Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts

Friday, March 1, 2024

Saturday, March 1, 1924. The Nixon Nitration Works Disaster.

The Nixon Nitration Works disaster occured in which an explosion of ammonium nitrate killed at least 18 people, destroyed several miles of New Jersey factories, and demolished Nixon, New Jersey.

While a very famous industrial disaster, the Nixon Nitration Works and Nixon New Jersey are remembered now principally for being mentioned in Band of Brothers as Cpt. Lewis Nixon III, a major character Ambrose's depiction of the 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, mentions it.  Lewis Nixon was in fact a member of the family that owned the plant, and it was the case that Richard Winters, his close friend and for most of his service in Europe his superior, worked there for a time after the war.

The Nixon's were troubled in general, and Lewis Nixon III was no exception.  His marriage contracted just after the start of the war failed during it, as did a subsequent one.  A third marriage to Grace Umezawa, formerly a Japanese internee, was successful.  She helped him overcome the alcoholism depicted during the series.

The KDP, the Communist Part of Germany, was reinstated.  The KDP, together with the NADSP, the Nazi Party, would figure enormously in the destruction of German democracy as the extremes grew increasingly powerful in the remaining years of the Weimar Republic.


Alice's Day at Sea, the first of 57 Alice comedies produced by Walt Disney, appeared.  They were short films meant to be shown before the feature, something at one time common.

White rats paraded in San Pedro, California.



Hacks, i.e., cabs, were allowed back in Hyde Park for the first time since 1636.

Not a hack, but on this day, an Irish Traveler feeding his pony on this day in 1924.


Locally, a story didn't add up.

A 20-year-old marrying a 15-year-old?  

And she was in 6th Grade?

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Sunday, February 24, 1924. Machines.

Mexican Federals defeated rebels in Tamaulipas.

The Berliner gyrocopter No. 5 gave its first successful demonstration.  U.S. Army Lt. Harold R. Harris flew it for one minutes and 20 seconds at the College Park Airport, near the University of Maryland, in front of the press and members of the U.S. Navy.


Harris has been mentioned here before due to his career as a test pilot.  He lived until 1988, dying at age 92.

The Beverly Hills Speedway hosted its final race, which was attended by 85,000 automobile racing fans.  Harlan Fengler broke the world's record for a 250 mile race, averaging 116.6 mph.


Fengler would go on to be the Chief Steward of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1958 until 1974.  He passed away in 1981 at age 78.

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Wednesday, January 9, 1974. Oil.

OPEC voted to freeze oil prices for three months.  Saudi Arabia had been willing to reduce them, but Algeria, Iraq, and Iran, had not been.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan upon Reagan's 1966 Gubernatorial victory, and one decade away from his first run for the GOP Presidential ticket.

Actor turned politician Ronald Reagan delivered California's State of the State address, noting the oil crisis but asserting it was an opportunity to develop resources, freeing the US from foreign petroleum.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

The Ongoing 2023 Legislative Session of Other States.

How we all imagine legislatures once were. . . because they didn't have the opportunity to put every dumb thought they had out on Twitter.

At least Wyoming can be thankful that its citizen legislature can't afford to be in ongoing session.

May 21, 2023

Minnesota, deciding that Americans aren't stupid enough, and don't already have enough in the way of options to make themselves even stupider, voted to legalize marijuana.

It also passed a new gun measure.

June 3, 2023

Connecticut banned marriages under 18 with no exceptions.

September 7, 2023

California has banned caste based discrimination, which is something prevalent in the Indian culture. The Governor has not indicated if he will sign the act.

While I agree with the measure, this is frankly an example of a Western culture declaring its values to be superior to that of an Asian one.  Western cultures have a Christianity based concept that all people are equal.  Lots of cultures hold the polar opposite.

Massachusetts has passed funding for universal "free" school lunches.

Of course, they aren't free, they're government funded. And the government doesn't make an income through production, so they're tax funded.  This means they're taxpayer funded.  Massachusetts has ain income tax, so this means that Massachusetts is separating cash from the wallets of everyone in the state in order to buy lunches for school kids, irrespective of parental obligations to pay to feed their kids.

October 3, 2023

Nebraska is requiring transgender youth seeking "gender-affirming care", the Orwellian term for gender mutilation, to wait seven days to start puberty-blocking medications or hormone treatments under emergency regulations as well as to receive at least 40 hours of “gender-identity-focused” therapy   This followed a Nebraska law that took effect on Sunday which bans "gender affirming" surgical mutilation for those under 19.

Nebraska, intentionally or not, is following a global trend here which is limiting such procedures in minors, with the data showing its frequently regretted.

October 8, 2023

California has put into effect a law requiring  requires public and private US businesses with revenues greater than $1 billion operating in California to report their emissions comprehensively.

January 4, 2024

Passed last year, some new state laws:

  • A new Minnesota law allows authorities to ask courts for “extreme risk protection orders” to temporarily take guns from people deemed to be an imminent threat to others or themselves. 
  • Colorado has banned "ghost guns"
  • A Connecticut law requires online dating operators to adopt policies for handling harassment reports.
  • A North Carolina law requires pornographic website operators to confirm viewers are at least 18 years old by using a commercially available database. Parents can sue for failure to comply with the law.
  • A new Illinois law allows lawsuits by victims of deepfake pornography,
  • Bans on chemical gender mutilation of minors take effect in Idaho, Louisiana and West Virginia. 
  • A new law in Hawaii requires new marriage certificates to be issued to people who request to change how their sex is listed. 
  • In Colorado, new buildings wholly or partly owned by government entities are now required to have on every floor where there are public restrooms at least one that does not specify the gender of the users.
  • A new Indiana law makes it easier for parents and others to challenge books in school libraries. 
  • A new Illinois law blocks state funding for public libraries that ban or restrict books.
  • Kansas dropped the sales tax on groceries drops from 4% to 2% .  It plans to eliminate the slaes tax on groceries entirely.
  • Connecticut and Missouri reduced their state income tax rate.

Monday, September 18, 2023

Tuesday, September 18, 1923. Berkeley Fire, Upset Oklahoma Legislature.


Those items were the big news.

More locally, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission decided there would be a sage chicken season that year, but it would start in October, rather than Septeber as it now does.  And the first deer of deer season was taken.

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Monday, September 17, 1923. The Berkeley Conflaguration.

A fire in Wildcat Canyon spread to the town of Berkeley and destroyed much of the northern area of the town.  No lives were lost, however.

By Unknown author - https://www.flickr.com/photos/52614599@N00/3891503178, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=124453545

When the area was built, masonry structures replaced the former wooden ones.

Hiram "Hank" Williams was born in Butler County, Alabma.

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Vincit qui se vincit

It is so easy for those who have made their money under a given system to think that that system must be right and good. Conservatism is for that reason nothing else than a pseudo-philosophy for the prosperous. - 

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West, p. 81

This is going to hit California and Baja Mexico:

Coastal Watches/Warnings and Forecast Cone for Storm Center

Forecast Length*Forecast Track LineInitial Wind Field



cone graphic

* If the storm is forecast to dissipate within 3 days, the "Full Forecast" and "3 day" graphic will be identical

Click Here for a 5-day Cone Printer Friendly Graphic

How to use the cone graphic (video):

Link to video describing cone graphic

About this product:

This graphic shows an approximate representation of coastal areas under a hurricane warning (red), hurricane watch (pink), tropical storm warning (blue) and tropical storm watch (yellow). The orange circle indicates the current position of the center of the tropical cyclone. The black line, when selected, and dots show the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast track of the center at the times indicated. The dot indicating the forecast center location will be black if the cyclone is forecast to be tropical and will be white with a black outline if the cyclone is forecast to be extratropical. If only an L is displayed, then the system is forecast to be a remnant low. The letter inside the dot indicates the NHC's forecast intensity for that time:

D: Tropical Depression – wind speed less than 39 MPH
S: Tropical Storm – wind speed between 39 MPH and 73 MPH
H: Hurricane – wind speed between 74 MPH and 110 MPH
M: Major Hurricane – wind speed greater than 110 MPH

NHC tropical cyclone forecast tracks can be in error. This forecast uncertainty is conveyed by the track forecast "cone", the solid white and stippled white areas in the graphic. The solid white area depicts the track forecast uncertainty for days 1-3 of the forecast, while the stippled area depicts the uncertainty on days 4-5. Historical data indicate that the entire 5-day path of the center of the tropical cyclone will remain within the cone about 60-70% of the time. To form the cone, a set of imaginary circles are placed along the forecast track at the 12, 24, 36, 48, 72, 96, and 120 h positions, where the size of each circle is set so that it encloses 67% of the previous five years official forecast errors. The cone is then formed by smoothly connecting the area swept out by the set of circles.

It is also important to realize that a tropical cyclone is not a point. Their effects can span many hundreds of miles from the center. The area experiencing hurricane force (one-minute average wind speeds of at least 74 mph) and tropical storm force (one-minute average wind speeds of 39-73 mph) winds can extend well beyond the white areas shown enclosing the most likely track area of the center. The distribution of hurricane and tropical storm force winds in this tropical cyclone can be seen in the Wind History graphic linked above.

Considering the combined forecast uncertainties in track, intensity, and size, the chances that any particular location will experience winds of 34 kt (tropical storm force), 50 kt, or 64 kt (hurricane force) from this tropical cyclone are presented in tabular form for selected locations and forecast positions. This information is also presented in graphical form for the 34 kt50 kt, and 64 kt thresholds.

Interestingly, it's going to basically go right over Bakersfield, California, where this lifelong resident of that city is now serving in Congress:


Bakersfield is an oil town, and a rough one.  Kevin McCarthy never worked in the oil patch, but he comes from blue collar roots.  He graduated with a MBA from California State University, Bakersfield, in 1994, but was already in politics by that time.  He's been a member of Congress since 2006.

Kern County is representative of a type of California we hardly think of.  An oil and gas province in a state that we associate originally with agriculture, and then with. . . well itself.  In some ways, McCarthy has been sort of an odd man out in his native state his entire life.  And it must be frustrating, as he's a fourth generation Californian.

That sort of frustration has expressed itself in the nation's politics, on both the left and the right, for some time now.  It's given rise to populism, and that populism has morphed into a form of fascism. Right McCarthy's party is struggling to see if it will be, after the nomination process is over, a conservative party, a populist party, or a fascist party. The fascist is in the lead, but he disregards of the law, a common trait for fascist leaders, may be his undoing.  If it isn't, it risks being the undoing of American democracy.

The fact that "conservatives" no longer apply the broad scope of the word "conserve" may prove to lead to multiple undoings as well.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen hit on something that ought to be obvious to us all, but in fact It's something rarely occurs to anyone.  Liberals, or progressives as they like to think of themselves, decry the rich as evil on the basis that bad things happen due to wealth and therefore that's evil, and the evil must know that it's evil.  In truth, "It is so easy for those who have made their money under a given system to think that that system must be right and good.", and that doesn't apply only to those who make vast amounts of money in something.  Regular workers feel the same way.  Tobacco farmers probably almost never thought to themselves about how their product directly resulted in cancer, and if they did, they must have mentally excused it, for example.

Systems are big, and big systems have to be addressed at a big level.  Germans who worked in factories that were converted to war products as the war went on weren't in the same position as Albert Speer.  But attempting to sanctify your occupation and livelihood (something I'll note that is very common for lawyers to do) doesn't change the reality of things.

This the first tropical storm to hit California like this in 84 years, the last such one being 1939's El Cordonazo.  That storm was not only the last one, it's the only one to have made landfall in California in the 20th Century.  We've had the terrible fires in Maui. We've had terrible fires in Canada all summer long.  The list goes on.

The GOP is loud on the Biden "radical climate agenda".  At least one of our local Congressional representatives, I'd wager, can be guaranteed to come on Twitter or Fox News within the next 30 days and complain about "Biden's radical climate agenda".  The truth is, humans should not dare alter the climate, and just because I make money from things that might doesn't mean that it can't happen.

After this storm hits Bakersfield, McCarthy, along with the other top GOP leaders, should go to Kern County and explain what they're doing.  McCarthy is Catholic (one of our three Congress people was, but long since adopted a Protestant faith, the latter allowing divorce and remarriage, although I don't know that's the reason that he did so).  In Catholic theology, lying about serious matters is a grave sin.

I note that as I feel that most of these people, although not all of them, know better.  If they don't know better, they can be excused, I guess, for not knowing better, but they can't be for willfully blinding themselves to the truth, which certainly can and does occur.

We really don't need Kevin McCarthy blathering about Hunter Biden.  There's no excuse for ignoring the real, and difficult, problems of the day.  You can feed red meat to the dogs, but once that's gone, and they're starving, they'll be coming for you.  

People cheered Mussolini when he marched on Rome.  They then hung around and celebrated his demise 20 years later.  Austrians lined the streets when Hitler visited after the Anschluß, and were pretty glad to see the Nazi go just a few years later.  

People who faced reality and undertook to engage it are better remembered than those who buried their heads in the sand and tried to ignore it.  People don't sing the praises of John C. Calhoun today.  They're not going to sing the praises of Ted Cruz tomorrow.  People remember Lindbergh for what he did heroically, not for being an American Firster before December 7, 1941.

There's an opportunity here to be grasped, but will it be.  Of couse, is there even an audience for it.  The Wyoming GOP has been busy censuring its members for not falling into the fantasy right.  People like to hear that they're beautiful, that smoking won't hurt you, and that you can go ahead and have that fourth beer before you drive home.

Wyoming on California's no travel list.

This comes as a surprise.  I only learned of it due to Twitter (or as Elon Musk, Twitter's owner would like us to call Twitter, "X", rather than Twitter).

California has banned travel to Wyoming by state employees, except unless it's necessary and an exemption has been first obtained.

PROHIBITION ON STATE-FUNDED AND STATE-SPONSORED TRAVEL TO STATES WITH DISCRIMINATORY LAWS (ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 1887)

In AB 1887, the California Legislature determined that "California must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people." (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (a)(5).) To that end, AB 1887 prohibits a state agency, department, board, or commission from requiring any state employees, officers, or members to travel to a state that, after June 26, 2015, has enacted a law that (1) has the effect of voiding or repealing existing state or local protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; (2) authorizes or requires discrimination against same-sex couples or their families or on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; or (3) creates an exemption to antidiscrimination laws in order to permit discrimination against same-sex couples or their families or on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subds. (b)(1), (2).) In addition, the law prohibits California from approving a request for state-funded or state-sponsored travel to such a state. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (b)(2).)

The travel prohibition applies to state agencies, departments, boards, authorities, and commissions, including an agency, department, board, authority, or commission of the University of California, the Board of Regents of the University of California, and the California State University. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (b).)

The law also requires the Attorney General to develop, maintain, and post on his Internet Web site a current list of states that are subject to the travel ban. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (e).)

States Subject to AB 1887’s Travel Prohibition

The following states are currently subject to California’s ban on state-funded and state-sponsored travel:

  1. Alabama
  2. Arizona
  3. Arkansas
  4. Florida
  5. Georgia
  6. Idaho
  7. Indiana
  8. Iowa
  9. Kansas
  10. Kentucky
  11. Louisiana
  12. Mississippi
  13. Montana
  14. North Carolina
  15. North Dakota
  16. Ohio
  17. Oklahoma
  18. South Carolina
  19. South Dakota
  20. Tennessee
  21. Texas
  22. Utah
  23. West Virginia
  24. Wyoming

Exceptions

The Legislature created exceptions in AB 1887 that allow travel to banned states in certain circumstances. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (c).) These exceptions only apply if travel to a subject state is "required." (Ibid.)

Specifically, AB 1887 does not apply to state travel that is required for any of the following purposes:

  1. Enforcement of California law, including auditing and revenue collection.
  2. Litigation.
  3. To meet contractual obligations incurred before January 1, 2017.
  4. To comply with requests by the federal government to appear before committees.
  5. To participate in meetings or training required by a grant or required to maintain grant funding.
  6. To complete job-required training necessary to maintain licensure or similar standards required for holding a position, in the event that comparable training cannot be obtained in California or a different state not subject to the travel prohibition.
  7. For the protection of public health, welfare, or safety, as determined by the affected agency, department, board, authority, or commission, or by the affected legislative office.

    (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (c).)

This is silly and stupid.

It's also one state shy of half the country, and if you consider that you obviously can't include California in the tally, it's actually half the remaining states.

The first thing that I wondered is what law Wyoming actually had that put us on California's Purity Ban list, but then I read an article about high school sports and realized it must have been the ban on male athletes competing against female athletes in high school sports under the guise that they identified as girls.  The opposite is also the case.  That law was new from the last session.  And looking at it, we only recently were put on California's ne'er do well list.  That probably explains the neighboring states of Utah, South Dakota and Montana as well.  I can't think of anything else that would have.  Wyoming has no other laws in this area at all.

Transgenderism is already turning out to be the eugenics of the 21st Century, with Europe recoiling from the ideology driven mutilation of young people and making it illegal.  Ironically, for a state which obviously prides itself on its equality purity, pushing transgenderism is deeply anti woman as well.  Indeed, in regard to California, this was recently noted by a commentator in regard to transgender surgeries, in which he observed:

And what shade is this? A Venezuelan friend of mine claims to have experienced a future in which tyrants can rule a country for decades thanks to their easy access to enormous wealth lying just beneath the surface. Something similar is happening in California. Instead of oil and gas reserves, Californians sit atop the world’s greatest technology companies. There’s no turning back from the future, but have not some of Californians’ social innovations reached the limits of their bounty? Could it be that America respects the freedom of women so much that some of us can now afford to take them for granted? And does not the removal of her breasts to affirm her right to be a man mean that a woman is nothing but her breasts?

It does appear that we can in fact take the freedom of women, real women, for granted and that in fact, we're back to the Hefneresque proposition, "a woman is nothing but her breasts".

Shameful.

The legality of such travel bans strikes me as problematic, but overall I'd have a difficult time stating why, really.  Perhaps more problematic is the entire concept that one state unhappy with another can basically put it on a boycott list.  It seems almost as childish to me as Wyoming's occasional lawsuits against other states it's unhappy with on policy grounds.

California would no doubt note that it's been in the forefront of a lot of social movements that spread across the country, and it has.  It thinks of itself as a pioneer in that regard, but it was also a pioneer in ways that it would just as soon forget, including bigotry against Asians.  On transgenderism, what's going to occur is that it will end up being regarded as a horrific anti-female and anti nature left wing social movement, of which it wouldn't be the first.  Eugenics, already mentioned, was popular with the left and the right at one time.  Margret Sanger's birth control movement partially got its start as Sanger was worried about African American birth rates.  The trend in the U.S., like U.S. laws on abortion, are way behind the curve in a world in which most societies, including liberal Western ones, have pulled way back.

It's interesting how Wyoming hasn't taken note of this at all.  The State has had more than its fair share of really right wing political discourse dating back all the way to the Clinton years, and you'd think this would be something that California-born Chuck Grey would be crying about or that Frank Eathorne would be making a big issue out of. The out-of-state imports making up the Freedom Caucus have been pretty quiet.

Maybe they just didn't notice.

Saturday, July 15, 2023

Thursday, July 15, 1943. Segregation for loyalty to Japan, US reorganization on Sicily, Changes in command on New Guinea, Italian participation in Holocaust in France.

Tule Lake Segregation Center in California was established by the War Department to house Japanese Americans who were deemed to be loyal to Japan.  The site is administered by the National Park Service today.

Loyalty to Japan was determined in a number of ways, but it included refusing to be inducted into the U.S. Armed forces and having attempted to return to Japan prior to the war.


Gen. Patton formed a provisional corps to advance up the western coast of Sicily, while the U.S. 2nd Corps was to drive northward under Bradley.  Axis forces retreated behind the Simeto River.

Major General Oscar W. Griswold took over field command of US Army forces on New Guinea.

Italian occupation police authority Renzo Chierici agreed to a German demand to return German Jews who had fled into Italian occupied regions of France.

Chierici was a fascist and warned Mussolini when it was clear that the Grand Council was going to vote him out of office, but he remained loyal to the new government, resulting in his arrest by the Germans and subsequent murder.

The fact that Italy occupied Provence and Savoy after November 1942 is often missed.

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Sunday, June 27, 1922. Bishop O'Rourke of the East passes away, Disaster at Huntington Beach, Lousy German troops.

The unlikely named former Catholic Bishop of Riga and later Bishop of Danzia, an opponent of the Nazis, died at age 66, in Rome, where he was living in exile.


Born in Minsk to a family of Irish heritage, which was also unlikely, he had resigned his position in Riga as a movement for a Latvian Bishop gained strength.  He clashed with the Nazis in Danzig, which had ultimately led to his relocation to Poland, where he was granted Polish citizenship.  When the Germans invaded Poland, he was on a journey to Estonia, and ultimately traveled to Italy.  He was not able to regain admittance to German occupied Poland.

A P-38 Lightening crashed into a crowd of beach goers at Huntington Beach, California, after its pilot had bailed out. Three people lost their lives and forty nine were injured.

Sarah Sundin noted that event, and others, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 27, 1943: French Resistance attacks Ateliers des Fives locomotive works at Lille. P-38 Lightning fighter plane crashes on Huntington Beach in CA, killing 4 children.

As odd as it is to consider that it even occurred, the 1943  German football championship was won by Dresdner SC.

Bill Downs, CBS Moscow correspondent, reported that Red Army troops were surprised by hte quantity of lice that captured German soldiers bore.

Friday, May 5, 2023

Wednesday, May 5, 1943. First Nuclear Strike Chosen

 

Choosing the first atomic target – May 5, 1943


From the linked in site:
May 5, 1943 is one of the most important dates, and possibly the least known, in the history of the nuclear age. It was the date when the first atomic bomb targeting decision was made — a full two years before the end of World War II in Europe.

Also from that site:

Like many I have concluded that the bombings were unjustified, though that is an opinion far from universally held. But some of my reasons may surprise you. I explained them in a talk I gave in Santa Fe in 2012, entitled From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima.

I'll be frank, I also view the bombings as morally unjustified acts.  Indeed, of the worst sort.  There's simply no escaping that the scale of a nuclear weapon, when used on a city, is going to have the primary effect of killing civilians.  Indeed, no matter how dressed up, by the wars end, that was looked at unflinchingly and was largely the point.

Of course, by that war the Allies had acclimated themselves to firebombing in Japan with the intent to destroy civilian housing, and thereby deprive Japanese war workers of their dwellings.  Once again, the use of force was over matched to the goal.  Striking factories is one thing, burning people to death in their homes quite another.

Make no mistake about it, Germans, under the monstrous Nazi regime, had become monstrous themselves, and in a way that no individual German can really excuse. The Japanese, who retained a peasant culture to a very large degree going into the war, likewise did, with the average soldier routinely committing murders and the entire military being acclimated to atrocity.  The Allies undoubtedly had the moral side of the war, and there's no two ways about it.  Nonetheless, that doesn't excuse the crimes committed by the Allies themselves, which in the case of the Western Allies came principally from unprincipled bombing.  Over European skies, the British were much more guilty of this than the Americans, having turned to inaccurate night bombing early in the war out of necessity, but then having readily adopted the liberal bombing views of "Bomber" Harris thereafter.  In the Pacific, the United States, the major Western combatant, went to free bombing of civilian targets with firebombs by the end of the war, as noted.  In some ways, the atomic bomb could almost be viewed as an extension of the late war firebombing, but in a new, much more devastating, and horrifying, way.

Sarah Sundin noted a true World War Two technological landmark, the first flight of the P51B.

Today in World War II History—May 5, 1943: 80 Years Ago—May 5, 1943: First flight of production-model North American P-51B Mustang (with a Packard-built Merlin engine), at Inglewood, CA.


The combination of the British engine with the P51 airframe, in what had been an Anglo-American project to start with, would revolutionize and completely alter the performance of the fighter.  It would be the P51B that would really start long range bomber escorts all the way into Germany.

Sundin noticed several other events of this day on her blog, including that Admiral Sir Charles Little was naval as the Allied naval commander for the invasion of France from Britain, although he would not hold the post long.

She also noted that the Japanese launched an offensive south of the Yangtze toward Chongqing. The often forgotten front, to the West, in China, remained Japan's largest ground commitment and in many ways most important theater of operations in the war. 

Twenty-seven ships of all types were lost in the war on this day.

A new law went into effect in California requiring marriage licenses to identify race.  Interracial marriage was illegal in California, as it was in much of the United States.

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Going Feral: Salmon Season Suspended.

Going Feral: Salmon Season Suspended.

Salmon Season Suspended.


From UPI:

March 13 (UPI) -- The recreational and commercial salmon fishing season has been canceled along the coasts of Oregon and California, through the middle of May, due to dwindling numbers of Chinook salmon in the states' largest rivers following years of drought.

Not good.  Not good at all. Even with all this years rain and snow. 


Friday, January 13, 2023

Wednesday, January 13, 1943. Germany enters Total War.

Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter, looking a lot like the Blue Max.

Adolf Hitler decreed that the "Führer decree on the full employment of men and women in the defense of the Reich", bringing total mobilization into effect, but rather late, given that the war had been going on since 1939, and that the struggle with Russia had been going on since 1941.  

The act was designed to bring adult German women into the industrial work force, thereby relieving men to fight in the Wehrmacht.  It would only allow, however, for an additional 500,000 men to be mobilized, which in the context of the war was telling as that frankly wasn't that many.  The act had been designed to apply to women from age 16 to 50, but Hitler insisted on upping the lower age limit to 17.  Soon thereafter, the upper age limit was depressed to 45.

Deutscher Frauenarbeitsdienst service flag.

As perhaps that short history reveals, the Nazis were very reluctant to fully mobilize their adult population to the extent it required mobilizing women.  The party had always had the view that women's roles were solely familial and domestic, and had discouraged female employment and involvement in civil life in every fashion.  While exceptions occurred, women were not supposed to be allowed to join the Nazi Party.  Indeed, Nazi fascination with the female reproductive role descended right down to the perverse level in some instances.

With the arrival of the war, therefore, the Germans effectively sidelined its female population until forced to mobilize them due to the inescapable manpower needs of the war.

This contrasts dramatically with the Allied powers. The UK, US and Canada had all encouraged women to work in factories and fields since the onset of the war, and had taken women into non combat military service early on. The Soviet Union went one step further, not only taking women into service, but also allowing small scale use of female combatants.  The UK had required women by this point to register for some sort of war support service.

By this point in the war, of course, the Germans were resorting to slave labor for the same purpose.

Some interesting ones from Sarah Sundin for today's date:

Today in World War II History—January 13, 1943:Students at the University of Munich riot after a Nazi speaker blames the German army’s dire situation in Stalingrad on student malingerers.

 and

In “Sleepy Lagoon” case in Los Angeles, 17 Mexican-Americans are wrongly convicted of murder; convictions will be overturned in October 1944.

The wrongfully convicted upon being released.

I vaguely recall this story featuring in the movie Zoot Suit.

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Sunday, January 3, 1943. The descent of SSG Magee.

Dry docks under construction, Hunter's Point, California.

Free French forces defending Fondouk, Tunisia, are attacked by the Afrika Korps.  They succeed in holding off the Germans on this day.

The United States Army Air Force bombed the submarine pens and docks at St. Nazaire. The RAF bombed the Ruhr.   During the raid, the B-17 "Snap! Crackle! Pop!" was hit twice, and the crew had to bail out., save for SSG Alan Magee, the belly gunner, who was blown out while in the fuselage.  He fell 22,000 ft. without a parachute, and through the glass ceiling of the St. Nazaire railroad station, and survived.

The Red Army captured Mosdok and Malgobek in the Caucasus.

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Thursday, December 17, 1942. The Joint Declaration by Members of the United Nations on the Persecution of the Jews.

The Joint Declaration by the Members of the United Nations on the Persecution of the Jews was issued on this day in 1942, and was read to the members of the House of Commons, who stood thereafter in silence in honor of the victims of the Holocaust.

The declaration stated:
The attention of the Belgian, Czechoslovak, Greek, Jugoslav, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norwegian, Polish, Soviet, United Kingdom and United States Governments and also of the French National Committee has been drawn to numerous reports from Europe that the German authorities, not content with denying to persons of Jewish race in all the territories over which their barbarous rule has been extended, the most elementary human rights, are now carrying into effect Hitler's oft-repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe.

From all the occupied countries Jews are being transported in conditions of appalling horror and brutality to Eastern Europe. In Poland, which has been made the principal Nazi slaughterhouse, the ghettos established by the German invader are being systematically emptied of all Jews except a few highly skilled workers required for war industries. None of those taken away are ever heard of again. The able-bodied are slowly worked to death in labor camps. The infirm are left to die of exposure and starvation or are deliberately massacred in mass executions. The number of victims of these bloody cruelties is reckoned in many hundreds of thousands of entirely innocent men, women and children.

The above-mentioned governments and the French National Committee condemn in the strongest possible terms this bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination. They declare that such events can only strengthen the resolve of all freedom-loving peoples to overthrow the barbarous Hitlerite tyranny. They reaffirm their solemn resolution to insure that those responsible for these crimes shall not escape retribution, and to press on with the necessary practical measures to this end.




The Volga froze to the extent that the Soviets could now resupply Stalingrad without engaging in a river crossing.

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Sunday, December 6, 1942. Murders in Poland, the Navy reports on Pearl Harbor, and riots at Manzanar.

The Germans murdered thirty-one Poles, including two Jewish refugees, in the Polish villages of Stary Ciepielów and Rekówka in retaliation for the Poles there aiding Jews.  The victims included children.

The United States released the casualty information for the Japanese attack on Peal Harbor.  It read:

THE JAPANESE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR, DECEMBER 7, 1941

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft temporarily disabled every battleship and most of the aircraft in the Hawaiian area.  Other naval vessels, both combatant and auxiliary, were put out of action, and certain shore facilities, especially at the naval air stations, Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, were damaged.  Most of these ships are now back with the fleet.  The aircraft were all replaced within a few days, and interference with facilities was generally limited to a matter of hours.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, 2 surface ship task forces of the Pacific Fleet were carrying out assigned missions at sea, and 2 such task forces were at their main base following extensive operations at sea. Discounting small craft, 86 ships of the Pacific Fleet were moored at Pearl Harbor.  Included in this force were 8 battleships, 7 cruisers, 28 destroyers and 5 submarines.  No U. S. aircraft carriers were present.

As result of the Japanese attack five battleships, the Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Nevada, and West Virginia; three destroyers, the Shaw and Downes; the mine layer Oglala; the target ship Utah, and a large floating drydock were either sunk or damaged so severely that they would serve no military purposes for some time.  In addition, three battles, the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Tennessee, three cruisers, the Helena, Honolulu, and Raleigh, the seaplane tender Curtiss and the repair Vestal were damaged.

Of the 19 naval vessels listed above as sunk or damaged, the 26-year-old battleship Arizona will be the only one permanently and totally lost.  Preparations for the righting of the Oklahoma are now in process, although final decision as to the wisdom of accomplishing this work at this time has not been made.  The main and auxiliary machinery, approximately 50 percent of the value, of the Cassin and Downes were saved.  The other 15 vessels either have been or will be salvaged and repaired.

The eight vessels described in the second sentence of paragraph three returned to the fleet months ago.  A number of the vessels described in the first sentence of paragraph three are now in full service, but certain others, which required extensive machinery and intricate electrical overhauling as well as refloating and hull repairing, are not yet ready for battle action.  Naval repair yards are taking advantage of these inherent delays to install numerous modernization features and improvements.  To designate these vessels by name now would give the enemy information vital to his war plans; similar information regarding enemy ships which our forces have subsequently damaged but not destroyed is denied to us.

On December 15, 1941, only 8 days after the Japanese attack and at a time when there was an immediate possibility of the enemy's coming back, the Secretary of the Navy announced that the Arizona, Shaw, Cassin, Downes, Utah, and Oglala had been lost, that the Oklahoma had capsized and that other vessels had been damaged.  Fortunately, the salvage and repair accomplishments at Pearl Harbor have exceeded the most hopeful expectations.

Eighty naval aircraft of all types were destroyed by the enemy.  In addition, the Army lost 97 planes on Hickam and Wheeler Fields.  Of these 23 were bombers, 66 were fighters, and 8 were other types.

The most serious American losses were in personnel.  As result of the raid on December 7, 1941, 2,117 officers and enlisted men of the Navy and Marine Corps were killed, 960 are still reported as missing and 876 were wounded but survived.  The Army casualties were as follows: 226 officers and enlisted men were killed or later died of wounds; 396 were wounded, most of whom have now recovered and have returned to duty.

At 7:55 a. m. on December 7, 1941, Japanese dive bombers swarmed over the Army Air Base, Hickam Field, and the naval air station on Ford Island.  A few minutes earlier the Japanese had struck the naval air station at Kaneohe Bay.  Bare seconds later enemy torpedo planes and dive bombers swung in from various sectors to concentrate their attack on theheavy ships at Pearl Harbor.  The enemy attack, aided by the element of surprise and based on exact information, was very successful.

Torpedo planes, assisted effectively by dive bombers, constituted the major threat of the first phase of the Japanese attack, lasting approximately a half-hour.  Twenty-one torpedo planes made 4 attacks, and 30 dive bombers came in in 8 waves during this period.  Fifteen horizontal bombers also participated in this phase of the raid.

Although the Japanese launched their initial attack as a surprise, battleship ready machine guns opened fire at once and were progressively augmented by the remaining antiaircraft batteries as all hands promptly were called to general quarters.  Machine guns brought down two and damaged others of the first wave of torpedo planes.  Practically all battleship antiaircraft batteries were firing within 5 minutes; cruisers, within an average time of 4 minutes, and destroyers, opening up machine guns almost immediately, average 7 minutes in bringing all antiaircraft guns into action.

From 8:25 to 8:40 a. m. there was a comparative lull in the raid, although air activity continued with sporadic attack by dive and horizontal bombers.  This respite was terminated by the appearance of horizontal bombers which crossed and recrossed their targets from various directions and caused serious damage.  While the horizontal bombers were continuing their raids, Japanese dive bombers reappeared, probably being the same ones that had participated in earlier attacks; this phase, lasting about a half-hour, was devoted largely to strafing.  All enemy aircraft retired by 9:45 a. m.

Prior to the Japanese attack 202 U.S. naval aircraft of all types on the Island of Oahu were in flying condition, but 150 of these were permanently or temporarily disabled by the enemy's concentrated assault, most of them in the first few minutes of the raid.  Of the 52 remaining naval aircraft, 38 took to the air on December 7, 1941, the other 14 being ready too late in the day or being blocked from take-off positions.  Of necessity therefore, the Navy was compelled to depend on antiaircraft fire for its primary defensive weapon, and this condition exposed the fleet to continuous air attack.  By coincidence, 18 scout bombing planes from a U. S. aircraft carrier en route arrived at Pearl Harbor during the raid. These are included in the foregoing figures.  Four of these scout bombers were shot down, 13 of the remaining 14 taking off again in search of the enemy. Seven patrol planes were in the air when the attack started.

It is difficult to determine the total number of enemy aircraft participating in the raid, but careful analysis of all reports makes it possible to estimate the number as 21 torpedo planes, 48 dive bombers, and 36 horizontal bombers, totaling 105 of all types.  Undoubtedly certain fighter planes also were present, but these are not distinguished by types and are included in the above figures.

The enemy lost 28 aircraft due to Navy action.  In addition, three submarines, of 45 tons each, were accounted for.

The damage suffered by the U. S. Pacific Fleet as result of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, was most serious, but the repair job now is nearly completed, and thanks to the inspired and unceasing efforts of the naval and civilian personnel attached to the various repair yards, especially at Pearl Harbor itself, this initial handicap soon will be erased forever.

***

ADDITIONS TO NAVY DEPARTMENT PEARL HARBOR RELEASE

Insert in 2d sentence, 1st paragraph, page 1:

. . . facilities, especially at the Army Bases, Hickam and Wheeler Fields, and the naval air stations . . .

Insert after paragraph 3, page 3:

There were a total of 273 Army planes on the Island of Oahu on December 7, 1941.  Very few of these were able to take off because of the damage to the runways at Hickam and Wheeler Fields.

Insert in 1st sentence, last paragraph, page 3:

. . . Navy action, and the few Army pursuit planes that were able to take off shot down more than 2O Japanese planes.

A riot broke out at the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp.

Manzanar.

The event is complicated, but it involved divisions with in the interned population and difficulties with the camp staff. It ultimately resulted in the authorities deploying armed force, resulting in two of the camp's internees being killed.

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part X. The Camp Stove Edition.

August 28, 2022 

It's always been the case that California has tended to drive a lot of legal developments in the country, simply due to its size and population.  Current environmental trends are not an except.



We mentioned this a couple of days ago.

August 26, 2022

California will require all cars, trucks and SUV's sold in the state after 2035 to be electric or hydrogen fueled after 2035.

Some Republicans at the Federal level are threatening to take away California's ability to independently regulate automobiles in this fashion, but they lack the power at this point to really do anything about this.

Now comes news that Yosemite has banned non-refillable 1 lb propane gas cylinders for use with camp staves, and the State of California is about to.

Shoot, I use those things all the time for camp stoves.

How does this relate to the theme of this tread?  Well, because I use these things all the time, and in spite of what people think, they don't make propane cylinders, or cars, for Wyoming.  What California does, matters.

September 2, 2022


Wyomingites will have the highest percentage of residents in the country with student loans to be completely forgiven under President Biden's plan to do so, assuming that the plan is legal, which it likely is not.  Nearly 40% of Wyomingites who received students loans stand to have them forgiven.

This is not without irony.  In my view, the forgiveness should not be done as it will be inflationary, but the irony would be that this would be a Federal handout just after a primary election, which for all practical purposes determined many of the wider races, in which Wyomingites expressed a "no handout" view.

In another topic, the largest decrease in reading scores in 30 years, and the largest drop in math scores since testing has been conducted, has been experienced. This is no doubt due to the disruption in education caused by COVID-19.

September 3, 2022

The Federal District Court for Wyoming found that Federal postponement of oil and gas lease sales was legal.

September 8, 2022

OPEC is cutting production by 100,000 bbls a day, a symbolic amount really, in an effort to keep oil prices from continuing to decline.

September 11, 2022

The State gave out $6,600,000 in rent relief, funded by the Federal Government, last month.

Project Bison will commence construction in the state.  It's a direct carbon removal from the air project that will remove annually the amount of carbon generated by 1.2 coal-fired power plants annually.

September 16, 2022

A nationwide railroad strike that would have gone into effect on Friday has been avoided.

September 17, 2022

Yvon Chouinard, who has a close association with Teton County, and who is the founder of Patagonia, the clothing company, is converting the shares of the company to be held in trust with the profits, approximately $100,000,000 per year, to support environmental causes.

The Treasury Department is supporting the creation of U.S. digital currency, to be backed by conventional currency.

September 18, 2022

Among the resolutions that the GOP will consider this weekend is one it will pass, providing that it will refuse to recognize those running as independents or in other parties as members of the GOP.  This comes about as some extreme right wing member of the party have become candidates in third parties, and some moderates and others are running as independents.

The resolution will pass, but it won't matter.  A person can make any registration of party affiliation they want for voter affiliation, right up to the polls.

September 20, 2022

In an article penned by the Mayor of Cheyenne, it was announced that Cheyenne may be getting a meat packing plant with a construction value of over $1B.  The plant would be one of the largest in the United States, if constructed, and would employ 2,500 people.  No other details were available.

We've often urged the construction of a plant or two of this type in the state, although on a locally owned basis.  It'll be interesting to see what the details of this plant are, should it advance further.

September 21, 2022

The legislature is looking at solar panels for schools as a means of cutting infrastructure costs for the same.

October 5, 2022

OPEC is cutting production by 2M bbls per day.

October 8, 2022

October 5, 2022

OPEC is cutting production by 2M bbls per day.

This turns out to be "OPEC +" which includes not only the formal OPEC members, but additionally Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan and Sudan.

Hmmm. . . . 

Russia.

And Mexico?

Well, in some ways 2M bbls/day isn't that much really, but it will cause prices to rise and that's exactly what it's designed to do.

The OPEC daily target was 44M bbls per day, but they're not meeting that now.  So this is in fact more significant than it might seem.

Now, I know that some politicians from Western states in particular are going to come out with the "unleash" American energy line, but as much in that category as can realistically be done already is being done.  Eventually, the US could more than make up the slack, but at a higher price per gallon pump price.

The turnover rate in state government in Wyoming has doubled from what it was a decade ago.

October 11, 2022


A law which would have fined coal mines in Montana in certain ways designed to keep them in operation were found unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court.

No surprise there, but this should be of note given similar proposals that have been floated in Wyoming.

October 13, 2022

The Tribune reports various mining activities can be expected to boom in southeastern Wyoming.

October 22, 2022

This year's Federal budget deficit, which should be quite frankly $0, was cut in half, which means that it's still $1.4 Trillion.

That's real progress, but not good. It's sort of like a diehard alcoholic going from one fifth of booze per day, to one fifth every two days.

October 26, 2022

Wyoming has been sponsoring a project to find other uses for coal, such as an element of building materials.  A study of using it for biochar has also been underway.

Apple is requiring all of its suppliers to be carbon-neutral by 2030.

Jennifer Sey, a Democrat, and the former Chief Marketing Officer for Levis, has come out with a book claiming that wokedness has taken over corporate boardrooms.

Ryan Busse, a former executive with Kimber, the firearms' manufacturer, has published a book taking on the combat focused gun culture as it relates to the industry.

The Lancet, the famous medical journal, has published that health is at the mercy of fossil fuels.

November 11, 2022

Inflation has dropped to 7.7%

November 17, 2022

Revenue to the State of Wyoming from oil and gas lease sales is the highest it has been since 2018.

November 22, 2022

A railroad strike is looking increasingly likely.

November 23, 2022

A new Federal oil and gas leasing provision passed under the Inflation Reduction Act requires Federal agencies to offer “the lesser of a ‘sum total’ of either 2,000,000 acres or 50 percent of the acreage for which have been submitted for lease sales during the previous one-year period,” before it offers leases for renewable energy projects.

November 26, 2022

Wyoming is pursuing a $2,000,000 under the Federal infrastructure bill in order to build a hydrogen hub.

Hydrogen is viewed as a potential replacement for vehicle fossil fuels.\

December 1, 2022

The House of Representatives voted to impose the results of negotiations between railroad companies and unions that were reached last September, but rejected subsequently by the unions.

The agreement which was reached, but which was subsequently rejected by the unions increased pay 24%, but did not addressed on call schedules, under staffing and a lack of paid leave.

Last prior edition:  

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part IX. The Russo Ukrainian War edition.