Denouement

Robert Pape, University of Chicago political science professor, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times a few days ago, titled The War Is Turning Iran Into a Major World Power. Last month he told us about the Escalation Trap, the danger that leaders who start wars get drawn into expanding them as circumstances don't go according to plan. 

Today it is reported that China is sending weapons to Iran. The plot thickens. The game is afoot. Meanwhile, Trump's wife is "throwing him under the bus," reviving his likely reason for starting the war - the Epstein Files. Rex Huppke of USA Today pointed out that she only defends herself, not Donald. It could be that the rats are deserting the ship.

No one could have predicted that the American empire would end this way. It has been a long time coming, starting well before I was born, and accelerating during my nearly eighty-one years of life. For a little context, the words of former Marine General Smedley Butler explains amply in his landmark book War Is a Racket, published in 1935. Here's an excerpt:
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man, to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major General. And during that period, I spent most of my time I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical of everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

Highly recommended reading on Smedley Butler’s life: The Plot to Seize the White House, by Jules Archer (out of print, but available in better public libraries).
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To show how successful empire propaganda is in the U.S., the "Democratic" governor of Wisconsin recently signed a bill making criticism of the state of Israel a crime. I wrote to the governor, Tony Evers, challenging his nasty decision. I haven't received a reply yet. Here' what I wrote:

From: John Hamilton
To: Governor Tony Evers (https://wi.accessgov.com/public/Forms/Edit/governor/879053df-1ad1-451e-b2fd-1932bcacb873/2)
Date: April 3, 2026
Subject: Wisconsin Act 143

Hello Governor Evers 

I voted for you twice, and wrote in praise of you a time or two, such as here.

I see you signed the Republican bill making criticism of Israel a crime. I hereby state that Israel is a genocide state, sponsored by the U.S. Federal Government, and now you. I am now a criminal, at least until this phony law is found to be unconstitutional by both the state and U.S. Supreme Courts. For you, of course, this will be a sad part of your legacy. For me, wartime veteran of the U.S. Army, saying a genocide state is a genocide state is part of my legacy. History will not remember me, but it will remember you.
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I had written the following to the state Senate in January, hoping it would deter them in their zeal to enact this phony law:

Wisconsin State Senate
P. O. BOX 7882, MADISON, WI 53707-7882

To The Entire Senate

Word has reached me that you are considering a bill to make "antisemitism" illegal. There are some things you might want to consider when studying this legislation. First, you might want to define what is meant by the word Semite. A definition from Wikipedia will suffice: Semitic people or Semites is a term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, Including Akkadians (Assyrians and Babylonians), Arabs, Arameans, Canaanites (Ammonites, Edomites, Israelites, Moabites, Phoenicians, and Philistines) and Habesha peoples. The terminology is now largely unused outside the grouping "Semitic languages" in linguistics. First used in the 1770s by members of the Göttingen school of history, this biblical terminology for race was derived from Shem (שֵׁם), one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis, together with the parallel terms Hamites and Japhetitites.

In archaeology, the term is sometimes used informally as "a kind of shorthand" for ancient Semitic-speaking peoples. Identification of pro-Caucasian racism has either partially or completely devalued the use of the term as a racial category, with the caveat that an inverse assessment would still be considered scientifically obsolete. Once you understand what is meant by Semite, you might also want to define what is meant by anti-Semite. It is a loaded term, but the legislation is intended to expand the meaning to criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine. If you vote to enact such legislation you will make genocide the official policy of the State of Wisconsin.

John Hamilton
Madison
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Neil Young. Graham Nash. Eddie Vedder. Steve Miller. Liam Clancy. A song for Trump.
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Update, April 13:

As I have written before, the president of the United States is criminally insane.

 
There were some very pertinent discussions on public radio today, starting with this program on the constitutional powers of the president on Wisconsin Public Radio.

Then, on NPR and WBUR's On Point, a much needed discussion of the real cost of the war on Iran.

A show on PRX, The World, hosted a discussion of the necessity of negotiating experience with Wendy Sherman, chief negotiator for the Obama nuclear treaty. What we have now is incompetent J.D. Vance, for whom everything he touches turns to shit. 

Or, maybe Trump sabotaged the talks. With help from Benjamin Netanyahu.

Some genocide news. Israeli plans for Lebanon.

The U.S. State Department is pressuring the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to ignore Trump's extrajudicial killings of fishermen in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. I suspect that this will fail, as the planetary tide is turning against Donald Trump.

Moral Injury

Until now I have avoided using the word karma in writing about current events and concerns. Americans toss the word around carelessly, knowing nothing its roots or meaning. It is similar to how Americans carelessly apply the term Zen to any sense of calm or focus, knowing nothing about what Zen is, historically and in practice. It is all about the frivolous use of language, faking sophistication with cheap clichés.

Karma is a Sanskrit term, a spiritual concept that relates cause to effect, the principle that the existence of all beings functions in a dynamic relationship between action and consequence. It is comparable, but not the same, to the Christian belief that as you sow, so also must you reap. Judaism has the principle of midah k'neged midah, or measure for measure. In more familiar terms, what goes around comes around.

When I was involved with the Siddha Yoga organization I enrolled in a couple of courses they offered in various aspects of Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism. The section on Karma lasted a day or two. The main thing I remember that the teacher emphasized was that Karma is very mysterious. In other words, be wary of making casual statements about what fate is pending for oneself or others.

For me, at least, Karma is a good guide for behavior, free of judgement. Do good, don’t do evil, and trust that my existence will be as unencumbered as possible, maybe reaching a higher level of being. It is safe to say, without any prediction, that I am immensely thankful that I don’t carry the karmic burden of known purveyors of evil on this planet.

Donald Trump, 100% evil being, will be gone soon. He is a deranged criminal sociopath, a man totally without conscience, without self-control, and without discernment or competence. It would be a waste of time and energy to speculate of what fate will befall him. It is enough to be hugely thankful that I am not him. And a warning. He is one of the greatest examples in human history of how not to be, and here right now to give that warning.

The same goes for his many fellow-evilites. Putin, Netanyahu, Epstein and others pictured in my previous post Foulness of Being. They are riding high now, except for Epstein, but what goes up must come down, one way or another. Like Trump, all are more than adequate examples of how not to be.

What we should be concerned about, though, is the fate that is coming our way. It isn’t just the obvious – bullying and invading countries around the world, turning the U.S. government into a criminal operation, brutalizing citizens and immigrants, abandoning climate mitigation efforts, reveling in sexual misconduct, lying about everything all the time, indulging in boorish behavior. Donald Trump represents the entire country to the world. To a great degree, he is us and we are him. We will reap what he has sown. The mythical Jesus, or Yeshua, supposedly died for our sins. Donald Trump is the opposite, a true Antichrist. The world may die for his sins. Or, as Thomas Jefferson put it, "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." (Notes on Virginia Query xviii. Manners)

Another way of looking at the situation is from a psychological perspective that was used to explain the prevalence of depression and suicides among returning veterans of the U.S. debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan. The term Moral Injury was introduced in the 1990s to describe the psychic burden held by former combatants who committed acts that violated their sense of right and wrong. The assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq were wars against the civilian populations of these countries, and inevitably involved heinous acts of destruction, abuse and wanton killing. This concept can also apply to entire populations, whole nations. The United States has been the chief sponsor, in weapons and money, of the genocide in Gaza, and now in Lebanon and Iran. And who’s next? Anyone’s guess. Cuba. Greenland. Canada. Anyone who crosses Donald Trump. The governors of Minnesota, Illinois and California - and their citizens and legal immigrants. 

There is cause for optimism, though in an obtuse way. I turned on the TV Saturday afternoon, hoping to catch the PBS Weekend NewsHour. I was quickly reminded that the show has been cancelled, due to Trump’s funding cutback. Instead, a new show was on, Compass Points, pundits sitting around waxing knowledgeably about scenarios of the end of the war against Iran. These know-it-alls were doing what economists call comparative statics, pronouncing existing circumstances and offering a variety of likely consequences, depending on if this or that happens. Not one word was said of the morality of gratuitous war, of how a properly functioning civilization should behave. It was all in terms of U.S. "interests," and what can be gained from this decision or that, and completely superficial, reductionist ad nauseam. 

This is what our intelligentsia self-limits in thinking and talking about the realities we face. Amorality. Or really immorality disguised as objectivity. Empty of ethical principles. And as such, evil.

The reason I say this is cause for optimism is that when a civilization becomes comprehensively vapid and immoral, it is doomed. Doom is not a condition that lasts forever. Eventually it ends, one way or another. Israel is basically a state born in terrorism, theft and displacement, and is now a genocide state. We are its sponsor. A genocide state is a self-dooming state, and its sponsor is similarly doomed. In a perverse way Donald Trump, totally evil human being, is speeding up the process. Hard times are ahead, but what is on the way is inevitable. If we can accept the inevitable we will be better able to deal with it. We have abundant examples of how not to be.
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Here's a song. Here's another. Bob Dylan. Dave Mason. Pink Floyd. Billy Strings. Spirit. AC/DC. Connie Gordon. Chris Thile. Steve Earle. Patti Smith. Pearl Jam. Bob Dylan. John Prine. Israel Ka'ano'i Kamakawiwo'ole.
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R.I.P. Joe McDonald. This is his best-known song. This is my favorite.
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Update, March 21: On Fridays, PBS's NewsHour airs a segment with two pundits, Brooks and Capehart. David Brooks is the resident "Conservative," except he just spouts clichés and conventional wisdom. In yesterday's segment he outdid himself, praising Trump's invasion of Iran. I wondered about this, then realized he is a Zionist, through-and-through, and in the cult of Zionism Israel can do no wrong. As in other media, no mention of the morality of the invasion.

Doubts about dying for Israel are growing among members of the U.S. military.

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Update, March 23:  Alfred McCoy, History professor at the University of Wisconsin, has a great perspective on Trump's war on Iran in TomDispatch, titled Imperial Decline in the Straits of Hormuz. Iran is accusing Trump of manipulating the stock market by announcing fake peace talks. 

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Update, March 26: Donald Trump, dumb guy, deranged criminal sociopath, has walked into a trap of his own making, according to University of Chicago Political Science professor Robert Pape. He calls it the escalation trap. See and listen here. Or read about it here. An extended interview with Robert Pape can be seen here. A simpler way of looking at the escalation trap is as an exaggerated version of Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-dope. There has been no dope to rope in human history greater than Donald J. Trump. He is bringing a lot of sycophant dopes along with him.

The best analysis of what Israel is doing and planning to do on this planet can be seen in this interview with Palestinian Ambassador to the U.K. Husam Zomlot.

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Update, March 27: Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman writes that Trump engaged in treasonous insider trading in manipulating futures markets with his suspicious announcements about bombing or not bombing Iran.

And, Norman Soloman contends Democrats need to change their tune about Israel if the want to win in November. 

Foulness of Being

 

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  Here's a song. Here's another. Brewer and Shipley. A song for ICE. The variation was written by Carsie Blanton. Here's her version. Ben Grosscup again on his Martin D-18. The song is taken from an old song from the Irish War of Independence. A pertinent song from the Rolling Stones. Some encouragement from Chuck Mangione. A song about the Martin D-18.

A story about the most vile scumbags on Earth.

Courts have ruled that ICE illegally jailed people 4400 times since October.

Here's some news about Steve Bannon, pictured above.

Here's some Kristi Noem news. I had this response.

R.I.P. Jesse Jackson. He did this hilarious reading on SNL in 1991.

A guest column in Madison's Cap Times questions why the mainstream news media won't cover the obvious - that Trump is insane. I have been raising this question here for a long time. Maybe more will raise the question. Don't hold your breath with corporate media. They need him. He's "good copy" - meaning that he brings eyes to the TV, sells newspapers, is bait for clicks. 

Minnesotans Are Showing The Way

By now it should be clear that the ICE presence in Minnesota is not about enforcement of immigration laws. It is about lawless rule. It all emanates from our supposed president, Donald J. Trump, a pathological narcissist who sees himself as unbound by any law.

As we are seeing in the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul, usurpers of the Federal Government operate with with the same sense of unboundedness by any law. As with Trump, they can deflect any accountability by lying. Like their boss, they lie about everything, all the time. Not one word they say about anything can be trusted. As with their ideological predecessors in Nazi Germany, they know that the Big Lie is an effective propaganda technique.

Bernie Sanders was interviewed on TV a few days ago, and he said the killing of Renée Good was a warning to the entire nation, that our Federal Government will kill any of us if we get in their way. It is with ICE now, but will expand from there if not stopped. Immigration is the handiest pretext for now, the low-hanging fruit of lawless rule. Once a lethal benchmark is established, it will be easy to expand the murderous impunity outward. It must be stopped, and can when it becomes clear what is taking place. ICE has killed again today. Minnesotans are showing the way out of this mess.
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In 1966-67, while a student at St. Thomas in St. Paul, I lived in Minneapolis, 41st and 42nd St., about a mile east of where Renée Good was shot and killed. It was an average middle class neighborhood. Never would I have believed that such perfidy would take place so close to where I once peacefully resided.

A moment by moment pictorial of the shooting of Alex Pretti from the New York Times. He was an intensive care nurse at the VA hospital in Minneapolis. In 2018 I was a patient for five days in the intensive care unit at the Madison VA. I would not be here today without the dedicated care I received from the nurses there. 

Here's a video of Alex Pretti honoring a fallen veteran at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, where he worked. They do these ceremonies at the Madison VA too, and they are incredibly moving. Here's an interview with the son (Mac Randolph) of the veteran, Terry Randolph, on WCCO Minneapolis.

Heather Digby Parton, writing in Salon, says Trump is worse than a fascist. Minnesota Nice has become Minnesota Strong. Here's a story by an observer of the ICE presence in Minneapolis. Private prisons are cashing in on Trump's ICE grift. Another Big Lie in Minneapolis.
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Here's a song. Canned Heat. Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. The Knickerbockers. Stevie Wonder. The Beatles. The Fugs. I met this band at a gas station on Marshall Avenue in St. Paul in 1967. They drove a hearse to carry their equipment. Lucinda Williams. Late Show version. Amanda Rheaume. Brewer and Shipley. Peter Tosh. Another from Peter Tosh. A song for Trump. A song for the reopening of the Trump Kennedy Center. Marc Skjervem. The Marsh Family.

Here's something we can give each other in these strange times.

ICE agents should have listened to this song before signing up for their killing spree.

Billy Bragg has a new song dedicated to Alex Pretti and the people of Minneapolis. If you need a laugh in all this madness, Jon Stewart might suffice.

Bruce Springsteen has a new song, Streets of Minneapolis. I suppose ICE will try to arrest him too. Here's an alternate version of the song. She pronounces Nicollet correctly.

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R.I.P. Bob Weir. This is my favorite of the Grateful Dead songs he sang. This is probably my second favorite. He is best known for this song. The last time I saw the band was at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1994. The version they did of Cassidy took music to a new level. They opened with this song about three times in concerts I went to. This is a great song too. And this. I was at this show. Playing In The Band. El Paso. Mexicali Blues. Man Smart, Woman Smarter. And, of course, Me and Bobby McGee. With Paul Simon, doing The Boxer in 2019.

R.I.P. Joe Ely. Here's my favorite Flatlanders song. I saw the band once in Madison in 2002.

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Update, January 27:

A shorter rendition of this post appeared in today's Madison Cap Times.

You can also see it on Smirking Chimp. There are many great writers who submit their work to Smirking Chimp, which can be seen here. Sometimes it doesn't load, which is likely due to denial of service attacks.

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Update, January 31:

Meanwhile, on the as over there, so here front, the government of Israel has killed another 30 people (at least), including three children (at least) in its continuing pretense of ceasefire. As with the Trump grift regime, they are lying all the time about everything. They now admit to killing 70,000 people in their campaign of genocide, sponsored by the U.S. government - including both houses of Congress. And, with the propaganda support of U.S. news media. When this kind of perfidy comes home to roost, we can expect the same here (as over there, so here).
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Update, February 1:

We now know the names of two of the ICE agents who shot Alex Pretti. A story about what ProPublica reporters saw in Minneapolis.