Letter from Cheyenne: We Make History re Clean Elections
Amazing Day: State Sen Tim Salazar, my host to the Wyoming Statehouse, Confirms that he and State Sen Bo Biteman will co-sponsor our Clean Elections Bill
Yesterday, here in lovely, spacious, friendly Cheyenne, Wyoming, was a day I will always remember.
State Senator Tim Salazar, to the left, had responded to our call on WarRoom, in which we asked state legislators from across the country, to invite me to their statehouses so that I could present the CleanElections Model Bill that Phill Kline of AVA, and I from DailyClout, had drafted together. Rep Heidi Sampson in Maine filed the bill last week with the Reviser’s Office, and she argues on behalf of the bill before the Legislative Council of Maine, next week. So she gets kudos for being first to file. But Sen Salazar also gets a place in history, in my view, and now he is joined by Sen Bo Biteman, who agreed to cosponsor the bill with Sen Salazar, as Sen Salazar was first to reach out to me to get me physically to his statehouse. I want to credit all of these courageous, action-oriented legislators. I ask others to join now and invite me to their statehouses.
Briefly, it was a highly successful day in Cheyenne, the first of two; I head back in to the Statehouse this afternoon, Wednesday the 15th of February.
Yesterday I was warmly welcomed by Sen Salazar, who also introduced me in the gorgeous, wood-trimmed, stained-glass-roofed, historic Capitol building, to constituents of his who wanted to meet us, and also to candidates who are running in the near future for office. They all struck me in my brief meeting, as notably admirable, straightforward, brave and down-to-earth people — the kind whom you would want to have representing your interests. One of Sen Salazar’s constituents was already struggling with election integrity issues, on a more local level.
These people all reminded me of the America of the recent past — a place in which people are not passive or followers; in which they take it upon themselves to solve their community’s problems.
I heard the legislative session in the morning, from the visitors’ galley. I was reminded of how beautiful and important the architectures of our statehouses is — they are built with galleys so that YOU can watch and hear your legislators in session. Wyoming’s statehouse struck me as being far more open than are other statehouses I have visited. People could just walk in, with no onerous checkin process. There were tours, and students present, and people sitting alongside me upstairs, simply watching their legislators at work. It was extremely inspiring.
On the walls were images of senators, going back to the turn of the last century at least — which imagery reinforced the sense of the sacred continuity we are supposed to have with our civic traditions.
The bills introduced were fascinating. Sen Salazar introduced a bill of his own, that would make it easier for farmers and ranchers to bring their own butchered meat directly to local farmers’ markets, instead of being forced to process the meat via distant and expensive (and, I was startled to learn from him later, foreign-owned) USDA processing plants.
This seemed like such an obviously good (and nonpartisan) idea, and Sen Salazar later explained that this was only one plank of a larger “Farm Freedoms” bill that would secure our agricultural products in multiple ways.
In addition to the obvious benefit in cost savings for both local ranchers and consumers of meat, I was struck by how the situation he described — in which foreign-owned processing plants are bottlenecks to farmers and ranchers bringing meat to local markets — creates a horrible national security/ food security risk. Sen Salazar described how, during COVID, there were long delays in meat processing, and I thought of how easily our food production could be disrupted by an adversary, without bills such as his protecting the rights of farmers to bring food directly to their neighbors. I will ask him for his bill as a model and post it on DailyClout for other legislators.
I was grateful to be introduced after the legislative session in the morning, to State Senator Lynn Hutchings, who introduced a good bill outlawing solicitation of absentee ballots. I was appalled to learn that recently, an elected official had sent out absentee ballots en masse, to those who had not even requested them — an act ripe for corruption of the voting process. Sen Hutchings said she would look at our election integrity bill.
Sen Salazar also brought me into the office of Governor Mark Gordon, where I presented the Clean Elections Bill to him verbally for about 15 minutes; we took a picture in front of statues representing Truth, Justice, Hope and Courage. And lastly I was brought to the office of Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who is in charge of the state’s elections. We had a fascinating discussion about how legislators and state officials might reach the people more effectively, and vice versa, and how officials and electeds might explain more thoroughly what they do and why, and how citizens can better engage witht he processes. He too expressed that he was committed to cleaning up abuses in the voting process, and I was gratified that we were able to leave a copy of our model bill, with him.
In the evening, I was kindly hosted by State Senator Salazar and Bo Briteman, at a vintage destination, the Albany restaurant. The menu seemed unchanged since the 1940s, when the restaurant first opened, and the wooden booths and wooden walls seemed equally beautifully unchanged, and thus, in my view, un-ruined. Cheyenne in general seems very proud of its history and is seeking to preserve it, and I felt how powerful that made us as Americans — to knoiw our own stories.
I heard more about the legislative process in Wyoming, and about the issues facing the constituents of both leaders - which include the baseline issue: that many people are having a hard time paying their bills.
In spite of the hurdles that face us all, I ended the day feeling hopeful that there are still leaders committed to serving the public and protecting our Constitution and our representational government processes.
We all agreed that protecting our traditions and our nation was now a battle. But as Sen Salazar and Sen Biteman agreed at the end of the evening, ‘We battle on.”
####
To support the bill in Wyoming, CALL or write your representatives, and call or write Sens Briteman and Salazar:
Here is the bill to download:
https://dailyclout.io/clean-elections-model-bill-just-in-time-for-2024-elections/
If you have friends or family in Wyoming, send them the bill.
To get this bill passed in your state, download it from DailyClout.io and send it to your state elected representatives, and ask them to sponsor it.
Thank you sincerely to Sens Salazar and Biteman.
We will be on WarRoom at Five ET today to say more.
OFF TOPIC
Because I was able to obtain it through a free trial to audible I decided to begin to, for the purposes of truly fact-checking it, listen to Doppelganger as read by Naomi Klein. Now I realize that's going to have to be someone else's task though what I can definitely definitely do is highly highly recommend Doppelganger as the greatest SLEEP AID the world has ever seen. Forget melatonin, forget being more active during the day, forget avoiding excess caffeine late in the day. I mean sure sure sure those are all great tools but the primary treatment for sleeplessness should be the audiobook of Doppelganger. I'm not even kidding. This is the best sleep I've obtained in weeks, no months and Dr. Klein's next project BETTER be an official ASMR recording because I'm throwing down cash when that hits shelves.
Though It says on my audible app I've completed only 3 hours of Klein's 14 hour ASMR masterpiece miss-classified as non-fiction I know I went waaay beyond that because I'm telling you I slept AGES courtesy of Klein's soothing Canadian coos.
Going back to the project of fact-checking I abandoned - I'll just do instead things that stuck out the first 3 hours edition off topic post here. Honestly I may have went the whole book zzzzzing and then it just looped around again but for the purposes of these off topic reviews this is Doppelganger an ASMR hours 3 of 14 highlights.
First of all - the amount of research, two years, - that's biography level research. I'm an avid avid Dr. Wolf fan but... but Jesus I've got NOTHING on Klein. The amount of research Klein has admittedly done for this well exceeds what she claims the books purpose is about. This is a woman who in interviews literally said "I knew this book would be misconstrued as being about Naomi Wolf" -- um Klein you merged y'all's faces on the covers together - you admit to studying Wolf's public (God let's pray that's been the extent of it) career, appearances literally every interview, etc, you admit studying Wolf exclusively two years to write this book against the advice of numerous people in her circle. It's like yeah there's a reason they advised against this Klein, it's unprofessional, and petty, period.
Klein worried her kid would catch Covid at school from a kid unvaccinated kid because that kids parents took Wolf's advice; um aren't children the worst spreaders of this disease and didn't Covid kill ultimately very very few under 18, and aren't all the kids masked up ridiculously anyway. Just an awkward concern.
Klein admits to getting mean comments but also nice ones of congratulations and thanks for being confused with Wolf - who wants to bet the latter is the real rub.
Then she said Wolf was in many ways was a Doppelganger of herself - which begs the question, why NOT make that the book then how Dr. Wolf replaced herself in essence by becoming her own Doppelganger. I think if Klein ever entertained that idea it was shelved, and again I'm not 1/2 the Wolf expert Klein is, but I know just from 2007 when Wolf got on my radar there's been themes threads that continue from that 2007 Wolf to who I see today howling righteously.
Klein clearly has a great deal of respect for Dr. Wolf's first book, the feminist classic the Beauty Myth, but mentions it not just to juxtapose a supposedly new and old Naomi but also to show research mistakes with Wolf are a pattern. What Klein fails, purposely probably, to point out is that if there's any such pattern in Dr. Wolf's work, it's an exponentially declining one as the Beauty Myth's (1990) mistakes were MOUNTAINS compared to the molehill sized errors of Outrages (2019); which let me state without any doubt OUTRAGES is my absolute favorite non-fiction book ever, period bar none. I urge readers of Dr Wolf here who may be reading this; track down that book if you haven't yet. Outrages is the best damn book the Wolf ever wrote - WOLF WAS crucified for that books tiny errors because she hadn't been good party-line towing PC leftist for some years preceding it's population.
Klein brings up Wolfs reporting from 2018 about aluminum being sprayed into clouds -- um y'all that's been officially corroborated as far as im concerned - don't ask me by whom or where look it up yourself- some sciencey mainstream article did a little blurb on it- some months ago I saw it somewhere and I was like Holy Shit - that Wolf don't lie!!!
Oh yeah more telling. This one's more important than others but Klein is like Dr. Wolf sees something nefarious or conspiratorial in the most basic public health measures. You know the Covid measures we all saw where the judge on zoom threw the book at the single mom hairdresser who was like your honor I don't cut my kids don't eat. Basic public health measures. Close down your business - the means by which you survive in this world. Basic public health measure. Your job or this admittedly EUA injection -- basic public health measure. In obvious defiance of spirit of HIPPA & ADA show proof of your vax or you can't shop, get on a bus, etc basic basic basic health measure. Chick with clipboard limiting how many can walk in Wal mart at a time. Basic public health measure. It just seems there's a real gulf between what Klein and the average person would excuse as basic public health measure.
So that's all for now. I'm not starting at the 3 hour point into Kleins ASMR session until late tonight when its time to sleep.
More tomorrow after I wake up
I was surprised and dismayed not to see any mention of ballot access in the proposed bill. Seems somewhat akin to a set of building codes that omit a structure’s foundation.