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Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 9, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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  1. There’s some interesting new stuff in there, like new information on Oswald’s activities and movements in the months leading up to the assassination. There are no bombshells. Even if Kennedy had been killed by a conspiracy, I highly doubt any of that would end up written down.
  2. It’s pretty good and worth a watch. Even if you just take it as fiction, it’s a fairly well constructed thriller. As someone interested in the JFK assassination I find it a little annoying since I’m constantly trying to parse actual historical stuff (of which to be fair there is a lot) from things Oliver Stone added. Additionally a lot of it is based on Jim Garrison’s theories, and Jim Garrison was in some ways kind of a loon.

I personally think the circumstances around Kennedy’s assassination stink like hell. I would go off at length here, but I would rather eventually put it all together in an effort post.

I wonder why they would bother with not releasing these latest documents if they all amount to a nothingburger.

I also wonder if the last 1% of documents is something that the CIA/DoD did which wouldn't reflect well on the US. Like some sort of reprisal or dirty tricks against the soviets.

Ostensibly it’s to protect “sources and methods.” For example, that would include tradecraft techniques for contacting moles, or bugging and trailing sources. Technology changes, but a lot of those methods might be just as useful today as they were in 1963. Or documents might mention agents embedded in hostile foreign countries like Cuba who are still alive and might be subject to arrest and execution if their names are revealed. Conspiratorially, even if there’s nothing damning in the files, there could be evidence that might be linked to shady business, or small details that contradict the Warren Report, or possibly obvious holes in the investigative methodology that points to an after the fact cover-up.

I'd love to see that effort post. Love the username by the way.