Progressives Chat: Scandals—Past and Present

This week’s blog topic addresses two Scandals. The first is from 1972. The second is from 2022.

50-Year Anniversary: Flight 553 Crash

Thursday, December 8, 2022 marks the 50-year anniversary of the crash of Flight 553 in Chicago, Illinois. According to a 40-year anniversary report from Chicago Tribune (1972’s United Flight 553 crash): “United Airlines Flight 553 crashed into a row of bungalows on West 70th Place, in Chicago, while approaching Midway Airport on [Friday, December 8, 1972], killing 43 of the 61 persons aboard, and two in a home. The plane left Washington, D.C., for Omaha [Nebraska,] and was about to make a planned stop in Chicago when the pilot was instructed by the control tower to execute a ‘missed approach’ pattern. As he went around for another landing attempt, the plane struck tree branches and then some bungalows before plowing into the home of Veronica [Cuculich, b. April 22, 1902]. She and her daughter, Theresa [b. September 9, 1935], died.”

Among those on board Flight 553 who were also killed: Dorothy (Wetzel) Hunt (b. April 1, 1920; Spartacus Educational: Dorothy Hunt), the wife of CIA figure and Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt (1918–2007); George Collins (b. March 5, 1925; COLLINS, George Washington), a Democratic incumbent member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois’s-then 6th Congressional District; and investigative news journalist Michele Clark (b. June 2, 1943; Spartacus Educational: Michele Clark), who was previously an anchor from Chicago’s CBS-affiliated station WBBM–TV and who was recently transferred to Washington, D.C. as a CBS News correspondent. (She was featured on-air with some of CBS News’s Election Night coverage on Tuesday, November 7, 1972.)

The incident was one in which many suspect it was not really an accident. That this was connected with then-U.S. president Richard Nixon’s administration. That Dorothy Hunt, who was a CIA employee, was on board with $10,000 in cash and was blackmailing the Nixon administration for their involvement in the break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. That Clark was looking to break the story on the coverup. This came one month after Nixon, whose job approval, due to a good economy, was around 60 percent (and won re-election at the level which rendered for him carriage of 49 states). He was at an early stage of what would eventually mark the end of his presidency—which, frankly, he caused (even Barry “Mr. Conservative” Goldwater had to tell him it was over)—and would culminate in Nixon’s resignation on Friday, August 9, 1974.

Following the death of U.S. Rep. Collins, his widow Cardiss Collins (1931–2013) won a special election, on Tuesday, June 5, 1973, to her husband’s congressional seat and would win re-elections through 1994. She retired by the end of 1996. (That seat is now held by her successor, Danny K. Davis.) Clark has a school, Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School, named in her honor. Hunt was neutralized. (Consideration: Crash Of Flight 553 Watergate Paymistress Murdered Or Who Killed Dorothy Hunt.)

I encourage readers to check out the linked Chicago Tribune report, from 2012, as it includes some vivid pictures from the crash scene. (A recent report, for the 50th anniversary, is also available from the publication; however, it is apparently accessible via a paywall.)

The below videos cover news of the Flight 553 crash, along with analyses, a 1971 WBBM–TV newscast which includes Clark, and a 1973 audio interview which is a take on the case by author Sherman Skolnik (1930–2006). Like another person I mentioned in a previous blog topic, this past May, Remembering Mae Brussell (1922–1988), Skolnik had the stigma label Conspiracy Theorist attached to him. (He did not think the Flight 553 crash was an accident. Transcript for the video: Two views on the crash of Flight 553 w/ Sherman Skolnik.) I look at conspiracy theorists as thinkers. For some people, especially when they are accepting and embracing of The Official Record, they can be uncomfortable.

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The Twitter Files

Last Friday [December 2, 2022], journalist Matt Taibbi reported that Twitter—prior to its current and new ownership by Elon Musk—worked on behalf of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party to censor tweets especially in response to Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal. That Twitter did this at the request of Biden and the Democrats. That Twitter also suspended accounts, some permanently, with the familiar claims of them being disinformation and/or misinformation.

What content there is, as of this blog’s publishing date, is not complete. At this time, I have not read all. I did watch videos published to YouTube by sources such as The Dive with Jackson Hinkle and Due Dissidence. In fact, on Sunday [December 4, 2022], Sabby Sabs published to YouTube her response. (I trust this will be covered this week on The Jimmy Dore Show.)

I will be blunt, here, with stating that this not only does not surprise me but feels rather typical. I do not trust the Democrats, especially ever since 2016 when they rigged their primaries, and it has been one thing after another for, thus far, seven consecutive years. This is just one more example.