From the Other Side of the Edge
Lady Macbeth....
by Joe Facinoli 

I have never really been an ardent follower of "The Bard", but enough of one to recognize a true, tragically Shakespearean-type character, albeit in modern form, when I see one. 

And, as with so many of The Great One's leading figures, this current edition has taken on a caricature-like life of her own, following closely to his descriptions, but then rising from the pages (or the I-Pad screen) to become so much more than the original story had intended, or had first led us to believe possible. 

One of his most prominent, and certainly strongest incarnations of evil, began as a devoted wife and mother (while ours, as a simple and ruthless, social climbing attorney), but soon evolved and transformed into a cruel and shameless manipulator, with the single minded purpose of acquiring as much power as possible, by any means necessary. And by stepping on, or worse, anyone who happened along, lucklessly, into her wretched and well planned path. 

Ditto with our version. 

We're speaking of two of the absolute draconian female figures of all time. Yes, Shakespeare had his infamously wicked Lady Macbeth, and we have our very own purveyor of malicious intent: Secretary of State, Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

Both void of all compassion, deliriously drunk with the desire for power and control, selfish above all else, with ever fleeting and changing loyalties, as their unscrupulous (and often unspeakable) goals would dictate, and fairly demanding to be "unsexed" (Lady M by the wicked spirits/weird sisters, Lady H by how her public already views her anyway, and which we easily oblige), with the expressed objective of this "gender change" being the furtherance of their relentless march to the achievement, unconscionably, of all their plans and schemes.

And ready and willing, always, to say and do whatever (the idea of having a conscience, taking another big hit) to cast blame elsewhere, while never having to face any music (or hangman's noose) themselves, for their handiwork. 

But the worst thing for both, was being forced to hide behind men who they felt not to be their equals, in order to obtain the status, standing, and power that they craved. Being forced to overcome the "milk of human kindness", that they believed to be too often displayed by their men, their surrogates in their powerquest. And Lady Hillary has now had to do this twice, standing behind, and pushing hard upon, two men she believes to be lessor, and all but trivial, when compared with her. 

Both women did achieve some quick, and even lofty success, though not all that they had hoped fo2r, nor in ways that they had wanted. In the end, however, both leading ladies succumbed to their own demise, Willie's by "self and violent hands" (offed herself, by untold method), and ours by her own words (political career ended, with one sentence, spoken in a fit of pique at those bothersome underlings in Congress). 

Two unfortunate (for us) differences exist, though, between these "ladies". 

The first being that The Wizard of West London penned his creature, giving her a persona which he made up from whole cloth (mostly), and out of thin air (trying to sound learned here, by using as many metaphors as I can, since we're talking about Shakespeare, an' all). While ours, no we're stuck with our dragon lady, lives out this nightmare every day, right in front of us, in full, real, and living color (depending on whether you have cable or dish). 

The second, and saddest (again for us) difference, is that Lady Macbeth eventually had some pang of conscience show up, that is, if torment and insanity can be seen as a sign of regret. And she lost quite a bit of sleep over her actions too (you might remember "Out, damned spot", as she tried to wash the ill-fated king's incriminating, and now invisible blood from her hands, while sleepwalking). 

But not our girl, not our Madame Secretary. No, no, where does a conscience fit into her agenda, when blame can be laid on so many lower levels, and she can quickly fault the apparently amazing inability of every U.S. agency known to man, including the Post Office and the USO, to communicate with her, and to gather pertinent, real time information today?? Huh? Where's the worth in that?? Really. Not her fault. Not her problem either, I guess. What blood? On what hands? 

We all know how bad our IT systems are now. Sometimes it takes 8 or 10 seconds for a site to come up, online, and just who has that kind of time to waste!!?? And phone calls, oh my god, waiting again through interminable seconds for a connection, especially on international calls? I mean what individual, muchless the most powerful department head in DC and maybe fourth or fifth most powerful person in the free world, wouldn't just go to bed and wait until tomorrow to try again? 

Especially to reach some annoying outpost, that just doesn't understand how busy she is, and what it means to have certain budget constraints adhered to. Says they have some problem with the locals. Yeah, right. Such an ungrateful bunch. Cry wolf some more, Mr. Ambassador, see if she cares. Oops, too late. 

And we won't even start with how bad satellite images are these days, and how inaccurate our drone missiles are, when called on, oh, let's see, maybe like...every four or five minutes or so, lately, to take out some Al Qaeda bookkeeper's assistant, or weekend librarian, or some taxi driver who thinks he saw Kim Kardashian riding a camel with Bin Laden in Pakistan somewhere. Pathetic. How can those worthless pieces of tin be expected to help?? And who's this Ambassador guy think he is, anyway!?? (For the record, those boys can erase a picture off a wall, without getting dust on the frame, from several hundred miles away. Just sayin'.) 

Hillary knows intimately, and is well practiced at, the art of saying she is taking the blame, without actually taking the blame. This, and several other handy real life traits she handles so well, like covering her unfettered arrogance and condescension with seeming sincerity and generosity, makes her Lady Macbeth on steroids. She has taken this little play to a whole 'nother level of theater. 

I was not the first, nor am I the only, to draw this comparison, and most certainly will not be the last. But it is very interesting to me when life imitates art, especially when the art is 400 years old, and still, some have yet to learn from it. 

Lady Macbeth, the real one, at least did the "honorable" thing, and committed a real suicide, to, in some feeble way, pay for her sins and human frailties, if only by her own hand, and within her own deranged mind. 

But Secretary of State Clinton, former First Lady Clinton, wannabe future President Clinton, will have to endure a much greater, and much more painful indignity, one that she will have to live with for the rest of her life, and for history's eternity beyond. Serial social climbers always have it hardest, on the way down. All that baggage, and all those bodies (she knows where they are), provide little cushion for that kind of fall. 

By letting down her guard, for one milli-second, and saying the most unfeeling, most insensitive thing she could have, she revealed her true nature, and ended what was left of her political future, while at once sullying and wasting whatever political capital she had manufactured over her too long career at the public trough. This coming by her "own hand", will make it all the more insufferable to our Hillary, and thank God for it. 

By saying: "What difference does it make??", or in other words, "Yo, the dudes are still dead, so whaddaya buggin' me now for ??!!", she went where no politician ever wants to go: to the land of honesty, and of the revealing of true character, a place where no pol can live for very long. And the more there is to hide, and to cover up, the less honesty can they stand to have revealed. 

So, it will be for Lady Hillary,.... "to the last syllable of recorded time". She has had her "hour upon the stage" (now), and was....."a poor player.....( 'fretting and strutting' )....full of sound and fury", and most definitely "signifying nothing". So.... "Out, out, brief candle" (homemade in Arkansas), fore... "to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow".....she will be.... "then heard no more". 

And good riddance. 

Apologies to W.S.