Thailand terminated military agreements with the US and ordered US forces out of hte country by March 20, 1975.
Last edition:
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Friday, July 27, 1945. Preparing the bomb.
Little Boy was delivered to Tinian and preparation to drop it on Japan commenced.
Commencing on the night of July 27, B-29s dropped leaflets on eleven Japanese cities warning them that they were targeted for bombing.
The Chinese took Guilin.
Ernest Bevin became the British Foreign Affairs Secretary.
The World War Two British chiefs of staff had their final meeting with Churchill.
Last edition:
Thursday, July 26, 1945. Churchill out, Attlee in.
Friday, July 27, 1900. Huns.
In reaction to the situation in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II delivered the "Hun Speech", comparing German troops to the Huns of the Nibelungenlied. The speech read:
Great overseas tasks have fallen to the new German Empire, tasks far greater than many of my countrymen expected. The German Empire has, by its very character, the obligation to assist its citizens if they are being set upon in foreign lands. The tasks that the old Roman Empire of the German nation was unable to accomplish, the new German Empire is in a position to fulfill. The means that make this possible is our army.
It has been built up during thirty years of faithful, peaceful labor, following the principles of my blessed grandfather. You, too, have received your training in accordance with these principles, and by putting them to the test before the enemy, you should see whether they have proved their worth in you. Your comrades in the navy have already passed this test; they have shown that the principles of your training are sound, and I am also proud of the praise that your comrades have earned over there from foreign leaders. It is up to you to emulate them.
A great task awaits you: you are to revenge the grievous injustice that has been done. The Chinese have overturned the law of nations; they have mocked the sacredness of the envoy, the duties of hospitality in a way unheard of in world history. It is all the more outrageous that this crime has been committed by a nation that takes pride in its ancient culture. Show the old Prussian virtue. Present yourselves as Christians in the cheerful endurance of suffering. May honor and glory follow your banners and arms. Give the whole world an example of manliness and discipline.
You know full well that you are to fight against a cunning, brave, well-armed, and cruel enemy. When you encounter him, know this: no quarter will be given. Prisoners will not be taken. Exercise your arms such that for a thousand years no Chinese will dare to look cross-eyed at a German. Maintain discipline. May God’s blessing be with you, the prayers of an entire nation and my good wishes go with you, each and every one. Open the way to civilization once and for all! Now you may depart! Farewell, comrades!”
Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated! No quarter will be given! Prisoners will not be taken! Whoever falls into your hands is forfeited. Just as a thousand years ago the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one that even today makes them seem mighty in history and legend, may the name German be affirmed by you in such a way in China that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German.
New Orleans police and vigilantes attempted to arrest Robert Charles, which went badly, and lead to the house in which Charles being set on fire. He was shot during the episode by Charles Noiret, a medical student at Tulane University.
Last edition:
Tuesday, July 24, 1900. Regulations for Peaceful Rule.
Wars and Rumors of War, 2025. Part 5. Oh oh, it didn't work. Now What? The Pearl Harbor Edition.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
What do we mean by the defeat of the enemy? Simply the destruction of his forces, whether by death, injury, or any other means—either completely or enough to make him stop fighting. . . . The complete or partial destruction of the enemy must be regarded as the sole object of all engagements. . . . Direct annihilation of the enemy's forces must always be the dominant consideration.
Carl von Clausewitz.
I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.
Isoroku Yamamoto.
It didn't work.
The United States did not destroy Iran's nuclear program, it merely set it back several months.
That was, quite frankly, a pretty predictable outcome. Indeed, I predicted it.
The question is, now what?
Iran has learned that its security is, in fact, in building a nuclear weapon. It's going to do it.
The only way to stop that would be a ground invasion of Iran, which we don't have the stomach to do, and which Israel can't do.
Israel gambled that they could take control of the air, and that this was the time to do it. That set up the scene for the US to come in with the GBU-57A/B MOP, which they gambled we would.
We committed them.
It failed.
Military gambles are always judged in hindsight. Japan didn't take out the U.S. Navy on December 7, 1941, as the carriers weren't at Pearl Harbor. If they had been, the story would be different. The Germans didn't defeat the Soviets in Operation Barbarossa, but they came close. If it had worked, it would be regarded as one of the greatest military feats of all time, rather than a disastrous miscalculation.
We'll see what happens here, but my guess is that by this time next year, Iran has the bomb.
June 26, 2025
United States and Israel v. Iran
As per usual, the administration simply accuses everyone who disagrees with them of lying or insulting servicemen. That's complete and utter nonsense. The objective was a tough one and the odds were against it.
Hegseth held a press conference today that was essentially a rant due to these questions being brought up. It was pathetic.
The big difference here, as compared to other Trump counterfactuals, is that the Trump smokescreen will evaporate with a mushroom cloud.
The question is how soon.
cont:
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared victory in the recent war and discounted the damage caused by American airstrikes. His tone was absolutely defiant.
June 27, 2025
United States and Israel v. Iran
After criticizing ‘warmonger’ Liz Cheney, Hageman backs U.S. intervention in Iran
I"m quite certain that Donald Trump could declare war on the entire world and Wyoming's delegation would support it.
June 29, 2025
Israel v. Hamas
As its seemingly now become too routine to take notice of, we will note that the fighting is still going on in Gaza. The humanitarian crisis carries on, and Israeli strikes this week killed 72 people.
June 30, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
The war in Ukraine, the one that Trump promised to end upon being nominated but then later stated that was "hard", is heating up.
Looks like Trump was full of crap about his magical negotiation powers. Where's that "art" of the deal?
Anyhow, Russia launched its biggest aerial of the war so far, firiging a total of 537 aerial weapons at including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles. 249 were shot down and 226 were lost.
The Russians have amassed 50,000 troops near Sumy.
Israel v. Hamas
Israel has ordered evacuations from norther Gaza.
United States and Israel v. Iran
An interesting post:
The inmates are running the asylum! That is what it looks like to me. Their entire administration is not based on anything that resembles sanity.
And on the same topic:
Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinge· 12h
So what seems clear from the intel, is that we probably should have reloaded the B2s, and gone for a second round. Instead the impulsive toddler was desperate to have a strong ending to the movie and declare a cease fire.
This is a show to him, entertainment, and he’s the “star”
July 4, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Kyiv is getting pounded by a large scale drone attack.
The US has halted many weapons transfer programs to Ukraine on the basis that the US needs to rebuilt its own arms stockpile.
July 8, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Roman Starovoyt, age 53, who had been fired as Russian transportation minister just hours prior, was found dead from a gunshot wound in his car. Russian authorities stated suicide might be a possibility.
He's also been the governor of Kursk relatively recently.
July 9, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized a pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine last week. Currently it seems Trump will resume them.
Trump reports he's upset with Putin, probably for busting the bubble that Trump has any persuasion over him. Trump's efforts at bringing about peace have failed.\
July 14, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
It appears that the US will be increasing military aid to Ukraine, funneling the new arms through other NATO countries.
Trump has indicated that if Russia doesn't end the war in 50 days he will impose 100% secondary tariffs.
July 17, 2025
Israel v. Hamas
An Israeli artillery shell hit the compound of the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, killing three people and wounding 10 others, including the parish priest.
It would seem Trump's much vaunted ceasefire didn't hold.
I suspect as these were Catholic deaths, there won't be much press on it.
Syrian Civil War
Heavy fighting has been going on between Druze and Bedouin tribes in the southern Syrian province of Suwayda, as another ceasefire has collapsed a day after Syrian troops pulled out of the area.
The area has a Druze majority.
July 20, 2025
Russo Ukrainian War
The war Trump did end upon being nominated or sworn into office has been seeing some massive Russian drone assaults, including a 300 drone raid yesterday.
Israel v. Hamas
Israeli troops fired yesterday toward crowds of Palestinians seeking food from distribution hubs run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group in southern Gaza, killing at least 32 people. An air strike also occured.
Gee. . . it's almost like Trump didn't get peace in Gaza either.
Syrian Civil War
A ceasefire seems to be holding including Israel.
July 24, 2025
Thailand v. Cambodia
Thailand and Cambodia are fighting over a disputed border area.
July 25, 2025
Israel v. Hamas
France is recognizing the sovereignty of the territorial Palestinian Authority as a state.
July 27, 2025
Israel v. Hamas.
Israel is going to allow humanitarian air drops over Gaza.
Last edition:
Wars and Rumors of War, 2025. Part 4. The GBU-57A/B MOP Edition.
Saturday, July 26, 2025
Thursday, July 26, 1945. Churchill out, Attlee in.
The Potsdam Declaration was issued:
No. 1382
Proclamation1
Proclamation by the Heads of Governments, United States, China and the United Kingdom
(1) We, the President of the United States, the President of the National Government of the Republic of China and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, representing the hundreds of millions of our countrymen, have conferred and agree that Japan shall be given an opportunity to end this war.
(2) The prodigious land, sea and air forces of the United States, the British Empire and of China, many times reinforced by their armies and air fleets from the west are poised to strike the final blows upon Japan. This military power is sustained and inspired by the determination of all the Allied nations to prosecute the war against Japan until she ceases to resist.
(3) The result of the futile and senseless German resistance to the might of the aroused free peoples of the world stands forth in awful clarity as an example to the people of Japan. The might that now converges on Japan is immeasurably greater than that which, when applied to the resisting Nazis, necessarily laid waste to the lands, the industry and the method of life of the whole German people. The full application of our military power, backed by our resolve, will3 mean the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland.
(4) The time has come for Japan to decide whether she will continue to be controlled by those self-willed militaristic advisers whose unintelligent calculations have brought the Empire of Japan to the threshold of annihilation, or whether she will follow the path of reason.
(5) Following are our terms. We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.
(6) There must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence of those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into embarking on world conquest, for we insist that a new order of peace, security and justice will be impossible until irresponsible militarism is driven from the world.
(7) Until such a new order is established and until there is convincing proof that Japan’s war-making power is destroyed, points in Japanese territory to be designated by the Allies shall be occupied to secure the achievement of the basic objectives we are here setting forth.
(8) The terms of the Cairo Declaration4 shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine.
(9) The Japanese military forces, after being completely disarmed, shall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives.
(10) We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as [a] nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners. The Japanese government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought, as well as respect for the fundamental human rights shall be established.
(11) Japan shall be permitted to maintain such industries as will sustain her economy and permit the exaction of just reparations in kind, but not those industries which would enable her to re-arm for war. To this end, access to, as distinguished from control of raw materials shall be permitted. Eventual Japanese participation in world trade relations shall be permitted.
(12) The occupying forces of the Allies shall be withdrawn from Japan as soon as these objectives have been accomplished and there has been established in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people a peacefully inclined and responsible government.
(13) We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.
Potsdam July 26, 1945
Harry S Truman
Winston Churchill
by H. S. T.
President of China
by wire
The results of the 1945 British election were announced. The Labour Party won an unexpected landslide over the Conservatives. Clement Attlee accordingly became the Prime Minister on this day.
The results were not a condemnation of Churchill, but an expression by the British people that they wished to go in a new direction, post war. One of Labour's slogans had been "Cheer Churchill – Vote Labour"
The British minesweeper Vestal was heavily damaged by a kamikaze attack.
Last edition:
Wednesday, July 25, 1945. Truman orders the atomic bomb used on Japan.
Equality, Raven Peak mulled as names for Grand Teton summit with disgraced leader’s name
Equality, Raven Peak mulled as names for Grand Teton summit with disgraced leader’s name: Mount Grizzly 399, Mount Liberty ruled out by state naming board.
Wyoming’s biggest hospital gets mixed performance review following ownership transition
Wyoming’s biggest hospital gets mixed performance review following ownership transition: In 2024, Banner Wyoming Medical Center met the majority of its 17 contractual covenants — such as maintaining essential services and adding new technologies. It fell short in four areas.
No surprise.
Wyomingites may claim to prefer the government to be out of everything, but Casperites liked their county owned hospital.
Friday, July 25, 2025
Pioneer Day. Pie & Beer Day. Public land sales, part 1. The historo-religious motivation for some (but certainly not all) of the backers.
Flag of the putative State of Deseret.
Church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact - religion and politics should not be mingled.
Millard Fillmore
Those who believe that politics and religion do not mix, understand neither.
Albert Einstein
It was 170 years ago that Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers came to the Salt Lake Valley in search of religious freedom… and, finally, a land of their own in which to practice it.
Mike Lee.
In this thread, we're going to tread, which will be part one of two, where we shouldn't.
Religion and politics.
Well, religion, politics and history.
And in the context of public land.
Eh?
Well, exactly.
Albert Einstein was exactly correct. Those that believe politics and religion do not mix truly do not understand either. Indeed, they should mix. A person who holds a religion should let him inform his views. If a person doesn't, they're not very sincere about their religion, or have a weakly developed intellect. If a person strongly believes that something is wrong, such as abortion, and their religion informs them on that, well, they can't really walk away from that, a la Joe Biden. By the same token, however, a person should not be foreclosed from advancing their views for other reasons, nor should a person demand that another person except their views solely because of their religious views, unless they clearly put it that way.
The thing a person ought not to do, however, is to advance a position for religious views, while keeping that view hidden.
Particularly if it forms the primary basis for the view.
And we look here first, at the transfer of public lands. Later on we'll look at the US support of Israel in warfare this past year.
Yesterday was Pioneer Day in Utah, a state holiday.
Like Wyoming Day here, probably almost nobody gets it off. The day commemorates the first entry of Brigham Young and his group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.
That's interesting in that, essentially, it's sort of a species of religious observation. There are no doubt other such observations in the US, but they're rare. Wyoming Day commemorates the day that Wyoming became a state. Utah became a state in 1896, after Wyoming. Pioneer Day, however, celebrates an event occurring fifty years before that, and which is inseparable from the LDS religious migration. Unlike the often cited landing of the passengers of the Mayflower, which is often erroneously to be an exclusively a religious migration, nobody in that 1847 team of travelers was not a Mormon.1
There have been two big backers of the concept of Utah grabbing Federal lands in Congress, Celest Maloy and Mike Lee, both of Utah.
Routine analysis of this notes that the grab the land movement is strong in Utah in general. Their state took a recent run at it in court, and their legislature has been in favor of it, even if certain districts in Utah are not. Congressman Jason Chaffetz found out the demographic differences when he went down the same path as Lee a decade ago.
While its changing, over 50% of Utah is a member of the Latter Day Saints.
No surprise there.
Nor is it a surprise that Lee is, and that Maloy is.
Nor is there something shocking or wrong with that, just as there isn't anything wrong, right wing pundits aside, with the next Mayor of New York City (probably), Zohran Mamdani, being Shi'a Muslim.
But the argument here is that their religious convictions are informing them, and other Utah politicians, to seek to remove Federal ownership from Federal land, as well as the history of their faith.
Which takes us to the Mormon War and the Utah War, with the former name sometimes being used for the latter (indeed, we've done that here in the past).
The actual Mormon War was the period of violence that occurred in Missouri when members of the LDS church were there.
Which probably requires some background to make sense.
The Latter Day Saints are not a Christian religion, although if you ask them, they'll most certainly maintain that they are. The fact is, however, they aren't. The LDS is a polytheistic religion holding that there are many gods and many worlds. We simply happen to live in a world in which God the Father, as Abrahamic religions worship, is actually a man who became a god after having lived his life in another world. The Mormons believe that Jesus Christ was the product of a Devine man (God) and a Devine mother and that Jesus Christ is their elder brother, since he was the firstborn in the spirit world. Perhaps in order for that to make sense to non Mormons its important to note that Mormon's believe that all the souls in our world already exist, and that when a child is born, a preexisting soul is embodied in that person, with the souls memory of his pre birth existence blocked. Mormons do admit that Christ became God before his birth. Mormon's also feel that if you live as a Mormon and adhere closely to the tenants of the LDS, you too can become a god, and will have your own world in the afterlife.2
That sort of sums up their beliefs today, sort of, although no doubt very unfairly.
What's that have to do with public lands?
Bear with us.
Joseph Smith started out is religious career in the Second Great Awakening as a fairly conventional protestant evangelist. Indeed, his evangelical career started after the dates for the events he claimed made him a profit, which raise the question of why he was a regular protestant at first and didn't mention his later claims at the time. By the early 1830s, however, he'd relocated to Ohio along with his early adherents and was espousing a new set of beliefs, some of which we've summarized above, but which also claimed that Native Americans were descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel and that giant battles featuring armored men and elephants had taken place in North America. He also had Jesus Christ visiting the continent, and blacks as descendants of a union between Cain and an ape. Most controversially, however, his new religion strongly advocated polygamy.
Sexual libertine behavior, which Smith personally displayed, was not unknown at the time, and there were "free love" movements even then, although they were not linked with religion.3 Smith, whose own sexual behavior exceeded the bounds of what he espoused for his followers, was unique in doing so. It was all too much for the residents of Ohio, and it proved to be too much for the residents of Missouri, to which he relocated with adherents in 1838.
Violence ensued and Smith himself lost his life over the matter of sex, when breakaway members of the LDS accused him of advocating polygamy in order to dally with women, a fairly fair charge. Smith reacted with destruction of a press that made accusations against him. He ended up in jail, and a riot of upset locals ultimately resulted in storming the jail. He was shot through a jail door he was attempting to block.
The LDS suffered a schism right at the time, with one branch of it evolving rapidly back into a conventional protestant church. The main branch, however, took off for the West and started settling in the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847, at which time the region was in Mexico. The first really largescale American settlement of that type (Spanish settlements up into the West dated back to the 1600s and were well established, but not in what is now upper Utah), they became a major presence right away.
The Great Salt Lake Valley is a long ways from Missouri, and it was even a greater distance if you had to walk or travel by horse, but the entire oddity of Mormon beliefs remained bothersome to most Americans, particularly Second and Third Great Awakening Americans for whom even Catholics were way too much. And it wasn't just Americans. John Stuart Mill in his great book On Liberty briefly pondered the practically of the British landing troops in Texas in order that they could march to Utah and stamp out the religion.
On Liberty came out in 1859, and was no doubt written prior to that. While Mill concluded that such an expedition was impractical, by 1857 the United States and the Mormons were actually at war. The war ended in 1858 with concessions on the part of the LDS combatants, but like a lot of people who've lost a war (consider the American South) a sort of lost cause element to it remains, even though the Mormons did not seek to separate from the US. They did seek, however, autonomy.
Early on the LDS hoped for a huge state in the southwest, which they called Deseret.
Utah Territory in blue, State of Deseret dashed lines By derivative work: Mangoman88 (talk)Blank_US_Map.svg: User:TheshibbolethWpdms deseret utah territory legend.png: User:Tsujigiri - Blank_US_Map.svgWpdms deseret utah territory legend.pngFile:1855 Colton Map of Utah and New Mexico (first edition, first state) - Geographicus - UtahNewMexico-colton-1855.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16103609
The US didn't see eye to eye on that. Be that as it may, they heavily settled throughout the region of what was imagined to be Deseret and are strongly represented throughout it today. And the name "Deseret" lives on, preserving its memory.
Early on, Mormon pioneers often viewed land communally. The LDS church today owns 1.7 million acres of land, operates some of the largest agricultural businesses in the US. It owns major blocks of land throughout the US, including in Wyoming and Nebraska. The fact that it a gigantic landowner is often missed. It's reasons to purchase land are varied, and it makes no effort to hide that it does this. Part of this is done for a sort of agrarian charitable reason, but there are other reasons as well.
Mormons tend to have large families, although this is not always the case by any means. The extent to which their families are abnormally large, moreover, is exaggerated as in the American WASP culture any number of offspring over two is regarded as freakishly large. I am, of course, from a Catholic family and got this all the time growing up, even though I'm an only child.
Having said that, the more traditionalist a Catholic family is, the more children there tends to be in it.
The reason differs considerably however. Catholics would point toward the marriage vow itself and how it notes that it includes the question “Are you prepared to accept children lovingly from God and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?” I've heard one Catholic cleric, Fr. Hugh Barbour, note the purpose of the marriage is to bring up children willingly for the worship of God.
Catholics, like most Christians, believe that human beings cooperate in the creation of souls through the marital act. Mormons, however, do not believe that. They believe that there are a finite number of souls and that they exist in already, and that the marital act causes those souls to inhabit a body. One the full number is run through, the end of time occurs. By having large families, in their view, they are assisting in bringing that about.
Which brings us back to Mike Lee.
Not all Mormons are traditionalist by any means. The Mormon church itself has been fluid over the years in regard to its beliefs and has abandoned polygamy and certain other tenants which brought them disrepute in American society. There remains, however, a conservative element that is sympathetic to the original views and while it embarrasses the larger LDS church, it's usually not to hard to find examples. Polygamy, for instance, persisted in being widely accepted in Mormon communities for well after its official abandonment, and of course, it continues on in Mormon communities today, even though it is definitely a minority view, and definitely condemned.
But amongst those like Lee, the history of Deseret and deeply held LDS beliefs heavily inform his views. He was willing to abandon Montana from his land grab, but Montana had never been part of Deseret. Everywhere else he held on.
Grabbing the land from the Federal government would sort of reverse a position that early Mormon pioneers had to abandon, and it satiates a fear of the Federal government that remains in some quarters today. Additionally, the "more land for housing" view makes some sense for those who imagine very large families. Lee himself was one of seven children to a father was president of BYU, although Mike Lee only had three children himself.
In the background of it all, however, are changing times.
Even now you will hear reports on how fast the LDS faith is growing. But it isn't. Having had a dramatic late 20th Century and early 21st Century increase, its numbers are now really dropping off and its in decline. The late 20th Century and very early 21st was sort of the golden age of Mormon expansion, and it altered the culture of the faith a bit. Outside of the "Jello Belt", that region of the west, and predominantly in southwestern Wyoming, southeastern Idaho, and Utah, where Mormons are a majority or at least very strongly represented in the population, Mormons were a little reluctant to identify too strongly with their faith, lest they run into a prejudiced reaction. At least two Mormon lawyers I knew would make excuses for their Mormonism, usually on the basis of "not being a Mormon" and "marrying into the faith", even though they were really in the LDS and at least one of them was born into it. When I was a kid, Mormon kids routinely identified themselves as "Jack Mormons", i.e.., those who only weekly observed their faith, even though they were not.
By the early 21st Century things really began to change, and particularly did after Mitt Romney was the GOP nominee for the President. Mormons had sort of arrived and come out of the shadows.
It didn't really last long, however, as a variety of forces began to work against it. One was that the industrial nature of Mormons had made Utah into a really attractive place to live. Utah's towns and cities are beautiful and well kept, something that is frankly often not the case for a lot of the West. Compared to Salt Lake, Denver is a dump. Towns like Morgan Utah make small Wyoming towns look pathetic.
What that means, however, is that Utah has attracted a lot of non Mormons and Salt Lake shows it in particular. Salt Lake has the temple, to be sure, but it also has a young non Mormon community, some of which outright flaunt their non Mormon status. Hence the title of this entry. July 24 is Pioneer Day, but it's also Pie & Beer Day in which hipsters celebrate with, well, pie and beer. It's become sort of a big deal.
And as Mormons have moved into the mainstream, the mainstream has sort of pushed back. Regular Mormon families are moving more towards the conventional American midstream in terms of belief, than the other way around.
What this means for it long term cannot yet be known, but Mormon birthrates are also dropping off dramatically.
When things start changing, the reaction often is to grasp back towards the past to try to drag it into the future. In the West, the Ghost Dance provides a spectacular late 19th Century example of that. What Lee and Maloy are doing does as well. It's probably not so much part of a deliberate plan as an instinct.
It's an instinct that a lot of Mormons in Utah and elsewhere outright reject, which shows that its always dangerous to assume that any one group can be really narrowly defined. And we're not saying that this is an overall Mormon world view on the topic. We're only noting what we think we're seeing in Lee, Maloy, and Utah's elected government.
And we'd note this is probably a fading, if presently strong, effort.
One of the Salt Lake newspapers has started a series on this, noting basically what I just did (I actually started this tread prior to the paper). This doesn't cover it all, however. It'd explain none of what we see in Wyoming backers like Harriet Hageman. We'll look at that next.
Footnotes.
1. Most of the passengers on the Mayflower were not Puritans.
2. There's a lot more to the LDS faith than this, including that the Book of Mormon is "another testament", but I'm not going to go into it here as I only hope to touch on what's relevant to the topic. In shorty, this isn't a discussion on Mormonism itself.
3. Such movements must have been extraordinarily risky for secular women, but they were oddly common, and not just in the US. There were a variety of them, and it was a feature such varied movements pre Stalinist Communism and Russian Orthodox Khlysts.
Wednesday, July 25, 1945. Truman orders the atomic bomb used on Japan.
Truman ordered the bomb dropped on Japan. The news was conveyed to the military to accomplish the act.
The Potsdam Conference took a recess so that the British delegation could return to the UK to hear the election results.
Marshall Pétain spoke at his trial for the first time, stating he was deaf and had not heard a thing that had been said in court up to that time.
American cruisers Pasadena, Springfield, Wilkes-Barre and Astoria bombarded Japanese air bases in southern Honshu.
US aircraft attacked Kure naval base and the airfields at Nagoya, Osaka and Miho for a second day, sinking the battleships Hyuga, Ise, and Haruna, the escort carrier Kaiyo and the heavy cruisers Aoba and Iwate are all sunk. The Japanese put up no resistance.
The US declared that Mindanao was free of organized Japanese resistance.
The Japanese pulled out of Taunggyi in the Shan states, Burma.
British naval and air units continued attacks on Japanese positions and transportation targets on the west coast of Malaya.
Last edition:
Tuesday, July 24, 1945. An unsurprised Stalin.
Labels: 1940s, 1945, Aircraft, boats and ships, China, Espionage, Harry S. Truman, Japan, Joseph Stalin, Nuclear power, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Weapons
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