The JFK assassination changed America, for the worse. And, after sampling the unending cacaphony of 50th anniversary books claiming to finally "reveal the truth" or produce "new evidence" about the assassination and its aftermath, I was put face-to-face with just how far America has fallen.
After skimming (the only possible tactic) this outpouring of accusations and rebuttals, I felt that the signal was lost in the noise. The simple-minded and sensational, as usual lately, had drowned out the nuance. And, if there ever was an event that required nuance, it was that assassination.
The suspects list includes the CIA, the Mafia, the Cuban exiles, and even LBJ. But, due to a Commission packed with people who despised JFK, disappearing and falsified evidence, and conveniently dead witnesses, they pinned it all on the patsy, Oswald. The bottom line for me is that they all "did it". They were part of an incestuous web of greed, entitlement, lying, scheming, and outright murder - which seems to me to be business as usual in Washington from that day forward. Hence, my title, the Golden Jubilee.
From that day, we have been awash in gangster culture, gangster values, and gangster government. Here is a brief rundown:
It is well-known that JFK was mobbed up, that he had a mob mistress (Judith Exner). Hardly surprising, since his Dad was a rumrunner during Prohibition.
It is well-known that the CIA conspired with the Mafia to overthrow Castro. It is well-known that the CIA "proprietary" Air America ran drugs to pay for its operations - a CIA signature that continues to this day.
Its well known that the Mafia (and half of Washington) was blackmailing J Edgar Hoover for his closeted gayness, so that J. Edgar denied for years there even was such a thing as the Mafia.
After thirty years of bad guy status - well earned by their Prohibition Era behavior - the mob suddenly became fashionable and cool, beginning in the 60s. We had "The Godfather" trilogy, all the goomba movies, all the Brian DePalma homages to violence and cruelty. That push made gangsterism mainstream again in America, leading to the popularity of stylized undercover-agent gangsterism, like Miami Vice; humanized gangsterism, like The Sopranos, and video game gangsterism, like GTA. Gangster comedies like "Analyze This/That", and "Get Shorty" added to the "everyday" quality of gangsterism in America.
Meanwhile, the CIA moved on to supporting the Contra gangsters and demonstrating via Iran-Contra that it was completely out of control and being shielded by the likes of Oliver North, Cap Weinberger, and George H.W. Bush - himself a player in the various JFK assassination theories. The Iran-Contra operation was linked to a base in Mena, Arkansas - leading to gangster theories about Bill Clinton, Oliver North, and the Bushes. These theories revolved around one Barry Seal, a classmate of Lee Oswald in the Lousiana Air Patrol, and conveniently murdered as he waited to testify in a trial. It was deja vu all over again.
After the end of the Cold War, it was open season for globalized gangsterism. We had the outbreak of the Russian Mafia, and its offshoots in Israel (a heavily mobbed-up country). We have the globalization of crime and of the money-laundering global banks.
We have come full circle, from the Nazi-supporting Prescott Bush and his fellow rightwing nutbag, Allen Dulles - both major Wall St. bankers - to the current "Masters of the Universe" who simply loot everyone and buy the government outright. Smedley Butler is rolling in his grave.
The bottom line for me, 50 years after Dallas, is that America is over. It is run, and has been run for 50 years, by gangsters, puppets of gangsters, and people too afraid of gangsters to do anything about it.
The rest of the civilized world is fed up with us; and we live at the whim of the Chinese government's bond purchases and credit lines. Even Americans don't believe the bullshit of our gangster government anymore. And that is why Chris Hedges says that revolution is coming - because everyone sees that, Democrat or Republican, none of them give a shit about the 99%, none of them will stop the wasteful military/intelligence/prison spending, none of them will prosecute Wall St and get back the money they stole. All of them are out to gut Social Security and Medicare.
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I raise my glass to the Golden Jubilee of Gangsterism in America. They won, big time. They own it all. We are all fucking screwed.