Welcome! Thanks for starting your week with The Western Word. Here are the topics for today’s independent commentary:
- The Final Attempt?
- Beef Imports
- Trump Underwater in 47 States
- Sheehy Parachutes
- It’s Time!
- One More Thing
THE FINAL ATTEMPT?
After embarrassing Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and the MAGA members of the Montana Republican Party in the State District and Supreme Court, State Representatives Llew Jones, R-Conrad, and Steve Fitzpatrick, R- Great Falls, faced another lawsuit from Republican Senate President Matt Regier.
This time, a district court judge denied a request to block the secretary of state from certifying ballots with their names on them.
According to Lee Newspapers, Regier alleged the secretary of state had been incorrectly applying Montana’s constitutional term limits ever since a 2012 opinion from then-Attorney General Steve Bullock, a Democrat, was handed down that okayed the chamber-switching practice. Judge Brett Linneweber said Thursday’s chess move did not introduce any new legal arguments beyond what a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge and the Montana Supreme Court had already adjudicated in the days prior.
According to Lee Newspapers, after looking at the lawsuit on Friday morning, Fitzpatrick called it “unbelievable.” “Matt Regier is a desperate loser,” he said.
Regier is not the type of leader the state senate needs.
Will this be the final attempt? I doubt it. The hatred toward the moderate Republicans will continue well into the next legislative session, where it could get very nasty.
BEEF IMPORTS:
The Associated Press (AP) reported that President Donald Trump announced Friday that his administration will allow more beef to be temporarily imported into the U.S. without triggering higher tariffs, which drew swift pushback from cattle producers and conservative rural-state Republicans.
The AP also reported that Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., said in a social media post just hours after Trump announced the deal that the president’s “heart is in the right place,” but importing beef will “harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”
It was nice to see some Republicans go against Trump’s plan. Maybe the President is running out of clout?
TRUMP UNDERWATER IN 47 STATES:
As reported in USA Today, a poll from The Economist and YouGov found more people disapprove than approve of Trump’s job performance in 47 out of 50 states and in the District of Columbia. The three states where the majority of respondents still approve of the president are Wyoming (+14), Idaho (+9), and West Virginia (+6).
Trump’s net approval in Montana is -7.
If this trend continues until November, the Democrats may end up controlling the House and Senate. That might end the MAGA stupidity.
SHEEHY PARACHUTES:
It looks like U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT) is spending his August recess having some fun. The Billings Gazette reported that Sheehy parachuted into the Yellowstone International Airshow on Friday while flying a Montana flag. (Photo)
Some of the comments on his Facebook page were amusing.
IT’S TIME!
Get ready – High school and college football begins in force this week. The first regular-season NFL game is September 9.
That means it is time to put new batteries in your remote!
ONE MORE THING:
I stopped telling jokes about unemployed people because none of them worked.
## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##
The Western Word 
Hi Jackie,
And what else are we getting for the avid support of Trump?
We get “special” negative tariff treatment from the Canadiens. That is really going to hurt folks in laces like Havre and Kalispell where Canadien spending is a big influx to their retai economies.
We deserve to be referred to as the “Loonies”
Add in some cheap imported ground beef to devestate our cattle ranchers and submission of our voter rolls to Trump!
Can we survive this much “winning?”
Thanks for your comments. We seem to be getting the shaft more than anything. – JmB
That’s probably closer to reality than we think! Thanks for sharing. -JmB
Trump’s endorsement record this primary season was 67-6 (via NBC news).
So if he’s underwater in 47 states how does his candidates keep winning?
Those approval polls measure all voters — Democrats, independents, and Republicans combined. Trump’s endorsement record is almost entirely built in Republican primaries, where only GOP voters (his strongest supporters) show up.
We’ll see how his endorsements do in November. -JmB
Regier has such obvious disdain for the voters who chose Jones and Fitzpatrick to carry their party’s flag in November that he would disenfranchise them in a heartbeat to further his own political agenda. Apparently he thinks he’s dictator of all Montana.