The 2024 Election, Part XXVII. Heading for the Last Roundup

Only a few more days to go.

Still, with the constant influx of news, we thought it was time for a new edition and to retire the last one.

October 24, 2024

You have no idea what I did in the White House. I stopped wars with France.

Trump at a recent rally.

Eh? 

October 25, 2024

Russia spread disinformation about the recent hurricanes in the US in order to attempt to influence the upcoming U.S. election.

Guess we know for sure who Putin wants in office.

No surprise there.

Trump indicated he'd fire special prosecutor Jack Smith as soon as he was in office, if he returns to office.  

No surprise there.

Unfortunately, you got a lot of American leaders who like to beat their chest and say; this [Ukraine] is the good guy and this [Russia] is the bad guy.

J. D. Vance.

Well, J. D., that's because Ukraine is the good guy and Russia is the bad guy.

Tucker Carlson compared the United States to a "15 year old" girl, who needs a spanking.

Eh?

I have a daughter and I don't think I ever spanked her.  I sure didn't at 15, which is a downright creepy thing to say.

Trump's going to deliver the spanking of the nation, according to Carlson.

cont:

The Washington Post returns to its position of not endorsing Presidential candidates:

Opinion 

 On political endorsement

October 27, 2024

Russian actors were behind a widely circulated video falsely depicting mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania, U.S. officials confirmed Friday.

Associated Press.

Locally we have a school board race that the Freedom Caucus, in the form of Mom's For Liberty or people aligned with their thinking are in. The folks below are those who are not part of that group.

These seem to be the populist ones:

Frankly, while I probably ought to post it elsewhere, I think there's a crisis in American education, but its not the one that commonly comes up.  There's probably a series of crises actually.

Locally, we've always had excellent public schools.  One thing that we can really tank our community ancestors for is appreciating the value of education.  School boards for many years have had people who took the task on with a sense of public duty.  People like to complain about the schools nonetheless, but that's in no small part because education is a spectator sport, like agriculture.  I've heard so many things about how to raise sheep, for example, from people whose family have not had a connection with sheep since Roman times, it's not funny.

The problem that seems to have developed recently is that education has been impacted, like politics in general in Wyoming, by an influx of people who were raised and educated well outside of the region, and brought a lot of regional ideas with them.  This reflected itself at first with a notable homeschooling movement which included quite a few people who were convinced that schools were teaching children "left wing" ideas, which they weren't and never have been.  In some instances the concerns of those parents included a strongly anti scientific background.

Now its spilled into the schools in general.  While she didn't run for the school board, in a way this is reflected by the one term now defeated House member Jeanette Ward.  Looking into her background it seems that a big part of her problems with Illinois' politics, where she came from, had to do with schools.  She was upset, for instance, that a class noted that Muslims pray to the same God that Christians do.  And she was upset with school mask mandates, which ironically Wyoming also had.

This has spilled over into the war over library books, which actually doesn't have much to do with actual school libraries.  

At any rate, it's a sad fact of American life that a lot of primary education in the United States is really lacking.  This reflects itself in politics right now, which finds actual debates over topics that simply are decided on the basis of the evidence.  The ability of highly monied people to lead others around reflects it as well.  Education in the US has always been uneven.  There's a scary chance that the excellent education that the Upper Plains and Rocky Mountain regions have always had, may be impacted by the populist flood.

cont:

Trump continues to make statements that in any other era would be regarded as dumb:

There will be no hydrogen. They tend to blow up and once they blow up you are not recognizable anymore. No, they say that's the hottest new thing. Hydrogen does. Anybody in the, they say it's so hot. The problem is when it's not, when it's not hot, it's bad. It's bad. So, I don't want to do that. They say for the most part here is for the most part it's really wonderful. But when it goes bad it's over, you're not recognizable. They call the wife. Please come and inspect to see whether or not this is your husband. He's lying against a tree and the tree has a lot of red on it... Is that ok for everybody?

Indeed, one of the things that really scares me about Trump is his supporters claim he says things that they're thinking.  If that's the case, we've got a massive lack of intellect in this country.  Are we this dumb? 

October 28, 2024

Given the story on Russia above, this is of interest:

October 28, 2024

Russia

Possible Russian Gains in Georgia and Moldova

Apparently Trump's rally last night at Madison Square Garden was packed with racist comments and off color remarks by the various speakers.

On other matters, there appears to be a very strong chance that independent candidate Dan Osborn may beat Trump Senate lackey Deb Fisher in Nebraska.

October 30, 2024

It's becoming increasingly clear Trumpites are mobilizing and planning to steal the 2024 election if Trump does not win it.  They'll use lawsuits, ballot challenges and fake electors in a more planned effort this time.

cont:

October 31, 2024

Elon Musk, who supporters fellow billionaire Trump, has been chatting with Putin.

Trump proposes to put Robert Kennedy, whose health ideas are wackadoodle, in charge of some sort of health thing.

November 1, 2024

Real Clear Politics electoral map predictors show Trump winning the election decisively.

November 2, 2024

At a rally in Milwaukee Donald Trump simulated oral sex, albeit briefly, on stage.

Is this really whom Republicans want to be President?

And is this truly the man some Evangelicas see as a neo Cyrus the Great?

More locally:

America’s growing political divide reaches Wyoming school boards, city councils

November 3, 2024

It's now crystal clear that Trump is making plans to steal the election, should he lose it.

cont: 

Internal Trump polling must show that he's losing the election, as he's spending a lot of time attacking the results that haven't even occurred yet.

Related threads:

Blog Mirror: Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke on Voting.

Some election predictions.

Blog Mirror: Class Matters: Many working-class voters feel forgotten by parties founded to represent them

Last edition:

The 2024 Election, Part XXVI. The Early Voting Edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2024, 2024 Election, Automobile racing, Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, Kamala Harris, Mental Health, National Conservatism, Old Age, Politics, Predictions, Standards, Weird, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming

Blog Mirror: An American out looking for his people

 An American out looking for his people

An embarrasment.

 How on earth can people vote for somebody saying something so monumentally stupid?

People are not affecting climate change. You’re going to tell me that back in The Ice Age, how much taxes did people pay and how many changes did governments make to melt the ice?

Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

What the crap?  The last Ice Age ended 12,000 years ago.

How can anyone vote for somebody so profoundly ignorant?

What's going on with the voters in Greene's district?

Why would anyone keep supporting somebody who says stuff this stupid?

Agitio ter consuli, gemitus britannorum . . .Repellunt barbari ad mare, repellit mare ad barbaros; inter haec duo genera funerum aut iugulamur aut mergimur.

So on this Sunday, 2024, I worked, contrary to God's injunction, like on so many others. As a result, I didn't really catch up with the horrific plight of Appalachia in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

It's awful.

Which makes this the worst, and best, time to note this.

We're headed into a legislative session, and an election season, in which the far right espouses a hatride of the Federal Government.  If you are in Appalachia, and vote for the populists, you are voting to handle this disaster on your own.  If you are in Wyoming, and voting populists, the same is true of the horrible fires we've experienced and are yet to.

If that is your view, don't ask for help, as stupid and cold as not asking for help would be.

We here are distributists, a philosophy that holds things should devolve to the lowest level possible. Here, that level is the Federal government.  Distributism works up, as well as down.

Additionally, how long will we choose to ignore the signs?  We've waited longer than we should have as it is.  There's still time to act, no matter how much it impacts your temrporary pocket books, with you being temporary as it is.

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus and the 2025 and 2026 Legislatures. Some things to keep in mind.

 The 2025 Legislature is a general session, not a budget session The budget won't be considered.  Only conventional legislation will be.

The bills that make it to the committees after November 4 are those, to a fairly significant degree, that are being advanced now. That means that a full bore populist agenda won't be considered in 2025.  A partial one will be, but the populist party that claims to be conservative, but which isn't, and which claims to be Republican, but which isn't really, by traditional standards, won't be calling all the tunes.

That leaves it ample room to be disruptive and to complain, which it excels at.  The problem is, for it, is that people will conceive of it as being "in power".  It won't pass all of its agenda, maybe any of iit, and will have to explain why it couldn't.

The Senate and the Governor will be who it blames.

The 2026 legislature will be a budget session, and that's where the rubber will really meet the road.  At least in the past, WFC members have backed wiping out property taxes (a moronic idea) and cutting the state's budget by 30% (another moronic idea).

That would wipe out much of the funding for education and decimate the primary schools, the University of Wyoming and the community colleges, some of which I'd guess will not survive.  When UW starts to teeter, which it'll start too soon, second glances will really commence.

"What do you mean that we're going to Division l700 F in football?"

What'll also start to be impaired is all the emergency funding and the highway funding.  We'll rely, ironically, very heavily on the Federal Government for that which, if it takes notice, may very well require the state to get its tax act together.  

Frankly, it'll be a disaster for the state.

I'd like to be more optimistic about 2026, but I really can't.  The Freedom Caucus won't get everything it wants, but it'll damage things enormously.  Maybe enough that the intellectual poverty of much of its positions will become exposed and we can hope for a better 2026 set of results.

Blog Mirror: What Will The Wyoming House Look Like With A Freedom Caucus Majority?

What Will The Wyoming House Look Like With A Freedom Caucus Majority?

Some Labor Day Reflections.

Yesterday, I made some observations on Denver, and today I'm doing the same on Labor Day, 2024.

Of course, it's immediately notable that I'm making these the day after Labor Day, which was a day I didn't get off.  I worked a full day. 

I was the only one in the office.

Labor Day dates back to the mid 1800s as an alternative to the more radical observance that takes place in many countries on May 1.  Still, nonetheless, early on, and for a long time, there was a fair amount of radicalism associated with it during that period when American labor organizations were on the rise. The day itself being a widely recognized day off is due to organized strikes on the day that started occurring during the 1930s, to the day as sort of a "last day of summer holiday" is fairly new.

Even now, when people think of it, they often think of the day in terms of the sort of burly industrial workers illustrated by Leyendecker and Rockwell in the 20s through the 40s.  Otherwise, they sort of blandly associate it with celebrating work in general, which gets to the nature of work in general, something we sort of touched on yesterday with this entry;

Deep Breath

A Labor Day homily.

Sadly, I'm working on Labor Day.

Early on, Labor Day was something that acknowledged a sort of worthy heavy work.  There are, in spite of what people may think, plenty of Americans that still are engaged in that sort of employment, although its s shadow of the number that once did.  Wyoming has a lot of people who do, because of the extractive industries, which are in trouble.  Ironically, therefore, its notable that Wyoming is an epicenter of anti union feelings, when generally those engaged in heavy labor are pro union. There's no good explanation for that.

When Labor Day became a big deal it pitted organized labor against capital, with it being acknowledged by both sides that if things went too far one way or another, it would likely result in a massive labor reaction that would veer towards socialism, or worse, communism.  Real communism has never been a society wide strong movement in the United States, in spite of the current stupid commentary by those on the political far right side of the aisle accusing anyone they don't like, and any program they don't like, of being communistic.  But radical economics did hae influence inside of unions, and communists were a factor in some of them, which was well known. As nobody really wanted what that might mean, compromise gave us the post war economic world of the 50s and 60s, which were sort of a golden age for American economics.

One of the unfortunate byproducts of the Cold War era, however, was the exportation of jobs overseas, which brought us the economic regime we have today, in part.  The advance of technology brought us the other part.  Today we find the American economy is massively dominated by capital in a way it hasn't been for a century, and its not a good thing at all.  The will to do anything about it, or even understand it, seems to be wholly lacking.  As a result of that, while an increasing number of Americans slave away at meaningless jobs in cubicles, and the former shopkeeper class now works at Walmart, we have the absolutely bizarre spectacle of two Titans of Capital, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, spewing out populist rhetoric.  Populism, of course, always gets co-opted, but the working and middle class falling for rhetoric from the extremely wealthy is not only bizarre, its' downright dumb.

Indeed, in the modern American economy, having your own is increasingly difficult.  Entire former occupations that were once local have been totally taken over by large corporations while agriculture has fallen to the rich in terms of land ownership, making entry into either field impossible.  Fewer and fewer "my own" occupations exist, and those that do are under siege.  

One of those is the law, of course.  Lawyers, because of the nature of their work, still tend to own their practices, as to medical professionals of all types. The latter are falling into large corporate entities, however, and the move towards taking down state borders in the practice is causing the consolidation of certain types of practice in the former.

Not that "having your own" in the professions is necessarily a sort of Garden of Eden either, however.

Recently, interestingly, there's been a big movement in which young people are returning to the trades.  That strikes me as a good thing, and perhaps the trades are finally getting the due they deserve.  Ever since World War Two there's been the concept that absolutely everyone had to achieve white collar employment, which demeaned blue collar employment, and which put a lot of people in occupations and jobs they didn't care for.  I suspect the small farm movement reflects that too.

Indeed, on my first day of practicing law as a lawyer over thirty years ago the long time office manager, who must have been having sort of a bad day, made a comment like "you might just end up wishing you had become a farmer".  I remember thinking to myself even then that if that had been an option, that's exactly what I would have become.  It wasn't, and it never has been for me, in the full time occupation sort of way.

Oh well.

And so we lost the garden to labor in, but we can make things better than they are.  And we could do that by taking a much more distributist approach to things.  Which seems nowhere near close to happening, a populist uprising notwithstanding.

Space National Guard? Spare us.

The time has come to create a Space National Guard as the primary combat reserve of the U.S. Space Force.  So as president, I will sign historic legislation creating a space National Guard.

Donald Trump, yesterday, at the National Guard Association Convention.

The Space Force is frankly absurd and ought to be abolished, with its enlisted men folded back into the Air Force and its officers assigned permanent duty at Tasty Freeze drive up windows. 

But a Space Force National Guard?

Please, no.

Of course, if a bill like that passes through Congress, and as goofy as Congress has been in recent years, it probably would, no State Governor is going to turn down the chance to have the Mos Eisley Space Guard station put in their state, so every state will end up with a squadron of "Guardians".

The Space Force is flat out dumb.  It's duties belong in the Air Force.  One of the unfortunate legacies of the Trump administration, however, is this absurd new branch of the service.

Would that sanity would reign and it would go away.

The 2024 Election, Part XII. The March To Moscow

 

Napoleon leaving a burning Moscow, which also burned his provisions, and resulted in France's ultimate defeat.

January 16, 2024

In a surprise to no one, Trump won the Iowa Caucuses.  The Republican, and perhaps the nation's, march to disaster commences.  The GOP is set, absent some of the predictions set out below, to either elect a vengeful septuagenarian juvenile who will take them into defeat yet again, or who will become an unprecedented in character President who will hold that office with a minority of Americans having actually voted for him.

Either way, it's the death of the GOP.  Backing a repeat loser isn't a path to long term success. The overall question is when a replacement for the GOP emerges, and whether the Democrats reform themselves in the meantime.  If there's any silver lining to a Trump victory, and that's a big if, both of those things would be it.

A repeat from yesterday:

June 15, 2024 

Martin Luther King Day

Wyoming Equality Day

Iowa Caucus Day

On This Week, a Democratic member of Congress noted that Republican politicians who had opposed Trump were now rushing to endorse him, least they meet the ire of the MAGA crowed. 

Probably two of the recent Wyoming endorsements fit that category.

Tonight at 7:00 p.m. the Iowa Caucus's will open in frigid weather, apparently not taking note that this is at least technically a day off for a lot of people (it isn't for most people).  Gathering at 7:00 p.m. in order to choose a candidate for your party will be weighed, by many, against the agony of going out in the cold.

That's the only hope for those running against Trump.

It cannot help but be noted that the Iowa Caucus, while it probably made sense at one time, emphasizes the antiquated and downright stupid way the US picks its President.  States position themselves to be first to pick, which none of them have the right to be. At least caucuses are party elections, not funded (I think) by the state.  Most states have primaries which are party elections on the state's dime, which isn't just, and is arguably, in my view, unconstitutional.

To add to things, this year, Trump's ability to even hold office is presently in front of the United States Supreme Court.

Given all of this, I'm going to close this issue out with a few predictions, giving percentages.

I think Trump will take Iowa, and I'd give that a 100% chance.  Biden will of course take Iowa.

I'm giving Haley a 60% chance of taking New Hampshire.  New Hampshire doesn't like to look like Iowa's lapdog and it is a East Coast state with a history of acting independently.

Irrespective of that, if I'm wrong on the matters noted below, there's a 75% chance that Trump is the GOP nominee and a 100% chance Biden is the Democratic nominee.

Now, here's where some will think we're off the rails.

I think there's a 60% chance the United States Supreme Court will find Trump an insurrectionist unqualified to hold office.

When they do that, if they do, there will be a massive outbreak of right wing violence across the country.

If they do that, Haley will be the nominee.

I feel there's a 55% chance that Trump, who is an old man, who looks unhealthy, and who in my view is showing signs of dementia, will die before the election.  He's showing signs of decline every day.

If he dies, and I think he will, Haley will be the nominee.

I feel there's a 40% chance that Biden will pass away of natural causes before the election.

If he dies, and I don't think he will, I have no idea who the nominee will be.

In a Biden v. Trump rematch, Trump will win.  I don't want him to, but he will.

In a Biden v. Haley match, Haley will win.  The Democrats seem incapable of accepting that they're going with an unelectable candidate.

Assuming that Biden and Trump are the nominees, at some point after Super Tuesday, there's a 55% chance that somebody announces a major third party run.  I'm not sure who it will be, but Christie, Manchin and Cheney are all figures in that.  My guess is that it will be Manchin for President, with Christie as VP.

Everyone always states that no third parties ever win, even the GOP itself was a third party that in fact won, displacing the dying Whigs.  A third party here would displace the dying GOP.  I'd give a third party as 60% chance of winning.

Given the furor he stirs up, there are a lot of things I fear this election many feature that I'm not going to post, as I don't want them to look like something I'm endorsing by mentioning them.  Indeed, I'm afraid that they'll happen and desperately hope they do not.

This will close this edition.  The next one will come out on the morning after, so to speak, of the Iowa Caucus.

People should pray for the nation.

DeSantis came in second, defying hope for rising Haley.  Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out, and is likely to disappear from politics forever, unless Trump wins, in which case he'll resurface as some sort of early Trump cabinet choice.

The current tally:

Republican:  

Donald Trump:   20 delegates

Ron DeSantis:  8 delegates

Nikki Haley:  7 delegates

Vivek Ramaswamy:   3 delegates

Democrats:

Oddly, they aren't releasing their results until super Tuesday, March 5, but it's obvious who the winner is.

Cont:

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has dropped out of the GOP race.

January 19, 2024

Donald Trump, the son, grandson and twice the "husband" of immigrants if you discount that Christianity (he claims to be a Presbyterian) recognizes marriage once, for the period of a person's natural life, mocked Nicki Haley, the daughter of an immigrant, by calling her "Nimbra".

Not that it will matter.  Trump loyalist are so enamored with the one time Democrat that at this point there is literally nothing whatsoever he can do to dissuade their loyalty, including the fact that in a second Trump administration it will largely be others with an agenda who govern.  This base is now the majority of the GOP, the party having largely ceased to exist on an historical basis.

January 20, 2024

Former Presidential GOP candidate Tim Scott, whose campaign didn't go anywhere, has endorsed Donald Trump.

This may be cynical, but frankly I think Scott is angling for the VP ticket, and I'd guess he has a good chance of getting it.  He would, in fact, be a good choice for Trump.

cont:

Donald Trump pretty clearly confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi in a New Hampshire campaign rally, claiming that Haley was in charge of all the "troops", meaning that she could have called on National Guardsmen to protect the capitol.

Haley wasn't in office at the time.

Haley in turn called on his mental fitness.

More people should be. Trump doesn't act like somebody who okay mentally.  He's old, and in the footage of the rally, he does not look well.

January 21, 2024

Asa Huntinchinson endorsed Nikki Haley.

Trump, in a weird sort of way, endorsed Viktor Orbán:

There's a great man in Europe. Viktor Orbán… He’s a very strong man. It’s nice to have a strongman running your country

Orbán is the poster child for the far right's endorsement of Illiberal Democracy.

Trump also rejected the rule of law in the executive in the same rally, stating:

And you will have the rogue cop,  the bad apple, and perhaps you'll have that also with President But there's nothing you can do about that. You're going to have to give the President immunity. I hope The Supreme Court will has the courage to do that.

These statements from a man who will only be a "dictator for a day". 

Trump, on the same day he confused Haley for Pelosi, made reference to having run against President Obama, which he never did.

Cont:

And now it's down to two. DeSantis dropped out and then endorsed Trump.  His dropping out, however, probably does Haley a favor.

January 22, 2024

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has now endorsed Trump, having dropped out of the race some time ago.

It's clear where all this is headed.  Republican politicians are going to go to Trump on bended knee, irrespective of what that means.

January 23, 2024

The Democrats, being the party that doesn't lose elections, but throws them away, are doing that right now by putting Vice President Harris on a "Reproductive Freedom", i.e. Infanticide, Tour.

Everything about this strategy is wrong.

First of all, the Democrats do not need to campaign as the party of infanticide, everyone knows they have blood on their hands and wish to continue odd making them wet.  Those supporting infanticide have nowhere else to go, and are going to vote Democratic no matter what.

Secondly, the numerous center right voters who would normally vote Republican but who are rational about Donald Trump and what he stands for have been working their way around to vote for Biden/Harris, but being reminded of this, particularly if they are devout or at least adherent  Catholics/Orthodox/Muslims will drive them away as it'll make the election about abortion and they can't go there.  This section of the electorate is big enough to determine the election.

Finally, Kamala Harris is one of the most dis-likeable candidates imaginable.  Joe Biden won the election in spite of her lat time, not because of her.  Nobody needs to be reminded that if in the high likelihood Joe Biden dies or becomes disabled in his second term, she becomes the far left successor President.

So, it was at this point, the Democrats lost the 2024 election.  The question is, who will win it?

Doug Burgum, who ran a disappointing race against Trump for the GOP nomination, will not run for another term as the Governor of North Dakota.

While it's mere speculation, a lot of Republicans are lining up to kiss Trump's ring (or other things) in hopes of becoming his VP.  Of those doing that, Burgum is actually a good choice.

On other matters, Elise Stefanik, attempting to explain away Trump's obvious mental lapse the other day, managed to issue one of the most confusing attempts at the same ever.  Stefanik has prostituted her talents to Trump and obviously will plumb any depths in her effort to sell herself into a position in his anticipated administration.

Oh Rich, but for Wales.

One of the things that Trump has been promising is to drill, which his audience likes to hear.  Funny thing is:

January 23, 2024

U.S. oil production has been holding at or near record highs since October, topping the previous peak from 2020, even though the number of active domestic oil drilling rigs is down by nearly 30% from four years ago.

New technology is the reason why there is higher production with fewer rigs.

And also:

The U.S. set a new annual oil production record on December 15, based on data from the Energy Information Administration. Although the official monthly numbers from the EIA won’t be released for a couple of months, we can calculate that a new record has been set based on the following analysis.

Prices at the pump have been declining.

Huh.

The irony of this is that Biden can't advance this matter for two reasons.  One is that while he hasn't restricted domestic production, as some in the GOP like to imagine, he also hasn't promoted production either.   This is happening on its own and is technology driven.  It shows how the economy, absent radical moves in it, is impacted much less by a President's policies than by outside economic forces.

January 24, 2024

Trump took the New Hampshire primary, Biden, who wasn't actually running in it, took the Democratic one.

Trump used the opportunity to threaten Haley.

Just a little note to Nikki, she is not going to win, but if she did she would be under investigation by those people in 15 minutes. I could tell you five reasons why already, not big reasons, little stuff that she doesn’t want to talk about, but she will be under investigation in minutes and so would Ron have been, but he decided to get out.

January 25, 2024

Biden received the endorsement of the United Auto Workers. 

Trump has declared that donors to the Haley campaign will be barred from Camp MAGA.  In the same tweet he called Haley a "bird brain"

Trump doesn't appear to be well, in my amateur diagnosis.  A nation that can vote for somebody saying these things isn't well, either.

January 26, 2024

I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is … really appalling.

But the reality is that, that we have a crisis at the border, the American people are suffering as a result of what’s happening at the border. And someone running for president not to try and get the problem solved. as opposed to saying, ‘hey, save that problem. Don’t solve it. Let me take credit for solving it later.’

Mitt Romney 

January 27, 2022

John Barrasso's second wife, Bobbi, died of brain cancer this past week.  She was a very nice person and had been a judicial law clerk after graduating from law school.  I knew her somewhat from law school and her service as a clerk.

The Governor noted her passing:

Governor Gordon Statement on the Passing of Bobbi Barrasso

 

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon has issued the following statement on the passing of Bobbi Barrasso, wife of Wyoming Senator John Barrasso. Bobbi passed away in Casper after a two-year battle with Glioblastoma brain cancer.

Bobbi was a treasure, a Wyoming native who always put her family and the people of the state first. Jennie and I send our prayers and deepest condolences to John and their family. 

Bobbi was a longtime friend, a stalwart supporter of Wyoming and a resolute warrior against cancer. She always put service ahead of self. As a compassionate soul, she advocated tirelessly for Wyoming children, education, mental health and suicide prevention. She made a difference, and has left an indelible legacy. The Lord doesn’t make many as good as Bobbi. Wyoming was blessed to have known her. She will be missed.

The Governor will issue a flag notification once services have been announced.

A former coal executive who claims to be "Trumpier than Trump" has announced for Joe Machin's seat in West Virginia.

January 31, 2024

In Illinois, a hearing officer in an administrative process on Trump's eligibility to be on the ballot found Trump had engaged in an insurrection, but recommended the election board demur to the courts. The board in turn found that it lacked the power to remove Trump.

cont:

Elected Park County Precinct Committee members who were booted from their positions by the county Party for failure to attend meetings, including former Senator Alan Simpson, have been reinstated, although it may be temporary.  Other's booted include former Wyoming House speaker and party chairman Colin Simpson, Powell Mayor John Wetzel, Park County Commissioner Scott Steward and Northwest College Trustee Dusty Spomer.  At least Alan Simpson claims that they were booted for failing to meet the party's current ideological expectations.

A petition has been filed with the state party to keep them booted.

February 1, 2024

In the play stupid games category, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that ten Republican state senators who refused to attend the state Senate for six weeks in an attempt to stall Democratic-backed bills cannot run for reelection.

February 4, 2024

Joe Biden won the Democratic South Carolina primary.  Oddly, the Republican one is on a different day.

February 5, 2024

Listening to the weekend shows this weekend brings on a sense of despair.

Trump now leads Biden by 5 points in the polls.  Granted, November is nine. . . only nine, months away.

J.D. Vance came on television and outright advocated for Trump to ignore the rulings of the Supreme Court if they're against him.  Increasingly, the hope that Trump will not be the next President has been placed on the U.S. Supreme Court enforcing the 14th Amendment. While Vance didn't say that Republican Secretaries of State should ignore such a ruling, it's impossible now not to regard that as highly likely, meaning that we're headed for a grave constitutional crisis in which it is potentially the case that the Supreme Court declares him ineligible, states place him on the ballot anyhow, and he wins the electoral vote, but cannot be seated.

In that instance, the next four years will be rough, and frankly, there will be violence regarding this.

A decent candidate, in these circumstances, would suspend his race. Trump is not decent.

Kristi Noem has been banned from the Pine Ridge Resevation.

Mexican Border Crisis

On the weekend shows, a preview of the extensive bipartisan Senate border bill was featured.  Mike Johnson is pretty clearly going to oppose it as he has orders from his puppet master. A Republican Senator threatened to push Johnson into a vote over his speakership, which apparently there had been a backdoor deal with Democratic Senators to try to prevent when he was nominated.  This was based on the assertion that he'd broken his promises in that closed door meeting.

Governor Kristi Noem was banned from the Pine Ridge Reservation for declaring she wants to send razor wire and National Guardsmen to the Texas border.

February 6, 2024

Intersting article on what local GOP figures are going to do re Trump, if their prior positions on Trump or Cheney are known.

Some Cheney 'Never Trumpers' Now Support Trump; Others Won't Budge

Quite a few are falling in line with Trump, not surprisingly. Some are not, however, notably Cale Case and Alan Simpson.

Last Prior Edition:

The 2024 Election, Part XI. The Winter of Discontent Edition.

Related Threads:

Witnessing a decline in mental status. Donald Trump on the campaign trail.

Watching the Democrats choosing to lose the 2024 election.

You don't have to accept a "two party" system.

Choosing to lose.

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 54th Edition. The swift and the not so swift edition.

• Twitter has banned searches for Taylor Swift.

This tells us something about the danger of AI, as what they were searching for is AI generated faux nudes of the singer.

It also tells us something about entertainers we already knew.  Yes, their art counts, but part of their popularity, quite often, is that they're a form of art themselves. Which leads us to the next thing.

Everything about this is wrong on an existential level.  AI, frankly, is wrong.  

And once again, presented with the time, talent, and money to be sufficiently idle to do great things, we turn to the basest. 

• There's a creepy fascination going on with Tyler Swift

I don't know anything about Tyler Swift, other than that she's tall, and from the photos I've seen of her, on stage she wears, like many female singers, tight clothing.  She appears to be very tall, and is sort of a classic beauty.

I suppose that's the root of it.

Apparently, right wing media and MAGA people are just freaking out about Tyler Swift.  This has been headline fodder for some time, but I only got around to looking it up now, as I don't follow entertainment at all and don't care that much.

Swift is dating some football player.  I don't follow football either, so that doesn't interest me.  Beautiful female entertainers dating sports figures, or marrying them, isn't news, and it isn't even interesting.  Consider Kate Upton and Marilyn Monroe.  Indeed, under the evolutionary biological precept of hypergyny, most rich women in entertainment would naturally gravitate in this direction, as much as we like to pretend that our DNA does not push us in one direction or another (lesser female entertainers, such as Rachel Ray and Kathy Ireland, tend to marry lawyers).  Billy Joel may have sung about the opposite in Uptown Girl, but that truly is a fantasy.  There's really very little direction from them to otherwise take, whether they are cognizant of it or not.

And so now we have this total weirdness:

Right wing conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec: 

People who don’t understand why I have been commenting on Taylor Swift and Barbie are completely missing the point and NGMI These are mascots for the establishment. High level ops used as info warfare tools of statecraft for the regime.

Newsmax host Greg Kelly:

They’re elevating her to an idol.

Idolatry. This is a little bit of what idolatry, I think, looks like. And you’re not supposed to do that. In fact, if you look it up in the Bible, it’s a sin!

Far right activist Laura Loomer:

The Democrats’ Taylor Swift election interference psyop is happening in the open … It’s not a coincidence that current and former Biden admin officials are propping up Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. They are going to use Taylor Swift as the poster child for their pro-abortion GOTV Campaign.

Donald Trump fanboy and poster child for political train derailment, Vivek Ramaswamy:

I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall …

And if all of that isn't weird enough for you, a host on the right wing  OAN claims the Swift football dating is a deep state psy op, because sports brainwash kids when they should be focused on religion. 

This is insane.

Liz Cheney warned us that idiocy had crept into the nation's politics.  What more evidence of this is required than this?

• Celebrity endorsements.

Some of this stems from a fear that Swift might endorse President Biden.  I read something that claimed she had in 2020.

I don't know if she did or not, and I don't particularly care.

There are a host of celebrities who have endorsed Trump.  Nobody seems to get up in arms about that, or even notice it.  So why the concern.

Probably because Swift is seen as the voice of her generation, and that sure ain't the generation that MAGA is made up of.  I.e, she's young and an independent female.  

Look at it this way, would you rather have her endorsement, or Lauren Boebert's?

I frankly don't get celebrity endorsements anyhow.  I don't know why we care what any actor or singer thinks about anything.  Freaking out about it is just silly.

• Jay Leno is seeking to be the guardian and conservator for his wife, Mavis, who is 77, and has dementia.

This is a tragedy.

It's also a tragedy in the nation's eye. Most of the time really notable figures endure something like this, it's out of the public eyesight.  We didn't watch Ronald Reagan decline on the news.  Of course, we're unlikely to see Ms. Leno endure this either.

But this serves as a warning.  Old age, we often hear, isn't for wimps.  And one of the things about it is that those who remain mentally fit have to take care of those who do not.  Most families find this out.

But what about when they're running for office?

• The National Park Service reports a 63-year-old man died on a trail in Zion National Park.  Heart attack.

This headline tells us something, too. 63, we're often told, isn't old. But then we're not too surprised when a 63-year-old dies hiking, are we?

• A concluding thought.  We're getting scary stupid.

Freaking out about Tyler Swift, letting two octogenarians run to carry the nuclear football, engaging in endless weird conspiracy theories. . . we've really let the dogs of insanity out big time.

Frankly, a lot of the time the "elite", by which we mean the educated elite, the cultural elite, etc., kept a lid on this.  It wasn't as if the opinions of "the people" didn't matter, but they were tempered.

That's not happening in the country now at all.  Swift is part of a left wing conspiracy, efforts to prevent gender mutilation are due to right wing meanness.  This is out of hand.

Last Prior Edition:

The Lost Cause and the Arlington Confederate Monument. Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 53d Edition.

Conservatives need to stop saying stupid stuff.

Candace Owens claimed, and I quote:

I would be terrified if I got onto a plane and I saw a woman flying the plane.

Madison March, Air Force Officer and fighter pilot, and Miss Colorado.*

Oh, horsecrap, she would not be.

And that's just a stupid thing to say on multiple levels. 

For one thing, if you "got onto a plane" and saw anybody flying it, apparently you are engaging in some fancy movie gymnastics a la Sisu, as when you get on planes, you might see the pilots in the cockpit, but they're sitting there waiting for people to board the planes. 

And unless you last got on an airplane in about 1979 or so, you've seen women flying them.

What Owens is attempting to say is that United Airlines' CEO was quoted regarding a desire to hire female pilots on an employment diversity basis, and her point is that this means they aren't hiring some qualified male employees in order to fulfill the quota.

Well, okay, but that requires a little more attention to presentation and detail to say that. First of all, in order to be a commercial airline pilot, you have to have a lot of hours.  American rules are so strict that compared to the rest of the world, introductory commercial pilots are much more experienced than those of other nations.  

Secondly, while I do have a problem with women in combat (I have an old post on it I've never finished), women have been flying aircraft since Raymonde de LaRoche took it up in 1910.

The former actress and engineer did die in an airplane wreck in 1919, but if you look at the history of early aviators and find those who lived very long, they're the exception to the rule.  At any rate, by World War Two flying female aviators were so common that the US was using them to ferry every type of aircraft we used to the combat recipients, and even the Germans, who famously sought to avoid using women in anything but the home making and baby creation department, used some female aviators (and oddly enough, as anti-aircraft gun crew members).

Which brings me to this.  I'm familiar with efforts to readjust the scale on occupations through gender based selection personally.  I can't say for certain, but a couple of appointments that I put in for over the last thirty years went to women because that probably weighted in their favor for this reason. But, having said that, they weren't bad choices at all, and are really good in their jobs. Same thing at work. They were qualified to start with. Too bad for me, I guess, but that doesn't mean the choices were bad ones at all.

Which gets to this.

I am a conservative, and a real one. But saying stupid stuff, to include anti-scientific stuff, makes all conservatives look dumb, and frankly weighs the scale towards dumb.

Most people hearing Adams say this will just think, "well that's dumb", but somebody somewhere, as Adams is a populist hero, will in fact think; "doggone it. . that's right. . wimmin ain't outto be flying them big machine, why they'll panic and crash everything. . hand me another Bud, will ya".

Now, mind you, the left does this too, but with Donald Trump being the flag bearer for the political right, right now, and Trump regularly saying stuff that is dumb, the political right really has attention drawn to itself on these sorts of statements.  Indeed, as real conservatives have fled the party, or gone into seclusion, those who are willing to say real stupid stuff, such as the US is going to "liberate" Canada, or that the January 6 rioters were tourists, have become numerous. As the tolerance for their statements grow, they become more numerous in and of themselves.

There is a real place for conservatism in this country.  That's being completely lost.  Unfortunately, as it looks more and more like Donald Trump will return to office, people willing to tolerate him and things said in his support are increasing, when it is already well established he cannot be controlled, and that his followers cannot be either.

Saying stupid stuff doesn't help that.

Footnotes:

*Hey, just so we can show we're no slackers, in 2023 Sgt. Rebecca Bridger, a bandsman, of the Wyoming Army National Guard was our state's Miss Wyoming.

Okay, she's not combat arms and doesn't fly planes, but still.

The Cheney Maxim and MTG.

Trump is the one that gave shock and awe to the whole world when he walked across the DMZ line, hand extended, shaking hands with Kim Jong Un, ending Little Rocket Man’s reign

Marjorie Taylor Greene 

Kim Jong Un is still the Communist monarch of the Stalinist theme park, North Korea.

He's a bigger problem now, then he was then.

He still has nuclear weapons.

Trump's shacking hands with him probably did nothing more than cause Kim Jong Un to run back to the latrine and wash his hand thoroughly.

What on earth is wrong with Greene's district that they return this person to Congress?

You don't have to accept a "two party" system.

Our government wasn't set up to have a "two party" system.  Indeed, the founders warned against "factions". They hoped people would vote for candidates they supported, not parties that shoved big piles of crap out on the electorate.

Be that as it may, Duverger's Law holds that countries using first-past-the-post voting systems will always have two party politics. While he declared that in 1997, it's obvious and hardly a shocking revelation, although recent some have declared that it's become a uniquely American thing.

Well, observations of the Canadian system show it's operating north of the border too.

The thing about it is that recently not only has that advanced the absolutely moronic concept that "there are two kinds of people", but it's really caused politics to evolve to the extreme.  The GOP has gone completely populist and believes that large sections of the citizenry are class enemies. The Democrats have done the same.  There's more of a hope that the Democrats will come back to a wider centrist party than there is that the GOP will do the same, but right now the choices are two really extreme ones, at least on a national level, and frankly increasingly on a local level.

We don't have to do this.

Part of the reason we do is that when third parties emerge, folks like Robert Reich run around yelling you can't vote for them, as that's a vote for the other big party.  Bullshit.  A vote for a third party is a vote for a third party.  And as we've recently discussed, occasionally a party dies, as the GOP has done, and it's always replaced when that happens with a new, third, party.

"You have to vote for the Whigs!  If you don't, that's a vote for the Democrats".

There are third parties, and I suspect there's a good chance of a new, conservative, party appearing within the next couple of months.

I hope one does.

Because, right now, it's hard to see how a person of good conscience could vote for either of the likely "main party" Presidential candidates.

Prior Related Threads:

Democracy in peril. . . maybe the fix is to amend the Constitution. . .

Witnessing a decline in mental status. Donald Trump on the campaign trail.

These aren't gaffs: 

Lex Anteinternet: The 2024 Election, Part XII. The March To Moscow:   January 20, 2024 

Donald Trump pretty clearly confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi in a New Hampshire campaign rally, claiming that Haley was in charge of all the "troops", meaning that she could have called on National Guardsmen to protect the capitol.

Haley wasn't in office at the time.

Haley in turn called on his mental fitness.

More people should be. Trump doesn't act like somebody who okay mentally.  He's old, and in the footage of the rally, he does not look well.

January 21, 2024

Trump, on the same day he confused Haley for Pelosi, made reference to having run against President Obama, which he never did.

These are major mental lapses, and now they're coming in quick succession.

The Obama one, we'd note, has occured before.  Trump has, openly, mentioned having run against Barack Obama.  His first race was against Hillary Clinton, which is the only reason that he was elected, and with a minority of the vote.

Trump lies constantly, but these aren't lies. This is misfiring in his brain, and it's happening frequently.  And these aren't the only instances.

Republican voters who are going for Trump, the nearly 50% of the GOP that isn't really traditionally Republican but something else, are going to simply turn a blind eye towards this.  Democrats won't, but that doesn't really matter, except perhaps to the extent they emphasize it, which they in fact should.

Right now, assuming that Trump doesn't experience a complete mental collapse before November, which I'd give a 40% chance, and assuming that Trump's health holds out until November, which I'd give a 40% chance, he's going to be elected the next President because of the Democrats wholly inept performance in this election, including their absolute refusal to address many of  the legitimate concerns that they've allowed to fester into right wing conspiracies, such as 1) how many immigrants can we really take in; 2) why does everyone have to have a "good job" in a cubicle, 3) why are we ignoring real biology and pretending it's a lifestyle choice.  The election at this point is basically over.

That would in turn mean we're about to elect a man into office who is clearly sliding into dementia.  Republicans in his inner circle better figure out right now how far they'll let him lose his mind before they declare him unfit for office.

And we better hope his VP choice is made to be somebody rational and not a syncophant.