Dear President Trump, This morning Laura and I took a not-rainy walk (finally!) with the dogs in the part of town we call “Swale-land.” It’s on the way to the grocery store and it feels kind of exotic because every other street is lined with richly planted swales instead of the usual plain grass nature … Continue reading Associative learning and Joe Biden
Gaslighting
The education of a narcissistic sociopath
Dear President Trump, Dr. Bandy Lee’s quote in the HP (article by S. V. Date) about what you’ve learned from having been acquitted gets it right: “He, more than anyone, ‘knows’ subconsciously that the acquittal is undeserved …. He will likely act with increasing belief in unlimited power and impunity.” Unfortunately, the article ends with … Continue reading The education of a narcissistic sociopath
Time to whistle in the dark
Dear President Trump, Can you whistle? Probably not, but surely you can hum. I bet people within earshot of you are hearing an off-key hummed version of “Oh Happy Day” or something like that now that you’ve locked down the impeachment trial and avoided the disaster of involving witnesses and document discovery. You are getting … Continue reading Time to whistle in the dark
Hitting the limits of magnanimity
Dear President Trump, As you know by now, I’ve worked very, very hard not to let hate settle into my psyche. I don’t want it to take hold or to be a motivating force. It’s poison, and ingesting and holding poison in one’s system is a bad idea for all sorts of reasons. I tried … Continue reading Hitting the limits of magnanimity
Professed beliefs are perhaps not real beliefs
Dear President Trump, Recent events have me going back to Barbara Kruger’s installation at the Hirshorn Museum. I told you about it when I visited there in 2017 and since I’m sure you don’t remember, I’ll remind you that it involves the entire central open space of the museum’s bottom floor as well as the … Continue reading Professed beliefs are perhaps not real beliefs
Truth telling POTUS ~ A thought experiment
Dear President Trump, We haven’t done this in a while and since we seem to be stuck replaying the same old scenes, saying (or yelling) the same old lines at each other, I think it’s time for another thought experiment. Are you ready? No, of course not, but since this whole daily letter writing to … Continue reading Truth telling POTUS ~ A thought experiment
Wire vine and other mistakes
Dear President Trump, The other day as we were leaving the grocery, Laura and I both spotted a bunch of small pots of iron vine displayed on a tiered table, each plant twisted around a metal circle suggesting that they are simply decorative little darlings that will docilely grace your yard. We looked at each … Continue reading Wire vine and other mistakes
Eyes wide with fear
Dear President Trump, Much has already been said about your strange, even-for-you, speech about Iran yesterday. I’d seen some of the assessments noting how stilted and incoherent you were and heard about how widely dilated your pupils were. I even looked up which drugs of abuse tend to dilate mammalian pupils (cocaine, amphetamine, meth, and … Continue reading Eyes wide with fear
What if the goal is for all hell to break loose in the Middle East?
Dear President Trump, On the way home from the frame shop this afternoon I got behind a car with an Indiana license plate. It had an American flag inspired background and at the bottom the words “In God We Trust.” When I got home I looked it up to see if it was a specialty … Continue reading What if the goal is for all hell to break loose in the Middle East?
One-man mess maker
Dear President Trump, How is it for you when you travel or you are on vacation (or both)? Do you stick with your routines – get up at the same time as usual, eat the same stuff, get the same amount of exercise? I’m guessing that for you, the answers are largely “yes”, though you … Continue reading One-man mess maker
Daily Trump Letters 