We understand why beef prices are a problem right now. Ground beef is averaging $6.89 a pound, up 57% since 2021, and that's real pressure on American families.
But flooding the market with 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef with no tariff for 90 days is not a solution for American ranchers. It's a short-term price fix that puts more downward pressure on the cattle producers who are already struggling to stay viable. Trump has not said which countries this beef is coming from or who committed to the 25% price reduction he's promising.
American cattle ranchers have been dealing with years of drought, high feed costs, and a shrinking herd. The answer to that is not more cheap imported beef with lower standards competing against them on shelves with no country of origin label required to tell you the difference.
We will continue to source 100% American. That is not changing.
I can't take the gaslighting, guys. I really can't. Conservatives are now running around saying "Iran has been waging war on us for 47 years." Okay then why didn't any of you call for an attack on Iran at any point until now? Why didn't you make a case for Trump "ending the war, not starting it" until precisely the moment when Trump did it? You and I both know that you are latching onto a talking point you never used until 45 seconds ago. You and I both know that almost every conservative influencer in the business was opposed to war with Iran until just now. And now you're trying to use justifications that stretch back decades. It doesn't make any sense. If you changed your mind, fine. Say so. Explain why. You're allowed to change your mind. I've changed my mind about things. But don't try to rewrite history. Be honest about it. There's too much at stake to play these games.
I just visited a shop class in Great Falls, Montana where high school students are building houses for people who need a place to call home.
Let that sink in for a moment.
High schoolers in Great Falls Montana, under the guidance of an excellent shop instructor and lots of community support, are building actual houses. Not birdhouses or doll houses – real homes, built to code from the ground up for real people, and move-in ready.
Yesterday, I toured the latest home these kids are in the process of building. It’s the 48th such home built since 1998, through this remarkable program. While I was there, I ran into @GregForMontana. Like me, the Governor was blown away by what these kids were doing and took the time to talk to each one of them, thanking them for their hard work and congratulating them for what they’d accomplished. I was then invited to join the Governor on stage at Great Falls High, where I answered a few questions about mikeroweWORKS, talked about the many opportunities in the skilled trades, and discussed the ways we might be able to encourage more projects like this one, in Montana and beyond.
It's encouraging to see public/private partnerships done right. And really, it’s not that complicated; it just takes a few stubborn people in various organizations who won't take no for an answer. In this case, too many to name, but a quick shout out to Pete Pace, the shop teacher at the center of High School Homes, the administrators in the school district, the principal at Great Falls High, Sherrie Arey and her devoted crew at @neighborworks, the incredibly generous executives at @WellsFargo who offered another round of financial support, and a Governor with the good sense to push through the normal bureaucratic nonsense that kills programs like this. Bravo to all!
Mike
PS. This is the third time in two months I’ve seen a program like this in action. The first was in Western North Carolina, (Rebuilding the Hollars), the second was in New Orleans, (@uCCNOLA.) The projects all have one thing in common - a shop class with an exceptional instructor. Like I said, it takes support from every direction, but a high school shop class is always where it starts.
For years, I’ve argued that removing shop class from high schools was a mistake that would deny a whole generation of students’ critical exposure to a long list of essential careers and rob them of an opportunity to prepare for the all-important apprenticeships on which most skilled careers are built. Today, standing in the shop class at Great Falls, watching dozens of engaged students cutting, hammering, measuring, and fabricating, it occurred to me that I was wrong. Taking shop class out of high school was not merely a mistake - it was the single dumbest decision in the history of modern education. We didn't just rob a whole generation of students, we robbed ourselves, in a colossal, self-inflicted wound that's led directly to a host of unintended consequences - including the current shortages in every essential skilled trade.
Correcting it, should be at or near the top of every Governor’s agenda in every single state. Because tomorrow’s skilled workforce is currently in the 8th grade, and if we don’t meet these kids where they are - right now - with programs like this, we’re in for a world of hurt.
We don’t blow up boats off Miami because 25% of the time suspicion is wrong.
We shouldn’t do it off Venezuela either. These are small outboards with no fentanyl and no path to Florida.
We can’t just kill indiscriminately because we are not at war. It’s summary execution!
Everyone gets a trial because sometimes, the system gets it wrong. Even the worst of the worst in our country get due process.
The bottom line is that execution without process is not justice, and blowing up foreign ships is a recipe for chaos.
Dogs don’t bark at parked cars.
There’s a reason some of the world’s richest and most powerful people are trying to get me out of Congress.
I’m just one of 435 votes but I bring transparency to an otherwise dark and corrupted institution of government.
@TheGermanicist@MattWalshBlog God will decide if your fruit is good. I believe Joseph smith was a bad apple. You couldn’t comprehend my beliefs and i cannot comprehend your beliefs. All i know is what i know and i hope one day it is enough.
@TheGermanicist@MattWalshBlog Joseph Smith was a heretic. That being said, a person would be hard pressed to find a better group of people than the mormon community. The lds church is a corporation that does great work all across the world. I am not to judge but my belief is with paul in Galatians 1:8–9.