I appreciate columnist Dana Milbank tackling the intriguing topic of Trump’s gut vs his brain power (“Why Would Trump Need Brains When He Has a Gut?” 1/1-15/19 TPP). But his analysis is incomplete. Yes, the President regularly touts his gut instincts, in between praises for his assumed “stable genius” mind. And our own brains and guts tell us he’s pretty much “off” as well as ignorant of his own off-ness! But as a therapist, mindfulness meditation instructor and decades-long student (I’m 73) of noetic sciences (nature of knowing), my experience of Donald Trump — and “gut instinct” itself — is more nuanced.
As Trump is a very insecure and disturbed person, his worried mind and fearfully emotional gut regularly impair his ability to make choices we would consider trustworthy. BUT ‘gut’ knowing ( the body’s natural knowing ‘brain’), like intuition (the mind’s version) are often the clearest guidance indicators. This wired-in capacity bypasses mental chatter, thinking, rationale, intellectualizing —offering a sure knowledge of a higher order. But only IF a person is (momentarily) Present, aware, heart-centered, grounded — open and unfettered. This is not DJT!
So while The Donald may try to — and sometimes succeed in — tuning in to his “gut” for personal clarity, his unconscious M.O. is to save face, quell anxiety, raise hopes for winning love or approval or safety — and his lack of focus and inner discipline — make his results suspect. Or our own, depending on our state, when we try to tune in, tap in, turn on from within.
MARCIA SINGER, MSW, Love Arts Foundation, Santa Rosa. Calif.
Disqualifying personal attributes that Donald Trump continues to exhibit as President: nn• Cruelty (vs Empathy),
• Deception (vs Honesty),
• Instability (vs Stability),
• Irrationality (vs Rationality),
• Incompetence (vs Competence).
Such a set of attributes, significantly and consistently exhibited by any individual who occupies the office of President of the United States, should become the basis for the timely legal removal of that individual from this most critical leadership position in the Free World.
To do this would require a new Amendment to the US Constitution. I respectfully leave the drafting of such an Amendment to legal minds way above my pay grade. “Time’s a-wasting!”
PAT V. POWERS, Utopia, Texas
It is a disgrace that the laziest president in our history refuses to honor the agreement he reached with Congress last year to pass a continuing resolution to put 800,000 federal employees back on the payroll and keep the government running at the level it has been for the past year. Instead, Trump let Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing pundits scare him into reneging on his deal as long as it didn’t include $5 billion he demanded from the US Treasury for a down payment on the imaginary wall along the Southern border that he had repeatedly promised Mexico was going to pay for. So 420,000 federal employees have been working for four weeks without a paycheck and another 380,000 employees have been “furloughed” without pay, and all of them are trying to figure out how they can pay their rent or mortgage and still put food on the table for their family. And the president doesn’t care.
Trump hasn’t shot anybody on Fifth Avenue in New York City, yet. But he is trying to kill the US government.
NOLAN O’BRIAN, Dallas, Texas
A probably insane, and possibly treasonous, president has shut down our government. This causes far more damage than just stopping paychecks to 800,000 government workers. Millions of Americans who rely on our government for farm loans, food inspections, disease control, weather forecasting and airport security are endangered. If Putin himself was in the White House, he couldn’t be more effective in weakening our country. Trump’s pullout from Syria puts our Kurdish allies, men and women who bravely fought ISIS, at mortal risk from the Turks. Would anyone else in the world ever agree to become our ally? Thank you, Putin’s Puppet President.
Democrats have done what they have to do. They passed funding bills to reopen the government while denying funds for an expensive, ineffective wall. Trump never seriously believed his “build the wall” shouts during his campaign. The obvious proof is that he claimed Mexico would pay for it. Ha!
What should Senate Republicans do to preserve the integrity of our country? They should pass those funding bills, just like they passed a similar bill unanimously in December. Sen. Mitch McConnell [Senate majority leader] says disingenuously that he won’t allow voting on a bill that the president won’t sign, but a two-thirds majority overrides a presidential veto. He can get our government back to work for the American people.
Call Sen. Mitch McConnell at 202-224-3121. Tell him to allow a Senate vote on the funding bills. Let’s end this Russian attack on our government.
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
With what we know now, I expect one of the members of the Religious Right group will quit supporting President Trump and come to reality. He started with his effort to repeal the Johnson Amendment [which restricted tax-exempt non-profit organizations, such as churches, from participating in political activities), and he wanted pastors and priests to preach about a religious candidate (just like in the Islamic Nations). It did not pass. Next he selected a priest to inaugurate our Embassy in Jerusalem who had publicly said that “Jews have no Soul.” No one remembered. He is the man who has been married thrice and he had illicit relationships with two women [after his current marriage] and it cost him thousands of dollars. So it should not have a negative influence on his election. He opened a full-fledged gambling casino, and when it went bankrupt (due to lack of supervision) he borrowed money from all sorts of “shady” characters.’ How long will it be until one of them says to himself “enough is enough”?
G.M. CHANDU, Flushing, N.Y.
Can you explain how the fine people of Iowa keep returning Steve King to office when he is the most out-front racist, xenophobic representative in the nation? You have explained the efforts and initiatives of the Midwest with such eloquence and empathy for a long time, yet your efforts are for naught when it comes to Rep. King.
It can’t be just the amount of money he can raise, it must be some lack on the part of the people to comprehend the negativity and hatred of this national representative. I look for your perspective to be very important to my ability to understand the American politic. Please use your soapbox to pound this man into the loss column come 2020.
BILLY PRENDERGAST, Oakland, Calif.
Editor replies: All we can say is King is an embarrassment to many in the 4th Congressional District in Northwest Iowa — and, lately, many of his fellow Republicans, for saying out loud what they are accustomed to say in code words. But a majority of the electorate in that district apparently likes him.
I am not burdened by any knowledge on the subject of GM and Trump, so I feel I can speak freely. I always enjoy and learn from Robert Reich’s articles. His piece in your 1/1–15/19 TPP [“Trump Takes On General Motors (And Guess Who Wins?”)], however, took some unduly snarky swipes at shareholders, e.g., “America’s shareholder-first global capitalism;” “the chokehold of Wall Street investors.” But if Reich has a typical retirement plan and portfolio, he would also hold shares and investments in various corporations, as would his employer UC Berkeley’s endowment fund. Does he protest too much?
TIM BRADLEY, Centennial, Colo.
Editor Replies: We aren’t familiar with Professor Reich’s investment portfolio, but, even if he has invested in corporate stocks (or mutual funds that invest in corporate stocks), he is arguing against his own interest in criticizing “shareholder-first global capitalism.”
Forget all this nonsense about the poor low-information voter. If they don’t know at this point what Trump is, it’s because they don’t want to know. It makes no sense to try to reason with people who have nothing to reason with.
And then there are the fools who voted for Jill Stein, whose only real purpose of running was to help Donald Trump win. Remember the same-sex bathroom issue that came up just in time for the election? How many votes did that issue cost Clinton because people feared their female loved ones would be attacked by men in the ladies room if Clinton had won?
And last election we had the so called “Walk Away Movement.” Do I really have to tell anyone whom that helped ?
Last, there were all these telling us about Clinton being worse than Trump; people like Jill Stein, for one. Add this all up, and who knows how many votes Clinton lost, never mind the more recent elections. No one thinks about these dirty political tricks used by Republicans to win. It’s time we did.
DAVID RAISMAN, Brooklyn, N.Y.
As the evidence comes trickling out day after day about “this Russia thing,” the picture of Trump leaving the White House early becomes more and more likely.
But people are assuming that there will be a President Pence when, in fact, Pence would be as illegitimate as Trump, since they both came in on the same boat.
The real question to ask is whether the role should go to Hillary or Nancy Pelosi.
LEE KNOHL, Evanston Ill.
I am totally with Lynn Rudmin Chong [“Trumpeting Sounds Hurt My Heart,” Letters, 12/1/18 TPP]. I cannot stand to listen to NPR any more and I did not donate in their last campaign. I stopped listening during the 2016 campaign and told the station manager at Northwest Public Radio they were participating in the false equivalency coverage. NPR is contributing to normalizing Trump. If the NWPR classical music station comes on with five minutes of news, I turn it off. That’s how allergic I have become.
Like Lynn, I have been listening to NPR a long, long time — for me, since 1957. No more.
Thanks for TPP. As a long time ago resident of Iowa, it is pleasing to read Art Cullen.
ZOE COOLEY, Troy, Idaho
I read, with great sympathy for the letter run in the 12/1/18 issue of TPP by Lynn Rudmin Chong of New Hampshire. I likewise feel a disgust for NPR’s cowtowing to the right-wingers, in particular, the Donald, and I, likewise, reach for the dial to turn him off. Perhaps NPR feels that they must cater to their right-wing supporters (read corporate) who are now augmenting their coffers to a much greater extent than in times past. I long for the good ole days of NPR.
WILLIAM W. WEGENER, Carnegie, Pa.
From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2019
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