Four American wars are occurring simultaneously. There’s the war against Iran, obviously, but also the ICE war against immigrants; the ongoing economic war against the working people of the United States; and a Cold Civil War, those seeking to protect our democratic Constitutional system pitted against those seeking to subvert it. All those wars are raging as we speak, though some are declared and some are not.
The war on Iran is getting the most attention now and for good reason, given that it could kill us all if it turns into WW3.
President Trump says he decided to initiate the war after talking to Jared, Steve, Pete and Marco. You’ll notice there isn’t one military commander on that list. Lincoln had Ulysses S. Grant, FDR had Eisenhower, and Trump has…well, he sort of doesn’t have anyone. Technically the head of our Joint Chiefs of Staff is General Dan Caine, but Caine rarely gets a public mention from the President; you never get the feeling that he’s really in the room. Remember in 2015 when Trump said, “I know more about ISIS than the generals do”? He meant that. Last year President Trump purged the armed forces of people with the highest military expertise and ability. He prefers sycophants and lackeys who will simply do what he tells them to do, to seasoned professionals whose opinions might challenge his own. This means he has launched a major war against Iran in the absence of the most serious military consultation.
They’re closing the Straight of Hormuz? “Oops! Who would have thought of that?” Um, basically any eighth grader who had considered it for more than fifteen minutes. The President isn’t big on thinking in terms of likely consequences down the road, on anything really. He’s basically a little boy playing with legos, although that’s a bit unfair to little boys. The greater danger here is not the President’s lack of maturity, but his lack of conscience. He referred to the bombing of ships as “more fun” for his gang than capturing them. It’s hard to overstate the danger that this man poses to the world.
Meanwhile, the new leader of Iran is Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father was killed by a US strike on the first day of the war. And the strike didn’t just kill his father. It also killed his mother, his wife, and at least one of his children. So….Epic Fury? Meet epic fury. It’s now reasonable to believe that Iran’s current regime will be, at least for now, even more vicious than the last.
If we think Iran was a threat before this war, it’s hard to imagine that they won’t be a bigger threat afterwards. The only alternative scenario would be complete regime change, which the administration now says it isn’t after. The administration also told Congress that it isn’t after the destruction of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, so at this point no one knows what they’re after. Iran says it can keep up the war for as long as takes for them to win, while Trump will keep it up for as long as he think’s it’s politically helpful for him. Sans a miracle, no matter which way things go from here Trump has created a disaster for years to come.
The psychology of Donald Trump has been analyzed ad infinitum, but I’d like to take a stab at some of the others. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have a characteristic common among multi-billionaires: they have a hard time imagining a situation they can’t just buy themselves out of, therefore lack appropriate caution when playing a high stakes game. Pete Hegseth has the pomposity of those who know they’re in over their head. Marco Rubio is a genuine American tragedy, trading what had for years seemed like a principled conservatism for a chance at proximity to power. And Bibi Netanyahu? Like Trump, he is a sociopath. Neither man has a conscience, or any sense of morality whatsoever. All of them together - plus the men and women who enable them - are among the modern barbarian class now plaguing modern civilization.
We’re being led by sophisticated maniacs. They derive their power from a certain bizarre soullessness, but that’s also their ultimate weakness. For when the American spirit has once again grown fierce and strong, and the forces of justice have gathered, then peace will yet prevail. This isn’t happy talk, because the season upon us is not happy. America’s day of reckoning is here. We will be humbled by this, but we will not be destroyed. And we will have learned so much.
Look at us all now, compared to pre Trump. We were a country of people not paying attention, so dispirited by how unequal we had become that there was massive no-showing to even vote. We are on fire now, getting the education we need about how everything works and doesn’t work so hopefully we will organize ourselves to get beyond this impasse and come out as the heroic species that tends Earth and each other. I keep urging people to pay attention to you, that you are our world teacher, the only one on the world stage equally steeped in politics and spirit. Just keep talking!
Dear marianne,
Thanks a million for keep writing about the things that are happening in the world good or bad.
If I don t hear anything from you in about a week I miss you already.
I want to inform you in these disastrous times of like almost WW3 that there are allso good things happening ( in my country the netherlands) that is to say on human and earthrights.
First, since 2008 there are more female judges than there are men s.
Second since 2019 in museums the museumworkers have discovered that women played a big role in the making of the art in their collections. And....they inform the visitors of the museums now by information on the plates next to the several art object in the collection.
So pf pf we are finally being seen as women for what we are worth. So that we have are own place in the collective subconscious of the dutch people ( and therefore in the world s subconscious).
Third, big buildingcompanies have discovered that the feel of wood to build a house with is different from the feel of a concrete house.
Fourth, several big companies have now a worker specialised in working with people who are neuro divergent.
I have a subscription of a magazine in which I red this.
And at last in the newspaper there is a lot of attention about personal boundaries and how to respect them.
There is a lot more what s happening that is very positive in human rights but I ll leave it here.
Love from Sabine from the netherlands in Europe