This is really remarkable:
The Libertarian Party, which we don't usually associate with calls for regulation, here is taking a stand for nature.
They are correct. Allowing gender "reassignment" surgery for minors is irreversible in its effects, permanently damaging, normally regretted, and child abuse.
The fact that it's allowed at all is insane.
How exciting!
Pursuant to Wyoming Constitution Art 6, Sec 17; W.S. 22-2-107, Chuck Gray gets his first non family real job! And his recently minted attorney assistant gets relieved from a career in the law, probably, in order to be launched into his aunts newfound career, thereby besting her by avoiding decades of actual hard legal practice, probably.
Mr. Allred goes back to probably being unelected, but now safely packing heat, in his home county, becoming a footnote in the state's history.
Megan Degenfelder takes office as well, after having been a campaign in which she carefully managed to avoid being drug into the drama in School Board meetings this year. She too has hired a lawyer to serve in her administration.
Is the AG's office taking the year off?
Speaking of days off, I thought this was one for the state, so perhaps these things are pushed to tomorrow?
And in just eight days, the 2023 Legislature commences.
Oh boy!
American and Australian forces captured the beachhead at Buna in the Battle of Buna-Gona, New Guinea.
Gen. Eichelberger was under orders from MacArthur to "Take Buna, or don't come back alive".
The Saturday Evening Post featured a Leyendecker with a helmeted naked baby swinging into the New Year on holding tenuously onto a musket.
Science News assured its readers that Horse Meat Won't Hurt. The article noted, amongst other things, that very few horses were actually slaughtered for meat in the US in any event.
According to Sarah Sundin:
Today in World War II History—January 2, 1943: In Libya, the port of Tripoli is closed to Axis ships due to Allied bombing. New songs in Top Ten: “Moonlight Becomes You,” “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”
Unlike this year, January 2 was not a holiday, as January 1 fell on a Monday, making it the holiday.
1923 Secretary Hall, Secretary of the Interior, resigns due to the Teapot Dome Scandal.
The Legislative Council of Burma opened. It offered Burma limited self-government, with 80 elected seats, the balance appointed by colonial officials.
It was a step, albeit only that, toward real independence or dominion status for Britain's various remaining colonies.
Pierce Butler was sworn in as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. We've discussed him a fair amount already.
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I don't do this every year, and usually when I have, it's been tongue in cheek.
This will try to be, partially, but this one is more serious than most. Indeed, for the most part, there's no jest in this at all, and I'm going to do it in a different format, partially for that reason.
Donald Trump need to retire and go away.
Based on something I read the other day, in his personal life he nearly has. As the limelight fades away, he's spending a lot of his time at a nearby golf course he owns, rather than at Mar-a-Lago.
Even Theodore Roosevelt, the Old Lion, reached a point where he really didn't care about politics anymore, and that included his very last run for office. The fire had gone out. It'd dangerous to compare Roosevelt, who was a highly admirable man, to Trump, who isn't, but that seems to be happening.
Reportedly Trump's favorite film is Sunset Boulevard, which I've never seen, but which is reportedly a masterpiece about a fading silent film movie star. Trump, according to the article I read, will rarely pay any attention to anything, including films, but he loves Sunset Boulevard and will sit through it even after having seen it a zillion times.
That tells us something.
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Gracefully fading away is hard to do. Truman did it, I'd note. Jimmy Carter seems to have done it. Douglas MacArthur did it, and the odds were against it.
Of course, Trump's problem is that he's disgraced himself and soiled his legacy.
Anyhow, he really ought to simply keep making that golf course trip and leave everyone alone, for the good of the country, and for the good of what little dignity he has left.
I noticed this morning that Elsie Stefanik is taking all sorts of flak due to a Washington Post expose. There's a lesson to be learned here, but it's probably too late for her to benefit from it. She could still learn from it.
Elon Musk needs to go back to South Africa, and whatever immigration loophole that was exploited to allow him to come in to the country and take up U.S. citizenship needs to be examined.
I can't think of a single qualification that Musk may have legally met to enter this country permanently. Somebody ought to look into that, and if he really didn't meet it, his citizenship should be revoked as a fraud and whatever person assisted this process looked into. And I feel the same way for all of the entertainment figures that hang around in this country as well. Go back.
Whatever weird, weird, loophole in our immigration system let Musk come in needs to be fixed. South Africa can use him. Go home, Elon.
Harriet Hageman and Chuck Gray won their elections, fair and square, but based upon the lie that something was wrong with the last election.
Now that they're in office, they have a lot to make up for, given that.
One thing they both can do is stop feeding the bogus rage machine. The other thing they ought to do is to admit that times are changing and the concept of hanging on to the 1970s economy, which we've only had in this state for the last 50 years, not forever, is dying.
Hageman, also, who is no dummy, ought to do some serious introspection before raising her right hand, once again, and swearing to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. She's done that at least once, and yet she was willing, although not at first, to boost a lie in favor of somebody who was willing to, and is stilling willing to, usurp that same Constitution. Gray probably has taken a similar oath upon becoming a legislature, but I don't know him, and I frankly hold him to a lesser standard.
Hageman when a large number of her fellow bar members reminded her of her duty to tell the truth advanced a really wild fantasy regarding that. If she believed that, she needs to spend about a week in the hills, perhaps with Thoreau, or perhaps with the Book of Tobit. It'd do her good.
The Grand Old Party in Wyoming needs a serious shake up, I'd note, but it's not going to happen. The Democratic Party of Wyoming needs one as well. At this point, that's only going to come through Independents, I'm afraid. My Resolution, therefore, is for them. I hope, and hope they resolve, to take over the state's politics. The Democrats have become so mired in left wing goofiness, there's nearly no saving them.
Interestingly, the Libertarian Party, nationally, recently seems to have taken a step to the middle. Maybe there's hope for them yet.
There's a huge percentage of the country that need to resolve that science is not its enemy, and Newsmax is not the place to get the news. If the news just fuels your preformed beliefs and, simultaneously, makes you mad, you need to get your news somewhere else. Actually, what you need to do, is get the news.
Vladimir Putin needs to go to confession, and then go to a monastery. I'm not joking. Russia needs to join the modern, democratic, world. The Russian Orthodox Church needs to end its schism with the rest of the Orthodox, and the Eastern Orthodox need to end their schism with Rome. This has gone on too long. The German Catholic Bishops, for their part, need to end their drift into wherever they are going.
Something needs to be done regarding the condition giving rise to an epic level of attempted migration into the United States. If conditions in Central America are that bad, we need to figure out why, and do something about it immediately.
In large part, in many ways, we all need to look forward, by looking back. Being perpetually angry doesn't serve any interest at all. Pretending it's 1973 won't either. Turning to grifters, caudillos, snake oil salesmen, and those selling anger won't work.
We all know that. It's doing something about it that seemingly is difficult. But once we get moving, momentum is a force until itself.
Speaking of 1973, left wing American economists like Robert Reich need to realize that they continually espouse another economic option, and then pull back to the current one. They're basically in the position of being a concerned stranger walking up to a desperate drunk in a bar, giving him a temperance lecture, and then suggesting he switch to beer. That's not going to cut it in an economy that truly needs adjusting.
On a minor notes, would people on Twitter stop using this stupid cartoon for points they're trying to make:
There are all sorts of version of this, and they're all hideous and bad. Whatever you think you are trying to prove this way, you are not.
An addendum.
Let's start 2023 with some basic consensus on proved things. If we do, we'll have a productive year.
If we don't, it suggests that we really prefer blinding ourselves to truth and arguing for sport/self-satisfaction.
And that would certainly merit a sense of pessimism.
Okay, first of all, some lingering political things.
Donald Trump lost the election. Believe whatever you want about who should have one, whether the electoral college makes any sense, whether we're a republic or democracy (as if the two are mutually exclusive), but he lost.
There's no point in arguing otherwise, unless you just like arguing, much like the fellow I know who insists the Women's NBA "isn't a sport". Why, well because a 50-year-old overweight guy who couldn't play basketball against a junior high team can safely take that position for self-satisfaction. Same here. Trump lost, and arguing that he won at this point is really just insisting the opposite isn't true.
Vaccinations are safe. We really don't need to argue about this anymore, but we really don't need to be arguing about vaccinations in general.
Note that I didn't limit this to the COVID-19 vaccination. People out there who don't vaccinate their kids for things we haven't seen for years, only to have the kids get ill, are acting criminally. If there's one thing we have COVID-19 to thank for, and I don't believe it is, it's that it shut people up like Jenny McCarthy on this topic.
Let's resolve to follow the science on stuff, no matter how scary that may be, or how much that impacts our self interests, or our narcissistic desires. If that leads to "you know, what I want isn't okay", or "my own impulses aren't ordered", well, so be it.
Let's also resolve that the end point of being a human isn't to be a consumer.
Let's completely skip altering our natures this year. Whether that's dying our hair some color it isn't, or inflating our boobs, or changing our gender, or whatever.
Feel that you really want to be in touch with who you really are? Well, be who you really are, and that starts with the body nature gave you and all that means.
Face the basic fact that you are going to die. Hopefully not soon, but you will. And that's okay, as long as you are in the right place when you die. Eating the All Kale Diet won't stop it. Don't accelerate it, please, we need you around, but we need you who you are, and as part of us, as we really are.
Don't be mean. I've come to realize that there are certain people who revel in being mean. Don't be one of them. Don't take joy in other's suffering, or inflict it in them. Meanness, I'd note, is often masked in arrogance, or self-righteousness, or even ignorance.
Don't follow the mean, either. If somebody seems perpetually pissed off, there's something wrong in that.
Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life; wherefore the servant of God ought always to be in good spirits.
St. Philip Neri.
Mehr mensch sein.
2022 closed out with enough departures from this life of interesting and significant people that it has that portents feeling to it. Let's hope that's just being naturally ill at ease.
Pope Benedict XVI
The most significant death, of course, is that of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on the last day of the year. His death was not unexpected.
The German-born Joseph Ratzinger was an intellectual and a theologian. For misguided reasons, he was regarded as the "Panzer Cardinal" by some of his supporters, a nickname that never reflected his personality but which rose out of his stout defenses of orthodoxy.
His resignation as Pope, the first that had occurred in centuries, was due to ill health and was controversial at the time. There is, frankly, much to be lamented by it, at least by those who have a conservative religious bent (as I do), who lost, if nothing else, and there was much else, a conservative Pope who would have appointed conservative cardinals and perhaps been in a better position to take on the German Bishops.
Benedict grew up in Nazi Germany, where his father was an outspoken anti-Nazi policeman. His family was deeply religious. He was conscripted into a Luftwaffe anti-aircraft batter late in the war at the time in which Germany was reaching down into the early teens for that role. He lived an exceptional life, but by some accounts, given his academic nature, wasn't ideally suited for his role as Pope.
Ian Tyson
Ian Tyson was a Western, not Country and Western but Western, musician who was a giant in that arena.
Tyson was early on a folk musician who sang with Sylvia Fricker, whom he later married, and then divorced. Following his divorce, he moved to Alberta to train horses and when Bob Dylan recorded Four Strong Winds he used the royalties to buy his ranch. Following that, he focused on traditional "Cowboy Style" music is distinct from the Hillbilly Country Music and Country Pop so popular in the U.S. He was a pioneer in a small revival that's spread back into the US, but which still sees its most significant members being Canadian, showing the Western nature of Western Canada.
He died on December 29, at age 89.
Pelé
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, was the greatest soccer player in the world in his era, and will go down as one of those figures who are famous in a sport, and outside of it, forever.
I know little about him, other than his fame in soccer, but as I don't follow soccer, that says something. He died on December 29 at age 82.
Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters was born the same year as my late father and was a major newscaster and interviewer when I was growing up.
It's perfectly fair to say that she was a female pioneer in the area, although as we've pointed out in regard to the very early history of Meet The Press there were significant women, albeit few in number, in the field prior to her.
I'll be frank that I never liked her interviewing style and found her voice ill-suited for her role, as she was somewhat hard to understand, which some people are. She died on December 30, at age 93.
Elise Stefanik is apparently the subject of a major Washington Post expose, which I can't read as I can't get past the paywall.
It's well-known that Sefanik started off as a middle of the road Republican and then became a dedicated Trumper. Apparently this is about the costs she paid on the route, and it isn't flattering. The oddest detail is that she apparently thought about trying to approach Pete Buttigieg for a position if he won his 2020 election bid.
Because I can't read it, I can't accurately represent it, but what it seems to suggest is that Stefanik is an example of the age-old political tale of a politician selling her soul for power, and losing more than she gains in the process.
I wonder how my of the Wyoming politicians just elected ought to get the WP article and consider the moral of that story.
A new study reveals the following:
This is not surprising, of course.
The United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark entered the European Economic Community.
The addition of the UK in particular would have global economic impacts, as it seriously undercut the economic arrangement of the British Commonwealth.
The EEC was the predecessor to the EU, which of course the UK left recently.
I can very dimly recall this news story from when I was a kid.
Exxon came into being with the merger of Standard Oil and Humble Oil.
The Rose Bowl was of course played, with the USC Trojans beating the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Zambia officially became a one party state.
Sergei Kourdakov, age 21, who had been a KGB officer who had been involved in raids on Christian communities, but then converted to Christianity as a result of the reading material he found in them, and then defected to Canada, was found dead from a gunshot wound in a ski resort hotel in Canada. The firearm was his own and the death was ruled accidental, but suspicions remain regarding it.
Today in World War II History—January 1, 1943: The Rose Bowl returns to Pasadena: Georgia beats UCLA 9-0. Incoming California Gov. Earl Warren serves as Tournament of Roses grand marshal.
So reports Sarah Sundin, who also notes that California Governor Earl Warren served as Grand Marshall, but the parade was cancelled due to the war.
At that game, the George Bulldogs beat the UCLA Bruins 9 to 0.
The Soviets announced that 175,000 Germans had been killed at Stalingrad and 137,650 captured, which lead to headlines on those numbers in the U.S. that very day.
Albanian resistance fighters began a rebellion against the Italians at Gjorm. They'd win, but it would be a Pyrrhic victory, resulting in Italian reprisals.
For Catholics in the U.S., it was a Holy Day of Obligation. It would normally have been a day off for most people in the Western World, but due to wartime conditions, for many it would not be.
At the request of Bishop Benedict, please consider supporting our military chaplains in Ukraine:
GoFundMe for Greco-Catholic Chaplains
The human heart plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps.
Proverbs, 16:9
2022 won't go down in my memory as a good year.
The Fall of 2022 saw me in the hospital three times, one of which was for several days, all of which were for surgical procedures, one major and two minor. The result of the first one was to move a chunk of my colon, after which I learned that I barely dodged colon cancer. And I do mean barely.
God's providence, as Pope Francis has stated, is always one step ahead of us.
I got in that situation by basically disregarding the advice on getting a colonoscopy, getting mine a full decade after they recommend you start getting them. That sort of thing is typical for me, but it nearly got me killed.
At the time of writing this, I'm still waiting to find out what's up with a thyroid nodule. I've had two fine needle aspirations and still don't have a diagnosis, other than that something is odd about it. The material has gone out for a genetic analysis, which will determine whether or not it's something to worry about.
The doctor feels it probably isn't, but she doesn't sound reassuring about it. I strongly suspect that it probably is, so 2023 will probably kick off with another surgery.
I'm in pretty good shape overall for somebody who is nearly 60, and who will turn that age, God willing, in 2023. So all of this has caught me by surprise. I didn't expect it.
I also didn't expect surgery to take so much out of me, but it did. I was beat up for weeks. My digestive track still hasn't returned fully to normal, or at least to the status quo ante, and I don't think it's probably going to. This isn't like a huge disaster, but it is different, noticeably so.
I was tired for weeks after the surgery, and punchy too. I didn't really realize how much so until some time later.
One of the things about running a blog is you get to know some people whom you know only through that. Two of those folks came in with well-wishes when I was ill, which I appreciate. One of them, however, who was a well known outdoor writer, died very shortly after his last post here, which was one of those posts. It sort of punctuated this in a way.
Everyone else in the family is healthy, and I'm grateful to God for that, although COVID 19 visited the house. My wife fell ill with it, even after being fully vaccinated. That cost her a vacation with her brother and our sister-in-law.
Being laid up interrupted by hunting seasons enormously. I didn't draw for anything other than elk, but I did get out for general deer with my daughter. We got up on deer right away when some inconsiderate person drove right through where we were hunting, costing us some good bucks. No deer for 2022.
I went out elk hunting on the first day, which was right before surgery. I was tired and lethargic going out, which I now can look back on and realize that pretty much described me for all of 2022 before surgery. I didn't see anything.
I got out the last Sunday as well. Felt better, but saw nothing.
Just two days out of a long season. Post surgery, restrictions kept me out of the field for a long time.
That also meant that I missed most of the waterfowl season, and indeed, when I started back up, as I had missed so much, it felt like the season was starting. Of course, it was not. I missed sage chicken season for some reason as well, maybe working cattle.
All of which means that in some odd ways, 2022 was more about my office job than ever. I worked like a dog, even working from home the Monday after I got out of the hospital, but for some reason, I really have less to show for it this year than I should. Or that's how I perceive it. A post surgery outlook, perhaps.
I didn't work cattle hardly at all this Fall, same reason, which emphasized the indoors again.
An odd thing for me has been the various references people have started making to retirement.
I'm not old enough, on the Social Security scale, to retire even at the early age, and I won't be for a few years. All of a sudden, however, people are asking me about it and I don't know quite why.
One reason may be that when I came into the practice of law, I rapidly ended up in the litigation major leagues. Lots of the lawyers I worked with were young then, which I guess I didn't appreciate, but htey were older than me. This has been a common experience in my life. I graduated high school a year younger than most people, and I've often been the youngest person in any one group. Added to that, I've tended to appear younger than I really am for almost all of my life.
Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by a life that is just.
Proverbs
That's no longer quite as true, although men age at remarkably varied rates. Up until going into the hospital it seemed very much still the case, although over this year my facial hair, in my case expressed by my mustache, which I try to keep bushy, and my sideburns, which I try to keep short, have gone white.
That's going to make you look a certain age, no matter what. Some men would shave it, but I've been wearing a mustache now continually since 1988, and off and on before then, so I'm not. And every once in a while I'll mention shaving it and my wife, who has never seen me without one, will object.
It is a shock, however, when I see my firm official photo. All my hair was dark brown then. The hair on my head remains brown, with gray mixed in, but my facial hair is white.
Added in that, however, I think is this. I've often been the youngest person in a group, as noted above, which means the rest of the group is older. All the guys I graduated with from high school were a little younger than me. When I started working, a lot of the lawyers I knew, worked with, and became friends with were several years older than me. They weren't old, they were just older than me.
At that time, somebody graduating from law school sometime in the first half of the decade prior to you seemed like a long time. Graduating in the late 1970s even more so, and it really is. But for those from the early 80s, if you were 1990, that isn't really that long of time, except at first. Over time, it isn't, and those people begin to pretty much figure you are their contemporaries, and vice versa, which you basically are.
A couple of years ago, one lawyer I worked with a fair amount over the years pulled up and retired to the southwest. Another that I'd worked with much more, and whom I'd become friends with, fell ill, retired, and died nearly immediately. He wasn't that old, just in his 60s. I'd been all over the west with him on cases. A mutual friend of both of ours, who is a good friend of mine, is getting ready to retire. A judge I worked with as a lawyer up and retired. A lawyer I worked against a fair amount had a heart attack and died. A couple of longstanding business contacts I am close to retired. A lawyer that I'm pretty close to and have known my professional career is fighting a serious disease.
I feel like I'm The Last of the Mohicans.
Or maybe Will Penny.
Anyhow, you get the point.
Perverse speech sows discord, and talebearing separates bosom friends.l
The violent deceive their neighbors, and lead them into a way that is not good.Whoever winks an eye plans perversity; whoever purses the lips does evil.
Proverbs.
The events of the year oddly worked into this. You wouldn't think that the background noise of the times would impact you personally that much, usually, but they do, and often heavily. The state went into the 2022 election so dedicated to Trumpite populism that it felt more like South Carolina in December 1860 than Wyoming in, well. . . ever. Views circulated in the state that I've never heard before, with some of them bordering on the unhinged. Candidates were elected who seemed to be Berserker mad at the entire population of the country and who were ready to dive into the population, broad sword drawn, until they emerged screaming on the other end.
It was weird.
In that atmosphere, we elected a Secretary of State with thin connections to the State and a Congresswoman who has long connections with it, but whom will start off as a nullity and whom I predict will forever remain there. The entire time, large percentages of the state, including many people who have not lived here long, looked back romantically on a state history and culture that never ever existed.
So here, I feel like Sitting Bull.
It was not only weird, but for a native, downright depressing.
Indeed, in spite of my Sioux reference, a better analogy is that this must be what it was like if you were a Westphalian of my age, but in 1932. The country you were born in, for all its faults, is now gone and completely unrecognizable. The past decade has been a mix of extremes on all levels, cultural and political, and a big section of the country is now supporting extremism for reasons that are hard to grasp.
Well, here's hoping 2023 is a bit better.
How much better to get wisdom than gold!
To get understanding is preferable to silver.
Proverbs.
Hitler's Order of the Day, in part, stated: "The year 1943 will perhaps be hard but certainly not harder than the one just behind us."
In fact, for the Germans, it would be harder than 1942, and in short order.
Franklin and Elanor Roosevelt hosted dinner and a midnight movie at the White House.
The Battle of the Barents Sea occurred between the Kriegsmarine and the Royal Navy, with the Royal Navy escorting Convoy JW 51 B to the Kola Inlet.
All the merchant vessels made it safety to their destinations. The British lost the HMS Achates while the Kreigsmarine lost the Z16 Freiderich Ecoldt.
Emperor Hirohito gave permission for Japanese forces to withdraw from Guadalcanal. The Japanese, accordingly, had officially suffered their first internally recognized defeat.
It was New Year's Eve, 1922.
That meant a lot of parties. Parties occurring during Prohibition. A fair number of them were dry, but a fair number were not.
French Prime Minister Raymond Poincare rejected German Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno's proposal for a non-aggression pact with Germany, which would have replaced French troops in the Rhineland with an international disinterested force.
Frankly, were I Poincare, I would have rejected it also. What international force, following the Great War, would have even qualified as disinterested?
We mentioned Cuno here the other day, he was an economist. Of some interest, he was born in 1876 and would die in 1933. Poincare was born in 1860, and would outlive him, dying in 1934.
The Nine Power Treaty went into effect. We've run the text of the treaty, signed by the U.S. France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and China previously.
United States Supreme Court Justice Mahlon Pitney retired following his having suffered a stroke.
Pitney was conservative, but also a libertarian, and has received praise in the modern era for being consistently libertarian. He hailed from New Jersey, where his family had been located since colonial times, and only served for ten years before his stroke idled him. He died in 1924 at age 66.
The Casper Daily Tribune had a cartoon on the cover regarding the Hays of the Hays Production Code, which we just discussed.
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Sorry Kerry, buy you couldn’t be more wrong about Harriet Hageman – you made the mistake of trying to predict how she will be judged in history on one issue which will rapidly decrease in importance as Trump goes down in flames.
The only way to predict how Harriet will be viewed in her new roll as a Representative is to do an in-depth review or her substantial record in the courts – particularly the Federal court system. Its my understanding she has been one of the most successful and foremost natural resource attorneys in the United States and has argued cases at the highest level. To understand her experience in this field of natural resources one must recognize there are less than 10 really experienced individuals in Wyoming who have proven over the years their expertise in the field of natural resources. They include Jill Morrison, Doug Thompson, Ken Hamilton, Angus Theumer, Dan Hielig, Karen Budd Falen, Harriet Hageman and maybe a few more. Harriet is near the top of this distinguished list of competence.
The bottom line is that Harriet can be expected to be one of the most knowledgeable natural resource experts to ever be elected to Congess. If she equals or exceeds her past performance she will have a major impact on natural resource issues in the house. It will be important to see which committees she is appointed to and whether she can put together a staff of truly talented experienced natural resource experts.
Her unique experience as a natural resource attorney positions her to write amendments to legislation, existing laws which could redefine the ESA, Clean Water Act, Wild Horse and Burro Act, Wilderness designations, etc. and do this in a House of Representatives controlled by the Republications at least for the next 2 years. Never under estimate a person who has proven over and over that she is all about competence, competence, competence. The Donald Trump thing will wilt in the very near future and we’ll see Harriet in the legislative setting instead of the court room setting. Will she be as successful in Congress as she has been in the courts. Based on past performance, I think Harriet will be as influential.
This taps into something that's been bothering me throughout this election, or rather, maybe several somethings.
Those are; 1) when does "being a lawyer" credit you as a candidate, and when does it discredit you, in the public eye, 2) does the propaganda on lawyers match the reality, 3) does anyone really believe that having been a successful lawyer in private practice means you're going to be a big wheel in Congress, and 4) if Hageman's record is correctly cited, why would we support it?
First, a disclaimer, which I've noted before. As noted here, I knew Hageman slightly at one time. Early on, because of her circle of friends, I frankly assumed she was a left wing Democrat. At that time she was shy and hardly spoke, so my assumption was probably way off, but if it was way off, she was a unique personality in that her friends must have been way outside of her political beliefs.
That actually credits a person.
Indeed, one of the people like me, who had friends that were in her circle of friends, is mentioned in the letter above. And that person definitely has very left wing beliefs and is married to one of Hageman's school year friends who also have very left wing beliefs, at least based on their views at the time, and their careers since.
Interesting.
It's additionally interesting as that person would most likely be on the opposite end of the spectrum on all the issues listed.
That brings up the point that lawyers careers tend to reflect the work that was available when they started off. It doesn't necessarily reflect their personal views. In the case of the person I'm thinking of above, it does, as their choices in career paths would reflect that. In at least one other person listed above, it probably does as well, although they took a big diversion from their pathway at one time.
Hageman?
Well, I don't know. She did seem to develop, from what little I know of it, a career that focused a lot on water law at one time and then branched into something else, that being the representation of far right interests on various land and environmental issues. I know of her representing a super wealthy import on a house construction case, however. Perhaps that was a favor of some kind.
Most lawyers actually are at least a little left of center. Even the self-proclaimed right wing lawyers I know tend to actually be left of center, a little. I've met a few really right wing lawyers, but in those cases one was a fellow who was so wealthy he really didn't have to do anything, and who came from a very conservative background (I also know a very left wing lawyer who was so wealthy the lawyer didn't actually have to do anything).
Of the three really right wing lawyers I've known over the years, two of them were from, you guessed it, somewhere else.
Is Hageman really right wing? Well, she is now, and has no choice but to be. Her father was a right wing legislator, and she's from Ft. Laramie, so if she is, she probably came by it naturally. If she originally wasn't, she is now, and she has to be.
Which will make her irrelevant in Congress.
Which, in an out-of-order sort of way, brings us to number 3 on our list "3) does anyone really believe that having been a successful lawyer in private practice means you're going to be a big wheel in Congress"?
I can't think of any examples. Can you?
Let's start with the letter writers citations here:
The bottom line is that Harriet can be expected to be one of the most knowledgeable natural resource experts to ever be elected to Congess.
Well, setting aside Herbert Hoover, maybe.
Hoover was a mining engineer.
If she equals or exceeds her past performance she will have a major impact on natural resource issues in the house. I
How so? Legal work is presenting your case to a jury or judge, and in this line of country, probably mostly to a judge.
That, frankly, doesn't mean squat in terms of arguing policy in Congress.
The House of Representatives has 435 members, who all think of themselves as being the judges. And unlike a real judge, they aren't, and don't have to be, constrained by what the law is and, while they should be constrained by the facts, they have never been.
They also all think themselves equal in their expertise to you, and really don't give a rats ass what your pre Congress career is.
Put another way, does anyone really think that AoC is going to think, "wow, Harriet, you know so much, I'm going your way!" Or, for that matter, that Keven McCarthy is going to think "I struggled for years and sold my soul to become Speaker of the House, but I'm deferring to you Harriet".
Not bloody likely.
Particularly, and this is important for Wyomingites to realize, the House represents the population of the United States, which is about 70% aligned against what Harriet is seems to be for, based on her record.
Which takes us to this:
Her unique experience as a natural resource attorney positions her to write amendments to legislation, existing laws which could redefine the ESA, Clean Water Act, Wild Horse and Burro Act, Wilderness designations, etc. and do this in a House of Representatives controlled by the Republications at least for the next 2 years.
Bar har har har!
Uh huh. The House is Republican, barely.
The Senate, isn't.
The Oval Office, isn't.
You have to be delusional to believe that any legislation is coming out of the House with a right wing point of view on the ESA, the Clean Water Act, the Wild Horse and Burro Act, or Wilderness designations in the next two years.
No freakin' way.
And if the last several elections cycles have shown, the rules about when houses switch are now broken. If Donald Trump continues to whip the ass cart towards the cliff, the chances are just as good that you end up with a Democratic House and Senate in 2024.
Particularly if the GOP Rockettes in the form of Marjorie "Jewish Space Laser" Taylor Green and Lauren "Insurrection Barbie" continue to draw so much press. Far right House female House figures look more evil female villains in Marvel Comics right now that serious policymakers. If you are a far right angry congresswoman, and that's the presentation that Hageman has given so far, firmly riding the Trump Ass Cart, do you really think you'll be taken as a serious potential policymaker?
Indeed, does any Wyoming politician have that street cred right now? Senator Barrasso did at one time, but the GOP has seemed to use him recently to personally blame Joe Biden for gas prices when they go up, but not credit him when they go down. Lummis might be faring the best right now, and she's clearly working on breaking away from the Wyoming GOP, with her sights set on a cabinet position in a future GOP administration she figures won't be Trump's.
Indeed, how the next two years go, with Lummis acting independently and Hageman beholden to Trump, will be interesting.
And frankly, most Wyomingites aren't haters of Wilderness. Out on the street, it's easy to find Republican Wyomingites who would add more. That's an upper level GOP thing and one of the many examples of how they are out of sink with the electorate. Same with the Clean Water Act. You can get visceral reactions to the ESA mostly because the right has hated it since day one.
The Wild Horse & Burro Act matters to ranchers, and I don't like it, but most people don't think about it at all.
All of which is to say that I don't expect any Congressional action at all in these areas. In 2024, the Wild Horse and Burro Act, the ESA, etc., will all be there, and Harriet Hageman's opinions on them will not have mattered one bit.
Which covers not only topic 3, but topic 4.
What about topic 2?
Well, maybe, in her case. The New York Times supported that view, that she was a lawyer who worked against environmental regulation for decades, and they're surely no fans of Hageman.
Well, what about 1. Funny how that works. If somebody's a lawyer, and their views seem to agree with yours, that means a lot. If they're a lawyer, and their views differ, they're a dirty bastard. The High Country News, before she was a candidate or even close to being one, in 2009, stated the same thing, more or less. So that claim seems to be correct.
But again, does that credit you?
Witness the Secretary of State election. Chuck Gray complained that Tara Nethercott was a lawyer and was only campaigning for the salary, an absurd proposition. First thing he does his hire a lawyer to be on his staff.
Weird how that worked.
Which gets back to the letter writers point that we don't know how we're judged in history, until we're judged in history. His point is that Hageman may overcome having a front row seat on the careering ass cart due to her background and skills.
And maybe she will.
But in order to do that, she'll have to get out of the ass cart quick, as otherwise she's just going to be wrecked baggage. And that's not an easy thing to.
"Tail Gunner" Joe McCarthy. Richard Milhouse Nixon.
Two conservatives who didn't react, when they could have, both of whom might have been very much differently remembered than they are today. By the time that McCarthy hauled in the Army in front of the House Committee on Un American Affairs, the bloom was off the Communist under every bush rose. He should have known that and wrapped things up, stating they'd gone as far as they could, and have gotten back to things later. Instead, he rode that wagon over a cliff.
Nixon should have exposed the Watergate burglars. He didn't order them to actually do anything. If he had, he'd have completed his second term, destroyed the negative evidence against him, and be remembered as the President who got us out of Vietnam.
Part of taking trips into dangerous territory with the baggage train is knowing when to leave it.
WyoFile's Kerry Drake wrote an editorial worth reading, entitled:
It's a great article, with many good observations, but Drake is reading his audience, the Wyoming voter, incorrectly.
And that's a tragedy.
Drake is correct about this:
Hageman, by contrast, has now irrevocably tied her political identity to backing Trump’s lies about the “rigged” election. Even if she wanted to abandon him, Hageman cannot simply walk away. You don’t just shuck off those handcuffs when you get tired of wearing them.
No, Hageman has made the political calculation to double down on her support, even as many incumbent Republican lawmakers distance themselves from Trump after the GOP’s disastrous midterm election results. Our freshman congresswoman doesn’t have much choice.
And this:
She hitched her wagon to what she thought was the most powerful horse in the field. Now the world is quickly realizing her rotund orange steed was a jackass all along. And Cheney is leading it to the glue factory.
But will "Wyoming's" voters wake up, and will it make a difference to Hageman?
Not a chance.
Nor will it matter to her supporters.
Hageman will go on to be reliably right of the right for the rest of her political career. In her early 60s, she'll be there for at least 16 years, and have little influence on anything.
In the meantime, something occurred to me.
I have a friend who is a fanatic Hageman supporter. I have another who was a real Chuck Gray supporter.
What do they have in common?
Not from here, and not from any of the neighboring states.
They've imported their politics from the Midwest. . . and there's a lot of that going around. Indeed, we have a Secretary of State that hails from far away and his district has elected a replacement for him, in the legislature, that hails from Chicago.
Wyoming has always been a very odd state in this way. It has a highly transient population and a core of locals. But the locals themselves are divided between various regions. And generally, for some reason, people have tended to politically look to outsiders in the state, although our current era is a real exception. The Governor is actually a Wyomingite, as is Hageman (from the farm belt). Lummis is as well.
Indeed, Lummis may be the best political barometer of what that local core may be thinking. She dissed Trump when most did, made up to him in spades when things were clearly going the other way, and has dumped him like a hot rock now that he's sinking fast.
Drake is right, Hageman can't do that.
But Drake is wrong to think most Wyoming voters will. The real Hageman supporters, who include an interesting group who brought their political views from somewhere else, would rather ride the Trump jackass into oblivion than admit they've been grifted.
It's sort of self satisfying, really.
But it doesn't help address anything, however.
History will judge Hageman and Cheney by their choices, and Wyoming in general. Hageman and Wyoming are going to look pretty much the same way America Firsters did by 1945. But there were still a few America Firsters, even those who backed fascists, around in 1945. History judged them by forgetting them, and they did in fact become pretty irrelevant politically.
As we are about to.
Operation Linebacker II was halted after a total of eleven days, following the North Vietnamese agreement to return to the negotiating table.
Frank Sinatra appeared as a solo act for the first time, appearing before a screaming crowed of bobby soxers of 5,000 at the Paramount Theatre in New York City.
*Not really related to this entry but for this photograph, Alida Valli was an Italian actress coined by Mussolini as "the most beautiful woman in the world." She truly was lovely.
Born to nobility, her real name and title was Freiin Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg. She was born in a part of Italy that is now in Croatia, and which had once been part of Austria Hungary. She was of mixed heritage, but considered herself Italian.
The photo must have been taken post 1943 as she was active in Italy at this time. Married three times, her first husband was an Italian fighter pilot who was killed in action at Tobruk.
She was popular in Western films throughout her career, which again says something about the times. Unlike hugely popular Italian actresses of a certain appearance, Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale, Valli had a more normal figure and rose to popularity in the "dirty" Italy period when Italy was regarded as, and truly was, fairly backwards.
The Saturday Evening Post featured one of J. C. Leyendecker's many New Years illustrations.
It was satyric in nature, with Old Europe, treaty in back pocket, greeting the young US in allegorical form as the old year and the new year meeting.
A new development, reviving an old set of borders, was unfortunately occurring. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was officially founded on this day in 1922. It had, of course, been functioning as a Communist monstrosity for some time already.
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The Country Gentleman featured a baby with a seed catalog, but unfortunately I was not able to locate the illustration.
