July 5, 2019 Crossing The Rubicon, Under The Gun, Parasite Turned Tyrant

One cannot read The Federalist Papers, the compendium of newspaper essays written by Madison, Hamilton and Jay advocating the ratification of the Constitution drafted by the founders at Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 without a deep appreciation of the knowledge the founders had of ancient and medieval history.

I bring this up because the founding fathers would have known that not only were the Romans, under the ancient republic, wary of standing armies but that the Roman Senate—always fearing a military coup-- forbade a military commander to cross the river Rubicon and descend upon the capital unless invited to do so by the Senate. To do so was a capital offense and such a military commander risked execution for violating the law. Therefore, as the phrase suggests, 'crossing the Rubicon' has come to mean that to take such an action risks everything, even life itself, and that there is no undoing it; there is no way back.

Indeed, the founding fathers were wary of standing armies for just this reason: that they pose a clear and present danger to any republic, that their very existence puts the republic under 'the gun', as the sorry history of many a republic ancient, medieval and modern testifies. And it is for this reason that the U.S. Military—until the mid-twentieth century—was intentionally small.

It is in this context that one views the spectacle of tanks rumbling through the streets of the capital (albeit on tractor-trailers) with alarm. The founders would have likewise been alarmed. Our Caesar Disgustus has called out the military to enforce domestic law at the Southern Border. This is in violation of the Posse Commitas Act passed a century and a half ago, but that the military obeyed those orders. And now this. He has taken a national 'birthday' celebration and made a military spectacle of it, transformed a day of hot-dogs, beer and baseball into a jack-booted display of militarism; transformed a civic holiday into a nationalist orgy, where the military becomes the nation; a celebration of not who he are but whom we can destroy. The founding fathers, all of them, would be—if alive today—appalled.

The military is taught to obey orders, and Disgustus has no qualms about issuing such orders even in violation of law and constitution. In, perhaps, a dry run leading to a coup de tat in the event he loses the next election, the military—even over the objections of the top brass—is following his orders, even to the point of parading military hardware down the thoroughfares of the nation's capital. Even to the point of crossing the Rubicon.

Fascism by degree. First the military violating long-standing federal law and mustering at the border to enforce domestic law, next the military parade on the nation's birthday, then comes the concentration camps and the separation of families at the border. Now Disgustus proposes rounding up 'illegals' in massive dragnets sweeping our major cities.

Shades of Nazi Germany.

This is what happens when one is found sleeping with a collection of Hitler's speeches at one's bedstead. The parasite has turned tyrant.

“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”

Impeach and Imprison.