Minocqua Brewing Company - Progressive Company In Northern Wisconsin Shut Down By MAGATs
I'll say this as briefly as I can.... The Minocqua Brewing Company in northern Wisconsin is being targeted because they are a progressive voice in a sea of red bullshit. Earlier, they were at another location and had a huge Biden sign on their establishment. They were immediately attacked and targeted, and they moved to a new location, not far from their original location. The local government assholes said they were not following the local codes, regulations, etc. They are the ONLY local company being targeted; others are doing things not up to regulations, but are being left alone... nothing to see there. When the owner, Kirk Bangstad, wanted to make his voice heard before the meeting to unjustly shut him down, they refused to let him talk, or anyone else in support. Minocqua is a major tourism destination in northern Wisconsin, and they are doing this at the height of the tourism season, majorly affecting his business. Mr. Bangstad is suing Oneida County and the town of Minocqua in an effort to stop this. His Facebook page has a Go Fund Me set up to help with legal expenses. This really should have some national exposure in my opinion.
https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2023/08/02/minocqua-brewing-company-sues-oneida-county
= new reply since forum marked as read
Hi Folks,
Last week was one for the ages at the Minocqua Brewing Company, but before I tell the story, I want to update you on our “phase 0” project to come up with the strategy on how to legally overturn the private school voucher system in Wisconsin that is bleeding our public schools dry. Our legal team should be done with their analysis and I should be able to tell you what we’re going to do by mid-August, and since the balance of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court won’t officially lean progressive until August, we’re making great time in getting our ducks lined up in a row to file a thoroughly vetted lawsuit by September/Early October.
Now for the wild and amusing story that involves a “Dumpster Koozie,” a “Freedomster,” a song by the Beastie Boys, and an ill-fitting rainbow jumpsuit.We found out last weekend that the Oneida County zoning committee scheduled a hearing to amend, suspend, or revoke our permit to do business. It was a wildly heavy-handed and arguably illegal escalation of our three-year-old fight to create an outdoor space for our customers to drink beer.
In this last chapter, they accused us of two violations—"outdoor beer sales” and “not fencing in our dumpster.” Those violations were apparently worthy of shuttering our business, which is arguably one the most popular establishments in Minocqua. This saga quickly became humorous because within a few hours, we crowdsourced many pictures of other bars doing absolutely nothing to keep their customers within any sort of organized drinking area, and over 10 examples of other businesses not enclosing their dumpsters. We even found a picture of an unenclosed dumpster at the Oneida County courthouse, where the County Zoning committee meets!
This was clearly a case of “selective enforcement,” which is a legal term that if proven, can be used to win lawsuits against government harassment. But we REALLY don’t want to spend the $200-$400K that it will cost us to sue our county in federal court over the course of the next several years just to serve beer outside, and I’d much rather spend my time raising money to help Wisconsin rid itself of our parasitic private school voucher program, so we figured we’d try some good old-fashioned grass-roots organizing to show our County Board zoning committee how ridiculous they were acting.
Here's a timeline of what happened last week:.....................
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Kirk Bangstad owns a brewery; he also owns a Super PAC. How many brewery owners can make that statement? Founder of Minocqua Brewing Company in Minocqua, WI, Bangstad wants change – social change, political change, and an end to what he calls “The Trump world we’re living in, where the lines of what is okay have been blurred and there’s a lot of ugliness going around.”
And in the two years Bangstad has been politicized, he has learned to fight the Right with the same tools they employ. Hence, the Super PAC, which Bangstad started in January 2021 after being forced to close his brewpub. “I call it dark money for good,” says Bangstad, who to date has raised nearly half a million dollars to support local progressive causes.
It has been a rollercoaster journey into politics for Bangstad. He has run for the Wisconsin State Assembly, sued the entire Wisconsin school board, used his Super PAC to sue two Wisconsin congressmen and a state senator, and found himself sued by local paper the Lakewood Times. He has attracted equal amounts of ire and admiration from right and left wing activists respectively around the U.S. and beyond, been featured in national media, and had to call the FBI after receiving a hate-speech-filled death threat.
But along the way he has also learned he has a secret weapon. Something he had been perfecting long before politics. Bangstad has the power of beer behind him. In fact, it’s the business of beer, rebuilding, growing, and eventually closing Minocqua Brewing (and switching to contract brew), that sparked Bangstad’s transition from apolitical brewpub owner to a bastion of Northern Wisconsin’s social conscience.
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It was my daughter's idea.
Didn't even know it was a progressive establishment. Found out a few years later. It was very popular when we were there and that's why my daughter wanted to go.
