Sunday, October 23, 2022

Michels says he'll "divest" if he wins. Just like fellow crooked CEOs Trump and RoJo

After a beautiful Saturday and a surprisingly fun Badger football game, I see this headline in the news.

As the co-owner of Michels Corp., Republican Tim Michels has made his successful business — which has grown from a few hundred employees to more than 8,000 — a primary talking point in his campaign for governor.

If he succeeds in unseating Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Nov. 8, Michels has pledged to divest from the Brownsville-based construction company that’s secured millions in state contracts over the last decade to avoid any conflicts of interest, as state law requires the governor to sign the state’s largest road contracts....

Beyond that blanket pledge, however, Michels has yet to provide details on how he would distance himself from the family company, such as putting his assets into a blind trust or selling company stock.
Hmmm, this sounds familiar. Let's flash back to January 2017.

When President-elect Donald Trump emerged Wednesday for his first press conference in almost six months, he did not come alone. The table next to Trump’s lectern groaned with stacks of manila folders. These were “some of the many documents,” Trump explained, “that I’ve signed turning over complete and total control [of the Trump Organization] to my sons.” Those many documents—which were hidden from view by their protective manila armor—were accompanied by a lawyer, Sheri A. Dillon, of the Washington firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius (recent winner of the Russia Law Firm of the Year award) who spoke in a measured drone that seemed designed to hypnotize viewers into thinking that Trump’s decision not to divest himself completely from his business interests would make America great again....

Trump, meanwhile, demanded credit for meeting, or appearing to meet, the barest wisp of an obligation, whether by appointing an ethics adviser to his company or promising not to repeal Obamacare without proposing some form of alternative (though he did not specify what shape that alternative might take).

The lawyer, with her drab colors and soporific delivery, seemed intent on boring Americans into compliant indifference. Trump was a confident executive eager to get to work. He wore a flag pin and leaned on words such as beautiful, tremendous, terrific, and proud. He even found it in his heart to praise “certain media outlets” for their restraint in not publishing intelligence leaks (while decrying BuzzFeed as a “failing pile of garbage”).

Yahoo’s Hunter Walker reported after the press conference that he “asked to look at some of the documents that were piled on the table but I was told I could not because they are ‘company documents.’ ” There is something perfect about Trump’s presentation of a big stack of … something … coupled with the admonition that no one is allowed to look inside. One imagines him showing up to future press conferences with additional objects from the theater storage room. Maybe several large boxes labeled “JOBS” that he can plunk before the camera before ceding the mic to a white-noise machine or a greatness thermometer with which he can measure the country’s success while Mike Pence recites the phone book. Perhaps Trump will be our first prop president: Carrot Top, but less self-aware and more orange.
And we know how that worked out, with the latest example of this type of "divestment" at our expense coming out this past week.

That's the type of self-dealing that would lead a rich kid like Tim Michels to spend more than $16 million of his own money through August to try to take over a job that pays much less than Michels pays himself to "lead" his Daddy's company.

Let's also not forget about Wisconsin's senior senator, who gave himself $10 million in "deferred compensation" from his company's coffers to pay himself back for the money he spent on his campaign in 2010, and then used his time in office to help out businesses such as the one his father-in-law gave to him.

Maybe we shouldn't elect any mediocre white male CEOs who got that position given to them not by merit, but by birth and/or marriage. These guys don't know anything about how most of us live, have only given orders vs actually doing work, and don't believe in any governing policy beyond "How can I get more money and power for me, and the people that help me?"
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousOctober 23, 2022 at 4:48 PM

    Anyone who believes Tim Michels will divest from Michels Corporation if he becomes governor also thinks he will sell his Connecticut mansion and his Manhattan penthouse and live full-time in Wisconsin, devoting every minute to his new job and bettering the lives of everyday Wisconsinites.

    The reality, of course, is that he will continue his life exactly as it is now, leaving the Republican-controlled, gerrymandered legislature to run everything. His only duty will be to sign whatever they put in front of him. That’s all the GOP needs their governor to be…the final nail in Wisconsin’s coffin.

    Minnesconsin Tom

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