The 2026 Election, 5th Edition: The Saddle Up Edition.

The last edition of this was already sufficiently confusing that a new one is in order.

In this one, when we list the candidates to start with, we're not going to try to comment on each for the most part, as we've already done that in the prior edition.  Having said that, we've made some exceptions.

February 1, 2026.

U.S. Senate

GOP

Harriet Hageman. On our don't vote for list.

Jimmy Skovgard.

U.S. House of Representatives

GOP

Jillian Balow

Chuck Gray.  On our don't vote for list.

Reid Ransner. On our don't vote for list.

David Giralt

Independant

Daniel Workman.

Governor

GOP

Eric Barlow:  At least so far, Barlow seems to be by far the best choice for this office.  I'm seeing some of his signs around.

Brent Bien. On our don't vote for list.

Meggan Degenfelder. On our don't vote for list.  Degenfelder is from the relatively hard right and has been tarred with the brush of a Trump endorsement, which she really doesn't seem fully comfortable with.  She may be aware that it's problematic.

Democratic Party

Gabriel Green:  Green is listed here for the first time.  He's associated with the DINO movement, so while he's running as a Democrat, it's "in name only". Indeed, he founded the state's DINO movement, and he might be the only person to run under that banner.  He's aggressive in this strategy, and is nearly as hard on the Democrats as he is the Republicans.

This is an interesting approach, and I've wondered why somebody hasn't tried it before.  It'll be interesting to see how he uses it.  Many of the state's past Democratic Governors were as conservative as any Republican, in actual terms, so there is something to be exploited here.

Independant

Joseph Kibler.  On our don't vote for list.

Kibler announced as a Republican, but now is running as an independant.

Kibler is a carpetbagger and has the typical carpetbagger "I just moved here from California for all your freedom and now I'm going to run things". 

Go back to California.

*******************

On this race, WyoFile has asked the candidates, asd seems to have caught all of them, on what they think about the Freedom Caucus budgetary  nonsense.

Where Wyoming’s gubernatorial candidates stand on budget cuts: WyoFile asked the five candidates whether they supported some of the more drastic proposals lawmakers will consider in the upcoming legislative session.

Treasurer

GOP

Curt Meier

*******************

In election related news, Chuck Gray turned over the entire state's voter rolls to the Federal Government.

UPDATE: Gray defends voter roll compliance after Wyoming’s League of Women Voters slams transfer

Secretary of State refutes League’s claims, says group has ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’

I'd really question the legality of this, but if the Trump Administration ordered states to run over kittens with bulldozers Gray would gleefully comply.  His actions provoked the criticism of the League of Women Voters which Gray accused of being liberal fanatics, his standard retort to everything.

We're stuck with Gray until the end of his term, assuming that he doesn't get elected to the US House, which we should dearly hope he does not.  If he fails to get the House, we can be assured that he will not run for Secretary of State again, as his only point in running for the office in the first place was to try to position himself for higher office.  He'll wonder off to some other state at that point.

In another developments, Texas continued a nationwide trend of Democrats advancing at the state level in advance of the November election.  In a district that voted heavily from Trump in the last general election, a Democratic candidate defeated a Trump endorsed Republican candidate whom Gov. Abbot had attempted to assist.  This means that the GOP holds the Texas Senate by a mere five seats.  They hold the House by 22 seats.  Some of these state legislatures are going to flip in the next election.

More locally, Harriet Hageman has been taking flak at town halls, with the one in Casper directly confronting here on her claims to be a "Constitutional lawyer", a status itself which I've never really figured out what it was supposed to mean.

February 3, 2026

Donald Trump has called for nationalizing the elections.

Chuck Gray turned Wyoming's voters rolls over to the Federal Government, which is seeking them.  Wyoming apparently was the first to comply with this outrageous request which not all states intend to honor.

This should disqualify Gray from being considered for anything further in Wyoming, right down to Walmart greeter.

Ranser is running piles of images of himself with rifles on his social media, apparently seeking to boost the view that  he's an outdoorsman.  Perhaps he is, but brings up the necessity of asking certain questions.  He's also come out with a statement that public lands should always remain in public hands, which I fully agree with but which is surprising given Ranser's generally slavish loyalty to the extreme far right.  This may be his genuine view, or he may realize that this is what the overwhelming majority of Wyomingites' hold.

There's clearly a current effort to take on the Wyoming Freedom Caucus that's developing.  It's late to the game, but it's definitely on.  A lot of focus has been given to it's funding which is overwhelmingly from out of state organizations with a far right political view.

February 5, 2026

Bo Biteman is considering running for the House.

Wyoming Senate President Bo Biteman 'Looking Seriously' At U.S. House Run

And a candidate has entered the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction:

Tom Kelly Announces Run For Superintendent Of Public Instruction

And in addition to Kelly, a Chad Auer is considering running.

Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer has announced a run against Freedom Caucus member Bill Allemand. Allemand, who is currently facing charges for DUI in Johnson County is a member of the Freedom Caucus who is very much on our Don't Vote For List.  We hope Boyer handily defeat Allemand.

February 7, 2026

The Tribune has an interview of Skovgaard in today's edition.

It's better than most local candidate interviews, but again frustratingly light on background. I don't know why local reporters ask such lightweight questions.

Cowboy State Daily took a look at the race against Bill Allemand.

'No-Nuclear’ State Rep. Bill Allemand Has Challenger For House Seat

February 8, 2026

And it's happened again.  

Democrat Chastity Verret Martinez has won the special election for Louisiana House District 60, defeating Republican challenger Brad Daigle by a wide margin in a district that supported President Donald Trump in 2024.  The district is traditionally Democratic, but like a lot of the traditionally Democratic blue collar or socially conservative regions of the country, it had been going to the GOP recently.

That's over.

February 11, 2026

Trump stated in an interview that the GOP should win in "a landslide" this November.

It's clear the opposite is true, which makes this clear.

Trump intends to steal the 2026 election.

February 18, 2026

And now a Democrat has entered the race for the Senate.

Former Wyoming Rep. James Byrd announces bid for U.S. Senate: Byrd is the first Democrat to enter what's now a three-person race to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Cynthia Lummis.

James Byrd is a well known Democrat from Cheyenne. And what he's saying in the Wyofile article ought to make him an extremely strong candidate if people are able to get over the fact that he's a Democrat.

So far, we have, in the Senate race, as of now:

U.S. Senate

GOP

Harriet Hageman. On our don't vote for list.

Jimmy Skovgard.

Democratic Party

James Byrd

On the Republican side, I've been following Jimmy Skovgard's blog to try to figure out what he's about and its massively underwhelming.  He posts nearly daily, and his blog reads like; "Bananas, average people, oatmeal, I like pie".

I know that he's trying to be erudite and come across as a third option, but it sound the writing of somebody who really can't write.

In the race for Governor, we have this:

A Degenfelder fundraiser in Denver. . . gee, that's real Wyomingite. . 

Related posts:

Blog Mirror: WYOMING: IT’S TIME TO TAKE OUR GOVERNMENT BACK

Pollice Verso. The 2026 Political Negative Endorsement. The Don't Vote For List.

Addressing politicians in desperate times. A series.

Questions hunters, fishermen, and public lands users need to ask political candidates. Addressing politicians in desperate times, part 2.

Claiming the mantle of Christ in politics. Addressing politicians in desperate times, part 3.

Claiming the mantle of Christ in politics. Don't support liars and don't lie. Addressing politicians in desperate times, part 4.

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 4th Edition: The Wasting No Time Edition*

Pollice Verso. The 2026 Political Negative Endorsement. The Don't Vote For List.

I've run items on elections here for a long time, and made my views on various candidates more or less known, but this year is really a critical year.

So, we aren't telling you who to vote for, but for the first time ever, we're publishing something on whom we think you should vote against, although it frankly takes a lot of hubris to even assume anyone at all cares what I think on this topic.

#very election season people say something about the election being the most critical one ever but 2026 really is.  2026 may be the last gasp of American democracy, or the beginning of the restoration of it.  Right now, the American electorate basically stabbed democracy accidentally in the back by electing a mentally declining spoiled rich boy caudillo, and the whole world is paying the price.

The US is being run on a near dictatorial basis by the madman.  The Republican Party, save for a few of its notable members, has become nothing but a collection of worshippers, many of whom are steeped in ignorance.  The childlike ignoramus who is running the country is going to try to steal the 2026 elections.  About this there can be no doubt.

Part of the duty of the voters is to be informed.  It's pretty clear a lot of American voters, no matter what their party affiliation, aren't.  Indeed, I dare say the most informed voters are Independents who have informed themselves on both parties and marched out of the parties absolutely disgusted.

In Wyoming you almost have to be a member of the Republican Party or you have no vote at all.  But in Wyoming a collection of Dixiecrats who think they are Republicans and think they are for "freedom" is now the most powerful voice in the legislature and due to Cynthia Lummis retiring the entire mix of candidates is in flux.

This trailing thread is a list of people to vote against.  That's a terrible way to vote, but given the times and the slate of candidates, its something people need to consider.

This list, we'll note, is limited to current candidates.  Not every Wyoming politician.  If experience is any guide we would note that not getting voted for tends to refocus a politicians attention like nothing else.  If there's a big shift in 2026 and some traction on that in Wyoming, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if Chuck Gray wrote daily proposals of marriage to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

There are plenty of candidates running for office in Wyoming who'd end the public's right to do this, or anything, on public land.

Enemies of Public Lands, Hunters and Fishermen

Wyoming public lands users were shocked in 2025 with Deseret Mike Lee lead a full blown charge at public lands and Wyoming's Lummis, Barrasso, and Hageman joined right in.   Given their histories respectively of 1) being a Cheshire Cat, 2) Being a sycophantic toady and 3) being a member of a family that very distinctly doesn't care much for anyone who isn't an agricultural landowner, we shouldn't have been surprised, and yet we were.

Our guards still need to be up in a major way.  This issue hasn't gone away and if 2025/26s Trump babbling about Greenland, Gaza and Venezuela has shown anything, its that Donald Trump's GOP doesn't give a rats ass about anything that can't be reduced to a sale and the future just doesn't matter.  He's a shallow golf course developer and see the entire world that way, to his everlasting discredit.

And the GOP is right behind him.

People public lands users, and that includes ranchers who will get completely screwed if Deseret Mike Lee and his ilk have his way, follow.¹

These people have no Land Ethic.

Bill Allemand:  Allemand is from a large ranching family in the state but has claimed not to be part of the ranching operations himself.  Nonetheless he showed his hand by sponsoring a really punitive hunting trespass bill that failed last session.

That should preclude him from being reelected.  He's an enemy of sportsmen.

He's also a Dixiecrat.

And he's extremely rude.  His first run for office was characterized by outrageous comments about his opponent and he's shown a real temper since being elected.  Most recently, he stated outrageous things against a Deputy Sheriff who arrested him for drunk driving in Johnson County.²   A cutting editorial by Susan Stubson on his drunk driving escapade is well worth reading.

On Allemand:

Rep. Bill Allemand asks judge to rescind court-ordered alcohol testing during upcoming legislative session: The Midwest lawmaker is contesting his DUI charge following his arrest last month in Johnson County.

The answer to that ought to be a hard no. 

Harriet Hageman:  Hageman is from a large ranching/farming family in southeast Wyoming.  Her father was the sponsor of an effort to privatize wildlife when he was in the legislature.  Hageman aggressively backed an effort to transfer Wyoming's Federal lands to the state and responded to criticism of those who opposed her by basically calling them dumb.

This past term her family homestead burned to the ground in a year that's been extremely warm and devoid of moisture. There were poignant comments about it, including from her, which tend to demonstrate the agricultural community's absolute refusal to read what is really in front of their face, climate wise.  It's ironic, in that even university educated agriculturalist like Hageman, who depend on animal science daily, refuse to believe that any other science is valid.

Jacob Wasserburger:  Wasserburger came up with this bad idea, but it sounds a lot like he's been sitting around with Mike Lee, the Senator from Deseret

Going Feral: Lawmaker Unveils Bill To Sell Between 30,000 And 2...: Another moronic idea by a Wyoming Republican, a party which seems to draw from the endless well of bad ideas. Wasserburger is going right on...

He's signed on to the no prescription for Ivermectin act as well, these two things indicating that he's hanging out with, in not in, the Freedom Caucus.  A little digging reveals that Wasserburger is from a Niobrara County ranch and has been practicing law since 2008, at which he's bounced around a lot, including having once worked for a major Democratic politician and a really good Republican one.  He did a stint in government work as well.

Original post:  January 20, 2026.

Updates:  January 24, 2026, January 27, 2026.

Allies of Ignorance.  Trump Fellow Travelers and Dixiecrats.

I suspect that some of these people probably really love Trump, while others are just opportunistic and  pitching to ignorant Wyoming voters, telling them what they know they want to hear.  Either way, they shouldn't be voted for, either because they believe the nonsense they're spouting, or because they're willing to lie to obtain office.

Some of these folks are members of the largely carpetbagging Wyoming Freedom Caucus as well, which definitely should disqualify them.  They're not running for office in 2026 Wyoming but 1966 Alabama.  It's estimated that 42 members of the House, which has only 62 seats, in the Wyoming legislature are occupied by Freedom Caucus members, but it is an estimate as some of them will not openly declare their membership showing that they have some reservations about it.

Something Wyoming voters should know is that unlike other caucuses, once a legislator joins the WFC he or she can sit on his legislative rear and do nothing, as the WFC does all the work, including drafting bills it wants and telling the potted WFC plant what to say and think.  The money, and at least some of the bill drafting, comes from outside of the state.  The Freedom  Caucus is effectively an alien, that is carpetbagging, force in the state, in the true original sense of the meaning of the word carpetbagger.

Megen Degenfelder:  Degenfelder is the current Superintendent of Public Instruction who has announced for Governor.. She's clearly very far right wing, but she doesn't appear to be a full blown MAGA adherent.  Still, she received King Donny's endorsement and wrapped herself in it, and for that reason alone should be rejected.

I do have a question, however, based on her time in office, as to how much of the MAGA nonsense she really believes.  As one of the Board of State Land Commissioners she hasn't been a fellow traveler with Gray, and the evidence suggests that absolutely nobody on that Board can stand Gray. The Governor clearly does not, but it doesn't really look like anyone else does either.  And Degenfelder hasn't come out with any of the really extreme crap that Gray has, or even that Cindy Hill had.  Given that, she might be on the Trump Train in a boxcar ready to jump off when and if things begin to derail.  So I'll cut her a little slack, albeit very, very, little.

In this race, so far, it looks to me that Barlow is the best candidate.

Chuck Gray:  Gray's a carpetbagging opportunist who took advantage of lies to obtain the position of Secretary of State where he's been a general pain in the ass.  He's not from here, he's not of here, and he should be sent packing as a disagreeable asshole.  He literally obtained his office mounted on a steed of lies.

Gray, I'll note, was one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus and perhaps because of that hasn't been asked the questions or subject to sideways glances that some in his situation might have been, which is interesting.

Ken Pendergraft:  A member of the Freedom Caucus who voted to slash U.W.'s budget.

The Freedom Caucus is pretty much the Freakishly Dumb Caucus and basically opposes education.  Educated people, it turns out, tend to be moderate and don't believe that global warming is a fib, or that the Earth is 4,000 years old, or that Christianity somehow started in the US with an Evangelical Free Church.  So education is bad, in their view.

Jeremy Haroldson:  A member of the Freedom Caucus who voted to slash U.W. budget.

Jacob Wasserburger: As we suspected, Wasserburger is part of the WFC.  

And some more:

Ann Lucas (Cheyenne): 

Darin McCann (Rock Springs):

Joel Guggenmos (Riverton): 

Jayme Lien (Casper): 

Gary Brown (Cheyenne): 

Steve Johnson (Cheyenne): 

Joe Webb (Lyman): 

Paul Hoeft (Cody):

Robert Wharff (Evanston): 

The Freedom Caucus thinks that they are Republicans, but they are not. They're Jeffersonian Democrats, i.e., Dixiecrats.

Original post:  January 20, 2026.  Updates:  January 28, 2028. February 2, 2026.

Carpetbaggers

This may seem like an odd thing to post in this category, but this film, which I hate, really frames the Wyoming mindset in some ways, even though the novel from which its taken was set in Appalachia.  Clayboy's father and eight uncles may have fallen in love here, but Clayboy is going to abandon one of the most beautiful spots on earth and the two hot chicks pursuing him so he can go to university, learn to write, and sit in an office smoking cigarettes behind a typewriter because he's convinced that must be superior to what he already has.

Wyoming has always had a transient population and, additionally, a pretty pronounced history of self doubt and even self loathing. For that reason, we're pretty willing as a rule to elect imports who claim to be like us, even though we know that they aren't.  We really think they're better than us.

Right now, for example, we have Dr. John Barrasso who isn't a Wyomingite but sort of pretends to be one, or at least was up until becoming the Senate Majority Whip.  He's a Pennsylvanian.  He's a Boomer so chances are that this is his last hurrah before he retires and gets the heck out of here.  

We've added a note above about the funding of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which pretty much qualifies the caucus itself, if not every single members, as the Wyoming Foreign Carpetbaggers.

Chuck Gray:  Gray is a Californian who shares nothing in common with anyone whatsoever in the state.   He should be sent back to California.

Indeed, one of the most pathetic things about Gray campaigns is when they dress the diminutive little guy up and try to film him in Wyoming.  There he is, looking at an oil rig, and looking mighty uncomfortable, and so on.

Joseph Kibler:  Kibler is a recent import from California, and should just go home.  He's running for Governor.

Original post:  January 20, 2026.

Updates:  January 24, 2026, 

Bottle Babies and Stahlhelm

In recent years Wyoming has seen people run for office touting their experience as a veteran. They basically fall into two groups.

One group were career servicemen who sucked on the government tit their entire working lives and now have moved into Wyoming or have come back to Wyoming after decades of being gone and, uniformly, declare they hate the government and know how to fix it. Their hatred didn't keep them from competing in the free job economy with the rest of us, however.

They didn't run their military careers like they claim they'll run the state.  I.e, they didn't come in and say "I hate the military with the red hot passion of a thousand burning suns and I'm going to destroy it!".

The other group are men who run simply on having been a veteran.  Eh?  Lee Harvey Oswald was a veteran.   This group has nothing much more to say other than "I'm a veteran".  So what?  Lots of people are veterans.  This is the Stahlhelm group.

Brent Bien is a bottle baby.  He was a career Marin Corps officer and had a really distinguished career.  Now he's back in the state and seeks to apply that experience, which is wholly irrelevant to running the state, to wrecking government.

Original post:  January 20, 2026.

Democrats in delusion

On this category, let me be clear.  I want more Democrats to run, but I want solid Democrats to run.  While its a long shot, I think a centrist Democratic Party in the state, which we used to have, and which gave us multiple Governors, could gain seats, including some important seats.  Indeed, I'm surprised that some names that used to appear haven't re-appeared so far.

The first thing I'm going to note is that the Democrats need to avoid wrapping themselves in bloody surgical towels and rainbow flags, but they just can't seem to avoid doing it.  They should take a lesson from one of their own recent events:

Affordability, healthcare and public lands echo as top concerns at Dem listening sessions

But instead of that, they'll end up talking about "reproductive rights" and "gender determination" and completely ax themselves.

What the Democratic Party should do in Wyoming is flat out instruct its candidates not to take hardcore positions on these issues.  Ideally, they ought to run a moderate prolife Democrat, which would be something the GOP wouldn't know how to handle. If a Democratic candidate went to a house seat debate and took a position to the right of the Republican on the typical social issues, they'd be caught flat footed and resort to name calling.  Better yet, if asked about abortion, and a Democratic candidate said "I'm flat out against it, and why has Donald Trump come out being sort of for it?" the Republicans wouldn't know what to do.

But, nope, that won't happen.

Anyhow, while we want Democrats to run, and want third party candidates to run, some will end up on this list as they're actually sucking air out of the room which shouldn't be.

Stewart McAdoo fits this category.  McAdoo is a Democrat who is running against Art Washut in House District 36.  Washut is a real conservative (and very conservative at that), and not a populist Freedom Caucus member.  Losing him would be a disaster for Wyoming.  I've never heard of him, but he appears to be an import to the state, which might place him in another category as well.

Original post:  January 22, 2026.

Footnotes

1.  While I know that it will happen no time soon, it really needs to become the case that lands that went into private hands through a Homestead Act can't go into corporate or absentee hands.

2.  According to news reports Allemand admitted to the sheriff's deputy that he drank and drive, in order to address "stress".  In the papers he came out just like he did in the campaign, which is to say as a boisterous asshole.  That alone should put an end to his political career.

Most of his business career, we'd note, was spent in Kansas.  He ought to just go back to Kansas.

Related Posts:

Blog Mirror: WYOMING: IT’S TIME TO TAKE OUR GOVERNMENT BACK

Labels: 2020s, 2026 Election, Blog Mirror, Carpetbaggers, Make Liberty Win, Wyoming Freedom Caucus

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 115th Edition. The Killing of Alex Pretti, Hageman flees the stage, ICE blocked in hotel.

CNN has an excellent breakdown of the killing.

Film analysis.   

People like to say you can see more than one thing on these things. Well, let's say you can. Those last few shots are an execution.

These guys should be tried for murder.

ICE/Border Patrol in the interior should be disarmed.

Frankly, these morons are lucky this wasn't a local matter.  Things are turning against ICE and Trump, even here.  The ICE/Border Patrol killings became a topic that surprised Harriet Hageman, running for Senate, and current Wyoming Congressman, at a really hostile town hall meeting in Casper.

Hostile.

She was confronted on this and her reaction was to flee the stage.

She next appeared in Thermopolis where things didn't go much better. The crowd started yelling at each other.

Meanwhile, in Riverton, locals blocked ICE agents into their hotel. The police had to come and rescue them.

In some parts of the country, there's an effort at a general strike today.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 114th Edition. The Armed Citizen and ICE. He never served but they did. Geographically ignorant. He's demented. Canada comes to the US's aid. . . again.

Labels: 25th Amendment Watch List, Border Patrol, Donald Trump, Greenland, Gun Control, Ignorance, law, Mental Health, The Second Trump Administration, Zeitgeist, Дональд Трамп — агент России

Wars and Rumors of War, 2026. Part 1. The Return of the Neo Con Edition.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

Matthew, Chapter 24.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

James Madison

January 2, 2026.

The United States v. Iran

We start off this year with the no more forever wars president threatening to intervene in Iran.

Iran is a bad actor, without a doubt, but what we'd particularly note here is that Trump's policy of intervention is beginning to look a lot like the Neo Con policy.  A person can like that, or not, but it's not what he was promising at all.  I'd heard various Trump supporters cite the "no more forever wars" line as (one of) their reasons for supporting him.

January 3, 2026

United States v. Venezuela

The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and took Maduro and his wife prisoner.

No Declaration of War exists, of course, and there's no Congressional authorization for the use of force.  This is, therefore, an illegal operation.

The news is too early to really make any definitive predictions about how this will turn out.  Wars, however, tend to end when the attacked party decides they are over.  Maybe this will tip the scales in Venezuela and things will change.  Or maybe his followers dig in and carry on, in which case we are now committed to a wider conventional war, and perhaps a following guerilla war.

U.S. Delta Force seizes Venezuelan leader, sources say

US military captures Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro after striking military sites

The US Is Attempting Regime Change In Venezuela

Cont:

Trump's comments on the raid on Maduro:

As usual, when he reads a prepared statement, he sounds awful.  While called to address the illegal attack in Venezuela, it meandered into the usual Trump mental mush addressing various Trump favorite topics and fantasies.  Use of the National Guard in various states ended up being addressed by the clearly senile illegal occupant of the Oval Office.¹

Trump has made it clear the U.S. intends to occupy Venezuela, apparently forgetting that simply seizing the head of state doesn't amount to a full surrender of anyone opposing a U.S. presence.  This will require thousands of U.S. troops on a continent in which we've never had boots on the ground.  People aligned with Maduro have no reason to cooperate with the US at all, and have plenty of reason not to.

Inside Venezuela there were protests over the U.S. action.  Outside of the country Venezuelan expats celebrated the news.

Trump also made it clear that he intends to reverse the fifty year old nationalization of Venezuelan oil.  Either Trump, or more likely somebody in his regime, has a real pre World War One view of the world, as this example of imperialism and gunboat diplomacy makes clear.  Trump actually cited the Monroe Doctrine and his new security priorities.

Trump justified the action on the basis of ending Venezuelan drug exports to the U.S.

By way of a set of predictions, and knowing more about the use of military force that Donald Trump does, if the U.S. isn't in complete control of the country within thirty days, this will evolve into a guerilla war requiring no less than 100,000 U.S. troops.  If the U.S. hasn't turned the country over to Venezuelans within one year, it'll evolve into a low grade guerilla war requiring no less than 50,000 boots on the ground.

January 4, 2026

United States v. Venezuela

So where are we now?

Yesterday it looked like, for awhile, that effectively what the US had done was to have mounted a coup of the Venezuelan government with the silent complicency of Venezuelan VP Delcy Rodríguez, sidestepping Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado Parisca.

Then came Trump's babbling senile statement about the operation.

Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as the country's President. She's just as left wing and Maduro, and she immediately indicated that she regard Maduro as the President and that she's not cooperating with the US.

So, what was achieved?  We don't know, but unless we're going to do a full scale invasion of Venezuela, all we may have done is replace one left wing leader with another.

A bit closer to home, sort of:

Barrasso, Lummis, Gordon Cheer Trump's Military Strike On Venezuela

Well, of course they did.  Was there any doubt?

January 5, 2026

Yemeni Civil War

Saudi backed forces retook Mukalla.

Nigeria

Gunmen killed 30 in Kasuwan-Daji.

Syria

Britain and France carried out a joint airstrike late Saturday on an underground facility where members of the ISIL were located.

United States v. Venezuela

Pope Leo XIV commented on Venezuelan independence yesterday, stating:

The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration and lead us to overcome violence and to undertake paths of justice and peace, safeguarding the country’s sovereignty, ensuring the rule of law enshrined in the Constitution, respecting the human and civil rights of each person and of all, and working to build together a serene future of collaboration, stability, and concord, with special attention to the poorest who suffer because of the difficult economic situation.

Columbian guerilla groups Unión Camilista Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) issued a warning to the US about the US having a presence in Venezuela.

FARC is a Communist guerilla movement while the ELN is a "Catholic Communist" or Liberation Theology guerilla movement. Columbia is their main focus, but they operate in Venezuela.

While the raid has been portrayed as lacking casualties on the U.S. side, U.S. troops were in fact wounded and have been air evacuated to the U.S.

Something being reported this morning:

January 6, 2022

United States v. Venezuela

Wyoming’s Barrasso, Lummis back Trump’s Venezuelan invasion, Hageman silent: Rep. Hageman, who’s running to replace Lummis, has been mum on the military strikes and Maduro’s capture.

Hageman's failure to say anything is really interesting.  MAGA boosted the platform of "no more forever wars" but the US has been fighting everywhere, and is threatening to attack a NATO ally, Denmark, over Greenland, an act that would be deeply immoral and flat out insane.  Indeed, the fact that the country is being lead by a mad man is increasingly clear, with most Republicans doing nothing about it.

Wyoming has had a strong commitment to the military.  Indeed, an overly strong one as not only do an unusually large number of Wyomingites volunteer for military service, which is admirable, the state had nearly supported a military against the government attitude in recent years.  Now, with it appearing that the US might send Wyoming's sons and daughters to die in Venezuelan jungles while doing something that will gut the state's oil industry, some may be having second thoughts.  Hageman may be hedging her bets for her Senate run, or she may actually be among those who are horrified by the insane neo colonialism of the Trump interregnum.

January 6, 2026

Venezuela and Greenland.

There's a lot of weird war related news circulating today.

Trump claims that the government of Venezuela is going to, well, here:

The U.S. doesn't need millions of gallons of oil to be sold to the US, and further the means by which Trump claims this will happen, he'll control the sales, is legally dubious.

Frankly, I don't believe that this will occur.  Much of what Trump has been saying about Venezuela is a lie and I suspect this is too.

If it isn't a lie, Wyomingites are going to get another dope slap from the demented fool they voted for.  It'll take the price of oil in the state for years.  It's at $46.37, below profitability, right now.

Of course, the goal would be to depress the price of oil, which consumers in most locations want depressed, even though we ought to be weaning ourselves off of oil.  But closer to home, this is another example of why Wyomingites are absolute idiots to vote for the GOP.

The Nobel Peace Prize winning Venezuelan woman who probably ought to be running the country is headed home.  Hopefully she takes over the government, although there's every sign that the Venezuelan socialist party will continue to do so and not much will really change.

Trump, who is demented, is now threatening Greenland.

If we lived in a sane time they'd be taking him out of the Oval Office in a straight jacket, but the Republican Party is now largely bat shit crazy so there's a real chance we'll do this, even while, for the first time, some Republican leaders are dismissing it.

Trump needs to be removed via the 25th Amendment, and like yesterday.

January 8, 2026

United States v. Venezuela

It looks like Il Duce Don's intervention in Venezuela is receiving the same treatment the outbreak of the Second World War did in Nazi Germany

Does The US Public Have A Different Idea Of What Makes America "Great"?

Public Reaction to the Venezuela intervention Is Surprising

Readers of the epic The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich will recall that while many Germans were enthusiastic about Hitler coming to power, the public was not thrilled at all with the outbreak of World War Two.  Quite the opposite, in fact.

The difference, maybe, is that democracy had already fled in Germany by 1939, whereas its trying to hold on in the United States.

cont:

Rubio Details Plan to Sell Venezuela’s Oil and Guide the Country’s Post-Maduro Future

This is being hailed in some quarters as a rational plan, fitting into sort of a trend line to express relief when Marco Rubio says something as opposed to Donald Trump.

Well, at least it's a plan.

The problem with it is that it really requires Venezuela's cooperation and there's no reason to believe that will be forthcoming.  In this sense, it's likely to be like the 1954 Geneva plan for Vietnam, which everyone agreed was a nifty plan, and never stood a chance.

The main goal of the Socialist in Venezuela right now is no doubt to stay in power, which the Trump administration seems content to let them do.  That may be because Rubio knows that removing them would involve a large-scale war. 

So, we're going to sell some oil.  We'll probably invest in their petroleum infrastructure.  The whole thing will depress the price of oil, to the detriment of US producers, and most of the people we were complaining about in Venezuela keep their jobs.

cont:

The Senate voted to have a vote on a War Powers Resolution that would prohibit further military action in Venezuela.

Contrary to some reporting, this does not have an immediate effect of prohibiting further action in Venezuela, but there may very well be the votes to do that, in which case there are definitely enough to prohibit actions against Denmark in an insane effort to seize Greenland.

Trump is, of course, upset. This may very well take the wheels off of the Venezuelan go cart.

Also, in related news, the administration is proposing a $1.5T budget, that's trillion, for defense next year, which is also insane. The country doesn't have that kind of money.  Frankly a person has to wonder if that is just some sort of bribe to the military, which may not be all that happy about some current events.

Some in the traditional conservative camp, on the other hand, are very enthusiastic over Marco Rubio and Venezuela, although no element of realism seems to have sunk into the facts that in reality, the country is run by the same political groups that were running it last week and there's very little that can be done about that other than a war of economic attrition.

January 9, 2026

Russo Ukrainian War

The US has issued a warning to U.S. citizens in Ukraine to expect a significant Russian areas attack within the next few days.

United States v. Mexico

Trump threatened in a recent interview to hit drug cartel sites in Mexico, something the Mexican government will not welcome, and will likely resist.

This was something he asked about doing in his legitimate term, and was held back by the sane people in his first administration.

Iran

Iran is experiencing such widespread civil strife it appears to becoming unglued.

Misc:

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,and Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller have all moved on to military bases out of security concerns.

Iran

Iran appears to be headed towards outright revolution.

January 11, 2026

United States v. ISIL

The US hit targets in Syria again yesterday.

January 16, 2026

United States v. Denmark

European countries, members of NATO, have sent troops to Greenland because of the insane threats by the demented clown in the White House.

January 18, 2026.

United States v. ISIL

More airstrikes in Syria.

January 21, 2026

Israel v. Gaza

Donald Trump rolled out his Bored of Peas at Davos that's supposed to keep the peace in Gaza.  It's impossible to take seriously given its makeup.

And we'll conclude this edition with that pathetic action by the would be demented caudillo.

January 29, 2026

United States v. Iran

Trump is weighing a major new strike on Iran after preliminary discussions between Washington and Tehran over limiting the country’s nuclear program and ballistic missile production failed to make progress.

Wait, you're thinking, we were going to war against Iran over the government killing protestors?  That's the Iranian government killing Iranian protestors, not the U.S. government killing American protestors. . . that's different.

Nope, it's missiles and the nuclear program.

Wait, you're thinking, we wiped out their nuclear program.

Um. . . . 

United States v. Venezuela

PAUL: So I would ask you, if a foreign country bombed our air defense missiles, captured and removed our president, and blockaded our country, would that be considered an act of war?

RUBIO; We just don't believe that this operation comes anywhere close to the constitutional definition of war.

PAUL: Well, would it be an act of war if someone did it to us? Nobody dies, a few casualties, they're in and out, boom, it's a perfect military operation. Would that be an act of war? Of course it would be an act of war.

And with that quite correct observation, we'll close out this edition. 

Footnotes:

1.  A real irony is present here in that Maduro was not the legitimate head of state, at this point, of Venezuela, and Donald Trump is not the legitimate head of state of the United States.

Related threads:

What we actually did and are doing.

Labels: Donald Trump, Nicolás Maduro, Predictions, The Madness of King Donald, United States v. Venezuela

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