Five Decades of Caring/Nurturing Sirhan Sirhan

“His (Robert F. Kennedy) passions had aroused the best and the beast in man. And the beast awaited for him in the kitchen.” — Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1968

Sirhan Sirhan during a parole hearing Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, Pool)

Since June 5, 1968, American society has housed, fed and cared for Sirhan Sirhan. If your author’s fuzzy math is correct, Americans have supported Sirhan for 20,098 days and counting.

That’s 55 years-plus for the incarceration of Palestinian Jordanian Sirhan, who so many (e.g., Rafer Johnson, Rosey Grier) saw him commit murder at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Is he guilty? There is zero doubt. Only one person pulled the trigger.

Should he paroled? That question has been answered 16 times. Why ask it again?

If he was released, what would be his life expectancy? Would society be compelled to provide 24-7-365 security?

Should he continue to be fed and cared for? That seems to be the case, but is it just?

Even though many have forgotten him (not Almost DailyBrett), Sirhan changed the course of American history. How much is debatable, but rioting in the Chicago Seven streets and the election of Richard M. Nixon followed.

The 1960s was lousy decade. Sirhan made it worse.

Why is Almost DailyBrett bringing up this uncomfortable subject here and now? Your author was only 13-years-very-young in 1968. He was stunned by the news. He will never forget that evening and the sad days that followed.

Ironically, the son of Sirhan’s victim is running for president.

Sirhan, 79, pleaded guilty to first degree murder. He was convicted. His sentence was commuted to life in prison three years later.

He is now housed at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County. The weather is nice.

Coincidentally this past June 5, confessed mole for the Soviet Union Robert Hanssen passed away in federal custody. He was also 79-years-old.

Hanssen’s partner in treason and treachery, Aldrich Ames, with the same benign USSR is serving out the rest of his life in federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He is 82-years-old.

Do we have to house, clothe and feed them too?

“An Eye For An Eye?“

There are many who question whether America is better, if we adopt the reciprocal policy of the Hammurabi Code/Book of Exodus, An Eye for An Eye. They rhetorically ask: ‘How will we been seen in the world?’

Almost DailyBrett ponders how we are perceived when American society even considers — 16 times — granting parole to Sirhan — let alone asking the taxpayers to finance incarcerating Sirhan for 55 years-plus.

There are some who are concerned about mass incarceration. There are alternatives — other than releasing the Sirhan Sirhans of the world?

Some have contended that some unspecified number have faced the ultimate penalty, only later to be found innocent. Sirhan ensured that Robert F. Kennedy paid the ultimate penalty for supporting the existence of Israel.

Sirhan is not innocent.

Prison is too good for him.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/03/01/rfk-killer-sirhan-sirhan-denied-parole-for-16th-time-reversing-2021-decision/?sh=2743fd8079b4

Oregon’s Iconic Moment

Honey Traps, Scalp Hunters And Moles?

Oregon’s Iconic Moment

“Oregon is all one-great white middle class suburb. It’s a good state. It has no problems. We frightened them.” — Campaign advisor to New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy

“His passions had aroused the best and the beast in man. And the beast awaited for him in the kitchen.” — Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1968

True to the state’s plucky reputation, Oregon delivered Robert F. Kennedy with the last loss of his political career on May 28, 1968. Anti-Vietnam War crusader Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy polled 44.7 percent to RFK’s 38.8 percent.

No one mature enough remembers the outcome of the presidential primary that day, but RFK’s iconic on the beach run with his dog Freckles at Astoria’s Fort Stevens State Park was selected by Life Magazine’s editors to celebrate a life, tragically ended way too early.

He is running away from the camera to heaven with his loyal springer spaniel trying to nip at his heels. The inscription is simple, and as a result perfect, “Senator Robert F. Kennedy.”

Less is indeed more.

Recently some geographically challenged souls, contended the senator ran next to waves in Oregon’s Nye Beach around Newport. They are incorrect. The actual site is further up the coast, where the Columbia River separates Oregon from the State of Washington.

Politics for years has been polluted with the symbolic “photo op,” the premeditated visual for still images and video.

Was RFK’s run along Oregon’s coastline guilty of the same sin? Almost DailyBrett knows the thoughtful photo is nostalgic, and therefore is inclined to pull the plug on his personal political barometer.

Is Oregon Losing Its Innocence?

Politically Oregon has been a quiet state since its founding in 1859 with seven electoral votes, make that eight electoral votes in 2024.

The state squeezed into America’s cul-de-sac will deliver its handful of electoral votes to Joe Biden Nov. 3. The last Republican to win Oregon? Ronald Reagan in his 49-state landslide in 1984.

The antics of the Bhagwan (1985), Tonya Harding (1994) and Bob Packwood (1995) amused the country for brief periods of time, but blessedly did not leave any lasting impressions.

Almost DailyBrett hopes the youthful and tragic image of Robert Kennedy against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean is not replaced by the ugliness of Portland riots as the enduring symbol of Oregon politics.

The 100 days of anarchy, looting, mayhem, rioting and violence this past summer throughout Portland sent a new troubling message to America about Oregon, and its largest city.

Will the burning begin again if the November 3 results do not conform to those who will happily light the matches? That is the threat that is being made if Democracy does not respond to anarchist blackmail.

Violence was way too common back in 1968. It was a very bad year.

Violence is way too prevalent in 2020. It’s been a horrible year.

Let’s not make it worse, particularly for those who have chosen the “good state” of Oregon as their place of residence.

Almost DailyBrett Note: Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan, 76, is still serving his life sentence in San Diego. As a society, we continue to feed and care for this man.

https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2018/06/shortly_before_death_rfk_found.html

https://www.registerguard.com/article/20130214/NEWS/302149833

We Had To Destroy Portland In Order To Save It

It Feels Like 1968 All Over Again

California’s Growing Diaspora

It Feels Like 1968 All Over Again

Comparing one year to another in a different era is always an inexact science.

It’s easy to poke holes in any comparison and thus attempt to render the point meaningless, but Almost DailyBrett will not go down easily.

The “perfect storm” of volatile factors in 2020 reminds your author of a terrible year,1968.

Certainly, there are no direct equivalents of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy (and let’s keep it that way).

Neither is there a similarity to the eye-opening Tet Offensive nor directly related deaths of US soldiers, which exposed that America was systematically misled and deceived about the Vietnam War.

Consider that 2020 and 1968 will always be remembered as election years with flash-point incumbents.

Americans have been cooped up indoors for months, way too many losing their livelihoods in a provoked recession, and then the weather grew hotter and George Floyd was senselessly murdered by a Minneapolis criminal cop.

And similar to 1968 (e.g., Chicago riot), legitimate protesters had their voices and actions drowned out by organized anarchists (sounds like an oxymoron, but sadly it’s not) who want to hurt people, steal, burn and create havoc.

If one Googles “Antifa Portland,” 619,000 results pour back in 0.33 of a second.

Reflecting back on 1968 — your author was 13-years-very-young — it literally took another decade-plus until America settled down again in the 1980s. Will it take that long after what is setting up to be a rotten, 2020?

There were more than a few, who detested the violence on university campuses and in the streets back in 1968. They became a political force of their own: “The Silent Majority.”

Is it deja vu all over again?

The Rebirth of the Silent Majority?

What about the overwhelming majority of Americans, who are sickened by what happened to defenseless George Floyd … begging for the right to breathe on Memorial Day? They want the officers responsible, particularly one in particular to face severe music. Justice must be done.

Having said that, the preponderance of Americans are staying away from the streets. They are incredulous by what they’re seeing on television and social media.

Didn’t the overwhelming number of voters elect and re-elect the first-ever African-American president, Barack Obama, in 2008 and 2012? We were internationally celebrated for being open and fair-minded. Are Obama’s historic elections now irrelevant?

The George Floyd murder comes across as an exploited opportunity by many who just want to destroy communities. They are looters, stealing from expensive stores. There are trigger-happy Yahoos with assault weapons — allegedly protecting places of business — just looking for any excuse to open fire.

Cable television and the Internet in 2020 are delivering these horrific videos and placing them in our collective faces. Didn’t television in 1968 bring the carnage of Vietnam into our living rooms on a nightly basis? At the time, the U.S. military drafted literally thousands to fight in rice paddies in a war, which was never explained, much less declared.

Then-candidate Richard Milhous Nixon called for a restoration of “law and order” on the 1968 campaign trail. Do we want another officer putting his knee on the neck of an unarmed man? The answer is an easy, ‘no.’ This abominable practice must stop now and forever.

At the same time, a riot usurping a protest is still a riot.

Can we conclude that a 21st Century equivalent of the 1960s Silent Majority detests and loathes rioters breaking windows, looting stores, burning vehicles, assaulting police officers, fire fighters, security personnel, chasing and intimidating reporters, and destroying Starbucks … just because it’s corporate Starbucks?

The Silent Majority wants to turn down the sound, cancel out the noise and return to some sense of normalcy.

Almost DailyBrett will be the first to admit making the wrong call in the 2016 election. This year started with rising markets, the best economy in one-half century, a positive atmosphere for any disciplined incumbent … assuming the incumbent is capable of political discipline.

Oh what a strange trip it has been: The Covid-19 outbreak, the unprecedented lock down, the forced recession, masked people fighting unmasked people, and then and now … the George Floyd murder and out-of-control chaos.

What’s next? There will be more. It’s not Morning in America, more like Midnight on the Streets.

Just as a turn of events spiraled out of control in 1968, the same seems to be true in 2020.

Who benefits and who does not — we need to be honest — no one knows.

What Happened To The Exceptional Nation That Twice Elected Barack Obama?