Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Walker donor's feedlot, water use plan at DNR decision point

[Update] This is an especially-detailed update by the Milwaukee Journal's Lee Bergquist on a proposed major dairy expansion by the Wysocki family - - major Walker donors, as has been reported separately.

I'd noted the dairy development, among several big projects across the state which, if approved, would eat up big tracts of land and require huge withdrawals of groundwater.

[Update - - here's the estimated annual manure yield.]

And which are primed for approval by Scott Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality' Department of Natural Resources which he put under the control and thumb - - with a litany of negative environmental and democratic process setbacks - - of former GOP state senator/DNR critic/developer/McDonald's manager Cathy Stepp.

And don't forget - - Big ag gave legislators and the Walker administration their marching orders: We want the water, on our terms.
Wisconsin DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp proudly shows off her first deer, taken opening weekend last year. In the upcoming TV Special "Deer Hunt Wisconsin 2012, Stepp urges male hunters to take more girls and women hunting. "The secret's out," she says. "Hunting is a lot of fun, so don't keep it to yourselves."  photo courtesy of Wisconsin DNR

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why the haters make this all sound so negative, I will never know. Look at the bright side. You are going to be drinking urine. And for the fecal matter? Haven't they been brewing Budweiser for 100+ years with Chicago's toilet water (since reversal of Chicago river)?

What's new is old again and what is old is new. We are going to all enjoy piss and poo in our family's water. THANKS SCOTT WALKER!!!


Now please excuse me while I run to the toilet. Seems it's working...

Sue said...

Oh, I don't know, Anon@5:50, at this point I think we should stop blaming Scott Walker and start blaming the voters who continue to vote in and reelect the local enablers. It's not like the information isn't out there, and it's not like residents don't have a continual buildup of evidence that maybe these candidates and electeds don't have the best interests of citizens in mind.
Wood County residents threw Julie Lassa out of office in favor of Patrick Testin last month. Seems like thanking Scott Walker for polluting their water supply misses the point that they are now actively engaged in self-pollution.

Anonymous said...

Sue I do not believe that many areas in Wisconsin have had honest elections in some time. As an example do we really believe the Waukesha County clerk's statement that they have had near 90%+ voter turnout for several elections now? St. Croix County officials must have had the same dose of Kool-Aid. Fair elections in this state, elsewhere as well, depend upon having equitable distribution of resources and access to the polls along with honest elections officials and workers. Our system and its' administration is so open to ballot stuffing and all kinds of other shenanigans that people from other countries are horrified when they are told what goes on here and how we conduct an election. You could have 10,000 people show up to vote, face a huge delay in line, get denied a regular ballot if they do get inside or simply be turned away by unscrupulous/ill-informed poll workers. We have no way of knowing how many this happens to because nobody is required to keep track of who and how many are turned away or have to leave because they have obligations that don't allow them to stand in line for 3 hours to vote. Then the night of the election the vote totals are falsely equated to the number who came out to vote. The provisional are not included and a huge percentage are thrown away sometimes properly and sometimes not. Nobody keeps track or contacts the person who is on the provisional. Voter turnout is actually " votes counted on election day + provisional ballots + those who left the polls without being able to vote". Notice that the old machines that break down are always given to low income areas and the closure of voting locations is also done in those areas. Nobody in government is going to make the folks in River Hills stand in line for more than a little bit if at all. When you go to the polls and ask the same question of 5 different people you'll get 5 different answers. So if a poll worker figures you are from "the other side" and he tries to give you false information so that you don't vote there is no penalty for him. If he's caught doing this the most that will happen is they'll tell him to go do a different task.

Anonymous said...

The only thing that will move the Republican cabal to act in the best interests of Wisconsin's citizens instead of their corporate donors is to show up in mass and take over the Capitol and camp out in front of each Republican's office. It's the only way to get the media to pay attention to the issue and to gain nationwide publicity and to force the Republican actions into the spot light. It didn't work in Act 10 because Walker had sold teacher's and public employees to the public as being the cause of the budget shortfall and of having things so much better than the rest of us [none of it was true]. But now with everyone's water resources being placed in jeopardy either from depletion of groundwater or pollution by CAFCOs AND CORPORATE AGRICULTURAL ENTITIES who are big Republican donors....we all have a stake in this. Some major player, conservation organization or environmental activist needs to get the ball rolling and call for mass protests......if not Walker and Stepp will give away the state!