Something I have heard, over and over again, for decades, is that Jack Ruby was threatened by the Mafia that if he didn't kill Oswald, they would kill his sister. There isn't a speck of evidence for that. There is no trail. There is no hint. There isn't the slightest possibility for it. And yet, people keep repeating it like there is something backing it when there is nothing whatsoever backing it. 

And then, if they would just think. What if someone ordered you to kill someone and said that if you don't do it, they'll kill your sister? I love my sister as much as anybody loves theirs, but I wouldn't go out and kill someone because of such a threat. Would you? So, why do you think Jack Ruby would? 

And let's be perfectly clear about something: The burden of proof is on the person making the claim. I don't have to prove that they're wrong. They have to prove that they're right. And that means providing iron-clad evidence. 

But, they don't have any evidence for it. None whatsoever. And yet, they keep saying it, over and over again. 

Why is this happening? It's likely that this whole alternative story was started by the plotters, the real killers, in order to give the conspiracy crowd a place to go. And some of the people spouting it are phonies. They don't believe it. They know it's bull shit. But, they pretend otherwise, and it's because it doesn't matter to them in the slightest WHY you think Ruby shot Oswald. It only matters to them THAT you think Ruby shot Oswald. They're just trying to keep you far away from the truth, which is that Ruby did NOT shoot Oswald. He wasn't even in the garage at the time. He was upstairs already on the 5th floor. They had him in custody, and they just wove him into the story later. And poor Jack Ruby was so mentally incompetent,  he couldn't fight it. He couldn't stand up to them. His mind was so weak that he thought, "Well, if they told me I did it, I must have done it, even though I have no memory of doing it, and I didn't have the slightest thought to do it."  Ruby had this respect for authority, especially the Dallas Police, that went to the stratosphere. 

Now: to anyone who still wants to claim that Ruby shot Oswald to save his sister, you need to give me the name of the person who made the threat to Ruby, the place they met when the threat was made, and the time that it happened. Because: Ruby's movements between mid-day Friday and Sunday morning are laid out in explicit detail right here:

http://www.kenrahn.com/JFK/Issues_and_evidence/Jack_Ruby/Timeline_of_Ruby.html

So when, that weekend, did Ruby meet with a Mafioso who threatened him and his sister? Or do you figure they just phoned it in? But, even that would have to be substantiated. 

Paul and Monier have gone, but last night, Paul and I recorded one last song, and I think it is one of the prettiest songs ever written. It is a French song from 1945: Les Feuilles Mortes. But, the great Johnny Mercer, whom I consider the greatest lyricist of all time, wrote English lyrics for it in 1950, and then it went on to become one of the most covered songs in music history. The song is: Autumn Leaves. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gVqciYnfl4&feature=youtu.be

There is an excellent new article by Phil Nelson on his blog about the MK ULTRA program, which he said spawned patsies for the three cardinal assassinations of the 1960s: JFK, MLK, and RFK. 

I am going to give you the link to it, and I encourage you to read it. However, I would like to submit a couple of postscripts of my own. 

First, although Phil lumps Oswald in with the other MK-ULTRA'd patsies, you really shouldn't do it. I'm not saying that there was no psychological manipulation done to Oswald. There may have been a lot. However, there is no doubt that Oswald, unlike the other patsies, was in complete control of his faculties. He was lucid. He was clear. And he was competent to defend himself. He did a lot of damage to the plotters in the last two days of his life. And, his mental competency was so great, that they could not dare let him see a lawyer- not even once. They would have had to kill the lawyer if they had done that. In comparison, they had a lawyer for Jack Ruby right away. They set it up in advance. 

And that brings me to my second postscript. Although Oswald should NOT be lumped in with James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan, and others that followed, such as Mark David Chapman, Jack Ruby should be on the list. Ruby was definitely MK-ULTRA'd. He was MK-ULTRA'd as much as any of them. They flew the CIA's "Maestro of Mind Control" Dr. Louis Joylan West from Los Angeles to Dallas to treat Ruby when he was in prison. Ruby was heavily drugged, both before and after the Oswald shooting. And he had no mental competence at all to defend himself. He did NOT shoot Oswald. He only believed that he did and accepted that he did because Dallas Police told him that he did. He had nomemory of doing it. He had no thought to do it. He did not have the slightest impulse to want to shoot Oswald. It wasn't even remotely a part of his nature. He was a devout Jew. 

So, with those caveats in mind, please read this article.

https://lbjthemasterofdeceit.com/2020/08/01/connecting-the-dots-the-three-1960s-patsy-assassins-to-cias-mk-ultra/

This is a great song from the 1960s that most will recognize if you were around then, even you don't remember the name of the band: The Guess Who, who were Canadian. It has a very distinctive rhythm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5XPth72kso&feature=youtu.be

Returning now to Afghanistan, the Taliban issued a very clarifying statement yesterday, August 15. They said that they are not, and never have been, a threat to any foreign country, that they have never plotted or acted against any foreign country. I take that as a categorical denial that they were involved, in any way, in 9/11. And I believe them. I don't think they had anything remotely to do with 9/11. I think they were as shocked about it, when it happened, as the rest of the world.

And they denounced a remark made recently by an Afghan official that the upcoming "intra-Afghan talks" are specifically between the Taliban and the Afghan government. They said: 

The Islamic Emirate does not recognize the Kabul administration as a government but views it as western-imposed structure working for the continuation of American occupation. We only accept and have made preparations for negotiations that were described in the historic Doha agreement and those are intra-Afghan negotiations that include all parties within the Afghan community and culture. 

What that tells to me is that they are not going to negotiate with the Afghan government and with Ghani. They are going to insist that the current government be disbanded. Anyone who thinks that a coalition between the Taliban and the current government is coming is nursing a delusion. The Taliban is going to insist that all top officials in the current government leave. Lower officials who pledge allegiance to the Taliban and what they are striving for will be welcome to stay.  But, that's about it. The old government has to die and a new one started with no ties whatsoever to the occupiers. That's what they are going to say. 

The question is: Will the Taliban be inclusive enough so that the Afghan government will step aside? Will the Afghan government be willing to shutter itself in order to have peace?  Trump may have a role in this because if he cuts off all funding to the Afghan government, they will have close-up. 

But, it's going to end with a new government that has most, if not all that the Taliban wants. And it really will constitute a defeat for the United States. When it's all over, and peace is established, it will be as much a defeat for the United States as it was for the Soviet Union.  Or I could say that it will be as much a defeat for the U.S. as was the Vietnam War. There will be some talking heads who try to spin it otherwise, but other talking heads will point out that every American who died in Afghanistan died for absolutely nothing.  

I'm having a nice visit with Paul, and this time, he brought his girlfriend Monier with him, who is Iranian. And last night, in her honor, we ate at a new Mediterranean restaurant in Austin. They were open despite Covid, but there were few people there. But, the food was fantastic. I'm talking Mediterranean salads, hummus, tabouli, pita bread, and the best broasted cauliflower and very tasty eggplant. That's DiMassi's Mediterranean Buffet in South Austin.

My good friend Paul Popa is back, and we have done a song together, that soul classic from 1973, You Are The Sunshine Of My Life by Stevie Wonder.  I hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbQ-dCp5KRM&feature=youtu.be