We have an intermission episode in this series on the JFK assassination, with a personal view of the memories of the host on the assassination and why he was not taken in by conspiracy theories, in contrast to so many of his boomer cohorts along the way.
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Today, Audibly Speaking reviews the magisterial book by famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We revisit the things that make it unique and utterly unanswerable as a riposte to the crazy conspiracy theories that still pollute the writings about the 35th US President.
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This is your host, historian Rick Reiman. Go to my YouTube Channel, “JFK Demystified,” to view the first episode of a series of short videos called “On Background: Seeking the Hidden JFK Assassination.” The series is on the evidence that is hiding in plain sight, namely the factors that block our view from the evidence that makes the assassination a simple thing to understand. We look at the confusion regarding standards of evidence and proof, the con-men- conspiracy theories that lead people astray, the historical context that sends us back to the real world, and the accumulated evidence confirmed again and again by a series of investigation, each one clearing up the few original questions that arose from a legitimate concern that some of the evidence was hidden. It was, but it is hidden no more, a simple fact that speaks volumes about how history really works. Join me on YouTube for this series, “On Background.” See you there.
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Continuing the series of JFK assassination episodes in this, the 60th year since the assassination, we look not at the thinking of the CIA, FBI, Warren Commission, Mob, Cuba, Russia or any of the other institutions that have been falsely imagined as being behind it, but inside the mind of the man who actually did it, and did it alone: Lee Harvey Oswald. It may not be the most popular theory, but facts don’t have to be popular. They only need to be true. This is an essay by myself, Rick Reiman, and narrated by myself, in response to the excellent insights of Burt Griffin, who wrote the new book, JFK, Oswald, Ruby: Politics, Prejudice and Truth. A staff member on the Warren Commission (1963-1964). Griffin challenges historians to take the assassination seriously as history, something that is simple to understand once contextualized in history. Frankly, historians have not recognized their responsibility in this regard. Historians, when are you going to do your jobs, and take this intersection of the Cold War and cvil rights, which is what the assassination was, seriously as history? Until they do, this will continue to be a blot, a stain and a disgrace for the historical profession, as it has been for sixty years.
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Here is my review of the blockbuster movie by Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer.” It is a tour de force for so many reasons, but gaps in Oppenheimer’s biography still remains, as I try to show in this review.
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The Georgia Indictment against Donald J. Trump may be the first indictment against Trump to go to trial. It also may be the only trial of Trump to be televised, and televised live. Unabridged audio narrations of the indictment are numerous online, but to my knowledge, this unabridged recording by your host, Rick Reiman, which still clocks in at nearly 75 minutes, is the only one that limits the attention to the charges against Trump and the narrative of the acts of which he is accused in the indictment. For those with limited time, this may be the ideal narration to which to listen. Of course, all listeners are encouraged to read or listen (or both) to the complete indictment, widely available online through a simple Google search.
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This is an addendum to my latest episode, “Trump in Trouble: The Mueller Memo on Michael Cohen, December 7, 2018.” Events are moving more rapidly in the investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign to hijack to the 2016 US Presidential election. Discussion about impeachment is ramping up. “Hijacking History” looks today at the questions of indictment and impeachment of the president. Will either be on the table when the new Congress begins in January 2019?
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While many spin the Special Council’s latest memorandum in the Russian collusion case in order to hide and occlude its meaning, I try here to highlight its potential multiplier effect on the number of charges of obstruction of justice facing the president.
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In the wake of the American Midterm elections in November 2018, “Hijacking History” looks at how the elections are likely to be viewed in the light of history. In order to understand how, we have to see them in the context of the rules of the Constitutional process in America. What to outsiders may have seemed like a mixed verdict on the Trump administrations, looks very different when framed by the structure of America’s political system. Some knowledge of how America’s electoral system is structured give Democrats reason to hope in 2020, based on the outcome of the Midterm elections of 2018.
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