Enough is Enough - Trump Needs his Fanny Smacked

Post presidential debate w/Clinton: 

I've had about all I can take of Donald J. Trump. He keeps hammering his assertion that President Obama "founded ISIS."  He bases this ridiculous assertion on the facts that:

• On the date agreed to by the George W. Bush administration, 
• At the troop levels (0) agreed to by the George W. Bush administration, 

President Obama executed the agreement negotiated by the George W. Bush administration, and withdrew American forces from Iraq.

Senator John McCain, among others, opposed that agreement, especially the "date certain" part. It was an issue in the 2008 campaign. Then-Senator Obama wanted to get the US out of Iraq, McCain believed troops should be left behind.  They debated it. Obama won the election. Americans wanted the US forces out of Iraq. President Obama, when the date arrived, withdrew them.  

In his typical armchair-quarterback fashion, Trump calls this "a disaster," a "bad decision."  He believes President Obama should have 'decided' not to honor the agreement between the sovereign, democratically elected government of Iraq and the George W. Bush administration. He believes the United States should have reneged on its agreement, and unilaterally overruled Iraq's sovereignty. He believes that option was open, and that President Obama could have 'decided' (when the issue had already been decided, by President George W. Bush) to trash the agreement and refuse to comply. 

He would. 

It's the way he thinks, and it's the way he conducts his businesses. To him, contracts aren't worth spit--you simply break them, stiff your contractors, and unleash your army of lawyers to wear down those who sue you for their rightful payment (after you have their work product in hand, naturally), forcing them to give up and either take pennies on the dollar, or nothing. This is how the "brilliant negotiator," Donald J. Trump, conducts his "business as usual." It's how he "brilliantly" brings in his projects "under budget." He just reneges on the very contracts he's so "brilliantly negotiated," as soon as it's too late for his contractors to withhold services--as soon as there's nothing left for them to bargain with. 

I'm also disappointed in Secretary Clinton, who started to explain the above facts but stopped short of bringing the argument home. To be fair, the question asked by Lester Holt was about another topic, and Trump's rant was tangential, as was his wild-eyed assertion that the U.S. should have "taken the oil."  He thinks the U.S. could just "take the oil."

He would.

It's the way he thinks, and the way he conducts his business--and his campaign. He cheats, lies, obfuscates, and bullies people. The rules don't apply to the great and powerful Drumpf. He uses his leverage to crush honest brokers into dust, then deflects all criticism onto THEM, using the media as his personal bullhorn, drowning out all dissent, denouncing all criticism, boldly and repeatedly lauding himself for his dominance, his "savvy," his "radiant magnificence," taking advantage of the free media time to run a campaign-length commercial for his business interests--time other businesses have to pay (a lot) for, but not Donald J. Trump. Why, the cameras are pointed at him because, well, he's "The Donald"--every little thing he does is magic, CNN shows up just because he's so compelling, magnetic, entertaining, "newsworthy." Just by being Donald.

How do you "take the oil?" It's not a brown paper package tied up with string. It's a heavy, slimy substance you suck out of the ground, at great expense, with great effort--and you have to BE there to do that, and have trucks or trains or pipelines or some sort of large-scale method of getting it out of there.  You don't just slip it into your briefcase on the way out of the boardroom, on your way to dinner at Sardi's.

Especially when it's not yours to take. Especially when it belongs to another sovereign nation and its people. Trump apparently thinks the Iraqis "owed" it to us, and perhaps there could have been some "negotiation" to extract some of their oil as payment for "giving" them their democracy--but that would have had to be negotiated by President Bush's team, and it wasn't.

UPDATE, 01/26/17: Trump did it again. In his remarks at CIA Headquarters on Saturday, Trump once again said we "should have kept the oil."  Like it was ours to "keep," like it was ever ours in the first place. Only this time he said it as President of the United States. So now it's not a campaign slogan, it's (hypothetical, but stated) US policy.

This little boy needs a spanking.