According to the economist who came up with it, the “Walmart Recession Signal” indicating an oncoming recession is getting louder.
Tonight, I'm also pleased to announce that the Department of Agriculture will be launching a new harvest fuel relief program, providing our farmers with $8 billion in support to offset diesel costs during this harvest season
Donald Trump.
So the fuel relief is to relieve high fuel prices caused by the war against Iran which is illegal, and will be paid for by money we don't have.
Sure, that makes sense somehow.
Oil is coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, under US protection, at roughly the same amount it was before the war now.
In a real irony, former House District 58 representative Patrick Sweeney went to the Midwest town hall on the subject. Long serving Sweeney was ousted by current representative Bill Allemand after the district was redrawn. Alleman was a complete asshole to Sweeney in a debate and ran, that time, as firebrand Freedom Caucuser.
He survived a challenge from Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer whom he became crosswise with over a proposal to place the Radiant nuclear generator plant north of Bar Nunn, something Bar Nunn could not have stopped. Bar Nunn's city council meetings became the bizarre focus of the topic however with outraged populists even accusing some city council members of taking bribes, an absolute absurdity. Radiant eventually grew tired of the matter and decamped to Tennessee. Allemand, for his part, was arrested not all that long after for drunk driving. He's one of the few surviving members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, barely hanging on to his seat.
Allemand is apparently backing fanciful thoughts of declaring the school to be a charter school or forming a new school district, neither of which will occur It was really admirable of Sweeney to go out and speak to a group of people about their plight, which is concerning, which their votes for Allemand helped bring about. It's the classic Leopard's won't eat my face situation.
France, and some other parts of Europe, are having student demonstrations.
MAGA in the US, and the administration itself, wants you to believe that the riots are caused by radical Marxist taking over everything.
Oh bull.
Anyone who pays thoughtful attention to the news, which does not tend to be members of MAGA, would realize that France experiences periodic demonstrations. Suich demonstrations include the 1948 Miners' Strike, the 1968 uprising, the 1984 education protests, the 1986 Anti Devaquet Student Protests, the 1995 Public Sector Strikes, the 2002 Anti Le-Pen demonstration, the 2006 student demonstrations, the 2010 pension reform protests, the 2013 Anti-Same-Sex Marriage "Manif pour tous" demonstration, the Charlie Hebdo Republican March 2015, the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) Movement (Nov 2018–2019), and the Pension Reform unrest of 2023.
Of these, only the 1968 events, which happened all over the Western World, was really serious. Not one of these events was left wing, and indeed at least one of them, the Manif pour tous demonstrations, would be categorized as conservative in the US (it's not like opposition to same sex marriage resulted in a massive march in Washington D.C. here.
But the Trump Administration is sinking beneath the waves and grasping for any life saver it can find.
I suspect most hardcore MAGAs can't find France on a map. This isn't going to have much of an impact, nor should it. French students are upset about overcrowded classrooms, staffing shortages, decaying infrastructure such as toilets and buildings, and school facilities being too small to comfortably accommodate everyone. They should be upset. In the U.S., at least prior to Orange Mussolini, this would have resulted in letters to journals and student newspapers. In France, it results in riots. It's a tradition that goes back to the 1229 University of Paris Strike.
This will pass, and it won't really even matter much.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom
Matthew, Chapter 24.
I never cut my neighbor's throat;
My neighbor's gold I never stole;
I never spoiled his house and land;
But God have mercy on my soul!
For I am haunted night and day
By all the deeds I have not done;
O unattempted loveliness!
O costly valor never won!
Marguerite Wilkinson
October 19, 2026
Russo Ukrainian War
Victim of Russian missile strike:
Impeach Donald Trump and allow him, and Putin, to be tried for crimes against humanity. Putin, Ukraine. Trump, selling his sold for diesel to Russia, killing people extrajudicially off of South America and launching an illegal war against Iran.
Mark you, John Barrasso, Cynthia Lummis, Chuck Gray. By not taking action, you are taking action.
Signature of Elon Musk who is being credited with shutting down space based intelligence with Ukraine. I have my doubts. Musk may just be serving as a scapegoat. At any rate, the evet demonstrates why no man should have that much economic power.
Finger pointing is going on regarding the question on who slowed down Starshield, which impacted Ukrainian air operations this past week.
Perhaps the important portion of this story is that the US has resumed sharing intelligence with Ukraine. But who stopped it in the first place? That's not clear. President Trump denied responsibility, which would mean that if the order came from the government an underling did it and the report did not get up to the Oval Office, or that Trump is lying, or that he didn't remember what had been discussed.
Elon Musk briefly took responsibility and then clammed up about it. His doing that seems to have satisfied many but it also requires explanation. I'm not wholly convinced that story is true.
Assuming that it is wholly or partially true, that raises its own question. Starshield didn't exist all that long ago but now it's critical. If a single private person can shut it off, that person has too much power, even if its power over his own company's creation.
And now the impact of its disruption is clearly demonstrated. If we end up fighting Russia, and when we end up fighting China, the latter of which will be very soon, it'll be wiped out right at the onset of the war.
Signature of Donald Trump, here standing alone rather than over the genitals of a doodled female figure in an Epstein birthday card where you might have previously seen it.
Trump's endorsement again turned out to be a predicator that the endorsed candidate would go down in well deserved flames as Péter Magyar defeated the illiberal democrat darling of the far right Viktor Orbán.
Also a figure of the Hungarian right, and in fact once an Orbán protege, he is a sign that even in a country that's be converted into the model of an illiberal democracy and hence adored by the Heritage Foundation set, a corrupt autocrat can come down. He's also a sign that support by Trump means nothing in much of the world, and is becoming meaningless in the United States.
Orbán, who is not insane as Trump is much of the time, does deserve credit for conceding defeat.
April 14, 2026
Canadian liberals gained a majority in the Canadian parliament through by elections yesterday.
While less clear, the Donald Trump Effect, i.e., repulsion over his vile politics, is moving everything to the left that's associated with him.
June 22, 2026
Colombian Trump backed right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella narrowly won Colombia's presidential election, apparently.
August 31, 2026
Icelandic voters rejected a proposal to negotiate with the EU for admittance.
September 7, 2026
I frankly don't grasp how German elections work, but Alternative für Deutschland, (AfD) won state elections in Saxony-Anhalt but fell short of a majority. The party is a far right German party and about as close to the Nazi Party as a German political party legally can be.
It's rise can be seen as part of a rise of the far right throughout the Western world, although the first two countries with far right parity's who gained control of their governments, Hungary and Poland, have subsequently seen those party's fall out of power after governing for some time. Presently, the only other European country to be governed by a far right party is Italy, which is presently governed by Fratelli d'Italia, which has its roots in the Fascist Party.
Fratelli d'Italia is interesting here as well, as while even its symbol shows it rising out of Fascism, it's very much moderated itself since achieving power, converting itself from a populist far right party into more of a right wing party. Time will tell if the AfD is able to do that, although it already criticizes Trump, the head of a proto fascist party himself, on some things.
October 6, 2026
Quebec separatist Parti Québécois won the Quebec provincial election but fell short of obtaining a majority. I guess it's proof you can't keep a bad idea down.
October 20, 2026
Alberta separatist, the Canadian equivalent to Maga, were told to take a hike in the referendum this week on separation with 75% of the provinces residents voting no.
The dumpster fire the US has become under Trump probably helped influence the result.
We are, of course, about one month away from the General Election and it's universally agreed that, at least as of right now, the economy is not doing well, which is to say that it's not doing well for average people. Having said that, all the monkeying around Trump has done with the economy has not resulted in a general collapse, as some feared. This tends to give credence to the assertion that some make that the American economy in general is so strong that it tends to keep on chugging along in spite of everything.
Having said that, prices on many things have gone up, and are now at the paint point for average people. Beef prices, for example, are up about 25%. That can't really be blamed on Trump, as its due to a historically low cattle heard, but Trump's efforts to address it were pretty much non existent at first, and the ineffectual when they were tried.
Addressing the price can only really come through a recovery of the North American herd. Trump's constant crazy hatred of Canada and Canadians isn't helping this at all, as Canada is part of the North American market. Mexican cattle, which had been banned from coming into the US due to screwworm, which we're not hearing much about, which is concerning, have started to come back in. That is likely to have some effect.
Petroleum prices have shot up enormously since Trump started an ill advised and poorly planned war on Iran for no real discernable critical objective.
Wars are inflationary by their very nature, but attacking a critical global petroleum supplier is definitely going to be inflationary, and this is set to really start hitting home. Everything in the US, whether it moves by truck, by rail, or in the air, uses petroleum. That impacts the price of 100% of American goods. Gasoline, Diesel fuel and Aviation fuel is way up in price. Heating oil is up 50% to 70% just as we're entering the season where it starts to be used on the East Coast. NOAA, which usus science, predicts a warm winter in the East, like last years, so that might not be as impactful as it could be. The Old Farmers Almanac, which I put no stock in whatsoever, predicts a cold winter.
An interesting side impact of the cost of things is that even Wyomingites are looking at electric vehicles. I overheard a conversation the other day in which two people were wishing to get them, and they're both highly conservative individuals. A report on increasing EVs appeared in one of the local online journals today.
There are still a lot of naysayers out there, but there were when automobiles started to become common for that matter.
Anyway, the Trump Administration has handed out its flood of excuses for all of this, starting at first with "it's Joe Biden's fault". Everything is Biden's fault according to Trump, whom while he routinely falls asleep in public still calls Biden, on occasion, "Sleep Joe".
The it's all Biden's fault is no longer selling very well so the "it's not much to pay to keep Iran from getting a bomb" has been tried and is still being tried, but it's not selling that well . First of all, well informed people know that while Iran is a very secretive state, the evidence that it was about to make a nuke is thin. And frankly Israel's major early role in the war made it pretty clear that this was a joint Israeli American adventure in which the Trumpites had been heavily influenced by Israel. That's adding to an anti Israeli sentiment that's been building in the US for several years and you'll even now hear, in response to the suggestion that it's all worth it to keep Iran from getting a bomb, that maybe we don't really care if Iran has a bomb.
We didn't care enough about North Korea having one in order for the US to attack it, and Trump loves the communist leader of North Korea.
So that excuse isn't working either.
So time to distract.
The government just announced that children under 16 years of age are being automatically enrolled in "Trump" savings accounts. The Government, which has no money whatsoever as it's borrowing piles, will place $1,000 of the money it doesn't have into such accounts, but parents need to claim it.
Will this achieve something?
Well, it might, or might now. Truth be known with inflation being what it is, $1,000 that can't be touched until a person is 18 years old isn't going to seem like that big of a deal right now But it might turn out to be.
Trump also promised people $5,000 if the GOP retains both houses of Congress, but then that would require Congress to do it, and Trump earlier promised everyone a $2,000 tariff dividend. The government handing out cash it doesn't have isn't a good idea and frankly I thought it was a horrible idea when President Biden started handing out cash during COVID. I've heard the Trump proposal compared to that, and that was a bad idea.
The Administration also just sent out $500.00 checks as supposed refunds for Obamacare overcharges. They seem rather strategically placed, however.
Anyhow, stayed tuned for coming attractions. The trade war with Canada is just starting, the war is no where near over, and prices are really set to climb. Trump has less than thirty days to address all of this, or even some of it, which won't be easy at all. Voters who are inclined to vote their pocketbooks are likely pretty much set in their opinions by now.
Grant Street Grocery in Casper Wyoming is the only surviving small neighborhood grocery store in the town and even advertises the same.
Opened in 1921, the store was converted into a specialty grocery store and deli some years ago, and features meats and cheeses, as well as many other items, that are unlikely to appear on the counters of regular grocery stores. It's featured here for its simple sign, as well as being a remnant of something that was once very common, a neighborhood store.
President Trump signed an order allowing for the temporary sale of red diesel, which you tend to only find easily in farm country, for regular diesels. Effectively its a sort of kind of temporary suspension of the Federal tax on diesel.
I'd quite frankly question the Presidents ability to legally do this, but if I see red diesel for sale, I'm buying it.
2026-009Emergency Relief Permits for Transportation of Oversize and Overweight Loads of Agricultural Products
2026-010Executive Order Recognizing and Adopting the Federal Monitor Carrier Safety Administration Hours-of-Service Waiver for the Intrastate Transportation of Gasoline and Diesel Fu
On the red fuel order, some states, or at least Montana, have warned diesel users that they're not lifting their provisions. Also, red diesel stains filters and engine parts, so when the suspension ends, and you take your truck in to be serviced, you may have a lot of explaining to do.
And now this:
Trump is so desperate to put the economic destruction of the Iran War behind him that he's made a deal with Putin to import diesel fuel.
First of all, this isn't enough diesel to make any sort of difference and I frankly do not think it will even occur. But more significantly he's made a deal with a country that is engaged in a completely immoral war against a neighbor and losing, and by doing this, helping them. The US, it might be noted, has just acted to increase sanctions on Russia.
Totally inexcusable.
October 14, 2026
Inflation jumped in September.
Now, it's not Trump's fault. It's Joe Biden's. He set the inflation meter on 10 and then hid the key with the Epstein files, so you can see the problem.
It's not like an illegal war we're losing or tariffs had anything to do with that.
Governor Gordon and Cynthia Lummis came out against the Trump Russian diesel plan. Barrasso, who is now a toady, predictably supported it. Hageman when asked about it cited regulations in the US as the problem, which is absolutely and completely absurd. She'd earlier voted against aid to Ukraine and has been in the Trump camp consistently.
By the way, the price per barrel for crude oil has gone up, as have the price of diesel futures, since Trump announced his "deal" with the Russians.
