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MAY 25, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, vAGE A3 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Threats are an unavoidable fact By MICHAEL GERSON Those who fi nd “globalists” to be villains should attend to recent events in Congo. In the remote region of a remote country, government agencies and international institutions identi- fi ed by sterile acronyms are working to prevent the spread of a disease that could result in the swift globalization of panic. This week could well prove decisive in Congo’s current Ebola outbreak— which started in April and, at this writing, counts 40-some probable and confi rmed cases. If the disease remains largely rural and grows by ones and twos, contact tracing and the use of an experimental vaccine are likely to remain on top of things. If there are outbursts in multiple parts of the city of Mbandaka—which counts more than 1 million people—or clus- ters are found downriver in Kinshasa, it will mean trouble. The good news? The response to this outbreak, according to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Direc- tor Francis Collins, is “vastly further along” than four years ago in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Last time, the World Health Organization (WHO) was slow, confused and ineffective. This time, teams from WHO and Doctors Without Borders were quickly on the scene. WHO’s new director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, vis- ited the site of the outbreak within weeks. Stockpiles of the vaccine be- ing deployed had already been prepo- sitioned in Liberia and Mali, with the help of the global vaccine alli- ance GAVI. Congo’s health minister, Oly Ilunga Kalenga, has been in daily contact with Anthony Fauci’s staff at the NIH’s National Institute of Al- lergy and Infectious Diseases. (When I talked to Fauci, Kalenga had con- tacted him 15 minutes before with a request). All involved knew this day would eventually come, and they have been preparing for it. There are serious challenges in responding to a highly infectious dis- ease in the rural Equateur province, parts of which can only be reached by helicopter. But medical authorities have some new tools, including the more aggressive use of experimental drugs. The vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV seemed dramatically effective during the West African outbreak four years ago, but circumstances did not allow for a controlled trial. About 4,000 doses are now in Congo—with per- haps 3,000 more on the way—and health authorities are in the process of creating a cold chain of refrigera- tion to deliver the drugs where they are needed. They will be deployed in a strategy called “ring vaccination,” in which anyone who has been in contact with an Ebola vic- tim, and anyone who has been in contact with those contacts, is vaccinated. There is also a second vaccine and a NIH-developed anti-viral treatment (which only appears to be helpful when administered within fi ve days of becoming sick) that may be employed in Congo. Congo has had eight outbreaks of Ebola before this one—each of them eventually defeated. A lot of good people, representing a number of global institutions, are working to en- sure that the ninth ends the same way. Like tremors before the “big one,” every defeated outbreak provides a frightening hint at what an epidem- ic might look like. The West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 took about 11,000 lives. If it had spread into the cities of Nigeria, the levels of death and global panic would have spiraled beyond control. But this is not even the worst prospect. A fl u pandemic— with a strain that is easily transmitted and has a high mortality rate—could take tens of millions of lives. When it comes to health, the world has become a single, massive body. A serious infection arriving at the weak- est part of the immune system—say the health systems of West Africa— can easily spread to the whole. This argues for strengthening our health defenses—the ability to detect and respond to pandemic threats—in re- mote places. And it will require vac- cines that can ring a disease and make a global immune response more effec- tive. At NIH, Collins has been push- ing hard for the development of a universal fl u vaccine, which would be broadly protective against pandemic strains. Funding that effort could end up the most important spending in the entire budget. The globalization of threats—from terrorism to pandemic disease —is a bare, unavoidable fact. And it will only be met and mastered by determined, heroic globalists. michael gerson (Washington vost Writers Group) Share your opinion The Keizertimes’ Opinion page accepts all viewpoints. It is a forum for the community to discuss topics that are important to Keizer. Email a letter to the editor (300 words) by noon Tuesday. Email to: publisher@keizertimes.com So they were spying By L. BRENT BOZELL III AND TIM GRAHAM Months ago, the Old Media pro- claimed that President Donald Trump was more than a bit nutty in insisting his campaign was the sub- ject of surveillance by the Obama administration. Now it’s emerging that this wasn’t the slightest bit nutty. The New York Times reported -- in a tone much like having its fi ngernails dragged across a chalkboard -- that the FBI used an “informant” (not a “spy”!) to chat up (and in one case, dangle money at) Trump staffers and investigate Russian fi nagling with the 2016 election. As one might expect, since this is considered a “pro-Trump” narrative, it must be shot down, even as the facts are coming together. Writing in the Daily Beast, “conservative” CNN political commentator Matt Lewis warned that “there are tens of millions of Americans living in this alternative universe” who think this spying on “inexperienced and sketchy” Trump campaign aides was “nefarious.” “(Y) ou have to believe that the intelli- gence community is wholly corrupt and utterly politicized -- that there was a conspiracy (at least, at the top) to stop Trump from becoming presi- dent,” he said. “(T)his requires a con- spiratorial mind.” That’s funny. Right after the elec- tion, that was the sour-grapes line from Team Clinton. A “vast right- wing conspiracy” at the FBI under former Director James Comey con- spired to stop Clinton from becom- ing president with his blundering an- nouncements about her private email server. But that wasn’t considered nutty. That was what good Demo- crats believed. Once Trump fi red Comey, the campaign conspiracy nar- rative switched sides. Here’s what conserva- tives can declare to Matt Lewis: Our media are wholly corrupt and utter- ly politicized and were transparently dedicated to stopping Trump from be- coming president. That’s not a kooky conspiracy theory. No one who wit- nessed their reporting in 2015 and 2016 should doubt it. It would not have been diffi cult for Team Obama to collude with them. We would ask Lewis: Doesn’t push- ing the idea that Trump colluded with the Russians require “a conspiratorial mind”? Is it fair to speculate endlessly on CNN and MSNBC about how special counsel Robert Mueller might prove collusion, when he hasn’t done so after a year of trying? The media don’t have to prove their Trump con- spiracy theory to damage Trump’s po- litical standing. It can keep that black cloud of speculation hanging over his head on every front page and every newscast. Try this intellectual exercise: Imag- ine that the Justice Department under former President George W. Bush had the opinion of others Wheatland vublishing Corp. 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 vhone: 503.390.1051 • www.keizertimes.com MANAGING EDITOR Eric A. Howald editor@keizertimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR SUBSCRIPTIONS Derek Wiley news@keizertimes.com ADVERTISING vaula Moseley advertising@keizertimes.com PRODUCTION MANAGER & GRAPHIC DESIGNER EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY vublication No: USvS 679-430 Andrew Jackson graphics@keizertimes.com POSTMASTER Send address changes to: LEGAL NOTICES legals@keizertimes.com Keizertimes Circulation BUSINESS MANAGER 142 Chemawa Road N. Leah Stevens Keizer, OR 97303 billing@keizertimes.com RECEPTION Lori Beyeler INTERN veriodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon Random vendragon facebook.com/keizertimes twitter.com/keizertimes (Creators Syndicate) Is a constitutional crisis in our future? It comes as a surprise to this writer that only two U.S. presidents have been impeached. The fi rst was Andrew Johnson who became president immediately after President Abraham Lincoln was as- sassinated, and Bill Clinton, who ended his presidency having, after all, served two full terms. Regardless of its spare use, there is talk in the land now about another possible impeachment. President Andrew John- son was impeached by the House of Representatives on 11 articles of impeach- ment that detailed his “High crimes and misdemeanors” in accordance with Article 2 of the U.S. Constitu- tion. The U.S. Senate acquitted John- son by one vote and he completed his term in offi ce. President Bill Clinton was im- peached on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the House in 1998. Clinton’s impeachment trial was held in the Senate where he was acquitted of all charges in early 1999. The Whitewater scandal along with an Arkansas real estate deal that spun a tale possibly associated with the suicide of a White House lawyer, the fi rings of White House Travel Offi ce personnel, and Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewin- sky delivered enough political and le- gal damage to bring his impeachment. Here and now, President Donald Trump fi nds himself in the throes of several high-profi le controversies that appear likely to bring serious trouble to him. What began as an investiga- tion into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has evolved into an ever-enlarging, ready-to-erupt volcano of scandals involving an adult- fi lm star, infl uence peddling, and, among other rumors, what Trump knew about allegations of sexual abuse by the New York attorney general. What has President Trump done to fi ght for his survival? He’s out regularly on the campaign trail where he attacks Democrats but does not mention his problems while he im- plores his followers to support the oft-repeated witch hunt charge. He badgers Con- gress for more legislative triumphs than his one victory with the tax cut package while he brags about a stock market and employment gains over which he has no direct control. He keeps sign- ing executive orders and presidential memoranda although few of them have survived to appear in the Federal Register. Meanwhile, there are a number of Trump-related shortcomings that deeply trouble this writer. A few ex- amples, from the many, include Presi- dent Trump’s misguided efforts to sab- otage health care coverage for millions of U.S. citizens, worsening the devas- tating effects of climate change, gut- ting clean air and water protections, giving tax cuts to billionaires and huge corporations, destabilizing statements and actions on the world stage, attacks on our news media, organizations and reporters, interference with the Rus- sia investiga- tion which involves Russia’s at- tack on our democracy, self-serving efforts to cash-in on the presiden- cy and there- by enhance his family’s wealth, dis- dain and contempt for the rule of gene h. mcintyre Keizertimes sent a spy/informant into the Obama campaign in 2008 to see whether for- eign powers were attempting to infl u- ence its “inexperienced and sketchy” aides. Hundreds of media heads would have exploded. Now we’re at a point where we should be asking what Obama’s top intelligence hacks, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan, were cooking in 2016. But guess what. CNN hired Clapper, and NBC News hired Brennan. Now they are paid by the networks to tell the folks at home that Trump is nutty for insisting they did anything nefarious. Were Clapper and Brennan leaking anti-Trump dirt to the networks that have since hired them? Wouldn’t that look “wholly corrupt and utterly politicized”? John Fund wrote in National Re- view that while in a greenroom of a network, he asked a journalist this question: Can’t the media spend time exploring why Team Obama sent a spy/informant into the opposing par- ty’s campaign? “There’s only room for one narrative on all this,” the reporter replied. “And it’s all about Trump.” So much for following the facts wherever they lead instead of carefully curating facts against Trump. Why must Matt Lewis and his me- dia pals bemoan “two Americas”— one painted as soberly fact-based and the other destined for a rubber room —instead of considering both narra- tives? law, and so on. Impeachment in the U.S House could arrive from deliberations there by a newly-seated Democrat majority after the upcoming November elec- tion. However, given a U.S. House impeachment, conviction is unlikely to follow because the Democrats are unlikely to realize a two-thirds head count required for a conviction in the U.S. Senate. Even if there is a convic- tion, it’s believed Donald Trump will defy it as it is further believed he will defy all orders that precede it, includ- ing depositions, subpoenas, indict- ments or any other U.S. legal system maneuver. Donald Trump has made it clear multiple times that he wants an un- limited term in offi ce and made no bones about his admiration for other world leaders who possess life terms. Writer opinion: He will never leave the White House without being forced out and it’s plainly clear to see already that there are few members of Congress who have enough of what it would take to oust him. A consti- tutional crisis will predictably follow while it remains anyone’s guess, due to lack of a U.S. precedence, as to how that problematic condition will play itself out. (Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)
