Target Targets Reason, Minnesotans, GLBT, etc.

Posted by Greg Laden on July 27, 2010
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You’ve probably already heard about Target corporation’s sponsorship of an ad backing Republican Tom Emmer in his bid to keep Minnesota in the Dark Ages. The corporation known locally as The Mother Ship spent $150,000 to produce this ad:


What you need to know if you are not a Minnesotan is this: All that Minnesotans hold dear about their state has been ruined or threatened by the last two terms of Tim Pawlenty, who has kept taxes very low on wealthy citizens and cut programs that are very much needed. The citizens have voted in a strong Democratic majority to override the governor. Rich people have formed “Please Tax Us” organizations and started running ads to increase taxes on the upper end. Meanwhile, our system of education, health care, public services, conservation, all of it are crumbling.

Target is a corporation that in a former life spent money on these things. A certain percentage of the money you spent at Target went to education. If you got a Target Credit card, instead of you taking air mileage or some other benefit, a certain percentage of what you spent on that card went to a school of your choice.

And now, we’ve got Target funding MN Forward who in turn support Emmer.

The GLBT community has gone especially balistic because of Emmer’s opposition to same sex marriage, though this really is a broader issue. In an effort to assuage its own fairly large GLBT workforce, the Target CEO has issued a letter that includes this paragraph:

As you know, Target has a history of supporting organizations and candidates, on both sides of the aisle, who seek to advance policies aligned with our business objectives, such as job creation and economic growth. MN Forward is focused specifically on those issues and is committed to supporting candidates from any party who will work to improve the state’s job climate. However, it is also important to note that we rarely endorse all advocated positions of the organizations or candidates we support, and we do not have a political or social agenda.

Let me restate that last bit:

…. and we do not have a political or social agenda.

And, the way you don’t have a political or social agenda is to a) support a specific political candidate that has political positions that support, politically, your business agenda because he is, after all, part of b) the party that explicitly exists (most of the time) for the purpose of supporting the needs of large corporations … in the political arena … and which c) is otherwise engaged in a one-track intensified cultural war against people who are gay?

Excuse-eh-fucking-moi?

No, I don’t think so. I think you screwed the pooch on this one, Target. And the pooch is not happy.

Anyway, here are some bloggy resources for you to learn more about his issue:

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Comments

  1. #1 Sivi
    July 27, 2010

    Since-bloody-when is advancing “policies aligned with our business objectives, such as job creation and economic growth” divorced from any political agenda?

    That makes no bloody sense, and it’s not like you can separate funding a party political broadcast based on some policies and explicitly not others.

  2. #2 Rich Wilson
    July 27, 2010

    It’s not just that Emmer doesn’t support gay marriage. Lots of politicians don’t support gay marriage. But not many of them pal around with people who think calling for the execution of gay people is the moral high road:

    “Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,” Dean said on YCR’s May 15 radio show on AM 1280 the Patriot. “This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.”

    http://minnesotaindependent.com/58393/gop-linked-punk-rock-ministry-says-executing-gays-is-moral

  3. #3 kittywhumpus
    July 27, 2010

    I went back and added up my last year and a half worth of expenses at Target and wrote them a little missive.

    http://kittywhumpus.blogspot.com/2010/07/dear-target.html

  4. #4 Rick
    July 27, 2010

    Emmer is a total dope, Target for its part will never see me in it stores. I guess I should get a job as a server so I can make $100,000.00/year

  5. #5 Sir Teller, The bearer of hrash Truths
    July 27, 2010

    our system of education, health care, public services, conservation, all of it are crumbling.

    ———–

    First we do not need government intervention in healthcare. That is a private thing. Public services? Conservation? I do believe that some public services are needed that conservation is important but we have gotton to the point to where we have become fanatical about it.

    Education? We would be better off to disband the teachers unions, decentralize education, and put education back to a small local learning process. No political crap, no fake history rewritten by far left fascists, and no teachers unions squandering all the money meant for education.

    Yes homersexuality is a sin. Get over it. it’s going to remain a sin until … well, forever. 100 trillion centuries from now it will be just as much a sin as it was 3500 years ago when Sodom and Gomorrah were vaporized for their homersexuality. Get over it.

    Besides what are you yacking about. More stores and organizations support sodomy than are gainst it. By the way, wasn’t Target part of your War on Christmas until we rose up and made them shut up?

    What about Pepsi? You people on Science Blobs have ranted and raved about this compnay for a while now, yet they continue blanket support of organized sinful lust and sexual abnormalities like homersexuality. So has Ford Motor Company. Lets face it liberals, you will never get every single person or store on your side. Get over it.

  6. #6 NewEnglandBob
    July 27, 2010

    Most of us sane people would not like your mix of Fascism and anarchy, Sir Teller. Your world design would be equivalent to the lowest levels of Dante’s hell. You have no “truths”, just blind, stupid bible fantasies that drive you.

  7. #7 Phil
    July 27, 2010

    The Pepsi Generation is Homersextuals?

  8. #8 Stephanie Z
    July 27, 2010

    Huh. Looks like Guardian of the Poll has a new pretentious nickname under which to spew the right-wing silliness.

  9. #9 Sir Teller, The bearer of hrash Truths
    July 27, 2010

    Oh, looks like Stephanie is a secret admirer.

    Oh, may I ask a more serious question while we are talking about dictators and left wing communism?

    Here is my question and I expect an intelligent answer from all you who blindly supported the healthcare bill which no one read before voting on it:

    JUST WHAT IN ALL OF HELL HAS TRACKING GOLD COIN PURCHASES HAVE TO DO WITH HEALTHCARE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!?

    This far left fascist marxist bill has got ot be vaporized. I wish someone would erase it from the files and archives and then burn the hard copies. This bill has nothing to do with healthcare and alot to do with control of the people. Damned communists needs to burn in hell. As a matter of fact I hope a mini asteroid hits every last one of them on top of their head as punishment for their evil treachery and treason.

    Tracking Gold coin sales. I guess that’s will somehow keep medical expenses down? Can someone please explain this? Please explain to me why barney Frank and Chris Dodd are not in prison?

    Also please explain to me how it is legal under the CONSTITUTION, a document not read in many decades apprently, how the federal government can threaten people with jail or fines if they refuse to purchase a product from a private individual company. Please explain in detail how that is legal. Give me the direct sentence in the constitution that proves it it legal.

    I have been investing in precious metals for a while, but to hell with the dictator assholes in wahsington. I’ll hide what I have and start paying cash in person for all other purchases from now on. Track that, motherfuckers! Oh, and they can have my gold coins – when they drop their underwear and bend over. This doesn’t apply to Barney Frank. He would think I was flirting. Sick bastard. Better yet, I’ll melt my silver down into little balls to make weapons out of when the fascists take my guns. Better yet, I’ll just take the silver and make colloidal silver with it when they outlet it due to the far left fascist marxist healthcare scam bill taking over. By the way, it’s relatively easy to make colloidal silver at home just in case the government rations anti-biotics – and they will. Population control bill is in efftce. OOPS! I meant to say health care bill.

    Now, will someone with your supposed higher learning and superior education and superior knowledge and superior skills please explain to this dumb old redneck what gold coin tracking has to do with helathcare? I really would like an explanation of this treason.

    Guardian of the Poll is my brother and he is busy out guarding piolls against wicked thugs.

  10. #10 Todd
    July 27, 2010

    “Far left facists?”

    In the words of the famous Inigo Montoya, “[T]hat word, I do not think it means what you think it means.”

  11. #11 Greg Laden
    July 27, 2010

    please explain to me how it is legal under the CONSTITUTION, a document not read in many decades apprently, how the federal government can threaten people with jail or fines if they refuse to purchase a product from a private individual company.

    There is a way to fix that.

  12. #12 Stephanie Z
    July 28, 2010

    Not secret and not an admirer. Bored with an immune-to-reality shtick so extreme it doesn’t even have to be signed.

  13. #13 Swampy
    July 28, 2010

    I just sent an email to Target’s communications department saying I was no longer going to shop there.

    Target.Communications@target.com

    I’m not sure if that’s the best email address to send it to, so if anyone can find a better place to submit my notice of disgust, please post it here.

  14. #14 itzac
    July 28, 2010

    Forgive me for being side-tracked by something in the ad.

    “Job-killing taxes,” strikes me as extremely over-simplified, if not completely fallacious. If I understand corporate taxes right, only the portion of revenue left over after expenses (such as payroll), called income, is taxed. You could raise corporate taxes to 99% and only ever impact the profitability to owners and shareholders, and the company’s capital reserves.

    Only the latter is concerning, as it is those capital reserves that a company uses to grow and innovate, or to deal with unexpected costs. Now clearly there is a trade-off to be made between growth and taxes, but that sliding scale surely has more dynamic range than just the endpoints of the USSR or Somalia.