Closer looks at Iran from Stewart, Colbert, Meyers, and Kimmel

It's the first Tuesday of the month, so it's time for closer looks at the weekend's news, beginning with Jon Stewart of the The Daily Show reporting Trump Launches War with Iran and Refuses to Explain... Anything.

Jon Stewart dives into America and Israel’s impromptu attack on Iran, Trump’s laid-back war announcement from the Mar-a-Lago basement, and MAGA’s refusal to sell the American people on the plan, purpose, and duration of the war. Plus, Jordan Klepper reveals America’s calculated war strategy: winging it.

Twenty-five years ago, one of my reactions to 9-11 was to look at Bush the Younger's administration and be reassured that at least these people, particularly Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell, knew how to fight a war, no matter what my other opinions were of them. It took me two years, after it became obvious they were botching the occupation of Iraq, to figure out that they didn't really have a plan for an occupied Iraq beyond shock doctrine. I have no such illusions about Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump and Pete Hegseth; it's obvious from the get-go that they don't have a plan at all beyond being so intimidating that Iran just backs down. That's not happening. Once again, the voices Trump listens to, both inside and outside his head, are not reliable sources. Speaking of unreliable sources, watching all these people, particularly Tulsi Gabbard, praise Hoover Harding Cleveland for being the "peace candidate" has aged really poorly.

Next, Stephen Colbert's monologue, America At Whaaa? | Seeking Regime Change | Hegseth: No "Stupid" Rules Of Engagement.

President Trump still hasn't told the American people why he's bombing Iran, the U.S. and Israel have sent mixed messages about whether the goal is regime change, and Secretary Hegseth boasted that the military will disregard customary rules of engagement during this campaign.

Stephen is right; Bush the Younger did sell the Iraq War to the American people and the world and got an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) the year before we invaded. Hoover Harding Cleveland didn't bother. Democracy? Representative government? Rule of law? Who cares? Not Hoover Harding Cleveland!

Not only does Hoover Harding Cleveland have neither a plan (maybe Benjamin Netanyahu does) nor respect for process, he can't even decide on a pretext. I suspect all of his excuses are equally valid or invalid to him. He'd be more honest if he said "I felt like it." That's an emotion, not a reason, but at least he and I would believe it.

It wouldn't be a closer look without Seth Meyers, so I'm sharing Trump’s Iran War Plan and Timeline Keep Changing, Trump Gets Distracted by Drapes: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at the Trump administration launching a war with Iran without any clear strategy for how it would end, how long it would last or who would take over.

"I don't get bored." Oh, then why is he talking about ballrooms and drapes? Because he's been doing that since Surviving at the Top, the sequel to The Art of the Deal.

In a Yahoo News essay, Leerhsen describes the Trump he worked with from 1988 to 1990 as mostly "bored out of his mind," a "failing real estate developer who had little idea of what he was doing and less interest in doing it once he'd held the all-important press conference."

Trump was making huge, outrageously leveraged, financially ruinous deals, but day-to-day, he spent "surprisingly large" amounts of time "looking at fabric swatches," Leerhsen writes. "Indeed, flipping through fabric swatches seemed at times to be his main occupation," and "some days he would do it for hours," probably because fabric swatches "were within his comfort zone — whereas, for example, the management of hotels and airlines clearly wasn't."

Leerhsen elaborated Thursday evening on CNN. "At this time, like, things were really going to hell in his business," but "in the center of that was this quiet office where he was going through fabric swatches most of the day, and in the middle of all this Sturm und Drang, he was oblivious to it," he told Erin Burnett.

Nearly 40 years later, he hasn't changed, except to get older and more set in his ways.

Jimmy Kimmel had time for more stories than just Iran in Trump Goes to War with Iran, Bill Clinton Testifies About Epstein & Boebert Explains Inflation.

Early Saturday morning just after midnight the Pentagon launched “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran, Trump monitored the attack from his bunker at Mar-a-Lago, he claims that the operation in Iran could last four to five weeks or longer, six Americans were killed in the counter-attacks, even Ted Cruz said that he saw “no indication” that Iran was close to getting nuclear weapons, we all thought he was supposed to be the President of Peace, Trump is all of a sudden about toppling regimes even though he thought not being able to make a deal was seen as a negative, he rambled about drapes during a Medal of Honor ceremony, Melania was in New York to preside over a meeting of the UN Security Council, former President Bill Clinton testified for more than six hours about Jeffrey Epstein, and Lauren Boebert explains inflation.

In addition to not having a serious plan, Hoover Harding Cleveland and his maladministration have terrible opsec. That's nothing new.

I made enough fun of the First Lady in Randy Rainbow sings 'The Fate of Melania' and other parodies, so I'll move on to Lauren Boebert. She caused trouble with the Clinton depositions and couldn't define inflation. As Jimmy K pointed out, she never graduated high school and doesn't follow the rules. She should be happy there are worse Republican politicians, otherwise, I'd make a label for her. Maybe I should anyway.

I close with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's cold open from last night, Book Your Next Event At Mar-a-Lago.

Whether you're launching Benjamin into manhood or missiles into the Middle East, Mar-a-Lago has all the amenities!

Marjorie Merriweather Post, who build Mar-A-Lago, wanted it to be the Winter White House. That eventually happened, but I wonder if Post would be happy about how that came true and what Hoover Harding Cleveland uses it for. Maybe not, but I'm not holding a seance to find out.

That's a wrap for this post, but not for today. Stay tuned for two more holidays, Marching Music Day, which I remembered, and World Wildlife Day, which YouTube reminded me earlier today. Another bonus post!

Seth Meyers and Vox take closer looks at political polarization over climate change

Two weeks ago, I reported July 2016 was the hottest month on record yet.  I didn't go much into the "so what?" about that news.  Seth Meyers answers that question in Extreme Weather and Climate Change: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at the current state of climate change.

In addition to the apparent relation between climate change and extreme weather, where we should have a 500-year event for every state an average of once every ten years instead of eight times in one year, Meyers points out that climate change just hasn't become a major issue in this campaign.  When it does come up, it suffers from the effects of political polarization.  As The Week wrote earlier this month, Americans are more polarized over climate change than abortion, polls suggest.

Scientists are overwhelmingly convinced that climate change is real, largely caused by human activity, and a deeply serious problem. The American electorate, on the other hand, is deeply divided over the issue. That didn't use to be the case, The Associated Press reminds us, noting that two decades ago, the leading senator proposing action on global warming was a Republican (John McCain, but still). Then, sometime around 1997, when Vice President Al Gore helped negotiate the Kyoto Protocol — and George W. Bush withdrew the U.S. four years later — the Democrats and Republicans started to split, partisan views on climate change growing into a chasm after President Obama was elected and the Tea Party revolted.

Now, climate change is "more politically polarizing than abortion," Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, tells AP. "It's more politically polarizing than gay marriage." Citing surveys by Yale and George Mason University, Leiserowitz has some numbers: 17 percent (and growing) of Americans are alarmed by climate change and want action now, 28 percent are concerned and believe it is man-made but don't think the threat is imminent, 27 percent are cautious but on the fence, 11 percent are skeptical, 10 percent are vocally dismissive of the science and its conclusions, and the last 7 percent aren't paying attention.

Vox shows that partisan split over climate change developing during the past decade in Climate change: Yep, still happening.

Ten years after Al Gore's movie, the climate debate in the US has devolved into nonsense.

Since "An Inconvenient Truth" was released, the polarization has just gotten worse.  The Republicans were reasonable on the issue a decade ago; they're not now.  This is not news.  As I pointed out in Climate for the fifth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, when I discussed Republicans on climate change and energy at the CNBC debate, "as for the Republicans who were actually talking sense about climate, as much as their ideology would allow, none of them are still in the contest.  Why am I not surprised?"