On The Trail Of Delusion

[Jon Banks]

Michael Paine on Oswald’s political views:

Paine, a liberal and longtime member of the American Civil Liberties Union, would later describe Oswald as a “pipsqueak,” but one whose politics he tried to understand.

“He told me he became a Marxist in this country by reading books and without having ever having met a communist,” Paine said in an interview following the assassination.

in their conversations Oswald never revealed hostility toward Kennedy.

“I expressed my appreciation of President Kennedy and he didn’t ever argue with me on that point,” Paine said in an interview.

In a 2013 essay he titled, “My Experience with Lee Harvey Oswald,” Paine recalled that Oswald once declared emphatically that “change only comes through violence.”

“I’d also heard him say that President Kennedy was the best president he had in his lifetime. Looking back on what happened, these two statements seem impossibly contradictory … how could a man want to kill a president whom he thought was the best president he’d had in his lifetime?”

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/michael-paine-debated-politics-with-jfk-assassin-lee-harvey-oswald-dies-a/

George de Mohrenschildt on Oswald’s political views:

Kennedy’s efforts to alleviate and to end segregation were also admired by Lee, who was sincerely and profoundly committed to a complete integration of Blacks and saw it in the future of the United States. “I am willing to fight for racial equality and would die fighting if necessary,” He told me once. Because of his poor, miserable childhood, he probably compared himself to the Blacks and the Indians and commiserated with them. In this he was so different and so noble compared with the Southern trash and rednecks, whose segregationism stems from their fear of the Blacks, of their strength and of the possibility of their prominence in every field of human endeavor. Education for the Blacks was an anathema for them, while Lee was fullheartedly for it. He loved black children and admired their cute and outgoing ways. He also was fond of the black music and folklore with which he as familiar from his childhood days in New Orleans.

Lee despised the reactionary groups, the white supremacists, the so called “hate groups,” and did not hide his feelings.

http://22november1963.org.uk/george-de-mohrenschildt-i-am-a-patsy-chapter08

Lee often mentioned that the two–party system did not work well, that other points of view were not represented. He did not see the difference between a conservative democrat and a fairly liberal republican — and in that I agreed with him.
“Both republicans and democrats really did not oppose each other,” he mentioned one day, “they do not represent different points of view, but they are both solidly against [the] poor and oppressed.”
But regarding JFK, Lee did not have such a gloomy attitude and he hoped that after the Bay of Pigs fiasco Kennedy would accept coexistence with the communist world.

http://22november1963.org.uk/george-de-mohrenschildt-i-am-a-patsy-chapter10

[Richard Smith]

I guess we can debate whether he truly understood and embraced Marxism or whether it was simply something he found that answered his questions as to why the world he grew up in was so miserable and so unjust. Which, in his defense, it largely was. Perhaps a bit of both (and I do think some of the key concepts of Marxism were understood by him in some detail; if you correct his spelling and grammatical errors in his writings, as Noman Mailer did in his book on Oswald, you can see that they're somewhat sophisticated).

But the evidence that he disliked, indeed hated, the American political and economic systems is, for me, conclusive. He found it unjust and irredeemable. Indeed, he told Michael Paine shortly before the assassination that the American system had to be completely overthrown, that incremental changes would not work. It could not reformed; it had to be replaced. And in a Marxist/leftist type direction.

The only response to all of this is, as Weisberg and Garrison argued, that it was an act or a cover; that because his favorite TV show as a teenager was about a man pretending to be a Marxist (Herbert Philbrick) that he too was acting out this fake life. Either for his own bizarre reasons or because he was directed to do so by others. I find it quite unlikely that someone would direct him at the age of 16 to create this cover or "legend." For what purpose? But then again I'm not a JFK conspiracist.

Oswald was an angry malcontent dissatisfied with his place in life.  He blamed everyone except himself.  In American society, he could turn to Marxism as a means to be the anti-hero.  Oswald needed a platform to vent his personal anger and Marxism provided that.  In addition, being a Marxist gave him notoriety as an outlier that he apparently desired.  He would not have been sought after for interviews if he had adopted a mainstream political cause.  I think his political beliefs were superficial in comparison to his own psychological impulses but that they provided an important mechanism for his violent actions.  It allowed him to view himself not as an angry nut but as some type of political revolutionary hero.

[Fred Litwin]

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/did-the-hsca-have-a-confession-tape

Did The HSCA Have a Confession Tape?

Jim Garrison called into Ted Gandolfo's radio show in 1978 with the news that the HSCA had a confession tape. But when the HSCA released their final report, there was no mention of any confession. But they did have a confession tape, and I have posted the audio of that interview and a transcript.

[Fred Litwin]

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/james-dieugenio-gets-it-all-wrong-on-permindex-cmc

James DiEugenio Gets it all Wrong on Permindex/CMC

In a recent review of Operation Dragon, James DiEugenio included several paragraphs on Permindex/CMC. Unfortunately, he gets it all wrong.

[Ray Mitcham]

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/james-dieugenio-gets-it-all-wrong-on-permindex-cmc

James DiEugenio Gets it all Wrong on Permindex/CMC

In a recent review of Operation Dragon, James DiEugenio included several paragraphs on Permindex/CMC. Unfortunately, he gets it all wrong.

Tell us what he got wrong, Fred.

[Jerry Freeman]

Tell us what he got wrong, Fred.

Yeah I couldn't tell either.
However...I utilized particular links supplied in the post and ran across this one page---
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1203#relPageId=8
Clay Shaw attorneys apparently had come to Dallas and interviewed Marina as a defense witness for their client.
Why? She didn't know Clay Shaw and had no particular knowledge about him to offer.
What I thought was interesting is when she testified at the trial...she called this one -Sergio Arcacha-"one of the conspirators".

[Fred Litwin]

Did you read my post on my blog?

fred