Politics to the highest bidder hurts Wisconsin (Hour 1)

Transcript

Politics to the highest bidder hurts Wisconsin (Hour 1)

The Dom Salvia Show · Wed Mar 26, 2025

Broadcasting across the state of Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network and around the world on the Civic Media app.

This is the Dom Salvia Show.

And now, here's your host, Dom Salvia.

And welcome to the Dom Salvia show.

Thank you so much for tuning in and listening.

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Join us on the text line or the phone line.

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Civic got just PS working hard on the board and just as hell is Wednesday.

So our pal Matt Rothschild joining us, formerly of the Progressive Magazine, formerly of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Burner.

And friend of ours, frequent contributor to the Civic Media Radio Network.

Matt, welcome back, man.

Matt Rothschild

Hey, Dom.

It's always fun to be with you and Jess.

It is a blast.

And we got a lot to get to today.

But I know a lot of folks tuning in because, you know, it's that it's that time of year.

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Matt.

pleasure to see you again.

We allow the national stuff to get to it.

We can't, we have an election next week, man.

If you believe this already less than a week, we have an election.

We've talked a lot about Judge Susan Crawford going up against the BS.

And I want to get your, your sense.

I know at Wisconsin democracy campaign, you guys track the money.

And this one is, is, is Blake breaking

all the records.

So we'll get to that momentarily.

But I want to get also throw this one out there for our audience's consideration.

Yeah, there's another one out there too.

And that is the state school superintendent race.

And we got a couple folks that are running the the incumbent Jill Underly versus Brittany Kinzer.

Now, Brittany Kinzer is the voucher lady.

Let's put it that way.

It's all you need to know.

And the incumbent is Jill Underly.

And I would recommend if you

care about Dom's opinion, you vote for Jill Underly and you go and vote for Judge Susan Crawford.

That's what you do.

Matt Rothschild

But I've already done that.

See,

Matt Rothschild

man.

We submitted our absentee ballots.

The other day, my wife and I vote by absentee, but we actually physically hand deliver them to the town.

So hand delivered absentee ballots.

Now, now some Republicans would call that fraudulent, Matt.

Matt Rothschild

Well, the clerk was there to verify our identification.

All right, good.

Excellent.

Yeah, folks, you can do that.

Early voting is going on, and the actual vote is next, the in-person vote is what, next Tuesday, right?

Yeah, a week from yesterday.

But here's why I bring up this particular race.

And we've been talking over and over about Susan Crawford, man.

But according to Kelly Meyerhoffer at the Journal Sentinel,

Kinzer is out raising is out raising the incumbent underly.

Here's a couple of paragraphs education consultant.

A voucher consultant.

She's a voucher lady.

Brittany, the voucher lady.

She has raised more than twice as much as the state superintendent Jill Underly and more than nine times what the conservative back candidate did in the 2021 race.

Kinzer has netted at least 2.4 million so far this year compared to Underly's 1.3 according to campaign finance reports released this week.

With just a week to go before the April 1st election, Kinzer has nearly 900,000 in cash on hand and Underly has about 100,000 on hand according to

through donations through March 17.

Now on the other side of the other side on the other race map, Susan Crawford is out raising my understanding, BS we'll call them, but a lot of money in that race.

Let's talk about the, I want to get your sense on this, a stupor intendant race.

I'm actually kind of shocked that this outsider, you know, voucher consultant lady is raising them like twice as much as the incumbent.

Matt Rothschild

Yeah, Ben Wickler might want to swim.

You

Matt Rothschild

know, I'm worried about this race.

You're right.

Brittany Kinzer is absolutely just a starving horse for the voucher people, the school privatizers, the people who are strangling public education here in Wisconsin.

And Jill Underly's done a pretty good job.

in her position, and she's run for reelection, deserves to be reelected.

So I am concerned about this race.

I'm also concerned about the Crawford race.

And I think people need to, you know, in the next few days, really make sure they have a plan to vote and go out and vote by Tuesday.

And if you've got an absentee ballot, you know, I wouldn't put it in the mail today.

I would try to get it into a drop box and deliver it like my wife and I did to your

local clerk because if it's not received by eight o'clock on Tuesday, they're not going to count the sucker.

So you want to make sure your vote counts.

Matt, Jess and I were talking before the show today about

I mean, we really haven't seen a whole lot of underly ads.

Let's put it that way.

And no doubt, you know, the airwaves have been just, just filthy with BS and Crawford ads.

But I just get the sense that she, you know, underly hasn't been around as much.

Then I was like, well, she's the incumbent, right?

You know, she'll be, did you notice, did she have like an eye incumbent or any indicator that she was the incumbent on your ballot?

Did you make any note whatsoever?

We looked ours up online and there was no indication of incumbency.

on at least the digital ballot that we looked at.

Matt Rothschild

No, I didn't see it.

Or to put it like Pete Hegseth or Tulsi Gabbard, I have no recollection.

I'm an old man, I'm confused.

So if that's the case, and I thought, well, number one, yes, Jess, I mean, you know, I haven't seen a whole lot of underlay.

And number two,

If there's no indication that she's the incumbent, someone goes in and doesn't really know what's what, you know, that doesn't help.

Because a lot of people will just vote for whoever's there now, you know, that kind of thing.

And some people will just go the opposite.

Well, let's switch it up.

A lot of people have their own ways other than the issues if they're not aware on what box to check.

So if there's no indication that she's in fact the incumbent that I think would vote

I think it would be great for her in that regard.

A lot of money in that one, but Matt, you're right, man.

The Elon Musk money in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race up to $19 million.

Yeah,

Matt Rothschild

$19 or $20 million.

And just to put that in perspective, the

most expensive Supreme Court race for Wisconsin and for the country.

In history, it was $20 million before the last two

Wisconsin

Matt Rothschild

Supreme Court races.

So Musk himself has spent as much as the total contest combined up until the last two Wisconsin Supreme Court races.

It's just obscene that one

person.

And I don't care if it's, you know, J.D.

Pritzker or whether it's Elon Musk, no one should be able to spend that much money to tell us who to vote for here in Wisconsin, especially if the person isn't even from Wisconsin.

But I don't want Diane Hendricks doing

it either for that matter, Richard E.

Matt Rothschild

Line.

But still, there's got to be some reasonable limits.

Why otherwise have contribution limits at all to candidates?

Why have a $20,000 limit in a direct donation?

to shimmel when you know Elon muskin goes spend 20 million dollars that's you know what's the math there that's

Well,

because if you, if you have a, a, a limitation, call it, you know, 10 or $20,000 direct to the candidate.

Well, you have a limitation, but you're right.

The work around it was just give all the money you want to the party and the party you'll divvied up, uh, as you wish.

I know there's not supposed to be that way, but that's what happens, right, Matt?

And, and so what is the point?

I think we, we read yesterday that Dick Uline is the single contributor to like a super pack up for like $4 million.

I'm like, why even have the middle man?

Why even do it?

the paperwork dude everyone knows it's you why why would you even what does what would be the point of that man I mean for real I know you looked at this stuff for a long time why would a super rich guy set up a super pack and be the only funder and everyone knows it what is the point

Matt Rothschild

The point is just to get around the limitations on direct donations to candidates and give unlimited amounts I mean musk is giving literally a thousand times what the direct contribution would be to shimmel and last time I looked at and given a dime to shimmel's campaign

Why should he?

Well same thing with bus so I mean he doesn't need the

The pass-through man, I mean everyone knows that Musk is funding these things and these things are spending the money Now unless there's some sort of tax consequence for a musk like hey these are some sort of 501s You know some some charitable organization to get a deduction for if everyone knows you're the funding source for a pack or a super pack What is the point because you can give as a person you could give the as much money as you want to the political to a party the Republican Party or the Democratic Party of the state of Wisconsin, right?

or as a super pack, you can give the same amount of money, right?

You don't have to set up the cutout in order to do that.

I just don't get what the point is if everyone knows you're the sole, primarily sole, the funding

Matt Rothschild

source.

Yeah.

You know, they want to be the ones who said, look, my, my group, you know, put up these ads and, and so the candidate owes me or something or look at how great I am because my, my pack helped elect, you know, BS.

So.

Or maybe they don't want it maybe maybe they don't want it I mean if you saw every ad instead of like America packing We love you packing Jesus's right pack and everything was Elon Musk Elon Musk Elon Musk Maybe people get turned off by that Maybe it's it's a way of hiding to those that are maybe less informed or don't want to see the billionaires name all on every single ad

Matt Rothschild

Yeah, it could be both.

You know, it's a shield to the general public, and it's a bragging badge that people were in the know.

But we've got to change our law here in Wisconsin to not allow huge donations to these outside groups, not allow the transfer of money from the parties to the candidates.

That's outrageous too.

It's just a shell game.

And there's no reason why the super rich should be able to spend a limited amount of money to tell us who to vote for.

Well, and 100 years ago, it wasn't like that,

Matt Rothschild

right?

I mean, it was

literally

Matt Rothschild

like 100 years ago.

It wasn't like this in 2015.

You

know,

Matt Rothschild

for years before the legislature under the gerrymandered Republican legislature in Scott Walker in 2015, when they rewrote our laws, the most anyone could spend in Wisconsin was $10,000.

If you gave $10,000 to the Republican Party, you can give one dime to Scott Walker or to anybody else.

And because the legislature rewrote that, and because of a horrible US Supreme Court decision called McCutcheon, the limits went out the door.

But we could still impose limits on donations to political parties, donations to outside groups.

And we could certainly ban the shuffle game, the shell game, of giving the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, and then that party can give to a candidate.

You know, it's ridiculous to be able to shuffle that money around.

As a state legislature, should the, you know, whoever's in charge, you know, write something up and get the governor to sign it, regardless of political party, what, I mean, that could have some impact, but it doesn't.

We still have Citizens United, right?

I mean, we still have.

ways to work around it.

Do we not?

Matt Rothschild

Well, but it would be a lot trickier.

So if the legislature rewrote this, and I hope they do in 2026, if we have a Republican governor, a Democrat governor, a Democrat legislature, they could say the most you can give to any outside group doing electioneering is $10,000.

Well, if you wanted to spend 20 million like Musk, you're going to have to set up what?

2200

organizations or whatever

Matt Rothschild

it is.

That'll make it a lot trickier for them to do.

And that would be a plus.

So they gotta file a lot more paperwork, but it's still a workaround it is it is something and I know I know this to be a fact The polling will tell us this and even some of our you know anecdotal conversations with conservative friends No, man, they don't want you know hardcore liberal

Crazy liberals buying elections any more than they want, you know, crazy righties buying elections.

It should be one person, one vote.

And hell, even if you say, and even if you agree that money is speech, well, speech can be regulated.

You cannot yell fire in a crowded theater.

And I believe this kind of money being spent on our elections is basically yelling fire in a crowded theater.

Come back with us.

Matt Rothschild joining me all day today.

You can do so as well.

855-752-4842.

it may still have time but still get by every time

And welcome back to the Dom Salvia show 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic it is our break into spring text to win statewide contest going on and on right now today's keyword

is swim download the civic media app, find your favorite radio station, click the text button and text the keyword swim for your chance to win the statewide contest.

This goes on until five o'clock PM central time today.

Today's word is swim your chance to win a Chula Vista overnight stay got just PS on the board here, Matt Ross child on the desk.

Thank you, Matt, for joining me today.

Very, very concerned about this election going off next week, folks.

And we are always tight.

So regardless of what way you hear, oh, this person's up or that person's up or whatever it's going to be, we have close elections here.

So.

You know, as Matt said, you know, get your plan and I'd throw in there and grab a couple of the folks with you, man.

Get them in the car, get them over, go and vote for Jill Underly for state school superintendent.

And of course, the judge, Susan Crawford.

You see yesterday, Matt, Ron Johnson is on Charlie Kirk.

He couldn't remember BS's name.

Oh, that was embarrassing.

It was tasty though.

We played a little crickets.

I mean, it went on for like, I don't know, like a three,

four, five seconds.

In a embarrassing amount of time.

I mean,

you know how slow time goes on the radio.

I mean, especially when you're like trying to, you know, we have, we have a fun time here.

Two hours can go really fast, especially hanging out with men.

Oh yeah.

I mean, it can't go, but if you're trying, if you're in the middle of something, you're trying to come up with the word, and I've been there, man.

But he was the one, Johnson was the one calling it a senior moment.

So yes, Susan Crawford, Jill Underly, you got your marching orders folks.

Let's get it done.

Yeah, you're

Matt Rothschild

right.

Bring a family member,

bring

Matt Rothschild

a friend, bring a neighbor.

If you know someone who needs a ride to the polls, make sure they get a ride to the polls.

And, you know, sometimes taxi companies will give you a free ride here in Madison.

I know they do.

Union Cab does that.

So make sure everybody you know comes out and vote because these

Non-presidential races, turnout is generally lower, so your vote counts more.

If

Matt Rothschild

you really want to make a difference, get out there and bring as many people's possible polls on Tuesday.

Or get your absentee ballot in soon.

And whatever it takes to motivate you to do so, call it a referendum on the Trump administration.

Call it concerns about women's reproductive rights.

You know, there's very clear sides on these issues.

And, you know, Susan Crawford will be on, well, presumably, my opinion, is down for what the things that we are down for.

And we know Brad Schumann, man.

We know this cat.

We don't want that, dude.

Just another, you know, Scott Walker leftover, man.

We've had that.

Let's scrape it off our boot and let's move on.

And let's make this a referendum.

Let's make this a choice.

Let's make a stand against what we see every single day in this administration, man.

I mean, I know we're going to get to it.

The Pete Hakeseth and the whole signal thing.

Uh, but from my recollection, it was literally two months, uh, January 24th to March 24th.

He was, he was, Hakeseth was confirmed on January 24th.

The signal story broke on March 24th.

It was

two months this guy was in before the whole thing blew up.

And everybody, when they talked about this guy being unqualified, terrible, whatever, all those things, took two months, man, two months, two months, come on.

I would have never, I would have thought at least take six, you know how to take in that action.

But two, man, that is a level of incompetence that we rarely, rarely see.

So this is, again.

Steer near here to the state of Wisconsin.

Sorry for the rant man.

We'll go on because there's other issues at affecting the state of Wisconsin and this administration You want you want to voice your opinion?

You want to voice your objection to the Trump administration?

You want to voice your opinion and support for our constitutional rights?

Jill Underly

Matt Rothschild

And if you're sick of what Elon Musk is doing in this state, you really think someone should spend $20 million to tell us who to vote for.

If you're sick of Elon Musk raiding the federal bureaucracy and throwing people out on their ears with no due process, here's a time to register your disgust with Elon Musk and go in and vote against...

a BS vote for Susan Crawford and vote for Julie, man.

Amen, man.

855-752-484-2855-757.

I know we have some funding and grant things that are impacting our nature lovers out there and we'll get to that.

But momentarily, let's get a phone call or in here, Cindy from Appleton.

You will be first today.

Happy Wednesday, Cindy.

What do you got for

us?

I'm concerned about the Supreme Court election because I think that BS is going to win.

And the reason why is because not too awfully long ago, there was polling done in Wisconsin about the fair maps.

And 89% of Wisconsinites believed in fair maps.

So why isn't Susan Crawford, who wants to keep the fair maps, ahead by that much in the polls?

71% of the people that were polled about

you know, big money in Wisconsin, 71% of Wisconsinites were for getting big money out of politics.

So why at best is she not 71% ahead of Brad Schimmel?

It's because people are voting their party lines instead of their values, which is what they do so often.

And unfortunately, the Republicans seem to come out in these kind of elections and the Democrats don't.

So if you're a Democrat or you're an independent who wants something better than that,

Guy for the BS, please go out and watch.

Matt Rothschild

Yeah, the fair maps issue is really crucial.

And thanks, Cindy, for the call.

Really appreciate it.

You know, if Schimmel wins, they may get back to rig maps.

It was the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

And of course, Tony Evers, who helped us in the grassroots movement, who helped us get fair maps here in Wisconsin or fairer maps.

Well, legislative maps, not the congressional maps are still questionable.

Matt Rothschild

Yeah.

And we could, we could work those too.

If, if we make sure Susan Crawford wins, but Brad Schimmel wins, you know.

Those maps are gonna be rigged like never before for the Republicans.

Well, never before.

I mean, we just got out of it.

We could get right back into it.

Now the Republicans will tell you all the devs want to rig the map.

No, man, all we want is...

a level playing field.

We are a purple state, we're a 50-50 state.

There's no reason that we should have the disparities that we do.

But Matt, Cindy is absolutely right.

These kinds of elections, the Dems, I don't know that they show up in these kind of off-term elections, man.

Matt Rothschild

Well, they did for Peralta Saywhats, but, you know, she stressed the fair maps issue, and she stressed the abortion issue.

And maybe Susan Crawford should be echoing those two issues right now rather than run all those trimads against Jimmel.

The ads are indistinguishable, between

which candidates

Matt Rothschild

running them at this point.

I'm going to lock him up.

No, I'm going to lock him up.

Come back with us 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic the Trump administration cutting money To all sorts of things and it may impact you and your travel plans this summer come back with us

Yeah.

Welcome back to the Dom salvia show eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five civic it's a break into spring text to win statewide contest download the civic media app find your favorite radio station click the text button at the bottom and send the keyword swim swim is the keyword for today going till five o'clock p.m.

C.T.

your chance to win a chulavi star

overnight getaway swim, uh, Matt Ross, child, just PS, working with me today, uh, talking about the money and the politics.

This one, I'll throw this one out there before we talk about the, some of the parks and the issues we have there.

Uh, Daniel Bice from the Milwaukee journey will set and all has tweeted out that Elon Musk and his two groups, America pack and building America's future are up to $19.85 million in the Wisconsin Supreme court race, man.

It's a lot of cabbage.

You know, you ever see a fundraiser where they got like the thermometer, you know, they're going to keep, you know, is it 20 million?

How much does it matter?

And then I'm like, well, the guy's like the richest man in the world.

Why 20?

This is nothing.

Why not 100 million?

I mean, if you're really serious about it, why not just buy everything?

Go get it all, man.

You want those Tesla dealerships?

Act like you want them.

Yeah, how many Teslas

is this?

Oh, I don't know, but a hundred percent of them, at least the trucks, would need to be recalled.

Matt Russell, there is a continued fallout, man.

And people are outdoorsy folks.

I'm getting there, man.

I used to eat when I was a kid.

I was really outdoorsy.

And I'm like, I gotta get some city in me.

And now I'm kind of slowly getting back to the nature, enjoying the walks and springtime, seeing the birds.

And I know you are a big outdoors fan.

What's happening here in the state of Wisconsin?

Matt Rothschild

Well, there's an article in the state journal today by Lucas Robinson, great reporter there about Wisconsin's flagship hiking trail.

the Ice Age Trail.

Now, the Ice Age Trail is suffering because of Elon Musk's cuts.

I'm just going to read a couple of paragraphs.

Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail is feeling the heat from federal funding changes as the National Park Service and the partnering nonprofit that supports the trail are caught up in the spending cuts from the Trump administration.

The trail's Park Service office has had its staff cut from seven to four due to the firings, hiring freezes and buyouts.

at the Ice Age Trail Alliance, staff remain locked out of obtaining $600,000 in federal funding that's been promised to the group through the Park Service and the National Park Foundation.

Now, the Ice Age Trail was in the midst of expanding its trails all across the state, and it's not gonna be able to do so.

I mean, it had eight upcoming trail projects planned for community stretching from Mantua County on Lake Michigan, of course, to Polk County on the Mississippi River, of those eight

trail projects for have now been put in limbo and so this could be disastrous for small and rural communities the Ice Age Trail Alliance executive director has pointed out and yeah I mean it's not just the Ice Age trail I mean think you know Horicon Marsh I'm sure they're

getting hit badly by this.

Think of if you want to go to Yellowstone this summer, good luck getting a camping site or Yosemite or Zion or wherever you want to go, the Everglades.

You know, any of the national parks are being just strangled right now.

So for those of you who like to go visit our national parks, as I do, and I was just out in Yellowstone this winter and it was gorgeous in the winter, you know, things are really going to be hard and you're not going to be able to enjoy our great natural treasures.

because of Elon Musk

8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 civic mad it's certainly not just here it's also as you mentioned nationwide pro-publica had a piece out a couple weeks ago just want to read a couple of paragraphs here uh engine at daemon reporting if you ask a national parks service arranger how the trump administration's cost cutting will affect your next park visit you might get talking points instead of a straight answer

You know what I'm saying?

This is how they're doing it.

A series of emails sent late last month to frontline staff at parks across the country provided rangers with instructions on how to describe the highly publicized staff cuts.

Park leaders further instructed staff to avoid the word fired and not blame closures on staffing levels.

Yeah, don't just ignore it.

It's gonna be fine.

On February 14th, at least a thousand park service employees were terminated as part of a broad reduction to the federal workforce by the Trump administration.

As a result,

Visitor centers have reduced hours, tours of popular attractions have been canceled, lines have spiraled, bathrooms may go uncleaned, habitat restoration has ceased and water has gone unchecked for toxic algae.

Meanwhile, rangers have been ordered to describe these cuts or attrition as attrition workforce management actions according to the talking points.

As prioritizing fiscal responsibility and staffing to meet the evolving needs of our visitors, they should tell the visitors the parks will continue to ensure, quote,

memorable and meaningful experiences for all.

I

remember that memorable experience

when all the bathrooms had been cleaned

in months.

Remember, I got the toxic algae infection.

That was great.

I remember that.

At the bottom of the ProPublica piece, as we were talking, Viva O'Neill, executive director of the Great Basin National Park Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports a small park in the remote corner of Nevada.

Bristol had the idea put forth in the talking points that parks can continue to provide the same level of quote unquote, memorable experiences with the

cuts.

When the park lost five of its 26 permanent employees in February, it was forced to close tours of a signature attraction leaving caves.

To help restore services, the foundation raised the money to temporarily hire the terminated workers.

O'Neill said quote.

How do they do their day-to-day operations when you don't have the staff?

As you mentioned, Matt, going from what?

Seven employees down to four.

You know, that's a huge percentage.

You're going losing five of your 26 permanent employees.

You can say that you're going to have a memorable experience, but as mentioned, that could be good or bad.

Matt Rothschild

Yeah, I mean, no clean water, no clean bathrooms.

I mean, that's going to be a fun family vacation.

Lines that stretch out for hours and hours?

certainly memorable.

Oh, come on.

It just, just go, go to vacation at Mar-a-Lago, man.

Just go to Florida, get on a plane.

You know, and here's, here's the other thing about this.

I get the impression, a lot of these folks like, I don't know, last time Donald Trump went to a national park.

You know, I'm saying recently, you know, he looks at that's like, well, that's some great development opportunities.

You know, they got any McDonald's up there.

What I'm saying, uh, you know, the, the unwashed masses use the national parks and use our local parks, right?

All the rich folks, they can fly wherever they want.

So if we're going to cut something, whatever, they can wait in line a little longer, Matt.

Matt Rothschild

But this is where I think we can make common cause with people who voted for Trump because a lot of Trump people like to go on hikes.

A lot of Trump people like to go to Yosemite and like to go to Yellowstone and like to enjoy our national parks and our state parks and You know, they're gonna come up face-to-face with what Elon Musk has done or what Donald Trump has done Because Musk and Trump they don't believe in anything public

because they think everything private is good and everything public is bad.

But we love our national parks.

As one of the, Tom, one of your textures said, Teddy Roosevelt's rolling over in his grave.

This was a Republican idea, you know, have national parks.

And they're destroying our national parks.

And people love our national parks.

And, you know, you're gonna be unhappy this summer.

Trying to see with national parks where the lines is just a Santa gonna be a mile long and you're not gonna be able to get in there And then when you get in there, it's gonna be a mess.

No one's gonna be picking up the garbage except for the Bears

You think they're gonna put some funding towards Mount Rushmore to see if they can somehow get Trump's face

Matt Rothschild

up on there

I bet they got no spend problem spending that money Matt.

I

Matt Rothschild

know he wants

it

I

Matt Rothschild

mean, this

is stupid for so many reasons.

But I mean, you talk about someone who ran on the platform of making America great again, when one of the things that has always made America so great are our parks, are the natural resources that we have, the incredible landscapes, the incredible park systems that have been community gathering places, things that have made our country incredible.

Community?

That sounds like communism.

Did you say community?

No, they don't believe in community.

This is what I'm saying, man.

That's what I'm saying.

And I think, you know, Matt, and that's a great point, Jess.

And Matt, I think you're right as well.

If you talk about where to find commonality with folks.

And I'm not a big camper.

You know, don't get me wrong.

I love a good campfire.

I'll go hang out with y'all until it's nighttime and I go find a hotel and go sleep somewhere.

But I mean, certainly the outdoors, lots of folks regardless of their political persuasions.

How do you not love the natural beauty, man?

You know, I mean, the nature of all of it.

And if there's places that come together, it's around the campfires out in nature.

You know what I mean?

People are more chill, even.

You can have those conversations, and people still have those conversations.

But it just seems like it's a little lighter when everyone's outdoors like that.

Matt Rothschild

Yeah, and I think we need to make the point to our friends, you know, this is what happens when you cut government spending, when you let Elon Musk run.

crazy through our, you know, national park service in other aspects of our government.

You're not going to be able to enjoy the things that we as a community, we as Americans think are precious to us like Yellowstone or Yosemite or Zion or Huracan or wherever Everglades, you name

it.

855-752-4842.

Let's not forget fracking and drilling also.

A lot of that to be done.

Yeah, man.

I mean, we could maybe open up some of those national parks, you know, some oil discovery.

That would be great, right?

Why not?

I mean, we're going to drill

Matt Rothschild

baby drill.

Yeah, I think Trump has already green-lighted that, hasn't he?

Once upon a time, there was conservatives were meant to conserve.

thing

is

conservation.

That's all hippie now.

It's too woke.

If you can't cut it, slice it, dice it, prioritize it.

Then

what's it even for?

And make a little money off of it.

Why are we even bothering?

But this is a philosophical, obviously philosophical difference.

And I think most of you folks out there, me, certainly, I'm not sure I got a lot in common with the guy like Elon Musk.

And I'm not sure Elon Musk has a lot in common with a lot of folks, man.

And for a guy like that to be jumping in with his, with his, you know, doge, dogey bros, um, and, and, and making cuts because what?

Because it fits on the spreadsheet.

Cause why, why, why again, man?

Oh, that's right.

Let's never forget these conversations.

When it comes to closing, or the Ice Age trail or the different services or the people getting fired in Nevada and all these different places, one reason only.

Because these cats are trying to scrape up four and a half trillion dollars to give tax breaks for millionaires.

That's why we're doing this, Matt.

That's

Matt Rothschild

why.

Millionaires and billionaires.

They don't want their top marginal tax rate to go up.

And they don't want any of their spoiled little kids to have to pay any taxes on their inheritance.

That's what it's about.

Come on.

But there's so many more of us.

I just don't understand.

I mean, we crush them on the numbers, right?

We crush them.

I mean, there may be 300,000, you know, whatever million.

I mean, it's a very small number, this 1% of the 1%.

Man, and when you think about how much money those cats own of the total wealth in this country, and certainly you can look at the world as well, but in this country, it's an outrageous percentage of the top 1% of the 1%, right?

But there's so many of us and we all got votes.

We all got votes.

We can change it.

We can go back to, I don't know, I'd like to say 100 years ago, but maybe back to 2015, when we say, no, what you cannot spend, $20 million Elon Musk on a Wisconsin state supreme court race so you can get your four dealerships.

You can't do that.

In fact, you can't even vote in the state of Wisconsin.

You know, you can give a little something will allow you that because this is we the people, not you the billionaires.

Matt Rothschild

And I'd like that.

I mean, I'd like for only people in Wisconsin to be able to, you know, buy ads during our elections so that we can determine what happens here.

But that's not the way it is either.

But yeah, you know, I'd love to have in 2026 or 2028 a debate, you know, do you support the national parks or not?

You know, because Elon Musk and Donald Trump, they can buy their own private park, but the rest of us, we can't do that.

You know, we need to get in the car and go visit them.

Yeah.

But the

ones that want to buy are.

public parks.

So what better way squeeze them and then you can get them at a low price back because no one's going there anymore because they got toxic algae and the bears are crapping all over the place.

855-752-4842.

Jim from Appleton, you are up.

Welcome Jim.

What do you got for us?

Oh, I'm just thinking Trump's been in office two months.

It's going to take us decades to undo what he's done.

Oh, you put it like that, man.

It sounds pretty rough.

Ah, you know what?

The good news is Jim is a lot of these executive orders, they don't carry the weight.

Uh, and the good news is we see, we see those that used to be, uh, for, you know, the separation of powers and for democracy and, and for, you know, equal branches of government and for Congress to, you know, actually write the laws and instill the budget and the executive branch to enforce it.

Those, all those theories and all those folks and all those philosophies that the Republicans have claimed over the years have just been cast aside, let alone

family values, fiscal conservatism, you know, national intelligence, you know, those kinds of things.

We're going to get to that next.

Thank you, Jim, for the call.

I don't think it'll take that long to recover, but it depends on who comes in next.

Come back with us, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, more fallout from the signal gate.

Whiskey gate, whiskey signal.

What are we saying?

We'll call it something.

Whiskey leaks, eight, five, five, seven, five, two.

4042.

See, thank you, Jess.

Welcome back to the Dom Salvia Show 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic.

It was our last segment of the day for you to break into spring.

Our statewide text-to-win contest, download the Civic Media app, find your favorite radio station, hit the text button at the bottom, and use the key word, swim.

for your chance to win a prize.

Today's prize to Lovista.

Overnight stay, swim, get after it.

We will have until the five o'clock hour for you to get your entries in.

Matt Ross, child, joining me today.

JustPS is on the board.

We've got some callers and some textures.

One of the textures.

Are you talking about Soros money too?

Yes, yes, yes, we are.

Matt, do you, do you make any distinction about the money in politics or are you okay with the good money and not with the bad money?

Matt Rothschild

No, I hate the big contributions from both sides.

I wrote something, an op-ed for civic media, civicmedia.us has it.

I say, I say,

It doesn't matter to me whether it's coming from rich billionaires on the left or rich billionaires on the right.

I hate the billionaires being able to have more say than we do.

And you know in a democracy we all should have an equal tug on the rope and we just don't because these billionaires are tugging it real hard.

But do

we

Matt Rothschild

also?

We can't compete with them in the money race.

The only day we can compete with them is on election day.

And that's why it's so important, because on Tuesday, you have as much power as Elon Musk does when you're in that voting booth.

More

power.

More power, I should hope.

Yeah, Elon Musk can't vote.

Matt Rothschild

There

you go.

That's

Matt Rothschild

it.

You got more power than Elon

Musk.

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

And the same amount of

Matt Rothschild

power as Diane

Hendricks when you're in that voting booth.

Right.

Right.

Is it?

I know it's forced upon us, man.

And I know, you know, and FCC regulated, uh, institute channels have to do what they got to do.

If you're, if you're part of the thing, you got to play the ads, right?

Some places you can't reject them.

So there is, there is that, uh, to deal with as well, above and beyond like the, the internet, um, ads, which don't have the kind of regulation that we do going over a broadcast radio or, or television.

Uh, so I know this is to some degree forced upon us, but do you think there is a gap?

A hole to be filled because so many people are either disenfranchised or not informed or just don't give a damn or you know Lethargic about it or thinking we get what we deserve and don't participate.

Do you think there's they're filling that gap?

Matt Rothschild

No, I don't think so.

I mean, you know the candidate ads you've got to run but some of the you know the outside group ads You know, there's there's nothing compelling, you know media companies from running that

But, you know, I've been to some media stations during elections and they're just, they're loving it.

You

know,

Matt Rothschild

they're swimming in the money.

That's their revenue source.

So, you know, it is a problem and I think a conscientious and I know civic media has a policy that it can refuse to run ads that are obviously false or breaking the values.

From

third party groups.

From an outside group.

From an outside

Matt Rothschild

group, yeah.

But you're required to.

You know, here at Civic Media, if it's a candidate, just as, you know, CBS or ABC or NBC are required to as well.

No way around that.

Eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five.

So LA Tom, you are up.

Welcome, Tommy.

What do you got for us?

Yeah.

Yeah.

First off, this is their sandbox or their, their, uh, this is their sandbox or conservatives and we're playing on it.

So we have no choice because they're the ones that brought us the conservative Supreme Court of Citizens United where you can put unlimited money into campaigns.

So that's number one.

Number two, I think everyone yells, laughed, far laughed, liberal, socialist, communist, but nobody gives examples of what they mean by these labels.

When people say far left, I want us to, if we can, maybe you can remember to do it, but ask them, what do you mean by it?

Do you mean Medicare for all?

I mean, what is it that they actually mean when they say these labels?

Because honestly, I don't think of myself as far left.

I'm against all money and politics, whether it comes from

I'm against all lobbyists.

I am for Medicare for all system.

I'm for raise of the minimum wage.

I'm for anything.

It's for we the people and we the people of the government.

And I'm not in favor of things that works for the big corporations where three people Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and

Zuckerberg or more wealth than 50% of the nation.

Come on.

That is something you point about the labels.

I don't think they know what it means, man.

I heard Ron Johnson.

Oh, it's not about a socialist Marxist communist.

Dude, those are like all separate things, too.

You know what I mean?

They don't know.

It's

Matt Rothschild

just a derogatory term.

Exactly.

And, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene's calling NPR, you know, communist now.

I mean, it's just, it's just ridiculous.

Yeah, they've got no context with no understanding of what those terms are.

And, you know, to them, you know, anyone to the left of what Joe Biden is a communist or something.

I mean, Joe Biden is a communist, man.

I mean, if you listen to those folks, right, if you listen to it, they tell you that, of course, not the case, folks.

We're going to have to come back in the next hour.

We only got one minute left in a segment.

The continued fall out, we got sound today from all sorts of folks just always doing the hard work.

And Matt, thank you for joining us today.

There's just so much to get to.

I mean, like I said, you start, start making notes at the beginning of the day by the end of his like, nope, not doing that, not doing that.

So we are going to get to a lot of, we got a Senator Mark Kelly from yesterday.

I didn't get that to that.

We're going to play that as well.

We do have a Senator Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan talking about the signal breach as well.

Michael walls.

Apparently this guy, he took responsibility, but did he, did he?

We're going to get to some of the sound and your reaction, match reaction, justice reaction.

Come back with us.

855-752-4842.

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