When you add to your Easter eating, and collect all the condiments, at all kinds of places like Cracker Barrel, it can be a chunk for charity. If only in my dreams.

In post-Easter slumber, and not the kind that comes after your big dinner, but after midnight following the Minnesota Wild first postseason game out in that other city that never sleeps, Las Vegas, I envisioned that those eateries were taking any of those little bags of ketchup and mustard and such that you could save and then donate, and give the savings to a cause. I may have been wrong, but in the dream we family-style restaurant hopped (I-Hop on Easter?) all around the southwest portion of Milwaukee, and I would stay well behind gathering up the lost under the table samples, in the name of cashing in and feeding the hungry. This put me in dream conflict, one by one, with just about every family member, mainly my nieces, envisioned front and center in front of me. The family dog even bolted across the front of the car hood — to gather scraps?

I did in my route around the restaurants encounter a group of tall kids fighting with a smaller one, and saved him from being beaten, or at least roasted with boasting. Like a small bunny surrounded by bigger rabbits.

— San Pedro in downtown Hudson has kept the spring-break-timed party going for most of this week with a special Caribbean-and-other-island themed observance, culminating Saturday afternoon with a steel drum band, The Pan Handlers. Do the drummers cook too, maybe with drumsticks? —

That could echo the meeting of the late Pope Francis, who unfortunately died Monday morning, with vice president JD Vance, who even though a Catholic must have felt like a witch at church when they met at The Vatican. (Since Vance’s boss, the president, has also come into conflict several times with the late pontiff over policy for the poor.) Apparently the pope couldn’t quite stomach the session. And after the smoke clears, literally, will the next pope even meet with the sinful likes of Vance? Or decline in advance.

Also back closer to home, a coffee maker has said they will have to hike the price for a 12-ounce bag by two bucks, citing the effects of Trump’s tariff policies. So if you needed some caffeine right before sunrise church service, or after the followup dinner …

Across the pond in Belgium, held was a hunt based not on beans but for bottles of beer, by hoards of this-time adults (we assume) and when taking into account differences in time zones, they should have been in church. A total of 10K of the bottles not cans were waiting to be discovered under bushes, in the forks or trees, or right out on the lawn. All this was big enough news to garner a half-minute on a station in Milwaukee.

In this time not an Easter hunt, but a bunch of children like small wooden bobbleheads who were displayed not on a playground, but in a makeshift courtroom in kiddie court for immigration, where they are being tried without adult legal representation even as young as three This was given to them so they could have something to play with, like maybe their parents with small wooden structures, while in actual proceedings were facing essentially, life without parole. A plan to produce another board-game-type playground, this time depicted them in a juvenile jail cell, was scuttled.

Price of ham will cost you the farm. So to save some dough, with 4-20 being the same (green) day as Easter, get some weed or other such celebration day accessories from the aptly named Green Elevator Cannabis company. As in repeating myself here, would we do that, being 4-20, we’re offering you 20 percent off. Beyond just the day.

Green Elevator Cannabis produces fresh, organic gummies from local farmers in Minnesota. Now that’s buying local. And to have the relatives to dinner beyond Easter, indulge in one of their Mary Jane cannabis parties. You get a chance to sample beverages and learn at the same time. Let’s see the library do all that. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But from here, we’ll let them tell it. “Green Elevator Cannabis is passionate about removing barriers and reducing stigma through education and safe selling. We have a liquid to lips and gummy to tummy approach in selecting products. We know they are good, it’s up to you to decide if you like them. We want to give our customers soft, fresh and delicious cannabis gummies. Most of all, we want to expand people’s expectations and prove that our gummies will take you where you want to go.” And while we’re on the topic of snacking, you can get lemon cake, mini donut and malt and fries versions, too. And for my two cents worth, their beverages taste great, much better than most of the type that are offered.

The coupon code to receive 20 % off your entire order through the end of April, using this direct link to auto-apply, shown after the blah, blah,

https://green-elevator-cannabis.square.site?cc=LVTR4HUDSON20

— Some of the comedy shows are mocking the move to allow some companies to buy white house Easter egg hunt space, as an endorsement where for pay you get your product promoted while you fund an activity named for you, plus many thousand extra. Does Tesla get a freebie … this hunt is being held on Monday as they apparently need more time in order to get eggs, as in an effort to later buy back their freedom from being eggsentially sex slaves to the breakfast industry, the hens have unionized to leverage their plan to buy back their expensive eggs and resell them at a profit, the American way so not subject to tariff. It’s called reverse egging. Like a reverse mortgage. So Trump is not the only one profiting off Easter in a very eggcellant way. —

Now more about this weekend.

The man who was to be king. Oh wait, that title was newly taken, a time ago, by a man named Charles (we won’t call him Chuck, that would be too grounded.) See below. For April 19 is the official, sorta, no king’s protest day. In the USA not the UK. Likely to be attended by ten times London’s population total. We don’t want any, or even one royalty member. Even though the claim has been staken. Or by JD taken. April 18 in 1775 was the day that in the old north church in Boston, that dependent on the number of lanterns rather than liberals lighted, the foes would be coming one if by land, two if by sea, three if by air, four if by space … or at least that’s the new insert to our US history books advocated to be mandated by RFK Jr. Oh wait, he’s the secretary of a different department. Mom said bring in the spirit of 1776. After 1775. So twice the years. Like twice the kings. In short order.

Now more on (moron?) space. It put them in seventh heaven. That’s the number, roughly, if using their version of accuracy, of mistakes and blatant errors and other just plain blunders in basic logic, in a despicable list of student deportation must-dos designed by a very radical conservative think tank. (Again, Trump invoked, do we see a pattern here? On more than one front.) Some are not even living in the USA, so what’s the problem? Oh but living on the eighth continent, beyond the south pole, so … But wait, he’s actually alive and well, despite it all. Trampled by penguins.

Alive and well, and swell. This is what the el Salvador president said about the deported who has miraculously risen, in quotes, from the prison and death and torture, again in sarcastic quotes with punctuation corrected, despite having alleged margaritas with the US envoy he was finally allowed to see about his “rising” status. A bit of booze, rum is a bit more potent than brandy, can be deemed as acceptable if you’ve come from such a camp. About one drink each, a photo on the news showed, and even than it was said to be planted. I realize it could be a double. But they said they did not smudge it at all on their lips, although maybe smirk. This is the new version of, I did not inhale. I trust this newest one more.

In a different department, 20 million Americans and more no longer get their HIV meds, as a result of Trump’s order. Would he reverse that, if the need was on say, the other stormy foot? As we know Trump keeps his friends close. Anyway there were hundreds of protest coffins posted right around Good Friday.

That said, a local church was changing it up, having because of timing to waive their typical weekly family dinner, and also having to push the annual Easter egg hunt back to the 27th. Unless the price of a dozen of the orbs goes above a Benjamin.

With Easter, here is the view from the room of the day. Off in the outside midst, looking into the woods, of briars and brambles, bushes and buckthorn, like the wood of the Old Rugged Cross, were some wildly I’m assuming growing daffodil-type things, both bright and mellow yellow.

Jesus Christ got on His ass, the four-legged kind, in a thus unassuming way at the first Palm Sunday but according to Christians soon saved the world, and in doing so got on many people. Edonald got off His ass and hit the golf course, then His own $90 million military birthday parade. Jesus was the guest of honor in front of 12 other guests at a meager Last Supper — fittingly with the name of the holiday that is coming also the title of a Black Sabbath farewell tour, and I think it featured Children of the Grave, in song and otherwise. Now, Donald is the guest of honor at a feast of the military industrial complex that will cost that $90K, or wait $90M, in the name of saving the world, by slicing what was keeping it turning.

Jesus was as humble as you might say Humble Pie, (more on that in a bit), when his disciples asked for the ass on which their Master (of Reality to reference the classic Sabbath album) would ride into gloomy glory, to borrow the small donkey and by thus unleashing it, unleashing love, not a Trojan Horse by which to march. He was greeted by people placing down their cloaks onto the street in front of him, not by mass protests from the impoverished masses whose social programs are at risk. That donkey was all this Master needed, not thousands of steeds to ride in on. And those asses are not Democrats.

This is not the only parallel to Palm Sunday, which begets Maundy Thursday, which begets Good Friday, which begets Easter, and also deals with the salvation theology of the Passover, quite absent these days in Israel (and Palestine) and even the USA (and thus Canada and Mexico.)

The crimes of which Jesus was accused, none of them capital like current administrative figures, included encouraging opposition to paying taxes, and compare that to baseless criticisms of social security fraud, which has been found to be accurate in 99 percent of cases or more, and even if true would only involve a relative pittance of money. These are like claims made against Jesus by the Pharisees, trying to dredge up anything that might stick if hitting the wall, and sticking it has not.

Barabbas, let go without due process in a different way than thousands of government workers, and for that matter many more thousands of immigrants, also was cited for inciting insurrection, instead of today other insurgents, such as soon to be if there is justice our current president.

Once mortal enemies, Pontius Pilate and King Herod even broke bread and became friends, according to Scripture, over the after-conviction blood shed from the body of Jesus. That rather than the capital gains for those conspiring in such a way in the cabinet from such weeping today, from the backs of others enslaved, all the time infighting amongst themselves and striving for rank, and that was perhaps the only manner in which they were like Christ’s disciples, at least on occasion for the 12. (Half of that amount, so six, were the number cut by Musk in one of his first department head purges.) Pilate had passed the buck more than once in not defending Jesus, washing his hands of such decisions like those in so many in our modern-day courts.

What does this have to do with Humble Pie, the band and the description? I am noting, as I indeed have noted before, that these days the narrative is constantly evolving, for good or bad, and hopefully gaining more clarity as time marches on. My own thought on these matters is altered daily, or more than once a day, sometimes wafting back and forth about things like tariffs and taxation and the toll they can take. Hope it all comes around in the end.

So much is happening so fast these days, by the time it becomes news it is no longer news. That’s probably not news to you. As is not that before one trade war even takes to the battlefield, another one or two begins. Like the world wars were. Tariff’s go down, we’re up, when they go up, we’re down.

Talking to, say, three or four different people at as many different venues, in the quagmire course of a similar number of hours, can change your whole perspective — until what they told you switches up again because of need and gained knowledge.

So, what I am about to say, going to the past to some past columns, is not to eat crow as much as it is to count the crows in differing and ever-changing ways.

— But first, what are your top Tariff Adjusting Ramifications (TAR). Here are mine. Barbie’s still come out of China? Often touted. But now far from top-grade. Not like models. With big feet and thick legs, and busts that are small without being at all perky. Wearing only that one dress that still cuts muster, so forget dressing and redressing her. And they are not coming surrounded by a beach setting, but maybe a coffin? Morbid, but as we merge in a taste of the American, which is required these days, some slasher Hollywood?

Then, heard on that marketplace of ideas that is the Internet, that the 25 percent tariff imposed by Canada includes that one mega-highway that connects the continental USA and Alaska — through THEIR country. So everything from food to meds arriving by truck that Alaskans need becomes out of reach, since I don’t think the annual salary up in them thar woods is that high. How to make it work? Cut a deal with a Mountie? But wait their motto is to defend what’s right. Not left. Ouch! But now invoke their sub-motto, every Mountie gets their man, to bring in some Hollywood fictionalized fact. So you know they are going to find a way to find you, and seal the deal, but it might take longer because they can’t so much anymore get better horses from all those Hoidy Toidy farms in The States.

And I’m not even going to mention that highway running south from The Border, in a reversal, of fortune, through Mexico. —

Start with man No. 1, who had a lot to say on a lot of different topics related to Our Times, as he topped off a tap in a tavern. Ten minutes into our conversation, he said a few things that really hit home. As far as territory. And yes we are talking all about tariffs, which didn’t concern him as much as certain other things, and that’s where I would have considered taking issue with him. Until I heard what he had to say, as he runs his own business out of a Prescott-operated store, a smallish town, and was touting the ways where you need to look after the local community, not as much the global community and how to deal with it, isolationism aside. It has been said, and rightly so, that if the ways we are essentially taxing the goods that come into our country adds local jobs and as such brings local growth, great. And I have an issue with hardcore, my way or the highway negotiating tactics, but they seem to be working to bring people from other countries to the table to talk, and the price of groceries on our tables has not yet taken off. Seems you don’t really need to buy that suddenly pricy avocado and make guacamole, opt for locally-sourced and dairy-based sour cream instead and add some cheese to your Mexican food too, and make it cheddar. There definitely have been trade balance inequities with some of those countries — so much to say on that — but for now just add that it’s amazing it took so long for it to garner attention. Maybe pay less attention to the taste and its nature of your garnish, and more where it comes from.  

But back to man No. 1 and his business, and others like, or unlike it. He noted that some of the cheap-price Big Box stores in his neighborhood don’t do much for local causes, where local places of business do, and even remarked that those across the state line in Hastings are even more culprits. Moreover, he has had trouble getting employees for his shop, and I’m not sure which side of the coin he was on involving this, but he noted that he would be willing to pay $20 an hour and at the same time help someone learn a trade, where basic clerking will get you $17 and they have a relatively abundant supply of labor. He tied in the need, and ability to make it available and affordable, to go to something like a tech school and acquire needed know-how for ongoing success more quickly. The degree of loyalty to clients extended to his willingness to travel more than an hour to do a job, and build a network of … clients. He then left some of his beer behind and went to the bathroom, then left the building.

Next, man No. 2 had a far different take, a reversal of the previous guarded acclaim for the direction things are going. The stock market volatility is a problem for people whose pensions depend on it, but I agree with him that if you have enough money to simply play the market, you should maybe just get a day job. So neither one of us were extending a lot of sympathy for such people if wealthy who live or die, and it seems like a stressful hobby, if that’s what it is, on every buck more or less they make … and take all the time to watch it that carefully. He has a pension account that went crazily up and down at times, but never took much stock of the matter, although he did lament the lack of high-paying wages in his salary history, so he has a cheap beer wallet, unlike the rates made by some workers. He moved parts around in a warehouse for less than $20 an hour, so as far as pity for those who now get $45 … The problem as a commonality with society, we agreed, is greed.

Now to No. 3. There was an old man sitting next to me, left side, making love to the tonic and beer he would eventually knock over. He was wearing a Menards shirt and a stocking hat and sunglasses and said to a much younger man, I don’t want to give you advice but …

Then he came up with those words of wisdom. He told him. Make money when you’re young. Save it for when you’re old.

Right side was more of a bar conversation, swinging from carbon fibers, to bats in the barfly belfry, and mice in the cupboard too, that are more scared of you. But a very real working class camaraderie. And a last take: “I am not as scared of that … as I am of tariffs.” He soon would go back to the sacred, ordering another beer. 

But I will end with a quick set up quips that were the most real of the bunch.

Two harried workers met at the counter, right next to the cash register, and the server posed a question about what a customer wanted, a really cool form of cole slaw with a funny name. I of course chimed in. Little slices of carrots, (push the limit with their size, to use them up?) A bit of both types of cabbage. I told her she had it sacked, as in a need to make every bunch of broccoli count, to save money in this economy and world. (Even something very small diced from your batch of tomatoes, if tariffs allow?)

Then the kicker: The sauce is what makes it all work, if their kitchen. And mine too. It should be the sweet and sour kind, and we again, concurred, with just a bit more sour than the other flavor. So think 60/40. But not 70/30. Unless there are those few drops left.

Now in our wonderful life, that’s a real world conversation..

I hope this long list doesn’t sound too fishy, with a multi-faceted news flash into what could be your activities, but it seems that these days when it goes to feeding your indulgence, Lent to close, into walleye and also wine and maybe whiskey, the place to go if you’re a local business owner is your annual dish-deciding trip to Canada, many a hundred miles to its streams and lakes. You know, Ontario and others, even now become tariff territory, but salmon seeking surmounted, you have options back here in The States. Local and around The Cities.

Now that they have returned home, some still supply a lingering example of spring, as now materializing among the many, Green Mill is back with their March-led foray into walleye and related fish dishes, and many have a somewhat-common tangy but dark-tinged sauce in common, above tartar. The way they use it all fits them to a T, several appetizers and entrees and sandwiches alike, first letter invoked. Check out their Hudson or other location, sit around the circle and also cite multiple Minnesota award-winning pizza, and see how quick a look it takes for you to tell what the sauce is. OK, bang bang or cajun, tap tempura. The walleye fest beckons, even when blackened, with several options, listed on their sign. This is beyond fish and chips, at one of my favorite haunts. And you may also win a fly-out fishing trip to a lodge in, as stated, Ontario, with KaBeeLo.

Take this one step, or door down further. With a seemingly isolated (another one) ingredient that keeps popping up across the road. Down that proverbial Buffalo trail. At those Wild Wings is to be found over and again the killer hatch queso attached that made the Young Guns take arm or aim. Maybe even in the red-hot blazin’ scale of semi-scalding sauces that includes in its heat range a BBQ ranch, very low on the totem pole as in second from the last, (but then there is a restart of the red-hot to cool ranch type colors that occurs with the five dry rubs, not the 20 or so signature sauces.)

Segue to Mad City and its Firehouse franchise that is set to sub next to the Tropical Smoothies Cafe, (a cool if not red-hot combo of things), right in the heart of the college part of town. And not college, but K of C if you’re Catholic, their fish fry also held beer and wine for sale, just for a $10 fee to the city treasurer, on what was called 3-21-25 all through the way to 3-21-25, note that’s the same day, so I’m guessing just one day is what we’re talking. (Like maybe, my stated as 30-day Xanax prescription that said start one day through only that same day for use, so that sounds like a party, if you can stay awake.) At the church a few counties away, being held after three earlier tries is their brew fest contest — together with fish tacos for Lent, and a theme here? — where you can vote for the best beer, and you can even BYOB of brew for people to partake in, although not eligible for the contest. So it’s OK to haul in some watered down Bud or Busch, no one will judge you.

— This is one spring activity, running for about two years, that has been changed up. Now called The Believers Church, they are still ordering appetizers through Juniors grill and bar in River Falls, but have found a site for them to construct an actual building, after having held late in the afternoon each Saturday at Juniors spacious venue at least the start of yes, a church service, according to a representative of Juniors. Beginning at 4:30 p.m. were snacks followed by the service itself. This was seen by the church as a way to increase the size of its flock, through an alternative setting that will appeal more to non-typical types of church-goers.

We have no word on the nature of their theology, or if they are aligned with a recognizable denomination. —

Speaking of this, and recalling a week decades ago that was involved in the countryside and a state park near Golden just outside of Denver with a papal visit, when he was well, and World Youth Day, we move to Colorado as far as trip location. Rapid-fire to 2025, the spring elections clerk joined myself and many others I’ve seen in Hudson sporting a sweatshirt touting with the temps bouncing around the Bulldogs — the university that thus is by far the most prevalent in these parts, behind of course the local Badgers and Gophers, (forget Hawkeyes of Iowa, though other college teams have stepped forward in the postseason), wearers who just might rip up your sweatshirt long sleeves and turn them into, well, springtime short sleeves. Many of those, too, have been seen lately around town as temperatures move up out of the 30s range, but soon to revert back.

As has been Waldo, as in my involuntary take. I have that telltale T-shirt — maybe you do too — a couple of years ago pulled out of my closet, that gets many remarks every time I don’t pay attention and put it on. “There he is. I found Waldo!” I am getting a little more self-conscious each time I encounter such people downtown, although I will have to admit some of their comedic bits are entertaining. (Moreso than the soft spring hues, much the same color as the stripes I wore, on a short-dressed model on the way-down-south-shot TV commercial.) But back to those quips I still get on occasion: It goes on and on and on. It’s heaven and hell. 

Ever watch golf on TV? Maybe before March Madness arrives? When you gaze these days, you see trees up and down the fairways that are already greened out, and look like that was not just the other day. We locally have only recently seen the beginning of budding, although moss grows green on decorative stones in our downtown. And with the March toward basketball, two local nightspots, tap the Hudson Tap and the Smilin’ Moose, which have similarities in ownership, started their specials for these games on The 18th, a Tuesday. One said they ended on the 31st. But we have only recently seen the beginning of The Final Four for men. Meanwhile, the U Conn women’s team set a record with its 12th title.

The newest series of commercials running on my freebie TV is of Maggie, the made-to-be-cool, red-haired woman who wants it all, Cosmo style and wonderful when she admonishes her bad dog. But what steals the show, so to speak, is the tall and lanky delivery guy who gives the most charismatic little wave you can imagine. Looks like a blue-collar guy I know with similar physique and hair. And Maggie appears to be a single woman, but just who is the guy who looks bored and is shown pushing the little girl, who also is a star, on the swingset. Is he a significant other? Or just some random and still nice but narrow attention spanned guy on the playground.

That’s it for this spate on what’s been going on in your neighborhood and on TV.

Tariffs may create a turnabout in how you drink. But what will the impact be at your local tavern?

Want like my friend to have a crown double, oh but wait a minute, you might have to pay a rate almost twice as high, over and above the drink being a double to start with, if it comes from a country that by chance has royalty …

If running a bar, being newly creative is now more important than ever. We need what is made local and regional, because what is international is now being basically shut off, pricewise. So concerning what’s in our country, and even county, with its new tariffs there and just beyond, whether brewery and winery, or even liquor amidst your comfort food as in what you see at or behind the bar, on those smaller counters, turn to what’s offered and made just down the street, as these things might be your answer.

Even with holidays coming, you may soon have to pay bigger bucks at the tavern to tap into say, beer from Germany or wine from France or tequila and ethnic beers from Mexico or whiskey from Canada, so what is made right here in western Wisconsin, craft is what it is called, is indeed the key.

— The answer may not be blowing in the wind, but the signs are. Three of them were felled the other night in the downtown, but next morning were uprighted. Commerce continues on.

Here’s a new one: HudsonWiNightlife is giving you a rebate. Basically. That one who knows sayeth, as reported here the other day, that prices of everything are going up soon. But not quite yet. Your beer and such is safe another day. Or week. Or maybe month. That’s because most companies have a supply on hand, and the wholesale trucks from all those companies that supply those retail companies also have a backup supply in their warehouses. Before those that the tariffs target will hit the bars and liquor stores.

Another thing affected by these price hikes is the rate for aluminum, as it is a metal that is targeted, and what do you think houses that beer? Maybe bottles are a better choice. And those cans are more valuable, so keep them and recycle? —

A pertinent example, this time from the southeast of the U.S., is a craft-like and personally run brewery whose signature beer will now require a price hike for a six pack from $12.99 to $18.99. Tariffs will do that to you, because the company gets its telltale malt ingredient from Canada — and they can’t find it anywhere stateside — and most bottle caps, moreso than the 12 or 16 ounce cans cited above, are from Mexico. Any trademark hops from Germany might be even more expensive to import. Could it be jimmy-rigged so these lids are put on somewhere in the 48 — not 50 — states? Still, there are both pesky supply chain issues and the uncertainty they bring … (The named brewery has already had to let go two stalwart workers.)

So hops at Easter, in wine or beer, might be something that will have to wait until at least the next four Easters, and a turnaround this time in administration, to be affordable. So bunny up.

Wine snobs as well as beer snobs are caught in the mix. But there probably will be one less option … In order to “finish off” their wine making, one California brand from the vine says they have to look beyond China, where the tariffs affecting the U.S. are now more than half, and the already thin profit margin may force them to close the restaurant. And there already have been layoffs at their company. So do we make being a wine snob criminal?

To reverse it, such successes will require innovation to fill the tap gap. Also is thinking outside the box and changing up how people do things — qualities that I can tell you as an ad salesperson are in very short supply already with most tunnel-vision businesses. Thinking outside the box rocks.

And I as a music writer have said it: We don’t need so many dozens of slightly-different-than-the-other-guy craft brews or the coolest new form of wine remakes. But their place has been staken in the ground of market growth.

So if the intro example, of a six pack of beer going up by basically a buck a bottle, holds any weight all, the prognostications of all the media talking heads should be clear when clarified, as it is largely a simple numbers game of math: What goes up on a $10 purchase will assuredly cost you $1 more.

George Thorogood on “one bourbon, one scotch and one beer.” If top shelf, better have a hundred dollar bill in your pocket. And as far as that tip Lemmy from Motorhead so famously gave in multiples at one gig: Better get out some more.

Back on Tuesday, losing Republican candidate Brad Schimel was civil — although some of his followers were quick to question the result — and he in short order at his small venue took to the stage to play with his band. (Drinks on the house via him?) I will give him a great review for that civil overture, although I was not onhand being from the northwest segment of the state to see if the group had clarity in their sound — a sort of transparency. It was not reported if he was low-key while in the rhythm section, wailed on guitar in a sorta out-there way, or went on-stage with vocals and could interject with the crowd. Trumpets still blaring?

And why do all these staid Republicans play in a band? It could make them more user-friendly. Or populist? What is their lyrical content? In any case, thanks for being real. 

When that top shelf comes tumbling down as we’re already seeing, and I’ll call it, the weight of Trump’s empire is falling under its own greatly concentrated … weight. Does someone give him a pardon?

So when you come to the world of tariffs, think big in an attempt to take it back in that Trump prized ruler that’s namely our industry territory for workers, and great if we can? Or big if the matter concerns these thoughts? There is a dichotomy. Concerning our tariff territory. Expanding? On it? In more ways than one?

So when it comes to Musk constantly trying as a poser to adjust his Cheesehead hat, and chainsaw can’t save this comedic bit, Here’s the Canada response, before setting retaliatory tariffs themselves: A tariff on us Canadians is a tax on Americans, the far northland governor type said. And if you want it’s whiskey, you might now be talking triple digits. So just buy the generic-we-have-every-liquor-genre Phillips brand. Even that’s far from single digits these days.

Here is the reply of an old rock band, biting the hand that feeds them in a very-much needed these days and very sarcastic way, with their song On The Cover of the Rolling Stone: We sing about beauty and we sing about truth, at 10,000 dollars a show.

That’s it? That figure won’t even buy you a door at a standard rate you pay for an American/Canadian car these days.

The same number was referenced, by a bar owner’s wife, like in the old Tool song and its redo by a tribute band, which that friend of mine was just dying to see with me at the old Dibbo’s, 10,000 Days. To the digit. And the instance was about that many days ago.

You wanna call something a mandate? Weigh the weighty win in Wisconsin. Elon Musk and his millions to give out may soon be relegated to simply a seat behind the wheel of one of his Teslas, or in the back seat, as he may be shown the door. The rock band by that name may also have fizzled from the scene, and the inventor named Tesla is long gone too.

Democratic judge Susan Crawford’s victory over Musk-adopted and money-thrown Brad Schimel was unexpectedly easy, showing that voters — and I never thought they would — can grasp the great complexities and nasty nuances of sentencing certain criminals effectively. And if you look close, the candidates were much in agreement.

Further study also revealed, more fully, that so much of the content of all those political flyers was just so much bunk. So very confusing that even critiquing them was hard to do because you didn’t know exactly what it was that you were debunking. (Along the same level of clarity as picking Zeppelin above or below Sabbath.) This state race had the most money thrown at it, than any other judicial race that we have seen. At those rates, both sides, you could even at 2025 prices have the where-with-all to get tickets to both shows, (and multiple nights if you are in a big town.)

I start with a reading of the reality, and not Master of Reality, an Ozzy tool. If you want to know more on all that has to be weighed in various parties coming to the sentencing table, look at the lengthy and involved coverage by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. A prime point: Judges in such prominent cases in particular, need to rather closely follow prosecutor guidelines, and both candidates seemed to do so. The flyers, often did not come from the candidates themselves, but they didn’t seem to ask those other groups that named them, many times PACs, to tone it down either, if they even could accomplish that squelching. So much of this dark PR made it sound like the offenders hardly even saw the inside of a jail or prison cell, and were out very quickly as even hourly on bond, which even itself usually has you-can-reference guidelines, although Wisconsin is woefully short on such, seen as a problem. And as we have seen locally, DA’s may only take on cases they know they can win, or cop a plea deal in problematic ones, to potentially save face. This is also referenced in ads.

The flyers supporting Schimel, from a group out of Texas, America PAC, only cited two cases of what they called excessive leniency by Crawford. One of these young men was 19 when arrested, had special needs and his fitness for trial was questioned, as were his chances of getting access to rehabilitation resources if in prison. He had been kept in holding status in jail for months, (atypical?), which has been found to increase the likeliness to reoffend.

The reasoning of the flyer was hard to follow. It cited “releasing child molesters and rapists back into our community,” when the reality is that unless you serve a full life term, that release is going to happen at some point. In another case, cited was a reduction of charges, which suggests using verbal phrases to describe these, then listed a length in years, something that didn’t fit. It said that at issue in the election was supporting the agenda of President Trump and cited securing our borders. A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice does little that affect that situation, just as they don’t often get involved with sentencing individuals.

All of this seems more like a question of a judge’s ability to hold people in custody, and allowance of no cash bail, and this had been on my list of things to address with a post. The following is an example.

A man I know of is a respected, I assume, and successful businessman but when he and his significant other go out for a couple of drinks each, he often gets a little owly and uses a bit of foul language. To the point that he would be on the border of being at risk if a police officer saw the behavior. He once got upset and scrutinized her about how she had voted on a few questions.

This is not important as far as being gossipy tidbits. It is important in noting that if something got a bit out of hand, as far as being loud, someone like him could be a poster child of the need for no cash bail.  

But much farther along, in sentencing, it’s recognized that judges should follow recommendations by prosecutors fairly closely. Crawford was the candidate who at times strayed from such plans just a bit more than Schimel, but both remained in range. It has been noted that she comes from a liberal county and he a conservative one, so it could follow that one set of prosecutors would ask for more jail time than the other.

(In general, ironically and to make a musical comparison, decades-long national band leader and rocker Steve Miller, recently feted, has his feet early on in the county of both candidates. However, his anthem Fly Like An Eagle in particular, and song themes overall, fits better with the Madison crowd.)

Judge not lest you be judged. But we have to make judgments, (I right now am listening to how they are emassed in Holy Wars/The Punishment Due, as in my later discussion of needing due process), to back our decisions, like for statewide or local or federal judge votes, much partisan rather for or against a man or woman. (Yes both sexes are allowed that these days, although some people would probably take a reverse on that.) But go beyond mere abortion and getting a handle on it, allegedly letting the ugly and bad guys go, and how you get to that point, (and the verdicts chosen and sentences given go both ways including by the good.) So at least for a while, in how long you keep them in a cold cell. As the bell begins to chime, and for whom it tolls.

Commence Susan Crawford, and her kinda common-folkish ilk running at the local level, vs. that Trumpish token and allegedly for-pay (at least once and so sorry) lead Republican, Brad Schimel. And beyond the county circuits, reach this decision will, our 72 counties, as they’ll all, each and every one, be hit by the ramifications sooner if not later.

OK, as I evaluate the claims of letting the bad goons go way too easy, on which much of this election is based, so easy to find (but it can at times be justified), these days. It’s been said, and this time it’s true, that if it sounds too good (or should I say unrealistic) to be fact, it probably is not. Truth be damned. Yes, I want to let loose a child killer, it is central to my platform?!? OK … Tell the tale, it is central to no one’s agenda, regardless of gender or even party mostly, unless at times if there’s money to be donated. And it may or may not have to be big bucks. That is universal politics, though not to get partisan, but one party is far more beholden then the other. So if you hear BS, turn the other ear.

— But not all news is that terribly bad. I got a lotto winning of pick 100, plus one of those $100 checks from Elon Musk, and a third of the same denomination from back-pay social security, plus adding to the trifecta the fact that I of usually bad luck also won while playing the ponies at the race track, all in one day. But be aware that today is April Fool’s Day. I really left the casino with just a bit of fool’s gold. —

I have told this (lectured them) to others who blindly just believe whatever they want to hear, and to them I would say cross-check it, and not like a hockey player, across say, more than one news outlet, and God forbid don’t just rest your case on Fox News. MS-NBC maybe. CNN for sure.

Crawford has just let vile people go? Check out the facts behind the BS. And here is what you just might find. You can’t just hold people forever, and keep them locked up for much more than an overnight when they can post bail, without enough evidence to charge and convict and later keep them there. (And when drugs and deals are involved, there may be big money well behind it to get people out, making the task harder.) Or you eventually lose the case, and that helps nothing. And because of, read this truism first, staff cuts, the staff is very short handed anyway. Even if you think in your own heart and mind and soul they are the rare next coming of a Hitler/Dahmer, there is the rule of law that hear this, our country is based on. Due process, too, much neglected today for most. You know, that follow the constitution thang, much touted. Minus Jan. 6. Sorry Trump, in a Democracy you can’t just do whatever the hell you want.

Contrary candidate Brad’s band of beholden brothers argues that also, candidate Crawford is rejecting a bit of alleged natural scientific evidence that there are only the two sexes, and replacing it with mere ideology. Real science, not weird science, itself actually says far differently.

And it is said, (by a Brad PAC?), that Crawford wants to redefine what it means to be a woman in statutes, when they also want to do the same. In reverse effect.

It is of interest — and I’ve heard Musk gets around 27 percent so that’s millions a day — that liberal prosecutors have been criticized for not getting around to gathering enough evidence quickly to put away alleged gang members, when the ones beholden to Trump have been guilty of the same laxity involving lateness when not uncovering info on a similar plain, to deport by flights on a plane 200 people of questionable guilt to Venezuela. I guess finding the facts when you go well into the triple digits of alleged offenders …

Why do I say questionable? One is a pro soccer player from that country who was alleged to not have run illicit arms but have on his arm a gang tattoo. It was actually the logo of a favorite soccer club. Guess it’s gotta be a country club. One thing U.S. officials did know was that he would likely be tortured, again, once arriving back home. Asylum anyone? This would seem to merit. (Back to the scope of that in a minute — the computer tells me how long a read takes.)

But beware. Will we fall just like an empire, as alt music has warned, of old? Even the eternal Hammer of the Gods of the Immigrant Song had its Achilles Last Stand. Always new are your then old overlords.

All this chaotic activity, and to a lesser degree the Wisconsin justice jam, have attracted attention of the national news media, even days before the election, as again the presence of Elon seems to have pushed us back eons. His pay-you-to-vote $100 rate (for whom it tolls and later raised to a pared-down million dollar winner) scheme is I thought, something that if I run up a gas tab too big covering elections, I might bite on if bearing a-what-Musk-makes interest level, that could push it a Benjamin higher, selling your soul with putting miles on my soles. But with the markets his stock is likely plummeting like all the rest, or maybe not, and there could be a big bump with X being sold to XAI. Billions beget billions. (All these figures offered are not guaranteed like the FDIC would pledge to incorporate.)

Back to the pro soccer players. He should be vexed via being vanquished without valid reason back to his viral Venezuela. A judge or judgment chiming in said that the Trump response to why it was taking so long to produce evidence and them blowing off a deadline for such, and when it finally came: “Woefully inadequate.” Kick the proverbial can forward, and easily get it past a bad goalie. Their team further said, they will not freely in any way give out information involving a “counter terrorism operation.”

Apparently it’s terroristic to even challenge, say, the US in a World Cup competition. What else has he done wrong? Ditch due process. For foreigners.

A return from the lower Americas, aside the newly named Gulf: Our local mayor, and this is not a southern town where the mayor rules as law, is running for re-election, and one of his flyers stated he was “humbled” by the opportunity to serve. (Not as with Boss Hogg.) We could use more of that.

But a group touting his re-election bid is not so humble.

The Forward Freedom Alliance gives the same tired old tack that the alternative to Rich O’Connor, “Liberal Liz” as in Malanaphy, will increase taxes “on families,” not to mention electric vehicles, and touting DEI initiatives. Are we talking an automotive union rep here? The group in such a way mentions neighborhood watch and shows a picture of the foe of O’Connor that looks like a jail mug shot and says what she’d do would be “criminal.” If you look closely you will see that what she’s standing in front of is actually a standard height chart for if you stand tall, so it is unclear if what was implied was taken in jail or … wherever.

The guest of honor key candidate would not arrive for fully another ten minutes if on time, but in the already full-to-the-brim main room of the tap-room-brewery, a look-alike campaign worker could be seen standing about 15 feet toward the west end away from the podium.

The arrival soon came, and brought the house down, but that first one before then … She greeted one person, then another, and then there was an opening. So I sauntered by, asking if she was indeed the infamous chosen one? as in Susan Crawford, candidate for the state of Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The answer? No, but I get that all the time. A key point because Crawford herself soon showed, (with tell-tale cheeky mole and I got close enough, for a few moments, to check?), and thus took the stand. As her very entry soon came, it brought the house (and Senate?) down. A takeaway from what’s-in-a-name came that I found interesting but not crucial: No noted the first one, I am not, (nor am I at least closely related to), as she said, fashion cup if not plate Cindy Crawford. And since she has typically logged, as per another volunteer, 2,400 miles a day while stumping for herself. If stamina is a question, like Maiden’s album-a-year Death on The Road and Live after Death, while Trump merely strolls the golden golf course …

— March is ending and whether it goes out fought like a lion or a lamb (specific Dio song reference) depends on time of day or night. Past days, even before the recent snow, have seen lots of T-shirts and bare ankles up the pants-leg, (Aldi has for $7.99 an added strappy shoe), and there already has been one farmer’s market. Moss sweats with the dew in the cold, as it had long ago greened out in a series of bins below a shop window. And for you pol or poll followers, there is a campaign sign sticking atop an old Christmas tree in a big pot. Much has changed since then. —

Crawford sermonized, in a good way, and made a few points that were new to me about why she is the right choice, including how we treat those with disabilities such as her own ilk child and the possibly pending cuts in special ed, (more on that in a future and even earlier post), and then people lined up at a full-or-so 10 percent of those populees attending at the time. And as such After Forever, the dwindling after things died off, and I thought that if to make an-inroad with this globetrotter, I could wait it out. But wait, with every token two people who got mugged in this way, with semi-awkward arms around each other, there were three who joined the line. And then re-hit after-photo-opp the back of (or thus again jumping coyly into the line to make it worse?) Concern if that altar is all their after?…? To be or not to be Crawford-like? As the line continued to show length. To be and shine, Ronnie James Dio, The Last In Line.

I had a handful of not questions for her, but observations and/or scenarios, musing Dave Mustaine style, to see what she’d say about these thoughts. I did manage to corner her, at the end of the hall, as she was walking out after a trip to the can — no not that one — but as we both noted it was 11:04 a.m. (and past as one more jumped the now such as it was line) with an 11 O’Clock slated closing. We concurred, maybe next time to exchange, if there is one based on voting. More of a happy ending. 

I quickly noted, and bookmarked in my brain for further checking, that there were very few 35-and-under people visiting, and few of those male, which should concern those questioning the breadth of the electorate. I did make that quip to an (admittedly) beautiful 45-year-old-or-so and her (obviously) quite young daughter, as when I am tempted to say it, I will say it, query both of them that their sheer youthfulness bucked the trend. I just got and that’s OK, the typical, and the even posting of this question shows I have quipped this far too often, oh you’re so sweet …

She, too, could have been Cindy Crawford. Like the first person I encountered on this maiden voyage at Hop N Barrel (blatant promo) into one-of-what-I’m-sure-will-be-many political meet-and-greets, minus again a mole, or was it two? Three would be very cheeky.

Back to meeting and greeting, I ran into a (late-staying) real cool guy from past days, who works construction and has a cool amped-up gun collection, so you would think he’d be among the first to rally behind Trump. Not so … We come from entirely different worlds but we can bond, now for more than one decade, over even things like this …

Despite the breadth of people in the big main brew back room, that could have been a small banquet hall, there were not even a few stragglers in the front room by the windows with no curtains just ad signs for the station. Is this a case of the MNG being held in the a.m. vs. p.m.? Unusual, as this is Wisconsin. Would Mr. S., he of his allegedly highest standards, admit to even drinking an occasional beer and be truly state-worthy? And then driving like a local conservative judge, and being let off, (twice)? Think about it …

A point I think can be apropo … Walking away from the main gathering, I saw posted and perching upon the top crosshairs of 2-by-4s that had formerly (now removed) held a Trump sign or two, but not three, (Biblical note), on an otherwise vacant grassy lawn, (a point here), a much smaller Go Crawford sign.

Everybody is talking about cutting waste. How to trim the fat? Or chew it, and get lean? (Or you could be Old School German like me and eat the gristle, as in the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man …) So you might start not with your political pundancy but with the pope and your for-various-reasons Friday fish fry. Although your waistline might suffer, up or down. But take heart, bikini season is still about two months off. (One-piecers might like, say, give you three, but look what they’re wearing to the beach these days.) If other, donate the saved food to the increasing number and magnitude of poor.

So, instead of taking in one of those once all-you-could-eat fish fries, for around 15 dollars, or a salmon fillet, (flown in?), bite the bountiful culinary bullet as far as your breading by replacing the flake-off fish-meat, and pay out as little as half that. It could be in the form of a tartar-topped fish sandwich, or a meal itself, or cut the mustard and price even more with something from the deli. Crab meat and the little bit less for lobster might cost much more, ranging up to around $35 per pound, hope you get a lotsa, and you still have to boil it, too.

— This is about stealing signs, and not the opening day baseball kind. Some by one of the local partisan offices must indeed be fearing such, as they’ve been taking haste to haul in the ones for their most prime hopefuls, from in-between the concrete pillars, and not the political kind, each night at closing time. Some of the stark messages on them are smudged on with black paint.

But some signs are just too big to be lugged away without attracting attention. The largest can be seen in each election at a house made into several apartments a block to the north, or at a designer construction business put aside its doors just a block to the south and pumping (for justice) Brad S. and Brian S. by name. A much smaller banner in square footage but still in the neighborhood is one pushing for a “yes” school referendum vote at a long established business catering to kids. So I guess you can bank on these things, as someone has to pay the fiddler eventually with taxation, if your company has been proven financially successful enough to be around for decades. —

So forego the Musk mussels with mongo money-making forms of marinade, and also multiple merlot, and consider the following, walleye over that T fish. A smattering of local prices, from my immediate area, for salmon and scallops and shrimp and such, (based on the couponing sheets that keep coming from the postal carrier):

— At County Market, leading off an ad, $8.99 a pound for Atlantic salmon, the good stuff as in the form of fillets and not the fish equivalent of chopped liver, paired for comparison sake, alongside premium salad kits at rates around $5 to $7 per pound, although sold in ounce-based smaller units. A price from back in December, from before Thanksgiving to right before Christmas, again for comparison sake, is walleye fillets or breaded strips for $6.99 for a package of up to a pound, and large marinated shrimp skewers, defined as 4 ounces, three for $5. 

— At Subway, you can get a full footlong tuna sub for $6.99, or other varieties including all-veggie-that-matters as in up to about a dozen and you can get meat too, for $7.99. Also, buy a footlong (most any kind) and get a free six-inch. And for a single six-inch, $4.99.

— At Perkins, which can be your Denny’s alternative, which often has been slightly cheaper in some cases, you can get for under $10 crispy cod sandwich or double catch.

— At Arby’s, hawked is the Kings Hawaiian fish deluxe sandwich, at participating locations in the U.S. (no word on Canada or Mexico) while (can be tricky these days) supplies last.

— Across the highway at Culver’s, (hi Mike), they suggest getting that fish fry feeling with the Wisconsin (and Minnesota) tradition on hand-battered North Atlantic (not the south part) cod and butterfly jumbo shrimp, and for the sandwich version you can use a coupon for $1 off a value basket.

— At Applebee’s its welcome to the Big Easy for $11.99 for any of the Bourbon Street mushroom swiss burger, Bourbon Street steak, Bourbon Street chicken and sausage penne, Bourbon Street chicken and shrimp, and (not necessarily Bourbon Street) blackened shrimp and sausage penne, (may be for limited time).