The 2026 Election, 22nd Edition. The Stupid on Stilts Edition.

From Greed, 1925.

We're making a fortune. So if the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump Dividend. Congratulations.

Donald Trump at the GOP Midterm Convention.

A person would have to be stupid on stilts to believe that promise, and a similar one has been extended before.

Seriously, what kind of a dumbass believes anything Trump promises at this point?

The fact that the GOP is having a "Midterm" convention is itself an example of outright desperation and hubris on the part of Trump.  Trump loves Trump and you must love Trump, so he's reminding you of Trump Love so that you love him and vote for the GOP candidates to show your mindless cult like love.

The fact of the matter is that everything associated with Trump is going badly and his approval ranking is sinking like a rock.  In Wyoming it's down to 54% and the impact of the tariffs on Canada haven't even hit yet, much.  The war hasn't ended, inflation is about to ramp back up, and Trump's own weirdness is now too weird for anyone to ignore. The result is that Democrats, who were slated to take back the House, now appear likely to take back the Senate as well.  Even in Wyoming there's some hint that the Senate may be in play and it's clear that a large number of people really aren't keen on Chuck Gray, who has been pretty quiet since the primary.

Indeed, I've seen a little lashing out at John Barrasso, who isn't running for anything.  Now days we mostly see Dr. John looking at Donald Trump as if he, Barrasso, is suffering from a severe case of constipation.  He may be, as he's kept his true views on everything, none of which we know, bottled up inside of himself for so long.  Anyhow, if people are mad at Barrasso, who seems to have forgotten which state he's from, it doesn't bode well for Hageman and Gray, although they are both clearly the favorites.

This does bring us to some questions that should be asked in the next two months, however.  Those being:

1.  Do you support the undeclared war against Iran, and if yes, how do you justify no declaration of war existing?

2.  On data centers, a big deal here in Wyoming, are you against them like seemingly the majority of Wyomingites are, or for them, like Donald Trump is?

3.  What is your position on public lands?

4. For people who go outside, there are clearly environmental matters to be concerned about. Do you have any concerns, and if no, just don't tell us "it's a big fib", as that's just telling us that you'll lie for votes.  What is your justification?

5.  Epstein files. Why aren't they being released.

6.  What is your real plan for balancing the budget and addressing the debt and show us that it works.

7.  Do you support ending the trade war with Canada?

A note, prior endorsements on running candidates are below in a separate thread as an Appendix, which is also linked in below..  I'm doing that in this edition so as to not clog up the first part of it too much.

September 11, 2026

Two events occured yesterday which should; 1) cause a sane nation to invoke the 25th Amendment and 2) cause every Republican running for office to have to answer where they stand or never be voted on again.

The first.

Trump sworn his acolytes in so that they will be able to be called up as Long Knives to attack the upcoming Republican defeat in November.

It's not the pledge to go out and vote.  Frankly, most MAGA isn't paying any attention this anyway.  

It's the pledge to cheat.

Things Trump says cannot any longer be dismissed.  People who think that one liner means nothing are ignoring recent history.  He intends to steal the election.  If he pulls that off, if he's still living and semi coherent, he intends to serve a third term.

The second was a truly bizarre video based on the Paul Harvey "God made farmers" video of years ago with a "God gave us Trump" theme.

This latches on to the extreme Evangelical leg of the MAGA stool.  It would make most Christians of any branch absolutely cringe, and to claim a Divine mission like this may be very well blasphemous.

The questions that should be asked, and of any Republican candidate?

1.  Will you support the results of the November election no matter what they are.  If there's any hedging at all, tell the person they don't have your support for anything whatsoever.

2. Do you believe that Trump has a Divine mission?  Any answer than an unqualified no should disqualify the candidate.

I can guarantee you that almost any GOP candidate, particularly if they don't know your view going into the question, will waffle and not give a straight answer.

Carrying on a bit, the religiosity of this midterm Republican convention is really something else.  Protestant ministers showed up to speak at it and Tim Scott sounded like an Evangelist.  At some point Protestants who are members of these communities really have to ask their pastors how they can reconcile their faith with a man who so clearly ignores Christianity. 

Closer to home, Harriet Hageman is ignoring calls for a debate with James Byrd and Byrd is calling her out on it.  His post from Facebook:

James Byrd for United States Senate

IF YOU WON'T FIGHT FOR WYOMING ON A DEBATE STAGE, WHO ARE YOU FIGHTING FOR?

Harriet Hageman won't stand on a stage. She won't return calls. She won't even respond. And now her silence is about to cancel the one chance Wyoming voters had to see both Senate candidates side by side.

You don't get to represent this state if you won't show up and defend what you believe in front of it. Silence isn't leadership. It's a candidate deciding Wyoming doesn't deserve a real conversation at all.

Tell Wyoming PBS: don't let her refusal to stand for what she believes in decide this for the rest of us.

Stand and fight.

That really is a chicken move by Hageman, but it seems to me she's taken that approach in the past as well.

In the past it struck me as arrogance.  She stopped debating as a wave of the hand type of move, although Grey Bull pulled down 25% of the vote in 2022 and Cameron 23% in 2024.  Here, it strikes me as fear.  Gray Bull was a good debater and still drew 25% in a year that heavily favored Hageman.  Now, with four years in, Hageman has an extremely exposed record.  She poked Wyoming voters in the eye on public lands and basically called them dumb.  In the category of dumb, her family's homestead burned to the ground but she still is a climate change denier.  She was endorsed by Trump and has yet to explain how Wyoming farmer and ranchers should view South American beef.  It's unfortunate that she lost to Mead, who was such a better candidate.

It's pretty questionable how she'd do in a debate against Byrd.  Byrd would likely best her, and what's more, he knows that.  So he's making her chicken move an issue.

Hageman ought to be held to account for hiding.

AN OPEN LETTER TO WYOMING PBS

August 11, 2026

To the Leadership of Wyoming PBS,

On August 10, our campaign was notified that Wyoming PBS would not be holding a primary debate for U.S. Senate, because our opponent declined the invitation to participate. A similar notice was given to Lisa Kinney, one of the Democratic candidates for Wyoming's U.S. House seat, whose opponent also declined. As a result, neither of Wyoming's federal Democratic primary races will be represented in a debate on Wyoming PBS this cycle.

I want the public to know directly: I did not refuse this invitation. I remain ready and willing to speak to Wyoming voters in this format, and if Wyoming PBS were to offer me the opportunity, I would be there.

We understand the position Wyoming PBS is in. Federal equal-time provisions limit what a broadcaster can do when only one candidate is willing to appear, so PBS can't simply offer a solo forum in place of a debate, and balancing that against the responsibility to keep voters informed is a hard job. We don't take issue with that constraint itself.

But we do take issue with the precedent this sets.

If one candidate declining is all it takes to cancel a debate outright, then any candidate who wants to dodge scrutiny now has a guaranteed way to do it. That's not a neutral policy. It rewards avoidance and punishes the candidate who actually showed up. It hands one side the power to decide, unilaterally, whether Wyoming voters get to see a debate at all. That is not how this is supposed to work.

When journalism requires the participation of good faith actors, rather than holding all individuals to account regardless of whether they participate, it will ultimately fail at its own goal of accountability. It is always easier to hide than to be held to account.

We've also noticed a related pattern: nominees who clear a primary and then simply skip general election debates too. Put these trends together, and debate participation stops being something candidates owe their constituents. It becomes optional for anyone who calculates they have more to lose than gain by showing up. That should worry Wyoming PBS as much as it worries us.

We are asking Wyoming PBS to make a public commitment that the U.S. House and Senate debates ahead of the Nov. 3, 2026 general election will occur, period. That commitment should hold true regardless of the participation of our opponents.

If a candidate refuses to show up, hold the debate anyway and leave their podium empty. Stations across the country already do this when a candidate declines. It lets voters still hear from the candidates who did show up, and it makes the absent candidate's choice visible instead of erasing the event altogether. Voters deserve to hear from all candidates in each race. Short of that, they deserve to see plainly which candidates showed up to answer for their records and which ones didn't. No candidate should get to use their own absence as a weapon to keep another candidate off the stage.

We'd also push Wyoming PBS to rethink its approach for future primary cycles. One candidate's refusal shouldn't be enough to cancel a debate outright, and that shouldn't hinge on how many candidates happen to be on a given party's ballot. A party fielding one or two contested candidates deserves the same debate access as a party fielding a dozen. Anything less penalizes voters for the size of their party's field, not for anything they did.

We appreciate the work Wyoming PBS does for this state, and we expect a response.

Sincerely,

James Byrd

Byrd for Wyoming See less

 

September 12, 2026

Opponents Blast Hageman, Gray For Skipping PBS Debates Ahead Of General Election

It turns out that neither Gray nor Hageman are willing to debate.

I'd have much less faith in Kinney being able to really do well in a debate against Gray, although she was a practicing lawyer and has been a legislator.  Additionally, Gray's default setting when he gets stressed is asshole.

Both Hageman and Gray's campaigns are defending their position to be chickens.  So are their diehard supporters.  But it isn't a good look.

September 16, 2026

Rod Miller: Proposition 1 And Rolling The Dice For Lives

Rod Miller voices his opinion about Proposition 1.

What the text of Prop 1 states is:

(xliii) A portion of property used as a primary residence as a homeowner’s exemption. The following shall apply to the homeowner's exemption:

(A) For property used as a primary residence, fifty percent (50%) of the assessed value of the primary property is exempt from property taxation as a homeowner's exemption. Not more than one (1) homeowner’s exemption shall apply to the same property in any year and no owner shall claim more than one (1) homeowner’s exemption in any year including property that is improved by a residence that houses more than one (1) family. To claim a homeowner’s exemption the person shall have been a resident of this state for not less than one (1) year prior to claiming an exemption under this paragraph and shall have resided in the applicable primary residence for at least six (6) months of the immediately preceding tax year. To claim a homeowner’s exemption, the owner of the property shall submit a sworn claim to the county assessor not later than the fourth Monday in May on forms provided by the department of revenue demonstrating that the person is the owner of the property, and that the property is the person's primary residence. False claims are punishable as provided by W.S. 6-5-303.

Basically this proposition was a Wyoming Freedom Caucus "I just moved here with lots of money from California, bought a McMansion or a 40 acre dirt farm, drove up everyone's property taxes, and I don't like it".  The proposition would gut local communities income like a fish, which most of these people don't care about as they truly hate the government and don't care about educating children, for instance, as they prefer ignorance.

We're voting no on Prop 1.

Indeed, this is the one thing we've actually answered a poll on. The poll was clearly supposed to be in favor prop 1 and the pollster, pretty clearly calling from some place in the South, didn't really know how to react to my answers to the questions.

Speaking of speaking, where's Harriet and Chuck on doing a debate?

Speaking of those two, there are questions as we proceed along that they should be made to answer.

Harriet, now that her home county is on fire again, should be forced to answer if she's willing to basically burn everything down to support the lie that climate warming isn't real.  We all know it's real. She no doubt knows it's real.  Why the fib?

Both should be made to answer if they support the illegal war against Iran and why?

And what about those diesel prices, eh?

On other matters, there's some rumors going around that Bill Allemand, the far right wing Freedom Caucus candidate who barely survived a primary challenge, may bail out of office.  Apparently he may run through the election, according to one version of it, and then bail out some time after that.  Without the Freedom Caucus crew in Cheyenne there's nobody to tell him what to do, and it would appear, generally, he needs somebody to tell him what to do and he knows that.  He's not going to have any friends any longer in Cheyenne either.

If he bails out now, he probably throws that race to the Libertarian running in the district, although there is a Democrat running as well.  He likely won't do that now and I'm not exactly sure what happens if he does.  The logical thing would be that the other GOP candidate from the primary would replace him through a party process.  If he drops out after the fall election, and if he wins it, the party would pick three names and send them to the County Commissioners who would pick the new legislator.

That, in fact, is how Chuck Gray first took office.

September 17, 2026

The propeller hat Dixiecrats in the GOP are at war with their own party.  Unfortunately for that party, they are also in control of a lot of county, and the state, committees.

Hence some of those organizations basically backing the losing campaign of carpetbagger Rebecca Bextel.

Sheridan County GOP Posts, Then Removes, Statement Backing Bextel Over Barlow

Tom Lubnau: The Wyoming GOP Aims A Gun At Its Own Foot

The party is really hypocritical.  This past year it endorsed candidates in the primary for the first time and basically told GOP voters who they had to vote for.  It endorsed Hageman, Gray, and Bien.   Bien came in third in the Governor's race and they've been pouting ever since.

Barlow, who won the Governor's race, swamped his opponents, taking 45% of the vote, but sad Dixiecrats note that 45% is not 50%, and therefore, they argue, he's not the legitimate candidate.  That logic is pretty flawed as he certainly is under Wyoming's law, and his only real rival in the campaign was Trump endorsed Degenfelder, who took 30%.  Dixiecrat darling Bien took 24% and sad Confederates note that if you add Degenfelder and Bien together, that's more than 50%.

It is, but it assumes that Degenfelder voters would have voted for Bien if she hadn't been running. The opposite is probably true.  The 1/3 bottom of the bell curve probably would have voted for Trump knighted Degenfelder if Bien hadn't been running, but Degenfelder voters in large part would likely have gone for Barlow if Bien hadn't thrown his gray kepi into the ring.  If anyone had an argument here, therefore, it would be Degenfelder.

Neither Bien or Degenfelder, who hope to dig out of their holes rather than convert them into political graves have said anything about the results being illegitimate but upset WFC members have a bit, for Bien.  They tried to get a write in campaign going for him and at least locally one badly defeated WFC  member still is.  Others, including some committee members, are backing Bextel, who will lose massively in November.

The Constitution Party itself, which support a strict reading of a double secret constitution only they know about, is open enough itself to admit that it's hoping that Bextel can pull down 10% of the vote so that it can be a "major" party.  Under Wyoming's law on primaries, which I believe to be unconstitutional, that would make the party the very model of a modern major party.

That result might occur and it might actually be a good thing, although anyone voting for Bextel, as noted, fits into the bottom end of the bell curve.  What it would do, however, is give propeller hat wearing Dixiecrats a place to actually go, and they should go there. They are not Republicans.

Lubnau notes that upset Dixiecrats in GOP committees positions oddly don't make the same argument about Freedom Caucus darling Chuck Gray, who only pulled down 25% of the vote.  While Barlow isn't threatened by Bextel, Gray actually may be by Libertarian Johnson and Democrat Kinney.  I wouldn't have given Kinney any chance at all, but Gray's refusing to debate her is actually elevating her status.

On Sheridan County, while some on its GOP committee may be crying in their Bomber Mountain Amber Ale, the results were the same as they were statewide.  Barlow swamped his competition and while Bien did come in second there, he only barely beat out Degenfelder.  Again, those Degenfelder votes would have most likely gone to Barlow.  And Gray only barely beat out Biteman and Christensen there.

One final thing to note. Teton County, where Bextel has hung her kepi, and Sheridan County, are the homes to a lot of rich carpetbaggers.  These people tend to vote their own economic interests, and not paying taxes and telling the peasants to go **** *** are in that category.  Like the rank and file in Confederate Gray in the 1860s, a lot of that rank and file (which here includes a lot of carpetbaggers) tend to be dim enough to follow the dictates of their oligarchic masters.  We're seeing that, and frankly just a lot of real bottom of the bell curve ignorance, at work on these topics.

On other topics, Postmaster General David Steiner wants to quit his job, according to insiders.

He should as he's serving a madman.

The Post Office has been in the news recently as Trump keeps ordering it to impose impossible regulations on mail in voting, which Trump himself uses, as part of Trump's effort to interfere with and steal the November election. The Supreme Court won't let him so he's having a major tantrum.

cont:

Holy smokes. . Rebecca Bextel has released a campaign video.  Buckhorn Bar t-shirt aside (after a certain age, no matter how doe eyed you may be, you can't pull that off), she sounds like the biggest Alabama hick ever.  Her accent is so thick it's really impressive.  Trying to use the tag line "you don't have to be smart to be governor", she unintentionally sounds to native Westerners as Southern hick, which is admittedly a stereotype, given that's how Westerners tend to view Southerners.  Southerners probably are unaware of that.  

Bextel has lived in Wyoming for 20 years, which  means that she's hardly lived here any time at all.  And she lives in Teton County, which Deep Wyoming regards as California.

Anyhow, in terms of actual intelligence, Barlow is a veterinarian, one of the most difficult degrees to obtain.  Bextel has a degree from the University of Alabama, although I don't know in what.

Becky also tried to sound tough in a recent Chamber of Commerce appearance by claiming she had "bigger balls" than her opponent.

Pretty insightful, really.  She had to demean her status as a woman in order to have merit in her own eyes.

The Dixiecrats.  Just go home.

September 18, 2026

Harriet Hageman wrote a guest column in the Cowboy State Daily regarding birth right citizenship.

Guest Column: Birth Tourism Is Diluting American Citizenship. Here’s What Trump Should Do

Hageman won't debate her opponents and probably for good reason.  She's arrogantly supported a bill that would have set public lands up to be privatized and essentially called Wyomingites' opposing it stupid.  She claimed to be a "Constitutional Conservative" but has done nothing about Trump running roughshod over the Constitution, including waging an illegal war that's driving up prices for everyone in the state.  She has nothing to campaign on and American's short attention span doesn't allow for a "I'm not Liz Cheney" as a platform.  With Trump down to a 54% approval rating in Wyoming, "I love Trump" is starting not to sell so well either.  So she's taking a page out of the Desperate GOP Playbook, that being hordes of foreigners are coming here to have babies, or in this particular case, hordes of Chinese are coming to have babies.

Well, in reality, for the first time in fifty years the US had negative migration last year. That is, more people are leaving the US than entering it.  The US has been teetering on the edge of rapid decline for years, but Trump has floored the accelerator on that, with the help of Republicans in Congress, and the country looks like a joke.  China, the nation which Harriet maintains is trying to plant vast hordes of babies into our country, is the clearly up and coming nation.

The truth of the matter is that this problem, if there was one, has pretty much jumped the shark.  While I'm really skeptical of it being a crisis, right wing demographers right now are arguing the opposite problem, that being that the US population is actually starting to decline, that decline accelerated by the country having become unwelcoming to foreigners.  The solution is supposed to be for (white) Americans to get busy, so to speak.

That interestingly cuts in an opposite direction for a person like Hageman, and it really stands in contrast to Cheney.  Cheney, now 60 years of age, is a Gen Xer and the mother of five children.  Hageman (age 63) is technically a Baby Boomer (perhaps more accurately a Gen. Jonser) with no children whatsoever.  Both are lawyers, but Hageman looks a lot more like a feminist in every fashion.  Indeed, as I slightly knew here, and knew her friends better, I was quite surprised early on when she emerged as a Conservative.

I'm well aware, of course, that these sorts of questions aren't even supposed to be raised in polite society, but we no longer live in a polite society and people like Hageman are part of the reason why we do not. So the questions are fair game.

Anyhow, Hageman may have some accomplishments but I don't know what they are, and whatever they are, they to not appear to be large enough to justify voting for her.  Mostly she's been a Trump loyalist right up until recently, and an opponent of public lands.  She's complicit in the failures of the Trump Administration by doing nothing, or actively supporting them, and she's detrimental to the interest of Wyoming.

Time, therefore, to drag out the Hordes Of Chinese Babies Have Landed on Our Shores line.

Prior related recent threads:

Something is going on, and I'm not the only one sensing it.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, Adam Kinzinger, Canada, Donald Trump, Evangelical, Food, Immigration, inflation, Taxes, The Second Trump Administration, The Trump Trade War with Canada, Trump Trade Wars, United States

Appendices:

The 2026 Election, 22nd Edition. The Stupid on Stilts Edition. Appendix 1.

Last edition:

The 2026 Election, 21st Edition. The Contest in the General Election.

Labels: Bill Allemand, Constitution Party, Democratic Party, Economics, Industry, Joe Porambo, Karlee Provenza, Keenan Morgan, Libertarian, Ogden Driskill, Republican Party, Rod Miller, Tamara Trujillo, Wyoming (Natrona County)2026 Election, Ana Cordova, Brent Bien, Bryan McCarty, Chuck Gray, Eric Barlow, Harriet Hageman, James Byrd, Kenneth Casner, Kevin Christensen, Rebecca Bextel, Robert Short, Shaun Johnson, Steve Harshman, Wyoming

Something is going on, and I'm not the only one sensing it.

Something is finally going on causing a definite shift in views, and support, for Donald Trump.

This was my through at 3:00 a.m. when the dog woke me up. I started to read the news items for the day shortly after that.

And then, taking a look at the blogs I follow, I ran across this:

Something New Is Happening. Republicans Are Stopping Me to Say Thank You.

For years the reaction from most Republicans was anger. Lately it's been something else.

Adam Kinzinger is right, something is happening.

It was Lincoln who is attributed as saying; "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."*I've thought of that from time to time over the last two years as it seems like Trump has managed to pull off fooling a lot of the people a lot of the time.  Having said that, he never fooled all of the people at any one time.  Frankly, if every eligible American had voted, he wouldn't be President.

Donald Trump is a horrible human being and he reflects the worst in American culture in every fashion. Beyond that, he reflects the wort of the wealthy.  That so many have willingly followed where he was leading, which was never clear in the first place, is simply amazing and speaks very poorly of Americans.

But the fact of the matter is that Americans actually never wanted to go where he was leading.

Boiled down to its essence, Trump reflected a nativist, isolationist, view that's always existed in American culture.  At various times that view has dominated the country.  We just don't recall that as it hasn't dominated it since December 7, 1941.  It came back as the voting class aged into a demographic where the lack of cooperation and involvement in the globe and its result was forgotten. The Great Depression/World War Two generation is dead.

Trump also reflected an American culture that was ill at ease with much that the progressive left stood for.  Transgenderism, multiculturalism, economic globalism, were all things that were on people's minds in various degrees.  Biden's failure to control illegal immigration over the Mexican border was the final straw for a lot of people for various reasons.  While that was a real problem, it also unleashed racist nativism that most Americans had assumed was a thing of the past, but which very much turned out not to be.

And then there were those who voted for him, some holding their noses, for a host of other reasons.  The Democrats failed to learn that the seas of blood from infanticide prohibited many voters from considering them where they otherwise would.  As AOC stated, "Woke 1 was weird" and that prevented many from voting for Democrats.  Trump left Biden with the disastrous surrender in Afghanistan and many blamed, and still blame, Biden for that.  And Biden was a flat out horrifically bad candidate in 2024 given his very obvious mental decline.

What was always obvious to those not besotted with Trump is that he was in a rocketing mental decline 2024 and that he was surrounded by weirdos and extremist.  That wasn't as obvious to others.

But it's true.  The fringe hard right of Protestant Evangelicalism, which many other Christians find to be unsettling at best saw, and still see, Trump as a way to bring about a new Israel in the form of the United States.  National Conservatives, a totally different group, saw Trump as a useful idiot whose laziness would allow them to remodel the globe on the 19th Century lines they adhore while bring about an cultural reform that would make Franco proud.  People with fringe economic theories saw the same silly putty mind of Trump being something they could use to implement their radical economic theories.

But most people who voted for Trump didn't hold most of the more odd views associated with his administration. They didn't read Project 2025, didn't have time to read it, and didn't have the interest to read it.

So, most people who voted for Trump wanted him to stop illegal immigration and send the illegal migrants home, to stop the evolving trend of weird gender theory (which was very much there), and to get out and stay out of foreign wars.  Quite a few, but not all, thought if that meant making the country more "white",more "protestant", and more protectionist, a bit, that was okay, as long as that didn't really mean they had to do anything themselves.  And an overwhelming majority of them really didn't back any particular aspect of conservatism, let alone far right conservatism, whatsoever.

Populism, it must be remembered, is just as much of a left wing thing as a right wing one.

People don't like to admit that they made a mistake.  They'll admit it, but only reluctantly.  And this is all the more the case now due to the internet, which has made people's declaration of support so much easier to recollect.

But something has happened.

I think that the trade war with Canada was the last straw.

Literally nobody but the willfully deluded believes that launching a trade war with Canada made any sense whatsoever.  All of the excuses for it were complete bunk. Even the scaled dairy tariffs that some like to cite to have never come into effect as they require such a massive amount of Canadian imports of American dairy to take effect.  Canada  has been our friend and neighbor for over a century.

Donald Trump likes to claim to be a master negotiator but in reality he's just an arrogant asshole bully.  A lot of other nations have managed to deflect his tariffs one way or another without launching a trade war with the US as they're counting on Americans coming to our senses, although they are moving on. Canadians, however, are proud and their tired of putting up with the arrogance that Americans show around the world.  We aren't the most advanced nation in the world, nor the freest.  Everyone but we know that, and the Canadians, who live next door, very much know it.

Canada has a history of being willing to endure for its own aims and has defeated the US in wars twice.  It had enough.

Americans, for their part, have a history of abandoning wars they were not keen on at the onset.  New England nearly left the union during the War of 1812 and it refused to stop trading with the United Kingdom during the war.  New England, again, basically chose not to participate in the Mexican War, which became, up until the current war, the most unpopular war in American history.  Americans were never hugely convinced that we needed to be in Vietnam and when the things got really tough, we left.

The President of the United States insulting Canada is frankly shocking to most Americans.  It's almost impossible to find anyone who supports it.  A lot of rank and file Americans are open about being shocked, many hoping that Canadians do not end up hating Americans because of it (the ship has sailed on that, they do).  And this followed hard on the heels of the administration repeatedly lying about the war in Iran, which Americans never supported either.

We're now seeing an American population that finds itself being hated by its closest neighbor, which many American adore, while fighting a war against a country that many suspect is a proxy war for another country, while the Chief Executive supports the brutal rape of another country by a vile dictator, while we steal another country's resources.  At home prices are going up on everything while he has the unmitigated gall so suggest that doesn't matter.  

In the recent primary election here, for the first time, even the hard right Wyoming Freedom Caucus had people who were angry with Trump.  As Trump's intellect is stunted, he's a fan of data centers which many people in rural communities are not, and that's angering people here and in other rural areas.  He's taken a sharp stick and poked agriculture in the eye, and ranchers are actually complaining about it.

The trade war with Canada will make this infinitely worse.

When the price of toilet paper goes up, and it's going to go up, people aren't going to metaphorically take it sitting down, even if they physically will have to.

Trump's support in Wyoming is at 54%.  Down from 75%.  We're now close to having a majority of Wyomingites that don't support him.  

Cowboy Joe Six Pack isn't going to be thrilled about any of this.  Paying $6.00 for diesel in a truck that will go up in price 10% in order to order an Argentinian Big Mac.  

And, this winter, wait until Joe learns where these are made:

Ski-doo from their (Bombardier) website, posted under fair use exception.

Like Donald now?

Not so much. 

I think things have shifted.

Footnotes:

*Apparently, he actually didn't say that.

Thursday, August 19, 1976. Ford prevails over Reagan.

U.S. President Gerald Ford edged out challenger Ronald Reagan, 1,187 to 1,070 in delegate votes, on the first ballot to win the Republican National Convention in Kansas City.  He thereafter chose Sen. Bob Dole as his running mate.

The choice would prove fateful.  Ford was swimming upstream against an insurgent Carter due to the impact of Watergate, when Americans still cared about corruption, and high inflation.  Carter, of course, would prove to be a weak President, giving rise to a successful run by Reagan in 1980, who in the meantime had developed a Southern strategy that would ultimately destroy the GOP.

Last Edition:

Wednesday, August 18, 1976. Panmunjom axe murder incident (Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건).

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Army, British League of Nations Mandates, Catholic, Christianity, Communism, Namibia, North Korea, North Korean Army, Operation Paul Bunyan, Poland, religion, South Africa, South Korea, South Korean Army

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 6. The screwworm edition.

Exports of petroleum products and capital goods jumped to record highs reducing the U.S. trade deficit. 

The capital goods item is interesting and I haven't seen it explained. That is a positive trend, if sustainable. The oil exportation one is not as it depletes a diminishing resource at the expense of U.S. consumers. A lot of it seems to be related to AI exports, which isn't necessarily good, aircraft production, and war related purchases.  If all that is correct, it won't be sustainable at the current levels, probably.

Screwworms have reappeared in Texas after a sixty year hiatus.  The Trump administration is blaming the Biden Administration, as that's its default thing to do, but the Trumpistas lifted protections that were in place and allowed importation of Mexican cattle via ports in a probable attempt to lower beef prices. This is likely to have the opposite effect.  It's a more likely cause, although there were concerns about animals moving across the border illegally during the Biden Administration.

Mexico itself was screwworm free as of 1991.  Somehow that got reversed one way or another, and now the problem is back.  Given that, it probably was coming back no matter what.  It is a major crisis.

Nobody has cited the weather, but it is spread by a fly, and that may very well have resulted to the spread of the flies range.

Inflation is up to 4.2%.

cont:

Reporter: Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning?

Trump: No, I love it. I love the inflation.

Johnson is already saying that's not what he meant.

June 14, 2026

Indeed, this would be horrible news:

Wyoming Outfitters, Hunters Say Screwworm Would Be Wildlife Disaster If It Hits State

And Carney continues to press for the new reality of American unreliability.

‘A global rupture’: Carney calls for Canada-EU unity before G7 summit

Canada’s prime minister has warned that the ‘rules-based’ global order is ‘breaking down’ amid superpower dominance.

June 19, 2026

Those of us in the livestock industry should pray for rain.  We also ought to realize that voting for climate change deniers like Harriet Hageman is basically putting a knife to the through our our children, and then cutting their arteries.

Wyoming Ranchers Pray For Rain As Drought, Demand Push Beef To Record High Prices

Drought?  Get real.  This isn't a normal drought.

June 22, 2026

Senate overwhelmingly passes sweeping bipartisan housing affordability bill

A rare distributist bill.  It bans private equity acquisition of homes.

It will be challenged 

Senate overwhelmingly passes sweeping bipartisan housing affordability bill

June 26, 2026

West Texas is at $69.53.

June 30, 2026

The 1.5-gigawatt Prometheus Hyperscale data center will now all be in Natrona County on the Falls Ranch property owned by Texas billionaire carpetbagger Russell Gordy.

Trump called the housing bill that passed both houses "a big yawn".  He's holding it hostage in hopes it makes congress pass the antidemocratic SAVE Act.

July 1, 2026

ABC reports that  President Trump has earned more than $1 billion from his cryptocurrency ventures while in office.

July 2, 2026

Grand Teton National Park employees unionize

Lawmakers mull reviving state program to funnel money to towns, counties for basic needs

July 9, 2026

Wyoming coal company wins federal money to extract critical minerals from Powder River Basin

July 14, 2026

Illegal tariffs being refunded pushed the June federal budget deficit up to $120 billion.

July 15, 2026

Headline in the CST:

Low US birth rate may create future housing glut

Also a headline in the CST:

Out of reach:  Research: More young Americans can’t afford to buy a starter home

In truth, the two headlines actually aren't contradictory.  An era of declining population will come, and that will cause a housing glut. And that's all a good thing.

July 20, 2026

The illegitimate demented fool occupying the White House as Congress is too cowardly to boot him out, is attempting to raise tariffs on Canada 50%.

Yet another dumb ass diversion

It'll fail in the courts.

July 22, 2026

Trump approved a 30 year deal with Saudi Arabia that will provide the it with a civilian nuclear program and potentially open the door to uranium enrichment in the kingdom.

The Saudi's likely want this as they know that oil is a finite resource, which we seemingly do not, and they know that global warming is not a fib, which the GOP does not.

What an irony, however. Nuclear deal with a theocratic Islamic state while we're at war with another nearby theocratic Islamic state for having a nuclear program.

And, an interesting examination of petroleum prices:

July 24, 2026

The Trump administration is imposing new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on 60 trading partners, including the European Union, on the pretext of lax enforcement of forced labor bans.  

It comes right as the 10% tariffs expire and it'll be challenged in court, and fail.

It's really difficult to believe that an administration that won't release all the Epstein files, which involved a sort of child sexual labor, is concerned about forced labor.  This is absurd but fits into the Navarro economic model Der Fibber has bought into.

July 30, 2026

Coal and the Wyoming Congressional Delegation. They always have your back:

Wyoming Congressional Delegation Silent On Peabody's Move To Cut Retirement Benefit

July 31, 2026

The Tepid Trump Economy

Growth fell in the second quarter, despite the AI business spending boom.

Cont:

The Trump administration announced it will end the Medicare Part D subsidy program in 2027.

Last edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2026. The Times more or less locally, Part 4. Economics in the Dementia Ward.

Labels: Distributism, Donald Trump, Economics, Petroleum, Subsidiarity, Taxes, The Law of Unintended Consequences, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming, Wyoming's boom and bust economy, Yeoman's Fourth Law of History