Every week we move nearer to what may come to be known as the era of ‘The Great Twatsby’. Not that Donald Trump is necessarily nailed on to be installed as President of the United States by next January, not with his old chum (hey, see the photo on the home page) Hillary Clinton ready to ambush his ambitions. But he does look increasingly like the man the Republican Party will be fielding against Clinton come poll time in November, this even though Republican ‘super-donor’ Charles Koch recently described some of The Donald’s rantings – for example, his idea of setting up a database of Muslims – as being “reminiscent of Nazi Germany” and opined that all considered Hillary might make for a better president. This was akin to the Pope disavowing Catholicism.

Be that as it may, Trump made his views plain. “I think the only card she has is the woman’s card. She’s got nothing else going. Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5% of the vote.” Way to go, Donald, albeit perhaps not the way to get into power. I presume somebody has told him that women do have the vote.

However, so rattled are his remaining Republican rivals that they decided to join forces to try to stump Trump. Ted Cruz and John Kasich agreed not to contest state primaries where the other was the more likely winner, so as not to split the anti-Donald ticket. It would be fair to say this strategy proved no masterstroke. Trump won in all five states up for grabs that week. Cruz and Kasich should perhaps have learned something from The Great Gatsby: “It takes two to make an accident.”

The Donald gives someone the finger while seemingly having an expletive on the tip of his tongue

Finally for now, I offer this, in case Cruz and Kasich decide to take things too far. Below is an extract from a book called Chancing It, published earlier this year by Robert Matthews.

“And so it was that in May 1990 [Akio] Kashiwagi sat down to a baccarat session arranged especially for him by the newly opened Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. The stakes were $200,000 a hand, and the game was to continue until he or the casino won $12 million. Kashiwagi lived up to his reputation, playing with skill and tenacity, and amassing $10 million. But then the wafer-thin [house] edge started to turn against him, and he made the classic mistake of all mug punters: he began chasing his losses. As the hours went by, Kashiwagi’s losses mounted. Finally, after 70 hours of play over six days, he grabbed $2 million in chips and quit.

“But then the Taj’s strategy started to unravel. It had gambled that Kashiwagi was good for the $10 million he owed. But the casino was still short of $6 million in January 1992, when Kashiwagi was found dead in his home near Mount Fuji. He had been stabbed over a hundred times – some believe on the orders of the Yakuza, Japan’s equivalent of the Mafia.”

Cruz and Kasich have been warned: don’t mess with The Donald! (BTW, lawyers, this is a joke!!)

To be continued…