“Supreme Idiot”

I’ve started reading “Napoleon: A Life” by Andrew Roberts and from his introduction alone several key features of the great warrior-statesman arise. The first is that he was a voracious reader and student of history, further aided by a prodigious memory. He excelled at mathematics, geography, and philosophy, devouring the texts of Rousseau, Voltaire, Plutarch, Cicero, and Diderot. His obsessive thirst for knowledge continued into professional life, as he rapidly ascended the ranks from junior artillary officer to full General by age 26. Like his devotee Winston Churchill in the next century, Napoleon read deeply on the leadership and military campaigns of Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Frederick the Great.

Napoleon’s second major attribute was in being a master of logistics and organization. He knew how it all worked and the way to fully optimize. This proved invaluable in maneuvering and equipping his large armies across several continents, allowing him to win 53 of the 60 battles he fought (he never won at sea). However, in this regard his military record is surpassed by his institutional legacy. The Napoleonic code, with its emphasis on equality before the law, forms the basis for the legal system in many countries of Europe and beyond. His infrastructure of bridges, reservoirs, canals and sewers are still in use in France, and he was responsible for developing their excellent secondary school system.

In contrast, here’s Donald Tump’s military record: he dodged the draft with fake bone spurs, has some extrajudicial blood on his hands from ICE killings and “drug boat” targeting, and got duped into a stupid Iranian war he can’t win by Bibi Netanyahu (give them both the Nobel Peace Prize!). That doesn’t quite get you into the Pantheon. And he has built next to nothing of lasting value, mostly just afffixing his name to junk products and ugly buildings, and famously has gone bankrupt numerous times. He’s made a hash of the White House, the reflecting pool, and hopes to do the same with his clumsy, vainglorious arch. The only thing he likely reads is Playboy, though not for the articles. And he couldn’t find Corsica on a map if one of his nine lives depended on it. He’s an unlearned, incurious dullard who speaks at a 7th grade level. But that isn’t to say he’s without skill. He is a master manipulator, unabashed liar (see “the sociopath’s advantage”), and can spot the weaknesses of any system that would try to contain him. While his personality is more that of a cult figure like Jim Jones or David Koresh than politician, he runs our government like a clown-mafia organization outfitted and funded by cynical opportunists, sociopaths, bigots, and Christian zealots. And since his unofficial paramilitary force of violent extremists — The Proud Boy and Oath Keepers — isn’t enough to suppress opposition, he’s hijacked the goverment’s FBI, DOJ, ICE, etc. as his henchmen. He’s King (Fucking) Rat over a legion of idiot-rats like Kash Patel and Todd Blanche and Stephen Miller. The Supreme Idiot who’s duping and ripping-off his die-hard followers for his own ends while trampling our Constitution. In many ways, he’s Napoleon’s opposite, or the Anti-poleon. Yet, despite their many differences, history’s fates always come clawing back around for their due, and Trump will eventually meet his Waterloo and test the sands of his very own Saint Helena (though he won’t know where he is!). Here’s to that final ignominious defeat…

“Still Life with Shoe”

From downtown Chicago (Upper Wacker) in July 2026.

Went on a morning walkabout and passed this unusual tableaux featuring a shoe, a plastic fork and some uncertain green vegetable material. I just snapped the pic and later, using my iPhone, had fun fiddling around with it. Here it is in black-and-white. I’ll let you judge which has more reach…

Next, I used Chat-GPT to alter the image into various artistic styles. Not earth-shattering but an interesting experiment, nonetheless…

“Do it in a pointillistic style.”
“Do it in a minimalist style.”
“Do it more abstracted (after it failed to deliver on cubism).”

Then I turned it into a little votive “shoe shrine”… because Jesus….

“Follow the SHOE…!!”

And finally I turned it loose on “Full Nerd” mode…

“Lay on, MacDuff…!!”

In reality, the shoe actually fits fairly well and the fork cleaned up rather nicely.

So, did you see any cool (or cruel) shoes today…??

“The Rot Runs Slow and Deep”

Aside from the Category-5 shitnado that is Trump himself, nobody has done more damage to our body politic than Mitch McConnell. And just as Trump isn’t a real Conservative — the only thing he looks to conserve or enhance is his own wealth and power — McConnell isn’t a true institutionalist. He’s the guy who will always bend, or even break, the rules and traditions to his own partisan advantage. He infamously stole a SCOTUS seat from President Obama, bogusly claiming that it shouldn’t be filled in an election year, only to utterly contradict that logic after the untimely death of RBG. He single-handedly gifted us this hyperpartisan and activist right-wing Court, which in its infinite lack of wisdom, and in a doubly-toxic feedback loop, has subsequenlty granted the idiot-Trump even greater executive powers and with far less accountability. Way to go, Mitch!!

Yes, he studied long and hard the vast interstices of Congressional procedure, just as one might memorize the rules of golf. But when it came time, the methods were only played to his side’s advantage, often with gross distortion and more than a little hypocrisy. He reminds me in both looks and demeanor of a college aquaintance, who was the self-appointed captain of an annual 8-person golf trip. Unfailingly, this guy would strive to stack the team matches to his own advantage. And if a rule could be stretched for benefit, he would surely take it. Also he wasn’t beyond trying to adjust the matches mid-way if things weren’t to his liking. As with McConnell, some gave him credit for his cunning gamesmanship… but that’s just a bullshit euphemism for douchebaggery. McTurtle’s actions have had serious consequences for all Americans, not just the Left, as he has severely eroded trust in Congress as a functioning pillar of democracy. And his cynicism has led to a similar degradation of the Supreme Court as an independant check on executive power. He may have “won” the long game, but the rest of us surely lost.

For most of his tenure, McConnell chose self-interest and that of his party over the country. He had the perfect chance to bury Donald Trump’s political career and he utterly blew it. After giving a passionate and highly accurate speech on the Senate floor about Trump’s culpability for the nefarious actions around Jan 6, 2021, he let the slimy-slug slither away on some phony technicality, failing to convict by slow-playing the Senate proceedings. Surely he knew full well of his fellow southerner, President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who avoided an impeachement conviction by one vote only to return to the Senate six years later. Mitch McConnell played loosely with our fate and we are suffering immeasurably under the uber-corrupt ineptitude of Trump 2.0. From me, McConnell gets no sympathy or special dispensation. When he does officially die, let the selfish reptile lie in state at a roadside SONIC somewhere in rural Kentucky, for all the good he’s done our nation. Just like Trump, the miserable, mealy-mouthed dipshit learned all the wrong lessons in life. That motherfucker can rot in Hell.

Agent 99-X sends us a clue as to his whereabouts.