black Americans were and ARE targeted and why.

right wing lies.

Will continue to call out corruption in both sides of the aisle.

will also help reduce corruption and right wing power in congressional, state and local levels. Merely calling it out ain't enough. Welcome here. Have fun.

Also thank you.

Nixon's attitude towards anyone who stood in his way was full out attack mode.
He illegally spied on over 750.000 Americans by 1970, and was ramping up for more.
He very much believed in the presidency as a monarchy, for him.

The drug laws and the tough on crime laws are specifically targeted to non-white and non-conservative groups.

no longer saw hippies as the problem.

If Hillary gets in she will probably consider Bernie supporters on her enemies list.

A. Mitchell Plamer, Anslinger, both racists and red-baiters using the "immorality" of drugs to pursue vindictive political agendas. Nixon and his crew were very much from that political bloodline. Just like tin pot dictators all over the planet.

That the US has applies throughout our history. 1% vs. 99%

We need to think about the ramifications of this information.

We always knew that the cops and their damn drug war were against people of color, and "hippies." I keep telling folks that I kind of know a little of what it was like as I was a hippie back in the day. I would always get harassed by the cops. I even got beaten up by NYC's finest a few times in my younger days.
Not to mention, but they would infiltrate our organizations who were working for peace and justice.
I am kind of glad that it finally came out.

It was a way to target and in many cases disenfranchise large numbers of generally non-Republican voters. An earlier form of GOP voter suppression.

Because they knew who did it. And it did not matter. As I watched the man hunt for that terrorist end I imagined a similar man hunt that never happened when three men assassinated the president. There was no man hunt. There was only an elaborate cover up that continues to this day. Anyone who feels like I should let it go can go fuck themselves. That crime is still not solved , and I get angrier about that every day.

The crime was solved, and the man who did it was caught. Numerous scientific studies have proven that Oswald made the shots. The crime has long been solved.

And the Vietnam war was about freedom and stuff . like all the wars are, of coarse.

That JFK was killed do to INCOMPETENCE is something such people can NOT accept. The secret Service was to go check out all tall buildings (and other locations of possible snipers) along the parade route the day before, instead they went to a Go-Go lounge. The FBI was suppose to have a list of potential threats to the President, Oswald was ON that list but no one from the FBI checked him out nor where he worked (both were jobs of the FBI). The CIA had kept tabs on him when he went to the USSR and when he returned, those records were suppose to be turned over to the FBI when Oswald returned, but the CIA Never did.

The list of people covering their Ass (CYA) in the JFK assassination do NOT stop with the FBI, Secret Service and CIA, but extends to the KGB (Oswald Russian wife was the daughter of a KGB officer, but the Soviet KGB is a combination of the USA's CIA, FBI and the State Police forces, Oswald's father in law appears to have been more a State Police officer then an FBI or CIA agent) Cuba's internal security agencies as while as pro and anti Castro groups in the US (Oswald had dealings with BOTH, supporting the pro Castro groups in the US and "spying" on the anti-Castro groups for the pro-Castro groups).

One of the best way to divert attention from your own incompetency is to point out problems with rival agencies. J. Edger Hoover was notorious for this, for he opposed losing power to the CIA (the FBI had done surveillance in Latin America from the 1930s till the 1950s when Hoover was told to turn it over to the CIA, Hoover did so, but refused to give the CIA any of his records, so any contacts in those countries were NOT transferred and the CIA had to start from scratch, that is how petty Hoover could be in jurisdiction fights. That lack of records is given as the prime reason Castro was able to take over Cuba, by the time the CIA had developed its own contacts in various Latin American Countries, Castro and other communists had developed from minor problems to full scale revolutions, mostly do to the delay in developing sources in those countries).

A good example of the infighting is the autopsy of JFK. Not only was the doctor and nurses doing the autopsy in the room, so were Secret Service, FBI, CIA and even NSA agents (among others). There were so many agents in the room the doctor had little room to do his job. That was the result of inter agency infighting that is a product of each agency trying to protect itself by making sure any evidence is under their control or if it is not can be addressed as the product of someone's else incompetence.

This cover you ass situation is the source of most of the data used by conspiracy advocates.

The Scary part was the only real evidence that Oswald's bullets did NOT kill JFK is a product of that same autopsy, but since it pointed to incompetence as opposed to conspiracy it is also ignored by most conspiracy advocates. The bullet that actually killed JFK produced a entrance wound of .236 of an inch (In other reports it is given as 6 mm). There was NO exit wound for this bullet. The bullet "dissolved" in JFK's brain. That is UNCHARACTERISTIC of the Full Metal Jacket Bullets used by Oswald. The one bullet recovered was a Full Metal Jacket bullet and the rest of the rounds Oswald left with his rifle were also Full Metal Jackets bullets (Such non-expanding and non breaking into small pieces bullets are mandated by the "Laws of War" since 1900). Please note, in some cases even Full Metal Jacketed bullets will break up, but there is no indications of such circumstances in the case of JFK. Such dissolution implies a soft point or hollow point bullet, bullets design to break up after penetrating the body. Such "Expanding" bullets are mandated for Hunting in the US for you have a better chance of killing the animal outright when the animal is shot as oppose to wounding the animal (Which does occur with Full Metal Jacketed bullets).

In addition to the lack of an exit wound and the dissolution of the bullet, The 6.5 mm bullet Oswald used has a diameter of 0.268 inch, which makes it to LARGE to produce a .236 entrance hole (The 6.5mm round is a full metal jacket bullet, it will produce an entrance wound of at least its own diameter, but such wounds will be larger do to spitting of whatever the bullet hit).

The only weapon known weapon capable of producing such a hole known to be in the area of the assassination was an AR-15 (M-16 Civilian name) being held by a secret service agent who is known to have stood up when the firing started then forced back into his seat as the driver of his car hit the gas. If the AR-15 was cocked and loaded and the safety off (It is easy to take the safety off an AR-15) and then the person with that weapon is knocked back into his seat, that knock him on back into his seat and in that situation if his finger was on the trigger, he would have fired the weapon. In that case it is another example of incompetence not conspiracy.

Now the 5.56 mm round as used by the Military is a Full Metal Jacket Round, but soft points and hollow point bullets were made for that round by 1960 and a lot of security personnel use such expanding bullets for they higher killing ability (such security personal, including police and federal agents do NOT come under the ban on such bullets, the ban applies to military personnel doing military functions). Thus it is highly possible the AR-15 had hollow point or soft point bullets instead of Full Metal Jacketed bullets in the AR-15 on that fatal day.

This theory is NOT new, it has been around for quite some time, but conspiracy nuts do not like it for it replaces incompetence of conspiracy and the conspiracy nuts want a conspiracy.

More on the 6.5 mm Carcano round, used by Oswald:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6.5%C3%9752mm_Carcano

The Ar-15 fires a bullet (.224 of an inch diameter):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.56%C3%9745mm_NATO

Please note after JFK's assassination the Secret Service STOP carrying AR-15 as apart of the presidential security group.

Here is an attack on the above theory, but the attack is based on lack of DIRECT evidence not that it could NOT have occurred (Basically the writer takes the position that it would have been a freak accident and such freak accidents do not happen:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Shooting_holes_in_theory_that_a_Secret_Service_agent_killed_President_Kennedy.html

Another attack on the theory, this one relies on the agent who was alleged to have had the AR-15 sued the publisher of a book that made this claim and a settlement was reached which included an "apology" but no real statement from anyone that it did not happen. The author of the book stood by his position it was the publisher who issued the apology:

http://jfkfacts.org/assassination/news/reelz-channel-to-air-discredited-jfk-theory/

Here is the alleged Agent who was accused of firing the AR-15 saying he HAD an AR-15 but never fired it:

http://www.jfk-online.com/hickey.html

AS I noted above, no one likes the theory that the fatal bullet was fired by accident. The agents involved disliked it for it says they are incompetent, the conspiracy nuts dislike it for it does not fit their conspiracy theories. The 6 mm wound implies it was NOT Oswald bullet that killed JFK, the AR-15 was a rare weapon in 1963, the US Air Force had adopted it in 1959 and the US Army did adopt it in 1964 (and from 1959 onward was supplied to the South Vietnamese Army). It is NOT anyone's ideal of a "sniper rifle", for the AR-15 was and is a Combat Rifle. Thus I can NOT see anyone using the AR-15 to snipe at JFK, but I do see the AR-15 being adopted by the Secret Service to protect the President.

The more I thought about this, I can conclude the Agent accused may THINK he did not fire the fatal shot. The AR-15 is an selective fire weapon. The selector on the AR-15 is also the AR-15's safety. You have three positions, safe, semi automatic and then Full Automatic. Thus when the agent "Unlocked" the AR-15 it was put into either Semi-automatic or Automatic mode (and I suspect Semi=Automatic for that is how I was trained and it is the first position after Safe on that selector). In the confusion I can see the rifle being fired and the agent NOT knowing it had been fired. The brass case was injected into the car the agent was located in and lost some time later and never recovered (It may have been lost between the site of the shooting AND the Hospital, or even later when they took JFK's body to the Airport, everyone had different priorities at that time period then to look for a expanded shell case). Remember the agent did not believe he fired his weapon, and thus had no reason to look for any brass in his car, so the brass case may have been in the cars for days afterward and lost days afterward.

Interesting theory, it is the one that fits the facts that are known. The agent's statement that he never fired the weapon does not mean the weapon did NOT fire when he had the weapon (Those are two different set of facts, someone can state he never fired a weapon, when they is evidence the weapon did fire AND those two set of facts are NOT necessary in conflict). Given that Oswald was actually firing his weapon and the Agent was looking for the source of the fire so the agent could return fire, an accidental discharge missed by the agent is possible. The Agent did state he unlocked the AR-15, thus it could fire. That the Agent never pulled the trigger does NOT mean the AR-15 did not fire.

But the point of this reply is to point out conspiracy nuts do NOT like anything that attacks their ideal that it was a conspiracy that killed off JFK, not a lone gunman in the form of Oswald nor incompetence nor accident. Conspiracy nuts wants something that support their position that JFK was killed by a cabal of his opponents, not do to a lone gunman, incompetence or accident.

I just read , "The Devil's Chessboard" by David Talbot, about Allen Dulles, the CIA director who was on The Warren Commission.

Very much in line with your thinking.

It's an outrage. We know who pulled the trigger. I believe 2 or 1 one of the killers is alive is prison in Europe. The reason we don't do anything is because the guy who ordered the hit may be dead but his organization is alive and well and continues to be a threat to us all.

And there were many POS's in the Nixon WH including Cheney.

Of course the war on drugs was aimed at blacks and the antiwar left. But it wasn't just a program to wait until people used drugs and then arrest them. It was an active program. The CIA imported drugs from Central America to flood the black community with ever cheaper drugs. The FBI used informers and undercover agents to plant drugs on hippies. If folks are too young to remember what happened, please read about the COINTELPRO program. If you were active in the antiwar movement in the 1960s and 70s, you knew if a new "friend" offered you a joint, they were a cop.

Here is a starting point to understand COINTELPRO - http://thirdworldtraveler.com/FBI/COINTELPRO_Untold_Story.html

held the Iran-Contra hearings in front of the cameras JK was holding a hearing of his own regarding the CIA drugs deals.

Sometimes when I read about these underhanded actions our own government has used against its own people I get a real empty feeling deep in my soul.

After all of this is it any wonder that we love Bernie?

The only reason that there has been so much resistance to decriminalizing marijuana is that so many old white guys are still fighting the counter culture wars of the 60's

squares and often the root of what's wrong with this country. Not all, certainly not all, but a fair number that had thirst for power and their F'en foolishness. I'm so F'en fed up with their mindless bullshit!!!

in prison for drug use
If it was good enough for Nixon it should be good enough for drug use

There's a great many things he SHOULD so... or should have done.
But lets face it, and he's never tried to hide this, he's a ray-gun republican. He always has been.
Yes he has more sympathy than more republicans alive or in the past, but he is still a republican in thought.
Voting for the lesser of two evils doesn't change that you're still voting for an evil.

and I say this as someone who gladly and proudly voted for him.. TWICE.

And both sides feed it. Its disgusting.

And the "counterculture" was destroyed by the corporate takeover of nearly all independent media.

Radio stopped playing Melanie and Dylan, and gave us this shit....

I'll see myself out.

The penalties for possesion of crack cocaine were far more severe than those for powdered cocaine.
I believe a court ruled that the more severe penalties for crack were discriminatory, as it is widespread in the black neighborhoods, whereas powdered coke is a more expensive "upper class" drug.

People in Europe were alarmed thinking this was a documentary of things actually happening in America.

The War on Drugs and the New Jim Crow

By Michelle Alexander

EXCERPT...

The uncomfortable truth, however, is that crime rates do not explain the sudden and dramatic mass incarceration of African Americans during the past 30 years. Crime rates have fluctuated over the last few decades—they are currently at historical lows—but imprisonment rates have consistently soared. Quintupled, in fact. And the vast majority of that increase is due to the War on Drugs. Drug offenses alone account for about two-thirds of the increase in the federal inmate population and more than half of the increase in the state prison population.

The drug war has been brutal—complete with SWAT teams, tanks, bazookas, grenade launchers, and sweeps of entire neighborhoods—but those who live in white communities have little clue to the devastation wrought. This war has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though studies consistently show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates. In fact, some studies indicate that white youth are significantly more likely to engage in illegal drug dealing than black youth. Any notion that drug use among African Americans is more severe or dangerous is belied by the data. White youth, for example, have about three times the number of drug-related visits to the emergency room as their African American counterparts.

That is not what you would guess, though, when entering our nation’s prisons and jails, overflowing as they are with black and brown drug offenders. In some states, African Americans comprise 80 to 90 percent of all drug offenders sent to prison.

This is the point at which I am typically interrupted and reminded that black men have higher rates of violent crime. That’s why the drug war is waged in poor communities of color and not middle class suburbs. Drug warriors are trying to get rid of those drug kingpins and violent offenders who make ghetto communities a living hell. It has nothing to do with race; it’s all about violent crime.

Again, not so. President Ronald Reagan officially declared the current drug war in 1982, when drug crime was declining, not rising. From the outset, the war had little to do with drug crime and nearly everything to do with racial politics. The drug war was part of a grand and highly successful Republican Party strategy of using racially coded political appeals on issues of crime and welfare to attract poor and working class white voters who were resentful of, and threatened by desegregation, busing, and affirmative action. In the words of H.R. Haldeman, President Richard Nixon’s White House Chief of Staff: “(T)he whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.”

A few years after the drug war was announced, crack cocaine hit the streets of inner-city communities. The Reagan administration seized on this development with glee, hiring staff who were to be responsible for publicizing inner-city crack babies, crack mothers, crack whores, and drug-related violence. The goal was to make inner-city crack abuse and violence a media sensation, bolstering public support for the drug war which, it was hoped, would lead Congress to devote millions of dollars in additional funding to it.
The plan worked like a charm. For more than a decade, black drug dealers and users would be regulars in newspaper stories and would saturate the evening TV news. Congress and state legislatures nationwide would devote billions of dollars to the drug war and pass harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes—sentences longer than murderers receive in many countries.

CONTINUED...

http://reimaginerpe.org/20years/alexander

Harry Anslinger had this idea long before Nixon.

http://chasingthescream.com/

Last edited Tue Mar 22, 2016, 08:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Okay.

He was a narrow minded, bigoted, lying, criminal who should have gone to prison along with Kissinger, Cheney, and the rest of them.

Does anyone really believe that there wasn't a deal made with Gerald Ford?

The Mafia probably had a role in all this too, like the fictional one did in The Godfather.

anti American for thinking these "radical hippie thoughts". Sons of bitches. I hope they all rot.

From 1970 to 1972, an official, blue-ribbon commission, set up by Nixon to legitimize his war on cannabis, investigated pot thoroughly. They interviewed police officials, doctors, people who had experience with it in one way or another. It was an extremely thorough study. The head of the commission, Raymond Shaffer, was a former governor of Pennsylvania, a respected republican who Nixon thought could be relied on to bring him the "right" results. Instead, the commission agreed that it would be a mistake to make cannabis illegal, creating problems where none existed before. Nixon shitcanned the report and went ahead with his war, which still continues, having spread all over the world since.
The report is accessible online. Also Nixon on tape reacting to the report is available.

Spread the word !

Just one more example of their dishonorable values and behaviors

If you were awake and aware back in those days it was not only obvious, they really made no secret of it while it was going down. I'm just surprised that anyone would find this surprising.

It was Nixon's "fuck you" to the counterculture for daring to protest the war and his policies.

Major sleazeball, perfect for Tricky Dick.

you don't say!

Many States' concealed/open carry restrictions were rooted in racism aimed at preventing black people from legally possessing firearms.

I remember my grandfather, uncles, their friends, etc were "reserve sheriff deputies" in our rural county, that made them exempt from the gun laws and carry permitting requirements of those days.

That's why we see movement towards reform. Because lots of white kids whose parents are upper middle class have faced stiff mandatory sentencing for things they shouldn't.

Nixon, Reagan Democrat. In other words, if the Republicans were to support pro-choice, she'd be there. She's not to big on gay marriage so their opposition to that would be no biggie.

Seriously, about the only reason she seems to be a Democrat is that she is pro-choice. I think she's been consistent on that point. Other than that she flip-flops around trying to stay at least remotely relevant to the liberal voters she hates.

...who think we lost Vietnam because of the "dirty stinking hippies" die off that they are politically irrelevant.

folks that were dem

nixon for all he was ......was no fool

hence southern strategy and war on drugs

Mr Ehrlichman was one of the top members of the administration, with the specific portfolio of domestic affairs. Calling him a "Nixon aide" doesn't do justice to the source. In fact, I wasn't particularly interested in the thread until I found out through another source that it was Mr Erhlichman being quoted; I figured it was some small fry looking for belated attention. I tend to discount dramatic exposes by bit players, but Mr Ehrlichman knows what he's talking about and really has nothing to gain or lose at this point.

Not a shocking revelation, but I have learned over the years that affirmation is important to people who are oppressed and not arrogant enough to disregard the authority of their oppressors. See, y'all weren't crazy at all.

-- Mal

where the government isn't actively trying to enslave, run hidden test, imprison, silence, miseducate, and kill your people since the "birth" of the nation.

Were dismissed as paranoid.

But his administration birthed the Drug Enforcement Agency/DEA out of the old Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs/BNDD. They have so much blood on their hands today that they are drowning.

Paradoxically there was all that MK ULTRA/MK SEARCH/NAOMI/OFTEN etc. stuff going which heavily relied on the use of drugs, the use of US military members and their families as non-consensual research subjects as well as federal prisoners and targeted individuals and groups.

You might want to review the link below for a broader perspective of who was targeted-it was always "dissenters" and those on arbitrary politicized "lists", just like today.

The History of Operation CHAOS (Verne Lyon 1990)

"For over fifteen years, the CIA, with assistance from numerous government agencies, conducted a massive illegal domestic covert operation called Operation CHAOS."
http://www.serendipity.li/cia/lyon.html

K&R.

just about jailing Mexican immigrants and making opiates illegal was more about targeting Chinese immigrants.

Blacks and "Hippies." Nixon's "silent majority" gleefully went along.