SUCCESSION: Poking a thumb in Donald Trump’s eye, Iranian clerics chose the son of the recently killed Ayatollah Ali Khameini to be their new supreme leader, ensuring that while he’s alive the extremist Muslim rule of the country will hold. Trump had previously said that Mojtaba Khamenei would be an unacceptable choice.

  While the clerics celebrated, chants of “Death to Mojtaba” echoed in the streets of Tehran.

  President Trump told ABC News that if he doesn’t approve of the new leader he “is not going to last long.” He said, “We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.”

  Asked about pushback by Americans over his undeclared war, Trump said; “It’s more popular than ever. It’s a very MAGA thing what we’re doing. A very, very MAGA thing. I’m at the highest point I’ve ever been with MAGA.” 

  According to the Real Clear Politics of polls, 54.1 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Trump is doing s president. Reuters has it at 60 percent and CBS, 59.

   PBS/Marist found that 56 percent  of Americans oppose the US war on Iran, while 44 percent support it. 

THE WAR ROOM: It’s raining bombs and a fine mist of oil in Iran. Israeli forces have begun to hit Iranian oil facilities setting off enormous fires that create impenetrable clouds and a fallout of oil.

  Israel has bombed fuel and oil depositories in Tehran and the city of Karaj.

  Bombs have also hit water desalination plants in Iran and on the island nation of Bahrain, threatening vital life support.

  As the war drags into its second week, concern is growing about the enriched uranium buried under the rubble left by the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities last year. Either Iran or another group could retrieve the material and try to make a bomb out of it.

THE BLAME GAME: President Trump over the weekend suggested that it was Iran itself that bombed a girls school in the opening hours of the campaign, killing 175 students and teachers.

  Asked aboard Air Force One whether the US was responsible for the strike on a clearly civilian target, Trump said, without evidence, “No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.”

  The NY Times today published an online analysis saying that an American Tomahawk missile intended for a naval base next to the school, hit the school instead. The missile is clearly seen in the video and the US military is the only force that uses Tomahawks.

 The US military is always certain about what they’ve blown up, until they blow up the wrong thing. Standing next to the President, defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the attack is under investigation, but, “The only side that targets civilians is Iran.”

  Following up, Trump said, “It was done by Iran.

THE WAR ECONOMY: The price of gasoline in the US has jumped 17 percent since the start of the war. Oil prices have hit as much as $120 a barrel. Just before the first missiles were fired, the average price was $65.

THE VOICE: A federal judge ruled Saturday that the appointment of former Arizona anchorwoman Kari Lake to Run the Voice of America as well as her layoffs and dismantlement of the agency are invalid.

  If upheld by higher courts, the ruling by Judge Royce Lamberth in the District of Columbia would allow more than 1,000 journalists and support staff at the international news organization to return to their jobs. Lambeth said Lake’s appointment without congressional approval  was an act of “violence to the statutory and constitutional scheme.”

  Before Donald Trump returned to the presidency, Voice of America was broadcasting in 49 languages and had more than 360 million weekly listeners around the world, providing news and information to countries with limited freedom of the press. 

  Lake, who had been leading the US Agency for Global Media, said that she would appeal the decision. “The American people gave President Trump a mandate to cut bloated bureaucracy, eliminate waste, and restore accountability to government,” Lake said in a fiery statement. “An activist judge is trying to stand in the way of those efforts at USAGM.” 

THE REGIME:

— The US carried out another strike on a suspected drug boat, this one in the eastern Pacific, killing six people. It was the 45 such attack, bringing the death toll to 157.

THE OBIT PAGE: Country Joe McDonald, who led the crowd of 400,000 at Woodstock singing his antiwar song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” died on Saturday at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 84.

  McDonald’s band, Country Joe and the Fish, was one of the prime musical voices in the psychedelic age, but over time that one song had more influence than the band itself.

  Before the song at Woodstock, McDonald famously called out, “Give us an F …” and had the crowd spelling then chanting the common obscenity. Then he sang.

“Well, come on all of you big strong men
Uncle Sam needs your help again
Got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
Put down your books and pick up a gun
We’re going to have a whole lot of fun

And it’s 1, 2, 3
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
Next stop is Vietnam
And it’s 5, 6, 7
Open up the pearly gates
Well, there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee!
We’re all going to die”

BELOW THE FOLD:  Jakub Grygiel, a professor of politics at the Catholic University, writes in the LA Times that the appetite for specialty coffee drinks is creating long lines and a culture of self-absorption. “Forbid the toasted vanilla oat milk shaken espresso with an extra pump of caramel,” he says, “Declare this a no-matcha zone. It just might save society.”

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