For those of you who had better things to do than watch another two hours of Donald Trump lying about the country and evading any real issues, News Corpse presents the following documentation of his performance at last night’s Republican primary debate. In summary it can be said that Trump reaffirmed his status as the most ignorant and arrogant presidential candidate in modern times. And there seems to have been an agreement among the candidates to refrain from making themselves look like colicky infants by engaging in insult slams and tantrum throwing. That could be a problem because those may be the only reasons why anyone watched.

What you will see from this chronicle of events is that Trump continues to say almost nothing that is intelligible and is beginning to challenge Sarah Palin as the master of tossing up a word salad of incoherence.

Asked why voters should trust him on jobs despite his hiring of foreign workers and having his products made in China and Mexico:

Because nobody knows the system better than me. I know the H1B. I know the H2B. Nobody knows it better than me. I’m a businessman. These are laws. These are regulations. These are rules. We’re allowed to do it.

[And continuing] First of all, I think and I know the H1B very well. And it’s something that I frankly use and I shouldn’t be allowed to use it. We shouldn’t have it. Very, very bad for workers. And second of all, I think it’s very important to say, well, I’m a businessman and I have to do what I have to do. […] We have to sort of take a strong, good, hard look and come up with plans that work. And we’re rushing into things, and we’re just — we’re leading with the chin. We’re leading with people that don’t know what they are doing in terms of our leadership.

So Trump is totally in favor of using laws that are bad for workers so long as it’s good for him, and he knows everything about it, and he’s a businessman, so he’s allowed to do it. Then he boldly declares that we need leaders who can lead in terms of leadership. How inspiring.

Asked to cite his specific objections to Common Core, which he called a disaster:

Education through Washington, D.C. I don’t want that. I want local education. I want the parents, and I want all of the teachers, and I want everybody to get together around a school and to make education great.

Apparently Trump is ignorant of the fact that Common Core is a program that was initiated at the state and local level with input from parents and teachers and is comprised of standards that are entirely voluntary. Following this response he diverted to announce that Ben Carson is endorsing him. So the man who believes that the pyramids were built to store grain will be advising Trump on education issues.

Asked to clarify his opposition on Common Core given that the standards are voluntary and were the product of state and local development:

You’re right, Jake. But it has been taken over by the federal government. It was originally supposed to be that way. And certainly sounds better that way. But it has all been taken over now by the bureaucrats in Washington.

No, actually. It has not.

Asked for his plan to keep Social Security solvent:

Well, first of all, I want you to understand that the Democrats – and I’ve watched them very intensely, even though it’s a very, very boring thing to watch – that the Democrats are doing nothing with Social Security. They’re leaving it the way it is.

[And therefore] I will do everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is; to make this country rich again. […] it’s my absolute intention to leave Social Security the way it is. […] We’ve lost our jobs. We’ve lost everything. We’re losing everything. Our jobs are gone, our businesses are being taken out of the country. I want to make America great again and I want to leave Social Security as is. We’re going to get rid of waste, fraud, abuse and bring back business.

Those dang Democrats want to leave Social Security the way it is, but Trump isn’t having any of that saying that “I will do everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is.” That’s telling ’em. And for good measure Trump added that he is opposed to military spending on the foreign deployment of troops, which has nothing to do with the Social Security Trust Fund. For the record, Democrats don’t want to leave it the way it is. They want to strengthen it with measures like increasing the income cap that allows the rich to avoid paying into it.

Asked about his recent claim that “Islam hates us:”

I mean a lot of them. I mean a lot of them. I’ve been watching the debate today. And they’re talking about radical Islamic terrorism or radical Islam. But I will tell you this. There’s something going on that maybe you don’t know about, maybe a lot of other people don’t know about, but there’s tremendous hatred. […] Now I will say this, there is tremendous hatred. The question was asked, what do you think? I said, there is hatred. Now it would be very easy for me to say something differently. And everybody would say, oh, isn’t that wonderful.

What the f*** is he talking about? The vast majority of the billions of Muslims are quite friendly to the U.S. and most of the Muslim countries are our allies. Trump’s obsession with hatred is characteristic of his personality and his campaign and, more troubling, is counterproductive to resolving the issues with the minority of Muslims who engage in terrorism and who do not represent Islam.

Asked about opening diplomatic relations with Cuba:

I would want to make a good deal, I would want to make a strong, solid, good deal because right now, everything is in Cuba’s favor. […] I would probably have the embassy closed until such time as a really good deal was made and struck by the United States.

I think what Trump is trying to say is that he would want to make a deal. And consistent with his role as the Monty Hall of the Republican Party, he is keeping the details of his deal a secret so that the American people won’t know that behind the curtain there is a a potato wearing a toupee.

Asked if he thought that he had created a tone where violence was encouraged at his rallies:

I hope not. I truly hope not. I will say this. We have 25-30,000 people — you’ve seen it yourself. People come with tremendous passion and love for the country, and when they see protest — in some cases — you know, you’re mentioning one case, which I haven’t seen, I heard about it, which I don’t like. But when they see what’s going on in this country, they have anger that’s unbelievable. They have anger. They love this country. They don’t like seeing bad trade deals, they don’t like seeing higher taxes, they don’t like seeing a loss of their jobs where our jobs have just been devastated. And I know — I mean, I see it. There is some anger. There’s also great love for the country. It’s a beautiful thing in many respects. But I certainly do not condone that at all, Jake.

It’s so beautiful. Watching patriotic citizens express their love for America by assaulting their fellow citizens who have different opinions (or skin color) than they do. These angry patriots are justified in beating up other Americans because of the loss of jobs – that actually have been growing for 72 straight months.

[And then] We have some protesters who are bad dudes, they have done bad things. They are swinging, they are really dangerous and they get in there and they start hitting people. And we had a couple big, strong, powerful guys doing damage to people, not only the loudness, the loudness I don’t mind. But doing serious damage. And if they’ve got to be taken out, to be honest, I mean, we have to run something.

For the record, there has not been a single incident of a protester at a Trump rally hitting anyone or being otherwise violent or dangerous or causing damage. That’s just a flat out lie by someone with a long record of lying (see the Trump Bullshitopedia).

Asked what should be done to avoid a party revolt if no candidate has a majority of delegates at the GOP convention.

Make me president.

Note that Trump didn’t say to make him the nominee, but jumped right to making him president, which goes way beyond the jurisdiction of a political party convention. What else would you expect from a megalomaniacal wannabe dictator?

[And later] I know it better than anybody that probably ever lived. And I will tell you this, I know the system far better than anybody else and I know the system is broken. And I’m the one, because I know it so well because I was on both sides of it, I was on the other side all my life and I’ve always made large contributions. And frankly, I know the system better than anybody else and I’m the only one up here that’s going to be able to fix that system because that system is wrong.

In that hysterical paragraph Trump stated that he “knows” better than anybody five times. Who is he trying to convince? All he is proving is that he has been a part of the broken system for decades, which doesn’t make him the best choice to fix it. It makes him guilty of exploiting and sustaining it for his own selfish benefit. Which is ironic because that’s exactly why he’s running for president.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Donald Trump never offers any substantive proposals to solve any of the problems that a president would face, and he didn’t in this debate either. He simply repeats a chorus of boasts about his alleged brilliance and his standing in the polls. Then he insists that he will put an end to every trouble that vexes America by ending them, he will fix every problem by fixing it, and he will make America great again by making it great again. With that sort of specificity it would be idiotic to support his candidacy. Lucky for him there is no shortage of idiots in the Republican Party.

In case you missed the latest Republican debate on Fox News, here is a recap of some the lowlights provided by the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump.

Moderator Chris Wallace opened with a question referencing Mitt Romney’s brutal takedown of Trump earlier that day: “[Mitt Romney] challenged you to answer with substance, not insults. How do you answer Mitt Romney, sir?” Not surprisingly, Trump responded with an insult: “Well look, he was a failed candidate, he should have beaten president Obama very easy.”

Trump was asked about his failure to disavow the support of David Duke, the KKK and other white supremacists. He came clean saying “I totally disavow the Klu Klux Klan. I totally disavow David Duke. I’ve been doing it now for two weeks, this is your — you’re probably about the 18th person that’s asked me the question. It was very clear.” That’s funny, because his previous reason for not doing so was that he didn’t hear the question due to a “very bad earpiece.” He has apparently abandoned that lie. And white supremacists continue to back his candidacy for reasons that are obvious to anyone who listens to him.

On the subject of how badly the discourse in the Republican campaign had deteriorated into infantile insults, Trump elected to sink even further saying “[Marco Rubio] referred to my hands, if they are small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there is no problem. I guarantee.” Something tells me that he is going handle this the same way he is handling his tax returns – by refusing to provide evidence (thank God). And something also tells me that he is just as dishonest about both subjects. His bellicose bullying is clearly overcompensating for shortcoming.

Rubio hit Trump again on his record as a businessman who failed repeatedly and had the benefit of a generous inheritance. Trump continued to evade the issue, changing the subject to the “small” loan of a million dollars that he received from his father. Someone needs to ask him directly how much he received from his father’s estate when he died. Published reports put the amount as high as $200 million.

Trump gave a long, and nearly incoherent, answer when asked when he will start having his clothing lines manufactured in the U.S. He eventually said that he wouldn’t do it because it wasn’t financially feasible because China, Japan, and Mexico “make it impossible for clothing-makers in this country to do clothing in this country.” Of course, the truth is that there are many domestic clothing manufacturers and Rubio made that point by noting that all of the clothes on his website are made in the U.S.

Trump was asked if he would authorize of The New York Times to release the tapes from an interview that included off-the-record remarks. He declined saying that “I have too much respect for that process to say ‘just release everything.’ I would not do that.” He seems not to grasp the concept. Being off-the-record is purely a concession to the interviewee. It is not a process or a promise to the journalist. If he releases the reporter from the agreement, the reporter would be thrilled to publish the material. Trump is obviously trying to blame his refusal to release the material on an imaginary “process” because he’s afraid of what it will reveal about him.

Trump was asked about his flip-flopping, including the time he said that he would have invaded Afghanistan, which he said that he would not do the day before. His explanation was that “Well, on Afghanistan, I did mean Iraq.” The only problem with that is that the full statement he made opposing the Afghanistan invasion was this: “We’ve made a terrible mistake getting involved there in the first place. That thing will collapse about two seconds after they leave. Just as I said that Iraq was going to collapse after we leave.” He could not plausibly have meant Iraq instead of Afghanistan if he included Iraq in the comment as another example of invasions he opposed.

And then there was this bizarre exchange with co-moderator Bret Baier:

Baier: Mr. Trump, just yesterday, almost 100 foreign policy experts signed on to an open letter refusing to support you, saying your embracing expansive use of torture is inexcusable. […] So what would you do, as commander-in-chief, if the U.S. military refused to carry out those orders? […] the military will refuse because they’ve been trained to turn down and refuse illegal orders.
Trump: They won’t refuse. They’re not going to refuse me. Believe me.
Baier: But they’re illegal.
Trump: Well, look, you know, when a family flies into the World Trade Center, a man flies into the World Trade Center, and his family gets sent back to where they were going — and I think most of you know where they went — and, by the way, it wasn’t Iraq — but they went back to a certain territory, they knew what was happening. The wives knew exactly what was happening. They left two days early, with respect to the World Trade Center, and they went back to where they went, and they watched their husbands on television flying into the World Trade Center.

First of all, Trump is revisiting a lie he has told before about the wives of the 9/11 hijackers. Only two of the terrorists were married, and their wives never came to the U.S. in the first place, so they never flew back to that “certain territory.” Secondly, Trump completely dodged the question as to how he would coerce the military to commit war crimes, which is what he is proposing when he says that he would bomb the families of terrorists. Soldiers are actually duty-bound to refuse to follow unlawful orders.

And this is current front-runner for the Republican nomination for president. As frightening as is the prospect of such an ignorant, dishonest, wannabe dictator becoming president, it is even scarier that there is a sizable faction of Republican voters who support him. This affirms my theory that Trump is just a symptom, his followers are the disease.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.