17,757 Acres Conserved in Carbon County

From the Wyoming Stock Growers Association Land Trust.

Kendra Mitchell, Administration & Communications Manager (307) 772-8751 kendra@wsglt.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   17,757 Acres Conserved in Carbon County Cheyenne, WY – Nov. 4, 2025 – On October 29, 2025, the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust and Ryan Lance, President and Manager of the Pathfinder Sand Creek Ranch, finalized a conservation easement to permanently protect 17,757 acres in Carbon County— safeguarding productive agricultural land, vital wildlife habitats, and historic open-spaces.   “The conservation of the Pathfinder Sand Creek Ranch builds on generations of stewardship that define Wyoming’s history,” said Executive Director, Christine Adams. “Through our wonderful partnership with the Pathfinder Sand Creek Ranch, we’re ensuring that this working landscape continues to support agriculture, wildlife habitat, and open space for generations to come. Together, we honor the legacy of those who came before us while conserving the Wyoming we love for the future.” Located near the historic Sweetwater and North Platte Rivers, the Pathfinder Sand Creek Ranch is rich in both agricultural and cultural heritage. The property sits at the heart of one of Wyoming’s most historically significant landscapes — where the Oregon, Mormon, Pioneer, and California Trails, collectively known as the Emigrant Trail, cross its northern boundary. These routes once guided nearly half a million travelers heading west from the early 1800s through the 1860s, leaving a lasting imprint on the land and Wyoming’s history. Just 10 miles west of the property lies Independence Rock, a famed waypoint along the Oregon Trail where more than 5,000 emigrants carved or painted their names into the granite outcrop, marking their passage through the frontier. Nearby landmarks such as Devil’s Gate and Martin’s Cove — both recognized for their importance to the Mormon handcart pioneers — further underscore the area’s deep historical and cultural significance. The Pathfinder Sand Creek Ranch also played a role in Wyoming’s early ranching history, with its roots tracing back to the 1870s Tom Sun Ranch and Albert J. Bothwell, who began acquiring land in the Sweetwater Valley in the 1880s. Bothwell’s endeavors in agriculture, irrigation, and settlement helped shape the region’s ranching traditions and contributed to key moments in Wyoming’s territorial history, including the era of open-range conflicts that culminated in the Johnson County Cattle War of 1892. Today, the Pathfinder Sand Creek Ranch continues its agricultural legacy as a working cattle operation. The land supports a mix of yearling and cow/calf pairs that graze across its extensive rangeland pastures. In addition to its ranching operations, the Sweetwater River Conservancy Conservation Bank (SRCCB) operates on the property to support a healthy, intact greater sage-grouse population. The SRCCB’s conservation efforts benefit far more than sage-grouse; it also enhances habitat for elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, 34 species of waterfowl, including 16 migratory shorebird species, along with numerous small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. “Pathfinder is pleased to partner with the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust on the conservation easement on the Sand Creek Ranch,” said Lance. “The protections created through the conservation easement will not only ensure that greater sage-grouse and other habitats are safeguarded in perpetuity, but the deep agricultural heritage of the ranch endures in future generations.” The Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust is honored to continue working with landowners who share a dedication to conserving Wyoming’s working lands and the history they represent.

###  The Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust is dedicated to conservation through ranching. Based in Cheyenne, the non-profit organization serves the entire state and is Wyoming’s only agricultural land trust. Through partnerships with families, the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust holds and stewards agricultural conservation easements on more than 307,000 acres of land throughout Wyoming. Founded in 2000 by the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, it is one of the largest regional land trusts in the United States.     For more information, visit wsglt.org

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, November 3, 1945. Wyoming Game Wardens Game Wardens Bill Lakanen and Don Simpson murdered.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, November 3, 1945. Chinese Civil War, G...: China's civil war was acknowledged now to be a major conflict and two Game Wardens were found dead near Rawlins. The Chinese Civil War w...

Linked over from Lex Anteinternet, which also discussed the Chinese Civil War.

Saturday, November 3, 1945. Chinese Civil War, Game Wardens Killed.

China's civil war was acknowledged now to be a major conflict and two Game Wardens were found dead near Rawlins.

The Chinese Civil War was the topic of a political cartoon as well.

The murdered Game Wardens were Bill Lakanen and Don Simpson who were killed by ardent Nazi sympathizer and German immigrant Johann Malten.   The same Game Wardens had arrested Malten for game violations when investigating, interestingly enough, claims that Malten had been involved in espionage and was relaying weather reports on shortwave, something that was illegal during the war when there was a blackout on weather reporting as the information was useful to submarines.  Upon visiting Malten's cabin in the Sierra Madres they found he had committed numerous game violations.

On this occasion they were stopping by to see if Malten had continued to ignore the law.  They were shot down out of hand when they arrived.

Malten burned his cabin down and it was officially reported that he'd died within it, although the evidence of that is very poor.  There were reported sightings of him for years thereafter.

And a selection of 1945 cartoons.

I knew about this story because former Wyoming Game Warden David Bragonier wrote about it in his book about Wyoming Game Wardens, Wild Journey: On the Trail With a Wyoming Game Warden in Yellowstone Country.  It's a good book, and I recommend it.

Bragonier discusses this event, although I clearly don't remember everything I read in his account.  That's probably not too surprising as I read the book in 1999.  What I recall but didn't see in the accounts on the murder you can find here is that the investigation was associated not only with the killer's German nationality and his strong Nazi sympathies, but also with shortwave radio transmissions that could not be pinned down.  

There's a bunch of interesting things that could, and if a person had time, should be explored here as the story raises all sorts of undeveloped oddities.

One of them is that Lakanen and Simpson are two out of the three Wyoming Game Wardens who were murdered by immigrants (to the extent I know why the various ones who lost their lives in the line of duty did).  I'm not saying that immigrants murder game wardens, but this is an interesting fact.  The other one is John Buxton, who was murdered by a youthful Austrian immigrant in 1919.  In that instance he had taken a .30-30 Savage rifle from a 17 year old who drew a revolver and killed him.  The reasons that Buxton was checking the boys is unclear.  Stories frequently claim they were hunting out of season, but that seems incorrect.  They were certainly overarmed for rabbits, however, with a .30-30 being way too large for that pursuit.  Buxton might have been checking them as their activities seems suspicious, which frankly they do, or because there was a state law at the time that prohibited aliens from carrying firearms.

The killers handgun, we might note, was concealed.

I only note this as its odd.  Hunting is common in Germany and Austria, and indeed there's a strong hunting culture there, but it's highly regulated.  As a result, poaching is fairly common as well, even though its highly criminal.  Indeed, one of the SS's units during World War Two, the Dirlewanger Brigade, was originally made up of convicted poachers, although it moved on to other criminals over time.

Anyhow, I wonder if these people were just hugely out of sink with any culture at all.

In the earlier murder, it's been noted that the young men had been in run-ins apparently with Italian immigrants in the same location. Austro Hungaria and Italy had been on opposite sides of World War One.  Again, I'm not saying that caused the murder, but I do wonder if they conceived of themselves as being very much on the outside of things.

Another interesting thing, although having nothing to do with the focus on this page, is the lingering Nazi sympathies in some quarters amongst German immigrants who chose to continue to live in the country.  That carried on, quietly, well after the war, even after the news of the Holocaust became known.

Odd.

If Malten was actually a spy, that may explain the killing in and of itself.

Another thing this story oddly brings up is the extent to which trapping remained economically viable.

Trapping was pretty common in Wyoming up into the 1970s, when there was a fur market price collapse.  I had, well still have, traps, although I haven't set them for decades.  In the 1970s high school kids like myself supplemented our incomes by trapping or hunting coyotes for their furs.  The market was so lucrative at the time that there were people who flew in from out of state and hunted coyotes near Miracle Miles, something we didn't appreciate very much as we didn't have those sorts of resources available to us.  The Federal Government was also big into predator control at the time which we also didn't appreciate much for the same reason.

Furs are, fwiw, an actual renewable resource fabric, one of the few.

Fur coats were a big deal for women at this time and would, again, be throughout the 1950s.  They were not nearly as much of a luxury item as people like to remember.  My mother had a heavy mink coat that she brought down from Montreal that she wore on really cold days.  As a kid I loved it when she brought it out, due to the feel of the soft minks.  

It was, in spite of Donald Trump and the Sweet Home Alabama crowe dof the GOP may believe, colder then.

I've never looked into it but I suspect that synthetic fabrics had as much to do with the decline in furs as anything else.  That started during World War Two and is well evidenced by the Air Force's switch from sheepskin flight altitude flight jackets to synthetic ones.  That trend continue into the 1950s and I suspect it just generally caught up with fur coats by the 1980s.  Indeed, the association of fur with luxury somewhat increased in that time, with it generally being the case that things are regarded as luxurious not only for their scarcity, but because they really aren't needed.

More on fur clothing some other time.

I guess the final thing I'll note is how dangerous of job being a game warden is.  A lot of the crimes you investigate are, by default, armed crimes.  

Given that, it's amazing to look back and realize that when I was a kid wardens didn't carry sidearms.  They weren't allowed to.  I recall when that changed and many did not take up what was then the option to carry them.  Now they're required to.

Indeed, I was recently stopped by a warden and frankly he wasn't very nice.  That's a new trend as well.  I don't like it.  But not only was he not nice, he was extremely intimidating carrying a government issued handgun on a government issued gunbelt and wearing a government issued flak jacket.  

I've really hated the militarization of the policy and this is all part of it. Everytime I see a policeman anymore, including a game warden, they're dressed like they're going into Hue in 1968.  All policemen of every type are civilians.  They're simply deputized civilians.  They shouldn't look like an occupying army.  And if the treat people rudely, and many do, and are standing their armed treating you like you are a detained Vietnamese villager, it's scary.

A little of that comes across, I'd note, in Bragonier's book, in spite of my recommendation of it.  It's a good book, but he displayed an element of contempt for the public he served in it.

David Bragonier must be, I'd suspect, gone to his reward by now  His biography indicates that he was born in Iowa in 1937 and moved to Wyoming after graduating high school.  He became a game warden over twenty years later, in 1958, something that would be extremely difficult to do now due to the education requirements.  He briefly worked for the Forest Service before that.

A man becoming a Game Warden at 39, which he did, would be really unusual now.  Probably impossible.

I actually have twice tried to plow that field myself, rejecting it once as I just go engaged.  I would have been about 30 at the time.  It'd be completely impossible for me to become a Game Warden now as I not have a wildlife management degree.  I suppose that requiring that specific degree is a good thing, but I do miss the days when a lot of Game Wardens were basically from ranching families.  Even when I was that age, many of them fit that category.  My cohort was probably about the last one that would meet that description.

I went on, of course, to a successful career in the law, and I was already a lawyer, of course at age 30, and had been for a few years.  I took one fork in the road.  You aren't supposed to look back.  Luke tells us, in a different context, that "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God".  I'll confess I've looked back a lot.

Having said all of that, I spoke the same warden (turns out he's very green) as I found a poached elk about two weeks later.  I had to guide him in, by phone, to the location.  He was very nice on that occasion, and that's how things should be.

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, November 4, 1945. Goose Hunters on the Cover of Parade.

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, November 4, 1945. Independent Smallholde...: The Independent Smallholders Party won the Hungarian parliamentary elections. Contrary to what is commonly assumed, Eastern Europe didn'...

The Sunday Parade magazine installment to newspapers across the country had a man and woman on the cover, goose hunting.  This cover, posted under the fair use exception, shows how widely hunting remained part of the culture before the post war relentless advance of urbanization cut into it.

The man is carrying a Browning Auto 5 or the Remington equivalent of it.    The device on the barrel of the shotgun on the right is a Cutts Compensator, which was designed to reduce recoil and in later versions allowed for changeable chokes.

As Radiant’s glow fades from Wyoming, it’s time for a bigger discussion about nuclear

As Radiant’s glow fades from Wyoming, it’s time for a bigger discussion about nuclear: Rather than a piecemeal approach to nuclear every time a new project pops up, Wyomingites deserve deliberate, comprehensive policymaking, writes guest columnist Carl Fisher.

Repealing the Public Lands Rule would put Wyoming’s outdoor heritage at risk

Repealing the Public Lands Rule would put Wyoming’s outdoor heritage at risk: Axing the rule would undermine the lands that sustain our wildlife, our communities and our outdoor economy, writes Nat Peterson.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 3

Today In Wyoming's History: November 3: 

November 3

St. Hubert's Day.

Today is St. Hubert's Day.  That is, the day on the Catholic calendar honoring this Saint.

St. Hubert encounters the deer.

St. Hubert lived more recently, post Roman Empire, having been born in 656 and living until 727.  He was born in what is now southern France into a noble family, but was sent north to Paris at an early age.  Due to political turmoil, he was one of many who ended up it Metz as sort of a noble refugee and we need to keep in mind that France, as a solid political entity, didn't exist at the time. Anyhow, he married one Floribanne, daughter of Dagobert, Count of Leuven, and the couple had a son, Floribert, later the Bishop of Liege.  In this fluid political time, therefore, fate had taken Huber from Toulouse to Liège in an onward northern migration.

Hubert was not a religious man and that condition was amplified when his wife died giving birth to Floribert, a not uncommon fate for women at the time.  After that, Hubert took entirely to hunting in the Ardennes, living a solitary hunting life.  On a Good Friday, however when the faithful were gathering in Church in honor of that day (which is not a Holy Day of Obligation) he encountered a great stag and the it turned on him, cross between its horns, and spoke, saying:

Hubert, unless thou turn to the Lord, and lead a holy life, you shall quickly go down into hell.

It's hard to ignore a thing like that, to say the least, and Hubert dismounted from his horse and immediately, according to tradition, replied; "Lord, what would You have me do?", to which the reply came "Go and seek Lambert, and he will instruct you."  Hubert entered the priesthood and rose to the rank of Bishop of Liege, which he occupied until his death, at which point his priest son took over that position.  Both are saints.

According to the legend of his encounter, the deer also lectured St. Hubert on having higher regard for animals and engaging in human hunting practices, including taking old stags beyond their prime breeding years, and also to take sick or injured animals even if it meant passing up on a shot at atrophy.  There's more to it, but St. Hubert is accordingly still  held in high regard in Germany, Austria and France among hunters and ethical hunting principals taught in European hunting societies are attributed to him.

St. Hubert is the patron Saint of Hunters and is still celebrated in Northern Europe, where he is the patron of hunting associations.  In Germany, hunters celebrated this day as Hubertustag, pausing in the hunting season to honor St. Hubert.

As we had just referenced him in the post noted above, and we're further noting this day ourselves.

Seems like an appropriate thing to note in Wyoming.

The Agrarian's Lament: Blog Mirror: Couple Donate Legacy 38,000-Acre, $2...

The Agrarian's Lament: Blog Mirror: Couple Donate Legacy 38,000-Acre, $2...:   Couple Donate Legacy 38,000-Acre, $21 Million Cattle Ranch To Keep It A Ranch

Lex Anteinternet: Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus* Watch Part 1.

Lex Anteinternet: Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. I...:   Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Martin Luther King Jr. Ignoramus, Latin for we ...

This is off topic here. . . well, actually, no it isn't.

Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump. Ignoramus* Watch Part 1.

 Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Ignoramus, Latin for we do not know.*

Etymology of the word Ignoramus.

October 31, 2025. 

Claims ‘chemtrails’ poison citizens spur Wyoming lawmakers to advance ‘geoengineering’ ban: Claims ‘chemtrails’ poison citizens spur Wyoming lawmakers to advance ‘geoengineering’ ban Nano particles released from Department of War jets are sterilizing soils, blocking sun, lawmakers hear from Wyomingites and YouTuber before backing bill.

What the f***?

"Chemtrails" for those who are unfamiliar with this, is a conspiracy theory.  As Wikipedia summarizes it:

The chemtrail conspiracy theory /ˈkɛmtreɪl/ is the erroneous belief that long-lasting condensation trails left in the sky by high-flying aircraft are actually "chemtrails" consisting of chemical or biological agents, sprayed for nefarious purposes undisclosed to the general public.   Believers in this conspiracy theory say that while normal contrails dissipate relatively quickly, contrails that linger must contain additional substances. Those who subscribe to the theory speculate that the purpose of the chemical release may be solar radiation management, weather modification, psychological manipulation, human population control, biological or chemical warfare, or testing of biological or chemical agents on a population, and that the trails are causing respiratory illnesses and other health problems.

Uff. 

The fact that this passed committee suggest that every member of this committee needs to return to kindergarten save for Barry Crago and Karlee Provenza

So who is on it?

Bob Ide

Barry Crago (voted no).

Taft Love

Troy McKeown

Laura Pearson

John Winter

Dalton Banks

Bob Davis

John Eklund

Steve Johnson

Pepper Ottman

Karlee Provenza (voted no).

Mike Schmid

Tomi Strock

Apparently global warming coming up with some blaming that on chemtrails.  How ignorant can a person be?  It's amazing that they actually will acknowledge that its occuring, and man made, but has to be caused by some bat shit crazy conspiracy theory.

Don't vote for anyone on this list after this, save for Provenza and Crago.  You can judge them on their merits otherwise, but they didn't fall for this whacky shit or tolerate it.

Simply amazing, and depressing.

Footnotes:

*I'm using the word Ignoramus in its original English connotation, as derived from the Latin. I.e., an ignorant person.  

Not a stupid person.

To willfully believe something stupid is ignorant, particularly when done by intelligent people.  Some of these people are undoubtedly highly intelligent, and I don't know that any of them are stupid, but they're willfully voting for something that is just a weird silly conspiracy theory.

And that makes it all the more shameful.

Related threads:

The ascent of the ignorant.

The Agrarian's Lament: What an Eejit

Part of what Wyoming is now facing is the rise of real ignorance in the state's salon.  We've gone from a rancher/lawyer dominated legislature to a Freedom Caucus one which wants to put George Wallace in the Governor's mansion, raise the Stars and Bars over the state house, and thinks science of all types is a fib.

It'd be comical if not so horrific.

This is of interest here as this ignorance is hunting the environment, and everything else.

Don't vote for those voting yes for this.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 30, 1945. Why Mothers Get Gray

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 30, 1945. Rushing the Nationalis...: 

Out Our Way for this day:

This shows how rural the country remained at the time.  Out Our Way was a nationally syndicated cartoon, but you'd have to be a hunter to really understand the cartoon.  

Blog Mirror: Mike Lee Is Coming For Your Wilderness Following his failed attempt to sell off public land, Utah Senator turns to militarizing it instead

 

Mike Lee Is Coming For Your Wilderness

Following his failed attempt to sell off public land, Utah Senator turns to militarizing it instead

Blog Mirror: Japan to Send Troops to Help Stop Bear Attacks

 

Japan to Send Troops to Help Stop Bear Attacks

Oh great.

 

"Aggressive Monkey" With Possible Numerous Diseases On Loose In Mississippi

Nesvik tells Colorado to say no to Canadian wolves.

Hmmm. . .it would actually make more biological sense to take them from Canada. . . or Alaska, than a nearby population.

‘Energy dominance’ meets migration: All Wyoming corridors overlap with proposed oil and gas leases

‘Energy dominance’ meets migration: All Wyoming corridors overlap with proposed oil and gas leases: A Bureau of Land Management auction planned for next summer could test the state’s migration policy to an unprecedented degree.

Lex Anteinternet: The Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Corner Crossing Crossing Case.

Lex Anteinternet: The Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Corner Crossing ...:   T

The Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Corner Crossing Case.

 

Today, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Iron Bar Holdings on the ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that no laws were broken in 2021 by four Missouri hunters who moved between two public land parcels at a shared corner. The Court’s decision leaves the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling intact. 

There are limits to the 10th Circuit ruling, and TRCP encourages hunters and anglers to conduct their own research and be familiar with trespass laws. 

TRCP remains dedicated to defending public access while respecting private property rights. Legal clarity is important for both sportspeople and landowners.

We appreciate your continued support as TRCP works to keep public lands accessible while respecting private property. Together, we can protect these rights for future generations. 

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance. 

Lex Anteinternet: A Wyoming Party, and some other thoughts. We're on our own.

Lex Anteinternet: A Wyoming Party, and some other thoughts. We're ...:

A Wyoming Party, and some other thoughts. We're on our own.

Jane Banner: Shouldn't we wait for back up?

Ben: This isn't the land of waiting for back up. This is the land of you're on your own.

Wind River. 

In the film Wind River, set on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Tribal policeman Ben and FBI agent Jane Banner are confronted with gunfire while investigating a crime and have the exchange noted above.

Wyomingites love that quote, and there's a lot to it.*

Not only is there a lot to it, its very much the case regarding politics in this state.  Our Congressional delegation doesn't support or represent us on many of the existential matters at play in the state.  Not one darned bit.

And they're not going to.  Just as in Wind River the two policemen, and an Animal Damage officer, were  under assault by those that they were going to have to take on, on their own, so are the residents of this state.

The other day I saw a lifelong member of Wyoming's Republican Party, who once held positions within it, decried. Wyoming's Congressional Representation as "bought and paid for".  This followed, by a period of a couple of years, a similar claim by a former significant Wyoming politicians that I somewhat know. Another person I know describe all three of Wyoming's Congressional delegation as "ass kissing sycophants".

There's something to all of that.

The vast bulk of their large campaign war chests comes from out of state money.  Compared to it, the money from  Wyomingites doesn't even amount to a drop in the bucket.  It's more like a drop in a 55 gallon barrel.  Wyoming public media, in a news story on the topic, reported:

JU: OpenSecrets reported that Rep. Harriet Hageman received $15,000 from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Sen. John Barrasso has received over $70,000 from a private equity firm based in New York and California [from 2019 to 2024]. And Sen. Cynthia Lummis received over $100,000 from the Club for Growth, a conservative PAC [from 2019 to 2024]. In the face of more powerful organizations like those, how do individual or local donors in Wyoming make their voice more impactful? Or their donation more impactful?

Some group calling itself the Americans for Prosperity have been running non stop adds on social media thanking John Barrasso for his role in the Big Ugly.

Who are these people and organizations?  Wyomingites?

Not hardly.  Wikipedia says of them:

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch.[6] As the Koch family's primary political advocacy group, it has been viewed as one of the most influential American conservative organizations.

Club for Growth is a radical right wing economic outfit as well.

American Israel Public Affairs Committee:  What does have to do with the average Wyomingite?

Not freaking much.

In a couple of place around town, there are billboard featuring all three of our Congress people with the Tetons in the background thanking all three for standing with "American Energy", by which they no doubt mean petroleum and coal, not wind, solar and nuclear (as we've recently learned locally).

The bigger problem is that the Congressional delegation flat out ignores the views of Wyomingites on some major issues, public lands being one.  Wyomingites are overwhelmingly opposed to the Federal lands going to the states, and are opposed to public lands being sold.  That well known fact hasn't done anything to keep our Congressional delegation from supporting those things, and it's done nothing whatsoever to keep the Wyoming GOP from backing land transfers.

Dr. John Barrasso, who after all is a East Coaster and looks like one, has his head so far up Trump's ass on a daily basis that he can examine Trump's tonsils from the backside.  He has no use for Wyoming anymore.  My guess is that he's in his last term as he knows that he's not going to be the Senate Majority Leader so being a fascist flunky will be his career achievement, and he's okay with that.

Who knows what's up with Lummis.  She's always been a Cheshire cat in the first place, with a sort of snarky smile. She goes her own way, and that way isn't yours.

Harriet Hageman is the most honest of the bunch. Sure, she's stuck in the Powder River Campaign, but her views, while not the same as most of hours, re honestly  and openly held.

Chuck Gray?  Gray is just using Wyoming, that's about it.  And his politics bend with the wind.  He's a far right winger Greenpeacer if you can make sense of that, and he's  hoping you can't and will yell at you until you are distracted.

Right now, the Wyoming GOP is the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is packed with people who are not from Wyoming, and how have brought their dumbass ideas with them and want to impose them on Wyoming.

They're succeeding in doing so. There's really no saving the GOP in the state. The old GOP, which was uniquely Wyoming in view, is dead, taking the path of the old Wyoming Democratic Party, which did as well, and which died first.

In its place we have the Dixiecrats and those whose one and only value is their pocket books.

They need to go.

But it would appear unlikely that they can be dislodged from the current GOP, put on plane, and shipped back to the their home states, like they should be.

The only two things the two failed parties agree on is that you should never vote for a third party.  That's how we got into this mess.

So maybe it's time for some new parties not beholding to the crap these parties are.

And why not local parties?

Let's start with something that should be clear to all, but really seems not to be.

There's nothing American or Constitutional about a "two party system". The founders, while they rapidly fell into parties, didn't approve of them at all.  A primary system, such as we and most other states have, is existentially anti democratic and existentially unconstitutional.  They're nothing more than state funded party elections that are geared to conspire against any person from a third party, or just an independent running.  Primary elections would make sense only if no party affiliation was noted on the ballot at all.  Get 1,000 signatures to get you on, perhaps, and you are on.

Moreover, it's really time to allow for recalls of Congressional representation.  If we had that, all three of our Congressional people would be facing a recall election right now.  John Barrasso, who earnestly believes whatever you believe as you believe it, and even more than you do, would now be leading armed raids into Utah against Mike Lee if that was the case, rather than spending all of his time kissing Trump's ass.

Suffice it to say, we're not being served well.

What would a party that actually reflected Wyoming's values look like?

Well, of course, in stating something like that, I'm inevitably going to post what a party that reflected my values, mostly, would look like.

• It'd protect public lands.
• It'd have a land ethic.
• It'd protect democratic values, as in voting.
• It'd realize that science isn't a fib, and that some things have to adjust because of scientific reality.
• It would have a tax system that accepted that out of state imports with huge amounts of cash should be taxed.

Frankly, it'd look a lot like what the GOP here used to look like.

It's be overall conservative, without a doubt, but conservative in a Wyoming sort of Way, not in a Dixiecrat sort of way.

Most Wyomingites who are from Wyoming, save those who had drank the MAGA/Charlie Kirk Kool aide, would likely vote for it.

We're sure not going to be saved by the Democrats. They'll do anything they can to wreck their own chances at the ballot box. And we're not going to be saved by the Republicans either.  The GOP has wiped out the real party and put in place a party that Nathan Bedford Forest would be proud of.

We're on our own.

Footnotes:

*I'll confess that I've done a lot of legal work on the Wind River Reservation, and it haunts me.  This is a really good move, and I've watched it twice in the theatre, but I can't get through it again.  May the perpetual light shine upon many there.

The Work Truck Blog: Real transmissions.

The Work Truck Blog: Real transmissions.: 

Real transmissions.

About once a year I go on an unhinged campaign for the restoration of manual transmissions.  I absolutely know, right from the onset, that it's totally pointless.  Nonetheless, the fact that no manual transmission pickup trucks are made in the US, outside of the Jeep pickups, really angers me.

100% of the reasons stated in support of automatic transmissions are pure unadulterated bullshit.  The real, and only, reason they're put in pickup trucks is that most pickup trucks are driven in cities, including ones that have fanciful outdoorsy names and have something like "off road edition" emblazoned on their sides.  If it's got an automatic transmission, it's the kawaii thirteen year old girl edition.  That's it.  It's made for wimps who want to pretend their outdoorsy and don't know how to drive.

The market, of course, is what controls this, and ever since the day guys who never get outside the Denver city limits started dominating the market, this is what we've ended up with.

Now, in defense of engineering, automatic transmissions in trucks have gotten much better than they used to be.  Indeed, ever since General Motors began to put Alison transmissions in their diesels, they've been pretty good. None of that changes the fact that all of the disadvantages associated with automatic transmissions fully remain.  You are actually using the engine to drive the transmission, which is inherently inefficient, and you are letting hydraulic pressure determine when to shift gears, which is mindless.  It can also be dangerous.  All of the features that engineers built in to allow automatic transmissions not to be mindless killers are ignored by everyone who drives one.

And the fact that they have a lot of extra parts means they're going to wear out more quickly.  I have had in the various vehicles I own two transmissions wear out. . . both of them were automatics. 

And, yes, I've owned vehicles with automatic transmissions.

So, anyway, it always goes the same way.  I get angry about it, and usually when it dawns on me that I can never, ever, buy a new vehicle now as they all have automatic transmissions.  I end up emailing the Dodge dealer asking for a cab and chassis with no transmission, as I can take care of the transmission part.

"Um. . . . we can't do that".

Oh bullshit, you certainly can.

Occasionally I called Dodge, which I did this week.  I ended up with some poor (probably Filipino, based on the accent) woman who tried to help.

"I want a cab and chassis with no transmission, or I want you to put in a G56 transmission and I know that you have some around there".

"Um. . . . just a moment sir. . . . I tried to ask somebody but nobody knows the answer to this. .  I'm sorry".

The current diesel engine in Dodge's is the the B6.7.  I really wonder if there's any new made manual that will mate up to it, although the costs of doing so would likely be insane. I wonder the same about the somewhat bigger Cummis engines, up to the the L9 and B7.2.  I'd think there's have to be one for hte 7.2.

 Something not really addressed here is that chokecherry pits are poisonous.

Making the ‘original energy bar’: The chokecherry patty

Hunter Fest

Overriding the impact statement.

Wyoming’s congressional delegation introduced a joint resolution Wednesday to employ the Congressional Review Act to essentially invalidate the BLM’s Biden-era supplemental environmental impact statement updating the Buffalo Field Office Resource Management Plan.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 9, 1900. Auto 5.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 9, 1900. Auto 5.:  

Tuesday, October 9, 1900. Auto 5.

 John M. Browning was granted a patent for what would become the "self loading" Auto 5 shotgun, which would go into production in 1902.

A phenomenally successful shotgun, it blazed the trail for all later semi automatics.  It became so popular that Browning had trouble ceasing to offer it in its catalog even after it desired to do so.  The shotgun was manufactured in Belgium for Browning and also offered in the United States by Remington, as the Model 11.  Remington's production of Browning's design ceased in 1947, but FN's for Browning carried on until moved to the Japanese firm Miroku in 1975.  In 1998 full production finally ceased, with FN carrying on with commemoratives for one final year.

Primarily a hunting weapon, you'll oddly see a lot of inquiries on the net today about whether it saw military use.  It did, but mostly as a training weapons.  As great as it was, it's action was not suitable for combat conditions, although you'll occasionally see some that were used as police riot guns.

It still has a huge following.

Blog Mirror: Browning Auto 5 Shotgun Review: Still One of the Greatest Semiautos of All Time

Last edition:

Monday, October 8, 1900. Annexation of the Cook Islands.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, 1940s, 1949, 1960s, 1965, British Empire, Cook Islands, New Zealand