Showing posts with label Colorado. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colorado. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Wednesday, March 17, 1909. John Redmond appeals to the readers of the Rocky Mountain News.

 


Colorado had a substantial Irish  and Irish American population, both of which were represented by my father's grandparents, who at that time lived in Victor, near Leadville.  Redmond was a major Irish figure who was working diligently towards Irish self rule, something that would come flying apart due to World War One.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, March 16, 1909. A serious Congress.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: Bloody 287

Lex Anteinternet: Bloody 287: I've traveled it countless times myself, that stretch of highway between Laramie and Ft. Collins. It's not a great road. Yesterday, ...

A petition for guardrails. 


Implement Guard Rails on Highway 287 for Safer Travel

Saturday, January 13, 2024

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Monday, December 4, 2023

Tuesday, December 4, 1923. House Session Breaks Up In Vote Deadlock. Vaccination Ruling To Be Put To Test.


Somewhere I've seen a t-shirt advertised that says "Study history, realize people have been this dumb for thousands of years."

Yup.

Big events at the movies.   The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille. . . .the first one, was released.  It was silent, of course.  Some of it, however, was filmed in technicolor.

At least one of the movie posters for what would become the most popular film of 1924 depicted moderns in the throes of agony for, presumably, violating one of the Commandments.  This is because the two-hour-long movie is divided into two parts, one a prologue depicting Exodus, the second a modern melodrama.


Colorado Aggie students voted to emblaze a local hill with a large "A".  Colorado State University had its origins as an agricultural college, and while the Rams are known for many things today, at that time, they were focused on agriculture.

The Arctic Exploration Board posed for a photograph.



Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Monday, November 15, 1943. The Combat Infantry Badge.


One of the awards most respected by soldiers to be issued by the U.S. Army, the Combat Infantry Badge, was authorized.

Limited to infantrymen alone who have seen actual ground combat, the creation of the award acknowledged the particular horrors experienced by infantrymen in combat.  The World War Two awards were upgraded, which they likely should not have been as it cheapened the original awards, to Bronze Stars in the 1980s, reflecting the particular horrors of World War Two in which soldiers were not rotated home but served until severely injured, killed, or the end of the war.

It followed the authorization of the Expert Infantry Badge, which had been authorized on November 11, 1943.


Both awards remain enormously respected in the U.S. Army.

"Nomadic" Gypsies in the Soviet Union were reclassified by Germany to be in the same racial category as Jews and therefore subject to the death camps, whereas "sedentary" Romani were classified as citizens of the country they were in.

The order would ultimately extend beyond the occupied regions of the USSR and was another example of how, as Nazi Germany's fate became sealed, it became more homicidal.

Offensive actions by the U.S. Fifth Army were halted by Gen. Alexander.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 15: 1943 1943  Harmonica player Larry Adler played at the University of Wyoming.  Adler was a well known harmonica player.

Manuel L. Quezon was inaugurated as President of the Philippines, in exile. It was his third term.  In the Philippines a collaborationist government, not as disdained by the post-war Philippines as might be supposed, was in control, with the sanction of the Japanese.

The Cross Mountain, Colorado post office was closed, putting an end to the Moffat County town.

Friday, October 27, 2023

Saturday, October 27, 1973 Ceasefire.

Israel and Egypt announced a ceasefire in the Yom Kippur War.  Part of the agreement was for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force.  China declared it would not help pay for the force.

Nixon stated at a press conference; “So long as I can carry out that responsibility for which I was elected, I will continue to do my job."

A 1.4 kg meteorite hit in Fremont County, Colorado.


Sunday, October 8, 2023

Monday, October 8, 2023. New disasters

New disasters finally pushed the Cole Creek railroad disaster off the front page of the local paper.


And the trial of the Sheriff's deputy who killed a woman for failure to dim her lights had come up.

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Sunday, October 7, 1923. Midwest Mine Explosion, Grand Junction Colorado.

From one disaster to another:
Mine Explosion Snuffs Out Six Workers’ Lives
Nevada State Journal, Reno
October 8, 1923

Grand Junction, Colo., Oct. 7. -- An explosion of gas in the Midwest Coal Mine at Palisades, Colo., at 11 a.m. today killed six of the seven men working in the mine.

The dead are:
Robert P. Scott, manager
J. K. Keys and three sons, Harvey Keys, W. B. Keys and Robert T. Keys
George McKee
McKee had entered the service of the company today, and this was his first shift.

The government mine rescue crews that were fighting the fire in the Bookcliff Mine arrived an hour after the explosion, and located four bodies.

Jim Benda, the other miner in the workings at the time of the explosions, was badly burned. He crawled three quarters of a mile through the smoke and gas to safety. It is said that he will recover.

The usual force at the Midwest mine is 40 men, but only a short clean-up crew was at work today. Superintendent Scott had entered the mine on an inspection trip.

The explosion wrecked the mine badly, it is said. The mine entry is far up on the side of Grand Mesa above Palisades.

Three members of the government rescue crew attempting to recover bodies from the Midwest mine were so overcome by the smoke and gas, despite the helmets, that their companions had to carry them from the workings.  All of the bodies except those of Robert P. Scott and W. B. Keys were recovered tonight and it was announced that no further efforts will be made to recover them until morning, when it is hoped that some of the gas and smoke will have cleared away.

It is now believed that the mine did not take fire but that the smoke was from the explosion.

The body of George McKee was the first to be recovered. He was found among wreckage of cars which had been started down grade toward the portal by the force of the explosion.

The string of cars hit his body and were derailed by it. He was mangled by the cars. The bodies of J. K. Keys and one of his sons were found close to the air shaft which was wrecked by the blast. The younger men had been blown against one of the mine timbers with such force as to crush his body.

The great exhaust fan at the top of the airshaft on the surface was blown from its foundation and hurled down the hill.
And:


 

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Thursday, July 26, 1923. Harding visits Vancouver.

President Harding disembarked at Vancouver, becoming the first U.S. President to visit Canada.   While there, he delivered this speech:

Citizens of Canada: I may as well confess to you at the outset a certain perplexity as to how I should address you. The truth of the matter is that this is the first time I have ever spoken as President in any country other than my own.

Indeed, so far as I can recall, I am, with the single exception of my immediate predecessor (Woodrow Wilson), the first President in office even to set foot on a politically-foreign soil. True, there is no definite inhibition upon one doing so, such as prevents any but a natural born citizen from becoming President, but an early prepossession soon developed into a tradition and for more than a hundred years held the effect of unwritten law. I am not prepared to say that the custom was not desirable, perhaps even needful, in the early days, when time was the chief requisite of travel. Assuredly, too, at present, the Chief Magistrate of a great Republic ought not to cultivate the habit or make a hobby of wandering over all the continents of the earth.

But exceptions are required to prove rules. And Canada is an exception, a most notable exception, from every viewpoint of the United States. You are not only our neighbour, but a very good neighbour, and we rejoice in your advancement.

I need not depict the points of similarity that make this attitude of the one toward the other irresistible. We think the same thoughts, live the same lives and cherish the same aspirations of service to each other in times of need. Thousands of your brave lads perished in gallant and generous action for the preservation of our Union.

Many of our young men followed Canadian colours to the battlefields of France before we entered the war and left their proportion of killed to share the graves of your intrepid sons. This statement is brought very intimately home to me, for one of the brave lads in my own newspaper office (Harding owned the Marion, Ohio Star) felt the call of service to the colours of the sons of Canada. He went to the front, and gave his life with your boys for the preservation of the American and Canadian concept of civilization.

When my mind reverts and my heart beats low to recollection of those faithful and noble companionships, I may not address you, to be sure, as “fellow citizens,” as I am accustomed to designate assemblages at home, but I may and do, with respect and pride, salute you as ”fellow men,” in mutual striving for common good.

What an object lesson of peace is shown today by our two countries to all the world! [Applause.] No grim-faced fortifications mark our frontiers, no huge battleships patrol our dividing waters, no stealthy spies lurk in our tranquil border hamlets. Only a scrap of paper, recording hardly more than a simple understanding, safeguards lives and properties on the Great Lakes, and only humble mile-posts mark the inviolable boundary line for thousands of miles through farm and forest.

Our protection is in our fraternity, our armor is our faith; the tie that binds more firmly year by year is ever-increasing acquaintance and comradeship through interchange of citizens; and the compact is not of perishable parchment, but of fair and honourable dealing which, God grant, shall continue for all time. 

An interesting and significant symptom of our growing mutuality appears in the fact that the voluntary inter-change of residents to which I have referred, is wholly free from restrictions. Our National and industrial exigencies have made it necessary for us, greatly to our regret, to fix limits to immigration from foreign countries. But there is no quota for Canada. [Applause.] We gladly welcome all of your sturdy, steady stock who care to come, as a strengthening ingredient and influence. We none the less bid Godspeed and happy days to the thousands of our own folk, who are swarming constantly over your land and participating in its remarkable development. 

Wherever in either of our countries any inhabitant of the one or the other can best serve the interests of himself and his family is the place for him to be. [Applause.] A further evidence of our increasing interdependence appears in the shifting of capital. Since the armistice, I am informed, approximately $2,500,000,000 has found its way from the United States into Canada for investment.

That is a huge sum of money, and I have no doubt is employed safely for us and helpfully for you. Most gratifying to you, moreover, should be the circumstance that one-half of that great sum has gone for purchase of your state and municipal bonds, — a tribute, indeed, to the scrupulous maintenance of your credit, to a degree equalled only by your mother country across the sea and your sister country across the hardly visible border.

These are simple facts which quickly resolve into history for guidance of mankind in the seeking of human happiness. “History, history!” ejaculated Lord Overton to his old friend, Lindsay, himself an historian; “what is the use of history? It only keeps people apart by reviving recollections of enmity.”

As we look forth today upon the nations of Europe, with their armed camps of nearly a million more men in 1923 than in 1913, we cannot deny the grain of truth in this observation. But not so here! A hundred years of tranquil relationships, throughout vicissitudes which elsewhere would have evoked armed conflict rather than arbitration, affords, truly declared James Bryce, “the finest example ever seen in history of an undefended frontier, whose very absence of armaments itself helped to prevent hostile demonstrations;” thus proving beyond question that “peace can always be kept, whatever be the grounds of controversy, between peoples that wish to keep it.” 

There is a great and highly pertinent truth, my friends, in that simple assertion. It is public will, not public force, that makes for enduring peace. And is it not a gratifying circumstance that it has fallen to the lot of us North Americans, living amicably for more than a century, under different flags, to present the most striking example yet produced of that basic fact?

If only European countries would heed the lesson conveyed by Canada and the United States, they would strike at the root of their own continuing disagreements and, in their own prosperity, forget to inveigh constantly at ours. 

Not that we would reproach them for resentment or envy, which after all is but a manifestation of human nature. Rather should we sympathize with their seeming inability to break the shackles of age-long methods, and rejoice in our own relative freedom from the stultifying effect of Old World customs and practices.

Our natural advantages are manifold and obvious. We are not palsied by the habits of a thousand years. We live in the power and glory of youth. Others derive justifiable satisfaction from contemplation of their resplendent pasts. We have relatively only our present to regard, and that, with eager eyes fixed chiefly and confidently upon our future.

Therein lies our best estate. We profit both mentally and materially from the fact that we have no “departed greatness” to recover, no “lost provinces” to regain, no new territory to covet, no ancient grudges to gnaw eternally at the heart of our National consciousness. Not only are we happily exempt from these handicaps of vengeance and prejudice, but we are animated correspondingly and most helpfully by our better knowledge, derived from longer experience, of the blessings of liberty. 

These advantages we may not appreciate to the full at all times, but we know that we possess them, and the day is far distant when, if ever, we shall fail to cherish and defend them against any conceivable assault from without or from within our borders.

I find that, quite unconsciously, I am speaking of our two countries almost in the singular when perhaps I should be more painstaking to keep them where they belong, in the plural. But I feel no need to apologize. You understand as well as I that I speak in no political sense. The ancient bugaboo of the United States scheming to annex Canada disappeared from all our minds years and years ago. [Applause.] Heaven knows we have all we can manage now, and room enough to spare for another hundred millions, before approaching the intensive stage of existence of many European states.

And if I might be so bold as to offer a word of advice to you, it would be this: Do not encourage any enterprise looking to Canada’s annexation of the United States. [Laughter.] You are one of the most capable governing peoples in the world, but I entreat you, for your own sakes, to think twice before undertaking management of the territory which lies between the Great Lakes and the Rio Grande. 

No, let us go our own gaits along parallel roads, you helping us and we helping you. So long as each country maintains its independence, and both recognize their interdependence, those paths cannot fail to be highways of progress and prosperity. Nationality continues to be a supreme factor in modern existence; make no mistake about that; but the day of the Chinese wall, inclosing a hermit nation, has passed forever. Even though space itself were not in process of annihilation by airplane, submarine, wireless and broadcasting, our very propinquity enjoins that most effective cooperation which comes only from clasping of hands in true faith and good fellowship. 

It is in precisely that spirit, men and women of Canada, that I have stopped on my way home from a visit to our pioneers in Alaska to make a passing call upon my very good neighbor of the fascinating Iroquois name, ”Kanada,” to whom, glorious in her youth and strength and beauty, on behalf of my own beloved country, I stretch forth both my arms in the most cordial fraternal greeting, with gratefulness for your splendid welcome in my heart, and from my lips the whispered prayer of our famed Rip Van Winkle: “May you all live long and prosper!” 

He gave the speech at Stanley Park, and attended a state dinner at 7:00.  After that, he reembarked on the USS Henderson and must have remained hungry, as he dined on some crab while the ship steamed to Seattle and shortly thereafter became very ill.

High waters brought disaster near Shoshoni.


The Tribune also reported that the French had lifted the blockade of the Ruhr, and they updated the curious case of Father Grace, who apparently objected to prohibition to some extent.  He had apparently forged an order for ten barrels of whiskey for the J. H. Mullen Home for the Aged in Arvada, Colorado.  He was turned over by another Priest.  Fr. Grace was the pastor at St. Anne's in Arvada, having been installed at the newly built church on July 4, 1920.

Catholic theology would hold that under some circumstances there's no obligation to comply with an unjust law and Fr. Mullen did not seem to be, at least at first, sorry for his act.  Maybe there's more to this story than it might at first seem.  This story isn't one that's easy to follow, however, so what became of him and what he later thought, we don't know.

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XII. Holding back the tide.


February 14, 2023

Freshman Congressman Harriet Hageman introduced the companion bill to a doomed bill introduced in the Senate by Cynthia Lummis, which provides:

117th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 543

To prohibit the President from issuing moratoria on leasing and permitting energy and minerals on certain Federal land, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 28, 2021

Ms. Herrell (for herself, Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Scalise, Mr. Westerman, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Newhouse, Mr. Moore of Utah, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Young, Mr. Owens, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Brady, Mr. Stauber, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Tiffany, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Curtis, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. McClintock, Mr. Roy, Mr. Smith of Nebraska, Mr. Reschenthaler, Mr. Calvert, Mrs. Bice of Oklahoma, Mr. Baird, Mr. Mooney, Mr. Rosendale, Mr. Hern, Mrs. Boebert, and Mr. Amodei) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To prohibit the President from issuing moratoria on leasing and permitting energy and minerals on certain Federal land, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Protecting Our Wealth of Energy Resources Act” or the “POWER Act”.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON MORATORIA OF NEW ENERGY LEASES ON CERTAIN FEDERAL LAND AND ON WITHDRAWAL OF FEDERAL LAND FROM ENERGY DEVELOPMENT.

(a) Definitions.—In this section:

(1) CRITICAL MINERAL.—The term “critical mineral” means any mineral included on the list of critical minerals published in the notice of the Secretary of the Interior entitled “Final List of Critical Minerals 2018” (83 Fed. Reg. 23295 (May 18, 2018)).

(2) FEDERAL LAND.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—The term “Federal land” means—

(i) National Forest System land;

(ii) public lands (as defined in section 103 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702));

(iii) the outer Continental Shelf (as defined in section 2 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331)); and

(iv) land managed by the Secretary of Energy.

(B) INCLUSION.—The term “Federal land” includes land described in clauses (i) through (iv) of subparagraph (A) for which the rights to the surface estate or subsurface estate are owned by a non-Federal entity.

(3) PRESIDENT.—The term “President” means the President or any designee, including—

(A) the Secretary of Agriculture;

(B) the Secretary of Energy; and

(C) the Secretary of the Interior.

(b) Prohibitions.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall not carry out any action that would prohibit or substantially delay the issuance of any of the following on Federal land, unless such an action has been authorized by an Act of Congress:

(A) New oil and gas leases, drill permits, approvals, or authorizations.

(B) New coal leases, permits, approvals, or authorizations.

(C) New hard rock leases, permits, approvals, or authorizations.

(D) New critical minerals leases, permits, approvals, or authorizations.

(2) PROHIBITION ON WITHDRAWAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall not withdraw any Federal land from forms of entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws, location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, or disposition under laws pertaining to mineral and geothermal leasing or mineral materials unless the withdrawal has been authorized by an Act of Congress.

1. Can't pass the Senate

2.  Would be vetoed if it actually passed both houses, when there's certainly not enough votes to override a veto.

So why do these things?

February 20, 2023

Golden moves on path to all-electric in new buildings: To meet its #climate goals, this #Colorado city of 20,000 needs to crimp #methane combustion. It could require all-electric in new buildings by January 2024

February 23, 2023

SNAP, the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, ends this month.

NPR is laying off 10% of its workforce.

March 3, 2023

A Gold and Copper mine will open in Laramie County in 2025.

The United States Post Office is buying 9,250 electric vans from Ford.

March 13, 2023

Silicon Valley Bank collapsed Friday after a comment by a major investment broker regarding it.  The Federal Government is not going to "bail out" the bank, which has accounts by many wealthy investors.

President Biden is proceeding to authorize the Willow drilling project inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, despite protests over the proposed action.

March 28, 2023

Renewables produced more energy than coal last year.

Coal checked in at 20%, down from 50% in 2007, and it's declining.

This is no surprise here, we've noted the timeline of coal long ago:

Coal: Understanding the time line of an industry


April 2, 2023

It's the end of coal in the state.

Rocky Mountain Power has announced that nine of its eleven power plants will be using gas, rather than coal, by 2030.

And, once again:

As is to emphasize it, one of the remaining coal-fired plants will be Glenrock's Dave Johnson, where a third wind generating facility is going in.

April 3, 2023

Saudi Arabia and Dubai, and other OPEC countries, are cutting back oil production through the balance of the year.

April 13, 2023

The Biden Administration's proposed emissions standards will require 2/3s of all automobiles to be electric by 2032.

April 25, 2023

Fly Casper Alliance lobbies for city subsidy.

A new Natrona County Advocacy Group, Fly Casper Alliance, is seeking $50,000 from the City of Casper to help secure the present Delta (Sky West) flight to Salt Lake City.  The flight already receives subsidies from Natrona County, but this one time payment is hoped to help continue to secure the flight.

Related thread:

Delta receives a subsidty to continue serving the Natrona County International Airport

May 10, 2023

The big economic news right now, of course, is that the country is racing towards its debt limit, at which point it will default on its debts.

The whole idea of a debt limit was to put a cap on Congress' ability to borrow too much money. The problem is it didn't work out that way.  Sort of like a spending limit on a credit card, it just caps off the debt, but the problem is, unlike a credit card, when you go to present it to the person you are buying something from, your credit isn't declined.  You get the thing anyway, and then later just don't have the ability to pay for it.

So it works instead, like buying a house, for example, or a car, you couldn't afford.

In order to really have teeth, there'd have to be a third body, like the CBO, treasury, or something, that would just nullify bills authorizing spending over the limit.  Or, rather, a court would have to declare, before things were spent, that there was a freeze on spending as Congress didn't have the statutory authority to make the spending.  

A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, frankly, would work significantly better.

It does serve to cause the spending entities to have to get together, but they don't do it honestly.  Basically what we have going on is something akin to a couple at a banquet who have overspent arguing whether they should take the Bud Light off the table, while they're leaving the Dom Pérignon on.  Or, rather, it's like a husband that has a job as Mini Mart clerks, but the education of PhDs, arguing about racking up bills rather than going out and getting a better paying job.

If we don't get this fixed by June 1, the country is going into a massive economic crisis.

To add to that grim situation, the negotiations are in the hands of 1) one politician who is so old that he can recall when he went to U.S. Grant's kindergarten recitals, and 2) one politician who is so beholding to Trumpist "Club For Growth" Kool-Aid drinkers that he stinks up a room before he gets there.

If you worked at a company run this way, you'd look for a new job.  If you lived in a family run this way, you'd be looking for your own apartment.

This also serves, we might note, to recall the Jeffersonian warnings about democracy (and yes, we are a democracy, don't give me that "but we're a republic" crap, which is just what that line is, crap).  Jefferson warned that once the country ceased to be agrarian, the government would fail, as at that point it gave rise to feeding the mob.

The history of modern democracies has so far demonstrated that fear to be wrong, but it has also taken real crises in order to address largess.  The German democracy, for instance, beat up by the hyperinflation of Weimar era and the brutality of World War Two keeps a tight reign on its finances. The Japanese democracy, hit hard by the Japanese decline of the 1970s, does the same.

So far, the American democracy has shown no such tendency.  Congress won't address entitlements, which it must, won't address gigantic defense spending, which it must, and won't address raising taxes, which it must.

In that context, again, it's like a couple employed as Mini Mart clerks, both with PhD's, who are standing outside their apartment yelling each at each other about whether to upgrade the stereo on the Tesla they can't afford.

May 13, 2023

Mining sector jobs grew more than any other sector of Wyoming's economy last year, by 9.1%. This in spite of dire warnings by, well, folks like me.

UW's employees will be receiving a pay raise.

Ford Motors will no longer put AM radio in its vehicles.  Any of them.  Many other manufacturers are pulling theirs from electric vehicles.

May 15, 2023

Trump apparently said in his Town Hall on CNN that unless the Administration agreed to major cuts, the Republicans should take the country into debt default, a totally wreckless position that would destroy the savings of his constituency. 

Trump himself was responsible for major additions to the deficit.

Biden and the Republicans are set to meet again on Tuesday. Perhaps this slow motion process is part of his strategy, but its yet another example of government that is as slow as molasses.

May 16, 2023

The local paper is eliminating an edition, going to three print editions per week only and wiping out personal home delivery in favor of mail.

May 21, 2023

Nothing is being done about the debt ceiling while President Biden is at the G7. He gets back today.

If the US ends up with Trump again, this sort of behavior will be a lot of the reason why.

Footnotes:

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XI. The Waiting for a Train Edition

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Sunday, May 6, 1923. Familiar places.


The big news was the terrible mine explosion in Colorado, but I linked this in due to the news about a Boy Scout injured on Garden Creek, above Rotary Park.

Rotary Park is still there, and a very popular spot locally.

The mine explosion killed ten miners.

Apparently it was the start of Baby Week.


First annual rodeo.  I didn't realize that the rodeo got started this late, which means this year may be the 100th Anniversary of the Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo.

Or not.  Last year, the rodeo advertised itself as having its 75th anniversary, which would place the first one in 1948.

Seems unlikely it was that late, but there's probably a reason they calculate it that way.

Over 300 passengers were taken hostage by bandits on the Tianjin-Pukou Railway's Blue Express train as it passed through Lincheng in Shandong Province.

The first World Congress of Jewish Women opened in Vienna.

The British Fascisti, the UK's first fascist party, was formed by Rotha Lintorn-Orman.


A youthful figure in the formation of the Girl Guides, Lintorn-Orman was from a military family. She served as a member of the Women's Volunteer Reserve, and the Scottish Women's Hospital Corps in World War One.  Her conversion to fascism was motivated by a strong sense of anti-communism combined with an admiration for Mussolini. She'd die in 1935 at age 40, at which time she was heavily dependent on drugs and alcohol, and rumors existed regarding alleged sapphic escapades.  By that time, her party had all but ceased to exist, yielding to more and less radical parties.

The fact that the UK had a fascist party at all demonstrated the drift of the times.  Ireland would soon also have one.  In both instances, they never rally amounted to more than an annoyance.

Monday, March 6, 2023

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 5, 1923. The Thomas, Collins, affair.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 5, 1923. Reds.

Yesterday, we noted this item, amongst other:


If ever there was a story that there must be a lot more to, this is it. And yet, it's impossible, based on the limited resources available, to learn much more.

Thomas, I'd note, didn't merely state that she wished Cornish dead.  He was a "persistent wooer", as the article indicates, and apparently the couple had engaged in some prior wooing.  She also reported to the police that he was consistently abusive and had been that day.  That's likley why Thomas shot Cornish.  He not only wanted her ardently, but he was, she thought, or stated, abusive.

Thomas packed a pistol, we'd also note, which while it's something we'd expect of Lauren Boebert of Colorado today, wasn't average lady like behavior in Colorado in 1923.  Heck, my paternal grandparents were married and living in Denver at the time, and my guess is that neither of them routinely packed pistols.  Indeed, as far as I know, the only firearms my material grandfather routinely used were shotguns, which he was reportedly very skilled at.  My uncle reported to me that when he was a boy, and they were living in Scottsbluff, my grandfather would take just the number of 410 shells necessary to fill his pheasant limit, and come back with the limit.  Here in Wyoming, he hunted ducks.

Seems that's genetic.

Anyhow, I'll bet my grandmother didn't pack heat.  Either Thomas figured she needed to, due to Cornish's nature, or she routinely did.  We'll never know.  She had a pistol anyhow.

A Coroners Jury found Thomas acted with premeditation, which doesn't mean what people think it does.  It just means she had sufficient time to know what she was doing.

Well, they're all gone now.  My God rest their souls, and I hope Thomas's time in the pokey wasn't too hard.