W. Niederhut

John, I love Miss McLeod's reel. Kevin Burke plays it well. Incidentally, I think everyone from the Isles of Skye and Lewis is either a McDonald or a McLeod (like Donald Trump's mother, Mary McLeod.)

Yes, Putin seems to be trying to terrorize and freeze the Ukrainians into surrendering to his totalitarian police state-- destroying their will and means of resistance. And he's sending his poorly trained Russian conscripts to the front, like sheep to the slaughter. The man is a bloody psychopath, absolutely corrupted by absolute power. I think he may, ultimately, resort to using nukes. Here's hoping that he's not long for this world in 2023.

Yes, John, I've heard the old Scotsman, Andy Stewart, sing a song which is, possibly, about porn star Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump, the laddie whose mother came from the Isle of Lewis, west of Skye. (He even does a hilarious Elvis impersonation in this version.) It's called, "Donald, Where's Your Trousers?" 🤪

Well, this is terrific, John! Thanks for posting. (I recognized a lot of scenery from a trek my wife and I made through the Scottish Highlands many years ago.) I also enjoyed Rod Stewart's performance of Auld Lang Syne (above.) There's another Stewart who sings Robert Burns songs well-- Andy M. Stewart. It doesn't include Auld Lang Syne, but I have enjoyed listening to this Andy M. Stewart CD for years-- especially on Robbie Burns Day (January 25th.)

Mathew, Investigative journalist Russ Baker did some groundbreaking work back in the spring of 2017 on Trump's multi-decade involvement with Felix Sater and the Russian mafia in NYC. Baker's writing on the subject was picked up by a few M$M sources at the time-- without attribution. Why FBI Can’t Tell All on Trump, Russia - WhoWhatWhy Catherine Belton's later history of Trump's involvement with Putin's oligarchs, Putin's People, is referenced above.

Mathew, What is missing from Tucker Carlson's commentary here about Trump questioning the value and funding of NATO in 2015, and later, is the context of Trump being a multi-decade Russian money launderer and erstwhile Kremlin asset. The Trump Organization was largely bankrolled after 1990 by the Russian mafia and Putin's oligarchs, as described in detail by Catherine Belton and other historians. Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West: Belton, Catherine: 9780374238711: Amazon.com: Books Trump's well known hostility to NATO, and to our closest allies in the EU, is rooted in his subservience to Putin and the Russian oligarchs who have kept Trump's business "empire" afloat for decades. It looks especially bad in retrospect, given what we now fully realize about Putin's agenda in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, doesn't it? Eastern European nations today have no illusions about the value of NATO-- unlike Tucker Carlson and some people in the Trump cult.

Thanks, Denny. You're a gentleman and a scholar. Happy New Year! My wife and I are both just happy to be alive this New Year's Eve. We both caught COVID (Omicron) one year ago this week. My main wish for 2023 is peace in Ukraine.

The Ukrainians are talking about closing the Mikhail Bulgakov Museum in Kiev. Some of you may be familiar with Bulgakov's novels, The Master and Magarita, and White Guard. He was a physician and native of Kiev who supported the Tsarist White Russians during the Civil War, but was not executed by the Bolsheviks because his play, The Days of the Turbins, was Stalin's favorite play. (He also survived the Stalinist purges of the 1930s.) Blugakov's novel, White Guard, was derived from his popular play, The Days of the Turbins. I recently watched the excellent Russian television film production of White Guard, set in Kiev in the winter of 1918, on Amazon Prime.* (There is also an outstanding film of The Master and Magarita, produced for Russian television some years ago.) White Guard is unpopular in Ukraine, because it depicts Petlyura and the Ukrainian nationalists of 1918 unfavorably. ‘Propaganda literature’: calls to close Mikhail Bulgakov museum in Kyiv | Mikhail Bulgakov | The Guardian * Watch The White Guard | Prime Video (amazon.com)

O.K., folks, here's a traditional English folk song for New Year's that was, allegedly, sung by George Washington, himself, back in the 18th century. The song, from Derbyshire, is based on Anglo-Saxon pagan, mid-winter celebrations, and was sung in "hoodening" processions for beer money. This is my own arrangement, using my Martin acoustic guitar in a Celtic DADGAD tuning. Derby Ram by Guillermo Ambrose | SoundClick Wikipedia has a good article about the Derby Ram and related British folk traditions. The Derby Ram - Wikipedia

Probably not, although he and Goering were, apparently, surprised when Britain and France subsequently declared war. By August of 1939, Hitler was used to getting away with his expansionist gambits in central Europe. In Putin's case, perhaps war could have been prevented if the U.S., NATO, and the Zelensky administration had agreed to forego the possibility of NATO expansion into Ukraine. (I don't know the answer to that hypothetical.)

Matt, I have had no illusions about Putin since 2007, when he and the FSB seized the ROCOR in Western Europe and the U.S., including my own ROCOR parish here in Denver. My point is about the colossal waste of human life and resources in the Ukraine War, and whether more could have been done to prevent this tragedy. The only people who benefit from this debacle are the war profiteers in the armaments industries-- Lockheed-Martin, Northrup-Grumman, et.al. It makes me sick.

Matt, Whatever else people may say about Putin's Ukraine invasion, it has certainly been a colossal waste of human life and resources. Think of the good things that Russia, the U.S., and the EU could have accomplished with all of the billions of dollars and rubles that have been wasted on bombs, missiles, and war machinery. For what?!! I felt just as nauseous about all of the billions Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld wasted murdering Iraqis and blowing up Iraq's infrastructure after February of 2003. For what?!! Of course, I mainly blame Putin for the Ukraine invasion, but the U.S. and NATO should have worked harder to prevent this debacle in the first place -- knowing that they were crossing a red line with the Kremlin on the issue of potential NATO expansion into Ukraine.

Biden Restores Clean Water Protection in U.S. EPA finalizes water rule that repeals Trump-era changes | AP News

C'mon, Ben. Where do you find this ahistorical Republican garbage? Do you really not know that the old-fashioned Dixiecrats referenced in your post (above) are the die-hard base of the modern Trump GOP in the South? That those old-fashioned segregationist Democrat "Dixiecrats" crossed over to the Republican Party en masse after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in the mid 60s? Did you forget that an assault weapons ban was enacted during the Clinton era? That every major piece of healthcare reform legislation in American history was accomplished by Democrats-- e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare? That Republicans fought tooth-and-claw against all of these landmark legislative achievements, even voting repeatedly to sabotage Obamacare after 2009? That every major U.S. war since Korea was started by Republican Presidents? (Bearing in mind that John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Eisenhower originally dragged the U.S./CIA into Vietnam after Dien Bien Phu in 1954.)

Joe, Your post reminded me of Michael Cohen's claim that Trump initially viewed his 2016 Presidential campaign as an "infomercial for the Trump Organization."

Good analysis by Greenwald here. My only criticism of the segment is that Greenwald goes out of his way to pin the blame on Mike Pompeo for Trump's decision to block the release of the JFK Records in October of 2017 and April of 2018. But Trump was the POTUS. Surely, Trump bears ultimate responsibility for that decision, just as Biden is, ultimately, responsible for his decision to block the release of the records this year. Trump and Biden both failed to stand up to the CIA in the case of the JFK Records. In an off-handed way, Greenwald is still trying to portray Trump as a passive victim of the Deep State and of Mike Pompeo's guile-- even blaming Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham for Trump's failure to pardon Snowden and Assange.

Thanks for the kind remarks, folks. Chris, your John Williams clip reminded me of one of my favorite old CDs... John Williams and Itzhak Perlman performing duets for violin and guitar composed by the great Italian violinist, guitarist, and composer, Niccolo Paganini. Niccòlò Paganini, Mauro Giuliani, Itzhak Perlman, John Williams - Duos for Violin & Guitar - Amazon.com Music

Ron, Look on the bright side. In the new, allied state of Texaco, El Presidente Cruz would no longer have to worry about border security or illegal aliens! 🤪

Medvedev is mistaking the Gerasimov strategy playbook for reality. His ignorance is scary, but also kind of funny. Texas forming an allied state with Mexico-- with Ted Cruz as El Presidente? 🤥

Kirk, Perhaps some JFK Truthers are more generally paranoid, but I would argue that getting in touch with JFKA reality is the opposite of a "mental health problem." The real issue here, as I see it, is the social repression, and uncovering, of historical truth-- and how people are affected by that healthy, but painful, discovery process. JFK wasn't murdered by a lone gunman in the TSBD. All informed people know that by now. In other words, we're not talking about people who have researched and discovered the repressed truth about JFK's murder being delusional. Just the opposite. JFK Truthers are the growing subset of the population who AREN'T delusional about what happened on 11/22/63. The delusional ones are those who still believe that Oswald was a lone assassin-- those who have been misled by 59 years of CIA propaganda in our mainstream media. Nor does the discovery of repressed historical truth, (e.g., about the JFK assassination) necessarily correlate with generalized paranoia. (Paranoia is suspicion and fear that is not based in reality.) It is more likely to result in healthy, rational skepticism about the true relationship between elements of our government (military and intelligence agencies) and our mainstream media-- what the CIA used to call, "Operation Mockingbird." That's not delusional. It's reality-based. Another prominent example. Most of us realized at some point after 2002 that the Bush/Cheney administration was systematically lying to us about Iraqi WMDs and the sales pitch for invading Iraq in March of 2003. Similarly, most of us also realized during the past half century that we were deceived about the Vietnam War.

Great comments here about the subject of our "Untold History," and its impact on our mental health. The uncovering of the true history of JFK's assassination, and the 59 year cover up, is one part of a broader uncovering of the "Untold History of the United States," as documented by Oliver Stone, Peter Kuznick, and others. The telling of national "family secrets." How many Americans knew about the Tulsa Race Massacre until recently? The grieving and working through process can be compared to the process of becoming conscious of, and working through, abuse and secrecy in dysfunctional families. It is painful, but leads to resolution and wisdom, if people can fully mourn, rather than getting fixated at a stage of unresolved grief-- such as chronic anger about things that we can't change. The end point of any grieving process is peace of mind and acceptance -- what Miguel de Unamuno called "the tragic sense of life." Camus described it as acceptance of the absurd-- i.e., the absurdity of suffering and injustice. Unfortunately, many people in our society are still fixated at a stage of denial of reality about America's "Untold History." Denial is a defense that many people cannot do without. Naturally, people don't want to believe that they have been betrayed or abused by trusted authority figures-- parents, Presidents, et.al. I'm sure that we all know some people who simply cannot tolerate hearing any details about American slavery, JFK's assassination, Trump's J6 coup attempt, 9/11, etc. Trump launched his 1776 fake history project in response to the 1619 Project to educate Americans about the true history of slavery.

Mathew, On the contrary, the entire political spectrum in the U.S., including that of Roman Catholics, has shifted to the right during the past half century. When did Roman Catholics in the U.S. start voting for right wing Republicans? My maternal grandparents were Roman Catholic emigrants from Slovenia who revered FDR, and my Slovenian aunts and uncles thought JFK practically walked on water. They were all lifelong liberal Democrats. Of course, many cradle Catholics left the RC years ago, and 10% of all U.S. citizens today are ex-Catholics, an astonishing statistic! It's partly a result of general secularization, but also related to the systemic abuse of children by the RC clergy. I do believe that JFK's humanism, anti-colonialism, and quest for peace were a result of his inherent Catholicism, as James Douglass has described so eloquently. Conversely, many of JFK's adversaries and murderers-- Allen Dulles, Henry Luce, et.al.-- had fathers and grandfathers who were Calvinist clergymen. They were part of the WASP establishment--Skull & Bones, Max Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, etc. Even Prescott and the George Bushes were descended from a Yankee Protestant clergyman.