You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
We power washed some of the wood on the stairway going up to the upstairs deck, and I was just like, oh, please don't rain, don't rain.
I gotta coat it with a certain kind of sealer.
It encapsulates the wood.
It's not the normal everyday kind of sealer you use for decks.
Really?
Yeah.
It's a different kind.
Pressure treated wood.
It's a better kind of sealer.
It's much different.
Yes.
It's kind of a resin and it absorbs into the wood and encapsulates it.
It's great stuff.
It's really terrific, but you got to have really dry wood for that.
And after you pressure spray it, it gets pretty moist.
So he
Oh, no.
Yeah, we treat her to a pool.
Yeah Big plastic she likes hanging on a pool
That little princess.
Why'd you throw it out?
Well, she is very rough on it.
Oh, she seems to want to dig deep into the pool.
I see.
You know, the wave splash and the water splash is just fascinated by it.
And she yips, yips, yips.
And I hate that.
I don't know why she's doing that.
But she also puts holes in these pools and both of them had holes in it.
And I thought, well, let's find it.
It's finally time to crush them and put them in the garbage containers and they're sitting there Filling the garbage.
Are you gonna get get a new pool
the
oh my gosh yeah it's not like they all start too much
a bunch of
And Average White Band, the guitarist for that, I guess he wrote a few songs and played them as well.
So a little disco mixed in.
And then, of course, one of the founding members of Toto was there also playing Africa and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You're not a big Toto fan.
No, I'm not a big Toto fan.
You know, people may think that, you know, I'm a music snob.
You think?
Okay, let me just give you... So Steve Luthaker didn't impress you on guitar?
No, he was very impressive.
They're all very good musicians.
Oh, yeah.
But here's the thing, and by the way, Colin Hay still has that voice.
Yeah.
It's fantastic.
But okay, here's the reason why I don't like some bands like...
police and Eric Clapton and you know total Because it's not so much that they had bad songs or you know Whatever what is it?
I played them too much.
Oh And people
every
kind of, I
And only
Yeah, he
Morning, guys.
I was having a pretty good Sunday, having a day off, nice weather, hanging with my lady.
Trying to avoid the chaos of the world and then that night I get on YouTube bad idea
Yeah,
yeah Do you see the chaos in the Paul the Gen Z that pretty much toppled everything?
I think they uh Even murdered a few people and they were quite gleeful as they Burn and trash parliament buildings and
this stuff.
was a
Phone in speech tall these angry white people in the UK trying to stir up unrest there because he's a Bond villain But isn't that further proof that you should not have billionaire?
Yes, guy is insane.
He thinks he's good just completely unraveled society Wherever he wants wherever he thinks there's white men that are insecure enough about their position in life that they'll pick up guns
Yeah, and now he's tweaking his grok to Fix it because people were able to ask grok what these statistics were for gun violence And of course it's 75% right-wingers that
do
it.
Yeah,
he did not like that.
So now he's rewiring
I want to get rid of any source of actual free or proper speech.
But as a white guy, can I just say something?
All the white guys out
relax.
Okay, just relax.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The brown people aren't going to murder you in your home.
They're just people but
you know you but you know Elon is gonna continue to stir the pot as he did I let me just tell you though last night or in the afternoon as well I was just sitting there trolling through X and I was responding to every one of these individuals who just don't get a clue now I'm not going to trash them for
their loss, you know, a lot of people like Charlie Kirk that I understand that it's really, really horrific.
What happened?
But again, there are people saying really outrageously ridiculous things and I responded to them.
So and Elon, by the way, was one of them and he still hasn't kicked me off.
So I'm pretty happy about
Hey, man, I got a I got a little presentation here.
I'm going to make on the show here.
What do we got?
We got something for you here.
What is this?
Could you bring in that bag?
Oh, what do you got there?
What is this?
You got a little something for you.
You got something for me?
At the Ringo concert.
You got a, what is this?
You're witnessing this, I hope.
Oh.
There it
Yeah.
I
It is that time of the age of
stupid.
Very fine fellas very fine.
I'm really sorry that I can't match the t-shirts offerings I could bring you we had yesterday We had the River food pantry sips and slices if I brought you a t-shirt from that chances are there'd be fingerprints with some kind of sauce all over it So
that for myself
Yeah, that's the problem with that, you know Okay, you know we kind of start off with the age of stupid we always talk politics
when we bring that up, but let's bring it up in a way that isn't too political.
I will say that I'm not a big fan of the Department of Ag Secretary.
I don't think she understands Ag at all, and I don't think she's really helping the farmers at all, but that's my opinion.
Let's get to the point where now the Department of Ag has a problem with Wisconsin stockyards, livestock yards.
Yep, this is a Wisconsin gig.
I get your point on Brooke Rollins, our current US Ag Secretary.
This one is closer to home.
This is something that's going to impact potentially farmers no matter what they market.
So what the Wisconsin Department of Ag Trade and Consumer Protection is proposing are really, really escalated fees for the license that they give to the markets that sell cattle, the people that
truck the cattle from the farm to the market.
I'm not kidding yet.
I'll just ask you guys this.
If you got a bill in your house that went up 1,666 percent, I think that, well, first of all, I think you might require medical attention.
But
catch with this one is
Farmers don't have a choice.
If the department decides that they're going to levy these fine, or yeah, it's kind of a fine, if they're going to charge these fees for their services, it really is like a fine.
I talked to Kurt Larson, who is the president and CEO of the Equity Livestock Sales Cooperative.
They must have, I want to say about 11 livestock yards where cattle are brought to a central location
buyers come to that location and that's where the business is transacted.
Well, if this fee goes into place, it goes from $400 a year per location to more than $7,000 per year for that same location.
Now, to you and I, that seems just absolutely ludicrous.
But
they say that these rules have not been changed since 2009, and it's necessary to finance the program.
Kurt Larson has done a lot of work on the numbers.
He said that there is no justification in the hours that the Department of Ag staff is spending giving these licenses to justify that.
The other thing he said is a lot of this is about traceability.
No consumers want to know where an
animal
came from, what farm and all that.
And he said that's really a food safety issue that farmers are already dealing with by putting ear tags in their animals so they
you know where it's coming from by keeping really good records, especially in Wisconsin with all our dairy cows.
And he said, in other states where this has become an issue, there are shared parties that split divvy these license fees.
So this is this, I'm telling you, this is a dust up in a big way.
I've heard from a lot of livestock producers that are just vehement about this because the fees are going to get passed on to the farmer.
And they're saying, Hey, wait a minute, we already are doing our part.
spending money on ear tag, spending money on records, spending money on all the traceability stuff at the farm.
Somebody better help split the fees.
And we are just, if these go into place, we are obnoxiously over compared to neighboring states like Minnesota, Iowa.
They've managed to figure out a way to work these programs without fleecing.
quite literally the farmers of the livestock yard.
So the hearings are Tuesday and Wednesday at one o'clock at the Department of Ag Trade and Consumer Protection
on, we used to call it, Bill's Hill, Bill Walton gave the land to the department and off agriculture drive.
They're also being held virtually.
And man, I'm banging the drum.
to try to tell any farmer of any type, better stay engaged in this conversation or when you get your next receipt on a cost for sending your livestock to the yard, you are going to be shocked beyond what you normally are when it comes to those
Yeah.
Well, you know and your point well taken if it's gonna cost me that much to do it in Wisconsin How much farther do I have to take the animals?
Yeah to get to a state where the fees are not so Absorbent and that that's just not that's not good.
That's not good for a whole lot of Wisconsin's agriculture infrastructure So and I'll be honest with you normally the Department of Agriculture in at in Madison is kind of open ears But man, I am getting you know, even me they're giving me pushback and that
That crap, frankly, boys, just doesn't happen to
What do you mean you're not
talk to me?
only got me to talk to you.
So yeah, it's been an interesting story to follow.
And I'm on this one like splice
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm going to give it to you in the boiled down version.
happened that a cheese making plant down in Monroe ownership change.
Owners came in and said, OK, I want every one of my workers to be verified and the workers went on strike.
So there's more to the story.
We'll get to it later this week.
But the bottom line is if the cheese plant is selling cheese to the government.
all of their employees have to be verified through the system.
That would be the e-verification system.
And those employees just said no.
flat out.
not been a part of our operating contract in the past.
We don't want it to be a part of our current operating track.
that's kind of a quandary.
So the Wisconsin cheese makers are watching this one closely and we can
and see if there's any developments when we talk Friday.
As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point, a dumbing down, until humanity was incapable of solving even its most basic problems.
The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma.
around here?
s***.
Idiocracy.
For the smartest guy in the world, you're pretty dumb sometimes.
That's why we're here.
We're trying to package it in a way that it doesn't make you want to give up too.
Okay.
Trying to hold everybody's hand.
All right.
Getting back to this Ringo thing.
Anna in Madison says she's going to Las Vegas to see Ringo there.
Yeah, on the 24th of September.
And it was a lot of fun.
Ringo Star, of course, what is he, 85?
Let's
Have you
I do have a pet peeve part of the belt line.
It's from university avenue to, uh, old sock.
Oh, for some reason, there's never a reason why it's slow.
You know, it's like 25, 15 miles per hour.
There's no reason for it.
There's no big trucks.
There's no one.
stopped up on the side of the road.
Well, that's right by your house, isn't it?
with immigration and customs officials.
So he is threatening to take over the city by declaring a national emergency.
Now, I don't know.
I've been reading and hearing that DC is incredibly safe now.
You know, people can finally go out to dinner.
He never could before.
He took
Trump had 30 days to do whatever he wanted to do.
Now he is not in control in the DC police.
The mayor is saying go away.
We've had enough of you, the Humvees, the troops, go away.
Enough.
In fact, they didn't even patrol the dangerous parts of the city.
They just went to the safer parts, which is a little easier.
I guess you can pick up the garbage there and maybe more of the mediums.
That's what they had the National Guard do.
Really?
But don't bother us.
Okay, anyway, that's that's currently what's happening.
Let's go now to something last week.
And this is tied in with Charlie Kirk and NPR's Steve Enskeep.
talked to Joe Mitchell.
He's a mega candidate for Congress in Iowa and founder of Run Gen Z, a nonprofit with a goal of getting young conservatives into office.
Gee, just what we need.
He's also a Charlie Kirk influencer.
But a simple, even complimentary question from
Steve inskey very an inoffensive guy Turned the interview a little bit nasty.
I want to play cut 83 here.
Let's listen how this just turns negative suddenly.
Okay, let's listen
I talked with UW Madison turning point member and former chapter president RJ Hibben seeing social media posts Celebrating Kirk's death have terrified him
basically signifies to me that if I got shot Working at a political event.
They would cheer and they would be happy as well
So it's, frankly, very, very scary.
I'm thinking his public persona, Charlie Kirk's public persona is very well known at this point.
He was in public so much.
He was in front of people or on camera so much.
He made a lot of polarizing remarks about people who were different from him or had different views from him, but he also stood in front of people who disagreed with him and engaged with them and took their questions and criticisms and responded.
I'm just curious, having known him over a number of years, do you think that he learned
or evolved in any way from his interactions with so many different kinds of people?
Steve, what remarks?
What are you guys talking about?
Because here's what happened, Steve, is that he was called a Nazi and hitler and a fascist for so many years.
And that's what led to the shooting yesterday.
And it's despicable what the news media is doing right now is saying that he was so decisive.
He said these things.
Charlie was the most kindest person in the entire world that I knew.
He believed in civic debate.
more than anybody else that I knew and so the rhetoric that's been spewed out in the last 24 hours is what led to the shooting yesterday in the execution in the assassination of Charlie Kirk and it makes me just sick to my stomach what's happened and so people need to get a hold of the rhetoric they need to understand that
what they say as implications.
And that's what happened yesterday.
Okay.
Well, we're going to have to leave it there.
We'll continue the discussion another time, I hope.
Joe
Mitchell is the founder of Run Gen Z and is
Republican candidate for Congress in Iowa.
Thanks.
Yeah, it was a very balanced question.
Did he learn anything in the exchanges that he had with the public?
Yeah, and boy got very defensive.
Yes.
Very defensive.
You really can't speak to these individuals about Charlie Kirk.
It offends them.
They truly believe he is a world leader of some sort, right?
I mean, they've been putting pictures of him in.
They've inserting him in between John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr.
You know, everybody.
these great leaders and suddenly Charlie Kirk is in there, I really don't think so.
Charlie Kirk's death was indeed tragic.
But let's not set aside the point that he did make cited divisive comments.
I mean, the comment about the pilot, if I saw a black pilot, I would think he was not qualified to be there.
If the DEI made him the pilot that he was,
especially the black women aren't as intelligent as everybody else.
I mean, a lot of these comments, I mean, come right out of, you know, could have been echoed by, you know,
Alexander Stevens from his cornerstone speech, that, you know, the firm position of people of color is supposed to be, you know, as servants or slaves.
And with the tanny decision, you know, Dr. Scott, which actually said that, you know, that black people have no, you know,
should have no rights really at all i mean that any any white person should actually respect them in that he didn't say come out and actually say that but i mean some of his comments were actually that these people are indeed inferior in intelligence and that uh... you want to repeal the fourteenth amendment you know that uh... citizen you know berth uh... you're born in this country you're a citizen and probably the voting rights part of the fourteenth amendment that you put i think he opposed voting rights act
that uh... some of the stuff i mean that and look up for a guy who did not graduate college you know that has you know gained that you know he dropped out of college i think is the last i had read and that uh... you know kind of like scott walker and it was able to ride the wave you know that uh... you have these prejudices and you find an audience with these prejudices always had an audience for you know since the fall in the republic and sent you know that uh...
Maybe it's built into humanity's genes that we're supposed to know that
this.
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.
And nice day ahead of us, sunshine and high in the low to mid 80s.
We're gonna be talking with Amy Horak from David J. Frank and Company talking about what you should be doing with your lawn this time of year as we move into fall, your lawns and gardens.
And also coming up a little after 7.30, former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin will join us.
All right.
I have this story about Charlie Kirk, a journalist and college professor Stacy Patton.
posted a viral powerful statement about Charlie Kirk's digital hit list.
Listen to this.
I am on Charlie Kirk's hit list.
His so-called professor watch list run under the umbrella of Turning Point USA is nothing more than a digital hit list for academics who dare to speak the truth to power.
I landed there in 2024 after writing commentary, then inflamed the mega faithful.
And once my name went up,
Again, this is the doc scene thing that Republicans hate so much, the harassment machine roared to life.
For weeks, my inbox and voicemail were deluged.
Mostly white men spat venom through the phone.
They called her a bitch, a C-word, an N-word.
They threatened all manner of violence.
They overwhelmed the university with calls demanding that I be fired.
And she added, Kirk's watch list has terrorized legions of professors across the country, basically anyone who challenged white supremacy, gun culture, or Christian nationalism suddenly found themselves targets of coordinated abuse, death threats, job threatens, some left academia completely.
So that's just a little part of his legacy.
Let's go
gentlemen.
Thanks for taking my call.
You know, this has started a wildfire.
The church was packed yesterday gentlemen
young college aged kids.
speaking advice and a positive that Charlie projected 32,000 chapters have been requested so far for Burning Point USA beautiful it was amazing you know and last week I heard a lot of talk that Charlie doesn't believe in empathy
He hates empathy, but I know you guys can do a little research and I'm going to challenge you to read his entire quote instead of just a fraction of it.
And I
hope you'll do that
because he uses empathy versus sympathy.
There's a difference.
So please do some research and be honest with
All
But here, let me just correct you.
I think he doesn't like empathy, he likes sympathy.
Okay, I'm just, I'm just saying.
I remember I just saw that comment yesterday.
So I think he doesn't like the empathy part because, you know, remember liberals brought empathy a while back and boy, the right wing went nuts over empathy.
They hate empathy, but sympathy is okay.
There's a difference there, I guess.
But anyway, I do want to get to the point where you mentioned the churches were filled up or whatever.
This is Christian nationalism.
And that's what we're talking
about here,
No.
Do you think that we should be a Christian nationalist country at all?
CJ, on this, is that your opinion?
Do you think we should inform young elementary school students about the Bible and the lessons that are taught in the Bible, even some of the negative ones, even some of the horrific ones, some of the bloody, terrible ones?
Um,
well, I think that's a little different subject.
you know, this is worldwide guys.
to see
good thing.
You know, the 10 commandments are a good thing.
Um, I don't see too much in the 10 commandments that shouldn't be taught to our kids.
First at home and in church and at school.
you folks have a problem with that, you're gonna reap what we're sowing right now.
You guys may consider it fantasy and that's okay.
That's your right.
American.
okay.
Oh, but yeah, but
more than the hatred that's taught in colleges today No on the airway.
I'm not saying one one side owns it That's what that's where you guys go
No, I'm just
happen.
Because you don't want to hear the facts of how this young man got to the point allegedly shooting Charlie for using the First Amendment.
me okay
we want to get rid of guns
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.