The Donald Trump Effect, voters running from candidates endorsed by the deranged octogenarian whose administration is protecting the rapist of teenagers, starting wars, and causing rising inflation, is having a noticeable nationwide, and even international, effect. Voters in special elections all over the US are dumping MAGA candidates and electing Democrats. It's an absolute certainty at this point that, unless something dramatic happens, that the Republicans are going to lose badly at the midterms and retake the House. And now it appears they're likely to take the Senate. The Cook Political Report shifted four Senate races this past week to favor Democratic and pundits are now openly saying the Democrats will take the upper house.
Of course, Democrats have a way of shooting themselves in the foot. Nonetheless the momentum is clear. Trump has lost independents, who he needs in most places for the GOP to remain in office, and he's lost Hispanics. This past week his actions were such that if he has not lost non Hispanic Catholics, its only because those voters value Trump more than the Faith or are engaging in some really self delusional thinking, keeping in mind that you never actually have to vote Democratic and that in the primaries there is usually a Republican willing to run who isn't a slave to Trump.
California Republicans refused to endorse a Governor's candidate in a convention that was just held and snubbed Trump's endorsement of one. They see the handwriting on the wall.
But still you have this.
An entire group of Wyoming candidates acts like this adoring girl. Shoot, they'd like to be squeezed by Trump too.
If Wyomingites are going to wake up, and that's unlikely, there's be a point, if we are not already at it, where voting for the GOP candidates who associate with themselves with Trump would be a no go. And some of those candidates would already be no gos.
Chuck Gray, who barely won the Secretary of State's office and only did so by lies and screeds about an imaginary pack of left wingers always oppressing him is running on being perpetually pissed off at at the left and being in deep love with Donald Trump. Reid Rasner promises to be Trump's number one fan. Megan Degenfelder has "Endorsed by Donald Trump" on her campaign signs.
All three are Catholic. If they can still stomach Trump at this point, there's literally no value they hold that they actually hold. No Democrat is going to win, so lashing themselves to Trump is either cynical or self delusional. It's inexcusable.
Degenfelder's signs out to read "Endorsed by Blasphemer Donald Trump". Gray and Rasner, who are both young enough, ought to joint the Marines and put their bodies where their mouths are.
Another far right Catholic figure in Wyoming is Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, who is now running for Secretary of State as Rachel Williams. She's never said anything about Trump of which I'm aware, but as a Freedom Caucuser she ought to fell uncomfortable with the company she's been keeping.
It'll also be interesting to see how columnists like Jonathan Lange, a Lutheran minister, approaches what is now too obvious to ignore. . . Trump doesn't care about religion at all and feels free to outright mock it. Granted, he's not Catholic, but for sincere Christians what was depicted is blasphemous irrespective of which branch of Christianity a person might be in.
And then we have this:
There's no excuse for what Gray did.
Even some Republican states are opposing giving voter data to the Federal Government, but Chuck was the first to comply.
We'll see how this plays out, but if he loses, given his position, he ought to get the maximum penalty.
Anyhow, we're in the thick of the election now, but every day, Donald Trump gets weirder and weirder. He's insane. Standing by the insanity is not excusable.
This may be showing that the bloom is actually off the Trump rose. Generally, Wyoming Republicans have been complete Trump toady's.
The five are Kevin Christensen, who called the post blasphemous, Matt McGinnis, and John Romero-Martinez. Romero-Martinez, who is a devout Catholic, added that it was not only blasphemous, but sacrilegious.
Kinney the Democratic candidate and Johnson the Libertarian also criticized the act, but less forcefully.
Johnson made the excellent point that this is one of a string of outrages.
Both Rasner and Gray are Catholic and if that's all they could muster up people who sit next to them at Mass on Sunday ought to ask them what's the matter with them.
Elsewhere this was an act that finally had a reaction. Like Johnson noted, you have to wonder where these people were all along. Trump fan Riley Gaines noted:
Seriously I cannot understand why he’d post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this?
Gaines must have been asleep for the past decade to actually post a query on Trump's character. He's self centered and narcissistic, and she seems surprised.
This trend locally and nationally shows that the wheels are really coming off of MAGA. A Turning Point USA convention that was just held was grossly under attended. Locally Republicans for the first time feel able to criticize Trump. There's a significant movement in the state to boot out the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. A bipartisan movement in the House caused the removal of a Democratic and a Republican sex abuser, bypassing the pathetic Mike Johnson. It appears the Democrats are going to take the Senate and the House.
For the Republicans, the good thing is that they are finally out of the cave to a degree. The GOP has been wrecked by Donald Trump, but this may actually give them a chance to start to rebuild it, whereas waiting until after the November election will be utterly too late.
cont:
I recognize that a lot of young voters don't love the policy we have in the Middle East. Okay. I understand that. Don't get disengaged because you disagree with the administration on one topic. Get more involved. That's how we ultimately take the country back.
J. D. Vance.
WTF?
Vance did oppose the war. We know that as he leaked like crazy. But getting involved would mean booting the GOP into the dustbin, maybe forever.
Vance has remade himself repeatedly. A person now stating that this is how "we take the country back" is raising interesting questions about where he himself is headed. He's including himself in the "we" who are young and who oppose the policy in the Middle East.
Is Vance having a Humber Humphrey moment?
It'll be interesting to see if this is Vance's first cautious step into independence. He's not dumb, and he obviously sees and even acknowledges that the GOP is going into the dumpster. That statement would seem to be a declaration of independence from Trump.
April 17, 2026
Governor Gordon confirmed that he is not running for a third term.
While we're unlikely to mention this race again, Sheriff Harlan is running for reelection in Natrona County, Wyoming.
Rep. Harshman of Natrona County is running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. He'd make a very good choice for this position, but it puts his house district in play. A far right wing candidate was challenging Harshman as well as a Democrat.
Albert Sommers is running for the seat he lost in the last election, House District 20. It fell to a WFC member.
April 19, 2026
Yesterday was the day of dueling mail flyers for the U.S. House race. Identically sized campaign flyers for Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner arrived in the mailboxes of Natrona County residents. Apparently the Gray ones went statewide.
They were really laughable. Gray's depicts the diminutive Californian standing next to Donald Trump, looking slightly above him. Trump is something like 6'2" tall where as Gray is absolutely tiny. I'm not a very large person, 5'6", and I look down on Gray, which says something. Gray has also taken up wearing western wool shirts in an effort to make him look like a Wyomingite, but which really point out that he isn't. His campaign is based on far right MAGA platforms and sticking next to, and apparently slightly above, the demented belle of the far right ball, Trump.
Rasner, who has no chance, attacked Gray in his, and frankly some of his attacks are landing. He may carve votes away from Gray.
Locally, small business owner Neil Jeske announced he was running to take on J. R. Riggins in House District 59, which includes part of Casper and all of Mills.
Riggins is probably in trouble as he only won in that race in the first place as he was the only one running. He missed the first legislature he was supposed to serve in entirely due to heart problems. I saw him at a political event before the last legislative session and he really appeared to be out to sea.
Unfortunately, Jeske is the candidate that Natrona County doesn't need. He already is on the reduce spending and reduce regulation platform. Wyoming already has so little regulation that the state government would have to go out and regulate something in order for their to be regulation to cut, and the legislature is so cheap that Wyoming has very large financial reserves that just sit there as the state won't distribute funds to local governments, their only real way of getting them. We probably need more regulation and less financial restraint.
Jeske is apparently a truck driver. I don't know what Riggins is. At any rate, truck driving in 2026 is sort of like being a teamster in 1916. It's a real job. . . and one that's about to disappear. Hopefully somebody else will step up and run.
April 21, 2026
Based upon his campaign propaganda, Jeske, mentioned above, is a worst pick than Riggins. He's another out of state implant and of far right wing views. He's going on the don't vote for list.
Riggins, on the other hand, based on his public lands voting, appears to have risen to his position.
April 22, 2026
In the move The Hunt For Red October the pursuing Soviet submarine commander orders the safeties taken off of his torpedoes so he can hit the Red October from close range. The U.S. submarine USS Dallas deflects the aim of the fired torpedo which circles back and hits the Soviet sub. As it happens, a Soviet submariner tells his captain, "You arrogant ass, you killed us".
That's exactly what Donald Trump is doing to the GOP.
More particularly, that's what he did by demanding that Texas redistrict out of cycle.
Worried that thing were turning against him, Trump demanded that compliant Texas Governor Abbot cause the GOP controlled Texas legislature to convene and specially redistrict. Abbot, to his everlasting shame, complied.
Trump is apparently so dim that he didn't realize the same strategy could be used against him. First California did it, and now Virginia did.
Even accepting the conventional math, there are now more Democratic districts that added to the map for the fall than there are Republican ones, although only barely so. Still, the results are remarkable. In Virginia, where it was done by the voters, it will mean that Virginia returns to being an overwhelmingly Democratic state in terms of is House or Representatives delegates. Trump actually completely flipped an entire state from Republican to Democrat prior to the election itself.
The GOP, in order to keep this game up, must now have Florida do the same thing. It's not assured, however, as Florida is starting to go to the Democratic Party a bit all on its own. Redistricting may simply assure that occurs.
And ironically, the Texas result may have added Democratic seats in Texas. Texas actually has more Democratic voters than Republicans. In recent years its only been a Republican state for the same reason the rest of the South is. But Texas also has heavily Hispanic districts. Trump took them in 2024, but now that's changing.
And this from a guy who claimed to master "the art of the deal".
A note here about one state that tried to redistrict and couldn't, that being Utah.
Most Western states have a much better system than the rest of the country and require fair and balanced redistricting. Much of the rest of the country which had Democratic administrations was moving that way. Republicans, who were rapidly becoming a minority party in the 1990s, resisted it. That's why in Californian and Virginia, redistricting is being democratically. It's also the reason why in one Midwestern state that's currently done this way the legislature refused to consider redistricting even though its Republican controlled. They knew the voters, in that instance, would take it out on them.
In Utah, a court turned the effort around. It was only one seat, but that shows something interesting. Utah has a Democratic Congressional seat. Utah's the same state that sent Mike Lee to Congress for some reason, but not every district fits that mold.
And in a state like Wyoming, which of course only has one Congressional seat, this couldn't happen as it would be against the state constitution.
cont:
Wyoming Public Radio reports that for the House race, Reid Rasner, who will go down in August like a kerosene doused biplane flying through a blast furnace, has raised $1.2 M in this campaign, the majority of which is a loan from himself. Chuck Gray has done the same and nearly approached $1M.
Committing that amount of money to a job that pays a fraction of that per year should flat out be illegal. We need to address that in our "don't vote for" list, which has been switched over to being a page on the website, rather than a thread.
TO THE UNITED STATES OF CERTAIN DISPLACED PERSONS AND REFUGEES IN EUROPE
Memorandum to: Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Attorney General, War Shipping Administrator, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, Director General of UNRRA:
The grave dislocation of populations in Europe resulting from the war has produced human suffering that the people of the United States cannot and will not ignore. This Government should take every possible measure to facilitate full immigration to the United States under existing quota laws.
The war has most seriously disrupted our normal facilities for handling immigration matters in many parts of the world. At the same time, the demands upon those facilities have increased many-fold. It is, therefore, necessary that immigration under the quotas be resumed initially in the areas of greatest need. I, therefore, direct the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, the War Shipping Administrator, and other appropriate officials to take the following action:
The Secretary of State is directed to establish with the utmost despatch consular facilities at or near displaced person and refugee assembly center areas in the American zones of occupation. It shall be the responsibility of these consular officers, in conjunction with the Immigrant Inspectors, to determine as quickly as possible the eligibility of the applicants for visas and admission to the United States. For this purpose the Secretary will, if necessary, divert the personnel and funds of his Department from other functions in order to insure the most expeditious handling of this operation. In cooperation with the Attorney General, he shall appoint as temporary vice-consuls, authorized to issue visas, such officers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service as can be made available for this program. Within the limits of administrative discretion, the officers of the Department of State assigned to this program shall make every effort to simplify and to hasten the process of issuing visas. If necessary, blocs of visa numbers may be assigned to each of the emergency consular establishments. Each such bloc may be used to meet the applications filed at the consular establishment to which the bloc is assigned. It is not intended however entirely to exclude the issuance of visas in other parts of the world.
Visas should be distributed fairly among persons of all faiths, creeds and nationalities. I desire that special attention be devoted to orphaned children to whom it is hoped the majority of visas will be issued.
With respect to the requirement of law that visas may not be issued to applicants likely to become public charges after admission to the United States, the Secretary of State shall cooperate with the Immigration and Naturalization Service in perfecting appropriate arrangements with welfare organizations in the United States which may be prepared to guarantee financial support to successful applicants. This may be accomplished by corporate affidavit or by any means deemed appropriate and practicable.
The Secretary of War, subject to limitations imposed by the Congress on War Department appropriations, will give such help as is practicable in:
(a) Furnishing information to appropriate consular officers and Immigrant Inspectors to facilitate in the selection of applicants for visas; and
(b) Assisting until other facilities suffice in: (1) transporting immigrants to a European port; (2) feeding, housing and providing medical care to such immigrants until embarked; and
(c) Making available office facilities, billets, messes, and transportation for Department of State, Department of Justice, and United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration personnel connected with this work, where practicable and requiring no out-of-pocket expenditure by the War Department and when other suitable facilities are not available.
The Attorney General, through the Immigration and Naturalization Service, will assign personnel to duty in the American zones of occupation to make the immigration inspections, to assist consular officers of the Department of State in connection with the issuance of visas, and to take the necessary steps to settle the cases of those aliens presently interned at Oswego through appropriate statutory and administrative processes.
The Administrator of the War Shipping Administration will make the necessary arrangements for water transportation from the port of embarkation in Europe to the United States subject to the provision that the movement of immigrants will in no way interfere with the scheduled return of service personnel and their spouses and children from the European theater.
The Surgeon General of the Public Health Service will assign to duty in the American zones of occupation the necessary personnel to conduct the mental and physical examinations of prospective immigrants prescribed in the immigration laws.
The Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration will be requested to provide all possible aid to the United States authorities in preparing these people for transportation to the United States and to assist in their care, particularly in the cases of children in transit and others needing special attention.
In order to insure the effective execution of this program, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, War Shipping Administrator and the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service shall appoint representatives to serve as members of an interdepartmental committee under the Chairmanship of the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization.
HARRY S. TRUMAN
The United States and the United Kingdom recognized the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Catholic People's Party was founded in the Netherlands.
Women voted in a French election for the first time as France chose a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution for a Fourth Republic.
The elections were won by an alliance of the French Communist Party, the Christian Democratic Popular Republican Movement and the Socialist French Section of the Workers' International.
A disaster for French conservatives, the coalition saw the Communists take the most votes, drawing 26.08% and taking 148 seats, followed by the Republican Movement taking 24.91% and 141 seats. The Socialists took 23.77% and 134 seats. The pre war far left, the Radicals, took a beating, as did all the conservative parties, given that they had supported the government of Petain.
Basically, all the parties that had not participated in prewar French politics came out on top, which resulted in an alliance, albeit one that was temporarily very much left wing. Socialist Guy Alcide Mollet became the Prime Minister, with Communist Maurice Thorez the deputy prime minister.
The Fourth Republic would last until 1958, having seen, in spite of its hard left origins, the French effort to retain Indochina and much of its efforts to retain Algeria.
In Luxembourg the Christian Social People's Party won the general election.
Today In Wyoming's History: March 12: 1944 Nineteen cars of a Union Pacific train derailed near the location of old Ft.Steele. Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.
A few photos of Ft. Steele (more are on the linked in site.
In the past, I haven't tended to post fort entries here, but for net related technical reasons, I'm going to, even though these arguably belong on one of my other blogs. I'll probably cross link this thread in.
These are photographs of Ft. Fred Steele, a location that I've sometimes thought is the bleakest historical site in Wyoming.
One of the few remaining structures at Ft. Steele, the powder magazine. It no doubt is still there as it is a stone structure.
The reason that the post was built, the Union Pacific, is still there.
Ft. Steele is what I'd regard as fitting into the Fourth Generation of Wyoming frontier forts, although I've never seen it described that way, or anyone other than me use that term. By my way of defining them, the First Generation are those very early, pre Civil War, frontier post that very much predated the railroads, such as Ft. Laramie. The Second Generation would be those established during the Civil War in an effort to protect the trail and telegraph system during that period during which the Regular Army was largely withdrawn from the Frontier and state units took over. The Third Generation would be those posts like Ft. Phil Kearney that were built immediately after the Civil War for the same purpose. Contemporaneously with those were posts like Ft. Steele that were built to protect the Union Pacific Railroad. As they were in rail contact with the rest of the United States they can't really be compared to posts like Ft. Phil Kearney, Ft. C. F. Smith or Ft. Caspar, as they were built for a different purpose and much less remote by their nature.
Ft. Sanders, after it was abandoned, remained a significant railhead and therefore the area became the center of a huge sheep industry. Quite a few markers at the post commemorate the ranching history of the area, rather than the military history.
One of the current denizens of the post.
Suttlers store, from a distance.
Union Pacific Bridge Tenders House at the post.
Current Union Pacific bridge.
Some structure from the post, but I don't know what it is.
The main part of the post's grounds.
This 1914 vintage highway marker was on the old Lincoln Highway, which apparently ran north of the tracks rather than considerably south of them, like the current Interstate Highway does today.
The Marine Corps occupied Wotje Atoll in the Marshalls without opposition. A small U.S. force landed on Hauwei in the Admiralty Islands but did meet opposition.
The Red Army reached the Bug at Gayvoron.
Pope Pius XII asked the belligerent parties in World War Two to spare Rome.
Hitler authorized Operation Margarethe, the German occupation of its ally Hungary, in order to prevent it from concluding a separate peace with the Soviet Union, which it was secretly attempting to do.
Romolo Murri, controversial former Italian Priest and politician, and founder of the political party that would become the precursor to the Italian Christian Democracy Party, died.
Italian journalist and anti-fascist partisan Silvio Trentin died as well.
The Duke School of Medicine’s all-white intramural basketball team secretly played North Carolina College for Negroes’ all-black team. North Carolina won the game.
