If you’re a Western Christian, today is Easter. But surprise: it’s not Easter because today is the calendar anniversary marking the resurrection of Jesus, three days after his death by crucifixion. Your church is celebrating Easter today because it’s the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
If you’re an Eastern Orthodox Christian, you’re Easter will be next Sunday, May 5th. Again, it doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus. The Eastern Orthodox church says Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after Passover. Passover has to do with God sparing the life of select Hebrews’ firstborn kids just before the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, way back in Moses’s time.
Spooky, right? I mean, just think: Easter – a major Christian holiday – isn’t about good old JC. It’s about astrology.
Anyway: Happy Easter!
Confession: It may be that I too am under the influence of the Moon today. I guess that makes me a lunatic, by strict definition of the word. I woke up this morning thinking about the Kennedys. Two of them, in particular: JFK and RFK Jr. I have no logical reason to be thinking about these guys. They just hopped into my head like little Easter bunnies. Or mysterious Moon Landers.
Now, I have some things I need to do today – ripping out a couple kitchen cabinets tops the list – so I’d prefer to not have my brain cluttered up with the two Kennedys as I get to task. So, I’m going to perform a special sort of exorcism ritual. I’m going to write JFK and RFK Jr. out of my mind. Pen and paper would be best, of course, but my laptop will have to do this morning.
I’ve just poured myself a nice cup of coffee, and my laptop is glowing softly, the brightest thing in the kitchen in the early morning darkness, fully charged, keypad beckoning. I can see the soon-to-be-liberated kitchen cabinets in the background, unaware that that their hours are numbered.
Here goes nothing.
JFK Part 1
As you know, Brett and I discussed JFK’s assassination in a previous episode of the TPD podcast. That was a few years back, but my view remains pretty much the same today: (1) JFK went rogue when he got into office, and he made a lot of enemies in the Establishment – particularly in banking and elite control circles, so there were plenty of people who wanted him “removed”; and (2) there’s no way in hell that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin – even though he was decidedly in the mix.
Since the previous podcast aired, I’ve only stumbled upon one significant resource that has contributed to my view of the JFK assassination. It’s an excellent book called Mortal Error: The Shot that Killed JFK by Bonar Menninger. I highly recommend it if you’re at all in interested in the events of November 22, 1963. What I’m about to write below is a bit of a spoiler, but it shouldn’t ruin your read.
Menninger, a ballistics expert, reviewed all the available documentation related to the three confirmed gunshots fired at JFK and concludes that Oswald may have fired two of them. But most importantly, the fatal “kill shot” could not have come from Oswald, based on a detailed ballistics analysis. The kill shot came from an AR-15 fired by secret service agent, George Hickey, who was in the car following Kennedy’s in the motorcade. There is ample evidence to support this conclusion. You’ll have to read the book yourself to see if you agree.
But the thing that strikes me the most about Mortal Error, and the thing that’s on my mind this morning is not Menninger’s convincing ballistics assessment. What strikes me the most (and troubles me, I suppose) is that Menninger imagines that agent Hickey must have accidentally fired the fatal shot. After all, the role of the Secret Service is to protect the President, so the thought never enters Menninger’s mind that Hickey may have had a . . . well . . . special assignment that day.
Menninger’s publisher even contacted Hickey directly, asking him to provide a statement, under the assumption that Hickey must be feeling miserable about having accidentally discharged his AR-15 that day. Hickey did not reply.
I don’t know about you, but I find it a little troubling that Menninger, with all his ballistics smarts, is somehow unable to connect the final dots in his analysis. It reminds me of how scientists can dedicate themselves to developing technologies such as nuclear bombs and artificial intelligences, without being able to realize how blatantly destructive they are. It’s like some sort of compartmentalized cleverness. How can such smart people be so clueless? It’s odd. And it’s dangerous.
JFK Part 2
A few weeks back I watched Jay Weidner’s 2023 documentary film, JFK X: Solving the Crime of the Century. Weidner has been around the conspiracy block a time or two, and is perhaps most famous for highlighting some interesting connections between film director, Stanley Kubrick, and the Apollo moon mission hoaxes. In other words, he’s one of my fellow lunatics.
While I’m generally in agreement with Weidner’s assertions about Apollo, I have to say that he’s missing the mark (no pun intended) on the JFK thing. In brief, the “breakthrough discovery” he presents in JFK X is that JFK faked his death – that he wasn’t assassinated at all. Unfortunately, Weider backs up this idea exclusively with his analysis of the Zapruder film. He thinks the Zapruder film’s infamous footage of the fatal head shot clearly shows the use of a movie prop device (a little, exploding, fake-blood plate) that simulates a gunshot wound. He imagines that JFK and Jackie were in on it together, and that after the staged gunshot, JFK crawled into a secret hideout in the trunk of the presidential limousine, and that the body of a JFK look-alike (the Dallas police officer supposedly shot and killed by Oswald that day) was the substitute body taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, examined, and later laid to rest.
Weidner’s case is compelling – but only at first glance. It all falls apart as soon as one realizes that the whole storyboard rests on analysis of the Zapruder film. That’s because the Zapruder film itself is an outright hoax, with obvious inconsistencies throughout, as documented in detail by James H. Fetzer’s seminal analysis, The Great Zapruder Film Hoax: Deceit and Deception in the Death of JFK.
Using the Zapruder film to look for factual clues and new insights into the JFK assassination is like watching the old Coyote & Road Runner cartoons to learn about physics. It’s another case of smart people drifting into dumb-dumb territory. And like Menninger’s dot-connecting snafu described above, it makes me feel a little queasy.
RFK Jr. Part 1
(It occurs to me that RFK being a Junior might make this a Part 2, by default.)
In a recent blog about Super Pacs, I mentioned RFK Jr. as a contender for the White House this year. I also mentioned that he’d be the smartest guy on stage if he gets a chance to participate in the upcoming presidential debates. I guess this exposes my hand: Yes, I think RFK Jr. is an intelligent guy.
But in yet another example of a smart person apparently doing something wildly un-smart, RFK Jr. recently announced that his VP running mate is Nicole Shanahan, a self-proclaimed “progressive” (i.e. Marxist). Since Shanahan has such close ties to the Silicon Valley elites (she was previously married to Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, and had an affair with Elon Musk) and is currently a Director at Carbon Royalty Corporation, a spooky carbon cap and trade brokerage house, it’s apparent that she is no friend of the people.
One scenario is that RFK Jr. actually believes Shanahan’s politics align with his own. That’s no good, because that would mean that he’s now exposing himself to all as someone with Marxist ambitions. Another scenario is that RFK Jr. is strategically going for a money and influence grab to boost his chances against the now-crippled Democrats. That’s no good either, since it means he’s a shark rather than a well-intentioned independent. Yet another scenario is that RFK Jr. got duped. And, of course, that’s no good either, since it points to him being a secret dumb-dumb.
It’s hard to say if RFK Jr.’s VP choice is evidence of a lunatic moment. Maybe, maybe not. In any case, I hope it’s clear to all that we shouldn’t want a Shanahan type anywhere near the White House.
But mainly: Isn’t it interesting that the name Kennedy is still kicking around in everyday thoughts and conversations?
Phil’s Two Cents
Relief.
I feel like the Kennedys have now been successfully expunged from my morning head space.
Time for another cup of coffee. Time to tackle those kitchen cabinets.
– “Phil”
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