We all remember it – in the sunup to the 2016 Trump lied thousands of times over 6 years that Barack Obama was not born in the US.  The lie was outrageous, silly, and debunked before he spread it, but it didn’t matter to him.  Subscribing to Joseph Goebbel’s philosophy, of “The Big Lie“, Trump repeats his lies in a continuous loop no matter how outrageous, and the list is long; from his lies about immigrants, the border, the economy, environment, nonexistent voter fraud, the Clinton Foundation, and even the weather, no lie is too big for Trump. If it serves his purpose, lying is his first and only offensive tactic.

Carrying that tactic to 2020, you can read the roadmap.  It’s pretty obvious that Biden is the leading and strongest candidate against Trump, and he knows it.  That’s why 14 months out from the election Trump has implemented the strategy of the Big Lie.  And that Big Lie is that Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden engaged in years of corruption and coverup of corruption with the government of Ukraine.  Never mind that there is ZERO evidence of any corruption or scandal; Trump and his henchmen have been prosecuting an offensive and defensive war against Biden, one to smear the Democratic frontrunner, and other to cover up the actual scandal, which is Trump and Giuliani soliciting the assistance of a foreign power to help him defeat an American political opponent.

Trump breathed life into the latest Big Lie today at the UN when he denied any wrongdoing in seeking foreign assistance in the next election by lying about the conversation saying he was withholding aid to Ukraine BECAUSE of the non-existent corruption between Biden and the government of Ukraine.  Did you see it?  Trump brushed aside his actual corruption by spinning the lie that he was actually trying to get Ukraine to stop helping Biden.  The notion of this lie is laughable, but it’s  not.  This is how it starts.  The echo chamber will pick it up, just like they picked up the birther lie, the Benghazi lie, the voter fraud lie, and even the weather lie.  By tomorrow, normal people will be slacked jawed when Trump’s bullshit will transform into an article of faith for his sycophants.

This WILL happen, and Biden’s team needs to be ready to aggressively call Trump’s bullshit uh, bullshit.

In the NYTimes Opinion section, political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt explain the GOP scorched earth strategy and how it’s destroying our democratic system.  Good read for a Saturday morning.

Early yesterday morning, two Aramco crude facilities were attacked.  Shortly after, satellite photos showed plumes of smoke coming from multiple locations at a scale that could be observed from space.   The Saudis announced that HALF of their production had been taken off line.  When international trading started a few hours ago, crude prices jumped $6.00 per barrel, increasing to over $60.

Just a little while ago, Trump tweeted: “Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!”

Yemeni Houthis claimed responsibility for the attacks.  Mike Pompeo accused Iran for the attacks.  I call bullshit. This has all the markings of Wag the Dog as a pretense to start a war with Iran.  Here’s why I say this:

1. The Houthis have been using quadcopters and other small commercial drones bought off of Amazon for their attacks on Saudi Arabia.  These drones have little capacity to carry munitions that would cause significant damage.
2. Iran has apparently been supplying parts and training to build cheap drones, yet they are small with little capacity to carry significant explosives.
3. The attack early on Saturday morning caused enough damage to shut in FIVE MILLION BARRELS PER DAY of Saudi production.  This kind of damage was not caused by homemade drones or quadcopters from Amazon.

The Saudi facilities that were allegedly attacked are massive, with modern controls and redundant systems.  To claim that an attack with homemade drones was significant enough to shut down 5 million barrels per day of production is laughable.  This incident is one of three things:

1. An actual attack from Iran, which would be suicide by said country, and an accusation I reject.
2. An attack by some other power trying to instigate a war (the US) which is certainly a possibility.
3. The entire story is bullshit.  Trump and Mohammad bin Salman are in cahoots to start a war with Iran and jack up crude prices.

I’ll take Door Number 3, Monty.  This “attack” stinks like yesterday’s crawfish boil, and Trump tweeting that he’s awaiting instructions from Saudi Arabia is the tell.  Let’s be clear here:  The storyline is that a fleet of small homemade drones from Yemen, built by Iran, was so effective that it knocked out 50% of Saudi Arabia’s production.  Bullshit. Alternatively, Iran was so stupid as to attack Saudi directly with powerful drones (or warplanes) guaranteeing a lethal response from the US and its Middle East allies.  Bullshit.

I believe that this is nothing more than pretense to justify attacking Iran.  Worse, Trump is subjugating the US to Saudi dominance, publicly announcing that he is awaiting instructions from that murdering SOB MBS for how our country should respond.

Christ on a Crutch.  2020 or impeachment can’t come too soon.

Remember when the rumor was floated that Robert Mueller was going to be swept up in a sex scandal?  Remember when it went nowhere?  Remember when rumors floated about Pete Buttigieg that also died on the vine?  Meet Jacob Wohl, a young smartass from California, cut from the same cloth as James O’Keefe, another young smartass who’s become known for botched stings and false reporting on Democratic politicians.

If it’s even possible, Wohl is worse than O’Keefe (or at least more criminal).  He has partnered with a shadowy 53 year old political operative named Jack Burkman whose checkered past goes all the way back to the Clinton impeachment.  He claims that Don McGahn, Trump’s former WH counsel who spent 30 hours with Mueller, introduced Burkman to Wohl.  McGahn told the Washington Post he’s never met him OR Wohl.  Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s on staff advisor liar, warned the Post to watch out for Burkman.

Like all dirty tricksters, truth doesn’t matter to Wohl and Burkman, so they have been cooking up all kinds of fake scandals to attack Trump enemies, but they’ve all been botched, including doing a “press conference” on the fake Mueller scandal with Burkman’s fly unzipped.  LOL.

And it gets better – Wohl, who started his career as a securities salesman, has been trailed by financial scandals and investigations the last several years.  On Wednesday, he was arraigned on felony securities fraud for selling a fake real estate fund.  The charges stem from an investigation of the fund from 2016 leading to the charge this week.

The lesson keeps repeating itself.  Dirty tricksters like Wohl and O’Keefe base their entire existence on lies for political gain.  Those lies often land them in scandal at minimum, and sometimes criminal charges.  Amazing that many on the side that claims morals and family values have devolved into supporting lies and criminality in their tribe.  Worse, there are some who are neck deep in it.  It’s a head shaker.

Trump is now saying that he’s eager to fire Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, then eliminate the position altogether.  That fits, right?  Because if there is one word that doesn’t describe Trump, it’s intelligence.

In Japan on Memorial Day, Trump criticized the Navy, IN FRONT OF THE NAVY, for replacing the old steam powered catapults that launch aircraft with new electric catapults.  In excoriating the Navy for cost overruns in the new system, he announced:

“I think I’m going to put an order,” the president continued. “When we build a new aircraft carrier, we’re going to use steam. I’m going to just put out an order: We’re going to use steam. We don’t need — we don’t need that extra speed.”

Drawing on his deep experience in maritime architectures and aeronautical engineering, Trump continued that steam is much more reliable than “digital”, even saying, “What is digital?” “What is digital?”  Wait…back in January when riffing on border security Trump proclaimed,

“The only [way] you’re going to have border security – there’s only [one] way. You can have all the technology in the world. I’m a professional at technology. But if you don’t have a steel barrier or a wall of some kind – strong, powerful – you’re going to have human trafficking; you’re going to have drugs pouring across the border; you’re going to have MS-13 and the gangs coming in.”

So, the president who is a professional at technology doesn’t understand what digital means?  Trump once again causes whiplash by simply freelancing when he’s in front of an audience and the cameras are rolling.  He doesn’t have a goddam clue what he’s even talking about, and I can just imagine how Navy personnel is receiving the message from the president of the United States when he is telling them their leadership is stupid.

But we all know who is stupid.