W. Niederhut

French historian Laurent Guyenot has published a lengthy essay this month about JFK-Destiny Betrayed, which also includes some commentary about the recent interview of Oliver Stone and James DiEugenio by Canadian journalist Eloise Boies. Guyenot has high praise for James DiEugenio and JFK-Destiny Betrayed. His only criticism is focused on some questions about LBJ's putative role in the murder plot, and the Israeli/Dimona nuclear proliferation angle. JFK and America’s Destiny Betrayed, by Laurent Guyénot - The Unz Review January 21, 2023

Joe, Just to clarify, Mathew Koch was the guy who posted the comment, "I'm starting to consider you mentally ill," in response to my post summarizing the Mueller Report, which Mathew had requested (above.)

As people age, and lose frontal lobe gray matter, their personality disorders often become more obvious... 🤥 Trump Likens Himself to Late, Great Gangster Al Capone (mediaite.com)

Mathew, It's often difficult to decipher your gibberish and YouTube video concept of "dialogue" here. This will be my last post to you. On review, I had posted some comments about the J6 Committee, (above) and, in response, you posted a video of Adam Schiff, (apparently, talking about Russiagate?) When you then asked for a summary of the"report," I thought you were referring to the J6 Committee Report, which Adam Schiff was involved with, and so I took the time to summarize that evidence for you (above.) When I learned (from Chris and John) that you had, most likely, requested a summary of the Mueller Report, I then took the time to post an excellent summary for your perusal (above.) If you read the summary, you will learn that; 1) Russia actively interfered in our 2016 election on Trump's behalf, 2) Trump's 2016 campaign staff had numerous contacts with Russian assets, 3) Trump's campaign associates repeatedly lied about their Russian contacts, 4) Trump floated pardons for his former campaign associates during Mueller's investigation, and committed multiple other acts of obstruction of justice-- for which Mueller was not permitted to indict him. 5) Mueller, quite explicitly, did NOT exonerate Trump in his Russiagate investigation, and was repeatedly stonewalled by Trump, Paul Manafort, and others about details of their 2016 contacts with Kremlin assets. 6) Newly-appointed Attorney General Bill Barr aborted Mueller's investigation, then redacted the Mueller Report and lied about Mueller's findings-- part of an extensive public relations effort to mislead the public about Trump's Russiagate scandal.

Got it. You didn't read the Report or the summary that you, yourself, requested. You are a useful example of how Trump and his Fox echo chamber have succeeded in promoting "alternate facts" and alternate versions of reality in the Trump cult since 2016.

In 2010, Mathew? Please let Monsieur Payette answer the question. He's the buglioser who referred to my post (above) about Sunstein's "cognitive infiltration" proposal as "nonsense."

Bunk. It's hardly a nothing burger, Mathew. It's a very specific, detailed summary of the Trump campaign's involvement with Russian interference in our 2016 election, and of Trump and Manafort's efforts to conceal the evidence. You requested a summary, and I posted it for you. Now you refuse to face the facts, just as you have refused to read the Mueller Report and the Senate Intel Report on Russiagate-- opting, instead, to believe the false alternate narratives in the MAGA-verse. And, BTW, Trump, Bill Barr, Rupert Murdoch, Breitbart, Kremlin propagandists, et.al., have invested a great deal of time and resources in promoting false narratives about Russiagate. John Cotter's misleading Wikipedia quote (above) is one example. Anyone interested in the subject should take a few minutes to review the summary of the Mueller Report findings that I posted above-- which Mathew Koch erroneously calls a "nothing burger."

I'm still waiting for our buglioser, Lance Payette, to answer my question. No more bugliosing, Payette. Which anti-government conspiracy theory forums did Sunstein want the government to "cognitively infiltrate" in 2010? Any thoughts or brain farts?

Where are Mathew Koch and Chris Barnard today? Weren't you two asking yesterday for a summary of how the Mueller Report implicated Trump in his Russiagate scandal-- since Mathew refused to read the Mueller Report? Geez... John, the reason I posted the summary-- instead of the link-- is that Mathew and Chris explicitly requested a summary statement, instead of a mere link.

John, I asked Mathew Koch which of three "reports" he was referring to-- the Congressional J6 Report, Mueller Report, or U.S. Senate Intel Report. He didn't specify, so I briefly summarized the damning evidence in the J6 Report. Here is a fairly concise summary of the damning evidence in the (redacted) Mueller Report. Since Mathew never reads the reference links I post, I'll print this out for him. KEY FINDINGS FROM THE MUELLER REPORT The Special Counsel investigation uncovered extensive criminal activity •The investigation produced 37 indictments; seven guilty pleas or convictions; and compellingevidence that the president obstructed justice on multiple occasions. Mueller also uncovered and referred 14 criminal matters to other components of the Department of Justice. •Trump associates repeatedly lied to investigators about their contacts with Russians, and President Trump refused to answer questions about his efforts to impede federal proceedings and influence the testimony of witnesses. •A statement signed by over 1,000 former federal prosecutors concluded that if any other American engaged in the same efforts to impede federal proceedings the way Trump did, they would likely be indicted for multiple charges of obstruction of justice. Russia engaged in extensive attacks on the U.S. election system in 2016 •Russian interference in the 2016 election was “sweeping and systemic.” (1) •Major attack avenues included a social media “information warfare” campaign that “favored” candidate Trump (2) and the hacking of Clinton campaign-related databases and release of stolen materials through Russian-created entities and Wikileaks. (3) •Russia also targeted databases in many states related to administering elections gaining access to information for millions of registered voters. (1) SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT S.MUELLER,III, U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION INTO RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN THE 2016 ELECTION Vol. I, 1-5 (2019). (2) Id. at Vol. I, 1-4, 14-35. (3) Id. at Vol. I, 1-5, 36-50. (4) Id. at Vol. I, 50-51. The investigation “identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign” and established that the Trump Campaign “showed interest in WikiLeaks's releases of documents and welcomed their potential to damage candidate Clinton” •In 2015 and 2016, Michael Cohen pursued a hotel/residence project in Moscow on behalf of Trump while he was campaigning for President. (5) Then-candidate Trump personally signed a letter of intent. •Senior members of the Trump campaign, including Paul Manafort, Donald Trump, Jr., and Jared Kushner took a June 9, 2016, meeting with Russian nationals at Trump Tower, New York, after outreach from an intermediary informed Trump, Jr., that the Russians had derogatory information on Clinton that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” (6) Special Counsel Mueller explicitly declined to exonerate President Trump and instead detailed multiple episodes in which he engaged in obstructive conduct •The Mueller Report states that if the Special Counsel’s Office felt they could clear the president of wrongdoing, they would have said so. Instead, the Report explicitly states that it “does not exonerate” the President (10) and explains that the Office of Special Counsel “accepted” the Department of Justice policy that a sitting President cannot be indicted. (11) •The Mueller report details multiple episodes in which there is evidence that the President obstructed justice. The pattern of conduct and the manner in which the President sought to impede investigations—including through one-on-one meetings with senior officials—is damning to the President. •Five episodes of obstructive conduct stand out as being particularly serious: In June 2017 President Trump directed White House Counsel Don McGahn to order the firing of the Special Counsel after press reports that Mueller was investigating the President for obstruction of justice; (12) months later Trump asked McGahn to falsely refute press accounts reporting this directive and create a false paper record on this issue–all of which McGahn refused to do. (13) After National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was fired in February 2017 for lying to FBI investigators about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, Trump cleared his office for a one-on-one meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and asked Comey to “let [Flynn] go; ”he also asked then-Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland to draft an internal memo saying Trump did not direct Flynn to call Kislyak, which McFarland did not do because she did not know whether that was true. (14) In July 2017, the President directed former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to instruct the Attorney General to limit Mueller’s investigation, a step the Report asserted “was intended to prevent further investigative scrutiny of the President’s and his campaign’s conduct.” (15) In 2017 and 2018, the President asked the Attorney General to “un-recuse” himself from the Mueller inquiry, actions from which a “reasonable inference” could be made that “the President believed that an un-recused Attorney General would play a protective role and could shield the President from the ongoing Russia Investigation.” (16) The Report raises questions about whether the President, by and through his private attorneys, floated the possibility of pardons for the purpose of influencing the cooperation of Flynn, Manafort, and an unnamed person with law enforcement. (17) (10) Id. at Vol. II, 8. (11) Id. (12) Mueller Report at Vol. II, 77-90. (13) Id. at Vol. II, 113-18. (14) Id. at Vol. II, 40-44. (15) Id. at Vol. II, 319-25. (16) Id. at Vol. II, 319-25. (17) Id. at Vol. II, 332-45. •Beginning in June 2016, a Trump associate “forecast to senior [Trump] Campaign officials that WikiLeaks would release information damaging to candidate Clinton.” (7) A section of the Report that remains heavily redacted suggests that Roger Stone was this associate and that he had significant contacts with the campaign about Wikileaks. (8) •The Report described multiple occasions where Trump associates lied to investigators about Trump associate contacts with Russia.Trump associates George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen all admitted that they made false statements to Federal investigators or to Congress about their contacts. In addition, Roger Stone faces trial this fall for obstruction of justice, five counts of making false statements, and one count of witness tampering. •The Report contains no evidence that any Trump campaign official reported their contacts with Russia or WikiLeaks to U.S. law enforcement authorities during the campaign or presidential transition, despite public reports on Russian hacking starting in June 2016 and candidate Trump’s August 2016 intelligence briefing warning him that Russia was seeking to interfere in the election. •The Report raised questions about why Trump and associates repeatedly asserted Trump had no connections to Russia. (9) (5) Id. at Vol. I, 67-80. (6) Id. at Vol. I, 110-20. (7) Id. at Vol. I, 5. (8) Id. at Vol. I, 51-54. (9) Id. at Vol. II, 18-23. Congress needs to continue investigating and assessing elements of the Mueller Report •The redactions of the Mueller Report appear to conceal the extent to which the Trump campaign had advance knowledge of the release of hacked emails by WikiLeaks. For instance, redactions conceal content of discussions that the Report states occurred between Trump, Cohen, and Manafort in July 2016 shortly after Wikileaks released hacked emails; (18) the Report further notes,“Trump told Gates that more releases of damaging information would be coming,” but redacts the contextual information around that statement. (19) •A second issue the Report does not examine is the fact that the President was involved in conduct that was the subject of a case the Special Counsel referred to the Southern District of New York–which the Report notes “ultimately led to the conviction of Cohen in the Southern District of New York for campaign-finance offenses related to payments he said he made at the direction of the President.” (20) •The Report also redacts in entirety its discussion of 12 of the 14 matters Mueller referred to other law enforcement authorities. (21) •Further,the Report details non-cooperation with the inquiry by the President, including refusing requests by the Special Counsel for an interview; providing written responses that the Office of the Special Counsel considered “incomplete” and “imprecise” and that involved the President stating on “more than 30 occasions that he ‘does not recall’ or ‘remember’ or ‘have an independent recollection.’” (22) (18) Id. at Vol. I, 53. (19) Id. at Vol. I, 54. (20) Id. at Vol. II, 77, fn. 500. (21) Id. at Vol. II, Appendix D. (22) Id. at Vol. II, Appendix C

You want a 5-10 line summary of the copious evidence for guys like Mathew Koch, who adamantly refused to watch the Congressional J6 Committee hearings? 1) Trump planned even before the November 2020 election to declare himself the winner, and claim that the election was stolen, in the event that he lost. (Source: Steve Bannon) 2) He then tried to organize slates of false electors in several states that he lost, including Arizona, (per Rusty Bowers) and Georgia (per Brad Raffensperger.) 3) He refused to concede after the state electors had been certified in December of 2020, and opted, instead, to summon his supporters to Washington D.C. to disrupt the January 6th certification of Biden's election-- with the encouragement of his Willard Hotel coup co-conspirators, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and members of Congress. (Source: Twitter, Cipollone, Hutchinson) 4) He urged his armed J6 mob to "march down to the Capitol" and "fight like hell"-- knowing that members of his angry mob were armed. When informed that they were armed, Trump said, "Take down the magnetometers. They're not here to harm me." (Source: Cipollone, Hutchinson) 5) He and John Eastman repeatedly pressured Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results on January 6th, then Tweeted to the mob that Mike Pence had betrayed the country. (Source: Marc Short) 6) Trump did nothing to protect Congress for three hours, while gleefully watching the violent attack on the Capitol, and dispatching Secret Service agents to remove Pence from the Capitol before the election could be certified. (Source: Twitter, Cipollone, Hutchinson) There are your 15 lines...

duplicate

Lance, Which "anti-government conspiracy theory" forums needed to be "cognitively infiltrated," in Cass Sunstein's opinion? Any thoughts, or brain farts from your headquarters or hindquarters?

Monsieur Payette, Are you claiming that Cass Sunstein never proposed that the U.S. government deploy "cognitive infiltrators" on social media forums focused on "conspiracy theories?" Please clarify what alleged "nonsense" you are referring to in your (above) comment. The only thing I posted on this thread was a 2010 Glenn Greenwald article at Salon.com.

Which "damning report" are you talking about, Mathew? 1) The (redacted) Mueller Report? 2) The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Russian interference in our 2016 election? 3) The J6 Committee Report? I read the first two and watched all of the Congressional J6 Committee hearings in 2022. Conversely, you are clueless about the evidence unearthed in any of these investigations, which has been discussed and referenced here at length during the past few years.

Forum MAGA Alert... Mathew Koch still, apparently, believes that Gym Jordan's J6-investigation Obstruction Committee Kooks (JOCKs) are a 21st century iteration of the Church Committee. Mathew, obviously, missed Gary Hart's recent NYT op ed on the subject.

Yes, Andrew, it has been a truly disastrous week for Benjamin Cole, Mathew Koch, and the Trumpsters who keep insisting that Russia-gate was a "hoax." First we learned that the NY FBI counter-intelligence agent who helped sabotage Hillary Clinton's candidacy in October of 2016 was being paid by Putin's oligarch Oleg Deripaska-- and now this. Bill Barr's Durham investigation was always a scam, and even sleazier than we suspected. But, at least, Ben is "keeping an open mind," and awaiting one of those endlessly elusive "verdicts in a court of law." And, in a moment, more deflective YouTube video non sequiturs from Herr Koch... 3...2...1... 🙄

Obama confidant's spine-chilling proposal Cass Sunstein wants the government to "cognitively infiltrate" anti-government groups https://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/sunstein_2/ by Glenn Greenwald January 15, 2010 Excerpt ... In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-"independent" advocates to "cognitively infiltrate" online groups and websites -- as well as other activist groups -- which advocate views that Sunstein deems "false conspiracy theories" about the Government. This would be designed to increase citizens' faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists. The paper's abstract can be read, and the full paper downloaded, here. Sunstein advocates that the Government's stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into "chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups." He also proposes that the Government make secret payments to so-called "independent" credible voices to bolster the Government's messaging (on the ground that those who don't believe government sources will be more inclined to listen to those who appear independent while secretly acting on behalf of the Government). This program would target those advocating false "conspiracy theories," which they define to mean: "an attempt to explain an event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role."

Unreal. Posted without intentional irony... 🙄 Mathew has refused to read the detailed reference articles that I have posted for him about Russian interference in our 2016 election-- including the U.S. Senate Intel Report. Mathew prefers ignoring the facts and posting propaganda videos from the MAGA-verse.

Mathew, You, obviously, never studied the detailed references that I posted for you in response to this lame video-- from the Atlantic, the U.S. Senate Intel Report, and the Mueller Report-- about Russian interference in our 2016 election. It's an example of willful ignorance. As for the repeated poppycock on this thread about criticism of Putin being a result of "Russophobia" resulting from Western propaganda, it's truly ridiculous. I know all about Russophobic Cold War propaganda. This ain't it. I was a cantor in the Russian Orthodox Church for years. My criticism of Putin is a result of direct experience during the past quarter century, and knowledge of Putin's totalitarian police state-- not Western propaganda or Russophobia. If anything, I'm a spiritual (White) Russian-- not a Russophobe. Has anyone else around here studied the writings of former KGB Lt. Col. Konstantin Preobrazhensky? Catherine Belton's book, Putin's People? Can we hear what Putin apologists have to say about Putin's serial murders of journalists in Russia during the past 20 years? No big deal? Fake news? How about Putin's history of shutting down the free press and turning the Russian media into an organ of state propaganda? No big deal? How about Putin's serial murders and incarcerations of critics and opposition politicians? No big deal? How about Putin's obvious war crimes in Ukraine-- his mass murders of civilian non-combatants?

I agree, Paul. I have often wondered, since the invasion, if Biden and NATO made a major mistake by refusing to negotiate with Putin about the issue of barring possible NATO expansion into Ukraine. Why corner the bear? Could this horrific tragedy have been prevented? And now the war seems to be escalating even further. The only beneficiary, as usual, is the military-industrial complex.

Wow. Thanks for sharing this, Sandy. Sadly, kids are often as cruel as packs of wolves.

Paul, My point about Soviet history is that many Westerners don't seem to understand Ukrainian resistance to the Soviet yoke in the context of Lenin's Red Terror, the Holodomor, the Great Purges, and the Gulag. Instead, they interpret resistance to Soviet totalitarianism in terms of nefarious Yahtzee-ism. Nor do some of our Putin enthusiasts seem to understand the historical connections between Soviet totalitarianism and Putin's totalitarian police state in the 21st century. For example, have any of the Putin apologists here ever criticized Putin's murders of Russian journalists, or his persecution of opposition politicians like Navalny? Like Hitler, Putin has completely subordinated the media to state control and suppressed political opposition and dissent. He even murders his own KGB-aligned oligarchs if they criticize him. So, I'm with FDR and JFK on this one. I'm opposed to both totalitarian fascism and totalitarian Marxist-Leninism. I believe in liberal democracy, whereas Putin has been openly contemptuous of liberal democracy.

Mathew Koch nails it again... 🤥 Why would we want intelligent, scholarly, judicious statesmen like Adam Schiff serving on our House Intelligence Committee when we can staff it with seditious MAGA morons like Mathew Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene? Great call, Mathew!

I'm used to Ben and Mathew posting MAGA-verse non sequiturs to my posts here, but this one takes the proverbial cake. Ben's response to this post about McGonigal was another lengthy rant about...uh... Hunter Biden's laptop.