This is What I Voted For. Hoping for More to Come

 

Wonderful News

On Thursday, the Trump administration finalized rules repealing the EPA’s endangerment finding — that dubious 2009 determination claiming six greenhouse gases threaten human health under the Clean Air Act. “We are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding,” Trump announced, calling the policy exactly what it was: “disastrous.”

The EPA has become a millstone on our economy. Now many of these stultifying regulations can go away. The lingering question is, will they? I foresee judges blocking every effort as the leaches cling to their positions, income, and pensions.

 Kill Them, One and All

Cancer is a hot button for me. Over 60% of extended family, both paternal and maternal, has suffered with this plague.

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 My fervent hope is any cancer fraudster roasts in hell for eternity. 

Wolves

This econazie wet dream is falling apart. It isn’t just the pissing away of taxpayer dollars, it is tough toenails for the wolves.

Will the proposed introduction of wolverines fare better?

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Low Humor

If you are attackted to both men and women,  but no men or women are attackted to you, does that make you bi-yourself?

Car Story

Diesel

1983-1988 saw a number of small cars and trucks offered with diesel engines.

 One day a PFC stationed at Fort Lewis wandered onto our lot. After some conversation involving money, of which he had little, he landed on a 1983 Ford Escort 5 speed with a diesel engine. We did the test drive thing and went inside to do the paperwork.

As he was ready to leave, he said he planned to get a tune up kit and get rid of the rough idle!

 While not a complete soulless car peddler, I bit my tongue. Points.

 As you sat behind the steering wheel, the fuel gauge said, “Diesel Only”.

On both front fenders was a diesel emblem.

On the rear hatch was a diesel emblem.

 Partner, if you are so dumb you don’t know what “diesel” means you are beyond hope. 

 
As always, YMMV

Wyoming Winter Winds

Devils Tower, Wyoming

I’m not sure the above photograph isn’t AI generated. Either way, an amazing sight.

 How Elections are bought

 Rhys Williams works at Whole Foods in Fort Collins. He is 24 years old. Federal Election Commission records show he donated $73,752 through ActBlue in 2025—113 separate transactions to Democratic campaigns and committees. A Whole Foods employee in Colorado earns $15 to $21 per hour. That translates to $31,200 to $43,680 gross annual income. After taxes: $24,336 to $34,070 take-home pay. Williams donated 216% of his likely net income. Colorado Secretary of State records confirm Williams exists. He registered as a Democrat on December 6, 2023. His address matches the FEC filings. The donations are real. The math is not.”

He is one of thousands, maybe tens of thousands across the country.

Bureaucrats

Trivial complaint.

Please note the potential “gotcha” police can use if they need something to inconvenience you. I wonder how many staff hours were spent coming up with that regulation.

Colorado Prisons

When we were doing offsite sales around Colorado, I became acquaintances of several correctional officers who bought our cars. After hearing some of their problems, I have been more aware of the sorry state of our prisons and the near total indifference of (P)regressives . While Colorado has no death penalty, twelve prisoners have died in traffic accidents while riding in poorly maintained and unsafe prison transport vehicles. The situation only gets worse.

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While not sympathetic to criminals in general (you did the crime, do the time) the prisons, along with highways and law enforcement, are a primary state responsibility, and on a lesser level, counties and cities. These don’t seem to concern our blue state aficionados.

Partial Return to Sanity

The environazi EPA overreach is being cut back. The idea “good ideas” can force engineering solutions is being recognized as not working.

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 It is a start.

Steve Inman

A daily watch.

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Car Story  

Harsh

Half deals or split commissions are common in the car biz. A customer comes in and ask for you by name but you are not available The salesperson makes a sale. You are on ½ of the commission.

 More common is a turn. The salesperson isn’t making progress and goes to the desk (manager) who sends another salesperson to talk to the customer. A sale is made.

 Conflicts arise when the salesperson “lot drops” a customer without going to a manager first. Another sales person sees this. They approach the customer and end up making a sale. The lot dropper is not entitled to anything but a serious counseling session with the manager.

 This leads us to Mr. Artie Pruitt. He snaked me out of a deal and I found out. After a robust private meeting with me in the bullpen he decided to take his aching ribs to Down the Road Motors.

 One day at a Ford dealership in Kirkland, WA he suffered an aneurism on the showroom floor while talking to a couple. While all the drama of 911, EMTs, etc. another salesman took the couple to another area and ended up with a sale. Artie was d.o.a at the hospital.

This brings us to the question, is Artie entitled to ½ the commission?

He didn’t make a proper turn with a manager, he lot dropped the customer. and he no longer works here.

Political Correctness

Background: My middle son is high on the Asbergers Scale and has little use for social graces. When he decides to speak, he is clear and concise. Growing up he was a huge fan of professional wrestling and wrestled in middle school.

During the Presidential election, he called the Democrat candidate come’allah, offending several people who corrected his pronunciation. He replied, “Surely you remember the wrestler, Kamala the Cannibal?”

As Always, YMMV

Things that Go Kaboom

 

 Armageddon on Demand - Upgraded

 An ambitious plan to upgrade the Minuteman III missiles in silos scatter around Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado and the impact on the people in the region.

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Pity Kimball, NE population 2,200.

The article mentions as many as 3,200 workers to be housed in Kimball. A pleasant, old oil/agriculture town with many vacant storefront buildings, it has long had a dark side of drug problems. The residents have kept the place from total disrepair. The streets are in decent shape, the park is neat and well kept, there is a small hospital, and the streets are plowed in the winter.

 Travel tip. The Nebraska State Patrol lurks under I-80 at Highway 71.

From the folks who brought you wolves

They now want to introduce wolverines. They have identified three areas they believe will support a wolverine population. I have my doubts that, long term, wolverines can find enough food to keep from starving. The occasional individual, sure, and they do wander in from time to time. Many years ago I saw one near Steamboat Springs. A pack, or several packs; doubtful.

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Gag Me

Plant based eggs? Why?

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Environazi Victim

The arrogant bastards made mandates forcing hasty engineer solutions by the manufacturers. The people needing trucks to make a living turned to desperate measures. This family owned business responded to customer needs and the patriarch got hammered by our government.

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 Notably, nobody in our government suffered any consequences for forcing disastrous mandates on people that left them no legal choice to survive.

 As always, YMMV

 

Rambling and Unfocused

 

Wyoming Farm Kids

Farms kids everywhere are driving at an early age. I’ve had a license since age 14 and was driving far earlier than that.

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Starting age 11, I worked hay fields in North Park every summer. When school started, my parents 22 acres were waiting for me to buck the bales into the barn. We had a flatbed pickup that I would put in granny gear, step out, and buck bales on the bed as it idled along.

When Sisty got bigger, she would “drive”. About the time she was nine, by sitting on the very edge of the seat, she could reach the gas pedal. Ever so slowly she would push. I would go from a slow walk, to a fast walk, to a trot and, “God damn it, Colleen!” Back to an idle then rinse and repeat.

Solyent Green News

Ever notice thr grocery store spaces devoted to plant based food are seldom empty?

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Emissions

The new broom at the EPA and the slap down of California’s CAFÉ’s standards may improve our economy in ways that may not be apparent. Cars and pickups have become less reliable over the years, in part, because of engineering compromises to gain fuel economy and/or reduce emissions. It appears DEF for diesels may go away. Ending rerouting exhaust back through turbochargers will eliminate many problems. 6.7 Power Stroke operators will rejoice.

YouTube is buzzing; everyone is an expert! Clarity will come in time.

 What is not clear is how this will affect other state programs. The Californication of Colorado has a large swath of the Front Range requiring near California standards.

 What may not be immediately apparent is the impact on West Coast ports. Getting shipping containers moving again, for example, should improve. The trucks used to move them, just in the terminal areas, are highly regulated. If that goes away, shipping costs will go down.

Many truckers will not make California runs. If that changes, costs will go down.

Prior to moving from Seattle in 1997, I knew several independent operators using old trucks, no longer reliable for long hauls, to move containers around the Seattle area. They were wiped out by the environazis with impossible to meet regulations. 

Coal

A deep water coal terminal will be a financial boon for this country. Hello, Puget Sound. Of course, all the environazis will get their panties in a bunch.

Keystone Pipeline

Too many people don’t realize building this will almost start at ground zero. The Biden goons have made that a priority. For one thing, the piping may have gone elsewhere. In November 2024 a company agreed to purchase 180 miles of the steel pipeline.

 Big Winds

While a mere zephyr compared to the tornadoes ripping the Midwest from the huge winds this past week, one property owner had a shed (one of six) fly away.

AutoPen Uproar

A concise discourse by a favorite YouTube lawyer.

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Twice deported Alien with enough ammo for an infantry company load out

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Rare Earth news from left field

Despite all of the woke bullshit distractions, some universities do produce valuable work, in spite of themselves.

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DOGE casualties

A government program is created. People are hired to manage the program. They are good, even great, managers. Now they are getting hammered. Fair? Hardly, but here we are. This is personal, affecting extended family members.

It brings to mind company commanders carrying out orders issued by generals.

 AS always, YMMV

F^*k Obama's Legacy

The elitist’s war on rural America continues as the entrenched civil service continues fighting to preserve the ‘Obama Legacy’, IMO. Being a Colorado resident, this post will be Mountain West centric.

The three main agencies grinding down rural America are the EPA, the BLM, and the USFS.

Many people are aware of the EPA’s war on coal. Fewer are aware of the EPA’s war on water, the Waters of the United States rule.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/epa-waterways-wetlands-rule-118319

There was a lot of hollering about a small rancher near Gillette, WY being attacked over a small stock pond on his property. A sideshow and smoke screen.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/10/wyoming-welder-facing-16m-in-fines-beats-epa-in-battle-over-stock-pond.html

The single most precious commodity in the West is water. Water rights protect all agriculture operations and municipal water sources. What the Waters of the United States “rule” does is give the Federal Government a back door way to control all water rights. How long before allocating “for the common good” follows? Supercede all those pesky State's rights. Visualize the "pay to play" opportunities.

A hoary old Colorado saying, “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting” may be more than an amusing phrase if the government starts messing with water rights.

Stock growers depend on public land grazing for their livelihood. They pay some steep fees for the privilege.  The practice is always under attack.

http://freerangereport.com/index.php/2017/03/24/blm-proposal-to-cut-colorado-grazing-allotments-in-half/

Much the same goes for the US Forest service.

http://www.capitalpress.com/article/20170324/ARTICLE/170329906

The Colorado Rockies have a maze of old railroad grades and mining roads that have been used for decades for back country recreation. The USFS is systematically closing them down to anything but foot traffic. Why, because they can get away with it. 

Means they need fewer ‘boots on the ground’ rangers freeing money for more REMFs. Also pleases the tree huggers. 

Speaking of trees, in the 1950’s Engelmann spruce trees were killed off by Japanese beetles. In the past twenty years or so much of the lodgepole pines have been killed by native beetles. The USFS has done little to mitigate the problem or allowing logging of the dead trees. Surprise, wildfires have become a huge problem.

In areas not burned, the spruce trees are staging a comeback in the midst of the dead lodgepole. Will we have another spruce beetle crisis?

Will we ever see an end to stock growers, loggers, ORV operators, and other recreationists behaving badly? Of course not. That is why we will always need some type of policing. Will we ever see an end to police overstepping their boundaries? Again, of course not. What we do have are policies and procedures that work, even imperfectly.

Reforms? Interesting proposal from Senator Cory Gardner (R) CO.

https://www.gardner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/gardner-rejects-washingtons-one-size-fits-all-approach-to-land-management

As stated, this posting is Mountain West centric. Anywhere around the West you will find the Obama legacy over reach. John Day, OR. The Bundy Ranch. The Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. 

And the list goes on.

So far President Trump seems to be forming a cabinet of adults. Given his business background, he will likely let them do their jobs as opposed to the last eight years. Other than Eric Holder, and maybe Shillary, the Obama Cabinet were figureheads following orders from unelected and unvetted West Wing staffers,  IMO.

Doubling Down on Stupid - EPA Sector

After causing an ecological disaster by an agency with 1,000+ lawyers but not one mining engineer, the EPA does this masterpiece.

http://coloradopeakpolitics.com/2016/09/08/superfun-epa-declares-itself-a-disaster/

Lots of press coverage when this happened. Followed by conspiracy theories as in deliberate so the EPA can take over the town of Silverton and environs.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/08/letter-to-editor-predicted-colorado-epa-spill-one-week-before-catastrophe-so-epa-could-secure-superfund-cash/

Sorry, you need to scroll down to find the letter from Mr. Taylor.

Some good pictures in this link.

http://www.durangoherald.com/assets/before_after/AnimasRiverMineWaste/AnimasRiverMineWaste.html

No question Colorado (and other states) is littered with old abandoned mines, some leaking toxic water. The EPA has a legitimate interest. What is happening is an agency, staffed with rabid anti-development tree huggers, is using this to advance their personal interests. 

Shocking, isn’t it? Doesn’t happen with the United States Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management, does it?

Oops. My bad.

Watch Your Wallet

Here comes another hit on your wallet. The, smarter than the rest of us, folks at the Environmental Protection Agency will soon require less sulfur in gasoline. They say is should add less than a penny per gallon to the cost. Others have a different opinion. Some information here.

http://news.yahoo.com/epa-taking-aim-auto-emissions-sulfur-gas-071021486--finance.htmlhttp://

Some like the new rules.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130330/AUTO01/303300317/1148/rss25

What could possibly go wrong? Well, consider low sulfur diesel. The EPA mandated it.

http://epa.gov/oecaerth/civil/caa/ultralow-sulfurdieselfuel.htmlhttp://

Brought us in line with Europe. Seems the Europeans were willing to pay a higher price than the refiners were getting in the United States. Lots of empty tankers departing our shores. Winner!

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/how-did-america-become-a-net-fuel-exporter-thank-the-epa/250857/http://

Except that diesel went up a buck a gallon. 70-80 % of what we consume gets hauled by trucks, mainly diesel powered, that get around six miles per gallon.

http://www.trucking.org/Newsroom/Pages/TrucksareEssential.aspxhttp://

Wonder why your living costs are rising?

Probably won’t happen that the new low sulfur gasoline will be sold to Europe, supply and demand - that irksome reality of the market place, and our domestic prices won’t rise to European levels. Naw, that can’t happen.

Now I don’t think this is some grand conspiracy to further weaken our country and send us on the way to serfdom. No, I think it is a bunch of stuttering clusterfuck bureaucrats living in an alternative reality with no damn accountability for their actions. Your mileage may vary.

On another note, a warning  from France, of all places,  that will be coming, sooner or later, to our land of 401k and IRAs.

http://mondediplo.com/2013/04/01nicosia