DID YOU KNOW THAT PRESIDENT GERALD FORD WAS ALMOST ASSASSINATED BY TWO FEMALES, SEVENTEEN DAYS APART?

Donald Trump escaped assassination twice, the first by a smidge, and second through alert security prevalence.  Did you know that President Gerald Ford, too, in 1975, survived two attempts, within three weeks?

• 
  Both occurred in California by women.
• On 5September1975, on the grounds of the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, drew a Colt M1911 .45-caliber pistol on Ford when he reached to shake her hand in a crowd.  
• She had four cartridges in the piston, but none in the firing chamber, so the gun did not fire. 

• 
  Was immediately restrained by a Secret Service agent. Sentenced to life in prison and released on 14August2009 after serving 34 years.
• Published a book about her life in 2018, Reflexion.
• Now lives in Marcy, New York with her boyfriend in a house decorated with skulls.  
• Says she is still in love with Charles Manson, who passed away in 2017.

• 
  On 22September1975, 17 days later, 45-year old Sara Jane Moore from 40 feet away, shot at Ford while in San Francisco, and missed.
• A bystander grabbed her as she pulled the trigger a second time, sending the bullet in a different direction, injuring a taxi driver.
• She was motivated by a radical revolutionary ideology to bring needed change.
• She was sentenced to life in prison, but was paroled on 21December2007 after serving for more than 30 years.
• These are the only two female assailers of U.S. presidents.
• 
  Actually, ten days into his presidency, in mid-August of 1974, 31-year old Muharem Kurbegovic, The Alphabet Bomber, said he was going to come to DC and throw a nerve gas Bomb at President Ford.
• Kurbegovic was identified and arrested on 20August1974.
• Born in Sarajevo in 1943, moving to America in 1967.
• As an engineer, worked in the aerospace industry.

• 
  Pretended to be a deaf-mute to dodge service in the Vietnam War.
• He ran afoul of the law, and took revenge, burning on 9November1973 the residences of the municipal court judge and two members of the Los Angeles Police Commissioner who had rejected his request for a dance hall license.  In June of 1974 he additionally placed arson devices in the gas tank of the car of one of those commissioners. On 4July1974 he set fire to three apartment building in Santa Monica and Marina Del Ray.

• 
  In mid-June of 1974 he sent nine postcards to each of the U.S. Supreme Court justices, each supposedly with a vial containing nerve gas.
• On 6August1974 he exploded a bomb in a coin-operated public locker in the Pan American Airlines lobby of the Los Angeles International Airport, killing three and injuring 36.  On 16August1974 he placed a 25-pound bomb in a locker at a Greyhound Bus station in Los Angeles, the most powerful the LA Police Department had handled up to that time.

• 
  Busy man, for during these events, Kurbegovic sent a message to President Ford about the nerve gas bomb.
• He was arrested on 20August1974.
• In November 1974 he requested deportation, which was denied.
• His trial was delayed for years because of his mental incompetence.
• He was finally tried and convicted in October of 1980 of 25 counts and in November sentenced to life in prison.
• He remains incarcerated.

In all of history, there have been 15 separate assault occasions of presidents, president-elect, and candidates.  We all are familiar with the President Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth matter.

• Of the 46 presidents, 11 have experienced an actual or attempted assassination.  11%.  Four were killed.

• 
  The closest Joe Biden came was when on 23May2023 19-year old Sai Varsith Kandula from Missouri drove a rented box truck into a barrier guarding the White House.  He had a Swastika flag, expressed admiration for the Third Reich, and intended to kill Biden to seize power.

• 
  I find it difficult to believe this because I don't remember so many, but Barack Obama prevailed over 11 different security incidents when he was president.
• In December of 2008, 20-year old U.S. Marine Kody Brittingham, stationed at Camp Lejeune, signed a letter of intent identifying then President-elect Obama as a target of an assassination plot.  A search of his barracks uncovered white supremacist material.  In June 2010, he was sentenced to 100 months in prison.
• Feel free to read the other ten attempts.

Well, enough of that.  Back to Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris, and their debate.  You might say it was mostly cordial with a beginning handshake.  Not so for some other international debates.

• Place yourself in Sao Paulo, Brazil this past weekend.
• Six candidates for mayor are debating on television.

• 
  One of them, José Luiz Datena, gets irritated against another about allegations of sexual misconduct, picks up a metal chair, and slams it into the chest of Pablo Marçal,
• Cut to commercial.

• 
  After awhile, the debate continues with five candidates, for Marçal (left) is sent to a hospital, where it is learned he had a fracture in his rib cage.
• In the hospital, Marçal cites this as attempted homicide, and compares it to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump and stabbing of former Brazilian president  Jair Bolsonaro.  The case is under investigation.

• 
  Further, it turns out that the possible misconduct of Datena was shelved when the accuser retracted her statements.
• Apparently, his mother-in-law was watching, suffered a series of strokes, and died.
• The race is so political, with President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (left) and Bolsonaro (right) closely involved in the matter.  The equivalent in the USA is Trump vs Biden.
• American presidential debates are oh so humdrum.

A once in a thousand-year storm hits the Carolinas.

-