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Will be a senate candidate for the Science Party in the May Federal election. https://www.scienceparty.org.au/candidates I will also be an independent candidate for the Senate in the upcoming state election and will be grouped with the James Jansson Team 4 NSW. Please check out our policies and consider voting for humanity. https://www.scienceparty.org.au/federal_policy

Cue Joni Mitchell... It just dawned on me that there are areas of the JFK case that both sides are desperate to keep on the table as part of the canonical time-line. Some examples... THE SECOND FLOOR ENCOUNTER THAT NEVER WAS Both sides want to keep the Truly-Baker-Oswald 2nd floor lunchroom encounter. To the Lone-Nutters, it was theoretically possible for Oswald to have shot JFK and gotten to the 2nd floor in time for such an encounter. Keeping it also maintains the integrity of Truly and Baker. The Conspiracists want to keep it because they maintain that it was all but impossible for Oswald to have shot JFK and get to the 2nd floor in time. The fact is that there was no 2nd floor encounter. The evidence clearly shows Oswald was on the 1st floor just after the assassination. THE FOUND OSWALD WALLET THAT NEVER WAS Both sides want to keep the wallet displayed on TV at the Tippit site as belonging to Oswald and holding two sets of ID. Ron Reiland, who provided the commentary for the footage he himself had taken, mistakenly assumed it was Tippit's wallet. To the Lone-Nutters, the wallet is absolute proof that Oswald shot Tippit. To the Conspiracists, the wallet was planted and proof that Oswald was being framed. Both sides have their late witness entries supporting their positions. Ex-FBI Agent Farris Rookstool claims his analysis of the wallet shows it to be Oswald's. Conspiracists have Kenneth Croy, the officer who was first on the scene, stating in a 2002 interview that an unknown witness handed Oswald's wallet to him, but that other witnesses saw no such a wallet on the ground - thus indicating that the witness was introducing fraudulent evidence. The facts are that Rookstool entered the case with a pro-guilty bias against Oswald, and it obviously colors anything and everything he says about the case. Croy on the other hand, testified to the Warren Commission that his sole actions were in passing three witnesses to other police when they arrived (Croy was a Reserve Officer and not authorized to act alone). One of those witnesses was described as a taxi driver. This was William Scoggins who was one of two witnesses who had set off after the killer, taking Tippit's revolver with them. The other man was Ted Calloway. Both Scoggins and Croy assumed Calloway was a detective. Here is what Croy said in testimony: Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you talk with the taxi driver? Mr. CROY. Yes; I did. I talked to the taxi driver. Mr. GRIFFIN. Now, did you talk with him on the scene of the crime? Mr. CROY. Yes. Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you remember what his name was? Mr. CROY. No; I didn't get his name. There was a private detective agency. There was a report that a cabdriver had picked up Tippit's gun and had left, presumably. They don't know whether he was the one that had shot Tippit, or whether the man, I think it was he, brought someone out there, something. Anyway, he saw it and he picked up Tippit's gun and attempted to give chase or something like that. Mr. GRIFFIN. There was a detective who was an eyewitness? Mr. CROY. No; he brought the taxi driver back to the scene. Mr. GRIFFIN. But the taxicab driver was an eyewitness? Mr. CROY. As far as I know. Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you talk to the taxicab driver? Mr. CROY. No; I took Tippit's gun and several other officers came up, and I turned him over to them and they questioned him. From Scoggins' testimony: Mr. BELIN. What did you see him do? This man came up and picked up the policeman's gun. He picked it up and said, "Let's go see if we can find him?" Mr. SCOGGINS. I thought the man was a kind of police, Secret Service or something, I didn't know, and I take him and we drove around over the neighborhood looking, and I still didn't know what kind--I still thought he was connected with the Police department in some way. Nowhere in his testimony did Croy say anything at all about a witness handing him a wallet of any description - let alone any containing Oswald ID. The most logical explanation using the testimony of Scoggins and Croy, is that other witnesses at the scene assumed Calloway was a detective or a private detective or some other security agent who had commandeered Tippit's weapon, Scoggins and Scoggins' cab to try and catch the murderer. Croy also assumed that Calloway was a private detective. He further assumed he had taken Scoggins into custody as the killer or driver of the killer. In any event, because of the gung-ho actions of Calloway, Scoggins was briefly, a potential suspect. In that light, police would most definitely be checking his wallet for ID. In short, the wallet being checked by police and filmed for for the TV coverage, was not Tippit's, not Owalds and not a throwdown to frame him. It was the wallet of witness and initial suspect, William Scoggins. THE PARAFFIN TEST RED HERRING Both sides are happy to agree that Paraffin tests have been shown to be junk science having no probative value and therefore Oswald's paraffin results can be thrown out. The Lone Nutters want the evidence disregarded because it was negative on the cheek. Conspiracists want it thrown out because it was positive the hands. Some general facts: paraffin tests are never conducted on cheeks because gunpowder residue (mainly nitrates) cannot escape a rifle chamber. Nitrates are found in a range of common materials apart from gunpowder residue and therefore, the presence of nitrates on the hands only means it is possible you fired a handgun - not that you must have. Usually police also test clothing for nitrates. Some specific facts: Oswald was given the Paraffin Test immediately after having palm prints taken with an inkless pad which uses iron trichloride to make the print, leaving very little visible presence on the hand. This was done in Fritz's office on Fritz's orders. There were no handwashing facilities available between the two procedures. This means that the iron trichloride from the pad would give a false positive on the Paraffin Test for the hands. Additionally, Oswald's clothes were not tested. The Atomic Energy Commission later conducted Neutron Activation tests on the paraffin casts. These tests have greater scope for detection of minute metal particle. The NAA (Neutron Activation Analysis) showed traces of barium and antimony on both sides of the cheek cast, indicating contamination. Conclusion: the debate over the validity of the Paraffin tests is a complete Red Herring. The palm print followed immediately by Paraffin tests had a twofold aim. The palm print was planted on the metal part of the barrel which is covered by the wooden stock. It could not be planted in a more visible place because it had already been checked for prints by both DPD and the FBI. The palm print would also ensure a positive result on the hands for the Paraffin test. The now "found" palm print and the positive Paraffin Test would be used to try and scare a confession - and to try Oswald through the media, which was informed that the Paraffin test was positive - without the additional and essential information that nothing had been found on the cheek. This left the impression Oswald had fired a rifle and a pistol. The fact is, he had fired neither - and the police knew it.

• Back in New Orleans after leaving New York, Lee Oswald joins the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) run by "Captain" Dave Ferrie. One day, Marguerite comes home from work to find Lee dressed in his CAP uniform along with an adult in uniform who tries to talk Marguerite into forging paperwork to get Lee into the Marines prior to the legal age. Marguerite assumes this person is a Marine recruitment officer (or is told that is what he is), but it is known that Dave Ferrie was constantly encouraging his young charges to join the Marines. Since Lee was in his CAP uniform, it stands to reason he had just come back from a CAP meeting and that the adult with him was none other than Dave Ferrie and not a random Marine recruitment officer. • The CAP had released details in 1948 of commencing it's own countersubversive programs and operations. In doing so, the CAP requested "permission" from both the FBI and CIA - indicating that their plans involved both domestic and overseas components. Indeed, the plans included teaching recruits into the program, lessons in the Russian language, culture and military tactics. Domestically, the plan was to place recruits into various businesses and given the names of fellow employees suspected of being comsymps to spy and report on. Ferrie started such clandestine groups within his CAP unit (“the Omnipotents”) and soon Oswald would be studying Marx and learning Russian and trying to talk a fellow employee at a dental lab where he worked as a messenger boy, into searching for and joining Communist cells. • Sylvia Ludlow Hyde Hoke, the sister of Ruth Paine, worked for the CIA as a psychologist under military cover at the Human Resources Research Office housed at George Washington University. She was part of a team working on recruitment issues regarding maintenance of planes used in the FICON project - a precursor project to the U2 flights. The final report was issued in September 1956. The following month, Lee Oswald joined the Marines, listing Aircraft Maintenance and Repair as his preference, and ultimately working in the radar maintenance unit at Atsugi, Japan - home of the U2. • Richard Bissell was head of the CIA U2 program and also Deputy Director of Plans, the section which accounted for more than half of the CIA budget. This also made him responsible for all covert operations. Bissell issued a memo on September 2, 1959 stating that operations against the Soviets were to be increased. Two days later, Oswald, the former U2 base radar operator, applied for his passport with the aim of traveling to the Soviet Union. • Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union via Helsinki - the only place at that time that an American could gain quick access to a Soviet entry visa - and this was only because the CIA had spent months lavishing the Chief Soviet Consulate officer, Gregory Golub, with female companions, lunches and dinners. Golub finally agreed that he would issue quick visas to American citizens if they purchased Intourist vouchers and looked "okay" to him. He issued the first two such visas shortly before the arrival of Oswald. Normally the visas would take weeks, but Oswald got his in one to two days. The usually frugal Oswald also purchased 10 expensive Intourist vouches.