Barely hanging on in Wyoming.
Which is really remarkable
Wyoming is one of the few states where Trump has a positive approval rating, probably mostly attributable to the importance of the extractive industries to the economy, and due to agriculture. Trump actually has farmers and ranchers upset now and as he's set to import foreign beef and hasn't really made any immediate actions addressing agriculture's concerns, this trend may continue.
Trump's endorsement of Megan Degenfelder fell flat in the state, and hardcorse Freedom Caucus rank and file were actually upset with his endorsement of Degenfelder followed by Hageman's endorsement of her as well. So some cracks are actually appearing.
And now Trump's at odds with his Wyoming voters over data centers.
We don't see these statistics for Wyoming very often, which is no surprise given the low population of the state, but it will be interesting to see how this develops. If he falls below 50%, and that's close to being the case, it may start a sort of freefall.
Trump only has a positive approval rating in 13 states. Most of these states are ones in which he barely has a positive rating. Wyoming has the highest approval rating of any state, which shows the extent to which Trump's really in trouble. All of Wyoming's neighbors also have positive Trump approval ratings except for Colorado.
I've long thought that most of the Trump "supporters" are just followers. When things begin to fade, and paying high prices at the pump and supporting data centers is creating fading, a lot of former supporters will claim to have never supported him. We see stuff like that all the time.
Just wait for the upcoming toilet paper shortages due to Trump tariffs on Canada.
Suffering privation
One thing about all of this is how absolutely tone deaf the Administration is to the suffering its causing, both here and abroad.
He's cutting off access to foreign good that Americans use (Bombardier also makes snow machines) and wiping out foreign markets for US products (Canadians used to buy a lot of American bourbon). At the same time, he's telling fairy tales about how you shouldn't mind, with the most recent example being that while you are paying a little more at the pump, it's not a big inconvenience and your sacrifice is worth it so Iran doesn't get the bomb.
Whether or not Iran was close to getting a bomb at any point during the Trump administration is an open question. But beyond that, Americans, in spite of what we may collectively choose to imagine about certain eras, don't do sacrifice on the home front very well. World War Two was the biggest example of restrictions for a national effort and people hated it. Cheating and the black market was absolutely rampant. The whole concept that the nation all pitched in and glady endured shortages is complete crap. Even one of the most patriotic demographics, farmers and ranchers, notoriously evaded rationing illegally by selling livestock under the table. And that was in a big national effort.
Americans aren't keen on high prices on anything. Protectionist efforts only really work well in an economy if they're introduced really early, or they cause resentment. If you are going to put up restrictive trade barriers, including tariffs, you need to do it nearly immediately, and you better have a really good reason for doing it.
We're doing it because Peter Navarro has Trump's ear and Trump has always liked the concept. Trump's mind on this is rooted in the 1970s when the US was worried about Japanese imports. Navarro is 77 years old. Pining for the economy of the post World War Two world won't work, and making Americans suffer for a pipe dream won't either.
It particularly will not when a rich guy like Trump doesn't join in the suffering. His fans like to note that he's not taking his pay. . . but not that he flies everywhere, including on golf trips, on the government dime.
We are a democracy, dumbass.
The moronic line "we're a republic, not a democracy" has been around for years. I've heard it many times myself and corrected the speaker, usually with the speaker then looking deflated. Democracy and republic are not only not mutually exclusive, they don't even describe the same thing.
Ancient Athens was a pure democracy, everything could be voted on by its citizens. The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy, people vote for the House of Commons and the Parliament then functions as the government. We're a democratic republic, which isn't actually all that difference but which does make for problems if the elected representatives won't do their jobs, as they won't right now. In a parliamentary democracy, they have to.
People who spout the "republic not a democracy" line have not thought out what they're saying at all. Recently, in the MAGA crowed, it's "constitutional republic". I've heard that from MAGAs great and small, including one Harriet Hageman.
It's frankly a stupid comment.
It's been going around the last week, however, so somebody is feeding it out as a talking point for idiots.
And then there's this:
I guess it's humorous, sort of, but then, sort of not.
Miley
Miley Cyrus is provoking outrage as she's put out her last album as "Miley", which apparently somehow upsets fans of Dolly Parton. As I don't care for Cyrus' music or Parton's, it doesn't mean much to me, but what struck me is that when I hit on the news story Cyrus was there wearing see through everything so you can see all of her really horrible tattoos.
They are truly bad.
They're the sort of tattoos that people who are junkies get from other junkies. What the heck?
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