In many ways, the classic Minnesota corporations have always been the very model of “good corporate citizens”. These corporations – 3M, Daytons (now Target), Medtronic, Mayo, Best Buy and many more – gave profusely to Minnesota charities, schools, universities, arts, research…the whole works.
But they’ve also gotten squeezed, hard; has bad as taxes are for individuals in Minnesota, they are much worse for businesses; Minnesota has among the worst corporate tax rates in the country. And the entire DFL slate – Dayton, Kelliher, Entenza and stealth-DFLer Horner – are running on platforms that involve “creating jobs” by taxing the living daylights out of corporations and their investors.
As we run up toward the primaries, groups working with the DFL – especially the Dayton-funded “Alliance for a Better Minnesota” – has poured a sea of money into advertising against Tom Emmer, and it’s just started. This past week, another group – MNForward – finally put an ad on the air pointing out Emmer’s positive approach to creating more jobs; getting government out of the way of the businesses, small and large, that’ll lead any recovery that happens.
And the DFL is shocked, shocked that some businesses are willing to help keep the Democrats from plundering the state.
The DFL has been hooting and hollering that Target, among a few other businesses [disclosures here – PDF alert] has given money – about $100K – to MNForward.
Among them was DFL representative Ryan “Don’t Call Me Henry” Winkler, who tweeted around eightish last night:
Target fundshttp://tinyurl.com/26bcfkw Emmer adhttp://www.mnforward.com. Emmer anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-min. wage. Target guests agree?
Anti-gay? Huh?
A bit later, Darin Broton – a PR flak – tweeted back:
@repryanwinkler – Has Target given the House DFL Caucus money this cycle? Past cycles? DFL incumbents?
Winkler responded to Broton:
Nope. Never…
Later yesterday evening, WCCO-TV’s Esme Murphy ran a report on how Democrats were supposedly staying away from Target because of this advertising donation – which prompted me to wonder how many Democrat wonks Murphy hangs out with; the lines at Target in the Midway, deep in the most Tic-infested district in Minnesota, were as long as ever. Perhaps they were all Republicans? I doubt it.
The Strib also reported that, despite the economic downturn that’s prompted them to lay off people at the corporate office and close a distribution center, than Target is not easing off its charitable giving:
Last year the Minneapolis-based retailer gave $169 million nationally in cash and in-kind contributions, making it, by some reckonings, Minnesota’s most generous grant maker. For the past five years its largess has significantly outpaced that of the McKnight Foundation, Minnesota’s No. 2 donor, according to the Minnesota Council on Foundations. Between 2004 and 2008, Target’s annual giving rose steadily, from $96.3 million to $169 million, while the McKnight Foundation’s went from $75.4 million to $93.6 million…
…Arts organizations around the country are particularly dependent on Target for providing free or reduced admission to museums, theatrical performances and events. Its beneficiaries in the Twin Cities include Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Children’s Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Children’s Museum, Circus Juventas, Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre and the Latin American Folklore Dance Company
No matter to Rep. Ryan Winkler, who responded to Murphy via Twitter:
@esmemurphy Target has been good corp. citizen, but MN political spending is new. Your show just showed risk of giving to candidates.
No. It showed that it’s dangerous being a for-profit business in Minnesota, under the watchful eye of the DFL. That it’s dangerous to cross the all-beneficent, all-knowing Mother Party.
It shows the risk of crossing party hacks like Steve Winkler, who think that corporate political giving is “new”, and that corporations should just shut up and take it – for giving $100,000 (which is, by the way, $761,000 less than various members of the Dayton family and Dayton’s ex-wife Alida Messinger have given in this cycle to “Win Minnesota” alone).
And it shows the risk of actually having to run a political campaign on donations from people and companies that actually have to earn their money, as opposed to merely inheriting it; the DFL will try to keep you from earning that money.
It’s the Chicago Minnesota DFL way.
Me? I’m off to Target. I’m going to buy something I may not even need all that badly. And I’m going to write “thanks for donating to MNForward” on the charge slip.
Esme Murphy is a typical hypocritical liberat! Funny, because her husband and brother in law own Sofas and Chairs! I’ll bet there are some lively discussions around that dinner table!
Well… if Target won’t comply with the DFL shakedown, then all the union DFL types will just have to make their displeasure known by taking their business elsewhere… (like Walmart? hahahahahahahaha)
gill0137
Funny stuff! We all know though, that no matter how staunch a union member is, 99% of the time, his wife controls the shopping. Imagine the problem with attempting to forbid them from shopping at Target.
On another note, union pukes are just as hypocritical as the regime that they worship. I have personally watched union trades people shopping in Menards, Home Depot and Fleet Farm, grab a Chinese made power tool over the US made brand, because it was cheaper! So much for supporting their “union brothers and sisters”.
Economic boycotts–remember the UFW grape boycott of the 60s–are liberals’ way of behaving self righteously so show each other how pure they are without actually doing anything. “I’m so not shopping at Target” means, literally, “I will not make any personal sacrifice or perform real work to effect change.” So a few dollars winds up in another corporate till and the conversations in wine bars and Starbucks will include references to how appalling those corporations are before returning to whatever it is they normally talk about. Me, I’ve decided not to buy a single Cuban or Venezuelan product until the leaders of those regimes are toppled by the effects of my boycott. Just how effective has our embargo against Cuba been? Sanctions against Saddam Hussein? Iran? The list goes on.
which prompted me to wonder how many Democrat wonks Murphy hangs out with
MN’s own Pauline Kael?
Remember Northwest Airlines? They were a huge employer in Minnesota. Delta bought them and moved the corporate HQ to Atlanta. Reason? Georgia’s corporate tax is much lower than Minnesota.
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anti-Gay? Target allows it’s gay-rights group to use the Target logo with the gay-rights triangle on it. Best Buy hangs the rainbow flag up around it’s campus on gay-rights days, and regularly brings in gay-rights speakers on campus. Minnesota’s large corporations tend to be rather liberal. DFL should appreciate that.
Bathtub gin is always an option, but where will dimwitted moonbats go to buy kool-aid mixer? They’re boycotting everyone and everything by now, aren’t they?
Sigh. My state rep in action. If anyone wants to help kick this weenie to the curb, you should contribute to Rick Rice who’s running against Winkler in 44B:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=125134814175937&ref=mf#!/pages/Rick-Rice-for-House-District-44B/126334464053116?ref=ts
It could be worse, Chad. My state “representative” was a VP of Education Minnesota before assuming her sinecure.
Delta bought them and moved the corporate HQ to Atlanta. Reason?
Delta’s HQ was already located there?
I don’t have a problem with Target donating to a political campaign. Until they start putting out ads mocking liberals and denying climate change, as Ol’ Mexico did, anyway.
I still will buy groceries from union stores, though.
“Delta’s HQ was…”
He’s talking about all of Northwest’s HQ operaions and infrastructure. If it had made economic sense to move the HQ here, think they wouldn’t have done it?
“Until they start putting out ads…denying climate change”
But if they mocked the equally-plausible and less-faith-based Intelligent Design, you’d be fine with that?
I would. It would be bad business to mock creationism in an ad, since a lot of people believe in it, though.
equally-plausible and less-faith-based
First, work on the hyphenation, and second, based on that statement, understanding science is clearly not your strong suit.
Until they start putting out ads mocking liberals and denying climate change, as Ol’ Mexico did, anyway.
So does that mean there’s a copper boycott? Ol’ Mexico is a boot heel and taser free zone!
I still will buy groceries from union stores, though.
Droog-thru shopping!
Evidence of the ol’ glassies! Nothing up our sleeves, no magic! A job for two who are now of job age! The police!
DiscordianStooj said:
“denying climate change”
The bold but unsupported statement of “Man Made Global Warming” becomes the equivocal and mousy “climate change”, but lets all pretend the warmies aren’t slowly climbing down.
So funny.
So does that mean there’s a copper boycott?
You can pretend the vast majority of cops aren’t conservatives like you if you want, swiftee.
Troy, I’ve always called it climate change. It makes it less likely that deniers will cry, “It’s cold in January! Global warming is a scam!” There are still some idiots who say it, but the numbers are down a little.
Climbing down from what? That data say the earth is getting warmer and people are causing it? Nah, that’s still true.
Disco, you have to go a long way to go — further than your assertions — to get on the global warming bandwagon. You have to believe that the Earth is warming, that human activity is driving it, and that there are no other significant drivers. Screw that up and we could reduce CO2 emissions to zero and still get cooked or frozen.
You also have to believe that if it is true that the world is warming, and that human CO2 production is its only significant driver, that politicians can solve this problem by acting entirely opposite to their natures and considering the general good rather than the good of their supporters, contributors, and their own financial interests.
Have you heard that Al “The Seas are Rising and will Drown The Coasts” Gore just spent $14 million on a California seaside mansion? Even he doesn’t believe this malarkey. You are a rube, Discostooj.
There’s also the inconvenient truth that the IPCC’s computer models don’t even correctly predict the past, and that many of the temperature sensors are located in places where human actiity HAS warmed things up – cities.
Unfortunately, AGW has created a generation of people who think that “science” is “going along with a mob”.
creationism
Bzzzt. Or to put it in the sort of terms you use, “clearly humanities, philosophy and theology aren’t your strong suits”. Creationism is the belief that God created the world in six literal days, 6,000 years ago, that rejects evolution.
Intelligent Design is the idea that behind all of that evolution and physics there is a God; combined with an allegorical view of the Creation story, and it needn’t be in conflict with science at all.
First, work on the hyphenation,
The hyphenation was intentional and, for my purposes, perfect.
second, based on that statement, understanding science is clearly not your strong suit.
Speaking of imprecision! You wrote “understanding science”, whe the term you were looking for was “willingness to suspend reason to be stampeded into an anti-scientific conclusion by a politically correct mob”. I’m happy to help.
Sorry, DiscoStoo, but wrong again. While I was a bio major for a paltry semester, my knowledge of and respect for the scientific method is exactly why I reject AGW.
DiscordianStooj said:
“I’ve always called it climate change”
Points for consistency then, but still mousy and equivocal. The climate “changes”? Way to boldly state something so vague that no one disagrees!
“That data say the earth is getting warmer and people are causing it?”
So baked temperature data magically equals “people are causing it”? You are a man of science. Popular Science!
“Nah, that’s still true.”
Then why not stick with the “Man Made Global Warming”, if that is what you really believe? *shrug*
Intelligent Design is the idea that behind all of that evolution and physics there is a God; combined with an allegorical view of the Creation story, and it needn’t be in conflict with science at all.
Well, “irreducible complexity” is in conflict with science. ID is an attempt to teach creationism in science classes, despite having no scientific validity or testable theories.
You also have to believe that if it is true that the world is warming, and that human CO2 production is its only significant driver, that politicians can solve this problem by acting entirely opposite to their natures and considering the general good rather than the good of their supporters, contributors, and their own financial interests.
What do politicians have to do with whether or not the earth is warming?
Have you heard that Al “The Seas are Rising and will Drown The Coasts” Gore just spent $14 million on a California seaside mansion? Even he doesn’t believe this malarkey.
Al Gore isn’t a scientist, so what he believes isn’t really important, is it?
What are your feelings now that the IPCC scientists you claimed made up all of the climate change data were found to have done no such thing? Is anyone who believes in climate change (or whatever you think I should call it) still a criminal and a traitor?
Well, “irreducible complexity” is in conflict with science. ID is an attempt to teach creationism in science classes, despite having no scientific validity or testable theories.
From what I’ve seen, ID is perverted into what you describe – creationism by the back door – by some of its proponents; it’s equally true that ID’s detractors conflate the two.
What do politicians have to do with whether or not the earth is warming?
You either missed the point, or are being obtuse.
If Ike were alive today, he’d be warning of a vast “pseudoscientific/political complex”.
What are your feelings now that the IPCC scientists you claimed made up all of the climate change data were found to have done no such thing?
I thought “buy whitewash futures”. The “authority” that vindicated the IPCC was from a government body that has an interest in furthering the fraud.
Rumors of vindication are greatly exaggerated.
still a criminal and a traitor?
Why is it that you Warmers feel the need to resort to rampant emotionalism? Criminal? Traitor?
I’d settle for “lousy scientist”, thanks.
What do politicians have to do with whether or not the earth is warming?
Maybe you’ve missed the whole political debate about carbon cap and trade, a global “carbon tax”, etc?
If you believe that these are attempts by the ruling class to control even more of our economy and will have no affect on so-called “global warming”, welcome to our side, stooj.
Monckton called them criminals. Breitbart called them traitors. Where is the emotionalism coming from again?
The “authority” that vindicated the IPCC was from a government body that has an interest in furthering the fraud.
Of course. Evidence against the conspiracy is just further proof of the conspiracy. Got it.
Maybe you’ve missed the whole political debate about carbon cap and trade, a global “carbon tax”, etc?
The policy debate has no effect on whether or not the earth is warming. If Obama said, “The earth is warming, and the only way to stop it is to enforce mandatory christianity,” I would disagree with his policy conclusion, but not that the earth is warming.Because politics has nothing to do with climate science.
Monckton called them criminals. Breitbart called them traitors.
Yeah, what do they think they are? The “seditionist” Michele Bachmann? The nerve!
Where is the emotionalism coming from again?
Maybe there were tired of being threatened with Nuremberg trials for skepticism?
Of course. Evidence against the conspiracy is just further proof of the conspiracy. Got it.
Oddly, and at the risk of being accused of playing “I know you are but what am I?”, that’s the same standard of proof that AGW jihadis have been using for a decade; everything was evidence of Manmade Global Warming!
And by your leave, is there anything I can say that’d pass your rigorous standard of ridicule for non-believers?
Maybe you’ve missed the whole political debate about carbon cap and trade, a global “carbon tax”, etc?
Um…no?
The policy debate has no effect on whether or not the earth is warming. If Obama said, “The earth is warming, and the only way to stop it is to enforce mandatory christianity,” I would disagree with his policy conclusion, but not that the earth is warming.Because politics has nothing to do with climate science.
You are hiding your head and stomping your feet. Politics and “climate science” are inextricably tangled up.
Algore is no scientist, if you recall.
DiscordianStooj said:
“Where is the emotionalism coming from again?”
“Of course. Evidence against the conspiracy is just further proof of the conspiracy. Got it.”
“Because politics has nothing to do with climate science.”
Again, so funny.
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