Disney released Song of the South, the first production to combine animation with live action.
The cartoon is considered a masterpiece of animation, and is controversial for being racist. It's never been released in a home format.
When I was a kid, Disney used to run it in a compressed form, or perhaps snippet form, on its Sunday evening television program. We learned the song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah in school.
Regionally, the Rocky Mountain West was getting pummeled by a major snow storm.
It's often noted in certain circles, but not generally discussed, that the weather of the 1940s in its entirety was odd and severe. 1940-1942 featured an event called the 1940-42 Global Anomaly which featured a strong, prolonged El Niño and two of the coldest European winters of the 20th century, but unusually warm temperatures in Alaska and the Arctic. The War Winters of the 1940s were very bitter, with the UK experiencing its worst winter in 1940 since 1895. Bitter weather was often a feature of horrific field conditions in Europe, with for example the entire Battle of the Bulge being notoriously cold and snowy. The Thames and Berlin Canals froze in 1940. 1940 in the US saw the horrific 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard. The Winter of 1946-1947 was catastrophically cold and snowy in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Winter of 1947 would be catastrophically severe in the American West.
When these are considered they're sometimes considered as singular localized events, but they are not, as the War Winters and the 40-42 Anamonly demonstrate. Some global weather phenomenon was going on globally, just has the warm weather of the 1930s had been. In today's News item, we can see that what was going on in the UK and would go on in the West in 1947, was already expressing itself in the Rocky Mountain West, and indeed it had been since at least 1940. The Winter of 1947 is regarded as a climatic shift resulting from Global Warming, which can cause weather to not only be warmer, but more severe.
The causes of climatic shifts were already being debated by the 1930s, but in general scientific consensus, in spite of what climate mythologist like to suggest, by the mid 20th Century it was understood that human beings were effecting the climate and scientists were urging action and caution by that time. As that was ignored, it's now the point at which very pronounced action needs to take place, something that is continually hindered as the American Republican Party is an enemy of science.
The News ran a radio log for radio programming, just like a lot of newspapers currently run a television log.
The Exchange National Bank of Chicago opened the country’s first drive-in banking service. The facility had ten drive up tellers, which is quite a lot.
Union workers outside the Weighers' and Warehousemen's Union headquarters, workers celebrating the 1936 election. Photo by the great Dorothea Lange. This photo is given this date, but my guess is that it might be from November 11. Great example of actual 1930s clothing.
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened.
Workers at General Motors went on strike.
Winston Churchill delivered a speech in Parliament attacking Prime Minister Baldwin government for its slow response to German rearmament.
On the same day, Ed "Twilight Ed" Killian was born. The great left handed pitcher would play from 1903 to 1910, ending his career in the Detroit Tigers.
He died in 1928 in Detroit of cancer at age 51. Married twice, and widowed once, he had no children.
Marshalling was occuring at Ft. Fetterman for a winter campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne. This included the conversion of infantry at the post to mounted infantry, mounted on quartermasters' mules.
The Houthis hit the Saudi capital of Riyadh with drones.
September 25, 2026
The Senate voted against a resolution demanding an end to the war or Congressional authorization 50 to 49. Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — voted in favor. Spinless wimp John Barrasso of course voted against.
October 5, 2026
The US withdrew its strategic bombers from the United Kingdom in reaction to some sort of attempted attack on a US installation.
Frankly, at this point, it's impossible to know what's a legitimate US. action vs. Trump drama.
October 10, 2026
The Houthis hit the airport at Riyadh again.
King Donald has declared there will be no strikes on Iran until after the election.
October 15, 2026
A container ship with 2,500 containers hit a mine and sank in the Strait of Hormuz.
King Donald stated yesterday that the war will end as soon as he wants it too, which he said will be soon.
November 3, 2026. U.S. Election Day
The US carried out strikes on Qeshm Island, citing them as defensive in nature and designed to protect US assets in the region.
There are pretty consistent rumors that the war will ramp up again after today.
November 8, 2026
A Houthi drone hit a large office building in the Saudi Capital.
November 9, 2026
Q: What’s the deal that gets the strait open?
Trump: The strait is open. We have ships going through.
Q: But the ships that are going through are being babysat by a large military presence.
Trump: It’s not very expensive.
Q: Just leave them there indefinitely?
Trump: The countries that we protected will pay us back any and all costs because without us, they wouldn’t exist.
Trump spouting utter horseshit on 60 Minutes.
November 10, 2026
Trump stated the war was "effectively over" and we're just going to escort tankers in the Strait of Hormuz eternally.
A complete defeat.
The U.S. Air Force evacuated RAF Mildenhall yesterday, supposedly due to Iranian threats.
War "effectively over"?
I'm skeptical on these UK evacuations. I suspect they're a backdoor way of pulling US forces out of Europe.
November 12, 2026
Iran is demanding reparations for U.S. destruction.
Counting Mayfield, Hill County Texas, ballots, 2/20/24.
November 3, 2026. 0000.
And so the fateful day has arrived.
Election Day, November 3, 2026.
And a fateful day it will be. The election of 2026 is the most important election since that one held on November 3, 1860. By the end of the day, if predictions hold, it will have taken a step back from fascism. The question will be how big of step back it will be, how much of a step in a new direction, and whether the step is so decisive that a major GOP/Fascist coup attempt can be averted.
I have my doubts.
What seems certain, if early predictions are correct, are that the Democrats, as disliked as they seem to be, will regain the House of Representatives. Polling seems to suggest that there may be a "blue wave" that swamps the GOP in the House. If that's correct, the House may have taken a major Democratic Party turn and a turn back towards real democracy. It seems likely that the Senate may be taken by the Democrats, but it's not likely that it'll be a "wave". But it's not impossible either. It'll take both to really arrest a Trump coup attempt, and it will take both to really being to turn the arch of history back towards democracy.
Another question is to what degree Wyoming participates in this. Wyoming is so ignored in the overall polls that, going into this day, we really don't know.
People who are of the betting persuasion would have placed their bets on Chuck Gray and Harriet Hageman right after the primary. But bets on Gray are much less certain now. Gray is widely despised and rightly so. The best thing that could happen to him, and for him, and for the state, would be to send him packing. He needs to become a real boy and get a real job. Lisa Kinney might be the person who symbolically does that for him, and to him, although if that's the case, she'll be a one term Congressman, elected solely to put an end in a carpetbagger's career, which would be a service to the state in and of itself.
A much better candidate, all the way around, is James Byrd. Byrd's chances of defeating Harriet Hageman are not as good as Kinney's are of defeating Gray, but they are real.
Otherwise, the big question is whether gadfly Rebecca Bextel of the "Constitution" Party, and Shawn Johnson of the Libertarian Party, draw enough votes to qualify both of those parties as "major" parties.
Bextel, who is engaged in a hopelessly naive campaign against Eric Barlow for the Governor's seat, comes across as a potty mouth, ignorant, Southerner, but there are right now enough potty mouth, ignorant carpetbaggers to perhaps give her 10% of the vote. It's ironic in that the Constitution Party candidate for the House isn't a Southerner or ignorant, but the Constitution Party is smart enough to mount up a Southern Mule when they see one, if it profits them. Their beliefs are genuinely wacky, and Bextel pegs out on the wacky meter, and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is the Woodstock of wacky, so she is likely to draw at least 10%.
My guess is that Shawn Johnson will as well. Wyoming Libertarians aren't real Libertarians, so some disaffected Republicans can in fact feel comfortable voting for them. Some Anybody But Chuck Republicans' who can't stomach voting for a Democrat will vote for Johnson instead.
Overall, if this election broke the back of the two party system, which is unlikely, in Wyoming, it would be a good thing. The batshit crazy wing of the GOP should be in the Constitution Party. The flirting with anarchy wing of the GOP should be Libertarians. Would that we had an American Solidarity Party that was viable here. The Two Party System is moronic.
And, due to its failure, we have Donald Trump as President.
The next two years will not be easy. The best thing that could happen for the republic today is that there was such a blue wave that Trump could, and would, be impeached. That would allow the GOP to save itself, as spineless bastards like John Barrasso realized that they had to save themselves, his primary instinct, and moved towards the middle. Other GOP figures held captive by cowardice would as well. That would leave National Conservative chameleon J. D. Vance as President. Vance is actually conservative, extremely so, but with some sort of a philosophy. Trump is just about Trump. Vance also has a survivors instinct.
But will that sort of majority happen by the end of the day? Probably not.
Recovery takes years for many things. We are likely to start on that path today. A lot of us won't be around anymore by the time we probably get there. But a lot of us probably will.
04:10
The Tribune reports that 5,000 people have voted early in Natrona County. Only 1,500 did in the last election.
Absentee ballots with a postmark no later than 7:00 p.m. today will be counted. If races are close, this may make a difference.
04:37
The United States Supreme Court rejected a request to review a coup attempt on California's mail in ballots. The coup working through the U.S. Attorney's office sought to require verification of citizenship for 20,000 California mail in ballots.
07:00
The polls in Wyoming are now open.
07:32
Wyoming Public Radio reports that absentee ballots must be received by 7:00 p.m., contrary to the item noted above. I think this is correct.
14:19
Guam's non voting U.S. House delegate seat flipped from the GOP to the Democratic Party with Democrat Alicia Anne Garrido Limtiaco defeating incumbent James Moylan. It appears the election for Governor flipped from Democratic to Republican, with the Republican Ada-Calvo team winning the race over the Democrat Terlaje-Perez team, although it's quite close and that result is uncertain.
While I hate to say it, neither result really matters much as Guam has no vote in Congress.
15:01
Apparently Guam's representative can introduce bills, vote in committees, and offer amendments.
17:44
The inside news must be really bad for Republicans. Trump is having a meltdown:
Trump cannot handle being blamed for failure, and yet he knows this is a referendum on him. At the Oval Office he's clearly being told that this is going badly.
He's also unstable and has his hands on the nuclear trigger. We're entering a very dangerous period.
18:00
First called race of the night, incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff retains his seat as senior Senator from Georgia.
I don't know if that's a surprise, or not, it's just the first to be called.
18:08
Incumbent Democrat Kathy Castor of Florida won the Florida 14th district which had been gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
If this trend holds, it's going to be an extremely bad night for Republicans.
November 4, 2026
Donald Trump leading the GOP into the 2026 midterms.
It was an outright slaughter of Republicans across the nation yesterday.
Donald Trump asked the nation to pretend he was on the ballot. They did.
They completely rejected him, his cabinet, his family, his policies, and the Republican Party.
The slaughter was so vast it appears that even Trump won't attempt to challenge them. He probably is aware doing so will result in his impeachment.
The Democrats flipped Senate seats in Maine, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alaska, and even Texas, Susan Collins 30 year career in the Senate was put to an end. Dr. Annie Andrews prevailed over the poorly chosen Senator Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan.
Mississippi may be added to the toll, where as of this morning, only 50 votes separated what had been a safe Republican state.
In terms of Governor's races, which had been trending GOP for years, Democrats also reversed the tide. Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first black woman to be elected governor in U.S. history, taking Georgia. Gina Hinojosa ousted three term Trump lackey Gov. Greg Abbott. Dr. Amy Acton became the first woman elected governor of Ohio. The Democrats retook Nevada.
Locally, results were as predicted, but disappointing.
Harriet Hageman is now the incoming U.S. Senator. Given Wyoming's history, she'll be able to retain the seat a decade after she's dead, as Wyoming reelects incumbents no matter how bad they are. So we replaced one bad Senator with an even worse one, based on her history as a Congressman.
Her challenger, Byrd, took about 35% of the vote, which was underperforming in my view.
Chuck Gray, who is widely despised, took the House, but in a closer race. He still drew 55% of the vote, which is amazing. Lisay Kinney underperformed at 34%. Libertarian Johnson got the balance, 7.5%, vastly underperforming.
All this shows how Republican Wyoming remains. Wyomingites will blindly vote for the GOP candidate because he or she is the GOP candidate.
In terms of underperforming, Republican candidate Eric Barlow blew the doors off of carpetbagger Rebecca Bextel. Bextel did so badly that even the hopeless Democratic candidate took about the same number of votes that she did.
She should take that as a message.
Her Make Alabama Great again campaign did draw 17% o of the vote, to Casner's 15%. Barlow took 69%.
This means the Constitution Party will qualify as a Major Party in the 2028 election.
Proposition 1 failed, a major victory for common sense and an additional rebuke to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Democrats did pick up a State House seat in Laramie County.
In Natrona County people voted, apparently, for familiar names, even reelecting a 1,000 year old county commissioner and returning a 2,000 year old candidate to the Casper city council.
Turning back to the national results, Trump had the unmitigated gall to congratulate the Democrats and assumes they'll work with him. They ought to impeach him.
05:28
In really tight races, it looks like Cindy Holscher will become the Democratic Governor of Kansas and that Lauren Boebert has lost her seat in Congress.
06:31
Democrats took ever single statewide office in Georgia.
Every, single one.
To add to it, the winners were black Democrats. This hasn't happened ever.
A political party that is morally and intellectually bankrupt deserves the rebuke of the American people.
Bobo lost in Colorado to Eileen Laubacher, a retired two-star United States Navy rear admiral.
That last race is pretty symbolic of what just occurred this week. White trash lost to education.
cont:
The reaction to Trump has been so large that suddenly conservative Democrats are back and have to be contended with. The Blue Dog Caucus in Congress is back, now with 22 members. In contrast the Democratic Socialist whom cause MAGA's to lose their bowels is a whopping six people.
This is really significant. Democrats are moving to the center. The Blue Dogs were always the center of reason in Congress.
November 6, 2026
The initiative to repeal Idaho's relatively strict ban on abortion failed.
For some reason, conservatives in Wyoming will not take on the initiative created statute on making your own "medical decisions" which is why Wyoming's abortion bans failed. Idaho's result shows voters will in some cases support a strict ban. Wyoming might as well find out if they will here.
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