Ides of March

As the story goes, as many as 60 conspirators, led by Brutus and Cassius, were involved in the killing. When Caesar was on his way to the Senate at the Theatre of Pompey, he walked past the soothsayer and joked "Well, the Ides of March are come," meaning that the dire prophecy had not happened after all. But the seer replied. "Aye, they are come, but they are not gone." Cue the Dragnet music, "Dum Da Dum Dum." We all know how well that worked out for Caesar.

During his speech the president enumerated some of the stupid things that USAID was spending billions on, including $1.5 million to "advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities," $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt, $2 million for sex changes and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala, and Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund "irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan," benefiting the Taliban, just to name a few. There are many more examples.

President Trump has done some bold things in his first 6 weeks in office, but many are executive actions, which means that unless Congress adapts them as official law, they could all be reversed by the next Democrat president. Also his directives could be stopped by the courts, as we've already seen on Wednesday when The Supreme Court denied the Trump administration's request to block a lower court's order for the administration to pay nearly $2 billion in foreign aid money, delivering a near-term reprieve to international aid groups and contractors seeking payment for previously completed projects.

This means that all the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars that DOGE discovered in USAID cannot be stopped, at least for now. Beware the Ides of March.

The vote was 5 to 4 with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissenting. The four conservative Supreme Court justices wrote a strong dissent Wednesday after the court majority rejected the Trump administration's request to continue a temporary freeze on foreign aid payments.

Justice Samuel Alito criticized the high court majority for allowing a lower court judge to single-handedly determine the timeline for the Trump administration to pay the nearly $2 billion in payments for previously completed foreign aid projects — an order he called "too extreme."

In his eight-page dissent, Alito called the decision an "unfortunate misstep" and one he said "rewards an act of judicial hubris" by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali. "Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,' but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise," Alito wrote. "I am stunned."

For Julius Caesar the Ides of March in the Senate proved deadly. I thought of that as I watched the Democrats' deadly reactions to President Trump's speech to the joint session of Congress. They sat with their arms folded and looked angry, nasty and dangerous. They resisted everything the president said and they even refused to stand when President Trump designated 13-year-old brain cancer survivor DJ Daniel an honorary Secret Service member. Just one of several touching moments that night honoring Americans who deserved to be acknowledged and applauded. Democrats wouldn't do either.

It occurred to me that these Democrat congressmen and senators are not much different than the 60 senators who did Caesar in. Let's pray President Trump ultimately has a better outcome.

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