Claim Jumping

I have observed the advancement of a homegrown Wisconsin boy, Sean Duffy, from afar.  With some admiration too.  What's not to like about a lumberjack from Hayward, WI?

Indeed, Duffy was a professional lumberjack having competed in Hayward's Lumberjack World Championship on several occasions and winning multiple titles in speed climbing.  He graduated from St. Mary's College of Minnesota with a marketing degree and from William Mitchell College of Law in 1999.  In 2002 governor Scott McCallum appointed Duffy as Ashland County District Attorney where he served until 2010.

In 2010 he defeated state senator Julie Lassa for Wisconsin's 7th Congressional district; formerly held by retiring representative David Obey.  Duffy was re-elected four more times before resigning from Congress in 2019 on account of a newborn child's health complications. After leaving Congress Duffy worked for a consulting group and began co-hosting Fox Business's The Bottom Line in 2023.  

In November 2024, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Duffy to serve as his Secretary of Transportation.  Duffy was confirmed by the Senate on January 28, 2025 and immediately sworn-in.

As cabinet Secretary Duffy isn't generally associated with much of the drama and intrigue that ordinarily follows other cabinet officials.  Much of this is a consequence of a department not generally bedeviled by the culture wars, there is institutional inherited momentum in the pipeline (pardon the pun), ribbon cuttings are positive events and any project delays can be chalked-up to government bureaucracy.  Because bricks and mortar are basically boring background noise Transportation is likely the quietly safest cabinet post on the planet.  Which leads me to this:  Scuttlebutt that Secretary Duffy is taking credit for infrastructure grants signed into law by former president Biden. 

Say it isn't so.

With a modicum of digging it is quite so.

Seems Duffy is touting BUILD grants (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) as rebranded RAISE grants (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) created and funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Biden in 2021.  

Critics note that the Trump administration has been resurrecting previously-passed legislation with new names while not always acknowledging their origin under the former guy.

Official messaging from Duffy and the Department frequently describe moving or approving grants emphasizing that the Trump administration is clearing a backlog or getting America building again of previously announced projects.  Such messaging frames the work as a fresh accomplishment by the current administration - omitting any reference to funding under Biden. 

Representative O'Brien meets with Transportation Secretary Duffy to discuss the I-69 Ohio River Crossing.  The ORX bridge involves a mix of federal, state (Kentucky and Indiana) and toll authority funding for the estimated $933 million project.  The states are pursuing $632.3 million in major federal grants, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds. 

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) signed in 2021 was huge; authorizing roughly $1.2 trillion in infrastructure funding much of which continues to be allocated and spent as you read this.

In the year since Trump took office not a single stand-alone infrastructure law has been passed.  Major federal infrastructure authorizations all stem from laws passed before Joe Biden left office.  

Noteworthy, is the administration has focused on regulation and permitting; pushing changes intended to speed-up infrastructure approvals by means of revising matters such as environmental permitting.  Recent rollbacks of long-standing environmental review requirements aim to reduce delays on large projects which supporters suggest accelerates infrastructure work without creating entirely new federal infrastructure spending authorizations.

Nevertheless, the current administration has not passed into law any large scale infrastructure spending of its own.  Major funding still originates from earlier bipartisan legislation enacted under former President Biden or other existing statutory authority.

It's not exactly like plagiarizing a term paper as much as it is more like stealing someone else's thunder.  Or maybe their lunch from the office break room fridge.  And much like never accepting responsibility for anything that goes awry; the administration is quick to message another's work as their own and take credit and recognition for someone else's efforts.  All in the name of benefiting from unearned achievements passed-off as their own.  

Nothing new under the sun; we've all been to this rodeo before..... 

Oleo Wars

Reprint from the pages of "Hoard's Dairyman" magazine issued to influence public opinion in Wisconsin where the sale of colored margarine was prohibited by law 

Once upon a time margarine was illegal in Wisconsin. 

That’s right. For over 70 years, Wisconsin banned the production and sale of buttery-yellow oleomargarine and we were the last state in the nation to uphold oleo bans.  As a child my dad and his brother would periodically team-up and make a run across the Illinois border where there was  a thriving business selling cases of margarine to Wisconsinites  who would drive back over the border with trunk loads of bootleg oleo. 

59 years ago on July 1, 1967, the sale and production of yellow oleomargarine was finally legalized in Wisconsin.  

Oleo was seen as a substitute for butter and gained popularity during the butter shortage of WWII. Dairy distributors didn’t like this imitation-butter one bit, which led to Wisconsin upholding oleo bans for more than seven decades.

Nevertheless, Wisconsin state law still strictly regulates butter and margarine in restaurants and it is a criminal offense to substitute margarine for butter unless a customer specifically requests it.

The law on the books is Wisconsin Statute 97.18(4), which explicitly states:

"The serving of colored oleomargarine or margarine at a public eating place as a substitute for table butter is prohibited unless it is ordered by the customer."

 Learn more about the oleo wars here.  

President Trump Pays a Call To The Farm

Yup; the City Slicker from the Borough of Queens blew-in to Wisconsin a couple days ago and maybe got his shoes dirty.  But I doubt it. This was all for show because things have become increasingly uncertain in farmland world.  By and large, farmers continue to support the president.  Why?  Trump gets it.  The truth is not in his actual policies but in his showing-up to address their fears.  How to make farmers think he sees them; the people that live in fly-over country.

For as long as I can recall I have not held any particular fondness for the Communist Red-Chinese government.  They have raised the theft of intellectual property to an art form and have bamboozled the trade negotiators of every administration for just as long; including Trump 1.0 and now Trump 2.0 as well.

If I had a rational discussion with a Trump supporter I would hear a case that the recent troubles felt by family farmers and ranchers are simply short-term nuisances that are necessary to challenge long-standing, unfair trade practices by foreign countries; China in particular.

And I suppose that my interlocutor would likely suggest that it is only "strong medicine," such as an aggressive tariff strategy, followed-on by subsequent renegotiation that would result-in better more structurally-sound and long-term trade deals.  Fair-enough.

Yes, American agriculture is a complex subject; nevertheless, my immediate neighborhood is an almost exclusively agricultural community.  We own a farm and farm policy is of personal interest.  Consequently, and anecdotally, I hear and have some tingly sense that patience may be wearing thin. Hardly for all but certainly for some.

And I am not alone; numerous agricultural economists and trade orgs - who know more about this than I do - would argue that Trump policy-making initiatives have resulted in no small amount of financial strain for American family farms. 

Specifically, the strong medicine and its side effects include: lost export markets, rising input costs, financial instability leading to bankruptcies and dependency upon federal subsidies.  

Let's dissect each.

Mr. Trump has famously expounded-upon his love of tariffs; thusly when your only tool is a hammer every trade issue is treated like a nail.  The extensive use of tariffs - particularly Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act - has led to retaliatory measures from major trade partners, including China.  This impacts an expansive list of stuff ranging from auto parts to semiconductors.  While most certainly the president and possibly my interlocutor might erroneously persist with the notion that foreigners pay these tariffs and make us wealthy beyond belief; the truth is that import companies pay them and pass the cost on to US businesses and consumers.  Just like a sales tax, tariffs make imported goods costlier.  Another unintended and equally unfortunate outcome is loss of market share.   

For decades China has been the undisputed heavyweight champion when it came to buying American soybeans.  It is a fact that the Chinese used to be the largest buyer of our beans than the rest of the world combined.  From the end of May through November of last year China did not purchase a single American soybean, choosing to do business with other countries instead.  As a result of Trump's import taxes China responded with an imposition of their own duties along with a boycott of American beans.  Sales, along with domestic prices, plunged.  Meanwhile, American agricultural exports to Canada decreased by more than $1 billion largely as a consequence of Canadian boycotts of American products.

Farm economists now point to the acceleration of a structural shift in markets with China permanently diverting its agricultural purchases to competing nations.  Even after a handful of temporary trade truces were reached American farmers today have a significantly reduced share of the global market.

What about input costs?  The president would tell you that tariffs are intended to protect domestic manufacturing.  And while that might be a necessary and useful tool to shield boutique specialty industries; when applied in broad swaths these trade taxes increase the cost of raw materials used to manufacture heavy machinery.

Not surprisingly, manufacturers like Deere are faced with higher production costs due to tariffs on metal, microchips and other component parts which are passed on to farmers in the form of higher prices for Deere tractors, harvesters and combines.  Even Trump knows this as the administration relented and temporarily reduced the offending taxes impacting agricultural equipment from 25% to 15%. 

And then, of course, Donald Trump made a unilateral decision to go to war with Iran resulting in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.  This set in motion a cascade of destabilizing events that have dangerous consequences for global stability, security and the world's economy.  This has spiked energy costs and disrupted the the global supply of nitrogen and urea.  Some fertilizer prices are up 47% year-over-year.  For us here in the northern hemisphere the manure hit the fan before spring planting.  What were they thinking? 

Putting-on my financial guy hat, I am now witness to a perfect storm of reduced export commodity prices and skyrocketing operational costs conspiring to squeeze profit margins.  

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, last year, America's crop farmers lost $34.6 billion and farm bankruptcies surged to numbers not seen since 2020.  In farm states like Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin there is now a sharp uptick in family farm bankruptcies and foreclosures.

To cushion the gut punch from his unilateral trade war Trump has authored the distribution of billions upon billions of direct aid including a $12 billion market facilitation package and the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program. 

These payments are a lifeline to keep farmers afloat; nevertheless, they smell peculiarly of Soviet-style central economic planning.  Or garden variety welfare; you pick.

From a purely economic perspective none of these subsidies assist the local rural economy.  Almost all of it went to multinational fertilizer and seed syndicates and large corporate landlords.  Moreover, welfare payments distort market economics resulting in an unstable environment where farmers become dependent on federal intervention rather than stable global commerce.  See previous paragraph.

So when I opened with the observation that the president's visit was mostly for show ask yourself if following Mr. Trump's departure did anything change for Wisconsin farmers?

Have lost export markets returned?  Have import duties gone away?  Has the price of fertilizer, diesel or purchased and leased equipment come down?  The Strait of Hormuz might reopen tomorrow; yet because things are so horribly broken any return to normalcy will take a year or more.  That does nothing to stem the immediate rise in bankruptcies and foreclosures for family farms.  

Farmers like to joke about why they don't gamble or place wagers in the prediction markets.  They'll tell you every season already comes with enough business crippling risks to satisfy anybody's passing itch to speculate.  Ham-fisted government policy getting in the way simply exacerbates the risks.  Increasing dependency on the federal dole to mask flawed policy in both trade and war is a failed strategy by any historical measure.

Farming is hard work and unlike an IPO or private equity wealth comes slow and steady.  America's family farms are not experiencing some transitory short-term hardship; they are disappearing.  Bankruptcies were up 55 percent in 2024, 46 percent in 2025 and 70 percent already by May of this year.  It will be interesting to follow how support for the president holds-up amongst farm producers for the remainder of his term.   

Time will tell.... 

Highway Patrol

Yup, Wisconsin State Patrol pays a visit; again.

This time with a 1956 Chevrolet 210 4-door sedan including dark blue on white paint and the still-familiar door badge.  In the 1950s Wisconsin was transitioning from motorcycles and under powered patrol cars to V8-driven high speed patrol and pursuit vehicles.  Chevrolet was a natural fit as a consequence of their reliable small block V8 motors, availability of a statewide maintenance network and a lower fleet cost than Chrysler or Ford.  

click on image for a closer look

This vehicle was identical in virtually all respects with the Chevy Bel Air; hosting the same drive train (engines and transmissions) chassis and suspension.  As a trim line the Bel Air sported costlier chrome and flashier trim.  Police agencies eschewed such extravagance and opted for the less-ostentatious utilitarian appearance of the 150 and 210 models.  

Our State Patrol rolled courtesy of a 265 cu. in. V8 equipped with a 2-barrel carburetor rated at 170 HP.  A few vehicles in the fleet were upgraded to the 4-barrel Power Pack 205 HP model.  A 3-speed manual transmission was standard for patrol duty.  Naturally, this was a vehicle with rear-wheel drive and equipped with fleet specification rear axles, heavy duty springs, shocks and reinforced frames.

Standard equipment included a single rotating red gumball roof beacon, a driver's side spotlight, a roof-mounted whip radio antenna, hi-output fender-mounted siren and painted steel wheels including dog-dish hubcaps.

Notable in this photo is the absence of the trooper's ubiquitous Smokey Bear hat.  That's because he is outfitted in winter kit including a cold weather fur service cap and his Sam Browne belt. 

You're probably wondering if there was a Motorola radio lurking in that cruiser.  The answer is of-course.  By the mid-1950s Motorola enjoyed a virtual monopoly on law-enforcement radio contracts.  Motorola radio technology enjoyed operability across agencies, exceedingly reliable rural coverage and factory support based in Chicago and other major population centers.  By the time 19655-56 rolled-around, virtually all state patrol sedans nationwide were equipped with Motorola radios.

And if you're a bad guy fleeing the long arm of the law you may have a fast set of wheels; but you can't outrun Motorola.... 

1955 Chevy in LAPD Livery

 

Highway Patrol

Dodge was a significant player in the the highway patrol and police cruiser marketplace over the years.  Here's a classic for you.

A 1965-66 Dodge Polara in dark blue and white livery sporting a Wisconsin State Patrol shield.  The officer in the photo is sporting the traditional State Patrol dress uniform of the era and a Smokey Bear hat that persists today.  

Chrysler's C-body lineup was a favorite of police departments for their durability and reliability, straight lines and wide stance and in Wisconsin for wintertime performance.  Powered by a standard 383 V8 rated at 330 horsepower; a 413 V8 and 440 V8 were also available.  A heavy-duty, police spec, Tourqueflite automatic transmission tied it all together.  

Naturally, the suspension, alternator, radiator, brakes, wiring harness and more were higher capacity and heavier duty that civilian models.  Upholstery was vinyl.  These vehicles were factory-equipped with a Motorola two-way radio (with a whip antenna), shotgun rack, a single red rotating "gumball" roof beacon and exterior siren.   

This smiling dude is the proud owner of a restored 1965 Dodge Cornet police cruiser...

 

   

Highway Patrol

Preferred by police fleets everywhere this happens to be a 1956 Wisconsin State Patrol Customline police interceptor.  

And a 1957 Michigan State Trooper and his Ford 300 Cruiser.

Available in both two or four-door configurations it features a new easy-handling ball-joint front suspension, Angle Poised Ride (whatever that is) and Ford Lifeguard engineering.

 You can dissect all of the specifications here.

Remember....

You can't outrun Motorola.

Are You Old Fashioned?

If states had official cocktails, as they do mottos, Wisconsin’s would certainly be the brandy old fashioned.  The original Old Fashioned is a simple cocktail dating back to the early 1800s, made with whiskey (often bourbon or rye), sugar, bitters, and a twist of citrus.  Why brandy and not whiskey, as is customary elsewhere?  Might it be a penchant for fruit brandies that Germans brought to Wisconsin in the 19th century?  

Could it be marketing?  Some say Korbel’s introduction of its brandy in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago turned the heads of Wisconsin Germans who visited the fair and then spread the word when they returned.  American GIs stationed in Europe during WWII developed a taste for European brandies. When they returned home—especially in heavily German-influenced states like Wisconsin—they kept drinking it.  

By the 1950s, Wisconsin bartenders were commonly making Old Fashioneds with Korbel brandy instead of whiskey. They also began muddling cherries and orange slices, sweetening it more than the original, and adding options like: Sweet (with 7Up or Sprite), Sour (with Squirt or sour mix) or Press (half 7Up, half seltzer water).

Nowadays,  Old Fashioned's go hand in hand with another beloved regional institution, the supper club. This is the cocktail so prevalent as an evening starter that bartenders can practically mix them with their eyes closed.

Fast Facts -  Over 50% of Korbel's brandy is consumed in Wisconsin alone, even though it's produced in California.  On a per capita basis, Wisconsin's brandy consumption is dramatically higher than any other state.

Pro Tip - Looking for a uniquely Wisconsin spin?  Sweeten your Old Fashioned with maple syrup. 

Center of Attention

If you are geographically-inclined you might know that there are four points on the world that are halfway between the geographic poles, the equator, the Prime Meridian and the 180th meridian.  They are known as 45x90 points.  

Two of the points are situated in the middle of the ocean with the other two found on land.  The first point on land is situated in a remote, mountainous region of China adjacent to Mongolia and is quite difficult to visit.  

The second point on land is found here in Wisconsin.  Yup; we're the center of the world and thus the center of attention.  Located just west of Wausau in the middle of a farm field in Poniatowski is the geographic intersection of the 45 north parallel and the 90 west parallel. 

If you're passing thru the Wausau area and the weather is favorable you might want to pay a call so you can tic it off your bucket list.  Poniatowski is an exceedingly small unincorporated town named after a Polish general. 

In recent years everything was updated by volunteers and business contributors.  The area was resurveyed, a path constructed, benches placed along with signage and an official geographical marker embedded in concrete. 

So if your looking for an excuse for a road trip now you got one.  There is no restroom facility.

Learn more about it here. 

 

Only In Wisconsin

You've heard of Elf On A Shelf.....

 

Land Grab Rip-Off

Rattling-around the interweb I somehow happened to stumble-across this historic real estate injustice.

That's right.  Wisconsin was robbed of the upper peninsula.  

Gasp!

In the 18th century our country adopted the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 to establish a process whereby new states might be admitted to the Union.  You know, all that stuff that ultimately fed Manifest Destiny that would attach large landmasses which became territories which would then lead to the formation of states.

Unfortunately, the boundaries for the lands that would eventually become Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin were poorly and incomplete defined.

The territory of Michigan went to war with the state of Ohio for a small piece of land known as the Toledo Strip. There was a cessation of hostilities only after Old Hickory intervened and the Federal Government stepped-in granting Michigan the Upper Peninsula and Ohio what is now the City of Toledo on the shore of Lake Erie.

500 square miles of land in exchange for 16,500 square miles of peninsula.  That's 28% of Michigan's entire landmass.  Not fair!  Wisconsin represents a far-larger land mass sharing a larger common border with the upper peninsula.  The UP isn't even physically connected to the state of Michigan.  Besides, Yoopers (those who live on the Upper Peninsula) share a closer cultural connection with Wisconsinites than they do with Michigan to the east.  Yoopers have even felt strongly-enough about this that if they cannot be part of Wisconsin maybe they should become the 51st state to seek admission to the union.

In closing, if you feel as much grievance as I do over this arbitrary and totally inexcusable  land grab you should go here and Sign the Petition.  Get on board and help Wisconsin Reclaim Upper Michigan. 

We got ripped-off.....

Change.org