Thursday, May 17, 2012

As Goes Janesville - Part 2

By now, we have all seen the clip of the love fest between the widow Hendricks and Scott Walker, discussing his plans to divide and conquer the state of WI. Capper even pointed out that you can check out a ten minute clip of this film online. Well I did that yesterday and it has stuck with me all day and all night. Two things stuck with me as I watched this clip. 1. The devastation to cities like Janesville is sickening and the policies of the free trade republicans like Paul Ryan have done serious damage. I am not sure how Paul Ryan can even go back to his mansion in Janesville and look at himself in the mirror. I guess enough $350 bottles of wine dulls the pain. 2. Mary Willmer-Sheedy can KISS MY ASS!!! She is the supporting actress in the lets divide and conquer clip and this movie. As the widow Hendricks puts it:
Hendricks: - so what we're going to do and talk about right now is just concerns that Mary (Willmer-Sheedy) and I have that we probably, are a little controversial to bring up upstairs. OK? I don't want to - because there's press up there.
Why would a bank president who has a minute to talk about ONE topic with the newly elected Governor, use this time to bring up Right to Work(for less) legislation and ending unions? Is that the biggest issue affecting the bottom line of the bank? Really? Let's take a look. M&I bank executives were Scott Walker's second-largest source of campaign funds Which of course came AFTER they took $1.7 BILLION in federal government bailout funds and were at the time the biggest bank in WI. While M & I bank executives have every right to give to whoever they want, do they have the right to take a $1.7 BILLION dollar government bailout then use those funds to give to politicians?

But wait there's more.

If Mary Willmer-Sheedy were a competent president, she would know her customers. Instead of working against the unions, she might have wanted to think about embracing them. As A senior union researcher estimates that unions have at least $1 billion invested in M&I Bank, mostly through pension funds. What president would be so openly hostile to such a good customer, and NOT expect blowback?

When is the last time YOU frequented a business that treated you poorly? The firefighters of Wisconsin are no different, so they led a "move your money" project where many members simply pulled their money from M & I and went to community banks. This of course seriously hurt the bottom line of M & I and made it practically impossible to pay back their TARP funds. So instead of changing their business model and before they changed executives, the executives decided to cash out and sold to Canadian bank BMO. The key to the deal, the M & I executives getting paid of course:
There’s dismay in Canada over the big Canadian banking firm’s takeover of Wisconsin’s biggest bank, henceforth to be known as BMO Harris Bank. The Toronto Globe and Mail notes that while the buyout may considerably extend BMO’s (US:BMO) U.S. footprint, it’s also “going to less illustriously, make M&I’s executive squad rich.” Seventeen of the bank’s officers are entitled to cash and stock of nearly $90-million (U.S.) after the deal closes, depending on whether they stay with BMO.

One can only imagine how all this is going to play out in the politically charged environment of Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker’s curtailing of union negotiating rights caused a firestorm of protest and a number of upcoming recall elections for his allies in the state Senate.

“That golden handshake gets heavier south of the border,” read the Globe and Mail’s headline about this week’s takeover of 164-year-old M&I, the largest Wisconsin-based bank. And the man with the heaviest handshake and firmest grip of all? M&I Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Furlong, who’ll get $18 million in this takeover, then will be paid a base annual salary of $600,000 under a three-year contract as an executive with BMO Harris Bank in Chicago, where Harris has its headquarters. But it gets better (for Furlong, anyway): He’ll also be eligible for an annual incentive payment of $800,000 and midterm and annual equity awards of $1.1 million each. On the first anniversary of the merger, Furlong will receive a $6 million “transition completion” payment, according to regulatory documents.

Happy anniversary, Mark, from your Canadian and TARP supporters. Obscene amounts to get during a severe recession when your state’s in economic turmoil? Maybe just a tad
So there is some background on Willmer-Sheedy's M & I Bank and now to what really set me off about Ms. WS. At about 8:50 into this clip Mary Willmer-Sheedy drives through a group of protestors to a Forward 5.0 meeting where Governor Walker is attending. Her exact quote is:
This is horrible, I am really enjoying getting yelled at today.
Ms. Willmer-Sheedy F - YOU!!!!

Let's take a look at what is horrible:
 * What is horrible is the GM plant closing and thousands of your neighbors losing their livelihood.
 * Horrible is Angie, being a single parent has to live 6 hours away from her son so she can have a FING JOB.
 * Horrible is when Angie is 6 hours away and finds out her son almost dies in a car crash.
* Horrible is Cindi being diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and a family history of Breast Cancer, mere months before she loses her healthcare.
* Horrible is Gayle living 6 hours away from her teenage daughter. In case you are not aware MARY, the same sex parent is THE most important role model in a child's life. Unfortunately Gayle has to parent over the phone.
* Horrible is Angie losing her job, that she moved 6 hours for, when she went home to take care of her son DJ who almost died.

 Yes Mary Willmer-Sheedy(and Diane Hendricks for that matter) keep thinking that making Wisconsin a right to work(for less) state is the most important issue in America while good people like these women who have worked hard their whole life truly suffer.

 I truly mean F You!!!

4 comments:

  1. This points out a problem with Barrett's message that Charlie Pierce at Esquire has sussed out:

    "This should be a base-vs.-base election, but it's being played, at least by the Democrats, as yet another unicorn-hunt after "independent voters." Barrett keeps talking about the "civil war" that Walker incited in Wisconsin. But that's not the argument. There should have been a "civil war" over what Walker was trying to do. There wouldn't even be a recall without what Barrett calls "the civil war." The "civil war" was entirely appropriate. Sometimes, in politics, there are issues worth screaming about. I'm no expert, but the end of collective bargaining during an era of flat-lining wages would seem to be one of those. By citing the "civil war" as the reason for voting for him, and without, I believe, intending to do so, Barrett makes all those people standing in the cold last January marginally complicit in what he says as the problem the recall was meant to solve."

    http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/scott-walker-for-president-2016-nightmare-8893992

    This is what happens when you decide, based on polling and advice from "professional" campaign consultants, that collective bargaining and workers' rights shouldn't be front and center in the campaign. You demoralize your base and neuter your campaign.

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  2. Well said gareth. I personally have taken A TON of grief over insisting that Collective Bargaining rights should be front and center but it hasnt demoralized me!

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  3. Wilmer-Sheedy's gathering of the JVL business brain trust to "re-invent" is a good start, but as usual the strategies are way off. Cozying up to the governor and asking for business friendly tax breaks only bails out the monied-class. How about investing in re-educating the displaced workers? That will bring the outside employers running to JVL to base business where a skilled workforce exists...THEN you can give them tax breaks if needed.

    The Eastsider
    willystreetblog.com

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  4. I think that this site is just plain rude! The fact that you are attacking a woman who is trying to do better for Wisconsin while you sit on your ass all day and blog is just inconsiderate. I should make a site about people like you and call it Grown-Up Four Year Old's. Also, to say that she is not a competent president is also ignorant. I would like to see you do her job. Lastly, GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT! Half of what I am reading I know is completely false.

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