Over 100 Corporate Leaders Side With Democrats, Form Plan to Respond to Voting Laws
Irony: Some called from Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia because it’s that state’s supposed restrictive voting laws that spurred their action.
The Wall Street Journal reported that over 100 corporate leaders gathered on a Zoom call to formulate a plan to push for “woke” voting laws.
Ironically, but not surprising, some of them attended the conference while at the Augusta National Golf Club, based in Georgia.
Kenneth Chenault, the former chief executive of American Express Co. , and Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck & Co., urged the leaders to collectively call for greater voting access, according to several people who attended. Messrs. Chenault and Frazier cautioned businesses against dropping the issue and asked CEOs to sign a statement opposing what they view as discriminatory legislation on voting, the people said.
A statement could come early this week, the people said, and would build on one that 72 Black executives signed last month in the wake of changes to Georgia’s voting laws. Mr. Chenault told executives on the call that several leaders had signaled they would sign on, including executives at PepsiCo Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc., T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Hess Corp. , among others, according to the people. PayPal confirmed it has signed the statement. PepsiCo, T. Rowe Price and Hess didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Other corporations involved: American Airlines, United Airlines, Atlanta Falcons, Levi Strauss, Walmart, Viacom CBS, Ariel Investments, LinkedIn, Twitter, and AMC Theatres.
Again, it’s ironic that some called from Augusta in Georgia. It’s Georgia’s supposed restrictive voting laws driving them to act:
“The gathering was an enthusiastic voluntary statement of defiance against threats of reprisals for exercising their patriotic voices,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale University management professor who helped organize the confab.
The corporate leaders “recognize that they need to step up to the plate and are not fearful of these reprisals,” he added. “They’re showing a disdain for these political attacks. Not only are they fortifying each other, but they see that this spreading of disease of voter restrictions from Georgia to up to possibly 46 other states is based on a false premise and its’ anti-democratic.”
It’s also ironic that the left wants big business to chime in and side with their antics. I thought the left hated big business.
One executive admitted, “It’s really a no-win situation from a corporate standpoint.”
Correct. You’re going to tick off a large portion of your consumer base no matter which side you choose.
Look at NBA great Michael Jordan. He mostly stayed away from politics during his career because “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” Jordan sticks by his statement 30 years later even though President Barack Obama wished he acted differently (emphasis mine):
“It’s never going to be enough for everybody, and I know that,” he said. “I realize that. Because everybody has a preconceived idea for what I should do and what I shouldn’t do.
“The way I go about my life is I set examples. If it inspires you? Great, I will continue to do that. If it doesn’t? Then maybe I’m not the person you should be following.”
But did anyone listen? Of course not:
Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, who also owns the Atlanta United soccer team and PGA Tour Superstore, said on the call he believes a large share of fans of the National Football League, Major League Soccer and Professional Golfers’ Association want the groups to make their positions known on voting rights, people on the call said.
Mr. Blank, a co-founder of Home Depot Inc., also said some fans are expecting the NFL to say more now compared with five years ago when NFL player Colin Kaepernick first spoke out on racial justice, the people said.
Mellody Hobson, the chairwoman of Starbucks Corp.’s board, said on the call that political unrest is bad for business and executives should work together on voting issues as states consider legislation and as the trial over George Floyd’s killing continues, the people said. Ms. Hobson declined to comment through a spokeswoman.
Some leaders spoke out in favor of signing on to the new statement, including AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. CEO Adam Aron and CyberCore Technologies CEO Tina Kuhn, according to people familiar with the call. Another who spoke out in favor was Estée Lauder Cos. director Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who founded the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, a group that focuses on bridging the wealth divide, the people said. Others didn’t speak out.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
How many of these corporations that sell merchandise sell anything American-made? How many manufacturers make things here? Are they in fact American companies?
Where is a comprehensive list of the companies involved in this call?
Oh, look – over 100 companies I refuse to do business with anymore.
Yes, we need that list.
I didn’t mean for this comment to post as a reply. Sorry.
Once upon a time, corportion donated to politicians for ‘access.’
But now that it’s twice upon a time, trillions upon trillions of stimulus dollars make the opposite true.
And it’s conservatives or Republicans who are the fascists….
they keep using that word… I do not think it means what they think it means
We’ve been told:
All Corporations are evil
The Republican Party is the Party of Big Business.
How do you explain business leaders getting in bed with Democrats?
Lets just call them 100 “Pro Fraud” CEOs
Oh! The ‘courage’ they show! /s
“The gathering was an enthusiastic voluntary statement of defiance against threats of reprisals for exercising their patriotic voices,”
They’re projecting, as progressives do. Reprisals are what the left does, not the right.
There was a gathering of 100 branches of Fascist Dem party. We should not be contributing to Fascist Dem party by buying their products/investing in their stocks/bonds/mutual funds/etfs.
We should not contribute to their cause – there is no legitimate business with these companies , only political contributions to the enemy
Corporations have signed on, wholesale, to advance and perpetuate the Dhimmi-crat political agenda. Combine the collective influence and weight of all the spheres of American society that are now controlled by Dhimmi-crats and their supporters/sympathizers — academia, the media industry, the entertainment industry, professional sports, technology companies and non-technology companies — and, I fear that conservatives have lost the battle for political influence in the U.S., permanently.
Why is Arthur Blank still operating businesses in eeeeevil Georgia?
He doesn’t want to pay the tax rates in places that more suit his views. New York, California, Illnois, Massachusetts, New Jersey…
The comment section, I think, needs a little fine tuning. I just made a comment that ended up being posted as a reply because the comment box jumps all around when I’m reading the comment section.
Too many people complained about the “square bubbles” that were purposely delaying the rendering until all the element positions were finalized, so LI took them out. Now we’re back to the original rendering that jumps all over the screen and sandbags you in just that fashion, and doesn’t finalize until the square bubbles would have been done anyway.
As we used to call it in the coding biz, AWAB (any possible choice you make, it’s a bug to somebody).
Businesses do not expect the right to riot, protest, dox, boycott, burn things down or threaten their family to any great degree.. They do expect the left to do so. This has been studied and proven.. I’m positive the shareholders of the companies must prove they are shareholders before they can vote. This is in most cases a business decision although, a cowardly one that puts the foundational principles of our country in jeopardy, such as accurate reliable elections. The same exact principle these CEOs dictate for their elections.
“Businesses do not expect the right to riot, protest, dox, boycott, burn things down or threaten their family to any great degree.. ”
Maybe that needs to change, hmmm. Since this is going to be a zero sum game in this country going forward, maybe the people that run these companies need to fear both sides equally?
I do not advocate anything on your list other than boycott. But this we must do good and hard.
I understand, but you need to understand that the violence that the left has actually performed over the last year, and threatens people with *works*.
It’s part of the reason, if reports can be believed, that the USSC didn’t take up any of the election suits.
It’s part of the reason these companies are doing this. If the *right* threatened their and their family’s physical safety like the left does, at least *some* of this b.s. would stop. But we don’t, and we won’t, until we’re being literally lined up, and then it will be too late.
Thanks. I’ve been saying this all along.
This is a sad fact, but it is true by inspection.
There’s a reason no one goes to a Muslim bakery to demand they “bake the cake.”
Yes, Steve Crowder once tried that at a bakery in Dearborn, MI. I suppose they already took down the youtube video of his experience there.
No. Because if the right riots, doxes, or commits any violence then the full weight of the law and the media will come down on it. They WANT us to behave like their pet BLM and Antifa rioters behave.
Boycotts are the only way to go. These companies have to be hit in the wallet, and hard. It’s the only language they understand.
The Great Culling approaches…
Kaepernick speaking out was never the issue. Disrupting one of the very few moments of National unity, taking a knee during the National Anthem in front of a ticket buying captive audience was.
Had Kaepernick used his own dime and his own time and not dragged everyone else into his performance art which no one was paying to view that would have been just fine.
If all these corporations are simply going to sign some statement proclaiming their virtue then ok. Consumers can make choices. However, if these corporations go further, as some already have; PayPal and other financial services denying service to firearms manufacturers and dealers, then that becomes an issue.
It will be especially interesting to see how many of these self proclaimed virtuous corporations hold States to one standard and China to another. Consumers and State governments; red State legislature, Governors and AGs will be observing. Choose wisely.
Corporations should limit their political activity to buying politicians.
With the opportunity to actually read the law, their intent is solely to actively assist in stealing elections and creating a single party run country where you have to fly delta, have to drink coke and will vote dem even if you didn’t vote. “Vote…like your life depended on it…it does now”.
Are we seeing a political realignment in the sense that the Democrats become the party of big business? I mean they already were along with the GOP a party of big business but had always managed to keep up the fake line that they weren’t.
But it seems to me that lie is finally falling away and the truth is being exposed.
I also see the GOP, slowly and imperfectly, moving towards going after these companies. Many on the right, including myself, view what these corporations are doing as direct threats to America. We already know that the Democrats are a threat as they are trying to turn America into a one-party socialist state and now we know that the corporations are helping them. Though I doubt some of these corporate leaders truly understand who they are getting in bed with by allying with the progressives.
“Are we seeing a political realignment in the sense that the Democrats become the party of big business?”
I would state this a bit differently. We are seeing big business become the government, The Democrats have always wanted more government power. They do not care under whose cause, so long as they get to oppress people.
They already are the party of big business. Seems the only big businesses they oppose are oil and gas companies. And MyPillow.
Dang. The list of companies I will no longer patronize just keeps growing. Pepsi has joined Coke, Home Depot and my beloved Wal-Mart are on the outs. No more baseball, and perhaps no more PGA (football was dead to me 4 years ago).
Siding with partisan leftist nonsense is not good for business because it is stupid politics. But, hey, if you can afford the drop in revenue, then by all means keep it up.
Far as I know, Dr. Pepper/7Up hasn’t yet joined in on this obscenity. I stopped buying Coke Zero in favor of Diet 7Up. Not only do we like it better, but a 2-liter is $1.25 at WalMart, vs. $1.82 for all Coke products.
And here I thought the head of Home Depot was a big Trump supporter? Am I wrong?
He was a Co founder. I think it’s the other founder who is a big Trump supporter.
How is this not the definition of fascism? Big gov and big corp getting together.
https://gunfreezone.net/oilfield-rando-is-wrong-boycotts-do-nothing-in-the-era-of-the-global-economy/
Hollywood knows that if every American Republican, all 74 million Trump voters in 2020, never went to the theater again, never signed up for a streaming service ever again, never turned on the TV ever again, and just sat around watching old DVDs they already owned, that would make a rounding error difference on their balance sheets against the global market.
There are more NBA fans in China than there are total Americans.
————————————————
Politically, Conservatives need to run people who are willing to hurt these megacorporations.
Every product that they make in China needs to be seized at the border and destroyed.
I would love nothing more than to see every iPhone, iPad, Macbook, etc, unboxed, laid out on a shipping dock, and run over with a steamroller driving by a Customs agent like semi-autos in Australia.
Corporate executives need to be held criminally liable, as in prison time, for human rights abuses against workers overseas, including subcontractors. Take Mr. CEO, send him to Terre Haute for life, seize all of his assets and leave him destitute. Starve his children.
Put a 100% tax on all overseas corporate profits.
We need a Conservative Bane.
NBCNews:
‘Online and vulnerable’: Experts find nearly three dozen U.S. voting systems connected to internet
A team of election security experts used a “Google for servers” to challenge claims that voting machines do not connect to the internet and found some did.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/online-vulnerable-experts-find-nearly-three-dozen-u-s-voting-n1112436
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9J7D2at9OI
Apr 9, 2021
Dr Douglas G Frank
5.77K subscribers
Dr Frank reviews the data that were presented today in the Antrim, Michigan case, prosecuted by Matt DePerno.
It would be great if a prominent conservative site would start assembling a list of woke corporations.
As a public service for the non-woke. Or simply for people who want to know which corporations are politically active and allied with the left.
They need not advocate boycotts if that might expose them to lawsuits. Don’t know enough about liability laws, but I don’t see how they could be sued for assembling a list of corporations based solely on their public announcements and what their CEOs say.
I think Trump might do this if he had his own internet platform. Perhaps he will once his platform is up and running.
“several leaders had signaled they would sign on, including executives at PepsiCo Inc.”
Waiting eagerly for confirmation or disavowal.
“No Coke, no Pepsi. Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger.”
Classic SNL.
One executive said something along the lines (I forget the exact quote) that it was a no win situation, you were going to be wrong regardless of which side you chose. He or she is the problem: they have no business having their business choose a side. Their business is making and selling soda, footwear, providing insurance, air travel. banking services, or what have you. They have all bought in to aligning their companies with a position on every news item that comes up. They are virtue signaling suckers who ought to be fired, every one of them, which brings up the next problem – outside “independent” directors. They are poison and should be reduced to a minimum on boards, not encouraged as a majority.
AMC Theatres? They’re siding with the party that has ruined their business?
‘One executive admitted, “It’s really a no-win situation from a corporate standpoint.”’ If that’s the case, why get in the fight at all?
Educated idiots. Fools.
Seems to me the CEOs, Directors, what have you are failing in their fiduciary duty to their stockholders. A former CEO of PepsiCo said she was willing to engage in third-rail debates only if they were relevant to the company’s broader mission. “Not all companies need to speak up about everything,” she said. “If the rhetoric isn’t linked inextricably to the core business, you should question it.” The solution to the problem of it being a lose-lose situation no matter which side you choose is not to choose sides in the first place.
These corps are going woke, not because they actually support this garbage, but because they want to deflect from their horrible behavior with respect to their use of slave labor from China. These people who run these companies are repulsive. They claim to care about voting rights in the USA but couldn’t care less about the rights of oppressed Chinese minorities. I am embarrassed to purchased the products they sell.
Are American Airlines and United Airlines now admitting that when they require photo ID for their customers to board their planes, they are deliberately discriminating against people of color?
We need to begin using Saul Ali sky’s tactics against them, but we need to hit them fast and hard where it hurts their power and influence the most. Their bottom line. Boycotting as individuals is great and we need to begin doing that, but for the avg. individual this is challenging. Why? These massive conglomerates have multiple subsidiaries and/or brands they operate that most people aren’t aware above. By boycotting their major brand an individual may inadvertently switch to another brand that’s a wholly owned subsidiary of the first. What about the companies where they hold major or minority stock positions? You obviously can’t boycott all of those companies too. How can we make the biggest financial impact on then in the shortest possible time frame?
Every single Republican controlled state and local gov’t need to immediately cancel any and all contracts with any of these companies or wholly owned subsidiaries. The only way this will happen, especially in states or locals where the usual suspects, the weak spine’d cowardly RINO’s reside it will be harder, but we must call our state and local reps and demand they do this immediately.
100%
Why are Republican controls state and local govt’s. Still doing business with a single one of these companies? They need to cancel any and all contracts with them and any wholly owned subsidiary they currently do business with.