No matter what you think of the issue, the comment by Tom Wharton, apparently a Salt Lake based writer, is just flat out funny.
Replying to @butterbob
Thursday, August 18, 2022
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Monday, August 17, 1942. The Makin Raid.
Today in World War II History—August 17, 1942: “Carlson’s Raiders”: 221 Marines conduct two-day raid on Makin Island in Gilberts to destroy a radio station; the first US amphibious landing from submarines.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
Mankin Island through the periscope of the USS Nautilus, the submarine used in the raid.
The raid had goals beyond that, including taking prisoners, gathering intelligence and diverting the Japanese from reinforcing Guadalcanal. In these goals, the mission was a failure. Indeed, it was mixed overall for while half of the Japanese garrison was destroyed, twenty-one Marines were killed and a number left behind due to the confusion of the raid, nine of whom were executed by the Japanese.
The Japanese bombed Port Morseby.
The 8th Air Forces's first raid over Europe took place.
17 August 1942
The Second Moscow Conference came to an end.
Thursday, August 17, 1922. Flying boats, watermelons, and medals.
On this day, the Sampaio Correia, a H-16 Curtiss Flying boat, prepared to make the long journey to Brazil from New York for an expedition in Rio De Janero.
Secretary of War Weeks presided over the awarding of medals to a collection of Army officers.
Watermelon boats were photographed delivering their loads to transportation at dockside.
Forest fires raged in Minnesota, leaving six dead and hundreds homeless.
Byzantine Catholic Priest Vladimir Abrikosov was arrested by Soviet authorities for persuading Russians to become Catholic. He was at first sentenced to death, but was ultimately expelled.
The Bureau of Prohibition warned establishment owners that they could be held criminally liable for breaking the prohibition laws if they allowed their patrons to bring alcohol in themselves is flasks.
The 2022 Election Part XI. Primary Election Day.
April 16, 2020. 12:00 a.m.
It's finally here.
When this post goes live, the polls will be opening seven hours later. Twelve hours from that, they'll close, and the results will start to come in. Depending on how things go in various races, we may not know who won some races until tomorrow, or the day after, or, if they're really close. . .
No primary race in Wyoming's history has been followed anywhere near as close as this one. And while some elections could claim to be equally or more important, particularly the one that followed the 1892 Johnson County War which resulted in the Republicans briefly losing power in the state, none have been as existential since at least that time. Indeed, in some ways this race and that race are loosely, but only loosely, comparable, as that race was over whether big monied interest would dominate the state's life in every sense. That isn't as true, but it's partially true, of this race as well, although that's been very little noted.
Hanging over everything is whether a radical populist right wing of the GOP, which has been up and coming in the state's politics, and which has had monied backing, shall complete the process of taking over the party or not. In some races, such as the Governor's, it clearly will not succeed. In others, however, down at the legislature and county level, it stands a much better chance, and that may stand to make more of a long term difference in real terms.
This contest, however, certainly has filtered up to other races. The contest for Congress is certainly one, with the issue being whether the radical populist right will prevail over the traditional party, with Harriet Hageman ironically acting as the stalking horse for the radical right in spite of a lack of history of an association with it. The Secretary of State's office features the same contest, with radical right populist Chuck Gray, who lacks any qualification for the job, squaring off against attorney-legislator Tara Nethercott. Even the race for the Superintendent of Public Instruction features it.
It should be an interesting day.
April 16, cont.
With 45 minutes left to go, the national news has been reporting on the stakes in the Wyoming, and Alaska, primaries. Wyoming is reporting record turn outs.
April 16, cont.
So, as of 9:46 p.m., it appears fairly certain that:
Harriet Hageman won the GOP nomination for Congress, taking about 63% of the vote to 32% of Cheney's, actually a little lower than polls had predicted. So, Wyomingites voted for loyalty to Trump and bought off on his lies rather than principal.
While she's a long shot, as she's a Democrat, Lynette Grey Bull was nominated in the Democratic contest.
Chuck Gray, another big lie candidate, beat out Tara Nethercott for Secretary of State 48% to 42%, with the balance going to Armstrong.
Mark Gordon was nominated for a second term for the GOP with a big lead over his contenders.
Theresa Livingston, who might as well not even be running, was nominated for the Democrats.
Curt Meier was nominated in the GOP contest for a second term as Treasurer.
April 17, 2022
An extraordinary, and frankly an extraordinarily frightening, election.
Let's start with the statewide elections.
- Congressman
GOP Nominee: Harriet Hageman.
Democratic Nominee: Lynette Gray Bull.
Hageman won in spite of large numbers of Democrats, to the extent that Wyoming has large numbers of Democrats, and independents registering to vote in the GOP primary. The only real issue was loyalty to Donald Trump.
This is, quite frankly, a frightening anti-democratic result in the GOP, evidence of the extent to which democratic principles are being abandoned in the rank and file of the party, or of the degree to which Trump's fables about the election being stolen have been bought by the GOP rank and file. Wyoming will now exchange a conservative GOP Congressman with outsized power for a freshman stalking horse with no power at all.
This assuming, of course, Hageman wins in the Fall, which she almost surely will. Still, this does put Gray Bull in a unique position as the first Democrat to actually have a chance at winning, albeit a small one.
- Governor
Governor Gordon took the GOP nomination and therefore the office.
One might hope that gadfly Rex Rammell, who did not even poll 10,000 votes and therefore polled about a fifth of that of his Bien, who trailed Gordon massively, would finally knock it off, but that's unlikley.
Theresa Livingstone took the Democratic nomination.
- State Auditor
GOP Nominee: Kristie Racines was running unopposed for reelection.
Democratic Nominee: None.
- State Treasurer
GOP Nominee: Curt Meier running for reelection came out the victor, although his opponent took about half the number of votes he did, an interesting result ni that Meier was running to be reelected and had been endorsed by Trump.
Democratic Nominee: None.
- Secretary of State
GOP Nominee: Chuck Grey
Democratic Nominee: None.
Grey, with little in the way of qualifications, goes on to become Secretary of State after taking a minority of the vote. Nethercott and Armstrong combined took slightly more, with Armstrong taking ly about 8%.
Here too, the issue turned out to be the 2020 election and the elevation of Grey to this office is more than a little worrisome.
- Superintendent of Public Instruction
GOP Nominee: Megan Degefelder. In a very tight race against appointed incumbent Brian Schroeder, Degenfelder pulled out in front to take the most votes, but not over 50%. The strength of the appointed Schroeder shows the strength of far right candidates this year.
Democratic Nominee: Sergio A. Maldonaldo, Sr.
From here will turn to some interesting legislative races.
- Senate District 25.
Long time conservative Republican from Fremont County Cale Case won the GOP nomination, and will run uncontested, but he only barely survived a challenger. Case, whose conservative credentials are unimpeachable, had come under fire from the far right earlier this year.
- Senate District 29
Long time Natrona County Senator Drew Perkins was defeated by far right challenger Bob Ide. Perkins had barely survived a challenge from Ide the last time he ran, in this atmosphere, he did not, although the margin may have been closer than the last election.
- House District 2
GOP incumbent J.D. Williams, serving out his first term, lost by about fifteen votes to challenger Alan Slagle in a vote in which county residence seemed to be the deciding factor.
- House District 9
Moderate Republican Landon Brown survived a challenge from the right easily in the GOP contest.
- House District 35.
Incumbent Republican Joe MacGuire was defeated by challenger from the right, Tony Locke.
- House District 43
Incumbent Dan Zwonitzer, who has been heavily attacked from the right for some time, easily won renomination to his GOP House seat.
- House District 57
This district saw the rise of Chuck Grey and now has nominated Jeanette Ward, his endorsed successor who is every bit as far to the right as he is, and who moved here only recently from Chicago.
- House District 58
Long serving Patrick Sweeney went down in defeat to challenger Bill Allemand in this district, whose boundaries were heavily redrawn this year. Allemand challenged from the right. Sweeney had always been a moderate in the GOP.
- Natrona County Commission
In the GOP race for the four-year seat, voters mad over local assessments tossed out the incumbent, Paul Bertoglio, but preserved that of incumbent Jim Milne, who trailed third in a race which will only advance three candidates to the general. In that race, they'll be joined by Dr. Tom Radosevich, who was running as the only Democrat. Milne barely did better than recent Democratic cross over Terry Wingerter. Recent appointee Peter Nicolaysen gained renomination.
In the two-year contest, Steve Freel defeated long time commissioner Rob Hendry.
As a result of this, the Natrona County Commission is going to be seeing mostly new commissioners.
- Natrona County Assessor.
This position has been hotly contested seemingly forever, and this time former assessor Tammy Saulsbury took the nomination over current assessor Matt Keating.
Elsewhere
Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, a target of Trump ire like Liz Cheney, survived a challenge from the right.
Commentary
In this election, Wyoming blindly embraced the far right in what might be regarded as a Trump fueled sense of rage over a stolen election that wasn't stolen. Beyond that, however, this reflects a steady drift to the far right fringe to the degree the state has largely crossed over into the extreme right.
We can look for the next legislature to back measures that Wyomingites will ultimately find horrific, including measures to grab the state lands. The state's rank and file population will grow upset with what they've voted in, but only in rare years will they remove incumbents, this being one of them, so this development likely defines the next ten to fifteen years.
While overall predications are difficult to make, generally the nation is likely not to head in this direction, meaning that politically, and likely economically, the state will be marginalizing itself but unable to appreciate that, and in turn will retrench even further. Comparative eras for Wyoming would be difficult to find, but politically in the US the best analogy would likely be the post Reconstruction American South of the late 19th Century and early 20th, an era which saw the same at work in the American South and which operated very much against the interset of the common people.
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Yes, thanks to Blogger, this now has a pretty screwed up appearance.
We'll fix it when we get a chance.
And worse yet, the easy editor pencil is gone, and I use that constantly.
Ugh. Blogger.
Update.
Well, save or the edit pencil being mysteriously missing, which is something I use a lot and really like, we're not quite as screwed up as we were.
Why did the edit pencil disappear?
Also, we've had to put up a new photo on the header. In the whole process, the old one evaporated, although I don't know that I don't like this one better actually.
Press Watch
There will be piles of national, and even international, press in Wyoming today.
If you spot some you recognize, let us know here.
Sunday, August 16, 1942. The mystery of the L-8.
The Navy blimp L-8, put out earlier that day in search of Japanese submarines, coasted into Daly California without its crew.
The blimp and its crew of two had taken off at 06:03 from Treasure Island off of San Francisco. At 07:38 its crew radioed that they had seen an oil slick off of Farallon Islands, Point Reyes. A Liberty ship and a fishing boat both later reported that the blimp descended to about 30 feet above the slick and then headed east, rather than its planned route, which would have taken it northwest. It was next spotted at 11:15 off of Ocean Beach, by which time it lacked a crew. The blimp contained its parachutes and life raft, so the crew had not bailed out.
They've never been found.
Official speculation is that they were trying to deploy a smoke signal when one slipped out and the other went to rescue him, with both going into the ocean, or some variant of that. This seems fairly likely, although other theories abound.
The 101st Airborne Division, provided with cadre from the 82nd Airborne Division, was activated. The 82nd had been converted organizationally from a conventional infantry division to an airborne division the day prior.
Shoulder insignia of the 101st Airborne Division.
The 101st had come into the table of organizations during World War One, but just existed for nine days on the charts, having been created immediately before the end of the war. In contrast, the 82nd "All American" Division had seen action in World War One and included in its ranks the famous Alvin York.
Shoulder patch of the 82nd Airborne Division.
The USS Alabama was commissioned.
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The Alabama in 1942.
The ship avoided being scrapped in 1964, which the Navy intended to do, and was acquired by the State of Alabama where she became a museum ship. In spite of the original scrapping intent, a provision of the Navy's transfer of her ownership was that she could be recalled if needed, and in fact when the Iowa Class battleships were reactivated in the 1980s, some of her engine parts were cannibalized by the Navy as they were needed for those ships and were no longer manufactured.
The German Navy began Operation Wunderland with the goal of entering the Kara Sea, an extension of the Arctic Ocean, in order to attack Soviet ships that took refuge in the region which was iced up ten months out of the year. The German Navy also sank three ships off of Aracaju, Brazil, operating under the belief that Allied ships were operating in neutral territorial waters off of eastern South America.
The Japanese, operating off of faulty areal reconnaissance, dispatch the 28th Naval Infantry Regiment from Truk to retake what they believe is a mostly abandoned Guadalcanal.
The U.S. Army Air Force bombed Axis targets in Egypt for the first time.
What started as a Mass to commemorate members of the Begona Regiment who had died in the Spanish Civil War degenerated into a riot between Falangist and Carlist factions in which a Falangist member, who had hand grenades with him, through two resulting in the wounding of thirty people.
Monday, August 15, 2022
Duty to vote?
Veritas
By No machine-readable author provided. Javier Carro assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=674551
We often hear this time of year that everyone has a duty to vote. This is regarded as a patriotic duty, but beyond that some hold it to be a moral obligation.
Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
It is the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom. The love and service of one’s country follow from the duty of gratitude and belong to the order of charity. Submission to legitimate authorities and service of the common good require citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community. . . [s]ubmission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country
No. 2239 and 2240
I have an old friend that once told me that he never bothered to inform himself on the lesser candidates in an election, and barely did on the major ones. He just went in and guess on most of them.
Whatever else our duty may be, that breaches it.
I don't disagree that we have a duty to vote. But that's an informed duty. That duty includes weighing what a person declares themselves to be for on every level, including an existential level. It also includes weighting the candidate's honesty.
It requires the voter to embrace reality and the truth as well, no matter how uncomfortable that may be. If it seems that everyone in your pack thinks just like you, and some candidate rabidly supports that, you might want to rethink things.
Courthouses of the West: Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming. First "Woman Jury" Memorial.
Courthouses of the West: Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming. First "Woman Jury" Memorial.
Accurate information on this event is actually fairly difficult to find. The trial was the First Degree Murder trial of Andrew W. Howie. The prosecutor, Albany County Attorney Stephen Downey, had only been in that role for a few months and objected to the women being seated as jurors, but was overruled by the Court, which held that as women had been granted the franchise in Wyoming, they also had the right to sit in juries. Downey's objection was based on social convention, rather than the law.
Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming. First "Woman Jury" Memorial.
Memorial, MKTH photograph.
Contrary to the way it is sometimes recounted, the jury was not all female, but half male and half female, with six women jurors. It returned a verdict finding Mr. Howie guilty of manslaughter, which must have been included as a lessor offense in the charges. The trial convinced Downey who in turn became a champion of women's suffrage.
This memorial is not at the Albany County Courthouse, but at the downtown railroad park. Judicial proceedings in Laramie were originally held in a store at that location.
(Photo and reasearch by MKTH).
Saturday, August 15, 1942. Ohio gets to Malta.
Today in World War II History—August 15, 1942: Allied “Pedestal” convoy arrives in Malta—only 5 of 14 cargo ships have survived (including tanker Ohio lashed to destroyers HMS Penn and HMS Ledbury).
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The Pedestal convoy was a major saga in 1942. Even now, historians debate whether the huge convoy losses made the matter an Axis victory or the fact that some ships did get through, including the Ohio, made it an Allied one. At the end of the day, the arrival of the Ohio was in fact materially important, and the supplies allowed Malta to carry on.
The Ohio after arriving in port.
Malta was in truth very near to being starved out of the war at this point and therefore, from my prospective, this was in fact a British naval victory, albeit one at a high cost. The British could not afford to lose the island, however, and Pedestal prevented that and allowed it to go on to be used as an air and naval base to disrupt supplies going to the Afrika Korps.
Also on this day, the British submarine HMS Porpoise sank the Italian MV Lerici. The U-705 sank the SS Balladier off of Ireland. The Finnish patrol boat VMV 5 sank the Soviet submarine M-97 in the Gulf of Finland.
The Germans attacked Grozny.
The Marines, now suffering from short supplies, opened the captured Japanese airfield at Lunga Point, naming it Henderson Field. On the same day, four ships arrived with much-needed supplies.
Tuesday, August 15, 1922. Germany defaults.
Germany defaulted on its reparations payments.
Released this day with an absurd plot involving vying for the hand of a wealthy Mexican señorita, a virtuous lass back home threatened by the KKK, and a major issue to be determined by a jumping bean contest.
The Casper Daily Tribune ran a cartoon attacking Governor Carey on the front page.
Frankly, even now, I’m shocked.
As can be seen, Casper was expanding in 1922 and the stresses that involved were apparently getting to people.
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Can Democracy Survive Social Media?
"A republic, if you can keep it", said Franklin about the new form of American government. Franklin was an intellectual. I doubt he could be heard now.
Truly, whenever something is posted on social media, piles of self convinced reply to it.
Political discourse has always had a rough edge, but the least educated, most opinionated, and least intellectually endowed did not always reply to every single political story or advertisement made. Now, they do, and indeed downright dominate it.
As an example, anything posted in favor of Cheney will receive piles of self convinced assertions that Trump is nearly a saint and everything said against him is an anti-American plot. This is, frankly, absurd.
Or, as an example, one post pointing out the fabrications of another, recently received replies that amounted to the schoolyard "nanna nanna doo doo". That is not an argument, but that's the general nature of the replies on social media.
It's not that some political discourse is like this. Most is. Twitter, Facebook, or what have you, pander to the lowest common denominator, not the intellect.
Early on, the political forces of the republic actually catered to the intellect. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the like, were intellectuals. People with knee-jerk, ill-informed, opinions didn't get it much past their neighbor's fence. People with informed opinions were better able to distribute them.
They wouldn't get a voice now.
This direction is, to say the least, not encouraging.
The 2022 Election Part X. The start of the Primary Election
Early primary voting in Wyoming has commenced.
The big race, but certainly not the only one, is the Republican race for the U.S. House of Representatives. In that context, it's hard to get over this spectacle here.
June 30, 2022
Wyoming Republican House Debate:
A fairly well done synopsis of things:
That race, as viewers can see, pits incumbent Liz Cheney against challengers Anthony Bouchard, Robyn Balinskey, Denton Knapp and Harriet Hageman. Having said that, it's well known that the race is really between Hageman and Cheney.
The Democratic race features Lynette Gray Bull against Meghan R. Jensen and Steve Helling. Gray Bull was the Democratic candidate last time and almost certainly will be again.
Casey Hardison is running as a doomed independent.
Here's the other races.
- Governor's Race.
Republicans for the Governor's Office.
Mark Gordon: Gordon is the incumbent. He's going to get the nomination, and he's going to win the General Election.
Harold Bjork. Who Bjork isn't really clear, but he's started a Facebook and internet campaign for Governor.
Brent Bien: A challenger from the right.
Bien in this race, like Knapp is the Congressional race, is a retired military officer. Knapp was in the Army and retired as a colonel, Bien was a Marine Corps aviator.
I have nothing against the military at all, but I'm really baffled by the concept that people who were in government service so long that they could retire from it know anything about how regular businesses operate. I note that as Knapp and Bien both are basically in the position of having known the government as their primary employer while coming in and claiming that they're going to reign in the government.
Rex Rammell: Rammell is a perennial and unelectable candidate who ran last time and will again. His views can be characterized as being on the fringe right/libertarian side. His signs have a more fossil fuel theme to them, which raises the question of how the State of Wyoming could conceivably do anything more than it current is to promote fossil fuels.
Democrats for the Governor's Office.
Rex Wilde: Wilde previously ran for the Senate as a Democrat and has no chance.
Theresa Livingston: Livingston previously ran for the State Senate and stands no chance.
- Secretary of State
Republicans for Secretary of State.
Dan Dockstader. He's a longstanding member of the Legislature who stands a good chance due to that service.
Tara Nethercott: Also a member of the Legislature. Nethercott has not been in the legislature long, but she was the subject of misogynistic attacks last session, which she weathered well. She also stands a good chance.
Chuck Gray: Also a member of the legislature who has been frequently in the news due to his far right populist positions. Gray clearly has his sights set on higher office and probably views this as a stepping stone. His earlier attempt to replace Cheney drew little support.
Mark Armstrong: Former candidate for the U.S. Senate. His run for Senate drew very little support, and his run for Secretary of State will fail.
Democrats for Secretary of State
Pathetically, none.
State Auditor
Kriti Racines. She's the incumbent and the only one running. She's effectively won the race at this point, absent something bizarre occurring.
- Superintendent of Public Instruction
Republicans for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
This race is also newsworthy as the incumbent, Brian Schroeder, is generally regarded as the least bad of the three names that were submitted to Governor Gordon when the prior occupant stood down.
Brian Schroeder. Schroeder is the presumptive nominee.
Megan Degenfelder. She has an education background but who has been working in the petroleum industry, announced for Superintendent of Public Education.
She was once employed as the department's Chief Policy Officer.
Thomas Kelly: Kelly was one of the three finalists who was not chosen for this office by Governor Gordon.
Jennifer Zerba: Zerba announced late. She's from Casper and is an education professional, which is all I know about her.
Robert J. White. White is from Rock Springs, which is all I know about him.
Democrats for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Sergio Maldonado: Maldonado is a longtime figure in Fremont County politics and is, I believe, also an enrolled member of one of the Wind River tribes.
July 7, 2022
In a major shakeup in the Secretary of State race, Dan Dockstader has dropped out and endorsed Tara Nethercott.
Nethercott received a warm endorsement from Dockstader. She's the only one of the three candidates who isn't maintaining the 2020 election was stolen.
Dockstader indicated he had been in contact with Nethercott before dropping out, and to some extent his decision has the appearance of a very sober analysis of the seriousness of this race, and the risk that their two campaigns would give the race to Gray. Armstrong is such an outsider that he has no real chance.
Dockstander is a long serving politician and is President of the Senate. Nethercott is a lawyer, like the current occupant of the position, Buchanan. The office itself deals with a lot of day to day business matters, but it also deals with elections, and across the United States, Secretary of State positions have been targeted by Trump loyalist who claim the election was stolen. There's a real fear that this move is intentional and part of an effort to nullify elections in the future. Gray, who is a Wharten School of Business graduate, like Trump, but who has had a career in radio since graduating that institution, working in a family owned radio station, has participated in the stolen election myth by becoming involved in the Arizona circus over the same thing, something that has nothing to do with Wyoming at all. Given all of this, the race is now taking on an outsized importance.
July 11, 2022
Congressman Cheney's new advertisement puts in sharp focus the Constitutional issue that has become the center of her campaign.
July 16, 2022
Poll results show Hageman with a commanding lead over Cheney. Well-placed rumor mill information holds the same thing.
July 23, 2022
Rex Rammell, who has no chance whatsoever of being elected Governor, announced that Dr. Taylor Haynes, a previously failed gubernatorial candidate, shall act as his senior advisor if he's elected, which he won't be.
July 24, 2022
A poll found Governor Gordon to be tied with the Governor of Vermont for most popular governor in the United States.
July 27, 2022
Texas Senator Ted Cruz endorsed Harriet Hageman.
In his endorsement, he referred to her as "Constitution loving", which is ironic in that the Wyoming election, as Cruz well knows, is principally over whether Donald Trump should have been given a second minority vote Presidency via coup, based on the lie that he won the election, and facilitated by urging the Vice President to exceed his authority. Cruz, who barely hung on to his seat in his last election, has embraced Trump heavily as well, and is probably contemplating another run for the Oval Office himself should Trump not do so.
Candidate for Secretary of State Chuck Grey is taking a similar approach to that election and is sponsoring a viewing of the discredited 2,000 Mules in Douglas.
All of which gets into a couple of recent posts regarding this election that we posted the other day.
July 28, 2022
PBS will broadcast a debate of the gubernatorial candidates tonight, at 7:00 p.m. The debate is being hosted by Casper College.
July 28, 2022
I forgot it was on, and haven't viewed it yet, but this race is basically over already. Gordon will win.
The highlight of the news on the debate was gadfly candidate Rex Rammell's claim that Brent Bien, recently retired Marine Corps officer, should drop out of the race as Rammell apparently thinks he doesn't qualify as a resident. Bien maintains that he maintained his Wyoming residency the entire time he was in the Marine Corps, which he would be legally entitled to do. That resulted in a Rammell spokesman stating:
It’s rich that Rex Rammell talks about being a westerner. Brent was born and raised in Wyoming and served his country honorably. While Brent was serving our country and protecting freedom, Rex Rammell was poaching elk and carpetbagging his way into Wyoming. He made it clear tonight that he has disdain for our military and service to the country.
I don't support Bien, but I am glad to see somebody take a shot at Rammell's past, which I don't fully recall. Rammell came here from Idaho. He later told the Trib that he's concerned that he and Bien are going to split the vote, which need not be a concern of his as he has no chance of winning whatsoever. Neither does Bien.
Cont:
Since I posted this morning, I listened to and viewed the debate while doing my regular morning routine. For the most part, I found it really unremarkable, as their positions are all much more aligned than not. A big difference was that for many questions two challenging Gordon acknowledged a problem as a problem, without offering any solutions, and Gordon tended to note what he had done, which was often sponsoring a group to study it. Nobody was really willing to deal with any existential problems that will impact the state no matter what, although Gordon did a better job of creeping up on answer those questions.
Rammell did a good job of not appearing too far off in the stratosphere until the end, when he dove off on his arresting Federal officers promises, which is downright goofy and illegal. He also tried to camouflage that he's not originally from Wyoming which lead, at the end, to his attack on Bien whom he claims, wrongfully, to be in eligible to run as he was out of the state in the Marine Corps. Attacking a veteran for his service is really foolish, to say the least.
Rammell also lashed himself to Taylor Haynes, who is originally not from here either, which was odd. So you have two figures who are not from here attacking somebody who is, but who served in the Marine Corps. For that matter, he attacked Gordon for being born in New York, which is truly basically an accident of birth as Gordon is a Wyomingite.
No matter anyhow, Gordon has already won this race.
August 3, 2022
Former Wyoming Secretary of State has filed charges with the Federal Government against Chuck Gray allegeing that loans that Gray reported as self funding were not the same. This pertains to his run for House of Representatives, which he abandoned when it drew little support and which Harriet Hageman effectively put an end to.
The charges are revealing as they deal with Gray's reported income, which is blisteringly low. This points towards family money, of course, but as very little is publicly known about Gray's personal life, including such matters, they give a rare view of the same.
Of course, this tends to be the case with nearly all Wyoming candidates. Assumptions are widely made, but realities are rarely known.
Thomas Kelly dropped out of the Superintendant of Education race in support of Brian Schroeder.
Kelly had been one of the three finalist for hte position which resultedin the choice of Schroeder, with Schroeder widely regarded as the least extreme of the three candidates forwarded to the Governor's office for selection of the position.
August 4, 2022
In an election event in Casper on August 3, Harriet Hageman called the 2020 Presidential election "rigged". Anthony Bouchard said it was stolen.
Hageman has avoided making such a statement up until now, having previously stated she didn't know who won the election. The fact that she would now do so, in spite of being ahead in the polls, is interesting in that it might tend to indicate that she feels she needs to draw closer to die hard Trumpites. It has been noted in recent weeks that Democrats are clearly joining the GOP to vote against her and GOP membership is climbing, in part due to that, but possibly also in part due to independents who are joining for the same reason. This might be part of a calculation to draw whatever votes are going to Bouchard away from him and to also encourage the Trump diehards to come to the polls.
Her statement does have a distinction with Bouchards as she's left an out to claim systemic rigging, i.e., allowing for widespread mail-in voting during COVID, etc., rather than outright fraud. I've noticed in recent weeks some Republicans who want to remain loyal to Trump have been using this as an out as they know there wasn't theft, but can convince themselves that the measure to allow voting during COVID were somehow improper. This is the angle that Victor David Hanson took early on, claiming that Americans had always gone to the polls in person on election day, something that hasn't been true in many places for years. Some of these individuals hold that there's something existentially wrong with not having in person voting on a single day.
Interestingly, that ignores the fact that older Republicans had long participated in mail-in voting and Trump's own efforts to discourage it probably took away from his overall vote tally. The real overall question is, in the 21st Century, if the evolution of technology and patterns of living make a system of requiring everyone to go to a polling station on a single day obsolete.
August 5, 2022
Former perennial Idaho candidate Rex Rammell, and now perennial Wyoming canidate, has announced that he's going to sue the Secretary of State for failing to take up his charges that Bien does not meet the legal residence requirements.
Neither Rammell or Bien are going to win, so this is just a bizarre sideshow, but it's helping make Rammell, who has some really extreme ideas, look pretty bad.
In Arizona, Trumpite candidates won the GOP primary contest for the Governor and Secretary of State position.
August 6, 2022
Donald Trump endorsed Chuck Gray for Secretary of State, Brian Schroeder for Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Curt Meier for Treasurer.
It's a surprise that Trump has gone down into the Wyoming political weeds this deep at all. Having said that, given that he has, Gray, who is campaigning on the imperiled election fable and who is a fellow Wharton graduate, isn't a surprise. Indeed, at one time there was some thought that Trump might endorse Gray for Congress.
Schroeder is more of a surprise, but he is from the far right.
Meier is the incumbent Treasurer, so this is a real surprise. He doesn't need Trump's endorsement, and the fact that it was made will undoubtedly cause a few to vote against him.
A debate among the Democratic candidates took place last night, which I only learned of today.
I haven't viewed this yet, but apparently candidate Steve Helling nearly universally took Republican positions during the debate, which makes his candidacy odd to say the least, giving it the appearance of one by a Republican who didn't feel he could compete in the GOP primary.
August 7, 2022
WyoFile, the Trib reports, has revealed that a host of Wyoming candidates and political figures took PPP money in spite of their generally anti Federal Government positions. This includes Frank Eathorne, Robin Belinskey, Rex Rammell and Anthong Bouchard or their businesses. There were more, but these were the ones for statewide offices that were notable due to their positions.
Harriet Hageman was not among them, but the WyoFile went deeper and noted that members of her family had. A spokesman reacted accusing WyoFile of "journalistic malpractice".
PPP money was in the form of loans, but generally they were loans that were subject to be forgiven and were more often than not.
August 8, 2022
Cynthia Lummis endorsed Hageman, Nethercott and Dergenfelder in an article in the Cowboy State Daily. The stated basis of her endorsement is that all three were "home grown".
Her relationship with Cheney is undoubtedly strained since January 6, but it appears to at least a degree it stretches back further than that. Cheney may have been contemplating running for Senate again, when Enzi stepped down, but Lummis' announcement for that office frustrated that.
It's also interesting in that Lummis didn't go full Trump in her announcement and didn't come out backing the far right candidates save for Hageman.
August 9, 2022
The volume of mailings, and now Facebook and Twitter ads, in this election is at the truly oppressive level.
Aug 9, cont.
There was a recent Secretary of State candidate's debate, which I only learned about after the fact via the net. I have not watched it. The YouTube video of it is below.
August 11, 2022
The Trib ran an article on this date on campaign donations and the various candidates.
Perhaps the most remarkable figures were for Secretary of State, where Chuch Gray has raised $528,000 to Nethercott's $333,000. Of that, $500,000 of Gray's money was donated by his father and $10,000 from himself, meaning he's really raised $18,000. Nethercott loaned her campaign $95,000.
August 12, 2022
A new poll puts Cheney 29 points behind Hageman.
The Atlantic published an article on Cheney calling her "The Republican From The State of Reality", referring to her positions in regard to the insurrection.
August 14, 2022
The Trib declined to endorse a candidate for the House GOP race in its final edition prior to the election. Frankly, I'm stunned.
And disappointed. On a major race such as this, I'd have thought that the state's largest newspaper would wish to do so. Perhaps it felt that attacks on the Press by Trump would only aid Hageman.
Hageman ran a long op ed in the paper, which was also surprising. The op ed disclaimed that the race is about the insurrection but rather takes the position that since the insurrection Cheney has been so diverted by her efforts to keep Donald Trump from regaining power she's been ignoring the state. That is, quite frankly, baloney, and would presume that Cheney could single-handedly stop measures coming through a Democratic controlled House.
Hageman of course knows this, and should the House remain Democratic, of which there's a growing possibility, she'll be less effective than Cheney in the same category as she'll have been elected as a January 11 fableist.
The same edition has an article about Wyoming needing to elect candidates who don't live in a fantasy world. This is, quite frankly, a problem that's been growing in the state for some time, but which is particularly pronounced now.
Lenhart: Republicans must not nominate fantasy world candidates
It also republished its on line op eds from yesterday, all of which we already linked in, but will do so here again.
In one of the constant stream of internet (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) rants on this topic, a highly right wing friend of mine who has been posting anti Cheney stuff for quite some time, drew a reply from another Republican friend of mine who termed Hageman a "stalking horse", without naming her by name.
I hadn't quite thought of Hageman in exactly those terms before, but that title is pretty applicable, it seems to me.
_P215_APPROACHING_THE_FOWL_WITH_STALKING-HORSE.jpg)
Indeed, Hagaeman herself has a difficult time describing, even in her Trib essay, exactly how she's different from Cheney in her views, other than being a repetitious voice of Trumpites regarding Cheney.
A stalking horse, of course, is simply a vehicle for somebody else. Hagaeman's motivations in this race are really a mystery to me to some degree, quite frankly, as I at one time vaguely knew her. She was once a Cheney fan and supporter, and it's pretty hard not to agree with Cheney that this is an example of "tragic opportunism".
In regard to that, it's interesting to note in her essay she accuses Cheney of having Presidential ambitions. Well, who in Congress doesn't? But does it make sense for a former friend of Cheney's to come out swinging at her in this fashion and complain that she has ambitions for higher office?
As I've mentioned before, when I vaguely knew Hageman years ago, indeed decades ago, I mostly did because I was friends with some of her circle of friends, and those individuals were left leaning. It's not as if you can't have friends outside of your own political views, but my assumption was that she must be left leaning as well. At least one of those friends of hers was in the paper just the other day supporting one of the abortion plaintiffs in Teton County and has had a very left-wing legal career, something she could afford to have due to her personal circumstances.
Maybe Hageman was always far right and just kept it to herself, or maybe I just didn't know her well enough to know what they were. She was quiet back in those days, or at least my perception of her at the time was such. Her father was a very far right wing legislature from Wyoming's wheat belt, which ought to cause concern to Wyomingites who live outside of it in and of itself.
I'm sure that Hageman doesn't think of herself as a stalking horse, but then live stalking horses just think of themselves as horses, I'm sure.
"Elk don't know how many legs horses got".
I fear that a lot of Wyoming voters are not more well-informed that elk are in regard to stalking horses. Many don't seem to be.
Last Prior Edition:
The 2022 Election Part IX. And they're officially out of the gate.
Recent related threads:
Friday, August 14, 1942. Eisenhower named to command Torch.
While there are different dates for this that seem to be given, and this is just one of them, it seems that on this date Dwight Eisenhower, career U.S. Army officer who had been a Colonel prior to the built up for World War Two, and who had never been in combat, was chosen to lead Operation Torch, the planned fall 1942 amphibious landings by Anglo-American troops in North Africa.
Maj. Gen. Eisenhower, at that time, in 1942.
That this was being planned shows the degree to which, in planning, the tide of the war was turning, in spite of the evidence on the ground.
On the ground, British commandos conducted a nighttime raid on anti-aircraft and radar sites at Pointe de Saire, France. The raiders crossed the channel in a British motor torpedo boat and did not sustain any losses.
The Ohio, mentioned yesterday, and the day before, doesn't sink, is reboarded and taken back under tow. Further attacks break the towline, but they're repaired, and the towing keeps on, lashed to warships near her.
British freighter MV Brisbane Star, part of Pedestal as well, makes it to Malta at 4:15 P.M. in spite of being heavily damaged.
The Australians retreat from Deniki in New Guinea. The Japanese land 3,000 additional troops.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—August 14, 1942: Two P-38 Lightnings of the US 1st Fighter Group shoot down a German Fw 200 Condor bomber off Iceland—the first US claim against the Luftwaffe
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