Tom Tiffany, liar and idiot

On Monday, March 29, U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany held what was described as a “town hall” at the Superior Elks Lodge. There was no public announcement of this event, but a friend received a robocall on Sunday afternoon. Tiffany visits our area very rarely. On Monday afternoon a call was made to the Elks Lodge to find out if Tiffany would in fact be there. The person answering said they “knew nothing about” the event, and by the way “who exactly” wanted to know.

I arrived, wearing a mask, at the venue at the same time as Tiffany did. He greeted me in the parking area (signs for an informational picket conspicuous under my arm) and followed me to the sidewalk in front of the building. Unmasked, he walked up to me and stuck out his hand. I backed up, shook my head and offered an elbow. He asked me about what issues were of concern to me, and we had a heated discussion about his support of the Big Lie (Trump’s claim to have won the election) and Tiffany’s attempt to have Wisconsin’s (among other states) votes from the November election thrown out. He offered a story about Mark Zuckerberg stealing votes from Green Bay by bribing the mayor and bullying the city clerk. “We want LEGAL votes counted!” (This is a wild take on a feeble attempt by the Wisconsin GOP to make excuses for disenfranchising voters). The exchange ended with my Congressional representative shouting at me that I am “destroying democracy.”

To be fair, I shouted back at him that he is “bringing back Jim Crow.”

Two people joined me in holding signs on the sidewalk in front of the Elks Lodge. Of the 20 or so people who walked by us on their way inside (only two or three wearing masks), at least half had to make some angry remark. One elder man came within two feet of me to scream “You F**KHEAD” in my face. Others had classic remarks like “Get a job” “You’re stupid!” “Gas prices are up!”

A large individual came up behind us and rather menacingly said, “You are on private property. Get on the other side of this line (seam in sidewalk).” We did.

Why was a “town hall” held on “private property”?

Tuesday we learned that earlier at an event in Hudson, Tiffany engaged in some public science denial about covid and announced that he is advising his adult children “not to get the vaccine.” This made the national news.

Wisconsin’s 7th district has a Congressional representative that is either a bald-faced liar or a gibbering idiot mindlessly spouting whatever nonsense his handlers are pushing at the moment.

After meeting him, I see it is likely that he is both.

Dorothy Wolden
Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin

Pipelines and forest fires

Pipelines are essentially super-highways for carbon on its way into Earth’s atmosphere. There is this link between new pipelines and future forest fires. We have been learning by our own experience about weather volatility that comes with climate change: extremes of wind, rain, heat and cold.

Most of us in Northern Wisconsin have experienced an effect when we bring the cold, dry winter air of January inside our homes and warm it up; the warmed air sucks the moisture right out of our skin and our bodies. It’s because warmed air attracts more water than cold air can hold.

The more we warm our collective home, the Earth, the more the warmed air will sponge up the available moisture. Over land that moisture is surrendered by our fields and forests.

In Northern Wisconsin the risk of oil pipelines is not only to our waters during delivery, but also to our forests and farms in the soon-to-be future. There was a time when nature alone balanced the carbon cycle: plants breathe it in; we breathe it out. But now the exponential growth of humanity and our technologies has undone this balance. The ever-increasing quantities of carbon in the atmos-phere have led to a slow but insidious and continuing warming of the planet and our atmosphere. Taking carbon out of the ground (oil, coal and gas) and putting it into the atmosphere won’t end well in the long run.

We’ve come to understand that more heat and moisture in the atmosphere can lead to extreme storms; and we are seeing that these extreme weather events can come with extreme heat (California) or extreme cold (Texas) extreme rain, wind or drought. It will be periods of heat and dryness that will suck the moisture out of our fields and forests (drought).

Our forests are vulnerable to loss of moisture as climate-change progresses. That means an increasing risk of forest fires in Northern Wisconsin and our neighboring states. I hope this fire alert is enough to focus our attention on the need to fight climate-change. Better to fight climate-change now than more frequent and extreme forest fires later.

New pipelines are part of the problem because they are massive investments which require many decades of cost recovery through their operation. Once the investment is made, investors will strongly resist shutting them down. We just can’t afford to wait decades to shut down these super highways of unnatural carbon flow into our atmosphere. Keeping those highways open longer than absolutely necessary is the road map to disaster.

George Einar Busséy
Ashland, Wisconsin

Promises, promises ...

I’M BACK!

For those who read my February, 2021 letter I said ... "goodbye to politics.” I just can’t stay quiet any longer! The “crisis” on the boarder is beyond description! Many Democrats are in denial, along with Biden, but it is inhumane and makes America look foolish. Here is a short list of issues: #1 Teenage girls are given birth control as they are being raped and sold as sex slaves. #2 Kids are dying (a 9-year old girl died trying to cross). #3 Illegal immigrants are coming from 55+ different countries – asylum? A joke! #4 Kamala Harris assigned to solve? A joke! She called ICE members as KKK! #5 Journalists – no access?

How can I write only 300 words? I could write 30,000 words! What’s next? How about the Biden/Pelosi/Schumer bill HR 1? OMG! So, the radical Democrats are upset with Georgia’s new legislation to improve voter integrity (Biden called it “un-American”) and yet HR 1’s design is to keep fraudulent elections in place so that America will become a (1) party country!

Everything that Biden has done in bragging about his first 100 days is totally “un-American”! As a veteran and TRUE American it saddens me how our country is being downgraded to a 3rd or 4th ranked country! So SAD!  Remember what I said in my last letter ... Democrats, careful what you wish for!

Chuck Bracken
Cannon Falls, Minnesota

The dustbin of history

1. Separate but equal.
2. Probably cause.
3. Manifest destiny.

There are too many to mention, so keep it simple.

Gerald Norrgard
Duluth, Minnesota