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

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Seventh Edition. Night of Camp David

From Amazon:

Night of Camp David Kindle Edition

4.2 out of 5 stars   (863)

 “What would happen if the president of the U.S.A. went stark-raving mad?” Back by popular demand, The New York Times calls the 1965 bestselling political thriller by the author of Seven Days in May, “A little too plausible for comfort.”
 
How can one man convince the highest powers in Washington that the President of the United States is dangerously unstable—before it’s too late?
 
Senator Jim MacVeagh is proud to serve his country—and his president, Mark Hollenbach, who has a near-spotless reputation as the vibrant, charismatic leader of MacVeagh’s party and the nation. When Hollenbach begins taking MacVeagh into his confidence, the young senator knows that his star is on the rise.

But then Hollenbach starts summoning MacVeagh in the middle of the night to Camp David. There, the president sits in the dark and rants about his enemies, unfurling insane theories about all the people he says are conspiring against him. They would do anything, President Hollenbach tells the stunned senator, to stop him from setting in motion the grand, unprecedented plans he has to make America a great world power once again.

MacVeagh comes away from these meetings increasingly convinced that the man he once admired has lost his mind. But what can he do? Who can he tell?

Sound sort of familiar?

December 12, 2025


I'm reminded that as the Third Reich crumbled around him, Hitler concluded that the German people just weren't worthy of him.

And then there's this:
Q: Can you explain what's going on with the bandages on Trump's hand?

LEAVITT: We've given you an explanation. The president is literally constantly shaking hands.

Machinegun Lips Leavitt's statement is a dog that doesn't hunt.  At this point, it's clear that there's something going on.  The constant bruising on the hand suggest pretty strongly that Trump is frequently getting a picc line to his hand.  He's getting IVs, probably, but for what? 

He also recently had an MRI, and speaks of getting cognitive tests.  Somebody is monitoring him pretty closely medically, and Trump himself doesn't seem to know fully why.

Cont:

A blog entry on the same topic:

The Alarming Signs of a President in Decline

December 15, 2025

Trump's a complete a**hole.

cont:

Q: A number of Republicans have denounced your statement on Rob Reiner. Do you stand by it?

TRUMP: Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned.

December 17, 2025

The National Review

The president of the United States is a hateful raging lunatic with all the empathy of Jeffrey Dahmer.

A prediction:

I stated here before that Trump would only last 18 months in office.  He hasn't even made 12 yet, and his mind is complete mush.  He has a television address tonight I'm unlikely to watch, but my first prediction, not the one I created the subtitle for, is that it'll be full of rambling praise for himself and blame upon Joe Biden.

It'll also be jam packed with lies.

The bigger prediction, however, is this.  I'm going to restate the 18 month prediction as an outer date.  He's really declining rapidly.  He'll make it to 2026, probably, but my guess right now is not past the end of March.  Part of this will depend upon how close he gets us to war with Venezuela and how utterly unhinged he becomes regarding his domestic opposition.

My next prediction is that this will completely shatter the GOP.  The GOP is going to get pounded in the 2026 election and become utterly unglued.  It won't go away, but it'll take it three or four years to rebuilt itself into something.  

December 21, 2025

Trump: I took cognitive tests. By the way, not easy. The first question is like what is this and they show a lion, giraffe, fish and a hippopotamus. And they say which is the giraffe.

Hmmmm. . . 

I don't follow Rod Dreher because I think he slipped off the rails some time ago, but there's no real denying he's one of the real intellects of the National Conservatives/Christian Nationalist whom I think largely have the levers of power in the Trump Administration right now.  So I was surprised when I ran across something he posted on Twitter.

Dreher hasn't changed his views on things, and he defends Trump on some thing I think Trump is actually completely wrong on, such as the recently released National Security Strategy (which makes sense form Dreher's point of view, because of his beliefs), but regarding Trump himself, after his comments on Rob Reiner:

Something is very, very wrong with this man. A father and mother were murdered by their son, most likely, and Trump makes it about himself.

Its been obvious for years that something is deeply wrong with Trump.  Indeed, given his overall character, something has been wrong with Trump for decades, but his earlier character flaws are now being overtaken by his dementia.  

I note Dreher here as I think what we can begin to see pretty clearly is the move to replace Trump with Vance.  We predicted that Trump would be out within 18 months, and its starting to happen right now.

Dreher, who was one of the first Christian Nationalist and National Conservatives, is outright stating that Trump is mentally ill.  He's also attacking the MAGA public figures like Fuentes.  Erika Kirk is endorsing Vance for President in 2028.  Mitt Romney, whom conservatives regard as the last real conservative Republican candidate for the White House, is writing op eds urging taxation.

Now, not all those things are related, but some of them are.  It's clear that Republicans are beginning to maneuver for the 2028 election and they're leaving Trump behind.  Romney is old at 78, but he's not demented and he's younger than Biden was when he ran for reelection and he's younger than Trump, whose most radical MAGA base is urging to unconstitutionally run again in 2028.

Related to that, Vance is only in the administration as he wants to run in 2028.  He's tainted with his association with Trump and the stench that creates is getting worse and he knows it.  He's also the only real National Conservative who stands a chance of being elected in 2028.  Indeed, there were never any others who stood a chance.  Marco Rubio is a conservative, but not a National Conservative.  Elise Marie Stefanik is a conservative, not a National Conservative, as well.  Marjorie Taylor Greene, who doesn't stand a chance, is a far right wing populist.  Kevin Roberts, who is behind the scenes and somethat close to Vance, is definitely a National Conservative but he has no chance.  Stephen Miller is loathsome.

So now we're seeing the jockeying for position, but we're seeing more than that.  Some Republicans are finally outright condemning Trump over things he says.  Massie and Rand Paul are outright defying him with no real consequences.  Republicans who don't want to be part of a 2026 and 2028 bloodbath are bailing out of Congress.

Behind the scenes, there has to be a raging debate about how much longer the GOP lets Trump carry on.  He's been the functional equivalent of World War One naval dazzle camouflage which has served their interests well. . .up until now.  Now he's drawing fire.  He falls asleep in public.  He rambles on and sounds rough, while making statements that are often downright weird.  He insults vast numbers of people for petty reasons.  He's causing inflation in many areas of the economy through his beliefs on taxes, while destroying the economy for those who supported him in other areas.  

And he's on the verge of getting us into war.

While all that's going on, of course, his administration has now gone so far in trying to keep the government's files on perverted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein secret its reached the absurd level. Everyone knows that Trump and Epstein were friends.  The lingering news story has served to remind people that Trump has a sexual track record which necessarily raises questions, given his association with Epstein, as well as John Casablancas.  Old information that was re-released from the Epstein files serves to remind that one of Epstein's teenage victims ended up as a contestant in one of Trump's pageants.  Trump sent Epstein, although he denies it a hand drawn birthday card featuring what appears to be the immature body of a teenage girl, with his signature drawn across where the reproduction organs are, and with a poem emphasizing enigma and shared secrets.

MAGA victims of TDS of course still desperately want to believe that there's no there, there, but something is there, if only the names of people who may have participated in the abuse of up to 1,000 girls and who are significant figures.  Maybe Trump isn't listed amongst them, but there's some reason his administration is trying to desperately to keep this stuff secret.

My guess would be that Vance has no idea what it is.  But Vance, Kirk, Roberts and Dreher all know that if Trump rides things out to 2028 his increasing dementia combined with the risk of scandal is just too high.  If this blows up, and its starting to, it'll wreck the GOP so completely there won't be one in 2028.

Kirk and Dreher are preparing the groundwork now.  Mentioning that what Trump is doing is vile is part of that.  Mentioning that Vance should run in 2028 is as well.

Vance will be sworn in as the President before June.

December 22, 2025

These things are just  nuts:

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.

Everyone knows they're nuts, and yet they allow him to just charge on with this lunacy.

The man is not well, and they know it.

cont:

It appears the battleships will not be battleships.

Still, Trump's absolute megalomania in which everything must be named for him is clearly a sign of mental illness.

December 23, 2025

We’re bringing down drug price by 1000%, 1200%, 1300%, 1400%. A drug that sells for $10 in London is costing $130 in New York. We are bringing it down to $20. You can do your own math. But it’s 2000%, 3000%

Donald Trump. 

December 26, 2025

A Christmas rant from somebody who is clearly mentally unhinged:


By this point, it's clear that Trump, if not full blown insane, goes into fits of raving insanity.  We should all be scared as there may come a day when he goes from ranting into action.  

The real question at this point is why the cabinet has not removed him.  His unfitness for office, or anything else, is completely apparent, so there's a reason behind that.

The reason might be J. D. Vance.

In spite of Trump's propagandized reputation, Trump isn't a lot of the things he's claimed to be.  He's not smart, he's not an economic genius, he's not a conservative, and he's not a recognizable Christian.  He is a good salesman, or was, who has made his name into a brand. He's also a self serving narcissists. As part of his branding, he's managed to convince a fair number of people that he is what he clearly isn't.

But he is useful for certain elements that back him.  Once he's gone, the NAM, the NatCons, and the Dixiecrats really don't have everything in common by a long shot.  Vance is a NatCon, not a Dixiecrat, and people like Miller might fear Vance coming in.

The mass defection from the Heritage Society suggests, however, that Vance may have lost his shot.  If Trump is going to be retired people have to support Vance.  The NatCons are falling apart.  

December 31, 2025

Trump announced today that his dumbass triumphal arch will start construction in two months.

This likely needs to go up quicker than planned as the terminal limits of Trump's sanity/end of office/natural life are beginning to roar up into his view.  This will add to the pile of rubble that will need to be hauled off and dumped in the Potomac when he's gone.

Related threads:

Our Petty, Hollow, Squalid Ogre in Chief

 

Our Petty, Hollow, Squalid Ogre in Chief

2028 Election, Part I. The Preview of Coming Attractions Editions.

Last edition:

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Sixth Edition. The demented panicked Octogenarian edition.

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 13. Disassociation.

December 12, 2025



From the Casper Star Tribune.

The Democratic bill to extend the credits failed.
Senate blocks Obamacare tax subsidy extension, all but ensuring spikes for Wyoming consumers: Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming called tax subsidy extension a “disaster” and lobbied for a Republican health savings account proposal that also failed.

So did a moronic Republic bill for health savings accounts. That was no sort of plan.

The evidence is too well established to ignore.  A national health care system needs to be established and frankly it would not be that difficult.  It'll be interesting to see if this brings it about, as the populist contingent that opposes it, including here in the state, is about to lose its insurance.  This is, quite frankly, a disaster.

It's a disaster that the GOP hopes will kill off the AHCA and there really isn't any serious proposals to replace it. They want it dead, as it's "socialism", even though it isn't.  The Health Savings Account concept was just pablum and everyone is well aware that it'd achieve nothing at all.

Which brings me back to this point.  The difference between right wing populism and left wing populism is nearly non existent.  The ox that will end up being gored here is that of the street level right wing populist, who can be, and in some instances was, left wing populist.  

Speaking of average folks:


Also from the CST.

December 13, 2025


December 14, 2025



The Federal government terminated the collective bargaining status for the union that covers TSA officers, the American Federation of Government Employees, as to TAS officers.

The union, which covers the employees of other agencies as well, has over 300,000 members, probably none of whom will caste a vote for the GOP next year.

We also have Chuck Gray sounding like a broken record:


Gray's in a bit of a spot as he'd hoped to use the Secretary of State's office as a springboard to something else.  It's not looking like that will pay off, as Bill Barlow is clearly in the lead for the Governor's office and Gray can't think of anything to say that doesn't sound like it's from the junior edition of the MAGA playlist, which is rapidly becoming a set of moly oldies.  To make matters worse for him, he's now so acclimated to absurd name calling that he can't stop it, as in:

We should be deeply troubled by the efforts of Gov. Gordon and other insider politicians to jam through woke wind projects that violate so many of our core principles as Wyomingites. 
"Woke wind projects"?  

I know what he means, of course, which is that as the Federal Government backed wind under Biden, and as global warming is a fib, and as Joe Biden is responsible for all of the ills in society, it's the dreaded evil "woke".  Gray has used this sort of rhetoric so often, however, that if a cafe burns his toast I'm sure that he reflexively calls the short order cook a liberal, let wing woke Marxist.

Gray's career in Wyoming politics is probably shot.  Barlow will get the Governor's office, Hageman won't run for it as she knows that, so she'll keep her office, Lummis is the Wyoming sphinx, rarely saying anything, and she'll keep her office.  Gray will be lucky if he doesn't draw opposition and lose his.

On wind, all the fossil fuel true believers were dead set against it but now oil is hovering around $60.00 and it appears that the Federal Government might be pushing to depress the price.  A well placed GOP politician told me the other day that the administration wants it at $30.00/bbl next year, which would wipe out domestic production and throw Wyoming into an oilfield depression.

On a different note:  


December 16, 2025

US payrolls fell by 105,000 people in October, and then rebounded to add 64,000 in November.

Sort of a mixed message there, assuming that such figures coming out of the US government are trustworthy.

Cont:

Well, apparently those who are schooled in this kind of data view this as a pretty negative jobs report.  The economy is cooling, and the unemployment rate is up.

December 17, 2025

Feds, Wyoming greenlight new helium plant, among world’s largest: The Dry Piney helium production and CO2 sequestration project would rival ExxonMobil's neighboring Shute Creek plant near LaBarge.



December 21, 2025


December 22, 2025.

Jim Beam is ceasing production from its principal facility for all of 2026.

The price of oil in Wyoming today:  $43.73.  Below the price for further exploration. . . by a huge margin.

December 23, 2025

Rogue Brewing in Oregon has shut down and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

December 24, 2025

Headline in the CST:

Gordon awards $100 million
in matching funds to
BWXT nuclear fuel facility
And the story:

Gordon awards $100M to northern Wyoming nuclear fuel manufacturer: The state-backed grant will support BWXT's proposed TRISO fuel manufacturing facility in Gillette.

December 25, 2025

The price of oil today is $58.0/bbl.  Wyoming's oil is at $43.90.

December 28, 2025

The news that so many simply refuse to believe:
As part of this:

Wyoming coal is projected to have its second worst production year since its peak in 2008. Economists say the decline will likely continue, putting the state’s economic future on shaky ground.
We've discussed this trend line before, but to put it bluntly, it's going to decline into oblivion.

December 30, 2025

Related threads:


Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 12. Don't look . . . everything's just fine edition.

Tuesday, December 23, 2025

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 112th Edition. Clinton calls Trump's bluff.

One of the things about the release of some Epstein materials recently is that Bill Clinton was in them, to nobody's surprise.

One of the things about Trump Derangement Syndrome, the real deal, not the MAGA claim that the vast majority of people on earth are demented as they realize Trump is demented, is the odd ability to take anything that's bad news and claim its good.  Here, the bad news was the massive redaction of the files.  MAGAs immediately claimed; "look, the left is burned as Clinton is in the files".

M'eh.

Nobody cared about that.

But it did cause Bill Clinton to come in and demand that all the files be released.

So. . . . you have Clinton never really saying anything about them, Trump as a candidate supporting their release, his acolytes demanding they be released, then Trump desperately trying to keep them from being released and claiming they're a hoax, to Massie forcing their release. . . to the Trump administration not complying with the legally set deadline, to MAGA's trying to claim that Clinton was in them was a big deal, to Clinton demanding they be released, with Trump once again claiming they don't amount to anything.

Just release them.

Something is in these that really hurts Republicans somehow.  We don't know how, but it must be bad.

And one thing we've learned is that the American BS about wealth being super good and helping everyone is just BS.  People can be too wealthy for their own good. 

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 111th Edition. Letting Healthcare Fail, How War Really Works, Those Epstein Files, Calling names, Bear Care.

The 2026 Election, 3rd Edition: The Self Inflicted Wound Edition.

And can they recover?

A major turn occured in the Wyoming election when all three of Wyoming's congressional delegation members supported Mike Lee's Deseret Dream to swipe Federal lands for land raping purposes.  The move was hugely, overwhelmingly, unpopular in Wyoming, but the delegation in part assessed the voters dim, and in part, trusted on them to forget.

Right now, it doesn't look like they will.

And the candidate are beginning to line up.  We have, so far:

Governor:

GOP.

Eric Barlow. Barlow is a state senator from the 23rd district and announced earlier this week. So far, he's receiving a lot of accolades from the none Freedom Caucus Republicans and condemnations from the populist Freedom Caucus, which frankly makes him the front runner.  

Brent Bien.  Bien is retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and another member of the recent Wyoming crowd who declares "after sucking on the government tit my whole life I hate the government and know best for people who haven't had such secure jobs as me".  He's on the far right.

Joseph Kibler.  Kibler is a web designer and might as well drop out right now.

Reid Ranser.  Far right gadfly who doomed his chances, which were non existent anyway, by filing a lawsuit which states that he's a homosexual and was slandered by certain GOP figures.  The slander aside, branding yourself as a homosexual is a bad political move in this atmosphere.  He's highly likely not to be the only homosexual running for a statewide office or perhaps in office, but Wyomingites tend not to draw attention to themselves in that manner during an era such as the one we currently live in.

Waiting in the wings are Chuck Gray, who is already campaigning for something on the far right wing of the far right, save when it comes to nuclear power, were the populist are flower children, so he is too.  Holding Gray up is Harriet Hageman, who seems likely to try to run, but whose position in opposition to the Federal lands is likely to sink any campaign of hers, or at least seriously damage it.

Also waiting in the wings is Mark Gordon, who has clearly not wanted Gray to replace him.  With Barlow throwing his broad brim in the ring, he likely won't run now.

August 15, 2025

This is interesting:

Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections against greenhouse gases based on ‘false science’

Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections against greenhouse gases based on ‘false science’: U.S. Rep. Hageman's comment didn't go over well in Pinedale, where residents struggled for years to clean up health-threatening pollution from oil and gas drilling.

Pinedale calls itself the "Icebox of the Nation" and the introduction of oil and gas operations near it are relatively new.  Given both of those, it clearly didn't drink the GOP Koolaide on global warming being a fib.

Hageman has so far received rough crewed treatment in Pinedale, Rock Springs, and Laramie. I suspect she would in Casper as well.  I also suspect she might want to start thinking about selling her house in D.C. and looking to move back to her brother's ranch, as she may be out of work next year. 

Labels: , , , , , , , , 

Wyoming has been a prime example of "if I make money from it, it must be perfectly okay".  If we could grow big fields of opium here, we'd be loudly in favor of heroin.

Given that, and given that a lot of Wyomingites are imports from warmer regions of the country, people here are huge climate change deniers, even though if you've lived here your whole life its extremely obvious that its going on.  

And Hageman comes from the agricultural which is bizarrely resistant to accepting the reality of climate change, even though if nothing is done, it'll destroy their livelihoods.

So she no doubt thought stepping in front of a Sublette  County audience would mean that the "climate change is a fib" line would be well received.  It wasn't.

Something is finally really starting to change here.  Part of it is that people are waking up to reality, and part of it is that Hageman took a stand for something Wyomingites detest, transfering the Federal lands, and then basically asserted we were dumb for not supporting it ourselves.  She's so all in on these positions, she really can't change them, and stepping in front of audiences makes her situation worse.

August 20, 2025

Congressman Elsie Stephanik was booked off of a New York stage two days ago.

Stephanik likely sacrificed her career for Trump.

Elsie of course crawled into bed with Trump.  She originally was opposed to him.  Harriet Hageman, on the other hand, was never openly opposed to Trump and took the seat of her former friend Liz Cheney opportunistically.

Hageman has had a lot of simple adoring fans since that time, but the bloom is really off the rose.  She was booed in deeply Republican Sublette County last week, and received a hostile crowd in Casper on Monday night.  Indeed, the Casper event was notably not only for the outright hostility to Hageman, but to extent to which a lot of Republicans flatly did not show up leaving a lot of room in the auditorium.

Hageman had her sights set on the Governor's mansion and still might.  If nothing else, she's doubling down on her position on everything.  But that ship has likely sailed, and she stands a good chance, right now, of having to vacate her Congressional seat.

August 29, 2025

And yet. . . 

Joseph Kibler running for governor on promise of ‘being something different

being yet another carpetbagger coming in and complaining of too much bureaucracy, particularly in a state you just moved to, isn't actually different.

September 30, 2025

Sec. Gray has flagged over 2,000 Wyoming voters for County Clerks to investigate s voters who may no longer reside in Wyoming.

This entire topic has been a fictional bee in Gray's bonnet.

Progressive Palestinian American Palestinian State Rep. Ruwa Romman has entered the Georgia Governor's race.

October 22, 2025

The Barlow Effect: Candidates can’t officially join the race till next year, but an unmistakably powerful ingredient has entered the mix, writes columnist Rod Miller.

On the last item, Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene are in a flat out war with Trump, and Trump is losing.  Greene has gone from one of Trump's most loyal adherents to an outright anti Trump insurgent.

There's a year to go, of course, but Trump is already acting like unstable and clearly under pressure.  Having pulled out all the stops to prevent the release of the Epstein files, he now is claiming to once again support the release, putting the Senate in the hot seat.  If Trump is acting behind the scenes at the Senate, it puts Senators in a terrible spot at the same time that they have the example of Massie and Greene, who aren't being hurt by opposing Trump.

Locally, it'll be interesting to see if Lummis and Hageman remain lashed to the deck of Trump.  I bet Lummis won't.

December 11, 2025

From the New York Times.

Indiana Lawmakers Reject Trump’s New Political Map

Republicans hold an overwhelming majority in the Indiana Senate, but more than a dozen of them defied the president’s wishes, voting against a map aimed at adding Republicans in Congress.

December 19, 2025

Cynthia Lummis will not run for her Senate seat next year.  We can bet that Hageman will run for it and probably already is.  It'd be interesting to see if Gordon runs for the seat.

This means Gray, whose political hopes were dead, will now run for Congress, although I doubt he will get Hageman's seat.  It'll be interesting to see if Stubson runs.

Elise Stefanik is dropping out of the New York Governor's race and will not run for Congress next year.

December 20, 2025

Lots of speculation up in the air following Lummis' surprise announcement that she's giving it up after a single term as Senator, including why she's doing that.

Included in speculative candidates are, as already noted, Gray, Hageman and Gordon.  Degenfelder has also been mentioned, whom I didn't think of.  Degenfelder would have a good chance against any of these three, although I'd prefer Gordon.

Reid Rasner has been mentioned , and I'd guess that he will run. . . and lose in the primary.

Matt Mead has been mentioned as well.

Of course, this shuffling will also bring out the hard right "I worked for the government my entire life but now that I'm retired and on a Federal pension let me run from the far right" candidates. Brent Bien is running for Governor now, but he might take a run at this as it seems Barlow is in such good shape.

With oil declining, the weather being rather weird, and a large percentage of Wyomingites about to lose their healthcare, this election will also present opportunities for moderate Republicans we haven't thought of yet, as well as with conservative Democrats, if any can be found.  I don't think that Karlee Provenza will want to give up her seat in the state legislature, but if Hageman runs for the Senate, which I think she will, and Chuck Gray for the House, which I think he will, Provenza would be an interesting dark horse candidate who might win against Chuck.  Indeed, it's not impossible to imagine Gordon and Provenza in, which would move Wyoming's Congressional delegation overall to the center, as Barrasso will do what he needs to do to keep his job, assuming he'll run again.

An interesting thing to note is that it's quite clear that Liz Cheney was going to run for Enzi's Senate seat when he died, but Lummis took her spot  It seemed pretty clear that there was animosity between the two because of that.  In spite of all the MAGA hatred of Cheney now, she was a very popular Congressman up until she failed to bow to Trump and took him on.  Had she won that seat, she'd still be in the Senate today.

The spectacular fall of Elise Stefanik is quite notable, and should serve as a warning to the flag of convenience politicians. Stefanik hitched her wagon to Trump and failed to get what she wanted.  Now she's dropping out of politics, for awhile.

Stefanik made an incredibly bad set of calculations and more or less sold her soul, Marco Rubio style, for power, except she lost power, rather than gain it.  She'll reemerge, I'm pretty sure, after Trump is out of office, banking on Americans having short political memory.  My prediction on her is that she, like Rubio, will declare they never really loved Trump.

Cont:

And we are in fact off. There are two filed candidates.

One is the predictable Reid Rasner.  Rasner took a pounding in the last election trying to run to the right of John Barrasso, and he'll go down in flames again here.

The other is Jimmy Skovgard.  I checked his website and have no idea what he stands for. He has a blog, with poor production values, and perhaps if I'd waded through all of it I'd know more, but I didn't.

I suspect his campaign will likewise go nowhere.

December 23, 2025

Lummis not running again changes 2026 political strategies: From Miss Frontier to the U.S. Senate, columnist Kerry Drake writes, Lummis has had remarkable success in state and federal offices.

With this entry, we close out this edition. 

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 2nd Edition: The early season.