Isn’t there anyone who can help this belligerent brewer?
At noon tomorrow, July 4, a City of Madison fire truck will lead a parade of kids on bicycles circling the streets surrounding Orchard Ridge Park. Parents will run alongside their youngest, pedaling furiously on tiny bikes, many with training wheels, decorated with red, white & blue whizzers. The Head Groundskeeper may bring up the rear aboard his 1950 Allis Chalmers G tractor, as he has done in past parades, this time hoping not to run out of gas. The parade is all of three blocks long but is chock-full of neighborly good will.
Peacefully and patriotically?
Not Up North in Minocqua WI, apparently. The owner of the local brew pub actually vows to stop the vacation city’s Independence Day parade. Just when you thought Kirk Bangstad couldn’t sink any lower, the progressive pain in the neck posted this call to arms:
If we can get 100 people to commit to show up to our taproom this Friday to block the 4th of July Parade from happening in Minocqua — not only to protest the unconscionable and illegal arrest of our customers by Oneida County Sheriff Grady Hartmann last Friday, but to also protest the recent passage of a corrupt federal budget that will hurt all working people in the state of Wisconsin — then we will move forward with our plan to peacefully shut down Minocqua’s July 4 parade at 4 p.m. this coming Friday. …
We fully expect this protests may lead to some arrests and we can assure you the Oneida County jail is not a fun place to be. … The more of us who show up, however, the harder it will be for them to put all of us in jail.
[UPDATE:] Bangstad couldn’t get anyone to disrupt today’s July 4 parade; it went off without a hitch.
Bangstad says he was delivering a political speech on 06-27-25 at his Minocqua Brewing Co. when he called out local newspaper publisher Gregg Walker from across the street. A source called Bring Me The News reports that the Oneida County Sheriff claims about 30 people at the brewery were “consistently yelling profanities across the highway.” Watch his video.
Bangstad was charged 06-30-25 with disorderly conduct, harassment, and bail jumping. The bail conditions stem from a 2023 slander case in which Bangstad was fined $750,000 after he falsely claimed Walker let his own brother die in order to inherit the family business. Walker on Wednesday 07-02-25 filed for a restraining order against Bangstad, who was defeated for Assembly in 2020 as a Democrat. The brewer now resides here in Madison, where he has a much heralded brew pub on E. Washington Ave.
Progressive bona fides
According to Wisconsin Public Radio, Bangstad in 2021 launched the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC, sponsoring billboards promoting Democrats and attacking Republicans. It has also funded failed lawsuits targeting Wisconsin’s school voucher programs and against school districts that dropped protective COVID-19 measures (which ultimately proved useless and harmful). Tried to keep Trump off Wisconsin’s 2024 ballot.
A civil lawsuit filed in February 2025 alleges that Bangstad defrauded his donors to his liberal super PAC to pay himself nearly half a million dollars, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. (Irony alert:)
Bangstad … accused WPR of being part of a Republican effort ‘to hurt my super PAC and hurt my activism.’
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Every small town has its town drunk, delusional crank, and cat lady. We expend precious pixels on this progressive polluter of the public square only because his call to disrupt Minocqua’s Independence parade attracted 1,455 thumbs-up “Likes” as of noon today. Tells us where progressives are at these days.
27 responses to “Who shuts down a July 4 parade?”
Did not kniw there were that many loons that far north out of the water
freedom of speech. If he wore a red MAGA hat you guys would be calling him a hero.
What do you call him?
a citizen.
A Progressive; someone who can’t stand the idea that someone, somewhere is happy and having fun. Synonymous w/ Liesack.
Blaska again says that the covid-19 protective measures proved useless and harmful. Read this for a different take. Why was there such a sharp reduction of other respiratory diseases during that time? https://stevensclark.typepad.com/coronavirus_news_and_view/2022/05/what-happened-to-the-flu-and-other-respiratory-diseases.html
I can’t speak to what Blaska was thinking, but of course there were psychological downsides to masks, especially in regards to school age children.
Other measures were seemingly determined randomly (remember “social distancing”) and some probably were useless (looking at you contact tracers).
To your point about masks being effective at stopping COVID and other respiratory diseases it may not be a good thing long term. Our immune systems get stronger fighting these things right? N=1 I know but I’m thankful for all the flu I had as a kid as I don’t get the flu as an adult.
Maybe the larger lesson is no one had all the answers and it did not help us learn with all the dogmatic policies.
Ice agents wear masks so they must work. TACO and Noem say they must use them.
Steve, did you see the recent warning on mRNA vaccines? I know you’re part of the vaccine industrial complex but geez!
There are no delusional cranks on stolen land.
Time for Minoqua and Oneida County to break out the Helmets and Batons, keeping what could turn into an unlawful assembly started by the local idiot.
It’s a mystery to me why his pub in Minoqua was never firebombed with him inside. At least he’s found a home for himself among the largest flock of progressive loons in the state where he can preen his progressive plumage to his heart’s content.
I should redact and ban you for this comment but I’ll let it stand as proof that Kirk Bangstad goes both ways.
Kirk is Bi?
I purposely did NOT say his pub ought to be firebombed, I only wondered why it hadn’t been–a reasonable speculation given his incendiary anti-Trump rhetoric and the fact that Minoqua is smack in the middle of MAGA country.
hmmm. KACO. Malarkey, but a nice try.
I feel the same way about the Bezos nuptials. Some terrorist organization had the chance to be heroes and … nuthin.
I’m kidding of course… yes absolutely kidding…like the ONION also kidded:
U.S. Authorities Can’t Really Fault Al-Qaeda For Deadly Bombing Of Carnival Cruise Ship
’Those Things Represent Everything That’s Wrong With America,’ Officials Say
I hope Bezos and Madam Botox have a long and happy life together and that everyone who attended the nuptials finds religious fulfillment and never ever find themselves set on fire, especially Oprah.
Feel that way about Ivanka and her hubby. They were there and protected as well. I heard they gave Jeff a toaster.
Another “citizen,” right?
Wow. Add a couple of racial slur and this would look like a trump posting.
It’s easy to feed your liberal fever dreams by hitting the thumbs up button from the safety of the couch. We will see how many show up to get arrested. I’m thinking far less that 1,455.
A tenth? What number does that yield?
Ask an accountant
David Blaska is spot on , standing on solid ground unlike the little man that hides behind the beer flowers in efforts in corrupting this country’s celebrations !
There is no amount of beer, however sh!tty his is, that can explain Bangstad’s deranged mental state. It takes a special kind of moron to continue to provoke law enforcement after they have repeatedly punished him for disorderly conduct, harassment, and operating a revoked business. If he pulls this stunt, throw him back in jail where he can wail and grind his teeth while crying victim.
How the hell does this guy have enough money to be a serial scofflaw? He needs a political gimmick to sell his horse piss to undiscerning liberals, so that can’t be it.
I guess Kirk Bangstad and his followers didn’t.
Bangstad is like a rabid monkey, or in this case, a rabid shaved ape.