Have you seen the latest bat crap crazy thing to come from Florida Republicans?

[CoffeeTiger 5,169]

Just now, AUFAN78 said:

Be my guest.

 

[DKW 86 7,440]

Most of the discussion about SLAVERY in the US Body Politik is just empty headed people speaking empty words they do not mean. If you want to DO something about SLAVERY then lets do something for today.

Freedom United

You can read the short transcript instead.

• Slavery has been linked to the supply chains of many everyday products and commodities, including shoes, electronics, cocoa, and cotton.
• Nestle, Mars and Hershey all source cocoa from West Africa, where cases of child labour and forced labour have been discovered, and still persist.
• Modern slavery is connected to crisps, ice cream and lipstick through palm oil. The palm oil industry employs 3.5 million people. Many are promised high-paying work in another country, only to suffer conditions of forced labour upon arrival.
• Cotton is in 40% of all textiles, and is known to have people enslaved at every stage of the industry, from germination, harvesting, spinning, to manufacturing the clothes.
• It would cost consumers as little as 1.8% more per item to double the pay of a sweat shop worker. A study showed that consumers would be willing to pay up to 15% more for slavery-free clothing.
• As many as one in three foreign workers in Malaysia’s electronics sector may be working under conditions of forced labour.
• Coltan and other “conflict minerals” present in electronics devices often come from forced labour in illegal mining whose profits support armed forces.
• Forced labour is big business, with profits estimated at $150 billion, or around £125 billion.
• Some countries have been making efforts to force companies to take steps to ensure their supply chains are slavery-free, including Brazil’ has a “Dirty List,” the UK’s Modern Slavery Act and the U.S. Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act.

Take Action: End child exploitation in cocoa

Enes Kanter Calls Out Nike, Co-Founder Phil Knight Over Forced Labor in China

 

Seven Apple suppliers in China allegedly using forced labor through state-run programs

 

From Apple to Adidas: Brands Use Ethnic Minority Slave Labor in China

 

[DKW 86 7,440]

Lawmakers: NBA players profiting from ‘slave labor’ in China

More than a dozen National Basketball Association stars may soon be facing off against a formidable new opponent: Congress. Some Republicans are demanding that NBA players sever endorsement contracts with Chinese sportswear firms Anta and Li-Ning whose cotton supply chains are implicated in forced labor in China’s Xinjiang province. The Trump administration banned imports of Xinjiang cotton and products containing it in January.

“Americans can’t and shouldn’t conduct business with companies and players that profit through human slavery,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Penn.) told POLITICO. “And that includes NBA players — they can’t sign endorsement deals and benefit off slave labor.”

Scott isn’t alone in his scrutiny of NBA players with links to Chinese sportswear firms whose supply chains are tainted by forced labor allegations. The bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China is also probing NBA players' commercial relationships with Anta, Li-Ning and a third Chinese sport wear company, Peak, due to their reliance on Xinjiang cotton for their products. And the Senate’s July 15 passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act will likely only intensify sensitivity in Congress to firms with supply chains linked to forced labor in Xinjiang.

All that is bad news for NBA stars, including Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler, Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum and Klay Thompson, shooting guard for the Golden State Warriors, who have lucrative contracts with Li-Ning or Anta. Retired Miami Heat star and part-owner of the Utah Jazz, Dwyane Wade, inked a lifetime endorsement deal with Li-Ning in 2018. Neither Wade nor 13 current NBA players with Li-Ning or Anta endorsements responded to POLITICO requests for comment.

“If they didn’t know [their corporate sponsor] sourced slave labor cotton from Xinjiang, that’s one thing,” Perry said. “But if they do know … they are complicit with slavery.”

N. Jeremi Duru, sports law professor at American University’s Washington College of Law, echoes Perry’s sentiment. “Athletes can do well [financially] and do good,” Duru told POLITICO. “Those who do business with entities like [Li-Ning and Anta] will find themselves on the wrong side of history.” Anta and Li-Ning have benefited from a boom in domestic share price and sales increases over the past year after Chinese consumers boycotted rival brands, including Nike and Adidas, for vowing to stop using Xinjiang-sourced cotton for their products.

Despite the ban and Li-Ning’s unavailability at any major brick and mortar or online U.S. sport and sportswear retail chains, U.S. consumers can still order badminton and table tennis cotton socks and T-shirts on the firm’s online sales portal. That site, linked to a Canada-based firm called LN Distribution Inc., also lists a handful of low-volume direct dealers of Li-Ning branded badminton, table tennis and pickleball gear. Leonard Carter, LN Distribution’s general manager for sports equipment distribution, told POLITICO that 95 percent of the firm’s sales are for “hard goods” including rackets and that more than 95 percent of its clothing line is synthetic, not cotton. “I’d imagine if we tried to send a cotton T-shirt to the U.S., it would not get through,” Carter said.

Perry’s allegations against the firms are boosted by their boasting publicly that sourcing cotton in Xinjiang is a point of corporate patriotism. The bipartisan congressional commission wants those NBA players with Li-Ning or Anta endorsements to reconsider those deals. Commission co-chairs Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) sent a letter request to the National Basketball Players Association, the players’ union, asking it “to push these companies to end their use of Xinjiang cotton … [or] encourage players to end their endorsement deals with these companies.” NBPA leadership didn’t respond to the letter and the body’s executive director, Michele Roberts, did not respond to a POLITICO request for comment.

Despite growing congressional attention on NBA players with endorsements from the two firms, Congress can’t just tell players to end those deals. “I am not aware of any legislative tool that could be used to compel athletes to speak up or sever those relationships under existing law,” said John Grady, a sports law professor at the University of South Carolina.

Scott and fellow Republican Reps. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), Ronny L. Jackson (R-Texas) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.) are instead seeking leverage against Li-Ning, Anta and the NBA players they sponsor by pressuring the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to list the two firms on its Specially Designated Nationals list. SDN designation blocks the assets of individuals and companies listed and prohibits any U.S. citizens or permanent residents from doing business with them.

Perry accuses OFAC of bureaucratic foot-dragging by failing to mention in its July 16 response to his request whether OFAC had already imposed an SDN designation on the two firms and if not, the justification for not doing so. An OFAC spokesperson declined to comment about any “possible or pending sanctions actions or investigations” targeting Anta or Li-Ning. Perry says he’s willing to bypass OFAC and introduce legislation to sanction Anta and Li-Ning in a bid to “force the issue on the House floor.” Such moves may well prompt lawmakers to probe other U.S. entities with links to Li-Ning and Anta, including athletic apparel brand Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, who purchased a 0.6 percent stake in Anta in May 2019.

Meanwhile, Perry urges U.S. consumers to use their purchasing power to prod NBA players to sever relationships with the firms. “If you learn that NBA players are profiting off slave labor, don’t buy their apparel,” Scott said. “If their income from these endorsement deals start to dwindle, they’ll get the point.”

— A tech update from Protocol | China. Protocol | China, backed by Robert Allbritton, publisher of Protocol and POLITICO, tracks the intersection of technology and policy in the world's largest country. Sign up for the newsletter and learn more about Protocol’s research here. This week’s coverage includes a look at who should be scared of China’s new digital yuan (and who shouldn’t), why China’s era of Big Tech Overwork is finally ending, and how web users wrote a new disaster playbook in real time by repurposing social platforms during the flooding in Henan province.

TRANSLATING WASHINGTON

— China’s bellicose diplomatic style is here to stay: White House officials were probably hoping that the aggressive and accusatory style of engagement of Chinese officials at a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Anchorage in March was a one-off. Not so fast. The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s account of Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s meeting with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng on Monday made clear that such aggressive “wolf warrior” style diplomacy is now likely a feature of China’s engagement with the U.S., leading U.S. China experts say.

China’s increasingly “hawkish” diplomatic engagement reflects a worldview of President Xi Jinping that hinges on his belief “that China should more forcefully defend its interests,” Bonnie Glaser, Asia program director at the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., told POLITICO. “Xi views the international balance of power as more favorable to China than in the past and wants to seize the period in which ‘The East is rising, and the West is falling’ to advance his agenda and objectives.”

Glaser adds that Xi also reaps a public opinion windfall from such tactics. “It’s popular at home — the domestic audience wants China to stand up to the United States [and] it promotes national unity in support of the CCP,” she added.

China’s aggressive diplomacy should also be understood from an “action-reaction” perspective, David C. Kang, professor of international relations and business at the University of Southern California, told POLITICO. “Both the [U.S.] left and the right have zoomed over to a ‘blame China’ thesis and the Biden administration is just pummeling China on everything,” Kang said. “We’re acting surprised that China is standing up for itself after years of the U.S. pushing them around.”

But the implications of a further decline in U.S.-China relations requires Biden to take courageous, unilateral action in “averting the precipice” of a potentially dangerous deterioration in the relationship, warns Jerome A. Cohen, founder and faculty director emeritus of New York University’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute. Cohen urges Biden to demonstrate “presidential leadership” by making “a major speech to stem the adverse tide” in the relationship.

Biden’s challenge is to distance himself from rhetoric and policies “that distort and endanger our relations with China,” Cohen said. “What is needed is a mutual recognition by the U.S. and the PRC that it is time to sit down and discuss and try to resolve, issue by issue, some of the problems that are capable of management, if not solution, now.”

— Austin on China’s Pacific “aggression”: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reassured Indo-Pacific allies on Tuesday that the U.S. “will not flinch” in the face of increasingly aggressive Chinese military moves in the region. In a speech to the Singapore office of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Austin warned of Chinese threats to regional peace ranging from “aggression against India, destabilizing military activity and other forms of coercion against the people of Taiwan, and genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.” Austin balanced the criticism by stating his hopes for a stable and constructive relationship between the U.S. and China, including cooperation on “common challenges, especially the threat of climate change.”

— Beijing Olympic sponsors under fire: U.S. lawmakers subjected representatives of U.S. corporate sponsors of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to scrutiny on Tuesday at a hearing of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Officials with Airbnb, The Coca-Cola Company, Procter & Gamble, Intel and Visa were questioned on how their firms “can leverage their influence to insist on concrete human rights improvements” in China and their strategies to manage “the material and reputational risks of being associated with an Olympic Games held in the midst of a genocide.” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), CECC co-chair, accused the corporate participants of “tiptoeing around the focus of the hearing” and refusing to openly talk about “what is happening in Xinjiang and to the Uyghurs.”

— U.S.-China Policy called “disaster”: Stephen A. Orlins, president of the New York-based National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, urged the Biden administration in a speech on Thursday to urgently change course to address the “disaster” of U.S. foreign policy over the past years. Orlins said that despite President Joe Biden’s campaign rhetoric about the damage inflicted by the Trump administration’s confrontational China policies, the administration has reversed “too few” of the policies. Orlins urged Biden to take steps to heal the bilateral rift through various measures, including revocation of Trump-era tariffs and restrictions on Chinese state media as well as “revisiting” ongoing delisting of Chinese firms from U.S. stock exchanges.

[AUFAN78 3,926]

2 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

 

[AuburnNTexas 7,171]

1 hour ago, CoffeeTiger said:

 

So teach that America wasn't actually that special or unique from the rest of the worldn and did bad things and mistreated people just like all other countries did? 

Of course we have nobody has every said we were perfect but I will give you some great examples of American exceptionalism. After World War I the English and French made Germany sign an onerous treaty basically hamstring the German people and economy which led to the Rise of Hitler. After World War II the US signed fairer treaties but also helped both our allies and our enemies rebuild their economies. No other country before or after has ever done anything like that. We are special we are a true melting pot. We have often treated Immigrants badly when they arrived but over time those same immigrants have been accepted into the Fabric. In the 1800's there were signs in restaurants no dogs are Irish allowed.  Catholics had to create the Knights of Columbus so that when the bread winner of a Catholic household so that the Protestants wouldn't take their kids away and raise them as Protestants. Every immigrant group have been treated poorly by parts of our Society but we have had Irish Presidents, a Black president, many major cities states have had black mayors Italian governors, etc.  I have travelled a lot and seen other countries we are by far more accepting of people of different religions, races, cultures then most of the world that does not mean we are perfect. We as a people are exceptional but we are not perfect. Our exceptionalism is how we merge cultures over times. One of my sisters last name is Kamimoto, my wife is from El Salvador and Spain. 

I can get behind this. 

Wayy too much nationalistic, American exceptionalism bullcrap has been taught for so long in public schools. Just teach the facts. Americas done some great things...like all other countries and Americas done some horrible things...like all others too. 

Forcing all children to stand at attention, face the flag and  pledge allegiance to it and then say a prayer every morning for 12 years isn't something that public schools should be focused on. 

I can't understand why anybody in this country would be against the pledge of allegiance in school. To many have died for our ideals. As for prayer a moment of silence that kids can use for prayer if they want to what ever God they believe in or to just contemplate life. 

 

You must also mention that the United States was one of the last major nations to fully outlaw slavery too. While The founding ideas of freedom and liberty for all sounded nice on paper, the United States didn't actually follow those principles for a long time.

 

 

That sounds like 2 completely different topics, with the "But Black people cant run their own cities" angle is partisan and has nothing to do with American history curriculum and is more akin to a college essay assignment. 

The cities I am talking about have horrible education systems low graduation rates. These are the same cities that closed down schools for extended periods of time for remote education which hurt the minority communities the worse. Schools in the inner cities often provide breakfast and lunch for children whose families are not able to, it has caused social anxiety for the kids, higher suicide rates, and other issues for our children.  Most of the rest of the world either didn't close their schools or limited the length of time once it was found that children were not as acceptable to Covid and when they caught it the symptoms were usually much milder.  These are the same leaders that fight school choice.  You say it is partisan look at the Pastor on the Rooftop in Chicago and see what he says about things like school choice, liberal policies. He is on the streets everyday. The leaders of these cities have been promising for 50 years to fix inner city schools. It has been shown many time the private schools on the whole do a better job but they fight it. Sadly the political class once they are elected spend more time consolidating their power and getting re-elected then they do with dealing with their issues in their local communities this is true of to many people in politics regardless of race.

There isn't really an equal counterweight to the whole..."Yeah we enslaved and persecuted black people for a long time"

 

 

 

[autigeremt 6,686]

Most people don't deserve the America we should have. Some deserve a lot better. At the end of the day we all need to understand that our country is a speck in the history of the world but it is (and should be) important to us. It's our home! No other like it. Scars are real.....ignorance and idiots continue to "represent" us. If we don't figure it out we won't be who we are for much longer. 

[SaltyTiger 7,859]

8 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Nice. Anything constructive to say? 

Do you?

[CoffeeTiger 5,169]

13 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

Do you?

 

 AUFAN already used that joke in this thread.

It's not good enough to use twice. 

 

[I_M4_AU 7,987]

1 hour ago, CoffeeTiger said:

 

 AUFAN already used that joke in this thread.

It's not good enough to use twice. 

 

I think the question should be one that you have avoided.  You have told us how bad you think the Founding Fathers were and how students shouldn’t be *forced* to pray and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance, but you don’t let us know what you think how things should be done.

With reference to your previous statement; what do you believe in?

If you don’t believe in something, you will believe in anything.

[CoffeeTiger 5,169]

16 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

I think the question should be one that you have avoided.  You have told us how bad you think the Founding Fathers were and how students shouldn’t be *forced* to pray and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance, but you don’t let us know what you think how things should be done.

With reference to your previous statement; what do you believe in?

If you don’t believe in something, you will believe in anything.

Never said the founding fathers were "Bad", but they weren't as brilliant, infallible, and Godly as US Conservatives like to portray and teach them as. 

 

Yes, I don't think public schools should be pressuring or making kids pray or stand and cite the pledge of allegiance every morning. 

Teach the pledge of allegiance, the history of it, and say it on national patriotic holidays, that's fine, but having it repeated every single morning and at sporting events, etc doesn't do anything useful for anyone. It's a form of nationalism and patriotic fervor that you see in places like China and North Korea. The US can create loyal and educated citizens without resorting to that type of antics. 

 

I don't "hate America" I love America, but I also realize we have a dark history and have a lot of problems. We aren't "better" than all other nations and peoples...we are apart of a large and diverse world and we need to stop feeling puffed up in our perceived exceptionalism, and be more willing to make changes and fixes that will help make us stronger for the times to come. 

Edited January 28, 2022 by CoffeeTiger

[autigeremt 6,686]

9 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Never said the founding fathers were "Bad", but they weren't as brilliant, infallible, and Godly as US Conservatives like to portray and teach them as. 

 

Yes, I don't think public schools should be pressuring or making kids pray or stand and cite the pledge of allegiance every morning. 

Teach the pledge of allegiance, the history of it, and say it on national patriotic holidays, that's fine, but having it repeated every single morning and at sporting events, etc doesn't do anything useful for anyone. It's a form of nationalism and patriotic fervor that you see in places like China and North Korea. The US can create loyal and educated citizens without resorting to that type of antics. 

 

I don't "hate America" I love America, but I also realize we have a dark history and have a lot of problems. We aren't "better" than all other nations and peoples...we are apart of a large and diverse world and we need to stop feeling puffed up in our perceived exceptionalism, and be more willing to make changes and fixes that will help make us stronger for the times to come. 

The WORLD has problems and a very DARK history. We are the most diverse nation in the world....no other country can boast the mix of ethnic and cultural differences we have. It doesn't mean we are great at it, but we have it!!! If you are a citizen of the United States, you should strive to be the best there is. It's called a goal. We will never attain this, but we should strive for it. I won't disagree that we are (and never have been) perfect....but I won't apologize for the great things we have done for people all over this planet. No other country in the history of mankind has freely given to those in need like we have. Even our own blood. 

Edited January 28, 2022 by autigeremt

[I_M4_AU 7,987]

2 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

brilliant, infallible, and Godly as US Conservatives

They were brilliant.  Nobody is infallible.  Their belief that God was at the basis of civilization is what this country was based on, even though some of the Founding Fathers were not overly religious.

5 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

I don't think public schools should be pressuring or making kids pray or stand and cite the pledge of allegiance every morning. 

These moments should be used to center the student’s mind and set the attitude for the rest of the day especially in grade school.  Without these moments the students mind may not be ready to learn.   It doesn’t help everybody, but it helps.  How else do you develop a pride in you country?  And pride in your country is needed.

12 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

The US can create loyal and educated citizens without resorting to that type of antics. 

How?  We are so fractured right now loyalty would be difficult to obtain.

14 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

We aren't "better" than all other nations and peoples.

Yes, yes we are, just like Auburn fans are *better* than Alabama fans.  We don’t necessarily blast it out every day, but we believe we are better.  If not why would we be proud of our history?  Being proud of our history doesn’t mean we are proud of everything in our history, but the overall projection is positive and has created a great country.   Even with all our faults, we have strived to be better and in many cases we have achieved that purpose.  We have a system of government that allows us to correct what is wrong with society.  It sometimes takes a long time to get to that point, but it happens.

 

22 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

be more willing to make changes and fixes that will help make us stronger for the times to come.

This has always been the battle between conservatives and progressives.  Progressives believe we need those changes NOW and conservatives believe we should take our time with any changes.

[homersapien 11,440]

On 1/26/2022 at 9:37 PM, Grumps said:

 

Exactly. There is a big difference between the two. I suppose that some think that it is a bad thing to complain about divisive teaching practices.

I don't see a "big difference" at all.

Edited January 31, 2022 by homersapien

[homersapien 11,440]

On 1/28/2022 at 12:26 PM, I_M4_AU said:

These moments should be used to center the student’s mind and set the attitude for the rest of the day especially in grade school.  Without these moments the students mind may not be ready to learn.   It doesn’t help everybody, but it helps.  How else do you develop a pride in you country?  And pride in your country is needed.

 

Sounds like a perfect opportunity to introduce a period of short, unscripted meditation before the beginning of class.

But Coffee's right, a rote pledge becomes just that - rote. It becomes cheapened.

Edited February 1, 2022 by homersapien

[homersapien 11,440]

On 1/28/2022 at 12:26 PM, I_M4_AU said:

Yes, yes we are, just like Auburn fans are *better* than Alabama fans.  We don’t necessarily blast it out every day, but we believe we are better.  If not why would we be proud of our history? 

That's the sort of thinking that leads to poisoning trees.

All of us came from Africa.  (Actually, from just one mother.)

[I_M4_AU 7,987]

6 minutes ago, homersapien said:

But Coffee's right, a rote pledge becomes just that - rote. I becomes cheapened.

It only becomes rote to some.  Others will look into it more deeply as time passes.

[I_M4_AU 7,987]

2 minutes ago, homersapien said:

That's the sort of thinking that leads to poisoning trees.

You agree, we are better.

[homersapien 11,440]

19 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

It only becomes rote to some.  Others will look into it more deeply as time passes.

And by God, those other kids will be required to "look into it more deeply".

[I_M4_AU 7,987]

45 minutes ago, homersapien said:

And by God, those other kids will be required to "look into it more deeply".

You're conflating the pledge of allegiance with CRT.

[creed 1,649]

On 1/25/2022 at 12:15 AM, AU9377 said:

You cannot teach and be concerned that facts will hurt someone's feelings.  Feeling bad is called having a conscience.

Sure....just try and teach "real" biology, human anatomy and human chemistry to a trans group and see what happens.

[homersapien 11,440]

4 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

You're conflating the pledge of allegiance with CRT.

No, I am conflating it with the oaths of loyalty typically required by authoritarian regimes.  We should be better than that.

And really, CRT?? 

That doesn't even make sense.  The whole purpose of school is to learn how to examine theories carefully. (Not that CRT is being taught in schools; it's not.)

Edited February 1, 2022 by homersapien

[homersapien 11,440]

1 hour ago, creed said:

Sure....just try and teach "real" biology, human anatomy and human chemistry to a trans group and see what happens.

Who are you to proclaim what is real and false in the field of biology?

Have you even researched the subject, or is your mind just made up regardless of the science?

More to the point, what is it about "real" biology that trans groups would object to?  As far as I know, they aren't trying to project their reality on everyone else.

[homersapien 11,440]

On 1/31/2022 at 3:50 PM, I_M4_AU said:

You agree, we are better.

Yeah, let's go poison some of their trees to prove it.

[creed 1,649]

24 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Who are you to proclaim what is real and false in the field of biology?

Have you even researched the subject, or is your mind just made up regardless of the science?

More to the point, what is it about "real" biology that trans groups would object to?  As far as I know, they aren't trying to project their reality on everyone else.

Have you even researched the subject, or is your mind just made up regardlessof the science?

[pensacolatiger 313]

On 1/20/2022 at 10:58 PM, AU9377 said:

Teach nothing that could possibly make a white kid feel bad.  This is so stupid that laughing at it seems strange.

 

https://abc7chicago.com/critical-race-theory-florida-bill-discomfort-ron-desantis-what-is-crt-in-schools/11491558/

Sorry your Marxist beliefs won’t get to take root in the state of Florida?