In 1984, the movie “Red Dawn” depicted a Russian invasion of the U.S. Tensions were high during the Cold War. The Defense Intelligence Agency’s annual publication "Soviet Military Power" depicted the awesome threat posed by the Evil Empire’s superpower status. However, as I recall, the “mainstream” media was more worried about the threat of American weapons. The Nuclear Freeze movement was popular.
Since the collapse of the Soviet empire, the leftward-moving media seemed to have even less concern about Russia. Until Donald Trump got elected president. Now it is the Left that takes for granted that Russia is the evil foe—that idea is no longer dismissed as a right-wing conspiracy theory.
Does Russia try to influence U.S. policy? While professing concern about this, the media remains silent about Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins collaborating with the Soviets from the Lincoln bedroom, as described by Diana West in her book “American Betrayal,” or the extensive infiltration of Soviet agents of influence into the Deep State of the Roosevelt Administration and its successors. Nor does it talk about the accomplishments of America’s detractors: the test ban treaty (we can no longer be sure that our deteriorating nuclear arsenal still works); lop-sided disarmament agreements; the gutting of America’s military; the destruction of American civil defense; and the loss of our industrial capacity. These are apparently just fine.
No, the media is obsessed with allegations of interference in the presidential election of 2016. There were two candidates. One promised to make America great again, to rebuild the military, to bring back our industry, and to make us energy independent. The other promised more of the same only worse. As Secretary of State, she approved a sale of a majority stake in a company holding 20 percent of American uranium resources to Russians (as millions of dollars flowed into her foundation). She was endorsed by the Communist Party USA. And the media somehow imagines that Russians interfered to help elect the first candidate?
Some voters might have been influenced by the exposure of the shameful machinations of the Democratic National Committee. But were these leaks, or Russian hacks? Might the leaker have been DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was murdered? What about John Podesta’s exposing himself by falling for a phishing attack? The DNC has not alleged that the reports of its activities were fabricated. Apparently, the media would have no problem with the actual behavior, as long as it remained covered up.
The media also has no problem, in principle, with interference in the government of sovereign states, for example, possible Western involvement in elections in Ukraine. Nor is it generally concerned with actual overthrow of established foreign governments—e.g. Egypt and Libya, plus aid to “rebels” trying to topple the regime of Bashar al Assad, even at risk of provoking war with Russia, as well as killing and displacing millions of Syrians. So why not try to unelect an American president?
The U.S. faces enormous problems, with deep roots in the Progressive policies of the American ruling class and its supportive media, which the electorate rejected. But how can these problems be addressed when the new administration is challenged or blocked at every turn, by congressional Democrats, judges, and denizens of the Deep State? Obamacare is collapsing, and American medicine is being crushed by its costs and insane regulations—but the press is reporting on rumors that somebody with some connection to Trump talked to a Russian. (And isn’t it the constitutional responsibility of the executive branch to conduct foreign affairs?)
Americans certainly have many enemies, domestic and foreign. In addition, our freedoms and prosperity are being rapidly eroded. It could be that the responsible politicians and bureaucrats are well-intentioned—but could malicious criminals hurt us more? If we are seeking the cause of our woes, the logical place to look is in the Swamp—the offices inhabited by long-entrenched apparatchiks, not in the thin ranks of the newcomers.
The media’s focus on possible cryptic signals from the Kremlin is so 1950-ish. It is a major diversion from the massive corruption in Washington, D.C., and the anti-American, leftist ideology in academia, Hollywood, once-trusted institutions, large segments of both political parties—and the media itself.
We need to talk about how to fix American medicine, instead of the latest conspiracy rumor.
Jane M. Orient, M.D. obtained her undergraduate degrees in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Arizona in Tucson, and her M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1974. She completed an internal medicine residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital and University of Arizona Affiliated Hospitals and then became an Instructor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and a staff physician at the Tucson Veterans Administration Hospital. She has been in solo private practice since 1981 and has served as Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) since 1989. She is currently president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. Since 1988, she has been chairman of the Public Health Committee of the Pima County (Arizona) Medical Society. She is the author of YOUR Doctor Is Not In: Healthy Skepticism about National Healthcare, and the second through fourth editions of Sapira's Art and Science of Bedside Diagnosis published by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. She authored books for schoolchildren, Professor Klugimkopf’s Old-Fashioned English Grammar and Professor Klugimkopf’s Spelling Method, published by Robinson Books, and coauthored two novels published as Kindle books, Neomorts and Moonshine. More than 100 of her papers have been published in the scientific and popular literature on a variety of subjects including risk assessment, natural and technological hazards and nonhazards, and medical economics and ethics. She is the editor of AAPS News, the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness Newsletter, and Civil Defense Perspectives, and is the managing editor of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.
