David > Recent Status Updates

Chapter 3 starts an examination of why these BS jobs, which seem like they should be so good because they often pay well for little or no actual work, really turn out to be so destructively demoralizing. In a sense it's like being controlled by a schoolyard bully, forced to do something we don't wish to do, except the bully is our employer.

Just finished the chapter on the typography of BS jobs, with names like "box checker," "goon," and "flunky." If I could remember the other 2 that would probably cover the 5 types. Oo! "taskmaster" was another, I wonder what the last one was? Maybe "duct taper."

Appendix A is great for summarizing the ballistics involved with the gun and bullets, and for the timeline and placements during and right after the shooting.

End of the text, with this last chapter a look at what was happening with conspiracy theories when it was published (93 I think). The movies JFK was recent and had stirred things up, plus it was based on the book by Garrison that had already been discredited. The movie still got people worked up, especially those unfamiliar with the previous research into the killings, which was a lot of people.

Seems this chapter's goal will be to pick apart the credibility of Jim Garrison, the man whose JFK case became the basis for Oliver Stone's movie JFK. So far he's already made out to be a corrupt grandstander who is on the take from the mob, so I don't imagine his character will be redeemed in the chapter's remainder.

LHO's killing probably opened a door to conspiracy theories that wouldn't have existed otherwise. It just seemed too hard to think happenstance led to that 2nd assassination, and books of alternate stories started coming out before the Warren Commission report was even done. It didn't help when that report had legit shortcomings and logical problems, so people generally didn't believe its conclusions.

Jack Ruby seems to have been the wrong guy at the wrong place at exactly the wrong time. His whereabouts for the few days leading up to LHO's killing are scrupulously covered. If there was a conspiracy to make that killing happen it was the craziest of its kind in history! Sure seems consistent with his erratic behavior and his short temper, & he just happened upon that jail transfer by chance and shot Oswald.

LHO is in custody and questioned ~12 hrs over the weekend, denying everything coolly. Some things that might seem suspiciously like cover-up behavior now is explained, how it was normal or expected in 1963.

Then we start the intro of Jack Ruby, another troubled soul from a young age and a 'tough guy.' We get as far as him being in the brief press huddle with LHO during the weekend, then get some background on him.

In chapter 14, we analyze the effects of the shots and the evidence left by the bullets. Earlier reconstructions did not have things like the enhanced Zapruder film or recreations of the conditions present when the bullets hit their targets. After much inspection and aligning of photos and witness statements, the simplest complete explanation is there were 3 shots: #1 missed, #2 hit both, #3 hit JFK's head.

Post-shooting, JFK is sped to Parkland hospital. The chapter describes the confusion and chaos of the scene, and points out many statements or observations that have been taken out of context to fuel conspiracy theories. It surely seems the people who were intimately involved discredit the others, noting they are either lying or have been misled or, more likely, were just wrong in their conclusions.

The pursuit. LHO flees after the shooting and his plausible steps are retraced, including the killing of an officer that stopped him after he'd stopped to switch clothes and get his handgun. Events dramatized by conspiracy theorists are reasonably explained.

The main event: 11/22/63, Dealey plaza in Dallas, during the lunch hour. Many alternate stories of what might have happened are carefully explained, and explained away. These explanations are convincing, using reasonable logic, careful timings of video & audio evidence, descriptions of photographic evidence, and including damning portions of statements omitted by the conspiracy theorists. Sure looks like LHO did it.

Well, the Oswalds are back in Dallas, but Marina is living at a suburban home while Lee lives in a rented room and works at the book depository. Plenty of energy is used in this chapter to try to show how there was no conspiracy, that there were some coincidences, and that some conspiracy theories would have to imply many people were involved in the plot, perhaps dozens. Lone actor seems the likely scenario.

Now his wife gets sent back to Dallas while he goes to Mexico by bus, hoping to get a Visa to Russia with a stopover in Cuba, evidently with no plan actually to go to Russia but instead to stay in Cuba. It didn't work out that way and he couldn't travel to Cuba, so he ended up leaving by bus and going to Dallas.
Lots of explanations about possible Oswald duplicates here, relating to conspiracy theories.

Oswald sure acts like the 'nut job' one observer from the time pegged him as, trying to puff up appearances of the fair play Cuba organization that was really just him, dropping his plans to make plans for hijacking a plane to Cuba, dropping that for the idea of going to Mexico, fiddling incessantly with his rifle in the dark to practice working the bolt... Hindsight makes these actions more ominous.

1963. LHO goes 'home' to New Orleans, staying temporarily with a relative, finds a menial job eventually, and has his wife and child come after he's settled. He loses the job, then lies prodigiously on applications for new jobs about his work history and his references.
He's consumed by Cuba and Castro and avoids beating his pregnant wife. Marina's friend from Dallas keeps offering to let her stay with them.

This chapter showed that he was the type to do something like happened to JFK: he planned to assassinate a local right-wing retired military officer, Walker, and it seems only a crosspiece of window frame deflected the bullet enough to save his life. The bullet missed only by a fraction. He'd buried the gun in the area earlier and traveled there and back by bus and on foot. Chilling.

I haven't gotten to any of the details of the assassination but already it seems clear that Oswald had a background that would explain just about any terrible actions he might undertake. All the abuse from his mother, the teasing of other kids, the constant moving and lack of stability, his own bullying of other kids - all things associated with unstable individuals.

The last two chapters were good ones, IMO, with one being about the poem "Dark Night of the Soul" from the 15th or 16th century, the basis of a terrific musical piece we sang last year by Ola Gjeilo. To me, these chapters tied together with Stoic thinking, that you can't always tell whether something that just happened is actually good or bad until you've lived with it and seen its consequences.

Finished chapter listing some of the political challenges for a dozen developing countries, including the likes of India, China, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, etc. The problems look tough to solve in politically productive ways, and in some (many?) Cases the attempt is not even made.

In "Point Guard" we learn that was the security moniker she chose, to affirm her role as somebody setting up others to make the big plays. We get some interesting tales, again, about negotiations in specific instances, highlighted by secret negotiations with Cuba, but there were plenty of disappointments.
Given this is a 2019 book some of the emphasis on the thwarted Ebola outbreak seems quite prescient. If only...

In "The Furies" we get some description of Obama's 3 somewhat diminutive female security advisors - Rice, Avril Haines, and Lisa Monaco. There are a couple stories of potential security issues that occurred on international trips, and it ends with stories of Charlie Rose and T***p touching her too much (different years). Trump whispered that he thought she was treated unfairly, mere weeks before his candidacy.

In "Running the table" she moves to national security director where she gets to be in town but still sees her family little because of late nights and emergencies, even (or especially) on holidays.
Enjoyed the story about receiving a rubber stamp from assistant Blinken, KMBA (for Kiss My Black Ass).
Snowden is clearly a sore point, and she argues his pic should be beside the definition of 'traitor.'

In "Benghazi" she recounts being asked to do all 5 Sunday morning news shows to share the then-current intelligence community understanding of the incident. As understanding evolved, Republicans made her a scapegoat and didn't let up. Page 333 relays an upsetting conversation w someone from Fox who described this as a normal tactic because 'anger = ratings'. Unfortunately this equation seems only more true today.