Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or less locally, Part 2. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 Edition.

 

Oil field, Grass Creek, Wyo, April 9, 1916

April 16, 2024

The BLM's new oil and gas leasing rules has effectuated new oil and gas leasing rules for the first time since 1988.

The new rules adjust bond amounts for the first time since 1966, increase royalty rates for the first time in over a century (leasing has only been in place for a century). Bond rates will go from $10,000 to $150,000 and state-wide bonding requirement for operators with more than from $25,000 to $500,000.

Governor Gordon criticizes oil and gas rule that raises costs to producers

CHEYENNE, Wyo. –Governor Mark Gordon is criticizing an announcement from the Department of Interior last week that will increase the costs to oil and gas companies seeking to drill on federal lands. The Governor used the following statement:

“If there was any doubt, it could not be more clear now that the Department of Interior has lost its way. Within a day of announcing its renewable energy rule designed to promote the equivalent of a modern-day gold rush of development for renewables by reducing fees and rents on federal lands by 80%, Interior issued an oil and gas rule increasing costs to Wyoming’s industry by 1400%.

America surely needs more energy, including from renewable sources. What our country does not need are policies that greatly reduce the return to our nation’s taxpayers while simultaneously increasing the impacts and burdens on states and communities. We don’t need policies that increase the costs to consumers while also reducing reliability, or rules that sharpen the threat of industrializing our open spaces and crucial wildlife habitat without recognizing the importance of balance in our energy portfolio. These policies should seem misguided to most Americans of every stripe who love our country. Instead of experience and practicality, DOI has doubled down on bias, dogma, and politics. America is suffering as a result.

It is time we get back to common-sense energy policy. I will continue to fight against federal policies that are short-sighted and antagonistic to Wyoming’s industries, our workers, and our way of life. We need to build a realistic, all-of-the-above energy strategy that correctly plans a future of reliable and dispatchable power and properly accounts for – and balances – the costs and impacts of all energy sources.”

April 19, 2024

Tensions in the Middle East have jumped the price of oil back up. 

April 27, 2024

Ur Energy will reopen It's in situ uranium mine and processing plant in Shirley Basin in 2026.

The UAW has entered into a tentative deal with Daimler.

Wyoming is suing the Federal government over a methane rule.

Wyoming Sues Biden Administration Over Costly and Burdensome Methane Rule

 

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Wyoming has joined the states of North Dakota, Montana and Texas in suing the U.S. Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over a new rule that undermines existing state regulatory programs and harms Wyoming oil and natural gas producers.

The suit was filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota. The rule – commonly known as the “methane waste prevention rule” and released last month – is an attempt by the Department of Interior to re-introduce a similar rule adopted by the Obama Administration in 2016. That rule was previously blocked by a Wyoming federal court.

The new rule requires oil and gas companies to pay royalties on flared gas, driving up costs for producers and resulting in increased costs to consumers, the Governor said.

“This rule is yet another example of the Biden Administration attempting to use rulemaking to undermine state authority and suffocate the oil and gas industry,” Governor Gordon said. “We will continue to defend Wyoming’s interests in court whenever they are under attack by the federal government.”

Governor Gordon has previously pointed out Wyoming is a national leader in regulating methane gas, with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission working cooperatively with oil and gas producers to reduce emissions. The states’ complaint explains that the new rule conflicts with state regulations and in certain instances, creates less stringent standards.

The states’ complaint may be found here.

In a major action, a new EPA rule may actually end coal-fired power plants by 2032. Tom Lubnau on that matter:

Tom Lubnau: EPA Increases Wyoming Industry Political Risk, Again

That would be an epic level change in electrical generation in the United States, although its something we've seen coming for a long time:

Coal: Understanding the time line of an industry

May 9, 2024

There has been a 20% reduction in the demand for Wyoming coal in the first quarter of the year.

May 14, 2024

The US has changed regulation to make construction of high tension lines easier.

The US has banned imports of Russian uranium.

May 16, 2024

Governor Gordon Outraged by BLM’s No Coal Leasing Selection in the Powder River Basin

 

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon responded forcefully to an announcement by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that it had selected the “No Leasing” alternative in its Buffalo Coal Resource Management Plan Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS). The BLM’s choice means it is all but determined that coal leasing in the Powder River Basin will not be permitted past 2041. The Governor’s statement follows:

“With this latest barrage in President Joe Biden’s ongoing attack on Wyoming’s coal country and all who depend upon it, he has demonstrated his lack of regard for the environment, for working people, and for reliable, dispatchable energy. This decision, compounded by the recent EPA rules, ensures President Biden’s legacy will be about blackouts and energy poverty for Wyoming’s citizens and beyond. 

All the cards are on the table now. At the highest levels the Biden Administration – including Interior Secretary Haaland – have shown a complete disregard for blue-collar workers and their families; local communities and neighborhood businesses; the aspirations of  local governments and economic development entities; university scientists and others diligently working on viable solutions to climate concerns; as well as the livelihoods of power plant employees and anyone who relies on dependable, affordable, and attainable electricity. 

This SEIS is not about making a well-informed decision. It is about Joe Biden’s partisan, vindictive, and politically motivated war on America’s abundant, cheap, efficient, and consistent energy sources – one that holds practical and achievable goals to remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. This administration touts its preference for “best available science” yet only chooses to highlight the science that advances their job- and career-killing agenda.

As Governor, I am profoundly disappointed that our nation’s highest executive leadership has chosen to ignore innovation and opportunity to grovel at the feet of coastal elites. I promise that the State of Wyoming will fully utilize the opportunities available to kill or modify this Record of Decision before it is signed and final. The issues we face globally right now are too important and too urgent to dither away with incoherent policies and wrongheaded initiatives. As with the other attacks on Wyoming’s fossil fuel industries, the Attorney General is actively pursuing options to challenge these destructive decisions.”

-END-

March 17, 2024

Biden admin seeks to end new Powder River coal leases

May 21, 2024

The price of Gold has hit a new high.

May 26, 2024

May 28, 2024

The price of oil rose to $94/bbl.

The Aerodrome: Blog Mirror: Casper Loses Out On Being Home For $1...:  

Casper Loses Out On Being Home For $100 Million National Championship Air Races

May 30, 2024

Wyoming Joins 19-State Lawsuit Against California and Four Other States Whose Actions Threaten Nation’s Energy System

May 23, 2024

---

The State of Wyoming has joined an Alabama-led 19-state coalition asking the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the efforts of California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Rhode Island to dictate the future of American energy policy.

Those five states have brought unprecedented litigation against the nation’s most vital energy companies for an alleged “climate crisis,” and are demanding billions of dollars in damages. As litigation proceeds in their state courts, California and the other states threaten to impose ruinous penalties and coercive remedies that would affect energy and fuel consumption and production across the country, including Wyoming. The coalition raises the grave constitutional problems with California’s extraordinary tactics and asks the Supreme Court to take up a multi-state lawsuit.

“Wyoming’s core industries are under attack, not only from the federal government, but from other states that depend on the resources that we produce,” Governor Gordon said. “We will defend our industries in the courts, and guard against other states' attempts to set national energy policy outside the boundaries of their own state. The State of Wyoming strongly believes that each state has the ability to pursue their preferred policies within their own jurisdiction, but will not idly stand by when other states use their own policies to dictate energy policies in Wyoming and other states. Our Constitution prohibits that very notion.”

The Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the 19-state lawsuit against California and the other four proposed defendants. The coalition argues that traditional energy sources like oil, natural gas, and coal are essential for American prosperity. The states also argue that the matter is of utmost importance because our system of federalism gives each state no more power than any other state.

In April, Wyoming signed the Alabama-led 20-state amicus brief in the Supreme Court asking the Court to review a lawsuit filed by the City and County of Honolulu, which also seeks to impose billions of dollars in penalties on the energy industry. Honolulu claims that the companies deceived consumers about the emissions created by everyday products like gasoline. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the energy companies’ request to hear the case.

In addition to Wyoming, the Alabama-led suit was joined by Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia. A copy of the lawsuit may be found here.

 

Last prior edition:

Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The times more or less locally, Part I. And then the day arrived (part two).2020s, 2023, 2024, Agriculture, Alcohol, Coal, Economics, Electrical Power, Petroleum, Sheep, Solar Energy, Subsidiarity, technology, trends, Wind Power, Wyoming's boom and bust economy

Carpetbaggers and Becoming Native To This Place.

 

His life will grow out of the ground like the other lives of the place, and take its place among them. He will be with them - neither ignorant of them, nor indifferent to them, nor against them - and so at last he will grow to be native-born. That is, he must reenter the silence and the darkness, and be born again.

Wendell Berry, A Native Hill.

From the Cowboy State Daily:

Now Other People Are “Pissed” At The “We The People Are Pissed” Billboard On I-80 in Wyoming

Probably the most revealing thing in the article:

The Kahlers moved to Wyoming from Colorado about three years ago. Jeanette Kahler said they moved to Wyoming for the state’s “conservative values.”

In other words, they're carpetbaggers.

Wyoming has always had a very high transient population.  Right from the onset, a lot of the people we associate with the state, actually weren't from here, and more significantly weren't from the region.  Francis E. Warren, for example, the famous early Senator, wasn't.  Joseph M. Carey wasn't.  A person might note that they arrived sufficiently early that they hardly could have been, but this carries on to this very day.  Sen. John Barrasso is a Pennsylvanian.  Secretary of State Chuck Gray is a Californian.

This does matter, as you can't really ever be a native of the Northern Plains or the Plains if you weren't born and raised here.  You might be able to convince yourself, and buy a big hat like Foster Freiss, but you aren't from here and more importantly aren't of here.  If you came from Montana, or Nebraska, or rural Colorado, that's different.  Or if you came in your early years, before you were out of school.  

But earlier arrivals did try.  They appreciated what they found, took the effort to grasp what it was, and sought to become native to this place.

The recent arrivals don't.  They brought their homes and their attitudes with them.

They were fooling themselves that they were "Wyoming" anything.

Or were.

Recently, however, something else has been going on.  Just as the Plains were invaded by European Americans in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Wyoming is enduring it again with an invasion of Southerners, Rust Belt denizens, and Californians, who image they have Wyoming's values while destroying them.  One prominent Freedom Caucuser is really an Illinoisan with values so different from the native ones it's amazing she was elected, but then her district elected Chuck Gray as well, whose only connection with Wyoming is thin.  They do represent, however, the values of recent immigrants.

Whether you like it or not, Wyomingites have not traditionally been hostile to the Federal Government, and we knew we depended upon it.  Indeed, while one Wyoming politician may emphasize a narrative of being a fourth generation Wyomingite, and is, whose agricultural family pulled themselves up from the mule ears on their cowboy boots, and they did work hard, we can't get around the fact that the state was founded by the Federal Government which sent the Army in to kill or corral the original inhabitants and then gave a lot of the land away on a government assistance program.  

Wyoming was formed, in part, by welfare.

The government helped bring in the railroads, helped support agriculture, built the roads, kept soldiers and later airmen and their paychecks at various places, funded the airports, and helped make leasing oil rights cheap so that they could be exploited.

No real Wyomingite hates the government, no matter how much they may pretend they do.

Populist do, as they're ignorant.

Wyoming's cultural ethos was, traditionally, "I don't care what the @#$#$ you do, as long as you leave me alone".  The fables about Matthew Shepherd aside, people didn't really care much about what you did behind closed doors, but expected that you wouldn't try to force acceptance of it at a societal level.  Wyoming was, and remains, for good or ill the least religious state in the United States.  You could always find some devout members of various Protestant faiths, and devout and observant Catholics and Mormons have always been here. But the rise of the Protestant Evangelical churches is wholly new, and come in with Southerners.  When I was growing up, a good friend of mine was a Baptist, the only one I knew, as the church was close to his house (now he's a Lutheran).  I knew one of my friends was Lutheran, and there were some Mormon kids in school.  There was one Jehovah's Witness.  In junior high, one of my friends was sort of kind of Episcopalian, and I knew the son of the Orthodox Priest.  By high school I knew the daughter of the Methodist minister.  But outside of Mormon kids and Catholic kids, the religion of my colleagues was often a mystery.

I'm not saying the unchurched nature of the state was a good thing, but I am saying that by and large there was a dedicated effort to educate children and tolerance was a widely held value.  It was a tolerance, as noted, that required people to keep their deviations from a societal norm to themselves.  People who cheated on spouses, who were homosexuals, or any other number of things could carry on doing it, but not if they were going to demand you accepted it.

And frankly, that was a better way to approach things.

Now, that's being fought over.

The Freedom Caucus group might as well have Sweet Home Alabama as their theme song, and that's not a good thing.

Monday, May 29, 1944. Memorial Day.

Today was Memorial Day for 1944.  

The Japanese mounted aggressive counterattacks on Biak and Arare, using tanks on Biak.

The Germans gave up the four-month strategic bombing campaign against Southern England.

The U-549 sank the USS Block Island off of the Canary Islands. Six crew members died, but 951 were picked up.  The U-549 was sunk in the same engagement.  All 57 hands went down with her.

German graveyard and unburied dead at Cori, Italy. Germans evacuated so quickly that they failed to bury their dead, May 29, 1944. 

The Allies took Campoleone and Carroceto.

The U.S. Army Air Force attacked the synthetic fuel factories at Polits.

Field Marshal Busch, Army Group Center, presented evidence of a major Soviet buildup. Hitler emphasized improving the defensive fortifications at Vitebsk, Polotsk, Rosh, Mogilev and Bobriusk and to defend them at all costs, as if stemming the Red tide was really possible.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, May 28, 1944. A Memorial Day Weekend.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, actors and actresses, Aircraft, Artillery, Battle of Biak, Canadian Army, Douglas MacArthur, entertainment, Holidays, Italy, Memorial Day, New Guinea, Old Age, Personalities, World War Two

Thursday, May 29, 1924. Getting ready for a second Memorial Day.

1924 was odd that way.  The official day was May 26, but there were also observations on Friday, May 30. 

Indeed, the Friday date seems to have been more widely observed.

That was the day observed in Casper.

The Friday observance seems to have been statewide.

Sometimes monkeys need dentistry, as this photo from this day shows.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 28, 1924. Border Patrol and Foreign Service.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, baseball, Border Patrol, Calvin Coolidge, Diplomacy, Foreign Service, German Weimar Republic, Immigration, Japan, New York National Guard, Panama

The 2024 Election, Part XVII. Standing on their feet or crawling on their knees.

April 24, 2024

And, yes, we already have yet another edition.

First, this:

Russo Ukrainian War

The aid bill passed the Senate 79 to 18.  Wyoming's two Senators, who normally would have voted yes, voted no, so they can bow down to the Populist Party.

Mike Johnson, after receiving intelligence briefings on the Russia war in Ukraine and praying about it, reversed his prior position heroically.  Wyoming's two Senators, who undoubtedly are not in favor of Russian winning the war in Ukraine, and who must at least suspect that voting against aid to Ukraine might mean the butchered bodies of American soldiers in Europe next year or the year thereafter, voted against it anyway.

Politicians are rarely held responsible for willfully wrong votes. Cheney was penalized by the voters for doing the right thing, but had the courage to do it anyhow.  Lummis and Barrasso are doing the wrong thing so as to avoid suffering her fate.  When the day comes, and if Russia prevails there's a good chance of it happening, and Russia crosses the Curzon Line, or the Balkan frontier, and the US finds itself obligated by its NATO treaty to defend Europe, assuming that Donald Trump, who hasn't upheld his oath to the Constitution, or his marital vow(s) would honor our treaty obligations, will those Wyoming politicians, who are too old to serve themselves, at least recognize that they have blood on their hands?

Probably not.

Let's look just a little bit on some of the current local races.

Senate

Lummis isn't running for reelection, but Barrasso is.

Barrasso is in political trouble as his opponent, Reid Rasner, who is from the Populist Party, is giving him a real run for the money, or so it seems.  Barrasso, therefore, is running to the right of himself.

No Democrat has announced as of yet.

Wyoming House District 35

NCSD employee Christopher Dresang is running against Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper, a Freedom Caucus member.  Dresang is a Casper native who is a graduate of the Catholic school system's St. Anthony’s, and then Natrona County High School, Casper College, the University of Wyoming, and Montana State University-Bozeman.  Locke, unlike many Freedom Caucus members, is actually from Wyoming and has a MS in engineering, making him all the more unusual as he's highly educated and yet apparently a populist.

Wyoming House District 56

Jerry Obermeuller, who was a really good legislator, announced last weekend he was not running for reelection and expressed the hope that a Republican (non Populist) did.  

Elissa Campbell announced her run for that seat yesterday.  She's a Wyoming native, unlike the numerous imports that make up the Invader wing of the Freedom Caucus, and she owns a consulting agency in Casper.  She has two BA's, one in Philosophy, one in Environmental Ethics from the University of Wyoming.   The press interview lacked very much useful content, and all we really know is that she's a mammal.  Those who know her, however, feel that she'll be much like Obermeuller in outlook.

Wyoming House District 57

Another Wyoming native, and a former teacher, Julie Jarvis, is running against Jeanette Ward, an Illinois Populist who the Wyoming Education Association has been taking on, and a prominent member of the Invader wing.  Ward is amongst the most extreme in every fashion of the Populist, and was an extreme school board member in her native state of Illinois.  Ward has managed to keep her patrim fairly quiet, so nobody has every really looked at it much, even though her presentation alone has a fish out of war element to it.  Jarvis is Wyoming Basque from Buffalo, and came out swinging against her.

This promises to be an interesting race as every Basque I've ever known was really smart and extremely feisty.  Jarvis grew up, it might be noted, in a farming family. What kind of family Ward grew up in is a mystery.

April 30, 2024

Wyoming House District 34

Freedom Caucus member Rep. Pepper Ottman will face rancher, businessman and conservationist Reg Phillips in the primary election.

Presidential Campaign.

In a semi amusing story, I've been watching some Democrats like Robert Reich be absolutely hysterical about the Robert F. Kennedy race all season long, as they insisted that Kennedy was a Trump funded effort to draw Democratic votes away from Biden. The same logic, I'd note, applied to the No Labels effort which failed.  In both instances, it always seemed to me that these efforts would draw votes away from Trump, not Biden.

Well, turns out, I'm right.  In recent polls, the RFK campaign is drawing Trump voters.  Well, of course it would.  It features at lease one of the goofball populist elements, anti vaccines, without the boatload of moral sludge that comes out of a box of Trump Toasties.  There's really nothing in the RFK effort that would draw Biden voters.  There's quite a lot that might draw Trump voters who otherwise don't quite like the smell of Trump.  Now, reportedly, he's targeting Trump voters.

He stands no chance of winning.  But in the general election, while he'll draw some voters from Biden as well, it's really those who would otherwise feel compelled to vote for Trump that are attracted to him.  And there are no doubt still a surprising number of voters who aren't Democrats, but don't like Trump, but otherwise would feel compelled to vote for Trump.

May 7, 2024

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan has endorsed Joe Biden, stating that Trump has no moral compass.

Meanwhile, Trump, in trial in New York, seems to be cruising to be jailed for contempt of court if his current conduct keeps up.

Wyoming House District 42

Rob Geringer, s running for the state House against incumbent Freedom Caucus member Ben Hornok, stating that Wyoming's Republicans are losing their supermajoirty advantages by focusing on small differences.

Geringer is the son of the former Governor by that name.

May 9, 2024

Wyoming County Clerk's acting pursuant to requirements of the law purged 83,000 voters from the rolls, eliminating those who did not vote in the 2022 general election.

Wyoming, acting out of an imaginary fear of voter fraud where it doesn't exist, has eliminated same day registration, which means that a lot of those 83,000 that will show up to cast their votes this fall or this summer will be told to pound sand.

The Deadline to Register To Vote in the Primary is May 15.

Lots of people will ignore that.  A lot of them will then bizarrely blame the Democrats.

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has indicated he won't vote for Donald Trump, and is going to write in a Republican.

May 10, 2024

Donald Trump reportedly asked for 1B for his campaign.  His campaign is noting that no quid pro quo was asked for.

May 11, 2024

Barron Trump, age 18, has declined to be a RNC delegate.

May 12, 2024

Christie Neom has been banned from two more South Dakota tribes meaning she's been banned from 20% of the landmass of her state.

RFK Jr, who previously was in favor of no restrictions on abortions, has changed his position to oppose abortion of viable infants, which is still a bloody position.

May 15, 2024

The largest Hispanic organization in the US, UnidosUS, has endorsed Joe Biden.

May 20, 2024

Tyler Cessor, executive director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, has announced that he's running as an independent for House District 57, meaning that whoever prevails in that district, now occupied by Jeanette Ward, will face a candidate in the fall.

Cessor immediately was accused by Ward of aligning with the "radical Democrats" but it's clear that Ward is in trouble.  With a 100% failure of her bills in the legislature and a record of being amongst the most populist of the "Freedom Caucus", she appears to be facing a real fight to retain her seat.

My guess, and it's just that, is that Ward will go down in the primary, and Cessor do poorly in the general.

Trump received the NRA's endorsement over the weekend. The extent to which the firearms' users organization has been extreme, so that's not surprising.  What was interesting is that in a speech to the organization, Trump completely froze up when his teleprompter failed for 35 seconds.  Use of a teleprompter is sadly common amongst modern politicians, and sometimes explains the poor quality of their oration, but Trump supporters have been harsh on Biden for using one.

May 27, 2024

Trump went to a NASCAR Race yesterday.

Hillary Clinton spoke, for reasons that are unfortunate and indeterminable, and stated that the Democrats didn't do enough to protect infanticide prior to the repeal of Roe.

For some unfathomable reason, the Democrats always choose to embrace things that make it impossible for some, who would vote for them, to do so.

The Secretary of State's office has published a list of who is running for office.  We'll look first at the race for Washington seats:

This is really surprising in that there are a fair number of Reid Rasner signs around, and I thought he had official registered to run. Apparently he has not.

And there's no earthly reason for John Holtz to try this again, as he will fail.

And a Democrat is now in the race against Hageman.  She will lose, but at least somebody is trying.

State races are remarkably devoid of Democrats, all of which shows that the primary is the election that counts, and the state needs to move rapidly away from party affiliated elections.

May 29, 2024

Donald Trump endorsed John Barasso.

The current candidate roster.

Recent related threads:

Not a profile in courage.

Last prior edition:

The 2024 Election, Part XVI. The Compromised Morals Edition

It's worth remembering that not all that long ago, speaking like this would have disqualified a person from national office.

 

Going to the hardware store. A note on taxes.

Socialism is when the government does stuff. And it's more socialism the more stuff it does. And if it does a real lot of stuff, it's communism.

Richard D. Wolff.¹

I saw them there when I went into the hardware store, but they were talking to somebody and I didn't have to engage them.  I was not so lucky on the way out.  I glanced over as there oddly enough were cookies at the table and I thought for a moment it might be an effort to raise money for something like the Girl Scouts, but there were no girls there.  Only two women, whom I'd guess were in their 70s.

Them: Excuse me sir, are you a registered voter?

I'll be frank, I really hate the initiative and referendum process.  I figure most people sign the petitions to get something on the ballot, as they are polite and don't really want to offend the signature takers.  Eons ago, I was like that myself.

I've long since being that way.  Most of the time I refuse to sign the petitions, but I don't engage the petitioners in debate.

And I didn't this time.  I wish I had.

The rest of the brief conversation:

    Me: Yes (said in an irritated tone).

    Them: Would you like to sign our petition?  If passed, it would drop property taxes 50%.

    Me: No (said in an even more irritated tone).

By the time I got home, I was irritated with myself.  I wish I had engaged them in conversation.  If I had, what I would have said is this?

Oh?  Property taxes in Wyoming, which has no income tax, pay for police, fire departments, basic city sevices and education.  Why do you hate policemen, firemen and teachers?

That's brutal, but that's the truth.  If we don't tax property for these things, we have to tax something else, or go without.

This city has had two reported teenage murders in the last month, and a lot of killings here just go unreported. We have a developing violent gang problem.  I'm not even going to bother with the drug problem that comes with living in a city that's on an Interstate Highway.  We have a homeless problem due to other municipalities busing their homeless to our city.  All of these ties right into what I just noted.  

Badly educated people are a major social problem that ends up being a burden on emergency services.  

The "I don't want to be taxed" movement really came about, no matter how it is thinly intellectually justified, as property taxes have risen significantly in the state in recent years.  The reasons are several fold, one simply being that county assessors falsely suppressed raising them, as property values raised, as they're elected officers and they were chicken about it. The State, which has the duty to distribute the taxes, finally got after them to do t heir jobs, and they've been having to do them. That's raised taxes.

Another is that a certain attitude in the state has encouraged people to move in, although a large number move right back out. Those who move in are largely older, having made their lives elsewhere, and having educated their children elsewhere. They sold their houses high in those places, where they should have stayed, and don't want to pay for anything here. Additionally, a lot of these people have real populist views, and would be just fine with not educating anyone in their declining years as they'll be dead as a door nail when current children become ignorant voters themselves.

For that matter, some of the recent imports have washed up from regions where education in particular is lacking.  This is particularly the case for people who have come up from the South.  Steeped in a sort of ignorance themselves, they aren't thinking things through, and regard education as some sort of left wing conspiracy. This has unfortunately seeped into American conservatism itself, and is now sort of a rallying cry.

Property taxes are rising just because of people like this.  They sell out their homes for a pile, and then come here and buy new ones at inflated prices.

I'd really like to know what these people would propose to cut, if we didn't have the property taxes.  They likely have no idea. The same people who would cut property taxes would go to a city council meeting and complain about a pothole, which is filled, basically, with money from property taxes.

Property taxes are, moreover, more fair than people suppose. If you have property, you have means. It's telling that these complaints come from old people, not young couples. Renters aren't paying property taxes.  And if the property taxes are too high, it may mean you exceeded your means, or you have multiple properties.  In the latter case, sell one, that will reduce property values and help distribute the scarce resource. 

Footnotes.

1.  A relative of mine uses this quote frequently, which is where I heard the first part of it.

I looked Wolff up, and he is an academic Marxist, which I'm not in any sense.  Marxism is proven murderous crap. But the quote is not without merit.  Every democratic society has governments which do a lot of stuff, and by and large the public really likes the stuff it does if it benefits from it, and doesn't if somebody else does.  Some of the most subsidized industries in the US completely fail to realize that and their members loudly complain about the government.  Trucking is, for example, a prime example.

Courthouses of the West: The Norm.

Courthouses of the West: The Norm.:

The Norm.

From one of the numerous Trump tweets, or whatever they are called.

Why? 

Well because the prosecution, just like the plaintiff in a civil trial, has the burden of proof and hence the more difficult job.

Generally, the order of a trial is:

Plaintiff/Prosecution Opens.

Defense Opens.

Plaintiff/Prosecution presents evidence.

Defense presents evidence.

Plaintiff/Prosecution closes.

Defense closes.

Plaintiff/Prosecution rebuts, if there's something to rebut.

That's the norm.

Sunday, May 28, 1944. A Memorial Day Weekend.

It was a Sunday on a Memorial Day weekend in the US. What did that look like in Wyoming, I wonder?  

It wasn't a day off for SHAEF, as Sarah Sundin reports; Today in World War II History—May 28, 1944

The 1st Canadian Corps took Ceprano.

German 220 mm howitzer knocked out near Anzio.

The 8th Air Force attacked Leuna and Magdeburg

The 41st Infantry Division advanced against heavy Japanese opposition on Biak. At the same time, Gen. MacArthur declared the New Guinea campaign strategically won, while acknowledging that hard fighting remained.

Rudy Giuliani was born in Brooklyn.  His rise and fall demonstrates, in a way, how politicians born in the 1940s have been eclipsed by age, and should really no longer be seriously considered for office.

Gladys Knight was born in Atlanta.  

The late Sandra Locke was born in Tennessee.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, May 27, 1944. Landing at Biak.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Army, Battle of Biak, Battle of the Atlantic, boats and ships, Indonesia, Infantry, New Guinea, Royal Air Force, World War Two

Wednesday, May 28, 1924. Border Patrol and Foreign Service.

We earlier posted this: 

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 24, 1924. Foreign services.: 

Saturday, May 24, 1924. Foreign services.

President Coolidge signed the Foreign Service Act of 1924, creating the Foreign Serve and the Immigration Act of 1924, the National Origins Act.

The act reflected immigration by national origins, banned all immigration from Asia and set a total immigration quota of 165,000 for countries outside the Western Hemisphere.  It also authorized the creation of The Border Patrol.

And on this day, those agencies came into being.

Japan issued a formal protest over the Immigration Act of 1924.

President Coolidge issued a proclamation:

Max Wallraf was elected as the President of the Reichstag,

New York National Guardsman, Pvt. George Herman Ruth was photographed saluting Gen. Pershing.

Coolidge was photographed with cadet officers.

Last prior edition:

Monday, May 26, 1924. The beginning of the end for Hejaz.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, German Weimar Republic, Immigration, Jordan, Kingdom of Hejaz, law, Saudi Arabia

A British bill to reintroduce conscription.

 It'll go nowhere, but it's making a lot of press in the UK.

First as tragedy, second as farce

National service in the UK, good thing or bad thing? Rationing starts Sunday 2nd of June.

It's worth remembering that not all that long ago, speaking like this would have disqualified a person from national office.

 

Human scum?

Language like that was once only used by truly radical political parties that were murderous in nature.  The Soviet Communist Party or the Nazi Party.

Horrific.

Memorial Day. A Warning.

Today we know that World War II began not in 1939 or 1941 but in the 1920's and 1930's when those who should have known better persuaded themselves that they were not their brother's keeper.

Hubert H. Humphrey