W. Niederhut

I've been deeply concerned about Trump's fascist tendencies for the past three years, and have posted information (mostly elsewhere) about his history of studying Hitler's speeches, fomenting xenophobia, scapegoating minority groups, etc. It's creepy as hell-- and real. I also believe that Trump will do anything to get re-elected, even if he has to start a war. Paul Krugman nailed it two years ago when he said that "Trump even makes Caligula look good." As for Bernie, 11,000 people turned out last night for his rally at the Colorado Convention Center here in Denver, but the corporate media largely blacked out any coverage, as usual. Meanwhile, AIPAC is airing anti-Bernie ads in Nevada, just as they did in Iowa before the Caucus. They can hardly accuse him of being anti-Semitic, but they, obviously, have zero tolerance for Bernie's criticism of Likud Party hardliners (and Sheldon Adelson.) Does this constitute foreign interference in U.S. elections? AIPAC Is Helping Fund Anti-Bernie Sanders Super PAC Ads in Nevada https://theintercept.com/2020/02/14/aipac-anti-bernie-sanders-ads-nevada/

American Pravda: Mossad Assassinations The JFK Assassination and the 9/11 Attacks? https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-mossad-assassinations/ by Ron Unz January 27, 2020

Cliff, Speaking of Bible Thumpers, why is the mainstream media acting like Pete Buttigieg's homosexuality is not a big deal for his "elect-ability?" It's not an issue for me, personally -- and Colorado just elected an openly gay governor (Jared Polis) by a large plurality-- but I think Buttigieg's sexuality could be a deal breaker for many homophobic voters in red and purple states. Yet, the MSM is talking about Buttigieg's candidacy as if his gay marriage is no big deal-- at the same time that they always insist that Bernie Sanders' "socialism" renders him utterly un-electable. In Buttigieg's case, I think we're being dukakissed by the media moguls.

This is spot on. The main beneficiary of the Iowa caucus debacle was Buttigieg, and the snafu mainly functioned to sabotage Bernie's momentum going into New Hampshire and Super Tuesday. I don't ever recall an Iowa caucus winner being denied national headlines for the win. So, yes, Bernie is up against far more than the corporate MSM this year. He's also up against the DNC, AIPAC, and Pete Buttigieg's backers at Langley and in the Pentagon.

It's, obviously, a Deep State conspiracy against der Fuhrer... 🤐 But, speaking of the Deep State, the word is out that Pete Buttigieg is a Deep State Trojan Horse in the Democratic primaries. https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/30/coup-plotters-cia-agents-mayor-pete-endorsers/

I read a story recently about the fact that HALF of all U.S. seniors (over age 65) are currently unable to afford their basic living expenses. And, yet, as you mentioned, Trump and his GOP Robber Baron cabal seem determined to enact further cuts in Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security-- beyond those that resulted from their December 2017 GOP Tax Scam and Healthcare Demolition Act. It's truly mind-boggling-- especially for a POTUS who bragged in 2015 that he was "the only Republican (presidential) candidate who promised not to cut Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security."

Thanks for posting that 9/11 history link. I'm still fairly new to this forum and wasn't around during those previous 9/11 discussions. One thing I will point out about my own comments about 9/11 on this monstrous, meandering Trump/Zaid thread is that I brought them up in the context of discussing theories about Donald Trump's relationship with the "Deep State" -- which was the original starting point for this thread about Trump, Mark Zaid, and the original Ukraine-gate whistle blower. That is why I mentioned Trump's public comments about 9/11-- on 9/11/01, itself, and during his 2016 GOP primary debates with Jeb Bush.

Robert, Just to clarify. What I said with regard to Occam's Razor is not that "Trump is crazy," per se, but rather than he is entirely motivated by self-interest-- as opposed to basing his policy decisions on any higher principles of morality, the public good, or social ethics. In other words, he is not on a principled crusade to reign in the "Deep State" or the Neocons who organized the phony "War on Terror." Unlike JFK, Trump is not out to save the planet by "breaking the CIA into thousand pieces and scattering it to the wind." He's out to promote Donald Trump. My straightforward hypothesis about what makes Trump tick explains all of his decisions, including his switch from pretending to be a 9/11 Truther in the 2016 debates with Jeb Bush to becoming a Neocon mule by January of 2017, and never saying a word about "who really destroyed the World Trade Center on 9/11." And, IMO, Trump knows better, but says nothing. He knows that Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the PNAC Neocons collaborated with the Saudis and the Mossad in the 9/11 op. Yet, his first visits abroad after his inauguration were to Riyadh and Tel Aviv! Trump is not a moral animal, and certainly not a utilitarian. He always obeys Sutton's Law-- he goes where the money is.

Addendum: Q. What does the U.S.mainstream media call three years of low unemployment, rising stock market prices, and sub- 3% U.S. GDP growth? A. The "booming" Trump economy, and/or the "sluggish" Obama economy.

Annual U.S. GDP growth during the past three years of Trump's tenure in the White House has been less than 3%-- not significantly different from GDP growth rates during the Obama Recovery of 2010-17, when stocks nearly tripled -- despite his enormous tax cuts for corporations. Most of the Trump/GOP corporate tax windfall was used by CEOs to buy back stock shares, (to increase their own salaries) and U.S. manufacturing already appears to be in a recession. Ergo, Trump has, essentially, created a stock market bubble in which inflated stock prices have far outpaced earnings. Trump does deserve credit for mushrooming the Federal budget deficit and the growth rate of the national debt-- following in the venerable footsteps of Reagan, Dubya Bush, and Dick Cheney.

This just in... What a shocker. Trump attacks another former close associate for telling the truth. Carl Bernstein was correct three years (and 16,000 lies) ago when he said, "There's no reason to believe anything Trump says." Trump hits back at John Kelly: 'Can't keep his mouth shut' https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-hits-back-at-john-kelly-cant-keep-his-mouth-shut/ar-BBZYhwp

Trump and his supporters always make lame excuses for his egregious misconduct by attacking the "messengers," even when the messengers are Trump's own appointees and former associates-- e.g., Michael Cohen, Rex Tillerson, John Bolton, Ambassadors Bill Taylor and Sondland, etc. It never ends. Let me guess. This week, Trump and his media Trumpagandists (including The Federalist) will be attacking General Kelly for his claim that Vindman "did the right thing" -- as if Kelly had been a Never Trumper! It's laughable.

Robert, I'm sticking with Occam's Razor here. I have a much more straightforward hypothesis about Trump's behavior vis-a-vis the JFK records, 9/11 truth, and the "Deep State." Herewith. Everything Trump has done since 2015 as a candidate and POTUS has been motivated chiefly by Trump's personal interests and self-aggrandizement. That is his modus operandi. He simply doesn't think about public policy in terms of over-arching moral principles, social ethics, or even science. Case in point. He only talked about 9/11 and "who really destroyed" the World Trade Center in the context of denigrating Jeb Bush in the 2016 primary debates. It "lifted" him, (as he later said to the NFL owners about his denigration of the Black Lives Matter movement.) In other words, Trump had no moral commitment to exposing the truth about 9/11 or the "Deep State." He was merely acting like a 9/11 Truther in 2016 to promote the Donald. Since his election, he has never uttered a single syllable about the demolition of the World Trade Center, other than invoking 9/11 to denigrate Muslims, including Congresswomen Omar and Tlaib. In fact, far from being a 9/11 Truther, as we later learned from Steve Bannon, (in Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury) Trump had already been bribed by Sheldon Adelson, Paul Singer, et.al., to become a Neocon mule by the time of his inauguration in January of 2017. As a Neocon mule, Trump has moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, signed off on Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, and essentially abandoned the longstanding U.S. commitment to mediate a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In response to the recently proposed Kushner/Netanyahu Apartheid Plan, the Palestinian authorities have broken off all diplomatic relations with the U.S. So, no, I see no evidence that Trump is engaged in some kind of principled struggle with the "Deep State." On the contrary, he has used the alleged enmity of the Deep State merely as an excuse for denying and covering up his Presidential misconduct

Two questions, Robert. If Trump is waging a "war against the Deep State," as you, apparently, believe; 1) Why didn't he release all of the JFK assassination records? It was his call to withhold them. 2) Why did he fail to keep his 2016 campaign promise to tell the American people, "who really destroyed the World Trade Center on 9/11?" (And, as you probably know, Trump correctly surmised on 9/11 the the World Trade Center Towers were destroyed by explosives-- not by burning jet fuel.)

Interesting. I hadn't heard about the fire in the Old Executive Office Building on 9/11. (A friend of mine once gave me a tour of the OEOB during Carter's presidency.) As for Rumsfeld and WTC7, here's some info posted by Kevin Ryan.* Rumsfeld was Chairman of the Board of Saloman Smith Barney prior to 2001-- which occupied most of the floors at WTC7. (I've seen the 9/11 video of Rumsfeld denying that he had ever heard of WTC7, but it has, apparently, been deleted from You Tube.) * https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:Donald_Rumsfeld_and_the_demolition_of_WTC_7#cite_note-1

Bill Barr never should have been confirmed as AG in the first place, by 53 (GOP) votes in the Senate. He has done nothing but cover up Trump's crimes and block access to all of the critical evidence -- including the un-redacted Mueller Report, Trump's tax returns, and the State, DOD, and OMB records relating to Ukraine-gate. Barr will be remembered by historians as an infamous, partisan scoundrel-- but he has already said that he doesn't care about what historians will write about him.

Oops. I missed the Heller allusion there.

Revamping the Manhattan skyline may have been Larry Silverstein's prerogative, but he had no right to demolish buildings with 3,000 people in them.

Yes, our Psychopath-in-Chief has, obviously, learned a lesson after getting nailed for his Ukraine extortion scam last summer. America is fortunate to have judicious Republican Senators like Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Cory Gardner, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and Rand Paul to protect us from such rampant venality in the Executive branch... 🥴

And, if those eggs ever hatched, we would probably see a bunch of loud orange chicks running around stealing all of the chicken feed and rubbing against the baby hens...🤪

Silverstein is also on video explaining that he "told them to pull it" (WTC7) on 9/11, before they "watched it come down" in an obvious controlled demolition. Whom was he referring to as "them?" It wasn't the NYFD because, as one of their experts later explained, "We (the NYFD) don't do demolitions." And, in any case, it would have taken a lot of time and man-hours to stage an expert demolition of a 47 floor skyscraper like WTC7.

Wasn't it inevitable that Trump would find a way to aggressively spin this little PR snafu-- to engender doubt in the minds of his fans about his bizarre addiction to facial bronzer? If someone filmed Donald copulating with chickens, he would probably succeed in convincing his fan club that he was working on a USDA project to improve American poultry production.

I've become a regular reader at Professor Juan Cole's website. Here's another one at Informed Comment today that is relevant to Bernie's candidacy. Our media moguls have been denigrating social democracy for so many decades that the great FDR, himself, would be labeled a radical, un-electable "socialist" in America today. Social Democracy has made Nordic Countries Happy and Prosperous: Americans should Learn from Them https://www.juancole.com/2020/02/democracy-countries-prosperous.html February 9, 2020

I read a parody of Carville's famous quote somewhere recently-- about Trump support in 2020. "It's the stupidity, stupid."

Christopher Bollyn, the former American Free Press journalist, and Lone Ranger of 9/11 Truthers during the past 18 years, has written about the possible application of super thermitic paint to the WTC beams and concrete. Whatever it was, the steel-liquefying temperatures at the WTC were far in excess of anything that could have resulted from burning jet fuel (or mere office fires.) And the intense heat-generating thermitic reactions persisted at Ground Zero for weeks after 9/11.