the WhiteHouse and the legislature back into their column.

The motivations for the RSA attack are more complex. There is wide spread unemployment magnified by the Covid epidemic which fed into the political objectives. The fact that Zuma was of the Zulu tribe had been ousted narrowly by Ramaphosa of the Venda tribe has to have played into it. (Incidentally there have been no allegations that the voting was rigged!). The fact that Zuma had been incarcerated and they demanded his release was an added incentive on a tribal level as there is still a feudal belief that the leader can do what he likes. (Not so feudal apparently). There was no racial motive and the overwhelming byline was a power grab and an attempt to subvert the rule of law.

AFRICAN SOUL SEARCHING 

There was obviously deep disappointment amongst the African intelligentsia and media. Mandela’s South Africa had promised so much. The RSA had the potential to become the breadbasket of South Africa. There was a developed economic and institutional infrastructure. Their Constitution had been hailed and Mandela did a remarkable job at bringing the country together. The country’s electricity, airlines and infrastructure generally is in a grand mess and it is dealing with the aftermath of the endemic corruption that eight years of the Zuma administration has engendered. 

Nowhere is this post Zuma despondency better reflected  than in an article in the highly respected The Sowetan Times by their lead commentator Prince Machela. Akin to the biblical narrative, reminiscent of “How we wept besides the River of Babylon…”, Machela sadly opines, “What Zuma has done, is to make us come to the realization that ours is another African country, not some exceptional country on the Southern tip of the African continent”, (The destruction of American exceptionalism that Trump actually effected is more to the point).

Machela continues with his lament, “We must all thank Zuma for revealing our true African character; that the idea of the rule of law is not part of who we are and that constitutionalism is a concept ahead of as a people. How else are we to explain the thousands of people who flock to stadiums to clap hands for a president who has violated their country’s constitution?. (Mr Machela has obviously never been to a Trump rally). 

Just a few more of The Sowetan Times commentator  observations “…..In a typical African country, people have no illusions about the unity to morality and governance. People know that those who have power, have it for themselves and their friends and families,,,,,, ( You can add Trump, McConnell, McCarthy, Fox News and the whole Republican Party to that lot),  “….The problem is with clever blacks….Zuma remains African. He is mentally in line with Boko Haram. He is suspicious of educated people: what he calls “clever blacks”. Remember Boko Haram means ‘Against Western Education’”. (Trumpism’s abhorrence of intellect and science is epitomized by the full scale scapegoating of Dr. Fauc)i. "People must not entertain the illusion that a day is coming when SA will look like the USA”….. So there is deep introspection from all sectors of the RSA population with a belief that the USA democracy is the one to aim for!

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Ramaphosa is only dealing with a tribal conflict, at worst. Biden is dealing with a totally divided country where the split, like it or not, is largely on the basis of race. Moreover Biden's opposition has a cult like relationship with their leader Donald Trump to the extent that they are prepared tp risk dying rather than being vaccinated. Zuma is in jail already while in the middle of another criminal trial for corruption. Trump is out and kicking and his indictment on criminal charges has a way to go. Biden has America’s vast fortune to right the country from the mess Trump left behind while Ramaphosa has not the resources to solve some of the economic factors that contributed to the revolt. 

With regard to the pessimistic outlooks in South Africa and America the future is dependent on their institutions, both governmental and non governmental as well as a free media and how effective the rule of law proves to be. In the final analysis both attempts at revolution were thwarted by the self same factors so there has to be hope. 

 Americans have no right to scoff at RSA, in fact the threat to liberal democracy is far greater in the USA. Likewise the South Africans can take comfort from the fact that they are not undergoing a unique experience as democracy is indeed very brittle. 

THE SILENT EPIDEMIC OF CAMPUS ANTI SEMITISM

The dramatic increase in anti semitism from both the left and right has not escaped University campuses where it has ironically been unaffected by the creation of “safe spaces”, “deplatforming”, “microagressions” and the like. The latter in spite of appearing more likely to suppress free speech than promote it has somehow allowed an environment of hate to exponentially grow. All these phenomena are at odds with a University’s role in the pursuit of truth, open debate, tolerance of all opinions and abhorrence of discrimination. There is a growing consensus that there is a silent epidemic of anti semitism on many American university campuses. 

ANTI SEMITISM ON THE CAMPUSES

Very little is written about the subject of campus anti semitism which is considered rampant in certain hotspots. The reasons for this neglect are multiple resulting in very little coverage by the legitimate media. On social media the campus vitriol is multiplied with vey little response by the victims. The reason being that the Jewish students feel uncomfortable launching attacks on those whose views they otherwise agree with. By and large they are highly empathetic with the Palestinians plight, Black Lives Matter and the “Me Too” movement for example. Jay H. Ell  also feels uncomfortable about making a big deal about it when the country’s democracy is teetering, blacks are still being shot by police in circumstances difficult to comprehend, the world is facing a pandemic that just won’t go away and the Chinese are murdering the Muslim Yyngars. However  this blatant growing discrimination has to be exposed, investigated and countered as who knows where it will end. 

Ironically Jewish students as a group are far more liberal than their counterparts. For whatever reasons they are in the mix for the march for a more just world. Jay H. Ell remembers vividly how the apartheid government responded to the disproportionate number of jews elected to the Students Representative Council at his University, warning, “that it hadn’t passed unnoticed”. What persuasion were the Chicago Seven? Yet they, as a minority, are far more likely than other minorities to be targeted in the recent decade. Studies executed by Harvard and Tuft University  investigators have shown that Jews are disproportionately discriminated against.

In a Brandeis University study conducted  amongst Jewish students of American and Canadian Universities in 2015 three quarters of respondents claimed they had been exposed to anti semitic incidents. All these taking place in a societal environment where anti semitic incidents, hate crimes including incidents of mass shootings at Jewish places of worshiping where Neo fascists in Charlottesville and on January 6 are spewing, “The Jews will not replace us” and wearing Auschwitz tee shirts. Then in the House of Representatives Majorie Taylor Greene is mouthing nazi allusions while Ms’ Omar and Tiab keep making more than micro aggressive remarks about Jews. None of whom are being severely censured. 

The central issue on the campuses is that if a student is a Jew he/she is responsible for the alleged Neo fascist, genocidal, apartheid, Neo colonial behavior of the Israeli administration regardless of whether they support the Israeli governmental policy or not. The Holocaust is often denied even while the Palestinians are designated the real victims and the Israelis the modern day Nazis. In addition there is the theory that Israel should simply not exist. 

THE STATE OF ISRAEL AS A LEGAL ENTITY

Even leaving aside the fact that the Jews ever since their expulsion by the Romans have prayed, “Next year in Jerusalem”, the inescapable fact is that Israel is a legal entity having been sanctified by the League of Nations and the United Nations. The proposition that they should handover to the Palestinians where Hamas is the only real force in that group has, at its kindest, not been thought through. Hamas have as a key constitutional proposition to wipe the Israelis off the face of the earth. Supposing the argument was bought by the Israelis or Hamas won the war and then had mercy and just expelled the Israelis where would they go? Will the campus nay sayers agitate that they all be let into America? Will they accept the eight million political refugees? America and the world’s record isn’t too hot on the subject. In 1938  Franklin Roosevelt convened a Conference in Evian in the wake of Hitler’s genocidal intent with a view to establishing which of the  thirty - eight democratic States would welcome Jewish refugees. The outcome was not one would accept an additional Jew.

ANTI - SEMITISM’S LONG HISTORY

Anti semitism has been around for over two millennia ever since the Jews were expelled from the Holy Land by the Romans at the beginning of the Common Era. Jews who have always been a tiny minority who have been the scapegoat by those who are looking for a group to blame for their woes. Today they represent 0.2% of the world’s population - merely fifteen million of the seven billion people. One theory as to why they stand out is their compulsive desire to excel and give something back to the country that is harboring them.  

The late Rabbi Sacks explained that the rationale for Jewish victimization has changed according to the political situation. In the middle ages it was their religion, in the mid twentieth century it was their race and today it is because the State of Israel exists. Also in the twentieth Century the rationale for genocide was because they were not committed Communists while world wide they were smeared for being both capitalists or Communists. In Germany they were the accused of adulterating the Aryan race.

Today in living memory of the holocaust they are being scapegoated by the extreme left and right and now most savagely in Universities who ostensibly go to absurd lengths not to offend while allowing the grossest form of discrimination to take place. 

WHAT GOT JAY H ELL GOING

An anonymous anecdotal report published in “The Tufts Daily” in May of this year entitled, “The Hidden Anti Semitism Plaguing College Campuses” detailed the experiences of a young student. The latter stated that she was against the Netanyahu Israeli government to the extent that she thought some of their actions were barbaric, but she/he was nevertheless relentlessly targeted because she supported the right of Israel to exist. She remarked that holding Jews accountable for Israeli government actions is unacceptable. This piece perked up concern but after all it was a single anonymous perception where sweeping generalizations were being made. Next there was a report on the CNN web page by a Julia Jassey whose experience at a College in Chicago was simply summed up by the fact that she was harassed and ostracized by fellow progressive students simply because she supported Israel’s right to exist. This pressure made her scared to wear her Star of David necklace. 

Jassy started a support group on social media “Jewish on Campus” which served as a forum for countless others in a similar situation. As a result she received, on line, threats of death as did her family as well as warnings that she would be sexual assaulted, Blake Payton a twenty year old from George Washington University reflected that anti semitism was now emanating from the left as well as the right. Payton, besides being called a baby killer among other outrageous libels confides that he is the recipient of more death threats than his parents would care to know about. Both Jassey and Payton are progressives. Payton says the positivity of social media such as the galvanizing of the Black Lives Matter movement has its negative side as it has been weaponized to put Jewish lives at risk. He reflects that if Hitler would have had Instagram the Holocaust would have happened earlier. 

 In a masterpiece of understatement they both observe that there is no room for nuance. They are shunned because they are Jews who believe that the state of Israel should exist. 

THE FACTS

The landmark 2015 Brandeis study drew on the perceptions of Zionist inclined students from Universities in America and Canada. Approximately three thousand  students who were randomly selected responded. A quarter stated that that hostility towards Israel was a “problem” on their campuses and fifteen percent registered that there was outright hostility towards Jews per se. A quarter were “blamed” for Israel’s actions in the past year while a third claimed they were verbally harassed because they were Jewish. However this sample of Jewish students were distinguished by the fact that were Zionistic. 

According to the Mathew Berger of the national and international Hillel Jewish campus organization in the last two months he has dealt with anti semitism issues on fifty campuses across the two coasts and across, public, private, Ivy League and liberal arts campuses. All reports say that, in the main, a predictor is whether there is an association of “Justice for Palestinians” or a movement to support, BDS - Ban, Disinvest and Sanction Israel on the campus. The other predictor of a rise in anti semitism seems to be correlated with outbreaks of reprisals of Israel against Hamas terrorist attacks. 

It is fair to say that this discrimination is not universal to every campus in America, The Brandeis group did an in depth study in 2017 of four prestigious University campuses where at least ten percent of the undergraduate students were Jewish - Brandeis, Harvard, Michigan State and Penn State. While the narrative referenced several studies where anti semitism had been found at Colleges none of those under purview illustrated any of the negative findings which have appeared so prevalent in both anecdotal and research reports. The overwhelming perception in the 2017 Brandies study was that the climate was far from hostile to Jewish students at those four institutions. 

ANTI SEMITISM ON CAMPUS - A LACK OF EDUCATION?

Notwithstanding the 2017 study the online Journal Inside Education ran a story, in February 2021 entitled “It Is Time We Taught Anti - Semitism”. The author Seth Kogen maintained that anti semitism was a full blown problem on many campuses, where many students can’t even recognize it when it is staring them in the face. Kogen quotes a study from the American Jewish Committee where they found that more than half American students or graduates between the ages of eighteen to twenty nine literally didn’t know the meaning of the word anti semitism. He juxtaposes that study with one of his own where over forty percent of Jewish Americans in the same age cohort had been subject to an anti semitic remark or attack. Over eighty percent also maintained the obvious that anti semitism had increased in America over the past five.years. Their non Jewish peers supported overwhelmingly agreed on statements which are regarded as anti semitic such as “The US only supports Israel because of Jewish Money”.

As a result of these studies Kogen believes the answer to the full blown problem of anti semitism on American campuses is education. He outlines a three phase process supported by the American Jewish Committee. Much like students are orientated on various issues such as sexual consent and identity and other unacceptable discriminatory behaviors they need education in the area of anti semitism. Kogen maintains the current approach to increase funding for Jewish Hillel Houses on campuses to provide a safe haven for the students is not the right solution.

He proposes a three fold orientation in the first year to the facts on the holocaust, what constitutes anti semitism especially as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and as accepted by the US Department of Education. Students need to respect what their Jewish students perceive to be anti semitic and not define this concept themselves. The article ends with an exhortation for all College campuses to add this to their orientation curriculum.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

For whatever reason anti semitism has risen to be “a full blown problem” in a large number of American College campuses. For whatever reason, not the least of which is resistance by Jews themselves not to make an issue of this, little attention has been focussed on the discrimination.

There is little doubt that the attacks are coming both from the left and right. On the one hand Jews are once again the scapegoats for all that is ill on the other there is deep resentment at the creation of the nation state of Israel.

While anti semitism to a certain extent is an educational problem it flourishes in eras where extremism reigns. The current American environment where there is an attack on democracy itself is fertile soil for this age old racial bias to thrive. Maybe that too is one of the reasons why Jews disproportionately involve themselves in affairs of the nations they live in.

There is a need for tolerance and understanding by all parties thereby thwarting the sprouting of xenophobias including those against the Muslims and more recently the Asian Americans.

One fact is for certain American Colleges, in general, have ignored the growth of anti semitism on their campuses. In fact they could be held to account legally for this breech of conduct under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act for allowing discrimination and be deprived of any Federal funding. In heavens name what are they doing producing lists of examples of "microaggressions” while macro aggressions stare them in their face?

TRUMP BOMBS HIS RE ENTRY

About the only topic Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell agree upon is that they want Trump off the front pages and being the lead story of the television anchors. McConnell’s need is far more urgent as Trump’s divisiveness will not help the Republicans regain the Senate and the House. Biden wants to create bipartisanship and rule on his own transformative merits. The current President needs his bully pulpit to sell his reforms and not have the oxygen guzzled by the doings of his successor. 

Both Biden and McConnell had their unrealistic hopes dashed this week as Trump returned to the American stage with a  bang. However the forty fifth president is about to prove that there is limit to all publicity being good publicity. Every time Trump opens his mouth, points his finger and allows the breeze to ruffle is orange coiffure McConnell winces as he knows that every member of the Republican caucus is going to be asked to comment. Luckily for McConnell Trump’s triumphant return is turning out to be more like a whimper than a bang. McConnell’s problems really begin when the civil legislative and criminal litigation and investigations into Trump and January 6 begin. Trump’s return began with a shower of negative news.

BAD BAD WEEK FOR THE DONALD

The week in which heralded the return of Donald Trump to the scene was accompanied by the following happenings: 

The announcement that his company and oldest best friend Chief Finance Officer Alan Wiesselberg  were to be criminally charged for tax evasion was the worst possible news for Trump, McConnell and Biden in that order:

A trove of, what can charitably labelled insane, Trump e mails directed to his newest worst friend Bill Barr surfaced. These outlined his frenetic conspiratorial attempts to prove that he won the election: 

His longest standing newest best friend Rudi Giuliani was disbarred for purveying a tissue of lies about conspiracies to steal the election from him; The detail provided by a panel of judges was astonishing as it had to be as Giuliani was claiming attorney client, (Trump), privilege: 

Biden’s Justice Department contested in court the State of Georgia’s Trump inspired legislation to deprive African Americans the opportunity to vote; 

One of his worst friends Nancy Pelosi announced a commission to enquire into the January 6 insurrection about the same time that the first of five hundred defendants were about to be tried for the latter, most of whom were either claiming that their actions were because of Donald J.Trump. The Judges in the trial have already castigated the Republican mantra that this insurrection was no big dig deal: 

Leaks from a slew of books about to be published on the sickening inner workings of the Trump WhiteHouse hit the media. Obviously there is a rush of informants anxious to tell all about what really happened. Included are - his disdain for the Covid Response team and his consulting them while in Walter Reid, the prayers by CDC Head Redfield in the hope that Trump’s, as not yet fully revealed, near death experience would allow him to reflect and warn the country as to the danger of the disease and then the full story of January 6 where he egged on the insurgents. There are more and more stories of the corruption of his cabinet….

The former Vice President, Mike Pence, who has a genuine following amongst the Evangelicals which was the reason Trump chose him in the first place, is making more and more of a virtue of following the statutes and rarifying Biden’s election. On the same day as Trump’’s coming out party Pence bragged that he “was proud” to have ratified Biden. 

 Finally Trump went on the road to rid the Republican Party of anyone who opposed him so as to ensure, lest McConnell forget, that he not McConnell, is the leader of the new GOP. The really bad news was that even Fox News didn’t rate his rally in rural North East Ohio as their lead story. There were accounts of it on the equivalent of page five in all the media except the new far right channels such as Newsmax. Incidentally no one, including Fox News, covered the earth shattering event live. So in fairness to Trump, Jay H. Ell will give it the airing it deserves. 

That certainly the week that was, but back to the revivalist meeting.

MASS RALLY IN THE OUTBACK - THE SCOOP

The forty fifth President held his first rally since spurring on the insurrection on January 6, in Wellington Ohio. The latter is a village with a population of between four and five thousand. Presumably he went there to stimulate the local economy. The good news is that it is about a forty - five minute drive from Cleveland but don’t blink as you drive through as you may miss it. 

Now Wellington Ohio is in Lorraine County which is represented in the House of Representatives by Republican Anthony Gonzalez who had the chutzpah to vote for the ratification of the election results as well as being one of the ten GOP members who voted for the impeachment of Trump for spurring on a coup. The reason Jay H. Ell goes into such detail about an unknown Congressman representing a godforsaken part of Ohio is that he was the main subject of the jamboree. 

The rally was attended by “thousands”. Fifteen to twenty thousand were expected but although no one seemed to be able to pin a number the consensus was that there were “thousands” but not the grandiose number predicted. The venue was the Lorraine County Fairgrounds which really didn’t lend itself to the occasion. There is very little seating arrangements to watch the annual cattle parade or taste the cheeses which Wellington, (Ohio), is renowned for but the crowd hung in there. 

One fact was for sure that those that those were in attendance were the true devotees. They differed only as to the state of where the Trump Presidency was at - some claiming that he was still the Commander in Chief at the moment and others going along with Q’Anon theory believed he would be reinstated only in August. 

There were the usual flags and bunting and MAGA red caps and hysteria. What was missing was the usual entourage of local and national dignitaries - the Republican Governors and Congresspeople etc. Instead those that were mentioned in dispatches were the forty - seven year old Majorie Taylor Greene, who only recently learnt about the holocaust by visiting the holocaust museum in Chicago - she hopes to visit the African American museum before 2022 - and the My Pillow Man, who has become a national standing joke.

So what did the cult leader have to say?

THE MESSAGE - THE SHOW MUST GO ON

As always the former TV star lionized those who were out to get his enemies and there were no greater enemies than those who did not back his Big Lie. So he introduced to the world, let alone the crowd, Max Miller a former aide who he was backing against the traitor House of Representative  Gonzalez, “Max’s opponent is a guy named Anthony Gonzalez, who is bad news. He’s a grandstanding RINO, (Republican in name only), not respected in DC, who voted for the unhinged, unconstitutional illegal, impeachment witch hunt. He’s a sellout , he’s a fake Republican and a disgrace to your state , I will tell you that”.

Miller himself had echoed in anticipation what needed to be said. About Trump he professed, “Love that guy” and pronounced that Gonzalez would never live down his betrayal. Trump was Miller’s “role model, period, bar none”. Jay H. Ell supposes it takes all types to go on the road. 

Then out of the blue Trump attacked another little known Congressman, Tim Ryan - a Democrat who was “a disaster”. Ryan is a rising Democratic star who has announced that he will run with five others in the Democratic Primary for the Senate next year. There is a vacancy due to the retirement of the sitting Republican Senator. Well he gave Ryan a boost as he was elevated to many TV talk shows to explain why Trump had singled him out.

Enough already with Tim, Max and Anthony and onto the main event Donald J. Trump live. 

 Trump gave them what they came for namely that he may well be running in 2024, “We won the election twice. It is possible that we will have to win it a third time in 2024”.When all the victimization talk was over he blamed Biden for not fixing up the border immigration chaos that he had inherited from Trump himself. He argued that Biden’s policy was inhumane! The media and even the “woke generals and admirals” came in for fire.

“We will take back the House. We will take back the Senate. And we will do it soon”. Trump like everyone else had forgotten that it was he that had lost them both his good self.. 

So it was all the same show. To those who watched and hoped for something new they were disappointed. However like with Billy Joel and Elton John they revelled in the familiar and sung along. If Trump was thinking of doing the circuit as a paid entertainer he must have taken away encouragement. However he was no longer news on what he does. He can only become headlines as to what he is done to him. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

For Trump and McConnell 2022 is about competing as to who is the cult leader of the Republican Party. In fairness to McConnell he answers to his corporate pay masters while Trump answers only to Trump. For Biden 2022 sets him on the path to move the imperfect American dream a bit closer to fulfillment and like it or not Trump will keep giving him a hand.

Trump’s choice of venue for one of his most important constituencies the forgotten rurals, was perfect but without the media coverage it will have very limited impact. He would be better off not risking his power within the Republican Party by not getting involved in local elections for the sole purpose of revenge. The audience came from far and wide and it is a fair guess that most of them don’t even vote in Gonzalez’s constituency. However Jay H. Ell is not paid to give Trump political advice so he will just have to learn the hard way.  

By the way for those of you missed it Trump followed up Ohio with a visit ti the border dissing Republicans all the way there and back.