Friday, November 27, 1925. Hill Packing.

The Casper Tribune reported on major events of the day, but what drew my attention was the horse packing plant.  I was completely unaware that Casper had every had one.

A little digging shows the company was still in business in February 1928, and doing well enough to have a full page ad.

By that time it was then packing everything, including poultry.  Horses were still noted, however, with the reference to wild horses, "outlaws of the range".  The company advertised into the 1930s, and there were newspaper reports of it taking in huge numbers of horses.

What happened to it?

Of interest on this story, the plant was owned by Hill Milling Company, which still exists.  It's Hill's Pet Nutrition today.  Apparently in the 1930s it was a major supplier of horse meat to Europe.

The Soviet Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars.established Gostrudsberkassy, the savings bank for workers in the Soviet Union.

On the same day, the USSR and the Emirate of Afghanistan went to war over control of the island of Urta Tagay.  

The small war over the island resulted from Imperial Russian troops having to abandon the island in 1920 in order to aid the White cause, with the island, long claimed by Afghanistan, then occupied.  The fight drew the attention of western nations, and amazingly Afghanistan won.

The Reichstag approved the Locarno Treaties.

Last edition:

Thursday, November 26, 1925. Thanksgiving Day.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Blog Mirror, Calvin Coolidge, Christianity, football, Holidays, religion, Sports, Thanksgiving, United States Marine Corps, Whatever It Is I'm against it, Wyoming (Edgerton)

Blog Mirror and Pondering: Cassie Craven: Welfare Was Supposed To Be Our Job

Let me start off by noting that as a rule, I can't stand Cassie' Craven's op eds.  They tend to be in your face unthinking populist, and I also resent (I'm not kidding) the co-opting of a cowboy hat that obviously doesn't fit.

And frankly I don't much like people spouting off about protecting Wyoming or what Wyoming is or was, when they aren't from here. She's from Nebraska, so that's not far off, but Nebraska is not Wyoming.  

Well, like some other populist things, or NatCon things, I'll confess that as a real conservative, and for htat matter a distributist agrarian, I find myself occasionally disturbed by a one of their members saying something that taps into something I've said myself.  This article by Craven does that:

Cassie Craven: Welfare Was Supposed To Be Our Job

As much as I hate to admit it, and I do hate to admit it, she has a point, although in the typical populist manner, she starts off by saying something cruel to get to the point.  Indeed, it basically takes her 40% of her article to quit being an asshole before she gets to the point that 's worth considering, with this paragraph:

Welfare, in the 14^th century meant one’s good fortune, health and exemption from evil. This changed in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries as public assistance became a role the government took over from the private charities, which had historically helped to ensure that people fared well. Welfare was holistic, community-driven and just as much emotional and spiritual as it was physical.

The shift of society away from the church-based and community associations and toward the government was no good for our fellow man. Adding fuel to the fire were the rapid technological advances that made us distant, isolated, and serotonin-addicted.

This has addled people’s ability to engage in real conversation or romance.

Well, she's correct, sort of .

Craven seems to edge up on the point, actually and then wonder off again, being slightly mean spirited once again.  She never gets to the bigger point which is that a welfare system that creates semi permanent benefits, run by a bureaucracy, creates dependency, and corrupts.  Indeed, that was the huge difference, other than an inability to cover all who really needed help, from modern welfare and pre Great Depression charity.

Support form charitable organizations, and churches, and the like, was always very temporary.  And it tended to come with some requirements.  State funded welfare tends not to, although the GOP has attempted to insert some.  There are work requirements, of course, but it is difficult to tell how much they're winked at as the principles of subsidiarity have not been applied, so there's no real control.  In contrast, I know of a situation in which a Church collects directly for the poor and distributes directly to the poor.  In doing so, they do ask "are you working?"

And there are more uncomfortable truths as well.  Welfare has, ironically, been a major driver in the decline of Western morality, and more particularly, and arguably much more pronounced, American morality.

Prior to the current welfare regime, children were very much the responsibility of both parents, in every fashion.  We've discussed this in the context of the Playboy Philosophy and what not, but what was the case, even into the early 1980s, was that people that had children were normally married, and to a large degree, women who became pregnant out of wedlock either married the father or gave the child up for adoption (or after 1973, aborted).  Moral decay brought on by the Sexual Revolution, aided by pharmaceuticals, started to erode the two parent family however and in our current age that's pretty pronounced.  An African American commentator got in trouble a year or two ago by claiming that some women "married the government", but there's more than a little truth to that.  Kids raised in this environment are more subject to abuse by subsequent "boyfriends" of their mother, and are more likely to  be raised in poverty and declining morality.  It's simply the truth.

That in turn kicks back to society at large.  The American lower middle class tends to wade at least knee deep in a sort of moral sewer even while being horrified by those swimming in it.  This wasn't the case thirty year or more ago.  The trend line isn't good.

So, Cravens has a point.

But how do you end this? She doesn't opine on that, which is the cowardly way out.  Indeed nobody, except perhaps for those deep in the Heritage Society, is doing so.  What Project 2025 did, apparently, is to suggest an increase in work requirements, which was attempted sort of sub silentio earlier this year.  But then, the entire NatCon group in the government right isn't really willing, in general, to admit trying to bring into play any of their policies. They do them all silently while sometimes denying they're doing them at all.

Which is one of the things I really detest about the Trump Administration.  It's dishonest.  They should simply admit, if they think it, that "welfare is contributing to moral decay and we have to do something about it."

Of course, the problem here is that most Americans really don't want to do anything about the things they claim they do.  Bloated Americans who spend Sundays watching the NFL and who are living with their second or third wives or girlfriends might think about going to the megachurch once a month where the pastor is not going to equate their lifestyle with adulterous mortal sin, or preach about the dangers of wealth to their souls, and might bitch about homosexuals and the like even while being just as morally adrift, but they don't really want the responsibility of responsibility.

Of course, save for some, which explains a movement towards cultural conservatism in the young, thereby being proactive in the culture, even if not attempting to be cultural revolutionaries.

Charlie Kirk and the hypocrisy of the Wyoming GOP

Charlie Kirk and the hypocrisy of the Wyoming GOP: A recently passed resolution to limit free speech demonstrates how little the state Republican Party believes in the First Amendment, writes columnist Rod Miller.

Cooking with Congress: Hello can I come to your Friendsgiving?

 

Ducking mystery solved; employee creates joy with tiny surprises > Defense Logistics Agency > News Article View

Ducking mystery solved; employee creates joy with tiny surprises > Defense Logistics Agency > News Article View: In the busy world of Defense Logistics Agency Aviation at Defense Supply Center Richmond, an unexpected yet delightful phenomenon has taken root: tiny duck trinkets, mysteriously appearing throughout the workplace, have become a symbol of joy and, Read news articles posted by the Defense Logistics Agency.

This has been going on in my office in a major way. 

Monday, November 26, 1945. Now's the Time, Wolves and War Brides, Questionable claim about Goering, Test tube babies in Virgin hospitals, Japanese social insurance, ties for Christmas.

Recorded on this day in 1945:

 The Sheridan Press reported on wolves and war brides.

The story on the big wolf is ironic in a contemporary context.  Wolves were wiped out in Colorado, probably and in Wyoming, probably, until the major reintroduction effort of the 2000s began.  It's been a huge success in Wyoming, for which I'm glad, in spite of my initial skepticism.  An ongoing effort is occuring in Colorado, which is meeting a lot of opposition in the anti nature Freedom Caucus era.

The Rocky Mountain News, which I remember from the 70s, 80s and 90s, when it was the best, in my view, of the two Denver papers, was a bit sensationalist at the time, which I've only recently come to appreciate.  It was always a "tabloid", with that sort of paper format for some reason having a reputation of that type.  I've never heard of the story related by the headline here:

A little digging finds that this claim was flat out untrue.

The News also reported on, oddly enough, test tube babies, something that is way earlier than I'd have ever supposed.

The first "test tube" baby was born in 1978.  That person Louise Brown, is still with us.  The first example of IVF in a mammal did not occur until 1959.  Apparently the proponent of this suggestion was well ahead of her time in terms of scientific knowledge.

It's notable that the suggestion had a strong eugenics characteristic.  That drive is also now very much coming into fruition, with designer babies now becoming a thing.

On the underlying concern, the explosion in births and the drop in the average age for a woman to first give birth that commenced at this time shows the concern was misplaced.  As a Catholic, of course, I regard IVF as both unnatural and immoral.  The bizarrely pro natalist Trump administration is all in on it.

The News also reported on Japanese social insurance, something being brought in by the progressive and distributist MacArthur occupation.

The cartoons of the day.

A classic gift was suggested.

British troops swept the Sharon plain in reaction to a prior days terrorist attack.

Ezra Pound was indicted for a second time on 19 counts of treason.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 25, 1945. Taxing war profits.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Austria, Christian Democrats, Douglas MacArthur, Japan, Occupation of Japan, Taxes

Thursday, November 26, 1925. Thanksgiving Day.

Edgerton dodged a bullet.

Remembering what hte day is for, there were church services.

Some were attended by the famous.

As well as the not so famous.

Pan American Mass, New York City.

Georgetown played a Marine Corps football team:

Other news:

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: November 26, 1925: I don’t give a damn...: France: Paul Doumer, like Briand, fails  to form a cabinet, so Édouard Herriot, who was last prime minister in April, will try next. Texas G...

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 25, 1925. Hats.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, China, China (Beijing), Clothing, law, Turkey

Sunday, November 25, 1945. Taxing war profits.

MacArthur ordered the Japanese government to submit a plan to tax away all war profits.

The Austrian People's Party won the Austrian election.  The Christian Democratic party still exists.

Zionist terrorists attacked coast guard stations near Tel Aviv.

Last edition:

Thursday, November 22, 1945. Thanksgiving Day.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Cartoons, entertainment, Home Front, It was because of World War Two, J.R. Williams, Japan, Joseph Stalin, Rationing, Strike Wave of 1945-1945, Thanksgiving, The written word

Wednesday, November 25, 1925. Hats.

The Turkish Hat Law, banning non Western headgear, took effect.

Beijing's Forbidden City was opened to the public for the first time.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 24, 1925. William F. Buckley born

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 2000s, 2007, Conservatism, William F. Buckley

‘It’s terrifying.’ Wyoming leads country with highest jump in Obamacare costs

‘It’s terrifying.’ Wyoming leads country with highest jump in Obamacare costs: For a 60-year-old Wyoming resident earning $63K a year, the average monthly ACA premium costs are increasing by 421%.

Truly an example, for Wyoming, of play stupid games, win stupid prizes, which we're seeing a lot of now days.  Chaining ourselves to the far right is proving to be a huge mistake in nearly everything.

Republicans have been opposed to the Affordable Health Care Act from the very beginning, but have failed to repeal it, and have failed to offer any alternatives to it.  The act itself definitely has flaws, but ironically the flaws that exist are due to ongoing right wing opposition to national health care, which every other advanced nation has.

The credit system that the AFHA currently has came in during the Covid pandemic, and because of it, given that so many people were out of work.  Removing them will cause a massive jump in insurance rates.  None of this is a surprise to people who have looked at it, and frankly I suspect its a backdoor path to Republicans removing the system on the basis that it's too expensive and hence a failure.

It might also prove to be the straw that breaks the back of resistance to national health care.  Thousand will not be able to afford insurance and it'll be a health crisis.  Populists on the right will receive the blame for it while those on the left, like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez will pick it up, arguing for a national system.  The political winds are already turning against the Republicans and this will make it worse for them.

Because of the cost of healthcare, this is an area where the principals of subsidiarity, as well as the principal of solidarity, really call for a basic national system, which shouldn't be all that hard to create. Such a system would cover basic health care.  Elective matters of a non life threatening nature it wouldn't.  And it wouldn't cover the "medical" items in the culture wars either, such as abortion  

Tuesday, November 24, 1925. William F. Buckley born

William F. Buckley was born in New York City.  He'd grown up all over the Western World, notably in the United Kingdom, due to his father's business interests.

He was essentially the founder of modern conservatism, a movement that's been destroyed by Trump's populism.  He died in 2007 at the age of 82.

Last edition:

Monday,November 23, 1925. USS Wyoming commences an overhaul.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, boats and ships, Crime, Newspapers, Retail, U.S. Navy, Wyoming (Casper)

Trump’s pardon of crypto king makes case for constitutional reform

Trump’s pardon of crypto king makes case for constitutional reform: A constitutional amendment first proposed after Watergate would address questionable pardons, writes guest columnist David Adler.

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 109th Edition. Lost love. Painting Targets. Piggy. Articles of Surrender. Voting in opposition of something that isn't going on.

Lost love

The big news this past week is that Marjorie Taylor Greene, who came to prominence as one of the most notable and frankly disagreeable figures on the far right, and then who moved away from Trump, is leaving the 119th Congress in January after her pension vests.

What's exactly going on here is really unclear, but Green's transformation was remarkable.  She used to come across like an ignorant howler monkey.  If  Eva_Vlaardingerbroek is the "Shieldmaiden of the far right", she was more like an buffoonish bouncer.

All of a sudden, however, she really came around to opposing Trump and in fact suddenly sounded like a different person completely.  That suggests her antics were always an act put on for her constituents.

Given her change, she was drawing the direct opposition of Trump who was opposing her in next year's Congressional election.  She already had stout opposition and may just be taking off because she doesn't want to spend the next year dealing with a pack of extremists.  Her transformation did not cause her to be loved by moderates who were baffled on her transformation, save perhaps for Thomas Massie, whom Trump also hates.  Trump is vicious to all who oppose him.

Well, as W. E. B. Dubois famously said, only a food never changes their mind.

The Seditionist accuses others of Sedition.

Oh horse shit.  No "great legal scholars" are venturing that opinion.  Pam Bondi probably would, if told to do so, but her sycophantry disqualifies her from being a great anything. 

Donald Trump is a seditionist insurrectionist.  He has not had his act of sedition excused by Congress, so he's actually ineligible to be President of the United States, and legally, isn't.

So that makes it all the more ironic and hypocritical that he's gone after a collection of Congressmen and Senators, all veterans, who reminded service members that they can, and must, obey an illegal order, under certain circumstances (they can't for instance, just assume an order may be illegal).

Some of this has actually already been happening.  Resignations of senior officers, and some firings, have hit the news, usually with a "gosh, I wonder why this is happening" sort of commentary.  It's happening because they're opposing illegal orders.  It's also the case that National Guardsmen have started a backchannel internet communication discussion that includes the same topic.

Trump seems to be in a full blown panic about this, and probably for good reason.  The US is currently murdering people on the seas in extrajudicial killings using military force that some regard as being on the edge of illegality.  Trump has sent National Guardsmen to cities with Courts repeatedly intervening to stop the deployments.  Trump is constantly rumored to be on the edge of using the Insurrection Act.  But as time goes on he gets more and more erratic.

The majority of American people already disapprove of Trump's presidency.  There's no national stomach at all for using the military against the population, but the administration has constantly flirted with it, and to some extent, already done it.  The legality of Trump's actions on all levels are in the Courts.  There's a reviving movement to impeach him, and his behind the scenes support may well be reaching the breaking point.  We still don't know what was in the Epstein files, other than that rich and powerful men feel they can get away with whatever they want, including screwing teenage girls.

Declaring the politicians who spoke to be seditionist is absurd.  They were no such thing.  But it does paint a target on their backs.  This was reprehensible.

It's also a sign of extreme desperation.  We'll note that below.

Piggy

One of the increased signs of Trump's dementia is his inability to hold his tongue.  Last week he called a reporter who asked a question he didn't like "Piggy".  It was a female reporter.

He's demented.

Any other politicians in the US who said such a thing would be howled down to the point they'd offer an apology.  Not Trump, of course.  The fact that he hasn't been is evidence of what redneck trash this country has become.  It's appalling.

It's also a sign that at this point Trump is so stressed by something that the wheels are really coming off of his psyche.

Articles of Surrender

One of the most notable things about Donald Trump is the degree to which he truly seems to abhor war.

Or does he?

It's actually a bit difficult to tell.

Regarding the Russo Ukrainian War, Trump has repeatedly issues statements that approach being homo erotic about the war and how it needs to end, due to all the "beautiful" young men it kills.  At the same time, of course, he doesn't mind killing South American men very much.

Going back to that, however, Trump has being trying and promising to end the Russo Ukrainian War for well over a year now.  He's flip flopped on positions, but one of those that he periodically occupies is acting as an agent for Russia.  We're back at that point again.

The West promised to secure Ukraine's sovereignty when it gave up its nuclear weapons.  The West has not fulfilled that promise fully.  President Biden did a good job of helping Ukraine right from the onset, but didn't go as far as he should have.  The various European nations have done far, far more than they've gotten credit for.  

Trump desperately wants a Nobel Peace Prize, and although he may have convinced himself that he ended "eight wars", so far, he's not really ended any, if we consider that the only real claim he could have made to that effect was the war in Gaza, where Israel conducted a bombing raid yesterday.  Most people who have really looked at the situation in Gaza don't expect the peace to hold permanently.

A real peace between Ukraine and Russia would be a major accomplishment, however.  The thing is, however, that the "peace plan" that Trump presented was basically that Ukraine surrender.  Indeed, it resembles the treaty that ended the Great War to some extent, in that Ukraine gives up land and limits the size of its army, which are two of the things Germany did at the end of World War One.

That worked out oh so well.

Of course, to realize that would require a sense of history, which Trump lacks.  That the plan smacks of the Munich Accords also would require that.

So, back to a couple of things .Why is Trump the only Western leader outside of Viktor Orban who  likes Putin?  It isn't because he's on the populist right.  Giorgia Meloni is on the populist right and she's not a Putin fan.  

But Meloni also is very intelligent and not trying to suck up unwarranted praise all the time.

It might be just because the Russians know that Trump is demented and a narcissist, and they play into that.  But it's hard to wonder if it isn't something else.

At any rate, member of the Administration are already attempting to walk the document back.  That's interesting, as Trump seemed very solidly behind it.  That suggest that there are some forces behind the scenes that can operate a bit independently of Trump.

Voting no on Socialism while Trump cozies up to it.

The House voted on a resolution to disapprove Socialism, which is just about as stupid of thing as they could done.  What on earth was that exactly supposed to prove?

The GOP has really gone off the rails on this topic in that it now asserts routinely that Socialism=Communism.  It doesn't.  All Communists are Socialist, but not all Socialists are Communists, and those who maintain the opposite need to go back to school.

Ronald Reagan's big French buddy Francois Mitterrand was a Socialist.  He was also completely democratic.

Of course, Donald Trump isn't completely democratic, but interestingly, some of his policies are socialist, and now he's had a fawning meeting with the new Democratic Socialist mayor of New York City.  He declared that they had a lot of views in common.

Look for the GOP to now propose joining the Comintern.  

Turning Point at CC

One of the things that the assassination of  Charlie Kirk seemed to do was to boost the creation of Turning Point USA chapters.  There's one at one of the local high schools now, and one at the local community college.

At that one, there was just an event at which the far right Secretary of State and a far right politician who wants less government but who is a major landlord, thereby occupying a role in society that only exists due the major support of the government, or else people would ignore your claim to property rights, spoke.  

Wyoming's far right is sounding more and more irrelevant, so its interesting how these things are a bit behind the curve.  Of course the Secretary of State, in order to try to keep ahead of the curve, has been sounding like a member of Greenpeace recently.  I thought this would have generated some news, but it doesn't seem to.

Interesting.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 108th Edition. Lost love.

Labels: Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Politics, Zeitgeist

Today In Wyoming's History: November 22, 2025. Retiring a number.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 22: 2025.  Former University of Wyoming football player and now player for the Buffalo Bills in the NFL, Josh Allen, had his UW uniform number retired prior to a UW football game against Nevada with the Pokes lost, 13 to 7.

Also, he's married to Hailee Steinfeld.

Monday, November 23, 1925. USS Wyoming commences an overhaul.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 23: 1925   The USS Wyoming commences an overhaul at the New York Navy Yard.

Not wanting that to be the only item for the day, we offer the following (note, this was in error, this is a paper from 1923):

The paper noted that it was for the whole family, clean, and unbiased.  It might have been all of those things, but what a bunch of horrible news.

Note the big collection of drug charges.

A surplus store in Casper was going out of business.

The building that business occupied is still there.  It's an office building today, right between the Rib & Chop House and the Ugly Bug Fly Shop, both of which occupy old buildings that were also there, but neither of which were in operation at the time.

Rib & Chop is going out of business with the conclusion of the year.  The most famous occupant of that building was The Wonder Bar which opened in 1937 and which was a Casper institution, with ups and downs, for decades.

Last edition:  

Saturday, November 21, 1925. Lava Beds.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art, Calvin Coolidge, football, Geology, Lava Beds National Monument, nature

Jackson Hole Ski Patrol takes steps to unionize

Jackson Hole Ski Patrol takes steps to unionize: Amid unionizing effort, patrol says opening Jackson Hole Mountain Resort on Nov. 28 remains top priority.

Best Posts of the Week of November 16, 2025

Quite the week.

There was lost love:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 108th Edition. Lost love.

A horrible lynching was recalled:

Friday, November 16, 1900. The lynching of Preston Porder.

A classic design was patented.

Tuesday, November 16, 1915. Coca Cola receives a patent.

DeGaulle put his foot down, but more than that, a monster was convicted.

Saturday, November 17, 1945. Charles De Gaulle says Non to the Communists.

Sunday, November 18, 1975. The return of Eldridge Cleaver.

The 2026 Election, 3rd Edition: The Self Inflicted Wound Edition.

The Third Man - Lime's Introduction

Ignorance, and genius, was in evidence.

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

White House Hall of Shame.

A union martyr, who probably didn't die for labor, was recalled.

Friday, November 19, 1915. Joe Hill executed.

An early look at what nuclear war appeared in Life.

Monday, November 19, 1945. Truman proposes comprehensive national healthcare, Life imagines a nuclear war, The French Assembly says "Non".

Dreams denied and abandoned.

Thursday, November 19, 1925. First lighted high school football game.

Sunday, November 20, 1910. Madero crosses. . . and then returns.

Thursday, November 20, 1975. Death of Franco.

Court Watch, Part IV.

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Sixth Edition. The demented panicked Octogenarian edition.

The 2026 Wyoming Legislature, Part 2. Pre Legislative Committee Edition.

President Trump played Neville Chamberlain

Wars and Rumors of War, 2025. Part 8. The Tin Pot Dictator Edition.

Monday ,November 22, 1875. The death of Vice President Henry Wilson.

The Golden Age of Air Travel starts with you.

The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You

The Secretary of Transportation has taken a lot of flak for this, and I'm not fan of the Trump Administration, but you know, I don't think the message here is wrong by any means.

And, fwiw, I hate seeing people in pajamas in public, whether its on an airplane, or Walmart.

And we never got to much of the news.

Last edition:

Best Posts of the Week of the Week of November 9, 2025.