The 2026 Election, 16th Edition. The skeptical eye edition.

July 11, 2026

As we head into the final days of the primary election, which for most offices is, unfortunately, the election, we here in Wyoming are being subjected to a daily bombardment of election propaganda crap, most of which assumes that if Donald Trump bent over and pulled his oversize trousers down, you'd gleefully kiss his big white ass.

And that's exactly what most of the candidates for Congress are doing.

Having said that, either election fatigue or the rise of local issues is baffling a few.

For the House, Chuck Gray is flopping around like a carp thrown out on the beach looking for something he thinks can outrage you into voting for the little rich carpetbagger whose never had to really work.  Gadfly Reid Rasner, who doesn't stand a chance (and whose been mysteriously absent recently) actually seems to have hurt Chuck by calling him China Chuck.  Chuck's most recently effort is to pretend to be horrified by birthright citizenship.  Given as Trump sort of excused Graham Platner from rape accusations the other day, we can assume lil' Chuck is searching for a girlfriend to make accusations against him so that he can get a Trump accolade.

Foster Friess, another rich carpetbagger, has been running for the same position, Congressman, and has hit on the "I've never had to work a real job but you dumb fucks have to so I'm going to pretend that you want a job on the floor of an oil rig where you will get killed".

As noted, Rasner has just dropped off the screen.

And of course we have Florida cracker Frank Chapman on screen looking like his new cowboy boots hurt his feet and pretending to be one of us.

We can hope that Jillian Balow is getting some traction, as she seems by far the least objectionable Republican candidate for Congress. She also must be the least well funded of the good candidates as we don't see her campaign material nearly as often, unfortunately.

This isn't everyone running on the GOP ticket.  Bo Biteman, of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, Kevin Christensen, a vet who'd like to kiss Trump's big white ass, Richard Dodson, David Giralt and Keith Goodenough all are as well.  Goodenough is the most interesting candidate in the race, having been a well know Natrona County candidate whose served in various offices, and who has served both as a Republican and Democrat.

If the primary election were today we would vote for, for Congress, Balow.

Democrats running for this office are Elena Del Real and Boomer Lisa Kinney.  Kinney will win and then go down so badly in the general it'll leave a crater visible from space in her native Albany County.

If we were registered as Democrats and the primary was elected today, we'd just not vote either of these two obvious losers.

If the general election was held today, and we had our choice of candidates, we'd vote for Balow.

For the Senate seat, a propaganda flyer for Harriet Hageman came this week for the first time.  That fact would suggest she doesn't figure she actually has to spend much money.  Other candidates in that race are Jill Edwards, John Holtz, the gadfly Baby Boomer who just won't go away, Sam Mead and Jimmy Skovgard.  Mead is by far the best candidate in this race but he faces an uphill battle against Hageman simply because she's in Congress.

If the primary election was held today we'd vote for Mead.

On the Democratic side  Billy Benavidez is running against James Byrd.  Byrd is a very good candidate and may be the best candidate in the entire race from either party.  A Byrd v. Mead race would really serve the state.

If the primary election was held today and we were registered as Democrats, we'd vote for Byrd.

If the general election was held today and we had our choice of candidates, we're not sure what we'd do.

For Governor the race seems to have Eric Barlow, out in front.  He's a very good candidate.  Megan Degenfelder is running on having been Superintendent of Public Education and that Donald "Grab 'em by the Pussy" Trump has endorsed her.  Brent Bien is running on the "I worked my entire life for the government (USMC) and hate the government ticket".  A lot of WFC people like him as they're gullible and ignorant.  The WFC has a flyer with Bien, Chuck and Hageman circling.  A Curt Blake is also running.

If the primary election was held today we'd vote for Barlow.

On the Democratic side Ken Casner is running as the symbol of the dead Democratic Party in the state, as he's so old he may in fact have already passed on.

If the primary election was held today and we were registered as Democrats we'd scream in anger and refuse to fill out the ballot on this one.

If the general election was held today and we had our choice of candidates, we'd vote for Balow.

For Wyoming Secretary of State the GOP candidates are Jason Fearneyhough, Qwenton Eagle Oviatt, Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, Robert Short and Charles Young.  Of these candidates, right now, the only ones I know anything about are carpetbagger Rodriguez-Williams, an odd man off Hispanic in the Wyoming Fascist Caucus, and Robert Short, long time Converse County Commissioner.

If the primary was held today, we'd vote for Short, but we need to look into these candidates more.

For the Democrats, there's Bryan McCarty, whom we know nothing about.

If the general election was held today and we had our choice of candidates, right now it'd be Short, but we're not wedded to that position.  We'd never vote for Rodriguez-Williams.

For Superintendent of Public Instruction the GOP race features Chad Auer, Steve Harshman and Thomas Kelly.  Harsham is a long time teacher and educator and is by far the best choice on the GOP side.  On the Democratic side Ana Cordova and Sergio Maldonado are running, both of whom are educators.

If the primary election was held today we'd vote for Harshman.

If the general election was held today we're not sure what we would do.

The primary will decide the Treasurer's race as only Republicans Curt Meier and Scott Smith are running.  Meier will win.

In other races, we'd like to see Bear, Allemand, and Ide retired to private life. I.e, lose and lose badly.

In news from elsewhere, Graham Platner officially pulled out of the race, but with the least apologetic message ever.

Platner was, of course, lately accused of rape and had some troubling aspects to him early on.  The rape accusations, however, were a bridge too far for Democrats, thankfully.

One of the main aspects of the Platner saga has been the degree to which it really exposed the hypocrisy of the GOP, which started off by attempting to mount the high horse of morality which was bucking wildly. A party that has "Grab em by the Pussy" "I went to Epstein Island but didn't notice it was rapey" Trump and a host of other moral creeps can't really be complaining about morality  When the Democrats in fact demanded that Platner drop out that left them in a bit of a pickle as they got what they were urging but, by extension, that means they have to clear out the bordello in order to have any moral credibility, which they aren't going to do.

Indeed, Donald Trump came to Platner's defense, noting that sometimes the accusatrixes are fibbers, which sometimes they indeed are.  His point is, of course, that he's maintained all along he's not a moral creep and his female accusers are lying.  It's pretty clear not all of them are lying about what they accuse Trump of, but at any rate he came to Platner's defense.  It'd have been amusing if Trump had endorsed Platner, which I could actually see sort of happening.  In a weird sort of way, Platner is what J. D. Vance once was, but with a side order of massively problematic personal issues.

Related threads:

Pollice Verso. The 2026 Political Negative Endorsement. The Don't Vote For List.

2026 Election, Chuck Gray, Cynthia Lummis, Dixiecrats, Eric Barlow, Harriet Hageman, Ignorance, Megan Degenfelder, Populism, Public Land, Republican Party, Trailing thread, Wyoming Freedom Caucus

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 15th Edition. Trump will attempt to steal the election.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, 2027, Chuck Gray, Conspiracy Theories, Donald Trump, Harriet Hageman, John Barrasso, The Second Trump Administration

The 2026 Election, 14th Edition. The “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor" edition.

Labels: 120th Congress, 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, Alaska, Chuck Gray, Colorado, Distributism, Enemies of Public Lands, Graham Platner, Lisa Engebretsen, The 2021 Insurrection, Wyoming Freedom Caucus, You heard it here first

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 142nd Edition, 25th Amendment Watch, 22nd Edition. Worry.

If you aren't afraid of what's going on with the United States government and Donald Trump's increasingly demented brain, you should be.  We've really entered the Twilight Zone on this one.

Tom Nichols, the columnist for The Atlantic, nailed it in this MS Now interview, in which he stated: 

Nichols: It’s almost like we have a relative in the room, and there’s something deeply wrong with him. And we’ve all agreed not to talk about it. But there is something deeply wrong with him.

His friends know it, his critics know it. His staff, I’m sure, knows it. The world knows it. World leaders know it. And most importantly, our enemies know it, which is why they don’t take him seriously.

Nobody hangs on his words. They kind of do, but mostly out of freakish curiosity to see what kind of wild thing he’s going to say next, not because his words have any inherent meaning or reflect policy.

You know, I spent years teaching students that when the president speaks, it’s policy, and you must pay attention when the president speaks because nobody can contradict him.

Now, you know, are we really cutting off all trade with Spain? Who knows? Maybe. Maybe not. It might have just been a stray electron, you know, careening around inside his brainpan. Who knows?

But this is really dangerous because in the middle of all this stuff—and we can laugh about, you know, the Islamic Republic of Japan and all of that—but he made several statements about an ongoing war that the United States is losing. And no one’s even trying to pretend that they can make any sense of it.

And I’ll just add one last thing that you just brought up.

If this were any other president, this would be a national crisis. I mean, Joe Biden got somebody’s name wrong, and it was headlines. The president gets all kinds of things wrong, completely, you know, is out to lunch at an important NATO summit, and, you know, it’s Wednesday.

This is a crisis.  

Trump's brain was really on full display over the past week while he was attending the NATO summit.

During a public meeting with Zelensky, he referred to him as Putin.  For that matter, he claimed:

We had 11 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan.

The same man who can't get out of the war claimed:

In one day, we could knock down every single bridge in Iran. There's not a thing they can do about it ... if we have to, we'll take them out. They have desalinization plants. We'll take them out if we have to ... maybe we'll take over Kharg

Attacking desalinization plants would likely be a war crime.

On the bogus Red Scare:

I would be the greatest communist in history. I'd be right up there with Leneeen.

On Spain, which he liked the next day or day after:

Spain is a wasted cause. We don't want to do any trade business with Spain anymore, by the way. I'd like to cut it off. Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. Cut off all trade with Spain, please. Including visits. We don't want anything to do. They're hopeless. Bad

And on IEDs.

The roadside bomb is a bomb that goes on when you're driving your little around, and it goes on and you have no legs, no arms, and no face.

The latter, I'd note, is typical for Trump in this stage.  He talks about something that everyone else in world knows more about than he does, and then gives it a toddlers explanation.  A week or two ago he discovered that the word dumb is spelled dumb.  He was so pleased to discover that. Apparently he really believed that most people thought it was spelled "dum".

That last item should worry us in and of itself  A President ought to have a trusted advisor to tell him, "look Donny, the entire f*****g world except you knows how that word is spelled.

Instead, we're on a roller coaster in control of a man who has the mind of a toddler.

July 11, 2026

On his recent trip to be ignored at the NATO summit, in Turkey, where the participants have tired of the raving octogenarian, Donald Trump switched airplanes as Qatari One lacks the full set of countermeasures that the two Air Force Ones have.  It took the Press about a day to figure that out, which wasn't all that difficult, particularly as the lame excuse was that it was going to a U.S. Airbase in the UK so the airmen there could admire it.  Nonetheless, the Administration is now suing over the story breaking.

The story further developed, basically, that the Iranians, after having their complete leadership killed in the first hours of the war might revisit the tactic on Donald Trump, which is the very reason that nations at war do not do this.  A more likely story, however, is simply that there's an intelligence assessment that it was a risk, which it obviously is.  When Trump was called on the real reason for the airplane's diversion he at first sort of brushed it off, but by yesterday he no longer was.

Now we're getting this:

This is flat out absurd and frankly nobody believes it.  Given the sort of missiles this would entail, it threatens what amounts to a nuclear strike on Iran.  

Frankly, this entire episode is a massive example of playing a stupid game and winning a stupid prize.  Trump made himself a target by assassinating or allowing the assassination of the Iranian civil government.  If they aren't targeting him, and frankly they likely aren't, it's because they deem it in their best interest not to, and not because the US would retaliate, but because it's in their best interest at this point to have the country lead by a distracted demented fruit loop.

For what it's worth, a President can't give a "if they kill me, do this" order.  Once the President dies, his role as Commander in Chief dies with him.  This could only occur if the next President authorized it.  If a President was assassinated by a foreign power, there'd be some sort of military retaliation, but this wouldn't be it.

The real danger here, however, is that Trump went from "m'eh" to absolute panic in the space of a day.  He's getting extremely erratic and he's not going to get better.  Normally if a threat like this was made parties would be getting ready to invoke the 25th Amendment.  We're now so used to this it's just another day.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 142nd Edition, 25th Amendment Watch 21st Edition. The Vietnam Rag, Red Scare Editions.

Labels: 25th Amendment Watch List, Barack Obama, Communism, Conscription, Donald Trump, Red Scare of 1919, Red Scare of the 1950s, Socialism, The Madness of King Donald, Vietnam War, Vladimir Putin, Zeitgeist

25th Amendment Watch, 20th Edition. The Frontotemporal Dementia Edition.

Labels: 25th Amendment Watch List, Conspiracy Theories, Donald Trump, Introspection, J. D. Vance, Mental Health, National Conservatism, Science, The Madness of King Donald, The Second Trump Administration

Easting Exactly LIke Benjamin Franklin.

 

Sunday, July 11, 1926. The National Revolutionary Army takes Changsha, Hunan.

The National Revolutionary Army took the capital of Hunan, Changsha.

French World War One veterans marched in protest of the Mellon-Berenger Agreement (or Accord Mellon-Bérenger) on the repayment of the French war debt to the United States.

The first German Grand Prix was held.

The Tribune was reporting on a lightning caused disaster that had happened the day prior.

Last edition:

Friday, July 9, 1926. The Kuomintang launches the Northern Expedition.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Chiang Kai-shek, China, Chinese Warlord Era, Kuomintang, National Revolutionary Army, Northern Expedition, USSR

Leisure

 

Leisure

The Food of the North Reflections on journeys in Iceland and Scotland

 

The Food of the North

Reflections on journeys in Iceland and Scotland

The Aerodrome: Air Force One, Aircraft boneyards, Arizona (Tucson), Boeing 747, Boeing VC-25B, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, RAF Mildenhall, United States Air Force, United States and Israel v. Iran

The Aerodrome: Missing a rather obvious upgrade. Was; The Aerodr...: The Aerodrome: Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A shameful flying monument. : This blog was never intended to be political, but in the age of Donald T...

Missing a rather obvious upgrade. Was; The Aerodrome: Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A shameful flying monument.

The Aerodrome: Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A shameful flying monument.: This blog was never intended to be political, but in the age of Donald Trump, which will go down as the most corrupt political era in U.S. h...

So Trump went to the NATO summit in Turkey and, at some point, it dawned on somebody that this meant he was a stone's throw from Iran. . . and that maybe Air Force One made for a good target.

Frankly, the war in Iran has been very surprising in numerous ways, including htat much of what had always been predicted about such a war just did not occur, at least so far.  For instance, it had always been assumed that Iran would activate sleeper cells in the US if a war occured.  Right now, given that nothing occurred, we have to assume that Iran either has remarkable restraint, or it doesn't have sleeper cells  Nothing has happened.

Closing the Strait of Hormuz should have been no surprise at all, but what has been a surprise is Iran's resilience to attack.  People thinking that defeating Iran would be easy were always completely delusional, and indeed it won't happen unless the US commits troops the ground in very large numbers, but country's ability to just shrug off repeated attacks is really impressive.  It's engaged in some major missile offensives during the war and even now has only used a faction of what it has.  Early beliefs that all its launchers were taken out proved to be completely erroneous. 

Anyhow, while Trump was embarrassing the United States in Turkey the negotiations, such as they were, between Trump's son in law and the equally unqualified former lawyer and real estate figure that Trump has charged with this matter, fell apart.  J. D. Vance, occasionally saddled with trying to get the ink dry on some settlement, isn't working on it and is instead touring around the country making stupid statements in from of the Screw American Voters Act.  Trump used the opportunity, in addition to insulting Spain, to insult the Iranians, who were already pretty much ignoring him.

The it dawned on somebody that the new Qatari Royal Coach lacks electronic countermeasures, unlike the other jets in the Air Force One stable.

Oops.

Given that, one of the old Presidential buses was flown over to haul Trump around and the new one was flown to RAF Mildenhall on the excuse that the airmen might want to see it.

Yeah, a big airplane. What a treat for airmen.

The real reason, of course, was that it dawned on somebody that given as the plane has no countermeasures if the Iranians took a shot at it, only luck and fancy maneuvers, maybe, would keep the giant plane in the air.  And as Donald Trump murdered the head of the Iranian state, worrying that the Iranians would figure that turn about was fair play isn't irrational.  For that matter, even if the Iranian state might not attempt that, there's plenty of irregular forces in the region that might not particularly love Donald.

So, the US has sunk $400,000,000 into this dubious gift and it isn't as capable as the older aircraft.

As earlier reported here, when Trump vacates the Oval Office, which he has no legal right to be in already, the new Air Force One is supposed to be going to a Trump Presidential Library.  What a joke.  And an expensive one on the American taxpayer.  

Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution states:

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Congress has so suspended its duties that getting anyone to enforce this clause seems like a lost cause right now, but maybe in a future presidency somebody will dust the document off, walk down to Congress, dope slap the whole body until the current deadwood leaves (John Barrasso, looking at you) and people who actually will do their job reappear.  Should that occur, this airplane should not leave the Air Force inventory.  But what to do with it is another question.  $400,000,000 have been spent on it. 

There are already two new Air Force One's being built.  Those ones will be properly equipped.  The existing Air Force Ones already are.  Hopefully not another dime is spent on this one.

But that, frankly, puts it in the domestic hauler category.  I suppose it could be used for that, save for the fact that it's a national embarrassment. 

Given that, my prediction is that it will be junked.  I don't think it'll ever go to a Trump presidential library, assuming one is every built  Trump's already 80 years old and every morning when he wakes up the Grim Reaper is there asking how he's feeling.  It won't be used by a future President, and it's not going to be used by the Air Force for anything.

It's just a waste.

Boneyard of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.

It'll go to top men.  Top men.

The 2026 Election, 15th Edition. Trump will attempt to steal the election.

Trump fired the last three members of the Election Assistance Commission, the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials.

Donald Trump does not want to go to jail.

When the Democrats resume Congressional power in January, 2027, Trump's effectiveness as a President will be over. Frankly, he's not terribly effective right now.  He is terribly disruptive.

But the chances of his going to prison will climb enormously.  He stands a serious risk of being impeached and tossed out, to be followed by being sent to prison.

Bare minimum, his endless vanity projects will be done for, as will most of his power.

Trump will do whatever is necessary to avoid the outcome of the 2027 election.  It's going to be severely bad.

And I'll give him about a 60% chances of pulling it off, aided by people like John Barrasso, Harriet Hageman, and Chuck Gray.

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 14th Edition. The “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor" edition.

Labels: 120th Congress, 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, Alaska, Chuck Gray, Colorado, Distributism, Enemies of Public Lands, Graham Platner, Lisa Engebretsen, The 2021 Insurrection, Wyoming Freedom Caucus, You heard it here first

Wednesday, July 10, 1901. Registering for 160 acres of Oklahoma.

Registration opened for the Oklahoma Territory land lottery at 9:00 a.m in El Reno and at Lawton.  By 6:00 p.m. on July 26, when registration closed, 167,000 people had spent the $25 registration fee to be eligible for one of 13,000 tracts of land of 160 acres each, with drawing to begin on July 29.

Cole and Jim Younger were granted parole after almost 25 years in the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater, Minnesota for their attempted robbery of a bank in the James Gang's Northfield Minnesota on September 7, 1876.

Chinese Imperial troops were defeated by the Allied Villagers Society at Chichou.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 7, 1901. McKinley opens more of Oklahoma.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Native Americans, Oklahoma, William McKinley

Monday, July 10, 1876. Lead founded.

From far Montana’s canons,/ lands of the wild ravine, the dusky Sioux,  the lone-/some stretch, the silence,/ haply, to-day, a mournful wail/ haply, a trumpet/ note for heroes.

Walt Whitman, “A Death-Sonnet for Custer,”  July 10, 1876,

Lead, South Dakota founded.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 9, 1876. Carrying a dispatch from Terry to Crook.

Labels: 1870s, 1876, Alfred Terry, Army, Catholic, Christianity, Colombia, Colombian Civil War of 1876, George Crook, Great Sioux War, Heroes, Immigration, Ireland, Montana, religion, Wyoming

The 2026 Election, 14th Edition. The “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor" edition.

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

Desmond Tutu

 

June 26, 2026

The candidate running against Bob Ide:

Lisa Engebretsen: Protect Wyoming’s Public Lands and Reject the Seminoe Dam Project

Getting rid of Bob Ide should be an absolute priority for anyone who cares about: 1) Wyoming's wildlands, and 2) anyone who is not a multimillionaire. A diehard MAGA/WFC who was in Washington D.C. at the time of the January 6 insurrection (he did not take part in it), his "less government, more freedom" is an absolute joke.  He's a major Natrona County landlord whose very livelihood depends on the government protecting his rental lands property rights, which only exist due to the government.  He is apparently unaware of the hypocrisy.  

He's been amongst the most extreme members of the WFC.

June 30, 2026

'Common Sense Republicans' Declare War On Wyoming Freedom Caucus 

The carpetbaggers of the WFC immediately resorted to name calling, of course.  Everyone who opposes them is "left wing", even if they aren't.

In Alaska there will be two Dan Sullivans on the ballot, one an incumbent and some other guy.

July 1, 2026

They sow the wind  and reap the whirlwind.

Hosea 8:7*

Well, everyone should have known this was coming.

For decades I've warned, in a somewhat different context, about self confident far right views being a mere fuze to ignite a left wing reaction.  In my case, the warning came in the context of local politics, both in ranching and oil and gas, where people confidently boast some local view not realizing there's a lot more of them, then us.

As some people have been warning, maps don't vote.

And now MAGA has poked the bear.

From the primary in Colorado, yesterday:

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros poised to become the first Gen Z woman in Congress

Now what's going to happen is some in Trump's orbit will attempt to make hay on this.  It's already happening. Donald Trump is warning everyone that there are Communists hiding in your Wheaties.  Little Mike Johnson is acting like a crying twat waffle.  Johnson is warning that people will go to jail.

People need to go to jail.

Now, I'm not a Socialist of any kind (I'm a distributist).  But this reaction is a real one, and running around doing the classic "when in trouble, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout" isn't going to do anything.  And on top of it, a lot of pundits who are arguing the Democrats better not turn far left are going to be proven to be way out to sea.

Now, by and large, most of the Democrats aren't far left.  But the fact that the GOP has become outright Francoist and doesn't stand for conservatism means that for those who are, there's no argument here.  And, moreover, some of the same demographic that voted for right wing populist will vote for left wing ones. This is well established.  Quite a few Nazis had been Communists.  Lots of former Nazis became East German Communists.  One plate of fanaticism tastes a lot like another, and for that matter, people who are drawn to fanatic policies will be 1) drawn to ones that seem like they might work, and 2) recoil from attacks on themselves.

Trump's policies aren't working.  The poor sots who voted for MAGA are worse off than they were before.  Hispanics have been targeted by MAGA racism.  Palestinians and other Arab Americans watched their votes translate into support for more egregious Israeli attacks in Gaza and a full scale war, that we can't win, against Iran.  Those votes are gone, as the recent election in New York has shown.

And now Melat Kiros, a 29 year old Notre Dame educated lawyer who was born in Ethiopia has beat a sitting Democrat for Colorado's 1st Congressional District.  That's Denver proper.  She has the courage of her convictions, having lost a job with a New York City law firm for criticizing law firms for being opposed to pro Palestinian protestors.

She's going to win in the general election.

This will not mean that the seat she'll be taking, like her fellow Democratic Socialist from New York, will go to a Democrat where they had been occupied by a Republican.  What it means is that there will be voices in the Democratic party that are much younger, and have a much different view, on some issues than the Democratic mainstream.  And her election makes the election of old geezer MAGA's like Harriet Hageman of Wyoming look absolutely absurd in comparison.

This will end up tilting the meter on some things a bit to the left in the 120th Congress, and that's going to matter, for instance, when the next Speaker of the House is chosen and Mike Johnson goes into the dustbin of history.  

Trump can and will yell about it.  But on the eve of the 250th anniversary of American independence, his big fete, the big "state fair".  Nobody is going.  That's pretty telling.

Well, again, sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

July 2, 2026

Out-Of-State Campaign Fliers Launch Attacks On Wyoming Candidates

July 3, 2026

Gabriel Green has sued the State over residency requirements.  A long time Wyoming resident, he recently resided in Arizona so the Secretary of State, properly in my view, found he did not meet the residency requirements.

The Secretary of State's office faces two other election related legal actions at the presen ttime.

With this, we'll close out this edition.

July 7, 2026

WyoFile

ELECTION GUIDE 2026

Wyoming's candidates for federal, statewide and legislative offices.

Maine's Graham Platner has been accused by former girlfriend Jenny Racicot of sexual assault.  Politico broke the story.  Racicot made the comment:

One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person, I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.

That doesn't quite make sense, frankly but the article in Politico is pretty detailed and the accusations are hard to discount.  Platner absolutely denies theme.

There have been calls, including from inside of Maine's Democratic Party, for him to withdraw from the race.  It's interesting for a variety of reasons, one being in any former era the candidate would either have to flat out attack the accuser back, or withdraw.  In the current Donald "grab them by the pussy" Trump era, for the GOP sexual assault has nearly been a "m'eh" type of thing.  It'll be hard for the Democrats to retain the high ground at this point if Platner stays in the race.

Of course, false claims of sexual assault against men do occur, although this does not read like one.  The curious thing would be why, if a person is guilty of the things she accuses him of, he'd risk running.  Having said that, we've seen a whole host of really vile behavior from GOP candidates who not only were willing to run or run for reelection, but have brushed their gross behavior off.

Platner looked to have a pretty good chance of booting ancient waffling Susan Collins out of the Senate.  Those chances appear to be really diminished now, which provides a nother reason for Platner to drop out.

July 8, 2026

GOP hypocrisy on Platner is just laughably stunning.

If he's guilty of what he's accused of, it's horrible and people should not vote for him, but reactions by people like Sen. Tom Cotton are really something.  He first claimed that when people who were similarly accused came up on the GOP side, Republicans wouldn't vote for them.

Then they said they only are dumping him, now that he's apparently ejecting from the campaign, as he can't beat Susan Collins.

Eh?

What about Donald "Grab them by the Pussy" Trump?  He's a serial polygamist who has bragged about seeing naked teenagers in a pageant dressing room and who hung out with two, not one, rich man who had a strong attraction to teenage girls, one of whom was a rapist of teenage girls. And Trump himself has been accused of raping teenage girls through his association with Epstein.  I don't know if he did it or not, and there's certainly credible reason to doubt it, but there's also some reason to believe the claims as well.  In other words, a person can rationally have his doubts about Trump, who if nothing else drew a drawing of what appears to be a young naked teenage girl in a birthday card to his pal, Epstein.

And then there's Matt Gaetz, who was creepy.

And then there's at least one GOP Congressman who hung on to the bitter end after his staffer with whom he had an affair self immolated.

And then there's Ken Paxton who has recently been running around the UK with his mistress, and who has a host of other past picadillos.

And then there's Pete Hegseth, who granted wasn't elected, but still.

Oh brother.

And, by the way, what President that Donny doesn't like didn't have  their (third) wife sprawled out nude in a seductive ad and didn't go to Epstein Island?  Biden, Bush, Obama. . . 

Geez.

Locally, Chuck Gray, picking up on the GOP flavor of the month, issued an angry screed in the form of a reel about needing to make the non problem of birthright citizenship illegal.  The latest "hoards of aliens are boarding jets to have babies in airports" thing is really not a problem, but the GOP has to have some way to explain really being ineffective and just spending all its time kissing Trump's ass and achieving nothing, so that as a scare tactic is in vogue.

July 9, 2026

At least as of this morning, Platner remained in the race while Democrats openly are trying to figure out who to replace him.

They have a great alternative, but so far she won't.

Republicans have tried to make hay on the Platner disaster, but so far they really haven't been able to. The principal reason is that the GOP is such a complete and utter moral sewer in the era of "Grab them by the Pussy Trump that they really can't, and they have to be careful about that before they look just completely absurd.

Right now, they look completely absurd.

Trump, of course, hung out with John Casablancas, which raises its own questions, before he hung out with Epstein, which re-raises them.  Even dismissing most of the Epstein claims, you have a conviction for sexual misbehavior that's just been back in the news, and you have what seems to be Carol Alt's credible claim that he outright groped her boobs when she was Epstein's girlfriend, and right in front of Epstein.  He definitely went to Epstein Island and he gave Epstein a birthday card of a nude illustration he did, and what appears to be a rather young nude at that.

And we won't even get to the host of other sexual creeps that are in the GOP right now.

All that makes efforts by people like Tom Cotton to say, "look a Democratic monkey is throwing pooh" rather absurd, as he's sitting in a pile of thrown pooh.

Anyhow, Platner has one defender of national renown. . . Donald Trump.  About Platner Trump stated:

It’s really a question of whether or not you believe the woman. A lot of people say big falsehoods,” 

He’s in a bind.

Trump's mind is mush, but I'll give him credit on this one, Platner is in a bind.

And Trump is right, it is a question of whether you believe the woman.

In recent years we've been publicly schooled to always believe the woman, but as odd as it may seem, women do lie about rape.  This doesn't seem like a lie, however.  For that matter, Alt's claims about Trump don't seem like a lie either.

It's pretty hard to know how often that really occurs, however.  What's much more clear is that a huge percentage of women who are sexually assaulted, and the estimates are that 1 in 4 women are in some fashion, don't report anything.  In Platner's case, it's hard to believe that the women aren't telling the truth. They have nothing to gain by lying at all, not even notoriety, which they do not seem to be seeking.

I guess that takes us back to Trump.  Alt, who is already famous, had nothing to gain either.  There's enough smoke out there, additionally, to believe that some sort of fire is burning in Trump tower.  It's clear, however, that he's going to die of old age before that smoke clears and the truth is discovered.  My guess is that it'll have some sort of accelerated JFK like timeline.  JFK, as we'll recall, was a sexual creep, which a lot of insiders knew at the time, but didn't reveal until decades later.  My guess is that a lot of that sort of stuff will start to come out regarding Trump's behavior, at least his known behavior, in the decade following his death.

Heather Cox Richardson has been mentioned as a replacement for Platner. 

Richardson is in the public eye a lot, or at least in the punditry class that's read by folks like me.  She's never run for anything and describes herself as a "Lincoln Republican". She's married to a Maine lobsterman.  So far she's declined.

That's really inexcusable.  Being a critic is fine, but if you are a critic and then called to serve, you better serve, or you have lost all credibility.

Cont:

And Platner is out.

Richardson, put up or shut up.

July 10, 2026

Another Day, Another Huge Endorsement For U.S. House Candidate David Giralt

M'eh.  Giralt is still in the kiss Donald Trump's ass category.

Hageman Demands Answers From Zuckerberg About Cheyenne Data Center Contamination

Funny how activist politicians get at the local level.

And with this, we will end this edition.

Model, 1911, in cowgirl costume

Footnotes:

The full quote is: 

“They sow the wind

    and reap the whirlwind.

The stalk has no head;

    it will produce no flour.

Were it to yield grain,

    foreigners would swallow it up.

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 13th Edition. The choosing lanes edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, Become Peacemakers, Democratic Party, Democratic Socialist, New York, Reid Rasner, Republican Party, Tom Lubnau, University of Wyoming, Wyoming, Wyoming Freedom Caucus