Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Wednesday, July 14, 1976. Carter and Mondale nominated.
Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale were nominated for the 1976 Democratic ticket on the first ballot.
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Sen. Barbara Jordan delivering the keynote address, the first woman to do so.
Cesar Chavez nominating California's Governor Jerry Brown.
Canada's House of Commons approved the permanent abolition of the death penalty.
General António Ramalho Eanes was sworn as the new president of Portugal.
Aparicio Méndez, age 71, was appointed to be the new president of Uruguay effective September 1.
A border clash between El Salvador and Honduras killed several El Salvadoran soldiers.
An earthquake in Indonesia killed 573 people.
German SS special forces leader Joachim Peiper was assassinated in the village of Traves, Haute-Saône, France where he had stupidly been living. Peiper served only nine years of a life sentence and after various post war occupations, relocated to France under an assumed name. Discovered shortly before his murder, he gave interviews, and blamed the French defeat in 1940 on French cowardice. His house there was set on fire and he died within. His body was found with a .22 pistol in his hand.
Last edition:
Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, July 6, 1976. First women at Anapolis. Not nothing the anniversary.
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 144th Edition. Just in case you've begun to think that being governed by an 80 year old demented dictator is somehow normal, here's. . .
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Kristrún Mjöll Frostadóttir, in black.
Kristrún Mjöll Frostadóttir, the Prime Minister of Iceland. She graduated from Reykjavik Junior College, the University of Iceland, holds a master's degree in international studies from Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, and a master's degree in economics from Boston University.
She's 38 years old.
And she's a Social Democrat.
She makes Donald Trump and the entire Trump cabinet look like idiots and a country that feels that it has to elect idiots twice her age, idiotic.
Iceland, by the way, had a working parliament in 930. And yet they don't feel compelled to elect demented octogenarians. The oldest person to ever serve in that role was Gunnar Thoroddsen, who was 69 years old when he took office in 1980. He served three years and retired.
An example from a country that's been electing people a lot longer than we have. We don't have to elect demented geezers and wet our pants when the world "Social" shows up in politics.
That's something ignorant children do.
And demented octogenarian toddlers and their syncophants.
Last Edition:
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 143rd Edition. The Chopper Edition.
Labels: 2020s, 2025 White House Vandalization, 2026, Aircraft, The Second Trump Administration, United States Marine Corps, Washington DC, Washington DC Vandalization, Zeitgeist
Friday, July 3, 2026
Court Watch Part VII. When the last law was down.
Lawyer, St. Thomas More, who was executed for his adherence to his faith.
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts
The Justice Department is going after James Comey for posting a photo of seashells arranged to spell "8647" on a beach somewhere, asserting it was a death threat on President Trump. Apparently this is due to the old use of the term "86" to do away with and "47" for Donald Trump's completely illegitimate but widely accepted illegal claim to be President.
It wasn't.
This prosecution will go nowhere whatsoever, but it is more evidence that everyone in the Trump Administration is essentially a fascist with no regard for reality or the rule of law right now. We are in monumentally dangerous territory. It's 1534 in the United States with Donald Trump our King Henry VIII.
And the spirt of the age has spread:
What Gray did was flat out illegal. Gray is relying, in essence, on the advice of the Attorney General and when that's a defense, the attorney client privilege is waived. The AG's office knows that, but it has to defend the privilege It's being pretty assertive about it.
Gray needs to suffer the penalty of the law here.
Nobody is more opposed to abortion than I am. I wouldn't allow for the largely bogus "rape and incest" exceptions that many people will. But this is really beyond the Pale. Powell should be ashamed of itself for even appoint this guy to its city council.
Elsewhere, in a nation where we brought a modern justice system, it's still functioning.
South Korean court extends prison sentence for wife of ousted president
May 5, 2026
Headline in the CST:
Judges reject Trump push to obtain state voter rolls
But of course our Secretary of State, Chuck "If you disagree with me you are a radical communist, fascist, monarchist, podiatrist" Gray just handed Wyoming's over.
May 16, 2026
Smith hasn't been confirmed as US Attorney for Wyoming yet.
May 21, 2026
It appears that Trump's settlement deal in his IRS suit may actually prove to be a bridge too far for Senate Republicans.
The deal, which frankly is the epitome of corruption, would create a slush fund to pay pardoned January 6 criminals for their inconvenience in being prosecuted as traitors to their country. That's what they are, and they should not have been pardoned, but Trump sought to go one step beyond that and reward the pack of Horst Wessels. Frankly, as soon as possible, the pardons should be unrung as illegitimate (Trump isn't a legitimate President and can't pardon anyone). Anyhow, Republicans are openly balking on the slush fund, amazingly. It must be really angering constituents, or just too much to stomach.
Indeed, they not only are balking, they sidetracked the ICE funding bill, showing that they're actually willing to do something that is guaranteed to send the Orange Mussolini into a screaming fit, but the fit will pit Trump's ICE demands up against his now open and obvious corruption and the hemorrhaging of the US budget. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, as once they break with Trump, their relationship with Trump is broken, and if he doesn't come to heel, they can't.
By way of an analogous example, Massie wouldn't come to heel on the Epstein files, but he was one man. Once it's a pack, it tends to grow.
So, a match is on.
May 29, 2026
A court ruled that Trump's adding his name to the Kennedy Center was illegal and ordered it removed within two weeks.
A different judge enjoined the IRS settlement slush fund from going forward.
June 2, 2026
Trump's insurrectionist slush fund seemed to be getting questioned by the court and now the Attorney General is saying it won't occur.
While Wyoming's Congressional delegation didn't protest it, a lot of Republicans in Congress were finding it to be a bridge too far.
June 3, 2026
Lawyers ask Wyoming Supreme Court to intervene in Gray voter data complaint
June 4, 2026
A Wyoming district court held that the whiney fascist crybabies leading the GOP have to follow state law and seat elected Republican precinct members, something another court did two years ago. The state central committee didn't want to do so as that keeps it from picking fascists.
It argues that its a private entity and doesn't have to follow state law. . . except of course when it comes to getting preferential places on ballots, having the state run party elections for it, and getting to pick members of certain offices when they become vacant. It's fine with all of that.
Satire aside, this would have been an opportunity for the Court to wipe all of that out, and it should have.
June 5, 2026
Wyoming GOP sues state, challenges constitutionality of ban on pre-primary candidate endorsements
All they really have to do is to quit having state funded primaries.
June 15, 2026
Last Friday retired Judge Campbell struck down a series of provisions regarding abortion. There was some chance that these would survive challenge, as they did not directly restrict abortion, such as there being a time delay after seeking one, an ultrasound, etc., but he ruled that the Wyoming Supreme Court's earlier decision meant that these were in the nature of health care and could not stand.
I disagree with him on that, but given the absurd Wyoming constitutional provision on health care I've addressed here before, and the S.Ct. decision, it's an understandable result. It'll go on to be challenged at the Wyoming Supreme Court level, probably.
I keep wondering if anyone has argued the true existential aspect of the questions. I don't know if that's been done or not.
On the nature of things, one of the local news outlets has had photos of a woman protesting holding a sign that says "Forced Birth = Violence".
Almost all abortions in the US are due to people who just had sex, and then sex resulted in what it results in. That's not forced birth, that's nature. The common "well what about ten year olds" and the like brings up a case scenario that's exceedingly rare. The reply to that would be to ask that person if they're opposed to all other abortions, which they are not.
Even at that, however, killing is killing. It would be just as logical to go out and determine every living American who came about due to rape or tike and shoot them dead now. Yes, rape and incest are horrible. Murder is probably the ultimate horrible, however.
Apparently the S.Ct asked, in its opinion, why those challenging abortion in Wyoming don't seek to amend the constitution. It was a constitutional amendment that got us here, so that makes sense. So far nobody's lifted a finger to do that. The likely reason is that they know that amending the provision to allow for making abortions illegal won't pass in the state. Instead, they feel their odds are better litigating about it, or complaining about it.
On other matters, the case challenging the primary system filed by Skovgaard is a pro se case, as I suspected, meaning it has about zero chance of actually succeeding.
June 18, 2026
Gordon sues Board of Equalization, asks court to enforce property tax cap
In other news, some members of the WFC are criticizing Wyoming courts as "activist", an absolutely absurd accusation, for not upholding the most recent abortion laws when the legislature itself is completely responsible for the constitutional amendment that causes those laws to do down in defeat.
The legislature could forward a repeal of that amendment, but it won't, as it's afraid that would go down in defeat. The whole thing is an example of playing a stupid game and winning a stupid prize.
June 19, 2026
Court sides with challenger to law banning drug users from possessing guns
What could go wrong?
On the topic mentioned above, we'll note that that you heard it here first, but now the drumbeat pointing out the hypocrisy is getting pretty loud:
Tom Lubnau: Sure, Pass Unconstitutional Bills And Blame 'Activist Judges'
Lubnau really throws the gauntlet down, stating:
The fix is simple. Pass a proposed constitutional amendment. I'll draft it for them: Article I, §38 is amended to add subsection (e): Abortion is not healthcare for purposes of this Article.
Come on Sanchez-Williams. Come on Bear. But your legislating where you claimed values are.
June 29, 2026
A good result:
Court prevents Trump from firing Fed governor
A 5 to 4 decision, with Thomas writing the dissent.
A bad result:
Court allows Trump to fire FTC commissioner and overturns major restraint on presidential power
A great result, but again 5 to 4:
Justices uphold state law allowing for late-arriving mail-in ballots
Trump's already bitching about this one, complaining that this provides why the SAVE Act needs to be passed.
And another good result:
Supreme Court will not consider $5 million verdict against Trump
Cont:
Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship
Yikes, that was the right result, but razor thin.
Cont:
And a bad one:
Justices strike down campaign finance law
Cont:
And a correct one:
Court rules that states can exclude transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports teams
July 3, 2025
A former Olympian has been falsely charged with vandalizing Donald Trump's Rhino Lined Algae pond as Trump is a baby and can't handle the truth.
These charges will fail, will result in a civil suit against the government which the government will ultimately settle for millions.
We've crossed the edge into the early stages of a fascist police state.
Gabriel Green has sued the State over residency requirements. A long time Wyoming resident, he recently resided in Arizona so the Secretary of State, properly in my view, found he did not meet the residency requirements.
The Secretary of State's office faces two other election related legal actions at the presen ttime.
With this, we'll close out this edition.
Last edition:
Ballroom Batshit. A demented president goes full bonkers. The 25th Amendment Watch List Fifteenth Edition and Court Watch Part VI.
Thursday, July 2, 2026
Friday, July 2, 1926. Air Corps established.
Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles published the vile Calles Law, effective July 31, which banned religious education, foreign priests and political commentary in religious publications, seizing church property and holding that worship could only be conducted inside of churches and under the supervision of local officials
I've written on Calles before, who in some ways got his just deserts, but the damage he did is still felt to this day.
The United States Army Air Corps was established as an expansion of the United States Army Air Service that had been created on May 24, 1918. It was not, however, an independent service, nor did it enjoy the level of autonomy of the Navy's Marine Corps. Nor should it have. . . even to the present day.
Canadian Governor General Julian Byng dissolved Parliament.and scheduled new elections for the House of Commons and Senate to take place on September 14, which seems like a rather long delay.
Silent Cal addressed the Press:
People were calling Aimee Sample McPherson's disappearance story into question.
Last edition:
Thursday, July 1, 1926. Sweden creates an air arm, Safeway and Skaggs merge, Canada goes back on the gold standard.
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
The SAVE Act. Ihre Papiere, bitte.
When I was young there used to be periodic calls for a National Identity Card.
The concept was that the card would show you were a US citizen, be your social security card, proof of ID, etc.
Everything in one package.
President Clinton proposed national IDs during his administration as part of his administration's health care plan. Some people on the right and left proposed it as a way to combat illegal immigration.
Frankly, it'd make a lot of sense, or it did, in context. The card could be general proof of your identity, be your SSN card, your medicare card, your draft card, etc.
It was always opposed by the far right. Indeed, opposed fanatically. Ronald Reagan joked that it would be "the mark of the beast", but that was a joke that tapped into the Evangelical element of his base. A halfway joke, basically, pitched at people who were already afraid that the Antichrist was soon to appear.
But the left opposed it too, and adamantly.
I note this for the current irony. The Trump Administration is boosting the SAVE Act as a means of trying to keep the "wrong" people from voting.
We all know who those people are. . . . wink, wink.
And that's because they know that in the fall they're going to lose.
But ironically, they're basically proposing that millions of adults do, and millions won't be able to do, what would have been done decades ago, if they hadn't run around preventing it.
Of course, that wouldn't have required a national seizure of the elections, but that isn't required now, either.
It's funny, we used to think that the state demanding your papers was fascist.
Now, Chuck Gray just gleefully turns voter roles over to the Federal Government. . . . which doesn't mean that the state demanding paper is not, in fact, fascist.
Ihre Papiere, bitte.
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
The 2027 Legislature, super early edition. The make them stop edition.
Ugh, just when the first corn fed, cornfederate legislature was safely in the history books, the Management Council met. Of course, the same dumb ideas that get rejected repeatedly are back up for reconsideration, at least in part.
I hear we want to do the election review again and redo the same bills that just died three weeks ago ... in exchange for 911 funding.
Tara Nethercott.
The corner crossing bill won't be back, which is too bad.
Vote the WFC out and send them back to pre 1964 Alabama where they'll be happy.
May 13, 2026
Woman Sued By House Candidate Reid Rasner Urges Ban On Frivolous Lawsuits
I was aware this legislation had been introduced. Frankly, Anti SLAPP provisions are really tricky as they're based, basically, on pre judging a litigants intent.
June 10, 2026
Lawmakers revive proposal to remove Wyoming property taxes
The money has to come from somewhere. Property taxes rise because in no small part new people come in and overpay in the local housing market, and otherwise inflate it.
A better idea would be to have an unrealized sales tax on the sale of real property from other states that is used by a person within five years of moving to Wyoming.
Monday, May 18, 2026
The Agrarian's Lament: Massie of Kentucky.
The Agrarian's Lament: Massie of Kentucky.: Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, under constant attack from demented New York real estate developer Donald Trump, milled h...
Massie of Kentucky.
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, under constant attack from demented New York real estate developer Donald Trump, milled his own lumber, chiseled stone, and formed iron to hand build his own house.
Massie actually is what Republicans claim to want to be, but aren't. He's a far cry from Chuck Gray who went right to work for his daddy's radio station.
And he's sure a lot closer to Lincoln than Trump is.
Friday, May 15, 2026
Thursday, May 14, 2026
The 25th Amendment Watch List, Sixteenth Edition: The Addled.
May 12, 2026
Drugs coming by sea, by ocean, by water. A lot of people say, What do you mean by sea? Is it see? Like vision? No, it’s sea. SEA.
Donald Trump on the maritime transportation of illegal drugs. Absolutely nobody was confused on this topic, maybe other than Trump.
We have a man who is doing a great job. I knew it! Because he kept me out of jail for years. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. He kept me out of jail.
Ummm. . .
We're building a beautiful ballroom. I'm very good at ballrooms.
The ballroom, which will either never be built or will be ripped down, is a Trump obsession.
A new name I came up -- dumbocrat. I think that could be a good one. I've come up with some extraordinary names. But I was talking about Hakeem Jeffries. He's a low IQ person. He's a dumb guy.
Trump has an obsession on intelligence like only a man who isn't intelligent can have.
Without you, we have Somalia. A fine place where we have a congresswoman who brilliantly came over to the country by marrying her brother. That was the first law she broke. She comes from a country where they have nothing but crime, bedlam, filth. Elan Omar.
Ilhan Omar has been married three times, and none of her husbands were her brother.
This accusation taps into the deeply racist nature of a lot of MAGA in particular and the American far right in general. This has laid under the surface following the 1960s for years, but it resurfaced with the rise of Barack Obama which caused this demographic to flip out. Trump tapped into it early with his clams that Obama, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya.
Funny thing here is that Obama and Trump share a common item here in that both of them were born to a couple in which one of them was an immigrant. In Trump's case, however, the immigrant was a white Christian, as opposed to Obama's. This item here really shows something that's deeply ingrained in the MAGA movement. It really doesn't like anyone who isn't white and it really doesn't like anyone who isn't culturally Christian.
Otherwise, it's perfectly okay with people like Trump, who marry foreign women of a certain appearance and then divorce them later on, and whose Christianity is a variant of it that doesn't really require any actual effort or adherence to the Gospel.
The people that did it -- these people did not work for me. They said they work for me. They come from a different part of the country. But they were good. The people that worked for me recommended it and they recommend we do it this way. But I recommended it to them because I'm very good at construction.
Tide D Bowl.
No Republican has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction - down! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!! In the meantime, I’m off to China! President DJT
Donald Trump.
We'll address the super creepy "Trump babies" in another thread.
A note here. Trump's 18 month mark will be July 20, 2026. If I'm right, we're now in the final phases of his administration as he'll be removed by the 25th Amendment by then.
May 13, 2026
Trump, who came to office principally because he promised to deport the 10M to 12M illegal aliens in the US, most of whom are Hispanic, now wants to annex Venezuela, with a population of 31M, and make it a state.
Let's not pretend he's joking, he isn't.
The population of the US is currently 20% Hispanic. Annexation of Venezuela and making its citizens US citizens would convert the country to being a 30% Hispanic country overnight. MAGA has a strongly nativist anti Hispanic bias. It'll amusing how they bend that to supporting this, but they will.
The entire thing is amusing about King Donny. He's so dim that all he ever thinks about is the cash value of something, and Venezuela has oil. He apparently doesn't realize that Venezuela, which is a large country which would probably come in as more than one state if it did, is also a Socialist one. The Republican Party would be effectively dead, and the US would be far more left wing than it currently is.
This won't happen, as it would require the cooperation of Congress. At least I don't think it would. But the fact that MAGA will support this just shows how dim that movement is.
MAGA politicians, including Harriet Hageman and John Sycophant Barrasso, should be quizzed on this, and don't let them weasel out of answering or tell you its a joke. It isn't.
On issues closer to home:
Wyoming Cattle Ranchers Worried Over Trump Proposal To Lower Tariffs On Beef Imports
Farmers and ranches who supported Trump were reading something into him that just isn't there and will regret it.
May 14, 2026
This item raises some really good and interesting points.
Bare minimum, as the wheels come off the Trump administration he's getting increasingly erratic. Richardson proposes some darker motives, but even if there not there, there appears to be a dedicated effort to say things now to distract as things get worse and worse.
Last edition:
Ballroom Batshit. A demented president goes full bonkers. The 25th Amendment Watch List Fifteenth Edition and Court Watch Part VI.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 136th Edition.Wyoming Republicans, not realizing they're Democrats, are criticizing Democrats, who are moderate Republicans, crossing over.
I saw an old friend getting hot and bothered by this today. The small Democratic Party is having an internal debate about its members switching their registration over to Republican so that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus candidates stand a bitter chance of losing. Truth be known, almost all moderate Democrats in the state did that decades ago, some later running as fairly successful Republicans. Cowboy State Daily Carpetbagger Dave Simpson has written an op ed about checking the "label" of Republican candidates.
Indeed, check it. Most of the WFC candidates don't belong in the GOP at all. They aren't Republicans.
My old friend is supporting Brent Bien, who spent 28 years sucking on the government tit before taking a retirement (more sucking on the government tit) and is upset with Degenfelder and Barlow. I'm not keen on Barlow either, but if you spend almost 30 years working in an institution that's funded by the taxpayers and then come out with a no taxes policy, you are some kind of hypocrite.
And yes I'm speaking of a military career. Yes, there's a lot that's honorable about a military career, but I'm pretty familiar with it and you never have to 1) send out a bill, 2) worry about the competition, 3) worry your employer isn't going to have money to pay you, 3) work for fifty years before you retire, if you can ever retire, 4) worry that you line of work is just going to cease to exist. Sure, you do have to worry about violent death, that's very true. Like the Potts character says in Major Dundee; "that goes with the pretty girls and the pension", but the chances of that, while very real, are much less than they're made out to be for most career military people, although they are real, and the risk of violent death goes with a host of other professions too for which such worries do exist and you aren't going to get a "thank you for your service!" accolade and aren't going to be regarded as a hero.
Being a logger is actually the most dangerous job in the U.S., followed by being a commercial fisherman. In a location specific sense, being a taxi driver was, and may still be, the most dangerous job in the U.S.
Anyhow, the criticism is that Barlow and Degenfelder might not adhere to, well:
Meine Ehre heißt Treue
Oh my, think for yourself, can't have that.
Anyhow, my friend is no doubt part of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus which is demanding loyalty oaths from Republicans.
But they aren't Republicans.
They're Dixiecrats through and through.
You'd be really hard pressed to find a Dixiecrat issue that the WFC didn't adhere to, somehow.
And you'd be hard pressed to find a Republican here who was part of the party in the Nixon or Reagan era who wouldn't look at the current party with utter disdain.
Ironically, being in the state GOP at the present time must be real torture for people who hold a no foreign wars, American First, white people only, sort of view, when their "Republican" President holds a war of the week, himself first, let's annex Venezuela and make it a state, sort of view.
Last edition:
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 135th Edition. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
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