During World War Two all of the major European combatants built flak towers to support anti aircraft guns. The German ones were particularly impressive.
Made out of massive amounts of reinforced concrete, they proved to be extremely difficult to remove after World War Two, although a lot of them were. The large Berlin Zoo Tower proved to be very difficult to remove and required more than one attempt to do so.
Ultimately, the effort to remove the concrete monstrosities just wasn't worth and some are accordingly left.
Not all, by any means. Most of the flak towers in Berlin and Hamburg were demolished or partially destroyed but all six towers in Vienna were left standing
Trump is having his absurd ballroom built out of "nuclear grade" cement, so they're sort of being built like a flak tower. Nuclear grade cement is in fact extremely durable and cannot be removed easily, or by conventional means.
Trump has specifically said that this is so the monstrosity cannot be taken down.
Well, nuclear cement or not, nuclear towers can be taken down.
At least so far, Trump's L'Arche de la défaite, another hideous monstrosity, is proposed to be built out of standard concrete and covered with U.S.-sourced granite. The granite will be easy to peel off and as triumphal arches are hollow, blowing it off the face of the earth will be easy.
This needs to occur.
Trump is an illegitimate occupant of the White House and not the President. He's not qualified to occupy the office as he's an insurrectionist, and the Constitution prohibits that. AFter the Civil War, proving that a former Confederate was that was not a requirement to banning them from office. As they were known to be insurrectionist, the ban just applied. It still does.
Leaving anything Trump touched that can be associated with him legitimizes him. He's been a horrific disaster and everything associated with him should be scraped. Everything.
It needs to happen.
There are real reasons to fear that it will not. Simple institutional laziness is one of them. American government moves at the speed of Baby Boomers and that isn't fast. A natural human dislike of wasting resources is another.
Still, it's interesting, there's an open and obvious fear in MAGA circles that it will in fact come down. MAGA tends to repeat lines that Trump spouts as attempts to gain support, and the most recent one is that it will "benefit future presidents".
Oh, how noble.
The fact of the matter is that the White House was always intended to be one thing, a house, and nothing else. Giant ballrooms are something that fairy tale princesses have. We're living in the real world, and a frightening real world at that. We don't need a fairy tale ballroom. We need a balanced budget and attention focused on the urgent topics of the day.
Diesel fuel prices have shot up since King Donny thought that beating Iran would be a cheap and easy matter, and hence attacked them.
What the war is about is not really clear. King Donald has given multiple excuses for it but with the price of fuel shooting up, he's latched on to the "Iran was going to get a bomb" line. According to an article in Scientific American Iran was, in fact, nowhere close to being able to do that.
And there are other reasons to suspect that was only in the background. The war really looks like an idea that Bibi Netanyahu had knowing that Trump was pliable and probably that the administration was packed with far right wing Evangelicals who see whatever Israel does as sanctioned by God to some degree. You can't blame Bibi for that, it was a golden opportunity to knock a major Israeli enemy down a few pegs, if not out of the enemy category entirely.
It didn't work.
Right now, we're stuck in what looks like an endless war with Iran. All the conventional theories about how to win the war are wrong. The war turns out to be as Clausewitzian as any. In order to win, we'd have to invade the country with ground troops and not even King Donald is up for that.
In the meantime, the economic warfare Iran is conducting is working really well. Iran has brought its clients, the Houthis, into the fight, and they've hit Saudi Arabia. The US has done nothing about that, in spite of a Saudi request for assistance. Indeed, we've apparently told the Houthis, who have "Death to America" as part of their slogan, that we'll turn a blind eye to that spat. The Saudi military is not widely regarded as a very good one, which is problematic as they are being put in a situation in which they may well have to conduct a ground invasion of Yemen.
So the price of diesel is way up.
Of course, King Donald and his flunkies insist that its up as Ukraine his hitting Russian petroleum facilities. That claim is partially true, but they've been doing that for years now. The price didn't start to skyrocket until recently.
King Donny, you own this.
And that will impact the price of everything. The trucking industry likes to boast that "everything comes by truck". Well, a lot does, and that's a problem. Everything that comes by truck is going to have its price go up. Everything that goes by rail will as well.
In short, everything.
And we haven't even touched on the costs to agriculture.
So, in desperation, some members of Congress have noticed that the US experts diesel fuel. If we prohibit that, the price will go down, right?
Probably not.
Petroleum products in general are one of scale. If there's less of a market, refiners might just switch to something else. And of course the price of petroleum itself will likely not go down.
And hence this.
Diesel, and gasoline, prices may be Trump's one real lasting legacy.
Republicans will claim he's "trolling". MAGA will say "watch the libs, har, har, har, pass me my twelfth Bud. . . " Mike Johnson will claim he was too busy to notice. John Barrasso will look like he's badly constipated.
The Trump will do it.
J. D. Vance will claim it's a good idea, while going back to spruce up his resume for his inevitable Starbucks job application.
Seriously, he's either completely insane, or crying out for intervention.
This is not normal. Trump is not normal. He's not alright.
September 8, 2026
And then there's this: https://x.com/Amy_Siskind/status/2097119661884162247/video/1
Yesterday he appeared to be lecturing a Marine Corps helicopter pilot shortly after Marine Corps One landed and omitted saluting the guards, which has become an unfortunate tradition.
Part of Labor Day he devoted to a deranged series of tweets.
He's insane and the Republican Party just won't do anything about it. It's up to the voters, but even at that we'll be facing two more years of untold destruction due to GOP cowardice.
cont:
The government of Iceland has summoned the US ambassador to the country for Donald Trump's having posted an image yesterday showing the island nation as a U.S. possession. Mexico, Canada and Greenland were included in the same crazy image.
cont:
I just thank my people. I was building a big building in New York and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened and they had no hesitation. Everybody went down with me. We went down as a big group of people ... we thought it was coming down on top of us ... two fireman lifted me up and started running with me.
Two fireman, big strong guys, they grabbed me under the arms -- 'got to get our of here!' -- and they literally lifted me up, and they started running with me.
Donald Trump about 9/11. It's a complete lie.
cont:
And later today:
The Failing New York Magazine wrote a story that I wasn’t down at the World Trade Center after the Tragedy of September 11th, because nobody saw me there. Well, I don’t think I would be the first thing on anyone’s mind but, I was there, obviously not on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter…
The Fake News doesn’t want to listen, even when they know their story is false. That’s why their approval ratings are at an All Time LOW, but mine are VERY HIGH!
On another September 11th front, Maggot Hagerman continues to say that I did not go to the New York World Trade Center event, but the Pentagon instead, because they wouldn’t let me speak in New York. Maggot knows that this is a lie!
This is actually a fairly big event as Trump was caught in a lie so large that he was forced to attempt to step away from it. He wasn't there, and was called on it, and admitted he wasn't there.
He's a liar whose occupation of the White House dishonors the country.
It's difficult to see how MAGA continues to call Joe Biden "Sleepy Joe".
Getty Images, same event. Fair use exception.
September 16, 2026
Trump's hand picked board on the Kennedy Center closed it ostensibly for renovations but Trump made it clear beforehand that it would be closed unless it's named after him.
Trump has been a Tour d' Wacky all week.
The man is insane. Supporting a person who supports Trump is unconscionable.
September 21, 2026.
It's hard to tell if this is rank stupidity, or craziness at the tinfoil hat stage:
Either way this suggestion is really stupid. There's almost no way the military suggested something this dumb.
Trump is getting piles of pushback on this one, and with each day he appears increasingly wacky. We're riding right up on the November election and we have to once again seriously wonder if there's a conflict between doing what's right and applying the 25th Amendment and trying to ride through the election. As it becomes increasingly clear that Trump is a major Republican liability at this point, the pressure to remove an obviously unwell man has to be increasing.
Former Chilean Foreign Minister, Defense Minister and Ambassador to the United States Orlando Letelier was assassinated by Pinochet agent Michael Townley by means of a car bomb in Washington D. C. Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a coworker of Letelier's at the Institute of Peace, was also killed in the blast.
Townley is an American who became involved with far right wing Chilean elements while living there. He had partially grown up in Chile. His current whereabouts, if he is alive, are unknown.
Asle O. Sorbel, a teenager, met the fleeing Younger brothers and Charlie Pitts near Madelia, Minnesota and recognized them. They were traveling on foot. He rode a plow horse into Madelia, over the objections of his parents, and informed the authorities. The Sheriff and local volunteers rode out and engaged them in a gun battle in a swamp called Hanska Slough, just south of La Salle, Minnesota. Pitts was killed. The rest were taken into custody.
Truman asked Henry Wallace to resign, eight days after Wallace's controversial speech in New York, stating that "the Government of the United States must stand as a unit in its relations with the rest of the world".
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom
Matthew, Chapter 24.
Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.
The U.S. Senate advanced Russian energy sanctions legislation Tuesday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the Capitol. The vote was seen as a tribute to the bill’s author, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, on the day of his funeral, which was widely attended by politicos.
Trump fell asleep during it as J. D. Vance seemed oblivious to the dozing octogenarian and Bessent looked nervous about it, but then he always looks nervous.
July 31, 2026
Israeli Hamas War
The Bored of Peas has supposedly worked out a peace plan in Gaza. Sober analysts a 4th Grade level have severe doubts about it.
August 1, 2026
Russo Ukrainian War
Now Trump is backtracking and saying the US won't license Patriot missile production to Ukraine.
August 2, 2026
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine has run out of ballistic missile interceptors. This comes at the same time that the US supply is seriously depleted due to Donald Trump's illegal moronic war against Iran.
King Donny should free up what remains of the US supply and give them to Ukraine, and start emergency production for the US. As for Iran, we can solve that problem simply by pulling out. Better yet, pulling out, putting every senior commander who agreed to fight in a clearly illegal war on trial, and impeaching Donald Trump.
Crisis in Ceuta
Not a war but requiring Spanish military deployment, a mass flood of immigrants crashed into the Spanish North African city of Ceuta.
About 50,000 North African immigrants stormed the city, leading to dramatic news footage and MAGA "see, it could happen here" claims. Missed in the story is that 48,000 of them returned to Morocco within 48 hours.
A bigger question may be why Spain retains a city that you would figure should be part of Morocco, but it does.
Italy defensively suspended the EU's border-free Schengen arrangements with Spain.
August 10, 2026
Israel v. Hamas.
Israel had rejected the "Board of Peace" peace plan, refusing to enter into a peace deal with Hamas until it is definitely disarmed.
Another blow to King Donny.
August 17, 2026
Russo Ukrainian War
Both sides exchanged heavy missile and drone attacks yesterday. A NATO jet on patrol shot down a drone that had strayed into Romania.
August 18, 2026
Russo Ukrainian War
Robert Shaheiev, 49, formerly of the Ukrainian Navy who defected to Russia early in the war died in an explosion in Sevastopol.
Whether he was targeted or not, Ukrainian operatives have proven effective at hunting down figures in the Russian military that they find particularly responsible for various matters. Shaheiev defected with a submarine.
Korean War
Donald Trump has signaled that the US is going to scale back it's participation in joint exercises with the South Korean Army.
What's going on here is terribly unclear. The US has maintained troops in the ROK since the 1945 and the threat of North Korean invasion is very real.
I should note that this isn't entirely unprecedented. Jimmy Carter actually campaigned on the idea in 1976 and tried to implement a phased withdrawal, which was abandoned over conservative and military objections. Since the 1980s, military support of South Korea has been very strong.
Trumps move comes at a time when the US is losing an illegal war with Iran and is having to pull naval assets out of the Pacific. It also comes at a point at which the longtime Red Chinese goal of forcibly reunited Taiwan with the mainland is at its highest point. Combined with that, Trump's administration is packed with National Conservatives who have a sort of Neo Nineteenth Century view of where the U.S.'s foreign policy should be focused.
Given that, Trump's decision could be the result of his listening to National Conservatives, or it could be because or logistical situation is much worse than admitted.
It could also be because South Korea refused to participate in the illegal war, like every other nation on earth did. Trump has not taken that well. Nobody seems to be pointing out that South Korea did participate in the Vietnam War, which Trump did not. Trump himself, at any rate, referenced South Korea's lack of willingness to get into the losing war with Iran.
We've noted it elsewhere, but we've been worried about a Chinese strike on Taiwan in the near future. The combination of the failed Iran War and Trump's other actions make that inevitable . The question is whether that will come this Fall, or next Spring.
September 4, 2026
Russo Ukrainian War
In an attack Ukraine is an intentional Russian signal to the United States, Russia hit a Coca Cola plant in a drone strike.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has killed a House vote on Lindsey Graham’s Russia sanctions bill which passed the Senate in July, stating “We have to build consensus around that final product".
Oh, um, . . . not hat doesn't look a little weird. . . . and doesn't raise any questions, um, like Дональд Трамп — агент России?
What is it with this administration and Russia? Why is Дональд Трамп a Russian asset? Just stupidity and a like for flashy gold things?
September 20, 2026
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine launched a massive drone raid on targets in the Moscow region.
During the Revolutionary War, George Washington ordered his troops inoculated against Small Pox.
This week Pete Hegseth lifted the requirement that troops be inoculated for influenza for "religious" reasons.
The current GOP is heavily anti scientific.
Opposition to vaccinations has been in American history largely a thing of smaller Christian and non Christian sects which are fairly anti scientific, as opposed to the majority of Christians who have no objection to vaccination. However, when the far right of the country started to turn weird, listening to such medical lights as boob model Jenny McCarthy, that began to change a bit. Covid really made it worse as a significant portion of the country turned anti vax under the leadership of Donald Trump, who got the vaccine, but who recommended some really lethal approaches to the crisis as well.
Troops who don't get inoculated ought to just be given dishonorable or less than honorable discharges. That's what should have occurred to those who refused the Covid vaccine.
April 24, 2026
The war department stands ready for what comes next. Locked and loaded. May God continue to breast—bless our warriors each and every day and on each and every mission.
Hegseth.
Breast?
Okay, I get that it's a slip of the tongue, um, well, but it's an odd one.
May 12, 2026
The Aryan Nation, the Nazis, and the KKK are not far-right organizations. Those are far-left organizations, and they always have been. The KKK was created and started by the Democrats in the United States to prevent blacks from being able to participate in the political arena, if you will. So, I'm going to say they've never been associated with the right, they've always been associated with the left.
Harriet Hageman.
Hageman's no dummy and she knows this is crap, or has drank so much of the Kool Aide she'll spout stuff that's absurd.
Every one of these organizations is from the far right and any claim to the contrary is patently absurd. The claim about the Nazis, which I've seen before, comes from the party's very early, and frankly pre Hitler, days and its name, the National Socialist Party. The absurdity of that claim fails to realize that "socialism" in the context of nationalist parties doesn't necessarily mean Marxism, but "for society". In the case of the Nazis, way early on their did espouse Socialism but by the time they'd come to power they'd abandoned it in favor of autarky and the early socialist in the party were sidelined or expelled.
And the claim about the KKK being founded by the Democrats and therefore left wing completely ignores that originally the Republican Party was the left wing party, and the Democrats were a right wing party. The Democrats didn't evolve into the political left until the 20th Century and in the American South remained the conservative party into the 1980s. Hageman herself is old enough to have voted in Reagan's first run for the Oval Office and therefore should be well aware of that.
This is totally reprehensible.
Cont:
Reporter: What extent are Americans’ financial situation motivating you to make a deal?
Trump: Not even a little bit. I don't think about Americans’ financial situation.
May 13, 2026
So it turns out that Trump's advisors uniformly told him not to launch the war against Iran, but he did anyway, and the advisors, not wanting to be blamed for his stupidity, leaked. He wants them prosecuted for treason, and sycophant Todd Blanche is looking to to it.
The real crime here is Trump's, who launched an illegal war. With no declaration of war, every single Iranian killed in it has been the victim of some sort of crime, and every American who has died has been the victim of some sort of crime ultimately attributable to Trump as well.
Blanche is pathetic. When this is over, and it will be, his careers should be flushed down the toilet.
And then there's this:
PabloReports: Ted Cruz called you a parasite and disparaged your work as a bartender.
AOC: I think it’s funny that he’s been taking a government paycheck for 23 years but has the audacity to criticize someone who has come from a family that had to work their way up and earn their place here.
This is really becoming a Republican specialty around here. We get retired servicemen who come in after sucking on the government tit for 30 years, retire, and then start sucking on the other government tit, and then run for office on the "I hate the government" ticket.
In that sense, the Democrat running against Collins in Maine is really refreshing. He's given a speech about his combat service and then noted how he can't figure out how that's relevant to being a Senator. It isn't.
Recently I saw somebody post something in favor of Brent Bien here in Wyoming, noting that he's served in combat or dangerous conditions all over the world, and how that will make him ready to lead. Yeah, lead troops, not a state government.
We have a whole host of candidates from the He Man Government Haters Club running locally. They have a right to run, but while they're doing it, they shouldn't be draining their mommy. It's hypocritical.
June 22, 2026
Unqualified for her office Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said her office would prosecute individuals caught vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
That would mean prosecuting Donald Trump, which should be done for a variety of reasons.
June 24, 2026
The ideology of the Mooslims is slightly different than the ideology of the Catholics. We have the Catholics and the Mooslims. Slightly different. But Venezuela has been great and Iran has been great.
Donald Trump.
Insulting in the extreme.
The ideology of Catholics, of which I am one, is the ideology of Christianity, as Catholicism is the first and original Christian religion It's more than "slightly different" than Islam.
This provides a good reason for those Catholics who support Trump to really question what they are doing.
June 26, 2026
Under President Trump the U.S. unemployment rate is at a historic low of just 4.3%. It was at a dismal rate of 3.4% under Biden.
Karoline Leavitt.
What the crap?
June 27, 2026
The new special edition passports with a glowering Supreme Leader Trump's image in them features the words, "Welcome! But be good".
Apparently some moron didn't realize that these were passports, not visas.
Related thread:
August 7, 2026
After an embarrassing display of conspiratorial lunacy, in which Rand Paul notably played a part, a panel of Republican dimwits voted to send a measure to the Senate floor to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer their moronic questions.
The basic truth of the matter is that the GOP has become completely scientific and dimwit conspiratorial in nature. Basically, Flat Earthers, really. I'm sure the whole panel will hold an investigation soon on whether we really went to the moon, and decide we didn't.
Not really on ignorance, but on the perversion that surrounds everything Trump, Republicans have been more or less silent on Rep. Max Miller after having a fit about Graham Platner. Miller has been accused of abusing his wife by pouring boiling water on her and breaking the collar bone of his daughter. Even his father in law, who is in the Senate, has been reluctant to criticizes him.
That's your party of family values.
August 20, 2026
We have a spike in oil prices that I don't really understand
Scott Bessent.
Seriously?
September 16, 2026
Trust in vaccines for deadly childhood diseases including measles has fallen according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Measles is on the uptake.
People who don't vaccinate their children for measles are, quite frankly, criminally stupid.
We're making a fortune. So if the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump Dividend. Congratulations.
Donald Trump at the GOP Midterm Convention.
A person would have to be stupid on stilts to believe that promise, and a similar one has been extended before.
Seriously, what kind of a dumbass believes anything Trump promises at this point?
The fact that the GOP is having a "Midterm" convention is itself an example of outright desperation and hubris on the part of Trump. Trump loves Trump and you must love Trump, so he's reminding you of Trump Love so that you love him and vote for the GOP candidates to show your mindless cult like love.
The fact of the matter is that everything associated with Trump is going badly and his approval ranking is sinking like a rock. In Wyoming it's down to 54% and the impact of the tariffs on Canada haven't even hit yet, much. The war hasn't ended, inflation is about to ramp back up, and Trump's own weirdness is now too weird for anyone to ignore. The result is that Democrats, who were slated to take back the House, now appear likely to take back the Senate as well. Even in Wyoming there's some hint that the Senate may be in play and it's clear that a large number of people really aren't keen on Chuck Gray, who has been pretty quiet since the primary.
Indeed, I've seen a little lashing out at John Barrasso, who isn't running for anything. Now days we mostly see Dr. John looking at Donald Trump as if he, Barrasso, is suffering from a severe case of constipation. He may be, as he's kept his true views on everything, none of which we know, bottled up inside of himself for so long. Anyhow, if people are mad at Barrasso, who seems to have forgotten which state he's from, it doesn't bode well for Hageman and Gray, although they are both clearly the favorites.
This does bring us to some questions that should be asked in the next two months, however. Those being:
1. Do you support the undeclared war against Iran, and if yes, how do you justify no declaration of war existing?
2. On data centers, a big deal here in Wyoming, are you against them like seemingly the majority of Wyomingites are, or for them, like Donald Trump is?
3. What is your position on public lands?
4. For people who go outside, there are clearly environmental matters to be concerned about. Do you have any concerns, and if no, just don't tell us "it's a big fib", as that's just telling us that you'll lie for votes. What is your justification?
5. Epstein files. Why aren't they being released.
6. What is your real plan for balancing the budget and addressing the debt and show us that it works.
7. Do you support ending the trade war with Canada?
Two events occured yesterday which should; 1) cause a sane nation to invoke the 25th Amendment and 2) cause every Republican running for office to have to answer where they stand or never be voted on again.
The first.
Trump sworn his acolytes in so that they will be able to be called up as Long Knives to attack the upcoming Republican defeat in November.
It's not the pledge to go out and vote. Frankly, most MAGA isn't paying any attention this anyway.
It's the pledge to cheat.
Things Trump says cannot any longer be dismissed. People who think that one liner means nothing are ignoring recent history. He intends to steal the election. If he pulls that off, if he's still living and semi coherent, he intends to serve a third term.
The second was a truly bizarre video based on the Paul Harvey "God made farmers" video of years ago with a "God gave us Trump" theme.
This latches on to the extreme Evangelical leg of the MAGA stool. It would make most Christians of any branch absolutely cringe, and to claim a Divine mission like this may be very well blasphemous.
The questions that should be asked, and of any Republican candidate?
1. Will you support the results of the November election no matter what they are. If there's any hedging at all, tell the person they don't have your support for anything whatsoever.
2. Do you believe that Trump has a Divine mission? Any answer than an unqualified no should disqualify the candidate.
I can guarantee you that almost any GOP candidate, particularly if they don't know your view going into the question, will waffle and not give a straight answer.
Carrying on a bit, the religiosity of this midterm Republican convention is really something else. Protestant ministers showed up to speak at it and Tim Scott sounded like an Evangelist. At some point Protestants who are members of these communities really have to ask their pastors how they can reconcile their faith with a man who so clearly ignores Christianity.
Closer to home, Harriet Hageman is ignoring calls for a debate with James Byrd and Byrd is calling her out on it. His post from Facebook:
James Byrd for United States Senate
IF YOU WON'T FIGHT FOR WYOMING ON A DEBATE STAGE, WHO ARE YOU FIGHTING FOR?
Harriet Hageman won't stand on a stage. She won't return calls. She won't even respond. And now her silence is about to cancel the one chance Wyoming voters had to see both Senate candidates side by side.
You don't get to represent this state if you won't show up and defend what you believe in front of it. Silence isn't leadership. It's a candidate deciding Wyoming doesn't deserve a real conversation at all.
Tell Wyoming PBS: don't let her refusal to stand for what she believes in decide this for the rest of us.
Stand and fight.
That really is a chicken move by Hageman, but it seems to me she's taken that approach in the past as well.
In the past it struck me as arrogance. She stopped debating as a wave of the hand type of move, although Grey Bull pulled down 25% of the vote in 2022 and Cameron 23% in 2024. Here, it strikes me as fear. Gray Bull was a good debater and still drew 25% in a year that heavily favored Hageman. Now, with four years in, Hageman has an extremely exposed record. She poked Wyoming voters in the eye on public lands and basically called them dumb. In the category of dumb, her family's homestead burned to the ground but she still is a climate change denier. She was endorsed by Trump and has yet to explain how Wyoming farmer and ranchers should view South American beef. It's unfortunate that she lost to Mead, who was such a better candidate.
It's pretty questionable how she'd do in a debate against Byrd. Byrd would likely best her, and what's more, he knows that. So he's making her chicken move an issue.
Hageman ought to be held to account for hiding.
AN OPEN LETTER TO WYOMING PBS
August 11, 2026
To the Leadership of Wyoming PBS,
On August 10, our campaign was notified that Wyoming PBS would not be holding a primary debate for U.S. Senate, because our opponent declined the invitation to participate. A similar notice was given to Lisa Kinney, one of the Democratic candidates for Wyoming's U.S. House seat, whose opponent also declined. As a result, neither of Wyoming's federal Democratic primary races will be represented in a debate on Wyoming PBS this cycle.
I want the public to know directly: I did not refuse this invitation. I remain ready and willing to speak to Wyoming voters in this format, and if Wyoming PBS were to offer me the opportunity, I would be there.
We understand the position Wyoming PBS is in. Federal equal-time provisions limit what a broadcaster can do when only one candidate is willing to appear, so PBS can't simply offer a solo forum in place of a debate, and balancing that against the responsibility to keep voters informed is a hard job. We don't take issue with that constraint itself.
But we do take issue with the precedent this sets.
If one candidate declining is all it takes to cancel a debate outright, then any candidate who wants to dodge scrutiny now has a guaranteed way to do it. That's not a neutral policy. It rewards avoidance and punishes the candidate who actually showed up. It hands one side the power to decide, unilaterally, whether Wyoming voters get to see a debate at all. That is not how this is supposed to work.
When journalism requires the participation of good faith actors, rather than holding all individuals to account regardless of whether they participate, it will ultimately fail at its own goal of accountability. It is always easier to hide than to be held to account.
We've also noticed a related pattern: nominees who clear a primary and then simply skip general election debates too. Put these trends together, and debate participation stops being something candidates owe their constituents. It becomes optional for anyone who calculates they have more to lose than gain by showing up. That should worry Wyoming PBS as much as it worries us.
We are asking Wyoming PBS to make a public commitment that the U.S. House and Senate debates ahead of the Nov. 3, 2026 general election will occur, period. That commitment should hold true regardless of the participation of our opponents.
If a candidate refuses to show up, hold the debate anyway and leave their podium empty. Stations across the country already do this when a candidate declines. It lets voters still hear from the candidates who did show up, and it makes the absent candidate's choice visible instead of erasing the event altogether. Voters deserve to hear from all candidates in each race. Short of that, they deserve to see plainly which candidates showed up to answer for their records and which ones didn't. No candidate should get to use their own absence as a weapon to keep another candidate off the stage.
We'd also push Wyoming PBS to rethink its approach for future primary cycles. One candidate's refusal shouldn't be enough to cancel a debate outright, and that shouldn't hinge on how many candidates happen to be on a given party's ballot. A party fielding one or two contested candidates deserves the same debate access as a party fielding a dozen. Anything less penalizes voters for the size of their party's field, not for anything they did.
We appreciate the work Wyoming PBS does for this state, and we expect a response.
It turns out that neither Gray nor Hageman are willing to debate.
I'd have much less faith in Kinney being able to really do well in a debate against Gray, although she was a practicing lawyer and has been a legislator. Additionally, Gray's default setting when he gets stressed is asshole.
Both Hageman and Gray's campaigns are defending their position to be chickens. So are their diehard supporters. But it isn't a good look.
Rod Miller voices his opinion about Proposition 1.
What the text of Prop 1 states is:
(xliii) A portion of property used as a primary residence as a homeowner’s exemption. The following shall apply to the homeowner's exemption:
(A) For property used as a primary residence, fifty percent (50%) of the assessed value of the primary property is exempt from property taxation as a homeowner's exemption. Not more than one (1) homeowner’s exemption shall apply to the same property in any year and no owner shall claim more than one (1) homeowner’s exemption in any year including property that is improved by a residence that houses more than one (1) family. To claim a homeowner’s exemption the person shall have been a resident of this state for not less than one (1) year prior to claiming an exemption under this paragraph and shall have resided in the applicable primary residence for at least six (6) months of the immediately preceding tax year. To claim a homeowner’s exemption, the owner of the property shall submit a sworn claim to the county assessor not later than the fourth Monday in May on forms provided by the department of revenue demonstrating that the person is the owner of the property, and that the property is the person's primary residence. False claims are punishable as provided by W.S. 6-5-303.
Basically this proposition was a Wyoming Freedom Caucus "I just moved here with lots of money from California, bought a McMansion or a 40 acre dirt farm, drove up everyone's property taxes, and I don't like it". The proposition would gut local communities income like a fish, which most of these people don't care about as they truly hate the government and don't care about educating children, for instance, as they prefer ignorance.
We're voting no on Prop 1.
Indeed, this is the one thing we've actually answered a poll on. The poll was clearly supposed to be in favor prop 1 and the pollster, pretty clearly calling from some place in the South, didn't really know how to react to my answers to the questions.
Speaking of speaking, where's Harriet and Chuck on doing a debate?
Speaking of those two, there are questions as we proceed along that they should be made to answer.
Harriet, now that her home county is on fire again, should be forced to answer if she's willing to basically burn everything down to support the lie that climate warming isn't real. We all know it's real. She no doubt knows it's real. Why the fib?
Both should be made to answer if they support the illegal war against Iran and why?
And what about those diesel prices, eh?
On other matters, there's some rumors going around that Bill Allemand, the far right wing Freedom Caucus candidate who barely survived a primary challenge, may bail out of office. Apparently he may run through the election, according to one version of it, and then bail out some time after that. Without the Freedom Caucus crew in Cheyenne there's nobody to tell him what to do, and it would appear, generally, he needs somebody to tell him what to do and he knows that. He's not going to have any friends any longer in Cheyenne either.
If he bails out now, he probably throws that race to the Libertarian running in the district, although there is a Democrat running as well. He likely won't do that now and I'm not exactly sure what happens if he does. The logical thing would be that the other GOP candidate from the primary would replace him through a party process. If he drops out after the fall election, and if he wins it, the party would pick three names and send them to the County Commissioners who would pick the new legislator.
That, in fact, is how Chuck Gray first took office.
September 17, 2026
The propeller hat Dixiecrats in the GOP are at war with their own party. Unfortunately for that party, they are also in control of a lot of county, and the state, committees.
Hence some of those organizations basically backing the losing campaign of carpetbagger Rebecca Bextel.
The party is really hypocritical. This past year it endorsed candidates in the primary for the first time and basically told GOP voters who they had to vote for. It endorsed Hageman, Gray, and Bien. Bien came in third in the Governor's race and they've been pouting ever since.
Barlow, who won the Governor's race, swamped his opponents, taking 45% of the vote, but sad Dixiecrats note that 45% is not 50%, and therefore, they argue, he's not the legitimate candidate. That logic is pretty flawed as he certainly is under Wyoming's law, and his only real rival in the campaign was Trump endorsed Degenfelder, who took 30%. Dixiecrat darling Bien took 24% and sad Confederates note that if you add Degenfelder and Bien together, that's more than 50%.
It is, but it assumes that Degenfelder voters would have voted for Bien if she hadn't been running. The opposite is probably true. The 1/3 bottom of the bell curve probably would have voted for Trump knighted Degenfelder if Bien hadn't been running, but Degenfelder voters in large part would likely have gone for Barlow if Bien hadn't thrown his gray kepi into the ring. If anyone had an argument here, therefore, it would be Degenfelder.
Neither Bien or Degenfelder, who hope to dig out of their holes rather than convert them into political graves have said anything about the results being illegitimate but upset WFC members have a bit, for Bien. They tried to get a write in campaign going for him and at least locally one badly defeated WFC member still is. Others, including some committee members, are backing Bextel, who will lose massively in November.
The Constitution Party itself, which support a strict reading of a double secret constitution only they know about, is open enough itself to admit that it's hoping that Bextel can pull down 10% of the vote so that it can be a "major" party. Under Wyoming's law on primaries, which I believe to be unconstitutional, that would make the party the very model of a modern major party.
That result might occur and it might actually be a good thing, although anyone voting for Bextel, as noted, fits into the bottom end of the bell curve. What it would do, however, is give propeller hat wearing Dixiecrats a place to actually go, and they should go there. They are not Republicans.
Lubnau notes that upset Dixiecrats in GOP committees positions oddly don't make the same argument about Freedom Caucus darling Chuck Gray, who only pulled down 25% of the vote. While Barlow isn't threatened by Bextel, Gray actually may be by Libertarian Johnson and Democrat Kinney. I wouldn't have given Kinney any chance at all, but Gray's refusing to debate her is actually elevating her status.
On Sheridan County, while some on its GOP committee may be crying in their Bomber Mountain Amber Ale, the results were the same as they were statewide. Barlow swamped his competition and while Bien did come in second there, he only barely beat out Degenfelder. Again, those Degenfelder votes would have most likely gone to Barlow. And Gray only barely beat out Biteman and Christensen there.
One final thing to note. Teton County, where Bextel has hung her kepi, and Sheridan County, are the homes to a lot of rich carpetbaggers. These people tend to vote their own economic interests, and not paying taxes and telling the peasants to go **** *** are in that category. Like the rank and file in Confederate Gray in the 1860s, a lot of that rank and file (which here includes a lot of carpetbaggers) tend to be dim enough to follow the dictates of their oligarchic masters. We're seeing that, and frankly just a lot of real bottom of the bell curve ignorance, at work on these topics.
On other topics, Postmaster General David Steiner wants to quit his job, according to insiders.
He should as he's serving a madman.
The Post Office has been in the news recently as Trump keeps ordering it to impose impossible regulations on mail in voting, which Trump himself uses, as part of Trump's effort to interfere with and steal the November election. The Supreme Court won't let him so he's having a major tantrum.
cont:
Holy smokes. . Rebecca Bextel has released a campaign video. Buckhorn Bar t-shirt aside (after a certain age, no matter how doe eyed you may be, you can't pull that off), she sounds like the biggest Alabama hick ever. Her accent is so thick it's really impressive. Trying to use the tag line "you don't have to be smart to be governor", she unintentionally sounds to native Westerners as Southern hick, which is admittedly a stereotype, given that's how Westerners tend to view Southerners. Southerners probably are unaware of that.
Bextel has lived in Wyoming for 20 years, which means that she's hardly lived here any time at all. And she lives in Teton County, which Deep Wyoming regards as California.
Anyhow, in terms of actual intelligence, Barlow is a veterinarian, one of the most difficult degrees to obtain. Bextel has a degree from the University of Alabama, although I don't know in what.
Becky also tried to sound tough in a recent Chamber of Commerce appearance by claiming she had "bigger balls" than her opponent.
Pretty insightful, really. She had to demean her status as a woman in order to have merit in her own eyes.
The Dixiecrats. Just go home.
September 18, 2026
Harriet Hageman wrote a guest column in the Cowboy State Daily regarding birth right citizenship.
Hageman won't debate her opponents and probably for good reason. She's arrogantly supported a bill that would have set public lands up to be privatized and essentially called Wyomingites' opposing it stupid. She claimed to be a "Constitutional Conservative" but has done nothing about Trump running roughshod over the Constitution, including waging an illegal war that's driving up prices for everyone in the state. She has nothing to campaign on and American's short attention span doesn't allow for a "I'm not Liz Cheney" as a platform. With Trump down to a 54% approval rating in Wyoming, "I love Trump" is starting not to sell so well either. So she's taking a page out of the Desperate GOP Playbook, that being hordes of foreigners are coming here to have babies, or in this particular case, hordes of Chinese are coming to have babies.
Well, in reality, for the first time in fifty years the US had negative migration last year. That is, more people are leaving the US than entering it. The US has been teetering on the edge of rapid decline for years, but Trump has floored the accelerator on that, with the help of Republicans in Congress, and the country looks like a joke. China, the nation which Harriet maintains is trying to plant vast hordes of babies into our country, is the clearly up and coming nation.
The truth of the matter is that this problem, if there was one, has pretty much jumped the shark. While I'm really skeptical of it being a crisis, right wing demographers right now are arguing the opposite problem, that being that the US population is actually starting to decline, that decline accelerated by the country having become unwelcoming to foreigners. The solution is supposed to be for (white) Americans to get busy, so to speak.
That interestingly cuts in an opposite direction for a person like Hageman, and it really stands in contrast to Cheney. Cheney, now 60 years of age, is a Gen Xer and the mother of five children. Hageman (age 63) is technically a Baby Boomer (perhaps more accurately a Gen. Jonser) with no children whatsoever. Both are lawyers, but Hageman looks a lot more like a feminist in every fashion. Indeed, as I slightly knew here, and knew her friends better, I was quite surprised early on when she emerged as a Conservative.
I'm well aware, of course, that these sorts of questions aren't even supposed to be raised in polite society, but we no longer live in a polite society and people like Hageman are part of the reason why we do not. So the questions are fair game.
Anyhow, Hageman may have some accomplishments but I don't know what they are, and whatever they are, they to not appear to be large enough to justify voting for her. Mostly she's been a Trump loyalist right up until recently, and an opponent of public lands. She's complicit in the failures of the Trump Administration by doing nothing, or actively supporting them, and she's detrimental to the interest of Wyoming.
Time, therefore, to drag out the Hordes Of Chinese Babies Have Landed on Our Shores line.
Wyoming sportsmen, and frankly everybody, cannot support the candidacy of Harriet Hageman. She's in the public lands hater category.
She just introduced this bill.
119th CONGRESS 1st Session
H. R. 2773
To provide that the Secretary of the Interior may not enter into certain conservation easements with a term of more than 30 years, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 9, 2025
Ms. Hageman (for herself and Ms. Fedorchak) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To provide that the Secretary of the Interior may not enter into certain conservation easements with a term of more than 30 years, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1.Short title.
This Act may be cited as the “Landowner Easement Rights Act”.
SEC. 2. Limitation on conservation easement terms.
After the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary may not enter into a conservation easement with a term of more than 30 years.
SEC. 3. Renegotiation of conservation easements.
At the request of an owner of land that is subject to an eligible conservation easement, the Secretary shall—
(1) not later the 6 months after the Secretary receives the request from the landowner, provide to the landowner—
(A) a detailed map of the easement; and
(B) notice of the current fair market value of the easement as determined by the Secretary; and
(2) renegotiate the terms of the eligible conservation easement, including—
(A) a term not longer than 30 years; and
(B) payment by the Secretary to the landowner in an amount equal to the fair market value of the easement, as determined by the Secretary under paragraph (1)(B), minus the amount paid by the Secretary for the eligible conservation easement being renegotiated (adjusted for inflation); or
(3) allow the landowner to buy back the eligible conservation easement or a portion of the eligible conservation easement at fair market value, as determined by the Secretary.
SEC. 4. Notice to landowners.
The Secretary shall notify the owner of the land subject to that conservation easement of the owner’s right to submit a request under section 3—
(1) not later than 3 months before the conservation easement becomes an eligible conservation easement described in section 5(2)(A); and
(2) not later than 1 year before the conservation easement becomes an eligible conservation easement described in section 5(2)(B).
SEC. 5. Definitions.
In this Act:
(1) CONSERVATION EASEMENT.—The term “conservation easement”—
(A) means a voluntary, legal agreement between a landowner and the Secretary that limits use of the land in order to protect its conservation values; and
(B) does not include agreements—
(i) with Indian Tribes; or for
(ii) related to utilities.
(2) ELIGIBLE CONSERVATION EASEMENT.—The term “eligible conservation easement” means a conservation easement that—
(A) has been in effect for longer than 30 years; or
(B) was put into effect before 1977 without the creation of an official corresponding map.
(3) SECRETARY.—The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Interior.
This just guts conservation easements that the Federal Government participates in. It make the easement no easement at all.
Why on earth did people vote for Hageman in the primary?
With this outrage, we will close out this edition.
