Spent the weekend exploring a fascinating -- but ultimately fruitless -- synchonicity: the August 7, 1974 walk of Philippe Petit between the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the resignation of Richard Nixon one day later. As delightful as it is to read Petit's performance as the literal enactment of Nixon's predicament at that time, there turns out to be no way one can tie the two together, even through the tendrils of the either Umbrella camp. Sometimes things just happen near each other, but not because of each other. Post hoc is not always propter hoc. No matter what some other conspirologists might have you believe. I'm here to tell the truth.
 
Spent the whole weekend reading about the impeachment forces gathring around Nixon in 1974, and one thing really stuck out. The House Judiciary committee. Up until the previous election, it had been chaired by Emmanuel Celler, a 25-term incumbent, and a known friend of Nixon's. If Celler had been chair, the hearings would almost certainly have had a different complexion. Could Nixon have escaped? Maybe not, but he might have dragged things out longer, perhaps long enough for another Hail Mary play like China. (Notice how the Dark Umbrella cabal thinks in the long run -- they knew China was a sleeping giant market for their capitalist wares, and that may well have been the reason Nixon was euchred into making that trip.)

But seriously. A 25-term friend of Nixon's suddenly fails at the polls just when he might tip the balance? I'm thinking I see the shadow of the White Umbrella.
 
Here's the rule of thumb I've learned: To find conspiracies, you need to look for outlier events. Things that are plausible, that don't defy the laws of physics or human nature, but are just one extra standard deviation from the mean.

Things like, say,  JFK's secret service detail drinking non-alcoholic "Salty Dicks" at a club the night before Alpdrucken ims Ulmstrasse.  You read that in the Warren Report, and you say, yeah, right. A bunch of Secret Service guys drinking grapefruit juice. (The things you can learn reading the entire 22-volume Warren Report cover to cover.)

Or, things like the entire political system suddenly turning on Richard Nixon in 1974. Within that overall penumbra of events, there will be some moments of totality where something truly unusual happens. Those are the Black Swan moments where the shadow of the Umbrella cabal can be seen.
 
After much soul searching and pouring over notebooks, I've decided to turn to one of my long-suspected connections with the white umbrella: the Nixon resignation and the end of the Vietnam War.
 
People had been telling me I had to watch the film, and I will admit, there were some suggestive ideas. The notion of Nixon being a larger-than-life force all the way through to 1985 is interesteing, and I can see why some of the folks in the conspiracy community read the film as an allegory of American foreign policy and domestic disinformation. But for me, it was just to morally ambiguous. I'm not a big fan of comic books -- sorry, graphic novels -- but maybe I should trying reading it. People tell me it's better. Meh.
 
I've been pondering the "why" of the JFK hit, and the only explanation that makes sense, indeed, the only one that fits the facts, is that it was a moment where the umbrella was transferred.

In Dallas, Richard Nixon received the umbrella.

He was in town that day, for corporate lawyering work with a client. Go ahead. Check it out on Google. And while he was nowhere near Dealy Plaza, there is that gap in Oswald's timeline between the time he slips out of the Texas School Book Depository and has the run-in with Tippett.

Oswald was passing along the Umbrella.