Chris Yager

National Predictions

I predict the pollsters have overcompensated and are failing to measure Democratic support. Based on the energy level of Trump opponents and early voting numbers, the Democrats will not only win both houses of Congress, but they will be on the high end of predictions being floated by experts. The Democrats will win 245 seats in the House and 54 seats in the Senate. There will be a few shocking election results in which bright-red Republican states send Democrats to D.C.

On January 3, 2027, a long onslaught of congressional investigations will begin, involving the president, his family, and Elon Musk. I could easily see Pete Hegseth being impeached immediately.

One of the many items that should be investigated? A private prison firm wanted to sell an old, vacant facility. They offered it to the State of Minnesota for $75 million, which rejected the proposal. The private company then got the Trump administration to take the same facility off its hands for a whopping $500 million. The private prison corporation had previously donated $500,000 to Trump’s 2025 inaugural fund.

This raises serious questions about whether the Trump administration is filling the pockets of political donors with millions of dollars in taxpayer funds. What happened to draining that swamp?

Wyoming Predictions

I’m going to put my faith in reasonable people and predict that Proposition One will fail to pass. The consequences of enacting the property tax cuts are too great. Wyoming did the right thing by kicking the Wyoming Freedom Caucus to the curb in the primary elections. They will do the right thing again.

There is no reason to believe Barlow will not be elected to become the new governor. The same goes for Hageman becoming Wyoming’s next senator. Chuck Gray is more interesting. The detestable little weasel only won his primary with a 25% share of the vote. The “R” next to his name is a big deal, but I could see a world in which Lisa Kinney performs shockingly well against Gray. There is no polling to indicate where this race could go, but I could see many moderate Republicans and independents rejecting Gray.

An Election Eve Christmas Tale

Finally, I present to you Chat GPT’s reimagining of “Twas the Night Before Christmas…

’Twas the night before midterms, and all through the land,
The candidates trembled, their polls close at hand
The yard signs were planted on lawns with great care,
While political consultants were losing their hair

The Democrats dreamed of a wave colored blue,
The Republicans prayed that the polls weren’t quite true
And over at Fox, there was panic and fright,
As Hannity practiced his spin for the night

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
Trump sprang from his golf cart to see what was the matter
He grabbed his phone quickly, his face turning red,
And posted twelve paragraphs, all caps, instead

“THE POLLS ARE ALL RIGGED! THE ELECTION’S A FRAUD!
MY CROWDS ARE THE BIGGEST! THE PEOPLE APPLAUD!
THE DEMOCRATS CHEAT! AND THE MEDIA LIES!
I’M WINNING BY MILLIONS!” the president cried

Then Elon appeared in a rocket-shaped sleigh,
With billions of dollars he wanted to pay
He waved to the crowd with a grin ear to ear,
And shouted, “I’ve bought another platform this year!”

The pundits on Fox had assembled their crew,
To explain why the numbers were suddenly blue
They blamed all the students, the women, the youth,
And carefully tiptoed around the whole truth

Meanwhile in Wyoming, the Freedom Caucus met,
To find something else they could cut from the debt
“No spending! No taxes! No government aid!”
Then asked who would fix all the roads they’d delayed

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But Harriet Hageman with Chuck Gray in the rear
They shouted of freedom, of mandates and rights,
Then argued which one got the most camera lights

“Now Hageman! Now Chuck Gray! Now caucus, let’s go!
We’ve got more things to ban and more things to say no!
No spending on this! No funding for that!
But where are the cameras? I’m wearing my hat!”

Back east, all the donors were checking their phones,
While campaign directors let out nervous groans
The price of the groceries, the rent and the gas,
Were questions no slogan could easily pass

Then Trump called up Fox and demanded a show,
“Tell everyone how much the Democrats blow!”
The anchors all nodded and straightened their ties,
And searched for a chart they could supersize

But voters were waiting, their choices to make,
With plenty of issues and futures at stake
Some wanted a change, others wanted things kept,
While candidates worried and nobody slept

And deep in the night, as the networks signed off,
The pollsters made forecasts, the skeptics would scoff
For none of the shouting, the boasting or spin,
Could tell them for certain whose side would win

So tomorrow the voters will have the last say,
Not Elon, not Fox, and not Trump’s Truth display
And I heard someone shout as they faded from sight,
“Happy midterms to all, and to all a good night!”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Taxes, after all, are the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.”

Libertarians would, of course, disagree with that, but they basically disagree with everything. They are the most obnoxious of those across the political spectrum. If you don’t want to pay taxes and take advantage of what society has built, go buy yourself an island in the middle of nowhere and live off the grid.

As my father once said, “Let me know how that works out for you.”

On Tuesday, Wyoming voters will vote on Proposition One, which proposes to cut property taxes on primary residential homes by 50%. It doesn’t cut all property taxes. It only does so for those whose property qualifies.

In 2025, the state levied about $1.8 billion in property taxes across the state. Two-thirds of that money ends up going to public schools. County governments are the next biggest recipient, followed by special districts, community colleges, and municipalities.

Proposition One will not result in that $1.8 billion being slashed in half. The Department of Revenue estimates that over $124 million in tax revenue will be lost.

I already looked at what Sheridan County stands to lose in the Substack article linked below.

In 2025, Wyoming passed Senate File 69, which gave property owners a 25% property tax reduction. This was in response to rapidly increasing property taxes in recent years. This was an absolutely legitimate concern, and I think the state dealt with the issue accordingly. To illustrate the direction of property taxes and how they were impacted, look at this graphic.

As you can see, property tax cuts reeled in taxes to a much more reasonable amount that was in line with what people have seen and experienced in the past.

But that was apparently not good enough for some. Now we have Proposition One.

In my opinion, voting “yes” on Prop One is reckless and irresponsible.

The first property tax deduction effort was at least thoughtful. If you had a home valued at over a million dollars, the exemption did not apply to the value above that amount. This new proposal? It has no such cap. If you are a multimillionaire in Jackson with a $20 million home as your primary residence, you can take advantage of the property tax cut.

Thank God we are providing relief for the wealthy. This will ensure they have that much more money to invest in job creation as they contribute to trickle-down economics.

hysterical laughing and crying

I like thoughtful legislation and propositions that use scalpels. Not thoughtless and irresponsible ideas that use an axe and only create more problems.

This is a war against government from Republican libertarians. With comments that some Freedom Caucus appeasers have made about government, one might even say this is a war on government employees, whom some deem to make too much money.

Why has government spending increased since COVID? Well, has your spending gone up? Mine has, and I’m sure yours has as well. Guess what? Everything the government purchases has increased, too. Their employees? They are dealing with inflation and the cost of health care.

We are talking about the guy collecting your trash, the sheriff’s deputy, your child’s teacher, and the person plowing your roads in the winter. Despite what the Freedom Caucus believes, I would argue most local government employees are underpaid for what they do.

If passed, this property tax measure will affect some more than others. Sheridan County stands to take a big hit because so much of our property tax revenue comes from residences and not minerals. The county, in particular, will take a sizable and concerning hit that will result in many cuts and difficult decisions being made.

Local governments and schools are not responsible for policies, or the lack thereof, in Washington that have helped result in the increase in grocery and fuel prices. Local governments are not responsible for a job market that has not rewarded employees in a manner that outpaces the rising cost of living.

Wyoming Republicans time and time again reelect the same politicians, resulting in the status quo and no changes being made. But when we become angry about the state of our nation, we seek to punish local governments?

When I look around Sheridan, I don’t see governments that are being reckless with our tax dollars. Cops are not driving around in brand-new $80,000 large SUVs. I don’t see any new government buildings being constructed at the cost of many tens of millions of dollars to the taxpayer.

We have enjoyed largely conservative to moderate politicians in local positions of power who have acted responsibly and kept the books balanced.

Times are tough for some of us right now. But your ire needs to be focused on the right problems, who is responsible, and actual solutions. Shaving $50 or $100 a month off your property taxes is not going to make your life substantially better.

But what it will do is handcuff local governments that are trying to manage and prepare for the growth that Sheridan County is currently experiencing.

You can decry that property taxes are unfair and illegal all you want. But we live in a society that requires government to function. If you don’t want property taxes? Fine. I guess we can switch to a state income tax.

Wyoming already enjoys one of the lowest tax burdens in the entire nation. We are fortunate to live here. But our governments do still require taxes. If you try to slash or eliminate property taxes, you are only going to initiate a game of whack-a-mole. Why? Governments will be forced to increase other fees or taxes so they can deliver quality services to citizens that we require and expect.

Vote no on Proposition One this Tuesday.

Next week, Sheridan will elect three new individuals to take seats on the Sheridan City Council. Six candidates are in the running. Below are the results from the primary election in August.

For transparency’s sake, I strongly advocate for these three candidates: Greg Luhman, Terry Weitzel, and Nephi John Cole. Luhman and Weitzel are incumbents who have proven themselves to be reasonable, even-keeled leaders. Mr. Cole has a wealth of experience and a genuine interest in making the community better.

Then, we have what I’m going to refer to as “The Three Stooges.”

That would be incumbent Andrew Patceg, along with Amber Horsley and Harry Pollak.

It is somewhat stunning to me that Amber managed to finish third in the primary election. It is somewhat hard to nail down where she stands on the issues. She appears to possibly be aligned with Patceg and Pollak, who have strong ties to the Freedom Caucus. Amber was promoted by Patceg on his Facebook page as a conservative candidate whom people should look into. Amber is against the GPET tax.

Amber did not spend a dime on her campaign this fall, according to her most recent campaign finance report filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State.

Quite frankly, it is hard to take a candidate seriously who hasn’t expended much, if any, effort to share her positions or plans with the public. I have never seen a website or Facebook page sharing information with the public. We only have her participation in a few community forums to learn anything.

She has made it known that she is a local contact for Operation Blessing, an international relief organization. She assured us that if Sheridan ever experiences a disaster, she can supply food, medicine, and helicopters.

Well, thank heavens. But, I think I will pass.

Then there are the other two gentlemen. I’ve already dedicated a significant amount of time to detailing the follies of Mr. Pollak (See two links below).

Look, I’m going to be blunt. Both Pollak and Patceg have made their political positions well known, as well as whom they have chosen to endorse and associate with. Both of these guys are strong supporters of the Freedom Caucus movement. The same movement that Wyoming voters thoroughly rejected and sent packing in the primary election.

Both men are ideologues. They have a strong and rigid set of political ideals that guides what they believe and how they will vote.

There is a reason the City Council position is nonpartisan. It requires problem solvers who look at local issues and find solutions. It is not a place to interject national or partisan politics. Rigid political ideologies do not belong here.

But that is what both Pollak and Patceg offer.

On Facebook, Harry Pollak promotes Rebecca Bextel, shares an article on Democratic Socialists, and makes fun of No Kings protests. He hates taxes and nonprofits.

He claims he wants to put Sheridan first with creative housing solutions, community preservation, and by prioritizing infrastructure. So there are a few platitudes. But no ideas or plans on how to achieve anything.

We should want representatives who want to maintain and improve our community. Not people who want to enter the City Council to interject their ideology and throw a monkey wrench into the operations of local government.

Ideology is first. Sheridan is second.

Patceg is the same. Individual liberty. Hates taxes. Dislikes nonprofits. Thinks Democrats are corrupt. Fully supports Pollak. Thinks Trump just took over Greenland.

Here is an example of Patceg’s actions on the City Council. In May 2024, he voted against a traffic-safety initiative called Vision Zero. The intention is to reduce deaths and serious injuries on public roadways. He voted against supporting such a plan and voted against applying for a federal grant to fund a safe streets program.

It is somewhat interesting that Patceg, or anyone, would oppose such an idea. Public safety? Gasp!

Patceg votes against playground equipment, training for council members, and the city budget because he opposes providing taxpayer funding to nonprofits in return for services.

He, like Pollak, believes this use of funds is unconstitutional. It’s not.

In the near future, Sheridan will face many challenges. We are growing and need housing. As the Freedom Caucus gets led out the door, its members are attempting to slash government tax revenues.

Challenges lie ahead. Sheridan needs problem solvers who want to keep the ship steering straight ahead. We do not need ultraconservative ideologues who want to gum up the municipal machinery that, up to this point, has worked responsibly and effectively.

On Tuesday, vote Luhman, Weitzel, and Cole for Sheridan City Council.

Since we are in the midst of multiple attempts to cut taxes and government spending by Wyoming’s Freedom Caucus crowd, I thought it would be fun to go through a little thought exercise.

America is currently experiencing an affordability crisis. This has slowly been building over time and has rapidly grown over the last six years since COVID.

Conservatives among us believe that government is to blame. They advocate for lower taxes, less spending, cutting fraud and abuse, and eliminating social programs for lazy people who need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. If all this were accomplished, more Americans would have money in their pockets to afford daily life and put back into the economy.

I call bullshit.

I would argue the problem is greed and a lack of government regulation. Americans do not make enough money. Since the Reagan tax cuts of the 1980s, we have witnessed a tremendous shift in which profits have flowed upward. Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations were supposed to result in business reinvestment, which would eventually have a trickle-down effect in which Americans made more money.

That never happened. Corporations benefited. The top ten percent benefited. Everyone else? Not so much.

Just to have fun, let’s create a Wyoming resident by the name of Joe. Joe has an annual gross salary of $60,000. After taxes, he ends up with a little over $50,000 per year, or $4,200 a month to pay his bills.

Now let’s pretend something profound has happened. The federal government has cut all of its spending on foreign governments, eliminated fraud and abuse, and taken an axe to the military. As a result, the federal government has slashed spending by a whopping 25%. Congress then enacts massive tax cuts that result in Joe paying 25% less in federal income taxes.

This is a big deal, right? A 25% reduction in income taxes is a massive win. Right?

Well, if we apply that 25% reduction to Joe’s federal income taxes, his tax burden decreases by $1,255 per year, or $105 a month.

$105 a month is nice. It would make you more comfortable absorbing the higher cost of groceries or gas. It might allow you to go out and do a few extra things each month. Maybe put more money toward your credit card.

But is this life-changing money? No.

Are these savings that change the equation for Americans and improve our standard of living? Of course not.

So, as we argue about cutting this property tax or eliminating that sales tax, what are we really accomplishing?

Yes, no one, including me, wants the government to collect money it either doesn’t need or is going to waste. I get it.

But let’s also not pretend that cutting taxes is going to suddenly make all of our lives better and flood the economy with more money. It’s not. The numbers reflect that.

So, back to the problem of greed, which I have talked about before.

American wages used to be somewhat tied to productivity. Not anymore. Since 1979, worker productivity has grown over 93%, and in that same time, typical worker compensation has grown by just over 32%.

So, based on those numbers, what if pay were still aligned with productivity?

Remember Joe, who is making $60,000 a year? Hypothetically, Joe would now be earning $87,581 if worker compensation over the years had kept up with productivity.

After taxes, Joe would have an extra $1,671 per month to spend.

Is THAT life-changing? Hell yeah.

That might mean buying a new vehicle. Saving for a vacation. Upgrading your home. Who knows? But that money is meaningful.

So why are conservatives spending their energy attacking tax policy so they can fight for scraps and get an extra $105 a month?

Seriously. What the hell are we doing?

Conservatives routinely attack any efforts to raise taxes on the wealthy or corporations. How dare we go after those who create all of our jobs?

Well, they might be creating some jobs, but some sure aren’t contributing to the betterment of society. It’s no coincidence that while half of Americans struggle to pay their monthly bills, corporate profits are at an all-time high.

The minimum wage is a farce. At first, manufacturing jobs were sent overseas. Now, any number of customer service, IT, legal, and other jobs have been outsourced in search of cheaper labor.

Right now, there are 7.11 million unemployed Americans. Millions more are underemployed. Meanwhile, U.S. companies employ roughly 14 million people overseas.

Let’s quickly look at Walmart, which employs 1.6 million people in the United States. The average hourly pay for a frontline Walmart employee is reportedly around $18.50. That is a little over $38,000 per year for someone working full-time.

Remember Joe? He has a friend named Mike who works at a Walmart here in Wyoming. Mike just started working there for $18.50 an hour. His take-home pay is $2,758 per month. If Mike adheres to the 30% housing affordability rule, he needs to find an apartment for under $962 per month, including utilities.

Good luck with that, Mike.

Numbers are difficult to come by, but it is well known that many Walmart workers across the country receive government assistance to help pay their bills. In Nevada, we know that in 2024, more than 4,500 Walmart employees were enrolled in Medicaid. That was just below 30% of Walmart employees in the state.

Walmart netted a profit of about $22 billion in its most recently completed fiscal year. The company paid $1.743 billion in federal corporate income taxes in cash.

President Trump’s administration also refunded Walmart approximately $2.9 billion in tariffs the company had previously paid.

So, Walmart raised prices to absorb the cost of tariffs and subsequently received $2.9 billion in refunds after those tariffs were struck down. Where is the compensation for everyday Americans who may have paid those higher prices?

Meanwhile, how are those Walmart executives doing financially? Can they afford the new cost of hamburger?

In fiscal 2026, Walmart’s five named executives received a combined $132 million in compensation, including salaries, stock awards, bonuses, and other benefits.

I think they’ll be fine.

But hey, let’s cut a few local taxes so the police can’t get new patrol cars, and I can afford to eat out at McDonald’s a few more times each month.

Conservatives should be watchful of the government and should be concerned about taxes. But it’s time to pull your collective heads out of the horse trough and focus on the real causes of your problems.

I want you to have more money in your pockets. I want you to be successful and happy. But taxes are not the primary cause of your financial problems.

It is corporations and greed. It is the years of tax cuts that you yourselves argued for. It is union-busting and the reckless disregard for the minimum wage. It is deregulation.

Some analysts out there wonder whether we are slowly and quietly sliding into a depression. Not a simple recession. An actual depression.

Most of us recognize there is a problem. But there needs to be a quick and massive shift in recognizing what the hell the actual problem is.

Without immediate policy changes, many Americans could be looking at a financial catastrophe.

Conservatives, do you want to keep chipping away at taxes here and there to get a couple of bucks a month? Or do you want to look at policies and regulations that actually enhance our lives in a meaningful way? The choice is yours.

Over the last few years, journalists around the nation have had a field day investigating the address of 30 North Gould Street in Sheridan, Wyoming. You and I know that as Wyoming Corporate Office.

This week, Sheridan was visited by reporters from Texas after highly controversial political mailers from Texas Transgender Student Union LLC were received by voters across the state.

The investigation brought reporters to Sheridan, where the group had filed as a Wyoming LLC through Wyoming Corporate Office. But, of course, Wyoming’s laws do not require public disclosure of the person or group behind the LLC filing.

Dark money in politics wins again!

The Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) has initiated legal proceedings after its name and branding were allegedly used without permission. A criminal investigation has also been opened by a Texas district attorney who believes the mailers could result in forgery charges.

As a result, Northwest Registered Agent has announced it is cutting ties with the entity behind the mailers. Northwest Registered Agent uses the 30 North Gould address, along with Wyoming Corporate Office, and the two appear to be connected.

The bulk-mailing permit used for the mailers belongs to an Illinois printing company. A member of the family associated with that company reportedly has ties to President Trump and Texas Republicans. It is still unknown who designed the mailers or who the mastermind behind them is.

Does Sheridan, or the state as a whole, really need the repeated negative attention brought about by this industry? I’d argue no.

The industry can serve a legitimate purpose. It allows individuals to easily form business entities, potentially enjoy tax advantages, and retain some privacy.

However, these rules have also allowed unscrupulous and fraudulent businesses to take advantage of the system. Dozens and dozens of complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau against businesses that use 30 N. Gould Street as their mailing address.

During COVID, individuals created illegitimate businesses to claim fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Investigators looking into 50 of the largest PPP recipients associated with the 30 N. Gould address found that more than half of the businesses appeared to be illegitimate.

In 2024, an investigation by Wired found that a North Korean operation used Wyoming Corporate Office to establish a business through which individuals posed as American IT workers to obtain remote employment. According to the U.S. government, this was part of a larger operation to raise money benefiting North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction programs.

Yeah, we helped the Rocket Man.

Another Wired investigation that same year found 36,000 registered companies that used fictitious names for their listed officers.

Some of these fraudulent businesses scam people out of money. As a result, the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce fields calls from irate customers because the businesses’ addresses lead back to 30 N. Gould Street.

In 2025, the State of Wyoming brought in over $59 million in revenue from business registrations and filings. That is a pretty impressive haul for a small state.

The 30 N. Gould address in Sheridan was responsible for more than a third of that revenue, thanks to the approximately 300,000 businesses represented there, which generated more than $21 million in state revenue.

Despite the revenue coming into the state, it does not appear that this industry has created a significant number of jobs for Wyoming residents. The State of Wyoming lists approximately 450 commercial registered agents across the state. Many of these appear to be existing attorneys and tax professionals.

Northwest Registered Agent, which uses 30 N. Gould in Sheridan to receive mail, also has operations based in Spokane, Washington. Its website claims the company employs 1,300 people around the United States. However, there doesn’t appear to be more than a handful of people working at the Sheridan address receiving and distributing mail.

The big question is whether all of this is worth it. Does that $59 million in state revenue outweigh an industry that appears to provide relatively few jobs while generating repeated negative attention and press? Does the State of Wyoming want to continue maintaining a lightly regulated industry that can assist individuals in creating businesses that operate unlawfully?

I believe it is time for the Wyoming State Legislature to take a much closer look at this industry and examine whether our lenient rules, which can be exploited, are really worth the revenue.

I say no.