By Mike Huckabee
June 28, 2021
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Good morning!
Blessings on you and your family, and from all the Huckabee staff!
Today's newsletter includes:
- Bible Verse of the Day
- U.S. companies please the CCP, use Chinese forced labor
- Politicized Justice
- Denying Wishes?!?
- Argument Starter Material
- Miami Update
- New U.S. Military Strikes
- President Trump Returns To The Stage
Sincerely,
Mike Huckabee
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Galatians 5:22
U.S. companies please the CCP, use Chinese forced labor
By Mike Huckabee
Last week, we took a look at the latest developments concerning China, including information reportedly provided by a high-level Chinese defector linking the Wuhan lab with the military bioweapons program, and also the crack-down by the CCP on academics and billionaire business moguls to keep them in line. Today, we see how they must have put the screws to Nike, as that corporation’s Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe said in a phone call to Wall Street analysts, “Nike is a brand that is of China and for China.”
That statement, part of a transcript released by Nasdaq, seems oddly inconsistent, considering that as recently as March, Nike expressed concern about “reports of forced labor in, and connected to, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.” In a statement, they said that “Nike is committed to ethical and responsible manufacturing and we uphold international labor standards...Nike does not source products from the XUAR and we have confirmed with our contract suppliers that they are not using textiles or spun yarn from the region.” Read the whole statement, and it sounds as though they were concerned and being quite diligent about this.
https://archive.is/PLRfG#selection-203.111-205.41
But the inconsistencies are stark. According to an article in THE FEDERALIST, there are believed to be over 1 million Uyghur Muslims being held in Xinjiang and used for forced labor to deliver 80 percent of Chinese cotton. And last November, when the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act was making its way through the House –- overwhelmingly passed 406 to 3 –- Nike joined with Coca-Cola and Apple to lobby against it. The bill prohibits “certain imports” from Xinjiang and imposes sanctions on those responsible for human rights violations in that region. Why would American corporations have been lobbying against THAT?
Nike is the biggest sports brand in all of China. Donahoe’s revealing phone call came as a new earnings release shows Nike’s sales in China for the past three months at $1.9 billion. This is 17 percent higher than the same time last year.
Incidentally, Nike gave over $604,000 in campaign donations in 2020, 80 percent of which went to Democrats, no doubt because they prefer the Democrats’ looser policy towards China.
“We’ve been in China over 40 years,” Donahoe said in the phone call, “and the biggest asset is consumer equity...it’s real; I saw it in my first week on the job.”
We did a little research to try to understand what Donahoe meant by “consumer equity" regarding their marketing plan in China. In general, this term translates to “the present value of the total revenues that the customer base will generate in its lifetime.” This value is driven by three factors: perceived value for the money, emotional connection to the brand, and loyalty to the brand. The greater the consumer equity, the more future revenue can be derived over the lifetime of its clients.
And apparently, in his first week on the job, Donahoe saw evidence that these measures of long-term profitability are strong in China. When it comes to China, Nike is playing the long game, and so they have to stay on the CCP’s good side.
In light of that, a story in the WASHINGTON EXAMINER made some sense out of Nike’s flip-flopping. Apparently, after Nike’s statement in March, they were hit with a backlash on China’s social media. Looks as though the CCP has pulled Nike back into line.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/nike-ceo-company-china
In March of 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute reported that “the Chinese government has facilitated the mass transfer of Uyghur and other ethnic minority citizens from the far west region of Xinjiang to factories across the country. Under conditions that strongly suggest forced labor, Uyghurs are working in factories that are in the supply chain for 82 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors, including Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen.”
According to this report, “Since 2017, more than a million Uyghurs and members of other Turkic Muslim minorities have disappeared into a vast network of ‘re-education camps’ in the far west region of Xinjiang, in what some experts call a systematic, government-led program of cultural genocide.” Inside these camps, detainees are forced to undergo political indoctrination, to renounce their culture and religion, and even in some instances to undergo torture. It’s a harsh, military-style life in which the workers are under constant surveillance and the threat of detention.
“There is mounting evidence that many Uyghurs are being forced to work in factories within Xinjiang,” the report says. “...Some factories appear to be using Uyghur workers sent directly from re-education camps.”
This report is an eye-opener, a must-read. In addition to outlining exactly what China is doing to essentially enslave its ethnic minorities, it also contains a long list of companies, mostly American, “potentially directly or indirectly benefiting” from forced labor. Nike is just one, sharing the honor with many well-known brands. “Some brands are linked with multiple factories,” it says.
I would add that some of these corporations are going overboard right now trying to build an image of “woke-ness” in the United States. How “woke” are they to the idea that slave labor is a bad thing?
Don’t miss Case Study #1: UYGHUR WORKERS MAKING NIKE SNEAKERS IN QINGDAO. It even has pictures.
https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale
According to this report, these people who apparently make Nike shoes are not free, are not allowed to practice their faith, and must undergo political indoctrination in “night school” after work. They live and labor in a compound surrounded with barbed wire and watchtowers and are monitored everywhere they go.
Under Case Study #3, about workers making selfie cameras for Apple iPhones, the report says their work assignments were “highly politicized.” According to a local Xinjiang newspaper, the workers “were expected to ‘gradually alter their ideology’ and turn into ‘modern, capable youth’ who ‘understand the Party’s blessing, feel gratitude towards the Party, and contribute to stability.”
In its conclusions, the report says, “The tainted global supply chain that results from these practices means that it is not difficult to guarantee that products manufactured in China are free from forced labor.” Can you say, “MADE IN THE USA”?
This report is quite long and detailed, but I hope you’ll read the whole thing. As for Nike, I would say that hearing from their CEO that the Nike brand is “of China and for China” should be enough to tell us that it’s not for America. Nike's marketing plan seems to be based more in China, anyway. And if they’ve decided it’s worth humoring the CCP to maintain “consumer equity” in China, well, they can have it.
But I hope Americans will renounce any brand loyalty THEY might have had and go to the trouble of looking for shoes, sporting gear and clothing made here –- or at least not in China –- by people who choose the work they do, can think and worship as they please, and don’t exist behind barbed wire.
Finally, if you have access to THE EPOCH TIMES’ “premium” reporting, I recommend a related piece, about the CCP’s manipulation of American companies (like Nike) to shape public opinion, influence government decisions, and acquire U.S. technology.
LEAVE ME A COMMENT ON MY WEBSITE, I READ THEM>>>
Politicized Justice
By Mike Huckabee
Attorney General Merrick Garland proved once again what a service Mitch McConnell did for America by keeping him off the Supreme Court. In a stunning display of politicized “justice,” Garland announced that the Biden DOJ will sue the state of Georgia for passing its recent election integrity laws. I can't think of a better metaphor for the Biden Administration than the news that it's going to war against election integrity. Here’s a good analysis of the case by Redstate.com:
I’m not an attorney, but this lawsuit seems like a huge waste of taxpayer resources. The Redstate analysts points out that the Georgia law contains nothing that other states don’t already impose (some, like Biden’s home state of Delaware, have even stricter laws.) And the DOJ is trying to argue that returning to the election laws that prevailed before they were loosened (in some cases, unconstitutionally) for the pandemic is somehow racist, without making the case that the laws were ever racist in the first place.
As Redstate notes, the success of this case will likely depend on how good a job Garland does of shopping for a liberal judge. In the meantime, this article has more on the lawsuit from the Federalist’s Margot Cleveland, who calls it “surreal,” and Redstate writer Bonchie, who uses the colorful descriptive phrase, “mind-meltingly moronic.”
Denying Wishes?!?
By Mike Huckabee
As much as I hate to criticize the “Make A Wish Foundation,” someone there needs to do an immediate rethink and backtrack on their policy of denying wishes that involve air travel or large gatherings to terminally ill children who haven’t been vaccinated for COVID-19.
https://www.westernjournal.com/make-wish-terminally-kids-take-vaccine-die-without-wish/
Children seem to have higher natural immunity, they are far less likely to suffer serious symptoms, and even the World Health Organization admits there is no evidence yet that the vaccines are safe or effective for children under 12. They recommend them for kids 12 to 15 only if they are at high risk. In the US, children under 12 aren’t even allowed to get the vaccines yet.
If I had a wish, it might be that people with any power at all stop prioritizing virtue signaling over science, and that includes whoever it was at Make-A-Wish who decided to deny terminal ill children their wishes because they haven't gotten a vaccine that they couldn’t take even if they wanted to.
Argument Starter Material
By Mike Huckabee
Townhall.com columnist Kurt Schichter polled readers on who they want to see on the Republican Presidential ticket in 2024. He expected Donald Trump to easily win, but he was surprised at the results, which aren’t scientific, but they do reflect his conservative readers: 45.7% want Trump, 50.1% want Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2021/06/24/draft-n2591387
Schlichter ponders the meaning of those results, and he doesn’t believe it’s due to rejection of Trump. He still has strong Republican support and tremendous gratitude for what he did and the way he fought to make America great again. So why wouldn’t they want him to run again in 2024?
Some possibilities: he would be 78 years old. The left has spent years attacking him and trying to tar his reputation, and even though Republicans see through that, they’d still have to constantly fight the personal attacks while mounting a winning campaign. Or maybe they're just suffering from Trump fatigue. Trump does bring a lot of drama, while DeSantis is just as conservative, but is younger, more focused, less of a lightning rod, and is racking up a lot of conservative achievements of his own.
Read Schlichter’s column, then feel free to give your opinion in the comments section on whether you want to see Trump run again in 2024, or do you think it’s time for someone new, and if so, who?
Miami Update
By Mike Huckabee
Here’s a link to the latest updates on the efforts to rescue victims of the condo apartment building collapse in Miami.
The major news is that authorities have identified eight of the nine people confirmed dead, but more than 150 are still missing. Please continue praying for the victims and the rescuers searching for them.
Also, we now know that an engineer’s report in 2018 warned of “major structural damage” due to improper drainage caused by a major error in initial construction. There is reportedly no indication that the condo association had done anything about it, although it was on the verge of undergoing $15 million in renovations to pass a required 40-year certification.
And there are also reports that the developers paid off local officials to get it through the permit system when it was being built in 1981.
New U.S. Military Strikes
By Mike Huckabee
Over the weekend, President Biden ordered military strikes on facilities near the Iraq-Syria border that have been used by Iran-backed militia groups to stage attacks on US troops in Iraq. White House spokespeople and Speaker Pelosi described it as necessary and appropriate action to deal with a specific threat. It was also defended by liberals as Biden serving warning to Iran that just because he was trying to revive the Iran nuclear deal, he wasn’t going to ignore other problems.
Some Democrats were not on board, though, like Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who protested that Biden didn’t consult Congress before launching the attacks.
And some conservatives were not impressed by what they saw as a half-hearted strike, with conciliatory messages sent to Iran through back channels.
Personally, I have no problem with Biden ordering those strikes, and not every military action taken by the President requires approval from Congress first. If it did, we’d end up losing wars before any agreement could be reached (imagine if Trump had needed Pelosi’s approval to do the exact same thing and imagine how she would have reacted.)
The most worrisome thing to me in this story comes toward the end when a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said angering Iran now could be problematic to Biden’s hopes of reviving the Iran nuclear deal because the new “hardline” “conservative” (i.e., radical Islamic mass murderer) President Ebrahim Raisi takes office in August. He said, "I think the Administration now has a heightened sense of urgency to revise the deal before Raisi and a new hardline team is inaugurated.”
Yes, because whoever heard of a new President coming in and ripping up deals that the last President already agreed to? If Biden can’t imagine that happening, would someone please remind him of the Keystone XL Pipeline and the border wall construction? Or how Trump ripped up the Iran nuclear deal?
President Trump Returns To The Stage
By Mike Huckabee
Saturday in Wellington, Ohio, former President Trump drew a massive crowd for his return to live rallies, this time under the banner of “Save America.” He was in classic form. Sharyl Attkisson has a good roundup of quotes, photos, clips and stats about the size of the crowd and the online viewing audience (more than 2.2 million.)
Despite the mainstream media’s efforts to silence and censor Trump and his supporters, it appears that enthusiasm for his message has not diminished. And while some outlets refused to cover it, if you want to see the entire speech, it’s available on the YouTube alternative, Rumble. Move ahead to around the 46:00 mark for his arrival.
https://rumble.com/vj2p7j-live-president-donald-j-trump-in-wellington-oh.html
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