We're Opening a Resistance Nerve Center in our Madison Tap Room
Read further for a link to volunteer and a zoom link for our introductory meeting
The Minocqua Brewing Company on 2927 East Washington Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin, will become a Resistance Nerve Center from 11am to 4 pm Monday through Friday, and then a regular taproom after that.
Ok folks,
After shedding a tear in disgust while watching Trump/Vance ambush Ukrainian President Zelensky on Friday, I started drinking at my favorite wine bar in Eau Claire call 2 Roots (my girlfriend lives there so I’m there every other week—Eau Claire mind you, not necessarily the wine bar).
Drinking while angry is not healthy, and it’s not the way to find mental health, but I simply couldn’t stomach what I had just watched. I needed a little wine and tenderness to calm my nerves.
Trump/Vance, and some other circus clowns posing as our leaders, had just purposefully embarrassed a man who’s watched thousands of his countrymen die at the hands of Putin while defending his country from an unprovoked and brutal invasion.
Those cowards teased him for not wearing a suit.
It has become abundantly clear to anyone who isn’t burying their heads in the sand that Trump is and has been a Russian asset and has abandoned American allies and global Democracy.
I’m still crying out of anger while typing these recollections. I never believed that the country I love would become an enemy to Democracy and become the sort of dictatorship that we’ve fought so valiantly against throughout our history.
This anger that fills me up is unfortunately an anger I’m all too familiar with: It’s the anger of an injustice being done that I can’t fix, and I’ve felt it way too often since Trump was first elected in 2016 and since I’ve become a political activist in northern Wisconsin--facing un-ending battles with my own local version of Trump.
This anger led me to pick up a Harvard study called Pro Democracy Organizing in the United Sates while on vacation in Costa Rica last month to learn about resistance movements that were successful since WWII.
This anger led me to pick up the phone and call all the local Indivisible chapters I could find in Wisconsin and Illinois, after learning that this organization has enough of a national backbone to form a real resistance movement.
This anger led me to meet with like-minded folks in Milwaukee, like the Milwaukee Turners at Turner Hall who’ve been fighting against oppression in their own way for decades, and some old-school Democratic leaders who are ready to do whatever it takes to right the ship.
And it is with this same anger that I’m announcing today that our Madison taproom on 2927 East Washington Avenue will be turning into a resistance nerve center by day, Monday-Friday, from 11-4pm, and of course will remain a tap room by night.
When will that happen? As soon as we can staff it, which will probably be in less than a week.
What are we going to do?
At first, we are going to sign up and train volunteers to video tape local government abuses, as well as abuses by local police and eventually, whatever federal government thugs that Kash Patel sends our way to break the law.
Concurrently, we’re going to create asset maps, power maps, build scenarios.
Asset Maps—who around the state are our allies and how can we all work best together to resist Fascism?
Power Maps—who around the state are the Fascists willing to do Trump’s bidding who we need to oppose?
Scenario Building—once we’ve identified the Fascists, we will build scenarios to better understand how they will ultimately use their power to try and hurt us, and what we need to do to stop them.
Once we go through that process of asset mapping, power mapping, and scenario building, we will help train other groups to do the same thing at the county level to better guide what tactics they will need to use to resist local MAGA abuse.
So what’s next?
First, here’s a sign up sheet to volunteer. We will take the email addresses you give us and send volunteer-specific updates to let you know when we will have trainings, meet-ups, zoom calls, etc. We welcome folks from all over Wisconsin—especially the bright red rural areas like Oneida County, where local government corruption has been especially malignant since the dawn of MAGA.
Next, we encourage anyone interested in learning more to join our zoom call this coming Wednesday at 7 pm, which will take place at our Madison Tap Room, or just show up. Here’s the link to attend that meeting, where I’ll get into further detail on next steps.
And finally, this is where I ask for money.
Our strategy is to hire a statewide organizer who will work out of the Madison taproom, and a regional organizer in Southeast Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha) where so many of our population resides, and so many of our most vulnerable live.
These coordinators will potentially fold into the Indivisible organization at the statewide level, but we haven’t gotten that far yet with the folks that run Indivisible at the national level, and there’s simply not enough time to wait.
Between these two coordinators and the managing of two statewide offices, I believe we’ll need to raise $200K. Here’s a link to donate.
Of course, my forever goal is to simply sell more beer, coffee, wine, and soda to fund these efforts, but we're not there yet as a company to fully fund a resistance through product sales alone.
Depending on how much we raise, we’ll fund the Madison coordinator first and the Southeastern coordinator after that.
I will be personally leading this effort until I’m absolutely certain we have a well-oiled machine with the folks I’ve hired, and I’ll be on hand at the Madison tap room every other week to personally meet with potential allies, Indivisible group leaders, and county Democratic Party leaders.
The Minocqua Brewing Company, because we already deliver beer across the state and into MN and IL, our two blue allies, is positioned well to quickly help organize folks. I also believe we can eventually support resistance nerve centers in Minocqua and Eau Claire as well, where I spend the other half of my time (while not in Madison).
We also have a wonderful cadre of writers throughout Wisconsin and Illinois who have all agreed to help keep people informed over our large email and social media platforms, and a Super PAC that can spend money to hover damning video via social media over corrupt local government for weeks until voters truly see and understand what know-nothing MAGA rule is doing to them.
I'm excited to see what we can build together.
To those leading Indivisible groups in Wisconsin, please try to attend the zoom meeting this coming Wednesday, or please identify yourselves when signing up to get on the volunteer list.
We’ll try to get a special daily or weekly call lined up with each of you as well moving forward.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for joining this resistance effort in Wisconsin.
Together, we simply have to get our country back, and I look forward to diving in this work with so many of you.
Kirk Bangstad
Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company
Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC
There is always hope! In the southwest suburbs of Chicago a group of women has been fighting our township for 4 years. Forced prayer at meetings, a giant nativity in front of their office, a live nativity performance every year, emails signed with “god bless”, declaring the township a sanctuary for life, declaring that the township will not accept immigrants, the list goes on. None of these have anything remotely to do with township government, just MAGAs invading local politics. We have been mocked, filmed, chastised during meetings, had our jobs called, called liars, called trolls, called evil, called Satanist’s, called communists, all for questioning them. They’ve even made videos where they dress up as some of us and share all over Facebook. We have stood strong, we have bought proof, we have expanded our group, we’ve gone to endless meetings, filed FOIA’s, filed OMA violations and even filed lawsuits for harassment! And Tuesday night WE WON! Every single one of them lost in a republican primary where democrats and independents joined forces with the moderate republicans. It’s a joyous feeling that I hope will be repeated all over. We stand with you!
Yes, continue to RESIST or our Republic is Lost. GONE! We all have to do our part NOW. There will be no midterms under this dictatorship. Court rulings are useless. We may can save our country, but We have to act NOW: 1. Join demonstrations daily 2. Go do Sit-ins at all congressional officials' offices - local and DC 3. Target corporations so they feel the economic pressure - don't buy online or at box stores, avoid buying gasoline, shop locally - if not, do without 4. Make congressional Reps and senators have Town Hall meetings. Call them cowards, scream at them, follow them, make their lives miserable 5. Call or email their offices daily 6. Get your friends and family involved 7. Be Brave. Be Strong. Be Vocal. Be Loud. Have Courage when you speak out. 8. **There will be no second chance if we are not successful. 9.** Don't be afraid to get arrested. The jails are not big enough to hold half the population!