WI science-basher irked when scientists don't meet his perfection standard

Voters in Tom Tiffany's northwoods congressional district need to know the level of repetitive and dangerous misinformation - and related b.s. - that their elected representative has been feeding them.

This May, 2021 posting was a start.

Yet Tiffany continues his camouflage-the-facts campaign.

In this recent release, Tiffany bashes the CDC for not providing 100% instantly complete advice about the unprecedented and fast-mutating COVID19, and then makes an unbelievably misleading and politicized statement: 

The lack of transparency by the highest-ranking medical officials in our federal government has created confusion and uncertainty. Americans have faithfully followed public health directives and recommendations for eighteen months, based on the premise that compliance would result in the resumption of normalcy. It seems now that guidance was illusory.

It's true that plenty of Americans have "faithfully followed" health directives and recommendations for eighteen months, but Tiffany is not one of them.

What gall, as we consider his record:

* On August 17, 2021, when speaking at a Rhinelander school board against a masking mandate:

Congressman Tom Tiffany (R-Minocqua) spoke against masks at the meeting, equating the CDC guideline on masks to its one on eating raw cookie dough.

Does that sound like respect for and compliance with CDC recommendations to you? 

* On March 31, 2021: 

Wisconsin Congressman Tiffany Says He Advised His Adult Daughters Against Getting COVID-19 Vaccine

At Town Hall, Republican Representative Made False Statements About COVID-19 And Contradicted Public Health Guidance

Is that what faithfully following CDC guidelines sounds like? 

* On October 6, 2020: 

Tiffany's Unmasked, Indoor Campaign Event Slammed As 'Completely Reckless'

Gathering Featured Arizona Sheriff Who Previously Caught COVID-19 At A Campaign Event 

Is that how a public official sets an example for compliance with CDC recommendations - during a killer pandemic? 

His attitudes and public position abuses contradict much-needed work by agencies and scientists trying their best to keep people, homes, and communities safe, and for Tiffany it dates to his years in the Wisconsin State Legislature.

US Cong. Tom Tiffany, (R-WI)

* In 2015:

Sen. Tom Tiffany says he asked governor for DNR job cuts

State Sen. Tom Tiffany has owned up to asking for job cuts to DNR scientists, who he has said focus too much on climate change.

On Friday’s Devil’s Advocate radio show, the Hazelhurst Republican said he asked Gov. Scott Walker and his staff to include a provision in the state budget axing approximately 17 positions from the Department of Natural Resources’ Science Services Bureau.

* Noted on June 18, 2017, and which you might keep in mind as Wisconsin is among the states experiencing sizzling temperatures and destructive storms which are long-predicted consequences of human-assisted climate change:

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that Walker is further weakening through disconnecting transfers - - an age-old bureaucratic ploy - - the work of the few science staffers whose positions he had not already eliminated. Work in the public interest which his GOP legislative allies have sought to and will additionally further restrict at the direction of Cathy Stepp, the former developer whom Walker appointed in 2011 as agency's business-friendly Secretary:

The story quotes outspoken climate change denier and eager corporate captive State Sen. Tom Tiffany, (R-Hazelhurst), in support of even more limitations on what remains of DNR science:

Stepp should be able to ensure that research benefits sportsmen and the DNR should be better able to prevent further research that takes climate change into account, Tiffany said.

Tiffany doesn’t accept the findings of 97 percent of working climate scientists that the climate is changing rapidly in large part because of human-caused pollution....

[Also] recall that he was the state legislator whose view of fishing and hunting in the Bad River watershed - - which, by the way, is not in his district  - included an active public relations role promoting a possible 35 years of mountaintop blasting, forest-clearing, open-pit iron ore mining, contamination runoff and wetland filling:

News that State Sen. Tom Tiffany, (R-Hazelhurst) is aiming to wipe out local jurisdictions' controls over mining-related dynamiting, road use, air and water regulation so GTAC mining is freer to engage in 35 years of mountain-top open pit iron mining up North is not the first time he has put the company's interests before everything and everyone else. The bill would also place similar restrictions on local controls over frac sand mining.

*  There was his failed attempt to close 3,500 acres of publicly-accessible forest land because mining might take place there. The effect was to bar scientists working for the nearby Ojibwe band from cataloguing wetlands in harm's way - - and right before state geologists found asbestos-bearing rock on potential mine property.

*  One set of URL's and citations about his close relationship to the mining company is here.

*  Another URL, thanks to the League of Conservation Voters and that connects the Governor's office to blatant special interest strategizing for the mine, is here.

A sample:

Begin by taking another look at this Facebook posting from last year by the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters about Tiffany's relationship to a Gogebic's lobbyist:

Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters · 15,050 like thisJune 27, 2012 at 5:42pm ·  

David Storey, lobbyist for Gogebic Taconite, sent e-mails to then-Rep. [and now State Sen.] Tom Tiffany, and Walker policy adviser Eileen Schoenfeldt, that discussed forming a "response team" to combat negative PR once the final mining bill was released. Read the emails here:http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/Storey_Emails.pdf ...

Tiffany is either unaware or dismissive of published work by DNR researchers posted by a UW-Madison program from which Walker's DNR has now distanced itself that showed the dangers a warming climate posed to Wisconsin's lakes, rivers and streams - - the very 'sporstmen' arenas Tiffany allegedly is trying to assist.

Few Wisconsin wildlife species are more sensitive to changes in their environment than trout. They depend on a particular set of conditions to survive, including a narrow range of cold water temperatures. Climate change poses an extraordinary challenge to this critical state resource.

Department of Natural Resources researchers John Lyons and Matthew Mitro have spent years studying the impacts of environmental change on 50 fish species in Wisconsin. They track how things like changes in land use, stream characteristics and warming temperatures affect fish populations...

Incorporating Wisconsin specific climate data in the fish researchers' models produced startling results: all but four of 50 species they studied would be affected. About half of them, warmwater species such as bass, could benefit from the change. But coldwater species are at risk as air and water temperatures increase. Brown trout and wild brook trout in particular have narrow temperature ranges in which they can successfully live, feed and reproduce.

Under the most extreme summer warming conditions projected by the models — where air temperatures would increase by about 9°F and water temperatures by 7.2°F — brook trout may not survive in Wisconsin at all, and brown trout may decrease by 88 percent. Even under more moderate conditions of air temperature increasing by 1.8˚F and water temperature by 0.8˚F, brook trout distributions may shrink by 44 percent and brown trout by 8 percent.