Romney's Su-PEER-iors PRESSURE: Mitt's CEO's *UPDATED*

Are we as a country feeling particularly comfortable with bosses and executives dropping none to subtle hints that voting wrong will lead to people getting laid off? Are we fine when the boss lays on the pressure to try and scare employees into subverting their own thinking and interests to fulfill those of corporate masters?

Because that is what we are dealing with today. It has always existed to some extent, but today, it is bold as brass. A number of businesses...No. Let us be clear here. A number of business owners are talking and mailing their workforces with scary notices (And, I want to be clear this is the act of owner. Because this is not the thinking and concern focused on matters of the business itself, but on the personal sensibilities of the owner.).

The Koch Brothers (You may have heard of them.) have been putting the pressure on their massive collection of workers. Mailers have been sent out to 45,000 of their employees at Georgia Pacific saying:

... 

If we elect candidates who want to spend hundreds of billions in borrowed money on costly new subsidies for a few favored cronies, put unprecedented regulatory burdens on businesses, prevent or delay important new construction projects, and excessively hinder free trade, then many of our more than 50,000 U.S. employees and contractors may suffer the consequences, including higher gasoline prices, runaway inflation, and other ills.

They want to push their BS agenda, and we've seen the impact in campaign dollars coming from these brothers. But they want to make it clear, some of their thousands of workers will be likely fired...If the wrong man wins the presidential election.

And as part of the information sent to workers was also a list of approved candidates (all Republicans) for states offices and editorials from the Kochs on the various governmental evils as they see them. All part of the effort to lay into these people just trying to make a living. Pressure and more pressure.

It is yet another front in the continuing bullying of the nation by billionaire businessmen. They are rich. They are powerful. They are privileged  And nothing we are doing will change that. But society itself changes on them, and they look to roll over and crush society.

Regulations. Tax law. Environmental protection  Equal pay. Gay marriage. Abortion rights. They all blur together as topics for people like the Kochs. It is stuff that bugs them. It won't end their lives of ease. But it all offends their sensibilities. And if it does that, it will not be tolerated. Long haired teens. Opinionated skirts. Unions. Barack Obama. All the same. All unacceptable.

So. Who is working to rally employers to pressure employees to vote for Romney? Romney, obviously. And he is caught on record talking about this.

Newly-discovered audio from a conference call in June captures Mitt Romney asking business owners to urge their employees to vote for him. 

Romney, speaking on a call to the very conservative National Federation of Independent Business, tells a group of business owners that they should “make it very clear” how they feel about the candidates. ...

From those tapes:

I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections. ...

Oh, we know what that means. Don't we?

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ADDENDUM:

More from Chris Hayes and his team (via Mediaite) on another of the companies involved in pressuring it's employees to vote from Mitt Romney.

On Saturday, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes delved deeper into a series of emails written by ASG Software Solutions President and CEO Arthur Allen to his employees on the topic of Mitt Romney. 

Specifically, Allen encouraged those who worked for him to support the Republican candidate with donations to his website, urging them to contribute to the Romney campaign “up to the maximum of $2,500 per person.” In addition, he encouraged his employees to contact their own friends and relatives and urge them to support Romney as well. 

“ASG,” Allen wrote, “like many other companies, is still struggling, even after four years. We need to elect a fiscally conservative president and vice-president and stop this ridiculous government spending.” The letter concludes by asking employees to please “help ASG and yourself” by contributing to the Romney/Ryan campaign. 

In another email, Allen had asked his employees to defer “some of all” of their salaries until December in order to help the company make a 15 million dollar interest payment. This provides a contrast to earlier comments Allen had made regarding use of a private jet costing something around 50 million dollars. 

...

Again we see the pressure and spreading of fear that jobs could be lost, based on dubious argument. Also, like in too many companies, cuts are being demanded of the workforce, where management continues to get "invested" in. I would be left doubting this guys fiscal insight, if I worked there.


Also, it has been noted that Herman Cain, remember him, is going around the country working to get and help employers pressure employees. How nice of him.