Thursday, October 31, 1946. Irgun bombs the British Embassy in Rome.

The Irgun bombed the British Embassy at Porta Pia in Rome.

The Indonesian rupiah was introduced.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 30, 1946. Color TV.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, entertainment, Radio, technology, television

Wednesday, October 30, 1946. Color TV.

The first demonstration of "simultaneous color television" was made at the RCA Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. The technology, which was one of several competing concepts, transmitted three colors onto the television screen.

Black and white television, which is what would be common at first, hadn't even become common at the time.

Radio, of course, wsa the entertainment of the day.

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 29, 1946. Giving up, getting, and using The Bomb.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Harry S. Truman, Jazz, Nuclear power, Personalities, United Nations, United States, USSR, War, Weapons

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 154th Edition.Trump's approval rating in Wyoming falls from 75% to 54%. Privation. The idiotic "republic not a democracy" line surfaces again. Viking funerals. Miley.

Barely hanging on in Wyoming.

Which is really remarkable

Wyoming is one of the few states where Trump has a positive approval rating, probably mostly attributable to the importance of the extractive industries to the economy, and due to agriculture.  Trump actually has farmers and ranchers upset now and as he's set to import foreign beef and hasn't really made any immediate actions addressing agriculture's concerns, this trend may continue.

Trump's endorsement of Megan Degenfelder fell flat in the state, and hardcorse Freedom Caucus rank and file were actually upset with his endorsement of Degenfelder followed by Hageman's endorsement of her as well.  So some cracks are actually appearing.

And now Trump's at odds with his Wyoming voters over data centers.

We don't see these statistics for Wyoming very often, which is no surprise given the low population of the state, but it will be interesting to see how this develops.  If he falls below 50%, and that's close to being the case, it may start a sort of freefall.

Trump only has a positive approval rating in 13 states.  Most of these states are ones in which he barely has a positive rating.  Wyoming has the highest approval rating of any state, which shows the extent to which Trump's really in trouble.  All of Wyoming's neighbors also have positive Trump approval ratings except for Colorado.

I've long thought that most of the Trump "supporters" are just followers.  When things begin to fade, and paying high prices at the pump and supporting data centers is creating fading, a lot of former supporters will claim to have never supported him. We see stuff like that all the time.

Just wait for the upcoming toilet paper shortages due to Trump tariffs on Canada.

Suffering privation

One thing about all of this is how absolutely tone deaf the Administration is to the suffering its causing, both here and abroad.

He's cutting off access to foreign good that Americans use (Bombardier also makes snow machines) and wiping out foreign markets for US products (Canadians used to buy a lot of American bourbon). At the same time, he's telling fairy tales about how you shouldn't mind, with the most recent example being that while you are paying a little more at the pump, it's not a big inconvenience and your sacrifice is worth it so Iran doesn't get the bomb.

Whether or not Iran was close to getting a bomb at any point during the Trump administration is an open question.  But beyond that, Americans, in spite of what we may collectively choose to imagine about certain eras, don't do sacrifice on the home front very well.  World War Two was the biggest example of restrictions for a national effort and people hated it.  Cheating and the black market was absolutely rampant.  The whole concept that the nation all pitched in and glady endured shortages is complete crap.  Even one of the most patriotic demographics, farmers and ranchers, notoriously evaded rationing illegally by selling livestock under the table.  And that was in a big national effort.

Americans aren't keen on high prices on anything.  Protectionist efforts only really work well in an economy if they're introduced really early, or they cause resentment.  If you are going to put up restrictive trade barriers, including tariffs, you need to do it nearly immediately, and you better have a really good reason for doing it.

We're doing it because Peter Navarro has Trump's ear and Trump has always liked the concept.  Trump's mind on this is rooted in the 1970s when the US was worried about Japanese imports.  Navarro is 77 years old.  Pining for the economy of the post World War Two world won't work, and making Americans suffer for a pipe dream won't either.

It particularly will not when a rich guy like Trump doesn't join in the suffering.  His fans like to note that he's not taking his pay. . . but not that he flies everywhere, including on golf trips, on the government dime.

We are a democracy, dumbass.

The moronic line "we're a republic, not a democracy" has been around for years.  I've heard it many times myself and corrected the speaker, usually with the speaker then looking deflated.  Democracy and republic are not only not mutually exclusive, they don't even describe the same thing.

Ancient Athens was a pure democracy, everything could be voted on by its citizens.  The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy, people vote for the House of Commons and the Parliament then functions as the government. We're a democratic republic, which isn't actually all that difference but which does make for problems if the elected representatives won't do their jobs, as they won't right now.  In a parliamentary democracy, they have to.

People who spout the "republic not a democracy" line have not thought out what they're saying at all.  Recently, in the MAGA crowed, it's "constitutional republic".  I've heard that from MAGAs great and small, including one Harriet Hageman. 

It's frankly a stupid comment.

It's been going around the last week, however, so somebody is feeding it out as a talking point for idiots.

And then there's this:

Worland Man Wanted His Ashes Put On USS Constitution Model And Set Aflame On Boysen

I guess it's humorous, sort of, but then, sort of not.

Miley

Miley Cyrus is provoking outrage as she's put out her last album as "Miley", which apparently somehow upsets fans of Dolly Parton.  As I don't care for Cyrus' music or Parton's, it doesn't mean much to me, but what struck me is that when I hit on the news story Cyrus was there wearing see through everything so you can see all of her really horrible tattoos.

They are truly bad.

They're the sort of tattoos that people who are junkies get from other junkies. What the heck?

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 153rd Edition. The Hunt for the Golden Pheasants, Delusional monuments, Recovering the imaginary 1950s.

Labels: 2020s, 2025 White House Vandalization, 2026, Bowling, Dancing, Donald Trump, Doug Burgum, Golf, J. D. Vance, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, The Second Trump Administration, Washington DC Vandalization, Zeitgeist

Thursday, July 25, 1946. Crossroads Baker.

 

The first underwater nuclear explosion.

George W. and Mae Murray Dorsey, and Roger and Dorothy Dorsey Malcom were lynched (shot) in Georgia.  They were two married couples, the men were sharecroppers.  Roger Malcom was a World War Two Army veteran who had just returned home after five years of service.

Martin and Lewis commenced their duo act at the 500 Club in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Humor is transitory and perhaps its just because I'm not from that era, but I never found either one of them funny.  Frankly, I can hardly stand to watch film clips of Lewis.  I can of Martin, but I don't find him funny.

Last edition:

Tuesday, July 23, 1946. Last of the POWs sent home.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, 1950s, 1953, actors and actresses, Aircraft, Economics, Industry, Irgun, Japan, Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine, Occupation of Japan, Palestine, Prisoners of War, Transportation, War Assets Administration

Monday, June 28, 1926. Mel Brooks born in Brooklyn.

Mel Brooks (Melvin James Kaminsky) was born on a tenement kitchen table in Brownsville, Brooklyn to Katie (née Brookman) and Max Kaminsky.  His father was an American born Jew of German extraction, his mother was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant.

He'd barely know his father, who died two years later of tuberculosis.

A comedic giant, he's still alive.  Regarding his comedy, most of it is high refined high end Borscht Belt Comedy, reflecting the extent to which that tradition has hugely impacted American humor.

He served in Europe during World War Two.

William Lyon Mackenzie King resigned as Prime Minister of Canada after the Governor General, Julian Byng invoked his reserve power to refuse to sign the formal Order in Council to dissolve Parliament. 

Last edition:

Friday, June 25, 1926. Milk Cow Blues

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Blog Mirror, Calvin Coolidge, Music, The Blues, The Press

Saturday, November 28, 1925. Grand Old Opry premiers.

Nashville's WSM radio premiered the WSM Barn Dance which became the Grand Ole Opry.

It was a Saturday.

The French government reigned after failing to reach a settlement with the US over war debt.

Last edition:

Friday, November 27, 1925. Hill Packing.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1928, 1930s, Afghanistan, Diplomacy, Economics, Equine Transportation, Feral Horses, Germany, Imperial Russian Army, Industry, Russian Civil War, USSR, Wyoming (Casper)

Thursday, November 22, 1945. Thanksgiving Day.

It was the first postwar Thanksgiving.

Proclamation 2673—Thanksgiving Day, 1945

November 12, 1945

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

In this year of our victory, absolute and final, over German fascism and Japanese militarism; in this time of peace so long awaited, which we are determined with all the United Nations to make permanent; on this day of our abundance, strength, and achievement; let us give thanks to Almighty Providence for these exceeding blessings.

We have won them with the courage and the blood of our soldiers, sailors, and airmen. We have won them by the sweat and ingenuity of our workers, farmers, engineers, and industrialists. We have won them with the devotion of our women and children. We have bought them with the treasure of our rich land. But above all we have won them because we cherish freedom beyond riches and even more than life itself.

We give thanks with the humility of free men, each knowing it was the might of no one arm but of all together by which we were saved. Liberty knows no race, creed, or class in our country or in the world. In unity we found our first weapon, for without it, both here and abroad, we were doomed. None have known this better than our very gallant dead, none better than their comrade, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Our thanksgiving has the humility of our deep mourning for them, our vast gratitude to them.

Triumph over the enemy has not dispelled every difficulty. Many vital and far-reaching decisions await us as we strive for a just and enduring peace. We will not fail if we preserve, in our own land and throughout the world, that same devotion to the essential freedoms and rights of mankind which sustained us throughout the war and brought us final victory.

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, in consonance with the joint resolution of Congress approved December 26, 1941, do hereby proclaim Thursday November 22, 1945, as a day of national thanksgiving. May we on that day, in our homes and in our places of worship, individually and as groups, express our humble thanks to Almighty God for the abundance of our blessings and may we on that occasion rededicate ourselves to those high principles of citizenship for which so many splendid Americans have recently given all.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this 12th day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred forty-five and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventieth.

Signature of Harry S. Truman

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

JAMES F. BYRNES,

Secretary of State.

The Hollywood Canteen was open for the last time.

The Rocky Mountain News claimed that the Japanese tried to assassinate Stalin.

 

I've never heard that before, and I'm fairly sure it isn't true.

The paper also informed readers of the death of Gen. Alexander Patch, part of the great post war senior officer die off that followed the Second World War.

And it noted that Koreans were complaining that the Soviets were stripping the country of machinery.

The paper ran Out Our Way.

And there was an advertisement for a pen that you didn't have to fill for a year. . . an advertisement I don't, frankly, believe.

The Reynolds was revolutionary, however.  It was a reengineered Biro type ballpoint pen.

Meat rationing was to end. . .but not before Thanksgiving.

The only thing that remained rationed was sugar.

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 21, 1945. UAE goes on strike.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Automobiles, Cartoons, Guatemala, Industry, Labor unrest, Strike Wave of 1945-1945, Thanksgiving, trends, Unions, United Nations

Friday, October 2, 1925. Television.

The first television transmission was made in London.  The experimental broadcast was made by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird.

Spanish troops entered the Rif capital of Ajdir.

The Pact of the Vidoni Palace was signed at the Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli in Rome between the Fascist-dominated General Confederation of Italian Industry) (Confederazione Generale dell'Industria Italiana or CGI) and the Fascist-controlled National Confederation of Trade Union Corporations labor union.  It abolished all other unions, including Catholic and Socialist unions, and gave the government effectively corporatist control, on the fascist model, of labor.

200 feet of the roof on the western end of the Church Hill Tunnel, Virginia collapsed killing 40 workers.

La Revue Nègre featuring Josephine Baker’s comic Charleston opened in Paris. Baker became a huge success overnight.

Baker was an enormous talent.  Her shows of the era likely wouldn't have been legal in much of the United States due to the nudity or near nudity that they featured.

Last edition:

Monday, September 28, 1925. Senators meet with Coolidge.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Agriculture, baseball, Calvin Coolidge, Daily Living, Montana, Sports

Really aiming for a local take. . .

Former Cheyenne Frontier Days performer Taylor Swift announces engagement to

Former Frontier Days performer?

Sunday, May 6, 1945. Stopping advances.

Patton's Third Army captured Plzeň. To Patton's disgust his men were prevented from advancing any further due to the occupation agreement between the Americans and the Soviets.

"Yanks in Landeck, Austria, wave their rifles and helmets with joy as they heard 19th German Army surrendered today. 6 May, 1945. 44th Infantry Division. Photographer: T/5 Louis Weintraub, 163rd Signal Photo Co."

The Siege of Breslau ended after three months with a Soviet victory.

The U-853 and U-881 were lost in the Atlantic Ocean.

The United States lifted the midnight curfew for all places of entertainment in effect since February 26, 1945.

Last edition:

Saturday, May 5, 1945. Balloon casualties.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Battle of Czechoslovak Radio, Bratislava–Brno Offensive, Japan, Lighter than air aircraft, Prague Uprising, Viet Cong, Vietnam War, Weapons, World War Two

Monday, March 30, 1925. Cougars win the Stanley Cup.

Newly ordained St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás celebrated his first Mass in the Chapel of Our Lady of Pilar in the Saragossa Cathedral.

He would found Opus Dei in 1928.

The Victoria Cougars of the WCHL beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-1 to become the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup.

Bringing Up Father On Broadway premiered.

Last edition.

Saturday, March 28, 1925. Society Number.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art

Sunday, May 28, 1944. A Memorial Day Weekend.

It was a Sunday on a Memorial Day weekend in the US. What did that look like in Wyoming, I wonder?  

It wasn't a day off for SHAEF, as Sarah Sundin reports; Today in World War II History—May 28, 1944

The 1st Canadian Corps took Ceprano.

German 220 mm howitzer knocked out near Anzio.

The 8th Air Force attacked Leuna and Magdeburg

The 41st Infantry Division advanced against heavy Japanese opposition on Biak. At the same time, Gen. MacArthur declared the New Guinea campaign strategically won, while acknowledging that hard fighting remained.

Rudy Giuliani was born in Brooklyn.  His rise and fall demonstrates, in a way, how politicians born in the 1940s have been eclipsed by age, and should really no longer be seriously considered for office.

Gladys Knight was born in Atlanta.  

The late Sandra Locke was born in Tennessee.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, May 27, 1944. Landing at Biak.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Biak, Battle of the Atlantic, boats and ships, Indonesia, Infantry, New Guinea, Royal Air Force, World War Two

Tuesday, March 24, 1874. Houdini born.

Erik Weisz (Erich Weiss), better known by his stage name of Harry Houdini, was born in Budapest.

His father was a Rabbi. The family immigrated to the United States in 1878 and located themselves in Wisconsin.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, March 21, 1874. Home on the Range.

Two random items. Andy Griffith and Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift

On "X", fka "Twitter" a man who was the father to a large family of daughters (it was either 7 or 9), and who is very conservative, posted an item expressing relief for Taylor Swift.

His points were really good.

Populist right commentators are all up in arms about Swift right now, for reasons that are darned near impossible to discern.  It seems to stem from her expressing support for Democratic candidates in the past, including Joe Biden in 2016.  Well, guess what, she has a right to do that.  You have a right to ignore it. 

She also expressed support for abortion being legal.  I feel it should be illegal.  That doesn't mean she's part of a double secret left wing conspiracy.

But, and here's the thing, there are real reasons to admire her, or at least her presentation, and the father in question pointed it out.  He'd endured taking his daughters to Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, "Lady Gaga" etc., and found them disturbing.

Indeed, they are.

Miley Cyrus went from a child actress to being a freakish figure posed nude on a ball, looking like she was a meth addict who was working in a strip club.  Ariana Grande has at least one song that's out right graphic about illicit sex.  Lady Gaga has made a career out of being freakish, until she couldn't any longer, and like Madonna is another woman who was the product of Catholic Schools who took to songs that are abhorrent in terms of Christian, let alone Catholic, morals.

Swift, in contrast, can only be criticized a bit for dressing semi provocatively on stage, but only somewhat so. Off-stage, she's always very modestly dressed.  Indeed, she's a throwback, with her ruby red lipstick and classic nearly 1940s appearance.

And in terms of relationships, it's noted that she's dating a football player.

Now, we don't know what their private lives are like, but they're admirably keeping them private.  It's hard to know what Swift's views are on most issues.  And we really don't need to.  But in their visible relationship, made visible to us only because of media fascination, they're quite proper.  As the poster noted, the football star is "courting" her.

It's not that there's nothing to see here.  There's nothing to see here which any conservative in their right mind wouldn't have an absolute freak out about.  They're behaving exactly the way in public that supposedly Christian conservatives want dating couples to do.  No piercings, no weird tattoos, no scanty clothing.

Which would all suggest all the angst is about something else, and what that is probably about is the secret knowledge that huge numbers of real conservatives can't stand Donald Trump and won't vote for him.

The Andy Griffith Show

I was at lunch two days ago at a local Chinese restaurant, and across the way an all adult family was discussing the plot of the prior night's Andy Griffith Show rerun.  It struck me that that may not have happened since the 1960s.

It's interesting. 

The Andy Griffith Show went off the air before the Great Rural Purge in Television, but not my much.  It ran from 1960 to 1968.  It was consistently focused on the rural South, and it felt like it depicted the 1950s, which it never did, save for the fact that what we think of as the 60s really started in about 1955 and ran to about 1964.  Indeed, while the show was in tune with the times in 1960, it really wasn't in 1968.

But that in tune with the times is what strikes me here.  The family was speaking of it as if it was a currently running show, not like it was something from 60 years ago.  That suggests that in some ways people have groped their way back in the dark to idealizing the world as it was depicted then, rural, lower middle class, devoid of an obsession with sex (although it does show up subtly in the show from time to time), and divorce a rarity.

Now, the world wasn't prefect in 1960 by any means.  But the show didn't pretend to depict a perfect world, only one that was sort of a mirror on the world view of its watchers.  To some degree, that world view had returned.

Epilog

The Taylor Swift story also appears on the most recent entries for City Father and Uncle Mike's Musings, both of which are linked in on this site.

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 54th Edition. The swift and the not so swift edition.

• Twitter has banned searches for Taylor Swift.

This tells us something about the danger of AI, as what they were searching for is AI generated faux nudes of the singer.

It also tells us something about entertainers we already knew.  Yes, their art counts, but part of their popularity, quite often, is that they're a form of art themselves. Which leads us to the next thing.

Everything about this is wrong on an existential level.  AI, frankly, is wrong.  

And once again, presented with the time, talent, and money to be sufficiently idle to do great things, we turn to the basest. 

• There's a creepy fascination going on with Tyler Swift

I don't know anything about Tyler Swift, other than that she's tall, and from the photos I've seen of her, on stage she wears, like many female singers, tight clothing.  She appears to be very tall, and is sort of a classic beauty.

I suppose that's the root of it.

Apparently, right wing media and MAGA people are just freaking out about Tyler Swift.  This has been headline fodder for some time, but I only got around to looking it up now, as I don't follow entertainment at all and don't care that much.

Swift is dating some football player.  I don't follow football either, so that doesn't interest me.  Beautiful female entertainers dating sports figures, or marrying them, isn't news, and it isn't even interesting.  Consider Kate Upton and Marilyn Monroe.  Indeed, under the evolutionary biological precept of hypergyny, most rich women in entertainment would naturally gravitate in this direction, as much as we like to pretend that our DNA does not push us in one direction or another (lesser female entertainers, such as Rachel Ray and Kathy Ireland, tend to marry lawyers).  Billy Joel may have sung about the opposite in Uptown Girl, but that truly is a fantasy.  There's really very little direction from them to otherwise take, whether they are cognizant of it or not.

And so now we have this total weirdness:

Right wing conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec: 

People who don’t understand why I have been commenting on Taylor Swift and Barbie are completely missing the point and NGMI These are mascots for the establishment. High level ops used as info warfare tools of statecraft for the regime.

Newsmax host Greg Kelly:

They’re elevating her to an idol.

Idolatry. This is a little bit of what idolatry, I think, looks like. And you’re not supposed to do that. In fact, if you look it up in the Bible, it’s a sin!

Far right activist Laura Loomer:

The Democrats’ Taylor Swift election interference psyop is happening in the open … It’s not a coincidence that current and former Biden admin officials are propping up Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. They are going to use Taylor Swift as the poster child for their pro-abortion GOTV Campaign.

Donald Trump fanboy and poster child for political train derailment, Vivek Ramaswamy:

I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall …

And if all of that isn't weird enough for you, a host on the right wing  OAN claims the Swift football dating is a deep state psy op, because sports brainwash kids when they should be focused on religion. 

This is insane.

Liz Cheney warned us that idiocy had crept into the nation's politics.  What more evidence of this is required than this?

• Celebrity endorsements.

Some of this stems from a fear that Swift might endorse President Biden.  I read something that claimed she had in 2020.

I don't know if she did or not, and I don't particularly care.

There are a host of celebrities who have endorsed Trump.  Nobody seems to get up in arms about that, or even notice it.  So why the concern.

Probably because Swift is seen as the voice of her generation, and that sure ain't the generation that MAGA is made up of.  I.e, she's young and an independent female.  

Look at it this way, would you rather have her endorsement, or Lauren Boebert's?

I frankly don't get celebrity endorsements anyhow.  I don't know why we care what any actor or singer thinks about anything.  Freaking out about it is just silly.

• Jay Leno is seeking to be the guardian and conservator for his wife, Mavis, who is 77, and has dementia.

This is a tragedy.

It's also a tragedy in the nation's eye. Most of the time really notable figures endure something like this, it's out of the public eyesight.  We didn't watch Ronald Reagan decline on the news.  Of course, we're unlikely to see Ms. Leno endure this either.

But this serves as a warning.  Old age, we often hear, isn't for wimps.  And one of the things about it is that those who remain mentally fit have to take care of those who do not.  Most families find this out.

But what about when they're running for office?

• The National Park Service reports a 63-year-old man died on a trail in Zion National Park.  Heart attack.

This headline tells us something, too. 63, we're often told, isn't old. But then we're not too surprised when a 63-year-old dies hiking, are we?

• A concluding thought.  We're getting scary stupid.

Freaking out about Tyler Swift, letting two octogenarians run to carry the nuclear football, engaging in endless weird conspiracy theories. . . we've really let the dogs of insanity out big time.

Frankly, a lot of the time the "elite", by which we mean the educated elite, the cultural elite, etc., kept a lid on this.  It wasn't as if the opinions of "the people" didn't matter, but they were tempered.

That's not happening in the country now at all.  Swift is part of a left wing conspiracy, efforts to prevent gender mutilation are due to right wing meanness.  This is out of hand.

Last Prior Edition:

The Lost Cause and the Arlington Confederate Monument. Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 53d Edition.