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America's Heartland Economy Links from other news sources. Work Place

Why this is a good thing. Gen Z workers increasingly opt out of college and into the trades: ‘There are about 2 million fewer college students.

Why this is a good thing.Gen Z workers increasingly opt out of college and into the trades: ‘There are about 2 million fewer college students.

First that’s 2 million less protestors. But all kidding aside, these young folks are seeing that they not only can make as much if not more, but also are finding it easier to start their own business.

“Industries like construction, manufacturing, and trade, transportation, and utilities have had lower termination rates than sectors where many white collar workers are concentrated, like professional and business services,” he says.

And with Baby Boomers slowly exiting the workforce, more opportunities could open up. “As these folks age out,” says Tremper, “Gen Z workers are going to be able to move into a space where they’re building their own businesses, adding to the dynamism of the economy and really providing a lot more opportunity for themselves financially.”

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America's Heartland Commentary Economy Links from other news sources.

Update on US investment and the economy.

Update on US investment and the economy.
The other day CBS reported companies that were investing in this countries economy. Here‘s a few.

Abbott Laboratories

Illinois-based medical device company Abbott Laboratories said in a statement Wednesday that a $500 million investment in manufacturing, research and development capabilities at plants in Illinois and Texas will “go live” by the end of the year.

Abbott Laboratories

Illinois-based medical device company Abbott Laboratories said in a statement Wednesday that a $500 million investment in manufacturing, research and development capabilities at plants in Illinois and Texas will “go live” by the end of the year.

Chobani

Chobani, known for its Greek-style yogurt, is expanding manufacturing in New York State. The yogurt company on Tuesday announced plans to spend at least $1.2 billion opening a million-square-foot factory in Rome, New York.

Company executives believe the plant will be the largest dairy factory in the U.S.

Cra-Z-Art

Randolph, New Jersey-based toy company Cra-Z-Art in March said it is growing its U.S. production capacity by 50%, “to combat the cost of tariffs for imported goods from China and other countries.”

“Based on the current economic climate, we are taking decisive action to expand and invest in American manufacturing.

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson is planning to invest more than $55 billion in new U.S. manufacturing facilities over four years. The investment represents a 25% increase compared with the previous four years, the health care company said in March.

Honda Motor

Honda Motor this week said it is moving production of its Civic Hybrid Hatchback from Japan to the U.S. Honda currently produces the Civic Hatchback Hybrid from two plants, one in Indiana and another in Japan. “But beginning later this year it will be produced only in Indiana.

Hyundai Motor Company

Hyundai in March announced a $21 billion commitment to investing in domestic manufacturing from 2025 to 2028.

As part of that commitment, the company has pledged to put $9 billion toward expanding domestic automobile production to 1.2 million vehicles a year, it said.

Nvidia

Last week, American chip maker Nvidia announced that for this first time in the company’s history, it will be manufacturing chips and AI supercomputers in the U.S.

Nvidia said in a statement that it has commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space to build its Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas.

Roche

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche in April said it’s committing $50 billion to growing its U.S. operations.

The funds will go toward building new research and development sites, and expanding existing manufacturing facilities in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California, the company said on April 21.

Roche will also announce a new 900,000-square-foot manufacturing center dedicated to its weight loss medicine portfolio.

TSMC

Taiwanese semiconductor maker TSMC in March announced a $165 billion total investment in U.S. manufacturing capabilities. The investment augments an existing $65 billion investment in semiconductor manufacturing operations in Phoenix by $100 billion. The expansion includes plans for three new plants, two advanced packaging facilities and a major research and development center, the company said.

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Thousands of Members of the Amish Community Are Helping to Rebuild Western North Carolina.

Thousands of Members of the Amish Community Are Helping to Rebuild Western North Carolina.

North Carolina is still reeling from the massive damage caused by Hurricane Helene last fall. While the cleanup and rebuilding has been slow and steady, there is still a ton of work to do.

One group that has stepped in to lend their tremendous building skills is the Amish community. There are currently thousands of Amish people, mainly from Pennsylvania, who are helping to rebuild in the western part of the state, where the most damage is.

The national media has completely ignored this amazing contribution from the Amish. These people deserve praise for their help.

Local NBC affiliate WCNC has reported on it:

‘We still see tremendous damage’ | Amish community becomes part of Chimney Rock’s comeback story

It’s been more than six months since Hurricane Helene swept through western North Carolina, leaving behind destruction and hardship. Few places were hit as hard as Chimney Rock Village, but now, signs of progress are everywhere.

The recovery effort has been powered by an outpouring of support, with volunteers and donations helping to restore the beloved mountain town.

“When we look around, we still see tremendous damage and realize it will take a long time to build back,” Mayor Peter O’Leary said. “But at the same time, we have made tremendous progress, and that is very encouraging.”

Chimney Rock Village is not just rebuilding, it is redefining itself. Every business in the village sustained some level of damage. While full recovery will take time, Chimney Rock is finding its footing again through the kindness of others.

“We come out here every morning, working mostly in Chimney Rock and in Bat Cave,” Amos Stoltzfus, a volunteer with an Amish community from Pennsylvania called Great Needs Trust, said.

The Amish are master builders. Just take a look at this:

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America's Heartland Back Door Power Grab Columbian Justice. Commentary Crime Democrat Hate Lawfare Links from other news sources. Opinion Politics

Did it take her ten years to finish law school? Criminal given a pass.

Did it take her ten years to finish law school? Criminal given a pass.

A person who works for Governor Waltz according to Minnesota law committed six felonies that caused $20,000 dollars in damages. And this person was not charged.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) said Monday it will not seek criminal charges against 33-year-old Dylan Adams, who allegedly vandalized at least six Tesla vehicles, causing $20,000 in damage.

Statement from the police who were upset.

“The Minneapolis Police Department did its job. It identified and investigated a crime trend, identified, and arrested a suspect, and presented a case file to the Hennepin County Attorney Office for consideration of charges. This case impacted at least six different victims and totaled over $20,000 in damages. Any frustration related to the charging decision of the Hennepin County Attorney should be directed solely at her office. Our investigators are always frustrated when the cases they poured their hearts into are declined. In my experience, the victims in these cases often feel the same.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1913286155677598014
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1914482549675434075?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1914482549675434075%7Ctwgr%5E96b168fee1c177d22b04d3bdf847a3684ed708d6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F04%2Fsoros-backed-county-attorney-says-member-tim-walz%2F

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America's Heartland Links from other news sources. Reprints from others. Trump

The Story of America. 250 years.

The Story of America. 250 years.

Under the President’s leadership, the Salute to America 250 Task Force (“Task Force 250”) has commenced the planning of a full year of festivities to officially launch on Memorial Day, 2025 and continue through July 4th, 2026.

The White House is engaging and encouraging the entire federal government, state and local governments, the private sector, non-profit and educational institutions, and every citizen across this country to join in this historic celebration.

Task Force 250 invites citizens to have a renewed love of American history, experience the beauty of our country, and ignite a spirit of adventure and innovation that will raise our nation to new heights over the next 250 years.

As part of these efforts, Task Force 250 is proud to present an original video series, “The Story of America.” Read more below and check back soon for more details about additional White House initiatives.
The story of America makes everyone free

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Celebrating 250 years of Freedom.

Celebrating 250 years of Freedom.

Last night was the 250th Anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride.Revere mounted a borrowed horse and rode into the countryside to alert colonial militias and warn patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington. Although he was stopped by British patrols before reaching Concord, his message had already been passed along by fellow riders William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott.

And today we celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the battle at Lexington- Concord.

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America's Heartland China Commentary Economy Links from other news sources. Reprints from others.

The casualties of America’s loss of glassware manufacturing to China.

The casualties of America’s loss of glassware manufacturing to China.

By
SALENA ZITO

Nationally syndicated political reporter.

CHARLEROI — For 132 years, the sound of the factory air whistle signaling the start of the work day at the plant along 8th and McKean Avenue in this Washington County borough meant all the things we associate with work: men and women had jobs, families had food on their table, the societal fabric was strong, churches were full, and the tax base kept the schools vibrant and the community prosperous.

It was a good sound. It meant stability and aspiration. No one around here ever seemed to mind it.

Last week, the sound of that whistle was different. It was longer, 132 seconds to be exact, a number meant to mark how many years the Pyrex glass plant had stood at this location. It marked the end of the line for the plant.

The sound was mournful as it echoed throughout the Mon Valley.

Three hundred men and women are now without jobs in a town of 4,200. Last September the company, now known as the Corelle Brands, announced they would close the plant that had been one of the great innovators at its inception when two Pittsburgh glass-making firms, the Thomas Evans & Company and the George Macbeth Company merged to form the Macbeth-Evans Glass Company in 1899.

One year later, the local newspaper boasted about the expansion of manufacturing in Western Pennsylvania as the new town of Donora was being plotted to allow for that growth. The story detailed the 16-mile strip of cities that included Charleroi, Monessen, and Donora, who were now coming into a close second to their bigger Mon Valley cities of Homestead, Duquesne, Braddock, and McKeesport:

“Here are located the Page Steel and Wire Mill, the American Steel Hoop’s mill, the American Tin Plate large mills, the W.H. Hamilton & Company, the Macbeth Evans plant and the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company large glass mills and now the great mills of the Union Steel Company now nearing completion at Donora.”

These groups of factories employed over 8,000 people who made good wages at the turn of the century in what was once sleepy farmland. Hundreds of houses of all kinds were being built almost overnight on rolling hills that overlooked the plants, employing real estate developers and construction workers and causing a boom in mom-and-pop grocery stores, gas stations, barber shops, schools, and churches.

By 1936, Macbeth-Evans was bought out by Corning Glass Works, then the largest maker of technical glassware. The president of Corning Glass at the time, Armory Houghton, said of the acquisition, “It is logical that the Macbeth-Evans Glass Company and the Corning Glass Works should come together at this time. This move brings together two companies whose research and development has been outstanding in different fields of the glass industry.”

At the time of the merger, the plant employed 1800 people.

The news was so big it made the front page of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette above the fold on Nov. 11, 1936.

Today all of those mills are long gone. Pittsburgh Plate Glass, which became known as PPG, a place that employed my father for 50 years, where he designed the furnaces that made glass, no longer makes glass. They sold that division to Nippon in 2017, marking the end of PPG’s long history in glass production, which began in 1883.

When Corning Glass Works first purchased the plant, it was renamed Corning Glass Works Macbeth-Evans Division. By the 1990s, a series of mergers, divestitures, private equity acquisitions, Chapter 11 bankruptcies, and more private equity firm acquisitions had occurred. Centre Lane Partners acquired the company after a competitive bankruptcy auction approved its sale to them in their role as one of Anchor Hocking’s largest stockholders.

Anchor Hocking took over the Charleroi plant in March of 2024 and announced they would close it and move operations to their plant in Lancaster, Ohio — it too was a company founded at the turn of the century by Isaac Jacob in Lancaster, Ohio.

Not long ago, Anchor Hocking had a plant in nearby Monaca in Beaver County that closed over ten years ago. Anchor Hocking has gone through a series of acquisitions, venture capital ownerships and bankruptcies. Today, it is owned by Monomoy Capital Partners, a private equity firm located in midtown Manhattan.

We have talked a lot about tariffs and manufacturing since Donald Trump was reelected in 2024 and the outsized role of China in our industries, and the Corning Glass Works Macbeth-Evans Division is certainly such an example.

In fact, our uneven trade has played a significant role in the glass manufacturing collapse in this country. Up until the 1990s, the United States held its own in glass manufacturing. However, China’s aggressive export strategy, which flooded the U.S. market with thousands of goods, hit the glass industry hard.

In June of last year, the Alliance for American Manufacturing released an analysis detailing the threat Chinese imports posed to U.S. manufacturers. In a briefing by the Economic Policy Institute, the glass industry appeared well aware of the dangers of Chinese imports.

They noted that the U.S. glass industry lost almost 40,000 manufacturing jobs between 2000 to 2008. At the same time, China’s share of the U.S. market rose from 3% to 31%.

As U.S. glass and glassware plants closed, Chinese manufacturers expanded. China now leads glass production globally, exporting 28.7% of the world’s glass and glassware compared to the United States’ 6.6%.

That is a hard pill to swallow if you are from Charleroi, once known as the “Glass City” where PPG once had one of its major glass factories.

The people here are a casualty not just of streamlining production, but also of China’s dominance in the market.

“Everything coming from China flooding our market is a big part of the problem. It is a disease,” said state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, who represents the borough.

The echo of the whistle lingers. The tears of the workers on their last shift remain unchecked. Everything has changed. Those who believe Americans do not want jobs in manufacturing, who do not think there is pride in what they do, should sit a spell with the people who worked here.

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America's Heartland Commentary Economy Links from other news sources. Opinion Reprints from others. Trump

What I learned about ‘America First’ in a Pennsylvania steel mill.

What I learned about ‘America First’ in a Pennsylvania steel mill.
Salena Zito is a columnist for the Washington Examiner.

WEST MIFFLIN, Pennsylvania — The steep climb in the truck up from the Monongahela River to the entrance of the Mon Valley Works Irvin Plant is a picturesque reminder of just how much earth had to be moved for the 650 acres of wall-to-wall steel production to be built.

After a series of check-ins and a maze of buildings, plant manager Don German is there at Building B to greet me for a tour, a rare invitation for a journalist. After gearing up in a hard hat, safety glasses, a heavy, bright orange jacket with the blue-and-white U.S. Steel emblem on the back, German begins with the plant’s history. Legend has it, he said, that they needed more cubic yards of dirt to construct it in the 1930s than was used to build the Panama Canal.

The bright orange of the molten steel, the heat, the soot, the constant movement, the smell of hot machinery and a hum so loud you have to yell to communicate — these are all token that you stand in the presence of something being made, something huge. It takes only seconds for the hot steel strip to travel 300 feet when it exits its last stand through the sprays and emerges as a massive coil ready to be transformed into the material undergirding our everyday lives, from SUVs to building frames; 850 people at the Irvin Plant supply this raw material.
Steelworkers wait to band hot rolled steel as it comes off of the hot-strip mill at the Irvin Plant on March 19.
The oldest hot mill in the United States, built in 1938, operates inside the Irvin Plant.

I’m visiting because the plant is at the center of President Donald Trump’s early second-term agenda. It’s a major employer in a state where a red shift among blue-collar workers powered his two election victories. It’s protected by rising tariffs, which now stand at 25 percent on steel under the president’s latest order. And its owner, U.S. Steel, is engaged in intense negotiations over a potential sale to Nippon Steel — a similarly iconic Japanese brand — in which Trump is involved as a broker.
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I wanted to hear from the employees themselves, many of whom have multigenerational ties to the facility, about their hopes and fears and what the often bloodless business headlines mean to communities whose identity is wrapped in steel, who consider their work part of the fabric of the nation itself.

What I found was a nuanced conversation, one that’s divided workers, unions, politicians and investors over the future of American steel. And a debate in which the “America First” position, according to the workers whose gloved hands actually touch the steel, might mean welcoming Japanese cash and leadership rather than shutting the company off from the world.
A surprise offer

Inside a tiny conference room, German and I met with the top local union leaders: USW Local 2227 President Jack Maskil, Vice President Jason Zugai and Safety Chairman Gary Pickett. Their combined tenure at this plant add up close to the 124 years that U.S. Steel has been in existence.

At stake in the proposed sale to Nippon is their livelihoods — and their outlook is not what many people might assume.

The two steel companies stunned local elected officials, union members, and the White House with their joint announcement in December 2023 of an agreement for Nippon to acquire U.S. Steel in an all-cash transaction at $55 per share, or $14.1 billion. None — not management, not labor, not the Biden administration — saw it coming.

“Woke up on a Sunday morning and next thing you know, phone’s blowing up,” Maskil said. “What’s going on? What’s going on? I’m like, wait, what are we talking about here?”

Maskil and Zugai fielded calls for days. The initial reaction among workers was near-uniform opposition. Pennsylvanians still remember Japan’s reputation for “dumping” cheap materials into the United States in the 1970s while steel mills in the area closed. Maskil, though, said he was mostly just processing his shock that the sale had even been a possibility.

While the workers sought information, national leaders made their objections known. United Steelworkers came out against the deal, warning that the union couldn’t trust Nippon to honor labor contracts. President Joe Biden opposed the deal on national security grounds. Vice President Kamala Harris also announced her opposition after becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, saying she would “always have the backs of America’s steelworkers.”

Over time, though, the steelworkers in question began to change their tune. Nippon made a $1 billion pledge to upgrade the plant with a new hot strip mill, replacing its nearly 90-year-old infrastructure — a move that many workers thought was needed to keep up with more advanced foreign competitors.
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“To be honest with you, at first I was skeptical just like everybody else was, but through the process, as time went on, we learned more and more, and as time went on, more and more investment opportunities became available,” Maskil said. “Unfortunately we are — how should I say it? I refer to it as flipping the hourglass. So we are on a strict time frame, if this investment does not go through, if this deal doesn’t see through.”

The room got quiet. It was clear everything was on the line.

Within fairly short order, Maskil, Zugai and Pickett said they had met with their union workers at the three facilities that make up the Mon Valley Works: their plant, the Clairton Coke Works six miles down the river and the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock nine miles upriver. After much deliberation, they decided to support the sale.

“When the deal to sell to Nippon was first announced, 95 percent of the rank and file did not want it to happen,” Zugai explained. “Now, 95 percent of them do.”
Clairton Coke Works in Clairton, Pennsylvania, on March 19.

German, the one member of management in the room, interrupted: “I think what he is saying is important; while everyone was reacting to the announcement, these three did a phenomenal job of collecting the facts, communicating with the rank and file and ultimately understanding the benefits of the deal.”

It is a complex situation for all of these men, beginning with the fact that the local union remains at odds with the United Steelworkers International, whose Cleveland-based leader David McCall has denounced the sale, saying he has no faith in Nippon to make good on its guarantees and investments.

Maskil acknowledged that the local and national union leaders are not aligned. “But we were elected to fight for the guys, the men and women out on that floor, and this is what they want. Not only what we want but what they want,” he said.

In December, hundreds of local members rallied outside the plant desperately asking the Biden White House to approve the Nippon purchase; the appeal was also aimed at their own recalcitrant international union leadership.

At the same time, many of these steelworkers supported Trump’s 2024 campaign — so much so they stood behind him at rallies in Latrobe and Pittsburgh in their gear. Trump shared Biden’s initial skepticism toward Nippon Steel; they hoped to bring him toward their side by touting a deal as a win for the workers who embodied his coalition.

Asked how one can be “America First” while supporting a Japanese company owning a historic American company, Maskil did not hold back.

“To be blunt? Yeah. I don’t care what this company’s called,” he said. “We’ve said that from Day 1 it doesn’t matter who buys us. Our concern is whoever buys us honors our current basic labor agreement moving forward as well as [that] they’re prepared to put the investments into the corporation that we not only want but we have to have in order to sustain employment here.”

Their entreaties did not move the Biden administration. Throughout the year, the president railed against the sale, often to the frustration of some on his staff. In the waning days of his presidency, Biden moved to block the sale after federal regulators deadlocked on whether to approve it.

Trump, at the time, was still against it as well. After taking office, though, he looked to revive talks. In February, after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House, Trump said Nippon Steel would instead be heavily investing in the company without a majority stake. Since then, discussions among Trump, Nippon, U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have been going on at a furious pace with a goal to reach a partnership.

All four steelworkers at the Irvin Plant said there are so many reasons this deal needs to happen — but, most important, they’ve all seen what it looks like when the investment dries up.
The ghosts of steel mills past

Pickett, the plant safety chairman on the union side, told me that if this place is gone — if Edgar Thomson and Clairton are gone — it’s not just the product they make here that goes. It’s also the heart of the community — from the churches to the schools to the tax base — that will be torn apart.

“Take a look,” Pickett said. “I grew up in McKeesport. I was born and raised in McKeesport. When I grew up, downtown McKeesport was booming. We had three movie theaters, a beautiful upscale hotel, multilevel department stores. Ride through it now. You got a hot dog shop. I wouldn’t stop there if you paid me, and I was born and raised there. I mean, that’s all from the mill shutting down.”

McKeesport once was so politically significant that John F. Kennedy visited twice: once to debate the Taft-Hartley Act with then fellow Rep. Richard M. Nixon and once to campaign for president against him.

The city has declined dramatically. Deindustrialization has hollowed out the working class. Those who could not get out now struggle to support a family. Crime has increased; several years ago, a study from the National Council for Home Safety and Security named it one of the most dangerous cities in the United States.

McKeesport is not alone.

The Jones and Laughlin Steel plant once stretched for seven miles along the riverfront in Aliquippa, Beaver County, at one time the largest steel mill in the world. It is almost all demolished. Gone, and with it the 10,000 union workers who labored there. Aliquippa’s population has dropped from 22,000 in 1970 to 9,000 today.

Duquesne Steel once hosted a 12-open-hearth furnace that fed a giant four-mill rolling complex heralded as the technology hub of its day. But the city of Duquesne died hard when the industry collapsed — locals tried desperately to stop the tearing down of the iconic “Dorothy Six” furnace. Now fewer people live here than worked at the mill in its prime.

For those with roots here, it’s clear how this movie can end.

“People look at those buildings, and they feel a kinship: Maybe their uncle worked there, maybe their dad or grandfather. It leaves a mark, and it impacts culture and politics, and I think someone that isn’t from around here isn’t going to understand,” Pickett said. “No matter in which direction you drive, you understand the impact bad trade deals and tariffs had on their families and communities’ lives.”
Shoots of hope

That said, steel itself and some former mill towns here do still survive, even after some near-death experiences.

Several counties east, in the Conemaugh Valley, the city of Johnstown cuts a little differently than McKeesport, Aliquippa and Duquesne.

It lost nearly 12,000 jobs when the massive Bethlehem Steel plant suffered through years of layoffs and then finally closed. Its population too has dropped, staggeringly, from around 67,000 in 1920 to under 18,000 today. But the community has new activity in the massive former plant, thanks to Bill Polacek, whose father started a one-man welding shop called “Johnny’s Welding” in his garage as a side hustle to his job at Bethlehem Steel.

That side hustle is now inside 500,000 square feet of what was Bethlehem Steel’s Lower Works. Polacek has revamped the mill, changed the name of the company to JWF Industries and expanded to supplying defense contractors with well-made, sustainable fabrications and subassemblies.

He employs well over 400 people, and the place is humming with workers, most of them young, working on parts for military Humvees and tanks and other defense items I cannot mention. Polacek, who just named his son president of the company, has a trade apprentice program on-site for those willing to learn.

One of his suppliers is U.S. Steel, which Polacek uses in multiple military applications. He said he is deeply concerned about what will happen if the deal with Nippon falls through or if Trump is unable to forge a partnership between the three competing interests.

“If U.S. Steel unravels, a couple things will happen,” he said. “No. 1, steel’s [cost is] going to go up dramatically as a lot of supply and demand kick in; 2, we are going to be forced to buy foreign steel.”

Then, he said, comes the psychological effect. “U.S. Steel, the dominant steel producer, gone? The American company?” he asked, his voice rising.

Polacek said it would make everything more expensive for his customers: “And it also makes us less competitive on an international basis. Now, my costs go up, my customers’ costs go up. And then, when they make something or produce something, it gets sold to a foreign country — we lose that competitive edge.”

The Trump effect

There have been a hundred stories from 30,000 feet looking at how Democrats lost the support of the working class and union voters — if you lived through it and around it, as I have, as these men have, it has been gradual, painful and inevitable.

Trump spoke to them about the things they cared about: the border, the economy and, most important of all, tariffs — which in this part of the country means their jobs are not on the “loser” side when people more powerful than them pick winners and losers.

“Yeah, tariffs are a good thing,” Zugai told me with a big smile. The charismatic union official, who met Trump when he visited Pittsburgh on election eve and who organized scores of fellow workers to attend the rally, said it is one of the reasons he voted for Trump.

“Tariffs level the playing field for us with China,” he said. “They’re the biggest steel producer. They just dump nonquality steel in our country, and we can’t compete with that.”

Zugai said he was in the click line the night before Trump was elected and got a couple of minutes to chat with him before he went onstage: “I spoke as fast as I could trying to get my point across to him, and he kind of chuckled and said, ‘We’ll talk after I get elected.’”

If Zugai had the chance to speak with Trump today, he’d urge him to look past the “optics” of a Japanese buyer and remember his promise to attract foreign investment.

“This is what the men and women on the floor want,” he said. “It is what we need to solidify our jobs. It saves the communities that surround our plants, plus all of the vendors and the contractors and everybody else that calls on U.S. Steel — it saves all of their jobs too.”

German added that Trump voters were watching him closely, hoping to see a payoff on their own investment in his political revival. “These guys worked hard and fought for Trump and won voters over for him,” he said. “The union guys that work here and want this deal to pass got him in Pennsylvania. It’s time to return that and help us out by keeping our jobs.”

Trump isn’t the only politician who courted the labor vote in the state. Biden’s union ties and Scranton upbringing helped put him over the line in 2020. But he proved to be a disappointment to the working class here — his focus on climate action was tone deaf to a segment of the population who were not finding these mythical green jobs in the places they call home. Harris repeated Biden’s policies and never managed to connect on a more personal level.

The steelworkers I talked to faulted overly burdensome environmental regulations for pushing the plant to its point of desperation. U.S. Steel announced in 2019 it would invest $1 billion to transform Mon Valley into the “most innovative steel mill in the United States of America.” Less than two years later, it canceled the project, casting the move as part of the company’s new sustainability commitments but also mentioning its long struggle to get the permitting approved. The county health department was a major source of conflict.

“Their regulations have cost us what would already be a brand-new hot mill rolling still right now,” German said. “Remember: All of us live in this area, so it’s not like we want to pollute. And so, the regulations make it good for our families. So we are all about having clean water, having clean air, and one of the things that proves it is our eagles.”

Before I left, German took me to the very edge of the cliff where Irvin Works overlooks the Monongahela River and Clairton Works. Just below us was an expansive eagle nest — and inside were Stella and Irvin and their three eggs.

“You know, the Game Commission says you need pristine air and pristine water for eagles to habitat; goes to show you we are getting this right,” he said.

When U.S. Steel was formed in 1901, it was the United States’ first billion dollar company and for a time the world’s largest company; it was a shining example of American technology and science as well as grit, the ethos of hard work and American exceptionalism. Working here then and now carried with it a sense of immense pride — you were part of something bigger than yourself; what you did here built the country and protected our troops in times of war. When the steel industry struggled, it felt like the nation was losing a piece of itself.

Bald eagles were once struggling to survive too. Their gradual disappearance was considered just one more depressing, inevitable sign of American decline. But the nation’s leaders got together, formed a plan to rescue them, and now they’re thriving, even on the edge of a steel mill.

I pointed out that their current choice of home seems like more than a coincidence. German smiled.

“It’s a sign,” he said.

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America's Heartland Commentary Corruption Elections Links from other news sources. Opinion Politics Voter Fraud

If true, not surprised. Undocumented voting.

If true, not surprised. Undocumented voting.

Another incident where claims of illegals voting. This time it’s in Michigan.

Michigan House Republicans are attempting the nation’s first honest investigation of voter fraud in state and federal elections. The Elections Committee Chair, Rep. Rachelle Smit (R), is uncovering a great deal of new information as it relates to ongoing voter fraud in American elections.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or “ICE,” whistleblower has come forward, an agent with decades of experience in state and federal law enforcement, to say that he has arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants and they regularly bragged to him that they are voting in state and federal elections.

Claims  he saw the voting cards they were using to vote, which were being issued by Michigan’s  Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

 

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Progressives continue their violence against Tesla owners.

Progressives continue their violence against Tesla owners.

It’s becoming a daily occurrence. Tesla owners being verbally abused, and now physically attacked. It’s one thing with the vandalism, but now men beating on women who own a Tesla?

A 61-year-old woman driving a Tesla was boxed in by a male driver and beaten by him while she was sitting in her car.

The violent attack took place in Flagstaff, Arizona, last week.