Guest blog reminder: Kohler golf course to take state park land

We've had this sign in our yard for years. 

It was made by Friends of the Black River Forest, the Sheboygan-area grassroots organization trying to stop the construction of a privately-owned golf course along Lake Michigan which will clearcut tens of thousands of trees, tear out wildlife and migrating bird habitat, destroy rare sand dunes, fill wetlands and desecrate ancient Native American relics and burial grounds, a government evaluation shows.

People often stop by as did a group Friday night when I was tending to the yard to ask what the sign's all about. 

When I explained it, and said the plan - which public agencies have already approved - requires taking acreage inside Kohler Andrae State Park, a woman in the group said.

"Kohler Andrae?," she asked, incredulously? "I don't need to hear anything more."

And this is the problem; people still don't know this could happen because the site is just outside major media markets, and perhaps because such a possibility is simply unthinkable when we now know so much about preservation, open space, clean water, sustaining forests, and their relationships to climate change, and other pressures on Lake Michigan.

And because most large Wisconsin environmental groups are headquartered in Madison and Milwaukee and have not had the focus or resources to get this project on their priority lists.

So to continue expanding the discussion and keeping a record let me today add three things:

1. This recent commentary about the project among scores of blog posts on this site  dating to 2014:

Project opponents, Mother Nature make the case vs. shoreline golf project

2. This very important piece posted Saturday by the investigative media site WisconsinWatch: 

Ancient human remains unearthed at proposed Kohler golf course site in Wisconsin

The rapidly eroding Lake Michigan shoreline is also raising questions about the future of the controversial project adjacent to Kohler-Andrae State Park  

3. This guest post submitted by Erik Thelan, a project opponent and activist with Friends of the Black River Forest.

Tear a corner off your park sticker, because you've lost the northern hunk of Kohler Andrae State Park to the Kohler company for their fifth luxury golf course.   

Yep, the DNR gave them 6.47 acres of our state park -- that's the size of five football fields -- so the golf folks could build a roundabout (like we really need one more of those) and a 22,000 square foot maintenance shed (picture a warehouse that takes up half a football field, then fill it with herbicide, fuel, and lawn mowers).  

While you're trimming your park sticker, think about how much you're going to miss the sand beach at the state park. Because when the golf folks armor their mile of Lake Michigan shoreline to keep their greens and fairways from washing away, the adjacent state park beaches will disappear. 

How do we know this?  Because the same thing happened when the geniuses at Concordia University armored their shoreline: the sand transport cycle was disrupted, and neighbors to the south suffered a scary amount of erosion as a result. The Journal Sentinel reported on the lawsuits: just google Concordia University Bluff Failures.  

Right now the Kohler folks insist that they are going to leave the shoreline alone. The current plans show silt fences along the Lake Michigan shoreline.  No kidding. That's like using a paper towel for a parachute. Rest assured, once construction starts, the feigned ignorance will vanish, the developer will declare an emergency, and they will drop boulders along the shoreline. 

Why this feigned ignorance now? Because if the golf course proposal had included the inevitable revetments, the permit process would be even more controversial and more bogged down. 

Finally, if your cousins are planning to camp at Kohler Andrae, tell them to expect to wake up early, because Kohler Hospitality will be firing up their mowers at the crack of dawn to get the greens and fairways looking nice for the early golfers.  

Go ahead and tell me that the DNR traded our state natural area fair and square, and that in this country people can do whatever they please with their own property. We'll talk again when your billionaire neighbor builds a Nascar short track alongside your patio. Or maybe you'll tell me that I only paid $28 for my park sticker, so what did I expect would happen when someone came along with a better offer? 

And there it is: the state park belongs to all of us...until it doesn't.  

 

Tiffany continues to give constituents biased, distorted 'information'

We hear a lot about low-information voters, but I think we need to hear more about the public officials who deliberately feed their constituents slanted or outright bad information that disrespects citizens and poisons the political environment.

There are two jaw-dropping examples of this worst of the worst practice in the latest e-issue of Cong. Tiffany's quaintly-titled "Tom Tiffany's Telegram" newsletter - though you have fight your way through his ignorant and routine griping about "illegal aliens" and other right-wing banalities to spot them.

Let me point them out:

*1. After voting against Biden's COVID relief bill and blasting it as "a train wreck," Tiffany used his taxpayer-financed newsletter to steer constituents to the bill's improved childcare benefit package available because "Congress increased" it. 

Many of you have likely seen in the media, recently enacted legislation will include $1.8 trillion in tax credits for families and children over the course of ten years. Until 2021, the child tax credit was $2,000 per child under 17, but in 2021 Congress increased the credit to $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17 and $3,600 for children under age 6. Beginning on July 15th, the IRS will begin making monthly payments in the form of one-twelfth the annual credit i.e. a single parent making $60,000 annually will receive $250 per month. You can learn more here .

Before you say, 'fine,' understand that a voter in Tiffany's district not closely following the factual news might assume that Tiffany helped the measure along since he's their representative in the "Congress [that] increased it." 

And Tiffany didn't remind his readers that he voted "no" on the measure and called it "a train wreck." 

His lack of transparency allows Tiffany to have it both ways on the issue and keeps his constituents poorly informed.

*2. Tiffany also used the newsletter to continue downplaying - as have Republicans from the former President to Ron Johnson and all of Wisconsin's GOP House members on down - the severity of the Jan. 6 violent - and televised - insurrection that led to scores of injuries, multiple deaths and millions in damages to the US Capitol. 

You may have also seen news regarding legislation to create a bipartisan commission on the January 6 Capitol riot. Unfortunately, by narrowly focusing on this one isolated event – while turning a blind eye to the months of widespread, politically-motivated rioting, looting, violence and mayhem across the country that preceded it – the bill missed the mark. 

"One isolated event?"

That little-itty-bitty-event was an attempt to overthrow the Presidential election, seize the Speaker of the House and hang the Vice-President.

Tiffany also doesn't remind his readers that he with Cong. Scott Fitzgerald voted to throw out Wisconsin's electors' legitimate ballots - thereby endorsing the goal of the insurrectionists - and the two Wisconsin representatives did it after the Capitol had been retaken by law enforcement officers who helped protect all Members of Congress from the mob. 

Fitzgerald and Tiffany went through with their objections after the Capitol had been cleared of a mob of Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol earlier in the day, incited by the president’s claims that the election had been stolen from him. 

Even Ron Johnson didn't go that far. 

Tiffany is engaging in some serious rewriting of what that bloody and anti-democratic "one isolated event" was really all about.

Tiffany also failed to mention that the bill passed the House with 35 GOP "Aye" votes - but not his or those of his Wisconsin GOP colleagues - because Democrats made key concessions:

An independent probe — and a public reckoning — is not only necessary, but also very much in line with precedent after events of national trauma. The commission would be shaped along the lines of the one that investigated the roots of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and made recommendations for how to prevent similar events in the future.

The legislation is a proposal worked out by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and the panel’s ranking Republican, Rep. John Katko (N.Y.).

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made several concessions to Republican demands, including that the panel be evenly divided, with Democrats and Republicans each naming half its 10 commissioners, and that any subpoenas it issues require agreement between the Democratic-appointed chair and the Republican vice chair or a vote by a majority of commission members.

Again - if low-information voting is a problem, let's not forget that there are public officials who like it that way and also like keeping voters in the dark. 

It's about the crudest form of incumbent-self-perpetuation you could imagine being practiced in a democracy.

 

 

 

 

Stand by for bulletins from the OJ RoJo Columbo Combo

Wisconsin's Senior US Senator seen here apparently also shocked that the camera doesn't lie - 

2021 screenshot

- is unleashing his inner RoJo P.I. 

Ron Johnson Says He's Going to Do His Own Investigation of the Capitol Insurrection 

• Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson voted Wednesday against forming a bipartisan commission to investigate the origins of the riot by Trump supporters at the US Capitol that disrupted the tallying of electoral votes and forced him and other lawmakers to flee for their lives.
   
• Johnson, a Trump supporter who favored overturning states' election outcomes, told a right-wing cable channel that he is conducting his own examination.
   
• “I’m doing my own investigation to really accurately recreate what happened on Jan. 6th," said Johnson. “By and large it was peaceful protests, except for there were a number of people—basically agitators that whipped the crowd and breached the Capitol—and that’s really the truth of what’s happening here."

Awaiting results from the OJ/RoJo Columbo Sleuth Truth Combo lookin' for clues on Search for the Truth Trail.

A tip for RoJo PI- end your questioning this way" 'Oh, just one more thing.'

(Columbo. For you kids...)

WI GOP Capitol delegation continues to embrace the Capitol attackers

That all five WI GOP House members voted with most  Republicans against a bi-partisan investigation of the Jan. 6 armed insurrection which sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election means those Republican office holders fear - and may have personal knowledge about - the emergence of evidence showing culpability of GOP House colleagues, staffers, administration officials, partisan operatives and/or then-White House personnel including President T and his family.

Which also may explain why WI GOP Senator Ron Johnson -  

- had earlier likened the events on Jan. 6 which led to five deaths and injured scores of police officers to a friendly, pro-law enforcement crowd.

“Not one appeared angry or incited to riot,” Johnson said Tuesday, reading [into a hearing record] from [a purported eyewitness] account of the protesters. “Many of the marchers were families with small children; many were elderly, overweight, or just plain tired or frail — traits not typically attributed to the riot-prone.”

No wonder a Georgia GOP House Member thought he could claim that the Jan. 6 attackers resembled a normal day's gaggle of DC tourists.

The GOP strategy aims to obscure the circumstances of and obstruct any consequences for what was televised domestic terrorism inside the US Capitol aimed against Members of Congress gather as required by the Constitution required to certify Joe Biden's 2020 Presidential landslide wins with more than seven million popular votes and 57% of Electoral College ballots. 

If Senate Republicans succeed in killing the investigation's authorization they will hand the terrorists  a victory that could get even more frightening if Republicans win back the Congress - the same institution the terrorists defiled - in 2022 elections which will be dominated by the Big Republican Lie About The Stolen Election.

It's a dangerous scenario which Republicans nationwide are further enabling through an ongoing, coordinated nationwide assault against ballot access - including in Wisconsin - which aims to suppress Democratic turnout and tip the Presidency back to T, or a clone.

WI Cong. Tiffany, (R-White People), voted "No" on anti-Asian-hate measure

Fresh off his opposition to legislation providing modest compensation to African-American farmers who were cheated of land and funding through decades of official and racist financing and laws, Wisconsin's northwoods Cong. Tom Tiffany 

stood with 61 other House members and voted "No" on a measure to condemn and fight hate crimes against Asian-Americans.

Tiffany keeps emphasizing that he serves only some Americans in his district - though people of all races pay taxes which cover his salary, benefits and perks - and those Americans who do not share his genetic makeup must look elsewhere in Congressional for representation.

And Marathon County - here -  is in Tiffany's district, and The New York Times discloses some ugliness which Tiffany will never lead in resolving:

A ‘Community for All’? Not So Fast, This Wisconsin County Says.

US legislators from WI say jobless citizens are lazy grifters

Citing no data, a resentment-stirring-grievance-and-talking-point-laden WI GOP Sen. Ron Johnson said "subsidies" to unemployed people are preventing employers from filling jobs:

"The biggest problem businesses in Wisconsin face now is finding people willing to turn down government subsidies and go back to work," U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Oshkosh said in a statement.

Democrats, and even business leaders, had a more layered and less judgmental analysis about post-pandemic unemployment and the impact of a temporary $300 per week payment to the unemployed which has millionaire Johnson so worked up:

Republicans and business groups contend some workers are reluctant to take jobs because of how much they make in benefits and say the situation is hurting the economy. Many Democrats say the help is still needed and note people often no longer qualify for benefits if they turn down a good job offer.

Republican office holders, including Paul Ryan (and again),  Glenn Grothman, Scott Walker and their hero, Ronald Reagan, who enjoyed fat, subsidized salaries, benefits and special perks as routine entitlements can instantly display a nasty disdain for people who are poor, down on their luck, out of work and/or routinely suppressed. 

Highly-subsidized Senator perhaps rooting out those getting smaller subsidies?

So, of course, all five of Johnson's junior and equally callous state GOP Congressional caucus members who each make more than $3,400 a week - or 11 times the temporary, $300-per-week unemployment support Johnson cannot abide - signed on to his shaming and shameful letter:

Johnson sent a letter to Evers on the issue that was also signed by the five Republicans who represent the state in the U.S. House — Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau, Mike Gallagher of Green Bay, Glenn Grothman of Glenbeulah, Bryan Steil of Janesville and Tom Tiffany of Minocqua. 

 

 

 

Speak up for a quiet/no-snowmobile Blue Mound State Park

You have until Wednesday, 5/19, to weigh in about proposed changes to Blue Mound State Park that would bring motorized machine noise, exhaust and disruption for hikers and cross-country skiers who expect a quiet experience there. 

Below is comment procedure and other information about the proposed changes, and how to make your voice heard:

Urgent! Please oppose a new snowmobile trail at Blue Mound State Park.

• Subscribe to receive updates on the Blue Mound State Park Master Plan Revision

The Blue Mound State Park Proposed Master Plan is on the Natural Resources Board’s May meeting agenda as Item 4.K to be considered for approval.

Read the Blue Mound State Park Proposed Master Plan and Environmental Analysis [PDF]

To submit written comments or register to testify regarding the BMSP Proposed Master Plan, please see the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board’s Public Participation Guidelines.  

Please contact Phil Rynish at Phillip.Rynish@wisconsin.gov or 608-977-0286 with questions regarding the plan and its content. 

I'm also copying below a portion of a November, 2019 blog post about these same issues.

It's time to hit the trail if you want a say in the future of Blue Mound State Park. 

You may remember that the WI DNR decided to allow snowmobiles inside the traditionally-quiet Blue Mound State Park back when the agency was run degraded with Walker's preferred 'chamber of commerce mentality.'

Photo from Friends of Blue Mound State park website

That move was blocked by a Dane County Circuit Court because the agency's maneuvers violated its own rules. 

A judge has thrown out the state’s controversial decision to add a snowmobile trail to a state park known for silent sports such as cross-country skiing. 

The Department of Natural Resources violated its own rules when it approved snowmobiling at Blue Mound State Park, Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn ruled Tuesday.

I'd written about the ruling, and put it into a larger context.

Court ruling for state park's integrity could assist another 

You would assume this snippet about the park from a DNR communication, below, would elicit comments from preservationists, hikers and others statewide willing to leave their snowmobiles parked elsewhere: 

Perched atop the highest point in southern Wisconsin, the more than 1,100 acre Blue Mound State Park offers spectacular views, opportunities to see and learn about unique geological features and a variety of recreational facilities. 

Over 20 miles of scenic trails, access to the Military Ridge State Trail, bike-in campsites, a family campground, summer swimming pool, and a rustic cabin for people with disabilities make Blue Mound a popular year-round destination.

Latest Republican insolence born of WI's toxic gerrymander

As you absorb this man's crude, intentional and ignorant insensitivity, remember this:

Beaver Dam GOP State Representative Mark Born 

has risen above his previous and rightful State Capitol anonymity only because GOP Assembly Speaker and fellow minority dismisser Robin Vos installed Born as co-chairman of the powerful Joint Finance Committee - where decisions of a just a handful of state's 132 legislators can turn the whims and bigoted biases of the committee and Legislature's gerrymandered GOP majority into public policy:

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Senate Republicans voted 18-12 Tuesday to pass a resolution honoring Rush Limbaugh, the divisive conservative commentator and radio host who died February 17.... In the same Senate session, Republicans turned down Democratic efforts to include slavery and Black history in a bill requiring public schools to teach the Holocaust and other genocides; they also rejected another attempt at a Black History Month resolution after passing on a similar effort last month.

Another example: stripping crucial public health funding for lead pipe replacement from the state budget because too much money was targeted for Milwaukee where the largest number lead pipes in the state serve a majority city population of color; perhaps Born could have a section of that toxic piping added to the temporary display in a Capitol hallway he said adequately represents African-American history in Wisconsin: 

...he referenced the Capitol exhibit: "I think if you want to look at just Black history, you can stop by third floor East (wing) and see a Black history display that's in the case there...." 

In the Capitol display case are about a dozen items, including a Civil War drum and drumsticks; a pillbox hat worn by Milwaukee resident Annie Mae McClain; a gavel presented to Vel Phillips, Wisconsin's first African-American secretary of state; a 'Black Jesus' carving made by Milwaukee resident George McCormick; a bowling shirt designed and worn by Milwaukee Women's Bowling Association Hall of Fame member Earlene Fuller; and more. 

So when you see and hear Born you must also hear and see Vos, because Born would still be just another Capitol cookie-cutter fool if not for the promotion to power Vos thought Born had earned and deserved.

Pol & Dodge Co. history buff should read up on the local history

Wisconsin's new GOP Assembly Finance committee co-chair Mark Born 

who deserved for his ugly dismissiveness of African-American culture the "racist" label awarded him by Milwaukee State Sen. LaTonya Johnson - had told a reporter when he first ran for office that growing up in Beaver Dam has framed his life's philosophies and interests.

Which included active participation in the local historical society: 

Outside of his job, Born is involved in many community groups including the Dodge County Historical Society, where he is vice-president, Beaver Dam Lake Improvement Association, Elk’s Lodge 1540, Leadership Beaver Dam and St. John’s Lutheran Church.

We'd earlier noted Born's proclivity for crapping on people, here, so we're not surprised he'd bully his way into open disrespect for African-American culture, but here's a follow-up question:

If Born is such a devotee of local history, has he ever seen and given a little thought to the meaning and message on this noteworthy plaque in his hometown in 2000, and how it might guide his behavior as an influential state official?

Marker 458: Frederick Douglass

Erected 2000 by Wisconsin Historical Society
Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wisconsin

43° 27.383′ N, 88° 50.402′ W

Google Map 

FREDERICK

DOUGLAS

Frederick Douglass was a former runaway slave who was a leading orator and author of the abolitionist movement. He is regarded as one of the most influential Americans of the nineteenth century. On October 20, 1856, Douglass came to Beaver Dam and spoke to a large audience about the brutality and immorality of slavery. His speech was also intended to generate support for the abolitionist movement in Dodge County and Wisconsin.

The marker is located on westbound Front Street / Business U.S. 151 / County Road G, west of its intersection with North Center Street / State Highway 33, / County Road W near 208 Front Street, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin 53916.

Johnson lauds COVID 'natural immunity,' but 668,000 in WI caught the virus

Our GOP senior Senator is equating "highly effective" COVID vaccines with "natural immunity" which didn't save 7,706 state citizens among more than 688,000 who caught the virus. 

Imagine if your doctor had told you this was the way to get through the pandemic. 

In fact, here's how a real Wisconsin doctor has framed the choice between vaccinations and turning down vaccinations:

Pediatrician still battling COVID-19 symptoms urges parents to get children vaccinated

A Milwaukee pediatrician still has serious COVID-19 symptoms more than six months after contracting the virus from a young patient. She urges parents to get their kids vaccinated, when they're eligible.

But, Johnson is on another ideological tear about freedom and he took to Twitter Thursday to amplify his dangerous, Bizarro World thinking [sic]:

Senator Ron Johnson

@SenRonJohnson

·

2h

Today's

@CDCgov

action on masks is well overdue. The vaccine is highly effective. So is natural immunity.

By the way, Johnson has said the only reason he ran against Feingold in May, 2010, is because he said he saw a Fox commentator plead for a rich guy to take on Feingold on:

"Yesterday, Wisconsin business owner Ron Johnson announced he's running for the Republican nomination to oppose Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI). What spurred him to action? Fox News' call for Republican candidates.

"During a press conference announcing his candidacy, Johnson explained: “I was sitting at home watching Fox News and Dick Morris came on and said 'Hey, you know, Feingold is vulnerable. You know, if you're a rich guy from Wisconsin, step up to the plate.' I kind of looked at (my wife) Jane and said 'is he, like, talking to me?'”

2021 photo

 

Air pollution from CAFOs is a killer; WI GOP pols love them

This data-driven Washington Post story disclosing that polluted air from big animal feeding operations kills more Americans annually than airborne particles from coal mines deserves plenty of attention in states like Wisconsin which have many such industrial-scale farming operations:

Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year, study finds

The first-of-its-kind report pinpoints meat production as the leading source of deadly pollution 

Animal agriculture is the worst emitter, researchers say, responsible for 80 percent of deaths from pollution related to food production. Gases associated with manure and animal feed produce small, lung-irritating particles capable of drifting hundreds of miles. 

These emissions now account for more annual deaths than pollution from coal power plants. Yet, while pollution from power plants, factories and vehicles is restricted under the Clean Air Act, there is less regulation of air quality around farms. 

Regrettably, this report will not come as a surprise to numerous Wisconsin residents and organizations which have been battling poorly-controlled Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, (CAFOs), for year over water water issues - 

A 2016 review by the state's Legislative Audit Bureau found significant problems with the program's ability to keep up with its workload. One illustration of this issue: In 2017, one-third of CAFOs were operating under expired permits because of a permitting backlog. Two years later, the DNR has closed the gap somewhat but remains unable to keep up with oversight. Nearly a quarter of CAFOs were operating with expired permits in June 2019.

- but CAFOs have strong support from Republican politicians who cater to the CAFOs and put loyalty to donors and the industry ahead of people and public health - 

Remember that Vos-Gerald are the same two captive enablers of Big Ag special interests who just three months ago signed a public letter - - you can see and read it here - -

Vos, Fitzgerald go to bat for 'existing and expanding CAFO operations'

- - lauding the continued expansion of the very industrial-scale /groundwater-draining/drinking water contaminating/barely-regulated dairying operations known as CAFOs whose production and state-promoted, politically-driven market advantages have helped push small farms and dairies out of business.

I noted Walker and his party's ideologically-driven ag policy failure in part nine of an environmental blog series 

Walker's 8-year war on Wisconsin's environment. Part 9. CAFOs 

You may remember that I began this series focusing on moves Walker made in the first hours of his administration to ease wetland protections and even to suspend the rules so a campaign donor could quickly get a permit to fill and wetland and build a development.

Fast forward to this year, when Wisconsin Democracy Campaign discovered that major Walker donors were getting permits basically in perpetuity to acquire all the groundwater they wanted to fuel their CAFOs.

The bigger the CAFOs, the bigger the Walker-driven supply/over-supply of milk, driving out smaller farms and leaving the big operators more ready to weather that storm.

Here is a link to the entire, 21-part series, which takes note of perhaps-forgotten Vos play to protect CAFOs, including one of Wisconsin's largest, from a modicum of public-interest oversight.

Manure flowing from a Kewaunee CAFO is a known water contaminant. A new story shows air pollution from CAFOs is a major killer across America.