W. Niederhut

Kevin, There's nothing "radioactive" about discussing the JFK records and Donald Trump. In fact, I started a forum thread on the topic here a few years ago. Redundant falsehoods about Trump's true history need to be corrected. Nor is there anything "radioactive" about discussing inaccurate comparisons of JFK's peace initiatives (and his historic conflicts with the CIA and Joint Chiefs) and Donald Trump's bribery-based foreign policy record. Trump was never an heroic adversary of the Deep State. He was elected with the help of some FBI chicanery, and widespread sabotage of Hillary Clinton's candidacy by Russian hackers and the U.S. corporate media. What I pointed out is that it is simply historically inaccurate to claim that "the Deep State was against Trump before he was even elected." The truth is that Trump (and his MAGA pundits at Fox and elsewhere) promoted a series of bogus propaganda tropes about Trump being a victim of the Deep State beginning in 2017-- after the FBI initially questioned Michael Flynn about his December 2016 phone calls with Sergei Kisylak, and data began to emerge about Russian interference in the U.S. election on Trump's behalf. As for your revisionist history claiming that Trump was a peace-seeking adversary of the Deep State, it is inconsistent with a number of historical facts. 1) Trump green-lighted the genocidal Saudi war against Yemen. 2) He significantly increased non-combatant casualties committed by U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen, by changing U.S. Rules of Engagement. In fact, General Mattis had to talk Trump down from his demands for the murder of non-combatant women and children! 3) Trump's de-funding of Operation Timber Sycamore in Syria in the summer of 2017 may have been a response to instructions from Putin-- who had intervened against the CIA/MI6/Saudi/Israeli proxy war on behalf of the Assad regime. In effect, Trump turned Syria over to Putin. (I happen to agree with Putin's intervention.) For those of us who believe that Trump is a compromised Russian asset, this interpretation of Trump's 2017 Timber Sycamore intervention makes sense. It's what Putin wanted Trump to do.

I'm re-posting Ben Cole's (not Cohen) historically inaccurate statement (above) for Kevin Hofeling. Kevin Hofeling is confused here. Rather than repeating myself, I urge Kevin to study my evidence-based, accurate response to Ben's false, oft-repeated claim that the Deep State was "against Trump...even before he was elected." Kevin is unfamiliar with our previous forum discussions about this topic. He is also unfamiliar with my original forum thread about Trump and the JFK Records, from a few years ago, and with my previous forum posts about Operation Timber Sycamore. As I mentioned (above) Trump does deserve credit for de-funding Sycamore in 2017. As for comparing Trump to JFK on foreign policy matters, I should probably remind Kevin that Trump green-lighted the genocidal Saudi war against Yemen. Trump also killed more civilian non-combatants overseas in his first eight months as President than the Obama administration killed in eight years! JFK's policy decisions were generally based on rational, strategic, and ethical analyses. He had humanistic principles. In contrast, Trump's policy decisions were generally based on bribery, kickbacks, self-interest, and suspected blackmail (i.e., kompromat.) Trump responds to money. In that sense, JFK and Trump are diametric opposites. As an example, Michael Wolff described Sheldon Adelson and Paul Singer, essentially, bribing Trump to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And the Saudis loaned Trump's son-in-law $2 billion, following Kushner's dubious tenure as Trump's Middle East envoy.

Here's a song in honor of Peter Navarro checking into prison today-- Flatt & Scruggs' classic, Doin' My Time!

Shaking my head... 🙄 Trump Makes Capitol Riot Cornerstone of His Bid March 19, 2024 at 6:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard “Donald Trump has launched his general election campaign not merely rewriting the history of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, but positioning the violent siege and its failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election as a cornerstone of his bid to return to the White House,” the AP reports. “Initially relegated to a fringe theory on the edges of the Republican Party, the revisionist history of Jan. 6, which Trump amplified during the early days of the GOP primary campaign to rouse his most devoted voters, remains a rally centerpiece even as he must appeal more broadly to a general election audience.” “In heaping praise on the rioters, Trump is shifting blame for his own role in the run-up to the bloody mob siege and asking voters to absolve hundreds of them — and himself — over the deadliest attack on a seat of American power in 200 years.” “At the same time, Trump’s allies are installing 2020 election-deniers to the Republican National Committee, further institutionalizing the lies that spurred the violence. That raises red flags about next year, when Congress will again be called upon to certify the vote.”

Yeah, Ron, I can still remember listening to that original Cheech & Chong record with my friends as a teenager. Those jokes were even funnier after we smoked some low-potency 70s-era reefer. "DAVE'S NOT HERE!" (And the joke about the Pope having to make love to a beautiful woman-- "A-Boomba Boomba...") Meanwhile, here's my favorite Meme-of-the-Day today.

Sandy and Ron, Hold on a minute. I've seen this lousy Education Forum movie before. Let's not rush, once again, to promptly delete accurate forum posts about American history that happen to offend Trump supporters. The thread is about Trump and the Deep State-- in relation to the JFK Records. Correct? Ben Cole then re-posted the false, debunked MAGA narrative that Trump has been a victim of the Deep State, since 2016. It simply isn't true. If forum members are going to post redundant falsehoods about American history, it's important for others to respond with the facts. The truth is that Trump and the right wing media have promoted the false narrative that Trump is a victim of the Deep State since 2017, in an effort to blame Trump's misconduct--including his 2016 campaign's involvement with Russian interference in the the U.S. election-- on the "Deep State." But, on the contrary, the FBI and the corporate M$M played a decisive role in 2016 in putting Trump in the White House. The false "Trump was a victim of the Deep State" narrative is directly relevant to the main subject of this thread, about Trump and the JFK Records. What I notice is that these false Trump tropes about history tend to get re-posted on the forum, by one forum member in particular. Then some people promptly call for the true facts to be deleted only after someone corrects the false Trump narratives about history.

But, Matt, to reiterate, I believe that Oliver Stone's efforts to inform the public about the crimes of the CIA and U.S. military-- at home and abroad-- are extremely important and worthy of praise. JFK and JFK Revisited are probably the best examples, but Salvador and The Untold History of the United States are also important. It pained me to watch that final Putin interview by Oliver Stone, precisely because I really respect the man. Surely, he must have some awareness that Putin is nefarious-- a mass murderer of civilians. I'm also pained by Stone's claim that, "the charges against Trump are ridiculous"-- at least in the cases of the J6 seditious conspiracy and classified records theft. Trump's J6 conspiracy was an extremely serious Presidential crime-- an attempt to remain in power and subvert American democracy.

Geez... How many times has this bogus Trump propaganda trope been debunked here on the Education Forum-- by Cliff Varnell, myself, and others? Do we have to re-post the 2017 Harvard Brennan Center and Columbia Journalism Review analyses of the corporate media sabotage of Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential campaign, for Benjamin Cole? Do we have to re-post the facts about Dean Baquet and the NYT censoring any 2016 pre-election coverage of the Trump campaign's numerous contacts with Kremlin officials-- while simultaneously running non-stop headline articles about Hillary's Email-gate nothing burger? Where was the Deep State when we really needed them? How about James Comey and the "Deep State" FBI officials in New York associated with Rudy Giuliani and Comey's 2016 "October Surprise" involving Anthony Weiner's Laptop nothing burger? The truth is that Ben Cole and his MAGA media pundits only discovered the "Deep State" in 2017, after Trump falsely, and repeatedly, tried to blame his 2016 campaign involvement with the Kremlin on the U.S. "Deep State." First, it was "Spygate," then "Obamagate," then the bogus "Nunes Memo," then Bill Barr's abortion and misrepresentation of the redacted Mueller Report. And let's not forget that Reality Winner was promptly sent to prison for five years, for releasing a single classified memo to The Intercept, which debunked Trump and Putin's lie that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election on Trump's behalf. The GOP-controlled U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee later released their belated report confirming widespread Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, to benefit Trump and the GOP. Addendum: I do agree with Kevin Hofeling's (above) comments about Syria. It's a subject I have been studying for years. Trump deserves credit for ending Operation Timber Sycamore in 2017. But, in general, Trump was hardly a Deep State adversary. He caved on releasing the JFK Records, and he never fulfilled his 2016 campaign promise to tell the American people "who really destroyed the World Trade Center on 9/11." Trump's first trip abroad as POTUS was to Riyadh, to kiss the Royal ring and do the Sword Dance with the Saudis, who were always the main financiers of the CIA/MI6/Saudi/Israeli proxy war against Assad's Alawite regime. Trump also launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syrian Army positions in response to some false flag provocations.

Kirk, I only know about Oliver Stone from watching his films and documentaries. My impression is that he began his invaluable career as a "political" filmmaker by exploring and trying to educate the public about the dark "untold" story of the American military industrial complex and the CIA-- JFK, Born on the 4th of July, Salvador, Nixon, W., The Untold History, etc. God bless him for that terrific work! But, in the process of exposing the truly horrific post-WWII sins of the CIA and the MIC, it seems like Stone (and Kuznick) have tended to turn a blind eye to the dark side of Soviet (and Putin's neo-Soviet) history. Kuznick and Stone never talked about the horrors if Stalinism, (in their Untold History series) nor has Stone talked about the horrors of Putinism, as you pointed out. It's the same criticism I have directed at Paul Rigby, while agreeing with many of Rigby's criticisms of the CIA and the U.S. MIC.

Ben, Jesse Ventura, obviously, didn't make the cut as RFK, Jr.'s running mate this year, but he could still garner an appointment in an RFK, Jr. administration. Ventura would be a formidable Director of Homeland Security, and he would be the first high-level Presidential appointee in history who has his own action doll!

Jen Psaki did a good job today of putting Trump's "bloodbath" comment in the context of his entire Dayton speech, which I had not heard. Trump began the rant by celebrating his J6 attack on Congress. Jen Psaki Destroys The Trump Campaign’s Bloodbath Spin www.politicususa.com/2024/03/17/jen-psaki-destroys-the-trump-campaigns-bloodbath-spin.html/amp

I watched the video twice last night, to try to understand the MAGA/Newsmax spin that Trump wasn't actually threatening a violent MAGA "bloodbath" against the libs. But, if anything, the "bloodbath" comment comes across as another bizarre Trump-style word salad-- a non-sequitur. It bore no obvious relation to his preceding comments about Mexican auto tariffs. And, incidentally, I don't know anyone who owns a Mexican-made automobile. Trump was talking out of his a--, as usual. Anyway, I created a meme.

Sandy, The other obvious problem with this comment (above) is that this forum member has always struggled to understand the important differences between facts and mere opinions-- i.e. "views." The latest example is his specious attempt to dismiss the facts posted about the platform and historic policies of a particular party (including historic SCOTUS rulings) as mere "views and accusations." This is simply inaccurate. It erroneously frames facts about important policy issues as matters of opinion. And, needless to say, this is an American history forum. Historical facts should be welcome. As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, "People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own 'facts.'"

Kirk, This is quite a detailed critique of Paul's concepts. I also agree with Paul's general point about the corruption of American government by the military industrial complex, and plutocracy, during the past 60+ years. It's a Leviathan. But, on a practical level, which party destroyed a century of campaign finance reforms with the Citizens United SCOTUS ruling? Which party crippled the Voting Rights Act with the Shelby v. Holder SCOTUS ruling? Which party has been passing laws on a state level to restrict voting? Which party attacked the U.S. Congress to overturn a U.S. election? I don't want to be too explicit, in violation of forum policies, but people who are truly concerned about the "withering of democracy," like Paul, should be especially concerned about one party, in particular.

Yo, fellas, St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow! It's time to think about partying-- or, at least, listening to some great Irish music! Here's the great Irish fiddler, Kevin Burke, with his Portland, Oregon-based band, Open House. By sheer luck, I saw these guys live at a pub in Vancouver, called the W.I.S.E. Club, (Welsh, Irish, Scottish, English) the year they came out with this first, eponymous album. Burke is my favorite, along with the Irish folk band, Altan.

Cliff, I know you're mainly a punk rock afficionado but, if you like good cigars, you might appreciate this 16th century English madrigal extolling the virtues of tobacco. Not wild about the YouTube format here, but the King's Singers recorded the best version of this terrific song, Come, Sirrah Jack, Ho!

You have my sympathy. I bought some fake Cohibas in Mexico several years ago (before it was legal to buy Cuban cigars in the U.S.) Now Cuban cigars are too expensive for me, and my favorite Dominicans (Monte Christo Media Noches) have increased to $12! They used to cost $4. I recently bought some $17 Man O' War Ruination cigars (Nicaraguan) on sale for $3, and they're terrific. When I light up a Ruination cigar on my patio, the whole neighborhood goes up in thick, black smoke, as if I had just sunk a Man O' War in close combat.

Delete

Sandy, The distinction, IMO, is between explicit and implicitly perjorative comments. Paul posted an implicitly perjorative comment about the current POTUS (and the Democratic Party) by suggesting that our "withering democracy" is incapable of solving our "enormous problems." I merely requested clarification about which "problems" Paul was referring to, in relation to competing policy platforms. And, incidentally, who has been "withering" our democracy-- rolling back voting rights, enabling dark money in campaigns, etc.?

Which "enormous problems" are you referring to, Paul? Climate change? Pollution? Our Reaganomic national debt? The survival of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? If you are concerned about our "withering semblance of democracy" solving these problems in 2025, and beyond, please read my initial (penalized) post on this thread (above.) It appears that, contrary to Cory's argument, (above) political commentary is being permitted here, with the exception of evidenced-based critiques of Trumpism. Addendum: Oops, Paul. I just noticed that my initial post on this thread was deleted. It was a brief summary of Trump's putative 2025 platform, (on the above-mentioned issues) along with reference links about some Republican RFK, Jr. donors.

This is more about weather than climate. We got hit by a major snow storm here in Colorado this week. Fortunately, these ladies stranded on the Vail ski bus didn't have to resort to cannibalism. In other good news, none of my trees were damaged, and I didn't break my back shoveling more than a foot of heavy wet snow here in Denver yesterday. 50 women trapped on ski bus after major Colorado snowstorm (coloradosun.com)

Cory, With all due respect your comment is entirely specious. Let me explain why without violating the forum rules, if possible. (I'm already in the penalty box for speaking up about the latest RFK, Jr. fanboy thread here.) During the past year, we have seen dozens of RFK, Jr. promotional threads here on the JFKA board-- all carefully couched in reference to releasing the JFKA Records. So, while it's true that these redundant RFK, Jr. threads are superficially relevant to the JFKA, it is also true that they are mainly about contemporary politics-- i.e., about RFK, Jr.'s 2024 third party campaign against Joe Biden. BUT, is promoting RFK, Jr.'s 2024 candidacy necessarily partisan-- i.e., is a 2024 vote for RFK, Jr. necessarily a vote for Donald Trump? I don't know the precise answer to that question, but I do know that RFK, Jr.'s third party campaign is being funded by right wing billionaires, like Timothy Mellon, who are major supporters of Donald Trump.* These guys want low tax rates, and they want to "starve the beast"-- i.e. to de-fund Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. These Republican plutocrats are, evidently, financing RFK, Jr.'s third party campaign in order to put Trump back in the White House, IMO. So, if promotional JFKA threads about RFK, Jr.'s third party candidacy are inherently anti-Biden, (and pro-Trump) is it "fair" to penalize forum members for calling a spade a spade and talking about the implications for contemporary politics? You Republicans can't have it both ways-- calling RFK, Jr. fluffing threads "appropriate," while condemning those who put those threads in political context. * New York Times: “R.F.K.-Aligned Super PAC Draws Heavily From a Republican Megadonor.” Financial Times: “Donald Trump donor pours cash into Robert Kennedy Jr’s White House run.” Rolling Stone: “Half of that staggering cash haul [for RFK Jr. and American Values 2024] has come from two people. Timothy Mellon, a Republican megadonor who backed Donald Trump’s failed 2020 reelection campaign, has donated another $10 million to the pro-Kennedy super PAC, American Values 2024. Mellon, an heir to the Mellon banking fortune, has now given $15 million to the group so far.”

No, Cory. You missed the mark. In fact, you're off by 180 degrees. A better question is why these RFK, Jr. fanboy threads are typically removed from the JFKA board only after one of us responds to the inherent anti-Biden/RFK. Jr. sales pitch with a reality check-- or, God forbid, a little humor. And, if anything, I went out of my way yesterday to avoid engaging in any ad hominem slurs about the guy who started this thread. (BTW, if it makes you and your Republican colleagues feel any better, Sandy Larsen has given me a stern warning and a 5 point penalty today.)

Kinzer's book, The Brothers, is a great read. Well written and well researched. So is his book on Sidney Gottlieb, Poisoner-in-Chief.

Speaking of Roscoe White and "Badgeman," I was recently re-reading the chapter on Lee Bowers in Hit List. Bowers claimed--prior to his untimely death--that he was afraid to tell people everything he had witnessed in the parking lot behind the Grassy Knoll on 11/22/63. If true, what, on earth, would have frightened him? Is it possible that Bowers saw a man in a police uniform shooting at JFK?