W. Niederhut

Jim, Not sure how I dragged myself into the rather odd, thankless role of defending James Buchanan, but, surely, we can't blame Buchanan for the casualties of the Civil War! On the contrary, Buchanan was the last of the Jacksonian Democratic Presidents who strove to maintain the hopelessly frayed coalition of Northern and Southern (pro-slavery) Democrats-- preserving the Union and Constitutionally-sanctioned slavery. For this, he was later vilified and nearly lynched at his Pennsylvania estate. Lincoln famously said during his Douglas debates that, "The country cannot endure half-slave and half-free." Buchanan, like all of his Jacksonian Democratic predecessors, believed precisely the opposite-- that the rights of Southern slave owners were protected by the Constitution, itself. (And he was a highly-respected lawyer.)

Interesting, though brief, commentary on the culture of fear in Dallas in the aftermath of JFK's (and Oswald's) murder. People were afraid to talk and, apparently, even afraid to rent apartments to anyone remotely connected to the assassination op.

Let's not forget about that leaked 2010 RNC memo from David Needham and the Heritage Foundation outlining the Congressional Republican strategy for sabotaging President Obama. It said, "Close ranks and discredit the President." And how can we forget Mitch McConnell's infamous statement at an October, 2010 GOP/Koch fund raiser-- "Our number one priority is to limit Obama to a single term?" How's that for responsible governance?! McConnell said it when the country was still recovering from the depths of the Great Bush-Cheney Recession!

Matt, I'm the last guy on the planet who would defend Trump's horrific tenure in the White House, but we also need to consider the non-American casualties caused by our Presidents. From what I have read, LBJ and Nixon killed an estimated 4,000,000 indigenous Southeast Asian people in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia after 11/22/63. Also, 1,000,000 Indonesians were killed by the CIA-backed Suharto regime during LBJ's presidency. That's 5,000,000 Southeast Asians who probably would have lived if JFK had not been murdered. Bush and Cheney's non-American casualties and carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan were also horrific. Perhaps we could refine our debate about the "worst" Presidents by using more specific terms than "worst." Although he was not the most blood-thirsty, I believe that Trump is the most habitually dishonest, scientifically ignorant, corrupt, and administratively inept POTUS in history-- and the man least guided by a focus on serving the best interests of the state and the public. On the contrary, Trump has often been quite willing to damage and the destroy the country to promote his own political and financial interests.

David, In Iraq, Rumsfeld was following the Wolfowitz/PNAC plan from the late 1990s. (And Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice participated in PNAC prior to George W. Bush's election in 2000.) Wolfowitz and his PNAC associates theorized that the U.S. military could depose Saddam Hussein easily and inexpensively. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz also insisted on implementing their de-Baathification plan for Iraq-- firing General Jay Garner in May of 2003 and appointing Kissinger Associates' L. Paul Bremer as a military governor of Iraq. At the time, Garner told Rumsfeld that, "It will take 50 years to stabilize this country, if you disband (de-Baathify) the Iraqi Army." Garner was right. The Iraqi civil war ensued. (Was that the point all along?) In retrospect, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz's Iraq War plan seemed to be part of the broader PNAC plan to destabilize and Balkanize Israel's Muslim neighbor states-- Iraq and Syria, along with Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, and, ultimately, Iran. (Doug Feith had also outlined a version of this plan-- a version of the original "Oded Yinon Plan"-- in a white paper that he wrote for the Netanyahu regime in the 90s.) General Wesley Clark was briefed about these Pentagon (Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Feith) war plans for the Middle East in late September of 2001-- shortly after the 9/11 attacks.

77 Days: Trump’s Campaign to Subvert the Election Hours after the United States voted, the president declared the election a fraud — a lie that unleashed a movement that would shatter democratic norms and upend the peaceful transfer of power. 77 Days: Trump’s Campaign to Subvert the Election - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

As an addendum, I should mention that both Pierce and Buchanan have been anathematized for defending the Constitution as it existed in the 1850s, prior to the Civil War and the passage of the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Amendments. Yet, both men, IMO, governed in what they believed to be the best interests of nation, in accordance with the Constitution. (Contrast this with Trump's singular focus on his own interests.) In a sense, they have been scapegoated for the sins of the Founding Fathers, who drafted a Constitution protecting slavery. Put differently, it is easier for our society to vilify James Buchanan for the inevitable dissolution of the Union in 1860, than to question the wisdom and morality of our slave-owning Founding Fathers who drafted the Constitution.

Great thread here. I want to comment on the "worst President in history" issue. I read Phillip Shriver Klein's biography of James Buchanan a few years ago, and my impression is that Buchanan, like Franklin Pierce, has been somewhat unfairly vilified for refusing to betray the Southern bloc of his party's coalition. He was the last of the Presidential representatives of the national Jacksonian Democratic coalition established by Martin Van Buren-- which consisted of both Northern and Southern (slave-owning) Jacksonians. The Jacksonian Democrats (Jackson, Van Buren, Polk, Pierce, Buchanan, et.al.) consistently supported the demands of their Southern bloc for fugitive slave laws and slave-owners' rights, in order to prevent the fracturing of the Union that, ultimately, occurred in 1860. It was a hopeless cause. The rift was too great to bridge. In fact, our society is still fractured along those same cultural fault lines 170 years later, as we have clearly seen during the Obama and Trump years. In the aftermath of the Civil War, (and even during the war, in Buchanan's case) Buchanan and Franklin Pierce were anathematized, shunned, and angrily blamed for not having embraced Abolitionism in the 1850s. Of course, even Lincoln had been very cautious about endorsing "radical" Republican Abolitionism in the 1850s, while privately opposing slavery. (Lincoln's public and private views about slavery are well documented in Eric Foner's book, The Fiery Trial.) Compared to Trump, James Buchanan was relatively erudite and astute. He was also a skilled diplomat. But no President could have preserved the Union in the 1850s without enraging the Abolitionists. The rift between North and South was irreversibly augmented by the acquisition of the Western territories after the Mexican American War, and Southern demands for slave owners' rights in the Western territories. As for defining the "worst President," I doubt that anyone here would deny that Trump has been the worst administrator in Presidential history. His frequently hired and departed appointees rank among the worst in history, and we have witnesses unprecedented turnover in his administration. Most were grossly unqualified for their offices, and inimical to the mission of their departments-- e.g., Betsy DeVos, Scott Pruitt, Rick Perry, Louis DeJoy, Larry Kudlow, Peter Navarro, et.al. Trump consistently hired people on the basis of their financial patronage or physical appearance and experience in television, rather than on their qualifications for the job. Secondly, his policy decisions were never informed by any ethical commitment to the interests of the state or the public. They were consistently based on financial patronage and a focus on optimizing the interests of Donald Trump and his cronies.

Jim, I have a lot of respect for your scholarly work. It should be in the mainstream media. And I agree with your points about George W. Bush, Nixon, and LBJ. They are all responsible for waging disastrous, genocidal wars on a greater scale than the Trump administration's carnage in Yemen, Mosul, Raqqa, and Afghanistan. And Trump deserves credit for de-funding Operation Timber Sycamore in Syria. (I hope Biden and Blinken don't drag us back into that proxy war against the Assad regime!) Trump told over 30,000 well-documented lies during his four years in the White House, but Dubya Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, et.al., told serious lies about the pretext for invading (and occupying) Iraq. (I happen to believe that they also lied about the origins and purpose of the 9/11 attacks.) So, all things considered, perhaps the Bush-Cheney administration lies promoting the "War on Terror" outrank Trump's lies on an "Awfulness" scale. As for Kirk and Cliff, they are among my favorite posters here, and I usually agree with them-- not counting Cliff's love of punk rock. Being a relative newcomer to the forum, I never have understood the mutual hostility between you, Kirk, and Cliff. You're all intelligent, informed guys with a lively interest in history and politics. And you're all honest. Personally, I dislike the ad hominem sniping on the forum-- although I was guilty of harassing Rob Wheeler last year about his faith in Trump. Surely, we can all disagree from time to time without being disagreeable, can't we?

Cliff, You left out the part about Trump trying to sabotage the ACA and adding $8 trillion to the national debt in 4 years, in order to cut more taxes for billionaires. Trump's staggering budget deficits have received very little attention in our mainstream media, as we saw during the glorious Bush-Cheney era. But, now that Biden is POTUS, Republicans and the media are once again talking about deficits and debt... 🤥

Ron, I'm familiar with John Fielder's work. Good stuff. As for Lauren Boebert, it's appalling that she would be elected to Congress from any district in the U.S. Rural counties in Colorado have always been staunchly Republican, like most of the Wild West.

Congratulations on your retirements, Ron and Paul!

Pompeo would, certainly, add some weight to the 2024 GOP ticket. As for KIrk's question about Republicans condemning Trump for secretly selling COVID vaccine stockpiles to Putin, I seriously doubt it.

Geez...talk about a couple of guys with malleable convictions and no cajones-- the Koch's GOP dream ticket. They could appoint Paul Ryan Secretary of the Treasury and Scott Walker Secretary of Labor.

David, I think Joseph McBride's recent reference to Hitler's political movement after the failed Munich "Beer Hall" Putsch is apt. What is happening right now in America reminds me of the end of Season One of the Babylon Berlin series, (circa 1928) when the liberal Chief of Police in Berlin is assassinated by the N-a-z-i Party. Trump's radical right wing followers are, most likely, here to stay. 'American democracy's most dangerous enemy': Author says appetite for 'fascism' rages on in post-Trump GOP - Raw Story - Celebrating 16 Years of Independent Journalism

My impression is that these cowardly Senate Republicans are afraid of; 1) Trump cult terrorists, and 2) Donald Trump supporting primary opponents against them in the future -- i.e., "primary-ing" them, (as Eric Trump phrased it on the eve of January 6th.) They are using the argument that impeachment now is unconstitutional as a convenient pretext for dodging the wrath of Donald Trump and his cult. My question. Regardless of the Senate vote on impeachment, shouldn't Trump be tried in court for inciting sedition on January 6th?

Outstanding, concise history of JFK's foreign policy conflicts with the Deep State establishment, Jim! This should be incorporated into mainstream American history curricula. Regarding the Nasser era linkage between the Muslim Brotherhood, MI6, the CIA, and the Saudis, I've been reading Thierry Meyssan's 2019 book, Before Our Very Eyes, which presents an in depth history of "Anglo-Saxon" intelligence ops in the Middle East from 1920-2020. It's the best explanation of what has been happening in Syria, Libya, and Egypt that I've read to date. Before Our Very Eyes, Fake Wars and Big Lies: From 9/11 to Donald Trump: Meyssan, Thierry: 9781615770120: Amazon.com: Books

Interesting Vox interview of Columbia University historian Eric Foner -- about the long history of white supremacist subversion of American democracy. What Reconstruction teaches us about white nationalism today Historian Eric Foner on the long tradition of white nationalists clashing with Black people exercising their rights. What is Reconstruction? The era offers lessons on white nationalism, Trump, and the Capitol riot. - Vox

I noticed that known CIA asset, Mayor Earle Cabell, avoided direct eye contact with the camera throughout the first interview, (above) while continually looking from side to side and even frequently turning his head away from the camera. In the second interview, he clearly demonstrates his early complicity in the bogus "Lone Nut' narrative.

For some reason, I was never a big fan of the Quadrophenia album-- in contrast to Who's Next. IMO, Who's Next ranks among the greatest rock albums in history for the high quality of the song writing, ensembles, (guitars, synthesizer, Entwhistle's horns, violin, etc.) and musicianship. Every song was a masterpiece. (I was also a big fan of Walter/Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach Moog synthesizer recordings at the time.) What an outstanding, ground-breaking piece of work it was.

IMO, those nincompoops, along with the right wing agent provocateurs who posed as "Antifa," played a major role in helping Donald Trump garner 74 million votes in November. I agree with some of their "Black Bloc" political views, but their methods are truly self-defeating.

Here's a disturbing Phil Spector obit... 😬 Phil Spector defined the toxic music svengali – a figure that persists today Phil Spector defined the toxic music svengali – a figure that persists today | Music | The Guardian

I didn't phrase my question quite right. To rephrase-- Was the popular Halberstam and Sheehan fiction about JFK and Vietnam a result of shoddy journalism, (projected guilt, etc.) or deliberate collusion in an LBJ/CIA disinformation campaign? My impression is that LBJ, et.al., worked very hard to disguise LBJ's reversal of JFK's Vietnam withdrawal policy, because they didn't want the public to discern a Deep State motive for JFK's murder. Halberstam and Sheehan played an important role in bamboozling the public about NSAM263.

Very interesting article, Jim. I wonder if both Sheehan and the NYT (in their published version of the Pentagon Papers) covered up the evidence about JFK's plans for a phased withdrawal-- and LBJ's reversal of those plans-- through an agreement with LBJ and the CIA's "Mockingbird" propaganda establishment. It seems like LBJ, the CIA, Halberstam, and Sheehan all colluded in a cover up of LBJ's reversal of NSAM 263 by NSAM273 and escalation of the war after 11/22/63. Hard to believe that Halberstam and Sheehan were not working with Mockingbird-type journalistic contracts.