Menards

=<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/that-grifty-thing-stephen-moore-did-with-herman-cain-and-the-koch-brothers-blessing/">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/that-grifty-thing-stephen-moore-did-with-herman-cain-and-the-koch-brothers-blessing/</a><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="page-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding-top: 0.5em;">That Grifty Thing Stephen Moore Did With Herman Cain—and the Koch Brothers’ Blessing</h1><div class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-top: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post_author/astan/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;" />By <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post_author/astan/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Adele M. Stan</a> | <span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">April 30, 2019 7:58 pm</div><div class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-top: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">
</div></div><div class="mce-content-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In 2010, longtime GOP political operative Mark Block, together with strategist Linda Hansen, approached Herman Cain, then a retired pizza-chain magnate, with an idea for a for-profit enterprise designed to scare employees of privately-held companies into voting for their employers’ favored candidates: Herd them into the break room, give them a seminar about the evils of government, social services and labor unions, and then register them to vote.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">According to Hansen, “when Herman [Cain] first heard the concept here, he said, ‘You’ve come up with the answer to ACORN!’” She was referring, of course, to the now-defunct organizing group that was felled by dirty trickster James O’Keefe, whose Project Veritas receives <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/project-veritas-received-17-million-last-year-from-koch-backed-charity/2017/12/01/143e13ca-d6d3-11e7-9461-ba77d604373d_story.html?utm_term=.5bf6d57e2c9b" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">much of its funding</a>through the network of donors built by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. For gravitas of a certain fashion, Stephen Moore, then on the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, was pulled in.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Today, Moore awaits his nomination to the Federal Reserve by President Donald Trump, who really wanted to get the band back together when he mentioned both Moore and Cain as his picks to the central bank. But if Moore passes muster—which is looking less likely by the hour—he’ll have to go on without his sideman, seeing as new sexual harassment allegations against Cain led to a rare rebuke of the president by Republican senators, four of whom said they would not confirm Cain if he were nominated. It remains to be seen whether Moore will survive to confirmation after a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/us/politics/stephen-moore-women.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">litany of misogynist comments</a> surfaced in his past writings for National Review.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">[chart from Stephen Moore’s chapter in Prosperity 101™, the textbook for workplace seminars he presented with Herman Cain.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In 2011, I broke <a href="https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">the story of </a><a href="https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Prosperity 101</a>, as Hansen called her enterprise, for AlterNet and The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. Here’s a synopsis of my findings.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">At the time, Block was racking up points with the Kochs as he built the Wisconsin chapter of their flagship group, Americans for Prosperity, into a political powerhouse that would go on to create the momentum that brought former Gov. Scott Walker and current U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to power. Hansen, meanwhile, was executive director of an umbrella group of right-wing non-profits conceived by Block, the Wisconsin Prosperity Network. (Block and Hansen went on to manage Cain’s presidential campaign, with Block starring in the Cain campaign’s famous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwawPMSJins" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">“smoking man” ad</a>.)<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">After recruiting Cain as a pitchman, Block and Hansen sought a more establishment sort of frontman to join him on the hustings, someone who would be perceived to have real economic expertise. They found one in Stephen Moore, an editorial writer at the nation’s premiere financial newspaper.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Moore was already a regular on the Koch-group speaking circuit, appearing regularly at Americans for Prosperity Foundation events—for which he was paid handsomely. At the time I reported the story, Moore confirmed that he had been paid somewhere between $180,000 – $200,000 for (as tallied at the time of my 2011 report) his 24 appearances at Americans for Prosperity events.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Long before Donald Trump paraphrased it, Moore was uttering a refrain that was music to his benefactors’ ears: Global warming, he said, “was the greatest hoax of the last 100 years.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Although both Hansen and Moore contended at the time of my report that Moore was not compensated for his appearances at their Prosperity 101 workplace seminars, it bears noting that Hansen was permitted to trade on the Americans for Prosperity name with her for-profit business, and was given a breakout session at an Americans for Prosperity Foundation conference to sell it. And Moore likely wanted to please his paymasters–both the Kochs and Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns the Wall Street Journal. (News Corp. outlets frequently march in lockstep with the political enterprises of the Kochs.)<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">It worked like this: For a fee, Moore or Cain would come to a workplace you owned to put on a “voluntary” employee seminar on what was ostensibly good for workers economically—which coincidentally happened to be what was far better for very rich people who didn’t want to pay taxes, observe environmental protections or engage in collective bargaining. I found that all of the businesses involved were privately-owned companies whose principals belonged to the Koch donor network.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The most notorious among them was Menards, a chain of home-improvement stores based in the Midwest, whose owner, John Menard, is known for abusing his workers and putting toxic waste, including chromium and arsenic, from his businesses out for pickup with his own household trash. That little trick earned him a $1.7 million fine. (More about the horrors of Menards <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170306033213/http:/www.alternet.org/story/151184/notorious_wisconsin_retailer_backs_afp-linked_anti-union_program/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.)<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">But even if you lay aside the grifting, the misogyny and his contempt for government—and please don’t!—Moore’s <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/stephen-moore-trumps-wildly-unqualified-federal-reserve-board-pick-faces-a-steep-learning-curve" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">lack</a> <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/stephen-moore-federal-reserve-armpit-america-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">of</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/trump-fed-nominee-stephen-moore-not-expert-monetary-policy.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">expertise</a> in, well <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/stephen-moore-fed-reserve-trump-nominee-829182/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">anything</a>, but especially economics, along with his propensity to just make stuff up (a Trump man through and through), should be disqualification enough.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Here’s an excerpt from my <a href="https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">2011 report</a>, highlighting Moore’s contribution to the “Prosperity 101™” textbook:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">In “The Keys to Prosperity,” Moore’s chapter in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Prosperity 101™ textbook, he offers up a series of charts, some of them indecipherable, including a pie chart called “Where Your Federal Tax Dollar Goes.” (It’s apparently derived from an earlier presentation Moore made at an AFP Foundation event, the same charts can be found <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/18892219/Steve-Moores-Keys-to-Prosperity-" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>; scroll to slide no. 16 for this one.) Citing such official sources as the Internal Revenue Service, the Government Accountability Office, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it features eight slices labeled “Flushed Down a Toilet, ”Pissed Away,“ ”Down a Rat Hole,“ ”Sleaze,“ ”Corruption,“ ”Given to ‘Supporters,’“ ”Tossed Down the Drain,“ and ”Postage Stamps.“ (The latter, Moore baselessly contends, accounts for 6 percent of your tax dollars — which is, incidentally, six times the <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">allotment for non-military foreign aid</a>.)</blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">So, there’s your Stephen Moore, economist, right there. We know what happened to Herman Cain. Linda Hansen, meanwhile, is still selling her “Prosperity 101<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">™” books on Amazon. And Mark Block? According to Carole Cadwalladr, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">writing for The Guardian</a>, he’s the guy who introduced Steve Bannon to SCL Group, which became Cambridge Analytica, thanks to a major investment by Bannon patron Robert Mercer, who installed Bannon as executive vice president. After a beta test pushing the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum, Cambridge Analytica, armed with a cache of ill-gotten Facebook data, surreptitiously entered the 2016 presidential campaign. And the rest is history.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The band may not be quite back together, but its former members are all singing the same song.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"> <div class="at-below-post addthis_tool" data-url="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/that-grifty-thing-stephen-moore-did-with-herman-cain-and-the-koch-brothers-blessing/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;" /></div></div><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; border-top: 5px solid rgb(239, 243, 243); margin-bottom: 2em; padding-top: 1em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Tags: <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/charles-koch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Charles koch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/david-koch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">David Koch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/herman-cain/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Herman Cain</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/koch-brothers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Koch brothers</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/linda-hansen/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Linda Hansen</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/mark-block/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Mark Block</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/rupert-murdoch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Rupert Murdoch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/stephen-moore/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Stephen Moore</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/americans-for-prosperity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/americans-for-prosperity-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Americans for Prosperity Foundation</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/prosperity-101/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Prosperity 101</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/wall-street-journal/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Wall Street Journal</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/wisconsin-prosperity-network/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Wisconsin Prosperity Network</a><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"></div></div>John Menard Jr., who is the founder and owner of the Menard hardware store chain, has contributed at least $2.8 million mostly to Republican and conservative groups, candidates and committees.Menard, 76, is the richest man in Wisconsin with an estimated net worth of about $10.8 billion, according to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/john-menard-jr/?list=billionaires" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Forbes</a>. A lifelong resident of Eau Claire, Menard graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and opened his first business – a building supply company called Menards Cashway Lumber – in the early 1960s. He opened his first hardware store in 1972, and today operates about 300 hardware stores in more than a dozen states mostly in the Midwest.In addition to owning the nation’s third largest hardware store chain, Menard was once the longtime owner of an IndyCar racing team, and one of his six children, Paul, is a NASCAR river.A 2007 Milwaukee Magazine <a href="http://www.milwaukeemag.com/2007/04/30/bigmoney-john-menard/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">article</a> described Menard, based on interviews with those who knew or dealt with him, this way: “Even those who know him well describe him in contradictory terms, as both hero and villain; the very model of a successful American entrepreneur; both brilliant and charming, yet also a foul-mouthed micromanager and a perfectionist who can be cruelly demanding with employees.”Numerous news accounts and profiles have noted Menard’s stinginess, strict employee policies and violations of environmental rules. One long-time Menard’s company <a href="http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/12/188450/managers-menards-stand-lose-big-money-if-unions-form" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">policy</a> no longer used threatened steep salary cuts for managers whose stores unionized.Both Menard and his company have made headlines for labor and environmental violations and fines that have cost Menard about $3.9 million, including:<ul><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">In April, Menard’s <a href="http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/complaint-indiana-menards-leads-companywide-97920/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">settled a case</a> with the National Labor Relations Board, which found parts of the company’s arbitration and pay raise rules were illegal. Menards agreed to change its rules to let workers join class-action suits and file complaints with the NLRB;</li></ul><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">In 2011, Menards agreed to <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/business/114143619.html" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">$30,000 in fines and court costs</a> for violating state laws against hazardous waste disposal in connection with a 2007 incident in which a pallet of herbicide was dumped on a parking island of a Menard store in Onalaska;</li></ul><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">In 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an administrative order against Menard’s for damaging a Sioux Falls, S.D., stream that ran through its property by filling in nearly 1,400 feet of the stream and replacing it with a 66-inch storm sewer pipe. Menard later agreed to pay a <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/20ed1dfa1751192c8525735900400c30/abf2907bdc85ec408525742c005ec296!OpenDocument" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">$68,125 penalty to settle the case</a>.</li></ul><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">In 2005, Menards agreed to a $2 million fine after Department of Natural Resources officials found a floor drain at a company shop that they believe was used to dump paint, solvents, oil and other waste that fed into a tributary of the Chippewa River. The sanction broke the previous record state environmental fine of $1.7 million set by Menard in 1997;</li></ul><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">In 1997, Menard paid a $1.7 million fine for 21 violations for using his pickup truck to haul plastic bags of chromium and arsenic-laden wood ash to his home to dispose of with the household trash. Menard pleaded no contest to felony and misdemeanor charges involving records violations, unlawful transportation and improper disposal of hazardous waste;</li></ul><ul><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">In 1994, Wisconsin obtained a civil judgment against Menards for transporting and disposing of ash produced by incinerating CCA-treated lumber without a license. Wood treated with CCA contains carcinogens and is considered hazardous waste that requires disposal in a licensed landfill. The company was fined $160,000.</li></ul>Like many wealthy political donors, Menard’s largest contributions, totaling $2.5 million, went to so-called dark money special interest groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money with little or no disclosure to the public.
Later, in 2013 and 2014, the <a href="http://inwisconsin.com/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.</a>, the state’s lead job creation and economic development agency then chaired by Walker, awarded Menard's hardware store chain up to $1.8 million in tax credits to create jobs at three new and expanded facilities.In 2011 and 2012, the billionaire <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-photo-charlie-114429739886.html" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">funneled</a> $1.5 million to a conservative ideological group called <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/InfluencePeddlerDecember2015" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Wisconsin Club for Growth</a> that later spent the money to help support GOP Gov. Scott Walker in his bitter 2012 recall election. The information about Menard’s contributions was found among hundreds of emails and internal documents seized by state prosecutors in a criminal probe, dubbed John Doe II, into whether Walker’s campaign committee violated state campaign finance laws by helping raise money for secretive issue advocacy groups, such as the Wisconsin Club for Growth.In 2011, billionaire <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koch" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Charles Koch</a> cited Menard as one of <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/koch-brothers-million-dollar-donor-club" target="blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">32 individuals</a> who contributed more than $1 million to Koch-funded dark money groups, like the more familiar <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/InfluencePeddlerNovember2015" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a>, to help Republican and conservative candidates in the 2012 general elections.Menard or his company contributed about $176,500 to federal candidates, parties, committees and groups between January 1999 and December 2015. The top recipients of those contributions include:<ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">$25,000 in December 2009 to the <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/InfluencePeddlerAugust2015" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Republican Governors Association’s</a> 527 group. <a href="http://wisdc.org/wdcfinance_glossary.php#527" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">527 groups</a> are so-named for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service rules that loosely regulate them. The groups can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from any source on state and federal elections;</li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">$18,900 to various committees that supported former GOP U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota;</li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">$16,100 to Republican U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin;</li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">$12,800 to Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin.</li></ul>Menard contributed about $109,300 to mostly Republican and conservative candidates for statewide office and the legislature between January 1995 and December 2015, including:<ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">$20,500 to former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle – the only other Democrat to receive contributions from him;</li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">$18,000 to GOP Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch;</li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">$14,700 to former Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen;</li></ul><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 4px;">$12,000 to GOP Gov. Scott Walker.</li></ul>=WALKER: koch ind #2 (also RGA); also 16 state legis, all won, so both houses gop.  Also Bradley (Grebe his mgr!?) 307 bradley $ to 2 anti-union orgs; afp big chapter in WI, TP rallies; wi 1st 1969 public unions. 2 Ga-Pac mills in wi; Menard richest guy, got 1.8 tax credits 309. 1.7$ fines haz waste (arsenic mulch idea for playgrounds; will not hire anyone who had ever been in a union. tax dodge.
Diane hendricks ~ union; tax dodge
Legis dem fled state; recall ~ AFP wi CFG. Bradley $ backed o’keefe
Recall win → 1012; coalition w/ 17 rw orgs? Most expensive in history but also tip pt to outside$; koch network 400m$employee voter education:

<h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title">Major Retailer Urges Workers To Take 'Civics Course' With Anti-Obama Content</h1>

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<div class="story-date">October 31, 2012  |  </div>

If you live in the Midwest and you're working on a home-improvement project, you're as likely to do your shopping at a Menards store as at a Lowe's or Home Depot. With <a href="http://www.menards.com/main/footer/about-menards/about-us/c-3582.htm">270 stores</a> [3] and <a href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/21/private-companies-11_Menard_XB0T.html">40,000 employees</a> [4], Menards is the third-largest home-improvement chain in the U.S., and one of the largest privately held corporations in the country. But Menards stores sell more than just lumber and building supplies; their employees are sold a bill of goods in the form of right-wing ideology.

This January, as the Iowa Caucuses were underway, Menards began encouraging employees to take an at-home online "civics" course that characterizes the economic policies of President Barack Obama as a threat to the success of businesses such as Menards, and by extension, to the employees' own well-being.

FBI Investigation

The course, titled "Civics 101: The National Self Governing Will In-Home Training," incorporates much of the material comprising the Prosperity 101 program that AlterNet, working in partnership with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/151182/wall_street_journal_honcho_shills_for_secret_worker%27education%27_program_linked_to_koch_group?paging=off" target="blank">exposed</a> [5] last year -- a program concocted by Koch-linked political operatives Mark Block and Linda Hansen, late of the now-defunct Herman Cain presidential campaign. In March, Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/activities-of-former-cain-operative-scrutinized-nc4pt5q-145029735.html" target="_blank">reported</a> [6] that the FBI is investigating possible financial improprieties involving two non-profit organizations founded by Block that are linked to Prosperity 101, which is a for-profit venture.

Menards employees who sign up for the course are graded on their knowledge via a multiple choice pass-fail test, and those who pass the test are acknowledged in company publications and bulletins. While workers are not required to take the course, those who hope for promotions may feel pressure to do so, since it is clear that management is paying attention to who is or isn't taking the at-home classes, which are conducted on the employees' own time. The civics course is offered as part of a battery of courses, most of which pertain to products sold by the company, or other aspects of working at Menards.

AlterNet has obtained the online textbook for the Menards civics course. The third part of the textbok, subtitled "<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/111811926/Menards-Civics-101-Course-3">American Job Security</a> [7]," imparts a message similar to the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/koch-employees-vote-romney-or-bad-things-will-happen-maybe-your-job">letter sent</a> [8] by Koch Industries CEO Dave Robertson to retirees and employees of the company's Georgia Pacific subsidiary, as well as the <a href="http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/25/14698221-pro-romney-employer-warns-workers-of-personal-consequences?lite">e-mail sent</a> [9] to employees of Rite-Hite, a Milwaukee equipment manufacturer, by company owner Mark White, urging them to vote for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. While the Menards course doesn't offer an explicit candidate endorsement, it describes Obama policies in threatening terms, while policies that echo Romney's proposals are portrayed in a positive and uplifting light.

Koch-Linked Program

In our June 2011 <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/151182/wall_street_journal_honcho_shills_for_secret_worker%27education%27_program_linked_to_koch_group?paging=off">exposé</a> [5], we reported that Herman Cain and Wall Street Journal editorial board member Stephen Moore conducted more than a dozen Prosperity 101 seminars for the employees of companies in Wisconsin and other Midwestern states during the campaign season for the 2010 congressional midterm elections. Hansen, we reported, was looking to create an online Prosperity 101 program for the Wisconsin-based Menards, and it appears as if something like that happened just in time for the 2012 presidential campaign season. While it remains unclear whether the current Menards program was sold to the retailer by Prosperity 101, what is clear is that several sections of the program come directly -- sometimes with minor edits -- from the textbook, also called Prosperity 101, that was distributed during a breakout session that took place at an Americans for Prosperity Foundation conference in Las Vegas in July 2010. The conference, called RightOnline, took place at the opulent Venetian, owned by right-wing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/opinion/in-thrall-to-sheldon-adelson.html?r=0">super-PAC funder Sheldon Adelson</a> [10], and billed by AFPF president Tim Phillips as "the only non-union hotel on the [Las Vegas] Strip."

The Americans for Prosperity Foundation is chaired by David Koch, the multibillionaire funder, with his brother, Charles, of numerous right-wing think tanks and interest groups, and co-owner of Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held corporation in the U.S. Block is the former state director for the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the foundation's sibling organization, and was deeply involved in effecting the sharp turn to the right that took place in Wisconsin politics in 2010 with the election of Governor Scott Walker, Sen. Ron Johnson, and Tea Party-allied members of Congress and the state legislature. (During the course of that campaign, Block was implicated in a <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/149617/priebus%27_republican_national_committee%3A_a_wholly_owned_subsidiary_of_koch%27s_americans_for_prosperity">vote-caging scheme</a> [11] apparently designed to suppress turnout of young people and African Americans at Milwaukee polling places. He also enjoyed a brief moment of fame as the "<a href="http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/685582/6_things_to_know_about%22smoking_man%22_in_herman_cain%27s_weird_new_ad%28dude_was_banned_from_electoral_politics%29">smoking man</a> [12]" in a bizarre Herman Cain campaign ad.)

Menards, as we <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/151184/notorious_wisconsin_retailer_backs_afp-linked_anti-union_program?paging=off" target="_blank">reported</a> [13] last year, is notorious not just as a polluter, but as a virulently anti-labor company. One former manager <a href="http://www.milwaukeemagazine.com/currentissue/full_feature_story.asp?newmessageid=13642">told Milwaukee magazine</a> [14] reporter Mary van de Kamp Nohl that he wasn't allowed to hire two job candidates because, while in high school, they had worked as baggers in a union-organized grocery store. Menards threatened store managers with a 60 percent pay-cut, according to a 2003 <a href="http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/1006/048.html">Forbes article</a> [15], if a union managed to get a foothold in a Menards store on that manager's watch.

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<a href="http://www.alternet.org/print/election-2012/major-retailer-urges-workers-take-civics-course-anti-obama-content">http://www.alternet.org/print/election-2012/major-retailer-urges-workers-take-civics-course-anti-obama-content</a>=http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2013/06/20/murphys-law-the-strange-life-of-john-menard/Nowadays,  John Menard has become infamous for the titillating<a href="http://www.indystar.com/assets/pdf/BG207025617.PDF" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;">legal case</a> filed against the then 73-year-old business man whom Forbes magazine rates as the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/john-menard-jr/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;">world’s 16th wealthiest man</a>, with a net worth of $10.9 billion. The suit accuses the Menard’s hardware chain owner of “intentional inflection of emotional distress, battery, attempted battery, assault, attempted assault” against Tomisue Hilbert, the wife of Stephen Hilbert, a longtime business associate of Menard’s.“On multiple occasions,” the suit claims, “Mr. Menard touched Mrs. Hilbert and demanded both directly and indirectly, that Mrs Hilbert engage in sexual activities with him and his spouse.” Menard warned there would be “severe financial consequences” if Tomisue (pronounced Tommy Sue) refused him, the suit contends, and some time after this, “Menard made good on his threats and began an orchestrated campaign to cause severe financial consequences against Mrs. Hilbert.”Menard’s attorney, Kevin Tyra, denies all the charges.The case comes not long after another embarrassing suit by Menard’s former legal counsel <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dawn Sands, the sister of Menard’s former girlfriend<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Deb Sands. This case went all the the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which upheld a $1.7 million judgment against Menard for past wages he owed her. Dawn Sands had charged that Menard “is a man without paramenters, no limits, no respect for the law, and obviously, no self-discipline to control or limit his own behavior.”Menard and Stephen Hilbert were longtime friends who met through their love of auto racing; Hilbert’s company, Conseco, provided $10 million in sponsorship to Menard’s racing team. In 2005 Menard and the Hilberts created MH Equity Private Equity, essentially becoming business partners. Menard had an 80 percent stake, and the Hilberts 20 percent. Stephen was the fund’s president and CEO and his wife was the fund’s managing member.In those palmy days, the Hilberts hosted Menard and Deb Sands (then his fiance) at their home in St. Martin and at Donald Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, FL. The Hilberts were apparently friends of the Trumps. Donald’s wife Melania Trump had worked closely with New Sunshine, a holding company created by Private Equity to market a line of high-end luxury skin products. Melania appeared on television promoting the product line, which was supposed to be sold in Lord & Taylor stores.But in February 2013, Menard succeeded in convincing a Wisconsin court to oust Hilbert and turn the equity fund over to him. Menard then sent a letter to the Trump Organization canceling the contract with New Sunshine. Mrs. Trump has filed a $50 million claim for damages against Menard. Donald was apparently so miffed that <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/339440503361773568" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">he tweeted</a> a column I wrote <a href="http://www.milwaukeemag.com/article/242011-JohnMenardRetailBizarro" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">for Milwaukee Magazine</a> on Menard.Menard is also in a legal war with Lisa Trudeau, the wife of former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Jack Trudeau. Lisa had worked for Australian Gold, another company managed by Private Equity. Once Menard took it over, she was sued for $1.5 million for breach of contract and fiduciary duties.But Lisa Trudeau has filed a counterclaim contending Menard fired her in April “because of Mr. Menard’s desire to harm Mr. and Mrs. Hilbert and because Mrs. Trudeau had rebuffed Mr. Menard’s… sexual advances.”Trudeau is a friend of Tomisue Hilbert, whose suit claims that Menard knew Trudeau well and “had previously groped her breasts and had caused her to dance sandwiched between Mr. Menard and his wife while on the dance floor and had suggested they have sex.” (By this time, Menard had married Fay Obiad, who had replaced Deb Sands as his girlfriend and married Menard in 2008).As I said, it’s lurid stuff. Tyra told the media Menard “categorically denies the inappropriate conduct Mrs. Hilbert alleges. Ms. Hilbert’s complaint appears to be a reaction to Mr. Menard’s justified actions” (taking over Private Equity).  The Hilberts “mismanaged the assets and resources entrusted to them, and incurred wildly inappropriate expenditures,” Menard has charged through his attorney.Adding to the weirdness, both Tomisue Hilbert and Lisa Trudeau have the same lawyer, Indianapolis attorneyLinda Pence, who told the Indy Star that Menard “has a strange history thinking he can get anything he wants…This man has a well-documented history of disregard for people, particularly women.”Menard owns more than 280 home-improvement stores in 14 states and the company he started from scratch is based in Eau Claire, WI. His high-handed manner of running the company was detailed in<a href="http://www.milwaukeemag.com/article/242011-BigMoney" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;"> a 2007 feature story</a>for Milwaukee Magazine written by Mary Van de Kamp Nohl that I edited. The story reported that Menard’s managers had to sign agreements to be personally penalized for things that go wrong. For instance, having 15 carts in the parking lot drew a $10 fine. And the fine was $100 per minute if they opened a store late.Managers were forbidden from building their own homes, to ensure they couldn’t steal any building materials from Menard’s. And Menard hired private investigators to check whether employees who undertake even minor home-improvement projects were using pilfered supplies.Menard was aggressively anti-union and had a policy that managers’ pay would be cut by 60 percent if their store became unionized, former managers said. And all managers had to sign an agreement requiring them to go to arbitration – not the courts – if they had a dispute with the company. “Moreover, they’d have to pay their own attorney’s fees and half the cost of the arbitrator, even if Menards was found at fault,” the story reported.A columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune once described Menards’ manner of handling an employee as “something exhumed from the Bronze Age with all its primitive logic intact.”A copy of the employment agreement for managers was leaked to Bill Lueders and <a href="http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/12/188450/managers-menards-stand-lose-big-money-if-unions-form" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;">The Progressive magazine</a>: it stipulates that “The Manager’s income shall be automatically reduced by sixty percent (60%) of what it would have been if a union of any type is recognized within your particular operation during the term of this Agreement.”The employee who leaked the contract said the agreement is required for all management staff, Lueders wrote, and added that the threat was effective: ‘The mere mention of the word ‘union’ is a workplace taboo.’”The National Labor Relations Board, in response to the Progressive story, found that Menards committed<a href="http://www.progressive.org/news/2016/03/188644/investigation-progressive-leads-nlrb-bust-menards-labor-law-violations" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;">multiple violations of federal labor law</a>. The NLRB found merit to five of the eight complaints. It determined that the clause threatening a 60 percent cut in pay for a manager who lets a union be established was a violation, but took no action, as Menard’s has already removed this language from the agreements. But the NLRB also found Menards was violating labor law by requiring employees to sign arbitration agreements that preclude them from engaging in concerted activities, including class action suits. The ruling could require the rewriting of employments agreements with all of its 45,000 employees.Menard was a major donor to <a href="http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/politicsandgovernment/1506/how_workers_learned_to_fear_unions_in_wisconsin/?page=4" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;">an anti-union program </a>run by the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity and is also among the donors who’ve given at least $1 million to the Koch Brothers, <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/koch-brothers-million-dollar-donor-club" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;">according to Mother Jones</a>, to help supports its conservative and anti-union causes.Nohl found Menard and his company had more run-ins with state Department of Natural Resources than any other Wisconsin company. Menard and his company were ultimately fined $1.7 million for 21 violations. Menards was fined for disposing hazardous waste in 1994, charged by the Minnesota Attorney General in 2003 with manufacturing and selling arsenic-tainted mulch, fined $2 million in 2005 for having a floor drain that DNR officials believed was dumping chemicals into a tributary of the Chippewa River, and hit with an administrative order from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for damaging a stream that ran through its property in South Dakota.The company extended its string of violations in January 2011, when it was <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/business/114143619.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;">ordered</a> to pay $30,000 in fines and court costs for dumping a pallet of herbicide on a parking island.But Menard has seen an end to such enforcement actions since Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was elected. Menard, <a href="http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2015/03/25/back-in-the-news-did-menard-buy-protection-from-walker/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;">according to Michael Isikoff</a>, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, “wrote more than $1.5 million in checks”  to the conservative Wisconsin Club for Growth (run by the <a href="http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2014/02/13/murphys-law-the-wrath-of-eric-okeefe/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); outline: 0px;">ever-busy Eric O’Keefe</a>), which spent generously on ads supporting Walker, helping him survive a 2012 recall election.In the two years since that donation, Isikoff reported, “Menard’s company has been awarded up to $1.8 million in special tax credits from a state economic development corporation that Walker chairs,” the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. “And in his five years in office, Walker’s appointees have sharply scaled back enforcement actions by the state Department of Natural Resources — a top Menard priority.”Perhaps the classic example of Menard’s style was a 1997 violation, when he was caught using his own pickup truck to haul plastic bags filled with chromium and arsenic-laden wood ash to his own home to dispose in his household garbage.The incident illustrates Menard’s pinchpenny thriftiness, which Nohl described at length and is echoed in Hilbert’s lawsuit, which claims the billionaire rarely carried cash and his credit cards were often declined. The Hilberts often ended up footing expenses for Menard and his guests, the suit alleges.Details in a 1998 tax case showed the chief financial officer for Menard’s was then paid just $55,702 while John Menard was pulling in $20.6 million in annual compensation. His general counsel Dawn Sands claimed in her successful suit that she was grossly underpaid and was the victim of gender discrimination. In addition to her claim for $1.78 million in back pay, Sands had asked to be given her job back at Menards, but the state Supreme Court instead referred the case back to a lower court to decide on additional compensation for Sands because “no reasonable person” would want to return to work there, the decision noted.Hilbert’s suit claims Menard objected to paying his girlfriend Deb Sands $20,000 per month as general counsel for Private Equity and told Mr. Hilbert that “I’m not paying that much to her sister.” Hilbert agreed to reduce Deb Sands pay to $10,000 per month, the suit notes.After Menard fired Dawn Sands and she sued him, Menard ended his relationship with Deb Sands and insisted that Hilbert fire her, the suit notes.  “Menard claimed that her monthly retainer could be used to help her sister Dawn pay attorneys in the lawsuit against Menard,” and so Mr. Hilbert agreed to terminate Deb Sands, the suit alleges.Deb Sands has filed her own lawsuit against Menard, claiming she was entitled to a portion of his assets because they had co-habited for almost eight years. In reaction, the suit alleges, “Menard and his lawyers engaged in a scorched earth strategy against her, filing multiple counter-claims and hundreds of motions, resulting in an expensive lawsuit that is now in its fifth year of litigation.”At least six business associates of the Hilberts have so far been sued by Menard or the companies that Menard took over from them.Nohl described Menard as a workaholic and lonely man with few friends who was estranged from his children. Hilbert’s suit says Menard told Tomisue that he no longer liked working and was tired of pleasing his customers, and wanted to live his life fully and fulfill his sexual urges. This was during his stay at the Hilbert’s home in St. Martin on Memorial Day weekend in 2011.On that weekend, Menard “demanded that Mrs. Hilbert join both him and his wife (Ms. Obiad) for sex after her husband went to bed,” according to the lawsuit. Tomisue returned to her bedroom and told her husband of Menard’s advances. “Mr. Hilbert believed that Mr. Menard’s judgment was impaired because of alcohol, that he could not be serious, and he would likely forget about it following a good night’s sleep,” the lawsuit recounts.But over the next two months, the suit contends, Menard made more requests that Tomisue join him and his wife for sex, including two offers to travel to Wisconsin, all of which she rejected. Menard’s conduct “constitutes an invasion of Mrs. Hilbert’s human dignity and human worth” and has caused her “severe emotional distress,” the suit charges. The case is expected to go to trial in April 2016. Expect plenty of reporters to cover it.