Cowboy State Politics

Rod Miller can hear the sucking sound government subsidies make just as well as I can. But, he still thinks that some of them are okay. I think that it's not the government's job to pick winners are losers. It's always the small business person that gets hurt when politicians start monkeying around in the market. We didn't solve any problems but we had a wide ranging discussion on a whole bunch of things government gives your money to.

The Cowboy State Politics traditional Halloween Story. This year, a re-telling the the Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe.

Replay of Cowboy State Politics Live. An article in the Free Press claims that it is conservatives who are the new snowflakes and not the left. There is a difference between capitalism and cancelling; and when you are in a position of public trust some of the rules are different. After all, parents have a right to know who is spending 8 hours a day with their children. That, and a bunch more.

After the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk, Wyoming GOP Vice Chairman Bob Ferguson knew that he needed to do something. Having been in finance for his entire career, he decided to set up a scholarship fund for Wyoming Turning Point USA students. One unique point of his scholarship is that it will not only reach university-bound students, tech school students would also qualify. It's called the Wyoming Faith and Freedom Fund. He sat down with me to discuss the idea behind it and how it's going to work.

Cowboy State Politics has uncovered Sheridan "teacher," Josh Hanson's Bluesky account. It is replete with exactly what he thinks should be done with conservatives. He calls them fascists, of course. In one case, he comes very close to threatening Wyoming legislators. This is the same Josh Hanson that I reported on back in September. In another case of social media posting by teachers, Marie Hamilton of the Southeast Wyoming Sentinel joins me to discuss a Goshen County teacher who is also the spouse of the school superintendent--Stacy Kramer. Her posts clearly violate the school district's social media policy. Hanson's social media posts are available at https://cowboystatepolitics.com/Show-Content.html Marie Hamilton's report is available here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JTjexHySE/

Laramie County Commissioner Gunnar Malm thinks that government should give your tax dollars to his political allies. He doesn't come out and say that but it's exactly what he means by government picking winners and losers. He wants winners. Not kidding, he actually wrote that. Really, government shouldn't be advantaging one business over another--they don't get to choose which business succeeds and which one fails. That's called socialism, pure and simple.

Sheridan Democrat Hollis Hackman claims in the Sheridan Press that Rep Pendergraft is going to hack away the Wyoming Department of Health Budget. Had he bothered to do any research at all, his op-ed wouldn't have been completely wrong. Surprising though it may be, a piece in Wyofile directly contradicts what Hackman is claiming.

There are hundreds of millions of dollars worth of privately owned buildings in Wyoming that pay next to nothing in property taxes. It's worse than that though, you paid for most of them through the Wyoming Community Development Authority. Rebecca Bextel joins me to explain that in almost every Wyoming county, a Montana company owns and operates so-called affordable housing buildings. And, it's almost all on your dime.

There have been several GOP events this past week. All of them honored Charlie Kirk and all of them were very patriotic. But that's not what the Wyoming media is leading you to believe. One of them went completely ignored by the media and the state GOP Chairman. The other two were characterized only by division. Anyone who paid attention would have seen what was really going on. But that's not their agenda. Agent 29 sings BOTH verses of the Star Spangled Banner at the Sheridan event; and Gabe Saint and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus honor the legacy of Charlie Kirk at another.

Monday, Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation changing the name of Columbus Day back to Columbus Day. The breadth and scope of everything Biden changed in four years, is really incredible. But why is this significant? Why change it back? Easy. If the left can convince you that Columbus slaughtered a whole bunch of people, it's pretty easy to say that's how our country started. Also, I completely forgot to celebrate the 950th episode of Cowboy State Politics.

Admit it or not, in education, Wyoming has a lot in common with California. We like to claim that we're different but when you look at policies, Wyoming does many of the same things as the left coast. Leslie Sawyer is the California Legislative Chair for Moms for Liberty. She has been right in the middle of some of the high profile education fights in California. In education, we aren't becoming California, in many ways, we are already there.

Kylie Wall is the Natrona County High School senior who has been having a disagreement with school administration. After her Turning Point USA Club America chapter was approved, high school staff started harassing her. He club posters were torn down among other things. When the press started asking questions, the principal told Kylie she couldn't talk to the press in her free time. An outrageous infringement of her rights. Kylie joined me to talk about the entire situation.

Replay of Cowboy State Politics Live from October 9. There's a deal in the Hamas War, Spying on members of Congress and Senator Cheri Steinmetz called in to talk about her trip to Israel

Yesterday it was revealed that Jack Smith's investigation spied on U.S. Senators. In talking with Rep Hageman, it turns out that it wasn't just Senators; there was at least one member of the House who was surveilled. Rep Hageman has her own thoughts about this. We discussed that breaking news, the government shutdown and a few other items.

A shock poll says that 2/3 of Democrats view socialism more favorably than capitalism. My friend Ovie Muntean lived through real communism and socialism in Romania. He's going to be in Sheridan this weekend to attend our Reagan Day dinner and to tell Wyoming young people what socialism really looks like.

Conservatives have a really hard time understanding why Democrats and their less honest counterparts in the Republican Party can lie so easily. It doesn't really have anything to do with what they're telling you at the moment. It's that they are trying to get you to believe ALL lies. The government shutdown is a perfect example: several democrats will swear that this isn't about illegal immigrants. Why, when it so obviously is? It's part of a larger strategy.

Replay of Cowboy State Politics Live October 2

Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock single-handedly messed up the 2024 election in Weston County. She tried to cover it up; made multiple conflicting statements to the media and maintained that she didn't do anything wrong. Since then, she's been subpoenaed by a legislative committee investigating her actions. True to form, she blew that off. Last November I published an extensive episode about the entire affair. I even interviewed Hadlock herself.

Senator Lummis weighed in on the Jimmy Kimmel controversy. While she was referring to FCC licenses, her comments about the First Amendment were in-artful at best. Susan Stubson too full advantage by penning a piece in the Cow Pie conveniently leaving out the whole FCC part of the quotation to score political points.

Reps Karlee Provenza and Mike Yin, both Democrats, held an event in Sheridan this week. Both of them dropped by the studio to discuss what they are doing as well as a whole bunch of other topics. We didn't agree on much of anything, but we were able to have a civil discussion--something we seem to be lacking right now.