Google uses algorithms and does an analysis on a word by word basis. There were several words that I would strongly believe would trigger political ads. Yes, the OP started this thread based on questions about manufacturing, but others chimed in with their reasoning about the current state of manufacturing, and included comments that were in no way related to the OP's question. So, this thread not only drifted from the OP, but drifted in a direction forbidden by our ToS.
So, as much as I don't like locking threads, this one is doomed to be locked, simply because the existing posts are political in nature, and this is bringing AdSense ads into the fray. We don't want either here.