My Attempt to Understand the Words and Behaviors of Donald Trump… and, Is Trump Emotionally Fit to be President of the United States

  

The Dali Lama has written: ‘Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature.  Our own survival is so dependent on the help of others that a need for love lies at the very core of our existence. Therefore, we need to cultivate a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.’ 

The words of the Dali Lama spell out our interdependence as members of the human family. In today’s world there is polarization and dissention, misinformation, lies, false equivalencies and conspiracy theories that estrange us from ourselves as a society.  We can’t live with such division. Our very survival depends on our dependence upon one another, a sense of empathy and compassion for one another, a genuine sense of responsibility and concern for the welfare of others. 

In 2017 a group of psychiatrists, psychologist and other mental health professionals met at Yale University and wrote a letter expressing their concern about Donald Trump’s fitness to be the President of the United States. They did this out of their sense of responsibility to the American public to directly express their concerns regarding Trumps emotional instability. This group also penned a collection of essays entitled In the Dangerous Case of Donald Trump where these writers, all of whom are highly considered in their field, shared their observations about his words and behavior that they felt were important to share with the American public. 

     

His behaviors have created 88 Felony Counts, four of which are scheduled for trial in New York, Florida, and Fulton County Georgia. He has been charged with falsifying business records, willfully retaining national defense information, five counts of obstruction of justice, one count of interfering with a federal investigation and four counts of making false statements. In the District of Columbia, he has been charged with one count of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and one count of conspiracy against rights. 

He has also been convicted of raping a woman and denying that he had ever met her. Added to his rape conviction, he was convicted of defaming the woman and is to pay ninety-three million dollars as punishment for his lying about having known her and for publicly insulting her integrity. 

On these grounds alone it would seem that his record of behavior would work against him in any pursuit of the Oval Office. But there is more. He also was responsible for the act of sedition against the United States with his supporting and encouraging the January 6^th attack of the United States Capital. His act of sedition is grounds for his not being able to become an elected official in any capacity, in the United States government, much less running for office of President. 

Trump has also used legal delays as a tactic to put off court proceedings and has been allowed to get away with this tactic up until his April 15 Court date in New York. His plan has been to avoid going to court, hoping that he will win the Presidency and he can then pardon himself of outstanding charges that have been brought against him.

The reason I am writing this article is that I too, feel a sense of responsibility to my fellow Americans regarding his running for President.  I received my clinical license to practice in 1972. I have worked in in-patient psychiatric units, out-patient psychiatric units, in public education settings and in private practice. 

I have found that there are as many ways to look at someone’s behavior as there are people in the mental health field. Some would label and characterize someone as being one thing or another. Others would describe someone’s behaviors and ways of relating with other people. I am more comfortable with describing someone’s behaviors and words because, by describing what I can see and hear, I can better express what it is that concerns me about another person.

·       Donald Trump is someone who, for me, manifests behavior that consistently ignores the concepts of right or wrong, the feelings of other people, and is impulsive and comfortable with the use or threat of violence in relation to other people. Perhaps worst of all, he doesn’t show any remorse for his behavior.

·       He will say anything to disparage someone he opposes. ‘Who would vote for a face like that,’ was one such comment he used in relating to Carly Fiorina. He would refer to Hilary Clinton as ‘crooked Hilleary.’ He referred to members of the military as suckers and losers. He refers to Biden, as Sleepy Joe Biden. He even mocked Biden’s stuttering at a rally.

 

·       His thinking often appears to be disoriented, incoherent and illogical. He will go from one topic or position to another without any connection between the two. In his expression of ideas, it is often that he will misspeak or misuse words. His thoughts often reflect delusional thinking; ‘I am the only one who can fix that.’ Trump, within one week compared himself to Jesus and to Nelson Mandela. 

·       He often will use false equivalencies and misinformation. It is as if he is totally comfortable saying whatever comes out of his mouth without any attention or awareness of his ignorance about a topic. During the Pandemic, for example, he indicated that the use of injecting bleach into ones’ body would be a potential cure for having the COVID virus.

 

·       In addition, after he lost the 2020 election, he claimed that the election had been stolen from him, when, in fact it was determined that the 2020 election was the most carefully monitored election in our history.  Three years later, he is still asserting that the election was stolen.

·       He approaches dealing with issues by approaching the solution with the strategy of the ‘the ends justify the mean.” In Georgia, for example Trump lost to Biden by 11,779 votes.  Trump, in a taped phone call indicated that he wanted the Secretary of State to provide him with 11,780 votes so that he would be declared and certified as winning the Gorgia vote.  In effect, he was bargaining to have the vote and choice of the people thrown out, so he could falsely win the Presidential vote in Georgia.

·       Trump was responsible for the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He encouraged his supporters to engage in disruptive behavior to prevent the orderly transfer of power from his administration to the Biden administration. People were hurt, there were deaths on the part of the police and public. He even encouraged his followers to hang his Vice President if he followed through with his Constitutional responsibility to make sure that there was an orderly transfer of power between administrations.

·       Trump takes full credit for the reversal of the Roe v Wade. His placement of three justices on the Supreme Court who initially stated that they had no difficulty with a woman having a right to determine her reproductive health issues along with her physician, reversed themselves and asserted that abortion was not a protected right under the constitution. This reversal of a 50-year law threatened to leave women with no alternative but to face any consequences due to her pregnancy being lethally abnormal. 

·       He refers to his letters between himself and Kim Jong Un as ‘love letters.’ When it was reported that the Russians had interfered with our elections, he asked Putin if they had been involved with our election. Putin said no. Trump believed Putin over the word and evidence of his national security advisors.

·       He is openly stating that if he wins the 2024 election, he will become a dictator on the first day. That he will weaponize the Judicial system, will do away with the separation of powers that provide checks and balances that exist in today American Political system. He will do away with the notion that all are equal before the law. He asserts that he will punish those who have not supported him. This has truly put the January 6 Committee members on notice.

·       He also asserts that if he doesn’t win the election, there will be a bloodbath and that there will never be another election in the United States.

·       Trump has exercised violence in his behavior towards those who have pushed against him. He has his supporters harassed and threatened his opponents. He is engendering fear in those who he dislikes and is advocating the use of violence against those who he feels have not been supportive.  In this he is breaking the law and could be arrested and jailed for his behavior. And the courts have not called him to task for his words and behavior.

·       Trump has also taken positions that have suggested he is a sexist, and someone who a racist.  He believes that immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of America. His followers are white males who want to thwart non- whites from voting in elections. The reason is that there are more nonwhites voting than whites. The consequence for this is that the white male dominated white power base will lose at the ballot box.

·       Our judicial system is ill prepared to deal with someone like Trump. Our system is set up to give someone every chance to prove their innocence. Trump exploits these avenues of escape at every point and has so far evaded facing the consequences for his behavior. On April 15^th, this evasive behavior will come to an end. 

·       Trump seems to be someone who thrives in upsetting and destroying whatever he comes upon.

   

Do you believe that Trump can create the genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others that the Dali Lama asserts is the key to our survival as a human community? I don’t think so.

Please VOTE!

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

The Need to Call Out Self Centered Members of Congress

  

 

Our system of government is established to protect us all from those who would violate our rights to a life of political respect and the ability to live a life of fulfillment, free from any form of political bondage. Those who are elected to represent us, have a job to do to create ways to address and meet our needs within a framework of Constitutional rights and institutions. We are to be able to vote for individuals to choose what course we are to take around legislation that is to provide us with solutions to what needs to be addressed for the benefit and good of all of us.

 

In todays’ political world, instead of having such representatives who are to protect our rights and democratic way of life, we have a handful of elected people who are only concerned about their needs and their maintaining political power. The potential for a government shutdown that is looming before us, is an example of this breech of responsibility for the good of we, the people. ‘Speaker’ McCarthy is more concerned about maintaining his position than he is to insist that the House meet its responsibility to provide necessary funding to keep the government open to address the needs of citizens. Instead of dealing with business, the House has gone on a long weekend break and in so doing has cut the time available to avoid a government closer to but four days.

 

We have still others who do not care about closing down government because they feel that people going without social security payments, Medicare support or food assistance would shake things up and that would be a ‘good thing.’ The fact that those in the military would go without pay and that the poor among us would be penalized makes no difference to the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, James Jordan, or Matt Gaetz. The fact is that it only takes a few self-centered people to violate the trust of the American People for their own selfish ends.  We deserve better than this and need to address the removal of all such self-centered members of government who play with the welfare of us all. 

Touching Bases as Fellow Members of the Human Community

 One of the things that I love about writing is to sit in front of my keyboard with feelings and thoughts that are running through my heart and mind. Things that are stirring me to reflect upon and share what is going on within this world of reflection. I have a need to share ‘what’s what’ with me with others, hence my blog and my relationship with the Mindful Word. This need to share is a part of my sense that we are all in this together. We are all a part of the human community.

 

Today I am living with the fact that there are people walking our streets who are hungry, sleeping on the streets in the rain, without a roof over their heads, without medical care…A larger than believable portion of these folks are those who have served in the armed forces, people who were willing to give up their lives in the service to their county.   

 

It used to be said that individuals in such a life space bring this upon themselves. They wouldn’t be in this place IF they only acted responsibility, if they got a job, ifthey stayed away from drugs or alcohol.’ Run that by a Marine who lost a hand or his hearing in combat, who received a medal of valor for his service to his country who finds himself living on the streets.

 

Judgments about others are cheap, easy to dispense and generally off the charts in being an accurate reflection about who that other person is. What about those who are born into poverty, are afflicted by medical needs that cannot be taken care of in their childhood because there wasn’t enough money to pay for such care? People who have been nutritionally and emotionally without food and emotional support all of their lives? 

 

What is it that possesses a person to put down someone else who is going through the dark valleys of emotional and or physical limitation and pain? It is my experience that usually those of us who put down others do so because of the sense of limitation we feel, our experience of pain and the suffering that we experience in our daily life that allow us to identify with these fellow members of our human family. And we want to distance ourselves from anything that reminds us of our unmet needs and suffering.

 

There are two things that I feel deeply within myself. The first, ‘there, but by the Grace of God, go I.’ I could have been born with some sort of physical or intellectual limitation.  I could have been born into poverty. I could have been born in a part of the world that can’t feed its children or citizens. In short, anyone we point fingers at and are critical of, could be you or me, by the accident of birth. Again, ‘there, but by the Grace of God, go I.’

 

The second thing that I believe deeply is that our task in life is to treat others as we would want to be treated. If we embraced these two life paths, we would be able to address and solve any problem that we find in our human community.

 

Your feelings and thoughts are welcome…

Namaste…

 

 

 

Moving from the World of Alternative Facts To the Real World of What Is So

  

I was quite struck by the group of Trump supporters who Judy Woodruff recently presented in an interview during the PBS News Hour. The image of parakeets and parrots came to mind.  I am not trying to be snide or cruel.  My thoughts went to how both birds can copy sounds, words and even phrases. “Polly-want a cracker” readily came to mind. 

 

I thought about how these folks, all of them, believe that ‘the election was stolen,’ and that ‘Trump is still legally the President,’ even though he lost the Presidency to Biden by seven million votes. 

 

The election was claimed by these people to be filled with fraud, even though it was considered the most honest election in the history of the Presidency.

 

These folks insist that ‘Hillary is guilty of committing a crime for which she needs to go to jail,’ even though there was no evidence of her intending to commit a crime, even after fourteen hours of being grilled by those who were attempting to find her guilty.

 

They assert that ‘Trump did not try to change the vote outcome in Georgia, even though there was a taped phone conversation to the contrary.

 

 They repeatedly claim that ‘January 6^th was simply a peaceful protest and was not an attempt to overturn the peaceful transition and legitimate election of Joseph Biden, as President of the United States.’ This in light of Trump’s televised addresses that fired up his supporters to stop the orderly transition of power. There were, also threats made on the Vice President’s life, if he did not support Trump’s takeover of the government. We are being poorly served by those parakeets and parrots who only repeat what they hear, as the truth about what has been going on in reality. 

 

Then, we have those of us who ask who, what, when, where, why and how in regard to what is said and acted out. We are in better hands and on firmer footing by this faction of our political community. Moving from the realm of Alternative facts to the real world of the truth about what is so, is essential in our democracy. If we cannot believe what we are being told by our ‘leaders,’ how can we make those decisions that really matter to us as responsible members of our American Family, or as members of the world community. Questions like:

 

·      Is pollution really a threat to the air that we breath or the water that we drink? If it is, are we really committed to addressing a solution to this problem?

·      Is our food chain really being threatened by climate change? If it is, what are we doing about it?

·      Is our nation of laws and order being threatened by those who act as if they are above the law? What about a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term? 

·      Is our economy on firm footing or are we in a dangerous fiscal period? Why are members of our American family having to sleep on the street at night and choose between food, shelter or medical care in their daily lives? 

·      Why do those who we have voted into office, are not responsibly addressing the needs of the people they represent?

·      And why are we not, in many instances, treating others as we would want to be treated?

   

And finally, we need to ask who, what, when, where, why and how to what is being said to us so we can be informed in our voting and decision making as members of the American Family. That is the very least we can demand of ourselves as responsible citizens.

 

 

 

Human Beings: Objects, Things, Concepts Or, Beings with Needs, Feelings, Awareness, and Compassion

  

A delusional Russian dictator who wants to restore the ‘greatness of the motherland,’ is needlessly slaughtering children, women and destroys hospitals, schools, and homes of people to claim that he has achieved his dream. In his wake he has left burnt bodies, severed limbs, destroyed families, starvation, illness, pain and grief.

In this country we have political ‘leaders’ who are more concerned with following their dogmas than caring whether or not people have to choose between putting food on their table or purchasing necessary medicine, obtaining necessary medical care or putting a roof over their heads.

 

We have two camps of people in our government.  Those who function from the basis of me, my-self, my wants, and focus on what’s good for my political survival. Then, we have those who care about being a part of the human family and are concerned with what benefits the members of our human family. Do we politically only care about ourselves and no one else, or do our political decisions take into account what is in the best interest of our neighbors, fellow workers, the needs of children, the elderly.

 

We also have those in politics who are delusional, who assert that they have won the Presidency when facts have shown, and courts have ruled, that they have lost the Presidency. They assert that the election was stolen from them and that there were all kinds of fraud going on in the vote counting. In point of fact, the Presidential Election of 2022 was deemed to be the most honest election in our history.

 

This person then attempted to have votes switched from the real count, in one state, so he would have won that states vote, when he had actually lost the vote of the people.

 

This person’s final insult to our country was to attempt to prevent the actual, legal vote count from taking place and having the orderly transition of power that has been the American tradition since the beginnings of our country. In fact, he committed sedition. He even threatened the Vice Present with death if the Vice President did not make sure that fraudulent candidate had won the election. History books are filled with the January 6, 2021 ransacking of the Capitol, and those who were injured and died in defending our political and constitutional institutions. 

 

Today, we have elected members of our Congress selling out the public. These folks, Marjory Taylor Green, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, and Matt Gaetz of our political world, care about their power and control over government. They don’t care whether the federal government goes bankrupt due to not raising the debt ceiling. Some of these people even think that shaking things up with national bankruptcy would be a good thing. That translates into people in the military would go without pay, social security payments would be withheld, Medicare payments would be withheld, food programs for the poor would cease to be available.

 

These self-serving ‘public servants’ do not care about people earning livable incomes, being able to put food on their tables, able to obtain necessary and essential medical care, putting a roof over their heads, being safe from being killed by someone who decides to randomly kill people on a certain day, at a public school, a store, at a place of worship, on a bus or other means of public transportation. We truly live at a time when we say good-bye to a loved one in the morning, we may never see them again because someone shoots them in a public place.

 

We have to decide whether we view people as objects, things or concepts. Or do we view members of our human family as beings with needs, feelings, awareness, empathy and compassion?  Our political world is dependent on honesty and trust. How can we decide on issues if we can’t believe what we are being told by our political leaders? 

 

Our democracy depends being able to discuss issues with respect for someone we might not agree with. The basic question to be asked when deciding on a political issue is, whether or not someone will be damaged by the decision, and how will people suffer by taking this particular course of action? Are we relating to our fellow members of our American family as beings with needs, feelings, awareness, empathy and compassion, or do we view human beings as objects, things or concepts? Are our fellow citizens to be treated as a means to an end, or as essential to our very survival?

 

The Dali Lama has written:

‘Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbeliever, man or woman, black, white or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally and mentally we are all equal. We all share basic needs of food, shelter, safety and love.  We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears and dreams.  Each of us want the best for our family and loved ones.  We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek.  On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture and language makes no difference.’ 

 

He goes on, ‘Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Our own survival is so dependent on the help of others that a need for love lies at the very core of our existence.  This is why we need to cultivate a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.

 

Or again, compassion and love are not a luxury; they are essential to our existence.  Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.  If we are to survive, human beings must develop a greater sense of universal responsibility.  We must learn to work not just for our own self, family, or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind.’ May we live with awareness and compassion. And may we survive as a species. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who Are We? We Are Awareness, Empathy and Compassion

  

Over the past seven years, the American people have existed in a politically toxic environment. I have been attempting to understand how I am able to apply my Mindfulness Practice to relate to and neutralize this toxicity. The question is, are we simply at the mercy of those who are delusional, dishonest and disregarding of the feelings and needs of fellow members of our American family? Or, is there a way that our practice can express itself to correct the ugliness of what has been going on in our political world for the past seven years? Many have written that this negative course of behavior, if unchecked, will lead to the destruction of our political institutions and Constitutional Rights as American citizens. 

 

I have found Adyashanti’s writings to be of great help in this discovery process that I have been following. Adyashanti writes: “Awareness is that part of us that perceives, observes and witnesses our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and bodily sensations. It can be quite transformative to realize that you are not your thoughts, you   that you are not your feelings, that you are not your beliefs, that you are not your personality, that you are not your ego. You are something other than that, something that resides on the inside, at the innermost core of your being. For the moment we are calling that something awareness itself.”

 

When our awareness is in the present moment, we are in touch with who we really are, with our very essence. When we respond from that place, our decisions will not only be expressions of our awareness, they will also be expressions of our empathy and compassion for ourselves and others.

 

America’s recent election demonstrated how it is that our awareness can reveal and express itself in such circumstances. It was a matter of who are, at our core essence as human beings, that spoke out. In the face of all of the dishonesty, conspiracy theories, hostility and delusional behavior and words, and all of the dire prognostications of how this election cycle was going to be a disaster, something took place that was truly transformative. Instead of members of the American family buying into a continuation of what has been going on in our political life, people began to realize that what was happening was poisoning the well. Our awareness has become an active part of our experience of who we are, where we are and what we need. 

 

As a consequence, there were many who voted for facilitating our ability to grow, heal and assist one another, in spite of others whose long-held beliefs would only add to our darkened political night. Instead of losing both the Senate and House, as had been predicted by many, conscious, caring voters won the Senate and are close to nearly tying in the House results…

 

It is quite amazing to realize that the 8 million votes that separated Biden from Trump in 2020, amounted to the nearly 8 million votes that changed a Democratic disaster from happening in 2022…When we, as individuals, are able to bring our awareness to the fore front of our life circumstance, we are able to live in the now and relate to the now…we are able to see the light and follow it…

 

Our practice needs to be seen and trusted as an integral aspect of who we are. We are awareness, empathy and compassion. We need only to remember and internalize that and move ahead in life with that assurance. We are our essence and need to embrace that truth in each moment of our lives. 

 

On the occasion of this, my eightieth birthday, I wanted to share this essay with you… With warmest regards… 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Walking the Road, We Need to Walk, To Be the People We Need to Be, In Our America of Today

 

Land of the Free and Home of the Brave… Has regretfully become the Land of the Unconscious and Home of the Fearful. Am I bring a bit too harsh? 

 

There will always be the free and brave in this home of ours. That group of members of our human family will always be present and willing to feed the poor and provide medical care of the sick, public education for our children, and address what is wrong by asserting what is right and the truth.

 

The Marjorie Taylor Greens and Donald Trumps of this world are not a part this family. Their disregard for the needs of others, their misrepresenting of the truth, their outright fabricating of reality is what represents who we can be, and who we are at our worst. There are too many of these types of people in present day America that suck the health and hope out of our realizing our potential as a community. If you can’t believe someone, how can you trust them? And a democracy is dependent of being able to believe what we are being told, so we can make decisions that have a basis in reality, for the good of all.

 

A country that was founded by immigrants, vilifying immigrants, a country that was founded on an economic system that depended on slaves, treating human being as inhuman or subhuman, is our history. It has taken us four hundred years to correct that attitude among our communities and we still have not been able to get it right. This is an example of our unconsciousness and fear at its worst. That which is different from who we are, seen as a threat and treated as something to destroy.

 

When will we see the light? When will we see a Trump as sick, a lying sociopathic blow hard, and a threat to our welfare? We already have January 6^th in the history books. 

 

When will we see a Marjorie Taylor Green and the Ted Cruz’s, the Lindsay Graham’s, the Jim Jordan’s and the Matt Gaetz’s as the limited, ignorant, disregarding of others,’ blowhards ‘that they are? My God, what are we waiting for? The time spent reflecting on and anticipating the impact that such people have on our society is a waste of time…we can talk, and talk, and talk and in the end, we need to see what is before us for what it is, decide on whether or not we can live with what they are promoting and, then to decide to do something about it.

 

The place where this needs to begin is in the corridors of the very political forums where these folks were selected to represent the people who voted them into office. Next, we need to, each of us, speak out, as I am doing in this article.

 

With the demands of our daily life, where do we find the time to address such issues? The simple truth is that if you have a cancerous grow in your body, YOU TAKE THE TIME to seek out the necessary medical care you need to maintain your ability to live.

 

In our American Family we are a body that can develop various cancerous processes. If we treat other family members in an inhuman, disregarding way, we cultivate pathological consequences in our body politic. We will only become more diseased if we remain ignorant of what is destroying us as a community.  

 

There are two truths that I believe, that will bring us together as people, generally, and as American’s in particular: ‘To treat others as I would like to be treated.’ And ‘There, but by the grace of God go I.’

 

The Dali Lama is one of my spiritual teachers.  His writings address our humanness and needs as a community of people living together to live in awareness and with compassion.

 

He has written: ‘Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbeliever, man or woman, black, white or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally and mentally we are all equal. We all share basic needs of food, shelter, safety and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears and dreams.  Each of us want the best for our family and loved ones.  We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture and language makes no difference.’ 

 

Again, as the Dali Lama has written, ‘Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Our own survival is so dependent on the help of others that a need for love lies at the very core of our existence.  This is why we need to cultivate a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.