Ballots, Affordability, And… Dolphins? (Hour 3)

Transcript

Ballots, Affordability, And… Dolphins? (Hour 3)

Daybreak w/ Brian and Jamie · Thu May 7, 2026

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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From Lake Superior to Lake Michigan, this is Wisconsin's Morning Conversation.

Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

806 right now, thank you for joining us this morning.

If you are in Appleton and Oshkosh listening on WISS, if you're in Wausau on WXCO, Lacrosse on LCX or Hayward on WBZH, we're glad that you decided to join us on this Thursday morning.

My name is Jamie Martenson.

And good morning, I'm Brian Noonan.

It is time for Samar.

You need to know.

It's a wake up call in more

ways than one.

Time for some sh**, you need to know.

Yeah, this is what we I was eager to share this with you because

The Washington Post had some exclusive reporting yesterday.

Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S.

military strikes across the Middle East since the war began.

That includes hangers, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft, radar communications, and defense equipment.

That according to a Washington Post analysis of satellite imagery.

Now that is more than we're being told and it is a number that is much higher than you're hearing from

Hegseth, the amount of destruction is far larger.

The threat of air attacks rendered some of the US bases in the region too dangerous to staff at normal levels.

Commanders moved most of the personnel from these sites out of range of Iranian fire at the start of the war.

Since the start, on February 28, seven service members have died and strikes on U.S.

facilities in the region, and more than 400 troops have suffered injuries as of late April.

Most of the wounded have returned to duty within days.

At least 12 suffered injuries that medical officials classified as serious, that according to U.S.

officials, who among others in this reporting had to speak on condition of anonymity.

So it's been difficult to get satellite imagery out of the Middle East for us, because that's according to all the experts, the Iranian state news agencies.

So from the start of the war, though, regularly published high-resolution satellite imagery has been published by the Iranians.

And it shows things that are not great.

So the Post reviewed these, Jamie, and what did they find?

Well, they said that the damage at the site suggested that the US military had underestimated Iran's targeting abilities, not adapted sufficiently to modern drone warfare and left some bases under-protected.

Which, if you're watching this from afar, or you're keeping track of what's been happening there, this seems even worse than we've even been told, or we understand.

might be.

I mean, here's the thing too, information that this, that damage might be greater.

This is just another step in the erosion of public trust in, in what we're actually being told, right?

And when we are talking about real troops and real people, real injuries, real consequences,

I mean, this president is already underwater as far as what the American people think about this war, on all sides.

Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

And so then when we start hearing this...

How does this make people feel?

I mean, if you voted for this administration and you start hearing this and you start hearing that the casualties of infrastructure, potentially people, could be worse and you didn't want a war and you voted for this president because he kept telling us that Kamala Harris was going to get you into this war and now it's his administration who has

How does that make you feel at the end of the day?

I mean, that's a legitimate question.

I do have for voters

eight five five seven five civic eight five five seven five two four eight four two.

How does this make you feel?

Because now this is this is why the

Washington Post just won a Pulitzer for their coverage of the war because they're doing things like this and this is what journalism is supposed to do.

So the reporters are going through these images.

They found 10 damage or destroyed structures that were not documented in the imagery released by Iran.

So the Post found 217 structures and 11 pieces of equipment that were damaged or destroyed at 15 U.S.

military sites in the region that they did not tell us about.

You know, we don't hear, we haven't heard, right?

All we're hearing is how great things are going.

All we're hearing is that we're winning.

It's over.

We're bombing them back to the Stone Age.

We're doing all this and minimizing, even when those service members were killed, those U.S.

service members, they downplayed it.

They gave the normal hand-ringing and thoughts and prayers to their families, but basically said,

This is what they sign up for and they know the risks.

And while that is true, you owe it to their memories and you owe it to their families and you owe it to us to give us accurate information.

We can take it.

The problem is we can take it, but the president cannot.

He does not want any information coming out that says we are not doing anything other than stellar, that we are an unstoppable force, that our enemies cannot hurt us at all.

Well, guess what?

We've all watched, since Vietnam, we've all watched wars on TV.

We watched the first, the first invasion of Iraq on TV.

We can, we understand the cost of war, but what we don't understand is why you lie to us about it.

Because if you think in this day and age, there's always receipts and those receipts are going to come out.

And if you think you can hide from them, the only word I have for you is stupid.

Because

you are you are stupid if you think we're not gonna find out somebody's always looking and you can call it a witch hunt you can call I call it monitoring the government and Keeping tabs on the people who are supposed to be leading this country

And I think if you're this administration who is obviously very concerned about what's to come in November, right?

We've talked about their

image

Public opinion, it doesn't just follow these stories, to your point, Brian.

It essentially shapes it.

It's going to influence their decisions.

coming over the next few months.

It is going to affect funding, not only for things, for all things, right?

I mean, this administration wants a trillion dollars to fund the military in this country.

And it also, I think this is the big one, which is why people were so concerned about any conflict in the Middle East.

How long is the United States going to be involved in this?

So when all of this information and all of these new pieces start coming at people,

It really is an understanding here at home of what's happening.

And it doesn't become just another headline.

It becomes, I think, more personal for people, especially as we're talking about the infrastructure and we're talking about service members.

And that is going to reflect what happens over the next few months.

For me, I guess watching this, I guess this is also what makes this GOP a little bit more dangerous going forward.

If they understand this perception and this is how things are going to shift because of what we're hearing about Iran and the economy, what lengths do they go to to make sure that the election process is harder for everybody?

The entire thing is wrapped up around power and money.

and also Donald Trump's fragile ego.

This is not the first time we've had a president during wartime who has not served.

This is the first time we have someone who actively sought deferments to get out of a war.

There's a crucial difference because when you have a president who may not have served in the military, back to something you said earlier and we've said it many times, they have the smarts to surround themselves with not only a secretary of defense who knows what they're doing, which we do not have.

They also don't fire top generals, top military officials.

They listen.

This is what makes the smartest guy in the room isn't the guy who knows everything.

The smartest guy in the room is smart enough to know what he doesn't know.

And when you don't know something, the true sign of ignorance is to act like you do and go ahead with things.

The true sign of intelligence is saying, I know a lot.

but what I don't know this guy specializes in or this woman specializes in and I'm going to listen to them because one then I'm going to look smarter because now I have the answers and I've surrounded myself with people and now it's a team that is making this decision and you know we've consulted on it we don't have that we have a guy who operates from his gut feelings and cannot keep

Any decision, he backs out of everything.

It's waiver, it's capitulate, and we have a secretary of defense who is, in my opinion, useless, a cosplayer.

He loves to talk the talk.

He would not send his children into this conflict.

He would not send himself into this conflict.

But he's more than willing to send your kids into this conflict.

with no guarantee.

There's never a guarantee when you go to war, but at least you have a reason.

At least you have some sort of blueprint.

It's not there.

It's just not.

And this is, it's getting worse and worse.

And this kind of evidence that now they're outright lying to us about how much damage.

It's par for the course, but that doesn't mean we have to accept

it.

The sad part is is I'm not surprised and you're right We should accept it, but I'm not surprised.

I just based on what we've seen over the last couple of months in other headlines for Stuff you need to know this morning because it just gets better and better a suicide note purportedly left behind in his jail cell by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before his first attempt to kill himself said quote it is a treat to be

able to choose one time, one's time to say goodbye.

Now Epstein's former cellmate who is a convicted quadruple murderer.

claimed that he found this note tucked into a book just a few days after Epstein's first suicide attempt, which was back in July of 2019.

At the time Epstein denied being suicidal and told the psychologist, I have no interest in killing myself.

Well, a federal judge ordered that note unsealed yesterday giving the public and investigators their first look at this purported suicide note.

It's a cryptic one page handwritten note, and it offered a few new details about Epstein's motivations, or at least what we assume are motivations, and there is no confirmation that Epstein himself actually authored this.

Now the note says, quote, they investigated me for a month, found nothing.

What you want me to do?

Burst out crying?

The note continued all in caps, no fun, not worth it.

One line in the seven line note is unclear because one word is indecipherable.

Now Epstein, as a lot of us know, died in jail while awaiting trial on August 10th of 2019.

His death was ruled a suicide by hanging by the New York Medical Examiner's office and the Justice Department concurred with that finding.

And again, we'll remind everybody though, that Justice Department at the time was under Donald Trump's jurisdiction led by Bill Barr at the time.

of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged suicide.

So what we're suing is alleged, what we've been told is alleged.

So or it was a suicide.

So we're going to say it was a suicide.

But I know there's been a lot of mystery and a lot of people questioning this particular death.

And a lot of, let's say it together, kids, coincidences.

Coincidences the camera went out the guards were both looking at a motorcycle magazine shopping for motorcycles now an alleged note by a four-time murderer that was found in a book it's Boy, oh boy.

That's a lot of coincidences again.

Yeah a lot of and if you If you if you if you if you keep following the chain you go wow

That's a lot of coincidences.

He killed himself, he's an alleged sex trafficker, pedophile.

Okay, well, are we any worse off?

No, but the company he kept to put it past all these alleged powerful people who are named in this list, like the president, to maybe not want the guy who ran the whole thing to have leverage over them?

or to actually speak under trial, under oath.

I mean, you

know.

Well, sure, that's

again.

But it goes back to the same conversation.

No clarity, no consistency, no confidence in the process.

Oh.

Yeah.

Well,

that's a

theme.

That's the stuff you need to know.

Hey, this is more news, not good.

Justice Department can keep the election ballots from Georgia.

Why, huh?

We'll talk about it after this.

Stay break on the Civic Media Network.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

All facts, no fiction.

It's Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

It's 822 right now.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We always appreciate it.

Hopefully you are having a great start to your Thursday and enjoying a little sunshine where you're at in wherever you're at, I should say, in this part of the state.

Where are you at?

I don't know.

New

phone, who this?

Right, exactly.

But you know, it's nice and sunny here in Madison this morning.

I know that there are other parts of the state that might have a little bit more cloud.

It's hard when we cover an entire state.

It is.

It is because I don't know what it's like everywhere in the state.

I know what it's like in my local area, but I can't talk about what it's like in the entire state.

But I digress.

Well,

sooner or later, we'll have people all over the state.

We

will.

And, you know, you can listen, if things, if we're here in Madison or wherever, you know, I'm in a bunker somewhere, that's no secret.

Undisclosed.

But if you're undisclosed, for good reason, Parker.

I'm a marked man.

But anyway, like if something crazy ever happens and you're like, why aren't they talking about the fact that an alien ship just landed in Eau Claire, feel free to let us know.

Please do, Texas is the

callest.

Let us know.

Let us know if something crazy is happening in the Northwoods, 8-5-5-7-5-Civic.

If you've calfeared a Sasquatch, if there's been, if you have...

all kind of stuff.

So 85575 Civic 8557524842 is how you can always call in a

Calling a news tip during the show.

We love those.

We'll put on

our press fedoras.

Yes,

if

there's, you know, Parker, Parker will be the gatekeeper for that news.

Oh yeah, I just heard that you wanted us to tell you if an alien landed.

Right?

So an

alien landed.

Really?

Do you have any photographic proof?

Do you have anything like that?

Photos or it didn't happen.

Just saying.

Photos, video or it didn't happen.

Plus then we want to write a story about it and put it on our website.

So there's that part of it too.

Well, Jamie, you know what did happen?

the 2020 election.

Yeah.

And you know, six years ago, the there was a lot of talk about a perfect call into Georgia.

I don't know if you remember.

I remember the

president.

Oh, the president called down to Fulton County, called down to the Georgia AG and the governor.

And he's like, I need you to find me.

I think it was 1100 votes, 11,000 votes.

There are a number of votes.

Well, they didn't find those votes.

And Donald Trump lost the state of Georgia.

and he lost the election of 2020.

And boy, he can't let it go.

He hasn't let it go.

And so you remember, in February, they went down there, the FBI, and they seized a bunch of records from Fulton County, all the election results, despite the fact that that election has been recounted three times, one of those three times by hand.

They counted every ballot.

Not enough.

So.

They seized those ballots and now a U.S.

district judge decided that the government doesn't have to return those ballots from Georgia's Fulton County because, well...

He doesn't.

Judge JP Bouli, he decided this, he came after, the decision came after lawyers for the county had argued that the ballots and other election materials as well as any electronic copies that the Justice Department has should be returned because the seizure was improper and unconstitutional.

Now those are serious allegations.

Not to the judge.

The judge and the...

Justice Department said they're investigating irregularities that occurred during the 2020 election in the county.

There are none.

As far as we know, there are none.

As far as everybody knows.

It's been proven over and over and over in multiple court cases and by all of these counts as you mentioned.

So here we are.

I mean,

yeah.

And that should worry everybody because if they can if they can seize and keep these records when

there is absolutely zero proof and now this is probably the third or fourth time we've said it in the last three minutes everybody's everybody's investigated this they've recounted they've recounted they've recounted if all of a sudden and i wouldn't put this past i mean this is me once again just thinking out loud

Kathryn Lake

this

is not this is not a fact of the case but would you put it past anybody to find suddenly find those

No.

If they keep all these records, how can now Fulton County prove them wrong because they don't have the records anymore?

Right.

So it's not

outside the realm of possibility, right?

Would it surprise you to know that this judge was appointed by Donald Trump to the court in August of 2018?

I would have been

surprised if he hadn't.

I

figured

that was the answer, but yes, he was.

There is

absolutely no shot.

There's nothing really anymore that completely shocks me.

But you telling me that this was a Trump-appointed judge?

Yes.

I shrugged that off like a leaf landed on my shoulder.

He was appointed by the president during the first administration back in 2018.

I mean, this is obviously going to get appealed.

It's going to go through the appeals process.

It depends on what appeals court, because there are some that are much more conservative in this country than others.

But I think this is not the end of this.

And this is not the last time we're going to hear of this.

And obviously, this was an appeals court.

This was a judge who was appointed by the president in Georgia.

Judges are supposed to be partial in all cases.

We've seen in the past especially judges appointed by this administration.

That's not always the case and And to the point where we have to applaud the ones that are right like we actually applaud it We're like yes, they did the right thing you

did the bare minimum.

Congratulations.

I'm not being complete.

It's your job.

Look at you.

That's amazing.

I like

Yeah, look at you.

Oh, let us give you a little pat on the head.

You're such

a

good little judge.

Such a good judge.

Well, Bob Pitts, who is the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, said that they strongly disagree.

with the judge's denial of the county's request to return the election records.

And Bob came out and said, we will continue, as always, to stand by our election workers and the voters of Fulton County.

We intend to vigorously pursue all available legal options, including maybe finding a judge that is not in the pocket, allegedly, of the

administration.

the norms.

It's an erosion of trust in the process because they do not want anyone actually going out to vote because when they, when we do, it doesn't turn out well for them.

Always.

Sometimes.

Not always.

Most of the time.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley joins us on the other side.

So don't miss that.

I'm Brian Noonan.

This is Daybreak.

I'm Jamie Martenson.

It's 8 29 right now.

You're listening to Pacific Media Network.

Now back to more of Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

Good morning.

Thank you so much for joining us today on the Civic Media Network.

It is 835 right now.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And good morning.

I'm Brian Noonan.

In May of 2020, David Crowley became the youngest county executive in the history of Milwaukee County and the first black leader elected to serve in that role.

Then on April 2nd, 2024, County Executive Crowley was re-elected to a second term with 85% of the vote.

Well, now he's running for governor in a crowded Democratic field on a platform of what he calls Badger Basics.

David Crowley joins us now to share some details of his plans.

Mr. Crowley, thank you for being here.

We appreciate it.

For people outside of Milwaukee County who are just getting to know you during the campaign, give us a Cliff Notes version of who David Crowley is and why you're running for governor.

Absolutely.

First and foremost, thank you for allowing me to join both of you, Brian and Jamie.

I'm really glad to be here.

But just to give folks a quick background, David Crowley, I am a husband.

I always have to give my better three quarters a shout out.

I am a girl dad times three.

We call them the A-Squad, Alyssa, Ava, and Autumn.

And I've been serving as a county executive for the past six years, but I also spent seven years in the state capitol as a staffer and as a state representative.

And Whisko Boy through and through, but also have my share of challenges, right?

I was evicted three times before graduating high school.

Every single year for at least 15 years, we moved.

And if it wasn't for our public education system, as well as AmeriCorps and youth development organization, I wouldn't be standing in front of you today.

So it's been an opportunity and a great opportunity to serve the residents here within Marquis County and looking forward to serving the entire state of Wisconsin.

So let's take that experience of growing up in Milwaukee and talk about the Badger Basics because it essentially focuses on affordability, care, opportunity.

And when people hear that, it sounds like this broad plan, right?

So what are some of the concrete changes that you would deliver so that families actually feel a difference with life in Wisconsin?

Well, I think it's important that when you have an elected leader that they also understand the issues on the ground and I think about my background my experience

It's about how do we create a much better foundation for families?

And if folks are going to say this is too much, then we haven't been doing enough for families at all here in the state of Wisconsin.

And so this is really about how do we become a healthy community?

And health isn't just your mental and physical health.

Health is more money in your pocket.

Health is having an affordable roof over your head.

Health is having access to public transit, to public education, to health care, childcare.

And so we want to make sure that we're bringing that foundation across the entire state so that when the tide rise, the boat rise for every single community member.

Now, again, one of the platforms is affordability.

And one of the things you've worked hard on in Milwaukee County is safe and affordable housing.

Outside of Milwaukee County, how do you see that as Wisconsin as a whole?

And how do you see it coming to fruition if you are in fact elected governor?

Well, what's unique in my current position is that, you know, we've been able to build affordable housing all across Milwaukee County.

What's unique is that it's all happening in suburban communities, communities that never had these types of projects before.

And that's because we all should understand that affordable housing, attainable housing, isn't just needed in urban centers.

It's leading in suburban communities and rural communities, not just in Wisconsin, but let's face it, across the entire country right now, especially with the rise of housing prices and rents.

And so in order to do this across the entire state, one, we need to make sure that we are right sizing the solutions to fit each community's needs.

There is not a one size fits all for the state of Wisconsin.

And so working with local municipalities to create more zoning flexibility or more accessible dwelling units to have that level of density, but also making sure that there are resources available, you know, first time home buyer assistance for individuals.

And it's really working

with the Wisconsin Housing Economic Development Authority and leveraging those dollars at the state level as well as at the federal level and working with those local municipalities to create more opportunities.

This can help with our aging population.

This can help with many of our students who have left their communities to go to school and looking to move back to be closer to their family.

And so this is a real opportunity for us to focus on making sure that it's not just affordable attainable because there are

individuals who can afford to buy a home, yet there's not enough supply in communities where they are looking to actually live.

We're talking with David Crawley this morning.

He is currently the Milwaukee County Executive.

He's also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

You can check out more about Badger Basics over at crawley4wi.com.

Now, as far as talking about affordability, energy costs, and we were talking about this prior to the show, if anybody was listening on the stream, you're asking large users like these data centers that we're hearing so much about across the state to pay for the grid upgrades.

What does that look like in practice, Mr. Crawley?

And how do we actually ensure that everyday folks don't end up covering some of these costs anyway?

Well, we should all one be frustrated that the Wisconsin State Legislature literally left session without actually putting a framework in place Right to protect not just people but to protect our natural resources protect our water our land and making sure that there's a framework But in reality one we just recently seen that there was a PSC rate case with we energies saying that they're going to pay 100% of the tariff right and so you know if they want to be here they have to actually negotiate with us and so if we're going to

have a framework.

It should be the most strict framework that we have in the entire country.

Not just 100% of the energy uses, but the upgrades to the infrastructure, the upgrades to the grid, but more importantly,

bringing on more clean energy infrastructure.

The best energy is the energy that we don't have to pay for.

And that comes from solar.

It also comes from wind.

And so we want to see how we can leverage this to actually stabilize and make sure that our energy is reliable for every single user across the state of Wisconsin.

But if they're they also going to pay us pay into focus on energy, which we all pay into to bring on more clean energy infrastructure.

Well, if there is an excess of dollars there, I truly believe

believe that we should be using that to pay down the rates of every single utility rate payer here in the states, because the community benefits shouldn't just be in the communities that these data centers are in.

It should be a community benefit for every single municipality in Wisconsin.

David, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about this.

There

was a lot of news last week about a memo that was leaked reportedly from the Tom Tiffany campaign.

It was referencing one of your opponents in the race.

How do you react to that whole story?

Do we lose audio?

Do we

have you still Mr. Crawley?

Can you hear me?

We can hear you Brian.

Okay, so last week there was a big big news story about this report this memo that was reportedly leaked from the Tiffany campaign.

It was about one of your opponents.

How do you react to that whole?

that whole thing.

I'm sorry, I'm having bad connection issues.

Oh, no worries.

Can

you hear us at

all?

Can you hear us now?

Yes, no.

Oh,

bring up the memo and

big technology.

It's a big technology taking us out.

Parker, why don't you?

Oh, we're coming.

Are you back?

No take take mr. Crawley off see if you can see if you can get him fixed up David Crawley is our guest Crawley for wi.com weird coincidence Jamie I don't believe in coincidence as you know this and it wasn't even it's not it wasn't you know no gotcha I do have I do have the weird question ready

You

do have the weird question, okay.

The things that sometimes you don't know about your elected officials.

The human question that they have no idea

about.

Again, not a gotcha, just

a fun little thing.

We always have to remember our elected officials are also human, so it's fun to find that human side of them once in a while as well.

Girl

dad.

He is a girl dad.

He is a girl dad.

Barbie,

little update.

What's going on, buddy?

It

looked like he just hopped out of the studio.

I'm trying to get him connected

with our

phone

line.

All right.

All right.

Well, we

will.

All right, that

would be great.

We'll keep padding.

We will.

But

yes, it is like as I looked at David Crowley's website and

I

looked at his plan, it all seems.

based on what we talk about all the time, and I'm sure a lot of the candidates are going to talk to the people about the issues that mattered to them the most.

I think we have David Crawley back.

Can you hear us now, sir?

No?

No, no audio.

All right, I am back with a solution.

Okay, all

right, all right, it's all right.

We'll make it

work.

I'm going to try this question again, because I think someone is conspiring against us to get this answer.

The memo that was released reportedly from Tom Tiffany's campaign about one of your opponents.

How do you react to that whole story?

What was the story?

I'm sorry.

The story about

the memo about Francesca Hong, that Tom Tiffany's the alleged leak from from that office.

How did you respond to that?

What were your feelings about it when you started hearing this story?

I mean the way that I respond to that I think is that you know every candidate is going to do everything that they can to focus on who they want to be able to run after but also you know they have

always been focused on different types of candidates.

They've attacked me in different types of ways.

They've attacked other candidates in many different types of ways.

But my focus is really running my campaign.

This is about how we talk to voters all across the state of Wisconsin.

Not just about the promises that we want to deliver for them, but it's also about making sure that we can actually do the work.

And when I think about

me being in this race is about focusing on the results that we have delivered for every single community.

And David, along those lines, this is a really crowded primary, right, for on the Democratic side.

Tom Tiffany, obviously, been the front runner for the Republicans for a while now.

And with so many undecided voters, I'm going to assume that it's going to be more crossing the state, talking to more people.

But how do you really reach out to those undecided voters right now as the audience?

his primary approaches?

Well, I mean, as you pointed out, the only person leading in the polls are undecided voters.

And we have to go and really reach and talk to people.

And it's not, you know, when people say, you know, I want to be there for it's not just about physically being there.

It's about making sure that people actually have a seat at the table to lend their voices to the solution is going to work for their communities.

I've always been told, especially as an organizer that

If you're not at the table, then you're on the menu.

And there are many communities all across the state of Wisconsin that feel like they've been dictated to versus giving them a seat to be able to talk about the issues that are directly impacting them.

And so the way that we do this is, you know, I still have my day job running Milwaukee County, but we are crisscrossing all over the state, taking the scenic route to talk to as many people as possible, doing different town halls, talking to different party members.

And quite frankly,

You know, the message is absolutely catching fire.

And as we talk and engage with more voters, more and more people are paying attention to the Crowley campaign.

And if you want to learn more about David Crowley's campaign, the Badger Basics and all the rest, it's crawleyforwisconsin.com.

All right, David, before we let you go, we got about a minute left.

A question that came up on the show yesterday, not political at all, or is it, what's your most hated sports franchise?

My

most your most hated sports franchise who do you say

my

most what hated sports franchise

My most hated sports franchise well, you know, I am I am a packer and so

I can't stay in the Chicago Bears.

All right, fair enough.

That answer came up a lot yesterday

on the show.

Thank

you for being honest.

No hard feelings.

David Crowley is a current Milwaukee County executive.

He is running for governor of the state of Wisconsin on the Democratic ticket.

Go to crowley4wi.com to get all his information.

David, thanks for joining us this morning.

Have a great rest of your day.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Lake Superior to Lake Michigan.

This is Wisconsin's Morning Conversation.

Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

It's 8.52 right now.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We do appreciate it.

That's a great song, Parker.

Nicely done.

I

feel like a dolphin.

It was surf music.

I feel like, why does it make you feel like a dolphin?

Do I want to know?

Yeah, you do.

Okay.

Gives dolphin

vibes.

If you

don't,

I do.

Okay, all right.

I feel like I'm jumping out of the waves.

There you go.

There you go.

Really?

Yeah, right?

Yeah.

Nice tie-in.

I always feel like I'm in Pulp Fiction.

There you

go.

That's true.

It's a

good song.

It's

a good point as

well.

It's a good song.

So here's the question.

Are military dolphins working in the Strait of Hormuz?

There

was

a movie back in the day about bombs being strapped to dolphins and stuff.

So it's not far-fetched.

And the answer is, well, probably not.

But the US Navy has been using dolphins.

We've enlisted Flipper.

He also doesn't have an exit strategy for this war.

But we've been using them for decades.

The yesterday our Secretary of Defense, Whiskey Pete Hegseth, was asked whether Iran might turn to dolphins to help confront the U.S.

Navy.

Now, I don't know if dolphins have nationalities.

I don't know if dolphins would be loyal to Iran over the U.S.

I don't know anything about that, but according to Whiskey Pete, he said he could confirm

that Iran did not have dolphins.

Oh, this is the most serious administration ever.

How do you confirm that they don't have dolphins to deploy as part of the operations?

He said he would neither confirm nor deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins.

This is true, folks.

I wish I was making this up.

Because I'd sell

this script and it would be great.

This feels like something that should be on the front page of the inquirer.

Does it not?

Pete

Hegseth

cannot confirm or deny the

existence of kamikaze dolphins.

That's what it feels

like.

This is a

real story, though.

We're having a real conversation this morning, which I don't know.

Maybe that should scare me even more.

I'm not sure,

but... No, you should be.

This is from CNN.

So, depending on your frame of reference, a reputable news source, R.I.P.

Ted Turner.

But... Yeah.

So, first of all...

Could we just say, if we don't have kamikaze

dolphins,

are you really tipping your hand in military strategy to go, no, of course we don't have kamikaze dolphins.

No.

We have sniper guerrillas, but we do not have kamikaze dolphins.

Well...

One source familiar with U.S.

operations in the Strait of Hormuz told CNN that the U.S.

military is not using dolphins as part of its efforts on the Strait, but they are cute as hell.

No, wait, that was me editorializing.

The U.S.

Navy does, in fact, have a decades-old program to train dolphins to help detect mines.

It's called the Marine Mammal Program.

It's part of the Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Department within Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific.

Which I think is fascinating.

I think that part is fascinating.

What I love about this is that the department though

It had to be made clear that these dolphins are not actually kamikaze dolphins, in that they do not sacrifice their lives to go out and detonate mines.

Instead, they're focused on detection.

They had to make this clear after Pete Higseth's comments yesterday, and they had to make sure that this was put out in an official release that they are not kamikaze dolphins.

We're not strapping a bomb vest.

to flipper and after he comes up and jumps through the hoop and does a couple of flips and splashes

down.

And he talks in echolocation.

No, we're not actually.

What I also love is that a senior engineer at Rand, who previously worked in the now decommissioned US Navy mine warfare command, told CNN.

this quote, we use marine mammals to help detect objects underwater and to protect ports by detecting intruders.

So it's not the day of the dolphin.

That's the

film that I was referencing where they did strap bombs

to

dolphins.

And they were now porpoises.

On the other hand, we will sacrifice all the porpoises.

Dolphins.

No.

porpoises because porpoises let's be honest more streamlined more in keeping with a torpedo so you could shoot a porpoise out of a uh out of a warship with a bomb and it would go and then boom and the great thing about porpoise bombs they flip right up onto the deck so they do the optimal amount

of

damage when you shoot them at an enemy.

Does it make you feel better though?

And I know the answer to this.

Does it make you feel better, though, that we have to put out an official statement on kamikaze dolphins?

Because our Department of Defense, our Secretary of the Department of Defense says that we for sure have kamikaze dolphins.

Does it make you feel better?

Well, he won't

confirm nor, he will neither confirm nor deny, Jamie.

So, yeah, I'm glad we have responsible scientists.

Once again, these scientists ruining everybody's fun by

saying, take a, take a vaccine or no, we don't strap bombs to dolphins.

Uh, and by the way, this program with dolphins has been around since 1959 and it's focused on training bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions to detect and recover objects underwater.

Now, according to the marine mammal programs webpage, dolphins quote, possess the most sophisticated sonar known to science.

Well, yeah, you have to find your way around underwater and you use echolocation to do so.

That's

That's pretty kick butt, let's be honest.

And underwater drones, this is also on the page, are no match for the animals' efforts to open the straight.

So that has to be put right on the homepage.

No matter how much cloak and dagger intrigue the Secretary of Defense wants to add to this question, not confirming or denying the existence of kamikaze dolphins, we do not have them.

Sometimes things are just cool.

are what they are.

Yeah, they're just out there.

They can be looking, but they're not using them now.

That's the thing.

And Iranian dolphins are the same as US dolphins or any dolphin.

They're just out there.

I've had, I've been lucky enough to be on a boat when a pot of dolphin is swimming next to the boat.

It is the coolest thing in the

world.

Very cool.

All right, listen, on that note, I am going to go work on a kamikaze dolphin program, so I cannot stay here and talk to you any longer.

Your undercover operation.

The show is over.

I

am done.

Thank you for listening.

Thanks for being part of the show.

It's daybreak.

I'm Brian Noonan.

I'm Jamie Martinson.

Thank you so much.

Have a wonderful Thursday.

You're listening to the Civic Media Network.

It's flipper!

Kathryn Lake

Run!

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