Another windows-open night of fitful sleeping. So much traffic noise from E.-Street. Not city traffic noise, although that’s pretty horrible, too, however potentially well-compensated or ameliorated by city amenities. No, this is just highway noise, cars and trucks at all hours, speeding, across potholes and uneven pavement, which make the noise even worse. Should I go on for three pages about my noise aversion? Or write about how, against all odds, it’s a beautiful day, as was yesterday? Yet, since the weather has been so perfect, all the windows were open, and the traffic noise deafening.
I read a strange blog post late yesterday, tweeted out by Roseanne Barr (a Trump supporter). It called on the GOP to stop sitting on their thumbs and to help Trump. It also warned that, should the current witch hunt continue and Trump get impeached, it won’t be a “win” for the GOP as far as “the base” is concerned. That they will rise up and form a viable third party, finally destroying the chances of the GOP. I think that’s probably accurate, if maybe +/-20% wishful thinking. But it could happen. The article also went on to list conspiracy theory grievances and reasons for the crusade against Trump, as seen from a Trump supporter’s point-of-view.
Reading this, it hit me: something that has bugged me for a while came into view more clearly. A while back I read Peter Janney’s book, Mary’s Mosaic, which tries to explain the John F. Kennedy assassination from a “fresh” conspiracy theory perspective. I read the book because Janney lived or was living [here], so the “local” connection definitely drew me in. I found it long-winded in spots, but also surprisingly fascinating. Janney argues that Mary Pinchot Meyer was JFK’s true love and soul mate, and that Mary was a proponent of the One World Government idea – as was her husband, Cord Meyer, before he joined the CIA and turned away from it (presumably in favor of a traditional nation-state – America first? – outlook). Janney claims Mary had turned JFK on to this One World Government view, and that she was murdered because of it, as was JFK, whom the CIA saw as a threat because of his Mary-induced propensity to be a One World versus an America First leader. I’m deliberately using the “America first” phrasing to show the connection to the present, or rather: to show also the intractability of conspiracy theorists – and theories.
The blog post admonishing the GOP used the “George Soros and Barack Obama are plotting a One World Government which will disempower us” argument – except now the One World Government is seen as unequivocally negative. In Mary Meyer’s youth it was considered a good thing, …and perhaps during JFK’s reign as a New Frontier? In Janney’s version of JFK’s assassination, the imputed “aims” of Soros, Obama, Blair, and every other Eurocrat would be seen as salvational, and the CIA as the bad Neanderthals trying to keep us yoked to a nation-state / sovereign state view. In today’s conspiracy theories on the anti-globalist right-wing side, those One World forces are the true evil – but again, the CIA is kind of the bad guy because they’re aiding the wrong side. It’s fascinating.