Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Friday, February 25, 1910. Dealing with monopolists.

A grand jury in Newark, New Jersey indicted the National Packing Company and its subsidiaries, Armour, Swift, Morris, and G.H. Hammond of conspiracy to monopolize the nation's meatpacking industry.  Executives were also indicted.

Funny. . . it's every bit as monopolized now. . . 

The early 20th Century, of course, saw a dedicated effort to deal with the excesses of capitalism. Those efforts were, to a large degree, successful.

And forgotten.

Thomas Edison's electric street car was demonstrated in New York.

Last edition:

Friday, February 18, 1910. Morocco held hostage by its own tariffs.

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Saturday, February 1, 2025

Sunday, February 1, 1925. Balto, the future King Zog, wild party in Laramie.

The final leg of the serum run began with Gunnar Kaasen setting out with lead dog Balto.  The Norwegian born Kaasen is the only musher who became famous due to the event.

The story made the first page of the Tribune:


A party in Laramie had apparently gotten out of control.


Ahmed Zog became the first President of Albania. He'd later be its first king. . . sort of a cautionary tale there.

Irish President W. T. Cosgrave appealed to the United States for food aid as the country's potato crop had been severely reduced due to excess rain.

Last edition:

Saturday, January 31, 1925. Leonhard Seppala and Togo.

Friday, January 31, 2025

Wednesday, January 31, 1945. Fifty miles from Berlin.


"Reading his first mail since moving into frontline position is Sgt. John W. Carter of Gastonia, N.C., Battery C, 616th F.A. Bn., 10th Mtn. Div. 31 January, 1945. Cutigliano area, Italy.

Battery B, 616th Field Artillery Battalion, 10th Mountain Division.

The Red Army closed to within fifty miles of Berlin.

The Battle for Kapelsche Veer ended in a victory for the Canadian Army.

The Waffen SS murdered over 160 Polish POWs at Podgaje.  The Polish troops were members of the Communist Polish People's Army.

The Battle of Hill 170 ended in a victory for the British and Indian Armies.

Destroyed Japanese tank on Luzon, January 31, 1945.

The 11th Airborne was landed, by sea, near Nasugbu without opposition.

The execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik, about which there's been much handwringing, was carried out.  He had been convicted of desertion and is the only US soldier to be executed for the same since the Civil War.  Desertion was becoming a problem in the U.S. Army, contrary to the way we'd like to remember the war (draft dodging was as well), and he was made an example of.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 30, 1945. The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Monday, January 25, 1875. The Pinkertons raid the James home.



Pinkerton agents raided the Clay County, Missouri home of Frank and Jesse James. They were aided, in this effort, by Unionist who had opposed Missouri throwing in with the traitorous South in the Civil War, and who retained grievances in the violent post Civil War world of Missouri.

Frank and Jesse were not there, but a fire-bomb they used killed their brother Archie and injured their mother severely. The raid caused intense anger in Missouri, both for its violence, and due to retained insurrectionist sympathies.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Friday, January 16, 1925. Leadbelly released from prison and some Italians got to vote a lot.


Huddie Ledbetter, aka "Lead Belly", was granted a full pardon by Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff  Neff for having served the minimum seven years of his prison sentence for the 1918 killing of Will Stafford, a relative of his, in a fight over a woman.

It was a least his second period of incarceration, with  his first being in 1915 for carrying a handgun, something that would not be a crime now.  

While in prison for homicide, he'd be stubbled in the neck by another inmate, resulting in a permanent scar.

The pardon came about due to Ledbetter writing the Governor and seeking the same, and the Governor visiting him more than once in prison.

Ledbetter would return to prison in 1930 for attempted homicide and 1939 for assault.

Perhaps not a pacific man, he was the greatest American folk musician and one of the greatest blue musicians of all time.  He was personally responsible for the survival of the twelve string guitar.  He was principally a bluesman, but the blues had not quite stabilized into its form at the time, and not all of his music fits the genera.  Indeed, this so much the case that at least one of his songs that is typically preformed as a blue piece, The Midnight Special, was not performed quite that way by Leadbelly.  He became known to the general public due to John Lomax's recordings of him in 1933, at which time he was again in prison.

Leadbelly was born in Louisiana in 1888 or 1889, and died of Lou Gehrigs disease in 1946 at age 61 or 62.  He took to music early and learned to paly the mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, Jew’s harp, piano, and organ, with his principal instructor's being his uncles, Bob and Terrell Ledbetter.

His songs are widely preformed to this day, and once were part of the American music canon taught to school children.  Interestingly enough, he's associated with the first recorded use of the word "woke", in a spoken item after a song in which he stated; "So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there—best stay woke, keep their eyes open."

Italy passed a bill giving double votes to academians, professors, those with diplomas, knights, military officers, those with any military decorations, officeholders, certain business personnel, all those paying a direct tax of 100 lira or more, and fathers of at least five children, triple votes to members of the royal family, members of high nobility, cardinals, highly decorated war veterans, high officeholders, or anyone who met three conditions for double votes. 

Last edition:

Thursday, January 15, 1925. Trotsky gets canned, Ross addresses the legislature.

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Monday, January 12, 1925. Ordering Thompsons.

The North Side Gang attempted a drive by assassination of Al Capone, with the would be killers armed with Thompson submachine guns.

Capone was inside a nearby restaurant at the time, conducting business, and only his bodyguard was wounded. The event did cause him to order Thompsons himself, which were not restricted from purchase in any fashion at the time.

These would have been the M1921 Thompson, not the M1928 Thompson that is more familiar to most people, although telling the difference between the two at a glance is difficult.  They were extremely expensive.

Period Thompson advertisement.  Thompson marketed them to police and for self defense, but of course at the price, they weren't economically attractive to regular people, and they were to criminal organizations, as well as to the police.

Last edition:

Sunday, January 11, 1925. Jargon of the Juveniles, Times Signal, Zanesville.

Wednesday, January 12, 1825. A type of justice arrives for the first time.

For the first time in U.S. history, a European American was hung for his role in the organized killing of a Native American when James Hudson was hanged in Madison County, Indiana.

The killings had occurred in that county on March 22, 1825, and were previously noted here on their anniversary, where we stated:

Monday, March 22, 1824. The Fall Creek Massacre

The Fall Creek Massacre occured in which Native Americans of uncertain tribal origin, two men, three women, two boys, and two girls were killed by seven white settlers in Madison County, Indiana. 

The perpetrators would be caught, tried and sentenced to execution, in the first instance of European Americans being executed for the murder of Native Americans under U.S. law.  Not all were, however, as the Governor arrived during the executions and pardoned those who had not yet had their sentence carried out.

Last edition:

Sunday, January 9, 1825. The "Corrupt Bargain".

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Friday, December 13, 2024

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 67th Edition. So you say you want a revolution?

Наро́дная во́ля?

The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats

 

July/August 2014


Hanauer is a very wealth man.

Hanauer concluded his article with:

My family, the Hanauers, started in Germany selling feathers and pillows. They got chased out of Germany by Hitler and ended up in Seattle owning another pillow company. Three

 

generations later, I benefited from that. Then I got as lucky as a person could possibly get in the Internet age by having a buddy in Seattle named Bezos. I look at the average Joe on the street, and I say, “There but for the grace of Jeff go I.” Even the best of us, in the worst of circumstances, are barefoot, standing by a dirt road, selling fruit. We should never forget that, or forget that the United States of America and its middle class made us, rather than the other way around.

Or we could sit back, do nothing, enjoy our yachts. And wait for the pitchforks.

I suspect we're past that point now.  We've elected a plutocrat who promised to be sort of what Franklin Roosevelt actually was, "a traitor to his class".

He won't be. 

I suspect the rage will amplify.

So, what am I talking about?

I've never had any problems with my health insurance.  People complain about their health insurance a lot, however.

I'm noting that here as the public reaction to the assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare, has been shocking.  I've seen people I know and respect actually rejoice at his killing, and that reaction has been extremely widespread.  I even saw somebody who is associated sort of with the insurance industry rejoice at the murder.  Moreover, one of the most right wing people I know, who voted for Trump twice, made a positive comment about the killing.

Let that sink in.  Far right, voted for Trump twice, and expressing some sympathy with the killer.

We find ourselves, at the same time that populists elected a childish billionaire who started nominating his billionaire buddies to government positions, in a situation in which a large section of the American population, including no doubt many of the people who voted the overaged rich child into office, pretty much cheering a terroristic assassination of a health insurance company CEO.

That it was an assassination, there can be no doubt. Expended shell casings were labeled "delay", "defend" and "depose", showing both a familiarity with civil litigation and the book Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.

What's that tell us?

Well it tells us in part that the social fabric in this country is a lot more ripped than we even began to imagine.  

And it also tells us people attempting to read the populist weather vein might be reading it wrong.  The rage might not be as fully right wing as imagined, as now we have Americans cheering the killing of an industry figure, something that Trump/Musk and his cronies love.  That's its populist, however, there can be no doubt.

I can't recall things like this happening in the US, the targeted assassination of industry figures, since the 1920s, when it was a feature of real radicalism.  We're entering a very bad space.

It suggest, however, that in spite of what Trump/Musk imagine, the country might actually be ready for some real economic reform as it received in the 1930s.  Assassination is not tolerable, but it would appear some aspects of corporate capitalism may not be so much any longer either.

Indeed, the same right wing fellow I mentioned above proposed that all health insurance companies should be forced to be 100% policy holder owned, a highly distributist suggestion.

It is, I'd note, worth noting that plenty of current Trump backers from the far right are noting that the killer, Luigi Mangione, is from a well to do family.  He is. This is supposed to tell us that this was a deluded left winger.

Deluded, no doubt.  Left winter, maybe.  But it's also worth noting that before Trump was the populist darling, Bernie Sanders was.  Tulsi Gabbard, one time Democrat and now Trump nominee for security chief, was a Sanders supporter before she supported Trump.

Joseph Goebbels was a Communist before he was a Nazi.

Goebbels in 1916.

Lenin was from a middle class family, whose parents were monarchists.  He was a lawyer, hardly a proletarian occupation.


The point of this?  Well, just because Mangione was from a well to do family, who no doubt supported none of this, doesn't mean that he became a populist assassin as he was radicalized by the left.  He personally may have been.  We don't know.  He may be just a nut.

But the widespread cheering for him, and it is widespread, shows that Hanauer may very well be very right.

Last edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 66th Edition. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer up your pants.*

Sunday, December 8, 2024

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Tuesday, December 5, 1944. The Royal Navy in the Greek Civil War.

The Royal Navy shelled Greek communist positions near Piraeus.

The Red Army took Szigetvár and Vukovar, Hungary.

Canadians took Ravenna, Italy.

The Liberty ship Antoine Saugrain was sunk by Japanese aircraft in Leyte Gulf.  And on the ground:

Today in World War II History—December 5, 1939 & 1944: US launches final offensive on Leyte in the Philippines, driving into the Ormoc Valley. Victory ship SS Red Oak Victory is commissioned into the US Navy

"Men of the 121st Regt., 8th Inf. Div., U.S. First Army, after 15 days at the front, move back along the road from Hurtgen, Germany. 5 December, 1944. 121st Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division. Photographer: T/3 Jack G. [illegible], 165th Signal Photo Co."

    " An American infantryman keeps firing while two of his comrades insert fresh ammunition in their rifles, as steady fire from this sheltered infantry covers advance near Rosteig, France. December 5, 1944. K Company, 398th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division. Rosteig Area, France. December 5, 1944."  Note that the men are wearing L. L. Bean Maine Hunting Shoe boots.

    Last edition:

    Monday, December 4, 1944. The Dutch Famine.

    Friday, November 29, 2024

    The American Drug Problem

    It's interesting, at least to some degree, that the US regards its massive drug problem as everyone else's fault.  It's not as if, for example, there must be something really wrong here that causes people to use drugs.

    We don't really treat our other big social problems this way.

    Tuesday, November 26, 2024

    Seriously, blaming Canada?

     


    What the crap?

    How the DEA views it:


    Doesn't seem like Canada is the problem. . . . 

    But then who pays attention to the facts anymore?

    Monday, November 25, 2024

    The Post Insurrection. Part IX. The waiting upon justice edition.

     

    March 15, 2024

    March 19, 2024

    Trump, who represents that his assets are vast, is not able to post a bond covering the full amount of a $454 million civil fraud judgment against him during appeal and has related the same in a filing in court.  He's seeking not to have to post bond.

    If the Court does not grant him relief, execution on the judgment could start immediately.

    Cont:

    Donald Trump is suing ABC News and George Stephanopoulos over comments made in the last This Week episode in the Nancy Mace interview.

    April 25, 2024

    As Trump sits in a New York courtroom on charges of election interference for paying porn figures not to reveal his dalliances with them, while a married man, a host of figures were indicted in Arizona for an attempt to seat false electors.

    May 1, 2024

    Trump was fined for violating a court "gag" order in a contempt of court ruling in his hush money trial.  He was further warned that he may be jailed in a future contempt ruling, should this conduct repeat.

    The same court is allowing him to appear at his son Barron's high school graduation, which apparently would be the first time that he would attend one of his children's high school graduations.

    Elise Stefanik filed an ethics complaint against Trump prosecutor Jack Smith, in a move that itself lacks moral ethics.  Stefanik should be ashamed, but the concept of shame is sadly lacking currently.

    May 30, 2024

    Trump was convicted on all 34 Counts in the New York election interference case.

    The claims that it was a political prosecution and featured a rigged jury will start any second now.

    June 6, 2024

    The Georgia election interference case, which is one of the more significant ones, has been stayed while an appeal goes forward on whether prosecutor Willis may remain on the case, and so human foibles will end up causing this case not to be heard prior to the election, probably.

    Willis should step aside to let t his matter go forward.

    July 15, 2024

    To the general amazement of the legal community, the classified documents case has been dismissed on the basis of the Special Prosecutor having been appointed in violation of the appointments act.  The Special Prosecutor is going to appeal, but there's no way an appeal will be heard prior to the election.

    This is frankly bizarre.

    August 3, 2024

    The criminal case against Donald Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election shall resume.  It's been stayed for 8 months pending the outcome of the Supreme Court opinion on immunity, which the Judge will now have to figure out how to apply.

    August 28, 2024

    A new amended indictment has been filed.

    September 7, 2024

    Not related to the insurrection, but to Trump's legal problems, his sentencing in the hush money case has been delayed until after the election.

    Frankly, this makes no sense.

    November 25, 2024

    Special Counsel Jack Smith has requested that all charges against President-elect Trump be dropped in the Federal case.

    The progress of official justice in this mater was horrifically slow, which in part is why we now have somebody as President Elect who should have stood trial well over a year ago.

    And hence, as Justice shall not come, and the guilty shall go free, we conclude this trailing thread.

    Last prior edition:

    The Post Insurrection. Part VIII. The tangled web edition.

    Sunday, November 10, 2024

    Monday, November 10, 1924. Henry Cabot Lodge passes.


    He was a giant of American politics.

    The Tientsin Conference opened in China between warlords Zhang Zuolin, Feng Yuxiang, and Lu Yongxiang.   Former president Sun Yat-sen, the ongoing head of the Kuomintang and the government sitting in Canton, organized the meeting to discuss the ongoing civil war.

    Ranch property belonging to Mexican president elect Plutarco Elías Calles was expropriated by the state in accordance with Mexican agrarian laws.

    Chicago mobster Dean O'Banion, leader of Chicago's North Side Gang, was gunned down in his florist shop, making the cover of The Casper Herald.  His murder was nearly inevitable as he'd grown crosswise with one of the Italian mob families in Chicago.

    Last edition:

    Saturday, November 8, 1924. Declaration from Honolulu.

    Saturday, November 9, 2024

    Sea of red.

    On a dreary Friday morning, more than a dozen people gathered outside Courtroom 1A of the Townsend Justice Center to witness the end of the prosecution of the killer of 17-year-old Lene’a Brown, who was shot dead near Buckboard Park on May 14. 

    Most of those hearing attendees wore red in one form or another to support Brown — fl annel shirts, hoodies and T-shirts lined the left rows of the courtroom ahead of the trial.

    I stepped out of the courtroom after a hearing to see this crowd.  It was a sea of red.

    Friday, November 1, 2024

    Saturday, November 1, 1924. Political, and real, warfare.

    It was Saturday.


    Country Gentleman's cover was a follow-up from the prior week's.

    Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi II invaded the Emirate of Sharjah resulting in the overthrow of  Khalid bin Ahmad Al Qasimi, who had been the Emir since 1914.

    Sharjah was one of the Trucial States under British protectorate status. It is now one of the United Arab Emirates.

    He'd find his rule ineffective as he was ignored by Beudoins and Khalid retained support.  He remained the titular rule, however, until his death in 1951.

    The Royal Air Force introduced its Meteorological Flight Service.

    Éamon de Valera was sentenced to a month in prison for entering Ulster illegally.

    Frontier lawman Bill Tilghman, age 70, was shot and killed by drunken prohibition agement Wiley Lynn, who obviously wasn't that dedicated to the cause of his employment. Tilghman would lie in State in the Oklahoma state house.  Lynn would escape conviction, pleading self defense, but was killed in a gunfight in 1932.

    The days headline did, and did not, read like today's.


    Last edition:

    Thursday, October 30, 1924. King maker.