We were able to pull into the big rally for Kamala Harris in our small car with relative ease, getting there through back country roads almost three hours in advance, and getting through the gate was also easy.
We were directed to slot ourselves into a small space between two full lines of vehicles about thirty yards apart, with the help of a young guy wearing an old MTV T-shirt from back in the ’80s. Clinton or Carter as a key choice, I asked him, to a chuckle.
But there was the serious matter of that just a day or two earlier, Harris had tabbed as her running mate Gov. Tim Walz of neighboring Minnesota, making Eau Claire as a rally choice an easy one, but no Border Battle here, an hour’s journey after crossing the St. Croix River.
My wife had said, when Biden faltered, that perhaps the roles should be switched and Harris be the next president, with Biden as her VP. She wrote to her with the suggestion, much as she had done to State Senator Tammy Baldwin with the tip that over near Hudson, there are only Twin Cities TV and radio stations, so put your ads there.
The next day, an invitation to the rally followed.

— The British Invasion was back — nothing to do with the prime minister getting re-elected — but this time it did involve Bobbies. That primo Euro auto show hit Walnut Street and beyond and filled it and the overflow as such, extended until the next night, a Sunday. That’s when My Favorite Bouncer at Dick’s Bar and Grill said, “this was a day. A day. I’m glad it’s over.” Earlier, the cops had to show, been all was resolved in fine and stout British manner without incident. (My accent of that type was called the worst ever, right before closing, although I joked that at one time I had been one of the Bobbies, like anyone would want that one these days.) At that time, going out, the cars were said to have been up and down, on the opposite side of the street then usual, of course. And then there was talk of going right down the middle … —

— This weekend we enter into sparsely charted earlier territory, again, with the bands we pump, and the last time I said that, for Bigly and such at Booster Days, they turned out to actually be pretty solid although mainly straightforward and nothing fancy. But this weekend at a new and with expanded activities Pepper Fest in North Hudson, the newer blood is on Friday night with Ember (the name to me sounds a bit like, and has the German flavor of, Rammstein.) Then at the Tarnation Tavern in River Falls, on that same Friday night it’s Flannel Brothers (it is my birthday weekend and believe me, I go back further than grunge which is what the name evokes) and on Saturday night Ghosts of the Mississippi (I hope at my advanced age I don’t become a ghost before the act hits the stage.) —

We got to our seats early, also, as musical guest Bon Iver’s crew was setting up right in front of us, and their sound checks were checking in. This venue was by rally attendees said to be the site of the killer concert that is Country Fest, with a big “district” building in back, and all the usual extra big lighting and sound booth buildings about a great big Walz football field’s length to the back. There must have been a vacancy on this day, with no band other than Bon Iver slated for the venue. As it was, the Ides of Iver were available on a day’s notice, and they apparently had a place to go to that evening, as the roadies were tearing down even before there would have been a main encore. During set-up, there was a woman doing her thing in killer shades and the proverbial headphones popular back in the day when Bon Iver first made their mark.
There was a gap in time before the heavy hitter speakers came on for the next past of the rally, but the bass kept thumping. The lightweight ones had been on before the mini-concert, several of them. There had also been a miniwave, with people standing and raising arms in the air, but those arms came down once there was a gap in the bleachers and the wave hit its metaphorical shore.
The many Secret Service, this day’s Men In Black, were walking about in their sunglasses in the bright sunshine, but some of them wore — gasp! — ties that were red in color. Blue shirts though, more fitting.
An eagle flew overhead, no turkeys or turkey vultures, drawing gasps and cheers from the crowd. Soon also flew over the first of many helicopters — was it Kamala? The loudspeaker bore the message, twice, “The party (or program) will continue shortly.” The heat was coming on and crews were out and about, especially up front, handing out bottled water aplenty — they must have had a special volume deal with Sam’s Club — and even some energy drinks so to stick with the speeches. There were a handful of people who passed out in the crowd, after hours, and needed medical treatment, and Walz stopped his speech in respect as they attended to one of them. No sweat. Think the Republicans would do that?
Sign language soon got going, with two different women making the signals. The next, totality texting said to Text To Win 30330, which is threes rather than the twos of 2024. There was 24007, to Tammy Baldwin. But all of us were told to get on our social media and send messages as they spoke to make amends for the political misdeeds of many, but wouldn’t you know it, there was scant little reception in our broad area. Such was shouted by a couple of people in back of me. “But we all know why we’re here,” a speaker said, reinforced by others.
Walz soon came on, at mic stand, and said it must have been good to have a speaker who could actually pronounce the name Eau Claire, unlike those monosyllable if they can manage even that speaking Republicans. He noted that some of his family members are Badgers and it is good that despite all the teasing back and forth they are Gophers can get along, unlike the hatred of their foes. “That’s right,” reinforced an attendee. Walz, as a head coach, won a state high school football title, over in his state in an effort to emulate The Packers, or the teams from his Nebraska roots. But there would be no Minnesota Rouser on this day. Also, this was not a time to relive the past, but to learn from it.
Harris was next up, espousing similar themes in a 20 minute-talk.
A state secretary of state, before Walz, said that the hour had been struck for Midwestern Nice to transfer to Midwestern Vice.But there were a few cuss words tossed in here and there by the speakers, as these dire times call for gravity. “Hell Yeah,” like the band, our day is here. A sample of background tunes that were played included The Immigrant Song, by Led Zeppelin.
The initial speaker, a dark-skinned person from the area, was a transgender father of “two amazing brown girls” who showed that diversity can exist here in the midst of, with heart, the often conservative farm country. And his two girls had been in need of special assistance in their classwork, something Republicans want to cut as far as budget, and to top it off, two of his family members as well were teachers, like Walz.
Rousing it up was a woman in a pink cat lady hat and a shirt that played on the theme, saying Democratic catwomen are the life of the party. Also themed, going back to its origins of four years ago with her, was the idea that the Republicans “can’t grab my pussy.”On the way out from the rally, three women were praising the cops for not so much their service but their looks. They were hot on a hot day, pulling loads of cased gear out of two vehicle trunks. I felt I just had to ask, but did not, are you referring to the Secret Service guy or the Eau Claire policeman? And could they get the steel fence opened to let people out to walk through an open field, which appeared to be an aim? Hey, I joked, are they looking for a bolt cutter
Back at the car, next to its parked place, two members of a couple climbed aboard their bicycles. They told passerby after passerby that they lived only a short distance away, but after a car ride wasn’t getting them much closer, they went back home and got their bikes. “At least you don’t have unicycles,” I told them, and gained a laugh in these trying times.

The ilk of Bon Iver is hard to find in influence or in person, but can be seen locally on stage on Saturday, after the man of consistently high-register vocals and his band themselves played five songs for highest office hopeful Harris two days earlier, and there were even more speakers than musical numbers.
(More coverage of that rally follows in a post soon, as HudsonWiNightlife was in the second row in front of Bon Iver over in Eau Claire.)
This gig and another act, over at The Phipps Center for the Arts, caught the ear of a volunteer worker. So go register. Vote for music.
Hey also in this roundup, school whether it be for music or general studies, starts up soon. Youth is served on Friday evening, as Urban Olive and Vine in downtown Hudson serves up its trademark food while you listen to high school student Elly Rowan emulate like minded we assume Cyndy Lauper. the Beatles, Coldplay and more. Though young, she is a longtime student of fellow frequent Olive-ites Andy and Kathryn Karg at 2gether Productions, and Elly enjoys gigging all over the east metro area. Catch her before she’s back at school, still playing but with her basketball courts competing for stage time. Urban Olive and Vine often brings in such student talent.
Then on Saturday night at Juniors Tap House in River Falls, is houseboats, namely Matthew Mitchell, a native there, who is sonically between Bon Iver, (which is fresh off playing the Kamala Harris rally in Eau Claire where he is a native, and even my non-musical mom in Milwaukee had been gaga gigging from afar), The Cure (I love singing Love Song), and Bruce Springsteen (a very different version than what you’ll get from the very hard-picking of local country stalwart Tim Sigler.) How so? Matthew’s biggest influences are the very intimate songwriting and understated, stripped-down style of artists like Joni Mitchell (no relation) and Nick Drake. With thoughtful and relatable original songs.
Earlier on Friday, at the Phipps Center for the Arts, is not necessarily Motown but the down-south and downhome musical stylings of a man named Mo, according to a Thursday vol at the Dem headquarters across the block, who said she might take in the show because it’s said to be even better than most typical such fare.
And then there is the more original than yet another Friday fish fry. For Aug. 22, you can reserve a space for Hudson Tap and it’s hosting with Brickhouse Pizza of a five-course meal that assures more than a dozen total toppings along with drink pairings, and earlier for Aug. 15, a bourbon and cigars event at Bennett’s Chop and Railhouse that brings the best brands of heaven and hell for your indulgence.
You can follow up this rotating Friday fare with a Saturday evening, truck and tractor pull event at the Hammond Heartland Days, following up with much more torque and horsepower on a much more stripped-down tractor tour at the St. Croix County Fair three weekends earlier, across county highways and dirt roads.

Hammond Heartland Days brings the best of country music in the region to their festival this weekend, triumphing over the scores of rank and file bar bands.
Maiden Dixie begins the musical mastery on Friday night, Aug. 8, and then Nathan Hansen caps it off on Saturday night.
It winds down when they bring country tunes for the second straight night. You can tell a band by their videos. The Nathan Hansen promos feature slickly made videos with close cropped editing, especially of the crowd shots. And the numbers out there cheering are large. The audio plays lots of instrumental breaks of whirring guitars, and well-placed drum fills, backing up vocals that have just the right amount of twang and groove.
The night before it’s Maiden Dixie. The band has more than 100 songs on its set list, and their multiple cover song renditions by bands number 18, and at least five bands chime in at three or more. They also have several originals, and a couple from AC/DC.
You can even message ahead and request a song. One couple went to see a number of bands during their wedding planning process and Maiden Dixie was an easy choice. The duo ended up taking them in three times, and listened to detailed responses to their many questions — at the height of their busy season. The request list was lengthy, and a few surprise numbers even were added.
A bar owner or two copied on being able to meet those requests.
Maiden Dixie is said to be able to accommodate any venue with its diverse set list, which is very helpful at Heartland Days.
That goes double for both a listener during Hudson’s Booster Days, who was working the Drink Ticket booth, and from another band in the stage behind.
Lastly about song selection, a man not a frequent country music listener said he knew the majority of the tunes — even though he usually doesn’t stay out late anymore.
Prior to the country acts, the dance floor under the pavilion is ruled by those spinning records. Friday from 5-8 p.m., go gig to Dr. Groove. Then all day on Saturday, noon to 8 p.m., its the Kar Jackers as the deejay.

Pull yourself off the stage, please! Grab that leash for his neck, or is it a noose, and be such a shepherd, before he doth pluck away with his tongue again. And they thought they had the In-Advance Vance Advantage.
But they’d done it again, and didn’t even wait for Trump to get to the speaker at a convention of Black journalists, and do his take on Archie Bunker, and the mind reels of him sparing with Tyler Perry’s mom character and two of her sisters. (Actually, they were three leading female black journalists).
Vance as his VP pick had just parlayed a shared vice: Putting his foot in it, about motherhood or lacking it, and then having his mates shoot his tootsies again by claiming The Left got it wrong, about feeling any bitterness. And the group from The Right have since doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on their gaffes.
Wait, isn’t having a bunch of children, if a “Welfare Queen,” what the Republicans used to be all about rallying against. Which is it? And now on stage with a bunch of convention reporters, so more mics on, for the likes of …
“Ya’ll best know what that thar community you be, in the ‘hood.” OK and yes, I seriously doubt that most Black people, or even rednecks, really talk like that. But we’re right now in Archie Bunker Land Speak and see my end to this post, as its setting cities are much similar to the above. After all, this post is about massively over-generalizing.
What do we call he who (first) sayeth?

— Prewarning of a blantant preview to the popular local BBQ restauranteer I’ll call Mr. J. What’s in a name? Who has on the sidewall of his semi-size food and transport truck, out there at area fests, an image, I’m sure and again lifesize, of a striking lady I know also in the biz who I’ll call Ms. S. They are portrayed standing side-by-side an also smokin’ grill. But only she, with a history as a fitness instructor and show competitor, is shown in a quite short red skirt. So hey, I got reacquainted by trucking. Hate to say it Jethro, but though burly, I doubt people are looking at you. And then up the way, the distance that could be moved by a flaming and flashing flare, the also local Demon Rum truck carried on to pick up more people. Theme here? And not flickering. —

He who slammed our current vice president coulda been a Justice, or a Jethro or Jed, but we’ll just call him JD, or is it J.D. as he has been known as a man of so many names, deserving of few? Or DC, or JV, or touches of JC? No, necessarily not that one. So this take from JW.
Maybe such a catwoman, so dressed all in leather, would better be that lady legislator from Arizona so famous for her bright kitty yellow catsuit, or oh, it’s actually a dress. So just what do her ilk want in a woman? The old madonna/whore thing? (Maybe Stormy Daniels?) Someone who will serve, a very partly presidential function, of orally servicing the Royal Penis, as in the Eddie Murphy vehicle Coming to America, then just be silent. Or silenced.
Why bring in more name-calling? Aside from the fact that it fits, and that they started it, there’s this: The conservatives fall flat when they overgeneralize.
We are of course talking about the remark made by Mr. Vance, basically that child-less cat ladies have taken over, connecting it to the idea that they are bitter over, basically, not having the aftermath that comes following nine months of dragging around being bloated.
OK, there is a wonderful side to the experience, at least for many. And I am sure that there are women — mostly conservatives — who feel like they have majorly missed out for not having it. But overall, it’s not too many. And some are indeed bitter, I’m sure, but only a number that makes the fraction of that pie get sliced even slimmer. It’s not nearly everyone.
But some will make you think it is, for political gain. Or maybe because they are truly that dimwitted.
First, his wording is all about those miserable few women just taking over. But what? Culture? Business? Politics? The Arts? The only conceivable one where anyone should care is the second named, only one of the four, and only if she’s your boss. Career is all-in-all for some, but not all. There is the idea of having a ball buster deeply desiring to be on the rise, and kids just getting in the way. So that is something deeply un-Republican, a (married) woman not wanting to have children. (So back to my start.)

And this is not all fun and games. It can cut deep. Like for those you cannot have children. And might see going in vitro vanquished.
My own story. And that of my wife. We are among those where having kids was just not in the cards, and I could not bear her any children, for a variety of physical reasons, deeply steeped in neurology for both of us, financial constraints and being simply too strained healthwise to care for children. Adoption wouldn’t work either. But I supported her career, which she loves, and it did allow her to work with children and find that an outlet, so there is the option of being a teacher or other educator, or nurse, or doctor, or child care worker, so many have found that a useful tool for nurturing. And not being bitter.
If Ms. Harris is bitter about anything, it must be Mr. Vance. And for Mr. Trump, who has seemed to be saying he will not debate her, she’d make mincemeat out of either one. This would not be like debating Biden, who with his reactions to absurd comments isn’t as quick on the draw as he once was.
All this rhetoric — and yes, I know I am adding to it, but fight fire with fire — makes it little wonder that down in rallies, there are shootings. But relatively little noise was heard in the mainstream about the fact that in Milwaukee, just outside the perimeter of the RNC, a man wielding two knives was shot and killed by police officers visiting to provide security. A local advocate made the interesting comment that it would be helpful for such officers to be among those regularly on patrol in the immediate area, and knowing the walk and the talk of those streets.
And the RNC was held in Milwaukee, small by comparison to most metro areas, so it simply doesn’t have that kind of officer capacity. There exists a need to bring in others. But seriously, from Ohio, in the conservative rust Rust Belt, like some of the shooting police? And the land of Vance. So at least give them a hefty dose of training about the Badger State.
But that, and funding security in the first place, would cost money, and Milwaukee just doesn’t have the tax base. So how’s this for an idea: Don’t put your hat in the ring to host such conventions at all? Yes, you’d lose the tourism revenue. But some of those businesses are run by Black folk, and those pounding their fists on the big stages don’t exactly support the cause.
Even the airport apparently could be considered too small, as some of the cops got stuck there when flights were severely delayed. I hope there were no rallies to prompt fights back home. And indeed, Our State does not have a second, viable backup option.

On a lighter note on the topic of enforcement, this time moreso enforcing good vibes. The Hudson Police are celebrating and entertaining and educating during the community night out observance on Tuesday, Aug. 6. One catch, in the way their announcement is worded. It reads, in the biggest and boldest of its letters: Join the Hudson Police Department. Not to become a junior officer, though, just an invitation to their annual good-will event at Lakefront Park, filled with family fun, demonstrations, grub and light music by veteran guitar picker Alex Zachary.
Another such announcement, tacked to a local bulletin board, is much more wordy and up-front in recruitment pitch. It says simply, that Uncle Sam Wants You, since you could be an officer too, and lists with numerous pull-out bullet points and more than 200 descriptive words the advantages of signing up, even if as a reservist.

As girrrls who emulate and idolize the gals in that ’70s group The Runaways, they have “run away” from their base in Minneapolis to a small town southwest of Eau Claire, come July 27.
The Rebel Queens will be rockin’ with a yell at Elmwood’s UFO Days on Saturday night, and this is definitely not ordinary festival fare, as this band of five women invokes Joan Jett and Def Leppard and Led Zeppelin with grit and even more power, as they rip through covers and several originals. And yes, they have Billy Idol and Rebel Yell on the set list.

— Outside my building, there is roofing going on in this the season of construction. Which means there until the other day was a dumpster in the street’s parking zone and a ladder from the rooftop — this ain’t no rooftop bar, like just down the block — to the curb between said street and the sidewalk. Don’t walk under it, maybe in stroller with your 13-year-old baby like in the Stevie Wonder song Superstition, or there are seven years of bad luck. And don’t lose track of such things if walking back home drunk from The Smilin’ Moose.
So I veered around the ladder and did the tightrope walk along the edge of the curb. Then reminded two young ladies walking the same stretch of sidewalk that its bad for your luck’s health the stay on the straight and narrow, so to speak, of the sidewalk, with what was coming up.
Sure enough, they deviated course from the main part of the walkway, and took a bend with their walk around the ladder. No pieces of torn-up shingle would fall on them. —

These rebel ladies have been known, at least the lead singer, to be poised in an on-motorcycle pose onstage, ala Priest or should I say priestess, and the group isn’t at all bashful at having all its members take their turn doing solos, whether for just a few bars or extended. They place music from some of the harder bands of the ’70s and ’80s, but show variety, and in interviews this ten-year-old outfit has really lit up about taking in a show by the also all-woman group, and influence, Vixen from back in that heyday, and sharing the stage along with a renowned guitarist from Alice Cooper’s band, Nito Strauss, at First Avenue’s Seventh Street Entry. They say they like doing outdoor shows and have also played prominently (twice) at Cadott’s summer Rock Fest, and The Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis. The Rebel Queens at such shows can be a bit saucy and sexy, and although still keeping some of their early glam rock imagery, tone it down a little for family-oriented shows. And they do also get into songs by the plainer Janis Joplin. And back to glam with Aerosmith.
Their songs have gotten plenty of airplay on The Current in the Twin Cities, and at times have been in regular rotation.
The group has kept two consistent members throughout its course, but at other positions has changed players now and then, and the result has been really honing their sound and style. And their relatively new lead guitarist, for example, really kicks it.
But we start with the lead vocalist. You can hear strength with a bit of rasp in her powerful voice that reminds one of Joan Jett, but in some songs, including a cover and adding a bit of wail, she could be the female version of the lead singer from Jackyl. The vocal guts and volume are also like that of a number of other prominent female singers, and at times amped up from that.
They speak of being existential in their lyrics writing of originals, and there is substance there. One of their many music videos shows the group’s members riding down a lonesome country road and stopping on the shoulder to do some singing and partying, and passersby a bit at a time join the gathering until it becomes, as the song sings about in a common theme, a full blown celebration of community and the empowerment that comes with that. During the outtro, a single vehicle is shown driving away, back the other direction.
Another original speaks of not needing to be dependent on a man, financially or otherwise, and going on a cross-country journey without him and finding herself, then returning stronger. This could be singing verse like Miranda Lambert, on steroids and higher voice and snarl.
My favorite, though, is an extended version of a performance at our area’s Doghouse, about a month ago, of Ted Nugent’s Stranglehold, where the guitarist does some creative stuff I’ve seldom seen, and despite going on much longer than even Ted himself, it stays fresh and interesting. She takes more than one turn of sliding her fingers up and down the guitar neck, several times in succession, and in the bit where she rapidly plucks with both hands, she has them held several inches apart, not on adjoining frets. The singer near the end comes in with a wail matching the guitar, ala Pantera’s Cemetery Gates. All around there are stands of roses, a symbol of the band.
There may be a bit of symbolism here, as the song makes reference to wielding of power, and the musicians when not playing their solos take a seated position, possibly showing deference to a masterful performance by one of their mates.

UFO Days in Elmwood took root, among many other sightings, of a spacecraft above a rock quarry, complete with laser show, decades ago, so it’s fitting that amidst its music acts there would be rock.
And maybe a guest appearance by members of a band of many brothers who then come out of a pod together. (Just kidding, but such humor abounds at UFO Days, held again this weekend.)
There is Carly Rogers (rather than Simon or Wayne) on Thursday evening, July 25, who opens things up like a pod with her performance at The Sandbar, Hoft and Teressa on Thursday in a basically simultaneous show at Kern’s Kurbside on Thursday evening, and in street dances, 3 Bucks & Change on Friday night, and the Rebel Queens on Saturday night. Both the above-named bars have live music on Sunday afternoon.
The band, that plays for, 3 Bucks & (some) Change, hits hard with the Doobie Brothers and their song Long Train Running, by use of (we’ll go with their Caps), Flute, Guitar, Harmonica, Mandolin, Percussion, Trumpet and yes Vocals, and the Music Genres of Country, Dance, Jazz, Polka, Rock and World Music.
New attractions at UFO Days 2024 are, among other things, confirmation of five different speakers/authors/scientists giving podcasts (fitting) and speeches and video.

There could be star power, as it’s rumored that resident-alien mascot Ofu himself will moderate some of the presentations. (If not he for sure will be at the parade at 2 p.m. Sunday.)
That’s if he can find nearby housing, as he allegedly has been foreclosed upon by those nasty Men In Black, who have government orders not to attend the proceedings, so less star power as far as actual bigger-name actors. But Ofu has reportedly put up his spaceship as collateral to buy local houses that in actuality, have entered into the alien ambiance via an activity new this year, a decorating contest, where he hopes to live with his fellow aliens brother Nofu and alien animal lifeform and pet Fufu. Nofu, a doctor in alienology, hopes to raise mortgage money by operating triage units, as there is plenty of such need these days, at the bottom of the very quarry, or crater, where local police officer George Wheeler first saw his spacecraft scoping out medical experiment sites back in the 1970s. It is thought that some of the rock crystals, or minerals there, can be very useful in other-worldly healing.
OK, most of that is standard UFO Days humor. But the five presentations and the house decorating contest are real.
And for a preview of the act at this alien fest that might be considered its apex, the Rebel Queens on Saturday night, see a followup post in about two days.

So it finally happened. Some wingnut with a weapon winged the wigged ear of a presidential candidate.

It’s amazing this didn’t take place sooner. Or that Biden was not the one shot at. Such rigors had not occurred since 1981, when someone took a potshot at Ronald Reagan. But history repeats itself.

But really, the political climate is much the same in present day as it was 44 years ago. Just the faces that are endangered have changed.

Let’s have at it. 1980s and now. A polarizing leader and/or opposition, who has run up high budget deficits, charisma over character, fear-mongering (and warmongering) versus pacifism (if you look closely), extremely divergent views of what is morality and ethics, an overall lack of (perceived?) morality in the culture, and as was in the 1960s, musicians were about the only ones out there preaching justice.

Not to digress further but … Heavy metal and the like, with their lyrically poignant themes, was heavily on the rise — at one point playing a concert in front of 1.6 million people in Russia and Mr. Gorbachev — and it’s on the re-rise now, and it was as if Ronald Reagan had given birth to the metal genre. (For all his pontification, it was under his command that this fine country sponsored at least one torture school, applied largely to poor farmers and pious nuns in central America, all in the name of fighting an overtrumped communist threat, and largely, it could be argued, for political gain. And decades later, we still have a prison for our opponents where the conditions are hell, not a hell of a lot better.)

Back in my teens back in the Reagan Era, in a household where politics as usual weren’t really followed, there was quite a bit of talk about Carter transitioning into Reagan, and who got a bad rap.

And so we as a country argued about ethics, and continue to argue.

And marginalized groups get violent. And counter-violent? As per the dictates and limits of their philosophies. In our country that is increasingly like the Wild, Wild West in its use of gunfire.

I now, and most prominently, will offer this, as in the mantra of location, location, location. I cite continuum, continuum, continuum …

I am not condoning that anyone shoot a president, or leader in religion or the arts, or what have you. But I think there comes a tipping point, however far afield, where it could be argued that the world, or at least the majority of its members, would be better served if a particular leader were taken from power by whatever means necessary. This is not an advocacy statement, merely one that is boldly philosophical in its pragmatism.

Obviously, such a tipping point would have to find its end practically buried in the ground. This is where the continuum comes in, way at or near its end point. There are (at least a certain few) dictators in this world, and have been for time immortal, that could be said to fit the bill – get the bums outta here. But even that judgment is subjective, so best left alone if at all possible. Do not pre-judge what a leader will do, but maybe their policies will not show to be badly damning until after they play out on the national and world stage. I gotta mention, as one example, Bush and the 2007 fallout of One Of The Greatest Banking Crises To Hit The USA.

But much more telling and flat out dangerous with what’s at stake — what if, in say mid-1930s Germany, a citizen with rooftop rifle who might be thought to be enlightened had a clear shot at Hitler. Should he take it?

Or a more gray area, what if that future leader is someone from the (very) Far Right in Europe?

There is a (rare) exception to every rule. And I am here to say that such exceptions are very few.

With that said, just where is there such a tipping point? And who makes the determination? And what in exact terms are the criteria for such? These are very, very thorny questions … So if it seems I am dancing around the question, that’s why.
Again, on where to place that tipping point, people have varying tolerances, which obviously can be a good thing, or bad in that if we will let them get away with more, the damage is done first and it may be beyond repair. Will Hitler stop with Poland? Would Russia in the 1980s stop its expansionism in the height of the Cold War? Will Putin stop with the Ukraine?

Various philosophies have offered guidance on how much we would take – and they too pad their suggestions with utmost caution.

In the end, maybe all of this needs to be left to the infinite, and inevitable, but only eventual triumph of the marketplace of ideas, that truth will after all prevail.

But the very threat should guide leaders who think to get too greedy. And we must thank God for Biden exercising as much restrain as possible right now, and urging profound calm. He must know deep in the back of his mind that for sheer political expediency, nothing could have been better for him than for the shooter to be better at his craft.

But there are better thinkers out there than I, and here is a sample of what they offer.

Turn the other cheek, main guideline. And in any distribution of justice, the punishment must fit the crime, and not be any harsher. That’s where we get the meaning behind “an eye for an eye …”

Then in a philosophy that’s at a counterpoint to that in the Bible. If someone wrongs you and will not repent, give them every chance, in a one last chance, to make amends, and if not you are said to have an ethical right and yes even responsibility, to dispatch them, presumably to take them out of the gene pool. That comes from Satanism, in the main way it is practiced.

So both sides have weighed in, and many in-between, which in itself shows that it’s a vital issue, and neither says to just go out and shoot straight at someone who has allegedly done you wrong.

Deep Purple singeth, “See the blind man, shooting at the world … Wait for the ricochet.”

So what to do? How about this as an approach: When a leader is deemed to have simply gone too far, take away legislatively the executive functions that allow him or her to proceed unfettered. For this to be done at the ballot box may not be too practical, sorry to say, but this is where the added checks and balances of the Supreme Court come in. Have this body be by election of the people only, so a president cannot basically buy their way into more power by using the judicial branch, and have the requirement for seating this justice be not a simple majority, but a 6-3 margin, to minimize the potential damage of unwise use of the ballot.

If time becomes timeless, they may be the fairest of the fair, in this case the one for all of St. Croix County held in Glenwood City all this weekend.
The Memories are back there, again, and again, such as this Saturday at 7 p.m. with their musical variety show. (The following is an interview, slightly edited for timeliness, that ran on this website in 2016.)
Just how long ago does such recognition throughout the region and beyond, well, go? As far as The Memories, they were inducted to the Wisconsin Association of Fairs’ Hall of Fame way back in 1995.

— In last weekend’s square off between the popular pair of River Falls Days and New Richmond’s Fun Days, which merited a one-two placement on the front page of the Hudson Star-Observer, Hudson between bergs was otherwise left out in the cold, for nightlife traffic. Of those few out, two of them (solitary?), a woman and man, were complaining at length of much more than a minute, that someone was following them. Should be easy to spot the guy.
How many were out in RF, not to mention NR? One guy put it this way, if you ventured just outside of any bar or business, there were so many people crowding onto the sidewalk to take their smoke, that no one else could find the sidewalk. Bookends too, for the Marlboro and Mainstream Manly Morris Tobacco booths. Haha. —

As many groups do, The Memories got their start singing and playing music while in high school choir and band in Boyceville, not far from the fairgrounds. In summer 1972, they were asked to perform for a friend’s wedding dance and 44 years later Warren Petryk and Tim Stevens are still making music together. They now have performed at the county fair for 37 straight years.
In what started out as a very part-time adventure, Warren and Tim, along with classmate and fellow founding member, John Lynch, performed anywhere and everywhere they could: village halls, golf courses, high schools, community festivals, wedding dances, night clubs, bowling alleys, street dances, ballrooms, barn dances, supper clubs and even ski resorts included.
There have been many highlights through the years. Among them are:
– In March 1975, the group won first place at a regional talent contest held at the Black Steer Supper Club in Eau Claire, the first of many such contests captured.
– In 1979, they performed the entire six-day run of the Northern Wisconsin State Fair, serving as its Goodwill Ambassadors.
– Appeared as the opening acts for several nationally known artists, such as Merle Haggard, Alabama, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ricky Nelson, Ray Price and a special show with Barbara Mandrell at the 1979 Barron Farm and Feather Fest.
– In 1983, they took first in the country band contest of the Rhinelander Hodag Country Music Fest, and the same year were winners in the Wisconsin Country Music Band Contest sponsored by Wrangler Jeans and Dodge Trucks. That’s Old School.
– Produced over (now more) 30 different recordings, which include 45s, albums, eight-track tapes, cassette tapes and compact discs.
– Performed annual Christmas concerts at the Mabel Tainter Theater in Menomonie for 30 years, (back in 2016) and counting.
And, the seed that planted the whole entertainment bug: Being runnerup in the Boyceville Cucumber Festival talent contest in 1971 for a cash prize of $10.
At their peak, “The Boys from Boyceville” were full-time entertainers and traveled from coast to coast for 200 days a year. In 1995, they scaled back to a part-time schedule, and in September 2000, Tim and Warren began a new phase when they started performing as a duo. Today, they continue the tradition of their trademark, “Music, Laughter and Wonderful Times,” by appearing at a select number of events each year, obviously including the county fair.
“I think there a few things that make us ‘different.’ We try our best to make sure our shows feature great songs, performed well from a musical standpoint. But also, that our shows are entertaining, interesting and fun for our audiences,” Tim said, adding that the band members were fortunate that they were best friends before they started performing together. “We have been told many times through the years that our friendship really comes across to our audiences when we are on stage.”
Growing up together in western Wisconsin, they not only know each other extremely well, but also their audiences and the people and history of the area, even beyond the pandemic. “We bring that to the stage with us,” Tim said.
“As far as what is different with our show as a duo, it may sound basic, but I think we have continued to develop a tighter performance ….and that comes from being on stage with the same guy for thousands of performances for nearly 44 years,” (now 52), Tim said, adding that for the last 16 of those years, there was actually the involvement of “two friends – Warren and myself.”

A half hour following this 7 p.m. show, there is more free live music, across the way and part of the midway.
The Weekenders then will bring it with honky tonk classic country with an attitude! This could be the reincarnation of Willie and Waylon and the Boys, and Hank Williams, the original one, combined. Sure to be train songs.
Also fittingly, this is held at the Tiffany Creek Pavilion, north of Horse Arena, so gallop in. They may sing, save a horse, ride a cowboy, like them.

If that’s not enough, at 9 p.m. there is something dreamingly different, if you are not spreading yourself too thin, that in Lizzy the Dream Girl, who is a very entertaining hypnotist.

There is something in the music, with two acts starting it off on Friday evening, of the St. Croix County Fair that even that curmudgeon in your family could love. Of those, few could crab about the Crabgrass Band, and the White Side Walls has been around since near the beginning of doo-wop. So there is something for all ages, even those who count their carbs while watching the solos of Crabgrass grow. And those who made them their meals – and exposed them to classic music.
The fair’s music, the main parts of it, start taking the stage in Glenwood City before the sun sets on Friday, and then there are two more bands on Saturday evening.

— Booster Days and there was breakin’ stuff, like Korn: Somebody smashed the lower right one-quarter of the family barber shop, near the corner of Vine and Second, probably kicking it in, like the Beastie Boys. For a day or two, the big placard that said “open” was placed behind to block the door’s crackage, and then it was fixed, like the end, and added to the right window alongside was something even far more impressive was added: A lifesize image of someone who I think was supposed to be one of the proprietors, complete with handlebar ‘stache and a cool ‘doo called by tattoo ‘classic.’ And at my building there also appeared, at first glance, to be some cracks in the side glass of the door, but low and behold it was only some long leaf reflections. —

Crabgrass, hailing from Baldwin where they are likely to have some of that, in a good way, like many groups is a fun band that plays classic rock as well some newer rock, read contemporary and this makes them different, and country, but we can’t say for sure it’s classic. Could be newer too, in what could be seen as a theme here. And they are said to shoot a great golf game, between actively hitting community fests. As they are on par with their hitsmanship. And Crabgrass locally, and there are a number of stateside bands taking that same name, could be seen as playing the Cranberries. Or so I think.
But although there are two stages at the fair, concert-friendly distance apart, they are only what could be seen as a warmup act for … And there have been drum rolls many hundreds of times …
The White Side Walls.

Hailing from the golden days, as they see it, of their type of music back in the days from 1954 to 1964, with yes the summer of love smack dab in the middle, they have a full as can I say it, Woodstock, 65 bands on their play list. Most of them have a second song by such an artist, as well, but don’t load up on any one – although Elvis is obvious – as they run the gamut from the standards you would expect to those cool B-sides and bands that are great but not popularly known to be on the A list.
Founder Hound Dog, Swanee (hey I recognize that name from going way back in the machine), Bobby Maestro (gotta love that name too), all share keyboard duties, which is really cool, not just that one guy in back who is on the piano once in a while, and one other thing they share is that they are from both our states. Since the White Side Walls had their genesis almost 50 years ago — that’s longer ago than even the now aging Phil Collins or other bandmember Peter Gabriel — their signature Rock ‘n’ Roll Revue has been the Midwest’s top 1950s and 1960s doo-wop and show band of light to moderate rock and roll, and all styles rolling around those genres, with a loyal fan base that had continued to grow even years back and show support for their fave five-member group.
I first saw them at a more suburban and large community fest closer to the onset, and they were tight in both their arrangements and vocal harmonies, and the way they and their instruments took advantage of, and indeed filled the entire stage, so you could see every member. And they even still have most of their hair, upon last look.
The White Side Walls come on at 7 p.m. and at a different stage (yes the fair has two!), the Crabgrass Band plays at 7:30. Slightly staggered, so take in a bit of both?

You may find it strange that I, a Democrat, am questioning Trump’s 34 felony count conviction — success obtained — and building a case for replacing it with trial for a single lesser count.
“And Justice For All” proves poignant all over again, if only in a bass-ackwards sort of way. It’s not just a Metallica concert banger.
Here’s the first of my two-part jist. Haven’t you, virtually all of you, ever fudged on your income taxes, which is even more a concern than what you put in the memo slot of your personal and/or business accounting. So in this rare case, are Trump’s travails even really a crime, or is the crime a creative mashup of existing laws, force fit into a new legal argument against a specific offender, done by attorneys over-eager for an indictment.
So dudes, (forego?) entry of “dues?” Your “baby” needs new shoes? Or spike heels? Just list that you’d bought them for your secretary, or …, and write-off the purchase for (expensive but she needed a bonus) wardrobe allowance, (though maybe have your fingers flip when entering the year.) Such practices are common enough that they don’t even make special two-way pencils for facilitating the two separate sets of these books. Can be a myth, but only involving Bond and his bombers. In England they may have different laws, and if I understand right, they use spanking for punishment, which might prompt Trump to rush to the barrister. Or, indite Q if he kept no paper trail of fake ink. From and for those (mad) scientists who’d stick all of combined human intelligence and intellect into the size of a fingernail clipping. A bonanza of potential legal fodder.
The sentence? Trump awaits July 11. Like the last two letters of and in Hell. Or 9-11.
The Judge: Trump would not necessarily have known about campaign law language in 1916, even after bragging bigtime about it to Larry King in the 1990s. But thousands of hours in lawyer time have been logged. Maybe they just should have used a few more to research the differences enacted in 20-or-so years. Then make a decision on Trump’s where-with-all of such hush-money wonderment.
Do Trump’s legal misdeeds matter to you, a witness was asked? Not at all. “I’m a businessman myself.” Did you too cheat the IRS/others? And are now cavalier about it?
In the same half-hour, it was revealed that billionaires each year bilk the government out of $150 billion.
Note not millions of dollars. With Trump’s legal defense cost it would take a few dollars from every man, woman and child in the US. Sell to them many more signed Bibles and/or ill-gotten Stormy Daniels posters. Her (basic and not black dress?) of “fee charged” was likely quite extravagant, but needed since there’s been divestiture in Stormy Daniels movie companies.

Still, Trump was delaying the agreed upon payments at “length” until close to the “vote.” He complained it was too cold in the court room, like him in the bedroom, with shrinkage. Dante would have to weigh in on this: Fire and brimstone, and fury and false figures floundering. No temp interest was expressed until Trump arrived off the bus, then was thrown under the bus, in both cases like the flick reviews.
Exit from the court was made into a range of limos. Not a jail cell, if just the right size to puke in, wait that could be from her succumbing, but Trump will likely be treated to somewhat bigger corporate measurements? Would his eventual cell indeed be larger? With the Chambers, and not Marilyn, being the size of a love seat, only.
This since not much knowledge and less room is needed in appealing and accommodating any legal documents; they’ve appallingly been back at his estate.
Way back at the start, it was revealed that the trial viewership from John Q Public — measuring its IQ? — was at 97 percent when Stormy Daniels stormed up to the stage, was expected to drop to 61 if Trump took the stand, and hovered around 59 percent during miscellaneous experts. Who would you want to watch, and it could be worse if at a trial for multiple murders, as serial killers are invariably really ugly? (Or trust stats from?) (If power of the press, ever Trump and I were to be picked out of a lineup, mano-a-mano, by Stormy Daniels if she had worn a blindfold and had to choose her former lover by “feel,” pundits dropped their cringeworthy viewer estimate to 13 percent. Dips to single digits when Trump takes off his rug, and lower single digits when he puts it back on.) 

But getting back to the less whimsical … Stormy Daniels was paid a $130,000 hush money fee — eventually. I have to wonder, with the added caveat that I’m thinking this was not done for free in the first place, would that not be prostitution? Making Trump out to be a john? And Stormy Daniels an accompliss? However, in any case, the acts she did may have served as a soon-coming presidential service, since this is the hardest job in the land and sex relieves stress and anxiety. Just not administered with a DC doc’s care. Would Trump give Stormy Daniels a pardon later, or chide her with a bad review. So if Trump’s legal bills continue to skyrocket like a Fourth of July firecracker, maybe he’ll have to operate a special edition of the major Capital newspapers and limaric contests, with an entry fee, and belly up on paying the winner, like this was a casino construction project all over again. My fave from a prior presidency as precedent printing was the winner who referred to skillful Monica Lewinsky “playing the presidential flute.”

— Foregoing limos, the 11th annual Tractor Caravan, growing in popularity and held in conjunction with the St. Croix County Fair, is in memory of Dick Sullwold.
It’s a full week ahead of the main events as the kickoff, that starting Wednesday, mid-July. So bring your farm tractor on Saturday of most any model and take an old-fashioned tour of eastern St. Croix County and its hills and fields and byways, county and maybe state highways and town roads and bergs. The caravan leaves the fairgrounds in Glenwood City at 10 a.m. The full 2024 route has just been determined.
And then Saturday, July 13, its not only the start of SCC Fair judging, but the Theatre of Pain back at The GasLite in Ellsworth as part of a motorcycle rally to aid the battle against teen suicide starting at The Corral in Durand, kickstands (kickstarted?) and up at 11 a.m. On the other end, the Motley Crue tribute band, the one many think the best coming out of the Twin Cities, takes the outdoor stage at 8 p.m. and has a bandanda lead singer who really fits the bill visually, and the warmup act Ratz, the recompense theme here is they go Round and Round as a same-era-and-style Ratt tribute band, also sports such a photo in their promo. There is a live auction right after the ride. Those with a BATS wristband get free camping overnight. —