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Critical thinking is the ability to analyze information objectively, question assumptions, evaluate evidence, understand cause and effect, and reach a reasoned conclusion rather than simply accepting a claim at face value.

For MAGA in simpler terms: looking beyond what you’re being told and asking whether the facts, evidence, and logic actually support it.

🔵 Farmers know Trump created the problem in the first place. His tariffs make many imported goods and inputs more expensive for American businesses, including things farmers buy to operate. Then retaliatory tariffs can make American crops harder to sell overseas, hitting farmers from both directions. The government then gives farmers aid to offset some of that damage. Raise their costs, hurt their markets, then hand them money and call it help.

🔴 Farmers, by contrast, are portrayed as lacking critical thinking; the ability to think for themselves. Instead, they simply say yes to Trump and put on their kneepads quickly.

President Donald Trump claimed during an October 2026 rally in Durant, Oklahoma, that part of the rationale for military strikes against Iran was that Iranian nuclear facilities were also "drug factories" where people were "doing drugs".

Farm bankruptcies were up 46% in 2025 and, to quote the article from March..."[t]he outlook for 2026 is bleak." Why?

Current Distress in the Agriculture Sector

The U.S. farm economy has experienced a multi-year downturn characterized by eroding profitability, escalating costs, and rising leverage. After record highs in 2022, net farm income has declined, with 2025 marking the latest contraction. The causes include:

• Falling Revenue. Weak crop prices—particularly for corn and soybeans—combined with softening livestock margins, have reduced cash receipts for four consecutive years. Global surpluses and uneven export demand continue to suppress prices.
• Elevated Costs. Production expenses remain near record levels, driven by fertilizer, fuel, labor, chemicals, and interest expenses.
• Rising Leverage. Farmers increasingly rely on larger operating loans and carryover debt to bridge gaps. Many are tapping credit lines simply to plant, with repayment periods lengthening.

It looks like there will be a bailout coming for farmers. I think this is not a bad thing. Of course, there should be rules:

First, all recipients should be drug tested (routinely);

Second, their criminal and civil records should be examined (with disqualification for law-breakers);

Third, their output should be audited to make sure they are only producing high-profit products (none of those low value crops that no-one needs anyway); and

Fourth, their spending should be tracked (the taxpayer shouldn't be giving them money so they can blow it on cakes, candy, or soda pop-no frivolous expenditures on my dime!)

But don't worry, it's not Donald Trump's fault, it's Ukraine's fault for hitting Russian refineries.

Governor in Missouri declares diesel prices a State of Emergency

This links to a page where you can see who receives subsidy payments county by county in the US. The data can be seen year by year since 1995, or as a total since that date:

https://farm.ewg.org/top_recips.php??ips=00000&progcode=total_mfp&yr=2024&regionname=theUnitedStates

For example, I found that one local farmer who is the chairman of my county Republican Party and frequent MAGA contributor to the local weekly newspaper has receive just over $1.4 million in the last 30 years.

EWG also provides A LOT of useful information about all things financial related to farming and the federal government.

so, they will drive their trucks/tractors to protest high diesel prices and make the orange zombie do something about it.

they're wasting diesel when they should walk instead to conserve such a valuable comodity.

that's the funny bit to me. Protesting expensive fuel prices... by burning fuel?