Showing posts with label Democratic Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Democratic Party. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

The 2025 Wyoming Legislative Session, Part 1. And we've already started. . .

 


April 4, 2024

Eh?  2025?  Didn't the 2024 session just wrap up?

Yes, yes it did, and:

Lawmakers begin work on new bills after voting against special session

It seems like we're getting closer and closer to a full-time legislature, which is a bit scary.

June 18, 2024

From: Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or less locally, Part 3. The Decarbonizing the West and Electronic eartags Edition.

Related to this, and acknowledging that electric vehicles are coming, a draft bill for the 2025 legislature proposes to tax electric vehicle charging.  While that sounds punitive, the thought it that it will make up for lost gasoline taxes used for roads.  The introductory part of that bill:

September 24, 2024

The final makeup of the 2025 legislature isn't known yet, but as some other things posted today demonstrate, its fairly likely, although not certain, that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a populist (not conservatives) entity that's really a political party in its own right, will control the House.

If this comes to pass, it'll make for a massively contentious legislative session. The populist have already been extremely disruptive in the legislature, and now they'll be expected to advance their agenda, which in some instances are actually completely unworkable.  Should their views on taxation advance, for instance, it'll bankrupt local governments and reduce Wyoming to an overall sort of Appalachia in terms of government services.

Additionally, the hypocrisy of Wyoming positions on the Federal government will rapidly come to the forefront.  Can we really give the US government the middle finger, while accepting highway and disaster money?

Are we going to fight wildlands fires on our own?

Indeed, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus may be the biggest  gift to the Wyoming Democratic Party imaginable.

In the meantime, it's the outgoing legislature, not the incoming one, that's working on bills for the 2025 session.  These are the ones being considered right now.

Appropriations

Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technology

Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions

Minerals, Business & Economic Development

July 30 - 31, 2024

October 4, 2024.


November 17, 2024

Small coal fired power plants? 

Seriously?

November 19, 2025

Making driver's licenses busier:


November 26, 2024

Looming disaster:

Wyoming Freedom Caucus poised for nation’s first statehouse takeover

Headline in the Tribune.

Cont:

Freedom Caucus in control of the House.  Uff.

December 5, 2024

A bill to incentivize utilities to take steps in regard to wildfires in exchange for liability limitations has failed in committee.

December 9, 2024
December 11, 2024

The Freedom Caucus has taken over committee assignments.


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Sunday, November 10, 2024

Lex Anteinternet: 2024 Election Post Mortem, Part II. Going too far to the left.

Lex Anteinternet: 2024 Election Post Mortem, Part I. What the heck h...: And so the finger pointing, blaming, and name calling has begun. The 2024 Presidential Election was supposed to be close. It wasn't.  An...

As a slight addition to this:

2.  It's actually the social issues, stupid.

El Paso Sheriff : What's it mean? What's it leadin' to? You know, if you'd have told me 20 years ago, that I'd see children walking the streets of our Texas towns with green hair and bones in their noses, I just flat-out wouldn't have believed you.

Ed Tom Bell : Signs and wonders. But I think once you quit hearing "sir" and "ma'am," the rest is soon to foller.

El Paso Sheriff : Oh, it's the tide. It's the dismal tide.

No Country For Old Men. 

We warned prior to 2016 that Justice Kennedy's opinion in Obergefell had awakened a latent sleeping giant.  It did.

People keep analyzing the race in terms of the economy, which I myself partially did above.  But the big issue, to put it bluntly, is that Obergefell shocked many people into confronting the moral decline of the nation, something that had been going on for a very long time.

Sexual immorality in the US really commenced its roll in the late 1940s, as we've discussed before, and started to accelerate in 1953 with the launch of Playboy, and then really took off in the 1960s with the pill and the Sexual Revolution.  The irony of all of this, however, is the public tolerated it, although not always very comfortably, as it fit into conventional immorality.  That is, the White Anglo Saxon Protestant community basically tolerated a boys will be boys attitude at first, and then accommodated itself to other trends later, as long as things roughly worked out the way they were supposed to in the end, although they have not been working out for quite some time.  Once Obergefell came along, however, the public was asked to accommodate something else, and it hasn't, and for a host of reasons.  Transgenderism, which really doesn't exist, came hard on the heels of homosexual marriage, and it was just too much for large sections of the country.

At one time, it might be noted, it was a common assertion that the Babylon Berlin atmosphere of 1920's Germany had brought about the Nazis, in part, as they seemed to stand against unconventional immorality.  In truth, homosexuality was present in the early Nazis, but the movement did a good job of plastering over it so it was ignored, if known, just like Trump's flagrant immoral conduct with women is at least somewhat known, if ignored.  It allowed people to believe that that the Nazis would foster a return to pre 1914 moral standards, while ignoring that they would inflict new horrors.*  A lot of that has gone on in the populist movement as well, which sort of imagines that the country will sort of return to an imagined 1950s, or an imagined 1970s.

The Democrats didn't even try to do anything about this, but rather embraced the matters that the Trump populists and their fellow travellers opposed.  That's a big part of what occured.  Americans proved to be willing to go pretty far with changes in Christian morality before they started regretting it, which they did, but to be kicked into a new room with a bunch of very unconventional behaviors was more than they could bear.  It not only spawned a massive counterreaction, but it spawned radical new theories about the nature of what was going on, much of them false, and sort of a modified variant of a Great Awakening, that we haven't seen the end of yet.**  This reaction, moreover, wasn't limited to the US, but has been scene all over the Western World, caused by similar events.

You have to know the times you live in.

I heard on a podcast, by somebody who didn't vote for Trump or Harris, the social issue boiled down to this:


Dr. Richard Levine, a pediatrician, was appointed the head of HHS.  He claims to be transgendered, something that doesn't exist.  The podcaster didn't mention his name (he goes by Rachel) but just vague referred to him as "the dude" appearing as a woman, and that there were some places you really can't go.

That likely does sum up what occurred in a lot of ways.  The Democrats no doubt thing they are out in front on this, but the country got dragged out to its present status by Justice Kennedy's opinion and a lot of the country doesn't want to go there.  It was a bridge too far.

Democrats are going to have to do a lot of soul searching.  Some are already claiming that the Democratic Party needs to double down on its leftward views, but all around the world that is flat out not working.  The vacuum is in the middle.  Nobody is seeking to fill it.

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Sunday, October 27, 2024

Choices and the 2024 Election. An Observation.


It's a real oddity that in a nation which adores choices, we've chosen not to have very many in politics.

You can go to the grocery store and find an endless number of option for bottled water, and I don't mean the mineral waters from far off regions.  Just regular old water.  Water comes right to the house at a cheaper rate through the municipal water system, but people still buy it contained in plastic bottles from the store.

And yet we have only two political parties we choose to take seriously, no matter how much they've failed us, and are failing us.

Not only that, we seriously listen to those who argue we must not consider any other options.

Indeed, it's sort of an interesting example of the Adam Sandler Effect.  That is, everyone agreeing to something because everyone else seems to agree that we should agree with it, combined with the Jo Jo Rabbit Effect of only hearing those right around us.

Everyone has had the experience of something being heralded in a locality with no real reason.  "It's great", they all say, even though it isn't.  

American politics right now in that sense, are like two restaurants in the same small town strip mall.  They're competing against each other fiercely, and even have their adherents, but frankly neither is very good.  Basically, you can go into one and have the crap sandwich on white bread, or the other the sh** sandwich on rye.  Out in the parking lot, however, there are food trucks with different menus.

Both restaurants agree you shouldn't go to the food trucks.


Well, if you live in a state where one of the two restaurants seems to be permanently closed for renovation, you can definitely go to one of the food trucks.
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Friday, October 4, 2024

The 2024 Election, Part XXV. The GOP yells "get off my lawn" edition.

 

The Harris/Trump debate took place last night.  I missed the first 45 or so minutes.

I don't know what happened in that time frame, but in the part I saw, watching Donald Trump was like watching a racoon on crack.

Even Fox News declared Harris the "clear" winner, while whining about ABC moderators fact checking "everything" Trump said. Given that Trump is a massive liar, the fact that they did fact check was a public service.

One newscaster, post debate, stated that it was like watching "an old man yelling at clouds", which apparently is a reference to an episode of the Simpsons.  Apparently Simpson meme's went wild after Trump repeated the J. D. Vance bizarre canard about immigrants stealing pets for food (completely untrue).  Trump specifically stated:

In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating – they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.

The claim was immediately debunked by moderator David Muir, but people were quick to pick up on it.

 

And even as the newscaster made the yelling at clouds comment (and also mocked "get off my law") the memes were flying.


A rational party, which the GOP no longer is, would sideline this candidate.  The problem now is, however, that as J. D. Vance went out on a limb and admitted he would have acted illegally in regard to the bogus election claims, he's unfit for office and there's nobody to go to.

Whether it really matters or not is another matter, but post debate Taylor Swift endorsed Harris.

Wyoming's Congressional delegation declared Trump the winner of the debate, which was predictable.  Seriously, however,. if even Fox News states that Harris was clearly the winner . . . 

September 12, 2024

Trump found Taylor Swift coming out against him, citing herself as a "childless cat lady", two days ago.  Now Linda Ronstadt has:


Stevie Nicks (whose music I can't stand) has also done so, citing herself as a "childless dog lady".

J. D. Vance has proven to be the gift that just keeps giving to the Harris campaign, given the numerous and provocative statements he's made.  He also has been due to philosophical stances he's taken, which is another topic.  At any rate, trends in regard to Trump aren't favorable to him, even if he should be successful in the election.

September 13, 2024

Trump on the leader of the Taliban in a press conference this week: 

He called me 'Your Excellency.' I wonder if he calls that to Biden. I doubt it.

There's something really bizarre about Trump.  Being called "your excellency" apparently really matters to him, so much that he thinks being called that by the Taliban is nifty.

That's weird.

Something to consider on his odd behavior:

Trump's speech and cognitive concerns.

In psychiatry, the tendency to conspicuously and rigidly repeat a thought beyond the point of relevance, called “perseverance,” is known to be correlated with a variety of clinical disorders, including those involving a loss of cognitive reserve. People tend to stick to familiar topics over and over when they experience an impairment in cognitive functioning—for instance, in short-term memory. Short-term memory is essentially your mental sketch pad: how many different thoughts you can juggle in your mind, keep track of, and use at the same time. Given the complexity of being president, short-term memory is a vital skill.

If a patient presented to me with the verbal incoherence, tangential thinking, and repetitive speech that Trump now regularly demonstrates, I would almost certainly refer them for a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness. A condition such as vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s disease would not be out of the ordinary for a 78-year-old. Only careful medical examination can establish whether someone indeed has a diagnosable illness—simply observing Trump, or anyone else, from afar is not enough. For those who do have such diseases or conditions, several treatments and services exist to help them and their loved ones cope with their decline. But that does not mean any of them would be qualified to serve as commander in chief.

 Richard A. Friedman, a psychiatrist, in The Atlantic.

September 14, 2024

Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or the one who (supports) killing babies Both are against life.

Pope Francis on Harris and Trump. 

The Pope counselled to "choose the lesser evil".  If you live in a state, however, that's going overwhelmingly for one candidate or another, you don't actually have to, and can vote for a third party like The American Solidarity Party.

Laura Loomer, about whom I know nothing, but who is apparently an extreme right wing personality, has been traveling around with Trump.  He's now criticizing her but she's been seen a lot with her including some photos in which they are uncomfortably close.  Trump has a knack for appearing with embarrassing people.

In a campaign speech over the last couple of days Trump promised the largest mass deportation in history, starting in Springfield Ohio and Colorado.

September 15, 2024

Penultimate conservative George F. Will endorsed Kamala Harris.

September 16, 2024

A second assassination attempt on Donald Trump occurred yesterday.  In this instance, the Secret Service spotted the would be assailant before he staged his attempt and opened fire first.

The assailant was Ryan Wesley Routh, who had been convicted in 2002 for possessing a machine gun. He used that weapon in a stand off with the police.  How he had a AK47 type rifle in this instance is an obvious question.  Based on news reports of his social media, he at one time claimed he was going to go to Ukraine and fight (he clearly didn't), and he had pro Palestinian and anti Chinese posts as well.

cont:

Trump and Canada's big water faucet:  Canada Has A Big Water Faucet.

What the crap?

September 17, 2024

Scientific American endorsed Kamala Harris.

September 20, 2024

Lummis Co-Authors Book On Why People Should Vote For Trump

cont:

Pro-Trump Georgia election board votes to require hand counts of ballots

This is, quite frankly, stupid.

cont:

Absentee ballots for uniformed and overseas Wyomingites go out starting Sept. 20

September 24, 2024

Governor Gordon’s Executive Order Directs State Agencies to Prevent, Report Non-Citizen Voting Efforts

September 19, 2024

Recognizing voter concerns over non-citizens attempting to vote nationwide, Governor Mark Gordon issued an Executive Order (EO) directing state agencies to take further steps to ensure Wyoming’s elections continue to be safe and secure.


“Recognizing the Biden/Harris Administration’s disastrous border policies compel us to do all we can to protect the integrity of our elections, I, alongside fellow Republican Governors, have taken the action afforded to me by the Constitution and the Laws of Wyoming to confirm the security of Wyoming’s elections,” Governor Gordon said.


“I remain confident Wyoming’s elections are the most secure in the nation,” the Governor added. “As required by the laws enacted by the legislature, our county clerks are thorough and diligent when determining, investigating and verifying voter citizenship. With this Executive Order, I reaffirm my commitment to that ideal.


Residents can be confident that this order removes any confusion and clarifies for our agencies – should there be any doubt – that they will not enable or facilitate any noncitizen to register to vote or help them to vote.”  


Executive Order 2024-11 directs State agencies to take a variety of actions to ensure that non-citizens do not vote or register to vote. State agencies may not provide voter registration materials to non-citizens and must confirm that they are not required to provide those materials to non-citizens when contracting with federal programs or agencies.


In addition, the EO encourages the Secretary of State and the County Clerks to continue to effectively and efficiently use the tools provided to each of them by Wyoming’s election code to investigate and verify voter registration. The Wyoming Constitution requires every person to be a citizen of the United States before they can legally register and vote in Wyoming. 


As he did earlier this year, the Governor continues to urge the legislature to provide clarity on the definition of the term “bona fide resident.” Wyoming’s county clerks have indicated to the Legislature  that this clarification is needed, and the Governor agrees.

A poll places incumbent Senator Ted Cruz in a dead heat with his Democratic challenger, Colin Allred.

Cruz going down in defeat would be a major blow to Republican efforts to secure the Senate.

September 27, 2024

First shoes, then Bibles, now watches.

October 1, 2024.

You just can't make this stuff up.

I will shut down all entries through Kamala’s migrant phone app. She’s got a phone app. It’s meant for the cartel heads. The cartel heads call the app, and they tell them where to drop the illegal migrants… It’s not even believable.

Donald Trump.  Indeed, for the rational, that is not believable.

They come from the Congo in the Africa. Many people from the Congo. I don't know what that is, but they come out of jails in the Congo.

Many people, from the Congo, which he doesn't know what it is?

October 2, 2024

Debate Recap: JD Vance, Tim Walz talk foreign policy, climate change and immigration

October 4, 2024

Melania Trump has cut a Trump/Vance ad in which she notes that she's pro infanticide, one more step in the GOP abandoning its formerly pro life plank.  Vance has already boarded the IVF ship fully, in spite of that involving the death of fertilized eggs.  Melania was baptized a Catholic, although there's no real evidence that she's practiced in any recent period, and Vance is a convert who is now demonstrating again that politics will prevail over conviction for him.

The American Solidarity Party is the only real pro life party in the race that I"m aware of.

For at least those who are not in a swing state, this is one more reason that the American Solidarity Party candidates should be voted for, and are perhaps the only moral vote in such states.

Related threads:

The Christian, and more particularly the Catholic, vote. 2024


Does a "Freedom" Caucus victory in the primaries mean the Democrats have a chance in the general?

Last edition

The 2024 Election, Part XXVI. Touching Down

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