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    Mental health expert explains why Donald Trump must be convicted

    Bandy X. Lee, DC Report @Raw Story
    February 04, 2021

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    It's the instability, stupid: Trump is danger to the Republic

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Bandy X. Lee, DC Report @Raw Story

    The Trump presidency may be over, but Donald Trump's dangers continue. This is because we have yet to contain the number one emergency, which is the spread of mental pathology.

    Without addressing this mental health pandemic, even the Biden administration's admirable efforts to contain the viral pandemic may meet with obstacles. Similarly, without conviction and prosecution, which is the first step to containing this mental health pandemic, hopes for "reconciliation" and "unity" may also be for naught.

    Mental health professionals knew from the start that Donald Trump had the psychological makeup to become very dangerous with presidential powers. Following our 2017 assessment, I and thousands of my colleagues at the World Mental Health Coalition issued more than 300 pages of letters, petitions, and statements asserting that Donald Trump's dangers would spread and erupt. In March 2020, we issued a "Prescription for Survival," stating that the president's removal through the 25th Amendment, impeachment, or resignation—or at least removal of influence—was essential to avoiding widespread unnecessary deaths.

    Trump uses words and directly incites violence. Research on violence shows that rhetoric can be more efficient than specific orders or direct assaults in causing epidemics of violence.

    A failure to contain led to a most dramatic demonstration of dangers on Jan. 6, but it was long in coming. Over the summer of 2020, I wrote a new public-service book, Profile of a Nation, to warn that, "he is truly someone who would do anything,… no matter how destructive, to stay in power." Indeed, the near-massacre of lawmakers he caused at the Capitol, save for a few heroes, proves how close he came to causing the kind of chaos that may have permitted him to remain.

    Donald Trump's campaign to rig an election that he lost through endless lies, abuses, and multiple attempts to rig an election that he lost eventually led to his fomenting deadly violence and near-loss of our democracy. As we did with the Mueller report, his recent phone call with Georgia's secretary of state, and his "Save America" rally speech, mental health professionals can explain how Donald Trump uses words and directly incites violence. Research on violence shows that rhetoric can be more efficient than specific orders or direct assaults in causing epidemics of violence.

    The World Mental Health Coalition, of which Dr. Lee is president, will be holding a special online national town hall, "The Imperative to Convict Trump," on Sunday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m. EST.

    Speakers include: Laurence Tribe, constitutional scholar, Harvard Law School; Norman Eisen, former special counsel for Trump's first impeachment and trial; Richard Painter, former chief White House counsel for George W. Bush; Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), member, House Oversight Committee, and chairman, House Subcommittee on Government Operations; Claire Finkelstein, criminal lawyer, University of Pennsylvania; Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian, New York University; Bandy Lee, moderator and president, World Mental Health Coalition

    Tickets are $5 for students and low-income individuals, $25 general.

    For more information, please go here, and for a video statement, see here.

    The ideal course would have been swift impeachment and conviction. Impeachment happening a week after the actual incident was already a poor precedent, prompting us to write to the speaker of the House: we would not allow a serial killer to be on the loose with bombs, ammunition, and assault rifles for days—and yet we permitted a serial mass killer, by the order of hundreds of thousands, for weeks with access to nuclear weapons capable of destroying all civilization. We urged clear and speedy actions, given that each day of delay had an adverse effect on the population's demoralization and trauma without justice, and on Trump enablers' opportunities to subvert the momentum for impeachment.

    Impeachment Backfire

    As we know from past experience, tepid impeachment proceedings could even backfire and boost Donald Trump's standing. As we have repeatedly emphasized, once with over 800 mental health professional signatories, even the most impeccable political calculations, without consideration of psychological factors in his case, would likely also fail politically.

    Given a recalcitrant Senate, psychological influences are especially critical. Some of this might have been mobilized to advantage had impeachment occurred the day after violent insurrection and sedition, and conviction as soon as the following day, with amplification of public outcry if the Senate refused.

    Since this did not happen, the next best course would be to have a complete trial with as much evidence and testimonies as possible, including those of Capitol police officers who were injured during the incident, to maximize pressure on the Senate to convict.

    More High Crimes

    Additional articles of impeachment would also be helpful, including his role in the soon-to-be half-million Americans who perished from the pandemic; the economic misery while he and his cronies profited; the human rights abuses as he kidnapped and placed children in concentration camps; and the aid and comfort he gave to neo-Nazi and white supremacist terrorist groups throughout his presidency, to compose an "encyclopedia of articles" more commensurate with reality that we recommended since the first impeachment.

    Unless conviction promptly removes former presidential privileges and sets restrictions on future campaigns for political office, Donald Trump will likely use the acquittal to claim that he is innocent of all charges. He will claim that the second impeachment was another "hoax" intended to victimize him, using it to discredit all subsequent indictments and prosecutions.

    Back on the Stump

    He will resume holding rallies, continually pushing the narrative that he was the real victor in 2020, threatening further social and political divisions. He will blame the poor state of the country he created on the Biden administration, just as easily as he claimed credit for the long-term benefits that the Obama administration's policies generated, as he aims to return to power as the savior who will "make America great again." As long as positive reinforcement through a lack of accountability persist, he will not stop.

    A failure to convict will, furthermore, have a devastating effect on the public's mental health. The country is already traumatized from four years of normalizing, legitimizing, and even glorifying deadly criminality, abusive behavior, and severe pathology. Members of Congress who experienced normal emotional distress as happens after a life-threatening event will not be able to have closure, as will the American people after the violation and desecration of their seat of government.

    Unhealthy Bonds

    A failure to convict will continue to entrap those who support him, whose unhealthy emotional bonds prevent them from seeing the damage that is being done to their personhood, livelihood, health, and even lives. It is a disservice to collude with their psychological defenses against the pain of disappointment, further entrenching them in potential future trauma upon learning the truth.

    Clear boundaries need to be set that a leader should not abuse, let alone kill, the people he has sworn to serve.

    The first step to healing a massive mental health pandemic is to convict, set limits, return to reality, and restore the standards of lawfulness, order, and safety. We should not continue to permit a dangerously unfit person who held high office to spread unmitigated violence, trauma, and mental pathology. Mental health professionals who routinely manage dangerous personalities have vital knowledge to contribute to society and should be consulted.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

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    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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    Colombia's apiarists say avocado buzz is killing bees

    Agence France-Presse
    February 26, 2021

    For the second time in two years, Gildardo Urrego is scooping up piles of dead bees after an invisible evil invaded his hives in northwest Colombia, wreaking havoc among his swarms.

    Urrego has no proof, but he suspects the culprit is pesticides which have been fueling a commercial avocado and citrus boom in the country.

    Hundreds of hives have been killed off in Colombia in recent years, and some investigations have pointed to fipronil, an insecticide banned for use on crops in Europe and restricted in the United States and China.

    It is used to control all manner of insects, including ants and ticks, and has been blamed for several bee massacres around the world.

    Urrego's apiary in Colombia's Antioquia Department produces honey flavored with pollen from nearby passion fruit orchards. In 2019, he lost 10 of his 19 hives.

    This time, he said, a third of his 12 hives were wiped out -- a loss of some 160,000 of the industrious little pollinators.

    "There is a theory that, yes, this is due to poisoning, there are some crops around here that perhaps have not managed their agrochemicals well and so this area was affected," he told AFP.

    In recent years, bees in North America, Europe, Russia, South America and elsewhere have started dying off from "colony collapse disorder," a mysterious scourge blamed partly on pesticides along with mites, viruses and fungi.

    The UN warns that nearly half of insect pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, risk global extinction.

    - Free fertilization -

    About 1.4 billion jobs and three-quarters of all crops around the world, according to a 2016 study, depend on pollinators, mainly bees, which provide free fertilization services worth billions of dollars.

    Some 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Antioquia, in the Quindio Department, Abdon Salazar has no qualms pointing the finger at fipronil as he counts his losses.

    "Over the last two years, we have calculated more than 80 million dead bees," he said as he walked among the 300 vibrating hives of his business Apicola Oro (Golden Beekeeping).

    "We are talking some 800 hives, 100,000 bees per hive, it is a very large quantity, an alarming quantity."

    Salazar and other beekeepers in the region are increasingly having to clear out mounds of dead bees from their apiaries which are surrounded by avocado and citrus plantations in an exceptionally fertile and biodiverse part of the world.

    - Toxic neighbors -

    In Quindio, hive collapse has coincided with the expansion of monoculture in recent decades, according to Faber Sabogal, president of the Asoproabejas beekeepers' organization.

    According to the local government, five multinational companies bought large tracts of land in the region between 2016 and 2019 to profit from the growing global appetite for Hass avocados.

    Exports skyrocketed from 1.7 tons in 2014 to 44.5 tons in 2019, and this year, Colombia became the largest supplier of the creamy, green delicacy to Europe.

    But bees are the collateral damage, becoming contaminated as they buzz through pesticide-treated plantations looking for food, say beekeepers.

    "They bring this poison to the hive and kill everyone else," said Salazar.

    - Economic impediments -

    Asoproabejas members have videotaped dozens of mass bee die-offs in several regions of Colombia, mainly in the west.

    Last year, the state-owned Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) was notified by beekeepers of 256 suspected hive poisonings in Quindio alone.

    Some 10 million insects were lost.

    ICA regional manager Jorge Garcia said the body examined samples from six apiaries and found that "the fipronil molecule is one of the causes of mortality."

    The alert was raised with ICA headquarters in Bogota, which is working on a suspension order, he told AFP.

    Withdrawing the poison altogether has been difficult "because the companies producing agrochemicals will be affected economically," said Salazar.

    - Competing interests -

    Maria Latorre, spokeswoman for Colombia's agrochemical union, said a fipronil ban would provoke "a very negative situation for the productive structure" of the 33 crops that rely on it.

    The body denies that fipronil is harmful to bees, but said it would welcome a "review" of its use "on crops that have had incidents."

    But Fernando Montoya of the Colombian Hortofruticola Association, which represents crop growers, said the chemical could be replaced by "mushroom-based bioproducts," insect traps and manual pest removal.

    The ICA has denied any link between the expansion of avocado crops in Quindio and the recent decimation of bees.

    But rather than risk losing it all, Apicola Oro, which produces some 36 tons of honey a year, decided to pack up and leave.

    He has managed to save his business for now, but worries about the future.

    "The bee is a bioindicator. If bees are dying, what other insects beneficial to the environment... are dying?".

    © 2021 AFP

    Flood-prone Miami to spend billions tackling sea level rise

    Agence France-Presse
    February 26, 2021

    The US city of Miami is to invest billions of dollars to tackle its vulnerability to rising sea levels, a reality that already affects the daily lives of residents used to constant flooding.

    Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava said Friday she will protect communities hardest hit by rising sea levels, which eat away at beaches and leave residents particularly vulnerable to flooding during hurricane season.

    "We must continue to focus on restoration, preservation and protection of this sacred space," she told a news conference.

    "And so we will be together investing billions of dollars... in our infrastructure so that we can lift this community and others that are so affected by sea level rise," she added.

    She cited "adaptation action areas" as a first priority to be studied, which would include raising low-lying roads, and waterproofing and converting southern Florida's widely used septic tanks into sewage systems.

    The area, with extensive wetlands and sitting on porous stone that acts like a sponge, makes the state one of the most at risk from rising sea levels.

    The problem is so visible that, during the summer rainy season, it is common to see Miamians kayaking along flooded avenues and cars sunk up to their windows.

    The city of Miami Beach -- which is part of Miami-Dade County -- invested millions of dollars in raising the level of many of its streets in 2016.

    And some private entrepreneurs have proposed creative, if expensive, ways to adapt to the challenge.

    For example, Miami residents are used to seeing a houseboat that often docks near the port, although it has also appeared in other waters around Biscayne Bay.

    It is valued at $5.5 million and adjusts to rising sea levels.

    "It looks like a house, but technically it's a boat," said Nicolas Derouin, co-founder and managing director of Arkup, the Miami-based company that created this floating "villa" with a drop-down terrace over the sea.

    The house, covered with a roof of solar panels, remains stable thanks to four hydraulic pillars that fix it to an underwater bed.

    The Environmental Protection Agency says the sea level could rise by 30am to 120 cm over the coming century.

    © 2021 AFP

    Joe Biden tours Texas storm relief efforts

    Agence France-Presse
    February 26, 2021

    President Joe Biden on Friday toured relief efforts in Houston after an unusually severe winter storm pummeled Texas, driving the state's power grid to the brink of collapse.

    "Hell of an operation here. It's probably the best one in the country," Biden told staff at the Emergency Operations Center in Houston. "You're saving people's lives. As my mother would say, you're doing God's work."

    Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, was visiting for the first time since a prolonged freeze plunged Texas into chaos, with the power grid unable to keep up and Texans, far more used to heat than cold, struggling to survive.

    Millions in the solidly Republican state lost power and reliable water. Mark Sloan, emergency management coordinator for Harris County, said "57,000 residents still have to boil their water" for safety.

    Biden and the first lady also stopped at the giant Houston Food Bank, which serves more than a million people across south-east Texas.

    Jill Biden helped pack boxes with instant oats and canned peaches, saying: "We're here to help, so put us to work!"

    The president was later to visit a federal Covid-19 vaccination center to promote the government's bid to speed up a national vaccine rollout against the pandemic. The center is able to administer 6,000 shots a day.

     
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