Robin Vos Takes A Trip And Satan's Tree Is Among Us (Hour 1)

From the Civic Media Radio Network, moving Wisconsin forward, one joke at a time.

This is As Goes Wisconsin with Kristen Brott.

Now, filling in for the new mom, here's Jane Mattenair.

Good morning and welcome to As Goes Wisconsin.

So happy to have you join us.

Calvin is here on the board, Greg Bach with me in studio.

And you can always call or text at 844-967-2789.

If you want to comment or just leave a message and say hello, whatever.

We have a very, very busy show today.

Coming up at 1033, we are going to recombobulate with Dan Schaefer

from the recombobulation area.

Lisa Williams will be joining us at 1106.

She's with an organization called Persisters that started in Wawatosa in 2016.

Trying to get more engagements, getting more people engaged in politics.

And then we're going to lighten things up a little bit at 1133.

Jake newborn will be here from the Wisconsin Bike Federation.

The Milwaukee Santa cycle rampage, Greg Bach, is happening this weekend.

Here they come.

We're riding on the street.

It's Santa Claus.

Is it Santa's Claus?

It is the Milwaukee Santa cycle rampage.

But is the plural of Santa Claus be Santa's Claus?

Like attorneys general?

I don't know that I have the authority to make the tradition.

Oh, look at those those Santa's clauses.

No.

All right.

Just trying to learn.

So I can teach the kids.

I understand.

I understand.

We are to start off though.

Oh, boy.

Representative Mike Gallagher from Green Bay appeared on Fox News.

It was over the weekend, right?

Yes.

It was over the weekend.

And he was talking about the Israel Hamas war and also China's threat to US national security.

And then decided to wrap up his segment on Fox News.

Talking about the National Railroad Museum in Ashwabanan.

He was on Fox News with former Congressman Sean, the real world or road rules.

Road rules.

Duffy.

Right.

And former Congressman Duffy now, you know, pendant.

He just kind of like be lines the interview towards the end.

And we got a clip of it.

And basically what happened is we'll give you a really quick thing.

There is a flag there.

Put at the railroad museum as a part of the includes.

It's called the what again, the celebration of like it's a festival of trees.

Festival of trees.

Festival of trees.

And one of the groups is the satanic temple.

They have a tree there.

They have a little plaque there.

It says what they do.

And Sean Duffy asks Mike Gallagher.

We have a clip of him talking about it right now.

Well, thus far the railroad's museum's response has been insufficient.

When parents and concerned citizens have contacted the railroad museum, they said,

well, this is an educational opportunity for kids, which is completely ridiculous, right?

It's impossible to overstate how offensive this is to Christians.

It would be in quite, you know, the little sense the same thing is waving a homos flag inside of a synagogue.

I mean, it's just absolutely crazy that we would allow this to happen.

And the really is shame of it is Sean.

Every year the National Railroad Museum does something very interesting and cool and fun for kids,

which is they do a big screening of polar express and you're surrounded by all the trains.

And it's a cool, fun thing to take your kids to.

But now I just, I wouldn't take my kids to it.

Now I don't want them to be surrounded by satanic trees.

The local reporting has been insufficient.

So the whole thing is absurd and I would say one final thing.

Concertives are often accused of launching a cultural war or focusing or fixating on cultural issues.

But here is a perfect example of how that's not what's happening.

What's happening is we're just trying to defend basic traditions or defend our children

in the midst of these basic traditions from the encroachment of woke ideology or offensive upside down cultural propaganda.

And so the whole thing is a shame.

I thought that Northeast Wisconsin was at least immune to something that you might see in New York or California.

But we need to be vigilant as parents.

There's so much there.

There's so much. And when I heard it yesterday, I just heard that clip.

We played it on Pat Cratello show.

But I listen to it again today and there's so much in there.

Absolutely. First of all, the National Railroad Museum in Ashwabanan is hosting the festival of trees.

It's not the festival of Christmas trees.

It's not the festival of Christmas.

And there is one tree there from the satanic temple of Wisconsin that's decorated in what red lights.

Yeah, which is one of the colors of Christmas.

Yes.

And for my Gallagher to suggest that children are being surrounded by satanic images at this event is completely irrational.

Well, also, let's also focus on that statement.

He made where he said having this here would be like taking a Hamas flag into a synagogue.

First of all, shame on you, Congressman Gallagher.

Shame on you for saying such a thing.

That is a poor comparison.

That is ignorant.

And I'm just going to say stupid.

Again, it's this effort to

gin up a problem or a problem does not exist.

And he calls himself out.

He goes, we're accused of starting culture wars.

Well, yeah, that's what you're doing right now.

And he starts to say we're protecting our traditions.

Because at the end of the day, this is America, the traditions of all are welcome.

As far as like expression, it's in the first amendment, freedom of religion, freedom of expression.

And he has no leg to stand up.

But then he says we're protecting our kids.

He turns the argument into what they always do.

We're protecting the kids.

We're doing it for the children.

We're doing it for the children.

And the children should know that we're protecting them.

The railroad museum has defended its decision to allow the temple to have a tree in the festival of trees.

Based on anti discrimination.

And they also point out only six out of the 66 trees that are in this year's exhibition are overtly Christian.

Yeah.

And it was the other.

Yeah, when he said like it offends, it offends Christians.

Well, you guess what?

Get me offended then.

If you're such a snowflake, I mentioned to you, I'm a friend of mine who's in the satanic temple.

She's a member.

They are not Satan worshippers.

No, they know.

No, and this is their mission statement.

This is the mission statement of the satanic temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people reject your tyrannical authority advocate practical common sense opposed injustice and undertake noble pursuits.

The satanic temple has publicly confronted hate groups fought for the abolition of corporal punishment in public schools applied for equal representation when religious installations are placed on public property.

They're about rights.

They're about civil rights.

And if you can't handle that, Mike Gallagher, but you probably didn't know that.

Then you're just going to have to be offended.

844-967-2789-844-967-2789.

If you want to chime in on this Cindy from Appleton.

Good morning, Cindy.

Thank you so much for joining the show.

I could not believe that was Mike Gallagher.

When did he fall so far off the right edge of the earth?

I thought this man had a little bit of sensibility.

He's gone totally right winged Wackle.

You know, and I agree with you Cindy.

And I really thought originally when the January 6th attack was going on at the US Capitol.

And Mike Gallagher, I think went on CNN and essentially called for then president Trump to call off these people who were attacking the Capitol.

And within a couple of months, his whole tune had changed.

It's really disappointing.

It is.

You know, this whole thing speaks to something we talked about yesterday with Todd Alba with regard to Robin Voss discussing.

I remember we were talking about what he was basically the idea is does Mike Gallagher actually believe this?

Is he trying to appeal to a base?

He's got to be reelected.

At this point, Trump is the front runner by far and he has to appeal to a certain group of people.

And does I mean, honestly, Mike Gallagher, if you're listening, do you honestly care about a tree at a railroad museum?

Or are you doing this because you feel like you have to because we talked about this.

Mike Gallagher has been kind of one of the not central right, but like level headed people.

And then all of a sudden you come out of nowhere with this.

Thank you so much for calling Cindy.

Really appreciate it.

Number four, 967-2789, if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, you can also leave a message there.

Again, I think it's, I think it's performative outrage.

I really do.

And when you consider that the vast majority of trees at this festival of trees are just there to promote the businesses that decorated them.

So there's an internet service provider called bug tussle that used the tree as the abdomen of their cartoon bug mascot.

The Green Bay Botanical Gardens tree has wintery blooms on it.

A tree from the Brown County Community Development Block Grant housing program has a hard hat at the top of the tree instead of a star.

So again, this is attempting to foster outrage over something that I just don't find that important.

And then he of course encouraged Fox News viewers of which there are many to to attack the National Railroom Museum.

Yeah, that I mean, what are you doing, bro?

And here's the thing is I asked everyone who here that heard that.

Listen to it again.

He's not speaking, not saintly, he's not speaking with a great deal of comfort.

He's trying to find words.

He's using the terms woke ideology very awkwardly.

These aren't words he's used to doing.

So him trying to make up on the spot and sound like one of these Ron Johnson clones who just are like,

COVID is a conspiracy of the rich.

He can't do it because I don't think my Gallagher cares it.

And I don't think he believes it exactly.

Again, that's why I go back to this is performative outrage trying to create a controversy where none existed.

And at least in this article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the museum hadn't heard any complaints.

Oh, until of course, this appearance on Fox.

And I'm sure all the complaints now come from out of state without a doubt.

Yeah, without a doubt.

I'm never coming to your railroad museum.

And they're probably like, yeah, you probably weren't.

When were you ever going to come here?

Yeah.

Or in Ashwabanon.

I love Ashwabanon.

I do too.

It's no Amory.

Amory, Amory, Amory.

But let's just, yeah, calm yourselves.

A spokesperson for the National Railroad Museum says all future conversations on this matter

will be handled internally as museum employees have been inundated since Gallagher's appearance

and the calls from Fox News that people need to express their outrage.

This is just like the target employees having to deal with the, with the transphobes and homophobes with a t-shirt.

It's like you're, yeah, you're turning your anger at some kid who works there for like $11 an hour who just loves trains.

You're going to yell at him because all the trees are satanic.

Well, all right.

We're going to move things along.

Chugga, chugga long.

Chugga, chugga long.

A suggestion that we should get rid of Obamac here.

Is this a good idea?

Sure.

What are we going to do instead?

844-967-2789.

Stay with us.

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We are on the Civic Media Radio Network.

There's no angels or ones men.

It's nothing like the versions.

This is just a must.

It's going to be made by any unknown detergent.

Good morning.

Welcome to As Go's Wisconsin.

Jane McNair in for Kristen Brigh.

Greg Bach with me in studio.

Galvin is on the board and you can always join us at 844-967-2789.

844-96.

Party!

We were talking about representative Mike Gallagher from Green Bay who was on Fox News over the weekend freaking out.

About the festival of trees at the National Railroad Museum in Ashwabanan because it includes one tree from the satanic temple of Wisconsin,

which does not actually worship Satan.

And out of these 66 trees at this event, only six of them are overtly religious because it's called a festival of trees.

How about Joe's other five are like just offensively Christian?

What does that even mean?

I don't know.

A texture from the 715 listening in Green Bay.

Gallagher's remarks remind me of the church chats gets from SNL.

I thought he was going to yell out Satan like Dana Carvey's character did.

And from WAUK, what species of tree is a satanic tree?

I'd say for tree.

I guess I was going to say like a black Elm like his black heart.

I don't know.

Well, we're moving along on Saturday.

Former president Donald Trump posted on truth social.

He's kicking around the idea of repealing Obamacare or the affordable care act.

You know, that's what you do on a Saturday.

Well, he hasn't really put forward many policy proposals at this point, except for a lot of retribution.

Well, since 2016, he said just wait.

They're coming with the idea.

It's going to be better repeal in a place.

They're going to get rid of Obamacare and they come up with something so much better.

So much better.

So much.

It's so much healthcare.

You're going to have so what you're going to be health caring everywhere.

I healthcare every day.

That's a terrible Trump.

And what happened with that?

They did not come up with a replacement.

He is currently busy.

He was his quote on truth social.

The cost of Obamacare is out of control.

Plus it's not good healthcare.

I'm seriously looking at alternatives.

We had a couple of Republican senators who campaigned for six years against it

and then raised their hands not to terminate it.

It was a low point for the Republican party, but we should never give up.

And that, of course, was a reference to the late Senator John McCain.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like what he thinks is the low point of the Republican party is that.

About six and about six and there was a recent poll conducted in May of this year.

About six and ten Americans have a favorable opinion of the health care reform bill

that was signed into law in 2010, commonly known as the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.

And I think there are still some people who are surprised that those two things are the

same things that they are.

Yeah.

It's.

I like seeing those interviews with people like, I don't want to lose my medication.

Well, they've got to get rid of Obamacare.

Yeah.

What about the Affordable Care Act?

Oh, no.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's one of those situations where like, I can't teach you at this point.

At this point, at this point, if we were a year in fine, but we're 13 years into this, I can't

teach you that they're one and the same.

And also, here's the deal.

You want to replace it?

You want to repeal it?

Cool.

Give me three, three better options.

Absolutely.

Give me three better options.

We'll start with something.

But don't just be like, we're getting rid of it.

No matter.

And trust us.

Yeah.

Trust us.

The plan is coming in two weeks.

Trust us with this.

Trust us with the wall.

Trust us with everything.

Texture from the 9-2-0 says, sure, get rid of Obamacare and replace it with single payer

Medicare for all.

I would not be against that.

I don't see that ever happening.

No.

I see that happening in like 50 years.

I can see that happening in 50 years.

Really?

Yeah.

I think if we eventually got to where we are now with this version of a healthcare plan

for this country, we'll inch there someday.

I think there's way too much money involved in our healthcare system.

In my head, something catastrophic has to happen.

And what would that look like?

No idea.

I don't know.

But we act in times of trouble.

I mean, look at the way we responded during the COVID-19, like in those first, like,

a couple months.

They went to work.

They helped people and they came to gather, unfortunately, that's the only time to do

it.

Texture from the 715 from Steven's point listening on WFHR.

I thought Trump was going to sign a beautiful healthcare plan in two weeks.

I knew that was not going to happen.

That was three years ago in August.

He's still looking into it.

Okay, gosh.

In two weeks.

It'll be ready in two weeks.

I got this great plan.

It'll be ready in two weeks.

Like your porch work, like your porch would be ready in two weeks.

Okay.

Well, and it's, I go back to a representative, Chip Roy from Texas who was on the house

floor last week, two weeks ago, pretty upset saying, tell me one thing the GOP has done

that I can go campaign on just one single thing.

And this is a Republican.

Yes.

Yes.

And we need more Chip Roy's in the world like that.

People hold their own people to the fire and, and hey, if you are a Republican listening

right now, eight, four, four, nine, six, seven, two, seven, eight, nine, call us up and tell

us something.

I would love to know.

And I'm being serious.

I'm not trying to make fun of anybody.

I'll be respectful.

Something that is campaignable, something that is useful for the people, not just fear

mongering and fish shaking.

Now their text from the 541, the GOP plan is to replace the Affordable Care Act with

private insurance companies so they can increase revenue and stimulate the economy from the

top down.

I mean, that's, yeah, I mean, what are the, it goes back to the old days of when they

tried to replace Medicare with, uh, personal and, uh, savings plans.

Oh, those H.S.

Yeah.

Health savings account.

Health savings account, which the government didn't do, but all these now companies do.

Right.

Yeah.

It's, our healthcare system is a mess.

Oh, yeah.

It absolutely is a mess.

And I don't think Obamacare or the ACA is perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

But it has provided coverage for millions of Americans now, and I'm going to say something

trying to controversial.

I'll say this before we go to the, before we move on, uh, which is this.

There was supposed to be single pair in there back in the day.

And guess why that didn't happen?

Because the Democrats were too scared of their own shadow to vote on it because they knew

that it would be so unpopular with some people, they might lose their job, but people wanted

it.

Oh, yeah.

And they got scared.

So they had to take it out.

And we have what we have, which you're right.

It's not perfect.

It's better than nothing.

But man, it could have been so much better.

Had the Democrats just stood up.

It's like, no, we have a super majority and our guys in the White House.

So guess what?

We're going to have our way for a little bit.

They didn't do that because they don't.

You're absolutely right.

Yeah.

The cushy job.

Oh, everybody wants to give it.

Let's Calvin.

Jane, let's be senators.

We should just be senators for like two terms and then we're sat.

Oh, you then you're golden.

Oh, you're the health care golden.

All right.

When we come back, Dan Schaefer from the recombobulation area is going to be joining us.

He had a recent column, speaking of it's good to be a politician about assembly speaker

Robin Voss and some junkets he's been going on over the last couple of years.

They're called him Robin Voss, but not R O B I N R O B B I N.

Got it.

They're Robin Voss.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

And if you want to chime in again, 844-967-2789-844-96.

R T. Stay with us.

This is Asgos Wisconsin.

You're listening across the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm on the outside for you, Dan.

I need to share what I really need.

I want some magic shape for you.

It's true.

I can't seem to make your mind.

Tonight, don't you, I think of mine.

You don't know.

You never tried to make it true.

Good morning, welcome, welcome, welcome to Asgos, Wisconsin, Jane McNair, in for Kristen

Brie.

Greg Bock with me in studio, Calvin, on the board.

You can always chime in at 844-967-2789 or leave a comment on the live stream.

We are joined.

As we are most Tuesdays at this time, we're recombobulating with a wonderful Dan Schafer

from the recombobulation area, which, by the way, is a 10-time Milwaukee Press Club

award-winning weekly opinion column.

And it's really reasonable to subscribe to as well.

Good morning, Dan.

Oh, thank you for saying that, Jane McNair, 10 Milwaukee Press of Awards.

We're also offering a sale right now, so you could subscribe for 30% off.

Oh, hey, that's a deal.

Like don't pay full price people, just not here in the Midwest, because anything in

Wisconsin, it's got to be on sale.

Absolutely.

Before we get a 12 people, you bought it at a sale that, you know, because it's a victory

below that you didn't pay full price for exactly exactly.

It's a victory.

If you got an on sale, this is a very much Wisconsin thing.

Before we talk about your recent column and the recombobulation area, I just want to do

a little housekeeping.

We were talking about former president Trump saying over the weekend that he thinks he wants

to replace the affordable care act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

I'm sure there will be a great plan coming up in two weeks.

One of our textures said, remember the Leslie Stahl interview with the huge empty book that

supposedly contained all the details of Donald Trump's health care plan.

I remember that like it was yesterday, like it was yesterday.

Another texture says Senator Greg Bach should introduce a bill to have a stand up comic

perform on the Senate floor every day for 15 minutes to remind members that they need

to make fun of themselves and actually do some work.

Okay.

Two things about that one.

When I heard Senator Greg Bach, my whole system shit, like shiver, it was like, that sounds

awful, awful, but also senators and Congress people, these elected officials need to hire

more comic, right comedians in their on their writing staffs because when there's truly

nothing more horrifying than watching C span and watching a elected official just bomb

a line.

You know, they think it's fine.

You know, they sat in there.

They're often like, this is a good one is going to deliver it and so stilted and it's

so bad.

And there's just a break for nothing like, come on, I can, I can write for you.

I've done it before.

You could, you could do up, you could be the comedian coach that they all need.

My, my fee is on sale this week.

There you go.

There also should, there also be a two drink minimum to, uh, to come enjoy the show for

the comic coming down to the Congress floor.

Hey, Dan, if we don't have it at the laughing tab, why would I have it there?

Nice.

Thank you.

Very nice.

All right, Dad Shaffer.

Let's talk about your exclusive reporting about Assembly Speaker Robin Voss going to

a little conference in a Rio de Janeiro during the September 20th, a special session.

How did you come about this?

Yeah.

Well, I was covering the childcare issue quite a bit, uh, which is a huge issue in Wisconsin

and I've written a whole lot about and I wanted to be there, uh, for the special session.

I was actually driving out my car broke down on the drive to Madison.

So that was no fun, but as I, I followed up with a lot of the, uh, the, you know, childcare

providers who had come from across the state, uh, to, to be there for this special session.

And I'm sorry to interrupt you, but in some instances, they traveled for hours.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You had, yeah, the Washington Post had a really good feature story on this and it talked

about one woman who drove with her son for five hours, uh, from the town of Superior

to be there that day to, to advocate for childcare and for working families, uh, in the state

of Wisconsin.

And, you know, so the, the governor calls this special session in, in early August, the

special session is scheduled, uh, for September 20th.

And I thought it was interesting that there was nobody quoting Robin Voss on that day.

And it was interesting to see that, you know, they, some of the other legislator leaders,

they did their gavelin, uh, they didn't do the gavel out, they did kind of it this gavelin

and then a journey, so they'd just gavelin go home instead of gavelin, gavel out.

Um, but, you know, a lot of the, typically you'd see a lot of media quoting and interviewing

Robin Voss when there's a story involving the legislature, but that didn't happen, uh,

that day.

So I started poking around and, and I eventually filed, filed a public records request,

uh, that was, uh, fulfilled a couple of weeks ago, uh, for Robin Voss's official calendar.

And it showed that, uh, while the special session was scheduled for September 20th, Robin

Voss departed a flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Monday, September 18th, and was in

Brazil through September 24th.

He was there for a conference put on by the national conference of state legislatures.

Uh, Voss has done quite a bit of travel with them in the past, including also earlier

this year in Brussels, Belgium.

He, in the past, he has faced scrutiny for his international travel, a 2018 report from

the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showed that Voss received $13,000 in travel and perks

that year, a year in which he went to, on a trip to France, uh, with the national conference

of state legislatures.

Um, so I have filed additional public records requests for the expense reports related to

the Brazil trip and the Brussels trip and also a trip to Ireland that he also took this

year with another national organization of Irish American legislators, uh, to find

out if there were any taxpayer dollars funding all of this international travel, uh, for

the assembly speaker, uh, and, you know, not only is he doing this international travel,

he's potentially doing it, uh, to a certain extent of it on the taxpayer's dime.

He's doing it at a time when the governor called this state legislature into session to debate

issues like child care funding, paid leave, the UW engineering building, all sorts of other

workforce challenges, all sorts of other duties that the Republicans have shirked, uh,

over recent months.

And apparently Robin Busce fought so little of the people of Wisconsin,

fought so little of the people who were traveling all over the state,

hours driving across the state to advocate and speak with their legislatures.

He's fought so little of them that he was not even in the same hemisphere.

Dan Schaffer, I mean, yeah, I know it's, it's, it's a lot to take in.

Dan Schaffer is our guest.

He is the author of the recombobulation area talking about his latest column.

There is so much to unpack here.

First of all, this, what is a national council of a state legislatures?

It sounds like a tour.

It sounds like a tour group.

I mean, what is their stated mission?

And, and if you're going to have a meeting, you can't meet somewhere in the states.

Well, that was one thing Pat Crightlow covered on his show because he used, he was an elected

senator. He was a part of that group.

He had traveled. He's like, when I was a part of it, it was always in this country.

It was always being like, the meetings are being held in the state.

You know, someone would be the host state, the host legislator.

And then all of a sudden just became this world win.

Like, let's go to a real journey thing.

Yeah, it's, and you know, you said it best Dan right there.

It's like, we're going to find out whether or not he spent the people's money,

the taxpayer's money, but he really stepped on the people's time.

And I know that equals money as well, but like to me,

talking about people driving all the way from superior, you driving all the way there,

still trying to get there with a broken down car.

That is your time.

And he, as always, doesn't honor it.

I also find it interesting, Dan, why isn't his, why aren't all lawmakers travel schedules

automatically public?

Why do you, why do we have to file foyers for those?

I mean, that's a whole other question about public records and the Wisconsin state legislature.

You know, we're, there's this whole story going on right now about Governor Evers using the,

the alternate email address with Warren Spons name.

And it's an amusing story, but right wing media has, has gendered up

to be some sort of controversy when it's just kind of normal practice with how elected officials

use their, use their emails to conduct business.

For some reason, this story on Robin Voss and Brazil, which actually shows something

from a public records request and doesn't insinuate the possibility of corruption.

This actually shows, you know, negligent behavior or, or, you know, like you're saying,

wasting the taxpayer's time, potentially wasting the taxpayer's money on these types of trips.

This is an actual story, but somehow the, the statewide media apparatus didn't pick this one up

a couple of weeks ago when I, when I broke it, but it's for whatever reason picking up the right wing

media story is broken. But, and, and I think overall the public records request, you know,

we're holding legislators to different standards. You're holding, uh, Robin Voss has changed

the public records law that in, in his role as the leader of the state assembly, they can

delete digital files when they are requested, which I know has happened in other public records

requests that I've given. Uh, and so it is, it is a way that, you know, the, it's, again,

the double standard, uh, and I think, uh, you know, we've become so accustomed to this kind of

anti-small-de-democratic, uh, anti-small-de-democracy, uh, of the Republican state legislature over

the years that, um, that, uh, sorry, is there a problem? No, not at all. Go ahead. We are against

anti-small-de-democracy kind of over the years, uh, that has happened that we're all acting like

boiled frogs and, and just saying that like, is this just normal behavior for a Republican

state legislator to not even be in the country when he is called into special session to debate

these types of, uh, important issues to the people of Wisconsin is that's become so normalized

that we don't even bat an eyelash to the most powerful Republican in the state,

traveling to Rio at to stay at a five star resort for a conference that he is not even,

you're not speaking at, not a panelist at, not participating in it all, just attending. One of the

afternoons on that conference, I got the full calendar of the conference. One of the afternoons

of the conference was an hour's long trip to the Chrysler Redeemer statue in Rio. How is that helping

the people of Wisconsin? I'm sure that there is some reason, Dan, maybe they're thinking about

putting up a new statue somewhere in the state and they were looking for dimensions.

I find that the whole thing is so disturbing. And I, I, again, I go back to this organization,

it sounds like a tour group, a, a tour company for state legislators. It does.

And that's the problem too, is like, you know, when I worked for the mayor and we're seeing there

are, there are groups who meet governors groups and mayor's groups and, and they can get good work

done. They really can. And I think these groups are important to get them together to help

circulate best practices or, you know, whatever. But it's when you get people in leadership of

those groups that then say, well, you know, why are we going to North Dakota? Let's go to Paris.

It'll be so much more fun. Yeah. And they turn to that.

Well, you mentioned that Pat Critello was saying that that, you know, he was, I think the

legislature pays dues into this organization and, and is part of it. And maybe didn't always do

the type of international travel that we're seeing now. Guess who was the president of that

organization from 2019 to 2021? I'm going to guess Robin Voss. It was Robin Voss. Oh, that's a

shock. He was also, he was also president of that organization, again, from January 2023 to

August 20th, 23 to fill out a term by a state legislator from Iowa or Idaho who had been elected

the lieutenant governor of their state there. So in two different stints, he was the president. He

is now the president emeritus of the national conference of state legislators. And apparently, you

know, I mean, I haven't heard back from him on what exactly this was about, what this was

concerning, how much it costs when it was looked. All those, there's many different questions

in the assembly speaker's office has not responded to any of them. Well, and I think too, if taxpayer

dollars are going towards this in any way, shape or form, then he should, someone should be

required to file a report on, you know, on and gets shared with the rest of the class. I guarantee you

it's not a question of whether or not it's been spent. It's how much has been spent because

they use these groups that they pay dues into. They spend their budgeted money through state offices,

whether it's through their direct office or whether it's just through a general fund. They get money

for travel, for membership, for these kinds of things. That money comes from us.

It's, it's a wonderful report. Check it out at the recombobulation area. You can subscribe,

subscriptions are on sale right now, 30% off. So it's definitely worth reading. So you're going to,

you're trying to do some follow up with this Dan, right? Yeah, I'm trying to find, you know,

I'm trying to find out more about what happened. I think it's interesting that these traditional

media apparatus across the state has largely shrugged at this story. I think it's ridiculous.

I think it's ridiculous that the story about, from Wisconsin right now, about the Warren's

Bon email has been picked up by the AP, picked up by every news source in the state. But this one

hasn't. This, I mean, the insinuation in the Wisconsin right now story was that maybe possibly this

could be hiding some sort of inferior behavior. Well, here is some actual inferior behavior. What's

a bigger story? Dan Schaffer is here with the recombobulation area. We will continue recombobulating.

Stay with us. You're listening to Asgos, Wisconsin. We're on the Civic Media Radio Network.

We're on the Civic Media Radio Network. We're on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to Asgos, Wisconsin, Jane McNair.

In for Kristen Brieg, Greg Bach with me in studio. Kellen is on the board. Dan Schaffer from the

recombobulation area joins us every Tuesday at 1033. And hey, big bucks game tonight. The

bucks and the heats with a 630 tip off. You can listen to the game news from the center and WRCE

and Richland center. Asgos air support. W ISS in Asgos. My sentimental favorite lake air W L A K in

Amory. Amory. Amory. Amory. Amory. W R J and in Racine and W C Q M in Park Falls. Dan, you're a

huge bucks fan. This is the final group play game for the in season tournament that determines if

the bucks move on to Vegas as the winner of their group or a possible wild card.

I'm excited for the game. I'm a little bit playing Miami brings up some

brings up some bad memories. Painful memories. We obviously lost to the Miami heat in the playoffs

last year. So watching them play the heat again, it's, you know, they're not a particularly good

shooting team, but against the bucks. I'm sure they'll shoot the lights out. Really? Do you think

the heat's going to smoke up tonight? No, no, no, I just think that the the bucks tend to have bad

luck against the heat. And but I think I'm pretty confident. They played pretty well in these

in season tournament games. You know, Damien Lillard and Yasadeda Kumbo starting to get that

chemistry on the offensive end going a little bit. So that's been great to see. But you know,

bringing up those bringing up those bad memories of the heat playoff losses. That's never fun.

So if they would lose tonight, then if the bucks would lose that that won't happen. What would

this mean going forward then? So I think they are leading in their group for this in season tournament

and they're they have not lost a game in the in season tournament play yet within their group.

And so I think even if they lost, they could still win it based on some tie breakers and

based on I think another game with with Indiana and whatnot. But I think they can still they

could still move on. And I'm you know, this is all brand new. This in season tournament. I'm as

much of an NBA diehard as there is out there. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how this in

season tournament. I'm so happy that you said that because I was and I'm not a sports official

not only by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought I've never even heard of this. What

what does this mean? Has this always been part of basketball?

No, this is brand new. This is the first year that they're doing this and trying to add some

intrigue to the to the first part of the regular season. It's kind of similar to what a lot of

European soccer clubs do European soccer clubs do with having these tournaments during the season.

But I you know, it's just I'm still learning it too. And I think even some of the players,

I saw an interview after the game after one of the games that Damien Lillard had their

asking him, you know, if he's excited for the in season terminating, it's just kind of confused.

He's like, yeah, sure. I don't really know what's going on. We'd like to we'd like to play in

Vegas and win some money. If that I think that's how their tournament ends with kind of a you know,

a final eight final four type of thing in Vegas, but it's interesting. I don't know where exactly

how it's going to go though. Are we going to be if they win or we're going to be excited about

the bucks winning the NBA cup of the in season tournaments? I'm not I don't know. I really don't

know. And are the actual cups? I mean, I don't even like everybody who's spoken about this is

speaking with shrug shoulders. Like every everybody who's talking about is like,

nah, I don't know. Okay. It's really confusing. Yeah. And I mean,

from what I understand, NBA viewership is his is and has been on the rise for quite a while,

especially globally. So do they really need some extra tweaks to get more people excited

about pro basketball? I don't know, but the ratings are up for it though. Like the whole they're

they have the crazy different colored courts that they're introducing for each NBA arena during

this. Like the the bowls had like a all red court for their games, which was like kind of

disorienting to see. And if you have if you're like colorblind, I have to imagine it's a horrible experience,

but like the box had this court with like a big green stripe down the middle and it's just

supposed to be different. And but the ratings are up for it. People are, you know, the the players

seem to be giving a little bit more of effort in these games. I don't really know. It's just where

it's all it's all about brand new learning experience for all of us as fans as much as it is for

the players and teams. I want to see them open and open it up and just like, you know,

tonight, the, you know, the Utah Jess take on the Washington generals. Just see what happens. See

if you know basketball, you know, that reference. It's a Harlem globe trying to reference, Jane.

Thank you. Wow. You are looking at me like I am a clear glass right now. Like what is happening

right now? This just shows you how Calvin got the reference. His parents took him there when he was

four. This just shows you how much I don't know about basketball. I find the fact that they

switch out floors to be ridiculously unnecessary and inexpensive. That must be really expensive.

Well, and I like that that civic media is now broadcasting a lot of these games. I think that's

wonderful. Which we're happy to do. I would rather, but I've had so many problems this year with

watching the games on Valley Sports, Wisconsin, that I would rather them focus on maybe being able to

like watch the games instead of come up with all these goofy courts and ideas and stuff like that.

Right. Just put the games on and I'll watch them and that seems to be complicated for whatever

reason for Valley Sports this year. Let's, let's fix that before we get to these other, these

other things. I don't know. It seems like it would be more useful actually to make sure that

fans could watch the games as opposed to having a fancy new floor. Well, I think Valley sports

when they can just take your money and do nothing about it. Well, again, if you want to listen to

tonight's game, bucks at the heat 630 tip off. You can, yeah, if you listen on all kinds of

civic media radio stations, W R C E in Richland Center, Oshkosh Air Support, W I S S Lake Air

in Aemory, W R J N in Racine and W C Q M in Park Falls. Make sure you download the civic media app

as well. That way you can take us with us, take us with you wherever you go.

Just too exciting, Jane. I know. It's very exciting. Love having you here, Dan Schaefer. I highly,

highly encourage you to read his latest exclusive column about this wonderful travel program for

state lawmakers. And you know what? You probably point in the conversation previous about why people

are talking about it. Like, you know, the national news talking about Tony versus this.

Go to the recombobbly recombobulation area, read this, share it with people, talk about it with

people. And yeah, this is, I mean, this is a nice little scandal brewing, in my opinion,

coming from a guy who's expected from. I just want to see a book report. I would like to see

a book report. Not from you, Dan. No, from Robin Vos about what he learned at that conference.

We will see you next week, Dan Schaefer. Thank you so very much. Stay with us when we come back.

We're going to talk about pursesters. You're listening to Asco's Wisconsin

across the civic media radio network.

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