Governor Gordon has enough of Chuck Gray.

The rise of Californian Chuck Gray in Wyoming's politics has really been remarkable.  Filling the seat of a popular Casper legislator he failed to unseat in a primary, after that individual died, he became a firebrand populist funded with family money.  His bid for earlier larger offices failed until he latched on to the Secretary of State's office in a campaign which was frankly nasty in town, something that was common to him, and which hasn't stopped.  He has his sights on higher office now, with reliable rumors claiming that he's going to run for Congress and that Congressman Hageman will run for the Governor's office, which she's done before unsuccessfully.

Gray still surfaces in the media, rising up from what is otherwise a very mundane clerical position, to claim this or that.  He did so the other day in a public meeting regarding wind farms, and that apparently caused Gordon to react.

Governor of Wyoming sent this bulletin at 05/23/2025 01:57 PM MDT

Abraham Lincoln said, “Honesty is the best policy.” He believed that when people are given the truth, they make the best decisions.  Although our forefathers had their differences, they did not have to contend with the hit-and-run tactics some politicos and malcontents resort to using on social media. Social media platforms can be useful ways to connect with friends and loved ones and share useful information. However, when they are used deceptively by self-seeking individuals as a means of causing discord and dissension for personal gain, they are not. Spreading gossip through deceptive posts takes its toll — not only on the individuals being defamed, but on our communities as well. Social Media Lies Cause Unnecessary and Harmful Community Strife I am not going to respond to far-flung rumors or half-truths that political opportunists hurl my way. Typically, I have paid little attention to the insults our Secretary of State spews because they are bogus. But after Mr. Gray’s most recent social media lie suggesting my vision for Wyoming energy only includes wind power, the record needs to be set straight. Assuredly, this week Mr. Gray chose to take a shot at me, but next week he will take aim at someone else  — a county clerk, a property owner, or member of your family— really anyone who disagrees with him or he feels by slandering he can raise his stature. It is sad. Chuck Gray: Only Member of the State Land Board to Vote Against Individual Property Rights and Wyoming Schools The five statewide elected officials, as members of the State Board of Land Commissioners (SBLC), took a sworn oath to honor our Constitutional and fiduciary responsibility to earn the best return for the state and our schools. Notably, Mr. Gray is often the sole member of the SBLC to ignore this obligation. When he cast his vote against the Pronghorn and Sidewinder state leases, his vote was not only an attempt to suppress the private property rights of adjacent land owners, it also sought to deny revenues for Wyoming schools and overlooked potential financial benefits for Niobrara County. That is his prerogative to be sure, but it demonstrates his disregard for the duties of his office and a determination to impose his personal preferences on others, no matter the cost. My vote, along with the other three commissioners’ votes, recognizes the economic benefits to Wyoming and Niobrara county and the rights of participating landowners without prejudicing the outcome of the development. Already, these projects have been through a four-year process and still require additional levels of review with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Industrial Siting Division, the state engineer, and local regulators, among others, before it can proceed. These are not insignificant hurdles. The Truth The Pronghorn and Sidewinder projects include both private and state lands; importantly, the state lease was granted after those lessees, many who voluntarily opted into the project, signed consent forms regarding their state leases.   Notably, the SBLC approval was only for the wind farm lease on state lands with cooperating lessees. The Board of Land Commissioners cannot permit the part of the project that lies on adjacent private lands, which makes up about 70% of the total Pronghorn project and 80% of the total Sidewinder project.  The state land board did not authorize any portion of the prospective hydrogen project, nor could it approve water appropriations contemplated for the project. Water and private property rights are sacred in Wyoming. In addition, current state leaseholders (those holding grazing leases) signed a consent form to allow the turbines to be built on the leased land.  Top Priority: Protecting Wyoming to the Core To be clear, my vision for Wyoming is exemplified by a track record of visiting communities to listen, and understand each community’s unique perspective on what needs fixing and what folks hope to be able to do on their own. I also visited Niobrara County last week and spent time with residents there. As I have stated since first being elected, I am eager to give local communities the tools they need to prosper and the opportunity for our citizens to create their futures and thrive. We do that in Wyoming by respecting private property rights, water law, and individual initiative. Defenders of the Truth: How You Can Help If you are interested in learning more about my vision for Wyoming (straight from the horse’s mouth), I invite you to: Sign up to receive regular e-mail updates from my office. Attend public meetings and town halls. Reach out if what you read seems “off” so that my office can clarify my position. Refuse to spread dishonest, inflammatory social media posts. Consider the source of information. : e.g. What is Mr. Gray seeking with his latest lie/s? Another political office? Does he not recognize individual property rights? I invite every Wyoming citizen, especially Mr. Gray, to consider the consequences of deceiving people and instead seek ways to strengthen and unite Wyoming, not divide us. Thanks for reading. Ride for the Brand.  - Mark Gordon

The Governor's statement appears to have caught Gray a bit flat footed.  Gray's made a career out of spouting lies packed with invective but having somebody call him out publicly, and from a higher office, is something he isn't used to and obviously wasn't expecting.

This isn't the only area this past week where the two have locked horns.  Gray earlier this year accused Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock of misconduct in the last election and asked for the Governor to remove her, a truly extraordinary move for the Governor to take.  The investigation was completed, and Gordon issued a letter stating:

While the review revealed there were multiple mistakes committed by Clerk Hadlock and her staff, no information or evidence was provided that supported any malicious intent on the part of Clerk Hadlock, or that she was trying to manipulate the results of the election.

“[O]ne of the key elements to determining malfeasance is motive or willfulness, but in this incidence there is no indication that she did so with any intent to change or nullify the results of the votes of the people of Weston County,” the Governor wrote. In essence, the process worked, with any irregularities identified and corrected during a review by the canvassing board.

“It is clear that Clerk Hadlock made many mistakes and exhibited a high degree of unprofessional and perhaps slipshod management of the election,” the Governor wrote. “Still, the system set up to discover, correct, and properly count votes worked here.”

He went on to note that he didn't feel it appropriate to override the choice of the electorate and would leave Handlock's future up to the voters, something that 100% echoes what Republicans said about efforts to remove Donald Trump in his first term.

A current feature of Republican politics is to completely ignore precedent where it doesn't serve what amounts to a sort of NatCon view and Gray has practically based his career on election lies, claiming that there are all sorts of irregularities.  Not too surprisingly he came right out with his own statement.

CHEYENNE, WY – In response to Governor Mark Gordon’s May 23rd decision not to initiate removal proceedings for Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock, Secretary of State Chuck Gray issued the following statement:

“I am deeply troubled by Governor Gordon’s letter and for refusing to conduct a rigorous analysis of the facts of this case. I am particularly troubled by the Governor’s lies by omission in completely ignoring our finding that Clerk Hadlock submitted a false post-election audit report with our office, which we discussed multiple times as the most serious finding in our investigation released in March. The Weston County Clerk’s submittal of a false post-election audit report on November 6, 2024 does appear to be a willful violation of the code, as revealed by the Weston County Canvassing Board meeting on November 8, 2024, as well as the subsequent, properly-performed audit, which confirmed that there were 21 of 75 ballots with a discrepancy, in direct contravention to the initial post-election audit results submitted to our office. This false post-election audit occurred after we had expressed concerns about the anomalies. Our investigation came to the conclusion there are only two reasonable explanations for the false submission of this audit, absent another explanation provided by the Weston County Clerk, the Governor, or any relevant actors, which was not even discussed. Our investigation found that one possibility is that Clerk Hadlock conducted her audit, finding errors in the election and then choosing to falsely assert that no errors had been found. The investigation found that the second reasonable possibility is that no audit was conducted at all. Either one of those possibilities would suggest that she attempted to hide the problems with the conduct of the 2024 General Election. That is why we made the recommendation that we did, and the Governor’s omission of discussing the false post-election audit in his decision is inherently problematic. Gordon has gotten used to the media refusing to cover these lies of omission and this is another example of those lies of omission. I’m deeply troubled that Governor Gordon refused to even acknowledge key parts of the case.”

Gray has his supporters in the populist mass that's running the GOP and influencing Wyoming's politics, with those same people really disliking Gordon. Gordon has a lot of more quiet supporters.  There's a lot of speculation on whether Gordon will run for a third term, which he's theoretically barred from doing but which the Wyoming S.Ct would clearly say he could do, and he'd have a good chance of winning, certainly against Gray.  Hageman seems to be wildly popular with the GOP base right now, so it'd be unclear how that would go.  I suspect that Gray would fail in a race for Congress.

At some point there's going to be a reckoning for the flood of lies the populist base of the GOP has been fed by its leadership.  Trump's horrific funding bill may be the beginning of it.  Wyoming is going to pay in spades for the results of what it's been supporting, with the first wave of that already hitting.  By November of next year a lot of chickens may have come home to roost and will have died in their coups.  Whether a political change starts to occur in 2026 or 2028 isn't clear, but it's going to.  I don't expect Gray to survive it.  Most of the better known Wyoming politicians will, as they'll modify their positions to the time, although those who came up during this period will have  hard time doing so.

Anyhow, more than one person is cheering Gordon on.  No doubt more than one is cheering Gray too, having bought off on what he's told them, facts aside.

Appearance. Shape and being in shape and women (men will come next).

Donna Reed as a Yank centerfold.  Reed was well known actress by this time, and is perhaps best known for her role in The Best Years Of Our Lives.  Her actual last name was Mullenger but as she started acting during World War Two, her studio changed it to Reed over her objection.  She became a peace activist during the Vietnam War.

Some time ago we received a comment here from a reader, and the reader emailed me after the recent item on fashion, and reminded me that I said I'd do a threat on the topic.

So here it is.

The threads were these ones:

Francis Anna Camuglia and Cynthia Blanton.

The life of Fran Gerard/Francis Anna Camuglia. Was Francis Anna Camuglia and Cynthia Blanton.

The comment was this one:

Anonymous said...

I read this, and your other post on Fran Camuglia. Wow, what a sad life.

I have an observation that I wonder if you would comment on that your post seems to illustrate. The pretty girls of the 50s and 60s looked different than they do now. They were beautiful, but softer, and more natural looking. Even the real dolls like Camuglia, with their exaggerated features, were softer and prettier. Think Marilyn Monroe.

I don't know what's changed it, but maybe the emphasis on "working out" has. Seems like you have really fit girls, and then really out of shape girls, and not much in between.

My replies were:

Thanks for your comment. Her life was tragic.

On your observation, people do indeed look different at different ages in the past, but I haven't really thought of it in this context. Having thought of it now, a little, I think there's something to your observation. As a minor personal observation, "working out" was not really a thing, as you note, in the 70s when I was growing up. Thinking back to high school I can't really think of any overweight kids at all. I'm sure there were some, but it must have been really rare. It seems to me that high schoolers now look older than we did when we were there, but oddly kids of my fathers vintage, who graduated high school in the 40s, looked much more mature. Nobody looked bulked up, or "ripped", or whatever.
This might be worth a post on the site, after I ponder it a bit.

By the way, while I've already noted it in these posts, her life being tragic isn't unique in terms of Playboy centerfolds. Quite a few of their stories are pretty grim, and Playboy contributed to that. In this case, quite frankly, she was off to a really bad start as it was, as she was married absurdly young, divorced very rapidly, and objectified forever when still in her teens.

I noted that it might be worth a post at the time, and then I went on to other things.  The email reminded me of it.

Well, in thinking about it, and I have no real scientific way to discuss this, my observational comment is, on this question, while I think there are some morphological changes we can observe in women, there aren't really that many.

That's probably surprising.

Let's start off with a couple of things, the first being that the first part of our discussion necessarily references young women.  That's important, I think, for reasons that will become clear.

The second observation is that time period and method of illustration matters.  We're not really going to get, for example, very accurate depictions of women, or men, at a certain point in our past.

Let's start with that.

A lot of comments like this, and I've seen them before, are based on photographs.  I.e., in this case, somebody is looking at a photograph of a Playboy model from 1967 and drawing conclusions from that.  But can we?

Probably not.

 Young couple, 1920s. By their dress, this couple was probably at least Middle Class, if not well to do.  Ages, again, are hard to place in photos but even the caption of this photo regards this couple as "young".  My guess would be upper 20s, and that would have been a fairly common marriage age for a couple with means, in this era.

Most early photography was in the category of portraiture.  Old portraits give us a much more realistic idea of what people looked like than "published" photographs do.  And certainly better than pornography does.   Indeed, that's one of the fundamental destructive aspects of pornography, which we'll get into later.  

Anyhow, cameras had to develop for quite some time before snapshots or the like appeared.  In the meantime, illustration really developed and that gives us a pretty good idea of what standards of beauty were up to at least 1920.  Illustration made use of models, who were chosen for their physical appearance, but they rarely strayed massively from the mean. The first real "standard" was Florence Evelyn Nesbit, who became the Gibson Girl.   She was pretty, to be sure, but didn't depart from the mean in a massive fashion

This was equally true of lesser known models, and indeed, it was mostly true for early movie stars as well.

Movies began to take over from illustrations as the bearers of standards in the 1920s and certainly had by the 1930s.  Female movie stars began to be more and more chosen for their beauty as well as their acting talents by the late 1930ss, which did result in an exaggerated standard in the sense that not every woman you meet is going to look like a movie start.

Teenage girls with cameras in the 1930s.

Actress Susan Hayword as a Yank centerfold.

But, nonetheless, while they were pretty, only in very rare instances were they somebody whom you might not meet, appearance wise, at the Piggly Wiggly.

Lauren Bacall as a teenager.

It wasn't until the 1950s that this really began to change.  

Starting in the 1950s, and I'll place the date as 1953 when the first issue of Playboy came out, the beauty standard became emphasized and highly exaggerated in terms of physical features.  The first Playboy centerfold was Marilyn Monroe, against her will, and her features in some ways became the standard.

Or rather her imagined features.

Playboy emphaszied the supposed "girl next store" with teh concept htat she'd lost her moral compass, was sterile, stupid, and very top heavy.  Marilyn Monroe's early movies, indeed the bulk of them, portrayed characters just like that.  The funny thing is that Monroe's own early modeling photographs didn't depict her in taht fashion at all

The photos above, from the 1940s, show a young Monroe as an actual sort of girl next door.  Her physical features were no doubt the same as they were in her earliest movies, but they weren't being emphasized.  Soon after these photographs they would be, and in movies like Gentlemen Prefer Blonds, they were on display.

Playboy,. as noted, arrived in 1953.  The 1950s gave us a host of actress that were Monroe knockoffs, some with even more exaggerated features. By the early 1960s a wave of Italian and other European actresses hit, all of whom were very topheavy, although they weren't portrayed as dumb.  Playboy and its followers kept on keeping on and if anything exaggerated things more.  Camuglia comes from that era.

Indeed, it was so notable, it made up one of the comedic lines in 1963's It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World:

J. Algernon Hawthorne: I must say, if I had the grievous misfortune to be a citizen of this benighted country, I should be the most hesitant at offering any criticism whatever of any other.

J. Russell Finch: Wait a minute, are you knocking this country? Are you saying something against America?

J. Algernon Hawthorne: Against it? I should be positively astounded to hear of anything that could be said FOR it. Why, the whole bloody place is the most unspeakable matriarchy in the whole history of civilization! Look at yourself, and the way your wife and her strumpet of a mother push you through the hoop! As far as I can see, American men have been totally emasculated. They're like slaves! They die like flies from coronary thrombosis, while their women sit under hairdryers, eating chocolates and arranging for every second Tuesday to be some sort of Mother's Day! And this positively infantile preoccupation with bosoms. In all my time in this wretched, godforsaken country, the one thing that has appalled me most of all is this preposterous preoccupation with bosoms. Don't you realize they have become the dominant theme in American culture: in literature, advertising and all fields of entertainment and everything. I'll wager you anything you like: if American women stopped wearing brassieres, your whole national economy would collapse overnight.

In a lot of ways, we're still in it.  It's what's given us plastic surgery and a host of other horrors.

So, overall, what I'm saying is that actual physical appearance didn't change that much, but rather the publicized standards did, to women's detriment.

So what about the gym?

When Camuglia appeared in Playboy in the early 1960s "working out" wasn't a term.  Indeed, gymnasiums were around, but their atmosphere wasn't quite what it is today.  In a lot of places the gym was the YMCA.  Indeed, in this locality, it was for years, before, some time in the 1970s, private gyms began to appear.  

Early gyms really had all the features of moder nones, they were just less used and sort of used by a clas sof urban people who was unusually into physical fitness, save for weight lifters, who are a different class entirely.

Having said all of that, women have been involved in athletics, if not working out per se, for decades.

Australian female Olympic swimmers, 1932.  These women look pretty darned fit.

Girls basketball team, 1907.  Playing basketball while dressed like this must have been a huge pain.

Indeed, nobody was "working out", really, until the 1960s. There wasn't much of a need to.

That doesn't mean that people weren't physically active, however.  Women were involved in Olympic sports right from the onset, for example.  And as late as the 1970s, at least, an incredible number of women engaged in some sports, such as tennis and golf.  My mother, who grew up in the 1930s and 40s, was an avid golfer at one time, and a real fan of tennis. She also constantly rode a bicycle, and she swam nearly daily up until her final decline.  Yes, she's an unusual example, but not that unusual.

Her mother, I'd note, was also a tennis player.

There's sports, of course, but there's physical work.  And everyone engaged in a lot more physical activity by necessity.

Which catches us back up, sort of, to the 1950s.  As we've discussed here before, domestic machinery really came in after World War Two, and with that, a decline in physical activity.  This meant more women went into office work.

The 1950s also brought the country the "cheap food" policy, and we still live in that era, and that's where things really begin to change.  This was noted the other day on Twitter in a post by O.W. Root

O.W. Root@NecktieSalvage

Currently there are two extremes that didn't really exist en masse before.

1 - Extreme obesity

2 - Extreme gym culture

Maybe one day those extremes will fade and a more  traditional historic norm will replace them.

That pretty much nails it in a way, other than to say lots of people are neither part of a gym culture or obese.

A lot of people are taller, however.  That's been well noted.  It's a nutritional thing, but here's one area where people, including women, have a different morphology than they once typically did.  Contrary to what people tend to think, however, its flatted out since the late 1970s after having really gotten ramped up, around the globe, in the 1890s.

Now, here's one more thing that's changed.  Women in particular used to at one time very much "age" once they hit their 40s.

Contrary to what people think, people don't "live longer" than they once did. Rather, premature mortality has dropped way off.  But people did "age" more quickly.  If you look at photographs of married couples the appearance of women over 40 is often shocking in comparison to now.  Now, for various reasons, women in their 40s are not regarded as old or even middle aged, but often if you go back to mid century they'll have a much older appearance.  I"ve seen photographs of women in their 40s whom you would easily guess were in their 60s.

That's probably all due to the stress of life and hard work.

So, all in all, I don't think the evidence supports the assertion there's been much of a change at all.  I do think that an emphasis on a certain look, or a series of appearances, has changed over time, but more recently its broadened back out, which is a good thing.

Iceland girl delivering milk.

Mexican women in festive dress

Tear the fascists down - Woody Guthrie

Saturday, May 24, 1975. Virus variola major.

The last naturally occurring case of the smallpox virus variola major was found on a woman named Saiban Bibi in the Assam state of India. 

The last case of variola minor was found in Somalia, at Merca, in October 1977.

The elimination of the disease is a scientific triumph that occured in an era in which the lethality of diseases was still widely appreciated.  

Last edition:

Friday, May 23, 1975. Leaving Laos.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, 1990s, 1992, Cambodia, Crime, Diplomacy, Gerald Ford, Laos, Laotian Civil War, Lebanon, Refugees, Unions, United States, Vietnam

Thursday, May 24, 1945. Japanese paratroopers on Okinawa.

The 10th Army crossed the Asato and entered Naha on Okinawa.  The Japanese landed paratroopers on Yontan airfield and destroyed a large number of aircraft.

Australian troops surrounded Wewak on New Guinea.

Tokyo was heavily hit in a US incendiary rai

Field Marshall Robert Ritter von Greim, age 52, the last commander of the Luftwaffe committed suicide.  Von Greim had been a pilot in World War One and was a recipient of the Blue Max.

De Gaulle awarded Montgomery the Grande Croix of the Legion d'Honneur

Courtney Hodges was given a parade in Georgia.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 23, 1945. The end of governments.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, German Flensburg Government, Heinrich Himmler, Japan, Nazi Germany, U.S. Navy, United Kingdom, United Nations, Winston Churchill

 

Froma Harrop: The tax cut fantasy needs to end

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield.

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Trump’s Big Budget Bomb (Part 1) | The Ezra Klein Show

An excellent short review.

Simply put, Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" really only benefits the wealthy and will almost certain create an economic crisis on a level not seen since The Great Depression.

What's more, many of those voting for that are very well aware of that.

Friday, May 23, 1975. Leaving Laos.

Most American employees of the U.S Embassy in Laos were ordered to evacuate.

The U.S. has an embassy in Laos presently.  In fact, the countries never severed diplomatic relations and normalized them in 1992.

The Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 was signed into law by President Ford. The act provided for resettlement of South Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees into the United States. In 1975 it would be amended to include include refugees from Laos.

A military government was appointed to govern Lebanon.

Former President of the Teamsters Union Dave Beck was pardoned by President Ford.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 15, 1975. The Raid on Koh Tang.

Labels: 1960s, 1964, 1970s, 1975, Cambodia, Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Khmer Rouge, Mayaguez Incident, The Mayaguez Incident, U.S. Air Force, United States Marine Corps, Vietnam War

Wednesday, May 23, 1945. The end of governments.

Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister, forming a caretaker government in anticipation of July 5 elections.

The elections would be the first in a decade.

The German Flensburg government is arrested and deposed by the Allies.

Himmler committed suicide.  So did German admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, who became a POW during the British occupation of Flensburg.

Julius Streicher was arrested in Bavaria.

US attacks on Yokohama bring shipping from the city to an end.

The United Nations Conference in San Francisco approved veto rights for China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States on the Security Council.

Last edition:

Tuesday, May 22, 1945. Operation Unthinkable.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Battle of the Hongorai River, Berlin Blockade, Harry S. Truman, Lend Lease, Okinawa, Operation Unthinkable, Rationing, Reverse Lend Lease, The Cold War, United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, World War Two

Saturday, May 23, 1925. Memorial Day Weekend.

 

An advertisement from The Times of London.

"World" police chiefs at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Last edition:

Tuesday, May 19, 1925. Birthdays and a last game.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, baseball, Cambodia, Christianity, France, Islam, Malcolm X, Nation of Islam, Personalities, Pol Pot, religion

 

Stark named interim director of UW Ranch Management and Agricultural Leadership Program