Picto Diary - 26, 27 January 2022 - Harriett Hageman Fundraising Event

SDT Notes on Harriett Hageman campaign event in Miami Beach, Florida on 26 January 2021

Above: Harriet Hageman, Candidate (R) for US Congress, Wyoming. Miami Beach, FL. 26 January 2022.

Above: Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump, Jr. at Harriett Hageman fundraiser dinner, Miami Beach FL. 26 January 2022.

Above: Scratchy Selfie of me with Peter Thiel and other dinner event attendees.

The event started in a cocktail setting with circa 200 attendees. Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump, Jr. gave pep talks and introduced the candidate. In addition to thanking host Peter Thiel, Harriett Hageman spoke for about five minutes summarizing her agenda and thanking attendees for their support of her campaign.

Following the cocktail event, Peter Thiel hosted a dinner for about twenty Hageman supporters. I was in attendance at that dinner. Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump, Jr., and the candidate also spoke briefly at the dinner event. Following Harriet Hageman's address to the group, I reminded the candidate and the assembled group that she had spoken to our Park City ROMEO group and that she had answered correctly my "Wyoming Girl" test question: "Have you been to Thermopolis?" She had replied, "Why yes! Just yesterday." I'm guessing that Liz Cheney hasn't spent much time at the remote Thermopolis hot spring. More from Harriett: "This is a big deal for me... thank-you! I'm just a country girl... I don't get to go to events like this very often." Harriett handles herself with aplomb, poise, dignity, a smile and a good sense of humor. Apart from her sterling qualifications on the issues, she will be great as she faces off against the progressive, corporate media tsunami.

A representative of Wyoming Values Pac (name escapes) reported at the dinner event that Liz will raise more money than Harriett. Harriett's campaign strategy will be to, via TV and social media, tout Harriet as a qualified representative of Wyoming Values. Harriett's campaign money will not be used for negative campaigning against Liz. Wyoming Values, hopes to raise $2.5 million to pull this off, and expressed high confidence that Harriett will prevail. Donald Trump Jr. noted the high profile of this race and its importance to the MAGA populist movement. National media will tout a Liz win as a sign that MAGA is losing steam.

Selected notes of dinner table conversation Peter Thiel.

I sat next to Peter at dinner. I and five other table mates posed some questions. Notetaker (Me) is fallible. Mistakes are mine.

Dinner Participant: Does Elon Musk's "reach for the stars" pose a contradictory narrative to your own view of stagnating technological growth?

PT: Elon is an exception to the rule.

Dinner Participant: Biden and China.

PT: Biden is compromised in dealing with the CCP/Xi due his and Hunter's lucrative entanglements in China.

Dinner Participant: Thoughts on Ukraine?
PT: Due to its failed green energy policy and dependency on Russian natural gas, Germany, an important NATO ally, will never put the squeeze on Moscow.

Dinner Participant: ESG investment trend.
PT: Fossil fuels aren't going away any time soon. There may be arbitrage opportunities for oil company, and related, investors.

Dinner Participant: California seems to be in deep trouble. Why don't you run for governor with a strategy to turn California around?
PT: Don't write off California yet. I'm not so sanguine about the northeast.

Speaker Notes of Harriett Hageman address to LSDM,16 December 2021.

Her stated goal is to work for those who work to provide food, energy and a roof over their heads.

Above: Harriet Hageman, candidate for US House from Wyoming speaks to La Societe Deux Magots (LSDM) 16 December 2021, via Zoom.
Note: Note taker, Daggett, is fallible. Mistakes are his. Harriet Hageman is welcome to make corrections/clarifications to these notes.

Background

Harriett Hageman grew up outside Fort Laramie in Eastern Wyoming. Her family bought a ranch in 1962 and she and her several siblings worked at the family business mending fences, tending cattle, whatever was required to keep the ranch going. They had no phone or TV for much of her youth. But it had plenty of animals, including her pet snake.

The idea that she needed to be responsible for herself was ever-present from a young age.

She attended a small high school with 36 in her graduating class. She attended Caspar College before transferring to U of Wyoming where she earned a bachelor’s degree and then a JD from the U of Wyoming College of Law. She was among the first women to attend U of W on a livestock showing scholarship. She clerked for a 10th Circuit Court judge before taking a job as a litigator with a firm in Michigan for four years before returning to Wyoming.

She has spent the last 30 years litigating water and natural resource cases in Wyoming. One case of note, State of Wyoming v State of Nebraska over water rights went to the US Supreme Court in 1997. She formed her own law firm and focused on resources and constitutional issues.

She is a strict believer in the US Constitution. A huge issue is that legislative powers as outlined in Article 1 of the Constitution do not belong in the Executive branch.

Examples of where she has been active include:

1. Wresting control of the gray wolf population from a variety of federal agencies. With a protracted legal battle, the State of Wyoming now has responsibility for the wolf population taking into consideration the needs of ranchers and landowners.

2. Successfully taking on the Roadless Rule that limited access to land not serviced by roads.

3. Push back against the EPA with respect to irrigation and other water uses (e.g., stock ponds, etc.). Freeing landholders from application of 404 Permits has saved huge compliance costs and delays.

Her stated goal is to work for those who work to provide food, energy and a roof over their heads.

In 2018 she mounted a grassroots campaign for Governor of Wyoming. Due to multiple conservative candidates splitting the vote, she was not successful. But the experience provided depth and knowledge she is using in her current campaign for the US House as an at large candidate from Wyoming.

She is also fully involved with the New Civil Liberties Alliance (www.nclalegal.org) where she is Senior Litigation Counsel working to limit the reach of administrative law as adjudicated by courts with judges that are not in compliance with Article 3 of the US Constitution. NCLA is totally pro bono and has taken on such challenges as vaccine mandates attempting to be imposed on federal employees as well as Michigan State University employees. She has challenged the EPA for unlawful taking of private property. She led a challenge by federal agencies to mandate RFID ear tags on cattle with federal registration.

She believes that in order to take on the ever-growing power of the federal government through over 400 agencies (e.g., FTC, FCC, FDA, etc.) Congress must be fixed. In many cases block grants to states would be more preferable to federal control. The federal regulatory overhead cost has grown from $400 billion in 1992 to some $2.1 trillion currently.

Responsibility and freedom go hand in hand. People in Washington DC should not dictate our lives.


Q & A

LSDM – How can you as one member of Congress implement change.

Hageman – Collaboration is key. I have gotten to know a number of key members of the legislature including Rand Paul. I have been interviewed by the Freedom Caucus. I am very interested in the Western Caucus. It will take a coalition to make changes.


LSDM – The roadless rule. Should private citizens have access via easements over private property to gain access to public lands?

Hageman – This is not a simple issue. Circumstances need to be considered. I believe in the rights of landowners.


LSDM – Should County health departments have the power to enforce (covid) health mandates.

Hageman – It depends upon the powers conferred by the state to the county by statute. Many states have not conferred those powers to the counties. In Jacobson v Massachusetts the Supreme Court upheld the power of the state to mandate smallpox vaccinations. In all such cases, the states, not the federal government, should have the appropriate police powers to deal with mandates.


LSDM – Your take on Build Back Better?

Hageman – It runs counter to my belief in personal responsibility.


LSDM – I live in Teton County. I believe Liz Cheney has many weaknesses. What is your take?

Hageman – I don’t believe she represents Wyoming or its citizens. She is using our seat in the House to carry out a personal agenda.


LSDM – How can you survive the tendency for conservatives to run several candidates limiting your access to the general election, much as happened in your gubernatorial run?

Hageman – Being endorsed by Trump has helped winnow the field. There remains one other conservative candidate. It is still early.


LSDM – Don’t you think keeping some distance from Trump, like Youngkin did in Virginia would help you?

Hageman – I am running on my record, not Trump’s.


LSDM – The NY Times called you an anti-Trumper who now supports him.

Hageman – The Times got it wrong. What I said is that the Republican primary should be ‘closed’, only open to registered Republicans. Otherwise, Democrats cross over and vote for the most polemic candidate and then attack them in the general election. I was misquoted.

LSDM – Was Biden legally elected?

Hageman – I don’t know. The cases that were brought to courts were generally not heard due to delays, , standing or other disqualifications. What I think is far more important now is the role of the Zuckerberg Foundation (ZF) and other private entities that had great influence in the election. It is estimated that ZF spent $500-$600 million to capture county clerks using their databases to send “get out the vote” messages in a grossly disproportionate way to registered Democrats or in Democrat-dominated districts. This is in violation of the Appropriations Clause in the Constitution. North Carolina has passed legislation to limit private access to county clerks and their databases.


Thank-you

LSDM thanks Harriet Hageman for her remarks and for her public service in running for Congress.

La Société Deux Magots (LSDM) is a non-partisan ROMEO (retired old men eating out) group which meets daily, at 7:00 AM at Wasatch Bagel in Park City, UT. LSDM members are the rightful intellectual heirs of a group of authors and artists (Hemingway, Joyce, Sartre, Picasso, Camus, de Beauvoir) who met daily at Cafe Deux Magots, in Paris, France in the 1930's.  www.LSDM-Parkcity.com