Showing posts with label Wyoming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wyoming. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Wyoming’s Red Canyon Fire balloons to over 107,000 acres amid evacuations, emergency order
Wyoming’s Red Canyon Fire balloons to over 107,000 acres amid evacuations, emergency order: Fire area now stretches from 11 miles east of Thermopolis to the borders of Fremont and Washakie counties. Large rural areas are under evacuation orders.
Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 10. The killing the messenger edition.
Eight months into the year, and our 10th edition for 2025.
Uff.
Mad King Donald fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as he was upset by the Bureau's negative job report, which he stated was rigged.
It was rigged, of course, because facts in Trumpland are rigged if they aren't universally pro Trump.
This is likely to get a lot worse as the fact is that a lot of things Trump has set in motion are going to start having pretty negative consequences. Likewise, some firmly held GOP beliefs on economics and science aren't going to hold up to reality.
Speaking of reality and the news, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is closing its doors due to the budget rescission. The CPB, NPR and PBS are separate entities, but this is not a good development.
Republicans, who don't actually seem to realize the three entities are separate from each other, are rejoicing that public funding is ending for "left wing" media, by which they largely mean media that reports reality and the truth, as opposed to propaganda.
August 3, 2025
Three Kentucky distilleries, all small ones, have filed for bankruptcy within the past eight months, with the lastest coming last week.
While I haven't seen any analysis on it, distilleries were particularly worried about the Trump tariffs and, surprise surprise, booze can be made anywhere. Canadians have pretty much sworn off of US alcohol and were actually a major market. They make their own anyway. Seems like Europeans might be doing so also.
And part of this is probably the impact of an artisanal whiskey boom of the last decade fading.
August 5, 2025
Proposal to address ‘nation’s worst workforce exodus’ fails to get support from Wyoming lawmakers: The Wyoming Business Council says it has more policy ideas forthcoming to address "vicious" shrinking workforce conundrum.
August 10, 2025
Some really interesting things are going on that are definitely Wyoming centric that we haven't noted, or haven't noted much, and should.
The first might be that a proposal to put in a nuclear generator construction facility in Natrona County north of the town of Bar Nunn has really turned out to be controversial. This comes on the heels of a nuclear power plant in Kemmerer that is also controversial.
The ins and outs of the controversy are a little difficult to really discern, but at some level, quite a few people just don't like the idea of something nuclear. It's not coal, and its not oil. Chuck Gray, for example, has come out against this and wind energy. Chuck hasn't worked a day in his life in a blue collar job and he's just tapping into the "no sir, we don't like it" sort of thought here.
What's going to happen? We'll have to see.
Another local controversy is the approval of a 30 lot subdivision on Casper Mountain. This has drawn the ire of a lot people who live on Casper Mountain, and most of it is posed in conservation or even environmental terms.
The irony there, of course, is that people who have already built a house on the mountain are somewhat compromised in these arguments. I get it, however, as I really don't think we need more rural subdivisions in the county, at all.
On the mountain, I'd note that one of the really aggravating things that has happened recently is that last year a joint Federal/State project paved the dirt road on the backside of the mountain to the top of Muddy Mountain. It didn't need to be done and it just encourages land rapist to built houses on the backside of Casper Mountain.
Natrona County Bans Big Trucks On 26 Roads Amid Gravel Mine Controversy
I understand the opposition here, but in context, things seem to lack consistency.
Which gets back to this, I suppose. If a person just doesn't want development, they can say that.
What you can't do, however, is pretend that some major pillars of the state's economy are going to be here forever. The extractive industries are basically on their way out right now.
One of the amusing things about all of this is that the MAGA hat wearers locally who are opposed to nuclear energy are facing it in part due to the current administration.
August 13, 2025
Longtime Wyoming newspaper executives to buy, reopen eight shuttered newspapers: Overjoyed newsroom staff in communities across Wyoming are back on the job with pay after corporate closure laid off 30 employees.
Trump greenlights 14.5 million-ton coal expansion in Wyoming: The newly accessible tract represents a little more than half of the Antelope mine's annual production but signals more coal mining actions to come.
August 15, 2025
Headline in the CST:
US producer prices surge
And the tariff chickens come home to roost.
One Of Wyoming's First Combo Agriculture-Solar Farm Can’t Find A Buyer For Its Power
Trouble north of the border, where unions remain much stronger than they do here:
Air Canada cancels flights (August 15) due to labor trouble.
Air Canada is facing a flight attendants strike and is basically starting to shut down.
Cynthia Lummis on a comment from the Treasury Secretary saying the US needs to explore ways to buy more Bitcoin:
America needs the BITCOIN Act.
No, it doesn't. Focus on Wyoming issues and pay attention to them Senator.
August 17, 2025
Social Security Benefits Are an Estimated 8 Years Away From Being Slashed -- and the Cuts Are Even Bigger Than Initially Forecast
August 19, 2025
Federal mineral taxes are being reduced from16.67% to 12.5%.
They had been raised during the Biden Administration.
August 20, 2025
Last edition:
Subsidiarity Economics 2025. The Times more or less locally, Part 9. Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. It's Donald Trump's economy now.
Labels: Coal, Distributism, Economics, Errare humanum est perseverare diabolicum, Hypocrisy, Japan, Localism, Pronatalism, Subsidiarity, Taxes, The Big Ugly, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming's boom and bust economy European Union, inflation, Taxes, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming's boom and bust economy
The 2026 Election, 3rd Edition: The Self Inflicted Wound Edition.
And can they recover?
A major turn occured in the Wyoming election when all three of Wyoming's congressional delegation members supported Mike Lee's Deseret Dream to swipe Federal lands for land raping purposes. The move was hugely, overwhelmingly, unpopular in Wyoming, but the delegation in part assessed the voters dim, and in part, trusted on them to forget.
Right now, it doesn't look like they will.
And the candidate are beginning to line up. We have, so far:
Governor:
GOP.
Eric Barlow. Barlow is a state senator from the 23rd district and announced earlier this week. So far, he's receiving a lot of accolades from the none Freedom Caucus Republicans and condemnations from the populist Freedom Caucus, which frankly makes him the front runner.
Brent Bien. Bien is retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and another member of the recent Wyoming crowd who declares "after sucking on the government tit my whole life I hate the government and know best for people who haven't had such secure jobs as me". He's on the far right.
Joseph Kibler. Kibler is a web designer and might as well drop out right now.
Reid Ranser. Far right gadfly who doomed his chances, which were non existent anyway, by filing a lawsuit which states that he's a homosexual and was slandered by certain GOP figures. The slander aside, branding yourself as a homosexual is a bad political move in this atmosphere. He's highly likely not to be the only homosexual running for a statewide office or perhaps in office, but Wyomingites tend not to draw attention to themselves in that manner during an era such as the one we currently live in.
Waiting in the wings are Chuck Gray, who is already campaigning for something on the far right wing of the far right, save when it comes to nuclear power, were the populist are flower children, so he is too. Holding Gray up is Harriet Hageman, who seems likely to try to run, but whose position in opposition to the Federal lands is likely to sink any campaign of hers, or at least seriously damage it.
Also waiting in the wings is Mark Gordon, who has clearly not wanted Gray to replace him. With Barlow throwing his broad brim in the ring, he likely won't run now.
August 15, 2025
This is interesting:
Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections against greenhouse gases based on ‘false science’
Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections against greenhouse gases based on ‘false science’: U.S. Rep. Hageman's comment didn't go over well in Pinedale, where residents struggled for years to clean up health-threatening pollution from oil and gas drilling.
Pinedale calls itself the "Icebox of the Nation" and the introduction of oil and gas operations near it are relatively new. Given both of those, it clearly didn't drink the GOP Koolaide on global warming being a fib.
Hageman has so far received rough crewed treatment in Pinedale, Rock Springs, and Laramie. I suspect she would in Casper as well. I also suspect she might want to start thinking about selling her house in D.C. and looking to move back to her brother's ranch, as she may be out of work next year.
Labels: 2020s, 2025, 2026, 2026 Election, Climate Change, Harriet Hageman, Petroleum, Wyoming (Pinedale), Wyoming (Sublette County)
Wyoming has been a prime example of "if I make money from it, it must be perfectly okay". If we could grow big fields of opium here, we'd be loudly in favor of heroin.
Given that, and given that a lot of Wyomingites are imports from warmer regions of the country, people here are huge climate change deniers, even though if you've lived here your whole life its extremely obvious that its going on.
And Hageman comes from the agricultural which is bizarrely resistant to accepting the reality of climate change, even though if nothing is done, it'll destroy their livelihoods.
So she no doubt thought stepping in front of a Sublette County audience would mean that the "climate change is a fib" line would be well received. It wasn't.
Something is finally really starting to change here. Part of it is that people are waking up to reality, and part of it is that Hageman took a stand for something Wyomingites detest, transfering the Federal lands, and then basically asserted we were dumb for not supporting it ourselves. She's so all in on these positions, she really can't change them, and stepping in front of audiences makes her situation worse.
August 20, 2025
Congressman Elsie Stephanik was booked off of a New York stage two days ago.
Stephanik likely sacrificed her career for Trump.
Elsie of course crawled into bed with Trump. She originally was opposed to him. Harriet Hageman, on the other hand, was never openly opposed to Trump and took the seat of her former friend Liz Cheney opportunistically.
Hageman has had a lot of simple adoring fans since that time, but the bloom is really off the rose. She was booed in deeply Republican Sublette County last week, and received a hostile crowd in Casper on Monday night. Indeed, the Casper event was notably not only for the outright hostility to Hageman, but to extent to which a lot of Republicans flatly did not show up leaving a lot of room in the auditorium.
Hageman had her sights set on the Governor's mansion and still might. If nothing else, she's doubling down on her position on everything. But that ship has likely sailed, and she stands a good chance, right now, of having to vacate her Congressional seat.
Last edition:
The 2026 Election, 2nd Edition: The early season.
Thursday, August 14, 2025
Courthouses of the West: LEGENDARY TRIAL LAWYER GERRY L. SPENCE DIES AT 96
Courthouses of the West: LEGENDARY TRIAL LAWYER GERRY L. SPENCE DIES AT 96: August 14, 2025 Contact: Sharon Wilkinson ...
LEGENDARY TRIAL LAWYER GERRY L. SPENCE DIES AT 96
August 14, 2025 Contact: Sharon Wilkinson
Executive Director
(307) 432-2102
LEGENDARY TRIAL LAWYER GERRY L. SPENCE DIES AT 96
MONTECITO, Calif. – Gerry L. Spence, the celebrated Wyoming trial lawyer whose buckskin jacket, folksy delivery, and unbroken string of courtroom victories made him one of America’s most renowned advocates, died yesterday at his home in Montecito, California. He was 96.
Over more than six decades, Spence built a record unmatched in American legal history, never losing a criminal jury trial and, after the late 1960s, never losing a civil case. Known for his fierce dedication to the underdog, he pledged never again to represent a corporation against an individual, vowing to stand with “the people who had no one else.”
Spence rose to national prominence through a series of landmark cases, including the $10.5 million verdict for the family of nuclear whistleblower Karen Silkwood, the successful defense of former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, and the acquittal of Idaho survivalist Randy Weaver on the most serious charges stemming from the Ruby Ridge standoff. His high-profile victories also included a $52 million judgment against McDonald’s and a $26.5 million libel award for Miss Wyoming against Penthouse magazine.
Born January 8, 1929, in Laramie, Wyoming, Spence earned his law degree magna cum laude from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1952. After early years as a prosecutor and insurance defense lawyer, he shifted his career toward representing individuals in cases others deemed unwinnable.
Beyond the courtroom, Spence founded the Trial Lawyers College in 1994 at his Thunderhead Ranch in Wyoming, training generations of attorneys in the “Spence Method” — an approach centered on authenticity, emotional connection, and moral courage. He was also a prolific author of more than a dozen books, a familiar voice on national television during major trials, and a recipient of lifetime achievement honors from the American Association for Justice and the American Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame.
Spence is survived by his wife of 57 years, LaNelle P. Spence; his children Kip Spence, Kerry Spence, Kent Spence, Katy Spence, Brents Hawks, and Christopher Hawks; thirteen grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
As he once told a jury, summing up the creed that defined his career:
“I would rather speak for the weak than be the strongest man in the room.”
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
The 2026 Election, 2nd Edition: The early season.
July 6, 2025
I started drafting this, barely, as the Big Ugly started its final set of debates in the Senate. As I did that, this came out Musk broke, for the second time, with Trump, and claimed he'd form a new party if the Big Ugly passed.
Well, good for him.
I'm not posting this a a cheerleader for Musk. Musk is very much part of what's wrong with the United States. He's a poster child for what occurs in a country where has unrestrained capitalism. His caring about people claim can be doubted. The largest donor to the 2022 election, and the former Gauleiter of DOGE, there's no reason to trust that his view of what the nation's politics ought to look like comport with an actual decent set of political beliefs.
But this does symbolize something I'd noted at the time.
The 2026 election has begun.It'll interesting to see how this pays out.
Lummis is up for reelection, assuming she runs, and she will. She'll blame the Democrats for anything that goes wrong, and talk about being the Cyberqueen.
If she faces a solid challenger, after the Public Lands vote, she'll be in trouble.
The House seat is also up. Hageman won't run for that however, she's going to run for Governor. She's going to lose that.
Chuck Gray is going to run for the House, and he'll lose that.
Times are changing. Whether or not The Big Ugly passes, Trump has shot his bolt. True acolytes can wear "Trump was right about everything" truckers caps, but the opposite is proving to be true.
And this is about to get a lot worse for the GOP.
cont:
And now Nebraska's Don Bacon. The Congressman is in a district that's becoming increasingly Democratic, and my guess is it likely now will be a Democratic seat. The Republicans only hold a seven seat majority right now, which will be reduced to a five seat majority once the Democrats fill two vacant seats. Even assuming the Republicans hold every seat they currently have with out Bacon, that would reduce them to a four seat majority.
But they won't hold every seat. The House will flip.
cont:
Even Elon suddenly woke up.
At the time I posted that, I noted the departure of Don Bacon from the candidate rolls for the next election. Now, Tennessee's Mark Green has outright left. The GOP held 220 seats and the Democrats 213, but two of the unfilled seats will go to Democrats once vacant seats are replaced, reducing the pre Big Ugly margin to 220 to 215. With Green actually now gone, that's 219 to 215.
The House will return to the Democrats in the 2026 election.
By that time, it's my guess that the utility of Donald Trump will be gone, and the utility of being shocked that he has dementia will set in.
J.D. Vance will be President by then, with the NatCons hoping that he isn't tainted by anything that went wrong under Trump. Without Vance, nothing that's happened so far will last very long.
What will occur in the Wyoming midterm, which will address in another post on a somewhat separate theme will be really interesting. There's a good chance that Hageman and Lummis won't survive the midterms and that Gray will be defeated in his effort to climb the next rung of the latter, a sign that he'll he'll soon leave the state entirely, it no longer serving any purpose for him.
July 10, 2025
Interesting article pointing out that Musk's third party effort is a long shot, but still has a shot.
Already, I'd note, the one thing the Democrats and the GOP are agreeing on right now is that you must not vote for any new Musk party.
Not that I would. The values that the South African Mass Sperm Donor Billionaire hold are very far from mine. DOGE was stupid beyond belief. And frankly, I don't think that the Federal Government needed to be smaller in the first place, and that the common belief that it does is simply a "common sense" bromide that people believe because they believe it. But he is right about the looming budget crisis. I'd fix that much differently than Musk would.
But I don't think his party, should he form it, can necessarily be discounted. By next election the declining Trump, will sound more and more like mush. Trump already often sounds like this:
Or this:
The room to take Trump on is increasing, and the question is how much the NatCons really want to invest in a bowl of oatmeal as a figurehead. That could prove to be a bad strategy.
One thing I'll note is that I have a thread I haven't posted yet pondering a sort of Wyoming Party. I should have finished it as I could sort have been to this topic first.
And Musk certainly has the cash to get his views out. As he does that, the GOP will spend a lot of cashing yelling "don't listen to the right wing nut!"
Of course, the Democrats will agree with the Republicans on that, as not voting for a third party is the one thing they agree on. . . which is ironically one of the things that an American Party could point to as a reason to vote for it.
I'd also note that if an American Party was intelligent, which there's big reason to doubt that it would be, and carved off some of the real conservative topics from the GOP, and was actually fiscally conservative, it might appeal more broadly than the GOP suspects.
In more local news, former primary candidate Reid Rasner, who ran to the right of John Barrasso, and who forced Barrasso to run to the right of himself, has filed a lawsuit in the 2nd Judicial District against far right former state senator Anthony Bouchard for defamation.
July 10, 2025, cont.
So, the news on Ranser and Bouchard seems more clear. Rasner claims that Bouchard ruined a major economic deal he was working on to buy TikTok by emphasizing that Rasner is a homosexual, which Rasner does not deny. Bouchard had a sexual scandal of his own that came to light earlier on, which, the way I typed it out, would seem to suggest that Rasner's being a homosexual is a scandal, which he doesn't deny (his orientation) in his lawsuit.
Bouchard dropped out of the legislature after his own rather gross sexual scandal came to light, so the fact that he'd make any kind of a big deal out of Rasner's homosexuality is really petty. Apparently screwing and impregnating 14 or 15 year olds, albeit when he was 19, is not as bad as Rasner having same sex attraction. At least, the argument seems to be, you are screwing the opposite gender, so that's better. I'll leave that to others to judge. But why would one far right figure go after the other?
Proper sexual orientation seems to be the only reason. So, really, in the MAGA world screwing a 14 or 15 year old when you are 19 is, well, one of those "Romeo and Juliet" type of deals, to use Bouchard's words, but being a homosexual is just wrong.
Of course, from an Apostolic Christian point of view, sexual relations are only licit between a man and a woman inside a valid marriage, which can occur only once, while both of the couple are living. Inclination doesn't matter, and is not sinful inside itself. But that's not the modern United States, where a serial polygamist is the alleged President and who was a friend of a procurer (which perhaps he was unaware of), but he's okay as he has the right attraction. Most Populist Americans seem to believe that there's nothing really wrong with 1960s sexual libertine behavior, as long as its directed towards the opposite sex.
Rasner must figure his bolt is shot politically, as publishing himself as a homosexual will kill any chance he has of office in contemporary Wyoming. He's not the first Wyoming homosexual to have sought office, and three Wyomingites who were homosexuals have served in elective office, with two of them being open about it. I'd be stunned if there aren't any now, other than the one legislator who admits to being homosexual. Indeed, it'd be interesting if the sexual conduct of every Wyoming political figure came to light so that the MAGA adherents could be exposed to the full sunlight. Maybe they're all pure in their carnal desires, and properly oriented, but I'd be surprised.
An interesting thing here, I'd note, is that Rasner ran to the right of Barrasso, which puts him in full NatCon territory. The NatCons feel that homosexuality is a total abomination. This points out a really curious aspect of it, however, as individuals who can carry the Populist banner don't seem to see a conflict with those who would basically burn them at the stake. No matter what a person thinks of it, homosexuality wasn't something that traditional conservative Republicans cared about at all. Hardcore NatCons sure do.
July 11, 2025
The Secretary of State, whose job in Wyoming is to be a Secretary, is once again criticizing the Governor, whose job is to govern.
Gordon Defends Energy Platform; Gray Says Wind, Solar A ‘Woke Clown Show’
Gray clearly can't stay in his own lane, and is clearly running for something else. Wyomingites are pretty sharply divided on him, with the far right seeing him as some sort of brilliant crusader, and many others seeing him as a self serving buffoon looking for the spotlight to shine on himself.
July 22, 2025
In what was very clearly the first political campaign rally of Chuck Gray's 2026 campaign for Governor, Chuck spoke at The Hanger in Bar Nunn.
Spewing his usual stew of nonsense decrying "the radical left", he then turned against Radiant Energy, which has reportedly received opposition in Bar Nunn. Chuck has learned how to sound like a diehard full Trump right winger except on things unpopular, at which point he becomes nearly a Green Peace activist. You really can't thread his positions together in a straight line.
He also predictably railed against Governor Gordon. Gordon is theoretically barred from a third term, but only theoretically. Gray clearly feels that Gordon may be running, and the fact that Gordon hasn't been a far right drone has made him the target of Gray's ire.
An interesting thing here is that this the opening of his attempt at the Governor's office. Very reliable inside information had Gray going for Harriet Hageman's seat, but this would suggest that might have changed, or that Gray just doesn't have anything real to discuss. If Hageman decides to run for a second term, which as an opponent of public lands she might regret doing, Gray won't challenge her. Hageman may know, however, that her chances for the Governor's office are now dead in the water. For that matter, her chances of reelection to Congress may be as well, but there she can try to deflect attention by clinging tightly to her support of the still popular, in Wyoming, for right now, Trump.
You also can't really explain why a Secretary of State would need a "town hall". The job is about as interesting as wall paper paste if it's actual role is discussed.
July 29, 2025
From the Cowboy State Daily:
Worth noting, Hageman might not be as popular as she once was following her support of Mike Lee's land grab effort.
July 30, 2025
Gordon among nation’s most popular governors despite criticism from right flank, poll finds: National survey of Wyoming voters shows Gordon’s popularity has remained steady throughout his tenure.
July 31, 2025
August 2, 2025
The site:
Hageman has condemned the site as promoting violence due to its use of a rifle theme, which is pretty ironic for the GOP in Trump's era.
August 11, 2025
I suspect people are beginning to get a bit nervous about what their support of the land disposal move will mean at the ballot box.
They should.
One reason I suspect this is that billboards thanking the politicians are showing up. Two billboards featuring all three are thanks from "the energy industry', and ironically show the background of the Tetons.
That presumably means petroleum and coal, but it's really hard to say. The energy industry wasn't under attack to start with, so its not even clear what the thanks is for. Why do they need to be thanked?
Somebody wants everyone to remember, I guess, that all three stand with the "energy industry". We knew that. They stand with us on public lands. That's the point.
Another one around here thanks John Barrasso from the health industry. That's laughable. It's supposed to be for cutting waste from Medicaid. His support of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says all you really need to know about where Dr. John's heart really lies.
Both Barrasso and Gov. Gordon were at some health related event last week. I've lost track of what it was. Barrasso isn't up for reelection for years, so all of this image redirection is really interesting.
August 13, 2025
Sen. Eric Barlow will run for Wyoming governor: The Gillette Republican and former Speaker of the House will vie for the state’s top post in 2026.
This is the first really significant announcement in this race. Barlow is a somewhat known name, and definitely a serious candidate. He's a Wyoming native (which Gray is not), a working rancher (which Hageman is not) as well as a veterinarian and apparently not well liked by the Freedom Caucus (which Gray and Hageman are).
There's reason for some cautious optimism here, although I frankly don't know that much about him.
The 2026 race goes into a different phase at this point. It's actually on. Gray and Hageman. . . as well as Gordon, have to decide what they're going to do. Hageman at this point may choose to stay in the House of Representatives, or try to. Gray has to run for something, but his chances of a long term political career are evaporating.
Barlow noted he wasn't going to run a nasty campaign right away:
Barlow knows it will get ugly. If either Hageman or Gray run for Governor, it will by default. Gray can't order breakfast at McDonalds without going into a tirade about left wing communist news media conspirators, it's his brand. Hageman would likely not go nasty, but her populist backers would.
Speaking loudly in Barlow's favor, the real MAGA crowd is already attacking him on social media, according him of being a RINO. In Wyoming, the accustors in that category are Cornfederates, that crowd that figures everything went wrong since Lee surrendered at Appomattox and are deep into the lastest wacky conspiracy. Indeed, Barlow's announcement gave them a chance to declare, as I saw in one comment, that he "didn't protect us during COVID", by which they mean he didn't deny COVID existed and everything was A-Okay, which even their beloved leader King Donny didn't state.
So there's some hope here.
And this will conclude this edition.
Last edition:
The 2026 Election, 1st Edition: Spring Training Edition.
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