W. Niederhut

Jim, That is a misrepresentation of my points (above) about the post-WWII USSR and Putin's 21st century Russian Federation. 1) Regarding the USSR, my point is that, IMO, Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick tended to de-emphasize the significance of Stalin's genocidal history, and his post-war agenda in Eastern Europe-- largely blaming Truman, Byrnes, and the Dulles brothers for the Iron Curtain and the establishment of Stalin's Marxist-Leninist Soviet Bloc. Truman, Byrnes, and the Bomb certainly launched the Cold War, and undermined our war-time alliance with Stalin, but a rift with the USSR in Europe was inevitable, IMO. Even Tito and Milovan Djilas realized that much, if you study their historical rift with Stalin in Yugoslavia. The U.S. had nothing to do with it. (See M. Djilas. Conversations With Stalin.) Stone & Kuznick elaborated on the thesis that Uncle Joe Stalin mainly wanted a defensive barrier against another German invasion after WWII. In the process, they never mentioned the August 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to partition Poland. Nor did they discuss the dark side of post-war Soviet oppression of the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary-- including Stalin's mass incarcerations of ethnic non-Russians in his Gulag Archipelago. By 1950, even FDR's terrific former VP, Henry Wallace, had become disillusioned with Stalin's totalitarian police state and its oppression of Eastern Europe. Of course, JFK was right in pursuing detente, nuclear non-proliferation, and a de-escalation of the Cold War-- for which he was murdered. Without the Kennedy brothers, our U.S. Cold War hawks would have nuked the planet to defeat communism. 2) As for Putin, my point is that those in the West who are blaming NATO for Putin's invasion of Ukraine are not looking very carefully at the history of Putin's transformation of the Russian Federation's nascent Yeltsin-era democracy into a totalitarian police state. Putin has had his own geopolitical agenda for the past quarter century. It's Aleksander Dugin's vision of Russia's geopolitical future. It isn't communist, but it is totalitarian. As I began telling people 16 years ago, after the KGB (FSB) seized the ROCOR, Putin appeared to be creating a kind of fascist, ethnic Russian, totalitarian police state. He has even had his own Russian version of the Hitler Jugend, and jackboots who beat up homosexuals, etc. That concept was based on my own observations and conversations with people in Russia and in the Russian Orthodox community, including former KGB Lt. Col., Konstantin Preobrazhensky.

What pettifoggery. You thrive on modern Western ignorance of Russian history. From your glib dismissal of Stalin's monstrous crimes against humanity, it is apparent that you never studied The Gulag Archipelago or other non-Soviet texts documenting the bloody history of Stalinism. UCLA Professor Jared Diamond, among others, has ranked Stalin's 20th century genocide in the Soviet Union as the single worst genocide in the history of our species-- estimated by Diamond at 20 million souls. Nor have you, apparently, studied the sordid history of Putin-ism in the 21st century. Conscientious Soviets may have engaged in an "intensive process of self-evaluation in the wake of Stalinism," but that process obviously failed to prevent Putin and his KGB associates from reconstructing a totalitarian, neo-Stalinist police state in the modern Russian Federation after 1997. It's a pyramid with no meaningful checks-and-balances on Putin's absolute power-- not even a Politburo. Putin turned the Russian media into an organ of state (and international) propaganda, and systematically murdered or incarcerated critics and the political opposition. (Incidentally, you have never commented on Putin's serial murders of Russian journalists during our debates here. You always dodge the subject.) As for the so-called "crisis-beset U.S. Empire," when has our U.S./NATO alliance ever been stronger in recent years? Our most serious U.S. crisis, at present, is the right-wing, proto-fascist Trump cult, which has been actively promoted and funded by the Kremlin's asymmetrical warfare against the U.S. since 2015. Meanwhile, Putin's fascist police state is on the brink of collapse as a result of his botched invasion of Ukraine.

In Thailand, there lived an ex-pat, who secretly wore a red hat. He'd curse Donks and Joe Biden, while also deriding alleged feculent, partisan scat.

Peaceful coexistence is an ideal, but at what price? I doubt that Eastern Europeans subjected to the Soviet yoke after 1945, or modern day Ukrainians, share your blithe moral relativism about Soviet, and neo-Soviet, oppression. Do you, at least, agree that Stalin was evil? Conversely, do you believe that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are, generally, good --as opposed to murder, gulags, and social control through police state terror?

Jeff, Certainly, we can all decry the misuse of labels that falsely demonize putative adversaries in the conduct of foreign affairs, without simultaneously pretending that there is no such thing as evil. Such moral relativism is surely absurd, even for modern intellectuals who believe that God is dead. Who among us would deny that mass murderers like Hitler and Stalin were truly evil? Or American mass murderers like LBJ, Nixon, Kissinger, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the Neocons? And now Putin? My point is that we need to study both sides in the 78 year-old conflict between Washington and the Kremlin, and this forum has always been focused on the untold history of the U.S. Deep State. As for JFK's Berlin Speech, was it, in fact, delivered as a realpolitik-al counterpoint to the olive branch of the Peace Speech?

Question. Is it possible that the Trump Espionage case was sent to Judge Cannon to prevent other judges from being murdered by the MAGAts? The judge in Florida who originally authorized the Mar-a-Lago search warrant received subsequent death threats from the MAGA Bomber crowd. And Trump has already called for his MAGA Bombers to descend on the Florida courthouse this Tuesday.

Posted without intentional, feculent irony by the guy who was supposed to move his redundant anti-Biden spam to the MAGA Water Cooler... 🙄 In any case, I, for one, was relieved when Ben finally figured out-- after the premier of JFK Revisited at Cannes-- that Operation Mockingbird is still operational in the U.S. media. Ben wasn't so sure at the time, but he has learned some things, and he now wants to educate us, at last. As for FDR's wartime alliance with the USSR, (prior to his death and the subsequent surrender of Japan) I noticed that no one has commented on the fact that FDR's own progressive, pro-Soviet former Vice President, Henry Wallace, acknowledged by 1950 that he had been naive about Stalin, and that he now believed that the Soviet Union was "utterly evil." Is it possible that FDR would have done the same, had he lived another five years? Most Western intellectuals eventually concurred with Henry Wallace's condemnation of the Soviet Union after Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago was published and the truth about 20th century Soviet atrocities became more evident in the West. The evidence was shocking. Meanwhile, the evidence of Putin's neo-Stalinist atrocities has become increasingly evident in the 21st century. Journalists and other Putin critics in Russia have been systematically murdered during the past twenty years, residential buildings in Ukraine have been demolished by Russian missiles, and Ukrainian citizens have been shipped to Russian Gulags in Stalinist fashion. Putin is a graduate of the Yuri Andropov Institute. Obviously, the U.S. military-industrial complex has committed endless atrocities in the post-WWII era, throughout the world, including the Middle East during the Bush/Cheney/Neocon era. JFK was the only POTUS who tried to end those U.S. military-industrial travesties. He understood the anti-colonial aspect of most Third World conflicts. But, on this forum, there has been a persistent tendency to focus on only one side of the 78 year-old conflict between the U.S. military-industrial complex and the Soviet (and neo-Soviet) military-industrial complex. Both complexes have been problematic for humanity. People from the former Soviet Bloc nations of Eastern Europe understand that better than some people from the U.S., U.K., (and Ireland.) Eastern Europeans would have preferred the Marshall Plan's "export of American democracy at gunpoint" to Soviet totalitarianism any day, which is why they have been so eager to join NATO and the EU. Peace is an admirable thing, as Neville Chamberlain, himself, believed, but, when dealing with bullies, it is often necessary to carry a big stick. JFK believed as much, as he said in his June 1963 Berlin Speech.

Kirk, I recently posted a comment here in which I wondered how the MAGAts would respond to Trump's impending indictments. Now we know. It's even worse than I imagined. Total dishonesty, cowardice, and denial. Trumpism is a cult.

Jeff, You are neglecting to mention an inconvenient truth that refutes your thesis. Even FDR's progressive former Vice President, Henry Wallace, later admitted that he had been naive about Stalin and the Soviet Union. (He was fired as Commerce Sdcretary by Truman in 1946 for praising the USSR.) By 1950, Wallace said that the Soviet Union was "utterly evil." Perhaps you are unaware that many Western liberals also became disillusioned with the USSR after reading Solzhenitsyn. Have you read The Gulag Archipelago?

Jeff, Most people in the West were unaware of the extent of Stalin's crimes against humanity prior to the publication of Solzhenitsyn's work after 1960. And many of the crimes of the Soviet state against humanity have remained largely "untold" to this very day. They were shrouded in secrecy and Bolshevik propaganda, in a closed society-- a totalitarian police state. What have you read, or heard, about the Soviet concentration camps in former Orthodox monasteries like Solovki? Nothing, I'll wager. What have you read about the Bolshevik demolitions of Russian Orthodox churches, or their use as Bolshevik gymnasiums and skating rinks? Stalin had the Spaasky Cathedral near the Kremlin demolished because he couldn't stand looking at it. The man was evil. As for JFK, I believe he would have endeavored to prevent Putin's expansionist military agenda in the former Soviet Union-- through negotiation, if possible. But I also believe he would have used military force, if necessary, to resist Putin's brutal invasion and annexation of a sovereign Ukrainian nation. Here is the text of JFK's June 1963 Berlin speech. Does he sound like a POTUS who would have done nothing while Putin invaded Ukraine, in order to establish his totalitarian police state in Kyiv? REMARKS OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY AT THE RUDOLPH WILDE PLATZ, BERLIN, JUNE 26, 1963 Listen to speech. View related documents. President John F. Kennedy West Berlin June 26, 1963 I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed. Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner." I appreciate my interpreter translating my German! There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin. Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together. What is true of this city is true of Germany--real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind. Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner."

"On political corruption, we are going to restore honor to our government. In my administration, I am going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law." -- Donald Trump/ August 18, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina

Meanwhile, the Trumplicon scoundrels in the GOP -- including Kevin McCarthy-- are lying about Trump's misconduct, and even calling for violence. More evidence of Trump's pseudo-patriotism. He would burn the country down to save his own crooked ass. 'Scary as hell': Militia expert says Trump tweet from GOP's Clay Higgins is call for 'civil war' - Raw Story - Celebrating 19 Years of Independent Journalism

Huh? FDR allied with the brutal mass murderer, Joseph Stalin, out of necessity. And, at the time of his death, he was still seeking Soviet assistance in defeating Japan, right? Is that your definition of naivete? As for JFK, do you diehard Putin apologists really believe that JFK would have done nothing in response to Putin's invasion and annexation of Ukraine? Study his June 1963 Berlin speech.

Yeah, Steve, and, according to WaPo today, Trump is guilty on 30 counts of illegal possession of classified military intelligence regardless of whether he shared the intel with anyone.

Nothing new here, Jeff. Obviously, FDR (and even Churchill) turned to Stalin as an ally-- a necessary evil, if you will-- in the critically important task of defeating the N-a-z-i Wehrmacht in Europe. And the Red Army did the lion's share of the fighting. 80% of all Wehrmacht military casualties in WWII occurred in Russia. Churchill was very reluctant to re-commit troops to the Continent after Dunkirk, and the D-Day invasion happened almost FIVE YEARS after WWII commenced in Poland. It was FDR who responded most sincerely to Stalin's request for a Second Front-- in Italy (and up the Rhone Valley.) By the time Germany surrendered, in May of 1945, the Red Army was gargantuan-- far and away the most massive military force in Europe. And Stalin had no intention of relinquishing his occupied territories in Eastern Europe after May of 1945. In fact, he had entered into a pact with Hitler, (Molotov-Ribbentrop) to partition (and annex) Poland in August of 1939. Stalin was always secretive, and deceptive, about his pre-war (and post-war) Soviet genocide-- the Purges, executions, and forced labor camps of the Gulag, which also involved the mass incarceration of ethnic Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, and other ethnic non-Russians after 1939. Soviet supporters in the West were generally shocked and disillusioned when the truth about Stalinism surfaced in the publications of Solzhenitsyn after 1960. Stalin was not an enlightened, humane autocrat. He murdered millions of his own citizens. So, IMO, the Stone/Kuznick narrative blaming Truman and the Cold War hawks in the West for the tragedy of Cold War history is one-sided. The "untold" half of the story is about the Kremlin. The same thing is true about current narratives blaming the U.S. and NATO for Putin's brutal 2022 invasion of Ukraine-- and the 25 year-old Dugin/Putin agenda of annexing Ukraine.

Jeff, This is the basic Cold War narrative of Peter Kuznick and Oliver Stone's Untold History series, and it was the only historical narrative in the series that seemed partially erroneous, in my opinion. Certainly, Stone & Kuznick were correct about the machinations of American capitalists and Cold War hawks to kick Henry Wallace off of FDR's 1944 Presidential ticket, and to use Truman and the Bomb to end our WWII era alliance with Uncle Joe Stalin and the Soviets, launching the Cold War. But were Stone & Kuznick correct about Stalin's totalitarian police state and his post-war agenda in Europe? We can ask an analogous question about Oliver Stone's benign opinion of Putin's agenda in the 21st century. Stone has focused, primarily, on telling the Untold History of the United States-- the grim machinations of Wall Street, the CIA, and military-industrial complex. Conversely, he and Kuznick have not really focused on the very dark, untold history of Stalinism, the Soviet Union, and the 21st century Russian Federation. Using your paradigm, (above) how do you explain the 20th century Stalinist genocide against Soviet citizens, (including the Holodomor) the Gulag Archipelago, and the multi-decade oppression of Eastern Europeans by the Soviet police state? Hungary in 1956? Prague in 1968? Soviet genocide in Poland? Ukraine in 2022? Are those Soviet (and Russian Federation) crimes against humanity primarily the fault of U.S. (and British) Cold War hawks?

Fox Brings On 'Expert' Who Claims Wildfire Air Pollution Is Harmless | Crooks and XXXXX

Get a clue, for once, Ben. I posted back in 2020 that the proximity of the alleged COVID pandemic origin near the Wuhan lab was suspicious. You weren't involved in our detailed discussions here at the time. I was never sold on the Wuhan market origin theory. What does the COVID origin debate have to do with the increased mortality and morbidity resulting from subsequent Trump/Fox/RFK, Jr. COVID disinformation? Have you studied the differential U.S. COVID mortality rates for Trump counties vs. Biden counties, and vaxxed vs. un-vaxxed citizens? Hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of disinformation (and mismanagement of the COVID pandemic) by Trump and other poorly educated morons, including RFK, Jr. As for your (above) condemnation of censorship, I gave you multiple counter-examples which are directly related to Trump, Fox News, RFK, Jr., and Elon Musk. Toxic disinformation that results in mortality and/or violence (including hate speech and stochastic terrorism) should be censored, when feasible. Are you aware that hate speech on Twitter increased significantly after Elon Musk's disastrous takeover of the company?

Gee, thanks for the update, Ben. I'm sure that we're all shocked to hear that the JFK Records are still censored. As for your question about when censorship is a good thing, how about in the case of hate speech? How about speech that incites violence against the citizenry or the Congress? How about unscientific disinformation that endangers the public health? How about propaganda from a foreign adversary that undermines the security and welfare of our nation or that of our sovereign, democratic allies?

I have great respect for Jeffrey Sachs, and I read his article (above) at Common Dreams with interest this morning. I considered posting it on the Education Forum. But my first reaction to this morning's Sachs op-ed was that JFK's June 26, 1963 Berlin speech --and his showdown with Khruschev over Berlin-- is a better example of how JFK would have responded to Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine. JFK took a strong stance in defense of freedom and democracy in Berlin-- in response to Russian imperialism and oppression. And JFK's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech was delivered after his American University "Peace" speech. Admirably, JFK sought peace, but he was also willing to defend democracy from totalitarianism.

Yeah, for a former heroin addict, RFK, Jr. is surprisingly ignorant, and inappropriately negative, about therapeutic psychopharmacology. It's a shame, because he has a fan club that believes his anti-scientific bunk. His inaccurate beliefs about Prozac mirror the Scientology disinformazia on the subject. In contrast, JFK inspired America's Mental Health Center legislation.

RFK, Jr.'s most serious flaw, IMO, is that he doesn't understand science-- as in the case of his anti-vaccine disinformation, and blaming antidepressants for America's epidemic of gun homicides. It's a total cop out on the gun control issue. And, not surprisingly, our main RFK, Jr. booster on the forum is a guy who repeatedly denied Trump's historic J6 coup attempt and refused to watch the Congressional J6 hearings.

Ron, Equally shocking to me was RFK, Jr.'s recent praise for Elon Musk, for allegedly "saving Democracy." Meanwhile, the right-wing MAGA media moguls continue to fluff RFK, Jr.-- presumably to undermine Biden and the Democratic Party. Right-wing media are continuing to prop up RFK Jr.'s bid for president | Media Matters for America Does anyone really believe that Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk, and the right-wing media moguls are progressive Democrats? 🙄 One RFK, Jr. critic lately is Russ Baker, my favorite investigative journalist (and JFKA Truther.) Baker has been getting flak from some of his subscribers for pointing out RFK, Jr.'s serious errors in judgment. More Indications RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaccine Claims Have Little Basis - WhoWhatWhy

Exactly right, Denny. And the daily RFK, Jr./anti-Biden spam started appearing on the JFKA forum after the 56 Years thread was shut down (as a result of MAGA spamming.) The concept was for the MAGA spammers to use the Water Cooler MAGA Spam board, but they never did.