Showing posts with label Ignorance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ignorance. Show all posts

Saturday, January 24, 2026

Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus Watch Part 2. The War is a Racket edition.

 


December 17, 2025.

WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

Gen. Smedley Butler.

American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.

Stephen Miller, Homeland Security Advisor.

Stephen Miller, who is Jewish, has somehow managed to become the most White Racist and imperialist member of the Trump Administration, apparently forgetting that the white, Protestant, demographic he's backing, doesn't regard him as white.

Maybe Miller ought to listen to some Nick Fuentes.

Anyhow, the other day Trump said something about Venezuela stealing "our land".  It made no sense, but now, with Miller's help, we know what he meant.

Geology created the Venezuelan oil industry.  Imperialism created the concept that somebody else's natural resources belongs to us.  Neo imperialism will get us bogged down in regional wars Miller won't be going to so that young American men can die for petroleum oil, which we have plenty of here in the US.

Trump is demented.  People like Miller have his ear. This is absolutely frightening.

December 19, 2025

Trump’s handpicked buttkissers on the Kennedy Center board voted to renames it the Trump Kennedy Center

It's questionable if it can legally be renamed, and all of these "love me" type of monumental acts are going to go away as soon as Trump's illegitimate interregnum is over.  The amazing things that there's such syncophantic asskissers who are willing to do things like this.

December 22, 2025

And while you are, or aren't, worrying about this:

If you are an Apostolic Christian, and aren't worried yet, you ought to be. Or maybe not. Or maybe.

You might want to worry that we have a seemingly unstable would be caudillo in the Oval Office and an administration that violated the deadline provisions of the law concerning release of the Epstein files.

At first the MAGAs were pointing toward the photos of Clinton, but within 24 hours they were pulling stuff back down that referenced Trump.  On Sunday they sent a deputy AG around to the Sunday shows to explain that they had to do that, apparently, as women who appeared in the buff in those photos might have been complaining about it.  If those women were minors, they shouldn't have released that material, but then they should have had that figured out in the first place.  If they were just nude women, well, too bad.  You get photographed in the house of a creep, you can't expect that not to get around.

Anyhow, he ran around sounding rather distraught.  Now we know that a third oil taker in our sights in the Caribbean, and today we learn that Trump has appointed a "special envoy" to Greenland who has said something about how we should annex that territory to the US.  Denmark has called in our ambassador.

Okay, how does that relate to this thread?

Trump appears to be pretty desperate right now.  Nothing distracts like a war.  Nicolás Maduro shows no signs whatsoever of backing down, and there are no signs whatsoever that his military is going to force him out.  Trump can't back down.  And what better way to change the topic at Christmas dinner from "so. . . why do you think the administration is protecting the diddler files" than by sending than by sending FA 18s over Venezuela. . . or maybe putting the Marines on the beaches?

Am I saying that is going to happen as a distraction from the embarrassing teenage girl sex story?  No, I"m not, but I am saying its not impossible to imagine that.

And at this point, it's clear, Maduro is sitting there ignoring Trump.  War with Venezuela, in some form, is inevitable.

cont:

Not really properly before in this category, but administration news nonetheless, the ambassadors to Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Uganda, Fiji, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam, Armenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovakia, Algeria, Egypt, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Guatemala and Suriname are being removed and replaced.

cont:

We need Greenland for national protection. They have a very small population…They say that Denmark was there 300 years ago with a boat. Well, we were there with boats too I’m sure.

Donald Trump. 

The United States isn't 300 years old. . . 

And that small population comment is just the sort of thing a New Yorker would say . . . 

And then there's this gem. Trump wants a fleet of twenty five battleships built.  Battleships have been obsolete for decades.

cont:

It appears the "battleships" will not be battleships.

December 24, 2025

Now this is interesting:

Heritage Foundation killed by MAGA

December 25, 2025.  Christmas Day


What a horrible person.

December 31, 2025

First Greene, and now Boebert.


Like Greene, Boebert was a fanatic MAGA.  Problem for Trump was that she, like Greene, MAGA than Trump who, at the end of the day, is only about Trump.

At some point somebody pointed out to Trump that there are people in the Epstein files whose names he shouldn't want released.  Maybe that's Trump or maybe that's somebody else.  Probably somebody else, but Trump already looks pretty bad in regard to hanging out with Epstein.  He didn't want those files released, and so far the administration hasn't fully released them.  Boebert, like Green voted to release them.

Now she and her district must pay the price.

Well, it was a Trump district.  If they suffer as a result, so be it.  They're getting exactly what they deserve.

January 13, 2026

Oh, this is going to be interesting.


January 22, 2026

The idea of turning Greenland into America’s rare-earth factory is science fiction. It’s just completely bonkers. You might as well mine on the moon. In some respects, it’s worse than the moon.

Malte Humpert, founder and senior fellow at The Arctic Institute regarding the avaricious lusting after Greenland's mineral wealth.

January 24, 2026


There are no penguins in Greenland, or anywhere in the Arctic.

The DoD also put an item up based on this theme with the words "Be a warrior, embrace the penguin".  Apparently that's a recruiting effort aimed at morons.

Last edition:

Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus* Watch Part 1.

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Ninth Edition. Trump is insane and the end of the United States as a great nation.

 

Trump is insane.

What's more, Trump is insane and everyone knows it.  World leaders know it.  His opponents know it. And, moreover, his supporters, know it.

He's driving us over a cliff, and everyone knows that.

He's the last pathetic gasp of the Baby Boomers, as we endure a nation by the Baby Boomers, Of the Baby Boomers, and for the Baby Boomers, enduring the legacy of a government attacked by Ronald Reagan and brought into fruition by Dixiecrats.

I've predicted that the 25th Amendment would be applied to him, and moreover, his mere presence in the White House was really a smokescreen for National Conservatives.  If I was right, the moment now appears too late.

The United States has come to an end as a great nation.  

It might be able to rebuild, but it won't be what it was.  Nore should it be. A nation stupid enough to elect Donald Trump is no longer great.

The question is, how much damage do we allow him to do?

And I say "we" advisedly.  Stuffed suits like Dr. John Barrasso and castrati Mike Johnson aren't going to do anything.  His cabinet has people like scared Scott Bessent in it, who sound like they're terrified to be in public, or people who cheerfully shovel his oratorical vomit.  Congress could act, but the make up the GOP in Congress is 100% eunuchs who roll over to have their bellies petted by Trump or go into the corner scared and pee.

The nation's leaders have completely failed it.

The question is not, at this point, how can this be salvaged.  It cannot. The question is how much can be saved so that there's something to rebuild from when we reemerge in 2028 as a minor power, second rate nation, despised by the world.

The only thing, and it is the only thing, than can really save the nation now is mass protests.  An epic strike that shut the nation down completely would be something the Republicans could not ignore.

We don't even seem to have the guts for that, however.  We haven't seen anything like that since the 1960s and early 1970s.  

We aren't much of a people anymore.

Ironically, however, the wet dream of Donald Trump to be remembered as somebody, darned near anybody, will also fail.  He'll be remembered for being a fat, spoiled, mentally ill, child who ruined his nation with the help of ignorance.  His ballroom will not get built.  His Arc will not either.  Greenland, which he will steal, will be set free.  Melania will escape back to Europe to hide the disgrace of having associated with the man.  The Trump family will bankruptcy itself into oblivion.

Cont:

Okay, something's happened.

Trump at Dovos said the United States “won’t use force” to take Greenland, but repeated his dumbass claims that the US needs it for  national and international security. He said he would be “appreciative” if the world acquiesced to his desire to take over the territory. “Or, you can say no and we will remember.”

What does all that mean.

Sometime over the last 24 hours somebody got to Trump with news that if he went any further, they were invoking the 25th Amendment.  It's about the only possibility.

The others might be that Congress would really move to impeach, or the military was prepared to tell him to pound sand.

But something happened.  He was full batshit crazy over Greenland as of yesterday, and now he's not.  He was apparently actually set to over a bridge too far and something held him back, for now.

The man needs to go.  This is a chance for national redemption, but it won't last long.  Those who were set to invoke the 25th, if they were, need to carry forward and do it.

Cont:

Hmmmm. . . Air Force One returned and landed due to an "electrical issue" prior to his gong to Davos.

That "electrical issue" was probably a direct communication that if he went to Davos and indicated war was coming he better stay in Switzerland.

Cont:
And I know so many people from Switzerland. Incredible place, incredible brilliant place. But I then realized that they're only good because of us.
The dimwitted emperor.

We barely dodged a bullet with this guy, remove the idiot now.  Apply the 25th Amendment.

January 22, 2026

Trump at Davos:
Usually they say, 'he's a horrible dictator-type person.' But sometimes you need a dictator.

So are we really still playing around with this?  Trump admits he's a dictator, and its obvious to everyone he's demented.   There's no excuse left whatsoever for favoring this man remaining in office.

Let's reprise where we are, after the last several days.

Let's start off with this.

Ever since Congress demanded the Epstein files be released, most of which have not been, nearly every day brings a new horror.  We started off with an invasion of a foreign power and removal of its head of state with no Congressional authorization, which is flatly illegal.  In spite of the widely lauded praise for that, the raid only removed one man and his wife, while killing a bunch of people. The Socialist regime that man headed remains fully in power. Some may say its cooperating with Trump, but why would one criminal regime not cooperate with another if it benefits them both?

We were told at the time that we needed to do this as Venezuela was exporting drugs to the U.S.  As soon as we kidnapped the leader, however, we were told that it was a great oil producing opportunity for the United States, and we are in fact seizing tankers and selling the oil, with the funds put in a bank in Qatar, outside those prying eyes in the U.S.

No sooner had that been accomplished than Donald Trump brought us right to the end of war with NATO, believing his own propaganda that the rest of the world would sit by if we seized Greenland, just as Germany thought nobody would fight over Poland in 1939, and Argentina thought the UK wouldn't fight over the Falklands in 1982.  Indeed, the Falklands example is a particularly good one as the UK was actually moving toward an arrangement with Argentina before Argentina invaded, which ended that for all time.

While this was all going on, an ICE agent shot Renee Good three times killing her in Minneapolis.  The mayor spoke out and now the mayor and the Governor are under Federal Criminal investigation by a corrupted justice system.  Career Federal prosecutors are being fired, and even one of Trump's handpicked flunkies had walked out, although not over that.

Trump decided to go to Davos to lecture the Europeans, but as soon as his plane took off it returned with an "electrical problem".  

Uh huh.

When he got to Davos suddenly he was no longer going to invade Greenland, but he was sticking to tariffs. . . until he suddenly didn't.

What message did the would be caudillo get when that plan returned.

There's a lot here to digest, but what we know is that Trump's actions do not benefit the United States and, as Mark Carney has stated, he's destroyed the post war order.  The principal beneficiary of his actions is Russia, and nearly Russia alone  The Russians may have pulled off the greatest example of spycraft of all time, but assisted by an American electorate that was made legitimately bitter by post 1973 events and made ignorant by actions of the much praised Ronald Reagan.  

Reagan, to medical professionals, was showing signs of Alzheimer's in his second term.  He was 83, however, and out of office when he admitted it to the public.  His last public appearance, however, was in 1994, a couple of years after that, which is one that people who have viewed it lament.  His appearance at that point in time wasn't any worse than Trump's right now.

Trump's behavior in the last two months has been nearly manic.  Oh, let's be honest.  It is manic.  He very clearly, no matter what else is going on, has dementia. There's no question whatsoever.  One person who knows him well, lawyer Ty Cobb, has stated:

I think there’s been a significant decline. He’s always been driven by narcissism. But I think the dementia and the cognitive decline are, you know, palpable, as do many experts, including many physicians.

Cobb also stated:

I don’t think there’s anybody outside of the United States who believes that Trump is sane.

So that's exactly where we are.  We have a demented chief executive whose minions are not releasing a major file which his name shows up in, in violation of the law.  His mind is complete mush and he launched us into one small war with little effect and nothing to be proud of, and nearly launched us into a major war with NATO which, in spite of our hubris, we may very well not have won (the U.S. hasn't actually won a war cleanly since the end of World War Two).  Even if we had won it, which is not assured, it would have involved combat with Canada and occupying Canada would have entailed a terrorism campaign against the US that would kill Americans at home.  Any such war would have besmirched our reputation forever and the world order has already been irreparably harmed to the detriment of Americans.

The man is insane and needs to be removed.

The question is why he isn't already gone.  We can be quite assured that if there were sufficient votes, J. D. Vance, who sees his political fortunes evaporating by the minute and his current name likely to go down like Goering's would support it.  So would Rubio, who has been mysteriously absent recently.  But invoking the 25th Amendment would require the Vice President and a majority of the 15-member Cabinet ot declare the President the batshit crazy Trump unable to perform his duties.  That means eight out of fifteen would have to go along with it.  Those cabinet members are:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth

Attorney General Pam Bondi

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick

Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin

Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe

United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer

Administrator of the Small Business Administration Kelly Loeffler

Chief of Staff Susie Wiles

We took a look at whom we thought might be willing to act to save then nation some time ago, but frankly every day that goes by makes this worse.  For example, we thought that Bessent might be willing to go along, but by now he's so tainted by the shit he's had to spout out because Rubio, probably, is refusing to do so, that for many of these people they're at the point where they're just going down in defeat in the bunker.  A few of these people, in addition, are really bad people and hardcorse believes in what they're doing.

So, until he's drooling and hitting on Kristi Noem, this is just going to get worse.

Congress could act, and if it was a Democratic Congress it undoubtedly would.  Trump's only in office as Joe Biden moronically believed that his own dementia was somehow not there, a common trait of those who have dementia and the electorate blamed the Democrats for a lot of things, like inflation, that were outside of their control, and some things they really didn't like, like the whole transgender thing, that they were in control of.  A totally befuddled Trump still knows that this November the GOP is going to be punished for the economy, for average people, getting worse, and he can't gasp that people really don't care if fat cats get fatter, which is the only sort of economic news that means anything to him.  By this point in time an American electorate, which has a notoriously short memory, sees ICE in the streets, ICE shooting women in the head, Trump insulting the entire world, and their economic future going down the toilet.  His plan is to try to disrupt the 2026 election, or even suspend it if he can, which he can't.

A sane group of Republican members of Congress would act right now to impeach Trump, like they did when Nixon was in office. But current Republicans in Congress are nearly all anemic castrati, with those at the top, like John Thune and John Barrasso providing prime example.  Barrasso couldn't find his courage if he'd deposited in a safe deposit box.  They're depending on the Democrats taking control i November so they can return to the more comfortable role of complaining about Democrats, and if the country goes in the shitter in the meantime, well at least they can hope to retain their careers.

January 24, 2026

A former Trump staffer from his first term is expressing concern that he'll launch a nuclear war, and reveals that in his first term the country came close to a war with North Korea.

The 2026 Wyoming Legislature, Part 2. Pre Legislative Committee Edition.

 


November 15, 2025

Wyoming ‘Tim Tebow’ Rule Heads To Lawmaking Session


I'm frankly not keen on this at all.  Playing sports and being in activities are vital parts of school.  They help socialization.  Parents who seek to avoid socialization are harming their children and there are nwo a lot of private school options that would be better choices for those seeking to evade the perceived dangers, often fictional, of public schools

A long time legislator has passed away.

Wyoming Rep. John Eklund dies: Legislators say they will remember Eklund for his mentorship, kind spirit and thoughtful approach to lawmaking.

November 18, 2025

November 19, 2025

November 22, 2025

This is flat out irresponsible and insane:

Wyoming Legislators Advance Plan To Kill All Residential Property Taxes

December 16, 2025

Five takeaways from the Wyoming Legislature’s budget hearings: The Joint Appropriations Committee wrapped up its first round of hearings Friday.

December 19, 2025

 A Q&A with Pine Bluffs’ Justin Fornstrom, Wyoming’s newest state lawmaker: Laramie County commissioners selected Fornstrom to represent a House seat vacated by the late John Eklund.

January 8, 2026

We had this news posted here yesterday:

Abortion in Wyoming and the Law of Unintended Consequences.

 This is what happens when a dumb, paranoid,  amendment to the Constitution is made.

The amendment that brought down the state's abortion laws was passed due to right wing paranoia that the AHCA would create "death panels". That fear was frankly stupid, but it was adopted by far right Republicans who really believed it.  The prime architect of the amendment has gone on record that he'd feel awful if the amendment caused the abortion laws to fail, and in fact he should feel awful.

I'll confess that when I first posted this, I was harsher on the paranoia of the Wyoming Republican Party that gave us the dumbass head in the sand amendment to the Wyoming Constitution based on fear of the ACHA.  I'm obviously being less kind here.

Anyhow, the Tribune notes:

Wyoming Republicans seek to amend constitution

The flaming dipshits that passed the amendment that caused this to occur in the first place ought to just repeal that amendment.  Indeed, they ought to cal lit "B______ B_________was a dumbass paranoid moron amendment repeal".

They won't, as the best thing to do when somebody does something rampagingly stupid is to double down on the stupidity, apparently. After all, look at the ongoing Republican support for Donald Dipshit Trump.

Anyhow, they're going to address their failure with a proposed amendment to the Constitution. That amendment will fail to get support from the electorate, which they'll find basically likes the idea of killing babies as it means they can complain about gays and the transgendered while being sexually immoral themselves.

January 9, 2026

Rep. Elissa Campbell files resolution for Wyoming abortion amendment

That was fast.

Wyoming Democrats, I'd note, are making the classic blunder.  They should simply say nothing at all, and not go out to own a result that they don't really own.  The Wyoming Supreme Court's ruling came about as the far right of the Wyoming GOP went out and shot itself in the foot.  Now it's going to go to the voters.  A smart Democratic policy would be just to sit back and do nothing at all.  But, they  just can't help themselves:

Laramie lawmakers celebrate abortion ruling

The state supreme court ruled abortion is a fundamental constitutional right. Provenza, Chestek and Rothfuss say it’s a win for individual liberty and they’ll resist calls to change the constitution.

Chances are high that not enough Wyoming voters are going to vote for the proposed constitutional amendment for it to pass, and if there are, the Democrats are going to effect that anyhow.  Indeed, by making it an issue and embracing abortion, it'll drive GOP voters who likely would vote against the amendment or sit the election out, into voting as they'll want to vote against the Democrats.  Given the immorality of abortion, it's truly an example of errare humanum est perseverare diabolicum.

January 10, 2026

Lawmaker Unveils Bill To Prevent DUI Charges For Drunk Horseback Riding

January 13, 2026

Wyoming Freedom Caucus aims at state spending, voting machines and the judicial branch in 2026 priorities: The group of conservative Republicans has promised cuts since last spring, but won’t say where and how deep.

Lawmakers question Wyoming Public Media’s funding

The public radio station is headquartered on the UW campus and receives some state funding via UW’s block grant. WPM weathered a 10% cut when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was axed.

January 14, 2026

The freakishly dumb caucus votes to keep everyone else as dumb as possible.

Lawmakers vote to axe UW’s block grant, defund Wyoming Public Media: Wyoming Freedom Caucus members on a key budget committee take aim at the state’s lone four-year public university.

My opinion, of course, is harsh, but frankly many of the Dukes of Hazzard crowd in the Freely Dumb Caucus don't trust education.  People who are educated don't believe the same dumb stuff they do, so they don't like it.

And they're going after the Wyoming Business Council.

This one at its core is a completely unthinking objection to socialism.  We don't like socialism, because it's socialism.  Not much more thought behind it than that.

I'll often hear that the WBC picks "winners and losers" which might be right, but the state's economy otherwise is pretty much making all Wyomingites losers.

January 16, 2026

Gov's Office: "This Is Nuts" As Bill To Kill Wyo Biz Council Heads To Legislature

January 17, 2016

Sigh . . . 

January 24, 2026

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...

Jacob 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.  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.

Last edition:

The 2026 Wyoming Legislature, Part 1. The way too early 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.

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.

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.

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

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

Original post:  January 20, 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.  

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.