The massive overreaction to Sweeney being in an American Eagle ad while being white continues on, and is nicely addressed by Froma Harrop above. Harrop's article reminds us of a few other pretty women, which likely means that it's a good thing the article was written by a woman.
Coincidentally, Beyoncé Knowles ad campaign for Levis continues on as well. It predates Sweeney's ad for American Eagle. I don't know anything about American Eagle jeans at all, but I do about Levis as I wear them a lot.
Knowles is also hot.
From Knowles Levis commercial
Knowles, of course, is an African American.
Of interest in this, both Knowles and Sweeney manage to be hot while fully clothed, a good trend.
Sweeney from her American Eagle ad.
Also of note, they're both actually really curvy and not sticks. In other words, they look like actual women, which is of course what they are. Knowles is particularly notable as she's been regarded as hot all along, even though she doesn't fit into the traditional stick figure model category that modeling agencies have tended to use for years. She's big.
Of course, all this brought out the political clowns. Robot from Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz (why hasn't ICE deported this foreign born interloper yet?) felt compelled to state that due to the Democrats “beautiful women are no longer acceptable in our society.” That's really absurd. One of the things that Sen. Krysten Sinema, now an independent but up until recently a Democrat, basically took criticism for was being hot while in office. Sinema, whose politics are eclectic, is clearly highly intelligent. She's also a fallen away Mormon who is "unaffiliated" in terms of religion, and a lesbian, all of which puts her in the infamia category for Republicans.
Republicans, it might be noted, really lashed on to Sweeney when they found out she's a registered Republican, which means almost nothing. Most of the MAGA politicos would have been regarded as fringe Republicans at best up until King Donny. Real Republicans, as Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray likes to point out, are now regarded as Democratic infiltrators by the current GOP, which is lead by a lifelong former Democrat, Trump. We really don't know about her actual political views at all.
She registers in Florida, and of course she might register Republican for the same reason that horrifies Chuck Gray in Wyoming, it might for the most part be the only place to register. The Unconstitutional Primary Election in Wyoming tends to be the real election, so that's where people register. Maybe that's why Sweeney registers that way in Florida. Who knows?
Republicans, starting with Trump, have really latched on to her already, which is a metaphor that should make Sweeney uncomfortable. Some real boofador from Fox News even went so far as to suggest that seeing Sweeney in jeans might remind American men of their demographic obligation to procreate, whic his extremely weird, and referenced Dylan Mulvaney as an example of what might be deterring them. While Mulvaney is genuinely bizarre, and transgenderism not a real thing, that's probably not what's keeping the WASPs home alone in their basements rather than going out and meeting someone.
Somebody in this category, who is going out, as in out of the state, is Artemis Langford, who, having graduated from university, is packing up and leaving, claiming the state doesn't want people like him here. Langford, who deserves real pity, demonstrated self pity in the interview, as he had to have known that being a big overweight man in a sorority would draw attention, although he no doubt didn't expect all the litigation that ensued. The basic gist of his complaint is that he doesn't like it that there have been laws passed to protect actual women from being displaced in women's sports and the like, and he doesn't like it that society has moved towards recognizing "transgenderism" for what it is, a mental illness, so he's leaving. At least as of two years ago, his intended career path was law school. Being a man presenting as a woman wouldn' t stop a person from practicing law here, although it probably would be limiting, so pursuing that career elsewhere probably would be a good idea, if that's his actual intent.
All of this gets into the topic of conservatism, cultural conservatism, culture, and populism, but we'll try to take that up somewhere else. Maybe in our 100th Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist edition.
Anyhow, one denim glad guy saw an opportunity here, and took it:
He does like the Sweeney ad. I'll bet he likes the Knowles one too.
And all this comes up, sort of, due to denim, something that women didn't often appear in, and for that matter decently dressed men, until after World War Two. While women wearing jeans had taken off well before that, Levis didn't introduce 501s for women until 1981.
Stop the presses: Wyoming press corps suffers historic blow: Uinta, Platte, Niobrara, Goshen and Sublette counties become "news deserts" as News Media Corp shutters eight local Wyoming newspapers with no notice. The oldest had been in print for 122 years. Thirty people lost jobs.
This is sad indeed.
This is part of a long term trend. . . the death of the written newspaper, and its a feature of the evolution of technology.
It's also part of what's made the United States a meaner, ruder, and stupider society in recent years.
Small town newspapers once thrived. Every town had a newspaper, and even minor cities had more than one. Casper had two daily newspapers for years. When traveling, one of the things I always used to do was to buy a local newspaper, usually first thing in the morning. I'd normally read it as I ate breakfast. For that matter, lots of cafes had newspaper machines there in anticipation of people doing just that.
Now my local paper, barely hanging on, comes to me with a digital format. It's a shadow of its former self.
Also specter like is respect for the press. People have always tended to hate the press, just as they hate lawyers, but for a different reason. People don't like having their dirty laundry aired in public, even if they like looking at the dirty laundry of others, and people always feel that bad news is, somehow, a conspiracy. But when the news was mostly distributed by print media, people still had to largely accept that the news was real.
This started to erode even when the internet was in its infancy. Buffoons like Rush Limbaugh, who came on the radio and spouted propaganda, began to be taken as news. Now they're everywhere. People who'd prefer to get their news from the high school locker-room, for instance, can listen to Joe Rogan. Fox News and the like can provide streams of one sided blather a la Tass or the Völkischer Beobachter. People, who don't really like to be distressed by the news, can take comfort in these sources that tell them exactly what they want to hear.
What they won't be hearing much about is local events, as the local papers pass away.
Operation Silverplate is launched and changes history forever. . . and not in a good way.
0000, Tinian Time.: Colonel Paul Tibbets gives a final briefing at one end of the crew lounge. Seven B-29s are to take flight in the raid. The preferred targite is Hiroshima. Observation plane are the Great Artiste and Necessary Evil.
0015: Chaplain William Downey read a prayer that he composed specifically for this occasion.
Almighty Father, Who wilt hear the prayer of them that love thee, we pay thee to be with those who brave the heights of Thy heaven and who carry the battle to our enemies. Guard and protect them, we pray thee, as they fly their appointed rounds. May they, as well as we, know Thy strength and power, and armed with Thy might may they bring this war to a rapid end. We pray Thee that the end of the war may come soon, and that once more we may know peace on earth. May the men who fly this night be kept safe in Thy care, and may they be returned safely to us. We shall go forward trusting in Thee, knowing that we are in Thy care now and forever. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
As readers here know, I feel that the dropping of the atomic bombs was an unjustifiable war crime. I guess it doesn't surprise me that a chaplain was called for a prayer, but it is sort of a startling thing to realize in a way.
0112-0115: Trucks pick up the crews to take them to their planes.
0137: Weather planes, Straight Flush, Jabit III, and Full House, take off, each one independently assigned to assess weather conditions over Hiroshima, Kokura, and Nagasaki.
0151: Big Stink takes off to assume its stand-by role as the strike spare plane at Iwo Jima. B-29s were notoriously prone to mechanical break down.
0220: The final Enola Gay crew photo is taken.
0227: Enola Gay’s engines are started.
0235: Enola Gay arrives at her takeoff position on the runway.
0245: Enola Gay begins takeoff roll. Colonel Paul Tibbets says to co-pilot Robert Lewis, “Let’s go.”
0247: The Great Artiste takes off.
0249: Necessary Evil takes off.
0300: Capt. William “Deak” Parsons taps Tibbets on the shoulder, indicating that they were going to start arming Little Boy.
0310: Parsons inserts the gunpowder and the detonator into Little Boy.
0320: Parsons and Jeppson complete inserting the charge into Little Boy, and climb out of the bomb bay.
0420: Van Kirk provides an estimated time of arrival over Iwo Jima of 5:52am.
0600: The B-29s rendezvous over Iwo Jima, climb to 9,300 feet, and set their course for Japan.
0715: Jeppson removes Little Boy’s safety devices and inserts the arming devices.
0730: Tibbets announces: “We are carrying the world’s first atomic bomb.” He pressurizes the Enola Gay and begins an ascent to 32,700 feet. The crew puts on their parachutes and flak suits.
0809: The weather planes fly over the possible target cities. In Hiroshima, an air raid alert is communicated.
0824: The pilot of the Straight Flush weather plane sends Tibbets a coded message that states: “Cloud cover less than 3/10ths at all altitudes. Advice: bomb primary.”
0831: The weather planes depart their locations. In Hiroshima, the all-clear is sounded.
0850: Flying at 31,000 ft, Enola Gay crosses Shikoku due east of Hiroshima.
0905: Van Kirk announces, “Ten minutes to the AP.” The Enola Gay is at an altitude of 31,060 feet with an air speed of 200 miles an hour when the City of Hiroshima first comes into view.
0912: Control of the Enola Gay is handed over to the bombardier, Thomas Ferebee, as the bomb run begins. A Radio Hiroshima operator reports that three planes have been spotted.
0914: Tibbets tells his crew, “On glasses.”
0914:17 (0814:17 Hiroshima time): Ferebee’s aiming point, the T-shaped Aioi Bridge, is in clear range. The 60-second sequence to automatic release of the bomb is engaged with the Norden bombsight. Luis Alvarez, one of the Manhattan Project’s senior scientists aboard The Great Artiste, releases two pressure gauges on parachutes in order to determine the bomb’s yield. People on the ground, looking at the single bomber six miles above, observe the small object as it floats down.
0915:15 (8:15:15 Hiroshima time): Little Boy drops clear of its restraining hook. Ferebee announces, “Bomb away.” The nose of the Enola Gay rises ten feet as the 9,700 pound Little Boy bomb is released at 31,060 feet. Tibbets immediately pulls the Enola Gay into a sharp 155 degree turn to the right. Ferebee watches the bomb wobble before it picks up speed and falls away.
A second air raid alert is called for in Hiroshima.
0916:02 (8:16:02 AM Hiroshima time): Little Boy explodes 1,968 feet above the Dr. Shima’s Clinic, 550 feet away from the aiming point of the Aioi Bridge.
90,000 to 100,000 people, most civilians going about their daily lives in a wartime distressed Japan, are killed.
Notably, priests in the Franciscan church founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe were unharmed.
Priest visible in front of their church.
0930 (0830 Hiroshima time): The Imperial Japanese Kure Navy Depot sends a message to Tokyo that a bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima.
1055 (0955 Hiroshima time): The US intercepts a message from the Japanese 12th Air Division reporting “a violent, large special-type bomb, giving the appearance of magnesium" has exploded.
1100 (1000 Hiroshima time): A message from Hiroshima to the Army Ministry references information about a new American bomb and reports that “this must be it", indicating that there was an appreciation that something new and awful was coming.
1458: Enola Gay lands in Tinian Island at the North Field.
1500 (1400 Tokyo time): The Domei News Agency telegram in Tokyo reports an attack on Hiroshima, but not the magnitude of the destruction.
President Truman released a statement:
Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British "Grand Slam" which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.
The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. And the end is not yet. With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces. In their present form these bombs are now in production and even more powerful forms are in development.
It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.
Before 1939, it was the accepted belief of scientists that it was theoretically possible to release atomic energy. But no one knew any practical method of doing it. By 1942, however, we knew that the Germans were working feverishly to find a way to add atomic energy to the other engines of war with which they hoped to enslave the world. But they failed. We may be grateful to Providence that the Germans got the V-1's and V-2's late and in limited quantities and even more grateful that they did not get the atomic bomb at all.
The battle of the laboratories held fateful risks for us as well as the battles of the air, land and sea, and we have now won the battle of the laboratories as we have won the other battles.
Beginning in 1940, before Pearl Harbor, scientific knowledge useful in war was pooled between the United States and Great Britain, and many priceless helps to our victories have come from that arrangement. Under that general policy the research on the atomic bomb was begun. With American and British scientists working together we entered the race of discovery against the Germans.
The United States had available the large number of scientists of distinction in the many needed areas of knowledge. It had the tremendous industrial and financial resources necessary for the project and they could be devoted to it without undue impairment of other vital war work. In the United States the laboratory work and the production plants, on which a substantial start had already been made, would be out of reach of enemy bombing, while at that time Britain was exposed to constant air attack and was still threatened with the possibility of invasion. For these reasons Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt agreed that it was wise to carry on the project here. We now have two great plants and many lesser works devoted to the production of atomic power. Employment during peak construction numbered 125,000 and over 65,000 individuals are even now engaged in operating the plants. Many have worked there for two and a half years. Few know what they have been producing. They see great quantities of material going in and they see nothing coming out of these plants, for the physical size of the explosive charge is exceedingly small. We have spent two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history-and won.
But the greatest marvel is not the size of the enterprise, its secrecy, nor its cost, but the achievement of scientific brains in putting together infinitely complex pieces of knowledge held by many men in different fields of science into a workable plan. And hardly less marvelous has been the capacity of industry to design, and of labor to operate, the machines and methods to do things never done before so that the brain child of many minds came forth in physical shape and performed as it was supposed to do. Both science and industry worked under the direction of the United States Army, which achieved a unique success in managing so diverse a problem in the advancement of knowledge in an amazingly short time. It is doubtful if such another combination could be got together in the world. What has been done is the greatest achievement of organized science in history. It was done under high pressure and without failure.
We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.
It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth. Behind this air attack will follow sea and land forces in such numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they are already well aware.
The Secretary of War, who has kept in personal touch with all phases of the project, will immediately make public a statement giving further details.
His statement will give facts concerning the sites at Oak Ridge near Knoxville, Tennessee, and at Richland near Pasco, Washington, and an installation near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although the workers at the sites have been making materials to be used in producing the greatest destructive force in history they have not themselves been in danger beyond that of many other occupations, for the utmost care has been taken of their safety.
The fact that we can release atomic energy ushers in a new era in man's understanding of nature's forces. Atomic energy may in the future supplement the power that now comes from coal, oil, and falling water, but at present it cannot be produced on a basis to compete with them commercially. Before that comes there must be a long period of intensive research.
It has never been the habit of the scientists of this country or the policy of this Government to withhold from the world scientific knowledge. Normally, therefore, everything about the work with atomic energy would be made public.
But under present circumstances it is not intended to divulge the technical processes of production or all the military applications, pending further examination of possible methods of protecting us and the rest of the world from the danger of sudden destruction.
I shall recommend that the Congress of the United States consider promptly the establishment of an appropriate commission to control the production and use of atomic power within the United States. I shall give further consideration and make further recommendations to the Congress as to how atomic power can become a powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace.
Truman's comments about regulating nuclear power were spot on, but the association of nuclear power with the Atomic Bomb in the United States remains with us still, hindering our ability to develop nuclear energy, which we desperately need to do.
I'm linking this series of interesting podcasts in in spite of having a reason I normally wouldn't.
These have a pile of factual errors.
Nonetheless, the overall information is correct, and this presents a view much different than that which is generally given on this topic, based upon an analysis of the Japanese themselves. Well worth listening to.
U.S. aircraft raid Tarumizu, Kagoshima and Miyakonojou.
Aircraft from the Intrepid raid Wake Island.
Maj. Richard Bong, age 24, the highest scoring US air ace of World War Two was killed in a test flight of a P80 Shooting Star.
British Admiral Fraser invested Admiral Nimitz with the Order of Bath.
The 20th Air Force dropped 720,000 leaflets over twelve Japanese cities. Conventional bombing raids continued.
Gen. LeMay officially confirmed the atomic mission for the next day.
Paul Tibbets named the lead plane in the Hiroshima bombing mission the Enola Gay, after his mother. This was done over the objection of the planes normal designated pilot, Robert Lewis, who wanted to name the plane "The Pearl Harbor," "The Avenger," or "The USS Indianapolis". Lewis also wasn't happy about being moved to the co-pilot's seat for the mission.
Lewis would return to civilian life after the war, and died in 1983 at age 65.
The B-29 that would take photos on the mission would be named Necessary Evil. It featured, as many plans did, a buxom woman, albeit one clothed in a bikini, as nose art.
The Chinese 13th Army captured the town of Tanchuk. The Chinese 58th Division took Hsinning (Changchun).
Paul Ferdonet, the "Radio Traitor" of Stuttgart, was executed in France.
His pro Nazi broadcast had actually dwindled after 1942.
Oddly enough, today would have been Loni Anderson' birthday. She passed away yesterday.
The Welsh independence party Plaid Cymru was founded. At the time its goal was to make Welsh the official language of Wales.
Sefydlwyd y blaid annibyniaeth Gymreig Plaid Cymru. Ar y pryd ei nod oedd gwneud y Gymraeg yn iaith swyddogol Cymru.
Turkey's President Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) divorced his wife of less than two years, Latife Uşaki, after her public efforts to in favor of women's rights and to encourage their independence on choice of clothing.
She'd retreat into life long seclusion, passing away in 1975.
On July 4th, President Trump signed
into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This is the completion
of the budget reconciliation process, which allows for expedited
consideration of certain tax, spending, and debt limit legislation, and
delivers on the agenda the American people voted for in November. When
the OBBBA was before the Senate, Senator Mike Lee from Utah submitted a
proposal to allow for limited, targeted public land sales to assist
with housing and community development. This draft provision was
ultimately removed from the bill, did not become law, and was something
I was never asked to vote on in the House.
While this proposal was never before the House, I did receive countless
messages of concern regarding what it meant. Unfortunately, much of
this concern was manufactured via misinformation issued by
environmental groups who want to “rewild” the West and who do not have
our state or our communities’ best interests in mind.
The federal government owns over 640 million acres of our surface
estate, with the vast majority being located in the interior west and
Alaska. I believe that much of those lands should remain in the public
domain. Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Devils Tower, our national forests,
wild and scenic rivers, and our abundance of wildlife and fisheries
habitat are just some of the amenities that we enjoy and must protect
now and into the long distant future.
There is also a reality, however, that the federal government, through
agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and United States
Forest Service (USFS), currently own land that they cannot or will not
manage, and many of these lands are now contiguous to our cities and
towns and hinder our ability for these communities to grow. By way of
example, there is no reason for the BLM to own urban lots in downtown
Las Vegas and Reno, yet it does. We have communities in Wyoming that
are landlocked by the BLM, such as Kemmerer, who are unable to meet the
housing demand of young families and workers who seek to make those
places home. I am often asked about how we keep our children and
grandchildren in Wyoming rather than watching them move away. In short,
the only way to do so is if we have jobs and housing, and that is the
exact issue that Senator Lee was attempting to address. It was his
effort to begin the consideration of a narrow and targeted fix to
address the housing and development challenges that plague the
West.
Contrary to some of the misinformation circulated about Senator Lee’s
bill (e.g., that it would sell off 15 million acres, that Bill Gates
would be buying the National Parks, etc.), he specifically proposed the
disposal of only 0.25% to 0.50% of BLM lands located within five miles
of existing population centers and only for the purpose of housing
development. “Federally Protected Lands” (for example, National Parks,
National Monuments, the National Wilderness Preservation System, the
National Wildlife Refuge System, and more as defined in the text) would not be
eligible for sale. Lands with existing rights (i.e. grazing
and energy development) and lands utilized for recreation were further
excluded from the proposed sales. In order to be sold, lands would need
to be nominated by a buyer, who would be limited in acres acquired
under any single purchase, which would then trigger a consultation
process with the state and local government. If approved, a portion of
the revenue generated from the sale would be returned to the community
to assist with community development needs.
The fact is that the Senate started a discussion centered around
finding a sensible solution to the housing crisis in our communities,
an issue that is exacerbated by the large federal footprint in states
like Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming. Unfortunately, there were
several groups that saw this as an opportunity to raise money through
fearmongering and misinformation.
I want to reiterate that this proposal was never introduced in the
House, and I never voted on it. Senator Lee withdrew it
shortly after he introduced it. I was encouraged to see this issue
finally receiving some attention at the national level. While we in the
western United States deal with the challenges of a large federal
footprint on a daily basis, our counterparts in the East do
not. As your member in the U.S. House of Representatives, I
have introduced the No Net Gain in Federal Lands Act, which would
restrict further expansion of the federal estate, which I think is an
even more crucial policy as we assess how we address this issue.
Thank you again for your willingness to reach out to me directly with
your inquiry. Please understand that much of what you have heard about
this proposal is likely inaccurate and that Senator Lee was merely
attempting to answer the needs of our local communities, who are
hampered from further development due to the oversized footprint of the
federal government in our states.
Sincerely,
Rep.
Harriet Hageman Member
of Congress
At least Hageman seems to have the courage in her convictions. Here, however, that provides a reason not to support her in the future for concerned with public land, or the users, of any kind, of public land.
Paul Tibbets briefed his crew on the upcoming bombing mission to Hiroshima, telling the crew that the bombs would be immensely powerful and "something new in the history of warfare". No specifics were provided.
Tibbets had entered the Army in 1937 in order to become a pilot after dropping out of medical school. He died in 2007 at age 92.
The U.S. Army Air Force continued to drop leaflets over Japan warning of the destruction of cities.
British troops in Lower Sittang cleared the Japanese from the Pegu-Martaban railay at Abya.
Japanese troops executed seven captured American airmen in Singapore.
The Soviet Union gifted the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow with a bugged plaque.
On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe by Johnny Mercer was number one on the music charts.
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