Some Dare Call It Treason
by Mel Gurtov
1068 words
Is Donald Trump not merely gullible, uninformed, and indifferent but actually treasonous when it comes to Russia? More and more high-profile people are saying so. He’s acting like “a Russian mole,” in the words of conservative columnist Max Boot. “America is under attack and its president absolutely refuses to defend it. Simply put, Trump is a traitor and may well be treasonous,” argues New York Times op-ed writer Charles M. Blow. The former CIA director, John Brennan, tweetsthat "Donald Trump's press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors.' It was nothing short of treasonous.” And John McLaughlin, former acting director of the CIA, calls Trump an “agent of influence” for Russia (MSNBC interview, July 16, 2018).
Indeed, one writer reviews the evidenceand invites us to consider that Vladimir Putin is Trump’s handler. And that piece was written before the Helsinki summit. But today, July 19, 2018, we have a mindboggling reportfrom the New York Timesthat Donald Trump was informed, two weeks before his inauguration, that the US government had rock-solid evidence of Russian interference, directed by Vladimir Putin, to sway the election. CIA director Brennan was one of the briefers on that occasion. So was James Comey.
We now know that Trump has long been aware of a Putin-directed assault on our electoral system. We also know that the Russians have for decades been cultivating ties with Trump in anticipation that he might be an important asset. Finally, we know now more clearly than ever, following Trump’s European trip, that Trump’s notion of national interest coincides all too neatly with Vladimir Putin’s.
Let’s review the evidence. Since taking office, Trump has done the following in service of Russian interests:
• Failing to challenge Russia on annexation of Crimea, intervention in Ukraine, the attack on the 2016 US election, support of Assad’s brutal war against Syrian rebels (including use of chemical weapons), and use of the nerve agent Novichok in Britain. Instead, …
• Blaming his own country for problems with Russia: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” Trump tweeted on July 15.
• Making every effort to undermine the Mueller investigation, with attacks on the credibility and even patriotism of his own justice department and FBI.
• Inviting Russian interference during the campaign: “Russia, I hope you can find the 30,000 [Clinton] emails that are missing.” Russian hacking began the same day.
• Failing to take the lead in strengthening the US electoral system against cyber attacks, disregarding repeated warnings from his own top officials about the continuing danger of Russian interference. (Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, says “we are at a critical point. Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack." Trump, standing beside Putin at Helsinki, explicitly says he believes Putin more than he believes Coats: “I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be.")
• Showing no concern about Mueller’s indictments of Russian intelligence officers and some 20 other Russians, nor about the five guilty pleas (so far) of top officials in his campaign and administration.
• Indicating no interest in strengthening sanctions on Russia despite support from within his own administration, and a large majority in Congress, for sanctions.
• Never criticizing Putin’s authoritarian rule and the ongoing crackdown on his journalist, politician, and business critics.
• Going ahead with a summit meeting with Putin that lent legitimacy to Putin’s rule, allowed Putin to easily dismiss election hacking and indictments of Russians, yet offered no concrete indication that any of the other issues dividing the US and Russia—such as strategic weapons, Syria, North Korea, the Iran nuclear deal, military deployments, and trade—had been resolved, ameliorated, or even seriously discussed.
• Undermining European unity and US-European ties, such as by starting a trade war with Europe, which Trump accuses of robbing from the US “piggy bank”; questioning the usefulness of NATO, which he says is “as bad as NAFTA”; questioning the EU, which he says “was set up to take advantage of the United States” and is an economic “foe”; and interfering in European politics, such as by criticizing Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations and Angela Merkel’s liberal immigration policy.
It is almost beyond belief to think that the president of the United States might be doing Russia’s bidding. We’re a democracy, we have constraints on illegal and treacherous conduct, no one can get away with secretly serving another government for very long—right? But remember: We were warnedby 50 senior Republican figures in the national security establishment early on in Trump’s presidential campaign that he was unfit to be president and commander-in-chief. Their concerns were on the money. Yet there was no way anyone could have imagined the depths to which Trump has brought us—the facts and circumstantial evidence that point to impeachable offenses: “high crimes and misdemeanors” and “aid and comfort” to Russia, which the National Security Council has identified in its 2017 strategic paper as the principal threat, along with China.
“America First” seems to mean not just “American Alone” but “Russia first”: Trump is systematically undermining all the pillars of US national security and global responsibility—specifically, support of traditional allies, defense of the republic from foreign interference in our political process, and commitment to human rights, the rule of law, and diplomacy. Just about every policy move Trump has taken in Europe and the Middle East is in Russia’s interest. This conclusion is not to suggest that ameliorating US-Russia tensions is a bad thing; to the contrary, finding common ground with Russia on further reductions of nuclear weapons, nonintervention and power transition in Syria, protecting the global environment, and preventing election hacking would be fine. Problem is, neither Trump nor Putin is seriously interested in tackling any of those issues.
Catering to and appeasing the Russians is not the same as engaging them. It borders on treason. But if you have trouble with that word, let’s just say Trump is a dupe of the Russians. And we—meaning Robert Mueller most of all—must keep pursuing why. I’m convinced he already has the answer—an answer that should be sufficient to remove Donald Trump from office. Meantime, John Brennan’s question hangs over Washington: “Republican Patriots: Where are you???”
--end--
Mel Gurtov, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University.
====================
,
Doctor Gives Patients Veggies
With Cooking Instructions
Just Saying “Eat Your Vegetables” Wasn’t Enough
Dr. Joseph Galati was talking to one of his patients about the need to put more vegetables into her diet and mentioned that cooking eggplant would probably be a good idea. The patient had never cooked eggplant before and had no idea how to do it.
“That is when I realized that I had to do more than just tell people to eat more vegetables,” says Galati (www.drjoegalati.com), author of Eating Yourself Sick: How to Stop Obesity, Fatty Liver, and Diabetes from Killing You and Your Family. “My patients that did try to eat more vegetables would rely on only one or two kinds and they got bored with it so they stopped. They were unaware of the variety of vegetables available and how to prepare them.”
With more knowledge about what kinds of vegetables to select and how to cook them, Galati believed more of his patients would comply with his prescription that they eat more vegetables.
So he started the “Great American Produce Giveaway” promotion in his office. He bought a bushel of squash, and then gave his patients a squash in a brown paper bag along with instructions on how to cook it. Different types of vegetables were given away regularly when his patients visited his office. It resulted in more of his patients eating a greater variety vegetables. Patients reported back that this was the jumpstart they needed to improve their nutrition and health.
“We had to give them really specific recommendations,” he says. “We have to realize that we are living in a new era of an under-educated and under-informed public when it comes to nutrition.”
Dr. Galati offers these tips on getting more vegetables into your diet:
Galati says many of his patients enjoyed learning more about vegetables and how to cook them. He added that everybody knows they should eat more vegetables, but a surprising amount of people don’t know how to prepare those vegetables with a meal.
But, he says, with a little research on the internet or with a cookbook, preparing vegetables can be fun, tasty and easy.
About Dr. Joseph Galati
Dr. Joseph Galati (www.drjoegalati.com) author of Eating Yourself Sick: How to Stop Obesity, Fatty Liver, and Diabetes from Killing You and Your Family, is a hepatologist who specializes in caring for patients with liver diseases, obesity and nutrition-related disorders based in Houston’s famed Texas Medical Center. He is currently Medical Director of the Sherrie and Alan Conover Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at Houston Methodist Hospital. He attended medical school at St. George’s University of Medicine, and received further training in Internal Medicine at SUNY-Health Science Center-Brooklyn/Kings County Hospital Center. He obtained further expertise in Liver Disease and Transplant Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He has been involved in clinical research in liver disease for more than 30 years. Since 2003, Dr. Galati has hosted “Your Health First,” a one-hour radio program each weekend on iHeart Radio’s 740 am KTRH, and streamed globally on the iHeart app.
=======================
