Could Someone Please Buy Poseur Donald Trump a Clue?

Donald Trump is factually challenged. I guess that's a nice way to speak about his colossal ignorance on so many subjects. For example.

On The O'Reilly factor tonight, Donald Trump said of Afghanistan:

"That's one place frankly instead of going to Iraq we should have probably gone there first".

Except, we did. We invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001, less than one month after the 9-11 attack. The invasion of Iraq was March 20, 2003. Is it the word "first" that's giving you trouble, Donnie? Or have you just not been paying attention to anything that doesn't personally line your pockets?

He was still nattering on with O'Reilly about how we should have and still might seize Iraqi oil and keep it for the US, when I tuned him out. This is a guy who, on one hand, says "America will continue forever to play the role of peacemaker", and then turns around and says we should plunder Iraq's oil.

I noted before on these pages, Trump's shallow or inadequate understanding of the Keystone XL pipeline (August 17, 2015 The Trouble With Trump, Part XXIII)

"I hope we don't need the pipeline, 'cause it comes out of Canada,"

-Trump on Mark Levin's radio show.

To which I replied:

There are probably three things (or more) wrong with this statement. One, it's not just Canadian oil, but oil from our own Bakken range in the Dakotas, as well, that could be more easily and safely transported. Underline "safely". Far too many accidents, spills and oil train derailments from the oil fields to the refineries that could be reduced via a pipeline. Two, when Canada does send oil to our refineries, we add value to it. That's called 'creation of wealth', Mr. Trump. That would happen here in this country. Three, Trump seemingly overlooks the creation of well paying jobs in building and maintaining the pipeline, the refinery jobs and all the ancillary businesses along the way.

I'm glad Trump favors building the Keystone XL extension. I just wish he would do a little more homework, so that he would be more knowledgeable about the good thing he's advocating.

Now Trump speaks without notes a lot, but recently, reading from prepared remarks on a teleprompter, he said the following stupid stuff:

He said "The Trump administration will lead a free world that is properly armed", after threatening to abandon any NATO member nation that did not contribute the proper percentage of their GNP to defense. Is Trump's rationale that as soon as he abandons NATO signatories they will no longer be part of the "free world"?

Trump said he "won't try to spread 'universal values' that not everybody shares or wants". How can they be "universal values" if they are not universal?

In addition, he has a strange definition of the word "military".

"Look at the World Trade Center and Sept. 11th. One of the great catastrophes in my opinion. The single greatest military catastrophe in the history of our country, worse then Pearl Harbor, because you take a look at what what's happened, and citizens were attacked as opposed to the military being attacked."

So, let me see if I follow this. Aside from making the gratuitous reference to 9-11, which he had just shamelessly used to distort what Ted Cruz had said about New York values, Trump thinks 9-11 was a military catastrophe, because civilians were attacked? It was a terrorist attack, not an attack by anyone's military and other than the one plane which targeted the Pentagon, which, to Donald Trump is apparently filled with civilians and located somewhere in the basement of the World Trade Center, the primary targets were civilian.

And it has been noted that one way the Donald ducks answering questions he doesn't know the answer to is to filibuster and then change the subject. He does this a lot.

It's perfectly clear why Trump ducks out of debates to do fund raisers and why he's been running like a scalded dog away from any opportunity to debate Ted Cruz,  because he is a fraud. A phony. A tin horn charlatan who bluffs and blusters his way through life.I have known a number of people who have done quite well for themselves personally by having a gift of gab and a distinct estrangement from being honest. Donnie fits the profile.

God help the United States if this ignoramus were ever to become Commander-in-Chief