DEAR EDITOR:

At the risk of being repetitious and boring, my opinion of Trump is that he is a convicted felon, a fascist, a chronic liar, an unfeeling narcissist, a racist, an incompetent politician, and lawless grifter on the public’s trust in high office who is disgracing the Constitution, embarrassing us among nations and destroying our economy. That should spare anyone with a red-hatted head still in the sand, or, wherever they stick them, the effort of reading further.

Those interested in reading for facts may seek sources such as:

The curve of forgetting (Ebbinhaus On Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. This work is research that theorizes (after testing) that half of new information a person acquires is lost within hours, the rest over time. It also notes that repetition of information, even lies, of any size e.g. “the election was stolen,” “they’re eating cats” “tariffs don’t raise prices” etc. especially if they use demeaning unclear fact-free rhetorical claims that some great harm will come from “they”, “them” “those people”. More so, if multiple communication channels are used. The curve is a base component of most ad campaigns.

Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929 inside the greatest crash in Wall Street history and how it shattered a nation can inform you about the origin and use of tariffs and legislation regulating Wall Street and the banking industry following the crash of 1929.

Those industries then cooperated in the financing and sale of stocks they knew financed worthless companies whose shareholders borrowed on margin (usurious loans often from brokers and partner banks) to buy shares. Very much like the financial crisis of the eighties selling tranches of mortgaged real estate that were worth less than the money borrowed.

The same sharks lobbied government in the thirties to lower federal bank rates thus making cheap money available to borrow to purchase more worthless stock. Lowering bank rates is one of Trumps favorite whines as the best way to encourage investment. It worked to build Atlantic City.

Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay Self-Reliance wrote “A foolish consistency is the Hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen, philosophers and divines.”

A foolish consistency is to double down on lies easily disproved by facts or looking in your wallet. Thus, Trump is, in my opinion, the Tom Thumb of statesmen and devoid of any philosophy or religion other than I, ME, MINE. His constant claims of the greatest, the never before seen and the hottest are cheap burlesque and Trump hugging our flag is like a naked stripper (yech!) peeking out from behind the curtain. VOTE!

JIM CARTWRIGHT

Canfield