Watch Mojo: 'The Watergate Scandal- Timeline and Background'

Source:Watch Mojo- Richard M. Nixon (Republican, California) 37th President of the United States.

Source:The New Democrat 

"Though the public only first caught wind of this scandal after the June 17th, 1972 Watergate break-in, the controversy was years in the making.  Groups close to the White House used illegal means to assure their president, Richard Nixon, would get elected to a second term.  And the Watergate burglary was a chance to spy on the Democratic Party.  It wasn’t long before a trail led straight to key people in the Republican Party, and the cover-up began.  Intrepid reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, with help from their anonymous source Deep Throat, helped unravel the mess, and eventually the Watergate Scandal forced the first and only resignation of a U.S. president... 

From Watch Mojo

I’ll tell you how Watergate was uncovered: ask John Dean, nah, just kidding, but John Dean is how Watergate broke. I’m not saying that Watergate wouldn’t have broken without John Dean. And I’m not talking about the Washington Watergate burglary itself, which is a local Washington police story a point that I’ve made before. 

The Watergate scandal that I’m talking about really needs a new name for the scandal that it was, because the real scandal in the Nixon White House was not the Watergate burglary, because President Nixon didn’t order or organize that and it wasn’t the coverup either.

The real scandal in the Nixon White House was what Len Colodny said in this video which was the Nixon secret government. The criminal operations inside of the Nixon White House. The plumbers really and what that unit inside of the Nixon White House and what they were doing. The illegal break ins and intelligence operations done by this group to get intelligence on Dick Nixon opponents and even enemies. And opponents of the Nixon Administration itself.

Where John Dean comes in as White House counsel up until the summer of 1973 when Congress started looking into this story with the Senate Watergate hearings, is that Dean broke what was going on in the Nixon White House. He was in charge of the Watergate coverup, but also knew about the plumbers and everything they were doing. 

Without John Dean, we not only don’t know what President Nixon knew and when he knew it. But we also don’t know about the criminal operations that we're going on inside of the Nixon White House, because Congress was asleep (or drunk, or too busy raising money and running for reelection) and not doing their proper oversight of the Nixon White House.

Zanny Tarrow: Dick Cavett- Watergate: Documentary Secrets of The Dead

Source: Zanny Tarrow- Former Richard Nixon White House Domestic Policy Adviser, John Ehrlichman.

Source:The New Democrat

At best I can gather, God that sounds lame, but as best as I know it, President Richard Nixon made the decision to coverup the Watergate investigation the day his Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman gave him his first intelligence briefing about it. The day after the story broke or something close to that. The decision might have been made by President Nixon to coverup the investigation the day the President found out that people from his reelection campaign were involved in the break in. But the Nixon White House made the decision to coverup the story fairly early on in this story. So Dick Nixon sealed his fate and presidency early on in this story because he’s on tape officially deciding to coverup the story. Without the taping system we wouldn’t have known that.
Source:Zanny Tarrow

Another TV: Secrets of War- Documentary on The Nixon Presidency

Source:Another TV- A very young Richard Nixon.

Source:The New Democrat

Assuming that this is true that Richard Nixon was negotiating with North Vietnam, the Communist Republic of Vietnam back then, as a private citizen without the permission of the Lyndon Johnson Administration, then you can add that to the long list of charges and real felonies that any other American would’ve done at least twenty-years on in prison for. Assuming the prosecution decided to prosecute Dick Nixon on all of those charges. And if this is true, then Nixon became a criminal before he became President of the United States.

And this is two or three years before Watergate and a couple of years before the plumbers unit was installed in the Nixon White House. The plumbers and the criminal operations inside of the Nixon White House was the real crimes of the Nixon White House. What Watergate did, well actually what the Nixon coverup of Watergate did, was to blow open all the illegal operations of the Nixon White House. That would’ve gotten President Nixon impeached by the U.S. House in 1974 and most likely convicted by the U.S. Senate in the same year as well.

What the Nixon campaign did in 1968 and then of course the plumbers unit in the White House in the early 1970s, there’s no way they would’ve gotten way with that today. And probably not in the 1990s and perhaps not the 1980s as well. Because they were holding so many secrets and trying to plug so many holes. And those holes would’ve broken in the information revolution of cable news and the internet. And people in the White House quite frankly, trying to save their asses.
Source:Another TV

Watergate: The Conspiracy Crumbles (1994)

Source:The New Democrat

President Nixon killed his presidency, at least his second term the day he decided to tell his Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman to order the FBI to drop their Watergate investigation. Once Dick Nixon learned that members of his own campaign team and people who also worked for his White House were involved in Watergate, he decided that the way to handle this investigation was to cover up. But covering up Watergate is like trying to stop a river that is flooding, with a mop. You know, good luck and I hope you don’t drown trying to mop your own floor.

Again Watergate by itself, minor league baseball perhaps even rookie ball for players who just graduated high school and looking for a job in the summer. A typical job done by, quite frankly assholes who don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Perhaps are high on Red Bull or something and looking for something to do at around 3AM. But Watergate was a coverup in its own, because it covered up the real scandals in the Nixon White House. The organized crime operation done at the expense of Nixon political opponents.

If Watergate broke and people know the truth behind Watergate, the Nixon presidency goes down as well. That was President Nixon’s calculation. Not something that a politician of Dick Nixon’s talent, skills and intelligence would assume. They would say, “look we’re not involved here, let the Washington PD and FBI needed do their jobs and let’s get back to national affairs”. And that would be the cynical attitude. The good public servant would’ve said, “this is a Washington police story, let them do their jobs and we’ll do ours”.

One of the sad things about Watergate, is that a lot of the men involved were good moral men. Gordon Liddy, a conscience short of being a good person and a case of beer short of being a sane person would be an exception. But most of these men were career lawyers and good family men with wives and kids. And had they never of worked for Dick Nixon, they never end up in a scandal like this. Hell, had Dick Nixon not of become President, he probably ends up running his own New York law firm, or a college professor. A very talented man.

Mark Whitney: Watergate: '784 Days That Changed America (1980)'

Source:The New Democrat

Lets say the Watergate burglary was exactly that, or perhaps was done by people who were really loyal to the Nixon campaign, but not connected to the campaign in any way and never had been connected to the campaign in any way, this would’ve been nothing more than a Washington police story reported by the Washington local media. But the thing is Watergate became a wall holding back a river of water and when the Watergate scandal broke everything that the Nixon White House was covering up also broke. Watergate was the key to opening up every illegal operation that the Nixon White House was involved in.

As bad as covering up the Watergate scandal that the White House was involved in, it was single A minor league baseball compared to what the White House was doing. The illegal break ins, planting false information on their political opponents, which is what they did to George McGovern presidential campaign, as well as the George Wallace presidential campaign. The plumbers unit itself, the White House intelligence unit that pulled off a lot of the break ins was illegal because it hadn’t been sanctioned by law.

Were there past presidents that had been involved in illegal activities and using their agencies to interfere and abuse their political opponents, I’m sure there were. But those presidents didn’t have a Watergate and had the judgement to not let scandals get out of hand and not cover them up. They didn’t have a Watergate and they didn’t cover up a Watergate. Without Watergate, we may still not know today about the illegal activities that the Nixon White House was involved in. Third-rate burglary, sure but still one of the most important stories and scandals in American history

Helmer Reenberg: 'The 1963 Meeting in Jack Ruby's Apartment'

Source:Helmer Reenberg- This is about Jack Ruby and a meeting that he had in his apartment, perhaps about the JFK assassination.

Source:The New Democrat

"Assassination of John F. Kennedy, mortal shooting of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, as he rode in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. His accused killer was Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who had embraced Marxism and defected for a time to the Soviet Union. Oswald never stood trial for murder, because, while being transferred after having been taken into custody, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a distraught Dallas nightclub owner." 

From Britannica 

"Three attorneys and two newsmen met in Jack Rubys apartment in Oak Cliff sunday evening, November 24th 1963, after Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Bill Hunter, Long Beach Independent Press Telegram and Jim Koethe, Dallas Times Herald interviewed George Senator. Also there was the attorney Tom Howard. Earlier that day Senator and Howard had both visited Jack Ruby in jail. That evening Senator arranged for Koethe, Hunter and Howard to search Ruby's apartment. 

What happened in the appartment and what did they see or find?" 

From Helmer Reenberg

Apparently there was a meeting in Jack Ruby’s apartment in the Dallas area the day after the JFK assassination. And even if we do know who was at that meeting, we don’t know what that meeting was about. Only the people there know and at least one of them is dead, that being Jack Ruby.

Here’s what we do know: Jack Ruby knew Lee Oswald prior to killing Oswald. Ruby not only had associates who did work for the Italian Mafia and perhaps other organized criminal gangs in Dallas. Oswald hated Jack Kennedy, the Mafia hated Jack Kennedy and Ruby was one of their associates and killed one of the men who knows most of it not the whole story surrounding the JFK assassination.

Which leaves people including myself to speculate do we know everything about this assassination and how many people exactly were involved. Did Lee Oswald have help, or was he by himself.

Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History

Source:The New Democrat

The Watergate burglary was short of just the tip of the iceberg as far as what happened during the Nixon Administration especially the White House. And without the Nixon coverup, we may of never known the full truth of what happened in the Nixon White House as far as their criminal activities. But once the coverup started, that brought in Congress, which started with the Senate’s 1973 hearings on Watergate, which were really about the 1972 presidential campaign as a whole. And then House took that and started looking into impeachment in 1974.

All President Nixon had to do was to let the Watergate investigation go forward and not interfere with the FBI and report on exactly what they knew about the Watergate burglary and that would’ve closed the door on that investigation. Watergate was just a burglary that Dick Nixon didn’t even know about until it was first reported. The major crimes in the Nixon White House had little if anything to do with Watergate. The real crimes were the other activities that the Nixon White House were involved in before Watergate.

The Nixon crimes had to do with ordering illegal break ins and bugging’s on private American citizens. The Brookings Institution perfect example of that. The secret bombings of Cambodia without Congressional approval or authorization. And as Richard Reeves put it in this film, “had the Democratic Congress been alive back then, they would’ve discovered the real crimes of the Nixon White House pre-Watergate”. Those crimes happened at around 1970 or so with the Nixon White House concern about the anti-war movement and the New Left in America in general. Watergate was small potatoes in comparison.

The Lip TV: Byod With Ondi Timoner: 'Dimitri Logothetis On Why Sam Giacana Killed JFK'

Source:The New Democrat

One of the followers of this blog is a big fan of JFK assassination conspiracy theories and is currently reading a book that has its own theory of the JFK assassination. So I think he might like this and is welcome to comment on this post and let us know what he thinks about this. As far as Dimitri Logothetis about Sam Giancana ordering the assassination of President Kennedy, before anyone calls Mr. Logothetis a whack job or anything like that, he’s only putting a theory out there. And admitted in this interview that the only people who know how many people are responsible for the JFK assassination are all dead.

Again these are theories, some of them are nutty and baseless in fact. Like the fact that Far-Right racists and radicals in Dallas murdered Jack Kennedy and did it by themselves. Or that Vice President Lyndon Johnson murdered the hit on Kennedy. Or the CIA and perhaps the FBI as well ordered and perhaps even did the hit themselves. But at least one of them has real hard evidence around it and that is the one I’m going with about the Italian Mafia and that they had a lot to gain with President Kennedy being killed. They had the motive, the opportunity and the people to do it. And the fact that Jack Ruby was connected with them and that Ruby was also connected with the JFK killer Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination, just backs this theory up.

Dimitri Logothetis is not saying that he knows that Sam Giancana and his crew murdered President Kennedy. What he’s saying is that based on all the evidence that he’s seen, that he believes that is the most likely scenario. And who better a patsy than Lee Oswald and Jack Ruby. I mean who would miss those two people. Oswald hated Kennedy and didn’t have anyone around to miss him. Ruby was one of the Mafia’s men and who associated with them, hung out with them and did business with them. And plus he was already dying before being sent to prison for killing Oswald. So these things add up and are worth considering as far as how many people may be responsible for the JFK assassination.

CBS News: Sunday Morning- Mo Rocca: 'Ronald Reagan's One-Liners'

Source:CBS Sunday Morning- President Ronald W. Reagan: 40th POTUS. 

SourceThe New Democrat

“Mo Rocca does some digging into the Reagan wit and uncovers a treasure trove of jokes – many written by the man himself – in a very humorous look back on a politician who always had a one-liner at hand.”

From CBS Sunday Morning

I’m surprised with Ronald Reagan’s great sense of humor and not all of it being political, that after his b-movie acting career dried up like fresh dirt in the desert in the 1950s, that he didn’t go into comedy writing and perhaps take that writing which he did anyway on the stage. And try a career as a comedic actor, or a standup comedian, hosting his own late night talk show, which is what Jack Parr, Jack Benny and later Johnny Carson did. That type of format would’ve been perfect for him. He obviously wasn’t a great actor, but someone with intelligence, who could also act and with a great sense of humor.

To sort of build on Ron Reagan’s daughter Patti and what she said about her father in the video: Reagan had a rough childhood. He didn’t have an absent father, but he probably saw his father drunk as often as he saw him sober and that made things difficult for him and his family.

And then you look at his broadcasting, entertainment and then later political career, you would almost have to have a great sense of humor to get through those experiences. Out-of-work in your early forties or so in the 1950s when practically everyone else was working in the 1950s, must have been rough on Big Ron.

Reagan had the GM Theater show, which was similar to what you see now with Turner Classic Movies. Where there would be a host coming out and giving a little preview of the movie and then they would go to the movie.

And then after that is was basically straight into politics. First campaigning for Barry Goldwater when he ran for president in 1964 and starting his own political career in 1965. When I think he probably could’ve been successful pre-politics as a comedy writer, or even political satirist. And writing satires and articles and perhaps even books. Telling people what is funny and what he thinks Americans should be thinking about politically as well.

JFK News 1963: NBC News- Coverage of The Oswald Shooting

Source:JFK News- NBC News coverage of the JFK assassination, in 1963.

Source:The New Democrat 

“From the Morning of Sunday November 24th 1963 NBC News LIVE coverage of the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Dallas night club owner Jack Ruby. This video begins at 11:21 A.M C.S.T. The very minute he was shot reported by Tom Petitt.”

From JFK News 

"Assassination of John F. Kennedy, mortal shooting of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, as he rode in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. His accused killer was Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who had embraced Marxism and defected for a time to the Soviet Union. Oswald never stood trial for murder, because, while being transferred after having been taken into custody, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a distraught Dallas nightclub owner." 

Source:Britannica- from the Chicago Tribune.

From Britannica 

More like NBC News live coverage of the Ruby-Oswald shooting or what would be called today, raw news coverage. NBC News trying to cover a somewhat disorganized chaotic scene back in 1963. As the reporter said, just another chapter in story that doesn’t seem real.

First a President of the United States being assassinated in a car with Secret Service all around him. Then the man who assassinates the President being killed himself by a local nightclub owner/mobster Jack Ruby. Which just created a bunch of new questions after speculation had already begun about whether or not Lee Oswald was alone with his murderous plot, or did he have help.

I believe Oswald had help, but we still don’t know that and two of those reasons why I believe, are because both Lee Oswald and Jack Ruby died before we could find those things out.

Movie Clips Classic Trailer Vault: The Big Cube (1969) Starring Lana Turner

Source: Movie Clips Trailer Vault-Lana Turner- 

Source:The New Democrat

I’ve seen this movie a couple of times in the last week. And there really isn’t a slow or dull moment in it. Sure some of the writing is kind of cheesy, at least by today’s standards, but is a very exciting, entertaining and at times a very funny movie. Sort of like a funny soap opera where a very successful movie financier played by Dan O’Herlihy who is a widower with a young adult daughter, is about to get remarried and to a very successful gorgeous veteran actress Adriana Roman played by Lana Turner.

The Dan O’Herlihy character’s daughter Lisa, played by Karin Mossberg, doesn’t like her future stepmother, but grows to like her. And without her new boyfriend John Allen played by George Chakris, the two women probably would’ve gotten along very well. But John wants Lisa’s father’s money and sees Lisa as his ticket to get the money. And he has other ideas and uses Lisa throughout the movie to get what he wants, which is Lisa’s trust fund and whatever he believes Lisa is entitled to financially.

What makes this movie even more interesting, is that Dan O’Herlihy, well actually his character dies in the movie. In a boating accident with his new wife when they are caught in a big storm in the water. He drowns trying to save his wife who gets knocked off the boat. She somehow makes it to shore and suffers a serious concussion from the accident that is effecting her memory and other things. Lisa’s boyfriend John sees this as an opportunity to get what he wants. And the fact that he’s a former medical student, gets him what he needs to carry out his plan.

This is where LSD comes in and John convinces Lisa that her new stepmother, will never allow for them to be happy and get married. One of the conditions of Lisa’s trust fund an inheritance is that she can’t marry John or anyone that Adriana disapproves of. So John hatches a plan to drive Adriana legally insane with LSD and with Lisa and John coming into her bedroom late at night and forcing her into nightmares with different special effects. They almost succeed, but Lisa breaks it off when Adriana is almost killed during one of the stunts.

This is a ninety-eight minute movie without any slow periods and pretty exciting almost the entire movie. Richard Egan has a big role in this movie as perhaps a screenwriter, director, informal agent and adviser of Adriana’s and perhaps her only real friend in the movie. And he helps bring her out of what she is suffering. Someone with memory loss and trying to hide the nightmare of the boating accident that killed her husband. As well as helping her come back from what Lisa and her boyfriend put her through in the movie.
Source:Movie Clips Classic Trailer Vault

Roger Sharp Archive: Roger Sharp- Talking to Jack Ruby's Lawyers in 1963

Source:Roger Sharp Archive- ABC News anchor Roger Sharp, anchoring part of ABC News's coverage of the JFK Assassination in 1963.

Source:The New Democrat 

"Following the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, ABC Correspondent Roger Sharp anchors from the WFAA-TV Dallas studios as correspondent Bill Lord interviews lawyers representing Jack Ruby, Oswald's killer. Excerpts are also shown of a press conference by Nellie Connally, the wife of Texas Governor John Connally, himself injured in the attack on the president. (November 24, 1963)" 

From Roger Sharp Archive

The Jack Ruby case had to been fascinating and one of those cases that I bet just about any hard-working good defense lawyer would want to take. Because it was not clear if Ruby was guilty of actual murder, at least not first degree murder and for at least a couple of reasons.

One, Ruby didn’t kill and innocent person, he killed Lee Harvey Oswald, but he killed the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

It is clear now and perhaps even when Ruby Killed Oswald, that Oswald at the very least had something to do with the JFK assassination. Not saying Ruby is innocent here, just saying it is not first degree murder. And I believe you could’ve easily of gotten it down to second degree murder, twenty-five to life. Or first degree manslaughter is twenty-years, twenty to life. And you could’ve made a pretty good case for temporary insanity on Jack Ruby’s part.

Bloodletters and Badmen: Mobsters- Anthony Spliotro: The Enforcer of Las Vegas

Source:Bloodletters and Badmen- Italian Chicago Mobster Anthony Spilotro. Who later became the mobster enforce in Las Vegas.

Source:The New Democrat 

"The Life & Death of Anthony Spilotro."

Source:Bio- Frank Lefty Rosenthal on the left & an unknown man.

From Bloodletters and Badmen

Tony Spilotro was one of the worst pieces of garbage (and I’m being nice here) that was ever produced by the Italian Mafia. I’m not even sure he cared about his own family, wife and kids and people who are supposed to be close to you. If the man had any conscience, it was as tiny as a flea and you needed a telescope or something, perhaps super vision in order to see it.

Spliotro, wasn’t one of the worst killers in American history. He was one of the most successful as far as the amount of murders that he’s responsible for. Either doing them personally, or ordering people to be murdered.

Spilotro, leaving Chicago for Las Vegas, was a Chicago blessing and Las Vegas hell. Because The Ant who was a giant among serial murderers for the amount of people he murdered, but he was never caught for any of them and never did anytime for them. To the point that Las Vegas Mafia saw The Ant as a threat and so did everyone involved a favor by whacking him in 1986. Not the most successful and dangerous mobster of all-time. But that might only be because The Ant was killed in 1986.

Roy DeMeo in New York might of actually been more successfully evil than Spilotro. But that would be like comparing Ted Bundy with John Gacy when it came to serial murderers. You can’t really lose there, but Spilotro dying actually benefited everyone involved. And serial murderers like Tony Spilotro are why America has a death penalty. Whether you are in favor of the death penalty or not, it is for people who murder. Murder multiple people and have no feelings or remorse about their murders.