If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
Desmond Tutu
June 26, 2026
The candidate running against Bob Ide:
Lisa Engebretsen: Protect Wyoming’s Public Lands and Reject the Seminoe Dam Project
Getting rid of Bob Ide should be an absolute priority for anyone who cares about: 1) Wyoming's wildlands, and 2) anyone who is not a multimillionaire. A diehard MAGA/WFC who was in Washington D.C. at the time of the January 6 insurrection (he did not take part in it), his "less government, more freedom" is an absolute joke. He's a major Natrona County landlord whose very livelihood depends on the government protecting his rental lands property rights, which only exist due to the government. He is apparently unaware of the hypocrisy.
He's been amongst the most extreme members of the WFC.
June 30, 2026
The carpetbaggers of the WFC immediately resorted to name calling, of course. Everyone who opposes them is "left wing", even if they aren't.
In Alaska there will be two Dan Sullivans on the ballot, one an incumbent and some other guy.
July 1, 2026
They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.
Hosea 8:7*
Well, everyone should have known this was coming.
For decades I've warned, in a somewhat different context, about self confident far right views being a mere fuze to ignite a left wing reaction. In my case, the warning came in the context of local politics, both in ranching and oil and gas, where people confidently boast some local view not realizing there's a lot more of them, then us.
As some people have been warning, maps don't vote.
And now MAGA has poked the bear.
From the primary in Colorado, yesterday:
Democratic socialist Melat Kiros poised to become the first Gen Z woman in Congress
Now what's going to happen is some in Trump's orbit will attempt to make hay on this. It's already happening. Donald Trump is warning everyone that there are Communists hiding in your Wheaties. Little Mike Johnson is acting like a crying twat waffle. Johnson is warning that people will go to jail.
People need to go to jail.
Now, I'm not a Socialist of any kind (I'm a distributist). But this reaction is a real one, and running around doing the classic "when in trouble, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout" isn't going to do anything. And on top of it, a lot of pundits who are arguing the Democrats better not turn far left are going to be proven to be way out to sea.
Now, by and large, most of the Democrats aren't far left. But the fact that the GOP has become outright Francoist and doesn't stand for conservatism means that for those who are, there's no argument here. And, moreover, some of the same demographic that voted for right wing populist will vote for left wing ones. This is well established. Quite a few Nazis had been Communists. Lots of former Nazis became East German Communists. One plate of fanaticism tastes a lot like another, and for that matter, people who are drawn to fanatic policies will be 1) drawn to ones that seem like they might work, and 2) recoil from attacks on themselves.
Trump's policies aren't working. The poor sots who voted for MAGA are worse off than they were before. Hispanics have been targeted by MAGA racism. Palestinians and other Arab Americans watched their votes translate into support for more egregious Israeli attacks in Gaza and a full scale war, that we can't win, against Iran. Those votes are gone, as the recent election in New York has shown.
And now Melat Kiros, a 29 year old Notre Dame educated lawyer who was born in Ethiopia has beat a sitting Democrat for Colorado's 1st Congressional District. That's Denver proper. She has the courage of her convictions, having lost a job with a New York City law firm for criticizing law firms for being opposed to pro Palestinian protestors.
She's going to win in the general election.
This will not mean that the seat she'll be taking, like her fellow Democratic Socialist from New York, will go to a Democrat where they had been occupied by a Republican. What it means is that there will be voices in the Democratic party that are much younger, and have a much different view, on some issues than the Democratic mainstream. And her election makes the election of old geezer MAGA's like Harriet Hageman of Wyoming look absolutely absurd in comparison.
This will end up tilting the meter on some things a bit to the left in the 120th Congress, and that's going to matter, for instance, when the next Speaker of the House is chosen and Mike Johnson goes into the dustbin of history.
Trump can and will yell about it. But on the eve of the 250th anniversary of American independence, his big fete, the big "state fair". Nobody is going. That's pretty telling.
Well, again, sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
July 2, 2026
July 3, 2026
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.
July 7, 2026
WyoFile
ELECTION GUIDE 2026
Wyoming's candidates for federal, statewide and legislative offices.
Maine's Graham Platner has been accused by former girlfriend Jenny Racicot of sexual assault. Politico broke the story. Racicot made the comment:
One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person, I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.
That doesn't quite make sense, frankly but the article in Politico is pretty detailed and the accusations are hard to discount. Platner absolutely denies theme.
There have been calls, including from inside of Maine's Democratic Party, for him to withdraw from the race. It's interesting for a variety of reasons, one being in any former era the candidate would either have to flat out attack the accuser back, or withdraw. In the current Donald "grab them by the pussy" Trump era, for the GOP sexual assault has nearly been a "m'eh" type of thing. It'll be hard for the Democrats to retain the high ground at this point if Platner stays in the race.
Of course, false claims of sexual assault against men do occur, although this does not read like one. The curious thing would be why, if a person is guilty of the things she accuses him of, he'd risk running. Having said that, we've seen a whole host of really vile behavior from GOP candidates who not only were willing to run or run for reelection, but have brushed their gross behavior off.
Platner looked to have a pretty good chance of booting ancient waffling Susan Collins out of the Senate. Those chances appear to be really diminished now, which provides a nother reason for Platne rto drop out.
Footnotes:
The full quote is:
“They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no head;
it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it up.
Last edition:
