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.
Related threads:
Labels: Coal, deflation, Economics, Ignorance, OPEC, Petroleum, Russo Ukrainian War, Taxes, trends, Venezuela, Wyoming Freedom Caucus
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