Sunday, July 11, 1915. Garza enters Mexico City. Revolutionary ambush in Brownsville.

Constitutionalist Gen. Pablo Gonzáles Garza entered Mexico City

Sheriff's Deputy Constable Pablo Falcon and Deputy Sheriff  Encarnacion Cuellar were shot and killed when they were ambushed by six men at a dance hall three miles from Brownsville, Texas. They are asserted to be the first victims of the Plan of San Diego, with it being ironic in that they were both Hispanic.  Other causes for the ambush have been theorized.

The Germans scuttled the cruiser SMS Königsberg in the Rufiji River, German East Africa following the vessel being heavily damaged in action against the Royal Navy.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 10, 1915. Writing the Mexican governments about Huerta.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Art, Battle of Manzikert, Constitutionalist Army, Conventionists, Imperial Russian Army, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Ottoman Army, Victoriano Huerta, World War One

Friday, July 9, 1915. First casualty of the Border War.

 A Mexican raider was shot and killed in a raid on the King Ranch near Kingsville, Texax, becoming hte first fatality of the Border War.  He was killed by a cowhand.

Austrian born German Gen. Victor Franke, commander of the German forces in German South West Africa, surrendered  his small command, and effectively the colony, to the Allies.

Franke lived until 1936.

Last edition.

Thursday, July 8, 1915. The Women's Peace Army.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Army, cavalry, Plan of San Diego, Sedicionistas, Texas, Women, World war one Australia

Thursday, July 8, 1915. The Women's Peace Army.

The Australian Women's Peace Army was formed to protest to Australia's involvement in World War I.

The Plan of San Diego was resulting in some exchanges of fire in Texas.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 7, 1915. Last meeting of the Mexican Convention.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Armenian Genocide, Austro Hungarian Army, boats and ships, First Battle of the Isonzo, Italian Army, Italian Navy, Kentucky, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Ohio, Terrorism, Weather, World War One

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 94th edition. Portents? The problem of Evil.

 

Halley's comet depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, showing how big of event it was and how it was viewed, particularly after the events of 1066.

In ancient times, some things were seen as portents  A warning of things to come.  Sometimes, of course, that was appreciated retrospectively.

A terrible flood has resulted in loss of life in Texas, most tragically at Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp near the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country.

It'll seem odd noting it, but this is right after the codification of Trump's agenda in the Big Ugly Bill, which took an axe to solar and wind electricity support.

In Wyoming it's been popular to criticize those project.  It likely has been in Texas too, and everywhere in the US in which petroleum has been a major economic factor.  In those areas, the climate change is a fib line of reasoning has been popular, mostly based on the thesis that what's good for my wallet can't be bad for anything.

The weather recently has been weird.

Some will likely point out that flooding in Texas isn't a new thing.  Indeed, the great Stevie Ray Vaughan put out an lp called Texas Flood which featured the great blues number It's Flooding Down In Texas.

 

All of which is quite true.

And none of which demonstrates that the weather has been normal.  It hasn't been.

I read once, years ago, a comment by a Catholic monk pertaining to the problem of evil, "why does God allow bad things to happen?"  I've seen various explanations over the years, but he related he had actually asked that question, directed as a petition (prayer) to God.  He received an answer, that being "Why do you?"

Indeed, why do we?

Here's one we can avoid, and even reverse.  It's our duty to do so.

One thing I'd also note.  The Big Ugly takes money from things like NOAA and from weather prediction.  One of the thing that's being complained of in Texas is the lack of weather warnings before the terrible storm.

We're going to see a lot more of that.

So again, why do we?

Last edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 93d Edition. Porn industry retstricted, Supreme Court weigh in as Wyoming requires age verification on adult sites, Dudes in the lady room, and on women's teams, Trump helping where no law or help was needed.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, 2025 Wyoming Legislative Post Mortem, 2025 Wyoming Legislative Session, children, flap de jour, law, Populism, pornography, Teenagers, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming, Zeitgeist

Sunday, July 4, 1915. Sedicionistas hit Los Indios. Ottomans and Arabs tribesmen hit Lahij, South Arabia (جنوب الجزيرة العربية).

Sedicionistas hoped to bring the territory south of the C line back into Mexico.

Sedicionistas, hoping to spark a revolution in the southern US to bring what had formerly part of Mexico back into the country, launched their first cross border raid, hitting the Los Indios Ranch in Cameron County, Texas.

Interestingly, in some parts of the US July 4, 1915 was Americanization Day.

It would  be so defined by the movement supporting it up until entry into World War One and would later become Loyalty Day.

The Ottomans and loyal Arab tribesmen attacked British held Lahij in South Arabia (جنوب الجزيرة العربية), or Greater Yemen).  The city on the Indian Ocean is now in Yemen.

Related threads:

Wednesday, January 6, 1915. The Plan of San Diego.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 3, 1915. Muenter bombs Morgan.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Anarchy, Art, Crime, Independence Day, J. C. Leyendecker, J. P. Morgan, James Montgomery Flagg, Personalities, World War One

Saturday, June 20, 1925. La battaglia del grano.

Benito Mussolini launched "The Battle for Grain" ("La battaglia del grano"), aimed at increasing Italy's wheat production to the point of becoming completely self-sufficient.

FWIW, today Italy uses a lot of Ukrainian wheat.

Audie Murphy was born into a sharecropping family in Hunt County, Texas.  He'd grow up under difficult conditions, learning to hunt in order to help feed his large family, and leaving school to pick cotton in fifth grade.

Last edition:

Thursday, June 18, 1925. Death of Robert La Follette.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Death, German Weimar Republic, Germany, It was because of World War One, law, Monarchy, Personalities, Socialism, Wisconsin

Thursday, March 24, 1825. State Colonization Law of March 24, 1825.

The Mexican legislature passed the State Colonization Law of March 24, 1825, allowing immigrants to take up agricultural lands in Texas for a nominal fee, provided that they took oath promising to abide by the federal and state constitutions, to worshiped according to the Catholic faith, and to display sound moral principles and good conduct. 

Immigrants arrived, but they were largely Protestant (Southern) Americans, violated Mexican slavery laws, and demonstrated very little loyalty to Mexico.

Perhaps they should be deported.

There are a lot of lessons in this story.

Last edition:

Saturday, March 19, 1825. Fort Vancouver opens.

Labels: 1820s, 1825, Hudson's Bay Company, The Frontier West, Washington

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 76th Edition. Keeping them in the sky, with measles, and down on the metaphorical farm.

KEEP CALM AND FLY ON Experts say despite recent incidents, commercial flights are safe

No, Trump isn't responsible for this, but it is oddly synchronicitous that at the same time the Trump regime is attacking the government, aircraft keep crashing.

Again, it isn't his fault.  

But if Biden was President, you can be sure that Trump would blame him.

Update:

And a scary near miss incident today.

Measles outbreak surfaces in Texas Infection can lead to serious complications including pneumonia and blindness

Almost everyone was unvaccinated.

Gee, what a surprise.

Elsewhere, there's a claim, and its pretty unverified, that a FBI whistleblower has revealed that the Epstein files are being purged at the FBI.  MAGAs immediately leaped to the conclusion that this must be because they hold all sorts of dirty secrets about the Democrats and now the Q files will at last be revealed.

Funny, if that's happening, and I have no reason to believe it is, my assumption would be that after Patel taking over the FBI, if that's happening, it wouldn't be files about the Democrats they were seeking to hide. . . 

Trump, of course, was a frequent flyer on the Lolita Express and that brings up something that occured to me today while reading what the WFC is up to.  As noted in another thread, they've passed the "keep 'em ignorant bill" in the legislature, as they fear that the requirement to report to school districts with curriculum might reveal that some people's home school program is limited to a children's edition of the King James Bible.  This seems set to pass, and some must be lamenting that the WFC wasn't as strong in 2023, when the legislature had the temerity to outlaw child marriages.  Gosh, now that we're in the golden age we could have kept the children uneducated and pregnant, or at least the girl ones.

Who voted against outlawing child brides.  Here's who:  Dockstader, Baldwin, Kinsky, Hicks, Steinmetz, Biteman, Salazar, Ide, French, Kolb, Hutchings, McKeown, Allemand, Allred, Angelos, Banks, Bear, Davis, Haroldson, Heiner, Hornok, Jennings, Knapp, Locke, Neiman, Ottman, Pendergraft, Penn, Rodriguez-Williams, Singh, Slagle, Smith, Strock, Styvar, Tarver, Ward, Winter.

Some usual WFC suspects there.

Cont

Funny how quickly things develop.  Now both Democrats and Republicans are lobbying Pam Bondi to release the Epstein files, which she had stated were "on her desk".

And yet, they haven't been.

She had said she was waiting on a directive from King Donny, a buddy of the late procuror. 

Come on Pam. Release the info.

Last edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 75th Edition. Dim Wit.

Labels: Canada, Donald Trump, Errare humanum est, Europe, Hockey, Politics, Populism, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, Sports, The Second Trump Administration, Zeitgeist

Satuday, January 17, 1925. Ma Ferguson in the Governor's office.

Miriam "Ma" Ferguson became the first female governor of Texas and the second, after Nellie Tayloe Ross, in the United States.

The Italian Chamber of Deputies repealed the "plural voting" provision in the electoral bill passed the previous day.

That didn't last long.

It was Saturday.

The Literary Digest had a two page Seiberling tire advertisement.

Obviously, certain symbols hadn't acquired their current meaning.

Last edition:

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

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1930s, 1933, 1940s, 1946, Crime, Disease, Folk Music, Hudie Ledbetter, Italy, Louisiana, Music, Texas, The Blues

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.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1925 Wyoming Legislative Session, Communism, James Dean Effect, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Nellie Tayloe Ross, Politics, USSR, Wyoming

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

Outnumbered roops under Ranald Mackenzie attacked Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche at Palo Duro Canyon bringing about a legendary and significant Army victory in the Red River War and essentially bringing it to a close.

Casualties on both sides were overall light, but the loss of horses and supplies was devastating to the Native side.

Mackenzie is forgotten in the popular memory, although he certainly is not amongst students of the post Civil War Indian Wars.  He was an extremely effective but died a bad death at age 48, which may be part of the reason that he's forgotten.

Last edition:

Friday, September 25, 1874. The Act of September 1874.

Labels: 1820s, 1824, 1870s, 1874, Benito Juárez, Catholic, Christianity, Cristero War, law, Manuel Ávila Camacho, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Porfirio Díaz, religion, Revolution of Ayutla, Second Mexican Empire

Friday, September 25, 1964. Gomer Pyle, USMC.

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. premiered on CBS.

Somehow, Pvt. Pyle managed never to be deployed to Vietnam, and seemingly, with the exception of one single episode I can think of, remain in the Pre Vietnam War era entirely.

President Johnson and Mexican President López Mateos shook hands on the International Bridge at El Paso.  Later that day President Johnson flew to Oklahoma for the dedication of the new Eufaula Dam and spoke about the Vietnam War, stating: "There are those that say you ought to go north and drop bombs, to try to wipe out the supply lines, and they think that would escalate the war. We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys."

FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) launched the Mozambican War of Independence.

Last edition:

Blog Mirror: Kodak Instamatic Cameras, 1964

Labels: 1960s, 1964, Blog Mirror, Cameras, technology

Wednesday, September 9, 1874. The start of the Battle of Upper Washita.

The Battle of the Upper Washita River commenced on this day in 1874 when a supply train lead by Cpt. Wyllys Lyman was attacked by Comanches and Kiowas.   The battle would last for five days during which a scout was dispatched for relief.

Pvt. Thomas Kelly, Company H, 5th U.S. Infantry, was awarded the Medal of Honor.  His citation reads:

Gallantry in action.

Kelly was, predictably, Irish, having been born in May in 1836.  He must have been a career soldiers as he was almost 40 years old, and still a private, not unusual for the time.  He lived until 1919 and died at age 83, at Leavenworth, Kansas, which was likely his last duty station.  He married Rose Kelly at some point.

One of the Wild Geese.

Last edition.

Sunday, August 30, 1874. The return to The Girl I Left Behind me and the Battle of Red River.

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Battle of Red River, Camp Custer Michigan, cavalry, Ft. Abraham Lincoln, Infantry, Red River War, Texas, The Black Hills Expedition

Sunday, August 30, 1874. The return to The Girl I Left Behind me and the Battle of Red River.

The Black Hills Expedition returned to Ft. Abraham Lincoln after covering nearly 1,200 miles over lasting sixty days.

The Sixth Cavalry and Fifth Infantry under the command of Colonel Nelson A. Miles attacked a large group of Southern Cheyenne near the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River in Texas in what became the day long Battle of Red River..  Though armed with Gatling guns and a 10-pounder Parrott rifle, the Cheyenne were able to hold them the Army long enough to escape up Tule Canyon into the Staked Plains.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 26, 1874. Lynching black suspects and violating the Second Amendment.

Labels: 1870s, 1874, Crime, Ethnicities, law, National Rifle Association, Racism, Tennessee, Weapons