America alone

Tech billionaires watch markets fade away
as Europe builds capacities at home.
Horizons dwindle where they're free to play;
America's increasingly alone.
"The Wealth of Nations" Adam Smith has taught
expands when parties all cooperate.
What's hard to make, is often better bought;
high tariffs will impoverish the State.
Three generations, we secured sea lanes
and Europe trusted we'd hold perils back.
But now that Putin's avid for Ukraine
his vassal Trump's been told to just retract.
Enablers, focused wholly on their stocks,
have conned our Ship of State right onto rocks.

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.

empires in retreat

Dimetriev slipped Witkof Putin's plan,
and Donald Trump turned in"his" homework sheet.
The same old landgrabs since the war began,
but now, it's Russia staring at defeat.
The blitzkrieg failed, Ukraine remained unbowed;
Zelenskyy stood, and didn't stand alone.
True allies sent what budgets had allowed;
the Europeans know this war's their own.
The Navy at the bottom of the sea,
the warplanes that don't dare to go aloft,
Defections decimate the infantry.
Morale in the Red Army's pudding-soft.
The gross examples we've already caught
make clear our presidency has been bought.

It's been a long time coming

Kadyrov reads the omens, and steps back;
he sees his patron headed for defeat.
'Though Putin's apoplectic to "Attack!",
his Chechens stand at ease(if not retreat).
Prigozhin struck too soon, and got rebuffed,
inviting Ramzan to throw off their chains.
But--maybe--Russians now have had enough;
Who might succeed is not for us to say.
with Khodorkovsky living in exile,
they're not retrying Gorbachev's "new way."
They're like to live with warlords, for a while,
this cycle, but just might, another day...
The empire Vladimir had hope would stand
as monument is crumbling with the man.

flip-flop

The war-chest Putin stocked by doubtful means/
looked like enough...until his blitzkrieg stalled.
But now, he's calling up cold-war machines,
and even Stalin might have been appalled,
at so much blood spent for so little gain.
Ukrainians prove quite as tough as Finns;
The paper tiger crumples in Ukraine.
Such wars are quick to lose, but not to win;
Trump's realized that Putin's cause is lost.
The empire of the Czars ain't coming back.
As long as Europeans bear the cost,
He won't restrain Ukrainians' attack.
Increasingly, the Kremlin sulks alone,
and darling Vanya's never coming home.

Games

Trump's noticed Putin plays him for a chump
and doesn't bother hiding his disdain
for such an abject sycophant as Trump.
Now, prospects look much better for Ukraine.
Such armaments as Europeans send
they'll make themselves; they'd be great fools to buy
American; we're not trustworthy friends.
Arms-Makers here will find they're high and dry.
A new World Order, shoving us aside
confronts an undead empire of the czars.
They aren't asking us who lives, or dies
We're not the global arbiter of wars.
A ballsy gambit, Putin played and lost
as usual, civilians bear the cost.

Foreign agent

Seducing Trump's been Putin's greatest trick;
he plays that dotard like a gilded flute.
'Though Arnold Palmer awed him with his dick,
it's Vladimir who's balls-deep up his chute.
The Seven Deadly Sins personified,
amalgamated in one orange lump.
Soi dissant "Christians" meekly deified
this antichrist, and kneel before their Trump.
Roy Cohn had thought this shaygetz would be fun
to pummel like a rentboi in his bed.
But Vladimir's the man who got it done
a really different sort of anti-Red.
The Kremlin's puppet does what he's been told;
Ukraine is just the first of what's been sold.

brinksman

"Great television!" Putin's lapdog snarled
reverting to a scale he feels is real.
Deluded that he's merely playing cards
when frontline allies need a weapons deal.
The Europeans watched Zelenskyy stand
against the bullies, knowing he is right,
and rushed to underwrite the better man;
Ukrainians are waging the West's fight.
The Nazi threat our fathers' fathers fought
now not in Germany, but here at home,
took just one demagogue who's long been bought
and wants America to sit alone.
While Trump pursues his stupid fictive debt
all Europe's unified against the threat.

Orange Manbaby

The Kremlin propaganda Trump repeats
finds paltry purchase in his party's ranks.
Control those rubles bought now seems complete
beyond the fondest dreams of Wall Street banks.
Machinery McConnell'd built so strong
has been co-opted by the KGB.
Agenda Mitch can now perceive are wrong
advance without the turtle's by-your-leave.
Americans who don't watch FauxNews know
Ukrainians are waging the West's war.
Against the ancient grasping ursine foe,
they'll have no part of empire anymore.
Those files of Kompromat, so deep and wide
keep Putin's poodle fawning at his side.

"Over There"

The Kremlin quakes; the war's come home at last;
another general will kill no more.
All Moscow must have heard the car -bomb's blast,
and Russians can't pretend they're not at war.
Three years of efforts to assassinate
Zelenskyy so far, all have been in vain.
At home, he's so hard to defenstrate;
the Kremlin wields few levers in Ukraine.
The empire Putin dreamt would make his name,
like Katherine reborn, astride his steed,
insists it has no wish to be reclaimed
to gratify his autocratic greed.
Civilians, far too late become aware
no war's conducted wholly "over there".

Bashar

The ophthalmologist picked up and fled
with just his credit cards, and trophy wife.
He'd watched Qaddafi hunted, beaten, dead...
and leapt to barter honor for his life.
The heir apparent jousted with a truck;
mismatching masses, vast momentum won.
Succession settled on one day's bad luck
this chinless understudy for a son.
In Moscow, worn out puppets cool their heels
they polish Putin's boots, and sing his praise.
Re'ssuring him the people's love is real
as if they're wistful for tzar Ivan's days.
An empire in decline can't shield its friends;
nobody has a clue how all this ends.

A New Dawn

Assad thought Putin'd always have his back
presuming Kremlin coffers would stay filled
But sanctions bite; gas revenue's now Jack
He'd have to pay for future thousands killed.
Dug in, behind Damascus' ancient walls
What's next, a world of pundits couldn't tell 
He had emigrate, or take the fall
and join his fellow Baathist thugs in Hell.
The blitzkrieg Putin couldn't pull off in Ukraine
rolled like a Spring storm torrent heaven-sent
his mercenaries quit where there's no gain
to leave their boss alone in Yael's tent.
One chinless exile languishing alone;
six million refugees now turn for home.

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.

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.

no honor among thieves

Prigozhin's stable-boy pulled off the swap,
bronze axle-pin replaced with one of wax.
Life's tenuous for Russians near the top;
they pull no pensions once they've got the ax.
From thirty thousand feet, this took a bit
'though decompression might have knocked them out.
If they were conscious by the time they hit,
who'd punched their final ticket's not in doubt.
"Appeal to Heaven"'s still Locke's last resort;
vonStauffenberg's revered for having tried.
Once Putin neutered both the Press, and Court,
fond dreams of perestroika wholly died.
Another rival sent to Davy Jones
the Kremlin wrote the rules for Game of Thrones.

visionary

The opportunity Bush 41
let slip when Gorbachev threw wide the door,
Recurs when Putin's empire venture's done.
It's less than zero-sum, what's spent on war.
Enduring Peace Kant saw could be achieved,
instead of fighting ancient feuds again.
Just needs world leaders able to conceive
that Peoples are no wickeder than Men.
"That vision thing" he struggled to explain,
was lost on Dubya when it came his term.
The GOP post-Nixon shuns the brains,
preferring tools who're pliant (but act firm).
It could be now! If only those on top
could contemplate a rival as world-cop.