Anyone still think the "left wing" is a politically motivated chicken little whining endlessly about corporate money influencing our elections? Check this out from the Nation/Think Progress:Writing today in the Nation, Mark Ames and Mike Elk reveal that Koch Industries mailed a letters to 50,000 employees instructing them on who to vote for in the 2010 midterm elections. The Koch packet given to employees included candidate names, a letter from a Koch lobbyist, and a right-wing screed from the company and the Washington Examiner, an outlet owned by Phil Anschutz, a billionaire. (View a copy of the packet here.)
The Nation spoke to several law experts who noted that “Citizens United frees Koch Industries and other corporations to propagandize their employees with their political preferences.” Before the decision, businesses were prohibited from instructing their employees to vote a certain way. Karl Crow is a Koch operative who had penned a memo calling for corporations to exploit Citizens United and aggressively use “employees, vendors, and customers” as tools for advancing business interests in the political sphere.Below is part of the Koch packet given to employees:
Here's Ed Schultz with a breakdown, and his off the cuff "gut" take:
This flap all over the "lefty" blogs is just looking stupid and really naive.
ReplyDeleteYou're really going to turn off private sector workers by showing them just how little you still understand about how the bulk of American labor really lives.
This "shocking new behavior" is not new. It is not "ushered in" by Citizens United. That is total crap. Who thought of this thing echo all over? It makes you look like pansys. Really. This is old stuff. This is how most workers live in the private sector. For MUCH longer than freak-ass CU.
This is how the public workers and unionized workers continually prove that they are "elevated" and clueless in too many ways.
I'm telling you this is alienating. at a time when it is imperative that all labor sticks together.
God you guys!!!! this Koch/employer behavior is the real world. You have no idea (still) how good you have had it. No idea.
That helps the Right keep peoples' flames of anger pumped. God why help with this kind of naivety. It's hopeless...
You all might as well run around in Ivory Tower Clueless Liberal t-shirts.
Make some blue collar friends for God's sake. And don't feel so clever passing on this meme. It's a bad one.
That Koch behavior to their employees is new, thanks to Citizens United. So you're wrong, and that's why it's in the story, to give a perspective on the impact of the activist conservative Supreme Court decision.
ReplyDeleteYou don't know me, so to say I don't have a clue is wrong. I've worked blue collar jobs all my life, radio, office cleaning, real estate. The latter two are my own businesses, so yes, I know what it's like. You don't know what it's like. Try paying the full FICA tax and health care insurance in the private sector without a group policy.
While you think others with opinions based on their own life experiences makes them stupid or naive, and wish life in the work place could be fair for both parties, your willingness to suffer a declining work environment is sad and defeatist. "This is how most workers live in the private sector" is a lie, but we're getting there thanks to you and your conservative surrender monkeys ( I didn't want to use "monkeys," but it's late).
As a former Milwaukee pipe layer, fork lift driver (3rd shift), line cook, and parts delivery guy, I would say you don't know blue collar, and probably don't have any real blue collar friends.
Thanks for taking the time to express yourself. I enjoyed it.