James M. Redwine

Massacres

Living Law of a Democratic Society

by Leave a Comment

Jim’s desk at JPeg Osage Ranch. Photo by Peg Redwine

President Trump promises to annihilate a nation of 92 million people if his unconditional terms of capitulation are not met by the autocratic leaders of Iran. Pope Leo XIV calls for world-wide peace. President Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have twice ordered surprise bombings of Iran during peace negotiations to end a war started and maintained by Israel and the United States. President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu criticize the Pope for not joining with them in their demands. The Pope continues to call for peace.

President Trump is weaponizing his self-appointed and individually controlled Department of Justice to punish and eliminate from government many persons involved in his election loss of 2020. The president has established a 1.6-billion-dollar fund of taxpayer money to pay some of the insurrectionists who tried to violently overturn the 2020 election. Trump claims the 2020 election was an illegal takeover of our federal government.

President Trump has proudly killed the leaders of Iran’s government using about 100-billion-dollars of America’s funds and virtually uncontested military force. The president sees no inconsistency in his belief that America’s government was illegally prevented from power while he and Netanyahu removed Iran’s government by force. What is the paradox between calling out an alleged overthrow of a democratic election while “bombing Iran back to the Stone Age” to remove its leaders?

All societies have legal systems. Autocratic societies have legal systems in name only as the rulers have the power to disregard or misapply the written laws. If they do not like established laws, say that only Congress has the power to involve America in war, then the dictatorial ruler can simply ignore all restrictions. However, in a democracy, a country is not to be run by vacillating fiats of one or a few people, but according to due process established by the majority. That is the absolute bedrock of the “Living Law of a Democratic Society”.

Jerome Hall (1901-1992) was an internationally renowned professor of jurisprudence at Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana from 1939-1970. I was fortunate to attend his last Indiana class in jurisprudence, The Study of Legal Philosophy, in the summer of 1970 before he retired and moved his teaching to the University of California, Hastings College of Law until 1986. I found Professor Hall’s class to be my greatest challenge and greatest learning experience.

In his marvelous book, Living Law of Democratic Society, published in 1949, Professor Hall examines how societies form legal systems and, especially in democratic societies, how they live by them. A society such as the United States maintains a legal system in constant flux, but is guided by its lodestone of keeping its democracy by not allowing the constantly shifting legal framework to slide into autocracy. In America, our guiding principles are firmly established within our Constitution which may bend or sway but never break.

Americans know what is right: offensive wars are wrong morally and must always be guarded against if our republic is to survive and not fall into the abyss of Nazi Germany or Zionist Israel or the destruction of countless once democratic societies which lost their freedoms. It is not insignificant that Professor Hall lived through the evil of Japan, Italy and Germany in WWII and thereafter in 1949 wrote his scholarly treatise of democratic legal systems that had lost their way. Today, in my opinion, he would strongly caution America not to allow Zionist Israel to mislead us into evil as so many countries allowed Nazi Germany to do.

What should we do? What can we do? Professor Hall might guide us toward the original democratic society and point out as did Plato:

“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”

Plato meant that the general Greek population allowed people of lower morality who sought office not to serve but to slowly accumulate absolute power. In the 1930’s and 40’s the Japanese citizenry was not generally evil, but through lethargy and desire for ease it allowed Emperor Hirohito and General Tojo and their cadre of power brokers to slowly move Japan towards autocracy without limits. The Italian populace was not prone to squelch rights in general, but it lazily watched as Benito Mussolini seized more and more power until Italy was lost within Germany’s military scheme. The Germans had had over a thousand years of a great culture that included many Jewish, Romanian and other minorities, but the average German allowed Hitler and his ilk to blame immigrants and Jews for Germany’s loss in WWI which led to the loss of all of Germany.

In 1948 Jewish people immigrated to what was then Palestine and began to almost imperceptibly force out Arabs, Christians and Palestinians until now the autocratic Zionist government has committed the same holocaust on Palestinians, Syrians, West Bankers, Yemenis and Lebanese as the Nazis did the Jews in Germany. In each case it has been a minority of power-hungry politicians such as President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu who have demonized minorities such as immigrants or Muslims and have sought to supplant the democratically arrived at law with their own despotic rule.

This was all done as the well-meaning but uninvolved general populace did nothing but cheer on the coming Nakba so that land and resources could be stolen. We Americans are a happy nation and prefer ease to strife. I know from many within my own family and friends religion is often at the root of the worship of Donald Trump and support for his policies. That is why it is enheartening that Pope Leo has taken a firm and public stand for peace. I am not Catholic, but if I were I would be proud to pay attention as the sirens entice us onto the rocks.

In the United States today, our Living Law has ebbed into being ruled not by our democratic system, but by power-mad autocrats and their sycophants who are convinced they know what they want and what the rest of us should receive. We are not too late to pull down the temple walls and return to the righteous path of our Constitution. However, time waits for no one.

You can also follow us on Facebook at “Jim Peg Redwine” or Substack “@gavelgamut”

Drone On

by Leave a Comment

Photo by Peg Redwine

All organized militaries play war games to practice for real war. No blood from the losers or booty to the winners. No buildings destroyed or state treasuries depleted. In essence, war games are the best wars. Mankind has sought such a resolution of conflicts since we progressed from living in caves to coveting the caves of our neighbors. However, a major problem has often been we had to destroy our neighbor’s cave to take it over and often we had to kill our neighbors first. But, voila; along has come our ability to wage war without incurring any of its messier elements. We can now just dispatch unmanned drones instead.

Just this past week Ukraine captured several Russian soldiers using inexpensive, unmanned drones. No blood, no returned fire, no mess, i.e., no fighting. That’s the kind of war we can all live with. It is a little like battles used to be settled by having one soldier from one side, say David, fight one soldier from the other side, say Goliath. Who says we humans cannot learn from thousands of years of slaughter? Instead of killing to prevent Iran from somehow, someday, maybe developing a nuclear weapon, we can now just have warring factions display their drones while everyone watches the show. It could be better than an ♫ op-er-a ♫ (as they say in the musical Les Misérables) and cost about the same.

Oh, I know what you are thinking, Gentle Reader; there are a few more things to work out with Iran now. Anyway, I have already spent more time thinking this war through than President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu did before June 2025 and February 2026 when they started bombing Iran.

You can also follow us on Facebook at “Jim Peg Redwine” or Substack “@gavelgamut”

Civilization Not Annihilation

by Leave a Comment

The most dangerous character trait an advisor to a narcissistic megalomaniac can have is honesty. Speaking truth to power is what a true patriot does before falling on her or his sword. Those around Rome’s Caligula found that out between 37 and 41 AD before he was assassinated. On the other hand, our country has a desperate need for words of wisdom and humanity to be whispered into President Trump’s ear and, more importantly, for him to believe those truths and put America over personal pouting. Of course, if the ruler surrounds himself with sycophants, the advice is more damaging than the facts.

Humanity has unfortunately had numerous examples of people who clearly saw and warned of a dark future but whose forecasts were ignored. The most famous of these cautionary voices came from Cassandra of Greek mythology. Cassandra was the daughter of Troy’s King Priam. She proclaimed the disasters that would befall Troy, but she was dismissed as mad and Troy was conquered by the Greeks in a senseless ten-year war over Helen’s affair with King Priam’s son, Paris.

On March 17, 2026 Joseph Kent, who had been nominated by Trump to serve as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, sent the President his letter of resignation. Kent had served twenty years in the army, had been awarded six bronze stars, was an army ranger and green beret and had seen several combat deployments to the Middle East.

Kent correctly foresaw the future of America’s destruction of Iran. After our unprovoked attacks in June 2025 and February 2026, Joseph Kent, at great self-sacrifice, implored President Trump to put America first:

“President Trump,

After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.

I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.

I support the values and the foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020, 2024, which you enacted in your first term. Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation.

In your first administration, you understood better than any modern President how to decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars. You demonstrated this by killing Qasam Solamani and by defeating ISIS.

Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.

As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.

I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for. The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.

It was an honor to serve in your administration and to serve our great nation.”

Gentle Reader, you already know that Kent’s prescient warnings went unheeded. President Trump has publicly threatened to destroy forever the entire civilization of Iran if it does not, UNCONDITIONALLY, adhere 100% to Trump’s demands. Iran has 90 million people and a civilization over 4,000 years old. Also, as Kent stated, Iran has never been a threat to America and could not be if it wanted to be. To exterminate an entire segment of humanity is to violate every moral position we say we stand for.

The Strait of Hormuz had never been blockaded by Iran until the United States and Israel decided to unilaterally and without warning, while in the midst of negotiations, bomb Iran twice and demand total regime change and capitulation. President Trump portrayed our actions as a means of helping the Iranian populace to revolt against the radical theocracy controlling Iran. But, if we kill everyone and eliminate their culture, how is that to their benefit?

Now, as we supposedly want a “deal” with Iran, what does Iran have to give? President Trump says we obliterated all their nuclear capabilities in June 2025 and February 2026. We and Israel have completely decimated Iran’s air force, navy and economy. All Iran has left is the Strait of Hormuz and their devastated lives, while we demand unconditional capitulation. Iran has nothing else to concede. So, how can this “negotiation” end?

Just as the Greeks after the Trojan war, I suggest we declare victory, we get in our ships and sail home; that is what a properly heeded Cassandra would advise. And we should thank Joseph Kent for having the wisdom and courage to choose the harder right over the easier wrong. The President should recognize Kent’s service to America and choose duty over duplicity.

 You can also follow us on Facebook at “Jim Peg Redwine” or Substack “@gavelgamut”

President Trump’s Avatar

by Leave a Comment

President Trump had to find a way out of the descent into Hades he had recklessly threatened for Iran. Not even his most fervent acolytes could justify his destruction of an entire civilization because some of its leaders refused to prostate their country to President Trump’s demands. One of the President’s most irrational statements was to announce to the world a 48-hour time limit. This removed all wiggle room and meant either the United States had to retreat from its unconditional conditions or Iran had to.

The President’s dilemma remains he has exterminated not just Iran’s hierarchy but, over several years, he has eliminated many of his own advisors he could have relied upon for trusted advice. However, someone is left standing who managed to convince Trump to connive what is for now an off-ramp from his unhinged behavior. Who is the Trump Whisperer who helped him to extract defeat from devastation; the Court Jester who was able to get the emperor to listen to reason; The Greek Chorus that foreshadowed Trump’s own hubris fueled self-immolation on the world stage?

We do not know, as yet. However, there is a Daniel Ellsberg somewhere in the Trump Administration who will someday divulge the facts behind President Trump’s total defeat by his own ego. History provides many examples of people who have had the courage to put principle over their own survival.

Hitler’s greatest general, Erwin Rommel, gave his own life to try to stop a maniac from ending civilization. Marcus Junius Brutus conspired to assassinate Julius Caesar to prevent Caesar from claiming the emperorship and destroying the Roman republican form of government. Both Rommel and Brutus committed suicide, but both tried to save their countries from narcissistic tyrants. Daniel Ellsberg released the top-secret Pentagon Papers to divulge to the world the false basis for America’s involvement in the Viet Nam War. He was charged with espionage and endured great contumely for his courage.

Someone in President Trump’s truly inner circle had the ability to speak truth to Trump about Trump’s seismic moral, political and diplomatic tirade that placed America in the position that Hitler’s Nazis and Netanyahu’s Zionists are known for, genocide. We are, for now, most known for President Trump’s threats to eliminate an entire civilization. If the President decides to eliminate the Cassandra who brought America back from the edge, doom may yet occur.

Here’s a big thank you to that Cassandra, whoever she or he is, and a caution that truth can be a dangerous thing, especially if whispered to megalomaniacs.

You can also find us on Facebook at “Jim Peg Redwine” or Substack “@gavelgamut”

Monkey Traps

by Leave a Comment

When a country embarks on a military peccadillo it is prudent to have planned for an offramp, as what appeared to be a walk in the park may turn out to be a Monkey Trap. Monkeys sometimes are captured by placing food in a jar that has an opening large enough to allow a monkey’s open paw to go in, but small enough that the inserted paw, when clinching food in a fist, cannot be withdrawn. Then the monkey sometimes stubbornly refuses to let go of the food and can be easily captured.

The United States has often suffered from this sin of hubris when dealing with less powerful nations. For example, Custer’s 1868 easy slaughter of Chief Black Kettle and his peaceful Cheyenne tribe at the Washita Battlefield in western Oklahoma infected Custer with the misconception indigenous people could not defend against the U.S. Cavalry. Ten years after Washita, Custer attacked another peaceful Indian encampment at the Little Bighorn in southeastern Montana. He expected the same result as with Black Kettle’s tribe, but this time was a Monkey Trap for the United States.

America has a penchant for seizing defeat from the jaws of victory in confrontations with countries which can do us no harm, but are ones we choose to destroy or revamp in our own image for them: North Korea, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Iraq (twice), Afghanistan, Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank), Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Panama, Venezuela and Iran. There have been others, but these few debacles should illustrate the point.

Now, President Trump is threatening to invade Greenland and yesterday the President stated he could and might simply take Cuba, or as he said, “Do whatever I want with it”. Writing these proposed conquests down or publicly stating we will conquer another country because we do not like their attitude or their regime has become the new American dream. America, long seen as a beacon of freedom to the world, has changed perception of us to that of a Nazi Germany, or a Stalinist Soviet Union, or a Zionist Israel.

We cannot resist dipping our paws into the Monkey Trap of unjust, unnecessary, deadly, expensive, intractable and most importantly, immoral, conflicts. Why? According to what President Trump said about our invasions of Iran, they are “just for fun”. The temptation is to analyze Trump’s policy statements as products of our video game culture. However, we have been engaging in these misadventures since the 17th century, even before we were the United States. No, we should not attempt to assuage our collective conscience by laying the blame, shame and self-defeating national behavior on technology. The cause is not advancing science but declining character. We elected President Trump. He speaks for us. His morality is our morality. When he equates the destruction of other countries to a game and we hardly take notice, as a people we have lost our way.

America made a valid claim to having stopped Germany from its WWII genocide, but now we support Israel’s genocide in Palestine and Lebanon. The slaughter and displacement of innocent human beings is wrong whether in Germany or the Middle East. And, as we are rotting from the inside to defend Israel’s immorality, what about what such lack of character is doing to us?

Our traditional friends and allies no longer look to America for enlightenment. They are increasingly lumping us into the cauldron of hegemony and hate. If President Trump can publicly state from the White House that our Monkey Trap behaviors are excursions or “just for fun”, while there is no hue and cry about how our national soul is rapidly being lost, we need not blame Trump; a mirror will suffice.

Follow us on Facebook at “Jim Peg Redwine” or Substack “@gavelgamut”

It Is On U.S.

by Leave a Comment

The title of a CNN article by Aaron Blake is, “Trump Launches the Regime-Change Effort in Iran that he Pledged to Avoid”. But President Trump did not start our wars with Iran, America did. We live in a republic where we choose our representatives. Their actions are our actions. The blame and shame for Israel sending three missiles into an elementary girls school in Minab in southern Iran to prevent the girls from developing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, is ours. We murdered more than 100 children in what Israel called its preemptive opening act of self-defense. We share Israel’s shame and blame for this crime; but we did not have the right to elect Benjamin Netanyahu. No, our Supreme Leader, who enabled and abetted these war crimes, is in office because we chose him twice. Or, as Donald Trump says three times, due to what he calls the stolen 2020 election.

During the Viet Nam War we Americans were branded with our country’s public attitude as reflected by the stated military strategy against the people of Viet Nam and Cambodia. General Curtis LeMay said we were going to “Bomb them back to the Stone Age”. Fifty-eight thousand of our soldiers and over 1,000,000 Vietnamese were slaughtered in that endless and mindless tragedy. That is the same strategy Israel has been and still is applying in Palestine with our encouragement, weaponry and diplomatic immunity. Israel is using the same actions now in Lebanon and Syria.

Americans who opposed the Viet Nam War and those who now oppose the war with Iran are reminded of the 1960’s folk song by Phil Ochs, “Is There Anybody Here?”:

♫ ….
[Verse 3]

Is there anybody here
Who thinks that following the orders takes away the blame?
Is there anybody here
Who wouldn’t mind to murder by another name?
…. ♫

Or as pointed out by the war hero, Senator Mark Kelly, whom Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wants to court martial for pointing out what is clearly the moral and legal duty of the military that they should refuse illegal orders. Before Kelly flew all those combat missions during the Viet Nam War, he could have paid a medico to find bone spurs in his ankles and let some other “suckers and losers”, as Trump called D-Day’s heroes, go risk life and limb to serve their country in Viet Nam.

President Trump declared one of his main objects of our attacks on Iran was regime change. With Israel’s killing of Ali Khamenei and other senior leaders of Iran’s government, that objective has been met, not by ballots, but by bullets. America has the right to regime change also. We have several non-ballistic alternatives and all of them require citizen and elected representative involvement. Impeachment is one non-violent alternative.

But, to cast the blame on the narcissistic, megalomaniacal military decisions of one person out of 350 million does not absolve the rest of us. We are America; President Trump is one American. The blame and shame are on U.S. all.

Follow us on Facebook at “Jim Peg Redwine” or Substack “@gavelgamut”