Today is March 15, so I dug up my old newspaper column published in this week in 2019 that addresses current events in relation to the Ides of March. Once again I found it both uncanny in its prescient predictions and yet disheartening that we’re dealing with the same issues then as now, not to mention some of the same disappointment in those who are supposed to be fighting back against tyranny. Hence, I’m going to share a portion of this six-year-old missive as it relates to our national constitutional crises, including its headline:
Beware the Ides of March for debts due
“Beware the Ides of March” is from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar about the date of the dictator’s assassination. Given current events it seems more apropos to say, “Beware the Ides of Mueller,” because the Ides of March corresponds to March 15 on the Roman calendar and was notable as a deadline for settling debts. Pending release of the special prosecutor’s report, we might soon learn just how grave the presidents debts are.
For he had many apparent debts racked up, and not just by tax evasion, bank and insurance fraud. There’s also treasonous alliances with enemies of our nation. How does one begin to calculate the cost of lack of integrity from the president and those who continue to back him, including too many members of Congress? They should beware the IRS, federal prosecutors of the SDNY, and indictment following impeachment. We should beware the traitors, all.
In Roman times, dates were expressed in relation to the lunar phase of the month, where the full moon fell on either the 13th or 15th and the Ides of March marked the first full moon of a new year. Would that this year’s March 15 bring full disclosure of the president’s crimes and misdeeds so his debt to all Americans can be paid. Beware the cover-up that telegraphs corruption.
Other happenings on the Ides of March are ironic in light of recent revelations about the president’s thuggish methods of dealing. In 1972, the organized crime epic “The Godfather” first played in theatres March 15. Perhaps the president could have chosen a less mafioso reference to his former fixer than “rat.” Also, on March 15, 1917, Czar Nicholas II was forced by the revolting Russian people to abdicate the throne after ruling Russia more than 20 years. The American wannabe dictator is evidently now ruled by Russia, up to his too-long tie in debt to Putin. Beware GOP duplicity.
“O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” This derives not from Shakespeare but from an 1808 poem by Sir Walter Scott. A pervasive lack of integrity, candor and willingness to speak or hear the truth has poisoned American society. A prime example is the president’s check-writing payoffs to prevent his perversions from affecting his presidency, compounded by his lies about it. Beware those who obstruct justice…
Beware a tangled web of disingenuous deceit. Beware the ire of the American voter.
We knew all of this six years ago, and yet here we are, mere months after yet another election, mired in ongoing idiocy and atrocities. To say that those who continue to support this desecration of our democracy owe the rest of us mightily for their past and present debts that cannot be fully repaid is an understatement. They can never make us completely whole again, and indeed few are even trying. These traitors to our nation should all beware how truly heinous and horrific history will judge their duplicity, as we are surely judging them for their selfish, sordid stupidity now.
Today I’m judging harshly one individual in particular. My words six years ago, including beware the traitors and beware duplicity, now includes one of my supposedly democratic Nevada senators who colluded with the enemy yesterday in her despicable “yes” vote on the continuing budget resolution farce wrought in Congress. Catherine Cortez Masto should beware those in Nevada who vote for actual Democrats.
Beware the ire of Americans with integrity, and all of those in this world who still stand for human decency and democratic ideals.