Thursday, June 3, 1943. Zoot Suit Riots, Comité Français de Libération Nationale, Pocket Protectors,

This is the 80th anniversary of the start of the Los Angeles' Zoot Suit Riots. They'd continue through the 8th.

With tensions dating back for months, the event saw an outbreak of white servicemen attack Hispanic Angelinos wearing Zoot Suits, in part for revenge over an incident that had occurred several days prior, but largely due to racist animosity.

The initial confrontation on June 3 was between a party of sailors and Zoot Suiters, which isn't surprising given the injury of  a sailor several days prior.  As the attacks grew the servicemen were supported by the press and the Los Angeles city council announced efforts to curb the manufacture of clothing in excess of wartime regulations, thought to be part of the problem as it was part of the excuse.  By the 8th, the attacks had spread from Hispanic districts to African American ones, where Zoot Suits were also popular.

Arrested Angelinos.

On the 8th, the Department of the Navy declared Los Angeles off limits and confined servicemen to their barracks.

The Battle of West Hubei, which had gone on for about a month, ended in a  Chinese tactical victory, although Chinese losses exceeded Japanese ones, and there is some evidence that the Japanese used the battle as a battlefield training exercise.

The French Committee of National Liberation,  Comité Français de Libération Nationale, was formed with those senior officers of the former Vichy command in North Africa and the Free French who had been technically in rebellion against Vichy, in Algiers.  It had a committee leadership at this point, although by November DeGaulle would be the leader.

The pocket protector was patented on this day.

Sunday, June 3, 1923. Japan and the USSR, Swizerland and booze production.

Japan was considering establishing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, a major step in terms of foreign policy, albeit one recognizing the reality of the murderous Soviet state.

It also recognized the realities of the troubled Japanese state, which was in a period of post-war evolution.

The Swiss voted against a state monopoly on the production of alcohol.

A New York City commission founds that some history textbooks in use in the city contained anti American history.

No matter what you think of the crime, the woman accussed of torching the Casper Abortion Clinic. . .

 

is just about the happiest looking criminal defendant you'll ever see.

She just looks genuinely happy.

No real comment here, other than that.

Some Gave All: Ft. Bragg renamed Ft. Liberty

Some Gave All: Ft. Bragg renamed Ft. Liberty:   

Ft. Bragg renamed Ft. Liberty

 

This one leaves me wondering. Surely somebody could have been found to honor in place of Confederate General Braxton Bragg for this North Carolina post?

The post was renamed yesterday.

Bragg was a West Point graduate from North Carolina who had a career in the U.S. Army as an artilleryman, a branch that generally went to those graduating in the upper ends of their class.  His career was mixed as a Confederate general, many would say poor, and he was ultimately relegated to advisory positions after the middle of the war.  He died in 1876 at age 59, walking down a sidewalk in Galveston, Texas.  His famously argumentative personality meant that after the war he occupied a string of occupations from which he resigned.

He'd been an opponent of succession personally.

Blog Mirror: Mystic Plains

 Mystic Plains

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XIII. The Economic Doomsday Clock

Let's be frank.  If the Administration and Congress do not agree to raise the debt ceiling, sometime within the next two weeks, and probably this week, the nation, followed probably by the world, will go into a Depression.

Truly, this is absurd.

May 22, 2023

Talks between Kevin McCarthy and President Biden resume today.

It's an open question of to what extent McCarthy can even carry through with anything he agrees to, beholding as he is to the populist right.  The Administration, for its part, has approached this looming deadline with some lack of urgency.

Should the country go over this cliff, that's what will be remembered about both of these individuals.

The State of Wyoming and University of Wyoming are partnering with Black Tooth Brewery for the issuance of Wyoming Golden Ale.  The beer launches on May 27.  Labels are brown and gold and feature the Wyoming bucking horse on them.

May 23, 2023

Yesterday's meeting between Biden and McCarthy late in the day was, "productive".  It didn't result in a deal, however.   The parties claim an outline of a prospective deal is there.

May 23, cont.

No deal today.

May 24, 2023

The inevitable is now happening in that Kevin McCarthy, having taken the nation right to the brink, at least by half, cannot close a deal as House members to his right will not agree to yield.  The Freedom Caucus, which represents the most extreme populist Republicans, has put out the following, which appears on Twitter, and lots of its naive acolytes are parroting the lines.

House Freedom Caucus

@freedomcaucus

Republicans must #HoldTheLine on the debt ceiling to bring spending back to reality and restore fiscal sanity in DC. We spend $100+ billion more than federal tax revenues EVERY MONTH. Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

The irony of many of the followers is that if the nation goes into default, they are amongst the class that will be financially destroyed.  It will be the middle class and lower middle class that will go almost certainly into poverty. The rich nearly always have vehicles to avoid destruction, and the upper middle class will survive. The other two demographics, however, from with the Freedom Caucus and Trumpites draw their support, will not.  A further irony will be that they'll soon be seeking government relief.

Up until today, I'd have guessed that there was about a 60% chance that a deal would be reached this week, avoiding default.  My present guess is that there is a 60% chance that this will not occur, and that this will be the last major holiday Americans will enjoy before the nation goes into a default and enters the worst national recession since the Great Depression.  None of the Congressional power brokers or major Presidential candidates presently announced will survive it politically.

I hope I'm wrong.

May 24, cont:

Every Democrat has endorsed a discharge petition.  In order to pass, it would require five Republicans to join them.

That isn't much, but it may be too many.

May 27, 2023

Janet Yellen now puts the default date on June 5, a move which will only fuel the fire as populists will proclaim the dates are all phony.

May 28, 2023

And a budget deal was reached and, presumably, disaster adverted.

This presuming the House and Senate agree with it, which isn't a safe assumption.

Some of the provisions.

The debt limit is suspended through 2025.  My prediction is that if the Democrats take the legislative branch while also retaining the executive, they'll simply do away with it entirely.  Frankly, maybe the GOP will under the same circumstances.

Non-discretionary spending, where the hard work really is, will be flat next year and increased by just 1% in 2025.

Defense spending increases next year by 3.3%, below the current rate of inflation.

There will be phased in requirements for work for recipients of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program up to age 54, rather than the current age 49, with a set of exceptions.

Energy permitting will be sped up, even though there's somewhat of a glut of them now.

May 30, 2023

Congressman Hageman is amongst the far right wing Republicans that will not support the budget deal that has been arrived upon.

Failure to raise the debt ceiling by June 5 will destroy the economy and cause an economic depression.  This seems evident, and it is hard to grasp how anyone could support that result.

Kevin McCarthy seems likely to lose his position as Speaker of the House over the matter.

May 31, 2023

The House Rules Committee cleared the budget deal out on to the House floor, but only by a single vote, and only because budget hawk Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted for it, rather than allow the country to go into a depression.  Six other far right Republicans were fiscally irresponsible and voted no, voting their ideology and ignorance rather than the facts.

The deal is likely to pass in the House, where the overwhelming majority of Democrats will be for it and probably most of the Republicans.

Having said that, all four Democrats on the Rules Committee voted no, which is a bad sign, along with Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Chip Roy of Texas.  So a real possibility exist that it will not Pass the House and its questionable what will happen when it reaches the Senate.

June 1, 2023

Just four days away from an inability of the US to pay its bills and, should it occur, a global economic melt down.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted against destroying the global economy and voted to approve 

Thsoe voting no were as follows:

Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona

Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina

Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois

Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma

Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida

Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee

Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri

Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida

Rep. Buddy Carter of Texas

Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia

Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas

Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia

Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia

Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona

Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee

Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida

Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas

Rep. Brad Finstad of Minnesota

Rep. Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota

Rep. Russell Fry of South Carolina

Rep. Mark Fulcher of Idaho

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida

Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas

Rep. Bob Good of Virginia

Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas

Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona

Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia

Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi

Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming

Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland

Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee

Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma

Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana

Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas

Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas

Rep. Darin LaHood of Illinois

Rep. Debbie Lesko or Arizona

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida

Rep. Morgan Luttrell of Texas

Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina

Rep. Tracey Mann of Kansas

Rep. Brian Mast of Florida

Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia

Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois

Rep. Cory Mills of Florida

Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia

Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama

Rep. Nathaniel Moran of Texas

Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina

Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee

Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama

Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania

Rep. Bill Posey of Florida

Rep. John Rose of Tennessee

Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas

Rep. George Santos of New York

Rep. Keith Self of Texas

Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas

Rep. Vicotira Spartz of Indiana

Rep. Greg Steube of Florida

Rep. Dale Strong of Alabama

Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin

Rep. William Timmons of South Carolina

Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey

Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Texas

Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida

Rep. Randy Weber of Texas

Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana

No mistake should be made about the no votes.  The no votes were an outright vote to demolish the economy in the name of a radical concept of economy purity, whether the Congressman understands that or not. Some probably do, and some probably only voted no as they knew the item would pass, thereby giving them the ability to claim that they were voting to balance the budget back home, a claim that depends on voter ignorance on how the budget and economy works, a cynical reliance that has so far proved to be well-placed. The budget cannot be balanced in any way, shape, or form without raising taxes, or deeply cutting into Social Security and its related programs.   Taxes need to be raised, and the current out of control deficits the country is running date back to a misbegotten concept in the Reagan era that by lowering taxes the government could be starved on the vine.

The matter is now in the Senate, where saving the economy will require quick action in a body that's dominated by the elderly.  Moreover, on the Senate side, Gene Shepherd's maxim that fanatics meet each other in their fanaticism is proving true as the opponents of the bill include the members of the far left, and the far right, neither of which seem to grasp how budgets actually work.

June 1, cont.

Speaker of the House McCarthy stated today:

The president walled off all the others. The majority driver of the budget is mandatory spending. It’s Medicare, Social Security, interest on the debt.

That's 100% correct.  As noted in a thread put up just today:

• 63% of the Federal Budget is non-discretionary.  That money must be spent, so you can't touch that.  No cuts.  This category is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other mandatory programs.
• 30% is discretionary spending.  You can cut that.
• 14% of the budget is on Defense.  That's discretionary, so you can cut that.  In FY 2023 the overall Defense was about $777 Billion.
• 16% of the budget it non defense discretionary, you can cut that.  This is funding for every government program and office that isn't Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or some other mandatory program, and isn't defense.
• The balance, about 7%, is net interest.  You pretty much have to spend that.
• The total outlays, i.e., expenditures, going into the process, amount to $5.9 Trillion.
• The total revenues are $4.9 Trillion.
• A $1 Trillion deficit, therefore, exists going into the process.

Regarding revenues, we have this.

• 32% of all U.S. Revenue comes through payroll taxes.
• 53% of all U.S. Revenue comes from income taxes.
• 9% of all U.S. Revenue comes from corporate taxes.
• 6% of all U.S. Revenue comes from other sources, such as fees, specialized taxes, tariffs, and gift and estate taxes.

McCarthy has indicated a bipartisan committee is being formed to look at non-discretionary spending. 

A couple of things.

He may need to say these things now, in order to keep his job as speaker, but he may well be damaging the ability to get the deal through the Senate, as the far left will definitely react.

Taxes are the solution to a lot of this.

June 2, 2023

Skywest to receive additional subsidy payment

The City of Casper has voted to approve a $50,000 supplement to the subsidies already provided to local passenger air carriers.  This subsidizes solely the Casper to Salt Lake City flight.  The subsidy will pay for a larger airplane for the flight, through the summer.

If SkyWest, the Delta provider, does not find that this makes the run more popular, it'll likely be cut, and air travel to Salt Lake will end.

In an example of phenomenal speed, the U.S. Senate acted to save the global economy, and against the narrow mindedness of the far right and far left, and pass the budget compromise bill.

A depression has thugs been avoided.

The vote was 63 to 36.

Voting against the bill, on the Democratic side, were:

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) 

Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) 

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) 

I don't know much about Fetterman or anything about Markey or Merkley, but Warren is one of the most irritating members of the Senate and frequently strikes me as somebody who has a low grasp of things.  Sanders is an economic wingnut. 

More Republicans voted against the bill than voted for it. Voting now were:

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) 

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) 

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) 

Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) 

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) 

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) 

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) 

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) 

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) 

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) 

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) 

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) 

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) 

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) 

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) 

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) 

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.)

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) 

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.)

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Ala.)

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio)

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)

Some of the not votes are no surprise.  Rand Paul, for example, is constantly on the goofball end of things. But some really are.

Both of Wyoming's Senators voted no in what was frankly probably solely a political calculation.  John Barrasso, who has given the deal some praise earlier on, is close to Mitch McConnell, or he was until yesterday, McConnell is a shrewd politician and Barrasso may live to regret crossing him. That Lummis joined him shows that probably both of them added up the votes and knew it was safe, for right now, to take this position as they'd be in the minority and the bill would pass, thereby the country being saved, but they could go home to voters they presume to be ignorant on the real meaning of what was at stake.

Indeed, that might be the case for almost all of these Republicans, which shows that they may frankly be pandering towards what they think the GOP base thinks, that being now safe to do.

Marco Rubio is a genuine surprise.

JD Vance certainly is not.

Graham is not, and maybe the only easily understandable person on the Republican list, to the extent that I know these various individuals views.

Nebraska's Deb Fischer, based on her dull Twitter feed, is not, but is a disappointment anyhow.

Of note, now Wyoming's Congressional delegation has voted with the Democrats they claim to despise the most.  I.e, Wyoming's far right Congressman voted the same way as Social Democrat Bernie Sanders.

As a minor aside, one "no" voter, by declaration, didn't vote n the House vote at all. Lauren Boebert of Colorado was absent.

June 2, 2023

President Biden signed the bill.

Repeated questions are in the naure of "who won"?  Well the American people did as the government won't slam to a halt, interest rates won't skyrocket, bonds won't descend to junk status, and massive numbers of Americans won't be unemployed in short order, including millions in the "let's default class" who didn't understand that they were in the group that would have been cast aside and discarded, some of them forever.

Last Prior Edition:

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

Related threads:

One of Five Fake Crises

A Civics Lesson

The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Strays. (Vol 8).

 

May 23, 2023

Chuck Gray and two legislators are again attempting to intervene in the abortion suit pending in the 9th Judicial District.  Gray's earlier effort was opposed by the State of Wyoming, and rejected by the judge assigned the case.   Gray is again trying to intervene in his official capacity.

June 2, 2023

And the Court said no, again.

Last prior edition:

The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. The Last Roundup. (Vol 7).

Wednesday, June 2, 1943. Lwów Ghetto brougth to an end.

The Germans completed the liquidation of the Lwów Ghetto in Poland.  The city, which once contained a population of 160,000 Jewish Poles, is now in Ukraine and known as Lviv. It had been contested for in the Polish Ukrainian War.  During that battle, the Jewish population of the town had formed its own militia.

Sarah Sundin notes in her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 2, 1943: Combat debut of US 99th Fighter Squadron, the first Black unit in the Army Air Force (“Tuskegee Airmen”), in a Twelfth Air Force mission to Pantelleria.

And, a link from another blog we follow:

June 2, 1943: The Death of Nile Kinnick

Saturday, June 2, 1923. Criqui v. Kilbane

Eugène Criqui knocked out Johnny Kilbane in the sixth round at the Polo Grounds in New York City to take the World Featherweight Title.  Babe Ruth, who had hurried over from a Yankee's game, was in attendance.

Cirqui.

Cirqui had been a professional boxer since 1910, although his career was interrupted by World War One during which he was shot in the jaw by a German sniper.  His jaw had been reconstructed with wire, the bone of a goat and silver.

He died at age 83 in 1977.

Kilbane.

Kilbane was from Ohio and from a classically difficult childhood.  He'd been boxing since 1907.  He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War One and retired shortly after losing this fight.  He died at age 68 in 1957.

The Kaufman Act passed, requiring the electrification of all New York City railroads by the beginning of 1926.

The Federal Government wasn't taking New York's no to Prohibition lightly.

A Civics Lesson

If I were a middle school civics teacher, I'd give a simple project to my students.

Which they'd definitely be graded on.

It'd be "balance the U.S. Federal budget", using the actual parameters that control that process, which are:

• 63% of the Federal Budget is non-discretionary.  That money must be spent, so you can't touch that.  No cuts.  This category is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other mandatory programs.
• 30% is discretionary spending.  You can cut that.
• 14% of the budget is on Defense.  That's discretionary, so you can cut that.  In FY 2023 the overall Defense was about $777 Billion.
• 16% of the budget it non defense discretionary, you can cut that.  This is funding for every government program and office that isn't Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or some other mandatory program, and isn't defense.
• The balance, about 7%, is net interest.  You pretty much have to spend that.
• The total outlays, i.e., expenditures, going into the process, amount to $5.9 Trillion.
• The total revenues are $4.9 Trillion.
• A $1 Trillion deficit, therefore, exists going into the process.

Regarding revenues, we have this.

• 32% of all U.S. Revenue comes through payroll taxes.
• 53% of all U.S. Revenue comes from income taxes.
• 9% of all U.S. Revenue comes from corporate taxes.
• 6% of all U.S. Revenue comes from other sources, such as fees, specialized taxes, tariffs, and gift and estate taxes.

So the project is to either find enough cuts to wipe out 1 Trillion in expenditures, or raise enough revenue to cover $1 Trillion in expenditures, or both.

Easy, right?

Well, theoretically, this wouldn't be a hard assignment.  But I'd also grade for attachment to realism.  Can you slash defense by 50% in a world in which Russia, North Korean and Chine are getting experimenting with real war?  Can you cut other Federal programs to the bone if that means no highway funding and the like?  Can you foist administration of Federal programs on the states?

I'd also throw in the suggestion that the students research historical tax rates and tariffs.  And I'd have them look at how user fees work.

Of course, I'm not a civics teacher and I don't have to deal with today's education environment.  Had I been assigned this project while in junior high it would actually be much harder to do, than now, as the Internet thankfully didn't exist.  But also, parents rarely stormed the school board with cries of "my kids are getting an education in the real world rather than my pet fantasies and I don't like it!"  People didn't take kids out of public school in order to avoid educating them by keeping them at home and "homeschooling", as some homeschooling is now.  You get the point.  Now, you'd probably find the school board meeting packed with people who had a die hard attachment to a concept of "liberty" that reflects a belief in a past United States that never existed, and you'd end up packing your bags and enrolling in law school.

Tuesday, June 1, 1943. The attack on Flight 777.

The Luftwaffe shot down a civilian DC-3 airliner belonging to BOAC flying out of Portugal, killing the passengers on board, which included actor Leslie Howard.

The flight, 777, was a regularly scheduled flight of which the Germans were aware.  As odd as it is to think of this in the context of a global war, commercial aviation continued on during the war where it could.  The fact that the aircraft was shot down has led to speculation that the Germans may have thought Winston Churchill was on board the craft, although other conspiracy theories exist including that Howard was the target, as, it is theorized, he was a British spy.  Some speculation exists that the Germans targeted the plane simply to cause British demoralization, which they theorized would occur with the death of Howard.  Having said all of that, the plane had been attacked by German aircraft twice before during the war.

The flight was overbooked and Howard actually joined the passenger list late, bumping off another passenger who accordingly was spared his fate. Some other last moment changes have led to some confusion over who was originally supposed to be on the flight.   Catholic Priest Father A. S. Holmes, vice president of the R. C. English College, left the plane at the last moment in order to take a phone call.  Actor Raymond Burr claimed that his wife Annette Sutherland, an actress, died in the crash, but no record of her being on the plane exists, nor of Burr having ever been married to an Annette Sutherland.

Howard is best known to American audiences for his role as Ashley in Gone With The Wind, a role which I feel he was miscast in.

The SS John Morgan, carrying explosives, exploded when it accidentally struck the tanker SS Montana in Baltimore's harbor. Sixty-five of the 68 men on the John Morgan died in the explosion, while 18 of the 82 men on the Montana were killed.

The United Mine Workers went into a coal strike.  It lasted only a week.

Friday, June 1, 1923. New York calls it quits on Prohibition

The State of New York voted to cease enforcing prohibition.  This did not repeal Prohibition, which was of course a Federal law, but ceased New York's participation in the effort to enforce it.

Monday, May 31, 1943. You can crack that tank.

The Army put out its weekly summation of the war news, with helpful tips on taking on tanks.

The tank illustration really is interesting, as I've sometimes wondered about the topics noted, particularly causing the tank to button up.  German armor, like American armor, did not normally fight buttoned up as the visibility is so poor.

Expecting an infantryman to have a Molotov Cocktail, however, seems like a bit much.

Sarah Sundin reports:

Today in World War II History—May 31, 1943: British ships begin naval bombardment of island of Pantelleria between Tunisia and Sicily, adding to the aerial bombardment started May 18.

 Archie Andrews, of comic book fame, appeared on the radio for the first time.

Thursday, May 31, 1923. Demonstrations in Durango.

A mass demonstration in Durango, Mexico attempted to take hold of the government's office a day prior to a law limiting the number of Christian ministers, a rule which would have made 90% of the 250 Catholic Priests in Durango invalid.

The governments coming into power after the Mexican Revolution were extremely hostile to the Catholic Church, of which this is an example.

Tex Rickard incorporated the New Madison Square Garden Corporation for the purpose of building a larger Madison Square Garden.

Rodeo cowboys at While House, May 31, 1923.

Financial Incontinence.

The Financial Times points out in an article about the budget deal that real fiscal conservatism is matching expenditures to revenues within the budget cycle.

It termed what just occurred on the GOP far right fiscal incontinence.

There's a lot to that.  Real fiscal conservatives would have insisted on a deal reducing spending, and raising taxes, until the budget balanced.

Blog Mirror: 878: A Strategy for World Domination

This blog is often facetious, but occasionally it raises some really interesting points, as in this edition:

878: A Strategy for World Domination 

One of Five Fake Crises

Some of these you can debate, but this is very interesting:

5. “Out of control government spending.” Rubbish. In fact, discretionary spending has fallen more than 40 percent in the past 50 years as a percentage of the nation’s gross domestic product (from 11 percent to 6.3 percent). Lately, rising deficits have been driven by Social Security and Medicare (to be expected, as boomers retire), and by defense spending and George W. Bush’s and Donald Trump’s huge tax cuts that mostly benefited the wealthy and big corporations — and that will have added $8 trillion and $1.7 trillion, respectively, to the debt by the end of the 2023 fiscal year.

Robert Reich:  Five Fake Crises 

"How can you represent. . . "

Elk Mountain.

Every lawyer has been asked that question at some point.  Usually it's "how can you represent somebody you know is guilty?"

Usually, amongst lawyers, it's regarded as kind of an eye rolling "oh how naive" type of question.  For lawyers who have a philosophical or introspective bent, and I'd submit that's a distance minority, they may have an answer that's based on, basically, defending a system that defends us all.  Maybe they have something even more sophisticated, such as something along the lines of St. Thomas More's statement in A Man For All Seasons:

William Roper : So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More : Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper : Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More : Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

That's about the best answer that there may be, and frankly the only one that applies to civil litigation.  We can console ourselves that in representing the interests of the potentially liable, we protect the interest of everyone.

But what about plaintiff's lawyers?

Frankly, the excuse is wearing thin.  

I.e., I don't believe it for a second.  It's all about cash.

And this is a real problem.

The question is what to do about it.

Well, frankly, the average person can't do much.  But you don't really have to accept it, either.

Shunning has a bad name in our culture.  Indeed, one English language European source states:

More specifically, shunning or ostracising is a form of abuse. It is discrimination and silent bullying. Unfortunately, often people who have been shunned also face other forms of abuse, ranging from death threats and physical assaults to murder.

And there's a lot of truth to that.

At the same time, it was and is something that is often practiced to varying degrees in religious communities.  Indeed, up until the revision of the Code of Canon Law in 1983, Catholic excommunications were of two types, vitandus and toleratus, with vitandus requiring the Faithful to cease all normal connections with the excommunicated.  It was very rare, but it could happen. Since 1983 that distinction does not exist.  Some Amish, however, still have such a practice, and they are not alone.

Realizing this is extreme, I also realize, as I've seen pointed out twice, that land locking rich magnates cannot do it without local help. They always hire somebody, I've heard them referred to as "goons" to be their enforcer, and when they need legal help, they hire a Wyoming licensed attorney.  Indeed, in this instance, remarkably, the plaintiff did not use a Denver attorney, which I thought they likely would have. 

And this has always been the case.  Wyoming Stock Growers Association stock detectives were sometimes enforcers back in the late 19th Century, and they were hired men.  In the trial of the Invaders, a local Cheyenne attorney was used, but then again, that was a criminal case, which I do feel differently about.

Elk Mountain is basically mid-way, and out of the way, between Laramie, Rawlins and Saratoga.  People working for Iron Bar Holdings have to go to one of those places for goods and services.  There's really no reason the excluded locals need to sell them anything.  Keep people off. . .drive to Colorado for services.

And on legal services?  I don't know the lawyers involved, so I'm unlikely to every run into them. But I'm not buying them lunch as we often do as a courtesy while on the road, and if I were a local rancher, and keep in mind that outfits like Iron Bar Holdings don't help local ranchers keep on keeping on, I'd tell that person, if they stopped in to ask to go fishing or hunting, to pound sand.

If this sounds extreme, and it actually is, this is what happened with some of the law firms representing Donald Trump in his effort to steal the election.  They backed out after partners in their firms basically, it seems, told Trump's lawyers to chose Trump or the firm.

And there are many other examples.  Lawyers bear no social costs at all for whom they represent in civil suits.  People who regard abortion as murder will sit right down with lawyers representing abortionists, people seeking a radical social change will hire lawyers to advance the change, and the lawyers fellows feel no pressure as a result of that at all.

Maybe they should.

Or is that view fundamentally wrong?

Malignant

Trump posted this yesterday:

Whether it's bringing up "woke" when a beer company is just trying to introduce a new beer, or posting seditious crap like this, there's something seriously wrong with a section of the populist right.

Sunday, May 30, 1943. Clash in Los Angeles.

A clash between servicemen and Mexican American Zoot Suiters set the stage for the Zoot Suit Riots that would erupt several days later.

The conflict, like so many over the centuries, erupted in a contest for the potential affection of women who were nearby.  They commenced when a sailor, fearing he was going to be attacked, grabbed the arm of a Zoot Suiter and was badly attacked himself.

The All-American Girls Baseball League began its first 108-game season with four teams (Rockford, Kenosha, Racine, and South Bend).

Ranch Yard Lion

Ranch Yard Lion

He's very friendly, but he's lived his entire life outdoors.  A true yard lion.

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLVIII. Put your nastiness away and have a beer, Steamboat and Red Wing, Repeating history, Dog whistles.

I went to the Black Tooth Brewery in Casper's beer reveal, for their new UW themed beer.  I wasn't really interested in going but my wife was, so my wife, daughter and her boyfriend all went.

Secretary of State Chuck Gray was there.

The can has an old style state license plate theme, and therefore it would need cooperation from UW anyway, which owns the trademark for the symbol and jealously guards it.  That requires the cooperation of the Secretary of State's office.  This is being done as a "partnership" with UW, so there's no doubt that it would have come.  One of the employees of the SoS's office was thanked by UW, and to his credit, Secretary Gray thanked the woman as well.

But Gray, who has spent a lot of time touring the state and showing up at political events, just couldn't help but go negative and throw in some nasty line about how we aren't "woke" in Wyoming and referencing Budweiser.

The reaction of the crowd was muted at best. This was a Wyoming beer crowd, not a populist far right gathering, and chances are a lot of the people in the audience were either apolitical or old style Wyoming conservatives.  Gray seemed to get the message right away and finished his talk, or whatever it was.

I'm really sick of this behavior.  Gray boosted lies as a candidate, and now he runs around trying to pour gasoline on politics and ignite fires when he doesn't need to. Wyoming's politicians never used to do this, and they certainly didn't do it while in office.

What must it be like to have to be angry all the time?

For that matter, what must it be like to wear brand-new Wranglers, a style of jeans designed for people with cowboy bodies, and brand-new thick soled cowboy boots, the type that cowboys don't wear.

Why did people vote for Gray?  It's really a mystery.  That he's campaigning for the Governor's office right now should be evident to everyone.  Wyomingites would really have to be suckers to vote for Gray for that office, but then, they were suckers when they put him in his current office.

But beyond that, what kind of personality do you have to have in order to show up at everything with some right wing screed?  Can't anyone just enjoy their day without having to be fed a spoonful of BS?

And at what point does putting on a wrathful show convert your personality to fully wrathful?  I know one lawyer who puts on such an act all the time that I think he's truly lost his real personality.  At some point, that would occur.

Gray referred to the famous rodeo horse in his speech, Steamboat.  That's frustrating but inevitable, particularly as his speech, which short, was rambling, much like a speech by a high schooler whose concluded that he's too smart to prepare a speech.  Gray rambled on, something about Steamboat and World War One.

Steamboat was never used by the Wyoming Army National Guard in reality, or as a symbol. That's Red Wing.

That horse on the license plate, everyone knows its Steamboat. Right?

This is never going to get straightened out, but frankly I have a hard time imagining Gray caring, just like I don't think he's going to be flanking any calves while wearing those boots and jeans at branding.

On politics, here's an episode of Jimmy Akin's mysterious world really worth listening to.

The Knights of the Golden Circle (Secret Society, Civil War, John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln, Confederate Gold, Rebels, Slavery) – Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

It's fascinating history, but beyond that, if you can't see the parallels between today's far right populists and the Knights, you just aren't trying.

The only weekend show that's downloaded for me so far has been Meet The Press, and I didn't listen to it.  The theme was the Supreme Court.

"The Supreme Court is corrupt!" is to the American political left what "Trump won the election" is to the populist far right, and they're both based on the exact same thing, a contempt for democracy.  The far right wants the election to have been stolen, as that would mean it's not a permanent political minority, and we're never going back to wherever they think we were.  The left wants the Court to be corrupt as it might get to boot a couple members off and the country would return to the good old days when the Court decided things rather than state legislatures.

In the case of the Court, the entire claim is based on something that's true, but just is.  Positions of power and wealth attract each other.  You might not like it, but that's the way the world actually works.  That doesn't make it illegal, and it doesn't mean that terrible things are going on behind closed doors.

Last prior edition

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLVII. Aging, Russian military culture, Cinematic explortation of the 60s and 70s, The King of Canada.