Let’s start with the obvious: There is no question in my mind that Trump is at the top of the chain of indictments Mueller is building in his ongoing investigation.

There. Now that’s out of the way, here’s something to ponder, while you’re popping that popcorn awaiting the next big thing in Reality White House.

The following is going to appear as a massive digression, but it’s vitally important to understand this portion of European history to put today’s events in context, so bear with me while I share a brief history lesson with you.

Around the middle of last year, I wrote this post. I was trying to put some of my own history, including my ability to see historical patterns, in context.

In the class, we built a contextual timeline that eventually led to World War II. The timeline included a thorough discussion of the slow build-up of antisemitism that resulted in six million Jewish deaths.

Along the way, we talked about the Dreyfus Affair, (L’affaire Dreyfus). Feel free to skip the following if you already know where this is leading, but I encourage you to check out the links below anyway. You might learn something.

In 1899, Georges Méliès (best known for his silent Les Voyage Dans La Lune/A Trip to the Moon and highlighted in the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, on which the movie Hugo is based), released a silent film, which was promptly censored in France. The fragment shown below is all that remains of the original film.

The Dreyfus Affair – The Censored Film by Georges Méliès (1899)

If you’re a cinema buff, you might already know how sensitive and damaging the original film proved to be, or you can read about it here, on Open Culture, which provides another link to what remains of the original:

Watch Georges Méliès’ The Dreyfus Affair, the Controversial Film Censored by the French Government for 50 Years (1899)

Done?

We continue.

In hindsight, there is no question regarding the anti-Semitism reflected in the incident. The phrase J’accuse! became, for a time, a common generic expression of outrage and accusation, but started with Zola’s article on Dreyfus. Dramatic treatments include (most famously) I Accuse!, a 1958 film with José Ferrer in the Dreyfus role, and Prisoner of Honor, with Richard Dreyfuss (ultimately no relation) as Alfred Dreyfus.

Why is this important?

Well, let’s see.

At the moment, there’s a prominent Jew in the White House. In truth, there are two, but only one of them, Jared Kushner, was born that way. His father, Charles Kushner is the son of Jewish Belarusian immigrants. Dad served prison time for unauthorized use of funds.

There’s a lot of questions now concerning Jared’s own role in RussiaGate.

Why do I find this disturbing?

There’s no question that this appears on the surface to be shady dealing, but if you want my opinion (which you do if you’re reading these words, nu?), I think that this won’t just be Trump throwing his son-in-law under a well-deserved bus. It could be the start of a raging witch hunt that could lead to our own holocaust.

Hyperbolic? Maybe.

With white supremacists in the highest offices, is it really a stretch to think that maybe this is the ultimate goal? After all, we’ve already seen how fragile white egos treat the Black Lives Matter movement. And it’s certainly true that we came pretty darn close to witnessing what a Jewish candidate might have absorbed in the way of hateful propaganda. (If only Sanders had won the nomination, you’d already know what I was talking about here.)

I find it deeply troubling that it appears Trump is willing to sell out his daughter’s husband, especially in light of all the support his campaign received from rich Jewish contributors.

The cynic in me thinks this is a perfect excuse to free Trump’s family from Jewish influence. The question is how far he will go to protect himself, who he will toss under the bus along with Kushner, and where we will be a year from now, come Election Day 2018.