Steve Thomas

John, Actually, the Pilot Car would not be seen in any of the Dealey Plaza photographs. The Portal to Texas History Report from Charles Batchelor to Chief J. E. Curry, November 30, 1963] Page: 13 of 70 https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth338584/m1/13/?q=Lumpkin It held four men: Lumpkin, Whitmeyer, Turner and Senkel. Steve Thomas

Douglas, The Hill, July 13, 2020: #BREAKING: President Trump says federal government may "take over cities" to combat rising crime: "Numbers are going to be coming down even if we have to go and take over cities." He has threatened to the same thing in Milwaukee and Chicago. Steve Thomas

Kirk, I told my sister a while back that it's going to come down to a civil war within the ranks of the military. Some will obey orders from Trump because he is the Commander-in-Chief. Others are going to refuse what they consider to be unlawful orders. It will be a mess. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/tom-cotton-militarism-home-and-abroad Re: Tom Cotton of Arkansas "This month, the Republican legislator attracted the ire of many Americans when, in a New York Times op-ed, he called for the military to be deployed on America's streets. The column made a case for using the army to quell the nationwide protests against police brutality after a white officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis... In his op-ed, Cotton, a 43-year-old army veteran who fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq, said US governors should seek federal help and allow the army to deal with "rioters" and "looters"." Will we see tanks in the streets? I don't know. Steve Thomas

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/trump-flood-pentagon-with-inexperienced-loyalists-before-election-report/ “According to a report at Politico, Donald Trump’s administration is using loopholes in the appointment process to install young inexperienced loyalists in key Pentagon posts that has Democrats and defense analysts concerned. The report notes that Congress is being left out of the loop on many of the appointments which have led to fears that experienced candidates for other jobs will pass on working at the Pentagon fearing a “politicized” atmosphere. As Politico’s Lara Seligman writes, the administration is avoiding candidate scrutiny by using loopholes included in the Vacancies Act. According to Lindsay Cohn, an associate professor at the Naval War College, it is concerning that, “the criterion that seems to be getting these particular young, inexperienced people in is personal loyalty to the president.” “This can actually undermine the entire idea of a meritocratic democracy because it creates power with connection with the patron as opposed to power within the structure of the system,” she explained. According to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the president is undermining the Pentagon and damaging its mission. “This administration is shamefully circumventing the Senate confirmation process to install partisan puppets in senior Pentagon posts,” he said. “By exploiting loopholes, they seek to escape congressional and public scrutiny of these underqualified officials. This is a threat to our national security...”” Steve Thomas

Joe, In my personal opinion, this is the person popularly known as Black Dog man. You can follow his progress as leaves the knoll and walks over in the direction of the TSBD. As to his identity, I have no idea. I suspect a photographic technique has been applied to the various pictures to make him and his clothes completely black in all the photos where everyone else's skin tones show up perfectly. Steve Thomas

Yesterday, Trump said that Confederate flags are OK with him; they are just a matter of free expression. This gives a green light to a large display of Confederate flags at his rallies from now on. If the Republican National Convention is going to be a coronation of Donald Trump, can you imagine the sinking feeling among other Republican candidates who are going to have to run for office against a backdrop of Confederate flags waving in the breeze.? If he is going to say it, he should own it. I think a huge number of Confederate flags should ring the White House from now on. All the way around it. Steve Thomas

I think that something that Giuliani said about Trump's audits kind of slid under the radar. https://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-blows-up-trumps-audit-excuse-on-tax-returns "After telling Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that he thought the Supreme Court ruling that the president must turn over his financial records to New York investigators was “terribly decided,” Giuliani said, “They have no reason to believe that there is anything wrong with his tax returns. All these tax returns have by and large—maybe not the last one—but all of them have been audited, all of them have either been passed on or settled.” “There should be some finality in tax returns,” he continued. “In other words, we get audited, we make a deal, we pay the government, you don’t come after me forever for that.”" What's this about Trump settling with the IRS. and making a deal and paying the government? To the best of my knowledge, there's only one reason you make a deal and settle with the IRS, pay the government and move on. Did someone not pay his taxes? Steve Thomas

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/13/trump-says-federal-government.html "Numbers are going to be coming down even if we have to go and take over cities," said impeached U.S. president Donald Trump today (July 13, 2020), in a word salad series of lies about violent crime. "Number are gonna be coming down even if we have to go in and take over cities ... We're not supposed to, we're supposed to wait for them to call, but they don't call." Steve Thomas

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/missouri-school-district-forces-parents-to-sign-covid-19-waiver-for-children/ “A school district in Missouri is requiring parents to sign a waiver in case children become infected with COVID-19 and die. The “waiver of liability” from Hazelwood School District was shared on Tuesday by attorney Natasha Scruggs. “I feel sick reading it,” Scruggs said. The document asks parents to acknowledge that COVID-19 is a public health crisis and to relinquish their rights to hold the district responsible even if a student’s death is “caused by the negligence of carelessness” of school staff.” “The undersigned agrees to release, discharge, hold harmless and indemnify the Hazelwood School District, it’s agents, employees, officers, Board of Education members, insurers and others acting on the District’s behalf (the Releasees) of and from any and all claims, demands, causes of action and/or legal liabilities for injuries to or death of my child occurring during, or resulting from, or participation in the above-mentioned program or activity and related in any way to COVID-19, even if the cause, damages or injuries are alleged to be the fault of or alleged to be caused by the negligence of carelessness of the Releasees.” It was bad enough when they said it was OK to kill off our grandparents in the pursuit of "getting the economy going again, because it was just an "old persons disease". Now they want the right to freely kill off our children too. Steve Thomas

TO KGB AGENTS, OSWALD WAS 'EXTREMELY AGITATED' https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/11/16/to-kgb-agents-oswald-was-extremely-agitated/4089867a-47b4-4245-a2df-9560e805d1c4/ “The next morning, Saturday, Sept. 28, Oswald returned to the Soviet Embassy while the KGB men were suiting up for a soccer game with their rivals in miltary intelligence, the GRU. This time, he was brought to a third consular official and KGB officer, Pavel Yatzkov, who remembered, according to a CIA report, that Oswald "was nervous and his hands trembled." “In recounting all this, he continually expressed concern for his life," Kostikov said. He described Oswald as "extremely agitated and clearly nervous, especially whenever he mentioned the FBI." It was at that point that Oswald pulled out the revolver and put it on a table, saying, "See? This is what I must now carry to protect my life." Yatzkov grabbed the gun, took the cartridges out and put them in a drawer. When the meeting was over, Oswald picked up the gun again, put it in his pants, and Yatzkov gave back the bullets.” To me, this whole alleged incident is laughable. You want to tell me that an armed, “extremely agitated” American was allowed into the Soviet Embassy in the first place? Yatzkov grabbed the gun, but Oswald picked it back up off the table? Yatzkov put the bullets in a desk drawer, but gave them back to Oswald so he could load the gun again? All the while the KGB guys are dressed as soccer players? Oh please, this just strains credulity. Steve Thomas

Our President sought to enlighten his people by re-tweeting this: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=%22Chuck+Woolery%22 Charles Herbert Woolery is an American game show host, talk show host, and musician. He has had long-running tenures hosting several game shows. Woolery was the original host of Wheel of Fortune, the original incarnation of Love Connection,... Don't believe scientists, don't believe the free press, don't believe 31% of the voting public, don't believe doctors. Believe a game show host! This is the end result of 56 years? Steve Thomas

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-executions-specialreport/special-report-how-the-trump-administration-secured-a-secret-supply-of-execution-drugs-idUSKBN24B1E4?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter -QUOTE - (Reuters) - If the Trump administration carries out the first federal execution since 2003 on Monday, as scheduled, it will mark the culmination of a three-year campaign to line up a secret supply chain to make and test lethal-injection drugs, a Reuters investigation has found. Intent on enforcing the death penalty, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice had started building the network of contractors it would need by May 2017, federal procurement records show. Since then, it has pursued a new drug protocol that could survive legal challenges through firms whose identities it has fought to keep hidden. Without the secrecy, the government has argued in court filings, its ability to procure the drugs would be “severely impaired” because the companies are not willing to supply or test execution drugs if they are publicly identified. In some cases, even the companies involved in testing the deadly pentobarbital said they didn’t know its intended purpose. Among them is DynaLabs in downtown St. Louis, a laboratory that years ago decided against doing quality tests on execution drugs because of the controversy surrounding capital punishment. So co-founder Michael Pruett was surprised to learn from a Reuters reporter that his firm had been testing drugs that the Justice Department planned to use in lethal injections of condemned prisoners. All three firms confirmed that they had produced the test results cited by the Justice Department in court filings. One of the firms, ARL Bio Pharma Inc in Oklahoma City, said in a statement to Reuters that it was “not aware of the intended use” of the drugs. The third firm, Eagle Analytical Services Inc in Houston, declined to comment on whether it knew at the time that it was testing lethal-injection drugs for the government. The department first announced in July 2019 that it would resume executions. But its work in lining up a lethal drug supply had started more than two years earlier, a timeline that has not been previously reported. In May 2017, the department — anticipating legal challenges — hired an Arizona litigation consulting firm, Elite Medical Experts LLC, according to contracting records in the government’s procurement database. The refusal by pharmaceutical companies to sell execution drugs to U.S. prison systems has choked legal supply channels for Texas, Missouri and the more than two dozen other states that still enforce the death penalty. Over the last decade, some states have resorted to promising anonymity to their lethal-drug suppliers, with at least 13 passing new laws to keep the companies’ identities secret. Many pharmaceutical firms avoid any involvement in supplying drugs for executions, reasoning that their medicines are intended to promote health rather than kill people. - ENDQUOTE - Steve Thomas

Doug, There's a report out today that Trump wanted to sell Puerto Rico. Maybe he was going to use the proceeds to pay for his tax bill. Steve Thomas

Back when Oswald was in Russia, he wrote a letter to either the Department of State, or to John Connally as Secretary of the Navy (I can't remember which) trying to negotiate his return. In his letter, Oswald said something like he'd be willing to return, provided he wouldn't suffer any legal repercussions. I've always wondered if he was working for the CIA or ONI over in Russia, why would be go to work for the FBI once he got back. Frontline interview with Robert Oswald, November 19, 2013. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/interview-robert-oswald/ Following his return from Russia in the latter part of June, 1962, Lee Oswald gets a call from SA John Fain asking for a meeting. Oswald agrees. Afterwards, Robert asks him how it went. Lee answers, "Well, everything went all right. They even asked me if I had ever been an agent of the Federal government or the CIA." "I said, What did you tell them?" "He says, Well, don't you know? and just laughed." Fain interviewed Oswald on June 26, 1962. See Belmont’s WC interview here: https://books.google.com/books?id=Mr1FAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=Oswald+Fain+June,+1963&source=bl&ots=Ec2hOMYYIF&sig=ACfU3U38QhVERsiEDLujno8fo1DNh5L3Aw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjNvIT6x8fqAhXqmeAKHV2aDO4Q6AEwAnoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Oswald%20Fain%20June%2C%201963&f=false Fain re-interviewed Oswald in August, 1962. Warren Commission Hearings Volume XVII page 738 CE 824 - Copy of an FBI report by Special Agent Fain, dated August 30, 1962. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1134&relPageId=764 This made the investigators suspicious” I don't think he was a spy wanna-be over here. I think the FBI threatened him, and told him if he didn't go to work for them, they'd make his life a living hell. Marina Oswald testified that Lee's behavior change could be traced back to those visits from the FBI in June and August of August, 1962. Steve Thomas

I don't believe that the six or seven small file cabinets that Walthers put in the trunk of his car containing the names of "Cuban sympathizers" held the names of pro-Castro supporters. I think they were files on anti-Castro individuals. I believe that evidence that Oswald was trying to infiltrate anti-Castro organizations goes back to June of 1962, shortly after his return from Russia. Marina Oswald testified that Lee's behavior change could be traced back to those visits from the FBI in June and August of August, 1962. People have said that they think Will Fritz deep-sixed those file cabinets. I don't think so. In his Report, Walthers said that he turned them over to Will Fritz and the Secret Service. I think it was the Secret Service who made them disappear. Steve Thomas

Ron, Trump supporters are already talking about what they might do if he doesn't win — extremism experts are worried by Andrew Feinberg https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-lose-2020-election-supporters-maga-presidency-a9606081.html "But even by the hardball standards of American presidential politics, Trump’s reelection bid stands out in history as the sole example of an incumbent president who is pushing his supporters to view a loss as the end of the republic, rather than the end of his political career." - Anthony Scaramucci - “There’s nothing unifying coming — it’s going to get darker and darker,” he added. “What he’s hoping to do is it will compel people to be fearful and vote for him because he will be the, quote-unquote, ‘protector’ in the cultural war that’s going on in this society.” https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/trumps-full-on-racism-will-go-way-uglier-as-election-nears-ex-white-house-official/ Go back and read his speeches of July 3rd and 4th. If he could blame such an "incident" on a Black Lives Matter "terrorist", it will be all over but the shouting. Steve Thomas

Ron, No one will support an overt act on Trumps part,; but they might support a reaction to a staged incident, like when Hitler invaded Poland. What I am most afraid of is that he will set off a nuclear bomb somewhere in an American city, and seize power until the "crisis" is over. Steve Thomas

Kirk, https://abalegalfactcheck.com/articles/pardons.html “A U.S. president has broad but not unlimited powers to pardon. For example, a president cannot pardon someone for a state crime. And constitutional experts are divided on whether a president can pardon him- or herself.” “One unsettled legal question is whether a president can pardon himself. The Constitution says a president cannot pardon “in cases of impeachment.” Expert legal opinions on this question vary, and the U.S. Supreme Court has not weighed in on this issue.” “The legal record is also clear that a president can pardon for a presumptive crime, like what then-President Gerald Ford did with his predecessor Richard Nixon on Sept. 8, 1974. In the aftermath of Watergate, Ford gave Nixon, who resigned from the presidency a month earlier, an “absolute pardon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan. 20, 1969 through Aug. 9, 1974.” That takes care of his family Steve Thomas

I heard someone yesterday ('m sorry, I don't remember who), say, "Look for a wave of pardons on January 19, 2021. Trump will pardon himself, Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Jared Kushner." Steve Thomas

Douglas. Don Jr.'s name was on one of those checks re-imbursing Michael Cohen. I wonder how he expensed that on his tax return. I, myself, find it hilariously ironic that in the end, Trump and his organization (i.e. family) will go down for the same reason Al Capone did; income tax tax fraud. Steve Thomas

Trump supporters are already talking about what they might do if he doesn't win — extremism experts are worried by Andrew Feinberg https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-lose-2020-election-supporters-maga-presidency-a9606081.html "But even by the hardball standards of American presidential politics, Trump’s reelection bid stands out in history as the sole example of an incumbent president who is pushing his supporters to view a loss as the end of the republic, rather than the end of his political career." "Jonathan Lockwood, an operative for right-wing extremist Republican in Oregon, recently issued an ominous warning to the American people and the world. In an interview with the Independent he explains: “I think we should fear a violent uprising… All it takes is for Trump to say one line or post one tweet,” he said, adding that such an uprising could consist of occupying state capitols or even taking hostages to prevent state legislatures from certifying the election results. “I think you could see takeovers of every [state] capitol, since the president seems to enjoy watching that from DC, and the country can descend into a chaos that we’ve never seen." I think we've seen that recently in Michigan. Steve Thomas

- Donald Trump - “For the 1/100th time, the reason we show so many Cases, compared to other countries that haven’t done nearly as well as we have, ..." Some guy pointed out, 1/00th time? That's .01 times, and who are all these people named Cases? Steve Thomas

Trump tells Hannity that he "very recently" "aced" a cognitive test: "I took it at Walter Reed, a medical center, in front of doctors, and they were very surprised" pic.twitter.com/CavfF4BdKB - Donald Trump - “I’m under tax audit, I have been for a long period of time,” the president told Hannity. “Once I ran for politics that deal was like we didn’t make it. So I’m under a continuing audit, and anyone that did that or showed that before you have it finalized, but they treat, they treat me horribly, the IRS. It is a disgrace what has happened. We had a deal done, I guess it was signed even. Once I ran or once I won, somewhere back a long time ago everything was like let’s start all over again.” If I was a doctor, I'd be surprised too. It’s too bad the guy Trump paid to take his SAT tests for him isn’t around anymore. Steve Thomas

William Barr’s Private Army "“Operation Legend” is specifically going to focus on a federal effort to increase law enforcement effort in the city. Barr has directed agents from the Department of Justices, law enforcement agencies, the FBI, U.S. Marshal, DEA and ATF to be on the ground in Kansas City within the next 10 days and to help state and local officials fight the surge of violent crime. WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced the federal government is stepping in to help stop the surge of violent crime in Kansas City, Missouri with a program named after a 4-year-old boy lost to gun violence. “Operation Legend,” named after 4-year-old LeGend Tallifero, will lead to increased law enforcement presence in the next 10 days. (Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas) said he learned on Twitter Wednesday afternoon that the Department of Justice plans to send federal investigators to Kansas City as support for unsolved homicide and non-fatal shooting investigations. “As I understand the department’s plan, any outside help will not be used for regular policing or patrol activities—and solely to clear unsolved murders and shootings,” Lucas said in a statement." https://fox4kc.com/news/attorney-general-barr-launching-operation-legend-to-help-stop-violent-crime-in-kansas-city/ We all know how that goes. Steve Thomas

Tough-Guy Things I Can Do Because I Don’t Wear a Face Mask Spit anywhere I want. Got that, Mask Boy? Smoke big-ass cigars. Smooch bodacious babes Grit my teeth to show that I’m not exactly happy with how close you’re getting to my PT Cruiser. Speak freely and clearly without any stupid fabric silencing my words. Hang a toothpick from my lip -more- by Alex Watt. The New Yorker Steve Thomas