There is speculation that Trump will flee to Scotland to play golf at his Turnberry resort to avoid attending the inauguration on January 20th.  Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister and head of the Scottish government, caught wind of the potential plans, and warned Trump yesterday that her country is not allowing travel by foreigners for non-essential purposes, including him.  The airport at nearby Prestwick has been alerted to expect arrival of a US military 757 and to not allow his entry into the country.  Like the rest of the UK, Scotland is in lockdown to reduce the surge caused by the new strain of the Coronavirus.  In a briefing today, Sturgeon said this about Trump:

“We are not allowing people to come into Scotland now without an essential purpose, which would apply to him, just as it applies to everybody else. Coming to play golf is not what I would consider an essential purpose.”

AND, it gets better – today, Iran requested another Interpol international arrest warrant for Trump and 47 other US officials identified for their roles in the drone strike a year ago that killed General Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s highest ranking military officer.  The government is vowing to bring Trump and others to justice for this killing.

Just another Tuesday in Trumpland.

As we discussed the other day, I believed strongly that the crash of the Ukrainian Airlines 737 was NOT caused by a mechanical failure.  Indeed, video showed something hit the aircraft and today, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau confirmed what we all feared:

Of course, Iran government officials are lying about the true cause of the crash, but finally bent to demands to allow others into the investigation including Ukraine and Boeing.  The truth will come out, and the Iranian government (along with Trump) look like idiots.  Trump kills the top military general for Iran and 7 others.  Iran retaliates to make a statement, warning the US three hours before the attack so they could clear out and have no casualties.  Purely by accident, the Iranians shot down a commercial aircraft filled with 176 innocents.  Tragic.  And stupid.

Using military strength gets people killed.  It’s high time the morons running these two governments finally figured that out.

Iran retaliated for Trump’s idiotic killing of Qasem Soleimani last week, firing over a dozen ballistic missiles from Iran to two US bases in Iraq.  Casualties unknown as yet.  Crude price skyrocketed to over $65 on the news.  Expect it to be more volatile in coming days as Trump will do the next stupid thing.

In a letter to the Iraqi prime minister today, Marine Corps Brigadier General William H. Seely III, the commanding general of Task Force Iraq, announced that “in deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq,” US and coalition troops will withdraw from the country.  So, in the last month, Trump has turned Syria over to Turkey, who immediately murdered hundreds of our Kurdish allies, then killed the military leader of Iran.  Subsequently, Iran announced it was withdrawing from the multi country nuclear treaty and that it was restarting its full scale uranium enrichment program.  Then, Trump threatened to bomb cultural sites in Iran.  THEN, Iraq ordered US troops out of the country to which we just agreed.  Oh, and Chevron has announced it is withdrawing ALL expatriates out of the country immediately.  Most other companies have already done that.

So, through Trump’s bungling, Iran has greatly increased its influence over this region of the Middle East, making Iraq basically a satellite of their own country.  Without coalition forces on the ground anywhere in the Kurdish areas of norther Iraq and Syria, Trump has opened the entire region to expansion by ISIS and other Islamic extremists.

So much “winning”.

Fox News talking heads are now trumpeting the accuracy of US intelligence that Trump claims to have used to justify the killing of the second most powerful member of the Iranian government, and all reference to the “Deep State” has ceased.  The reversal can cause serious whiplash if you’re not careful.  Even Sean Hannity got into the act, saying, “But I will say the big headline is, this is a huge victory for American intelligence, a huge victory for our military, a huge victory for the State Department, and a huge victory and total leadership by the president.”  Hannity has been railing about US intelligence for 3 years calling it the anti-Trump “Deep State”.

NY Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi tweeted earlier today that her sources call the evidence of imminent attacks was “razor thin” and leaves many questions.  Now that Congress is being finally briefed, the truth will come out, and I’ll lay odds that Trump and his enablers are lying about this, too.

Wag the Dog.

Last Spring, Senator Tom Udall introduced an amendment to the defense appropriation bill that would have prevented Trump from taking any military action against Iran or its leaders without congressional approval.  McConnell poo-pood it and all but 4 Repubs voted against it.  McConnell even said that Trump had assured him he had no intention of taking action against Iran.

How wrong he was, and now Trump is taking us UNILATERALLY into a war with no congressional oversight.  Huge mistake.