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Robert Harper

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    Rotterdam, Netherlands
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    JFK, the arts, Bach

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  1. article: We are all hostages to 9/11: https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/we-are-all-hostages-of-9-11/
  2. Right on the button I think. I was surprised at myself for not "getting" 9/11 sooner after all the JFK reading I had done. Some got it right away - Peter Dale Scott for example. And Christopher Bollyn is the Vincent Salandria of the case matching the early and prescient observations of Feldman and Castro. My own first exposure was reading a long book by Dr Judy Wood called "Where Did the Towers Go" which brought into view the notion of thermite and explosives used. David Ray Griffin seemed to "get it" right away and his book brought the sense of a recurring process into my vantage point. Philip Marshall's "The Big Bamboozle" - a pilot himself - described how unlikely the flight scenarios were and I believe he and his family were murdered because of his frankness. The lack of a trial also mirrored the JFK case, as did the control of he crime scene and the cover-up. It was so awful to see, that it was difficult to imagine such a thing being planned, but planned it was. Reading that the "investigation" spent less money than the Monica romp or the Mueller probe added to this sense as well. Even with the JFK case, we had books by Lane and Meagher and Sauvage and Buchanan as well as Garrison's probe within a 6 year period. Here we are almost 20 years later and hardly any discussions on a mainstream level. It has affected every aspect of American life - the pre-written "Patriot" Act, the omnipresent X-ray machines not only in airports but in government buildings in every podunk village. A recent hobby has been watching scores - even hundreds - of "first amendment audits" where people bring a camera into a public building and these public servants act like they are being faced with "terrorists" even though they are filmed from every angle, at every place they go. One sees the grasping after authority to get rid of these people as if taking a picture in public was a frightening thing to encounter. The free fall of Building 7 is the SBT of the case--it even was announced on BBC as having fallen "due to fires" while shown still standing in the background. Also on BBC, 2 hours after the initial crash, Ehud Barak was announcing that "Bin Laden" was responsible for such atrocity while I was thinking it might be two guys flying planes into the building for kicks. The combination of inter-related intelligence agencies with the military has produced a vile, evil combination at odds with every notion of what America has meant. That the longest war in American history is one result of 9/11 echoes the horror of Vietnam that followed JFK's killing. Once the public is perceived as being either gullible or stupid or apathetic, it is easier to pull things like this off. "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?"
  3. Such an appropriate and elegant response to some of the toxicity that has weaved its way through some recent threads.
  4. This picture has a haunting quality to me. Just finished reading The Assassination of James Forrestal by David Martin published this year. It's not the best edited work one will find, but it has all the essentials. His "suicide" reminded me of Epstein's--new night time watch, confusing stories about timeline and strange conclusions based on finding the body. He was found with a bathrobe belt around his neck as if he tried to hang himself from a nearby radiator but no robe was ever found; he was allegedly suicidal, but placed on the 16th floor with easy access to open windows. There was no autopsy. There was a ridiculous report of him copying out a portion of a Greek poem about Ajax, right before "jumping" yet the handwriting bears no resemblance to Forrestal's. Pictures of broken glass near his bed were suppressed; his priest was denied access to him; his brother found him lucid and ready to return home. He had been viciously attacked from both the "right" - Walter Winchell, and the "left" - Drew Pearson, for not supporting the creation of an Israeli State within the Arab lands and population. Pearson in particular made up stories of his "numerous" suicide attempts to help cushion the main stream version of his death. A report on the unlikelihood of suicide was suppressed for 50 years. All this happening at that bastion of post-mortem truth - Bethesda Naval Medical Center. He was the first Secretary of Defense when the services were combined and was replaced, by Truman's chief fundraiser Louis Johnson who managed to visit him at the hospital. A former executive at Dillion Reed and friend of Robert Lovett, he appeared to be a man of integrity and conviction who rubbed some of the people in power the wrong way. That he took a liking to JFK and brought him to the Potsdam Conference adds to the poignancy of it all.
  5. Joe, I recently posted this comment on a YouTube video on the Netherlands which, like many countries in Europe, combine a capitalist culture with social activism, leveling the playing field a bit. For example, no CEO is allowed a bonus in excess of 20% of their yearly income; private health care plans are regulated by the government, allowing wide participation; communities and housing are planned so that no one with huge bank accounts and equally huge egos, can dominate an environment. Native New Yorker who has lived in Washington DC and California and now resides in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is what Americans "think" they have in ambiance and government but aren't even close. The schools, police, transit, community centers, medical system are all superior to the States. There is respect shown for every worker in every position. There is much less honking of horns or defacing of buildings; there are a few busy traffic corners in Rotterdam that have no lights--each respects the right of the other and it runs smoothly--even with a tram running through it. The Netherlands was way ahead of the States on the decriminalization of marijuana. It is also a diverse country ; when I first arrived I thought I was in New York. Which, by the way, would be a lot better place if the Dutch had stayed and developed it; once the English took over, Manhattan was cut like a checker board with straight lines. The Dutch part of Manhattan--below Canal Street - shows what could have been reality throughout the island--angled streets, pockets of community, lots of green places, lots of water to soothe and provide places of reflection. It is the most densely populated country in Europe and handles the density with care and variety. From land that was below sea level, the Dutch created a civilization that embraces the natural forces of life and adjusts to it. It is a child-friendly country; imagine the MLB or NFL players walking out hand in hand with a boy or girl who plays the sport. Not the least of the pleasures is the priority of the bike and the bike paths. Cars dominate most cities in America--indeed there is little consideration for those who walk or bike. The Netherlands has its priorities right: the "pursuit of happiness" is as important as "life" and "liberty."
  6. This dribble from the guy who recently dumped on the site and said adios and then returned without any acknowledgement of the contradiction of his "bold announcement." Even recently he wrote that "someone" had told him that his input was desired, so he deigned to return and give his "legal" insight (not that he was looking at the site, mind you, cause he dumped on it, but "someone" told him he was needed.) It must be lonely talking to cats in Arizona and the need to expound his "insights" overcame his revulsion at the depths to which the site had fallen. The final indignity? He thinks all should thank him for his desperate attempt to be relevant.
  7. https://milnenews.com/2019/07/15/what-if-we-told-you-william-barrs-father-didnt-hire-jeffrey-epstein-and-could-prove-it FWIW- I find this timeline more persuasive, but perhaps in time, we will know for sure.
  8. This is apparently not true. I spent sometime researching it. Barr Sr. was in a dispute with the Board of Dalton over their desire to be more "progressive." (During the Wilson presidency someone described a "progressive" as an "idealist" without any principles. I saw him in a 1974 interview with Benjamin Spock,and Edward Bloustein on PBS. He didn't seem the type to hire someone like Epstein and I started popping about. The website "amazing polly" (with 157K subscribers) did a report: New York Times: re Dalton: Barr Quits, stayed until June 1974: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/20/ar. Complaint Dalton / Dunnan: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-con... "Now they are saying that ALL previous reports of Epstein working at Dalton from 1973-1975 are wrong. I look at that in the first half. In the second half I show you that Gardner P Dunnan may someday face legal trouble of his own - this guy has been involved in some questionable projects & activities and yet he keeps getting hired to work in education." Barr's successor seems like the kind of guy that would hire Epstein.
  9. When I heard the news, I started to see the "neck injuries" as a way to remove him from other prisoners in a separate suicide watch cell. There business could be taken care of easier. Wonder if the coroner will play along. . The cellmate on watch was to wear only a paper gown, no blanket provided to assist any"hanging" and the watch would be continuous and unobstructed 24/7. A friend called earlier and suggested maybe a guard walked by, slipped him his belt, and then found $300,000 in his locker enabling him to retire. My own take is more - broken camera, in-and-out, done deal.
  10. I had assumed that most readers familiar with modern poetry would have had this impression; it was the reason I compared it to Pound's Cantos or Peter Dale Scott's Minding the Darkness. Reading some of the posts here - as disconcerting as it was - at least illuminated the thought processes of the NJ Governor and the State's Legislative members. This "discussion" reminded me of a Wall Street Journal essay a year or so ago by the Dean of Drexel who is an English professor. She refers to two plays I've mentioned in previous threads. Pertinent portions of her essay: The great works of literature, history and philosophy that used to be at the center of a college education have been shunted to the sidelines or discarded entirely over the past two decades or more……. Few people seem to be able to reconcile two overlapping truths—that someone can have a valid grievance in one context and be guilty of some version of the same thing in another. I see this as a failure of education….. The assumption these days is that people are monolithic—either completely good or completely bad. The best way to repudiate that assumption is to study the humanities, which illuminate human life in all its complexity. How can you think about crime or misconduct in such an unimaginative way if you’ve read great literature: adultery after “Anna Karenina,” bad parenting after “Death of a Salesman,” political extremism and even murder after “Julius Caesar”? The greatness of these works is that they don’t excuse the conduct in question, but they do help explain it as a function of human frailty and misguided motives, sometimes of the most high-minded sort. They expose the back story that otherwise would be hidden from us so that we can, if not sympathize, at least go some way toward understanding what happened. They humanize what would otherwise look like simple stupidity or evil…. The emphasis on STEM fields in higher education reflects the need for expertise in a high-tech world. But this has tended to make the “soft” fields of the humanities seem weak and easy. Science, engineering and finance may be hard, but literature, history and philosophy are complex—impossible to resolve with a yes-or-no, right-or-wrong answer. This is precisely what constitutes their importance as a tool for living. Metaphysics takes its name from the idea that it goes beyond “hard” science into the realm of moral and intellectual speculation, where no empirical proof is possible. The humanities teach understanding, but they also teach humility: that we may be wrong and our enemies may be right, that the past can be criticized without our necessarily feeling superior to it, that people’s professed motives are not the whole story, and that the division of the world into oppressors and victims is a simplistic fairy tale. We speak about the decline of the humanities without fully recognizing how it has hurt our society. If we want our nation to heal and thrive, we must put the study of literature, history and philosophy back at the center of our curricula and require that students study complex works—not just difficult ones.
  11. What I loved was this tweet: "I am not into conspiracy theories," Scott Hechinger said. "But Epstein had destructive information on an extraordinary number of extraordinarily powerful people. It is not easy to commit suicide in prison. Especially after being placed on suicide watch. Especially after already allegedly trying." When a culture is brainwashed with meaningless terms, one must begin expressing that one is NOT "one of them" who is a "theorist" about conspiracy...BUT
  12. WN- The above mouthful from a guy who dumped on the site and then said "adios." Remember Henry Fonda's line in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West about a guy who wore suspenders and a belt--"How can you trust a guy who doesn't trust his own pants." In this case, it's "his own mouth."
  13. Thought this guy said "adios." Guess he's not a man of his word.
  14. Thank the Lord for common sense. The use of the term "conspiracy theorist" was, like the use of the term "buff" to describe JFK skeptics, invented by the CIA as a form of mind control. Give the people who can't think for themselves something that they can use to discredit others who question their understanding of truth.
  15. Paul- I certainly don't see why you are offended. I never said you were the anti word, although at least 3 posters here used that tired smear and it was to them, that I made reference. I believe WN's intentions were similar. I "threw in" underwear wearing Dershowitz as an example of the Israeli Lobby trying to control the narrative; of the perception of Israelis as anything other than victims and do gooders whose only concern is justice. Any suggestion of nefarious behavior is immediately met with accusations of anti-you-know-what. It's the finger in the dyke approach to ANY criticism--let a little in and who knows what will pour out. If the al jazeera doc had been shown on 60 Minutes, say, it might have awoken Americans to the activity of this organization -that smears at the drop of a dime and keeps lists of college students who are concerned about the abuse of the Palestinians. In a book by Robert Sherrill about LBJ called The Accidental President, a tactic of LBJ was relayed which I never forgot and which is pertinent to some of the responses to this thread. In the midst of an early campaign, Johnson suggested that perhaps they ought to pass the word around that his opponent likes to sleep in the barn with his sows. His manager said "Lyndon, we can call the man a pig f**ker," and Johnson's reply was--"No, but we can make the SOB deny it."
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