James M. Redwine

Trump

Armored Adversaries

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It is unlikely that armadillos ascribe to any mystic beliefs, but they definitely bring out the devil in those of us whose yards are decimated by their reptilian claws. Having shot fifteen of the ugly excuses for lawn ornaments, I immediately bonded with Oklahoma State University football coach Eric Morris who endured what he described as armadillos, “…[C]rushing my yard, my flower beds, digging everything up”. His solution was the same one I applied after trying live traps, bait, wolf urine and asking Peg to sit on our veranda with a metal bucket and a large spoon to scare them away. It was sort of like President Trump’s approach to foreign affairs. Cursing, threats and self-destructive actions were all useless. The only answer was extermination. We have paid through our collective noses for Trump’s babbling ineptitude with Iran. Both Coach Morris and I took a more direct approach after the armadillos refused our terms of negotiation.

In my case, I found reason with the armored obstinate menaces was a waste of time. A few well targeted 20-gauge shots did more than all my vociferous complaints ever did. Coach Morris obviously had tried to live and let live until his yard became a war zone of claw marked messes. If Coach Morris’ wife is anything like Peg, Morris probably tired of the constant refrain of, “When are you going to keep those things out of my plants?” It is sort of like Israel demanding that Trump bomb Iran back to the Stone Age for having the temerity to live on Iran’s own land. After all Coach, the armadillos were there before you moved in.

Now, do not get me wrong, I know the pesky armadillos on our property likely came with the end of the last Ice Age. I do not care! Peg wants them gone and, apparently, so did Mrs. Morris. Neither Coach Morris nor I was going to let a little thing like “First in time, first in right” stop us from settling on armadillo habitat.

Regardless, as a former freshman at Oklahoma State University and a current suffering football fan, if eliminating a couple of ground grubbing scavengers causes the Coach to be able to better concentrate on a game plan to beat anybody, I am behind you all the way, Coach. And I will even bring my shotgun to Stillwater if it helps us beat Oregon on September 12!

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

Living Law of a Democratic Society

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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

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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”

Regime Regrets

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In 1953 Iran had a democratically elected president, Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh was deposed by the United States CIA and Britain’s MI6 because he wanted to change Iran’s position on how Iran’s oil revenues were being unfairly taken, mainly by Britain but also the U.S.A. The CIA and MI6 instigated riots and protests among the Iranian people, then without allowing the Iranian citizens to choose, installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as their absolute dictator whose repressive and corrupt regime led to a popular revolt in 1979. The citizens who took American hostages did so because they blamed America for deposing their president and imposing the Shah. Then, ironically, the foreign intelligence agencies fomented what became the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that ousted the Shah. That revolution continues today and pits Iran’s current repressive religious leaders against progressive reformists.

Iran’s current political situation is theocratic, not democratic and much of the population lives under repression of rights. Such are the fruits of the various regime changes we have arbitrarily forced on the Iranian people. They know we are to blame and are understandably upset with us, much as we would be if Iran attempted to change our regime by subterfuge and/or assassination. Israel just murdered the leaders of Iran’s government so the Iranians may wonder why they should not seek to respond. Now, President Trump wants another regime change in Iran but he wants to select the new regime leader while Israel wants to turn Iran into the same type of rubble it has wrought in Gaza.

Two hundred and fifty years ago we Colonials sought regime change from King George III’s control. After great strife and hardship our Founders adopted the U.S. Constitution that is the gold standard for regime change. It was and is the light that kept a rag-tag group of British subjects from disintegrating into a mob of warring factions and, while far from a perfect union, led to a country where religion is supposed to have no say in our government and our government is to have no say in religion. Both press and speech are to be unfettered while due process is required to take our lives and our property. When it comes to war, our military is to be only for OUR national defense, not ill-advised adventurism. And that self-defense is to be entered into ONLY with the advice, consent and authorization of our elected representatives in Congress.

We Americans have frequently lost touch with the wisdom that took regime change to freedom. Unfortunately, we have occasionally lost sight of our own experience and convinced ourselves we know how other countries should govern themselves. Such entanglements almost always have resulted in disaster for America and those we deign as inferior to our culture. We normally work our way into these briar patches with no way for either the other countries or ourselves to escape without losing our dignity, our treasure or even our lives. Such is our current stumble into starting a war against Iran because we, once again, have violated our Constitution to our detriment.

If our Constitution is carefully followed, our collective goodwill and good judgment will help us remember to remain humble and to choose right over wrong. To see what is right is what our founding document guides us to. It is then up to us to do what is right in the face of our natural human frailty of choosing to impose our will on others. We should remember we are neither Nazis, Zionists, Marxists, Communists, Fascists, monarchists nor a theocracy and we should not allow ourselves to be misled by any such flawed systems of government. We are a republic based on a constitution and when we fail to follow our Constitution, as in Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Palestine or Iran, they suffer and so do we. Of course, when our country becomes untethered from its core principles, the first issue to be addressed is which principles have been cast aside and why.

Donald Trump based his campaign promises on two worthy goals: avoid offensive wars and improve America’s standard of living. Trump had looked at our foreign military entanglements in the devastating, pointless and baseless wars since WWII and campaigned on their immorality and multi-trillion-dollar cost; Trump was right about our failure to adhere to our core values then. But, as we humans often do, Trump succumbed to the same hubris as some of his predecessors. We Americans are not the saviors we see ourselves to be, but are mere humans who have lost our way because we drifted from our Constitution, core values and our true Volksgeist.

President Trump has fallen victim to what almost all of us has from time to time. When we are cursed with power, we cannot resist abusing it. That is the danger our Founders knew and guarded against 250 years ago. One of those worst dangers is unbridled military power fueled by blind belief in the rightness of a cause and/or the belief in the evilness of someone else.

Donald Trump is caught up in that trap many of us are in danger of falling heir to. He has the reins of immense power and cannot recognize that he is much like a child with an irresistible opportunity of exerting it over virtually defenseless victims. His is the psyche of a boy with a new BB gun and a helpless bird in his sights. It is the immorality of one who simply cannot resist the exhilaration of killing, especially of anyone who asserts their own views and independence.

That is the frailty of human nature our Founders recognized most of us are in danger of should we ever have the opportunity to force our will on others. That is the basis of our Constitution. Our President, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the News Media and each American citizen need the constant reminder that the separation and equality of our three branches of government are the raison d’etre we are nearing our 250th birthday.

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

Peace In Our Time

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In his Inaugural Address President Trump told us his two main goals were to be a unifier and a peace maker. Most of us can applaud those aims. Also, most people, whether MAGA or Trump Haters realize such laudable and difficult objectives will take some time. Even skeptics must allow for a country as divided as America to be incrementally and slowly to coalesce behind anyone who announces such commendable, if unlikely, achievements. After all, even Jesus has had over two thousand years to reign as the Prince of Peace and the whole world seems still bent on committing either genocide or suicide. Perhaps we should, at least, allow President Trump more than a couple of weeks. While not convinced by his first term nor his actions thereafter, I for one can reserve final judgment. On the other hand, President Trump, in my opinion, has not made an auspicious start.

You may recall, Gentle Reader, that during his first term President Trump sought to restrict all Muslims from immigrating to America. Several of the countries we seek to have peaceful relations with are majority adherents of Islam. The U.S. has about four million Muslim citizens. The earth has a population of about two billion Muslims; that is one Muslim out of every four humans. To have a peaceful world America must have a leader who does not hate Muslims.

At his inauguration President Trump had a Catholic bishop, a Protestant cleric and a Jewish rabbi, but no Islamic imam. There were, also, numerous secular figures involved. While some citizens of the United States might believe that there should be no emphasis on any religious faith in our government based on the First Amendment, it has been an American tradition to involve religion in our inaugurations. This probably does no harm as long as all faiths are welcome. However, the exclusion of Islam from President Trump’s ceremony was obviously by his preference. Such exclusion did not help either national unity or the cause of peace.

What President Trump could do is to begin referring to America’s religious tradition as a Judeo-Christian-Islamic one; after all, each of the three faiths worship the same god and have many of the same rituals. Such a gesture by our new President would encourage the populace and especially the news media to include one-fourth of our world family in our aspirations for unity and peace. I doubt if such a magnanimous gesture by our new leader would escape notice and, I predict it would receive heartfelt gratitude.

A Turn From The Right To The Right

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According to CNN this morning, 13 November 2024, President-Elect Trump will nominate former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister, Mike Huckabee, to be United States Ambassador to Israel. Mr. Huckabee was quoted this morning as denying the existence of a Palestinian people, referring to Palestine as Canaan and Palestinians as Canaanites. As the Republican Party will almost certainly have the majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives in 2025, Mr. Huckabee will likely be confirmed.

United States foreign policy in the Middle East will likely continue to be one of aggressive support for Israel, as it has been since Israel was created out of Palestine in 1948. But, it may turn from a philosophical position to a dynamic one. From a war more of words and increasing military materiel backing to one that shifts from old people making threats and spending our national treasure to our young people bleeding and dying. We have recently traveled this one-way road in Viet Nam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and the Iraq War. Now is the time to change both our direction and our moral position.