Post New Article

Where do pencils come from?

Original Article

Posted By: DW626, 8/25/2025 12:27:57 PM

Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-Los Angeles), a 17-year veteran of Capitol Hill, recently posted a graphic on X blaming “Trump’s tariffs” for the rising cost of back-to-school supplies. A glance at her list reveals a more telling story: most of the items are pencils, pens, paper, and lunchboxes. Essentials. Yet, much of what American children need to write, organize, and eat comes from overseas. Yes, pencils. Once staples of every classroom, most American pencils are now imported from China, Brazil, and Mexico. Domestic pencil production has largely disappeared. Take Dixon Pencils. Until the 1980s they used to make pencils in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Post Reply

Reminder: “WE ARE A SALON AND NOT A SALOON”

Your thoughts, comments, and ideas are always welcome here. But we ask you to please be mindful and respectful. Threatening or crude language doesn't persuade anybody and makes the conversation less enjoyable for fellow L.Dotters.


Reply 1 - Posted by: MickTurn 8/25/2025 12:40:58 PM (No. 1995279)
Maybe Chu needs to Chuse her new country, remove citizenship & DEPORT!
11 people like this.

Reply 2 - Posted by: FL_Absentee_Voter 8/25/2025 1:10:32 PM (No. 1995290)
Article reminds me of 'The Office' episode where Michael was addressing an auditorium full of college students about the continuing requirement for paper in the future. Upon requesting they all take out a sheet of paper and prepare to take notes, they all opened up their laptops.
8 people like this.

Reply 3 - Posted by: john56 8/25/2025 1:12:32 PM (No. 1995291)
In about two weeks, I'll be returning to my hometown in Wisconsin. As a youth there some 60+ years ago, I remember a vibrant town, full of various factories making things from washing machines, medical furniture, aluminum products, and many other products. Plants ran three shifts and a vibrant business climate existed to serve the 14,000 people in town. Today, most if not all the factories are gone, even physically gone. As I told a good friend, also from my home town, we all learned that we left town to get an education and the first thing we learned was not to come back. Four Catholic elementary schools with several hundred students are gone. Downtown is full of empty storefronts. The 11,000 people left are more elderly than before. The union bosses and owners all sold out ... the jobs first went to the southern states and then to Mexico and China.
19 people like this.

Reply 4 - Posted by: Hermit_Crab 8/25/2025 1:15:39 PM (No. 1995292)
So, does Judy Chu actually not understand the one of the two major parts / reasons behind Trumps Tariffs (To encourage the return of manufacturing to the United States), despite her mentioning that the manufacture of those items having moved offshore relatively recently. Or does she actually understand it, and just seizing upon it for purely propaganda reasons to attack Trump with another "Its For The Children" whine, to get the low-infos upset about something else? Or maybe she has relatives back in Guangdong in the pencil or lunch box manufacturing business, and is trying to keep them from being impacted from temporary tariffs.
8 people like this.

Reply 5 - Posted by: JunkYardDog 8/25/2025 1:29:39 PM (No. 1995296)
Chus is the perfect example of the Dems are both morally & intellectually bankrupt. The Dems have NOTHING LEFT IN THE TANK EXCEPT TO CRITICIZE Trump. He could literally save the world and it wouldn't be enough for them.
9 people like this.

Reply 6 - Posted by: itsonlyme 8/25/2025 1:40:23 PM (No. 1995299)
Judy "NoFwiedWiceForCu" Chu
2 people like this.

Reply 7 - Posted by: earlybird 8/25/2025 1:58:02 PM (No. 1995303)
Flaming lib in same job for too long. When did luchboxes become nedcessties?
7 people like this.

Reply 8 - Posted by: Mizz Fixxit 8/25/2025 2:29:14 PM (No. 1995312)
USA Gold pre-sharpened No. 2 pencils made in Tennessee available on Amazon. $2.69 for a 12-pack.
12 people like this.

Reply 9 - Posted by: hershey 8/25/2025 3:30:08 PM (No. 1995334)
Dumb as a rock...she needs to be put on the Chu Chu out of Washington...
4 people like this.

Reply 10 - Posted by: Avikingman 8/25/2025 3:43:17 PM (No. 1995342)
I Pencil by Milton Friedman. A classic on economics done by the master. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ERbC7JyCfU
3 people like this.

Reply 11 - Posted by: Maggie2u 8/25/2025 3:59:06 PM (No. 1995351)
Poster #7, I was wondering that also. My kids didn't have lunch boxes, I used brown paper sacks.
6 people like this.

Reply 12 - Posted by: vhs68 8/25/2025 4:26:38 PM (No. 1995362)
I usually get my pencils from behind my ear.
5 people like this.

Reply 13 - Posted by: Vaquero45 8/25/2025 5:26:57 PM (No. 1995379)
Judy Chu is a Democrat. That means she’s a moron. Anything she says isn’t worth listening to.
3 people like this.

Reply 14 - Posted by: FLCracker 8/25/2025 5:50:08 PM (No. 1995390)
I don't know about the graphite, but the wood, for years and years and year, came from Florida's Cedar Keys, out there in the Gulf, just off the end of "Follow That Dream" Highway, in the vicinity of Yankeetown. I think they make the erasers from the tailings found at red granite quarries, fairly common across the US.
2 people like this.

Reply 15 - Posted by: DVC 8/25/2025 7:06:32 PM (No. 1995420)
It's impoissible to purchase a wooden pencil where the erase is of ANY functional value whatsoever. The garbage pink plastic crap that the put where the ERASER used to be is worthless, just an ornament, or bad joke. It sure as hell isn't an eraser.
1 person likes this.

Reply 16 - Posted by: danu 8/26/2025 3:07:41 AM (No. 1995536)
number 2 pencils come from bannon's war room.
1 person likes this.

Reply 17 - Posted by: mifla 8/26/2025 6:40:36 AM (No. 1995556)
20% cumulative inflation under Biden is not Trump's fault.
0 people like this.

Reply 18 - Posted by: Laotzu 8/26/2025 8:25:39 AM (No. 1995611)
Everything old is new again. From Time Magazine, March 10,1944: "In 1921 Armand Hammer went to Russia and, realizing that there is almost nothing a bureaucracy needs so much as pencils, began to manufacture them for the newly established Soviet Government. He made such good pencils that grateful Bolsheviks sent him back to the U.S. to unload their greatest white elephant, the Imperial Russian crown jewels and objets d’art. "
1 person likes this.

Reply 19 - Posted by: TXknitter 8/26/2025 1:51:32 PM (No. 1995760)
Thanks for the tip, #8. I am still using pencils and I am picky about them. I was buying a made in the USA exclusively brand but can no longer find them.
0 people like this.

Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "DW626"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Most Recent Articles posted by DW626"
Where do pencils come from? 19 replies
Posted by DW626 8/25/2025 12:27:57 PM Post Reply
Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-Los Angeles), a 17-year veteran of Capitol Hill, recently posted a graphic on X blaming “Trump’s tariffs” for the rising cost of back-to-school supplies. A glance at her list reveals a more telling story: most of the items are pencils, pens, paper, and lunchboxes. Essentials. Yet, much of what American children need to write, organize, and eat comes from overseas. Yes, pencils. Once staples of every classroom, most American pencils are now imported from China, Brazil, and Mexico. Domestic pencil production has largely disappeared. Take Dixon Pencils. Until the 1980s they used to make pencils in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Trump Won’t Let Pinko Jerks Who Hate
America Define American History
9 replies
Posted by DW626 8/25/2025 5:58:33 AM Post Reply
President Trump was already scaring the hell out of the leftists, but they’re absolutely terrified now that he’s taking aim at their control of the institutions that manage our history; the skinsuit is coming off, and the castrated commie emperorhas been exposed as having no clothes. They hate America, and they hate our history, and they want to twist it into a garotte to strangle our patriotism. No thanks. Our history is our history, not theirs, and from here on in, we’re going to tell our story, not them. So, this obviously means that Trump loves slavery, or at least that’s obvious to people who are either stupid
Celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse
Tyson: If there is a Creator, He is pretty stupid
29 replies
Posted by DW626 8/24/2025 1:47:17 PM Post Reply
The headline read: “If We Really Did Have a ‘Creator,’ He Certainly Wouldn’t Have Been Very intelligent.” Say what?! The headline -- and story -- were on a site called The Daily Galaxy, of which I know nothing. But the piece and its banner were spawned by a remark Neil deGrasse Tyson made during one of his many public talks/interviews. At one point, Tyson actually stated, “If we had a creator, I’d have to say that the creator is pretty stupid.” Unlike Neil deGrasse Tyson Himself, of course. I mean, he’s brilliant. Tyson also magnanimously stated: “I have no problems, if as we probe the origins of things, we bump up
Saturday Schadenfreude: The swamp shudders
'who will be next' in the wake of the
Bolton raid
19 replies
Posted by DW626 8/23/2025 7:11:36 PM Post Reply
The swamp is being drained. And now that the first alligator has been taken out -- in the FBI raid on the home and office of Trump-hating former National Security official John Bolton, reportedly for mishandling state secrets -- the rest of them are sleeping with one eye open. The raid is focusing a lot of minds. They know what they did. They are wondering who will be next? "What if someone is cooperating against me"?
John Bolton Could Face Years in Prison 16 replies
Posted by DW626 8/22/2025 1:42:37 PM Post Reply
After the FBI raided John Bolton’s house on Friday, legal expert Jonathan Turley noted that the allegations against Bolton could potentially result in years of prison if they are true. The Donald Trump-Kash Patel FBI reportedly raided Bolton’s home and office in search of classified documents. As my colleague Kevin Downey Jr. reported, Trump and co. have yet to confirm the report officially, but Patel and his deputy co-director Dan Bongino hinted on X that it was true and the raid was part of enforcing the law. Turley, when he commented, noted that allegations such as those leveled against Bolton could, if proved in court, lead to decades in prison.
Trump Responds to His
Win Over Letitia James
12 replies
Posted by DW626 8/21/2025 1:51:40 PM Post Reply
President Donald Trump is responding to the decision by a New York appellate court Thursday to throw out the bogus $515 million fraud case brought against him by Attorney General Letitia James. Here is Trump's full reaction, which he posted on Truth Social: TOTAL VICTORY in the FAKE New York State Attorney General Letitia James Case! I greatly respect the fact that the Court had the Courage to throw out this unlawful and disgraceful Decision that was hurting Business all throughout New York State. Others were afraid to do business there. The amount, including Interest and Penalties, was over $550 Million Dollars. It was a Political Witch Hunt,
Menachem Begin’s eerily prescient remarks
about lessons from the Holocaust
5 replies
Posted by DW626 8/20/2025 12:52:27 PM Post Reply
In May 1981, young Jewish American leaders visiting Israel had the opportunity to speak with then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. One asked, “What do you think are the lessons of the Holocaust?” Begin’s reply is eerily prescient and provides important lessons that Christians as well as Jews must learn in the face of ascendant Islam. The first point Begin made essentially predicted October 7 and mandated Israel’s fierce response to the war Hamas started:
Are James Comey's Taylor Swift ravings
a new political con, or is he just weird?
29 replies
Posted by DW626 8/20/2025 2:19:11 AM Post Reply
Are James Comey's sudden babblings about how pop-tart singer Taylor Swift was his guide to life a sign that he knows he's legally up to his neck in alligators? Or is he just a weirdo? Seems both arguments have some truth. ack In case you haven't seen it, he wrote this sort of thing on his Substack, via GatewayPundit: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to my Substack. Last week’s cold turns out to have been COVID—quite a flashback.
The Farce Is Strong With Mark Hamill 21 replies
Posted by DW626 8/19/2025 3:56:25 PM Post Reply
Mark Hamill, the man most famous for playing the character of Luke Skywalker, recently admitted that he nearly packed his bags after Donald Trump won re-election in 2024. Apparently, the thought of another Trump term sent the actor spiraling into the dark side, ready to abandon this country altogether. He even floated the idea past his wife, Marilou York, offering her a choice between moving to London or settling in Ireland. It's a bold proclamation on its surface, but like so many of Hollywood’s political temper tantrums, it ended in retreat.
Russia’s Substantial Concessions 3 replies
Posted by DW626 8/19/2025 12:04:21 PM Post Reply
Many Trump agnostics, on both the Left and Right, have convinced themselves that a Ukraine peace deal is doomed. Never underestimate Trump. Envoy Steve Witkoff revealed the reality during his Sunday appearance with Jake Tapper. Witkoff spent extensive time negotiating with Putin during the previous week. Trump wouldn’t have invited Putin if a deal wasn’t in sight. Early in this administration, Witkoff was dismissed by media pundits as a naive and gullible dunce, taken to the cleaners in Iranian negotiations. How well did things work out for the surviving Iranian leadership? A billionaire New York attorney, Witkoff was initially dismissed by Qatari fanboy and San Francisco native Tucker Carlson
Was the FBI Behind the Oklahoma Bombing? 30 replies
Posted by DW626 8/19/2025 7:03:23 AM Post Reply
It has always been hard to believe that the truck-bombing of the A.P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, which killed 168 people, including 19 children at a daycare center, was planned by just one or two perpetrators acting alone. However, the official story states that the mastermind was Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh, and that the two others sentenced with him only helped him in various ways. Right from the start, warning signs indicated that the investigation was being misled. The FBI developed a story claiming that a group called the Patriots Movement, which included anti-government extremists and white supremacists, was responsible for the attack.
Comer Discloses Some Details
From Bill Barr’s Deposition Related
to Epstein Investigation (VIDEO)
12 replies
Posted by DW626 8/18/2025 4:59:33 PM Post Reply
Former US Attorney General Bill Barr appeared before the House Oversight Committee for a deposition related to an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Earlier this month Comer announced the Committee issued subpoenas to a who’s who of political elites and deep state operatives. The sweeping list includes former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller, Bill Barr and others.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Nearly 2.5M people sign petition supporting
illegal immigrant truck driver charged
in fatal crash
61 replies
Posted by JoElla Bee 8/25/2025 7:14:26 PM Post Reply
A petition urging Florida officials to show leniency toward Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant truck driver accused of causing a crash that killed three people, has garnered nearly 2.5 million signatures as of Sunday afternoon.The petition — posted on the website Change.org and addressed to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — calls for both DeSantis and the Florida Board of Executive Clemency to re-examine the case against the 28-year-old. Singh faces three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of manslaughter in connection with the deadly Aug. 12 crash.
Obama Judge Temporarily Blocks
Trump Admin From Deporting MS-13 Gang
Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda,
Sets Hearing For Friday
36 replies
Posted by JoElla Bee 8/25/2025 5:27:52 PM Post Reply
US District Court Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee on Monday set an evidentiary hearing for this Friday after MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia filed a lawsuit to block his deportation to Uganda.[snip] Judge Xinis also ordered Abrego not be moved from his detention facility in Virginia.[snip] she will order officials to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the United States while she weighs a new legal challenge from him over the Trump administration’s plans to quickly deport him to Uganda.
Indian Politician Defends Indian U-Turn Trucker 33 replies
Posted by franco 8/26/2025 7:06:46 AM Post Reply
India’s government should oppose a U.S. government crackdown on the 150,000 Indian drivers in the U.S. trucking industry, said an Indian politician whose district includes many of the drivers’ families. Harsimrat Kaur Badal represents a district in the Punjab region, which is home to many members of the Sikh ethnic group who work illegally or legally in the U.S. trucking industry. They include the Indian truck driver, Harjinder Singh, who is facing homicide charges after killing three Americans in a turnpike U-turn.
Trump hits ABC, NBC as ‘FAKE NEWS,’
says he’d support FCC revoking licenses
26 replies
Posted by Mercedes44 8/25/2025 5:35:53 AM Post Reply
President Trump went on a late-night attack against NBC and ABC News on Sunday, deriding them for what, in his view, was "biased" coverage and said he would be in favor of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revoking their licenses. The Republican president said the news outlets had given him negative coverage on "97%" of stories. It wasn’t clear from where Trump was citing the "97%" figure. A study released earlier this year by the conservative media watchdog group, Media Research Center (MRC), found that coverage of the president’s first 100 days in office was "92% negative." 
Illegal Alien Truck Driver Cannot Speak
or Read English
25 replies
Posted by glagrone2020 8/26/2025 8:24:29 AM Post Reply
On August 12, 2025, an illegal alien, Harjinder Singh, who obtained a Commercial Driver’s License from the State of California, killed three people by blocking the highway while making an illegal U turn in Florida. During an interview with investigators from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on August 14, 2025, Singh demonstrated a lack of understanding of the English Language and was only able to correctly answer 2 of 12 verbal questions and accurately identify 1 of 4 highway signs. How did Harjinder Singh get in the USA? How did he get a Commercial Driver’s License? Are there more truckers like him? The answers will shock you.
What Made the Democratic Party Go Crazy? 25 replies
Posted by Moritz55 8/25/2025 3:30:15 PM Post Reply
The answer was not Trump alone. Indeed, irony abounds when Democrats resonate with the claims of the vestigial Never Trumpers that the MAGA movement “hijacked” the Republican Party. In characteristic projectionist fashion, the left is simply falsely attributing to their opposition the very hijacking that hit the Democratic Party. The Republicans are still the party of conservatism and traditionalism. But in the last decade, it adopted an expansionary middle-class agenda that has led to record party registration, its first popular presidential vote victory since 2004, and control of all three branches of government.
Watch: Britain Erupts in Mass Protests
Against Illegal Immigrants
25 replies
Posted by Dreadnought 8/25/2025 12:24:25 AM Post Reply
It's beginning to look like the British people have had enough. Enough illegal immigration, enough "asylum seekers" being housed in British hotels at taxpayer expense, enough no-go zones, enough grooming gangs, enough knife attacks, enough rape. They've had enough, and this weekend just past, they sure let their government know about it. The question is, how much good will it do? Mass protests have exploded outside migrant hotels across the country this weekend as furious families gathered in major cities including Birmingham and London. A group of protesters, some draped in the St George's Cross, gathered outside the Castle Bromwich Holiday Inn
One Year Ago Today I Ruined My Life 24 replies
Posted by Moritz55 8/25/2025 10:35:23 AM Post Reply
One year ago today, on August 24th, 2024, I was freshly back from three days at the Democratic National Convention. I’d worked in politics nearly half my life, starting out as an intern on Barack Obama’s campaign when I was only seventeen years old, then as a field organizer for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Before Obama won the primary in 2008, I was an alternate delegate for Hillary in Kansas’ third congressional district, one of the youngest ever in the state of Kansas.
Trump Executive Order: Burn the American
Flag, Go to Jail
22 replies
Posted by Dreadnought 8/25/2025 2:50:38 PM Post Reply
I’m not a lawyer, but I‘ve never quite understood how burning the American flag is a “free speech” issue. Lighting a flag on fire isn’t the same as giving your opinion or writing an article—it’s an action. If I took my bedsheet and lit it on fire on Fifth Avenue, I’m pretty sure a cop would be stopping by shortly. Donald Trump is certainly no fan of flag-burning, and on Monday, he signed an executive order banning the practice. Titled PROSECUTING BURNING OF THE AMERICAN FLAG, the order vows to restore the “sanctity” of the Stars and Stripes: My Administration will act to restore respect and sanctity to the American Flag
When Halal Food is the Only Choice 22 replies
Posted by Judy W. 8/25/2025 10:19:12 AM Post Reply
In 2015, then-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, opening wide the doors of her country to close to a million overwhelmingly Muslim immigrants, assured her countrymen that “Wir schaffen das!” or “We Can Do This.” (Snip) In the highly affluent city of Gelsenkirchen, it is abundantly clear how far public institutions have already progressed in adapting to Islamic principles. Several state schools there have completely converted their meals to halal – with no alternative options for “non-believing students.” (Snip) Starting next school year, all students there will only be served what Allah and his believers consider halal.
Despite Recent Good News, The Public Remains
Sour On The Economy, I&I/TIPP Poll Finds
22 replies
Posted by RockyTCB 8/25/2025 9:15:13 AM Post Reply
Inflation may have moderated, and the economy is showing signs of healthy growth, but the public remains deeply concerned about both, according to the latest I&I/TIPP poll. The poll found that fully 80% of those surveyed by I&I/TIPP say they are either “very” (45%) or “somewhat” (35%) concerned about inflation. Just 17% say they are not concerned. That’s despite the fact that inflation has averaged just 2.6% this year – which is significantly lower than any year under the Biden administration – and came in lower than expected in July. And while the economy grew a healthy 3% in the second quarter –
Terrifying new details of Canada's advancing
assisted suicide laws... including push
to euthanize newborn BABIES
20 replies
Posted by JoElla Bee 8/25/2025 6:04:06 PM Post Reply
Canada's assisted suicide laws have continued rapidly expanding in recent years, with a group of doctors now pushing for disabled newborn babies to be euthanized.The demand for euthanasia is so high that doctors who provide it cannot keep up, according to a new report by The Atlantic. Assisted dying, legalized in 2016, now accounts for about one out of 20 deaths in Canada, far surpassing countries where it's been legal for longer. As assisted deaths have become a major part of Canada's health care system, the Quebec College of Physicians suggested legalizing euthanasia for infants born severely ill.
Post New Article