From time to time, John Hinderaker complains about the fact that there is essentially no more iron mining industry left in Minnesota.

During those times I regularly point out that the poor grade ore bodies in Minnesota are simply non-economic — in the modern world.

The miners simply cannot compete on the world stage — compared to Australia, Brazil and Canada (among a dozen others better suited to global economic realities).

Even so — tonight, Bill Glahn again complains that Iowa might get a very large steel mill operation – with some future/fantasy theory that Minnesota’s iron ore will be smelted there.

Not a chance — like everything else that Trump proposes, this is simply a silly lie. And it’s calculated to influence the midterms. But it won’t.

The only way any of that ever happens is, if Donald Trump’s federal government pays astonishingly vast monetary subsidies to both Iowa and Minnesota.

Otherwise, there is zero chance that a for-profit company will break even, after shipping these immense tonnage figures of ore by rail all the way to Iowa, for smelting. [The same stupid playbook has been used regarding coal in West Virginia by Trump.]

So I guess what we’ve learned here is that these supposed-conservatives are not conservative — at all. They favor subsidies, for their pet industries — but only in red states. Hilarious.

Here endeth the lesson.