Caribbean Filmmaker Paul Pryce's Original TV Series 'Serpents Mouth' Wins 'Big Pitch' Awards At Toronto Film Festival

Paul Pryce (PRNewsfoto/Pryce Entertainment)

Trinidadian-born, New York based actor/filmmaker Paul Pryce has won two major awards for his original television series Serpents Mouth from the Caribbean Tales Incubator Film Lab, 'The Big Pitch' at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

The Caribbean Tales Incubator Film Lab allows Caribbean producers to pitch their prospective television projects to industry insiders during the Breakfast at TIFF series at the TIFF Lightbox, held this year on Sunday, September 9.

Pryce's pitch for Serpents Mouth was voted Best Pitch by a panel of judges and received the People's Choice Award from an audience of media and industry professionals at the event.  

Serpents Mouth is a television adaptation of Pryce's 14-minute proof of concept film The Deliverer which will have its World Premiere on Saturday, September 15 at 9pm at The Royal Cinema, downtown Toronto. 

The Deliverer is part of the Caribbean Tales Film Festival, a showcase for Caribbean films presented during TIFF from September 5 through 20.  

The Deliverer was written and produced by Pryce who also appears in the leading role. His longtime collaborator, Ron Morales directs. Their last film Come Out, Come Out, had its World Premiere at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

Pryce holds an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama. He appeared in Marvel's Jessica Jones, A+E's Unforgettable as well as in plays across the United States, before launching Paul Pryce Entertainment to produce his own content.

The Deliverer is inspired by real events. Set in Trinidad, it tells the story of a fisherman who fails to stop a corrupt Government from destroying his village to make way for an oil refinery. He eventually brokers a deal with a drug runner to traffic cocaine and raise the funds to bribe the government into aborting their plan.

Also, in development for Pryce is a romantic-drama titled Between Us, a feature film set in New York Cityand Korea, which is a collaboration with actor/filmmaker Hyojin Park.

⏩ Following Toronto, The Deliverer will have its Caribbean premiere at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, followed by its Ontario premiere at the Montreal International Black Film Festival, both later in September.

'Serpents Mouth' - Still from trailer

Serpents Mouth - Series Synopsis:

(Via thedeliverermovie.com)

"Serpents Mouth is a crime drama with elements of thriller and neo-western set in the Caribbean. Imagine the morally ambiguous characters of Vince Gilligan's BREAKING BAD and Netflix’s NARCOS but set in conflicting dual worlds as in Steven Soderbergh's 'the war on drugs' classic TRAFFIC. 

This television series follows Joseph Chike, a righteous-minded Trinidadian fisherman on a hunger strike, as he protests a corrupt government forcing his village off ancestral land to make way for an oil refinery. 

When Joseph loses the support of the village he brokers a deal with Shane Khan a mysterious Venezuelan drug dealer to raise a hefty bribe to pay off a power mongering government official. 

He must traffic cocaine across Serpents Mouth: the perilous body of water that separates Trinidad and Venezuela. 

With a fraternal partnership forged in crime, Joseph and Shane build a thriving drug cartel as Joseph struggles to keep his family together and maintain peace in the village. With attacks from rival cartels and terrorist groups even political blackmail being rampant, Joseph must contend with Shane’s dark past as he navigates this criminal underworld while salvaging what’s left of his morality. 

Serpents Mouth unfolds in a remote fishing village in Trinidad and Tobago, a lawless refuge in Tucupita, Venezuela and across the treacherous strait of - Serpents Mouth."

'Serpents Mouth' - Still from trailer

About The Deliverer:
(Via thedeliverermovie.com)

• The feature length screenplay for The Deliverer, from which SERPENTS MOUTH – a television series has been adapted, was a 2017 Sundance Institute Screenwriting Finalist.

• The character of Shane Khan is inspired by real life Caribbean drug kingpin Nankissoon ‘Dole Chadee’ Boodram. He along with eight of his men were executed over four days by the government for the massacre of a family of four in Trinidad during the 1990s. It was rumored that Chadee had a number of high level government officials facilitating his drug trade. 

• The Joseph Chike character and Chike Village are inspired by an activist who underwent a hunger strike and led a rural community in Trinidad in protest of a government funded highway projected to displace them of their land and destroy the surrounding mangrove. 

• With the current humanitarian crisis unfolding in Venezuela following the collapse of their economy there has been an influx of refugees fleeing to neighboring Trinidad and an emerging trade where drugs and contraband are being bartered for food, diapers and soap in lieu of cash.

Paul Pryce

About Paul Pryce: 
(Via thedeliverermovie.com)

Notable Television credits as an actor include Netflix original series Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Unforgettable (A+E). Theatre: Hamlet with Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti; Yale Repertory Theatre, Pericles; Prince of Tyre and Julius Caesar. As a writer producer his debut film; Come Out, Come Out (World Premiere; Cannes Short Film Corner 2017). 

His feature length screenplay for The Deliverer was a shortlisted finalist at the 2017 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab. An alum of the Yale School of Drama. Paul was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago.

Filmography (IMDb): S0.CI3.TY, Unforgettable, Jessica Jones, Snapshots, Missing 

SOURCE: Pryce Entertainment

The Deliverer - Trailer:

Dallas Holocaust Museum Presents Anne Frank Exhibit Addressing Current-Day Issues of Identity, Exclusion, and Discrimination

Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank - Poster (image via the Dallas Holocaust Museum website)

The Dallas Holocaust Museum will host the Texas debut of a year-long, newly created special exhibition opening September 13th called Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank.

Let Me Be Myself tells the story of Anne Frank in a modern way, addressing current-day issues of identity, exclusion, and discrimination. Anne's experiences connect deeply with today's youth as they grow and learn that all actions and words matter.

⏩ This exhibition will also feature the U.S. premiere of a Virtual Reality (VR) component from Force Field VR and Oculus Studios that allows the visitor to travel back in time to Anne Frank's hiding place, the "Secret Annex." In a one-of-a-kind experience, visitors will be drawn into the world in which Anne Frank lived—in the shadows of genocide and war.

Free with admission, VR tours are available in 15-minute sessions from 1 to 3 p.m. daily, but must be booked online. Participants cannot be pregnant, infirm, have pre-existing binocular vision abnormalities or psychiatric disorders, or suffer from heart or other serious medical conditions.

Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank is an exhibition visitors will not soon forget. The exhibition is available in seven languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese Dutch, Portuguese, and Chinese-simplified). 

"Anne Frank's story is timeless and beloved, cherished for its universal truths and relevance to all those who face discrimination and exclusion in their daily lives in the 21st century," said Mary Pat Higgins, Dallas Holocaust Museum President and CEO. "Her optimism during one of the darkest times in history has proven to be an enduring inspiration for audiences across the generations."

Let Me Be Myself was developed by the Anne Frank House and is sponsored in North America by the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect. Exhibition Sponsors: Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District, Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, Fox Rothschild, LLP, Texas Instruments, KPMG, Omni Dallas Hotel.

About the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance:

The Dallas Holocaust Museum's mission is to teach the history of the Holocaust and advance human rights to combat prejudice, hatred, and indifference. 

⏩ For more information, visit DallasHolocaustMuseum.org.

SOURCE: Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance

Dallas Holocaust Museum Related Story:

• Reformed neo-Nazi Christian Picciolini to Share His Story at Dallas Holocaust Museum Upstander Speaker Series Event

New Film Exposes America's Forgotten History of Scientific Racism

Still from the trailer for "Human Zoos"

In the early 1900s, thousands of indigenous peoples were put on public display in America, according to a new film from Discovery Institute. Often touted as "missing links" between man and apes, these native peoples were demeaned, harassed, and used as props to promote Social Darwinism and scientific racism.

Now a new award-winning documentary tells their heartbreaking story. It is called Human Zoos.

"Too often people think that ideas don't matter," says Dr. John West, the director and writer of the film. "Human Zoos shows otherwise, investigating how false ideas about science can lead to false ideas about our fellow human beings. The impact of these false ideas on human lives can be devastating."

The Oregon Documentary Film Festival calls Human Zoos "a racially charged story that will mesmerize you... You have to see it to believe it, and then wonder why they didn't teach you this chapter in history class."

Human Zoos exposes the shocking history of scientific racism in America and reveals how some people today in the so-called "Alt-right" are still drawing on Social Darwinism in order to dehumanize others. 

⏩ The film also explores the sinister history of eugenics, the effort to breed humans based on Darwinian principles.

Still from the trailer for "Human Zoos"

The 55-minute documentary features Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Pamela Newkirk, author of Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga; California State University historian Richard Weikart; Catholic University of America philosopher Jay Richards; and Nigerian scholar Olufemi Oluniyi.

⏩ Human Zoos has already won four awards, including Best Editing from the Oregon Documentary Film Festival and Best in Show from the Cinema World Fest Awards in Toronto. In addition, the film was named an official selection of the Africa World Documentary Film Festival and the Anthem Film Festival.

Still from the trailer for "Human Zoos"

Synopsis:
(Via Human Zoos)

"In September 1906, nearly a quarter of a million people flocked to the Bronx Zoo in New York City. Many came for a startling new exhibit in the Zoo’s Monkey House. But it wasn’t a monkey they came to see. It was a man. His name was Ota Benga. A pygmy from the African Congo, Ota Benga was exhibited in a cage along with monkeys.

Benga was not alone. He was one of literally thousands of indigenous peoples who were put on public display throughout America in the early twentieth century. Often touted as “missing links” between man and apes and as examples of the “lower” stages of human evolution, these native peoples were harassed, demeaned, and jeered at. Their public display was arranged with the enthusiastic support of the most elite members of the scientific community, and it was promoted uncritically by America’s leading newspapers.

Human Zoos tells the horrifying story of this effort to dehumanize entire classes of people in the name of science. It will also tell the story of the courageous African-American ministers in New York City who tried to stop what was going on. Finally, the documentary will expose how some organizations are still trying to cover up their involvement in what happened and re-write the past.


The documentary features interviews with a number of experts, including Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Pamela Newkirk, author of Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga."

SOURCE: Discovery Institute

The Trailer:

TV's First Interracial Kiss Launched A Lifelong Career In Activism

Nervous about how southern television viewers would react, NBC executives closely monitored the filming of the kiss between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner. (U.S. Air Force)

On Nov. 22, 1968, an episode of “Star Trek” titled “Plato’s Stepchildren” broadcast the first interracial kiss on American television.

The episode’s plot is bizarre: Aliens who worship the Greek philosopher Plato use telekinetic powers to force the Enterprise crew to sing, dance and kiss. At one point, the aliens compel Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) to embrace. Each character tries to resist, but eventually Kirk tilts Uhura back and the two kiss as the aliens lasciviously look on.

The smooch is not a romantic one. But in 1968 to show a black woman kissing a white man was a daring move.

The episode aired just one year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loving v. Virginia decision struck down state laws against interracial marriage. At the time, Gallup polls showed that fewer than 20 percent of Americans approved of such relationships.

Hear Prof. Delmont discuss this topic on our Heat and Light podcast

As a historian of civil rights and media, I’ve been fascinated by the woman at the center of this landmark television moment. Casting Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Uhura created possibilities for more creative and socially relevant “Star Trek” storylines.

But just as significant is Nichols’s off-screen activism. She leveraged her role on “Star Trek” to become a recruiter for NASA, where she pushed for change in the space program. Her career arc shows how diverse casting on the screen can have a profound impact in the real world, too.

‘A triumph of modern-day TV’ 
In 1966, “Star Trek” creator Gene Rodenberry decided to cast Nichelle Nichols to play Lieutenant Uhura, a translator and communications officer from the United States of Africa. In doing so, he made Nichols the first African-American woman to have a continuing co-starring role on television.

The African-American press was quick to heap praise on Nichols’s pioneering role.

The Norfolk Journal and Guide hoped that it would “broaden her race’s foothold on the tube.”

The magazine Ebony featured Nichols on its January 1967 cover and described Uhura as “the first Negro astronaut, a triumph of modern-day TV over modern-day NASA.”

Yet the famous kiss between Uhura and Kirk almost never happened.

After the first season of “Star Trek” concluded in 1967, Nichols considered quitting after being offered a role on Broadway. She had started her career as a singer in New York and always dreamed of returning to the Big Apple.

But at a NAACP fundraiser in Los Angeles, she ran into Martin Luther King Jr.

Nichols would later recount their interaction.

“You must not leave,” King told her. “You have opened a door that must not be allowed to close…you changed the face of television forever…For the first time, the world sees us as we should be seen, as equals, as intelligent people.”

King went on to say that he and his family were fans of the show; she was a “hero” to his children.

With King’s encouragement, Nichols stayed on “Star Trek” for the original series’ full three-year run.

Nichols’ controversial kiss took place at the end of the third season. Nichols recalled that NBC executives closely monitored the filming because they were nervous about how Southern television stations and viewers would react.

Nichelle Nichols recounts the reaction to filming the first interracial kiss on television.

After the episode aired, the network did receive an outpouring of letters from viewers – and the majority were positive.

In 1982, Nichols would tell the Baltimore Afro-American that she was amused by the amount of attention the kiss generated, especially because her own heritage was “a blend of races that includes Egyptian, Ethiopian, Moor, Spanish, Welsh, Cherokee Indian and a ‘blond blue-eyed ancestor or two.’”

Space crusader 

But Nichols’s legacy would be defined by far more than a kiss.
After NBC canceled Star Trek in 1969, Nichols took minor acting roles on two television series, “Insight” and “The D.A.” She would also play a madame in the 1974 blaxploitation film “Truck Turner.”

She also started to dabble in activism and education. In 1975, Nichols established Women in Motion, Inc. and won several government contracts to produce educational programs related to space and science. By 1977, she had been appointed to the board of directors of the National Space Institute, a civil space advocacy organization.

That year she gave a speech at the institute’s annual meeting, “New Opportunities for the Humanization of Space, or Space: What’s in it for Me?” In it, she critiqued the lack of women and minorities in the astronaut corps, challenging NASA to “come down from your ivory tower of intellectual pursuit, because the next Einstein might have a Black face – and she’s female.”

Several of NASA’s top administrators were in the audience. They invited her to lead an astronaut recruitment program for the new space shuttle program. Soon, she packed her bags and began traveling the country, visiting high schools and colleges, speaking with professional organizations and legislators, and appearing on national television programs such as “Good Morning America.”

“The aim was to find qualified people among women and minorities, then to convince them that the opportunity was real and that it also was a duty, because this was historic,” Nichols told the Baltimore Afro-American in 1979. “I really had this sense of purpose about it myself.”

In her 1994 autobiography, “Beyond Uhura,” Nichols recalled that in the seven months before the recruitment program began, “NASA had received only 1,600 applications, including fewer than 100 from women and 35 from minority candidates.” But by the end of June 1977, “just four months after we assumed our task, 8,400 applications were in, including 1,649 from women (a 15-fold increase) and an astounding 1,000 from minorities.”

Nichols’s campaign recruited several trailblazing astronauts, including Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, Guion Bluford, the first African-American in space, and Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space.

Nichelle Nichols speaks after the Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at Los Angeles International Airport Friday in September 2012. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Relentless advocacy for inclusion 

Her advocacy for inclusion and diversity wasn’t limited to the space program.
As one of the first black women in a major television role, Nichols understood the importance of opening doors for minorities and women in entertainment.

Nichols continued to push for African-Americans to have more power in film and television.

“Until we Blacks and minorities become not only the producers, writers and directors, but the buyers and distributors, we’re not going to change anything,” she told Ebony in 1985. “Until we become industry, until we control media or at least have enough say, we will always be the chauffeurs and tap dancers.”

It’s an issue that, unfortunately, remains relevant today. In February of this year, UCLA’s annual Hollywood Diversity Report found that women and people of color continue to be underrepresented as directors and in studio board rooms. It concluded that “Hollywood studios are leaving money on the table by not developing films and TV shows with more diverse casts.”

Fifty years ago, Nichols’s kiss may have broken an important cultural barrier. But as Nichols well knows, the quest to secure opportunities for women and minorities persists to this day – an effort that requires relentless pressure.


About Today's Contributor:
Matthew Delmont, Professor of History, Arizona State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

SPYSCAPE Announces Launch Of Content Division At Toronto International Film Festival

Screengrab from the Spyscape's "Content Division" page

SPYSCAPE, the innovative consumer brand that's fast becoming the home of the secret intelligence genre, today announced the launch of its Content Division, and the appointment of former Miramax Films, Focus Features and FilmNation executive, Allison Silver, as Chief Content Officer.

SPYSCAPE's new division will have a unique focus on a single genre across multiple platforms including film, television and video-games. It will develop and produce its own content and partner on high quality productions with others.

In addition to providing finance and great secret intelligence stories, SPYSCAPE offers major added-value to its production and distribution partners through four unique advantages:

• A passionate, fast growing audience of 'superfans' of the spy genre
• An unrivaled expert network of spies, hackers and investigative journalists
• State of the art galleries and experiences to bring spy stories to life
• Glamorous spy-themed locations for premieres, parties and press events

With 75 staff across offices in Los Angeles, New York and London, SPYSCAPE's creative, commercial and technology teams have unrivaled knowledge of the spy genre, including special relationships across the secret intelligence world - from station chiefs and former heads of major international spy agencies, to top investigative journalists and renowned hackers and activists.

Additionally, SPYSCAPE will continue to build upon its existing investments in high-quality, spy-themed productions (including three John Le Carre stories: A Most Wanted Man; The Night Manager; and Our Kind of Traitor) through equity investments in Ink Factory Films and others.

SPYSCAPE announces the launch of its Content Division, and the appointment of former Miramax Films, Focus Features and FilmNation executive, Allison Silver, as Chief Content Officer.

Chief Content Officer, Allison Silver brings over 20 years experience on high-quality feature films including: Academy Award and Golden Globes winner "Brokeback Mountain", Cannes Grand Prix winner "Broken Flowers" and four Pedro Almodovar films including "Talk to Her" (winner of an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film) and "Volver". 

Most recently, Silver was EVP, Worldwide Production for FilmNation in New York City working on Academy Award winner "The King's Speech" and Academy Award nominees "The Imitation Game", "Nebraska", "The Bling Ring" and "Room" plus Pedro Almodovar's "The Skin I Live in", winner of the BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film.

About SPYSCAPE:

SPYSCAPE is an innovative consumer brand which creates education, entertainment, products and experiences that help you see the world and yourself more clearly, through the lens of spying.

SPYSCAPE was created by top architects, authors, curators, designers, developers, gamers, hackers, imagineers, investigative journalists, psychologists, spies and storytellers.

SPYSCAPE's HQ in New York City is the world's most high-tech museum, described by the New York Times as the "headquarters of our cultural fascination with the art of deception".

SOURCE: SPYSCAPE

Related Video:

Related Pictures:

SPYSCAPE (Credit: Scott Frances) 

SPYSCAPE (Credit: Scott Frances) 

SPYSCAPE (Credit: Scott Frances) 

SPYSCAPE (Credit: Scott Frances)

Thousands Of Mental Health Professionals Agree With Woodward And The New York Times Op-ed Author: Trump Is Dangerous

President Donald Trump, August 30, 2018. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear,” describes a “nervous breakdown of Trump’s presidency.” Earlier this year, Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” offered a similar portrayal.

Now, an op-ed in The New York Times by an anonymous “senior White House official” describes how deeply the troubles in this administration run and what effort is required to protect the nation.

None of this is a surprise to those of us who, 18 months ago, put together our own public service book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”

My focus as the volume’s editor was on Trump’s dangerousness because of my area of expertise in violence prevention. Approaching violence as a public health issue, I have consulted with governments and international organizations, in addition to 20 years of engaging in the individual assessment and treatment of violent offenders.

The book proceeded from an ethics conference I held at Yale, my home institution. At that meeting, my psychiatrist colleagues and I discussed balancing two essential duties of our profession. First is the duty to speak responsibly about public officials, especially as outlined in “the Goldwater rule,” which requires that we refrain from diagnosing without a personal examination and without authorization. Second is our responsibility to protect public health and safety, or our “duty to warn” in cases of danger, which usually supersedes other rules.

Our conclusion was overwhelmingly that our responsibility to society and its safety, as outlined in our ethical guidelines, overrode any etiquette owed to a public figure. That decision led to the collection of essays in the book, which includes some of the most prominent thinkers of the field including Robert J. Lifton, Judith Herman, Philip Zimbardo and two dozen others. That decision was controversial among some members of our field.

We already know a great deal about Trump’s mental state based on the voluminous information he has given through his tweets and his responses to real situations in real time. Now, this week’s credible reports support the concerns we articulated in the book beyond any doubt.

These reports are also consistent with the account I received from two White House staff members who called me in October 2017 because the president was behaving in a manner that “scared” them, and they believed he was “unraveling”. They were calling because of the book I edited.

Once I confirmed that they did not perceive the situation as an imminent danger, I referred them to the emergency room, in order not to be bound by confidentiality rules that would apply if I engaged with them as a treating physician. That would have compromised my role of educating the public.

Author Bob Woodward’s new book on Trump. (AP/Mark Lennihan)

The psychology behind the chaos 
The author of the New York Times op-ed makes clear that the conflict in the White House is not about Trump’s ideology.

The problem, the author sees, is the lack of “any discernible first principles that guide his decision making … his impulsiveness [that] results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back, and there being literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next.”

These are obviously psychological symptoms reflective of emotional compulsion, impulsivity, poor concentration, narcissism and recklessness. They are identical to those that Woodward describes in numerous examples, which he writes were met with the “stealthy machinations used by those in Trump’s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters.”

They are also consistent with the course we foresaw early in Trump’s presidency, which concerned us enough to outline it in our book. We tried to warn that his condition was worse than it appeared, would grow worse over time and would eventually become uncontainable.
What we observed were signs of mental instability – signs that would eventually play out not only in the White House, as these accounts report, but in domestic situations and in the geopolitical sphere.

There is a strong connection between immediate dangerousness – the likelihood of waging a war or launching nuclear weapons – and extended societal dangerousness – policies that force separation of children from families or the restructuring of global relations in a way that would destabilize the world.

Getting worse 
My current concern is that we are already witnessing a further unraveling of the president’s mental state, especially as the frequency of his lying increases and the fervor of his rallies intensifies.

I am concerned that his mental challenges could cause him to take unpredictable and potentially extreme and dangerous measures to distract from his legal problems.

Mental health professionals have standard procedures for evaluating dangerousness. More than a personal interview, violence potential is best assessed through past history and a structured checklist of a person’s characteristics.

These characteristics include a history of cruelty to animals or other people, risk taking, behavior suggesting loss of control or impulsivity, narcissistic personality and current mental instability. Also of concern are noncompliance or unwillingness to undergo tests or treatment, access to weapons, poor relationship with significant other or spouse, seeing oneself as a victim, lack of compassion or empathy, and lack of concern over consequences of harmful acts.

The Woodward book and the New York Times op-ed confirm many of these characteristics. The rest have been evident in Trump’s behavior outside the White House and prior to his tenure.

That the president has met not just some but all these criteria should be reason for alarm.

Other ways in which a president could be dangerous are through cognitive symptoms or lapses, since functions such as reasoning, memory, attention, language and learning are critical to the duties of a president. He has exhibited signs of decline here, too.

Furthermore, when someone displays a propensity for large-scale violence, such as by advocating violence against protesters or immigrant families, calling perpetrators of violence such as white supremacists “very fine people” or showing oneself vulnerable to manipulation by hostile foreign powers, then these things can promote a much more widespread culture of violence.

The president has already shown an alarming escalation of irrational behavior during times of distress. Others have observed him to be “unstable,” “losing a step” and “unraveling.” He is likely to enter such a state again.

Violent acts are not random events. They are end products of a long process that follow recognizable patterns. As mental health experts, we make predictions in terms of unacceptable levels of probability rather than on the basis of what is certain to happen.

Trump’s impairment is a familiar pattern to a violence expert such as myself, but given his level of severity, one does not need to be a specialist to know that he is dangerous.

President Donald Trump holds a ‘Make America Great Again’ rally in Evansville, Indiana, Aug. 30, 2018. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

What next? 

I believe Woodward’s book and the revelations in the New York Times op-ed have placed great pressure on the president. We are now entering a period when the stresses of the presidency could accelerate because of the advancing special counsel’s investigations.

The degree of Trump’s denial and resistance to the unfolding revelations, as expressed in a recent Fox interview, are telling of his fragility.

From my observations of the president over extended time via his public presentations, direct thoughts through tweets and accounts of his close associates, I believe that the question is not whether he will look for distractions, but how soon and to what degree.

At least several thousands of mental health professionals who are members of the National Coalition of Concerned Mental Health Experts share the view that the nuclear launch codes should not be in the hands of someone who exhibits such levels of mental instability.

Just as suspicion of crime should lead to an investigation, the severity of impairment that we see should lead to an evaluation, preferably with the president’s consent.

Mental impairment should be evaluated independently from criminal investigations, using medical criteria and standardized measures. A sitting president may be immune to indictments, but he is subject to the law, which is strict about public safety and the right to treatment when an individual poses a danger to the public because of mental instability. In the case of danger, the patient does not have the right to refuse, nor does the physician have the right not to take the person as a patient.

This evaluation may have been delayed, but it is still not too late. And mental health professionals have extensive experience assessing, restraining and treating individuals much like Trump – it is almost routine.

About Today's Contributor:
Bandy X. Lee, Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

⏩ This is an updated version of an article originally published earlier on September 7, 2018; it reflects new information about the author’s contact with White House staff.

New Book By Islamophobia Expert Destroys The Myth That Muslims Equal Terrorism

New book by Internationally Known Islamophobia expert tackles tough issues and urges readers to assume the best of our Muslim neighbors

We live in a time when it is almost impossible to stay informed on every issue in the news. It takes willingness and effort to go beyond the surface and biased sound bites. Todd H. Green's new book, Presumed Guilty: Why We Shouldn't Ask Muslims to Condemn Terrorism (Fortress Press 2018), serves as both a primer and an invitation for self-reflection.

A 2001 to 2007 Gallup Poll revealed that 93 percent of the world's Muslim population believed the 9/11 attacks unjustified. Another study from the Muslim Public Affairs Council found that one in three al-Qaeda terrorist plots between 9/11 and 2011 were disrupted with the aid of Muslim Americans. 

Muslims speak out against terrorism all the time. Yet, a disheartening pattern has emerged in the West whenever acts of terror occur. Almost immediately, public figures ask the same question: "Why don't Muslims speak out against terrorism?" The implication—Muslims don't speak out—is obvious.

According to Green, it really isn't a question but a condemnation, because it "wrongly assumes Islam is the driving force behind terrorism." Moreover, he says this assumption diverts our attention from unjust Western violence, preventing us from confronting our own troubling history.

Green, a religious studies professor and former advisor to the US State Department under both the Trump and Obama administrations, debunks other myths, showing how ISIS actually targets Muslims more than any other group and why politics matter more than religion in driving terrorism.

Ultimately, Green argues, "It's time to end the distractions and to spend more energy on coming to terms with unjust Western violence." Only then can we honestly assess the causes of violence, stop relying on damaging stereotypes, and begin to ask better questions of our Muslim neighbors. 

More About "Presumed Guilty: Why We Shouldn't Ask Muslims to Condemn Terrorism":

(Via Fortress Press)

All of us should condemn terrorism–whether the perpetrators are Muslim extremists, white supremacists, Marxist revolutionaries, or our own government. But it's time for us to stop asking Muslims to condemn terrorism under the assumption they are guilty of harboring terrorist sympathies or promoting violence until they prove otherwise. Renowned expert on Islamophobia Todd Green shows us how this line of questioning is riddled with false assumptions that say much more about "us" than "them."

Green offers three compelling reasons why we should stop asking Muslims to condemn terrorism:
1) The question wrongly assumes Islam is the driving force behind terrorism.
2) The question ignores the many ways Muslims already condemn terrorism.
3) The question diverts attention from unjust Western violence.

This book is an invitation for self-examination when it comes to the questions we ask of Muslims and ourselves about violence. It will open the door to asking better questions of our Muslim neighbors, questions based not on the presumption of guilt but on the promise of friendship.

⏩ Download the free Discussion Guide

About The Author:

Todd H. Green teaches at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. 

He is a sought-after speaker, giving lectures on college campuses and to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Green's work has appeared in the Huffington Post, and his expertise has been cited by the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for American Progress, the NAACP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has been interviewed by CNN, NPR, and Al Jazeera. 

He is the author of The Fear of Islam.

SOURCE: Fortress Press