Tag Archives: foreign policy

A Terrific Opening

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Congressman Kevin Brady (R, TX), Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, wants the Biden administration to (re)open international trade.

I continue to urge Ambassador Tai…and President Biden, to pursue new agreements, opening markets in the UK and Europe, an expanded comprehensive agreement with Japan.

Then-President Donald Trump (R) offered the European Union and the G-7 a completely no-tariff trade regime. There would be no greater opening of trade than for the EU and the other members of the G-7, which includes Japan in particular, along with USMCA member Canada (whose agreement would either necessitate modifications to the USMCA or terms outside that treaty); EU constituents France, Germany, and Italy; and the UK, to agree such a tariff-free regime.

If there’s to be a serious opening, that’s as much on those nations as it is on President Joe Biden (D). Both sides need to stop dragging their feet.

Too Weak

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Nike’s CEO, John Donahoe, has given his company’s game away. Recall that, earlier this year he claimed dismay over the People’s Republic of China government’s, and the Communist Party of China’s, abuse, slavery, and overt genocide against the Uighurs.

We are concerned about reports of forced labor in, and connected to, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). 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.

Even that weak statement turns out to have been just pretense, virtue-signaling for his American audience, which is doubly dishonest just for that.

Now, via an earnings call, he

called the sportswear apparel giant a “brand of China” this week, following a fiasco it was involved in earlier this year over concerns about human rights abuses committed by the communist government.

And

…we are a brand of China and for China[.]

With that call, Donahoe announced his utter rejection of everything for which the US, the nation with the economic, political, and moral environment that enabled his Nike to flourish, stands.

With that call, Donahoe has announced his complete acceptance of abuse, slavery, genocide by the nation he prefers to call home.

Reasons enough to not do business with Nike.

When Hillary Clinton Sold

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…a significant fraction of our uranium reserves to Russia, she was a piker.

Within months of President Joe Biden [D] halting the Keystone Pipeline, pausing new oil and gas leases on federal lands, and imposing further restrictions on US oil companies, US oil imports from Russia set a new record in March.

And

Crude oil imports from Russia in March stood at 6.1 million barrels, making Russia the third-largest oil exporter to the United States.

And

Biden’s policies have resulted in US oil production falling by 1.715 million barrels per day from a year ago….

Clinton made us dependent, in large part, on one of our enemies for the resources needed for our deterrence against that enemy’s nuclear attack.

Biden’s policies are making us dependent on that same enemy for the energy to power our economy and so our ability to survive even in peace. And by buying Russian oil, Biden is paying our enemy for the privilege of being dependent on it.

Off Limits

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President Joe Biden (D) says he stood tall against Russian President Vladimir Putin and gave him a list of what must be off limits from Russian cyber attacks.

On cyber, the President said he gave the Russian a list of 16 types of “critical infrastructure” that “should be off-limits to attack, period.”

And with that, Biden gave Putin two target lists: a list of targets immediately critical to our national survival, and a list of targets he can attack with near impunity in order to damage and reduce or eliminate through a thousand cuts our ability to survive.

Only Progressive-Democrats are unable to conceive the idea that everything in our economy should be off-limits to attack, period.

On Embassy Flags

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In his Letter in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, Peter Chaveas identifies himself as a foreign service  officer [including a couple of ambassadorships]…in Africa and Western Europe between 1970 and 2004. With that credential, he argued in favor of the Biden State Department’s permission for American embassies and consulates to fly BLM and gay-pride flags.

It would be hard for Mr Chaveas to be more wrong.

American embassies and consulates are there to represent America and American interests. The American flag, our stars and stripes, is the symbol of our nation, and it is the only flag appropriately flown at those facilities.

All other flags represent only our individual States and a variety of ideologies espoused by a variety of groups of Americans; they do not represent our nation as a whole. Those other symbols have no place at our embassies and consulates.

Chaveas is correct to point out our capacity for openly acknowledging our failures and shortcomings as well as our efforts to address them. No American was more admired than Martin Luther King Jr. Chaveas neglected to mention, though, that no BLM or gay-pride flag—or any other flag—was necessary “between 1970 and 2004” for embassy/consulate staff to teach that or for the citizens of the host nations to understand that.

Nor are they necessary now.