25 posts from Monday, September 23, 2024

And as you can hear, it's the usual chance at a rally of USA, USA, USA, a lot of fight, fight, fight as well, not only through the day, but also leading up to the different speakers who have been here today, whether that was Mr. Lee Zeldin, the former Congressman and gubernatorial candidate in New York, and also Sean Parnell, great combat warrior and veteran who we actually had the privilege of interviewing earlier tonight. And also several sitting Congressman and Dave McCormick seeking to become the next Senator. He's up against Bob Casey here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But you can see from our video that we're sending out throughout our channels. This is a packed house here at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. President Trump about to deliver a hardcore mega rally speech focused on the economy, on energy independence, getting men out of women's sports. And of course, keeping the big bold jobs for those energy workers, you can see sitting right behind where he'll be speaking on the podium, these gentlemen, experts in their industry, whether that's the steel industry, the mill industry, energy and infrastructure. We need that back here in America as soon as possible.

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-China will charge us, and it's not only China. I hate to keep using China because it's everyone. The European Union is a disaster -- a disaster for you also, by the way. They don't want your farm product. They don't want our cars. They don't want anything. And yet they sell tremendous amounts of Mercedes-Benzes and -- I mean, they sell cars to us, but they don't want our cars. They don't want our farm product at all. They don't want it, but they sell farm product to us. And we have a tremendous deficit. And I had them shaped up real good, but they've gotten out of control. They're really out of control. And Mexico's out of control, to be honest with you. They're taking a lot of our companies in the last couple of years, and companies are moving down to Mexico. They don't know that if I come in, it's not going to work out too well for them because they're not going to be able to sell their product into the United States. They're going to have to pay a price, which will make it uncompetitive for them to do that. So we are going to do a real job. We need the support of Pennsylvania. It's a very important state. And she is not going to be good to Pennsylvania. Between pricing and energy, you know, they started off knocking the hell out of the energy that I had. I had it going at a level. We were number three and probably number four. And by the time I left, we were far and away number one, ahead of Saudi Arabia, ahead of Russia. And then they cut. When they came in, they started cutting. And then prices started going through the roof at the beginning. And what they did is, let's go back to what Trump was doing. We've got to go back. And they opened up the stuff that they were cutting. And it was a similar amount. But what they don't say is that we would be at least three to four times more production of energy right now. And your prices would never be what they are, because you can't compete when you have to pay that much for energy. So they didn't do their job. And by the way, if they won, you could forget about it. They would go -- they want to go to all-electric cars. How's that going to work? They don't go far. They're too expensive. They're made in China. And on day one, I end the all-electric mandate. And I'm a fan of electric cars. Elon Musk, frankly, gave me the most beautiful endorsement. He endorses me all the time. He says, "This is the guy -- this is the only guy that's going to save our country." He's been very generous. And I think he makes an unbelievable product. But you have to be able to also sell gasoline-powered cars. You know, we have gasoline. And they want to use something that we don't have. But China has, because for the batteries and everything, China has and controls that market. But the problem is, they don't go far. And they have other problems, like if it's cold, you get a little bit cold up here, they don't work too well in the cold. There are a lot of problems and a lot of assets, too. And he's going to do great. His car is fantastic. But you have to be able to have other types, like hybrids. Hybrids are, you know, good. It's a good thing. You have to be able to do that. So I'm going to end that mandate. Can you imagine they want to almost immediately go to all-electric? And we don't have enough electric to take care of ourselves. You go to California, they have blackouts and brownouts every single day. California is a mess. They have the -- a governor of California, Gavin Newsom. Has anybody ever heard of him? But worse, they had an attorney general and a DA who destroyed San Francisco and then destroyed California. And I hate to say -- because I have a lot of land in California. I hate to speak badly about places, but, frankly, my presidency is much more important than my land. This isn't nice to know with Biden. It's the other way around. But my presidency is much more important than my land or my business. And I will say it, California is getting hurt so badly. She destroyed San Francisco, absolutely destroyed San Francisco, and now she wants to destroy our country. She was a horrible attorney general. You could steal $950 worth of merchandise for a store, and you wouldn't get prosecuted. But anything above that, you wouldn't get prosecuted either. She was a horrible attorney general. She was a horrible DA. She was a DA of San Francisco. That was the beginning of the end. San Francisco was possibly the best city in our country -- 15, 18 years ago -- and now it's not livable. We're going to bring them all back. We're going to bring the cities back, but it's not even livable. So Pennsylvania is a very important place. And it's -- you know, I went to school here. I went to college here, as you know. And it's a great, great place. It's a fabulous place at the Commonwealth. And we're going to make you very happy. All of those things that we talked about are very easily solvable with you. That's such an easy -- that can be done in one day. I had a cabinet maker. He said, "Sir, China and South Korea are dropping cabinets into our country for nothing. And I can't compete." And I studied it. And I ended up putting a 50- or 75-percent tariff on all cabinets coming into the country. And I didn't know the guy. He just -- I met him previously going in to the presidency. And I saw him four years later. He said, "Sir, you saved my business. You saved the job. I expanded." They stopped with the dumping. And to steal the same thing -- I think to steal people like me the best. Unfortunately, Biden's let it go. I put tariffs. They were dumping Chinese steel into our country, David, at levels that nobody's ever seen before. We've never seen anything like it. And I put a 50-percent tariff on all steel coming in from China and some other places, too, but all steel. And we saved these companies. But Biden has let it go. And we need steel. Look, you know, there are some things you could get from outside. But if we're in a war, and we need army tanks, and we need ships, and we need other things that happen to be made of steel, what are we going to do? Go to China and get the steel? We're fighting China. But do you mind selling us some steel? Think of it. These people don't know what they're doing. So I put big tariffs on steel. They were dumping steel. And it was bad steel, too. It was rotted -- what's called rotted steel, bad steel. It was imperfect steel. People were building girders for buildings, and they'd check them, and they're not good. The steel wasn't good. But they were dumping at tremendous levels. And I ended the dumping of steel. But these people, since they took over this U.S. steel, I would not allow that deal to happen. U.S. steel -- this was one of the greatest companies in the world. You go back 70 years. This was the big deal -- United States steel. And now they can let the Japanese buy it? I wouldn't let it happen. I'd help them so they can make the steel company good again. This was the biggest company in the world. The strongest company had the biggest reputation. It represented our country. And now we're selling it to the Japanese. The psychology of that is unacceptable to me. So I wouldn't let that deal happen personally. But we'll see what happens. I hope it's going to be -- I hope it won't have closed by the time I get there. But I would not let that deal happen. And you're right. They have other things. You look at China, they're opening up coal plants. Every week, they're doing a big coal plant. And John Kerry -- watch this poor guy. This guy -- it's so pathetic. He flies over in his own jet. You know, his wife has some money from a certain family, right? They're right? And he's got a little jet. He flies over to China. He sees President Xi. He says, "Oh, yes, I will -- I will consider this very strongly. I will consider your request to stop building coal plants." And then he leaves. He comes back. "Oh, I had a good conversation." Nothing gets done. They're building coal plants. He had zero impact. But we don't build anything here. And what people don't understand is all that pollution in China, all the pollution everywhere in the world -- much of it flies right over the United States. Takes three and a half days. Comes in from China. And it's sometimes bad. And it flies right over the United States. So what are we going to do about that? But nobody ever discusses that. They don't want to talk about that. So we'll be nice and clean. Same thing with the oceans. You take a look at the Pacific. It flies in from -- they dump it right in the ocean. And in about a week and a half -- -It's here. -It's in -- Welcome to Los Angeles, California. And we're lifting it out of the ocean all day long. We have -- It's a massive big business. We're taking their garbage out of the ocean because it floats right to the two-hour West Coast and other countries, too. So it sounds bleak, but we'll get it all straightened out. And we'll get it straightened out fast.

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-Thank you very much. It's an honor to be with you. And a special group of people, the farmers. Nobody's done or farmers what I've done. Unfortunately, they haven't followed through. We made a deal with -- China was one of my best deals that I made. I made a lot of good deals, but we made the USMCA. Mexico, Canada, which was terrific. But we had a specific deal with China where they were gonna buy $50 billion worth of farm product. And it's interesting how we got there, because when the negotiation was going on and it was a nasty negotiation, and I said to the farmers, "Just stick with me, because we're gonna do it. They're great negotiators. They're not gonna go that fast. Just stick with me, because you never had anybody negotiating for the farmers before me as president." And my people, I said, "What are the numbers we're talking about?" And they said, "15 million. 15, not 50." I said, "All right, so it's $15 billion worth of product that they were gonna buy because they've been taking advantage of the farmers for years." This was like a penalty to China. And I thought they said, "50, not 15." So, the negotiations -- I said, "How are you doing with the 50 billion?" "No, sir, we're close to 15." I said, "What do you mean 15? You said 50." I said, "No, no. I want 50." They said, "That's not what we said. We said 15." I said, "That's okay. Ask for 50. Tell them we have to have 50 billion, not 15." And I got it. The problem is -- big problem -- that now they don't enforce it. I enforced it. Every single week, I'd go into the office. I'd say, "How's China doing?" Because you have to live up to that commitment. I'd say, "How's China doing? Buying the product. Goods are good. They're doing good." And they were doing good because they knew I was watching. I don't think Biden is exactly watching. Do you? Does anybody think that Biden is -- let's check it. I don't think so. And it's a shame. And that number is way lower than it's supposed to be. So the first thing I'd do is I would -- probably my first call, I'm going to call up President Xi. I'm going to say, "You have to honor the deal you made." We made a deal you'd buy $50 billion worth of American farm product, and I guarantee you he will buy it 100 percent. He will buy it. Second thing I'm going to do is I'm going to say, you have to give the death penalty to your fentanyl dealers who are sending fentanyl. You know, in China, they give the death penalty. They don't have a drug problem because they give the death penalty. But I'm going to say, second thing -- and this affects you also. It affects everybody. We're losing hundreds of thousands of people a year. Comes through the southern border. Now the weakest border in history. It was the best border we ever had when I was there. We built hundreds of miles of wall and everything else, and it was the best border now. So we just -- I had a handshake deal with him. It was going to happen very quickly. And then this side didn't -- didn't do anything about it. He said, and he suggested to me, "Anybody sends fentanyl to the United States, it's the death penalty." They get the maximum penalty. They would have done it, and then we had an election that didn't exactly work out too good. And it was a disgrace, frankly. And that deal went, and a lot of other bad things happened, like Russia attacking Ukraine, October 7th, inflation. A lot of bad things happened. The horrible way we got out of Afghanistan. So many things happened that wouldn't have happened. But it did, nevertheless. But as to the farmers, we have a deal in place that China is supposed to buy $50 billion worth of our product, and they are not living it up to -- up to it. And they were living up to it. And every farmer I spoke to -- I spoke to a lot of them recently in Iowa, and they're having the same problem. They're not doing well. They're not doing well. They were doing great during the Trump administration. I think you would say that. Were you all -- I hope you -- this is always dangerous to do, but I hope you'd say you were doing well because you're not doing now. I'm hearing it from farmers all over the place. And one of the big reasons is they haven't enforced the deal with China. And that deal was really a penalty deal to China because they took advantage of you for 25 years, and it was like a penalty. And, you know, Biden and Harris, they're never going to enforce anything. That group -- that group is a disaster. It's a disaster for our country in so many ways, but certainly the farmers are one of those ways.

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I'm going to be a little bit different on my story here because my wife and I are both energy workers. So with the energy transition in Pennsylvania, our focus and our ability to take our financial resources and put those back into the farm has been tremendous. Without that energy job we wouldn't have been able to better our farm and better our situation. Without my industry and my work family the opportunities afforded to me, especially like this today, wouldn't be possible. And as you sit here today you're sitting on top of the Marcellus and the Utica Shales. The most prolific shale plays in the world are underneath your feet. My family depends on my salary and my wife's salary. And those salaries are dependent on American, pro-American, pro-energy policy. With this pro-energy policy would allow operators to develop abundant clean natural gas from below our feet. Appalachia produces roughly 30 billion cubic feet of gas per day. We could double the amount if we were just given the opportunity. Common sense policies that allow for infrastructure to be built here, pipelines. We need more pipelines. Doubling our output would be the equivalent of putting 10 million barrels of energy on the market for the world stage, providing opportunities for families to remain farming. Because guess what? We pay those royalties. We pay billions of royalties a year to landowners just like everybody that's around here at this table. And due to the ups and downs, I want to tell you a little bit of a personal story of mine. Due to the ups and downs of the commodity based business, four years ago I was faced with an ultimatum. And that ultimatum was do I chase my corporate job? Or do I stay here and work on a family farm? My wife and I, we made the decision not to move to Texas. We made the decision that it was family first, that it was legacy over money. So our conscious decision to raise our two beautiful daughters as fourth generation on our farm is the best decision we made in our relatively young lives. There has been no greater honor than to represent my family, my industry, and the pivotal role we play together. The intersection between agriculture and industry, it's a tight knit one. We need the farmers just like they want us to provide the energy. And responsible natural gas development should not be a partisan issue. It's a common sense issue. So I want to thank you again for allowing me to speak with you today. It's been an honor and I really appreciate it.

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Beth Lieber is a small business owner former dairy farmer and current beef and crops farmer from Westmoreland County like to introduce Beth Lieber Mr. President government and elected officials and honored guests Thank you for coming to Western PA again today to hear our concerns and address solutions My name is Beth Lieber and to play opposite of Nick. I married the farmer's son Who is here today with my two sons Levi and Owen? I'm a Christian a wife a mother of three and a small business owner in that particular order. I with my husband Brian own Own and operate a direct-to-consumer on the farm market Featuring beef that has been raised on the family farm in Donegal, PA We procure lamb chicken and pork from other small farms in Pennsylvania like ours and all the animals are harvested through local processors to our specifications Since opening in 2017 our goal has been to provide our customers with consistently high quality products while also supporting other small businesses and our community in May of 2020 we expanded our store and offerings due to the needs of consumers during COVID and to offer other businesses another avenue to sell their goods We now offer several agricultural and specialty items all produced in or near the Laurel Highlands area My husband is also a full-time owner operator of transport in the dry bulk industry And I also work part-time for a Christian school is the food service director I share our occupations as an introduction to explain the challenges due in large part to the inflation that we have seen That we have witnessed and experienced both as a producer and a retailer and also a consumer as a truck driver My husband normally fills his truck two to three times a week with diesel in January of 21 just after Biden revoked the Keystone Pipeline One of our fuel receipts totaled five hundred and ninety two dollars for two hundred gallons of fuel That was two dollars and ninety nine cents a gallon In May of 22 a year after our energy independence moved overseas Feel one of our fuel receipts totaled nine hundred and ninety six dollars for one hundred and sixty six gallons of fuel That was five dollars and ninety nine cents a gallon That three dollars per gallon more means upwards of eight hundred to twelve hundred dollars a week in Fuel expense and less to meet our business and family's needs This net zero approach has also increased farm costs exponentially, which I know comes as no surprise to anyone here today Fertilizer is up thirty to sixty percent in 2024 not to mention the increase in seed cost the fuel the parts and supplies and man hours for planting Electric has doubled from around four hundred dollars a month in 21 to eight hundred dollars a month this year Just to run some equipment and the lights that doesn't include heat in 2023 feeder cap prices reached an all-time high Coupled with the increase in other commodities and prices to farmers not keeping up This equals very small profit margins and therefore we have been purchasing a fraction of the feeder cattle that we have the capacity to feed Our farm currently feeds out approximately 70 to 100 head of cattle and that is reduced from 180 to 200 head just two to four years ago But we have the capacity to feed upwards of four to five hundred Actually, we are currently feeding only enough to satisfy our direct-to-consumer base as it remains somewhat constant the seasonal tourism of camping and skiing in the Laurel Highlands contributes to our sales and we are located in the heart of the Laurel Highlands I Handle all of the customer relations for our on the farm market and our customers often share their concerns with me These are some of the things I hear most often. I really don't need a lot of beef anymore. It costs too much. I Can't afford to purchase a whole animal this year. What smaller packages do you offer? We are visiting from out of town. We don't have any places like this where we are from and Recently, the thing I've heard the most is I used to purchase bulk beef from a farmer nearby Friend relative, but they don't have cattle anymore Just last week a local dairy in operation for over 65 years announced the closure of their bottling operations due to rising costs of supplies and down demand Other farms in the area have declared bankruptcy or sold-off property and down sized I can't even get started on the detrimental effects that the weather has had on the vegetation in our region this year From hailstorms to droughts our corn and soybeans were among the victims nevertheless Farmers are no strangers to the risk and the gamble that they take every single day in order to do what they know and Love and that is to farm their land And as always this too shall pass hopefully soon Jeremiah 29 11 tells us for I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you and not harm you Plans to give you hope and a future I'm not an economist and to be honest foreign policy is not in my wheelhouse, but this roundtable event is to address On how to protect our farms and food from China. It seems like basic conservative common sense to me Do what it takes to keep our farms producing our markets selling and our customers buying. Thank you for your time

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10 to 15 SIA arrests per year. Once word was out, the border was far easier to cross. San Diego went to over 100 SIA's in 2022. Well over that in 2023, and even more than that registered this year. These are only the ones we caught. At the time, I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIA's or mention any of the arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border. Fentanyl is another issue. The San Diego area sees between 80 and 90% of the methamphetamine and fentanyl seizures annually for our entire country. With little enforcement at the border, these drugs were coming through in mass. During my last year in San Diego, the price for a single pill of fentanyl, for example, went from $10 to 25 cents. To make matters worse, during 2022 and 23, I had to shut down San Diego traffic checkpoints, which are critical for drug interdiction, because the resources had been diverted to the process and release mission. The large numbers also had and still have a negative impact on the San Diego community. I had to release illegal aliens by the hundreds each day into communities who could not support them. To quiet the problem, two flights a week were provided from San Diego to Texas. These flights simply brought aliens that would have been released in San Diego over to Texas. Each flight cost approximately $150,000. This was the administration's way to try and quiet the voter-wide crisis.

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