I have more complaints on grocery. The word grocery. You know, it's sorta simple word, but it sorta means like everything you eat. The stomach is speaking. It always does. And, uh, I have more complaints about that. Bacon and things going up.
Donald Trump.
I could be right now in the most beautiful ocean, on the sand, exposing my really beautiful body - so beautiful - to the sun and the surf…
Donald Trump.
Danica Patrick is going to moderate a J.D. Vance Town Hall.
Arnold Palmer receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George Bush.
Donald Trump started off a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, with a ten minute surreal ramble a out Latrobe native son, Arnold Palmer, stating as part of them:
Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women — and I love women. But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough. And I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, "Oh my God, that's unbelievable".
He also included vulgar comments about Kamala Harris.
You have to tell Kamala Harris that you've had enough, that you just can't take it anymore, we can't stand you anymore, you're a shitass vice president. The worst. You're the worst vice president. Kamala, you're fired. Get the hell out of here.
This is, to say the least, vulgar and odd.
Indeed, while it'll sound like a conspiracy theory, at this point I'm fairly convinced that National Conservatives have backed Trump so that they can get one of their own, J. D. Vance, in a position to take over once Trump is declared mentally in competent early in a second Trump administration, should it occur. There's no way that they could elect a candidate as President on their own, but with a weirdly acting Trump, they may very well get one in this fashion.
Cont:
Two of the panelist on This Week openly stated that the Arnold Palmer comments are due to a mental decline in Trump. One stated it was age related, and certainly they both implied it.
Cont:
Tapper: Is the closing message you really want voters to hear from Donald Trump stories about Arnold Palmer's genitals?
Johnson: Let's put the rhetoric aside
Tapper: People have concerns about his fitness and stability. Why is he talking about Arnold Palmer's genitals in front of Pennsylvania voters?
Johnson: Don't say it again we don't have to say it
I also didn't vote for the GOP or Democratic candidates for Senate and House. The Democrats stand no chance at either office, and they keep nominating candidates too far on the progressive scale. The GOP Senator up for reelection is shamelessly supporting Trump even though its highly unlikely he really agrees with him on much, which makes it all the worse. The House candidate up for reelection seems to have fully adopted the populist viewpoint.
I'm a conservative. I wrote a couple of actual conservatives in.
I voted for the measure to allow the state constitution to be amended to add a new category for residential property, even though I'm very unsure about it. And I voted for all the city optional tax measures.
The whole time I was there some ancient man with a MAGA hat was wondering around ambushing people waiting in line with his far right populist views. He really hit some poor coal miner hard who clearly just wanted to be left alone to vote.
One of his points was that the United States didn't invent transgenderism. Somehow, in his mind, this assertion was a reason to vote for Trump.
Cont:
It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican! Don’t pay it!
Trump's reaction, reportedly, to a bill received from the family of Pvt. Vanessa Guillén after he had offered to pay funeral expenses.
Why can’t you be like the German generals?
Trump to John Kelly in showing frustration about their independence. Trump was apparently unaware of the July 20 plot, according to Kelly, and not aware that Erwin Rommel killed himself.
Would putting these on a vehicle, assuming that you are not enrolled in either Tribe, be regarded as cultural appropriation?
I think I saw one of these recently, and had simply assumed that the vehicle belonged to an enrolled tribal member, which is partially why I'm asking, the other part being that I think it would matter how this would be viewed by those who are enrolled in either tribe.
1922 A petition for rehearing was granted by the United States Supreme Court in Wyoming v. Colorado, a suit seeking to adjudicate the distribution of water from the Laramie River.
Commissioner of Indian Affairs Charles Burke telegrammed Superintendent of the Wind River Reservation's Shoshone Agency R. P. Haas at Fort Washakie, giving him permission to work with actor Tim McCoy and film producers in the movie The Thundering Herd.
The Girl Who Ran Wild was released.
Like most films of this era, it was melodramatic, featuring a plot in which Melissa Bummer declares her independence from the world after the death of her father. She ends up in school and her teacher falls in love with her, and vice versa, and she reforms accordingly.
Registration to run closed yesterday, May 27, at 5:00. So who is running?
Let's take a look
House of Representatives
The race that everyone has their eyes on, of course, because of Liz Cheney's principled stand on the insurrection. That angered those who feel that she should have been more loyal to Donald Trump than the Constitution, and created an opportunistic effort by her fellow Republicans to replace her, aided by a national party that has remained freakishly in the former President's grip. . . so far.
Republicans for the House:
This race will likely decide who will occupy this seat, with it going pretty obviously to either Cheney or Hageman.
Liz Cheney. The embattled incumbent.
Harrient Hageman. Hageman, former Cheney supporter and Trump opponent who has switched on both in what Cheney has proclaimed as "tragic opportunism". By and large Hageman's and Cheney's politics, to the extent that we can tell what Hageman's are, are identical, but for loyalty to Trump.
Robyn Belinsky: Belinsky is a businesswoman from Sheridan who is billing herself as Wyoming's Marjorie Taylor Greene. Why she's still running at this point is really a mystery as she has no chance whatsoever and what few hard right populist diehards who won't adopt Hageman are left will vote for Bouchard.
Anthony Bouchard: Bouchard is a member of the legislature from Goshen County who has been in a lot of local political spats and who is a far right firebrand in the legislature and who is still running in spite of having no hope of getting past the primary. He will still draw some votes, however, from those who are very much in this camp and have been his acolytes all along.
Bryan Eugene Keller: He's a resident of Laramie County who has registered, but I don't know anything else about him.
Denton Knapp: Knapp is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and a current Brig. Gen. in the California National Guard who is still, surprisingly, running. His campaign at this point borders on being delusional. He must be hoping that Hageman and Cheney will destroy each other, and then the electorate in the GOP will go for a moderate. In other words, this campaign is delusional.
I can't predict this race anymore. At one time I thought for certain that it would go to Cheney, but to my surprise the Trump loyalty thing matters to a lot more people than I would have guessed for reasons that tend to escape me, save for a fair number of people have really bought into hard corp populist thought. The ironic thing is that Cheney's top opponent isn't a populist, something that must be driving Bouchard nuts.
Democrats for the House:
At long last, perhaps waiting for the Republicans to destroy each other before registering, some Democratic contenders have appeared. They are:
Lynette GreyBull: GreyBull was the Democratic contender last time and, in spite of her defeat, did better against Cheney that probably would have been expected. If Hageman is the contender, she'll do even better yet.
GreyBull, depending on who the Republicans choose in their primary, and how much they destroy themselves in the process, may actually have a chance.
Meghan R. Jensen: Jensen is a young candidate from Rock Springs. So far that's about all that I can say about her.
Steve Helling: Helling is a long time lawyer in Casper and who also practiced in Colorado. He's well known as a lawyer.
My prediction in this race is that GreyBull will win the Democratic primary again, to face off against whomever the Republicans chose.
Independent
Casey Hardison. This is a gadfly campaign as it is based on drug legalization. Indeed, he has a case on appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court right now for felony marijuana delivery.
It seems like we get these campaigns every election now.
Governor's Race.
This seat is now safe for Gordon, although former President D. Trump took a verbal swing at him the other day when being interviewed by KTWO radio.
Republicans for the Governor's Office.
Mark Gordon: Gordon is the incumbent. He's going to get the nomination, and he's going to win the General Election.
Harold Bjork. Who Bjork isn't really clear, but he's started a Facebook and internet campaign for Governor.
Brent Bien:
Rex Rammell: Rammell is a perennial and unelectable candidate who ran last time and will again. His views can be characterized as being on the fringe right/libertarian side.
Democrats for the Governor's Office.
Rex Wilde: Wilde previously ran for the Senate as a Democrat and has no chance.
Theresa Livingston: Livingston previously ran for the State Senate and stands no chance.
Secretary of State
This race took an unexpected late turn when the current Secretary of State Buchanan, who had announced he was running, pulled out after putting in, for a second time, for an open seat on the bench. Since his withdrawal, a host of Republicans have now filed for the office.
Republicans for Secretary of State.
As noted, Buchanan's withdrawal has opened up the contest for Secretary of State.
Dan Dockstader. He's a longstanding member of the Legislature who stands a good chance due to that service.
Tara Nethercott: Also a member of the Legislature. Nethercott has not been in the legislature long, but she was the subject of misogynistic attacks last session, which she weathered well. She also stands a good chance.
Chuck Gray: Also a member of the legislature who has been frequently in the news due to his far right populist positions. Gray clearly has his sights set on higher office and probably views this as a stepping stone. His earlier attempt to replace Cheney drew little support.
Mark Armstrong: Former candidate for the U.S. Senate. His run for Senate drew very little support and his run for Secretary of State will fail.
Democrats for Secretary of State
Pathetically, none.
State Auditor
Kriti Racines. She's the incumbent and the only one running. She's effectively won the race at this point, absent something bizarre occuring.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Republicans for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
This race is also newsworthy as the incumbent, Brian Schroeder, is generally regarded as the least bad of the three names that were submitted to Governor Gordon when the prior occupant stood down.
Brian Schroeder. Schroeder is the presumptive nominee.
Megan Degenfelder. She has an education background but who has been working in the petroleum industry, announced for Superintendent of Public Education.
She was once employed as the department's Chief Policy Officer.
Thomas Kelly: Kelly was one of the three finalists who was not chosen for this office by Governor Gordon.
Jennifer Zerba: Zerba announced late. She's from Casper and is an education professional, which is all I know about her.
Robert J. White. White is from Rock Springs, which is all I know about him.
Democrats for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Sergio Maldonado: Maldonado is a longtime figure in Fremont County politics and is, I believe, also an enrolled member of one of the Wind River tribes.
Other interesting races
We'd often stop our tracking of races here, but there are some interesting races going on around the state, simply because these are interesting times politically.
Nearly ever race in the state is overshadowed, by some degree, by the split in the GOP between arch populists, who have largely bought into the Trump "election stolen" myth, and traditionalist, who have not. Ironically, the one candidate out there who is an establishment candidate for whom this figures the most is Harriet Hageman, who was a right wing establishment figure whose migrated to the Trump camp to take on a person she formally supported, that being Liz Cheney. In that migration she reflects what could be regarded as the cynical choice some other well established national figures, like Ted Cruz, have made, or indeed even local ones, like Cynthia Lummis. And as already noted, Lummis apparently figures in Trump's endorsement of Hageman, which might reflect ongoing animosity between Lummis and Cheney over Cheney's late decision in 2020 to run again for the House as it appeared for a while that she would run for the Senate.
Anyhow, around the state, we see the following interesting races.
House District 57
Abandoned now by Chuck Gray, now features two Republicans running for the office and one Democrat. The Republicans are:
Republicans
Jeanette Ward: Ward has lived in Wyoming for less than a year and was apparently recruited to his race by Gray. Gray is not a Wyoming native either, but Ward is most recently from Chicago, where she was a controversial school board member. It would appear that she was recruited by Gray due to holding similar views to Gray.
Thomas Myler: Myler is the marketing coordinator for Casper College and is on the School Board of Natrona County School District No. 1.
Democrats
Robert Johnson.
Natrona County Assessor
This race has been of much local interest as property matters have made the sitting assessor controversial.
Matt Keating: Incumbent
Tammy Saulsbury: Saulsbury formerly worked in the Assessor's office and ran against Keating last time. She's back to try again.
Tim Haid: Haid is a new entry that I don't know anything about.
May 30, 2022
This past Saturday, Donald Trump appeared at a rally in Casper in support of Harriet Hageman. He delivered a predictable speech there, according to press reports.
Perhaps the most notable thing about the rally was that it was opened by Frank Eathorne, head of the Wyoming GOP, which means that the party's head is openly taking a position in favor of one primary candidate against all the others. This is clearly improper.
Hageman spoke and according to press retirements gave a speech about Wyomingites being "fed up" with various things. Paradoxically, one of those things was high gas prices, which Wyoming's energy sector depends on. Consumers are tired of that, but oddly people in the state seem to feel that they should have a vibrant oil and gas economy and low prices simultaneously, which is impossible.
High fertilizer prices for farmers was another thing that Wyomingites were reportedly fed up with, according to Hageman, but most Wyomingites know nothing about that whatsoever. That would in part be due to a lack of regulation in agricultural land ownership contrary to some states like Iowa, which would require a distributist economic platform in this area that neither the Republicans or the Democrats are likely to endorse.
Hageman had a gaff in her speech which might symbolize the Freudian slip:
I am that person who will represent you, your fallacies
What this is really about, in some ways, was ironically summarized by Trump, when he said:
The entire Republican Party is united behind Harriet, she is endorsed by practically everyone, and most importantly, perhaps, she’s endorsed by me.
Trump's endorsement more important than the party's?
No doubt, to many, that's true.
Of interest, contrary to expectations and fears, the event was hardly noticed in Casper outside of the Ford Center itself.
June 3, 2022
The Cheney campaign released its first television commercial.
June 4, 2022
The news has now broken that Bob Ide, who is running for a seat in the state Senate now occupied by State Senator Drew Perkins, was at the Capitol with Frank Eathorne on January 6. That doesn't mean that he was in eyesight of the riot like Eathorne was, but that topic is now being debated with a group maintaining that he was.
Ide takes the position that Wyoming should claim Federal lands within Wyoming, something the state disclaimed permanently at the time of statehood, and is otherwise in the far right.
Dr. Oz won his primary in Pennsylvania, which presumably means that the Democrat has an excellent chance of prevailing.
June 7, 2022
In a real contrast to a lot of what we've seen on the political scene this year, Liz Cheney received the endorsement of Northern Arapaho Business Council member Lee Spoonhunter and Lynette Grey Bull, a resident of the Reservation who is running for the Democratic nomination for a second time, was extremely gracious about it, praising Mr. Spoonhunter in the process.
June 13, 2022
So, as a result of the January 6 Commission, we now know that Hageman campaign advisor Bill Stephien did not support the "election stolen" myth when he was Trump's last advisor, and pretty clearly didn't think the election was stolen. Indeed, his testimony was damning in regard to Trump.
Which raises two questions.
How does he reconcile his current work for Hageman with his conscience, in that light, and secondly, how does Hageman feel about having an advisor who was on "Team Normal", as he put it, as he wouldn't endorse the fantasy?
Hageman has stated that she thinks there's "honest questions" about what happened in the November 2020 election. Stephien pretty clearly doesn't. His testimony stated today that; “I didn’t believe that what was happening was honest or professional”.
Stephien was to have testified live, but his wife went into labor. From a Wyoming prospective, you have to wonder what have occurred if he did. Hageman has "honest questions", Stephien felt the whole stolen election scene wasn't "honest".
Frankly, I very much doubt that Hageman has any doubts whatsoever about who won the 2020 election, but took that position as it's the only thing that really distinguishes her from Cheney, politically. The distinction is growing huge, however, ethically, given how clear it is that the stolen election story is a dog that doesn't hunt, and her own campaign manager doesn't believe it.
June 15, 2022
The Club For Growth has endorsed Harriet Hageman. The PAC could be regarded as an economic libertarian oriented organization, particularly focused on reducing taxes. The organization has apparently been unhappy with Cheney since well prior to the current election, but it's tapping into Trumpism in advertisements it intends to run in Wyoming.
June 16, 2022
While it took a few days, problems for Hageman have now developed in that her campaign manager, Bill Stephien, clearly never thought the Trump election was stolen and she's on record claiming she doesn't know who won the election.
In the Tribune today, a spokesman for Stephien made it clear that he stands by his views. A Hageman spokesman came out and claimed that she stands by her "doesn't know" position. Some in her camp are accusing Cheney of calling Stephien as a witness purposely to embarrass Hageman, the irony of that being that it concedes that she should be embarrassed.
June 18, 2022
The Natrona County GOP is apparently sick of things, based upon recent comments coming out of its higher levels. Sidelined by the State committee, along with Laramie County, the second most populous county in the state is beginning to fight back. It'll be interesting to see if Laramie County, the most populous state, joins them.
It's no secret to observers that Laramie County and Natrona County are far less Trump Territory than the rest of the state. Cheney signs are up everywhere in Natrona County, even though the county's Ford Center recently hosted the Trump loyalist.
News broke yesterday that the county GOP may seek to remove the state head, Frank Eathorne.
The draft, and it's only a draft, of a resolution they may consider next week reads as follows.
A resolution of
the Natrona County Republican Party State Central Committee calling for the
immediate resignation of Frank Eathorne as Chairman of the Wyoming Republican
Party.
Whereas
it is the stated goal of the Wyoming
Republican Party to represent the values and vision of Republicans all over the
State and to support Republican candidates to win and retain political office
in Wyoming,
Whereas
the current Chairman, Frank Eathorne has consistently failed to represent the
values of the vast majority of Wyomingites and during his tenure has divided
the Party and failed in his duty to support all elected Republicans,
Whereas
it has come to light that Frank Eathorne consistently violated the sacred vow
of marriage, engaging in indiscretions while on the job and in his personal
life,
Whereas
Frank Eathorne, while intoxicated allegedly threatened a woman while her 2-year
old daughter was in the adjoining room - later dismissing his behavior as
“gentleman-like”. Eathorne then allowed
the City of Worland to pay for the legal settlement even though he espouses
personal responsibility and condemns government support of any kind,
Whereas
Frank Eathorne later accepted over $100,000.00 in Government subsidies for his
ranching operation and untold Federal mineral royalties and trespass fees while
denouncing anyone else that may need support from the government,
Whereas
Frank Eathorne has openly advocated for Wyoming to secede from the Union,
Whereas
Frank Eathorne is a member of the “Oath Keepers” – an openly extremist group
calling for a revolutionary war in the United States and partially responsible
for the January 6th riot,
Whereas
Frank Eathorne, during his tenure, has overseen the divide of the Party, the
elimination of Natrona County delegates and the last minute unseating of
Laramie County delegates while turning a blind eye to the transgressions of other
Counties.
Whereas
Frank Eathorne has repeatedly lied to the people of Wyoming as well as members
of this Central Committee. When asked
about his involvement in the January 6th, 2021 insurrection, he
repeatedly said that he went to the rally, walked down the street and retired
to his hotel before any violence or destruction of property started. Not only was he a member of the “mob”, he has
done nothing to condemn the insurrection – an attempt to overthrow the
election.
For
these reasons, we, the members of the Natrona County Republican Party call for
the immediate resignation of Frank Eathorne as Chairman of the Wyoming
Republican Party and his replacement by the normal action of the bylaws of the
State Central Committee.
The draft is as blistering critique of Eathorne, who has presided over a massive lurch to the far right of the Republican Party in Wyoming and whose has overseen the party's silencing of its largest county organizations and who has made the local party completely complicit in the effort to toss out incumbent Liz Cheney.
The fact that it was leaked suggests that some in the upper elements of the county party are trying to sideline it before it gets to a vote, probably by mustering howls of far right opposition to it. There are some far right politicians in the GOP in the county itself, so this rise of the traditional party is not without opposition, no doubt.
Should the resolution pass, it will be a brave thing for the county committee to do. Still, it's time that some in the GOP show that they're not in the stolen election myth camp and aren't participating in the destruction of democratic principals inside of the party itself.
On the current race, it's interesting to note that a lot of the hard right "stolen election" rhetoric has suddenly gone silent. The January 6 committee hearings seem to be having an impact, most notably in the Hageman camp whose race is based solely on loyalty to Trump and therefore ipso facto to the concept that he didn't do anything wrong on January 6. It's now clear that he acted either at least immorally on January 6, and perhaps seditiously. Indeed, most likely seditiously. And Hageman's own campaign advisor isn't having the story that the election was stolen, in contrast to Hageman, who claims not to know who won the election.
If the election wasn't stolen, and it wasn't, and if Trump acted seditiously, which it appears he did, Hageman actually has nothing to run on. Her views don't vary from Cheney's at all on anything else.
Indeed, it'll be interesting to see if this makes long shot Democratic candidate Lynette Grey Bull viable, assuming she secures the Democratic nomination, which seems likely. Grey Bull would lose again against Cheney, which she no doubt knows, but she has a chance against Hageman.
In 2020 Cheney took 68.56% of the vote in the general election, meaning of course that the people who now claim she's really a Democrat are just being silly. Grey Bull took 24.58%. Libertarian Richard Brubaker, who made it clear that he was really a Republican, took 3.75%. Constitution Party candidate Jeff Haggit, with the Constitution Party being a far right party, took 2.92%. If Hageman wins, it's certain that many middle of the road Republicans will reassess voting for their party in the fall. Grey Bull was a long ways from victory in 2020, but the GOP wasn't the mess then that it is now.
June 22, 2022
The Natrona County GOP Central Committee passed the resolution noted above, 48 to 35.
June 23, 2022
Wyoming's appointed Superintendent of Public Education Brian Schroeder is urging the state to cut its ties with Federal funding for school lunches based on a Federal directive requiring states to include discrimination based on gender orientation and identity as matters requiring investigation.
June 24, 2022
In a move that's likely to prove to be a mistake, the Cheney campaign is specifically advertising on how Democrats can switch to Republicans in order to vote for her in the primary.
This will reinforce the otherwise absurd claim that she's a "RINO". Moreover, there are so few registered Democrats in Wyoming, the race would have to be neck and neck, with upset fence sitting Republicans switching over to Hageman or perhaps one of the other candidates on their own.
This would suggest that Cheney knows she's on the downside in the race right now, but that she figures she's pretty close to Hageman, and that the risk is worth it.
June 27, 2022
A debate of House candidates will occur this Thursday on PBS.
Out of safety concerns, its closed to the public and other media.
The First World Scout Jamboree commenced at the Olympia in London. It would run through August 8.
Also on this day, Lord Baden-Powell was declared to be the Chief Scout of the World.
Scouting, of course, was founded by Baden Powell as his Boer War experience lead him to conclude that British youth were lacking outdoor skills. On this same day one of the Casper papers informed the public that an outdoor activity, agriculture, was being taken up by returned Great War veterans. Over 90% of new homestead entrants reported having been in the military during the war. I know of two such instances myself.
Indeed, not only was there an increase in veteran homesteading following World War One, there was an effort to "open" up lands to them, which in the case of Wyoming actually meant shrinking the boundaries of the Wind River Indian Reservation and opening them to homesteaders for farming. The view was that the lands weren't being "used", which of course was incorrect and otherwise immoral, but it was done.
In contrast, a limited reopening of the homestead provisions following World War Two brought very few homesteaders. Something had changed between the wars, with one of those things being that farmers had ceased to have economic parity with those employed in town occupations.
In one of the many posts that I start and never finish, I had in my draft posts a item that was from the Irish Times on Irish physicians lamenting Ireland's headlong rush into legalizing marijuana use. They were concerned as there's really very little in the way of study on its long term effects. What studies there are, we should note, are pretty negative. The physicians were worried about what rushing into this uncharted territory would mean.
Well, perhaps their argument should have been to have the Irish just sit on their hands and see how things go in the United States. Not that the Irish would have done it. Ireland right now is one of the Anthony Kennedy's of nations, busy trying to be hip and cool and in the process coming across as just one more oldster who doesn't look hip and cool. So they're going down this path no matter what. If they did look, so far the results in the US don't look too good. I've written about that in the past in regard to Colorado. Rather than repeat it all here, I'll simply link in what I wrote before:
And in an environment that's awash with dope, making it all the worse.
Now as every one surely knows, unless they've been living in a cavern within a cave, and hiding in a corner of that, Colorado has legalized marijuana. There's been a lot of commentary everywhere about this. And a lot of the commentary really misses the point.
There's a common thread in these stories about how marijuana has been "good" for Colorado. Well, maybe, but it hasn't been good for Coloradans, or the drifters who floated in there, at least by my observation. Indeed, while I tended to be of the view that the law shouldn't worry about marijuana before, even though I don't approve of its use (and I think most of the "medicinal" excuses people give for using it are a crock), seeing it first hand has really and strongly changed my mind.
Some of the ill effects of the drug I was aware of before, mostly by having been exposed to people who had become addicted to it. To some degree, they may have been cognizant of the problems it caused, them, and to others, not. The degree to which they became listless and lazy in some instances was notable. The addictive nature of it was obvious, and probably most notable to me when a former soldier of mine from the Guard stopped me on the street, after he'd gotten out, and asked me for help to get him off it. Now, at 22 or so years old and a college student, there wasn't much that I could do. That an older fellow, in his 30s by that time, would ask for help, because I guess I'd been his sergeant, made an impression.
Well, Denver has really made an impression.
And not a good one.
Since weed became quasi legal, and then fully legal in Denver, a giant social experiment has been conducted on its streets and the results are pretty easy to see. They're overrun, downtown, with listless dirty addicts begging, often quite openly, for money for marijuana. No job, no prospects, no motivation, just a craving for the stuff. Not pleasant.
The first time I really ran across it was just after or just before, I can't quite recall which, it was legalized fully and there was some sort of dopers gathering in Denver. Now, admittedly, a convention of dope fans may present a skewed image of the stuff, or not. But present an image, it certainly did.
I could describe it, but I think the best way to describe what I saw on that occasions, and subsequent ones, it to describe singular people.
On that occasion, the person who made the biggest impression was a girl sitting on the corner, back to traffic. She was probably about 20, and had once been fairly pretty. Now she was dirty in that funky way that only the really ills, or the really stoned, get. Not that honest sort of dirty that oilfield workers, for example, have. No, dirty in a diseased way, probably something we note because in an earlier era our natures told us to watch out when we encountered it.
She was glassy eyed and had a sign begging for money. On her lap was a Husky puppy. The puppy was cute.
I almost gave her money, but would have extracted a deal that I got the puppy. That isn't very Christian of me, and I didn't do it, but money for drugs wasn't going to help her any, maybe somebody could have helped the dog. But then, in her condition, I suspect, the dog was truly her only real friend.
Since that time situations like this have been really common. I've heard panhandlers yell for money. I've seen seen other glassy eyed dressed in bizarre mixes of discarded clothes rambling in begging appeals. They're addicts. Marijuana is all they want.
"Radar plot depicting the data presented in Nutt, David, Leslie A King, William Saulsbury, Colin Blakemore. "Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse" The Lancet 2007; 369:1047-1053. PMID:17382831. For more information, see image. It contains not only the physical harm and dependence data like the aforementioned image, but also the mean social harm of each drug. This image was produced with the python plotting library matplotlib"
Now, I know, I'll hear the argument that "well, those are the exceptions to the rule" and "it's no more addictive than booze". Well, those are hardly good arguments.
First of all, at least based on my exposure to it, its far from the exception.
Now, I'm sure there are occasional users of marijuana that suffer no ill affects, maybe. But then this is the case with any drug of any type, so its not much of an argument. The real question is whether it has a demonstrative ill impact on a significant percentage of the users. It clearly does.
Now, right away, the argument will be made that "well it isn't as bad as alcohol". That's a pathetic argument.
First of all, according to some studies, it is in fact "worse than alcohol" is some real ways. The study printed above, in chart form, for example, would have it as causing less physical harm, a little less social harm, and causing a little more dependence. That's hardly a sterling endorsement. And that assumes that this is correct. It probably has caused less social harm and less noted psychical harm, so far, as its' been widely illegal. As it becomes increasingly legal we will likely be surprised to find, oh my, it causes harm.
Indeed, we're already learning that a bit. A recent study shows that relatively little use amongst minors, including teenagers, causes permanent alteration in the brain. Not good. And I suspect that the impacts from smoking it will likely duplicate much of the non cancerous impacts of smoking tobacco, none of which are very good. Indeed, people tend to associate smoking tobacco's risks only with cancer, but in reality, there's a lot of other cardio vascular and respiratory damage that it causes. I can't see a good reason why this would be different for marijuana.
Additionally, in regards to the oft made comparison to alcohol, it's worth remembering that the best evidence suggests that human beings have been consuming alcohol for so long that they have a genetic adaptation to it, varying by human population. This has been addressed here before, but the human tolerance for the poison that is alcohol is likely related to the fact that it was once safer to consume it than water. But that doesn't make it safe. The point is that we've been consuming alcohol now for thousands of years, probably tens of thousands of years, and we still can't really handle all of its ill and evil impacts.
If we can't really handle something that's been widely legal for maybe 200,000 years, what makes us think we're going to be any better at this?
I don't think so.
And what is going on, on a large level, that we seem to need to be numbed so much?
Alcohol, as noted, has been with us forever. Marijuana has not doubt been around for some time, but not as long as an intoxicant, and certainly not in such a widespread manner. But it isn't just these. We have made real progress in tamping down some really dangerous drugs that were getting widespread circulation, but at the same time we seem to be in a full scale effort to numb ourselves as much as possible. We still have booze (but not anywhere near at the consumption rate it was once at, in spite of what some may think). But we are also numbing ourselves in all sorts of other ways.
Indeed, the pharmaceutical level of mind alternation is at an all time high. Thousands of people have to take medication just to make it through their day, mentally. And news came this past week of a new psychological ailment based on an addiction to computerized technology. That is, people so deeply into the fantasy world provided by the Internet that they cannot escape it.
I know that this isn't convincing to weed's fans. Indeed, the post above is one of the rare ones here that not only drew a fair amount of attention at the time I put it up, it drew some really negative attention from Colorado marijuana fans. But that's the way such things work. I still recall hearing from smokers as late as the 1990s how smoking wasn't really bad for a person. And there are plenty of heavy drinkers who deny that they're being hurt in any fashion.
That's going to be the history of marijuana. We'll find out that it was hugely destructive, and at some point in the future we'll look back at this and be horrified and amused by how dense we were in this era on this topic, and a host of others that seem to be floating about in the confused era we've really slipped into. But for the time being, we're charging ahead into marijuana like there's no tomorrow.
And now comes news that the growing of marijuana may be coming to the state, but without the state as the regulator. The Eastern Arapaho are considering legalizing the growing of it on the Wind River Reservation.
This gets into a complicated legal situation that I'll forgot getting into in depth, but the two tribes on the Wind River Reservation are sovereigns, as are all similarly situated Indian Tribes. Their situation is perhaps more unique in that the Wind River Reservation itself is shared by two sovereigns, which is not the norm and in fact may be unique to that reservation. The Reservation has its own Law & Order Code, but in recent years the two tribes have acted independently of each other to a fair degree. In September the Eastern Shoshone Tribe's General Council voted in favor of a resolution authorizing a group to study legalizing medical marijuana and allowing for hemp cultivation. One of the goals is financial, as a spokesman has noted. stating "We’re trying to transition hemp and medical cannabis into Wyoming so our tribe can get financially stable.”
The group is frank about its goal being to get cannabis onto the Reservation, which of course means getting it into the state. And their position in regard to hemp cultivation isn't any different from the state's itself, which has now legalized that and which is seeking to secure Federal approval for the same. Federal approval will come.
Hemp production definitely has legitimate uses, primarily for fiber production. I.e., it makes good rope, and there are reasons that a natural rope may be better than one made with synthetics. For one thing, it makes good hay twine as cattle can eat it, which isn't true of the orange synthetic twine that's currently used.
The overall problem, however, is that distinguishing between hemp and marijuana isn't really completely possible overall, as the difference between the two is somewhat like the difference between wolves and wolfy dogs. Is that a dog, or a wolf? It's hard to tell. In fact, there's really no difference between hemp grown for rope and hemp grown to smoke, other than the name and the fact that marijuana has generally been cultivated for its impact on humans, rather than its fiber. So they're two sides of the same coin. It is true, as has been noted by others, that smoking hemp won't achieve much in terms of a "high", according to people who have studied it, but that's because the cultivation hasn't emphasized that aspect of it. Like most plants used by humans in this "no GMO" world, almost all plants we use have been genetically altered through selective cultivation.
Where this really has caused a legal problem is in regard to transportation across state lines. People get arrested and their fates are uncertain, for doing something that seems to them completely legal at the time they engage in it. So, on this topic, both the state and the Tribes will have to authorize hemp, and Wyoming is in the process of doing that, lest there be a train wreck for somebody. There still could be, of course, for those trucking out of the state in any direction other than south.
Beyond that, and finally, the Shoshone aren't proposing to legalize growing marijuana and they definitely aren't proposing to authorize it for any use other than medical use. But keeping the lid on medical use alone has proven impossible nearly everywhere and the now commonly accepted concept that it actually has a medical use that isn't duplicated without negative effects by other pharmaceuticals is very far from proven. Indeed, so far about the only really established medical use is for glaucoma sufferers and maybe for Parkinson's sufferers.
What the negative impacts are, and there are definitely negative impacts, aren't known fully. They may be severe and they definitely aren't minor. Study on this topic in the US hasn't been done as the FDA doesn't study illegal non pharmaceutical products. Here, the study better start.
Legalizing marijuana is charging ahead everywhere it seems. But this should be kept in mind. At one time it was thought healthful to take a "bracer" of alcohol first hing in the morning. Now everyone knows all that does is dull your wits. You can find plenty of advertisements extolling what cigarettes physicians recommended, even after it was already known that they were killers. Everyday on television you can hear dozens of advertisements from lawyers who are suing drug companies for drugs once considered safe by the FDA but which proved not to be.
This is dangerous territory.
Addendum
Since this was first typed out, its been made clear that the Reservation in general is seeking to establish to legalize the growing of hemp, not just the Eastern Shoshone.
The article addressed this in the context of addressing health issue in the state's Shoshone population. The lesson, applied broadly, would apply of course to everyone. Processed foods aren't particularly good for you.
An interesting effort to promote gardening on the Wind River Reservation was mentioned in the Tribune this past week. The program goes by the name Growing Resilience.
On this day in 1919, the diarist for the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy reported that parched landscape of the Red Desert was exhibiting a "depressing influence on personnel".
And they had a fair amount of trouble including a breakdown that required an Indian motorcycle to be loaded into the Militor.
You'd see a lot of motorcycles on the same stretch of lonely highway today. The highway itself is unyielding busy but the desert is still a long stretch in Wyoming. People either love it or find it dispiriting even now.
Classic, retired, Union Pacific Depot in Rock Springs, Wyoming.
Union Pacific freight station, Rock Springs.
Oddly, Rock Springs hardly obtained mention in today's entry, even though it is now a larger city than nearby Green River, which is the county seat. But it is remarkable to note that the convoy was able to stop, grind a valve, and get back on the road, which is what they did, having the valve ground (or probably grinding it themselves, in Rock Springs.
The final destination that day was Green River, which they arrived in relatively late in the evening, in comparison with other days reported in the diary, after a 13.5 hour day.
Rawlins was the last substantial town that the convoy had passed through prior to this day, and its paper memorialized their stay in the and through the town with a series of photographs in the paper that was issued on this day.
The Casper paper mentioned another momentous event, the transfer of 14,000 acres from the Wind River Indian Reservation to be open for homesteading, a post World War One effort to find homesteads for returning soldiers.
That act was part of a series of similar ones that had chipped away at the size of the Reservation since its founding in the 1860s. While the Reservation remains large, it was once larger until events like this slowly reduced its overall extent.
14,000 acres is actually not that much acreage, but what this further indicates is an appreciation on the part of the government that the land around Riverton Wyoming was suitable for farming, as opposed to grazing. The various homestead acts remained fully in effect in 1919 and indeed 1919 was not surprisingly the peak year for homesteading in the United States, as well as the last year in American history in which farmers had economic parity with urban dwellers. But the land remaining in the West that was suitable for farming, as opposed to grazing, was now quite limited. Some of that land was opening up with irrigation projects, however.
None of this took into mind, really, what was just for the native residents of the Reservation and that lead to the protests in Chicago. Interestingly, those protests do not seem to have been undertaken by Arapaho and Shoshone tribal members, who indeed would have been a long way from home, but rather from Indians who were living in those areas, showing how the the efficient development of the spreading of news was impacting things.
Locally Judge Winters was stepping down as he felt that private practice would be more lucrative and he'd be better able to support his family Judge Winter was a legendary local judge and his son also entered the practice of law. While I may be mistaken, Judge Winter came back on the bench later, perhaps after his children were older. His son was a great University of Wyoming track and field athlete and graduated from the University of Wyoming's law school in the 1930s. Because of the Great Depression, he was unable to find work at first and therefore only took up practicing law after the Depression eased. He was still practicing, at nearly 100 years old, when I first was practicing law and he had an office in our building. He and his wife never had any children.
We were fortunately recently to be able to tour one of Wyoming's little known battlefields recently, thanks due to the local landowner who controls the road access letting us on. We very much appreciate their generosity in letting us do so.
Our Jeep, which should have some clever nickname, but which does not. Wrecked twice, and reassembled both times, it gets us where we want to go. But we only go so far. We stopped after awhile and walked in.
The battlefield is the Bates Battlefield, which is on the National Registry of Historic landmarks, but which is little viewed. There's nothing there to tell you that you are at a battlefield. There are no markers or the like, like there is at Little Big Horn. You have to have researched the area before you arrive, to know what happened on July 4, 1874, when the battle was fought. And even at that, accounts are confusing.
Fortunately for the researcher, a really good write up of what is known was done when Historic Site status was applied for. Rather than try to rewrite what was put in that work, we're going to post it here. So we start with the background.
And on to the confusion in the accounts, which we'd note is common even for the best known of Indian battles. Indeed, maybe all of them.
The text goes on to note that the Arapaho raided into country that what was withing the recently established Shoshone Reservation, which we know as the Wind River Indian Reservation. It also notes that this was because territories which the various tribes regarded as their own were fluid, and it suggest that a culture of raiding also played a potential part in that. In any event, the Shoshone found their reservation domains raided by other tribes. Complaints from the Shoshone lead, respectively, to Camp Augur and Camp Brown being established, where are respectively near the modern towns of Lander and Ft. Washakie (which Camp Brown was renamed).
The immediate cause of the raid was the presence of Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne, and Sioux parties in the area in June and July 1874 that had an apparent intent to raid onto the Reservation. Ironically, the Arapaho, who were involved in this battle, had separated themselves from the Cheyenne and the Sioux and had no apparent intent to participate in any such raids. They thereafter placed themselves in the Nowood River area. Indian bands were known to be in the area that summer, and they were outside of those areas designated to them by the treaties of 1868.
Given this, Cpt. Alfred E. Bates, at Camp Brown, had sent scouts, including Shoshone scouts, into the field that summer to attempt to locate the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho bands. On June 29, Shoshone scouts reported at Camp Brown that they'd sited an Arapaho village. We here pick back up from the text:
The expedition took to the field on July 1, 1874, and remarkably, it traveled at night.
A few days later, they found what they were looking for.
Let's take a look at some of what Bates was seeing:
This is the valley which was below the ridge that Bates was traveling up, the night he found the Arapaho village when he passed it by. It's not clear to me if he backtracked all the way back past this point and came back up this valley, or if he came from another direction. Based upon the description, I suspect he rode all the way back and came up from this direction, but from the high ground, not down here in the valley.
Here's the spot that Bates referenced as being the area where two ravines joined. Not surprisingly, in this wet year, the spot is fairly wet. But to add to that, this area features a spring, known today, and probably dating back to the events of this battle, as Dead Indian Springs. The "gentle slope" from which Cpt. Bates made his survey, is in the background.
And here we look up that second ravine, with its current denizens in view.
And here we see the prominent bluff opposite of where Cpt. Bates reconnoitered. It was prominent indeed.
Bates chose to attack down the slope of the hill he was on, described above, with thirty troopers and twenty Shoshones. At the same time, Lt. Young, meanwhile, attached down the valley from above it on the watercourse, in an apparent effort to cut the village off and achieve a flanking movement.
The slope down which Bates and his detail attacked, and the draw down which Young attacked.
The draw down which Young attacked.
The slope down which Bates attacked is depicted above.
The fighting was fierce and the Arapaho were surprised. They put up a good account, however, and were even able to at least partially get mounted. Chief Black Coal was wounded in the fighting and lost several fingers when shot while mounted. The Arapaho defended the draw and the attack, quite frankly, rapidly lost the element of surprise and became a close quarters melee.
The slope down which Bates attacked.
The valley down which Young attacked.
High ground opposite from the slope down which Bates attacked.
Fairly quickly, the Arapaho began to execute the very move that Bates feared, and they retrated across the draw and started to move up the high ground opposite the direction that Bates had attacked from. Young's flanking movement had failed.
The high ground.
The opposing bluff.
The opposing bluff.
Bates then withdrew.
Bates' command suffered four dead and five or six wounded, including Lt. Young. His estimates for Arapaho losses were 25 Arapaho dead, but as he abandoned the field of battle, that can't be really verified. Estimates for total Arapaho casualties were 10 to 125. They definitely sustained some losses and, as noted, Chief Black Coal was wounded in the battle.
Bates was upset with the results of the engagement and placed the blame largely on the Shoshone, whom he felt were too noisy in the assault in the Indian fashion. He also felt that they had not carried out his flanking instructions properly, although it was noted that the Shoshone interpreter had a hard time translating Bates English as he spoke so rapidly. Adding to his problems, moreover, the soldiers fired nearly all 80 of their carried .45-70 rifle cartridges during the engagement and were not able to resupply during the battle as the mules were unable to bring ammunition up. This meant that even if they had not disengaged for other reasons, they were at the point where a lock of ammunition would have hampered any further efforts on their part in any event (and of course they would have been attacking uphill).
After the battle the Arapaho returned to the Red Cloud Agency. Seeing how things were going after Little Big Horn, they came onto the Wind River Reservation in 1877 for the winter on what was supposed to be a temporary basis, and they remain there today. They were hoping for their own reservation in Wyoming, but they never received it. Black Coal went on the reservation with him, and portraits of him show him missing two fingers on his right hand. His people soon served on the Reservation as its policemen. He himself lived until 1893.
Alfred E. Bates, who had entered the Army as a private at the start of the Civil War at age 20. Enlisting in the Michigan state forces, he soon attracted the attention of a politician who secured for him an enrollment at West Point, where he graduated in the Class of 1865. He missed service in the Civil War but soon went on to service on the plains. His name appears on two Wyoming geographic localities. He rose to the rank of Major General and became Paymaster of the Army, dying in 1909 of a stroke.
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