Thursday, January 30, 2014

Ted Cruz: The Imperial Presidency of Barack Obama


In the nation's history, there is simply no precedent for an American president so wantonly ignoring federal law.

by Ted Cruz

Jan. 28, 2014 6:57 p.m. ET

Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the president's persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat. On Monday, Mr. Obama acted unilaterally to raise the minimum wage paid by federal contracts, the first of many executive actions the White House promised would be a theme of his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
The president's taste for unilateral action to circumvent Congress should concern every citizen, regardless of party or ideology. The great 18th-century political philosopher Montesquieu observed: "There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates." America's Founding Fathers took this warning to heart, and we should too.
Rule of law doesn't simply mean that society has laws; dictatorships are often characterized by an abundance of laws. Rather, rule of law means that we are a nation ruled by laws, not men. That no one—and especially not the president—is above the law. For that reason, the U.S. Constitution imposes on every president the express duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."
Yet rather than honor this duty, President Obama has openly defied it by repeatedly suspending, delaying and waiving portions of the laws he is charged to enforce. When Mr. Obama disagreed with federal immigration laws, he instructed the Justice Department to cease enforcing the laws. He did the same thing with federal welfare law, drug laws and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
On many of those policy issues, reasonable minds can disagree. Mr. Obama may be right that some of those laws should be changed. But the typical way to voice that policy disagreement, for the preceding 43 presidents, has been to work with Congress to change the law. If the president cannot persuade Congress, then the next step is to take the case to the American people. As President Reagan put it: "If you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat" of electoral accountability.
President Obama has a different approach. As he said recently, describing his executive powers: "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone." Under the Constitution, that is not the way federal law is supposed to work.
The Obama administration has been so brazen in its attempts to expand federal power that the Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the Justice Department's efforts to expand federal power nine times since January 2012.
There is no example of lawlessness more egregious than the enforcement—or nonenforcement—of the president's signature policy, the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Obama has repeatedly declared that "it's the law of the land." Yet he has repeatedly violated ObamaCare's statutory text.
The law says that businesses with 50 or more full-time employees will face the employer mandate on Jan. 1, 2014. President Obama changed that, granting a one-year waiver to employers. How did he do so? Not by going to Congress to change the text of the law, but through a blog post by an assistant secretary at Treasury announcing the change.
The law says that only Americans who have access to state-run exchanges will be subject to employer penalties and may obtain ObamaCare premium subsidies. This was done to entice the states to create exchanges. But, when 34 states decided not to establish state-run exchanges, the Obama administration announced that the statutory words "established by State" would also mean "established by the federal government."
The law says that members of Congress and their staffs' health coverage must be an ObamaCare exchange plan, which would prevent them from receiving their current federal-employee health subsidies, just like millions of Americans who can't receive such benefits. At the behest of Senate Democrats, the Obama administration instead granted a special exemption (deeming "individual" plans to be "group" plans) to members of Congress and their staffs so they could keep their pre-existing health subsidies.
Most strikingly, when over five million Americans found their health insurance plans canceled because ObamaCare made their plans illegal—despite the president's promise "if you like your plan, you can keep it"—President Obama simply held a news conference where he told private insurance companies to disobey the law and issue plans that ObamaCare regulated out of existence.
In other words, rather than go to Congress and try to provide relief to the millions who are hurting because of the "train wreck" of ObamaCare (as one Senate Democrat put it), the president instructed private companies to violate the law and said he would in effect give them a get-out-of-jail-free card—for one year, and one year only. Moreover, in a move reminiscent of Lewis Carroll's looking-glass world, President Obama simultaneously issued a veto threat if Congress passed legislation doing what he, himself, was then ordering.
In the more than two centuries of our nation's history, there is simply no precedent for the White House wantonly ignoring federal law and asking private companies to do the same. As my colleague Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa asked, "This was the law. How can they change the law?"
Similarly, 11 state attorneys general recently wrote a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying that the continuing changes to ObamaCare are "flatly illegal under federal constitutional and statutory law." The attorneys general correctly observed that "the only way to fix this problem-ridden law is to enact changes lawfully: through Congressional action."
In the past, when Republican presidents abused their power, many Republicans—and the press—rightly called them to account. Today many in Congress—and the press—have chosen to give President Obama a pass on his pattern of lawlessness, perhaps letting partisan loyalty to the man supersede their fidelity to the law.
But this should not be a partisan issue. In time, the country will have another president from another party. For all those who are silent now: What would they think of a Republican president who announced that he was going to ignore the law, or unilaterally change the law? Imagine a future president setting aside environmental laws, or tax laws, or labor laws, or tort laws with which he or she disagreed.
That would be wrong—and it is the Obama precedent that is opening the door for future lawlessness. As Montesquieu knew, an imperial presidency threatens the liberty of every citizen. Because when a president can pick and choose which laws to follow and which to ignore, he is no longer a president.
[Mr. Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, serves as the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Rights]


Sotu Review




PHEW!


Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The Tale of Gene and Charles

Two men. Gene and Charlie had known each other as children, but then then went their separate ways, as so many do. 
One day after many years had passed they met quite by accident at the Bethesda Fountain in New York's Central Park.
Charlie recognized Gene almost immediately. My! How well he looked dressed in a custom-tailored suit by Meladandri with alligator pumps to match! Gene also sported a Gucci shoulder bag hanging causally from one arm and an equally expensive, fashionably-dressed female of considerable beauty on the other. He carried himself with an air that came close perilously to being a swagger.
Charlie, who had not yet made his mark, was the first to speak. 
"Gene! Gene, my old friend, how wonderfully well you look!" he exclaimed. "Life must have treated you very kindly, eh, my friend?" Tell me, please, what has been the secret of your obvious success?"



Gene, who had not recognized his slightly shabby looking old friend right away, was somewhat taken aback, but answered cheerfully enough, "Well you see, I developed a formula that can make anyone's genitalia smell –– and taste –– exactly like a bowl of ripe fruit of the highest quality. The product has, as you can see, done very well."
The two of friends parted, and again went their separate ways, but the chance encounter got Charlie thinking ...
Three years later the two men bumped into each other once again –– this time at The Colony where Gene arrived to find Old Charlie seated like a Sultan on a banquette in a uniquely tinted, handmade silk suit imported from Hong Kong. Surrounded by six adoring females each dressed in designer gowns from Paris, each swathed in mink, sable and chinchilla and dripping with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls, Charlie beamed with delight at the sight of his old friend Gene. Four waiters, six footmen and the Maitre D’ danced attendance on Charlie's entourage, while the man, himself, smoked serenely from a jewel-encrusted Turkish hookah.
"Eh bien!" cried Gene astounded. "And what pray tell has happened to bring about this remarkable change in your life, my dear Charles?

Beckoning the flabbergasted Gene to his table, then taking him aside, Charlie gently murmured, "I owe this all to you, old friend. After you told me you had discovered how to make genitalia smell and taste like ripe fruit, I went to work and found the way to make fresh fruit smell -- and taste -- like GENITALIA!’ 



“As you can see, the product is doing very well."




Monday, January 27, 2014

UNCLE SAM and 
The U.S. CONGRESS: 
The REAL ROBBER BARONS

Uncle Sam? Uncle Sugar? Uncle Satan? Take your pick

We are Just beginning to realize that with the now-required automatic deposit to our checking accounts we never get to see an actual cheek from the government.

“So what?” you may ask.

Well, did you know that our SOCIAL SECURITY (now-symbolic, non-existent) “CHECKS” have recently been officially declared  a  FEDERAL BENEFIT PAYMENT?
  
I'lm sharing this information, because it touches a nerve in me, and I believe it should in you.
  
Social Security is not a benefit. It is earned income! Not only did we contribute to Social Security all our working lives our employers did too.

Our Social security is derived from a TAX totaling 15% of our gross annual income.

If you averaged $30,000.00 a year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 you and your employers invested in Social  Security.

If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ––- i.e. $375 a month st a meager 1% rate of interest compounded monthly –– after 40 years you'd have more than $1.3 million dollars to your name. Do the math.

This is your personal  investment

Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% a year, you'd receive $39,318 eachr year, or $3,277 a month.

That's almost three  times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month according to the Social Security Administration
  
With that 1.3 million dollars your retirement fund would last more than 33 years. That means you’d be 98 when the money runs out, if you retired at age 65! 

I can only imagine how much better most people earning an average income could live in retirement if our government invested our money in low-risk, interest-bearing accounts.

Instead, our dear Uncle Satan pulled off a far bigger Ponzi Scheme than Bernie Madoff ever imagined.

They took ––- and still take every single day –– our money and use it for purposes for which it was never suppsed to be intended.

They knew, of course that it was OUR money they were taking without qualm or conscience.  They took it simply because  –– like Mount Everest –– it was THERE.

They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them, and they’ve never paid us any interest on the money they improperly borrowed for “OUR” *(purely theoretical, non-existent) “Trust Fund.”

Worse even than that the word is out that the “Trust Fund” is n grave danger of going broke in the near future.

Is it our fault they misused our investments?

And now, as if to add insult to injury, they're calling our lifetime investment a a FEDERAL BENEFIT, as if we had never worked  to earn a penny of it.

Just because they borrowed OUR money, doesn't mean they have any legitimate right to claim that the return we get on this invest is a form of Government CHARITY.

We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare.

Bombard your congress creatures with mountains of letters, emails and incessant phone calls DEMANDING they use the powers WE as voters have granted them to bring some sense and decency into the way our government handles OUR money.

Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going,
for the sake of the 92% of our population who need it, and then rename it, and call it what it is: 

EARNED RETIREMENT INCOME  

Your Uncle Sam in his truest guise

Sunday, January 26, 2014


~.>___ . WORDS TO LIVE BY . ___<.~

As we get older we sometimes begin to doubt our ability to "make a  difference" in the world. It is at these times that our hopes are  boosted by the remarkable achievements of other "seniors" who have  found the courage to take on challenges that would make many of us wither.


Harold T. Schamburgh, retired chemist and philosopher
Retired chemist, Harold T. Schamburgh, is just such a person. We are grateful to Mr. Schamburgh for sharing these uniquely inspiring words with us:

"I've often been asked, 'What do you do now that you're retired?' Well, I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background, and one of the things I enjoy most is converting Beer, Wine, Rum, Gin, Vodka, Bourbon and Brandy into urine. It's rewarding, purifying, satisfying and edifying. I do it every day and really enjoy it."


Friday, January 24, 2014


Miss Hargreaves 


Mischief makers –– youthful –– on a lark ––
Initiate in spirit of burlesque
Something whimsical, endearing, yet grotesque,
Spirited, irrational –– often dark ––
Horrifying in its fascination ––
Also wistful, fey and sympathetic.
Ringing chords with dissonance splenetic
Granting spellbound hearers consternation
Railing on, imperious, yet eager ––
Engorged –– suffused –– with weird vitality ––
An ancient personage emerged from meager
Vision, and became Reality ––
Engaged her host-creators to beleaguer ––
Shrank then back to cosmicality.

~ FreeThinke (1/20/14)


Miss Hargreaves made her first appearance in 1940 as the central character in a novel with the same name  by Britain's Frank Baker, a most interesting, many-faceted character, himself. Mr. Baker enjoyed success not only as a novelist, but also as an organist, poet, actor, and musical director of theatrical productions. Miss Hargreaves was adapted as a play with Dame Margaret Rutherford (pictured above) in the title role. It was also produced by the BBC for television. I am most grateful to AOW for telling me about Frank Baker and his fantastic creation. The book is still available under the aegis of The Bloomsbury Group on Amazon.com in both print and Kindle editions.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014


We Can Never Go Back to Manderley Now


Should I care if I get cancer
In this wretched, troubled, world
Where all seems swiftly headed towards the rocks?

Since we live with devolution,
 Marred and poisoned with pollution
Cancer grants us Absolution,
 Since our kids don’t care enough to wear their socks.

As towards The End we're whirling
With flaming batons twirling,
And last night's dinner hurling towards the rug

And no one seems to notice
As they take positions lotus
To escape the awful bother,
Despite demur from failing Father,
To remove the dreadful stench, at which they shrug

And each, emaciated limb
Grayish, pale, translucent, slim
 Flailing in St.Vitus' Dance
Keeps death watchers in a trance
As with dead, unseeing eyes they watch and long
With fading final song for their ultimate demise
.
I’d be grateful to have cancer
It has given me an Answer
In this wretched, troubled, world
Where my life now lies unfurled
Wherever I have travelled
All behind me has unravelled,
And backward glances give me naught but shocks.
As I see we’ve always headed towards the rocks.



~ FreeThinke (1/19/14)

Saturday, January 18, 2014


}}}}}} AFFLUENZA {{{{{{
The Dread Disease Generated, Developed and Propagated by Evil Caucasians

Only Socialism Could Hope to Effect a Cure


With thanks to FJ for putting us onto this

Wednesday, January 15, 2014


Symphony #45 (Farewell)
Franz Josef Haydn
Adam Fischer, conductor
Underholdnings Orkester

Monday, January 13, 2014


WHAT DIFFERENCE 
DOES IT MAKE?


by Ben Gazi - first posted 1/11/14 at 7:37. PM at AOW’s blog (edited by FT)

http://alwaysonwatch3.blogspot.com/2014/01/nincompoopery-and-worse_11.html?showComment=1389489800179#c4108343075698132716


Who cares that four embassy employees in Benghazi were killed by rebels the Obama administration had armed?

What difference does it make?

Who cares about the IRS targeting every right wing talk show host or PAC that donates to conservatives?

What difference does it make?


Who cares that the DOJ is shaking down banks, insurance companies, and big businesses for cash through lawsuits?

What difference does it make?

Who cares that guns the Obama Administration gave to drug cartels are still turning up at crime scenes along the border?

What difference does it make?


Who cares that the Obama administration refuses to enforce our laws or enforces them selectively?

What difference does it make?


Who cares that our government has brought down several dictators in the Middle East and allowed Islamic radicals to take their place?

What difference does it make?

Who cares that not the Administration is not only allowing Iran, our mortal enemy, to continue building nukes, but they're also scaring everyone else in the region into wanting them for their own defense, because the Obama administration has made it clear they can't count on us to protect them anymore?

What difference does it make?


Obama is glad more are no longer working now than in the last 30 years. For every job created last month five people dropped out of the workforce, and cannot be counted as part of the ever growing population of terminally unemployed. 

What difference does it make?

Obama sees this as progress, a strong economy, strengthening the middle-class. He claims that unemployment is good for the economy. His primary concern isn't that more have no jobs, but that all are not making the same income. 

What difference does it make?

He claims his website isn't indicative of the mess his administration has become. Not only can he not be trusted to keep his promises, but even on the rare occasions when he does, it always turns into a hassle for everyone involved.

What difference does it make?


Who cares that with every new rule or regulation the costs of running a business goes up astronomically and the costs to the consumer goes up as well? 

Who cares that the EPA is intentionally driving the costs of energy through the roof?

Who cares? What difference does it make?


Bridgegate is the issue that should concern  us most. The worst thing anyone could would be to hold up traffic in NYC. There o be no greater offense. This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. More will come out about this, they promise us. This The Mother of All Scandals. Somebody causes a traffic jam on the GWB and one nonagenarian died, or probably she did. This can't be allowed to happen in America. 

But, when it comes to international murder of Americans, our national security and the putrid, stagnant economy, who cares?

WHO CARES? 
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?





Sunday, January 12, 2014

A Gust of Wind - Jean-Baptise Camille Corot (1796-1875)

The Wind
I cannot see the wind at all 
Or hold it in my hand,
And yet I know there is a wind, 
Because it swirls the sand.
I know there is a wondrous wind, 
Because I glimpse its power
Whenever it bends low a tree, 
Or sways the smallest flower.
And God is very much like this, 
Invisible as air,
You cannot touch or see Him, 
And yet you know He’s there,
Because you glimpse His wondrous works 
And goodness everywhere.

~ William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Wm. Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Saturday, January 11, 2014

THREE QUESTIONS

Who made the better speech; 
was it Brutus or Mark Antony? 
Please tell us why.

Do you see how eerily relevant 
this scene is to politics yesterday, today, and always?

What does it tell you about human nature?

[Please READ the SCENE before attempting 
to answer. I assure you, it's electrifying.]

Bust of Julius Caesar 

JULIUS CAESAR
William Shakespeare


Portrait of William Shakespeare in youth

Act III: Scene 2 (excerpted, lightly truncated)

BRUTUS

Be patient till the last.
Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my
cause, and be silent, that you may hear: believe me
for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour, that
you may believe: censure me in your wisdom, and
awake your senses, that you may the better judge.
If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of
Caesar's, to him I say, that Brutus' love to Caesar
was no less than his. If then that friend demand
why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer:
--Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and
die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live
all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him;
as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was
valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I
slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his
fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his
ambition. Who is here so base that would be a
bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended.
Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If
any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so
vile that will not love his country? If any, speak;
for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.

All

None, Brutus, none. ...

BRUTUS

Then none have I offended. I have done no more to
Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of
his death is enrolled in the Capitol; his glory not
extenuated, wherein he was worthy, nor his offences
enforced, for which he suffered death.

[Enter ANTONY and others, with CAESAR's body] ...
Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony: who,
though he had no hand in his death, shall receive
the benefit of his dying, a place in the
commonwealth; as which of you shall not? With this
I depart,--that, as I slew my best lover for the
good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself,
when it shall please my country to need my death.

All

Live, Brutus! live, live! ...

BRUTUS

Good countrymen, let me depart alone,
And, for my sake, stay here with Antony:
Do grace to Caesar's corpse, and grace his speech
Tending to Caesar's glories; which Mark Antony,
By our permission, is allow'd to make.
I do entreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.

[Exeunt Brutus]

MARK ANTONY

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest ––
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men ––
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

First Citizen

Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

Second Citizen

If thou consider rightly of the matter,
Caesar has had great wrong.

Third Citizen

Has he, masters?
I fear there will a worse come in his place.

Fourth Citizen

Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown;
Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.

First Citizen

If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

Second Citizen

Poor soul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping.

Third Citizen

There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.

Fourth Citizen

Now mark him, he begins again to speak.

MARK ANTONY

But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he there.
And none so poor to do him reverence.
O masters, if I were disposed to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,
Who, you all know, are honourable men:
I will not do them wrong; I rather choose
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,
Than I will wrong such honourable men.
But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar;
I found it in his closet, 'tis his will:
Let but the commons hear this testament ––
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read ––
And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
Unto their issue.

Fourth Citizen

We'll hear the will: read it, Mark Antony.

All

The will, the will! we will hear Caesar's will.


MARK ANTONY

Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it;
It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;
And, being men, bearing the will of Caesar,
It will inflame you, it will make you mad:
'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs;
For, if you should, O, what would come of it!

Fourth Citizen

Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony;
You shall read us the will, Caesar's will.

MARK ANTONY

Will you be patient? will you stay awhile?
I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it:
I fear I wrong the honourable men
Whose daggers have stabb'd Caesar; I do fear it.

Fourth Citizen

They were traitors: honourable men!

All

The will! the testament!

Second Citizen

They were villains, murderers: the will! read the will.

MARK ANTONY

You will compel me, then, to read the will?
Then make a ring about the corpse of Caesar,
And let me show you him that made the will.
Shall I descend? and will you give me leave?

Several Citizens

Come down.

Third Citizen

You shall have leave. ...

[ANTONY comes down and begins to speak again]

MARK ANTONY

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle: I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on;
'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii:
Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through:
See what a rent the envious Casca made:
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;
And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Caesar follow'd it,
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved
If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no;
For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel:
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all;
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart;
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey's statua,
Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell.
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.
O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel
The dint of pity: these are gracious drops.
Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold
Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here,
Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors.

First Citizen

O piteous spectacle!

Second Citizen

O noble Caesar! ...

Fourth Citizen

O traitors, villains!

Second Citizen

We will be revenged.

All

Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay!
Let not a traitor live!

MARK ANTONY

Stay, countrymen.

First Citizen
Peace there! hear the noble Antony.

Second Citizen
We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him.

MARK ANTONY

Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
They that have done this deed are honourable:
What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it: they are wise and honourable,
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:
I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
That love my friend; and that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him:
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves do know;
Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor poor dumb mouths,
And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

All

We'll mutiny.

First Citizen

We'll burn the house of Brutus. ...


ANTONY

Yet hear me, countrymen; yet hear me speak. ...

Why, friends, you go to do you know not what:
Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your loves?
Alas, you know not: I must tell you then:
You have forgot the will I told you of.

All

Most true. The will! Let's stay and hear the will.

MARK ANTONY

Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal.
To every Roman citizen he gives,
To every several man, seventy-five drachmas. ...

Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
His private arbours and new-planted orchards,
On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,
And to your heirs for ever, common pleasures,
To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves.
Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?

First Citizen

Never, never. Come, away, away!
We'll burn his body in the holy place,
And with the brands fire the traitors' houses.
Take up the body.

Second Citizen

Go fetch fire.

Third Citizen

Pluck down benches.

Fourth Citizen

Pluck down forms, windows, any thing.

[Exeunt Citizens with the body]

MARK ANTONY

Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot,
Take thou what course thou wilt!

[Enter a Servant]
How now, fellow!

Servant

Sir, Octavius is already come to Rome.

MARK ANTONY

Where is he?

Servant

He and Lepidus are at Caesar's house.

MARK ANTONY

And thither will I straight to visit him:
He comes upon a wish. Fortune is merry,
And in this mood will give us any thing.

Servant

I heard him say, Brutus and Cassius
Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome.

MARK ANTONY

Belike they had some notice of the people,
How I had moved them. Bring me to Octavius.

[Exeunt]