Richard Moore, who depending on the pieces he writes for the Minocqua-based, award-winning and deeply conservative semi-weekly Lakeland Times, bills himself as a reporter, columnist and investigative journalist — Times owner Gregg Walker's right-hand man.
Whatever else he is, he is a full-scale apologist for anti-vaxers, Jan. 6 insurrectionists and a host of other right-wing zealots whom he insists are simply exercising their God-given rights as Americans. Long Hexagon Nut
In his world, anyone who would suggest these lawbreakers and misinformation spreaders be held accountable to the laws enacted by our democratically elected representatives shows how ignorant they are of what our Founding Fathers set out to do when they founded America.
A prolific writer known for super-long columns, Moore has declared that indictments of Donald Trump show how little regard everyone from the federal government to the news media have for the Constitution.
This week he offered a piece that declared the climate crisis a hoax based on news that 2022 Nobel Prize for physics winner John Clauser has joined a list of scientists who insist that climate change claims have morphed into a dangerous pseudoscience of misinformation.
He savages GOP presidential candidates for not joining Clauser.
"They need to have the courage to stand up and call out the climate change movement for what it is, an ideological movement for authoritarian control by elites," he insisted. "And they need to say it loud and clear: The climate change crisis is a manufactured crisis to scare people into submission, just like the Covid crisis."
Needless to say, some in Minocqua aren't in love with the Times' positions and its support of conservative politicians. And that especially includes the outspoken guy who runs the Minocqua Brewing Co., right across the street from the paper.
Kirk Bangstad has been feuding with the publication for years now, and when he called Walker a "crook" and "misogynist" on Facebook, among other names, and refused to recant, the paper, in a man-bites-dog move, sued him for libel. The case is still languishing in the local courts.
Bangstad wears his progressive politics on his sleeve — and the beer he brews. He's produced cans of Biden Beer, Fair Maps 2.0, AOC IPA, and Lady Justice, in honor of Janet Protasiewicz's election to the state's high court.
His passion for liberal politics hasn't endeared him to many of the locals in deeply red Oneida County. He ran for the Assembly as a Democrat in 2020 and got trounced by his GOP opponent.
While tourists frequent the brewery in the summer, he has run afoul of everything from violating signage limits to zoning laws and now has been denied a request to open an outdoor beer garden at the brewery. He believes that his business is being discriminated against because of his politics and has been quite vocal in saying so.
In order to survive, though, he's decided to open a craft beer place in Madison, next to Trixie’s Liquor at 2929 E. Washington Ave. He is planning to continue operating the Minocqua location, contending he's not going to let anyone run him out of town.
He told the State Journal last week that Madison is his beer's best market already.
“But I’m known equally as a fighter for progressive values," he said. "I don’t think there’s any other brewery in the state of Wisconsin that’s even close when it comes to identifying with the majority of Madison’s residents, in terms of politics.”
One thing for sure, he's unlikely to run into many Richard Moores.
Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times. dzweifel@captimes.com, 608-252-6410 and on Twitter @DaveZweifel.
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