#robert f. kennedy bridge

[emaadsidiki]

Robert F. Kennedy Bridge 🗽NYC

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Workers on the Manhattan and Queens sides meet and shake hands in the middle of the Triborough Bridge after a 27 ton cross-floor beam was riveted into place high over the waters of the East River, November 12, 1935.

Photo: NY Times Photo Archives

[architectureforsuicides]

The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971) Triborough Bronx Kill Truss Bridge / Triborough Bridge / Robert F. Kennedy Bridge / RFK Triborough Bridge / RFK Bridge / The RFK New York City, New York (USA) Bridge over the Bronx Kill Type: truss bridge.

[crudlynaturephotos]

[oerzttz]

[mariacallous]

Conspiracy theories and the people creating them have overwhelmed the US political process, and they’re becoming only more prevalent with each passing year. 2024 will be no different, if not worse: We’re already uncovering all kinds here on the WIRED Politics desk, from election conspiracy groups to claims that Boeing planes were made faulty on purpose. In the past few days alone, we’ve seen theories swirl online about the Baltimore bridge collapse and Kate Middleton’s cancer announcement.

A number of conspiracies were also given a boost this week by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long-shot presidential campaign. Let’s talk about them!

The Longest VP Announcement

On Tuesday, RFK Jr. officially announced his VP choice: Nicole Shanahan, a tech entrepreneur, lawyer, and very wealthy ex-wife of Google cofounder Sergey Brin. I checked in with WIRED contributor Anna Merlan to debrief what was probably the longest veep announcement in recent history, and to talk about the conspiracies, digital campaign strategies, and vaccine skeptics driving Kennedy’s campaign. I’ve been taking a hard look at how the campaign is reaching voters online, and Anna covered the announcement for WIRED. She’s also been reporting on RFK Jr. and the anti-vax conspiracy ecosystem for years.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

MK: Ok. Nicole Shanahan. When they played her introductory video at the RFK Jr. event, I wasn’t expecting her to come off so conspiratorial. Were you surprised by what she said at all?

AM: Obviously, Shanahan was widely reported to be the VP pick. I did not know her stance on medical conspiracy theories, but I figured there had to be something there because you probably wouldn't agree to appear on a ticket with RFK without that.

So in her introductory video, she said that her daughter started showing signs of autism spectrum disorder in her infancy, and then she segued into making a series of claims that are very legible to people in the anti-vaccine movement. She claimed that chronic illnesses and conditions like autism can be caused by environmental exposure, wireless technology, and medication. And then she added that science can't assess the cumulative effects of multiple childhood vaccines—which is not true. The childhood vaccine schedule is very, very, very studied. Vaccines are some of the safest, most tested medical products on earth. It's not true, but as a talking point, it is again incredibly recognizable to the anti-vaccine movement. So for me, hearing her saying that stuff solved a little bit of a mystery of why she's involved.

MK: There were a lot of other people on stage yesterday and I didn’t recognize all of them. Who were those people?

AM: This was obviously a very long event—I think you even tweeted that it was only slightly shorter than Dune 2, which is true. There was a parade of speakers: Some of the bigger ones were Del Bigtree, who is really well known among anti-vaccine activists and is currently serving as the Kennedy campaign’s communications director; Jay Bhattacharya, who is a very prominent anti-lockdown figure; a former border patrol agent; and a couple of people who are active, if not super well known, in the natural health space. Basically, these speakers were each meant to speak to a slightly different constituency, because RFK Jr.’s main focus for so long has been anti-vaccine activism.

MK: Let’s talk about Bigtree. I’m curious about the space he occupies in the online conspiracy world.

AM: Bigtree was definitely the biggest speaker who was on the stage. He’s a very well-known anti-vaccine activist and is the CEO of a group called Informed Consent Action Network that is funded by billionaire foreign donors. He was the producer of an extremely famous and successful vaccine movie called Vaxxed, with Andrew Wakefield, who is the father of the modern anti-vaccine movement. And he’s the person who first falsely claimed that there might be a link between vaccines and autism, and set off a huge panic. So, Bigtree is incredibly well known. He’s incredibly popular and his place on the Kennedy campaign, I would opine, is meant to signal to RFK Jr. supporters in the anti-vaccine community that it’s still going to be a concern for a theoretical Kennedy administration.

MK: It did feel like the campaign was trying to thread the needle between the left and the right.

AM: It’s an awkward fit, isn’t it? I mean, RFK Jr.’s campaign had a YouTube livestream where you could watch the announcement, and if you looked at the comments during the land acknowledgement for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, they were pretty, unsurprisingly, racist. This is not a reflection on his campaign necessarily, but it's a reflection on some people who might have been inclined to support him. The sort of tug between having a Bay Area tribe on stage to get the land acknowledgement and then having somebody come on stage to talk about his history as a border patrol agent is awkward. Is that actually going to work on a large number of undecided voters? I don't know, but clearly that was what it was meant to do.

MK: Earlier today, I saw an ad on Twitter promoting an RFK Jr. documentary. It feels like such an investment in highly produced storytelling for the campaign. And this announcement event being so highly produced, it read like the campaign is trying really hard to make all of this pseudoscience appear legitimate. What did you think?

AM: RFK Jr.’s campaign, as you wrote about, has been very aware of sort of appealing to online spaces. One of those ways that you do that are these highly produced, slick little videos that look good on social media. So I wasn’t surprised.

But I was surprised that the announcement event was so long. I was surprised that there wasn't a little bit of attention to what the attention span is for an internet audience. I would definitely expect to see things that are highly produced, that are sort of media savvy, and that are also completely focused on burnishing RFK’s individual reputation. Because ultimately, in a long-shot candidacy like this, which may or may not be a sincere run for the White House, candidates are seeking to burnish their reputations in the worlds that they come from, and to even grow their market or their audience and become better known to a consumer base that they might not be known by already. Marianne Williamson, for example, had huge success with that.

MK: Another reason I can imagine why it was so long is because they knew how many eyes were going to be on this, and that it was probably one of their last big announcements and attempts to convince people to vote for him.

AM: The last big announcement. It's the last big chance to raise money, really. And they need money to get on the ballot. You’re trying to appeal to everybody, and you’re trying to make the most of what is probably your last moment.

The Chatroom

Occam’s razor doesn’t really exist on the internet. Or with conspiracy theorists. That couldn’t have been more apparent after a cargo ship tragically crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore this week, resulting in the presumed deaths of six people. Instead of assuming that the collision was due to a systems failure on the cargo ship, online conspiracy theorists have taken to blaming everyone from Nickelodeon to the CIA to DEI initiatives, as reported by my colleague David Gilbert.

We still don’t know too much about how and why the Tuesday morning collision took place, but if one were to guess—it’s unlikely that wokeness is the primary culprit.

But hey, maybe you know better than me. Leave a comment or send me an email at mail@wired.com and let me know.

[scavengedluxury]

Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (then Triborough Bridge), New York, 1970. From the Budapest Municipal Photography Company archive. 

[darkmaga-returns]

Israel has been able to insulate itself from the effects of the economic blockade imposed by the "Axis of Resistance" through supply chain warfare in the Middle East and the broader region.

vanessa beeley

Nov 01, 2024

PM Modi with genocidal Netanyahu.

I am republishing an article published yesterday by Mondoweiss because it confirms so much of what I have been saying since October 7th. As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said quite clearly - Israel is important to the US as a prevention strategy against China, Russia, Iran and a free “Global South”. The article is written by Ahmed Alqarout.

The article in full:

In a recent public address on October 4, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei highlighted for the first time what he described as U.S. and Israeli plans to control the region’s natural resources. He stated that Israel’s current war campaign aims to position Israel as a hub for exporting energy to Europe and importing technology to ensure its survival. Khamenei called for resistance against the so-called India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a proposed land bridge connecting India, Saudi, the UAE, Jordan, Israel, and Europe. 

Days after his call, the Iranian parliament discussed introducing a bill for a defensive alliance with the countries belonging to the “Axis of Resistance.” Khamenei further elaborated on this vision on October 27, calling for the establishment of “a global political and economic alliance, and if necessary a military one” to confront Israel and stop its ongoing crimes against the peoples of the region. This signals a clash of markets might be the next phase of the war. At the heart of this clash is the conflict over dominance in regional and global supply chains. 

Supply chain disruptions have become a recurring global issue since the outbreak of COVID-19, which caused countries to implement stringent controls over imports and exports. The concept of supply chain security swiftly became a central concern. The U.S. government adopted protectionist measures, particularly regarding vaccine exports, while Russia and India imposed restrictions on food imports and exports, and China limited the export of protective equipment and medicines. This experience highlighted the importance of supply chain security for many nations.

[justforbooks]

Daniel Ellsberg, who has died aged 92, was the most important whistleblower of our times. His 1971 leaking of what became known as the Pentagon Papers showed conclusively that virtually everything the American public had been told by its leaders about the Vietnam war, from its origins to its current conduct, was false.

The leak itself did not end the war, and Ellsberg regretted not having come forward years earlier. He spent the rest of his life as a peace activist, encouraging others on the inside to reveal government malfeasance, and supporting those who did, including the 2003 GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun. But his leaks did result in a landmark decision in favour of freedom of the press, and, ironically, led to the downfall of the US president Richard Nixon. It is not unreasonable to set Ellsberg’s leak alongside President John F Kennedy’s assassination as the ground zero of today’s distrust of politics.

Before working on the Pentagon Papers, officially a study titled A History of Decision-Making in Vietnam 1945-68 commissioned from the Rand Corporation research organisation by the secretary of defense Robert McNamara, Ellsberg had spent two years at the US embassy in Saigon, advising on General Edward Lansdale’s “pacification” programme. As he sifted through the material gathered for the report, including evaluations which deemed the war unwinnable, he realised the enormity of the political fraud.

He began copying the documents, with the help of a former Rand colleague Anthony Russo, and in 1971, as the US extended the war with bombings of Laos and Cambodia, resolved to make them public. The chair of the senate foreign relations committee, William Fulbright, turned him down, as did the Washington Post’s editor Ben Bradlee and owner Katharine Graham; Graham was close to the secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who had known Ellsberg at Harvard; he advised her Ellsberg was “unbalanced and emotionally unstable”. Matthew Rhys played Ellsberg in the 2017 film The Post which loosely covers those events.

Neil Sheehan of the New York Times was a reporter Ellsberg admired in Vietnam; Sheehan convinced the Times to take the papers, the first instalment of which revealed that the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the casus belli which launched full-scale US participation in the conflict, had been bogus.

The Nixon administration obtained an injunction prohibiting further publication; the supreme court’s overturning of that injunction, dismissing the idea of “prior restraint”, remains a cornerstone of US journalistic freedom. But leakers themselves were not protected. Ellsberg was hidden by anti-war activists while Mike Gravel, the US senator from Alaska, entered most of the leaked papers into the congressional record, and the Post played catch-up.

Meanwhile Nixon, furious at the leaks, created the so-called “plumbers�� covert special investigation unit, to discover if Ellsberg had further material that might affect him directly, and to discredit him. When the plumbers’ bungled break-in at the Watergate offices revealed an earlier burglary of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, the ensuing chain of scandal and cover-up eventually forced Nixon’s resignation to avoid impeachment.

Ellsberg grew up the very definition of a true believer in America. Both his father, Harry, a structural engineer, and mother, Adele (nee Charsky), were the children of Russian Jewish immigrants, but had converted to Christian Science. When Daniel, born in Chicago, was six, his father found work in Detroit, building Ford’s massive Willow Run factory.

Daniel won a scholarship to the elite Cranbrook school in the Detroit suburbs; a talented pianist, he practised for four to six hours a day to fulfil his mother’s dream. But in 1946, rushing to Denver for a family gathering, his father fell asleep while driving and rammed into a bridge. His mother and younger sister, Gloria, both died; Daniel recovered from his severe injuries, but ceased playing the piano.

He won a scholarship to Harvard, where he studied economics, edited the college paper, and finished third in his class. Upon graduation he married a Radcliffe student, Carol Cummings, whose father was a colonel in the Marine Corps, and took up a Wilson fellowship for a year’s study at King’s College, Cambridge. In 1954, accepted as a Harvard junior fellow to pursue his doctorate, he instead joined the Marines, becoming a rare first lieutenant given command of a full company.

He returned to Harvard in 1957. His dissertation, Risk, Ambiguity and Decision, contained what is now known as the Ellsberg paradox, which delineated how the preference for well-defined probabilities, over the uncertainty of ambiguity, influences decision-making, especially as it reinforces preconceived ideas. It became an important part of game theory, and Ellsberg went to work for Rand on the Department of Defense’s Command and Control research, much of which was devoted to spit-balling Fail Safe/Dr Strangelove scenarios, as detailed in his 2017 book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.

In 1964 he went to the Department of Defense, as special assistant for international security to McNamara’s number two, John McNaughton, before moving to the State Department and Vietnam. In 1967 he rejoined Rand to work on McNamara’s project, but was increasingly tormented by Kissinger and Nixon’s Vietnam policy; they believed that if the US opened relations with China and entered into a detente with Russia, those countries would pressure North Vietnam to come to the table while the US bombed incessantly.

Ellsberg began joining anti-war campaigners, including the poet Gary Snyder, and was inspired by Randy Kehler, a draft-resister who spoke of welcoming imprisonment for his belief. Ellsberg left Washington for MIT’s Centre for International Studies a year before leaking the papers. His first marriage had ended in divorce; in 1970 he married Patricia Marx, a peace activist.

In June 1971, he surrendered himself to the US attorney in Boston; asked on the courthouse steps how he felt about going to prison, Ellsberg replied: “Wouldn’t you go to prison to end this war?” He became the first civilian charged with violating the 1917 Espionage Act, and faced a maximum sentence of 115 years. The District Court judge William Byrne ruled irrelevant his public-interest defence, that the documents were “illegally classified”, and so it has been for every whistleblower since. But Byrne eventually dismissed the case because of government malfeasance, including the plumbers’ break-ins, as well as Nixon’s wiretapping of Kissinger’s aide Morton Halperin, and John Ehrlichman’s offering Byrne the directorship of the FBI.

In 1974, Ellsberg’s moving interviews were a major part of the Oscar-winning Vietnam documentary Hearts and Minds. In 1978 he was awarded the Gandhi prize by Promoting Enduring Peace. In the next 40 years he was arrested around 50 times at anti-war protests. He likened the weapons of mass destruction excuse for invading Iraq in 2003 to the Gulf of Tonkin affair, and over the years supported leakers who revealed government deceptions, including Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner, who was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking a single page from an in-house National Security Agency magazine showing the NSA had concluded Russia interfered in US elections, while the government was maintaining they had not.

He recognised a practical corollary to the Ellsberg paradox: the more secrets you are able to access, the less able you become to act sensibly with them. In 2021, Ellsberg released government memos from 1958, showing that the joint chiefs of staff had prepared a nuclear first-strike against Chinese bases on Quemoy and Matsu during the Taiwan Strait crisis, with a full nuclear attack planned on China should they respond. His point was that little had changed since the Pentagon Papers.

Ellsberg was played by James Spader in the 2003 film The Pentagon Papers, and was the subject of a 2009 documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in America. His memoir, Secrets, appeared in 2003 and in 2021 Risk Ambiguity and Decision was updated as a book, once again challenging the concept of rational decision.

Ellsberg is survived by his wife and their son, Michael, and his son, Robert, and daughter, Mary, from his first marriage.

Daniel Ellsberg, military analyst and political activist, born 7 April 1931; died 16 June 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[ausetkmt]

CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN RACE RIOTS AND RACIAL VIOLENCE p-5

1961 May First Freedom Ride. 1962 Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU) is founded. Robert F. Williams publishes Negroes with Guns, exploring Williams’ philosophy of black self-defense. October Two die in riots when President John F. Kennedy sends troops to Oxford,Mississippi, to allow James Meredith to become the first African American student to register for classes at the University of Mississippi. 1963 Publication of The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) is founded. April Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., writes his ‘‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’’

June Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated in Mississippi. August March on Washington; Rev. King delivers his ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

September Four African American girls—Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins—are killed when a bomb explodes at theSixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. 1964 June–August Three Freedom Summer activists—James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner—are arrested in Philadelphia, Mississippi; their bodies are discovered six weeks later; white resistance to Freedom Summer activities leads to six deaths, numerous injuries and arrests, and property damage acrossMississippi. July President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act. New York City (Harlem) riot. Rochester, New York, riot. Brooklyn, New York, riot. August Riots in Jersey City, Paterson, and Elizabeth, New Jersey. Chicago, Illinois, riot. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, riot. 1965 February While participating in a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Jimmie Lee Jackson is shot by an Alabama state trooper. Malcolm X is assassinated while speaking in New York City. March Bloody Sunday march ends with civil rights marchers attacked and beaten by local lawmen at the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma, Alabama. Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) is formed in Lowndes County,Alabama. First distribution of The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, better known as The Moynihan Report, which was written by Undersecretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Nathan Glazer. July Springfield, Massachusetts, riot. August Los Angeles (Watts), California, riot. 1965–1967 A series of northern urban riots occurring during these years, including disorders in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California (1965), Newark, New Jersey (1967), and Detroit, Michigan (1967), becomes known as the Long Hot Summer Riots. 1966 May Stokely Carmichael elected national director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). June James Meredith is wounded by a sniper while walking from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi; Meredith’s March Against Fear is taken up by Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael, and others. July Cleveland, Ohio, riot. Murder of civil rights demonstrator Clarence Triggs in Bogalusa, Louisiana. September Dayton, Ohio, riot. San Francisco (Hunters Point), California, riot. October Black Panther Party (BPP) founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. 1967

Publication of Black Power: The Politics of Liberation by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton. May Civil rights worker Benjamin Brown is shot in the back during a student protest in Jackson, Mississippi. H. Rap Brown succeeds Stokely Carmichael as national director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Texas Southern University riot (Houston, Texas). June Atlanta, Georgia, riot. Buffalo, New York, riot. Cincinnati, Ohio, riot. Boston, Massachusetts, riot. July Detroit, Michigan, riot. Newark, New Jersey, riot. 1968 Publication of Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver. February During the so-called Orangeburg, South Carolina Massacre, three black college students are killed and twenty-seven others are injured in a confrontation with police on the adjoining campuses of South Carolina State College and Claflin College. March Kerner Commission Report is published. April Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Washington, D.C., riot. Cincinnati, Ohio, riot. August Antiwar protestors disrupt the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 1969 May James Forman of the SNCC reads his Black Manifesto, which calls for monetary reparations for the crime of slavery, to the congregation of Riverside Church in New York; many in the congregation walk out in protest. July York, Pennsylvania, riot. 1970 May Two unarmed black students are shot and killed by police attempting to control civil rights demonstrators at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Augusta, Georgia, riot. July New Bedford, Massachusetts, riot. Asbury Park, New Jersey, riot. 1973 July So-called Dallas Disturbance results from community anger over the murder of a twelve-year-old Mexican-American boy by a Dallas police officer. 1975–1976 A series of antibusing riots rock Boston, Massachusetts, with the violence reaching a climax in April 1976. 1976 February Pensacola, Florida, riot. 1980 May Miami, Florida, riot. 1981 March Michael Donald, a black man, is beaten and murdered by Ku Klux Klan members in Mobile, Alabama. 1982 December Miami, Florida, riot. 1985 May Philadelphia police drop a bomb on MOVE headquarters, thereby starting a fire that consumed a city block. 1986 December Three black men are beaten and chased by a gang of white teenagers in Howard Beach, New York; one of the victims of the so-called Howard Beach Incident is killed while trying to flee from his attackers. 1987 February–April Tampa, Florida, riots. 1989 Release of Spike Lee’s film, Do the Right Thing. Representative John Conyers introduces the first reparations bill into Congress—the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act; this and all subsequent reparations measures fail passage. August Murder of Yusef Hawkins, an African American student killed by Italian-American youths in Bensonhurst, New York. 1991 March Shooting in Los Angeles of an African American girl, fifteen-year-old Latasha Harlins, by a Korean woman who accused the girl of stealing. Los Angeles police officers are caught on videotape beating African American motorist Rodney King. 1992 April Los Angeles (Rodney King), California, riot. 1994 Survivors of the Rosewood, Florida, riot of 1923 receive reparations. February Standing trial for a third time, Byron de la Beckwith is convicted of murdering civil rights worker Medgar Evers in June 1963.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The Triboro (now Robert F. Kennedy) Bridge under construction, November 2, 1935. Note the men on beams without safety gear.

Photo: Associated Press

[casbooks]

Books of 2023

Book 39 of 2023

Title: First In, Last Out: An American Paratrooper in Vietnam With the 101st and Vietnamese Airborne Authors: John Howard ISBN: 9780811766067 Tags: AC-130 Spectre, AUS ADF AA 1st Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), AUS ADF AA Australian Army, AUS ADF Australian Defence Force, AUS Australia, B-52 Stratofortress, C-130 Hercules, CHE Geneva Conference of 1954 (French Indochina War), Cold War (1946-1991), CUB Cuba, CUB Cuban Missile Crisis, FAC, FRA ADT French Ground Army (Armée de terre), FRA ADT Groupement Mobile 100 (French Indochina War), FRA France, GER Berlin, GER Berlin - Checkpoint Charlie, GER Berlin Wall, GER Germany, GER Munich, KHM Cambodia, KHM Cambodian Incursion (1970) (Vietnam War), KOR Blue House Raid (1968), KOR Camp Greaves, KOR Freedom Bridge, KOR Imjin River, KOR Korea, KOR Korean War (1950-1953), KOR Munsan, KOR President Park Chung Hee, KOR ROK Capital Tiger Division, KOR ROK KATUSA Korean Augmentation to the US Army, KOR ROK Republic of Korea Army, KOR ROKMC Republic Of Korea Marine Corps, KOR UN UNC United Nations Command, KOR US USFK US Forces Korea, LAO FSB 31 (Lam Son 719) (Vietnam War), LAO Lam Son 719 (1971) (Vietnam War), LAO Laos, M113 APC, O-2 Skymaster, PHL Philippines, PHL US USAF Clark Air Force Base, PRK Kim Il Sung, PRK KPA 124th Army Unit, PRK KPA North Korean People's Army, PRK North Korea, SA-2 Guideline SAM, SA-7 Strela SAM, SAM, THA Bangkok, THA Bangkok - Nick's #1 Hungarian Inn, THA RTAFB Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Base, THA Thailand, U-2, UN United Nations, US Ambassador Maxwell Taylor, US Martin Luther King Jr (Civil Rights Leader), US MOH Medal of Honor, US MSTS Military Sea Transportation Service, US MSTS USNS General Leroy Eltinge (T-AP-154), US OH Kent State University, US OH Kent State University Shootings (1970) (Vietnam War), US OH Ohio, US President John F. Kennedy, US President John F. Kennedy Assassination - Dallas TX (1963), US President Lyndon B. Johnson, US President Richard M. Nixon, US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, US USA 101st Airborne Division - 1st Brigade, US USA 101st Airborne Division - 3rd Brigade, US USA 101st Airborne Division - Screaming Eagles, US USA 173rd Airborne Brigade - Sky Soldiers, US USA 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, US USA 1st Cavalry Division, US USA 1st ID - 3rd Brigade, US USA 1st ID - Big Red One, US USA 23rd Infantry Regiment, US USA 23rd Infantry Regiment - 3/23, US USA 2nd ID, US USA 2nd Infantry Regiment, US USA 2nd Infantry Regiment - 2/2, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment - 1/327, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment - 1/327 - A (ABU) Co, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment - 1/327 - B Co, US USA 327th Infantry Regiment - 1/327 - Tiger Force Recon, US USA 38th Infantry Regiment, US USA 38th Infantry Regiment - 2/38, US USA 502nd Aviation Bn, US USA 502nd Aviation Bn - A Co, US USA 502nd Infantry Regiment, US USA 502nd Infantry Regiment - 2/502, US USA 502nd Infantry Regiment - 2/502 - C Co, US USA 503rd Infantry Regiment, US USA 503rd Infantry Regiment - 1/503, US USA 503rd Infantry Regiment - 2/503, US USA 70th Engineer Bn, US USA 7th ID, US USA 8th Army, US USA 937th Engineer Group, US USA 9th Cavalry Regiment, US USA 9th Cavalry Regiment - 1/9 - F Troop, US USA 9th Cavalry Regiment - 1/9 - Headhunters, US USA Col David Hackworth, US USA Col Jack Jacobs (MOH), US USA Fort Benning GA, US USA Fort Benning GA - Airborne School, US USA Fort Benning GA - IOAC Infantry Officers Advanced Course, US USA Fort Benning GA - NCOCC NCO Candidate Course, US USA Fort Benning GA - Ranger School, US USA Fort Benning GA - US Army Infantry School, US USA Fort Campbell KY, US USA Fort Ord CA, US USA Fort Ord CA - USATC US Army Training Center, US USA General Barry McCaffrey, US USA General Charles H Bonesteel III, US USA General Creighton Abrams, US USA General Fred C. Weyand, US USA General Frederick Koresen, US USA General James A. Hollingsworth, US USA General John Guthrie, US USA General John Heintges, US USA General John McGiffert, US USA General John R. McGiffert, US USA General Normal Schwarzkopf, US USA General Ray Lynch, US USA General Thomas Kennan, US USA General Willard Pearson, US USA General William Coleman, US USA General William Enemark, US USA General William Westmoreland, US USA LRRP Team (Vietnam War), US USA United States Army, US USA USSF Green Berets, US USA USSF Special Forces, US USA USSF Team ODA-221, US USA USSF Team ODA-222, US USA Walter Reed Hospital, US USAF 21st TASS - Rash FAC, US USAF 21st TASS - Sundog FAC, US USAF United States Air Force, US USMC 3rd Marines - 3/3, US USMC United States Marine Corps, US USN NPS Naval Postgraduate School CA, US USN United States Navy, US USN USS Newport News (CA-148), US USN USS Pueblo (AGER 2), USMA West Point, USMA West Point - Camp Buckner, USSR, USSR 1st Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, USSR General Secretary of the Communist Party Leonid Brezhnev, VNM 1968 Tet Offensive (1968) (Vietnam War), VNM 1972 Easter Offensive / Nguyen Hue (1972) (Vietnam War), VNM An Khe, VNM An Loc, VNM An Ninh, VNM Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem (1963) (Vietnam War), VNM Battle of An Loc (1972) (1972 Easter Offensive) (Vietnam War), VNM Battle of Camp Holloway (1965) (Vietnam War), VNM Battle of Dak To (1967) (Vietnam War), VNM Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954) (French Indochina War), VNM Battle of Hue City (1968) (Tet Offensive) (Vietnam War), VNM Battle of Ia Drang Valley (1965) (Vietnam War), VNM Battle of Saigon (1968) (Tet Offensive) (Vietnam War), VNM Battle of Tan Son Nhut (1968) (Tet Offensive) (Vietnam War), VNM Bien Hoa, VNM Binh Dinh Province, VNM Binh Long Province, VNM Buddhist Crisis (1963) (Vietnam War), VNM Cam Ranh Bay, VNM Camp Carroll (Vietnam War), VNM Camp Evans (Vietnam War), VNM Camp Holloway (Vietnam War), VNM Central Highlands, VNM Cham People, VNM Cholon, VNM Cholon - Binh Xuyen (Cholon Mafia), VNM Chon Thanh District, VNM Chu Lai, VNM Cua Viet River, VNM Cung Son Special Forces Camp (Vietnam War), VNM Da Nang, VNM Dak To, VNM Di An, VNM DMZ Demilitarized Zone - 17th Parallel (Vietnam War), VNM Dong Ba Thin, VNM Dong Ba Thin Special Forces Camp (Vietnam War), VNM Dong Tre, VNM Dong Tre Special Forces Camp (Vietnam War), VNM DRV Ho Chi Minh, VNM DRV NVA 320B Division, VNM DRV NVA 7th Division, VNM DRV NVA 95th Regiment, VNM DRV NVA 95th Regiment - 5th Bn, VNM DRV NVA Communist B2 Front, VNM DRV NVA General Tran Van Tra, VNM DRV NVA General Vo Nguyen Giap, VNM DRV NVA North Vietnamese Army, VNM DRV Party Secretary Le Duan, VNM DRV Politburo Central Military Committee, VNM DRV VC 5th Division, VNM DRV VC 9th Division, VNM DRV VC Viet Cong, VNM DRV VM Viet Minh, VNM Emperor Minh Manh, VNM FRA 1st Vietnamese Paratroop Bn (French Indochina War), VNM FRA French Expeditionary Corps (French Indochina War), VNM French Indochina War (1946-1954), VNM FSB Mai Loc (Vietnam War), VNM FSB Sarge (Vietnam War), VNM FSB Than Khai (Vietnam War), VNM Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964) (Vietnam War), VNM Heiu Xuong District, VNM Highway 1, VNM Highway 13 - Thunder Road, VNM Highway 19, VNM Highway 9, VNM Hill 169, VNM Hill 65, VNM Hill 875, VNM Hue, VNM Hue - Le Huan St, VNM Hue - The Citadel, VNM I Corps (Vietnam War), VNM Ia Drang Valley, VNM II Corps (Vietnam War), VNM III Corps (Vietnam War), VNM IV Corps (Vietnam War), VNM Kontum, VNM Kontum Province, VNM Lai Khe, VNM Loc Ninh, VNM LZ Albany (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Sally (Vietnam War), VNM LZ X-Ray (Vietnam War), VNM Mekong Delta, VNM Montagnard, VNM My Canh, VNM My Chanh River, VNM My Lai, VNM My Lai Massacre (1968) (Vietnam War), VNM My Phu, VNM Nha Trang, VNM Nhon Co, VNM Ninh Thuan Province, VNM Operation Arc Light (1965-1973) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Checkerboard (1965) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Dong Tien (1970) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Flaming Dart (1965) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Hump (1965) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Lam Son 72 (1972) (1972 Easter Offensive) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Linebacker I (1972) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Linebacker II (1972) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation MacArthur (1967-1969) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Sayonara (1965) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Silver Bayonet I (1965) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Van Buren (1965) (Vietnam War), VNM Phan Rang, VNM Phan Thiet, VNM Phu Bai, VNM Phu Sen, VNM Phu Yen Province, VNM Phung Ha, VNM Pleiku, VNM Quang Tri, VNM Quang Tri - Citadel, VNM Quang Tri Province, VNM Qui Nhon, VNM RVN ARVN 11th Airborne Bn, VNM RVN ARVN 15th Regiment, VNM RVN ARVN 18th ID, VNM RVN ARVN 1st ID, VNM RVN ARVN 20th Tank Regiment, VNM RVN ARVN 21st ID, VNM RVN ARVN 31st Regiment, VNM RVN ARVN 3rd ID, VNM RVN ARVN 56th Regiment, VNM RVN ARVN 5th Airborne Bn, VNM RVN ARVN 5th ID, VNM RVN ARVN 6th Airborne Bn, VNM RVN ARVN 8th Airborne Bn, VNM RVN ARVN 9th Airborne Bn, VNM RVN ARVN 9th ID, VNM RVN ARVN Airborne Division - Su-Doan Nhay Du, VNM RVN ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam, VNM RVN ARVN CIDG Civilian Irregular Defense Group, VNM RVN ARVN General Cao Van Vien, VNM RVN ARVN General Du Quoc Dong, VNM RVN ARVN General Hoang Xuan Lam, VNM RVN ARVN General Le Van Hung, VNM RVN ARVN General Ngo Quang Truong, VNM RVN ARVN General Nguyen Van Minh, VNM RVN ARVN General Vu Van Giai, VNM RVN Madame Nhu (Tran Le Xuan), VNM RVN Marines, VNM RVN Ngo Dinh Diem, VNM RVN Ngo Dinh Nhu, VNM RVN Nguyen Van Thieu, VNM RVN SVNAF Da Nang Airbase, VNM RVN SVNAF South Vietnamese Air Force, VNM Saigon, VNM Saigon - Missouri BOQ (Vietnam War), VNM Saigon - Pham Van Hai St, VNM Saigon - US Embassy (Vietnam War), VNM Srok Ton Cui, VNM Tan Khai, VNM Tan Son Nhut Air Base, VNM Tan Son Nhut Air Base - Camp Alpha (Vietnam War), VNM Thach Han River, VNM Thanh Binh, VNM Thanh Hoi, VNM Tuy Hoa, VNM US MAAG Military Assistance Advisory Group Vietnam (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV AAG Army Advisory Group (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV ADAT Advisory Team 162 (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV ADAT Airborne Division Assistance Team (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV Advisory Teams (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV BCAT Battalion Combat Assistance Teams (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV DCAT Division Combat Asisstant Team (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV FRAC First Regional Assistance Command (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV Military Assistance Command Vietnam (Vietnam War), VNM US MACV TRAC Third Regional Assistance Command (Vietnam War), VNM US Project 100000 (Vietnam War), VNM US USA 3rd Field Hospital - Saigon (Vietnam War), VNM US USA 85th Evacuation Hospital - Phu Bai (Vietnam War), VNM US USA 8th Field Hospital - Nha Trang (Vietnam War), VNM USA TF Hackworth (Vietnam War), VNM Vietnam, VNM Vietnam War (1955-1975), VNM Vung Tau, VNM War Zone D (Vietnam War), VNM Windy Hill Rating: ★★★★ (4 Stars) Subject: Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.ARVN.Airborne Division, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Specops.LRRPs, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.US Army.Advisor, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.US Army.Infantry

Description: Fresh out of West Point, John Howard arrived for his first tour in Vietnam in 1965, the first full year of escalation when U.S. troop levels increased to 184,000 from 23,000 the year before. When he returned for a second tour in 1972, troop strength stood at 24,000 and would dwindle to a mere 50 the following year. He thus participated in the very early and very late stages of American military involvement in the Vietnam War. His two tours—one as a platoon commander and member of an elite counterguerrilla force, the second as a senior advisor to the South Vietnamese—provide a fascinating lens through which to view not only one soldier’s experience in Vietnam, but also the country’s. **

Review:   Let me first say that I did enjoy this book - to a degree. That's why it gets 4 stars. But it's important to know that this is not a great book, which with the authors experiences, it really could have been. One of the biggest deficiencies is that he spends more time telling than showing. Good books of this genre give you a first hand view of what happened and what someone experienced. This book is very light on that, especially during his 1965 tour. It gets better with his Korean and Advisor experiences later on, but only just. Instead you get a lot of history of Vietnam, a lot of history of what happened, who went where, what they did. It's all very strategic and 1000 foot level when what this book is supposed to be is very in the weeds at the 1 foot personal experience level. This is a man who participated in a lot of intense operations, worked with incredible people like Foley and Hackworth, and was both a part of ABU and Tiger Recon with the 101st. But you never really get a feel for what it was like to be a member of either. You never get to experience a recon mission, though he was a part of many. You just know that x unit moved to y place, and then this is what happened / this was the outcome. 

You get a good overview of the battles, the war, and even a few of the people, but very little else from his time with the 101st. 

His time in Korea is a bit better and gives you a good understanding of what happened and some incidents and the people. Also his time as an Advisor is also more personal as well. So maybe it's just a memory thing and things from 72 are easily recalled vs 65. 

One thing you'll notice is a lot of ring knocking and naming of generals... so many generals. So just... be prepared for that.  

Overall though, a decent book... he needs to work on the tell vs show more than anything. Up next, going to read Foley's Special Men. I always loved Foley's fictional writing, so I have high hopes for his book about his time with Tiger Recon and other units. I have a feeling it's going to be a good compliment to this book. 

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.9 (after 1950)

1953 – Cambodia gains independence from France. 1960 – Robert McNamara is named president of the Ford Motor Company, becoming the first non-Ford family member to serve in that post. He resigns a month later to join the newly-elected John F. Kennedy administration. 1963 – At a coal mine in Miike, Japan, an explosion kills 458 and hospitalises 839 with carbon monoxide poisoning. 1965 – Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours in the Northeast blackout of 1965. 1965 – A Catholic Worker Movement member, Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building. 1967 – Apollo program: NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft, atop the first Saturn V rocket, from Florida's Cape Kennedy. 1970 – Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6–3 against hearing a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war. 1979 – Cold War: Nuclear false alarm: The NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled. 1985 – Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union, becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating fellow Soviet Anatoly Karpov. 1989 – Cold War: Fall of the Berlin Wall: East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel to West Berlin. 1993 – Stari Most, the "old bridge" in the Bosnian city of Mostar, built in 1566, collapses after several days of bombing by Croat forces during the Croat–Bosniak War. 1994 – The chemical element darmstadtium is discovered. 1998 – A U.S. federal judge, in the largest civil settlement in American history, orders 37 U.S. brokerage houses to pay US$1.03 billion to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for price fixing. 1998 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences. 1999 – TAESA Flight 725 crashes after takeoff from Uruapan International Airport in Uruapan, Michoacán, Mexico, killing all 18 people on board. 2000 – Uttarakhand officially becomes the 27th state of India, formed from thirteen districts of northwestern Uttar Pradesh. 2004 – Firefox 1.0 is released. 2005 – The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 2005 – Suicide bombers attack three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing at least 60 people. 2012 – A train carrying liquid fuel crashes and bursts into flames in northern Myanmar, killing 27 people and injuring 80 others. 2012 – At least 27 people are killed and dozens are wounded in conflicts between inmates and guards at Welikada prison in Colombo. 2014 – A non-binding self-determination consultation is held in Catalonia, asking Catalan citizens their opinion on whether Catalonia should become a state and, if so, whether it should be an independent state. 2020 – Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: An armistice agreement is signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.

[retro-watching]

seaQuest DSV S1 Ep1 To Be or Not To Be

I don't normally do this but me wanting to watch this show again so very badly is what prompted this whole project (shout to @tesria for buying me the boxset because she is literally the best)

But anyway I'm going to live blog my watching of this first episode.

But I'm putting it under the cut so you can skip it if you want to

Shorter review and ratings here:

Short review:

It was silly, and fun, and seeing Jonathon Brandis as Lucas made me want to cry. (RIP Jonathon). Anyway I love this show

Ratings:

Story: 6/10 - it was a pilot episode and a lot had to be established but it was gripping enough and I was engaged the whole time

Acting: 6/10 - mostly it was pretty good but there were a few low moments. Mostly from secondary characters

Cheese: 8/10 - It has a talking dolphin named DARWIN

Enjoyment: 8/10 - I had so much fun with this

Effects: 4/10 - I should be more generous for the time but holy shit did it not age well

Charm: 8/10 - but holy shit was it charming and fun to watch

Cringe: -1/0 - there is a DOLPHIN who TALKS

Aged LIke Milk: -1/0 - I have to give it one for the opening credits and the effects cause holy shit

Overall ranking:

B Tier

Beginning:

Anyway I watched some of this episode on a very low quality pirate ages ago but nothing is better then seeing it proper picture.

The opening credits look like they were done in windows movie maker over stock images of sea life while John F. Kennedy talks about how we have salt in our blood and other bodily fluids because we came from the ocean and therefore belong to the ocean.

It's very weird.

Then we pan to some very questionable early cgi of an underwater settlement that's declared to be in: "The Near Future" and then we see a sign for an settlement that's declared to be established in the far distant future of 2016

This is going to be amazing.

Now we have a couple of cgi ships chasing a smaller cgi ship where Bobby barely makes it in the airlock but uh oh! It was scavenging in another confederation's territory and now the Military is being called in!

Now we seaQuest the biggest of the cgi ships. It is so unconvincing looking.

Oh Jaxor is the lieutenant! Hi Jaxor!

A blond woman is the captain and I know I already watched enough to know this but even before I watched part of the jacked copy months ago I knew she was going to be a villain on sight. She has the poise of "I'm evil but trying to be low key about it"

Oh her second in command fucking hates her

Also I love her.

She's giving her speech about how she can get peace by murdering people despite command saying "No don't do that."

Second in command is relieved her of command because he's great.

...Okay now it's 13 months later and apparently there is United Earths Oceans Organisation which clearly military as fuck.

Apparently they need someone not so military but military enough to command the ship and there is only one man good enough but he'll never take the job

Apparently to get this guy to take up the job the commander (second in command guy) has to pretend to be terrible at his job.

Okay we have eccentric beach man with a dolphin who is the person best for the job. Nathan Bridges (Or Roy Scheider)

Lots of scientific bullshit and also Nathan's old friend is the one recruiting him.

He is pretty good at playing the curmudgeon I'll give him that.

The dolphin is named Darwin

Hints of a tragic backstory and a dead wife. Why are dead wives always named Carol?

seaQuest is being refitted to be the Enterprise underwater

Dead son too and why are dead sons usually a Robert or Johnny?

Oh he shaved.

More terrible cgi. I think I found it really impressive as a kid but it's very silly now.

This wants to be Underwater Star Trek so bad

The bad guys are capitalists

Where is that accent from?

Also yeah the blond lady has joined as a minion

...Okay so there is a guy who deals with contraband and got a guy male pattern baldness meds.

...the dolphin talks.....it's so fucking funny you have no idea.

JONATHON BRANDIS! Our boy genius Lucas who made the system that lets Darwin speak! He's so cocky and I want to cry. When Jonathon Brandis was reported to have died I cried so much. He was so important to me growing up.

Lucas is such a little shit. I love him

Commander Jonathon is playing his part but he's so tense I want to hug him.

A computer shows a hologram on a stream of water to answer moral or ethical dilemmas. Also did I mention that Nathan Bridges helped design this ship?

Also they left port with him on board and against his will

Capitalist Bad Guys are stalking them.

The seaQuest is shaped like a sex toy from Bad Dragon.

Am I wrong?

Skeevy Contraband guy is great.

Ah he also says he knew Nathan Bridger's son and also he was apparently briefly married to the stern and upright lieutenant in the command.

Bad guys making their move

The Bad Guys plan is going to convince Nathan to take command

Every time Jonathan Brandis is on screen my heart hurts.

Commander Jonathan is doing his best job to force Nathan to take command but it hurts because he's great but also he's genuinely under pressure

Evil Blonde Lady is single minded and also sabotaged the ship

Ah Jonathan is revealing the plan he was told to follow.

Who plays Jonathan? I love him.

Oh Don Franklin. He's been in a lot of stuff! Anyway he's good.

Also the ship heals itself? What the fuck?

Also the Tough Lieutenant is now controlling an undersea mech with vr stuff

Ah no Jonathan is still pretending he's an asshole. But I love Jonathan

head scientist is a sassy older lady btw.

Lucas is going to save the day by fixing the computer virus

I already care about these characters. Even when it's cheesy the acting is emotional. Also Nathan has accepted his role as captain! Yay!

Maybe Jonathan can be a good guy again.

oohhhhhhhhh Nathan taught evil Blond Lady

MONTAGE TIME

I love a villain who knows who they are and don't give a shit

They are using the talking dolphin to mark the enemy ship. Also the Scientist Lady is like "This is kinda fucked up" I like her a lot

The bad guy pony tail minion is the only questionable actor other than the "Where Is My Accent From" Capitalist

Stark is sexy in her evilness. She has no motivation other than "Fuck everyone else" which is very very sexy of her.

The CGI dolphin is hilarious btw

Holy shit she started hitting a guy because he was trying to get her to leave the sinking sub! I love her! She's so unnecessarily evil.

Also pony tail guy was Evil Capitalist Of Unknown Accent's son apparently.

Sassy Scientist and Nathan will have a will they won't they relationship but the AI now looks like his dead wife.

Lucas is having bonding time with Nathan.

When I was like 9 I thought I had a crush on Lucas but looking back I think it was gender envy because I spent my teens really wanting to look like Lucas.

Ah we are back to stock footage of the ocean with dramatic music.

Anyway I loved this. This was great in every way

[duhodavid1405]

Robert F. Kennedy and Trump: A Kennedy Endorses a Republican" T-shirt

The political landscape is often defined by clear divisions and long-standing party allegiances. "Robert F. Kennedy and Trump: A Kennedy Endorses a Republican" T-shirt, designed by Capitoneshirt, challenges this traditional view by presenting a surprising and thought-provoking scenario. The design depicts Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent Democrat, endorsing Donald Trump, a Republican, prompting viewers to consider the potential for unexpected alliances and bridges across ideological divides.

This juxtaposition of political figures from different parties sparks conversation and forces viewers to confront their assumptions about political affiliations and the potential for common ground. While the scenario is fictional, it prompts us to think about the complexities of political beliefs, the possibility of shared values, and the potential for finding solutions through collaboration rather than confrontation. "Robert F. Kennedy and Trump: A Kennedy Endorses a Republican" is a reminder that political discourse can be nuanced

Connect with our social:

https://www.facebook.com/Capitoneshirt

https://www.pinterest.com/Capitoneshirt/

https://twitter.com/CapitoneFashion

https://vimeo.com/capitoneshirt

https://www.youtube.com/@CapitoneFashion

https://www.tumblr.com/capitoneshirtfashion

https://www.tiktok.com/@capitoneshirt

[mariacallous]

In his continued quest to become either the president of the United States or else a very interesting footnote to someone else’s reelection, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has enlisted a number of celebrities and influencers. On Tuesday, he expanded those ranks, confirming to The New York Times that he is “considering” NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura for his vice presidential pick; Politico reported that he’ has also “approached” Senator Rand Paul, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and motivational speaker Tony Robbins.

But it was Rodgers and Ventura who drew the most attention from the press, and it’s their roles in the information ecosystem who most signal what Kennedy is doing. Outside of their careers in the NFL and WWE, Rodgers and Ventura are known for, respectively, promoting anti-vaccine views in conversations with sports podcasters and Joe Rogan, and promoting politically contrarian, occasionally conspiratorial views on cable TV and Substack. By publicizing his interest in them, Kennedy is making overtures to a very specific potential voter: the highly online and politically disaffected young man.

Kennedy, an environmental activist turned anti-vaccine superstar, is already running an extremely online campaign; as WIRED noted recently, the candidate is omnipresent on Instagram, podcasts, and Substack and has used influencers as proxies who will deliver his message to his niche bases. Over the past few months, Kennedy has been seen hanging out with snowboarder Travis Rice, naming a young and persistently bleached-blonde TikToker and aspiring musician named Link Lauren as a “senior adviser” on his campaign, and appearing at a Bitcoin conference.

Online is a comfortable environment for Kennedy, a dyed-in-the-wool conspiracy theorist who has promoted anti-vaccine views since 2005. Beyond his many and virulent anti-vaccine campaigns, he’s been especially willing to engage in conspiracy theories that are likely to go viral, most notably suggesting that the CIA may have assassinated his uncle, John F. Kennedy, and promoted long-debunked and extremely dangerous junk science about AIDS not being caused by HIV. He has also tried awkwardly to engage with the conspiracy theories about dead pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, on whose private plane he rode at least twice. In December he said that Epstein’s flight logs should be released, and tweeted, “I’m not hiding anything, but they are!”

His efforts to appeal to both a conspiratorial base and a more mainstream voting bloc have been occasionally clumsy, but persistent—and by shoring up his base among young men, who will be increasingly important this election year, he appears to be figuring out how to bridge that gap. One enormous help was, of course, his own appearance on Rogan’s podcast, where the two engaged in three hours of long-winded conspiracy theories about vaccines, 5G technology, and ivermectin, among Kennedy’s other greatest-hits talking points.

Kennedy’s interest in speaking to very online, purportedly “anti-establishment” spaces also means, necessarily, that the people he’s speaking to have a demonstrable overlap with the so-called manosphere, the broad group of bloggers, podcasters, influencers, and grievance-peddlers speaking to young men. Choosing to align himself with figures like Aaron Rodgers—a mainstream football star who has promoted increasingly fringe beliefs, and declared himself to be very brave for doing so—is an excellent way to appeal to the Venn diagram of young men and the conspiracy-curious, says Derek Beres. “It completely makes sense for what he’s doing.”

Beres is an author, speaker, and podcaster who’s one of the cohosts of Conspirituality, which looks at the overlap between New Age and far-right movements. In that role, Beres has observed Kennedy at close range for years and says, “One of the things that I don’t think is talked about enough but is really smart on RFK’s part is he’s been mobilizing fringe communities since he announced his presidential run.”

Neither Rodgers nor Ventura are what you would call politically serious choices; Rodgers has never held elected office, while Ventura hasn’t in 20 years. Neither man speaks to a base that Kennedy hasn’t already hit; in that role, Paul and Gabbard would make more political sense.

Instead, Kennedy is front-loading two men who the young male voter might find in a late-night TikTok or Instagram scroll and who are known for their own fondness for indulging in conspiracy theories and misinformation. Rodgers is best known lately for making misleading claims about being "immunized for Covid,” later revealing that he was taking fake homeopathic “vaccines,” and for appearing to suggest that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel might appear on a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates, for which Kimmel instantly threatened to sue him. He has also become a repeat guest on Rogan’s podcast; in his most recent appearance in February, he nodded along as Rogan claimed that Covid was created in a lab. On Wednesday, it was also reported by CNN that he’d shared Sandy Hook conspiracy theories privately, including in 2013, to Pamela Brown, one of the journalists bylined on the story.

For his part, after Ventura was governor, he had a show called Conspiracy Theory on the outlet TruTV. Clips from the show still occasionally go viral, especially ones purporting to show that the pandemic was “planned.” He then had a show on Russian state-backed news outlet RT America, which focused on purported American hypocrisy wherever he could find it. In a slightly awkward fit for Kennedy, Ventura also decried people who refused to wear masks early in the pandemic. (Kennedy spent a lot of time incorrectly but predictably claiming that mask-wearing was useless and in fact harmful.) Now, Ventura has a Substack with his son, where he delivers political commentary and wrestling stories, a move he claims he made after RT America unceremoniously dumped him for decrying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And most importantly, both Ventura and Rodgers—as outsize and slightly eccentric sports figures—are heroes largely to young men.

Kennedy, Beres says, “is playing culture war politics,” where someone like Aaron Rodgers would make sense; it’s part of his appeal, Beres says, to the mostly male-dominated online body-optimization space. In addition to doing shirtless pushups (in jeans, for some reason), Kennedy has also made numerous appearances with Aubrey Marcus, a fitness influencer and motivational speaker who has been one of his most enthusiastic proxies. The two men are appearing together this weekend at the grandiosely named American Wellness Summit, a Kennedy campaign event just outside Austin, Texas, where the cheapest tickets are a $1,500 campaign donation.

“We’re in a cultural space where you have Donald Trump, who in the past said that exercise depletes your body,” Beres explains. “Then you have a big conversation around Biden’s age, which the right has been pushing and which has been effective in terms of their propaganda. And then you have RFK, who works out at Gold’s Gym and has been spotted there hanging out with Andrew Huberman,” an astonishingly popular neuroscience podcaster. “The optics alone are going to appeal to a young male crowd.”

For his part, Donald Trump has made his own bid for the young male vote’s affections, showing up at Sneaker Con to hawk $400 Trump-branded shoes, signaling his support for Bitcoin, getting (somewhat) into football, and showing up at a UFC match, where he mainly made headlines for appearing to ignore his own grandson. Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, meanwhile, recently got a coveted endorsement from a coalition of 15 Gen Z and millennial voting groups. But as an MSNBC opinion column noted last month, opinion polls seem to show Kennedy with a slim lead among voters 18–34. And as Gallup noted in January, Biden’s favorability ratings among young and non-white adults has fallen since he became president, while Kennedy has “majority-level favorable rating” across all major gender, race, and age groups. Gallup’s Lydia Saad noted that Kennedy could “appeal to that segment of voters who are resistant to Biden but are also not sold on Trump.”

Kennedy has enjoyed, however, some base of support among women for quite some time. The anti-vaccine movement is powered in large part at the grassroots level by mothers who wrongly believe that their choice to vaccinate their children led to them having conditions like autism; women can often be seen crying, cheering, and frankly swooning when Kennedy speaks in front of those audiences. One of his other prominent campaign proxies is an enormously popular celebrity and lifestyle blogger named Jessica Reed Kraus, better known by her online handle Houseinhabit, who is stumping somewhat equally for Kennedy and Trump. (Kraus, too, went viral for involving herself in two high-profile trials, once claiming that Johnny Depp had confided in her during his defamation trial against Amber Heard, as well as“covering” human trafficker and Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal trial in a fairly sympathetic way.)

Despite that preexisting base of support, Kennedy has done very little to speak further to women, especially young women. After speaking at a recent libertarian forum, he declined to tell The Washington Post whether he would protect abortion access and said initially that he hadn’t read a controversial Alabama IVF ruling. (He later said he had reviewed it and “wholeheartedly” rejected the ruling.) He has said he would support a 15-week abortion ban and later said he wouldn’t, and he has called abortion “a tragedy.” Amidst all this waffling over a core issue affecting young women, he found time to meet with an anti-child-support advocate who presents it as a “war on men,” which was then released as part of a Blacks for Kennedy promotional video. (In his attempt to court Black voters, Kennedy did speak with a panel of women in Atlanta. Politico reported that the meeting was coordinated by Angela Stanton King, a former Blacks for Trump proxy who was pardoned by the former president in 2020 for a previous felony conviction.)

In a way, Beres says, Kennedy is campaigning more as an influencer than as a politician, displaying his lifestyle and his connections in a way that would also appeal to an isolated, online male crowd looking for models of how—and who—to be: “He nails an image,” Beres says, “that a lot of people don’t understand they need a lot of money and connections to acquire.” In the end, promoting a controversial athlete and an ex-governor turned blogger as vice-presidential picks may not signal a coherent political vision. But it does show an enormous hunger to engage with online spaces where the young and disaffected men gather, and wait to be shown the way.