A headline we'll be likely to see later today again, about New York and New Jersey.
Last edition:
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Thursday, November 4, 1875. A Proclamation of Thanksgiving.
Proclamation of Thanksgiving.BY J. A. CAMPBELL GOVERNOR OF THE TERRITORY OF WYOMING.THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAVING DESIGNATEDThursday, the 27th day of November, 1873,As a day of Thanksgiving and Praise, I recommend the faithful observance of the day by all the people of Wyoming, in accordance with the usual and time-honored custom."GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD, FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER."IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the Great Seal of the Territory to be affixed. Done at Cheyenne, this, Fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.J. A. CAMPBELL.[seal] * GREAT SEAL * TERRITORY OF WYOMING [/seal]By the Governor:JASON B. BROWN,Secretary of Territory.
Territorial Governor Campbell was of course a Republican, but not of the type that Republicans would now recognize. He was a political liberal and a backer of women's suffrage. He's served in the Union Army as a general during the Civil War and died in 1880 at the mere age of 44.
After leaving his post as the Territorial Governor, he served in various capacities in the Federal government for the remainder of his short life. Campbell County Wyoming is probably named after him, although there's some dispute on that.
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Wednesday, November 3, 1875. A fateful day.
Monday, November 3, 2025
Erika Kirk, and J.D. and Usha Vance.
I'm not going to link it in, as I think it's shallow on the solution, but pundit Ezra Klein has a current segment of his vlog in which he discusses how the Democratic Party is in such a mess, in spite of people really not being all that keen on Donald Trump's Fascist Roadshow, because they're really lost touch with average people at the street level. I've been saying the same thing now for what's approaching a decade.
Well, actually more like two, or more.
Anyhow, yesterday I ran this item which was sparked by liberal/center left blather about J. D. Vance hoping that his wife Usha become a Christian:
Lex Anteinternet: 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 rampagi...
One of the things this event shows, quite frankly, is the degree to which the left holds religion in contempt. The fact that they so obviously hold religion in contempt is part of the reason that people who are serious about their faiths, and that isn't limited by any means to Christians, do not trust the Democratic Party and, as long as it continues, aren't going to trust the Democratic Party. As I warned would occur, this is leading to a massive exodus from the Party by Hispanics, who are largely Catholic. If you demonstrate contempt for people's existential beliefs, they're not going to vote for you even if you promise all kinds of nifty social programs.
They also are not going to vote for you if you show childish glee over a made up sense of morality over an event that doesn't mean anything.
As people who stop in here know, I really don't particularly know what to make of the late Charlie Kirk. I've expressed my views on that elsewhere and I'm not going to back into them here. As little as I know about Charlie Kirk, and that's not much, I know even less about Erika Kirk.
The widowed Erika Kirk has been in the news a lot recently, as she's sort of taken up the mantle of her late husband's organization, Turning Point USA. In that role, she's been very public and is making public appearances. She's drawn criticism for that alone, as apparently those generally on the left feel, even if they don't, that she should be dressed in widow's weeds and moping around the house or something. Quite frankly, if she was a figure on the left, the same people would be praising her for her bravery.
And now comes the embrace with J. D. Vance.
Vance was speaking at some Turning Point USA event. He's probably a good choice for that, as Donald Trump is 750 years old and most Turning Point members aren't. The populist right has to keep in Turning Point's good graces, moreover, as it's part and parcel of the Evangelical embrace of Trump, albeit one that wasn't initially certain about Trump.
Anyhow, Kirk made some comment about Vance and her late husband being similar. I don't see that at all, quite frankly. And then she went on to hug him after introducing him.
This is a big non event.
Indeed, if you see the whole video, the entire thing lasted just second from beginning to end. You can only really make it a big deal, if you desire to, by screenshotting the whole thing as if it was an endless romantic embrace.*
Nonetheless, the left has reached out in shock and horror, certain after Vance's recent comments about hoping his wife converts, that he's about to ditch her as Kirk and Vance are now a couple.
Oh horseshit.
This shows once again the degree of contempt for conservative views that people on the left hold. There's no evidence at all that Erika Kirk is happy that her late husband was murdered and has now moved on to Vance. There's no evidence at all that Vance would betray his wife. Indeed, as he is a Catholic, and is expressing a Catholic view on his desire that she also convert, the better evidence is that he'd never do that.
This is, again, the very sort of thing that causes people on the right to regard the left and contemptuous and mean. And that doesn't win votes.
Footnotes:
*FWIW, as an Irish American (and genetically, I'm more Irish than many Irish), with some Westphalian heritage, I'm in that category of people who abhor hugs from people I'm not extremely close to. By that I mean I'll accept hugs from my wife and children, and I'm uncomfortable with them from anyone else.
This is a real northern European thing. We aren't a touchy people, and any kind of physical contact of this type is an unwanted intimacy unless its a wanted intimacy, in which case, you're contemplating marriage. Out in society, however, this just ain't so.
I've known people, almost invariably women, who are very touchy and it means nothing at all. And for some reason, in recent years, it's become increasingly common. I used to work with somebody, for example, that would do this routinely, particularly if you were at any sort of a function and she's had a drink. She's latch on to an arm and not let go. I took up using my wife as sort of a shield to avoid that. Another female lawyer I know invariably will make physical contact. There I am sitting at a hearing when all of a sudden there's hands on my shoulders so that I'll say "hi". Couldn't you have just said hi?
To make matters worse, I'm 5'6" tall and that puts me way down torso wise on any woman who is inclined to hug me for some reason. If they're short too it's okay, but if they're not, it's really awkward.
Anyhow, a flap like this reinforces my desire to avoid that sort of thing. The irony is, the people complaining about this probably aren't bugged by hugs at all, and a lot of them probably aren't all that concerned about personal or sexual morality either.
Saturday, November 3, 1945. Chinese Civil War, Game Wardens Killed.
China's civil war was acknowledged now to be a major conflict and two Game Wardens were found dead near Rawlins.
The Chinese Civil War was the topic of a political cartoon as well.
The murdered Game Wardens were Bill Lakanen and Don Simpson who were killed by ardent Nazi sympathizer and German immigrant Johann Malten. The same Game Wardens had arrested Malten for game violations when investigating, interestingly enough, claims that Malten had been involved in espionage and was relaying weather reports on shortwave, something that was illegal during the war when there was a blackout on weather reporting as the information was useful to submarines. Upon visiting Malten's cabin in the Sierra Madres they found he had committed numerous game violations.
On this occasion they were stopping by to see if Malten had continued to ignore the law. They were shot down out of hand when they arrived.
Malten burned his cabin down and it was officially reported that he'd died within it, although the evidence of that is very poor. There were reported sightings of him for years thereafter.
And a selection of 1945 cartoons.
The 3 November 1945 declaration was made in Indonesia, encouraging the formation of political parties as part of an anticipated Indonesian democracy.
Irvin Charles Mollison was sworn in as a U.S. Customs Court judge in New York City. He the first African-American to serve on the federal bench within the continental United States.
Last edition:
Thursday, November 1, 1945. The sabotage of railways in Mandatory Palestine.
Tuesday, November 3, 1925. Mitchell's Witness Demands Upheld, New Jersey Ballot, and the evolution of word meaning.
Mitchell was having some success with his witness list.
And Cowboys Out Our Way illustrated the evolution of a word in a somewhat ironic way.
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Saturday, October 31, 1925. Subpoena for Coolidge?
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.
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Labels: 1870s, 1875, 1875 Election, 1875 Territorial Legislative Session, Blog Mirror, Government, The Press, Wyoming
Sunday, November 2, 2025
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
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.
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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.
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:
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.
Wednesday, October 27, 1915. Abandoning the Endurance.
Last edition:
Best Posts of the Week of October 19, 2025.
Saturday, November 1, 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.:
Hmmm. . .it would actually make more biological sense to take them from Canada. . . or Alaska, than a nearby population.
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.
Friday, October 31, 2025
Friday Farming. Um. . .large farmers.
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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.
Thursday, October 30, 2025
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.
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