On a day in early December, one of Moscow's agents in the United States, working undercover as a journalist for Izvestia, reported a private meeting with the president-elect's "closest adviser." The adviser, who met privately with the Russian spy, was frank and hopeful about a significant improvement in relations from the previous administration. He "stressed that was not merely expressing his personal opinion but the position of the future president." The two men met alone, and there was no American record made of the encounter.

This is not a report about Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, whose activities during the transition are now being investigated. Nor it is about Jared Kushner, who, the Washington Post reported on Friday, approached Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak last December to propose a secret communications channel. The meeting described above took place in 1960, and the "close adviser" was the incoming president's brother, Robert F. Kennedy. It is not unusual for the Russians to want to establish contacts with an incoming presidential administration, especially when there is tension between the two countries. It is also not unusual for an American administration to use back channels to probe the intentions of adversarial powers. But December 1960 was not December 2016. The RFK meeting likely came at the request of the Russians, not the Americans. It was not held in secret—it was noted on RFK's telephone log. And Robert Kennedy, despite general encouraging words, made no promises, suggested no follow-up, and was in no way working against the outgoing Eisenhower administration. The Russians were smart in focusing attention on the president-elect's brother. He would eventually be involved in historic back channel activity, but well after the inauguration. And all these years later, such communications have been revealed as a canny and patriotic initiative by the Kennedy administration.

A 4,000-year-old henge monument, containing five well-preserved human burials, has been discovered in England, archaeologists announced.

This Neolithic earthwork was found in Newbold-on-Stour, in Warwickshire County, this spring, ahead of the construction of houses. Developers in England often need to conduct an archaeological assessment of the land they want to build on. And when a geophysical survey revealed that there could be a henge at this site, a team from Archaeology Warwickshire started digging.

The archaeologists announced this week that they found a simple monument that consists of a circular ditch dug in segments and an embankment created from that dug-out soil. They also found five bodies buried within the monument.

"Count me out if it's for violence. Don't expect me at barricades unless it is with flowers.... What's the point of bombing Wall Street? If you want to change the system, it's no good shooting people."—John Lennon

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

America is still wrestling with many of the same problems today—endless wars, civil unrest, campus riots, racial tensions, police brutality, divisive politics, overreaching government agencies and threats to freedom—that it struggled with 50 years ago when the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The hippies of the Sixties Generation who embraced flower power, opposed war and didn't "trust anyone over 30" are now senior citizens who voted for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, both warmongers with greater loyalties to Wall Street than "we the people."

The Baby Boomers—"the generation that battled over Vietnam and civil rights, that gave us the modern self-help movement and Woodstock"—have become today's Establishment. As Bruce Cannon Gibney writes for the Boston Globe, "Let us dispense with ideas that aging flower children have substantial claims on goodness, as boomers liberal and conservative alike engaged in warrantless wiretapping, extrajudicial assassinations, gratuitous assaults on the dignity of minorities, mass disenfranchisement, the erection of a vast and useless penal state, and policies of cavalier disregard."

And the rebellious music and anti-war message of Sixties musicians, movements and symbols have since been co-opted by corporations that have come to realize that "there was lots and lots of money to be made." As historian Bertram Gross explains, "The counterculture became absorbed into the Establishment, functioning more and more as an arm of business operations in entertainment, clothing, foods, and foreign cars, while the New Left and the many organizations of white and black revolution collapsed into sawdust."

In retrospect, as Rolling Stone conceded, perhaps the Sixties Generation and "1960s rock didn't save the world—maybe didn't even change the world enough," but it was still a transformative time for those coming of age and trying to find their place in the world, and the Beatles played a large part in shaping that conversation.

No album was more influential than the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Indeed, when Rolling Stone announced its top 500 pop music albums of all time several years ago, perched at the top of the heap was Sgt. Pepper.

This Memorial Day, Monday, May 29, 2017, is the 100th birthday of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.

JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963, as he approached the end of his third year in office. Researchers who spent years studying the evidence have concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by a conspiracy between the CIA, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secret Service. (See, for example, JFK and the Unspeakable by James W. Douglass)

Kennedy entered office as a cold warrior, but he learned from his interaction with the CIA and Joint Chiefs that the military/security complex had an agenda that was self-interested and a danger to humanity. He began working to defuse tensions with the Soviet Union.

His rejections of plans to invade Cuba, of the Northwoods project, of a preemptive nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, and his intention to withdraw from Vietnam after his reelection, together with some of his speeches signaling a new approach to foreign policy in the nuclear age convinced the military/security complex that he was a threat to their interests.

(see for example, Commencement Address at American University, June 10, 1963)

Cold War conservatives regarded him as naive about the Soviet Threat and a liability to US national security. These were the reasons for his assassination. These views were set in stone when Kennedy announced on June 10, 1963, negotiations with the Soviets toward a nuclear test ban treaty and a halt to US atmospheric nuclear tests.

The Oswald cover-up story never made any sense and was contradicted by all evidence including tourist films of the assassination. President Johnson had to cover up the assassination, not because he was part of it or because he willfully wanted to deceive the American people, but because to give Americans the true story would have shaken their confidence in their government at a critical time in US-Soviet relations. To make the cover-up succeed, Johnson needed the credibility of the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, Earl Warren, to chair the commission that covered up the assassination. Warren understood the devastating impact the true story would have on the public and their confidence in the military and national security leadership and on America's allies.

Citizens in Madison County were startled on the night of May 29, 1859 at approximately 10 o'clock by what they thought was a tremendously loud clap of thunder, but they pondered how it could be so on the night when the heavens in the sky above were crystal clear and cloudless.

Later investigation, according to The Dixie Messenger newspaper of Madison, found it to be the report from the explosion of a meteor.

Those who did see the "luminous body" which burst asunder described it as a "splendid spectacle." The spectators said that the skies lit up for a few moments and that the light it cast upon the Earth rivaled that of the noonday sun.

According to The Family Friend newspaper of Monticello, people also heard the meteor explosion in neighboring Jefferson County.

While many people are led to believe that U.S. support for Israel is driven by the American establishment and U.S. national interests, the facts don't support this theory. The reality is that for decades U.S. foreign policy and defense experts opposed supporting the creation of Israel. They then similarly opposed the massive American funding and diplomatic support that sustained the forcibly established state and that provided a blank check for its aggressive expansion. They were simply outmaneuvered and eventually replaced.

Like many American policies, U.S. Middle East policies are driven by a special interest lobby. However, the Israel Lobby, as it is called today in the U.S., consists of vastly more than what most people envision in the word "lobby."

[T]he Israel Lobby is considerably more powerful and pervasive than other lobbies. Components of it, both individuals and groups, have worked underground, secretly and even illegally throughout its history, as documented by scholars and participants. And even though the movement for Israel has been operating in the U.S. for over a hundred years, most Americans are completely unaware of this movement and its attendant ideology - a measure of its unique influence over public knowledge.

The success of this movement to achieve its goals, partly due to the hidden nature of much of its activity, has been staggering. It has also been at almost unimaginable cost. It has led to massive tragedy in the Middle East: a hundred-year war of violence and loss; sacred land soaked in sorrow. In addition, this movement has been profoundly damaging to the United States itself.

As we will see in this two-part examination of the pro-Israel movement, it has

• targeted virtually every significant sector of American society;
• worked to involve Americans in tragic, unnecessary, and profoundly costly wars; dominated Congress for decades;
• increasingly determined which candidates could become serious contenders for the U.S. presidency;
• and promoted bigotry toward an entire population, religion and culture.

It has promoted policies that have exposed Americans to growing danger, and then exaggerated this danger (while disguising its cause), fueling actions that dismember some of our nation's most fundamental freedoms and cherished principles. All this for a population that is considerably smaller than New Jersey's.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, died Friday at a hospital in Virginia at the age of 89. Though the New York Times acknowledged that the former government advisor was a "hawkish strategic theorist," misrepresenting his legacy as one of otherwise infinite positivity may not be as easy as the establishment might like to think.

As the United Kingdom plays around with levels of the so-called "terror threat" following a devastating attack by an ISIS-inspired individual — and as the Philippines goes into an almost complete state of martial law following ISIS-inspired destruction — Brzezinski's timely death serves as a reminder to seek a deeper understanding of where modern terrorism originated in the first place.

As the New York Times explains, Brzezinski's "rigid hatred of the Soviet Union" guided much of America's foreign policy "for better or worse." From the Times:

"He supported billions in military aid for Islamic militants fighting invading Soviet troops in Afghanistan. He tacitly encouraged China to continue backing the murderous regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia, lest the Soviet-backed Vietnamese take over that country." [emphasis added]

While it is progressive of the New York Times to note Brzezinski's support for Islamic militants, downplaying the effect of his vindictive foreign policy agenda with a mere sentence does an injustice to the true horror behind Brzezinski's policies.

When Britain's collusion with death squads across the 'Middle East' and Africa is mentioned it falls on deaf ears. The only time you'll hear of Britain's open collaboration with these forces are when they are branded 'moderates' or 'rebels' by the British media.

Firstly, what do I mean by death squads? I use this term to refer to a wide range of forces, namely Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda affiliated groups, Islamic State, the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force), UDA/UFF (Ulster Defence Association/Ulster Freedom Fighters), RHD (Red Hand Commandos), LVF (Loyalist Volunteer Force) and the British Army's very own units such as the Military Reaction Force, Special Reconnaissance Unit and the Force Research Unit.

Loyalist death squads in Ireland were an extension of the British state. They worked hand in hand with British intelligence, British military and the colonial police (RUC). In 2012, the De Silva Report revealed that 85% of the intelligence the UDA received had been supplied by the British security forces. The UDA was not proscribed as a terrorist organization until 1992 - the decade when the British were waging a campaign of pacification on the Provisional Republican movement.

Singer, songwriter, and Beatle, John Lennon didn't meet his fate at the hands of a deranged fan, according to a book; instead, his killer received training from the CIA and other U.S. Intelligence agencies — and not for his music.

Author John Potash claims the U.S. government wanted Lennon erased for his robust influence promoting what it deemed "radical leftist" ideologies.

In essence, dissenting opinion coupled with massive popularity brought to fruition Lennon's killing.

The men and women who built Stonehenge left an indelible mark on the British landscape. However, researchers have discovered that their impact on other aspects of the nation may have been less impressive. In particular, their input into Britain's gene pool appears to have fizzled out, having been terminated by light-skinned Bronze Age invaders who arrived just as Ancient Britons were midway through their great Stone Age project. In the end, these newcomers may have completely replaced the people who were building Stonehenge.

This startling conclusion is the result of a huge gene study of humans in prehistoric Europe. It shows that around 2500BC - when the main sections of Stonehenge were under construction - a race of people known to archaeologists as the Beaker folk arrived in Britain. Their genetic profiles were similar to individuals who were living in the Netherlands at the time. In just a short period, all genetic traces of early Stone Age Britons were replaced by those from these continental newcomers, although work on Stonehenge continued.

"It is very striking. There seems to have been a complete replacement of the original folk of Britain with these newcomers," said Garrett Hellenthal, a statistical geneticist based at University College London. "Normally you get some older DNA surviving with a wave of immigrants, even a fairly large wave. But you don't see that in this case. Frankly it looks more like an invasion."