TRUMP'S PRIDE

Donald J. Trump has built up an empire of real estate and other enterprises, and he is rightly proud of himself for doing it.

Sure, he dives into bankruptcy from time to time to avoid paying folks the full amount of what is due them for their work, and he's a smart cookie who arranges to pay no federal taxes whenever possible.

But what we learned from the first presidential debate is that the man is inordinately proud of forcing Barack Obama to release his birth certificate. Not just once (the short form), but twice (for the long form).

Trump claims he did this for the sake of the country, and for the sake of Obama himself. It was good for the President to come clean about his origins. Finally.

Sure, it took years of prompting.

And later, after it was done, it took many more years for Trump to make sure the news was out. And air his concerns about forgeries and so forth.

But he got 'er done.

And, in the meantime, he accumulated a base of potential voters, which he has parlayed into a neck-and-neck race for the highest office in the land.

All by toadying up to the racist a-holes of the nation, folks who couldn't believe a Negro could get his black ass elected in the Good Ol' USA. (Well, Obama did it, twice, and I don't think being born in another country was how he pulled it off.)

By this clammy embrace of the country's "deplorables," Trump is making a bid to become the alpha a-hole of the world, a role for which he seems supremely qualified. Perhaps even over-qualified.

No wonder he's proud of his accomplishment.

Trump touched on his actions for the Birther Movement more than once during the debate. In fact, he touched on a couple of matters over and over again.

It seemed every question led him back to ripping on the Iran nuclear deal, or ripping on NAFTA—and the loss of American jobs (though economists have concluded NAFTA was a wash when it came to job loss or creation in this country)—or prompted Trump to tout the beauty of his tax reduction plan for the rich (bigger than Reagan's!) that will cause jobs to flood back into the US, where they belong.

In typical political mode, Trump evaded, ignored, or rewrote questions to suit his available answers.

Heal the racial divide? Law and order.

What's wrong with Hillary's "look"? Lack of stamina.

How would he defeat ISIS? Go back in time, apparently, and stop Obama and Secretary Clinton from forming that group of nasties in the first place.

Trump excoriated Hillary for putting her plan for defeating ISIS right on her Web page. Aren't those plans supposed to be kept secret?

Trump's own plan for ISIS-obliteration ("easily and quickly," I believe were the words he used to describe the process) has dropped out of sight. During the Commander "debate" he said he'd have his generals line up to reveal their plans, and maybe pick one of them. Or go with his own.

If he really does have such a plan, consider all the lives that will be lost, the throats cut, the women raped, the homosexuals tossed off the roofs of buildings, while Trump sits smugly on his plan, awaiting a payday ransom (the Presidency) to give it up.

(In Trump's America, the man would be dragged into the torture room of the nearest police station [they'll all have one] and ripped to pieces in an attempt to get this invaluable plan out of him.)

Why doesn't Trump take his fool-proof plan to President Obama? Is it because he hates America and wants her citizens to suffer, not to mention innocent people all over the world? Or is he just that greedy to be president?

Trump spent a lot of time (and dropped a lot of names) defending the position he was against the invasion of Iraq. He shrugged off his remark to Howard Stern, misquoting himself in the process.

Actually, Trump's apparent reluctance to endorse the invasion ("Yeah, I guess") quickly became a dig at George H. W. Bush for not invading Iraq when he had the chance.

Turns out Donald Trump was in favor of invading Iraq, twice.

The man again refused to release his taxes until after the ongoing audit, though he offered to do so right this minute (and against the advice of counsel), if Hillary would release her 33,000 deleted emails.

(If those emails were efficiently deleted, Trump has nothing to worry about. They're gone.)

When asked about the nation's security, Trump failed to mention one of his favorite hobby horses, the Wall. In fact he had little to say about immigrants, Mexican or Muslim.

I guess he's saving all that for later.

While Hillary spoke, Trump's face was a-swarm with motion: sneers, grimaces, and pouts. I don't think he ever smiled at what she was saying. (She found a lot of what he said amusing.) He shook his head, sipped water, adjusted his mike, and leaned in frequently to say "wrong" or "I never said that," almost always in error.

(I say "almost" because I don't have the stamina to fact-check every one of his verbal twitches. What am I, running for president?)

In the end, I'm sure Trump thought he crushed the bitch.

After all, he's the man who forced a sitting president to produce his birth certificate.