That's slightly different than buying farmland as it was a complete corporate buyout - ultimately the same result of course. For years, Smithfield's largest export market has been China (especially with the swine flu and other issues they had), so it could be argued that they were essentially eliminating the middle-man, though I don't particularly buy that argument.
I think that we have talked about Smithfield before.
An example of a profound Chinese investment into our food supply.
Smithfield Foods, Inc., is a pork producer and food-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia. It operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese-owned conglomerate WH Group.[4][a] Founded in 1936 as the Smithfield Packing Company by Joseph W. Luter and his son, the company is the largest pig and pork producer in the world.[5] In addition to owning over 500 farms in the US, Smithfield contracts with another 2,000 independent farms around the country to raise Smithfield's pigs.[6] Outside the US, the company has facilities in Mexico, Poland, Romania, Germany, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.[7] Globally the company employed 50,200 in 2016 and reported an annual revenue of $14 billion.[2] Its 973,000-square-foot meat-processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was said in 2000 to be the world's largest, slaughtering 32,000 pigs a day.[8]
Pointing out Blackstone as an issue doesnât change that the USA needs to stop foreign investment on its own soil.
No, it points out that other countries should do the same with predatory US investment firms. Aside from them creating US domestic issues (**cough homeless cough**).
Probably not so much on the radar of affluent NIMBYs.
Vancouver did it, which seems very necessary. USA should - especially if someone isnât a citizen.
Pointing out Blackstone as an issue doesnât change that the USA needs to stop foreign investment on its own soil.
There are many countries around the world that do not allow foreign ownership of property / real estate.
I approve of blocking any Chinese ownership of real estate here in the US. They are buying up lots of farmland and most of it is adjacent to our military installations. Not to mention that if they own our farms, they can interfere with our food supply, should they want to.
Vancouver did it, which seems very necessary. USA should - especially if someone isnât a citizen.
Pointing out Blackstone as an issue doesnât change that the USA needs to stop foreign investment on its own soil.
It's an interesting issue.
Do you stop acquisitions outright, limits, or add a foreign ownership tax?
On January 1, 2023, Canada enacted a law prohibiting foreigners, except for immigrants and permanent residents, from acquiring residential areas in the country for two years in response to a real-estate bubble.<1>
Of course there will be hyperventilating about the Chinese, but goose and gander...
Saw today that Chinese nationals are forbidden from buying homes in Florida. This seems horrible on the face of it - but he’s right. When we visited Vancouver, we were flabbergasted at how much of its property was being bought by China. When does it stop being property of Canada? And, although I’m no expert on the topic, this was also my understanding of what Israel was doing to Palestine long time ago: no overt action but just buying up their land so it was no longer theirs.
It's an interesting issue. Do you stop acquisitions outright, limits, or add a foreign ownership tax?
There are many countries around the world that do not allow foreign ownership of property / real estate.
I approve of blocking any Chinese ownership of real estate here in the US. They are buying up lots of farmland and most of it is adjacent to our military installations. Not to mention that if they own our farms, they can interfere with our food supply, should they want to.
Saw today that Chinese nationals are forbidden from buying homes in Florida.
This seems horrible on the face of it - but heâs right. When we visited Vancouver, we were flabbergasted at how much of its property was being bought by China. When does it stop being property of Canada?
And, although Iâm no expert on the topic, this was also my understanding of what Israel was doing to Palestine long time ago: no overt action but just buying up their land so it was no longer theirs.
It's an interesting issue.
Do you stop acquisitions outright, limits, or add a foreign ownership tax?
Saw today that Chinese nationals are forbidden from buying homes in Florida.
This seems horrible on the face of it - but heâs right. When we visited Vancouver, we were flabbergasted at how much of its property was being bought by China. When does it stop being property of Canada?
And, although Iâm no expert on the topic, this was also my understanding of what Israel was doing to Palestine long time ago: no overt action but just buying up their land so it was no longer theirs.
Apparently 99.9% of all males are shocked and appalled that any members of their gender would stoop so low as to watch the Erin Andrews video that was downloaded 36388 gazillion times.
Don't know what you are talking about. Guess I'd better google it.
Apparently 99.9% of all males are shocked and appalled that any members of their gender would stoop so low as to watch the Erin Andrews video that was downloaded 36388 gazillion times.
There is no shortage of American pundits who love to denounce “PC” speech codes which restrict and punish the expression of certain ideas on college campuses. What these self-styled campus-free-speech crusaders typically – and quite tellingly – fail to mention is that the most potent such campaigns are often devoted to outlawing or otherwise punishing criticisms of Israel. The firing by the University of Illinois of Professor Stephen Salatia for his “uncivil” denunciations of the Israeli war on Gaza – a termination that was privately condoned by Illinois’ Democratic Senator Dick Durbin – is merely illustrative of this long–growingtrend.
One of the most dangerous threats to campus free speech has been emerging at the highest levels of the University of California system, the sprawling collection of 10 campuses which includes UCLA and UC Berkeley. The University’s governing Board of Regents, with the support of University President Janet Napolitano and egged on by the State’s legislature, has been attempting to adopt new speech codes that – in the name of combating “anti-Semitism” – would formally ban various forms of Israel criticism and anti-Israel activism.
Under the most stringent such regulations, students found to be in violation of these codes would face suspension or expulsion. In July, it appeared that the Regents were poised to enact the most extreme version, but decided instead to push the decision off until September, when they instead would adopt non-binding guidelines to define “hate speech” and “intolerance.”
One of the Regents most vocally advocating for the most stringent version of the speech code is Richard Blum, the multi-millionaire defense contractor who is married to Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. At a Regents meeting last week, reported The Los Angeles Times, Blum expressly threatened that Feinstein would publicly denounce the University if it failed to adopt far more stringent standards than the ones it appeared to be considering, and specifically demanded they be binding and contain punishments for students found to be in violation. (...)
Michigan State Senator Patrick Colbeck is at it again. Back in 2013, Colbeck sponsored a bill calling for schools to institute a Patriot Week that would indoctrinate students with nationalist and militarist “history” lessons. Now, in a series of red-baiting Facebookposts, Colbeck is railing against late civil rights activist and historian Howard Zinn and the use of his book A People’s History of the United States in Michigan classrooms.
First published in 1980, A People’s History popularized “history from below” by emphasizing the struggles of those overlooked by mainstream historical accounts: indigenous people, African Americans, women, and working people. In the decades since its publication, this bottom-up approach to U.S. history has sold more than two million copies.
Zinn’s work is hardly a new target for right-wing censors. In an e-mail exchange with education officials after Zinn’s 2010 death, then-Governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels expressed relief that “this terrible anti-American academic has finally passed away” and solicited advice on how to keep A People’s History out of Indiana schools. (...)
"Has your student received instruction in U.S. History from the textbook authored by Howard Zinn called 'A People's History of the United States'? If so, please understand that Mr. Zinn advocates against the inherent goodness of America and our system of government."
Multiple professors at Washington State University have explicitly told students their grades will suffer if they use terms such as “illegal alien,” "male," and “female,” or if they fail to “defer” to non-white students.
According to the syllabusfor Selena Lester Breikss’ “Women & Popular Culture” class, students risk a failing grade if they use any common descriptors that Breikss considers “oppressive and hateful language.”
I'm not. You're obviously in the "no way this causes any harm" camp and I'm not equipped with the tools to change that, so I dunno where to go now.
This is another one of those "political discussions" at RP that people hate, but I've learned quite a bit during this discussion, and moved off my position quite a ways, but not all the way. I haven't been following all this "trigger warning" stuff and the overblown on-campus reactions to everything that does seem to have escaped California and infected some more level-headed institutions. Like a lot of things, there might be a good intention underlying the movement, but it does seem to be going crazy. But never fear, the backlash is in full swing, defending the rights of privileged white males to not evolve. So hey. We move on down the road, keeping it between the ditches, mostly.