THE FANTASY FLIP

If you are using up far too much time, energy, and optimism trying to survive Trump, then you are of course rooting, along with me, for the Trump presidency not to survive. The day has long passed when we had some hope that the man would grow in office. Of course, he has grown – grown more reckless, more childish, more thoughtless, more vindictive, and more frightened of being caught, exposed, prosecuted, and punished.

We now know that this will get worse before it gets better. It is as though he has shifted into a gear we didn’t know he had.

I do not know when or how he will completely unravel, but when he does it will probably be at breath-taking speed.

You can bet that we will eventually see the tax returns. We will see proof of his businesses running on secret Russian loans and laundered Russian rubles. We will see him for the criminal that he has always been, rather than his self-constructed myth of the shrewd businessman, whose success was due to his supposed “brilliance,” and his mastery of the art of the deal.

No! Success came from selling his empty soul to a Russian devil.

We all will see him pay.

Al Capone did not get locked up for murder, extortion, or bootlegging. He went to prison for the victimless crime of tax evasion. I am sure that some of his victims and their family members felt that justice had not been served. But Capone died in prison, where he had begun to lose his mind due to syphilis – an acceptable happy ending for most ordinary, decent members of society.

A modern day and equally infamous mob boss, John Gotti, aka: the Dapper Don, also died in prison. He became boss of the Gambino crime family by murdering Frank Castellano, the man who was then occupying that position.

Gotti’s other  nickname was the Teflon Don, for his success in swaggering out of court rooms after juries would fail to convict him for crimes he had obviously committed.

That changed when Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, Gotti’s underboss, enforcer, and confidant, decided that rather than spend the rest of his life in prison, he would testify against his boss in exchange for a sweetheart deal – a very controversial sweetheart deal.

Sammy the Bull had murdered nineteen people, leaving nineteen circles of angry family members and friends who would see their justice denied. There would be justifiable blow back. Signing off on that deal would take an individual who would not be swayed by anything standing in the way of locking up the arrogant, defiant, "you will never convict me" mob boss.

The man who would not be swayed was the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice -- the quiet man, Robert Mueller.

For all those driven to see John Gotti put behind bars, Sammy the Bull was their Fantasy Flip – a Fantasy Flip turned into reality.

So my fellow Trump survivors, who would be your Fantasy Flip?

If you don’t already have one, I suggest you put it near the top of your to-do list. It just might help you stay positive, while you are waiting for justice.

I will tell you my Fantasy Flip, but that will have to wait until my next two minutes.