Government
The Age of Plastics
“Welcome to the Plasticene. If you’re under age 70, it’s possible you’ve lived in the Plasticene for your entire life. It’s a new geologic age some scientists have proposed to mark the near-universal spread of plastic around Earth. Since the 1950s, researchers say, we’ve been living in the Age of Plastics.” Kristen Minogue, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
Geologists have divided the 4.5 billion years of earth's history into a geologic time scale. These divisions, or “geochronologic units,” include eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages. We ...
Peter Gruich is Wisconsin’s Northwoods Luigi Mangione
Subtitle: Right-wing disinformation is at the heart of political violence caused by mental illness.
*To read owner Kirks' weekly essay with all of the pics and source links, subscribe to our Substack. Kirk Bangstad, is the of Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company
Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC
You’ve probably heard of Luigi Mangione, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, and Matthew Alan Livelsberger, but have you heard of Peter Gruich?
The first three have made national news through acts of political violence over the last month.
Luigi Mangione ...
The Myth of Recycling Plastic
“The idea that recycling can solve the problem of plastic waste has always been a fraud, and it's always been a way for the industry to sell more plastic,” Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity.
As I wrote about recently, the use of plastic has increased enormously, creating a huge worldwide problem with plastic trash (“The age of plastics,” December 19, 2024). Much of this plastic is for single use products like packaging and shopping bags. Recycling is suppose to mitigate these problems. But for many reasons, recycling plastic simply ...
Investigate, Question Sources of Information
We thought that you could verify facts with two sources of information that said the same thing. Hearing something on the Walter Cronkite CBS Evening News and then reading it in the local newspaper was proof this was the truth.
Today it is far more difficult to distinguish the truth from lies. No matter how savvy we think we are, we can be tricked. Billionaires on the right have invested more heavily in media than their counterparts on the left. Fox News, I-Heart Radio and TV stations and newspapers owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group speak in one voice as they slant ...
PEOPLE’S MARCH January 18, 2025
WAUSAU HUMAN RIGHTS MARCH
The recent election can have far reaching consequences for our vulnerable communities.
For Immediate Release: Saturday, January 18, 11 AM, meeting at the Marathon Dems Office, 218 Sherman Street Wausau
Contact: Chair, Nancy Stencil, nstencil7983@gmail.com 715.581.7983
Come join Central Wisconsin's PEACEFUL PEOPLE’S MARCH. A place for us to all come together and let the world know WE WON'T BE SILENT!
“A place to fight for women's rights, BIPOC rights, reproductive rights, LQBTQIA+ rights, disability rights, ...
Now What? Tactics for Resistance
Since the election of our first fascist dictator I have been getting many emails about organizing for the "resistance." Most are exhorting us to not give up hope (and to send money to their organization). I won't criticize those with the energy to attempt continuing the struggle. But I doubt any amount of resisting, protesting, marching, sending online petitions, getting arrested or suing the bastards is going to accomplish anything.
Given that the fascists now control both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court traditional forms of protest and political action will be ...
ELECTION REFLECTION
If you have an appetite for another presidential campaign post-mortem, read on. GOP claims of a mandate notwithstanding, Vice President Harris would now be president-elect had she gained just under 230,000 more votes in the three “Blue Wall” states. While her top campaign aides insist that she ran a “pretty flawless campaign” and attribute her loss largely to the way people felt about the economy and the country’s direction, she might have won had she not ceded to Donald Trump two issues that voters consistently rated as top-priority: the economy and ...
Kohler’s Golfing on Graves Project
Respect for the dead is a universal value — or so we thought. Across Wisconsin, small family cemeteries are protected with care. Yet for Native burial grounds, the Kohler Company and Sheboygan city leaders are ready to bulldoze that principle – literally.
Kohler plans to build a luxury golf course in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on land eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and home to Native burial mounds. A federally mandated 2018 study discovered human remains in seven locations on the course plan. Since the courts revoked their wetland ...
WHAT’S LEFT
What kind of message are we sending to our children and the world when we elect, as President of the United States, a convicted con-man and serial liar, with multiple bankruptcies and failed businesses? Someone who praises Communist dictators, cheats on his wives, and pays $130,000 to conceal an affair with a porn star when his #3 wife was pregnant. MAGA family values?
It seems at times Like the world has been turned upside down. The very idea that Republicans could nominate someone for President, or that we would elect someone, who openly praises Communist dictat...
WHAT DEMOCRATS DID WRONG
Party leaders failed to see the long term need for younger, more vigorous candidates. The bulk of Biden’s term suffered from his shuffling gait, whispery voice, and apparent mental decline. Not that Trump is so much younger, but his demeanor as a bully conveys a message of strength. Sadly.
Dems also failed to foresee Biden’s inability to win a second term and consequently failed to hold a 2024 primary that would have introduced all best possible candidates. Call it allegiance to a venerable old warrior (Biden) or inability to break out of an established order of ...