W. Niederhut

Matt, Do you have a good source about these Hamas "bombs?" As Aeschylus said, "Truth is the first casualty of war." It's difficult to know precisely what has been happening over there since October 6th-- aside from the internationally circulated videos and photos of Gaza being bombed back to the Stone Age. The initial Israeli reports about Hamas beheading babies have been debunked. And, evidently, some of the Israelis killed on October 7th were torched by IDF Hellfire missiles. * The strangest thing of all is that the world's pre-eminent intelligence agency failed to prevent the October 7th attacks-- which have subsequently served as a pretext for Netanyahu's ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Surely, the Mossad must have had intelligence agents infiltrating Hamas in Gaza. It's a head scratcher. ^ American Pravda: War Crimes and Atrocity-Hoaxes in the Israel/Gaza Conflict, by Ron Unz - The Unz Review

Matt, What a disingenuous post by Luis Zanger. He's using a video of moral outrage about Netanyahu's war crimes in Gaza to ridicule a distraught peace protester. It's like a glib Spiro Agnew comment after the Kent State Massacre. Also, do you and Zanger consider moral indignation about Netanyahu's war crimes in Gaza, "anti-Semitic?" That's the bogus, oft-repeated Fox News trope-of-the-month-- where Gaza peace protesters are also referred to as, "Hamas supporters." Geez... Who is condoning Hamas violence or condemning Jewish people? In contrast, many Netanyahu/Likud Party critics, including Bernie Sanders, Medea Benjamin, Norman Soloman, et.al., are Jewish. The truth is that Netanyahu has been openly engaged in ethnic cleansing-- indiscriminately bombing residential neighborhoods, schools, and hospitals in Gaza, while massacring Palestinian women and children. These are obvious war crimes. Let's not join Rupert Murdoch and Bill Maher in denying war crimes here at the Education Forum. This forum is a rare place in our society where people endeavor to tell the truth.

This is a serious problem in the U.S. and Europe right now-- silencing peace protesters and critics of Netanyahu's war crimes in Gaza.* Imagine if this had happened to critics of Milosevic and Karadzic after the Srebrenica Massacre. Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs has called for the UN, U.S., and NATO to impose peace in Palestine, and set limits on the extremists on both sides who have persistently sabotaged a just, two-state solution. Instead, Biden has responded to Netanyahu's war crimes by shipping more bombs to Bibi. My question. If we intervened against Milosevic to prevent tribal genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo, why can't we intervene against Netanyahu to prevent tribal genocide in Palestine? What's the difference? In both cases, a government was supporting military attacks on Muslim civilians. This is a variation on my criticism of Biden and Blinken for vetoing the UN resolution for a Gaza cease-fire. * 'Price of Defending Apartheid': AIPAC Set to Spend $100 Million Against Squad (commondreams.org)

Jeffrey Sachs op-ed today... Opinion | A Framework for Peace in Israel and Palestine | Common Dreams

Here's some rock 'n roll relief for those who are depressed about the intractable Arab-Israeli violence. It's one of my favorite roller blading/work out songs of the past 40 years, with a video filmed in the Lone Star State.

Sandy, Your argument is predicated on the notion that the UN, the U.S., NATO, and the international community have no power to intervene to stop Netanyahu's war crimes in Gaza-- in the same way that they intervened against Belgrade in Bosnia and Kosovo. In other words, the right-wing Israeli Likud Party tail is wagging the American dog, and American politicians are afraid to cross AIPAC-- the powerful American-Israeli Political Action Committee. This week AIPAC has even announced plans to attack and defeat members of Congress who have dared to criticize Netanyahu. Israel Lobby’s Disastrous Domination (consortiumnews.com) Ariel Sharon once boasted that U.S. politicians would never dare to cross the Israeli government. He was correct. Therein lies the problem. Even Jimmy Carter was attacked as "anti-Semitic" for his low-key efforts to advocate for a fair two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reagan, the Bushes, and Obama scarcely tried. Then Trump was bribed to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Israel's seizure of the Golan Heights. Whatever happened to the historic U.S./UN role in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? JFK was the last POTUS who tried. Somewhere along the line, U.S. Presidents turned their backs on the Palestinian people-- not for geopolitically sound, "strategic" reasons, as you imagine, but because it was politically expedient, at home. Meanwhile, it looks like some honest State Department officials agree with Douglas Caddy. Internal State Dept. memo blasts Biden, U.S. policy on Israel-Hamas war (axios.com)

Sandy, Biden's embrace of Netanyahu was an appropriate response to the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens. But, as I said from the beginning, Biden and Blinken should have done more to prevent Netanyahu's massive retaliatory bombing of Gaza's 2.3 million civilians. Instead, the Biden administration vetoed the UN resolution calling for a halt to the bombing of Gaza -- while pledging to give Netanyahu even more bombs! Aside from the ethical issue of complicity in war crimes, how is enabling the Gaza bombing strategically sound for the U.S.? On the contrary, it has damaged our fragile alliances with the Islamic world. In consequence, our military bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked, and a mob tried to burn down the U.S. embassy in Beirut.

Geez, Sandy, talk about pretzel logic and Orwellian Double Speak. With all due respect, this lady's putative defense of Biden green-lighting the bombing of Gaza civilians makes no sense. In fact, it's gibberish. Her first argument is that historic anti-Semitism somehow justifies Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. We could use that "logic" to justify Chivington's Sand Creek Massacre. Her second argument is that Bibi and Biden are upholding "international norms." Huh? Is Netanyahu's relentless bombing of non-combatant civilians-- including women and children-- in Gaza an example of Israel upholding, "the international norms crafted over decades since World War II, norms that allowed the world to make progress in preserving peace and advancing democracy?"

Incredible. The Saudis have been financing a proxy war against Assad's Alawite regime for the past decade. Now Assad and Erdogan are in Saudi Arabia. Israel's bombing of Gaza is uniting bitter enemies in the Islamic world.

Mike Johnson Is In Paris as Shutdown Looms November 10, 2023 at 10:15 am EST By Taegan Goddard Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who sent the House home early despite a government shutdown looming next week, will speak at a gathering of right-wing leaders in Paris this weekend.

Dear Congress: Your Resolution against Rashida Tlaib is Delusional, full of Fake History and Falsehoods. Here's Why. (juancole.com)

I suspected that Ben Cole would eventually use this RFK, Jr. thread to start MAGA spamming the forum again-- as he did on the 56 Years thread, and on his numerous, redundant "Biden snuff job" threads here on the JFKA board. Ben has stubbornly refused to post his anti-Biden MAGA spam at the MAGA Water Cooler-- after the 56 Years thread was finally shut down by the mods. He doesn't want to be exiled to a lonely MAGA echo chamber. At least Ben hasn't resumed re-posting his redundant tropes about Trump's seditious J6 mob attack on Congress being a mere "scrum."

The outrageous behavior that Trump gets away with never ceases to amaze me. He's like a petulant, conduct-disordered 5th grader who constantly breaks the rules and tests limits. Two anecdotes about Trump's childhood (and adult) character pathology come to mind. According to his former elementary school classmates, young Donald would never admit that he had done something wrong-- even when it was painfully obvious to his teachers and peers. And he once punched his music teacher in the eye, after shouting that his music teacher, "(didn't) know anything about music." Very similar, in a sense, to Trump's latest inaccurate, insulting attacks on Judge Engoron.

Indeed, Leslie, and it is also a fact that RFK, Jr. has assiduously avoided criticizing Donald Trump-- the sociopath who not only perpetrated the Big Lie that the 2020 U.S. election was stolen, but conspired to organize slates of False Electors in several swing states, and incited a violent mob to obstruct the Congressional certification of Biden's election on January 6th. Those Trump crimes against American democracy are serious and unprecedented. No meritorious candidate for public office in the U.S.-- including RFK, Jr.-- should deny or remain silent about Trump's historic crimes. Our democracy and Constitution are betrayed by such silence. And, shockingly, a high percentage of Trump's fans today still believe his Big Lie about the 2020 election, and also believe that violence against the U.S. government is justified. It's a proto-fascist American crisis. Coincidentally, the biggest RFK, Jr. booster on this forum is a guy who has repeatedly denied that Trump engaged in a seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, while calling Trump's violent J6 mob attack on Congress a "scrum."

Steve, Back in the day, I studied the history of religion in America with Brown University Professor William McGloughlin-- a protege of the late, great Harvard historian, Perry Miller. One thing that many people don't know is that the (liberal) American Baptist church in America --founded in Providence, Rhode Island by Roger Williams in the early 17th century-- split with the "Southern Baptist" church over the issue of slavery in the 1850s. In effect, the American Baptists were Abolitionists. (The Ante-Bellum rift between American Baptists and pro-slavery Southern Baptists persists even today.) Roger Williams had actually abolished slavery in Rhode Island in his original 17th century charter for the colony, and he was also the first American colonial leader to establish freedom of religion and separation of church and state in his colony-- more than a century before Jefferson and the Bill of Rights. (The oldest synagogue in the U.S. is the Tauro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island.) Roger Williams-- a Cambridge grad and friend of the English poet John Milton-- was also the first person to translate Biblical scriptures into a Native American language-- Narragansett-- and to publish a Native American dictionary in English, his 1643 opus, A Key Into the Language of America. A Key into the Language of America - Wikipedia Roger Williams believed in respect for Native Americans, and the acquisition of Native American land only through legitimate and fair purchase. He was well liked and respected by Native Americans in Rhode Island. I mention these things partly because I was raised in the (liberal) American Baptist church and graduated from Brown, (where the graduation ceremonies are still held in Roger Williams' First Baptist Church in Providence.) So, needless to say, I always cringe when I hear people associate Protestantism with slavery, racism, Native American genocide, and Manifest Destiny. Sadly, that association is accurate for many "Evangelical" Protestants in U.S. history, and today. But there is also a "liberal Protestant" tradition in the U.S., which, among other things, played an important role in the 19th century Abolitionist movement to free the slaves. When I was a teenager, I also participated in a successful movement in which the American Baptist Church in the U.S. divested itself of all stocks in the armaments industry during the Vietnam War. We were "libs."

Honestly, I agree with the oracle, David Axelrod, on this one. LBJ didn't announce that he wouldn't seek re-election until late March of 1968, so there is still ample time for Biden to retire and allow some younger Democratic leaders to compete for the nomination.

Interesting information from your Lt. Col. friend, Pat. In his memoir, The Price of Loyalty, George W. Bush's former Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, mentioned that Donald Rumsfeld had asked him as early of January of 2001 about contingency plans for funding a U.S. invasion of Iraq. And we know that Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, and the Neocons involved in the Project for a New American Century had proposed invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam Hussein prior to Dubya's GOP nomination in 2000. We also know that General Wesley Clark was briefed in late September of 2001--shortly after 9/11-- about the Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz Pentagon agenda of invading Iraq. Dubya's official Iraq invasion public relations committee was chaired by Karl Rove, beginning in 2002-- information that emerged during the grand jury investigation of Rove and Scooter Libby's involvement in the Valerie Plame affair. The committee's job was to sell the American public on the necessity of invading Iraq.

Sandy, As I said a few weeks ago, these redundant, "RFK. Jr.-Will-Release-the-Records," threads remind me of Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah. I have no objection to forum members beating a dead horse, but how many times do people need to repeat the same trope? It's an interesting topic, but the repetition starts to sound like a political campaign jingle. For single-issue voters, the JFK records may be a centrally important issue but, in reality, Presidential elections determine multiple, important policy issues-- Supreme Court appointments, tax policy, healthcare policy, climate change policy, EPA enforcement, public health policies, etc.

The more I have studied the history of Hamas and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lately, the more hopeless I feel. There doesn't seem to be a feasible solution to this historic conflict. Fortunately, I've been able sit out in the garden this weekend, enjoying the unusually warm weather, and listening to great songs by Phish-- including, "Everything's Right, So Just Hold Tight." Any Phish-heads around here? What an incredibly live band. Their virtuosity and preference for live, improvisational concert jams reminds me of Jerry Garcia and the Dead. Here's Phish last February, in concert on the "Mayan Riviera." (The only large concert I ever attended on the Mayan Riviera was at Xcaret.)

RFK Jr. Would Halt Infectious Disease Research November 4, 2023 at 10:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a conference that if he is elected president, he would have the National Institutes of Health move away from covering infectious disease outbreaks like Covid and measles, NBC News reports. Said Kennedy: “I’m gonna say to NIH scientists, God bless you all. Thank you for public service. We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.”

It's a highly controversial subject but, honestly, I agree with Congresswoman Tlaib's criticism of Biden. Biden and Blinken should have taken a stronger stand against Netanyahu's massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. More than 3,700 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza during the past month. And Biden and Blinken vetoed the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Satellite data now shows more than 1,000 bomb craters in Gaza-- associated with the widescale demolition of residential neighborhoods, schools, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals. Israel has even bombed south Gaza, after telling the Palestinians to evacuate to the south. There have also been widespread, homicidal attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank by Israeli settlers. Basically, it has been open season on Palestinian civilians since October 7th-- accompanied by public calls for wiping out the Palestinians by Bibi Netanyahu, an Israeli MP, and some Orthodox rabbis.

I've always envied you baseball fans. Denver didn't have a major league baseball team when I was a lad, and my father, brother, and I never watched or played baseball-- other than some informal, neighborhood games in the local park. The detailed, encyclopedic knowledge of the sport by many American baseball fans-- including guys on this forum-- has always amazed me. "So-and-so injured his elbow in the bottom of the 7th inning in 1963," etc. It's America's game, but it was never my game.

Congratulations to your intrepid Texas Rangers, Ron... They were 11-0 on the road in the post-season. Obviously, beating the reigning world champion Astros was the hard part. Now they should host a celebration wth those famous old Texas Rangers, Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call-- aka Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones.

Pope Francis is walking in St. Augustine's footsteps here, in describing the proper relationship between Catholic theology, comparative religion, and scientific knowledge of the natural world. In the 4th century A.D., Augustine had advised Catholic theologians to eschew assertions contradicted by science, to avoid "scandalizing the faithful" by their ignorance. Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church ignored St. Augustine's sage advice for centuries. This historical issue was discussed in detail by Brown University biology Professor Kenneth Miller in his outstanding book, Finding Darwin's God. Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution (P.S.): Miller, Kenneth R.: 9780061233500: Amazon.com: Books