Well, hold a circus and performing elephants will appear
And that's just what's happening at the University of Wyoming in regard to the saga of Rev. Schmidt and his poorly thought out approach to arguing on whether transgenderism is real or not. GOP politicians, from that party that adopted the elephant to remind people that they'd seen it in the form of the Civil War, have appeared in the form of legislative members of the "Freedom Caucus" and, of course, Chuck Gray.* The letter was written, in fact, by his successor in office, Jeanette Ward, recent arrival from Illinois.1
Let's recap this a bit.
Rev. Schmidt has been maintaining a table in the UW Student Union in which he has books to the effect that evolution is a fib and that Dr. Fauci is some sort of misguided personage.
Rev. Schmidt called out a person who is undergoing some sort of "gender reassignment" by name, noting that it's contrary to how God created humanity.
That latter item is correct, even if Schmidt is wrong on the fossil record and Dr. Fauci, but the apparent approach, which is based directly and perhaps even solely on his religious views, and which was very forward, was always more likely to create a flap and repel people rather than convince them.2 A wise way to approach this would have been to argue biology and science, rather than religion, but Schmidt took the latter approach and is now preaching on campus, which perhaps he always did.
UW, faced with an issue not of its own making and certainly not of its desire, booted Schmidt out of the Student Union.3
Now members of the Freedom Caucus, that body of legislators whose name would suggest they are Libertines, but whom are not, have entered the fray, accusing UW of squelching Schmidt's right to free speech.4Given their entry and the presence of such notables as youthful Stolen Election Gray and Illinoisan Ward, who presumably have real tasks to do in their elective offices, this will become all the more circus like. Gray, of course, needs a new issue now that the Stolen Election Myth has gone down in flames and crashed all over the GOP outside of Wyoming, and Ward always campaigned from the extreme right, claiming she had to leave Illinois so that her youthful progeny didn't have to wear masks in school, among other things.
Sigh. . .
Nobody is going to talk the science at all.
There was a time, not all that long ago, when people claiming to be transgendered here would have simply been ignored, thereby being treated exactly the way they claim they want to be. Likewise, Rev. Schmidt would have been ignored, even at UW, of an earlier era also. Students wearing flannel and hiking boots would have simply walked on by.5
*I'm going to cite the Jimmy Akin citation rule here and ask why reporters don't upload a link to what they're writing about? Given as this is about a letter, and give that if we are reading about it, we can read, why don't they upload it so we can read it ourselves?
1. There is absolutely no way in any earlier era in which an Illinoisan who just arrived would have been elected to anything whatsoever in the state. Yes, that's provincialism, but sometimes provincialism is warranted.
For that matter, Gray couldn't get elected at first either, and in no earlier era would he have been elected Secretary of State.
2. And indeed this has sparked a counter student reaction, as was predictable.
Students can reliably be counted on to support any left wing cause, and pretty much always have. Communist spies of the 40s and 50s had been recruited out of campuses in the 20s and 30s. In the 30s, British university youth, who later defended the skies over the UK, publicly declared they wouldn't fight for Britain. People, who lament the treatment of Vietnam veterans today, protested the war in the 60s. Shoot, when I was at UW in the 80s nobody would ever say a good word about Ronald Reagan, who is now regarded by many as a hero.
There have been all sorts of students sign petitions on this matter, and not in the way that Ward and the Libertine, um no, the Freedom. . . um no, that doesn't seem right. . . oh, whatever it is, Caucus would like. And in a recent Trib article students proclaiming unconventional gender orientation, probably some of whom discovered that recently and will find it transitory, stated they were in fear, which if they are is probably because any hype tends to cause fear.
So Schmidt has managed not only to convince, he's done damage, as we said he was doing.
3. There might be a lesson in here in what happens when you convert a building from what was essentially offices, ancillary rooms and a bookstore into one that's a place for loitering of all types.
4. Is there any word more misused by movements than "freedom"?
5. A Palestinian protest at UW that occurred only shortly before I went there reportedly received that treatment. Students simply walked around it.
I don't recall any protests at all while I was there. While I was in law school, a big march by an out-of-state organization aimed at homosexuals resulted, fairly predictably at that time, in a big counterprotest by local residents who wanted the other group to just shut up and go away. I recall that surprising non-natives, but not natives, as the ethos of the state at the time was "I don't care what you do, just leave me alone". When people weren't called on to "celebrate" conduct they didn't support, or even were repelled by, they were pretty tolerant.
She is a corporate Democrat who has, in fact, along with Sen. Manchin sabotaged enormously important legislation.
Bernie Sanders.
My, my.
Worth noting, Sanders isn't a Democrat either. Kyrsten Sinema, by going independent, is taking the position that he has always occupied. An independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Sanders ran as a Democrat in recent Presidential elections, but he isn't one.
The reaction to this has been interesting. Democrats in Washington, who had just been stating how great it was that they had won in Georgia in part because they no longer really had to pay attention to Sinema and Manchin, who have used their positions to extract bargains, are now backtracking noting that this really doesn't change anything. And by and large, it probably doesn't. Sinema and Manchin retain their positions of influence for the very reason that their positions don't track with the rest of the Democratic Party.
Outside of D.C., and with people like Sanders, Sinema is under attack for being disinenguine. But is she? She was already under attack for going her own way on things. She still is.
By all accounts, Sinema is a really unique Senator. She was originally a member of the Green Party, not the Democratic Party, which makes her a real outsider. She's apparently highly introverted in a field where you wouldn't expect that, and in terms of "caucusing" with the Democrats, she really doesn't. She apparently doesn't show up, and she doesn't socialize with other Senators.
Right now its popular to say that Sinema is sure to go down in defeat in the next Arizona primary. This might be right, but she's had a remarkably successful career in Arizona politics so far, so the "nobody likes her" can't be true. Undoubtedly the most photogenic Senator in American history, she has only recently drawn Democratic ire in her home state and for taking positions on bills that seem to have corporate interest at heart. For that reason, pundits like Robert Reich can't stand her. Prior to that, however, she was noted for her support of Obamacare at the state level, and for being the first bisexual Senator in U.S. history, something that caused the liberals that now hate her to then love her.
Sinema's independence actually isn't new, and to a huge degree she's a mystery in a very public field. Her early life's story is disputed and the version of it she gives isn't universally supported. The accuracy of it hasn't been cleared up and there hasn't been a need to. She was a member of the LDS church and attended BYU, but dropped out of the Mormon faith after that and has left her personal beliefs pretty much wholly unknown. She has been married and divorced, but next to nothing is known about her ex-husband, Blake Dain, and she's refused to say anything. As a politician, she's never voted consistently along party lines and refused an effort ot remove an Arizona legislative figure, noting that "she loved him."
Being attacked by Bernie Sanders goes a long ways, frankly, in crediting her. In her speech she noted that most Arizonans are independents and frankly a huge percentage of Americans are. It's now the case that independents often figure as the second-largest political group in a state, and that's likely the case in Wyoming. A look at party politics explains why. In one state, Alaska, the voting system has been altered to omit the party role, and in at least one other state, Nebraska, that's always been the case.
Sinema has received the disdain of her own party in her home state for holding up bills that the Democrats wanted passed based on positions that seemed to favor corporate interests. Arizona's Democrats censured her, just as Wyoming's Republican's censured Liz Cheney. Now Sinema has dumped the Democrats in a state where their fortunes are waning.
They're on a 24-hour walk out, complaining that the Times isn't negotiating in good faith with its staff.
It'll be interesting to see how this goes. Newspapers are in real trouble, and perhaps not too surprisingly this has expressed itself with discontented staff in recent years, which interestingly for a group that's fairly liberal as a rule, uses the term "guild" for its unions.
Whether the battle for Ukraine fills one with hope or with fear, Volodymyr Zelensky galvanized the world in a way we haven’t seen in decades.
Time magazine, on their choice to make Volodymyr Zelensky their Man of the Year.
I had no doubt he would be.
Odd to live in a year in which some in far off lands rose so bravely to the occasion, while others closer to home failed so greatly to live up to obvious standards.
Chuck Gray, ascending to Secretary of State, mounted on the Myth of Stolen Election.
The votes are cast, the counting is underway. Here are the results as they come in.
16:42.
Governor.
Mark Gordon has won, as everyone knew that he had well before today.
November 9, 2022
The proverbial morning after.
U.S. House of Representatives
Harriet Hageman wins with 132,172 votes. 47,241 were cast for her Democratic opponent, Lynette Gray Bull, who frankly underperformed in my view. Towards the end of her campaign, Gray Bull began to raise her ethnicity in a fairly aggressive manner, which likely didn't help her in a state where such things generally do not win votes.
Governor.
Mark Gordon has won, as noted last night.
This race was emblematic of the current political sickness in the state. Gordon isn't a bad Governor, and is no doubt better than some we've had in the now somewhat distant past. But the Democrats couldn't even find a real contender. Yes, they ran somebody, but that's about all you can say.
His real opponents, therefore, were from his own party in the primary.
Gordon took the office in the general election with over 143,000 votes, with his Democratic opponent taking about 30,000. The Libertarian took around 8,000 votes, less than the 11,000 write ins that were cast.
Secretary of State.
Chuck Gray, as noted above, ascends to this office, with 147,368. He had no opponent, but 13,574 votes were for write ins.
State Auditor
Kristi Racines won with over 161,000 votes against no opponent.
State Treasurer
Curt Meier won with 159,000 votes against no opponent.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Megan Degenfelder took the office against Serge Maldonado, who barely campaigned. The vote counts were 142,511 to 43,251, which means that Maldonado did nearly as well as Gray Bull in this race.
Constitutional Amendment A
This amendment received 101,000 votes, and therefore passed, but not by a comfortable margin. In order to pass, an amendment must receive a yes vote based on the total number of cast ballots, which was 198,000. So this based, but barely.
Constitutional Amendment B
This bad idea failed, making it the only bright spot in the election. 115,000 people voted no. I thought this likely to fail, but only for not getting enough yes votes based on total ballots cast, not on an outright "no" vote.
Other Races
Locally, two of the "Mom's For Liberty" were elected to the school board. One was not.
The 1 Cent and Lodging Taxes passed easily.
Nationwide
Donald Trump, who isn't running for anything, actually gave a victory speech last night.
A "red wave" (no, not a Communist wave, which would make more sense as a "red" analogy) was expected to take place, but it doesn't really appear to be happening in my view. The Senate will likely remain Democratic. The House is likely to go over to the GOP as expected.
So we'll get split government from a government again. The Democrats have themselves mostly to blame for this as they have, as per usual, been singularly inept at getting their message across or acting quickly on anything.
United States Senate
While it's still too early to tell, it appears that the Democrats have retained control of the Senate.
John Fetterman beat out Dr. Oz in a particularly odd race in Pennsylvania. Fetterman goes on to the Senate.
The much followed Georgia race was too close to call and appears to be certain to go into a runoff between two candidates, which is silly, but there you have it.
JD Vance won his bid for the Senate in Ohio. The author of Hillbilly Elegy had turned Trumpist during the campaign, which for a while appeared likely to sink him.
House of Representatives
Also, too early to tell, but it looks as if the Republicans will take the House of Representatives.
While it's too early to tell, it appears that Lauren Boebert may lose her race in Colorado, and is losing at this time.
Marjorie Taylor Greene was reelected.
Cont:
A Reuters headline:
Race for U.S. Congress is tight, no Republican 'red wave'
At this point, given the last several elections, it ought to be abundantly clear that polls are no longer accurate.
Cont:
It appears that Trump endorsed Kelly Tshibaka will narrowly defeat incumbent Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski in a state that uses ranked choice voting, so both of them are competing against the Democratic candidate as well. They're pretty much neck and neck, which shows that in this instance this operated in favor of the Trumpite challenger.
Where it didn't was with the Congressional race in which newly elected Democrat Mary Peltola easily defeated two Republican challengers, including Sarah Palin.
Cont:
Reuters take:
Control of both the House and Senate is up in the air. There’s still a lot we don’t know, but one thing we do know is that Republicans did not have the night they were hoping for.
Here are six takeaways:
1️⃣ The Senate is undecided and will take a while to know. Democrats flipped Pennsylvania and Republicans now need a net gain of two pickups to take the Senate.
2️⃣ Republicans underperformed in the House, and there’s going to be a lot of finger-pointing. They're looking at a possible net gain of only about eight seats, which is on the low end of forecasters’ projections. This could threaten Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy’s plans to be speaker of the House.
3️⃣ There’s also going to be blame directed at Trump. The former president weighed in heavily on these elections, but a lot of his candidates underperformed, raising questions about how effective his brand is in purple states.
4️⃣ Florida might be the new Ohio. The state that decided the 2000 election and has been a swing state since is looking like it’s firmly in GOP hands now with wins by Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio.
5️⃣ Democrats appear to slip again with Latino voters. Despite a decent night overall, exit polls showed Democrats won about 60% of Latinos overall, down from 65% in 2020, which was already considered a decline.
6️⃣ The cross-currents of this election between abortion rights and inflation were real. Abortion rights clearly fired up voters who cast ballots for Democrats and helped stem a Republican wave. Abortion rights appear to have succeeded in the four states where they were on the ballot, including in Michigan and Kentucky.
Cont:
Well, it's the end of the day, and we still don't know if we'll have a Republican Congress, a Democratic Congress, or a split.
One thing we do know. Donald J. Trump's association with the Republican Party caused it to underperform at an epic level. While some Trump backed candidates such as J. D. Vance or Harriet Hageman owe their positions to Trumpism, others went down in defeat due to their association with him. By and large, Trump was a liability to the party.
It'll make no difference in the GOP. While this wake-up call should finally be one, it won't be. What may finally be is a 2024 Presidential Election defeat, something that is now all but certain if Trump runs in 2024.
Ironically, perhaps, Wyoming has gone full bore personality worship into Trump at the exact same time that the Trump brand promises irrelevance. If the House is Democratic, Hageman will be a nullity. If it's Republican, she'll be a near nullity.
The Fort Worth Star Telegram posed this question:
Republicans, you can follow Donald Trump into the abyss or win elections. Choose wisely
The Star Telegram is right. A sane GOP, or rather one that had a modicum of courage, would now purge the Trumpites. Keven McCarthy would be sent to do nothing. Hageman would be ignored. Ted Cruz would have his batteries removed and become a depowered robot.
But it doesn't seem to be exhibiting courage in regard to Trump. Rather, it continues to fear him, even though now the last illusion of Trumpism has been stripped away. He has no influence with the real voters, outside of Wyoming.
Speaking of a candidate associated with Trumpism, Lauren Boebert, at the time of this posting, trails her opponent by 62 votes, showing that in fact, every vote does count.
Oregon has passed a very strict firearms purchasing bill requiring a state permit that also includes the requirement that a person pass an approved class before obtaining a permit. While I'd be unable to say this with certainty, this would appear to be the strictest purchase statute in the US. It will undoubtedly be tested in court, and my guess is that it will fail to past Constitutional muster.
The statute barely passed.
November 10, 2022
Wyoming's turnout in the election was the lowest since 2014.
I wondered if this might occur, due to so many races being determined in the Primary.
It looks as if control of the Senate is going to end up with the Georgia runoff, again.
The truly amazing thing is we don't know who won the House yet. That shows how massively in error the "Republican Wave" predictions were.
Kevin McCarthy, anticipating that the GOP will get enough seats in the House to be the majority party there, has announced his bid to be Speaker of the House. Given the massive underperformance of Republicans in the election, combined with McCarthy's hostility to some Republicans who didn't tow the "ignore what happened on January 6" line, and his cozying up post disaster to Trump, its likely he'll receive competition.
November 13, 2022
In no small part thanks to Donald Trump, the Senate will remain in Democratic hands.
And in no small part due to Donald Trump, who will control the House remains up in the air. Trump managed to potentially buck a decades long trend and it's possible, at this point, that the Democrats may remain in control of the House after the midterm election.
The Great Wave. . . what didn't happen.
Kari Lake, MAGA candidate for Arizona Governor, appears to have lost in a tight race and is now attacking the vote counting and even asserting that people did not vote for her opponent.
November 15, 2022
Katie Hobbs beat extreme election denier Kari Lake for the position of Arizona's Governor, giving Arizona its first Democratic governor in 14 years.
Lake stated regarding the results, "Arizonans know BS when they see it" and, in spite of what she apparently meant, it would appear at least over half of them do.
November 16, 2022
And the GOP, as of tonight, has 218 seats in the House, with the Democrats at 211. There still remains races which are not decided, but this means the GOP controls, barely, the House.
And this thread now closes.
November 24, 2022
Well, maybe not quite closes.
Lisa Murkowski retained her Senate seat in Alaska, beating a Trump backed opponent. This seat remains in GOP hands, as it was known it would, but it followed the general tone of the election in rejecting Trumpism, contrary to the direction in Wyoming.
Mary Peltola retained her seat in the House for Alaska. Peltola is a Democrat.
Alaska, readers will recall, went to a new, more democratic, system of choosing candidates this year which operates to lessen the impact of party affiliation. Wyoming has considered adopting such a system.
Right now, with some races still not decided, the balance in the House is 213 Democrats to 220 Republicans.
December 6, 2022
The election is now over. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, in a special runoff election in Georgia, defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker.
With this, the Democrats actually gained in the Senate in an off year.
I should note here that I'm cynical about politicians and politics once a person leaves the local realm.
Now, I don't feel that way about politicians at the local level. The ones I've known personally were genuinely engaged and had entered into politics as they had real concerns about their communities, or schools, etc.
And, of the few state legislators I've known, most fit that same description.
Theodore Roosevelt, long before he ever ran for the Oval Office, once rebuked a reporter for suggesting that he might some day occupy it. In doing so, he stated that a person must never tell a politician, which he already was, being in the New York Assembly, that he might some day be President as he'd quit being his natural self and alter positions so that he could obtain that goal.
There's really something to that.
Harriet Hageman is in the category of politicians I've met and sort of once somewhat knew.
During the recent race, I was frankly shocked by a lot of her conduct, which I at first attributed to her simply wanting to be in Congress. Since that time, I've come to wonder if in fact she may believe the positions she's taking, in which case that's scarier yet. That would likely mean that of our three person Congressional delegation, she's the only true ideologue, and not in a good way.
Back in April, Harriet Hageman spoke in Powell and made this statement:
I’ve really got a dog in this hunt, I’m from Wyoming. My family’s from Wyoming … Wyoming is my passion. The way that I put it is that when Wyoming prospers, my family prospers. But when Wyoming suffers, my family suffers.1
That's the very first thing I've seen attributed to Hageman which would give a person a reason to vote for her. That same reasoning applied to the primary candidates who ran against Cheney when she first ran, and won, which of course means that a lot of the people who might find this view appealing now, apparently weren't all that worked up about it back when, including Hageman who at one time supported Cheney. None of which means that it isn't a good point.
Mind you, there are a lot of reasons not to have voted for Hageman, although most Wyoming voters who participated in the off year election did. The big reason for that is that most Wyoming voters bought the Trump lie that didn't sell nationwide this election, that the election was stolen.
Wyoming's voters, frankly, have been buying a lot of cheap fibs and obfuscations in recent years, so perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised.
So we should hope that Hageman really means what she says, and that she remains capable, as an attorney should be, of analyzing the facts. Given her age and status, she won't be personally culpable for failing to do so. I.e, if what she has been selling turns out to be a bill of goods, well she'll go on to retire and not bear the brunt of it.
Hageman says she has a dog in the "hunt" as she's from here and her family is too. And she is from the Ft. Laramie region and her family is here, in agriculture, although unlike those of us who have kids who to worry about for the future decades hence, she has no children, so that's really worrying about her extended family. I have no reason to believe that she doesn't genually bear them in her heart.
In any event, however, worrying about what happens when Wyoming suffers means, more than anything else, looking at the world honestly, and not at some romanticized past that never existed and which, to the extent it did, is evolving.
In 1960 Harold Macmillan, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, addressed the reality of the state of British colonialism to the South African parliament, stating:
The wind of change is blowing through this continent and, whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it.
Macmillan was right, and there was no holding back the change those winds brought. But he had a concern beyond that, and stated:
As I see it, the great issue in this second half of the twentieth century is whether the uncommitted peoples of Asia and Africa will swing to the East or to the West. Will they be drawn into the Communist camp? Or will the great experiments of self-government that are now being made in Asia and Africa, especially within the Commonwealth, prove so successful, and by their example so compelling, that the balance will come down in favour of freedom and order and justice?
Not everyone was willing to accept the storm that had arrived. Ian Smith, the Prime Minister of Rhodesia, did not, and took his country out of the British Empire.
Rhodesia no longer exists. Zimbabwe, a wreck of a country, exists in its place. Many of the departing African colonies have had terrible post-colonial histories, but Zimbabwe has one of the worst. It's story is complicated, but in part that disaster can be put at Smith's feet. MacMillan proved correct, Smith's actions gave strength to Marxist revolutionaries, who won, and who effectively destroyed the country's economy.
Elections have consequences, as they say, and so does ignoring reality. Wyoming has a lot of going for it, but it doesn't control every trend in the United States or globe. Every time somebody says "electric cars will never work here", they cast a vote for fantasy. That's a minor example, but it's a relevant one. Harriet Hageman claimed, back in April when she gave her speech in Powell, that her first act in Congress would be to introduce a bill requiring the United States to use American energy.
Well fine, pass that bill (it won't pass), but what she means is almost certainly petroleum oil and coal. California, with a population dwarfing ours, is already legislatively phasing out the use of petroleum. Congress isn't going to be able to mandate a change in course that's already been taken, and not just here, but all over the globe and in the hearts of minds of consumers.
Wyoming has a lot going for it economically, and a lot of that predates its oil and coal history. But will it value it, or will it insist that we return to the 1980s and expect others to go along? I fear the latter is almost certain.
In addition to that, when Hageman claimed nativist grounds for people to vote for her, she ironically pointed out something that's very much impacted our recent political history. Yes, Cheney was not from Wyoming but John Barrasso isn't either. Foster Freiss, whom the far right here adored, very much was not.
Nor are a host of Wyoming political figures, some of whom are angry relocates from points further east.
The point isn't that you have to be born here to win elections or to run, but rather this. We should be very careful about taking our political views from out of state imports, whose presence is usually temporary. In recent years, particularly in the COVID era, we've received a lot of new people, but the backstory is a lot of them leave pretty quickly. The myth of Wyoming is that "everyone is so friendly", which isn't really true. It's easy to mistake politeness and curiosity for friendly.
Wyoming is a hard place to live and work. A lot of people flood in when the price of oil is high, and then hang for a while when it drops until they chase the dollar somewhere else. A lot of those people bring their views, often from the west of the Missippii, south of the Picket Wire region, and that temporarily impacts views here. Freiss, when he ran for office, had a campaign style that somewhat resembled something out of 1970s Alabama, for example. When they leave, that view usually goes with them.
Likewise, Wyoming throughout its history has had influxes of outsiders, people born well outside the region, who prove to be temporary. Nice summers are attractive at first, but long winters, no services, and the howling wind take their toll after a few years, and they move on. Something like 50% of people who move here just to move here move on in less than a year.
At the end of the day, Wyomingites, those born here who stayed, and those who moved here, mostly from neighboring states that have a lot of the same character, are invested in the state in ways that others aren't and want its character preserved. That means its entire character. You can't be the Congressman from the Oil Industry, or the House member from Coal, or the Representative from farmers in Ft. Laramie. It's the whole smash, and those who have lived and endured here, rather than those taking up temporary residence of a fictional Wyoming that exists only on Yellowstone or Longmire, do have opinions that matter more than those moving through.
That means being honest. Honesty starts with being honest to yourself first, and then to everyone else. It's a character trait that's really departed from national politics to a massive degree in recent years.
So, don't make Wyoming suffer, starts with being honest.
Footnotes
1. There's's a mixed metaphor at work here. The dog/hunt line is usually "that dog doesn't hunt", which is a phrase given to dismiss an argument that doesn't work. The other line, which Hageman must have been recalling, is "I don't have a dog in that fight", which means that you aren't betting on a dog in a dog fight. I.e., you have no personal interest in the outcome.
Since the election ended, I've seen a lot of hand wringing from some, and rejoicing from others, that the abortion issue supposedly motivated people at the polls to vote against Republican candidates.
Baloney.
First of all, in most locations, abortion wasn't on the ballot. It was in some places, namely Montana, Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont and California.
Montana's was shocking in that Montana does not allow for abortions pass the point of viability, and the proposed law would have required physicians to assist any such aborted baby born alive. The ballot measure failed.
Kentucky has a trigger law that's now being litigated, but its ballot measure stated:
Are you in favor of amending the Constitution of Kentucky by creating a new Section of the Constitution to be numbered Section 26A to state as follows: To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion?”
Voters rejected the amendment.
Michigan put a right to an abortion, of some sort, in its state constitution.
Vermont did as well, passing an initiative that stated:
That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.
And California also put a right to an abortion into its state constitution.
So, in terms of the 2022 midterm election, what does this really tell us?
Well, this issue wasn't on the ballot in most places. Indeed, it brings up a real irony in regard to Wyoming, which enacted an anti Obama Care amendment out of the nonsensical fear of "death panels" securing individuals right to make their own health care decisions that risks being interpreted the way that these new constitutional provisions in various states do. It'll be interesting to see if the new legislature attempts to amend the bad amendment. Having adopted the thesis that everything associated with Obama Care must be bad, they can't really simply repeal the amendment, which would make a lot more sense.
Anyhow, as this issues was only on the ballot in these states, it probably says more about these states. All of them have a strong liberal streak in them, even Montana, so if it brought people out to the polls, those states weren't going full MAGA hog wild anyhow.
Indeed, only really Wyoming went full MAGA, with the state really diving into the shallow end of the pool head first, for which we'll pay in the next couple of years, but that's another topic.
Nationwide, what this really probably tells us is this.
Yes, abortion matters to a lot of voters, but it isn't the only thing that matters to a lot of those voters. Democracy as on the ballot over the entire country, and for a lot of people that outweighed abortion as they feared that a vote for the GOP was a vote, well, for something that looked disturbingly a bit like this:
That doesn't make those people, however, liberal progressives.
Rather, its a lesson to the GOP about it looking like, well, something like this:
It's also a lesson on something else, which I've long noted.
The "two party system" is stupid.
And its beginning, finally, to erode.
In Alaska its basically been abandoned, which has led to the rise of a Native American Democratic to Congress from Alaska, and which will be the source of a runoff between two Republican contenders for the Senate, one incumbent moderate and another a MAGA Republican.
If we had that system in Wyoming, I"m not sure that the results would have been a lot different, but what you would have had is two Republicans contending for Secretary of State. The Bonapartist one that won, and a moderate that lost to him in the primary. And the Governor's race would have been between Gordon and Bien, for what that's worth. I think Gordon would still have won that, but there's no denying that race made more sense than the one against a Democratic whose name we've already forgotten.
And more than that, there's utterly no reason that all of the issues conceived as "conservative" or "right wing" or progressive or "left wing" should be linked. And I think in this race, the voters started to decouple them to the disadvantage of the Republicans who have really linked them in a hardcore fashion.
If you listen to the GOP, if you oppose abortion you also have to support the death penalty, be a climate change denier, and believe that Donald Trump took every single vote cast in 2019.
That's absurd.
Indeed, I'll be there were a lot of conservative, Catholic, women who went to the polls and voted for the Democrats even if they were registered Republicans as they were worried about democracy, the environmental health of the country their children will live in, and want something done about firearms. They probably also opposed abortion, but weighting it all out, they thought the Democrats a better bet.
The messages, and there are two, are pretty clear.
The big message is that the two party system needs to be deinstitutionalized. That would be the end of "voting the straight ticket" as there'd be no straight ticket. People would have to run on their own merits and the ability of the parties to shovel out, well this;
would be greatly reduced.
Indeed, it might mean that candidates actually had to engage their brains a bit when they endorsed platitudes and explain them, and that voters might actually have to pay attention to what was actually proposed.
Indeed, on that score, there are probably quite a few Wyomingites that will be surprised to learn what they voted for, when they perfunctorily voted for Republican legislators, this upcoming winter.
As doing that, although it seems to be slowly taking hold, will take some time, the next best thing would be for people to reassess their loyalties to either of the two primary parties. Probably a lot of Republicans in the middle, and the two or three Democrats left in the middle, and lots of independents, really belong in the American Solidarity Party. Should the GOP not sink under the waves with Donald Trump, as it increasingly looks likely to do, the MAGA folks would really be better off in something like the Constitution Party, rather than the Grand Old Party, and so on.
In the near term, however, the Republicans need to wrest the ship's wheel away from Captain Donald "iceberg? I'm not hitting any iceberg" Trump.
In doing that, the GOP is going to have to come to the realization that embracing a big lie is killing it, and that embracing some of the extreme positions those who embrace the big lie do is driving people away.
Finally, while I've seen some real anger in some quarters on how voters didn't turn out, in some places, to vote Republican and therefore pro abortion issues advanced, consider this.
The entire legal position in opposition to abortion has been limited to Roe v. Wade since 1973. I.e., that it was wrongly decided. Society wide, the anti-abortion forces have done a terrific job of attacking abortion, and it has declined in the US from post Roe highs. But that doesn't equate with a complete ending of support for it entirely, and the fact that the basic legal point was, and always has been, that voters in the states should decide ironically somewhat weakens the argument on a state level. I.e., having said for 40 years that they should decide, they're getting to decide.
There was always another position, which was that a right to life existed on an existential and natural law level. But that argument was never made as a legal one, as the fear was that it was too scary of a proposition for many jurists. So now the second part of this work begins, that being that anti-abortion forces, who have been hugely successful in changing minds, need to keep at it.
But the efforts of the hard right in the GOP, which would link every hard right program with abortion, don't help that.
So, there's no cause for despair. The failure of the anti-abortion forces, in the few places they failed, doesn't mean a society wide rejection of their views. It means that for a lot of voters, when they go to the polls, they are thinking of a lot of other things, and on this issue, they may not even have thought that much. If the last person they heard talk about it was also talking about how Donald Trump should be President for Life and the danger of Jewish Space Lasers, and just viewed it as one of the list of items on some sort of political grocery list, well. . . .
When this war started, I never thought, several months later, we'd be seriously looking at a situation in which Ukrainian forces stood a chance of completely driving the Russian military out of territory that Russia has been occupying since 2014.
Nor, frankly, had anyone else.
But it's begging to look as if they might. Indeed, it's more likely than not.
This is an example of Western military training, Ukrainian resolve, and the fact that the Russian army sucks, and always has, exercising its influence. Ukraine, it appears, is about to triumph in its second offensive in less than a month, and this one stands to expel the Russians from Ukraine,
Which means that a desperate Putin, who has painted himself into a corner, may be about to use tactical nuclear weapons.
Not until this past week would I have made that statement. But I am now. The man is unhinged from reality, and has left himself no choice, other than to act in a decent moral fashion or a manifestly evil one. But as observers of history and politics well know, at some point some people have so sold their souls such that the truth and morality no longer have any meaning.
Putin may have sold his soul long ago that reality no longer matters to him.
It won't work, but we're about to enter, maybe, the most slippery slope we have since . . . well ever. More slippery than the Cuban Missile Crisis, and certainly slipperier than Able Archer.
When, um I mean if, Putin orders the use of tactical nuclear weapons, NATO will reply in force, by destroying Russian ground assets in Ukraine and naval assets in the Black Sea, which may then mean that the current war expands, possibly, into a general European war. And if this war has proven anything, it's that the Russian military is so incredibly bad it won't be able to do anything whatsoever about it.
Of course, I suppose, it could retaliate with nuclear weapons, which I don't think it will, but which is a possibility of course.
At any rate, at this point, Russia appears to be very badly losing the war against Ukraine on territory that voted to leave Russia in 1991 but which Putin's Russia has been seeking to reclaim, and partially had. Now, Putin's miscalculated war, whose calculations were based on the Russian army amounting to something as it last had . . . well never, seems to be going completely amiss. Putin has left, however, his country very little choice. He can't negotiate because he's declared the territory to be part of Mother Russia, and he can't win, as the Russian army is as bad as it has ever been. The only thing he has left, as noted, are nuclear weapons.
Remarkably, Western military analysts do not seem particularly scared even while acknowledging the possibility, which should give us some comfort. Having long pondered a low yield nuclear war, they seem comfortable with one occurring, with only one side using them.
Let's hope it doesn't occur, and that God may help us all.
Господи, помоги нам всем.
Слава Україні!
Oct 4, cont:
Perhaps coincidentally, reports this morning report the movement of weapons from a nuclear missile unit, although at least in a Western army, such weapons would not be tactical nuclear weapons. And Russian ballistic missile was deployed in the Arctic. If these reports are correct, they are likely meant as warnings to the west, which won't and shouldn't be heeded.
Elon Musk, who proposed a peace plan on Twitter, received an enormous backlash, including from Ukrainian officials. He called Crimea part of Russia since the 1780s, and uniting it "Khrushchev's mistake". His plan also called for a UN administered vote on succession of those areas recently claimed to be annexed by Russia.
It was in fact conquered by the Russian Empire in 1783, but it had a distinct ethnic nature at the time. It was its own political subdivision inside the Soviet Union, although many Crimean Tartars were deported by the USSR after World War Two. It voted to leave Russia and join Ukraine in 1991 and had the status of a political subdivision until invaded and occupied by the Russians in 2014.
Musk has been taking a lot of flak on Twitter recently. This comes just after a spat with economist Robert Reich.
Oct 4, cont:
Washington Post headline from today:
Ukraine hammers Russian forces into retreat on east and south fronts
October 5, 2022
Putin signed the annexation order on the partially occupied territories yesterday.
October 5, 2022 cont.
The Ukrainians have broken through at Svatove in Luhansk. Basically, the Russians are coming unglued.
October 8, 2022
A giant truck explosion has damaged the Crimea Bridge, the only land route over the Black Sea to Crimea.
October 9, 2022
Sergei Surovikin, who previously led Russian forces in Syria, has been placed in command of the effort in Ukraine. He'd also previously led the Russian effort in southern Ukraine. Recently, he's been in command of Russia's air and space assets.
October 10, 2022
Russia's reply to the truck bombing of the Crimea Bridge has been a missile offensive on Ukrainian targets, many of which are simply civilian targets.
Russia has effectively reverted to the practices of the Second World War in regard to target acquisition. I've noted it before here, but I regard the targeting of civilian targets from the air, by anybody, during World War Two to have been criminal in nature. Collateral damage, unfortunately, is another matter.
There's no excuse whatsoever for it now.
The truck bombing remains of unclear origin. Nobody has said anything to this effect, but it appears to likely have been a suicide bombing, which is generally out of character for the Ukrainian war effort. Some Russian sources feel that it included Russian dissident elements in its organization, and it may have. It may very well have been an independent or semi-independent act.
October 11, 2022
Iran
Widespread protests in Iran have extended to the nation's refineries.
Russo Ukrainian War
A second day of Russian missile attacks is ongoing in Ukraine, as the Russians do the only thing they seem capable of, lashing out at Ukraine in general.
Russian cyberterrorists launched a cyberattack on U.S. airports yesterday.
October 13, 2022
Uniting two pariah states in one war, Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel are training Russian troops on the use of Ukrainian drones, inside of territory occupied by the Russians in Ukraine.
All the while, protests are spreading in Iran against its government over its treatment of women, effectively, and the loss of life of women at the hands of Iranian authorities.
October 15, 2022
Russia has suspended additional recalls/levies, having brought 220,000 men into service. 260,000 Russian men have fled the country. It appears that conscription/recall was one more thing the Russian government was unable to effectively manage.
October 15, cont.
Two volunteer Russian soldiers, from a former part of the Soviet Union, opened up on their fellow trainees today in Russia, killing eleven of them.
Which gives credence to my theory that the Crimea bridge bombing fits into the long history of auxiliary regional warfare. I.e, I think that will turn out to be the work of Georgians, or Armenians, or Azerbaijan's, rather than Ukrainians.
All of which means Russia is starting to encounter the fruits of its prior repressions in the current attempt to annex and subjugate Ukraine.
October 16, 2022
Ukrainian orchestra conductor Yuri Kerpatenko, Керпатенко Юрій Леонідович, was murdered by Russian soldiers for refusing to perform in an orchestra performance hosted by the Russian in Kherson Oblast.
The Russians are well on their way to making themselves the Nazis of the early 21st Century. And I do mean the Russians, not Putin. Just as the crime of Nazi Germany have tainted the Germans ever since, so will the crimes of the Putinist taint Russia, lest it do something to stop them from carrying on.
October 18, 2022
Russia has hit Kyiv with numerous suicide drones, part of an overall missile and drone attack on Ukrainian population centers.
More and more Russia of 2022 actions like Germany of 1939-1945.
Ethnic tensions among Russian recruits resulted in Tajik soldiers killing Russian compatriots in Belogorod. Their commander had insulted Islam and claimed the invasion of Ukraine a holy war.
This is interesting in that Russia has rapidly reached a state of demoralization within its Army which has surpassed that experienced by the United States during the Vietnam War and which should be a sign that its army may simply come apart.
October 19, 2022
Iran
A Persian edition of the British newspaper The Telegraph ran an article on how to use handguns. It must be noted that given the UK's position on firearms, that's rather ironic.
Protests are spreading and children are now included in them. Factions appear to be developing in the government.
Russo Ukrainian War
It has been confirmed that Iranian Revolutionary Guards are in Crimea as training cadre on Iranian drones, as their own country edges towards a revolution which would leave them as permanent guests of Putin's regime.
The last two days, the Russians have been targeting Ukrainian infrastructure with missile and drone strikes.
The Russians are evacuating Kherson.
October 21, 2022
Conor Kennedy, the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, is apparently just back from the war after having served in the Ukrainian Legion.
By his own account, his time in the war was fairly short, although he reports that he liked being a soldier.
The Russians are withdrawing from Kherson. It is believed that they may attempt to blow up a substantial dam in the region in order to cover their withdrawal.
October 22, 2022
Russia is trying to evacuate civilians from Kherson while also pouring in conscripts, fodder for the cannons.
October 24, 2022
From The Pilar interview with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I:
The Russian-Ukraine War is a conflict largely between Eastern Orthodox Christians. How do you feel about this as the spiritual leader of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians?
The ongoing war waged by Russia into the sovereign territory of Ukraine has weighed heavily on our mind and heart in recent months. It is true that it has been characterized as Orthodox fratricide, although the consequences have reached many more people, including Ukrainian Catholics as well as other Christian and religious believers, and the repercussions have surely been felt throughout the world.
What is still more painful to us is the fact that the Patriarchate of Moscow has stooped to the level of submitting to political ambitions of the Russian Federation, even endorsing and seemingly blessing this cruel invasion and unjustifiable bloodshed. We have repeatedly condemned the aggression and violence, just as we have fervently and fraternally appealed to the Patriarch of Moscow that he separate himself from political crimes, even if it means stepping down from his throne.
October 25, 2022
Myanmar
The government launched an airstrike on a celebration by the Kachin Independence Organization in the northern state of Kachin, killing at least 80 individuals.
The air force is equipped principally with Russian and Chinese aircraft.
Russo Ukrainian War
Russian diplomats have been yapping about Ukraine preparing to use a "dirty bomb", which it isn't. The fact that they're doing this, however, is raising a lot of speculation about the purpose of this Kremlin story. Something is going on.
It's now clear the recent annexation of Ukrainian territory by Russia has caused a split in the Kremlin, with some Russian figures reaching out to the west to try to start negotiations.
October 25, cont.
The US has been hitting Al Shabaab targets in Somalia, including one earlier this week. The one earlier this week was in support of Somali National Army forces.
October 30, 2022
Expanding the drone war, Ukrainian naval drones hit a Russian cruiser yesterday. Russia called off the grain deal in retaliation.
The drone attack was by a group of drones, showing how naval war is rapidly evolving. Effectively, such vessels take the place of PT boats, when PT boats were still viable.
General Alexander Lapin has been relieved of his command of the central area Russian forces in Ukraine.
At least where I live, the World Series, being run on Fox, is featuring a television commercial opposing US aid to Ukraine in the current war.
November 2, 2022
Russo Ukrainian War
The Wagner Group is attempting to recruit fromer Afghan National Army refugee commandos who have taken refuge in Afghanistan. They are resistant to recruitmant, but fear being deported to Afghanistan.
According to the NYT, Soviet commanders recently discussed the topic of the use of nuclear weapons. This without Putin.
This is probably not cause for undue alarm, but it is cause for alarm. Americans might wish to recall that this occured in our military in the 50s and 60s, and it was politicians that percluded their use by frustrated commanders.
North Korea
North Korea, the diapered baby of nations, fired 23 missles into the sea this week.
It's hard to know why this isolated Stalinist theme park does these things, other than to get attention. Whatever it is, it doesn't work. Indeed, the Communist Clown State risks somebody taking it seriously at which point its ongoing existance, or at least that of its leadership, stands to become iffy.
November 3, 2022
Uniting both of the topics above, North Korea is supplying artillery shells to Russia.
Yesterday it launched an ICBM over Japan.
November 8, 2022
Ukranian President Zelensky expressed an openess to peace talks with Russia, on Ukrainian terms, those being:
One more time: restoration of territorial integrity, respect for the U.N. charter, compensation for all material losses caused by the war, punishment for every war criminal and guarantees that this does not happen again
This is not insignificant, although its likely to be dismissed as being so. At least the condition of war crimes trials is likely to be bargained away. This may be an actual bid to open talks, done with Western backing.
Where it would lead is another matter. Maybe Ukrainian territorial integrity, but combined with a promise not to join NATO.
November 9, 2022
While there are fears it may be a ruse, the Russians appear to be withdrawing from Kherson in advance of a Ukrainian offensive.
Do so is wise in light of their inability to defend it, but also telling. Kherson was taken early in the current war and Ukraine will soon advance back to the Dneipr.
November 10, 2022
The United States estimates that both Russia and Ukraine has sustained over 100,000 casualties in the current war.
Note, that's casualties, not deaths.
November 11, 2022
The Ukrainians are in Kherson and will very soon have retaken the complete left bank fo the Dnipr. This is an epic Russian defeat, and the Ukrainians will be in striking distance of Crimea.
I didn't plan on doing a second one of these before the election, but the existing one got too big, so here we are. . . again.
Hopefully this is the last one in this tread, in a fairly sad election year.
The primary election really demonstrated Wyoming's lurch to the hard right with two of the state wide candidates receiving Trump endorsements, along with Harriet Hageman's whose only real issue was her loyalty to Donald Trump. This upcoming legislative session promises, quite frankly, to be absolutely frightening and in the Congress Wyoming goes from having a respected, but not disliked in GOP circles, figure to one who will be, at least at first, a reliable GOP nullity. In the Secretary of State office, which is the central business office for the state, a person who, back door, is widely disrespected in many circles goes into the fall completely unopposed.
And that points out the collapse of the Democratic Party in the state. There are some notable Democrats who should be capable, in a sane situation, of easily beating a candidate like Chuck Gray, but they aren't running.
The races:
U.S. House of Representatives
Republican Party
Harriet Hageman. Anointed by Donald Trump to take out Liz Cheney, and a late adopter of the stolen election theory, Wyoming lawyer Hageman is the favorite, albeit one who is seemingly now fairly quiet.
On that, Hageman won't even debate her Democratic challenger, which is both arrogant and rude.
Democratic Party.
Lynette Gray Bull. Running a second time, the Native American candidate can be regarded as a "progressive" who is emphasizing her commitment to democracy, in opposition to Hageman's adoption of the stolen election story. Gray Bull has challenged Hageman to a debate, but Hageman has rudely declined, as noted above.
Governor
Republican
Mark Gordon.
Democrat
Theresa Livingston.
Secretary of State
Republican
Chuck Gray. Gray has only been in the state for a decade and is widely held in many circles to be temperamentally and professionally unqualified for this position.
Gray, who wasn't universally popular in the legislature, focused on bogus election concerns in his campaign. He'll take over from an even more unqualified interim Secretary of State who assumed this position when Ed Buchanan resigned to take a judicial appointment.
Democrat
None, the Democrats have defaulted in a race in which many feel the worst Republican candidate in the State's history won the GOP race, nearly assuring that the same individual will take that position.
State Treasurer
Republican
Curt Meier won the GOP nomination for a second term.
Democrat
None.
State Auditor
Kristi Racines took this race in the Republican primary, and she seems to be the only candidate in the state that everyone likes.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
This is the only race for statewide office which actually features two qualified candidates.
Republican
Megan Delgenfelder.
Democrat
Sergio Maldonado.
Proposed Amendments to the Wyoming Constitution.
This year features two proposed amendments to the Wyoming constitution. I'm not sure where the first one came from, but the second one is part of the general geriatric drift in the country, in which the generation that warned us to never trust anyone over 30 doesn't trust anyone under 60.
Proposed Amendment A
This proposed amendment's ballot summary states:
The Wyoming Constitution allows the state to invest state funds in equities such as the stock of corporations, but does not allow the funds of counties, cities and other political subdivisions to be invested in equities. The adoption of this amendment would allow the funds of counties, cities and other political subdivisions to be invested in equities to the extent and in the manner the legislature may allow by law. Any law authorizing the investment of specified political subdivision funds in equities would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature
The actual text of the revised statute would read as follows:
Article 16, Section 6. Loan of credit; donations prohibited; investment of funds; works of internal improvement.
(a) Neither the state nor any county, city, township, town, school district, or any other political subdivision, shall:
(i) Loan or give its credit or make donations to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation, except for necessary support of the poor; or
(ii) Subscribe to or become the owner of the capital stock of any association or corporation, except that:
(A) Funds of public employee retirement systems and the permanent funds of the state of Wyoming may be invested in such stock under conditions the legislature prescribes;
(B) The legislature may provide by law for the investment of funds not designated as permanent funds of the state in the capital stock of any association or corporation and may designate which of these funds may be invested. The legislature may prescribe different investment conditions for each fund. Any legislation establishing or increasing the percentage of any fund that may be invested under this subparagraph shall be passed only by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of all the members of each of the two (2) houses voting separately.
(C) The legislature may provide by law for the investment of county, city, township, town, school district, or any other political subdivision's funds in the capital stock of any association or corporation and may designate which of these funds may be invested. The legislature may prescribe different investment conditions for each type and class of political subdivision and for each type of fund. Any legislation establishing or increasing the percentage of any fund that may be invested under this subparagraph shall be passed only by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of all the members of each of the two (2) houses voting separately.
(b) The state shall not engage in any work of internal improvement unless authorized by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the people.
I'm not really sure where this comes from, and I don't know what my opinion of it is. The theory, I guess, would be that the legislature could provide for a means for local governments to invest their funds in hopes of getting higher yields than they do from banks, which would also mean that they'd have to be able to tolerate downturns in the market.
Proposed Amendment B.
The amendment summary that will appear on the ballot states:
Currently, the Wyoming Constitution requires Wyoming Supreme Court justices and district court judges to retire upon reaching the age of seventy (70). This amendment increases the mandatory retirement age of Supreme Court justices and district court judges from age seventy (70) to age seventy-five (75).
The actual text of the amendment provides:
Article 5, Section 5. Voluntary retirement and compensation of justices and judges.
The sales pitch on this is that many highly qualified jurists are forcibly put out to pasture to do something else in their lives rather than remain on the bench until they're taken out in a body bag.
Okay, that's not quite how it's put, but that's basically it. Added to that, if they die before the state has to pay them any retirement, the state saves some cash.
October 13, 2022
Wyoming's interim Secretary of State Karl Allred made good on his promise to address a non issue by sending letters out to County Clerk's asking them to remove drop boxes. Only seven counties use them.
Prior Secretary of State Ed Buchanan, who abandoned the post he was elected to in order to be appointed a district court judge, thereby effectively disrupting the election leading to the GOP nomination and probable election of Chuck Gray, had encouraged their use due to COVID during the last election. Gray has promised to ban them.
Probably most people don't realize that drop boxes probably include the election machine outside of the clerk's door. I've only seen one dropbox that was located outside of a courthouse rather than in it, but I haven't been to all of these locations. Clerks are free to tell the unqualified to tell Allred to pound sand, and the Clerk of Laramie County, in her interview with the paper there, basically did, noting that her office already complied with the security requests that the never successfully elected Allred suggested in his cheery letter which acknowledged that prior elections had been successfully conducted.
Flag of Laramie County, Wyoming. By Jens Pattke - http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-wy-la.html, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58499517
While time will tell, this probably foreshadows an upcoming potentially hostile relationship between Clerks and Gray, if Gray tries to build on his "stolen election" campaign to tell the elected clerks what they can do.
Tulsi Gabbard, who left the GOP officially two days ago, has already endorsed a Trump backed Washington candidate.
According to the Tribune, a council for Casper's city council had to be shut down from speaking at a recent school board meeting when he got a bit out of control.
October 13, cont.
Governor Ron DeSantis relaxed voting rules for the areas of Florida recently impacted by a hurricane.
It should be noted that the GOP Governor has been riffing off of Trump populists, who also feel that just such actions in regard to the 2020 election resulted in it being stolen.
Hmmm. . . .
October 14, 2022
A debate of candidates for the U.S. House, save for Harriet Hageman, occurred last night.
Hageman was castigated by the other candidates for her failure to appear, which is either rude, arrogant, or cowardly. At least one candidate called her actions cowardly.
Hageman needs to be heard from on her failure to debate, and not with the excuse that she has other more effective means of communicating with Wyomingites. So far, more or less, her campaign has been limited to the fact that she supports now subpoenaed Donald J. Trump no matter what, whereas Liz Cheney has the courage of her convictions. Other than having united herself to Trump no matter what, there's nothing really known to distinguish her from Cheney, but the voters really haven't heard much from her otherwise in a widespread way. Public forum's she's attended to date have been principally populated with Hageman Fans/Cheney Haters, so that does not suffice.
October 14, 2022
Long serving (37 years) Deputy Secretary of State Karen Wheeler is leaving the office. She's the second prominent member of the Secretary of State's Office to leave, with the first one expressly leaving due to Chuck Gray coming into the office.
There have been rumor that resignations would be widespread. It would have been anticipated that this would have commenced after Chuck Gray assumed office in January, if it was going to, but with Interim Sectary Allred being of a similar mind to Gray, it may start sooner. If it does it will create the very election crisis that Gray and Allred claimed to be dedicated to avoiding, but because of their attacks on an institution which was not in trouble.
October 15, 2022
None of the clerks replying to Allred's request have agreed to comply with it, thereby making him 100% ineffective in that effort. Of course, the effort was pointless to begin with, but it foreshadows a likely showdown between the county clerks and incoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who has no more authority over them than Allred does.
This is not a minor manner. The clerks are rightfully telling Allred, and Gray by extension, to butt out. This is likely to visit the courts in some fashion.
October 20, 2022
The Deputy Secretary of State Karen Wheeler and Election Division Director Kai Schon announced in front of the Corporations Committee of the Legislature last Friday that they're resigning after the November election. While they termed it as being a good time to pursue other opportunities, it's pretty clear that neither wishes to serve under the likely winner, Chuck Gray, who based his campaign on fictional election security concerns. It's no wonder that either would wish to serve under Gray, although it remains a wonder that Gray won the primary. A lack of a primary opponent means that Gray almost certainly will tragically win the office.
Both individuals are graciously remaining through the general election, and Schon indicated he'll reach out to the "Secretary Elect".
October 23, 2022
Liz Cheney appeared as a guest on Meet The Press today. Relevant to the current election, she indicated that she's not voting for Harriet Hageman or Chuck Gray, and that anyone who is concerned about democracy, cannot.
Mary Peltola, Democratic Congressman from Alaska, received a number of Republican endorsements in that state for much the same reason.
October 25, 2022
The Natrona County School Board election is getting more attention than it normally would.
Superintendent for Public Instruction candidate Delgenfelder appeared at last night's meeting to support the district's right to make the decision to leave the book Gender Queer on the shelves, but to oppose the book itself, thereby basically taking both sides of the issue regarding the book. She suggested that it is pornographic. The book has drawn the ire of three candidates who are members of something called "Moms For Liberty".
I'd never heard of the group, but the name is a poor one and a bit ironic in some ways. Basically they're a conservative, nationwide, organization that emphasizes parental control of schools and fears that schools engage in liberal indoctrination. I'm not going to comment on that one way or another, but the "liberty" aspect of that shows the odd misuse of that word in our current culture.
The political right accuses, in essence, the political left of being "libertine", a word that I'd wager the majority of Americans are ignorant of nowadays.
The online etymology dictionary defines liberty as follows:
How much does the current use of the term, by anyone, reflect that?
That Delgenfelder would appear at the meeting is odd, frankly, as the political advantage of a Republican candidate appearing in this venue, when she seemingly doesn't need to, is an odd strategic choice.
October 26, 2022
Superintendant of Education Brian Schroeder appeared at an event earlier this week on the topic of sexualization of children in school, a topic related to the one noted immediately above.
Steve Bannon predicted that Anthony Fauci will be "hunted" following the mid terms, a particularly distrubing comment by Bannon who is out of the pokey following his contempt conviction pending appeal.
October 30, 2022
Harriet Hageman has an op ed in the Trib today in which she claims that 1) inflation, 2) high illegal immigration, 3) "record breaking human trafficing", 4) "record breaking drug running" and 5) high food costs (which would seem to be included in inflation), are all part of a "Democratic plan" to bring about a "leftist Utopia".
This places Hageman squarely in the really extreme category, rhetoric wise, and its fair to assume at this point that she probably believes what she's saying.
Hageman lashed out two days ago at University of Wyoming professors studying her tweats for "toxicity", stating:
I’ll tell you what’s ‘toxic’ . . . trying to freeze free speech with ominous warnings that ‘we’re watching you’ from pointy-headed college professors and the leftist corporate media.
Speaking of toxic, Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul was attacked by an unhinged lunatic this past week. This has of course resulted in discussion on whether the atmosphere created by the late Trump administration and Trumpism since then has contributed to this event, as the actor had bought into all sorts of conspiracies.
Well, let's take a look at just what's noted here. From the Trib:
In the Biden administration, we are seeing the most dangerous, most destructive administration in U.S. history. President Biden and the radical Democrats are responsible for record-breaking inflation, record-breaking illegal immigration, record-breaking human trafficking, record-breaking drug running, and record-breaking energy and food costs.
It would be one thing if these calamities were happening by accident, though it would still be tragic, but what we are enduring is actually the Democrats’ plan. Their goal is to completely upend our economy, to force people to bend to their will and compel behavioral changes to establish their leftist Utopia. We need members of Congress who will expose these nonsensical policies and fight to return us to a commonsense path that will lead us back to liberty and prosperity.
There you have it, from Wyoming's almost certain next Congressman. President Biden's administration is the most dangerous and destructive in the nation's history, out to create a left wing Utopia through all sorts of intentional bad acts.
No responsibility for rhetoric?
November 7, 2022
Cheyenne Representative Dale Zwonitzer blasted the direction the state's legislture has been heading in an interview with the Laramie Boomerang., accusing newer idealogues of being unable to read or even think.
I've heard similiar comments from legislators privately or ones who stepped down, but Zwonitzer was extremely blunt for a candidate who is not only an incumbant, but running for reelection.
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