Is he insane, or is he just evil?

I'm not sure what to believe anymore.  As much as I want to hate the man, something is triggering pity in me for him.  And it started with an article in Eater.

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The Eater article, "Actually, How Donald Trump Eats His Steak Matters" caused me to start thinking of how insecure Trump really must be inside, and why his view of the world resonates among many Americans. Trump always eats the same type of steak - a dry aged strip steak, has it cooked "well done", then adds ketchup to make up for the lost flavor. "Adults who won’t eat pink-hearted steaks might lean on any number of reasons for their position, but almost always it comes down to an aversion to risk, which is at its core an unwillingness to trust the validity and goodwill of any experiences beyond the limited sphere of one’s own." And I'll bet at the core, most of Trump's base has similar fears. Can I blame anyone for being fearful in this day and age?  No. But I'll bet that Trump's fear goes back to his youth, and may be related to the loss of his brother.

But I don't want to dwell in that area of his life.  I am not a psychologist, and I am not trained to diagnose mental illness.  The New Republic states that "a debate is raging among mental health professionals about Trump’s mental state, and whether it’s unethical of them to speculate publicly about someone whom they haven’t examined." It goes on to mention that "Trump was potentially exposed to syphilis based on his own statements that he was sexually promiscuous in the 1980s, a period when syphilis cases were rapidly increasing in the U.S.."  If Trump has this disease, he'd be in notable company, as Al Capone (a man who I respect more than Trump as a businessman) also suffered from syphilis.

Of course, we could take syphilis out of the equation, and still be dealing with mental illness. The N.Y. Daily News notes that "The American Psychiatric Association says that anyone exhibiting five of the following nine egotistical traits has Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements).

2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.

3. Believe that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with other special or high-status people.

4. Requires excessive admiration.

5. Has a sense of entitlement.

6. Is interpersonally exploitative.

7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.

8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.


9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes."

Do you agree with me, that Trump shows 8 of the 9 characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

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I still believe that Trump should be removed from office as soon as possible. Even a disastrous 3+ years under a "sane" President Pence would likely be preferable to the chaos created by Trump. Is Trump mentally ill, or is he just evil? It's hard for anyone to say, as it is easy to argue for both possibilities.

There is a part of me that could feel sorry for this man and his family, as he is not able to have any empathy towards others. Sadly, he is only interested in himself, and seems very lonely as a result. Even with this being said, I still must raise the question: Why has much of the GOP sacrificed its principles and whatever integrity it has left to be loyal to a man who will not be loyal to them or care about them?

Reflections - Post San Bernardino

As much as I disagree with the NRA, I'll agree with them in regards to mass killings - it's not a gun problem, but a people problem. Gun free zones are meaningless in the same way that Drug free zones are meaningless. They are only a public statement that guns (or drugs) are not welcome, and not a reflection of reality - because those unwelcome items are already there.

Even if we were to take the NRA's stance that we have a mental health problem (in the case of the Connecticut school massacre in Sandy Hook), how do we change the mental health and legal systems (as well as provide adequate funding) to deal with such issues? If we focus on terrorism, how many freedoms do we want to sacrifice in the name of security? Can we trust our governments, with the history of corruption we have in this country (from both parties)?

We need intelligent regulation that crosses state lines, and has few (if any) loopholes. Population density and homogeneity is important. In areas of low population density, where people tend to be from a single ethnic group, we find a very low level of gun crime. In areas of high population density and a heterogeneous population base (such as in most urban areas), we find a high level of gun crime.

So, what do we do?

In the case of potential non-terrorist gun crime, we can work on providing better mental health treatment to people at a low cost. We can look for people who are alienated from society in general, and find ways to better integrate them into society - jobs, friends, social networks, etc. - so that they feel they have something to lose from going on violent rampages.

In the case of potential terrorist gun crime, we can allow the government to use a limited amount of spying tools (with appropriate warrants and vetted public monitoring to help protect us from becoming a police state) that analyze content and traffic on the internet (and associated social networks) to detect these terrorists (such as could have been done for the San Bernardino killings) and stop them.

Federal regulation based on population density and population heterogeneity must be enacted to supersede that existing on state levels, and must reflect the reality of metropolitan areas that cross state lines, as well as trafficking materials from areas with lenient regulation to those areas with restrictive regulation.   

Will this end all gun crime?

Certainly not!  America is a nation in love with its guns, and we have a constitution that protects our gun rights, in part, to insure that we can overthrow a tyrannical government. But, if we can cut this crime by a significant amount, we can start focusing on other problems that are just as important - such as seeing that ALL Americans who want a job can get a job (or have one provided to them that supplies them with a reasonable income).  I am tired of hearing Americans shout past each other, not listening to the valid points their opposition brings up. We have it in ourselves to make this nation a greater nation than it already is - Let's find a way to make it so.....  

Crime and Punishment

Alcatraz, The Rock....  This is where we once placed our most hardened criminals.  But what happens today?  We have "supermax" facilities which have never been escaped from, and yet congress prefers to keep people captured in Afghanistan at GITMO (Guantanamo Bay) instead of a more humane site on the mainland. This political hot potato will be around until 2017, at best, and it is something I may address at a future date.

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Today's entry starts with a crime that happened almost 2 decades ago. And I'm not sure if justice could have been served, given America's feelings about mental illness, crime, and punishment. 

In the mid 1990's two of my neighbors were having an ongoing feud. One of these neighbors was a retired barber, and the other was a kindergarten teacher. In America, we attach a stigma to people who suffer from mild to severe mental illness. They are told to "man up" and deal with the illness, preferably without appropriate medicines. The barber had no reality check in his life, no one to talk to, and likely had a mild depression that quickly progressed to a severe depression early in his retirement. The teacher, on the other hand, was well connected, saw reality for what it was, and was afraid of the neighbor below her.

At the time, I don't even think that their feud was on my radar. My wife was still alive, and I was seeing her gradual decline cause by the cancer which would take her life. But I was quickly awakened to the problem one weekend in January, 1996, when I saw police cars in my driveway, and police tape tied to the antenna of my car. As I remember the story (and time has made my memories much more fuzzy than I'd like) Neighbor B shot neighbor D in the chest with one of his shotguns. He went back to his apartment, and saw neighbor A on the way. She asked him "what happened?" and he said "go upstairs." Neighbor did so, and found neighbor D on the floor, saying her last words before she died....  Over the next few hours, the police were there, and traffic in my co-op's parking was paralyzed due to the presence of police cars, county mortician, etc. blocking access to the rest of the parking lot.

Over the years, I often wondered what happened to this fellow. What was his life like afterwards? If this crime had occurred in Europe, he'd have served time, but gotten the mental health treatment he obviously needed - and maybe have gotten released once he was no longer a danger to society. However, this crime occurred in America, a country which believes in harsher punishment than many of our peer nations. After he was convicted, he was incarcerated in a facility roughly 400 miles away from home (making it very hard for any family members, if any, to visit), and spent the rest of his life behind bars.

Was this justice?  I think it all depends on your viewpoint.  If you were of the victim's family, you might feel that the fellow deserved it. If you were of the criminal's family, you might feel very sad, but believe a softer sentence would be appropriate. And if you were an interested observer like me, you might be unsure - as this was a preventable situation.

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The night I started writing this entry, I had to deal with a problem concerning the same two apartments. And once I connected the dots between the apartments, it triggered the memories that caused me to write this entry.  However, this time, neighbor D2 was harassing neighbor B2. Neighbor D2 is not a native born American (nor was the original neighbor B). And both seem to be/have been isolated from the rest of their communities. I'd bet that neighbor D2 also is dealing with a psychological disorder, based on his actions toward his neighbor.  I'm hoping that if things start to escalate further, that the co-op board can help prevent such extreme results....

What can we do to protect someone from an unbalanced neighbor? Can we do something without violating someone's civil rights? I have no idea. But I know that justice isn't being served as long as we, as a society, allow situations like these to escalate without proper intervention....