Corporate America
July 27, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The ginormous CHIPS Act has grown like Topsy into a $250 billion bill with a little help from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Touted as a benefit to American national security, not just another case of corporate welfare or crony capitalism, the Act is slated to pass the Senate this week. The Free Beacon’s Joe Simonson reports on developments that might affect this assessment: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.,
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July 18, 2022 — John Hinderaker
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western businesses abandoned Russia in droves. There was little pain, since investments in Russia’s economy have generally been modest. But the London Times asks a good question: what if China invades Taiwan? The headline is, “Western companies face ‘existential crisis’ as fears grow of Chinese invasion of Taiwan.” Days after the Ukraine conflict erupted, Apple, BMW, McDonald’s and other Western giants lined
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July 9, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I expressed admiration for Morton’s statement condemning the harassment of Justice Kavanaugh at the steakhouse chain’s downtown D.C. restaurant on Wednesday evening. Politico Playbook had sought and published Morton’s statement (quoted in the linked post) in its account of the events. Morton’s must of course be punished for speaking up on behalf of its customers (and its business). I observed that the Playbookers seemed to think the whole thing was
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July 8, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The harassment of conservative Supreme Court justices manifested at Morton’s in the District of Columbia on Wednesday evening. While Justice Kavanaugh ate dinner at the downtown steakhouse, protesters were tipped to his presence. The protesters showed up out front, called the Morton’s manager to tell him to kick Justice Kavanaugh out, and later tweeted that the justice was forced to exit through the rear of the restaurant. In response to
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June 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Lawrence Franklin’s Gatestone column discusses recently leaked documents further revealing the enormities committed by China’s regime in its Xinjiang province. It also provides a useful review of the situation to date. What is to be done? Franklin modestly conclude: “Democratic countries should distribute these leaks globally as cautionary warning to all societies that the CCP’s projected panda bear image of China obscures the reality of a quite different animal with
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June 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
And this just in: I read with interest your post regarding the leftist General Mills employees pressuring corporate leadership. This is very similar to what I observe daily at Pfizer where I work out of the New York City office. Oh, and by the way, the company that created the “vaccine” still is almost >85% remote work. But I digress. I have found the Ombudsman’s Office at Pfizer a useful
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June 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
General Mills is in the news today for caving in to demands that it abandon a “controversial Pillsbury plant in the West Bank,” as the Star Tribune puts it this morning. BDS advocates claim victory. Speaking for itself, General Mills states: “We have made clear the global business strategy that drove this decision.” The company’s headquarters are located in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Yesterday we heard from a Power Line reader
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June 2, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I have sought to persuade a conservative attorney friend with whom I attended the University of Minnesota Law School to quit supporting the school. They are an enemy of everything we believe in, I argued. Ask them if they have a single conservative professor on the faculty, I implored him. The development staff cited the ludicrous former DFL candidate Richard Painter. Case closed. I also asked him to leaf through
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April 22, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Today Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that revokes Disney’s virtually self-governing status in that state. The cause, of course, was Disney’s aggressive pro-groomer, anti-parent political stance. Not long ago it would have been unthinkable for a major corporation to stick its neck out in support of an unpopular, even radical political position that doesn’t even relate to the company’s business. Now perhaps we understand why. The Wall Street Journal
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March 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I thought the humorous video below represented nothing more than a light-hearted display of wit with a postmodern twist or two. I greatly enjoyed the video when a busy friend took a timeout from his work to draw my attention to it yesterday. Reading Ben Shapiro’s column this morning, however, I note, not for the first time, that I am slow on the uptake. Jeremy’s Razors is a real thing.
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March 11, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Justin Danhof is executive vice president of the National Center for Public Policy Research and a shareholder gadfly. Earlier this week he spoke in favor of his Disney shareholder proposal seeking “to protect Disney from a myriad of legal and reputational risks stemming from its race-based employee training programs.” The center has posted background here. It has also posted the text of Danhof’s statement here. FOX News covers it here.
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February 15, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about what I called “a Princeton-Morgan Stanley joint venture in discrimination.” My reference was to Morgan Stanley’s Freshman Enhancement Program, which is available only to Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and/or LGBTQ college freshmen. All other freshmen need not apply. Princeton participates in the program. Today, former White House Counsel Boyden Gray sent a letter on behalf of the Project on Fair Representation to Morgan Stanley and Princeton
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January 5, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Lenin famously said that capitalists would sell the rope that Communists would use to hang capitalists. But it turns out his imagination failed him: who knew that capitalists would pay for the rope with which the revolutionary left will kill capitalism. Liberal political analyst Thomas Byrne Edsall, who along with David Shor, Ruy Teixeira, and a handful of other liberals of relative sobriety, notes today in the New York Times
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December 13, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Lyin’ Lizzie Warren sent out a set of letters berating major U.S. oil and gas producers for restraining production, increasing exports and “putting their massive profits, share prices and dividends for investors, and millions of dollars in CEO pay and bonuses” ahead of Americans. According to Warren, “These record-setting natural gas exports are leading to higher prices for consumers, and they show no signs of a slowdown.” I am quoting
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November 19, 2021 — John Hinderaker
It is getting harder and harder to stay neutral in the culture war that is tearing American society apart. That is how it seems, anyway; I don’t understand why so many companies feel compelled to choose a side–pretty much always the far-Left side, unfortunately. The latest case in point is the Breakers, a venerable luxury resort in Palm Beach, Florida. The Breakers dates at least to 1926, and has long
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October 28, 2021 — John Hinderaker
The weird phenomenon of woke capitalism persists. This time it is Mars, Inc., maker of Twix candy bars. Mars released this two-minute video for Halloween, no doubt the biggest season of the year for Twix sales: Via InstaPundit. I won’t try to improve on James Lileks’ comments, quoted there: So yes, it’s real, and it’s Twix endorsed. It doesn’t really matter how you think about it. What you learn is
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October 12, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Over the weekend through mid-day yesterday Southwest Airlines had canceled more than 2,000 flights. I take that number from the New York Times story, which seems to reflect something like current numbers. This industry report tabulates a variety of relevant numbers and characterizes the situation as an “operational meltdown.” Southwest attributes the “disruptions” to “weather and other external constraints.” Both Southwest and its pilots’ union deny that the company’s vaccine
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