Sunday, November 18, 1975. The return of Eldridge Cleaver.

Fugitive member of the Black Panthers returned from self imposed exile in Paris in order to face murder charges.

During his time in Paris, he'd become a born again Christian and a clothing designer, having designed trousers with a prominent codpiece to free men, he said, from "penis binding".

They did not become popular.

Cleaver was  highly eccentric.  During his lifetime he swung widely in political views and he spent time in a wide variety of nations, including North Korea, Cuba, China and Algeria.  He'd go on to a variety of religions after being a born again Christian before converting to Mormonism. About the same time he became a conservative Republican, and twice ran for the Senate.  He'd end up, in spite of this, being convicted of drug possession.  He died in 1998 at age 62.  His ex wife, Kathleen, remains living and became a lawyer following their divorce in 1987.

He also left behind a son, Dr.Ahmad Maceo ibn Eldridge Cleaver, who was born in Algeria who passed away in Saudi Arabia in 2018 leaving himself three wives and 14 children.  His daughter, Joju Cleaver, born in North Korea, is a professor at Georgia State University.

Last edition:

Friday, November 14, 1975. The Madrid Accords.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Diplomacy, Mauritania, Morocco, Sahara, Spain, Spanish Empire

Charlie Kirk.

Charlie Kirk was murdered yesterday while delivering a talk at a university in Utah.

I actually heard the news of his being shot from somebody who has a direct connection with his organization.  I then checked the net and had the misfortune of seeing a video clip that was already online.  I've seen a lot of things shot so I knew he was dead right then.  When there began to be reports he survived I flat out said he had not.  The confirmation of his death came from the same source, which was before it was reported.

If it seems like I'm somewhat well connected, well I am.  If it seems like I know a lot about Kirk, I don't at all.

Before yesterday, the only thing I knew about Kirk is that he was a youngish right wing personality with a net presence.  As I don't watch net opinion pieces as a rule, although there are exceptions, I'd never watched him speak.  Somebody I know was associated with having him speak at the University of Wyoming, and as that person has definite fascist associations, I pretty much ignored Kirk in the assumption he did as well.  Since his death I've read a few of his statements, some of which are horrible, and some of which are not.

The shooter is still at large.

The shooting itself was remarkably similar in tactics to that used by Thomas Crooks to shoot Donald  Trump.  Lots of details of the Kirk murder are missing, and I don't want to be gruesome, but just based on the evidence available my guess right now is the shooter used an AR platform rifle with fmj ammunition, and the shot placed considerably higher or lower than where he was aiming.

Yes, that's grim.

As we don't know who the shooter was, we don't know his motivation, but its almost certain an act of political terrorism.

Bizarrely, witnesses claim that Kirk had just started to debate somebody in the crowed about whether transgenderism is associated with mass killings (it isn't).  If that's correct, and I wouldn't fully accept that it is, it's sort of ironic.  Perhaps more ironic is that Kirk, who didn't mind saying very controversial things, had made a statement that killings were the price we pay for the 2nd Amendment, and the price is worth it.

I support the 2nd Amendment, but that's a very shallow view of this issue.

His death sparked a wave of public commentary, with much of it, from the right and the left, lamenting his passing and condemning his killing, and political killings overall.  That is at it should be.  The demented illegitimate claimant to the Oval Office, who had benefited from Kirk's support, blamed the political left. 

Somebody from the left may well have killed Kirk.  But the fact of the matter is that the US, where violence has been declining for decades, entered into an era of political violence in January, 2021, when Trump's supporters violently stormed the Capital.  Even before that Trump's rhetoric was violent.  During the four year inter regime he kept it up, as did his supporters.  Since coming into office his rhetoric has been unhinged and he's inserted troops into Washington D.C. and Los Angeles which itself is an act of violence, and sent masked ICE agents in a manner which bespeaks of violence.  He's made the country lawless in a political sort of way.

National Conservatives, which Kirk seems to have been, are going to have to live with their embrace of Trump, and sooner or later that's going to mean that they're viewed as bloody.  It wouldn't be correct to say that Trump killed Kirk, but he did create an atmosphere which created its likelihood, if in fact not making it more likely than not.

A hallmark of failing states sliding into fascism and communism is the murder of the outspoken.  Those same states than make political martyrs out of their own who are killed.  Trump, who has never been popular, and whose popularity is slipping, and who is facing increasing demands for the release of the files maintained on his former friend, Jeffrey Epstein, can nearly be counted on to try to use this to boost his own fortunes and divert attention from being a pal of a rapist of teenagers.

We are at that point.

Kirk was 31 years old and leaves behind a wife and two young children.

Other Blogs:

Emergency Video: Kirk Shooting

Reflections on Charlie Kirk's assassination

Blog Mirror: Congressman Hageman cancels in person events.

Congressman Hageman has cancelled in person events, asserting that there have been threats of violence:

Hageman Plans Future Events to Be Held Virtually Because of Democrat Threats of Violence

Image

March 25, 2025 

Press Release

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Harriet Hageman (R-WY) today announced her office is changing the way town hall meetings with constituents are conducted, at least in the short-term, based on recent incidents at public events, credible threats to Hageman, and the related national outbursts of politically motivated violence and attempts at intimidation. Until now, Hageman has held town hall meetings in person in public venues, but that will shift to tele-town halls or virtual settings until it is safer for all Wyomingites. Hageman had previously announced town hall meetings on March 28 in Cheyenne and March 29 in Torrington, both will now be held via tele town hall at the same date and times as previously announced. Laramie County residents may sign up here and Goshen County residents may sign up here.

Since running for Congress in 2022, Hageman has held 75 in-person town halls, with at least three occurring in each of Wyoming’s 23 counties. Over that time, 73 of those meetings have occurred without incident, even though there has been spirited discussion with constituents at each one. In the past week, however, one town hall erupted in chaos fomented by activists, resulting in tense confrontations that threatened to spiral out of control.

At a town hall in Laramie on March 19, hundreds of protestors organized by the local Albany County Democratic Party and national influencers made such consistent and sustained disruptions that “shouts, boos and explicit language filled the theater,” according to local news coverage. 

Because of the events in Laramie, more than 20 officers from multiple agencies were assigned to keep the peace at a town hall in Wheatland the next day on March 20. Despite the law enforcement presence, an attendee followed Hageman leaving the venue and initiated a physical confrontation with staff, into which local police were forced to intervene. Hageman also reported that staff in her Washington, D.C. and Wyoming offices have received numerous, credible threatening phone calls and emails, currently being investigated by multiple law enforcement agencies. 

“I thank our wonderful law enforcement community for their willingness to support the public and myself while participating in our government process. It has become apparent, however, that the continuation of in-person town halls will be a drain on our local resources due to safety concerns for attendees,” said Hageman.

While the organized protests in Wyoming are jeopardizing the safety of members of the community, national Democratic Party leaders continue to encourage public eruptions and interruptions of what can be described as civil unrest, at best, or domestic terrorism, at worst.

The Democratic Minority Leader in the Senate, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), has not been subtle about the party’s plans to try to use public events as forums for intimidation.

“We have people going into Republican districts and going after these Republicans who are voting for [the Trump agenda],” he said on PBS Newshou. “And forcing them to either change their vote or face the consequences.”

There have been many documented incidents of politically motivated firebombing or other vandalism at Tesla dealerships, both in the U.S. and in other countries. Also, disturbingly, there has been a dramatic increase in incidents of “swatting aimed at conservative media figures or notable Republicans. Swatting is the terroristic practice of calling in false police reports of a domestic hostage situation, a potential murder-suicide crisis, or other public safety emergencies, in order to draw an armed law enforcement response to an otherwise peaceful and unsuspecting residence. In such swatting situations, the potential for gunfire and harm to innocent citizens or law enforcement officers is extremely high.  An incident at Hageman’s Cheyenne home in the last week confirms that she is the target of this national trend.

Hageman further explained why she is making changes to the town hall format.

“As the saying goes, ‘This is why we can’t have nice things,’” said Hageman. “I am proud of my record of holding dozens and dozens of town halls – 75 of them in just three years, at least three times in each of Wyoming’s 23 counties. And the only times we have had any problems with safety have been at two of the six held in the last week.”

“It’s no secret that I am willing to engage with citizens on any topic, in any place. But I draw the line when organized protestors intentionally create confrontation and chaos, escalating tensions to a point where violence seems inevitable,” Hageman continued. “It’s not safe for the peaceful citizens who want to come out to speak to their elected representative face to face. It’s not safe for attendees, it’s not safe for law enforcement, and it doesn’t do anything to encourage a meaningful dialogue at all.”

“For the time being, our town halls will be conducted in a safe virtual environment or in a tele-town hall format, until such time as it seems safe to resume in-person events,” Hageman concluded. “And because of that, I am formally calling on Sen. Schumer and his leadership counterpart in the House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, to denounce their party’s organized disruptors and crime. A failure to do so will only further confirm that the left’s radical tactics are no longer on the fringe but the mainstay of the Democratic party and prove once again their disdain for the First Amendment and legitimate political discourse. It is time for them to demand that their partisans stop threatening and intimidating people and causing actual violence before someone gets seriously injured or killed.” 

###

Contact: Esteban Elizondo, Communications Director

That things are getting extremely polarized is no surprise.  It's hard not to note that the 2020 insurrection was the first act of contemporary violence in this cycle.  Congressman Hageman ran into some pretty heated discussions in Laramie, but something that wasn't reported on was that she also had in Evanston and Rock Springs.  The natives are getting restless, particularly as by and large a lot of people really didn't vote for Trumpism as they didn't, and still don't, really know what it is, as they didn't, and still don't, know what National Conservatism is.

And, frankly, when people say "the government is too big", and things like that, they haven't thought it through, and often don't really mean it.

It's also interesting to note that what might be called, legitimately, terroristic acts against Tesla, and hence Musk, are on the rise, including interestingly enough in Wyoming, where up until now, having a Tesla branded a person as sort of a progressive.  Somebody painted swastikas on Tesla chargers in Rock Springs.  Tesla owners are noting that they had them before Musk was a Trumpite, which is a bit of a lame excuse as Musk has been peculiar for quite some time.  Terrorism is never justified, but like guerillas, they swim in the sea of the population, and you really can't have them until there's a fair number of people in the population such that they have some level of support.  The last time we saw this was in the 1970s when quite a few far left terrorist organizations sprang up.  They never had widespread support, but they had wide enough support that they were able to exist.

Thursday, March 20, 1975. Electrical attack.

The New World Liberation Front bombed PG&E transmission towers in Oakland and San Mateo, demanding that PG&E cut utility rates in half for the poor.

Last edition:

Wednesday, March 19, 1975. Abandoning Huế.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Chinese Civil War, Huế Vietnam, People's Republic of China, Saigon Vietnam, South Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Wednesday, January 29, 1975. American terrorism of the 1970s.

The Weather Underground bombed the State Department building in Washington, D.C.

Logo of the Weather Underground

The far left terrorist organization came out of the chaos of the 1960s which continued on, now mostly forgotten, into a violent early 1970s.  We're on the verge, I fear, of eclipsing that era in violence, although ironically the party attacking the government now is the populist now in power.  Given as the path we're currently on, in lots of ways, can't continue, there's real reason for concern about where the Trump interregnum's violence against the United States will lead, and if it will result in further societal violence.

In interesting aspect of this is what Gene Shepherd noted long ago, extremist meet in their extremism.  We've never had extremist in power before, however.

The group took its name from Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, which ironically is associated in my mind with well to do old lawyers who came of age in the 1960s singing it, as if any of their later lives reflected what they claimed to have believed in earlier days.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 28, 1975. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Cartoons, Japan, Petroleum, Sakhalin Island, television, USSR

Saturday, October 24, 1874. Domestic terrorists.

 

October 24, 1874 political cartoon by Thomas Nast decrying the alliance between the White League and the Ku Klux Klan in the South.

Last edition:

Monday, September 28, 1874. The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon.

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Army, Battle of Palo Dura Canyon, Cheyenne, Comanche, Indian Wars, Kiowa Tribe, Personalities, Ranald Mackenzie, Red River War, Texas

Monday, May 27, 1974. Memorial Day and Los Seis de Boulder.

It was Memorial Day for 1974.  Two days earlier President Nixon had issued this proclamation:

By the President of the United States Of America

A Proclamation

The defense of freedom and the search for peace cannot be separated. Together, they are an essential part of the American ideal. During the past two hundred years, our Nation has endured sacrifice in battle for the sake of this ideal. Americans died valiantly at Saratoga, King's Mountain, and Yorktown because they would not buy peace at the price of liberty. Americans died at Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg because a peace that cost the division of the Nation and the enslavement of a people could not be accepted.

We have occasion to show special gratitude this Memorial Day to those who fell in the cause of freedom in the longest and perhaps the most difficult war in our history. Because of their efforts, and the efforts of all our fighting forces, we can celebrate a year in which no American serviceman has fallen in the defense of his country.

During the past year, we have made progress toward the creation of a stable world order based on respect for the dignity and the larger interests of all nations. We have made this progress in part because America has pursued its tasks from a base of strength—not only military and economic strength, but strength of conviction and strength of purpose. We have been steadied in our resolve by the example of patience, self-sacrifice, and courage of our servicemen and women during the difficult years now past.

To our valiant dead we can pay no greater tribute than to emulate their dedication to a world free from the threat of force and the rule of fear. To them we dedicate our prayers for a new generation of peace and a new spirit of community among all the peoples of the world.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 1974, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at eleven o'clock in the morning of that day as a time to unite in prayer.

I urge the press, radio, television, and all other information media to cooperate in this observance.

I direct that the flag of the United States be flown at half-staff all day on Memorial Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels of the Federal Government throughout the United States and all areas under its jurisdiction and control.

I also call upon the Governors of the fifty States, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and appropriate officials of all local units of government to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on all public buildings during that entire day, and I request the people of the United States to display the flag at half-staff from their homes for the same period.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-eighth.

RICHARD NIXON

A bomb went off in the car of lawyer Reyes Martinez at Chautauqua Park killing Martinez, his girlfriend Uma Jaakola and her friend Neva Romero were all killed in the blast.

Two days later, another car bomb went off in the parking lot of a Burger King which was closed for the evening, killing Florencio Granado, Heriberto Teran and Francisco Dougherty. Antonio Alcantar Jr., who was standing outside lost his leg.

No suspects have ever been arrested. The victims are known as the "Los Seis de Boulder", or "The Boulder Six".  All involved, save for Reyes Martinez, were Hispanic activists protesting the conditions at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  The FBI concluded that the bombs were made by the victims themselves and accidentally triggered, a thesis their supporters reject.  

Monuments have been placed to them at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was inaugurated as President of France.

I had just turned eleven.  I have no personal recollection of any of these events.

Last prior edition:

Monday, May 13, 1974. 55

Labels: 1970s, 1974, 93d Congress, American Indian Movement, Government, law, Mohawk People, Native Americans, New York, Transportation

Monday, April 29, 1974. Transcribing tapes.

The President I used to think was the benchmark for corruption, Richard Nixon, held a nationally televised speech in which he indicated that he had arranged to have his staff transcribe some of the White House tapes, and would do that rather than release them.

Patty Hearst as a member of the SLA made the covers of Time and Newsweek.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 27, 1974. Aeroflot disater, War of Attrition winds down.

1970s, 1974, Aircraft, Arab Israeli Conflict, Disaster, Israel, Syria, USSR, War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War

Monday, April 15, 1974. The Hibernia Bank Robbery.

The Symbionese Liberation Army committed an armed robbery on the Hibernia bank in San Francisco.  "Tania", aka Patty Hearst, was, a member of the group, carrying a cut down Iver Johnson M1 Carbine "Enforcer".

A coup overthrew the government of Niger.  Aissa Diori, the First Lady of Niger, was killed in the event.

Ivor Bell, leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, escaped from the Maze Prison in Belfast.  In the facility for only seven weeks, he posed as another prisoner who was getting a furlough to attend a wedding.  He was captured thirteen days later.

Bell was a hardliner was expelled from the IRA in 1984.  He remains alive today, suffering from dementia.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, April 4, 1974. I wanted to note Hank Aaron. . .

1960s, 1966, 1970s, 1974, 1994 Irish Ceasefire, baseball, Crime, Disaster, Ireland, Jordan, Northern Ireland, Sports, The Troubles, Ulster, Ulster Volunteer Force, Weather, Women

Monday, February 4, 1974. Patty Hearst kidnapped.

Patty Hearst, a grandchild of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley, California by the  Symbionese Liberation Army.  She was 19 at the time.

Hearst right during later bank robbery.

The group had first appeared in November when it had murdered Marcus Foster, the black Superintendent of Oakland Public Schools, and wounded his deputy superintendent Robert Blackburn.

The name of the entity, it might be noted, came from this, according to the organization:

The name 'symbionese' is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body.

It's hard to seem how murdering public school superintendents fits that supposed goal.  Robert Blackburn, who survived his wounds, noted:

These were not political radicals, They were uniquely mediocre and stunningly off-base. The people in the SLA had no grounding in history. They swung from the world of being thumb-in-the-mouth cheerleaders to self-described revolutionaries with nothing but rhetoric to support them.

Emblematic of the times, the goof ball entity was a kind of sort of Communist terrorist cell that rapidly became disenchanted with "the people" after distributions of food, which it had demanded as a ransom in Berkeley, didn't go well.

In April, the group raided a bank in San Francisco, in which Hearst seemed to take part, although she denied doing so willingly. She nonetheless was convicted due to the actions and served two years out of a seven-year sentence before Jimmy Carter, ever the kind man, had her released.  Bill Clinton pardoned her.

In May the organization moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, where they got into a shootout at a sporting goods store where Hearst, on guard duty, fired shots.  A shootout a couple of days later at a supposed safe house killed six of them.

Hearst was arrested in September 1975, back at a San Francisco safe house.

Hearst, as noted, was convicted, but she claimed she had never participated willingly, and had been raped and threatened while a captive.  Given the nature of the SLA, that's certainly possible. Early on, however, after her arrest she had said that she comported her thoughts to theirs and was given a choice of being freed or fighting with them, and she elected to fight.

After her release, Hearst married Bernard Lee Shaw, a policeman who was part of her security detail during her time on bail.  They had two children.  He died in 2013.

The Provisional IRA bombed a bus on the M62 Motorway in England, killing nine solders and three civilians, including two children.

The Yom Kippur War resumed, but only as between Syria and Israel, with 500 Cuban soldiers joining a Syrian tank unit.  Fighting resumed in the Golan Heights.

Time Magazine featured Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil on the cover, with the caption "The Impeachment Congress.

Last edition:

Monday, January 28, 1974. End of the Siege of Suez.

Labels: 1970s, 1974, Bolivia, boxing, Egypt, Indonesia, inflation, Israel, pornography, Siege of Suez, Sports, Suez Canal, Suez Egypt, The Great Inflation, Watergate, Yom Kippur War

Saturday, October 1, 1910. The Los Angeles Times bombed.

A large bomb exploded outside the offices of the Los Angeles Times, killing 21 employees.

The bombing was part of a campaign by union members and in this instance was directed at the Times due to its position on unions.  The perpetrators, brothers John J. ("J.J.") and James Barnabas ("J.B.") McNamara were arrested in April 1911 J. B. was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. J.J. was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for bombing a local iron manufacturing plant, and returned eventually to union organization.

It was, of course, a Saturday.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 27, 1910. The Mexican Chamber of Deputies certified the re-election of Porfirio Díaz as President, and of Ramón Corral as Vice-President.

Labels: 1910, 1910s, Agriculture, children, Louisiana, Mexico, New Jersey, Porfirio Díaz