Does Trump Really Think Things Through, Or Is He Cognitively Limited, Or is He Just Suffering the Pains of Old Age?

I watched Trump’s recent Meet the Press interview with Kristen Welker. I listened to her questions and his answers. I came away with the sense that Trump has limited ability to listen to, understand and process questions that he was asked. He comes to conclusions that are not truly connected to the question with which he was presented. He often seems to be unable to see the cause-and-effect relationship between his thoughts and the effect his thoughts have on others. His thoughts and expression of his thought are increasingly becoming more and more incoherent over the course of the past four years.

 

His belief, for example, is that a 60 percent tariff would not cost an American an increase in the price for a television that has been imported from Canada. A television that costs 100.00 dollars in Canada would carry an additional tariff of 60.00s. When the T.V. is delivered in the United States, the store that is buying the product will pay an additional 60.00 and the total cost for the store owner would be 160.00. In Trump’s thinking, the store owner would not pass on that 60.00s to the customer who would only pay the 100.00.

 

His famous ‘Mexico would pay for the border fence to keep immigrants out’, was his assumption about what would happen. No such agreement was ever made or agreed to by Mexico.

 

In another discussion, during the Pandemic, he refused to take the preventative vaccine because he did not have the COVID virus. He did not see the connection between the vaccine and its role to help prevent his catching of the COVID Virus. Again, he many times fails to see the cause-and-effect relationship between his thought and the reality of a given situation. In this he often fails to see the potential consequences for his behaviors.

 

In the Meet the Press interview, he indicated that he wants to remove immigrants from American communities.  He believes that immigrants ‘poison the blood of our citizens.’  He talked about families where children were born into a family where the parents were not American citizens. The children of such parents automatically become an American Citizens. He asserts that he does not want children born into such situations to become American Citizens.

 

He also stated that, ‘in order for children who are born into American citizens to not be torn away from their families, all family members will need to be removed and sent away to the parent’s country of origin’, again if the country of origin agrees to accept by the family. 

 

Such issues focus on Trump’s limited thought process. He fails to consider how much will it cost to send immigrants away from the United States. How will this be done? How will these people be rounded up? Who will replace these folks in our American work world? Who will plant and tend to the crops? Who will maintain our vineyards? What about replacing skilled carpenters and trades people? Who will take over food service positions? What about health care providers and those in medical support positions? And each of these individuals contribute to the American economy by paying taxes to the United States Government. It has been said that to remove these immigrants from our work force would be financially disastrous to our basic American economy.

 

His pulling out of NATO is another example of where he fails to see the cause and effect of such thinking. Since NATO there have been 80 years of peace since the end of World War II. Without the United States presence, there would be no guarantee of such continued peace in the region. By the United States leaving NATO, the whole region would be negatively impacted by Trump’s disregarding of the United States role in the region and on the world stage.

 

 

I had just saw an interview with New Jersey’s newly elected United States Senator, Andy Kim, whose parents migrated to the United States from Korea over 50 years ago.  He and his sister were born in the United States and became citizens years before their own parents became citizens. I wondered, where in Trump’s world, would Andy Kim fit? Would he have to be removed from the United States Senate because he was born in the United States to immigrant parents from Korea?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can We Have a President Who Wants to Destroy the Constitution, Eliminating a Government Of the People By the People and For the People?

  

In 2017 Brandy Lee called together a gathering of psychiatrists and mental health professionals to discuss Donald Trump’s mental and emotional fitness to be President of the United States.  The product of this gathering was the publication of ‘The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump’ which contained 27 essays written by those who participated in this gathering of mental health professionals. 

Their conclusion was that Trump is not mentally stable or competent to be President of the United States. Their conclusion was that Trump is emotionally capable of unleashing violence against others.  He also engages in the predatory manipulation of his vulnerable followers. 

 

In the past seven years, as someone who has worked in the field of behavioral and emotonal needs,   I have experienced similar discomfort around Trump's treatment or mistreatment of others. Those who need a savior turn to him to be saved. People are for him, objects to be manipulated and not human beings with needs and feelings. His view of women is that they are objects, eye candy, a ‘pussy’ to be grabbed or an orgasm to be had. As crass and vulgar as those terms sound, it is his view of women.

 

His desire to terminate a woman’s right to have an abortion, regardless of her having life threatening health issues, or having been raped or manipulating her ability to obtain contraception, to have her menstrual cycles monitored are all ways he views as being able to control a woman, her needs and feelings and her health. 

 

His advocacy of violence is often evident in his threats to use the military in relation to American citizens’ protesting his views and ways. Instead of using the court system, he will often encourage people ‘beating up’ those who are not compliant to what he is advocating or are not supportive of his view of what should be. In his mind, the legal system does not apply to him, he is above and beyond the law. The Supreme Court has reinforced his legal freedom.

 

In his running for the Presidency this time around he outright lied to the American People. He said that he wanted to be the President. In fact, he wants to be a dictator. A President is bound by the Constitution and is required to take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. In fact, he wants to destroy the Constitution and a government of the people, by the people and for the people. 

 

He does not want separate but equal branches of government. He detests the notion of a government of checks and balances. He wants to be the center of attention, in charge of all aspects of everything. He demonstrates his disdain for our Constitutional Institutions by choosing ill prepared and  inexperienced people to head his Cabinet Departments. His singular choice of a Kash Patel as Director of the FBI, someone who advocates violence and has created a hit list of those who need to be punished for their lack of support of Trump, screams out as an example of Trump’s illegitimacy as President of the United States.     

 

 

Where Are We and What Do We Need

 

 For the past ten years, during his attempt to achieve his Presidential place in American politics, Trump has consistently featured a   dishonesty, a tendency to destroy what is and a disregard for the needs and feeling of others, particularly women and people of color.

 

 His recent want to run for the Presidency was his latest example of not being truthful with the American people. To become the President of the United States requires taking an oath of office that pledges a loyalty to the very document that serves as the bed rock of our system of government and political way of life. 

 

Trump wants is to become a dictator, not a President. He has said so publicly. He wants to destroy the Constitution and our very way of government. The idea of separate but equal branches of government, a government of checks and balances goes totally against his grain.  He wants no checks and balances. He wants to do as he wishes and goes so far as to make a mockery out of attempting to fill his Presidential Cabinet.  He selects people who are to serve as the various leaders of his Cabinet agencies that meet the needs of citizens, people who are totally ill prepared to lead their respective agencies. Matt Gaetz is one such example of an ill fitted Cabinet head as the Attorney General of the United States. Fortunately, Gaetz withdrew from Trump’s appointment. 

 

A second appointment that was off the charts was the choice of Robert Kennedy as Director Health and Human Services. Kennedy has no medical experience or training. He is against the use of vaccines and certain medicines and promotes turning away from medical experts to those who are fellow conspiracy theorists. He is a trained environmental lawyer. Decisions about our countries’ health are in the hands of an opinionated, untrained, person whose track record has left numerous deaths in the wake of his ‘leadership’ attempts. 

 

Trump seems to thrive in making his selection of Cabinet members a joke. His is an attempt at testing the waters in his selection process with the notion that ultimately, he will have the last word in any decisions that his Cabinet will make. In essence, the government of the United States will be his government not a government ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’, in the words of Lincoln. 

 

One more aspect of Trumps ‘leadership’ as a Dictator, is to change our national position on the world stage. He wants to remove America from NATO and eliminate our checking of other countries from attacking fellow NATO members. Our role for the past 80 years has kept peace in Europe, and he wants to change that political equation. The reason for this is that he seems to shy away from anything that takes the focus off him personally. By sharing the stage with other European leaders, he seems to feel like one of the many and not the one, who is.  He also wants to remove our involvement with the United Nations hypothetically for the same reason as his removing us from the NATO community. 

 

On the economic front, Trump holds onto the notion that tariffs are the only way to go in dealing with trade issues with other countries. The fact that tariffs will increase the cost of good for Americans, seems to be of little consequence to him. It is as if his ignorance of the impact that tariffs will have on American citizens makes no difference to him.

 

Other issues that need to be brought up for our consideration are what the MEGA focus is on today’s societal scheme of things. MEGA wants to promote a White Christian Nationalism societal focus. This groups concern is that today there is too much coming together of mixed racial and societal groupings and that the male dominated white Christian nationalistic front is losing its political footing. The removing of immigrants, the removal of women’s rights around maternal health care issues, are but two instances of where Trump and his cohorts are attempting to change America’s way of treating citizens, notably women and nonwhites. His is an ego driven attempt to control life forces. 

 

Trump’s ways defy all Mindfulness approaches in what brings people together and how it is that communities of people grow and prosper together. Trump’s approach alienates community members from one another and destroys all that he encounters.

 

The Buddha has taught that ‘suffering occurs when we believe in a thought that is at odds with what was, what is or what will be.’ Trump’s thoughts have caused much pain, dissention, and suffering. One of my favorite teachers, the Dali Lama has written, ‘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 all of humankind.’ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trump, Better Suited to a Psychiatric Unit Than to the Oval Office

 

Recently, Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, told the world, that in Springfield, Ohio, Haitian immigrants are stealing pets from neighbors and were eating them. These immigrants, it was further stated, were in the United States illegally. Trump’s implication being that these or any immigrants cannot be trusted and are a blight to our way of life. He has gone so far as to say that ‘immigrants are poisoning the blood of our communities.’ He is constantly and flagrantly spreading racism when it comes to those who are not white. 

 

In truth, these folks are legally in the United States, they do not steal and eat the pets of their neighbors. In fact, they have helped save Springfield from becoming a waste land of declining population. These fifteen thousand people from Haiti, not the thirty-four thousand that Trump says, are saving the economy of Springfield by their working in the factories and in other areas of need in the community.

 

Since Trump and Vance have lied about the Haitians in Springfield, there have been bomb threats all over the community. Schools have been closed, children and the families of children are living in an environment of constant fear, not knowing what to expect next.

 

Trump and Vance acknowledge that they are comfortable lying about what they are saying. What they say, Vance offers, is intended to force Americans to face issues that they would not otherwise face. In misspeaking the truth, they are also making it difficult to address the realities of issues that plague us as our democratic community. If you cannot believe what you are being told, how can you make the decisions that are necessary for our society to grow and to heal.  

 

What this misinformation about Springfield shows is how Trump creates conflict and hardship on minority groups who migrate into the United States. He has no regard for the negative impact that his assertions have on others. As a sociopath, he has no regards for the feelings and needs of others. As a sociopath, he lies as a matter of course. He cannot be believed and yet the suffering and fear that he creates in what he says is unconscionable. His belief in the use of violence against those who are not in his favor is real and his goons will harass individuals and families all over the United States. The Proud Boys recently began walking the streets of Springfield. It used to be that if a public figure were to threaten fellow citizens with physical injury, he or she could be arrested, tried in court, and sent to jail. Why is Trump getting a free pass in what he says and threatens?

 

Trump’s narcissistic need for being the center of attention, triggers his making those things that he says that cause others pain to be intensified, so that even more attention is paid to him. His ability to have attention paid to him, no matter what he says or does, knows no bounds. His assertion that the 2020 election was stolen from him is an example of delusional thinking. When he speaks, his thoughts are often delusional and incoherent and make no sense at all. Over the past four years, his verbalizing of his thoughts has become what is referred to as an incomprehensible word salad.

 

Of late, he seems to be acting as though the 2024 Presidential Election is already lost, and he is planning to interfere, again, with the peaceful transfer of power from the Biden Presidency to the Harris Presidency. He has his supporters attempting to take over the various voting places and making the accurate counting of votes more difficult, if not impossible. 

 

Instead of nonwhites from any part of the world poisoning the blood of our American Family, it is Trump, himself, whose words, and behaviors are destroying our Democratic way of life and our democratic institutions. He is unfit for the Oval Office. He needs psychiatric care as he manifests delusional thinking and demonstrates that he has no regard for the needs and feelings of others.  

 

Maintaining our democratic institutions and way of life is our responsibility as members of ourAmerican Community. We need to demonstrate this responsibility by voting on November 5^th for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

 

A Society in Transition

Today, we have a counter revolution of sorts taking place in our midst. The old American way of life was male dominated, with women being viewed as ‘lesser than men.’ A women had no legal rights from the beginning of our nation and didn’t have the right to vote until 1920. Women were treated as a husband’s ‘property.’ They were primarily viewed as mothers and home makers. A woman’s role kept her out of the male dominated world of political discourse. The recent reversal of a woman’s having reproductive rights has served as a reminder of how this male dominated society has worked in the past and can still persist in today’s world.

 

Even the conservative Christians believed that America was created by God to be run by white males. Today we still have the residual influence of white male dominated ‘Christian Nationalism.’ 

 

This identity has been carried over with the support of political conservatives who are unable to relinquish their role in our collective American society. Our collective society has become multiracial and multicultural, where there are more nonwhites impacting on our political policies than there are whites. This has prompted efforts to illegally prevent nonwhites from being able to vote.

 

The impact of these societal changes has brought about a stalemate in our ability to work together in addressing the pressing issues that face us in our daily lives. Those who hold on to a view of life where nonwhites are viewed as threats to American Society are fearful of being politically left on the outside, looking in. Their need and intention are to fight to maintain their political dominance in society. This delusional thinking will only prevent our nation from moving ahead with its evolution as a living organic community that addresses the needs of each one of us.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

 

Touching Bases: When Do We Turn the Lights Out on Trump’s Delusions?

 I find it unbelievable that someone with Trump’s history can run, again, for the Presidency of the United States. Psychiatrists and Mental Health Professionals met at Yale University during the beginning of Trump’s showing signs of interest in running for the Presidency. They were clear on their deliberations that he is a sociopath and narcissist, that he is someone with ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and lack of empathy.’ In essence, he has no ability to consider other peoples’ needs or feelings. They also asserted that he is a pathological liar. He often gives the impression, in the way he expresses himself, that he is play acting out the role of a mafia crime boss. His behavior and speech are often that of a bully.

 

With that as a snapshot of how Trump is emotionally wired, we also have examples of his disregard for lawful, personal conduct in his social interactions with others. His history of being a sexual predator of woman, his attempting to change the vote in Georgia during the Presidential Election, ‘all I need is another 11,780 votes during a recorded phone conversation with Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. 

 

Then, there is his attempt to prevent the peaceful transition of power from his administration to the Biden Administration. To this end, he rallied his armed supporters to attack the Capitol and to hunt down Mike Pence with the possibility of hanging Pence for his lack of support in this act of sedition. The act of sedition, alone, should legally prevent Trump from ever, again, running for the Oval Office. He is also a convicted felon on 34 counts of guilt for falsifying business records to cover up his illicit affair with a porn actress, so that his affair would not jeopardize his electability for the Oval Office. 

 

His disrespect of those who have lost their lives in combat, is despicable and is reflected in his referring to these fallen hero’s’ as ‘losers and suckers.’

 

He refers to immigrants as ‘poisoning’ the blood of our citizens.

His ripping 5000 immigrant children from their families with no tracking device is still another unforgivable act on his part. And with a background like this, how is it possible for this individual to be allowed to run, again, for the Presidency of the United States? What are your thoughts?

After the Conventions are Over, What is Our Choice and Our Responsibility?

  

Today, after the Democratic National Convention, we have two avenues that we can choose to take. The GOP option is to use conspiracy theories, misrepresentations of the truth, talk in terms of creating a dictatorship with no longer having elections, and using force and violence to get back at those who have not been supportive of Trump. This is a dark, delusional, and disregarding of others approach to members of our American Family.

 

The Democratic National Convention expressed a sense of joy, hope and treating other people as we would want to be treated. The Democrats focused on seeing the someone who is standing before us, to listen to what is being shared, to be supportive of each of us having the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of fulfillment in life, and to have equal standing before the law.  It means that a woman has the right to choose to give birth or not during her pregnancy, she has the right to proper reproductive health care, that we have a right to vote and have our vote counted. In addition, we have the right to a livable wage, medical care and retirement. In essence the Democratic joy and hope that came out of their convention again, translates into our treating one another as we would want to be treated.

 

The Democratic community has transitioned to a gathering of individuals who give the meeting the needs of each of us priority, over power-oriented politics that have dominated the past four years of Congressional disfunction.  Ours is a choice between an autocracy in which absolute power is held by the autocrat. Or we can decide upon continuing to live in a democracy where state power is vested in the people. Our future is in our hands….

 

Our responsibility is to VOTE!!!   

As We Approach the 2024 Presidential Election

  

As we approach the 2024 Presidential Election, we are facing something that began as a ‘freak show’ in 2016. Donald Trump truly began playing with the possibilities of running for President of the United States. At the time, he began to dabble with the possibilities of such a move, Bandy Lee and a Yale group of mental health professionals wrote an article that gave birth to a book entitled The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. This text focused on Trump not being emotionally stable enough to reside in the Oval Office. 

 

What did these mental health professionals mean by ‘not being emotionally stable enough’ to reside in the Oval Office? They considered him, his behavior, 

to be that of a sociopath. A sociopath is someone who lacks any sense of regard for other peoples’ needs and feelings. The way they view life is predicated on ‘me, myself and I.’ They have no social sense of what’s in the best interest of others. They only care about being in the center of attention to satisfy their needs for being important. In truth, someone like a Trump does not feel important and is deeply insecure. 

 

In addition, they viewed him as being a ‘pathological liar.’ He will say whatever comes out of his mouth, whether- or- not it is truthful or untruthful. In fact, he has been known to utter a statement saying one thing, only to say something the opposite in his next breath. His performance in the first Presidential Debate of the 2024 Presidential season was replete with over 30 misstatements of the truth.

 

Added to this he has no sense of appropriateness in what he says about other people. When Carly Florina ran against him as one of candidates for the office of President, he said, ‘who would vote for a face like that?’ In his run for the Presidency against Barak Obama, he dropped the idea that Obama had not been born in the United State, and was in fact, not eligible to run for the Presidency.  In fact, Obama was born in Honolulu Hawaii on August 4, 1961and was eligible to run for the Presidency. This was referred to as Trump’s ‘birther’ lie.

 

Trump has no sense of ethical right or wrong in his dealings with others. In fact, he has been convicted of 34 fraud charges in his business dealings with the State of New York.  While he is the perspective 2024 GOP candidate for the Presidency, he is also a felon who may be sentenced to incarceration. In any case, he will have a parole officer through whom he must get the Courts permission to leave New York State or to conduct responsibilities that would be a part of his duties as President, should he be elected.

 

He has also been convicted of sexually attacking, raping, a woman he stated he, in fact, had never met. In his reactions involving her charges against him, he was charged with numerous defamations of character assertions and was ordered to pay a half a billion dollars in damages.

 

He says things that are intended to shock others. It is his way of gaining others undivided attention. In this run for the 2024 Presidency, he talks about ‘if I don’t win, there will be a blood bath’ or, that if he doesn’t win, there will not be another election in the United States. He believes in using violencein his retaliating against others who have not been supportive of him or with his ideas. He treats loyalty as a primary requirement in his interactions with others. Everyone who will be a member of his administration, should he win the Presidency, will have to agree that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

 

He is awaiting court date in his role in the January 6^th attack on the Capitol. The attack on the Capitol was his attempt to change the election results of the 2020 Presidential Election that he claims was stolen from him. This claim was adjudicated by 60 court rulings, and it was determined that that the election had not been stolen. This was his attempt to interrupt the peaceful transition of power from his administration to that of the Biden Administration. 

 

He also has decided attitudes about nonwhite members of society. He is considered as a racist in his attitudes and words regarding African Americans and other minority groups in the United States. He believes that immigrants are poising the blood of Americans. He also is a misogynist, viewing women as ‘eye candy’ and treating them as objects and not as human beings with feelings and needs.

 

In addition, this candidate for President in 2024 has no sense of the historical understanding about American’s role on the world stage. For instance, he is totally against the United States leadership within our NATO Alliance.

 

Trump has a fascination with dictators and wants to behave as a dictator on day one of his election. He wants to weaponize the presidency by making the office one with absolute control of all aspects of government. 

 

Added to his emotional instability, he is intellectually limited. He has no interest in reading about or keeping up with issues that are swirling around. His ignorance was never on more display than in his lack of leadership in addressing the COVID pandemic. He suggested that people inject bleach into their bodies to get rid of the virus.  He also had difficulty with understanding that you take the vaccine to give your body the immunity to defend against coming down with the virus. His thought was that you didn’t need to take the vaccine if you didn’t have the COVID virus already in your system.

 

His thinking process is often incoherent. He will often misuse words in expressing himself. In addition to his being emotionally a seven-year-old, he is intellectually ill equipped to deal with the issues, the creation of policies and following a path that leads to America’s stability in this twenty-first century.

 

He is often delusional about his place and role in everyday involvement with others.  He believes that he and Jesus and Nelson Mandela are alike and have similar roles in society. Like Jesus and Mandela, Trump sees himself as a messiah for all those who have been mistreated by others and is ‘the only one who can fix the ills of those who feel that they have been mistreated by the government and the media.

 

In sum, PLEASE VOTE to preserve our American ideal that all people are equal before the law and have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of freedom. That the role of government is to meet the needs of all its people. We may still be imperfect as a society but we are in the process of becoming our true essence.

 

A vote for Trump is a vote for destroying our very American gift of being a part of a living democracy. 

 

Thank you for your time and attention to the reading of this essay.

 

 

 

 

 

‘You Can Fool All of the People Some of the Time, and Some of the People All of the Time, and Those Are Good Odds’

  

During my high school years Maverick was a television program I would watch each week. Bart Maverick’s ‘pappy,’ would say ‘you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, and those were good odds.’ Con-people have a good gullible audience to play with much of the time.

 

During World War II, Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propogandist would say that ‘if you tell the people a lie often enough, they will come to believe the lie to be the truth.’

 

Today, we have the marriage of both philosophies in our political and social worlds. Misinformation, conspiracy theories, false equivalencies, alternative facts abound in today’s world as the 2024 Presidential Election approaches.

 

The point person for this social happening is Donald Trump. He is a sociopath who has no reality boundaries’ that govern his words or behavior. In addition, part of his being a sociopath means that he has no regard for the needs and feelings of others.  He is also considered a pathological liar who will state one thing that is supposed to be the truth, and then, state an opposite position in his next utterance. 

 

Often what pours out of his mouth is the antithesis of what is socially or politically considered to be appropriate. His comment about Putin ‘being able to do any damn thing he wants in the Ukraine, if the Ukraine doesn’t pay more than it is presently paying in its war effort, is one such example of an out of head, out of mouth statement. In this statement, he is turning his back on the United States’ role in maintaining America’s NATO alliance.

 

He uses people and then, abuses people. He has a history of having people do a construction job for him, including materials and then not paying them what he had promised to pay. He uses delaying court tactics get around keeping his obligations.  He has a history of telling lies about the large size of his property, to be able to secure larger loans, when the property is much smaller than he has reported it to be. He is facing a half a billion dollar fine for such behavior in the state of New York. Over the span of five months, he was indicted in four separate criminal cases and charged on a total of 91 felony counts. He was also, convicted of raping and defaming the woman he raped.

 

He attempted to change the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election by asserting that the election was ‘stolen’ from him.  This, despite of 60 court rulings to the contrary. He still asserts, today, that he won the 2020 Presidential Election. 

 

He is guilty of conspiring to interfere with the peaceful transition of power from his administration to the incoming Biden Administration. In this, he is guilty of an act of sedition and is legally should not be able to run for or to hold any future political position in the government of the United States.

 

In the January 6^th attack on the Capitol, he encouraged and supported the use of violence, even against his Vice-President, if Pence did not support Trump’s wish to assume the Presidency without winning the election.

 

He has, also, attempted to change the election results of the people in Georgia, to become the people’s choice of the vote, when, in fact, Biden won the Georgia vote.

 

Throughout all of this, Trump paints the picture of being the victim, a martyr, if you will. People accuse him of things, that from his pathological perspective, are not true. He has taken on the role of the source of restitution for all those American’s who also feel that they have been victimized in life. He also manifests delusional thinking in that he compares himself second only to Jesus and Nelson Mandela as a savior to all who have been mistreated as he feels he has been.

   

In fact, Trump reminds me of an emotionally 7-year-old who passes gas, ‘farts’ to use the vernacular, around a family member’s birthday dinner table. When he is confronted by another family member who is sitting next to him to stop passing gas, he asserts that he has not passed gas. When the family member persists with his assertion, seven-year-old Donald accuses the family member of ‘always picking on him.’ Thus, the 7-year-old who has become the victim in the matter.  

 

Jennifer Freyd, Professor Emerita of the University of Orgon, in 1997, described an approach that many who victimize others, will use to deal with being accused of their aberrant behavior. It is referred to DARVO and stands for Deny, Attack and Reverse Victim and Offender. In this, the offender is on the offense and the person attempting to hold the offender accountable is put on the defense. Trump is an effective practitioner of this strategy. In this process, reality becomes blurred. What is true isn’t and what isn’t true, is. 

 

In my experience there is another dimension to this DARVO method of evading responsibility for one’s behavior. What Trump has done is to express the absurdity of something in its most extreme way. He wants to get rid of all checks and balances of our governmental safeguards by declaring that he wants to be an ‘imperial president.’ He wants to be a ‘dictator’ and exudes lavish respect and praise about how Russa’s Putin, North Korea’s Un, China’s Xi Jinping and Hungary’s Orban are ‘at the top of their game.’ In essence, he wants to overcome his sense of inadequacy by casting himself as being all powerful.

 

In other areas, he takes credit for such things as a woman no longer having the right to maternal health care by the removing the possibility of an abortion, eliminating a fifty-year precedence that Roe v Wade provided all women. Today, women are denied medical options in their reproductive health care, because of Trump’s packing of the Supreme Court with his acalides. 

 

Trump’s playing to the absurdity of a position is appealing to those who feel stuck with having no options open to them when they feel helpless to change their life situation. Becoming a dictator, being the one who is instrumental in eliminating a woman’s right to have the ability to determine the course that her own health care, is more satisfying than living as someone who feels helpless about their life choices and someone who feels inferior to women. With Trump, woman are objects. Women are no more than eye candy and something to provide him with sexual pleasure. He, also, refers to members of the military who have lost their lives defending our American way of life as ‘losers and suckers.’ 

 

And this is the dynamic that is currently playing itself out in our society. To know that this is happening is to be forearmed about what we need to expect in our current political climate. This calls to mind the Buddhist notion that the source of all suffering is ignorance. Not knowing about this process, and being impacted by it, causes suffering within our American Family. 

 

 Our Declaration of Independence has a well-known line: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain Inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness or Enlightenment. This is the foundation for the great American Experiment, that serves as the glue that makes the potential for our way of life possible.

 

Donald Trump’s sole goal in life is to destroy this American experiment. In this he is an outspoken in his disdain for immigrants, ‘they are poisoning the blood of our country. We must ask, what would America be without those immigrants who made it to our shores over the hundreds of years of our creation? 

 

Our responsibility as American citizens is to become aware of what is going on in our political world, and to take on the responsibility for doing our part to stand for what we believe and know to be true.   We need to remain aware of what is going on in our midst and go to the ballot box and vote for what matters to us. Trump wants to do away with your expressing your view of what matters in your country. He wants to be a dictator without any boundaries. This weak, insecure, and ignorant con-artist wants to change our way of life by destroying what makes our way of life special. Are we going to let this happen?  It is up to each of us to stand up for who we are.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Supreme Court That Isn’t And The Candidate Who Shouldn’t Be

   

 

In reflecting upon today’s political world, I find that it is unbelievable that we have a potential candidate for the White House who is a pathological liar in addition to being a sociopath. This person is incapable of considering or respecting the feelings and needs of others.  He is delusional, believing that the 2020 election was stolen from him, when it was not. In fact, he is building on that delusional way of viewing reality by insisting that he will only have people around him, if he is elected President, who share his delusional belief that he did win the Presidency in 2020.

 

He also manifests delusional thinking in that he compares himself second only to Jesus as a savior to all who have been mistreated as he feels he has been. He sees himself as a source of restitution for all of those who are suffering.

 

He states that he sees himself as an ‘imperial President,’ should he win the election this time. He will weaponize the governmental agencies to attack those in government service who do not agree with his delusional views of reality.  He wants total agreement that his is the only way to view life issues like the state should decide on a woman’s reproductive health issues and not the woman, or her physician. 

He encouraged and has participated to overthrow the peaceful Presidential transition of power and in so doing, committed an act of insurrection. The   Constitution states, in Article Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, that any government elected officer who commits an act of insurrection is automatically disqualified to run for any office in government. And still, he is running for the Oval Office. How is this possible?

 

He is threatening those who do not agree with him, who do not support his positions, with acts of harassment and acts of violence. Members of the January 6^th Committee are concerned about what to expect, should he become President. Such threats can cause someone to be arrested and send to jail for up to 5 years. And he is continuing to make such threats and is still running for the Oval Office. How is this possible?

 

He wants to go from being a President, who is one of three branches of government, within a Constitutionally based government with checks and balances and where all people are equal under the law, to a dictator who will use National Guard troops to enforce his will on the people.  How can someone who espouses such behaviors run for or become able to be elected as President of the United States? And that is the sad situation in our political world of today.

 

How do we stop such a recking ball, such poisoning of our Constitutional well, such destructive inclinations to our Democratic Institutions and the rule of law?  We have 6 months to get our house in-order to ensure that such a person is forbidden to succeed in his delusional attempts to destroy our Constitutional Institutions.

 

Our Courts have let us down with this on-going freak show. Instead of punishing him for insurrection, he can slide. Instead of being arrested for threatening violence, he can go on breaking gag orders during his New York trial. 

 

What we need is for our courts and legal system to exercise their responsibility and hold anyone, even a former President, who behaves as this person has, accountable for what he says and what he does. He should not be able to run for political office.  He should be jailed for threatening those who oppose his ideas and behaviors. We are all equal under the law. No one, regardless of their wealth or previous positions in life is above the law.

 

And above all else we must VOTE.  It is a foregone conclusion that this person will never accept that he has lost, and, and it he does lose the election, we will repeat what took place, again, during the 2020 election. We must demand that a repeat of the past four years of does not happen. We must demand that a person who behaves as this person has, be held accountable for his words and behaviors. No one person should be allowed to destroy our democratic institutions and what we hold to be dear and essential to our way of life. Our task is to care, act and demand that those safeguards that exist to protect us from such darkness, are carried out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!