Soon, Old Glory will have to be born in the land of the free and not merely flying over it.

Congress has passed a proposal to require the federal government to purchase only American flags that have been completely manufactured in the U.S. The U.S. imports millions of American flags from overseas, mostly from China, and the sponsors of the proposal said it’s time for American flags to originate in the country they represent.

Supporters of the proposal, led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, said the change is more than just symbolic — they believe it will support American jobs and manufacturers while preserving the nation’s most recognized banner.

  • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    To be fair, it is extremely weird to imagine the U.S. government buying U.S. flags from China. Like, I’m not some patriot flag-code respecting type, but it does feel like a powerful metaphor to be importing our symbol of freedom from abroad. It’s some severely bad optics at a minimum.

      • Lad@reddthat.com
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        3 months ago

        I’ve always said that “made in China” is way more American than “made in the USA”.

    • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      but it does feel like a powerful metaphor to be importing our symbol of freedom from abroad

      Freedom to buy from the lowest cost provider!

  • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    I don’t get why people are tilted about this. The government should always buy US made unless the item literally cannot be found from a US manufacturer.

    Tax payer money should stay in the country when possible. Yeah it’s a small issue but I doubt much time was spent on this

  • TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com
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    3 months ago

    The current number of congresspersons, 435, was created in 1913. In the 1920 census the US population was 29,662,053.

    29,662,053/435 ~= in 1913 there were 68,188 persons per member of Congress.

    In 2020 the population was 331,449,281

    331,449,281/435 ~= in 2020 there were 761,952 persons per member of Congress.

    One person can’t represent three quarters of a million people in a national assembly. That isn’t representation.

  • mortemtyrannis@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    Capitalism. Until we don’t like particular ramifications of capitalism and then we legislate nationalisation of particular industries….because.

    Truly the invisible hand of the market at work.

  • DaMonsterKnees@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Hello young person, do you know why you should care about the government? Me neither. JFC can we address something that actually matters you fucking empty uniforms. Sorry. Great share, and thanks!

    • PseudorandomNoise@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Yeah but take the small wins where you can get them. This is a good thing and we should celebrate even if for a short moment.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        No. Don’t celebrate performative bullshit. Especially if it’s wrapped in nationalism. Because then all you’ll ever get is performative bullshit wrapped in nationalism. You take this, put it in your pocket, say thanks, and pick the pitch fork right back up.

      • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        my grandfather heard that crock of horse shit his whole childhood and when he grew into an adult he told his kids the same lie

        Baby steps we will get there on small victories.

        am not telling my kids the same lie

        shit does not get better because some less than quarter ass solution got implemented

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Nobody needs foreign propaganda when Congress feeds us literal crumbs as the answer to offshoring. Yay we created 10 jobs. This is the fucking Senate. Not a random Appalachian county council.

        • tate@lemmy.sdf.org
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          3 months ago

          In the US today:

          • women can vote
          • people of all races can vote
          • people of all races can own property
          • there is no (official) slavery
          • gay people can marry (for now)
          • your boss isn’t allowed to fire you because you are gay
          • your boss isn’t allowed to fire you for religion
          • we got the 40 hour work week and weekends
          • child labor is (mostly) outlawed
          • women can go to college
          • prohibitions like on alcohol and marijuana are slowly fading away
          • the grocery store has avocados all year long

          But yeah, nothing ever changes incrementally. All those activists who worked their whole lives to peacefully bring these things about, well, that was a waste.

          ETA: I’m aware that the end of slavery was not quite “peaceful.” I stand by the point that things are getting better all the time, and that it is mostly from incremental gains.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago
            • They’re literally purging the voting rolls right now.

            • They’re literally purging the voting rolls right now.

            • You sure can own stuff. Good luck buying it.

            • There is official slavery. Read the 13th Amendment again.

            • Your Boss can fire you for anything at any time.

            • Your Boss can fire you for anything at any time.

            • The 40 hour work week is weaponized against hourly employees and non existent for salary employees.

            • Child labor is literally back on the menu in red states. And unenforced except for under age immigrants in blue states.

            • College requires selling yourself into lifetime debt.

            This list wasn’t incremental. When these things happened they were big fucking deals and not baby steps. If we wanted to outlaw child labor again we’d invent some stupid scheme where kids had to spend increasingly less time at work until employers voluntarily stopped hiring them. Instead of how we actually did it. Not only have we allowed all of this to be seriously degraded in the post Reagan era, we’ve forgotten how we actually got this shit done in the first place. We didn’t ask nicely and accept baby steps.

          • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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            3 months ago

            Perpetual children mindests and their need to have instant gratification is making it so that no victory is a victory. Sad is no fun and life should only be a party.

            Nothing was done in an instant and that is somehow unacceptable. I just want to feel good about a victory for like a minute without chucklefucks who have a very wrong idea of history claiming it’s unprecedented to change.

            If people actually knew how long the women’s suffrage movement lasted and how many turns it took they would likely be very upset and also actually aware of how slow reality often is to move in global ways. Heck women in Utah were granted voting access and then had it taken away after they voted for polygamy against what men thought would happen.

            People have to actually participate and work little by little but that’s so much work and often it’s filled with backsliding and failures and it hurts to lose. So it’s easier to pretend it should just happen overnight and that’s how people change. It’s bullshit and storybook thinking mostly.
            I do wish this was the case but wishing is to action what masturbating is to sex, fun but not the real thing.

          • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            women can vote until some police officer gets them on trumped up charges because he is on a prolife kick

            people of all races can vote as long as they are allowed to new ways to ban people from voting are made up all the time

            yes people of all races can own property if they can afford to $7.25 is still the minimum wage average US citizen’s purchasing power has not increased since about the 60s

            corporations use prison slave labor all the time even McDonalds

            yes for now marriage equality is a thing and Harris is the only loud supporter on this so far that is in the public eye this much

            in right to work states yes they can

            again in a right to work state a boss could fire you because he is having a bad day

            but it takes more than 40 hours to afford just food and housing

            if the people grow up in an environment filled with pollution and negatively they may get to college

            justice for some is justice delayed it should be fifty states under one union

            no cannabis prohibitions are ramping up not getting better bad products have flooded the market due to lack of regulations and lack of lab tested products

            again with the lack of worker’s rights and stagnation of pay yes only if you got the funds for those avocados

            • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Just FYI, you’re mixing up right to work and at-will employment. Right to work has nothing to do with with being fired.

                • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  Did you read the article you linked to? Because it doesn’t support your point at all.

                  again in a right to work state a boss could fire you because he is having a bad day

                  In the United States, right to work has nothing to do with at-will employment. Succinctly, right-to-work laws prevent unionized workplaces from requiring employees who opt not to join the union (an option required by the Taft-Hartley Act) to pay toward the cost of union representation. That’s it. It’s all in the article you linked.

                  Even the international law definition has nothing to do with at-will employment.

  • glimse@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I remember all the cheap Chinese bumper stickers that people were slapping on their cars…an American flag with the words “THESE COLORS DON’T RUN”

    Within a couple months most of the flag color had faded. It was so funny seeing a light pink and blue American flag with that contradictory phrase over it.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    It will support one company that gets the GSA contract.

    We have so much shit going on in this country and this is what we’re worried about?

    Ohio, Maine, come get your senators. They’re drunk.

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      3 months ago

      You mean the end of outsourced labor and production of local goods? (For this product and potential work towards more happy now?) A key issue for may people on both sides of the aisle as seen by the bipartisan support?

      Yeah I guess it is good then.

      Edit: I was being as exaggerated as everyone else saying a flag will enrich a single person in here but now people want to be pedantic when pointing out this is a thing to support being worked towards. Of course. Misery loves company right?

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    “Oh… okay. But did you want to do anything about that giant list of actual REAL problems over there behind you on the table?”

  • snooggums@midwest.social
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    3 months ago

    How about we just fly fewer flags. I live in the center of the US and don’t need to be reminded by every public building, car lot, and bigot’s house of what country I live in.

    Official federal and state buildings, those are fine.