The 2026 Election. 27th Edition. The Impending Clerico-Fascist Coup.

Flag of the Belgian clericofascist Rexist Party of the 1930s and 1940s.

October 23, 2026

I keep thinking to myself that I'll be glad when the election is over.  The 2024 election was bad, but this one seems even worse, at least locally.  Seems like not a day goes by when I don't have to read something about Alabama Becky Bextel saying something outrageous or some disgruntled Wyoming Freedom Caucusers saying that they're the only real Republicans, and for that matter, the only real Americans.

Worst of all, not a day goes by that Donald Trump doesn't act crazier than the day before.

So, in the back of my mind, I keep thinking that the election will put an end to the Republican Party's control of Congress, if not an outright end to the GOP itself, and things will start getting back to sane, if not normal.

But Trump won't let that happen.  

The General Election is on November 3. The Evangelical Far Right Mago Clerico-Fascist Coup will start on November 4.*

There's no doubt about it.

Only if the Democratic victory in November is so overwhelming that it can't be sanely denied, and Republicans in Congress need to get moderate to save their remaining seats, will this be capable of being avoided.  Trump will attempt it anyhow.

And here it starts:

And the start of the attempted 2026 Coup commences:

Trump administration sues to block Senate race certification in Alaska if Republican loses

As this is the first part of what will be a desperate effort of the Trump administration to cling to power, we'll start a new edition.

Lawsuits, voter intimidation, the whole smash.  The Trump MAGA extremist, and the National Conservatives, who is all he has left, are not going to go into the political night without attempting to seize power.  Trump is all they have to try to make their dreams of a Clerico-fascist state (and their dreams on the nature of that state do not align) become a reality.

cont:

Guest Column: Proposition 1 — An Historically Huge Mistake

Rod Miller: Why Hasn't Bryan Miller And The Wyoming GOP Endorsed Eric Barlow?

October 24, 2026

October 25, 2026

There's definitely angst in the Chuc Gray camp.  I saw one of the campaign television ads he's running that Miller had mentioned, and it was remarkable. All about inflation etc., and how he can be counted on to back Wyomingites.

Give us a break.  

Gray's entire campaign today has been based on being a complete Trump toady.   The fact that Trump's economic policies, including his tariffs and illegal war on Iran has boosted inflation can't be ignored.  

But Gray's attempting to ignore it.

That must be making inroads into his support, if he has any support.  He's deeply disliked in general and barely won the primary.  His campaign is trying to shift late in the day into an area which, frankly, he has no traction.

October 26, 2026

Mary Peltola was injured in a car accident over the weekend 

Chuck Gray made another appearance at a University of Wyoming football game this week, and promptly posted photographs of himself, which means somebody (I suspect I know who) goes to all of these game to photograph him in "candid" shots.

One thing that this is causing is for people to ask why Chuck is always alone.

Chuck is in trouble, and knows it.  He's never been popular with Wyomingites in general, and people don't regard him as somebody you'd expect to see at anything.  He revised to debate Kinney and Johnson, and now it looks as if Kinney might pull off an upset.  He's trying to appear as a real buy now, which is a bit too late.  His only really campaign points have been that he loves Trump.  Trump love is wearing off.

Trump love is wearing off in Iowa big time.  

Iowa candidate Ashley Hinson is in the same boat and was on This Week practically declaring herself to be an opponent of Trump's.

October 27, 2026

A person has to be dumb, or wilfully ignorant, to believe the US didn't go to the moon.

Bextel Appears On Tucker Carlson To Tout Campaign, Says We Didn't Go To The Moon

To vote for such a person is inexcusable.

Bryan Miller tries to thread two needles and avoid threading them at the same time.

Wyoming GOP Chair Says Party Won't Endorse Barlow Or Bextel For Governor

Miller is another of these characters that spent a life time government service sucking on the government tit only to come home, or maybe just come to Wyoming (I don't know where he's from) and hate mommy.  He is an Air Force Academy graduate that retired from the USAF as a Colonel.

Bextel took a shot, probably accidental, at Miller on the Tucker Carlson show.  First of all, why anyone is taking the gadfly journalist seriously is beyond me, and the state of his show might be demonstrated that Bextel washed up on shore there, but she claimed the Wyoming, and national, GOP has no leadership.

The fact is, it does. It's lead by Dixiecrats, here and there, and people don't like them.

Bextel, for her part, is getting a lot more attention than she merits, mostly because of the nature of the Internet.  The like minded ignorant gather to her in small numbers attracted to the stank, and the press finds her fascinating due to her ignorance.  And she's also well funded on a personal level.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) called for the citizenship status of every American who has been naturalized since 1990 to be reevaluated.

Melania Trump was naturalized in 1990.

Elon Musk was naturalized in 2002.

Well let's at least investigate the naturalization status of those two.

On other matters, at this point, diehard Trump fans, and hence MAGA accoylites, have to discuss and explain this:

25th Amendment Watch, 27th Edition. CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 162nd Edition. "The Case Against Donald Trump Emerging in the Epstein Files and DOJ's Desperate Efforts to Cover It Up"

October 28, 2026

Yup, and you heard it here first.

Economists Say State Income Tax On The Table If Proposition 1 Passes

It will happen, and what a battle it'll be.

Wyoming AG: State Law Bars DOJ Election Monitors From Polling Places

The opinion can be found here:  AG Opinion.

It won't matter.  The local U.S. Attorney will proudly declare Meine Ehre heißt Treue and march in anyway.  Indeed, they've already declared they will, but will honor the AG's opinion by honoring the 100 yard restriction, which will allow them to better sing the Horst-Wessel-Lied anyhow.

Alaska's Senator Lisa Murkowski endorsed the Democratic candidate for Governor in that state.  Just earlier this week King Donald stated she was the worst Republican Senator in the Senate, which coming from the worst President in U.S. history is quite the compliment.

The MAGAs are already seeding doubt in the local election.

Fred Harrison: Wyoming Elections — When Certification Does Not Match The Record

They've just been unable to accept that the WFC is hated, and I mean hated.  The power pouting is at the absurd level.

October 29, 2026

Feds Tap Former Chuck Gray Deputy To Run DOJ Election Monitoring

Well that figures.

The Peltola campaign is coming under a lot of fire due to a New York Times report that some of its members actively recruited the second Sullivan for the race, a charge the campaign denies.

October 30, 2026

Election complaints allege donors to Bextel, Bien and Degenfelder exceeded campaign finance limits

Changing views:

Trump and Freedom Caucus approval, election confidence: Three takeaways from a Wyoming survey ahead of the general election

Proposition 1 will test Wyoming’s tax relief appetite. Here’s what you need to know.

National Education Association Pours $1.8 Million Into Beating Prop. 1

Reports reveal that Pope Leo XIV has requested an Illinois mail in ballot.

Footnotes:

*  I started this thread a couple of days prior to the first post.  I hadn't anticipated the coup attempt starting before the ballots were counted, but it has.

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 26th Edition. The hoping to avoid sitting on blisters edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, Abraham Lincoln, Donald Trump, Eric Barlow, Harriet Hageman, Jeff Haggit, Kenneth Casner, Lisa Kinney, Mark Gordon, Politics, Rebecca Bextel, Republican Party, Shaun Johnson, Taxes;2026 Proposition 1, Baby Boom Generation, Bill Allemand, Casper College, Demographic Organizations, Demographics, Education, Joe Porambo, Keenan Morgan, Libertarian, Old Age, University of Wyoming, Wyoming Freedom Caucus 

Additional Labels:

The 2026 Election. 27th Edition. The Impending Clerico-Fascist Coup. Additional labels.

 

The 2026 Election. 27th Edition. The Impending Clerico-Fascist Coup. Additional labels, Two.

Saturday, October 24, 1936. The Estado Novo severs relations with the Republic.

Portugal severed diplomatic relations with the Spanish Republic.

Sensing that it was going down in defeat, the GOP was trying the same old, same old.

The Zephyr was getting some press.

Last edition:

Friday, October 23, 1936. No neutrality.

Labels: 1930s, 1936, Colorado (Denver), German Wehrmacht, Illinois (Chicago), Nazi Germany, Railroads, Spain, Spanish Civil War, USSR

The 2026 Election, 26th Edition. The hoping to avoid sitting on blisters edition.

Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.

Abraham Lincoln.

October 18, 2026

When we last posted, we noted who we had voted for and why.

That post was on October 13, and it had already grown too unwieldy by yesterday to keep on keeping on, so we're starting a new one.  The last one was fairly up to date, but over the past, national and international events have made it plain that the GOP is hopelessly captive to a declining Donald Trump.

Some new items:

Who showed up for Wyoming’s US House debate and key takeaways

October 19, 2026

Tom Lubnau:  Governor's Debate — Louder And Faster Doesn’t Make It True

Gail Symons: Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics On Prop One

Joan Barron: Tax Referendums Hot Here And In Colorado

Cont:

October 19, 2026

Russo Ukrainian War

Victim of Russian missile strike:

Impeach Donald Trump and allow him, and Putin, to be tried for crimes against humanity.  Putin, Ukraine.  Trump, selling his sold for diesel to Russia, killing people extrajudicially off of South America and launching an illegal war against Iran.

Mark you, John Barrasso, Cynthia Lummis,  Chuck Gray.  By not taking action, you are taking action.

Voters, are you voting for this?

October 20, 2026

Governor Gordon endorsed Eric Barlow in the Governor's race.

National Election Analysts Say Wyoming House Race Isn't A Slam Dunk For GOP

While others certainly are disagreeing, more and more it looks to me as if Gray may really be in trouble.  The GOP itself seems to be adrift here to some extent, given that people are drifting away from an increasingly erratic Trump.  People are sick of the Freedom Caucus, of which Gray was an original member, and Gray himself is deeply unpopular.

A question is whether Johnson's presence in the race hurts or helps Gray.  I suspect he hurts Gray by drawing away candidates that won't vote for Kinney, but you can argue it either way.

The local ballot:

October 21, 2026

Steve Harshman, Who Once Tried To Eliminate Property Taxes, Says He Can't Vote For Prop 1

October 22, 2026

"Pisses Me Off": Rock Springs Businessman Angered At Gov Candidate's Accusations

He should be angry.

Everyone who knows Bruce Pivic likes him and he's adamant that he didn't confront Alabama Becky about funding the University of Wyoming.

Not that people shouldn't confront Alabama Becky.  Based on her statements she's very ill informed.  She wanted, for example, UW to eliminate its German studies program, which it doesn't have.  She probably meant its study abroad in Germany program, which isn't the kind of thing that young Wyomingites only suitable for driving semi trucks and working in the oil patch, the only jobs suitable for young Wyomingites if you watch adds from the Carpetbagger class, need.

Golly gee, if Confederate great great grandpappy didn't need no German, well you don't either.

While she would like to see Wyoming become what Alabama was, that doesn't provide an excuse for asserting that it was Pivic who talked to her at a UW tailgate.  That's interesting in and of itself as Alabama Becky made a point of showing up at UW, even though the Freedom Caucus basically hates education and has really gone after UW.  He says he didn't, and he seems to have proven it, even managing to show that contrary to her description of Bruce as a man who spoke to her below head level couldn't be him, as he's 5'10". She declined to show her height, but a law enforcement record showed it at 5'9".  He'd be at face level.

Casper College Trustees unanimously approved a resolution outlining how Prop 1 could affect the college.

Wyoming's AAPG wrote an op ed for the Casper Star Tribune outlining potential harm to the geezer class by Prop 1.  

That's important as the measure is often camouflaged by its backers as a means of keeping the elderly in their homes, rather than carpetbaggers having more money in their bank accounts.  A major miss point is:

Currently, older Wyomingites benefit from the Long-Term Homeowner’s Exemption, which provides a 50% property tax reduction on home and land to qualifying homeowners who are 65 and older, and who have paid property taxes for 25 years. Proposition 1 only applies to “the assessed value of the dwelling” and states “...no more than one exemption shall apply to a single property or be claimed by a single owner per year.

Boomers, in other words, of average income, will screw themselves directly just by voting for this.

And the Casper Mountain Fire District weighed in:

Casper Mountain Fire Protection District outlines potential financial impact of Proposition 1

That's going to be another irony of this, if it passes.  Some retiree from California will build their dream home in the woods and have it burned up, and then be pissed off.

Speaking of voters screwing themselves:

Natrona County eyes two school closures. One is 40 miles away, the other is right around the corner

One of the schools is in Midwest.

‘It’ll Kill The Community’: Midwest Rallies To Save Grades 6-12 From Chopping Block

In a real irony, former House District 58 representative Patrick Sweeney went to the Midwest town hall on the subject.  Long serving Sweeney was ousted by current representative Bill Allemand after the district was redrawn. Alleman was a complete asshole to Sweeney in a debate and ran, that time, as firebrand Freedom Caucuser.

He survived a challenge from Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer whom he became crosswise with over a proposal to place the Radiant nuclear generator plant north of Bar Nunn, something Bar Nunn could not have stopped. Bar Nunn's city council meetings became the bizarre focus of the topic however with outraged populists even accusing some city council members of taking bribes, an absolute absurdity.  Radiant eventually grew tired of the matter and decamped to Tennessee.  Allemand, for his part, was arrested not all that long after for drunk driving.  He's one of the few surviving members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, barely hanging on to his seat.

Allemand is apparently backing fanciful thoughts of declaring the school to be a charter school or forming a new school district, neither of which will occur  It was really admirable of Sweeney to go out and speak to a group of people about their plight, which is concerning, which their votes for Allemand helped bring about.  It's the classic Leopard's won't eat my face situation. 

Voters had a chance, as noted, to dump Allemand in the primary for a really good candidate.  Allemand barely survived that challenge, and is going to be a completely worthless House member if he's reelected.  He's one of the few Wyoming legislative candidates facing a challenge in the general, and in his case there are two candidates seeking to take him on, Keenan Morgan (D), and Joe Porambo (L).  Morgan has put up a billboard near the Center Street underpass in Casper.  He holds the typical slate of Democratic views.  I don't know anything at all about Porambo.

In news that's nearly non news:

Barrasso, Hageman, And Lummis Endorse Chuck Gray And Eric Barlow

I"m disregarding Facebook in general as comments there by anybody about anything are extreme, but I noted that there are still some people who are upset that Hageman hasn't endorsed Bextel. They seem less upset about Chuck not doing so, perhaps because expectations for Chuck are low in general.  There's a real "get real" aspect to this.  It's hard to see Hageman putting an anchor around her neck in the form of Alabama Becky and then jumping off the GOP boat.  That wouldn't help Hageman a bit.

On that, however, another aspect of this is that Hageman just doesn't need the Freedom Caucus anymore.  It's dying out in the field, a victim of self inflicted wounds.  Hageman was once a big colleague of Cheney's and wasn't afraid to stab her in the back, there's no reason she'd go to breath new life into the dying carcass of the Freedom Caucus.

Chuck is a founding member of it, but he's dangerously close of seeing his adulthood dream of being a real boy, um politician, evaporate.  He's sure not going to step out in the line of fire either.

And so we have the irony of Trump endorsed Hageman and Gray, both of whom were darlings of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, endorsing Eric Barlow, whom they hate.

Basically, they observed the dying body on the deck of the train station and have boarded the train leaving town.

October 23, 2026

It would appear that Gray is in trouble:

Tom Lubnau: A Party That Wants to Flush Fifty Years of Winning

Lubnau is spot on in his comments.  The GOP has told huge numbers of rank and file Republicans in the state that they are not welcome in the party.  I'm one of them.  This year, while I'm still registered as a Republican, I took my votes elsewhere for the House and Senate.

What's more, I'll say something Lubnau didn't. The GOP isn't run by Republicans at all. They're Dixiecrats.  They should be the ones who are not welcome.

And in Albany County:

The Feud: Albany County Sheriff's Race Pits Two High-Profile And Combative Opponents

October 23, 2026

And the start of the attempted 2026 Coup commences:

Trump administration sues to block Senate race certification in Alaska if Republican loses

As this is the first part of what will be a desperate effort of the Trump administration to cling to power, we'll start a new edition.

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 25th Edition. The casting the vote edition.

2028 Election, Abortion, Brent Bien, Christian Democrats, Clerico-fascism, Communism, Fascism, French Fourth Republic, Lies, Populism, Predictions, Republican Party, Solidarity, Subsidiarity, Taxes, Wyoming Freedom Caucus,Aaron Appelhans, Daron L. Wyatt, Mississippi, police, Robert Short, Tamara Trujillo, Wyoming (Albany County)2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, Ana Cordova, Chuck Gray, Constitution Party, Democratic Party, Eric Barlow, Harriet Hageman, James Byrd, Kenneth Casner, Lisa Kinney, Rebecca Bextel, Republican Party, Steve Harshman

Additional Labels:

The 2026 Election, 26th Edition. The hoping to avoid sitting on blisters edition. More labels.