Patterico's Pontifications

10/30/2014

Scott Walker’s Opponent Was Fired from Family Business

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:38 am



That seems like that would be hard to do.

45 Responses to “Scott Walker’s Opponent Was Fired from Family Business”

  1. Wouldn’t it?

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. Somehow, the press will spin this story:

    “Big Business Punishes Mary Burke”

    “Mary Burke: First Victim of Trek’s War on Women”

    MacGruber (121542)

  3. Ouch.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  4. That is going to make welding Aluminum very difficult DNF,

    Rorschach (61bf43)

  5. OT there DNF, but a great find, nonetheless.
    At that rate, banning dihydrogen monoxide might get a serious proposal after all.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  6. But, but it was a “voluntary” restructuring. She wasn’t fired, despite the people she managed who threatened to quit if she wasn’t removed. Despite that her group was loosing money when all the other groups were making money. Restructuring. Voluntary.

    October surprise. 🙂

    Tanny O'Haley (066e8f)

  7. OT there DNF, but a great find, nonetheless.
    At that rate, banning dihydrogen monoxide might get a serious proposal after all.

    MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/30/2014 @ 8:47 am

    Do you know how dangerous dihydrogen monoxide is? A lot of people die each year because of dihydrogen monoxide, just ask Penn and Teller. Even scientists agree that dihydrogen monoxide is dangerous. Do you know that they use dihydrogen monoxide in torture? Get the facts! Science!

    http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

    Okay, okay, I’m feeling a little sarcastic today. I blame and denounce JD.

    Tanny O'Haley (066e8f)

  8. I hope Walker wins. As Hugh Hewitt says, if it’s not close, they can’t cheat.

    Obama has said that this election is about his agenda. If the republicans sweep the house and senate, does that mean he lost? That Obama has to work with the republicans, because he lost?

    I won’t hold my breath.

    Tanny O'Haley (066e8f)

  9. I’m glad the EPA is banning Argon. Those noble gasses were getting way too uppity for my tastes. Probably has something to do with their name. It’s a microaggression or something.

    JVW (60ca93)

  10. Neon is next.

    Kevin M (d91a9f)

  11. Well, here’s the “explanation” but I find it unsatisfying and spin-like:

    http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/270917/speedreads-no-the-epa-is-not-banning-argon

    Here’s what’s really happening. As EPA Assistant Administrator James Jones explains in this letter, the EPA is responding to petitions from California Attorney General Kamela Harris and others who asked for new labeling of pesticide ingredients. The EPA rejected the petition and instead offered a compromise proposal (not an official regulation yet). They looked through the list of inert ingredients that are generally approved for use in pesticide formulations, picked only the ones that aren’t used anymore, and propose to remove them from the list. If someone wants to use them again, they’ll have to go through the normal approval process. That gives some protection from poisoning at a minimum of hassle.

    The problem is that, to include Argon in pesticides, perhaps by using air instead of nitrogen, a manufacturer would have to “go through the normal approval process”, which cannot be fast, cheap or certain. SO, yes, they ARE banning argon from pesticides, but allow that they might allow it again if someone asks.

    BTW, Kamala Harris is involved.

    Kevin M (d91a9f)

  12. I imagine that Burke is claiming this is a smear and that her family is behind her 1000% percent.

    Kevin M (d91a9f)

  13. Burke’s brother — who reportedly was the one who instigated the firing, says now:

    However, Trek CEO John Burke rejected that assertion, saying his sister left on her own and that allegations she was fired are “a highly orchestrated move by Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.”

    However, the initial report, from a highly-partisan person who left Trek under a cloud, has been confirmed by the person who was Trek President and COO at the time, and who left on good terms to take a CEO job elsewhere:

    “We were losing a significant amount of money,” Albers said. “A lot of the people that reported to her in Europe were threatening to leave because of her management style. She wanted things done her way and people said that she wasn’t listening to them, that she didn’t value their input.”…

    Albers, who oversaw finances and manufacturing, said Richard Burke sent him to Europe to evaluate Mary Burke’s performance after John Burke had determined that a change was needed. Albers said he later organized a meeting in Waterloo at which Burke had to explain the company’s poor performance to about 35 executives….

    http://althouse.blogspot.com/2014/10/wisconsin-state-journal-runs-trek-fired.html

    But also:

    “I’m not saying she was incompetent,” said Tom Albers, former Trek chief operating officer who left the company in 1997. “Maybe this job was too big for her.”

    http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/scott-walker-paul-ryan-urge-voters-to-be-for-something-b99380639z1-280807982.html

    Kevin M (d91a9f)

  14. I left some comments in the wrong thread.

    This is the original article in the Wisconsin Reporter that started it all:

    http://watchdog.org/179822/mary-burke-trek-sales/

    She probably cut the pay of everybody working for her by coming up with a whole new compensation system that made sense to her..

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  15. “I’m not saying she was incompetent,” said Tom Albers, former Trek chief operating officer who left the company in 1997. “Maybe this job was too big for her.”

    I’m not saying I was drunk. Maybe the whiskey was just too potent for me.

    JVW (60ca93)

  16. “Maybe this job was too big for her.”

    Governor of Wisconsin should be just the right size, seriously.

    SCIENCE!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  17. Argon is still free for download at Arcadetown. [for now]

    Aargon Deluxe is the ultra-addictive laser and light puzzle game that will test your skills on over 180 mind-bending levels. Tutorials get you started, but expert levels will test any genius! Aargon features a fully integrated level editor, plug & play level packs, new music and sound, and awesome 3D rendered graphics. Aargon Deluxe: Are you smart enough?

    Fun game. Recommended. Probably why Kamalla Harris is against it. She can’t stand fun of any kind.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  18. if only there was a public body, that had the means and ability to find these sorts of things out, and report them to the public in a timely fashion, so that the public could make an informed choice when they vote…

    i’m pressed to say that they would be called though.

    😎

    redc1c4 (a6e73d)

  19. Best of the web Monday, September 22, 2014: Double Whammy / Mary Burke’s boilerplate jobs plan. She came back with:

    “One of the things I learned when I was at Trek bicycle was, the way you’re always going to be better is to go out and understand what other people are doing, what other companies are doing,” she said.

    “Why reinvent the wheel if things are working elsewhere, if people have proposed good ideas, why would I not want to use those?”

    and ran an ad to the effect that she would take good iudeas whereever they came from.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  20. She sucked at the one job she could get due to nepotism.
    Took a vacation.
    Her family, not wanting to cause years of acrimony at holiday get togethers, eliminated her former position while she was off making life miserable for Argentinian tourism workers.

    Is that about the gist?

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  21. Of course these ideas were not selected because somebody thought they were good, but because somebody thought they sounded good.

    Nor, apparently, are they anything that has actually been done, or even proposed by a sitting Governor.

    And why then was the author fired?

    See also http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/wisconsin-democratic-gubernatorial-candidate-plagiarized-lar#2p0xu9z

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  22. Argon is gone?

    It all started with Pluto…

    Patricia (5fc097)

  23. See, Obama figured out how to avoid this problem.

    By never having a real job — until he got a job that only a majority vote of the U.S. Senate could remove him from. He also arranged things so that his replacement is a laughingstock, to whom no one is going to be in a hurry to turn.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  24. She was not fired! Her compensation was strategically aligned with the value she accrued to the organization.

    Robert C. J. Parry (cdd6a8)

  25. regarding the Argon story: the problem we have is that there isn’t anything so stupid that it’s impossible to believe this regime wouldn’t do it.

    redc1c4 (589173)

  26. Beldar, one quibble. Doesn’t it take 2/3rds to expel a Senator? If not, I have a plan for next year…

    Kevin M (d91a9f)

  27. There’s lots of pesticides that go through the full approval process. (No, what they’re doing with argon does not count as banning it.)
    But it’s stupidity to just go by whether it’s currently in use, and completely ignore chemistry. There’s a list of inert ingredients for a reason.

    Ibidem (d600ff)

  28. She wasn’t fired, she was decruited…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  29. burke was indefinitely idled,,, she was fumigated… a victim of a skill mix adjustment… vocationally relocated… degrowed…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  30. Mary Burke was demised.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  31. involuntary entrepreneurship?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  32. This is a setup for when argon is used in some pesticide manufacturing process. The manufacturer will have to prove that argon is not a danger … which is not possible. All brought to you by the Lawyer’s Full Employment Act.

    htom (9b625a)

  33. A bicycle heiress wants us to know she doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel… wow… that is the mark of genius right there.

    steveg (794291)

  34. Unconscious uncoupling from the bike place

    elissa (24d227)

  35. Unconscious uncoupling from the bike place

    elissa (24d227) — 10/30/2014 @ 8:46 pm

    Ding, ding, ding! Winner!

    Tanny O'Haley (066e8f)

  36. “I’m not saying I was drunk. Maybe the whiskey was just too potent for me.”
    JVW

    Hilarious!

    Georganne (e37667)

  37. 30. Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/30/2014 @ 6:57 pm

    burke was indefinitely idled,,,

    She was brought back a year or two later, in another position.

    She had had the job she was removed from a number of years – then she apparently decided to make some kind of changes, probably something that had the effect of reducing the compensation of most of the people working for her.

    People started to quit and sales started to go down, and more would have quit if something wasn’t done.

    And the empoloyees did this all without forming a union.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  38. 16 in https://patterico.com/2014/10/30/chris-christie-at-his-best thread

    daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/30/2014 @ 2:56 pm

    Walker is up 7pts in latest polling.

    I wouldn’t have thought so from Mark Levin’s complainng about Christie not spending money on Walker, but then I wouldn’t rely on just that. My feeling is, if he won teh recall, he should win the election, too.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  39. “I wouldn’t have thought so from Mark Levin’s complainng about Christie not spending money on Walker”

    Sammy – Levin’s show is one long complaint session. It’s what he does. It sounds like he omitted the polling in his rant, you can look it up if the NYT does not carry it.

    What I don’t know and nobody has explained is how decisions are made to spend RGA money. I assume they have consultants and a committee and that the current Chair, whoever it happens to be, is not an absolute dictator. That’s why absent more information it seems like a convenient narrative to pile on Christie.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  40. daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/31/2014 @ 9:37 am

    Sammy – Levin’s show is one long complaint session. It’s what he does. It sounds like he omitted the polling in his rant, you can look it up if the NYT does not carry it.

    Yes, I don’t think I heard it all, but I didn’t hear any mention of a poll. Levin made it sound like Walker was in danger of losing. He probably got that idea from somebody else somewhere online I would guess.

    Levin was saying that Walker was being outspent – which is not the same thing as saying he was in danger of losing, or that the ads were effective.

    Christie was offering to make personal appearances but Levin said Walker didn’t need (and maybe had said?) he didn’t need any ore surrogates – surrogates from Wisconsin are much better – what he needed was money.Levion said much more money was being spent on the more secure Michigan Governor’s race.

    It sounds like he omitted the polling in his rant, you can look it up if the NYT does not carry it

    Minneapolis Star-Tribune Updated: October 29, 2014 – 8:10 PM

    Walker pulls ahead of Burke in last pre-election poll; Burke denies claim she was fired

    Green bay Press-Gazette 2:45 p.m. CDT October 29, 2014 – that’s Wednesday.

    Walker ahead in last poll before election

    Walker is ahead 7 points now, 50 percent to 43 percent, according to Marquette Law School poll. An earlier poll two weeks previously had shown them tied at 47-47. So maybe Mark Levin was a little bit out of date. (the shift is mainly due to more people who identify as Republicans saying that they are certain to vote. Maybe it’s all those pro-Democratic ads.)

    What I don’t know and nobody has explained is how decisions are made to spend RGA money. I
    assume they have consultants and a committee and that the current Chair, whoever it happens to be,
    is not an absolute dictator. That’s why absent more information it seems like a convenient narrative to pile on Christie.

    Of course, Christie could be blamed for relying on consultants or choosing them poorly – if it was a poor choice. He had one very poor choice for the top position at the RGA, whom he had to allow to not take the job because of the Port Authority Bridge lane closing incident – an he still doesn’t think or didn’t think that that person probably really did something wrong. Albeit for unclear reasons.

    Christie is being accused of wanting to get rid of Walker – That’s what Mark Levin seemed to be accusing him of – because Walker was a possible Presidential candidate. Which is nonsense, or at least it would be a nonsensical strategy. If Christie runs, he can expect a number of competitors, not just one, and Walker would not be a particularly strong one. This is not like getting rid of Gary Hart in 1987.

    Nor is Walker an ideological competitor. Christie would be best off hoping a number of people split the more conservative vote in the first primaries, so, he should want Walker in. And if Walker doesn’t run, Paul Ryan is more likely to, and Paul Ryan would be a stronger candidate – one I like a little bit.

    I would not like it if Christie runs. Christie running might keep Jeb Bush or other better candidates out. I don;t know if Christie actually thinks he is ready.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  41. 7 poinits is still close. Remember, if it’s not close, they can’t win by cheating, because we know they cheat.

    Tanny O'Haley (3bbc7b)

  42. “That seems like that would be hard to do.”

    Patterico – Wasn’t Fredo fired from the family business, permanently, or something?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  43. 42. Tanny O’Haley (3bbc7b) — 10/31/2014 @ 11:59 am

    7 poinits is still close. Remember, if it’s not close, they can’t win by cheating, because we know they cheat.

    I think this might be a risk only if it is within 1% or 2%.

    I saw a statistic: Democrats win much more than 50% of all statewide races decided by less than 1%.

    http://thefederalist.com/2014/10/22/do-democrats-always-win-close-statewide-elections/

    To get a sense of the answer, I took a look at all the statewide Senate and governor’s races from 1998 through 2013 (thanks to Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics for a big assist with the data) as well as all the statewide results in the presidential elections during that period. Let’s begin with the very closest races, those decided by less than one percentage point. There have been 27 such races since 1998, and Democrats have won 20 out of 27:

    I don’t think the author of that web page understands that he’s provided statistical evidence of election fraud or biased recounts.

    Because there is no reason that elections eventually decided by a margin of less than 1% should tilt so heavily Democratic.

    Remember, this is not races that poll within 1%, but races that were eventually decided by such a margin.

    What is the probability of that happenning simply by chance?

    http://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial.aspx

    Probability of success on a single trial – 50%
    Number of trials = 27
    Number of successes = 20

    Cumulative Probability: P(X 20) 0.0096%

    To put it another way, the probability that the Democratic Party would have won 20 out of the 27 closest statewide races from 1998 through 2013 purely by chance is….1%.

    This has to indicate at least, that there is some kind of advance knowledge as to how the race is going. Democrats can be paying better attention to exit polls during the day, or advance voting, or even turnout, and increase their efforts to get out the vote when they are trailing, but the fact that it is close or that they are trailing, has to effect their get out the vote drive, or cause them to go to court and ask for an extension of voting hours or something like that. Or winning the election in the recount.

    Sammy Finkelman (7bb55f)

  44. http://thefederalist.com/2014/10/22/do-democrats-always-win-close-statewide-elections/

    There’s another thing this web page shows that shows a statistical bias. Republicans won 7 statewide races decided by less than 1%. 4 were by over half a percent and 3 were by less than half a percent. (the closest was the 2000 Florida Presidential race) So 57% of the races Republicans won by a margin of less than 1% were won by margin of over half a percent.

    Not so the Democrats:

    Democrats won 7 by more than half a percent, and 13 by less than half a percent. Or only 35% of the
    statewide races won by a margin of less than 1% were won by margin of over half a percent.

    That’s odd.

    What were the closest races?

    In addition to the Republican win of Florida in 2000 by less than 0.005% – a higher percentage rounds up to 0.1% – the Democrats won the Washington state Gubernatorial race of 2004 and the 2008 Minnesota Senate race by 0.0%.

    0.1 is the 2000 Presidential race in Missouri won by the Republicans (where there might have been Democratic cheating, but not quite enough) and the New Mexico 2000 Presidential race by the Democrats, the 2000 Washington Senate race by the Democrats and 1998 Neveda Senate race.

    0.2 has the Alabama Governor’s race by the Republicans, and by the Democrats, the South Dakota Senate race in 2002 (think Indian reservations) the Wisconsin preidential race in the year 2000.

    The Republicans have nothing more till 0.6% (the 1998 Kentucky Senate race – Jim Bunning) but the Democrats have, at 0.3% the Iowa Presidential race in 2000, and the North Carolina Presidential race in 2008, and at 0.4%, the Wisconsin presidential race in 2004, the Virginia Senate race in 2006, the Minnesota Gubernatorial race in 2010, and the Oregon Presidential race in 2000. They also have the Conneticut Gubernatirial race in 2010 at 0.6%.

    Wisconsin comes up twice in this list.

    Cheating of some sort is a problem in Wisconsin, but, except for what might have been done before Election Day with ineligible registrations or absentee ballots cast by other people, it probably needs to be within about 1% otherwise. They can’t do anything with a 7% margin.

    For whatever reason, when statewide races are decided by less than 1 point, Democrats win almost three-quarters of the time. When the margin opens to 1-2 points, that advantage dissipates, and the Democrats win only half the races. The same is true for elections decided by 2-4 points; out of 50 such races, Democrats won 25. But when we expand the definition of “close” races to races decided by 4-6 points, the Democrats’ edge pops up again, winning 30 out of 46. Overall, out of 147 races decided by 6 points or less, Democrats won 88, or 60 percent.

    The second peak – 4 to 6 points – may have something to do with electoral effortS: Democrats may work harder to win marginal races. Republicans tend to gove up, so they don’t have so many 4% to 6% wins.

    Sammy Finkelman (7bb55f)


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