W. Niederhut

Biden Restores Clean Water Protection in U.S. EPA finalizes water rule that repeals Trump-era changes | AP News

C'mon, Ben. Where do you find this ahistorical Republican garbage? Do you really not know that the old-fashioned Dixiecrats referenced in your post (above) are the die-hard base of the modern Trump GOP in the South? That those old-fashioned segregationist Democrat "Dixiecrats" crossed over to the Republican Party en masse after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in the mid 60s? Did you forget that an assault weapons ban was enacted during the Clinton era? That every major piece of healthcare reform legislation in American history was accomplished by Democrats-- e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare? That Republicans fought tooth-and-claw against all of these landmark legislative achievements, even voting repeatedly to sabotage Obamacare after 2009? That every major U.S. war since Korea was started by Republican Presidents? (Bearing in mind that John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Eisenhower originally dragged the U.S./CIA into Vietnam after Dien Bien Phu in 1954.)

Joe, Your post reminded me of Michael Cohen's claim that Trump initially viewed his 2016 Presidential campaign as an "infomercial for the Trump Organization."

Good analysis by Greenwald here. My only criticism of the segment is that Greenwald goes out of his way to pin the blame on Mike Pompeo for Trump's decision to block the release of the JFK Records in October of 2017 and April of 2018. But Trump was the POTUS. Surely, Trump bears ultimate responsibility for that decision, just as Biden is, ultimately, responsible for his decision to block the release of the records this year. Trump and Biden both failed to stand up to the CIA in the case of the JFK Records. In an off-handed way, Greenwald is still trying to portray Trump as a passive victim of the Deep State and of Mike Pompeo's guile-- even blaming Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham for Trump's failure to pardon Snowden and Assange.

Thanks for the kind remarks, folks. Chris, your John Williams clip reminded me of one of my favorite old CDs... John Williams and Itzhak Perlman performing duets for violin and guitar composed by the great Italian violinist, guitarist, and composer, Niccolo Paganini. Niccòlò Paganini, Mauro Giuliani, Itzhak Perlman, John Williams - Duos for Violin & Guitar - Amazon.com Music

Ron, Look on the bright side. In the new, allied state of Texaco, El Presidente Cruz would no longer have to worry about border security or illegal aliens! 🤪

Medvedev is mistaking the Gerasimov strategy playbook for reality. His ignorance is scary, but also kind of funny. Texas forming an allied state with Mexico-- with Ted Cruz as El Presidente? 🤥

Kirk, Perhaps some JFK Truthers are more generally paranoid, but I would argue that getting in touch with JFKA reality is the opposite of a "mental health problem." The real issue here, as I see it, is the social repression, and uncovering, of historical truth-- and how people are affected by that healthy, but painful, discovery process. JFK wasn't murdered by a lone gunman in the TSBD. All informed people know that by now. In other words, we're not talking about people who have researched and discovered the repressed truth about JFK's murder being delusional. Just the opposite. JFK Truthers are the growing subset of the population who AREN'T delusional about what happened on 11/22/63. The delusional ones are those who still believe that Oswald was a lone assassin-- those who have been misled by 59 years of CIA propaganda in our mainstream media. Nor does the discovery of repressed historical truth, (e.g., about the JFK assassination) necessarily correlate with generalized paranoia. (Paranoia is suspicion and fear that is not based in reality.) It is more likely to result in healthy, rational skepticism about the true relationship between elements of our government (military and intelligence agencies) and our mainstream media-- what the CIA used to call, "Operation Mockingbird." That's not delusional. It's reality-based. Another prominent example. Most of us realized at some point after 2002 that the Bush/Cheney administration was systematically lying to us about Iraqi WMDs and the sales pitch for invading Iraq in March of 2003. Similarly, most of us also realized during the past half century that we were deceived about the Vietnam War.

Great comments here about the subject of our "Untold History," and its impact on our mental health. The uncovering of the true history of JFK's assassination, and the 59 year cover up, is one part of a broader uncovering of the "Untold History of the United States," as documented by Oliver Stone, Peter Kuznick, and others. The telling of national "family secrets." How many Americans knew about the Tulsa Race Massacre until recently? The grieving and working through process can be compared to the process of becoming conscious of, and working through, abuse and secrecy in dysfunctional families. It is painful, but leads to resolution and wisdom, if people can fully mourn, rather than getting fixated at a stage of unresolved grief-- such as chronic anger about things that we can't change. The end point of any grieving process is peace of mind and acceptance -- what Miguel de Unamuno called "the tragic sense of life." Camus described it as acceptance of the absurd-- i.e., the absurdity of suffering and injustice. Unfortunately, many people in our society are still fixated at a stage of denial of reality about America's "Untold History." Denial is a defense that many people cannot do without. Naturally, people don't want to believe that they have been betrayed or abused by trusted authority figures-- parents, Presidents, et.al. I'm sure that we all know some people who simply cannot tolerate hearing any details about American slavery, JFK's assassination, Trump's J6 coup attempt, 9/11, etc. Trump launched his 1776 fake history project in response to the 1619 Project to educate Americans about the true history of slavery.

Mathew, On the contrary, the entire political spectrum in the U.S., including that of Roman Catholics, has shifted to the right during the past half century. When did Roman Catholics in the U.S. start voting for right wing Republicans? My maternal grandparents were Roman Catholic emigrants from Slovenia who revered FDR, and my Slovenian aunts and uncles thought JFK practically walked on water. They were all lifelong liberal Democrats. Of course, many cradle Catholics left the RC years ago, and 10% of all U.S. citizens today are ex-Catholics, an astonishing statistic! It's partly a result of general secularization, but also related to the systemic abuse of children by the RC clergy. I do believe that JFK's humanism, anti-colonialism, and quest for peace were a result of his inherent Catholicism, as James Douglass has described so eloquently. Conversely, many of JFK's adversaries and murderers-- Allen Dulles, Henry Luce, et.al.-- had fathers and grandfathers who were Calvinist clergymen. They were part of the WASP establishment--Skull & Bones, Max Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, etc. Even Prescott and the George Bushes were descended from a Yankee Protestant clergyman.

Yes, Sandy. I was playing around with my classical guitar the year I recorded these polyphonic versions of some old Gregorian hymns, and I decided to use the guitar as an accompaniment for the chants. Of course, traditional Gregorian chants are monophonic, but composers since the time of Palestrina have composed polyphonic variations on the traditional chants. The American composer, Gerald Near, sang in our Gregorian schola here in Denver for a year or two in the early 90s. Some of his compositions have been performed at Cambridge.

Good voices, Tommy, but their Latin pronunciation needs work. I used to sing Latin Gregorian chants in a schola here in Denver, and I posted some of my own Latin Christmas recordings at Soundclick.com earlier this month. I arranged and recorded these for guitar and two-part vocal harmony. These are two of the oldest Christmas "carols" in Western Christendom. Creator Alme Siderum by Guillermo Ambrose | SoundClick Corde Natus by Guillermo Ambrose | SoundClick

Well done, Denny! Any friend of doggerel verse is a friend of mine. As for Christmas music, I like everything from Medieval chant to Palestrina, Bach, and Handel to Ella Fitzgerald, Satchmo, and Sting. My ultimate favorites are probably John Eliot Gardiner's ethereal recording of Handel's Messiah, with the English Baroque Soloists, and Anglican carols by Sir David Willcocks and the King's College Choir at Cambridge. Here's King's College Choir performing a Medieval English Christmas carol, Myn Lyking, with a melody by the late English composer, Sir Richard Runciman Terry. It's what Bruce Springsteen would call, "a little bit of heaven here on Earth."

Steve, Yesterday was the second coldest day in the recorded history of Denver-- a low of -24 F and a high of -6 F. Mercifully, we had very little wind. Chicago is reportedly experiencing 40 to 50 mph winds with wind chill temps of -35 to -40 F today.

The Devastating New History of the Insurrection December 23, 2022 at 11:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard David Remnick: “In his career as a New York real-estate shyster and tabloid denizen, then as the forty-fifth President of the United States, Trump has been the most transparent of public figures. He does little to conceal his most distinctive characteristics: his racism, misogyny, dishonesty, narcissism, incompetence, cruelty, instability, and corruption.” “And yet what has kept Trump afloat for so long, what has helped him evade ruin and prosecution, is perhaps his most salient quality: he is shameless. That is the never-apologize-never-explain core of him. Trump is hardly the first dishonest President, the first incurious President, the first xxxx. But he is the most shameless. His contrition is impossible to conceive. He is insensible to disgrace…” “Experience makes it plain that Trump will just keep going on like this, deflecting, denying, lashing out at his accusers, even if it means that he will end his days howling in a bare and echoing room. It matters little that the report shows that even members of his innermost circle, from his Attorney General to his daughter, know the depths of his vainglorious delusions. He will not repent. He will not change.” “But the importance of the committee’s report has far less to do with the spectacle of Trump’s unravelling. Its importance resides in the establishment of a historical record, the depth of its evidence, the story it tells of a deliberate, coordinated assault on American democracy that could easily have ended with the kidnapping or assassination of senior elected officials, the emboldenment of extremist groups and militias, and, above all, a stolen election, a coup.”

More Mockingbird bunk from our Warren Commission Report salesman, Lance Payette. First of all, conspiracy theories are not monolithic, so generalizations about them are misguided. Some conspiracy theories are kooky. Others are accurate explanations of black ops. Secondly, who actually believes that military and intelligence agencies don't conspire to conduct black ops? Why do the CIA and Pentagon appoint Directors of Plans?

That's a lot of ifs, Lance, considering your original assertion that Tucker Carlson is making up the story about his alleged CIA source. Among other things, you're over generalizing-- assuming that everything Carlson says is fictitious.

Nonsense. I'm the furthest thing from a Tucker Carlson/Fox fan, but, as I said last week, his recent commentary about JFK and the CIA was unprecedented and historic. I'll number you with those of my fellow liberals who are, apparently, too blinded by their contempt for Tucker Carlson to appreciate his take down of the 59 year CIA/Mockingbird/M$M cover up of JFK's assassination.

So, in anticipation of the Kennedy Center awards ceremony that will be telecast next Wednesday night, (December 28th) here's a poignant U2 anecdote that I recently read in Bono's new memoir, Surrender. In early 1985, the young Dubliners were scheduled to perform in Phoenix, Arizona on their Unforgettable Fire Tour. Their top single from the 1984 Unforgettable Fire album was their MLK tribute song, Pride-- in the Name of Love, and they wanted to perform the song in their Phoenix show, partly because Arizona Republicans were refusing to establish MLK Day as a holiday at the time. Unfortunately, before the show, Bono received some death threats, warning that he would be assassinated if he sang Pride on stage. He decided to sing it anyway, but he was frightened, and was crouching down on the stage as he began to sing the song. Then, as he tells it, he looked up and saw that his band mate/best man, bass player Adam Clayton, was standing up in front of him, waiting to take a bullet.

Well, I'm shocked, shocked to hear our itinerant Warren Commission Report salesman, Lance Payette, claim that Tucker Carlson is just making stuff up about having a CIA source for his claims about the JFK assassination. Yo, Lance, what about former CIA Director Mike Pompeo? Isn't Mike Pompeo in the habit of "taking things" to Tucker Carlson and Fox News? Do you doubt that Pompeo was involved in reviewing the classified CIA documents that Trump declined to de-classify in October of 2017 and April of 2018?