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Posts posted by Joe Bauer
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Just finished reading former Trump fixer/consigliere attorney Michael Cohen's book "Disloyal-A Memoir."
For 10 years the man was literally Trump's super charged personal pitbull attack dog.
Often right at his side more than anyone.
Carrying out Trump's business and legal dirty work and attacking his enemies with all out stick fetching dog owner pleasing devotion and enthusiasm and at times with a proud relish visciousness.
Cohen writes he admittedly was under a one track, blind cult follower mindset like spell as Trump's number one Capo / confidant hit man. Riding a continuous power trip high being close to his world famous "Boss" and doing his bidding with the 24/7 rush chasing energy of a meth addict.
Seemingly every two pages of Cohen's tome reveals enough outrageous Trump character corruption "alone" to bring down in scandal most other idolized high position celebrity icons. And there's 275 more!
Before reading Cohen's Trump insider tell-all I already sensed it was common knowledge Trump was extraordinarily morally, self-centered and greed obsessed corrupt.
There have been so many other published best seller Trump expose books, nationally broadcast film documentaries and personal take interviews in the public domain about Trump in this vein that one would have to be remarkably disinterested to not have heard or read at least some dark side tidbits of the eccentrically famous "You're Fired!" , "Grab Em By The Pu$$Y" and "Russia if you're listening ... " quoted celebrity.
Cohen's Trump corruption tale is interestingly different than the other takes.
It's personal. It's down and dirty pay back.
It's Mafia Godfather throwing his most loyal capo under the bus with ratting out consequences theater.
It's disturbing ( and yet with a perverse voyeuristic attractiveness ) in it's grossly raw depiction of Trump's real and monumentally extreme flawed self.
Shamelessly, obsessively and immaturely self-centered, self-promoting and aggrandizing to a laughably overly exaggerated, grandiose and, as many have stated, a sociopathic degree.
Even if Cohen's "Disloyal-A Memoir" book sells a million copies, that equates into just .03 percent of our society reading for themselves the incredible bad character corruptness of Trump, from the view point of a 10 year extremely close and personally involved confidant - albeit with a grudge.
99.6 % of Americans will never buy this book. 97 to 98 % will probably never read Cohen's book outside of brief excerpts one would imagine.
Too bad. It's a worthy Trump insider reveal eye opener imo.
Although perhaps a little too heavy in it's straight shots of whiskey doses of Trump's sordid bad side exposing and trashing for some I would imagine.
It seems responsibly important however, that more Americans should know the fuller truth of a man who was our president for four turbulent years.
If for any other reason than to learn about how this supremely flawed, super controversial and aggressively driven man ever got elected and why his leadership was so extremely devisive of our society in so many unprecedented ways.
And to learn about themselves as contributing members of our democracy and in what ways they either helped elect, support and enable this president or actively opposed and voted for his removal.
We are all a significant part of the Trump presidency and it's societal effect on us all collectively and it's carried on effect and legacy for years to come.
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Nothing in this election regards vote count irregularities and violations could EVER come close to the greatest presidential election steal in our history with the 2,000 Florida vote count stop by our own Republican biased Supreme Court.
They literally stopped the Florida vote count ( stomping over the Florida Supreme Court decision to continue the vote count ) when Gore was continually gaining and was just 500+ short of winning Florida and the national election, both electorally and by popular vote.
Even JFK conspiracy debunker Vincent Bugliosi declared that SCOTUS decision and action as one of the greatest crimes against our democracy ever.
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Humes said in his WC testimony that he had to do "virtually" no work with a saw to remove the brain. The word "virtually" implies he had to cut some bone. Humes told the ARRB "we had to cut some bone". Floyd Riebe and Tom Robinson claim they saw the pathologists using a saw to cut bone.
O'Conner says there was no brain removal because there wasn't enough brain to remove. O'Conner also stated there was no typical skull cutting procedure that he witnessed.
If there was, wouldn't someone as experienced in this procedure as O'Conner ( who says he was with JFK's body the entire evening) have noticed it being done or at least noticed saw marks or scalp cutting in all the later hours of being near JFK's head?
Humes tells the AARB "he had cut some bone" to remove JFK's brain." But not much. ?
Can anyone remove a deceased person's entire brain without making enough room to get their hands deep in and around the brain to lift it for the nerve, muscle and brain stem cuts?
The following are some curious credibilty questioning parts of Hume's AARB testimony:
Q. Dr. Humes, for the most part, I am not going to ask questions about your background or
Page 22
education, but there is one question that I had that I did want to ask about, and that is, in the document marked Exhibit 22, on page 2795, it reports that you "performed several autopsies on military personnel killed by gunshot wounds."
A. Yes.
Q. Is that statement correct?
A. That's correct.
Q. When did--
A. Usually they're accidents or homicides or whatever.
Q. When did you conduct the autopsies for gunshot wounds?
A. Well, ones that stand out in my mind, two ( TWO? ) were in Tripler Army Hospital in Hawaii. The truth of it, I can't recall, specifically recall where else.Humes can't recall where else... so it was just two?
In San Diego, we did 800 autopsies a year. It's really kind of hard for me to specifically recall the details of many of those.
>>>I never held myself forth as an expert in gunshot wounds.<<<
That's why I called Pierre Finck, who was an expert.
Q. Had you had experience with gunshot woundsPage 23
prior to 1963?
A. Yes.
Q. And those were, as best you recall now, at Tripler Hospital in Hawaii?
A. Yes.
Q. And in San Diego?
A. Possibly San Diego.Q. And was the casket opened in the morgue?
A. Yes.
Q. Who else was in the room when the casket was opened?
A. Oh, I can't tell you that. Dr. Boswell and I removed the body from the casket, and I--I don't know who. There were some enlisted helpers, technicians from our department there, and I don't know who else was there. I can't tell you. I was too intent on what I was doing and too, to tell you the truth, a little bit shook by the whole procedure, initially at least. It was disturbing to have a deceased President there in your arms, you know. It's not an unemotional experience. But I was not worrying about who was around or whatever. It was the least of my worries.Page 69
Q. Who else in addition to Dr. Boswell, if anyone, helped you remove the body from the casket?
A. I don't recall that anyone did, but I don't gainsay the possibility that one of the enlisted men may have helped. But nobody else.(O'Conner?)
Q. I'd like to ask you some questions about this. First, was this document, Exhibit 1, in your possession at any point during which you were writing the autopsy protocol?
A. Probably. Probably was. Over the weekend, yeah.
Q. I'd like to draw your attention to a few items on the first page of this document. Right next to the marking for brain, there's no entry of a weight there. Do you see that on the document?
A. Yes, I see that it's blank, yeah.
Q. Why is there no weight for the brain there?
A. I don't know. I don't really--can't really recall why.
Q. Was the fresh brain weighed?
A. I don't recall. I don't recall. It's as simple as that.
Q. Would it be standard practice for a gunshot wound in the head to have the brain weighed?
A. Yeah, we weigh it with gunshot wound orPage 75
no. Normally we weigh the brain when we remove it. I can't recall why--I don't know, one, whether it was weighed or not, or, two, why it doesn't show here. I have no explanation for that.
Q. When you received training--let me try that question again. Did you take any courses in forensic pathology prior to the time of the autopsy?
A. The only specific course I took was a one- week course at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in November of 1953.A "one week" course ten years before 1963? !!!
Lastly Corpsman O'Conner states he was with or very close JFK's body the entire evening. He helped lift JFK's body out of the delivered casket.
Dr. Humes states the "first" procedure he did on JFK's body was to remove the brain. Are we to believe that corpsman O'Conner was asked to leave the room while Humes did this procedure? O'Conner claims he didn't leave the body and room, especially so soon after JFK's arrival. If he's telling the truth, he would have seen Humes remove JFK's brain. Corpsman Jenkins claimed he was handed JFK's brain right after it's removal.
The point here is that if you believe Jenkins story, he "was" present during this brain removal procedure. And he was the newbe medical tech understudy to the more experienced O'Conner.
Why would O'Connor not be present when Humes says he removed JFK's brain as Jenkins claims he was ?
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If Rod Serling himself had come up with a future time story like this Trump presidency, it would have been censured by his network as too unbelievable and disturbing and Serling would have been asked to be checked out by a psychiatrist.
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Don't know who is more sadly pathetic;
Trump in his mental prison world of insecure, paranoid, self-centered and delusional grandeur madness ... or his blindly idolizing followers who view him as a living God savior come to allay their fears and frustrations and to give them purpose, direction and self-worth.
The following of a false God is always sad in it's eventual unfulfilling waste and emptiness.
Trump's one term turn as President turned out to be a pretty good gig though.
Over 300 days golfing? That's what ... 75 days a year?
All expenses paid with tens of millions of "tax paying" little people's money covering massive security and airfare costs and even including free perfect photo op self-promotion of your own properties.
Plenty of free time to lay in bed watching TV and tweeting thousands of poor grammer and punctuation obsessive personal thought tweets which have nothing to do with the every day needs, struggles and challenges of his 325 million fellow Americans.
Time for 100 huge extra taxpayer paid costs rallies which get him out of the White House (which he considers a confining dump and exasperating to his extreme ADD condition ) and that satisfy his desperate need to perform stand up comedy in front of a cheering adulation crowd audience ( WE LOVE YOU ) and who even laugh at his bad jokes!
You get to place your immediate family in highly influencing and responsible positions close to you regardless of their total lack of experience, qualifications and even security clearance credentials.
You get to be surrounded by beautiful women at work like Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway, Kayleigh McAnaney, Kimberly Guilfoyle, etc.
You get to play the Wizard Of OZ and drape big importance sounding medals around people's necks, especially your own friends like Rush Limbaugh.
You get to host and pal around with championship winning sports teams and indulge them with lavish fast food banquet spreads and act as if you paid the bill for these.
You get to have tanning gel, hair dye and who knows what other personal make up and grooming fawning sessions almost daily that cost little people "tax payers" another extra $100, 000 a year as well.
You and your wife never have to wash your own underwear, cook a meal, wash a dish, clean a toilet, vacuum a rug, worry about the bills or deal with job and income loss and stress like all the little people.
And all you can do and say after being so indulged in this royal life style is complain and whine how the Democrats and liberals cheated you out of another 4 years of this pampered golfing, rally, TV watching and tweeting, medal handing out good life?
Well, like insult comedian Don Rickles would constantly say to his aging Hollywood star targets ... "IT'S OVER!"
" Oh, you think you still have years ... but face it ... IT'S OVER!"
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22 hours ago, Micah Mileto said:
Humes said in his WC testimony that he had to do "virtually" no work with a saw to remove the brain. The word "virtually" implies he had to cut some bone. Humes told the ARRB "we had to cut some bone". Floyd Riebe and Tom Robinson claim they saw the pathologists using a saw to cut bone.
The Bethesda Navy Hospital Corpsman Paul O'Conner's JFK brain testimony story is either one of the most intriguing truth enlightening / cover-up exposing bombshell aspects of the official JFK brain autopsy record or the most outrageously bold lying ones.
O'Conner's under-oath testimony recollections of what he saw regards JFK's brain and it's removal is so contradictory to the official record it's seemingly irrational to mental derangment level upon first consideration.
However, how rational is it to totally dismiss corpsman Paul O'Conner's 180 degree opposite eyewitness JFK brain observation testimony considering his proven closeness to JFK's head and body from it's immediate arrival to the Bethesda pathology department at 8:PM on 11,22,1963 to the early hours of 11,23,1963?
And also taking in the facts of O'Conner's apparantly good 4 year long navy service record, his medical duty stations and positions including his "specific medical specialty training in brain removal" and his loyalty in keeping to his military orders of remaining silent about his observations of the JFK autopsy for decades even after his actual in service time and being a civilian.
O'Conner's credibility evaluations must include these truths about his personal background and character and even demeanor ( uncomfortably reserved ) which in my life experience common sense do not suggest a desire for national and even international press spotlight attention by making up block buster false claims about a highest level government truth cover up regards such a monumentally important historical event.
And I am reasonably sure Paul O'Conner didn't make a dime off his autopsy testimony and story. No book deals. No speaking fee tours. Clearly, money was not behind his block buster testimony sharing effort.
O'Conner says there was no brain removal because there wasn't enough brain to remove. O'Conner also stated there was no typical skull cutting procedure done on JFK.
If there was, wouldn't someone as experienced in this procedure as O'Conner have noticed the saw marks?
Humes tells the AARB "he had cut some bone" to remove JFK's brain."? But not much?
Can anyone remove a deceased person's entire brain without making enough room to get their hands deep in and around the brain to lift it for the nerve, muscle and brain stem cuts?
RFK supposedly didn't want his brothers removed parts to be photographed or accessible to anyone outside their family? They wanted the brain to be buried with the body. It wasn't. Humes testified he gave Admiral Burkley JFK's brain in a pail days after JFK was already buried. And Humes was mystified as to the brain going missing thereafter.
I align with the Bethesda Navy Corpsman Paul O'Conner testimony claim that the removed and preserved 1500 gram weight brain described as JFK's in the official government autopsy report "must be somebody else's."
The following are some curious credibilty questioning parts of Hume's AARB testimony:
Q. Dr. Humes, for the most part, I am not going to ask questions about your background or
Page 22
education, but there is one question that I had that I did want to ask about, and that is, in the document marked Exhibit 22, on page 2795, it reports that you "performed several autopsies on military personnel killed by gunshot wounds."
A. Yes.
Q. Is that statement correct?
A. That's correct.
Q. When did--
A. Usually they're accidents or homicides or whatever.
Q. When did you conduct the autopsies for gunshot wounds?
A. Well, ones that stand out in my mind, two ( TWO? ) were in Tripler Army Hospital in Hawaii. The truth of it, I can't recall, specifically recall where else.( can't recall where else?)
In San Diego, we did 800 autopsies a year. It's really kind of hard for me to specifically recall the details of many of those.
I never held myself forth as an expert in gunshot wounds.
That's why I called Pierre Finck, who was an expert.
Q. Had you had experience with gunshot woundsPage 23
prior to 1963?
A. Yes.
Q. And those were, as best you recall now, at Tripler Hospital in Hawaii?
A. Yes.
Q. And in San Diego?
A. Possibly San Diego.Q. And was the casket opened in the morgue?
A. Yes.
Q. Who else was in the room when the casket was opened?
A. Oh, I can't tell you that. Dr. Boswell and I removed the body from the casket, and I--I don't know who. There were some enlisted helpers, technicians from our department there, and I don't know who else was there. I can't tell you. I was too intent on what I was doing and too, to tell you the truth, a little bit shook by the whole procedure, initially at least. It was disturbing to have a deceased President there in your arms, you know. It's not an unemotional experience. But I was not worrying about who was around or whatever. It was the least of my worries.Page 69
Q. Who else in addition to Dr. Boswell, if anyone, helped you remove the body from the casket?
A. I don't recall that anyone did, but I don't gainsay the possibility that one of the enlisted men may have helped. But nobody else.Don't techs do this low to the floor heavy body lifting? Isn't that why they are there?
Q. I'd like to ask you some questions about this. First, was this document, Exhibit 1, in your possession at any point during which you were writing the autopsy protocol?
A. Probably. Probably was. Over the weekend, yeah.
Q. I'd like to draw your attention to a few items on the first page of this document. Right next to the marking for brain, there's no entry of a weight there. Do you see that on the document?
A. Yes, I see that it's blank, yeah.
Q. Why is there no weight for the brain there?
A. I don't know. I don't really--can't really recall why.
Q. Was the fresh brain weighed?
A. I don't recall. I don't recall. It's as simple as that.
Q. Would it be standard practice for a gunshot wound in the head to have the brain weighed?
A. Yeah, we weigh it with gunshot wound orPage 75
no. Normally we weigh the brain when we remove it. I can't recall why--I don't know, one, whether it was weighed or not, or, two, why it doesn't show here. I have no explanation for that.
Q. When you received training--let me try that question again. Did you take any courses in forensic pathology prior to the time of the autopsy?
A. The only specific course I took was a one- week course at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in November of 1953.A "one week" course ten years before 1963? !!!
Lastly Corpsman O'Conner states he was with or very close JFK's body the entire evening. He helped lift JFK's body out of the delivered casket.
Dr. Humes states the "first" procedure he did on JFK's body was to remove the brain. Are we to believe that corpsman O'Conner was asked to leave the room while Humes did this procedure? O'Conner claims he didn't leave the body and room, especially so soon after JFK's arrival. If he's telling the truth, he would have seen Humes remove JFK's brain. Corpsman Jenkins claimed he was handed JFK's brain right after it's removal.
The point here is that if you believe Jenkins story, he "was" present during this brain removal procedure. And he was the newbe medical tech understudy to the more experienced OConner.
Why would Connor not be present when Jenkins was?
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1 hour ago, Micah Mileto said:
How do you get JFK's brain out of that shattered skull above without doing massive cutting of the rest of the skull as Navy corpsman Paul O'Conner ( whose job specialty was brain removal ) decribed in court oath testimony?
To be able to grab the front of the brain and lift it to get to the temporal muscles to cut them and the eyes nerves as well one would need a lot more open skull top room to do so, and don't forget cutting the brain stem below the brain.
O'Conner was with or close to JFK's body the entire autopsy beginning with it's arrival to Bethesda.
He stated under oath he didn't perform any brain removal work on JFK. In fact, he stated there was no skull cutting done on JFK, because there was no brain in there to remove.
Yet, the official Bethesda autopsy reports a removed and damaged but mostly intact JFK brain that weighed in at 1500 grams.
Heavy skull cutting and peeling back would be the only way Humes and Bosley could get a brain out of JFK's skull.
Since this was corpsman Paul O'Conner's main job in that lab, and he says he didn't do any JFK skull cutting or brain nerve, muscle and stem cutting, how did Humes and Boswell pull out almost a full brain? Did someone else cut open JFK's skull enough for them to do this cutting out of the brain?
Humes and Boswell didn't do any JFK skull cutting themselves.
O'Conner never saw anyone do this.
Yet, a big mostly intact brain was handed to O'Conner's fellow corpsman workmate James Jenkins by Humes or Boswell to place in a jar of formaldehyde.
Who did this brain removal ( including the cutting of muscle, nerves and brain stem ) without opening up and peeling back JFK's skull as shattered and obliterated as it was?
In the official autopsy records is there a name stated as the actual person who removed JFK's brain and did so without cutting JFK's skull all the way across, peeling it back and the cutting away of the tough brain protecting membrane called "Dura Matter?"
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2 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:
“As far as a mandate, I’ve been very clear I don’t think this it’s the right thing to do,” said Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who was infected earlier this year with the coronavirus. “This is a personal responsibility.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has provided her people with the full scope of the science, facts, and data regarding the virus, and then she has trusted them to exercise their personal responsibility to make the best decisions for themselves and their loved-ones,” her spokesman Ian Fury wrote in an email. “She will not be changing that approach.”
No, it’s not a matter of “personal responsibility” You don’t have the right to spread your diseases anywhere you want, any more than you have the right to spread the bubonic plague, or Ebola any where you want.
Over 130 Secret Service officers test positive for COVID after Trump’s campaign travels: report
By
Sky Palma November 13, 2020
“According to a new report from the Washington Post, over 130 Secret Service officers have been infected with coronavirus in the wake of President Trump’s campaign travels.”
Steve Thomas
Mind blowing!
The Trump circus never ends.
I wonder what these 130 infected S.S. agents personally think of Trump and whether they blame him for their plight?
Especially if they have family and children and had to worry about infecting them as well?
Do S.S. agents vote? Same thing - did they vote for Trump?
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As always extremely thought provoking and more interesting because of your personal youthful connection to JFK, your passion for the truth of his murder and your stimulating writer's sensitivities ( especially in the sensitive art field of film ) in conveying your research and thoughts about it all.
Reserved Jackie's dislike of campaigning and retreating to a corner chair to read Proust and your persistent efforts to get her to autograph your JFK piece are touching anecdotes about someone who has fascinated me forever, partly because I found her to be one of the most physically and intelligently attractive and interesting women of our time.
You obviously like Mailer's writing.
Do you have any thoughts about Mailer's final take on Oswald being JFK's assassin and his justification in this assessment?
If you feel Mailer is wrong, can you share why you feel this way?
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On 11/12/2020 at 7:28 PM, Chris Bristow said:
It's really a mystery to me how Paul O'Connor unwrapped the president's head and immediately saw that there was hardly any brain left. Yet Jenkins was somehow handed an almost complete brain. I think he said Boswell or Humes handed it to him.
O'Conner testified under oath the skull, membrane and nerve cutting brain removal procedure "was never done on JFK!"
Even if O'Conner is lying, the "fact" is that so much JFK brain matter had been expelled during the initial head shot (with visibly more oozing out up to and during his Parkland treatment" there is no way JFK's brain weight as listed in the final "official" autopsy report can be accurate imo.
The two motorcycle officers right behind the presidential limo stated in ther WC testimony that they felt they were hit quite sharply by a blood and "matter" spray. Driver Greer and agent Kellerman said brain matter sprayed into their area as well.
Brain matter was found throughout the JFK limo back seat area. Jackie held a piece of JFK's brain in her hand. Dr. Jenkins stated there was brain matter on the stretcher JFK was brought in on and at least one Parkland doctor next to JFK's head in the ER table tesified that some more brain matter had oozed out of the massive baseball sized occipital wound during his ER treatment.
How many grams of brain matter could make up all this noted brain loss?
10% of JFK's entire brain? 20%. More?
The final brain weight listed in the official autopsy report can't be right if even 20% of JFK's brain was lost in all these testified ways.
And we know much of JFK's brain was macerated mush upon his arrival to Parkland from the descriptions of Dr. Jenkins, Jackie's hand held chunk, oozing out the occipital wound.
Jenkins did not describe seeing such a mushy mascerated brain that was handed to him.
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5 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:
Joe:
I do remember KGO from its liberal heyday. That station was legendary in its influence and how smart it was in its dialogue. And yes i recall Ray T also.
Cumulus is, I think, the third biggest radio chain holder in America. After Clear Channel (now called I heart) and Entercom, which merged with CBS radio in 2017.
i was aware of how rightwing Cumulus is, similar to Clear Channel, I was not aware of how they bought KGO in order to destroy it.
All three of these companies were allowed to grow and prosper as a result of the changes in ownership rules the FCC did under Clinton. It was one thing to get an homogenized product tossed together by people like Cronkite and Howard K Smith and then have a critic show why it was biased. But with what has happened since the FCC rules were changed, is that the radio broadcast industry is now designed to simply and deliberately convey a combination of grey and black propaganda done to inflame the masses. The CIA calls it polarization. Scott Walker called it divide and conquer. The idea is to use cultural issues, including race, to get people to vote against their own interests.
When you have over 1000 radio stations to get that message across, it works.
>>> The privately held radio industry has become a massive propaganda oligarchy. <<<
IMO, its not what the public wants. Its what they are getting whether they like it or not.
Exactly.
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10 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:
Joe,
From the movie, The American President, 1995"
"President Andrew Shepherd: [in the White House Press Room] For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was, to a certain extent, about character, and although I have not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being president of this country is *entirely* about character. For the record: yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. But the more important question is, why aren't you, Bob? Now, this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question: Why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution? If you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago. America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free". I've known Bob Rumson for years, and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Bob's problem is that he can't sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character. And wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism and you tell them, she's to blame for their lot in life, and you go on television and you call her a whore. Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, 'cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league."
The next time somebody wants to talk to you about "the good old days", or "Make America Great Again", run like hell, because the next thing that comes out of their mouth is going to be a lie.
Steve Thomas
Astoundingly profound. Great script writing. I watched that film and remember Douglas reciting the speech.
It was inspiring in the film, and in real life, in our current reality politically and socially, it is still just as inspiring and wise and true.
Douglas's speech words were right.
The presidency is indeed about personal character.
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11 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:
Joe:
You are wrong about Paul Harvey. Harvey was a conservative. Except he was a not a Limbaugh type clown/in your face conservative. He was more an EIsenhower type conservative.
What was the key point in the rise of Limbaugh and the right wing talk loonies was removal of the Fairness Doctrine and Equal Time provisions of the FCC code under Reagan. That was the dam breaker as far as polluting the air waves went. ABC then arranged a huge launch of Limbaugh out of New York City. Shortly after that, Clear Channel began taking over key stations in large and mid sized cities and placing Limbaugh clones on the air. In LA for example, we used to have intelligent people like Michael Jackson (no, not the singer)and Ira Fistell on our ABC radio channel. They were dumped and people like Larry Elder did a back flip in order to become a big time radio host.
That decision to cancel the Fairness Doctrine and Equal Time provisions was one of the most pernicious and fateful moves ever done by the FCC. It created a full time propaganda network for the RNC, at the same time that it helped promote the Far RIght lunatic fringe of the GOP and forever spell the end of the moderate wing of that party.
That was then made worse by Clinton's decision to modify the ownership rules of the FCC and this allowed even more concentration of power in the field. Today, something like six companies own over 90 per cent of all broadcasting outlets in America. Clinton's decision allowed the rapid expansion of companies like SInclair and OAN.
Jim D.
As always, points well taken and so in depth informing and true.
Jim, back in the 1980s and 1990s the most listened to radio station in not just the San Francisco Bay area but all of Northern California was KGO.
For 27 straight years KGO was always "the number 1" top ratings garnering radio station.
They had a hugely popular, hugely listened to nightly week day political talk format that was totally left defending and right bashing all the way.
Bernie Ward "The Lion Of The Left" was the main prime time commentator.
Ray Taliaferro was the late night political talk show host.
Others were Pat Thurston, John Rothman, sometimes Gene Burns, Gil Gross, etc.
These were rock hard liberal left political pundits. They had a huge audience with their prime time shows. They helped bolster the super liberal sentiment which really has always been the majority sentiment in San Francisco anyway.
KGO did have contrary political view talk shows and hosts. Far right ones. Bill Wattenburg - the nuclear power can do no wrong guru.
Morning KGO talk show host Ronn Owens became right leaning over the years. I remember once his saying on air that he would put up $1,000,000 dollars ( or some other huge amount) or he would quit his position or whatever, as a bet that we "would" find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the media promotion hype supporting the war.
We never found any WMD's and Owens just dropped even mentioning his disingenuous bet.
In the 2,000's number 1 rated KGO was bought by Cumulus radio. A right wing advocating corp.
The first thing they did was to rip apart the left promoting political talk show host format.
Bernie Ward embarrassingly got caught up in a child porn sting.
Ray Taliaferro was kind of marginalized (he seemed to lose his fury, maybe to keep his job?) and simply dumped few years later and not long after kind of lost his marbles ( dementia? ) and disappeared in another part of the country. Maybe even murdered? Not exactly sure.
Cumulus destroyed the very influencial KGO left promoting political talk show programming. And with it, their ratings!
Last I saw KGO was around 13th in ratings in the SF Bay Area. In other words, a complete non-entity in that market.
What media corporation buys a 27 year straight number 1 rated radio station and purposely destroys it's ratings?
It is the opposite of corporate profit common sense.
KGO was bought to destroy it's political influence in it's hugely populated audience base.
And by the way " nuclear power is as safe as using your toaster" Bill Wattenberg just kind of disappeared after the melt down disaster in Fukushima, Japan."
He's passed since then as well.
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27 minutes ago, Robert Burrows said:
All good points, Joe. I read this article when it was published back in 2018, and I thought that it explained how we got here very well.
Robert, do you feel radio and TV media can have that much impact and influence in affecting the political mind sets of Americans on a large scale?
Do you agree with my premise in trying to explain how the majority of white Americans have turned so far right in the last 30 years? Actually from Reagan's first run in 1980...40 years ago?
The left/liberal/Democrat party identifiers have been very successfully demonized in this time frame.
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8 hours ago, Robert Burrows said:
I live in Downstate New York, and I hear the same rhetoric every day. I thought that Biden would prevail this time, because, in the cities and surrounding suburbs, I saw far fewer Trump campaign signs than in 2016. However, in the rural areas, I saw a Trump sign on almost every lawn. Not only placards, but enormous Trump flags, and banners, that were prominently, and proudly, displayed. I never saw a Biden banner, let alone a flag. I find the passion of Trump's supporters truly frightening. Millions of people have been consuming the fear and hatred of the left that Rush Limbaugh and his ilk have been feeding them on a daily basis for the last three plus decades.
RB, exactly.
Thinking/wondering how white America has turned so far to the right politically the last 30 years.
Like most of us here I am old enough to remember back before this massive nationally broadcast right wing promoting, left wing demonizing, fear and anger inciting political talk radio propaganda machine campaign went all out 24/7 bananas.
First with Limbaugh and soon enough a small army of similar copycat left demonizing talk show hosts. And curiously no left defending ones.
Paul Harvey was it.
Limbaugh's adeptness in riling up millions of listeners against the left could be measured and was found to be hugely successful in influencing white American public and political opinion.
Especially the white working class who have always made up the main listening audience ( by far ) of daytime talk radio. Millions of trades workers in their work trucks and work places and shops. Millions of others just driving in their cars running errands or in their homes doing chores.
Hungering for someone to be their voice and yell out to all America their personal pent up white American social and political frustrations, angers and fears.
Rush Limbaugh has been their hero in this regards.
It has been measured that 50 million Americans tune in and listen to national talk radio throughout the day and night. That is a huge audience. Talk radio is very impacting. More than most know.
For decades now, our national radio broadcast waves have been inundated with the likes of evangelical religious style right wing proselytizing, left wing demonizing celebrity characters such as Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Micheal Savage ( real name "Weiner",) Laura Ingraham, Mike Gallagher, Clyde Lewis, etc. etc. and for a few years in between even super patriots G.Gordon Liddy, Oliver North and conservative policy wonk Bill Bennett!
It's a laughably large and crowded field.
For sure in part because it's an absolute gold mine lucrative gig! Huge money.
Limbaugh makes what...25 million a year doing his thing? And these most well known others make millions a year also.
And throw in "super fringe" and super inciting Alex Jones ( millions of listeners also ) who would make you believe everything is a left wing QAnon type conspiracy and frequently has America's most well known and favorite Republican dirty trickster and also left conspiracy promoting Roger Stone on his broadcasts. And there are still others in smaller regional area broadcast markets.
Every second or minute of the day or night all one has to do to catch these left/liberal/democrat demonizing talk shows is to simply turn on your AM radio and turn the dial. They're everywhere.
Even late night, huge audience Coast To Coast AM radio with host George Noory tends toward the right, frequently having on far right pundits such as Roger Stone and left conspiracy book writer "Dr." Jerome Corsi. You know Corsi, he was a promoter of the John Kerry swift boat project during the 2004 Presidential campaign with fellow Viet Nam vets who were paid to travel around bashing Kerry as a lying coward regards Kerry's claims of being fired upon in his Viet Nam swift boat duties? You should read Corsi's education, military and intelligence background.
Before them all it was Paul Harvey. When I was just 21 I was employed as a landscape worker driving all around the city of Portland, Oregon maintaining commercial properties throughout the city. Every day our tough talking foreman would make sure we all had to listen to the Paul Harvey "and that's the rest of the story" noon time broadcasts on the one big truck we all had to ride in.
Using a mix of quaint humor or inspiring human interest stories just enough to call himself more a Norman Rockwellish story teller than a political propagandist, Harvey was clearly the precursor to Rush Limbaugh.
And as if this hugely funded and air waves saturated left bashing radio propaganda machine of the last 30 years wasn't enough, white America soon was soon given their very own nationally broadcast left/liberal/democratic party demonizing political view promoting TV show FOX NEWS to boot!
The power of both hugely funded media venues together in influencing and changing white American's political sentiments to the far right makes sense to me if you believe national media can do this. IMO, it can and has.
Especially if that's all you listen to or watch.
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Small to noticeable chunks of JFK's brain matter sprayed throughout the passenger area of the limo, FBI agents cleaning the back seat area of the limo report chunks of brain matter, some brain matter and blood even hitting the fronts of the two motorcycle police escorts in back of the limo.
Dr. Jenkins describes brain matter on the gurney. At least one other ER doctors stated JFK brain matter had actually fallen ( oozed ) out JFK's back head wound while he was prone and being worked on the ER table.
Jackie had head wound blood all over her dress front and even had some of JFK's brain in her hand which she handed to one of the ER treating doctors.
The official final autopsy report measuring JFK's removed brain weight is that of a normal intact human male brain, perhaps even heavier than average?
Bethesda Naval Hospital attendant Navy corpsman/student Paul O'Conner testified that he didn't need to do a brain removal procedure on JFK because there was so little brain left to remove.
These are not minor conflicting first hand eyewitness reports concerning what medical personnel saw of JFK's brain immediately upon arrival to Parkland and then Bethesda.
Just the amount of expelled brain matter found in so many areas out of JFK's head alone in Dallas would have been enough to significantly lower it's intact brain weight, no?
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1 hour ago, Mark Stevens said:
I'm honestly a little more disturbed that people just don't seem to get it or see it until afterwards. Just like the first election when a good portion of people sat around scratching their heads wondering how this could have happened when all the polls said something different....When general sentiment said something different...When logic, common sense and the basic human decency we all expect most others to have said something different...America still elected Donald Trump as President.
While, without the exception of some extraordinary events, he will not go on to be President again, the same head scratching and general confusion over his support still exists this time around.
I'm surprised that he lost. I expected him to win again and while I did think it would be closer than the last election I did expect him to win.
I've mentioned it before, but I work in a large manufacturing plant and I live in the South (maybe being in the South creates a different perspective). On a daily basis I come into contact with literally hundreds of Trump supporters. I have heard literally every last one of these talking points and I literally hear at least one of your quoted items below mentioned on a daily basis. (I'm only emphasizing these words to drive home the point that I am not exaggerating or embellishing.)
The Trump supporters I've encountered truly believe Trump is sent by god to save America from ____(fill in the blank with one/all of your items above). Anything said about Trump by the godless left is just a product of the Deep State sent to attack Trump because he is shaking up their institutions, draining the swamp, and saving our children.
Again, the above is not just some putdown, or colloquial talking point, this is literally what these people believe. They aren't explaining why they supported a sexual abuser to their children because he didn't do it, it's all lies invented by the left and the Deep State. Look at Trump's wives, look at his money. Do you really think he'd have to assault women for it?
Jon Stewart best summarized why Trump was elected years ago and the exact sentiment holds true today...
While I waited to get the text from Stewart above, I saw an article titled "White People Will Believe Anything...Except Facts."
It had a few nuggets...
https://www.theroot.com/white-people-will-believe-anything-except-facts-1845635274
So well expressed.
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2 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:
Dennis,
The poopoo regime that subverted the Weimar Republic was, in fact, strongly supported by the military-industrial oligarchy. The military-industrial oligarchs viewed the Nazis as allies against socialism.
And there are many other realistic parallels between Trumpism and Naziism.
1) A strong party alliance with the police and ex-military street militias.
2) A powerful propaganda establishment and relentless attack on the opposition "Lugenspresse."
3) Staged rallies in crowded venues.
4) Vilification of minority groups and foreigners.
5) An appeal to blood, soil, and Making Deutschland Great Again.
The similarities are clearly real beyond debate.
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This election more than past presidential ones has piqued my interest in and awareness of the complexities of voter demographics including gender, ethnicity, age, income, education, religion, urban versus rural residency, geographical residency, feelings regards candidate morality, race, the economy etc.
Seeing and contemplating the actual factual demographic numbers in this election presents an American political mind set reality that is quite different than even I thought I understood.
Just one demographic aspect ( I will add more to this post later ) that has startled me in my perception of Trump's base of support was the recent list posted here showing the breakdown of the voting numbers based on gender ethnicity.
White women in this country favored Trump over Biden by 12 percentage points!
55% to 43%.
I am still shocked at this reality.
Of course white males favored Trump equally.
This dual female, male white vote fact reveals that if white Americans only had the singular power to elect our President, Donald Trump would be elected in a landslide and probably given more than two terms.
It also means that a significant majority of white Americans believe that Trump has done a good job!
And his moral character, obsessive lying, encouraging extremist right wing and racist view groups and/or his reported dealings with corrupt others throughout most of his adult life are not issues of concern for them.
This is a head shaking, wake up call realization for me.
I am trying to understand what this majority white America Trump support mind set is based on? How has it been shaped and so deeply imbedded. What is it born of?
I have always felt that 50 years of 50 million listener audience right wing radio talk programming ( brainwashing ) with a dozen personalities promoting the angry white mind set 24/7 on the radio airways versus hardly any left wing influence has helped shape this deep left hating and fearing sentiment.
Rush Limbaugh has spent the last 40 years demonizing the liberal mind set and linking the Democratic party to this boogie man fear mongering.
Limbaugh has always loved to share his cynical comedic takes on this boogie man/left wing threat.
He's always been a wanna be stand up comedian/ funny disc jockey at heart.
Incessantly using scary and derogatory and humorously insulting words, labels and phrases in his anectodal tirades.
Black welfare queens, commie sympathizers, California queer liberalism, unpatriotic flag burners, commie minded college professors brainwasing their students into hating America, illegal immigrant take overs, and on and on.
I still think this massive 50 year long national radio right wing promoting, left wing demonizing brainwashing propaganda campaign has a lot to do with white American's left and liberal hating and fearing mind set.
However, this election I honestly thought white female Americans had actually seen the disliking and disgusted light regards Trump especially in his insulting and demeaning sexual aggressiveness, attitude, comments ( "grab em by the pu$$y" ) and even predatory history towards women as documented by many victims ( E. Jean Carroll rape charge, Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, twenty others in the book "All The President's Women - The Making Of A Sexual Predator" ) who were actually brave enough to put their real names in widely published accounts of Trump's abhorrent behavior in this way.
Topped by Trump's recent public pronouncement of sympathy towards jailed Jeffrey Epstein child sex predator victim procuror Ghislaine Maxwell.
Apparently all this sexual immoral behavior history on Trump's part means nothing to the majority of white American women!
What issue could be more important to white American women in shaping their favorable versus unfavorable views on Donald Trump than his well documented history of sexual predator behavior toward women ( them ?)
The economy? Race? Illegal immigration? Anti-abortion? What?
What do these Trump favoring white American women tell their daughters and granddaughters who may ask them - Mom (grandma) why would you support a proven sexual predator as our president?
Again, the actual factual demographic numbers of this election have blown away my false logic perception in this realm of Trump support understanding.
White American women love this guy more than hate or even dislike him!
Roseanne Barr is truly and sadly the ideological Trump loving poster person of our white women majority!
What a reality wake up call! Personally a very disturbing one imo.
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19 minutes ago, Andrew Prutsok said:James Surowiecki, author of the Wisdom of Crowds, writes in the Washington Post today about how numbers like those being promoted here by Robert Wheeler, are not wrong, just presented out of context. A little digging shows the numbers/claims are not really outrageous at all and absolutely predictable. The goal is merely to get this stuff spread on Facebook to create the appearance of corruption and delegitimize Biden's election:
"Flat-out false numbers are, of course, easier to debunk. So the more artful way of presenting dubious numbers has been to simply omit any context, and to suggest the numbers are self-evidently outrageous. When former federal prosecutor and Trump ally Sidney Powell appeared on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox News show Sunday, she said her group had identified “at least 450,000 votes” in “key states” where the ballot had been marked for Joe Biden but for no other candidate. This, Powell argued, was clearly problematic, while Bartiromo, for her part, said it merited a “massive government investigation.” The only problem with this analysis, as many people have pointed out since, is that “undervotes” — ballots where voters don’t vote in all the races listed — are surprisingly common in the United States, so much that in 2016, close to 2 million more votes were cast for president than for Senate candidates. The 450,000 number, then, isn’t especially surprising...
...The same is true of turnout numbers. In a recent piece for the Trumpist site the National Pulse, Steve Cortes — a senior adviser to the Trump campaign — claimed the 84 percent registered-voter turnout in Milwaukee this year “def[ied] reasonable expectations.” What Cortes failed to mention was that registered-voter turnout in Milwaukee in 2016 was 80 percent. So the increase to 84 percent, far from defying expectation, was predictable, given that turnout in Wisconsin as a whole was up about 5 percent...
...No one’s really trying to prove these claims, because they can’t; there is no meaningful statistical evidence of election fraud. What they’re doing is trying to create uncertainty, and doubt, to make it seem like something — even if not the particular thing they’re talking about — is wrong. They’re playing on our instinctive sense that where there’s so much smoke, there must be fire somewhere. But there is no fire. There are just lots of toxic, billowing clouds of nothing, blown here and there by a remarkably efficient smoke machine.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/11/11/vote-fraud-statistic-trump-ballots/
Many more people vote for just one issue in presidential elections ( President) than is generally known.
My wife and I are voracious news followers reading, watching and even listening to ( radio ) much about the political news situation during presidential election times albeit mostly on the federal level.
We do some reading regards state and local issues but still find ourselves asking each other questions about many of them as they simply aren't reported in as much detail in the news.
However, one can imagine hundreds of thousands of voters not even reading about any other issues but the presidency during presidential elections or even caring about voting on them.
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48 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:
Trump’s Like ‘Barricaded Subject’ In Hostage Situation: Ex-FBI Assistant Director
“It may be that U.S. marshals have to come take the president out,” Frank Figliuzzi says.
By Ed Mazza 11/11/20
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-white-house-barricaded-subject_n_5fab4d72c5b68707d1fa4009
Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI’s former assistant director for counterintelligence, praised President-elect Joe Biden for how he’s handling President Donald Trump, who has refused to concede and is filing legal actions to overturn the 2020 election results.
“We’re coming very close to having what the bureau calls a barricaded subject,” Figliuzzi said on MSNBC on Tuesday. “The barricaded subject is in the White House.”
Biden, he said, is “right on the money” with how negotiators handle a barricaded subject initially.
“We saw a very calm Joe Biden today,” Figliuzzi said of the president-elect shrugging off many of Trump’s antics.
“That is exactly what you do in the initial stages,” he explained, adding that this involves letting the subject vent.
But eventually, he said, Biden will have to call the SWAT team.
That could be in the form of a legal challenge, or “it may be that U.S. marshals have to come take the president out,” he said. “As we say to a barricaded subject, we can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way.”
Steve Thomas
I saw Figliuzzi say this on MSNBC yesterday myself.
I was wondering whether other major news media outlets would carry and re-report this former assistant head of the FBI's comments regards a possible scenario of using "U.S. Marshals" and his statement "we can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way."
Because to hear a former top official even state such marshalling action possibilities as a warning to Trump and his people on national TV is an elevation of response to Trump's unprecedented beligerent actions I don't think we ever expected to hear regards and directed at a sitting president.
Figliuzzi's comments were ominous and even scary. I never thought I would see the day when such things were happening in our own federal government involving a sitting president.
The craziness with Trump is never ending.
Obviously this egomaniac is going to make himself the drama queen reality star center of attention every day until January 20th, 2021.
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Compared to JFK times...this is all insanity!
Can't you see what Trump and his followers have done to our society and everyday world?
Absolute anxiety causing chaos!
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Speaking of records, I am not knowlegable about such matters but with 4,200 response postings on this single thread, wonder where it stands in the "most responses" record books for this forum?
The inevitable end result of our last 56 years
in Political Discussions
Posted · Edited by Joe Bauer