Remember Ocean’s Eleven? The original film was made in 1960, and starred the members of Hollywood’s infamous “Rat Pack”: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and more. The 2001 remake was technologically advanced and well done, but not quite as much fun for those of us old enough to remember the original.

Whichever version you choose to watch, you will be treated to a clever, fast-paced, sometimes suspenseful and often hilarious crime caper in which a group of con men (and one woman) devise the perfect plan to rob five Las Vegas casinos of a boatload of cash.

And for no apparent reason, I dreamt about that plot last night; only in my dream I was part of a gang of Robin Hood-style do-gooders planning to deprive the country’s corrupt oligarchs of their fortunes and retreat to our private island, where we would live — somehow safe from extradition or retribution — happily ever after.

I awoke smiling, most likely at the audacity of the concept. And then it struck me that I might possibly have stumbled upon the perfect solution to America’s current oligarch problem. We hire the originators of Ocean’s Eleven — the writers, producers, and directors — to apply their diabolical cleverness to concocting a real-life heist.

And we put the ogre-in-chief. and all of his multi-billionaire cohorts, out of business.

Just don’t ask me how to do it; I haven’t the foggiest notion. That would require minds far more clever (and devious) than mine, and some real-world technical advisors to back us up. My immediate thought is that we would need former Secretary of Labor and outspoken administration critic Robert Reich for his knowledge and expertise in trade and economic affairs; progressive Democrat, billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates for his financial wizardry; and for legal advice, if they would be willing, one or all of the three brave-and-true Americans on the Supreme Court: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett.

Of course, I haven’t presented the idea to any of them — they don’t even know I exist — but they would be my dream team.

Then we would do unto the oligarchs as they have done unto everyone else: we screw them to the wall. Because without their billions, they are nothing. And without their political presence, we can truly make America great again . . . the way she was meant to be.

Yes, it’s a pipe dream. But it’s the best one I’ve had in a long while.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/23/25