W. Niederhut

Ben, The efficacy of annual flu vaccines has always been variable. (I've never had one, BTW.) But study the March 2, 2022 British analysis of COVID vaccine efficacy in the New England Journal of Medicine. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2119451 It's true that the vaccines were less effective against Omicron than Delta, (especially Astra Zeneca) but it's inaccurate to say that third Pfizer and Moderna boosters were ineffective against the Omicron variant this past winter. The un-vaccinated had substantially increased risks of death from Delta and Omicron. The problem was the duration of efficacy beyond five months-- as they originally observed in Israel.

Republicans Change Their Tune on Ukraine politicalwire.com/2022/03/09/republicans-shift-from-harsh-ukraine-critics/ March 9, 2022 “In the final years of Donald Trump’s presidency, Republicans portrayed Ukraine as an Eastern European Wild West run by nefarious oligarchs and unlawful politicians, a bad actor that sought to tamper in American elections and channel millions of dollars to Joseph Biden’s son,” the New York Times reports. “Now such voices are fading, as the bulk of the Republican Party tries to get on the right side of history amid a brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Republicans are among the most vociferous champions for the United States to amp up its military response, and are competing to issue the strongest expressions of solidarity with Ukraine’s leaders.”

I always had a sense that Trump's political career would end like a Batman or James Bond movie, with the Joker escaping in some sort of helicopter or airplane, as in the case of Auric Goldfinger (or Dick Nixon.)

If charged, will Trump, perhaps, flee the country in Trump Force One-- to Moscow or Pyong Yang? 🤥

Yes, Ron, it's a fascinating development in modern psychopharmacology. Perhaps I retired too soon. I did prescribe intra-nasal ketamine for some of my patients back in the days before the proprietary product Spravato was approved by the FDA in 2019, and I was quoted in the New York Times about my observations. Veterans Agency to Offer New Depression Drug, Despite Cost and Safety Concerns - The New York Times (nytimes.com) MDMA (Ecstasy) is emerging as a promising treatment for PTSD, and psilocybin may have therapeutic potential as an anti-depressant. There's a young rabbi here in Denver who has been growing and sharing magic mushrooms, ritualistically, with participants in his movement. (The city of Denver voted to legalize magic mushrooms, but they are still illegal with the Feds.) Incidentally, John Marks wrote an excellent history of the discovery of magic mushrooms and the identification of psilocybin (by Albert Hoffman, the Swiss chemist who first discovered LSD) in his 1979 book, The Search For the Manchurian Candidate.

Ben, Honestly, I was never a kool-aid drinker-- unlike the January 6th insurrectionists, poorly-informed Russia-gate deniers, Free-Dumb Convoy anti-vaxxers, and Fox News "Patriot Purgers." Sound familiar? And there are several problems with your latest erroneous "theory" above. For one thing, Biden and Blinken were aggressive about conferring with our EU allies, and outing Putin's false flag plans, BEFORE he invaded Ukraine. It was a pro-active strategy. As much as the Putin-admiring Trumplicans now want to blame Biden for Putin's ghastly invasion, the blame rests solely on Putin's shoulders. And Biden is bringing significant pressure to bear on Putin, short of direct U.S. military engagement and WWIII. What we need from Fox and the Trumplicans right now is less anti-Biden propaganda and more acknowledgement that Trump was always a NATO-bashing Russian asset. Lest we forget...

Ben, I, for one, am relieved to see that you have finally repented of your mistake in embracing the NATO-bashing Putin apologists in the U.S.-- viz., Trump, Tucker Carlson, Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, et.al. Better late than never. And now you're promptly back with more foreign policy advice, to boot! Yee haw! 🤥 But I beg to differ with your latest analysis of the crisis. Unlike Putin's Orange Asset, President Biden did NOT roll over in his response to Putin's aggression. Did you hear that one on Fox, OAN, or Newsmax? Instead, Biden pre-emptively outed Putin's Ukrainian false flag psy op and united with our formerly dismayed EU allies in supporting Ukraine by promptly imposing crippling sanctions on Putin and his FSB-aligned oligarchs. Conversely, what Trump and Fox did for Putin was far worse than anything Neville Chamberlain did for Hitler. Beyond appeasement, and sabotaging our sanctions, they actively enabled Putin's strategy of dividing and weakening the U.S. and our NATO alliances. And they are still doing it, even now! Fox is still cranking out their non-stop, anti-Biden propaganda, even during this critical crisis in world affairs, when the country needs to pull together.

Yes, Ben and the Trump/Fox/Greenwald Putin Fan Club have gone from extorting and deriding Zelensky and his "fascist" regime to criticizing Joe Biden for not starting a nuclear war on behalf of the beleaguered Azov Regiment. 🤥

I get it. If you can't refute Oliver Stone's documentation of the JFK assassination conspiracy, simply change the subject. Try to convince poorly informed people that he's Quixotic or homophobic, eh? Does this kill-the-messenger crap never end? 🤥

Ron, The Cornell/Payne-Whitney Psychiatry Residency Program has long been among the most prestigious in the U.S., so it's not surprising that Jolly West quickly emerged as the Chairman of the Psychiatry Department at OU after his residency training. What is surprising is that West, and other participants in MK-ULTRA, were so devoid of ethical scruples! What on earth were they thinking? They probably justified their unethical conduct as "patriotism" -- which Samuel Johnson called, "the last refuge of scoundrels."

Ty, Meanwhile, no one in the M$M is mentioning the fact that the U.S. has been the world's #1 exporter of gasoline since 2013! It's a classic example of our plutocratic government prioritizing corporate profits over the public good. We're producing plenty of oil and gas here in the U.S., and exporting it in a big way. We used to ban the export of U.S. oil & gas. Simultaneously, Big Oil has been using Putin's invasion of Ukraine as a pretext for rolling back U.S. pollution (and drilling) regulations and our meager efforts to mitigate climate change. Yet, the latest data has confirmed that we're being destroyed by catastrophic climate change. It's real, and it's here.

Good quote by Solzhenitsyn about the difference between superficial punditry and discernment.

Understood. I was simply pointing out that Litwin's lame attempt to smear Oliver Stone's JFKA work on the basis of what is happening with Putin right now is based on a fallacy. Two separate subjects. Isaac Newton had some erroneous 17th century theories about alchemy, but they don't invalidate his groundbreaking Laws of Motion and Thermodynamics.

Since I've been obsessed with the subject of Stalin, Putin, and Soviet and Ukrainian history this week, I've stumbled upon another good history article, to add to those that I have already referenced by Fiona Hill and Robert Service. This one is from the Smithsonian Magazine.* IMO, part of the problem in accurately perceiving Putin that many in the U.S. M$M are struggling with-- including Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Tucker Carlson, et.al.-- is rooted in a general denial of the historic crimes of Stalinism. Because of the well-known crimes and horrors of N-a-z-i-ism, and the Red Army's heroic role in defeating the Wehrmacht in WWII, many in the West have tended to deny or overlook the horrors and abominations of Stalinism-- of the Gulag, the mass murders, and systematized torture tactics of Beria's Cheka/NKVD/KGB. It began after 1917-- almost a quarter century before WWII. IMO, Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick were so focused on exposing the "untold" crimes of the U.S. military-industrial complex in their Untold History series, that they tended to minimize the historic crimes of Stalinism. And, of course, Stalin assiduously hid his crimes against humanity from the West. So, it's difficult for many modern liberals (and some conservatives) to understand why, for example, many Ukrainians wanted to see Stalin's communist, terror state collapse during WWII. It was a dreadful police state. Eastern Europeans, likewise dreaded the arrival of the Red Army in their countries at the end of WWII. Pillaging and rape of women by the Red Army was the norm in Eastern Europe in 1945-- and Milovan Djilas almost ended up in the Gulag for protesting about it to Stalin. (Stalin had no objection to the rapine.) * The 20th-Century History Behind Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine During WWII, Ukrainian nationalists saw the Nazis as liberators from Soviet oppression. Now, Russia is using that chapter to paint Ukraine as a poopoo nation https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-20th-century-history-behind-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-180979672/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

This is a fallacious attempt to discredit Oliver Stone's accurate, groundbreaking work on the JFK assassination. How so? It's a fallacy to argue that Stone's opinions about Putin and the Ukraine have any bearing on his JFKA work. They are two entirely different subjects. It's like arguing that Isaac Newton's opinions about alchemy invalidate his Laws of Motion.

Paul, I concluded back in 2007 that the Russian Federation had devolved into a nationalist/fascist police state, after Putin and his FSB seized our ROCOR in Western Europe and North America. At the time, I heard ROCOR sermons that sounded a lot like Mussolini diatribes, except that they were spoken in Russian. Something was terribly wrong with the picture. Alexander Dugin's influence on Putin and his fellow Russian fascists explains a great deal.* So, I don't think it's far-fetched to compare what Putin is doing in Ukraine to what Hitler did in Yugoslavia, Poland, and Russia. (Fiona Hill has also used the Hitler analogy.) Conversely, there were a number of European nations and regions that simply laid down their arms and let the N-a-z-i police state occupy them (e.g., Austria, Sudetenland, Denmark, Norway, etc.) But what were the consequences? True, those who promptly surrendered to Hitler saved their buildings, (unlike Warsaw or Belgrade) but what happened to their citizens? Many (Jews, Roma, socialists, etc.) were promptly rounded up and sent to concentration camps. I believe that the same thing will happen in Russian-occupied Ukraine to those opposed to Putin's fascist police state. Putin will establish a Stalinist reign of terror. He has already done the same thing in the RF-- murdering journalists and sending opposition politicians like Navalny to the Gulag. * https://www.rawstory.com/this-dark-and-disturbing-figure-is-advising-putin-s-inner-circle/

Ron, I'm not a WSJ subscriber. Can't stomach the idea of paying Rupert Murdoch for anything. (I read this article for free today.)

Good analysis of Putin and the Ukraine War by an emeritus Oxford professor of Russian history, Robert Service (not to be confused with the doggerel poet who wrote, The Cremation of Sam McGee.) Service foresees a brutal Russian military "victory," followed by an untenable occupation. (Probably the only time I've ever referenced an article associated with Stanford's Hoover Institute.) The Two Blunders That Caused the Ukraine War Robert Service, a leading historian of Russia, says Moscow will win the war but will lose the peace and fail to subjugate Ukraine. How Putin could be deposed. https://www.wsj.com/articles/cause-ukraine-war-robert-service-moscow-putin-lenin-stalin-history-communism-invasion-kgb-fsb-11646413200

When I was recently catching up on the literature about Bobby Kennedy's murder, (e.g., A Lie Too Big To Fail, The Polka Dot File) one of the things that really hit me was the shocking perfidy of Hoover's FBI staff (and the LAPD) in suppressing all of the blatant evidence of the conspiracy. Fernando Faura lived through the whole charade in the summer of '68, and he kept mentioning that 400 FBI agents were on the case. Yet, the 400 consistently failed to follow up on the remarkable leads that Faura himself was investigating-- other than threatening witnesses like John Fahey, and trying to prevent them from talking to anyone about what happened! Meanwhile, Hoover was schmoozing with the mafiosi at Santa Anita. If I recall correctly, there was a scene in Oliver Stone's movie, Nixon, of Hoover whispering sweet nothings in someone's ear at Santa Anita after RFK's murder.

Pete, Strange synchronicity. I'm currently reading The Gulag Archipelago, and I had just read the passage you quoted (above) last night. I came across another passage in the book today that also relates to Putin's current police state and the firebombing of Ukrainian cities. The gist of it was Solzhenitsyn lamenting that the Cheka/NKVD leaders who tortured and imprisoned millions in the Gulag were never brought to justice in the USSR. Solzhenitsyn believed that the country needed to fully acknowledge and repent of its horrific crimes against humanity in order to avoid repeating its historic crimes in the next generation. That never happened. Instead, they ended up with KGB Major Vladimir Putin-- a man whose father was an NKVD "Destruction Brigade" officer, of the kind who arrested Red Army Captain Alexander Solzhenitsyn on the German front in 1945 and sent him to the Gulag for 10 years! And Vlad Putin, himself, actively sought a position in the KGB as a young man-- something that Solzhenitsyn and his college friends refused to do in the 1930s.

O'Neill, certainly, uncovered far more about Dr. Jolyon West (from those cached UCLA files) than John Marks did in 1979. Marks found next to nothing about Jolyon West's relationship with Gottlieb and MK-ULTRA in his 1979 cache of CIA records. As in William Joseph Bryan's case, Richard Helms, apparently, shredded the evidence in 1973.

Kind of strange that I just mentioned Putin's oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev here yesterday, in the context of reviewing the history of Russian black ops in Ukraine during the past decade, as described in Catherine Belton's book Putin's People. A former Fox News Director Jack Hanick has just been indicted today for running a Kremlin propaganda corporation with Malofeyev.* Meanwhile, Russia Today laid off its American staff today. My belief is that Rupert Murdoch has also been getting billions from Putin's KGB oligarchs to promote Kremlin disinformazia in the U.S. Just a hypothesis at present. IMO, it's no accident that so many journalists on both ends of the political spectrum "faceplanted" on Ukraine and accurate reporting about Putin's totalitarian police state. * Former Fox News Director Jack Hanick Indicted for Helping Russia Former Fox News Director Jack Hanick Indicted for Helping Russia (yahoo.com)

What Putin is doing right now in Ukraine is merely the most recent chapter in his 20 year KGB/oligarchic ops to divide and weaken Western democracies in Europe and the U.S. in order to expand Russian hegemony. It's much worse than Americans realize. What most people don't know is that the Soviet KGB never disappeared. It merely went under the radar during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991-- as did Dresden-based KGB Major Putin-- before eventually assuming control of the Russian Federation in the guise of "democratic" leaders like Putin (and his mentor Sobchak.) Yeltsin would never have come to power without tacit KGB support. And the KGB had long anticipated that the USSR would collapse. They prepared for it. In the process, the Russian Federation under Putin devolved into an international, oligarchic, KGB-directed crime syndicate. And they were very aggressive with ops to de-stabilize Western democracies-- using oligarchic money to fund right wing politicians throughout Europe (including Boris Johnson , Le Pen, and Berlusconi) and Trump in the U.S. The goal was to weaken and divide NATO, the EU, and U.S. society. Putin and Russian oligarchs like Konstantin Malofeyev also funded superficially "Orthodox" fascist right wing agitators to destabilize Ukraine, as early as 2010 in Donetsk, four years before Putin's green men seized the Crimea in 2014. An excellent book detailing this history is Catherine Belton's Putin's People. Chapter 14 details Putin's Ukraine and EU ops during the past decade. Chapter 15 focuses on Putin's KGB/oligarchic recruitment and entrapment of Donald Trump. Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West https://www.amazon.com/Putins-People-Took-Back-Russia-ebook/dp/B07VMZYK13/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1646273626&sr=8-1

Paul, I urge you to study Hill's latest commentary above. It is quite erudite, and displays a profound grasp of European and Russian history, in addition to direct, firsthand observations of Putin, (including Putin's threats to Trump about using hypersonic nuclear missiles) some of which were not publicized previously. Meanwhile, Russ Baker's WhoWhatWhat magazine has just called out Fox News pundit Glenn Greenwald for his moral relativism and faceplant on Ukraine.* Personally, I gave up on Nietzschean moral relativism after my sophomore year in college. As Huey Lewis put it, "Sometimes bad is bad." Perhaps Jeff will eventually undergo a long overdue paradigm shift and acknowledge his Ukraine faceplant, but I won't hold my breath... * https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/international/from-russia-with-hate/

Jeff, You have posted a lot of absurd bunk on this forum during the past five years, but this utterly erroneous comment about Dr. Fiona Hill really takes the proverbial cake. Is RT paying you with Bitcoin this month? I urge people interested in understanding Putin and the Ukraine crisis to read Dr. Fiona Hill's erudite, informed analysis (above) to judge its merits for themselves.