W. Niederhut

Happy New Year to all! My wife told me that our dogs were frightened by fireworks at midnight last night, but I was fast asleep at the time, wearing earplugs. I don't handle champagne like I used to. Not a very swinging New Year's Eve in our household, but our Christmas tree is still looking good and we haven't finished off all of the holiday carbs-- so it's still not too late to wish everyone a cool Yule!

This Nashville Bomber case illustrates part of what is wrong with our approach to preventing our epidemic of domestic terrorism and violence in the modern U.S. I'm hardly an advocate for inappropriate police surveillance, but something is terribly wrong if our police are not willing or able to adequately investigate credible reports of alleged bomb-making (or other threats of mass murder.) IMO, it's most likely a case of the police either being creeped out, or not wanting to be bothered with obtaining search warrants and conducting a proper assessment of a bomb threat. Hard to believe that they didn't have a valid case for obtaining a search warrant to check out Warner's RV. What I have observed in my work is that people are often afraid to adequately assess and intervene in these cases. For one thing, no one wants to end up on the hit list of a paranoid guy with guns, bombs, etc. (and the overwhelming majority of these homicide cases are male.) Family members and neighbors are afraid of them, but so are teachers, doctors, and even the police. So, what we see, time after time, is that these guys fall through the cracks, and people end up getting killed. Needless to say, it doesn't help raise consciousness about the problem when public officials, including the POTUS, are dead silent about it. In fact, Trump has deliberately incited violence in the U.S. during the past four years. He and his Fox News associates were ranting about "Mexicans invading our border" just before the El Paso Walmart Massacre.

Still, if a lady told me that her boyfriend was building bombs in his RV, I would have considered it a highly credible, serious threat. It's a phenomenon that we see, repeatedly, in cases of mass shootings and domestic terrorism in the U.S.-- family members and friends reporting serious homicide threats that are ignored/denied by those who are in a position to intervene. The examples are legion.

The Republican "herd immunity" strategy is, obviously, working brilliantly.

During my psychiatric career I sometimes had to assess and intervene in cases of potential homicide. How did the cops NOT properly assess and intervene here? It's mind-boggling. Nashville man’s girlfriend warned he was building bombs Nashville man’s girlfriend warned he was building bombs - The Washington Post

Remember Petula Clark singing, Downtown, on the radio back in 1964? "The lights are much brighter there. You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares, and go DOWNTOWN, etc." Singer Petula Clark responds to song being used by Nashville bomber Singer Petula Clark responds to song being used by Nashville bomber | TheHill December 29, 2020

Time to re-visit my favorite Juan Cole trope... Top Ten differences between White Terrorists and Others www.juancole.com/2015/11/differences-between-terrorists.html by Professor Juan Cole/ University of Michigan November 28, 2015 1. White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, “terrorists.” 2. White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners. 3. Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen. Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion. 4. The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed. 5. White terrorists are part of a “fringe.” Other terrorists are apparently mainstream. 6. White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies. 7. White terrorists are never called “white.” But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations. 8. Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies. 9. White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane. 10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists.

Usual white privilege and Trump silence applied when Nashville bomber identified as white man www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/28/2004473/-Usual-white-privilege-and-presidential-silence-applied-when-Nashville-bomber-identified-as-white-man?pm_source=story_sidebar&pm_medium=web&pm_campaign=recommended

Question. Are armed MAGA Bombers in RVs the future of Trumpism?

Here's the pop Christmas vinyl that reminds me the most of my childhood-- featuring Bing Crosby, the Andrew sisters, and terrific orchestrations. Another Christmas favorite of mine, for pops, is Ella Fitgerald's jazzy 1960 Verve album, Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas. Here's hoping that, "Next year, all our troubles will be out of sight!"

Cheerful Holiday Yule Log Video of Trump Losing Over and Over

How about Donald Trump singing Feliz Navidad? 🤪 Worst cover of the year. Not sure if this was a bad joke or a desperation Trump campaign commercial for Mexican Americans.

Speaking of cash... 🤥 Trump Back At Mar-A-Lago, Raising Taxpayer Golf Tab To $151.5 Million This marks Trump’s 31st golf trip to his Palm Beach resort as POTUS www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-151-million-golf_n_5fe3bc61c5b6e1ce83383074

Addendum: Here's an interesting analysis of Trump's abuse of Presidential pardons by an historian from NYU. Trump’s Pardons Make the Unimaginable Real He may now attempt what no one thought a president would ever try. How to Abuse a Presidential Pardon - The Atlantic

'Basically what we're seeing here is a confession': Ex-Mueller prosecutorwww.rawstory.com/trumps-pardons-are-confessions/ December 23, 2020

First Eddie Gallagher. Now this. Trump seems strangely fond of grifters and homicidal psychopaths. It's stuff like this that makes me embarrassed to be an American citizen -- and I say that as a guy whose family members fought in U.S. wars going back to the Revolutionary War. Leaving Out Assange, Who Exposed US War Crimes, Trump Pardons Blackwater Guards Jailed for Massacring Iraqi Civilians "While U.S. Army contractors convicted of massacring civilians in Iraq are pardoned, the man who exposed such crimes against humanity, Julian Assange, rots in Britain's Guantanamo." https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/23/leaving-out-assange-who-exposed-us-war-crimes-trump-pardons-blackwater-guards-jailed

Kirk, Two things come to mind here, in addition to your earlier point about Trump's general cluelessness and inept executive management skills. 1) He has always been utterly contemptuous of the working poor (while, nevertheless, playing to their racism, bigotry, cultural divisions, etc., as a pseudo-populist.) 2) He was demonizing Biden and the Democrats as left-wing "socialists" in October-- a propaganda strategy that was, apparently, very effective in Florida.

Ron, I could never find out much about C.D. Jackson's death, around the time that the Warren Commission Report was released, other than a statement that he had died of natural causes-- a heart attack, I think. Could be true, but I wonder if he objected to some of the obvious BS in the WCR. As for Mary Pinchot Meyer, I wonder if she knew too much about CIA activities relating to JFK's murder. Did Angleton tap her phone and realize that she might go public with information he didn't want publicized? Just a hypothesis. There was, apparently, a fairly close-knit community of CIA families in the early 60s that included the (Cord) Meyers, Janneys, Angleton, Bradlees, and others.

David, Is "corporatocracy" a word? It seems like everything Mitch McConnell has ever done during his tenure in the Senate has been done for the primary benefit of the Koch brothers, often at the expense of the public good. The man is utterly corrupt, and, obviously, contemptuous of the working poor-- which is strange, considering that many of his own constituents are among the most impoverished people in the country. McConnell and his GOP cronies seem like Social Darwinists from the Gilded Age. They probably think that working class Americans on the brink of homelessness won't work if they get a stimulus check!

Two related question questions. 1) How did James Angleton even know that Mary Pinchot Meyer had a diary? Was her phone being tapped? 2) Why was Angleton so interested in finding and confiscating the diary in her apartment on the day she died? As for Mary's Mosaic, aside from Janney's improbable thesis about Meyer transforming JFK into a peacenik, etc., the most interesting thing about the book, for me, are Janney's firsthand accounts of his life as the son of a CIA exec who was a friend of Cord Meyer, Angleton, Bradlee, et.al. Reading his chapter about Wistar Janney and Ben Bradlee on the day of the murder convinced me that Bradlee was, apparently, a CIA asset. (Which first caused me to wonder about the origins of Watergate.) Peter Janney was best friends with Mary Pinchot Meyer's son, and spent a lot of time around the Meyer family as a lad. He later concluded, partly through direct conversations with his father, that his father and the CIA were complicit in her 1964 murder. She was, in Janney's opinion, one many dead witnesses who knew too much about the JFK assassination and the Warren Commission. (Coincidentally, another person who died around the time that the Warren Commission Report was published in the fall of 1964 was C.D. Jackson.)

Folks, At this festive time of year, I would like to share a little holiday ditty that I composed for 2020. 🤥 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Wanker (sung to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Wanker, had a very sweaty mug, and if you ever saw him, you'd know his father was a thug. All of the other mobsters, used to call him up for deals. In the old Cosa Nostra, nobody ever squeals. Then one foggy election year, Donald came to say, "Rudolph, with your shameless spiels, won't you help me Stop the Steal?" Then how the Trump Cult loved him, as they shouted out with glee, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Wanker, you'll go down in infamy!"

The Progressives aren't really back, Mervyn, at least here in the U.S. From what I can see, they've been pretty much shut out by the Democratic "establishment." As for associating "progressives" with the threat of nuclear war, aren't you forgetting that JFK was trying to de-escalate the Cold War when he was murdered? He averted a catastrophic nuclear war in October of 1962, then successfully negotiated a nuclear test ban treaty with Khrushchev. As for the Bay of Pigs op, JFK inherited that 1961 boondoggle from Eisenhower, Nixon, and Allen Dulles -- the Cold Warriors.

Jim, Interesting. I read Mary's Mosaic several years ago, long before joining this forum, and had never read about Murder on the Towpath, or your review of Janney's book. From what you wrote, it sounds like Janney was wrong to claim that his father, Wistar, and Ben Bradlee knew about Meyer's murder before it was ever reported by the police. Do you know whether Peter Janney was also wrong to claim that Ben Bradlee lied about the subject in his autobiography? (I never read Bradlee's memoir.)

Another interesting factoid that Peter Janney mentioned in Mary's Mosaic is that his father Wistar Janney and Ben Bradlee (Meyer's brother-in-law) talked about Mary Pinchot Meyer's murder well before the D.C. police had even gone public any report of her death-- something that Bradlee lied about in his memoir.