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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   24705 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 6, 2024

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  • Lincoln: plot also targeted Andrew Johnson
  • Garfield: “Arthur, a Conkling ally, had been selected as Garfield's running mate to placate the Stalwart faction. As a self-professed Stalwart, Guiteau convinced himself that by removing Garfield, he was striking a blow to unite the two factions of the Republican Party.”
  • McKinley: anarchist with no statements on VP
  • Roosevelt: nutjob with no opinions on VP
  • JFK: sigh
  • Reagan: nutjob with no opinions on VP, or even President

So 1 out of 6. And Garfield’s assassin was dealing with an actively fragmented Republican Party with multiple credible candidates. I don’t know what Tim Scott’s deal is, but he looks to be a completely generic Southern Republican. What’s he supposed to bring to the table?

Garfield's assassin was also a nut.

Right, and it’s possible he would have stalked Garfield even if the VP wasn’t from his preferred party. But he specifically said "I am a Stalwart, and want Arthur for President." So he definitely counts for this question.

Garfield and McKinley being assassinated a century ago doesn't really say very much about the likelihood of it happening today.

My take is it's extremely unlikely, but not extraordinarily unlikely. If you wanted to make a "Doomsday Clock" for assessing assassination odds, it's probably closer to midnight than it was ten years ago.

I'd count JFK, and maybe Nixon too. I think he was likely setup.

I don't think assassinations are likely to happen anymore. I think CIA or something similar carried out JFK assassination and then realized how much of a massive headache it was to cover up and never did it again.

Seems like they usually go the lawfare or controversy route to get people out of the way. Trump has just been a bad target for these methods since he basically excels in those situations.

JFK was more of a unique situation, since Kennedy’s death was sort of just a means-to-an-end rather than anything else according to most serious researchers; Kennedy’s head being blown off was actually just meant (according to their theories) to act as a false flag against Cuba in order to invade the country and depose Castro, with LBJ hopefully biting the bait to support a full-on land invasion, with Kennedy dying just being an added bonus (given his sympathies towards Communist countries and his ‘betrayal’ against the anti-Castroites in not providing Air Support in the Bay of Pigs). Unless Trump’s death could be used as a means to some bigger benefit, I doubt the intelligence community or any other big organization might attempt to get the hit off, especially with the potential backlash of Trump’s successors.

…what? “Most serious researchers?”

That theory raises more questions than answers, anyway. Like how Cuba remains un-invaded.

…what? “Most serious researchers?”

Yes, like John Newman (former executive assistant to the director of the NSA & Professor at James Madison), Gaeton Fonzi (HSCA investigator & NYT contributor), Anthony Summers (Pulitzer finalist & BBC producer) among others. They all have done great work.

That theory raises more questions than answers, anyway. Like how Cuba remains un-invaded.

Not really. LBJ & Hoover upon realizing that Lee Harvey Oswald was impersonated during his visits to the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City, along with Oswald or an impersonator meeting with the Soviet head of covert assassinations there, came to the conclusion that the Lone Gunman scenario (Oswald acting alone) was the only really tenable way forward. Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the SCOTUS, wasn’t willing to head the Warren Commission (which was working on the presupposition that Oswald acted alone) until LBJ pulled out ‘a little incident in Mexico City’ which would have implicated the Soviets and lead to ‘millions of Americans dead in an hour’, which caused Warren to actually cry on the phone with LBJ and reluctantly admit to head the commission. All of this is in the public domain and readily available.

your link doesn't work, which seems a shame.

I fixed it. Thanks.

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