I can't really say that Donald Trump ineffectual, moronic, but potentially expensive attempt to rename Lake Ontario into Lake America (and by the way, "America" is not the name of the United States) is the absolute last straw for me. That straw was broken years ago. It was obvious right from the onset that Donald Trump was not qualified to hold any elective office. However, in his first, and only legitimate, term as President, there was still a Republican Party. Now that party doesn't exist. It's just a bunch of ass kissers.
At least on the national level.
I'll frequently say that "I'll never vote for another Republican as long as I live", and I don't want to. A party that will not renounce and remove a person like Donald Trump, who is mentally ill, from the Oval Office cannot be supported. It's horrific. But the problem, then, is when you get down to the local level.
We just saw in Wyoming a real Republican Party toss out fake Dixiecrat Republicans from office. The only real survivor of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus bloodbath was Bill Allemand. Some of the really good Republicans who wiped out Freedom Caucus members, like Luke Reiner who tossed out Steve Johnson, will face Democratic challengers. And at the state level, a really good Republican who took the GOP nomination for the Governor's office, Barlow, is facing a challenge from a Democrat and Rebecca Bextel, the clueless Double Secret Constitution Party candidate. So the irony we now face is that the majority, but not all, of the recent Republican victors are good candidates and probably think that Donald Trump is in need of mental help. Given that, an enraged vote for a Democrat here, or not voting for the office at all, would in fact be a bad move.
But that's no excuse to vote in favor of every Republican on the ballot here.
It's particularly not an excuse to vote for Harriet Hageman or Chuck Gray. Indeed, there'd never be an excuse to vote for Gray. Gray doesn't deserve any votes.
Hageman really doesn't either. She's got in office acting like an enraged MAGA harpy even though she probably isn't. In office, she's been the distaff variant of her late father. A smart hyper provincial politician whose drank deeply of the hardworking pioneer myth to the extent that she's drunk on it, and like most of those of that belief, basically believes that farmers should own the whole state and you don't count. She's been, frankly, mean in her public personal and her political one.
Stuff like this really puts Catholics in a spot.
We need to participate for the common good. Sometimes we hear: a good Catholic is not interested in politics. This is not true: good Catholics immerse themselves in politics by offering the best of themselves so that the leader can govern.
Pope Francis.
For a long time, we've been in a spot due to abortion and, more recently, gender issues.
Abortion is murder. There's no two ways about it. Mutilating the body to change genders isn't murder, but it is a mental disease and entertaining it is gravely wrong. At one time there were Democrats who acknowledged these things. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas is the last pro life Democrat in the body. Generally, Democrats are in favor of seas of infant blood flowing out of doctors' offices everywhere.
Today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated
Pope Leo XIV
Undeclared wars of aggression are also gravely wrong. Under at least Pope Leo's view, only defensive warfare is morally licit. Attacking Iran was not only illegal under the U.S. constitution, it was not morally licit. Attacking Venezuela was illegal and illicit. Murdering people in boats off South American coasts as they're suspected of being drug runners is illegal and immoral. The people ordering these things are committing homicide, as are the people doing them. The US is killing people illegally and immorally as a matter of national policy, or rather the policy of handful of illegally acting people.
Threatening to take property? or life because we can is gravely immoral. Threatening to steal Greenland, or whatever, is immoral. Taking the mineral wealth of Venezuela is immoral.
We are a deeply immoral nation.
How does a person weigh these thing?
Well, in my case anyhow, it means that I will not vote for Republican members of Congress. I just won't. I won't vote for people who are supporting military murder or extrajudicial killings.
Indeed, I do not think it's morally licit to do so.
Nor is it moral to demonize people based on their race or inclinations, which this administration has done and continues to do.
Finally, as a Catholic, and the same would be true for an Orthodox Christian, or a Mainline Protestant Christian, this administration is thickly populated by a certain sort of Evangelical thought that would convert the nation into a Calvinist theocracy. People find that, it seems, to far fetched to consider, but it's a fact and many other things that were only recently too far fetched to imagine have now occurred.
Moreover, abortion, at the Federal level, is no longer constitutionally protected. That takes that fight down to the state level, at least for the time being, although it is certainly not impossible to imagine a Democratically government, House, Senate, and Oval Office, acting to protect it on that level. Whatever is going on in regard to transgenderism seems to have sort of stabilized and there doesn't seem to be anything going on with same sex "marriages". Indeed, nervous Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is in one, putting him in the same category as Pete Buttigieg who was routinely lampooned by MAGA for being a homosexual in a same sex union.
Indeed, it's hard not to notice all the hypocrisy in the Republican Party on all of the remaining moral issues. Bessent is homosexual and in a homosexual "marriage". Vance is a Catholic but was boosting IVF. Trump is a serial polygamist. Republican politicians engage in marital infidelity and misbehavior with the GOP ignoring it ,while the opposite is true for Democrats when they transgress.
And finally, Trump, in order to remove the threat from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., made a deal with him to appoint him to the head of the nation's health, resulting in a further moronic decline in vaccinations and a major boosting of health stupidity.
All of this, again, haunts the Apostolic Christian. Does a person vote for Republicans on the threat of abortion reviving, and thereby vote for war, childhood death by disease, ICE shooting in the streets, and on and on, let alone just voting for the patently stupid.
Of course, the two party system really isn't. And often you really don't have to vote for the Republican or Democrat. I haven't voted for a GOP nominee for White House in at least the last three elections, nor have I voted for the Democratic one. I voted for the candidates from the American Solidarity Party.
The trouble there is that there often isn't a ASP candidate on the local level. There are none here. The third parties that show up here are the Libertarian Party and the idiotic Constitution Party. The Constitution Party is worse than the Republican Party, and always has been.
So for this year, I will vote for Barlow for Governor He's a good choice. I'd like to vote for Byrd for Senate, and I won't vote for Hageman, but I have yet to decide what I will do. For House I'd like to write in Christensen and I won't vote for Gray while I want to avoid Kinney.
All somewhat tough races to face.
Locally, I'm lucky that I don't have to make such decisions for my local legislative districts. The City Council race is non partisan. The County Commissioner race is partisan, however, and one of the finalists is simply awful, and I'd guess, quite frankly, actually extremely liberal in spite of running as a Republican, and another nice but not a great candidate. That leaves the two Democrats to consider. Abortion and whatnot will not be a county issue and while I have not made my mind up on who I will vote for, I won't vote for two of the three GOP finalists.
If any come by, I'll flat out ask; "why are you in a party which picks on Canada, declares illegal wars, and hates the original native name for a large lake?"
And so we're off and running for the General Election, which in Wyoming's case means the election is pretty much over for the statewide races. Sure, the contest officially carries on, but chances are that the Republican nominees will take everything.
Still, this year, there's a chance, here and there. . .
So, our early predictions.*
Governor:
Republican. Eric Barlow
Barlow is a rancher, veterinarian, and long time legislature.
He's won this race and the General Election in this case is a mere formality.
Democrat. Kenneth Casner
75 year old making his third pointless bid for the Governor's office. He won't win, everyone knows he won't win, and he shouldn't be running.
Casner's appearance says something, however, about the state of the Democratic Party in Wyoming, and it's the opposite of what's happening in much of the rest of the country. In much of the country Democratic voters are rising up and tossing out geezer candidates, but in Wyoming the Democratic ranks are so depleted the Democrats are falling back on them, which is not a good sign.
Casner would have done his party a favor if he hadn't run.
Constitution Party: Rebecca Bextel.
The Constitution Party is a gadfly far right political party which was once the home of people who now populate the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. Indeed, it's their proper home, which shows in the one candidate of theirs which we know to exist, Rebecca Bextel.
The central figure in CheckGate, Bextel is flat out delusional and is running as she feared that Brent Bien would lose and there would not be any candidates running for the true interpretation of the Double Secret Constitution known only to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. Bextel appears to seriously believe that Barlow could only win if vast hoards of Democrats, which don't exist in Wyoming crossed over to vote for Barlow and that in the general election the great mass of MAGA/WFC true believers will carry the day.
With the WFC having received a titanic dope slap in the primary, a rational person in her position would drop out. But then, running as a Constitution Party candidate shows demonstrated irrationality.
Endorsement: Barlow by far.
Secretary of State
Republican: Robert Short.
Short is an excellent choice and will take the office.
Democrat: Bryan McCarthy.
McCarty actually has an impressive business background and has worked as an auditor. He should be given credit for running, although he probably should have run for State Auditor.
He's going to lose and it's not even going to be close.
Endorsement: Robert Short.
State Auditor
Republican Kristi Racines won an uncontested Republican primary race and no Democrats ran.
State Treasurer
Curt Meier won his bid to run again in the primary for the Republicans and no Democrats ran.
Senator
Republican: Harriet Hageman.
63 (soon to be 64) year old incumbent Congressman with a terrible record on public lands who came up due to the "hate Cheney" wave two years ago. If she wins, she'll be 70 at the end of her first term.
Democrat: James Byrd.
72 year old former legislator, geophysicist, and businessman. Really impressive overall, but he is in his 70s.
This race features two candidates who are pushing what we regard age limits. Hageman is a nightmare of a candidate however.
Byrd actually stands a chance in this race, but it's a real uphill battle.
Endorsement: We won't vote for Hageman, which leaves Byrd the only realistic choice, and by and large he's a good one, but we aren't doing an endorsement yet.
House of Representatives
Republican: Chuck Gray
Gray is a carpetbagger about whom Wyomingites know utterly nothing, other than he's an adoring sycophant of Donald Trump, he sent Wyoming's voter rolls to the Federal Government illegally, he has a nasty public personality, and he's a Californian who went to Wharton. About him personally, we know utterly nothing.
Having received only 25% of the primary vote, his election to the House can't be assured.
Democrat: Lisa Kinney
About the worst candidate the Democrats could have chosen for this position, 75 year old Kinney can't win the office and is a remnant of an earlier era in more ways than one. Her being the nominee is a sign of the absolutely pathetic state of the Wyoming Democratic Party.
Libertarian: Shaun Johnson
Like the Constitution Party, the Libertarian Party has become so obscure their state's organization doesn't even list their candidates. This is the only one we know to exist.
Johnson is a lawyer presently in Thermopolis. I don't think he stands a chance, but I'll note that former Wyoming legislator Tim Stubson, who once ran for Congress, has endorsed him, which shows the depth to which a lot of Republicans despise Chuck Gray.
Write In: Kevin Christensen?
A building movement to mount a write in campaign for Christensen, who ran in the GOP primary, exists. He came up late in the primary election and got 21,632 to Chuck's 31,222. While that's about 9,000 more votes, both Balow and Gilat, both seen as early possibilities for defeating Chuck, received over 10,000 votes. Even gadfly Reid Rasner received a little over 10,000 votes.
If we had Alaska's system, Christensen, along with Friess and Balow, would be on the election in the Fall. If we had the system in which the top two vote getters were on the ballot, Gray and Friess would be. Given all of this, there's a really strong indicator that many of those who voted for a candidate other than Gray would vote for Christensen.
Overall, therefore, this race remains in a state of flux while its seen if enough momentum can build up to create a write in campaign for Christensen against a well funded Chuck.
Endorsement: Kevin Christensen. I'm early in doing this, and I note that some disaffected Republicans are saying they'll vote for Kinney. But Kinney is at best a lesser of two evils.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Republican: Steve Harshman
Harsham is a long time Wyoming educator from Natrona County who was in the legislature for many years. He's an excellent choice for this office.and he will win it.
Democrat: Ana Cordova.
Cordova won the contested Democratic primary. She's a Wyoming native and extremely well educated. She only returned to the state recently, however, and really has no chance in this race.
Endorsement: Harshman.
Other races:
We'll no doubt comment on some as time goes by, but will hold off for the most part right now.
Well, as of this morning, I've seen the first disaffected far right local candidate express support for a Bien write in campaign, based on the delusion that there's a lot of Bien support out there (there isn't, he came in third).
The same person, I note, tried to run for County Commissioner and fell far short of the necessary numbers to get on the ballot, so I doubt that they have much influence.
Anyhow, what's surprising is that this person expressed disdain for Bextel and even more disdain for Harriet Hageman, stating that Hageman is just a reliable flunky for Trump. The outrage seems to be inspired by Hageman supporting Degenfelder as Trump did. The Wyoming GOP in fact endorsed Bien, Gray and Hageman, with Hageman showing independence from Trump late in the race, but endorsing Degenfelder.
It's hard for these people to accept that people just don't want to elect far right person like Bien. They don't. But imaging that they do is some sort of salve.
Having said all of that, there's definitely a movement amongst the ignorant far right to write Bien in. They're infighting right now with the Bextel supporters. Both groups are throwing around Wyoming's "sore loser" law as if they know what it means, but they don't .There's nothing whatsoever that keeps a voter from writing in any name. What the law prohibits is a candidate who has already lost a primary to then run as the nominee of another party.
Anyhow, it's interesting in that far right fanatics are already indicating that they're supporting a defeated Bien, and not Bextel, in the Governor's race, with some screaming for Bextel support. Neither of those candidates is going to win that race, but we are seeing the casting about for alternatives going on.
All that serves as a reminder that the Common Sense Republicans still have a lot of work to do, as they need to take back the party organization. The Sturmabteilung is still in control of the party and is reeling. It needs to be tossed out.
August 25, 2026
The WFC radicals just can't get it through their skulls that people don't like them.
Bien, at least, is more realistic about what a write in campaign against Barlow would mean, which would just be an embarrassment to him.
This entire story is a fart in a windstorm. No serious number of people are going to write Bien in, or vote for Bextel. This race is over. It is interesting, however.
The state GOP is controlled by WFC members and endorsed Bien, Hageman, and Gray. Trump endorsed Gray, Hageman and Degenfelder. Ultimately, Hageman followed Trump, thumbed her nose at the state GOP, and also endorsed Degenfelder. For that reason, the WFC, including its members on committees, revolted against Hageman, but to no effect. Now they're miffed at Trump as well, seemingly not realizing that without their dear leader, they are nothing whatsoever but a bunch of extreme right wing nuts.
A more interesting event would be a Christensen write in campaign against Gray, which would have a real chance of success.
Drake is correct. The Bien endorsement was not very smart. The ongoing pouting by the far right, which still controls most of the county and state GOP organization, is also not very smart. Voters need to take that on next.
On other matters, Byrd and Kinney made a second appearance together, emphasising dinner table topics.
The topics probably aren't bad, but Byrd needs to decouple himself from Kinney. Kinney has no chance of winning whatsoever and just isn't a good look for Byrd, who could easily pass for a traditional Wyoming Republican. Kinney can't. Linking his campaign to her's isn't going to help her, and it will hurt him.
While Romtvedt was panned on Facebook for this article, he's not the only one thinking in this fashion by any means. To my surprise a hardcore right wing Republican announced he's voting for the Democratic candidate for Wyoming's House District 58 rather than vote for Bill Allemand. While that brought shock from some of the people who know him, and it was pointed out that the Democrat supports abortion, which the Dems would be very well advised to abandon as a position in Wyoming, he also drew praise as Allemand is such a bad candidate. I doubt the Democrat will win, but I bet he does far better than would otherwise be the case.
Frankly, at this point, with Trump now going so far as to attempt to rename Lake Ontario, a lot of Republicans, including myself, are at the point where they're questioning for any Republicans. We have a unqualified octegenarian child in the White House and Hageman, Lummis and Barrasso are sitting around with their thumbs up their asses doing nothing.
Footnotes
*We steadfastly refuse to adopt the moronic "red=Republican" standard used only in the U.S. Red=Political Left, Blue=Political Right.
By Self-created photograph by Jonathunder - Own work, GFDL, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64543672
If this is a match of intellects, and it likely is, Canada has already won the trade war.
Carney is undoubtedly a genius and the only international leader currently in office, maybe ever in office, to have run the economies of two different countries. Trump is increasingly obvious of rather low intellect and a real estate developer with a very narrow understanding of the economy, who is in turn heavily influenced by Peter Navarro, a 77 year old economic theorist who uniquely champions tariffs. To make matters worse, Trump is suffering a rapid dementia related mental decline.
The US right now is destroying its own economy.
August 26, 2026
Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. steel, aluminum, furniture and clothing (50%), cheese, appliances and some seafood, (25%) and on electronics and tools (15%), effective September 8.
It also pledged aid to Canadian workers.
It was a dollar per dollar match on US tariffs, which it basically offsets.
As a side effect of this, the price of household paper products, toilet paper and paper towels, is climbing.
Thanks Don.
On the contest of intellects, the petulant baby in the Oval Office threatened to rename Lake Ontario the Lake of America or something. Trump actually thinks he renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, even though it remains the Gulf of Mexico in reality. The Lake Ontario thing is incredibly stupid. Nobody reacted positively to it, although I'm sure that administration flunkies will pretend it's a great idea. Curtis Hertel Jr., chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, stated:
Donald Trump has been America first in name only his entire presidency. He promised lower prices, higher wages, and no foreign wars … all of that is bull shit. Renaming th fourth best Great Lake isn’t going to change that.
Americans aren't impressed with the latest Trump stupidity.
On Trump dumping American cattlemen, John Barrasso, Senator from Trump, oh, um, Senator allegedly from Wyoming, posted this on Twitter:
Americans want US beef on the table – not foreign imports. Wyoming ranchers produce the highest quality beef in the world. Our ranchers don't ask for special treatment. They simply want a fair marketplace. It needs to be easier – not harder – for Wyoming ranchers to feed America. I will continue to fight for policies that strengthen Wyoming beef producers and invest in the American cattle herd.
Barrasso is a Trump suck up and hasn't really done much for Wyoming in years. During election cycles he's for whatever he thinks Wyomingites are for and is otherwise a rank cowards pretending he thinks Trump is brilliant when he knows that he's not. Last time he ran he became worried about gadfly candidate Reid Rasner and accordingly pulled to the hard right.
Barrasso must regard the Wyoming livestock industry as sufficiently powerful enough to actually hurt the GOP, or this an issue near enough to the hearts of Wyomingites, that he needs to speak up. He didn't do that when public lands were on the table. It's interesting in part because the Wyoming range cattle industry in particular, and agriculture in general, have been so pro Trump and pro GOP that it's quite literally actually stupid. We posted on this the other day.
Hageman, of course, has incentive not to. She's a Trump endorsee and is now running against James Byrd tof Lummis' seat. This makes her exposed on this issue. If she speaks up, and she's going to have to, it puts her between somebody that supports here that she probably thinks is a heaping bowl of stupid in reality, but then exposing her to voters who she probably figures are more heaping bowls of stupid. Byrd is perfectly suited to exploit this as Hageman comes from a farm/ranch and can't stay silent before she looks like a traitor.
Lummis, of course, comes from a ranch too, but as she's nto running, she doesn't have to say anything. She seems to be bucking for a Trump cabinet post, anticipating that people will jump the Trump ship post election.
On other economic fronts, the US came out with its "Economic D-Day" against Iran, which are really sanctions against Iranian trading partners, but not really. It delayed the imposition of them to January 1, 2027, which means they won't happen at all.
