The 2026 Election, 22nd Edition. The Stupid on Stilts Edition.

From Greed, 1925.

We're making a fortune. So if the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump Dividend. Congratulations.

Donald Trump at the GOP Midterm Convention.

A person would have to be stupid on stilts to believe that promise, and a similar one has been extended before.

Seriously, what kind of a dumbass believes anything Trump promises at this point?

The fact that the GOP is having a "Midterm" convention is itself an example of outright desperation and hubris on the part of Trump.  Trump loves Trump and you must love Trump, so he's reminding you of Trump Love so that you love him and vote for the GOP candidates to show your mindless cult like love.

The fact of the matter is that everything associated with Trump is going badly and his approval ranking is sinking like a rock.  In Wyoming it's down to 54% and the impact of the tariffs on Canada haven't even hit yet, much.  The war hasn't ended, inflation is about to ramp back up, and Trump's own weirdness is now too weird for anyone to ignore. The result is that Democrats, who were slated to take back the House, now appear likely to take back the Senate as well.  Even in Wyoming there's some hint that the Senate may be in play and it's clear that a large number of people really aren't keen on Chuck Gray, who has been pretty quiet since the primary.

Indeed, I've seen a little lashing out at John Barrasso, who isn't running for anything.  Now days we mostly see Dr. John looking at Donald Trump as if he, Barrasso, is suffering from a severe case of constipation.  He may be, as he's kept his true views on everything, none of which we know, bottled up inside of himself for so long.  Anyhow, if people are mad at Barrasso, who seems to have forgotten which state he's from, it doesn't bode well for Hageman and Gray, although they are both clearly the favorites.

This does bring us to some questions that should be asked in the next two months, however.  Those being:

1.  Do you support the undeclared war against Iran, and if yes, how do you justify no declaration of war existing?

2.  On data centers, a big deal here in Wyoming, are you against them like seemingly the majority of Wyomingites are, or for them, like Donald Trump is?

3.  What is your position on public lands?

4. For people who go outside, there are clearly environmental matters to be concerned about. Do you have any concerns, and if no, just don't tell us "it's a big fib", as that's just telling us that you'll lie for votes.  What is your justification?

5.  Epstein files. Why aren't they being released.

6.  What is your real plan for balancing the budget and addressing the debt and show us that it works.

7.  Do you support ending the trade war with Canada?

A note, prior endorsements on running candidates are below in a separate thread as an Appendix, which is also linked in below..  I'm doing that in this edition so as to not clog up the first part of it too much.

September 11, 2026

Two events occured yesterday which should; 1) cause a sane nation to invoke the 25th Amendment and 2) cause every Republican running for office to have to answer where they stand or never be voted on again.

The first.

Trump sworn his acolytes in so that they will be able to be called up as Long Knives to attack the upcoming Republican defeat in November.

It's not the pledge to go out and vote.  Frankly, most MAGA isn't paying any attention this anyway.  

It's the pledge to cheat.

Things Trump says cannot any longer be dismissed.  People who think that one liner means nothing are ignoring recent history.  He intends to steal the election.  If he pulls that off, if he's still living and semi coherent, he intends to serve a third term.

The second was a truly bizarre video based on the Paul Harvey "God made farmers" video of years ago with a "God gave us Trump" theme.

This latches on to the extreme Evangelical leg of the MAGA stool.  It would make most Christians of any branch absolutely cringe, and to claim a Divine mission like this may be very well blasphemous.

The questions that should be asked, and of any Republican candidate?

1.  Will you support the results of the November election no matter what they are.  If there's any hedging at all, tell the person they don't have your support for anything whatsoever.

2. Do you believe that Trump has a Divine mission?  Any answer than an unqualified no should disqualify the candidate.

I can guarantee you that almost any GOP candidate, particularly if they don't know your view going into the question, will waffle and not give a straight answer.

Carrying on a bit, the religiosity of this midterm Republican convention is really something else.  Protestant ministers showed up to speak at it and Tim Scott sounded like an Evangelist.  At some point Protestants who are members of these communities really have to ask their pastors how they can reconcile their faith with a man who so clearly ignores Christianity. 

Closer to home, Harriet Hageman is ignoring calls for a debate with James Byrd and Byrd is calling her out on it.  His post from Facebook:

James Byrd for United States Senate

IF YOU WON'T FIGHT FOR WYOMING ON A DEBATE STAGE, WHO ARE YOU FIGHTING FOR?

Harriet Hageman won't stand on a stage. She won't return calls. She won't even respond. And now her silence is about to cancel the one chance Wyoming voters had to see both Senate candidates side by side.

You don't get to represent this state if you won't show up and defend what you believe in front of it. Silence isn't leadership. It's a candidate deciding Wyoming doesn't deserve a real conversation at all.

Tell Wyoming PBS: don't let her refusal to stand for what she believes in decide this for the rest of us.

Stand and fight.

That really is a chicken move by Hageman, but it seems to me she's taken that approach in the past as well.

In the past it struck me as arrogance.  She stopped debating as a wave of the hand type of move, although Grey Bull pulled down 25% of the vote in 2022 and Cameron 23% in 2024.  Here, it strikes me as fear.  Gray Bull was a good debater and still drew 25% in a year that heavily favored Hageman.  Now, with four years in, Hageman has an extremely exposed record.  She poked Wyoming voters in the eye on public lands and basically called them dumb.  In the category of dumb, her family's homestead burned to the ground but she still is a climate change denier.  She was endorsed by Trump and has yet to explain how Wyoming farmer and ranchers should view South American beef.  It's unfortunate that she lost to Mead, who was such a better candidate.

It's pretty questionable how she'd do in a debate against Byrd.  Byrd would likely best her, and what's more, he knows that.  So he's making her chicken move an issue.

Hageman ought to be held to account for hiding.

AN OPEN LETTER TO WYOMING PBS

August 11, 2026

To the Leadership of Wyoming PBS,

On August 10, our campaign was notified that Wyoming PBS would not be holding a primary debate for U.S. Senate, because our opponent declined the invitation to participate. A similar notice was given to Lisa Kinney, one of the Democratic candidates for Wyoming's U.S. House seat, whose opponent also declined. As a result, neither of Wyoming's federal Democratic primary races will be represented in a debate on Wyoming PBS this cycle.

I want the public to know directly: I did not refuse this invitation. I remain ready and willing to speak to Wyoming voters in this format, and if Wyoming PBS were to offer me the opportunity, I would be there.

We understand the position Wyoming PBS is in. Federal equal-time provisions limit what a broadcaster can do when only one candidate is willing to appear, so PBS can't simply offer a solo forum in place of a debate, and balancing that against the responsibility to keep voters informed is a hard job. We don't take issue with that constraint itself.

But we do take issue with the precedent this sets.

If one candidate declining is all it takes to cancel a debate outright, then any candidate who wants to dodge scrutiny now has a guaranteed way to do it. That's not a neutral policy. It rewards avoidance and punishes the candidate who actually showed up. It hands one side the power to decide, unilaterally, whether Wyoming voters get to see a debate at all. That is not how this is supposed to work.

When journalism requires the participation of good faith actors, rather than holding all individuals to account regardless of whether they participate, it will ultimately fail at its own goal of accountability. It is always easier to hide than to be held to account.

We've also noticed a related pattern: nominees who clear a primary and then simply skip general election debates too. Put these trends together, and debate participation stops being something candidates owe their constituents. It becomes optional for anyone who calculates they have more to lose than gain by showing up. That should worry Wyoming PBS as much as it worries us.

We are asking Wyoming PBS to make a public commitment that the U.S. House and Senate debates ahead of the Nov. 3, 2026 general election will occur, period. That commitment should hold true regardless of the participation of our opponents.

If a candidate refuses to show up, hold the debate anyway and leave their podium empty. Stations across the country already do this when a candidate declines. It lets voters still hear from the candidates who did show up, and it makes the absent candidate's choice visible instead of erasing the event altogether. Voters deserve to hear from all candidates in each race. Short of that, they deserve to see plainly which candidates showed up to answer for their records and which ones didn't. No candidate should get to use their own absence as a weapon to keep another candidate off the stage.

We'd also push Wyoming PBS to rethink its approach for future primary cycles. One candidate's refusal shouldn't be enough to cancel a debate outright, and that shouldn't hinge on how many candidates happen to be on a given party's ballot. A party fielding one or two contested candidates deserves the same debate access as a party fielding a dozen. Anything less penalizes voters for the size of their party's field, not for anything they did.

We appreciate the work Wyoming PBS does for this state, and we expect a response.

Sincerely,

James Byrd

Byrd for Wyoming See less

 

September 12, 2026

Opponents Blast Hageman, Gray For Skipping PBS Debates Ahead Of General Election

It turns out that neither Gray nor Hageman are willing to debate.

I'd have much less faith in Kinney being able to really do well in a debate against Gray, although she was a practicing lawyer and has been a legislator.  Additionally, Gray's default setting when he gets stressed is asshole.

Both Hageman and Gray's campaigns are defending their position to be chickens.  So are their diehard supporters.  But it isn't a good look.

September 16, 2026

Rod Miller: Proposition 1 And Rolling The Dice For Lives

Rod Miller voices his opinion about Proposition 1.

What the text of Prop 1 states is:

(xliii) A portion of property used as a primary residence as a homeowner’s exemption. The following shall apply to the homeowner's exemption:

(A) For property used as a primary residence, fifty percent (50%) of the assessed value of the primary property is exempt from property taxation as a homeowner's exemption. Not more than one (1) homeowner’s exemption shall apply to the same property in any year and no owner shall claim more than one (1) homeowner’s exemption in any year including property that is improved by a residence that houses more than one (1) family. To claim a homeowner’s exemption the person shall have been a resident of this state for not less than one (1) year prior to claiming an exemption under this paragraph and shall have resided in the applicable primary residence for at least six (6) months of the immediately preceding tax year. To claim a homeowner’s exemption, the owner of the property shall submit a sworn claim to the county assessor not later than the fourth Monday in May on forms provided by the department of revenue demonstrating that the person is the owner of the property, and that the property is the person's primary residence. False claims are punishable as provided by W.S. 6-5-303.

Basically this proposition was a Wyoming Freedom Caucus "I just moved here with lots of money from California, bought a McMansion or a 40 acre dirt farm, drove up everyone's property taxes, and I don't like it".  The proposition would gut local communities income like a fish, which most of these people don't care about as they truly hate the government and don't care about educating children, for instance, as they prefer ignorance.

We're voting no on Prop 1.

Indeed, this is the one thing we've actually answered a poll on. The poll was clearly supposed to be in favor prop 1 and the pollster, pretty clearly calling from some place in the South, didn't really know how to react to my answers to the questions.

Speaking of speaking, where's Harriet and Chuck on doing a debate?

Speaking of those two, there are questions as we proceed along that they should be made to answer.

Harriet, now that her home county is on fire again, should be forced to answer if she's willing to basically burn everything down to support the lie that climate warming isn't real.  We all know it's real. She no doubt knows it's real.  Why the fib?

Both should be made to answer if they support the illegal war against Iran and why?

And what about those diesel prices, eh?

On other matters, there's some rumors going around that Bill Allemand, the far right wing Freedom Caucus candidate who barely survived a primary challenge, may bail out of office.  Apparently he may run through the election, according to one version of it, and then bail out some time after that.  Without the Freedom Caucus crew in Cheyenne there's nobody to tell him what to do, and it would appear, generally, he needs somebody to tell him what to do and he knows that.  He's not going to have any friends any longer in Cheyenne either.

If he bails out now, he probably throws that race to the Libertarian running in the district, although there is a Democrat running as well.  He likely won't do that now and I'm not exactly sure what happens if he does.  The logical thing would be that the other GOP candidate from the primary would replace him through a party process.  If he drops out after the fall election, and if he wins it, the party would pick three names and send them to the County Commissioners who would pick the new legislator.

That, in fact, is how Chuck Gray first took office.

September 17, 2026

The propeller hat Dixiecrats in the GOP are at war with their own party.  Unfortunately for that party, they are also in control of a lot of county, and the state, committees.

Hence some of those organizations basically backing the losing campaign of carpetbagger Rebecca Bextel.

Sheridan County GOP Posts, Then Removes, Statement Backing Bextel Over Barlow

Tom Lubnau: The Wyoming GOP Aims A Gun At Its Own Foot

The party is really hypocritical.  This past year it endorsed candidates in the primary for the first time and basically told GOP voters who they had to vote for.  It endorsed Hageman, Gray, and Bien.   Bien came in third in the Governor's race and they've been pouting ever since.

Barlow, who won the Governor's race, swamped his opponents, taking 45% of the vote, but sad Dixiecrats note that 45% is not 50%, and therefore, they argue, he's not the legitimate candidate.  That logic is pretty flawed as he certainly is under Wyoming's law, and his only real rival in the campaign was Trump endorsed Degenfelder, who took 30%.  Dixiecrat darling Bien took 24% and sad Confederates note that if you add Degenfelder and Bien together, that's more than 50%.

It is, but it assumes that Degenfelder voters would have voted for Bien if she hadn't been running. The opposite is probably true.  The 1/3 bottom of the bell curve probably would have voted for Trump knighted Degenfelder if Bien hadn't been running, but Degenfelder voters in large part would likely have gone for Barlow if Bien hadn't thrown his gray kepi into the ring.  If anyone had an argument here, therefore, it would be Degenfelder.

Neither Bien or Degenfelder, who hope to dig out of their holes rather than convert them into political graves have said anything about the results being illegitimate but upset WFC members have a bit, for Bien.  They tried to get a write in campaign going for him and at least locally one badly defeated WFC  member still is.  Others, including some committee members, are backing Bextel, who will lose massively in November.

The Constitution Party itself, which support a strict reading of a double secret constitution only they know about, is open enough itself to admit that it's hoping that Bextel can pull down 10% of the vote so that it can be a "major" party.  Under Wyoming's law on primaries, which I believe to be unconstitutional, that would make the party the very model of a modern major party.

That result might occur and it might actually be a good thing, although anyone voting for Bextel, as noted, fits into the bottom end of the bell curve.  What it would do, however, is give propeller hat wearing Dixiecrats a place to actually go, and they should go there. They are not Republicans.

Lubnau notes that upset Dixiecrats in GOP committees positions oddly don't make the same argument about Freedom Caucus darling Chuck Gray, who only pulled down 25% of the vote.  While Barlow isn't threatened by Bextel, Gray actually may be by Libertarian Johnson and Democrat Kinney.  I wouldn't have given Kinney any chance at all, but Gray's refusing to debate her is actually elevating her status.

On Sheridan County, while some on its GOP committee may be crying in their Bomber Mountain Amber Ale, the results were the same as they were statewide.  Barlow swamped his competition and while Bien did come in second there, he only barely beat out Degenfelder.  Again, those Degenfelder votes would have most likely gone to Barlow.  And Gray only barely beat out Biteman and Christensen there.

One final thing to note. Teton County, where Bextel has hung her kepi, and Sheridan County, are the homes to a lot of rich carpetbaggers.  These people tend to vote their own economic interests, and not paying taxes and telling the peasants to go **** *** are in that category.  Like the rank and file in Confederate Gray in the 1860s, a lot of that rank and file (which here includes a lot of carpetbaggers) tend to be dim enough to follow the dictates of their oligarchic masters.  We're seeing that, and frankly just a lot of real bottom of the bell curve ignorance, at work on these topics.

On other topics, Postmaster General David Steiner wants to quit his job, according to insiders.

He should as he's serving a madman.

The Post Office has been in the news recently as Trump keeps ordering it to impose impossible regulations on mail in voting, which Trump himself uses, as part of Trump's effort to interfere with and steal the November election. The Supreme Court won't let him so he's having a major tantrum.

Prior related recent threads:

Something is going on, and I'm not the only one sensing it.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, Adam Kinzinger, Canada, Donald Trump, Evangelical, Food, Immigration, inflation, Taxes, The Second Trump Administration, The Trump Trade War with Canada, Trump Trade Wars, United States

Appendices:

The 2026 Election, 22nd Edition. The Stupid on Stilts Edition. Appendix 1.

Last edition:

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

Labels: Bill Allemand, Constitution Party, Democratic Party, Economics, Industry, Joe Porambo, Karlee Provenza, Keenan Morgan, Libertarian, Ogden Driskill, Republican Party, Rod Miller, Tamara Trujillo, Wyoming (Natrona County)2026 Election, Ana Cordova, Brent Bien, Bryan McCarty, Chuck Gray, Eric Barlow, Harriet Hageman, James Byrd, Kenneth Casner, Kevin Christensen, Rebecca Bextel, Robert Short, Shaun Johnson, Steve Harshman, Wyoming

Court Watch Part VIII. The only restraint edition.

Jefferson County Courthouse, Port Arthur, Texas.

July 14, 2026

In a blistering opinion, a Federal Court judge ruled that President Donald Trump improperly used a $10 billion lawsuit he filed against the IRS to extract personal benefits from the government and prevented the terms of a settlement agreement from taking legal effect.

And more locally:

Laramie County sheriff ordered to appear in court, explain why law firm can’t inspect records

July 23, 2026

Headline in the CST:

Wyoming attorneys oppose Trump’s AG pick

71 Wyoming attorneys signed onto the letter.  Lummis and Barrasso will ignore it.

August 1, 2026

Charges against an Olympic kayaker for vandalizing the reflecting pool have been dropped. 

That was predictable, but what the Justice Department admitted was not.  It admitted the damage was the result of "flawed installation by the contractor" as well as "the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026."

Every lawyer associated with this should be dismissed and disbarred.  Trump should be impeached.  The victim of these false charges should sue for malicious prosecution.

Closer to home:

Wyoming archaeologists take BLM to court over Native sites, human remains

August 5, 2026

The U.S. Attorney’s Office dismissed all charges against David Hearn, Justin Carreno, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Cameron Thiers for the pool vandalization that never occured.  Donald Trump had previously described these people as “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE".  He's the sick deranged people, but people who aren't victims of Trump Derangement Syndrome and think he's something other than a rampaging deranged narcissist know that. 

Now, even after the Toddler's tantrums, no charges are pending at all. They never should be.

Lawsuits should, and I predict will, be filed against the government over this.

August 8, 2026

The DC Circuit ordered Trump to halt his illegal ballroom construction but, in a wussy move, stayed its decision for fourteen days in order to allow Trump to appeal, which he, or rather his administration, will.

The Court, in its decision, noted:

Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help.

August 11, 2026

It's not that there aren't some really issues here.

Judge dismisses closed primary lawsuit for the second time

But it does provide a good example of why it hurts things for everyone when a gadfly like Skovgaard decides to play lawyer.

August 12, 2026

Court steps in to counter coup attempt.

August 18, 2026

Good news:

Retired Cheyenne attorney renews legal challenge to Secretary Gray’s handoff of voter data feds

Gray violated the law on this and needs to be held fully accountable. Courts looking at this issue have uniformly supported the states that refused to provide the information.

Gray should be made to recover the information he supplied.  This was illegal.  

August 25, 2026

This doesn't decide the ultimate issue:

Supreme Court allows Trump administration to move forward with order imposing restrictions on mail-in voting

But coming when it does, it may very well be the law in a practical sense this election cycle, and impact the election.  It's specifically designed to frustrate Democratic voting.  However, as Amy Howe reports:

A separate ruling by the same judge, in a case filed by a different set of plaintiffs, temporarily prohibits the U.S. Postal Service from implementing one provision of the executive order anywhere in the United States. That ruling remains in effect, at least for now.

The decision is flat out wrong and the Supreme Court will regret it.  The Democrats are increasingly like to win both houses of Congress this Fall and they will begin to work on major Supreme Court reform. Trump can prevent that while he's in office, but he's becoming the political kiss of death for GOP candidates and when a new Democratic President comes in, this order will come off and the Supreme Court will be radically reformed.  Perhaps first up will be age limitations, likely 70 years of old, which will wipe out the conservative majority on the court.

A decision like this one will help bring about that downfall.  So does stuff like this:

Supreme Court allows White House ballroom construction to continue for now

The mail in voting one at least has some think judicial reasoning Staying ballroom construction was the obvious choice here and the Court didn't do it. That probably signals that they'll let this insane project go forward.

August 27, 2026

After Election Loss, Reid Rasner Sues A Sixth Person For Defamation

One of Rasner's previous suits is in the CST today on the pending summary judgment motion.

August 31, 2026

The Supreme Court sealed its fate today in holding that the Plaintiffs in a case challenging the legality of Trump's illegal construction of a giant garden shed on White House Grounds lacked standing.

Bullshit.

Justice Roberts, who dissented in the 5 to 4 decision, noted that the construction was likely illegal.  It is. This was a standing decision.

So construction will commence and may well get completed. The legality will be ruled upon in the future, and then the heaping pile of shit hopefully blown to the ground by a future administration that will rely on this decision. The Supreme Court will go to 13 members, and an age limitation will be put on the justices guaranteeing a liberal majority on the court for a century.

September 10. 2026

Twenty states filed two separate lawsuits against the government alleging the Trump administration illegally weakened the Endangered Species Act.

September 11, 2026

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift an injunction on the USPS prohibiting the implementation of crybaby's attempt for a fall coup by banning mail in voting.

September 15, 2026

The US Supreme Court decided in a 7 to 2 vote to block the Trump USPS rule prohibiting mail in voting.  Alito and Thomas were the two dissenting votes.

Last edition:

Court Watch Part VII. When the last law was down.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, Abortion, Chuck Gray, Court Watch, law, Politics, South Korea, St. Sir Thomas More, The 2021 Insurrection, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming, Wyoming (Powell), You heard it here first

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 155th Edition. AI will kill us all.

The Terminator.

I don't know if it will, but that's the prediction being made by those working on it.

And within ten years.

Frankly, I think AI is wholly negative and that we'd be better off it it was impossible to develop. But it isn't, and we've never been able to restrain anything we've developed.  What I think the likely consequences are, however, is that it proves so destructive it may end up undoing much of the computer development that's come to date, as a defense to it.

Trump assures us that whatever comes out of it will be "mostly good".

Nothing good will come out of it whatsoever.

Boo

Ted Cruz was so loudly booed that he could hardly be heard in an ESPN interview from Austin.

Cruz deserves to be booed.  He's one of worst examples of Republican toadyism in Congress today.

Big statute

Donald Trump, who was in Ireland when I last checked, has proposed that  a 30-foot “Washington Colossus” be built to replace a modernist sculpture outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.  He's ordering  the institution to put on a Washington exhibition in advance of the late President's 300th birthday.

It's interesting that Trump is interested in Washington.  Washington would not have been keen on Trump.

Trump doesn't like the piece of modernist art that's in front of the Smithsonian.  It doesn't do much for me either, but I don't hate it.  

The odd interesting thing here is that Trump spends so much time messing with the architecture of Washington D. C.  A big statute of George Washington wouldn't necessarily be bad, as long as it wasn't gilded, but Trump's taste in things is generally complete crap.

Trump golfs in Ireland.  M'eh

Classic example of street level Irish speech, which is often really foul.  Posted under fair use exception.

Tá Trump ag imirt gailf in Éirinn. B’fhéidir go mbeidh an t-ádh linn agus go bhfanfaidh sé ann.

An opinion that nobody cares about.

Trump ventured an opinion that Ireland should be united, by which he meant that Northern Ireland should be incorporated into the Irish republic.

That immediately brought rebuke from Na hUltaigh, who didn't appreciate the US President making the comment.  Southern Irish, who have protested his presence in their country, most likely just ignored it.

At any rate, this isn't something that a US President has any business commenting on in the first place.

And, speaking of comments. . .

Open the North Sea

A reporter asked Trump when petroleum prices were going to go down, which was a veiled way to basically saying when is your stupid war going to end, Donald.

Trump replied that oil prices in Ireland would go down as soon as the Irish opened the North Sea.

Wha?

The North Sea is between Great Britain and Scandinavia.

In terms of water depth, while the North Sea is deep, it is shallow enough to be exploited and the seabed is associated with the continental landmass, which is why there are petroleum deposits there.

And the plan is. . .?

FWIW, the North Sea is reaching its terminal production date pretty quick.  Most of the petroleum has already been extracted, at least from the British areas.  BP is pulling out.

On this, it was North Sea petroleum that made Norway rich.  Norway is expanding its production, but the time is coming.

It's coming for Wyoming too.

The plan?

Well, there isn't one. Screaming at the news seems to be the plan.

Shutting down the supply

It's not only the case that King Donald has not managed to restore pre war shipping conditions to the Persian Gulf, over the past week new hazardous conditions were created in Red Sea by the Houthis, Iranian allies and clients, who further caused Saudi Arabia to shut down a transarabian pipeline. All petroleum is back up over $100/bbl.

And in spite of what the Trump administration would have people believe, Venezuelan oil will take at least four years to hit the market in significant quantities to matter, if not ten.

Inflation

Inflation is clearly decelerating even with this slight uptick.

Keven Hassett.

Um. . .okay.

Chickens.

Chuck Gray and Harriet Hageman are refusing to debate their opponents.

That fact alone should mean that they forfeit any votes in the upcoming election.

Their refusal is arrogant at best.

It's noteworthy that neither one of them is any good at debating under stress, and debates this time would be stressful.  Both of them tend to just go hostile when pressed.  

Voters shouldn't let either of them get away with this.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 154th Edition.Trump's approval rating in Wyoming falls from 75% to 54%. Privation. The idiotic "republic not a democracy" line surfaces again. Viking funerals. Miley.

Labels: Athenian Democracy, Democracy, Donald Trump, entertainment, Harriet Hageman, Parliamentary democracy, Republican Party, Tattoos, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming, Zeitgeist

The 2026 Election, 22nd Edition. The Stupid on Stilts Edition.  Appendix 1.

Prior endorsements and race list:

And so we're off and running for the General Election, which in Wyoming's case means the election is pretty much over for the statewide races.  Sure, the contest officially carries on, but chances are that the Republican nominees will take everything.

Still, this year, there's a chance, here and there. . . 

So, our early predictions.*

Governor:

Republican.  Eric Barlow

Barlow is a rancher, veterinarian, and long time legislature.  

He's won this race and the General Election in this case is a mere formality.

Democrat.  Kenneth Casner

75 year old making his third pointless bid for the Governor's office. He won't win, everyone knows he won't win, and he shouldn't be running.

Casner's appearance says something, however, about the state of the Democratic Party in Wyoming, and it's the opposite of what's happening in much of the rest of the country.  In much of the country Democratic voters are rising up and tossing out geezer candidates, but in Wyoming the Democratic ranks are so depleted the Democrats are falling back on them, which is not a good sign.

Casner would have done his party a favor if he hadn't run.

Constitution Party:  Rebecca Bextel.

The Constitution Party is a gadfly far right political party which was once the home of people who now populate the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.  Indeed, it's their proper home, which shows in the one candidate of theirs which we know to exist, Rebecca Bextel.

The central figure in CheckGate, Bextel is flat out delusional and is running as she feared that Brent Bien would lose and there would not be any candidates running for the true interpretation of the Double Secret Constitution known only to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.  Bextel appears to seriously believe that Barlow could only win if vast hoards of Democrats, which don't exist in Wyoming crossed over to vote for Barlow and that in the general election the great mass of MAGA/WFC true believers will carry the day.

With the WFC having received a titanic dope slap in the primary, a rational person in her position would drop out. But then, running as a Constitution Party candidate shows demonstrated irrationality.

Endorsement:  Barlow by far.

Secretary of State

Republican:  Robert Short.

Short is an excellent choice and will take the office.

Democrat:  Bryan McCarthy.

McCarty actually has an impressive business background and has worked as an auditor.  He should be given credit for running, although he probably should have run for State Auditor.

He's going to lose and it's not even going to be close.

Endorsement:  Robert Short.

State Auditor

Republican Kristi Racines won an uncontested Republican primary race and no Democrats ran.

State Treasurer

Curt Meier won his bid to run again in the primary for the Republicans and no Democrats ran.

Senator

Republican:  Harriet Hageman.

63 (soon to be 64) year old incumbent Congressman with a terrible record on public lands who came up due to the "hate Cheney" wave two years ago.  If she wins, she'll be 70 at the end of her first term.

Democrat:  James  Byrd.

72 year old former legislator, geophysicist, and businessman.  Really impressive overall, but he is in his 70s.

This race features two candidates who are pushing what we regard age limits.   Hageman is a nightmare of a candidate however.

Byrd actually stands a chance in this race, but it's a real uphill battle.

Endorsement:  We won't vote for Hageman, which leaves Byrd the only realistic choice, and by and large he's a good one, but we aren't doing an endorsement yet.

House of Representatives

Republican:  Chuck Gray

Gray is a carpetbagger about whom Wyomingites know utterly nothing, other than he's an adoring sycophant of Donald Trump, he sent Wyoming's voter rolls to the Federal Government illegally, he has a nasty public personality, and he's a Californian who went to Wharton.   About him personally, we know  utterly nothing.

Having received only 25% of the primary vote, his election to the House can't be assured.

Democrat:  Lisa Kinney

About the worst candidate the Democrats could have chosen for this position, 75 year old Kinney can't win the office and is a remnant of an earlier era in more ways than one.  Her being the nominee is a sign of the absolutely pathetic state of the Wyoming Democratic Party.

Libertarian:  Shaun Johnson

Like the Constitution Party, the Libertarian Party has become so obscure their state's organization doesn't even list their candidates. This is the only one we know to exist.

Johnson is a lawyer presently in Thermopolis.  I don't think he stands a chance, but I'll note that former Wyoming legislator Tim Stubson, who once ran for Congress, has endorsed him, which shows the depth to which a lot of Republicans despise Chuck Gray.

Write In:  Kevin Christensen?

A building movement to mount a write in campaign for Christensen, who ran in the GOP primary, exists.  He came up late in the primary election and got 21,632 to Chuck's 31,222.  While that's about 9,000 more votes, both Balow and Gilat, both seen as early possibilities for defeating Chuck, received over 10,000 votes.  Even gadfly Reid Rasner received a little over 10,000 votes.

If we had Alaska's system, Christensen, along with Friess and Balow, would be on the election in the Fall.  If we had the system in which the top two vote getters were on the ballot, Gray and Friess would be.  Given all of this, there's a really strong indicator that many of those who voted for a candidate other than Gray would vote for Christensen.

Overall, therefore, this race remains in a state of flux while its seen if enough momentum can build up to create a write in campaign for Christensen against a well funded Chuck.  

Endorsement:  Kevin Christensen.  I'm early in doing this, and I note that some disaffected Republicans are saying they'll vote for Kinney. But Kinney is at best a lesser of two evils.

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Republican:  Steve Harshman

Harsham is a long time Wyoming educator from Natrona County who was in the legislature for many years.  He's an excellent choice for this office.and he will win it.

Democrat:  Ana Cordova.

Cordova won the contested Democratic primary.  She's a Wyoming native and extremely well educated.  She only returned to the state recently, however, and really has no chance in this race.

Endorsement:  Harshman.