Moving past “duty to warn” to “duty to protect” takes the discussion from an insider perspective to something we can all agree on and share without having to subscribe to a particular label (“psychopath”, “sociopath”, “cult leader”, etc.). We all have a duty to protect ourselves, our families and even our neighbors flying upside-down flags.
Hello, I'd like to suggest looking into mental health disqualifiers for military services. Personality disorder is one of the main ones listed! Combine this with all the other forms of mental illness you have on him. If they disqualify everyone else they should disqualify him as Commander In Chief of our military! Also he shouldn't have access to classified documents, briefings, information etc based on his 34 felonies and previous violations of taking them with him after office! Thanks for today's event.
Thanks, Bandy, for the very important work you are doing. I’m looking forward to reading your latest book on the Trump contagion. What we need is a national movement to strengthen our democracy, to create a progressive society that reflects our highest ideals.
Great session! My thought was to quote your detailed experience, Bandy, to Merhan, re previous cases with assessments, behaviors, restraints, punishments and results as examples of need of restraints with violent behaviors and mental instability.
Feedback re draft statements for Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, New York State Justice Juan Merchan, news release, and op-ed submission:
- Consider presenting your primary comments for Bragg and Merchan in “conversational,” layman's terms, supplemented for them with an addendum for more technical information, including much of your current draft paragraphs 2 (standardized, evidence-based risk assessment tools) and 3 (Foucalt quote).
- Perhaps assume that Bragg and Merchan are going to recommend/order generally as you yourselves recommend and then that your messages are offering muscular, even empathetic support for the fraught, momentous decisions they must make.
- Ask yourselves in preparing your Bragg and Merchan messages: How and what can we communicate that, when received by them, they’ll think or feel: “Yes! This is the kind of information and support I need!”
- Determine the most impactful way to identify/name yourself as a group to optimize chances for your messages to be seen directly by Bragg and Merchan or their trusted staff advisers. Include that as sender on the envelope you will mail to try to optimize the chance your messages will get directly to Bragg and Merchan. Send by certified or appropriate delivery to ensure someone has signed for receipt.
- Determine whether it’s optimal to send/release all 4 communications simultaneously or to hold the news release and op-ed submission for possible use post-sentencing. By delaying release of the news release and op-ed submission, should Bragg/Merchan recommend/order generally as you recommend and then experience extreme MAGA blowback, you then could provide publicly muscular, professional affirmation of their decisions. Further, if all were released simultaneously, Bragg and Merchan might feel you’re trying to put outside pressure on them. Additionally, public new release/op-ed messaging during this pre-sentencing period might prompt premature MAGA public blowback before sentencing, possibly compromising the sentencing mandates. There might be arguments for releasing all simultaneously. I can’t see them clearly at this moment.
- Contents of news release and op-ed submission can be generally the same as the “conversational” letters to Bragg and Merchan, customized and adapted for their specific audiences and for timing of their release.
NOTE: I am a retired former journalist and corporate communications professional. Should you request any assistance in crafting and editing your messages, I’m pleased to assist. The commenter during the Zoom meeting with professional experience as a publicist appeared a good resource as well.
GENERAL, “CONVERSATIONAL” LETTER TO BRAGG AND MERCHAN (customizing slightly as needed for their separate, distinct roles in the process):
1) Introduce yourselves and your qualifications.
2) Assert your high-level conclusions re Trump — e.g., severely mentally impaired and a continuing danger specifically to the many people he has threatened personally and generally (if not existentially) to the U.S. and global publics.
3) Summarize your high-level recommendations:
- (immediate?) restraint by incarceration up to legally permitted limits as a public safety protection
- comprehensive mental and physical evaluation, including MRI brain imaging; if needed, hospitalization up to 30 days for that; impartial panel of experts to receive evaluation and monitor his rehabiliation progress and dangerousness
3) Cite your primary examples of Trump's dangerous words and actions — e.g.:
- deadly mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic, based on his motivations and factors of his perceived political benefit, ignorance, hubris, and delusion;
- instigating the Jan. 6, 2021, deadly, injurious insurrection;
- harming and undermining our nation’s highly reliable election system by baselessly (and delusionally?) in advance predicting fraud should he lose in 2016, 2020, and 2024; and falsely (and delusionally?) asserting that the 2020 election was stolen from him — beginning post-election in November 2020 and continuing today, despite mountains of evidence contrary evidence, including analysis of a fair election from close 2020 campaign advisers and his high-level government appointees;
- being adjudged civilly liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and for repeatedly harming her through defamatio;
- expressing innumerable threats to groups and individuals, including parties performing legal roles in his trial(s) and involving his other criminal investigations and indictments, such as saying the FBI was planning to assassinate him when gathering evidence in case where he’s charged with illegally retaining classified documents and obstruction of justice;
- undermining and steadily eroding and harming our rule of law by basely claiming that civil claims, criminal charges, judgments, and convictions are politically motivated “witch hunts” and by repeated violations of gag orders during his criminal trial.
4) Cite your observations of evidences of his severe mental impairments — e.g.,
- wholly unrepentant for his legion of offenses;
- without restraint in expressing dangerous words and actions and effectively encouraging others to act violently on his grievances;
- psychopathy and example?
- malignant narcissism and example?
- delusions and example?
- messianic? And example?
- other disorder?
- other disorder?
- other disorder?
Closing: Empathize with Bragg, Merchan, noting that you have done soul-searching regarding your own professional obligations regarding warning of Trump’s mental unfitness and danger and in cases faced retribution and threats for choosing to act on your duty to warn. Thank them for their dutiful administration of their roles on this fraught matter of historical importance and national and global public safety.
APPENDIX TO BRAGG AND MERCHAN:
All the more detailed and technical information you believe relevant to bolster your conversational conclusions and recommendations.
Hi! Remember to let Thom Hartman, Chauncey Devega, Democracy Now, Bill Press and radio shows/podcasts that
you, and other leading psychiatrists have been on!
Also, you might want to include "Shrinking Trump" podcast & Mary Trump, Although if I remember correctly, she has never interviewed leading mental health experts on her podcasts....even though you interviewed her via World Mental Health Coalition! Media should never have made her more important then actual, leading mental health experts like yourself! The corruption & complicity of our media is beyond sickening!
I hope that you & all of us aware, will continue to make everyone aware of the need for Fitness for Duty Exams and/or Mental Capacity Exams for ALL political candidates, politicians, judges etc! Ethics reform will do nothing, as long as fascist psychopaths,sociopaths, pathological liars, malignant narcissists, sadists etc remain in power in politics!
Thank you for including us & allowing us to contribute to the risk assessment of donald Trump! You're allowing our voices to be heard, and that means so very much!
Thank you so much for taking this opportunity to provide your assessment to the Court. On documenting the link between Trump's behavior and violence triggered in his followers, in addition to listing attacks that have occurred, it might be useful to consult Dr. Peter Simi, an expert on right-wing extremism, who testified at the Colorado 14th Amendment trial which found Trump responsible for inciting the Jan 6 insurrection. In his testimony he shows in granular detail how, over many months, Trump's rhetoric, tweets and behavior incited a violent or pre-violent response in members of armed right-wing extremist who eventually became the MAGA army that stormed the Capitol. The same response may be happening in unknown numbers of lone wolves who are listening closely to everything Trump says and does.
The entire 6 day trial and appeal is on C-SPAN, Dr. Simi's testimony starts here on Day 2:
Thank you, Dr. Lee, for the Zoom video recording of Saturday's symposium, which was beautifully led by yourself, and excellently supported by all of the participants. In fact, to a broad mind, the forensic and mental health slopes have been formidably navigated, bringing both scholarship and practicality equally to the fore. May your efforts-and our joint efforts-resound with success in regard to the current crises involving the former president of the USA! Because of the mystique surrounding top echelons of power, often such efforts as the current ones, led by psychiatrist and psychologist thought leaders in this case, may often have unheralded success. This may indeed be in consequence of more legal delays, but it is also utilized undercover to corral the larger group element following the chief perpetrator(s) into the same containment as their great leader(s), most of whom, however, may actually view the situation as the fairer, gentler, more objective way out of their mass mental health predicament. Also, family members may now be unrelenting in grinding in the line of very clear public justification and total avoidance of responsibility, in order to absolutely guarantee the very same legal and psychiatric processing. All the same, these are the dynamics at play, regardless of forthright or undercover processing to eventual full containment. This continually supports a line of unflappable, oriental optimism in the fabric, design and intent of the proposed interventions.
Per Ben Wittes of Lawfare, no psychiatric evaluation is expected. Apparently, such an evaluation usually is done at the request of one of the two parties, and neither the defense or the prosecution has any plans to act on one.
I appreciate all the effort you and your colleagues have been trying to do from the beginning with the Trump Contagion. As a lay person, I personally witnessed Trump's impact on Gary, Indiana in the late 1990s during his casino project there. He devastated the trades there personally and devastated their businesses. And as you note, he continues to exponentially escalate. As for the risk assessment, public education needs to be made broadly available to the public. Because this will likely be made public, please consider directing people to a source for greater education for the lay person. Because at this late date, it is ultimately the voters who will have the final means to keep him out of office. Please consider this alongside your plans with the risk assessment process. My contact with ordinary people is that they don't have a clue about any of this! And yet, they also know something is very wrong!
Moving past “duty to warn” to “duty to protect” takes the discussion from an insider perspective to something we can all agree on and share without having to subscribe to a particular label (“psychopath”, “sociopath”, “cult leader”, etc.). We all have a duty to protect ourselves, our families and even our neighbors flying upside-down flags.
Hello, I'd like to suggest looking into mental health disqualifiers for military services. Personality disorder is one of the main ones listed! Combine this with all the other forms of mental illness you have on him. If they disqualify everyone else they should disqualify him as Commander In Chief of our military! Also he shouldn't have access to classified documents, briefings, information etc based on his 34 felonies and previous violations of taking them with him after office! Thanks for today's event.
Thanks, Bandy, for the very important work you are doing. I’m looking forward to reading your latest book on the Trump contagion. What we need is a national movement to strengthen our democracy, to create a progressive society that reflects our highest ideals.
Yes. First you all need to get
60 in the senate. Take the house and keep the WH. Then there is work to do.
I honestly believe he will be pulled off the trials with severe dementia this summer. Never to be seen again. It’s not just a hope
I truly believe that. The two psychologists that have the podcast ‘shrinking trump’ say everyday now is his best day 🫣😳
Great session! My thought was to quote your detailed experience, Bandy, to Merhan, re previous cases with assessments, behaviors, restraints, punishments and results as examples of need of restraints with violent behaviors and mental instability.
Feedback re draft statements for Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, New York State Justice Juan Merchan, news release, and op-ed submission:
- Consider presenting your primary comments for Bragg and Merchan in “conversational,” layman's terms, supplemented for them with an addendum for more technical information, including much of your current draft paragraphs 2 (standardized, evidence-based risk assessment tools) and 3 (Foucalt quote).
- Perhaps assume that Bragg and Merchan are going to recommend/order generally as you yourselves recommend and then that your messages are offering muscular, even empathetic support for the fraught, momentous decisions they must make.
- Ask yourselves in preparing your Bragg and Merchan messages: How and what can we communicate that, when received by them, they’ll think or feel: “Yes! This is the kind of information and support I need!”
- Determine the most impactful way to identify/name yourself as a group to optimize chances for your messages to be seen directly by Bragg and Merchan or their trusted staff advisers. Include that as sender on the envelope you will mail to try to optimize the chance your messages will get directly to Bragg and Merchan. Send by certified or appropriate delivery to ensure someone has signed for receipt.
- Determine whether it’s optimal to send/release all 4 communications simultaneously or to hold the news release and op-ed submission for possible use post-sentencing. By delaying release of the news release and op-ed submission, should Bragg/Merchan recommend/order generally as you recommend and then experience extreme MAGA blowback, you then could provide publicly muscular, professional affirmation of their decisions. Further, if all were released simultaneously, Bragg and Merchan might feel you’re trying to put outside pressure on them. Additionally, public new release/op-ed messaging during this pre-sentencing period might prompt premature MAGA public blowback before sentencing, possibly compromising the sentencing mandates. There might be arguments for releasing all simultaneously. I can’t see them clearly at this moment.
- Contents of news release and op-ed submission can be generally the same as the “conversational” letters to Bragg and Merchan, customized and adapted for their specific audiences and for timing of their release.
NOTE: I am a retired former journalist and corporate communications professional. Should you request any assistance in crafting and editing your messages, I’m pleased to assist. The commenter during the Zoom meeting with professional experience as a publicist appeared a good resource as well.
GENERAL, “CONVERSATIONAL” LETTER TO BRAGG AND MERCHAN (customizing slightly as needed for their separate, distinct roles in the process):
1) Introduce yourselves and your qualifications.
2) Assert your high-level conclusions re Trump — e.g., severely mentally impaired and a continuing danger specifically to the many people he has threatened personally and generally (if not existentially) to the U.S. and global publics.
3) Summarize your high-level recommendations:
- (immediate?) restraint by incarceration up to legally permitted limits as a public safety protection
- comprehensive mental and physical evaluation, including MRI brain imaging; if needed, hospitalization up to 30 days for that; impartial panel of experts to receive evaluation and monitor his rehabiliation progress and dangerousness
3) Cite your primary examples of Trump's dangerous words and actions — e.g.:
- deadly mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic, based on his motivations and factors of his perceived political benefit, ignorance, hubris, and delusion;
- instigating the Jan. 6, 2021, deadly, injurious insurrection;
- harming and undermining our nation’s highly reliable election system by baselessly (and delusionally?) in advance predicting fraud should he lose in 2016, 2020, and 2024; and falsely (and delusionally?) asserting that the 2020 election was stolen from him — beginning post-election in November 2020 and continuing today, despite mountains of evidence contrary evidence, including analysis of a fair election from close 2020 campaign advisers and his high-level government appointees;
- being adjudged civilly liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and for repeatedly harming her through defamatio;
- expressing innumerable threats to groups and individuals, including parties performing legal roles in his trial(s) and involving his other criminal investigations and indictments, such as saying the FBI was planning to assassinate him when gathering evidence in case where he’s charged with illegally retaining classified documents and obstruction of justice;
- undermining and steadily eroding and harming our rule of law by basely claiming that civil claims, criminal charges, judgments, and convictions are politically motivated “witch hunts” and by repeated violations of gag orders during his criminal trial.
4) Cite your observations of evidences of his severe mental impairments — e.g.,
- wholly unrepentant for his legion of offenses;
- without restraint in expressing dangerous words and actions and effectively encouraging others to act violently on his grievances;
- psychopathy and example?
- malignant narcissism and example?
- delusions and example?
- messianic? And example?
- other disorder?
- other disorder?
- other disorder?
Closing: Empathize with Bragg, Merchan, noting that you have done soul-searching regarding your own professional obligations regarding warning of Trump’s mental unfitness and danger and in cases faced retribution and threats for choosing to act on your duty to warn. Thank them for their dutiful administration of their roles on this fraught matter of historical importance and national and global public safety.
APPENDIX TO BRAGG AND MERCHAN:
All the more detailed and technical information you believe relevant to bolster your conversational conclusions and recommendations.
Robert J. Moore
Columbus, Ohio
robertjamesmr75@gmail.com
614.563.9691
Hi! Remember to let Thom Hartman, Chauncey Devega, Democracy Now, Bill Press and radio shows/podcasts that
you, and other leading psychiatrists have been on!
Also, you might want to include "Shrinking Trump" podcast & Mary Trump, Although if I remember correctly, she has never interviewed leading mental health experts on her podcasts....even though you interviewed her via World Mental Health Coalition! Media should never have made her more important then actual, leading mental health experts like yourself! The corruption & complicity of our media is beyond sickening!
I hope that you & all of us aware, will continue to make everyone aware of the need for Fitness for Duty Exams and/or Mental Capacity Exams for ALL political candidates, politicians, judges etc! Ethics reform will do nothing, as long as fascist psychopaths,sociopaths, pathological liars, malignant narcissists, sadists etc remain in power in politics!
Thank you for including us & allowing us to contribute to the risk assessment of donald Trump! You're allowing our voices to be heard, and that means so very much!
Hi! Also reach out to actors/activists Rob Reiner, Mark Hamill, etc!
Wonderful interview. Thank you so much brand lee and others.
Liz Cheney comes to
Mind after this. ‘There will
Come a Day when Donald Trump is gone and your dishonor will remain’
everyone who won’t publish your reviews. Ousts you out etc….. we know they are
Fearful of Retribution
But they will be sorry and their dishonour will
Remain and they won’t be able to say they didn’t stand back.
Thank you so much for taking this opportunity to provide your assessment to the Court. On documenting the link between Trump's behavior and violence triggered in his followers, in addition to listing attacks that have occurred, it might be useful to consult Dr. Peter Simi, an expert on right-wing extremism, who testified at the Colorado 14th Amendment trial which found Trump responsible for inciting the Jan 6 insurrection. In his testimony he shows in granular detail how, over many months, Trump's rhetoric, tweets and behavior incited a violent or pre-violent response in members of armed right-wing extremist who eventually became the MAGA army that stormed the Capitol. The same response may be happening in unknown numbers of lone wolves who are listening closely to everything Trump says and does.
The entire 6 day trial and appeal is on C-SPAN, Dr. Simi's testimony starts here on Day 2:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?531511-1/president-trump-14th-amendment-hearing-colorado-day-2-part-1
Thank you, Dr. Lee, for the Zoom video recording of Saturday's symposium, which was beautifully led by yourself, and excellently supported by all of the participants. In fact, to a broad mind, the forensic and mental health slopes have been formidably navigated, bringing both scholarship and practicality equally to the fore. May your efforts-and our joint efforts-resound with success in regard to the current crises involving the former president of the USA! Because of the mystique surrounding top echelons of power, often such efforts as the current ones, led by psychiatrist and psychologist thought leaders in this case, may often have unheralded success. This may indeed be in consequence of more legal delays, but it is also utilized undercover to corral the larger group element following the chief perpetrator(s) into the same containment as their great leader(s), most of whom, however, may actually view the situation as the fairer, gentler, more objective way out of their mass mental health predicament. Also, family members may now be unrelenting in grinding in the line of very clear public justification and total avoidance of responsibility, in order to absolutely guarantee the very same legal and psychiatric processing. All the same, these are the dynamics at play, regardless of forthright or undercover processing to eventual full containment. This continually supports a line of unflappable, oriental optimism in the fabric, design and intent of the proposed interventions.
Per Ben Wittes of Lawfare, no psychiatric evaluation is expected. Apparently, such an evaluation usually is done at the request of one of the two parties, and neither the defense or the prosecution has any plans to act on one.
I appreciate all the effort you and your colleagues have been trying to do from the beginning with the Trump Contagion. As a lay person, I personally witnessed Trump's impact on Gary, Indiana in the late 1990s during his casino project there. He devastated the trades there personally and devastated their businesses. And as you note, he continues to exponentially escalate. As for the risk assessment, public education needs to be made broadly available to the public. Because this will likely be made public, please consider directing people to a source for greater education for the lay person. Because at this late date, it is ultimately the voters who will have the final means to keep him out of office. Please consider this alongside your plans with the risk assessment process. My contact with ordinary people is that they don't have a clue about any of this! And yet, they also know something is very wrong!