The 1983 TV mini-series, Blood Feud, chronicles the decade-long struggle between Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and James R. Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union.
By 1963, the Mafia despairs of the increasing pressure of the Justice Department. At a swanky restaurant, several high-ranking members agree that “something” must be done.
[Although this scene is fictional, it’s clearly based on an infamous outburst of Carlos Marcello, the longtime Mafia boss of New Orleans.
Carlos Marcello
[In 1961, Marcello was deported to his native Guatemala on orders by RFK. After illegally re-entering the country, he swore vengeance against the Attorney General.
[In September, 1962, during a meeting with several mob colleagues, he flew into a rage when someone mentioned Kennedy: “Don’t you worry about that little Bobby sonofabitch. He’s going to be taken care of!”
[Marcello believed that the death of President Kennedy would render the Attorney General powerless. And he added that he planned to use a “nut” to do the job.]
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Blood Feud clearly implies that the Mafia was responsible.
[The House Assassinations Committee investigated this possibility in 1978, and determined that Carlos Marcello, the Mafia boss of New Orleans, had the means, motive and opportunity to kill JFK. But it could not find any conclusive evidence of his involvement.]
Even with the President dead, RFK’s Justice Department continues to pursue Hoffa. In 1964, he is finally convicted of jury tampering and sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment.
U.S. Department of Justice
Hoping to avoid prison, Hoffa offers future Teamsters support if RFK runs for President. To prove he can deliver, he tells Kennedy that the Teamsters have even penetrated the FBI.
[In March, 1964, Kennedy met with Hoffa on an airfield at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
[Kennedy spoke quietly with Hoffa. The Attorney General showed him a document, and Hoffa at times nodded or shook his head.
[Kennedy never revealed the reason for the meeting.
[Gus Russo—author of Live By the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK—writes that the reason might have been Dallas.
[Perhaps, he speculates, RFK had wanted to look into Hoffa’s eyes while asking him: Did you have anything to do with the assassination? RFK had, in fact, done this with CIA Director John McCone almost immediately after his brother’s death.]
In Blood Feud, Kennedy confronts J. Edgar Hoover (Ernest Borgnine) and accuses him of illegally planting wiretaps in Mob hangouts all over the country.
J. Edgar Hoover and Robert F. Kennedy
Hoover retorts that this had been the only way to obtain the prosecution-worthy intelligence Kennedy had demanded: “You loved that flow of information. You didn’t want it to stop.”
Kennedy: Why did you keep the FBI out of the fight against the Mob for decades?
Hoover: “Every agency that came to grips with them got corrupted by their money.”
[So far as is known, Hoover never made any such confession. Historians continue to guess his reason for leaving the Mob alone for decades.]
-33510-W&docid=hCd9k6PuglvZAM&tbnid=CAo7BRzGtBWa3M%3A&w=500&h=375&bih=469&biw=819&ved=0ahUKEwiissafvJ_MAhUGKWMKHTZZA_MQxiAIAg&iact=c&ictx=1)
Ernest Borgnine as J. Edgar Hoover
RFK then mentions the CIA’s plots to employ the Mob to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro
[The agency had wanted to please President Kennedy, and the Mafia had wanted to regain its casinos lost to the Cuban Revolution. The role the Kennedy brothers played in the CIA’s assassination plots remains murky, and has been the subject of endless speculation.]
“The CIA, doing business with the Mob,” says Kennedy. “The FBI, leaking information to its enemies [the Teamsters].” Then, sadly: “I guess it’s true–everyone does business with everyone.”
[So far as is known, the FBI did not pass on secrets to the Teamsters. But during the 1970s, the Mafia penetrated the Cleveland FBI office through bribes to a secretary. Several FBI Mob informants were “clipped” as a result.]
In 1967, Hoffa goes to prison. He stays there until, in 1971, President Richard Nixon commutes his sentence in hopes of gaining Teamsters’ support for his 1972 re-election.
Kennedy leaves the Justice Department in 1964 and is elected U.S. Senator from New York. In 1968 he runs for President. On June 5, after winning the California primary, he’s assassinated.
Hoffa schemes to return to the presidency of the Teamsters–a post now held by his successor, Frank Fitzsimmons. He runs the union in a more relaxed style than Hoffa, thus giving the Mob greater control over its pension fund.
And the Mafia likes it that way.
On July 30, 1975, Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox Restaurant near Detroit. He had gone there to meet with two Mafia leaders.
Forty-three years after the death of James R. Hoffa, and 50 years after that of Robert F. Kennedy:
- Labor unions are a shadow of their former power.
- The threat they once represented to national prosperity has been replaced by that of predatory corporations like Enron and AIG.
- The war RFK began on the Mafia has continued, sending countless mobsters to prison.
- Millions of Americans who once expected the Federal Government to protect them from crime now believe the Government is their biggest threat.
- The idealism that fueled RFK’s life has virtually disappeared from politics.
&docid=SiluTuHYHtjaZM&tbnid=uLB-PLYDVdkkVM%3A&w=455&h=341&ei=zeN_VI_hKYHjoATGs4Bo&ved=0CAIQxiAwAA&iact=c)
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AP, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIA, CNN, CRAIG UNGER, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, FBI, FOX NEWS, GREG MILLER, HILLARY CLINTON, HOUSE OF PUTIN (BOOK), HOUSE OF TRUMP, ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA (ISIS), ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE, JAMES COMEY, JEANINE PIRRO, LESTER HOLT, MALCOM W. NANCE, MICHAEL ISIKOFF, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT MUELLER, RUSSIA, RUSSIAN ROULETTE (BOOK), SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SERGEY KISLYAK, SERGEY LAVROV, SLATE, THE APPRENTICE (BOOK), THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PLOT TO DESDTROY DEMOCRACY (BOOK), THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TREASON, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN
THE EVIDENCE IS IN: TRUMP IS A TRAITOR
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on January 17, 2019 at 12:10 amDonald Trump—who loves to shatter traditions set by past Presidents—set another precedent on January 14.
He became the first President in American history to deny that he was a Russian agent.
Donald Trump
This was prompted by a weekend report in The New York Times that the FBI started investigating him in 2017, after he fired then-FBI Director James Comey.
“I never worked for Russia,” Trump told reporters on the south lawn of the White House, before departing for New Orleans. “Not only did I never work for Russia, I think it’s a disgrace that you even asked that question because it’s a whole big fat hoax.”
On January 12, Trump had refused to directly answer the question.
During an interview with him on Fox News, Trump cheerleader Jeanine Pirro asked him: “Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?”
Instead of giving an emphatic “No,” Trump attacked the Times, saying the question the story raised was “the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked.”
The Kremlin
Of curse, this is not the first time questions have been legitimately raised about Trump’s loyalty to the United States.
On July 22, 2016, during his campaign for President, Trump said at a press conference in Doral, Florida: “Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 33,000 emails that are missing [from Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s computer]. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Hours later, the Main Intelligence Directorate in Moscow targeted Clinton’s personal office and hit more than 70 other Clinton campaign accounts.
On May 9, 2017, as President, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey for investigating Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential race.
James Comey
On May 11, during an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump admitted his motive: “And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said: ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.’”
On May 10, Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office—and gave them highly classified Israeli Intelligence about an Islamic State plot to turn laptops into concealable bombs.
And on July 16, 2018, Trump attended a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There he blamed American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—instead of Putin for Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential election: “I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
Americans must wait for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to release his (hopefully public) report on Russia’s efforts to subvert the 2016 Presidential race. In the meantime, they can avail themselves of a series of deeply-researched, well-written books on just that subject.
Among these:
Thus, there is already sufficient evidence publicly available for patriotic Americans to reach the damning conclusion: The man now sitting in the Oval Office is an illegitimate usurper, installed by an unholy alliance of American Fascists and Russian Communists.
And to justify such a musical “salute” to him as the following:
PUTIN BE TRUMP
(To be sung to the tune, “Johnny B. Goode”)
Way back inside the Kremlin where the lights glow red
There ruled a man named Putin who would poison you dead.
He came up with a plan to make his Russia great.
And all it took was bribes and Republican hate.
Yes, Trumpy was a man who couldn’t read or spell
But he could sell out his land just like he’s ringing a bell.
Go go
Go Putin go!
Go
Go Putin go!
Go
Go Putin go!
Go
Go Putin go!
Go
Putin B Trump!
He used to carry a big gun that he used with glee
Filling up the Gulag was his specialty.
The KGB just loved him ‘cause he ruled by fear
They laughed at every time he said: “More prisoners here!”
The guards at Lubyanka would salute and say:
“Oh my, but Vlad Putin sure has made my day!”
Go go
Go Putin go!
Go
Go Putin go!
Go
Go Putin go!
Go
Go Putin go!
Go
Putin B Trump!
His mother told him, “Someday you will be a man,
And you will be the leader of this Russian land.
Handing out bribes to every traitorous chump
Till you hit the jackpot with a shit named Trump.
Someday your fame is gonna burn real bright
As in ‘Putin B Trump’ tonight!”
Go go
Go Putin go!
Go go go Putin go!
Go go go Putin go!
Go go go Putin go!
Go
Putin B Trump!
Share this:
Like this: