Brother Albert Chmielowski dies on this day at age 71.

Albert Chmielowski, a Polish painter whose concern for the poor lead him to become a Franciscan monk died at age 71.

Chmielowski was born to a wealthy family and studied agriculture in order to step into the role of managing his family's estates.  Drawn to politics he joined in the Polish uprising of 1863 in which he lost a leg.  Following the Polish defeat he relocated to Belgium where he developed an interest in painting.  In 1874 he returned to Kraków, Poland where his interest in politics and the poor ultimately lead him into the Franciscan order in 1887.  By that time his identification with the poor had already lead him to a voluntary life of poverty.  He founded the Brothers of the Third Order of Saint Francis, Servants of the Poor in 1891.

Lex Anteinternet: The Hornet's Nest: TheRussian Bear in Syria is st...

Lex Anteinternet: The Hornet's Nest: TheRussian Bear in Syria is st...:  American Committee for Relief in the Near East poster from World War One.  The tragedy of the Middle East just keeps going on and on. ...

One thing that I haven't clarified on this is that the attacker in Germany turns out to be Tunisian. The poor Pakistani guy who was arrested just happened to be there.  Talk about a nightmare for him.

The Tunisian attacker seems to have spent most of his time in Europe in Italy, where he was a troublemaker but not an Islamic troublemaker. This shows, perhaps, the propensity for extreme causes to attack the messed up, sort of like the SA attracted thugs who gave their allegiance to Nazism, but who were thugs first.

This also stands out as an item of both curious reporting and good Italian police reaction.  In reporting, the US news seemed baffled about how the attacker could travel "so far" across "so many borders". Really? The EU has open borders amongst members so that should be no more difficult than traveling across state lines. And for that matter, Milan isn't really all that far from Berlin.  Sort of like driving from Denver to Oklahoma City. 

Italian police stopped him and when it went badly they came out on top in a gun battle. That speaks favorably for their reaction abilities and marksmanship.

Lex Anteinternet: Coal and Oil stabalizing, maybe, but does it help?...

Lex Anteinternet: Coal and Oil stabalizing, maybe, but does it help?...: I haven't been reporting on the price of coal and oil for awhile as in some ways not much has been going on.  But enough has been to at ...

Maybe it does, or maybe something else is going on.  According to the Tribune, local retailers are finishing the year out with a really strong finish.  Better, apparently, than even Black Friday.

The Mexican American Commission actually comes to an agreement.

On this day the commission, which had seemed to have reached an agreement back in November, actually reached one.

They agreement provided that the US would leave Mexico within forty days.

This agreement would not be signed by Carranza, but it didn't need to be.

Coal and Oil stabalizing, maybe, but does it help?

I haven't been reporting on the price of coal and oil for awhile as in some ways not much has been going on.  But enough has been to at least put in a little.

On coal, the price of coking coal, it has been noted, is up, which generally reflects increased industrial output.  That's been noted in reports on local coal but Wyoming's coal isn't of the coking grade so that likely doesn't mean much.  On the other hand coal producers are coming back out of bankruptcy and the situation at least appears relatively stable.

A report in the Tribune today states that its unlikely that oil shall exceed  $55/bbl in 2017, which if true means not much will be going on in terms of new exploration in the US.  It needs to rise above that for anything to really happen. 

On other combined news its reported that Wyoming's unemployment rate has improved but that the state's population dropped last year.  Those are really part of the same story.

The Cheyenne State Leader for December 23, 1916: Stock Raising Homestead Act passed

While it only merited a single paragraph, it did make the front page.  The Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916 had passed.

This was a major change in the homesteading laws in that it was the first of two homestead acts that recognized the stock raising and arid nature of the West. Rather than grant 40 acres, as the original Homestead Act had, it allowed for 640, an entire section.  It would be signed into law by President Wilson on December 29.

While we do not associate this period with homesteading it was actually the height, and close to the finish, of it.  A large number of entries were being taken out, and soon a large number would fail in the post World War One agricultural crash and drought.

The Wyoming Tribune for December 23, 1916: Carranza loses cities.

The Wyoming Tribune reported that Carranza was losing cities, suggesting he was losing the civil war in Mexico.  At the same time, the paper reported that people were being generous to Pershing's command in Mexico.

Fred Sawkins - December 23, 1916

The Massive Decline in Violence (shout out to 100 Years Ago Today Subreddit)

The purpose of this blog has been, and remains, to explore all things, technology, culture, society, etc, of the approximate 1890 to 1920, more or less (adding, probably, something like 50 years on either side of that).  I stray from that a lot, as any reader very well knows, but I tend to come back to it.

Recently I've been running 1916 is century delayed real time so often that a person could be excused for thinking it was the 1916 day by day blog, or something like that, but it isn't.  I've been doing that do the centennial of the Punitive Expedition.  Once that story basically concludes the near day by day entries will slow down as well, to the likely relief of everyone who stops in here, but some of the newly added features that are basically slice of life type entries will likely keep on keeping on, maybe.

Anyhow, in keeping with this, I've found that there are a couple of other sites that run 1916 in delayed real time, one of which is Reddit's 100 Years Ago Subreddit.  I like it, and I post quite a few of the entries here that are posted on the centennial of their happening as links there.  But I read those entries over there was well.

Recently one of the moderators of that Subreddit posted an end of the year item noting that the murder rate in 1916 in the US was 145% of today's.

145%.

Now, this shouldn't surprise the readers here, but I still wonder to what degree we fail to appreciate that violence has really declined.  Massively, in fact.

We have run a lot of items on this before, including, Violent society? andPeculiarized violence and American society. Looking at root causes, and not instrumentalities.  So this should not  be a surprise to readers here.  But what an impressive statistic.

And how interesting in terms of how we look at the world we live in. In terms of violence, in spite of spectacular examples to the contrary, this is about the best era there is to live in, unless of course you are a victim, in which case, no doubt, that's no comfort at all.

Wind Power approaches maturity.

Coincident to my posting this:

Lex Anteinternet: Today In Wyoming's History: December 19: A Very B...: Today In Wyoming's History: December 19 : 2016  A recorded gust of wind reached 88 mph on the base of Casper Mountain, a new record 14...

the Tribune reports that wind power is now the cheapest form of electrical generation in some regions now.

The cost per kilowatt of generating electricity from wind has long been one of the main points of its critics. But, as tends to be the rule, costs go down as a technology advances.  That's now happened with wind which in turn means that wind generation has joined hydroelectric, coal, gas and nuclear as viable means of generating electricity on an industrial basis.  Wind, therefore, will not be going away in the power generation field.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 19: A Very Blustery Day

Today In Wyoming's History: December 19:

2016  A recorded gust of wind reached 88 mph on the base of Casper Mountain, a new record 14 mph higher than any previously recorded gust in that location.  Clark Wyoming reported a blast of 108 mph.  It was a very blustery day.

The Casper Weekly Press for December 22, 1916: Wars everywhere

The Casper Weekly Press issued on December 22, 1916 warned that "Uncle Fears War". The papers were full of war warnings which, looking back, not only proved accurate but also can't help to call to mind that Woodrow Wilson had just been elected for keeping us out of war and yet the news was headed rapidly, and accurately, in the other direction.

In terms of other wars, the Casper paper reported that Villistas had killed 50 Constitutionalist soliders, hardly a large number by European standards but a scary one for a nation that had been worried about the direction the war in Mexico was taking for months.

In other grim news, two died in a refinery fire in Casper.  There is at least one famous refinery fire in Casper's history but it's not this one.  I can't find any details about it.

Finally the American Automobile Association, which I didn't even know existed that long ago, came out in support of a concrete highway across Wyoming. Such an improved highway remained quite a few years in the state's future at that time, but it's interesting to note how people were already pondering it.

First flight of the Sopwith Camel, this day in 1916

The Cheyenne State Leader for December 21, 1916: Mexican raid into Arizona threatened.

The terrible fire at the Inter-Ocean was still very much in the news, but we also learned that there was concern over a potential raid into Arizona by some Mexican bands.  Of course, the Wyoming Tribune had reported on this yesterday.

President Wilson's peacemaking efforts also hit the news.

The Irish Canadian Rangers sail for Europe.

The Irish Canadian Rangers set sail from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on this day in 1916.

 

 

The unit had been formed from and sponsored by Montreal's Irish Canadian community (of which my ancestors were part).  It was centered around the Montreal Polo Club to some extent.  In spite of diligent efforts it was never up to strength and additional recruiting efforts would take place in Ireland itself to attempt to bring it up to its full allotment.

 

The unit would note end up being deployed in France as a unit, but instead would ultimately be used to provide replacements to other units.

Mid Week at Work: Big Metal Bird: Episode 5 – Aircraft Heavy Maintenance

The Hornet's Nest: TheRussian Bear in Syria is stung in Turkey, and an Islamic radical strike in Berlin

 American Committee for Relief in the Near East poster from World War One.  The tragedy of the Middle East just keeps going on and on.

Yesterday brought us two terrible news stories that relate to the ongoing disaster in the Middle East.

The first of them was the assassination of the Turkish Ambassador to Turkey by a Turkish policeman.  Before he was shot down himself he claimed his act to be an act of vengeance for Aleppo and Syria in general.

Time will tell if he was part of a larger movement, or merely enraged to extreme violence by the  Russian participation in the war.  Anyway you look at it, and saying something that you are not supposed to, this was pretty predictable.

Here on this blog, from the very onset of the war in Syria, I've taken the position that getting involved in the Syrian mess would be a huge mistake.  I've thought that we should take on ISIL, but I have also thought all along that people who thought that there was a nice way in and out of Syria were delusional.  Recognizing that I would have simply stepped back from there except to take on the specter of ISIL which grew as time went on.

Russia, lead by neo-Tsar Vladimir Putin, took the opposite course and in so doing reverted to a heavy handed type of warfare the world has not really seen since World War Two.  Nations simply do not bomb cities into oblivion anymore.  It isn't done, as it isn't right.  A person can (and quite a few do) go back and debate the morality of what occurred in the Second World War, but everyone accords that this is not allowable now.

Russia's mere presence in Syria is an odd thing, quite frankly, and in some ways we can take a little of the blame for that.  Delusional in our own right, we supplied arms to factions that we knew little about and which had (as I noted here all along) no chance of winning. But even poor combatants can lengthen a war and make it worse.  That may well be what we achieved and as that occurred the forces we really opposed grew in strength there.  In the end a Syrian government that was always fascistic but which looked somewhat to the West turned to the only friends it could find, Russia and Iran, and Russia took the role in that civil war that Germany did in the Spanish one, with similar results.

Well, he would live by the sword will die by it, and now inflicting violence on Syria has been revisited on a Russian diplomat in Turkey.  The Russians will react badly, but this won't end there.  Putin is one of those characters who can read the signs in his own times, but can't seem to read history accurately.

 

In terms of not reading history accurately, President Obama, while he played out the combat in this region masterfully (and contrary to the way I would have gone about it) may deserve a bit of blame as well for drawing lines in the sand he wasn't prepared to enforce.  It would have been better to draw no lines at all, but perhaps that was not possible.  At least one commentator has noted that drawing "red lines" and then doing nothing about them probably taught Putin that he could steal cyber secrets and nothing would happen to him.  I suspect that was a lesson badly learned, as something will likely happen now.

In a lot of ways, quite frankly, Russia is a paper tiger.  It's a mere shadow of the USSR with large scale suppressed internal opposition and an involvement in two internal wars. The USSR could not endure an arms race with the West and Russia can't either.  I don't know what the US will do to counter Russia (and with Trump coming in its really difficult to tell, to say the least) but mounting a counter electronic attack would likely be pointless.  They have a lot of hackers, but we depend on computers a lot more than they do.  

But they do depend on oil for their economy.  They are vulnerable there. The US domestic oil industry has been crying for assistance in the wake of the crashed prices and that same phenomenon has hurt Russia.  Closing Russian oil experts would devastate Russia, and it wouldn't hurt us a bit.  It would hurt Europe however.  Still, there may be an avenue there, if cooperation for the effort could be amassed.

Beyond that, a nation involved in two smouldering wars can't really afford to have their opposition really supplied.  Getting into Syria now would be an error for us, but backing the Ukraine to a much greater degree may not be.  Even simply training and supplying a good Ukrainian army is a problem for Russia.

Of course we'll see what actually occurs.

What did occur also yesterday  is that another Islamic attack occurred in Europe, this time in Berlin.  The suspect in the bus assault is Pakistani, so he falls outside of the region, for Europe, that we'd expect this to occur, but that may show the power of Islamic extremism to attract the Islamic dispossessed everywhere.  The sad fact is that this is not going to be the last of this.

On a more positive note, however, while the story has been barely noted, exposure to European culture and an open society is corroding Islamic adherence amongst the refugee population at large at the same time its attracting some to violence.  Priests in Germany and France have noted that in some places their pews are now full. . .with Arab refugees who have converted or are converting to Christian faiths.  A faithful people, in the free market of ideas, that faith is going away from Islam.  And even here in the US a couple of weeks ago a nominally Islamic Washington Post reporter announced that he was being baptized a Catholic, as was the former Miss USA who was the first Muslim to obtain that title.  

Changes in the wind.

Stabbed In The Back. . . . a self deluding thesis

First of all let me note the following.

Russia is not our friend (Romney, who was widely derided when he was the Presidential candidate for noting that, was close to correct, to a degree).  

And the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee's emails, their attempt to do so on the Republican ones, and their general behavior in these regards is so abominable that it must be addressed.  Indeed, while I haven't researched it, I wonder if it technically amounts to a causi belli, although it will not come to that.

Anyhow, some history.

By the fall of 1918 the German war effort was shot. They were incapable of winning the war.

Everything the Germans had calculated on, and gambled on, had failed.  The United Kingdom did not collapse due to a submarine blockade before the United States effectively fielded an army in Europe.  The Micheal Offensive did not break the Allied lines and take Paris, throwing France out of the war.  The introduction of poisonous gas had not proved to be a battlefield tide turner, or even particularly effective.  The surrender of the Russians under Lenin did not turn out to release a flood of men and supplies as German avarice required the deployment of German assets to keep on at nearly full strength.  Backing the Communists in Russia had helped turn the tide in the East but then had gone right to the German navy yards were it was having the same effect as it had in Russian ones.

They had lost.

They still hoped to secure a satisfactory diplomatic resolution, and in fact they actually did, but it wasn't the one they hoped for.

And soon, psychologically, they refused to accept it.

Which is just what the Democrats are doing about the 2016 election right now.

What German society did is well known.  By November 1918 they had no choice at all but to accept Allied terms. Those terms, in spite of the way they have been repeatedly portrayed, were not really all that harsh. A big part of this is that Germany had slid into a revolution at home, which strangely gets underplayed in the English language histories.  Just as in Revolutionary Russia, in Revolutionary Germany idle sailors betrayed their employers and became an unruly dangerous uniformed mob. As things disintegrated at home the Germans had to deploy its army on its own territory against its own people, a situation which would keep on keeping on after the war with the Allies ended.

By the late 1920s, however, they'd convinced themselves they hadn't actually lost the war at all, and certainly not through their own actions.  It was somebody else's fault. And that somebody became, in their imaginations, the Jews, a fairly absurd proposition anyway you look at it. But an absurd proposition that was used to launch the political career of a figure who emphasized the very worst elements of German culture and who attacked the best elements of it.

What does that have to do with the Democrats?

Well, the Democrats lost this election through their own ineptness, just as the Germans lost the Great War through their own fault and miscalculations.  I would have thought they would have won, but not because of their great campaign, but because Trump seemed to be incapable of winning. The Democrats, as we've explored already, ran a person well out of her own time, who wasn't likeable, emphasizing, where they emphasized anything, failed positions, while insulting some of their base.

Now, and here's where the stab in the back comes from, we know about some of those insults due to leaks.

It is now known that the Russians penetrated the Democratic National Committee and swiped their emails.  That's a criminal act, but we also know that t he Russians tried the same with the Republicans and failed as the Republican firewall worked. Why didn't the Democratic one work? 

And the Russian release of information, it's worth noting, did not release anything that wasn't true.  It's hard to complain, or should be hard to complain, about the truth of your own views being released.  If DNC operatives detested the Catholic Church, for example, they detested us.  The Russians letting us know that doesn't mean it isn't true. Rather, they were embarrassed by the truth.

But not so much, apparently, that they now feel they need to change at all. They don't.  They've propped up the same old, same old for their leaders and they, or at least those organs that support them, are crying about the Russians. "Stabbed in the back".  Donna Brazile and Leon Panetta were both on over the weekend  on the news shows addressing the email situation and neither of them would acknowledge that the problem, for their campaign, wasn't that emails were stolen, but what the stolen emails said.  Brazile went so far as to claim the emails were "weaponized" but if they were weapons, they were handgrenades with the pins pulled out before they were tossed out the cyber window. The real problem with them is that they let voters see how the Clintonites actually thought.

I think that its time to put Putin and his cronies in a corner.  We can't pretend that it isn't a crime, and frankly it creeps up on being nearly an act of war. 

But that doesn't mean it actually influenced the election.  I highly doubt that, to say the least.  At most they tended to confirm what the confirmed already thought.  That doesn't excuse it, but nor will there be any excuse for the Democrats to run repeat elections in 2018 and 2020, which right now is exactly where they are headed.

The Wyoming Tribune for December 20, 1916: Troops Rush to Forestall Border Raid (and a truly bizarre comparison made in the case of a Mexican American militia)

A story of a near raid in the Yuma era with a rather bizarre comparison between a claimed Mexican American militia and the KKK.   Apparently the authors there had taken their history from D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation rather than reality.

It's rather difficult, to say the least, to grasp a comparison between a Mexican militia of any kind and the KKK which wouldn't exactly be in the category of people sympathetic to Mexican Americans.  And it's even more difficult to see the KKK used as a favorable comparison.  Cheyenne had a not insignificant African American, Hispanic, and otherwise ethic population associated with the Union Pacific railroad and I imagine they weren't thrilled when they saw that article.

Apparently the "war babies" referred to in the headline were stocks that were associated with Great War production, which logically fell following the recent exchange of notes on peace. As we saw yesterday, the Allies weren't receptive to them, so I'd imagine they those stocks rose again.

David Lloyd George addresses the German Peace Proposal and Ambassador Page telegrams the text.

 British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

Later that same day, the U.S. Ambassador to the UK telegramed the Prime Minster's speech on the same topic to Secretary Lansing:

London, December 19, 1916.

5344. The Prime Minister made the following statement in the House of Commons to-day:

The new government had hardly been formed when there came the declaration of the German Chancellor. I propose to deal with this at once. The statement made by the German Chancellor in the Reichstag has been followed by a note presented to us by the United States of America without any note or comment. The answer that will be given by the Government will be given in full accord with our brave Allies. Naturally there has been an interchange of views not upon the note, because it only recently arrived, but upon the spirit which propelled it, inasmuch as the note itself is practically only a reproduction of the speech.

 

The discussions have been informal but I am glad to say we have each of us separately and independently arrived at identical conclusions.

I am very glad the first answer to the statement of the German Chancellor was given by France and by Russia.

They have an unquestionable right to give the first answer to such an invitation—the enemy is still on their soil; their sacrifices have been greater. The answer they have given has already appeared in the papers, and I, on behalf of the Government, give a clear and definite support to the statements which have already been made.

Any man or set of men who abandoned the struggle without achieving the high purpose for which they had entered into the war would be guilty of the costliest act of foolery ever perpetrated by any statesman. I should like to quote the words of Abraham Lincoln under similar conditions: “ We accepted this war for an object—a worthy object—and the war will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope it will never end until that time.”

Are we likely to achieve that object by accepting the invitation of the German Chancellor? That is the only question that we have to put to ourselves.

There has been some talk about proposals of peace. What are the proposals? There are none.

To enter on the invitation of Germany, proclaiming herself victorious, without any knowledge of the proposals she proposes to make, into a conference, is to put our heads into a noose with the rope in the hands of Germany—and this country is not altogether without experience in these matters.

It is not the first time we have fought against Military despotism in Europe and it will not be the first time we have helped to overthrow such a despotism. We feel we ought to know before we give consideration to the offer of the German Chancellor that Germany is prepared for peace to be obtained and maintained in Europe, and these terms which have been stated by all the leading statesmen of the Allies are: complete restitution; full reparation; and effectual guaranties for the future.

Page

The UK response to the German peace proposal is communicated to the US.

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Walter Hines Page, telegrammed Secretary Lansing on this day about the British response to the recent German peace feeler.

London, December 19, 1916, 6 p. m.

5343. Your circular December 16, 5 p. m.Lord Robert Cecil has just informed me that the British Government will decline the German proposal to discuss peace because it contains no concrete terms with which such a discussion might begin and for other reasons; and that the Prime Minister will set forth the Government’s position in full in the speech which he is now delivering in the House of Commons.

I will telegraph the text of what the Prime Minister says at the earliest hour possible.

Lord Robert informed me that the British Government had requested the French Government to draw up the reply of the Allies to the note of the Central powers.

Page

An increase in creepy crimes?

I've come to the conclusion, I think, that something really creepy is going on in society.  Truly creepy.

Now, let me note that I started this post weeks and weeks ago.  So long ago that I can't remember, actually, when I started it.  Sometime in 2016, but I'm not sure when.  I revived it when the creepy story about Brock Turner, the Stamford University student and swimmer who was hardly sentenced for his horrific assault on a young woman following a party came up.  But then I let it sit again and getting back to posting it was inspired by that.  Frankly, that event takes this to such a horrific level that it almost stands to wipe out my point, so I'll start where I was going to start in just a moment.  I most recently returned to this story when a 19 year old man was sentenced in the last couple of days for sexual assault, that crime involving having impregnated a 12 year old girl, when he was 17, in a closet at a home in which he was staying with that girls family. That crime came to light, apparently, through the girl having reported to a physician pregnant and then revealing the story.

That guy got something like two to six years (I forget the exact sentence, but it was something like that).  The prosecutor wanted more.  His defense attorney wanted less on the basis that he was the sole support for his mother and sister.

Hm.

Hardly a day goes by anymore where I don't read of some hideous assault by a man upon a female victim, and frankly usually they're are young women, i.e., teenage girls.  This would be bad enough if I was reading of these events every few months, worse if it was every month, but frankly now its darned near every day.  Yes, almost every day here there's an assault by a male upon some teenage girl, or even girls.  Indeed just this past week there was a story that broke here of a family that had groomed a family friend's daughter for sadomasochistic acts.  Creeps.

Now, that should make it clear, I suppose, that we're sometimes speaking of crimes that may have an element, or not, of consent by the victims.  The  17 year old impregnating a 12 year old apparently did, as they exchanged texts about sex before they engaged in the activity. Looking for trends or commonalities in the crimes, I'd note that one that shows up in more than a few is enticement by drugs or alcohol. But that's far from the rule.  Quite a few are just outright assaults.   The victims report them nearly immediately, quite often, thank goodness, and they perpetrators are arrested quickly, and usually tried and convicted.

Beyond the drugs and alcohol there seems to be little in common save for that the perpetrators are often vagabonds or nearly so, although not always.  Almost all of them are on the bottom end of the economic scale, to say the least, although not all are.  A not un-appreicable number, no matter what a person believes stating this means, are Mexicans. I'm not claiming that all Mexican immigrants are perpetrators of this sort of stuff by any means, but if a person is honest you cannot help but note that the perpetrators who are Mexican who show up in this category here exceed their percentage of the population.  If a person reads between the lines, its usually clear that those who fit that category are actually from Mexico, FWIW, not people of Mexican heritage from the US (and no, I'm not claiming by a long shot that all Mexican men are perpetrators waiting to happen).  Not that this is uniform, indeed several years ago one of the fellows who was enticing young teenagers in this fashion was a local lawyer.

Added to this, I'd note, that hardly a week goes buy in which somebody isn't busted for the illegal downloading of icky photos in the above referenced category, and they aren't usually immigrant Mexicans, I'd note. Again, I'd not be surprised if this happened occasionally, but its freaking constant.

So what's going on?

Something is.

I suppose maybe this sort of stuff (well. . . not the downloading obviously, as you couldn't download anything forty years ago) may have always happened, but it just didn't get reported, or the victims didn't report it.   Maybe, but I doubt it.  There's just way too much of this for this all have to been kept quiet years ago, and frankly the perpetrators are largely in the class that doesn't get much legal slack.  So I think there really is more.

But why?

I've noted before on this site that statistically the amount of violence, including violent crime, is way down in the US.  And killings are certainly quite uncommon here. So are examples of violent physical assault, or mayhem, or things like that. But these sort of creepy crimes have to be way, way up.  I just can't ever recall a prior era in which they showed up in the press nearly daily.  Indeed, in a lot of prior eras here, when we were fairly acclimated to fights going awry, we would have been horrified by something of this nature.

And I think that has to do something with the decline in morals, i.e., the emphasis on personal virtue in regards to your own conduct in this area.

Maybe that's a leap, but I do.

I think our culture, at this point, is so awash in images and projections suggesting that all women are available to any man, that a certain class of men now believes that.  And beyond that, the line of what is acceptable or not, on a societal basis, is now so faded that unless a person has picked up a line from outside of the cultural mainstream its extremely difficult to tell where that line may be.

A look at any of the popular television shows (yes, I know, television is stupid, but maybe its a type of mirror  also) is illuminating in these regards.  A show like, for example, Friends shows the young engaged in constant libertine activity.  The Big Bang Theory is the same way.  The "reality" show Vanderpump Rules depicts a group of people whose morals are so far in the sewer it would take a rotorooter to find them (did we really need to import these people from the UK, seriously?).  A recent pop song celebrates Blurred Lines. Singer who originally made acquired their fame as cute child stars appear naked darned near anywhere they can.  Any sexual act or inclination is celebrated as being normal, irrespective of the evidence.  The examples are nearly endless.

I do not mean to excuse any of this conduct, as its reprehensible.  But seriously, if you take a society and simply endlessly bathe it in sexual content, and sexual content, and then argue in its courts and solons that any act at all is normal, is going to produce this result.  And it has.

So, the biggest criminal of all turns out, in some ways, to be our current culture itself.  And we end up all being the victims.

The Wyoming Federal Natural Resource Management Committee tells the voters it knows better.

The Wyoming Federal Natural Resource Management Committee met on December 14 in Cheyenne.  It was a public hearing.  Not that the public was really going to be listed to.  This committee decided to ignore the public with finality, apparently, back in November and is now only willing to consider amendments to a proposed Wyoming Constitutional Amendment that has received widespread public opposition.

The Committee was meeting on the language of a proposed amendment to the Wyoming Constitution that's basically in aid of the some in the state's effort to grab the Federal Domain against the wishes of the residents of the state and contrary to the oaths the Legislators took when they signed on to do their jobs.  The legislators were surprised that public opposition to a proposal that's quite popular amongst Wyoming's politicians received such widespread opposition from the public.  At least, to their credit, they have tried to do something about that, as opposed to our Congressional representation in the House and Senate which has supported it and simply flat out ignored the voting public.

The concept that transferring the public lands would benefit the state in any fashion is completely erroneous. The state would, sooner or later, and likely much sooner rather than later, sell the lands to the highest bidders that would invariably be rich out of state interests.  When this occurred we'd simply become a rural version of Ohio in which the residents of the state would have to be content with whatever the towns have to offer unless they were willing to pay a sufficient tribute to what would ultimately become out of state landlords.  To try to ease the fears of those who know that this amendment is being pushed.

The idea that a Constitutional Amendment would prevent this is delusional, as that would, at best, keep the Legislature from such an attempt for a single session or so, until a way around it was found.  Indeed, the Legislature right now does not seem to be able to recall  Article 21, Section 26 of the Wyoming Constitution which provides:

The people inhabiting this state do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes, and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States and that said Indian lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the congress of the United States; that the lands belonging to the citizens of the United States residing without this state shall never be taxed at a higher rate than the lands belonging to residents of this state; that no taxes shall be imposed by this state on lands or property therein, belonging to, or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States, or reserved for its use. But nothing in this article shall preclude this state from taxing as other lands are taxed, any lands owned or held by any Indian who has severed his tribal relations, and has obtained from the United States or from any person, a title thereto, by patent or other grant, save and except such lands as have been or may be granted to any Indian or Indians under any acts of congress containing a provision exempting the lands thus granted from taxation, which last mentioned lands shall be exempt from taxation so long, and to such an extent, as is, or may be provided in the act of congress granting the same.

There's actually no proposal to repeal this section, so it would remain in effect, essentially saying "you can't get any more Federal Domain but if you do. . ."  Ah. . . a Constitutional Amendment that only courtroom lawyers will benefit from. . .

As Legislators, those on the present committee should recall that they swore an oath to uphold the Wyoming Constitution, and in these regards, efforts contrary to this provision seem to fairly clearly violate it.  Not that this has been something that's restrained the Legislature in recent years.  This doesn't seem to bother them much as only one single committee member cast a "no" vote on November 8 to approve the amendment even though nearly everyone who gathered at the November hearing spoke against it.  But we need to keep in mind that this body has seemingly been fairly comfortable with voting on unconstitutional acts in recent years and very recently got into a fair amount of trouble for just that.

Several nights ago in Cheyenne, 100% of the speakers from a large crowed spoke against the amendment again.  This time, however, the committee informed the speakers that it was already a done deal, they'd already voted against the wishes of the state's residents and they were only there to consider amendments.  They apparently agreed to a few. But its hard not to view this as being rather insulting to the voting public.  The committee well knew that a large crowed would be in attendance.  It also knew, of course, it had already voted for approval. But it is not the case, as these bodies will want to believe, that they can't unring the bell. They could have.  It just wouldn't suit the views out of four of the five people on the committee.

Now the whole thing goes on to the State Senate and, should it survive there, the House.  If it passes two thirds of both bodies then it must be voted on by the voters in the next election.  The Governor, for what it is worth, who has already spoken as to the illegality of acquiring the Federal Domain, has no role in this.

If this passes our legislature, at least from my prospective, the voters nearly have to pass the bill to try to protect the lands from these same people. Everyone well knows that this amendment is mere camouflage for an effort to violate the state's organic act and to violate the state's constitution and grab the Federal domain.  The amendment will be the only way to protect the land, even though this entire issue shouldn't even be on the plate.  That ironically argues for and against it at the same time.  We practically need it as our representation in Cheyenne has shown a determination to vote against the will of the citizens', but at the same time this simply aids their effort.

Here's the proposed amendment, before the apparent and anticipated amendments to it.  Note that this wold not take effect until 2019, giving a land transfer plenty of time to take first well before it, and for this thing to accordingly mean nothing whatsoever.  That's a bit odd.  And also note that this does nothing to preserve the lands the state already holds.

Note also that it appears in Article 18. Article 21 above remains in effect. So the net result of that is that this would make a mess out of the state's constitution, which is one of the few of the same that's actually survived the test of time.  Most state's have been trough several by now.  What would a court do with this?  Nobody knows.  But both sections clearly cannot stand together.  It would be equivalent to the U.S. Congress proposing an amendment to legalize banning speech in a clause separate from the First Amendment. 

Article 18, Section 7
Public lands management and access

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this constitution and when in accordance with the purposes of a grant of land to the State of Wyoming from the United States, lands granted to the state after January 1, 2019 shall be managed for multiple use and sustained yield, including public access for hunting, fishing and other recreation, as prescribed by the legislature.

(b) The legislature may provide for the exchange of state lands acquired pursuant to subsection (a) of this section. The legislature shall ensure that any exchanges of lands acquired pursuant to subsection (a) of this section collectively cause no more than a de minimis loss or gain of the state lands, either in value or size.

(c) Any exchange of the lands acquired pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall maintain or increase public access to those lands.

And of course this doesn't consider that in addition to the State's constitution the State's organic act also disclaimed the public lands.

Here are the names of the Committee members.  In Cheyenne earlier this week they'd said they'd already voted, but that doesn't mean that voicing your opinion, should you have one (either way) won't suddenly cause that to magically reverse.  Over a long period of time I've learned that governmental entities of any type which state "we can't do that" can and will "do that" when it becomes too uncomfortable not to.  I've even heard one agency officer tell me something was illegal and then approve it as not illegal in less than 30 seconds.

Eli Bebout

Gerald Geis

Larry Hicks

Norine Kasperik

JoAnn Dayton

Tim Stubson

Dayton is the only one who voted no on the November 8 vote to ignore the voters.  She apparently listened to her constituency.

She's also the only Democrat on the body, and this is why I think we'll see an increase in Democratic fortunes in the upcoming election. The last unconstitutional bill passed by the legislature caused a revolt in the GOP amongst its hard right/libertarian wing which is still smoldering.  The Public Lands issue is in fact causing some long time Republicans I  know to vote Democratic.  Alienating both sides of the GOP locally is not really a very good idea.

Of those mentioned I should note that Stubson is on his way out, having run for Congress and lost.  He actually won't take his seat in January as Jerry Obermuller will instead, Stubson having determined not to run in order to run for Congress.  This is presumably his swan song as a legislator, assuming of course that he doesn't run again and obtain a seat at a later date.

Bebout is the only one who responded to my email the last time, to his real credit, with a well stated letter, albeit one I disagree with.  It takes guts and dignity to write somebody who is opposed to you, and I respect him for that.  Geis' email bounces back so I can't comment regarding him.  They're all likely getting hundreds of emails, as they well should be.

Stuff like this, I should note, really creates a distrust of democracy.  The concept always is that the people who go to the state house and Congress will uphold our views.  But here they aren't, and aren't coming close to it.  They're upholding a view that regards Washington as our enemy, a view that's really been stoked in recent years, and they also clearly believe that if we just get "Washington off our backs" the money will really flow.  But all the studies of this show that the state can't afford to administer the lands.  Ironically, moreover, transferring the Federal Domain doesn't make all regulation evaporate by any means and the Federal Government is not necessarily any harder to deal with than the state can be.  And at the end of the day this is poking the sleeping giant of the American urban population right in the eye, which isn't such a good idea.  A change in political fortunes can easily go from "give us the land" here in Wyoming to "it's all park land now" back in D.C.

If there's a silver lining in any of this it would be that Secretary of the Interior nominee Zinke is a very strong opponent of the transfer the lands movement and so is Donald Trump, Jr. who apparently had his father's ear on this one.

Lost

Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address.

G.K. Chesterton

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: First Baptist Church, Tulsa Oklahoma

Churches of the West: First Baptist Church, Tulsa Oklahoma:

First Baptist Church in Tulsa Oklahoma, demonstrating an unusual combination of Romanesque styling and modern office building styling.

France signals that its going to say "non" to the German peace proposal.

Earlier in the day, and set out just below here, Secretary of State Robert Lansing telegramed his ambassadors.  Before the day was out he had information, albeit in the form of a reply to a telegram of December 16, 2016, from the American Counselor of the Embassy in France, Robert Woods Bliss indicating how things were likely to go.

 Robert Woods Bliss.  Note the sharp spats.

Paris, December 18, 1916, 11 p. m.

1750. Your circular telegram December 16, 5 p. m. With the Ambassador’s approval, in his temporary absence, I handed communication to Monsieur Cambon at Foreign Office this evening embodying text of note from German Government, and read the latter part of your telegram, leaving with him at his request copy thereof, calling his attention to your desire to receive confidential intimation as to the reply the French Government would make. He answered that he would be glad to comply as soon as possible although he could make no answer at this time. The inference was that the proposal of the Central powers would not be accepted. It is probable that the President of the Council will refer to the subject when presenting the new ministry to-morrow before the Senate, when he is expected to be strongly attacked by the opposition led by Monsieur Clemenceau, former President of the Council.

Bliss

The United States instructs its Ambassadors to approach the Belligerent Countries with a a suggestion.

The newspapers we've been posting the past few days have been full of stories about the Central Powers sending peace feelers through the US.  There was some suggestion that the US was not acting on them, but in fact it was.  On this date, Monday December 18, 1916, Secretary of State  Robert Lansing communicated the following message to ambassadors in the "Belligerent Countries"

Robert Lansing

It's interesting to note how the nation's official focus was switching very much to the war in Europe even while the US had not managed to extract itself from near war in Mexico.

The Secretary of State to the Ambassadors and Ministers in Belligerent Countries

Washington, December 18, 1916, 9.30 p. m.

The President directs me to send you the following communication to be presented immediately to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the government to which you are accredited, and he requests that you present it with the utmost earnestness of support. He wishes the impression clearly conveyed that it would be very hard for the Government of the United States to understand a negative reply. After yourself reading it to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and making the oral representations suggested, please leave a copy of this paper with him:

The President of the United States has instructed me to suggest to (substitute name of government to which you are accredited) a course of action with regard to the present war which he hopes that the (substitute name of government to which you are accredited) will take under consideration as suggested in the most friendly spirit and as coming not only from a friend but also as coming from the representative of a neutral nation whose interests have been most seriously affected by the war and whose concern for its early conclusion arises out of a manifest necessity to determine how best to safeguard those interests if the war is to continue.

The suggestion which I am instructed to make the President has long had it in mind to offer. He is somewhat embarrassed to offer it at this particular time because it may now seem to have been prompted by the recent overtures of the Central powers. It is in fact in no way associated with them in its origin, and the President would have delayed offering it until those overtures had been answered but for the fact that it also concerns the question of peace and may best be considered in connection with other proposals which have the same end in view.1 The President can only beg that his suggestion be considered entirely on its own merits and as if it had been made in other circumstances.

The President suggests that an early occasion be sought to call out from all the nations now at war such an avowal of their respective views as to the terms upon which the war might be concluded and the arrangements which would be deemed satisfactory as a guaranty against its renewal or the kindling of any similar conflict in the future as would make it possible frankly to compare them. He is indifferent as to the means taken to accomplish this. He would be happy himself to serve or even to take the initiative in its accomplishment in any way that might prove acceptable, but he has no desire to determine the method or the instrumentality. One way will be as acceptable to him as another if only the great object he has in mind be attained.

He takes the liberty of calling attention to the fact that the objects which the statesmen of the belligerents on both sides have in mind in this war are virtually the same, as stated in general terms to their own people and to the world. Each side desires to make the rights and privileges of weak peoples and small states as secure against aggression or denial in the future as the rights and privileges of the great and powerful states now at war. Each wishes itself to be made secure in the future, along with all other nations and peoples, against the recurrence of wars like this and against aggression or selfish interference of any kind. Each would be jealous of the formation of any more rival leagues to preserve an uncertain balance of power amidst multiplying suspicions; but each is ready to consider the formation of a league of nations to insure peace and justice throughout the world. Before that final step can be taken, however, each deems it necessary first to settle the issues of the present war upon terms which will certainly safeguard the independence, the territorial integrity, and the political and commercial freedom of the nations involved.

In the measures to be taken to secure the future peace of the world the people and Government of the United States are as vitally and as directly interested as the Governments now at war. Their interest, moreover, in the means to be adopted to relieve the smaller and weaker peoples of the world of the peril of wrong and violence is as quick and ardent as that of any other people or government. They stand ready, and even eager, to cooperate in the accomplishment of these ends, when the war is over, with every influence and resource at their command. But the war must first be concluded. The terms upon which it is to be concluded they are not at liberty to suggest; but the President does feel that it is his right and his duty to point out their intimate interest in its conclusion, lest it should presently be too late to accomplish the greater things which lie beyond its conclusion, lest the situation of neutral nations, now exceedingly hard to endure, be rendered altogether intolerable, and lest, more than all, an injury be done civilization itself which can never be atoned for or repaired.

The President, therefore, feels altogether justified in suggesting an immediate opportunity for a comparison of views as to the terms which must precede those ultimate arrangements for the peace of the world, which all desire and in which the neutral nations, as well as those at war, are ready to play their full responsible part. If the contest must continue to proceed towards undefined ends by slow attrition until the one group of belligerents or the other is exhausted, if million after million of human lives must continue to be offered up until on the one side or the other there are no more to offer, if resentments must be kindled that can never cool and despairs engendered from which there can be no recovery, hopes of peace and of the willing concert of free peoples will be rendered vain and idle.

The life of the entire world has been profoundly affected. Every part of the great family of mankind has felt the burden and terror of this unprecedented contest of arms. No nation in the civilized world can be said in truth to stand outside its influence or to be safe against its disturbing effects. And yet the concrete objects for which it is being waged have never been definitively stated.

The leaders of the several belligerents have, as has been said, stated those objects in general terms. But, stated in general terms, they seem the same on both sides. Never yet have the authoritative spokesmen of either side avowed the precise objects which would, if attained, satisfy them and their people that the war had been fought out. The world has been left to conjecture what definitive results, what actual exchange of guaranties, what political or territorial changes or readjustments, what stage of military success even would bring the war to an end.

It may be that peace is nearer than we know; that the terms which the belligerents on the one side and on the other would deem it necessary to insist upon are not so irreconcilable as some have feared; that an interchange of views would clear the way at least for conference and make the permanent concord of the nations a hope of the immediate future, a concert of nations immediately practicable.

The President is not proposing peace; he is not even offering mediation. He is merely proposing that soundings be taken in order that we may learn, the neutral nations with the belligerent, how near the haven of peace may be for which all mankind longs with an intense and increasing longing. He believes that the spirit in which he speaks and the objects which he seeks will be understood by all concerned, and he confidently hopes for a response which will bring a new light into the affairs of the world.

Lansing

Boston Newsies. December 18, 1916.

LOC Title:  Group of newsies (youngest 10 years) selling Boston papers at noon. In Barre and Montpelier newsies are excused from school a little early at noon and at night in order to get to their papers earlier. December 18, 1916.

Movies In History: The Company

Coincidentally I've been reading a lot about espionage recently so it was timely when I saw that this entire mini series was being run back to back on television the other day.  I'd seen part of it before, but I'd never had the chance to see the entire series.

This series is an examination of the Central Intelligence Agency from its founding in the wake of the wartime Office of Strategic Services up until the 1990s.  It tracks the major events of the 40s, 50s, 60s, and on into the 70s in the context of one of the central characters manic devotion to revealing a mole inside the CIA.

If that sounds far fetched, many of the main characters in the series, which is based upon a book by the same name, are based on real characters and the manically devoted character, James Angleton, was in fact a real individual within the CIA who was in fact fully convinced that there was a mole inside the organization, which is referred to as "The Company" by people within it.  While I know little about the real Angleton, his portray as an unpopular, chain smoking, singularly minded and fanatic CIA agent appears to be quite correct. 

Leaping back and forth from field operations to the drama inside the CIA, the plot involves real events such as the 1958 Hungarian uprising and the Bay of Pigs invasion and weaves it with the story of a possible mole.  The story also leaps back in time to the 1930s when several of the central characters are in Yale University. 

The story is very well developed and fascinating.  The plot is, if anything, subdued in the context of what we now actually know about Soviet penetration of the US government in the 1930s and 1940s, including the OSS, although there is no actual evidence that CIA was ever penetrated by the Soviets.

Sunday State Leader for December 17, 1916: Measles killing Guardsmen at Deming.

Not the only news of the day, but two Arkansas Guardsmen died from the measles at Deming, New Mexico, news that surely worried Wyomingites with family members serving in the Guard at Deming.

William F. Cody  was reported very ill at his sister's house in Denver.

And death claimed the life of a former Rough Rider living in the state as well.

The State Health Officer reported, in cheerier news, on the state's healthful climate.

Carranza rejects the protocol

We've run a lot of newspaper articles on the negotiations between the United States and Mexico, or perhaps more accurately between the United States and the Constitutionalist government of Mexico lead by Venustiano Carranza

 Carranza

On this day he ended the doubt, he refused to sign it.

Carranza was a tough minded individual.  He never liked Woodrow Wilson and he had a grudge against the United States.  Irrespective of what may seem to be the advantages of the proposals that were made, he wouldn't agree.

And he never did.  Carranza never executed a protocol with the United States.

By this point the United States clearly wanted out of Mexico.  The intervention had bogged down to an uneasy occupation since the summer and was going nowhere.  Carranza guessed correctly that the United States would be leaving no matter what, although that did not mean that the US would be passive in protecting its interests.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 17, 1916. Inter Ocean destroyed by fire.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 17:

The Inter-Ocean

1916   Inter-Ocean Hotel in Cheyenne destroyed by fire.  Attribution; Wyoming State Historical Society.

The Inter-Ocean was one of several Cheyenne hotels that were big deals and major watering holes, something very common in that era and for decades thereafter (and still somewhat true in larger cities today).  It's remembered to Western History for being the location referenced by Tom Horn in his famous conversation with  Joe LeFors.

If you go to the Inter-Ocean to sit down and talk a few minutes some one comes in and says, 'Let us have a drink,' and before you know it you are standing up talking, and my feet get so *&^*&^^  tired it almost kills me. I am 44 years, 3 months, and 27 days old, and if I get killed now I have the satisfaction of knowing I have lived about fifteen ordinary lives.

Horn was in fact arrested outside of the Inter-Ocean.

The hotel had been built by Barney Ford, a businessman who had been born a slave, a status that he escaped from.  His father was the white plantation owners where his black mother was enslaved.  After escaping he lived an adventuresome life and rose to great wealth in Colorado.

He apparently liked the name "Inter-Ocean" as he built another hotel in Denver's 16th Street by that name.  Like the Cheyenne hotel, it is no longer there, which is a real shame as funky buildings like this are all the rage in Denver now..

Denver's Inter-Ocean

Morris Levine, newsboy. December 17, 1916.

LOC Title:  Morris Levine, 212 Park Street. 11 years old and sells papers every day--been selling five years. Makes 50 cents Sundays and 30 cents other days. Location: Burlington, Vermont / Lewis W. Hine. December 17, 1916.

Last day of the season.

What I meant to be doing yesterday.

What I was doing.

Oh well.  I'd forgotten when I planned on making a last attempt on Thursday that I'd scheduled a meeting that day last week.

The Cheyenne State Leader for December 16, 1916: Villa proposes deal with US?

Rumors were circulating that Villa had proposed a deal with the US, and Pershing stood to be promoted.

The Wyoming Tribune for December 16, 1916: Home folks send boxes to border

Care packages were being sent to Wyoming National Guardsmen in New Mexico.

The mysterious apperance of John J. Hawes

The national press was reporting this day that John J. Hawes, an American businessman with connections in Mexico, had announced himself as a emissary from Villa with proposals for peace.

Hawes is an enigmatic figure.  He was a legitimate, but apparently somewhat slick, businessman who operated to make money on the war in Mexico.  His connections with Villa were vague at the time and remain that way.

Still, his assertions that Villa was resurgent were not without some credit, given that Villa had gone from desperate back in March to a serious opponent, once again, of Carranza with an army in the field that had to be taken seriously by November.

This wouldn't be Hawes sole appearance in the Mexican drama and as matters progressed, while he gathered skepticism, he also seems to have gathered some support here and there from American business interests and even a few political figures.  In the short term, we can expect his name to appear in the local papers the next few days as the Press continued to attempt to follow what was going on south of the border.  Suffice it to say, while the drama seemed to be concluding in some ways, it would become all the odder in others.

2ième Bataille Offensive de Verdun

The 2ième Bataille Offensive de Verdun, a second French offensive at Verdun, a battle that had been running for months, commenced at 10:00 on this day in 1916.  A German barrage designed to halt a ground attack commenced too late to stop it.

Map depicting french gains from December 15 (15/12), 1916 to December 18 (18/12), 1916.

The artillery phase of the offensive preceded the ground assault by several days, with artillery duels occurring as a result.  

The offensive would run until the 18th and gain up to about five miles in some locations, taking some very strategic position in its course and resulting in significant German losses.  The French would take 11,000 Germans as prisoners alone.  The halt of their advance on the 18th marked the end of the siege of Verdun.  In the total siege the French sustained about 400,000 casualties and the Germans about 300,000.

Lex Anteinternet: And then the shoe dropped. (But not when thought). Ryan Zinke nominated to the Interior

Just recently I reported on Cathy McMorris Rodgers being nominated, in anticipation style, to be Secretary of the Interior by President Elect Donald Trump:

Lex Anteinternet: And then the shoe dropped.: Yesterday I published this item: Lex Anteinternet: Whining, crying, panic in the editorial room of th... : Following the flood of analys...

I don't know what happened, but in the end, she wasn't.

When the announcement was made it turned out to be Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke.

And I think that's a good thing.

I know very little about Zinke, but I do know that the Republican Montanan is opposed to the transfer of Federal lands, which was something that was much less certain about Rodgers.  And I also know that as he comes from Montana, he'll be familiar with the situation and conditions down here in Wyoming, which are very similar.  Moreover the former Navy SEAL is a lifelong hunter and fisherman.  He's drawn some initial praise from sporting quarters.

A good turn of events.  In some ways, I feel like we may have dodged a bit of  a bullet on this one.