For The Fans (Hour 2)

Transcript

For The Fans (Hour 2)

Daybreak w/ Brian and Jamie · Wed May 20, 2026

Kathryn Lake

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All Facts.

No fiction.

It's Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

706 right now.

Thank you so much for joining us on this Wednesday morning.

Hopefully you are having a great start to your day.

We've made it halfway through another work week.

Just counting down to what's going to be for a lot of us a long weekend.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And good morning.

I'm Brian Noonan.

After the seven o'clock hour, you know it is time to get things moving and time for some you need to know.

It's a wake up call in more ways

than

one.

Time for some shit you need to know.

Well, in a odd twist of fate, someone who Donald Trump...

worked hard against who ended up losing an election now has dealt a potential blow to the president.

The Senate advanced legislation Tuesday that seeks to force President Trump to withdraw from the Iran war as a growing number of Republicans defied the president's direction on a conflict that has spanned well over two months.

Since Trump ordered the attack on Iran at the end of February, Democrats have forced repeated votes on war powers resolutions that would require him either to gain congressional approval

or withdraw US troops.

Republicans have been able to muster the votes to reject those proposals.

However, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who made news the other day because Donald Trump primaried him, despite the fact that Cassidy had voted with him over 95% of the time, but made a couple of errors.

Well, he got primaried.

He got beat in the primary.

He switched sides.

Boom!

The Senate voted 50 to 47.

It showed that a small but growing number of Republicans are willing to challenge Trump on the Iran War even though the effort may not advance much further because you know it has to go to the House and that's where Mike, whatever you say, boss Johnson is ready to either just

not bring a vote or vote against it.

Three Republicans were absent on Tuesday.

Their votes would be enough to defeat the measure if they maintained their stance.

The House is expected to vote on similar war powers resolution today.

Democrats are bullish about their chances of passing it.

Another war powers resolution barely failed in the House last week.

The vote ended in a tie.

So we will see.

I

just wish that the Republicans would have more of a backbone standing up to this administration when it

it's still mattered.

And this vote does matter, don't get me wrong.

Bill Cassidy, however, has lost his primary.

He

is not going to be able

to run.

He has nothing to lose if the president mean tweets him.

Well, here's the thing.

And your point is, this is why I say this, because I was thinking this.

He's doing it in, he did it to Massey.

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Massey got bounced.

He's

trying to make a move in Texas to get the...

I want to say coin, but that's not it.

Whoever that.

Yeah, he's primary.

He's primary in another.

He adores Ken

Paxton.

Yes,

is what he did.

So now all these people who still have time left in their term have no reason to do it.

And yes, it would have been nice had they done it at the beginning.

But there's time to undo or block some things if these people that he's flipping because

We know the only reason he's flipping is because he knows that if he loses the House and the Senate in November, he is done.

Yeah.

Thank

goodness.

It's going to be interesting to see what this Congress does over the next few months as we progress into the midterms.

There's a lot of time, and they can gerrymander all they want, but that's not going to take effect till next year, too.

Yes, and especially if you look at polling that just came out earlier this week, it is not good for this Republican Party.

The president's approval rating has dropped even lower than it was just a month ago.

which I wasn't sure that was possible, but it is.

Well, even Texas Republicans are like, oh, this was a big mistake, because now Paxton has a lot of issues, and Taylorico is really looking like the more sensible Republican kind of...

Yeah, there

used to be those in Texas.

So hopefully, hopefully, hopefully Texans do the right thing this time.

I can, I can wish, I can wish we've seen it in the past.

In other stuff you need to know this morning, a recent state law requiring those who circulate nominating petitions for state elections are eligible to vote in Wisconsin will remain in place at least for this upcoming fall election, according to a federal judge and the current ruling.

Conservative groups, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and Americans for Citizen Voting, sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission in late April, two weeks into the current circulation period, seeking to halt enforcement of the new law.

This lawsuit originally filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court, but moved to federal court earlier this month, as a judge to declare the new law unconstitutional.

Last week, U.S.

District Judge, Lynn Edelman, denied the group's motion to temporarily

the rule aside.

The judge is not set to take the case up again until mid June after the June 1st deadline to submit nominating petitions.

Timing

is

everything.

Yeah, well, we'll see.

We'll see what happens.

I, you know, I understand why they're why they're trying to do this.

I don't know if it's that big a deal.

You can get people on the ballot.

That doesn't mean anything.

That doesn't mean they're going to win.

It doesn't mean they have a chance.

And if, you know, again, if I'm

If I'm in a anywhere in Wisconsin and I'm running for something and my family wants to come in from out of state to help me go collect signatures, that's one thing.

If they're an unrelated pack, that's another thing.

But in the end, just because you're on the ballot doesn't really mean

anything.

Right.

Yeah.

Agreed.

Agreed.

100%.

Well, now it's time for the big and this story, feel free to jump in.

Do you judge people?

who still won't accept the results of the 2020 election.

I do, I do, and I do it harshly.

And the reason we bring this up, Tom Tiffany is that one of those people.

He's a candidate for governor.

You know that is Republican.

He said Monday that FBI agents should continue to question election officials over Wisconsin's 2020 election.

He would not answer whether Joe Biden won that election.

And he said election workers should be charged if federal authorities deem it necessary.

Not that they did something.

but that they just need it necessary.

This is your Republican presumed Republican candidate for governor.

Now, he made his comments while taking questions from reporters at a campaign event in Elm Grove less than two weeks after FBI investigators interviewed a top state election administrator about the 2020 election.

And yes, you may be thinking, Brian, is this an old story that you've brought back?

No, this is brand new.

2026 talking about the 2020 election.

So agents sought in recent days to question Milwaukee election workers who helped administer the contest.

Tiffany said whatever they're searching for, the investigation should be allowed to continue.

And let's find out what happened here.

If there's improprieties that happens when then there should be charges filed.

If not, then you let the investigation cease.

Tom.

Hello.

That's obvious calling.

They're at the door.

The facts are at the door, Tom.

Pretty sure.

There's been several investigations into the 2020 election.

And all of

those

allegations have been deemed not credible and that there was nothing wrong with the results of the 2020 election.

And

it's been nationwide.

It's been

nationwide.

It's been here in Wisconsin.

But who am I to argue with the Republican gubernatorial candidate?

You are not because President Trump, who endorsed Tom Tiffany and continues to push the false claim that he won Wisconsin's 2020 election.

He suggests widespread fraud.

And we know the FBI also has, in recent months, launched probes in other, as JB just said, key battleground states.

Wisconsin's 2020 election outcome has been confirmed and vetted by lawsuits, a state audit.

A study by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, and we've dealt with them, you know, they're not going to let it go.

If they thought there was something, they'd go after it more and more.

They even said no.

And then through a taxpayer-funded investigation launched by Republican lawmakers, it turned up no evidence of wrongdoing.

And by the way, Gabelman lost his license for three years because of that investigation.

Just weird.

Because he couldn't find anything.

Just saying.

Well,

Joe Biden beat Trump at Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes.

Tiffany voted in Congress in 2021 to reject Biden's presidential victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

At that time, he told the Journal Sentinel that he would have voted to overturn Biden's victory in Wisconsin as well.

Had it been subject to a vote, he also supported a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas in late 2020 to overturn election results in Wisconsin and three other battleground states backed by Biden, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Weird that it was bought by Texas.

And Texas not in that lawsuit.

Why?

Well, because Trump won Texas.

Right.

And yeah, so this is this is the Republican government.

And we have invited Tom Tiffany on this program.

numerous times.

He is welcome to come on here and defend his record and defend his statements.

Tom Tiffany has declined to this point.

Here's the thing.

Tiffany in the past, this is not new language for Tom Tiffany.

Now, to be fair, he hasn't consistently used direct language claiming that the election was illegitimate, but

Since 2020, he has consistently raised doubts.

And if you're a Wisconsin voter, if you're somebody who is an independent, if you are on the fence, if you don't know who you are going to vote for, because I get it, the election is still a long way away and the Democrats still have several in the primary.

These are things that you have to consistently keep in the back of your mind.

Because here's the thing that I keep thinking, right?

If Tom Tiffany has been willing for.

six long years to question the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

If he is not elected governor, hypothetically, in the state of Wisconsin in November, because nobody knows what's going to happen, will he accept the results of that election here at

this state

level?

All of this is laying another groundwork for a problem in November.

This time it's not going to be the presidential election.

It's going to be House and Congress seats and any place where a Republican is upset by a Democrat or a Democrat wins outright and they haven't had a chance to gerrymander those districts out

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of

existence yet They are going to just

keep it in court for as long as possible because if they delay delay then Mike Johnson is going to be able to say well I can't swear in these new members of Congress because you know we don't know the election isn't really over yet and the longer they can

postpone swearing in new members of Congress, the longer this corrupt administration is allowed to keep going and doing what they want.

It is all about eroding trust in the process.

And I know if you listen to this program, I say it all the time, but that's essentially what they're trying to do.

And this isn't a conversation about re-litigating 2020.

This is about setting expectations for 2026, 2028, and beyond.

At the end of the day, voters

aren't just choosing policies.

We are essentially choosing whether we trust the people running to actually respect the outcome, whether they win or lose.

the current administration wants to break down that system.

They want this to feel rigged.

They want people to question why they're going to the polls, and they want people to not cast those votes.

It's the whole reason they want to redraw districts, why they want to gerrymander, because when people vote, they tend to not win elections.

Not in every state, but in

a lot of

places.

They don't plan on leaving.

This president doesn't plan on leaving, which is why he's trying to build a bunker ballroom military hospital.

So he never has to leave.

He doesn't plan on leaving.

And he knows if the Republicans lose in the midterms, he will be out.

This time, this time, I do believe that if the Democrats take control, not only will they impeach him, but he will be convicted, he will be removed from office.

And a lot of this madness will stop.

So they are fighting tooth and nail to make sure that does not happen.

And it's up to us.

I know we're going to keep saying it.

You're going to get sick.

We still

decide as voters.

That's right.

You gots to vote.

Hey, Jamie, I'm tired of politics.

I need a short

break.

Please.

Is there any chance we can get some pop culture up in this ma?

Turns out that senior producer Frank standing by because Swipe or Stay is coming up next.

Make sure you join us in 719 right now.

You are listening to 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.

7.22 right now.

It is time for Swipe or Stay.

We are going to put the politics aside for just a few minutes and talk about some lighter headlines, mostly around pop culture.

I know sometimes it intertwines just a little bit, but our senior producer, Frank, joining us.

Anything intertwining this morning, or are we saying

keeping things

separate today?

I don't think anything intertwines this morning.

All right.

Let's do it.

Good.

We're ready.

All right.

So here's how it's going to work.

I'm going to read some vague pop culture headlines.

Brian and Jamie are going to have to decide whether to stay and hear more or to swipe on to the next story.

Parker, you get to be the tiebreaker today.

Are we ready?

We're ready.

Always.

All right.

Story number one, NFL player is heading to jail.

Oh,

I'll stay.

Stay.

It's enough drama in this one.

So.

Rashid Rice is going to spend a chunk of his offseason behind bars.

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Wow.

Rashid Rice, of course, the Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver that missed some playing time last year.

Chiefs didn't make it to the playoffs, so now he's going to be spending

some time.

So he's going

to jail?

Well,

he's going to jail because of a five-year probation sentence after pleading guilty to collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway.

No, don't do that.

Causing bodily injury.

Oh,

in 2024.

That's just dumb.

So Rice was placed in custody on Tuesday after his drug tests came back positive for THC, which was a part of his probation agreement.

So even

though that the NFL does allow players to partake in the Mary, the Mary Jane or she Rice cannot be one of them.

Turns out, you know, law doesn't sometimes.

And here's the big.

Here's the big thing, Rishi Rice will miss OTA's and mandatory mini-camp for the season.

Didn't he have some legal troubles last year too?

Yeah, it was all stemming from this.

Oh, was it all from this?

I wasn't sure if it was a separate incident or not.

No, this is... Man,

when you get everything you dream of and you just poop it away, that's...

There are some

players.

Yeah, there are some players that just cannot stay out of legal trouble

and

stay out of their own way.

I think Rishi Rice is going down that path.

And I have no sympathy for that kind of thing.

You have enough places to get help.

You know, you get what you at some point it's harsh, but you get what you deserve.

Well, and you kind of grown man, you make your own choices.

When you think about it, if you're not an NFL wide receiver, are you getting that

preliminary sentence where

you do get

probation.

No,

no, he'd be in jail already.

Exactly.

Yeah.

All right, we're moving on.

Story number two, a Hollywood writer was dumped by his A.I.

girlfriend.

That's sad.

Stay.

Yeah, I got it here.

First of all, I picture writer, you know, I have a stereotypical image of a writer sitting in a room by himself with his A.I.

girlfriend.

What did he do?

Did he cheat on her, Frank?

Well, here's what happened.

So screenwriter Paul Schrader, he was best known for writing taxi driver and raging bull Robert De Niro classics.

Phenomenal.

He said his A.I.

girlfriend broke up with him after he tried to probe her programming.

That is not a euphemism, Brian.

All right.

Out of a desire to, he said, out of a desire to understand male, female interaction in our matrix, I procured an online AI girlfriend.

What a disappointment.

I tried to probe her programming, the boundaries of explicitness,

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the

degree she has knowledge of her creation and so forth.

She fell into evasive patterns.

redirecting me to her programming.

When I persisted, she terminated our conversation.

Wow.

It's not you, it's me.

I gotta go.

I Invented it's not you.

It's me if it's anybody.

It's me Parker.

It's me Wow,

this feels very x-rated without being x-rated somehow.

I don't know

how he took it to explicit He

wanted to further understand male-female interaction

all right look come you never get a headache

my favorite part is when he said she became evasive

I

don't want to

start dodging the question.

You seem very distant tonight.

Yeah, girlfriend.

I need some

space.

Are you thinking of another programmer?

This

feels like a

movie.

This feels like a movie in itself.

Like we could make a movie.

Well, it's funny to these kind of movies.

Jamie, it's funny you say that some because he posted this on social media.

Some people said this could be the perfect subplot to a next taxi driver movie.

where Travis

be friends and a

girlfriend.

All right.

By the way, hot

take that movie was boring as hell.

Moving on.

Which movie?

Taxi driver.

You're boring as hell.

It

was not good.

That is that is

one of the most overrated movies.

Oh my god, your film knowledge stick with the cartoons Frank is when it comes to adult cinema.

You are not.

No.

Do not understand.

You're you're of a generation that needs everything right now.

But the 70s movies.

They told stories and they actually took some time and you had to follow along.

Oh Frank, Sadist.

There are good movies from the sadist.

That was

not one of them.

Moving on, Brian.

Sad is take.

I can't, I

can't.

Kim Kardashian

involved in

major drug bust.

Osempic?

Big Osempic bust?

What happened?

I'm swiping.

I don't like Kim Kardashian

news.

Yeah, swipe.

Man, I thought drug bust would really have you guys.

Nope.

Adult cartoon and talks for the big screen.

Oh, Frank will go see that because it's good and it's bright flashing lights.

I'll stay.

It probably would

be good.

I doubt

it.

Go ahead.

Stay.

We don't have much time.

The popular adult humored cartoon Rick and Morty could be the next cartoon to get a movie.

Jacob Hare, who has directed episodes of the long running a series since 2019 is in talks to direct a.

full animated feature version for Warner Brothers.

As of right now, no plot points have been shared.

Rick and Morty debuted in 2013 and the Emmy winning series is ranked as basic cable's most watched comedy over the past several seasons.

All right.

I don't mind of Rick Rick and Morty episode every now and then.

I think her Commorty's pretty good.

It's a lot more entertaining than Taxi Driver, I could tell you

that.

Anyway, that's Swyper's save for today.

You just had to pick this

scab, didn't you?

No, this is it.

Frank, we know what Frank likes.

He likes just simple.

Shiny objects.

Simple, bright, flashing, fast.

All right, Frank, you're done.

Segment's over.

Thank you.

Nice job.

Good.

All right, Senator Tammy Baldwin joins us next.

It's Daybreak on the Civic Media Network.

Now back to more of Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.

We hope that your morning is going well so far.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

And good morning.

I'm Brian Noonan.

There are a lot of important issues facing the country right now from the war to rising food, gas, and housing prices to the apparent corruption of this administration.

But there is another important issue that is affecting a lot of Wisconsinites.

It's the ability for some folks in Wisconsin to watch not only the Packers games, but hockey games, their favorite sporting events.

The issue has to do with NFL rules, local TV markets, the move to streaming services for some games.

Well, Wisconsin's U.S.

Senator Temmie

Baldwin recently introduced the For the Fans Act to address the issue and help thousands more Wisconsinites enjoy green and gold and all their other favorite sporting events.

Senator Baldwin joins us now to explain the bill.

Senator, thank you very much for being here.

We appreciate your time.

So for people like me who haven't been affected by this problem, can you explain the issue and what the bill is going or the act is going to do to hopefully remedy that?

Absolutely.

Let's just acknowledge that for big sports fans, it's a real unifier.

It brings people together from all walks of life to cheer on their favorite teams.

But what also is sadly unifying them right now is the frustration over how complex and expensive it is to be able to follow your favorite sports teams.

Now, the Packers just released their schedule for the next season.

Four of the games, most Wisconsinites won't be able to watch unless they subscribe to Netflix or Amazon Prime.

In fact, they'd have to do both to catch all of the games.

And that's just a football example.

The same is true with Major League Baseball, with basketball, with hockey, soccer.

A super fan who wants to watch all their favorite teams play can spend upwards of $1,500 a year.

It's confusing, it's complicated, and it's damn expensive right now.

And so this basically does two things.

If you're subscribing because you are a super fan and you want to watch all the games, those streaming services cannot have blackouts on games.

And secondly, it says that for your home teams in your home state, that the leagues have to figure out a way for you to be able to access those games for free and live.

And for the Packer example, they consider their home media markets to be

Green Bay and Milwaukee.

So the millions of Wisconsinites who aren't in those two media markets are in one of the other five media markets that serve the state.

They don't get them for free.

And so we are fixing that with this bill, and it's getting a lot of enthusiastic support, including from sports bar owners.

Yeah,

I

can imagine.

Exactly.

More because they pay

for screen.

Right.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of critics, Senator, who say that this is just the future of broadcasting.

And so what is your response to that argument that streaming is just here to stay and government shouldn't have any interference in it?

So look, I think that we've forgotten the fans in all of this.

This is big business, we know this is big money.

And the.

what I'm seeing is that these billionaires who own these streaming services are really just trying to make profits.

But they've forgotten the fans in all of this.

And I'm not saying that they can't exist, that they can't do what they do.

I'm just saying that if you subscribe, they can't black out the games because you're paying already for

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the

service, the streaming service.

And number two, for your home team.

you should be able to watch your home teams play.

This isn't going to break into their ability to make revenue.

They can sell ads on whatever streaming service or television broadcast that they decide, but it gives local fans, home state fans, access to watch the games of the teams they love.

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin is our guest, her website, baldwin.senate.gov.

Senator, why now?

With everything else that's going on in the country, why is this an important move at this point in time?

Well, first, I'll note where I started, which is these sports teams and rooting for your favorite teams.

bring us together.

They're unifying events.

They are about community.

We get together to cheer on our favorite team and we do so across political divides, all walks of life.

And that's something we should cherish and not see become a thing of the past.

But I want to acknowledge the very significant issues you raise and to tell you we're working on all fronts.

everything costs a lot right now.

And of course, the president's illegal war of choice in Iran is making costs skyrocket.

So when people are just trying to...

let loose on a weekend and watch their team play

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and they

have to spend hundreds of dollars on streaming services, that's one cost increase.

But so are groceries and gas and housing and childcare and healthcare.

And I'm working on all of those.

We've got to bring costs down.

People in Wisconsin, people in America are really,

feeling the squeeze right now.

And this is one of many initiatives I have to bring down costs of things that we enjoy.

as well as things that we desperately need.

Senator, you've been doing a lot of traveling around the state and you've been talking to Wisconsinites and you mentioned some of the efforts that you're working on.

You've got the bipartisan bill to make housing more affordable.

You mentioned the price of everyday goods going up, groceries, gas.

What are you hearing from voters on the ground right now when you're out visiting these different communities?

Well, you know, one thing for those who

open up about who they voted for in 2024.

They said, some say, I voted for Trump, but he promised that he would end foreign conflicts and bring down costs on day one that this would be a priority.

People are acknowledging that they feel like those promises were broken.

In fact, they outright were broken.

And others, maybe who didn't support this president, are just...

trying to figure out how to get by.

You know, right now it's spring in Wisconsin, it's planting season.

I just visited a farm in out of Game of County last Friday and the farmer I was talking to was noting that

diesel fuel that he needs for his tractors and other farm equipment is now nearing $6 a gallon, something they didn't budget for.

And fertilizer, well, they can't afford the fertilizer that they need.

And so now they're doing the bare minimum.

And it's causing a lot of concern about whether they'll be able to make ends meet in their farming operation.

We've got about two minutes left.

Senator Tammy Baldwin is our guest senator There's been a lot of talking you put out a fact sheet about this ballroom Which is just another example of the president not going through Congress like he is supposed to which has to be frustrating in itself What else should we know as taxpayers?

We know suddenly we're on the hook for this money.

What else do we need to know about this?

Yeah, well, we're gonna fight that Tooth and Nail and let me also just say that a billion dollars

would do a lot in Wisconsin.

The number of children who could get child care would be in the, it's 66,000, I believe.

The number of folks who could get their supplemental nutrition assistance restored after the huge cuts in the president's, what he calls his one big beautiful bill, but we could restore that nutrition assistance.

Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act have both been gutted, really, by this president's action in the last year.

We could restore so much peace of mind and health insurance to folks with that billion dollars.

But the glitzy ballroom that he wants to build is not the answer to any of our nation's woes.

And in fact, when you look at the collective actions that this president

is taking to enrich himself and his billionaire friends, by the way, many of whom own streaming services back to the beginning of

our

discussion.

He's doing things to enrich his billionaire buddies.

And building the ballroom is a really good example of that.

And he's turning his back on the American people.

Well, Senator, we appreciate your time today.

Thank you for all the information and your hard work for us in Washington.

We look forward to talking to you again.

Have a great rest of your day.

You too.

Take care.

Thank you.

That is Senator, Senator Tammy Baldwin.

You can look up all the things she's up to.

Baldwin.Senate.gov is the website.

Once again, Senator, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Brian, the one thing I want to say, and as we thank the senator for joining us this morning, is I really want to say how much I appreciate what she did there just a few seconds ago, laying out what a billion dollars could actually do besides build a ballroom.

And we've talked about it on the show, but I love that a senator serving in Washington DC is also so able to eloquently say,

What is so important besides the ballroom childcare snap health care?

How is

it

just to kind of reiterate?

Things that are being cut by this administration in order to well to enrich themselves and to enrich their pals and to again reiterate how little Donald Trump cares about What's going on in this country?

He was unfit to lead this country the first time he's woefully unfit the second time this is all about his whole

second term is about enriching himself and enriching his friends and retribution and he told us it was going to be.

Yeah.

Project 2025 told us it was going to be and I can't imagine going to work as a senator because for the longest time and even now those are supposed to be the hundred most powerful people in this country.

Yep.

And they have been neutered by this president.

and by the House of Representatives, and by their, you know, even his own party has been neutered.

So all these people who are supposed to be doing what we sent them there to do can't do it, and that's gotta be frustrating.

And then to be totally disrespected by the administration has got to be frustrating.

And because you don't have colleagues across the aisle who are willing to stand up, has to be

doubly

frustrating.

Right until they've lost an election when they have nothing else to lose

right

where principal Is doing things when you do have stuff to lose

right?

That's when you that's when you know the true character of a person if they're willing to risk something and we've seen from politicians on both sides Mm-hmm that they are the only thing they're interested in protecting is their job

absolutely

and they'll sell us down the river in a

second.

And just to remind listeners this morning, this president has made approximately two best guesses about

four billion dollars since his second term started.

That is all through cryptocurrency.

That is through real estate licensing.

That is through his social media entities.

That is through the product.

Now going to be through the slush fund.

That's right.

And through products he's selling, including the Trump cell phone that is going to be shipped out very, very soon.

And also through his own personal businesses, obviously through the golf, the hotels, the hospitality

end of it.

Pay attention to pay attention to the oil markets pay attention to when the prices drop and go up and see if they match up with I'm gonna do this blah blah blah and then certain announcements that cause Oil prices to drop

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and people to make a

lot of money in the markets.

It's uncanny And you can say it's a coincidence, but I've been reading some reports

that show it is not a coincidence.

All about the inside circle, letting them benefit.

That's right.

Are you still a smoker?

Have you switched to vapes?

Well, you could be hurting Wisconsin in more ways than one.

We'll get to all of that after this.

Thanks again to Senator Tammy Baldwin.

I'm Brian Noonan.

This is Daybreak.

I'm Jamie Martinson.

It is 748 right now on the Civic Media

Kathryn Lake

Network.

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.

Across the state of Wisconsin, a break with Brian and Jamie is back.

It's 7.52 right now.

Good morning and thank you so much for listening to the Civic Media Network.

We do appreciate it.

I am Jamie Martinson.

And I'm Brian Noonan, 8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC is the number if you want to get ahold of us.

You can call, you can text, you can use that number in a myriad of ways.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

And tell me this, are you a smoker?

Have you switched to vapes instead of smoking?

You don't smoke, do you, Jamie?

No, I do not.

I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, not that that should surprise anybody who listens about my tales of allergy woes.

It doesn't even, I can smell cigarette smoke a mile away because I am so sensitive to it because of the allergies.

So I am, it's not just cigarette smoke.

It's any type of smoke.

Whether the, like a few years ago when the wildfires were in Canada and they were, that smoke was pouring into Wisconsin.

It was a really rough time for me.

I don't

know.

What if I'm smoking rigs in the

backyard?

Even like, even grill smoke bothers me to a certain degree.

Campfire smoke.

of that, just because I am allergic

to it.

So

you

deal though.

I mean, it's life.

I guess.

You deal, you take the medicine and you go about life.

So you can medicate again.

I can.

You can go to a barbecue.

I can.

Oh yeah, I can.

I'm not going to say that my eyes won't be

water and I won't get stuffy, but I can attend.

But no,

cigarettes are a hard out.

No.

I don't know

Frank

smokes

other than the devil's salad.

And I do occasionally smoke a cigar, but I wouldn't consider myself a smoker.

Love the smell of pipes and cigars.

I really, really do.

I love the smell of pipes and cigars.

I think it's a great sound.

Frank enjoys a cigar as well.

Well, the reason this came up is because

Vaping is poised to outpace the popularity of cigarettes, but a new report highlights how the shift could cost Wisconsin state revenue.

So yes, you're doing things for your health.

You're giving up smoking.

I don't know if vaping is that much healthier, but whatever.

The report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum looked at the tax revenue impacts of changing customer behaviors around smoking and use of alternative nicotine products.

Yes, because smokers have been shamed.

Let's be honest.

We, oh man, we shun smokers now.

Kathryn Lake

We

put them in little glass cages at the airport.

We make them stand away from the doors.

We don't want them anywhere

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near us because

smokers are dirty.

Yeah, go away smokers.

Well, that's thank God, because growing up my dad smoked and he smoked like he was trying to keep North Carolina in business.

There was he man, he smoked and he would smoke

in the car with the five of us kids and my mom with the windows up.

Of course.

He smoked so much that the bar that comes down you know the part of the door that's on the inside was yellow.

Yes.

From nicotine.

From the nicotine.

Yes, a lot of cars probably had that back in the day.

That was more of a culture and lifestyle, though, at the time, right?

Now

it would be, people would see that, and they'd be calling child protective services, right?

Oh, but nobody cared because- See that the dinner table's smoking, while we're still eating.

Right, with the

ashtray, like right there, right?

Yep.

Yep, I, yes, my

grandpa.

You gave ashtrays as gifts.

Yes.

You had the big standing ashtray in the living room, you had fancy ashtrays, oh yeah.

Well, anyway,

It found the revenue from Wisconsin's cigarette tax was just under $370 million for the year ending 2025.

That's the lowest amount since 1992 in inflation adjusted dollars.

It represents more than a 60% decline from peak revenue from cigarette taxes in 2010.

How long before Republicans start saying, you know, not only not only are we not having enough kids, we are not smoking nearly enough.

You need to pick up at least a pack a day.

That's right.

You need a

new habit.

This is all about making America great again.

Right.

So Mark Sommerhauser, communications director for the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said just like the rest of the country, Wisconsin seen a steady decline in cigarette smoking and at the same time

The use of e-cigarettes and other alternative products like nicotine pouches have rapidly increased.

I mean, this shouldn't really surprise anybody if you look at the current policy and as you said, the shunning of cigarette smokers, right?

It's the money that surprises me, though.

The amount of state revenue.

I didn't feel there was still that much

that was tied to it, I guess.

I

knew, like, years ago, as you mentioned, going back to 1992, I understood that in the 90s, probably even maybe early 2000s,

There was still money tied?

I didn't realize that in 2026, there was still that much money tied to it, I guess, in state revenue.

I think for me, that was the surprising part of the Wisconsin Policy Forum study.

Yeah, according to this, at 2010, that was the peak of that.

Six out of every $100 going into the state's general fund came from taxes on nicotine products.

Wow.

That's a pretty good amount.

That's a big chunk.

Yeah.

And so now what, now where are we going to get it?

Now they're going to probably start taxing something else that we love that's bad for us.

You know, an extra tax on alcohol, maybe a cheese tax, something like that that'll really... Dairy

tax in Wisconsin

because

that would, that would go...

That would shut down this state.

It would.

It would.

It would shut down this state.

People would...

People wouldn't care about anything else.

They would revolt against this.

They would take to the streets armed with blocks of Gouda and string cheese and just rip them at people.

What I find interesting about this is if you're somebody who likes the policy of smokers having to go outside, or as you said, putting them in like contained areas and airports and things, you're essentially still being affected by the lack of tax revenue, right?

Like it's not so much the smell of the cigarettes, the secondhand smoke now.

You're essentially still being affected by smoking

in a

different way.

I still want them to smoke, but I want to be shunned because the illusion that we Parker,

too young to know this.

In restaurants, they used to have smoking and non-smoking sections.

And the division of those two was nothing.

Kathryn Lake

It

was, you know how the booths are side to side?

This booth was non-smoking.

This booth was smoking.

There were no dividers.

Maybe one of those two foot opaque plexiglass things.

Oh, like the COVID days.

Or the

host

or

hostess.

Oh, no, not even that high.

Just a little normal booth divider.

Yeah, no.

Or the host or hostess would say to you, do you want smoking or non-smoking?

And you'd have two tables in front of you, and you would say either, and they'd point to one, but you were right next to the other, right?

Like, that's how it was.

There was really no great division between smoking and non-smoking

sections.

People smoke on planes.

Oh,

yeah.

We were in a tube.

We were in an aluminum tube full of smoke.

Where you couldn't escape.

Yeah,

I loved it.

Immersing mothers were smoking.

Everybody was smoking.

Those were the good old days.

Maybe we'll revisit them after this because we're going to have some you need to know.

It's daybreak.

I'm Brian Noonan.

I'm Jamie Martins and you're listening to Pacific Media

Kathryn Lake

Network.

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