The ‘new abnormal’ is not acceptable

To the editor,

On the Feb. 27 Morning Edition program on NPR, Susan Joy Hassol from the nonprofit Climate Communication objected to assigning the phrase “new normal” to the wild climate and weather fluctuations we’re now experiencing. “New abnormal,” she says, is more accurately descriptive, and discourages our tendency to complacently accept the human disruption of climate as just another change of routine to accommodate in our daily lives.

Erratic weather patterns have certainly made our present winter more stressful and uncertain. We seem to oscillate madly between thaws and freezes, heavy snows and droughts, rain and ice. Anyone who depends on walking for their exercise knows how treacherous our streets have become.

We don’t know the long-term effects of these changes on our environment and wildlife. This winter, for instance, River Falls has seen an unusual influx of Trumpeter Swans and Common Mergansers on the Kinnickinnic River. These waterfowl are driven by their need for open water for feeding. The National Audubon Society web site indicates a shift in the mergansers’ migratory range affected by climate. The presence of these beautiful birds may amount to a silver lining on the ominous cloud shadowing our future.

Ms. Hassol, who I quoted above, says that nearly 70 percent of Americans have now had to deal in some way with extreme weather and climate events resulting from climate disruption, including floods, fires, droughts, and longer lasting, less predictable, more dangerous storms. She believes that we’re ready to take the necessary actions to avoid worst-case scenarios. I hope the next few years bear out her guarded optimism.
Thomas R. Smith

River Falls

An election scam

To the editor,

A new election scam in Wisconsin has come to my attention. As with all scams, it involves breaking the law. This scam involves manipulating the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 4.
The two candidates are Daniel Kelly and Janet Protasiewicz.
The group breaking the law is Wisconsin Takes Action, not surprisingly an outreach of the Democratic party. "Hi! It’s Wisconsin Takes Action,” the mysterious texter begins. “We are helping to elect a progressive majority to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. We are offering an opportunity for you to earn $250-plus by talking to your friends and family about voting.”
The texts have been sent to thousands of Wisconsinites, many of whom have jumped at the chance to, in the words of one Wisconsin Takes Action organizer, “not only get paid…but also to influence a really important election.”
The group is using a technique called “relational organizing.”
In relational organizing, you’re talking to people you know and that’s effective.
However, people who take part in this relational organizing campaign—whom the group calls “community mobilizers”—are PAID per person who they deliver to the Wisconsin Takes Action database and, ultimately to the polls to cast a vote for Protasiewicz.
This is in direct violation of Wisconsin Statute § 12.11, which provides that “any person who offers, gives, lends or promises to give or lend...anything of value...to, or for, any elector, or to or for any other person in order to induce any elector to go or refrain from going to the polls, vote or refrain from voting [or] vote or refrain from voting for or against a particular person" commits felony election bribery.
In its Zoom training, the Wisconsin Takes Action staffers made it abundantly clear that they were offering money only if their mobilizers would induce their friends and family to go to the polls and vote, preferably for Protasiewicz.
The election bribery works this way: People on the Zoom call were told that they would first get $30, payable in gift cards to various retailers or a Mastercard debit card, to download an app through the Empower Project, a left-wing organization.
"You can earn $250-plus,” Christian( an organizer) explained during the Zoom training session. “We’ll ask you to make a list of 75 people today and then talk to them about voting four times each.”
According to a slide from the Zoom training session, mobilizers have from Feb. 22 to March 19 to build their lists of 75 voters and make an initial contact with 60. That earns them their first $60 gift card. They then have to contact each of the 60 again between March 20-30 and try to convince them to early vote. That will earn the mobilizer an additional $65. Between March 31 and April 2, they have to contact the 60 again and make sure they have a plan to vote. That earns an additional $70.
If participants do all of this, they will earn a total of $270. But as Christian explained, that isn’t all.
“You not only can make $270 for a total, you can earn way above that,” he said. “We’ve had volunteers make $500-plus on our campaign. From now until March 19, you will get $30 for every person you know in your personal network to simply download the app and join our campaign. 
All gift cards are emailed directly to the mobilizers, who are literally being paid by the vote to deliver votes for Protasiewicz in an obvious and brazen election bribery scheme.
Again, this is in direct violation to Wisconsin Statute § 12.11’s prohibition on giving any person anything of value in exchange for inducing electors to go to the polls and vote for a specific candidate.
I smell a Democratic skunk.

Sanjeev Dhawan

Ellsworth