The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump

I love a parade! Saturday, in New York City, a parade took place that did not include marching bands, floats, drum and bugle corps, beauty queens, jugglers and clowns. Why, that's just plain crazy. In a way it was.According to various New York newspapers, the so-called parade was organized by a group named "Duty to Warn" and included about 125 psychologists and mental health professionals, turns out there were clowns after all, marching up and down the sidewalks of Broadway dressed in black and wearing red plastic strips around their necks reading "Danger."Their marching mission? To inform, in their opinion, that President Trump is mentally unfit to be President Trump.That's right. Or in this case, that's left.The psychologists, mental health professionals and other members of "Duty to Warn'' which is also a political action committee, cites the 25th Amendment which the group claims put in place the rules for removing a president from office.Turns out, in the 25th there is a constitutional clause allowing presidents to be ousted when their cabinet decides they are "Unable to discharge the powers and duties" of their job. Sounds like the same clause used for Cleveland Browns quarterbacks. Harry Segal, a Cornell University psychologist and marcher, said: "We can sense the power of Trump's underlying fear that he is worthless and weak by how intensely he resists and retaliated against any criticism. No matter how minor, he can't let anything go."Minor? This event was so minor the President of the free world and tweets did not even respond by using his twit wit. Still, it was major. HALFTIME SHOWThere will be no "Hogan's Heroes" for Cleveland Browns fans this season as the Kizer returns. Now, for some NFL teams that would either be addition by subtraction or subtraction by addition. For the Browns? It's subtraction by subtraction.Anyway, "Duty to Warn" founder, Baltimore based psychologist, John Gartner, has also formed a political action committee, the 25th Amendment PAC, that will fund candidates willing to pass the bill that would allow Congress to evaluate the president's mental and physical health.Hmmm … I thought that was CNN's job.The proposed legislation, HR 1987, or the Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity Act, has already gained the support of 31 Democrats in Congress, though it's unlikely any Republicans in Congress not named John McCain would lend their John McClain, err, Hancock to it right now.By the way, Gartner started a Change.org petition for mental health professionals to declare Trump mentally ill. The petition has more than 60,000 signatures. No word on how many of the signatures were from patients of the mental health professionals or cast members of "Saturday Night Live."Gartner said licensed psychologists have used concrete, observable traits to determine President Trump has a pervasive pattern of exploiting and violating the rights of others. Gartner claimed the evaluations are based on President Trump's history, his statements and documented quotes of those close to him.James Gillian, a licensed psychologist of 25 years, has analyzed President Trump's statements for indications of danger for his book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" a book with 27 expert psychiatrists analyzing President Trump's behavior.Wow! You know what that means? It means Gillian will sell at least 27 copies of his book.Here is the this about that. In 1964 when Fact magazine published the article "The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater." The magazine polled 1,189 psychiatrists about American Senator Barry Goldwater and whether he was fit to be president.The editor, Ralph Ginzburg, was sued for libel in Goldwater v. Ginzburg where Candidate Goldwater won $75,000 (approximately $579,000 today) in damages. But and there's always a but. But thanks to all that then, now "The Goldwater Rule" is the informal name given to Section 7 in the American Psychiatric Association's Principles of Medical Ethics, which states it is unethical for psychiatrists to give a professional opinion about public figures they have not examined in person, and from whom they have not obtained consent to discuss their mental health in public statements.Yikes! If trained and licensed professional psychologist cannot voice their professional opinion about public and elected figures then it is left up to people like me.And that's just plain nuts!Register columnist Chuck Hoefert