What drives people to conspiracy theory?

[Tom Scully]

The "kids" don't remember where they were when they learned JFK, MLK, and RFK were assassinated.

BTW, a reminder we aren't in Kansas anymore, Toto!

Sixteen hours ago, testifying to a congressional body.:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1904/10/cnr.04.html
CNN NEWSROOM
William Barr's Testimony Before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired April 10, 2019 - 10:30   ET
?...
WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: reviewing both the genesis and the conduct of intelligence activities directed at the Trump campaign during 2016. And a lot has already been -- a lot of this has already been investigated and a substantial portion of it has been investigated and is being investigated by the Office of Inspector General at the department.

But one of things I want to do is pull together all the information from the various investigations that have gone on including on the Hill and in the department and see if there any remaining questions to be addressed.

SHAHEEN: And can you share with us why you feel a need to do that?

BARR: Well, you know, for the same -- well for the same reason were worried about foreign influence in elections we want to make sure that during a -- I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal, it's a big deal. The generation I grew up in which is the Vietnam War period, people were all concerned about spying on antiwar people and so forth by the government and there were a lot of rules put in place to make sure that there's an adequate basis before -- before our law enforcement agencies get involved in political surveillance.

I'm not suggesting that those rules were violated but I think it's important to look at that and I'm not -- I'm not talking about the FBI necessarily but intelligence agencies more broadly.

Two weeks ago the IG of DOJ released this report of investigation...On page 30:
https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2019/o1901.pdf






William Barr Helped Build America's Surveillance State | American ...
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/william-barr-helped-build-americas-surveillance

January 9, 2019 | 3:30 PM ... In 1992, he and his then-deputy Robert Mueller authorized the Drug Enforcement Administration to begin ... The DEA program ultimately became a model for the NSA's phone records collection program under the ?

Watchdog report critiques DEA program Barr approved 27 years ago ...
https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2019/03/28/barr-dea-program-1242118

Mar 28, 2019 - Watchdog report critiques DEA program Barr approved 27 years ago ... a practice similar to the National Security Agency snooping program revealed in ... program back in January 1992: the attorney general at the time, Barr.

U.S. secretly tracked billions of calls for decades - USA Today
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/04/07/dea-bulk-telephone-surveillance-operation/70808616/

Apr 7, 2015 - The Justice Department revealed in January that the DEA had collected ... It was a model for the massive phone surveillance system the NSA ... The data collection began in 1992 during the administration of ... In 1992, in the last months of Bush's administration, Attorney General William Barr and his chief ..

SHAHEEN: So you're not -- you're not suggesting though that spying occurred?

BARR: I don't -- well I guess you could -- I -- I think there is spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur.

SHAHEEN: Well let me...

BARR: But the question is whether it was predicated -- adequately predicated and I'm not suggesting it wasn't adequately predicated but I need to explore that. I think it's my obligation. Congress is usually very concerned about intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies staying in their proper lane and I want to make sure that happened. We have a lot of rules about that and I want to say that -- that I've said I'm reviewing this. I am going -- I haven't set up a team yet but I do have in mind having some colleagues help me pull all this information together and -- and let me know whether there are some areas that should be looked at.

And I also want to make clear is not launching an investigation of the FBI. I -- frankly I'm, to the extent there were there were any issues at the FBI, I do not view it as a problem that's endemic to the FBI. I think there was probably a failure among a group of leaders there at the upper echelon and so I don't like to hear attacks about the FBI because I think the FBI is an outstanding organization and I think Chris Wray is a great partner for mayhem(ph). I'm very pleased that he's there as the director.

If it becomes necessary to -- to look over some former official's activities I expect that I'll be relying heavily on Chris and -- and work closely with him in looking at that information. But that's what I'm doing. I -- I feel I have an obligation to make sure that government power is not abused. I mean I think that's one of the principal roles of the attorney general....

[Steve Logan]

So Bernie takes it up the kazoo at the convention and the Marxist in Chief spies on Trump and she STILL lost. I smell 4 more years coming.

[John Iacoletti]

So Bernie takes it up the kazoo at the convention and the Marxist in Chief spies on Trump and she STILL lost. I smell 4 more years coming.

That is one putrid smell.

[Steve Logan]

That is one putrid smell.

Start holding your breath.

[Brian Walker]

Brilliantly addressed by Billie Holiday:

Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

Songwriters: Lewis Allan / Maurice Pearl / Dwayne P Wiggins
Strange Fruit lyrics ? Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

Jussie Smollett did a nice version also.

[Barry Pollard]

What would be a representative sample?  My daughter is a clinical psychologist, her husband an Asst.DA and most of their friends similarly educated. So, what are they missing?

You cannot get into decent positions like that unless you are well versed in towing the line.  From kindergarten we are told to behave ourselves or become separated from the group and this continues throughout our lives.  Start doing your own research and come to class with awkward questions(I mean REALLY awkward) and once again you'll become ostracized, get fed up or frustrated and drop out or at the v least have this troublemaker label forever on your record.  Also, when you train to become somebody and hold down a decent job and raise a family you just don't have the time to study this crap.

[Barry Pollard]

What drives people to conspiracy theory?

I do my best to avoid generalizations and I can only give you my experience.
Nothing drove me to it, it just came to me after seeing a documentary on the case, the head-shot(b&ttl)and the whole grassy knoll "evidence", I just thought, there's clearly something wrong here and of course, you say, wow, "they"'ve been lying to us...
Coming online and seeing the whole community so into it, it's great, for so many reasons.  You learn how to evaluate evidence properly, to question and research correctly too, to admit when you are wrong like it's nothing and personally, to come to respect and value both sides after realizing we are ultimately on the same team and a very, very small section of society.

[Bill Charleston]

And a whopping 61% said they do not believe the official conclusion of the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy, according to a 2013 Gallup poll. The number has not dropped below 50% since Gallup began polling on the subject just after the 1963 tragedy.

People don't believe the "official" explanations when they do NOT make sense. But not believing the official explanations does NOT prove what DID happen.

So to SOLVE the JFK assassination "mystery", you MUST be able to identify the valid evidence and reject the invalid evidence.

For example, the JFK assassination evidence has evidence wich indicates there was a LARGE exit wound in the right posterior of JFK's head.  Other "evidence" clearly shows there was NO large exit wound in the back of JFK's head.  The multi-million dollar question is WHICH set of evidence is correct?  And which is invalid?  Were these conflicts caused by simple mistakes OR was a large amount of invalid evidence forged?



To answer these questions correctly is NOT conceptually difficult.  If you have a grasp of basic high school level math, you can understand HOW to answer these questions correctly.  Once you have done that, you can see how easily the JFK assassination can be solved.