Court Painter called upon his resident studio scribe Chatterley Gargantuan Persnickety Thunderbuns (ChatGPT) and his trusty Press Attache AHM to put their storytelling skills together and compose a parable to explain what the hell is going on!
Instructions were that it should be lenghty because of it’s importance and also to test the attention span of Court Painter subscribers!
A Parable for the Times
In the vast and mythic Great Dominion, where flags flap in the chinook breezes and voices rise in chorus with the songs of Dion,Drake and Stompin’ Tom , the citizens gather, their hearts heavy and wallets empty with longing for a champion who might steer them through the gathering miasma of uncertainty.

The Sloganeer & The Banker in a shoving match
Enter two figures of differing political stripes.The Sloganeer and The Banker. The Sloganeer is a blustering figure rallying his flock with catchy slogans like “Axe the Tax!” But as his slogans grow stale, his strategists push for a fresh approach, urging him to abandon his old rhetoric and Axe the ‘Axe the Tax.’ Not to be outdone The Banker‘s political capital swells like the treasuries of rulers of old. The centrists behold him, watching as he gathers his power, not merely in coin, but in influence. His light shines ever brighter as the hour of his ascension nears. His profile rising as on a stairway to heaven.

The Orange Menace
Meanwhile, to the south of the Great White North across the world’s longest undefended border, The Orange Menace,a man of vast girth,bronze of skin and unyielding cruelty casts his covetous gaze upon the Great Dominion, proclaiming like the thunderous windbag he is.
“The scales of trade do lean unjustly against my kingdom!”
He sets his sights on the Great Dominion, declaring it must become the “51st state” of his empire.

The Orange Menace’s plot
Upon hearing this,the wise among the northern people, those soaked in history,who watch podcasts, read the stars, and scrutinize the stockmarket alike; responded in angry tones:
“Nay, this is but his tale woven from vacuous grey matter, wrinkled by the greed of imperious MAGAfest destiny.eh! Oh yeh, this land is sovereign,we will bear any burden and pay any price to protect the sovereignty and independence of the Great Dominion.We will not dignify annexation talk from The Orange Menace, who repeatedly blathers on about wanting the sovereign Great Dominon to become 51st U.S. state.“
In the face of this Orange Menace,would the citizens entrust their future to the slogan spouting Sloganeer, master of cunning rhetoric and simplistic catchphrases, or to The Banker, that demure architect of gilded influence, who gained his economic chops while swimming in the shark infested waters of wealth and power?
And so the Great Dominion stands at the precipice of The Orange Menace’s mad whimsy, the storm clouds dark as an autocrat’s wrath and mecurical as an oligarch’s word ,roiling from the south, creeping ever northward. Echoes of past unrest, like the Freedumb Convoy, resurface, adding to the tension. The people of the Great Dominion gathering, watching, deciding, steeling themselves for a destiny yet to be written—for their choice lay before them: The Sloganeer or The Banker—who would best rise to challenge The Orange Menace brandishing the sword of MAGAfest Destiny.

