Rain and Trump's Decision To Take Over Washington, DC

We learned two types of reasoning in math and science class. There is deductive reasoning that move from the general to the specific (all men are mortal therefore I am mortal). With inductive decision making you start with the broad issue and try to see a pattern (Several swans are white therefore all swans are white).  Trump specializes in inductive reasoning which can often be wrong. He does this repeatedly.

Remember when you were young and it would be pouring down rain and you believed that it was raining everywhere else when it wasn’t.  We see this frequently at our home on the Chesapeake Bay which is on a peninsula where it can be raining at our home and be clear ten miles away in town. Our conclusions about the weather aren’t always true.

Trump’s reign of terror is full of inductive reason. He called upon federal troops to enter Washington, DC. to establish order because there was an attempted carjacking of a former Department of DOGE, Edward Corisitine, by two teenagers. He declared the city was overwhelmed by crime, people suffering from mental health issues, and homelessness.

Trump declared that Muriel Bowser, the Democratic Mayor of the City, was a poor leader.

He took that one incident and blew it up to be true for the whole city. In typical Trump fashion, he got it wrong which is supported by facts shown on the front page of today’s Inquirer (August 12) Homelessness is down in that city as well. In fact, there has been a reduction of crime in the city by 26%. There is a 19% decline in homelessness. Trump not only lies but he states things as facts when they are fake news.

The same thing happened in LA. He took an event that was happening in anti-ice attacks on one block and said that the whole city was under attack and called in the National Guard.

Notice this doesn’t happen in cities where Republicans are the mayors. Trump has learned well from Machiavelli that one should choose fear over respect in governing people. Fear is Trump’s best friend as well as the illusion that he can solve even the biggest problems when they don’t exist. Only he can save any crime waves in cities.

Trump has added AI technology to his Truth Social account which says that Obama was the best president, the 2020 election was not stolen, and tariffs are a tax on American citizens. I guess he is going to have to fire his Truth Social account for not giving him the information that he would like.

I have an additional concern. Trump always works homelessness and mental health into his blame game for crime. His solution to homelessness is force. It is convenient rather than the real solution that homelessness in America is caused by a lack of affordable housing and poverty. The Republican solution regarding health care will make it more difficult for those people to get health insurance. Solving homelessness as an issue requires hard work, something that Trump is not willing to do.

The other thing that he works into his blame game is “people being released from mental institutions” or mental illness causes gun violence in our country. The reality is that only 3 to 7.5 percent of mentally ill people have committed violent crimes.

I don’t know how many people I have had in counseling and continue to serve in present day. Let’s just say it is a lot. There is something that I learned while training at Duke Medical Center that has held me in good stead these many years. It is to remember that when a person becomes psychotic, they are more afraid of me than I should be of them. In all my years I have had one person be a genuine threat to my well-being. I was part of a group who started a high stakes counseling service for Chester, Pa. for they did not have enough resources in the city.

The woman I was counseling was a hit woman for the Chester mob who came to each session with a cape on. I never saw her hands. During one session, as I looked into her eyes, I knew what was coming. She walked around me, but I attempted to make myself smaller in physical size as I am tall. She left after circling me a few times. I called the local mental health hospital and got the two questions that have always disturbed me. Has she hurt you? Has she hurt herself? No!  This law is a result of people in marriages attempting to have their partner committed. No to both, but she had children at home. I called the Chester police and told them to meet her at her front door but to be ready for her to become very angry and threatening. She didn’t disappoint. She was taken to a mental health facility so that the children could be cared for by social services.

If that was Trump and not me, what would he have done? I think he would run out the door and proclaim that all of Chester should be taken over by him because of the large number of mental patients. I must admit I was shaken by that event, but I learned another lesson over the years. Bullies are always cowards!