Ah, the burdens of the presidency!
THE PRESIDENT’S WEEK:
Monday: TRUMP will participate in a ceremony for new ambassadors to D.C., and he’ll have lunch with the vice president.
Tuesday: THE PRESIDENT will host the prime minister of Greece.
Thursday: THE PRESIDENT will have a political rally in Toledo, Ohio.
Lots of executive time for watching Fox & Friends and tweeting.
Since it is a slow week, Trump will probably head to Mar-a-Lago to get in a few rounds of golf on Friday.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And just perhaps, while in the cart headed to play someone else’s ball because it has a better lie than his, he will tweet out a command to destroy 52 Iranian cultural sites in violation of the international convention, to which the US is a signatory, that makes this a war crime.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/05/world/trump-iran-cultural-sites-war-crime/index.html
That leaves Wednesday to rest and/or blow up North Korea.
Or destroy cultural treasures in Iran.
There’s a report today that the Iranians may target Trump’s properties.
How did they figure out that he cares more about his hotels than our lives?
hhttps://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/ayatollah-mystified-that-he-is-the-only-dictator-trump-dislikes?source=EDT_NYR_EDIT_NEWSLETTER_0_imagenewsletter_Borowitz_ZZ&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Borowitz_010620&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bea10d724c17c6adf1c296b&cndid=15053267&esrc=bounceX&mbid&utm_term=TNY_Borowitz&fbclid=IwAR25n5slo3W4E4QlxNRDiwmj1FZwJ7MeGxlV7MuwDOThap3hb33GFGgzLLw
Diane, please delete that previous link. Not sure what happened there. Here’s the link again:
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/ayatollah-mystified-that-he-is-the-only-dictator-trump-dislikes
I LOVE Borowitz. It’s amazing how close his comedy comes to reality.
Trump is leaving plenty of time for his favorite activity: watching the s*** hit the fan.
If Trump were a smart man, he would hole himself up inside the WH for a while. There is a large bounty on his head. His children also might want to go into hiding for a while. Muslim justice is “an eye for an eye”. Trump poked the sleeping, hungry bear and now he will have to deal with the consequences. I just hope that “we the people” are not the collateral damage.
Here is the official response from the WH. Remember, Trump NEVER does anything wrong. He is guided by his wonderful gut and makes decisions that are much smarter than most people’s brains. /s If this assignation results in more people being killed, it will always be someone else’s fault. I’d like to see Trump, Lieberman, Pompeo and President Obama’s former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson send their children to war. If they did that, then we’d know they were serious. Sending other children to die never concerns them.
Americans are safer today because the world’s worst terrorist is dead. The Iranian people are safer, too:…Every American who believes in the dignity of human life should rejoice at our military’s tremendous success last week. [BS]
1600 Daily
The White House • January 6, 2020
President Trump: ‘My highest and most solemn duty’
Four days ago, the United States military executed a flawless precision strike that killed the worst remaining terrorist on Earth, Qasem Soleimani. The next day, President Donald J. Trump delivered a statement on the successful operation.
“As President, my highest and most solemn duty is the defense of our nation and its citizens,” he said. “Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.”
President Trump: We will always protect Americans and our allies
“Under my leadership, America’s policy is unambiguous: To terrorists who harm or intend to harm any American, we will find you. We will eliminate you.”
Led by Soleimani, the ruthless Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilitated horrific acts of terrorism. Soleimani himself contributed to plots as far-flung as New Delhi and London—and even the United States. In 2011, he organized an attempted assassination of the Saudi ambassador to America in Washington, D.C.
During the Iraq War, Soleimani’s camps trained killers that were directly responsible for the deaths of 603 American service members. Thousands more were wounded.
In the past few weeks alone, attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq included rocket strikes that killed an American and badly injured four U.S. servicemen, as well as a violent assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. All were carried out at Soleimani’s direction.
Americans are safer today because the world’s worst terrorist is dead. The Iranian people are safer, too: Soleimani recently led the brutal repression of protestors in his own country. In the end, more than 1,000 innocent civilians were tortured and killed by their government in Tehran. Soleimani’s disrespect for life knew no borders or limits.
These grave facts aren’t in dispute. Every American who believes in the dignity of human life should rejoice at our military’s tremendous success last week. Partisan politics sometimes gets in the way of uniting around good news, however—certain career politicians are too worried about who will get the credit.
Real experts across the political spectrum are setting the record straight. Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic candidate for Vice President, said “President Trump’s order to take out Qasem Soleimani was morally, constitutionally and strategically correct. It deserves more bipartisan support than the begrudging or negative reactions it has received thus far from my fellow Democrats.”
President Obama’s former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson also shot down claims from some Democrats that the Soleimani operation could be unlawful. Based on the rationale presented by our military, “the President, under his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief, had ample domestic legal authority to take him out without an additional congressional authorization,” Johnson said.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained President Trump’s position in a series of television interviews yesterday. “The Iranian leadership needs to understand that attacking Americans is not cost-free,” he said. “Terrorism will not benefit them.”
In other words, the expectations are clear. There will be no appeasement. There will be no blank checks from this Administration. America has zero interest in war. But Iran must end the one it started—now.
🎬 Watch President Trump’s full statement on Iran.
CNN in 2016: Former Secretary of State John Kerry admits that some Iran Deal money would likely go to terrorism
Christiane Amanpour wrote an article saying that the trillions of dollars we spent to stabilize the Middle East (and the thousands of lives lost) had all been wiped out by a single stroke, Trump’s thoughtless decision to kill the #2 in Iran. Unlike Saudi Arabia, she said, ordinary Iranians really like the U.S. and are pro-western. Until this week. That good will has been lost.
I read articles on Twitter in which a high-level Iranian official said that the government was thinking about targeting Trump properties around the world. They know this would hurt him more than losing a few soldiers. This is a very bad time to be a guest in a Trump hotel.
Mar-a-Lago is also in their sights.
I live very close to DC. I’m sure there wouldn’t be a nuclear attack, but there are lots of airports. government defense facilities and military installations in my area that would be prime targets for some dirty bombs or other nefarious doings. I’m staying close to home. My 15 year old son is talking about dying in a war because he thinks he will get drafted…..so I now have my own collateral damage to deal with within my home. The stress of existing in the USA is becoming unbearable to manage and I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.
All the assassination and threatening is way to reminiscent of the posturing before the Great War.
Yes. Thank you for that historian’s perspective. Exactly what I was feeling and thinking, Roy. This is all extraordinarily troubling.
We are not talking about impeachment anymore.
We are talking about the assassination, the possibility of war with Iran or the more likely possibility of a 9-11 style attack(s) against Americans abroad or here in the USA itself. We could have tit for tat attacks escalating into all out attacks on Iran, itself. In which case, Trump could coast to victory in November on a faux patriotism flag waving campaign theme. We must keep Trump in office during a time of war, blah, blah, blah, BS. For pity’s sake, vote Democratic even if it’s Biden or Bloomberg. Not voting, voting Jill Stein or Libertarian is IDIOTIC beyond words. I’m looking at those lefties who refused to vote for Hillary because she supposedly would have gotten us into a war. I’m looking at the damn Jill Stein zombies!!
Trump is an incompetent IDIOT with delusions of grandeur.
……………………………….
Trump the Intimidator Fails Again by Paul Krugman
Because he’s just a bully with delusions of grandeur.
…Unfortunately, this patriotic rallying around the flag is happening not in America, where many are (with good reason) deeply suspicious of Donald Trump’s motives, but in Iran.
In other words, Trump’s latest attempt to bully another country has backfired — just like all his previous attempts.
From his first days in office, Trump has acted on the apparent belief that he could easily intimidate foreign governments — that they would quickly fold and allow themselves to be humiliated. That is, he imagined that he faced a world of Lindsey Grahams, willing to abandon all dignity at the first hint of a challenge.
But this strategy keeps failing; the regimes he threatens are strengthened rather than weakened, and Trump is the one who ends up making humiliating concessions.
Remember, for example, when Trump promised “fire and fury” unless North Korea halted its nuclear weapons program? He claimed triumph after a 2018 summit meeting with Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader. But Kim made no real concessions, and North Korea recently announced that it might resume tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
Or consider the trade war with China, which was supposed to bring the Chinese to their knees. A deal has supposedly been reached, although details remain scarce; what’s clear is that it falls far short of U.S. aims, and that Chinese officials are jubilant about their success in facing Trump down.
Why does Trump’s international strategy, which might be described as winning through intimidation, keep failing? And why does he keep pursuing it anyway?…
Something I have just been cogitating:
A great Christian nation. Do unto others before they can do unto you. About half of Americans evidently subscribe to the view. Suffer the children, tear them from their parents, incarcerate them. Show their parents how compassionate we really are. Send them back to rape, murder et al.
Utilize our friends until they are supposedly no longer useful, then tough cookies. Language interpreters risking death for us in Iraq? They are Muslims, let them take their “benefits” there. Kurds?
Our word is our bond until bullying others into submission seems a better alternative. Love your neighbor? No, make them fear us. Return good for evil? Why? Naive at best. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, honor the stranger? Compassion for others. Why take the risk? Build walls. Keep out those now deemed undesirables. Compassion is biblical?
Our strong military protects us from everything. We are invulnerable, number one. Making friends, unnecessary. Making enemies? Who cares?
Choosing a president who never lies,, is the epitome of decorum, someone whose actions and words can, should be emulated by our children?
Indeed. Christianity at its best.
Bring “democracy” to Iraq? They sure love us now after spending trillions of dollars, losing how many American and Iraqi lives, showing our best side at Abu Ghraib. Bombing the hell out of them sure produces great results.
Freedom of religion? For Trump supporters? but if Muslim, others with “ignorant views” concerning Christian belief? Jews can now rest easy. Some white supremacists are good people.
Sinkholes are very common in Florida. The more time Trump spends golfing in Florida, the higher the odds climb that one day he will be standing in the wrong spot at the wrong time as another sinkhole opens up and swallows him.
But don’t celebrate if that happens.
I’m sure the planet will realize its mistake when it senses Trump’s foul stench and will spit him out, hopefully into orbit and beyond, like directly into the sun.