Showing posts with label Abortion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abortion. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Sunday Morning Scene. Back to the Coliseum.
I've been expecting it all along. It just came in a surprising fashion.
Deep hatred of Catholics is the last acceptable form of outright bigotry in the United States, although there's been a general rise of bigotry and racism during the illegitimate Trump interregnum. Trump's a populist, and populist tends to boost ignorance, with bigotry feeding on that. Most of the major populist movements a person can recall, the Nazis, the Communists, the Know Nothings, featured a lot of really ignorant people who were willing to be lead around by a others, sometimes a charismatic, to them, other.1 MAGA is a populist movement, masquerading as a conservative one, as Nazism was a populist movement that claimed conservatives within it. It's not too surprising, therefore, that we're seeing more of this sort of thing than we have at any point since the 1960s.
Quite a few of the more ignorant members of MAGA claim they support Trump as he's Godly, which is patently absurd, but there's no denying that far right wing Evangelicalism is a major component of MAGA. The Press, which isn't very well educated on religion anymore, just keeps calling them "Christians", which is really misleading. Some, but not all, far right Evangelicals supporting Trump hold religious beliefs that are very recent and very novel and well outside the mainstream of Apostolic Christianity and also out of the mainstream of most Protestant beliefs. Almost all MAGA Evangelicals fit into the ignorant of theology and Church history camp that's strong in the United States of being "Bible Believing Christians" who are pretty ignorant of a rule on the history of the books of the Bible.
Around the periphery of MAGA, however, there's been some Apostolic Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, who have been, if not fully in the Trump camp, at least allowed to pitch a tent on its edges. Some of this is just flat out opportunistic on their part, and it looked like it would have a major impact on the Trump administration due to Trump's flat out ignorance and laziness. Inside the administration you have the example of J. D. Vance and Marco Rubio, and outside of it you have people like Kevin Roberts. You even have Peter Thiel, who claims not to be a Catholic but who keeps popping up in certain Catholic circles, as does Jordan Peterson and the Orthodox pundit Rod Dreher.2 National Conservatism has a strong right wing Catholic element to it, which is interesting in that it's sort of the intellectual heir of Fr. Charles Coughlin whose movement was shut down and who remains not widely admired in mainstream Catholic circles.
Most CAtholics that have supported Trump, however, have done so for one of two other reasons. The thinking ones have done so as it seemed like he was probably the only candidate who would address long held Catholic concerns, like abortion. People know that Trump himself was a louse, but they were willing to "hold their nose and vote". Others were Protestantized Catholics, of which there are a lot in the United States in the Boomer and Gen. Jones generations. These people are victims of the bad Catechization of the 1970s and as the US is a Protestant country, they've picked up a lot of Protestant beliefs.
Throughout Trump's second claim to power I've worried that the "Christian", i.e., far right Evangelical support of Trump would result in two things for Catholics. The first, which we will not address here, is that the association of "Christian" with Trump would result in Christianity taking a major hit. Evangelicalism definitely will. The second is that getting on the bus with Evangelicals would result in them beating us up as soon as we weren't of use to them.
And that's starting to happen.
The reason it started is because Pete Hegseth, who is festooned with Crusader themed tattoos announced that the U.S. Army is going to livestream the execution of former US Army Major Nidal Hasan who killed thirteen unarmed U.S. soldiers in 2009. 3 4
The Catholic Church is opposed to killing people. It's opposed to killing people in pretty absolutist terms and always has been, claims of Catholic haters aside. It's always been opposed to infanticide, including abortion. Early on in Church history there were serious debates if Christians, which were all Catholic, were required to be pacifists, and there are some saints who were. St. Martin of Tours, who had been a Roman soldier, famously told his commander "I am a soldier of Christ; it is not lawful for me to fight." Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer, went to his death in Nazi Germany rather than fight for the Nazi state. Ben Salmon, an American Catholic layman who has not been beatified went to prison as a conscientious objector during World War One as he held the view that all war was immoral. 5 And starting with Pope John Paul II, the Church has opposed the death penalty.
Catholic Bishops immediately responded to Hegseth's live stream the killing announcement by condemning it. Quiet a few individual priests with a net presence did as well. And then almost immediately after that Pope Leo XIV did, stating:
This caused an immediate reaction by some Evangelical Christians on the far right, and it did from a few very far right Catholics who are probably in the Rad Trad camp. Predictably, a notable number of the Evangelicals threw of pretending they approved of Catholics in any fashion. Laughable comments that the Pope doesn't know theology were out there, but more radical ones by the Invincibly Ignorant immediately arose as well.
Los of hte comments immediately cited the Old Testament, which is a bit ironic as frankly the CAtholic Church uses the Old Testament much more than any Protestant group does. There's a number of quotes from the Old Testament that address the death penalty, for example:
Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.
Genesis 9:6
Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death.
Exodus 21:12
So there you go. . .but wait:
Anyone who attacks their father or mother is to be put to death.
Exodus 21:15 & 21:17
Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.
Exodus 21:15 & 21:17
Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession.
Exodus 21:16
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death."
Leviticus 20:10 (Adultery)
If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Leviticus 20:13
Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them."
Leviticus 24:16
Okay then, if we apply to the Old Testament, we need to be killing anyone cursing their parents, kidnappers, adulterers and adulteresses, homosexuals and blasphemeres.
Indeed, if this was fully applied, Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Paula White, and Scott Bessant wouldn't be in Washington D.C. as they're either adulturers or, in Bessant's case, a homosexual. Shoot, probably about 1/3d of the congregation of Protestant congregation would have to be offed, based on my observation that they don't take divorce or pre marital sex as a sin.
Well, what the heck? Why aren't we imposing the death penalty with sweeping abandon?
Well, that's because the Apostolic Churches and the Mainline Protestant Churches hold the view that Christ fulfilled the law and the Mosaic law does not apply to Christians. There are a pile of laws in the Mosaic Law that nobody seeks to apply to Christians due to the Catholic Church having alway taken this view. That's why Christians can eat shellfish and pork. Protestants who are running around declaring that the death penalty is Biblically mandated are apparently ignorant of the Bible and is laws, or they'd be killing adulterers, blasphemers, parent disrespecters, homosexuals and not eating shrimp.
Indeed, this was the case from day one. One of the very first debates in the Church was whether converts had to be circumcised. Nope, no longer applied. The dietary laws no longer did either.
It's also odd to see how all of these people aren't citing the New Testament. While the law was fulfilled by Christ, Christ did set down some pretty strict behavioral requirements. We are, for example supposed to love our enemies. That's a tough one.
Some have tried to drag out Church history, of which they're largely ignorant. "Well, the Church has always killed people. . ."
Nope. Indeed, from antiquity it's tried to stop it.
As Christ led you from death to life, so you should try to save not only the innocent, but also the guilty from death.
Pope St Nicholas the Great.
Now, I suppose you could argue that Pope St. Nicholas was talking about eternal life, but you sure are't going to save a guy by killing him.
And of course, there's the customary ignorant citation to the Black Legends were demonstrably untrue, but which lots of people still believe.
The Church as been against killing of all types right from the onset. But people, deep in their hearts, like killing. Lots of people make compromises with their Faith to justify their own acts and desires. Today, for example, is the anniversary of the murder of Hymie Weiss, the gangster who sanctioned hits, but who also carried a rosary in his pocket. As noted, plenty of very conservative Catholics have tried to say "well, I know that the Popes have said no death penalty, but it's still okay . . "6
It isn't.
And the real surprise to those not paying attention will be how prolife Catholics really are. Indeed, I've seen surprising statements in support of the Pope from completely secular sources.
And there's utterly no support for making this execution a public spectacle. We really are in the last days of the Roman Empire if we've reached that state. "War, inflation, . . . don't worry, look at my shiny baubles, come watch somebody die." Panem et circenses.
A danger of politics is that, for people who have a religion, even slightly, that it becomes easy to confuse your politics or your personal beliefs with your religion. The various flavors of the American Civil Religion are packed with that. Divorce is okay, and even extramarital sex, unless it's homosexual. . . Trump must be a Godly man as he's doing what I want him to, even if he's a liar and a serial polygamist.
There was always going to be a day when the Evangelical far right discovered that the Catholic Church is the Universal Church, it's everywhere, and that local politics are secondary to it. We're not right, not left, we're Catholic, the original Christians.
Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
But he will answer, "I don’t know you or where you come from."
Luke 13:22-30.
This warning applies to us as well. "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." Luke 12:48. We really can't ignore the barbarism of the Trump administration any more. We've invaded a foreign nation without cause, we're killing Iranians in an undeclared war, and we're murdering people on the high seas. The Nuremberg Defense or just ignoring it all doesn't work.
Well, we were always going to be hated. Frankly, as Catholics, when everything is going well for us, it's not going well.
Footnotes:
1. Hitler was reportedly very charismatic, although watching him from the outside, it's hard to see why. To his followers, Trump is charismatic, while to most other people he certainly is not.
2. I'm not claiming that Peterson is influential in the administration, but rather he's in the Catholic end of the National Conservatives even though he is not Catholic. His wife is. Dreher was Catholic at one time and converted to Orthodoxy, where he remains with one foot in the Catholic door and nearly, for that matter, in the back pews. Dreher is partially responsible for the intellectual atmosphere that made Trump possible even though he now outright holds Trump in contempt.
3. Hegseth is some sort of Evangelical on the far right. Actual Crusaders would have regarded him as a weird heretic.
4. The fact that the killings occurred in 2009 is a really good argument against the death penalty in and of itself as it takes so long and is so expensive that the punishment aspect of it is nearly lost by the time the sentence is carried out.
5. St. Augustine famously developed the Just War Theory, which people sort of naively regard as a Catholic free pass to war. It isn't. The theory has always been fairly restrictive and even though Catholics have waged and been in a lot of wars, a lot of wars don't fit the category of being "just".
Even when they are, finding a war that's justly waged is difficult. World War Two probably stands out as a war which, for the Allies, was just, but the Allies clearly took deeply immoral actions in it, the nighttime bombing raids of the RAF, and the USAF nuclear bombings, being the two primary examples for the Western Allies.
Recently Pope Leo has further clarified the doctrine and while I do not think that his statements actually develop it in any fashion, they caused shock waves and they probably should as Catholics really need to consider if they can morally serve in the U.S. military at this point.
6. No Pope has declared the death penalty invalid ex cathedra, so a slim ability to argue it's still okay exists. But it's very slim.
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Saturday, October 10, 1936. Things going on in Central Europe.
The Austrian clerico-fascist Heimwehr was dissolved and folded into the far right Vaterländische Front which was governing Austria.
The Italian government adopted Mussolini's recommendations for national defense, including increasing the work week from 40 to 60 hours.
The Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion was created in Nazi Germany.
It's odd that these two topics were combined.
Women were allowed to be employed in munitions factories in the UK for the first time since World War One.
Last edition:
Friday, October 9, 1936. Boulder generates electricity, foreign communists in Spain.
Friday, October 9, 2026
The Trump administration and blood lust.
One of the things about killing people is that people who kill people get used to killing people.
Sure, later on, their psyche may recoil from it. And even at the time, some, indeed a lot, of people will recoil from it. But societies that kill get used to killing.
American culture is used to killing infants. Our abortion laws are basically the most "liberal", where abortion is allowed, in the Western World.
Nazi Germany didn't start out murdering all the Jews. It started out murdering some of them, and then the numbers, and categories of victims grew. It was killing Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and disabled people. In the end, it went down in a sea of blood.
The Department of Defense, according to the Secretary of Defense, will broadcast an execution.
That's barbaric.
The death penalty, for that matter, is barbaric. But broadcasting it is horrific.
This should not be allowed to occur.
This administration started off claiming an abhorrence of war. Trump sincerely seemed bothered by death in war.
We seem to have gotten over all of that.
Friday, July 3, 2026
Court Watch Part VII. When the last law was down.
Lawyer, St. Thomas More, who was executed for his adherence to his faith.
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts
The Justice Department is going after James Comey for posting a photo of seashells arranged to spell "8647" on a beach somewhere, asserting it was a death threat on President Trump. Apparently this is due to the old use of the term "86" to do away with and "47" for Donald Trump's completely illegitimate but widely accepted illegal claim to be President.
It wasn't.
This prosecution will go nowhere whatsoever, but it is more evidence that everyone in the Trump Administration is essentially a fascist with no regard for reality or the rule of law right now. We are in monumentally dangerous territory. It's 1534 in the United States with Donald Trump our King Henry VIII.
And the spirt of the age has spread:
What Gray did was flat out illegal. Gray is relying, in essence, on the advice of the Attorney General and when that's a defense, the attorney client privilege is waived. The AG's office knows that, but it has to defend the privilege It's being pretty assertive about it.
Gray needs to suffer the penalty of the law here.
Nobody is more opposed to abortion than I am. I wouldn't allow for the largely bogus "rape and incest" exceptions that many people will. But this is really beyond the Pale. Powell should be ashamed of itself for even appoint this guy to its city council.
Elsewhere, in a nation where we brought a modern justice system, it's still functioning.
South Korean court extends prison sentence for wife of ousted president
May 5, 2026
Headline in the CST:
Judges reject Trump push to obtain state voter rolls
But of course our Secretary of State, Chuck "If you disagree with me you are a radical communist, fascist, monarchist, podiatrist" Gray just handed Wyoming's over.
May 16, 2026
Smith hasn't been confirmed as US Attorney for Wyoming yet.
May 21, 2026
It appears that Trump's settlement deal in his IRS suit may actually prove to be a bridge too far for Senate Republicans.
The deal, which frankly is the epitome of corruption, would create a slush fund to pay pardoned January 6 criminals for their inconvenience in being prosecuted as traitors to their country. That's what they are, and they should not have been pardoned, but Trump sought to go one step beyond that and reward the pack of Horst Wessels. Frankly, as soon as possible, the pardons should be unrung as illegitimate (Trump isn't a legitimate President and can't pardon anyone). Anyhow, Republicans are openly balking on the slush fund, amazingly. It must be really angering constituents, or just too much to stomach.
Indeed, they not only are balking, they sidetracked the ICE funding bill, showing that they're actually willing to do something that is guaranteed to send the Orange Mussolini into a screaming fit, but the fit will pit Trump's ICE demands up against his now open and obvious corruption and the hemorrhaging of the US budget. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, as once they break with Trump, their relationship with Trump is broken, and if he doesn't come to heel, they can't.
By way of an analogous example, Massie wouldn't come to heel on the Epstein files, but he was one man. Once it's a pack, it tends to grow.
So, a match is on.
May 29, 2026
A court ruled that Trump's adding his name to the Kennedy Center was illegal and ordered it removed within two weeks.
A different judge enjoined the IRS settlement slush fund from going forward.
June 2, 2026
Trump's insurrectionist slush fund seemed to be getting questioned by the court and now the Attorney General is saying it won't occur.
While Wyoming's Congressional delegation didn't protest it, a lot of Republicans in Congress were finding it to be a bridge too far.
June 3, 2026
Lawyers ask Wyoming Supreme Court to intervene in Gray voter data complaint
June 4, 2026
A Wyoming district court held that the whiney fascist crybabies leading the GOP have to follow state law and seat elected Republican precinct members, something another court did two years ago. The state central committee didn't want to do so as that keeps it from picking fascists.
It argues that its a private entity and doesn't have to follow state law. . . except of course when it comes to getting preferential places on ballots, having the state run party elections for it, and getting to pick members of certain offices when they become vacant. It's fine with all of that.
Satire aside, this would have been an opportunity for the Court to wipe all of that out, and it should have.
June 5, 2026
Wyoming GOP sues state, challenges constitutionality of ban on pre-primary candidate endorsements
All they really have to do is to quit having state funded primaries.
June 15, 2026
Last Friday retired Judge Campbell struck down a series of provisions regarding abortion. There was some chance that these would survive challenge, as they did not directly restrict abortion, such as there being a time delay after seeking one, an ultrasound, etc., but he ruled that the Wyoming Supreme Court's earlier decision meant that these were in the nature of health care and could not stand.
I disagree with him on that, but given the absurd Wyoming constitutional provision on health care I've addressed here before, and the S.Ct. decision, it's an understandable result. It'll go on to be challenged at the Wyoming Supreme Court level, probably.
I keep wondering if anyone has argued the true existential aspect of the questions. I don't know if that's been done or not.
On the nature of things, one of the local news outlets has had photos of a woman protesting holding a sign that says "Forced Birth = Violence".
Almost all abortions in the US are due to people who just had sex, and then sex resulted in what it results in. That's not forced birth, that's nature. The common "well what about ten year olds" and the like brings up a case scenario that's exceedingly rare. The reply to that would be to ask that person if they're opposed to all other abortions, which they are not.
Even at that, however, killing is killing. It would be just as logical to go out and determine every living American who came about due to rape or tike and shoot them dead now. Yes, rape and incest are horrible. Murder is probably the ultimate horrible, however.
Apparently the S.Ct asked, in its opinion, why those challenging abortion in Wyoming don't seek to amend the constitution. It was a constitutional amendment that got us here, so that makes sense. So far nobody's lifted a finger to do that. The likely reason is that they know that amending the provision to allow for making abortions illegal won't pass in the state. Instead, they feel their odds are better litigating about it, or complaining about it.
On other matters, the case challenging the primary system filed by Skovgaard is a pro se case, as I suspected, meaning it has about zero chance of actually succeeding.
June 18, 2026
Gordon sues Board of Equalization, asks court to enforce property tax cap
In other news, some members of the WFC are criticizing Wyoming courts as "activist", an absolutely absurd accusation, for not upholding the most recent abortion laws when the legislature itself is completely responsible for the constitutional amendment that causes those laws to do down in defeat.
The legislature could forward a repeal of that amendment, but it won't, as it's afraid that would go down in defeat. The whole thing is an example of playing a stupid game and winning a stupid prize.
June 19, 2026
Court sides with challenger to law banning drug users from possessing guns
What could go wrong?
On the topic mentioned above, we'll note that that you heard it here first, but now the drumbeat pointing out the hypocrisy is getting pretty loud:
Tom Lubnau: Sure, Pass Unconstitutional Bills And Blame 'Activist Judges'
Lubnau really throws the gauntlet down, stating:
The fix is simple. Pass a proposed constitutional amendment. I'll draft it for them: Article I, §38 is amended to add subsection (e): Abortion is not healthcare for purposes of this Article.
Come on Sanchez-Williams. Come on Bear. But your legislating where you claimed values are.
June 29, 2026
A good result:
Court prevents Trump from firing Fed governor
A 5 to 4 decision, with Thomas writing the dissent.
A bad result:
Court allows Trump to fire FTC commissioner and overturns major restraint on presidential power
A great result, but again 5 to 4:
Justices uphold state law allowing for late-arriving mail-in ballots
Trump's already bitching about this one, complaining that this provides why the SAVE Act needs to be passed.
And another good result:
Supreme Court will not consider $5 million verdict against Trump
Cont:
Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship
Yikes, that was the right result, but razor thin.
Cont:
And a bad one:
Justices strike down campaign finance law
Cont:
And a correct one:
Court rules that states can exclude transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports teams
July 3, 2025
A former Olympian has been falsely charged with vandalizing Donald Trump's Rhino Lined Algae pond as Trump is a baby and can't handle the truth.
These charges will fail, will result in a civil suit against the government which the government will ultimately settle for millions.
We've crossed the edge into the early stages of a fascist police state.
Gabriel Green has sued the State over residency requirements. A long time Wyoming resident, he recently resided in Arizona so the Secretary of State, properly in my view, found he did not meet the residency requirements.
The Secretary of State's office faces two other election related legal actions at the presen ttime.
With this, we'll close out this edition.
Last edition:
Ballroom Batshit. A demented president goes full bonkers. The 25th Amendment Watch List Fifteenth Edition and Court Watch Part VI.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
The 2026 Election, 10th Edition. The Setting the stage for a Pyrrhic Victory edition.
We start off this edition with what might be a little light at the end of a tunnel:
GOP Senate Challengers Emerge To Take On Harriet Hageman In Primary
I'll note that the LinkedIn article is the first really good article on Skovgard's views that I've seen. Personally, I'm favoring Mead.
And something to remember:
Hageman's Senate Run Reignites Criticisms Over Public Lands
And then there's this:
Wyoming Republican Party plans to buck law and endorse candidates ahead of critical primary
The GOP is really playing with fire here. It's correct that as a private organization the government shouldn't tell it who it can and cannot endorse. But then, the laws of the state shouldn't give a preferential position to a private organization, let alone a political party. As a "major party" it has a role in nominating replacement for some positions and has pride of place in primaries. When challenged in court, and it could be, this might be the first step towards an open primary in Wyoming. That is, one with no parties noted at all.
In other races, the amount of money being violently hurled by Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner at the House race is simply nuts. Weekly flyers now arrive, printed obviously by the same company, by both candidates, and television ads appear constantly. Frankly Rasner's television ads are a little better than Gray's, the latter of which basically amount to a swooning expression of love, albeit by a man who comes across as so angry its unhinged, and absolute fealty to Donald Trump. Rasner has, in my view, less than zero chance of winning the seat, but if he has any success at all it will be due to his media blitz. At any rate, both campaigns are largely self funded, which gives rise to the "well, it's their money" comment. None the less, the expenditure of this sort of money is obscene and is reason enough that neither man should win office . . . any office.
The Star Tribune ran an article about the Democratic candidate taking on Art Washut, one of the best members of the Wyoming legislature. Stewart McAdoo turns out to be a South Carolinian, so we'd put him in the carpetbagger category, and he's running on the predictable Democratic seas of blood support of infanticide.
April 30, 2026
Protect Wyoming ran an ad this morning in the Tribune against Bill Allemand.
Hunters and fishermen should really oppose Allemand, who following the corner crossing ruling of the Federal Court sponsored a Draconian bill on hunting trespassing. While he claims no present interest in it, he's from a well known Powder River Basin Wyoming ranching family, a region of the state that features very limited land access. He's fighting a charge for drunk driving in Johnson County presently.
He's being challenged by Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer, who got cross wise in a Bar Nunn town council meeting according to news reports. Allemand quixotically adamantly opposed a proposed nuclear generator project north of the small Natrona County Casper bedroom community. The WFC seemed to align with that opposition, showing it thinks so little that its only concept of the energy industry is grounded in fossil fuels.
Democrat Keenan Morgan is also running against Allemand. Morgan and Boyer are from Bar Nunn, Allemand from Midwest. The district covers a large amount of territory but uniquely features three small towns, Midwest, Edgerton and Bar Nunn, with Bar Nunn being by far the largest of the three. House District 58 also includes a sliver of Casper and the large unincorporated area north of Highway 20/26 in Natrona County.
It'll be interesting to see how Allemand, who has a semi uncontrollable temper, reacts Protect Wyoming's advertisement.
May 1, 2026
Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race for the Democratic Senate ticket. A popular Governor, she was being upstaged by Graham Platner for the bid to replace 72 year old Susan Collins. Mills is 77 years old, so the race shows the steadfast refusal of Boomers to know when the heck to get out and let the young have a place.
Platner is an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran who is a tender 41 years old, an age that would have been regarded as far from young in any era but the current one. As an oyster farmer from Maine this race is showing the interesting rise of some strong agrarian interests on the coasts, with Mary Peltola of Alaska, a Blue Dog Democrat, campaigning on the following:
It's Simple:
The fight for
Fish, Family, Freedom
depends on fixing the rigged system in DC
May 2, 2026
Teacher Brian Costello has announced his bid for House District 37, currently held by Steve Harshman who is running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Harshman is also a teacher. He will be running against far right wing gadfly Ross Schriftman and Democrat Betsy Erickson.
Schrifman is a Wyoming native.
Conicidentaly Protect Wyoming ran an add on Harshman in today's Tribune:
In House District 57 Luc Colgrove announced a bid for the seat occupied by Julie Jarvis and formerly occupied by Carpetbagger Jeanette Ward, who is trying to get the seat back.
May 3, 2026
About time:
Democrats are not OK with Boomers
Perhaps having learned their lesson with Joe Biden, the party’s voters are starting to reject older, establishment-bound candidates.
May 4, 2026
Democratic candidates announce legislative, county seat bids
All four Democratic state lawmakers will seek reelection. Democrats also have candidates for both commission seats, sheriff, county clerk and more.
Elsewhere I read an interview of Provenza. Like me, she's been in both major parties, and has been an independent.
May 5, 2026
Statewide candidates split on Wyoming GOP’s plans to defy state law and make endorsements
Some agree with the party’s decision and will seek out an endorsement. Others oppose a political party breaking election law.
This stands a pretty good chance of being the political equivalent of pulling the pin on a live grenade and then dropping it in your own foxhole. There's a really good argument there that could lead to the state Supreme Court simply wiping out party dependent primaries under Wyoming's law, and creating a judicially mandated open primary.
Indeed, I hope that happens.
Part of what's amusing here is that Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner, both of whom assert their undying love for Trump whenever possible, are on opposite sides of this issue with Rasner claiming the "establishment" is trying to stop him. Politicians are big on opposing "the establishment". Gray likes the new provisions, Rasner does not, probably because Gray is bargaining on the WFC to endorse him with the Confederate Seal of Approval. Gray was an original WFC Cornfederate, so Rasner is probably correct here that the "establishment" is trying to stop him, if the WFC is the establishment, which of course they'll deny that they are.
Ballow is frank she's opposed. She's been pretty quiet up until recently, but there's a good chance that she will secure the nomination.
May 6, 2026
Trump backed sycophants did well in Indiana where Trump intervened to punish Republicans who didn't vote for redistricting. The result will help march the GOP right off the cliff its headed towards in theall.
This shows the extent to which the GOP is actually dead, replaced by a group of worshippers who follows the words of their leader, rather than reality.
In contrast, Democrats won big in special elections.
And we have this:
Yes, they are. They're frankly really irritating.
May 7, 2026
Elissa Campbell is running for reelection in Wyoming House District 56.
Reid Rasner went to Gillette to speak this week at a meet and great at the city's Prime Rib restaurant and drew a whopping huge crowd of three people, according to the Tribune.
Three . . . pretty much tells you where that campaign is going.
At it he suggested that the 50/50 proceeds swap currently existing on public land rental proceeds be made 90/10 with the State getting the 90. He claimed there's a lot of support in D.C. for this. There isn't.
Rasner has been dumping a ton of money into his campaign and apparently Chucky accused him of spending his mother's money. I'm not a Rasner fan but that's ironic for Gray, who also is spending money that came in some form from his family. Rasner denied the charge sort of, asserting that he's a highly successful businessman without really fully denying the claim. Whatever the truth or distruth of it, it is circulating the internet now. Anyway you look at it three candidates who should not get this office, Gray, Rasner and Freiss are dumping piles of money into it.
Albany County overwhelmingly approved a 6th Cent ballot issue.
And the Weston County Commissioners, to their credit, said nope to the three GOP picks for Clerk.
Weston County Commissioners Reject GOP Picks To Replace Hadlock As County Clerk
The current system, it might be noted, required the party of the outgoing clerk to nominate three choices, and if the Commissioners can't pick one, the district court judge does from the outgoing person's party. The GOP's recently fit over complying with state law raises the question of whether this is constitutional. It likely isn't.
May 8, 2026
Oh my.
Rasner is now attacking Gray with a radio ad in which he calls him "China Chuck Gray".
Reid Rasner Launches Attack Ad With Chinese Music, Gong and Ninja 'Hoi!’ Grunts’
I think the best response to that was Legislator Michael Yin's; "“I think Rasner’s campaign is a joke, so I don’t take anything he runs very seriously,”
Yin is right. Rasner is spending money like crazy, but the primary beneficiary of it might be Gray, as the two "I love Trump more than Trump loves Trump" candidates are sucking so much air out of the room that even Steve Megabucks Freiss can hardly get in a word in about how he loves Trump, and Reagan.
Gray, for his part, has referred to Rasner as "Mr. Kronberg-Rasner” which appeared to baffle the Cowboy State Daily but which is pretty clearly a reference to Josh Kronberg-Rasner who must wonder what the heck he did to deserve this. Apparently Gray figures that people will do some independent research on Kronberg and accordingly learn that Reid Rasner and Josh Kronberg were at one time married. If you dig into that, you can learn that, as in this obituary of well known Casper businesman Darrell Decker:
Darrell was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Billie Jean Decker. He is survived by his two daughters, Darlyn Decker McIntosh and Deborah (Debbie) Ann Decker, both of Casper, WY; four grandchildren Ryan Decker Rasner, Reid Rasner and his husband Josh Kronberg-Rasner, Darbi (Rasner) Westman and her husband Andy, and Zack Gentzlinger; and two great-grand children, Damion and Mason.
The interesting thing about that, of course, is that is Gray's backhanded way of trying to point out that Rasner is a homosexual, hoping that people won't cast votes for his vociferous opponent for that reason.
Of course that brings up the question of why Gray, age 36, is unmarried. I've not seen anything suggesting he's a homosexual (although Rasner admittedly is and there isn't that much public knowledge on it), but it's hard not wonder why the super conservative, family values, party has figures who don't fit that mold. Gray isn't married, Rasner is a homosexual, Hageman has no children of her own. . . *
Well, anyhow. The ad is frankly slimy. Rasner never had any chance in the first place, so violently hurling money in this fashion is really a waste.
Chuck also said the following:
Mr. Kronberg-Rasner sues others for defamation, while he’s the one who is actually lying. Mr. Kronberg-Rasner accuses others of what he’s actually doing, just like leftwing insider politicians like Liz Cheney.
That really didn't make any sense, quite frankly, as Rasner has been suing people for defamation. I guess he's saying that Rasner is defaming him, which is a huge stretch. The irony is that Gray built his entire campaign on the lie of the election being stolen and screams like a weenie every time anyone says anything about him. He did so again here, accusing Liz Cheney, who was clearly a conservative, of being a "leftwing insider". She may have been an insider, but she sure wasn't left wing.
Normally, of course, Chuck is attacking people in the middle. If he ordered lukewarm coffee and the waitress brings hot, she'd get accused of being a left wing radical. This is the first time that he's been attacked from the right and he doesn't really know what to do. It's clear he'd like to come out and say, "yeah . . .well Reid you're a homosexual", but he's clearly afraid to
Ideally, and the ideal really tends not to happen, the Gray/Rasner fight will take them both down and into political oblivion. Their campaigns are self funded for the most part, so the longer this goes on the more of their own cash they're draining. Wyomingites would be well served if they drained all of their reserves, Balow won the race, and Chuck went on to a McDonald's job in Los Angeles and Rasner went back to doing whatever he was doing before.
Footnotes
*Gray accidentally raises an interesting point here. Does supporting homosexual marriage, which I do not, make you liberal by default? It's hard to see how supporting something so fundamentally non traditional would not, in fact, put you in the far left no matter what else you might believe. Of course, maybe Rasner has reformed. People sometimes do.
Politicians with same sex attraction wouldn't normally be expected to reveal it, of course, but some just do. Keeping it closeted while being a right wing Republican, and I'm not accusing anyone of that here, is hypocritical, however.
Of course, the GOP is hypocritical on this in general. In his first successful campaign Trump suggested that same sex marriage would be reversed. It hasn't been, but then right now its stare decisis that its legal. Still, Scott Bessant is an open homosexual in a same sex marriage which, if you really believed what you professed, would raise questions, I guess.
Likewise, flat out avoiding having children isn't very traditional, and from an Apostolic Christian point of view, doing that chemically or artificially is flat out immoral. This is tricker, however, as some people can't have children. Usually you don't know what people's circumstances are, and its impolite to ask, unless their political persona has interjected it.
Finally, all the talk about relationships between men and women and tradition, it's pretty clear that Republicans don't have a problem with Trump having a string of bedmates in prior days. At one time even being divorced was beyond the pale for a Republican President. Now they can have a pre office moral history rivaling that of an alley cat. If the Republicans really meant what they preach (and in fairness, some in the Heritage Society have taken this view), they'd be doing something about no fault divorce.
But then, that'd be contrary to the American Civil Religion, which holds you can pretty much do anything you want in this category, as long as its with the opposite sex.
May 9, 2026
Protect Wyoming ran an ad in today's Trib in favor of Julie Jarvis.
Jarvis captured House District 57 from WFC far right member Jeanette Ward, a carpetbagger from Chicago who had just relocated to Wyoming when she took over the seat that had been occupied by the universally disappointing Chuck Gray. Ward is trying to get the seat back.
Late in the day change for Landon Brown.
Frankly, without a better reason than the one he's given, Brown's action is chicken, as it gives other people who would have run very little time to ponder running.
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is engaging in complete bullshit here:
Wyoming Freedom Caucus Criticizes Nethercott For Calling For “Lawfare"
I listened to Nethercott on this and she's not calling for lawfare. The WFC is just a bunch of ignorant babies.
Nethercott nearly became the Secretary of State, barely loosing to Lying Chuck Gray. The WFC has never had any love for her in the first place, and basically hates the rule of law.
May 13, 2026
Just when you think the political far right in Wyoming can't get any stupider, Carpetbagger Rebecca "Check Gate" Bextel announces that she's running for Governor on the Constitution Party ticket. The Constitution Party is a third party that apparently has a copy of a double secret constitution that nobody else has. She was head of, and censured by, the Teton County GOP, but has crossed party lines, something the WFC generally regards abhorrent, as she's afraid Barlow will win the nomination as the Cornfederate vote will be split between "I'm endorsed by the Blasphemous Donald Trump" Deggenfelder and the Sucking on the Government Tit Bien.
The level of self delusion that a person has to have to think that the Constitution Party can win anything, let alone that there are so many ignorant Cornfederates in the state that they'd vote fora rich carpetbagging Cornfederate in the general election, is epic.
She probably has the cash to burn in such an effort, however, which is a good reason for Wyoming to contemplate a wealth tax.
Related threads:
Pollice Verso. The 2026 Political Negative Endorsement. The Don't Vote For List.
2026 Election, Chuck Gray, Cynthia Lummis, Dixiecrats, Eric Barlow, Harriet Hageman, Ignorance, Megan Degenfelder, Populism, Public Land, Republican Party, Trailing thread, Wyoming Freedom Caucus
Last edition:
The 2026 Election, 9th Edition. The Sic Semper Tyrannus edition.*
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