Thursday, July 14, 2022

Grifting Large and Loud: Mandela Barnes

There is a suspicion that most politicians are really just grifters.  That may be so, but usually they hide it well by artful double-talk, promises never kept, and endless requests for campaign donations To Prevent the End of the World.

Not Mandela Barnes.  Nope.  He does his grifting large and loud, right in your face!

...Barnes has a history of taking advantage of the system — and taxpayers. While he was raking in $80,000 a year as Lieutenant governor and buying another condo property, he failed to pay a fine for several outstanding parking tickets. The scofflaw then couldn’t renew his vehicle registration. He reportedly sold the car and then had taxpayers pick up the tab to have the State Patrol’s Dignitary Protection Unit chauffeur him around the state and beyond.

“In just the first two months of 2019, the state patrol has racked up nearly 898 hours shuffling Barnes back and forth to official, personal and political events at a cost to the taxpayers of $36,622,” Wispolitics reported. “This puts the state on pace to spend nearly $220,000 this year alone on Barnes’ detail. That’s more than 50x what was spent in 2018 to cover Kleefisch, who received just 95.5 hours of coverage throughout the entire year at a cost of $4,370. Unlike Kleefisch, Lt. Governor Barnes is using state patrol to drive him to personal events such as church and going ice fishing.”...

Did we mention his failure to pay $2,200++ in property taxes?  (Now paid, by the way.)

Just like the big-shots in Communist Russia.  Is that a co-incidence?

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