Fifty Years Ago Today

You know how it plays out.  A handsome, charismatic President and his lovely wife are in a motorcade touring through the heart of Dallas when shots ring out and the young man collapses into his wife’s arms.  The promise that was, dies and the America we live in today, the one with the softly eroding liberties, arrives from this event.  

It really is amazing how much has changed.  We were freer then.  Kennedy’s staggering death, the killings of RFK and MLK, to the attacks of 9/11, have produced a litany of lost liberties.  Ten years ago all I needed to get my driver’s license renewed was to show up with the old license.  Now I need four different documents to prove who I am.  Something nobody needs to present to run for the office of President.  All of the paperwork is scanned and uploaded to some mysterious place in the belly of the beast.  Boarding a plane used to be a simple process. Now TSA security personnel with dubious backgrounds, rummage through my checked luggage every time I fly, an event that has happened five times now.  As if searching the bag of a non-terrorist is going to keep our country safe from terror.  I would think after two or three times they would finally conclude I’m no threat to National Security.  It may be more a circumstance of intimidation.  Maybe the blogging about JFK is a red flag for them. My fourth Amendment rights have been violated here but a complaint would deliver me into dead zone where our liberties have gone.  This must mean the only real terror a citizen faces now is the terror from an out of control and bloated Federal Government.  

John F. Kennedy represents a man who was the last real President.  He governed as if he was in control, the top man. No American President since governs like John Kennedy did and mostly likely none ever will.  By doing so, he collected a vast array of enemies.  He stood up to a large grouping of powerful forces such as the Military/Pentagon, military contractors, the Mob, the CIA, the Texas oil barons, the Cubans, and various other interest groups.  Kennedy threatened the power of these entities and in the process hastened his own demise.  

Rather than trace shots fired around Dealey Plaza and debunk the lame single bullet theory, just take a look at the policy changes, both foreign and domestic, that occurred upon JFK’s death.  Everybody Kennedy said no to, Lyndon Johnson said yes to.  That’s not a coincidence.  I find it hard to believe that all of these divergent groups found themselves the beneficiaries of such good fortune.  That a ne'er-do-well shows up on the parade route to take care of their enemy and they get to celebrate their grand luck.  Imagine Allen Dulles calling up his buddy Clint Murchison to gloat over what charmed men they were, that a long nut showed up in Dallas and got rid of that awful Kennedy boy.  Brandy and cigars gentlemen!  It’s been business as usual ever since.  

Other than expose a Machevillian window into the heart American politics, the Kennedy assassination exposed a wound in the National Press and their reporting of such events.  The early reporters learned that lasting careers could be made if one went along with the whole thing.  Notice how many local Texas boys evolved into millionaires working for CBS.  Even the current set of Media Darlings are on the payroll.  From conservative Rush Limbaugh to the liberal Chris Mathews, they all spout the same exact party line:  Kennedy was killed by a communist.  I guess one has to, if one wants to get out of the dirt and play in the Big Leagues.  This is the other half of the disgust and disappointment of the Kennedy assassination.  It is in a sense, a betrayal of the truth.  We were lied to about what happened 50 years ago and the media is a big part of the Big Lie.  They keep it going.  They give it an unduly long life.  And if you don’t believe them?  You are called a pejorative name–a conspiracy theorist.  

I hope something like this never happens again.  But you know?  It probably will.  

About Those Silver Certificate Treasury Notes

One of the many reasons listed for John Kennedy’s assassination was his supposed threat to the power of the Federal Reserve, American’s central bank.  His famous Executive Order 11110, allowed for the issuing of Treasury notes backed by silver and not credit such as Federal Reserve notes are.  These silver notes are interest free, which mean the Fed earned no interest off them.  The bankers are thus listed in the group of Kennedy enemies by many conspiracy researchers.  But many of them do not fully understand the matter.

The difficulty with this Executive Order and the issuance of silver certificate notes in 1963, is that most people that bring this issue up for conspiracy, don’t fully understand what is going on here.  Kennedy’s E.O. was not to undercut the power of the Federal Reserve, it was amended to an earlier Executive Order 10289, signed by President Harry Truman in September 9, 1951.  The purpose of the notes was to belay a silver shortage at the time which was heavily used for coinage.  The notes are not so much backed up by silver as they are redeemable for silver.  That is the main purpose of them–not to slash the Fed out of making interest off the issuance of currency.  

Silver certificate currency issued in 1934 and 1957.

An important issue here is that these Treasury silver notes had been issues many times over the years from 1878 to 1964.  The first ones were not issued in 1963.  They’ve been issued off and on for over 70 years.  I personally own silver notes issued in 1934 and 1957, besides the Kennedy notes of 1963.  The Kennedy era silver notes are noted for their red seal; most of the others issued feature a blue seal. If you like to collect them they are available on eBay and at antique malls.  Just beware that the older ones issued in the 1800’s are quite expensive.   

Another myth is that Lyndon Johnson signed an E.O. to take the silver notes out of the circulation.  That simply did not happen.  The Treasury stopped issuing them in October of 1964.  In 1968, Congress ended the redeeming of silver certificate notes.  The actual E.O. stayed on the books till Ronald Reagan phased it out in 1987.

No doubt that John F. Kennedy had a villainous circle of enemies challenging him during the course of his presidency.  The bankers at the Federal Reserve were not among them.  (Please note I am not an admirer of the Fed.  Its creation was unconstitutional and it has been a source of debt expansion for the United States.) Let us remember that when we investigate conspiracy, not every little thing is conspiratorial.  The issuance of silver certificate money is an example of that.  Some well known researchers have this issue totally wrong because they did not look deep enough.   

Addendum

Wikipedia states the issuance of silver notes ended in 1964 but a silver note issued in 1966 is at this writing, available for sale on eBay.  So the printing of the silver notes went on for some time after JFK’s death, unless that 1966 bill is a forgery.  

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Certificate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11110

Lies, Omissions, and PBS NOVA: Cold Case JFK

(Originally posted in 11/14/13)

With the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s death looming, I’ve tried not to watch most of the documentaries and TV specials involving the event.  The few I’ve seen just repeat the same old party line or else go off on to some odd tangent this is incorrect.  With the media as it is in this country, I expect no new revelations and a rehashing of the same old story from the Warren Report.  But just on a lark, I decided to watch PBS Nova’s Cold Case JFK which purports to be a forensic investigation into the case.  Yes, it confirmed my suspicions of how the media plays the JFK assassination–the Warren Commission got it right!

The first lie starts on the PBS website:  “NOVA launches a fresh investigation into the physical evidence, using state-of-the-art forensics, including laser scanning, new ballistics tests, and a 3D digital reconstruction of the president's skull, all to try to solve the murder of the century.”

Gosh...all of this fancy technology just to come to the same conclusion the Warren Commission did 50 years ago.  Amazing!  They solved the case too!  Actually, this show is no different than Brad Meltzer’s goofy History Decoded show on the History Channel.  Television presentations such as this are created to fool people that only have a basic understanding of the case.  They toss in scientific scrutiny with a touch of drama but there is much omitted for narrative flow.  They have to or else the story gets muddied up.  Such was done in Cold Case JFK.  They weren't out to solve anything.  They knew where they were headed from the get-go. 

A host of luminaries are provided such as Jeff Morley and Josiah Thompson, but the notorious cave troll, Marquette professor John McAdams gets most of the air time.  McAdams, a lone gunman zealot, is known as a rude and obnoxious defender of the Warren Report.  In the annals of JFK research he is a notorious and outrageous personality.  His assertions on the case are often misleading.  Among many loathsome acts, he once lied about his name and profession to a news reporter at a research conference. In another instance, he insinuated that researcher Dr. Gary Aguilar was a drug addict.  For that, McAdams received a reprimand from Marquette University for such conduct.  

And this is the man PBS brings to the fore to be an expert?

Ballistics 

Of course, the Single Bullet Theory is the most controversial part of the case and admitted to as such in the show.  Even McAdams waggles his jowls in agreement.  All was well originally, with three shots resulting in three wounds, till James Tague came forward with his wounded cheek.  So one bullet had to pull double-duty or else you’ve got a conspiracy on your hands.  (And in fact, FBI crime lab tests found no trace of copper on the curb near Tague’s wounding.  Oswald was only supposed to be shooting copper jacketed bullets.  The FBI only found traces of lead.  Somebody else was shooting.)

So Nova engages ballistics expert Luke Haag (who with his son Michael, will appear on a host of programs) to supposedly conduct an objective test using Mannlicher-Carcano shooting test targets.  Out comes the ballistic gelatin to simulate human muscle tissue.  Haven’t I seen this somewhere before? Like The Discovery Channel?  Anyway, the test shots show that the bullet does yaw at the end of its flight.  High speed video shows the flight of the bullet which always looks cool.  But this has been done before.

In one hilarious bit, after the rifleman took a shot and attempted to recycle the weapon, the spent shell hung up in the breach.  Ha!  And somebody is going to shoot the President of the United States with this piece of junk?  Oh, yeah...don’t let your lying eyes deceive you.  Anything is possible in Warren Commission Land.

The shortcoming with this type of test is that Haag never shoots anything as dense as bone, yet seems to have no disagreement with CE 399 coming out looking so good.  Well, somebody did test bone and the results were hidden away for years.  Dr. Joseph Dolce was the Army’s chief ballistic wounds expert and chairman of the Army’s Ballistic Wounds Committee.  He was tasked by the Warren Commission, along with another expert, Dr. Fredrick Light Jr., to test the single bullet theory using Oswald’s rifle to replicate CE 399, the so-called “pristine” bullet.  After shooting ten cadaver radial bones (the same bone struck and broken in Gov. Connelly’s wrist), the experiment did not replicate any bullet resembling CE 399 at all.  As Dr. Dolce stated in an interview in 1986, each of the ten test fired bullets were in his words, “markably deformed.”  Dr. Dolce, much to his surprise, was not called to give testimony to the Warren Commission and his findings were buried in a report, published by the U. S. Army Edgewood Arsenal in March of 1965, which was classified “confidential” for 8 years before being placed in the NARA.  Obviously, this was never mentioned in the show.  A serious omission of fact.  But the appearance of this information would only be the arrival of a bastard at the family reunion.  

(It should also be noted that in Haag's test the pass-thru bullet produced a larger exit hole than entry; it was well documented by Parkland doctors that Kennedy's throat wound was very small and was first noted as an entry wound, not exit.  Haag actually disproves the single bullet theory!)

Other issues, such as firing at moving targets, the effects of bullet drop, Oswald attempting a head shot through a live oak tree, windage, bullet drop due to the effects of gravity, a scope not properly sighted, are all ignored. So much for this being a high-tech forensic examination.  This is History Channel type faux research via PBS. Everybody is in on it now.

In the end, Luke Haag decides he has no problems with Single Bullet Theory.  He will state this on numerous other anniversary shows as well.  Of course not, since his experimentation never went far enough.  He did not allow for tests on bone.  And as stated above, Drs Dolce and Light could not replicate CE 399 in any meaningful way when firing at bone, so their report was buried. So PBS NOVA has to ignore it as well.  It should be made clear, this lone bullet nonsense comes from a gaggle of lawyers who are not ballistics experts.  Arlen Specter and boys were out to do what lawyers do, protect their client–in this case the Federal government.  The truth becomes a tin can kicked down the road.   

Conclusion

Other issues are explored such as Kennedy’s head wound, the Zapruder film showing Kennedy shot from the front (your lying eyes again), 3D laser mapping of Dealing Plaza, and the HSCA audio analysis of shots from a police motorcycle, and all come to the same conclusion.  This is why I am avoiding most of these 50th Anniversary shows.  The Warren Commission was right.  Always right. There is no conspiracy.  Just because it looks like one doesn’t make it real.  Now move on with your bad self.

Sources

And other good one by David W. Mantik, MD, PhD at CTKA:
http://www.ctka.net/2013/nova.html

The Dulce/Light report

Gerald McKnight, Breach of Trust, Chapter 8, p.187. Chapter notes page 417 (note 18) and page 418 (note 25).

Marina Oswald Porter at 72

From the British press, The Daily Mail.  Marina Oswald Porter at 72.

LINK

The Many Sins of Vinnie

Interesting site with newspaper scans from the various Bugliosi scandals.  Such as being sued for slander and having charges filed for girlfriend abuse.  

LINK