The 2024 race for the Oval Office has been so shaken up since Joe Biden dropped out, and Kamala Harris stepped in, its simply unprecedented. Trump, armed for a race against Biden, has been, for lack of a better word for it, simply freaking out, engaging in calling Harris (and former President Obama) racist names, and even engaging in absolutely wild fantasies, such as this:
Biden wants back in?
Not hardly. That's delusion in full flower. It is, frankly, weird.
But then Trump is weird.
The use of the world "weird" to coin the GOP campaign has been freaking the Republicans out as well, with it really hitting home after J. D. Vance, whom Trump might very well wish to dump, was named VP. I don't think Vance is weird, but he is a full fledged National Conservative and the risk that entailed to Trump started to hit home almost as soon as Vance was picked, and hasn't let up since. Trump, who embraced the National Conservatives earlier, probably only dimply aware of their views and not really caring about them as he saw them as just a sales opportunity, not realizing they saw him as their ticket to power as he won't be around very long, ran away from the National Conservatives as soon as they became a liability.
As Coulter has says, Trump is like a couch, bearing the impression of the last person who sat on him.
Ever since Harris came on the scene Trump and his backers have been looking for something that hits against her and failing. And now they're doing the same thing with Tim Walz, her VP pick, launching into him nearly immediately. Meanwhile, they're abandoning social conservatives who voted for him reluctantly, giving them a reason to move to somebody else.
I've seen the American Solidarity Party mentioned in that context now more than once.
Basic training photograph of Tim Walz.
Walz is getting flack for retiring after a long National Guard NCO career before his unit was to deploy to Iraq. Walz was originally a Nebraska National Guardsman, and enlisted in the Guard the same year that I did. Shoot, he may have been in basic training when I was. He stayed in for something like 24 years and retired in 2005, several months before his unit deployed to the Middle East. He's taking criticism for his retirement.
He was in an E9 slot at the time, but because he hadn't completed a training cycle, which a former E-9 I know states takes two years, his retirement was at the E8 level.
There are reasons to criticize Walz, in my view, for his stands on social issues. But retiring from the National Guard after 24 years in is not one of them. Even if he simply felt like not going to Iraq that wouldn't be one of them. It's not like we saw Donald Trump beating the doors down to go to Vietnam, now is it?
But that seems to have become a hallmark of the Boomer generation. Lots of opinions on service by people who didn't wear a uniform.
A hallmark of recent times is that military service is something the right claims as its own, which is odd. This has become more and more the case as the number of people who have actually served has continued to decline. Walz would have been part of the big Cold War Army in its last decade. Vance was not, he wa part of the 9/11 generation of servicemen. It's easy to forget, seemingly, that a lot of figures served in uniform, and many still do, who aren't of the political right.
Slamming a National Guardsman, it might be noted, is an old tactic that makes Guard veterans, including myself, bitter. Those joining the Guard in 81, like Walz, or me, served a longer period of time, six years minimum, than active duty servicemen of the same era did. We received the same basic and advanced training, and were in the Army when we did, and we often pulled multiple actual periods of activation All in all, that six years, for many of us, gave us as much or nearly as much active duty time as the two years that regulars pulled.
Vance, it might be noted, served in Iraq in 2005, but he didn't see combat.
Combative Harriet Hagerman is slamming the City of Boulder, Colorado, for no real apparent reason. Boulder is notably liberal, and that seems to be the reason. She stated in Teton County:
The pilot project is, you take out all their gas stations,” she said to a crowd of about 70 people in the Teton County Library. “We take away all their internal combustion engines — cars. We take away all of their highways and streets, because that’s all oil-and-gas-produced.
We fill out open space with windmills and solar panels, and we’ll see if we can actually run a city of 100,000 people [with] no fossil fuels whatsoever.
We’ll see if I can get that off the ground.
Boulder city councilman Mark Wallach retorted:
If she doesn’t understand the actual serious nature of the threat posed by climate change, I’m afraid she’s going to be living in a very warm state in the next decade.
If somebody wants to make light, that’s their business. I deal in the real world, not in her fantasy world.
Having jus tsustained a loss on the ranch of her youth, Hageman's refusal to recognize what Wallach is pointing out is really remarkable.
Of course, the danger here is that somebody takes Hageman's suggestion serious and the pilot program works.
Out in the hinterlands Democrats and Republicans might actually be moving more towards the center. "Squad" member Rep. Cori Bush lost her primary in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District to St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell, a moderate Democrat. Nutty Valentina Gomez, a far-right MAGA candidate for Missouri Secretary of State is now in 6th Place, her ads showing her running around armed and burning books with a flame thrower not withstanding.
August 12, 2024
A surplus U.S. Army 2 1/2 ton 6x6 truck converted into a political billboard.
Dawn's Early Light's release date has been pushed back after the election.
August 13, 2024
He was rambling, babbling on about crowd sizes and immigration and President Joe Biden and whatever else seemed to pass through his mind. He was also badly slurring his words, raising questions about his health, and doing nothing to knock down rising concerns about his age and well-being.
He sounded like a disoriented, racist Daffy Duck.
The USA Today in Elon Musk's Twitter interview of Donald Trump.
Others sources were mixed, one calling it dull.
Cont:
Teachers’ lobby targets candidates ahead of ‘pivotal’ Wyoming election: The Wyoming Education Association has publicly criticized Freedom Caucus members who oppose its positions. Some call foul.
August 14, 2024
Secretary of State Chuck Gray on Monday called for some county clerks to retest electronic voting systems with just over a week before the 2024 primary election. The request was made through a letter sent out on Monday to all 23 Wyoming county clerks
Casper Star Tribune, August 14, 2024.
Ilhan Omar her fourth Democratic Party nomination for her seat in Minnesota.
August 15, 2024
Some good economic news:
August 15, 2024
Inflation has hit a three year low.
From the Casper Star Tribune:
Total employment in Wyoming grew by a scant 1.3% from first quarter 2023 to first quarter 2024, but total payroll grew by 4.1% over the year, the Research and Planning section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services reported Friday. Average weekly wage in the state grew by 2.8%.
In spite of this, however, GOP politicians are still campaigning on inflation.
It makes very little sense.
Consider this chart from the US Inflation Calculator:
Table: Annual Inflation Rates
To find annual inflation rates for a calendar year, look to the December column. For instance, the inflation rate in 2023 was 3.4%. Meanwhile, the "Ave" column shows the average inflation rate for each year using CPI data. In 2023, the average inflation rate was 4.1%. These average rates are published by the BLS but are rarely discussed in the news media, taking a back seat to the actual rate of inflation for a given calendar year.
*Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: All items in U.S. city average, all urban consumers, not seasonally adjusted.
This would indicate that average rates reach this rate relatively frequently. We would note that they were down below 2% in 2019 and 2020, right before COVID hit, and during Trump's Presidency, but they were at .1 in 2015, right before Trump took office.
The Federal target rate of inflation is 2%. We're about 1% higher than that right now, but generally the rate has been down around there under Democratic and Republican Presidents for the past twenty years, with some notable exceptions that were somewhat higher or somewhat lower. What seems to be routinely missed in the Republican complains here is the giant war in the grainbelt for the third world and southern Europe going on, and the massive impact of a global pandemic.
We have of course recently been tracking the Great War, which featured similar economic shocks. What happened then?
Massive inflation caused by the war, combined with the destruction of global trade to such an extent that by some measures it had only recovered. . . just before COVID 19.
Oh well, in the current political era facts and analysis are deflated.
Regarding facts, I've noted it before without being hugely pointed about it but the race in Senate District 28 has featured some truly disgusting campaigning by Bryce Reece. It's appalling.
Floods of flyers for Reece, who is challenging Jim Anderson, regarded as the most effective Senator in Wyoming's legislature, have been sent out and they contain lies. One calls Anderson a "gun grabber".
Reece also sent out a letter from his wife in which she makes appeals to religion, noting how they devout they are (from the text it's clear they are members of some branch of Evangelical Protestantism).**
Lying is a sin, and in some circumstances a grave sin.
Reece at one time was a sheep rancher, but is notably hostile to the science regarding COVID 19. I really don't grasp why people believe that COVID 19 was exaggerated, which Reece's propaganda asserts. The disease has ripped through the ranching community, however, due to similar beliefs, even while ranchers continue to vaccinate their livestock without hesitation for animal diseases.
At any rate, I've never seen more lies circulated in a Wyoming election year in my lifetime, all of which are originating in the far populist right. This isn't unique to Reece by any means. I'm only aware of it here, as I pick up propaganda in favor of him nearly every day. It's going on all over the state.
Interestingly yesterday one of the things that came was a flyer for this area including all the populist far right candidates together. Included was House candidate Pete Fox, who has not run a nasty campaign, but who is clearly on the far right, incumbent Jim Allemand and Jeanette Ward. I don't recall who else was on it. At the same time, precinct committee members for the GOP, who here are not extremist, sent out their own flyer endorsing Senator Jim Anderson and Elissa Campbell for the House. They also listed Casey Coates and Paul Bertoglio for County Commissioner, and Amber Pollack and Pat Sweeney for Casper City Council.
In the far right oddities category, far right candidate for the Senate, Reid Rasner, is getting no love from the organized populists, which is interesting. At the same time that they're locally willing to rip to shreds other Republicans, including incumbents, and resort to lies, they're ignoring Rasner, who is as far right as they are (but who hasn't been telling outrageous lies). In the race for the U.S. Senate, he's the real deal, while frankly Barrasso is basically posing as being from the far right, bending to the wind in order to fend off the challenge. In a year in which the far right has even accused a prominent member of the legislature as supporting the Chinese Communist Party (an absurd claim), you'd think that the populist would attack Barrasso as its a safe thing to do Republican seat wise.
Nope.
Of course, Barrasso has done a good job of adopting their themes, although I frankly doubt he believes hardly any of them.
On PACS
August 16, 2024
Somebody left a threatening message on Chuck Gray's voicemail, which stated:
You’re playing with fire. I want you to know that if you start cheating, stealing, election denying this time around and shit hits the fan in November — you’re going to fucking get it Mr. Chuck Gray,
Gray resorted to his usual line in regard to this, it's the media's fault. The Tribune reports that he wrote them, stating:
False media reporting incites individuals like this. As mentioned by the individual leaving the message, the message was clearly triggered by false reporting by publications such as WyoFile and their syndication partners around the state.
WyoFile hasn't been reporting falsely, and Gray did make false statements in the last election about the election being stolen, none of which justifies threatening him.
Regarding false statements, I received a text of all things referencing the attack ads in favor of Bryce Reece noting that they were paid for by an organization located in Virginia. This was some sort of unsolicited text, like spam.
Anyhow, I haven't checked it out, but that information is basically of the type that's otherwise been in the news. It's disturbing that an out of state organization would sink money in Wyoming in favor of a populist candidate and circulate lies.
Donald Trump apparently gave a long rambling press conference yesterday. It's full of odd statements and has been real fodder for his critics.
Included in them was a claim about China's nuclear arsenal equalling the U.S's one, which China immediately corrected, noting also that China, unlike the US, has an official no first use of nuclear weapons policy.
China termed the U.S. arsenal, correctly, as "way bigger".
Also in Trump's comments was this item, we've already commented about:
You're all going to be thrown into a communist system. You will be thrown into a system where everybody gets health care . . .
Donald Trump.
So the Red Horde was actually fighting for universal health care?
In fairness, that was just apparently a snippet of what he said. In the same speech he accused Harris of "badness" to an unnamed ally. But, in terms of speech, well this is, um, weird.
Other gems included the following.
Concerning the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Medal of Honor, which are not equivalent in any sense:
When we gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom… It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor— it’s actually much better because everyone who gets the Congressional Medal, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead. She gets it and she’s a healthy beautiful woman.
This is a bizarre comment and once again into Trump's world outlook. Trump seems to have a problem with injured people and he doesn't seem to respect military service much.
It's worth noting, although it probably deserves a separate thread, that I've pretty much come to the conclusion that everyone should:
1) Be or live poor at some time. I'm not keen on poverty, and I wish nobody had to stay poor, but having had to live poor at some point, which a lot of people do when they are students, really serves as a great leveler. People who are rich their whole lives often believe they're super smart or superior to other people, when often circumstances of birth or luck have as much to do with that as anything;
2) Work a labor job. By that I mean be in the Army, work in the oilfield, work in a gas station, and not for your parents. People who've never had to do that often don't really respect those who do have to do that, or want to do that.
Working for your parents, I'd note, doesn't count.
I don't know much about young Trump, and I'm not going to bother to learn, but he's been rich his entire life, didn't serve in the Army, and has never, in so far as I know, worked a labor type job. His character seems to suffer for it.
The Harris campaign replied.
Regarding the "weird" tag:
She actually called me weird. He is weird. It was just a sound bite and she called JD and I weird. He's not weird. He was a great student at Yale.
For the record, I don't think J. D. Vance is weird. I do think there's reason to be concerned that something is wrong with Trump's mental status. And this "great student at Yale" thing is interesting. Nothing keeps you from being a great student, and weird.
Regarding a Taliban leader:
He called me 'Your Excellency.' I wonder if he calls that to Biden. I doubt it.
Um. . . .
Regarding job creation under Biden:
Substantially more than 100% of job creation went to migrants.
Um. . . .
Concerning Iran:
I’m not looking to be bad to Iran. We’re going to be friendly, I hope, with Iran. Maybe. But maybe not. But we’re going to be friendly, I hope. We’re going to be friendly.
Regarding windmills:
You want to see a bird cemetery, just go under a windmill, you see thousands of birds dead. The bald eagle, if you kill an eagle, they put you in jail for years. And yet these windmills knock them out like nothing.
Regarding acting like a 7th grade snot:
As far as the personal attacks, I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country. I’m very angry at her that she weaponized the justice system against me and other people —- very angry at her, I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence.
Intelligence is one of the things Trump brings up a lot. To some degree, I wonder if he's insecure about his intelligence.
Regarding Harris:
She's a very strong Communist lean.
That's nonsense as well as grammatically nonsensical.
Also regarding Harris:
She's been unbelievable in terms of badness to some of our great allies. You know who I'm talking about.
Badness?
Regarding a millionaires mutual admiration society:
Elon endorsed me strongly, the most powerful endorsement, said it three or four times the other night during our little chat. A chat that was very well listened to and attended, we know that, right? Broke every single record I think in history.
On Harris replacing Biden, combined with what was supposed to be a comment on inflation:
It was a coup by people that wanted him out, and they didn’t do it the way, not the way they’re supposed to do it. $129 more on energy, and $241 more. This is all per month on rent,
Choice words from a person who tried to subvert the election.
And, on wars and inflation, oddly.
We have wars breaking out in the Middle East. We have the horrible war going on with Ukraine and Russia. All these things would have never happened if I was president. Would have never, ever happened, and they didn’t happen. Since Harris took office, car insurance is up 55%,
August 18, 2024
The Democratic National Convention is next week which means its time for the Democrats to do something really dumb.
Hillary Clinton will speak at the convention.
Regular voters can't stand her. Having her speak is not a good idea.
And, in a Trump rally:
I am much better looking than her. I'm a better looking person than Kamala.
Weird.
August 19, 2024
And the verbal oddness just keeps on keeping on:
When you get the Medal of Honor, generally speaking…It’s much more painful to get…Where’s the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to my knowledge, I don't think anybody suffered
Trump.
The VFW is unhappy.
"Asinine" is a pretty strong condemnation.
August 20, 2024
Trump slapped his loyal supporter in the GOP Primary, Reid Rasner, in the face by re-endorsing John Barrasso. He also re-endorsed Harriet Hageman.
The Trump campaign bizarrely posted fake AI generated images suggesting that Taylor Swift had endorsed Trump.
Predictably, the fake effort blew up rapidly and helps give rise, once again, to the word "weird" being used in regard to the Trump campaign.
Weirder yet, at one rally female Trump supporters were buying bottles labeled as if they were J. D. Vance semen samples, which is pretty darned weird.
In a really sad example of how Baby Boomers still rule the roost in American politics, James Taylor was scheduled to sing and play at last night's Democratic National Convention, apparently.
Taylor, I'm convinced, is an example of the cultural conspiracy phenomenon in which everyone pretends somebody is funny/talented/pretty when they are not. His music is dull beyond tolerance, but it's of the Boomer generation.
Something really interesting that will be on the Natrona County Primary ballot today is the question of a Senior District, comprising the entire county, which would add 1 mill to property taxes to fund things that help seniors, like Meals On Wheels and the Senior Centers.
I'll be curious if it passes in the current anti tax climate, but I'm also curious as I think its an example of forced charity, which is something I'm not comfortable with.
Funding for senior services has been in serious decline as donations have dried up locally, as the same time that the Baby Boomers are really starting to need them, and also at the same time in which Wyoming has become somewhat of a destination for aging people who have made their fortunes and lives elsewhere and then abandon the places they lived and worked in order to come here. I have a problem with that latter fact in general.
Additionally, the last legislature reduced property taxes for long time residents of a single dwelling, which is this generation, and its impossible not to notice that the backers of the proposition to limit property taxes are also made up of it.
You can't condemn an entire generation for a trend, but the overall trend here is noticeable. Old people need help, because of the train wreck of American culture they don't tend to get it from their families, particularly if they have moved away from them or vice versa, they don't like paying property taxes, the state's policies have encouraged property taxes to rise, and now the agencies that support them want to raise property taxes, albeit only a little.
In effect, with all of this combined, the tax burden will disproportionately fall on the young.
What a surprise.
No generation has benefitted as much from economic times, medicine, and governmental services than the Baby Boomers. But there has to be a stop to it somewhere. If overall policies have made things difficult for them, and they may have, things need to be rethought.
I voted against the district.
Thus Concluded This Edition.
Footnotes:*"Brat" used to be negative thing to call somebody, but in recent years young women have embraced it as symbolizing assertiveness and somebody has an album coming out this summer called "Brat". Harris' supporters, and Harris, have embraced it, claiming this summer as "Brat Girl Summer".
**Included in the letter is statement that both she and her husband believe the U.S. Constitution is a divinely inspired document. Few Christians believe that, but it is a minority view in certain strains of American Protestantism and the LDS.
Related Threads:
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Labels: 2020s, 2024, 2024 Election, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Ethnicities, J. D. Vance, Joe Manchin, Joseph Biden, Kamala Harris, Populism, Republican Party, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, Wyoming
