The American Mind: Charles Kesler & William Voegeli: 'The Pity Party, A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion'

Source:The New Democrat

The whole time that Charles Kesler and William Vogeili were talking about what they would call liberal compassion and that anyone who disagrees with them must be either immoral, ignorant, or hates poor people or something, gave me the idea that they didn’t know who they were talking about. This is why we should never link the Left or the Right under one ideology. That if you are on the Left, you must be a Liberal no matter how far to the left that you are. And if you are on the Right, you must be a Conservative no matter how far to the Right you are.

I wish the Left was just made up of Liberals, well not really, because then it would get kind of boring over on the Left always talking to people on the Left who always agree with me. And we would stop thinking as a result because we always believe we have all the answers and stop coming up with new ideas, because we always agree with each other. You should think of the Left the way you think of the Democratic Party. As a broad coalition of different political and ideological factions. Liberals such as myself and many others who are Center-Left New Democrats. Progressives who are a little further left, people like Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. And then you move Far-Left and you’ll find Bernie Sanders Social Democrats and Socialists.

The people who Kesler and Vogeili were talking about are the people who would make of up Far-Left flank of the Democratic Party. Social Democrats who believe government always has the answers to the nation’s problems. “Especially the Federal Government and that nothing else is needed to fix the problems of the country. That is government is not completely running something and that there might be a public/private partnership, or taxpayer subsidization of private sector programs to address certain needs of the country, than those programs don’t go far enough and aren’t substantial”. People who think like this I call Social Democrats or welfare statists, but certainly not Liberals.

I notice you don’t see many books critiquing the Center-Left in America, again Liberals and not people who believe in unlimited government at least as it relates to the economy. Why, because Americans tend to either be center-left or center-right or in some cases dead-center. And like the idea of public assistance, especially education and job training for our low-skilled adults who are currently trapped in poverty, to help people in need get themselves on their feet and live in freedom like the rest of the country. They like public education and infrastructure investment. Americans like smart regulations to protect individuals and consumers from predators that would prey on them. They like both economic freedom and personal freedom. And these are all liberal values that most Americans support.

The people who Kesler and Vogeili were talking about are leftist radicals on the Far-Left in America that came about in the 1960s and 70s. Because they didn’t believe Liberals and Progressives went far enough with the New Deal and Great Society. “And that we needed a superstate that is common in Scandinavia to manage people’s affairs for them so they would make fewer poor decisions with their money and lives that society as a whole would have to pay for”, in their view. And these are the people who watch MSNBC talk, read The Nation, AlterNet and unfortunately now The New Republic since it is no longer a great center-left liberal magazine. Who are part of Occupy Wall Street and want Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders to run for president in 2016.

Bibleo Traditions: 'The Men Who Killed Kennedy (1988)'

Source:Bibleo Traditions- Communist activist and JFK assassin Lee H. Oswald. 

Source:The New Democrat

I’m already there as far as believing that Lee Harvey Oswald wasn’t alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy. I don’t know that is the case, but I think there’s enough evidence to suggest that is the case. But as far as who actually shot President Kennedy, we already know that and that person is Lee Oswald. And for anyone who believes the shooter wasn’t Oswald, or there was another shooter, they have an obligation it seems to me if they are going to make those views public to produce evidence that suggest they are right.

We’ve heard conspiracy theories suggesting Lee Oswald was not only the shooter, but someone from the CIA or organized crime shot the President. But have yet to hear who those people might have been. We’ve ever heard theories that Vice President Lyndon Johnson was behind the plot to assassinate President Kennedy. But haven’t seen or heard any evidence to back that up. The reason why I believe the theory suggesting that Oswald wasn’t the only person in this plot goes to Jack Ruby and who he was connected to and the fact that Ruby shot and killed Oswald. And that organized crime also wanted President Kennedy dead.
Source:Bibleo Traditions

James Stark: Conspiracy: Why Did Jack Ruby Kill Lee Harvey Oswald?

Source:The New Democrat

The only tragedy I believe of Jack Ruby killing Lee Harvey Oswald, is that if destroyed a possible great opportunity to figure out how many people were involved to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Was it just Lee Oswald that was part of this murderous plot, or did he have help from Dallas organized crime factions and perhaps the Italian Mafia in America. That is the real crime that Jack Ruby is guilty of, at least as I see it. I don’t see Oswald being killed as a tragedy in any other sense. I don’t enjoy seeing people being killed. But was Oswald was garbage and he assassinated a U.S. President.

I don’t think it is a stretch to say that since Lee Oswald was killed by someone with organize crime factions and if anything a mobster himself who works with Italian and Jewish mobsters, that he was also put up by the Mafia to assassinate the President. And that since he was caught in the crime, that now he’s a threat to bring down the people who put him up to the assassination. Because he has his own life to save and doesn’t want to take the fall for this murderous plot all by himself.

The problem that I have is that I just have a theory, an educated theory, but still a theory. And one person that could’ve shed light on this was killed himself, before he had much of an opportunity to share with the rest of us, was he meaning Oswald alone in this. Or did other people put him up to it and paid him to do the operation and financed the assassination themselves.

David Finn: The Big Cube (1969)

Source:The New Democrat

I’ve seen this movie a couple of times in the last week. And there really isn’t a slow or dull moment in it. Sure some of the writing is kind of cheesy, at least by today’s standards, but is a very exciting, entertaining and at times a very funny movie. Sort of like a funny soap opera where a very successful movie financier played by Dan O’Herlihy who is a widower with a young adult daughter, is about to get remarried and to a very successful gorgeous veteran actress Adriana Roman played by Lana Turner.

The Dan O’Herlihy character’s daughter Lisa, played by Karin Mossberg, doesn’t like her future stepmother, but grows to like her. And without her new boyfriend John Allen played by George Chakris, the two women probably would’ve gotten along very well. But John wants Lisa’s father’s money and sees Lisa as his ticket to get the money. And he has other ideas and uses Lisa throughout the movie to get what he wants, which is Lisa’s trust fund and whatever he believes Lisa is entitled to financially.

What makes this movie even more interesting, is that Dan O’Herlihy, well actually his character dies in the movie. In a boating accident with his new wife when they are caught in a big storm in the water. He drowns trying to save his wife who gets knocked off the boat. She somehow makes it to shore and suffers a serious concussion from the accident that is effecting her memory and other things. Lisa’s boyfriend John sees this as an opportunity to get what he wants. And the fact that he’s a former medical student, gets him what he needs to carry out his plan.

This is where LSD comes in and John convinces Lisa that her new stepmother, will never allow for them to be happy and get married. One of the conditions of Lisa’s trust fund an inheritance is that she can’t marry John or anyone that Adriana disapproves of. So John hatches a plan to drive Adriana legally insane with LSD and with Lisa and John coming into her bedroom late at night and forcing her into nightmares with different special effects. They almost succeed, but Lisa breaks it off when Adriana is almost killed during one of the stunts.

This is a ninety-eight minute movie without any slow periods and pretty exciting almost the entire movie. Richard Egan has a big role in this movie as perhaps a screenwriter, director, informal agent and adviser of Adriana’s and perhaps her only real friend in the movie. And he helps bring her out of what she is suffering. Someone with memory loss and trying to hide the nightmare of the boating accident that killed her husband. As well as helping her come back from what Lisa and her boyfriend put her through in the movie.

Roger Sharp Archive: Talking to Jack Ruby's Lawyers (1963)

Source:The New Democrat

The Jack Ruby case had to been fascinating and one of those cases that I bet just about any hard-working good defense lawyer would want to take. Because it was not clear if Ruby was guilty of actual murder, at least not first degree murder and for at least a couple of reasons. One, Ruby didn’t kill and innocent person. He killed Lee Harvey Oswald, but he killed the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy. It is clear now and perhaps even when Ruby Killed Oswald, that Oswald at the very least had something to do with the JFK assassination. Not saying Ruby is innocent here, just saying it is not first degree murder. And I believe you could’ve easily of gotten it down to second degree murder, twenty-five to life. Or first degree manslaughter is twenty-years, twenty to life. And you could’ve made a pretty good case for temporary insanity on Jack Ruby’s part.

Biography: Mobsters- Anthony Spilotro

Source:Biography-

Source:The New Democrat

Tony Spilotro was one of the worst pieces of garbage and I’m being nice here, that was ever produced by the Italian Mafia. I’m not even sure he cared about his own family, wife and kids and people who are supposed to be close to you. If the man had any conscience, it was as tiny as a flea and you needed a telescope or something, perhaps super vision in order to see it. He wasn’t one of the worst killers in American history. He was one of the most successful as far as the amount of murders that he’s responsible for. Either doing them personally, or ordering people to be murdered.

Spilotro leaving Las Vegas for Chicago, was a Chicago blessing and Las Vegas hell. Because The Ant who was a giant among serial murderers for the amount of people he murdered, but he was never caught for any of them and never did anytime for them. To the point that Las Vegas Mafia saw The Ant as a threat and did everyone involved a favor by whacking him in 1986. Not the most successful and dangerous mobster of all-time. But that might only be because The Ant was killed in 1986.

Roy DeMeo in New York might of actually been worst than Spilotro. But that would be like comparing Ted Bundy with John Gacy when it came to serial murderers. You can’t really lose there, but Spilotro dying actually benefited everyone involved. And serial murderers like Tony Spilotro are why America has a death penalty. Whether you are in favor of the death penalty or not, it is for people who murder. Murder multiple people and have no feelings or remorse about their murders.

CSPAN: Norman Mailer: Why Did Lee Harvey Oswald Kill JFK?

Source:The Film Archives- Dallas PD & Lee H. Oswald.

Source:The New Democrat

I think it is pretty clear why Lee Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy. JFK was a Liberal Democrat, a cold warrior, a strong believer in liberal democracy and freedom for the individual. And by the time his life ended, he was in favor for freedom and equal rights for everyone. Which included non-Caucasian-Americans. Which put the Far-Right at odds with President Kennedy, who perhaps didn’t see him a strong threat before. And the Far-Left in America, which included Communists, that didn’t like President Kennedy’s tough cold war anti-communist stance against Russia and Russian allies.

Lee Oswald represented what Jack Kennedy hated, which was communism and a strong belief in a strong centralized authority. Where this huge centralized superstate would assume responsibility and authority for people’s lives and their well-being. Lee Oswald originally wanted the Russian communist system and thought that was the best way to go. He figured out he didn’t like Russian communism and left Russia around 1960 or so. And then decided that he thought the Cuban Castro form of communism, with a strong socialist system with generous welfare state benefits was the way to go.

Jack Kennedy and Lee Oswald represented what the other was against and at least in JFK’s case, hated. Again JFK Liberal Democrat, who hated communism and huge centralized authorities over the people. And wanted the power with the people to be able to make their own decisions. Lee Oswald, as a Communist was the complete opposite and even spoke up for Fidel Castro and the Cuban Communist State in America and passed out propaganda about the Castro Regime. Oswald saw JFK as a threat that had to go and had the means and opportunity to bring that about.

The only question I believe left with the JFK assassination, was their anyone else involved in the assassination along with Lee Oswald. Because JFK had plenty of enemies on the fringes in America. The Far-Right because of his civil rights stances and they believed he wasn’t tough enough on communism. And the Far-Left Communists in America who saw JFK as a threat to their system and ideology that they wanted to bring to the whole world. And organized crime, the Italian Mafia who saw the Kennedy Administration as a threat to their way of life.
Source:The Film Archives