Politics, as they say, makes for strange bedfellows. But how strange, nonetheless still surprises.
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who rose to that position by pitching to the populist far right, which dominates the politics of the GOP right now, and which appears to be on the verge of bringing the party down nationally, has tacked in the wind in a very surprising direction. He appeared this past week at a meeting in Natrona County to oppose a proposed gravel pit project at the foot of Casper Mountain. He actually pitched for the upset residents in the area to mobilize and take their fight to Cheyenne, stating:
We have a very delicate ecosystem, the fragility up there, the fragility of the flows … the proximity to domestic water uses. All of those things should have led to a distinct treatment by the Office of State Lands, and that did not happen.
I am, frankly, stunned.
I frankly never really expected Mr. Gray to darken visage of the Pole Stripper monument on the east side of Casper's gateway, which you pass by on the road in from Cheyenne again, as he's not from here and doesn't really have a very strong connection to the state, although in fairness that connection would have been to Casper, where he was employed by his father's radio station and where he apparently spent the summers growing up (in an unhappy state of mind, according to one interview of somebody who knew him then). Gray pretty obviously always had a political career in mind and campaigned from the hard populist right from day one, attempting at first to displace a conservative house member unsuccessfully.
We have a post coming up which deals with the nature of populism, and how it in fact isn't conservatism. Gray was part of the populist rise in the GOP, even though his background would more naturally have put him in the conservative camp, not the populist one. But opportunity was found with populists, who now control the GOP state organization. The hallmark of populism, as we'll explore elsewhere, is a belief in the "wisdom of the people", which is its major failing, and why it tends to be heavily anti-scientific and very strongly vested in occupations that people are used to, but which are undergoing massive stress. In Wyoming that's expressed itself with a diehard attitude that nothing is going on with the climate and that fossil fuels will be, must have, and are going to dominate the state's economy forever. The months leading up to the recent legislative session, and the legislative session itself, demonstrated this with Governor Gordon taking criticism for supporting anything to address carbon concerns. Put fairly bluntly, because a large percentage of Wyoming's rank and file workers depend on the oil and gas industry, and things related to it, any questioning on anything tends to be taken as an attack on "the people".
Natrona County has had a gravel supply problem for quite a while and what the potential miner seeks to do here is basically, through the way our economy works, address it. There would be every reason to suspect that all of the state's politicians who ran to the far right would support this, and strongly. But they aren't.
The fact that Gray is not, and is citing environmental concerns, comes as a huge surprise. But as noted, given his background, he's probably considerably more conservative than populist, but has acted as politicians do, and taken aid and comfort where it was offered. Tara Nethercott ran as a conservative and lost for the same office.
But here's the thing.
That gravel is exactly the sort of thing that populists, if they're true to what they maintain they stand for, ought to support. It's good for industry, and the only reason to oppose the mining is that 1) it's in a bad place in terms of the neighbors and 2) legitimate environmental concerns, if there are any. But that's exactly the point. You really can't demand that the old ways carry on, until they're in your backyard.
Truth be known, given their nature, a lot of big environmental concerns are in everyone's backyard right now.
The old GOP would have recognized that nationally, and wouldn't be spending all sorts of time back in DC complaining about electric vehicles. And if people are comfortable with things being destructive elsewhere, they ought to be comfortable with them being destructive right here. If we aren't, we ought to be pretty careful about it everywhere.
There actually is some precedent for this, FWIW. A hallmark of Appalachian populism was the lamenting of what had happened to their region due to coal mining. John Prine's "Paradise" in some ways could be an environmental populist anthem.
Hard to feel sorry.
Far right goofball Candace Owens was fired from the Daily Wire. She stated that she "cannot be silenced", but frankly the gadfly has gone from sort of being a token black populist to a has been already.
That no doubt sounds extremely harsh, but frankly it's true. Owens went from being sort of a snarky populist commenter to writing some real wack job stuff, at which time her popularity dropped off. Part of her popularity was because she was black, and we don't think of populists being African American, although some are. Once again, black conservatives and black populists are not the same thing. Her status as a rare black populist, and a highly attractive woman at that, didn't hurt in her getting attention.
I don't know what her fan base is, but this is all a sort of tragedy. Always abrasive and controversial, her early commentary was not completely without merit. She's really dropped off in the recent year or years and probably won't really revive. She's sort of like Tucker Carlson that way, being a person of obvious high intelligence who really went down a rabbit hole. Carlson looked like a complete fool with his recent trip to Russia. We hope that Owens has a legitimate conservative revival, or at least isn't touring North Korea to get a one up on Carlson.
The Dead Elephants.
There was an Irish street gang in New York at one time that bore the name The Dead Rabbits. The House GOP is rapidly becoming The Dead Elephants.
Something is really going on.
Filled with disgust, some Republicans in the House are abandoning the House well before their terms are up. In doing that, they're setting themselves free from something. That something might just be failure, but at this rate, it suggests something else. They almost seem set on sabotaging their party, except their party isn't a party.
In 1944 when it became obvious to those who cared to see, and many simply did not, that Germany was going down in defeat, not only did conservative German army officers but a few, albeit very few, members of the SS began to plot against him. It's notable that the cover the July 20 bombing was given was that it was an attempted assassination by the SS. At least one member of the SS was actually part of the plot, and the head of the Berlin police was far from a liberal democrat. Right at the end of the war Himmler was conspiring against Hitler and notably didn't take a place among the suicides at the bunker.
The point is that when people who have been part of a movement begin bailing out, they sense defeat and don't want to be associated with it.
An added point is that with Donald Trump the effective Speaker of the House, and Marjorie Taylor Green acting as the Howler Monkey Sergeant at Arms, Trump's destructiveness has reached a new level. Republicans lost the Oval Office in 2020 and the Senate in 2022. Their House representation declined to perilous levels in the same time period. They were supposed to do well throughout it. Now, not only is Trump causing the GOP to lose at the ballot box, he's causing Republicans to abandon their posts.
In only one more Republicans leaves, the House will be deadlocked and Mike Johnson out the door. If two leave, the Democrats are in control. There will be replacements, but there's no guarantee that they'll be Republicans.
The Conservatives v. The Populists
While, once again, we'll have more on this later, we'll note here that the primary race in the state this year is really shaping up to be a fight between two parties, the Conservatives and the Populists, all of whom register as Republicans.
Some Conservatives have registered to try to displace Populists, and some Populists are doing the same in regard to Conservatives. Of note, the importation of out of state Populists is becoming really obvious, that having been a barely noticed aspect of it until very recently.
Populists are going to be howling that their Republican contenders are "RINO"s in short order, when in fact it's really the other way around, and the Populists are a sort of Neo Dixiecrat. Republicans are late in rising to their challenge, but they are doing it.
FWIW, the profession of law is sufficiently corrupt that questions such as can you have "relations" with your clients, opposing council, and the like, have been debated, and generally the profession has not precluded them, which is therefore to license them.
All the angst over Willis therefore really doesn't arise in a legal context, but in a public servant context.
Perhaps it should arise in a legal context, but generally, it doesn't.
This all stems apparently from the Dylan Mulvaney episode, and now Cruz is asserting that the brewer was marking to minors.
There are a lot of serious things going on right now, and this isn't one of them. Anheuser-Busch ought to just tell Ted to shove it where the sun doesn't shine, and he ought to get to work.
Bills that have passed out of one house, but haven't made it out of committee in the other, expire today.
February 28, 2023
SF 144 Chloe's Law died due to the end of debate on Monday. Apparently, Sen. Scott's similar bill also died.
This is almost shocking, given the supposed tone of the legislature this year. Moreover, in my view, both bills were meritorious and one should have passed. Mutilation in the name of an unproven thesis in Wyoming, in contrast to Europe where it hit first and has been largely banned when afflicted on minors, will remain legal.
This bill was sponsored by Anthony Bouchard, whom I usually am reluctant to agree with, with the other bill sponsored by Natrona County's Scott. Bouchard ended up drawing an ethics complaint from a Green River resident who emailed him on this bill. Bouchard replied and called the correspondent a "fucking idiot" in the reply text.
Of note, Congressman Hageman attempted a last minute intervention by Twitter on a couple of the bills, including this one, which were bottom shelved. Pressure on Sommers had already caused him to agree to release this one, but on a couple of others which were from the populist far right, he did not yield.
Hageman's tweet drew a rebuke by traditional Republican Landon Brown, and in turn Hageman, who apparently isn't too busy in Congress to get involved in such spats, slapped back.
Senate File 136 by populist Biteman and which would have cut property taxes temporarily died in the same procedural manner.
The bill to honor Lester Hunt likewise died.
Governor Gordon Takes Action on 30 Bills on Monday, February 27
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon took action on 30 bills on Monday, February 27. The Governor signed the following bills into law:
SEA0062 SF0098 Education-certificate of completion.
SEA0063 SF0113 Architects practice act-amendments.
SEA0064 SF0128 Transfer of state lands-exchange.
SEA0065 SF0157 Weed and pest mitigation-tribal inclusion-2.
The Governor allowed the following enrolled act to go into law without his signature. The Governor’s letter is attached and linked below:
HEA0055 HB0100 Acquisition value study.
The bill that may legalize corner cross, SF56, passed:
ORIGINAL SENATE
FILE NO. SF0056
ENROLLED ACT NO. 60, SENATE
SIXTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WYOMING
2023 GENERAL SESSION
AN ACT relating to game and fish; expanding the prohibition for entering private property without permission for hunting purposes to also prohibit traveling through the private property; and providing for an effective date.
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:
Section 1. W.S. 23‑3‑305(b) is amended to read:
23‑3‑305. Hunting from highway; entering or traveling through private property without permission; penalty; hunting at night without permission prohibited.
(b) No person shall enter upon, travel through or return across the private property of any person to take wildlife, hunt, fish, collect antlers or horns, or trap without the permission of the owner or person in charge of the property. Violation of this subsection constitutes a low misdemeanor punishable as provided in W.S. 23‑6‑202(a)(v). For purposes of this subsection "travel through or return across" requires physically touching or driving on the surface of the private property.
Section 2. This act is effective July 1, 2023.
Mountain lion chasing season was established, which I think was a poor idea.
February 28, cont:
The now besieged Speaker of the House issued a press release.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | February 26, 2023
Contact: Albert.Sommers@wyoleg.gov
Speaker of the House: I’m Focused on Wyoming Solutions, Not Out-of-State Influences
Throughout the last decade serving as a Representative in the Wyoming State Legislature, I have consistently used the following metric to assess legislation: does it solve a Wyoming problem with a Wyoming solution? Some bills that come to the Legislature do not come from Wyoming but instead from another state, or they are templates from a national organization. Bills not crafted in Wyoming often take a one-size-fits-all approach that demands the Wyoming Legislature’s due diligence to ensure a bill solves a problem and does not create a new one.
As Speaker of the House, I have the added responsibility of keeping the House of Representatives focused on getting work done for the people of Wyoming. Part of this leadership responsibility is choosing which standing committee a bill goes to and whether it gets sent to a committee at all. I take this responsibility seriously; bad policy can create major consequences for Wyoming. Bills that are unconstitutional, not well vetted, poorly written, duplicate bills or debates, and bills that negate local control, restrict the rights of people, or risk costly litigation financed by the people of Wyoming should not become law.
I depend heavily on two particular committees. The Appropriations and Revenue Committees work on many of the most important bills during the session and are comprised of seasoned legislators with critical expertise. Their members currently hold a combined 106 years of experience in the Legislature. I rely on those bodies to scrutinize weighty legislation because they understand the repercussions of legislation on Wyoming's citizens. These two committees are led by four chairmen and other pillars of the Legislature. The members of Appropriations and Revenue are workhorses who use their experience to critically examine tough issues without letting rhetoric and intimidation get in the way.
As an example, bills like SF0172 - Stop ESG-State funds fiduciary duty act, in theory, have merit. However, it's our job to determine how bills will play out in Wyoming's reality. I sent SF0172 to the Appropriations Committee to ensure it was evaluated on its substance. The bill bans Wyoming government officials from contracting with businesses that have boycotted fossil fuels or are considering climate change in their investments. Members of the Appropriations Committee identified significant gaps in the language. The Treasurer's Office raised questions about how this bill may impact Wyoming’s investment portfolio. This bill is not worth risking our state's fiscal future just to send a message. I am hopeful that the language in this policy can be tightened up in the interim to allow us to support our base industries while preserving our investment strategies.
Keeping bills in my drawer is another way to ensure we stay focused on solving pressing issues for Wyoming. Here is a list of the bills I currently have in my drawer and why.
SF0086 - Voter identification-concealed carry permit. The bill allows Wyomingites to use their concealed carry permits as voter identification. I like this idea, but House Bill 79 is a mirror bill that has already passed through the Legislature and became law this Session. Consideration of this bill would have wasted time with duplicate debate.
SF0117 - Parental rights in education. This bill disallows public school teachers from teaching sexual orientation and gender identity themes to children from kindergarten through the third grade and directs school boards how to interact with parents. This type of teaching is not happening in Wyoming schools; moreover, the bill strips local control. Regardless of the issue, I've always fought against taking authority away from local school boards, town councils, and county commissions. Additionally, I believe this bill is unconstitutional as it violates the single-subject rule.
SF111 – Child Abuse- change of sex is one of two bills that take on the subject of gender change in children. I sent a similar bill, SF144 - Chloe's law-children gender change prohibition out to a committee. I did not see the need to spend time debating two similar bills. I thought SF144 had a more appropriate policy position, and I sent it to the Appropriations Committee to be vetted. The bill was passed out of committee with a Do Not Pass recommendation, but is available for debate if the Majority Floor Leader chooses.
SF143 – Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act is virtually the same bill as HB194, which would have created an education savings account. An ESA account is similar to a school voucher system, giving parents state money to put their children in private schools or homeschool. However, HB194 died in the House Education Committee. The Committee heard that bill once, and it failed. There was no need to waste time hearing the bill twice. I do not support this bill because I believe it is unconstitutional, and it is a major policy shift for the state of Wyoming. I do believe this issue will be taken up as an interim topic in the Joint Education Committee, where the idea can be fully vetted.
SJ0001 Amending Wyoming's act of admission for leases and earnings. This resolution would request that Congress introduce a bill and enact a law to amend Wyoming's Act of Admission. It changes the very language that made Wyoming a state, and I have serious concerns about its consequences. I believe it is a bad precedent to alter the document that created our statehood.
Bills that I also did not send to committee included: HB0162 - County optional tax-affordable housing, which would have allowed a county to impose a real-estate transfer tax; HB0193 - Carbon capture energy standards-repeal, which would have gutted Wyoming’s carbon capture policy; and HB0115 - Elections administration, which would have taken away election administration authority from the Secretary of State.
The Wyoming Constitution allows the Legislature to meet in Session for only 60 working days over two years. This time constraint is by design and helps curtail frivolous bills being debated over a lengthy period. I will continue to do my best to keep us focused in the brief time remaining in the Session.
This is really pretty remarkable as the Speaker is basically accusing the far right Freedom Caucus legislators of being in the service of out of staters, taking a page out of a well-read Wyoming book, and also a page out of the far right's own campaign manual.
Governor Gordon Takes Action on 10 Bills on Tuesday, February 28
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon took action on 10 bills on Tuesday, February 28. The Governor signed the following bills into law:
HEA0062 HB0067 Special license plate decals-women veterans.
HEA0063 HB0059 Wyoming national guard tuition benefits.
HEA0064 HB0038 Wyoming national guard member referral.
HEA0068 HB0140 Mental Health care Access-Collaborative Care Model.
SEA0057 SF0140 Building code requirements-refrigerants.
SEA0059 SF0053 Wyoming national guard medical insurance premiums.
SEA0066 SF0123 Military dependents-school choice.
SEA0067 SF0032 Prohibiting drones over penal institutions.
March 1, 2023
It’s very clear that the Freedom Caucus voted with the Democrats to end debate and thus killed nine bills that were on the bottom of general file, including Chloe’s Law, two ESG bills and the last remaining bill that would have provided property tax relief. That’s on their shoulders, not ours.
Speaker of the House, Sommers.
Oddly, this is true. Those on the left and the right joined to shut down debate at 8:00, killing nine bills in the House.
SJ0003Property tax exemption for the elderly and infirm.
The legislature is really down to a handful of bills now, most of which should not be too controversial, although a couple may be.
March 1, cont.
March 2, 2023
Yesterday we noted that Bouchard was reprimanded. What we didn't note is that he called the person he insulted with profanity the same thing again on his Facebook page, where he stated:
I stand by what I said - F***king Idiot.
Dr. James testimony was extremely misleading. As she testified about WPATH being the ‘so-called’ safe standard that supposedly protects minors from Sex Change procedures.
Dr. James omitted a very important detail from her testimony.
All of the so called medical professionals have been lying about, Sex Changes on Minors.
They don’t want you to know the TRUTH— that Europe is breaking away from the ‘standard of care’ that Dr. James cited in her testimony to Appropriations Committee last week.
As it turns out, the evidence in favor of sex changes on minors — just isn’t there.
What does all of this really say about the medical community that is still supporting the butchering of children?
He is correct about Europe pulling away from allowing the mutilation of children in this area.
Bouchard's two Facebook pages are a trip through the extreme far right wing, fully of attacks on other Republicans, including Keven McCarthy and Harriet Hageman, and including attacks on COVID vaccines and the like. He's made a name for himself by being extreme, which is unfortunate, as it probably doesn't help a rare piece of deserving legislation that he sponsors, such as this one, get through. Republican moderate columnist Rod Miller correctly tapped into his own self-immolation when he noted, in response to this story:
Don't interrupt your enemy when they are attempting suicide.
Sun Tzu
Bouchard's Facebook comment would have been perfectly legitimate, and indeed not without merit, if he hadn't repeated the profanity, granted that profanity has become very common in our era. That aside, he's made such a name for himself being brash and aggressive that he's actually pretty ineffectual. Most people experiencing that would pause and reflect on it, rather than take their own causes down with them.
The far right fantasy bill SF 72 died in the House. The bill prohibited employers from requiring their employees to be microchipped, something that isn't happening in the US to start with.
HB 152, the Life Is A Human Right Act, passed the Senate and is back at the House for reconciliation. It's been significantly amended, so it is not as broad as it once was. It's one of the very few conservative bills that has survived so far in this legislature.
SF109 banning chemical (pharmaceutical) abortions has passed the legislature, making it one of the few which has actually passed.
Efforts to amend the bill banning students claiming transgender status from competing in sports of the opposite gender failed, and the bill is advancing.
Governor Gordon to Hold Public Bill Signing Thursday, March 2
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon will hold a formal bill signing ceremony Thursday, March 2 beginning at 1:30 pm in the Governor's Ceremonial Conference Room in the State Capitol Building. The ceremony is open to the public.
The Governor will sign the following bills:
Enrolled Act # Bill# Bill Title
HEA0075 HB0099 Property tax refund program.
HEA0076 HB0276 Shed antlers and horns conservation stamp.
HEA0077 HB0123 Collection of antler or horns by residents and nonresidents.
SEA0069 SF0079 Plan of safe care-newborns.
SEA0072 SF0169 State shooting complex task force.
SEA0073 SF0154 Energy authority project financing-refineries.
SEA0075 SF0112 Peer support counseling-confidentiality.
March 2, cont:
Governor Gordon Signs Bills Focused on Strengthening Wyoming Families
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Property tax relief, providing a plan of safe care for at-risk newborns, protecting Wyoming outdoors and supporting energy development were among the bills Governor Mark Gordon signed on Thursday.
Last year, in an effort to help Wyoming households impacted by rapidly rising home prices and property tax bills, Governor Gordon’s supplemental budget request included an additional one million dollars to be appropriated for the Property Tax Refund Program. House Bill 99–Property Tax Refund Program expanded the qualifications for the state’s Property Tax Refund Program, delivering relief for more homeowners than ever before. The Legislature also followed through on the Governor’s request for additional funds for the program. Brenda Henson, Director of the Wyoming Department of Revenue, estimates that HB 99 will allow at least 6,000 additional households in Wyoming to receive property tax relief. Property owners may apply at their local County Treasurer's office or online at wptrs.wyo.gov beginning April 1st.
“This bill is one important step towards addressing the concerns of those impacted by the combination of rising inflation and increasing property tax bills,” Governor Gordon said. “I’m grateful that the Legislature saw fit to deliver a bill that provides a measure of targeted relief for those that need it most, especially our senior citizens and those living on fixed incomes.”
Governor Gordon also signed Senate File 79–Plan of safe care-newborns sponsored by Senator Baldwin. The bill requires healthcare providers to develop plans of safe care for infants born with prenatal substance use exposure. The Governor said he views the bill as a truly pro-life bill, consistent with his view that caring for newborns and mothers is critical to ensuring the best health outcomes for both.
The Governor also signed a pair of bills–House Bill 123 and House Bill 276–sponsored by freshmen Representatives Wylie and Berger (House Districts 39 and 49, respectively), ensuring Wyoming residents have the first opportunity to enjoy the long-held tradition of shed antler hunting. Governor Gordon congratulated the freshman on their legislative success and thanked the representatives for focusing on legislation that reflected Wyoming solutions for Wyoming problems.
Senate File 154–Energy Authority Project financing-refineries, sponsored by Senator Cooper (Senate District 6), was in direct response to Governor Gordon’s Gas and Diesel Working Group that came together in the summer of 2022 to find ways to bring down the cost of gas and diesel. Limited refining capacity in the U.S. was repeatedly identified as part of the dramatic increase in petroleum products. Senator Cooper recognized an opportunity to help Wyoming families and our energy industries by developing and constructing oil and gas refineries in Wyoming.
Additionally, Governor Gordon signed the following bills into law today:
SEA0075 SF0112 Peer support counseling-confidentiality.
March 3, 2023
Today is the Last Day of the 2023 Legislature.
The Cross Over Voting ban, which was based on a fantasy, passed into law without the Governor's signature, giving Chuck Gray a political, if de facto pointless, victory.
Governor Notes Minor Flaws and Allows Crossover Voting Bill to Become Law
CHEYENNE, Wyo. –
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon notified Speaker of the House Albert Sommers that he will allow House Bill 103 to take effect without his signature. There were no constitutional concerns raised with this bill, and it had a near super-majority of support in the Legislature. Still, the Governor notes the crossover voting legislation may create confusion for voters. But, the flaws were not sufficient to issue a veto.
Governor Gordon had hoped to receive legislation that would strengthen the closed primary system because he believes Republicans should vote in Republican Primaries and Democrats should vote in Democratic primaries. He made this case in his State of the State Address in 2022.
Nearly three-quarters of Wyoming voters were registered Republicans for the 2022 elections. From this, Governor Gordon noted this perhaps makes the presumed changes more academic than real. “I urge voters to learn about these changes so that they may vote for their desired major party ballot in 2024, stated Governor Gordon.”
Governor Gordon also secured a commitment from the bill’s sponsor to clarify the bill’s ambiguity before the next primary election.
Please see the full Governor’s letter here.
Clearly the Governor was not pleased with the bill.
The irony of the bill is that that Democrats who did cross over to vote for Cheney are likely still in the GOP, and will likely not think about rejoining the Democratic Party until the next primary, at which point they'll miss the deadline and be trapped in the GOP.
Now maybe Chuck can devote his full energies to his elected duties, I have something sitting around in his office waiting to be filed, and perhaps he can get to it. At any rate, I'm sure he'll claim this as a major victory when he moves on from the Secretary of State's office, which he clearly will, and tries to run for something else.
Harriet Hageman's attempted intervention in the Legislative Session continues to make waves, with Al Simpson criticizing her for her actions.
Of note, her opponent in the last election, Liz Cheney, has apparently turned her back on Wyoming forever and joined the faculty of the University of Virginia.
March 3, cont.
Governor Gordon to Hold Public Bill Signing Today, Friday March 3
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon will hold a formal bill signing ceremony today Friday, March 3 beginning at 1:45 pm in the Governor's Ceremonial Conference Room in the State Capitol Building. The ceremony is open to the public.
This will be the final entry on this volume, before a new volume, no. 7, takes over. The reason is, barring anything odd and unforeseen, the legislators will pack up and head home tonight.
Anyhow, the bills above are interested in that the first one is yet another defeat for the Freedom Caucus, which opposed it. Those following this thread will recall that freshman legislator J. Ward, formerly of Chicago, opined that we were in fact not our brother's keeper, in speaking against medicaid extension for postpartum coverage.
Apparently the legislature felt otherwise, as they surely should have.
Joseph Stalin, caught in tape commenting to Molotov.
I don't pay any attention to the Grammy's anymore. I never much did. Anymore, however, nobody pays much attention to them. The same has become true of all the other big awards in entertainment that once meant so much. Now, heavily politicized in a PC fashion, they're really not very interesting and people pretty much ignore them.
Therefore, I ignored the flap over Sam Smith's performance when it came out, even though with Douthat commented on it I started to take a little note. But then I noticed something else.
It's no secret that a certain segment of Western, liberal, society is at war with our existential nature, which calls into mind, for a believer, Stalin's quote. And well it should. Communism claimed at first to act in accordance with man's nature, but soon saw it that it couldn't force the nature that it wished for, so it decided to make a new Communist man that was the antithesis to real men in some ways. It failed.
That's what we have going on now.
Sam Smith is a homosexual. While Pope Francis is certainly correct that making homosexuality illegal, as it actually is in much of the world, is wrong, celebrating it is nonsensical, just as celebrating hetrosexuality would also be. It is a deviation from the genetic norm. In spite of that, however, and particularly post Obergefel, now a person can hardly even point that out.
And as people who were well attune to development and trends pointed out, the Obergefel decision was going to inevitably lead to a full scale assault on normality and nature itself, which has busted out in the transgenderism craze. It was claimed that this would not occur, but with the guardrails down, it pretty much had to. Not surprisingly, he collaborates with German songwriter Tim Petras, a man who was chemically and probably surgically mutilated as a very early teen, and who goes by the name of Kim Petras and affects a female appearance.
In Smith's performance, he affected a Satanic visage and gave what can only be called an open embrace of what that entails. Perhaps fully unwitting, Smith has exposed openly what most in his camp have hidden, perhaps for the better.
And by so doing, he joins Stalin in that category. For all his defects, Stalin was a genius and his comment was not only open, I don't believe it to be metaphorical. At least he had the courage to admit what he was up to.
Of course, like all such efforts, it failed.
It's worth noting that this argument still prevails even for those who claim not to believe or doubt. Most of the general fundamentals of Christianity in regard to men, women, and what they do and interact, are not only Christian principles, they're principles of every religion, and exhibited in every natural society. That's why, we'd note, that Communism works no better in North Korea than East Germany. It's contrary to human nature, as is what these performers are exhibiting.
You can be at war with nature, but you won't win.
It's interesting to note. . .
Related to the above, that in the commentary in Playboy documentary that aired one of the models flat out stated that she believed Hugh Hefner to be possessed, and that a girl who was a centerfold or "bunny", I can't recall which painted something essentially stating the same thing prior to her committing suicide.
It was really Kinsey, and his bogus report, that started us down this road, although I've blamed Hugh Hefner, justifiably, a lot.
During World War Two, Alfred Kinsey, with colleagues, was busy studying the sexual habits of perverts who were incarcerated, resulting in a text entitled Sexual Behavior In The Human Male, which would have been better entitled Sexual Habits of Incarcerated Perverts Who Couldn't Be Drafted. It's one of two examples of 1940s "studies" being really results driven. I.e, a report that isn't a study, but a conclusion being justified subsequently by a report, the other being SLAM Marshall's Men Under Fire.
Both texts have done a lot of damage.
Taken objectively, it turns out that really gross perverts act perversely, which didn't stop Kinsey and his associates from actually arranging some acts that should be regarded as solicitation, or prostitution, or just weird. Anyhow, their conclusions were erroneous, as is now well known, but so damaging and influential, they're still regarded as persuasive.
In reality, the overwhelming majority of men and women actually had very limited numbers of, as we like to say now, "partners". Most men and women had no sexual experience at all of the really intimate type until they were married, and it was universally regarded, irrespective of not everyone keeping the standard, that sex outside of marriage was morally wrong.
Enter perversion fan Kinsey and this began to weaken, followed by Hugh Hefner. Not too surprisingly, we are at where we now are, at war with nature.
99 Luftballons
The entire Chinese balloon flap has been very interesting. I'm sure that we're not going to know the truth of it for many years.
What we know is only the basics. The Chinese have been flying spy balloons over the United States, and in this case, although barely noted, over Canada as well. The choice of the two nations together may be simply atmospheric, perhaps that's how you get a balloon over the continental US, or it may be strategic, that flies it over and through NORAD.
It would not appear that the NORAD, American or Canadian response has been stellar. This was apparently, if we're being told the truthy, and we very well might not be, the first time a PRC spy balloon was detected, which if true is a shocking admission of a major NORAD failure. And the entire story of waiting it so long to shoot it down doesn't pass the smell test at all. This thing could have been dropped anywhere from the Aleutians to Wyoming harmlessly, but wasn't. The story about not wanting to damage stuff on the ground simply isn't credible. They were probably more likely to hit a boater where they took it down than they were to hit a human over much of its course.
Which means somebody is probably fibbing.
We now know that U2s accompanied the balloon nearly its entire route over the US. The high altitude spy plane was spying on the balloon, likely picking up anything it emitted, and perhaps messing with its own emissions. That alone may be sufficient justification, justification that can't be admitted, for not dropping it until we did.
Chances are good, I'd note, that U2s are flying near the one now in the Southern Hemisphere.
The big question is why are the Chinese doing this?
Well, one reason is that they got away with it so far, and it did a good job of testing NORAD. We overflew quite a few places with U2s until we simply couldn't, and it was never our intent to test air responses in doing it. We probably also intruded on Soviet waters with submarines for various spying reasons, and the Soviets and Russians probably still do that in some locations.
Nations spy.
But spying in this manner is really interesting.
They may have been able to pick up a lot of electronic data from the ground that a satellite simply couldn't. And, importantly for a nation that is preparing for war with the United States, and it is, testing NORAD made sense.
A new Cold War?
This question came up on all the weekend shows. Are we in a new Cold War. Nobody would say yes.
Well, we obviously are.
One analysis, that the level of trade was too high to support that claim, is nonsense. We didn't have a lot of trade with the Eastern Bloc countries, as they had nothing we really wanted to buy at the time. China has been different, and intentionally so. The real model is the trade level between the Western combatants in World War One, prior to the war. It was enormous, none of which kept the war from happening.
And this war will go hot.
Are the Chinese going to attack Taiwan?
Probably.
Well, rather, they will probably try.
I'd give it about 70% chance of happening by mid-decade. I.e., we're close.
It'll also be an epic fail.
Crossing the Taiwan Strait will prove beyond them, their casualties will be massive, and their government will fall.
Liars.
Fox news crew with the network.
To nobody's really surprise, unless they chose to be completely self-deluded, Fox News personnel privately acknowledged that they knew Trump hadn't won the 2020 election. Indeed, privately, some, notably Tucker Carlson, blasted him.
In spite of this, they just keep on keeping on. If Fox had any honor, all of these people would go, and go right now.
But they won't. And they'll just keep shoving the crap they're shoveling.
Lying about being Jewish
It's interesting that there is now some political cache, apparently, to being Jewish.
We've long had Jewish politicians in the United States, and even before that. Francis Salvador, for example, served in the South Carolina provincial legislature at the time of the Revolution and hew as Jewish. But it can't be doubted, additionally, that being Jewish was once a serious hindrance to obtaining higher office. While Salvador was undoubtedly an exception, by and large successful 19th Century Jewish politicians in the US, and there were some, came from districts where their constituents at least partially had the some background.
Exceptions started in the 19th Century, however. Portland, Oregon had back to back Jewish mayors starting in 1869. Washington Bartlett was the Jewish Governor of California starting in 1887. And so on.
Be that as it may, Jewish Americans being quiet about their religious identity, in some instances, was pretty common well into the 20th Century. Indeed, most Jewish actors in American films changed their names, if they had a name that might identify them as being Jewish.
Now that's changed so much that we apparently have two freshman members of Congress claiming Jewish identify when they have none. George Santos is one, and now Anna Paulina Luna is another. Luna claimed to be raised as a Messianic Jew and that she’s part Ashkenazi Jewish, but has now converted fully to Christianity.
In actuality, she's always been a Christian and one of her grandfathers, a German immigrant, served i the German Army during World War Two.
George Washington as Commander of the Continental Army, in the same style of uniform as he wore at the Second Continental Congress in 1775. Shocking.
Eh?
Did I hear that right?
Are Americans suddenly criticizing the dress of somebody appearing at a public function?
Oh yes, they are, and some are truly verklempt, or appearing to be. Consider Newsmax's Benny Johnson:
This ungrateful piece of sh*t does not have the decency to wear a suit to the White House -- no respect the country that is funding his survival.
Track suit wearing eastern european con-man mafia.
Our leaders fell for it. They have disgraced us all. What an incredible insult.
Oh my. An American criticizing somebody for how they dress. It's almost impossible to imagine.
I'm stunned.
I've commented on the decline on the dressing standard here quite a few times. And I do generally think that appearing in front of Congress, and being at Congress, should require formal dress.
And not just there, I'd note.
I don't know that I think that required of a man whose living under siege and who is a wartime leader of a country whose capital is within rocket range of what was thought, up until a few months ago, to potentially have the first or second most powerful military on earth.
Indeed, any rational observer of American dress has to know that Americans, generally, dress like slobs. Quite a few dress like children all the time. People toddle around in public markets dressed like their mothers just got them up for an early morning trip to the store in their pj's. People board planes in jammies. Some men wear knee pants all the time, even during the winter, choosing to affect a dashing infantile presentation in the worst weather.
And more than that, people appear at official functions poorly dressed all the time.
When I was first practicing law, as I noted here before, I didn't really have to tell witnesses how to dress in court. A while later, however, I'd get asked, and when asked I'd use the Protestant term "Sunday Best", even though I'm not a Protestant, as everyone knew what that meant. Later, however, I found that was no longer the case and I started to get lucky if people had a clean shirt.
The summer before last I tried a case in Denver in which a downtown Denver jury came in extremely informal clothing. Shorts, t-shirts, etc. Only the lawyers, the court staff, and the judge dressed up to the old standard. A couple of decades ago, this would not have occurred.
Just recently I attended a multiple day contested case hearing in which the lawyers were no longer wearing ties, something that would be a defacto breach of the old official standard that applied to us when we were first practicing. And I mean the latter. Ties were part of the official rules for male lawyers up until the time I started practicing, and they basically remain that for courtroom attire.
No, not me, I wore jacket and tie every day.
The panel hearing the matter wore formal clothes, however. Most of the lawyers, most of the time, did not. Not that they'd gone full informal, they were still wearing dress shirts and jackets, but no ties.
This is becoming increasingly common.
During the recent January 6 hearings, many of the witnesses fell well below what we would have regarded as the old standard. Not so low as the rioters, however, who were largely dressed down to the American standard.
I'd include in that dressing down, I'd note, the MAGA trucker's hat.
I'm not a trucker's cap fan, for the most part, anyhow, with some exceptions. I will wear real baseball caps from real baseball teams. Baseball caps, however, are actually not baseball caps, which have longer bills, but an evolution of them that has looked bad from day one. Thanks to the MAGA cap, now you see guys wearing sports coats and MAGA caps, which looks dumb.
Okay, I suppose we might ask if this is unprecedented? I truly don't know.
What I can say is that Zelenskyy is a wartime leader. When he was a peacetime leader, he favored dark suits, and was clean-shaven. Starting with the Russian invasion of his country, and the fighting in his own capital, he began to dress in a quasi military fashion.
He's not the first leader of a democratic country to do that. I'll omit non-democratic ones, as their leaders affecting military style dress is extremely common.
The best example is Winston Churchill who dressed eclectically frequently. We like to remember him dressed to the English standard, suit and bowler, but in actuality as he grew older he favored jumpsuits. In his visits to see FDR he wore them quite frequently, and was photographed by the press wearing them due to their uniqueness.
Churchill, who had started off his professional life as a career British Army officer, but who had official roles with the Admiralty later on, really like to dress in quasi Naval attire, even while Prime Minister, including in official meetings with the heads of foreign states.
Indeed, he truly did.
George Bush, George Bush II, Barack Obama and Donald Trump have all appeared at various times wearing various types of flight jackets, an unmistakenly military item. No, they didn't wear them in Congress, but they wore them. The two Bush's had both seen military service, as pilots, but President Obama and President Trump never did.
And let's not forget George Washington.
Washington famously appeared in Congress, as a member of the Continental Congress, that assembled to take up the problems with the Mother Country, dressed in the blue uniform of the American Continental militia officers.
We might regard that as formal wear, but that was the combat uniform of the time. Our failure to appreciate that is probably due to our inability to read the clothing of the time, but in context, quite frankly, it's shocking.
And it is pretty much what Zalenskyy did earlier this week, save for the fact that he's the besieged president of an embattled country, whereas Washington was implying that maybe the colonies ought to rebel against their established sovereign.
Oh well. The standard is reestablished. Trumpites, your call is clear. Off to Brooks Brothers to suit up, literally.
That's the temperatures as I write this at 6:06 a.m.
And yes, that's cold. Dangerously cold, in fact.
But it's not "once in a generation", as the spastic news broadcast on this topic would have it. I've seen it colder than this, nearly doubly so, right here where I live. And I've seen -25F lots of times.
This, frankly, is a normal winter temperature.
No, we don't get down to -25F every winter, but we always get below 0F and at one time we'd get down below -10F every year. What's not normal is that we don't see high Arctic temperatures every winter.
People's reactions to cold are interesting.
In recent decades, a lot of men have taken up wearing toddler's knee pants all year long. You know, those trousers designed for little boys called "shorts". Wearing them in the summer, if you don't have a job that requires protection from horse, thorns or the sun is allowable, if you are a guy, and definitely allowable if you are a gal, the latter being part of the patriarchal conspiracy, so men can see your legs, is okay. But the "I’m a really tough toddler, look at me in my knee pants" look that has broken out in recent years is a bit much.
One nice thing about weather this cold is that those people actually put some trousers on.
Interestingly, women did weeks ago.
Another interesting thing about it is that people behave abnormally, particularly if it's accompanied by snow.
On that, by the way, as these things are so well predicted in advance anymore, if a big cold snap is coming in, you are going to hear somebody say "there won't be any snow as it'll be too cold to snow".
It's never too cold to snow.
I was pleased that this storm was accompanied by a blizzard. It was -15 and white-out conditions due to the snow.
I hope everyone who, two days ago, said "it'll be too cold to snow" had their friends and relatives call up and say LOOK LUIGI! IT'S SNOWING!
Harumph.
Anyhow, when it snows around here, a certain number of people forget everything they ever knew about driving. Yesterday I was provided with a minor example when a Subaru hatch back, a good 4x4 car, decided that all four lanes of a four lane two-way road were now his travel lane. It finally came to a head when I pulled up to a stop light in which he was crowing all the lanes, and got in the only left-hand forward lane room he had left. That clearly surprised him, and he had to speed up to reclaim all the lanes.
Some people, I've noticed, won't slow down for conditions at all. Some, on the other hand, assume that the conditions merit driving at 2 mph.
In recent years, I've also noted that snow days have expanded to offices. It's bizarre.
When I first worked in an office, if there was a titanic late day blizzard such that mastodons were travelling the streets and polar bears were threatening to eat the runner, we'd let people go home about 4:00 p.m. The only time we ever let people go home early due to cold was one year when the temperature got down to -40F and the boiler went out. You really can't work in a building when it's -40F and there's no heat.
Now, however, if we start getting a decent snow, people start asking if we're going to dismiss the employees from work.
Eh?
Yesterday, by early afternoon, I was getting that question due to the cold. "Are we going to let people go home early?"
No, we're not. It's cold outside, and we're inside.
The Bureau of Land Management, I noticed, did go home.
What the heck?
Impertial Perogative
While I have no personal beef with him at all, the hiring by Secretary of State elect Chuck Gray of Harriet Hageman's nephew as his government funded SoS attorney bugs me.
I really don't know why the Secretary of State has an in-house lawyer at all, other than that in spite of what the Republicans like to spout about limiting the expansion of government, the Republican administration of the state, like every other state, has expanded the staffing of governmental offices enormously.
I don't know for sure, but my guess would be that as late as the 1960s, the Secretary of State's office, which does the same job that it currently does, was probably staffed by the SoS, a full time assistant, who probably did the actual work, and about four women clerks who did the heavy lifting. Yes, the job involves a lot of things that involve the law, but they probably made it go that way. The SoS, if he had a legal question, probably walked down the hall and asked somebody at the Attorney General's office what the answer was.
Now, however, the SoS has a full time dedicated lawyer, and I think the Governor may too. If this keeps up, the janitorial staff at the Capitol Building will have one also. Why not?
Now, that Chuck Gray might need a lawyer to advise him, I don't doubt. That office deals with a lot of legal filings. But there's utterly no reason that the AG's office can't dedicate a lawyer to the office, amongst that lawyer's other duties. Chuck can go down the hall, read the latest issue of Bureocratic Quarterly in the lobby, and ask some AG his question, something probably like "how can I call out the National Guard to make Kari Lake the Gauleiter of Arizona?"
But, no, he's going to have his own full time lawyer in an office, we might note, where almost everyone at the executive level is new, most likely as they didn't care to serve under him.
And that lawyer has one year of experience.
It's a rule of thumb in the law that a lawyer isn't really fully functional on his own until he or she has been working for a decade. They call it practice for a reason. Like everything else, this is just a rough rule. Some people don't take that long, some take a bit longer.
Nobody is capable of really efficient practice after a year of work.
If the new hire's tasks are limited to strictly research projects, something that's a huge waste of money for the State of Wyoming, this might be okay. But if it's anything else, it's problematic.
Harriet Hageman was apparently just down in Phoenix talking at something called "Turning Point". The organization that sponsors this is a Trumpite one and likely thought of the name meaning a turning point in the nation's history, rather than the recent off-ramp into the political dumpster that Trump is causing to conservatives. She gave a short speech that included the "deep state".
Whatever she said about this, something older than the deep state is the "it's not what you know, it's who you know state".
Hmmmm.
There's only three real reason for Hageman Nephew to go to work as the Consigliere to the Capo de Regime at the SoS, either to be a reliable yes man, an insider to the Deeply Trump State, or as a favor. Or perhaps a combination of all three.
"You aren't a wartime Consigliere, Tom".
Well, I'm sure that the state's GOP will rise up in righteous indignation and tell Chuck he doesn't need his own special legal council and that the lad can just go back into benighted private practice. Shoot, maybe Constitutional Lawyer Hageman know of a firm where there's going to be one less lawyer.
Stammtisch
We've had some posts regarding Rev. Todd Schmidt and his table in the University of Wyoming Student Union recently.
A lawyer I know asked me a question I hadn't thought of. Why are outsiders allowed to have reserved tables in the Union at all?
I have no good answer for that.
Rev. Schmidt's table was reserved, which is something I hadn't followed. That would mean, amongst other things, that Rev. Schmidt must have had a lot of free time on his hands so that he could dedicate that time to hanging around in the Student Union.
As noted in an earlier post on this topic, when I went to UW, the Union didn't really have a place to put up a table. It was mostly a hall. There was a small lobby that was part of it that had a television, but people rarely hung out in it. Organizations of any type didn't put up tables.
Now, after reconstruction, it has a lot of room, including room for tables, but what didn't occur to me is that its really odd that those tables can be reserved by outsiders.
I don't think they have to be.
I have no problem at all with any legitimate student organization having a table, staffed by students, in the lobby. Most of these would be of a predictable type, but some would probably be organizations that I'd find personally irritating. So be it, if they're student organizations or university related.
I.e, I don't have a problem with the rugby club being in there, or sororities recruiting for membership, ROTC recruiting for recruits, or the Students Against The ROTC recruiting for recruits. But I think it should be limited to student organizations, or the university itself.
What I don't grasp is how we got to the point that a minister from an off campus church can have a full time table in the Union. It invites any group that is off campus that wishes to proselytize to do the same. Would the same people that are okay with Rev. Schmidt be okay with an Imam setting up a table next to him? Or would the university be okay with really radical groups, of any type, doing the same?
UW got itself into this pickle by allowing outside groups to hang around in the lobby of a land grant college that's really supposed to be dedicated to education and education only. This wasn't necessary.
And now we hear from a noted law commentator, as reported in the electronic Cowboy State Daily.
Limited Public Forum
The policy UW used to justify its action may not be enough from a First Amendment standpoint, Eugene Volokh, First Amendment professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Cowboy State Daily.
The author of the textbook “The First Amendment and Related Statutes,” Volokh specializes in First Amendment law.
Government entities like the university are not constitutionally obligated to allow various kinds of speech within their buildings, Volokh said. However, once the entity decides to hold a public forum, the First Amendment right to free speech then extends to people inside the building, though it may be limited by the entity’s existing policies.
Those policies must be specific and viewpoint neutral, said Volokh, adding that the tabling policy UW referenced in Schmidt’s suspension letter appears too vague to justify suspending his tabling privileges.
Well, hold a circus and performing elephants will appear
And that's just what's happening at the University of Wyoming in regard to the saga of Rev. Schmidt and his poorly thought out approach to arguing on whether transgenderism is real or not. GOP politicians, from that party that adopted the elephant to remind people that they'd seen it in the form of the Civil War, have appeared in the form of legislative members of the "Freedom Caucus" and, of course, Chuck Gray.* The letter was written, in fact, by his successor in office, Jeanette Ward, recent arrival from Illinois.1
Let's recap this a bit.
Rev. Schmidt has been maintaining a table in the UW Student Union in which he has books to the effect that evolution is a fib and that Dr. Fauci is some sort of misguided personage.
Rev. Schmidt called out a person who is undergoing some sort of "gender reassignment" by name, noting that it's contrary to how God created humanity.
That latter item is correct, even if Schmidt is wrong on the fossil record and Dr. Fauci, but the apparent approach, which is based directly and perhaps even solely on his religious views, and which was very forward, was always more likely to create a flap and repel people rather than convince them.2 A wise way to approach this would have been to argue biology and science, rather than religion, but Schmidt took the latter approach and is now preaching on campus, which perhaps he always did.
UW, faced with an issue not of its own making and certainly not of its desire, booted Schmidt out of the Student Union.3
Now members of the Freedom Caucus, that body of legislators whose name would suggest they are Libertines, but whom are not, have entered the fray, accusing UW of squelching Schmidt's right to free speech.4Given their entry and the presence of such notables as youthful Stolen Election Gray and Illinoisan Ward, who presumably have real tasks to do in their elective offices, this will become all the more circus like. Gray, of course, needs a new issue now that the Stolen Election Myth has gone down in flames and crashed all over the GOP outside of Wyoming, and Ward always campaigned from the extreme right, claiming she had to leave Illinois so that her youthful progeny didn't have to wear masks in school, among other things.
Sigh. . .
Nobody is going to talk the science at all.
There was a time, not all that long ago, when people claiming to be transgendered here would have simply been ignored, thereby being treated exactly the way they claim they want to be. Likewise, Rev. Schmidt would have been ignored, even at UW, of an earlier era also. Students wearing flannel and hiking boots would have simply walked on by.5
*I'm going to cite the Jimmy Akin citation rule here and ask why reporters don't upload a link to what they're writing about? Given as this is about a letter, and give that if we are reading about it, we can read, why don't they upload it so we can read it ourselves?
1. There is absolutely no way in any earlier era in which an Illinoisan who just arrived would have been elected to anything whatsoever in the state. Yes, that's provincialism, but sometimes provincialism is warranted.
For that matter, Gray couldn't get elected at first either, and in no earlier era would he have been elected Secretary of State.
2. And indeed this has sparked a counter student reaction, as was predictable.
Students can reliably be counted on to support any left wing cause, and pretty much always have. Communist spies of the 40s and 50s had been recruited out of campuses in the 20s and 30s. In the 30s, British university youth, who later defended the skies over the UK, publicly declared they wouldn't fight for Britain. People, who lament the treatment of Vietnam veterans today, protested the war in the 60s. Shoot, when I was at UW in the 80s nobody would ever say a good word about Ronald Reagan, who is now regarded by many as a hero.
There have been all sorts of students sign petitions on this matter, and not in the way that Ward and the Libertine, um no, the Freedom. . . um no, that doesn't seem right. . . oh, whatever it is, Caucus would like. And in a recent Trib article students proclaiming unconventional gender orientation, probably some of whom discovered that recently and will find it transitory, stated they were in fear, which if they are is probably because any hype tends to cause fear.
So Schmidt has managed not only to convince, he's done damage, as we said he was doing.
3. There might be a lesson in here in what happens when you convert a building from what was essentially offices, ancillary rooms and a bookstore into one that's a place for loitering of all types.
4. Is there any word more misused by movements than "freedom"?
5. A Palestinian protest at UW that occurred only shortly before I went there reportedly received that treatment. Students simply walked around it.
I don't recall any protests at all while I was there. While I was in law school, a big march by an out-of-state organization aimed at homosexuals resulted, fairly predictably at that time, in a big counterprotest by local residents who wanted the other group to just shut up and go away. I recall that surprising non-natives, but not natives, as the ethos of the state at the time was "I don't care what you do, just leave me alone". When people weren't called on to "celebrate" conduct they didn't support, or even were repelled by, they were pretty tolerant.
