Reparations

The reparations Trump proposed to pay,
like Kaiser Wilhelm, humbled at Versailles,
can't make his Persian folly go away;
Iranians would pay to watch him die.
The war he'd pledged he wasn't gonna start,
now holds a dagger to his party's throat.
His coalition's poised to fall apart,
when We, the People rouse ourselves to vote.
Three dozen times, he's bragged we're at the end
a glorious success all due to him!
But Congress holds the only pow'r to spend
those billions won't be doled out at his whim.
If this is "winning", we can't bear the cost;
historians will tally this "Trump's Loss".

new Treaty of Versailles

Iranians see leverage increase;
with passing weeks, the US mid-terms loom.
Trump's allies will be doomed if there's no peace,
and that's a world away from MoU.
The foreign war he'd sworn he wouldn't start
won't be resolve just 'cause he offers cash.
The MAGA base is apt to fall apart
if we're still paying through the nose for gas.
Humiliated in the shipping lanes,
Trump vents his wrath on Bibi in his turn.
As doomed as Putin's venture in Ukraine,
each gets to pay for everything he's burned.
'Though Congress may repudiate this cost
one must be blind to not perceive this loss.

slipping

His cultists still insist he has a plan.
With prices lurching sky-ward at the pump,
none have the balls to disabuse their man
their minds and souls are wholly owned by Trump.
Dementia steals the words he'd want to speak;
all adjectives have been replaced by"big".
Sad baggy suits can't hide when diapers leak.
Still, no one takes the car keys from their pig.
The Checks and Balances he never learned
can't guard our civil Rights, nor our East Wing.
When standards of civility are spurned
we've lost the spirit that threw off a king.
The 25th Amendment's got no teeth,
but--maybe--next year, Congress can impeach.

Don't call it "war"

Two trillion dollars to depose Saddam
on top of countless thousands who've been killed,
left Trump's excited to be dropping bombs
and skimming padded contracts to rebuild.
That war's a "racket" Smedley Butler taught
that leaves the planet poorer than before.
But Trump discounts the things that can't be bought
There's opportunity for graft in any war!
Kharg island might be just the thing to hold,
until Iranians lay down their arms.
If they'll just buy his crypto with their gold,
their daughters need not suffer lasting harm.
Insisting that his powers are immense,
Trump tries to hide the mind-boggling expense.

Epstein's assets

The Kompromat in Jeffrey Epstein's files
sports tentacles encircling half the world.
The kind of scum who'd violate a child
don't want it known they'd paid for school-aged girls.
Had Peter Thiel remained above the noise
Nobody would remark it's very strange.
But, 'though his prediliction is for boys,
in his own special way, he too's deranged.
Backrooms, where deals get cut, and bribes change hands
inimical to what our Founders wrought,
have made the purse the measure of the man;
there, nothing's valued that has not been bought.
Where politics with money intersects
like rape, it's male control, not joy of sex.

Rupture

Half Europe sees it's long past time to dump
those US bonds that keep this ship afloat.
'Though that might be too subtle to move Trump,
and Bessent's not the man to right this boat.
Some hope that Wall Street still retains the clout
to rein him in as Mattis did, before.
This Congress lacks the balls to throw him out,
and many there hope profit comes with war.
The order we contrived at Bretton Woods,
to stabilize the world, and make us rich,
four score and more was working pretty good.
Now, all is blown to Hell by Putin's bitch.
While Trump indulges one more hissy fit,
Mark Carney isn't taking any shit.

the piper will be paid

The gold reserves are finite, when they're spent,
his bankers won't hold any cards to play.
The bankruptcy of Putin's government
looms ever closer with each passing day.
The blitzkrieg Putin's generals had planned
presumed the secrecy Joe Biden'd blown.
While Europe stands fast with the better man,
the Russians find they're in this fight alone.
Ukraine's imposing sanctions, of a sort;
the Shadow Fleet's diminished, one by one.
Explosions on the Baltic,  or in port,
discreetly,  Special Forces get it done.
Ambitions Putin plainly can't afford
condemned a generation to grim war.

running on vapors

The Kremlin's buying rubles back for gold
like corporations pumping up their shares.
The specie Romanovs worked hard to hold's
evaporating in the Autumn air.
Potempkin's nation let slip the facade
that its economy can still support
the stupid war that Cyril blessed "by God",
while frightened bankers play their last resort.
That bullions finite, and his credit's shot;
Provincial Banks are glutted with his scrip.
When all that's left are nukes, and kompromat,
Ukraine hangs strong, while Putin 's seen to slip.
Failed bid to shatter Europe's common front
reveals this heir to Czars' the martial runt.

Emperor's Clothes

The Kremlin's buying rubles back in gold
from oligarchs intent to liquidate
whatever Russian assets can be sold.
The price is weak in such a panicked state.
Whoever can, is heading for the door
their capital flees faster than they can
as Russians realize they're in a war,
morale's way down since when this all began.
Potempkin's nation keeps up the facade
that it's a peer to any State extant.
But three days in, their troops had shot their wad;
and bluster won't achieve what soldiers can't.
That blitzkrieg war-chest long since burned away,
and troops get balky when the Brass can't pay.

protection racket

Manipulating markets on a lark,
Trump tells himself he'd mastered minting cash.
Investors who've been left out, in the dark
now hold portfolios that might be trash.
Safe haven that the world had come to trust
to hold more value when the Markets fell,
with gross uncertainty, is going bust;
Trump's shot the US Treasuries to Hell.
Relief's available to those who'll kneel,
and promise to obey his every whim.
He'll carve out holes for microchips, and steel...
as long as a percentage flows to him.
That "swamp" that Trump had promised he would "drain"
has spread to inundate his febrile brain.

Gray Tribe

A new day dawned, Luigi took his shot
and fled the crime-scene on a city bike.
The media were quick to miss the plot
as if downtrodden proles would never strike.
A man falls dead; none can repair the loss
He leaves a world uprooted and bereft.
For life, like health, who can compute the cost?
A human value's not pure 'Right' or 'Left'.
Two parties, each indebted to the few,
instead of working for the public cause,
do only what insurers want them to,
pretending that they're just enforcing laws.
As we embark another gilded age,
a bandit-hero vents the people's rage.

gordian knot

The Kremlin caucus lost, Joe Biden won.
November must confirm what's been made plain;
This speaker crosses lines to get things done,
and top of his agenda is Ukraine.
His MAGA colleagues live to pump their base,
as if our needs were met by making noise.
But Johnson's looking past November's race;
he'd rather send our bullets than our boys.
The billions Putin didn't spend in arms,
and maintenance of relics of the past,
he lavished buying quislings near and far.
But allies bought, are not the friends who last.
The Arsenal that backs democracies
though dilatory, still coughs up the fees.

useful idiots

Mike Johnson has defied the Kremlin's tools
who'd stuck our lethal aid bill in a ditch
For now, it's Putin's shills who look the fools;
this Speaker isn't Greene's complacent bitch.
As mud solidifies, treads won't get stuck.
With modern armored rolling up the plain,
the antiquated Russian tanks are fucked;
they're wholly obsolete now in Ukraine.
While Greene and Boebert parrot Putin's lies,
all sane observers know what it's about.
To undercut our allies isn't wise;
professor Snyder's called these quislings out.
Zelenskyy's prospects volt-face on a dime;
this season Putin's blitzkrieg's out of time.

Kremlin tools

The Kremlin Caucus holds Zelenskyy's funds
against Americans' explicit will.
Bizarrely proud that nothing's getting done,
in Washington's two Houses on one Hill.
Joe Biden'd rather claim a half than all,
if winning'd mean he'd make an enemy
But Speaker Johnson isn't playing ball;
his masters spurn collegiality.
Ukrainians defy the empire's might;
a million Davids groping for a stone.
Defending home and hearth, and clearly right
They'll they kill the Roschisti--at needs--alone.
A president who aims to compromise
confronts obstruction, calumny, and lies.

tool

Mike Johnson sold his soul long years ago;
Three Russian oligarchs saw fit he's paid
to vote however winds in Moscow blow,
and never send Zekenskyy urgent aid.
Republicans once served a noble cause:
an end to bondage! All men must be free!
More recently, they're not big fans of laws
that benefit somebody who's not"me".
While Putin's projects dominate the Hill,
our nation's business isn't getting done.
Agenda written by a Kremlin shill
set back what progress Biden has begun.
When politicians look abroad for bucks,
it's hard to feign surprise that we're so fucked.

hypocrites and traitors

The treason Putin purchased in Ukraine
impaired defense, but failed to throw the war.
Abroad, his rubles bought him greater gain;
and TrumptyDumpty proved his eager whore.
A world ablaze, the Speaker doesn't care;
Trump'd laid his stubby hands on Johnson's head.
While unctuous traces linger in his hair
he won't betray the manger where he's fed.
Where piety and lucre so collude,
compassion for the living's shoved aside.
A million who'd have lived, had they had food
don't prick his conscience as they've starved, and died.
The Kremlin Caucus help their master kill
and piously profess to serve God's will.

low-class

Eight Justices demurred to criticize
a criminal among them on the bench.
Emoluments discretely on the side
taint all the nine with one pervasive stench.
The Thomases craved life-long to belong
and Reagan's party opened wide a door.
Dismissing questions of what's "right" or"wrong"
proferring wealth, it sought an eager whore.
Our Framers did their best to insulate
our highest court from politics, and Class.
But never dreamt an ethos of Class-hate
would saddle us with such a venal ass.
"[O]n good behaviour" rather than "for life"
requires we ask: "Who's bought the judge's wife?"

Supreme Arrogance

Chief justice Roberts chooses to be blind
as SCOTUS blunders off the moral cliff.
So confidant the voters wouldn't mind
that Thomas swims in unreported gifts.
Pacific jaunts that eldest justice took,
where Krakatoa's new volcanoes grow
are nowhere on his tax-accountant's books;
emoluments from "dear friend" TrammelCrow.
Jane Roberts also profits on the side
when litigants desire her husband's ear.
No penalty's incurred for laws defied
when perpetrators know they have no peer.
"[O]n good behaviour" rather than "for life"
requires we ask: "who's bought the judge's wife?"

The Windsors

Prince Harry's coming clean; he's quit the cult
that killed his mother and besmirched her name.
The Family's got no place for an adult
who can't be leashed with wealth, nor gagged with shame.
The Palace Press retorts with candy floss;
watch George and Charlotte chew the moppet roles!
Let peasants, grieving for the late Queen's loss
take comfort thinking someone's in control.
The Tories deem this contretemps a hoot!
distracting shoppers from their BREXIT mire.
As PM after PM gets the boot,
the cost of living's mounting ever higher.
While France dispensed with monarchs long ago,
most Brits still tune in to this stupid show.

Tsar manqué

The Russian empire Putin meant to leave
as monument to his excessive pride,
died on the road, two days' march short of Kyiv;
The generals who swore they'd do it, lied.
Ukrainians remember Swedes, and Poles,
and Mongols staking out what wasn't theirs.
A people's right at home to wield control,
is not a thing for someone else's heirs.
The puppet Manafort worked to install
wrote off Sevastopol for paltry beans.
A bag of rubles bought a willing thrall;
it's all "diplomacy by other means".
Destroying what he claims by right to own,
for Russians' sake he must be overthrown.