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This is where Wisconsin wakes up.
It's Daybreak with Brian Noonan and Jamie Martinson.
Here are your hosts.
Brian and Jamie.
6-0-6 right now.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Network.
No Brian Noonan today.
He is out, but instead I am joined by our wonderful senior producer, Frank Gargano.
How are you this morning?
I am good.
I am tired.
I'm not going to lie.
Today
is a sleepy day for
me.
sleepy day and I have to say, and by the way, you're gonna be joining me throughout the show today for anybody who's joining us.
It is rainy this morning in Madison.
It is like walking into a tropical, like, spot free rinse at the car wash.
That's what it's like walking outside this morning
because it's like just look at that.
I
know it's just gross.
It's
super humid.
It's one of those mornings where when
you
walk outside in Wisconsin, Parker and I both wear glasses.
They steam right up and then you're hit by like this mist.
That's what it is.
It is it is really gross.
We're supposed to expect that type of weather throughout today and then some storms as the week progresses.
You know, because eventually we're supposed to lose the heat and humidity, but you have to have some thunderstorms.
storms mixed in there to do that.
Are
we
though?
Yes,
we are.
Yes, I look at the forecast.
Yes.
Frank, I was golfing in it last night.
Oh.
No, you were.
Yes, I was.
Why?
I was trying to golf in it last night.
What's wrong with you?
Glutton for
punishment.
How did the golf trip go in the, in the.
gross, humid, rainy, misty type weather.
We played two holes, not very well, and then we went and stood under a shelter, and then we went home.
Oh.
Let me ask you something.
That's how that went.
Wow.
As somebody who also goes golfing, did you not look at what the weather was going to be?
We
were like, yeah, we'll probably
get at
least.
You just didn't care.
We were trying to go every Monday.
Who's we?
My dad, my uncle, and cousin, and other
uncle.
Oh, so this is becoming like a
family event.
Yeah, and we all have already golfed.
Okay.
But yeah, we're trying to.
All right, I have a follow-up.
Yes.
Are you paying for the round of golf?
Ah, see, advantageous to living with your parents, Frank.
Oh, he's not.
Oh, no, he's not.
I was
gonna say.
No.
Well, that's just it.
There are certain parts of your life where it's okay to still use mom and dad's memberships
and
all of mom benefits, right?
There's no shame on that.
No, I
fully explains why you're like, sure.
Yeah.
Put my clubs in the back of the car.
Let's go.
Yeah.
All right.
We played two.
Let's go home.
If that were me and I'm paying for the round and I get two holes in because I didn't check the weather.
No.
They gave us
a rain
check.
Oh, they gave you a rain check.
That was nice of them.
And if they hadn't, well, we had a receipt that was dripping wet.
Oh, oh yeah.
It's hard to disprove that.
Yeah.
Not the driest day ever.
Well.
I mean, it's good that you made it work, you know, and found that shelter.
I mean,
there is
that.
I
guess I would pick a different day.
Like, look at the forecast.
Yeah, I'm going to a softball game tonight.
Oh,
oh, oh.
They're giving away rings.
They're giving away championship rings.
What kind of
ring?
What softball game?
The nightmares, the mass nightmares.
OK.
We won the championship last year.
They're giving away the rings.
We're getting replica rings.
But
they're gonna be plastic, it turned your finger green.
I know but I don't care.
I need a ring, Jamie.
You know what I noticed about Parker?
Yes.
And I say this in the most endearing way.
Wait, why does it always start like that?
Why is there never just a quick, you know, I love Parker.
Because I want you to know I love you.
It's just, you know, that
Parker guy, he's cool, but ugh.
I love you, but you are truly a sicko when it comes to sports.
You love it all.
Parker doesn't discriminate.
No, he does not.
It doesn't matter.
What are you wearing today?
What's on there?
I'm wearing a shirt that's from, it's a rebrand that the Mallards did.
It's the Muscle Arts.
They were different.
Positions, there was like a catching one, a pitching one, and a hitting one.
There's also this one, the bench warmer.
All right.
It's a guy in a bench blowing bubblegum.
Everybody's got
to be a bench warmer at
some point.
I could appreciate it.
Parker likes all sports across all leagues.
Right.
And if there's a special promotion, he's in.
He's in.
And that I respect.
Do you have a shelf of memorabilia in your house of all of the things you've collected?
Oh,
no.
Not myself.
I might have pictures of my basement, though, because my dad kept old sports illustrators from, like, 70s and 80s, probably 90s.
Was it the swimsuit model?
No.
Swimsuit
edition?
Oh, okay.
Just
wanted to
know where we stood there
for a second.
Not my father.
No.
I just want to know where we stood for a second.
Hey, speaking of sports, I think we would be really remissed if we didn't talk about the president at game three
of the NBA
finals between the Knicks and the Spurs.
Now, first of all, I did not pay attention last night.
It was kind of a long night.
Who actually won the game?
Spurs won the game, so they took game three, so the next lead two games to one.
It was a crazy atmosphere.
You had, I think, every celebrity and their grandmother in attendance.
Sure, it's New
York,
so that
always happens.
Yeah, you had your chalamets, your Ben Stillers, your Spike Lee.
Your
president sleeping.
in his protective
bubble.
It was a long wink, Janie.
He can't help it.
Well, here's what I'm going to say.
He's up all night.
This is true.
There's things happening.
Now, what I will say is that I watched some of the coverage of the president arriving at the game.
And obviously, New Yorkers were not happy that he showed up at game three.
He was mercilessly booed as he was pulling up.
It was almost like New Yorkers didn't actually appreciate having the president there because they had to arrive hours early.
It forced everyone attending the game to go through tons of extra screenings.
They had to cancel all their free public viewing parties that they had planned for outside Madison Square Garden.
Specifically so, President Trump could be there a person even though over the years he has completely trashed talk the NBA and isn't an actual fan of the sport.
Now, when people, this is just a tip for anybody.
When people are lining the streets booing you and waving to you with one finger, that is not some sort of new
friendly wave.
That, that is something completely different.
What I also find interesting is this president claims that New York really, really loves him.
It did not last night.
They did not love him last night
at all.
I have a quote pulled up.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
Tell me this.
When an Aspire reporter, okay, you said it was, I think mostly cheers.
It was loud and it was very enthusiastic.
It was very enthusiastic, but it was not mostly cheer.
Two of those things were true.
Two of those things were true.
I agree Parker.
Two of those things were true.
having Having watched the game.
It was most definitely enthusiastic.
It was most definitely was loud.
They were not cheering for you, sir.
They were not cheering for the president.
And I don't blame them.
It's not even Jamie.
This isn't even a matter of politics.
I
was just gonna say you completely disrupted the entire game and made life so much harder for these people who are just trying to attend a basketball game.
Imagine being a lifelong Knicks fan.
and you finally get to have this moment.
Right.
And it's true, like, it is the apex of tribalism, where you all get to go in and watch the game.
The place was rocking.
Yes.
But...
And you know it's gonna be rocking and then the report comes out, please make sure you arrive at least two hours early.
I mean, New York City was an absolute zoo.
I've seen TikToks of people from out of town coming in, walking past like people from London.
And I think the caption was like, what is happening in New York?
And it's like.
Honey, I don't think you could have come at a more crazy period of time because the Knicks could possibly win the championship
and the whole
city's gonna burn to the crown.
But also, everybody hold on, Donald Trump's coming in.
So let's shut everything down even more.
Right.
And here's the thing too, moving around New York, if you've ever had the pleasure of visiting, it is not an easy task as it is, right?
Like it's just not.
There's always traffic, there's always lines.
I personally find it exhilarating.
I think it's a lot of fun.
I can get how it would be a whole lot of knowing if you did it every single day of your life and you just wanted to go enjoy a game.
it was absolutely impossible for people to move around last night and I mean people were already adjusting their lives just so they could be at this game right and potentially see the next take take the championship um and then to have to
say there were people that I was watching being interviewed on the news that actually took off work at like 11 a.m.
noon just so they could make sure they had enough time to get from where they needed to be to doubt to out to Madison Square Garden to
be
there so that they could get into the stadium and get to their seats because they knew how hectic and hard this was going to be for everybody involved.
Yeah, that's insane.
I would be messaging you and saying, hey, I'm out.
Right.
I'm taking the day off.
I'm not even gonna bother.
I need to leave now.
But then you could even go to one of the viewing parties because all of those had to be shut down for security purposes,
right?
I
mean, that's just like when the-
Players were being wanded when they walked into the building.
Right.
I mean, that would have been like when the Bucks won a few years back, right?
And they had all of those viewing parties outside FISERV.
And they had that huge screen up and the area was packed.
It would have been like if you were there, having that completely canceled.
and not being able
to
attend because it's the same concept.
It was, I don't know, it was a little ridiculous.
I hope the president had a great night with all of his loudly adoring, cheering fans of New York.
Enthusiastic change.
Enthusiastic, okay.
Mostly cheers.
Mostly cheers.
All right,
so even he
acknowledges there was a boo or two in there.
Of course, and I think the thing is,
especially for somebody my age.
I have, I have heard his name and dealt with Donald Trump.
Yes.
For basically my entire adult life.
Yes.
And this is just another thing where, again, not political, where he's coming in, if I was a New Yorker and it's like, oh my God, can I have one thing without this man being mentioned about the event?
Right.
Right.
I mean, at some point, it's not always about you.
That's a good lesson for all of us to learn.
It's not always about us as much as we want it to be, but yeah, I don't know.
It looked even more chaotic than you would have thought that Madison Square Garden was going to be just based off of the events of the evening.
And the event itself, it was a big monumental, potentially monumental occasion for Nix fans.
And then it had to be overshadowed by crowds and wands and...
screenings and all sorts of extra things.
I know we're gonna hit break here in just a moment, but I think we'd also be remissed if we didn't talk about another celebrity who decided they were gonna run for office and then turns out
that...
Is it Spencer Pratt?
It
is.
It is.
If you haven't been keeping up, it turns out that it takes California because they have a lot of voters, a really long time to count their votes.
And Spencer Pratt, who was pretty sure he was going to be in the running for mayor of LA, turns out, well, he is not.
He is not at this moment in time now in the running to be mayor.
of Los Angeles,
California.
As of 10 hours ago, Nithya Raman was ahead by 22,000 votes, and she's going to advance with Karen Bass to the runoff election.
All right.
This is why you let everybody count their votes.
It's a good lesson in why you let the process play out.
Now, the president had actually endorsed him, but do you think this is a moment where Republicans are going to scream at us about unfair elections and voting and counting
the votes?
I don't know.
Or are they going
to let Spitzer practice?
just be of memory.
Do you put that much energy into Spencer Pratt?
I don't
know.
I hope not.
I
hope not.
I hope that's not what they do.
Coming up here on Daybreak, have you received a tax assessment?
Are you worried about your property taxes going up?
We're going to take you to class with the civics lesson after this.
My name is Jamie Martenson.
And I'm Frank Gargano.
It's 619.
This is Daybreak on the Civic Media Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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622 right now.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Network.
We are going to get to a civics lesson in just a moment.
But before we do that, I want to remind you that coming up after seven o'clock this morning, you're going to have a chance to win and qualify for some great prizes with our text to win multi-state contest.
It is called the Accelerate Your Summer Contest.
And remember, we're going to give you another word.
And all you have to do is have your
Pacific Media app ready so that you can text and maybe win a hundred bucks for a daily prize and then qualify for the grand prize of $250 in gas and $250 in grocery.
So like just less than an hour now.
So right away this morning, we're going to come out strong.
Um, but, uh, we, I wanted to do a civics lesson this morning, Frank and Frank has joined me.
Brian is out today.
Uh, Frank is going to be the co-host, my co-host for this morning, but I wanted to do a civics lessons.
today, because
I thought
it was a little important.
And you and I chatted about this a couple of times.
Over the last few weeks, I've seen a lot of discussion in community Facebook groups and some of those Facebook chats about property tax assessments.
Ooh, fun stuff.
I
know it's very exciting right away in the morning, but people were posting pictures of assessment notices, asking whether it meant their property taxes were about to go up.
And the question that was being posted in all of these community chats
generated hundreds of comments, hundreds of comments on multiple threats.
And property taxes are already a major expense for so many Wisconsin homeowners.
So we thought it would be helpful to clear up some of the confusion this morning.
If you have recently received an assessment notice in your mailbox, we're gonna right now explain what it means, how that's all calculated, and make sure that we ease your mind maybe just a little bit.
So every year,
Many Wisconsin homeowners receive this property tax assessment notice and it assumes they automatically assume that that means a higher assessment
or a higher tax bill.
The assessment is not your actual tax bill if you received one of these.
It is simply an estimate of what your property is worth.
Assessors look at factors like recent home sales, the size, the condition of your property, and some of the improvements that maybe you've made and local housing market trends.
Property taxes are based on two things.
They are based on your property's assessed value and how much money local governments need to raise through our property taxes.
local governments, school districts, counties, and technical colleges first determine how much money they need to collect, and that is called your tax levy.
So if you're in your community, you hear your local officials throw this around, this is what a tax levy is.
It is divided among property owners based on each property share of the community's total value.
So if you think of it this way, this is the easiest way, because I'm not a math person, I'm not a numbers person,
so you start throwing things at me.
I'm following you.
You start
throwing things.
and I've got to make it simple.
Your assessment basically determines your slice of the pie, and the tax levy essentially just determines how big that pie is, okay?
So if that makes sense.
Now,
that's why a higher assessment doesn't automatically mean you're just gonna get a higher tax bill.
If property values rise throughout the community at about the same rate, your share of your pie essentially may stay relatively unchanged.
Property taxes are more likely to increase if your home's value rises faster than similar properties if local governments increase spending, or if tax credits and exemptions change.
Now, property taxes help pay for services that a lot of us are using every day.
schools, police, fire protection, road maintenance, libraries, parks, all of the things that make our communities unique and special to us.
Now, if you believe that your property has been assessed incorrectly because you've got one of these letters in the mail and you're like, nope, I don't think this is correct.
You can actually review that information with your local assessor and you can actually go through an appeals process if you feel that that is necessary.
Now,
understanding how all of this works can actually help homeowners, you know, better understand their tax bill, participate in local budget discussions that affect their community.
But it is important to understand how this works and why if you see a value written on a piece of paper, that doesn't actually mean that your property taxes are going to go up.
And I understand in this state, it's always a big discussion because, well, here on Daybreak, we have talked about property taxes.
many, many, many times.
They are the bane of Wisconsin homeowners existence.
And I understand why people would see these letters come in the mail and they would be frightened that that means that their share of their taxes are going to go up.
But that does not necessarily mean what it is, what it's going to happen.
Again, I would stress, call your local.
municipalities and your local assessor if you have questions about your personal statement.
Now you are a renter as are we
currently.
This is why it's fun because as a renter you don't have to worry about property taxes and levies except it does change your rent as well.
Right?
Because if your property owner's taxes go up, renters, you are not out of the clear.
That also means that, you know, your rent could go up.
So it's also important that we understand how these processes work, too.
And I feel like with rent, though, I will say this.
It doesn't matter if the value goes up.
Your rent's going up, at least where
I
live.
And I live in the city of Chicago.
And it's my experience that.
Hey, I got charged more fees, whether that be an HOA fee or this is going up, property tax is going up, so your rent's increasing.
Whether that's true or not.
Who knows half the time?
Ours went up this year by about $100, so it wasn't the worst increase we've ever endured renting.
I've got to say though, I'm at a point in my life where owning your home is awesome.
I also kind of like the freedom of being able to rent, right?
Like right now we have a clause in ours that if we find something different with 60 days, we can still get out.
And if we
want... Really?
Oh yeah.
That's a hell of a lease.
I know, it's a great lease.
and we have a landlord who basically lets us take care of the house just like it's our own.
So, which we do, and we've done a lot to the house since we moved in there.
Needed some major cleaning, let me tell ya.
When we
moved in.
Jamie's told me multiple times.
It's okay, you're not gonna own a home.
No.
It's actually pretty fun to rent.
It is, it is okay to rent.
Coming up, the question, are you optimistic about the future of America?
Is the United States still the greatest country in the world?
you think that is coming up next on Daybreak on the Civic
Media Network.
From Lake Superior to Lake Michigan, this is Wisconsin's Morning Conversation.
Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
635 right now.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
We always appreciate it.
No Brian Noonan today.
He is out.
Instead I am joined by our producer, Frank Gargano.
Good morning.
How are you today?
I am doing great.
We are now awake.
We are live.
We are inspired.
And Jamie, we're coming out hitting with the hard hitting question today.
Do you think the United States is still the greatest country in the world?
Please explain why or why not.
855-752 Civic 855 or 855-755 Civic 855-752-4842.
Get in on the conversation, call in Texas.
Do you think the United States is still the greatest country in the world?
We're asking this for a specific reason this morning, right?
Because the United States is approaching its 250th anniversary.
And a new poll finds that Americans are taking a hard look at where the country currently stands today.
And a lot of people are currently saying that they're concerned about politics, democracy, and whether hard work still leads to success.
A lot of others remain optimistic about the future and proud of what America represents.
Yes, where do you stand on this question?
So this is an AP poll that came out just over the weekend yesterday, within the last couple of days though.
And a lot of Americans in that poll said they are less likely to view the country as exceptional and are expressing concerns about the future of democracy and economic opportunity.
Chad is chiming in over on our YouTube chat this morning, Frank.
He says, no, we are not the best in.
a lot of categories.
He's not alone in this assessment when you look at this particular AP poll.
The poll also finds that a lot of Americans remain proud of their country, but are very concerned right now about the future.
at this current conjecture, when you look at what is happening in the country when you watch the news every day, I think that is a legitimate concern for a lot of people.
And I find this poll fascinating because, and we'll get into the results in a minute, but young people tend to be the ones who are most concerned right now.
And-
Wow, I'm shocked.
Right.
Approved.
Yeah, as the young people, when you say young people, do you mean Gen Z, like Parker's age?
Yes, we're
talking
younger millennial.
It says younger adults, as far as the survey, they didn't break it down into categories, but they say younger adults.
So I'm going to say, usually that is the 18, 19 to about the 29 to 30 year old category is usually how they break that down.
Well, we have one of those on the show.
We have two of you, right?
I'm teetering.
You're teetering, but you guys are much
younger than I am.
So Parker, are you worried about the future of the country?
No,
no, not
at all.
The sun shines in
rainbows, baby.
Peachy keen, peachy keen.
Yeah, it's a little worrying.
You kind of see what's going on in the political scape, and everything is just so divisive.
Yeah.
It feels...
So hard.
It is.
No, you're right.
I mean, even for somebody my age who's 47, who remembers a time and worked in a time in politics when, you know, even if you were a Democrat, even if you were Republican, I remember being on the Hill, right?
Working in those offices.
And those individuals, those senators from both parties would go into these knockout drag out fights in the offices and you'd hear yelling and you'd hear the fists on the desk.
And then the door would swing open and they'd be patting each other on the back and they'd be like, all right, we still got some work to do.
Dinner tonight, are you bringing the wife?
I mean, that was the conversation.
It was, it was varied.
It wasn't divisive.
It was literally, we all have ideas.
We need to come together to make sure that all ideas are heard, so we're doing what's best.
Now, obviously there was always, they always wanted to do what was best for their party, but there was much more compromise.
There was much more bipartisanship.
Now, you are not as young as Parker, not as old as I am.
You were in your early 30s.
What is your take?
You and your lovely wife, as we like to call around here, Mrs. Frank.
we won't let her hear us say
that.
You know, it's funny that we, it's funny that we jump into this right after the property tax thing.
And the whole point during the civics lesson, I'm like, man, I, I really have no life experience in this realm with property
taxes.
So I'm not a homeowner and I, I turned 32 today.
So, Oh, I forgot to tell you, happy birthday.
To
be fair there's we've got a lot going on
there is but how okay well you're coming to town tomorrow, so We will have to celebrate
on it.
Okay.
We'll celebrate.
We'll do things all
right,
but as I'm sitting here Hearing about property taxes.
I'm like I have no I have no skin in the game to be honest sure my rent may increase but I'm not fully invested in it because I'm not a homeowner
yeah,
and if you said
I think when my parents were starting to get married in the 80s and it's like, wow, you don't own a home yet and you're 32 as a married couple.
That'd be insane.
I feel like because there were starter homes, there were ways to move up.
I mean, now let me ask you this.
Is a country's great business model to sink?
young people into debt if they want to go be educated?
Yes, I mean,
because I'm dealing with that too.
That seems to be, I mean, and I'll be honest, even at 47, I mean, it was no better for me going to college.
And I went to a small liberal arts school, right?
I had different choices, but this is the particular school I chose.
And I was
way into debt.
I had to forebear loans for years simply because I was a stay-at-home mom for a really long time.
We didn't have the income to pay back my $385 a month that they wanted from me.
Every time, you know, we came to the end of a forbearance.
The question this morning, based off a new poll, do you think the United States is still the greatest country in the world?
Why or why not?
We would love to hear from you.
1-855-752-4842, that's 1-855-752.
Now, as we're talking about this, the survey found that we are not alone, right, in our worries about this country.
Cost of living, housing affordability, economic opportunity, political division, trust in government, all some of the biggest concerns that crossed the age gaps and crossed the political parties.
In fact, a lot of people who participated in this AP poll think that it's actually
at this moment time, harder to get ahead financially than it was just as you were saying, Frank, for your parents or your grandparents.
Now,
let me
ask you another question.
When your parents bought their starter home, how long were they in that starter home?
That's the other question.
Do you know?
That's a really good question.
Because I think until I was six.
So.
Obviously starter homes were much different, right?
That's my point though, because there were a lot of people who bought those starter homes and they became their lifelong homes or they became like decades or more home.
And
then eventually they moved on.
You don't see people being able to do that so much anymore.
And I think it's so funny because,
my two boys, 22 and 19, you know, we'll talk to older relatives and they'll be like, well, when by the time I was your age at 22 to our oldest one, we had our first home.
Max is like, are you kidding?
I'm paying 750 and rent for 250 square feet.
Like
what?
Right.
Congratulations.
What do you want me to say?
Right.
He's like, there's no way that I could.
You threw a realtor two nickels and we're able to get some property.
Right.
It's not the same.
Now, younger adults were especially likely to say buying a home, starting a family, building their savings and achieving financial stability are much more difficult than they feel like it probably was in the previous generations.
Now, older Americans who participated in the survey were more likely to say that the American dream is still achievable through.
hard work and determination.
You know that.
You mean pick yourself up by your bootstraps.
Yes
pick yourself up by your bootstraps Parker.
But that's that isn't I don't think that's possible.
I
think the American dream has changed you know and it's a question I remember being in high school doing like US history and all that stuff and I remember over the summer having to
write an essay coming into the semester.
What is the American dream?
Right.
And everybody kind of had the same response.
And that was back in 2011.
And it was the white picket fence.
It was the yard.
It was all that good stuff.
And I don't think that's what the American dream is today.
I think it's drastically changed.
I mean, if I had to guess what the American, even for like our age group, for the American dream, is it so much to say that people just want to get by?
That sounds so sad when you say it out loud, but I think for a lot of us, it is literally, I just want to be able to pay my bills.
I just want a place to live and I just want to make sure that I can have food on the table and maybe just maybe go out and do some things that make, let me enjoy life.
Is that what
our dream is?
There's a term that was thrown around a lot in my adulthood, unprecedented
times.
Do you know what the American dream is to me?
I want less, I want more precedented times.
There's too many unprecedented things that happen.
I don't want to hear Aaron Parnass every day on my wife's phone say, we have breaking news.
The president did this or this was shut down.
Right.
Or they're moving to do this and the Supreme Court has blocked this.
Right.
And it's just constant.
And maybe I was just younger before and didn't pay much attention.
No.
I feel like more life changing events are happening.
nowadays.
At one point in time we used to just wake up every day and not think about the government.
We just knew that as we were
going about our
right We used to just know that waking up we went about our lives and the government was just working in the background We never had to worry about constitutional rights being stripped away just skirting the Constitution the Supreme Court rolling back rights We never had to worry about those things and I'm not gonna sit here and say that the world was perfect and we didn't have issues We always had issues, but you trusted that the government was just working in the
background to make sure that life was continuing the way we needed it to.
And I
don't
know.
I mean, we've gotten so far off of that over the last decade, 10 to 12 years, that it's really hard to imagine life before that, right?
Like it truly
is.
Now this.
poll showed a huge divide between the younger and the older Americans.
In fact, younger adults were much more likely to say that other countries offer more opportunities and better opportunities and also a higher quality of life than we currently have here in the United States.
And we also remain divided over what defines
this country's identity, including the role of immigration, diversity, and shared values.
More than half of the people who responded say that welcoming people from different backgrounds remains an important part of being American.
We're a melting pot in this country.
While a similar number say shared values and culture are important to the nation's identity.
Now, despite the differences, Americans across the political spectrum, because let's be realistic,
Democrats and independents think one way, Republicans think another way, Republicans
think
that the world is much better now than it was even five years ago.
But despite all of the differences across political spectrums, the one thing that was shared in this particular poll was a commitment to freedom.
democracy and opportunity as important as important parts of the nation's identity, which still tells me that even through the political divides, our overall goals are still the same, even if we don't agree on how we get there.
Yes, I here's my thing, though, with the overall question, are we still the greatest?
There are many countries that also feel that way nowadays.
2026 is a much different period of time.
Yeah,
go and go and travel other places go places in Europe and Come back and be like all right.
Yeah, maybe maybe maybe other places have it pretty well, too That's my only argument here.
I I think we can be the greatest I still wouldn't want to live anywhere else
Honestly, we have a lot of work to do.
We
have a lot of work to do.
A lot of work.
Coming up, Major League Baseball team playing home games in one city while waiting for a stadium in another.
That's what the Brewers are doing this week.
We're going to talk about that next.
It's 648 right now.
Daybreak on the Civic Media Network.
Now back to more of Daybreak with Brian and Jamie.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Network.
If you're a Madison listening on WMDX or an Appleton and Oshkosh on WISS and the Cross on WLCX, we are glad that you decided to join us.
My name is Jamie Martinson and you are not Brian Noonan.
He is
out today.
I am not.
He is out.
I'm filling in for just for today.
Just for today.
Real quick.
Parker opened up the show talking about how he went golfing yesterday.
Yes.
Yes.
And that went out basically after two holes.
Yes.
This guy just asks me over break, are you bringing your clubs tomorrow?
The weather should be
worse,
Parker.
We literally had Mace Michaels on yesterday to talk about the awful storms we're getting and you're asking me if I'm bringing my clubs up.
Did you learn nothing from yesterday?
Do you know how lightning works?
I don't know if you want to be in the middle of a field
with trees and a
metal club.
We're gonna be out there and you're gonna hear the sirens are gonna be going off I'm gonna be looking at him be like did you check the weather needs to be like well I thought you know you're up you're not up many times I figured we'd play
We're
running for shelter unless
there's a donut involved or a piece of chocolate cake.
I'm not running
Yeah, I'll
stick it on the end of my driver
Fatty
let's
go play
Quick nine.
Come on in and out.
Come on.
Let's go.
Part three right here.
Come on.
Let's
go.
The
sirens are going off.
There's,
you know, it'll be fine.
It'll be fine.
It'll be fine.
Uh, speaking of sports, uh, this is not golf related, but it is brewers related.
Um, I don't know if you've been paid attention, but they're, they're on the road right now.
They have a three game series against the, uh, athletics that they started yesterday in Las Vegas.
Yeah.
I saw Jacob Mizorowski almost killed a guy.
He did.
He did, he
did
absolutely.
Even though the athletics, this is interesting because even though that they're moving to Las Vegas permanently, their new stadium is still under construction.
It won't be ready until 2028 about the time the Hammond Bears are also playing.
You know what?
Here, I'm going to give you a hot take real quick as we're taking shots as the Chicago Bears, which I'm all in
on.
I'd much rather be the Bears than the athletics.
This is true.
This is
the athletics are truly the dumpster fire of all major sports.
They really.
really are.
Now the team has spent most of the season playing home games at a AAA ballpark located in Sacramento.
This week series is a preview though of their future in Las Vegas.
The games are being played at Las Vegas ballpark.
This is home of the AAA Las Vegas aviators and yesterday's game will be was the first regular season major league baseball game played in Las Vegas since 1996.
The athletics
will play six games in Vegas this season before returning to Sacramento for the rest of their home schedule.
The temporary arrangement means that the athletics are effectively splitting home games between two cities more than 550 miles apart.
That's just an easy, easy travel schedule.
Just
easy.
What's it like when you have to play a home game that feels like an away game, but further than an away game?
I don't, I don't understand.
It's funny because I'm picturing like the University of Kansas, their football stadium has been getting renovated for the last couple of years of doing it in phases.
And they've had to play games in a couple of different places.
Like they played where the chiefs play.
That's at least close.
It's
like within the same vicinity
at
least, you know, it's maybe a bus, it's maybe a bus
trip.
Yeah, that's not a whole 550
miles.
Yeah.
So the team has this new stadium coming to the Las Vegas Strip.
It is going to cost $2 billion.
They plan to open it in a couple of years.
It will feature a retractable roof to help deal with the heat of Las Vegas.
For
the
athletics?
Yes, for the desert.
And temperatures in Las Vegas this week, by the way, if you're worried about what's happening here.
think about the poor brewers 100 degrees during the day is what the temperature will be like.
So imagine having to do that regularly throughout a season.
If you're the athletics, that just seems miserable.
Even though the games are scheduled for the evening, we're still talking probably 90 to 95 when the first pitch, at first pitch, which it sounds really not fun to me.
Gross.
The Brewers are coming off that series we know in Denver.
They're going to play six straight road games at higher elevations than normal because Vegas also sits at about 2,200 feet above sea level.
Not as extreme obviously as Denver, but obviously that's going to affect the pitcher.
So hopefully Pat Murphy.
he's doing what he needs to.
Yes, Parker, you're doing some research over
there.
OK, so I went to bed last night in the third inning, and it was already like...
Didn't that game go into like...
Seven to four.
It
went on for forever, right?
I got the final, it was at 120 is when I got that notification.
15 to 14, the Brewers won.
Wow.
Holy
bucket.
Good God.
The ball was flying.
I saw a couple of absolutely
Bombs for homers heat you gotta
think that that is gonna be really hard now by the way you you mentioned the athletics Frank They're hovering near the bottom of the standing so all of this talk for the athletics We're right around 500 and are still in the race though for the American League West believe it or not
And nobody's gonna be there to see it
I
I'm sorry if I am talking about a team who has a hundred degree like games No, I don't care if the roof retracts or not.
No, that's just too much.
Well, and it's the athletics who's
Right.
Who's a fan of them anymore?
I
remember going a couple years to the Brewers towards the end of their season when it was what it like those hundred degree days.
Oh, that wasn't even fun.
And that was only like once in Wisconsin.
Dry heat, not the humidity
kind of thing.
We'll get into the old people discussion.
Miller Park sucks, though, when it's really hot and the roof is closed.
It is.
It's like a terrarium in there.
It's really hot in there.
Oh, it's awful.
Is that air condition?
No.
No.
I mean, you get rained on when you're inside at Miller Park.
This is all so true.
That's
true.
We won't talk about that, though.
Coming up, we are going to jump into all of the stuff you need to know, plus a dating app for unvaccinated singles getting some attention.
We're going to talk about that next.
You're listening to Daybreak.
I'm Jamie Martin, and he is Frank Gargano.
This is Pacific Media
Network.
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