The Agrarian's Lament: The Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A reminder to that it is time to be the people that founded the country.

The Agrarian's Lament: The Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A reminder to that it i...:   The Aerodrome: Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A shameful flying monument. : This blog was never intended to be political, but in the age of Donald...

The Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A reminder to that it is time to be the people that founded the country.

 

The Aerodrome: Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A shameful flying monument.: This blog was never intended to be political, but in the age of Donald Trump, which will go down as the most corrupt political era in U.S. h...

On the 250ths Anniversary of American Independence it'd do us well to recall that while the Revolution may have been lead by landed patricians, it was fought by landed yeoman.

It's a great misfortune to the country, or perhaps a timely reminder, of exactly how far we've fallen in that regard. We have, in the form of Donald J. Trump, a President, albeit an illegitimate one, who is the very symbol of what Americans rebelled against 250 years ago. This monumental palace coach should serve to remind us. 

Had Donald Trump been alive in 1776, he'd have been a Loyalist. 

At the end of the war he'd have been packed up to Canada to annoy the French, who at least would largely have not understood him.  Not, in his dementia, that we do either.

Washington on Blueskin.

George Washington owned his own mounts.  John Adams broke one of his own mounts as late as his 80s.  Taft kept a cow on the White House lawn.

Donald Trump flies back and forth to his golf resort in Florida on the American taxpayers dime.¹  And now, at the expense of some $400,000,000 taxpayer dollars, he's unveiled the new one, and gushes about its "luxury":

Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A shameful flying monument.

This blog was never intended to be political, but in the age of Donald Trump, which will go down as the most corrupt political era in U.S. history, it just can't be avoided.

The Federal Government, funded by the American taxpayers in the form of taxes, and by individuals and foreign governments in the form of loans, has taken delivery of one Boeing "VC-25B Bridge", a military conversion of a Boeing 747-8 originally built as a Boeing Business Jet.  The plane was delivered in 2012 to Qatar Amiri Flight and used by the House of Thani. In June 2023, it was delivered to Global Jet Isle of Man. The Qatari government gave it as a gift. . . if we assume governments really give gifts to other governments.  Poor little King Donny just wasn't happy with the existing Air Force One and given that he's in his last term he couldn't wait for new ones under construction to be completed.

After he leaves office, which given his advanced age and rapidly declining mental status is likely to be before his term expires, the airplane, which has cost the United States at least $400,000,000 in "upgrades" to make it work in its role as a royal coach for his majesty, will be transferred to his presidential library foundation.  Indeed, that will happen before his unfortunate illegitimate reign is over.

This is complete bullshit.

I've posted on this story, and this airplane, here before:

Air Force One.

Air Force One has been in the news a lot recently, and it  started before the Qatari proposal to give the United States, or Donald Trump (it isn't clear which) a luxury outfitted Boeing 747.

Technically "Air Force One" is a call sign, and merely denotes an airplane the Chief Executive is a passenger in.  If a President rode in an Air Force Cessna, that would be Air Force One.  But everyone knows that it refers to one of two Boeing VC-25s, militarized 747s, that are designated for the Presidents use.

RD-2

Interestingly, the first aircraft designated for Presidential use was a Navy airplane, an amphibious Douglas Dolphin RD-2 that was luxury outfitted for use by President Roosevelt.  It was used from 1933 to 1939, and obviously not for transglobal flight.  The President didn't really do extensive travel until World War Two.

Roosevelt's once used VC-54C.

In spite of concerns over commercial aviation being used to carry the President during the war, it was in fact used and it wasn 't until 1945 that a new designated Presidential aircraft was acquired, that being a  Secret Service reconfigured a Douglas C-54 Skymaster (VC-54C) which was named the Sacred Cow.  It contained a sleeping area, radiotelephone, and retractable battery-powered elevator to lift Roosevelt in his wheelchair. It's only use by Roosevelt was to fly the then dying President to Yalta.  Truman used it thereafter, but it was replaced by military DC-6 (VC-118) thereafter.

Truman's VC-118.

President Eisenhower, who of course knew planes well, to Lockheed C-121 Constellations, Columbine II and Columbine III. The Constellation was a very popular airplane at the time, and Douglas MacArthur also had one, that one spending many years after its service at the Natrona County International Airport on an abandoned runway.

Columbine II was the first Presidential aircraft to receive the designation Air Force One.

At the end of Eisenhower's Presidency Boeing 707s came in, in part because the Soviets were using a jet to transport their Premier.  707s remained through the Nixon era, giving good service in this role.

747s, as VC-25s, entered specialized manufacture for use as Air Force One during Reagan's administration, although the first one would enter service after that.  They've been used ever since.

These aren't normal 747s.  They are packed with communications and electronic warfare equipment in order to have combat survivability.  

Replacing the current two aircraft that are used as Air Force One is a topic that the Air Force started looking at quite a few years ago.  The 747 variant which the VC-25 isn't made anymore.  Production of 747s stopped in 2023 in favor of more modern aircraft.  Still, the airframe remains useful in this role, and after the Air Force started to look into options, updating a 747-8 appeared to be the best option.  Only Boeing was interested in the project anyway, and it will take a massive financial loss to do it.  

The aircraft that are being retrofitted for this role was built, originally, as a commercial airliner. The projected is a massive one, and the delivery date will be in 2027.

What the new Air Force Ones will look like.

Enter Qatar.

Qatar has offered to give the US (I guess) a luxury Boeing 747-8 for use as Air Force One until the other 747-8s are complete.  But here's the thing.  Boeing has been working on the complicated task fo converting the two existing 747-8s for this use for several years. After all, it's basically a combat aircraft.  All accepting the plane would do is give Boeing a third one to convert, which wouldn't be ready for years.

Trump is being childish about this, as he is about a lot of things.  He doesn't seem to grasp the nature of the aircraft, and likely a lot of other people don't as well.  In his case, this is inexcusable.  It's a combat airplane.

Frankly, it's a Cold War combat airplane.

Which gets to this.

The 747 was a big massive airliner in an era in which it was the queen of the sky. That era is over and airlines have moved on to more modern aircraft.  The world in which Ronald Reagan ordered 747s is gone as well.  It's still useful to have an aircraft that can be used in a global thermonuclear war, which is what it is, but that's not going to happen and it makes no sense to use it to go on weekend golfing trips to Florida.

But that's what Trump tends to use it for.

That raises an entire series of other questions, many of which have little to do with aircraft, but some of which do.  It's notable that other Presidents have used lighter aircraft for more mundane trips.  In November 1999, President Bill Clinton flew from Ankara, Turkey, to Cengiz Topel Naval Air Station outside Izmit, Turkey, aboard a marked C-20C.  In 2000, President Clinton flew to Pakistan aboard an unmarked Gulfstream III.  In 2003, President George W. Bush flew in the co-pilot seat of a Sea Control Squadron Thirty-Five (VS-35) S-3B Viking from Naval Air Station North Island, California to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, with that latter obviously being an exception. Barack Obama used a Gulfstream C-37 variant on a personal trip in 2009.

Trump can use something else than a 747 for what he uses Air Force One for in almost every single instance.

Indeed, the entire topic brings up a lot of things about the risks of having an airplane like this, a luxury airliner inside, which is really a combat aircraft.  It makes it easy to forget what it really is, and it makes a President feel like an Emperor, which he is not.

So why am I doing it again?

Since May, 2025 Donald Trump has used the existing Air Force One to fly back and forth to his Florida golf home/resort, effectively using the airplane as a toy, repeatedly.  He's also used it for what are basically campaign trips.  He's launched an illegal war against Iran for which the Department of Defense now seeks $80,000,000,000 to cover, and which killed thirteen Americans and untold numbers of Iranians.  That war encouraged Israel to not only participate in it, or perhaps the other way around, but also to engage in an invasion of Lebanon.  He's spent something like $13,000,000 to Rhino Line the Washington D. C. reflecting pool, he's trying to build a massive ballroom that will ultimately cost the taxpayer one way or another, and he's trying to build a triumphal arch, making the United States the first country in the world to build an arch after getting solidly defeated in a war.

He's demented, and he acts like an emperor. This airplane is part of that delusion.

Truth be known, the entire Air Force One thing hasn't made sense for years.  Having some sort of aircraft available for Presidential use for Presidential work makes some limited sense. But most of what Trump uses the aircraft for could be achieved through commercial aviation.  Indeed, not one single trip Trump has taken could not have been accomplished that way.

And that's how this should be done.  Back when transpiration was by rail, the President didn't own a train.  When Trump goes over to the G7 to insult the Italian Prime Minister with his lunacy, that could be done by commercial air, and should be done that way.  And I mean commercial air, not chartered air.  The government could get him a ticket on a regularly scheduled flight.

And when he goes to Mar A Lago he can pay for his own ticket.

I know that the objections will be "oh my, it isn't safe".  That is, frankly, for the most part complete BS.  Trump could get a ticket on Ryan Air and be just as safe as anyone else. 

And if its a little less safe, that's a good thing.  One of the problems with the modern presidency is that the occupant of the White House is too insulated from the people he supposedly serves.  At one time the President shook the hands of all who lined up on New Years Day.  Not anymore.

If the President had to travel with the great unwashed masses maybe he'd be less of a lunatic.  Or maybe he'd just realize that its a real job.  

Anyway you look at it, Air Force One is a titanic waste of money.  The Air Force has aircraft.  If he needs to go, he can load up on a C5A with the equipment going wherever its going.  

And this waste of money is going to a Trump library just before Trump leaves office.

WTF?

If the US had to spend money on it, it should keep it.  This is appalling.  That should be addressed as soon as possible.  If there's a current way to address it, it just should be silently done.  Trump can leave office and his library, which frankly is a pointless thing in the first place, can buy a Revell model kit of a Boeing 747. This absurd flying castle can carry on in its existing role and join the two that are being built, or preferably at least one of those two contracts cancelled seeing as the US has this thing.

At that point, the signature on the under panel that Trump affixed yesterday can be fittingly modified, recalling World War Two nose art.  A realistic Trump nude torso doodle, a la Epstein, can be installed.  A fitting monument.

It's a gift form Qatar, an authoritarian, semi-constitutional hereditary emirate monarchy ruled by the House of Thani.  The Emir is the absolute authority.

Just the sort of government that King Donald can related to.  Apparently they could relate to him, or more likely, thought they could obtain some advantage by appealing to his pathetic vanity.

The plane will be transferred to his Presidential library before he leaves office.  What books would even appear in Donald Trump's library boggles the imagination.  He does not appear to be a well read man, or even really read anything.  Figures from his last administration related he had a hard time reading memos they gave him as he lost interest so rapidly.  He does not appear to be a smart man.²

And, current American worship of wealth aside, we shouldn't expect him to be.  What I've long suspected turns out to be true.  The wealthy are often stupid.

Does Being Rich Make You Stupid?

False consciousness goes upscale.

Billionaires Are Actually Less Intelligent Than Lower-Paid People New Study Shows

Does Having Too Much Money Make Us Stupid?

World’s Richest People May Actually Be Dumber Than Those Who Earn Less, Study Says

Luck and circumstance has plenty to do with it.

This actually doesn't surprise me at all.  The question is whether wealth makes you stupid, or encourages the breeding down of intelligence.  Either can be maintained.

It was Chesterton who noted that "AMONG the Very Rich you will never find a really generous man, even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egoistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it."  There's something to that.  But beyond that, there's plenty of evolutionary evidence of the latter point.  Wild cattle are quite a bit smarter than domestic ones.  Wolves are smarter than dogs.  Wild turkeys are very smart birds whereas domestic ones, apparently are dumb as a post.

Cave drawing of an Aurochs.  Modern cows can be dicey, but aurochs wanted to kill you.

The question would be, of course, why this is true, and selective breeding by human beings largely explains it.  We'd rather not have a mean cow that seeks to break free, raising a gang of mean cows, and lay siege to the village.  Hunters and herdsmen like smart dogs, but bred to be fairly compliant. If you've ever owned a standard poodle, one of the oldest hunting breeds, you'll see how much of the wolf wasn't bread out of them, they think for themselves, we've worked a lot on dogs since then.  

French Poodle in the early 1900s. The coat may look weird but they're a hunting dog, and a German bred one.  Even now, the Puddle Dog has opinions on everything and isn't shy about giving you them. The only other modern hunting dog that rivals them that way is the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, another old breed..

It's a dangerous thing to say, and contrary to the thesis advanced by eugenicists, but there's pretty good evidence that people on average were getting smarter and smarter all along throughout human history, in very real terms, up until just recently.  Evolution was forcing it.  Some evolutionary biologist argue that the homo sapien sapien of our current era is demonstrably smarter than homo sapiens of, say, 100,000 years ago. . . or 50,000 years ago. . . or 10,000 years ago, or 5,000.³   And it makes some sense.

In a normal, i.e., not rich, environment a lot of things go into mate selection, oh heck let's say spouse selection other than what goes into attracting people, oh heck let's say men, to Only Fans.  Love has always been an aspect of it, but its interesting to note how even when I was a teen, teenagers selected dates on character, which included intelligence, more than anything else.  It's funny to think of now, but if a guy had a "pretty" girlfriend, he was just considered lucky, and a girl with brains and other positive characteristics would have a boyfriend who featured the same, irrespective of her looks. When the girl was good looking, it was just sort of like winning a bonus prize.  Purely good looking girls, if that's all they had going for them, weren't really sought out.  

  Two young couples.  Migrant farm workers in Louisiana and their children, 1939.

This remained true, I'd note, throughout my entire single life.  Maybe it's largely true now.

But with the wealthy, it's another matter.

Future Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith and her first husband, Billy Ray Smith.  She was 17  and he was 16 when she married.  He was cook.  She changed her image enormously after they divorced and ended up married to an octogenarian after being a Playboy Centerfold and Guess Jeans model. Do we think that late union was a marriage for love on either side?  She paid the price, of course, dying young.  Her first husband is still alive, but never speaks much.  He was apparently crushed by the death of their son, pictured here, when he was in his twenties.  He never remarried.

Donald Trump, who gives no evidence of being an intelligent man, has been married three times, with each spouse having a certain sort of look save for one.  Two have been Slavic beauties of a certain sort, which means they present a certain look that certain people regard as glamorous beauty.⁴. The second, Marla Maples, actually presents as pretty smart. That marriage lasted six years.⁵

The point here?

I'm not thinking that a lot of the super rich determine their mates the way regular people do.  I don't think "is he/she a good helpmate?" or "do we have the same interests, faiths, worldview?", or to be really old school, "can this guy/gal help me around the farm?" has gone into it much.  Rather, they often seem to be chosen on looser characteristics that might more resemble how oriental potentates chose concubines for the harem, i.e., looks.

When Arab raiders stole Irish women, after all, smart as those women tend to be, they weren't marketing them on "look at this ginger. . . she's really got the brains!"

Now, a person can take this too far, but we live in a rich society.  The richest of us may in fact be stupider than the rest of us, or a lot of us.  And we collectively, just like a placid cow in the field, may be starting to get dumber overall.

We live in a materially very wealthy culture.  Even the average impoverished American is wealthier than many thought to be well off in former eras. And to add to that, the decay in morality, brought about by material wealth, which has allowed us to focus only on ourselves, has developed a self centered sexual culture that contributes to this.

Put another way, as one female observer seriously noted:

But its not making people happier.  People know something is wrong.

Gallup informs us that most Americans believe in the "American Dream", whatever that is, but that a very high percentage believe its unobtainable.

American Dream Endures as U.S. Approaches 250 Years

That's because it is unobtainable.

The American Dream has been defined in various ways.  I think it might be best defined in the film The Best Years Of Our Lives.

In that film there's a moment when discharged sergeant Fred Derry gives a loan to a discharged Navy vet who is a tenant farmer.  He wants to buy his own farm.  He knows he can do it.

That's the best description of the American Dream I've ever seen.

The real dream is to own your own.  And at the time of the American Revolution, most did. That's what had brought them to the country.

I don't know what they teach the young now, but when I was growing up it was a lot of crap about how people came over for freedom, mostly freedom of religion.

Yeah, some did, sort of. The best example might be the Puritans on the Mayflower, who were seeking freedom to worship in their own way and to tell everyone else in the world how they were supposed to do it.  If you were in a Puritan community you were worshipping with them or getting punished, severely.

Only about 1/3d of the Mayflower passengers were Puritans.  The rest were likely members of the Church of England which itself was less than 100 years separated from the Catholic Church, and even less separated from the Prayer Book Rebellion.⁶ Point is, those passengers, who were all part of the group that put in as they were out of beer, didn't come for religious freedom.

They came for land.

Land is, and was, independent.  People knew then, and they knew now, that land was independence, freedom, and a decent life worth living.  If you could obtain, as Chesterton would later put it, "three acres and a cow", or more likely 40, and a mule, you had it made.  You were not rich.  You were not poor. You were your own family.

Land is what caused Englishmen to risk their lives in 1607 to come to a new continent, or Frenchmen to come to it in 1608, or Spanish to come to it in 1565.  Here they could get it, at some cost, but a none the less obtainable one.  In Europe, they could not.  And if not all came as farmers, tradesmen who came, came because they could open their own shops, essentially operating on the same ideal.  Those who couldn't muster up the cash for transit indentured themselves to do so which, in spite of latter day white apologist, was not slavery.  It was a temporary means of getting started, in some ways like apprenticeships or joining the service operates for many today.

We cannot say that it was universally benign. That would be a lie. The land in fact already belonged to somebody else, the native inhabitants, whose claims were excused due to their rotational agricultural practices and low population density. But that doesn't change the basic fact.  It was land, not "freedom" of any type that drew the immigrant.

By moving, they freed themselves from some landowning overlord and made themselves independent farmers.  That dream lasted all the way up until the mid 20th Century in some fashion.  While it remains alive today, the truth is that the reality it of it is as dead, yielded to the bloated interests of the rich.  The largest landowner in the US today is billionaire sports and real estate mogul Stan Kroenke, who owns land in Wyoming.  Mom and pop shops have yielded to the nightmare created by Sam Walton.  

People who think the American dream is alive are largely fooling themselves.

Nonetheless, a dream is a dream, and revolutions are based on dreams.

The American Revolution was based on a landowning dream.  It wasn't, frankly necessarily wholly admirable.  The Intolerable Acts included, in a very real sense, the sense that the Crown was going to restrict the right of expanding countrymen's families to settle new lands, and they were right. The fear also was that the Crown would restrict economic activity in the Colonies for revenue purposes, and that was partially correct.  Common Sense and the like aside, a real cause of the Revolution was the native sense that the free right to settle land, and engage in small free enterprise, was the only thing that separated American Colonist form the English and European masses.

They were right, if not necessarily morally right.

A large number, maybe most, revolutions since that time, and some before it, have been based on the same cause. The French Revolution was not, and it remains a global oddball.  The Russian Revolution, failed as it was, is such an example, however, as was the Russian Revolution of 1905.  The Chinese Revolution of 1911, and the Chinese Civil War, both failed examples, also were.  The Mexican Revolution, also a failed revolution, very much was.

The Mexican Revolution provides, in fact, an excellent example.  Through every phase, from 1911 onwards, the rich landed class fought back, and when defeat arrived, they stepped aside and regrouped.  It kept the Revolution from really being successful.  Indeed, of all the revolutions we have noted, only the American Revolution was really successful.

But the success it created is dead.  Today,. we have the Donald Trumps and Elon Musks and other 1%ers that control the economy, and which some like Jonah Goldberg even feel we should celebrate (as to Musk).

Well, no.

Time for a second American revolution.

Not, we might note, one with guns.  Indeed, that would inevitably be not only immoral, but outright moronic, lead by people festooned with Second Amendment tattoos while advocating outright fascism.

No, something more radical than that, a revolution at the ballot box.

It's time to end the moronic celebration of a "free market system" that isn't free in any sense.  Corporate Capitalist are shoving pablum down the throats of the electorate while pocking the largess. Large-scale corporatism needs to end.

And so too does a weird millennialism appropriations of public lands by people like Deseret Mike Lee and pathetic fellow travelers like John Barrasso and Harriet Hageman.

A revolution can be had at the ballot box.  It won't happen all at once, but if started now the two party system can be ended, and the creation of wealth for the wealthy can be as well.  Remote land ownership, something the colonist came here to escape, can be as well.

It won't happen as long as people don't think.  But they need to think now.  At some point they will, and if we don't take on the yoke of this burden now, when the plow ox bulks, it'll be bad.

Footnotes

1.  Donald Trump is such a WASP, with the adherence to the "P", that he's converted some property in Washington D.C. to become a golf course and is putting in courses on some military bases.

Put in shooting ranges or something.  Not something that fat old white guys play.

2. The fact that Trump is a Wharton graduate is really a slam at the Ivy League. Yes, they have some great schools, but the system they operate in really has graduated some failures.  Pete Hegseth provides such an example.  

Wharton owes the country an apology, and I say that as somebody who has a relative that graduated from there. The fact that Trump graduated is applying. The fact that Chuck Gray is their product is as well.

3.  Some theologians have speculated that there was a point with our species when God converted us from just a smart hominid into what we are in the Divine Plan, with an immortal soul. The speculation is that it was the moment language arrived, and there's some archeological and biological evidence that moment was in fact sudden and radical.  

4. Frankly, Trump spouses 1 and 3 really aren't bombshells.  Melania is more properly characterized as "handsome".

5.  We can't really speculate on the smarts of 1 and particularly 3.  Melania is hard to figure as she's never obtained a really good command of English.  None the less, people who admire her, are frankly doing so willfully.

6. Recusant Catholics are estimated to be less than 5% of the English population at the time, which means that were likely to probably have actually been 10 to 15%.  Today, more Catholics attend weekly services in the UK than the established church.  Recently one Anglican convert in the UK described her transition as "going Full Fat Catholicism"

The 2026 Election, 12th Edition. The late on ramp edition.

May 29, 2026 is the last day to declare a candidacy in one of the two "major parties".

We will, therefore, likely be learning of some new candidates in the upcoming days for the first time.

And we might be surprised that some who stated they were running, but who haven't filed, don't.

May 21, 2026

Two Democrats, Ana Cordova and Sergio Maldonado Sr. have entered the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction.  It seems that a third, Libertarian  Ryan Shollenberger, will.  They join existing GOP candidates Tom Kelly, Chad Auer and Steve Harshman.

Shollenberger doesn't have to file by May 29, as Libertarians are not a "major party".  It's worth noting here that a Libertarian candidate for this office makes darned near no sense whatsoever.

Democratic candidates do, however, and both of the declared Democrats have experience in education.  Maldonado ran against Degenfelder last time, and given here throwing roses to MAGA, which she sort of did and sort of didn't, while in that position, he frankly would have been a saner choice.

Harshman is highly likely to win against the two carpetbagging competitors he faces and is a really solid choice.  This race might actually feature two really good candidates and a throwaway.

Columnist Rod Miller wrote in Wyofile to advance an idea that I've been backing here for quite some time, that being getting rid of party identification and affiliation in the state's elections.

Open letter to the Joint Corporations Committee

He points out that our state constitution is silent on party affiliation, and I frankly feel our current primary system is unconstitutional.  I wish somebody would file a lawsuit over the issue.

May 23, 2026

The more I've read on this, the more it seems clear this fellow is not eligible:

Fremont Clerk Says Guggenmos Ineligible For Reelection But Up To Chuck Gray

This will be a test for Chuck, who hasn't been very good at passing tests so far.

Chuck also met with some discontent outside a legislative committee meeting:

Fiery Reception For Chuck Gray As Lawmakers Punt On Racial Gerrymandering Dispute

Of course, Chuck tagged the protest as hoard of radical leftist, as he does, a hoard apparently meaning any group of people exceeding one person and a leftist being anyone who disagrees with him.

May 24, 2026

Updates as we reach the filing deadline.

U.S. Senate:

Republican Party.

Harriet Hageman.  On our no go list.

Jill M Edwards.  A new name, no idea who she is.

Jimmy Skovgard 

John Allan Holtz.  Perennial GOP candidate who was apparently a judge at some point and just can't get the message that no one wants him as an office holder.

"Okay, Boomer".

Sam Mead.  Best GOP candidate so far.

Democrats.

Billy Benavidez.  A new name.  No idea who he is. 

James Byrd.  

On this race, State Rep. Campbell, running for reelection, came out and boldly branded Hageman a threat to public lands, which she is.  That took guts.

May 27, 2026

Lisa Engebretsen, a Casper real estate agent, has announced a bid for Senate District 29, which is currently held be uber extreme Wyoming Freedom Caucus commando Bob Ide.  She's running as a conservative candidate.

The more power to her.  Ide was even in Washington D.C. on January 6, although he wasn't a rioter.  He need to be voted out.

Another menace to the state, Chuck Gray, is getting no love from the legislature:

Wyoming lawmakers unmoved by Gray’s calls to reexamine electoral maps

In Texas, which has the stupidest politics in the country, Ken Paxton defeated John Cornyn in the Texas Republican runoff and boisterous GOP annoyance Chip Roy was defeated in his bid to replace Paxton as attorney general.

In at least the first race, the nomination of Paxton gives the Democrats, whose fortunes are overall reviving in Texas, a chance of taking Cornyn's seat and gives Cornyn the chance to go whole hog on the Senate on seeking revenge against Trump.  Trump's recent actions in the 2026 race are not only boosting Democrats, they're freeing up current office holders to act against him.

May 28, 2026

Occasional Casper Mayor Ray Pacheco has announced for Natrona County commissioner, which would mean that two former mayors are running for positions on the commission.

Balow has commenced running her ads.  

It's notable that the three candidates who have really been spending money in the House race, Gray, Friess and Rasner, all have wealth or family wealth.  It raises the obvious comment that if they're conservatives as they claim, or populists as they really are, they can afford to hold their positions, which is something to consider.

The median income in Wyoming is $76,000/year.

May 29, 2026

Freedom Caucus member Scott Smith announced to challenge Treasurer Curt Meier, who is seeking reelection to the office.

He was mysteriously endorsed by the Make Liberty Win group of far right wingnuts before he announced.

Jillian Balow ads have started running.  An example of them is:

Today is the last day to announce to run for the 2026 elections.

May 30, 2026

And now all the names are in.

Governor:

The Democrats have completely thrown in the towel on this race as Casner, who is so old that he attended the Lincoln Douglas debates, has no support and probably is in the category of having negative support.  They gave up on this race completely.  Casner ought to do everyone a favor and drop out.

A new name appears in the form of Curt Blake.  I have no idea who he is.

This is a race between Barlow, Bien, and Degenfelder, with Bien and Degenfelder both vying for the far right.  Bien isn't really even trying for the middle, but he'll draw votes away from Degenfelder.  Barlow is by far the best candidate and the primary will determine the election due to the Democratic tragedy of not having a real candidate for this office.

U.S. Senator:

The only real change here was the addition of Billy Benavidez to the Democratic slate. That's unfortunate as Benavidez has less than 0 chance, but it does distract from the candidacy of James Byrd, who is a really good candidate.

Ideally Same Mead would take the GOP nomination and the race would be between Mead and Byrd.  Mead would win.  Hageman has the advantage, however, in spite of her far right anti public lands positions.  Byrd will pull quite a few votes in the fall, assuming he's the nominee on the Democratic side, if Hageman is the Republican nominee, but Mead likely has a better chance than people might suppose.  There's a fair amount of discontent with Hageman who was only elected to Congress on a visceral reaction to Liz Cheney thinking independently.

Jill Edwards is a complete unknown in this race.  Holtz is an other antiquated baby boomer who just can't get over not being needed.

U.S. House of Representatives.

A real surprise here as longtime Natrona County politician Keith Goodenough reappears for the first time in quite awhile seeking the position of Congressman.  It's really surprising as the race is pretty far along already, with Jillian Balow starting her campaign in earnest, and with Steve "my daddy was rich so I can afford to be a conservative" Friess, Chuck "everyone against me is a communist, fascist, Marxist, monarchist, podiatrist Gray, and Reid "I say abhorrent weird things" Rasner, violently throwing money at each other.  

Rasner's campaign, we'd note, has been sufficiently weird that there's actually an article in the Cowboy State Daily in which WFC chief John Bear explains that its not a joke, no really it isn't, it's weird, sounds like a parody, but, um, it's not a joke.

Despite His Videos, Wyoming Politicos Say Reid Rasner Campaign Is Not A Parody

A new Democrat has emerged as well, although I know nothing about her. She's taking on Lisa Kinney, who is once again in the old as dirt category and who should be staying out of the race.

Secretary of State

More new names on the Republican side here.

A lot of these candidates are completely unknown.  Robert Short is likely the best candidate and Rachel Williams, who was in the legislature as Rachel Sanchez Williams (you have to wonder if she learned that the WFC, of which she is a member, doesn't approve really of brown people), a complete no go.

Other Statewide Races

Apparently nobody really wants to be State Auditor.

The rest of these races we've already reported on.

In legislative races, Senate District 9 has only a Democrat as a registered candidate, incumbent Rothfuss. That's unusual.  Senate District 17 also only has a registered Democrat.

In other news, Trump endorsed Pam Evette in South Carolina’s Republican primary for governor throwing Nancy Mace under the bus.

Mace voted to release the Epstein files. There's a real pattern here of Trump going after everyone who did.

In yet more news, we have this:

It probably will be dismissed, but at least in my view, our partisan primary system is in fact violative of the Wyoming Constitution  It'll be interesting to see how it progresses. The case is filed in the State's 7th Judicial District in Natrona County.

June 2, 2026

In a story thick with irony, the Gray campaign released the result of a poll yesterday and by the end of the day, it was clear it was a push poll.

Chuck Gray’s U.S. House Poll Leveled Disparaging Remarks Against Rasner, Friess

A poll at this point, with one major candidate having only started running within the last week, is pretty questionable, as some interviewed noted.  Gray, however, is in a bad spot as there are three candidates who are thickly funded all running on the platform that they'll be Trump's political paramour, of which Gray is one.

The push poll asked really vile questions about the other two candidates, but they're highly ironic as well.  The question on Freiss called him an "out of state" elitist who has never held a real job, which describes Chuck "I only worked in my daddy's radio station" Gray as well.

This can't be emphasized enough. Both Gray and Freiss are carpetbaggers with family wealth.  Gray is tarring himself with the same brush he's tarring Freiss. The point is in fact valid, but it means that neither one of them should be elected.

The poll also attacked gadfly Reid Rasner.  The attack on Rasner pointed out that he is a homosexual who has been married and divorced, and points out that apparently the divorce settlement contains some sort of confidentiality/non disclosure provision.

Rasner deserves the attack if for no other reason he's gone after transgenderism, which a lot of people with conventional sexual orientation or morality (they are not the same thing) think is a homosexual mental illness. I think it's a homosexual mental illness and for that matter, I regard homosexuality as disordered.  I know of one person who won't vote for Rasner as he's a homosexual, and Gray is hoping that there are others of a similar mind.

Rasner is 41 years old, admits being homosexual, and we know has had a sexual relationship, given his marriage.  We note that as Gray is 36 and Wyomingites know nothing whatsoever about his private life at all.  Absolutely nothing.  He's the least well known candidate, I'd wager, in Wyoming's history.  

Both men are Catholic, which makes Rasner's earlier marriage invalid in the eyes of the Church and the conduct within it a mortal sin.  He may have confessed and repented.  We have no idea.  Gray is Catholic as well and his lying and public conduct of this type crosses the line into what I'd regard as a mortal sin, but I'm not a moral arbiter.  What I'd note, however, is that having brought this topic up, he should now answer the question as to why he's unmarried and has never been married at age 36.

There may be good reasons.  I've known a few perfectly straight people, one my age, one quite a bit older, and one half my age, who have never married and never been in any long term relationships just because that's how life worked out, or is working out so far, for them.  One just prefers ones own company.  But Gray is obviously out and about and frankly age 36 and no relationship, if there is no relationship, is weird.  Gray now owes us an explanation for why half his life is over and he's totally unattached, assuming that he is.  Maybe women can't stand him.  Maybe his standards are sky high.  Maybe there's another story.

On this topic, there has been one Wyoming office holder who was a closeted homosexual for their entire term in office (and they were an excellent office holder). That person was often mentioned as a possible Governor and never ran.  I have to wonder if that's the reason why.  And there's another whom is consistently rumored to be homosexual and not only at the street level, but at the in the know level.  If that person is (and I don't know), they've taken very active steps to conceal it.

The reason is pretty clear.  The perception is that Wyomingites won't vote for them if they're homosexual, which is why 36 year old unmarried Gray is pointing fingers at 41 year old homosexual unmarred Reid and saying, "Look! He's gay".  Funny thing is that at least at the local level things are often different.  Casper's had an openly homosexual mayor and another openly homosexual councilman.

Who knows.

We do know that Gray wants to be Congressman so bad he's now throwing the pooh at his competitors even if he has to sit in it to do it.

Degenfelder and Bien engaged in a debate, which is amusing, as there are other candidates, and that's basically pointless.

June 3, 2026

California's open primary was too close to call.  Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican business executive Steve Hilton lead the contest.

This sort of open primary, in which the top two vote getters move on, makes a whole lost more sense than the Wyoming one which (probably illegally) is a party election.

June 5, 2026

June 4, 2026

A Wyoming district court held that the whiney fascist crybabies leading the GOP have to follow state law and seat elected Republican precinct members, something another court did two years ago. The state central committee didn't want to do so as that keeps it from picking fascists.  

It argues that its a private entity and doesn't have to follow state law. . . except of course when it comes to getting preferential places on ballots, having the state run party elections for it, and getting to pick members of certain offices when they become vacant. It's fine with all of that.

Satire aside, this would have been an opportunity for the Court to wipe all of that out, and it should have.

June 5, 2026

Wyoming GOP sues state, challenges constitutionality of ban on pre-primary candidate endorsements

All they really have to do is to quit having state funded primaries.

Cheyenne Artificial Intelligence Candidate Sues For Spot On The Ballot

On other news, sort of:

Laramie attorney aims for U.S. Senate for a fourth time

Holtz is the ancient lawyer who was apparently a judge whom nobody seems to have heard of in the law.  I haven't done an exhaustive search, but usually we remember who the judges were.  For that matter, my minor polling of Laramie attorneys hasn't turned up anyone who knows who the heck he is.

I've been dealing with this phenomena this week anyhow, but this entire "I'm an ancient boomer and here's what we need to do . . ." story is complete bull crap.  Holtz keeps noting that he was one of the "youngest judges", something I'd question, in the state's history, but assuming that's true it doesn't mean that he should now be one of the oldest Senators.

June 10, 2026

There were a host of primary elections yesterday.

Lindsey Graham, Trump  sycophant, took the GOP nomination in South Carolina. There was some doubt about this occurring.  He will almost certainly be relected.

In the same state, Nancy Mace went down in defeat in her bid for the Governor's office.

These results are more than a bit odd.  Graham is such a toady that he's at the disgusting level, and yet he won.  Mace is weird, so maybe that's the difference.  She came in fifth place.

The heavily watched Maine Senate Democratic race went to Platner, which seemed assured as his competition had basically dropped out.  In order for him to lose his competitor, Maine's current  governor, would have had to revive her race.

With this post, we'll go on to a new edition of this thread.

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 11th Edition. The only good voting Indian is a disenfranchised voting Indian edition.