U.S. infantry advancing with Sherman, Spangle, Belgium, September 9, 1944.
A captured Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter, the Zero, was displayed in Cheyenne (Wyoming State History Calendar).
A coup in Bulgaria put the Communist Fatherland Front (Отечествен фронт) in control of the country, which it would control until the fall of Hungarian Communism in 1986. It dissolved in 1990.
French race car driver Robert Benoist, a member of the French Resistance, was executed at Buchenwald.
The U-484 was sunk by the Royal Navy northwest of Ireland.
Ten mule team draws heavy Chinese howitzer over many mountains in the Burma Road on its way to the fighting at Tung Ling, Yunnan, China. 9 September, 1944.
Some years we have Rockies' ticket package. We did last year, but we didn't go to a single game for a variety of reasons. Work was the big one, but then, about this time just a year ago, I was under the knife for the second time as well.
We went to the Orioles game on September 1.
The choice of the date was not my own, September 1 is the opening day of blue grouse and dove season, but I didn't complain about it. A young member of the family loves the Orioles and that's why it was chosen. When you get old, as I am, you yield in favor of younger family members, so I did, without complaining. You also learn, hopefully, not to complain where in former days you might have.
It was a great game.
I've been to Denver several times since my surgery, but they were all hit and run type of deals for work. In and out, with no time to spare. This is the first time I've lingered in the Mile High City for awhile, and the first time over a weekend for a long while. Therefore some observations, I guess.
It was hot. "Unseasonably hot" is what I'm hearing. I'm not a fan of hot. As Wyoming has already been chilly in the morning, and I couldn't find my Rockies jersey, I wore a light flannel shirt. I don't really feel comfortable in just wearing a t-shit in that setting anymore, so I when I got hot, right away, before the game, I went and bought a jersey. Now I have two.
I can't wear my old New York Yankees pull on jersey anymore. I'm too big and its too small. My Sox jersey is messing a button.
It's really weird to think that at least into the 1940s people dressed pretty formally at baseball games. Men were in jacket and tie, something you'd never see now.
We were there on Sunday.
Holy Ghost is, in my view, the most beautiful church in the region and the most beautiful one I've ever been in. We went to Mass early Sunday morning. It's stunning and it never fails to impress me with its beauty.
A beautiful church really adds something to worship, and a sense of the Divine.
Not a new impression, but the street people problem is out of control.
I don't know what can be done to help these people. Some, you can tell, are now so organically messed up that they'll never really recover.
In various places, when approached for money by somebody on a street, I'll give them some. But not in Denver. The people on the streets are so messed up I know where that money is going. Something needs to be done to help them, but I have no idea what it would be.
The day before I went down I read that the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) had taken over two apartments in Aurora. Looking it up, it's apparently true, and they're using them for sex trafficking.
The greater Denver area, fwiw, has never been all that nice, in spite of what people might say. I recall going down in the 1980s, when I was an undergrad at UW, and parts of were really rough then. 16th Street was just starting to develop. The area around LoDo was really really rough. I can recall walking from an off street towards 16th past a really rough looking bar mid morning when a prostitute came spilling out of it, probably just getting off work. The Episcopal Cathedral, St. John in the Wilderness, had lots of broken windows, broken by rocks thrown into them from the street. Colorado Blvd in the region of what is now Martin Luther King Blvd was as complete red light district full of XXX movie theaters. Lo Do was a no/go zone.
Coors Field really cleaned up a lot of that, and much of downtown Denver has really gentrified. 16th Street, however, is a drug flop house as is much of downtown Denver. The legalization of marijuana, COVID, and a highly tolerant city council has created an enormous problem.
Anyhow, I don't go into Aurora much, but I don't really recall it being really nice. I recall my father, who had experience with Denver going back to the 1930s, mentioning it had never been nice.
We had a big breakfast at Sam's No. 3. It's a great cafe. A real urban one, which probably makes it surprising that I'll go there, but it is great.
At the game, I had a hot dog. I usually have "brots", rather than dogs, if I have your classic small sausage on a bun. I'd forgotten, accordingly, what real dogs taste like. I like them, but I don't like them as much as brots.
Converse Chuck Taylors are comfortable for sitting at a game, but not for hiking around a city. Like my baseball jerseys, I like Chuck Taylors but given my line of work and my off time avocations, which I unfortunately seem to be able to engage in less and less, I have little call to actually wear them.
Regarding clothing, while I hesitated to post it, a lot of young women in urban settings don't dress decently when dressing casually. I don't mean "dress up" either. Perhaps because it was hot, a lot of them had on "summer clothes" which showed way more skin, and other things, than is decent, in my view. For that matter, coming out of a hotel a barista was coming in wearing a t-shirt who had chosen to omit undergarments and was showing, well, through. I almost turned to my daughter who was with me and thanked her for not dressing like so much of what I was seeing, but I didn't.
On that, some of the younger women were clearly with a parent. Why would you let a child, even if not a child any longer, go out dressed like that?
I'm not really proud of noticing and I didn't glare or stare, but frankly with so much on display its impossible not to notice anything. I'm old, but not dead, and there's way too much on display, certainly way more than is the case up here in the rude hinterlands. A Christian should have custody of their eyes but I'd rather other folks make it easy to exercise.
Also on display were vast numbers of tattoos, some artful and some really bad. Having a bad tattoo has to be a bummer.
I was reminded of how much I don't like country music. My wife and daughter do, so we listed to one of the XM Radio satellite radio channels on the way down. I never listen to contemporary country music, although over the years I've gotten to where I like some of the older stuff.
Anyhow, I was surprised by how much country music is just devoted to getting drunk. It's weird.
A fair amount is devoted to bad decisions, particularly with alcohol and women. Some has gotten inappropriate towards women in general. One of the songs on the way down I heard was Country Girl, which involves alcohol, and also the lyrics "shake it for me, girl". I've been around country people, including country girls, my entire life and I've never seen a country girl shaking whatever for anyone. Indeed, I've always been impressed by how almost everyone who lives in the sticks knows how to swing dance and tends to wear, usually, a fair amount of clothing, even in the summer.
Calvin Coolidge was nominated for President at the GOP convention.
The Newton Gang robbed the express mail train number 57 of the Milwaukee Road (the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad) near Rondout, Illinois. The train was stopped at the time. The gang made away with more than $3M, worth about $54.3M today. Their success was brief as one of their own members wounded another, preventing their escape.
Asphyxiation following a main battery turret explosion killed 44 crewmen of the USS Mississippi. The incident was the largest peacetime loss of life in the Navy up to that time.
The ship would serve until 1956 and was broken up in 1957.
George H. W. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts.
The BLM's new oil and gas leasing rules has effectuated new oil and gas leasing rules for the first time since 1988.
The new rules adjust bond amounts for the first time since 1966, increase royalty rates for the first time in over a century (leasing has only been in place for a century). Bond rates will go from $10,000 to $150,000 and state-wide bonding requirement for operators with more than from $25,000 to $500,000.
Governor Gordon criticizes oil and gas rule that raises costs to producers
CHEYENNE, Wyo. –Governor Mark Gordon is criticizing an announcement from the Department of Interior last week that will increase the costs to oil and gas companies seeking to drill on federal lands. The Governor used the following statement:
“If there was any doubt, it could not be more clear now that the Department of Interior has lost its way. Within a day of announcing its renewable energy rule designed to promote the equivalent of a modern-day gold rush of development for renewables by reducing fees and rents on federal lands by 80%, Interior issued an oil and gas rule increasing costs to Wyoming’s industry by 1400%.
America surely needs more energy, including from renewable sources. What our country does not need are policies that greatly reduce the return to our nation’s taxpayers while simultaneously increasing the impacts and burdens on states and communities. We don’t need policies that increase the costs to consumers while also reducing reliability, or rules that sharpen the threat of industrializing our open spaces and crucial wildlife habitat without recognizing the importance of balance in our energy portfolio. These policies should seem misguided to most Americans of every stripe who love our country. Instead of experience and practicality, DOI has doubled down on bias, dogma, and politics. America is suffering as a result.
It is time we get back to common-sense energy policy. I will continue to fight against federal policies that are short-sighted and antagonistic to Wyoming’s industries, our workers, and our way of life. We need to build a realistic, all-of-the-above energy strategy that correctly plans a future of reliable and dispatchable power and properly accounts for – and balances – the costs and impacts of all energy sources.”
April 19, 2024
Tensions in the Middle East have jumped the price of oil back up.
April 27, 2024
Ur Energy will reopen It's in situ uranium mine and processing plant in Shirley Basin in 2026.
The UAW has entered into a tentative deal with Daimler.
Wyoming is suing the Federal government over a methane rule.
Wyoming
Sues Biden Administration Over Costly and Burdensome Methane Rule
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. – Wyoming has joined the states of North Dakota, Montana and Texas in
suing the U.S. Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over
a new rule that undermines existing state regulatory programs and harms Wyoming
oil and natural gas producers.
The suit was
filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota.
The rule – commonly known as the “methane waste prevention rule” and released
last month – is an attempt by the Department of Interior to re-introduce a
similar rule adopted by the Obama Administration in 2016. That rule was
previously blocked by a Wyoming federal court.
The new rule
requires oil and gas companies to pay royalties on flared gas, driving up costs
for producers and resulting in increased costs to consumers, the Governor said.
“This rule
is yet another example of the Biden Administration attempting to use rulemaking
to undermine state authority and suffocate the oil and gas industry,” Governor
Gordon said. “We will continue to defend Wyoming’s interests in court whenever
they are under attack by the federal government.”
Governor
Gordon has previously pointed out Wyoming is a national leader in regulating
methane gas, with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and Wyoming
Oil and Gas Conservation Commission working cooperatively with oil and gas
producers to reduce emissions. The states’ complaint explains that the new rule
conflicts with state regulations and in certain instances, creates less
stringent standards.
There has been a 20% reduction in the demand for Wyoming coal in the first quarter of the year.
May 14, 2024
The US has changed regulation to make construction of high tension lines easier.
The US has banned imports of Russian uranium.
May 16, 2024
Governor
Gordon Outraged by BLM’s No Coal Leasing Selection in the Powder River Basin
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon responded forcefully to an announcement by
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that it had selected the “No Leasing” alternative in its
Buffalo Coal Resource Management Plan Supplemental Environmental Impact
Statement (SEIS). The BLM’s choice means it is all but determined that coal
leasing in the Powder River Basin will not be permitted past 2041. The
Governor’s statement follows:
“With this latest barrage in President Joe
Biden’s ongoing attack on Wyoming’s coal country and all who depend upon it, he
has demonstrated his lack of regard for the environment, for working people,
and for reliable, dispatchable energy. This decision, compounded by the recent
EPA rules, ensures President Biden’s legacy will be about blackouts and energy
poverty for Wyoming’s citizens and beyond.
All the cards are on the table now. At the
highest levels the Biden Administration – including Interior Secretary Haaland
– have shown a complete disregard for blue-collar workers and their families;
local communities and neighborhood businesses; the aspirations of local
governments and economic development entities; university scientists and others
diligently working on viable solutions to climate concerns; as well as the
livelihoods of power plant employees and anyone who relies on dependable, affordable,
and attainable electricity.
This SEIS is not about making a well-informed
decision. It is about Joe Biden’s partisan, vindictive, and politically
motivated war on America’s abundant, cheap, efficient, and consistent energy
sources – one that holds practical and achievable goals to remove carbon
dioxide from our atmosphere. This administration touts its preference for “best
available science” yet only chooses to highlight the science that advances
their job- and career-killing agenda.
As Governor, I am profoundly disappointed that
our nation’s highest executive leadership has chosen to ignore innovation and
opportunity to grovel at the feet of coastal elites. I promise that the State
of Wyoming will fully utilize the opportunities available to kill or modify
this Record of Decision before it is signed and final. The issues we face
globally right now are too important and too urgent to dither away with
incoherent policies and wrongheaded initiatives. As with the other attacks on
Wyoming’s fossil fuel industries, the Attorney General is actively pursuing
options to challenge these destructive decisions.”
Wyoming Joins 19-State Lawsuit Against California and Four Other States Whose Actions Threaten Nation’s Energy System
May 23, 2024
The State of Wyoming has joined an Alabama-led 19-state coalition asking the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the efforts of California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Rhode Island to dictate the future of American energy policy.
Those five states have brought unprecedented litigation against the nation’s most vital energy companies for an alleged “climate crisis,” and are demanding billions of dollars in damages. As litigation proceeds in their state courts, California and the other states threaten to impose ruinous penalties and coercive remedies that would affect energy and fuel consumption and production across the country, including Wyoming. The coalition raises the grave constitutional problems with California’s extraordinary tactics and asks the Supreme Court to take up a multi-state lawsuit.
“Wyoming’s core industries are under attack, not only from the federal government, but from other states that depend on the resources that we produce,” Governor Gordon said. “We will defend our industries in the courts, and guard against other states' attempts to set national energy policy outside the boundaries of their own state. The State of Wyoming strongly believes that each state has the ability to pursue their preferred policies within their own jurisdiction, but will not idly stand by when other states use their own policies to dictate energy policies in Wyoming and other states. Our Constitution prohibits that very notion.”
The Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the 19-state lawsuit against California and the other four proposed defendants. The coalition argues that traditional energy sources like oil, natural gas, and coal are essential for American prosperity. The states also argue that the matter is of utmost importance because our system of federalism gives each state no more power than any other state.
In April, Wyoming signed the Alabama-led 20-state amicus brief in the Supreme Court asking the Court to review a lawsuit filed by the City and County of Honolulu, which also seeks to impose billions of dollars in penalties on the energy industry. Honolulu claims that the companies deceived consumers about the emissions created by everyday products like gasoline. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the energy companies’ request to hear the case.
In addition to Wyoming, the Alabama-led suit was joined by Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia. A copy of the lawsuit may be found here.
Adolfo de la Huerta and his staff withdrew by boat to Mérida, Yucatán, after federal troops recaptured Veracruz.
Crowd going to the National Cathedral, under construction, where President Wilson had been laid to rest.
Italy recognized the Soviet Union.
Around this time, Colt began to ship what is called the "Colt Transition Model 1911", which were actually the first of the M1911A1s.
The Colt M1911 is a John Browning designed semi-automatic pistol that can legitimately be regarded s the greatest handgun ever made, although there are, or perhaps more accurately were, a few other contenders. Other than the mostly John Browning Designed Hi Power, none of the other contenders remain in service somewhere however and the M1911 has by far the longest period of service.
Adopted by the U.S. on March 29, 1911, in 1923 the handgun received some minor modifications, the most significant of which is a curved spring housing which changed the profile of the grip. The trigger was also shortened. In 1924 the modified design started to ship, this month, from Colt. The M1911A1 designation came in 1926.
Large quantities of M1911s were made in World War One, and even larger quantities of M1911A1s were made during World War Two. So many were in fact made that no new orders were placed for M1911s through the rest of its primary service life, up to when the M9 Beretta 9mm handgun was ordered to replace it.
MEU(SOC) pistol.
The M9 actually failed to completely replace the M1911A1, although it nearly did so. Some small quantities of M1911A1s that had been issued to officers remained in ongoing use. In addition, the pistol never ceased being used by special troops, who favored it over the 9mm M9 due to its larger .45ACP cartridge. The Marines nearly immediately resisted the change and adopted a reworked and custom-built M1911, with flat spring housing, as the MEU(SOC) pistol for close combat, taking in quantities of M9s at the same time.
Female Marine firing M45A1.
During the war in Afghanistan, the M1911 started to reappear in force, being rebuilt by service armorers and with some small numbers being once again purchased for special forces. In 2012 the Marine Corps began to acquire modernized M1911s, with the flat spring housing, which were ultimately adopted as the Marine Corps service pistol with the designation M45. Theoretically, these passed out of service in 2022, but it's frankly unlikely that they fully did. The pistol almost certain remains in use to some degree by the US.
The pistol, given all of this, has an incredibly long service life, likely the longest of any US weapon. And the M1911 itself has rebounded in popularity and is as popular as a civilian handgun as ever, perhaps more popular than ever. As a police weapon, it was used by the FBI for decades, and also in various cartridge chamberings by law enforcement agencies. No handgun rivals it.
Questioner: "Why did you leave the Republican Party?"
George F Will: "The same reason I joined it. I am a conservative."
If I were to listen to people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, or some of the Freedom Caucus here in Wyoming, it would be go.
If I listen to lifelong residents here in the state, including some lifelong Republicans whom would currently be classified as RINO's by the newly populist Wyoming GOP, it would be stay. Alan Simpson, who is an "anybody but Trump", former U.S. Senator, and who the Park County GOP tried to boot out as a elected precinct committeeman, is staying.
The problem ultimately is what time do you begin to smell like the crowd on the bus?
Konrad Adenauer of the Christian Democratic Union, West Germany's first post-war chancellor. He worked towards compromise and ended denazification early, even though he'd speant the remaining months of World War Two in prison and barely survived. By CDU - This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a German political foundation, as part of a cooperation project., CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16173747
To put it another way, I'd give an historical example. It's often noted that quite a few Germans joined the Nazi Party as it was just a way to get by, or advance careers, etc., during the Third Reich period of German history. When I was a kid, there was a lot of sympathy, oddly enough, for that view amongst those who were of the World War Two generation, although at the same time, there was a widely held belief that militarism, combined with radical nationalism, were something that was basically in the German DNA. The US, as is well known, didn't even particularly worry about letting former Nazis into the country.
The Germans themselves pretty much turned a blind eye towards this, so many of them had been in the Nazi Party. Even post-war German politicians who had spent the war in exile did, as it was the programmatic thing to do.
Since that time, however, that view has really changed. It started to in 1968 when German students rioted and exposed former Nazis in the police. Germans haven't really come to terms with it, but having been a member of the Nazi Party is a mark of shame, and it's become to be something despised everywhere, even if a person did it for practical reasons and wasn't really involved in the party.
And it should be a mark of shame.
Americans have been sanctimonious about that for a long time, but starting in the 1970s lots of Americans became ashamed, in varying degrees, of our own ancestors in regard to various things. Ironically, the backlash to that, symbolized by Confederate battle flags, is part of what brings us to our current crisis.
Ed Herschler, former Marine Corps Raider, and Democratic lawyer, who was Wyoming's Governor from 1975 to 1987. Herschler probably wouldn't have a home in today's Democratic Party in Wyoming.
I registered as a Republican the first time I was old enough to vote. The first Presidential Election I was old enough to vote in was the 1984 Presidential election, in which I voted for Ronald Reagan. The first election I was old enough to vote in was the 1982 off year election. I honestly don't know who I voted for Senator. Malcolm Wallop won, but I very well have voted for the Democrat. Dick Cheney wont reelection that year against Ted Hommel, whom I don't recall at all. I probably voted for Cheney. I know that I voted for the reelection of Democratic Governor Ed Herschler, who was one of the state's great Governors.
A split ticket.
Split tickets were no doubt common in my family. My father would never reveal who he voted for in an election. The first Presidential election I recall was the 1972 Election in which Nixon ran against McGovern, and I asked who he voted for when he came home. He wouldn't say, and I don't know to this day.
I knew that my father registered Republican, but not everyone in my father's family did. My grandmother, for one, registtered Demcrat,somethign I became aware of when we were visiting her, which we frequently did, at her retirement apartment here in town. She was pretty clear that she was an unapologetic Democrat, which made sense given that she was 100% Irish by descent. Most Irish Americans, at that time, were Democrats, and all real ones were Catholic. Reagan, who claimed Irish ancestry, woudl have been regarded a a dual pretender for that reason by many of them.
My father's view, and it remains mine, that you voted for the person and what they stood for, not hte party.
But being in a party means something, and that has increasingly come to be the case.
I switched parties after that 1984 election. I was, and remain, a conservative, but the GOP was drifting further from a conservative center in that period, and as I've noted, the election of Ronald Reagan paved the path for Donald Trump, although I won't say that was obvious then. And also, Democrats were the party that cared about public lands, as they still do, and cared about rural and conservation issues that I cared about and still do. The GOP locally was becoming hostile to them. So I switched.
Campaign image for Mike Sullivan, Democratic Governor from 1987 to 1995.
I remained a Democrat probably from about 1984 until some time in the last fifteen years. Being a Democrat in Wyoming meant that you were increasingly marginalized, but finally what pushed me out was that it meant being in the Party of Death. The Democrats went from a party that, in 1973, allowed you to be middle of the road conservative and pro-life. We had a Governor, Mike Sullivan, who was just that. By the 2000s, however, that was becoming impossible. Locally most of the old Democrats became Republicans, some running solid local campaigns as Republicans even though they had only been that briefly. Even as late as the late 1990s, however, the Democrats ran some really serious candidates for Congress, with the races being surprisingly close in retrospect. Close, as they say, only counts with hand grenades and horseshoes, but some of those races were quite close. The GOP hold on those offices was not secure.
Dave Freudenthal, Democratic Governor from 2003 to 2011.
Before I re-registered as a Republican, I was an independent for a while. Being an independent meant that primaries became nearly irrelevant to me, and increasingly, as the Democratic Party died and became a far left wing club, starting in the 2000s., it also meant that basically the election was decided in the primaries. Like the other rehoming Democrats, however, we felt comfortable in a party that seemingly had given up its hostility to public lands. And frankly, since the 1970s, the GOP in Wyoming had really been sui generis. Conservative positions nationally, including ones I supported, routinely failed in the Republican legislature. Abortion is a good example. The party nationally was against it, I'm against it personally, but bills to restrict it failed and got nowhere in a Republican legislature.
The Clinton era really impacted the Democratic Party here locally. Wyomingites just didn't like him. That really started off the process of the death of the Democratic Party here. As center right Democrats abandoned the party in response, left wing Democrats were all that remained, and the party has become completely clueless on many things, making it all the more marginalized. But just as Clinton had that impact on the Democrats, Trump has on the GOP.
Throughout the 70s and 80s it was the case that Wyoming tended to export a lot of its population, which it still does, and then take in transients briefly during booms. In the last fifteen or so years, however, a lot of the transient population, together with others from disparate regions, have stayed. They've brought their politics with them, and now in the era of Trump, those views have really taken over the GOP, save for about three pockets of the old party that dominate in Natrona, Albany and Laramie Counties. A civil war has gone on in some counties, and is playing out right now in Park County. In the legislature, the old party still has control, but the new party, branded as the Freedom Caucus, which likes to call its rival the UniParty, is rising. The politics being advanced are, in tone, almost unrecognizable.
Like it or not, on social issues the old GOP's view was "I don't care what you do, just leave me alone". That attitude has really changed. Given a bruising in the early 1990s due to a Southeastern Wyoming effort to privatize wildlife, the party became pro public lands for awhile. That's change. The party was not libertarian. That's changed.
Money helped change it, which is a story that's really been missed.
Like the Democrats of the 90s, a lot of the old Republicans have started to abandon the party. If there was another viable party to go to, floods would leave. A viable third party might well prove to be the majority party in the state, or at least a close second to the GOP, if there was one.
There isn't.
So, what to do?
While it'll end up either being a pipe dream or an example of a dream deferred, there's still reason to believe that much of this will be transitory. If Trump does not win the 2024 Presidential Election, and he may very well not, he's as done as the blue plate special at a roadside café as the GOP leader. Somebody will emerge, but it's not really likely to be the Trump clone so widely expected. And the relocated populists may very well not have that long of run in Wyoming. Wyomingites, the real ones, also tend to have a subtle history of revenge against politicians who betray their interests. Those riding hiding high on anti-public lands, anti-local interests, may come to regret it at the polls later on.
The Johnson County invaders of 1892. The Republican Party, whose politicians had been involved in the raid on Natrona and Johnson Counties, took a beating in the following elections.
Or maybe this process will continue, in which case even if Trump wins this year, the GOP will die. By 2028, it won't be able to win anything and a new party will have to start to emerge.
We'll see.
None of which is comfortable for the State's real Republicans.
