Maybe someone at Mar-a- Lago or in Moscow know shy . . .  since we now know that, although Congress was not informed, Trump told his buddies at  Mar-a-Lago and in the Kremlin.  Ahead of time.

Trump brings to this crisis a presidential record of lying--on matters large and small--size of crowds, Alabama weather drawn with a sharpie, on and on. Indeed, that Trump is lying is a good default assumption. The lack of credibility at times like this, is among the consequences of Trump's demonstrable character flaws. And, as expected, the lack of trust is part and parcel of his Administration.

Pence attempted to blame Iran for 9/ll, saying that it assisted travel to Afghanistan "for 10 of the 12 terrorists" who caused the 9/ll attack. Pence's lie was easily detected, since there were 19 terrorists, 15 of which were Saudis. Pence needs more lying lessons from his mentor. And, of course, Saudis are Sunnis. Iranians are Shite. It seems that many in the Administration do not know Shia from Shinola.

And, up is down. Pompeo claims the assassination to be a "de-escalation."   And, then there is that secret intelligence. It stopped an imminent attack. Although, it has not been explained how killing Soleimani disrupted the attack and saved the day.  The Deputy Commander of Quds has already picked up where Soleimani left off. With a little experience his old boss will be "looking up" at him with pride.

The Iranian general was the world's worst bad guy, although most Americans never heard of him before his ungainly departure. But, apparently, he is well-known, and long-known, for his devastating asymmetrical warfare.

 Therefore, the timing for the action at this point, is a question. Trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives for abusing foreign policy in the service of benefiting his own political position. So, it would not be out-of-bounds to be skeptical or to ruminate about less than noble motivations. It is all so confusing, if the assassination is retaliation for the US Embassy demonstrations, it would seem to have been more the work of Iragis, Baghdad being in Iraq, not Iran.

Soleimani: US federal site hacked with pro-Iranian message

Just thinking that since Trump has so recently and honestly bragged about being happy to take oppo research from a foreign, even hostile, government it would be pretty smart for the Iranians to present us and the world something like, say, Trumps tax returns.

There has been no credible or consistent reason or explanation, more an attempt at showing a retrospective way that the action was right and urgent.  From Pompeo's flailing around for a reason or the grounds for the action, it appears that he is deploying justification in the theological sense of declaring or taking righteous action in the sight of God.

As Michelle Goldberg claims (NYTimes, January 7), there is the influence of rapture-mad Iran hawks like Pompeo, citing the WaPo reporting that Pompeo and Pence have been pushing for a hit on Soleimani for months.  And, too, there is Pompeo's interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, when the Secretary of State agreed with the interviewer that God might have sent Trump to save Israel from the "Iranian Menace."

The reporting that military officials who presented Trump with a bizarre Goldilocks menu were "flabbergasted" when he picked the most extreme, is downright reckless, if not insane. If doubt still exists about there being plenty of insanity to go around, US forces sent a letter saying they were withdrawing from Iraq, followed by a statement that they were not withdrawing from Iraq.

Instead, the Mosaddegh government was replaced with the absolute monarchy of Shah Reza Pahlavi, who proceeded to repress and brutalize his own country over the next 25 years. Not surprisingly, the Iranians have never forgotten any of this. They came to bitterly resent the perpetual American interventions in their internal affairs, the unequivocal U.S. support for the Shah's regime, and our generally contemptuous posture toward their people and culture.

As many of us who were around 40-plus years ago well remember, this smoldering indignation eventually exploded into righteous outrage and culminated in the violent popular overthrow of the Shah in 1978-79, whose dictatorial rule gave way to the present-day Islamic theocracy that was led at the time by the late (and virulently anti-American) Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Khomeini's own longstanding hostility toward the United States found perfect synergy with his people's desperate desire to cast off the choking yoke of Anglo-American corporate interests. The subsequent 444-day seizure of the U.S. Embassy and American diplomatic hostages in 1979-80, the deadly truck bombings of the the U.S. embassy and Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983, the multiple kidnappings and assassinations throughout the Middle East, etc., are all consequences of this sad and tragic history.

In turn, those unfortunate events led to two other contemporaneous and crucial U.S. policy decisions that were, to be perfectly blunt, acts of war by proxy -- our massive military and intelligence support for Saddam Hussein's devastating war of aggression with Iran (1980-88), in which an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 Iranians lost their lives, and our political and military cover for Israel's disastrous invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

Frankly, I think it can be said with confidence that the late Gen. Soleimani's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would likely have never come into being, were it not for the U.S.-backed Iraqi invasion of Iran in 1980. Likewise, Hezbollah would similarly not exist but for Israel's U.S.-supported invasion two years later and its subsequent 18-year occupation of much of southern Lebanon.

Further, Washington's conscious failure to acknowledge and comprehend these very real contemporary historical drivers of the Islamic Republic's current behavior -- in which a pervasive ignorance of relevant (and often inconvenient) cultural knowledge and history dominates the stated views and opinions of most of our politicians and news media personalities -- is arguably the primary factor in our present-day difficulties with Teheran.

History is the story of actions and consequences. It can only tell us about mistakes made in the past, about the illusions and delusions that motivated policymakers, and the ideologies and ideals that often underscore the good, bad and self-interested acts of peoples and governments. And while knowledge of that history can inform our future, it cannot predict it.

Suffice to say, therefore, that the current drive to war with Iran is motivated by the same willful blindness that brought us the recent and still-ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will end only when the politicians who are responsible for this fiasco, along with their advisors and funders, are made to pay a serious penalty for their recklessness and stupidity.

Conservative Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) blasted the Trump administration on Wednesday for their "unconstitutional" briefing on why President Donald Trump assassinated Iranian General Qassim Suleimani.

CBS News reporter Kathryn Watson described Lee as "ANGRY."

"It's un-American, it's unconstitutional, and it's wrong," Lee said.

Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have.....

....targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran &  the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!

They have said their response will be against military sites.

And then it should end.  Raise your hand if you think that is how it will go.

They have said if we do this they have 300 sites targeted.

I am creeped out and appalled at the giggly vacuous reporting of this on CNN.  as usual on CNN.

Trump has couched his threats as revenge for the Carter era hostages.  You just know his bitter jingoistic mouth breathers will love this.

This just looks worse and worse.

Why doesn't Nancy subpoena him.  Will he say he will only respond to a body controlled by republicans?  If so, let him do that.

"Twenty-eight percent of registered voters were able to accurately label Iran on a map of the Middle East region, according to new Morning Consult/Politico polling conducted Jan. 4-5, before the Iranian military fired missiles at two bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops. Twenty-three percent could identify the country on a larger, also unlabeled, global map. Eight percent of voters thought Iran was Iraq on the smaller map."

I want to take the 20 or so citizens who placed Iran in the vicinity of Missouri and toss them off the Eads Bridge into the Mississippi River, so that they can one day tell their grandchildren what it was like to go swimming in the Persian Gulf.

 Imminent threat, not so imminent, but for past deeds, shore up the Republican Senators who will be needed in Impeachment trial, 9/ll, embassy attack--- only to be seen and raised to four (4) embassies. And, then the possibilities of Raytheon and Rapture.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Sunday: "I didn't see the intelligence about Iran posing an imminent threat to four embassies."  Of course, since intel information is, no doubt, on a need to know basis, no need for the Secretary of Defense to be up on it. That is more for the his family and guests at Mar a Lago.

But, Esper did say that we have "exquisite" intelligence, apparently, a refurbishment since the Deep state spying on Trump and their wrong findings that Russia  interfered in the 2016 election, when we all know it was Ukraine or China or a 400 lb guy in his mother's basement. Besides, Putin says so.

So why the cascade of utterances? Maybe it was because Trump became incapacitated in the midst of  his misadventure and each cabinet and other officer in the circle was left on his own to conjure up a reason.

We know that all through Tuesday, January 7, curiously, there was no tweet or word from Trump, until the late evening "all is well" tweet seemingly crafted by someone other than Trump (e.g., no typos, misspellingss).  And, that the Wednesday, January 8, short teleprompter speech was worrisone: shortness of breath, wheezing, slurred speech, and, more than usual, odd demeanor.