The Ides of March and the Backstabbing in the Constitutional Nonsense of the GOP's Unholy Twelve Senators

CAESAR WAS TOLD TO BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH -- TRUMP HAS TO BEWARE EVERYBODY EVERY DAY. Friday is March 15 -- the infamous Ides of March, perhaps the most universally recognized date in the world after New Year's Day. • • • BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH. We tend to think of the Ides of March as part of Shakespeare's tragedy about the murder of Julius Caesar and its bloody aftermath. But, the conspiracy against Caesar was real historically and it festered for a long time before it became a legitimate threat in the early part of 44 BC. In a Roman Senate famous for political wrangling and back-stabbing, a growing conspiracy of such a serious magnitude could not have been kept secret for long. The urgency of the plot to murder him became urgent because Caesar was expected to leave Rome for Parthia on March 18, and because Caesar was expected to be named King of all the Roman provinces outside of Italy. The apparent leader of the plot was Gaius Cassius Longinus, the Praetor Peregrinus (judge for legal cases involving a foreigner) in 44 BC. He already held a grudge against Julius Caesar, the dictator, for perceived political slights, mainly that Caesar did not back him for positions of higher authority. In fact, Caesar seems to have had suspicions of Cassius, but apparently did nothing to stop the suspected conspiracy. Caesar often made comments regarding his own death by suggesting he'd prefer to die one death than die countless times as a coward. The famous and honorable Cicero once quoted Caesar as saying, "I have lived long enough both in years and in accomplishment." • Whether Caesar had a real notion of the conspiracy growing against him is debated by historians, but he was well aware of the ramifications of such an act. Suetonius (69 AD - 126 AD), most famous for his collection of biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 Roman emperors, known as The Twelve Caesars, quoted Caesar as saying "It is more important for Rome than for myself that I should survive. I have long been sated with power and glory; but, should anything happen to me, Rome will enjoy no peace. A new Civil War will break out under far worse conditions than the last." Although this prophetic statement would turn out to be true, the conspiracy continued to grow. • Some 60 senators (of the 900 member body, most of whom were loyal to Caesar) would align themselves in the favor of the Republican ideal, including Caesar's close friend Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus. One notable omission from the conspiracy was the great Republican Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher, Cicero (106 BC - December 7, 43 BC). Marcus Tullius Cicero served as consul in the year 63 BC. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. Despite his support of Pompey and the Republican side in the civil war, it was feared that Cicero didn't have the fortitude to carry out the task, or that he wouldn't be able to keep his famous mouth closed. • Cicero, however, was not the key to the plot's success. The key ingredient was the inclusion of Caesar's friend, Brutus. He had served with Caesar in Gaul before taking sides with Pompey in the civil war, and was later pardoned for his 'transgression'. It was rumored, due to Caesar's well known affair with Brutus' mother Servilia, that Brutus could've been Caesar's son. While this is highly unlikely, there is no question that Caesar maintained a relationship of fondness for Brutus, and had supported him for many offices of importance. Brutus was the key for one simple reason. His supposed ancestor, Lucius Junius Brutus, was the man who took the lead in expelling the Etruscan kings centuries earlier, and was fundamental in establishing the Republic. The conspirators felt that with Brutus joined in the plot, it would recreate the perception that a Brutus would save Rome from tyranny for a second time, and the plot would immediately be legitimized. Cassius and other conspirators relentlessly worked on Brutus, trying to shatter his bond with Caesar and bring him to their side. After playing on his sense of duty and family history, Brutus finally joined the plot as a matter of honor. • With Brutus on board, the conspiracy moved forward. All that was left was to determine the time, place and manner of the deed. Caesar was expected to assemble the Senate for a final time before departing for Parthia on March 18. On the Ides of March, or the 15th, the Senate was expected to approve Caesar's kingship outside of Italy. It had been prophesied by the Sybilline Books -- a collection of prophecies in rhyme written in Greek that the legendary last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, bought from a Sibyl (a kind of prophetess), and the prophecies that embodied the secrets of human destiny were consulted in times of great danger in the history of the Roman Empire. The Sybilline Books prophesied that only a king could defeat Parthia, and it was widely expected for Caesar to receive this additional honor before his departure. It was decided that the assassination would take place in the Curia of Pompey's theatre, where the Senate would meet with Caesar for the last time. Each member of the plot would be required to stab Caesar with a dagger, thereby not only assuring his death, but unifying the group under a banner of freedom for the entire state. But, waiting for the Ides of March must have been nerve-wracking -- bad omens seemed to threaten the success of the attempt. These omens, likely later added manifestations of the writers for dramatic effect, still illustrate the fragile nature of the plot. One little slip up, with so many people involved, could send the whole thing crashing down. Of the many warnings to Caesar that are said to have occurred, one stands out above the rest. According to Suetonius and Plutarch, a soothsayer named Spurinna was said to have delivered the famous warning to Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March." • And, with Shakespeare's version of the murder on the Ides of March, we have the famous cry of Caesar -- "Et tu, Brutus?" Not you, too, Brutus? • • • BEWARE, PRESIDENT TRUMP, BEWARE !! While 60 Senators attacked and murdered Julius Caesar -- in the belief that they were "saving" the Roman Republic from dictatorship -- President Trump, in a reverse of the 44 BC situation -- had 12 GOP Senators cast votes against him, stabbing him in the back as he fights valiantly to save the American Republic from corrupt socialist dictatorship. The 12 Republican Senators who voted against secure borders while claiming loudly that they were in favor of secure borders, said they could not let the President expand his executive powers by moving around budgeted funds to pay to secure the border -- after those same Senators weakly supported the President when he originally asked for separate funds. The Unholy Twelve included the usual moderate Republican suspects, who appear to have a new leader among their ranks in Senator Mitt Romney. Mitt lost no time in grabbing a mic and TV camera to explain his righteous belief that his act was a "constitutional" duty. A few of the party’s more conservative GOP Senators also voted against the President -- six of them are on the Appropriations Committee and thus were defending their turf from a President who had asked for border security funding only to be blown away. • The Senate vote, 59-41, would terminate Trump's national emergency declaration and let illegal aliens into the United States with their drugs, crime cartels, human traffickers, and disease. All that is for ICE and the Border Patrol, who will fight on as best they can, until they are simply overwhelmed. BUT, the real criminality rests in a dark corner -- the Insane Socialist Democrat Party has, and will continue to, use these illegal aliens as voters against President Trump in 2020, and against any conservative or Republican candidate on a ballot anywhere in America. The Insane Socialist Democrat Party -- will turn America's Republic into the socialist-marxist dictatorship President Trump is fighting to prevent. • Remember these names -- Lamar Alexander • Roy Blunt • Susan Collins • Mike Lee • Jerry Moran • Lisa Murkowski • Rand Paul • Rob Portman • Mitt Romney • Marco Rubio • Pat Toomey • Roger Wicker. These are the Republicans stupid enough to think that Congress’s Article I power of the purse is the primary concern when we are being confronted with a Socialist-marxist Insane Democrat Party that recognizes no limit -- legal or illegal -- on its political war to take over the United States and oust ALL conservatives and Republicans. • Only North Carolina's Senator Thom Tillis, who wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post two weeks ago opposing the emergency declaration, decided at the last minute and vote against the resolution. As you might guess, Senator Tillis is up for re-election in 2020 in a state Trump won by 3.6% of the vote, which suggests Tillis did some polling and didn’t like what he saw. It also may be that, as NC media suggest, Senator Tillis had things explained to him by his conservative Republican constituency, who reportedly told him they would field a primary candidate against him if he voted against the President. THAT sounds like grassroots politics at work -- why did Republicans from states such as Utah, Alaska, Maine, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania not do the same thing?? • Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., took to Twitter to offer an explanation of his vote for the resolution, pointing to the Constitution -- never mind that nationally syndicated talk radio host Mark Levin, a constitutional scholar, said on Twitter recently : “Phony constitutionalist Rand Paul. Pathetic.” Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla, did not bother to offer an explanation on his Twitter feed, which is consumed with events in Venezuela. Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, in a Senate floor speech, said his vote for the resolution “is not about the President,” according to KSL-TV. “This isn’t about my disagreement with or disapproval of the President or his approach to border security or his approach to build a barrier along our southern border. I think all those things need to happen. But this law, Mr. President, is wrong. It’s not President Trump’s fault. It's Congress’s fault.” • • • THE INSANE SOCIALIST DEMOCRATS ARE NOT A NORMAL POLITICAL PARTY. They are a war machine determined to reshape America in the Socialist-marxist image they follow as if it were a religion. We are in a WAR, dear Republicans, and we cannot continue to pretend that we are at a Lincoln Day Dinner. • American Thinker's Sally Zelikovsky on Friday wrote an article titled "The Principled Five vs. America." Zelikovsky said : "Once again, Republicans are acting like complete dingbats -- especially Senators Lee, Paul, Murkowski, Collins...all of whom announced their decision to vote “yes” for the disapproval resolution on the President’s declaration of a national emergency at the border. As if we hadn’t heard it before, they argue there are constitutional principles involved they cannot, in good faith, contravene. I know these Senators believe they are better than Democrats when it comes to adhering to constitutional principles. They consider themselves purists in the loftiest sense. As a Tea Party conservative who spent eight years agitating for those very same principles, I get that. But I’m also not stupid, and there comes a time when practicality trumps principle. In times of war, we often confront such conflicts when we have to do what’s right at the time....These are never pretty decisions to make. But life isn’t always fair, pure, or principled." • Zelikovsky makes the essential point : "What is the sense preening like proud peacocks because of your purity in regard to principles, only to lose big time on the most important issue of our time? Securing our nation’s borders is the only way to preserve and form a more perfect union, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty. Without secure borders, all of the foregoing is in jeopardy." • As Zelikovsky states: "If anything, securing our borders is as much a constitutional principle as separation of powers. Securing our borders is in our constitutional DNA, it’s a norm of international law, it comports with our national laws even though they aren’t being enforced, and it is undeniably the professed will of the people. The Principled Five were unquestionably elected to do our will and I have no doubt that includes securing the border and building a wall...even if doing so might thwart other constitutional principles. But it is highly dubious whether they have a principled leg to stand on because Congress delegated to the President the power to declare national emergencies and it is even arguably within the Executive’s [constitutional] power to declare a national emergency when our national security is directly threatened." • Democrats choose not to see that issue. They have -- and I really have to admit that I cannot understand how -- convinced the Unholy Twelve (Zelikovsky's Principled Five and Governor Huckabee's Dirty Dozen) that following their advice and voting to tear down America's borders and spit on her elected President trying desperately to keep those borders intact is the constitutional path of virtue. HOW could any rational Republican fall for such a hoax?? WAR does not allow for the niceties of polite political arguments. WAR requires what the Founders gave us as ammunition -- an Executive who has the obligation to protect and keep secure the United States under his Article II, §1.8 oath to defend the Constitution, and under his role as Commander in Chief (Article II, §1.) • So, where is the constitutional principle these turncoat RINOs think they are upholding?? It is a shadow in the mists at best. They have really voted to abandon their President and the Republic to the tender mercies of a bunch of illegal aliens who are being protected and encouraged by a Socialist-marxist Insane Democrat war machine. • Zelikovsky puts it this way : "In this particular war for our borders, we the people and the GOP have long confronted both legislative battles and now a separation of powers battle between the Congress and the Executive. We lose each time this issue comes up, even when Republicans own it all -- House, Senate, and 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The time to argue your principles is past. It’s time to play the political game and this may very well be the last time to play the last card in our hand that could trump left-wing obstruction when it comes to border security. That would be the National Emergency card. But, in the name of principles, the Principled Five are doing everything they can to...undermine our principles....What the Principled Five don’t understand, in addition to the fact this is our last best hope for border security, is that politics is war by another name. Why oh why do they still not get this? We are fighting for the soul of this country. Our future. The future that our kids....So, man up, grow a pair and get cracking." • • • THERE CAN BE NO TOLERANCE FOR REPUBLICANS WHO BOLT TO THE ANTI-AMERICAN ANTI-TRUMP INSANE DEMOCRAT SIDE. Of course, there is the looming question of these Unholy Twelve Senators being re-elected. I hope I can guarantee that memories will not be short and any Republican Senator who voted to disapprove the President’s declaration will not be re-elected. BUT, the Elite GOPers in the Swamp are weak sisters, and I fear their constituents back home may be just a namby-pamby. • Zelikovsky disagrees and says this : "Which is an easier campaign sell to conservative voters? I had to let my separation of powers principles slide a bit to secure the border and adhere to other competing constitutional principles like providing for domestic tranquility and the common defense because it was in the best interests of our nation, and it is why you put me in office; or I stuck to my constitutional principles to the bitter end even though I have now played a major role in continuing to foment a humanitarian crisis at the border and allowing thousands to lawlessly flood this country. But I should get a gold star for sticking to my principles. Please vote for me again." • I'm not so sure voters have even a short memory when it comes to re-electing incumbents. As an example, why was Senator John McCain re-elected after he lurched left and used all his senatorial power to try to destroy the President of his party?? • And, there is the notion that a sitting President will always be re-elected. Tell that to Bush Senior or Jimmy Carter. It is not a sure thing that President Trump will be re-elected. It is certainly more likely than not that he will. BUT, that will be because his supporters go out and work for him -- talk about his record, hand out flyers, go door-to-door, get out the vote, monitor the polling places. BECAUSE, if we leave our President Trump's re-election to the Swamp Elites who control the Republican establishment, he will lose. Only the Republican National Committee and its chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel are always there for President Trump now. Republican division over the President and basic incompetence when it comes to running campaigns will have to be made up for by our footwork and untiring efforts to re-elect him. Think about the mid-term elections in key states that put President Trump over the top in 2016 (Wisconsin and Michigan) and were far too close in Florida and Texas that should have been ironclad for the Republican. • • • THE DEMOCRAT PARTY PLANS TO STEAL THE 2020 ELECTION. President Trump is very popular. BUT, the CROOKED Democrat machine is working hard, while we are infighting about principles, and they could take us down permanently in 2020. • American Thinker's William Gensert lays out the scenario -- "We Fight Now or the Socialists Win." Gensert states clearly : "The Democratic Party is no longer a political party; it has become a religion. Its acolytes practice politics with every bit of the religious fervor of Islamic militants throwing a gay man off the roof of a ten-story building because Sharia tells them it’s what he deserves. Make no mistake, every day, our new socialists fight for the right to do the same to us....Democrats know Donald Trump will win in 2020 and are planning to cheat to deny him victory. These new socialists are importing a new electorate through open borders and have proposed legislation to allow illegals the vote. They stole seats in the midterms using ballot harvesting and miraculously appearing boxes of 'uncounted' Democrat ballots and will do the same in 2020. The midterms were a trial run for 2020. The left is organized and prepared. To have any chance, we must behave the way the left behaves, and that means we should take a page from the Democratic playbook. In 2008, there were members of the New Black Panthers stationed outside voting locations. The right needs to do the same, and have people in place to document everything. Challenge them at the polls; challenge them outside the polls; challenge them every time we see them cheat; challenge every single vote if need be. Sue them in court over every irregularity, otherwise, they’re going to deny enough ballots, harvest enough votes, or find enough in trunks of cars to win. We will need to fight for a fair 2020 election, or they will steal it." • Gensert tells us the truth : "The media was always biased, but at least they used to pretend that they weren’t. After Obama’s election, they dispensed with all pretense and worshipped the man as a god. Now, they worship the Democrats’ socialist ideology. Every article either praises the Left or pillories anyone who disagrees with them. The battle in the media is lost. We will never get fair and balanced coverage. Yet, if we have learned anything from Donald Trump, controlling the media doesn’t guarantee controlling the message. Part of the President’s success has been in dictating the narrative. By using Twitter, perhaps at times injudiciously, but at other times brilliantly, Trump has bypassed traditional media and gone directly to the people -- it got him elected and it can be used to fight the socialist takeover of this nation. Facebook, Twitter, comments on articles, and public activism are all weapons at our disposal." • But even if we can prevent them from stealing the election, it won’t be over. As Gensert tell us : "This is a battle for the soul of the nation, and they are not only trying to win elections, they seek to 'fundamentally transform the United States of America' into the next socialist utopia. They are pursuing us at every opportunity because for them to win they must get rid of us. One need only look at their policies to see what is coming. Do we want to live in a world of unlimited abortion, before, during, and after birth? Should our children live in a nation without cars, planes, meat, and affordable electricity? Do we want our grandchildren to live in a world where a President has so corrupted executive agencies under his command they try to first steal an election and then depose his successor in a coup attempt based on lies bought and paid for by the likes of Hillary Clinton? Are we willing to let Democrats give illegals the same rights and benefits as citizens? Will we allow them to force those not directly responsible to pay reparations to those who didn’t directly suffer? Can we live in a country that has taken away our 2nd Amendment and 1st Amendment rights?" • • • DEAR READERS, Donald Trump fights. He fights for us. He told us in 2016, "I am your voice." And, he has lived that promise every day of his presidency. But, he’s one man -- tough-minded and tough-spirited as he is. He can’t save us alone. If we believe America is worth saving, we are going to have to fight, for if we don’t, America will be lost. • President Trump is doing his job. He just used his first presidential veto to cancel the border emergency rebuff delivered by the Unholy Twelve Republicans in the Senate. In vetoing the resolution that sought to block his declaration of a national emergency at the border, he is almost certain to have killed the measure because overriding the veto would require 2/3 of each chamber of Congress. Not likely. • BUT, now it is time to email, text, phone every one of the Unholy Twelve Republicans and remind them that they are no a short leash and any anti-Trump anti-border-security talk or effort to override the Trump veto will mean their loss the next time they appear on a GOP primary ballot. Remember those names -- Lee, Portman, Collins, Murkowski, Rubio, Paul, Alexander, Wicker, Blunt, Moran, Toomey. • One thing is certain -- IF President Trump is not re-elected in 2020 and our borders continue to remain as vulnerable as they are today, every principle the Unholy Twelve Senators think they are fighting for will go down in flames. Zelikovsky spells it out : "It will be a nation of laws that don’t matter, double standards that benefit those in power at the cost to the little guy, and our rights will continue to erode. Republicans might never regain power -- certainly not in my lifetime. As the younger, brainwashed, and very sullied masses take control of this country as the rest of us phase out of existence, bolstered by uncontrolled numbers of immigrants who feed the Democrat machine, conservatism and the secure borders that come with it will be anachronistic. There comes a time -- and I’m so tired of writing and saying this -- when you have to tamp down on the principles to get what you also know is right. Thus, while voting against the President’s National Emergency Declaration for border security might, in some rightwing corners, be laudable, it benefits only one group -- the Democrats -- and has only one outcome : a continuation of the status quo. This course of action by any Republican Senator at this juncture, is dangerous. To obstruct a President in your own party, whom you agree with on this particular issue, knowing that your own party wasn’t able to get the job when it controlled all of the power in Washington, and further knowing that the Democrats will never allow anything to get done as long as they have any power, is the height of asininity. It is just plain wrong." • The Unholy Twelve Senators have betrayed the Republican Party that elected them. They have betrayed the Republican President who is fighting to save America. And, they have betrayed America and her Republic. President Trump has to fight every Democrat and #NeverTrumper on border security. He doesn’t need the added burden the Unholy Twelve just placed on him. If Republicans continue to play at politics while the Democrats lob missiles at America, we know who will win. We simply cannot let that happen.