Showing posts with label Lindsey Graham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lindsey Graham. Show all posts

Saturday, July 18, 2026

The 2026 Election, 16th Edition. The skeptical eye edition.


July 11, 2026

As we head into the final days of the primary election, which for most offices is, unfortunately, the election, we here in Wyoming are being subjected to a daily bombardment of election propaganda crap, most of which assumes that if Donald Trump bent over and pulled his oversize trousers down, you'd gleefully kiss his big white ass.

And that's exactly what most of the candidates for Congress are doing.

Having said that, either election fatigue or the rise of local issues is baffling a few.

For the House, Chuck Gray is flopping around like a carp thrown out on the beach looking for something he thinks can outrage you into voting for the little rich carpetbagger whose never had to really work.  Gadfly Reid Rasner, who doesn't stand a chance (and whose been mysteriously absent recently) actually seems to have hurt Chuck by calling him China Chuck.  Chuck's most recently effort is to pretend to be horrified by birthright citizenship.  Given as Trump sort of excused Graham Platner from rape accusations the other day, we can assume lil' Chuck is searching for a girlfriend to make accusations against him so that he can get a Trump accolade.

Foster Friess, another rich carpetbagger, has been running for the same position, Congressman, and has hit on the "I've never had to work a real job but you dumb fucks have to so I'm going to pretend that you want a job on the floor of an oil rig where you will get killed".

As noted, Rasner has just dropped off the screen.

And of course we have Florida cracker Frank Chapman on screen looking like his new cowboy boots hurt his feet and pretending to be one of us.

We can hope that Jillian Balow is getting some traction, as she seems by far the least objectionable Republican candidate for Congress. She also must be the least well funded of the good candidates as we don't see her campaign material nearly as often, unfortunately.

This isn't everyone running on the GOP ticket.  Bo Biteman, of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, Kevin Christensen, a vet who'd like to kiss Trump's big white ass, Richard Dodson, David Giralt and Keith Goodenough all are as well.  Goodenough is the most interesting candidate in the race, having been a well know Natrona County candidate whose served in various offices, and who has served both as a Republican and Democrat.

If the primary election were today we would vote for, for Congress, Balow.

Democrats running for this office are Elena Del Real and Boomer Lisa Kinney.  Kinney will win and then go down so badly in the general it'll leave a crater visible from space in her native Albany County.

If we were registered as Democrats and the primary was elected today, we'd just not vote either of these two obvious losers.

If the general election was held today, and we had our choice of candidates, we'd vote for Balow.

For the Senate seat, a propaganda flyer for Harriet Hageman came this week for the first time.  That fact would suggest she doesn't figure she actually has to spend much money.  Other candidates in that race are Jill Edwards, John Holtz, the gadfly Baby Boomer who just won't go away, Sam Mead and Jimmy Skovgard.  Mead is by far the best candidate in this race but he faces an uphill battle against Hageman simply because she's in Congress.

If the primary election was held today we'd vote for Mead.

On the Democratic side  Billy Benavidez is running against James Byrd.  Byrd is a very good candidate and may be the best candidate in the entire race from either party.  A Byrd v. Mead race would really serve the state.

If the primary election was held today and we were registered as Democrats, we'd vote for Byrd.

If the general election was held today and we had our choice of candidates, we're not sure what we'd do.

For Governor the race seems to have Eric Barlow, out in front.  He's a very good candidate.  Megan Degenfelder is running on having been Superintendent of Public Education and that Donald "Grab 'em by the Pussy" Trump has endorsed her.  Brent Bien is running on the "I worked my entire life for the government (USMC) and hate the government ticket".  A lot of WFC people like him as they're gullible and ignorant.  The WFC has a flyer with Bien, Chuck and Hageman circling.  A Curt Blake is also running.

If the primary election was held today we'd vote for Barlow.

On the Democratic side Ken Casner is running as the symbol of the dead Democratic Party in the state, as he's so old he may in fact have already passed on.

If the primary election was held today and we were registered as Democrats we'd scream in anger and refuse to fill out the ballot on this one.

If the general election was held today and we had our choice of candidates, we'd vote for Balow.

For Wyoming Secretary of State the GOP candidates are Jason Fearneyhough, Qwenton Eagle Oviatt, Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, Robert Short and Charles Young.  Of these candidates, right now, the only ones I know anything about are carpetbagger Rodriguez-Williams, an odd man off Hispanic in the Wyoming Fascist Caucus, and Robert Short, long time Converse County Commissioner.

If the primary was held today, we'd vote for Short, but we need to look into these candidates more.

For the Democrats, there's Bryan McCarty, whom we know nothing about.

If the general election was held today and we had our choice of candidates, right now it'd be Short, but we're not wedded to that position.  We'd never vote for Rodriguez-Williams.

For Superintendent of Public Instruction the GOP race features Chad Auer, Steve Harshman and Thomas Kelly.  Harsham is a long time teacher and educator and is by far the best choice on the GOP side.  On the Democratic side Ana Cordova and Sergio Maldonado are running, both of whom are educators.

If the primary election was held today we'd vote for Harshman.

If the general election was held today we're not sure what we would do.

The primary will decide the Treasurer's race as only Republicans Curt Meier and Scott Smith are running.  Meier will win.



In other races, we'd like to see Bear, Allemand, and Ide retired to private life. I.e, lose and lose badly.

In news from elsewhere, Graham Platner officially pulled out of the race, but with the least apologetic message ever.


Platner was, of course, lately accused of rape and had some troubling aspects to him early on.  The rape accusations, however, were a bridge too far for Democrats, thankfully.

One of the main aspects of the Platner saga has been the degree to which it really exposed the hypocrisy of the GOP, which started off by attempting to mount the high horse of morality which was bucking wildly. A party that has "Grab em by the Pussy" "I went to Epstein Island but didn't notice it was rapey" Trump and a host of other moral creeps can't really be complaining about morality  When the Democrats in fact demanded that Platner drop out that left them in a bit of a pickle as they got what they were urging but, by extension, that means they have to clear out the bordello in order to have any moral credibility, which they aren't going to do.

Indeed, Donald Trump came to Platner's defense, noting that sometimes the accusatrixes are fibbers, which sometimes they indeed are.  His point is, of course, that he's maintained all along he's not a moral creep and his female accusers are lying.  It's pretty clear not all of them are lying about what they accuse Trump of, but at any rate he came to Platner's defense.  It'd have been amusing if Trump had endorsed Platner, which I could actually see sort of happening.  In a weird sort of way, Platner is what J. D. Vance once was, but with a side order of massively problematic personal issues.

July 12, 2026

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham passed away yesterday at the age of 71.  Once a staunch opponent of Donald Trump, during Trump's first administration he became a strong supporter.  In recent years, almost pathetically so.

Gov. Henry McMaster will appoint a temporary replacement.  He has absolute discretion, but he's a Republican and will choose a Republican.  He's also a strong Trump supporter.

Graham was facting Dr. Annie Andrews who stood a strong chance of defeating him.  His death makes it likely that his successor will prevail in the fall.

It seems quite likely that Graham died of a heart attack.  He was two years older than his father was when his father died the same way.  That event left him raising his 13 year old sister, as his mother had already passed away.

He attended university while raising his sister on an ROTC scholarship and served after law school in the USAF.  After his active duty career he continued to serve in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.  He was always a JAG officer.  He was a government attorney for local municipalities briefly before entering Congress in 1994.  In his first race, he was supported by Strom Thurmond.

Graham never married.

July 14, 2026

The Governor of South Carolina appointed Darline Graham Nordone, the sister of the late Senator, as his replacement for the balance of his term.  She is unlikely to run for the seat, which is up this term.

Quite a few contenders are lining up to compete for it, with some Nancy Mace practically begging for the seat while pretending that she's being begged to take it.

Closer to home, Chuck Gray (who's never been married and for whom there's no known current or former known former love interest) is complaining about a something gadfly Reid Rasner (who has been married, and divorced, to a man) said in Rasner's doomed campaign.


According to the Cowboy State Daily:
That upset Chuck who likes to run around calling people names but doesn't like to be picked on.  The Daily reached out to Chuck's father who replied, “Clearly I support my son, Chuck Gray, 100% - and he’s going to win, Reid Rasner is a very troubled individual. Chuck Gray for Congress.”

What seems to be the case is that the elder Gray liked some of Rasner's Facebook posts, which is a pretty good reason to question his political leanings, although they frankly are pretty similar to his son's.

The Gray v. Rasner fight is one that Gray, frankly, deserves.  Rasner is a gadfly, with a campaign so wacky that some have questioned if its a comedy act, but his views aren't really very far from Gray's, which ought to be regarded as comedic.

cont:

Donald Trump is schedule for a television appearance this Thursday which appears to be part of his pathetic fable that he won the 2020 election he lost, and as part of his push for the Stop Americans from Voting Act.

The gullible will no doubt listen to whatever stream of lies he spouts.

July 15, 2026

Early and absentee voting for the primaries starts on July 21 and ends on Aug. 17. 

Primary election day is Tuesday, Aug. 18.

I usually try to vote early since the county decided to consolidate a bunch of voting locations into one, at the Fairgrounds.  I frankly don't appreciate that much.

It was for paranoid security concerns.

A Miller article:

Horses, hats and political propaganda as Wyoming prepares to vote


Miller is spot on.  We are in the hats, boots and horses season, with politicians who don't normally wear Western togs, and probably fear horses, get photographed like they're appearing in Lonesome Dove.

July 16, 2026

Right up until now he was proclaiming his innocence and claiming policy abuse:


I don't hold the DUI against him.  Lots of people end up having a one off conviction for this, although you surely should not drink and drive.

No, I do hold the diehard claim of innocence and police misconduct against him, and his lawyer.

And frankly his WFC views.

Don't vote for this guy, there's no reason to.

Nor should you vote for his diehard defender Rozmaring Czaban.  Czaban has an Allemand apologist role the same way that Trump cabinet members have to Trump.  I don't know what the deal is, but Czaban, a candidate for Natrona County Commissioner was defending Alleman as late as earlier this week.

There are a lot of good candidates for Natrona County Commissioner. She isn't one.

Tonight, unfortunately at the same time as the demented fascist seeks to justify stealing elections:

And also:


July 7, 2026

In an effort to steal the 2026 election and undermine democracy, Donald Trump, a demented narcissist whose occupancy of the White House is itself illegal and illegitimate, delivered a broadcast which attempted to show that, basically, China had tried to influence the news, but which instead showed that Russia had, and in his favor.

Trump is a traitor to the country and the 25th Amendment or an impeachment, or just a declaratory judgment action demonstrating that he's legally unqualified for the office, should be undertaken immediately.

Anyone claiming to be endorsed by him, or seeking office to support his efforts, is supporting a traitor and should not be voted for.

Republican Party Campaign Poster.

And while Der Fibber was seeking to create a fable, this was included in his release:


Oh my.

An example of somebody who should not be voted for:


Republicans with lots of self bucks:


Republicans who aren't Dixiecrats or Fascists:


July 18, 2026


This edition is only a week old, and it's already uncomfortably large, so we'll close it out and move on to the next one.

Related threads:



Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 15th Edition. Trump will attempt to steal the election.




Thursday, July 16, 2026

Lindsey Graham was the best kind of 'operator'| Froma Harrop

 Froma Harrop:

Lindsey Graham was the best kind of 'operator'| Froma Harrop

BS.  He served a fascist nut.

After tonight, that will be increasingly clear.  You can love your country, or you can love Donald Trump.  You can't do both.

Monday, July 13, 2026

Acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt, et De mortuis nihil nisi bonum, et Regula Ernii Pyle. The reaction to the Death of Lindsey Graham.

If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.

Lindsey Graham, 2016.

I hadn't intended to post more on Lindsey Graham after my note on, well not Graham, but his dying at age 71.  

Not too surprisingly, however, he was a topic of all three new shows this weekend.  Meet The Press had yet another interview with Donald Trump (they've had a pile of them yesterday), on Graham.  Trump claims to have spoken to him just before his death and of course, Graham was for the Stopping Americans from Voting Act that Trump hopes will pass and save his bacon this fall.

The other interviews were more interesting.  I thought one of them gave a really good insight into Graham's evolution from a Trump opponent into a Trump supporter, that being pure politics.  He was, the person claimed, simply play politics, basically, and by cosying up to Trump was able to influence him and get what he wanted overall.

That might be right, and is the only good explanation I've ever seen for it. The question is, at what point have you gone too far.  Frankly, I think Graham went too far.

Lucien Truscott obviously feels that and has one of the most blunt applications of the Ernie Pyle Rule I've ever seen by a well known writer.*

The hole in the Senate named Lindsey Graham

Truscott outright states that Graham was a homosexual and betrayed his like attracted.

That brings up my first observation.

I don't know if Graham was a closeted homosexual or not, but if he was, it didn't seem to impact his votes at all.  That's part of what Truscott is complaining about, but on the Twitter, the epicenter of nastiness, I've seen.

Here's the thing, however.  A lot of the speculation on Graham's sexuality comes from his never marrying.  He was asked about it over his lifetime and his response was that he never found the right girl, or the right girl was lucky enough never to have found him.

Anyhow, as an observation, which of course is part of what this blog does in a evolution of time fashion, merely being a single adult doesn't mean a person is a homosexual.  One of my law school colleagues never married, for example, and I've known him since he was a pre teen.  He's definately not same sex attracted.  An older friend of mine is the same way.  He's now in his 70s and has never married.  He's not a homosexual, he just has a very unique personality that's operated against marriage.

If you'd asked me when I was in my late 20s, I would probably have said it wasn't going to happen.  At that age I'd lost a pretty serious girlfriend and broken up with a girl was sort of serious about me, but not the other way around.  Had things kept going the way they seemed to be going, and I thought at that point they definitely would be, I'd have reached the age of declining prospects pretty quickly and likely have been a single guy my whole life.  I wouldn't have liked that, but it happens.

Still, most men do marry, or at least if they aren't married, you can find pretty serious love interests they've had.  I've noted that above in regard to myself.  Its not as if I hadn't dated at all in my 20s.  It's odd for somebody to have no friends of the opposite sex who they're interested in that way, but it does happen.  

The opposite also happens, I'd note.  One of my high school friends was undoubtedly a homosexual, but he did marry a girl.  They divorced and he died quite young.  If you read his obituary it doesn't say of what, but I suspect I know.

Anyhow, I don't care if Graham was a homosexual at all and as it wasn't an open part of his life, and he didn't make it some sort of big political deal, I don't know why it matters.

On a finale note, the current Wyoming election season features one man who is an open homosexual but doesn't work that into his campaign.  One of his opponents is like Graham, there's no known female friends at all that have ever popped up, which raises questions if you are campaigning on the far edge of the far right.  And, fwiw, Wyoming has had one very good state office holder in the past who was a homosexual, while it never came out, and there's questions about a well known political figure as well.

The rest of Truscott's article, I'd note, is really blunt.  And Graham may deserve the application of Pyle's rule.

Public Interest wasn't much kinder:

Lindsey Graham and the rot of modern conservatism

From Gingrich to Trump, Graham was a fixture as the GOP became increasingly malignant.

Their article stated:

Lindsey Graham died a coward. His three-decade career in national politics should be remembered for more than his shameless, pusillanimous capitulations — but not, unfortunately, for some noble pursuit or purpose he used his chameleon-like political skills to secure. He should instead be remembered for using his power to bow and scrape, to change his political colors, largely if not solely in service to himself.

I guess that reminds of, in a way, of the maxim Acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt. There comes a time when reform is too late.  Medieval texts used to worry a great deal about the powerful dying with their sins unconfessed.  Well, many regular people do.  There's a lesson there.

Anne Applebaum wrote in The Atlantic:

But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. Graham went out of his way to telegraph his closeness to the president. He played golf with Trump, made excuses for him on television, and supported him as he slowly destroyed the alliances that Graham had defended all his life, even as he undermined the institutions of democracy at home. In 2021, Graham refused to vote to convict Trump, even after he assaulted the Capitol and tried to reverse the results of the election.

Another commentator noted all of the post death accolades by members of the press who knew Graham.  He was a frequent press guest, having appeared for example on Meet the Press some sixty times.

Here's what Lindsey Graham should be remembered for--not corporate media's whitewashing

The whitewashing of Graham is awful!


That item started off with Shakespeare, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

Adam Kinzinger was much kinder, which in turn has resulted in Kinzinger being attacked on Twitter.

Ann Telnaes ran a series of her political cartoons.

Sen. Lindsey Graham dead

A shameless political opportunist and one of Trump's chief enablers has died

In short, the "legacy media" was kind to Graham and his legacy. The print and pundit media, not so much.

In my view, he probably didn't deserve much respect.  The thing he should be remembered that he did best was rising to the occasion of his father's death (his mother had died less than a year prior) and raising his 13 year old sister.

On that, I noted here the other day that his father was 69 years old when he died.  My comments on age got some shocked rebukes in other quarters.  "71 isn't old".

Yes it is. 

Just looking at the social history aspect of this for a second, Graham was apparently 21 when his father died.  That would have meant that his father 48 years old when Graham was born, old to be a father.

Florence James "F.J." Graham was married to Millie Waters.  She was 52 when she died in 1977.  Graham's sister was only 13 when he died, meaning that their father was 56 when she was born, very old to become a father.  Their mother was was approximately 33 when Lindsey was born, and approximately 41 when she was.  41 is quite old to have a child for a women.  I don't know when they married, but there was an age gap of about ten years there, which isn't that uncommon.  More uncommon is that they apparently married sort of late with the mother in her very early 30s, or they had a hard time having children.

Some Twitter Twits have absolutely freaked out about his dying, attributing it to a conspiracy.  Complete nonsense.

By the way, Sam Neal died yesterday at 79, 8 years older than Graham.  James Van Der Beek at 48.  Catherine O'Hara at 71.

Trump, in an interview, said several times "I thought he would live forever".  He claims to have told Graham that several times, but with Trump, you can never tell if that's true.  That probably says more about Trump than Graham.

Graham came up during the Reagan era.  Reagan remains the huge hero to conservatives, but more and more he doesn't deserve to be.  It was Reagan who caused the sweep of old Dixiecrats into the GOP which has lead to its ultimate destruction.  I can't say that Graham was a Dixiecrat, but I will note that he was endorsed early on by Strom Thurmond, who most definitely was.

Graham had been a major supporter of the US effort in Afghanistan and  he was a big supporter of Ukraine.  I agree with him on both of those things . Ironically, given how close Graham was to Trump, it was Afghanistan that really started the riff between Liz  Cheney and Trump which lead to Harriet Hageman.

After January 6, Graham appeared to briefly find his moral ground.  For a few weeks there it looked as if Trump might be impeached.  Graham lead a speech from the floor that absolutely condemned what happened and implicitly condemned Trump.  Like most of the GOP, however, he went back to Trump boot licking.  That will be his legacy.

Well, legacies matter I suppose to the living, and for a reason. For the dead, they're beyond that.

May the perpetual light shine upon him.

Footnotes:

*Ernie Pyle, the famous World War Two reporter, once reported on troops reaction to having to pack a dead lieutenant they didn't like out of the Italian hills on a mule  A Sergeant stated "Son of a bitch alive, son of a bitch dead".

Related thread:

The death of Lindsey Graham. A timely American reminder.

Sunday, July 12, 2026

The death of Lindsey Graham. A timely American reminder.

 


There will be, no doubt, a lot of mention today of the death of Lindsey Graham.  It'll feature, in some fashion, on all the news programs.  

I've commented a little on Graham in the election thread.  He was standing for reelection. That's all beyond him now.

What I'm commenting on instead is the "surprise" by his death.  Here's the most American, and stupidest, one:

I’m sorry, but Lindsey Graham dying out of the blue like this doesn’t make any sense at all. 

We have him on camera yesterday looking perfectly healthy. 

None of this is making any sense…

Sorry junior, somebody dying suddenly at age 71 makes all the sense in the world.

And frankly, Graham was more than looking his age in recent months.

It only doesn't make sense to modern Americans. Graham's own father was 69 when he died of a heart attack, which is likely what Graham died of as well.  

All human beings die, and after about 30, all males are on borrowed time, females after about 45.  After that, if death comes, maybe people are surprised, but they ought not to be.

My own father died at age 62, and his father at age 47.    My father's mother was 65 when she died.  I was a child at the time, but I can recall it.

The point here isn't to just point out the obvious, but to add something else.  American culture has moved in the Baby Boom Era from knowing that death can arrive at any point, and will arrive ultimately, to sort of believing it just can't happen.  Graham was 71 years old and running for a position which would have ended for him at age 78.  At 71, that position should go to a younger person.  People have to yield at some point.  Moreover, by putting positions of responsibility in the hands of people who are that old, society is just gambling with death.

Indeed, some morning in the news few days to years, we're going to wake up to the news that Donald Trump is dead.  Maybe he'll live through his term, but there's utterly no guaranty of that.  Right now he's taking a physical every six months, which is probably due to his declining mental status, but that shows it right there.

In earlier times countries would occasionally come under the reign of the the very young, but it was rare.  Almost always a regent was put in place to govern until they were old enough to do so.  There are rare exceptions.  Ismail I became Shah of Perisal at just 13 years old in 1501 and actually governed..  King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem  dismissed his regency and took personal control of his kingdom at age 15. I'd frankly rather have a 15 year old in charge than an 80 year old.  Society would say that's nuts, and indeed having a 15 year old in charge is nuts.  Having an 80 year old in charge is nuts too.

I'll deal with it in another post, but as for myself, at 63, I've recently started sending out the signals that I'm headed towards a career landing.  I'm 17 months out, no more.  It's funny how that's received.  Some are nervous, and some just don't believe it, including two older partners of mine, one in his 70s . It's not possible to retire at that age (I'll be five months shy of age 65).  But for that matter, there's no guaranty at all I'll be living by that time.  I may spend the next 17 months of my life paying for the fear of my long suffering wife that I can't retire, right now.

That's a bit different, however, from the hubris of "I'll be living" and "I'll be fit".

And so the general lesson.  We don't allow for old airline pilots as they may get suddenly ill, and kill everyone on the plane

The same is true for the elderly in charge of anything.

There's a time people should stop.  And people imaging that any male death over 50 is shocking or unusual are merely trying to comfort themselves.