The 2026 Election, 3rd Edition: The Self Inflicted Wound Edition.

And can they recover?

A major turn occured in the Wyoming election when all three of Wyoming's congressional delegation members supported Mike Lee's Deseret Dream to swipe Federal lands for land raping purposes.  The move was hugely, overwhelmingly, unpopular in Wyoming, but the delegation in part assessed the voters dim, and in part, trusted on them to forget.

Right now, it doesn't look like they will.

And the candidate are beginning to line up.  We have, so far:

Governor:

GOP.

Eric Barlow. Barlow is a state senator from the 23rd district and announced earlier this week. So far, he's receiving a lot of accolades from the none Freedom Caucus Republicans and condemnations from the populist Freedom Caucus, which frankly makes him the front runner.  

Brent Bien.  Bien is retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and another member of the recent Wyoming crowd who declares "after sucking on the government tit my whole life I hate the government and know best for people who haven't had such secure jobs as me".  He's on the far right.

Joseph Kibler.  Kibler is a web designer and might as well drop out right now.

Reid Ranser.  Far right gadfly who doomed his chances, which were non existent anyway, by filing a lawsuit which states that he's a homosexual and was slandered by certain GOP figures.  The slander aside, branding yourself as a homosexual is a bad political move in this atmosphere.  He's highly likely not to be the only homosexual running for a statewide office or perhaps in office, but Wyomingites tend not to draw attention to themselves in that manner during an era such as the one we currently live in.

Waiting in the wings are Chuck Gray, who is already campaigning for something on the far right wing of the far right, save when it comes to nuclear power, were the populist are flower children, so he is too.  Holding Gray up is Harriet Hageman, who seems likely to try to run, but whose position in opposition to the Federal lands is likely to sink any campaign of hers, or at least seriously damage it.

Also waiting in the wings is Mark Gordon, who has clearly not wanted Gray to replace him.  With Barlow throwing his broad brim in the ring, he likely won't run now.

August 15, 2025

This is interesting:

Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections against greenhouse gases based on ‘false science’

Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections against greenhouse gases based on ‘false science’: U.S. Rep. Hageman's comment didn't go over well in Pinedale, where residents struggled for years to clean up health-threatening pollution from oil and gas drilling.

Pinedale calls itself the "Icebox of the Nation" and the introduction of oil and gas operations near it are relatively new.  Given both of those, it clearly didn't drink the GOP Koolaide on global warming being a fib.

Hageman has so far received rough crewed treatment in Pinedale, Rock Springs, and Laramie. I suspect she would in Casper as well.  I also suspect she might want to start thinking about selling her house in D.C. and looking to move back to her brother's ranch, as she may be out of work next year. 

Labels: 2020s, 2025, 2026, 2026 Election, Climate Change, Harriet Hageman, Petroleum, Wyoming (Pinedale), Wyoming (Sublette County)

Wyoming has been a prime example of "if I make money from it, it must be perfectly okay".  If we could grow big fields of opium here, we'd be loudly in favor of heroin.

Given that, and given that a lot of Wyomingites are imports from warmer regions of the country, people here are huge climate change deniers, even though if you've lived here your whole life its extremely obvious that its going on.  

And Hageman comes from the agricultural which is bizarrely resistant to accepting the reality of climate change, even though if nothing is done, it'll destroy their livelihoods.

So she no doubt thought stepping in front of a Sublette  County audience would mean that the "climate change is a fib" line would be well received.  It wasn't.

Something is finally really starting to change here.  Part of it is that people are waking up to reality, and part of it is that Hageman took a stand for something Wyomingites detest, transfering the Federal lands, and then basically asserted we were dumb for not supporting it ourselves.  She's so all in on these positions, she really can't change them, and stepping in front of audiences makes her situation worse.

August 20, 2025

Congressman Elsie Stephanik was booked off of a New York stage two days ago.

Stephanik likely sacrificed her career for Trump.

Elsie of course crawled into bed with Trump.  She originally was opposed to him.  Harriet Hageman, on the other hand, was never openly opposed to Trump and took the seat of her former friend Liz Cheney opportunistically.

Hageman has had a lot of simple adoring fans since that time, but the bloom is really off the rose.  She was booed in deeply Republican Sublette County last week, and received a hostile crowd in Casper on Monday night.  Indeed, the Casper event was notably not only for the outright hostility to Hageman, but to extent to which a lot of Republicans flatly did not show up leaving a lot of room in the auditorium.

Hageman had her sights set on the Governor's mansion and still might.  If nothing else, she's doubling down on her position on everything.  But that ship has likely sailed, and she stands a good chance, right now, of having to vacate her Congressional seat.

August 29, 2025

And yet. . . 

Joseph Kibler running for governor on promise of ‘being something different

being yet another carpetbagger coming in and complaining of too much bureaucracy, particularly in a state you just moved to, isn't actually different.

September 30, 2025

Sec. Gray has flagged over 2,000 Wyoming voters for County Clerks to investigate s voters who may no longer reside in Wyoming.

This entire topic has been a fictional bee in Gray's bonnet.

Progressive Palestinian American Palestinian State Rep. Ruwa Romman has entered the Georgia Governor's race.

October 22, 2025

The Barlow Effect: Candidates can’t officially join the race till next year, but an unmistakably powerful ingredient has entered the mix, writes columnist Rod Miller.

November 18, 2025

A Federal Court in Texas has blocked the state from using its recently redrawn Congressional District map.

Oops.

This will be appealed, but if the decision is upheld it would mean that the five GOP (probably) seats that the state added won't be, while California, in a recent election, added five.

Oops.

Additionally, early indicators are that Texas Hispanics are following the national tread and are becoming disenchanted with the GOP, so some Texas districts may swing Democratic on their own.

Oops.

All of this could mean that the 2026 election could see the House not only swing Democratic, but perhaps massively so, and that some of the Returning Republicans are no longer big fans of Trump, to which those survivors will be reassessing their loyalty to Trump.

On the last item, Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene are in a flat out war with Trump, and Trump is losing.  Greene has gone from one of Trump's most loyal adherents to an outright anti Trump insurgent.

There's a year to go, of course, but Trump is already acting like unstable and clearly under pressure.  Having pulled out all the stops to prevent the release of the Epstein files, he now is claiming to once again support the release, putting the Senate in the hot seat.  If Trump is acting behind the scenes at the Senate, it puts Senators in a terrible spot at the same time that they have the example of Massie and Greene, who aren't being hurt by opposing Trump.

Locally, it'll be interesting to see if Lummis and Hageman remain lashed to the deck of Trump.  I bet Lummis won't.

December 11, 2025

From the New York Times.

Indiana Lawmakers Reject Trump’s New Political Map

Republicans hold an overwhelming majority in the Indiana Senate, but more than a dozen of them defied the president’s wishes, voting against a map aimed at adding Republicans in Congress.

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 2nd Edition: The early season.

Labels: 2026 Election, Carpetbaggers, Chuck Gray, Cynthia Lummis, Elon Musk, Errare humanum est perseverare diabolicum, Harriet Hageman, homosexuality, Hypocrisy, Lies, Politics, Populism, Republican Party, Sex, The Big Ugly, Wyoming

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 110th Edition. Ballooning ballrooms and murder on the sea.

The Autocrat and the Architect.

Reports are leaking out that Trump's architect and Trump are now at odds over the ever expanding ballroom, with McCreey having told Trump that the building, which now will hold over 1,000 people, is getting too big and is going to engulf the White House itself.  McCreery is no longer taking a day to day role in the vandalization.

It frankly is looking more and more like this project will never get built.  Trump's dementia is racing through his cerebellum now and the clock on his illegitimate occupancy of the Presidency is likely winding down.

The ballroom, which nobody other than Trump wants, and has not been wanted for 150 years like Trump likes to claim, is a major focus for Trump.  He's desperately looking for a physical monument to himself.

Looking for somebody to blame for murder.

Over the last few days, since the Washington Post broke the news that survivors of the first illegal Venezuelan boat sinking were subsequently murdered on the water, the Trump administration has been bouncing off the walls to get ahead of the story.

On the Weekend shows, Noem slandered the newspaper, saying she wouldn't believe the story.  Since then it's gone from Hegseth ordered everyone killed, but that was before the first illegal act, and the Navy commander of the operation acted independently, apparently interpreting his orders in that fashion.

The irony is that, of course, the same group of people were having a fit about a collection of Senators who are veterans urging service members not to follow illegal orders.  Now it turns out that a major illegal order was just given.  In fact, the entire boat sinking campaign off of Venezuela is illegal, so the first strike was itself murder.  Killing the survivors is definitely illegal.

Gray complaining about Gordon.

Chuck Gray is complaining about the Governor not granting him extra money to publicize a moronic initiative to completely destroy the state's finances by cutting property taxes 50%.  

Gray will take off before the chickens ever come home to roost on this.  He's still aligned with the Freedom Caucus but it's pretty this legislative session, where they are going to loom large, is going to be their high water mark.  Gray wants to be governor, but he's not going to get that position.  I'd guess that Barlow will, although its quite early.  When that effort fails, Gray might take a run at the Senate, if he's still around, and then depart, or just depart.

Postscript:

The official position is that the Admiral in charge of the operation ordered the second strike, with Hegseth saying he had left by the time it occurred.  He also cited the fog of war as the reason for the killing, which would presuppose there being a war, which there isn't.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 109th Edition. Lost love. Painting Targets. Piggy. Articles of Surrender. Voting in opposition of something that isn't going on.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, Charlie Kirk, Chuck Gray, Communism, Donald Trump, Francois Mitterrand, law, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mental Health, Misogyny, Politics, Russia, Russo Ukrainian War, Socialism, Turning Point USA, Zeitgeist

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 109th Edition. Lost love. Painting Targets. Piggy. Articles of Surrender. Voting in opposition of something that isn't going on.

Lost love

The big news this past week is that Marjorie Taylor Greene, who came to prominence as one of the most notable and frankly disagreeable figures on the far right, and then who moved away from Trump, is leaving the 119th Congress in January after her pension vests.

What's exactly going on here is really unclear, but Green's transformation was remarkable.  She used to come across like an ignorant howler monkey.  If  Eva_Vlaardingerbroek is the "Shieldmaiden of the far right", she was more like an buffoonish bouncer.

All of a sudden, however, she really came around to opposing Trump and in fact suddenly sounded like a different person completely.  That suggests her antics were always an act put on for her constituents.

Given her change, she was drawing the direct opposition of Trump who was opposing her in next year's Congressional election.  She already had stout opposition and may just be taking off because she doesn't want to spend the next year dealing with a pack of extremists.  Her transformation did not cause her to be loved by moderates who were baffled on her transformation, save perhaps for Thomas Massie, whom Trump also hates.  Trump is vicious to all who oppose him.

Well, as W. E. B. Dubois famously said, only a food never changes their mind.

The Seditionist accuses others of Sedition.

Oh horse shit.  No "great legal scholars" are venturing that opinion.  Pam Bondi probably would, if told to do so, but her sycophantry disqualifies her from being a great anything. 

Donald Trump is a seditionist insurrectionist.  He has not had his act of sedition excused by Congress, so he's actually ineligible to be President of the United States, and legally, isn't.

So that makes it all the more ironic and hypocritical that he's gone after a collection of Congressmen and Senators, all veterans, who reminded service members that they can, and must, obey an illegal order, under certain circumstances (they can't for instance, just assume an order may be illegal).

Some of this has actually already been happening.  Resignations of senior officers, and some firings, have hit the news, usually with a "gosh, I wonder why this is happening" sort of commentary.  It's happening because they're opposing illegal orders.  It's also the case that National Guardsmen have started a backchannel internet communication discussion that includes the same topic.

Trump seems to be in a full blown panic about this, and probably for good reason.  The US is currently murdering people on the seas in extrajudicial killings using military force that some regard as being on the edge of illegality.  Trump has sent National Guardsmen to cities with Courts repeatedly intervening to stop the deployments.  Trump is constantly rumored to be on the edge of using the Insurrection Act.  But as time goes on he gets more and more erratic.

The majority of American people already disapprove of Trump's presidency.  There's no national stomach at all for using the military against the population, but the administration has constantly flirted with it, and to some extent, already done it.  The legality of Trump's actions on all levels are in the Courts.  There's a reviving movement to impeach him, and his behind the scenes support may well be reaching the breaking point.  We still don't know what was in the Epstein files, other than that rich and powerful men feel they can get away with whatever they want, including screwing teenage girls.

Declaring the politicians who spoke to be seditionist is absurd.  They were no such thing.  But it does paint a target on their backs.  This was reprehensible.

It's also a sign of extreme desperation.  We'll note that below.

Piggy

One of the increased signs of Trump's dementia is his inability to hold his tongue.  Last week he called a reporter who asked a question he didn't like "Piggy".  It was a female reporter.

He's demented.

Any other politicians in the US who said such a thing would be howled down to the point they'd offer an apology.  Not Trump, of course.  The fact that he hasn't been is evidence of what redneck trash this country has become.  It's appalling.

It's also a sign that at this point Trump is so stressed by something that the wheels are really coming off of his psyche.

Articles of Surrender

One of the most notable things about Donald Trump is the degree to which he truly seems to abhor war.

Or does he?

It's actually a bit difficult to tell.

Regarding the Russo Ukrainian War, Trump has repeatedly issues statements that approach being homo erotic about the war and how it needs to end, due to all the "beautiful" young men it kills.  At the same time, of course, he doesn't mind killing South American men very much.

Going back to that, however, Trump has being trying and promising to end the Russo Ukrainian War for well over a year now.  He's flip flopped on positions, but one of those that he periodically occupies is acting as an agent for Russia.  We're back at that point again.

The West promised to secure Ukraine's sovereignty when it gave up its nuclear weapons.  The West has not fulfilled that promise fully.  President Biden did a good job of helping Ukraine right from the onset, but didn't go as far as he should have.  The various European nations have done far, far more than they've gotten credit for.  

Trump desperately wants a Nobel Peace Prize, and although he may have convinced himself that he ended "eight wars", so far, he's not really ended any, if we consider that the only real claim he could have made to that effect was the war in Gaza, where Israel conducted a bombing raid yesterday.  Most people who have really looked at the situation in Gaza don't expect the peace to hold permanently.

A real peace between Ukraine and Russia would be a major accomplishment, however.  The thing is, however, that the "peace plan" that Trump presented was basically that Ukraine surrender.  Indeed, it resembles the treaty that ended the Great War to some extent, in that Ukraine gives up land and limits the size of its army, which are two of the things Germany did at the end of World War One.

That worked out oh so well.

Of course, to realize that would require a sense of history, which Trump lacks.  That the plan smacks of the Munich Accords also would require that.

So, back to a couple of things .Why is Trump the only Western leader outside of Viktor Orban who  likes Putin?  It isn't because he's on the populist right.  Giorgia Meloni is on the populist right and she's not a Putin fan.  

But Meloni also is very intelligent and not trying to suck up unwarranted praise all the time.

It might be just because the Russians know that Trump is demented and a narcissist, and they play into that.  But it's hard to wonder if it isn't something else.

At any rate, member of the Administration are already attempting to walk the document back.  That's interesting, as Trump seemed very solidly behind it.  That suggest that there are some forces behind the scenes that can operate a bit independently of Trump.

Voting no on Socialism while Trump cozies up to it.

The House voted on a resolution to disapprove Socialism, which is just about as stupid of thing as they could done.  What on earth was that exactly supposed to prove?

The GOP has really gone off the rails on this topic in that it now asserts routinely that Socialism=Communism.  It doesn't.  All Communists are Socialist, but not all Socialists are Communists, and those who maintain the opposite need to go back to school.

Ronald Reagan's big French buddy Francois Mitterrand was a Socialist.  He was also completely democratic.

Of course, Donald Trump isn't completely democratic, but interestingly, some of his policies are socialist, and now he's had a fawning meeting with the new Democratic Socialist mayor of New York City.  He declared that they had a lot of views in common.

Look for the GOP to now propose joining the Comintern.  

Turning Point at CC

One of the things that the assassination of  Charlie Kirk seemed to do was to boost the creation of Turning Point USA chapters.  There's one at one of the local high schools now, and one at the local community college.

At that one, there was just an event at which the far right Secretary of State and a far right politician who wants less government but who is a major landlord, thereby occupying a role in society that only exists due the major support of the government, or else people would ignore your claim to property rights, spoke.  

Wyoming's far right is sounding more and more irrelevant, so its interesting how these things are a bit behind the curve.  Of course the Secretary of State, in order to try to keep ahead of the curve, has been sounding like a member of Greenpeace recently.  I thought this would have generated some news, but it doesn't seem to.

Interesting.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 108th Edition. Lost love.

Labels: Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Politics, Zeitgeist

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 11. The blistering ignorance edition.

 Guest Column: Fear Is No Energy Policy

Radiant scraps Wyoming nuclear microreactor manufacturing facility: California-based Radiant Industries cited the state's ban on spent nuclear fuel waste and said it will build a manufacturing plant in Tennessee.

Letter To The Editor: Why We Chose Tennessee Over Wyoming For Our Nuclear Generators

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus people, heavily made up in the legislature of carpetbaggers, and their street level MAGA adherents, which believe that global warming is a fib and that coal and petroleum will last forever, have likely chased Radiant Energy's nuclear generator factory out of the state, and out of Natrona County.

To hear many of the opposition to these proposals tell it, this is what was going to happen if Radiant Energy was allowed to come into the state

This is because they fear nuclear waste in spite of the repeated efforts of everyone who has looked into it that,to explain that in this case, there was nothing to fear.

The ironies of this are so thick it isn't funny.  In a state in which rampaging gang land rape is thought of as a virtue, opponents of this project sometimes came across sounding like they were members of Greenpeace.  

Well, you can't really have the a "save the planet" and "drill baby drill" point of view simultaneously, unless you are ignorant.  And this has been the triumph of ignorance.  

Indeed, a person sustains more exposure to radiation from ceiling fans (truly) than they would have for this proposal, of from background radon gas, or simply from living in the state.

Trump, who ironically supports nuclear, won't be around forever and the end of carbon based fuels is not only on the horizon, it's out on the front lawn.  Nuclear energy is  the future.

The entity would have directly employed 250 people.

But this is common for Wyoming.  I've seen feedlots basically run off twice, and by long standing assertion, Natrona County fail to support an effort by Coors to grow barley here.

I suppose if there is a bright spot, it would be that, given economic realities, this points us back to a very early type of economy in the state in a way. That won't make those employed in the oil and gas industry who think it's going to last forever happy, and it won't make any truck driving public servants happy either, but that's going to occur.  Of course, retirees who made their lives elsewhere and who don't give a rats ass about the state's economy now that they've left their job somewhere else won't care much.

In other news, visitors to Grand Teton Grand Teton spent $808M in 2024.

October 14, 2025.

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NOLS helps power Wyoming’s outdoor rec economy, study says

I guess somebody has to say it. . .right after people manage to chase Radiant away from Bar Nunn. . .

BREAKING: Bar Nunn Elementary, Woods Learning Center could close next school year

October 15, 2025

Cont:

Legislators Pointing Fingers Over Radiant Nuclear Killing Wyoming Project

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Wyoming Sheep Jams Reveal Mounting Pressures On Local Ranches And Farms

The fallout on Radiant pulling out is really proving to be the nuclear sh** that hit the fan and having all sort of interesting implications, one of which is that voters in some districts are getting a good look at their recently elected legislators for the first time.

One of whom is now in the spotlight is Natrona County Freedom Caucus member Bill Allemand, who hails from Midwest, a town that's completely dependant upon petroleum production. The town sits right in the center of the old Salt Creek Oil Field.  Allemand himself is a truck driver.  According to his website, he graduated from high school in 1977, which would mean that he's about 66 years old or so.  He's from a ranching family in that area.  It's really unclear, but he seems to have left and lived in Kansas for years.  When he came back, he went to work as a truck driver in Wyoming, which perhaps he was in Kansas.  His website conspicuously fails to mention a spouse, which would likely suggest there isn't one.

Right from the onset, Allemand ran as a member of the very far right.  He displaced long serving legislator Pat Sweeney in a race that saw the district boundaries redrawn.  Sweeney, a genteel older gentleman with a long history in politics was a tavern owner but had probably simply stayed around in politics too long, although he's still in it, now serving as a City of Casper Councilman.  Allemand was shockingly rude during his campaign against Sweeney and would have lost for that reason alone in earlier times.

Allemand in the legislature hasn't been hugely notable.  He's in the camp that has sided against public lands in various ways and is one of the legislatures which Wyoming outdoor recreationist should not support.  Now he's self branded as "Mr. No Nukes", a tag he proudly boasted about, right up until now when it's suddenly clear that a lot of Republicans are not very impressed.  Allemand is already running for reelection for 2026 and may have a battle on his hands.

While Allemand is a Wyomingite, unlike a lot of Freedom Caucus members, he fits into that class of individuals who apparently made their lives elsewhere and returned to the state late in life.  Brent Bien is another one.  These people weren't all here when the state loved its uranium industry and are seemingly wedded to coal and oil at the existential level.

As an aside, Allemand in photographs appears to have a wad of chewing tobacco under his front lip 90% of the time.  Perhaps I'm in error, but it's a pretty distinct look.  He ought to ditch that.

Anyhow, now that Allemand prevailed and Radiant isn't coming, he's suddenly wanting to "bury the hatchet" with those whom he tangled with. They do not appear to be ready to do that, nor should they.  Allemand didn't live in Bar Nunn but he went so far as to opine they should not have a police force, a totally local issues.  During this controversy he drew attention to himself, and now he will have to live with the implications of it.

In a related matter:

Tom Lubnau: What Can We Learn From The Failed Federal Coal Sale

Lubnau starts off:

Last week, the coal friendly Trump Administration offered 162,000 tons of mineable coal for sale near the Spring Creek Mine in Montana for sale. The only bid for the coal was by Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) for $186,000. 

The bid for the coal was less than a penny per recoverable ton of coal. The last successful sale for coal was $1.10 per ton, or a bid more than 100 times greater than the bid NTEC made. 

Given the disappointingly low bid, the BLM canceled the sale.

This makes plain in the present era something industry insiders, which I was to a slight degree back in the 90s, have known for decades. Coal is dead.  People who boost it are either delusional, which much of the Freedom Caucus, maybe all of it, really are, or are telling people what they want to hear in order to advance themselves.

Which gets back to the Freedom Caucus. Why did they oppose nuclear projects?  It's really unclear.  To a large degree, however, it seems that a lot of them are just blisteringly ignorant on the state's history.  They seem to be a  carpetbagging Rexall Cowboys to a large extent.

I'm fairly firmly convinced that some don't' fit that category, and are just cynical.  I'd place Chuck Gray in that category  He's from the extreme far right but has gone full greenie in Natrona County, including opposing Radiant.  Why?  Probably simple political expediency.  Indeed, I'm fairly convinced that if Donald Trump, in his declining mental state, announced that he intended to dump Melania and pursue Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a love interest, Gray would be AOC's biggest fan.

Little noticed in Natrona County, the same drama is going on in Campbell County.

Town hall on nuclear development reveals tensions over waste, state control in Gillette

October 16, 2025

Cont:

Governor Gordon Voices Disappointment in Radiant Nuclear Announcement

CHEYENNE, Wyo, October 14, 2025 - Governor Gordon (R-WY) made the following statement today regarding the announcement by Radiant Nuclear. 

“It is a sad day when Wyoming loses out to Tennessee in providing energy leadership. Members of the Freedom Caucus inspired ‘Club No’ convinced Radiant that Wyoming isn’t about leadership and problem solving. Tennessee stood ready to accept that opportunity; maybe they understand how to build an economy.

‘Club No’ has ushered in a new culture of no matter who began or who commenced it, we’re against it.  That is not the way Wyoming became the great state it is. We aren’t even following President Trump's lead.

Let me say it plainly: Wyoming should not be held back by fear. We should be pioneers. We should be the first state companies turn to when they want regulatory clarity, bold infrastructure, and a partner for innovation. The Trump Administration’s energy agenda gave us the opening; this microreactor project fits that agenda. Given a chance, if we had been willing to work together, no problem is unsolvable for Wyoming. 

I applaud the citizens, county leaders, and those legislators who believed in opportunity over obstruction and Wyoming’s legendary reputation for finding solutions. Let’s work together to ensure Wyoming remains open for business. We will not let the ‘Club No’ crowd define our future.”

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An item from the Leopards Won't Eat My Face group:

Wyoming Ranchers Join National Outcry Against Trump’s Argentina Beef Plan

Seriously, how stupid can you be.  Why did ranchers (and I am one) think Trump would be good for them?  Republicans never are, and he's a rather dim urbanite.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

October 24, 2025

cont:

Oh yeah. . .that's clearly the reaction a totally stable secure genius would have . . . 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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Inflation is up as prices jumped 3% last month.

October 25, 2025

cont:

When I was a kid, a particularly vicious insult was to call somebody a "diaper baby".  It was such an insult, that it called for an immediate retraction or fisticuss.  A person who would swallow such an insult accepted that they were, in fact, a diaper baby.

It expressed an extreme sort of narcissistic childish immmaturity.

Trump has hiked tariffs on Canada as he couldn't hack Ontario's well done Reagan advertisement. That's because, quite frankly, Donald Trump is a diaper baby.

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The Senate voted to end King Donny's bogus emergency tariffs on Brazil and will be voting to remove his emergency tariff authority entirely later this week.

As Smarmy Mike sent the House home, and won't recall them, nothing can happen right now. The Trump UniBrain GOP in the House earlier voted not to take up the illegal tariffs for the rest of the year anyhow.

What this frankly is, is a sign that an economic train wreck is coming and the Senate doesn't want the blame, or rather a few GOP Senators that aren't part of the UniBrain see it coming and don't want the blame.

October 29, 2025.

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In exchange for promises from China, which I'm sure are all so good, that will crack down on fentanyl, the United States will shave 10% off the tariffs it charges on Chinese goods.

2025 年 10 月 30 日'

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Trump's decision to stop the production of pennies is causing a crisis in retail in parts of the country as exact change can no longer be made as the supply of pennies dries up.

October 31, 2025

¢¢¢

Gordon declares public welfare emergency in light of SNAP lapse, OK’s $10 million in aid: The executive order allows Wyoming’s governor to send emergency funds to charitable organizations, churches.

November 1, 2025

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Eight Senate Democrats Defect And Vote For Shutdown Deal

This has the effect of being a cave in to Republican budget cuts.

This must now go back to the House, which of course is in recess.  

November 10, 2025

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And tariffs are coming off of all sorts of food items, now that Taco realizes they heard the economy and people are angry.

November 11, 2025

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And with this entry, we'll close out this edition.

Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 10. The killing the messenger edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, 2026 Wyoming Legislature, Coal, Economics, Government, Newspapers, restaurants and bars, Solar Energy, The Second Trump Administration, Work, Wyoming, Wyoming Business Council, Wyoming's boom and bust economy

A Wyoming Party, and some other thoughts. We're on our own.

Jane Banner: Shouldn't we wait for back up?

Ben: This isn't the land of waiting for back up. This is the land of you're on your own.

Wind River. 

In the film Wind River, set on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Tribal policeman Ben and FBI agent Jane Banner are confronted with gunfire while investigating a crime and have the exchange noted above.

Wyomingites love that quote, and there's a lot to it.*

Not only is there a lot to it, its very much the case regarding politics in this state.  Our Congressional delegation doesn't support or represent us on many of the existential matters at play in the state.  Not one darned bit.

And they're not going to.  Just as in Wind River the two policemen, and an Animal Damage officer, were  under assault by those that they were going to have to take on, on their own, so are the residents of this state.

The other day I saw a lifelong member of Wyoming's Republican Party, who once held positions within it, decried. Wyoming's Congressional Representation as "bought and paid for".  This followed, by a period of a couple of years, a similar claim by a former significant Wyoming politicians that I somewhat know. Another person I know describe all three of Wyoming's Congressional delegation as "ass kissing sycophants".

There's something to all of that.

The vast bulk of their large campaign war chests comes from out of state money.  Compared to it, the money from  Wyomingites doesn't even amount to a drop in the bucket.  It's more like a drop in a 55 gallon barrel.  Wyoming public media, in a news story on the topic, reported:

JU: OpenSecrets reported that Rep. Harriet Hageman received $15,000 from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Sen. John Barrasso has received over $70,000 from a private equity firm based in New York and California [from 2019 to 2024]. And Sen. Cynthia Lummis received over $100,000 from the Club for Growth, a conservative PAC [from 2019 to 2024]. In the face of more powerful organizations like those, how do individual or local donors in Wyoming make their voice more impactful? Or their donation more impactful?

Some group calling itself the Americans for Prosperity have been running non stop adds on social media thanking John Barrasso for his role in the Big Ugly.

Who are these people and organizations?  Wyomingites?

Not hardly.  Wikipedia says of them:

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch.[6] As the Koch family's primary political advocacy group, it has been viewed as one of the most influential American conservative organizations.

Club for Growth is a radical right wing economic outfit as well.

American Israel Public Affairs Committee:  What does have to do with the average Wyomingite?

Not freaking much.

In a couple of place around town, there are billboard featuring all three of our Congress people with the Tetons in the background thanking all three for standing with "American Energy", by which they no doubt mean petroleum and coal, not wind, solar and nuclear (as we've recently learned locally).

The bigger problem is that the Congressional delegation flat out ignores the views of Wyomingites on some major issues, public lands being one.  Wyomingites are overwhelmingly opposed to the Federal lands going to the states, and are opposed to public lands being sold.  That well known fact hasn't done anything to keep our Congressional delegation from supporting those things, and it's done nothing whatsoever to keep the Wyoming GOP from backing land transfers.

Dr. John Barrasso, who after all is a East Coaster and looks like one, has his head so far up Trump's ass on a daily basis that he can examine Trump's tonsils from the backside.  He has no use for Wyoming anymore.  My guess is that he's in his last term as he knows that he's not going to be the Senate Majority Leader so being a fascist flunky will be his career achievement, and he's okay with that.

Who knows what's up with Lummis.  She's always been a Cheshire cat in the first place, with a sort of snarky smile. She goes her own way, and that way isn't yours.

Harriet Hageman is the most honest of the bunch. Sure, she's stuck in the Powder River Campaign, but her views, while not the same as most of hours, re honestly  and openly held.

Chuck Gray?  Gray is just using Wyoming, that's about it.  And his politics bend with the wind.  He's a far right winger Greenpeacer if you can make sense of that, and he's  hoping you can't and will yell at you until you are distracted.

Right now, the Wyoming GOP is the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is packed with people who are not from Wyoming, and how have brought their dumbass ideas with them and want to impose them on Wyoming.

They're succeeding in doing so. There's really no saving the GOP in the state. The old GOP, which was uniquely Wyoming in view, is dead, taking the path of the old Wyoming Democratic Party, which did as well, and which died first.

In its place we have the Dixiecrats and those whose one and only value is their pocket books.

They need to go.

But it would appear unlikely that they can be dislodged from the current GOP, put on plane, and shipped back to the their home states, like they should be.

The only two things the two failed parties agree on is that you should never vote for a third party.  That's how we got into this mess.

So maybe it's time for some new parties not beholding to the crap these parties are.

And why not local parties?

Let's start with something that should be clear to all, but really seems not to be.

There's nothing American or Constitutional about a "two party system". The founders, while they rapidly fell into parties, didn't approve of them at all.  A primary system, such as we and most other states have, is existentially anti democratic and existentially unconstitutional.  They're nothing more than state funded party elections that are geared to conspire against any person from a third party, or just an independent running.  Primary elections would make sense only if no party affiliation was noted on the ballot at all.  Get 1,000 signatures to get you on, perhaps, and you are on.

Moreover, it's really time to allow for recalls of Congressional representation.  If we had that, all three of our Congressional people would be facing a recall election right now.  John Barrasso, who earnestly believes whatever you believe as you believe it, and even more than you do, would now be leading armed raids into Utah against Mike Lee if that was the case, rather than spending all of his time kissing Trump's ass.

Suffice it to say, we're not being served well.

What would a party that actually reflected Wyoming's values look like?

Well, of course, in stating something like that, I'm inevitably going to post what a party that reflected my values, mostly, would look like.

• It'd protect public lands.
• It'd have a land ethic.
• It'd protect democratic values, as in voting.
• It'd realize that science isn't a fib, and that some things have to adjust because of scientific reality.
• It would have a tax system that accepted that out of state imports with huge amounts of cash should be taxed.

Frankly, it'd look a lot like what the GOP here used to look like.

It's be overall conservative, without a doubt, but conservative in a Wyoming sort of Way, not in a Dixiecrat sort of way.

Most Wyomingites who are from Wyoming, save those who had drank the MAGA/Charlie Kirk Kool aide, would likely vote for it.

We're sure not going to be saved by the Democrats. They'll do anything they can to wreck their own chances at the ballot box. And we're not going to be saved by the Republicans either.  The GOP has wiped out the real party and put in place a party that Nathan Bedford Forest would be proud of.

We're on our own.

Footnotes:

*I'll confess that I've done a lot of legal work on the Wind River Reservation, and it haunts me.  This is a really good move, and I've watched it twice in the theatre, but I can't get through it again.  May the perpetual light shine upon many there.