to assure the survival and success of liberty

 

center / foreground:  President Kennedy

at right, in white overcoat:  Vice President Lyndon Johnson

assassination of President John F. Kennedy

in 1963

I sometimes think about the idea that Kennedy was going to cut back involvement with Vietnam's civil war -- when he was still living, we only had advisors over there, right?

        And then after Kennedy's death, pretty soon there in the Sixties, America had boots-on-the-ground in Vietnam -- we were "in" the war.

I read somewhere once that Kennedy had more experience in World War II than Johnson, and was therefore much more conservative about getting involved in other countries' conflicts.  He knew first-hand the horrors of war.

        There's that moment in Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK, where someone -- I think it's the actor portraying Johnson -- grumbles, "I'll give you your damn war ..."

(Of course that's Stone's theory, not historical fact.)

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eerie beauty

 

[excerpt from A Thousand Days:  John F. Kennedy in the White House, by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.]

PROLOGUE:  JANUARY 1961

It all began in the cold.

        It had been cold all week in Washington.  Then early Thursday afternoon the snow came.  The winds blew in icy, stinging gusts and whipped the snow down the frigid streets.  Washingtonians do not know how to drive in the snow:  they slide and skid and spin their wheels and panic.  By six o'clock traffic had stopped all over town.  

People abandoned their cars in snowdrifts and marched grimly into the gale, heads down, newspapers wrapped around necks and stuffed under coats.  And still the snow fell and the winds blew.

        At eight o'clock the young President-elect and his wife went to the Inaugural Concert at Constitution Hall.  An hour later they left at the intermission to go on to the Inaugural Gala at the Armory.  The limousine made its careful way through the blinding snow down the Mall.  Bonfires had been lit along the path in a vain effort to keep the avenue clear.  Great floodlights around the Washington Monument glittered through the white storm.  

It was a scene of eerie beauty.  As stranded motorists cheered the presidential car, the President-elect told his friend William Walton, "Turn on the lights so they can see Jackie."

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before we lose the light

 

Abraham Zapruder

Abraham Zapruder was a local Dallas area guy who had a wife and family, and a Bell & Howell movie camera.

He loved taking home movies of his family, and on November 22, 1963, he was at Dealey Plaza with his camera, to film the president's motorcade.

The public was not allowed to see that film until 1975.  It had to be withheld from public view for 12 years because...  ?

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secrets of Italian grandmothers

 

The Washington Post had an article last week about taste-testing 12 supermarket marinara sauces.

It was a break from political news.

It got 2800 reader comments.

----------------- I was in the local Stop & Shop in Johnston, Rhode Island one day and saw Victoria Marinara on sale.  As I was reaching down to get it I sensed two people behind me watching.  I turned around to two little old Italian women, both dressed in black, nodding and smiling their approval.  They said something in Italian and laughed.

I wonder what that was?

----------- That was the ghost of my Italian grandmother from Providence making fun of jarred sauce.  She grew her own tomatoes, canned them, and made pasta from scratch every weekend.  There's nothing like it, anywhere.

--------------- My Italian grandfather (lived off Academy Ave.) bought two lots, one for the house and one for the sprawling garden.  His basement was a wonderland of jarred vegetables.

Unbelievable Sunday dinners.

----------------- Cucina Antica Tomato Basil is my favorite store bought.  They use San Marzano tomatoes.  Simple ingredients list.  No added sugar.  Also no garlic (just onion) which I prefer.  Homemade with fresh garlic can be good but I don't tend to like it in jarred sauces.

-------------- I get ripe Roma tomatoes from the farmers' market and garlic and onions.  Sausage if they have a good spicy lean sausage there.  And I simmer it for a few hours on the stove with herbs, add some red wine to finish, and put it in  marinara bottles to put in the freezer.  No extra salt or chemicals.

----------------------- If it has sausage in it, it's not marinara.  Anyway, this is about jarred sauce for when you don't have hours on end to shop, peel tomatoes, and simmer.

______________________________

___________________________

Three movies that can give us perspective on the assassination of JFK and the events that followed can be watched on Amazon Prime:

JFK  (1991)

        rent or buy

Nixon  (1995)

        rent or buy

Parkland  (2013)

        free with Prime

________________________

        Okay, there's another one that's free with Prime:

JFK Revisited:  Through the Looking Glass  (2021)

(they discuss the original JFK movie and various theories and the Warren Commission, etc.)

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magic bullet

 

I wanted to write this week about the assassination of President Kennedy and the mysteries it left:  I had ideas for the titles I would put on each day's blog post, Monday - Friday.  Partway through the week, I thought maybe I had not chosen good titles because each day the title didn't really express what that day's essay was about.

        But the reason I chose those blog titles was because they were all phrases, names, words that had to do with the November 1963 assassination and the feeling I had of being both confused and enlightened by those words, at different times -- all through my childhood and growing up years, the words Dealey Plaza, grassy knoll, Zapruder film, magic bullet, and the "patsy" drifted through people's conversations, news specials, and articles, like crackly autumn leaves before fretful gusts of wind.

        Some of those things, I knew what they were, and some I didn't know until later on.

        (A patsy?  Oswald said this word about himself; he said, "I'm just a patsy!" -- patsy was an old-fashioned slang term for someone being set up to "take the fall" for someone else's crime.)

        Borrowing the phrase from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Bob Dylan called this song (which he released on You Tube in 2020) "Murder Most Foul".

♪ ♪♫

'Twas a dark day in Dallas - November '63

The day that will live on in infamy

President Kennedy was riding high

A good day to be living and a good day to die

Being led to the slaughter like a sacrificial lamb

Say wait a minute boys, do you know who I am?

Of course we do, we know who you are

Then they blew off his head when he was still in the car

Shot down like a dog in broad daylight

'Twas a matter of timing and the timing was right

You got unpaid debts and we've come to collect

We're gon' kill you with hatred and without any respect

We'll mock you and shock you, we'll grin in your face

We've already got someone here to take your place

The day that they blew out the brains of the king

Thousands were watching, no one saw a thing

It happened so quickly - so quick by surprise

Right there in front of everyone's eyes

Greatest magic trick ever under the sun

Perfectly executed, skillfully done

Wolfman, oh wolfman, oh wolfman, howl

Rub a dub dub - it's murder most foul

Hush lil children, you'll soon understand

The Beatles are coming they're gonna hold your hand

Slide down the banister, go get your coat

Ferry 'cross the Mersey and go for the throat

There's three bums comin' all dressed in rags

Pick up the pieces and lower the flags

I'm going to Woodstock, it's the Aquarian Age

Then I'll go over to Altamont and sit near the stage

Put your head out the window, let the good times roll

There's a party going on behind the grassy knoll

Stack up the bricks and pour the cement

Don't say Dallas don't love you, Mr. President

Put your foot in the tank and step on the gas

Try to make it to the triple underpass

Black face singer - white face clown

Better not show your faces after the sun goes down

I'm in the red-light district like a cop on the beat

Living in a nightmare on Elm Street

When you're down on Deep Ellum put your money in your shoe

Don't ask what your country can do for you

Cash on the barrel head, money to burn

Dealey Plaza, make a left hand turn

Go down to the crossroads, try to flag a ride

That's the place where Faith, Hope and Charity died

Shoot 'em while he runs, boy, shoot 'em while you can

See if you can shoot the Invisible Man

Goodbye, Charlie, goodbye Uncle Sam

Frankly, Miss Scarlet, I don't give a damn

What is the truth and where did it go

Ask Oswald and Ruby - they oughta know

Shut your mouth, says the wise old owl

Business is business and it's murder most foul

Tommy can you hear me, I'm the Acid Queen

I'm ridin' in a long black Lincoln limousine

Ridin' in the back seat, next to my wife

Heading straight on into the afterlife

I'm leaning to the left, got my head in her lap

Oh Lord, I've been led into some kind of a trap

We ask no quarter, no quarter do we give

We're right down the street from the street where you live

They mutilated his body and took out his brain

What more could they do, they piled on the pain

But his soul was not there where it was supposed to be at

For the last fifty years they've been searching for that

Freedom, oh freedom, freedom over me

Hate to tell you, Mister, but only dead men are free

Send me some loving - tell me no lie

Throw the gun in the gutter and walk on by

Wake up, Little Suzie, let's go for a drive

Cross the Trinity River, let's keep hope alive

Turn the radio on, don't touch the dials

Parkland Hospital's only six more miles

You got me dizzy Miss Lizzy, you filled me with lead

That magic bullet of yours has gone to my head

I'm just a patsy like Patsy Cline

I never shot anyone from in front or behind

Got blood in my eyes, got blood in my ear

I'm never gonna make it to the New Frontier

Zapruder's film, I've seen that before

Seen it thirty-three times, maybe more

It's vile and deceitful - it's cruel and it's mean

Ugliest thing that you ever have seen

They killed him once, they killed him twice

Killed him like a human sacrifice

The day that they killed him, someone said to me,

"Son, the age of the anti-Christ has just only begun."

Air Force One coming in through the gate

Johnson sworn in at two thirty-eight

Let me know when you decide to throw in the towel

It is what it is and it's murder most foul

What's New Pussycat - what'd I say

I said the soul of a nation been torn away

It's beginning to go down into a slow decay

And that it's thirty-six hours past judgment day

Wolfman Jack, he's speaking in tongues

He's going on and on at the top of his lungs

Play me a song, Mr. Wolfman Jack

Play it for me in my long Cadillac

Play that Only The Good Die Young

Take me to the place where Tom Dooley was hung

Play St. James Infirmary in the court of King James

If you want to remember, better write down the names

Play Etta James too, play I'd Rather Go Blind

Play it for the man with the telepathic mind

Play John Lee Hooker play Scratch My Back

Play it for that strip club owner named Jack

Guitar Slim - Goin' Down Slow

Play it for me and for Marilyn Monroe

And please, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Play it for the First Lady, she ain't feeling that good

Play Don Henley - play Glenn Frey

Take it to the Limit and let it go by

And play it for Carl Wilson, too

Lookin' far, far away down Gower Avenue

Play Tragedy, play Twilight Time

Take Me Back to Tulsa to the scene of the crime

Play another one and Another One Bites the Dust

Play the Old Rugged Cross and in God We Trust

Ride the Pink Horse down that Long, Lonesome Road

Stand there and wait for his head to explode

Play Mystery Train for Mr. Mystery

The man who fell down dead, like a rootless tree

Play it for the Reverend, play it for the Pastor

Play it for the dog that's got no master

Play Oscar Peterson and play Stan Getz

Play Blue Sky, play Dickie Betts

Play Art Pepper, play Thelonious Monk

Charlie Parker and all that junk

All that junk and All That Jazz

Play something for The Birdman of Alcatraz

Play Buster Keaton play Harold Lloyd

Play Bugsy Siegel play Pretty Boy Floyd

Play all the numbers, play all the odds

Play Cry Me A River for the Lord of the Gods

Play number nine, play number six

Play it for Lindsey and Stevie Nicks

Play Nat King Cole, play Nature Boy

Play Down in the Boondocks for Terry Malloy

Play It Happened One Night and One Night of Sin

There's twelve million souls that are listening in

Play the Merchant of Venice, play the merchants of death

Play Stella by Starlight for Lady Macbeth

Don't worry Mr. President, help's on the way

Your brothers are comin', there'll be hell to pay

Brothers?  What brothers?  What's this about hell?

Tell 'em we're waitin' - keep coming - we'll get 'em as well

Love Field is where his plane touched down

But it never did get back up off of the ground

Was a hard act to follow, second to none

They killed him on the Altar of the Rising Sun

Play Misty for me and that Old Devil Moon

Play Anything Goes and Memphis in June

Play Lonely at the Top and Lonely Are the Brave

Play it for Houdini spinning around in his grave

Play Jelly Roll Morton, play Lucille

Play Deep in a Dream and play Drivin' Wheel

Play Moonlight Sonata in F sharp

And Key to the Highway by the king of the harp

Play Marchin' Through Georgia and Dumbarton's Drums

Play Darkness and death will come when it comes

Play Love Me or Leave Me by the great Bud Powell

Play the Blood Stained Banner - play Murder Most Foul

____________________________

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the patsy

 

Bobby Kennedy; Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy

Jack Ruby was the name of the man who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24th, 1963.

Jack Ruby.

Ruby.

It was an easy name to remember, and it sounded -- sporty.

His name when he was born was Jacob Leon Rubenstein.

---------------------------------------------

President Kennedy, murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Lee Harvey Oswald, murdered by Jack Ruby.

Ruby was the owner of a nightclub in Dallas.

[Wikipedia excerpt] ----------------------- In September 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald, shooting him on impulse, and out of grief over Kennedy's assassination.  

These findings were challenged by various critics who suggest that Ruby was involved with major figures in organized crime and that he was acting as part of an overall plot surrounding the assassination of Kennedy. ----------------------- [end / excerpt]

        A Dallas jury found Ruby guilty and sentenced him to death.  His conviction was appealed later on and he was going to have a new trial.  Before that could take place, however, Ruby got sick in prison and died, at the age of 55.

        I was in second grade, then, in Mineral City, Ohio.

        (I remember riding in the car and leaning forward from the back seat to ask my parents where was Jack Ruby and what happened to him, and they answered that he was in jail, and was very sick.)

        I would go for long periods of time in my life, years maybe, and never think about John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or the assassination, and then something would remind me.

        In 1991 a movie came out titled JFK -- it was directed by Oliver Stone.  Back then I paid attention to movies coming out, but I didn't go to see all of them.  I was going to skip JFK because from the title I assumed it was a biography of his life, and I sort of knew enough about his life story, I thought.  At that point I was just interested in other kinds of movies.

Then there were so many articles and TV interviews with people bitching about this movie and warning us all to Not go see it.

        Official word and interpretation of the president's assassination had been given by the Warren Commission, their report having been released September 24, 1964.  Here we were, 27 years later, and the JFK movie was questioning the Warren Commission's conclusions, and all these apoplectic critics were screaming, "You can't question!  Noooooooooooooooo!"

        Which made me suspicious.  Oh, self-proclaimed experts in the "establishment" (if we're still calling it that) are telling me I must not see a movie?  I'd better definitely see it.

        When the movie came to our state, I was working in the state capital during the legislative session -- a group of us went to see JFK together:  a newspaper guy, three other lobbyists, and me.

Four years later another Oliver Stone-directed movie came out, called Nixon.  I didn't see it until about ten years ago.

At 0:55:17 in that movie Nixon says, "If I'd been president, they never would have killed me."

        At 1:12:00 he's discussing "Track 2" -- activities the CIA was doing that were unknown to their bosses.  The aide says, "Why didn't Kennedy get the blame for any of that?"

        Nixon says, "Because he didn't know about it!  They didn't tell him -- didn't want him to get the credit."

As he talks about this shady stuff, and the Camera pans along a wall with a framed painting of Abraham Lincoln on it, a song plays very softly in the soundtrack.

♪ ♫

Never know how much I love you

Never know how much I care

When you put your arms around me

I get a fever that's so hard to bear

You give me fever

When you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight

Fever!  In the mornin', a-fever all through the night

Sun lights up the daytime

Moon lights up the night...

_________________________________

On You Tube type in

Peggy Lee - Fever (Lyrics)

uploader / channel:  Mr. Sandman

and Play.

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Zapruder film

 

Friday, November 22, 1963

1:00 p.m. Central Time

President Kennedy dies from bullet wounds.

Sunday, November 24, 1963

11:20 a.m. Central Time

Lee Harvey Oswald (alleged assassin of the president) dies from bullet wounds.

The two deaths were separated by less than 48 hours.

At the time, as a little child, I didn't put together the idea that Oswald might have been murdered to keep him from telling whatever he knew.

All I thought at the time was,

'a very bad man shot the president, and then another very bad man shot him'

        Like a chain reaction.

----------------------- It was only decades later, when I thought back over some of those events, I saw the idea that -- Yeah, Oswald was taken out very very soon after the president died.  Any defense of himself that Oswald had would never be heard by the American people.  And any information he had would never come to light.  It would die with him.

Oswald's death came less than 48 hours after Kennedy's.

Very quick.

Before he could talk.

Fast and efficient.

Less than 48 hours.

Less than 48 hours.

Sometimes people look at the assassination of the president and the surrounding events and they get very close -- like a close-up with a camera, and they study details and follow paths to where they may lead.  Listening to interviews, watching documentaries, examining possible clues....

But when you pull back the "Camera" and look at the overall big picture -- I see three things.

1.  Oswald, killed by Jack Ruby, less than 48 hours after Pres. Kennedy died.

2.  The U.S. escalated its involvement in the Vietnam War starting in August of 1964, less than a year after Pres. Kennedy's death.

3.  Documents containing information about the JFK assassination were kept away from the American public for decades -- some of them were just released a month or so ago, at the end of 2022 -- that's 59 years of keeping secrets from American citizens.

59 years.

59 years.

59 years.

____________________________

48 hours

48 hours

48 hours

59 years

59 years

59 years

Back, and to the left

Back, and to the left....

_______________________________

On You Tube type in

Gimme Shelter (Remastered 2019)

uploader / channel:  The Rolling Stones

♫ ♫ ♪ 

Ooh, a storm is threatening

My very life today

If I don't get some shelter

Ooh yeah I'm gonna fade away

War, children

It's just a shot away

It's just a shot away

War, children

It's just a shot away

It's just a shot away

Ooh, see the fire is sweepin'

Our streets today...

        Back.  And to the left.

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