Author: opinionstogo

As we’ve been noticing over time, the theories of a JFK-assassination conspiracy won’t go away. Nor should they. Indeed, various polls chronicle a public increasingly convinced that it was more than the exclusive work of some lone, loser gunman out to make horrific history. And, no, a witness-cherry-picking Warren Commission hardly helped.

There’s no need for another detailed conspiracy reiteration. Suffice it to say that conspiracy means more than one person is involved. But a couple of comments are warranted when history and truth are at stake—even if 100% certainty can’t be guaranteed all these years and deaths later. Releasing un-redacted files could be, however, helpful.

* When first confronted by reporters, Lee Harvey Oswald’s response was telling. “I’m a patsy,” he said. In other words, he was involved—but that’s hardly confirmation of lone-gunman status. Assume likely Mafia involvement.

* Oswald’s uncle, Dutz Murret, worked for Carlos Marcello, the godfather of the New Orleans Mafia.

* Joe Kennedy met with Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, who would share a mistress with JFK, to seek his help in influencing the Cook County vote in the 1960 presidential election. After winning, JFK appointed his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general. He went after the mob and infuriated Mafia bosses. End game on.

* Tampa’s Santo Trafficante and other mobsters had lost their considerable casino interests—and blamed President Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

* After shots rang out in front of the Texas Book Depository, motorcycle officer Marion Baker rushed into the TBD, met up with its superintendent, Roy Truly, and ran upstairs. Once on the second floor—approximately 90 seconds after the assassination—they noticed a worker standing by a soda machine drinking a Coke. It was Oswald. Truly called him over. Officer Baker, hardly unfamiliar with reading suspects, apparently saw nothing suspicious about Oswald’s demeanor. Chances are if he had just committed the crime of the century—then ostensibly scurrying diagonally across a spacious 6^th floor, hiding a rifle under some boxes, hustling down four flights (with no elevator available) and then getting a post-assassination Coke—there would have been at least physical signs of being out of breath—let alone a post-assassination adrenalin rush.

* Oswald was arrested at The Texas Theater. According to a concession-stand attendant, Oswald ordered a snack and then moseyed around in the large theater with few mid-day patrons (for “War Is Hell” starring Van Heflin). With all these empty seats, he sat next to somebody and then moved to sit next to somebody else, and then moved again. Was he looking to meet someone? Theaters were favorite venues for spy and double-agent scenarios.

* If Oswald were a “patsy,” it would have come out in the trial of the century. But Mafia-linked Jack Ruby took care of that.

 

* 2026: It’s still out there. If there’s any normalcy remaining in our politics, the mid-terms and a lame-duck, chaotic president could provide something other than Republican retribution.

* Many non-political public servants, normally left in place when new presidents take over, are out. They are no longer non-political.

* “A progressive is basically a liberal who’s run some focus groups.”–Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat.

* “To be woke is to be aware of oppression and commitment to justice.”–Rev. Bernice King, daughter of MLK.

 

* Life is an experience, not an assignment.

* Martin Luther King Jr.: “We shall overcome.” Donald Trump: “We shall overcomb.”

* Sign(age) of the times: “25 Years Ago We Had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now: No Cash, Hope or Jobs. Please God, Don’t Let Kevin Bacon Die.”

* No, the Manhattan Project was not Trump Tower.

* Gunshine State’s Second Amendment Summer Celebration: The governor’s recommended budget includes a tax holiday for—that’s right, guns and ammo.

* Black GOP Rep. Byron Donalds has been endorsed for governor—not by Casey DeSantis’ husband—but by the president. At some point, Donalds will regret lawn jockey status with Trump.

* Statewide abortions were down 28% in 2024. It doesn’t happen without Florida’s ban on abortion beyond six weeks.

* The new president of Florida International University is former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez. There was no official search at the 56,000-student institution—just a request from the governor. The FIU Faculty Senate didn’t agree. Outgoing FIU president Kenneth Jessell called the Nunez appointment “dismaying.” BTW, FIU is reportedly in the running to land Trump’s future presidential library.

* Diploma-divide update: FAU dropped a requirement that presidential candidates hold a college degree. So, Kanye West, Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Mike Tyson could be in the mix.

* “The greatest president in the history of the United States.”–That was Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez’s inexplicable take on Donald Trump. It gives fawning fealty a bad name.

* At $865 million, the new Howard Frankland is the most expensive bridge project in Florida history.

* Signage at an immigration-policy protest: “This Isn’t About Politics, It’s About Human Decency,” “When Injustice Becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty,” “Nobody Elected Elon!”

* “We’d like to keep the (Rays) franchise in Tampa Bay.”–MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

* Gerald Radford was found not guilty by a jury in the shooting death of a gay man at a dog park. So be it. Collateral judgment: Why the hell bring a gun to a dog park? Or to a movie theater? America’s gun culture is on de facto trial.

* Hillsborough County has $1.34 billion of transportation and public works projects in the works.

* Tampa native and Blake High grad Jaylah Hickman—known as Doechil—won a Grammy for best Rap album (“Alligator Bites Never Heal”). She also gave a shout out to her home town: “There is so much culture in Tampa; Tampa has so much talent,” she said on stage.

 

* U.S. Customs agents seized more than 21,000 pounds of fentanyl at the Mexican border last (fiscal) year. They seized 43 pounds at the Canadian border. BTW, fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin.

* “You can’t take our country—and you can’t take our game.”–Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, after Canada defeated the US to win the 4 Nations Face-Off. Trump’s typically classless response: “Justin’s a loser. Always has been.”

* “The armed forces of Europe must be created.”–Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

* The U.S. has a $68 billion trade deficit with Japan.

 

* I watched the beginning of the USA-Canada hockey game in the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal. No surprise, the backdrop to the Star Spangled Banner was a chorus of boos from Canadian fans. Normally, I’d go all nationalistic and protocol-minded and condemn booing during America’s national anthem. We all would. But the crowd wasn’t booing the America we love and respect. It was booing the Trump iteration of America. It’s arrogant, nativistic, selfish, insulting—and, alas, embarrassingly boo-able.

* “With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.”–That was how President Trump disingenuosly phrased it, after signing an order to ban transgender athletes from participating in female sports. Actually, such a “war” is likely not over—as long as there is a Title IX and legal controversy over transgender athletes.

* NFL parity reminder: Yes, the Philadelphia Eagles (“Iggles” if you’re from Philly) are Super Bowl champions. And, yes, they were hammered, 33-16, by the Bucs during the regular season. They were also outgained by the Bucs, 445 yds. to 227 yds. It’s a long season.

* Changes in college football have resulted in most programs hiring general managers to work with NIL collectives and oversee the revenue-sharing pool.

* Another Day at the Orifice: The Trump-Vance-Rubio-Zelenskyy White House meeting turned into an embarrassing, counterproductive, testy exchange. It was more fit for a SNL cold opening than important, impactful international diplomacy.

* Has Pax Americana become Tax Americana?

* DOGE: aka Elon & the Muskateers.

* “(Canada) is not viable as a country” without U.S. trade. Another rhetorical affront from the U.S. president who treats despotic Russia with much more respect than neighborly Canada. BTW, Canada is the world’s largest national buyer of U.S. goods.

* Trump’s nationalistic suggestions for the redrawing of international borders have become a global concern. Foremost among those who are much less concerned: Vladimir Putin.

* Air Farce One update: The White House banned an AP reporter and photographer from the presidential plane–and various events—due to disagreements over references to the Gulf of Mexico.

* Where there is a barrage of controversial, agenda-driven executive orders, there is a bunch of lawsuits. In fact, more than 40 have already been filed to challenge the Trump Administration.

* The whole DEI/meritocracy contrast is blatantly and hypocritically undermined by a born-rich, uninformed, unread, pathologically lying, narcissistic felon.

* Trump, as we well know, has pushed hard to end birthright citizenship. The legality comes down to the 14^th Amendment. For the record, it states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

* “Your past, undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments, concerns me.” That was Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, indicating his worry over the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary. Cassidy is a physician. Dr. Cassidy, of course, ultimately voted for Kennedy.

* The Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Trump in 2024, condemned his blanket pardon of J6 rioters.

* “If they (Iran) did that (assassinate him), they would be obliterated.”–Donald Trump. But then it would be VP Vance’s obliteration call or SOD Pete Hegseth’s. At least Curtis “Bombs Away” LeMay is no longer around.

* Trump has offered to rehouse white South Africans as refugees fleeing persecution. The rush is not yet on.

* Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna filed a bill directing the federal government to add Trump to Mount Rushmore. You can’t make this stuff up. Let’s just call it Mount RushNoMore.

* “The Riviera of the Middle East”: What the U.S. could, as proposed by Trump, ultimately build in Gaza. But, presumably, not the 52^nd state.

* Greenland. Iceland. Newfoundland: Could Trump resist a naming rights offer?

 

 

* “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”–Thomas Jefferson.

* “‘My country, right or wrong,’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober.”–G.K. Chesterton.

* “One major secret of dictatorships, from Stalin to Hitler, lies in their ability to provide moralistic dressing for coercion and so transform it into a satisfying experience.”–Hitler insider Albert Speer.

* “The free world needs a new leader.”–Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat.

* “The canal is and will continue to be Panamanian.”–Jose Raul Mulina, president of Panama.

* “A conservative is someone who makes no changes and consults his grandmother when in doubt.”–Woodrow Wilson.

* “So far, what we’re seeing is a lot of cost, a lot of chaos.”–Ford CEO Jim Farley on President Trump’s policies that impact auto production in the U.S.

* “This state, especially this (Florida) state, would be crippled if immigrants actually left.”–Author and political commentator Barry Golson.

* “There’s going to be something fantastic in this location. I just can’t tell you when.”–Justin Greider, VP of commercial real estate firm JLL, on the future of WestShore Plaza.