Of empires and grief

July is here,

the month of Caesar,
Julius Caesar that is.

Julius Caesar, as you know, was assassinated

by supposed friends of his.

They thought he had gotten too big
for his flowing white toga

and that he was destroying the republic,

the kind of case the haters made

when they went after Obama.

Those deluded fools would have stabbed Obama

if they'd gotten the chance.

I love Obama,

best President I'm likely ever to have.

And Michelle was incredible, as well,

a First Lady like we'll never see again.

The country has lost its mind.

At least Julius got his name on a month,

a very hot month way down here

in the Land of Dreams.

After they killed him,

Julius's friends and enemies all scrambled

to be the top Roman dog.

Arf, arf.

When the dust of war settled on the bloodshed,

the result was Augustus Caesar,

an authoritarian wunderkind.

Augustus declared himself a god!

and people bought in

(people can be so absurdly willing to go along
with obvious lunacy),

so Augustus commandeered the next month

way back when Rome was the world's bully.

August is also very damn hot.

But it's only July 1st

and the summer heat in Baton Rouge is brutal today,

relentless, like the Roman Legions

when they wanted to expand the Empire

or put down one of the endless revolts

by those who didn't wish to be in on the honor;

or like the Assyrians, Hittites, Babylonians,

Mongols, Crusaders;

or any of the European countries that sliced up Africa

and everywhere else they could manage to slice

or just plain swallow up,

in order to exploit the people and resources

in the name of civilization and culture.

It's what groups of humans tend to do.

The UK taking over India was an impressive example,

divide and conquer,

a time-tested method;
Cortez used it to vanquish the Aztecs
who vastly outnumbered his tiny band of Spanish centaurs,

like the Republicans who've hijacked my country

despite being a decided minority

dominated by old white guys

backed by other white guys,

shadowy white guys

with profoundly deep pockets

that get ever deeper.

Officially it's 93 Fahrenheit outside

because us United States of Americans
still want to be exceptional.

We can't let the world think it's kicking us around

by getting us to adopt Celsius

or the damn Metric System,

much less by our submitting
to the judgment of the World Court.

I mean, we just quit the UN Human Rights Council.
Fuck human rights, Pedro.

Actually, however, we're the ones who've done most of the kicking;

and our exalted President,

(exalted primarily by himself

and by those who like the boorish way he talks)

is still trying to bully the rest of the world.

Seriously, he's trying to bully Europe, Canada, Mexico,

Japan, South Korea

and probably some others I'm leaving out,
all at the same time!

basically, all of our allies
who don't have ruthless strongmen

running authoritarian governments

and/or kleptocracies,

plus China,
which does have a strongman in charge.

Our self-exalted President likes dictators,

obviously, he would love to be one,
better, yet, an Emperor!

He'd like to declare himself a god
if he hasn't already, in effect, done so.

I'm not worried about that part.

I believe he'll be locked up before it ever happens.

The question is, how much damage will be done

before "the fall" follows his pride

down the drain of history?