My wife and I spent this afternoon and early evening walking around the Mall in our nation's capital, Washington, DC.  It was a pleasant day, a bit chilly but sunny. 

President Obama and family are in Hawaii.  Congress is not in session.  Many government employees are on vacation and most of the downtown lobbyists and lawyers are off because there is no one on capital hill or at the White House for them to lobby and lawyer.  The power brokers in DC were gone.  This was probably one of our government's best days of the year, albeit the last day of 2014. 

But some parts of our government were at work.  The National Park service did a great job in putting together the national Christmas tree.  The large tree, its lights, and toy trains were cool.  The 56 (50 states and 6 territories) small trees filled with LED lights with color displays coded by girls across the country, arranged in cooperation with Google, plus other displays were really great.  It was a really nice family environment. 

The National Gallery of Art was filled with people today.  It appeared everything was running smoothly.  The Christmas tree on the mall side of the Capitol building was well done.  Thanks to the citizens of Minnesota for the tree and ornaments.  The United States Botanic Garden, near the Capitol was filled to the brim with people.  It was warm inside and many families decided that walking among the trees, plants and Christmas displays was the right way to spend New Year's Eve Day. 

We walked over to the Old Post Office Building to check out the reconstruction work being done by Donald and Ivanka Trump and company to turn the building into a hotel.  All the work appeared to be very neat for a major construction site.  The Old Post Office is a very large building.  What a task they have to convert it into a luxury hotel!   But the Donald didn't have his name on any sign-age!  That was a surprise. 

We had to wait in line to enter the National Air and Space Museum to proceed through the security check point.  But the line moved quickly and efficiently.  After a quick snack in the massive McDonald's attached to the museum, I had a chance to check out some of the amazing exhibits in the museum.  If there is one place one can visit in this country to reinforce the belief that our nation can make things happen and do the impossible, the National Air and Space Museum is the place.  I could have spent many hours there but it was near closing time and we needed to move on. 

The Park Service is reworking the Mall drainage system and preparing to put new sod in.  The new African American history museum is under construction.  The metro (subway) was running smoothly, even the escalators were working!  Washington, DC and our government had a good day today.  Everything worked as it should.  Maybe it was because the politicians were gone and not getting in the way.  In any event it was a good day.  Some things do work in Washington. 

TPM 

Some people believe UFOs have visited earth for thousands of years and are piloted by aliens from other worlds.  Other people believe that all UFO stories are figments of people's imagination. Some people believe the US government has recovered flying saucers and re-engineered the technology into functioning aerospace vehicles.  Some people claim they have been abducted by aliens and traveled in alien spacecraft.  Other people believe it is all a bunch of tall tales from people's imaginations.  How much of this subject is Spin, Lies, Conspiracy and Truth?  I wish I knew, but I don't.

I decided to further investigate this topic by reading John B. Alexander, Ph.D.'s book, UFOs - Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities.  Mr. Alexander is a retired US Army Colonel who attempted to find out the the US government's relationship with the broad topic of UFOs while on active duty and after he retired.  He looked in all the right places and made logical conclusions.  He found nothing to support UFO conspiracy theorist thinking about the relationship between the US government and UFOs.  However, he admits that there are many well documented UFO events that cannot be explained by any existing technology.  He documents several of those events.  If you are a UFO doubter, you will like many parts of Alexander's book.  If you are a UFO supporter you will like a few parts of the book and not like most of it.  If you are a rational person, you will appreciate the fact that Alexander investigated this issue in a rational manner and ended up finding no conspiracies or great revelations regarding UFOs, but admits that there are well documents UFO events that are not explainable using known technology. 

I updated by article, Spin, Lies, Conspiracy and Truth, http://www.thepurplemuse.com/id33.html,to include my comments on UFOs. 

I wish everyone Happy Holidays!  Maybe we will make progress on finding the truth in 2015.

TPM 

This week President Obama announced his plan to re-establish commercial and diplomatic ties with Cuba.  The surprise announcement reverses 50 years of formal diplomatic and economic separation from our neighbors about 90 miles south of Florida.  While I disagree with President Obama on many, if not most, issues this is one issue where I fully support his actions.  The Castro brothers have lead the communist government of Cuba for more than 50 years and the US embargo on the island has done nothing to force a change in Cuba's political and economic environment.  Clearly the time has come for a new approach.

I fully appreciate that many Cuban-Americans, particularly the generation that escaped from Cuba decades ago and had to rebuild their lives in the US, oppose the President's plan.  The Castros and their supporters created tremendous pain for those that left and have reportedly abused many that remained and opposed their rule.  However, the time has come for a new approach as the Castro brothers are now very old men approaching the end of their lives.  As the US reengages economically and politically with Cuba I hope that we can help create fundamental positive change in Cuba with regard to political freedom and economic opportunities.  Cuba should be the leading the leading nation of all the Caribbean island nations, not a nation that appears to be living in the 1950s.  It is possible that Cuba can reach its potential if the US government allows its citizens to reach out to its Cuban neighbors. 

I have never been to Cuba.  My wife and I would love to visit Havana and other Cuban ports via cruise ships in the years ahead.  We look forward to stimulating the Cuban economy to a small degree as tourists.  Maybe we could take a taxi ride in one the 1950s American cars that are operating in Cuba.  Maybe we could buy a piece of art to help support a young Cuban artist.  Maybe we could take a tour and eat a Cuban meal.  I am sure some of our fellow travelers would love to buy some Cuban cigars and drink some Cuban adult beverages.  I think that thousands of US tourists spending money and communicating with the Cuban people is guaranteed to have some collective positive impact. 

Changes to Cuba's political system and major improvements to Cuba's economy will not come quickly.  It will take years and maybe decades before major changes will occur.  However, the time to start working to create those changes is now.  President Obama made the correct decision.  When will the cruise ports be ready for us to come ashore? 

TPM 

I just finished reading Unaccountable - How Elite Power Brokers Corrupt our Finances, Freedom, and Security by Janine R. Wedel.  Ms. Wedel's book was published a few months ago making it very current.  Unaccountable is an exploration of those people, mostly associated with the US government in some manner, that impact our lives without being held accountable for their actions.  The word "corruption" is used many times in the book as Ms. Wedel portrays many of our current leaders on both sides of the political spectrum negatively.  The author explains how "elite" individuals employment and consultant engagements move between the federal government, corporations, think-tanks and academia.  Most of the time we don't really know what the motivations of "experts" are when discussing issues of national importance.  Are we getting an unbiased perspective or are we getting a purposely hidden biased objective?

The author explains how the government has outsourced much of the work done by the defense and intelligence arms of the US government and how this has created many opportunities for individuals to work the system for personal gain without being accountable.  While I agree that the current system is not perfect, do we really want to add thousands more employees to the federal government?  I don't.  What we need to do is right size Department of Defense and intelligence agencies spending.  This is an extremely difficult task that may not be possible.

The author bemoans some of the changes that have occurred in the mainstream media in recent years, namely the reduction in investments by major newspapers in investigative journalism.  Her reaction is easily understood since the business model for all print media has changed radically in the internet era.  She makes the case that investigative journalists help keep politicians and other leaders honest.  This is an area where I don't fully agree with the author.  My personal experience dealing with business media provides a different perspective.  I had many experiences where supposedly unbiased reporters purposely failed to explain the whole story or purposely skewed the story in an inaccurate manner.  If a story about my company was 50 percent accurate I considered it a success.  I believe this is the reason many people want direct access to newsmakers (as the author discusses) with no "journalist" in the middle, because news consumers realize that many "journalists" add very little value to what is being reported and many times tell an inaccurate story.

I believe Unaccountable is a very useful book. It does a good job of discussing how many of today's unaccountable people operate.  I have had some personal experiences in dealing with unaccountable people. 

However, the author doesn't fully discuss how and why the US has evolved into the "system" that we have today.  She doesn't talk about how the debt/credit society that has developed over the past 40 years has contributed to unaccountability.  Bloated US government spending has incentivized many individuals, organizations and businesses to seek their share of the monster federal spending pie, either directly or indirectly.  The role of the Federal Reserve, one of the most unaccountable organizations in the US, in facilitating our debt society and our obscene Federal Government debt is not discussed in the book.  The impact of the unaccountable people in our country would not be as great if our government and the Federal Reserve had not facilitated the debt/credit society which begs for people to attempt to grab all they can get from government coffers.

Solving the issue of unaccountability is a tough one.  The author offers some potential solutions.  As long as our government continues to spend money it doesn't have and creates more and more debt, and the Federal Reserve continues to facilitate this process, bloated government spending will continue be a target for Unaccountable people.

TPM

I believe my multi-year, nine books, many on-line videos and websites research effort into the assassination of JFK has come to an end.  I just finished reading Phillip F. Nelson's book, LBJ The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination and updated my article JFK Revisited, http://www.thepurplemuse.com/id36.html.  I don't need to read anymore books on this subject any time soon. 

Mr. Nelson's book is 600 pages of synthesis of the work of many researchers as well as his own independent research.  There is no question that the assassination was a conspiracy.  There is no question that the only purpose of the Warren Report was to pin the assassination solely on Lee Harvey Oswald and not do the fundamental police work that should be done for a murder of the President of the United States.  It is extremely likely that at a minimum Lyndon Johnson knew of the assassination plan in advance.  Mr. Nelson presents strong evidence for this claim.  Mr. Nelson claims that Johnson was the architect of the assassination.  Mr. Nelson's claim is very strong but is circumstantial.  He brings together the work of many researchers to prove his points.

In my opinion the strongest evidence of a conspiracy is the refusal of the US government to release all of the remaining assassination related documents they continue to hold after 50 years.  The US government has something very important to hide.  This is clear evidence of guilt in some form. 

All of the researchers that have worked to fully understand the who, what and why of the assassination over the past five decades are to be saluted.  They have served a critical role in helping our nation and the world overcome the failure of our government to be truthful regarding the events that occurred before, during and after the assassination.

Why are the JFK assassination events that occurred over 50 years ago important?  Because we are not teaching our children the truth about our history.  We have allowed our government to lie to its citizens on big things and small. The lies must stop. The integrity of our government must be restored if our nation is to prosper. Until we know the full truth concerning JFK's assassination our national integrity will continue to be in question.

TPM