You can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else. But we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world. — Stephen Miller, speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper

My neighbor Swamp Rabbit and I we were discussing the extent to which Donald Trump’s clumsy embrace of imperialism — the invasion of Venezuela, the threatened takeover of Greenland, etc. — was influenced by advice from his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller.

Swamp Rabbit tossed his empty can of beer. He said Miller is Trump’s idea man, and that his ideas were heavily influenced by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche.

“Miller got picked on in high school because he was a 90-pound dweeb,” my bibulous buddy said. “He’s using Nietzsche language to justify his desire to get revenge on the bad-asses who picked on him.”

“You’re crazy,” I said. “It wasn’t Venezuelans who picked on him. It wasn’t Greenlanders.”

It seems Swamp Rabbit recently saw some author on TV talking about Nietzsche and realized Miller must have cribbed a lot of his sayings from The Will to Power, Nietzsche’s guidebook to personal growth through self-assertion.

“Miller must have misread him,” I said. “Judging from his comments, he owes more to Heinrich Himmler than to Nietzsche.”

But then I thought it through and pitched a theory of my own — that Miller got his ideas from Baby Face, a pre-Code Hollywood movie (1933) where Barbara Stanwyck plays the daughter of a saloonkeeper who is pimping her to his customers. She puts up with this miserable situation until she meets a philosophical old guy who holds up a copy of The Will to Power and offers her some stern advice:

“You must be a master, not a slave. Look here — Nietzsche says, ‘All life, no matter how we idealize it, is nothing more nor less than exploitation.’ That’s what I’m telling you. Exploit yourself. Go to some big city where you will find opportunities! Use men! Be strong! Defiant! Use men to get the things you want!”

“So she runs away to New York City,” I said. “She gets a job in an office building, cozies up to a series of horny executives and literally sleeps her way to the top floor.”

Swamp Rabbit scratched his matted gray hair and looked puzzled. “So Miller is like the Barbara Stanwyck character? Or are you saying he’s like the old guy with the Nietzsche book?”

“The old guy, you dummy. Miller’s way too ugly for the Stanwyck part, but he’s smart enough to be a big influence on Trump, his lord and master.”

“You’re giving me a headache,” Swamp Rabbit said, reaching for another beer.