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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Republicans Attack ‘Woke’ Companies At Their Peril

Mitch McConnell has been presented with the spectacle of giant American corporations taking sides on a political issue, and his eyes were seared by the sight. The Senate Republican leader could not have imagined Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, much less Major League Baseball, coming out against a piece of legislation. Processing the trauma may require years of therapy.

"I'm talking about taking a position on a highly incendiary issue like this and punishing a community or a state, because you don't like a particular law that passed — I just think it's stupid," he said Tuesday. "So my warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics."

This is not quite what you would expect from a politician who last year got more than $250,000 in campaign contributions from chief executives of major companies. Nor is it quite in line with his longstanding view that corporations enjoy the same First Amendment rights as individuals. But McConnell hastened to add that he was not referring to business people making political donations, a practice he assured them is "fine."

The apparent problem for him is not that corporations are getting involved in politics; it's that they are getting involved in a way that conflicts with Republican needs. One of those needs is making it harder for Democrats to win elections in the previously red state of Georgia. McConnell objects to the corporate criticism of a new voting law that is designed to tilt the scales in favor of his party.

Major League Baseball decided to move this year's All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver to register its disapproval. Delta and Coca-Cola issued statements denouncing the election measure. But these were hardly the first time that professional sports or other businesses have intruded into the political realm.

Team owners use their leverage to extract public funds for stadiums and other arenas, notes Chris Lamb, author of the book Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball. They host politicians in their luxury suites. They make campaign contributions. Says Lamb, "I wish owners would stick to sports."

They also lend support to various causes that are inseparable from politics. All those military flyovers at ballgames are an implicit endorsement of our militaristic foreign policy. After 9/11, baseball teams started playing "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch, a gesture of support for President George W. Bush's war on terrorism.

McConnell doesn't long for the era when big companies had no political agendas, because there was no such era. He longs for the time when they could pursue their political agendas without enduring nonstop scrutiny from their customers or employees.

Today, Americans often take account of the political activities of companies when making their purchasing decisions. Some companies see speaking up for social justice and racial equity as a matter of conscience — and a way of appealing to consumers who agree. They also know that silence merely invites criticism from either side.

Michael Jordan famously justified his avoidance of political controversy by saying, "Republicans buy sneakers, too." Nike took the risk of alienating customers with an ad campaign featuring San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who gained notoriety by kneeling during the national anthem. The Nike shoe decorated with his image sold out the first day.

Many athletes, despite being told things like "shut up and dribble," insist on using their public visibility to advance causes dear to them, regardless of who objects. Players for the WNBA Atlanta Dream wore T-shirts endorsing Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock in his race against Kelly Loeffler, who happened to be one of the team's owners.

Consumer boycotts over political activity have become an unavoidable feature of the marketplace. Critics who denounce these efforts as ugly manifestations of "cancel culture" use the same tactic when it suits them. Former President Donald Trump, with his usual flair for falsehood, urged: "Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections. Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!"

Good luck with that. Fear of the MAGA crowd didn't stop The Walt Disney Company, a shining symbol of wholesome American fun, from announcing last year that it would give $5 million to organizations fighting for social justice.

Republicans often accuse the left of hating America. But it's not liberals who find themselves at odds with baseball, Coke and Mickey Mouse.

Steve Chapman blogs at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman. Follow him on Twitter @SteveChapman13 or at https://www.facebook.com/stevechapman13. To find out more about Steve Chapman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee Tweets Weirdly Racist Attack On ‘Chinese’ —And Gets Hosed Down

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Former Arkansas Governor and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee chose Easter weekend to sink to an unimaginable low, practically spitting in the face of Asian American communities, apparently because Republicans lost a presidential election. Democrats argue that the 2020 defeat, coupled with twin losses in Senate runoff elections in Georgia. triggered more restrictive voting laws throughout the country and especially in the Peach State, where a recently passed law makes it illegal to give water and food to voters standing in line to cast ballots. Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian and Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey spoke out against the law and Major League Baseball vowed to move its 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta because of the law.

Applying the usual nonsensical GOP logic, Huckabee decided those moves were somehow connected to an outpouring of support for Asian Americans following a spike in racist and violent acts against the community. "I've decided to 'identify' as Chinese," he tweeted sarcastically on Saturday. "Coke will like me, Delta will agree with my 'values' and I'll probably get shoes from Nike & tickets to @MLB games. Ain't America great?"

The tweet earned Huckabee well-earned criticism on social media. Rep. Ted Lieu tweeted on Saturday: "Hey Mike Huckabee, I asked around and Coke likes me, Delta agrees with my values, I wear Nikes and my hometown Dodgers won the World Series. But it's not because of my ethnicity. It's because I'm not a sh*thead like you who is adding fuel to anti-Asian hate. #StopAAPIHate" Comedian John Fugelsang tweeted: "Yes except for the part where racist Mike Huckabee fans accuse you of spreading a virus."

Democrat Jake Lobin tweeted: "I can't believe Mike Huckabee's job has been to actually govern people. Holy shit." Author and unitarian pastor John Pavlovitz tweeted: "Mike Huckabee motivated me to do this work. The day of the Sandy Hook shooting he inexplicably used the murder of children to spread a cancerous religion. It made me realize as a pastor that I needed to explicitly oppose monsters like him who bastardize my faith tradition."

"He and his party are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and adversarial to diverse humanity," Pavlovitz added in another tweet. "Good people can simply not allow them to steer this nation into the abyss—and we won't."

Black corporate leaders have advocated for other corporations to take a stand against the restrictive new Georgia law, The New York Times reported. "There is no middle ground here," former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault said. "You either are for more people voting, or you want to suppress the vote." His remarks followed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to sign into law a bill state Republicans rushed through the legislature in the final hour, slithering just outside of the public eye after earlier criticism for similarly restrictive voting bills.

With only eight days left in the state legislative session, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein tweeted that the Georgia House adopted the measure on a party-line vote working to "restrict drop boxes, require voter ID for mail-in ballots and gives the Republican-controlled Legislature more authority over local elections officials." The state Senate followed suit.

Merck pharmaceutical company CEO Kenneth Frazier told The New York Times he and other executives began emailing and texting each other following the passage of Georgia's law. Their goal is to stop other restrictive voting bills from passing across the country. "As African-American business executives, we don't have the luxury of being bystanders to injustice," Frazier said. "We don't have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines when these kinds of injustices are happening all around us."

Coca-Cola Takes Heat For Funding ‘Energy Balance’ Group

Coca-Cola Takes Heat For Funding ‘Energy Balance’ Group

By Leon Stafford, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS)

ATLANTA — Coca-Cola found itself on the defensive Monday after a report said the beverage giant had been secretly funding a “scientific” group that says Americans are getting fatter because of a lack of physical fitness — not sugary drinks.

The group, Global Energy Balance Network, bills itself as a not-for-profit “dedicated to identifying and implementing innovative solutions — based on the science of energy balance — to prevent and reduce diseases associated with inactivity, poor nutrition and obesity.”

But a New York Times report said the group did not reveal that its operations are financially backed by Atlanta-based Coke.

Coke did not directly respond Monday but said it supports efforts to cut Americans’ calorie consumption.

Health officials and those who link consumption of sugary drinks to obesity and diabetes said the lack of transparency is part of a growing trend among some companies attempting to influence public opinion through scientific expertise.

Other examples include the American Council on Science and Health, the International Food Information Council and the Center for Consumer Freedom, author and blogger Vani Hari, also known as the Food Babe, wrote in a July blog on “hired” experts.

“They are trying to hijack the narrative, to cause confusion,” said Dr. Mark Hyman, a physician with the UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Mass., and author of several books on diet and controlling blood sugar.

Coke has struggled to stop a domestic decline in consumption of its carbonated brands — such as Coke, Diet Coke and Sprite — which peaked in the late 1990s but have suffered as consumers switch to waters, teas and energy drinks because of obesity and health concerns.

The brands have seen an uptick in interest in smaller, 7.5-ounce and aluminum-bottle versions, which helped Coke report second-quarter profits of $3.11 billion, up from $2.6 billion a year earlier.

In a statement, Coca-Cola did not address the Times report that it funded the GEBN, but said it has joined with the American Beverage Association, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and others to help every person reduce calorie consumption by 20 percent by 2025.

“Coca-Cola supports finding solutions to obesity, including funding scientific research. We recognize that moderation and diet play a pivotal role in managing health and weight in combination with exercise. In fact, we continue to take steps to help people manage their calories — whether it’s through the introduction of smaller-sized packs, front-of-pack calorie labeling or innovation through new products such as Coca-Cola Life,” the company said.

In a video on the Global Energy Balance Network’s site, exercise scientist Steven Blair, of the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, said there is a need to find out what is actually causing the obesity epidemic and that more data is necessary.

“Most of the focus in the popular media and in the scientific press is ‘Oh, they are eating too much’ … blaming fast food, blaming sugary drinks and so on. And there’s really virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause.”

The Times story said Coke donated $1.5 million to start the GEBN last year and that its website, gebn.org, is registered to Coke headquarters in Atlanta.

Coke registered the website because network members did not know how, James Hill, a University of Colorado School of Medicine professor who is president of the group, told the Times.

“They’re not running the show,” he told the Times. “We’re running the show.”

The Times also said that since 2008, Coke provided close to $4 million for various projects for Blair and Gregory Hand, dean of the West Virginia University School of Public Health. Both are founding members of the organization.

Michael Jacobson, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, compared the tactics used by such groups to those employed by the tobacco industry when it was under fire.

“Professors routinely sell bits of their souls to companies, but it really should be an embarrassment to them,” he said.

Joseph Agnese, an analyst for S&P Capital IQ, said he was neither shocked by the story nor does he think it will hurt Coke. He thinks the public has become accustomed to corporations using various tactics to spin information in their favor.

“People somewhat expect it,” he said.

Photo: Coke is trying to hijack the conversation away from its allegedly harmful products, say many health and obesity experts and a section of the public. Kristin Andrus/Flickr