Kennedy #2

Kennedy #2

An industry has arisen to continue the mythology.

Oswald was not capable of such violence; he could not have made the shots in the time allotted; the rifle was inferior and the scope was misaligned; he had an alibi; there is no record of his interrogation by the Dallas police; he was an imposter from Russia; the "Oswald" in Mexico City was an imposter; his pictures holding the rifle with the pistol and the two Communist newspapers are fakes; he travelled with Cuban revolutionaries; the rifle found on the depository sixth floor was a Mauser, not Oswald's Italian infantry rifle Model 1891/1938; the third shot--the head shot--came from the front; a second shooter was seen on the "grassy knoll;" the Dallas doctors disagreed with the Bethesda pathologists; three tramps in a box car in Dallas were likely CIA and were probably involve--one even looked like Woody Harrelson's father; Tippit's murderer was unidentified; the bullets that killed Tippit did not match Oswald's pistol; many involved have died suspiciously; the Mafia did it because of their annimosity to Bobby Kennedy; the CIA did it because of their fear of a Kennedy retaliation over the Bay of Pigs invasion; the Garrison argument implicating Clay Shaw (on the evidence of a psychotic who failed a lie detector test); Castro did it in self-defense; the JFK movie by Stone (see Garrison); the Navy pathologist burnt his notes; the Dallas FBI burnt a note Oswald left for them before the murder; Marina Oswald burnt photographs of Lee holding the rifle, Ruby killed Tippit, Tippit was meeting Oswald and was involved, .....on and on. The democracy is hard at work here. Many of these notions come from average and concerned people, volunteers working far afield. Some are lawyers. Few are experts in the area they are focused on in the murder. One writer on the Zapruder film and what it reveals about the number of bullets and their timing is a Kierkegaard lecturer from Haverford. Some of these objections are just nuts, some are true but, of those that are true, none would change anything.

What is certain is this:
1. Oswald bought the murder weapon from a mail-order house using an alias he always used and had the false ID in his wallet at his arrest. Oswald posed with the rifle holding communist newspapers; his wife, Marina, took the picture. Marina saw the rifle many times and knew where it was kept.
2. Before going to shoot Gen. Walker, a right-wing John Birch Society member, Oswald wrote a detailed letter to Marina explaining what he was going to do and what she should do if he were killed or did not come back.
3. He shot at Walker and the window slat diverted the bullet. He then fled the state for New Orleans.
4. The day of the murder he left his wedding ring in a glass by his wife's bed, then carried the gun to the depository wrapped in paper (later found at the shooting site) in a car driven by a fellow worker.
5. He was seen and described by a witness as he pushed the gun out of the window and the muzzle fire of 3 shots was seen.
6. Men at the window' one floor down and directly below the sniper's nest on the sixth floor of the depository, heard the gunfire above, heard the bolt action, and heard the casings hit the floor.
7. Oswald was seen in the depository after the shooting; he left the building and took a bus, then a cab, to his rooming house where he got his pistol.
8. Officer Tippit was a well-regarded, simple guy and a solid citizen. At least ten people saw him murdered by Oswald and all identified him. Three bullets hit him in the chest. Oswald stepped away, then returned several steps to put a bullet in Officer Tippitt's temple as he lay on the ground. (!)
9. Ruby killed Oswald but his motives are obscure. It may not even have been planned. All acquaintances said he was distraught over Kennedy's death and the possibility that Jackie, whom he adored, would have to return to Dallas to go through a trial with Oswald. (The only press interview he ever gave was to Dorothy Kilgallen. Kilgallen!)

Any theory about the killing has to include and accept these facts.

Kennedy #1

Kennedy #1

The Kennedy assassination was a significant moment for me and for many. Yet the event, so terrible and intense, so researched and analyzed, has developed almost as its own entity, its own beast, as it matures along paths of manipulation, overt deception, and least resistance.

First, the reaction. Mrs. Kennedy's quote here is significant: "He didn't even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights . . . . It's — it had to be some silly little Communist."

This may not have set the tone for the management of the murder in history but it certainly was representative of it. The general reaction to the murder was completely divorced from what happened. Chief Justice Earl Warren ascribed Kennedy's "martyrdom" to "the hatred and bitterness that has been injected into the life of our nation by bigots." Drew Pearson wrote that Kennedy was a victim of "hate drive."A Soviet spokesman assigned "moral responsibility" for Kennedy's death to "Barry Goldwater and other extremists on the right." The NYT encouraged us all to take blame for "the shame all America must bear for the spirit of madness and hate that struck down" the President. James Reston's article the day after the shooting--on the first page--was headlined ""Why America Weeps: Kennedy a Victim of Violent Streak He Sought to Curb in Nation." Senator Mike Mansfield eulogized the President as a victim of "bigotry, prejudice, and hatred." In Arthur Schlesinger Jr. one thousand page history of the thousand day Kennedy presidency the assassin is not even mentioned. The Manhattan Institute's James Piereson, in his 2007 book "Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism," writes that the country's illness that led to the assassination required a curative "punitive liberalism." A newer book, Dallas "1963", says Dallas did it through a "climate of hatred" created by right-wing businessmen, religious leaders, and media moguls. And an updated take by Alex Beam in a Boston Globe article: "Kennedy brought low by some redneck."

This is not simply a need to turn away and shield our eyes; there is plenty of stomach for Zapruder films and autopsy shots. This is much worse, an inability--an unwillingness--to see things as they are. It is simply not possible for the Left to accept the idea that Kennedy was murdered by a Marxist. And this perspective will lead to any number of creative narratives, consistent or not, to shift the blame from Oswald and towards a more acceptable villain. More, it is a refusal to see the modern world and its potential where a man of great standing and regard can be brought down by a fool. It is the egalitarian nightmare.

November 22, 1963

 November 22, 1963

The past and present merge:

The Thanksgiving holiday, one of the best holidays and certainly the best secular one, has been spoiled for everyone who was awake and thinking in the mid 60's by the assassination of Jack Kennedy. That promising shift from the generation of Eisenhower to its sons, to youth and its potential, to the charismatic and the virile, was just stopped cold by Oswald in Dallas. We defaulted back to the older, ponderous Lyndon Johnson, a true guardian of the Old Guard. That loss--of youth, of hope, of promise, of beauty--has never been overcome and we are reminded of it every Thanksgiving. One only wonders how much of the unrest in the '60s and '70s was a result.

An aspect of the assassination that has dogged its shadow has been the shameless exploitation of the atrocity by writers, politicians and artists. This exploitation, which has become almost a cult, believes--or says it believes--that the assassination was a conspiracy of a number of men, groups, or organizations. Every aspect of the event has been picked over, every inconsistency of life magnified, every possibility made a probability. The result is that the event, right before many of our eyes, has been completely recreated and, like an alternative universe, continues without interference with its own laws, experts, and history. It is very like those academic musings run wild. "If, instead, you assume that history and archeology was 300 years wrong--or falsified--and Moses was actually alive in the court of Akhenaton...." "If, instead, you assume there is an unexplained and unexplainable driving force in history..." "If, instead, you assume that everyone is possessed at birth by sexual urges towards their immediate family...." It is another victory of the Art of the Plausible.

This is nowhere more revolting than is seen in the movie "JFK" where a seemingly respectable director rewrites the assassination story according to a man whose grasp on the event is dangerously close to psychosis. Oliver Stone writes a story of the assassination through the eyes and the belief set of James Garrison, the District Attorney of New Orleans, who had arrested, charged, indicted, and tried a local community figure, Clay Shaw, for involvement in the Kennedy murder. Shaw's arrest was virtually random. There was no evidence against him other than the word of a psychiatric patient who failed a lie detector test and refused to testify. How an American citizen could come under such unreasonable, whimsical charges has never been explained. But Garrison persisted and then Stone followed up after the laughable trial (where the jury took longer to find their seats than to find "not guilty") with a movie inexplicably presenting the Garrison thesis as within the same time zone as reason. Of course, all the facts of the assassination were changed to implicate the innocent, the shooting presented was almost a complete fiction and this all was delivered by Kevin Costner, a credible actor, with certainty and outrage. Anyone who knew anything about the assassination walked from the theater with their collective heads spinning. But many with less of a good grasp left alarmed and resentful. This constant barrage of misinformation has done a lot to undermine this country's credibility and value in the minds of its people who, after all, own and run it.

There are two bad lessons here. The first is there are people and industries in the world who, even in those cultures with the highest of ideals, will do anything, say anything, publish anything to make a buck. If possible they will take the Plausible-made-Art and create an industry of it with historians, academics, and franchises. The second is that they often hide their entrepreneurship in the gowns of Art. How many of our greatest artists have questioned the reliability of memory, the interaction of history and art--even to the point of their blending? So Stone calls Julian Barnes and Cormac McCarthy as witnesses for his defense.

Stone is more Goebbels than John Huston here. He is everything that is wrong with businessmen gone rogue. His product is harmful to the society, toxic to the young, and delivered without an ounce of social conscience. The real story about Garrison is how is it possible that Clay Shaw could be treated like a Kafka character in the United States. Another would be a clarifying and cleansing explanation of all the facts and evidence that has been gathered over the years about the murder. This might set the country at ease. But there's probably not much money, or return on arrogance, in this. Instead, why not take advantage of the distressed and confused citizens, contribute to their malaise, and cash in.

In 1976 the U.S. House of representatives created a commission, The House Select Commission on Assassinations, to investigate all the evidence in the murder again. This time they applied all the newer technologies available as well. Aside from the single and erroneous "fourth bullet thesis" not a single new conclusion was reached. Instead, this august deliberative body concluded there was no evidence of a conspiracy--but they believed one existed anyway.

Scapegoat

Rittenhouse, the ACLU, and the Scapegoat

In a statement reacting to the Rittenhouse verdict, ACLU-Wisconsin Interim Executive Director Shaadie Ali lamented the “deep roots of white supremacy” in Kenosha that prevented Rittenhouse from being “held responsible for his actions.”

The ACLU for the Prosecution.

So Rittenhouse assumes the identity of people he does not know and is held responsible for their acts. Is the Left becoming New Testament obsessed?

Questions 30

Questions 30

'The huge stimulus bill will not cost anything.' 'The border wall will be paid for by Mexico.' 'You didn't build that.' 'The country was created by slavery and developed to protect it.' These constant, extra-partisan lies by both parties make one wonder how people choose one over the other. How does one rally behind a liar? How does one submit himself and his family to their programs? Or go to war for them?

Why do reporters, who are going to say whatever they feel like, use notes and recorders?

Since Monday, unvaccinated Austrians are not allowed to leave their homes except to go to work, to buy essential supplies, or to take exercise: “It is not a recommendation, but an order,” announced the Interior Minister Karl Nehammer at a press conference. “Every citizen should know that they will be checked by the police.”

Congressman Raja really went after Jay Bhattacharya, an MD, PhD and
Professor Stanford School of Medicine. Some points were clearly taken out of context. This is from his Twitter: 'Finally, the Congressman red-baited me. I gave an interview in May 2020 re: a study I ran to a Chinese tv station. It is shameful that the Congressman would try to insinuate that I support the Chinese government because I communicated a scientific result to the public.'
What's fascinating is an American politician attacking an American citizen and scientist invited to present his scientific opinion and inform them. Think on that.

It seems as though intervention by the state reconciles us with plunder by attributing responsibility for it to everyone, that is to say, to no one, with the result that people can enjoy the property of others with a perfectly clear conscience.--Bastiat

Debt-to-GDP will run about 106 percent in a decade, matching the record set after World War II. By mid-century, that number could be over 200 percent. The interest rate will hurt consumers but will also raise government costs to support that debt and squeeze the loot the government likes to disperse.

On July 23, 2021 White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, said it is not the role of the federal government to issue a vaccine mandate, but the Biden administration will continue to make the vaccine available and advocate for vaccinations.

Identity Politics: The association of an individual with a larger subset and holding him responsible for positions or assumed opinions of that subset. This takes a singularly anti-Western stance: the individual is not responsible for his own acts and his value is determined by the acts of others. This is the virtual definition of bigotry.

From the work of A. Ioannides, one of the most prestigious bio-statisticians in the world, on the Virus:

0-19: .0027% (or a survival rate of 99.9973%)
20-29 .014% (or a survival rate of 99,986%)
30-39 .031% (or a survival rate of 99,969%)
40-49 .082% (or a survival rate of 99,918%)
50-59 .27% (or a survival rate of 99.73%)
60-69 .59% (or a survival rate of 99.31%)

More than 70, between 2.4 and 5.5% (or a survival rate of 97.6 and 94.5% depending on the residential situation).

From the court's decision overturning the OSHA vaccine mandate:

“The Mandate,” it wrote, “likely exceeds the federal government’s authority under the Commerce Clause because it regulates noneconomic inactivity that falls squarely within the States’ police power,” because “a person’s choice to remain unvaccinated and forgo regular testing is noneconomic inactivity.” “To mandate that a person receive a vaccine or undergo testing,” it added, “falls squarely within the States’ police power.” In addition, “concerns over separation of powers principles cast doubt over the Mandate’s assertion of virtually unlimited power to control individual conduct under the guise of a workplace regulation.” (Good intentions aside.)

Questions of Smallpox

The nation has reached a remarkable state. The country of Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Lincoln will watch as its president, Biden, goes under anesthesia and, during that period of time, the presidential power will be in the hands of one Kamala Harris.

Epidemiologists have estimated that the coronavirus has a “basic reproduction number” between 2 and 3, meaning that each infection leads to roughly two to three other people getting infected. The basic reproduction number is often rendered “R.” New variants push that R to about 4. The virus kills about 0.2% of everyone it infects. Smallpox, before the vaccine, had an R between 5 and 7, a mortality rate over 30%, and disfigured the rest.

A small company has developed a treatment for smallpox, a therapy that works, not a vaccine. The anxiety over the homicidal Soviets' having a bioweapons lab that was using smallpox as their base agent stimulated a plan to have the anti-smallpox therapy available in the U.S. but it was deep-sixed by a Republican 'statesman' who did not want to give profits to the company as it was owned by a prominent Democrat donor. (Sometimes the betterment of the nation has to take a back seat to a higher vision.)

This week a vial of material labeled 'smallpox' was discovered in a Merck lab. Then a guy in Maryland tested positive for Monkeypox, a close relative of smallpox. The stock went nuts.

One can only wonder what a narcissistic culture that thinks selfies is an occupation, demands perfection in all ways, and protection from any threat will react to the appearance of a bug that has a 30% mortality and scars the survivors.

Bureaucrat Zero

                        Bureaucrat Zero

A little satire I conceived was to have the government simply take the energy industry over and then deprive its citizens of energy--whether it for the reason of extortion or global warming, as it would be a lot more efficient in bringing the poor citizen to his exhausted endpoint. Sort of a fuel soil bank program with an edge. Amazingly, my favorite Biden appointee (only because I don't know enough of them) seeming plans just that.

Saule Omarova gave an interview in February on “the case for a U.S. national investment authority.”

The conversation turned to climate change and its impact on fossil-fuel producers, and Ms. Omarova, not surprisingly, had an opinion. “A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to, probably, go bankrupt in short order—at least, we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change,” she said.

"We want them to go bankrupt."

She went on to say “that creates a lot of this sort of loss of jobs, a lot of displacement, and economic fallback that we cannot afford, really.” 

But sacrifices must be made.

She added that the government response would be to set up a National Capital Management Corporation that would “become a kind of equity investor at that point, taking over management of those companies and basically leading them through restructuring to a new technological basis and to a new technological business model.”

As Comptroller, Ms. Omarova would have enormous authority to regulate banks. Clearly, one of her policy ambitions is to deny capital to certain companies that she wants to go bankrupt. Just because these people know better.

The first person in an epidemic is called "Patient Zero." Somehow we have created a culture and political system where one person can do all sorts of unbelievably dangerous things. Mattis was actually worried whether one unstable president could launch a nuclear war. One guy! Here's another, a woman who wants to make decisions that would bring astonishing change to the financial system. The same people who can't control a border or figure out what a reasonable response to a viral infection is, want to run the U.S. 22 Trillion Dollar economy.

Bureaucrat Zero, bringing more systemic risk to us than any revolutionary enemy could dream of doing.