Wednesday, November 3, 1875. A fateful day.

President Ulysses S. Grant held a secret meeting with his cabinet and top military officials to decide on a strategy to force Native American tribes to move onto reservations in the West.  For the most part, they already had, but leaving the reservations seasonally was common.  With an increased agricultural and industrial population in the West, including forces which wished to exploit mining opportunities, real or imagined, this was an increasing problem for Washington.

This was a major step toward launching the final series of Indian Wars in the Rocky Mountain West.  While various struggles would continue into the 1890s, 1876, the following year, would be the deciding one.

By odd coincidence, November is Native American Heritage Month.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 2, 1875 Fourth Wyoming Territorial Legislature.

Labels: 1870s, 1875, 1875 Election, 1875 Territorial Legislative Session, Blog Mirror, Government, The Press, Wyoming

They were careless people.

 

Donald Trump at Mar A Logo's Halloween 1920s themed party.  Seated to Trump's left was an unhappy looking Marco Rubio with Jeanine Pirro looking back.  The event featured scantily clad dancing women, complete with the timeless barely clad woman in a giant champagne glass.

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

Donald Trump ought to read a little.  History would be a good start, but also Fitzgerald's great novel.

 

Dodgers Win World Series

Indeed, they did.  

I was rooting for the Blue Jays.  

I was really looking forward to this series, but when it arrived, I really didn't watch it.  It was a great series, but I just couldn't get into it.  I didn't even watch all of the concluding game, I was simply too tired and at some point went to bed.  Toronto was leading at the time.

This whole year has been sort of like that.  Stress, anxiety, fatigue, for a variety of reasons, take their toll.

Religion, J.D. and Usha Vance.

Because this blog is steadfastly horrified by Donald Trump and his administration, it'd be easy to assume that it's run by a rampaging leftist.  

It isn't.  

Indeed, if you follow the thread you'll see where we come out on the right a fair amount, which in our view doesn't mean supporting fascism.  I'm a conservative, not a right wing populist.

We note this, as there's been a flap over J. D. Vance's comments about hoping that his wife, Usha, converts to Catholicism, as if that's somehow inappropriate.

It isn't, and any sincere Catholic with a non Catholic spouse, which includes me, hopes for that.

Vance wasn't a political figure that I followed at all until he started to campaign for the VP slot next to Donald Trump.  Frankly, I found and still find his political migration to Trumpian authoritarianism appalling.  Anyhow, I knew that he was a convert to Catholicism, but I wasn't really aware of how recent of convert he is.  Vance grew up in Evangelical Protestantism, which isn't surprising given his "hillbilly" background, and at least according to an interview I heard of him some time ago, his influential grandmother was of the non churched Southern type of Christian view.  Vance himself was an atheist by the time he went to college   By 2014, the time of his marriage, he had resumed being a non denominational Protestant Christian but he was evolving towards Catholicism by 2016.  He converted to the Faith in 2019.

Vance's path is a lot more common than people suppose.  Vance is an intelligent man, my numerous political disagreements with him notwithstanding, and he became an atheist in ignorance.  The more educated he became, the more Christian he became, and exhibiting Cardinal Newman's Rule, that lead him ultimately to Catholicism somewhat against his own will, much like C. S. Lewis became a High Church Anglican after having been an atheist, or like G. K. Chesterton argued himself into the Faith.

Vance's path to Catholicism coincided his increasing rightward political draft and his barely camouflaged transformation into a Illiberal Democrat.  He's trod the same path in that regard ad Rod Dreher, whom is a friend of his (and who is pretending, frankly, to be Orthodox).  There's numerous other intellectuals on the right at this time who likewise share that distinction, such as J. R. Reno and Patrick Dineen, and amongst them are notable converts like Eva Vlaardingerbroek.  Indeed, there's a notable movement amongst conservatives from Lutheran nations in this direction, even as a non political boom in conversions occurs in various areas in Europe.  For cradle Catholics the association with illiberal democracy can be disturbing, and even result in outright internecine fights, but it is going on.  We here will note, as we have before, that becoming politically conservative does not mean having to become a populist let alone an illiberal democrat.

Anyhow, one of the things about Catholicism is this.  We are not religious pluralist.  If Vance did not wish for his wife to become Catholic, he'd be a very bad Catholic.

Usha Vance is a Hindu.

Catholics believe extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.  There is no salvation outside the church.

Now that's a doctrine that Catholics don't emphasize much, and often real diehard radtrad Catholics don't understand.  It isn't the case that Catholics believe that only Catholics can go to Heaven.  For that matter, Catholics are very far from any kind of "once saved always saved" theology and accept that a lot of Catholics might very well go to Hell.  Rather, Catholics believe, as the Catechism states it:

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."

Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

Vance can of course hope, and should hope, that Usha converts, as her chances of salvation are heightened.  Does that mean that if she doesn't, she's damned to Hell?  Well, we can't know the state of anyone's soul, but the fact that she hasn't would suggest that she's not consciously rejecting Christianity, but rather hasn't overcome something.

Vance himself should be worried about the state of his soul. Catholics reject IVF, which he's been backing, and lying on serious matters is a serious sin, which Vance has been doing at an epic level.

At any rate, Vance isn't doing the wrong thing by hoping his wife becomes Catholic.  He's completely correct to wish for that, including openly.

This is, however, where the liberal side of American culture, and even the American Civil Religion, and frankly the Evangelical Christians, all come into conflict with Catholics.

At some point in American history and in American culture, and it goes back pretty far it became really common for people to be sort of religious relativist.  "It doesn't matter what religion you are, as long as you are a good person."  Well, it does in fact matter what religion you are, and of course you should be a good person no matter what religion you are.

Catholicism was an oppressed religion in the United State up until basically the 1960s.  Open oppression of it lessened steadily in the century prior to the 60s, and in fact was intense prior to the 1860s.  Catholics really kept themselves in a major way as a result, and only really began to enter the wider culture after World War Two.  Al Smith's Catholicism is generally regarded as what made it impossible for him to win the Presidency prior to the war.  An early Casper politician of Irish extraction was controversial in the town's Catholic community because of the distance he put between himself and his religion.  The first Catholic Governor of Wyoming was probably Frank A. Barrett, who was a devout Catholic who went on to become the state's U.S. Senator thereafter.  Joe Hickey, another Catholic came after him.  Both Barrett and Hickey were Governors in the 1950s.  Of course, Kennedy broke the dam in 1960, but in part by pledging basically not to let his Catholicism influence him, which was a despicable pledge. 

Vance hasn't pledged that.

The only U.S. Army generals known to be Catholic during World War Two, we might note, were Lieutenant General John E. Hull and Major General Patrick J. Hurley.  This fits into the culture of the professional military class at the time and it might be noted that the first Jewish general in the U.S. Army, Maurice Rose, was a practicing Episcopalian.  Patton, often noted to be very devout, was an Episcopalian, as was Marshall.  

Anyhow, as noted, it's not the case that Catholics feel all non Catholics are going to Hell as they are not Catholic, and Catholics certainly do not believe that all Catholics are going to Heaven as they are Catholic.  Rather, Catholics believe that the Catholic Church, which is the oldest and original form of Christianity, is the church Christ founded and the one entrusted with the instruments of salvation.  In some ways, everyone who is ultimately saved is saved in some way because of the Catholic Church.  As, to use a mistranslation of von Balthasar's statement, we wish "for all men to be saved", we want everyone to be Catholics as that makes it much more assured.

This puts us way outside of the American Civil Religions' views that all religions, or perhaps all Christian religions with Judaism thrown in for good measure, are equal.

One thing it should also do, however, and recent conversions should help cradle Catholics to refocus on this, is to be concerned about people in our immediate orbit.  Vance is basically doing that, but frankly he's in a bit of a tough spot because he and his wife married before his conversion.  

Simply being in a marriage in which one member is a Catholic and the other is not, if the Catholic is a sincere Catholic, has some real challenges.  Catholicism is different and even after decades the non Catholic spouse can be really surprised by the application of the Faith by the Catholic spouse.  In "mixed" couples where the non Catholic spouse is a member of one of the churches that's very close to the Catholic Church this is less so, but even here I've known couples who attended Mass faithfully where one was a Catholic and the other a Lutheran, for instance, with the Lutheran never converting in spite of the two churches being so close.  

As Yeoman's First Law of Human Behavior is a powerful force, general run of the mill Protestant spouses may attend Mass and support their Catholic spouse early on, but over a period time, simply stop attending as most Protestants aren't under a requirement to attend any service on a Sunday. That's inevitably extremely hard on the Catholic spouse who soldiers on.  This has to be even more difficult in a situation such as Vance's in which the other spouse isn't even a member of a Christian religion at all.

Indeed, at one time Catholics were very much discouraged from marrying non Catholics, although its always occurred, and it was often a stipulation by the Catholic spouse that the other convert.  I've known several Catholic couples where this was what happened, although I think it much less common now.  The religion where this frequently occurs is the Mormon religion, which is not a Christian religion and which isn't compatible with any.  Of note there, usually fallen away Mormons simply become intensely anti religious, rather than some other religion.

Catholics only marrying Catholics was a lot easier when Catholics pretty much were associated, culturally, only with other Catholics. That day is long gone, but there's still some wisdom to the old custom here.  As with many things, the Catholic viewpoint on something like marriage is much different than the cultures, if taken seriously.  Catholics married to non Catholics are adding weight to their cross, no matter what.  And part of that weight is the hope the other spouse become Catholic.

Tuesday, November 2, 1875 Fourth Wyoming Territorial Legislature.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 2: 1875  The fourth session of the Territorial Legislative Assembly convened in Cheyenne.  Attribution:  On This Day.

Technically, it actually convened on the 5th.

If you think this resulted in big headline news in the few Wyoming papers there were at the time, you'd be wrong.  It was hardly noted at all.

Off year elections were held in some states on the same day.

Of note, it's interesting that the legislature at this point in time convened at the end of the year, rather than at the beginning of it.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 27, 1875. A Thanksgiving Proclamation

Labels: 1870s, 1875, Thanksgiving, U.S. Grant

Best Posts of the Week of October 26, 2025

 The best posts of the week of October 26, 2025.

Monday, October 26, 1925. Doolittle wins the Schneider Trophy.

Ezra Klein looks at the state of the Democrats. . twice.

Wednesday, October 27, 1915. Abandoning the Endurance.

Arches.

Sunday, October 31, 1915. Villa advances on the border.

Saturday, October 31, 1925. Subpoena for Coolidge?

Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus* Watch Part 1.

Monday, November 1, 1915. Villa attacks, and is defeated, at Agua Prieta.

Gilded Brothel School of Interior Design

Last edition:

Best Posts of the Week of October 19, 2025.

Gilded Age Brothel School of Interior Design

Nuclear weapons should not be entrusted to anyone pleased by Trump’s Gilded Age Brothel school of interior design.

George F. Will.

Going Feral: Nesvik tells Colorado to say no to Canadian wolves.

Going Feral: Nesvik tells Colorado to say no to Canadian wolves.: 

Nesvik tells Colorado to say no to Canadian wolves.

Hmmm. . .it would actually make more biological sense to take them from Canada. . . or Alaska, than a nearby population.

Alrededor de la vieja fogata (Around the ol’ campfire) - WyoFile

Alrededor de la vieja fogata (Around the ol’ campfire) - WyoFile: Miller’s mythical cowboys wonder whether they're making America or Argentina great again.

More Wyoming football, less propaganda

More Wyoming football, less propaganda: When the University of Wyoming played a video at a recent football game of Trump celebrating coal, it politicized an event that should be about unity, writes alumna Jessica Nyffler.

Thursday, November 1, 1945. The sabotage of railways in Mandatory Palestine.

The  Jewish Resistance Movement sabotaged British railways in Palestine.

Twenty-one German bankers were arrested for war crimes.

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 30, 1945. Rushing the Nationalist North.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Alcohol, Cartoons, Chinese Civil War, Distributism, hunting, J.R. Williams, Localism, Nationalist Chinese Army, Teenagers, Wyoming (Casper), Wyoming (Sheridan)

Friday Farming. Um. . .large farmers.

N.C. Wyeth, The Farmer.  1911.

On Friday, this blog tries to post something about farming, but it often lets everyone down by failing to do so, posting instead on various other inanities, such as a legislative committee passing a goofball ignorant bill on chemtrails.

Och!

Anyhow, we've been watching the news as first soybean farmers, and then later cattle farmers, have come on the news and stated, effectively, "we didn't think leopards would eat our face!" after Donald Trump took the tariff club and beat them upside the head and then decided that the Golden Arches could serve up Big Mac's with carne molida rather than ground beef.

What a bunch of amadán breallach.  Oh well, it's hard to feel sorry for them.  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Put that in your Happy Meal, bucko.

But this thread isn't on that.

Rather its on this.

We admire farmers and ranchers, as is rather obvious.  It's our true vocation, even if an unfulfilled one. And we are familiar with actual farming, not the Green Acres/Hallmark/Homesteading type of agriculture.

But we're also agrarians.

Anyhow, I can't help but note this, even though its rude.

The spokesmen for soybean farmers have, at least on some occasions, been enormously fat.

That's a bad look.  They're huge.  And they're not huge in the way that some large people are who are pretty fit, and I've known more than a few.  Indeed, I've known some outdoor employed people, both blue collar and in the sciences, who were really big, but quite fit.  You could tell that what was at work with them was genetics.  But many of these farmers, or at least the snipped I've seen, are just flat out fat.

This isn't the case with working ranchers.  

I guess that shows us the extent to which mechanized farming has become, well, mechanized.  At least one of these great big farmers has been interviewed in his farm machinery as he and it are working in his fields.  And that's just not conducive to living well.  Ranching is still a pretty physically active line of work.

With these guys, I suspect, but of course don't know, that they're still consuming a farm diet that developed prior to the 1980s.  Say, perhaps, before World War Two. Big breakfast, followed by heavy activity, big lunch, followed by heavy activity, and a  lighter dinner. . .sometimes followed by heavy activity.  Now, however, you can omit the heavy activity.

Which gets us back to, I guess, the state of the world in general.  Our technology is, frankly, killing us.  We really weren't meant to live that way, or much of the way our technological world is having us live.

And, as a minor fwiw, you really can't come on to television seeking sympathies for farmers if you look like, to use an analogy, a fat cat.  You guys have obviously been eating well.  Yes, that really shouldn't matter, and its not a moral failing, but it doesn't look good in the presentation.

Saturday, October 31, 1925. Subpoena for Coolidge?

Billy Mitchell's defense was considering subpoenaing Calvin Coolidge.

It was Halloween, and the Mills Tavern was having a party, with lots of elk.

That's a real curiosity, as generally it'd be very difficult to find a restaurant in Wyoming serving elk now.  Hunters can't have their elk served in restaurants, and market hunting as well as game farming is illegal in Wyoming.  Market hunting was illegal in Wyoming at the time, and in fact by 1925, was pretty much everywhere in the U.S.

An oddity of advertising in Casper appears here, I'd note.  At the time, advertisers routinely failed to note their addresses.  Where was the Mills Tavern, other than in Mills?

It's actually a little hard to find out.

The tavern seems to have opened, or reopened, in 1924.  It was operating as a restaurant, and it had private dining rooms.  By 1930 its focus may have changed, as it issued cigarette books with illustrations of scantily clad women on the jackets, although that was quite common at the time and at least into the 1950s.  Early on, however, it emphasized nightly dancing and chicken dinners.  Apparently the bands were good enough that a band appearing in Glenrock noted that it was "from" the Mills Tavern.

The focus may have changed sometime prior to that, actually, as it was hit in a prohibition raid in 1926, although only a small amount of alcohol was found.  Given that the amount was small, not too much can be presumed.

When the tavern opened in 1924, it noted that it was in the former Mills Hotel. That provides a pretty good clue as to its location.  An old hotel building still exists in Mills, no longer used for that purpose.  That was likely the location, and would explain why it had private rooms.

The new Ajax  was out:

Ajax automobiles no longer exist, of course.  Neither does the town of Salt Creek.

Ajax was made by Nash and was offered only in 1925 and 1926.

And, well, Coolidge looked safe.

 It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday, October 30, 1925. Not Guilty.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Billy Mitchell, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell

Thursday, October 30, 1975. King Juan Carlos I of Spain became acting head of state of the country after Franco conceded he was too ill to govern.

King Juan Carlos I of Spain became acting head of state of the country after Franco conceded he was too ill to govern.

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 21, 1975. Franco approaches the end.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, 1975 World Series, baseball, Francisco Franco, Spain, Sports

Tuesday, October 30, 1945. Rushing the Nationalist North.

The Sheridan Press reported that the Nationalist Army, whom they reported as "regulars", were being rushed to Mongolia to fight the Communists.

That was correct.  The U.S. was aiding in that effort through air lifting.

A local brewer that no longer exists advertised in the issue:

The common belief is that most local breweries didn't survive the Great Depression, but Sherida Brewing did.  Casper Brewing did as well.

Out Our Way for this day:

This shows how rural the country remained at the time.  Out Our Way was a nationally syndicated cartoon, but you'd have to be a hunter to really understand the cartoon.  

Finally, from that front page:

Father 31?  Son 18.

That would mean the father was 13 when the son was born. . . 

Shoot, the father was well within the conscription age himself.

Last edition:

Monday, October 29, 1945. Noting the Chinese Civil War.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 1945 Election, Chinese Civil War, It was because of World War Two, Wyoming (Sheridan), Wyoming Municipal Governments, Yeoman's First Law of History

Friday, October 30, 1925. Not Guilty.

 Billy Mitchell plead not guilty.

Last edition:

Thursday, October 29, 1925. No Free Speech.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Billy Mitchell, Daily Living, Food, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, Women, Yeoman's First Law of History

Arches.

Sigh. . . 

White House fires arts commission expected to review Trump construction projects

The move comes as President Donald Trump pursues efforts to build a White House ballroom and a triumphal arch in Washington.

So, if you've been distracted or are just sick of reading stories about the toddler in the White House, here's what this is about:

What we know about White House plans for an 'Arc de Trump'

The BBC article discounts Trump's ability to get this thing built, but that was penned before Trump showed that he'll just ignore the law in this area, as with everything else.

The United States needs a triumphal arch about as much as it needs to build its own version fo the Brandenburg Gate, which we should have blown to bit at the end of World War Two.  At least its not as butt ugly as McCreery's gigantic garden shed that will be a temporary "ballroom" attached to the White House.  That will get partially constructed and then ripped down, to be followed soon after by:

Did you work on illegal White House construction projects?  You were likely exposed to asbestos and should sue the ass of off Donald Trump, call . . . 

Anyhow, Triumphal Arches date back at least to the Romans, and they're particularly associated with them.  The gigantic one in Paris, the Arch de Triomphe, we can blame on Napoleon whom, we should remember was deposed by a coalition of non wacky powers in the 19th Century and sent to die on Elba, where he was likely poisoned.

Triumphal Arches have been emulated ever since the Romans built them, and they appear in many countries.  They are particularly associated with autocratic powers, which suffer from knowing they aren't worthy and therefore try to monument themselves into worthiness, but there are some in democratic states including in the U.S.

There's probably a smaller chance that construction gets started on this before Trump leaves office or collapse in his Happy Meal while babbling, but again, getting it rolling wouldn't be too surprising.  Keeping it up? That's another matter.

I give the White House Garden Shed about an 80% chance of being torn down.  If an arch goes up, I'd give it about a 40% chance.

A 2026 Election Storm Warning.

Donald Trump attempted to steal the 2020 Presidential Election and failed.  Having won the 2024 election, he's now working on stealing the 2026 mid terms.

The 2026 election will be the critical one.  Republicans are going to try to use everything they can think of, legitimately, nad illegitimately, to control the outcome of the 2026 midterms.  If they fail, they'll refuse to accept the results.

The 2026 election may well prove to be the election that breaks the republic.

Monday, October 29, 1945. Noting the Chinese Civil War.

The press noted the outbreak of a civil war in China. . . which in fact had been going on for a couple of decades, having broken out in August, 1927.

Sheridan was very obviously considering the City Manager form of government.

There are three types of municipal governments under Wyoming's law.  Strong Mayor and Council.  City Manager and City Commissioner, the latter of which has never been adopted by any Wyoming municipality.

Sheridan does have the City Manager form of government, although I don't know if they opted for it in 1945.  Casper and Laramie also have that form of government, and apparently Laramie did by 1945.  Here too I'm surprised, as I didn't realize the option went back that far.

Yet another war related loan drive.

Last edition:

Saturday, October 27, 1945. Navy Day.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, boats and ships, Harry S. Truman, Indonesia, Indonesian National Revolution, Navy Day, New York, the spoken word, U.S. Navy

Thursday, October 29, 1925. No Free Speech.

 Free speech didn't work as a defense for Bily Mitchell.

This isn't the full paper by any means, but there is some interesting items here and there.

Not to tread where we shouldn't, but the advertisement above for Kotex surprises me. 

So does the item on constant pain from pimples.

And the one on credit score. This is really before I thought there was a credit score.

And you don't need to add bran to Oatmeal.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 28, 1925 Mitchell challenges Jurisdiction.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Army, Billy Mitchell, Blog Mirror, Calvin Coolidge, Cartoons, football, France, J.R. Williams, law, Marriage, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, U.S. Navy, Whatever It Is I'm against it