Then went outside to watch P. parade ( Parts 1 & 2 )

[Alan Ford]

What in the heck is this object? A flag??

Well, here's a thought...................

Remember that strange flash in Towner which I noted a few pages back? You know, the one that comes right in the place where Mr. Oswald is?



Now look at the blend of white and blue we see just in front of Mr. Lovelady in Bell:



Sure don't look to me like foliage:



Now look at this:



Is Mr. Oswald waving a Cuban flag at the P. Parade, and taking a photograph of his protest as he does so?

It would explain a lot, starting with his trip to the Paine home the previous evening..................

 

[Alan Ford]

Is Mr. Oswald waving a Cuban flag at the P. Parade, and taking a photograph of his protest as he does so?

The left shoulder/raised left arm of the black man in front of Mr. Oswald partially obscuring the red side of the flag. But only partially!



Has the flag caught Pres. Kennedy's eye?

 

[Alan Ford]

'This is ridiculous! There's no reason to think that's a flag!'

Really? What do you say it might be then?
A handkerchief? Nope, too big for a handkerchief-----this is clearly wider than the breadth of the black man in front of Mr. Oswald.
A lady's scarf? Nope, there is no woman there to wave it (Ms. Reese's empty right hand is busy shielding her eyes).
A jacket? Nope, it forms too perfect a rectangle when not flapping furiously.
So................ what then, if not a flag?

'LHO holding up a Cuban flag? That's quite a reach!'

Really? Which part is a reach?

The LHO bit? Well, we know Mr. Oswald is right there beside/behind it, and the only other possible person who could be holding it (the black man in front) does not look to be pumping his arm left and right.

The flag bit? See my first point above.

The Cuban bit? Ask yourself: If Mr. Lee Harvey Oswald were to wave any flag at a passing U.S. President, which flag do you think he would wave? Bit of a no brainer, dontcha think?

Friends, I invite you to picture Mr. Oswald, standing in the selfsame spot we have just seen him at in Hughes, holding out his left arm and moving the flag from side to side. The wind, as well as the basic physics of flag-waving, mean that the flag goes back and forth between a state of furious flapping and one of being more smoothly visible. Which is exactly what we see here:



Note the stable position of Mr. Oswald as he comes in and out of visibility just behind the flag---------in the EXACT same place we have seen him not two seconds ago in Hughes.

Now! I talked about Mr. Oswald holding the flag in his left hand. But how exactly is he holding it up? If he is clutching it at its top right corner (=right-hand side from his perspective), it will just hang down in a collapsed mess.

No, there must be something solid that has been attached to the right-hand side of the flag, and Mr. Oswald must be gripping that something in his left hand. Something like a piece of wood. Something like a metal bar. Something like a-----------------curtain rod.

 

[Alan Ford]

With this unexpected annoyance in front of him, no wonder Mr. Lovelady shifts to his left!

[Alan Ford]

No, there must be something solid that has been attached to the right-hand side of the flag, and Mr. Oswald must be gripping that something in his left hand. Something like a piece of wood. Something like a metal bar. Something like a-----------------curtain rod.

Let us assume that Mr. Oswald has decided to use Pres. Kennedy's visit as an opportunity to burnish his pro-Castro credentials (via a nearly-selfie----------those who accept the authenticity of the backyard photos might like to think of it as something in the same genre). He then hears shots ring out. He then learns that Pres. Kennedy was hit.

He then enters a very Louie Witt state of mind, with a great big helping of fear on top..........

This would explain not just his departure from the Depository but also his denial in custody of having brought any curtain rods to work: after what has happened to Pres. Kennedy, and given the suspicion he knows his leftist reputation is drawing down upon him, he is not about to confess to having gone out to Irving the evening before to pick up a Cuban flag and two curtain rods from the Paine garage.

He leaves the curtain rods behind somewhere in the building, but hides the flag on his person and takes it with him, disposing of it somewhere along his route to the Texas Theatre. He is no fool, and is all too alive to the very real prospect that his disastrously ill-timed protest on the steps will put him on the hook as an accomplice in a pro-Castro assassination plot. When the cops arrive at the Texas Theatre, his worst nightmare materializes. But-----NB!------he does not believe he is being picked up as the shooter-------------------------he believes he is being picked up on account of his flag-waving stunt, which he assumes the cops are interpreting as evidence of his involvement in the assassination plot.

When Fritz grills him on the curtain rods, Mr. Oswald mistakenly thinks the reason for this grilling is the flag-waving stunt, and so he denies all. He has no idea he's actually being accused of having brought the murder rifle to work that morning, let alone of having himself used it to shoot Pres. Kennedy from the sixth floor!

And, of course, the two curtain rods will be found in the Depository after the assassination, and tested for his prints:



If I had to guess where they were discovered, I would say that Mr. Oswald slipped them under this in the domino room:



 

[Alan Ford]

Let us assume that Mr. Oswald has decided to use Pres. Kennedy's visit as an opportunity to burnish his pro-Castro credentials (via a nearly-selfie----------those who accept the authenticity of the backyard photos might like to think of it as something in the same genre). He then hears shots ring out. He then learns that Pres. Kennedy was hit.

He then enters a very Louis Witt state of mind, with a great big helping of fear on top..........

Two alternative scenarios:

--------------Mr. Oswald is tricked into believing that shots will be fired non-fatally from the sixth floor in a false flag attempt to provoke an invasion of Cuba. He knows all about the external 'flooring crew' upstairs (including the Latin-looking men who will show themselves at the window), and has agreed to play a small semiotic role with his little flag-waving protest. When he discovers Pres. Kennedy was actually hit, however, he goes into panic mode. He makes a beeline for his contact at the Texas Theatre, but not before picking up his pistol from his rooming house.

--------------Mr. Oswald has full foreknowledge of the assassination plot. He knows all about the external 'flooring crew' upstairs, and has agreed to play a small semiotic role with his little flag-waving protest. But his expected ride out of Dealey Plaza never materializes. He goes into panic mode. He makes a beeline for his contact at the Texas Theatre, but not before picking up his pistol from his rooming house.

In both of these scenarios, Mr. Oswald expects to be flown out of Dallas after the events in Dealey Plaza, which he possibly even sees as his way into Cuba. One thing is sure: a man who wishes to continue working at Mr. Roy Truly's Texas School Book Depository does not wave a Cuban flag from its steps during a P. Parade. The waving of the flag is his political coming-out-at-work moment.

 

[Alan Ford]

Friends, the above line of thought promises to consummate the disaster for the Warren Gullibles. The proof that Mr. Oswald was on the front steps at the time of the P. Parade has meant they have already lost the LHO-in-SN portion of their fairytale. But a flag-waving Mr. Oswald on those front steps bids fair to rob them too of their tired 'LHO's post-assassination behavior proves he shot JFK!' routine.

I wonder how they're getting on back in Dunce's Corner, still trying to figure out a non-risible way of explaining this shadow down Mr. Lovelady?



Not a declarative peep out them so far!