JFK and The Re-Writing of History

JFK was killed 50 years ago today.  Truth Dots notes the full-on united front presented by the mainstream media in countless newspaper and magazine articles, TV shows, books, etc, to declare that all "conspiracy theories" are to be left behind, once and for all. Oswald did it and he did it alone. That's all folks, you can pack up and go home.

It is true that many people are willing to jump to conclusions based on their own biases, hence many "conspiracy theories." That is why one must limit ones' attention to people who are actually doing genuine research, and who uncover actual evidence.  And there is an abundance of evidence, that Oswald did not act alone, that he is not the man the media portrays him to be, that government agencies were involved, and that these agencies and the media have been covering up and re-writing history for decades.  It is a tragedy and a travesty that has many precise parallels with 9/11 and its aftermath, and is a hard lesson to be learned.  Because we have been trained to forget about history except as the mainstream culture feeds it to us, we were inadequate to the task of recognizing 9/11 for what it was.

RIDICULE BY ASSOCIATION
Here's a classic mainstream media tactic: provide us with a wise and witty commentator to focus on how one of the most ridiculous JFK conspiracies was de-bunked, with the clear message that it would be better to stay away from any and all such theories.  The intent and effect is to associate all JFK research with the most ridiculous theories, making it easy to dismiss and marginalize any JFK research that conflicts with the official story.



http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000001183275/the-umbrella-man.html


THE LIMITED HANGOUT



Here's an example of what is known as a "limited hangout," a public relations or propaganda technique that involves the release of previously hidden information in order to prevent a greater exposure of more important details.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout

It shows how far the mainstream media will go to dismiss JFK research.  Below is a link to an interview with Philip Shenon, author of the new book, "A Cruel and Shocking Act." Listen for how this guy is willing to make the public aware of damning evidence of corruption and coverup in the wake of JFK's assassination, yet jumps to his own conclusions, without any basis in the facts, that the reasons for all this were nothing more than incompetence, embarrassment, and the desire to "protect President Kennedy's legacy, to protect the privacy of the Kennedy family." This is shoddy journalism posing as hard-hitting investigative reporting, and again conveniently marginalizes genuine research by ignoring it, in favor of simply making up an alternate explanation that fits the conventional wisdom.

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/28/240822565/botched-investigation-fuels-kennedy-conspiracy-theories

Note the title of this feature is "Botched Investigation Fuels Kennedy Conspiracy Theories." Again the way it is expressed is important. They are saying that it is understandable that the evidence being exposed would lead some people to have a "perception' of a conspiracy, but nevertheless you shouldn't think that way. Essentially the author is saying to legitimate researchers, "who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?"

SHUT OUT
News Flash: The Last Stand of the JFK Truthers
 Dallas plans to memorialize the fallen president on the 50th anniversary of his death, and the conspiracy theorists aren't invited. 
http://www.nationaljournal.com/s/67089/last-stand-jfk-truthers

THE REAL DEAL
Credible, meticulous research on the JFK assassination has been going on since the 1960's.  One of the greatest researchers is also one of the least known, Mae Brussell.  Has there been anyone since who has done such a thorough job of actually reading every edition of the Warren commission report, cross referencing it and following up on the information that it cited to support its conclusions?  She produced thousands of pages of research and hundreds of hours of recorded programs discussing her research and encouraging others to do their own.
She never asked for a penny and achieved no renown for her efforts.  She was simply a brilliant person who was also a passionate activist for truth.  Here's her first radio broadcast, all the way back in 1971.



Learn more about Mae and access the vast archive of her work at http://maebrussell.com/

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
If you're ready to dive in and do some JFK research, our good friends at WantToKnow.info have prepared the way for you with an outstanding portal to articles, videos and plenty of links and references.
http://www.wanttoknow.info/assassinations/kennedy/kennedy-assassination-jfk-rfk

EVIDENCE OF REVISION
Ready to go down the rabbit hole? Evidence of Revision is an amazing documentary, relying on a treasure trove of actual archival film footage from the times, to show how history was indeed being revised, even as the events were unfolding. Here's part 1:



JAMES CORBETT
Few have honored Mae Brussell's legacy as well as James Corbett of corbettreport.com. In this video he gives us a quick, concise summary of the mountain of evidence that indicates that Oswald was someone quite different than the official story. It is meant to give you a sense of the absurdity of it all, and it succeeds quite well.
Everything he refers to is referenced and linked on this page:
http://www.corbettreport.com/jfk-a-conspiracy-theory/



JIM DOUGLASS



Jim Douglass, in his book JFK and the Unspeakable, has an interpretation of events to explain why JFK was murdered, and why it matters, that makes more sense to me than any other.  I think his ideas are worth pursuing further, as everything I have encountered so far supports his ideas. Here's an interview in which he summarizes his views.



FINAL WORDS
And the final words go to the man himself. Here's JFK giving the commencement address to the graduating class at American University in 1963. Is this the sound of a politician planning to seek re-election, saying what he thinks will appeal to liberal voters, or is it a man who is genuinely turning away from the ambitions of the CIA, the military-industrial complex, and the other elites working behind the scenes to drive the country back to war and ruin?





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Whither 9/11 Truth?

A big part of what got this blog started was a sense of alarm over the way that 9/11, the watershed event of our time, has led directly to more than a decade of deterioration of civil liberties and constitutional rights, massive increases of domestic surveillance, vast expansion of militarization of police, normalization of torture and indefinite detention, drone warfare, a procession of military ventures cutting a never-ending swath of death and destruction. The list of outrages is added to daily.

The line from 9/11 to this is uncontested. In a brilliant personal audio essay from 2011, Brett Veinotte of School Sucks podcast looks back to Sept. 10, 2001 and asks us to wonder if we could ever have imagined how the events of the next day would cause our lives to be so devastatingly changed for the worse.
http://schoolsucksproject.com/092-osama-bin-laden-any-questions/

Yet 9/11 itself remains an unsolved crime.

The 9/11 "truth" movement is in tatters, mired in endless debates over the way the towers were destroyed, or whether the hole in the Pentagon was big enough to have been made by a plane.There have been enough conflicting theories put forward to ensure that in mainstream public discourse, no serious discussion of who was really responsible for 9/11 can even get started.

WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE? Really?

The 9/11 Commission left us with the limited understanding that the largest, most expensive and most technologically advanced defense apparatus in the world failed due to sheer incompetency and negligence, at every level, by every person with any responsibility. Many people then covered up this failure to protect themselves from being embarrassed, discredited or charged with crimes. This is true as far as it goes, as amply outlined in this clip of Senator Mark Dayton. The first 12 minutes are absolutely essential to understanding 9/11 at this most basic level.



It is further essential to acknowledge that the vast scope of this failure is typically not scrutinized in the mainstream media narratives of 9/11. Instead, we are directed to respond in a purely emotional way, focusing on patriotism, on demonizing the evil terrorists, on remembering the victims, and on honoring the heroic individuals who paid the ultimate price to try to save lives in the aftermath of the attack. Of course, they should be honored and remembered with gratitude. But at the same time, we should all stand with the survivors and families of the fallen in expressing our outrage that not one single person was ever held up to be responsible for the intolerable negligence, incompetence and outright dereliction of duty that unquestionably allowed the attacks to happen. Again, Sen. Dayton's speech spells this out quite clearly, but it has been buried, excised from the public discourse.

A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING

If that was as bad as it gets, it would be bad enough. But even this admission of failure is only a distraction from a genuine understanding of our government's actions on 9/11. Fortunately. outside the mainstream, this discussion is very much alive, and with good reason. Credible, sturdy research has been going on for years now, developing into a body of evidence that clearly indicates that the functioning of our government and our national defense were subverted and degraded from the inside, before, during and after the attacks. This evidence is powerful enough that in a fair and just world, a criminal investigation would be launched immediately, targeting specific individuals in various departments of the U.S. government and military.

The research being done on this is detailed, meticulous and thorough. It does not require us to make conclusions about the existence of a conspiracy or its motives, although history gives us ample reason for suspicion.
Ref: Operation Northwoods:
http://www.wanttoknow.info/010501operationnorthwoods

It is merely to show that contrary to virtually all mainstream narratives, a criminal investigation is indeed warranted, into the involvement of people in our own government in the perpetration of the 9/11 attacks.

THE RESEARCHERS

For diligent, thorough and tireless research, one need look no further than James Corbett of corbettreport.com  His personal awakening to the lies and distortions in the official 9/11 narrative was the direct impetus for him to begin his journey from school teacher to one of the best independent investigators around. On this 12th anniversary he has produced a must-see one-hour video podcast, annotated with tons of links and references:
http://www.corbettreport.com/episode-280-who-was-really-behind-the-911-attacks/
as well as a supplementary article with even more notes and links:
http://www.corbettreport.com/911-truth-and-the-way-forward-starting-a-real-criminal-investigation/

Corbett's November 2012 presentation on the activities of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney on the morning of 9/11 is mind blowing, especially when one sees how it is merely the tip of the iceberg:



Corbett himself credits the work of Kevin Ryan, a meticulous researcher with an inside connection to 9/11. According to his blog:

Kevin is a chemistry laboratory manager.  Through his work as Site Manager for the environmental testing division of Underwriters Laboratories (UL), he began to investigate the tragedy of September 11^th, 2001.  Ryan was fired by UL, in 2004, for publicly asking questions about UL’s testing of the structural materials used to construct the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings as well as UL’s involvement in the WTC investigation being conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Again, becoming aware of the problems with the official story led Kevin to becoming a dedicated researcher. His blog, http://digwithin.net/ contains numerous highly detailed research articles. He sees the pieces of a puzzle, all scattered on the ground, and does the hard work of picking up each piece, examining what its purpose is and where it came from, and then seeing how it connects to other pieces. The result, over and over,  is at odds with the official story, and offers credible evidence of criminal activity from within our government and military. His new book is Another Nineteen: Investigating Legitimate 9/11 Suspects.



Another amazing resource is the 9/11 Information Center, 
http://www.wanttoknow.info/911information
a huge online compendium of documents, news articles, videos and other resources regarding 9/11. This is part of a larger effort by Fred Burks and the WantToKnow.info website team to gather easily verifiable information on many important issues that are too often hidden or marginalized. Their purpose is to help build a better understanding of what is really happening in the world, in order to move forward with helping to make a better world. I applaud them and encourage you to check out the entire amazing WantToKnow site:
http://www.wanttoknow.info/

WHY BOTHER?

At this point, why bother? We should just shrug and move on, right? Who is naive enough to think that anyone with any authority cares enough to take the risk of exposing the secret workings of power in this country? The truth of 9/11 will fade into the conspiracy dustbin of history, along with the Kennedy assassination, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Iran-Contra, and so many others. Or perhaps, in another 20 years or so, the information will be gradually leaked out to verify it all, long after anyone could possibly be held accountable or brought to justice.

But we support the work of people like Corbett, Ryan and Burks, because the ideals of equal justice for all are critical to the survival of our society; if our government won't stand up for them, we must do so as individuals. A continuing trend of apathy only emboldens political leadership to further embrace the corrupting power of their positions, to engage in even more secret manipulations and authoritarian policies. We are already living in a nightmarish scenario that is a cross between Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. We can't just live in apathetic acquiescence of such a state of affairs.

Why bother? When we are confronted by events and actions that clearly violate our personal standards of morality or ethical principles, we must speak up. It is not a question of being in the right, or even being victorious in the struggle. One does not always do something based on probability of success, but because it is the only way to be faithful to one's own conscience. You can't force anyone else to agree with you, but you can be true to yourself.


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Earth Day Distractions

Earth Day appears as an opportunity for people with caring hearts and the best intentions to do a little bit of good for our planet. Raising awareness is good; every little bit helps, right?

But when I look at the promo being generated by the Earth Day Network and their multitude of corporate partners, I find that it's what is not being said that is really the point.

Again, I see nothing wrong with pursuing alternative energy sources, recycling, or planting trees. But is it really so hard to see the lies and deception behind the PR?

The world's biggest corporate polluters and despoilers of the environment love to add green logos and put out warm-fuzzy commercials to let us know they are all for "going green," when their actual policies and activities prove the exact opposite.



This has been true for decades. The environmental movement has time and again been co-opted and hijacked by corporate PR green-washing machines, their clear aim to distract us from their culpability, and dump the responsibility onto us, the consumer.

Earth Day is every day for NASCAR industry
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/earth-day-every-day-nascar-120000760--nascar.html

I am all for each of us taking responsibility for what we can do. But as a wise man once said, "don't piss on my head and tell me it's rain." We should all be tired of mega-polluting industries telling us how responsible they are, when in fact every day they are doing their best to trample on not just the law but on any sense of decency and ethical responsibility. And expecting our government to provide any sort of effective control over this is useless.

Where, in any of the Earth Day promo, do you see any of the biggest industrial polluters being called to account for the horrific damage done to our land, air and water, at great cost to our economy, and our health? Where do we see any discussion of the environmental consequences of failed and damaged nuclear reactors? Does anyone want to talk about one of the biggest polluters in the world, the U.S. military? Anything at all about our dangerously misguided way of eating in this country, and the disastrous effect on the environment inflicted by industrial agriculture? The serious risks posed by the increasing presence of genetically modified foods?

No, I didn't think so. Here's a typical bit of fluff from CNN:

Hey Earthling, it's Earth Day; time for a quiz
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/22/world/earth-day/index.html

So by all means, do recycle, do plant a tree, do turn off the lights, do buy an electric car, but please look deeper. Stop buying the green-washing bullshit. Seek alternatives to the corporate-industrial paradigm that keeps a few thousand people incredibly wealthy while the rest of us are left barely hanging on.

If that sounds overblown and unrealistic, you owe it to yourself to look into this further. Fortunately I can recommend a great resource for you with lots of links and references to set you on the path.

Take Action

I am of course referring to The Queen's Table, the most comprehensive, informative and entertaining resource archive you could possibly ask for. This blog has many pages that cover a wide range of aspects relating to food and health. They are all good, but I urge you to spend some time on the "Action" page. She poses the question "What Can We Do?" and answers it on the intellectual, emotional and spiritual levels, all of which are critical before you can expect to make any lasting change in your physical world. And if you are ready for more practical information, try the Links page, with an abundance of references and links to info about organic food, best farming practices, nutrition, toxins and a lot more. If that's not enough, check out the GMO info page, the Rabbit Hole, and Inspiration to Begin. There is a lot to absorb, but as another wise man said...

Media Coverage - We Lose Again

OK it's over. As you could guess, I would have been just as unsatisfied if the Republican had won instead of the Democrat. Both are merely emblematic of a system that is rotten, corrupted beyond repair. What I want to point out today is the enormous role of the major media in and the role they play in degrading the average person's understanding of current events, and thus contributing to the abhorrent state of affairs we find ourselves in.

I did not watch any of the campaign/election coverage on any of the major networks or news channels. I do not read the daily papers or national magazines on any regular basis. I do not follow any popular bloggers or Twitterers. Nevertheless I can tell you what the vast majority of the coverage was like:

1. The candidates were presented as personalities, celebrities, two-dimensional figures. The focus was not on their genuine character, but on how well they did at concocting an image/"brand" for themselves and selling it to the public.
2. Their activities were covered like a reality TV show or a sporting event. Emphasis on drama, winning/losing, crisis, scandal.
3. Genuine context and background exposition was absent from most analysis. Even if they wanted to, how could they when most of the time, coverage of any particular item only lasts one to two minutes?
4. The various media outlets and their star "journalists" knocked themselves out claiming that each was the most honest, independent, fair, balanced and tough in their reporting, while what you actually saw were egotistical media celebrities whose main talents are looking good, and a willingness to say and do just about anything to boost their ratings.

The net result is that the picture of reality presented by the mainstream media is, overall, an incredibly superficial one, in which the complex problems of the world are reduced to sketchy dramatic episodes, absent any sense of larger context, background or history. The thoughts of our leaders are reduced to sound bites. Media coverage, especially TV, degrades reality down to the TV paradigm - everything is reduced to short, commercialized bursts of entertainment that are expected to be quickly forgotten.

One might think that political figures would be unhappy with this state of affairs. But in fact for those at the top of the political milieu, this is just what they're looking for. It is useful for them to have the public accustomed to learning about the world in the most shallow, superficial, fragmented way, because by keeping the public awareness at that level, our political leaders can then come forward with bogus solutions to those problems, that in reality only support the agendas of themselves and their wealthy patrons.

People like to say the media is biased in either a "liberal" or "conservative" direction. While this may be superficially true, both are smokescreens for the larger bias - towards those with money and power. Especially as regards news and political coverage, those with the money and political clout get covered, period. This guarantees a very narrow range of views is ever presented, thus effectively marginalizing alternate perspectives, which in the real world are quite abundant.

The media are complicit in making us think it's only Coke or Pepsi. Red or blue. Us vs them. Freedom vs evil. This false reduction of reality down to a fake paradigm of only two choices is the big lie.

What do you think the consolidation of so much of the multimedia landscape down to just a handful of mega-corporations has to do with this? Hmm, another blog post...

This is not to say that there is no good information out there, or no good journalism going on. There most certainly is. But in today's world, we must go after it, seek it out, and find it for ourselves. It usually is just laying on the ground, un-noticed, waiting to be picked up, or it has fallen down the memory hole, and must be dug out. And even then, we must frequently do our own work to learn the actual context, history and background of the story for ourselves. It is always there, but almost no one in the mainstream media bothers to connect the dots. We have to do it for ourselves, and you know what? We're actually better off if we do.

There are some people whose work has been incredibly helpful to me, and has inspired me to work much harder at learning for myself, researching and thinking critically about what I see and hear. I will be highlighting their work in future blog posts, in hopes they might give someone else the kick start they gave me.

For this post I have leaned heavily on two brilliant books which I highly recommend:


 News: The Politics of Illusion (9th Edition, by W. Lance Bennett

and:


Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman