№ 822.2: EXTRA! Declaration of Trump Ascendance

WITHOUT CONGRESS (March 27, 2020) —

The calamitous Declaration of the TRUMPS of America, 

When in the Coarse of Donald Trump’s rants, 

it becomes necessary for some people to dissolve, 

to die, to return the earth, to separate 

themselves from those who may profit by their demise

(profit to which the Laws of Nature
and of Nature's God entitle them), 

a disrespect for the facts and opinions of mankind requires 

that they should declare the causes 

which impel them to facilitate such separation.

We hold truth to be irrelevant:

if all men of European ancestry are created equal

(with some more equal than others), 

if they are endowed by their Creator 

(who, despite geographic confusion was European)

with certain unalienable Rights, 

if among these are Life, Liberty 

and the pursuit of Happiness Profits.

— That to secure these rights, 

Governments are instituted among Men, 

deriving their just powers 

from the consent of the governing,

— That whenever any Form of Government 

becomes destructive of these Profits, 

it is the Right of the Richest  

to alter or to abolish it, 

and to institute new Government, 

laying its foundation on such non-principles 

and organizing its powers in such form, 

as to them shall seem most likely 

to effect their Safety and Happiness Profits.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate 

that Governments long established 

should not be changed for light and transient causes

(except when there’s money to be made);

and accordingly all experience hath shewn, 

that mankind are more disposed to suffer 

while evils are sufferable, 

than to right themselves 

by abolishing the forms 

to which they are accustomed.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

the pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,

the insolence of office, and the spurns

that patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

when he himself might his quietus make

with a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

to grunt and sweat under a weary life,

but that the dread of something after death,

the undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn

no traveller returns, puzzles the will,

and makes us rather bear those ills we have

than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus Donald dictates destruction for us all,

but since the Dow's up, who cares?

№ 644: Mr. Johnson Regrets (a history lesson)

LITTLE BRITAIN (July 22)

“There will always be an England,”

is what we used to say,

before Boris Bumptious

gave it all away

by turning back the calendar

to the time before

when Britain was divided

and there was a score

of dueling petty “kingdoms",

not one of which was "Great”

let alone “United”,

let alone a state

in any sense resembling

what Britain would become

from Land's End to John o' Groats and

a never setting sun,

until undone by history

as empires ever are,

a process Boris can't reverse.

Grande Bretagne, au revoir.

No. CXXXVI: The Great Game Encore

NYT: Angry Trump Grilled His Generals About Troop Increase, Then Gave In (Paywall)

On Monday night, Mr. Trump finally put forward a broader strategy for Afghanistan, one that would require thousands more American troops but place more conditions on the Afghan government....As a private citizen, he repeatedly called on Mr. Obama to withdraw the troops.

Foreign Affairs: Afghanistan, Graveyard of Empires, November/December 2001, (Free registration or paid subscription required)

THE GREAT GAME
...This spot...has witnessed the traverse of the world's great armies on campaigns of conquest...All eventually ran into trouble...

Alexander the Great...ran into fierce resistance...Genghis Khan and the great Mughal emperors...a millennium later...established the greatest of empires -- but only after reaching painful accommodations with the Afghans...

In the nineteenth century...the Great Game, the contest between the United Kingdom and Russia for control of Central Asia and India...[saw]...[t]he first Afghan War (1839-42)...British commanders sent a huge army of British and Indian troops into Afghanistan to secure it against Russian incursions, replacing the ruling emir with a British protege...by January 1842 the British were forced to withdraw from Kabul with a column of 16,500 soldiers and civilians...only a single survivor...made it to Jalalabad...

...The British would repeat [their] mistakes in the second Afghan War (1878-81), as would the Soviets a century later...

If Afghanistan isn't the graveyard of empires,

perhaps it's the hospice where empires expire,

where aiming for victory, clean and complete,

in the end all anyone finds is defeat.

(Meantime: Bannon back at his old professions
contemplates corps of modern day Hessians

and Trump, as he views the eclipse with bare eyes,
says, "The sun never shines brighter than me!")