Now look what you made us do!

We've seen it before. It's become a trope in movies and TV: The evil hostage-taker issues demands and threatens dire consequences if his demands are not met - say, he will start killing his hostages, one an hour, once the deadline has passed, and won't stop until a new, inflated set of demands are met. Depending on the rating of the story, we may even get to see one or two of the hostages get snuffed, usually with a bullet to the back of the head. As he kills the hostages, the hostage-taker turns to the hero, or the hapless middleman who tried but failed to meet his demands, and says "I am not doing this. You are. I am not responsible for this. You are. You made me do it."

Much of our economic strife over the last four years has been artificial, a product of CEOs choosing to sit on huge piles of uninvested money, citing "uncertainty" about the future, when in reality they are concerned that any improvement in the economy would be a feather in the cap of the hated President of the United States, Barack Obama, and might lead to his re-election. So rather than see things get better on his watch, the CEOs  chose to sit tight, bank the money, and wait for a change of administration to someone who would be willing to play ball with them according to the rules to which they had become accustomed during the George W. Bush years.

And in the case that the hated Barack Obama might get elected to a second term, despite the best efforts of the Koch brothers, Citizens United, the right-wing media establishment...well, heaven forbid. In that case, they might be forced to take some of the hostages and shoot them. And, lets be clear:  in the event that that happened, they would be in no way responsible. Nossir. It would all be Obama's fault. Barack Obama would be to blame for every consequence that came from his election, every vile and horrible thing that CEOs were forced to do because Obama became President again.

It happened. And so, with a heavy heart, CEOs have started taking their workers out and shooting them. Because Barack Obama forced them to.


Coal company to lay off 156 workers in Utah, Ill.

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A coal producer owned by a longtime critic of President Barack Obama's energy policies will lay off nearly 160 workers at Illinois and Utah mines, blaming the freshly re-elected president for a "war on coal."

Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. said in a statement supplied Friday to The Associated Press that it would give pink slips to 102 workers at its West Ridge Mine in Utah and 54 at its underground mine in the southern Illinois town of Galatia. Both mines are run by Murray Energy subsidiaries.

...The announcement's timing — just days after Obama's victory over Republican Mitt Romney — was anything but coincidental. Robert Murray, the company's chairman, CEO and founder, had backed Romney, who proposed rolling back some restrictions on power-plant emissions and positioned himself as a supporter of the coal industry.

"The American people have made their choice," Murray, a day after the election, told about 50 employees during a prayer, a text of which was provided to the AP by the company. Lamenting the country's direction and insisting "the takers outvoted the producers," Murray asked for God's forgiveness "for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build."

Papa John's CEO John Schnatter Says Company Will Reduce Workers' Hours In Response To Obamacare

Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter said he plans on passing the costs of health care reform to his business onto his workers. Schnatter said he will likely reduce workers’ hours, as a result of President Obama's reelection, the Naples News reports. Schnatter made headlines over the summer when he told shareholders that the cost of a Papa John’s pizza will increase by between 11 and 14 cents due to Obamacare.

...(Schnatter is) not the only one in the chain restaurant industry to admit that workers hours may be reduced, since Obamacare mandates that only employees that work more than 30 hours per week are covered under their employers health insurance plan. For example, Darden restaurants, the parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster, has already experimented with reducing workers hours in anticipation of the legislation.

Others have responded to the added costs of Obamacare more harshly, including Applebee's franchisee owner Zane Tankel who said his company won’t hire new workers because of the law. Just this week, a Georgia business owner also claimed he cut employees due to Obamacare and in fact had specifically laid off those who he thought had voted for President Obama.

Companies plan massive layoffs as Obamacare becomes reality (this is just a cut-and-paste of the article Mourning in America - Here's Those Layoffs We Voted For Last Night, which gives a list of companies that plan to reduce staffing or hours, all claimed to be a result of Obama's re-election)


So there you have it. The hostage-takers have begun shooting their hostages in the head, one at a time. And with each death they I reminding us that this is not their fault, this is not something they choose to do. Their hands have been forced by the re-election of Barack Obama.