November 22, 2023

60 years ago.

52 comments:

rehajm said...

I wasn’t here yet. Kennedy believed in responsible spending so he’d be part of the radical right today. Cancelled for the women prolly…

Dad’s 80th birthday today, too. Still here even after 30 years of a pack of Winstons a day. That mind altering drug fixed it…

rehajm said...

That bbc story made me miss journalism a bit…

Dave Begley said...

Nebraska played Oklahoma in football the next day.

RideSpaceMountain said...

That's what taking on the MIC and the NIC will get you. Trying to force the American Zionist Council (the organization would later turn into AIPAC) to register as a foreign lobbying group probably didn't help either.

The deep state has been around a long time, at least since just before WWII. Challenge them at your peril. Literally.

The Crack Emcee said...

He was the big-headed "new generation" of adulterous mafia-associated asshats, to get the young killed in foreign countries, because he was so detached from reality on all the drugs he was doing.

America's so fucked-up after him, at this point, I can't tell if Lee Harvey Oswald was a bad guy or not,...

Wilbur said...

"Can he beat Nixon?"

Turns out he couldn't, but Daley procured the electoral votes in Illinois through what we now know is Dem SOP ballot fraud.

I guess that makes me guilty of insurrection.

rhhardin said...

The closed work because the mail girls were crying. I went flying. Apparently it was also the first instance of wall to wall news soap opera.

Krumhorn said...

I remember the day with crystal clarity. In the 11th grade in choir class listening to the statement from the Parkland Memorial hospital over at the school’s PA system, I can still picture the old fashioned brown speaker box high up on the wall as we all stared at it. I’ve never been to Dallas. Why else would I know the name of a hospital there? It was the first of a number of assassinations over the next handful of years.

- Krumhorn

Dave Begley said...

“Bud Wilkinson was able to reach Kennedy aide Ted Reardon, who got the coach in touch with Bobby Kennedy. Wilkinson was also close to Bobby, who was serving his brother as Attorney General.

Bobby told Wilkinson they should play the game. He said he believed that’s what JFK would have wanted.”

Bobby!

typingtalker said...

Where were you the day Kennedy was shot?

I was in the school library pretending to study. The varsity high school basketball game scheduled for that night was cancelled.

Humperdink said...

Spouse and I were in Dallas 2 weeks ago for a pickleball tournament. We visited Dealey Plaza, the assassination site. The museum is on the 5th floor of the book depository. One can look out the window where Oswald fired off the rounds from a bolt action rifle that killed Kennedy and wounded Texas Governor Connolly. Count me as skeptical there was only one shooter.

Howard said...

I don't think JFK would be popular with the right for several reasons. He believed strongly in Civil Rights, launched huge government programs covering unemployment, welfare, and the space race.

What's amazing about JFK was his vigorous image hiding his sickly and crippled conditions.

The Crack Emcee said...

Kennedy had those same dead shark eyes as Hakim Jeffries.

The Crack Emcee said...

Howard said...

"I don't think JFK would be popular with the right for several reasons. He believed strongly in Civil Rights,..."

And the right are more racist than the left, so,...

Aggie said...

I was playing with toys, when I looked up and saw that my mother, who was ironing my father's shirts while watching the television, was weeping - and I asked why. 'They shot President Kennedy'.

The swiftness and completeness of how the story was managed, and the totality of the coverup, is amazing to me, to this day. How much easier it was to control the public media formats, and how competently it was managed. Much of the obfuscation has stood the test of time - there are still important elements that are obscured to this day. Media communication has come a long way, and the management tactics have changed - but they're still there, and still effective - aren't they?

LBJ was one evil b*st*rd for his role in setting the whole thing up, IMO.

Money Manger said...

I was four. The networks pre-empted the Saturday morning cartoon lineup for news coverage. I was very upset about that.

wild chicken said...

"at this point, I can't tell if Lee Harvey Oswald was a bad guy or not,..."

Yes considering all the tears I shed then I feel pretty damn ambivalent about him now.

Gusty Winds said...

Blogger Humperdink said...
Count me as skeptical there was only one shooter.

Today is the 60th anniversary of the CIA and the US Deep State taking out a duly elected US President. More than likely because he didn't want to punch the tar baby of escalating a war in Viet Nam, more failed attacks on Cuba, and risking nuclear war with the Soviets.

Either that, or they were just jealous he banged Marilyn Monroe and Angie Dickenson.

But...we have been living in a pretend 'democracy' ever since. It took the election of Donald Trump and the witnessed attacks on another duly elected President for the nation to finally realize it was an inside job.

Oliver Stone was ahead of his time.

Gusty Winds said...

"at this point, I can't tell if Lee Harvey Oswald was a bad guy or not,..."

Wearing 2023 glasses... when Oswald looked at the camera in the Dallas Police Station and told the world, "IM A PATSY", he was the only person telling Americans the truth.

Then they marched him out back of the Dallas Police station and had him executed on live TV in front of the entire nation.

You're only a conspiracy theorist if you believe your own eyes.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Always implying Ike was too old and frail. Possibly indeed a bit out of it. Poor Nixon could be treated as a stand-in for an old man.

And: US military might be in second place. The famous missile gap, complete bullshit. Did JFK believe it, or just find it useful? Subtle in a way ("sophisticated") but perhaps the last example of Red-baiting in a presidential election.

gilbar said...

serious question:
other than the fact that JFK was a rich drug abusing adulterer; WHAT IS IT that makes dems like him?

BG said...

I was in 5th grade. We also listened to the news coming through that brown box on the wall. Girls started crying. I might have shed a few tears; I don’t really remember. We were sent home early. Being a country kid I rode home on the school bus. It was a fellow rider’s birthday that day. Because of that, that’s how I always remember the date of the assassination.

J L Oliver said...

I was in my second grade classroom and the announcement came on the school speaker. My teacher cried. I have wondered if they would announce something like that today? I, like Monkey Manger, was disappointed by the funeral preempting the cartoons, but thought John-John was cute saluting.

Maynard said...

I was in 5th grade. We also listened to the news coming through that brown box on the wall.

I was also in 5th grade when we heard the announcement that the President had been shot. We were in the Boys locker room washing up after gym class. I will always remember Coach McBride making that announcement.

My parents had been Democrats, but could not stand JFK for some reason.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Among the conspiracy theories being spouted the most pervasive and widely believed is in Howard’s comment, still trying to cover up the cold hard fact that Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act led by Senator Al Gore, Sr. Some historical truths are still too painful for the evil Left to admit, even 58 years later.

The Crack Emcee said...

Aggie said...

"LBJ was one evil b*st*rd for his role in setting the whole thing up, IMO."

Do tell.

Tank said...

I was in fourth grade, an announcement was made, which did not mean much to me, and we were dismissed early. That night was the first time I ever saw my father cry. The only other time was at my Mom's funeral.

Over the years, I never paid too much attention to various assassination "conspiracies." Now, after all of the revelations of the past decade, I would not be confident in ruling anything out.

Rusty said...

Humperdink said...
"Spouse and I were in Dallas 2 weeks ago for a pickleball tournament. We visited Dealey Plaza, the assassination site. The museum is on the 5th floor of the book depository. One can look out the window where Oswald fired off the rounds from a bolt action rifle that killed Kennedy and wounded Texas Governor Connolly. Count me as skeptical there was only one shooter."
We drove the rout a couple of times. Once trying to as slow as the Kennedy motorcade. What struck me was how close the route was. If Oswald had waiteed for the underpass the shot was maybe 125 yards. None of the shots he took was over 100 yards. Not a difficult shot for a Marine marksman. Oswald might have been instructed by somebody, but it was all him on that day.

Rusty said...

The Crack Emcee said...
"Howard said...

"I don't think JFK would be popular with the right for several reasons. He believed strongly in Civil Rights,..."

And the right are more racist than the left, so,..."

And yet all the depredations suffered by black people in this country have been perpetrated by democrats. So.....

Mark said...

I've been to Dealey Plaza. Stood in the middle of the road where the limousine was when the shots rang out. The only place the shots could have come from were from the direction of the book depository. The line-of-fire for everywhere else is all off, especially the grassy knoll. As for JFK's head snapping back, that's basic physics for a shot from behind and the round exiting the front.

Roger von Oech said...

I’m probably one of only a very, very small number of people who had been shooting a rifle at exactly the same time JFK was murdered.

In November 1963, I was a sophomore at Culver Military Academy (Indiana). I was on the rifle range practicing at the time of the assassination. When I exited an hour later, I found out that the the president had been shot.

It was a strange coincidence that gave me a weird feeling that lasted for the next few days.

mikee said...

Kennedy's death is as much ancient history to me now as the assassination of McKinley was to my Grandfather in 1960. Time doesn't just march on, it races.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Kennedy and Civil Rights?...
See Civil Rights Act of 1957... Eisenhower(R) also appointed Earl Warren, he was such a racist!

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/eisenhower-and-civil-rights.htm

Howard and Crack sittin in a tree...

Wince said...

The Crack Emcee said...
"Kennedy had those same dead shark eyes as Hakim Jeffries."

"...like a dhaal's eye"?

Quaestor said...

Lloyd W. Robertson writes, "The famous missile gap, complete bullshit. Did JFK believe it, or just find it useful?"

Both are most likely. The true nature of the Discoverer series of satellites was the most closely guarded secret of the Eisenhower administration. Even the Mitorokhin Archive reveals no KGB contemporaneous knowledge of those crafts' true purpose. Even the CIA officers in charge of the U-2 mission were kept ignorant.* Consequently, Richard Nixon was also unaware of the "bullshit".

To everyone except a handful including Eisenhower himself, Project Discoverer was a series of spacecraft designed to explore the environment of space just above the Karman Line altitude, the region where human beings would eventually explore in person. However, they were in fact the first space-borne military reconnaissance platforms that revealed the true nature of the Soviet nuclear threat in 1960, which was, at best, marginal. Nikita Khrushchev boasted frequently of his ICBMs being produced like sausages. However, it now appears that even he was kept mostly in the dark regarding his own nuclear weapons, the generals commanding Russia's strategic rocket forces being most distrustful of the braggart's garrulousness.

* The infamous U-2 mission of Francis Gary Powers was probably superfluous.

James K said...

I was 3 1/2. I have no memory of the assassination itself, but the image of the procession with the horse-drawn flag-draped casket on our black and white TV stayed with me, to the extent that a few years later the next time I saw a funeral on TV (maybe Winston Churchill's or Martin Luther King's) I wondered why there wasn't a similar procession (there was for Churchill, I just didn't see that televised).

DINKY DAU 45 said...

Single bullet theory even back then no sense

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Aaaaaand Bumble Bee for the win. Here is that article hot-linked:

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Michael K said...

I was in medical school. That weekend was the opening of pheasant season so my wife watched the funeral while I shot a few pheasants. I heard Oswald shot on the radio.

Gusty Winds said...

Blogger mikee said...
Kennedy's death is as much ancient history to me now as the assassination of McKinley was to my Grandfather in 1960. Time doesn't just march on, it races.

Except you're still living under the effects of the JFKs assassination.

Gusty Winds said...

On this 60th anniversary of JFK's assassination things are quite apropos.

We have Democrats on TV calling for the "elimination" of Donald J. Trump.

And, we have a Kennedy running for President, who could very well affect the outcome of the race, who publicly states he believes the CIA killed his Uncle and maybe even his father.

The Crack Emcee said...

Rusty said...

"And yet all the depredations suffered by black people in this country have been perpetrated by democrats. So....."

You'd prefer I just stick with whites as racists, right?

Bob Boyd said...

The "interesting comment" rendered as a Haiku:

Some people were born
Businessmen want to hire them
They're better off dead

Joe Smith said...

My wife's neighbor (when she was young) was riding on the trail car...

Josephbleau said...

“On April 10, 1963, just seven months before he shot and killed President John F. Kennedy, the inscrutable assassin Lee Harvey Oswald crouched behind a fence in an upscale Dallas neighborhood and aimed his rifle at the window of an ultra-conservative firebrand named Edwin Walker, a former U.S. Army general.

Oswald fired, but the bullet caromed off the windowsill and missed Walker’s head by an inch. The Dallas Police Department’s investigation came up cold and Oswald, already flagged by the FBI, evaded further scrutiny. The weapon that Oswald fired at Walker—a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle bought under a false name—was the very same that would take President Kennedy’s life on November 22 of that same year.”

The above is from the History Channel web site, I did not know this until a few years ago. This shows that Oswald was a leftist who was in the business of shooting his rifle at conservatives. He was at the site of the Kennedy shooting, he killed a cop nearby with a pistol. I have little doubt that Oswald did it, the Ruby thing is creepy and it may be that Oswald was controlled by another group.

Paddy O said...

CS Lewis died on this exact same day. An infinitely better man with likely much more influence since then.

And definitely more influence as time passes.

Static Ping said...

Neither Kennedy nor Nixon were ideal Presidential choices. They both had characteristics that are useful to Presidents and showed leadership ability, but they had serious flaws, Kennedy being on medication and suffering from major blackmail potential since he was treating his wife like crap, not to mention his father being a Nazi sympathizer, Nixon being excessively paranoid. If they had been put in situations where their positives could shine they would have made pretty good Presidents, but you can say that about a lot of people. Kennedy died before his flaws could be exposed, though his handling of Cuba left quite a bit to be desired. If Nixon had only served 1 term, we would think much more highly of him.

rcocean said...

Great to hear that interview with JFK. He was considered a lightweight in 1960 by many, but listening to him, he's a giant compared to the clowns we have in 2023.

Of course, even back then the media, especially the UK media, was leftwing and biased. Asking JFK about McCarthy for instance. What a stupid question. Hey, you didn't hate Joe McCarthy enough. At the time of the interview, McCarthy was dead, he'd died in 1957. And he'd been censured. No reason at all to discuss him.

The Godfather said...

I was a college student in downtown Boston circulating a Republican "anti-corruption" petition. "Corruption" in that time and place meant "the Kennedys". When word of the shooting in Dallas started to come in, we put away our petitions and signs, and joined groups clustered around portable radios listening for new news. Even the radios didn't provide up-to-date information, but eventually we learned that the President of the United States had been assassinated.

Ralph L said...

How cynical to put his much-betrayed wife front and center. You can bet the interviewer knew about his rampant philandering, too.

Narr said...

In the cafetorium lunchline, fifth grade at Sea Isle Elementary. Announced it on the PA, I think, and the lunch ladies were all crying.

My father had died during the Missile Crisis, but my mother, and everyone else's, cried a lot. I don't recall anyone, even staunch Republicans among our family and friends, thinking it was in any way a good thing.

We watched Ruby shoot Oswald at Oma's house, after church if memory serves.

That clip is amazing. What long hair the Beebster had, for 1960 anyway. No mention of the fact--plausibly of interest to Brits--that the Senator's rich father was none other than the arch-defeatist Joe Kennedy Sr, former ambassador to the court of St. James.

Others have already exposed the Missile Gap absurdity, so I'll just mention that it was JFK and his brain trust who enlarged the Army and let it run with the airmobile concept just in time for LBJ to commit both to SEA. (What if Nixon had won? Whither Vietnam then?)

1960 was the last hurrah for the old line Black Republicans in the South such as Benjamin Hooks.



gadfly said...

We Silent Generation folk are dwindling down to a precious few, but no adults will forget where they were and what they were doing when John Kennedy was shot in Dallas. I was standing in the Fort Myer Post Headquarters in front of the Post Commander's office when the Post Sergeant Major turned up the TV and called out that the President had been shot.

Fort Myer (now Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall) is home to "The President's Own" Third Infantry show troops who march the Tomb of the Unknown at adjacent Arlington National Cemetary. They also perform military burial ceremonies involving Presidential funeral parades, church services, and Capitol casket displays in DC. To this day a stable is maintained on post for training horses used to pull a casket-laden caisson.

My story of how it came to be is for another time, but let it be said that I ended up at Kennedy's grave site performing crowd control and I was only about 25 yards from the burial at Arlington Cemetary attended by all the easily identifiable Kennedy Clan, especially Caroline and John-John. I will never forget the somber effect on the crowd when the bugler broke a note while playing Taps.

John Kennedy died and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis invented Camelot.