Tag: conspiracy theories

Up close and personal with David Ferrie

Rick Bauer, a reader in Florida, writes to tell of his personal experience in 1965-66 with David Ferrie, the New Orleans pilot who has been the target of JFK conspiracy speculation for decades.

Dave Ferrie watermarked
Pilot in training Rick Bauer (left) with his trainer David Ferrie (photo credit: Rick Bauer)

“I am a graduate of Tulane University in 1966. In the fall of 1965 I commenced flight training paid for by the Department of Defense for students enrolled in various ROTC programs. I was a USN scholarship student at Tulane. My instructor was David Ferrie …. I knew Dave from Sept. 1965 until May of 1966. I passed my Private Pilot’s check ride on March 27, 1966.”

Five Questions About Biden’s Dec. 15 JFK Disclosures

December 15 is the next deadline for federal agencies to release files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 58 years ago. What will we see? Last month, I offered some “smoking gun” possibilities in the Miami Herald. The pro-CIA Washington Decoded pooh poohs the idea that the JFK files contain anything of significance.

And that’s the JFK debate in a nutshell. There’s the people, like Harvard professor Cass Sunstein, who say, in effect, A little man killed a big man, get over it. And there’s the people, like Nobel Prize laureate Bob Dylan, who respond, Some big men killed a big man–and they got away with it. Who is right? This week will offer some clues.

QAnon is a psychedelic mushroom growing in the fertile manure of the Warren Commission

As the editor of the JFK Facts blog, I try not to spend a lot of time on stupid conspiracy theories, but given tge widespread ignorance and confusion on the subject, journalistic duty often calls.

Who killed JFK? The Federal Reserve? Nah. A Secret Service man? A hoax. Ted Cruz’s father? Pure B.S. George H.W. Bush?  Heavy breathing is not the same as credible evidence.  On a recent Black Vault podcast, the most common JFK question I heard was, “Was Kennedy assassinated because of his interest in UFO’s?” Um, no, he was not.

QAnon
A chart of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Which brings me to QAnon, the imaginative conspiracy theorist now dominating the Internet, attracting followers of President Trump, and obsessing the Washington Post, which has has published four articles on QAnon in the past week. Like many conspiracy theories, the QAnon fever dream can be traced back to the assassination of JFK.

The QAnon conspiracy theory is a psychedelic mushroom growing in the fertile manure of the Warren Commission. This mind-altering proposition grows in the gloom of anonymous chat groups. It is then stimulated by the bright lights of social media. And finally it is harvested and ingested by Trump cultists eager to prolong the alt-reality buzz that commenced on January 20, 2017.

But it all began on November 22, 1963 …

From July 26 to November 22 to today

The cover of a commemorative album about the Cuban Revolution published in Havana in 1959

Cuba celebrates the 60th anniversary of the beginning of its revolution on July 26, 1953. Later this year America will commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963,

The events are ancient but linked. The connection between Cuba’s revolution and the death of the 35th American president remains a live issue in the political culture of both countries.

The assassination of JFK is one reason why this conflict between the United States and Cuba endures to this day.

Didn’t do It: George H.W. Bush was not involved in JFK’s assassination

George H. W. Bush, CIA director
George H. W. Bush, CIA director and future president

(This piece was posted, in different form in March 2016)

It is true that former president George H.W. Bush was in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. It is true that Bush became director of the CIA in 1976. But, rest assured, G H.W. Bush did not supervise gunmen in Dealey Plaza.

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