CORPORATE COLONIZATION OF WISCONSIN: Part I, DIVIDE AND CONQUER

[Scuba]

http://www.middlewisconsin.org/corporate-colonization-of-wisconsin-divide-and-conquer/

A colonized nation, on the other hand, exists to be exploited by the colonizer. A colonized nation has a low cost and submissive work force; a colonized nation is not in need of great universities but rather the briefest and most efficient work skills training; a colonized nation exploits its environment rather than protecting it because the colonizer is more interested in profits than sustainability. This more closely defines the Wisconsin of Governor Scott Walker. The rejection of the $810 million rail grant by Walker symbolizes this downward trend.

Clearly the Wisconsin of 2011-2015 is a colonized state. But nations or empires are no longer the colonizers. The new colonizers are multinational corporations. Follow the money and it will continually lead to the same set of corporations who fund puppet leaders such as Governor Walker, Senator Scott Fitzgerald and Representative Robin Vos. These corporations mold public opinion through think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the Heartland Institute and the MacIver Institute. They create astro-turf organizations such as Americans for Prosperity and its brainchild the Tea Party, and they write legislation through ALEC. These are the “free-market solution” folks who are intent on treating Wisconsin in a fashion similar to the “free-market” corporate exploitation of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the other emerging third world countries. Only, rather than emerging from the third world, Wisconsin is submerging into it.

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Governor Walker can be considered a Colonial Governor. Just as any Colonial Governor owes his allegiance to the colonizer who has placed him in power, so does Walker owe his allegiance to the corporate interests who put him in power. When Governor Walker isn’t out of state raising money and getting his marching orders from corporations, he is in Wisconsin attending unannounced meetings with hand-picked friendly audiences in various corporate locations. He is nervous around the natives of Wisconsin and avoids them whenever possible. As with any colonial power, certain Wisconsinites find it to their benefit to fraternize with the colonizer out of fear or need for personal gain. The colonized who support the colonizer generally feel as though they are better off than the colonized who resist. This is the current state of Wisconsin Politics. As with any colonized country, the citizens are encouraged to bicker among themselves in order to distract from their actual exploitation.

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A brief review of Governor Scott Walker’s biggest donors in defending his recall by the citizens of Wisconsin and in making a down payment on a Colonial Wisconsin is revealing:

Diane Hendricks (net worth $2.8 Billion) gave Walker a $500,000 retainer to deliver a “red state”.

Las Vegas Casio owner Sheldon Adelson (net worth $24.6 Billion) gave Walker $250,000 in 2012 and $650,000 in 2014 to break the unions in Wisconsin. Adelson, the CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Casino organization which includes the Venetian Casinos in Vegas and Macau has had a long history of problems with unions at his casinos. Breaking the unions in Wisconsin will help Adelson back in Vegas. Incidentally, in 2012 Adelson came under investigation by the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating the Corrupt Practices Act by attempting to bribe a legislator in Macau with $700,000. In Macau it’s a bribe, in Wisconsin it’s a campaign contribution. The result is the same.

Interested in getting rich fast? Try Amway, the multi-level marketing scheme that asks you to make money by selling average products to your brother-in-law at a profit that you pass on to the person who invited you into this pyramid in the first place. It is entrepreneurship for the morally ungrounded. The grandfather of Amway and owner of the Orlando Magic, Richard DeVos (net worth $4.2 Billion), gave Scott Walker $250,000 in 2012 to keep Ponzi schemes, excuse me, pyramid schemes alive in Wisconsin.

The 600,000 citizens of Wisconsin who now depend upon, or who will depend upon, the State Retirement System in the future must be diligent because the colonizers would like a piece of the action. Private equity firms have been big donors to assure that Scott Walker would survive the recall. John W. Childs (net worth $1.2 Billion), CEO of the Boston equity firm of J.W. Childs Associates has invested $100,000 in Wisconsin via Walker’s campaign. A master at leveraged buyouts, he is not investing in Wisconsin without expecting a return.

Warren A Stephens (net worth $2.7 Billion) of Little Rock, Arkansas, who is the CEO of Stephens Financial Management, Louis M. Bacon (Net worth $1.4 Billion), a hedge fund manager from New York and Patrick G. Ryan (net worth $1.1 Billion), who is the CEO of Ryan Specialty Group, a Chicago Brokerage, are each investing $100,000 for a piece of Scott Walker’s soul.

The rest of Part I is here

Part II, "Selling Our Resources" can be found here.

Part II, "Keep the Citizens Unorganized and Uneducated" can be found here.