There was a time when Texas was famous for the line Col. William Travis drew in the sand at the Alamo. The mission was surrounded by Mexican soldiers. Travis had been informed by Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna that if he didn’t surrender the Alamo, all of Travis’ soldiers would be killed. Travis drew his sword and dragged it through the sand to make his famous line. His men could choose to surrender and leave the Alamo and their lives would be spared, or they could cross the line, remain with him at the Alamo and defend the honor of Texas to the death. Legend has it that all but one of Travis’ men crossed the line and fought to defend the Alamo to the death.
Whenever I read how obscene Texas is in so many areas, I’m always reminded of the inimitable Molly Ivins, who famously said: “Texas is the national laboratory for bad government.” RIP, Molly
Paxton is beloved by the MAGA base of the Texass GQP for one reason and one reason alone - he is adept at filing frivolous lawsuits against Democratic Presidents and winning victories in arch conservative courts. No one owns the libs like Paxton, and they will forgive all of the criminality as a result.
That all said, Heather Cox Richardson suggested in her column today that Paxton may be just the sacrificial lamb the Republican Party needs to claim that in spite of Thomas, in spite of Trump, in spite of Gorsuch, in spite of Kavanaugh, in spite of Santos, in spite of well, all of them, they can claim to be anti-corruption and serious about cracking down on the evil doers. Who knows, I don't think that dog is gonna hunt, but if it gets rid of the particular cancer on the country that is Ken Paxton, so be it.
I feel truly sorry for the Texans who don't cop to the right wing criminals in their state. They should have elected Beto. Now with voter suppression and the f'd up Supreme Court, they may be putting up with the bullshit for a very long time.
May 27, 2023·edited May 27, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
Alamo? Same type of Texans claimed the legendary Texas LE were the heroes of Uvalde. And their AG was the best TX lawman since Texas Ranger Chuck Norris cuz as the AG he owned the DC libs, TX libs,the gay, and brown/black people.
Whitewashing history: Alamo aka Heroic Anglo or Gringo Narrative. No line in the sand. No to all killed (minus1) inside the Mission (Americans and the west wailed sacrilegious when #daeshbags fought on holy ground of Mosques and Churches). Mexican history has circa half of Travis's force staging a nighttime breakout only to be felled by Santa Anna's Lancers. They have the remainder of the living force eventually surrendering, then executing all including CoonCap Crockett. Whether it was done inside the Mission grounds or outside is not clear. What is clear, no Mission existed as the only building around. No towns people, no Mission cuz it wasn't a Monastery.
Some Mexican historians theorized Travis sought the historical protection of sanctuary afforded those inside a Mission's grounds. Did so to dare the all-Catholic Mexican forces to attack holy ground. And further claim Santa Anna did not attack until the final day of the siege. Keep in mind Santa Anna coulda left a force encircling the Mission, then went about his business. Perhaps his force was NOT as large as Texans long claimed. US historians? Lots of scholarship that comes closer to the Mexican storytell than to the first of many TX myths.
I have been amazed for years now that this openly criminal powerful man in Texas has simply lived on as if nothing bothers him. I lived in Houston for six years in the late 60s into the 70s and Texas was very very different then. I don't understand anything anymore. But I understand the Republicans now see him as a threat because he will run for governor if not stopped, so it's now. Up to now he was just another Republican thumbing his nose at government and doing as he pleases with no repercussions. This isn't even over the fact he's committed crimes. It's because they don't want him as governor and he's a threat to something. Who knows what, something worse perhaps?
While legislatures and courts continue to refuse to take any action to protect us from gun violence, its time to turn to lawsuits. Right now gun manufacturers are the only industry that is immune from negligence suits, the same type of actions that gradually have brought down Big Tobacco and Big Pharma in the opioid crisis. We need to either continue to litigate around the edges of the immunity act, or repeal the immunity itself. Either way has to be a better solution than trying to persuade these idiots that their bizarre interpretation of the 2dA and belief in god-given rights can't continue to sacrifice American lives.
Went there, followed the link, read it! Good stuff! I've always been astonished at how Paxton has been able to fend off being tried for his indictments for so long. He's like a mini-Drumpf in terms of being able to dodge and weave his way out of a courtroom. Interesting to see some of even his own party finally cracking open that blind eye to all his misdoings and corruption.
We are glad to be out from under the direct thumb of Texas' one-party despotism, but I gotta admit, it's rough being on fixed retirement incomes based on living and working in that low-wage state for so long and then moving to a much more expensive blue state. I figured out the other day we're paying at least $10,000 to $15,000 more a year, cost of living, for the privilege to have NOT stayed in Texas. That's a bite. I hope we can sustain this new lifestyle. It would be very saddening to be compelled to move back just for the sake of economic necessity.
In spite of the obvious and tragic failure at Uvalde, the myth of the "good guy with a gun" saving the day continues. Hollywood certainly played a major role in propagating the archetype of the heroic gun totting cowboy who shoots the bad guys into submission. Funny (and I don't mean humorous) thing is I've seen a fair share of classic westerns in my day and in many of them the good guy brings law and order by making the citizenry turn in their guns while "in town" not by arming everybody to the teeth. I guess they've decided to ferget that part?
Meanwhile in Minnesota, at the opposite end of the spectrum with a six vote majority in the House and single vote majority control of the Senate Democrats have passed everything. Absolutely astounding.
BY A ONE VOTE MARGIN, here's what they did:
• Fully legalised marijuana
• Made school lunches free for all students, leading to Governor Tim Walz being adorably mobbed by elementary schoolers
• Created new protections for Uber and Lyft drivers
• Codified Roe v. Wade, ensuring that Republicans can't endanger abortion rights in Minnesota simply by controlling the courts.
• Funded the replacement of all lead pipes in the state (another law).
• Banned noncompete agreements and created statewide paid sick leave.
• Enacted a raft of laws to make the state a trans refuge, and ensure people receiving trans care here can't be reached by far-right governments in places like Florida and Texas.
• Ensured that everyone, including undocumented immigrants, can get drivers' licences.
• Made public college free for the majority of Minnesota families.
• Dropped a billion dollars into a bevy of affordable housing programs, including by creating a new state housing voucher program.
• Massively increased funding for the state's perpetually-underfunded public defenders, which lets more public defenders be hired and existing public defenders get a salary increase.
• Raised Minnesota education spending by 10%, or about 2.3 billion.
• Created an energy standard for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040.
• Minnesota already has some of the strongest election infrastructure (and highest voter participation) in the country, but the legislature just made it stronger, with automatic registration, preregistration for minors, and easier access to absentee ballots.
• Expanded the publicly subsidised health insurance program to undocumented immigrants.
• Expanded background checks and enacted red-flag laws, passing gun safety measures that the GOP has thwarted for years.
• Gave the state AG the power to block the huge healthcare mergers that have slowly gobbled up the state's medical system.
• Restored voting rights to convicted felons as soon as they leave prison.
• Made prison phone calls free.
• Passed new wage protection rules for the construction industry, against industry resistance.
• Created a new sales tax to fund bus and train lines, an enormous victory for the sustainability and quality of public transit. Transit will be more pleasant to ride, more frequent, and have better shelters, along more lines.
• Passed strict new regulations on PFAS ("forever chemicals").
• Passed the largest bonding bill in state history! Funding improvements to parks, colleges, water infrastructure, bridges, etc. etc. etc.
• They're going to build a passenger train from the Twin Cities to Duluth.
• Indexed the state gas tax to inflation, effectively increasing the gas tax. They actually indexed a bunch of stuff to inflation, including the state's education funding formula, which helps ensure that school spending doesn't decline over time.
• Made hourly school workers (e.g., bus drivers and paraprofessionals) eligible for unemployment during summer break, when they're not working or getting paid.
• Passed a bunch of labour protections for teachers, including requiring school districts to negotiate class sizes as part of union contracts.
• Created a state board to govern labour standards at nursing homes.
• Created a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, which would set price caps for high-cost pharmaceuticals.
• Created new worker protections for Amazon warehouse workers and refinery workers.
• Passed a digital fair repair law, which requires electronics manufacturers to make tools and parts available so that consumers can repair their electronics rather than purchase new items.
• Made huge improvements to the state's Public Employee Labor Relations Act, making it far more labour-friendly (e.g., by making staffing ratios a mandatory subject of bargaining).
• Made Juneteenth a state holiday.
• Banned conversion therapy.
• Spent nearly a billion dollars on a variety of environmental programs, from heat pumps to reforestation.
• Expanded protections for pregnant and nursing workers - already in place for larger employers - to almost everyone in the state.
• Banned price gouging in public emergencies.
• Created a new child tax credit that will cut child poverty by about a quarter.
• Dropped a quick $50 million into homelessness prevention programs
• Increased child care assistance
• Banned "captive audience meetings," where employers force employees to watch anti-union presentations
• Forced signal priority changes to Twin Cities transit. Right now the trains have to wait at intersections for cars
• Provided the largest increase to nursing home funding in state history
• Also bumped up salaries for home health workers, to help address the shortage of in-home nurses
• Legalised drug paraphernalia, which allows social service providers to conduct needle exchanges and address substance abuse with reduced fear of incurring legal action
• Banned white supremacists and extremists from police forces, capped probation at 5 years for most crimes, improved clemency
• Banned no-knock warrants
• Also laid the groundwork for a public health insurance option
• Created a huge new statewide paid family and medical leave program, raising the number of workers receiving paid leave from 25% to 100%
It isn't a matter of you "disagreeing with me," it's a matter of posting bogus material that simply tracks the mainstream media's proffers of, yes, bogus material. You really have the "official Warren Commission mythology" down pat, so there's that.
But I have to stop you as soon as you come up with this gem: "Doesn't matter what Gerald Ford says, he wasn't a forensic pathologist." SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU FIGURE IT OUT, you just proved the point I was making, he wasn't a forensic pathologist, but he played one on the Warren Commission, as well as serving as J. Edgar Hoover's factotum!
Starts with "The original first draft of the Warren Commission report...."
Gerald Ford
Leslie King was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 14th July, 1913. His parents divorced when he was an infant and his mother remarried a paint salesman in Michigan. Leslie's name was changed to that of his stepfather, Gerald Rudolph Ford.
An outstanding sportsman he won a football scholarship to the University of Michigan, before studying law at Yale University. Ford graduated in 1941 and after being admitted to the bar began work in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
During the Second World War Ford served in the United States Navy and saw action in Okinawa, Wake Island, Taiwan, the Philippines and the Gilbert Islands. By the time he was discharged in 1946 had reached the rank as lieutenant commander.
A member of the Republican Party, Ford was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946. He was re-elected to the next eleven Congresses. He soon developed a reputation as a right-wing politician. As Harold Jackson pointed out: "He built up an impressive record of flat-earth conservatism. He voted against federal aid for education and housing, repeatedly resisted increases in the minimum wage, tried to block the introduction of medical care for the elderly, and consistently fought any measures to combat pollution. At the same time he supported virtually all increases in defence spending."
On the death of John F. Kennedy in 1963 his deputy, Lyndon B. Johnson, was appointed president. He immediately set up a commission to "ascertain, evaluate and report upon the facts relating to the assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy." Gerald Ford was invited to join the commission under the chairmanship of Earl Warren. Other members of the commission included Richard B. Russell, Thomas Hale Boggs, Allen W. Dulles, John J. McCloy and John S. Cooper.
One possible reason Johnson selected Ford was that he was under the control of J. Edgar Hoover. According to Bobby Baker (Wheeling and Dealing), who was himself under investigation for his corrupt relationship with politicians, businessmen and call-girls, Ford had been secretly taped by the FBI when he had attended meetings with Fred Black at the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel in Washington.
J. Lee Rankin became chief counsel for the Warren Commission. He then appointed Norman Redlich as his special assistant. Redlich began investigating the relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. He was especially interested in why Oswald appeared to be heading towards Ruby's apartment after the assassination.
According to William C. Sullivan (The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover's FBI) Gerald Ford provided J. Edgar Hoover with information about the activities of staff members of the commission. "Hoover was delighted when Gerald Ford was named to the Warren Commission. The director wrote in one of his internal memos that the bureau could expect Ford to 'look after FBI interests,' and he did, keeping us fully advised of what was going on behind closed doors. He was our man, our informant, on the Warren Commission."
Hoover ordered that the FBI should carry out an investigation of Norman Redlich. He discovered that Redlich was on the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, an organization considered by Hoover to have been set-up to "defend the cases of Communist lawbreakers". Redlich had also been critical of the activities of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
This information was leaked to a group of right-wing politicians. On 5th May, 1964, Ralph F. Beermann, a Republican Party congressman, made a speech claiming that Redlich was associated with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Beermann called for Redlich to be removed as a staff member of the Warren Commission. He was supported by Karl E. Mundt who said: "We want a report from the Commission which Americans will accept as factual, which will put to rest all the ugly rumors now in circulation and which the world will believe. Who but the most gullible would believe any report if it were written in part by persons with Communist connections?"
Gerald Ford joined in the attack and at one closed-door session of the Warren Commission he called for Norman Redlich to be dismissed. However, Rankin and Earl Warren both supported him and he retained his job. However, after this, Redlich posed no threat to the theory that Oswald was the lone gunman.
{THIS:}
The original first draft of the Warren Commission Report stated that a bullet had entered Kennedy's "back at a point slightly above the shoulder and to the right of the spine." Ford realized that this provided a serious problem for the single bullet theory. As Michael L. Kurtz has pointed out (The JFK Assassination Debates): "If a bullet fired from the sixth-floor window of the Depository building nearly sixty feet higher than the limousine entered the president's back, with the president sitting in an upright position, it could hardly have exited from his throat at a point just above the Adam's apple, then abruptly change course and drive downward into Governor Connally's back."
In 1997 the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) released a document that revealed that Ford had altered the first draft of the report to read: "A bullet had entered the base of the back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine." Ford had elevated the location of the wound from its true location in the back to the neck to support the single bullet theory.
*****
"Heck, the attending surgeons made errorenous statements at their first presser that they later corrected. But only after they were made aware of the trichotomy."
No, that's just false:
Monday, 24 May 2021
The Ordeal of Malcolm Perry
Written by James DiEugenio
Using recent evidence discovered by Rob Couteau, Jim DiEugenio revisits the experiences of Parkland Hospital Dr. Malcolm Perry regarding the anterior neck wound he observed in President Kennedy and the concerted and persistent efforts to manipulate his testimony and obscure the clear evidence of a frontal entrance wound.
"On the afternoon of the JFK assassination, within an hour or two after his death, there was a press conference at Parkland Hospital. Three important pronouncements were made. In fact, they were so important that they should have shaped the case in a permanent manner.
First, acting press secretary Malcolm Kilduff talked about how Kennedy had died.
PHOTO:
Malcolm Kilduff at Parkland press briefing
When he did so, he pointed to his right temple and said something like: it was a matter of a bullet through the head. Very shortly after, Chet Huntley said the same thing live on NBC television. On the air, he revealed his source to be Dr. George Burkley, President Kennedy’s own personal physician.
Dr. Kemp Clark, chief of neurosurgery—the man who actually pronounced Kennedy dead—said he observed a large gaping hole in the rear of Kennedy’s skull. (Michael Benson, Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination, p. 80) Dr. Malcolm Perry, who cut a tracheostomy across the bullet wound in Kennedy’s neck, said that the wound was one of entrance. (James DiEugenio, The JFK Assassination: The Evidence Today, p. 367)
Therefore, from these three pieces of evidence, one would have had to conclude that Kennedy was hit from the front. That implication would be almost inescapable. Therefore, some strange things happened with this key press conference. First of all, there is no film available of it today, which is remarkable in and of itself, because, as one can see from pictures and film snippets, there were many reporters in that conference room. It is very hard to comprehend how not one of them called for a film camera to cover the initial public pronouncement of President Kennedy’s death. Second, initially, the Secret Service told the Warren Commission that they did not even have a transcript of this conference. According to former Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) analyst Doug Horne, there are two real problems with the Secret Service saying this. First, according to Horne, the Secret Service went around collecting the films of this press conference. Thus making it disappear. (See Horne at Future of Freedom Foundation conference of May 18th. This is at the FFF web site.)
*****Parkland doctors were pressured and threatened, some with anonymous calls stating they would lose their medical licenses. *****
Whenever I read how obscene Texas is in so many areas, I’m always reminded of the inimitable Molly Ivins, who famously said: “Texas is the national laboratory for bad government.” RIP, Molly
Paxton is beloved by the MAGA base of the Texass GQP for one reason and one reason alone - he is adept at filing frivolous lawsuits against Democratic Presidents and winning victories in arch conservative courts. No one owns the libs like Paxton, and they will forgive all of the criminality as a result.
That all said, Heather Cox Richardson suggested in her column today that Paxton may be just the sacrificial lamb the Republican Party needs to claim that in spite of Thomas, in spite of Trump, in spite of Gorsuch, in spite of Kavanaugh, in spite of Santos, in spite of well, all of them, they can claim to be anti-corruption and serious about cracking down on the evil doers. Who knows, I don't think that dog is gonna hunt, but if it gets rid of the particular cancer on the country that is Ken Paxton, so be it.
I feel truly sorry for the Texans who don't cop to the right wing criminals in their state. They should have elected Beto. Now with voter suppression and the f'd up Supreme Court, they may be putting up with the bullshit for a very long time.
Alamo? Same type of Texans claimed the legendary Texas LE were the heroes of Uvalde. And their AG was the best TX lawman since Texas Ranger Chuck Norris cuz as the AG he owned the DC libs, TX libs,the gay, and brown/black people.
Whitewashing history: Alamo aka Heroic Anglo or Gringo Narrative. No line in the sand. No to all killed (minus1) inside the Mission (Americans and the west wailed sacrilegious when #daeshbags fought on holy ground of Mosques and Churches). Mexican history has circa half of Travis's force staging a nighttime breakout only to be felled by Santa Anna's Lancers. They have the remainder of the living force eventually surrendering, then executing all including CoonCap Crockett. Whether it was done inside the Mission grounds or outside is not clear. What is clear, no Mission existed as the only building around. No towns people, no Mission cuz it wasn't a Monastery.
Some Mexican historians theorized Travis sought the historical protection of sanctuary afforded those inside a Mission's grounds. Did so to dare the all-Catholic Mexican forces to attack holy ground. And further claim Santa Anna did not attack until the final day of the siege. Keep in mind Santa Anna coulda left a force encircling the Mission, then went about his business. Perhaps his force was NOT as large as Texans long claimed. US historians? Lots of scholarship that comes closer to the Mexican storytell than to the first of many TX myths.
I have been amazed for years now that this openly criminal powerful man in Texas has simply lived on as if nothing bothers him. I lived in Houston for six years in the late 60s into the 70s and Texas was very very different then. I don't understand anything anymore. But I understand the Republicans now see him as a threat because he will run for governor if not stopped, so it's now. Up to now he was just another Republican thumbing his nose at government and doing as he pleases with no repercussions. This isn't even over the fact he's committed crimes. It's because they don't want him as governor and he's a threat to something. Who knows what, something worse perhaps?
What can we do when the constitution doesn't provide tools to deal with a failed state?
If beef jerky were a person it would reside in Texas (but not Austin).
While legislatures and courts continue to refuse to take any action to protect us from gun violence, its time to turn to lawsuits. Right now gun manufacturers are the only industry that is immune from negligence suits, the same type of actions that gradually have brought down Big Tobacco and Big Pharma in the opioid crisis. We need to either continue to litigate around the edges of the immunity act, or repeal the immunity itself. Either way has to be a better solution than trying to persuade these idiots that their bizarre interpretation of the 2dA and belief in god-given rights can't continue to sacrifice American lives.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/27/gun-lawsuits-manufacturer-sellers-crimes
More momentum in the legal fight to reform the gun laws. ^^^^^
This is good, but Compared to what (Live at Baked Potato)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrkxrgTiVyk&list=RDRcioiWKV5pU&index=2
The Brian Auger's Oblivion express live at "Baked Potato", Hollywood 2004.
The Band is:
Brian Auger - Hammond Organ, Keyboards and Electric piano
Savannah Grace Auger - Vocals
Derek Frank - Bass
Karma D. Auger - Drums
Texas is unique. You find good people but you can’t confuse open hearts with open minds. Guns as holy as a crucifix.
At least in 1970 off Fort Hood or upscale Houston. For what it’s worth.
Went there, followed the link, read it! Good stuff! I've always been astonished at how Paxton has been able to fend off being tried for his indictments for so long. He's like a mini-Drumpf in terms of being able to dodge and weave his way out of a courtroom. Interesting to see some of even his own party finally cracking open that blind eye to all his misdoings and corruption.
We are glad to be out from under the direct thumb of Texas' one-party despotism, but I gotta admit, it's rough being on fixed retirement incomes based on living and working in that low-wage state for so long and then moving to a much more expensive blue state. I figured out the other day we're paying at least $10,000 to $15,000 more a year, cost of living, for the privilege to have NOT stayed in Texas. That's a bite. I hope we can sustain this new lifestyle. It would be very saddening to be compelled to move back just for the sake of economic necessity.
Let it never be said that Texas is a wasteland of talent and political acumen.
Two exceptions I had the pleasure of meeting at meeting of the National Organization for Women:
Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas, known for her one-liners.
Linda Ellerbee, nationally-know journalist, and TV news host.
I'm sure there are others - you just have to keep your mind open.
Dan Rather, currently age 90, fired from national news podium
for his exposure of political ineptitude of George W. Bush, the Younger.
How long will it take for anyone with character to step up and free Texas from Republican acquiescence to the carnage of human lives?
In spite of the obvious and tragic failure at Uvalde, the myth of the "good guy with a gun" saving the day continues. Hollywood certainly played a major role in propagating the archetype of the heroic gun totting cowboy who shoots the bad guys into submission. Funny (and I don't mean humorous) thing is I've seen a fair share of classic westerns in my day and in many of them the good guy brings law and order by making the citizenry turn in their guns while "in town" not by arming everybody to the teeth. I guess they've decided to ferget that part?
Meanwhile in Minnesota, at the opposite end of the spectrum with a six vote majority in the House and single vote majority control of the Senate Democrats have passed everything. Absolutely astounding.
BY A ONE VOTE MARGIN, here's what they did:
• Fully legalised marijuana
• Made school lunches free for all students, leading to Governor Tim Walz being adorably mobbed by elementary schoolers
• Created new protections for Uber and Lyft drivers
• Codified Roe v. Wade, ensuring that Republicans can't endanger abortion rights in Minnesota simply by controlling the courts.
• Funded the replacement of all lead pipes in the state (another law).
• Banned noncompete agreements and created statewide paid sick leave.
• Enacted a raft of laws to make the state a trans refuge, and ensure people receiving trans care here can't be reached by far-right governments in places like Florida and Texas.
• Ensured that everyone, including undocumented immigrants, can get drivers' licences.
• Made public college free for the majority of Minnesota families.
• Dropped a billion dollars into a bevy of affordable housing programs, including by creating a new state housing voucher program.
• Massively increased funding for the state's perpetually-underfunded public defenders, which lets more public defenders be hired and existing public defenders get a salary increase.
• Raised Minnesota education spending by 10%, or about 2.3 billion.
• Created an energy standard for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040.
• Minnesota already has some of the strongest election infrastructure (and highest voter participation) in the country, but the legislature just made it stronger, with automatic registration, preregistration for minors, and easier access to absentee ballots.
• Expanded the publicly subsidised health insurance program to undocumented immigrants.
• Expanded background checks and enacted red-flag laws, passing gun safety measures that the GOP has thwarted for years.
• Gave the state AG the power to block the huge healthcare mergers that have slowly gobbled up the state's medical system.
• Restored voting rights to convicted felons as soon as they leave prison.
• Made prison phone calls free.
• Passed new wage protection rules for the construction industry, against industry resistance.
• Created a new sales tax to fund bus and train lines, an enormous victory for the sustainability and quality of public transit. Transit will be more pleasant to ride, more frequent, and have better shelters, along more lines.
• Passed strict new regulations on PFAS ("forever chemicals").
• Passed the largest bonding bill in state history! Funding improvements to parks, colleges, water infrastructure, bridges, etc. etc. etc.
• They're going to build a passenger train from the Twin Cities to Duluth.
• Indexed the state gas tax to inflation, effectively increasing the gas tax. They actually indexed a bunch of stuff to inflation, including the state's education funding formula, which helps ensure that school spending doesn't decline over time.
• Made hourly school workers (e.g., bus drivers and paraprofessionals) eligible for unemployment during summer break, when they're not working or getting paid.
• Passed a bunch of labour protections for teachers, including requiring school districts to negotiate class sizes as part of union contracts.
• Created a state board to govern labour standards at nursing homes.
• Created a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, which would set price caps for high-cost pharmaceuticals.
• Created new worker protections for Amazon warehouse workers and refinery workers.
• Passed a digital fair repair law, which requires electronics manufacturers to make tools and parts available so that consumers can repair their electronics rather than purchase new items.
• Made huge improvements to the state's Public Employee Labor Relations Act, making it far more labour-friendly (e.g., by making staffing ratios a mandatory subject of bargaining).
• Made Juneteenth a state holiday.
• Banned conversion therapy.
• Spent nearly a billion dollars on a variety of environmental programs, from heat pumps to reforestation.
• Expanded protections for pregnant and nursing workers - already in place for larger employers - to almost everyone in the state.
• Banned price gouging in public emergencies.
• Created a new child tax credit that will cut child poverty by about a quarter.
• Dropped a quick $50 million into homelessness prevention programs
• Increased child care assistance
• Banned "captive audience meetings," where employers force employees to watch anti-union presentations
• Forced signal priority changes to Twin Cities transit. Right now the trains have to wait at intersections for cars
• Provided the largest increase to nursing home funding in state history
• Also bumped up salaries for home health workers, to help address the shortage of in-home nurses
• Legalised drug paraphernalia, which allows social service providers to conduct needle exchanges and address substance abuse with reduced fear of incurring legal action
• Banned white supremacists and extremists from police forces, capped probation at 5 years for most crimes, improved clemency
• Banned no-knock warrants
• Also laid the groundwork for a public health insurance option
• Created a huge new statewide paid family and medical leave program, raising the number of workers receiving paid leave from 25% to 100%
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1660846689450688514.html
TELL A TEXAN TODAY!
(p.s. almost blew my phone up putting this together, so many tabs open)
It isn't a matter of you "disagreeing with me," it's a matter of posting bogus material that simply tracks the mainstream media's proffers of, yes, bogus material. You really have the "official Warren Commission mythology" down pat, so there's that.
But I have to stop you as soon as you come up with this gem: "Doesn't matter what Gerald Ford says, he wasn't a forensic pathologist." SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU FIGURE IT OUT, you just proved the point I was making, he wasn't a forensic pathologist, but he played one on the Warren Commission, as well as serving as J. Edgar Hoover's factotum!
Starts with "The original first draft of the Warren Commission report...."
Gerald Ford
Leslie King was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 14th July, 1913. His parents divorced when he was an infant and his mother remarried a paint salesman in Michigan. Leslie's name was changed to that of his stepfather, Gerald Rudolph Ford.
An outstanding sportsman he won a football scholarship to the University of Michigan, before studying law at Yale University. Ford graduated in 1941 and after being admitted to the bar began work in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
During the Second World War Ford served in the United States Navy and saw action in Okinawa, Wake Island, Taiwan, the Philippines and the Gilbert Islands. By the time he was discharged in 1946 had reached the rank as lieutenant commander.
A member of the Republican Party, Ford was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946. He was re-elected to the next eleven Congresses. He soon developed a reputation as a right-wing politician. As Harold Jackson pointed out: "He built up an impressive record of flat-earth conservatism. He voted against federal aid for education and housing, repeatedly resisted increases in the minimum wage, tried to block the introduction of medical care for the elderly, and consistently fought any measures to combat pollution. At the same time he supported virtually all increases in defence spending."
On the death of John F. Kennedy in 1963 his deputy, Lyndon B. Johnson, was appointed president. He immediately set up a commission to "ascertain, evaluate and report upon the facts relating to the assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy." Gerald Ford was invited to join the commission under the chairmanship of Earl Warren. Other members of the commission included Richard B. Russell, Thomas Hale Boggs, Allen W. Dulles, John J. McCloy and John S. Cooper.
One possible reason Johnson selected Ford was that he was under the control of J. Edgar Hoover. According to Bobby Baker (Wheeling and Dealing), who was himself under investigation for his corrupt relationship with politicians, businessmen and call-girls, Ford had been secretly taped by the FBI when he had attended meetings with Fred Black at the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel in Washington.
J. Lee Rankin became chief counsel for the Warren Commission. He then appointed Norman Redlich as his special assistant. Redlich began investigating the relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. He was especially interested in why Oswald appeared to be heading towards Ruby's apartment after the assassination.
According to William C. Sullivan (The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover's FBI) Gerald Ford provided J. Edgar Hoover with information about the activities of staff members of the commission. "Hoover was delighted when Gerald Ford was named to the Warren Commission. The director wrote in one of his internal memos that the bureau could expect Ford to 'look after FBI interests,' and he did, keeping us fully advised of what was going on behind closed doors. He was our man, our informant, on the Warren Commission."
Hoover ordered that the FBI should carry out an investigation of Norman Redlich. He discovered that Redlich was on the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, an organization considered by Hoover to have been set-up to "defend the cases of Communist lawbreakers". Redlich had also been critical of the activities of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
This information was leaked to a group of right-wing politicians. On 5th May, 1964, Ralph F. Beermann, a Republican Party congressman, made a speech claiming that Redlich was associated with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Beermann called for Redlich to be removed as a staff member of the Warren Commission. He was supported by Karl E. Mundt who said: "We want a report from the Commission which Americans will accept as factual, which will put to rest all the ugly rumors now in circulation and which the world will believe. Who but the most gullible would believe any report if it were written in part by persons with Communist connections?"
Gerald Ford joined in the attack and at one closed-door session of the Warren Commission he called for Norman Redlich to be dismissed. However, Rankin and Earl Warren both supported him and he retained his job. However, after this, Redlich posed no threat to the theory that Oswald was the lone gunman.
{THIS:}
The original first draft of the Warren Commission Report stated that a bullet had entered Kennedy's "back at a point slightly above the shoulder and to the right of the spine." Ford realized that this provided a serious problem for the single bullet theory. As Michael L. Kurtz has pointed out (The JFK Assassination Debates): "If a bullet fired from the sixth-floor window of the Depository building nearly sixty feet higher than the limousine entered the president's back, with the president sitting in an upright position, it could hardly have exited from his throat at a point just above the Adam's apple, then abruptly change course and drive downward into Governor Connally's back."
In 1997 the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) released a document that revealed that Ford had altered the first draft of the report to read: "A bullet had entered the base of the back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine." Ford had elevated the location of the wound from its true location in the back to the neck to support the single bullet theory.
*****
"Heck, the attending surgeons made errorenous statements at their first presser that they later corrected. But only after they were made aware of the trichotomy."
No, that's just false:
Monday, 24 May 2021
The Ordeal of Malcolm Perry
Written by James DiEugenio
Using recent evidence discovered by Rob Couteau, Jim DiEugenio revisits the experiences of Parkland Hospital Dr. Malcolm Perry regarding the anterior neck wound he observed in President Kennedy and the concerted and persistent efforts to manipulate his testimony and obscure the clear evidence of a frontal entrance wound.
"On the afternoon of the JFK assassination, within an hour or two after his death, there was a press conference at Parkland Hospital. Three important pronouncements were made. In fact, they were so important that they should have shaped the case in a permanent manner.
First, acting press secretary Malcolm Kilduff talked about how Kennedy had died.
PHOTO:
Malcolm Kilduff at Parkland press briefing
When he did so, he pointed to his right temple and said something like: it was a matter of a bullet through the head. Very shortly after, Chet Huntley said the same thing live on NBC television. On the air, he revealed his source to be Dr. George Burkley, President Kennedy’s own personal physician.
Dr. Kemp Clark, chief of neurosurgery—the man who actually pronounced Kennedy dead—said he observed a large gaping hole in the rear of Kennedy’s skull. (Michael Benson, Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination, p. 80) Dr. Malcolm Perry, who cut a tracheostomy across the bullet wound in Kennedy’s neck, said that the wound was one of entrance. (James DiEugenio, The JFK Assassination: The Evidence Today, p. 367)
Therefore, from these three pieces of evidence, one would have had to conclude that Kennedy was hit from the front. That implication would be almost inescapable. Therefore, some strange things happened with this key press conference. First of all, there is no film available of it today, which is remarkable in and of itself, because, as one can see from pictures and film snippets, there were many reporters in that conference room. It is very hard to comprehend how not one of them called for a film camera to cover the initial public pronouncement of President Kennedy’s death. Second, initially, the Secret Service told the Warren Commission that they did not even have a transcript of this conference. According to former Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) analyst Doug Horne, there are two real problems with the Secret Service saying this. First, according to Horne, the Secret Service went around collecting the films of this press conference. Thus making it disappear. (See Horne at Future of Freedom Foundation conference of May 18th. This is at the FFF web site.)
*****Parkland doctors were pressured and threatened, some with anonymous calls stating they would lose their medical licenses. *****
www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-ordeal-of-malcolm-perry