“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…