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A misquotation by JFK but it doesn't matter


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“ 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.' Attributed to Edmund Burke, including by John F Kennedy in a speech in 1961. Burke didn’t say it, and its earliest form was by John Stuart Mill, who said in 1867: 'Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.' ”

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-top-10-misattributed-quotations-a7910361.html

In any case the quotation/misquotation by JFK ironically applies to his own assassination and the cover-up. (It also applies among other things to what’s happening morally in America’s Republican Party today.)

There are certainly “good men” in the JFK research community, of course, but if researchers have learned one thing it’s that you can’t beat city hall. (And I don’t know who first said that.)

Edited by Ron Ecker
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4 hours ago, Ron Ecker said:

“ 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.' Attributed to Edmund Burke, including by John F Kennedy in a speech in 1961. Burke didn’t say it, and its earliest form was by John Stuart Mill, who said in 1867: 'Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.' ”

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-top-10-misattributed-quotations-a7910361.html

In any case the quotation/misquotation by JFK ironically applies to his own assassination and the cover-up. (It also applies among other things to what’s happening morally in America’s Republican Party today.)

There are certainly “good men” in the JFK research community, of course, but if researchers have learned one thing it’s that you can’t beat city hall. (And I don’t know who first said that.)

 

I read a related comment recently by the German film maker Werner Herzog.

Herzog said something to the effect that, "The American public may be waking up to the realization that one third of their people could kill another third, while one third watches."

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I have been thinking along these lines so much lately.  I think in some respects it's what has prompted me to devote more time to JFK research.  I'm no longer certain what the greatest secret might be which our government is hiding in its files, but with the JFK assassination I can focus on a specific point in time where it's easy to see the edges of a cover up.   It may be too late to go back in time and fix that point in history, but if we can see what went wrong and why it might go a long way toward understanding government deception in the modern day.

 

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42 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

 

I read a related comment recently by the German film maker Werner Herzog.

Herzog said something to the effect that, "The American public may be waking up to the realization that one third of their people could kill another third, while one third watches."

The question is, does the American public care? I think the wisest words ever spoken politically in America may be "It's the economy, stupid." James Carville said those immortal words, and they need to be inscribed on a monument somewhere in DC. Carville's still alive, though, so the monument may have to wait.

 

Edited by Ron Ecker
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Actually another misquotation. Werner Herzog didn't say that. Just more evidence, as if more were needed, that you shouldn't believe anything you read on Facebook, Twitter, or other antisocial media. You might as well believe something that comes out of the mouth of Donald Trump.

https://www.politifact.com/facebook-fact-checks/statements/2019/jul/26/viral-image/no-werner-herzog-didnt-say-about-america-and-germa/

 

 

 

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21 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

My favorite line in this regard is from season 5 of The Wire: “Americans are a stupid people, by and large. We pretty much believe whatever we’re told.”

Then Trump must actually be smarter than most. He doesn't believe anything that the intelligence community tells him. (Except, of course, that Oswald did it.)

 

 

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6 hours ago, Ron Ecker said:

Actually another misquotation. Werner Herzog didn't say that. Just more evidence, as if more were needed, that you shouldn't believe anything you read on Facebook, Twitter, or other antisocial media. You might as well believe something that comes out of the mouth of Donald Trump.

https://www.politifact.com/facebook-fact-checks/statements/2019/jul/26/viral-image/no-werner-herzog-didnt-say-about-america-and-germa/

 

 

 

Mea culpa.  I saw that Twertzog quote at the Democratic Underground.

My grandmother used to tell me to "never believe anything you hear, and only half of what you read."

She died long before the internet was created.

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38 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

Mea culpa.  I saw that Twertzog quote at the Democratic Underground.

My grandmother used to tell me to "never believe anything you hear, and only half of what you read."

She died long before the internet was created.

Just yesterday I saw a quotation attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: "If it's on the Internet it must be true."

Edit: Never mind. I saw it in the article that I linked to.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Ron Ecker
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1 hour ago, W. Niederhut said:

Mea culpa.  I saw that Twertzog quote at the Democratic Underground.

My grandmother used to tell me to "never believe anything you hear, and only half of what you read."

She died long before the internet was created.

So did mine.  In addition,

If wishes were horses then paupers would ride.

Spit in one hand, wish in the other, see which one fills up first.

Well.  That's a deep subject for a shallow mind.  Actually Mother.

Then there was Dad.  (though untrue)  I'm so broke, if battleships were a dime a dozen all I could do is walk up and down the dock saying damn that's cheap.

But we digress, just quoting.

Edited by Ron Bulman
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22 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

 

I read a related comment recently by the German film maker Werner Herzog.

Herzog said something to the effect that, "The American public may be waking up to the realization that one third of their people could kill another third, while one third watches."

Jay Gould, railroad financier, after hiring Pinkerton men to quash the 1877 railroad strikes: "It is now possible to hire one-half of Americans to kill the other half."

The odds haven't changed.

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