I have had both my medical appointments. The good news is that my back has not deteriorated since the surgery three years ago. The not-so-good news is I have arthritis in my left hip. The calcium deposit in the socket is clearly visible. That’s actually good news because it tells me why I have pain in my left hip.The best course of action and plan for treatment is back to physical therapy. I am happy about this too. PT has brought good results in the past.

Today’s internist visit was uneventful, but the blood work isn’t back. I’m not particularly worried, however. I received a pneumonia vaccination today. That has me feeling a little unwell, but I often respond to vaccinations in this way.

J and I had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. We like the food and the wait staff. Since I wasn’t feeling well, J took me hope whilst she went shopping. I lay down for a while.

I’m reading a book about the John F. Kennedy assassination, The Man Who Killed Kennedy. The Case Against LBJ. by Roger Stone and Mike Colapietro. (Skyhorse Publishing, 2013). For those of you who weren’t around fifty years ago, LBJ refers to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Kennedy’s successor.

The Kennedy assassination is an American obsession; The Warren Report, (the “official” explanation) has had sceptics ever since its publication. Time has only added more disbelievers to their ranks. Nearly all of the popular theories disputing the Warren Commission absolve Lee Harvey Oswald of any guilt in the killing and attribute the murder to a joint venture of organized crime and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Both organizations had powerful motives to kill The President, such as the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. Kennedy refused to aid the CIA sponsored Anti-Castro rebels. Organized crime felt that, while they aided the election of JFK, particularly in Chicago, they felt betrayed when Attorney General Robert Kennedy (JFK’s brother) began a vigorous campaign against the Mob. Johnson figures into the story because of a long history of corruption. Two scandals involving him were about to break in the media at the time of the assassination. Many of these legends all sound too outlandish to be believed, but much of what supports the conspiracy “theories” is fact.

The legacy of the assassination remains with us today. The idea of a “deep state” working outside of the governing political party(ies) are in the back story of the JFK assassination. The CIA had been functioning with little oversight, from any branch of government, since it’s creation in the late 1940’s, At the time of the JFK murder, we saw the FBI engaged in domestic intelligence gathering on any American politician or public figure whom its Director, J Edgar Hoover, did not like. The close relationship between Hoover and Johnson fostered a quid pro quo that allowed Hoover to stay in power after the mandatory retirement age, whole Hoover fed Johnson with material for political blackmail.

Within eighteen months of the Kennedy assassination came the introduction of American ground troops into Vietnam. LBJ’s judgment about the war was clouded by a corrupt relationship with defense contractors, who profited from the war (and, by implication, gave Johnson kickbacks). It was an ugly era in American History,