Word on the ol’ sagebrush telegraph says Donald Trump is using his second presidency to exact revenge on all his political enemies. I wonder if I need to worry about that.

I haven’t missed many opportunities to ridicule Trump in my columns, or to pour scorn on his bone-headed pronouncements, his ineptitude and his bizarre behavior. So I sorta wonder if I’ve made some manner of enemies list in the White House. If not, it isn’t for lack of trying.

All along, I’ve taken comfort in the freedoms of expression granted in the First Amendment to our Constitution. All of my book-learnin’, and all of my experience has taught me that, thanks to these constitutional rights, citizens of the U.S. are free to criticize our government when we think it has gone off the rails. I’d even argue that it’s the patriotic duty of any good citizen to do so.

Molly Ivins, a revered columnist from Texas, put it better than I can when she said, “I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag.”

But it looks like Trump’s Revenge Tour is turning that all on its head. 

Trump is trashing the U.S. Constitution in his paranoid zeal to exile his political opponents. Hell, he even deported a Maryland man with legal residency status to a dungeon of a prison in El Salvador for having the wrong tattoo! Sure, the administration admitted it made a teeny mistake in that instance, but says they can’t get the guy back. Their reasoning on that front — he’s out of the country, so it’s out of our hands to do anything about it — would apply just as well had they “accidentally” deported and jailed a natural-born Wyomingite. Let that sink in for a second. If that poor dude ever makes it back to his American wife and kids from Trump’s “mistake,” he’ll be lucky to be in one piece.

In the face of Trump’s intellectual ethnic cleansing of America — his purity tests, his loyalty oaths, his attacks against the free press — I should probably worry, but I’m not much of a worrier. I’m just a grizzled ol’ cowboy out here in the Big Empty who writes an opinion column in Wyoming.

Trump probably doesn’t even know I exist. 

But, on the other hand, he does have Elon Musk’s DOGE nerds using AI (not the steak sauce, mind you) to poke through every word written or said in the past decade, ferreting out seditious criticism of MAGA. A cursory keyword search is bound to pick up something I have written. Maybe they’ll even come across this column, and put it in Trump’s daily briefing.

Nightmare scenarios ensue! 

Should I prepare myself for a 3 a.m. knock on my door, scaring the hell out of Good Dog Henry, as jackbooted ICE thugs throw a hood over my head and toss me into a black Suburban? Maybe I’ll wake up on a plane en route to a CIA black site in Dubai or Guantanamo where I can expect a good talkin’-to from mercenary interrogators. All because I called the president an asshole.

(Note to editor: if I miss my next few deadlines, I hope you’ll take my deportation into consideration.)

But that may just be my pride screwing with my head, some sort of elevated sense of self-importance, an ego trip of frightening proportion. Like I said, Trump probably doesn’t even know I exist.

Trump has a lot of bigger fish to fry. Generals who don’t buy his bullshit, and aren’t afraid to say so. Senators in his own party who are working up the courage to push back against Trump’s dangerous goofiness. Journalists with international reach and a much greater readership than I have, who use the First Amendment to reveal the Emperor’s nakedness.

The administration probably doesn’t have time to go after a simple son of the Wyoming soil with an adequate vocabulary, so I should just keep writing. Trump has a long list of political opponents to silence before he gets to me.

But, if push comes to shove, and in the interest of my patriotic duty, I’ll make it easy for him.

Dear Trump, I live at 2803 Central Ave. in Cheyenne. I’m pretty easy to find, just a couple blocks north of the Capitol. On nice days, you can find me sitting out on my porch, drinking beer and thinking up new and interesting ways to say nasty stuff about you.

The post Should I worry about Trump deporting me? appeared first on WyoFile .

Zealots have spent decades trying to take away America’s public lands to make a buck. Now, they are betting that exploiting the nation’s critical need for affordable housing will finally do the trick. 

It’s a sucker bet, so don’t fall for it. The odds against the nonsensical plan are huge, but if it is successfully sold as a housing “solution,” the owners of those lands — the people of the United States — will lose. Access to precious public lands is part of our history and culture, and it must be defended.

It should be no surprise to Wyoming voters that the three members of the state’s congressional delegation are all-in on this dangerous gamble. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Harriet Hageman have never seen a plan to sell off federal public lands they wouldn’t support.

Yes, the country has a housing crisis. But the most effective ways for states to make more affordable housing available is to create new dedicated funding for local and state housing trust funds, and to pass tax increment financing legislation to make it less expensive to develop affordable housing in blighted areas. Cities can pass new zoning ordinances that don’t restrict multi-family residences. 

The idea that the problem can be fixed by selling or leasing hundreds of millions of acres of federal lands to developers not only isn’t feasible, it’s a dishonest scheme to win congressional and public support to strip away our Western heritage.

The attack is being waged on multiple fronts. Earlier this month, Barrasso and Lummis helped defeat a Senate budget amendment that would have blocked using public land sales to balance the nation’s books.

It’s part of a new Republican initiative to have Congress study selling public land for affordable housing, using money from the sales to help the Trump administration pay for providing tax breaks for the wealthy. The American Enterprise Institute claimed selling off public lands could generate $100 billion in federal revenue.

Last year, Barrasso and Lummis co-sponsored a bill authored by a leader of the anti-public lands movement, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. It’s called the Helping Open Underutilized Space to Ensure Shelter (HOUSES) Act.

Lee’s bill lacks accountability for new owners of public land to use it for affordable housing. It calls for the lands to be sold for below market value — how far below is a question the bill doesn’t answer.

Hageman may be even more rabid about getting rid of public lands than Wyoming’s two senators. She was a strong backer of Utah’s lawsuit last year that sought to turn over 18 million acres of federal land to the state. Hageman signed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Utah, but it apparently didn’t sway the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against the misguided land grab.

Hageman hopped on the far-right Republican bandwagon early to work for the transfer of federal lands to state and local governments as a way to ease the affordable housing crisis. In January 2023, Wyoming’s new congressperson told a Jackson Hole town hall that affordability and inequality issues will always exist if the community remains “landlocked,” and suggested the town look at nearby federal lands as a possible solution.

A new analysis of the HOUSES Act by the Center for American Progress is a damning indictment of a bill that ignores the inherent flaws obvious to anyone who lives in the West and knows anything about the housing crisis.

The center noted that the 10 Western states with the most Bureau of Land Management property — including Wyoming, with 18 million acres — have “much less than 1%” located within 10 miles of the states’ significant population centers. That’s even before considering whether those lands are appropriate for sale and suitable for development. 

For public land far from developed areas, there’s no existing infrastructure that’s necessary for housing development, like roads, water, sewage systems and power. It’s ludicrous to believe developers with historically tight profit margins, and who aren’t building affordable houses now because of the high cost of infrastructure, would take on such projects in extremely remote locations.

Yet that’s the sales pitch behind another ploy to use public lands for affordable housing recently unveiled by the Trump administration. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner announced an initiative for a task force to inventory “underutilized federal lands” in places with the largest housing needs.

Politico reported the officials told a whopper when they claimed “much of” the more than 500 million acres of public lands managed by the Interior Department is suitable for residential use. That’s simply not the reality of where these lands are located.

Burgum and Turner promised their departments will focus on housing affordability, and it won’t be a “free-for-all to build on federal lands.”

But it’s difficult to take this effort seriously when the Trump administration has stalled at least $60 million of HUD funding earmarked for affordable housing development, and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency reportedly has plans to slash 80% of the staff of HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development. 

Environmental groups have properly panned the plan.

“Trump’s latest gambit to privatize our cherished public lands is faker than his spray tan,” the Center for Biological Diversity’s Randi Spivak told the AZcentral news website in Arizona. “This ill-conceived plan will do nothing to comprehensively address affordable housing needs in this country. Instead, it’ll encourage exurban sprawl and destroy the open spaces that belong to every American.”

Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress painted a disturbing picture of what the HOUSES Act may do if it passes. The group said unique public lands in areas with high scenic or recreational value (Jackson Hole springs to mind) would be very attractive to developers of vacation properties.

“The result would be a system where treasured public lands could be privatized and developed into second or third homes for the wealthy, pricey short-term rentals, or other housing developments, with almost no guardrails,” the center predicted. Of course, the residents of those new developments would inevitably bombard the Wyoming Legislature with complaints about high property taxes on vastly discounted land.

But an even worse possibility was raised by the organization, which pointed out the bill would allow investors “to scoop up valuable lands under the pretense of developing housing, sit on them for 15 years, then sell them off for any use … private golf courses, members-only fishing clubs, or industrial mining operations.”

There are ways the federal government can judiciously use federal land for real affordable housing projects. Last October, former President Joe Biden’s administration sold 20 acres of federal land at $100 per acre near Las Vegas for an affordable housing project. Clark County will develop the land into 215 single-family homes to be provided for households that make no more than $70,000 a year. And none of the $2,000 the feds reaped from that productive sale went to tax breaks for the rich.

Whatever happened to seeing the value of public lands for hunting, fishing and recreation, and keeping natural landscapes intact to safeguard clean air, water and wildlife habitat? Public lands are the backbone of Wyoming’s tourism economy, which generated an estimated $4.8 billion in 2023. We can and should solve the affordable housing crisis, but there are more sensible and effective solutions than selling a critical shared resource to the highest bidder.

The post No, selling public lands won’t solve America’s affordable housing crisis appeared first on WyoFile .

Most of us bring a healthy dose of personal bias to the opinion section. I’ll admit mine up front: Wyoming’s bountiful wildlife is why I live and raise my kids here, but it can slip away if we take it for granted. 

Wyoming used to have more pronghorn than people — a real point of pride for many of us. Those days are gone, but we can protect what we have left with Wyoming’s migration corridor executive order. That’s why I’m writing in favor of conserving the Sublette pronghorn migration corridor as the state gathers input through May 2. I’d like nothing more than to see our Game and Fish Commission recommend designation to Gov. Mark Gordon because I want future generations to experience the same awe-inspiring wildlife I have. That’s my take. 

But one affected party acts without any bias at all: The pronghorn themselves.

For more than 20 years, pronghorn in the Sublette herd have been studied intensively, becoming one of the most scrutinized ungulate populations in the world. Across the length and breadth of Wyoming’s Green River Valley, biologists have captured and collared hundreds of animals with GPS trackers, logging hundreds of thousands of data points to gain insight into how pronghorn use the landscape. 

The detailed picture that’s emerged tells the tale of Wyoming’s longest pronghorn migration. We can trace the pathways pronghorn use to access summer forage and escape harsh winter conditions. We can see the tiny bottlenecks animals must pass through to reach vital habitat and visualize how, over time, ill-placed infrastructure displaces pronghorn from their native ranges. Their responses to habitat fragmentation, fences, and invasive species aren’t in service of an ideology. They travel where they need to go to survive, pure and simple. The map we’re left with can serve as a blueprint for sustaining this massive population of pronghorn, if we can muster the willpower to use it. 

Wyoming has done this before. Migration corridors for the Sublette, Platte Valley and Baggs mule deer herds were designated in 2020. Mapping bottleneck, stopover, and high use areas in these corridors signaled a strong commitment from the state to conserve migratory habitat and opened the door for targeted management actions and funding to do so. Now, designation helps guide new development away from the most highly trafficked portions of these migration corridors, clearly mapped out for all to see, while allowing multiple use of public and state land to proceed without irreparably damaging connectivity.  We’ve seen firsthand that designation doesn’t keep businesses or industry from making profits, but it does make it easier for our biologists to manage wildlife sustainably, in trust for the public. It’s a system that’s been working for people and mule deer for over five years.

Given heavy losses the Sublette Pronghorn herd sustained two winters ago when the population was nearly halved by punishing snow and cold, designation can’t come soon enough. The forces making it harder for these animals to migrate are relentless and growing, yet population recovery can only occur if linkages between seasonal habitats remain open and passable. Likewise, if we want pronghorn to have a shot at surviving the next big winter that comes our way, the ability to migrate off the high plains to more temperate winter ranges is a must. Designation would give Wyoming the framework it needs to keep these essential pathways open, supporting long-term viability for one the world’s biggest pronghorn herds.

They may have been unaware of the information they were relaying, but with every trip to and from summer range, GPS-collared animals in the Sublette Pronghorn herd made plain what habitat is indispensable for migration. Their needs are unambiguous and unclouded by any motivation beyond basic survival. The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission and the governor have a golden opportunity to harness this information, designate this corridor and ensure we don’t lose the state’s longest pronghorn migration. Let’s trust what the pronghorn are telling us and make it happen.

The post Trust the data, trust the pronghorn: Now’s the time for corridor designation appeared first on WyoFile .

Picture the playground scene: the Brutes pummeling the Mutes. The crowd accordions in on victim and tormentor. The dunce from down the street — you know the one, that kid who’s always frothing about something he heard someone say about nothing which kinda, coulda, shoulda sounded true — he steps in when the Brute tires. He continues thrashing the silent one, egged on by a gallery of the unreasoned.

It is the ugliest of matches. Uncomfortable and frankly, a little bush league given the sterling institution the Brutes lead. They are the ones in whom the population placed its trust, the ones who took an oath to abide by the rules and to respect the Mutes as equals, each complementing one another, holding each other accountable. Except the Mute in this story returns no punches, instead quietly absorbing the blows, first on the right cheek, then offering the left. Not in surrender, mind you, but in honor of the oath the entire playground leadership took.

I imagine this must be what the judiciary feels like. Under a wave of unfavorable rulings against the Trump administration, it is now de rigueur for our GOP leaders (spoiler alert: the Brutes) to pile it on, accusing courts of bias, calling for impeachment for every decision they decide is unacceptable. Once the fiercest protectors of the judiciary, the executive and legislative branches have now become its greatest threat. Have they forgotten the promise of this great country? 

Earlier this month, a consort of Wyoming retired judges and attorneys (myself included) sent a letter to its congressional delegation with a simple request: knock it off. Attacking the judiciary (you guessed it, the Mutes) is unseemly, and erodes the public’s confidence in the judiciary.  

Judges cannot defend themselves against attack. Ever mindful of the appearance of impropriety, they willingly silence their tongues in service of fairness and impartiality. It is a dramatic and necessary step jurists voluntarily accept, often at great personal cost, in order to render decisions that are deaf to external pressures and mute to politics.  

Judges are the grownups in the room. Those on the bench remind us we are not masters of our universe, that we cannot pick and choose the rules that suit our needs. The judiciary smacks us down, giving us a dose of reality, ordering us to own up to our obligations. By invitation, it steps into the self-inflicted messes we make and brings clarity to our problems. It holds us to account. 

A reasoned society invites neither thugs nor activists to its ranks. Indeed, skulduggery has no place on the bench. That’s why we should not elect judges. This past session, there was proposed legislation for a constitutional amendment providing for the election of all justices and judges in Wyoming.  

It’s a terrible idea, an antidote to problems that do not exist in our state. If we are truly worried about radical leftist agenda-driven judges, the worst thing we could do is monetize a seat on the bench. By politicizing the judiciary, only the richest, most connected among us win. Consider the recent election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It is the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history with spending reaching $100 million, thanks in large part to a couple of billionaires: Elon Musk and George Soros. Judges are not politicians. They are judges. We do not want them busking for campaign donations, forever yoked to donors. 

Are there bad judges? No question. But the way to get rid of them is not to inflame the electorate with evidence-free claims and make threats to judges’ personal safety. There are mechanisms already in place to weed out rogues from within, committees composed of citizens, judges and attorneys — those who stand to lose the most when a member of the judiciary violates its code of conduct. Additionally, all judges stand for retention during the general election cycle according to the bench on which they serve. Would you rather have a judge beholden to out-of-state billionaires or appoint judges who answer to the electorate at large? Take your pick. 

For the two-thirds of our delegation who hold a law degree, they should know better than to make inflammatory statements about the integrity or qualifications of a judge. I direct their attention to Rule 8.2 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which prohibits lawyers from knowingly or recklessly making false statements about the integrity or qualification of a judge. Tread lightly, Congresswomen. 

An unfavorable ruling against your cause may not be borne of bias. It’s likely just an unfavorable ruling, neither corrupt nor an abuse of power. Contrary to the rhetoric from our political leaders, a judge cannot be impeached simply because we do not agree with a decision. Impeachment requires a showing of high crimes, misdemeanors or malfeasance in office. Make the case under this criteria, then the discussion turns substantive. Thankfully.

If we are so worried about upholding the Constitution, should we not support those quiet, unelected souls who take an oath to support it? 

Oh, that we should all drop to our knees and thank the high holy heavens for that beleaguered third branch, that noble oak which now is the life blood for its septic branches. Before we consider proposing legislation for the election of judges, provide concrete examples of bias from the bench. Reveal the radicals in our midst. And when you root out sub-standard jurists, we’ll help you vote the bum out.  

We’ll be waiting. 

In the meantime, suck it up, take your lumps, be honorable in defeat and start following the law like the rest of us commoners. Be a model of integrity and respect for the Rule of Law. Please. 

The post I signed the letter urging our congressional delegation to support the rule of law. Here’s why. appeared first on WyoFile .

On April 3, 2025, WyoFile published an opinion piece by Dagny Signorelli of Western Watersheds Project, titled “Grizzlies pose minimal threat to Wyoming cattle.” This opinion piece is misleading at best, and is just a continuation of Western Watershed’s unfounded attacks on livestock grazing in the Upper Green.

The bar charts presented by Ms. Signorelli are for livestock deaths throughout Wyoming, which does not reflect the impact on ranchers in the Upper Green from depredation to large carnivores (grizzlies and wolves). Further, she states: “The ranchers on this allotment reported 94 cattle killed by large carnivores, 91 of which were due to bears. Using these numbers, large carnivores, including grizzlies, killed less than 1% of the cattle authorized on the Upper Green River allotment in 2024.” This misrepresents the data.

Her analysis claims that large carnivores killed less than 1% of the cattle authorized on the Upper Green River Allotment in 2024, but this assumes that 94 cattle represent all of the cattle killed by large carnivores on the allotment in 2024. However, Ms Signorelli knows that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department pays livestock owners based upon formulas that reflect the fact that not all livestock killed by large carnivores are found and verified by agency personnel.

Grizzlies and wolves predominantly depredate younger cattle, especially calves. Calves are the cash crop for a rancher. In the early 1990s, prior to the return of the grizzly and wolf, the calf loss rate, from all causes, on the Upper Green River Cattle Allotment was around 2%. In 2024, the calf loss rate was 11%, nearly six times the pre-large carnivore calf loss rate. In 2017, our calf loss rate was nearly 14%. Studies conducted by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department on yearling cattle also show that more yearling cattle are killed by large carnivores than are found and verified. Livestock losses on the Upper Green River Cattle Allotment are not “extremely low” as purported by Ms. Signorelli, and in fact calf loss rates are extremely high.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission has a sound compensation program that adequately reflects the cattle killed by large carnivores, including compensation for cattle that are depredated but not found. We are appreciative of the commission’s and department’s hard work and money that has been put into the grizzly bear and wolf programs.

The grizzly bear is a success story. Grizzlies continue to expand their range and population, and we ranchers are still on the landscape alongside this species. In fact, our ranches provide the open space, migration paths and habitat for a multitude of species. If you don’t like ranching, go see how well large ungulates migrate through a city and its pavement. Ranching holds the working landscapes of the West together, and these working landscapes support the abundant wildlife the West is known for.

The post Telling the truth about grizzlies and cattle is key to their coexistence in Wyoming appeared first on WyoFile .

Wyoming must be thoughtful about its future, as we are in a perilous position. The economic drivers of our state are changing, and cracks are showing in our economic foundation. We must be careful not to make long-term decisions based on a narrow view of our current economic conditions. Our economic future is likely to be very different from our past, and the challenges we’ll face moving forward will be different from what we’ve dealt with before.

Wyoming’s economic future is difficult to predict. Our state’s tax structure, revenues, and growth potential are all on shaky ground right now, with outside factors putting our prospects in an especially uncertain state. For example, much of our state revenue comes from oil, gas and coal revenues. We are already aware of the long-term trend in coal production, which appears headed toward a general decline as the overall market shifts to other energy sources. What is not often talked about is the potential for disruption to our oil and gas markets.

Oil is typically the largest income producer of our state’s natural resources. For example, in 2024, severance taxes from oil were over triple what was collected from coal. Natural gas also can provide significant state revenue, but prices are extremely volatile. Years 2022 and 2023 were great for natural gas, but 2024 saw severance tax revenue from natural gas fall to less than half of the previous year, and current projections show prices staying at or below last year’s levels. Both oil and natural gas prices are subject to international market forces. If, for example, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is resolved and Russian oil and gas is allowed back into western markets, there is the potential for both oil and natural gas prices to plummet, which directly harms Wyoming’s economy and state revenues. There is nothing we can do to control or change these factors, but they have the potential to greatly harm Wyoming’s economic output and our ability to fund our state.  

The same uncertainty also applies to other industries. We are currently in an extremely volatile economic environment. Tariffs and uncertain regulatory schemes from Washington have shaken confidence in the American economy. Stock prices are the lowest they have been in years and continue to fall with each new announcement from Washington. Wyoming is not immune to the struggles of the national economy, and that economy appears to be headed downward. Do not expect new investment or growth while the current chaos continues.  

To top it all off, Wyoming’s demographics are also headed in a direction that indicates coming difficulties.  When comparing Wyoming’s demographic changes between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, a trend quickly emerges. Wyoming is trading its youth for retirees.  

Between 2010 and 2020, Wyoming lost close to a fifth of its preschool-aged children. During the same period, our 60+ population increased by 36%. In 10 years, we added over 37,500 people over 60 while losing around 24,000 people under 60. That should make every business owner and economic forecaster stop in their tracks because it means that our conventional wisdom about Wyoming youth leaving only to return later is wrong.  

Students become young workers who begin building families. Our failure to retain our youth is trickling down into a loss of the next generation of Wyomingites. This will only compound our problems down the road and is a catastrophe for our future outlook. A lack of young workers leads to a lack of mid-career workers, which leads to a lack of senior workers. Wyoming’s economy is staring down a major labor crunch that appears to be just beginning. Loss of economic activity due to the inability to find employees also risks putting our state in a difficult position. You cannot mine coal or drill for oil without employees to do the work.

This paints a gloomy picture, but it is one that we need to have at the front of our minds as we make decisions about our state’s future. We cannot assume that what has worked in the past will work tomorrow, or that we can ignore the realities of our current condition. We have challenges, and some are major. If we ignore them, we are likely to choose a path that puts us in an even worse position than we started in.

The post Wyoming’s uncertain economic future presents risks appeared first on WyoFile .

Nighthawks whirled around the ol’ campfire, as the last of the sunset faded in the west. Tuckered cowboys drifted into the circle of firelight from the four corners of the Big Empty. Each wore a confused look on his dusty face.

“What in hell’s happenin’ out there?” Sweetwater Slim queried Cookie as he dismounted. “I rode the whole damn alkali pasture, an’ I don’t recognize a damn thing. New roads all over the place, an’ fences with ‘No Trespassing’ signs.”

Cookie waved his greasy spoon at Slim, and was about to answer when Panhandle trotted up on his lathered horse and growled, “There’s yuppie scum crawlin’ all over the summer range! They’s drivin’ them weird lookin’ ‘lectric trucks, an’ wearin’ goofy red hats. They scattered the cattle, an’ I can’t find a single head.”

“Simmer down,” Cookie told them. “Y’all didn’t read the memo, didja? Elon Musk an’ his DOGE boys done sold off all the BLM land in these parts to bring down the national debt or invest in crypto or some damn thing.”

“Sold it to who?” Goshen Gus was in a foul mood as he led his exhausted pony to the campfire.

“To whoever has the most money,” Cookie answered, pedantically. “Some Saudi princes bought that rocky section down by the river, the one with the big prairie dog town. They’s gonna use it to train their falcons to hunt.”

Rawhide Ricky from Rawlins limped into the firelight. “I rode that country today,” he said, “an’ there’s a buncha fellers in white dresses siccin’ hawks on anything that moves. Them goddam birds spooked all the cattle outa the country, an’ chased me ‘til my horse bucked me off. Then they ran my horse off.”

Tired cowpunchers sat in a desultory circle around the ol’ campfire, discussing this disturbing new turn of events as their compadres trickled back to camp. Each broncpeeler had a story more bizarre than the last.

Sourdough sputtered and showed a bullet hole in his sweaty Stetson. “Some assholes put up a chainlink fence around that good grass along the creek bottom. There’s a sign that says ‘Site of the new RFK Jr. Ivermectin Mine,’ an’ when I got too close, the bastids took a shot at me!”  

Cookie stirred the simmering cauldron of beans and told the confused crew, “My cousin cooks fer a big outfit near Wamsutter, an’ he says that Russian oligarchs have bought up all the public land in the Red Desert.” He licked the spoon, then stuck it back in the steaming frijoles.

“They’s buildin’ a huge casino in ‘Dobe Town fer high-rollers. Limos, helipad, soiled doves from Vegas, the whole shebang. An’ on another section, they’s puttin’ in a nuclear-powered bitcoin mine where one o’ them ol’ shearin’ pens used to be.”

Sparks corkscrewed from the campfire into the dark sky. The gathered crew heard the slow clop-clop of a tired horse riding in. Doc from Dayton dismounted and spat a stream of Copenhagen juice into the coals. “Know what I seen? Y’all ain’t gonna believe it. There’s bulldozers down by the river, an’ they’s shovin’ dirt around to make a golf course. A golf course!”

Into the uncertain circle of cowboys strode the Trail Boss. “Boys, times is a’changin’,” he said. “Take a deep seat an’ grab a tight rein. Trump has declared public land to be an under-performin’ asset, and he’s sold it all on the auction block. What you saw is just the beginnin’.”

Trail Boss explained that grazing, camping, hunting, fishing and generally goofing off on public land wasn’t bringing in enough revenue to satisfy the new administration, so the public domain had been liquidated for cold, hard cash.

“Better punch another hole in yer belts fellers, we’re fixin’ to see some lean times for cowboys.” 

“But we can still graze our private land,” Trail Boss added. “All we gotta do is train our cows to step over them section corners an’ not put a hoof on what used to be public land. Shouldn’t be too hard a chore.”

At this, the crew scratched their noggins and muttered angrily about corner-crossing cows and rich MAGA bureaucrats. Before the debate could get out of hand, Cookie waved his spoon and hollered, “Come an’ get it, boys. These beans ain’t gonna eat themselves.”

The post Land grab around the ol’ campfire — or — git along li’l DOGE appeared first on WyoFile .

Wyoming got a lot less red on Saturday. And boy, am I inspired.

Combined, thousands of people gathered in cities throughout Wyoming as part of the national “Hands Off!” peaceful protests against Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their attempt to ruin everything “the land of the free and the home of the brave” is supposed to stand for.

It was a moment of hope when that feeling has been in short supply for everyone watching the nightmarish Trump Train barrelling across the country as people worry about so many things. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Workers and students living here legally swept from their homes and put in jail. Abandoned allies, especially war-torn Ukraine, facing a future fraught with danger.

Plus, a plunging stock market and skyrocketing prices for groceries and other essentials. I wonder how many Trump voters who were worried about the thriving economy we had will be happy when they check out at the supermarket today.

I asked Facebook friends from around the state to fill me in on what happened at protests. They offered some great insights about a day when Democrats, frustrated Republicans and independents united to show their disgust with the “Department of Government Efficiency” headed by Trump’s top donor, the increasingly unhinged Musk.

You know the times are really changing when you see a cowboy in ultra-red Cody on horseback carrying a “Down with DOGE” sign. The lines in the city were four blocks long when the march began.

One of the participants was Ryan Chafee, a first-time protester.

“I was worried I would be one of the only people in attendance,” he wrote. “My fiance and I were relieved to see a bunch of like-minded people here in little ol’ Cody.”

The event reminded Chafee he’s not crazy for feeling the way he does about how the country is rapidly going downhill. 

“I heard speeches and stories that made me feel like I’m not just screaming into the void,” he wrote. “My fellow neighbors and countrymen were all exercising their rights as citizens. It was a very positive experience despite the frustrating nature that made all of us gather.”

One of my favorite signs of the many Wyoming protest photos published is one in Cody: “Grandma worked in the B-42 factory to free her great-great-grandchildren from fascists and Nazis.”

Janine Boyle Cole of Cheyenne wrote that she went to the Capitol in honor of her father, a World War II prisoner of war. 

“I went today for my dad, for democracy,” she explained. “This country is amazing with all the diversity and I don’t want to lose it to this corrupt administration.”

In Casper, someone dressed in a very creative Bigfoot costume, expressed his ire at one of Wyoming’s biggest Trump sycophants, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, with this awesome sign: “Why are you hiding, Harriet?”

Tom Rea of Casper told me he struck up a conversation with a protester he guessed was a Trump voter. “There are so many friends I can’t even talk to anymore; this Trump stuff is terrible,” the man said. “My retirement fund has lost $60,000 in the past month and a half.”

Lindsey Hanlon of Cheyenne, where more than 300 people rallied at the Capitol, felt compelled to attend the protests “because they represent everything about Wyoming that Trump and his enablers seek to destroy: community, creativity, passion, bravery and empathy.”

“The Trump regime is turning a firehose of awfulness on us to make us fearful, compliant and lonely,” Hanlon wrote. “He is destroying the institutions we trust and actively encouraging people to turn on [one] another.

“The Wyoming I grew up in didn’t believe in bullies and in kings, and we are not going to quietly accept people deconstructing our home,” she added.

Amen. That’s exactly how I feel. As a “military brat” whose father’s last assignment was at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, I dreamed of moving back to my temporary hometowns in California, Pennsylvania and New York, or Tennessee, which most of my relatives adopted as their new home in the 1970s.

Many readers have suggested over the years that I go back to where I came from. I know that would please them, but there’s not a chance it’ll happen, folks. Wyoming has everything I want: small cities, extraordinary landscapes and friendly people.

Well, I would change a few things, like less wind and snow. And the state’s politics. When my family moved here, Democrats could actually get elected. When I began my journalism career and started covering the Legislature, I saw how different sides of the aisle could join together to pass good legislation. 

It was the antithesis of today’s Freedom Caucus, which is chock full of people who want the power to tear down the separation of church and state so they can pass bills that fit their extreme religious beliefs. That’s why the Legislature’s agenda consists of banning abortion, punishing LGBTQ individuals and joining Trump in destroying the federal government. 

We need legislators committed to improving life for hardworking Wyomingites, building a more diverse economy, and providing a better safety net for the poor.

Chafee thinks political compromise is still possible here. “I am reaching out with love to anyone on the other side of the picket line, talk to me,” he wrote. “Although I may be considered a ‘political adversary,’ you might find we agree on most of the things in our day-to-day life.”

This isn’t just a pipe dream. I think the protests that attracted more than 2 million people throughout the U.S. are building blocks to greater things and better times. The numbers in Wyoming — including more than 400 in Laramie, 300 in both Casper and Sheridan, 150 in Rock Springs — are signs that Wyoming will be a part of the growing anti-Trump movement.

Protests were also held in Buffalo, Gillette, Jackson, Lander, Pinedale and Sheridan.

Here’s a confession: When I’ve called myself an optimist in this column over the past dozen years, I was kidding. But now I’m pleased to tell you I’m finally hopeful, for real.

While anti-Trump demonstrations played out in about 1,200 cities, including a protest that drew more than 100,000 in Washington, D.C., and a small one near the president’s home in Florida, he was playing in a senior tournament at one of his golf courses.

The White House released a statement saying that Trump placed first in his second-round match-up, followed by Sunday’s bulletin that he won his own tournament!

What a great way to end his pretty horrible week. Trump started a global trade war that angered most of the world, and watched as Wall Street braced for a possible recession of his making.

Trump decided to play golf even after being roasted by veterans’ groups for skipping a ceremony that honored four fallen service members. Then came the protests.

Now, it’s time to keep the momentum going. Many people all over the state now realize they are not alone; people share their vision for improving our nation and stopping the administration’s destructive action.

It’s difficult for both progressives and moderates to engage with strangers without knowing if they are going to be dismissed or bullied for being in the minority.

In the wake of these protests, it’s important for those of us who want the country to move in a positive direction to unite. Talk to your friends, neighbors and anyone you can persuade to come to the next rally. If each person encourages at least one or two people to turn our for the next protest, and these recruits follow suit, this can lead to monumental changes. Nothing happens immediately, but be prepared for the long haul. It will be worth it.

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The current kerfuffle about the lackadaisical handling of battle plans, war plans, whatever the agreed-upon description has become, has sent me back to letters my dad, Jack Miller, sent home from Europe during WWII. While in England awaiting the invasion, Dad had some experience transmitting battle plans — the old-fashioned way. His letter home to his wife — who was pregnant with me at the time — provides perspective on guarding the secrecy of war plans.  

“Nothing much new I can tell you,” he wrote to my mother from France in early July 1944, “so I’ll give you that little story of May 16 — or whatever it was — that I promised you.”  

“That was during the period we were preparing to come to France, and I was running around all over England getting our stuff together. On this particular occasion, I was traveling in an airplane — one of those little Cub observation jobs that our artillery uses — and stopped at a headquarters up north to deliver a message for the Colonel. While there, I was presented with a big bundle to deliver to him, and it was explained to me that the bundle contained the complete order for the invasion of the continent. It was further explained to me that I would guard the same with my life, and destroy it if in my judgment anything would happen to prevent my delivering it in person.  

“Well, when I told my pilot what we had he was not very happy about it, but away we went. Of course, that would be the day we would run into a big wind and a fine black thunderstorm, and Rizzo went considerably out of his way to miss the storm, not having any navigating instruments. We had an awful time, and it seemed to me that we were headed in anything but the right direction. Finally, he announced that he was lost and would have to land some place. I told him we could fly south by compass until we hit the Bristol Channel and locate ourselves there, but he figured he didn’t have enough gas for that, so I had to let him go down.  

“After considerable maneuvering, he got the thing down in a pasture, and we were immediately surrounded by a crowd of curious people. They were coming from all directions, young people and old, crowding around the plane, pointing and jabbering, and in general having the time of their lives. I found out where we were but that was pretty hard on account of the Welsh language not being too comprehensible. To get away from the crowd I took my bundle and went into a farm house and begged a cup of tea. Everyone was beginning to get the idea, however, that I was carrying something important, and I didn’t like that a bit. After some rapid calculation, I started for the town about a mile away followed by a swarm of kids, and went to the local police station, where I managed after great difficulty, to get a phone call through to our people to send me a jeep and an escort. Then I sat in the jail for seven hours drinking tea until they arrived. My message was to send an officer under arms and in a jeep to the jail in Seven Sisters, so of course at headquarters, they got the definite impression that I was locked up and had some plans for raiding the place. 

“I was never so glad to get a job over with in my life. The man at the jail was the most important person in the world to me for a while. I think everyone in the town knew in an hour that there was an American officer there with a lot of important papers and I sat right by the fireplace waiting to throw the papers in when Nazi agents struck. Very exciting.”  

Dad’s regiment, the 359th Infantry, was part of Gen. George Patton’s Third Army. After seeing the movie about the general, I asked Dad if Patton was really that awful. “You tend to forgive some flaws in the guys on your side,” he replied. Dad was essentially optimistic about the future of the republic. Late in life, though, he would semi-seriously grumble in regard to one change or another: “It’s the decline of the West.” 

It’s that voice I hear in my head now. He did not forgive Joe McCarthy; he did not forgive Richard Nixon about Watergate. He would surely not forgive Pete Hegseth, Mike Waltz, JD Vance and company. Because he would not consider them, or the president, to be on our side. Nor would he be content to play the role of mere spectator as the West declined. Dad was a fighter. Obviously.

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The expressions of anger, frustration and just plain nastiness that surrounded Congresswoman Harriet Hageman’s recent town meetings revealed sentiments both terrifying and hopeful. On the one hand, Wyomingites have been seduced by the lure of one-man rule in the U.S. or, in the case of our state, by a committee of legislators pledged to reduce, if not eliminate, government services that directly affect all citizens. On the other hand, Wyomingites have shown their commitment to federalism and investments in people and products that only federal and state government can afford. I am convinced that most Wyomingites favor the latter and will resist the former once they understand what’s at stake for themselves and their communities.

Until the appearance of the Freedom Caucus in Wyoming, we were left pretty much to ourselves in the comfort of our mountains and high plains. Local politics was local, or more colorfully, it was said that “everything in Wyoming is political except politics that is personal.” But now, we know that our low population, archaic tax structure, relatively low cost of living and easy access to elected officials have attracted heavily financed lobby groups. They aim to make Wyoming the first state in the Union to elect a governor and legislature permanently committed to their ideological vanities. 

Their strategy worked. In last year’s primary election, which generally determines final results because Wyoming is overwhelmingly Republican, 27% of 454,508 eligible voters cast ballots of whom 42,943 voted for Freedom Caucus candidates. Had more eligible voters cast their ballots, the Freedom Caucus likely would not control the current Legislature, echoing the extreme positions of their lobbyist patrons in Washington, D.C.  

No question that government operations at all levels need to be made more effective to keep up with the ever-accelerating pace of changes to every aspect of our lives. But that’s strikingly different than capriciously tearing down a federal government that has provided us with unparalleled peace and prosperity. 

Despite the much-cherished myth of government as the enemy of the people, we know deep down that only government can provide the financial incentives the private sector needs to build the infrastructure that we all depend on. Equally important, only government subsidies can ensure the provision of services and tools we need to survive and thrive — food security, health care, affordable housing, public education, workforce training and the basic research that can make that happen. It’s worth reminding ourselves that under our form of government, a democracy that respects the rule of law, the sole purpose of government is to liberate each of us to live up to our potential.  

Stopping the Freedom Caucus from continuing its destructive path won’t come from inside the state party apparatus. But seeds of opposition by ordinary folks in seemingly unlikely places are sprouting. Thanks to a story first reported by the Greybull Standard, about 45 Big Horn Basin residents gathered for an hour on March 15 “to discuss concerns about the direction of the nation and state and becoming more vocal about confronting what they believe are threats to the rule of law and democracy.” 

Shell resident and retired circuit judge Tom Harrington organized the meeting. “We’re Americans first and neighbors second before we’re anything else,” he opined. The overriding sentiment among those present was frustrations with developments on the federal and state levels, in particular, attacks on the rule of law and abdication of responsibilities by our elected leaders, he added. When asked about the outcome of the meeting, Harrington, himself a lifelong Republican in a county where 85%of registered voters are Republican, said we need “to be more vocal.” He will schedule another meeting soon. “I think part of [the appeal] is encouraging each other not to give up or get depressed,” he added.  

Being more vocal might start with checking how our elected representatives voted on key bills, what their votes did for us and our communities, and making sure that we are registered, and remembering to vote. 

I believe that most Wyomingites want to be asked to join a cause that matters to them when the focus is working toward a just solution. (For starters, see the online Wyoming Nonprofit Network member directory.) Small successes lead to bigger successes, defeating those who wish to divide us and take away our liberties.

Edmund Burke, the English philosopher considered the founder of modern conservatism, observed that “when bad [people] combine, the good [people] must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

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