Posted on 11/18/2018 5:41:27 PM PST by SMGFan
Long-lost audio tape shows Rep. Ryan planned to rescue willing residents
(Editors Note: Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of a still-shocking mass-killing that left more than 900 people dead in Jonestown, a remote settlement in Guyana founded by cult leader Jim Jones. Most were poisoned with a cyanide-laced drink. Leo J. Ryan, a Democratic lawmaker from San Francisco, had traveled to Jonestown to investigate reports of people being held against their will in Jonestown. Ryan and four others were fatally shot at a nearby airstrip. Rep Jackie Speier, D-Calif., then a Ryan staffer, was among several more who were shot repeatedly and left for dead at the airstrip. The mass killing began soon afterwards.)
The 40-year-old audiotape sounded tinny and indistinct to Rep. Jackie Speier. In her Capitol Hill office, the California Democrat leaned forward in her chair to listen to the voices from the recording on the laptop computer.
On the tape were her former boss, Rep. Leo J. Ryan, her 28-year-old self and Debbie Layton Blakey, an escapee from the settlement in Guyana called Jonestown. Speier had not heard the recording since shortly after it was made on September 1, 1978. After the National Archives made the tape available a few years ago, Speier said she was eager to be one of the first to listen to it.
(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...
Hilights of news I recall were:
Less than a year later Americans were taken hostage 11/4/79 and held 444 days The USA skipped the Summer OLympics. Reagan defeated Carter. And then all of those assassinations or assassination attempts.
The USA was seen as weak under Carter. But we were blessed with 8 years of Reagan
The drink was Kool-aide, hence the expression. I wonder how many under 50 realize that was the origination of the expression?
It was actually Flavor Aid, though it wasn’t as well known as Kool-Aid.
And Jones was in tight with most of the San Francisco and Bay Area politicos. They all vouched for him before running for cover after this.
Harvey Milk was one of his biggest proponents.
A contemporary joke I remember.
Why dont you ever hear any jokes about Jonestown? Punch line is too long.
It was actually Flavor Aid.
The Mediascum always tries to leave the impression that this was a “Christian” cult, but it was primarily a LEFT WING cult for “progressive” activists. Jim Jones was tight with a lot of leftist pols in San Francisco. He called the mass suicide plan “revolutionary suicide” as a protest at the World.
Yes....but when referring to liberals that have lost their ability of logical thought and have been sucked into the liberal “cult”.................I think “They drank the Kool-Aide has a better ring to it....../s
Oh, that’s terribly hilarious!
"Electric Kool-Aid Acid test" - as best I can recall, it involved an event at a (Unitarian?) Church, where the instructions weren't clear as to the beverage being laced with LSD. So it probably dates back to Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.
Jones was an avowed communist.
The 80’s as an American teen was something else.
I was eleven and this was my sister’s ninth birthday. Also the night before the Star Wars holiday special was shown for its first and only time
Ryan was building a house just half a mile from where we lived, he would have been our second closest neighbor. He died before it was finished.
Good one
and Jonestown IS the event that coined that phrase.
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