These challenging times have been described as "apocalyptic" and I say ... that's perfect because the original meaning of the word apocalypse is "lifting of the veils". It is now time to bring down the "irony curtain" and end the most toxic "don't ask, don't tell" policy of all - where we promise not to ask our government about its dark shadow, and it promises not to tell us.

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SWAMI'S DICTIONARY
Columbo's Day:  A shadow holiday where we the people emulate the great TV detective and ask unasked questions, and question unquestioned answers.

"We have a deeply divided body politic.  Half the population believes our political system is broken.  The other half believes it is fixed."
-- Swami Beyondananda

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination, we also commemorate the 80th anniversary of that act's pre-cursor, something I bet you've never heard of - the so-called "business plot" to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install a military dictatorship.

The plot would have installed decorated Marine General Smedley Butler as "Secretary of General Affairs", a de facto dictator. Unfortunately for the alleged plotters, and fortunately for the rest of us, Gen. Butler refused to go along with the plan and blew the whistle on the conspirators. (Gen. Butler, you may know, was famous for his myth-busting pamphlet, War Is A Racket.)

Not surprisingly, his story was treated with skepticism, and debunked by the mainstream press and the financial power structure, which was to be expected.  Here is another source - on the NPR website - that offers corroborating information.

So, why is this important?

Because the failed plot in 1933 - and the repression of the story and denial of its validity - has enabled subsequent "coups" to succeed. If we are seeing the signs of "Nazism" in our out-of-control Big Brother government, we must also acknowledge its equally-toxic enabler, "not-seeism" - where people choose to not see what is plainly obvious because it is too horrific to confront. "We don't want to go there," so many people have said.

Yes, and what if "there" has already come "here"?

These challenging times have been described as "apocalyptic" and I say ... that's perfect because the original meaning of the word apocalypse is "lifting of the veils".  It is now time to bring down the "irony curtain" and end the most toxic "don't ask, don't tell" policy of all - where we promise not to ask our government about its dark shadow, and it promises not to tell us.

So ... if you read ONE BOOK this year, a book that will put the history of postwar America in context, read JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters by James Douglass.

Here is my caveat - the truth shall UPSET you free.

I mentioned this book to an acquaintance last week -- someone I admire as sophisticated, astute and aware - and I was totally shocked when he dismissed it (without having read it, of course) with the wave of his hand, citing Occam's Razor, the notion that the simplest theory is always more accurate than complex explanations.

Well, I guess scientific principles can be just as rigidly held as dogmatic religious beliefs. So ... I double-dogma dare you to read Douglass's book in its entirety and adopt the "single lone nut assassin" theory as the simplest. And when you read the book, and you see the evidence of how doctors, military personnel, and other witnesses were leveraged to change their stories to comply with the "official one" (and how many of those who didn't comply met unfortunate ends) you will have new insight into the 9/11 attacks as well.

You will see that the patterns are unmistakable ... the people who reported immediately that "Gee, this looks like one of those planned demolitions" when the buildings went down, those who were curious as to why no planes were scrambled, etc., etc., etc. were simply discredited or ignored when the "official" investigation took place.

Is the Term "Conspiracy Theory" A Conspiracy?

Interestingly, a recent study by psychologists and social scientists in the US and UK finds that "those labeled 'conspiracy theorists' appear to be saner than those who accept the official versions of contested events."

Here is a telling quote from that article. In his book published by University of Texas press, Conspiracy Theory In America, professor Lance deHaven-Smith asserts that the term "conspiracy theory" was invented and put into wide circulation by the CIA to smear and defame people questioning the JFK assassination! "The CIA's campaign to popularize the term "conspiracy theory' and make conspiracy belief a target of ridicule and hostility," he writes, "must be credited, unfortunately, with being one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time."

The resistance to hearing and accepting unspeakable truth is understandable. Nobody really wants to look at these perpetrations as false flag "inside jobs", (See my piece on David Ray Griffin about how a mainstream theologian came to this horrific conclusion) just as I am sure devout Catholics were initially unwilling to believe the stories about pedophile priests. Whenever there is deep trust - in family members, in a religious organization, in the people and institutions we select to govern us - and this trust is breached, there is at first disbelief.

Maybe we need to look at Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's Stages of Grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) as a formula for coming to grips with what James Douglass calls the "unspeakable".

You cannot heal what is not acknowledged. (Or, put another way, you cannot wake someone pretending to be sleeping.) Healing is now what is required, for the past and for our future. Please read JFK and the Unspeakable. Read it in groups. Discuss it. You can even get a script from Project Unspeakable  and present / perform the story in living rooms and theaters.

You will come to recognize that as they stood poised to push the button during the last moments of the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev each had what could be termed "a near death experience" that pulled them from the brink, and set them on a each on a path - in conflict with their own generals - to de-escalate the Cold War. President Kennedy had opened secret talks with Cuba's Castro and had given orders for withdrawal from Vietnam.

This was simply intolerable to the Join Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the military industrial complex. Douglass's book offers persuasive evidence that the original plan was to kill the President, frame the Soviet Union and Cuba, and use that as a pretext for a preemptive nuclear strike. Sounds right out of Dr. Strangelove ... but as you read the documented accounts of what the Joint Chiefs said and how they felt ... well, you can see that Dr. Strangelove might have been more truth than fiction.

Read the story for yourself to see if it resonates. It is so important for us all to know the documented facts so that we understand where we stand 50 years down the line. The good news is that peace process that was initiated and interrupted can now go full speed ahead. The Pope at that time, Pope John XXIII, allowed himself to hold the hope "anything is possible," and now the new Pope Francis seems to be picking up that thread.

Dwight Eisenhower - who first warned us of the toxic forces that would murder Kennedy and snuff out the peace process - also said, "I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it."

That day might be today ... if enough of us have the courage to mourn the loss of peace in the 1960s ... and reenergize its rebirth in our lifetime.

Authors Website: http://www.wakeuplaughing.com/

Authors Bio:

Steve Bhaerman is a writer, humorist and uncommontator who's been posing as cosmic comic Swami Beyondananda for the past 20 years. He is the author of seven books including Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here, co-written with Bruce Lipton. He has been an OpEd News contributor since 2006.