If today's entry looks familiar, well, that's because I got a day ahead yesterday.
Saturday, May 23, 2026
Thursday, May 23, 1946. Chick-fil-A.
Railroad workers went on strike across the US at 4:00 P.M.
The Dwarf Grill opened by S. Truett Cathy in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville, Georgia near the Ford Motor Company Atlanta Assembly Plant. It would later evolve into:
It's signature product was not part of the original menu and required a technological development which allows for chicken for sandwiches to be cooked as rapidly as hamburgers can be.
Chick-fil-a is closed on Sundays, which is one of the admirable things about it, however.
A tornado outbreak occurred across the Central and Midwestern United States which would continue into the following day.
Last edition:
Monday, May 20, 1946. Air disaster in Manhattan, War in Iran, Nationalization of Coal in the UK.
Labels: 1940s, 1946, Aircraft, Azerbaijan, baseball, Coal, Disaster, Iran, Iran Crisis of 1946, It was because of World War Two, Kurds, Music, New York, Personalities, Socialism, United Kingdom, USSR
Tuesday, May 23, 1876. First No Hitter.
Boston pitcher Joe Borden pitched the first official no-hitter in Major League Baseball history. The Boston Red Stockings, defeated the Cincinnati Reds 8-0.
Last edition:
May 18, 1876. Marines land at Matamoros.
The 2026 Election, 12th Edition. The late on ramp edition.
May 29, 2026 is the last day to declare a candidacy in one of the two "major parties".
We will, therefore, likely be learning of some new candidates in the upcoming days for the first time.
And we might be surprised that some who stated they were running, but who haven't filed, don't.
May 21, 2026
Two Democrats, Ana Cordova and Sergio Maldonado Sr. have entered the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction. It seems that a third, Libertarian Ryan Shollenberger, will. They join existing GOP candidates Tom Kelly, Chad Auer and Steve Harshman.
Shollenberger doesn't have to file by May 29, as Libertarians are not a "major party". It's worth noting here that a Libertarian candidate for this office makes darned near no sense whatsoever.
Democratic candidates do, however, and both of the declared Democrats have experience in education. Maldonado ran against Degenfelder last time, and given here throwing roses to MAGA, which she sort of did and sort of didn't, while in that position, he frankly would have been a saner choice.
Harshman is highly likely to win against the two carpetbagging competitors he faces and is a really solid choice. This race might actually feature two really good candidates and a throwaway.
Columnist Rod Miller wrote in Wyofile to advance an idea that I've been backing here for quite some time, that being getting rid of party identification and affiliation in the state's elections.
Open letter to the Joint Corporations Committee
He points out that our state constitution is silent on party affiliation, and I frankly feel our current primary system is unconstitutional. I wish somebody would file a lawsuit over the issue.
May 23, 2026
The more I've read on this, the more it seems clear this fellow is not eligible:
This will be a test for Chuck, who hasn't been very good at passing tests so far.
Chuck also met with some discontent outside a legislative committee meeting:
Of course, Chuck tagged the protest as hoard of radical leftist, as he does, a hoard apparently meaning any group of people exceeding one person and a leftist being anyone who disagrees with him.
Last edition:
The 2026 Election, 11th Edition. The only good voting Indian is a disenfranchised voting Indian edition.
Governor Gordon Directs Flags to Half-Staff Until Noon on May 25 in Observance of Memorial Day
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Governor Gordon Directs Flags to Half-Staff
Until Noon on May 25 in Observance of Memorial Day
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. - May 22, 2026 - To pay tribute to fallen service members, Governor Mark
Gordon (R-WY) has directed that both the United States and Wyoming state flags
be flown at half-staff on Memorial
Day, May 25, 2026. The protocol requires flags to be lowered at
sunrise and raised to
full-staff at 12 noon.
The
Governor shared the following remarks:
"Jennie
and I take a moment this Memorial Day to recognize the brave individuals who
gave their lives for our nation. We also offer our gratitude to their loved
ones–we stand with you. The legacy of our state and nation’s fallen
heroes continues to inspire us all and will never be forgotten."
For
more information:
Amy
Edmonds, Communications Director, amy.edmonds@wyo.gov
Friday, May 22, 2026
It happened in 1911.
A post more in keeping with the purpose of this site, as opposed to keeping track, for instance, of Donald Trump's mental decline or the eclipse of the United States as a serious nation.
After all, we're supposed to be focused on the 1890 to 1920 time frame here.
So, some focus on things 1911.
1. The first one we've already covered, the Colt Government Model.
The M1911 is the greatest handgun of all time.
Everything Old is New Again. Yeoman's laws of History and Behavior and the U.S. Military Sidearm.
While it had been in the works for a few years (not many, really) the final version of John Browning's design for a .45 Automatic Colt Pistol handgun for the Army was adopted in 1911, as we recently covered.
Wednesday, March 29, 1911. The adoption of the M1911.
The Colt Government Model has never gone away, although there was a period of time after the service adopted the M9 in which it looked like it would. It not only did not, it actually revived in the civilian and even military markets thereafter. It's just too good of a design to leave. Technologically, there hasn't been a single handgun design feature introduced after it that didn't already exist at the time, and there's never been anything to surpass it.
2. Tony Lama Boots
Here's an odd one you wouldn't quite expect.
Anthony Lama was born to an immigrant family in Brooklyn just six months after his family arrived in the United States from Italy. By age 11 both of his parents had died and he apprenticed to a shoemaker in Syracuse, New York. At age 16 he joined the U.S. Army illegally (he was underage) and, given that he had leatherworking skills he was assigned as a saddler in the cavalry. Saddlers worked all sorts of leather at the time and were highly regarded for their leather working skills. Lama, in that capacity, worked and repaired footgear.
After being discharged upon completion of his service, he stayed in El Paso where he continued to repair boots for servicemen. That soon spread into shoemaking. He opened what was initially a small repair shot in the city in 1911. His reputation was such that he was soon sought out by local cowboys and then entered the cowboy boot manufacturing business.
Showing somewhat the nature of the worldview of Catholics, in 1917 he married local Esther Hernandez, and therefore the family consisted of what Americans at the time regarded as two "races", Italian and Hispanic. By the 1930s it was making boots on a wholesale basis. The family business was incorporated in 1946, showing the extent to which it had grown. In 1990 it was bought by Justin boots, so it now belongs to another company, but the brand name and brand continues on.
I've had two pairs of Lama's over the years. They were both very high shaft real cowboy boots and I liked them both. One pair, with a very high heel, I still have, although they're really only useful for riding.
3. The Maine Hunting Shoe.
L. L. Bean was the inventor of the Maine Hunting Shoe, and the shoe, which is really a boot, caused the company to come into existence the next year.
Rubber soled with a leather upper, they boot came about as Bean himself was tired of getting cold wet feet while hunting. The design, which was initially extremely high topped, took off rapidly, allowing for Bean to turn the shoe into an enterprise.
The boot has remained popular for decades, indeed, well over a century, which belies how revolutionary it was at the time. In 1911 outdoor boots were normally hobnailed, if in fact they just didn't have simple leather soles. Rubber soles shoes had first appeared in the 1860s, but they were problematic and for hte most part, outdoor boots, did not use them until they started to be introduced in earnest in the 1920s. Even as late as World War Two every major army other than the US Army used hobnailed boots.
The Maine Hunting Shoe proved to be really popular in the niche in which it occupied. During World War Two it was adopted by the U.S. Army as the "Shoe Pack", something my father always referred to them as. At some point, and I'm not sure when, these boots evolved into the popular insulated boot of similar construction. Apparently some shoe packs had insulated insoles in World War Two so it must have been no later than that period. During the Korean War the insulated style was widely issued. The boots, while designed by Bean, were largely manufactured by other companies.
I have two pairs, one of which is a Cabela's knock off. My good pair are like the originals, very high topped. I actually bought them some time in the 1980s for duck hunting, as I lacked a dog and found myself frequently getting into the water to retrieve ducks, and I otherwise was doing a fair amount of stomping around in wet terrain. They're great for that. I've known some people who really favored the shoe variant of it, which I've never owned.
4. The M1911 Campaign Hat.
The M1911 was the last felt campaign hat to be issued by the U.S. Army and, like the M1911 pistol, it's never gone away.
Campaign hats are a type of broad brimmed hat adopted for military use. In most instances, they very closely resemble broad brimmed hats common in their culture of origin, and in some instances there's no difference at all. This is pretty much the case with the M1911 campaign hat.
Broad brimmed hats have been used by the Army since there was an Army. Usually the M1858 "Hardee" hat is cited as the first example, but it really isn't. During the American Revolution soliders commonly used them, with some of them being "cocked" and some not. The cocked ones are the best remembered in the example of the "tricorner" hat, but you can find examples where only one side was cocked or there was no cock at all.
Contrary to common assumption, Congress completely disbanded the Army after the Revolution, choosing to rely on state militia's for ground troops instead. It wasn't until the Northwest Indian War that it came back into existence. 1794 ought to be regarded as the actual birthdate of the U.S. Army, since there's been an Army since then.
I'm not an expert in 18th Century military uniforms, and for that reason I can't really say when the tricorner went out of favor. What I can say is that the Army generally followed European uniform patterns after that, and it wasn't until the Mexican War that the Army really determined that European military headgear was, well, stupid. After the Mexican War the Army adopted the Hardee Hat, which was a campaign hat, which had originally been contemplated for mounted troops. It officially came in as an Army wide dress hat in 1858, About the same time the Army adopted the kepi, with those first coming in during the early 1850s. The kepi is a pretty simple hat and perhaps we'll deal with it elsewhere, but some deficiencies must have been noted early on as in 1858 the Army also adopted the M1858 "forage cap" which was quite similar, but larger, and which could serve as sort of a wool bucket for foraging.
In spite of being a dress hat, the Hardee hat did see use in the field as a campaign hat, with it frequently being reshaped by the user so that its original shape was practically unrecognizable. Additionally, during the war thousands of troops on both sides chose to wear broad brimmed felt hats rather than official kepis or forage caps as they simply liked them better.
After the Civil War the Army adopted a broad brimmed campaign hat in 1872, the M1872, which was one of the odder official campaign hats in that it was designed so that its substantial brim could be folded up on both sides, sort of like 19th Century naval officers hats. The hat wasn't hugely popular and troops often bought their own more substantial hats. The 1872 hat yielded to the 1876 hat, and from there a series of short brimmed nutria fur campaign hats that went from black to tan in color as the 20th Century approached with the last official version being the M1895. During the entire period, however, soldiers routinely bought private purchase broad brimmed hats of better quality, with the same also being true of boots, and even trousers.
A popular civilian style of "cowboy hat" was the Montana Peak, with it being particularly popular in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. The style was used by the Boer War Canadian volunteer cavalry unit the Strathconas and the North West Mounted Police picked it up unofficially, until 1904 when they officially adopted the style The U.S Army adopted the style on September 8, 1911, with the ridges pointed differently than Mounties variant and the brim being shorter. The Marine Corps adopted the design in 1912. New Zealand's army, following an internal example of some New Zealand militia units, adopted it in 1916.
In every service unit which has adopted it, it remains in use. It was universal issue in the U.S. Army until 1917, when the helmet was introduced and the Army started to issue overseas garrison cap, reflecting that in combat troops were now wearing the helmet and the big hat was awkward to store, but it returned to general issue in 1919 and remained in general issue until some point in 1940. During World War Two it remained an official item but was not generally issued, except to cavalrymen. Following the war it remained in use, but only for rifle and pistol teams, however, in 1964 it returned and was also issued to Drill Instructors. This followed the example of the Marine Corps which had also stopped general issue of the M1912 during World War Two, but which kept it on for marksmanship units. The Marines adopted it for Drill Instructors starting in 1956. A variant was later adopted in blue for Air Force Drill Instructors. Due to the advances in hearing protection, marksmanship units have abandoned the design as it does not readily accommodate the same, for now.
Una más, por favor. An illegal war with Cuba, 1.ª Edición.
21 de mayo de 2026
Having not really completed anything meaningful with Venezuela, other than having tasted blood and developing fondness for it, and having gotten us into an endless war with Iran we're losing, King Donny the Mad is about to launch a war against Cuba, starting with a claim that Raul Castro, age 94, must be brought to justice over a US civilian aircraft that was shot down by the Cubans in 1996.
Oh horse poop.
Some in Demented Donnie's administration have been drooling over a chance to attack Cuba since the easily manipulated narcissist illegitimately moved back into the Oval Office. Military action against Cuba has been a desire of displaced Cubans and their descendants in the US since 1959. If the US attacked the island and removed the government, Lil' Marco would claim it as a victory attributable to him, one way or another, in the 2028 Presidential campaign he's clearly running in.
That's part of the problem. Influential "Republicans" (there are no real Republicans left anymore) like Marco and the Robot Ted Cruz would do anything for a Cuba Libre other than actually live in Cuba.
Of course, with this administrations lust for territorial acquisition, as desire expressed by some imperialist Republicans going into the Spanish American War, the annexation of Cuba with the goal of making it a state, would be the more likely goal in the short term. If Trump, or Marco, pulled that off, the irony would be that it would be solidly Democratic and admitting Puerto Rico as a state would happen immediately thereafter.
Probably the only thing that's really been holding this up has been the commitment of forces to Iran, where Iran is deploying Muhammed Ali's old "rope a dope" strategy and refusing to surrender even though King Donny assures us he won and the war is over. Actually defeating Iran will require a ground invasion that even Donny, who can choke down killing schoolgirls, can't seem to muster up the will for and which the American public doesn't want. The war itself has already achieved a level of unpopularity matched by that of the Vietnam War after Tet.
But, the thought is, this will go better. . . or at least Cuban Americans will like the result.
The threats against Castro started a couple of days ago. Within the last twenty four hours China, which Trump went to and acted like a orphaned puppy, has warned the US to knock it off.
May 22, 2026
The future of Cuba belongs to the people of Cuba is terms of how they're governed, what the system looks like and so forth, but the national security threat, that's 100% something we're going to focus on because that's about America.
Marco Rubio.
What crap.
Cuba has been a Communist country since 1959 when Fidel Castro overthrow the authoritarian government there (it wasn't obvious he was Communist at first).
They have not attacked us since then.
We have, however, effectively attacked them, landing Cuban contras there in 1961.
Rubio knows this, however. His parents were immigrants from Cuba who came over before the 1959 revolution, and who actually planned on returning to the country before the Communist nature of the revolution became apparent.
And that's part of the problem here. Cuban Americans are never going back to Cuba, but they imagine Cuba Libre with the same zeal as Irish Americans imagined a Republican Ireland. In the latter case, that unthinking zeal helped contribute to decades of strife in Ireland, and here it's contributed to decades of misery in Cuba.
Efforts to force a political change in Cuba should have ceased in 1961 when John F. Kennedy withdrew air support for the Cuban contras. There was no good reason at all other than anger not to normalize economic relations with Cuba at least by the early 1980s. That's what we should do now.
Ho Chi Minh wouldn't recognize Communism in Vietnam today and, if transported from wherever his soul went to, he's be convinced that South Vietnam had won the war and reformed itself. If we weren't keeping Cuba on the trophy shelf of failures, the same would be true for Cuba.
But we live in a dangerous age. Donald Trump is desperately searching for something for Americans to remember him by (and we certainly have plenty to recall right now). Marco Rubio has the misplaced child of immigrants probable loyalty to an imaginary paradise or imaginary would be paradise.
We're cruising right back into Havana's harbor where every American military adventure to date has been a disaster.
Remember the Maine.
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Court Watch Part VII. When the last law was down.
Lawyer, St. Thomas More, who was executed for his adherence to his faith.
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts
The Justice Department is going after James Comey for posting a photo of seashells arranged to spell "8647" on a beach somewhere, asserting it was a death threat on President Trump. Apparently this is due to the old use of the term "86" to do away with and "47" for Donald Trump's completely illegitimate but widely accepted illegal claim to be President.
It wasn't.
This prosecution will go nowhere whatsoever, but it is more evidence that everyone in the Trump Administration is essentially a fascist with no regard for reality or the rule of law right now. We are in monumentally dangerous territory. It's 1534 in the United States with Donald Trump our King Henry VIII.
And the spirt of the age has spread:
What Gray did was flat out illegal. Gray is relying, in essence, on the advice of the Attorney General and when that's a defense, the attorney client privilege is waived. The AG's office knows that, but it has to defend the privilege It's being pretty assertive about it.
Gray needs to suffer the penalty of the law here.
Nobody is more opposed to abortion than I am. I wouldn't allow for the largely bogus "rape and incest" exceptions that many people will. But this is really beyond the Pale. Powell should be ashamed of itself for even appoint this guy to its city council.
Elsewhere, in a nation where we brought a modern justice system, it's still functioning.
South Korean court extends prison sentence for wife of ousted president
May 5, 2026
Headline in the CST:
Judges reject Trump push to obtain state voter rolls
But of course our Secretary of State, Chuck "If you disagree with me you are a radical communist, fascist, monarchist, podiatrist" Gray just handed Wyoming's over.
May 16, 2026
Smith hasn't been confirmed as US Attorney for Wyoming yet.
May 21, 2026
It appears that Trump's settlement deal in his IRS suit may actually prove to be a bridge too far for Senate Republicans.
The deal, which frankly is the epitome of corruption, would create a slush fund to pay pardoned January 6 criminals for their inconvenience in being prosecuted as traitors to their country. That's what they are, and they should not have been pardoned, but Trump sought to go one step beyond that and reward the pack of Horst Wessels. Frankly, as soon as possible, the pardons should be unrung as illegitimate (Trump isn't a legitimate President and can't pardon anyone). Anyhow, Republicans are openly balking on the slush fund, amazingly. It must be really angering constituents, or just too much to stomach.
Indeed, they not only are balking, they sidetracked the ICE funding bill, showing that they're actually willing to do something that is guaranteed to send the Orange Mussolini into a screaming fit, but the fit will pit Trump's ICE demands up against his now open and obvious corruption and the hemorrhaging of the US budget. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, as once they break with Trump, their relationship with Trump is broken, and if he doesn't come to heel, they can't.
By way of an analogous example, Massie wouldn't come to heel on the Epstein files, but he was one man. Once it's a pack, it tends to grow.
So, a match is on.
Last edition:
Ballroom Batshit. A demented president goes full bonkers. The 25th Amendment Watch List Fifteenth Edition and Court Watch Part VI.
National Park Service Uprooted on the National Mall
When I become President, every golf course in the United States will be grazing land.
Same thing with shopping malls.
National Park Service Uprooted on the National Mall
I know how to play golf, but I don't golf. It's boring and sanitized. The kind of sport for people who want to go outside, but fear the outside, or are hopelessly urban. Granted, that's not the fault of all of the hopelessly urban, and that's the place for golf.
Golf is one of those sports that underwent an evolution in my mind when I was quite young. I won't say that is rational or correct.
My mother was a first rate golfer. My father didn't golf at all. None of the men I knew when very young golfed, and when I came to know some that did, as I aged, they were men who didn't do the things, or didn't do them to the same extent, as the men I knew. Golfing men didn't hunt much, they didn't fish much, they weren't going to be found at brandings. They all tended to be from the upper upper middle class, or the lower wealthy. In my mind, they were effeminized as they were playing what seemed to me to be an effeminate sport.
That view of golf hasn't changed much for me and indeed its been reenforced as I've grown older. I know that there are some really manly men that golf, but I don't know very many. Of guy's guys that I know that golf, there's one really nice guy I know who does, and that somehow fits him. He's a computer guy. And there's one that's just too out of shape to do anything else, and you can be pretty out of shape and play golf if you use a cart. Neither of them are effeminate.
I don't think, actually, that these feelings are as unique as a person might think. At one point in time lawyers were associated with golf (not anymore) and some golfed as they felt they had to. This was particularly the case with new lawyers. I've known at least two new lawyers who golfed as they thought that's what lawyers did. Interestingly, of those two lawyers, I know a third person, a woman, who insists that one of them is "gay" just by her observations of him, even though he's been a married man for years. Maybe the golfing was too effeminizing.
In a weird sort of way, Donald Trump emphasized this a couple of years ago when he simply gushed over his probably totally fictional observations of the size of Arnold Palmer's penis.
Seriously?
Oddly enough, golf was definitely associated with lesbianism at one time. This was the case for decades, and in some ways it cuts against what I'm noting here. As a sport, it was a sport that women could participate in and do very well as professionals, and so perhaps, maybe, women who were sort of masculine in their internal inclinations participated at a higher rate that would have simply existed in the general population.
Oddly, golf at one time was highly segregated in every imaginable way. Blacks flat out weren't allowed on private golf courses, but often women weren't either. Lawsuits were required to end that. Wealth played a role to play on private courses, and still does. Indeed wealth played a role in keeping women off of golf courses, as business deals were conducted on them from which they were omitted, and that helped bring about the lawsuits later on.
All that probably offends my Irish egalitarianism.
I can't say much for golf.
Golf also seems to me to be the ultimate boring urban upper middle class excuse for a sport, at least at one time. Manly men might shoot hoops, or go play flag football, or something, but at one time towns and real estate developers put in golf courses as it was the default sport for aging white people.
Tennis is the other urban sport, or was. It's joined by basketball and pickle ball in that category, the latter being a newer sport whose existence I don't understand. The thing is, however, that to play any of those sports well, you really need to be in shape. The same kind of guy that can really drive a tennis ball over the net can drive a baseball right down the field at lethal speed.
Supposedly golf has declined in popularity in recent decades, and its notable that at the same time the demographics of the country are changing. Golf was heavily racist at one time and indeed it was more recently than a person might imagine, although there have been some really notable Hispanic and Black golfers. Golf is apparently of Scottish origin, where it would have been pretty darned manly, so its an import of the British Isles. People from other cultures don't really have any roots in it, and for that matter, lots of European Americans don't. Shooting was the sport for Germans, and competitive shooting, like polo, was a major military sport. Shooting was, and in fact is, a major civilian sport in many parts of the country. Basketball is an American sport, as is baseball, and both were played by rural and lower middle class demographics at first. Basketball is particularly interesting this way as it comes from farming country with bitter winters, so its a good indoor sport for a lot of pretty athletic people.
Football is actually of British origin, but the origin is from the British lower class and it reflects that origin to this day. Hunting is a male human universal, which recent anthropology suggest had more female participation in antiquity than previously imagined.
Gardening, hunting, shooting, walking, running and nearly anything just seems to have more merit that golf. But it hangs on in the minds of the elderly, a game of privilege from their youth.
So that a bloated old man with money would choose to wreck things for golf, makes sense. People tend to hang on to the era in which they were young, and the wealthy have more of an ability to do that than other people. The super wealthy have the ability to afflict that on everyone else.
Sunday, May 21, 1911. The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez brings the first stage of the Mexican Revolution to an end.
The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez was signed ending the first stage of the Mexican Revolution.
The treaty provided that Porfirio Díaz and vice president Ramón Corral were to resign by the end of May, and that he was to be replaced by Francisco León de la Barra as interim president who would hold hold presidential elections.
Díaz's advisors had convinced him to end the resistance to the revolution which they saw as futile, and also because they feared it would become increasingly radical and damage their economic position. Large landowners particularly feared that widespread land redistribution would become inevitable if the war was not ended.
The overall terms of the treaty were remarkably mild, and provided for a general amnesty to all former revolutionaries and demobilization of revolutionary forces. The Mexican Army was to remain intact, which would prove to be a mistake. Madero and his supporters were granted the right to appoint fourteen provisional state governors and to approve the Interim President's cabinet selections. The Mexican civil service, including judges, state legislators, and local officials remained in place. Pensions for the families of Federal soldiers killed in the revolution were to be created.
This reflected Madero's nature, and was admirable, but would prove to be a mistake. Leaving the enemies of democracy, from defeated Confederates of the American Civil War, to Donald Trump the insurrectionist, unpunished, only leads to their desire to regain the ground they lost.
Last edition:
Saturday, May 20, 1911. Imperial China takes out a loan.
Tuesday, May 21, 1901. Speed Limit.
Connecticut passed speed limit legislation, 12 mph in towns, 15 mph out of towns, becoming the first state to do so.
Last edition:
Monday, May 20, 1901. The Two Americans
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Painted Bricks: An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many in Dallas is replaced with art for the World Cup
Painted Bricks: An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many ...: One more reason to hate soccer: An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many in Dallas is replaced with art for the World Cup This is ...
An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many in Dallas is replaced with art for the World Cup
One more reason to hate soccer:
An outcry erupts as a whale mural beloved by many in Dallas is replaced with art for the World Cup
This is the stupidest era in recent history.
The 2026 Election, 11th Edition. The only good voting Indian is a disenfranchised voting Indian edition.
Friends & Brothers, listen: Where you now are, you and my white children are too near to each other to live in harmony and peace. Your game is destroyed and many of your people will not work and till the Earth. Beyond the great river Mississippi, where a part of your nation has gone, your father has provided a country large enough for all of you, and he advises you to remove to it. There your white brothers will not trouble you; they will have no claim to the land, and you can live upon it, you and all your children, as long as the grass grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty. It will be yours for ever. For the improvements in the country where you now live, and for all the stock which you cannot take with you, your father will pay you a fair price.
Andrew Jackson, part of a letter to the Creek, 1829. That sure didn't come true.
Chuck Gray, auditioning for the role of adoring political paramour to Donald Trump, his beloved and dearest, and thick in the throws of turning Wyoming's voter registration roles over to his dearest illegally, is now seeking to have the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision of Louisiana v. Callais applied. In so doing, he's sent a demand to the Fremont County Commissioners to redistrict their county commissioner boundaries to wipe out a district that was designed to provide a commissioner from the Wind River Reservation, and he's written the Governor about the legislative districts, stating; "“I believe House District 33’s boundaries need to be examined to ensure compliance with Callais” .
Let's look first at what Callais actually says which few pundits have to date. It's a long decision, so we'll only post part of it, but that part is where the Court made its decision:
So what that tells us is:
1. A district must have a basis in more than race.
2. The jerrymandering by race cannot have a demonstrable impact in favor of a political party.
3. The totality of the circumstances must be considered.
Chuck, who loves Trump more than Trump loves Trump, has made a name for himself by being a divisive asshole and this will be no exception. The over monied little man who has never really worked likes to scream and howl, but this may prove to be a mistake in his bid for the House. A large percentage of Wyomingites do not like him for variety of legitimate reasons, and he's been taking flak from the right from gadfly Reid Rasner, to which he's flop around like a fish on a deck trying to react to, and not very effectively. Gray probably sees this action to terminate Native American districts on the Reservation as serving his far right nut case masters' cause of bringing back the Confederacy, but he's not a lawyer and disrupting Wyoming districts, ironically in one of the most conservative regions of the state, may not go well and is not likely to be appreciated.
There's a fair chance it might not succeeds as well.
Fremont County has a voting district for the county commission that causes it to have one commissioners who is drawn from the Wind River Reservation. That was in fact the intent of the boundary. And it has one House District that is also from the Reservation. The legislator who is from that districts, HD33, is Ivan Posey, who is enrolled in the Eastern Shoshone Tribe but also also has Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho ancestors.
Gray, of course, is a carpetbagging white rich unmarried white boy, but this fits right into the current MAGA effort that's disenfranchising minorities in a country that's on the verge of becoming a majority minority nation. While they aren't willing to say it, MAGA basically hopes that they can reverse this demographic trend.
They can't, and they'll pay for it soon.
Here, Gray, who isn't a Wyomingite in the first place, likely doesn't grasp that the Wind River Reservation isn't solely an ethnic boundary, but the home to two sovereigns. So there's a racial and sovereign divide here. I suspect that these boundaries will hold up.
They already voted Democratic, they sure will in the future. Gray's ordering the Fremont County Commission and Governor Gordon around may not sit well with the voters, and frankly they're likely to tell him to pound sand, in which case he'll sue, and try to disrupt the general election. That won't work.
Gray needs to be sent packing. He needs to find a real job for the first time in his life. Let's hope he's offered one out on Wind River.
We will note here that the GOP race in Wyoming is turning batshit crazy with panicked Freedom Caucusers concerned that the South might not rise again while one notable one is actually attacking Donald Trump. Hardcore WFC members are supporting Still Sucking On the Government Tit Bien. While I may be imagining it, Bien seems to draw support from the less educated and poorer sections of the Wyoming population which demonstrates something peculiar, but I don't know what. The more likely you are to economically and personally be hurt by Bien's world outlook of no social services and hardly pull yourself up by your bootstraps, while he sucks on the government tit, the more likely you are to support him.
It's dumb.
Yesterday, of course, we have the oddity of Rebecca Bextel announcing a completely delusional and panicky run for the Governor's office on the Constitution Party ticket. In a more sane political structure, all of the state's Cornfederates would be in that party. Poor Bextel thinks she's a conservative, and has this on her website:
Like many of you, I know Megan Degenfelder or Brent Bien would make an excellent Governor! I sincerely hope one of them beats out Eric Barlow for the Republican nomination, but unfortunately, history is not on the side of us conservatives.
Well, that's just deluded, but it's typical of the Cornfederates who aren't conservatives or even Republicans, but think they are. She's going to lose big and hopefully the WFC does in general, so they can go back to Sweet Home Alabama (where Bextel is actually from) and leave the West alone.
Go home Becky. . . the Southland is calling you.
cont:
And it looks like state legislators are beginning to see the pitchforks. . .South Carolina dropped its effort, Louisiana refused the map Trump wanted them to adopt., Mississippi decided to wait until 2027.
May 15, 2026
Bill Allemand, a complete and total no go on our list, is running for reelection to House District 58. His DUI trial has not yet occurred. He faced opposition from Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer as well as Democrat.
J. R. Riggins is running for reelection in House District 59. He faces opposition from the batshit carpetbagger far right.
Art Washut is running for reelection to House District 36.
May 16, 2026
Chuck Gray is being treated as sort of an irritating toddler, which he deserves.
Democrat Kenneth R. Casner has announced his run for Governor. He's 75 years old which puts him in the category of candidates who are too darned old to hold, yet alone run for, office.
May 17, 2026
Let me just set the record straight: Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans and it is about our Constitution. And if someone doesn’t understand that and attempts to control others through using the levers of power, they’re about serving themselves. They’re not about serving us. And that person is not qualified to be a leader.
Bill Cassidy after losing his bid to be reelected as a Senator from Louisiana.
May 19, 2026
Controversial former mayor of Evansville, Wyoming has announced she's running for Natrona County Commissioner.
May 20, 2026
The remaining influence of a demented octogenarian narcissist on the dwindling number of Republicans proved strong last night as Thomas Massie fell to a Trump paramour in Kentucky. Massie fell into Trump's ire principally as he wouldn't give up on the administration releasing the Epstein files.
A couple of lesson are applicable here, one being that the Epstein files must definitely contain something that Trump fears more than death itself, that his unhinged rage in his demented state is getting worse, and that the declining pool of Republican voters will be more and more hardcore members of MAGA. Everyone else has left. This will cause the GOP to race ever deeper into fascism and its remaining conservatives to increasingly leave the party intellectually, if not in fact.
Trump's replacing adoring sycophant is Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, increasing the military fascistic nature of the current GOP.
It's a tragedy for the nation in the short term. In the long term, continued picks of fascistic toady's increases the chances of the MAGA being utterly destroyed in the Fall.
It'll also prove to be a tragedy for non MAGA views of Israel. Piles of pro Israeli PAC money were spent in the race against Massie. Public views are really changing towards Israel and to see groups that back Israel dedicating such an effort to get rid of an American Congressman doesn't help. For people like myself, who have had a nuanced view on Israel for decades, it's now really impossible not to see the current Israeli government and the current American government in a highly negative light. That's one thing, but anti semitism is really rising in the US and by now Muslim Americans have likely realized that supporting Trump in the last election was a massive mistake.
Massie won voters under 45 years of age by 30 points. . . that says something, and not something that the GOP will like in the future. People hate it when you inject ageism into something, but there is a real "get off my lawn" element to current politics.
Locally, the Shoshone and Arapahoe tribes are clearly not going GOP this fall:
Tribal governments denounce Gray for ‘direct attack on Native voting
And as that what we started with, we'll conclude with that one.
And so we are rapidly finalizing the political landscape. If you are black, Hispanic, Native American, Catholic, or Muslim, the GOP has no place for you. If you would have voted for Strom Thurmond, it's your party.
Last edition:
The 2026 Election, 10th Edition. The Setting the stage for a Pyrrhic Victory edition.Labels: 2026 Election, Abortion, Bill Allemand, Chuck Gray, Corner Crossing, Harriet Hageman, Jillian Balow, Jimmy Skovgard, Protect Wyoming, Reid Rasner, Republican Party, Samuel Mead, The Law of Unintended Consequences
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