W. Niederhut

Ben, Please spam your own redundant, daily anti-Biden threads. This rare thread is about RFK, Jr. and Trump-- the right wing felon RFK, Jr. doesn't dare criticize.

Jim, You're simply wrong on this one. My main thesis on this thread is that the suppression of the JFK records by the White House has been a bipartisan fiasco. Let's stop pretending that it's partisan. As much as Ben Cole and the closet Trumpsters want to use the records suppression to repeatedly attack Biden-- while simultaneous pushing the false narrative that Trump is a victim of the Deep State-- the fact remains that Trump, himself, blocked the release of the records in 2017, when they were, at long last, supposed to be released to the public. Secondary issues that I have raised are RFK, Jr.'s odd reticence about Trump's historic crimes and misconduct, and some observations and hypotheses about RFK, Jr.'s traumatic loss of his father at age 14. To my knowledge, no one else on the forum has previously raised the issue of RFK, Jr.'s serious childhood and teen traumas, and their sequelae. I have been curious about the subject ever since I studied the RFK, Jr. interviews in your documentary JFK Revisited. You, yourself, have not commented on that thread subject. As for John Cotter's truly absurd, ad hominem diatribes about psychiatry, I have now taken the time to explain his misconceptions in two detailed posts. All to no avail. In Cotter's latest diatribe he even implies that we nefarious psychiatrists subject our hapless victims to involuntary psychotherapy! It's laughable... During my psychiatric career, I occasionally had to seek court orders for involuntary hospitalizations and, more rarely, the involuntary use of anti-psychotic medications, but I can assure you and John Cotter that I never sought, nor obtained, a court order for psychotherapy! (I'm picturing myself forcefully saying to a patient in restraints, "Tell me about your mother!") 🙄 P.S. I see that Cory Santos "agrees" with your (above) inaccurate comment about this thread. Santos is the guy who recently excoriated Joe Biden, while curiously praising "Mr. George Bush of the CIA" for signing the JFK Records Act-- then neglected to answer my question about GHWB's signing statement claiming that the POTUS did not have to comply with the statues of the Act.

I disagree with Tom Tomorrow's latest derogatory depiction of RFK, Jr. here, but he nailed the bogus MAGA propaganda strategy of portraying Trump as a victim of the Deep State... 🤥

John, I didn't take the time yesterday to respond to your second inaccurate, ad hominem t-r-o-l-l post on this thread, because I didn't want to play along with your persistent hijacking of this thread about RFK, Jr. and Trump-ism. But I do want to, once again, correct your erroneous comments-- not that I expect you to learn anything. It's impossible to educate people who are firmly convinced of their own erudition. We have witnessed the same problem with your persistent delusions about immunology, vaccines, and the "horrors" of liberal democratic "full spectrum dominance" in the G-7. My responses are in red. John Cotter wrote: William, You don’t need to be a shrink of any kind to know that the families of JFK and RFK were deeply traumatised by the JFKA and RFKA – and further traumatised by other manifestations of the “Kennedy curse”. Newsflash, Dr. John. The world is full of traumatized people who have never worked through their PTSD and grief. Most people have a great deal of resistance to treatment and working through-- so they remain chronically fixated at various stages of unresolved grief. How would you, with your great wisdom, assess RFK, Jr.'s own stage of working through the loss of his father at 14? How would you assess his progress in treatment? The last thing any of these people need is the “help” of a psychiatrist who can’t even adhere to the rules of his own professional association, notwithstanding the intrinsic perversity of mainstream psychiatry. Sure thing, Dr. John. Nor do these people need effective vaccines during deadly pandemics, eh? Meanwhile, you're still, apparently, fixated on the moronic Goldwater Rule as a valid standard of malpractice? The one Kennedy scion who least needs any such help is RFK Jr, since he has courageously confronted the terrible reality of the murders of his father and uncle and publicly declared his intention to seek justice in their respects. Thanks for your expert opinion, Dr. John. My impression is that RFK, Jr. has never worked through his grief about his father's murder. He is fixated at the anger stage of unresolved grief, which is typically a defense against experiencing the vulnerability and sadness that leads to true resolution. The suggestion that RFK Jr needs the help of a shrink is utterly despicable. It typifies the worst kind of illogical and unethical psychobabble. What would such shrinkage entail? “Counselling” RFK Jr to be not courageous and to not acknowledge reality – in other words to be a coward and a l-i-a-r? This ranks as one of the most ignorant, inaccurate comments I have ever encountered on the Education Forum. The resolution of RFK, Jr.'s PTSD isn't about "counseling" and advice, other than helping him circumvent his resistance to feeling sad and vulnerable. It's about abreaction and emotional working through. Perhaps you need to have a good chat with the little green men of your imagination. They might help you to think straight. Conversing with your little green men, obviously, hasn't helped you think straight, Dr. John. So, I'll eschew your latest psychiatric advice.

Larry, Based on his townhall comments last Wednesday, RFK, Jr. has, apparently, declined to criticize Trump, in general. RFK Jr.: ‘I’m proud that President Trump likes me’ | The Hill Are you aware of any public criticisms of Trump's crimes or policy fiascos by RFK, Jr.? In the recent Krystal & Saager interview posted here by Kirk Gallaway, RFK. Jr. declined to criticize Trump, mentioning only that he had once sued Trump to block the construction of golf course in the NYC watershed area. Weak sauce, indeed, for a critique of, arguably, the worst POTUS in U.S. history.

And our RFK, Jr. fans, obviously, don't want talk about the Orange Elephant in the room. Apparently, "they're all MAGAs now." Get a clue, Ben. It's not "smart" for RFK, Jr. to refuse to criticize the white supremacist demagogue who blocked the release of the JFK records in 2017, and later orchestrated the J6 attack on Congress. It's a cop out. We can't resolve the crisis of white supremacist Trump cult fascism in America by pretending it isn't a problem.

Ben, Please post your "Biden snuff job" tropes on one of your numerous, redundant "Biden snuff job" threads. This thread is supposed to be about the 2017 Donald Trump snuff job on the JFK records, and RFK, Jr.'s curious reluctance to criticize the white supremacist demagogue who orchestrated the J6 attack on the U.S. Congress.

Jim, No response to my point about RFK, Jr. and the crucial importance of open, honest criticism of the dysfunctional Trump cult? Those guys violently attacked the U.S. Congress! Let's, at least, acknowledge that the white supremacist Trump cult, in a Hegelian sense, began as a reaction to Obama. Trump was the original Birther-- the Anti-Obama. His hardcore base today is George Wallace country-- the post-Confederate Deep South. RFK and his brother had to grab that Jim Crow beast by the horns in the early 60s-- knowing that they would alienate their own Dixiecrats. They did the right thing. I was relieved to hear RFK, Jr. quietly mention at the very end of his recent Krystal & Saager interview that he can't foresee a scenario where he would ever endorse Trump in 2024. But, IMO, he needs to say the quiet part out loud.

My wife and I were sitting out on the deck at her parent's cabin in Estes Park, Colorado last week, and I asked, "Where are all of the birds?" The deck sits in a forested area, and we used to see a wide variety of birds flying around and perching in the Ponderosa pines-- Cassin's finches, swallows, nut hatches, hawks, crows, robins, and even occasional eagles and Western Tanagers. I have noticed the same thing by my koi pond here in Denver this year. I used to see lots of sparrows, Cassin's finches, gold finches, Northern flickers, and, even herons. So, it was chilling to see this science article today. New Research Shows Over a Third of North American Birds Have Disappeared in the Past 50 Years. (nautil.us)

Jim, We can't "unite" our polarized country in a meaningful way by refusing to talk about the sociopathic Orange Elephant in America's political living room-- the right wing demagogue who organized slates of false Electors after the 2020 election, then orchestrated a violent attack on the U.S. Congress to block the certification of Biden's election. As a historian, you know all about the problems that have resulted from America's failure to talk honestly about the Civil War, the "Lost Cause" mythology, the failure of Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. We're still dealing with that failure in the U.S. And, coincidentally, the Trump/MAGA movement today -- which is predicated on collective dishonesty and denial about Trump's crimes-- is strongly centered in the post-Confederate Deep South. I understand that RFK, Jr. doesn't want to alienate the Trump cult, but decent, honest people need to speak up about the disaster of Trumpism. (And I do believe that RFK, Jr. is decent, honest, and concerned about the public welfare.)

Larry, I was referring to RFK, Jr.'s townhall last Wednesday, in which he explicitly declined to criticize Donald Trump-- the man who organized slates of false Electors after the 2020 election, then orchestrated the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Congress. Here's a link: RFK Jr.: ‘I’m proud that President Trump likes me’ | The Hill

Sure thing, John. And you're still conversing with those little green men in your neighborhood, eh? 🤥

We're All MAGAs Now (cont.) 🙄 Midland man arrested for allegedly hitting Capitol officer with flagpole during January 6 riots Midland man arrested for allegedly hitting Capitol officer during January 6 riot (wxyz.com) July 1, 2023

On Friday, Trump told Moms for Liberty that he will "obliterate the Deep State." The sales pitch is that Trump is not a felonious skunk. He's a heroic victim of the Deep State.

Larry, I share your indignation about Biden's refusal to release the JFK records. In fact, I wrote a letter to Biden in 2021, as you advised, asking him to comply with the law and release the records. I only mentioned Trump's refusal to release the records in response to the redundant efforts of one Education Forum member to make the records release a partisan issue. As for RFK, Jr., I absolutely feel compassion for him, for the traumatic loss of his father and uncle. I'm a lifelong fan of the Kennedy family. I even attended Ted Kennedy's announcement of his Presidential candidacy at Faneuil Hall in 1979. I am disappointed that RFK, Jr. has refused to criticize Trump's right wing demagoguery. IMO, JFK and RFK would agree with me on that issue.

John, I'm going to briefly correct your inaccurate, off-topic, ad hominem t-r-o-l-l-i-n-g of this thread-- in red-- after beginning with a brief summary of the key premises of the original thread. It's a shame that your inaccurate, ad hominem t-r-o-l-l-i-n-g is still permitted on the Education Forum. For starters, the thread is not about your erroneous beliefs about psychiatry, mental illness, and my psychiatric career. It's about the bipartisan suppression of the JFKA records, and the persistent, misguided threads by Benjamin Cole framing the suppression of the JFK records as a partisan issue-- e.g., Ben claiming that, "We are all MAGAs now," since Biden has refused to release the records. The truth is that Donald Trump also refused to release the JFK records-- even though Trump is now advertising himself as a Deep State adversary. Secondly, the thread is about RFK, Jr.'s dysfunctional refusal to criticize Donald Trump's crimes and his reactionary MAGA cult. Silence and denial are not constructive responses to the crisis of Trump-ism in contemporary American politics. RFK, Jr.'s public silence about Trump's serious crimes also prompted me to posit a hypothesis about RFJ, Jr.'s psychodynamic issues relating to the trauma of his uncle and father's murders. I pointed out that, in his JFK Revisited interviews, RFK, Jr. appears to be experiencing intense, unresolved grief about the traumatic loss of his uncle and father. Based on my work with PTSD patients, RFK, Jr. appears to be in an early stage of unresolved grief. John Cotter wrote: You’ve walked yourself into a quagmire of your own making here, William, and your desperate flailing about is just making matters worse. Another John Cotter absurdity, in which he characteristically insists that the person he is t-r-o-l-l-i-n-g has lost the debate. You invoked your “authority” as a psychiatrist in “diagnosing” RFK Jr. That authority derives from your membership of the American Psychiatric Association, not the American Psychoanalytic Association. What was my "diagnosis," Sherlock? Also, I haven't been an APA member for years. The former association is the leading such association on the planet and the publisher of the “bible” of psychiatry, the DSM. You know – the manual by reference to which you “diagnosed” the “mentally ill”, incarcerated them, lorded over them in their dehumanised degraded state and treated them accordingly. Study the origins and precision of the descriptive psychiatry of the DSM-- most of it was based on the precise observations of 19th century European psychiatrists like Emil Kraepelin, in Munich, and Ricard von Krafft-Ebbing, in Vienna. As usual, you are clueless. The latter association is concerned with more ostensibly respectful, humane and enlightened practises such as the “talking cure”. Your saying that this association rejected the Goldwater rule is a dodge, a misdirection. You strike out again, John. I was trained by psychoanalysts, in one of the few remaining psychoanalytic residency programs in the U.S. in the mid-80s. One association rejecting one of the rules of another association is irrelevant to the fact that it is your “authority” as a member of the latter association that you invoked in “diagnosing” RFK. But nice try. The Goldwater Rule is a political farce. And I stand by my observation that RFK, Jr. appears to be in the early stages of genuinely working through the trauma of his family tragedies. I believe I could significantly help the man, if I had an opportunity to talk to him. I'd probably have him try EMDR therapy for PTSD. Contrary to what you say, Erik Erikson was not a psychiatrist. He was a psychologist and psychoanalyst. As for Anthony Storr, I’ve read his books on creativity (The Dynamics of Creation) and Jung. As you say, Storr “analyzed historical figures”, but as far as I’m aware, he didn’t abuse his position as a psychiatrist by using it to denigrate a contemporary political figure. So now analysis and honesty are "abusive," eh? Have you studied Erikson's psychoanalytic writings about Hitler or Storr's psychoanalytic writings about Churchill? Have you studied the psychiatric literature about Donald Trump? People often comment on the mental state of politicians and other public figures as apparently manifested by their behaviour. There’s nothing wrong with that. We can all see what’s in front of our eyes, and we don’t need self-styled intellectual geniuses with lots of letters after their names to tell us what we’re seeing. That’s completely different from what you’ve done in invoking your role as a psychiatrist to promulgate a supposedly authoritative “diagnosis”. It’s an abuse of your position and a breach of the relevant ethical rule of the association whose prestige you’ve hijacked to weaponise your political prejudice. Again, what "diagnosis" and "abuse" are you referring to? You really are cluelessly hostile to the medical sub-specialty of psychiatry. Essentially, your “diagnosis” of RFK Jr is a particularly despicable ad hominem attack on him. It arises from the desperation caused by your inability to logically rebut his political views. Which "political views" are you referring to in this idiotic, ad hominem post? On this thread, I have questioned RFK, Jr.'s refusal to talk about Donald Trump's serious crimes against the United States-- and the threats that Trump's right wing, white supremacist cult pose for American democracy and civil rights. American democracy and civil rights are betrayed by silence and denial.

Ben, Your opinion about accurate psychiatric diagnosis is ironic, given your numerous, redundant posts "diagnosing" Biden's alleged senility-- often based on deceptively edited Rupert Murdoch video clips. (Certainly not based on his historic public speeches.) It reminds us that opinions are like the distal ends of our alimentary canals, particularly in your case. But, to reiterate, experienced clinicians can learn a great deal about a person by studying their behavior and speech, (and/or writings) in person or from a distance. That is the basis for the genre of psycho-history. It has to do with observing signs and symptoms of mental disorders. There's an old saying in medicine-- "You see what you look for and you look for what you know." If a man sobs while discussing the long ago murder of an uncle or father, I might infer (from many years of experience working with victims of trauma and/or loss) that he has not fully grieved or worked through his trauma/loss. He is still overwhelmed by emotion-- not at a stage of peaceful acceptance, the end stage of griefwork. Perhaps he has dealt with his unresolved grief by avoiding his sadness, drug abuse, or displaced rage. How old was he when his father was murdered in 1968? 14? Most people have a developmental fixation at the age of a parental loss, in the absence of genuine working through.

Had to laugh... 😆

John, I thought you were going to stop posting absurd, inaccurate comments on the forum. No such luck, eh? In truth, I think we all know who has been cluttering the forum with redundant "Biden snuff job" threads this year -- while even declaring that, "We're all MAGAs now" that Biden has blocked the release of the JFK records, (as Trump did in 2017.) Conversely, the only thread I have started on the topic of Trump blocking the release of the JFK records was initiated in September of 2020, and was subsequently moved to the JFK Deep Politics board. As for my clinical observations about the RFK, Jr. interviews in JFK Revisited, get a clue. They are spot on, and highly relevant. Do you really imagine that psychiatrists don't use filmed interviews to make clinical observations, and for teaching purposes? An experienced clinician can learn a lot from a filmed interview. The Goldwater Rule is a political joke that was widely rejected by the American psychiatric community, including the American Psychoanalytic Association, during the past eight years. Yet, it has often been invoked by Trump fans who object to accurate psychological profiling of Donald Trump. Since 2016, many reputable American psychiatrists have openly warned the public about Donald Trump's serious psychopathology. We were correct. The truth is that knowledgeable psychologists and psychiatrists can make valid diagnostic inferences about people they haven't interviewed in person, even including those who are deceased. There is a genre of "psycho-history," which includes diagnostic biographical essays by psychiatrists like Erik Erikson, Anthony Storr, and others. Erickson "psychoanalyzed" Hitler, and Storr has analyzed historical figures ranging from Isaac Newton to Churchill.

Ben, Should RFK, Jr. criticize Donald Trump for doing a "snuff job" on the JFK records in 2017, when they were finally due to be released? Thus far, RFK, Jr. has refrained from criticizing Trump, in the interest of "national unity." I think the concept is that, "we're all MAGAs now," and we shouldn't talk about Trump's historic crimes. 🙄

Roger, I agree entirely with your criticism of U.S./CIA international atrocities in the post-WWII era-- Mossadeq, Arbenz, Lumumba, Sukarno, Allende, Iran-Contra, etc. The examples are legion. With regard to Ukraine and Eastern Europe, do you similarly deplore Kremlin interference in the sovereignty and democracy of Russia's post-WWII neighbors? Didn't Putin's puppet, Yanukovych, put Yulia Timoshenko in prison, before public outrage caused him to flee from his opulent Ukrainian estate to Mother Russia?

Kirk, I'm just trying to give tribal credit where credit is due. Is it possible that the 1992 legal mastermind of GHWB'S JFK records suppression strategy is the same Republican toady who arranged the pardons of the Iran-Contra criminals and suppressed the release of the un-redacted Mueller Report?

Much ado has been made here about Biden, like Donald Trump, declining to release the JFK records. In fact, Benjamin Cole has indignantly declared that, "We are all MAGAs now," as a result of Biden, like Trump, declining to release the JFK records. Curiously, the anti-Biden candidate, RFK, Jr., has declined to criticize Donald Trump for his historic decision to block release of the JFK records in 2017 and 2018, as did Fox News at the time. RFK, Jr. has also declined to criticize Trump for promoting a violent attack on the U.S. Congress, organizing slates of false electors, trying to extort political favors from Ukrainian President Zelensky, and declaring that, "Putin is a genius," after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. RFK, Jr. doesn't seem to realize that personal, and national, trauma cannot be resolved by pretending that the trauma never happened, and refusing to talk about it, in the self-professed interest of "healing." That's the denial stage of unresolved trauma. When I watched the interviews of RFK,Jr. in DiEugenio's JFK Revisited documentary, it was immediately obvious to me, as a psychiatrist, that RFK,Jr. was still experiencing a great deal of unresolved grief about the tragic murders of his uncle and father. He reminded me of PTSD patients in the early stages of therapy for unresolved grief, who are still flooded with un-abreacted emotion. I mention these observations now, in the context of RFK, Jr. fans vehemently attacking Joe Biden, while refusing to criticize Donald Trump for his refusal to release the JFK records, and even declaring that, "We are all MAGAs now." It's predicated on denial of Trump's serious crimes, and the MAGA/Fox delusion that Trump is a victim of the Deep State.

Just a wild guess, but GHWB's 1992 statement asserting the Constitutional right of the POTUS to withhold JFK records sounds like something written by Bill Barr. Barr was always an advocate of Executive branch authority. Bill Barr was a CIA lawyer during GHWB'S stint as CIA Director in the 70s. GHWB appointed Bill Barr as his AG in 1992 to oversee GHWB's pardons of the Reagan/Bush Iran-Contra convicts.