Showing posts with label Blog Mirror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog Mirror. Show all posts
Saturday, March 21, 2026
The Agrarian Week of March 15, 2026
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Nebraska is burning and its time to stop pretending this is normal.
Actually, that time was some time ago, but for those "clean coal" and "drill baby drill" people, you are converting the planet into an image of Hell.
It's not too late to address this, but it'll take major action. The good news is that a nation that can waste billions of dollars on a war with Iran for no reason whatsoever, can afford to address it, and reverse it.
And not only, that, the rest of the world is leaping ahead of us in alternative energy systems, including China in spite of what the dolt in the White House says.
Simply believing that because we've always done things one way means its okay, or that our pocketbooks depend on coal and oil mean sit okay, is absolute lunacy. The day of fossil fuels either needs to end, or they'll end us.
And as a final note, all too often I've heard farmers and ranchers take the global warming is a fib line. This year, there's no water in the west, none coming, and there will be none . We won't be growing anything.
Wake up.
Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Checking Cows
Friday, March 20, 2026
The Agrarian's Lament: It ain't pork if its served at your table.
The Agrarian's Lament: It ain't pork if its served at your table.: It's weird how the fiscal responsibility can bust the budget, and fund local projects to boot. Hageman Announces $100 Million To Fix Col...
It ain't pork if its served at your table.
It's weird how the fiscal responsibility can bust the budget, and fund local projects to boot.
Hageman Announces $100 Million To Fix Collapsed Goshen County Irrigation Tunnel
Granted, I feel this is a really excellent use of public money. A far better use than $200B to blow up every petroleum facility in the Middle East, but let's be honest, it's socialism, or if it isn't, it's the American System. Let's pretend its that, even if that means that the GOP had found, well, Socialism, once again.
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Musings Over a Barrel: Irish Stew and Candlelight Mass for a Cool St. Pat...
Musings Over a Barrel: Irish Stew and Candlelight Mass for a Cool St. Pat...: Our St. Patrick’s Day celebrations took an unexpected turn this year. A short but powerful storm moved through Monday evening. Though it las...
Railhead: The Nightcrawler. The train from Denver, Colorado, to Billings, Montana.
Railhead: The Nightcrawler. The train from Denver, Colorado...: I had no idea that this is what this train was called. Thanks go out to MKTH for letting me know! I've been looking into local passen...
The Nightcrawler. The train from Denver, Colorado, to Billings, Montana.
I had no idea that this is what this train was called. Thanks go out to MKTH for letting me know!
I've been looking into local passenger train travel as part of my efforts with a novel. What I found is that I knew very little about it. Probably more than your average bear, but that's about it. I'd long assumed that a person could board a train in Casper in 1916 and take the train to Douglas or Cheyenne, and then return that evening, but the more I looked into it, that was just an assumption.
I'm not the one who figured out how it really worked. That goes to MKTH. the result is fascinating.
It turns out I was right sort of. The Burlington Northern ran a train from Denver Colorado, to Billings Montana, and vice versa, daily. This article takes a look at it.
What I imagined, for novel purposes, was boarding in Casper, and traveling to Douglas. I may, as I work at it, make it Cheyenne.
Union Station, Denver Colorado
Union Station, Denver Colorado
Union Station as viewed from in front of Denver's Oxford Hotel.
Anyhow, this is a really interesting article and give a really good look at what traveling on the Denver to Billings night train was like, complete with stops for food, which is something I hadn't considered. It also picked up mail, and my source indicates, cream, something I also hadn't figured, but that may explain why the creamery my family owned was just one block from the Burlington Northern. In fact it probably does.
Jersey Creamery Inc.
The trip took 19 hours. It take 8 hours today by car, assuming good weather conditions, and not figuring in stops for food, etc. The train moved about 34 miles an hour.
We'll look at the return trip first. The train having come up from Cheyenne boarded there at 12:49 in the morning. Uff.
It got to Casper at 6:20 in the morning, having made a couple of stops along the way.
Burlington Northern Depot, Casper Wyoming
What I imagined?
Not really. And I also had no idea that there was a major cafe right off the railroad. This article deals with the early 1960s, but I can see that some variant of it was there decades prior. That makes piles of sense, really. Of course there would be. How else would people eat if they were making the long journey?
It simply hadn't occurred to me.
In my imaginary trip., that'd be it. If I stuck with the Douglas variant of this, my protagonist would be boarding the train in the early, early morning hours and get in a couple of fitful hours of sleep, probably interrupted by a stop in little Glenrock. Indeed, this train stopped everywhere to pick up mail, and a few passengers.
What about the other way around?
Well that was a day trip, but as we can see, the 19 hours the train traveled in total meat that it took a good 6.5 hours to travel just from Cheyenne to Casper. Going the other way would mean the same thing, and likely a bit in reverse. The 6.5 hour trip from Cheyenne to Casper was the second major leg of the trip (it'd still stop in numerous small towns in between), the first being Denver to Cheyenne. Going the other way around meant that the Cheyenne to Denver leg was about five hours. The article notes that the train actually arrived from Billings 40 minutes before its 7:00 p.m. departure. So it arrived, more or less, at 6:00 p.m. and changed crews. That would have meant that it left Cheyenne, on the way to Denver, at about 1:00 p.m. or so, which makes sense. Passengers traveling all the way to Denver would have eaten lunch there.
By extension, however, that meant that the train left Casper at about 6;00 in the morning, approximately.
These times are almost unimaginable now. When we had good air travel to Denver I'd frequently board United Express here about 6;00 a.m. and be in Denver about 8:30, and take the train downtown and be to work by 9. I'd be back in Casper on the redeye about 10:00, or if I was lucky, 6:00.
And when I go to Cheyenne, I drive. Normally that takes me a little under three hours. I haven't stayed overnight in Cheyenne for years, although I recently had an instance which should really cause me to.
Anyhow, if I'm looking at 1916, why not just drive?
Well, in 1916 most Americans, including most Wyomingites, didn't own automobiles, and those who did, didn't normally make long trips with them. They frankly weren't that reliable, even though they were simple. Roads also tended to be primitive, and not really maintained for weather. Could a person have driven from Casper to Cheyenne in a Model T, the most likely car they would have had? Yes, but it wouldn't have been any faster. It may well have been slower, quite frankly, as well as much riskier.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
The Agrarian's Lament: Nebraska is burning and its time to stop pretending this is normal.
The Agrarian's Lament: Nebraska is burning and its time to stop pretendin...: Actually, that time was some time ago, but for those "clean coal" and "drill baby drill" people, you are converting th...
Nebraska is burning and its time to stop pretending this is normal.
Actually, that time was some time ago, but for those "clean coal" and "drill baby drill" people, you are converting the planet into an image of Hell.
It's not too late to address this, but it'll take major action. The good news is that a nation that can waste billions of dollars on a war with Iran for no reason whatsoever, can afford to address it, and reverse it.
And not only, that, the rest of the world is leaping ahead of us in alternative energy systems, including China in spite of what the dolt in the White House says.
Simply believing that because we've always done things one way means its okay, or that our pocketbooks depend on coal and oil mean sit okay, is absolute lunacy. The day of fossil fuels either needs to end, or they'll end us.
And as a final note, all too often I've heard farmers and ranchers take the global warming is a fib line. This year, there's no water in the west, none coming, and there will be none . We won't be growing anything.
Wake up.
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
In the event of conscription (and Trumpite insiders say the demented octogenarian is considering it) conscript ICE first, and then deploy them.
Chuck, Reid, John. . . history awaits.
There's precedent for it.
When Woodrow Wilson, after campaigning on keeping us out of war, committed us to the greatest one in the world's history at that time since the Napoleonic Wars, he was faced with the problem that his pacificist Attorney General was of the view that National Guardsmen could be Federalized only to spats within the United States. That's what kept them on the border, but not over it, during the Punitive Expedition.
But somebody came up with the brilliant idea that as the U.S. was introducing conscription, the entire Guard could just be conscripted. . . so it was, on August 5, 1917, specifically.
ICE already acts like an occupying military force, and it dresses like one. It's familiar with weapons, as we all know. If troops are needed for boots on the ground, draft them en masse.
I'm not joking. Those who signed up for ICE had to be comfortable with MAGA extremism. Let them go fight for MAGA. Draft them into the Army, and if boots are going in, send them.
I'll note I've seen a similar idea posted elsewhere:
Draft MAGA First for Trump’s war!
Go fight for their Trump!
I feel the same way here. I'm tired of the rah rah MAGAs who are were against war until Trump was for it, and support anything that Trump supports. Over half of the American public feels Donald Trump is a demented twat waffle. Let those who admire him go fight and if necessary die for their beloved. They portray Trump as a hero. . . well here's there very own chance to be one themselves.
Let the Trumps go first. Barron is of military age and, based on the life history of his family, is more likely to be a boil on the butt of humanity than something benefitting it. Service would do him, and his two brothers, and heck his sisters good. Maybe the Trump family will pull itself out of the world it lives in and inflicts on the rest of us if they see a little of the rest of it that isn't so rich and gaudy.
Let them go fight, and if necessary die, in their father's war.
And the same for Wyoming mega MAGA Trumpites. Chuck Gray is still young enough to serve and hasn't had a real job a day in his life. He's not married and doesn't have any dependents either. Here's his chance. He can come back a veteran, maybe a hero, or, if in a body bag, well, there won't be a widow or orphan. Reid Rasner already has the crewcut, and he's single too. Let him go put his life on the line for Donald. He talks might big, let him put his mouth, and his body, where his words are. Yes, there's risk involved, but if that risk isn't accepted, well the words were just that.
Chuck and Reid, a recruiting station is a near as the mall.
And then there's all the "I'm a veteran" candidates out there who on the far right in Wyoming. Well, if there's one thing being a veteran qualifies you for its military service. Brent Bien. . . your chance to show us your mettle once again awaits. . .
Shoot, let non veteran John Barrasso go. Heck, make him go. He's been practicing the Patton "war face" for years. Yes, he's a geezer, but I'm confident if he asked Donny, Donny would let him go and shortly forget who he was.
Most Americans didn't want this war. Most Americans shouldn't have to fight in it. Perhaps only those who are willing to volunteer for it within the service right now should have to. We let servicemen with moronic objections to vaccinations out of the service during the Biden Administration. We should let those who have no desire to fight and die for whatever we're fighting and dying for now get out, if they don't want to serve. Their ranks can be filled by MAGA, ICE, and Trumps.
But it won't happen.
ICE will simply carry on as it is, until 2027. MAGAs will continue to support any dumbass thing Trump spews out of his decaying brain. People who have connections with Epstein Island will go on doing what they do.
And if we're still in it by fall and its turning to shit, well 9 out of the 10 "Trump was always right" crowed will deny they ever saw anything in him. They knew, they'll claim, he was a fraud all along.
Only the dead, Santayana tells us, have seen an end to war. It's a pretty good guess that no Trumps and no fire breathing MAGA politicians are going to see war at all. They're okay with Trumps war, but not so much that they'll ever seek out to fight in it.
Not that this is a surprise. Trump has always felt that servicemen are schmucks. He's loyal to no one other than himself, and perhaps to those who have something over him. The dead, well, you know, that just happens.
Monday, March 9, 2026
Friday, March 10, 1876, "Mr. Watson, come here—I want to see you".
Alexander Graham Bell successfully transmitted the first intelligible human speech over a telephone system, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here—I want to see you".
Also:
March 10, 1876: Alexander Graham Bell Invents the Telephone
Last issue:
Wednesday, March 8, 1876. Establishing the Crow Reservation.
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Monday, March 2, 2026
The Aerodrome: Kuwaiti speaks to shot down U.S. pilot.
The Aerodrome: Kuwaiti speaks to shot down U.S. pilot.: There's footage of this F-15 being shot down over Kuwait, which was a friendly fire incident. I actually didn't know the F-15 was ...
Kuwaiti speaks to shot down U.S. pilot.
There's footage of this F-15 being shot down over Kuwait, which was a friendly fire incident.
I actually didn't know the F-15 was still in use by the US, but this very late model has only been in service since 2021.
Sunday, March 1, 2026
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Nolan Finley: It’s time to end the State of the Union
Nolan Finely beat me to the punch:
He is quite correct. The show of the State of the Union Speech, based on the reporting, would have been more proper for Baathist Iran, North Korea, or Nazi Germany. It wasn't a real State of the Union Address.
There hasn't been one for some time.
Television destroyed what was once a serious endeavor. If you look at old State of the Union addresses, particularly when they were still written, they were serious matters. Now they have all the dignity of a pole dancer performing at a strip club, and they're getting worse.
Any honest State of the Union delivered since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic would have to start off with "the State of the Union is grave" or words to that effect. An honest one now would have to start off with "the State of the Union is gravely imperiled" and go on from there. The United States is in really bad shape, not all due to Donald Trump, but with everything about Donald Trump making the nation's condition much, much, worse.
The nation is hugely polarized. About 40% of the nation have fallen under the spell of an unintelligent but effective salesman. Hatreds long thought in the past have revived in an aggressive form. Congress has completely failed to perform its job, something it started to do at least as far back as the 1980s. An attack on education and science that began under the Ronald Reagan administration has produced a drove of ignorant ill informed voters. Ignoring a growing immigration crisis that started in the 1970s fueled massive Rust Belt discontent. Over funding an all volunteer military has resulted in the creation of a post Cold War military class that's become an a danger to the nation itself. Ignoring global warming is imperiling the entire plant while lining the pocked of an oligarch class that's rapidly depriving the same Rust Belt class that's now supporting it of any middle class way of making a living. Ignoring science has also lead to a complete inability to understand basic human biological facts.
This country is an utter disaster, and it's lead right now by a stupid man whose intellect is crashing into dementia.
Trump is a mentally ill man to start with. Raised in a family that managed to avoid serving in times of war and whose wealth was started off by a German immigrant (ironically) who engaged in the sex trade, he's always been a self centered man focused on greed and engaging in lust. In his dementia, he cannot see the world in any manner other than acquisition, and believes his own propaganda about his having a unique understanding of the "art of the deal". He's the laughing stock of the globe, and at a some point fairly soon in the United States, he'll be regarded as the worst president in the nation's history and the worst human being to ever occupy the Oval Office. If there's anything redeeming to Trump's reign at all it will be that his profoundly bad occupation of that office has demonstrated how severely various reforms to the Constitution are needed.
Be that as it may, the nation is not going to emerge from Trump the nation it was. It will be a second rate nation, and that will be due to him, and those who served him. The US will crawl back to the family of Western nations, but it will just be one of them, not the leader of them. That's now fallen to the European Union.
When that occurs the millions who followed Trump will deny it, including some of those working for him now . Vance and Rubio will be two who will assert that they were never Trumpites.
On that, we digress. State of the Union addresses were once written and they were much better when they were. Those days should return. They were not intended to be an perverted administration's stripping performance while lustful inebriated fans cheered the stripper, which is what they now are. Today's state of the union addresses are embarrassing in the extreme and not something a mature dignified nation would do, but then, right now, we are not a mature dignified nation.
State of the Union addresses should go back to being written. If they are delivered orally, they should be given during the work day as they should reflect serious work. And, frankly, there should be a mechanism, and a severe one at that, that if they are dishonest, there should be an immediate impact. For example, although now it would have no legal impact, immediately after any oral State of the Union address there should be a vote of confidence. If a simple majority votes note, the authority of the President should be suspended until he can come back in front of Congress and the nation and not act like a buffoon.
That would require, of course, a serious Congress as well, which we also lack.
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