Full Speeches of Our Eminent Conference Panelists

National Security Panel, First Two Speakers: Ralph Nader and Richard Painter

A member of the public commented:

A month before the election, they finally, reluctantly acknowledged what you have been warning for years, without giving you credit.

It is not I who am important but who I represent—in this critical time, at this critical point in history—as a barometer for our nation.  That I can never be named—after it was revealed that former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly used my book like an “owner’s manual,” may have prevented a nuclear war with North Korea while applying its principles, and a major Mother Jones article dubbed me “vindicated” two years ago—should be concerning to all of us.  This is because we are not talking about me at all; we are speaking of saving humankind.

This is why what happened at the National Press Club is singularly the most important event that could have occurred, on the most important topic at this critical time, and yet the media are pretending that we do not exist.  C-Span considered but decided against broadcasting the event, even though this was a much more significant gathering than the one they covered in full before the 2020 election, occurring at a much more dangerous time.  Democracy Now! which at least considered our prior event (in fact promised to report it in person but then retracted just days before), did not even consider this time.  The Joy Reid show, which scheduled my appearance the day before the conference, decided that Eric Adams and the hurricane were more important—even though another Trump presidency would embolden many more Adamses (Trump Contagion does not distinguish party!) and possibly push climate catastrophe over the edge.

This is why, with 27 days until the election, I will be bringing you daily, digestible clips of the Conference, alongside commentary on immediate events, to help place them in context.  Many, for example, are focusing on polls, but nothing is reliable when mental pathology is prominent, as we have seen in their surprising failure in 2016.  Even now, as the Infrastructure Bill is rebuilding America in ways unseen since the New Deal, such that we have economically become the envy of the world, none of this is felt or admitted.  And even as Donald Trump laid the psychological groundwork for political violence at home and endless wars abroad, he is accepted as being a “peace president.”

Debating mental pathology is never a good idea, and Tim Walz, not being a mental health professional, could not help but be like a deer caught in headlights, the way Joe Biden was.  Kamala Harris, being a former prosecutor, is halfway there, but we need more—which is why I have said that this presidential race will be a contest between Trump Contagion and our ability to contain/reverse subversions of reality.

For these reasons, I called our event, right before a critical presidential election, “not a political conference but a medical one”—since the sanity of the American people and the very survival of our species are at stake.  Knowledge is indeed power, even and especially against mental pathology.  Our collective knowledge can make a difference: in an ecological system, every action, word, and thought contributes to the whole.  We can together make the necessary difference in 27 days.

Here again is our joint statement:

FATE OF AMERICA

FATE OF HUMANITY

Panelists of the National Press Club conference, “The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership,” have issued the following collective statement:

National Press Club Conference Statement

This election comes at a most important turning point in the nation’s history.  

For these reasons, top national security experts and leading mental health experts came together as never before, on September 27, 2024, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, to participate in an unprecedented conference.

The theme was, “The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership,” organized by the World Mental Health Coalition and led by Dr. Bandy Lee.

The experts feel it is most important to inform the country of the conclusions they collectively reached:

·       Mental fitness is a medical issue, not a political one.

·       The immense powers of the presidency require that anyone elected to that office be mentally fit.

·       In the Nuclear Age, a president must understand that there is no security without mutual security.

·       Fitness for duty and dangerousness are different evaluations than diagnosis of mental illness.

·       Donald Trump has demonstrated signs that may make him unsuitable and dangerous for the White House.

The experts tackled how our country is governed, by whom our country is led, and whether the institutions of our democracy are sufficiently resilient and self-correcting to meet the dangers and challenges of our time.

We urge all Americans to watch the 1.5-hour video summary of the conference, at DangerousCase.org.

We urge all Americans to ponder, as each of us had to do, why we all decided to come together for this singularly important gathering at the National Press Club at this critical time and decided to jointly endorse this urgent statement.

Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., Stephen Xenakis, M.D., et al.

Richard Painter, Esq., Claire Finkelstein, J.D., Ph.D., et al.

Here are our eminent panelists’ full speeches—pithy, intense, and still less than five minutes each. Each could been a keynote.  We start with Attys. Ralph Nader and Richard Painter:

All the sugarcoating rhetoric in the world or the suppression of vital information will not change the fact that the most critical issue of the Trump era is his mental unfitness—and all the damage he can do to humankind in an attempt to hide that unfitness (including seeking a second U.S. presidency). This is why our landmark Conference, bringing together renowned mental health experts with top national security experts at the National Press Club, was a singularly important event. Therefore, even though many will be vying for your attention at this time, I urge you to spend a moment to digest this important information. It is not a lot of actions that we need, but the right ones, and right ones come from right understanding. The conference summary video is here.  The book that was released at the conference is here.  The conference website will have regular updates.  Please continue to support our getting our word out, for, as our Conference revealed, we will not be able to endure another dangerously unfit presidency in this very dangerous world!