2087 Only the Little People.

2087 Only the Little People

That’s the late Leona Helmsley.  Back when, she said only the little people paid taxes.  She was wrong.  But for the record, she also was the Donald trump of her day.

Helmsley was the widow of Harry Helmsley, hotel magnate, real estate wheeler-dealer.  And Harry was the kind of upper crusty who was welcomed into the rarified air of the New York land kings.  Leona? She wasn’t called “the Queen of Mean” for nothing. She went to her final rest in 2007 with the reputation intact and a rap sheet for tax evasion.  

Then there’s that other New York real estate “king,” trump. Doesn’t seem to do much tax-paying either. Takes big losses. Calls them a shrewd business plan.  Over-values this patch, undervalues that one. Relies on his late father’s largess even now, decades after daddy got planted six feet below Middle Village, Queens in a cemetery with about 40-thousand other permanent residents.

Leona ran a truly gaudy and expensive hotel on Madison Avenue. It even outgauded the little cottage across the street, home of the Roman Catholic Cardinal of New York, 15-thousand square feet of pinched ugly. She ran a bunch of dilapidated buildings in the garment district.  She managed the Empire State Building.

Birds of a feather.  Bound by their tax policies.  Rejected by the Manhattan real estate cabal. Oh… they had to pay attention to her, because she was Harry’s widow.  They don’t have to pay attention to trump.  And that probably boils his water even more than all those dark-skinned people gathering on the southern border, ready at a moment’s notice to fill US streets with drugs, rape “our” women, steal our jobs.  Multiply like rabbits. Speak a foreign language.

Leona had no class.  But it didn’t stop her. She was Harry’s widow.  The president has no class.  It does stop him.  She didn’t need to create her own reality. He does. And he’s done it.

After jail, Leona palled around with people like Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines, famous for her shoe collection and skinning her way out of racketeering charges.  Before the presidency, trump palled around with the likes of gay-bashing but closet gay mob fixer Roy Cohen, who also represented the seditious Senator Joe McCarthy.

We don’t know who he’ll pal around with after he finishes turning the United States of America into white Liberia.  But you can bet the gouged rent that it’ll be people you wouldn’t be seen dead with.

One can only hope that in the end, trump will get a longer sentence than Leona’s.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2019