W. Niederhut

Are you suggesting that my limerick fails to live up to the high literary standards of our Education Forum? I tried to avoid using any four letter words.

Joe, Jimmy also greatly admired Dolly Parton, as I recall. And, in truth, there is a great deal to admire about the lady. Jeff Bezos just gave her a massive philanthropic grant of some kind.

Our transcontinental pal, Chrissy, on occasion, was churlish and prissy. A most sensitive Brit, he'd, at times, throw a fit, of the kind that are often called, "hissy." 🤥

John, No one ever accused Obama of any lascivious drama, though Limbaugh spread a rumor, which some mistook for humor, that Michelle was a transgender mama.

When Kay Summersby wanted to tup, Ike had trouble getting it up, But, with Ellen, Ford proved upright, 'tis true, "When in Rometsch do as Rometsches do."

Now you've done it, John... 🤥 When President Harding was making merry, he'd bring along his wee friend, Jerry. Likewise, when Lyndon wanted mumbo, his favorite pachyderm was Jumbo.

If only the U.S. mainstream media, and public, had been similarly circumspect about Ken Starr's inappropriate violation of Bill Clinton's private sex life! There was a time in American history when the press was far more respectful of Presidential privacy. That changed in a big way, beginning in about 1988, and went out the window during Ken Starr's Whitewater "investigation" of Bill Clinton's private life. As for the subject of U.S. Presidential sexual peccadilloes, it's more salacious than some people realize. President Thomas Jefferson had children with his slave, Sally Hemings, and George Washington was the father of a substantial part of his country. President Warren Harding referred to his penis as, "Jerry," in his randy love letters. Eisenhower had an affair with his aide, Kay Summersby, and GHWB cavorted with his aide, Jennifer Fitzgerald. Nixon was rumored to have had a bromance with Bebe Rebozo. LBJ called his penis, "Jumbo," and was quite the flasher.

Here's hoping that we can restore some intellectual integrity and quality to this 56 Years Education Forum thread, and get some of the redundant disinformazia and puerile, ad hominem slop off of the board... 🤥

Mathew Koch's refusal to read Alexander Vindman's definitive, firsthand history of the Trump/Zelensky extortion scandal is the last straw for me. No mas. It's also obvious that Mathew didn't listen to the damning witness testimony by Sondland and Hill during Trump's first impeachment by the House. (Nor did Mathew and Ben listen to the testimony in the Congressional J6 hearings this year.) One of the findings of the recent UC Berkley study of Fox News viewers who were paid to start watching CNN was that the Fox News watchers had been generally ignorant about Trump's scandals, and they were surprised during the study to learn the truth about Trump's misconduct.

Focusing on sexual innuendoes and the sexual peccadilloes of Democrats-- and not only JFK -- has been a popular Republican method of character assassination for decades. It was, certainly, a prominent feature of the Kenneth Starr/Brett Kavanaugh leakage of sexually explicit Whitewater grand jury testimony that permanently tarnished Bill Clinton's presidential reputation.* And it destroyed Ted Kennedy and Gary Hart's presidential prospects. Yet, Donald Trump was relatively unscathed, politically, by his long history of sexual assaults, cavorting with Stormy Daniels, and even the Access Hollywood tape where he bragged about grabbing women by the p*ssy. Quite a double standard. Former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert molested teenage boys when he was a wrestling coach, and former Speaker Newt Gingrich was having an affair when he chaired the impeachment of Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky affair. The examples are legion. * Ironically, Brett Kavanaugh later ruled from the bench that grand jury material from Robert Mueller's investigation of Donald Trump's Russia ties could not be leaked.

Get a clue, Mathew. Vindman was the primary whistle blower in the Trump/Zelensky extortion scam. You, obviously, didn't watch the House investigation in December of 2019. The CIA whistle blower outed by Rand Paul was merely another witness who corroborated Vindman's report-- as did Sondland, Hill, and Bolton. Now, study Vindman's detailed account and stop cluttering the forum with your Trump/Fox bunk. As for Rand Paul, anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that he has been shilling for the Kremlin.

Chris, My interest here has always been discerning and telling the historical truth about the subjects under discussion. So, naturally, I am annoyed when some forum members simply refuse to make an intellectually honest, good faith effort to discern and tell the truth about history. In the case of Trump's first impeachment, relating to Trump's Zelensky extortion attempt, the definitive history was witnessed and described in detail by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. Vindman's version of events was corroborated by several Trump staffers, including Ambassador Sondland, Dr. Fiona Hill, and even John Bolton. Alexander Vindman: Trump's Phone Call Changed My Life - The Atlantic But Mathew Koch has openly refused to read Vindman's definitive history of the incident, while repeatedly posting the deflective Trump/Fox/Rand Paul tropes implying that Trump was a victim of the Deep State. That's intellectual dishonesty. Should I simply choose to ignore it? Perhaps, but that brings up the whole issue of how our society, and this forum, should deal with propaganda and the repetition of falsehoods. I made the same point a few months ago in the context of confronting Ben Cole's repetition of Tucker Carlson's false "patriot purge" narrative about Trump's January 6th coup attempt-- another attempt to blame the Deep State for Trump's chicanery. Some people, including some analysts at the RAND Corporation,* believe that repeated falsehoods need to be corrected by a repetition of the truth. * The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model: Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It | RAND

Can we get some sort of ruling from the forum about this one? I posted a link to Alexander Vindman's definitive history article in the Atlantic about Trump's January 25, 2019 phone call to Zelensky, and Mathew Koch has refused to even read the Vindman article, while continuing to post deflective Fox News stories about the other whistle blower in the case-- a CIA agent outed by Rand Paul. As if the secondary whistle blower is the story. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/08/trump-ukraine-call-impeachment-vindman/619617/ Mathew has also repeatedly ignored references to the corroborating testimony of Ambassador Sondland, Fiona Hill, and John Bolton in the case. IMO, the Rand Paul outing of the secondary CIA whistle blower was yet another bogus attempt by Trump, Rand Paul, and Fox to spin Trump's Zelensky extortion scandal as persecution of Trump by the "Deep State." Trump used the same ruse to mislead people about his Russia-gate scandal, spinning it as Deep State persecution-- "Spy-gate," "Obama-gate," Nunes Memo, Durham Report, etc. Basta per Dio! Was the CIA not supposed to be concerned about Trump's Zelensky extortion scam-- in which Trump was directly undermining U.S. State Department policy in the Ukraine for his own petty political gain? In a nutshell, Mathew is not engaging in a good faith effort to study and understand the historical details that resulted in Trump's first impeachment-- while repeatedly cluttering the forum with Trump's and Fox New's deflective attempts to blame the CIA for Trump's chicanery in the Zelensky case. At what point does the forum say, "No mas, Mateo Koch! No mas disinformazia, por favor!?" 🤥

Good grief, Mathew. The "whistle blower" in Trump's Zelensky extortion scam was none other than Alexander Vindman. Vindman's concerns about Trump's disgraceful conduct in the case were confirmed by several of Trump's own staff, including Ambassador Sondland and NSC advisors Fiona Hill and John Bolton. John Bolton referred to the incident as Trump and Giuliani's "drug deal," remember? You Trumplicons really seem to be living on an alternate planet.

Joe, Allen Dulles was quite a philanderer who didn't even try to conceal his many extra-marital affairs from his wife. Stephen Kinzer writes about that history in considerable detail in The Brothers.

Mathew, Did you study Alexander Vindman's Ukraine-gate article in the Atlantic that I posted for you? Don't remain in the dark forever about why Trump was impeached for his Zelensky extortion stunt. You're a poster child for Fox News-watching Trumplicons who inhabit a MAGA-verse of false narratives and "alternate facts" about recent American history. It's a phenomenon that was described in a recent academic study of Fox News viewers.

And Mo Brooks was wearing body armor when he gave his January 6th "kicking ass" speech to Trump's armed MAGA mob.

The recording is fascinating in so many ways. First of all, because they were all very good musicians. Those boys could play the blues, gospel, and rock. And it is an opus with complex, alternating melody lines between extended cadenzas/improvisations-- rock and roll that borrowed from jazz structures. The Grateful Dead wrote some similar pieces, (e.g., Unbroken Chain) and YES took it to a whole new level of virtuosity. The psilocybin story interests me because of the current research on the "therapeutic" potential of psychedelics. Could music like In Memory of Elizabeth Reed or Unbroken Chain have been created without psychedelics? I doubt it.

Mathew, You're, obviously, completely clueless about the actual events that led to Trump's first impeachment. In fact, you don't even understand the full implications of your own references on the subject-- including the CNN clip above. You need to educate yourself about Trump's notorious July 25, 2019 extortion phone call to Zelensky, and the back story-- including the fact that Trump had put a disturbing hold on U.S. funds supporting Ukraine's precarious defenses against Russian forces in the Donbas before he made his high-pressured sales pitch to Zelensky to smear Joe Biden. There is no better account of Trump's chicanery than the detailed history written by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who witnessed the phone call, and the strange activities of Trump and Giuliani preceding the extortion call. Study Vindman's complete history of Trump's Zelensky extortion scam, then get back to us if you have any questions about what really happened. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/08/trump-ukraine-call-impeachment-vindman/619617/

Mathew, You don't get it. Trump was impeached for trying to extort Ukrainian President Zelensky to make a false public statement about "investigating" Joe Biden. It was a cheap, dishonest public relations stunt in which Trump was violating U.S. State Department policy and undermining diplomatic and military support for a U.S. ally for his own political benefit. The "whistle blowers" were Trump's own ambassador to the Ukraine, (Sondland-- appointed after Trump inappropriately fired Yovanovitch) and his NSC advisors, Dr. Fiona Hill and Lt. Col. Vindman. This is my final post to you on the topic. I don't want to waste time on your deflective MAGA propaganda.

Mathew, Take a break from your MAGA propaganda and study the House impeachment hearing testimony of Ambassador Sondland and Dr. Fiona Hill. They worked for Trump, and they certainly "blew the whistle" on Trump's Zelensky extortion scam. You need to focus on reality here.

Ben, I can't reveal my confidential KGB sources, but, surely, you know that Rand Paul has served as Trump's personal courier to Putin, in addition to strongly opposing U.S. aid for Ukraine and publicly promoting Kremlin talking points in recent years. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... 🤥 A former staffer of Rand Paul was also busted for funneling Russian money to the Trump campaign, and was later pardoned by Trump for this crime against the United States. This Salon article by Jon Skolnik summarizes Rand Paul's history as a Putin gofer. https://www.salon.com/2022/04/26/rand-paul-goes-to-bat-for-putin-the-countries-theyve-attacked-were-part-of-russia/

Addendum: I was listening to the deservedly famous Fillmore East live recording of In Memory of Elizabeth Reed today, and I saw an interesting comment at YouTube about the Allman Brothers Band using psilocybin. Martin Buck: "Some fun facts for those not in the know: The Allman Brothers Band loved spending time in Rose Hill cemetery in Macon, drifting away on magic mushrooms and playing. Dickie wrote this after "entertaining" Boz Scaggs' wife on a tombstone, and the inscription on this tombstone is the title for this track-- In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. The other unsung hero in this drama is Tom Dowd, who recorded these tracks in a truck behind the venue. His absolute mastery of technique and musical knowledge enabled him to splice together the highlights of three nights of recording into one double album. I have heard all the other versions of this masterpiece, including the raw tracks in their entirety, but the original released in 1971 is still the best, and fills the heart with awe and gratitude for the grandeur and vision of this epitome of Southern Rock at its finest."

Mathew, Surely, you jest. Did you not watch the Congressional impeachment hearing testimony of Trump's own staff in the Ukraine-gate case-- Ambassador Sondland and NSC Russia expert, Dr. Fiona Hill? Trump directly violated U.S. State Department policy in Ukraine by threatening to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine if President Zelensky declined to make up a false story about Joe Biden allegedly being under "investigation" in Ukraine! It was a blatant case of Trump trying to extort a sleazy, personal political favor from a foreign President in exchange for U.S. military support in Ukraine's border war with Russia! Zelensky declined Trump's request for "a little favor." This is the problem with living in the Faux/Daily Caller MAGA bubble, as you and Ben do. You guys are literally clueless about historical events. It's the same problem that we have all observed here with you and Ben refusing to watch the Congressional J6 hearings. You were both unaware of the damning facts, while endlessly promoting "alternate facts" from Fox-- "patriot purge," Ray Epps, etc. As for Rand Paul, he's a compromised Russian asset. Putin has him by the short hairs.

Better yet, McConnell and the GOP Senate could have removed Trump from office after his Ukraine-gate impeachment, instead of refusing to review the damning evidence with Hizzoner John Roberts. And they all knew Mango Mussolini was guilty! Even Ted Cruz admitted it to his fellow GOP Kochsters. But they thought Trump was their Orange Ticket to retaining power.