You Can Trust Big Corporations

[Newman]

Ray Kroc famously said, "If any of my competitors were drowning, I'd put a hose in their mouth and turn on the water." And in checking on that quote, I'm reminded that he meant business:

[Kroc] bought out McDonald's and as part of the deal, the original McDonald brothers were allowed to keep their first restaurant in San Bernardino, but they had to rename it, The Big M. Kroc opened a McDonald's across the street from that store, and it ran them out of business.

Successful entrepreneurs like Bernard Marcus or Sam Walton are rarely friends of entrepreneurs. They typically favor government minding and bureaucratic hurdles which disadvantage smaller competitors.

Big business also likes big government. Very big government, for the simple reason that the few pols they have to glad-hand and schmooze, the easier (and cheaper) it is to get their way. Business has an unsettling and consistent history of working well will fascists.

And, in like manner, it's common knowledge that what business likes least is uncertainty. The more ordered a society is, the better for business, so the thinking goes. Certainly threats of mostly peacefulness will never do.

So the recent zoom conference to oppose election integrity should surprise no one.

Gird Your Loins: Woke CEOs Gather to Fight Against Election Integrity Laws

Roughly 100 of America’s top corporate leaders and CEOs gathered both in-person and virtually on Saturday [April 11] to strategize ways to combat new election integrity laws like Georgia’s H.B. 531. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale University management professor who helped organize the meeting, framed it as a response to threats of reprisals after Georgia-based companies like Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, and Aflac Insurance condemned the Georgia bill. He called election integrity measures “anti-undemocratic.”

“The gathering was an enthusiastic voluntary statement of defiance against threats of reprisals for exercising their patriotic voices,” Sonnenfeld told CBS News. The corporate leaders “recognize that they need to step up to the plate and are not fearful of these reprisals. They’re showing a disdain for these political attacks. Not only are they fortifying each other, but they see that this spreading disease of voter restrictions from Georgia to up to possibly 46 other states is based on a false premise and its’ anti-democratic.”

Sometimes they're honest, and it shouldn't be surprising that they want to be anonymous when they are:

“Obviously there’s been a big wake up call over the last few weeks. The business community doesn’t want to be caught on their heels about this. So it’s about protecting leadership and not missing out on an opportunity to do so,” an anonymous source told CBS News.

Axios has a handy collection of the brave, outspoken CEOs, not of whom that I see addressed the obvious racism of assuming black folks are too stupid to get an ID. God knows how they manage to buy liquor and fly on airplanes. No mention of the obvious irony of slamming Georgia, with a large population of People of Color, taking out MLB's All-Star game to a state, Colorado, with many more People of Whiteness. Same goes for the movie industry, with Will Smith pulling his movie out, for example. But then Will might be one of those people who doesn't know how to get an id to vote. It wouldn't hurt to ask.

Big Business is largely cowardly and opportunistic. They are certainly no friend of individual liberty.



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[80zephyr]

How can anyone be against election integrity?

Mark

[JB]

According to a recent poll from the Honest Elections Project, 77 percent of Americans support requiring an ID to vote. This includes majorities of self-identified Biden voters (62 percent to 24 percent opposed), black voters (64 percent to 22 percent opposed), and Latino voters (78 percent to 16 percent opposed). Most voters (64 percent) said they want to strengthen voting safeguards to prevent fraud, rather than eliminate them to make voting “easier.” Even majorities of black voters (51 percent), Hispanic voters (66 percent), urban voters (59 percent), and Independent voters (61 percent) agreed.

The people want it. The people that want to retain their power, don't.

Some CEOs joined the Zoom conference from Augusta National Golf Course

That's priceless. Goldy, silvery.

I guess you don't have to be that bright to be a CEO anymore.

Attendees included NFL Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank; AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron

Art...when are you moving the Falcons out of Georgia? Art? Art???

And the CEO of AMC Theaters was there. The Democrats are a year+ into shutting his business down but there he is. Again, not that bright.

[Newman]

How can anyone be against election integrity?

Mark

They're more afraid of "cancel culture." And once you turn the language upside down and call voter id laws "Jim Crow," denouncing it is easy. And more, if election results become entirely predictable, the bigs figure they can deal with it.

Sadly, they've become as indifferent to liberty and America's future as the hard left, often enough.

[gary m]

I am at the point that if it keeps the stock market going North, I really don't give a flying fuck what any of these companies do anymore. Be racist, be woke, be for or against voter "suppression", climate change, or clubbing baby seals with a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat, I just don't care.

They want to play for an audience, meaning profits, then I'll take as much of an ROI as I can get.

[80zephyr]

I am at the point that if it keeps the stock market going North, I really don't give a flying fuck what any of these companies do anymore. Be racist, be woke, be for or against voter "suppression", climate change, or clubbing baby seals with a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat, I just don't care.

They want to play for an audience, meaning profits, then I'll take as much of an ROI as I can get.

When they ruin America your money won't mean much.

Mark

[Newman]

I am at the point that if it keeps the stock market going North, I really don't give a flying fuck what any of these companies do anymore. Be racist, be woke, be for or against voter "suppression", climate change, or clubbing baby seals with a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat, I just don't care.

They want to play for an audience, meaning profits, then I'll take as much of an ROI as I can get.

A whole lot of people agree with you. I too enjoy a rising market and property values going up. We all know it's fool's gold, but Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez, as the song has it.

But Mark is right. The hard left isn't interested in letting the good times roll for anyone. Just like ultra-liberal politicians keep getting surprised the left disdains them too, the ultra-woke CEOs will get theirs in due time. The old canard about appeasement and alligators applies.

[Newman]

A whole lot of people agree with you. I too enjoy a rising market and property values going up. We all know it's fool's gold, but Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez, as the song has it.

I've felt lately as if the market itself is a hedge against inflation. The price of gold has swooned a bit even as inflation numbers make news, ironically.

[scott]

Ray Kroc famously said, "If any of my competitors were drowning, I'd put a hose in their mouth and turn on the water." And in checking on that quote, I'm reminded that he meant business:
Successful entrepreneurs like Bernard Marcus or Sam Walton are rarely friends of entrepreneurs. They typically favor government minding and bureaucratic hurdles which disadvantage smaller competitors.

Big business also likes big government. Very big government, for the simple reason that the few pols they have to glad-hand and schmooze, the easier (and cheaper) it is to get their way. Business has an unsettling and consistent history of working well will fascists.

And, in like manner, it's common knowledge that what business likes least is uncertainty. The more ordered a society is, the better for business, so the thinking goes. Certainly threats of mostly peacefulness will never do.

So the recent zoom conference to oppose election integrity should surprise no one.

Gird Your Loins: Woke CEOs Gather to Fight Against Election Integrity Laws
Sometimes they're honest, and it shouldn't be surprising that they want to be anonymous when they are:

Axios has a handy collection of the brave, outspoken CEOs, not of whom that I see addressed the obvious racism of assuming black folks are too stupid to get an ID. God knows how they manage to buy liquor and fly on airplanes. No mention of the obvious irony of slamming Georgia, with a large population of People of Color, taking out MLB's All-Star game to a state, Colorado, with many more People of Whiteness. Same goes for the movie industry, with Will Smith pulling his movie out, for example. But then Will might be one of those people who doesn't know how to get an id to vote. It wouldn't hurt to ask.

Big Business is largely cowardly and opportunistic. They are certainly no friend of individual liberty.



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I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately and I think we are watching the new class of protected autocrats. Notice how as long as they follow the narrative they are allowed to do what they want - including being at Augusta of all places. Also the faces of these movements are idiots - like real idiots who wouldn't be trusted to run a convenience store. I am curious how someone as stupid sounding like Stacey Abrams got into such a positions and I think she's put there as the mouthpiece for this effort at the behest of the group controlling the narrative - including these CEOs. I speculate here.

That explains why they are taking sides, why AOC and The Squad are elevated way above their intellect, and why there seems to be so much coordination between these big businesses and the left. We are entering a period of much more government picking winners and losers in this economy and these people are getting on the correct side of government.

Let's see how businesses that chose to not participate get targeted.

[JB]

Let's see how businesses that chose to not participate get targeted.

That didn't take long:

New York Times accused of 'activism' after shaming CEOs who didn’t sign 'big defense of voting rights'

The New York Times faced intense backlash and accusations of full-throated "activism" Wednesday after publishing an apparent attempt to shame CEOs whose names did not appear on an open letter expressing solidarity toward "democracy."

The best part is the CEO of the NY Times didn't sign.