Desert Dust

Equine 8 Minutes

FROM: COWBOYSTATEDAILY:

R.J. “Gill” Gillilan would often sit in the corner of the room, sporting a leather coat and gold chains or, at other times, bib overalls when he didn’t want to be bothered by anyone. He was in Las Vegas, Nevada as an undercover “john” on what his wife, Carmalen, called “smut patrol.”

Gillilan had planned his personal vacations meticulously and always looked forward to leaving behind the glitz of Sin City for the sage and dirt of Wyoming.  He had been drawn back to his boyhood home by a portrait of a horse. 

Eighty years ago, Frank “Wild Horse” Robbins was rounding up mustangs with an airplane in the Red Desert near Rawlins, Wyoming, when he spotted a rare palomino stallion running with the herd. He sent for his photographer, Verne Wood, to take a photo, unaware of the sequence of events that he was about to unleash. 

This photo caught the imagination of the world. The horse, now known as Desert Dust, had posed in sage and rock the day of his capture, still untamed and wild.  More than a million copies were sold worldwide appearing at such prestigious places as the House of Commons in London.

Wood hired a team to colorize the copies he sold, and life was good. However, his good fortune was about to change. Realizing the stunning popularity of his horse, Robbins sued for the rights of the famous photo, especially since now he planned to shoot a movie about Desert Dust with Universal Studios.  It was this first photo of Desert Dust that sparked an investigation by the Las Vegas detective into just who this horse was. What began as mere curiosity of a wild horse ballooned into a lifelong passion to tell the true tragic story of Desert Dust.

The Spark of an Investigation

Desert Dust was once the most famous Wyoming horse in the world, but by the time Gillilan was in high school in the 1960s, the memory of the wild stallion was beginning to fade and only tall tales seemed to remain. Desert Dust’s photo hung in nearly every important building in Rawlins, including Gillilan’s high school, and everyone knew his name but not much else.  

“I was always interested in the story of Desert Dust,” Gillilan said. “My granddad was really mad about the dog food thing.” Many of the wild horses in the early days were slaughtered after their capture for dog food. His grandfather hated to see these symbols of America destroyed like that and it colored Gillilan’s own story of all the horses, including Desert Dust.

Gillilan’s earliest memories of Desert Dust’s owner, Frank Robbins, was his grandpa glaring at the horse wrangler in unconcealed contempt at a wild horse sale. Robbins had used airplanes to catch Desert Dust and the horse had died in his care. It also didn’t help that his grandpa’s neighbor and friend was a horse wrangler in competition with Frank Robbins.

“Typical small town,” Carmalen, Gillilan’s wife, said. “You have to take one side or the other. You can’t both be true.” These memories of his childhood prompted Gillilan to eventually buy his own tinted portrait of Desert Dust and hang it in his house. It became more than a photo and a story began to emerge after his daughter, Kyla, asked an innocent question.

She wanted to know who the horse was and Gillilan had given her the basic answer he knew. Desert Dust had been the first wild stallion ever captured by an airplane and this horse was the inspiration of his Rawlins high school mascot, the Outlaws. However, he was about to prove himself wrong. The longer he pondered the question of just who Desert Dust really was, the more doubt crept in and the investigator in him took over. Gillilan may not have had any formal training as a historian, but he knew how to find the clues that would tell the story. 

For the next 20 years, his vacations involved chasing down the facts about Desert Dust and knocking on the doors of strangers. He dragged his family into remote canyons, learned how to surf the web and went wherever the trail led him. This hard-boiled detective was determined to learn the truth about Desert Dust, no matter how long it took. Slowly, the story began to emerge.

The Famous Photo

On the morning of July 12, 1945, after getting the call from horse wrangler Robbins, Wood had snapped a black-and-white photo of Desert Dust. Even as he took the photo, his family said he knew that he had just captured the photo of a lifetime. “It was about a week before the atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico,” Gillilan said, noting the timeline. “The war wasn’t over yet when they developed this picture.”

Wood was the first one to announce the name of the wild palomino and started selling black and white copies to others besides Robbins. As the picture’s popularity started to grow, Wood started colorizing his photos and then he hit it big. “Verne really started selling a lot of them after he submitted the picture to the Denver Post and won the contest,” Carmalen said. 

In the late 1940s, everybody that was in agriculture that could went to Denver for the stock show and the national western show. The newspaper contest announced their winner when this crowd was in town and people from all over the country saw the picture as a result. Sales rocketed.  “He started hiring gals to come in and do the hand painting, and he’s getting orders all over the country and things have never been better,” Gillilan said. “He has six people working for him.” “He actually built an enlarger,” Carmalen added. “He was really cutting edge.”

When Robbins realized just how successful Wood was with this photograph of his horse, he filed a lawsuit. “It wouldn’t have been a problem at all if they had signed a contract,” Gillilan said. “But when Desert Dust’s picture got to be a really big deal, that’s when Frank sued.” Wood had already copyrighted the photo and so the judge decided that the two of them would both share the copyright and be able to make colorized photos to sell. As a result, Robbin’s wife started painting her own version of Desert Dust so there are now two different styles of the same photo with two different bylines. 

An Investigator Turns Historian 

Gillilan always had a fascination with history and making sure all perspectives were told, especially after spending a career keeping people honest in the sin city of Las Vegas. He recalled that as a youngster in 1962, before life led to detective work, he had gone to the Custer Battlefield and heard two completely different stories told by two rangers. Both were right but their stories were wildly different.  “That really got to me,” he said. “I learned that there’s more than one story to everything and everybody has their own version of the story.”

As an investigator, Gillilan knew that he would need to know as many versions as possible of a case and look at it from everyone’s point of view. “I also learned along the way that con artists are sharper than a tack in their own little element, although, there’s some really dumb criminals too,” he said.

He used this knowledge to pursue the story of Desert Dust and unravel years of hidden stories to get to the truth of just who this beautiful palomino was. “I think that the families (of Wood and Robbins) respected that,” Carmalen said. “The people directly responsible for Desert Dust and the picture could no longer speak for themselves and the good thing about Gil, he didn’t draw any conclusions. He said, here’s the facts.”

Gillilan ended up with a few unsolved mysteries surrounding Desert Dust and so his investigation continues to this day. One mystery was just who ultimately killed Desert Dust and why. The stallion had been found shot and following the facts he had uncovered, Gillilan concluded it was about fences. “Frank was an opportunist at best,” Gillilan said. “Desert Dust basically got killed because (a rancher named) Franklin let his horses go on somebody else’s land all the time.” 

Pursuing A Phantom Horse 

During the years of spending his vacations researching Desert Dust, Gillilan met remaining families of Wood and the horse wrangler Frank Robbins. Both families had their own pain, family lore and legends about Desert Dust that slowly Gillilan started to unravel. In the end, he also unintentionally brought about some healing as the families began to see the bigger picture of the legacy left behind by Desert Dust’s capture and brief life.

Gillilan also rekindled old friendships himself and made new, meaningful friends during his investigation into Desert Dust. “It just happened that when I was in high school, there was a young lady a year ahead of me that was editor of the school paper,” he said. “The next year I was the editor of the school paper and we became really close friends. Now she worked at the clerk of the courts office in Rawlins and I called her up.”

His high school friend put together all the information she had about the lawsuit with Desert Dust, helping to put more puzzle pieces together and deepening the mystery surrounding the horse and his picture.  He also found out that the real reason Frank sued was not to make more photos himself, although that became a nice benefit. He sued because he wanted to make a movie about his horse with Universal Pictures. 

“They said, ‘We don’t want anything to do with something that’s in a legal mess, even if it’s kind of settled,’” Gillian said. “So, they ended up making the movie with Desert Dust, but calling him Pal, short for palomino.”  “Fight of the Wild Stallion” was shot as a documentary, recreating the capture of Desert Dust, two years after he had been captured. When Gillilan uncovered a copy of the movie at the American Heritage Center, he felt like he had found gold. Here was Desert Dust, alive and running with the herd.

Another treasure was meeting others who had also been interested in Desert Dust’s story and had interviewed key people before they passed away, including the pilot who had captured Desert Dust with his plane.  “They ran them along fences they built into a canyon with the airplane, and the horseback riders would come along on the sides and force them into the box canyon,” Carmalen said. “That plane would scare them and then they closed the canyon behind them.”  On one of their family trips to Wyoming, the vacation was to the very canyon Desert Dust was captured in and the family discovered the fences were still there. 

Still Searching for New Clues 

Gillilan had donated his extensive research to the American Heritage Center and then discovered a Laramie author, Paul W. Papa, who just happened to also be living in Las Vegas. This was the author he knew would be able to tell Desert Dust’s story since, as Gillilan said, he was an investigator but not a good writer. Papa agreed to write Desert Dust’s story but with one stipulation. He said that the real story was how a Las Vegas investigator uncovered the story of this nearly forgotten stallion that at one time represented all of Wyoming’s wild horses. 

Gillilan thought that the book, ”Desert Dust”, would be the end of his journey with the palomino. However, he is still drawn to Desert Dust’s story and continues to discover more secrets that were lost to time.  “It’s a piece of history that would have been lost,” Carmalen said. “It’s really a fascinating story with a lot of characters that Gill brought to life.”

SOURCE: COWBOYSTATEDAILY.COM

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Published by pat frederick

Published

82 thoughts on “Desert Dust”

  1. Good morning, Pat and Filly,

    Wow – Thanks Pat – this post is wonderful!!! I love horse and detective stories! Gillilan is a hero for both his jobs – and a truth warrior and peacemaker, for his determination to get to the truth. Reminds me of our Guy in DC.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Howdy, Miss Pat. I haven’t turned on the oven yet, but it’s really pretty – a double GE Wall oven that just fit the hole in my cabinet. It can be operated by a smart phone which I think is silly as all get out. Daughter Sandy says her new replacement refrigerator has the same capacity. I don’t have and don’t intend to get a smart phone or use it to pay bills, buy groceries, or anything financial connected to my bank accounts.

        The new oven has black racks, which they claim are ‘no scrub’ racks. They seem to be coated with black enamel. I will read about how to clean them and let you know what I think about that.
        Both ovens are self cleaning, but I used that feature only once in my previous oven and it smoked up the house and set off the smoke alarms. I don’t like using caustic ‘oven cleaner’ either, and so learned reading online about how to clean an oven by setting a glass bowl of vinegar and dawn in and warming the oven, then letting it steam overnight. Then just wipe out the oven. I bet that will loosen grease on the new fangled racks too.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Morning GA!
          I read about that cleaning method as well for ovens. we have a self cleaner, but i used it very rarely. i bought these silicone sheets that go under the element in the bottom of the oven and they catch anything that might drip. they are easily cleanable and cheap too.
          Both my kids love their “smart” robo vacuums and gadgets–i do not.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. it doesn’t save the racks, but it saves cleanup on the bottom of the oven. I once used a bundt pan for a marble pound cake and it baked all over the top. i had to wash the racks, but the bottom mess (after the oven cooled) slid right off and then i sponge washed it. i was sold on them ever since.

              Liked by 1 person

  2. Morning All!
    we had bad storms again last evening and overnight. lost power sometime around 1 am but it came back on quickly. out just long enough to screw up the electric clocks…lol
    the sky look ominous again from what i can see of it.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Good morning, Pat! I’ve been up for hours, of course, since 4:30, and decided to take on the filing that has been piling up on my kitchen counter. Sheesh! That turned into a fricking marathon, cleaning out old, old files from way back when I lived in VA. But after an hour and a half of that, I’d had enough – the rest can wait! Then I decided to do away with the medications sent by the VA that I had no intention of taking so I disposed of those. Then onto filling the jelly feeder and pulling some weeds from the CA Poppies along the way….and here I am.

      What a wonderful story! I had never heard of Desert Dust and forwarded a link to my Sis – of course, I have no doubt she’s probably heard it but I expect she will enjoy it nonetheless. So….another day of crazy, I expect….

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Morning Filly!
        We have a bin of paperwork from when hubby’s mom passed away over 11 years ago…LOL. I know it’s in the basement on a shelf, but i just never gather the steam to get it and empty it. lol. it’s all burnable now…I just never put it on my list of things to do. maybe it will make it on next year’s new year’s resolutions…LOL

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Liked by 2 people

    1. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
      @RepMTG
      5h
      American elections belong to the American people, not illegal aliens.

      My bill:

      ✅ Orders a new census that counts U.S. citizens only

      ✅ Directs states to redraw congressional districts based on that count

      ✅ Requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections

      This is about national security, fair representation, and protecting American voters.

      Liked by 2 people

  6. TheseTruths(@thesetruths)

    Offline

    Wolf

    July 15, 2025 00:23

    https://www.zerohedge.com/food/white-house-unveils-sweeping-maha-changes-nations-food-supply-chain

    Here’s the growing list of companies that have taken steps to improve their food supply chain:

    • Steak & Shake moved to 100% all-natural beef tallow and replaced its “buttery blend,” which contained seed oils, with 100% Grade A Wisconsin butter. 

    • McCormick announced it will drop certain food dyes from its products. 

    • PepsiCo announced it will remove artificial ingredients from popular food items — including Lay’s and Tostitos chips — by the end of the year.

    • In-N-Out announced it will remove synthetic food dyes and artificial flavors from its menu items, and also transitioned to 100% beef tallow. 

    • Tyson Foods eliminated synthetic dyes in its food products. 

    • Mars removed titanium dioxide from its Skittles product.

    • Sam’s Club committed to removing 40 harmful ingredients — including artificial colors, additives, dyes, and high-fructose corn syrup — from its private-label products. 

    • Kraft-Heinz announced it will remove artificial dyes from its U.S. products. 

    • General Mills announced it will remove artificial dyes from its U.S. cereals and all foods served in K-12 schools.

    • Nestlé announced it will remove all petroleum-based food dyes from its food and beverage products. 

    • Conagra Foods announced it will remove certain color additives from its frozen products, no longer offer products with artificial dyes in K-12 schools, and stop using artificial dyes in the manufacturing of its products. 

    • JM Smucker announced it will remove synthetic colors from its consumer food products. 

    • Hershey announced it will remove synthetic dyes from its snacks. 

    • Consumer Brands announced it will urge its members to remove artificial colors in food and beverage products served in schools.

    Liked by 2 people

  8. Speaking of Pecan Cookies – this recipe was daily sold out at a cafe in my home town in GA. The menfolk especially loved them.

    GRAHAM CHEWIES – PECAN BAR COOKIES

    Note: Adapted from “Celebrating With Julienne” by Susan Campoy. Campoy writes, “I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite books, ‘Nantucket Open-House Cookbook,’ by Sarah Leah Chase. I love watching people’s expressions when they bite into these bars for the first time. The textures and flavors — rich toffee, a chewy center and a crunchy bottom — make everyone smile. The secret is not to over-bake the crust. Serve them at room temperature, so the flavors meld together.”

    Crust
    3 cups graham cracker crumbs
    3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
    1/4 cup sugar
    2 tablespoons flour

    Topping
    2 1/2 cups brown sugar
    4 extra-large eggs
    2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
    1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    1/2 teaspoon baking powder
    1 cup pecans, chopped
    Optional – chopped coconut flakes

    1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar and flour until moist and well-blended. Press the mixture firmly and evenly over the bottom of a 13-inch by 9-inch baking pan. Bake until the crust is golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.

    2. While the crust is baking, in a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar and eggs to blend. Whisk in the graham cracker crumbs, vanilla, salt and baking powder until well-blended. Stir in the pecans and coconut if desired.
    3. Spread the mixture over the baked crust and return to the 350-degree oven until the filling is dark-golden on top and jiggles slightly when tapped, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and cool completely.
    4. Sprinkle a light coating of sifted powdered sugar over the pan if desired, and cut into 24 bars.  Wrap in plastic and keep at room temperature up to 1 day in advance of serving.   To keep longer – store in refrigerator or freezer.  

    Each bar: 247 calories; 2 grams protein; 36 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber;11 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 50 mg. cholesterol; 184 mg. sodium.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. PS – I never sprinkled with powdered sugar and I like them both ways – with and without the coconut – mostly made them without the coconut.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. EXCERPT: “The town of Nantucket Friday reached a settlement agreement with the manufacturer of a blade that broke off a turbine in a wind farm off the coast of the island last summer, scattering debris across Nantucket’s beaches. The agreement provides the town with $10.5 million for the impact of the incident, but critics say it goes too far in absolving the wind farm’s developer of any future accountability. 

    “It completely lets Vineyard Wind off the hook once again. So I do not understand for the life of me how we’ve gotten here,” Amy DiSibio, board member for Nantucket-based ACK for Whales, told Just the News. 

    Blade failures happen frequently, and the Biden-Harris administration rushed through approvals of wind projects without proper assessment of potential impacts, according to multiple lawsuits. The administration also granted temporary waivers of financial assurance, which cover the costs of decommissioning of projects, despite concerns about the long-term financial certainty of the companies developing the projects.  

    With more offshore wind projects being developed on the East Coast, opponents of offshore wind fear the lack of accountability on the part of developers leaves local communities on the coast vulnerable to harm from future accidents. 

    Debris continues to wash onshore

    On July 13, 2024, a 300-foot-long, 70-ton blade broke off a large turbine in the Vineyard Wind project. Beaches were temporarily closed, impacting the island’s vital summer tourism season. An owner of a surfing school, the Nantucket Current reported, lost a week’s worth of revenue out of a ten-week season as a result of the debris. Debris from the blade was still washing up on the shores of Nantucket as recently as this March. 

    DiSibio said that Vineyard Wind didn’t notify anyone of the incident for two days. “I think they were hoping that all the debris would miss land somehow and just travel — I don’t know — to England or something. But the debris all ended up on the beaches of Nantucket, and that was three days later. It’s a disgrace that they didn’t forewarn people immediately,” DiSibio said. 

    Within a week of the incident, the island’s local government was considering legal action against Vineyard Wind, the Current reported at the time. The agreement signed Friday, holds GE Vernova responsible for the incident and releases developer Vineyard Wind from any responsibility. 

    20250710-blade-settlement-agreement-final-w-exs-1.pdf

    GE Vernova blamed the failure on a “manufacturing deviation.” Following the blade failure, the company purportedly performed an analysis with 8,300 ultrasound images per blade and physical inspections with “crawler” drones, which revealed further defects in the blades GE Vernova produced. 

    The company estimated in October that the delays, blade replacements and cleanup would cost $700 million. Last October, Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova announced efforts to clean up some of the debris and remove the remaining blade from the seabed. Since this was the last announcement Vineyard Wind posted, it’s unclear how much of the blade was removed, or what the projected long-term environmental impact may be…..”

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/settlement-nantucket-blade-failure-lets-developer-hook-critics-want-more

    Liked by 2 people

  10. WTF? Can this get any more confusing?!?!

    Just The News: “U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to take up Ghislaine Maxwell’s case in a Department of Justice filing. Maxwell’s lawyers stated that she should not have been put on trial due to the plea deal that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein got in 2008 from prosecutors in Florida.

    Attorney General Pam Bondi’s DOJ responded to Maxwell’s lawyers’ filing Monday and urged the Supreme Court not to take up her case, according to an exclusive report from the Daily Mail.

    Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking and an array of other charges in connection with her procurement of minors for Epstein’s indulgence. She said she was willing to testify before Congress about the Epstein files, sources told The Daily Mail. 

    The Trump administration has received significant backlash from conservative influencers and journalists over his handling of the Epstein files. Epstein died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing dozens of girls.”

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Just The News: “Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department for records regarding former President Biden’s pardon for his son Hunter Biden. The watchdog group announced the lawsuit Monday, after it was filed on July 3 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

    In December, Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon to his son for any federal offenses “which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”

    The DOJ failed to respond to Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act request from Dec. 2, 2025, which asked for “Records and communications of the Offices of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and/or Associate Attorney General or their designated representatives, about the pardoning of Robert Hunter Biden by his father, President Joe Biden.”

    The pardon includes the time Hunter Biden served on the board of directors of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.

    “The Hunter Biden pardon for undefined crimes going back a decade is invalid on its face. The Trump Justice Department should immediately release any and all records about the Biden pardon scandal,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. there was a short blurb article yesterday saying that hunter was traveling to maryland? delaware? wherever Daddy is and he’s going to try to take over the family business as a conservator. he’s going to have a big fight from jill i imagine, but he needs $$.

      Liked by 1 person

  12. Just The News: “Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of President Donald Trump, on Monday insisted that the administration would eventually release more information on Jeffrey Epstein and his sex-trafficking operation, stating that the president was aware of frustrations within his base and would work to assuage their concerns.

    “There needs to be more transparency. I think that will happen. I know this is important to the President. He is frustrated,” she told podcast host Benny Johnson. “He is going to want to set things right. I believe there will be more coming and anything they are able to release they will try to get out. They hear it and understand it.”

    “To anyone worked up out there, there is no plot to keep this information away. I’m sure we will know down the line,” she added.

    Trump’s remarks come amid mounting calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s resignation over her handling of the Epstein matter, including her orchestration of a botched PR event with conservative influencers who received binders of largely public information.”

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Just The News: “The Department of Justice on Monday unveiled guidance for the agency to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order designating English as the official language of the United States.

    “As President Trump has made clear, English is the official language of the United States,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will lead the effort to codify the President’s Executive Order and eliminate wasteful virtue-signaling policies across government agencies to promote assimilation over division.”

    Trump, in early March, signed an executive order asserting that “[a] nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society, and the United States is strengthened by a citizenry that can freely exchange ideas in one shared language.”

    The effect will see the DOJ lead the federal government in attempting to minimize  multilingual services and emphasize English-language education.”

    Liked by 1 person

  14. “Report: Medicaid Recipients The GOP Made Work Part-Time Watch TV And ‘Relax’ 6 Hours A Day — Reestablishing a culture of work via the reconciliation bill represents a hard-earned victory for common sense.”

    The Federalist, By: Christopher Jacobs, July 15, 2025

    man holding video game controller

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “Of all the provisions included in Republicans’ “big, beautiful” reconciliation legislation, Democrats hope to make the most politically out of the Medicaid reforms. As I have previously noted at The Federalist, the bill does not “cut” Medicaid, as that program will still grow by roughly $1 trillion in the coming decade.

    Among the various Medicaid reform provisions, the largest amount of projected savings comes via work requirements on able-bodied adults participating in Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. These provisions do not apply to vulnerable populations such as individuals with disabilities and pregnant women. Indeed, the new law intends to preserve and protect Medicaid for these populations, for whom the program was originally designed in the first place.

    Despite the general public support for Medicaid work requirements, Democrats still attempt to characterize the provisions as unduly onerous. The facts indicate otherwise and demonstrate the reasonable nature of this new policy.

    Most Medicaid Recipients Report No Earned Income

    Democrat groups try to claim that most Medicaid recipients work at least part-time, making the new requirements an attempt to remove otherwise-qualified beneficiaries by tying them down with unnecessary paperwork. But these claims are premised upon survey data, which by definition relies upon 1) population sampling techniques and 2) beneficiaries’ own recall, both of which have the potential for significant errors.

    A recent study by the Foundation for Government Accountability, which examined beneficiaries’ actual earnings history, shows a far different picture. Based on the individual earnings of almost 21 million Medicaid beneficiaries in 23 different states, nearly 2 out of 3 able-bodied adults on Medicaid (62 percent) reported no earned income, meaning they weren’t working.

    This data provides further confirmation of a phenomenon I chronicled last year. In states that have not expanded Medicaid, individuals need to have income equal to the federal poverty level ($15,650 for an individual in 2025) to qualify for subsidized Exchange coverage. That means an individual working 30 hours per week at a job making $10 per hour, or working 20 hours per week at a job making $15 per hour, would qualify for Exchange subsidies — which in 2025 would give him a zero-premium (or, as Democrats would call it, “free”) benchmark plan.

    The fact that states that have not expanded Medicaid face pressure to do so reinforces that able-bodied adults are not working. In these states, the earnings requirement to achieve income of at least 100 percent of poverty to qualify for Exchange subsidies functions as a de facto work requirement. The fact that so many individuals cannot meet this comparatively low earnings threshold indicates that much of the potential Medicaid population does not work.

    Lack of Activity by Nonworkers

    For those individuals who do not work, how do they spend their time? A recent analysis by an American Enterprise Institute scholar revealed results that did not seem altogether surprising:

    For Medicaid recipients who do not report working, the most common activity after sleeping is watching television and playing video games. They spend 4.2 hours per day watching television and playing video games, or 125 hours during a 30-day month. … They spend on average 6.1 hours per day, or 184 hours per month, on all socializing, relaxing, and leisure activities (including television and video games). (Emphasis mine.)

    Given that nonworkers on the Medicaid rolls spend more than 180 hours per month watching TV, playing video games, and otherwise relaxing, it seems entirely reasonable for the government to require such individuals to devote less than half of that time, or 80 hours per month, to working, volunteering, or otherwise engaging in productive activities with their time as a condition of receiving taxpayer-funded health coverage.

    A Victory for Common Sense

    For hard-working American families who cannot afford to spend six hours per day playing video games or “relaxing,” these new requirements seem like an eminently sensible proposition. Requiring work from those who are able to do so will help them transition from a life on the government rolls, building confidence and marketable economic skills that can stay with them for the rest of their lives. It may also help to alleviate some of the workforce shortages that businesses saw in the years immediately following Covid lockdowns.

    The fact that Medicaid work requirements remain a partisan issue illustrates how Democrats have deliberately fostered a dependency culture via perpetual expansions of the welfare state. Reestablishing a culture of work via the reconciliation bill represents a hard-earned victory for common sense.”

    Liked by 1 person

  15. “Is The YMCA Using Tax Dollars To Push Trans Agenda? Parents Group Urges Congress To Find Out — ‘Our letter highlights the urgent need for an investigation into the YMCA’s federal funding since the organization continues to allow for radical gender policies that violate Title IX.’”

    The Federalist, By: Abigail Nichols, July 14, 2025

    kids playing outside

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “A conservative parents’ rights group is urging Congress to investigate the YMCA over concerns it is using federal funds to promote radical gender-based policies that “endanger children, disregard parental rights, and violate federal law,” according to a Monday letter.

    The letter, sent by Executive Director of the American Parents Coalition Alleigh Marré to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, asks the House Subcommittee on Delivering Government Efficiency (which is chaired by Greene) “to investigate whether the YMCA is misusing public funds to implement policies that violate statutory protections and bypass parental consent.”

    The APC previously filed a Title IX complaint on June 10 with the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, saying that the YMCA is nationally promoting “radical gender ideology” by “allowing biological males in girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and overnight cabins,” according to the July 14 letter.

    The nonprofit Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), which purportedly promotes “Christian principles,” according to its mission statement, serves 4 million children yearly and receives $600 million from government grants each year, obligating the organization under Title IX to not promote “gender ideology.“ Trump signed an executive order in January stating that “federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology” and that Title IX should be applied based on biological sex rather than “gender identity.”

    “The Y does provide really great services and is a pillar in a lot of communities,” Marré told The Federalist. “All of that stands to change if they lose funding.”

    A YMCA camp in Colorado sorted campers based on “gender identity,” allowing biological boys to sleep in girls’ cabins and ensuring their “chosen pronouns [were] respected and honored,” while withholding the information from parents, The Gazette reported in 2024. “Parents will not be informed ahead of time if a boy is staying in a girls’ cabin,” Marré told The Federalist.

    Earlier this year, Kansas City Police investigated an incident where a man claiming to be a woman allegedly exposed himself to a mother and her 7-year-old in the YMCA’s women’s locker room, National Review reported. In 2022, a mother and her daughter in Ohio also allegedly encountered a naked man in the YMCA women’s locker facility, Independent Women reported.

    The YMCA removed the web pages showing gender ideology policies after the APC pushed back against the ideology, the Daily Caller reported. The nonprofit also took down or restricted access to pages like “Affirming LGBTQ+ Communities with Pride,” posted in 2022, that shared the importance of “pride” and “How to Create a Safe Space for LGBTQ+ Campers,” posted in 2017, that says the YMCA “believe[s] that in a diverse world, we are strnger [sic] when we are inclusive and our doors are open to all — this includes LGBTQ+-identified individuals and communities.”

    In a statement to Catholic News Agency (CNA), a spokesman for the YMCA said the 2017 post was a “blog” that “had a number of ideas for camps that were interested in being more inclusive.”

    “State laws about transgender inclusion in gendered spaces remain an ever-evolving topic,” the spokesman told CNA. “Considering this, Y-USA advocates for the personal safety and privacy of all members and participants.”

    “Our letter highlights the urgent need for an investigation into the YMCA’s federal funding since the organization continues to allow for radical gender policies that violate Title IX,” Marré said in a statement. “The YMCA needs to be held accountable for these actions not only to prevent harm to girls, but also to guard against the misuse of taxpayer funds.”

    The YMCA did not respond to The Federalist’s request to comment.”

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Same here! Very pleased with myself at the moment. I had to run out and get some packing tape to ship the boxes to R/K and found a cute BD card for my Mom; I also gave the fake cigs to the lady who manages the FD – her hubby is a smoker, on oxygen, and only 62, very thin build like me – I told her to stress that if I can do it @ 72, so can he! They have an appointment tomorrow w/his lung doctor – I truly hope it helps him quit. He’s too young!!!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. BTW, I wore my Trump 2020 cap when I went to the bank yesterday and the clerk, Eric (who was intrigued that I had worked for the Elkhorn Valley Museum) called out as I was leaving that he liked my hat! Smart guy!!! LOL

        Liked by 1 person

  19. A WHOLE lot of people are definitely unhappy with Chip & Joanna Gaines!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  20. “During the Solomon Islands campaign, a Marine on night sentry duty heard someone approaching in the jungle and fired a few bursts from his machine gun. A voice called out: “Hold up your fire! We are Americans. I am bringing in my platoon.” The Marine responded by blasting away with his weapon, wiping out a Japanese patrol. When asked how he knew they were the enemy, he explained that they were “Just too damned grammatical to be Marines.”

    “If the business model that you’re using needs to include low-pay illegal immigrants to harvest or produce your products, you deserve to go out of business. It really is that simple.  And, as far as that matter goes, why are we not seeing more and more prosecutions of these employers? At some point we have to make the penalty so stringent that the threat of prosecution and conviction is sufficient to ward people off of hiring them. When there is no demand for their services, they stop coming here, and/or go home. But then again…”

    Liked by 1 person

  21. “Graphics and headlines are meant to get your attention. This one certainly got mine on just how fuckin’ stupid it is, so I guess it’s effective, right? Anyway, it relates to a simple message: a gardening tip.

    Instead of throwing away banana peels, bury them in your soil. Rich in potassium, calcium, and magnesium, banana peels make excellent natural fertilizer. They also repel pests like aphids and snails, keeping your plants safe. To use, chop banana peels into small pieces and bury them near your plants. As they decompose, they enrich the soil with essential nutrients, making your plants healthier and greener.

    You can also make banana water by soaking peels in water for 24 hours, then using the liquid to water your plants. This simple trick will help your garden thrive…”

    Liked by 1 person

  23. “Libs of TikTok DEMOLISHES Gavin Newsom Over Anti-ICE Violence”

    Libs of TikTok, Jul 15, 2025

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “It’s no secret that California has been a complete disaster under Democrat leadership. Immigration enforcement in the state has caused violent anti-ICE activists to take to the streets in protest of criminal illegal alien arrests.

    California Governor Gavin Newsom used the ICE raid at a weed farm to attack Trump, claiming kids were “running from tear gas, crying—”, meanwhile, ICE uncovered 10 MINORS illegally working at the weed farm.

    While also ignoring the facts of the raid, Gavin Newsom seemed completely silent over the attempted anti-ICE shooter who fired a gun at federal agents.

    So we called him out on it.

    This is when we completely BROKE Gavin Newsom. LOL – In a furious, unhinged reaction, Gavin Newsom directly responded to our post on X, claiming he denies “all” violence, calling us a “shit poster” for calling him out.

    Instead of directly addressing the actions of the anti-ICE shooter, he did what any unhinged Democrat would do: Bring up January 6th! Naturally, we had to remind Newscum that he is a LIAR. Not a single cop was shot on January 6th.

    To further expose his poor recollection of the event, we reminded him that Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed civilian, was the only individual shot and killed, and by a cop no less.

    Naturally, he had no response. Newsom made it clear he supports child labor at weed farms. As ICE agents continue to enforce immigration law across California, Democrats such as Gavin Newsom are putting up roadblocks, whether that be through political rhetoric or policy, to demonize ICE and protect criminal illegal aliens in the state.

    With growing violence against ICE officers, common sense would dictate that you would want to protect those who uphold the law instead of those who break it. Yet, Democrats never cease to disappoint. Their divisive and dangerous calls for protest, proposals to unmask federal agents, and unwillingness to condemn violence against American law enforcement speak volumes.

    Libs of TikTok will continue to call out their corrupt actions. If they are getting triggered by the TRUTH, then we are on the right side of history. P.S. Better to be a shitposter than a SHIT GOVERNOR! -LoTT Team

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Well now…..I was able to eat twice today!!! I had a big bowl of Cheerios and sliced the banana on it, w/sugar, of course – and I enjoyed every bite!!! One of my all-time favorites has always been Kraft Mac-N-Cheese – I had a box of the cheese sauce that I’ve had for a while and, of course, elbow macaroni but was kind of scared to try it…..I finally did it and I just ate a BIG bowl of mac-n-cheese and enjoyed every bite…..I’m hoping this signals a bigger change than just those 2 dishes…..🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

    Maybe it’s the feeling of accomplishment I got from finding the perfect BD card for Mom and giving the fake cigs to Beverly @ FD, then getting the 2 packages sent off to Rodney/Kimi. It also wasn’t as difficult to carry the boxes nor as hard to get up into my truck. Kind of a banner day for me!!! I just hope it continues!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Your support has truly meant a lot to me, Pat….it’s really nice to have someone who is truly concerned for me and I know without a doubt that it is genuine. Thank you soooo very much for being here for me!!!

        Like

  27. Just The News: “House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on Tuesday subpoenaed Joe Biden’s deputy chief of staff when Biden was president.

    The committee had requested the former White House official, Annie Tomasini, to appear for a deposition on Friday. Tomasini appeared for a transcribed interview in May, and her legal counsel has confirmed her voluntary appearance for July 18, according to the subpoena. However, on Monday, her lawyers requested a subpoena to compel her appearance on July 18.

    Subpoena Cover Letter Tomasini_7.15.2025.pdf

    “The Committee seeks information about your assessment of and relationship with former President Biden to explore whether the time has come for Congress to revisit potential legislation to address the oversight of presidents’ fitness to serve pursuant to its authority under Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, or to propose changes to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment itself,” the subpoena reads.

    The committee is investigating Biden’s mental acuity while he was in office, as well as his use of an autopen for pardons and commutations.”

    Liked by 1 person

  32. Just The News: “House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday that he supports more transparency regarding the files on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

    “I’m for transparency,” Johnson said during an exclusive interview on the Benny Johnson Show. “We’re intellectually consistent on this….he put together a team of his choosing, and they’re doing a great job. It’s a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide.”

    Host Benny Johnson asked the speaker if he would support Maxwell potentially testifying before Congress or Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., subpoenaing Epstein documents from the Department of Justice. Speaker Johnson said yes, he wants transparency, but he hasn’t talked to Greene or Luna on that specific subject. 

    Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking and an array of other charges in connection with her procurement of minors for Epstein’s indulgence. She said she was willing to testify before Congress about the Epstein files, sources told The Daily Mail. 

    Epstein died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. i do not understand people like that woman who killed her baby. you have a lot of time to kill it when it was tiny–not that i agree with that–but wait till it’s BORN–that makes it murder.

      Liked by 1 person

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