¿Wappin? The bottom line is we have better musical tastes

Now is the time to understand where we are and what it’ll take to win. Win the brokenhearted, win the disenchanted, win the angry spirits. Now is the time.

Stevie Wonder

Not many of the people at the Democratic National Convention, nor many others in the USA, have heard the tale of Donald Trump’s ill-fated Panama project, the Trump Ocean Club. The dude was trying to sell to other customers. It’s the sail-shaped building at the left side of this photo by Eric Jackson, a knock-off of Dubai’s famous Burj al-Arab. At its inception it was built on a flood plain — but hey, if the price is right and there’s no bank guarding the quality of its collateral, building inspection is a problem that can be “arranged” in a place like this. Inaugurated in knee-deep flood waters, the Trump Ocean Club became the hangout for thugs and fugitives from all over, with an infamous sales crew to promote it. Trump’s ownership came crashing down by order of a US bankruptcy court. At the time, however, The Donald was president of the United States and he used his office to lean on then-president of Panama Juan Carlos Varela to thwart both the bankruptcy sale and condo owners’ rights under the laws here, which give the owners the right to oust the management — in this case The Trump Organization. It came to naught. Maybe some folks in the USA remember the iconic photo of the Trump name being chiseled away? It all became too moot — and perhaps a threat to too many bigwigs with assets stashed in Panama — for anyone to raise the legal issue whether Donald Trump used his high office to solicit an unconstitutional foreign emolument.