It has been noted by a press pool reporter that when the defense is introduced to the potential jurors seated in the audience, Defendant Trump does not rise to face them like his lawyers do.
What an idiot. Setting himself up to lose through rude conduct. Everyone rises when the jurors come in, and the defendant should always directly face them. They've surely instructed him to do so.
April 17, 2024.
9.4 million illegal aliens have entered this country under President Biden, 1 million more than the population of New York City and more than 16x the population of Wyoming.
The unprecedented invasion is a direct result of the open borders agenda of
@POTUS
and Alejandro Mayorkas.
From a Twitter post of Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis.
Alejandro Mayorkas is not going to be removed from office.
Moreover, everyone with any political savvy knows this. Sen. Lummis knows this, as do the other members of Wyoming's Washington representation, one of whom will be a prosecutor in the impeachment trial, if an impeachment trial actually occurs, which I very much doubt.
Rather, the Senate Republicans will screw around with this until the Democrats dismiss it.
The validity of the impeachment process will be tarnished even more than it has been since the ill-advised GOP effort to impeach Bill Clinton brought us into the modern political impeachment era, and the border won't get address, in no small part because Donald Trump, who is in the first of what will be several trials, would rather have it as issue than address it.
Congress, of course, could have addressed this, but for following the Trump directive to the GOP. There's utterly no excuse for the GOP failure to act. If the bill wasn't prefect, it was much better than any others for years, and if they take a two house and Oval Office majority in November, which I doubt they will, they could have improved it. Indeed, their failure to act not only makes this look incredibly hypocritical, but puts them in jeopardy of losing the House.
We will see a Twitter storm of GOP tweets. Most will be ignored. The worshiping spectrum of the GOP, the ignorant populists masses, will swoon over every word while the now purifying corpse of the GOP elephant starts to stink even more, actual Republicans and conservatives not knowing how to remove it.
Indeed, on the Twitter Storm, populist far right Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer took to twitter to demand that Mayorkas receive a full trial in the Senate as, she suggested, the Constitution demands, while at least one of her critics noted she didn't feel that way when Trump was up for impeachment.
All this while very little gets done and Americans lose faith in their government, save for a tiny sliver who somehow feel the dissolution of a 200+ year old institution is serving democracy, when in fact it's destroying it.
April 18, 2024
And the Senate dismissed the articles of impeachment, making my prediction of no trial accurate. I thought there would be a motion to dismiss, and there was.
The motion came up immediately, and Chuck Schumer offered debate time, but Republicans, who apparently have no sense of procedure, rejected that, demanding a full trial, and thereby demonstrating the sort of hubris, ignorance and stupidity that criminal defendants sometimes do. Schumer replied and went right to the vote.
The vote was down the party line, Republicans who know better not having the guts to vote in favor of the motion.
By this point, the dysfunctional circus that Congress has become now attracts so little attention for even extraordinary events, which this fits into as it's an extraordinary dereliction of duty and common sense by those who voted for it in the House, that it doesn't even make the primary headlines.
No doubt Wyoming's Senators went home and breathed a sigh of relief, being spared acting on this absurdity, and also being spared the pangs of acting in contravention to their conscience. And the issue is preserved for red meat tweets, texts and speeches, so attacking the Democrats on an issue that Republicans refused to act on, when they had the chance, can still be done.
And hence this circus closed.
Calvin Coolidge, just one day after saying he had decided a new Attorney General, nominated Harlan Fiske Stone to that position.
The Bulgarian Communist Party was outlawed due to its role in attempting to overthrow the government.
A large demonstration broke out at the funeral of German monarchist Wilhelm Dreyer who had died in a French prison following his dynamiting a train in the French occupied Ruhr.
The Cla McIver rescued passengers of the SS Frangestan which had caught on fire. The 1,200 mostly Muslim passengers were on their way to Mecca.
Bobby Ávila, 1954 American League batting champion and Player of the Year, was born in Veracruz. He'd later be mayor of the city.
Last prior edition:
Eight members of the Ohio National Guard were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for violation of civil rights due to the shooting of thirteen students at Ken State in 1970. Five of the charges were felonies.
The Chinese Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang was discovered. The massive statuary army was built to protect the Emperor, who was interred around 210 BC to 209 BC in the afterlife.
Speed limits on British highways, which had been reduced due to the Oil Embargo, were restored.
The Volkswagen Golf was introduced as the replacement for the Beetle.
Related threads:
Last prior edition:
The Mayor and Common Council of Annapolis, Maryland declared a by-law to prevent the firing of firearms and openly carrying them with in the city. Violators were to be fined $5.00 for firing a gun, a hefty fine in those days, and $1.00 for openly carrying one.
However, if an offender was a slave, lashes or ten days imprisonment was ordered. Slaves actually were commonly entrusted with firearms both for hunting purposes, thereby offsetting part of the costs of holding and keeping them or to keep them in good repair.
This item is interesting for numerous reasons. One is, contrary to what people like to believe, the banning of openly carrying firearms was common throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries, and into the 20th. Concealed firearms, however, tended to be a different matter. Secondly, for much of the 18th Century, and into the 19th Century, armed slaves were not uncommon, which sounds odd, but they had little chance for escape, firearms were a common tool, and it demonstrated how cheap slaveholders could be, in that slaves often had to provide part of their own sustenance.
Related threads:
Last prior edition:
Very unusual to see a one off bill like this:
To prohibit the implementation of the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming, and for other purposes.
Ms. Hageman introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
To prohibit the implementation of the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. RESTRICTION ON DRAFT RMP AND EIS FOR ROCK SPRINGS RMP REVISION, WYOMING.
The Secretary of the Interior may not finalize, implement, administer, or enforce the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming, referred to in the notice of availability titled “Notice of Availability of the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming” published by the Bureau of Land Management on August 18, 2023 (88 Fed. Reg. 56654).
FWIW, a really good look at the plan was featured on Governor Gordon's podcast. The big complaint with the plan (which I don't think is that bad) what that it was sort of dropped on the area by the BLM after people believed that the groups they were working in with the BLM would have an impact on the plan, and didn't appear to.
I'd guess, but don't know, that the chances of a one off bill passing in the current Congress is really small.
Trowels and muskets.
BYU is taking flak for making its incoming students read Jeffrey Holland's "trowel and musket" speech regarding BYU's second century, which he delivered back in 2001.
Holland is a figure in the LDS's governing body. His speech, is copyrighted, but under the fair comment exception I'm setting it out here. It stated:
Someone once told me that the young speak of the future because they have no past, while the elderly speak of the past because they have no future. Although it damages that little aphorism, I who have no future have come to you as the veritable Ancient of Days to speak of the future of BYU, but a future anchored in our distinctive past. If I have worded that just right, it means I can talk about anything I want.
I am grateful that the full university family is gathered today—faculty, staff, and administration. Regardless of your job description, I am going to speak to all of you as teachers, because at BYU that is what all of us are. Thank you for being faithful role models in that regard. We teach at BYU.
I can’t be certain, but I think that it was in the summer of 1948 when I had my first BYU experience. I would have been seven years old. We were driving back to St. George in a 1941 Plymouth from one of our rare trips to Salt Lake City. As we came down old highway 91, I saw high on the side of one of the hills a huge block Y—white and bold and beautiful.
I don’t know how to explain that moment, but it was a true epiphany for a seven-year-old, if a seven-year-old can have an epiphany. If I had already seen that Y on the drive up or at any other time, I couldn’t remember it. That day I probably was seeing it for the first time. I believe I was receiving a revelation from God. I somehow knew that bold letter meant something special—something special to me—and that it would one day play a significant role in my life. When I asked my mother what it meant, she said it was the emblem of a university. I thought about that for a moment, still watching that letter on the side of the hill, and then said quietly to her, “Well, it must be the greatest university in the world.”
My chance to actually get on campus came in June 1952, four years after that first sighting. That summer I accompanied my parents to one of the early leadership weeks—a precursor to what is now the immensely popular BYU Education Week held on campus. That means I came here for my first BYU experience sixty-nine years ago, with a preview of that four years earlier. If anyone in this audience has been coming to this campus longer than that, please come forward and give this talk. Otherwise, sit still and be patient. As Elizabeth Taylor said to her eight husbands, “I won’t be keeping you long.”
My point, dear friends, is simply this: I have loved BYU for nearly three-fourths of a century. Only my service in and testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—which includes and features foremost my marriage and the beautiful children it has given us—have affected me as profoundly as has my decision to attend Brigham Young University. No one in my family had. In so testifying, I represent literally hundreds of thousands of other students who made that decision and say that same thing.
So, for the legions of us over the years, I say: Thank you. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for classes taught and meals served and grounds so well kept. Thank you for office hours and lab experiments and testimonies shared—gifts given to little people like me so we could grow up to be big people like you. Thank you for choosing to be at BYU, because your choice affected our choice, and, like Mr. Frost’s poetic path, “that has made all the difference.”
“A Trowel in One Hand and a Musket in the Other”
I asked President Kevin J Worthen for a sample of the good things that have been happening of late, and I was delighted at the sheaf of items he gave me—small type, single-spaced lines, reams, it looked like—everything from academic recognitions and scholarly rankings to athletic successes and the reach of BYUtv. Karl G. Maeser would be as proud as I was.
But President Worthen and I both know those aren’t the real success stories of BYU. These are rather, as some say of ordinances in the Church, “outward signs of an inward grace.”2 The real successes at BYU are the personal experiences that thousands here have had—personal experiences difficult to document or categorize or list. Nevertheless, these are so powerful in their impact on the heart and mind that they have changed us forever.
I run a risk in citing any examples beyond my own, but let me mention just one or two.
One of our colleagues seated here this morning wrote of his first-semester, pre-mission enrollment in my friend C. Wilfred Griggs’s History of Civilization class. But this was going to be civilization seen through a BYU lens. So, as preambles to the course, Wilf had the students read President Spencer W. Kimball’s talk “The Second Century of Brigham Young University”3 and the first chapter of Hugh Nibley’s book Approaching Zion.4
Taken together, our very literate friend said these two readings “forged an indestructible union in my mind and heart between two soaring ideals—that of a consecrated university with that of a holy city. Zion, I came to believe, would be a city with a school [and, I would add, a temple, creating] something of a celestial college town, or perhaps a college kingdom.”
After his mission, our faculty friend returned to Provo, where he fell under the soul-expanding spell of John S. Tanner, “the platonic ideal of a BYU professor—superbly qualified in every secular sense, totally committed to the kingdom, and absolutely effervescing with love for the Savior, his students, and his subject. He moved seamlessly from careful teacher analysis to powerful personal testimony. He knew scores of passages from Milton and other poets by heart, [yet] verses of scripture flowed, if anything, even more freely from the abundance of his consecrated heart: I was unfailingly edified by the passion of his teaching and the eloquence of his example.”
Why would such a one come back to teach at BYU after a truly distinguished postgraduate experience that might well have taken him to virtually any university in America? Because, our colleague said, “in a coming day the citizens of Zion ‘shall come forth with songs of everlasting joy’ [Moses 7:53]. I hope,” he wrote, “to help my students hear that chorus in the distance and to lend their own voices, in time, to its swelling refrain.”
Such are the experiences we hope to provide our students at BYU, though probably not always so poetically expressed. But imagine then the pain that comes with a memo like this one I recently received. These are just a half-dozen lines from a two-page document:
“You should know,” the writer said, “that some people in the extended community are feeling abandoned and betrayed by BYU. It seems that some professors (at least the vocal ones in the media) are supporting ideas that many of us feel are contradictory to gospel principles, making it appear to be about like any other university our sons and daughters could have attended. Several parents have said they no longer want to send their children here or donate to the school.
“Please don’t think I’m opposed to people thinking differently about policies and ideas,” the writer continued. “I’m not. But I would hope that BYU professors would be bridging those gaps between faith and intellect and would be sending out students who are ready to do the same in loving, intelligent, and articulate ways. Yet I fear that some faculty are not supportive of the Church’s doctrines and policies and choose to criticize them publicly. There are consequences to this. After having served a full-time mission and marrying her husband in the temple, a friend of mine recently left the Church. In her graduation statement on a social media post, she credited [such and such a BYU program and its faculty] with the radicalizing of her attitudes and the destruction of her faith.”7
Fortunately we don’t get too many of those letters, but this one isn’t unique. Several of my colleagues get the same kind, with almost all of them ultimately being forwarded to poor President Worthen. Now, most of what happens on this campus is absolutely wonderful. That is why I began as I did, with my own undying love of this place. But every so often we need a reminder of the challenge we constantly face here. Maybe it is in this meeting. I certainly remember my own experiences in these wonderful beginning-of-the-school-year meetings and how much it meant to me to be with you then. Well, it means that again today.
Here is something I said on this subject forty-one years ago, almost to the day. I was young. I was unprepared. I had been president for all of three weeks.
I said then and I say now that if we are an extension of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, taking a significant amount of sacred tithes and other precious human resources, all of which might well be expended in other worthy causes, surely our integrity demands that our lives “be absolutely consistent with and characteristic of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.”8 At a university there will always be healthy debate regarding a whole syllabus full of issues. But until “we all come [to] the unity of the faith, and . . . [have grown to] the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,” our next best achievement will be to stay in harmony with the Lord’s anointed, those whom He has designated to declare Church doctrine and to guide Brigham Young University as its trustees.
In 2014, seven years ago, then Elder Russell M. Nelson came to campus for a BYU leadership meeting. His remarks were relatively brief, but, tellingly, he said:
With the Church growing more rapidly in the less prosperous countries, we . . . must conserve sacred funds more carefully than ever before.
At BYU we must ally ourselves even more closely with the work of our Heavenly Father. . . .
A college education for our people is a sacred responsibility, [but] it is not essential for eternal life.
A statement like that gets my attention, particularly because just a short time later President Nelson started to chair our board of trustees, hold our purse strings, and have the final “yea” or “nay” on every proposal we might make—from a new research lab to more undergraduate study space to approving a new pickup truck for the physical facilities staff! Russell M. Nelson is very, very good at listening to us. We who sit with him every day have learned the value of listening carefully to him.
Three years later, in 2017, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, not then but soon to be in the First Presidency, where he would sit only one chair—one heartbeat—away from the same position President Nelson now has, quoted our colleague Elder Neal A. Maxwell, who had said:
In a way scholars at BYU and elsewhere are a little bit like the builders of the temple in Nauvoo, who worked with a trowel in one hand and a musket in the other. Today scholars building the temple of learning must also pause on occasion to defend the kingdom. I personally think this is one of the reasons the Lord established and maintains this university. The dual role of builder and defender is unique and ongoing. I am grateful we have scholars today who can handle, as it were, both trowels and muskets.
To this, Elder Oaks then challengingly responded, “I would like to hear a little more musket fire from this temple of learning.” He said this in a way that could have applied to a host of topics in various departments, but the one he specifically mentioned was the doctrine of the family and defending marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Little did he know that while many would hear his appeal, especially the School of Family Life, which moved quickly and visibly to assist, some others fired their muskets all right, but unfortunately they didn’t always aim at those hostile to the Church. We thought a couple of stray rounds even went north of the Point of the Mountain!
My beloved brothers and sisters, “a house . . . divided against itself . . . cannot stand,” and I will go to my grave pleading that this institution not only stands but stands unquestionably committed to its unique academic mission and to the Church that sponsors it. We hope it isn’t a surprise to you that your trustees are not deaf or blind to the feelings that swirl around marriage and the whole same-sex topic on campus—and a lot of other topics. I and many of my Brethren have spent more time and shed more tears on this subject than we could ever adequately convey to you this morning or any morning. We have spent hours discussing what the doctrine of the Church can and cannot provide the individuals and families struggling over this difficult issue. So it is with a little scar tissue of our own that we are trying to avoid—and hope all will try to avoid—language, symbols, and situations that are more divisive than unifying at the very time we want to show love for all of God’s children.
If a student commandeers a graduation podium intended to represent everyone getting diplomas that day in order to announce his personal sexual orientation, what might another speaker feel free to announce the next year, until eventually anything goes? What might commencement come to mean—or not mean—if we push individual license over institutional dignity for very long? Do we simply end up with more divisiveness in our culture than we already have? And we already have far too much everywhere.
In that spirit, let me go no farther before declaring unequivocally my love and that of my Brethren for those who live with this same-sex challenge and so much complexity that goes with it. Too often the world has been unkind—in many instances crushingly cruel—to these, our brothers and sisters. Like many of you, we have spent hours with them, and we have wept and prayed and wept again in an effort to offer love and hope while keeping the gospel strong and the obedience to commandments evident in every individual life.
But it will assist all of us—it will assist everyone—trying to provide help in this matter if things can be kept in some proportion and balance in the process. For example, we have to be careful that love and empathy do not get interpreted as condoning and advocacy or that orthodoxy and loyalty to principle not be interpreted as unkindness or disloyalty to people. As near as I can tell, Christ never once withheld His love from anyone, but He also never once said to anyone, “Because I love you, you are exempt from keeping my commandments.” We are tasked with trying to strike that same sensitive, demanding balance in our lives.
Musket fire? Yes, we will always need defenders of the faith, but “friendly fire” is a tragedy—and from time to time the Church, its leaders, and some of our colleagues within the university community have taken such fire on this campus. And sometimes it isn’t friendly, wounding students and the parents of students—so many who are confused about what so much recent flag-waving and parade-holding on this issue means. My beloved friends, this kind of confusion and conflict ought not to be. Not here. There are better ways to move toward crucially important goals in these very difficult matters—ways that show empathy and understanding for everyone while maintaining loyalty to prophetic leadership and devotion to revealed doctrine.
My Brethren have made the case for the metaphor of musket fire, which I have endorsed yet again today. There will continue to be those who oppose our teachings—and with that will continue the need to define, document, and defend the faith. But we all look forward to the day when we can “beat [our] swords into plowshares, and [our] spears into pruninghooks” and, at least on this subject, “learn war [no] more.”16 And while I have focused on this same-sex topic this morning more than I would have liked, I pray you will see it as emblematic of a lot of issues our students, our communities, and our Church face in this complex, contemporary world of ours.
But I digress! Back to the blessings of a school in Zion! Do you see the beautiful parallel between the unfolding of the Restoration and the prophetic development of BYU, notwithstanding that both will have their critics along the way? Just as has the Church itself, BYU has grown in spiritual strength, in the number of people it reaches and serves, and in its unique place among other institutions of higher education. It has grown in national and international reputation. More and more of its faculty are distinguishing themselves, and, even more important, so are more and more of its students.
Reinforcing the fact that so many do understand exactly what that unfolding dream of BYU is that President Worthen spoke about, not long ago one of your number wrote to me this marvelous description of what he thought was the “call” to those who serve at BYU: “The Lord’s call [to those of us who serve at BYU] is a . . . call to create learning experiences of unprecedented depth, quality, and impact. . . . As good as BYU is and has been, this is a call to do [better]. It is . . . a call to educate many more students, to more . . . effectively help them become true disciples of Jesus Christ, [and] to prepare them to . . . lead in their families, in the Church, [and] in their [professions] in a world filled with commotion. . . . But [answering this call] . . . cannot be [done successfully] without His . . . help.” The writer, one of you, concluded, “I believe that help will come according to the faith and obedience of the tremendously good people of BYU.”
I agree wholeheartedly and enthusiastically with such a sense of calling here and with that reference to and confidence in “the tremendously good people of BYU.” Let me underscore that idea of such a call by returning to President Kimball’s second-century address focused on by President Worthen.
Our bright, budding new commissioner of education, Elder Clark G. Gilbert, is one of my traveling companions today. You may be certain that Elder Gilbert loves this institution—his alma mater—deeply and brings to his assignment a reverence for its mission and its message. As part of his introduction to you, I am asking Elder Gilbert to come on campus on any calendar date he and President Worthen can work out, and whether those visits are formal or casual or both, I hope they can accomplish at least two things:
First of all, I hope you will come to see quickly the remarkable strengths Elder Gilbert brings to his calling, even as he learns more about the flagship of his fleet and why our effort at the Church Educational System would be a failure without the health, success, and participation of BYU.
Second, noting that we are just a few years short of halfway through those second hundred years of which President Kimball spoke, I think it would be fascinating to know if we are, in fact, making any headway on the challenges he laid before us and of which Elder David A. Bednar reminded the BYU leadership team just a few weeks ago.
When you look at President Kimball’s talk again, may I ask you to pay particular attention to that sweet prophet’s effort to ask that we be unique? In his discourse, President Kimball used the word unique eight times and the word special eight times. It seems clear to me in my seventy-three years of loving it that BYU will become an “educational Mt. Everest”19 only to the degree it embraces its uniqueness, its singularity. We could mimic every other university in the world until we got a bloody nose in the effort, and the world would still say, “BYU who?” No, we must have the will to be different and to stand alone, if necessary, being a university second to none in its role primarily as an undergraduate teaching institution that is unequivocally true to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If at a future time that mission means foregoing some professional affiliations and certifications, then so be it. There may come a day when the price we are asked to pay for such association is simply too high and too inconsistent with who we are. No one wants it to come to that, least of all me, but if it does, we will pursue our own destiny, a “destiny [that] is not a matter of chance; . . . a matter of choice; . . . not a thing to be waited for, . . . a thing to be achieved.”
“Mom, what is that big Y on that mountain?”
“Jeff, it stands for the university here in Provo: Brigham Young University.”
“Well, it must be the greatest university in the world.”
And so, for me, it is. To help you pursue that destiny in the only real way I know how to help, I leave an apostolic blessing on every one of you this morning as you start another school year. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and with gratitude for His holy priesthood and as if hands were on your head—had we time to do that, we surely would—I bless you personally, each one of you personally. I bless the students who will come under your influence, and I bless the university, including its marvelous president, in its campus-wide endeavor. I bless you that profound personal faith will be your watchword and that unending blessings of personal rectitude will be your eternal reward. I bless your professional work that it will be admired by your peers, and I bless your devotion to gospel truths that it will be the saving grace in some student’s life. I bless your families that those you hope will be faithful in keeping their covenants will be saved at least in part because you have been faithful in keeping yours. Light conquers darkness. Truth triumphs over error. Goodness is victorious over evil in the end, every time.
I bless each one of you with every righteous desire of your heart, and I thank you for giving your love and loyalty to BYU, to students like me and my beloved wife. Please, from one who owes so much to this school and who has loved her so deeply for so long, keep her not only standing but standing for what she uniquely and prophetically was meant to be. And may the rest of higher education “see your good works, and glorify [our] Father which is in heaven,” I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Now, I'm not a Mormon. Far from it. I'm an Apostolic Christian, and more particularly a Latin Rite Catholic. Mormon's believe in a Great Apostasy that conclusively be demonstrated never to have occured. That fact, amongst others, makes the underpinnings of Mormon theology hugely problematic.
But here's the thing. BYU is a Mormon university, and Mr. Holland is basically simply saying a Mormon institution must defend its beliefs.
That is, frankly, correct.
The required reading has provoked the ire of some civil libertarians and more particularly the LGBTQ+ community, which supposedly finds it "dangerous".
Well, whatever. What the reaction really demonstrates is the "cake and eat it too" attitude of modern Westerners, which want all the benefits of believing in something, with no duty or obligation of any kind being imposed by it.
As noted, I'm not a Mormon, and I think the Mormon faith is manifestly incorrect. But that a Mormon institution would defend its faith makes sense. Otherwise, it wouldn't have a point.
Which is a lesson that Catholic higher educational institutions, and post Kennedy Catholicism in the US in general, failed to learn to a large degree.
Missing the point, maybe.
On a somewhat related item, an item I saw in the Trib, in the local advice column:
"Am I getting hung up by this country’s puritanical attitudes toward sex and my Roman Catholic upbringing. . . "
I'll skip the background, which had to do with his daughter, but;
We probably can effectively put the state in a tailspin, and we can probably do it in a very short period of time. It’s disheartening to sit here and see us potentially cripple ourselves over a policy that federally just makes us look silly.
For us to come out and say we are not going to in any way deal with any of the CO2 sequestration projects means that we lose our oil and gas and coal, which means we lose 50% of our tax base. It is insanity, absolute craziness.
Governor Gordon to Hold Public Bill Signing on Monday, March 4CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon will hold a formal bill signing ceremony today, Monday, March 4 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:SEA0004 SF0003 State employee leave for volunteer emergency services.HEA0014 HB0014 Prior authorization regulations.HEA0008 HB0023 Vehicle registration e-certificate and grace period.HEA0013 HB0008 Commercial driver license-hazardous materials endorsement.HEA0023 HB0066 Firefighter-cancer screening benefits.
Governor Gordon Vetoes Bill that Could Hurt Charter Schools and Public Education SystemCHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Gordon issued his first veto of the 2024 Legislative Session today, calling a bill addressing charter schools a “bailing wire fix” that could threaten the sustainability of charter schools in the years to come. The Governor is an ardent supporter of school choice, and he points out that the legislation does not treat all charter schools equally.Senate File 61 - Education-charter school amendments authorizes charter schools as “local education agencies” (LEAs) to apply for, receive and administer federal and state grants. However, the bill repeals the ability of the state’s Charter Authorizing Board to serve this function before that board has even had an opportunity to demonstrate its effectiveness, the Governor said. In addition, the proposed legislation could impose significant costs and administrative burdens unequally across charter schools, potentially posing constitutional issues.“Without a thorough examination of the consequences and impacts on our state, students, parents, and taxpayers, I fear we may risk exacerbating existing impediments to charter growth and innovation while simultaneously raising the overall cost of education to unsustainable levels over the long term,” the Governor wrote in his veto letter. “Such a scenario is neither fiscally responsible nor supportive of students and parents who choose charter schools for their education.”District-authorized charters could continue to receive LEA services from their Authorizer, but State-Authorized charter schools would be expected to provide these services without any new resources provided. The Governor concluded by urging the Legislature to undertake a comprehensive review of Wyoming’s charter school statutes as an interim topic. This would ensure that Wyoming’s education policies are fair, equitable, transparent, and accountable, he wrote.The Governor’s veto letter is attached and may be found here.Governor Gordon Expresses Concern That Legislature has Only Passed Budget for Itself While the Rest of Wyoming WaitsCHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon’s message at the start of this legislative session was clear: The only constitutionally-required duty the Legislature has is to pass a balanced budget for the coming two years. That still has not happened. While the rest of Wyoming waits for its budget, the Legislature has passed a budget only for lawmakers and their staff.The Governor’s decision on the Legislature’s budget is due today (Thursday), while the budget for the rest of Wyoming remains in limbo until Friday. Noting that he is forced to consider funding the separate Legislative budget while awaiting that vote, the Governor issued several line-item vetoes. These vetoes would not imperil the ability of the legislative branch to function.“I am optimistic even at this late hour that a budget for the other two branches of government could arrive as soon as tomorrow,” the Governor wrote. “Accordingly, as I understand the importance of funding the Legislature in the coming two years, I am not vetoing this entire piece of legislation, but am exercising my constitutional ability to disapprove of items in this spending bill.”Governor Gordon struck the word “Energy” from a $76,800 appropriation for membership dues to the Energy Council, a legislative organization dedicated to energy policy. The Governor said “the Senate persists in sending confusing messages” about its support for the state’s energy industry and the thousands of people it employs. He invited the Legislature to override his veto “to send a clear message to the people of Wyoming and me about whether or not each chamber supports our energy industry, and follow up those words with action...”The Governor also had requested an inflation adjustment of $48 million to address increased operational costs the state has experienced over the past two years. The Legislature reduced that request to $28 million in the version of the budget bill currently being considered. Accordingly, the Governor reduced the Legislative budget request by $50,000 for new Legislative furniture and accessories so that all branches of government can contribute to the cost savings imposed by the Legislature on the rest of Wyoming.The Governor’s letter is attached and may be viewed here.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
Sir Walter Scott, Marmion.
January 3, 2024.
Donald Trump's is appealing the ruling of the Secretary of State that Trump cannot stand for election under the 14th Amendment.
January 4, 2024
Trump is now appealing the ruling of the Colorado Supreme Court that he cannot be on Colorado's ballot as he's an insurrectionist. The state's GOP had already filed an appeal.
More properly, this is a petition. The U.S. Supreme Court does not have to take the matter up.
January 6, 2024
The current docket at the Supreme Court on the Trump v. Colorado case:
| Jan 03 2024 | Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 5, 2024) |
| PetitionCertificate of Word CountProof of Service | |
| Jan 03 2024 | Brief amici curiae of Senator Steve Daines & National Republican Senatorial Committee filed. VIDED. |
| Main DocumentProof of ServiceCertificate of Word Count | |
| Jan 04 2024 | Letter from counsel for respondent Colorado Republican State Central Committee filed. |
| Main Document | |
| Jan 04 2024 | Brief in response to the petition for a writ of certiorari of respondent Norma Anderson, et al. filed. |
| Main DocumentOtherCertificate of Word CountProof of Service | |
| Jan 05 2024 | Petition GRANTED. The case is set for oral argument on Thursday, February 8, 2024. Petitioner’s brief on the merits, and any amicus curiae briefs in support or in support of neither party, are to be filed on or before Thursday, January 18, 2024. Respondents’ briefs on the merits, and any amicus curiae briefs in support, are to be filed on or before Wednesday, January 31, 2024. The reply brief, if any, is to be filed on or before 5 p.m., Monday, February 5 2024. |
| Jan 05 2024 | Amicus brief of Republican National Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee submitted. |
| Main DocumentCertificate of Word CountProof of Service | |
| Jan 05 2024 | Amicus brief of States of Indiana, West Virginia, 25 Other States, and the Arizona Legislature submitted. |
| Main DocumentCertificate of Word CountProof of Service |
January 9, 2024
An actual exchange in a Federal Appellate Court where Trump's claims for immunity were heard today.
Judge: "I asked you a yes or no question. Could a president who ordered S.E.A.L. Team 6 to assassinate a political rival (and is) not impeached, would he be subject to criminal prosecution?"
Trump attorney says "qualified yes -- if he is impeached and convicted first."
The entire qualified immunity argument is legally infirm in the first place and needs to go. This will probably help make it go. Apparently, the judges weren't impressed with Trump's lawyer's arguments at all.
January 19, 2024
A court in Oregon determined Trump can remain on the ballot there.
Trump's lawyers filed their briefs in the Supreme Court case on the 14th Amendment yesterday.
January 27, 2024
E. Jean Carroll was awarded $83.3M in her defamation case against Donald Trump.
This will be appealed and it's likely that it'll actually not be paid in that amount.
February 6, 2024
No immunity.
Unfortunately, the delay in issuing the opinion has resulted in the postponement of the trial originally scheduled for March.
Cont:
Matt Gaetz and Elise Stephanik have co-sponsored a resolution that Donald Trump did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States on January 6, something that clear is an attempt to address the 14th Amendment in that insurrection may be excused under it.
Having said that, a resolution that it didn't occur will not excuse it, and this will not get through the Senate.
February 8, 2024
Based on today's oral arguments, it appears likely that the Supreme Court is not going to disqualify Donald Trump under the 14th Amendment.
February 13, 2024
Defendant Trump is seeking a delay in his election interference trial, hoping to push it past the election, when he'll next hope that he can avoid it while President.
February 16, 2024
Nor really related to the other post insurrection legal woes that Donald Trump faces, his trial related to Stormy Daniel's hush money is set to commence on March 25.
In a more decent era, his payment to Daniels for sex would have ended his political career, but we obviously no longer live in a decent era.
In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testified regarding her relationship with the prosecutor assigned in the Georgia RICO action.
In another matter which is tangentially related to Trump's legal woes, House Republican effort to impeach Biden, which are monumentally improper, took a blow when Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant was charged with fabricating a bribery scheme involving President Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian company, which is what the attempt to impeach him is based on, other than on a desire for revenge.
Cont:
Trump has been found liable in New York in the civil fraud trial in the amount of $364,000,000 and is barred from doing business in New York for three years.
February 29, 2024
A Court in Illinois has ruled that Trump is banned from the Illinois ballot under the 14th Amendment, but stayed her decision until Friday in order to give him time to appeal.
The United States Supreme Court will take up Trump's immunity appeal, which will further delay his January 6 trial.
At this point, I think it highly unlikely that the January 6 trial will be heard this year, which means that it likely won't be heard until 2028, which is s true injustice.
March 4, 2024
And now the Supreme Court has ruled. Trump stays on the ballot, insurrection notwithstanding.
The basis is that Congress hasn't enacted a law to enforce the 14th Amendment and the Court finds it not be a self enacting statute
Secretary Gray Applauds Supreme Court Decision Keeping Trump on Ballot in 2024
CHEYENNE, WY – On March 4, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a unanimous decision reversing the Colorado Supreme Court’s December ruling to remove Donald Trump from the ballot in 2024. Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray previously filed an Amicus Curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States, arguing that the Supreme Court should reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to bar Donald Trump from the ballot under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. Secretary Gray’s brief argued that Trump did not engage in an insurrection or rebellion, nor give aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States.
“I am extremely pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision reversing the Colorado Supreme Court’s repugnant ruling,” Secretary Gray said in a statement. “As Wyoming’s chief election officer, I filed an Amicus brief in January asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse Colorado’s outrageously wrong and unprecedented decision. For this, I have been repeatedly attacked by the radical left-wing media, and even members of the Legislature, for my efforts to ensure that Trump will be on the ballot. Today’s unanimous decision keeping Trump on the ballot marks vindication for the truth and for liberty. As Secretary of State, I will continue to fight to ensure the People of Wyoming can choose who to elect for themselves.”
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