|
nChrist
|
 |
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2015, 03:35:53 PM » |
|
________________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 3-23-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________
Schultz’s foray into political activism is hardly a sea change. In 2013, he wrote an open letter24 to (former?) customers “with a respectful request that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas.” He claimed it was an effort to avoid politics, but in doing so he made it political.
And as recently as last year, the coffee chain apparently felt compelled to issue a statement25 reassuring its customers that neither Starbucks nor Schultz provides financial support to Israel, nor to its army, following its 2003 decision to close all of its shops in that nation due to “operational challenges we experienced in that market.” The same statement indicated there was no intention to re-address those challenges, even as Starbucks operates stores in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates via its partnership with Kuwaiti-based family business MH Alshaya WLL.
The most interesting part of that statement? “We do not make business decisions based on political issues.”
Please. In a video presentation to Starbucks' 200,000 employees, of whom 40% are minorities, Schultz dismissed the notion that talking about race with customers is a bad idea. “I reject that. I reject that completely,” he said in the video address. “It’s an emotional issue. But it is so vitally important to the country.”
The “country” apparently disagrees. As The New York Times reports26, the campaign “unleashed widespread vitriol and derision” so intense, Corey duBrowa, Starbucks' senior vice president for global communications, felt the need to temporarily delete his Twitter account. “I felt personally attacked in a cascade of negativity,” he wrote27. “I got overwhelmed by the volume and tenor of the discussion, and I reacted.”
Isn’t a discussion exactly what Starbucks ostensibly wants?
No doubt Gwen Ifill, co-anchor of “PBS NewsHour,” voiced what is undoubtedly the most widespread emotional reason for the animosity. “Honest to God, if you start to engage me in a race conversation before I’ve had my morning coffee, it will not end well,” she tweeted.
Columnist Joe Berkowitz relayed his own firsthand account28 of the campaign’s brainless impracticality. “When it’s my turn, I order a small coffee and glance at all the people on line behind me,” he writes. “It’s so many people – at least enough to fill a jury box. If the barista and I are to have an effective meditation on identity politics, all of these people are going to be made to wait. It’s the first time that the wild impracticality of this campaign, as I understand it, fully dawns on me. Could Schultz really expect people on line to patiently wait while the barista and I – and the rest of America, by extension – make inroads toward unity?”
You betcha. “Where others see costs, risks, excuses and hopelessness, we see and create pathways of opportunity,” Schultz insisted last Wednesday at a meeting in Seattle. “That is the role and responsibility of a for-profit, public company.”
That pathway places quite a burden on the company’s workforce. An internal memo reveals that employees have to watch Schultz’s video, print two copies of the USA Today insert, putting one on the counter sign and the other on the store’s bulletin board, pass out Race Together stickers to customers, wear one on one’s apron, and write “Race Together” or “Together” on coffee cups – all as a prelude to engaging in a conversation to “foster empathy and a common understanding” in a country that faces “ongoing racial tension.” Aside from “Race Together,” the rest of this nonsense will continue.
And you know what real tension is? Standing in an early morning, glacial-paced line for an overpriced29 cup of joe, wondering if you’ll make it to work on time because customers and baristas who make around $9.50 an hour30 are engaged in a effort to “solve” America’s race problems.
Ironically most of those conversations, if they take place at all, will be at Starbucks locations far away from the racial strife Schultz is determined to address. That’s because Starbucks has no stores31 in many cities with majority black populations. Those cities include Highland Park, Michigan; East St. Louis, Illinois; Gary, Indiana; Selma, Alabama – and, oh yeah, Ferguson, Missouri.
Perhaps the oh-so-high-minded Schultz should consider walking the walk – before he requires his employees to talk the talk. In the meantime, the bet here is the overwhelming majority of Starbucks customers will embrace this bit of dialogue: “Gimme my coffee, take my money – and keep your opinions about race to yourself.”
The Consequences of JV Foreign Policy32
There are two completely different narratives about America’s international relations and foreign policy in the Middle East. One is true, and the other is fantasy.
The narrative told by the narcissist33 in chief and his leftist legions is that the Middle East is in turmoil because Israel refuses to cede land to a mortal enemy and because the unemployment rate is too high among jihadists.
On the other hand is the truth: Obama’s foreign policy malfeasance34 has exacerbated the turmoil, undermined stability at every turn and endangered U.S. national security.
Obama’s first act of “leading from behind” was removing Moammar Gadhafi from leadership in Libya in 2011, which triggered a cascade of instability and anarchy35 and created an opening for ISIL in North Africa. The residue of his failure continues even as ISIL went to work just last week in Tunisia36, murdering 23.
America’s “leader” was re-elected in 2012 while proclaiming al-Qaida was “on the run,” including declaring victory in Yemen, home to al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Yemen is now in utter chaos13.
In 2013, Obama drew a red line in Syria regarding chemical weapons. Dictator Bashar al-Assad not only crossed it repeatedly37 but stomped on it with disdain.
In 2014, Obama belittled the Islamic State as the “JV team,” but ISIL now controls vast swaths of land and is wreaking havoc from Iraq to Nigeria.
Obama’s campaign to improve America’s standing in the world – in contrast to the “cowboy” actions of his favorite demon, George W. Bush – is an utter failure. The community organizer in the Oval Office has been extremely consistent in his antipathy toward Israel and in his clear determination to negotiate with enemies of the United States.
As early as March 2009, Obama saluted “the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” in a video message that was a complete reversal of the “axis of evil” doctrine placing rogue, terrorist-supporting nations such as Iran and North Korea in a league of their own. And just this past week, Obama sent a video message to the Iranian people again, declaring, “Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.” Well, Khamenei also renewed the “death to America” chant, too. Obama neglected to mention that. |
