JUDGE GONZALO CURIEL

Judge Gonzalo Curiel sits in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. He has the unhappy task of presiding over a pair of class action lawsuits brought by former students of ‘Trump University’ so called, an enterprise conceived by businessman Michael Sexton, who had the happy fortune of selling billionaire Donald Trump on the idea of cashing in on his image as a successful real estate mogul.

Trump was so impressed with Sexton’s idea that he took a 90% share of the deal, leaving Sexton with nothing but a paltry $250,000 job as the CEO.

Sexton’s idea was simple. Trump is a celebrity. He is on television alternately praising and firing eager young apprentices. He has written 18 books, mostly telling how he made so much money. Sexton saw that Trump was perceived as a cornucopia of business acumen.

Who wouldn’t want to study at the feet of the high mucky-muck of money making?

Apparently nobody told Mr. Sexton or Mr. Trump that freedom of speech does not include calling yourself a university without the proper state authority, any more than one can call himself a ‘lawyer’ or a ‘doctor’ without a license and charge people money for their services.

And, of course, the ‘feet’ of the high priest of the real estate business would have to be multiplied by dozens of surrogate slippers on the carpet in order to satisfy the groundswell of demand that would erupt as soon as the chance to become an aspiring “Trumpeteer” in the real estate market became known.

Which quickly led to the hiring of salesmen who were adept at selling people on the business of selling other people on the business of selling yet other people on whatever they may be selling.

If that is a ponzi scheme, of course, then so is every college, university, and sales manager in America. Still, it was a departure for Mr. Trump from his normal pursuits, and it has provided his political opponents with a position on high ground from which to lay siege to his Presidential prospects.

And Donald Trump, with his insatiable appetite for conflict, has taken the bit in his mouth and clamped down real hard.

The Judge is a Mexican. The plaintiffs’ lawyers are all Hispanics and Democrats to boot. They are all in cahoots to embarrass, harass, annoy, and ultimately defeat and destroy me, he says. They all hate Donald Trump.

Yea, verily, they are the enemy, says the Donald. They are the bad guys, out to destroy us … we are the good guys.

Unhappily, whatever legal merits the Trump U. plaintiffs can assert, it is certainly true that Hillary and company are rubbing their hands in delight as the Trump U case overtakes the email server case in the public square.

Politics has always been a harsh and unforgiving business. In the early days of our nation men still repaired to the field of honor to resolve personal disputes. Political discourse was spicy, vigorous, indeed nasty at times, but there was always the ultimate challenge to “choose your weapon.”

Alexander Hamilton and his son both died from wounds inflicted in  duels. In those days, you didn’t call another man a liar, a cheater or a thief without expecting a challenge to settle with pistols or swords.

No doubt before November, Trump will infer that Hillary’s Wall Street speechifying was a form of prostitution and she will respond by suggesting that everyone knows that Donald Trump is a rectal aperture.

In Philadelphia, in 1787, our fore fathers opted to provide for a single executive. That’s what they wrote into our Constitution. New Jersey wanted an executive council. 

Maybe we should reconsider.