Showing posts with label Nuclear power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nuclear power. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Thursday, May 30, 2024
Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or less locally, Part 2. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 Edition.
Oil field, Grass Creek, Wyo, April 9, 1916
April 16, 2024
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.
The states’ complaint may be found here.
In a major action, a new EPA rule may actually end coal-fired power plants by 2032. Tom Lubnau on that matter:
Tom Lubnau: EPA Increases Wyoming Industry Political Risk, Again
That would be an epic level change in electrical generation in the United States, although its something we've seen coming for a long time:
Coal: Understanding the time line of an industry
May 9, 2024
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.”
-END-
March 17, 2024
Biden admin seeks to end new Powder River coal leases
May 21, 2024
The price of Gold has hit a new high.
May 26, 2024
May 28, 2024
The price of oil rose to $94/bbl.
The Aerodrome: Blog Mirror: Casper Loses Out On Being Home For $1...:
May 30, 2024
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.
Last prior edition:
Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or less locally, Part I. And then the day arrived (part two).2020s, 2023, 2024, Agriculture, Alcohol, Coal, Economics, Electrical Power, Petroleum, Sheep, Solar Energy, Subsidiarity, technology, trends, Wind Power, Wyoming's boom and bust economy
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
March 6, 1974. Tout-nucléaire
French Prime Minister Pierre Messmer announced his government's decision to implement the Tout-nucléaire ("Total Nuclear") plan for all electricity in France. The goal was to accomplish this by 2000. The goals were mostly met.
The US could easily do this, but it would require a scientifically educated public that wasn't easily swayed by raving BS, an overall problem that confronts the US on every level currently.
Last prior:
Tuesday, March 5, 1974. Portugal decides to stay.
Friday, May 5, 2023
Wednesday, May 5, 1943. First Nuclear Strike Chosen
Choosing the first atomic target – May 5, 1943
From the linked in site:
May 5, 1943 is one of the most important dates, and possibly the least known, in the history of the nuclear age. It was the date when the first atomic bomb targeting decision was made — a full two years before the end of World War II in Europe.
Also from that site:
Like many I have concluded that the bombings were unjustified, though that is an opinion far from universally held. But some of my reasons may surprise you. I explained them in a talk I gave in Santa Fe in 2012, entitled From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima.
I'll be frank, I also view the bombings as morally unjustified acts. Indeed, of the worst sort. There's simply no escaping that the scale of a nuclear weapon, when used on a city, is going to have the primary effect of killing civilians. Indeed, no matter how dressed up, by the wars end, that was looked at unflinchingly and was largely the point.
Of course, by that war the Allies had acclimated themselves to firebombing in Japan with the intent to destroy civilian housing, and thereby deprive Japanese war workers of their dwellings. Once again, the use of force was over matched to the goal. Striking factories is one thing, burning people to death in their homes quite another.
Make no mistake about it, Germans, under the monstrous Nazi regime, had become monstrous themselves, and in a way that no individual German can really excuse. The Japanese, who retained a peasant culture to a very large degree going into the war, likewise did, with the average soldier routinely committing murders and the entire military being acclimated to atrocity. The Allies undoubtedly had the moral side of the war, and there's no two ways about it. Nonetheless, that doesn't excuse the crimes committed by the Allies themselves, which in the case of the Western Allies came principally from unprincipled bombing. Over European skies, the British were much more guilty of this than the Americans, having turned to inaccurate night bombing early in the war out of necessity, but then having readily adopted the liberal bombing views of "Bomber" Harris thereafter. In the Pacific, the United States, the major Western combatant, went to free bombing of civilian targets with firebombs by the end of the war, as noted. In some ways, the atomic bomb could almost be viewed as an extension of the late war firebombing, but in a new, much more devastating, and horrifying, way.
Sarah Sundin noted a true World War Two technological landmark, the first flight of the P51B.
Today in World War II History—May 5, 1943: 80 Years Ago—May 5, 1943: First flight of production-model North American P-51B Mustang (with a Packard-built Merlin engine), at Inglewood, CA.
The combination of the British engine with the P51 airframe, in what had been an Anglo-American project to start with, would revolutionize and completely alter the performance of the fighter. It would be the P51B that would really start long range bomber escorts all the way into Germany.
Sundin noticed several other events of this day on her blog, including that Admiral Sir Charles Little was naval as the Allied naval commander for the invasion of France from Britain, although he would not hold the post long.
She also noted that the Japanese launched an offensive south of the Yangtze toward Chongqing. The often forgotten front, to the West, in China, remained Japan's largest ground commitment and in many ways most important theater of operations in the war.
Twenty-seven ships of all types were lost in the war on this day.
A new law went into effect in California requiring marriage licenses to identify race. Interracial marriage was illegal in California, as it was in much of the United States.
Friday, March 10, 2023
Wednesday, March 10, 1943. The Peak of the Battle of the Atlantic. First combat mission of the P-47.
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By Crew of PB4Y-1 107-B-12 of VB-107, November 1943.
March 1943 was the peak of the Battle of the Atlantic, with the largest convoy battle of the war, the battle over Convoys HX 229/SC 122 about to commence. Commencing on this day was the two-day battle over Convoy HX 228 in which nine U-boots would sink five Allied vessels, one of which was a warship. The battle over Convoy SC 121 ended on this day, in which 27 U-boots sunk 12 merchant ships. During March German submarines sank 120 merchant ships while losing only 15 submarines. A Royal Navy figure later observed: "The Germans never came so near to disrupting communications between the New World and the Old as in the first twenty days of March 1943."
After April, however, Germany naval fortunes were to decline rapidly.
On the same day, the U-633 was sunk by the British freighter Scorton, which rammed her. In its career, it had been on a single patrol and sunk one vessel. On the same day, Germany changed its Enigma Code, according to Sarah Sundin's blog, temporarily making the Allies blind in the Atlantic.
A couple of things to recall. At this stage of the war, the Germans were still doing very well in the Atlantic, and indeed their fortunes were increasing in that theater. Crossing the Atlantic remained extraordinarily perilous. Allied ships went down continually. And it was exclusively a Western Allied affair, which they bore alone.
German commenced rationing nonessential goods, thereby prohibiting the manufacture of suits, costumes, bath salts, and firecrackers. It restricted telephone use and photography at the same time.
It's not surprising that they took this step, but rather it was taken this late.
Sarah Sundin reports.
Today in World War II History—March 10, 1943: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter planes fly first mission with US Eighth Air Force based in Britain. US II Corps retakes Sbeïtla, Tunisia.
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P-47C taking off, 1943.
P-47s did not have long enough range to escort bombers all the way to Germany and back, but they were nonetheless a game changer for the USAAF. A new generation of fighters surpassing the capabilities of most Axis fighters was beginning to come online.
Here again, the Western Allies were waging a titanic war on the sea and in the air. This benefitted all the Allies, but it was not borne by all of them.
The USSR established Laboratory No. 2 to research atomic energy.
Saturday, February 18, 2023
February 18, 1943. On the anniversary of her death. Czeslawa Kwoka.
She was Polish, 14 years old, and Catholic.
She was executed by way of an injection of phenol into her heart, shortly after Whilem Brasse photographed her. Her murder occurred at Auschwitz.
The way that this is noted, when it is, is that "next to Jews", Poles were the second biggest victims of the Holocaust, which tends to put aside the fact that many of the Jews killed by the Germans were Polish Jews, and therefore Poles. Poland was the center of Jewish European culture prior to the Second World War and the Germans destroyed it. Not to diminish that, however, is the fact that millions of Poles who were not Jews were also murdered for simply being Poles. Ms. Kwoka was probably murdered as she was 14 and deemed incapable of providing useful work. Her mother had been murdered some day prior, likely because she was also deemed incapable of useful work. Huge numbers of Poles would be shot, gas and starved for that reason, and for the reason that the Germans sought to eliminate the Poles.
Next to the Poles were the Belorussians, which also sets aside that many Jewish Belorussians were killed as Jews. Likewise, Ukrainian and Jewish Ukrainians were murdered in huge numbers, all for the crime of being Slavs or Jewish. And we have to add to that the huge number of Red Army prisoners of war starved to death by the Germans for being, once again, Slavs.
It's unimaginable due to its scale.
And on this day, Czeslawa Kwoka was one of them.
On the same day, Joseph Goebbels went on the radio and called for "Total War". Hitler had already decreed that this was to take place and had ordered the mobilization of German women within a certain age range.
Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl of the White Rose resistance movement at the University of Munich were arrested. They'd be convicted of treason four days later.
The Japanese extended the ghetto system to Shanghai, creating a Jewish ghetto there made up of those who had fled Europe. 20,000 people were confined to two square miles.
Soong Mei-link, Chiang Kai-shek's wife, became the first private citizen to address the U.S. Congress. She was also the second woman to do so. She made the following statement:
Mr. Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives of the United States:
At any time it would be a privilege for me to address Congress, more especially this present august body which will have so much to do in shaping the destiny of the world. In speaking to Congress I am literally speaking to the American people. The Seventy-seventh Congress, as their representatives, fulfilled the obligations and responsibilities of its trust by declaring war on the aggressors. That part of the duty of the people’s representatives was discharged in 1941. The task now confronting you is to help win the war and to create and uphold a lasting peace which will justify the sacrifices and sufferings of the victims of aggression.
Before enlarging on this subject, I should like to tell you a little about my long and vividly interesting trip to your country from my own land which has bled and borne unflinchingly the burden of war for more than 5 1/2 years. I shall not dwell, however, upon the part China has played in our united effort to free mankind from brutality and violence. I shall try to convey to you, however imperfectly, the impressions gained during the trip.
First of all, I want to assure you that the American people have every right to be proud of their fighting men in so many parts of the world. I am particularly thinking of those of your boys in the far-flung, ut-of-the-way stations and areas where life is attended by dreary drabness—this because their duty is not one of spectacular performance and they are not buoyed up by excitement of battle. They are called upon, day after colorless day, to perform routine duties such as safeguarding defenses and preparing for possible enemy action. It has been said, and I find it true from personal experience, that it is easier to risk one’s life on the battlefield than it is to perform customary humble and humdrum duties which, however, are just as necessary to winning the war. Some of your troops are stationed in isolated spots quite out of reach of ordinary communications. Some of your boys have had to fly hundreds of hours over the sea from an improvised airfield in quests often disappointingly fruitless, of enemy submarines.
They, and others, have to stand the monotony of waiting—just waiting. But, as I told them, true patriotism lies in possessing the morale and physical stamina to perform faithfully and conscientiously the daily tasks so that in the sum total the weakest link is the strongest.
Your soldiers have shown conclusively that they are able stoically to endure homesickness, the glaring dryness, and scorching heat of the Tropics, and keep themselves fit and in excellent fighting trim. They are amongst the unsung heroes of this war, and everything possible to lighten their tedium and buoy up their morale should be done. That sacred duty is yours. The American Army is better fed than any army in the world. This does not mean, however, that they can live indefinitely on canned food without having the effects tell on them. These admittedly are the minor hardships of war, especially when we pause to consider that in many parts of the world, starvation prevails. But peculiarly enough, oftentimes it is not the major problems of existence which irk a man’s soul; it is rather the pin pricks, especially those incidental to a life of deadly sameness, with tempers frayed out and nervous systems torn to shreds.
The second impression of my trip is that America is not only the cauldron of democracy, but the incubator of democratic principles. At some of the places I visited, I met the crews of your air bases. There I found first generation Germans, Italians, Frenchmen, Poles, Czechoslovakians, and other nationals. Some of them had accents so thick that, if such a thing were possible, one could not cut them with a butter knife. But there they were—all Americans, all devoted to the same ideals, all working for the same cause and united by the same high purpose. No suspicion or rivalry existed between them. This increased my belief and faith that devotion to common principles eliminates differences in race, and that identity of ideals is the strongest possible solvent of racial dissimilarities.
I have reached your country, therefore, with no misgivings, but with my belief that the American people are building and carrying out a true pattern of the Nation conceived by your forebears, strengthened and confirmed. You, as epresentatives of the American people, have before you the glorious opportunity of carrying on the pioneer work of your ancestors, beyond the frontiers of physical and geographical limitations. Their brawn and thews braved undauntedly almost unbelievable hardships to open up a new continent. The modern world lauds them for their vigor and intensity of purpose, and for their accomplishment. Your have today before you the immeasurably greater opportunity to implement these same ideals and to help bring about the liberation of man’s spirit in every part of the world. In order to accomplish this purpose, we of the United Nations must now so prosecute the war that victory will be ours decisively and with all good speed.
Sun-tse, the well-known Chinese strategist said, “In order to win, know thyself and thy enemy.” We have also the saying: “It takes little effort to watch the other fellow carry the load.”
In spite of these teachings from a wise old past, which are shared by every nation, there has been a tendency to belittle the strength of our opponents.
When Japan thrust total war on China in 1937 military experts of every nation did not give China even a ghost of a chance. But when Japan failed to bring China cringing to her knees as she vaunted, the world took solace in this phenomenon by declaring that they had overestimated Japan’s military might.
Nevertheless, when the greedy flames of war inexorably spread in the Pacific following the perfidious attack on Pearl Harbor, Malaya, and lands in and around the China Sea, and one after another of these places fell, the pendulum swung to the other extreme. Doubts and fears lifted their ugly heads and the world began to think that the Japanese were Nietzschean supermen, superior in intellect and physical prowess, a belief which the Gobineaus and the Houston Chamberlains and their apt pupils, the Nazi racists, had propounded about the Nordics.
Again, now the prevailing opinion seems to consider the defeat of the Japanese as of relative unimportance and that Hitler is our first concern. This is not borne out by actual facts, nor is it to the interests of the United Nations as a whole to allow Japan to continue not only as a vital potential threat but as a waiting sword of Damocles, ready to descend at a moment’s notice.
Let us not forget that Japan in her occupied areas today has greater resources at her command than Germany.
Let us not forget that the longer Japan is left in undisputed possession of these resources, the stronger she must become. Each passing day takes more toll in lives of both Americans and Chinese.
Let us not forget that the Japanese are an intransigent people.
Let us not forget that during the first 4 1/2 years of total aggression China has borne Japan’s sadistic fury unaided and alone.
The victories won by the United Sates Navy at Midway and the Coral Sea are doubtless steps in the right direction—they are merely steps in the right direction—for the magnificent fight that was waged at Guadalcanal during the past 6 months attests to the fact that the defeat of the forces of evil though long and arduous will finally come to pass. For have we not on the side of righteousness and justice staunch allies in Great Britain, Russia, and other brave and indomitable peoples? Meanwhile the peril of the Japanese juggernaut remains. Japanese military might must be decimated as a fighting force before its threat to civilization is removed.
When the Seventy-seventh Congress declared war against Japan, Germany, and Italy, Congress for the moment had done its work. It now remains for you, the present Representatives of the American people, to point the way to win the war, to help construct a world in which all peoples may henceforth live in harmony and peace.
May I not hope that it is the resolve of Congress to devote itself to the creation of the post-war world? To dedicate itself to the preparation for the brighter future that a stricken world so eagerly awaits?
We of this generation who are privileged to help make a better world for ourselves and for posterity should remember that, while we must not be visionary, we must have vision so that peace should not be punitive in spirit and should not be provincial or nationalistic or even continental in concept, but universal in scope and humanitarian in action, for modern science has so annihilated distance that what affects one people must of necessity affect all other peoples.
The term “hands and feet” is often used in China to signify the relationship between brothers. Since international interdependence is now so universally recognized, can we not also say that all nations should become members of one corporate body?
The 160 years of traditional friendship between our two great peoples, China and America,which has never been marred by misunderstandings, is unsurpassed in the annals of the world.
I can also assure you that China is eager and ready to cooperate with you and other peoples to lay a true and lasting foundation for a sane and progressive world society which would make it impossible for any arrogant or predatory neighbor to plunge future generations into another orgy of blood. In the past China has not computed the cost to her manpower in her fight against aggression, although she well realized that manpower is the real wealth of a nation and it takes generations to grow it. She has been soberly conscious of her responsibilities and has not concerned herself with privileges and gains which she might have obtained through compromise of principles. Nor will she demean herself and all she holds dear to the practice of the market place.
We in China, like you, want a better world, not for ourselves alone, but for all mankind, and we must have it. It is not enough, however, to proclaim our ideals or even to be convinced that we have them. In order to preserve, uphold, and maintain them, there are times when we should throw all we cherish into our effort to fulfill these ideals even at the risk of failure.
The teachings drwn from our late leader, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, have given our people the fortitude to carry on. From 5 1/2 years of experience we in China are convinced that it is the better part of wisdom not to accept failure ignominiously, but to risk it gloriously. We shall have faith that, at the writing of peace, American and our other gallant allies will not be obtunded by the mirage of contingent reasons of expediency.
Man’s mettle is tested both in adversity and in success. Twice is this true of the soul of a nation.
At this point, a committee appointed by the U.S. Government entered, and the following additional address was made.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Senators, distinguished guests, Mme. Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Generalissimo of the armies of China, will now address you.
Mr. President, Members of the Senate of the United States, ladies and gentlemen, I am overwhelmed by the warmth and spontaneity of the welcome of the American people, of whom you are the representatives. I did not know that I was to speak to you today at the Senate except to say, “How do you do? I am so very glad to see you,” and to bring the greetings to my people
to the people of America. However, just before coming here, the Vice President told me that he would like to have me say a few words to you.
I am not a very good extemporaneous speaker; in fact, I am no speaker at all; but I am not so very much discouraged, because a few days ago I was at Hyde Park, and went to the President’s library. Something I saw there encouraged me, and made me feel that perhaps you will not expect overmuch of me in speaking to you extemporaneously. What do you think I saw there? I saw
many things. But the one thing which interested me most of all was that in a glass case there was the first draft of tone of the President’s speeches, a second draft, and on and on up to the sixth draft. Yesterday I happened to mention this fact to the President, and told him that I was extremely glad that he had to write so many drafts when he is such a well-known and acknowledgedly fine speaker. His reply to me was that sometimes he writes 12 drafts of a speech. So, my remarks here today, being extemporaneous, I am sure you will make allowances for me.
The traditional friendship between your country and mine has a history of 160 years. I feel, and I believe that I am now the only one who feels this way, that there are a great many similarities between your people and mine, and that these similarities are the basis of our friendship.
I should like to tell you a little story which will illustrate this belief. When General Doolittle and his men went to bomb Tokyo, on their return some of your boys had to bail out in the interior of China. One of them later told me that he had to mail out of his ship. And that when he landed on Chinese soil and saw the populace running toward him, he just waved his arm and shouted the only Chinese word he knew, “Mei-kuo, Mei-kuo,” which means “America,” [Applause.] Literally translated from the Chinese it means “Beautiful country.” This boy said that our people laughed and almost hugged him, and greeted him like a long lost brother. He further told me that the thought that he had come home when he saw our people; and that was the first time he had ever been to China. [Applause.]
I came to your country as a little girl. I know your people. I have lived with them. I spent the formative years of my life amongst your people. I speak your language, not only the language of your hearts, but also your tongue. So coming here today I feel that I am also coming home. [Applause.]
I believe, however, that it is not only I who am coming home; I feel that if the Chinese people could speak to you in your own tongue, or if you could understand our tongue, they would tell you that basically and fundamentally we are fighting for the same cause [great applause]; that we have identity of ideals’ that the “four freedoms,” which your President proclaimed to the world, resound throughout our vast land as the gong of freedom, the gong of freedom of the United Nations, and the death knell of the aggressors. [Applause.]
I assure you that our people are willing and eager to cooperate with you in the realization of these ideals, because we want to see to it that they do not echo as empty phrases, but become realities for ourselves, for your children, for our children’s children, and for all mankind. [Applause.]
How are we going to realize these ideals? I think I shall tell you a little story which just came to my mind. As you know, China is a very old nation. We have a history of 5,000 years. When we were obliged to evacuate Hankow and go into the hinterland to carry on and continue our resistance against aggression, the Generalissimo and I passed one of our fronts, the Changsha front. One day we went in to the Heng-yang Mountains, where there are traces of a famous pavilion called “Rub-the-mirror” pavilion, which perhaps interest you to hear the story of that pavilion.
Two thousand years ago near that spot was an old Buddhist temple. One of the young monks went there , and all day long he sat cross-legged, with his hands clasped before him in and attitude of prayer, and murmured “Amita-Buddha! Amita-Buddha! Amita-Buddha!” He murmured and chanted day after day, because he hoped that he would acquire grace.
The Father Prior of that temple took a piece of brick and rubbed it against a stone hour after hour, day after day, and week after week. The little acolyte, being very young, sometimes cast his eyes around to see what the old Father Prior was doing. The old Father Prior just kept on this work of rubbing the brick against the stone. So one day the young acolyte said to him, “Father Prior, what are you doing day after day rubbing this brick of stone?” The Father Prior replied, “I am trying to make a mirror out of this brick.” The young acolyte said, “But it is impossible to make a mirror out of a brick, Father Prior.” “Yes,” said the Father Prior, “and it is just as impossible for you to acquire grace by doing nothing except murmur ‘Amita-Buddha’ all day long, day in and day out.” [Applause.]
So my friends, I feel that it is necessary for us not only to have ideals and to proclaim that we have them, it is necessary that we act to implement them. [Applause.] And so to you, gentlemen of the Senate, and to you ladies and gentleman in the galleries, I say that without the active help of all of us, our leaders cannot implement these ideals. It’s up to you and to me to take to heart the lesson of “Rub-the-Mirror” pavilion.
I thank you.
Normally referred to as Madame Chiang Kai-shek in the west, she was the daughter of a Chinese Methodist missionary and was a Methodist herself. Indeed, her family had opposed her marriage to Chiang Kai-shek on the basis that he was a married Buddhist, and he provided proof of his divorce and conversion to Christianity prior to the marriage. In fact, his marital history was problematic as he had two prior wives and a concubine, the latter not unusual in China at the time, prior to marrying Soong Mei-link.
The groundbreaking for the nuclear production facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee took place.
Today In Wyoming's History: February 18: 1943 Converse County woman collected furs to be used for vests for merchant marines. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society
Friday, December 2, 2022
Wednesday, December 2, 1942. The birth of the nuclear age.
So, even though we reported this yesterday, and used the National Archives as the source:
Scientists working on the Manhattan Project achieved the world’s first man-made, controlled nuclear chain reaction on 12/1/1942. Afterwards, they drank a silent toast to recognize the historic moment. The Chianti bottle’s basket bears their signatures.National Archives, with a link to the photo of the Chianti bottle, which in its original form, as here is called a fiasco.
That it was Chianti, an iconic Italian table wine, is curious.
Every other source claims this happened today.
The December 2 date is clearly the correct one, and for that reason, every December 2 is World Nuclear Energy Day.
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Monday, November 7, 2022
Tuesday, November 7, 1972. Nixon Reelected.
Today In Wyoming's History: November 7: 1972 President Richard M. Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern.
President Richard Nixon overwhelmingly won reelection to the Oval Office, defeating George McGovern.
I recall this election occurring, which means that this is probably the first Presidential election I directly remember.
In that same year, locally:
1972 A Sublette County straw poll shows 970 people opposed to, 279 in favor of and 105 undecided on the "Wagon Wheel Project" which would extract natural gas in the area with five underground nuclear explosions. Yikes! Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
Monday, June 20, 2022
Looking at the Sunday Trib and some observations. 1. Democrats giving the kiss of death. 2. Buchanan defending the election against absurd claims by the "My Pillow" guy. 3. On nuclear
The editorial section of the Tribune was interesting this past Sunday. A few takeaways and observations.
This follows up on quite a few letters to the editor that say the same thing.
If you are a Democrat, and support Cheney, the single most significant thing you can do for her is to shut up.
Cheney is accused by her opponents of being a "RINO" (Republican In Name Only) and supporting the Democrats. Your support of her, Democrat, hurts her.
Isn't this obvious?
So too, I'd note, are letters from outside the state. I don't know why somebody living in Massachusetts thinks writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper in Wyoming will persuade any Wyomingites to do anything. It won't. But if does help convince those who dislike Cheney not to vote for her, as she's accused also of being, basically, a political carpetbagger.
So again, shut up.
Lindell has been making absurd claims that all sorts of votes were stolen in Wyoming, which is bizarre in a state that overwhelmingly went for Trump. He has formed some sort of organization supporting his claims, and the Wyoming Secretary of State's office even sent somebody to a conference it held. It's asked the organization for its evidence and never received it.
The claims are, as noted, absurd.
The editorial shows how rational Buchanan is in his role. It's a shame that he's leaving the office, no longer contending for it, as he's trying for a state district court judgeship. That's his right, but whoever gets that office is unlikely to be as untainted as he presently is. One of the contenders, Wyoming House member Chuck Gray, has been involved in the circus involved in pointlessly challenging Arizona's election, and that's not a good sign.
As noted here earlier, I really don't know what to make of Buchanan publically announcing he's contending for the judicial position. In some ways, it's admirably honest as he's not messing up the election by hoping to get something else, which he presumably stands a pretty good chance of getting. On the other, he failed to get such an appointment earlier this past year, and this puts a lot of pressure on the nominating committee and the Governor (should he be nominated).
There's more I'm tempted to say on that entire process, but I'll abstain.
Next, a founder of a right wing libertarian organization wrote an article attacking nuclear energy.
A foundress of a group that's been a huge backer of libertarian and far right causes in the state, and her prior appearances in the news haven't been encouraging. I'll just note this. Everyone who is familiar with energy generation on a scientific level is of the opinion that nuclear power is safe and necessary.
Necessary.
This would include, I'd note, a former head of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
Gore's article deals with supply problems and costs, but as has been long-established, this is always an argument for anything that's on coming. At first, there's always supply problems and costs are high. It's well established that as something gets up and rolling, costs go down and the supply problems ease.
This is overall part of the constantly made argument that the nation simply can't move away from fossil fuels. Setting aside the argument on whether it must do so for environmental reasons, it's pretty clear the country is moving away from them. It simply is. In the short term, although that's increasingly becoming more and more short term, they will still be there. Nothing is going away overnight. But long term alternative forms of energy generation are taking over, and in some quarters they have been for over a century. The arguments overall on this topic really were ones that were first advanced, and then decided in the 1910 to 1920 time frame, and in the 1970s.
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