The Conservative Cave

Normally, nobody should cheer when a Wisconsin business loses its stock. Jobs, rent, suppliers, and familiar faces that sit behind every taproom door.

But Minoqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad has spent years turning beer into a vessel for political contempt, and now the state says the rules caught up with him.

Officials seized canned beer from his business, alleging Illinois-brewed beer had been brought into Wisconsin without the required permits or licenses. Bangstad said the state took about $25,000 worth after he failed to pay Wisconsin taxes on beer sold and stored at his Minocqua and Madison, Wisc. locations, as the Wausau Pilot and Review reported.

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A spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Bangstad is under investigation. Without providing many details, the spokeswoman pointed out that state laws bars beer brewed in Illinois to be sold in Wisconsin without a permit or license.
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“These state laws ensure that no permit or license holder gains an unfair advantage by bypassing tax obligations or by evading safety protocols.”

Bangstad declined to comment to the Journal Sentinel, but in a newsletter to supporters on June 12 said state officials seized $25,000 worth of beer after he failed to pay taxes in Wisconsin on the Illinois-brewed beer he sold and stored in Madison and Minocqua.

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His public record makes the whining harder to swallow, even with a worthy brew. Federal agents with the U.S. Secret Service and FBI interviewed Bangstad after a company Facebook post following an assassination attempt on President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner said, “We almost got #freebeerday,” and suggested someone in the “Resistance” needs better marksmanship.

Bangstad's company had already drawn attention for promising free beer when Trump dies. When death talk becomes a sales gimmick, pleas for gentle treatment land with a thud.

REVEALED: How shadowy unit of government 'thought police' set up by ex-MI6 agent is trying to keep a lid on Britain's simmering racial tensions

While the streets of Belfast were ablaze with anti-immigration protests last week, behind the scenes a group of spies, spinners and soldiers were deploying the 'dark arts' to try to defuse tensions.

The name of the secretive Government propaganda unit trying to manipulate events makes it sound like an innocuous back-office operation -- the Research, Information and Communications Unit, or RICU.


But the dull moniker is part of the deliberate camouflage of an outfit which uses deception and skulduggery to try to manage the 'challenges' of multiculturalism.

Its techniques range from planting stories in the media, using undercover operatives to lay flowers at the scene of terrorist attacks and even, in one case, sending a pop group to sing anti-extremist songs in Muslim schools.

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The source said that the unit had also been advising the police in Southampton following the horrific murder of Henry Nowak by Vickrum Digwa -- who falsely claimed he had been racially abused and had acted in self-defence -- saying: 'RICU made sure that the liaison team dealing with the family were well briefed.'

It has also been claimed that the unit intervenes to write statements by the families of victims of potentially racially linked incidents to stop them from inflaming tensions further with their remarks.

The source said: 'You can see their fingerprints all over the statements released by the families of victims in these volatile situations -- they usually have a similar tone.'

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However, according to Sir William Shawcross, who published a review of Prevent in 2023, the unit seems more keen to target the far-Right than extreme Islamists.

Sir William wrote: 'The bar for what RICU includes on Islamism looks to be relatively high, whereas the bar for what is included on the extreme Right-wing is comparably low.'

By way of illustrating his point, in 2023 the unit identified viewing habits which it believed indicate that someone could be susceptible to far-Right views. These included Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys, The Thick Of It and Yes Minister, all on the BBC. Works by Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton were described as 'key texts' of interest to 'white nationalists/supremacists'.

senseandsensibility (25,890 posts)

Now I get it. It's still total BS.

Hegseth was on one of the Sunday shows and was bragging that now Iran will have to agree to never get or use a nuclear weapon. When Margaret Brennan pointed out that that was already agreed to with the Obama agreement, which was discarded by trump, this was Hegseth's response (paraphrased): Yeah, but that agreement didn't have the threat of force.

So, basically, we spent billions and sacrificed American lives to get back to where we were. And of course, we're not even there yet because as usual this deal is on again off again for the upteenth time. But it's all worth it because we blew a lot a lot of stuff up first?

And then, there's the strait of Hormuz which was open and free before the war. The gaslighting is getting more blatant and I'm glad that very few are buying it.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221305208