RFK, Jr. on the Campaign Trail – It’s déjà vu All Over Again
There's a war on, there's an incumbent democratic president, a Kennedy running against him and the 2024 Democratic National Convention will be in Chicago, just like it was in 1968 when the convention ended in riots in the streets.
During the 1980 presidential campaign Sen. Ted Kennedy threw his hat into the ring even though he didn’t have much of a chance. Because I had skied with his son Teddy Jr. in Colorado a few times, I was asked to put up RFK, Jr. at my Ocean City, N.J. home when he visited Atlantic City in support of his uncle Ted. I took him to the WUSS AM radio station where he gave a live on air interview to the black audience and then attended a house party in his honor in Longport, after which we returned to my home. There he signed a paperback book we kept in the bathroom The Kenned Wit, with humorous quotations from JFK’s press conferences.
The next morning we waited on my front porch for Bobby’s brother Michael, who was doing the same thing somewhere else, and I was to drive them to New York. When Michael arrived, we walked down to the sidewalk to shake hands, and out from the house new door came another campaigner, George Bush, the son of the Vice President, who had stayed overnight at the home of my neighbor, old Mrs. Miller, the staid solid Republican.
I thought it was quite a coincidence, and we all shook hands and laughed, and then I drove Michael and Robert to New York City. On the way up I related the fact that my father once recalled meeting their late uncle Joe, Jr. in London during the blitz, when they shared a hotel room together and then went to mass the next day, ignoring an air raid warning. The boys invited me to have dinner with them, and argued over whether to dine at the exclusive 21 club or get a pizza, and pizza won out.
After following RFK, Jr.’s career as an environmental lawyer, I was kind of taken aback by his entrance into the presidential race, as I wasn’t sure he’s presidential material, though there doesn’t seem to be anyone else out there.
I wasn’t an anti-vaxer, and the two guys I knew who were both died of COVID, and I think it may have saved my life. But I listened to him, and I liked the idea that he looks closely at the big chemical companies and their relationship with the government, that is very similar to the big defense contractors.
While RFK, Jr.’s speech is impeded, he appears to have gotten that under control, and without the normal inflections, it’s kind of a monotone, but it makes you pay attention to what he is saying.
It was great that Randy Benson is continuing the tradition of meeting every June 10th at the historic marker at American University where JFK gave his celebrated “Peace Speech,” that everyone should read, and I have posted at JFKCC2 Randy’s remarks that he reposted on Facebook, that I think is important.
https://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2023/06/randy-benson-at-au-on-june-10-2023.html
I listened to his June 20, 2023 “Peace Speech” from New Hampshire, and was impressed, as I didn’t really disagree with anything he had to say, and it gave me a déjà vu, as in 1968, at 17, I was a “clean for Gene” McCarthy for President, when he knocked a sitting president LBJ out of the race in the early New Hampshire primary.
As Yogie Bera said, “It’s déjà vu all over again,” as just like 1968 there’s a Kennedy up against a sitting president, and the Democratic National Convention is in Chicago, where the democratic political machine and the Kennedy people ignored Gene McCarthy and went with lame George McGovern, who ushered in the Nixon years.
So now we have another Kennedy for President, up against a sitting democratic president with a convention in Chicago, something to look forward to as it is sure to get interesting.
The public opinion polls are most surprising, with RFK, Jr. surpassing President Biden as a contender, and Douglas MacKinnon’s op ed piece in The Hill stating that RFK, Jr. will be the 2004 Democratic nominee –
https://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2023/06/why-rfk-jr-will-be-2004-democratic.html
I also got to know journalist Dick Russell through my JFK assassination research, and had him come to Somers Point to lecture on his fishing book Striper Wars, when he told me that he was a friend of Bobby, Jr., and fished with him once in awhile.
And now I’m glad to see that Dick has written a biography of RFK, Jr., that will certainly give an insider’s view of the man, and set the record straight about all of the controversies over his somewhat radical beliefs.
While I can’t address the anti-vax issues, I do know that Bobby, Jr. is correct in his statement that the CIA, at least a part of the CIA – namily JMWAVE, had a big role and was responsible for the murder of his uncle President Kennedy. That can be supported with facts, and I will try to compile them.
In the meantime, you can read Dick’s bio of the man, and judge for yourself whether he is qualified to be president.
A note from Dan Storper, co-chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee writes:
Dear Friends and Associates,
My friend, the respected journalist, Dick Russell, has written a new book on RFK Jr and he’s asked me to share his note below with my friends and associates. I haven’t read the book yet but recognize Dick’s fine work in others of his I have read. To be clear, I’ve not yet made a decision on the Presidential race though I recognize the crucial importance of Bobby Kennedy Jr’s desire to reopen investigations into his father’s and uncle’s assassinations that dramatically changed the course of American and world history and greatly respect his longtime environmental activism.
Best Regards,Dan
From Dick Russell:
I've just received some exciting news, that my latest book - "The Real RFK Jr.: Trials of a Truth Warrior" has been nominated among the finalists for the Plutarch award, given annually for "best biography of the year." And I wanted to let you know a little about why I decided a year ago to write it. I've known Bobby Kennedy Jr for more than twenty years, when I was putting together my books "Eye of the Whale" and then "Striper Wars: An American Fish Story." We were both activists in protecting the habitats of the amazing gray whales and Atlantic striped bass, and went on to collaborate on other environmental campaigns. Bobby wrote the introductions for two editions of my book exposing the fossil fuel corporate giants most responsible for climate change.
I have two chapters in the book about how Bobby's views on the assassinations of his uncle and father evolved to the realization that elements of the CIA were responsible - which he's begun speaking out about in the course of his presidential campaign. Once he began speaking out about public health concerns, a lot of people who he'd worked closely with for years shied away from him and his views were suddenly no longer welcome in the media. During the pandemic, Bobby was kicked off Instagram and labeled an "anti-vaxxer" who spread misinformation. I knew from many conversations with him this wasn't fair or true, that he was an advocate for safe vaccines and a foe of government agencies being captured by the very corporations they're supposed to regulate.
So I decided to write a book that would chronicle his remarkable environmental achievements over forty years as an environmental lawyer, as well as tell the real story of how and why he became such a powerful advocate for children's health. I also wanted to provide an honest picture of the trauma he'd experienced following the assassinations of his uncle and father and how he managed to find the moral courage to become the leader he is today.
In the course of my research and writing, Bobby and I sat down together for many hours of interviews and he granted me access to his intimate private journals. I also spoke with many of his friends and associates, to gain insight into his character. This wasn't part of a campaign effort, because he didn't decide to run for president until I was almost done with the book. Now I'm hoping that readers will get a stronger sense of who he is and realize that he's the right person to heal the divide in our country and bring people together in a way that his forbears sought to do.
I'm pasting the link to Amazon here if you wish to order a copy, would welcome a review posted if you so choose, and be really glad to hear your thoughts.
Best wishes to you all, Dick Russell
I will reserve this comment on RFK Jr. to say that his position on immigration is utterly reactionary, truly a fascist position a la Trump's Gauleiter Miller, and is completely opposite his uncle's pro-immigrant position. It belies the fact that the vast majority of Latin Americans that have risked their very lives & limbs to enter the US by any means necessary is the result of decades of the American empire's genocidal reign of terror justified eternally by its slaveowner Monroe Doctrine, that literally destroyed whole countries with fascist counterinsurgency military campaigns throughout Latin America after WWII. What is utterly lost on RFK, Jr. is that the very forces that killed his uncle and father are the very forces still today who are responsible for destroying countries like Venezuela with siege warfare sanctions , a de facto financial blockade of the country not to omit the oil embargo perpetrated by Trump that fully ended US imports of Venezuelan oil in 2019 and not to omit also the outright criminal theft of CITGO to boot, that contracted Venezuela's economy by 72% - the worst economic peace-time depression in modern human history. This is why 240,000 Venezuelans crossed into Panama by foot in 2022 after navigating the dangerous Darien Pass & and its jungle, narcotrafficking gangs, thirst, hunger & disease only to continue up the Central American spine into Mexico where they arrive at the border living wherever waiting for their opportunity to apply for political asylum, which of course they are not victims of by Venezuela's government, but they are most definitely political victims of the US yankee empire's bipartisan war on their country as well as being overwhelming economic migrants driven to the land of their persecutors, these "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" in order to escape their US caused suffering in Venezuela. Alas, RFK,Jr has disgraced himself so far on this issue and urgently needs a wake-up call to volte-face on immigration lest he join the long historical line of American nativist fascists scapegoating immigrants for diverting US workers from the US capitalist plutarchy's savage exploitation of them which also denies the US empire's foreign policy's reign of terror in the countries from which these immigrants came and are still coming.
ReplyDelete“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
*reserve this comment on RFK, Jr only in regards to his position on immigration...."
ReplyDeleteOf course I heartily welcome his increasing criticism of the US empire's 100% provoked proxy war against Russia in Ukraine which we so urgently need at this time and I join him in demanding full release of all outstanding JFK Records Act documents.