The 2026 Election, 21st Edition. The Contest in the General Election.

 

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.

Some early comments:

A tour of the 48 key House races

In the Northeast, Midwest and West, it’s almost all upside for Democrats. But redistricting will hand Republicans some seats in the South.

Some voters on the Wind River Reservation say transportation to the polls is an issue

Cont:

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.

Footnotes

*We steadfastly refuse to adopt the moronic "red=Republican" standard used only in the U.S. Red=Political Left, Blue=Political Right.

That's the way it is everywhere.

Prior edition:

The 2026 Election, 20th Edition. The 2026 Wyoming Primary Results.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, Ana Cordova, Chuck Gray, Eric Barlow, Harriet Hageman, James Byrd, Karlee Provenza, Libertarian, Lisa Kinney, Republican Party, Robert Short, Steve Harshman, Wyoming, Wyoming Freedom Caucus

Saturday, August 24, 1946. Portents and changes.

Norma Jean Baker adopted the name of Marilyn Monroe for the firs time in a contract at the suggestion of Ben Lyon of 20th 'Century Fox.

For her stage name, she adopted the names of actress Marilyn Miller, and her mother, Gladys Monroe, who was a tragic figure.

Marilyn Miller

Miller had died in 1936 at the age of 37.  Hardly anyone remembers her now.  The choice of her name was a portent.  Miller, who was married four times (her first husband died leaving her a widow), had a sinus condition made worse by her alcoholism, which lead to her early death.

She was a major star of her day, but not like Monroe, who remains one to this very day.

May they perpetual light shine upon both Baker and Miller.

Philippine Communist leader Juan Feleo was stopped by a large band of "armed men in fatigue uniforms" in Gapan, Nueva Ecija and killed, in something that would result in fueling the Hukbalahap Rebellion.

The Japanese House of Representatives approve the new MacArthur drafted constitution.

Last edition:

Friday, August 23, 1946. British create North Rhine-Westphalia.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, 1946 at the movies, actors and actresses, Afghanistan, Alexander the Great, Allied Occupation of Germany, Germany, Movies, Westphalia

Thursday, August 24, 1911. The beginning of a world shaking event.

Chinese citizens living in Chengdu, lead the Tung Chi Huei, went on strike over the Qing Dynasty's agreement with foreign nations to build a railroad through the Sichuan Province, after businesses there had raised $20,000,000 to build it themselves.

It was the beginning of a revolutionary era in China that would not end until 1949. . . or maybe it hasn't ended yet.  Suffice it to say, it was the beginning of events so massive that even now we do not know how they will work out, over a century later.

It's proof that what often seems regional, and even minor, can end up global, and epic.

As if Mexico didn't have enough on its hands, the United States officially rejected the award of the Chamizal Arbitration.

From the New York Times on this day?

Why? Well, they were Jewish, that's it.  Russia was h eavily anti semitic.

What a world, and the good old days.  Massive disturbance in China, revolution in Mexico, pogroms in Russian, and petty border disputes.

The first ever sculpture of a butter cow was displayed at the Iowa State Fair.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 23, 1911. British secretly plan for war.

Labels: 1910s, 1911, British Army, British Navy, Francisco León de la Barra, Herbert Henry Asquith, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Mexico (Morelos), United Kingdom, Victoriano Huerta

Saturday, August 24, 1901. The Royal Navy, Ottoman Navy, and Kuwait and the heroic sacrifice of Clara Maas.

A British warship turned back the Ottoman gunboat Zuhaf as it attempted to enter the harbor of Kuwait City, a prosperous trading city of 15,000, which was under the protection of the United Kingdom.  This lead the Ottoman captain to report that the city had been occupied and annexed by the British, which it had not nearly leading to a war between the Ottoman Empire, with Germany as an ally, against the UK.

Clara Maass, age 25, died after allowing herself to be infected with malaria as part of a medical experiment.  Her act would directly lead to the malaria vaccine.

It was a  heroic act by the young nurse who had previously served as a contact nurse for the U.S. Army during the Spanish American War.   She was a devout Lutheran.

It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday, August 23, 1901. The murder of Rev. Heese.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Australia, Australian Army, Boer War, British Army, Crime, Personalities, War Crimes

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 8. $40,012,700,535,679.44

The National Debt at some point on August 21,

Republicans are flocking to decry it, after having participated in causing it.

They didn't cause it on their own, but they sure helped.  And Trump has spent money like a drunken sailor.

Part of the reason that Trump spends this way is that Trump drank deeply of Peter Navarro's economic kool aide.

Navarro believes heavily in tariffs and Trump, whose always liked the concept of tariffs, but who appears to no longer understand how they work, liked what Navarro had to say.

Tariffs have always existed as a means of boosting local businesses.  What they really are, is a species of sales tax.  The concept is to make stuff coming in expensive so that people won't buy it, and will buy something made locally instead.  That's about it.

The problem is that when you do that, you have to actually be making the things locally.  Tariffs might have made good economic sense if the US had started easing them in during the late 1960s when the post World War Two economy started to fade.  But we didn't, as we saw no need to.

By the 2020s, it's really a little bit late.  In fact, it's way late.  The world's economy is now highly integrated, surpassing the level that had only previously been obtained prior to World War One.  We don't have what people complained about, for example, in the late 60s and early 70s of cheap Japanese products taking the market (something that wasn't anywhere near the threat it was imagined to be).  What we have instead is an economy where anything serious has parts made all over the globe.  Nothing you are using, if has multiple parts, was "made in America".  It was made all over.

Given that, what tariffs really do is simply make everything more expensive.  It'd take at least a decade for high tariffs to "bring back manufacturing", if it can do that at all.

Whether it can ever bring in jobs is questionable at this point.  Since January 2025 the US has in fact lost manufacturing job, with about 75,000 departing . Trump likes to claim that new factories are springin gup all over the place.  In fact, a factory construction boom peaked in 2024, under Joe Biden, and has been crashing since.

It may just be that it isn't the late 1890s any more.

So all the Trump administration has really done is ineffectively switched income tax for a national sales tax.  It's hurting everyone, and it is largely illegal, resulting in a lot of the money being collected, having to be sent back out.

Congress can fix this, if it has the will. Republicans right now are pretending that they do, but with few exceptions, like Thomas Massie, they're rank cowards and voted for Trump's economic fantasies.  It may take a Constitutional Amendment to force the matter, which at a bare minimum should provide that save in the time of war and bona fide emergency, the budget must balance and retire a portion of any built up debt, with taxes to automatically rise to balance any budget that isn't balanced.

What needs to be done first of all is to get the budget under control.  That would technically be easy to do.  And part of that needs to be a sincere effort to eliminate the debt.  It's now completely impossible to do so rapidly, so it'll have to be done slowly.  

On expenditures themselves, the Federal budget breaks out this way:

Social Security: 22%

Medicare: 15%

Net Interest (on the national debt): 15%

Health (including Medicaid): 13%

National Defense: 13%

Income Security: 10%

Veterans Benefits and Services: 6%

Social Security is in trouble due to slow down in population growth.  Nothing can be done about that or should be.  Medicare is in the same boat.  

National Defense should be cut by 2/3s.  That can be done by eliminating the insane level of weapons expenditures and by going to a reserve based defense.  That'd help, but that won't accomplish everything, obvious.  Military retirement age should be changed so that thirty years rather than 20 are the qualifying number.  That'd help a bit.

Indeed, there are actually a fair number of Federal jobs that require twenty years in order to retire at some level.  Save for policing roles and military ones,. Fed retirement should require thirty years and only be capable of being drawn when you reach 60 years of age.

And yes, this is a crisis.

So, you might perhaps note, you are a Distributist.  Does this square with Distributism?

Overall it does.  At one time I would have considered tariffs a policy option to address foreign manufacturing, but nothing fails like failure and its obvious that isn't the solution to that.  Boosting U.S. manufacturing has to come some other way, and frankly technology is probably what would do it.  Technological revolutions tend to bring industry to where they occur.  Our problem here is that this is entirely in the hands of the super wealthy right now, who don't have your interest or that of the country's in mind.

Additionally, our current President is addled and looks back with romanticism on the past . He's actively working to destroy American industry as a result.  Electricity is the future of transportation, not petroleum.  Wind, solar and nuclear are the future of power generation, not coal (Trump does support nuclear).  We need to really get with the program and we can do that through regulation.  Phasing out fossil fuels should be an economic priority for obvious reasons, and an environmental one for obvious reasons, and a defense one for obvious reasons.

August 22, 2026

Another Trump Call For Imported Beef Riles Up Wyoming Ranchers

This is really an example of ranchers and farmers being members of the Leopards Won't Eat My Face Party.

Another Trump Call For Imported Beef Riles Up Wyoming Ranchers

Why ranchers and farmers vote for Republicans is beyond me.  So they're getting screwed by Trump?

What did they expect?

U.S.-Canada trade talks collapse just before deadline for tariffs

Using debt to buy back debt:

We're in huge financial trouble.

August 23, 2026

Trade talks between the US and Canada ended and the countries are now in a trade war.  Canada has made it clear that the US is about to suffer through energy imports.

August 24, 2026

From the CST:

Well boo hoo, cry me a river.

I'm a cattleman and frankly we're amongst the most reliably stupid voters for the GOP there is.

Vinegar Hill posted this yesterday:

The GOP's useful idiots in agriculture.

An old friend of mine who is a rancher has been somewhat active in this year's election cycle.  He is, of course, a far right Republican.

I say of course as just about every rancher and farmer in Wyoming over the age of 40, and quite a few over the age of 35, are diehard right wing full blown MAGA Republicans.  Below the age of 40 things start to change a lot.  Most are Republicans, but a lot aren't diehard.  They're Republicans the same way everyone in Wyoming is a Republican, pretty much.  Generally conservative.

But above 40, they're in lockstep with Donald Trump.

My friend, this cycle, had a big Chuck Gray up near the DOT fence.  This wasn't too surprising as his grandson works for Gray.* **

Well, now, all of a sudden the noted friend is posting on the disaster of letting foreign beef into the country.  So are a bunch of other ranchers I know.

The Republican Party has been pretty much screwing ranchers and farmers since 1929.  It was the Democrats who save farmers and ranchers during the Great Depression.  Most small and mid sized ranches would have been utterly destroyed but for the Taylor Grazing Act.  

The Trump Administration, for its part, looks at farmers and ranchers the way the Democrats once looked at African Americans, people who could reliably be counted on to vote for the party no matter what.  In recent election cycles African Americans proved they were no longer reliable.  So far, people in Agriculture aren't showing any thought at all.

Indeed, they're showing cognitive disconnected.

This morning I've seen all sorts of complaints from ranchers about how they're getting killed in this economy, as noted.

And now Trump's bringing in below market cost foreign beef.

No shit.  YOU VOTED FOR IT.

Inflation, particularly of fuel, caused by Donald Trump's pet illegal war. The same with fertilizer costs.

WAKE THE CRAP UP.

The GOP is not coming to save you.  It's coming to screw you.

Indeed, trade talks just broke off with Canada.

Double digit inflation, caused by a massive rise in energy costs, is about to occur.

Footnotes:

Gray has more affection for Trump than Natalie Harp and Melanija Knavs combined.

The grandson is an interesting case in and of himself.  He's undoubtedly the first member of his extended family to go to university.  He's in law school right now.  He's also a diehard MAGA, and indeed, maybe even beyond that.  Now the question of how that happens is another matter.

The common myth, and it is a myth, about young people in conservative homes is that they go to college, where they lose all of their values, and their faith, emerging hardcore screaming liberals if not Bolsheviks.  This is, it is believed, because they're indoctrinated in college by leftist professors.

It's largely bull and in the scientific disciplines definitely bull.  Majors in geology, for example, aren't going to have time for liberal indoctrination.

For that matter, majors in English probably don't either.

So what's going on here.

Well, a person from a really conservative Protestant background may in fact find a lot of what they learn in college shocking.  The Earth isn't 5,000 years old.  Evolution isn't a fib.  Conquering the West wasn't bringing enlightenment to an oppressed people and, in fact, some of those being conquered where already Christian.  The US isn't bestowed by God with a new Israelite like mission, and for that matter, the modern state of Israel does some outright horrible things.

Faced with that onslaught, young people are in fact faced with the choice of accepting that Pastor Jim back at his own do it yourself Evangelical Church is flat out wrong on a lot of stuff, and Mom and Dad are ignorant, or concluding that everything they're being taught is a fib.

Most will conclude, to some degree, that Pastor Jim is wrong on a lot, and that Mom and Dad are ignorant on a lot of stuff.

Now, I'll note, this shouldn't impact member of the Apostolic faiths at all, but in the US some Apostolic Christians are heavily Protestantized and have bought in, through ignorance, to a lot of what the Evangelical far right believes.

Anyhow, a lot of this is about to collapse on an enormous scale, as we'll soon see.

**There was a good Republican candidate running against Gray, Christensen.  He had worked for the BLM.

Well, we're getting instead a Californian who worked for his daddy's radio station.

He's completely correct.  

Cattlemen and farmers will sit around in gatherings and support Trump on every other horrible thing he does, and then they're surprised when he turns on them.

Now they can share the pain they helped bring about.

On Canada, the Canadian government is absolutely furious over demands that were made of the country, including that Canada abandon the use of French and that it agree to mirror the US's trade polcies.

One Canadian figure called the demands "insane".

This administration at this point is so stupid on these matters its indescribable.

Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 7. The jackass in a tin barn edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, Agriculture, Alcohol, Chuck Gray, Curt Meier, Distributism, Electrical Power, Leopards won't eat my face, Localism, Mark Gordon, Mining, Petroleum, technology, Wyoming's boom and bust economy

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.

July 22, 2026

Green New Scam where we were scammed. The whole country was, I wasn't scammed. I got it right from the beginning… they were saying wind was so wonderful, so wonderful, except you couldn't, watch your television, they wanted to watch the debate. Donald Trump against Sleepy Joe Biden. Nobody could watch it because the wind wasn't blowing. Remember that?

Everything about this Trump babble is completely erroneous.

Seriously, he needs to have the 25th Amendment applied to him.  That it isn't, is reckless in the extreme.

August 10, 2026

An example of the rank stupidity of the Second Trump Administration.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1.  Purpose and Policy.  Pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum of December 5, 2025 (Aligning United States Core Childhood Vaccine Recommendations with Best Practices from Peer, Developed Countries), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) completed a scientific assessment, which identified a set of consensus vaccines that are consistently recommended in all peer countries and found that the United States currently recommends more childhood vaccines than any peer nation, including more than twice as many vaccine doses as some European nations (scientific assessment).  The scientific assessment also found that, instead of implementing vaccination mandates, most peer nations maintain high childhood vaccination rates through public trust and education.  In the United States, by contrast, individual States set mandatory vaccination requirements that children must meet to attend school.

Executive Order 14407 of May 29, 2026 (Realigning United States Core Childhood Vaccine Recommendations With Best Practices From Peer, Developed Countries), committed the Federal Government to ensuring that Americans are receiving the best scientifically supported medical advice in the world, as well as to protecting religious liberty and parental authority.  However, implementation of my Administration’s prior directives regarding childhood vaccines has been delayed due to litigation over the composition of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and separate updates to the Federal vaccine schedule.  Therefore, I am taking further action to reaffirm that it is the policy of the United States that the core childhood vaccine recommendations should be aligned with scientific evidence and best practices from peer, developed countries while preserving access to vaccines currently available to Americans.  Further, it is the policy of my Administration that Federal programs and funding should support maximal parental choice over childhood vaccines, consistent with the Federal Government’s constitutional and statutory obligations and the fundamental principles of personal autonomy and informed consent.

Sec. 2.  Recommendations for Childhood and Adolescent Vaccines.  (a)  Based on consultation with my advisors and review of available scientific evidence, it is hereby declared that the United States recognizes Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations informed by the three distinct categories of childhood immunization recommendations identified in the scientific assessment, as specified below:

(i)    immunizations recommended for all children:  measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus, and varicella;

(ii)   immunizations recommended for certain high-risk groups or populations:  respiratory syncytial virus monoclonal antibodies, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal B, meningococcal ACWY, and dengue; and

(iii)  immunizations based on shared clinical decision-making:  hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, influenza, and COVID-19.

(b)  The Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations also recognize that the combined measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine should be administered in three separate single-disease shots once such products are domestically available and that, to the maximum extent feasible, all childhood immunizations should be administered at separate medical visits.

(c)  Each executive department and agency shall review the Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations and take any appropriate steps to advance them, to the fullest extent allowable by law.

(d)  States and territories are advised to review the Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations and consider updating relevant laws and regulations that define the scope of immunization requirements for contexts such as school enrollment and attendance based on the scientific assessment and best practices from peer, developed countries.

(e)  The United States will routinely reassess the Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations according to the findings of the HHS Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines as specified in section 3 of this order.

Sec. 3.  Improving Vaccine Research and Options for American Parents.  The Secretary of HHS, through the HHS Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, shall, within 90 days of the date of this order, present plans to the President through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to, to the extent appropriate and consistent with applicable law:

(a)  offer options to administer core childhood vaccines, starting with MMR, as single vaccines rather than combination products/doses, including by working with the private sector and other countries as appropriate, while guaranteeing continued availability of combination vaccines and those vaccines recommended for shared clinical decision-making;

(b)  assess the ideal timing and sequencing of all core childhood vaccines and adjust the Federal childhood and adolescent vaccine schedule as appropriate based on gold‑standard science;

(c)  develop additional alternative adjuvants to aluminum and conduct comparative safety and efficacy studies;

(d)  ensure continuous evaluation of the risk/benefit profiles of all childhood vaccines based on United States and international data; and

(e)  improve vaccine safety monitoring, transparency, and research. 

Sec. 4.  Maximizing Parental Choice over Childhood Vaccines.  (a)  The Attorney General shall take appropriate measures to further meritorious legal actions challenging State laws that conflict with States’ constitutional and Federal statutory obligations related to parental authority, religious freedom, disability accommodations, and equal protection under the law, including, to the extent applicable under Federal law, States’ obligations to provide religious and medical exemptions from childhood and adolescent immunization requirements.

(b)  The Departments of Justice, Education, and HHS shall take appropriate action to ensure that their contractors and grantees, including States and localities, are compliant with their constitutional and Federal statutory obligations related to parental authority, religious freedom, disability accommodations, and equal protection under the law, including, to the extent applicable under Federal law, their obligations to provide religious and medical exemptions from childhood and adolescent immunization requirements.  

Sec. 5.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d)  The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Health and Human Services.

                             DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,

At some point you have to admit that Donald Trump is fairly stupid.

He has, we will give him, some native skills. But by and large, he appears to be fairly dumb.

An example on this very topic:

They have a vaccination that’s the size of a bottle of soda poured into a child’s body.

Trump.

That statement is moronic.

The question at this point would be, has he always been this dumb, or did he decline into stupidity?

Even so, he clearly has some reservations:

Nothing bad can happen from what we're doing. Nothing bad can happen. It's possible it doesn't work. I don't think that's much of a possibility, frankly.

Trump.

We're gambling with children's well being based on the medical advice of a non doctor who is a complete and utter quack.

And Trump on Joe Biden's cancer:

If you feel sorry for him, don’t feel so sorry, because he’s vicious.I really don’t feel sorry for him.

August 25, 2026

This is absolutely insane.

On Canada, the Canadian government is absolutely furious over demands that were made of the country, including that Canada abandon the use of French and that it agree to mirror the US's trade polcies.

One Canadian figure called the demands "insane".

This administration at this point is so stupid on these matters its indescribable.

Last edition:

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

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