I believe most thoughtful Americans are more than a little concerned that, should Trump lose the election in 2020 he would refuse to concede and vacate office.  We’re getting a preview of that possibility right now in Israel as Netanyahu failed to get a majority of the votes last night in that country’s elections.  In his first speech after the election he refused to concede and blamed the media for biased coverage.  He went on to say that the Israeli government should be Zionist and not involve representatives of Arab heritage.  To be clear, 21% of the population of Israel are Arab muslims.

If you’re looking for a preview of 2020, here it is. Netanyahu just blamed his loss at the polls on the election.  Trump will do the same.  The only way Trump will ever leave office after an election defeat is to be be dragged out by his armpits.  Even his lawyer, Michael Cohen, said before Congress that if Trump loses the election next year that there will “never be a peaceful transition of power.”

It gives me cold chills thinking about it.

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.

Yesterday, Trump did what only Trump can do, and that is to lie on national television to prove that he hadn’t made an untrue statement.  This time, he was trying to justify blurting out that Hurricane Dorian was forecast to hit Alabama, which it wasn’t.  He was so obsessed with the press calling him out for the  mistake that he actually took a print of the National Hurricane Center’s forecast map from last Thursday and actually altered it with a Sharpie.  Yes, that’s right, he altered it with a Sharpie:

I’m sure the only ones fooled by this ham handed alteration of the NHC forecast map were Trumpists, but the National Weather Service corrected Trump with their own tweet saying that Alabama would not be affected.  After Trump showed the altered map, Twitterverse lit up, and #sharpiegate became trending, showing a number of solutions to Trump’s other problems.  Here are a few:

While the trending is pretty entertaining, Trump’s tampering with National Weather Service forecasting is dangerous.  All of us from Texas understand the life and death threats of hurricanes.  Accurate forecasting of hurricane tracks is essential for people to make their own decisions about life and property.  Trump has no business muddying the water by serving around like this just to prove himself right after saying something really stupid.

80 years ago today Great Britain declared war on Germany for invading Poland.  At the same time, Winston Churchill was appointed Lord of the Admiralty to fight the Germans.  He was later elected Prime Minister.  Ironically, today, 80 years to the day, Nicholas Soames, Churchill’s grandson, was notified he was being ejected from the Conservative Party, along with 20 other conservatives, for daring to vote against Boris Johnson Trump who is trying to crash the UK out of the EU without an exit plan.

Republicans in Congress can take a lesson here.  Soames, who’s been in Parliament for 37 years, is not allowed to stand for re-election as a conservative.  He disregarded this threat from Johnson and put his country before his own career.  If only our own spineless Congress would do the same here.  I’m not holding my breath.

Very useful when a certain someone is not familiar with hurricane categories:

Trump was Trump today, attending a FEMA briefing on Hurricane Dorian which was upgraded to Category 5 today.  The President was confused by the term “Category 5” saying,

“I’m not sure that I’ve ever even heard of a Category Five.  I’ve seen some Category Fours, you don’t even see them that much.  But a Category Five is something that, I don’t know that I’ve ever even heard the term, other than I know it’s there. That’s the ultimate and that’s what we have, unfortunately.”

So, the “very stable genius”, who knows more than any expert about the Middle East, the military, warfare, technology, trade, real estate, and finance has never heard of a Category 5 hurricane.  For context, the US has been hit by THREE Category 4 hurricanes since Trump was inaugurated, Irma and Maria in 2017, and Michael in 2018.

Trump is truly just an ignoramus.  He doesn’t read; he has no knowledge of science or history; he couldn’t care less about society and contributing to that society.  He is totally self absorbed, consumed and needy of adulation.  Everything else is peripheral and irrelevant.

Unbelievable.